The Rest of Faith: THAT IS, Souls fixed and established in God by believing on him through the Lord JESUS CHRIST. With the grounds of this Faith from sanctified Reason, the benefits of Faith, and the evils of unbelief. Proved by God's Word, and presented to open view, By Coll. ROBERT TICHBORNE. Psalm. 125.1. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. John 6.47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Isa. 50.10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. LONDON, Printed by M. Simmons at the gilded Lion in Aldersgate-streete, 1649. TO THE HONOURABLE, Lieutenant General CROMWELL. Honourable Sir, GOD having first pitched my meditations upon the study after an establishment in this perishing World, and shaking times in which we live, and in this study more emminently than before, made known himself in the Lord Jesus Christ to be that Rock of Ages which never fails such as trust in him, he did then draw forth my heart upon a principle of common good 〈◊〉 hold that forth to the World which he had made known to me, that so if God would bless it to the end I intended it every soul might be as happy in a fixed state as myself; this is truly my end in publishing that to others, which God did in secret imprint upon my heart: Now in the publishing of this, I take boldness to Dedicate it to yourself, but if any ask why I do so, I shall render them these two Reasons. First, it is proper for me to tender respects to one from whom I have received so many, I shall be short in this and say no more, but that I remain your Debtor. My second reason is this, Though the subject be of general tendency to the wants of all God's people, yet such as God puts most work upon have most need of this support, such as fight and contend with the enemies of God either within them or without them, will find faith in God to be their best weapon; that God hath emminently called and used you in such a weighty work I need produce no proofs to the World, God himself hath done it; what God hath further for you to do I know not, but this I know that faith in him will be your greatest strength in doing, and a certain rest what ever your work maybe; for this reason also I present this to your hands, the scope and substance of which I believe hath strengthened your heart and hand in all that concerns you here and for ever. Your enemies say you have done much, but I believe the voice of your own heart is, that God hath done all himself, wherein he hath used you as an instrument; What is yet behind for you to do or suffer God only knows: This I dare boldly affirm, faith in God will be your best companion and your surest rest in all conditions; therefore Sir, in sincere love I present my service and this Treatise of the rest of Faith to your hands, the Lord go with it to your heart, and make himself your rest here and forever, which is the real desire of him that truly loves you, and in love will be ready to serve you in the work of the Lord, whilst I remain, ROBERT TICHBORNE: To the READER. READER, I Observe in nature that the strongest liquors are of most use when the spirits are weakest, as strong waters to a fainting man, and when the seas are most boisterous, then doth the Mariner cast forth his Anchor. The dispensations of God in these latter days of the world in which we live, hath made both Sea & ●and full of troubles, by reason whereof much fainting of spirit, and trembling of heart hath overspread the Nation. These out go of God hath drawn forth my heart to follow that track of his Word in the light and strength of his spirit which leads to himself, that so I might find in him reviving to my fainting spirit, and a rest for my weary soul, God having been so gracious in manifesting himself to be my all here and for ever and given me a heart to rest upon him, by which I am in full and lasting rest: It was set upon my heart that I should not be unthankful to him, and unchristian to others. If I should have only said upon this bread of life in spirit, and not tell forth to the glory of his grace, and the good of others, how sure a resting place his bosom of love is, and how firmly all such shall be established that believe on him, one drop of his love will raise the lowest spirit, & that soul which stays itself upon God by faith will be at rest, though the storms of the world be never so great. If this be true, which I am confident many thousand souls besides my own can bear the witness of to God, than I am apt to believe the following Treatise will have acceptance with such as God hath made sensible, that he is now shaking not only the earth, but the heavens also. Most complain of the earthquakes which the Land and world is full of, but some complain of heartquakes; to these complaints give me leave to speak in the Prophet's language: Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. Believe in God as your God, so will your hearts be fixed, when as God shall write vanity upon all the world. God is now staining all glories besides his own but such as live and glory in God through believing, will have a living glory in a dying world, & a bed of rest what ever troubles the world be● full of. Therefore Reader, if you would feign rest, you must live on God by faith: and if in this work God shall use the following Treatise for your good, I shall bless him for your soul as for my own; truly this is the highest end of your servant in the Lord, Robert Tichborne. Believing in God doth advantage a Saint with an established heart. 2 CHRO: 20. later part 20. Verse. Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. THE Lord telleth us in his Word, Heb. 12.26. of a time when as he will not only shal●e the Earth, but the Heavens also: Shake all that may be shaken, so as that which cannot be shaken may remain and appear, this is his faithful Word; and truly his great and glorious working in these our days doth seem to point out that time to be near at hand; when God himself doth shake the whole Earth and heavens, though they be vast bodies, yet they must fall before the breath of the Almighty power which made them by a word; this shaking truth, and times, hath with more solicitousness drawn forth my heart to seek after establishment: I found encouragement to this work in that very text which holdeth forth the shaking both of Earth and Heavens also, for it seemeth to hold out thus much, that the end of Gods so shaking is to manifest that which cannot be shaken by its remaining, in which God taught me this truth, that the establishment of his people lay in that which should remain steadfast to eternity, even when himself should shake not only the earth, but the heavens also; by Earth here I understand the whole Earth, in its frame and fashion, beauty, and glory, power, and government, the time is coming when God will shake all this into its first nothing, so that the establishment of an eternal being lieth not in this: By Heavens I understand, not only the material Heavens, as Son, Moon, Stars, and Firmament; but also the Law of Heaven and earth; namely, the Ordinances and worship of God here, the Churches, and government of Christ on earth; truly these are very glorious as they are in God, and God in them, so that they may well be called the heavens, but even these as they come from God have their time and their end; these are the top and exceeding glory of all one wilderness mercies, but all these are to be shaken, their end will cease, and so must they too, these are as the pillars of cloud by day, and of fire by night, to the body of Christ whilst it, or any member of it remains in the Wilderness, but Christ our head is ascended whom will draw his whole body after him, and then the end of this will cease, and their shaking time will be accomplished to the full, so that though this be the glory of the World, yet they cannot make up establishment to eternal souls, because they are to be shaken. Now by this I am further taught where to begin in seeking establishment, namely, not in the whole Earth; no not in any part or appearance of Heaven that may be shaken, not in the ordinances or worship of God, but in God himself: not in the Churches or government of Christ, but in Christ himself. So that good King Jehoshaphats counsel to his people in their day of straits and shake, will lead me and all the people of God to a sure centre of establishment: Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. These are the words of Jehoshaphat the King, to Judah and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, at that time when they were under much fear, and doubts concerning their condition, by reason of a numerous and potent enemy which was come up against them; to an eye of fleshly reason they were a lost people and nation, but this good man had a better and more seeing eye to behold withal, namely the eye of faith; for in the 14, 15, 16, 17, verses of this Chapter we shall find that Jahaziel the Prophet, having the spirit of the Lord come upon him in the midst of the Congregation, when all the people were gathered together to seek the Lord, did Prophecy and told the King, and all Judah, and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, that they should not be afraid nor dismayed by reason of the great a multitude which come against them, for the battle, saith he, is not yours, but Gods: He gives further direction when to go down against them, and what to do; he tells them they shall not needs to fight, only to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord; he bids them again not to fear, for the Lord would be with them. Now upon this was Jehoshaphats eye of faith, he did believe in the Lord, and his word declared by his Prophet, and in this twentieth verse, telleth the people where his establishment was; namely, in God; and if they also should believe in God as their God, and in his Word declared by his Prophet, that they should thereby be established; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. My intentions are to take this Scripture in the largest sense, and to make use of it in the carrying on a Treatise of Faith, as faith, and belief in God doth settle and establish believers. The plain and visible truth which lies in this Scripture, and upon which I shall carry on what followeth, is this; That Saints are established, by believing in God, as their God. This is the sense, and almost the very words of the Scripture; and for its proof, it hath the concurrence of the scope, if not the letter of the whole Word of God, the Prophet Isaiah in his seaventh Chapter, and ninth verse, proves this by its contrary, when in the former verses he had told them what God would do for them, he telleth them in this verse, If you will not believe surely ye shall not be established: As if he had said, it is not my bare narrative, or the history of God in his power, greatness, and goodness, that will establish you, if you do not believe; it is faith, trust, and belief in God, as your God which is only able to establish you, if you believe not, your foundation will always be tottering, so that surely you will not be established; where belief is not, establishment cannot be; the reason is obvious and plain, for it is God alone that can and doth establish the hearts of his people: now faith and believing in God, is the only discovery of union with God, in which souls come to be established, the soul by faith receiveth in God to itself, and involveth itself into God, and God in the soul makes it an established soul: 2 Ephes. 17. Christ dwells in the heart of believers by faith: This was Abraham's condition, who is called the Father of the faithful; the Text says, Rom. 3.19, 20. when God made him the promise of an heir out of his own loyner, that he was not weak in faith, nor did he stagger at the promise through unbelief, notwithstanding his own great age, and the deadness of Sarahs' womb, yet he believed the word and promise of the Lord and was established; by believing this Father of the faithful gave himself up to God, he lost his own fleshly reasoning, in believing the faithful word of God; God had said, that he should have a Child of Sarahs' womb, he giveth himself over to God by believing, so that there is no staggering, saith takes in the promise and the soul is established, but where there is not faith to take in the promise of God, or rather God in the promise, there the soul is not nor cannot be established; staggering is as properly the fruit of unbelief, as stability is of faith; and they demonstrate each other as white doth black, and black white; that Scripture which sayeth, If you believe not you shall not be established, doth give proof to that Text which says, Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established: So likewise on the contrary, our Saviour gives in ample proof to this truth, that Saints are established by believing in God as their God; in that John 6.47. Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth in me, hath everlasting life. To believe in Christ, is to believe in God as our God, and the effects of this is eternal life, here is full establishment indeed, here is life for ever; eternity cannot shake this believing soul, it is so established by believing in God as its God in Christ. I intent to take this fundamental establishing truth into particulars; the which will give further light into what I aim at, and clearer testimony to the general truth, That Saints are established by believing in God as their God; I mean an applicatory, apropriating faith and belief in God. By believing in God, as our God, by which we come to be established, I mean this: First, To believe in God in what he is in himself. Secondly, To believe God in what he doth; namely in all his works. Thirdly, To believe God in what he saith, in his whole Word. And in all these so fare as God is communicable to believe him to be our God. Believing thus in the Lord our God we shall certainly be established. First, To believe in God in what he is in himself. God in his Essence is incomprehensible, and inexpressible; so Exod. 3.14. When Moses asked God what he should tell the Children of Israel his Name was if they asked him; Gods answer to Moses is, I am that I am, and so tell the children of Israel, I am hath sen● me unto you, that is, I am so what I am; that I cannot be fully expressed, I am God, Jehovah, I am all God, and nothing but God: but this pure and eternal Essence is pleased so fare as is either fit or needful for his people to know him, to make known himself by his Attributes: and in his word, works and miracles, for the strengthening of his people's faith, and establishing them in himself. And in this work I shall take up God's method, and first look into the Attributes of God, for some discoveries of his Essence, wherein he doth make known himself to his people, that they may believe in him, in what he is in himself; you must not expect I should be so large in this as to express all the Attributes of God, that is a work too large for a dying life, or a dying man, the fullness of that will fill eternity; all that may be attributed to God, which can be attributed to none but God, and that all is exceeding large, I shall only mention some precious corner-stones, for believers to build upon, so that they may certainly be established. As first, God is the only, true, and perfect God, true, Attribute of God. so as there is no true God besides him: and perfect, so that all perfection is in him, and nothing but perfection in him, so in God as in none but God, and therefore only to be attributed to God. I shall in this and all I writ of God, produce his word for my authority, Isa. 46.9. I am God, and there is none else, I am God, Isa. 46.9. and there is none like me. God in this Scripture speaks positively; in the verse before this, the people worshipped and bowed down to false Gods, to images of God; the Lord complains of this in vers. 5. To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, Verse 5. and compare me, that we may be like. As if God had said, you can liken me to nothing; for there is nothing like me, I am God, and there is none else (the true God) your false Gods cannot be like me. So in Isa. Isa. 45.33. 45.22. Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. Mark the Scripture, salvation in in me, saith God, I am the God of salvation. If the ends of the Earth be saved, they must look unto me, for I am God, and there is none else; That is, there is no other true God, no God that can save but me. God proves himself to be the only true God, by being the only saving God; God in truth is the God of salvation: That God which can save must needs be the true God, and so there is no other God but our God, he is the true God, and a God of truth, all God, and all truth; this is a proper attribute of God, for it can be attributed to none but God. Again, God is perfect, he is a perfect God, he is all perfection in himself, and all that is perfect is from him, he is that perfection to which there can be no addition, he giveth life and breath to all things, Acts 17.25. Acts 17.25. Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things. God is perfect, he needeth nothing, he knows no want; he is the fullness of all things, and filleth all with himself; he is the fountain and giver of all life, and breath, and all things. All that makes up perfection is always in God, and goeth forth from God into all things, life and breath, which comprehends the whole; they are in the whole creation the breathe forth of God's perfection; God bounds all, but none can bond him. Perfection only lives in God: he giveth bounds to all things else, but can receive bounds from none: to the creature God saith, what have you that you have not received. But as for God himself, he is simply and absolutely perfect, simply purely perfect; 1 John 1.5. nothing but perfection, altogether perfect, 1 John 1.5. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all: So perfectly light, that there is not the least shadow of darkness in him; what is God, is perfectly light, or the light of God is perfect; for God is altogether perfect, nothing can be said to be perfect but God, and God cannot be said to be any thing but perfection; light, and to darkness at all, is perfect light, and this is God, for GOD is perfect. Another attribute of GOD, Attribute. 2 God the first, without all cause. which proveth the former, is this; That God is the first being without all cause, this is truly an attribute of God, which can be attributed to none but God, for he is the first, the only, and without cause, and the only cause of all things else; not any thing gave God a being, but God giveth being to all things, Revel. 1.8. Rev. 1.8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Mark it, I am the first, you cannot produce any thing as the cause of my being; for a cause must be before an effect, and if 〈◊〉 be the effect of any cause, than I cannot be Alpha, the beginning, but the proceed of some other first: but this I am not, for I am Alpha and Omega, both first and lust; I am first in myself, without all cause, and I am the first of all causes, for I cause all to be. I am the Almighty which gives first being, and all beings to all things, saith the Lord. The Apostle Paul doth acknowledge this truth in Rom. 11.36. For of him, and through him, Rom. 11.36. and to him, are all things. All things are of God, as God is the first cause of all: all things are through God, as they proceed of his will, power, and Majesty: all things are to him, to the glory of God, that is in himself without cause, Isa. 41.4. and the cause of all as he is God, Isa. 41.4. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning, I the Lord the first, and with the last, I am he. It is frequent in Scripture with God when he mentions any works or beings, and the beginning of any thing, to declare himself to be the first, that he might be known to be in himself without all cause, and the cause of all things else. Isa. 43.10. I the Lord am he that is the first. So in Isa. 43.10. Before me there was no God form, neither shall there be after me. I am so the first in myself, that I am the first of all, and nothing shall be after me. God in himself is without cause and end, Isa. 44.6. Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts, Isa. 44.6. I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God. I am the first, and besides me there is no God; that is, there is no God besides me, for I am the only one, that is first without all cause of being: For were there a first cause of my being, than I could not be God; but I am God, and therefore there can be no first cause of my being. So the Lord Christ according to his Godhead is said to be the beginning of the Creation of God, Rev. 3.14. Rev. 3.14. The faithful and true witnesses the beginning of the Creation of God. The Godhead is the first of all beings, and the beginning of the whole Creation. Many more Scriptures join in this truth, as Isa. 48.12. Rev. 1.17. Rev. 22.13. But I leave them to the Reader. A third Attribute of God is his immutability; Attribute. 3 this is an attribute of God, that he is an immutable, unchangeable God, for this can be said of none but God; God hath made the whole Creation mutable and changeable, which doth demonstrate that himself is only God, Num. 23.19. who is unchangeable. Numb. 23.19. God is not a man, that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent? Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? What God saith, that he will do, and what he hath spoken, he will make good; for he is an unchangeable God, he is not like man to lie, or repent as the sons of men: but he is God immutable, and unchangeable in all he is, not one tittle shall fail of all that the Lord hath spoken: For I am the Lord, I change not, Mal. 3.6. God makes this an argument to prove himself God, that he changeth not: As if he had said, there is change and alteration in all but myself, and I am the unchangeable God; I am the Lord, I change not. As if he should say, if I were changeable, I were not God: but being God, I am unchangeable. If mutability dwelled in me, I could not be the foundation and fullness of all things both in Heaven and Earth: James 1.17. but so I am, therefore I am the unchangeable, immutable God. This is fully proved in James 1.17. Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. This is a full description of, and testimony to an immutable God, in him says the Text, there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. Not the least shadow of change in God, the perfect God is an immutable God, and his immutability is perfect, for he is God in both; there can be no change in God, because there is no imperfection in him: where there is change and mutability, there must be the annihilating of something. Now it is impossible this should be in God, for he is an entire Essence, which can admit of no annihilating, therefore not any shadow of change. God is purely and simply what he is, without all compounds; he is one most pure and entire Essence, nothing in him but God: God is a Spirit, John 4.24. A fourth Attribute of God is this; Attribute. 4 God is infinitely great in Majesty and works, or the infinite greatness of our God doth appear in the greatness of his Majesty and works; God is so infinitely God, Isa. 465. that nothing can be like him, Isa. 46.5. To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like. As if God had said, do you creatures think you have any thing amongst you that is infinite, that you go about to make the likeness of me, I am an infinite God, finite creatures cannot be compared to me; or if you do, there will be no more likeness and similitude then between finite & infinite. So Isa. 40.15, 16, 17. Behold, the Nations are as a drop of a bucket, Isa. 40.15, 16, 17. and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Lebanon and the beasts thereof, are not sufficient for a burnt-offering. All Nations before God are nothing, compared to him less than nothing, and vanity. This proveth the infiniteness of God, that all besides him cannot be compared to him, because God is infinite, and so is none but God, and it is the infiniteness of God that makes all things before him, and compared to him, to be so empty a vanity. This infiniteness of God doth further appear in the greatness and Majesty of his works. The Prophet David had great experience of God in his great and glorious workings, and we shall see what ample testimony he gives to it, in Psalm 86.8. Psalm 86.8. Among the Gods there is none like unto thee (O Lord) neither are there any works like unto thy works. As if the Prophet had said, there is no infinite God besides thyself; and it appears in thy workings, for there is no works full of Majesty and power like thine: Psalm 135.5. So in Psalm 135.5. For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all Gods. The Prophet makes this an argument to stir them up to praise God: the declaring of his greatness, he is great above all Gods: He is infinite in power and Majesty, and this makes him in his works great above all Gods. The Prophet is in the same frame of spirit in Psalm 145.3. Great is the Lord, Psalm 145.3. and greatly to be praised: & his greatness is unsearchable. Mark the Scripture, his greatness is unsearchable: As if he had said, God is infinitely great, and none is infinite but God, so that his greatness is unsearchable; for finite creatures can never search or find out the infiniteness of an it finite God. So in Psalm 147.5. Psalm 147.5. Great is our Lord, and of great power, and his understanding is infinite. God is infinitely great, he is so in power, in understanding, in working, in all he is: that is, God is infinitely what he is, he is finite in nothing, nor can he be confined by any thing, because Lee is the infinite God, of whom all things are; his infinite power gives bounds to all things, but can be bounded by nothing, Jer. 23.24. Jer. 23.24. Can any hid himself in secret places, that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord? God is infinitely great in knowledge as well as power; what can be hid from the all-seeing eye of an infinite God. Our God is infinitely full, he filleth heaven and earth, he filleth all with his infinite power and greatness. The vastness of Heaven and Earth can make no dimention to the infinite fullness and greatness of God: Heaven is his Throne, and the Earth his Footstool, and all filled with the infinite fullness of his power and greatness. Fifthly, Attribute. 5 God is an eternal God. Eternity is properly and truly the Attribute of God, and of none but God: God is from everlasting, before every thing, and on whom all things depends, he is to all eternity, without beginning or end, and therefore must needs be an eternal God, Isa. 41.4. Isa. 41.4. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning, I the Lord the first, and with the last, I am he. The Lord himself telleth us, that he called the generations, that he was first, before all beginning of beings, and that he abides for ever, and is with the last: that is, Isa. 43.10. as if God had said, I am the eternal God. So in Isa. 43.10. God calleth the people to be his witnesses, that before him there was no God form, nor shall there be any after him. Ye are my witnesses saith the Lord, and my servants whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God form, neither shall there be after me. God confirms the former Scripture by this, that he is first and last; that is, he is eternal, he is before all beings, and all other beings depends on him, so that nothing can be after him; If he should cease to be, there could be no beings, because all have their beings from him, therefore God must needs be eternal, that is the first and preserver of all beings: Isa. 44.6 So likewise in Isa. 44.6. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God, As if the Lord had said, there is none that is first and last but me, and therefore no God, but I: it is only the attribute of God to be eternal, and that am I. I am first and last, I am eternal; that is, I am God, there is no God besides me, therefore none eternal, none is first and last besides me, I am only the eternal God, and I am truly so, for I am the first and last: God only is that high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, Isa. 57.15. There is no everlasting but God, and he is the everlasting God: Moses doth acknowledge God to be so, Psal. 90. beg. in Psalm 90. beg. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst form the earth, and the world; even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God: That is, thou art the everlasting God, that wert before the World was, thou didst bring forth the mountains, thou hast form the earth, and the whole World: Thou wert everlasting before the World was, and it was thy everlasting power that made the World, and thou art the same God still, and remainest what thou art; From everlasting to everlasting thou art God. So the Prophet in the 102 Psalm. 12, 27. But thou O Lord, Psa. 102.12, 27 shalt endure for ever, and they remembrance unto all generations, but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end; thou art the everlasting Lord, the same for ever, thou art what thou art without end, there is no end of thy being God; for thou art the everlasting God; Of old hath God laid the foundation of the earth, Psal. 102.25, 26. and the heavens are the work of his hand, and though they perish and wax old as a garment, yet the Lord he endureth for ever: he is from everlasting; for he must needs be before that which is made by him, and he is to everlasting, for he endureth when the heavens & the earth wax old, as God had nothing to make him God, so there can be nothing to ungod him, he is the same yesterday, to day, and for ever, he is the eternal God, he made all things of nothing, but not any thing can make him nothing, or less than he is, for he is the eternal God; and so the Apostle Paul sets him forth in the 1 Tim. 1.17. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amongst other Attributes the Apostle gives God this, the King or God eternal, to whom is glory due for ever and ever; as he is the everlasting and eternal God, for this is an Attribute and a glory only due to God. Sixtly, God is an omnipotent, Almighty, alsufficient God, Attribute. 6 he doth what he will, his word is a Law, he maketh all things with a word; God said, Let there be light and there was light; Gen. 1.3. the whole creation hath its form, light, and being from the will and word of this Almighty, Omnipotent, and alsufficient God, there needs no more than a word from God to make day, and night, heaven and firmament, morning and evening, to gather the waters together, and to make dry land, to cause the earth to bring forth after its kind, to make Sun, Moon, and Stars, to rule in the Heavens, and to give light in their courses, to cause the waters to bring forth abundantly of moving creatures after their kind, and the earth to bring forth living creatures after his kind; Cattles and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, I, the powerful word of this omnipotent God made man after his own Image, and gave him dominion over the fish of the Sea, the fowls of the air, over the Cattles, over the earth, and over every thing that creepeth upon the earth; all this power flows from the Word of an omnipotent God: God said, let it be so, and it was so to all this: 1 Gen. In this faith Isaac blesseth Jacob, in the 28 Gen. 3. And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful: As if he should say, if the Almighty God say but the word, thou art blessed, for he is the Almighty God, his Word is a Law, where he blesseth none can hinder blessing, all things are at his command, they were so in their first being, and they have their being to be what he will have them, there is nothing hard or impossible with God, so our Saviour telleth his Disciples in the 19 Matthew 26. But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, Mat. 19.26. with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. It is a full Scripture to what I bring it, the omnipotency of God, all things are possible to him, it is not possible that any thing should be impossible to the almighty, omnipotent God. When the Angel in the 1. Luke 36. Luke 1.36, 37. brings tidings to the Virgin Mary of her cousin Elizabeth being with Child in her old age, and that it was then the sixth month with her, giveth this for the reason in the 3●. verse: For with God nothing shall be impossible: That is to say, God is Omnipotent, Almighty, nothing can be hard to him, he doth what he will do, nothing is impossible to him, nor can any thing hinder what he will have done: In the 11. Numbers 21. Num. 11.21, 23. Moses questions with God about making good his word to give flesh to all the people: the footmen amongst them being six hundred thousand; in the 23. verse God answer Moses: And the Lord said unto Moses is the Lords hand waxed short: As if the Lord had said, this I have spoken seems impossible to thee, but I will do it myself; I will make it good, and I am the Almighty omnipotent God, think you that my hand waxeth short, no it is an omnipotent, almighty hand, for I am such a God, can the Lords hand wax short; can alsufficiency, almightiness, and omnipotency be lessened, no it cannot, and the Apostle Paul blesseth God upon this very consideration; in the 3. Ephes. Ephe. 3.20, 21. 20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think, unto him be glory 21. verse: that is, the Apostle glories in God as an an omnipotent God, he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think: the vastness of our thoughts or wants, are too short to measure out the omnipotency of God, he is exceedingly more then we can ask, want, or think, for he is Almighty, to him be glory whom is thus glorious, almighty, alsufficient, and omnipotent God, this is the glory of God, for God is only this, and none but God. This, all this, and infinitely more than this, is God in himself, and such souls as be established by believing in God as their God, do believe God to be this in himself. But I shall mention some few Attributes more of God, in which he makes himself more visably known to his people. As first, God is a God of free grace; we may call our God the gracious God, or the God of mercy and grace, we may safely look upon God thus, for God looks upon us in his free grace; witness his Covenant of free grace: Jer. 31.31. so forward, God doth there engage himself to put his Law in our inward parts, and to write it in the bearts of his people, that he will be our God, and that we shall be his people, that his people shall all know him from the least to the greatest of them; that he will forgive all our iniquity, and remember our sin no more; God in this Covenant doth clearly speak himself to be a God of free grace, for the Covenant is all grace, it is pardoning and purging grace, justifying and sanctifying grace, and as it is all grace, so it in all God; for God only engageth himself, and this makes it to be all free grace: As God is gracious in his Covenant that it is a Covenant of free grace, so he is in his works to his people; they are all works of grace, and he is a God of free grace in all. As in his first work of choosing and electing his people: 1. Ephes. beginning. Ephes. beginning, Chosen and predestinated us in Christ, unto the adoption of children, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace. God is free, he chooseth according to his own will, and that any are chosen and predestinated in Christ, it is the glorious workings of his free grace, he chooseth according to his own good pleasure, and to the glory of his grace; God is engaged to none, he is free in his choice, nay all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; and therefore wh●● ever God chooseth he taketh into grace, for it is free grace tha● chooseth, it is only of grace, saith the Apostle, that I am what I am as I am an elect vessel, that is of grace, God hath chosen 〈◊〉 in Christ to the glory of his grace, so that God in his electing work is a God of free grace. Secondly, in his work of Salvation he is altogether 2 God of free grace, 2. Ephes. 4, 5. But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith be loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved.) The Apostle here telleth us positively that salvation is the work of grace, I, and proveth it; for says he, God who is rich in mercy, loved 〈◊〉 even when we were dead in sins, and hath quickened us together with Christ, so that it must needs be by grace that we are saved; i● can be nothing but free grace in a holy God that can love souls dead in sin, and the salvation and quickening of such souls in Christ, must needs be the work of his rich love, and free grace, so in the 8. verse, For by grace are ye saved through faith, though faith be the hand to receive the salvation of God; yet it is free gr●● in God, that giveth this salvation; free grace giveth both salvation, and the hand to receive it withal, all the works of God to poor sinners is the workings of his free grace, the whole work of Salvation, and redemption in God, must needs be the workings of his grace, both by reason of the subject and the time, he saves sinners, the worst of sinners; and then even when we are dead in sins and trespasses: Ephes. 2.1. This rich love of God breaks forth to us even when we lie in our blood and no eye to pity us; what but free grace would choose such a subject to pitch eternal unchangeable love upon, and such a time when no eye besides could so much as pity; the reason is plain, none hath an eye of free grace but God, and no other eye besides that could pity, and pardon poor sinners when they lie in their blood, in their filth and pollution of sin; now for souls to be justified and acquitted of all pollution in the eyes of a holy pure God, what can this be but free grace: Rom. 3.23, 24. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace: As if the holy Ghost should say, You justified souls, you have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It is not your own justification which you stand before God in; but the justification of his free grace, it is the free grace of God that doth acquit you, and make you righteous in his own presence, God gives the beauty he delights in, his free grace gives a complete righteousness to poor sinners, and justifieth them in the righteousness of his own free grace, thus is God a God of free grace; yea, in all his gifts he is the same, a God of free grace; it is his free grace that giveth Christ, in whom, and with whom, he giveth all things to his people as a God of grace in his rich love; it is of God's grace that Christ is made, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption to his people, 1. Cor. 1.30, We did not purchase Christ, but Christ did purchase us, and redeemed us, and to this work he is the gift of God's free grace, and all that more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that our poor souls have with, and by Christ; all is the gift of God's free grace, the Lord proclaims his free grace by his Prophet, in the 55. Isa. 55. x. of Isa. Ho, every one that this steth, come ye to the water●, he that hath no money shall have Wine and Milk without money, and without price. Here the Lord proclaims to wanting, thirsting souls, that he is a God of free grace, in all his gifts; as if the Lord had said, though you be full of wants and unworthinesses, yet let not this hinder your coming to me, for I am a God of free grace; all my gifts are free, I give my Wine and Milk without money and without price, I never turned any back which came to satisfy their thirst in me, because they had no money to buy; I satisfy all that comes to me, I am free and full in my grace, and with that I satisfy all souls that thirst after me: God is a giving God, not a selling God; it is his free grace that gives all things out of himself needful to his people, for life and godliness, for grace and glory: So in the 7, Matth. 7. our Saviour bids us to Ask and it shall be given to us: He doth not bid us to buy, but to beg; he knew God to be a God of free grace, and therefore puts 〈◊〉 upon the grace of God, for God is the God of free grace in all his works, and in all his gifts to his own people, he elects and chooseth to salvation in his free grace, and saveth all his Elect by his free grace; God giveth Christ as the great gift of his grace, and in Christ he giveth the fullness and freeness of his grace to his people; so that it is truly the Attribute of God to call him the God of free grace, in this Attribute God makes known himself to his people; and in this a believing soul looks up to God, and is established by believing in God, as a God of free grace to be his God. Another Attribute of God in which he makes himself known to his people is this; Namely, That God is a faithful God. Not a tittle which he hath spoken to his people shall fall, what God speaks to his people he would have them believe, now he never did nor will fail his people that believe his word, Num. 23.19. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent; Num. 23.19. hath he said and shall be not do it, or both he spoken and shall he not make it good, what, can there be falsehood or failing in God? shall he repent, and not make good what he hath spoken? no he is a faithful God, Heaven and Earth may pass away, but not one tittle of his Word shall fail: Yea, though the making good of his word desolve Heaven and Earth; both shall consume, Num. 11.23. but not a tittle of his word shall fail; for he i● the faithful God, Numb. 11.23. Thou shalt see whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not. Moses made a question how all that people should eat flesh which the Lord had said should eat● flesh; well, says God, I am God still, my arm is not shortened, nor doth my faithfulness fail, for thou shalt surely see my word come to pass, it is my word Moses, and I am the faithful God; though thy faith be weak, yet my faithfulness is strong and sure; it is the Word of God and it shall not fail, thou shalt surely see it come to pass: The Psalmist doth acknowledge the testimonies of God to be very sure; in the 93 Psalm. 5. He had found that what ever God promised he made it good, and always proved himself a faithful God, His testimonies were ever sure; so the 119 Psalm. 65. Thou hast dealt well with thy Servant, O Lord, according to thy Word: Thou hast not deceived them, but thou hast made good all thy word and promises to them: As if he had said, Thou art a faithful God, thou makest good all thy word; so in the 89 and 90 verses of that Psalm, For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in Heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all Generations: That is, thou art for ever a faithful God, thy word is as fixed and sure as Heaven, there can nothing fail of all that the Lord hath spoken: Take some few instances of Gods fulfiling his word to his people as a faithful God, consider the first promise God made of Christ in the flesh, Gen. 3.15. That the seed of the Woman should break the head of the Serpent: And how faithful God hath been in making good his word, Christ in the flesh, and Christ Crucified, the whole currant of Scripture is proof ●o it. When God promiseth Abraham that he shall have a Son from Sarahs' womb, though the womb be dead, yet the promise lives, it is the word of a faithful God, and must be made good; now Isaac the Child of promise comes from this dead womb to manifest God to be a faithful God. God sends Moses to Pharaoh and telleth him that he shall lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt and from under their bondage and slavery to serve the Lord their God in the Wilderness; Moses goes upon the word of God: Now notwithstanding the hardness of Pharoahs' heart, and the power of his hand, yet God makes good every tittle of his word to them, though he make their way through the deep waters, yet all must obey to fulfil the faithful word of God, and in that Divine story we may see with how many miracles and wonders God makes good all his faithful word to them. God is a faithful God, he could not else be God, and I may truly say all these Scriptures which proves him God, do prove him to be the faithful God, for unfaithfulness and God are inconfistant; they can no more be together then light and darkness, in truth, there is no comparison to be made of the vastness of their disagreement; God and truth are one, for God is the God of truth, he is a faithful God: There is exceedingly more of the glorious Attributes of God which would abundantly take up the Meditation of a spiritual soul, but I intended only a short touch of some of them, which might lead to, and carry on the design I drive at, which is the establishment of souls by believing in God; in this God assisting, you may have some small help to the understanding of what God is in himself, the improvement of it for establishment, I intent in the conclusion; this for the opening part of it shall be all to the first of the three things I proposed in the beginning of the Book: namely, To believe in God in what he is in himself. For the other two: To believe in what God doth, and in what God saith, as the word and works of God wraps up the salvation of his people in them, I shall here put them both together, under this consideration. Namely, a brief collection with its proofs, of the whole design and work of God in the salvation of his people. And it is this; To manifest the glory of his freegrace in the full redemption of his people through Christ, and in their receiving and applying it to themselves by believing. First, The great design of God in his saving work to his people, is to glorify, or to manifest and declare the glory of his own eternal, original freegrace and rich love. The freegrace and rich love of God is God himself, that God which is an incomprehensible and inexpressible Essence, the true and perfect God, who is first without all cause of being, an immutable God, and of infinite great Majesty; an Eternal, Omnipotent, and Almighty God: This is the God of Freegrace; now the design of this God in the salvation of sinners, which is the worst and most miserablest piece of the whole creation in itself to all eternity, is to glorify, or to manifest the glory of his own freegrace. For this, take the testimony of the holy Ghost by the Apostle Paul, in Rom. 3.23. That he might make known the riches of his glory, on the vessels of mereie. The holy Ghost in the former part of that Chapter, pleadeth the sovereignty of God; not any piece of clay could find fault with the Potter what ever he made it, nor any creature with God. Now in this verse he telleth us, if any be made vessels of honour, and heirs of glory, it is that God might make known the riches of his glory it's his mercy and freegrace. As if the holy Ghost had said, God accounts of his grace and mercy to be the riches and excellency of his glory: Now to make it known that this is his great design, God filleth heaven and earth with this his glory, the redeemed in Heaven, and the redeemed in Earth shall be one in Heaven at last, and therein ages to come, even to all eternity, be swallowed up into the exceeding riches and glory of his grace, Ephes. 2.7. And the holy Ghost in this, and the verse before it, telleth us, that is God's end and design, in raising us up together, and making us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the Ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. If we observe this Scripture, it holds forth this; that all the kindness we receive from God, it is his grace in Christ, and God's design in the manifesting of this his freegrace in Christ, is to show forth the exceeding riches and glory of it; the whole work of salvation will clear up this truth; for if we consider all the subjects of salvation, we shall find no object for any thing of God but his free grace and rich love, the pollution of feign man in his natural condition could not be an object of preservation to the holy, just, and pure eyes of an omnipotent God, nothing but freegrace and rich love in God could look the looks of life to souls dead in sins and trespasses: And if thus, than it plainly appears, that God's great design in the salvation of sinners is namely to glorify, or to manifest the glory of his own eternal rich love and freegrace. God will have souls live by his grace, that he might manifest the life and glory of his grace; that grace which giveth life, appears in the life it giveth, so that every saved soul is a monument of the riches and glory of the love and grace of God, and the wise God laid his design sure when he made choice of the salvation of sinners, to manifest the glory of his freegrace by. In the next place, I shall hold forth how God doth accomplish this great end and design of his: Namely, by making the whole frame and work of salvation to flow from, and to depend upon his own freegrace, so as there is nothing in the whole work of salvation from first to last, but the freegrace of God, Ephes. 2.5.8. Even when we were dead in sins, bathe quickened us together with Christ. (By grace are ye saved.) The time speaks grace, when dead in sins; this is a season only for grace, and that the grace of God too, appearing, when not only in sin, but dead in sin, past all recovery, as from self, if doing could prevail; yet here is no life to do withal; this is only a time for a living love in God to act freegrace in: If ever salvation comes to souls dead in sin, it must be by grace, the grace of God saves of itself, without any cause out of itself, and this is the true salvation of souls dead in sin, (by grace ye are saved) to be saved by grace, that is, to be saved in the salvation of God, the whole work to be of his freegrace, not any tittle of it of our salves, Rom. 3.23, 24. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God: Being justified freely by his grace. Mark it, there is all self under sin: but saved, justified, and acquitted souls from sin, are the fruits of God's freegrace; though self come short of the glory of God, yet freegrace makes perfection that justifies, this is the salvation of God, to justify freely by his grace, Rom. 5.21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. Here sin and self hath its reign, but it is to death: but all the parts of salvation is the work of God's freegrace: grace reigns through righteousness in Jesus Christ. The righteousness of Christ to saved souls, or Christ made righteousness to such souls, what is it but the reign of God's freegrace; that is, grace is supreme, the grace is all in the whole work of salvation; this truth will be made more clear in proving the parts of this great work the salvation of GOD'S freegrace. But now consider that God lays this work, the salvation of his freegrace sure, in the full satisfaction of his own divine justice, that so the saved of his grace might stand spotless before him to all eternity. And herein is the mystery of salvation, that God's justice is fully satisfied, and yet that his grace in saving his people should be perfectly free: but both these doth plainly appear in the salvation of God to his people; the work of his free grace. Now the way of grace in God to satisfy Divine justice to the full, and yet to keep itself entire free grace to all that are saved, is this: Namely, to choose out, appoint, and to send Christ in the flesh (God-man) to satisfy the Divine justice of God for man, in whom the wisdom of God giveth full satisfaction to his own Justice, and perfect salvation to his people all of free grace: In this glorious mystery, free grace in God is the fountain, full satisfaction to Divine Justice the way, but perfect salvation and rdemption to all his elect body in Christ the end. I shall now come more particularly to the parts of this great work of God, the salvation of his own free grace. And first of God's electing grace. That it is free grace in God which elects to salvation; that I shall first prove by the subjects of God's salvation, which is fallen sinners, Ephes. 2.1. Dead in trespasses and sins. A lump of finners dead in trespasses and sins, hath God to choose out as subjects for his love, vessels of honour, and heirs of glory. If grace in God make not the choice, surely the whole lump of fallen sinners would be left to remain dead in sins and trespasses: but the Apostle in Rom. 9.18, 23. telleth us that God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy: That is, God is full of mercy: but he is free in it, his mercy lies in his own will, he chooseth his own vessels of mercy, That he might make known the riches of his own glory. He chooseth where he pleaseth, that it might appear he chooseth according to his own will and pleasure; that is, that all his mercy and grace is free, and that the first work, or part of the work of salvation, his Election, is of and from his own free grace: So Ephes. 1.4, 5. According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. That is, God chooseth from all eternity, such as he will make his children, and heirs of glory by Christ, and this he doth according to the good pleasure of his own will: all fell alike in the first Adam, nothing in one more than in another to move God to love, for all were dead in sins: but the whole work in God, is the work of his grace, it is all begun and finished according to the good pleasure of his own will, all is the work of his free grace. But secondly, whom God thus chooseth by his grace, he chooseth in Christ, Ephes. 1.4. According as he hath choosen us in him (that is in Christ) so that all along grace is free in God, and the whole work of salvation only of his free grace, Rom. 5.15. What ever is in Christ is the gift of grace: so that Christ being the way by which God works satisfaction to his own justice, and salvation to his people, it is all of grace; the reign of life in Saints by Christ, is the reign of grace in God to Saints through Christ, vers. 17. Shall reign in life by one Christ. God in Christ doth reign over souls in righteousness, as the God of life and salvation; it is God in Christ, a God of free grace. But in the carrying on this work of God's grace, in the salvation of his people through Christ, it is needful that Christ take flesh, according to that promise in Gen. 3.15. The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent. And this is accomplished in the fullness of God's time, Isa. 9.6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. The child which is borne, is the son which is given, Christ in the flesh; the son of God is the gift of his free grace, this child Jesus is the gift of God's grace, 〈◊〉 Covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles: To open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners from the prison, and them that fit in darkness out of the prisonhouse, Isa. 42.6, 7. So that as grace giveth him, so his work in the flesh, is that work of grace in all the parts of it: Thus fare we have Saints in Christ, and Christ in the flesh, and the free grace of God in all. This which followeth will appear to be as purely grace in God as what hath gone before, though now God comes to have actual and full satisfaction to his justice. Now the elect are in Christ, and Christ for us in the flesh; now the holy law, and Divine Justice of God comes for fulfilling and satisfaction. But to whom? why to Christ, so that when justice is fully satisfied, yet that the whole of salvation might be a work of God's freegrace. Quest. But why should Justice come to Christ for satisfaction? had he sinned? Answ. I answer, no: but in the great design of God's grace, to redeem his people in Christ, Christ was willingly made sin for us, and took our nature that he might stand before God's Justice in our room as the sinner. The holy Ghost clears this truth in that 2 Cor. 5. last. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. The verse before clears up this (he) in the Text to be meant of God. Be ye reconciled to God; for (he) hath made him sin: and this (him) in the Text must needs be meant of Christ, for it is said of this (him) that he knew no sin; that is, he had no sin of his own; he was that spotless lamb without sin, so was never any in flesh, since the fall from innocency but Christ: so that the Scripture is plain, That God made Christ is be sin for his elect body; that is, not to be guilty of any fin in himself, but to be the surety, the debtor, and paymaster to the justice of God for all the sins past, present, & to come, of all his elect body, so that divine justice goes only to Christ for satisfaction, and in Christ divine justice hath full satisfaction, so that justice and grace in God, are both pure in the salvation of sinners through Christ that is thus made sin for us. Here we have Christ made both sin and flesh by God, and now in the flesh we shall finde Christ making full satisfaction to the justice of God; for all those whom he is made sin for; as Christ came in the flesh to take up the debt of sin for his people, and to lie under the wages of sin, which is death; so in the flesh and in his death he giveth such full satisfaction to Almighty God, that God doth acknowledge himself fully pleased in the travel of his soul, Isa. 53.11. He shall see of the travel of his soul, and shall be satisfied: That is, God doth behold that satisfaction which Christ hath made to his justice for the sins of his people, and in it doth acknowledge himself fully satisfied, and for ever well pleased with his Elect in him; that whole Chapter is a proving of Christ in the flesh, being made by God an offering for sin, verse 10. to be wounded for the transgression of his people, and bruised for our iniquities, having the chastisement of our peace put upon him, so that by his stripes we are healed, it having pleased the Lord to lay on him the iniquities of us all, 5, 6. verses. So that here is not only Christ in the flesh, but Christ made sin for his people; that is, hath all the iniquities of his people laid on him by God, with all the wounds, bruises, and chastisements due to them; that is, all the punishment due to sin from God's justice; and this Christ undergoeth to the utmost, so that by his stripes we are heoled: that is, by his suffering and satisfaction, his Elect are in the justice of God, wholly acquitted and discharged, for God chose Christ to satisfy his justice for sin, and having laid the debt with all the weight of it upon him, and Christ having discharged this debt to the full, God's justice cannot but discharge it where ever it was due; otherwise as one Text speaks, Christ had died in vain, and the design of God's free grace to poor sioners could never be accomplished: So the Apostle in the 3. Gal. 13. telleth us, that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us. Christ as our surety and public Redeemer, took sin with all its weight and curse upon himself, and what he hath taken from us, he hath fully delivered us from; so that in his satisfaction he doth fully acquit his elect body; the first debtor, from the whole debt and danger of sin, either in curse or punishment: And the Apostle Paul argueth out his triumph in the 8. Rom. latter end, upon this very consideration, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect, it is God that justifieth, who is be that condemneth; it is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again: As if the Apostle had said; God doth justify his elect body as he is a just God: For Christ hath died and is risen again: That is, Christ is risen as the satisfier of God's justice in his death, for had not Christ's death satisfied God's justice when as the sins, curse, and punishment of sin, for all his Elect body was laid on him, he could never have risen again, but now his is risen, and risen as the justifier of his people, and the satisfier of God's justice: Now if any shall charge the Elect of God with what Christ hath borne and satisfied for them; Even the justice of God, or the just God will acquit them, and if God acquit who can condemn, and therefore he glorieth: So the same Apostle in the 4. Rom. 25 speaking of Christ as being risen from the dead, says thus, Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification: That is, it was the sins of his Elect that crucified him, and it is the justification of his Elect for whom he died, that he is risen; and as nothing could have crucified him but our sins, so now nothing can condemn those for whom he died, he being risen, his resurrection pleads to all justice, satisfaction in his death: And Christ was therefore delivered up to death for our offences, that in his resurrection we might be justified from all offences, Gods great aim and design of grace: Run through the former to the latter of these: Rom. 10.4. the holy Ghost telleth us there, That Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth: As if he had said, The believing soul shall find that Christ hath fulfilled, and doth fully keep the whole Law for him, and so is an end to it for righteousness; that is, Christ is now the soul's righteousness not the Law; the Law is kept and fulfilled by Christ for a believer, so that it cannot charge any soul in Christ to condemnation, but the righteousness and justification of the soul in the sight of God is Christ, not the Law; if any soul could keep the whole Law in itself, the Law might have been for righteousness to that soul, but all having sinned and come short; now the Law is an accuser not a justifier, but Christ for his people, he fully satisfies and keeps the Law; so that Christ is the righteousness of his people and an end to the Law for righteousness: This is a faithful saying, 1 Th●. X. 15: and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the World to save sinners: 1 Tim. 1.15. It was the end of Gods giving Christ, and of Christ coming to save sinners from sin, Law, death, Hell, and what ever would destroy them, and this end is effected, for Christ did not only die but is risen, did not only take sin but hath satisfied for sin, and all this is the work of grace, which appears in this, it is the work of God in Christ; the Apostle Paul doth acknowledge and confirm this truth in Rom. 3.24, Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. The Apostle here says it is redemption through Christ, but that doth not hinder our being justified by free grace in God; though God works through Christ, yet it is all the work of his free grace, it is through Christ, and Christ is through grace, there is not any tittle of redemption, or justification through self, it is all through Christ and by grace, which is no more but grace working through Christ; the great gift of God's free grace, what ever God doth in Christ can no ways diminish his free grace, for Christ is the Mediator or middle person between God and Man; in whom God magnifies his grace to Man, and giveth to his people the riches and greatness of his love wherewith he loveth them through him: This indeed doth manifest the wisdom and justice of God to redeem his people through Christ, but it no ways lesseneth the freeness of his grace, nay it makes it more glorious grace, for that justice is fully satisfied, makes mercy the greater mercy, and the justified is nothing in himself all this while but a sinner; now that God should make Christ his way to satisfy his Divine justice by, and to save sinners; this must needs magnify the grace of God, because the saved and the justified are nothing in the work themselves, only sinners and the worst of sinners, saved only of grace by grace, it is grace in God and grace in Christ, the grace of God through Christ, that makes such as are dead in sins to be quickened together with Christ; and from this the holy Ghost telleth us, that (by grace we are saved:) Ephes. 2.5. Christ came from Heaven to do his Father's will; that was, to save all which his Father had given him, not to lose any but to raise them up at the last day, John 6.38, 39 God chooseth Christ a body, John 6.38, 39 of which h● maketh him head and Saviour, and send him into the World that he might rederme his body by satisfying justice, so that he might save the whole, and raise them up at the last day at his redeemed body; and all this the work of God's free grace through Christ, for Christ doth acknowledge that his work of redemption was his Father's will, and his word was to perfect the design of his Father's grace, that all God had given him might be redeemed through him, and justified by his Father's grace; in the death of Christ God commendeth his love and grace to ●e, Rom. 5.8. But God commendeth his love to us in that whilst we were sinners Christ died for us: Mark it, the satisfaction that Christ gave to the justice of God for sinners, was so fare from being any diminution to God's grace, that it is a commendation of it, or an exaltation and glory of it, for it exceedingly commends the glory of God's love and grace, that Christ should die because we were sinners; there lies the emminency of God's love, it is Christ the gift of his grace dying for sinners, this makes all the work grace, grace in God sends Christ to die for sinners, whom otherwise must die eternally in sin; can there be any thing but grace in this; in the Apostles account Christ's dying for us when when we were sinners, doth much demonstrate the love and grace of God, and surely so it doth. Thus doth God save his people by grace, and satisfy his justice in Christ: Now Christ having satisfied his Father's justice, fulfilled and kept the Law to the utmost for all his elect body, he bringeth them to the throne of his father's justice, as well as the throne of his grace, and there God as a just God doth justify head and members, Col. 2.9, 10. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily: And yet are complete in him. As if God should say, Christ hath satisfied my justice as God, Man, and though my justice were the justice of a God; yet him in whom the fullness of the God head dwelleth bodily, hath fully satisfied it, and all his members are complete in him, I have received full satisfaction for them in him, and in him do sully acquit and discharge them of all guilt and unrighteousness, before me to all eternity, for ye are complete in him: That i●, complete in his completeness, For he was made sin for you which knew no sin, 2 Cor. 5. last. that you might be made the righteousness of God in him. Mark it, the end of Christ being made sin was, that in him his elect body might be made the righteousness of God; that is, that Christ might be our righteousness as the gift of God, so that Christ being our righteousness we might be righteous in the righteousness of God, and so complete in him, namely Christ, as Christ is the righteousness of God to his people. So are they all complete in him; and in this the righteousness of God, Saints are justified at the throne of God's justice, and taken up into his bosom of grace, for in union with Christ there can be no condemnation, Rom. 8. Thus doth free grace in God accomplish and finish its work of salvation for all his elect through Christ, God doth this work in Christ that it might be all free grace, and that he might take off all boasting in the creature by the Law of faith, Rom. 3.27. whom he chooseth from all eternity to be heirs of glory; he chooseth them in Christ, Ephes. 1.4. whom he calleth out of nature into his grace he calleth in Christ, Rom. 8. latter end: Such as he redeemeth he redeemeth through Christ, and makes him to be redemption to them: 1 Cor. 1.30. Rom. 3.24. Them which God justifies and makes righteous, he justifieth and maketh righteous in Christ, Rom. 4.25. 1 Cor. 1.30. Rom. 10.3, 4. Rom. 4.25. Gal. 5.4. So Christ he is made sanctification to his people, 1 Cor. 1.30. Rom. 1 Cor. 1.30. Rom. 8.10. 8.10. And when Saints are taken up into their fullness of glory, than they reap the fullness of their union with Christ, John 17. latter end, John 14.19. Rom. 8.17. So that this whole salvation is the work and gift, of God's free grace wrought in Christ. Now that it might be free grace in God, and only free grace, which gins, carries on, and perfects this work of Salvation in all the parts and degrees of it; this is the will of God, That the hand which taketh, receiveth, applieth, and oppropriateth thi● free gift of God's grace to the souls of his Elect body, should be the hand fo saith; so that as it reigns in the souls of believers, Rom. 3, 24, 37. 1 John 3.23. it might appear to be of grace and not of works, Rom. 3. ● 〈◊〉 27. 1 John. 3.23, And this is his Commandment, that 〈◊〉 should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ: The will of God appears in his Commandment, and that is to believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, to believe in Jesus as a Saviour and a Redeemer, to save and redeem his people from their sins: Matthew 1.21. And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins. This is to believe in the name of Jesus, to believe in Jesus, as the Saviour of his people from their sins; this is the will and commandment of God; in this sense in Scripture, Rom. 3.1. we are often said to be justified by faith, Rom. 5.1. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: That is, not by faith as a meritorious grace to merit justification, for than it were of works which would destroy the nature of faith, and the design of God's free grace, but by faith as an appropriating and applying hand to lay hold on the salvation of God's free grace through Christ, in believing of God's Word and work of Salvation, by his free grace through Christ, so as to cast the salvation of our eternal souls, Rom. 5.1. upon God's free grace, in the satisfaction and redemption of Christ; therefore Justified by faith, we have 〈◊〉 with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: That is, by faith laying hold on Jesus Christ as our Lord Jesus Christ, so the soul comes to be at peace with God, and to find God to be reconciled to it, and is thus justified in its own bosom by believing in Christ, that is, the soul doth now believe all that God hath said concerning Christ, and what Christ hath done and suffered for finners, 2 Cor. 5. last. and doth by faith apply, and appropriate this to itself, my Lord Jesus Christ, saith a believing soul, whom God made to his sin for me, Isa. 53. that I might be the righteousness of God in him, upon whom God hath laid all my iniquities, and the chastisements due to my sins, Col. 2.19. and by whose stripes my soul is healed; So that now I stand complete before God in him: Thus by believing and appropriating Christ to our own souls, we come to be justified in our own spirits, and to be at peace with God, in believing God to be as peace with us, we come to be at peace with him; that is, all hard thoughts of God they are gone with unbelief, now the soul believeth in God through Christ, it findeth God to be a gracious loving, reconciled Father, and is now at peace with God, or at peace in God, full of peace by believing in God through Christ, this is the justification that faith giveth the soul, it lives upon the peace of God in Jesus Christ, and quiets the soul in this, that God is at peace with it through Jesus Christ, and in this sense through the whole Book of God, we must understand those Scriptures wherein it is said we are justified by faith, Gal. 2.16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, Gal. 2.16. but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ: That is, knowing that God doth justify all through Christ by his free grace in believing, and not any by works; we do believe in his free grace through Christ, and are thereby justified, not of works; no, not by faith as a grace, for then by works, but of his grace through Christ, laid hold on and apply by faith; the Apostle Paul in Rom. 3.22. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all that believe, the righteousness of God is the grace of God in Christ, or the grace of God making Christ our righteousness, which righteousness of God by Jesus Christ we apply to ourselves by believing in the grace of God which hath made Christ our righteousness, and in Christ as he is made righteousness to us, righteousness is the gift of grace, but if faith as an act in us could justify us, than righteousness and justification would not be of grace, but as faith is only a hand to lay hold on Christ the righteousness of God's free grace, and this faith the gift of God, not of ourselves, Ephes. 2.8. So it hath its place and work in the great design of God, the Salvation of his free grace: So in Rom. 10.4. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Rom. 10.4. The holy Ghost doth not there say, that by believing which is a work of grace in the soul, the soul doth put an end to the Law; that is, satisfy it, and make itself righteous; no, for then righteousness would be of the Law, but Christ he hath put an end to the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth; that is, by believing in Christ as our righteousness, there is an end put to the Law, the Law is no righteousness, but Christ is righteousness, and the fulfiller of the Law for all that thus believe on him; faith is only the hand to lay hold of, and to appropriate and apply Christ to the soul whom is God's righteousness, and the sulfiller of this Law for all that so believe on him: Believers should be exceeding tender of preserving the glory of God's grace, for it is by grace that we are saved, and only of grace that we are what we are; and for this very cause was faith made the hand to lay hold on grace; grace in God hath not made a hand to destroy itself, we must be very watchful in this thing, and make the grace of God to be the trial of faith, for that faith cannot be true which doth not advance the free grace of God; the highest pitch of faith in which it is very glorious, is to apply the grace of God to the soul, and to cast the soul upon the free grace of God, to unselfe the creature, to trample its best works under feet as dross and dung, and resting full in the grace of God through Christ, desiring only to be found in him, Not having our own righteousness which is of the Law; Phil. 3.8, 9 but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, Phil. 3.8, 9 True faith, it lifts up free grace in God, by seeking his righteousness by faith; it aims no higher but to be a hand to receive the gift of grace (God's righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ.) The true work of faith in the soul is to bring in Christ, and cast out the Law as that Schoolmaster which keeps the soul under fears till Christ came, and to acquaint the soul that it is a Child of God through Christ Jesus, Gal. 3.25, 26. John 6.40, 47 Gal. 3.25, 26. and that in Christ it hath everlasting life, John 6.40.47. Thus believing in Christ the soul is strengthened in the inward man, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, Eph. 3.16, 17. Ephes. 3.16, 17. and establishing the soul in its union with Christ, that soul which believeth in Christ as the gift of God's free grace, in whom God giveth eternal life, 1 John 5.10, 11. hath the witness in himself; 1 John. 5.10, 11. He is sealed up to the love of God, in believing the record of God, that saith he loveth it freely and hath given Christ for it, now the soul believes this word of God, and rests upon it, take God's word for its eternal salvation; this is the true office of faith in the foul to lay hold of the Salvation of God's free grace in Christ, declared by his word, and to apply and appropriate 〈◊〉 to itself, so as to rest and depend wholly upon it for Saivation, and herein the soul comes to have the witness within its self, by believing thus on the Son of God: That it might appear● to be the will of God, that all which are saved of his free grace by Christ, should be made partakers of this Salvation in themselves by believing in him, and the salvation of his grace. I shall of at two things to consideration: First, The Covenant of God's free grace. And secondly, The promulgation and spreading abroad of the Gospel. First, God's Covenant of free grace in Jer. 31.31, 32, 33, 34. and Heb. 8.8, 9, 10, 11, 12. In which God doth freely engage himself, To be our God, and that we shall be his people, to put his Low in our inward parts, and write it in our hearts, that all his people shall know him from the least to the greatest, and that he will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sins no more: In this Covenant God wraps up all the parts of the salvation of his free grace, and doth fully oblige himself to them all: Now what is the reason that God doth thus oblige himself by Covenant, is it because of himself, that he might not go back from his design of grace to his people? No, he is God that changes not, an immutable God, Numb. Num. 23.19. Psal. 90.2. 23.19. God from everlasting to everlasting, Psal. 90.2. But God makes this Covenant for our sake, that we might believe in him as a God of grace, and a faithful God; the holy Ghost argues thus, he telleth us that a faithful man will keep his Covenant, much more God; as if he had said, The faithful God hath made his Covenant of grace, that you might believe he will make good his Covenant, as he is a faithful God; God obligeth his own faithfulness in a Covenant of grace, that his people might have both his grace and his faithfulness for a foundation of their faith, God will be believed by his people, and therefore he engageth himself as a faithful gracious God: to the faith of his people, says God, I will pardon your sins and remember them no more, I will put my Law in your hearts, the Law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; believe all this, for I will do it saith God, I the faithful, the gracious and omnipotent God; I that am omnipotent, who can hinder me, I that am gracious, so that your sins can be no bar; nay, I that am faithful and cannot lie nor repent, I have spoken it and I will make it good, what is the meaning of all this? but that we should believe the faithful word of our faithful and gracious God; he will oblige his own faithfulness by way of Covenant, that we might believe in the free salvation of his own grace made out in that Covenant. Secondly, Consider what is God's end in the promulgation, and spreading abroad of the Gospel. It is not that his people should believe in the salvation of his own grace, why is Christ pleased to be the way of God's salvation to his people of his own free grace, so that whom ever believeth thus on him, hath everlasting life, John 6.47. But that they might believe and be saved by him, 29. verse, This is the work of God that ye believe on him that he hath sent: This is the end of the Gospel, for it is the effect of it, where it works savingly, this is God's work, or the work of his spirit in the Gospel, to make souls believe in Jesus Christ whom he hath sent; when Christ sent forth his Disciples to preach the Gospel, he directs them to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and biddeth them to Preach this, Mat. 10.6, 7. that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, Mat. 10.6, 7. Matth. 10.6, 7. That is, go to poor lost souls in themselves, and tell them that the Salvation of God's free grace i● at hand, it is near to them, it seeks them, and saveth them freely; but what is the end of this, only that the history of Christ might come to these lost souls; no sure, that is not enough for lost sheep, but that they might believe in the salvation of God's free grace and be saved, and for this end hath God preserved his Gospel in the World, and made it to prosper, against all the power and malice of Satan and his instruments, that thereby his people might hear the glad tidings of salvation by free grace in Christ, and in the believing of it be saved and established, John 6.40. This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which s●tt● the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life: It is not only a bare hearing or seeing of Christ in the flesh, but believing on him, that makes Christ to be everlasting life to the soul; and this is the end of God in the Gospel, that souls might haw everlasting life, through believing in Christ; it is faith in the souls of his people that God intends both by giving the Gospel to the World, and preserving it in the World: So that for these two reasons, which might have been exceedingly more enlarged, is doth appear, That this is the will of God in keeping his salvation to be wholly the work of his grece; that the hand which received and applieth it should be a hand of faith, which is the work of his own free grace in the soul. Thus fare I have held forth matter for faith in the souls of believers to rest on for establishment in the point of salvation, by showing, in some of God's Attributes what he is in himself, and what the design of his free grace is, in the salvation of sinners. My intention is to hold out more matter for faith to take in, before I give the arguments for Faith, or motives to Faith. Now I find this by myself, and others; that fears and doubtings in the soul, next to its own salvation, is about the Church and people of God on earth, how it will far with them, and therefore I shall in the next place take that into consideration. You shall hear poor souls that love Christ and his people, b●t are weak in faith, make these sad complaints; O the poor Church and people of Christ, what will become of them; the multitudes of the World they hate them, so that they use all their power and policy to ruin and destroy them; Princes off the Earth join themselves together and take counsel against them, if any in power own them, it is but a little number, and they but for a little time, we find them men subject to temptations, many times when as by fair promises and some sinal beginnings men in power beget a confidence in God's people concerning them, till fairer advantages are offered by Satan in a temptation to their flesh, and then they prove false to former promises and undo all their beginnings of good, by setting open the Floodgates of evil and tyranny upon the Church and people of God; Satan showeth them the World, they are taken with the temptation, fall down and worship him; and if God's people will not do so too, than the furnace must be hear seven times hotter than before; and if they desire to go into the Wilderness to worship the Lord their God, than they are idle, the Taskmasters must increase their work; so that truly says this poor bleeding heart, if a man have any thing more than a naked profession of Religion, in such a form that will be turned by every blaft of power from men, he is then taken for a Sectary, an Heretic, and an enemy to Caesar; So that not only the ignorant multitude, but even Authority itself, which should protect them, is set against them: Now help Lord, says these afflicted Spirits, Psal. 12. good and goodly men they cease, for the faithful fall among the children of men: They speak vanity every one with his neighbour; with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak: So that all worldly men, who are much the greater number, are either open or private enemies to the Church and people of God; therefore words are but the fleshly policy of their false hearts, the mischief lies at the root; so that what ever the Serpent brewed, prove●, their businesle is to bruise the heel of the Woman, Christ in his Church and people; So that indeed, the condition of God's Church and people in the World is very sad, they are a Lily amongst Thorns, enemies either open or private round about them. Is it so poor heart? Why then look up with an eye of faith, are all men false, yet God is true; will not the powers on earth bea kind to Zion, do they neglect their duty to protect the praiseworthy; Yet fear not, God will he kinds and faithful too, he is Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, all the powers is Heaven and Earth must obey him, for thy encouragement, and matter for thy faith to build on to the establishments of thy ●●●rit, take into thy bosom, and seriously consider what follows. First, Isa. 43.1. consider God's interest in his people; Isa. 43.1. 〈◊〉 now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that ●●●med thee O Israel; fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have ●●led thee by my Name, thou art mine. Observe the end of God is this Scripture is to keep up his people's hearts above fear, and the way God taketh is this, to let them know his interests is them; why says God, I have not only created thes, but I have redeemed thee also, thou hast not only my first but also my second creation upon thee, the new creature; thou are my redeemed one, my image, so that thou bearest my name, thy 〈◊〉 myee look upon thee as the redeemed of the Lord, thou beare● my Name, and thou art mine, my interest, thou art Jacob my servant, Isa. 44. ●. and Israel whom I have chosen: Mark the Scriptures, Th●● art my chosen interest, my redeemed interest, my new crea●●● interest, my servant whom I have chosen to bear my name's the● are thou mine, Now why shouldest thou fear? Dost thou think I will let my name be blotted out? I am God not Men, I cannot jyes I cannot he changeable; if I choose thee to love thee, to make thee my redeemed one, upon whom I will engrave my Nature, as a holy God in the new creature, and so proclaim thee to the World to be mine; I will never cast thee off again, nor out of my love and care; thou art mine, and I am thine, my love thine, I am thine as I am a God of free grace in Christ, I am thine, my power is thine; that is, it is all for thee, as I am 〈◊〉 Omnipotent, Almighty, alsufficient, and Eternal God, so 〈◊〉 I thy God, therefore fear not; none can pluck the● out of my hand: Z●●h. 2.12. God's Church and people are his inheritance, Zach. 2.12. And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy L●●● God's people are his inheritance in that Land where they are, God so account of them, that is, though Heaven and Earth be the Lord, yes he counts his people his inheritance, that which he most loves and prizeth; so that he will never cast them off nor destroy them: God useth these terms mee●ely to speak ●o our capacity, that he might tell us we are to him, that which 〈◊〉 count most dear to us, so as never to part with them, but to use our utmost power to preserve and keep them, as our Name, and our Inheritance, we are exceeding tender of these, and do our utmost to preserve them; so says God, my Church and people are to me exceeding dear, as tender as the apple of my eye, all my power shall preserve them, they are my Name and my Heritage; nay the Church and people of God is God's habitation and his dwelling place, not as a confined God, but as a glorious God and loving Father, Ezekiel 37.26, 27, 28. Ezek. 37.26, 27, 28. God Covenants to set his Sanctuary and his Tabernacle in the midst of his people for evermore: That is, I will dwell amongst you for ever, you shall be my delight, and my habitation for evermore. I will walk among you, says God, and will be your God, and you shall be my people, Levit. 26.12. I am your God you are my interest, Leu. 26.12. I will live in you and walk amongst you, as in my Heritage, and the people which I have chosen to bear my Name; so the Apostle Paul writing to the Church of God at Corinth, 2 Cor. 6.16. 2 Cor. 6.16. telleth them that they are the Temple of the living God, the people whom God had chosen to dwell in, and to walk in them as their God, and they as his people: We see then this is the Church's interest in God, they are his people whom he owns for his, dwelleth in them, sets his Sanctuary and his Tabernacle in the midst of them, walks with them, puts his Name upon them, makes them his own Inheritance, and is as tender of them as of the apple of his eye; and this God declares to his Church and people that they should not fear, for he hath power enough to preserve his own interest, and love enough to answer all their wants; Gods people they are the sheep of his pasture, Psalm. 100 Psal. 100 He feeds and keeps them, as his own peculiar interest, the children of Zion find bread enough in their Fathera house, Psalm. 134. last. Psal. 134. last. The Lord that made Heaven and Eerth bless thee out of Zion: As if the Psalmist had said, God as a God of blessngs dwelleth in Zion, that is his heritage, his throne where he sits and blesseth; So in the 146 Psalm. last. The Lord that reigns for ever, Psal. 146. last. even the God of Zion: and the 147 Psalm. 12. Praise thy God O Zion: Psal. 147.12. The Lord is for ever thy God: O Zion, therefore praise him; this i● God's interest, he is the God of Zion, and so he re●gties forever, there he wraps up the glory of 〈◊〉 grace, and there he right in his power and greatness for over: This doubtless is ground of great establishment to our souls concerning the Church and people of God though in the wilderness, amongst ravenous beasts, and subtle foxes that seeks to destroy the tender vines; ye● eve● here they are God's interest, his inheritance, his chosen and redeemed ones, in whom he dwelleth, and amongst these golden Candlesticks he walks, so that his Church and people are certainly safe as they are thus his interest. But as if this were not enough to our doubting unbelieving hearts, see how God hath engaged his faithfulness to his Church and people by way of Covenant, besides the first making of his Covenant of grace in the 31. Jer. 31. Hebr. 8. Isa. 59.20, 21. Jer. and Hebr. 8. Observe how he followeth it, Isa. 59.20, 21. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. As for me this is my Covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I put in thy mouth, shall not departed out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed, saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever. This is God's Covenant of giving Christ and his Spirit to his Church and people, that so he might preserve his interest in them for ever; he makes his Covenant in Christ, that it might be an everlasting Covenant, Fsahn 89.34, 35, 36. and that believers might plead his own Covenant before him in Christ. So in Psalm 89.34, 35, 36. My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his Throne as the Sun before me. By David here is meant Christ; God makes a Covenant and an Oath in Christ, that his seed, his Elect, God's Interest, his Church and people, shall endure and stand before him for ever: God makes his Covenant to strengthen faith in his Church and people, that we might argue thus, God is an infinite, pure, faithful, and unchangeable God: so that what her covenants and swears to, must certainly be, not one tittle of his word can fail, because he is a faithful God, and his faithfulness he hath freely engaged to his Church and people by Covenant, for the establishment of their souls. In the next place, consider God's care of his Church and people, and his promises to them, in which he declares his interest in them. Isa. 43.2, 3. In Isa. 43.2, 3. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not everflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the holy one of Israel, they Saviour. Observe God's care of his Church, they shall not go without him: and then the effect of his presence, though they go through dangers, yet in God's care and presence they shall be preserved from all danger and ruin: God preferveth them as his own interest; though they go through deep waters, even rivers, yet they shall not overflow them; God keeps their heads above water, he will not let his own interest sink; though they walk through the fire; yet God preserveth his interest from burning and consuming: This care over his Church and people God doth engage himself to by promise; thus God engageth his faithfulness, that he will preserve his own interest in the World, his Church and faithful people; both which, his interest, and his faithfulness are strong arguments to faith, and God maketh this use of them. Fear not (says God) I am with thee, vers. 5. So in the next Chapter, beg. Fear not O Jacob my servant, Isa. 44. beg. and Jesurun whom I have chosen, for I will give you water when you thirst, and pour my Spirit upon your seed. And so goes on, making promises to his people and comforting them in their interest in him; I am your God, and your Redeemer, the holy one of Israel, besides me there is no God. If I say I will preserve you, none can hurt you, for besides me there is no God: I that am your God, am the only God, & I that am this will preserve you in all dangers as my own interest, I will not leave you in fire or water; that is, not in any danger: so God speaks comfortably to Zion, in Isa. 51.3. He saith, Isa. 51.3. he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. God for his Church's comfort doth engage himself to make her fruitful in her most bar●en places, and it shall be the fruit of joy and gladness: She shall be fruitful as the garden of the Lord, and in the Spirit of the Lord, and the fruits of that Spirit shall be thankfulness and a voice of melody to the Lord. Here is God still maintaining his own interest in his people, in all his care over his Church and people, & in his promises to them, therefore fear not, for the interest of God hath God for its interest. So in Ezek. 34.20. to the end; Ezek. 34.20. to the end. there God makes many a precious promise to his people, and expresseth much of his care over them, and what a defence he will be to them: Says God, I will be judge between Cattle and Cattle, I will save my own flock, they shall us more be a prey to those proud cattles which thrust with the side & shoulder: But says God, I will set a shepherd over them, my servant D●vid (which is Christ) and he shall feed them, he shall be their shapheard, and I will be their God; yea, Christ shall be a Prince among them, I the Lord have spoken it. And I will make a Covenant of peace with the beasts of the field, so that they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods, and all about them shall be a blessing to them; Thus shall they know that I am with them, and that they are my people and the flock of my pasture saith the Lord God. Here is a bundle of promises, all full of mercies, goodness, care, and providence from God; what is the reason of all this? why says God, they are my people: My interest is in them, they are the sheep of my pasture, therefore Christ shall be their shepherd and their Prince, he shall take care of them, and rule over them with righteousness: Do you think that I am careless of my people, my interest in the world, for I have given them a Prince of power and righteousness to rule over them, and to take care of them, even Jesus Christ, who shall feed them and preserve them as the sheep of my pasture. Isa: 4.5, 6. So likewise in Isa. 4.5.6. God promises to be a defence about all the glory of Zion, to be to them as a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night; to be a tabernacle, a refuge, and a covering to them from heat and storms. This is the fruits of the Kingdom of Christ, it was God's care in making him King over his Church; that they might not only be governed in righteousness, but also preserved by his power, and in him have a defence about all their glory, Hosea 14.4. God promiseth to heal the backsliding of his people, and to love them freely. This is a precious promise indeed, that God's free love will heal the back slidings of his people; it is a sign he will keep his interest in them, if he loveth them freely, and that free love doth sanctify them, and heal their back-slidings; nay God doth promise to do it, so the this people may plead his promise to them when they find their own wants. See what care God takes of his Church and people whom he loveth freely, Isai 27.3. Isa. 27.3. I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment lest any hurt it, I will keep it day and night. See what care God take● of his Vineyard, to keep it day and night, so that none can hurt it, and to water it every moment, that it may be very fruitful in the spirit: God will make his Vinyard holy, it is his own, he will manifest his interest in making it like him, and then he will preserve it as his own, never leave nor forsake them, keep them day and night safe in his free love and protection, so that not any shall have power to hurt them. Wicked men, though very industrious, cannot be so watchful to harm the people of God, as God is to keep them from harm; he is a God that neither slumbers nor sleeps, he takes care of his people day and night, yea, every moment; there is no fear that he will lose his interest for want of care, nor can he lose them for want of power, for he is an infinite omnipotent God, and there is no God besides him, therefore care and power in God is sure defence to all his people's glory, who are his interest, Isa. 30.18. The Lord waits to be graclous to his people. As if he had said, God stays for opportunities to do his people good in, his heart and hand is full of mercies, and he waits to show forth the riches of his grace to them: God there exalts himself to show mercy to his people: And the Prophet David makes this ground to exhort Princes to give glory to God, by reason of his power and protection to his people, in Ps. Psalm 29.10.11. 29.10, 11. The Lord sitteth upon the flood (saith he) yea, the Lord setteth King for ever, the Lord will give strength to his people, the Lord will bless his people with peace. It is the Lord that is King, it is he that reigns, and only can bless with peace: and whom will he thus bless, why, his people, his inheritance in the world, therefore Princes and earthly powers commit folly to think they can curse where he will bless; for the Lord sitteth King for ever, and all earthly powers are made by him, and for to be his footstool, so that he can kick them down when he pleaseth: and if they meddle with his anointed chosen heritage, he will reprove Kings for their sakes; That is, as they are his foote-stool, so he will trample them to dust, if they touch the apple of his eye, God will preserve his interest, his people, when as he shall turn the world to its first lump of darkness, and were it not for this his interest that is in the world, the world would soon have a period. And in Psal. 112.6. Psalus 112.6. Surely (says David) a good man he shall not be moved for ever, the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. It is the righteous man that is God's interest, whom he hath in everlasting remembrance of mercy. Psalm 125.1. So in Psalm 125.1. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth for ever. Mount Zion, that is, the Church and people of God, which is God's interest, it cannot be moved; this mountain can never be overturned, it is fixed in God, he takes care of it as that whereon he hath placed his Name, to abide for ever. So in Psal. 133. last. Upon the mountains of Zion, there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. Zion is the place where God commands his blessings & life for evermore to dwell; God dwells in Zion as a God of blessings, & the life of his Church and people for evermore, Psalm 147.2, 3. Psalm 147.2, 3. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem, he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. This is God's care over his inheritance in the World, his chosen people, he buildeth them up, and gathereth them together, he healeth the , and bindeth up the wounded; that is, he maketh them what they are, and supplieth all their wants, he makes them his people, and takes care of them as his people: and upon this his interest he doth expostulate the case with his people, how they should think that he should forget them, Isa. 49.14, 15, 16. But Zion saith the Lord, hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Why says God, can my people argue this thing with me? Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me. Mark it, God puts the case as home as possible creature-affections could carry it; can a tender mother forget the son of her womb, and the child of her breast? yea it is possible, for she is a creature: but what then, I am God, I will not forget my people; why says God, you are my people, my interest, I cannot forget you, I have graven you upon the palms of my hands: you are continually before me, you are engraven in my hands, and my heart too, my eternal love hath done it, and eternity cannot wipe it out; you are ever before me as my interest, I can never forget you, my thoughts are ever upon you for good, and my care is ever over you for protection; my right hand is over you, and my left hand is under you, my loving kindness doth embrace you for ever, you are the jewels I have chosen to glorify my free grace on to all eternity; you perhaps have found man false, what i● that to me; though they seek to serve their corrupt ends on you, yet my end is pure, to preserve my glory in you as my interest, you must not judge me by men, the World is their interest, but you are mine: And when they slight and trample you under foot to close with the World, then will I slight and trample them under soot in the preservation of you that are my peculiar interest, I will not give up my people whilst I keep my being; and I am God from everlasting to everlasting, and there is no God besides me: I will keep my people as my being, for it is the design of my eternal love and free grace that my people shall have their being in me and with me for ever, you are graven upon the palms of my hands for evermore; you are my people in Covenant, the elect and chosen of my grace, to be my inheritance and dwelling place for ever, I cannot forget you, you are ever before me, you lie in the wounds of my Son Jesus Christ, and you are righteous in my own righteousness; so that to forget you, were to forget myself and Jesus Christ; I am a full treasury of mercy and grace, and you are the only vessels whom I have chosen to fill with my mercy and grace to all eternity, think you that I can forget you, as you are my inheritance; so I have made myself your inheritance, Rom. 8.17. and you are fellow heirs with Christ, is it possible I can forget you to whom I have given myself for an inheritance; no, I have you in remembrance as my beloved ones for ever, my own grace hath begotten you, my heart of love is to you, and my outstretched arm of power and Majesty is for you, you shall know I have not forgotten you. I, and so shall your enemies too, they shall know that you are my interest, and my care is over you as my chosen Inheritance, whom I will preserve; in the utter ruin and destruction of your enemies. Bloody hardhearted Pharaoh and all his Host overthrown in the Red Sea, doth proclaym● this to the World; so those that cast the three eminent Children of God into the fiery Furnace, they were consumed with the blast of the Furnace, when the Saints of God walked harmless in the fire; in the 33 Isa. beginning, Isa. 33. beg. there is a w●● pronounced against those that made waste and spoils of God's people, and dealt treacherously with them; the righteous God will be sure to spoil all treacherous wretches which deal treacherously with his people: I, says God, do you think that I have forgotten my people, and that you shall prosper in your treachery? Surely to, I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion, Psal. 2. and he shall break the enemies of my Inheritance, my Church and people, with an Iron Rod, he shall dash them in pieces like a porters vessel: Observe the Scripture, it is the power of Christ that is the defence of his Church, and the ruining of their enemies, and he doth it with an Iron Rod; Christ reigns over them in his indignation, he dasheth them in pieces very easily, as a Potter doth a brickle piece of clay, and when they are thus broken they are quite destroyed, never to be made whole again, no more th●n a broken Pot; the enemies of Christ and his people, they rage, take counsel together, and set themselves against the Lord Christ and his anointed people, but the Lord he fitteth in Heaven and laugheth them to scorn; what says God, you think to bring your ends about, and your designs to pass, you think your counsels very deep they cannot be found out, and your power so great that it cannot be shaken; and nothing will satisfy your lusts but to destroy my interest from off the face of the Earth; I tell you says God, you imagine a vain thing, and you are all this while inventing your own ruins, you engage yourselves to certain destruction when you set yourselves against my people, be you what you will, Kings or Counsels, you shall surely be crushed to pieces in the undermining my interest, it is your folly to look upon them in themselves, so they seem a poor despisable people which doth harden your hearts, but did you see them as they are in me, my interest, you would then see your folly; what are you, or all the Nations of the Earth to me, no more than the drop of a bucket, or the small dust of the balance, I will speak to you in my wrath, and vex you in my sore displeasure, if once you touch my people the apple of mine eye; therefore says he, be wise O ye Kings, and be instructed you Judges of the Earth, you that make Laws, and you that rule and reign, take heed, be wise, meddle not with my Inheritance, I am only King and Lawmaker there, i● will be your wisdom to kiss the Son, and to serve him with fear and trembling; but if you entrench upon his Kingdom and offend one of his little ones, I assure you he will be angry, he is zealous over them and his own glory, he will have no sharere in his Kingdom, nor will he suffer any to rend his Flock, but he will be angry, and then O Kings and Counsellors, you shall all perish from the way, you shall never bring your designs to effect, God will bring his design to perfection, which is your ruin and your end, when Christ is entrenched upon in his glory and his jewels, then is his wrath kindled very hot, and then he shows himself what he is in his victory over his enemies; in the 63. of Isa. Then he cometh from Edom with died garments, stained all over in the blood of his enemies, this is the day of his vengeance, now he treads down his enemies in his anger, makes them drunk in his fury, and brings down their strength to the earth, thus doth Christ destroy the enemies of his people, For he hath an interest in them as God hath: in this 2 Psalm 6. Christ is King of his Church, Psal. 2. Isa. 9.6. Cant. 4.8, 1. Reve. 19.7. Eph. 1.22, 23. Mat. 12.49, 50 the government is upon his shoulder, Isaiah 9.6. The Church is Christ Spouse, Cant. 4.8. his Love, 1. She is the Lamb's Wife, Rev. 19.7. The body of which Christ is the head, Ephes. 1.22, 23. And Christ owneth his Saints and people to be his Brethren, and Sisters, Mat. 12.49, 50. Now what do all these relations speak, but union with Christ: Cant. 2.16. My beloved is mine and I am his, Cant. 2, 16. and Christ's interest in his people, which he will preserve as his glory and delight; he will not spoil his Kingdom, nor suffer others to do it, he rules in the midst of his Kingdom, in the hearts of his people with a golden sceptre, even his own spirit, he binds them to his commands by his words of love, and he protect them from ruining by their enemies with his Rod of Iron, he will be sure to preserve his Kingdom at his glory, this his glory he will not give to another; and his Spouse he will keep as his delight, she is the Wife of his bosom, his love, his fair one, one whom he hath made fair by his love, and lovely in his loveliness, complete in him, he hath washed her clean in his own blood, and hath made it life blood to her, so that she liveth to the glory of his grace, that streams in his blood; Christ hath made his Church so clean in his blood, that it becomes his own body, and he the head of it; Christ having purified a body for himself, will never be a head without a body; for he is 〈◊〉 head as can both purify and preserve his body; yea, he is such a head as is sensible of the sufferings of his body, as Christ hath taken his people into all the relations of love, so they shall surely find the fullness of his love in all those relations; Christ will be a King of love to his Kingdom, a Husband of love to his Spouse, a loving head to his body; and all his Brethren and Sisters shall find him a Brother of love; Nay he is a loving Redeemer, so full of love that he became sin for us to make us righteous, so full of love that he would bear all the stripes due to our sins, so that we might be healed in his stripes: What do you argue from hence? Why that he will never cease to love his people, nor will he ever lose his interest in them, or be failing of his love in any relation to them: he will certainly preserve them alive for whom he hath died, to give live: Because I live, says Christ, you live also, John 14.19. John 14.19. You are my body I am your head, I have life in myself and give life to my body; for I cannot be a head to a dead body, what life is in me is your life, for that is your interest in me, and this is my glory and the glory of my Father's grace through me, That whom ever believeth in me hath everlasting life, John 6.47. John 6.47. John 14.1. Now says Christ, let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me, John 14.1. Believe in God through me, I have an interest in you as God hath, and I will be very tender of it, for I died to purchase it, and I live to maintain and preserve it, and assure yourselves as certain as I live you live, I live that in me you might have eternal life, and that God in me may fulfil all those promises which he hath made unto you of my peaceful Kingdom, and of the righteousness of my reign in you and over you; therefore consider them, they are Gods promises made in me, not one tittle of them shall fail, they are your portion, your peculiar interest; take them and live upon God in them, for he will make them all good in me; you are God's interest and mine, and these are your interest in God through me, Fear not little flock it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom, the Kingdom of grace and of glory, of righteousness and peace, where none shall be able to disturb or destroy you. I intent here to gather up some Scriptures together which holdeth forth this righteous and peaceful, Kingdom of Christ in the Earth. A● first, Jer. 23.5, 6. Jer. 23.5, 6. Behold, the day is come saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgement and justice in the Earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his Name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. This is a promise of the righteous and peaceable Kingdom of Christ, this righteous branch and King in the Text is meant of Christ, for this is his Name, The Lord our Righteousness, which is Christ, whom is a God made righteousness to us; now behold Christ our King and righteousness, his day is come saith the Lord, when he shall reign in righteousness amongst his people, and shall execute judgement and justice in the Earth, and in his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely, it shall be a Kingdom of peace and safety, for the Lord our righteousness shall reign; a righteous reign must needs produce a peaceful Kingdom, therefore Christ the righteous is called the Prince of peace, when he shall execute his judgement then will justice be done in the Earth; then Judah shall be saved from the hands of the spoiler, and Israel shall be kept in safety: I, this will make a Kingdom of peace indeed, and this is the peace that Christ our righteousness will bring in the days of his glorious reign amongst his people in the Earth; so in the 11. of Isaiah, Isa. 11.1. to the 10. from the 1. to the 10. verse: There is a Prophecy of the peaceable Kingdom, of the Branch out of the Root of Jesse, which branch is Christ; it is said the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and it shall be a spirit of Counsel, and might, and knowledge, and the fear of the Lord; so that he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and reprove with equity, for the meek of the Earth: That righteousness shall be his girdle, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins: Now observe what is the fruit of the reign of this righteous King, why it is peace in all the holy Mountain, neither Wolf nor Leopard, Lion or Bear, Asp nor Cockatrice, shall hurt or destroy in any part of it, but this King of righteousness will make the Wolf and the Lamb dwell together, the Leopard to lie down with the Kid, and the Calf and young Lion together, and a little child to lead them; the Cow and the Bear with their young ones to feed and lie downs together, and the sucking child to play at the hole of the Asp, and the weaned child to put his hand into the Cockatrices Den. What is the meaning of all this? Why it is a description of that glorious change which the righteousness of Christ in his reign over the Earth, shall have upon the natures of his and his people's Enemies those Beasts of prey; though they remain Wolfe● and Leopards, Lions and Bears, Aspe● and Cockatrices, yet the righteousness of his reign shall be so glorious that it shall chiane up their devouring nature and take off their strength to mischief, his righteous government shall over awe them, and be as a hook in their nostrils, so that a young child, a little strength shall lead them, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the Sea; God shall be known to reign over all the Earth; it shall be covered with the brightness of his glory, his enemies shall know and tremble, and his people shall know and rejoice: Isa. 42. beg. So the same Prophet in the 42. Isa. beginning, speaking of Christ, says of him, A bruised reed shall be not break, and smoking Flax shall he not quench: for he shall bring forth judgement unto truth, he shall judge and give judgement in truth, he shall set judgement in the Earth, and the Isles shall wait for his Law. He shall reign and command the whole earth, they shall all wait for his Law, and then shall the whole Earth be filled with judgement when the righteous child Jesus shall reign: So the Prophet David speaking of the reign of Christ, under Solom●n his Type, in the 72. Psalm 7. so on: In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the Sun and Moon endureth; he shall have dominion from Sea to Sea, unto the ends of the Earth, those that dwell in the Wilderness, the Beasts of prey, shall bow down to him, and his enemies shall lick the dust; Kings shall come in with their presents, and offer gifts to him; yea all Kings shall fall down before him, all Nations shall serve him, and he shall deliver the needy and poor, he shall redeem their souls from deceit, his Name shall endure for ever; men shall be blessed in him, and all Nations shall call him blessed, the whole earth shall be filled with his glory. Thus will Christ reign in righteousness, and all the Kings of the Earth shall tremble for their unrighteous reigns, they shall all come in and offer up their Crowns and Sceptres to this King of righteousness, bow down before him and lay all their power at his feet, and wait upon him for his Law, then shall the Earth rejoice that the Lord reigns, and then shall the righteous be glad that the King of Zion rule● in the whole Earth, then shall the Land be a Land of peace; when righteousness reigns then will peace flourish like the Tree planted by the river side, that is always green and flourisheth: When Christ comes to reign thus in the Earth, it must needs be peace, for then all his people will be one, they will all have but one Name, the Lords people and his name written upon them; Zachariah 14.9. And the Lord shall be King over all the Earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his Name one. When the Lord thus reigns over the whole Earth, his people will be one, than Names shall not divide his people, for they shall all be known by his Name, and he their King; a holy King and a holy People, he shall be known by his holiness and righteousness, so shall his people; his holy Name shall be written upon them, and that shall be a defence about all their glory: Take one Scripture more which is exceeding full to this purpose, in the 2. Isaiah beginning: Isa. ●. beg. Micha 4. beg. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the Mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the Mountains, and shall be exalted above the Hills: and all Nations shall flow into it, and many people shall go and say, Come ye and let us go to the Mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: For out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and he shall judge among the Nations, and shall rebuke my people; and they shall beat their Swords into Ploughshares, and their Spears into Pruning-hookes; Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation, neither shall they learn War any more. First, this Scripture telleth us the time of Christ's reigning thus in righteousness, it shall be in the last days the latter end of the World. Secondly, How this thing shall be, that Christ shall be lifted up above all Hills and Mountains, above all powers and greatness in the World; he shall then take all power and government into his own hands, all the Mountains shall flow into him; the Mountain of the Lord shall swallow them all up, there shall in those days go forth no Law but what goeth forth of Zion, Christ shall reign amongst his people, and the Earth shall be filled with the peace of his reigning in righteousness, when the Law goeth forth of Zion, than the spirit for War shall be rebuked, and the Sword of God's spirit shall turn the Sword of the flesh into Ploughshares, and the Spears into Pruning-hooks, so that Nation shall never war against Nation more, all Wars shall be hushed and gone, righteousness shall reign, and peace which is the fruits thereof; for War is the fruit of unrighteous reigning and governing, nothing but righteousness, justice, and judgement, can bring lasting peace into the World, or any part of it, and I wish all that love peace did love righteousness as well, and embrace peace for righteousness sake; all such as do so, Christ will satisfy them, for behold he comes with healing under his wings, he brings righteousness and peace with him, his righteousness brings peace; he is the righteous King and the Prince of peace, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. But if any shall ask what I intent in all this: My answer is, To gather up matter for faith to live upon, to the establishment of my own soul and others, By believing in the Lord our God: And I trust I shall not lose my end; it appears to me to be precious matter, for Faith to live upon God, and Christ, to the establishment of souls: That the Church and people of God on Earth, are God's interest and Christ's interest, God's Inheritance and Christ's Kingdom, over whom he doth reign in righteousness; his jewels, the purchase of his blood, and the throne of his glory; those whom God hath chosen from all eternity to be the redeemed of his free grace, to unbosom his love, and reveal his glory too, to all eternity; those to whom he hath given Christ and in him all things, to whom God is a God in Covenant, and that of free grace, for whom God hath satisfied his own justice through his grace in Christ, and made them complete, even his own righteousness in him; for whose sake God reproves Kings, overthrows unrighteous powers, dashing them in pieces like a Potter's vessel with his Iron Rod, and amongst whom Christ shall reign King for ever, in peace and righteousness. This is to me abundant ground of faith, to believe in, and to cast my precious eternal soul with all my comforts and concernments, upon God's eternal love and free grace in Christ, salvation in all the parts of it to Gods Elect in Christ, is the fruits of eternal love and free grace in God; this is a sure foundation to build on, it bears a great weight its true, but it will never shrink or fail, it hath been tried from eternity; free grace is the foundation, and Christ the corner stone of this eternal building, so that it will abide to eternity. Upon these very considerations we shall find the Church of God in the 46, 47, and 48. Psalms living upon God by faith, 46, 47 and 48. Psalms. and praising him through believing. God is our refuge and strength: a very present help in time of trouble, says the Church: That is, God is our God, and we are his interest, so that he is presently at our help, he waits to be gradous to us, he cannot forget us we are so dear to him; well, what use doth the Church make of this; why to establish herself upon God by believing; Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed, and though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea; and so goes on in her confidence in God, what is it makes the Church so confident? Why this, that she was God's interest in the World, and therefore though he should confound the whole frame and power and glory of the earth, carry all the mountains into the midst of the Sea, as Pharaoh and his Host; yet that he will preserve his Church and people, as his own interest: There is a River of Free grace in God, Psal. 46.4. that streams for ever to make glad the City of God; his people are the Children of his infinite womb of love, and the preservation of these, is the proper act of his Almighty power; this City of God is God's interest, and inheritance, his dwelling place: Psal 46.6. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved, he uttered his voice, the earth melted; but this City remains, for it is his interest, and God is her refuge. Therefore says God to the Church, live upon me as your Refuge, and your present help in time of need, do not doubt or fear, but be still and quiet in your spirits: Be still, Psal. 46, 8, 9, 10. and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the Heathens, I will be exalted in the Earth, I will cease Wars, I will break Bow and Spear, and burn the Chariots with fire: I will do all this for you that are my interest; I will make good all my promises to you, of the peaceful and righteous reign of my Son Christ over you; I will be exalted in the Earth. The Church believes God in this and she is at rest, she is still and quiet knowing that God is God, and that she is his interest; The Church answers th●● in verse 11. The Lord of Host is with us, Psal. 46.11. the God of Jacob is our God. Therefore will we not fear, but rejoice in God as our God, our strength and our refuge, and we his interest: O clap your hands (all ye people) and rejoice in God with triumph, for God is King of all the Earth. Psal. 47.1, 7. God reigns over the Heathens: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness: then sets forth his judgements on his people's enemies, and the fear that comes upon the Kings of the Earth; According to thy Name O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the Earth, thy right hand is full of righteousness: Psal. 48.10. Mark the Scripture, According to thy Name thou art righteous and that is thy praise; thou art called a God of righteousness and we so trust in thee, and thou art according to thy Name; this is thy praise, thou art● righteous God; Psal. 48.11. observe the conclusion that is made of these promises: Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the Daughters of Judah 〈◊〉 glad, because of thy judgements: That is, let them that have an interest in thee, and who is thy interest in the World, rejoice and be glad that thou art according to thy Name, a God of judgement and righteousness, for this makes it certain that thou wilt preserve thine own interest, & them that thou causest to trust in thy name as a righteous God; come, says the Church, see what God hath done for us, and then you will say as well as we, that God is according to his Name a righteous God. Walk about Zion, Psal. 48.12, 13. and go round about her; tell the Towers thereof: Mark ye well her Bulwarks, consider her Palaces, that you may tell is to the Generations following: Mark well and consider how the righteous God defends his interest in the World, those that trust in his Name, his mercy, his providence, his Almighty power, greatness, and majesty; these be the Towers and Bulwarks of Zion, his b●some of love, and his Temple of holiness, that is her Palace of delight, she hath her delight in God, and her defence in God; Mark and consider it well, that you may tell is the Generations following, that they may fall down at the feet of this righteous God, which will ever be according to his Name, and not dare to grieve a member of Zion, or to wound the interest of God; For, says the Church, this God is our God for ever and ever, Psal. 4●. 14. he will is our guide even unto death: He in our God, and he is ever so; we are his interest and he will preserve us so for ever, he will guide us to death, carry us safe through all the Wilderness, till we come into Heaven. Thus is the Church of God established by believing in God as her God, and a God that will ever be according to his Name, a faithful, righteous, gracious, and glorious God to all that trust in him: Thus also do the Saints of God triumph in God as their God, and as they are his interest in the World: So the Prophet David, Psal. 92.4. Psal 92.4. Thou Lord hast made me glad, I will triumph in thee: Thou art my joy and thou shalt be my glory, this is my joy that thou art mine, Psal. 95.3, 4. and I will glory as I am thy interest; So in Psalm. 95.3, 4. He glories in the greatness, power and majesty of God, because he did believe that God was his God, and that he was part of God's interest in the World; and in Psal. 96.10. Psal. 96.10. Psal. 97.1. I said among the Heathens that the Lord reigneth: And Psal. 97.1. The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice: Psal. 98.8, 9 Let there be joy, says he, Psal. 98.8, 9 for the Lord cometh to judge the Earth, with righteousness shall be judge the World, and his people with equity: So Psal. 99.1, 2. Psal. 99, 1, 2. The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble: The Lord is great in Zion he is bigh above all people. What doth the Prophet mean by all this? Why he telleth us in the 121. Psalm, I will fix my eye upon God, says he, my help cometh from the Lord, the Lord is my keeper and shield: And so goes on to declare his faith in God, that God which he had before so extolled: why says he, this is the God I will live upon, it is faith in God that makes my heart glad: I believe he reigneth over all the Earth in his power and greatness, he is my God, I am his interest, and he reigns over me in righteousness; by all this it doth appear that the Church and people of God, have been and are established by believing in God as their God, taking his Word of truth for truth, and believing God in it, resting upon God according to his Name, believing in him as the God of free grace; taking the counsel of good King Jehoshaphat, Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. But me thinks I hear some ready to Object, Objection. Is it no more but believe? do you make so easy a thing of believing? why do you tell us of believing? is that in our power? is it not the gift of God? is it not above the reach of humane reason and understanding? is it a work of nature or grace? To this I answer, Answer. and acknowledge that Faith is the gift of God, Ephes. 2.8. But take this with it, this God is a God of free grace, which giveth Salvation to his people, and the hand of faith to lay hold on his salvation, all in his own grace; and therefore I tell my own soul and others of believing in God, because he is a God of free grace, I know faith is the work of Divine power, it is not of ourselves; therefore I say again God is a God of free grace; stay not in self, lie at the throne of grace as that poor man in the Gospel: Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief: Methinks he speaks thus, Lord I believe that thou canst help me against my unbelief; that thou canst destroy the unbelief that is in me, and make me to believe upon thee, to establishment; and I think this is the language of the Objection, which saith, Faith is the gift of God; is it not the same with this? Lord thou canst make me believe in thee, it is thy work to destroy my unbelief, and to help my soul against it. This is all I say, God is a God of free grace, and faith is the gift of his grace; he waits to be gracious to give his free grace and all the gifts of it freely to those that need it, nothing in creature but want, makes it an object for God's grace; for he gives all freely without price, and without money: Now if faith be the gift of God, as thou dost acknowledge, then lie at the throne of his grace, if thou wantest, know all he hath is for those that want; wait on him, and tell him he can help thee against thy unbelief. But you demand whether faith were not above the reach of humane reason and understanding? I acknowledge, Yes; when it is under its natural darkness; so that the soul it lives in nothing but nature as it fell from the first Adam: So The natural Man descernes not the things of God, neither can be, because they are spiritually discerned. But when God comes to work the work of his grace in any soul, he doth not destroy his own first and pure work of nature in the man, the fall from grace corrupted the reason and understanding of man, as it did the whole man; so the restoration to grace doth restore the first image of God in the reason and understanding of men; though faith as it leads to God, and pitcheth the soul upon God, be above the light or reach of reason in itself, yet when God works faith in the soul, and so takes the soul up to himself, to live in him and to rest on him, God doth not thereby destroy reason and understanding in the man, that were to make him a Beast: No God doth enlighten and convince the soul in its reason and judgement, though when it was in its corrupted nature, it could not discern the things of God, nor understand the work of his salvation of free grace in Christ through believing, so as to choose God for a portion, and to rest on the salvation of his free grace; yet when God shall enlighten the reason and judgement of a man by his own spirit, so that now it is spiritual reason and judgement, then by the spirit of God in it, it comes to apprehend and to close with the salvation of God's free grace in Christ through believing; it is now reason and judgement sanctified, and made light in the Lord: so that now it seethe a beauty in the grace of God, and Christ the gift of his grace; now it is no more its own under its corruption, but Gods in his renewing grace, by which in Christ he hath redeemed it, out of the power of Satan and the region of darkness into his own marvellous light, though ●t first it may only fee men walk as trees, yet God will not leave it, till he makes it see plainly, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. So that as God cometh into the reason and judgements of his people, they have light in the Lord, the work is nevertheless but the more a work of grace in God, that he doth thus sanctify and enlighten the reason and judgements of his people, carrying on the work of his salvation in the soul; God is not bound to work thus, for the whole work of his salvation is free, but that he chooseth to work thus, I think is the experience of all Saints that ever had reason and judgement, in which Saints have much joy, and by which doubtless the glory of God's free grace is much manifested and declared; and therefore I shall in the next place hold forth some grounds and reasons, to the sanctified reason and judgements of Saints why to believe in God, why to take his word, and to rest upon the salvation of his free grace. Grounds for faith from reason. First, Because there is truth in none but God and his Word; by God here I mean Father, Son, and Spirit; all truth is in this Fountain, and what ever truth is in the creature, it is a stream from this fountain: so much of truth, so much a beama of God in any soul; It is one of God's Attributes which we have mentioned to be a God of truth, which is the true God: I shall add little to the proof of it, only a Scripture or two, Psal. 18.30. As for God, Psalm 18.30. his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried, be is a buckler to all those that trust in him. As if the Prophet had said, I have tried God, by trusting him, and I find him true and perfect in all his words and ways, his word is perfectly true; if her say he will be a buckler to you, you may trust him, he is a tried God of truth, he never deceived any foul that trusted in him, his truth reacheth to the clouds, Psalm 57.10. says the Prophet, Psalm 57.10. It is boundless truth, it is the truth of God, whom is all truth. So Psalm 117.2. The truth of the Lord endureth for ever. That is, God is for ever a God of truth, he is nothing but truth, not doth he speak any thing but truth; not any soul can be decalved by believing what he says, he means what he says, for he is the God of truth. Now I would argue with reason, and ask it whether it would choose truth or untruth to believe in: Doubtless this will be the answer of a rational man, I do choose truth; for this it my misery, I know not what to believe, there is so much untruth is the world, nor can I find any man, or sort of men to trust, all men are so false: If men's words, promises, or engagements were any safety, we have had enough of them: but men forget their words as wind, there is no truth in them, so that as a reasonable creature I am at a loss what to believe, of when to believe any thing that man shall say; Is it so Reason? Would you believe truth if you could find it? why then look up to God, ponder his word; if you find any promise that answers your wants, believe in him, he will make all good that he hath said, you dare not trust men, because they have so often deceived you; let me return the argument bacl upon you, therefore trust God because he never deceived you, nor any that ever trusted in him; take his word into thy arms of faith as fulfilled already, for not a tittle of all that he hath spoken shall fail; what God promiseth to give his people, is as really theirs, as though they had it in possession, and they may build upon it, he will not deceive them; nay he cannot, for he is God, and cannot lie; this is one argument to reason; the truth of God, because it is an act of reason to put trust in truth, and to choose truth to trust in. A second argument to reason, is the Almighty, omnipotent, and infinite power of God; and me thinks this should be a strong argument with reason, because reason is so apt and prone to trust in power: Dark and corrupted reason makes the powers of the world to be an argument against faith, when faith would have the soul trust upon God, and to walk in the ways of holiness and righteousness. Why says this sinful reason, all the powers of the earth will be against us, and come as a flood upon us and devour us if we should do so. Well, if power bear so much sway in reason, then to sanctified reason it will be a good argument to beget trust in God, to plead the power of God, Isa. 40.15. and so on, Isa. 40.15. so on. there you may read of the power of God, That it is so full and great, that all the Nations of the earth are but as the drop of a bucket, and the small dust of the balance: all power compared to God is vanity, and less than nothing. Now sanctified reason, here is power for thee to trust in, that power which is all power, and command all powers; that fountain which giveth forth all power, and can draw all into himself again when he pleaseth; that power that doth in heaven and earth what ever pleaseth him; That power with whom all things are possible, Matth. 19.26. It is not possible for thee to trust in this power for any thing which is, or can be impossible to him: could corrupted reason but find a glimpse of this amongst men, it would adore it, and make a god of it; Oh then let sanctified reason admire this God and rest upon him, who is really that power with whom all things are possible. God hath an infinite power, he can do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think, Ephes. 3.20. What think you of this, Ephes. 3.20. Reason? you think your thoughts are very vast, and that you can ask very much; yet in all this you are exceeding abundantly below, what the Almighty, Omnipotent, and Infinite power of God can do: We can want but as finite creatures, but he can give as an infinite God; the flesh we fear, is finite flesh, the God we trust is an infinite God. If power can sink the scale with reason then when God appears to it, all flesh will prove lighter than vanity, less than nothing. Job mentions some of the acts of God's power, in Job 12.7. so on, and 26.5. so on. Job 12.7. so on. Job 26.5. so on. How he rules in his whole creation, the Beasts, the Earth, the Fowls; that in his hands is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. That with him is strength and wisdom, that he looseth the bond of Kings, he leadeth Princes away spoilt. Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering: The pillars of heaven trouble, and are astonished at his reproof. So goes on to set forth God's power and greatness: and in the last verse of Chap. 26. L●● these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him: but the thunder of his power who can understand. When he had spoken all what he said before, these, says he, are but part of the ways of the infinite great God, and a very little part of that omnipotent power that is in him, it is but a very little that we can conceive of God, the great thunder of his power cannot be understood by us, it is too great for us; he is the great God, and infinitely great in power. Psal. 24.8, 10. So the Prophet David in Psalm 24.8, 10. Who i● the King of glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. The Lord of Hosts is the King of glory. This is his glory, he is Lord of Host, the strong and mighty God, infinite in power. And in Psalm 29.4, 8, Psal. 29.4, 8, 9, 10. 9, 10. He shows what power God hath in his voice, how full of Majesty it is, That it shakes the Wilderness; that is, the Whole world, and that he is King for ever. This is the King of glory, this is our God of power: Now here is power for sanctified reason to live upon, and it is the power of the God of truth, which will for ever be as truly power, as he is truly God: so that if either truth or power may be arguments with Reason, here is both in God, which if believed on, will for ever prove powerful truth, and truth in power, because it is God in both. The third argument for faith which I shall offer to sanctified Reason, is the eternity and immutability of God; That his truth is eternal truth, and his power is unchangeable and immutable power, you shall never find him less than God, and that is infinite all, more than can be conceived or expressed. Reason will choose a tocke to build upon, because it is a sure foundation, and will abide; why now let me tell the best of reason that this is God, he is the eternal Rock of Ages from everlasting, and will abide to everlasting; there is no shaking this foundation, nor destroying what is built upon it: time did not make it, nor can time make it less than it is. Reason, what can you ask for perpetuity that is beyond eternity: Eternity is God, and what God is, is eternal, every thing besides God changes, but nothing can change God, Psal. 41.13. he is the God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, Psalm 41.13. Israel's God is an eternal God, always God, Psalm. 48.14. Psal. 48.14. For this God is our God for ever and ever. There it no end of 〈◊〉 being God, and that his people sindes and confesseth, Psal. 93.1, 2. Psal. 102.12. and so shall every soul that trusteth in him. The Prophet Isaiah in his 26. Chap. ver. 4. calls upon God's people to trust in him upon this very consideration: Trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jebovah is everlasting strength. As if he had said, when you trust in God, trust in him as an everlasting God: Do not doubt the Lord Jeh●vah, as though he should fail you at any time, for he is everlasting strength, and everlasting God, he is Jehovah, so that he can never sail, and therefore trust in him. So Job says of God in his 23d Ch. ver. 13. Job 23.13. Mal. 3.6. That he is of one mind, and who can turn him. And God says of himself in Mal. 3.6. I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye forms of Jacob are not consumed. God is unchangeable in his eternal purposes of love and free grace to his people, therefore they are not confirmed; therefore trust in him, because his love is unchangeable. Let me ask sanctified Reason now, if it have any thing to object against trusting soul and body, and all that is, or can be dear upon the eternal love and free grace of the eternal, immutable, and unchangeable God: Nay, doth it not come with authority upon Reason, that eternal free grace should be trusted with eternal lost souls, which have nothing to plead for their salvation but his everlasting grace. If my eternal grace be your argument for salvation, says God, then let it be your rest, rest upon it, it shall be your salvation, you shall find it so to all eternity: As I am eternally God, and God from everlasting to everlasting, unchangeable in my love, so shall the salvation be of all such souls as thus rest upon me for salvation, for I can no more change in my love, then cease to be God: Souls that rest on my love for their salvation, shall find me eternally God, and my love their eternal salvation. The 4th consideration which I shall offer to sanctified Reason as an argument why to live singly upon God by faith, is our own, & other Saints experiences of God in his grace and goodness, in his power and faithfulness, and the glorious workings of that fullness that is in himself for the good of his people; this is a large field I have to walk in, it is a most glorious subject, more fit for a large treatise than an argument: but I shall in this only use it as an argument, and in it confine myself to as 〈◊〉 a compass as possible I can in so large a subject; I shall first gather from holy writ such experiences, as Saint of old have reco●●● which they did doubelesse to manifest God's glory, and to establish the hearts of Saints in after Ages, and then I shall wish a remembrance of those many wonderful miraculous experience that this present age hath had of the glorious workings of God in his power, wisdom, Majesty, and mercy, to and for his poor hated and desplied people that rust in him. First, the experiences o● Saints in former ages; I shall beg●● with that of Mordecai, Queen Esther, and the whole Nation of the Jewer●; the Book of Esther doth at large set forth the wicked and bloody design of proud and wicked Ha●●an against all these, and to what ripeness he had brought his work, 〈◊〉 to the Kings feal and authority, for him to let forth the flood gates of his malice and mischief up in them, and how ready thi● wretch was to put in execution the power he had obtained, for he had prepared a gallows for Merdecai: 〈◊〉 reading that History, we sha● find how in every part of the design of that bloody man he is disappointed, how he falls himself into the pit which he had digged for others, and is hanged himself upon that gallows which he in the pride and malice of his 〈◊〉 did prepare for Mordecai: I sh●l leave the Readers to that History in Scripture for further light, and only make refiral of the close of it in Esther 8.15, Esther 8, 15, 16. 16. And Mordecai went out from the presence of the King in royal apparel, of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen, and people, and the City of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light and gladness, and Joy, and honour. Observe the experience that these poor hearts had of the power, the mercy, and the wisdom of God, that when H●mans malice had conjoined itself with the King's power, so th●● all things were ready, and the time oppointed to make a find end at once of God's interest amongst them; the whole Nation of the Ionas must be sacrificed to Haman's lust: Then God appear, and 〈◊〉 known his design, and changes the whole faced things as they did then appear; the King's heart, that is cha●ged, and Merdecel, whom represented the whole Nation of the Jones, 〈◊〉 must be by the same hand that decreed him, recalled from the gallows, to be honoured in wearing before the people the King's royal apparel, and a crowns of gold; That is, Mordecai and the whole Nation of the Jews, which to all humane understanding, were past all hopes of being any thing but 〈◊〉 and undone people, and now made a people of safety, honour, and glory in the Land: This is an experience of God, that his works of mercy and grace for his people, they are sure and secret; though God hides his workings for his people from the world till his own time of ruling comes, yet these works of God are sure, though secret; the works of God are like Ezekiel's vision of the wheel within the wheels, he works his own ends in giving a long life to wicked men to run in after their ends, and makes the wicked do his work, when as they think they are doing their own; it was God's design that Haman should prepare his own gallows, which he did, when he thought he had been working his own ends in making it for Mordecai, so God made Haman to dictate to the King what Mordecai's honour should be, when as he thought he had been preparing honours for himself: the ways of God are past finding on●: but doubtless such experiences as these calls very loud for trusting in him, and depending on him, this is one great experience of God. The Prophet David in a day of calamity calls to mind the experiences that our Fathers of old had of God, Psol. 22.4, 5. Our fathers trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver them, Psal. 22.4, 5. they cried unto thee, and were not confounded. That is, they had experience of thee to be a gracious, faithful, powerful God; and upon this account he blesseth God, in Psal. 18. to last. Psa. 18. to last. as having had experience of him in his great workings for his people, in setting up the Throne of Christ, and preserving his seed for evermore. And in Psalm 23. the Prophet makes mention of the experiences that he had of God, as a ground of his resting on him, and assurance that God would never fail him, he makes this declaration of his faith in the first verse, I shall not want; this is strong faith. What is the reasen of this 〈…〉 in the 〈◊〉? why he telleth us it is his interestion 〈…〉 that he had of him: my reason, say 〈…〉, is this; 〈…〉 my Shepherd, therefore I shall not want. But why are 〈…〉 fident? may not you want though the Lord be 〈…〉 why says the Prophet, I am confident up 〈…〉 maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me b●side the still waters, he restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of right●●●snesse for his Names sake. These are the experiences that I have had of God, and do you ask me now why I am so confident? Why says he, I have not only received all this mercy and gr●ce from God, but God he is the fountain of all the mercies I receive, and it is his own bowels that moves him, he doth a this to me for his own Name sake, not because of any worthiness in me; I could not then be confident, but he leadeth me into, and clotheth me with his own righteousness, and all for his name sake, to the glory of his grace: This is the experience that I have of the Lord who is my Shepherd, and upon this I am so established i● God, that though I walk through the valley of the shad●● of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me: And I have had such often and ample experiences of thy mercy, power, faithfulness, and goodness, that though the way I walk in be as dark as death, that my flesh can see no way out of it, yet I will trust in thy power and mercy to deliver me, upon the former experiences I have had of thee. This I know, it is thy free grace that hath chosen me to be an heir of glory from all eternity, and all the experiences I have had of thee, hath proved thee to be a God of free grace, and that this love and grace shall, as it is thyself, abide for ever; so that this is a ground of assurance to me, my experience of thee, that I shall be for ever with thee; for so he says, that he shall dwell with the Lord for ever. This Prophet had a great stock of experience in God, and in this place he makes the right use of them, that for which I shall here gather them up together; the Prophet David he acts for his own soul, and doth counsel other souls upon the experiences he had of God, in Psalm 31.5. He commits his spirit into God's hand: That is, casts himself wholly upon God, and in vers. 7. giveth the reason of it, because he had experimented God in his adversities, that God had not shut him up in the hands of his enemies, but set his feet in a large room. This experience of God make● him commit his spirit to God, thus he acts for his own soul upon experiences of God: and in the 2. last verses of that Psalm he counsels Saints to love God, and to trust in him, upon this consideration, the experiences that he had of him as a faithful God, who preserveth his faithful ones, and plentifully rewardeth the proud do●r: Therefore says he, be of good courage, fear not, trust in God, he shall strengthen your hearts, all ye that hope in him; as if he should say, I have had such experience of God, that I dare assure you if you trust in him he will not fail you: So in Psalm. 32.10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, Psal. 32.10. but be that trusteth in the Lord, mercyshall compass him about: I speak this says the Prophet upon experience that I have of God, and when you know God experimentally as I do, you will say as I say: Therefore in the 34. Psal. 8. he calls upon Saints to taste, and then they should experimentally know that God is good; so good, so kind, so gracious, so faithful, and so omnipotent, that the man is certainly blessed that trusteth in him; he cannot but be a blessed man for he trusteth in God, whom can never fail him; God i● an experimented God for truth and faithfulness by all his people, as in the 19 verse, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of all, and so goes on, showing the goodness and faithfulness of God to his people; I, says he, upon the experiences that I have had of God, I can boldly affirm that they are blessed that trust in him; Therefore he giveth this counsel in Psalm 55.22. Psal. 55.22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and be shall sustain thee: be shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. The Prophet giveth this counsel to his own soul and to other souls, why says he, we have had expecience of God, how faithful he is in preserving his righteous one, those that put their trust in him, they shall never be moved: Therefore why should we distrust, and through unbelief take the burden upon ourselves; as we have experimented God so let us trust him, and he doth so indeed, for in Psalm. 61.3. he flieth to God upon his former experience that he had of him, For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strange tower from the enemy. I have had this experience of thee, therefore in all straits and in all conditions, I will trust in the covert of thy wings; and in the next Psalm. 7, 8. verses, he professeth that all the resuge he had was in God; and saith he, I have experimented God, he is a sure resuge to his people, He is my salvation, my glory, and the reck of my strength; the Prophet tells us what God is from the experience that he had of him, Psalm. 145.17, 18. The Lord is righteout in all his ways and holy in all his works: The Lord is nigh to all them that call upon him in truth: This is God upon experience, and abundantly more than this d●th that Man of much experience in God set him forth to be. Again, consider the most glorious experiences of God, th●● those three eminent servants of his, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had, which is recorded in the third of Daniel, we may read in that Scripture upon what consideration the Fun●ac● was heat seven times hotter than before, for these three faithful ones to be cast into it; and in the 17. verse, how they cast themselves upon God for their deliverance: Our God, say they, is able to deliver us from thy burning fiery Furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hands O King: Well, mark the issue, they deny Nehuchadnez●ar and trust in God; this enrages the King's fury, and into the sire they are cast bound hand and foot: Now God giveth them to know by experience what it is to trust in him for deliverance, He maketh them to walk in the fire, loosed from their bonds, without the least harm, and a fourth to be with them, whose form wat like the Son of God; This presence and appearance of God did astonish the King, so that he called them to come forth, and when they came out of the fiery Furnace, they were so fare from any harm, That a hair of their heads was not singed, mither had the smell of fire passed on them: What a most glorious experience of the power, faithfulness, and goodness of God is here, the King's fury was so hot, that the Furnace must be heat seven times hotter than before; and it was made furious in heat indeed, for the flames which came forth from it, slew them which cast in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to the fiery Furnace; but notwithstanding all his fury, God preserveth those that trust in him, he is with them according to his promise, when as they pass through the fire; and as the Winds and Seas, so the flames of fire obey him, for they finge not so much as the of these faithful ones, nor leave so much as the smell of fire upon their Garments: O the infinite power and faithfulness of God; fire shall lose its nature and cease to burn, rather than such as trust in him shall be consumed by it; God hath power enough to preserve his own interest those that trust in him, even in the eaging flames of consuming fire, no flames nor fury can destroy that which the power and mercy of God will preserve, and now here is a full experience of God, he will preserve that which his people commits to him, and trusts to him for the preservation of it; these precious souls God had brought to this glorious pitch, that they slighted the King's power and fury, by belee●ing in the power and faithfulness of himself; And now, says God, it shall he known what I am, and what it is to trust in me; God could either have turned the heart of Nabuchadnezzar, or have crushed his power that he should never have been able to have cast them into the fiery Fumace, but in this also God works as the wheel within the wheels, he lete the furious man go on, that he might have the fit opportunity to manifest the glory of his grace, power, and faithfulness in their deliverance, and that his people might have greater experience of their safety in trusting him, God lets them go into the fire that they might have experience of his love in going with them, and of his power in preserving them, and bringing them forth again to the astonishment of all beholders, and that it might remain on Record to after Ages, that Generations to come might say this is God, and this will God be for ever to his people. Should I enlarge according to the matter and worth of these experiences, I should swell into a great bulk which I se●ke to avoid, and therefore shall upon the matter only make resitall●, and leave inlargements to the Spirit of God upon the hearts of the Readers. We shall find in this Book, another glorious experience of God which the Prophet Daniel himself had; in the sixth of Daniel we shall find a decree to cast the Prophet into the Den of Lions was deceitfully gotten, and the cause was his making of petitions to God; the Prophet knew of the decree which wa●, as of the Meads and Permians not to be altered, and yet he altars not his course of calling upon God by Prayer, he opens his mouth to God, and trusts God to stop the Lion's mouths, he lifts up his hands and heart to God, and trust● God to ke●pe down the Lion's paws; well, God will not deceive his trust, but yet he will let him be cast into the Lion's Den, Daniel 6.16. Though the King was sorry, yet he commanded Daniel to be cast into the Lion's Den; and there Daniel is as safe as amongst Lambs, the Angel of God had shut the Lion's mouths, that though they remained Lions still, yet to Daniel they had no more harm in them then so many quiet Lambet, and when the King comen early in the morning with dread in his spirit lest the Lions should have feasted themselves upon that precious piece; Hecryes out, O Daniel servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest continually able to deliver thee from the Lions, Vers. 20. verse. 20. In the 22. vers. Daniel answers him, My God hath sent his Angel and shut the Lion's mouths, that they have not hurt me: In the 23. verse. Then was the King exceeding glad, and commanded to take Daniel out of the Den; so he was, and not any manner of 〈◊〉 found upon him: But in the 24. vers. when his accusers were cast into the Lions, They broke their bones before ever they came to the bottom of the Den. The Lions were raging Lions in themselves, though their mouths were stopped by God in the preserving of Daniel, that put his trust in him; O the power of God, fire cannot burn, nor Lions by't where God forbids, he that made all for his own glory, can change the nature of what he hath made, when in so doing he may magnify the glory of his grace and faithfulness to his people; doth not these experiences say that God is only to be trusted and feared; he shuts where no man opens, and opens where no man shuts; Daniel had experience of God's love and power in this; that those very Lions that lay like Lambs by him, should devour his enemies before his face; none can bond the holy one of Israel, but he can lock up the Lion's mouths and open them at his pleasure; sure it is good to trust in so good a gracious and powerful God, one that giveth such full experience to his people that trust in him of what he is; a God infinite in power, mercy, and goodness; there is a spirituality in all these experiences of God, which if God give in, in the reading it will make them exceeding sweet, and apt to that end I quote them for; namely, to beget faith in God, and a holy dependency on him. Amongst these holy witnesses, let the Prophet Jonah be admitted to bring in his experiences of God, and we shall find them to be very glorious; the Prophet doth at large declare how he came to be cast into the Sea in a great tempest; here is nothing appears to fleshly reason but destruction, and doubtless those that cast him out of the Ship expected nothing else, but that the Sea should be a grave to his dead body, therefore they prayed that God would not lay his blood to their charge, in the 14. verse: But in the 17. verse. Now the Lord prepared a great Fish to swallow up Jonah; Jonah 1.17. and Jonah was in the belly of the Fish three days and three nights: Well, and is this a likely way of preservation; is there not as much death in the belly of the Fish, as in the belly of the Sea: Lay aside fleshly reasonings for a little, and observe the end of God's work: In the 2. Chap. vers. 10. And the Lord spoke unto the Fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. Now comes in the experience, God intended to preserve Jonah, and though he chooseth an unlikely place to reason to keep him alive in, yet all persons and places shall serve his end how unlikely soever it may seem to reason, the fish which naturally opens its mouth to take in its nourishment, and to live upon what it takes in, shall now open his mouth to take in Jonah that he might be kept alive in the chest of that body; that power which preserves Daniel by shutting the Lion's mouths, doth preserve Jonah by opening the fishes mouth; his power fille Heaven and Earth, the Sea and all that therein is; if God will preserve Jonah, he shall go from death to death, and all that is but God's way of life, from deaths in the Sea, to deaths in the fish; and all this is that God might experiment himself to him, in making this Fish to bring him from the raging Sea, and set him upon dry Land; there is much spirituality in this dealing of God with Jonah, he is a Type of Christ in the grave; very much might be observed from it to a spiritual use, but I shall here only use it as a very great experience which the Prophet had of the power and wisdom of God; the power of God made the Lions to be as Lambs to Daniel, and here it makes very death to be life to Jonah, the Sea shall cover and not kill when God commands it so to do, and the Fish take into its belly but not destroy, if God appoint that a place for Jonahs' safety, it shall be so, and in God's time as a Vessel unload himself of the Prophet and set him upon dry land; thus we see neither fire nor water, beasts on earth, nor fish by Sea, can destroy what God will preserve; nay, the wisdom of God to magnify the glory of his own grace, and the infiniteness of his power, chooseth these ways to preserve his Children by, which are most certain ways of ruin to an eye of reason, that so his people may upon enperience of what he is learn to trust in him, and to know that his power did make, and doth command all other powers, he that inhabits eternity rules, in Heaven and Earth; Jonah which disturbed the Ship hath safety in the fishes belly. Again, faithful Noah and his whole Family had great experience of the faithfulness of God, and what safety there is in believing the Word of God, and obeying his will: The frath and seventh Chapters of Genesis doth at large set forth Gods command to him to make an Ark for himself and his Family, with two of each kind of all the creatures of the Earth, that they might be preserved alive, for the Lord told him he would drown the whole World; Noah believed God in all that he had said, Gen. 6.22. which appears by his obedience, Gen. 6, 22. Thus did N●ah according to all that God had commanded him, so did he: Well, and what is the effect of it? Why Noah and his whole Family, with all in the Ark are preserved alive in all that deluge of water which destroys the whole World besides; Gen. 7.23. Gen. 7.23. Neah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the Ark. N●ak prepared the Ark in faith believing God, but now he hath experimented the power and faithfulness of that God which he believed in, for now he found by experience that God could make his word good, both in drowning the whole World, besides them in the Ark, and in saving alive all those in the Ark according to his promise; this is a living experience indeed, that he and his Family should be the only living upon the whole Earth; Noah can say upon experience, that it is not in vain to trust the Lord, his power can kill and keep alive; the faithfulness of God was Noah's Ark, otherwise he had been drowned with the rest of the World: Notwithstanding his floating hous● he made the Ark in obedience to God, but God was his safety, not the Ark, and he found him so by experience, thus God 〈◊〉 one experience to another that his people might learn to trust in him as an experimented God, as the infinite power and faithfulness which hath been found to be so upon great and often experiences. So Joseph he had many and great experiences of God, as we may read in the latter Chapters of the Book of Genesis; As when his brethren did unnaturally, first cast into a Pit to murder him, and as last sold him into Egypt, thinking to bereave him of all his Friends; yet God was a father to him, when he was from his Father's house, and when his own brethren proved cruel and unnatural to him, yea God gave him favour with a stranger even Potiphar, there Josaph began to experiment God in a strange Land; but God had a great work to do, in which he would yet give him greater experiments of himself, so through the wickedness and foolishness of his Mistress, Joseph loseth his favour with Potiphar, and he is cast into the Prison; all this serves to carry on God's design, and to bring in more experiments of God to Joseph; for here God gave Joseph favour with the Keeper of the Prison, that in stead of being a Prisoner, a suspected person, he had all trust committed to him: Well, through many more experiences of the power and goodness of God, Joseph is at last brought to Pharoahs', made the second person in the Land, and hath all trust and power committed to him; his brethren that sell him, God brings to him to buy corn to keep them alive, though they thought to have put an end to his life, yet God preserves him that he might, as God● instrument, to preserve their lives; his Father that mourned for him as dead, lives to see Joseph alive, and sent to Egypt before to preserve the lives of his kind Father, and un●inde Brethren; here is a rich treasury of experiences, most glorious manifestations of the wisdom and power of God, here is the wheel within the wheels: Again, God working his own ends by letting men perfect those works which they intent to an end contrary to God, by the issue we see which was God's end in letting Joseph be sold to Egypt, and there cast in prison, it was every step of it in his way to that advancement by Pharaoh, which he came to in the end; his brethren's end was to muther him, or at least never to hear more of him; his Mistress her end was to dishonour him, it is no matter what they intent, God will accomplish his end by their works, though in them they have a contrary end; God will let his Children experiment this of him, that he works his own glory and his people's good, even through the evil work that are in the hearts and hands of his, and his people's enemy's▪ God can bring meat for his Children out of the Eater, he in all good, and doth bring good to his people out of the evil that i● in the hearts of their enemies; joseph's experien●es of God, ●●sides many Saints more doth declare this upon the house top, and telleth the ages to come so long as the Sun and Mo●●● endureth that God is a faithful, gracious, and omnipotent God, upon experience had of him. For the next witness to this, let us call in Moses, and consider that progress of experiences which he had of God from his Cradle to his grave; I, from his birth we shall find in the beginning of his Book of Exodus, that there was a Decree passed for his death before he had life, in that command that the Midwives had from Pharaoh to murder every male Child of the Israelites in the birth, of which Moses was one, but God tied up their hands and gave him favour in their sight, that they obeyed not the command of Pharaoh; there is his first experience of God, and when he could be hid no longer in his Mother's house, than God taught her as he did Noah, to make an Ark to preserve her Son Moses from drowning, and that Ark or Cradle of Bulrushes doth preserve this precious Infant till God brings other hands to take care of him, in which work of God there is much experience of his power, and wisdom, that Pharoahs' Daughter should preserve a which her Father had appointed to die, and that his Mother which brought him forth should be the Pape which doth give him suck, this act of God's providence brings double mercy with it, both to Mother and Babe, it joys her heart to have her Child in her arms; she says as Jacob, my son Moses yet lives; God had special work for him to do, therefore he commits him to special care in bringing him up, even the bosom of his tender Mother; truly these are very great experiences of God, yet he had more than these, God doth not leave him that he had thus preserved, but takes care of him in his Mother's house, and in Pharoahs' Court, and when God comes to use him in that work for which he had preserved him, he than finds God to be all in him; he went to the people of Israel upon God's message, and in the name of God to lead them out of Egypt into the Wilderness to serve him, and as he went in God's name, so all along he had great experiences of God. God made Moses his messenger to Pharaoh, and in this also he had great experience of God, in his judgements upon Pharaoh his household and the whole Land, you may read them at large; but when God had by Moses brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt, than Pharaoh in the hardness and malice of his heart with a potent Army followeth them to the Red Sea, than the people murmured against Moses, he goes to God and opens their condition before him, and comes bacl to the people upon the experiences he had of God, and bids them from God, to stand still and be quiet, they should see his Salvation, and how full salvation that was, they all had experience of, it was wonderful salvation wrought in wonders, which doth upon experience declare God to be a God of salvations, and a wonderworking God, a faithful God; that made every tittle good which he had promised, they had full deliverance, and did see their enemies no more alive. Here Moses had exceeding full experience of God in his power and faithfulness, that as God did employ him, so he went along with him and made the Sea dry land for him and the people he led, to pass through death from death, into the Wilderness, where God gave him and his company many and great experiences of himself. Now I shall join Moses and the Children of Israel together in their experiences, and here they had a Pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, in which they did experiment God to be a safe guide though in a Wilderness, and an untrodden path, they thirst, I, and murmur too for water, God by Moses giveth them water from the Rook, Exod. 17.6. here they experiment that the barren Wilderness, Exod. 16.4. and the stony Rock doth bring forth water at the command of God, nothing can be too hard for the omnipotent power of God to melt into his own will: Well, Exod. 15.25. they want food, Moses cries to God, he giveth them Quails and Manna, by which they have further experience that no place can straiten God in giving to his people what he pleaseth, and for Shooed, and clothing, though their Journey last forty years, yet these ware not out, but last as long; by which they do again experiment, that the eternal God doth give continuance to what he pleaseth, and as long as he pleaseth: Thus I have pointed at some of those many year's experiences that Moses and the Children of Israel had of God, from which we may gather thus much tha● God is an experimented God by his people of Old, to be aglorious, gracious, wise, faithful, omnipotent, and wonderworking God. Again, Joshuah which succeeded Moses in this work of God, had great experience of God going along with him in the work; I shall mention only in one particular, that is in Iosh. 6.20. In the besieging of Jericho, when the Priests blew the Trumpet's, and the people shouted, the Text says the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the City, every man str●ight before him, and they took the City. This is such an experiment of the power of God, as for clay to open the blind man's eyes, the one as likely means as the other, but GOD was all in both. Like unto this was gideon's experience of God, when as with three hundred men he overthrew the whole host of the Midianites, Judges 7. Judges 7. We shall find in this Chapter, that God commanded Gideon to lessen his Army of two and thirty thousand, to bring them to three hundred; God assures him victory with these few, and giveth him this reason why he would have no more men, that the victory might appear to be high; Gideon obeys God's will, and God makes good his word; Gideon did believe God could save as well by few, as by many, that the victory would be Gods, not man's: and God makes him to experiment that of him which he did believe: Here is an experience of a full God amongst empty creatures, when they engage against full creatures empty of God. God makes the victory his own, and the slaughter of his enemies, for they kill one another; it is all one to God how weak soever the means be he useth, whether his Army be Flies, as in Egypt, or three hundred men, as here, the strength is his own, and that will certainly occomplish what it intends to do, all these experiences do plainly speak it. So that widow in 2 Kings 4. in that great increase of her cruse of oil, had ample experience of the fullness of God, there is nothing too little for God to make enough; that is plain in this experience, this little oil God makes it enough to pay all her debts, and answer all her wants; God is all himself, therefore it is no straight to him to make the less to be enough, his own experience doth the work, because he is all in himself; what God appoints to give out satisfaction to his people by, shall never cease to give forth, till his people confess they have enough: This fountain of life giveth living streams which always flow and refresh the City of God, this is God upon experience. Our Saviour Christ in Matth. 8.26. shows his power as he was God, in rebuking the winds and the Sea, when there was a great tempest, so that his Disciples in the ship with him were greatly afraid: Christ there checks their unbelief, and giveth them an experience of his power by stilling the winds and Sea at his rebuke, so that the Text says, there was a great calm. The calm was an act of Christ's power, as the fear was of the Disciples flesh, so that in this they had double experience of their own fleshly fear, and Christ's almighty power. The Apostle Paul, both when he was Saul and Paul, had great experiences of God; as first, in his conversion, when he was Saul, and breathed out threaten and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord, Acts 9 beg. How wonderful was his conversion, what glorious experiences of Gods free grace and his power is there in that work; they were so great, that the Apostle doth acknowledge them all his life following, when he is brought before Judges & Counsels for preaching of Christ crucified, and salvation by free grace through Christ: he telleth them of God's wonderful work in his conversion, what experience he had of his grace and power, and may's his experiences of God as a ground of resting o● him for strength to carry on the work of his Apostleship, which God so in raculously had called him too. We may find all the w●i●ings of this holy man spread with his experiences of God, as in his voyage where the ship was cast away, and yet n●t the life of one man lost: in that venomous beast upon his hand, which did him no hurt: in his often bonds and stripes, and his comfortable going through all conditions with joy and establishment in God, 1 Cor. 6. as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. Here was very great experience of God, what ever he had, God was the all of that, and what ever he wanted of the creature, yet God was all to him, to that he wanted nothing, but in God possessed full satisfaction; God was strength to him in all his sufferings; through Christ that strengthened him he could do all things. God was safety to him from all perils, and upon this experience he was true to the service of God, not fearing any danger that should befall him. So in Acts 5. There we may read of the same experiences that Peter and the rest of the Apostles had of God, when as they were brought before the Council, and imprisoned for preaching in the name of Christ, how they were delivered out of prison, and yet the prison doors all fast shut; they had a man set over them to keep them, and an Angel sent to deliver them; they had full experience of the power of God, that no power on earth, or watchfulness of men, could imprison them that God would set free. There is another experience of this nature of the power and glory of God, Acts 16. lat. end. in Acts 16. latt. end. where by an earthquake God opened all the doors of the prison, with the bonds that were upon Paul and the rest of the prisoners; yea, and the hard heart of the Jailor too, for he comes trembling now to inquire after salvation: This Earthquake God useth to shake the Jailor and his Family out of their earthly condition into a heavenly; he and his Family were hereby taught to believe in God, then followeth the kind usage of the Apostles, and their deliverance out of prison; this affords great experience of the powerful and glorious workings of God: God doth not only shake the earth and the heavens also, but by shaking the earth, he shakes into heaven, he shakes the earth of unbelief out of this family, and filleth them with heaven through believing; doubtless it is glorious power that shakes earth out of souls, and those souls into heaven, this is the work of God upon experience. I shall now in some few particulars mention the experiences of God's power and justice in his righteous judgements: I shall mind you of God's judgements upon Pharaoh and all his host in the red Sea: but no more than mention it, because I have used that Scripture already. But in the next place consider Gods dealing with Herod, Acts 2.22, 23, 24. in Act. 12.22, 23, 24. The proud wretch took God's glory to himself. Now see how God doth vindicate his own glory, he is immediately smitten by the Angel of God, & eaten up with worm●. God is zealous of his glory, he will not give that to any other, nor suffer him to live long that takes it to himself; the people made a god of this proud man, and he was content to be accounted so: but God will let him and them know, that he is but sinful man, for he dyeth immediately like man, and under a fearful judgement, as the just recompense of that pride, which would have been taken for God: Here is a glorious experience of God's power, and his zeal for his own glory, which should make all flesh tremble, and be careful that they cloth not their pride with that glory which is only due to God. We have another experience of God in his righteous judgement upon the Sodomites, being struck with blindness in their bodies, when in the blindness and wickedness of their souls, Gen. 19.11. they would have abused the Angel of God that came to Lot's house, according to the lust of their own hearts; the Scripture says, Verse 4. there came all the men of the City, old and young, and all the people from every quarter. A tumult of wretches full fraught with the sin of Sodom, and yet behold the experimented power of God, that preserves his few faithful ones from this multitude of Sodomites, and judgeth their first kindness with a second, so that they were weary in their pursuit after wickedness. I should be glad if this example might teach all blind wretches to be careful how they meddle with the servants of the most high God, for he is upon experience a God that revengeth the wrongs done or intended to his people. Lastly, God's fearful judgement upon Korah and all his company; you may read the story in Numbers 16. and in vers. 31. how the ground opened and swallowed them up alive, they lived in death, and were buried alive, they murmured against Moses, and believed not God; these were dead souls in living bodies, and God throws in his displeasure, their living bodies into the graves of death. Thus we see the Scripture is full of proof in this, that God is an experimented God; these are the experiments that Saints of old have had of God, and left them upon record for the use of after ages: It is a great mercy that we have these experiments of God, but I do believe no age that ever lived were without particular experiences of God, I am sure this present age is not without wonderful, many, and great experiences of God in his goodness, faithfulness, power, mercy, and grace to his poor, hated, and despised people. I shall not here mention any particulars, I trust providence hath a faithful store-house for them, and a time to bring them forth entire to the glory of God, who is the living and eternal fountain of all mercy. Yet let me desire Saints for their establishment in God, to look bacl upon the footsteps of his power and providence, his faithfulness and righteousness, in ordering of battles, and disposing of victories, even amongst the sons of men. If you cannot look many years, yet look but some mone●● 〈…〉 which you may see such glorious experiences of God, that if you understand them they will fill your hearts with admiring God; and the language of your lips will be as the servants of God in former ages, to be telling forth the experiences of God wherever you come. God giveth to his children some more, and to some less experiences of himself: but in these latter days, God hath given such great experience of himself to the whole body of Saints, that I trust he will thereby establish his people through believing in himself as an experimented God; this is the things drive at in myself and other Saints, and therefore have I made so large a recital of these experiences of God to the sanctified reason of precious souls. And give me leave now to argue the case a little with sanctified Reason, and to tell you that God is no newfound fancy or appearance, which may prove good or evil to the soul upon trial, but God is the ancient of days from everlasting, and a tried God, such a one whom Saints in all ages have tried and found to be a faithful, gracious, just, righteous, glorious, and omnipotent God. Now tell me the best of reason, that which is most sanctified; if God be not the best, nay the only foundation to build our saith upon: and if one so much experiment doth not captivate thy reason to himself, I know it is a principle of right reason to trust that most which hath been most tried, and always found faithful; therefore have I been the more large to hold out God to sanctified reason as a faithful God upon experience. Now reason must either deny itself in its own right principles, or else choose God as the only object of faith: If so, than I may cease to argue, for I have my end: if otherwise it cannot be argued with as reason, for it ceases so to be, in denying its own right and true principle. But if any soul full of sanctified reason shall speak like itself, and say, I will trust myself where I find by experience; there is most grace, and goodness; faithfulness and righteousness, most power to preserve me, and most fullness to supply all my wants, than I say to such a soul all this is God, and none of this is any where else but in God, and that God is an experimented God in all this; if thou knewest his deal with thy own soul, thou wils confess him to be so; his Saint● of old have recorded some of those many and great experiences which they had of him. Now here is that thou lookest for, experimented goodness and faithfulness in God, and that which God looks for, is that: Now thou shouldst trust him upon all that experience which thy own soul, and other of his Saints have had of him: If thou hast any thing to object, make thy objection, there is fullness enough in God to answer all that thou canst desire; if all be answered, then trust him that is all, and doth satisfy all that trust in him with his own fullness. The fifth argument that I shall offer to sanctified Reason why to believe in God, is this; That God counts his faithfulness his glory, and was never stained in it, nor can ever be, because he is the faithful God, a God that never failed any that trusted in him: so says the Prophet David, Psal. 18.30. Psal. 18.30. As for God his way is perfect, his word is tried, be is a buckler to all those that trust in him. God is perfectly faithful in all his words, his works, and his ways; he cannot deny himself to be God, therefore can never be unfaithful. From hence the Psalmist in Psalm 33.21. Psal. 33.21. saith, that the righteous do reign in the Lord, when he makes them to trust in him. For they then joy in their desires as fulfilled; for if God make them trust in him for it, he will certainly accomplish it, he will never be stained in his faithfulness. Mal. 37.40. So in Psalm 37.40. God will save his people from the wicked because they trust in him: That is, God will preserve his own faithfulness, not any soul shall trust on him in vain, much less be deceived by relying on him. So Psalm 48.10. This it the praise of God unto the ends of the earth, that he is faithful and righteous according to his Name, he will never lose nor stain the name of a faithful God: So he says himself in Psalm 89.34, 35. My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Psal. 89.34, 35. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. That is, I will make good what ever I have said, my Covenant and promises shall all be performed, for I have sworn by my holiness, I have engaged that which is most dear to me, and I will not for●ei●it. And in Psalm 105.8. Psal. 105.8. His Saint● bear witness to him that thee remembreth his Covenant for ever. So in Psalm 119.89. For ever O Lord thy word is settled in heaven. It is as sure as heaven, thou 〈◊〉 so faithful a God: And in vers. 90. Thy faithfulness is unto all Generations. It never wears out, or becomes unfaithful; it is the faithfulness of God that is eternal like himself, Psal. 119.160. Psal. 119.160. Thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgements endureth for ever. That is, God is true to his word from everlasting, and his truth and righteousness abideth for ever, not any that can challenge him with unfaithfulness; his robe of righteousness is spotless; this is his glory, and so he values it. And the Prophet Isaiah bears witness to it, in Isa. 34.16. Seek yet out of the book of the Lord, Isa. 34.16. and read, no one of these shall fail. That i●, look into God's word, and what ever you find he hath said, he will make it good, not any tittle of his word shall fail, you shall never blemish him in his faithfulness, for it is his glory. Now sanctified Reason let me ask you if this be not a good reason why you should trust in God, because it is his glory to be faithful, and that glory which he hath unspottedly preserved from everlasting. Fleshly judgements sees reason in this; for when they commit business and trust to men, they will choose as they think the most faithful to the work: and when men do otherwise, we count they have lost their common reason, and when we choose men to fight our Battles, in whom we commit much trust; Do we not choose such men who make it their glory to be gallant; and will rather choose to die, then stain their fidelity and their valour? Why, upon this account sanctified reason may safely commit all trust to God, it is his glory to be saithful: Sin and all the other enemies of God and his people shall perish in the maintaining of the glory of God's faithfulness: I am to seek of all reason if this do not answer the best of reason, to trust that God who makes it his glory to be faithful, and that faithfulness which never was stained. A sixth reason that I shall offer, is this: That God is an inexhausted fountain and treasury of all grace and goodness, that either the souls or bodies of his people can stand in need of, he can never promise more than he can perform, nor can any of his people want that good which is not in him; he is not only all good in himself, but also the fountain of all that which fills heaven and earth: good is original in God, and in every thing else, as it is derived from God, or received of God; what ever of mercy and grace, either external or internal, it is received, and God is the fountain. The Prophet David doth acknowledge God to be the fountain and giver of all the good he enjoyed, Psalm 23. It was God that made him lie down in green pastures, that lead him by still waters, that restored his soul, and lead him in the paths of righteousness; that prepared a table before him in the midst of his enemies; that anointed his head with oil, and made his cup to run over. He found God so full of all good, that he filled him, till his cup run over, and that in the midst of his enemies, a place more apt to straits then fullness; yet this was David's condition, because God was his shepherd, he received from an inexhausted fountain, therefore his cup runs over: God is so full, that if he● do but drop of his own fulnese, the narrow vessel of the creature runs over, he is the fountain of life, and the God of salvation, Psal. 68, 19, 20. He daily loadeth his people with benefits, for he is the God of salvation. The full fountain of all blessings, there is fullness of grace in him to kill sin, and to save the sinner; there is fullness of love in him to pardon the greatest evil, and to love the least good in his children; there is fullness of power in him to crush and destroy a world of Enemies, and to preserve his own little Flock; there is riches of goodness and mercy in him to supply all the wants of his people: In a word there is all good in God that we can either ask or need; to read his Attributes, will discover his fullness. And now methinks sanctified Reason should answer as Simon-Peter did our Saviour in the 6th of John, verse 68 When Christ asked his Disciples if they would leave him also, his answer is, Lord to whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life. So should Saints filled with sanctified Reason say to GOD, thou art an inexhausted fountain of grace and goodnessee, we can go no whither but to thee for Eternal life, for thou art to thy people the fountain of life; That is, life from all Eternity. To my understanding this should be a prevailing argument, with the purest and rightest reason to cast all upon him that is all, and to trust in the fountain of life, for life, that can give most which is most, and nothing can give all, but GOD that is all in himself. Eternity cannot wast● nor consume the least of GOD'S fullness, therefore is GOD a suitable fullness for Eternal souls, and him only to be rested upon that can never fail to be what our souls stand in need of to all eternity: Reason carries men from one thing to another, because they conceive a greater good in the last then in the first, how should it teach men then to go from all to God, because in him is all good, and to rest in nothing but in him, because there is good in nothing out of him, and for over to depend on him; because he is not only good, but the fountain of all good. The seventh and last argument that I shall give to sanctified Reason, is this: That what ever any soul believeth and trusteth in besides God, it must and will deceive the soul, there is no rock of ages besides him, nor is there any Almighty power ou● of him, vanity is at the root of every created being, and doth as the worm to Jonahs' Gourd, bring them to nothing; that which cannot preserve its own being, cannot of itself preserve any other being, though committed to it; but no created being can preserve or continue itself by its own strength; therefore not able to preserve any thing committed to them; borrowed strength, and received abilities will not be trusted by right sanctified Reason; because the lender may call back his own, and then the receiver is empty of any ability to answer trust, and must of necessity fail the expectation of the Trustee: Now this is all that can be thought of besides God, by nature empty Vessel●, mere cyphers, have nothing original that is worthy; every dram of excellency and good is received, now such a subject is altogether unsuitable to make a God of; that is, to commit the trust of eternal souls, or any thing that is precious too, but if trusted, it must needs deceive, because that which is nothing in itself, cannot add any thing to another, that which is vanity in itself cannot give better to any, nor make a better return to any that trust in it; and the Wise man says of all things under the Sun that they are vanity, Eccles. 1.14. and vexation of spirit, Eccles. 1.14. At they are vanity, so they deceive all that trust in them, and in the deceiving of trust, and great expectations, so they become vexation of spirit: So the Prophet David, in Psalm. 62.9. Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: That is, men of all degrees have so much vanity in them, that they are not simply in themselves to be rested upon; the highest degree of men, are but men; (so vanity 〈◊〉) and must p rove a lie, to that flesh which trusts in them: The Psalmist in Psal. 103.15, 16. shows the vanity of all flesh in man, the top of the whole creation, As for man his days are as grass: as a flower of the field so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more: This makes good the Wise man's truth that all things under the Sun●●re vanity: For if man the chiefest piece of the whole creation, be so light as a flower of grass, which is withered, dead, and dry, by a puff of wind, so made nothing that the place it was in shall know it no more, then surely vanity is a girdle about the loins of all created beings, then of necessity they must crack under any weight that is laid upon them, and prove a lie to all those hoped for contentments that flesh looks for from them, they must prove like Jonahs' Gourd, because of that worm of vanity that is at the root, and they will leave the soul as the Gourd did Jonah, arguing for its peevish folly, saying it doth well to be angry; though it hath committed a double evil; First, in trusting to vanity, and then to be angry that it appears vanity. In the 46. Isay beginning, there the Prophet shows how the Idols of Babylon could not save themselves, but they and them which trusted in them, were led into captivity together: I shall offer but one Scripture more to this truth, and that is in the 17. Jer. 5, 6. Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord, for he shall be like the Heath in the desert, and shall not see when God cometh: Here we see is the curse of God upon trusting that in flesh which is only proper to God; this is his glory which he will not give to another, and the curse of God will soon blast all flesh that is but grass; so that it shall prove vanity and deceive all that trust in it; thus I hope the truth of the argument appears by Scripture, and sure I am, the experience that every soul hath had of the vanity of all things besides God, doth add much testimony to this truth; and if thus, give me leave to ask sanctified Reason, if it can justify itself to be reason, in choosing vanity to put trust in, and laying the weight of eternity upon that which hath not a moment of its own, or a dram of sufficiency to answer that weight; if not, then to this sanctified Reason I dare affirm, that God is the only object for a souls bellese, and that there is no other eternal and sure foundation to build upon; and this is the main scope that I have in all the arguments, to hold this forth to sanctified Reason, that God who is the only true, Almighty, Omnipotent, infinit●, eternal, faithful, experimented God, and an inexhausted fountain and treasury of mercy and grace, is the only foundation of trust and confidence, and that all things besides God will prove vanity under such a weight, so that the light of God in the reason of his people; that which sanctifies reason, might from these arguments that suits with right reason, lead the souls of Saints out of their own flesh and all other vanity, to cast themselves only and eternally upon the free grace of God in Christ, by believing in God to the establishment of souls, is my end in all this; and I trust thus dealing with sanctified reason, will appear to be in the way to that precious end: I have done with the Arguments, I trust the Lord will make them his, and bless them to the end they are intended. In the next place I shall offer by a few particulars, in some measure a discovery of the evil of unbelief, of not trusting of God, and in God, of not trusting all upon God, and making him our all in all; and this discovery hath one and the same end with the former arguments. The first evil which I shall hold forth of unbelief, is this: That it doth as much as in us lieth, make God a liar: For proof, consider that full Scripture to this purpose, in the first Epistle of John 5.10. He that believeth not God, maketh him a liar, because he believeth not the Record that God giveth of his Son: This Scripture holds forth plainly this, that not to believe the Record of God, is to say in the unbelief of our heart's, that God is a liar, truly unbelief can speak no other language, nor give no better title to God, for not believing the Record of God, is a denial of the truth of that Record, and so consequently the truth of God; for the Record of God cannot be false so long as God is true, and that unbelief which says the Record of God is not true, doth in the same breath say, that God is not true; now not to believe the Record of God, is to say it is not true, for this carries the strength and basses of all reason along with it, to believe that which we judge to be true, and to deny belief where we judge untruth: The old Serpent the Devil began in Paradise with this temptation, to persuade our first Parents, that what God had said was not true, that they might eat of the forbidden fruit, that death was not in the act, as God had said, But the knowledge of good and evil; It was unbelief of God in their hearts that made them call God the liar, and what the Serpent said to be truth; therefore chose to eat, not believing they had eat to death, as God told them, and so in their hearts making God a liar; this is properly the fruit of unbelief, to count Gods record untrue, and so to act contrary to the recorded and revealed truths of God: This is a horrid evil, that which Saints in truth cannot but tremble to think of, to put the lie upon God, reproach upon his perfection, to trample his truths under our feet as untruths, and to question the righteousness of the ever righteous God; this is the springhead of all evil, the only safe and retiring place for Satan, he reigns no where so securely as in the unbelieving heart, where God is made a liar, that darkness makes the Devil to be counted as truth, so that there his laws prevail, and he reigns as supreme. Secondly, Second evil of unbelief. Unbelief makes men to deny and forsake their fairest professions of Christ and holiness, rather than to suffer for them; and this is the true reason why so many Professors of Christ and holiness in times of prosperity and public owning of godliness, do forsake both Christ and holiness in times of suffering for God and his ways, because these withering branches were only in Christ by profession, not by faith; these profess Christ for the gain of an outward reputation, but do not live in Christ by faith, and in times of suffering, the beauty of Christ is lost to such an eye; and for want of an eye of faith by which the fullness, glory and excellency of Christ is discerned, these unbelieving professors, deny their profession, and their Master too, if it comes to suffering with Christ, if on him, they will swear with Peter, they never knew him, and though they swear yet they do not lie; for such as leave their profession of Christ and holiness through unbelief, and become unholy, they may truly say they never knew him, for whom ever truly knows Christ in the spirit will never leave him; an eye of faith sees so much beauty, faithfulness, power, grace, and goodness in God and Christ, that though sufferings comes as waves of the Sea, yet will not leave God and Christ, but cleave closer to him, believing in his grace and goodness for support and deliverance, but that soul which believes not in God, and doth not by an eye of faith see fullness in him of power, grace, and goodness, to support and deliver, will never trust in him; but with De●●●, embrace the present World; such as follow Christ only for the Loaves, will leave him at the appearance of his Cross: That forward Professor in the 18. of Luke 18. so on, which justified himself in keeping all the Commandments from his youth, yet could not part with his worldly riches and make Christ his portion, much less take up sufferings, because of unbelief; he would leave his good Master, as he called Christ, rather than his goods, which were indeed his Master through the unbelief of his heart, all his fair profession and offers after Christ, comes to nothing, because of unbelief; this Christ knew, therefore makes discovery of the man by trying his faith, or by manifesting his unbelief; it is the believing soul that follows the Lamb wheresoever he goes, it is only faith by which the soul is able to take up the Cross of Christ and follow him, but unbelief leaveth Christ and his Cross together, though it have professed not to leave Christ though it should die with him; yet in the appearance of such a trial the unbeliever denies his profession to save his outside from suffering; this is the constant associate of unbelief; and therefore God is pleased in his wisdom to let sufferings be the attendance to the profession of his name in truth, that thereby he might discover even to the World, the precious from the vile, who live in him by faith, and whom only by profession; thus doth God discover the evil of unbelief, of which argument this present age hath not been wanting. A third evil of unbelief, Third evil of ●beliefe. is this, unbelief it questions with distrust the very power of God, it doubts whether God be God, or his power Almighty and Omnipotent; can God give bread in the Wilderness, and can God bring water out of the Rock, is there fullness enough in God to make a barren Wildrnesse fruitful, and to give food where there is no appearance of food, nay can God make a hard, dry, and stony Rock to bring forth water; can God work both without means, and against means, is this power in God; thus doth unbelief question, and distrust the power of God: So that proud unbelieving wr●tch, King Nabuchadnezzar, in the 3. Dan. 15. Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands: As if he had said, is there any God hath power greater than I, is there any God or any power in God, that can deliver out of my hands; when I have heat the Furance seven times hotter than before, what power can preserve you from the fire of my fury, and my Furnace. We may find unbelief in Sarah putting this very question, in Gen. 18.12. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also: If we observe the Scripture it amounts to this, What now I and my Lord am old, now all hopes in nature is gone, can God now make good his word to me in giving me a Child, now we are both old; this is the true question that unbelief makes, can God do this great thing? She laughed in way of slighting the tidings, through unbelief, concerning the power which should effect it: So when Elisha the Prophet did Prophesy of that sudden and great plenty in Samaria, when they were at that time strongly besieged and in great wants, 2 Kings 7.1, 2. the Text says, That a Lord on whose hands the King leaned, answered the man of God and said, Behold if the Lord would make windows in Heaven, might this thing be; This is the proper language of unbelief, thou talkest of too great things for God to do, are not we straight besieged, and all our provisions gone, and dost thou speak of so great a plenty in so short a time, which way should God do this; what shall he make windows in Heaven, and rain down this plenty, it can come no other way; thus we see the great evil of unbelief, how it questions the power of God, and as it were ungods him, for to make his deficient, is to make him no God. A fourth evil is this; Unbelief is the seal of damnation, he that believeth not is condemned in himself; we have a full Scripture to this purpose, in John 3.18. But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. Unbelief it seals up to condemnation, because it casts off the salvation of God's free grace; now that which denies the one, seals up the other; not to believe in Christ is to put from us all possibility of salvation, and to seal the soul up to a certainty of damnation; read the last verse of that third of John, He that believeth on the Bon hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth in him: Whom ever believeth not in Christ, the salvation of God, shall never see life, shall never live in the beholding of God reconciled to him, but hath the wrath of God, the seal of damnation abiding on him, Heb. 11.6. Without faith it is impossible to please God; As unbelief keeps the soul from God, so it makes the soul unpleasing to God, that there is no intercourse between God and an unbelieving soul; now what can be a more visible seal of damnation than this? Separation of the soul from God which unbelief makes, unbelief biddeth defiance to God and his salvation, and so seals up the soul unto condemnation, unbelief is so truly the seal of damnation, that no sin nor sins can damn any soul without, for where faith in Christ liveth, there Christ is the death of all sin, satisfaction for all sin, and the life of souls, though all sin be damnable, yet no sin nor sins can damn without unbelief: John 3.15. Whosoever believeth in him (which is Christ) shall not perish but have everlasting life. Observe the Text, and you shall find this in it, that nothing but unbelief can hinder the soul of eternal life; for whosoever, the greatest and vilest of sinners, that shall believe in Christ, shall certainly be saved; whosoever sins and believes not in Christ hath damnation in every sin, and his unbelief is the seal of his damnation, but whosoever believeth in Christ, though the greatest of sinners, shall not perish, but have everlasting life; damnation is sealed in unbelief, and unbelief seals up damnation; the Devil delights in all sin, but he lives in no sin so contented and secure, as in unbelief; it is the great seal of his Kingdom, that which holds fast all his interest in the soul, unbelief it maintains the Devil's interest most of all sins in the soul, therefore his endeavour most of all is to maintain unbelief in the soul; it was want of faith in the Apostles when at they could not cast out Devils; Satan is never deposed of his interest in any soul or body but by faith; if he maintains unbelief he maintains his interest, the seal of his Kingdom of darkness. A fifth evil of unbelief is this, It makes men vile in secret, though openly they make a profession of godliness, he that professeth holiness with his outside, and endeavours only to keep that fair which comes to the view of the World; but embraceth secret opportunities to be evil, and to do evil, must needs do it from a principle of unbelief; for did they believe the all-seeing eye of God, and see God with an eye of faith, they would be more careful of committing evil in his sight, then in the sight of men; an unbelieving soul, may upon some considerations of repute, and esteem with the World, endeavour to avoid open sins which makes open scandal, and so brings open shame, but for secret sins it is ready to serve Satan when he pleaseth, because it seethe not God, nor doth indeed believe that God seethe him, and therefore Satan doth never disturb nor discourage that outward profession of holiness, which giveth obedience to his commands in secret, he is content the outside should seem to be Gods, so that the inside be his, his chief business and endeavour is to hinder true faith in the soul, he cares not, let profession be at what height it will, if he can but keep a foot unbelief in the soul, he knows in secret that soul will obey him what ever profession it makes of God and godliness to the World; the Devil loves to be in God's room in the heart, and if he can but by unbelief maintain his interest there, he hath his ends; and a profession of holiness in hypocrisy, makes the soul seven times more his, than before; and this advantage he makes to himself and his Kingdom, by keeping unbelief alive in the heart, for thereby he keeps the heart entire to himself, and can make such a soul sin in secret at his pleasure. Sixtly, Men will through unbelief be false to their vows, promises, and engagements, both to God and his people; when as their corrupted reason telleth them that they may be gainers by it, or their carnal hearts conceive a necessity of it: Such as live not truly on God by faith, they never engage to God or his people but for their own ends; it is self-love that engageth them, they neither love nor would they trust either God or his people, could they effect their own ends, but many times God casteth them into such straits, that their fleshly reason teleth them there is no way out, but by the assistance of God's people; at such a time these unbelieving hearts will not stick at the making of any vow to God, or promises to his people; but if once they come as it were to see shore again, or but to have one foot upon the Land that the danger and bitterness of d●th is over, than they think there is no such need of the assistance either of God or his people, and then all former vows and promises are forgotten: and it may be in this very nick of time fleshly powers press upon them to be faithless to God and his people, declaring themselves to be enemies to all that shall be friends to God and his people: Now the unbelieving soul calls this a necessity to him of being false to God and his people, in all its former vows and promises; such souls will argue thus, what should we do? the multitude call upon us, and are restless with us, so that they will give us no rest till we satisfy them in that which makes us false to God and man in our former vows and promises. If we were not so pressed, we should not do as we do; we should in some measure make good what we have formerly said. This answer is made upon a mistake: It is not the pressing of the multitude, but the unbelief of the heart that makes such prove false in their engagements and promises to God and his people; were there faith to trust God, that would keep the soul close to God; believing souls make God their refuge in all straits, and counteth nothing to be so great an evil as to be false to God, or to distrust his faithfulness: but unbelieving souls they own, and deny God, they promise, and prove false to God, as their fleshly reason presents God to them, and their own advantage in what they do; this pretending to truth and reality in falseness, is the natural proceed of unbelief in the heart. Gen. 40.23. We may read a discovery of this in Gen. 40.23. The chief Butler forgot both Joseph and his promises to him in the prison, when as himself was in those enjoyments that his heart thirsted after; when souls live upon God by faith, such faith maketh them faithful to God and his people; but where self is the highest life, there it is the highest end: and thus it is with unbelieving souls, they prise nothing above self, therefore can be false to all, when as their fleshly reason telleth them, that thereby they may preserve and advance self. This is another great and certain evil of unbelief. Seventhly, Unbelief it damps the glory of God, and lessens the grace of God to the soul: A distrust of the truth and reality of any thing takes away from such an eye all the beauty and glory of it, so puts a damp both upon the beauty of the thing, and the affection of the soul. If a man be showed a rich Diamond, and he believeth it to be but some piece of glass, or at best but a crystal; this his belief doth to himself much take off the beauty and value of the Diamond, so that the affections are little or nothing answerable to the esteem, and this ariseth from his unbelief: So is it with the unbelieving soul, say what you can of the riches, the glory, and excellency of God's free grace, of Jesus Christ, and the redemption of his grace; yet he believeth not any thing; If this unbelieving soul should hear the Spouse in the Canticles say, that Jesus Christ her Beloved is fairer and fuller of beauty than all the beloved's in the world. He would not believe, but think that the world is a more beautiful Beloved then Jesus Christ, and upon this consideration, unbelievers choose the world for their Beloved, as by faith souls close with, and centre in Christ: so by unbelief souls leave Christ to embrace this present evil World. The reason is this; faith sees the beauty, and believes the reality of Christ, and the free grace of God, so rests and centres there: but unbelief that says there is no such grace in God, nor any such riches of glory in grace, no such beauty in Christ, nor such necessity of being saved only through his blood, and therefore rests and centres their eternal souls in something below God and Christ; this is another true property and perfect evil of unbelife in the soul. Another evil of unbelief in the soul, is this; It makes men inordinate in their pursuites after the World, and so likewise in their sorrow upon their disappointments or losses of the World; it makes men seek their heaven here, and look upon nothing in God as enough to repair the loss of the World: An unbelieving soul cannot live upon God day by day for its daily bread; if the barns be not full, it believeth it shall starve; the fullness of God cannot satisfy it; If the heart be empty of faith, the hand must be full of the World, or there will be no quiet in the bosom, and therefore unbelieving souls will in their inordinate pursuit after the World, venture soul and all upon this foundation of unbelief; men create their own happiness in themselves, and shape their own felicity in their own brains, and pursue their own fancies with a violent zeal of spirit. Now if God disappoint them, if he crack their foundation, throw down that building which they have raised in their own fancies as a habitation for themselves to rest in, than they are as inordinate in their grief, as they were before in their pursuit, and both these the fruit of unbelief; unbelief makes them seek felicity out of God, and the same frame of spirit makes them to be as men without hope, when as the world proves empty, though God be everlasting fullness: Unbelieving souls have no eye to see that more exceeding and eternal weight of glory which is in God, in Christ, in heaven for Saints, and therefore they so eagerly pursue a dying glory, and are such liveless, hopeless, undone souls when that sails them; If there be no heaven in the world, such souls thinks there is no heaven at all; if their own heaven fail them, than there is not heaven enough in God to satisfy them. It is worthy the observing, how unbelief in Job did make him break out into passion upon this very consideration, Job 3. beg. Job 6.8. How he quarrels with the day of his birth, and makes it his request to God that he would cut him off: What is the matter with Job now? this language had not he heard to fall from his lips formerly? why now Job is stripped of the world's riches, he would be cut off from the world; if the comforts of the world dies, than he would have no longer being in the world: If it be thus with Job when the sun of unbelief which is dying in him doth but appear, how is it then with those that live in unbelief, and have no acquaintance with God at all, their disappointments is their hell; and they say of God as those evil spirits did of Christ, That he is come to torment them before their time. Thus we see that unbelief is so potent an evil in the soul, that it unjoynts the whole frame of the soul, leaves it so lose, that every blast shakes it, and overturnes all the joys and comforts of it; that which is not fixed in God, is apt to change with all that is changeable, and living only in changeable vanity, is always in a troubled sea, where it can find no place to cast the anchor of hope on, because it sees not God: This is another certain evil of unbelief. The last evil which I shall mention of unbelief, is this; It is a sin which hath all other sins in it, and keeps the soul in a readiness to answer all the temptations of Satan with obedience. It was unbelief that made the children of Israel to murmur against Moses, and to doubt of Gods making good his word to them, Exod. 14.10, 11. And they said unto Moses, Exod. 16.2. Exod. 17.2. because there were not graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the Wilderness? They disinherited God as well as Moses, and therefore they murmur at the work of God by Moses. It is unbelief makes the anger, so that it is a teeming sin, it brings forth more sins than itself, and keeps the soul in a readiness to entertain all sin; the unbelieving heart it is a treasury of obedience to the Devil, he is sure never to fail of service from that soul which doth not believe in God; nay the Davill can have no service from any soul, 1 Chron. 21. beg. but so far as unbelief lives in the soul. Had not the Devil found unbelief in David, he had never prevailed with him to number the People; when his heart began to doubt the strength of God, then was a time for the Devil to tempt him to try his own, therefore says he, number the people: Know how strong the arm of flesh is, that thou mayst have something to trust too; this is as true a touchstone of unbelief in the heart as any liveth; when the soul by faith sees enough in God, it is not solicitous to have an account of the fullness of flesh: but distrust in the former, puts the soul upon enquiry after the latter for satisfaction, and thus unbelief keeps open house for Satan at all times; it is the chief engine by which he upholds his kingdom and his credit; no sin so near and dear to him as this, it is his second self, where ever it bears sway, it maintains his laws, and his Image. See an eminent example of this in Judas, Matth. 27. Matth. 27.4, 5. Who when he had betrayed his Master, went and hanged himself. Satan by his Engine of unbelief drew him through the one sin to the other, he did not believe in Christ, therefore he betrayed him; nor did he believe there was grace enough in God to pardon the worst of sinners, & therefore hangs himself. So the Devil first persuaded Eve in Gen. 3.4, Gen. 3.4, 5. 5. Not to believe what God had said, and then he knew he was able to effect his own ends, to make her disobey God, and obey him, in eating the forbidden fruit; he useth hsi grand picklock, unbelief, to open the door, to let him in, and so soon as ever he gets entrance in at that door, his commands become laws: Unbelief is the owner and power of darkness in the soul, by which Satan reigns as supreme. This is the strongest hold of Satan in any soul; and if once that stronger man, the Lord Jesus Christ cast him out of this hold, he loses his whole laterest in, and command over the soul; but so long as he can keep this Garrison, the soul shall surely be kept in a warfare against Christ. Want of faith in God must needs make want of love, service, childlike fear, and obedience, and where these are not, all manner of evil must needs be. I hope by these particulars I have given some little light into this Kingdom of darkness: it is a large field, the dimensions of it can be taken by no hand, but such an one as can compass the whole earth, and all the but it; for all the evil of the world will come within this circle of unbelief. I intent here no farther a travel upon this discovery than I have gone; to a spiritual heart I am sure every one of these particulars will appear to be very great evils, than the fountain of them must needs be exceedingly great in evil; All I aim 'tis this, that as unbelief is the greatest evil in, and the greatest enemy to the soul, so that the Readers would thus look upon unbelief, and as soul's forewarned, to be fore-armed. Secret enemies are the worst of enemies; I have therefore pointed at this great enemy that it might not be greater than it is in itself, by its secret lurking undiscovered in the soul. I shall in the next place in some particulars as before, hold forth the benefits of faith in God, in Christ, and his word, in the souls of believers. The benefits of FAITH. First, Faith in God makes the life of the soul pur●, it is a life only in God, it liveth upon nothing else but what God is, doth, and saith: This is properly the life of faith, and the true advantage of the soul by that life. Faith is that eye by which the soul looks into, and hath a discovery of the goodness, grace, and glory of God to itself. Now in this knowledge the soul is carried out of itself into God, to live purely and singly upon God, it now comes to know God's strength to be exceedingly more then its own, and so forsakes its own strength to live upon the strength of God. By faith the soul sees the full salvation that is in God, and so casteth itself upon God for salvation, and liveth purely upon God, and nothing but God for salvation and deliverance out of the hands of all its enemies, to serve him in saith above carnal, distrustful fear; the life of saith in God, Luk. 1.73, 74. with this benefit of that life doth very emminently appear in the Prophet David, Psal. 62. He gins the Psalm thus: Truly my soul waiteth upon God. This is his faith, he believeth in God, and therefore waiteth upon him: Well, but what is the ground or reason of the Prophets thus waiting upon God, he telleth us in the end of the first verse; from him cometh my solvation. He did by faith live upon God as the God of his salvation; that is, God was all to him, his life of faith was a living purely and singly upon God; therefore in verse 5. he lays a charge upon his soul: My soul, wait thou only upon God. Have thy eye no where else, live purely upon what God is, for my expectation is from him. The good I look for is the good which is in God, my waiting and believing is to see the salvation of the Lord. So in 6. and 7. verses, He only (meaning God) is my rock and my salvation, my defence and my glory, my strength and my refuge, therefore I shall not be moved. Observe this life of faith, it is purely in God, what God is, and makes its conclusion according to what God is, I shall not be moved. Why not? Because God is my rock and salvation, he is my defence and strength. What is in God is the ground of his confidence, therefore God himself is the object of his soul. This life of faith in David, is purely a life in God, such a life as liveth purely upon what God is. This life of faith in David puts him in the latter part of that Psalm upon an exhortation to others to trust in God; that is, to live upon what God is in himself: In this work he sets forth the emptiness of all things out of God, he telleth us in verse 9 That men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. All these are empty things compared to God, are lighter than vanity, not to be trusted in, or lay any weight upon, God is only enough to answer the wants of eternal souls: Live upon God, this is purely the life and benefit of saith in the souln of believers, to live upon the living God, that is, to live purely upon what is in God. So the same Prophet, in Psalm. 3.3. But thou Lord are a shi●l● for me, my glory, and the lifter up of my head: In the verse before he telleth us that many say of him, There is no help for him in God; but says he, I know the contrary, and I do live upon thyself as my shield, my glory, and the lifter up of my head; his life is what God is, for faith hath pitched upon God for his life, Psal. 7.10. and he lives in what God is; So in Psal. 7.10. My defence is of God: That is, God is his strength, and the strength of God is his defence, he liveth upon God, And puts his trust in God, Psalm. Psal. 16.1. 16.1. And in the 23. Psalm, The Lord is my Shepherd; all he hath it is received from the Lord, upon whom he liveth, he makes mention of no Name but the Name of God, as the fountain of all the good he enjoys, and this makes, him in the 42. Psalm last. to call upon his soul when as it was cast down, to hope in God; for says he, I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God: Though my springs at creature, are soon drawn dry, so that my soul may faint for thirst, yet hope my soul, For God is thy life; I shall praise him because he is my life: Thus doth faith live and satisfy the soul in what God is in himself; Psal. 121.2. and in Psalm. 121.2. My help cometh from the Lord: It is what is in God that the believing soul looks upon for help, and therefore the life of faith liveth when all things below God have no life in them, for it liveth in God, and upon what God is: Give ear to the voice of a believing soul speaking, in Lament. 3.24. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him: This soul believeth God to be its portion, and therefore lives upon God; thus faith pitcheth upon what God is in himself to satisfy the soul withal; the Prophet Habakkuk in his faith on God, mentioned in his 3 Chapt. vers. 17. to the end, is a very eminent proof to this truth; he telleth us there, Although the figtree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the Vines: the labour of the Olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord: I will joy in the God of my salvation: The Lord God is my strength. Observe the frame of his spirit and it speaks this; That though all creature comfort should fail, and be cut off from him, yet that could not empty him of joy and rejoicing, so long as the Lord continued to be the God of his salvation, and his strength; what doth this speak, but that the Prophet lived purely upon what was in God, and upon God himself as the God of his salvation, for had his life been out of God, his joy and rejoicing would have been cut off when the creatures of all kinds and in all places did fail, but his soul living purely upon what God was in himself, his joys are always green, because God is the fountain of his joy, this is truly the benefit of the life of faith in the soul, that must needs be a living advantage that leads the soul to a living fountain, and lays it to rest in the arms of God, satisfying the soul with what flows from the bosom of God, that soul can never fear wants that hath this for its belief, that what God is in himself he is for that soul, and what is communicable in God, shall according to the wants of that soul be communicated to it; and this is the life of faith, a life of joy and rest in God, living upon the everliving God, it is esteemed an advantage to joy and rest by the worldling to have his Bags and his Barns full, it is truly an advantage of joy and rest to a believer to live upon a full, for God is ever full, though the field and the barn fail, though the bag have a hole in the bottom and cannot hold what is put into it, yet the soul that liveth on God is full of joy and rest, because God never fails. Nay this is the advantage of a believing soul that liveth by faith in God, it lives spiritually, the streams that continually runs through the soul are Evangelicall, the light is pure, it is the light of the Lord; the life is pure, it is the life of God; is lives upon what is in Heaven, in God there is its treasure and its heart also; the life of faith it is the evidence of things not seen, not common objects to earthly eyes, but sublime and spiritual objects; the grace, love, redemption, purity, power, and faithfulness of God; these are the objects of faith, which do certainly make a most glorious life and rest in the soul, this soul is of Heaven, heavenly; it is begot and new borne in Heaven, and there it lives, where ever it moves; though the body be carried from one piece of earth to another, yet the heart is always in Heaven, the object, rest, joy, and satisfaction of this soul is spiritual; God is all to this soul, and all its life is in God; the eye is spiritual, and the heart is spiritual, this eye doth always see that in God which satisfieth the heart; for the heart seasts and filleth itself with what it seethe and enjoyeth in God; if the Rocks in the Wilderness should give no water, yet the spiritual eye seethe Christ to be a Rock and a fountain of life, and there it drinketh and satisfieth itself with the waters of life; the Prodigal had this eye when he said, In my Father's house is bread enough; that eye which beholds God as a Father, doth acknowledge that there is bread of life enough in God, and that is the spiritual eye, that eye of faith which makes God in single object, and satisfies the heart with what God is in himself and to h●s people; such souls as by experience knows what it is to live by faith in God, I am sure do value this as an exceeding great benefit and advantage of the life of saith, that it hath God to live upon for its life. A second benefit of faith in the soul, is this: By faith souls attain to the righteousness of God (which is Christ) a believing soul makes Christ its righteousness, so the Apostle Paul, Phil, 3.9 Phil.. 3.9. And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law, but that which i● through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: So long as this Apostle lived in his legal spirit & principles, his legal duties and privileges, were his righteousness; but so soon as the life of faith lives in his soul, Christ is made the righteousness of his soul, he counts all his former righteousness, but as dross and dung: Now nothing will satisfy his soul but to be found in Christ; that is, to have Christ his righteousness, that God may behold him in Christ his own righteousness; faith it climbs as high as God for righteousness, nothing below Christ must be a righteousness to a believing soul, To be found in him, (Christ) the righteousness which it of God by faith: When faith seeks a righteousness, it rests no where till it attain Christ, Rom. 9.30. who is the righteous of God: And this righteousness the Apostle telleth us in Rom. 9.30. That the Gentiles attained to by faith: That the Gentiles have obtained righteousness, even the righteousness of faith: That is, they have by faith pitched upon Christ for righteousness, and so through believing have attained the true righteousness, that righteousness which the soul can attain to no other way but by believing; the Jews in all their legal duties could not attain to that righteousness which the Gentiles did by believing. The righteousness of God is not of works, but by faith; Christ is God's righteousness, he doth purchase and redeem the soul to believe, faith doth not purchase Christ for a righteousness, but believe in the purchase and redemption that Christ hath made for it, and so attains Christ its righteousness, who is God's righteousness, and in whom the soul is to all eternity righteous in the sight of God: Rom. 4.3. Thus was Abraham's believing in God, accounted to him for righteousness: It is not Abraham's doing, but his believing, by which he attains to the righteousness of God, and is counted righteous in the sight of God; God's righteousness is the gift of his free grace, and can be attained by the soul, no other way but in believing, because any other way would destroy the grace of God in the gift. Now this God is exceeding tender of, therefore he keeps all hands but the hand of faith off from laying hold on Christ his righteousness, whom is the great gift of free grace; but as all other hands are excluded from meddling with the righteousness of God, so this hand of faith, that never fails; when ever Gods puts forth this hand of the soul, he puts his own righteousness into it; faith in the soul doth certainly attain the righteousness of God, it is such a hand as will preserve the free grace of God's righteousness pure in the heart, Christ the righteousness of God in the heart doth preserve and keep up entire the glory of free grace in God that made him righteousness to the soul, and the hand of faith doth not slubber this glory, but keeps it pure upon the grace of God, and doth acknowledge that itself, as well as the righteousness it hath attained, is all the gift of God's free grace. Now faith as it thus attains the righteousness of God, must needs be an exceeding gre●t benefit to the soul, because the righteousness is of so great a value; the feet of them which brings glad tidings is welcome; so must needs be that glorious hand which receives Christ in into the soul, none can tell but them that have it, what a mercy it is to have a hand and a heart for Christ; this is the benefit of faith in the soul, it is such a hand as receives whole Christ, and delivers up the whole soul back again to Christ, it takes in Christ as its righteousness, and giveth up the soul to Christ to be made righteous in him; that soul which attained God's righteousness, can at all times go to God in his own righteousness, this is the benefit of faith in the soul, it can go with holy boldness to the throne of grace, and to the throne of justice too, because it can come before God in his own righteousness, and can plead that to God which by faith it hath attained of God, even the righteousness of God by faith. A third benefit of faith in the soul, is this: True faith in the soul quenches the fiery darts of Satan; the Devil is a very skilful fire-master, he makes his fiery darts so exact, that none but God can quench them in the soul, and he is very free of his work, he will be always casting into the soul, for his business is to keep the soul in a flame, that is the proper Element he lives in; these fiery darts are his temptations, with which he goes about the Earth seeking whom he may devour; with these he sought to winnow Paul like Wheat, and he is not only fitted for Paul's temper, but he hath temptations to suit all tempers and all times, he hath baits to please the various palates of all flesh, he answers the proud, the peevish, the covetous, the envious, the selfish and worldly wise man, in all their desires, he makes all sweet to the taste, how bitter soever it proves in the belie; he is properly the tempter, it is his course of life which he hath used ever since our first Parents were in Paradise; this is his work to fit temptations to persons and conditions, and to shoot these fiery darts continually into the souls of men and women: Now the only shield to keep of these fiery darts, is faith, and the only hand to put out and to quench these temptations in the soul, Ephes. 6.16. is faith: Ephes. 6.16. Above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked: The scope of the holy Ghost there, is to show the soul its proper armour of defence, against the Devil and all his instruments, the wicked, and the wicked one, and in this above all things, he commends faith; faith says he, that is able to quench all the fiery darts, all the temptations of the Devil and his instruments; and there is an exceeding full reason to be given of this: For it is the true property of faith to lead the soul to God, the believing soul will go to God for his allowance and approbation before he doth any thing; now this is a sure way to quench all the temptations of Satan, to carry them to God, and not to do any thing till God have written his name and his will upon it; the believing soul tells Satan when he tempts him to any thing, I am not at my own disposing, I am God's servant I will go to him and tell him your demand, if God give me leave then, and not till then will I obey you; O not says the Devil, God is light, and if you go to him he will discover to you my darkness, I cannot abide the brightness of his presence, if you will not obey without Gods leave I must b● gone; thus faith quenches the fiery darts of Satan: Now under this consideration how great a benefit and advantage is faith in the soul, it contends with, and destroys Satan in his temptations, it is the great trouble of Saintsion earth, that they have so busy and so watchful a Devil for their enemy: Now the shield of faith is a sure defence against this enemy, the believing soul lives in God, and hath God to be a hiding place to it from the tempter, the life of such a soul is by the faith of the Son of God, it lives in God by faith through Christ, and the Tempter cannot go through Christ to God to destroy such soul, but the soul can go through Christ to God to destroy the Tempter in his temptations; thus faith in God is the life of God, and the death of sin and Satan in his temptations in the souls of believers; and sure I am, all such souls as have experimented this benefit of faith in themselves will say, it is properly named a glorious advantage and benefit which the soul hath in believing. A fourth benefit and advantage of faith in the souls of believers, is this: By faith Saints go to God in all their wants as to a Father: In the pattern of prayer which our Saviour left, he hold forth thus much; That the soul which prays in faith, goes to God as to a Father, though in Heaven yet a Father, our heavenly Father; faith is that seed of God in the soul, by which the soul is assured that it is begotten of God's free grace; the new creature is a child of God's free grace; now faith it carries the soul to its original in all straits and wants, it telleth the soul it is outly of grace that it is what it is, and what ever yet is wanting, th● same fountain must supply; nay says faith to the soul, God is your Father, he hath begotten you in his own free grace to a lively hope in himself, you have therefore the greatest and nearest relation to plead with God of any other, could you suppose any other so able as God to answer your wants, ye● there is none so near to you as God in relation, to whom you may plead the interest of a Child, and from whom you may expect the bowels of a Father, and upon this foundation the believing soul goes to God in all its wants as to a Father; believing souls are only satisfied with children's bread, and this they look for from their Father, so answerably in all their wants goes to their Father; faith is a great advantage to the soul in this, in all its wants to carry it to a full fountain, and to bowels of love which is ready to answer the souls with its own fullness; a Fathes hath a quick ear and a tender heart to his child cries and wants, God is in this more exactly a Father then any on earth, he is most ready to hear and answer the wants of his children, this faith doth assure the soul of, and hereby draws it forth to go to God as its Father and make his wants known: First Epistle of John 5.14, 1 John 5.14, 15. 15. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will he beareth us: And if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition that we desired of him. Faith keeps the soul careful to make petitions according to the will of God, and in the name of Christ, assures the soul that its petition is granted; the reason is this, the Child begs of the Father for the Father's will to be done and fulfilled in him, for that is it which a believing soul wants and seeks for, only that God may be all in it, and that his will may always be done by it; now this spirit and this assurance will be certainly carrying the soul to God as to its Father in all wants, when creatures in their wants comes to lower relations than a Father, they give this for a reason, my Father is not able, or my Father is dead, were he alive I would not trouble you; which speaks this, that if they had a Father to go to, which were able to help them, they would carry all their wants to him, and centre all their desires in him, because a Father; but now saith in the soul it makes out God to be a living Father, able to answer all the wants that soul or body hath, and maketh known to him, and therefore carries the soul in all its wants to God his father; interest is the strongest of all pleas, and the nearer the interest and relation is, the stronger is the plea of the soul; the Prophet David in Psalm. 28.1. Psal. 28.1. useth this argument with God for his assistance. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord, my Reek; be not silent to me: This is his plea, thou art my Rock; that is, my foundation and my defence, I have builded on thee, therefore be not thou silent; you see relation and interest is his argument, thou art my Rock therefore I come to thee; I, says faith, thou art my Father, therefore I come to thee, be not thou silent thou art my Father, I know thy bowels cannot but yearn to see my wants, and the injuries done to me; he that believes most in God is least in revenging his own injuries; the reason is this, faith carries the soul to God, and there it tells God all the injuries and wrongs that are offered and done to him, and then the soul is at rest, leaves the recompense to his Father; this throughly and spiritually considered, is a very great advantage in the souls of believers, which is demonstrable by the many great evil it keeps the soul from; what is the reason that men of the World in their wants will deceive and lie, nay steal rather than go without what they lust after, and in their straits will swear and forswear, yea do any unlawful thing to break through, is it not want of faith in God, they say they have no other ways to help them; that is, because they have no faith in God, God's children finds other ways though they be in the same wants, they go to their Father, saith pleadeth the interest of a Child, and begs day by day its daily bread, and keeps the soul believing that as God is an inexhausted fountain in himself, so that he can never let that die which himself hath begotten, nor be worse to his Children then earthly parents are to theirs; it is faith in the soul keeps it living upon God as a Father, which preserves the soul from all evil ways to answer its wants, for it carries the soul to God as a Father in all its wants both for soul and body, see the operation of faith in David's soul, Psal. 31.14. I trust in thee, O Lord, I said thou art my God. Psal. 31.14. Where faith clears up interest it begets trust, thou art my God therefore I trust in thee; so doth faith clear up the relation of a Father in God to the soul, and then what follows; Thou art my Father, therefore I come to thee and trust in thee: The soul is exceeding full of sweetness, joy, rest, and holy holdness, when it can come to God as to its Father, and stand in his presence as in presence of his Father: Now this sweetness, joy, rest, and holy boldness of the soul, is the fruit of faith in the soul: Faith in the soul makes the soul much in heaven by prayer, because it delights to be in its Father's presence, and spreading before the bosom of his love all the wants it is in. Burdened hearts do use to seek some true friendly bosom to open themselves to, and so in some measure to ease themselves; now in this, faith is a mighty advantage to the soul, for it leads the soul to God, and God its Father, where it shall not only open, but certainly ease itself of all its burdens. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy loaden (says God) and I will refresh you. I, says faith in the soul, go to your Father, he will ease you of all burdens, and rest you in his own bosom; when as the soul sees the power of a God, and the love of a Father centre in one object, it is easily drawn to run after it in all its wants. Now thus faith holds forth God to the soul, as God our Father, and by faith believing souls goes to God in all their wants, and cry out, O our Father, we want victory over sin in our conversations, deliverance from the temptations of Satan, to be carried in thy Spirit above the love and joy of the world, to have our wills wholly melted into thine, to be spiritual in our light, motion, and worship; We desire as our head did for us, to be kept from the evil of the world, and that thou wouldst provide for us all things needful quite through the Wilderness; these are our wants and desires. But thou art God, in whom there can be no want, and thou art our Father, therefore we pray thee answer all our wants according to thy wisdom and thy glory; these are the breathe and motions of true and lively faith in the soul, it carries Saints thus to God as to a Father in all their wants, and makes them much with God in the opening their wants to him, because God is their Father: Now what ever keeps the soul much with God, must needs be a great benefit to the soul, and this is faith, that which carries the soul in all its wants to God, and keeps the eye of the soul steady on God as a Father, therefore a great benefit to the soul. A fifth benefit of faith in the soul, is this; By faith Saints do cheerfully undergo sufferings for Christ, and choose them, though grievous to the flesh, rather than fin. This is so truly the benefit of faith in the soul, that none but such souls as believe in God can do thus. Saints do this by a strength out of themselves, even in God, which they have in God by believing. By faith in God Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Dan. 3. chose Nebuchadnezar's fiery furnace, rather than to worship his golden Image which he had set up: Faith made it easier to them to suffer for God, then to sin against him; though the Furnace was heat seven times hotter than before, Nabuchadnezzar gave them their choice, & saith taught them what to choose; These believing souls counts the flames of sin to be more dreadful, and fuller of smart, than any flames which the Tyrant could cast them into: they had faith to trust in God, and that carried them above the commands of sin, or the fear of punishment in the disobeying of man. The same effect of faith we find in Daniel, in the sixth Chapter of his Book, vers. 10. Dan. 6.10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his Chamber, and prayed three times a day. He knew what snare was laid to catch him in, yet he omitted not his duty, he chose rather to be cast into the Lion's mouths, then to keep his mouth shut from making Petitions to God: Thus faith in God kept him close to his duty, though it led him into the snares of death. Faith leept up the Apostle Paul's soul to this pitch in Acts 21.13. Acts 21.13. when ●s fleshly relations would by tears have persuaded him to omit duty, that he might wave bonds; he answers their solicitations thus: What mean ye to weep, and to break my heart, for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. As if he had said, your weeping is my greatest burden, you break my heart with that; as for bonds and death for the Name of Christ, faith in God will carry me through all that, and I had father choose to die at Jerusalem, then to omit my duty, and not to go for fear of bonds. Thus we see the choice of souls believing in God, when sin and sufferings are before them, one to be chosen, and the other left; now none but a believing soul can do thus, for it is faith in God which keeps the soul close to God; the pleasure of sin though but for a season, will leave such souls as have not their pleasure in God. Now none can live in God with delight that doth not believe in God, so that it is only the believing soul that chooses God for its delight, and will rather choose sufferings, then leave God● Christ hath many which profess to follow him, and to be in him: but when he tries them by sufferings for his Name and his Truths, they leave him, and with Demas embrace the present world, by which he discovers them, that they were only of him by bare profession, not truly in him by faith, for than they would abide with him, and accounted of Christ to be as worthy and as lovely with his Cross, as with his Crown, and would have chosen in all conditions to abide with Christ; I, as Moses, to choose afflictions with the children of God, rather than the pleasures and honours of Pharoah's Court; to a believing eye Christ puts a beauty upon sufferings, and a blackness upon sin, so that the soul for beauty-sake chooseth sufferings rather than sins; this is a precious advantage in the soul: but the truth of it speaks this, that there is very little true faith in the world: this faith is accompanied with much love to God and Christ, and that makes it the more rare and scarce to be sound: but where i● is, it makes a glorious soul and conversation: We may find many that do choose sin in love to sin, though sufferings be visible to the eye, and shame at the heels of such courses: but it is only the believing soul, that to shun sin will choose sufferings, and that out of love to God and faith in him: This is a rare advantage, for it makes the soul a rare soul, such a one as is no where to be found but amongst God's Jewels, his little flock and peculiar ones; this faith is always leading the soul of sin to take in Christ, though sufferings comes with him; nay chooseth to embark in a storm with Christ, rather than to go with sin in the most pleasantest calm that the world affords: It fears not to be with Christ in troubled Seas, because it believes he can rebuke them at his pleasure, so that both wind and Seas shall obey him: Faith knows nothing can bond God, but God can bond the creature when he pleaseth: Faith knows, if God say the word, though the ship be split in the midst of raging Seas, yet not the life of one man shall perish whom God hath promised to bring safe to shore, and hereby faith persuades the soul to choose sufferings in communion with God, thereby to avoid sin, which leads the soul from God; the believing soul can see no happiness out of God, therefore refuseth to embrace any seeming pleasure which leads from God, and this soul sees such full happiness in God, that it believes what ever sufferings it meets withal in communion with God; that God in such communion will swallow up the soul in himself above all sufferings; and in this saith, doth the soul cheerfully undergo sufferings for God, and choose them rather than sin, which is a greater advantage to a child of God in this world, then if all the world were at his disposing. A sixth benefit and advantage of true Faith in the soul is this: Faith makes the soul steady in its worship and service of God; when as a soul believes that it doth worship God according to his own mind and will, than it in not easily removed or shaken in its worship and service of God, therefore says the Apostle, let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind; that is, what ever men do in the service and worship of God, let him fully believe that it is the mind and will of God he should so serve and worship him; for uncertainty of God's mind, will make unsettledness in man's worship; he that believeth not that God is pleased with what he doth, cannot be steady in that service to God: He that worships an unknown God; that is, God in such a way as he knoweth not whether God will approve of or not, will not be long known by that worship; If faith clears not up the will of God to the soul in its way of worship and serving God, the soul walks in the dark, and hath trembling in it suitable to darkness, and trembling joints cannot be steady in the way they walk, the uncertain soul will go with every one that pretends to set it right: but when faith hath cleared up Good will to the soul, than it moves steadily: Faith is a steady eye, and it makes God its object, so that where faith lives, the soul is steady in its motion; and though it may, as God comes nearer to it go from lower to higher former, yet in all it goes nearer to God, and is more and more clear in the mind and will of God, more steady and spiritual in its worship and service of God; that is, worships God more purely, more out of the flesh and more in the Spirit, according to that Gospel-worship our Saviour speaks of in John 4.24. God is a Spirit, John 4.24. and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. In spirit, because he is a Spirit; in truth, because he is the true God: Now none but the believing soul can worship God either in spirit or truth; for he that believeth not his worship to be according to God, cannot worship in truth, because he knows not the mind of God who is the God of truth: nor can it be in the spirit, for the Spirit is light, and makes knowledge of God, therefore it is only the believing soul that can worship God in spirit and truth, and no other souls can worship God truly, or be true to the worship and service of God which it doth profess. It was faith made the three Children and the Prophet Daniel, in the Book of Daniel, so emminently steady in their worship and service of God, and truly it is want of faith that makes the unsettlement of souls in this thing, and such as are so zealous to have multitudes to worship God, whether they know and believe it to be God's mind or not, may bring many pretenders to God, but not any whit more of worship and service to him. Faith makes men true to the worship and service of God, and force makes men true to the will-worship of man; for as he that believeth will not swerve from what God hath revealed to him, so such as worship only by the rule of man's will and power, is always ready to worship in what manner soever man will have him, and this makes him as uncertain in his worship, as man is who is his rule for worship: but the soul advantaged to worship & serve God in spirit and truth, is the believing soul; for what faith fixes of God in the soul, that the soul is steady to God in, and always ready to worship and serve God with; it therefore concerns such as would be steady in their worship and service of God, to do nothing in his worship and service but what they can do from a principle of faith, believing it to be the mind and will of God concerning their souls, in their worship and service of him, and in this faith the soul will be steady to God, and it may say as the Prophet David: O Lord my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise. My heart is fixed on thee, my joy is continually in thee, and my praise and worship shall be always to thee according as thou hast by faith fised my heart on thee, so shalt thou have fixed worship and service from me; Souls thus fixed are rarely found, nor are they ever found but where faith liveth, and as faith grows, so the soul fixes: This is a benefit and advantage fixed to saith in the soul, for they always go together, and the want of either is the want of both, but sure I am, where both are, they may truly be called benefits and advantages to the soul, for that soul is advantaged above all the unsteady souls in the World, whatever they pretend to besides. A seventh benefit of Faith in the soul, is this: Faith it makes a ready submission in the soul to the will of God, that soul which believeth in God, and liveth upon God for alit hath or hopeth for, doth not quarrel with, or dispute against the will of God, nay though Gods will be never so opposite against the will in man, yet where faith liveth and bareth sway in the soul, there the soul lays down its own will and readily submits to the will of God; this was joseph's case in Matth. Mat. 1.24.25. 1.24, 25. there God bids him to take unto him his wise though she were with child: Now in the 19 verse, his mind was to put her away privily, because he would not make her a public example, but when God by the Angel had revealed his will to him, he forsakes his former resolutions, and doth as the Angel of the Lord had bidden him: Now observe, it was faith in Joseph made him thus to submit to Gods will, for had not he believed the Angel of the Lord when he told him in the 20. verse That which was conceived in her was of the holy Ghost, doubtless he would have keeps to his former resolutions to put her away privily, but believing that the thing was of God, and of it was the will of God, he said, Take unto him Marry his Wise; he through faith makes ready submission to the will of God: And in the 2. Matth. 14. there by saith he readily obeyed God, Mat. 2.14. In taking the young Child and his Mother by night and departing into Egypt, which in the 13. verse was the command of God to him by the Angel the second time, because Hered sought the Child's life: thus Joseph believing God is ready to submit to all the will of God: It was thus also with Peter and Andrew in Mat. 4.19, 20, Mat. 4.19, 20. when Christ called them to follow him, he promising to make them fishers of men; the Text says, They streighway lift their Nets add followed him. Had not they believed in Christ they would never have followed him, but they did it straightway: Faith it made them readily willing to obey the call of Christ; saith it is the day of God's power in the souls, and it makes his people ●●iling people unto his will. This made Joshua readily obey all the commands of God in his besieging of Jericho, as appears at large in the fixed of Joshua he believed the word of God in the 2, verse, That God had given Jericho into his hands, therefore waits on God for his directions and acts accordingly; it is faith makes the soul wiling to the will and work of God: So says the Author to the Hebrews, Heb. 11.7, 8.9. in Heb. 11.7, 8, 9 By faith Noah being warned of God, prepared an Ark to the saving of his house: And By faith Abraham when he was called to go out unto a place which bee should after receive for an Inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither he went, and so on: The holy Ghost makes this express, that it was faith in the souls of these faithful ones that made them ready to all the will of God; what ever flesh might have to object; yet faith bearing sway, the soul obeys, where faith lives there the will, of God lives, and there Gods will is readily obeyed; this is no small advantage to souls in their Wilderness journey, to be bound up in the will of God, to have that live in them by which they live in God, have Gods will for theirs, and their will for God, this is true faith in the soul, it keeps the soul in a ready posture to say. Amen, to all the revealed will of God, and to do in God's strength all that he requirs such souls and bodies to do, this ready frame of soul to all the revealed will of God is that which Saints do breath after at the throne of grace, therefore cannot but be welcome and highly prized by such souls, that which is worth the seeking is a benefit to enjoy, but ready submission to the will of God, is that which Saints do earnestly seek; therefore this effect of faith in the soul must needs be a very great benefit and advantage to the soul. The eight benefit of faith in the soul, is this: Faith makes the soul wait patiently upon God for his deliverance out of all its straits, though with a single eye of hamane reason it can see no way of escape; this is the language of faith in the soul; disquiet not thyself by making conclusions according to thy dark apprehensions, stand still and see the salvation of God; salvation and deliverance is Gods not thine, be quiet and still, and thou shalt see the salvation of God, faith speaks and works thus in the soul that feareth the Lord; That when it walketh in darkness, and hath no light; then to trust in the name of the Lord and to stay himself upon his God, Isa. 5.10. Isa. 5.10. Not to give up all hopes, and to cast off all attendance upon God, when it cannot see a way of deliverance by its Natural reason, but is wholly in the dark in that point; Nay I think the Scripture goes higher when as faith cannot see what God means, whether he will deliver or no; yet then to trust in God, and to wait upon him for the manifestation of his will, though faith cannot make out what God will do, yet faith keeps the soul waiting upon God, and that in a still frame of spirit to see his salvation: He that believes, says the Text, makes not haste; he goes not before God, for faith keeps the soul in a waiting posture upon God in all conditions; The believing soul makes not haste, through impatience to cast off any burden before God's time, nor doth it make haste through inordinate affections to enjoy what it delights in and desires before God's time; faith in the soul esteems of things in season, as in their full beauty, Like apples of Gold in pictures of Silver; and to this soul God's time is the season for all things, God's time is the most beautiful season to lay down a burden in, and to take up an enjoyment in to a believing soul, therefore it makes not haste but waits upon God for his season, lies patiently at the pool side till the Angel of the Covenant come and trouble the waters; this was David's frame of spirit, in Psalm. 13.5. But I have trusted in thy mercy, my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. Observe, he had put his trust in God, and therefore rejoices in his salvation; the Psalm is a prayer for salvation, it being in faith the Prophet joys in the salvation of God, as though he were in present possession of the thing he prayed for, doubtless he waited joyfully, when as he joyed in the salvation to come as if it were present, the same frame of spirit we shall find in the righteous, Psal. 33.20, 21. Our souls waiteth for the Lord, Psal. 33.20, 21 he is our help and our shield: For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy Name: Mark it, here is a waiting upon God and that with joy, and this the fruit of faith; Because men have trusted in his boly Name: Faith in God makes the soul wait on God with joy: So the Prophet David in Psal. 37.7. giveth this counsel as the effect of faith in his own soul, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him, free not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass: As if he had said, thou poor heart weak in faith, thou frettest thyself because the wicked prosper in their ways, wert thou strong in faith thou wouldst not mind them so as to disquiet thyself, but rest in the Lord, and wait patiently on him, their prospering hinders not God's design, therefore wait on God and be at rest; this is the effect of faith, in my soul says the Prophet, and I recommend to thee, believe in God so wilt thou be at rest, and in that rest wait patiently on God for the manifestation of his will; So in Psal. 40.1. their waiting patiently on God is expressed to be an effect of faith and confidence in God: And in Psal. 62.1, 2. Truly my soul waits upon God, he is my Rock, my salvation, my defence, and so forth: His soul by faith trusts in God, he had made God his Rock, what is the effect of this faith, therefore truly says he, my soul waits upon thee, faith makes the soul truly to wait upon God: Lamen. 3.26. Lament. 3.26. It is good obat a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord: This is the voice of faith in the soul, when the soul asket faith, what is good? faith gives it this answer, It is good to wait patiently on the Lord, Vers. 1. though thou art the man that hath seen all afflictions; yet it is good for thee to wait patiently on the Lord; this is both the counsel and practice of faith where it liveth in any soul, and doubtless to have the soul in a quiet sweet frame of spirit, waiting and depending on God is no small benefit; faith leads the soul to God and acquaints the soul with God's fullness, so that thereby the soul is brought into a quiet waiting upon God; this blessed benefit, neither is nor can be any where but in believing soul, therefore men fret themselves, and make so which hast in their own ways that they break their necks, destroy themselses and their designs, because they have not faith to wait on God, it is the property of faith to keep the souls close to God, as near God as can be, that the believing soul presseth after; now this nearness is to wait on him, to follow him, 〈◊〉 no● to go● before him; this is a true and great benefit of sake in the souls of bel●●v●●●. The Ninth benefit of faith in the soul, is this: By faith all Mountains of difficulties are removed from the soul; if thou believest, says the Text, all things are possibl●, there is nothing too heavy for faith to remove, because faith in the strength of God in the soul, for it is the soul going out of itself into God, out of its own strength into Gods; therefore to him that believeth, all things are possible; consider this operation of faith in Queen Esther, Esther. 4, 16. Esther 4.16. There she directs Mordechai and all the Jews to seek God, and herself and her Maidens doth the same; she had a great business in hand, in which very great difficulties to the flesh lay before her, she seeks God to be with her, and then she castern herself and business on God by faith, she gets above all the Mountains of opposition into this resolution to do her duty, and leave the issue to God; and in to the King she goes with this resolution, If Iperish, I perish: She was upon the wings of faith carried above all those Mountains which did threaten perishing, she now did not fear to perish, faith in God carried her above those fears, removed those Mountains and made her way plain; faith wrought to this height in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedingo: Dan. 3.17 Dan.. 3.17. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery Furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hands, O King: How bravely doth faith here mount them, above all Mountains of opposition, our God is able to deliver us and we will trust him, heat thy Furnace as hot as thou wil●, it shall be no Mountain in our way, for our trust is in our God, and th●● faith carries us above all that thou canst either say or do; but for the clearing up of this truth, take that one Scripture for all, in Mark 11.22, 23. 〈◊〉. 11.22, 23 they are the words of our Saviour to his Disciples by way of exhortation to steadfastness of faith: And Jesus saith unto them, have faith in God, for verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this Mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the Sea, and shall not double in his heart, h●● shall believe that those things which he hath said shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he faith: This is an exceeding full Scripture to the thing in hand, which is the efficacy of faith in the soul to remove Mountains, it comes with the authority of Christ himself, Verily I say unto you: Well what is it that Christ says? why this, that whomsoever in faith steadfastly believing shall say to any Mountain, be thou removed and cast into the Sea, it shall be done; I conceive none understandingly can lay up our Saviour's meaning here by that term Mountain to a Mountain or heap of earth, for that would be little advantage to faith or encouragement to lay out faith upon, but that by Mountain our Saviour largely means all Mountains of difficulties that are in our way to Heaven, and by Sea is meant a place of devouring, of obscurity to what is cast into it; so that our Saviour's meaning is this steady faith, the soul that doubts not removes all Mountains that it meets withal in its way to Heaven; so that they are devoured in obscurity that the soul shall never see them more; our Saviour's exhortation is this, Have faith in God, doubt not in thy heart but believe in God, and Verily I say it, take my word for it, this faith shall remove all Mountains: That is, the soul which thus undoubtingly liveth in God, shall in that life be above all Mountains of opposition that are below God, and shall be able to nihilate them through faith in God, as though they never had been; Have faith in God, doubt not: What doth this mean but an undoubted belief that God can and will destroy all Mountains in our way to Heaven; thus it was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they undoubtingly believed, our God can, and our God will deliver us; and verily God did destroy those mountains that were in their way, God is the same in every soul that hath faith in him, and believes undoubtingly, he throws down all Mountains into the Sea of destruction, and mounts up such souls into himself, above all that might hinder them in their way to Heaven; unbelief is that great Mountain in the soul, which brings forth all those lesser Mountains of fear which the soul meets withal in its way to Heaven: Now faith in God it lives in the death of unbelief, and so destroys that teeming Mountain which brings forth all other real or imaginary Mountains of fear in the soul, thus faith in God plucks up the Mountains of fear which flows from on belief, by the roots; and in this is a very great benefit to the souls of believers. A tenth benefit of faith in the souls of Believers, is this: Faith souls up the soul to the redemption of God's free grace, faith is that work of God in the soul, which in man is the soul to God's Covenant of free grace, He that believes in God, puts to his seal that God is true: That soul which doth believe in God, and in his Covenant of free grace, so as to cast itself for salvation and all good upon God and his grace, doth therein put to his seal that God is a God of grace, and will make good his Covenant of grace to his soul, otherwise he would never venture his soul upon it; and our Saviour speaking of faith in the soul, in John 6.47. says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, John 6.47. he that believeth on me hath everlasting life: Christ delivers it as a most eminent truth, with a Verily, verily, I say it: And what is it that Christ says but this? that faith is the seal of life to the soul, He that believeth, he hath everlasting life: That is, by faith the soul hath the seal of salvation in itself, all the elect have salvation in God and Christ, according to the eternal purpose of God in himself, but when God makes souls to believe, than they have the salvation of God sealed in their own bosoms; so says the Apostle Paul, in Rom. 5.1. Rom. 5.1. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: That is, faith in God's grace doth seal up the soul to a justified state through Christ Jesus, and the soul having this seal in itself knows its peace with God; faith cannot be understood to be a justifier in the soul as by purchase, for then there were no need of Christ to go along with it, but as the seal of purchase through our Lord Jesus Christ, and this is the true meaning of the Text: for thus the free grace of God and redemption of Christ is preserved in the salvation of souls, but in the other sense both are destroyed, now in this sense it proves the thing in hand, that faith souls up the soul to the redemption of God's free grace through Christ, and herein is the soul justified in itself by faith, But of grace through Christ: So the Author to the Hebrews in Chap. 11. vers. Heb. 11.1. 1. giving a definition of faith in the soul; says, It is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen; Faith is such a grace as giveth a substantial enjoyment satisfactory to the soul of that is hopes for, and this is doth by evidencing and sealing up to the soul its real interest in God, Christ, and heaven, though through the clouds of the flesh is cannot 〈◊〉 the fullness and glory of its inheritance, yet i● doth fully believe its interest in the inheritance, because i● hath the seal in i● self: thus faith is the seal and evidence to the soul of that which no other eye can see, nor any other heart suck the substance of it seal up the soul to the redemption of God's free grace, and thus it is an exceeding great benefit and advantage to the soul; the want of this makes those sad complain that be in souls, wh●● they hear of grace and good in God, this blows up the flames of their misery; what is this to me says a soul that believes not in God, I have no share in all this, or at least I know of no interest that I have in the redemption of God's free grace, and so breaks out into such sad complain of its condition, as doth wound the hearts of standers by, and breaks the heart that bear the first wound, for a wounded spirit who can hear●; this soul would give ten thousand worlds if it had the power; for the seal of the redemption of God's free grace in itself; we use to say, things are worth as much as will be given for them: by this rule the sealing love of God in his redemption of free grace to the soul by faith, is more worth than can be expressed; from whence I gather this, that faith as it seals up the soul to the redemption of God's free grace, so it is an exceeding great benefit and advantage to the soul. Another benefit of faith in the soul, is this: Faith carries the soul above fear into the strength of God, so that though all creatures and means fails, yet the believing soul hath its refuge and rest in God. Faith in God carries the soul to God, and there it lives in what God is, in which life all distrustful and distracting fear is banished from the soul. It was thus with the Prophet David, Psalm 27.1. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear: The Lord is the strength of my life, Psalm 11●. 36. of whom shall I be afraid. Here is first his faith in God, and his living upon God by faith. The Lord is my light, my salvation, and my strength; he did believe God to be so, and lived upon God as his light, salvation, and strength: But now observe what is the fruit of this faith i● his soul, and what the benefit of such a presence: Why it is this, the soul is carried above fear into the strength of God, he lives in God, and this makes him to be above fear; whom should I fear, of whom should I be afraid. Is there any greater than God● can any power take me out of his hands? he is my light in which I see the powers of darkness, and know they are too weak to contend with him; he is my strength, so that not any thing can destroy me, which cannot overcome him: Nay, he is my salvation, he hath in the glory of his grace already saved me out of the hands of all my enemies, to this end, that I might serve him without fear; he hath so overcome all enemies for me, that as I live in him, so I have none to be afraid of; these are the arguings of faith in such souls as live upon God, (which is the life of faith) such souls argue their safety from what God is, and therefore till a greater than God appears, they know no cause of fear. This is the Apostle Paul's argument, when as he was strong in faith, Rom. 8.31. If God be for us, who can be against us. Rom. 8.31. His life was in God, and by faith he argues thus; what power can contend with God, he speaks there of the greatest powers of darkness, that says, if God be reconciled to us, no power, or powers can stand against him; now faith in the soul says, God is reconciled to us, he is for us, he is our salvation and strength, none can be against us and prosper in their way, therefore whom shall we fear, or of whom shall we be afraid. So the same Prophet in Psalm 31.14. In the verse before he says, that fear was on every side, until faith came into his soul: but faith, that banisheth fear. I trust in thee O Lord, I say th●● art my God. Faith was his advantage to carry him above all those fears that were before on every side, & he commends to all Saints for such an end in v. 23. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your hearts, all ye that hope in the Lord. As if he had said, you may live above fear if your trust be in God. In Ps. 56.9.11. Psal. 56.9.11. We shall find the Prophet in the practices of what he exhorted to in the last Scripture: When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn bacl: this I know, for God is for me. Mark it, here is his faith, that when he cried to God for help against his enemies, that they should be confounded and turned bacl; and the ground of his faith is this, for God is for me, God will engage on my side, and I live on him as my strength and my salvation; but in vers. 11. There is the ●ffect of this faith in his soul, and that is it carries him above fear. In God 〈◊〉 put my trust, I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Observe, it is not fear, because I have put my trust in God: Faith in God cast fear out of the soul, for it carries the soul up to God above fear; I have put my trust in God, and shall I now be afraid of man? Shall I fear such an inferior power to God, that which God can destroy in a moment, in the twiackling of an eye; this fear hath no confistancy with faith, nor can it live where faith liveth: Faith in God assures the soul, that all the Nations of the Earth are but as the drop of a bucket compared 〈◊〉 God, and therefore where faith lives, the soul cannot fear the stroke of all the empty powers of the world to be against it, when as God is for it, Psal. 91.1, 2, 3. and it hath put its trust in God, Psal. 91.1. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the shadow of his wings. Whom ever lives in the bosom of God by faith, knows itself to be safe in the protection of God, and so is above fear as it is in God; God is the refuge, fortress, and deliverer of such as trust in him, therefore as he is all this, and my God, in him will I put my trust, and surely he will deliver me, says the believing soul; therefore whom should I fear, and of whom should I be afraid. By faith souls live satisfied in God, and above fear, though all creatures fail, as the Prophet Zephaniab, in Chap. 3. vers. last. Though the Figtree and all other creatures and fruits of the earth should fail; yet says he, I will rejoice in God, & joy in the God of my salvation, for the Lord he is my strength. Here is living upon God, above, and without the creatures, and this life is a life of joy, which must needs be above fear. Faith is a life in God, as a God of salvation, so a life of joy, and this purely in God; not because of any creature enjoyment that might go along with God, but in God when all these fail, and yet this a life of joy, a life above fear, this is the life of faith in the soul, and the benefit of such a life. So the Church of God in Psalm 46. liveth by faith above fear as it liveth in God: this is the Church's faith, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Now the next verse telleth us what is the effects of this faith in them: 〈…〉 Therefore will not we fear though the earth he removed, and so forth. This is the benefit of faith in God, it quenches and destroys fleshly and carnal fear, i● empties the soul of all but God, so as it makes God all to the soul, and to live only upon what God is: Faith in its growth destroys fear in its very being; for as faith grows higher and higher, so is the soul carried more and more into God, by which it liveth more on God, and God in the sold destroys that fleshly carnal fear that is the seed of nature in all flesh: Faith at this pitch in the soul is an exceeding great advantage in times of trial; for where fleshly fear liveth as supreme, there fleshly power commands the whole: Now in times of trial such souls will sail amiss, that have this power at the stern; If in storms faith be not the Pilot, souls will split on rocks, but never arrive at God; nay every calm will endanger the soul, if faith guide it not to God: so that as faith doth destroy carnal fear, and keep the soul close to God, so it is a very great benefit and advantage in the souls of believers. Again, Faith in GOD doth advantage the Soul in this: Faith makes souls faithful, true to their trust and promises, trusting in the true God to protect and carry them through all difficulties. It was thus with Queen Esther, Est. 6.16. She promises Mordeeai and the Jews, that she would first seek God to go with her, and then she would go in to the King; the story telleth us that there was great difficulties in the way, yet this believing soul was true and faithful to her engagements, and the trust that was reposed in her: She sought God to go with her and in God doth faithfully discharge her duty and trust, though death and danger was in every step of the way: Faith i● a vigorous grace in the soul, it filleth with spirits, and carries souls in the ways of the faithful God, though Lions and Beare● lie in the way: Thus faith wrought in this Heroic piece of the w●●ker Sex, depths of dangers could not make her unfaithful to her God and Nation. Faithful Joseph is another proof to this truth, in Gen. 39 Gen. 39 his lewd Mistress' temptations could not make him false to his Master, and he giveth this for his reason, he could not be false to that trust his Master had committed to him, nor durst he some against God, faith kept him true both to God and man, and that is the true nature of faith to be faithful; therefore faith James in his Epistle, show me thy faith by thy works. If thou hast faith, it will keep thee faithful both to God and man; what ever soul is false to God and man in that trust which God & man hath committed to it, I dare affirm, it is the effects of unbelief; men in trust prove false to trust as they think for fleshly advantages, or upon some outward necessity: but the true cause is unbelief; for had they faith in God, they would be faithful to God, and the trust committed to them: Did they believe in God to own them, they would in that faith keep true to God, and own him; did they believe God to be the owner, the author, and preserver of all truth and faithfulness, they would in this belief be faithful to God, true to their trust, and trust the God of truth to preserve them; for this is the effect of faith in the soul, and I know no truer a demonstration of an unbelieving soul, then to be false to God and man in the trust that is committed to it, upon any pretended grounds whatsoever, nor is any thing a truer effect of faith, nor a clearer image of God in the soul than faithfulness to God and man: In trust committed, and in engagements given forth, this effect of faith I confess doth declare the present generation to be exceeding faithless, but yet let God be true, though all men be liars; for such a soul as lives by faith, lives in God, so in truth, and cannot be false to God or his people, to trust, or their own promises: This is a precious benefit of faith, it is not only a benefit to such souls in whom it is, but also to that Land and people where such souls do dwell. A further effect and benefit of faith in God, is this: It makes men deny themselves to lift up God's glory, and will not by any means take God's glory to themselves, though they have fair advantages for it. See this fully proved in Peter & John, Acts 3.12. Acts 3.12. Acts 4.10. so on. Acts 4.10. so on, when as by faith in God they had to the wonderment & amazement of the people been instruments to make the lame man walk, so that all the people ran about him to see what was done: Then Peter being afraid, lest they should ascribe God's glory to them, he speaks to the people in Chap. 3. vers. 12. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel why marvel you at this, or why look you so cornestly on us, as though by our own power and holiness we had made this man to walk. This Scripture clearly proves thus much, that the Apostles were careful that not so much as a thought should remain in the people's hearts that the lame man was made to walk by any power and holiness that was singly or originally in them, and therefore to put all that out of dispute, they declare themselves nothing, but Christ all in the work, in Acts 4.10. Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand before you whole. Observe the care of preserving the glory of God and Christ entire that was in these faithful souls, for they make a full Declaration of the power which did the work, at which they were so amazed. Know all you, and do you make it known to all the people of Israel, that by the Name and power of the Lord Jesus Christ this work is done; They had here a fair opportunity to gain great honour to themselves from the people, but faith in the soul makes it its business to lift up the Name and glory of God, and to live upon that in all it doth. By faith these Apostles were instrumental in this work, and this faith keeps them true to the original glory which they acted by, namely God and Christ, they wrought this great work in the Name of Christ, and by the power of God, and their second work is to keep the glory of it upon its own foundation, namely God and Christ: Now that they might more plainly show God and Christ to the people in this great work, they throw down all that stands in the way, and first gins with themselves; Look not upon us as if we by one own power and holiness had made this man whole. God hath used us as instruments, but in this God is originally all, therefore look upon God, not us: Thus faith in GOD throws down self and flesh, that GOD in his glory may appear, that the soul might glory in what God is, and not what self is; this is a precious grace in the soul, for it makes a precious soul, a soul willing to work for God's glory, and accounts this a full recompense to all its labour and work, that God is thereby glorified, but withal is exceeding tender that nothing of self should share with GOD in the glory only due to his Name: Faith at this pitch is very rarely found in these latter days, wherein m●n are lovers of themselves themselves more than lovers of God, but where ever it is, it is an exceeding benefit and advantage to the soul, such souls do the work of Heaven on Earth, lift up the name and glory of God in all they do, and are not contented in doing any thing but in which they may do this, throw down the veil of their own flesh, that the glory of God might appear in them and by them, all those fleshly selfeish carnal principles and practices that are in the hearta and lives of men, they are the fruit and effects of unbelief in the soul; the evil of which doth give demonstration to the excellency and benefit of faith; saith that works and rules in the soul and conversation, to the throwing down of self, and to the lifting up of Christ in the World, this is so great a benefit that none can prise it but they that have it, it is more in the enjoying then it can be in the desiring. Another benefit of faith in the soul, is this: Faith in God keeps the soul in a steady expectation of Gods fulfilling and making good his promises though the acts of his providence may seem to work crossly: Faith centres the soul upon God in his promiset, and brings it to this pitch that though it cannot see God's way of working, yet having believed God in his word doth rest in this, that all his works shall and do make good his word; so that the soul when it is at a loss concerning God's way of working, yet it is at rest in the end of God made known by his Word, and can argue thus with itself, though in the actings of God he seems to cross his own ends, yet I know they shall all run into his faithful Word, and what he there speaks he is now a doing; though I am a stranger to the way of his working, yet he will never be failing to his own holy ends declared in his word; and upon this account the soul is kept to wait quietly and to be steady in its expectations of Gods fulfilling and making good his promises, though the workings of his providence may seem to act crossly: Therefore says the Prophet, I will trust in thee though thou killest me: Whatever thou dost I know thou wilt fulfil thy promises; this was Moses faith at the Rad Sea, and his counsel to the Israelites, Exod. 14.13. Exod. 14.13. Not to fear but to stand still and see the salvation of God: As if he had said, I and you have received promises from God that he will be with us and deliver us out of the hands of Phareah and his Taskmasters, why let us believe these promises, though his workings at this present may seem as though he meant to let Pharaoh destroy us, yet having his word to the contrary, fear not his works, but stand still and see the salvation of the Lord; all his works shall accomplish the fulfilling of his Word; therefore in faith be quiet and wait for it, there is not any thing that is more truly the nature of faith then this to keep the soul quiet in waiting on God for the fulfilling of his promises; God exhorts to this in Psalm. 46.10. Psal. 46.10. Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted amongst the Heathen, I will be exalted in the Earth: That is, you that have believed my word, if it have spoken good to you, be still and quiet in your spirits concerning the fulfilling of it, for I am God I am faithful and true, though my works seem contrary to your eyes, yet they are but to exalt my name among the Heathen, and in the whole earth, that men may not trace me in my way, but yet know, I am God, I will be faithful to my ends and promises, fix you your eyes there and quiet your heart in them, judge not my end by my ways, but my ways by my end, wait on the fulfilling of my word, be still and know that I am God. Faith in God makes the soul still and quiet in all God's dispensations to it, because it knows that he is God, therefore cannot be unfaithful to his promiser, but is in all accomplishing his own will in the giving in to his people the fullness of his p●●mises made to them; this the soul by faith is assured of, and therefore waits patiently, and is not moved from its belief of God though his present dispensations speaken some other thing to his fleshly understanding: Now if this he the workings in the soul, as doubtless it is, than faith is an exceeding great benefit in this very thing; for a soul fixed on God in his word and promises, is in a measure in Heaven already, it is as rest in God, and is filled with the joys of God in its rest, it lives above ●●tward appearances even in what God in and what God saith, no● doubting but that all his worke● shall make good his word; to that what ever his own flesh or any other shall speak contrary to the Word of God, that faith beats down in the soul, and keeps up the soul in a steady expectation of Gods making good all his promises, and a patiented waiting upon God for his 〈◊〉 time; the troubled unfixed souls of unbelievers, could they speak, would set forth the exceeding benefit of faith in this particular; that which fixeth the soul in God, leaves it in the full possession of all good; now this is the true property of faith, it is that gift of God which gives the soul singly and purely up to God, to live only in him and upon him, and from hence flow this benefit to the souls of Believers. Again, Faith in God is a benefit to the soul in this, namely, That, By Faith Saints are weaned from the World. When a soul by faith sees its interest in God in that more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; then, and not till then hath it a low esteem of all the dying vanities in the World, that i● as the Wise man computes vanity all things under the Sun; Faith is such an eye as can read that love which is in God's heart, and behold the glory of that love as an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ, and a Citizen of the new Jerusalem, and in this vision is the soul in all its affection centred in God, and so truly weaned from the World, and it is nothing less can do it, there is such a naturalness, a congruity, and oneness between the World and our own fleshly hearts that nothing can break off this league and mount up the affections of the soul but an Almighty power, the indwelling of God in the soul by saith, through which the soul dwells in God, and is continually feasted and satisfied with fuller love and richer glory than the World can give, the soul now being made spiritual, sees God and to be the only fountain of love, the single object worthy of love, and its eternal portion of love, and so is carried in its love and affections above the world into God and Christ; being thus swallowed up into God, the soul in its love, joy, pursulte, and rest, becomes crucified to the World and the World to it, it looks upon the World as a dead thing and its heart is truly dead to the World; this is a true effect of faith, see this in the Apostle Paul, 2 Cor. 2 Cor. 5.1.2. 5. begin. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacl●were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands but eternally in the heavens: This is the work of faith in the soul, to assure the soul of its interest in God; this we know says this Apostle that God is our interest, himself is our eternal habitation; so that when ever these clay walls shall crumble into dust we shall be no loser's by it, for the dissolving of them is nothing else but the possessing of our full interest in God: Now mark the effects of this faith in the 2. verse: For in this we gro●ne earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from Heaven: The knowledge of interest in God which is the proper work of faith in the soul, it makes the soul not only weaned from, but also a weary of the World, it groans earnestly to be unclothed of the flesh, to be absent from the body that it might be fully present with the Lord; faith weanes the soul in the whole lump from the World, it would leave it wholly, it groans to be unclothed of the body that it might leave the World in all it is, the disappointments of the World do many times make worldlings out of love with sonte pieces of i●, but it is only faith that weanes any soul wholly from it, and that because faith in God manifests the fullness of God to the soul, and the soul's interest in that fullness, so that it rests in God n●● only as its interest, and so better to it then all the World, 〈◊〉 as a better interest, so that being made wise in Christ its wisdom, the soul makes choice of God, as having seen the dying glory of the World, and the living glory of God by a spiritual eye of faith, it is thereby made dead to the World and alive to God; Christ he speaks to a believing soul in the spirit, and tells the soul It is your Father's good will to give you the Kingdom; and that the Kingdom of glory, to he joint heirea with me in glory, the soul believing this becomes dead in its love to all the Kingdoms of the world, and to a world of King lomes, Christ tells the soul further that in your Father's house are many Mantions, and I go to prepare them for you; your building in God is ready when ever God shall uncloathe you of your flesh; the soul in believing this hath its heart where its treasure is, it in now risen with Christ and gone to Heaven, and in its affection's doth manifest itself to be Crocified with Christ to the World, w●●ner● from all lower glories, because li●ing in the glory of God; th●● is, in God where all glory centres, and from whom all gloryens have their original; so that when the soul is at the 〈…〉 doth not thirst after narrow streams, whom over drinks of thin fountain of life thirsts no more; that is, no more after fatilfaction in any thing but God, it hath all in God, therefore weaned from all below God, doubtless this is a rare benefit of faith in the soul, it is rare in its appearance, and for such souls that with Demas forsake God and embrace this present World, what ever they have professed, and though never so long under a profession of God and godliness, yet they never truly knew God in the spirit, nor did they ever live in God by a true and lively faith, for if they had, it would have wrought this effect in the soul, to have weaned their hearts from, I, and have Crucified their hearts to the World, had they ever tasted God in truth, the would never have forsaken him for ten thousand Worlds: For the life of God in the soul is the life of faith, and the effect of faith in the soul is a weaning of it from the World, by a gathering of it into God. The last benefit of faith in God which I shall mention, is this: True faith in God doth truly fix and establish the souls of Beleevere in the redemption of God's free grace from all our enemies from sin, death, Hell, Law, grave, men, and Devils, none of these can hurt or destroy such souls as lives in the free grace of God by faith; free grace it freely pardons fin, and so plucks out the sting of death, delivers from the jaws of Hell, satisfies and fulfils the Law, gathers from the grave that which in swoon in corruption and it with incorruption, chains up the power and malice of men and Devils against his people; this free grace doth, and by faith the soul lives thus on God, by which it becomes a fixed and established soul; believing souls are not like the restless waves of the Sea, that roll from shore to shore and soame up their own mire, but they are souls fixed in God and Christ; God by faith did answer the Prophet's prayer, which de●●red to be led to that Rock which was higher than himself; that is, the work of faith, it leads the soul to God and christ, and then it is an established soul, it is then built upon 〈◊〉 Rock higher than itself, so that winds cannot shake it, nor 〈◊〉 undermine it, as if it had built upon a sandy soundation; faith builds upon a Rock, and that, the Rock of Ages, i● 〈◊〉 in the free grace of God, the redemption and the righteousness of Christ, so that neither life nor death nor any thing, no not fin, shall ever be able to separate such souls from God and Christ, and hence it is that souls believing thus in God through Christ by his spirit are fixed and established souls; the Prophet David in Psal. 125.1. gives in testimony to this benefit of faith in the soul; he telleth us there, They that tr●st in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth for ever. Faith in God fixeth the soul in everlasting safety, and keeps it upon a Rock of establishment even when Earth and Heaven is shaking. Now I shall gather up what I aim at in all this, in reference to my own soul and others, and it is singly this, to eye God with a single eye, and to rest upon him with a steady undoubting heart; by a single eye, I mean a single heart fixed upon what God is, does, and says concerning his people, and then by faith to apply, and appropriate that to ourselves, resting steadily and undoubtingly upon him, assuring our souls that what he says concerning us he will fully make good unto us: God cannot lie, when he speaks he speaks his heart, and what is in his heart to do, no power or powers can hinder his hand from doing, such souls then as thus see God and rest upon him, are sure to be established; so as the counsel of good King Jeboshaphat is worthy to be received by all souls, Beleave in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. Then first give me leave to advise to a serions and constant inquiry after God, if establishment in the soul come by believing in God, then knowing of God aright is of absolute necessity 〈◊〉 such a believing; now souls sleight or inconstant in their inquities after God in what he is, doth, and saith, are very unlikely souls to come to such a knowledge of him as will bring forth belief to establishment; It was the saying of an established soul in God, I know whom I have trusted; and doubtless there had not been trust to establishment, but that knowledge was in the very foundation; the argument seemeth to me to run thus, I know God, and therefore I have trusted in him, and 〈◊〉 I know him, I am assured I shall not be deceived by him; so that from this knowledge I am established through believing; darkness is the proper womb of fear, there in nothing else foturely begotten there, so is light of faith and establishment; thi● I say and speak by experience in which I shall appeal to the experience of all Saints, that the more any soul truly knows God the more that soul will trust him; therefore give me leave again to say, Be serious and constant in the inquiries after God, study him as he is in himself, in his Christ and our Saviour, i● his Covenant of free grace, in all his promises and performances, in his word and works, in our own and other Saints experiences of him: And this I dare boldly affirm, the more God is thus spiritually known of his people, the more he will be admired, loved, and trusted by them, and such souls the more truly established. Secondly, This seems to be suitable advice, to be exceeding watchful over Satan and our own hearts in all the temptations to, or move of unbelief in our souls, there is nothing so great a friend to the Kingdom of Satan, and so great an eneny to the Kingdom of God's free grace as unbelief is, nor can any sin so certainly destroy the soul as unbelief; nay all other sins without this can never destroy any soul; doubtless these reasons have weight enough in them to make Christian souls stand upon their guard, against this enemy of unbelief; it is the General of the Host of evil, it commands all other sins, and where it enters it comes with great attendants of evils subservant to is self; unbelief is the supreme Agient in the World for the Prince of darkness, in what ever God is disinherited and not believed, Satan shall surely be served; Faith is that Anchor that keeps the soul close to God, if that be plucked up; Satan sils the Sails, I mean the heart with the World, and so carries the Vessel where he pleaseth; Faith is God's interest, and unbelief the Devile interest in the soul, and at the last day when Christ shall give the Devil his due, I mean his share of men in the world, i● will be only unbelievers; for he hath interest in, nor can lay claim to none else; therefore unbelief should be dreaded as the Devil's brand, that by which he marks his own; distrust God, and honour Satan, for they cannot be parted, he that doth the former cannot avoid the latter: A soul watchful in this thing i● so for Gods glory its own peace and eternal saivation, for these two can never be parted, what preserves the one preserves the other, but unbelief looseth both; consider free grace is the original, the first cause of all God's promises to, and his deal with his people: Now a distrust in these, how doth it dishonour God, and not only unestablish, but undo our own souls; therefore no enemy so dangerous as unbelief, and should with most watchfulness be prevented, unbelief it opposeth Gods ends in his Covenant of free grace, and in all his gracious promises to his people, which is, that all the ends of the Earth should come unto him and be saved; that is, believe on his free grace for salvation; Now this is Satan's grand design to hinder faith, because he is the great enemy of Man's salvation: Our Saviour told his Disciples, that to them that believe all things were possible, Satan knows this full well, and therefore doth all that possibly he can to hinder faith in the soul; therefore be exceeding watchful over Satan in this thing, and look often and diligently into our own hearts, and know that so much unbelief as is there, so much interest the Devil hath in us, and by that possession he hath an iolet to the soul for any temptation, therefore I say again in our Saviour's words, Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. But in the last place, I shall wind up all in the Prophets own words, Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. And first, believe God in himself, and now I pray look back upon his Attributes, and you shall find him God, and always God, an everliving and eterna ● God, a faithful God, and a God that cannot lie, a God of love and an everloving God, his love is like himself unchangeable, he is the original of all pure and holy love, and as love is originally in him, so that love is eternal like him, he is a God of free grace and hath made his own grace to be his children's title to life and salvation: Now I date confidently affirm, that whom ever thus believes in God, shall be established, what can shake that soul that lives upon God, as God Almighty, Omnipotent, infinite, and eternal, what can kill those joys and comforts that lives in God as he is a God of eternal and original love and free grace, these joys and comforts will live so long as the fountain of their life abider, and that is for ever; God in what he it, is unchangeable, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever, from everlasting to everlstaing; where God is the foundation and Christ the Comer stone, that building will abide for ever; shake and great s●●s do arise from sandy foundations: But the Prophe: Dauld teleth us that such people are blessed whose God is the Lord; that is, they have this blessing to be established, whom have pitched upon God for their all, and live upon what God is, that soul which lives in God is above the fear of any other strength to overturn or destroy it, because it lives upon an Almighty God, neither can this soul fear to outlive its comforts and delights, because they are bound up in an everliving God, and the eternal love and free grace of God, to be the hand that bond them up, and the womb that brought them forth; therefore this believing soul doth not say it shall one day fall by the hand of Saul; that is, of this or the other lust, but that the eternal love and free grace of God hath delivered it from, and carried it up above all its enemies, so that it may serve him without fear, as a soul established in himself, living purely upon what God is, so that nothing can shake or unsettle this soul, which cannot lessen God, and as no power can make God less than the true, Almighty, Omnipotent, Eternal and ever faithful God; no more can such powers shake, much less destroy such soul, souls as lives thus upon God; the Author to the Hebrews tells us, Chap. 12. vers. 27. That there are things which are made, that are and must be shaken, and there is a Kingdom which cannot be shaken but shall remain for ever: Truly all below and besides God are now shaking, and shall not cease till they return to their first nothing, but the Kingdom of God, or more properly God the glory of that Kingdom, shall never be shaken but abide for ever, so shall all those that live in him, this is Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, to live in God ever hath and shall be a life of glory, therefore this exhortation is always full of weight and glory; but me thinks in these latter days of the World, when as the whole World is as it were giving up the ghost, and every man complaining that there is no sweet nor relish in it, the most discerning eyes plainly beholding its glory departed from it, the Pillars cracked and breken, so that it can be but a very little time before the Fabric falls: Now methinks that which cannot be shaken but shall remain for ever, should have its exceeding worth and glory in our eyes and hearts, and this is nothing else but God himself: O than such as would live for ever must live in God, for all things else are not only dying, but very near their death: God hath written upon honours, pleasures, and profits of the world, Death so visible in such big characters, that every eye almost can read it: but himself is the everliving God; he that made all things out of nothing, can when he pleaseth make all that he hath made return to its first nothing, and yet himself be to eternity what he was from eternity, an Almighty, glorious, and everliving God: Oh therefore live only in the glory of this ever living God, so shall you live when the World is dead, so shall you die to the World, but live above the World; Jehovah will be eternal life to all that live in him: Faith in Jehovah will make an established soul. Secondly, Believe on God in the Covenant and salvation of his free grace, in Jesus Christ the great gift of his grace, in whom he hath satisfied his own pure justice, and perfected the salvation of his people, and in all his gracious promises. First, believe him in his Covenant of free grace, believe that he means to keep it, and will perform it to the utmost: were there no other reason, this is enough to make us believe he will keep it, because he hath made it in himself, and he is God that cannot lie, he is Almighty, and can want no power to prove himself the true and faithful God; it is all grace, and so all God, that it can never be less than it is, but for ever the grace of God, or the Covenant of the God of grace. A little consider the conditions of this Covenant, and then see how faith on God in this Covenant will establish the souls of believers. First, Says God, this shall be the Covenant that I will make with my people: As if God had said, it is my Covenant, so that if you that trust in it should find it fail, blame me: but I am God and cannot lie. It is the Covenant of my grace; that is, it is the powrings forth of myself, it is eternal as myself, and shall never fail in a title of it, it is tru● as I am true, therefore believe this my Covenant as you would myself if I should speak to you face to face, and in believing thus on me shall your hearts be established. Secondly, God doth engage himself by Covenant to forgive the iniquity of his people, and to remember their sins no more. Now to believe God in this his own Covenant, how exceedingly will it establish the soul; there is nothing like sin and iniquity to make an earthquake, and a soul quake: If God once brings a soul or a Land to account with him for sin and iniquity, that will make dreadful shake indeed: so on the contrary, where God acquits from sin and iniquity, he makes rest and establishment, for it is sin that is the troubler of Israel: but when God in his Covenant of grace shall engage himself to pardon and acquit souls from sin; such souls as receives this Covenant of God, and believes that he hath and will make it good to them, will surely be at rest. But this is not all, for God Covenants further with his people: That he will put his law in our inward parts, and write it in our hearts, so that he will be our God, and that we shall be his people. Now examine it over again, and see what is wanting to make an established soul, if God be believed in it, and rested upon for the fulfilling of it: Here is choosing grace, pardoning and purging grace: here is justifying and sanctifying grace, yea all this is grace, free grace, the grace of God, and God in his free grace, engaging himself to make all this good to such souls, as rest upon him. What now can any soul say against trusting in God for all that he hath covenanted to do in his own free grace; if the soul say I am not worthy, what is that to the free grace of God, God doth not move upon any such grounds, it may be a good heart may say it is not broken enough; why a broken heart is a new heart, that which God hath Covenanted to give; trust God, he will make good every part and tittle of his own Covenant, that should not hinder faith, for it is the effect of faith: Seek not first to make thy heart good, and then to trust God, but trust in God, and he will mend thy heart; nay, he will give thee a new heart, that which thou wouldst give all the World to gain, he will give thee freely, if thou trust in him; he will not only establish thy heart, but sanctify it also. Now hence I dare be bold to affirm to any soul, if it believe i● God and his Covenant of grace, it shall be established, fin shall not shake it, for God hath acquitted such souls of that, and cast all the sins of Believers out of his remembrance; God hath done this great work in his own grace, and neither can nor will ever undo it: Corruption shall not be able to unestablish a soul that believes on God in his Covenant of grace; for such souls go to God, and spread their corrupt hearts before him, and pleading his own Covenant with him for new hearts, and that he would renew right spirits within them. Believing souls are fixed upon a rock that is higher than themselves, so that nothing in self can reach them, and what ever is in God doth establish them; such souls see God to be rich in mercy, full of grace, pardming iniquity, transgression and sins for his own Names sake. Thus are souls established by believing in the Lord their God. Again, Believe God in Christ; our Saviour himself calls for this in John 14.1. You believe in God, believe also in me: That is, believe in God through me, look through my wounds, and see how he loves you; behold the streuming of my blood, and see how freely and fully he hath justified you; consider your union with me, and therein how he hath made you completely right ●teous in his own sight: He hath made me to be sin for you who knew no sin, that you might be made the righteousness of God in me, 2 Cor. 5. last. Now believe thus in God through me, that I have born your sins, and satisfied his justice to such a perfection, that you stand the righteousness of God in me: Believe in God through me, so shall you be established above the fear of sin or punishment; for you shall see I have borne them both for you, Isa. 53. I have ●●orne your griefs and carried your sorrows; God hath strucken, smieten, afflicted, and wounded me for your transgressions, he hath bruised me for your iniquities, the chastisement of your peace hath he laid upon me, and with my stripes are you healed, for the Lard hath laid on me the iniquities of you all: God hath made my soul an offering for your sins, and hath seen the travel of my soul, and is satisfied. Now if you believe thus in God through me, your souls will be satisfied too, you will be established as soulee that are fixed in the bosom of God; methinks Christ says here, go with holy boldness to the bar of God's justice, and by faith offer up my wounds, my stripes, and the travel of my soul in full satisfaction for all your sins, and I dare assure you he will acquit and write your discharge by his own spirit in your own b●som●●, I beg of you (says Christ) have not the least doubt of his faithfulness, or the fullness of my satisfaction; I have paid the ●●most farthing, you may boldly go to God's justice, believing this, there shall not to all eternity be a tittle laid to your charge: No says he, God will be just both to you and me, he will n●ver charge you with that which I have paid, and be●●●● 〈◊〉 have finished the whole work of redemption, I have 〈…〉 that believe in God through me from the curse of the law, being 〈…〉 curse for them. In the whole work of redemption I did the will of my Father, in my agony, when I sweat drops of blood, and on the Cross, when there issued out from my sides streets of ●●ter and blood: I did bear your sins, for I had none of my own, and in all this I have perfected your redemption in the ●●ll satisfaction of my Father's justice: so that by believing in God through me, you will see God's Justice fully satisfied for your fins, and yourselves wholly acquitted from sin, and made righteous in the righteousness of God himself, and this I am sure will establish your hearts; where sin is discharged, and righteousness sealed up, there all cause of fear and shaking is banish●●, and this is by believing in God through me, says Christ; for 〈◊〉 the great design of God's free grace my blood hath discharged all your sins, and I am your righteousness; I that am the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you complete in me, perfectly righteous without spot or wrinkle in the pure eyes of God; nay says Christ, had not my blood made a full end of sin, I should have valued it at a higher rate, then to have shed it as I did, had I been but a perfect Redeemer: but I well knew that the price of my precious blood was a full satisfaction to my Father's justice for all the fins of all those that should believe in him through me. John 6.47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, be that believeth an me hath everlasting life. What soul soever believeth in the salvation of God's free grace wrought by me, shall certainly, nay, hath eternal life●, and if eternal life, then doubtless sure establishment. Says Christ, I came from heaven, and took flesh for your sakes that shall believe on God through me, and I stayed on earth till I finished the work of redemption purely for your sakes, so now I am ascended, and at my Father and your Father's right hand in glory; I am here for you as your head, to draw all my members after me; as your Mediator, I live for ever to make intercession for you, to prepare your Mansions, and to preserve your glory, where you shall be fellow-heirs with me, and when I come again to judge the World, it will be to pronounce you the blessed of my Father, to change your mortality into in mortality, and then to give my Kingdom up to my Father, where you shall be for ever with the Lord, and in all this my Father and I am one, therefore believe in God through me, so shall you be established. In the next place believe the word and promises of God, or God in them, and you shall find them full of establishment. And now once more let me desire you to turn bacl and consider those glorious and gracious promises which God hath made to his Saints, his Church and people on earth, how he hath ●●gaged himself to take care of them, and to preserve them as his peculiar interest, so dear to him as the apple of his eye, for whom he hath given Christ, and to whom with Christ he hath given all things. Remember that general promise of God, and believe it, that he will never leave nor forsake his people. So in Isa. 4●. b●g. There God makes promises to particular cases: When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not over flow thee. When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Now how exceedingly will the heart be established if God be believed in this, the promise contains great things: but remember it is the promise of an infinite and Almighty God, it is I that make this great promise say●● God, I that cannot lie, I that can do what I will, and will be sure to make good every tittle of my promise to all that trust and believe in me. Now to believe God in this, how will it spirit a soul, and carry it above all fear, above deep waters, and slanting fires, above all dangers and difficulties; what an heroic spirit will this make, this man will be acted above himself, because he lives believing in God, so above the fears and doubtings of his own flesh: This faith will make souls speak in the language of the Church, in Psalm. 46. God is our resuge and strength, a very prosent help in time of trouble, in fire and water, in all difficulties and straits, therefore will we not fear though the earth be removed, and the mountains carried into the midst of the Sea. This is a soul that takes God's word, and believes that he will deliver it from all straits, and therefore is not afraid what ●ver it ●●ken or removed, so a● God remains, having trusted in him for refuge and help● in all times of trouble. So in Isa. 51.3. Isa. 51.3. There God by the Prophet promiseth to comfort Zion, yea to co●fort her in all her waste places, to make her Wilderness like ●den, and her Desert like the garden of the Lord. This 〈◊〉 wraped up in the arms of faith, will much establish the hear●, for it doth beget great thoughts of heart, how shall it far wi●● the Church of God, and how shall it be with me that am a member of that Church: Now believing on God in this promise answers those doubtful questions, and so establisheth the hear● i● believing. Isa. 27.3. So in Isa. 27.3. We may read God's care of his vineyard, I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment lift my hurt it, I will keep it day and night. That is safe which God keeps, and doubtless such souls as believe God in this promise, will believe themselves to be safe in the care and keeping of God, and so will be established souls; God doth both promise and profess his care of his Church and people, Isa. 49.15, 16. in Isa. 49. He tells us there, though a Mother may forget the son of her womb, yet that he would never forget his Church and people; Nay says God, I cannot forget you, for you are graven upon the palms of my hands. Now believe God in this, and try if it will not make an established soul; again in any or the greatest opposition, remember that promise of God, That no weapon form against his Church and chosen ones shall prosper: He will blast tongue and hands, head, and heart, and all that 〈◊〉 themselves against him in his people, though in their setting forth they may promise themselves victory, yet they shall find God will make good his word to his people; such instruments and weapons shall not prosper. Oh then take God's Word, and our hearts will be quiet; though the Heathens do rage, yet they imagine but a vain thing: God hath said it, and he will make it good, heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one tittle of his word shall fail. Read with an eye of faith that great and glorious promise of God to his people, in Isa. 41.10. and so forward. Though Jacob be a worm, yet he should not fear, when the Almighty is his God. It is too large to recite, but not too great for the arms of faith to contain: and if believed, I am sure it will make great establishment. And now give me leave to beg saith in God for the fulfilling of all those promises which God hath made concerning the glorious and peaceful Reign of Christ amongst his Saints in the latter days; I dare say, such souls as believes God in them, will find much establishment in that faith, those latter days must needs be hard by: Now the World is so near a●end, and to believe that glorious Reign of Christ at hand, will make much joy and settlement in the heart, though the present workings of God be to turn, and overturn things, yet all this serves to accomplish these glorious promises of his, in bringing forth this Righteous and peaceful Kingdom of Christ. God is now a shaking and overturning all unrighteous powers, and governments; now such souls as do not believe these promises of God, are ignorant of God's end, and so full of unsettlement in their spirits concerning the issue of his present dispensations, and hereupon Gods shaking work makes shaking hearts and trembling souls, but had they faith in God concerning these promises they would stand still and be quiet waiting believingly for the salvation of God, in the peaceful reign and righteous government of Jesus Christ; were God but believed in what he says, all the temptations of Satan and the doubtings of our unbelieving hearts would be silenced and brought to nothing, what exceeding folly is it in our hearts, that GOD whom never deceived any that trusted on him, should be disinherited by any, and not believed by all; he is the God of truth, so is his word the word of truth, and not any soul that ever tried God by trusting him upon his word but found him so. The Apostle Paul, Rom. 8.28. tells us, that all things works together for good, to them that love God: This takes in all things as the other general did all times; so that put them together, and it amounts to this, that all things and all times are filled with God's love to his people, and so work all together for the good of all his, God loves his children as dear upon their beds of sickness as in their most perfect health, and his love in both makes both work together for good to his people, upon this account the Apostle knew both how to want and to abound, and in all estates to be content; such a presence of God is in the word of God promised to his people, and God th●● believed on, doth quiet and establish the heart in all conditions, all carnal fears are the fruits of our own darknesses, 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of faith open to see the loving kindness of God at he ha●●●●nifested it in the flesh of his Son, and in his written 〈◊〉, these sears would vanish and our hearts would be fully 〈◊〉 ●●ed by living on the fullness of God; I have mentioned b●●●●●●ety Te●ts of Scripture, but I beseech you receive them and 〈◊〉 whole into the arms of faith, they will prove cordials to 〈◊〉 heart and establishment to your souls; believe it, GOD is worth the trust, if faith open the everlasting gates and let this King of glory in, his presence will make all such to be glori●●● souls, he dispels all darkness, and so all fears, he fixes 〈◊〉 souls a● believe on him in the Lord Jesus Christ, and lays them to rest in his own bosom, so as no thing or time, no not H●●rulty i● self can either shake or disquiet them. My whole design in this is to be an Advocate for faith in God, therefore give me leave to mention one 〈◊〉, and two Rules which are subservant to this glorious end. The caution is this: He wary that you check not the spirit of God when it comes ●●om God about this work. The Rules are these: First, Nourish all your experiences of God. Secondly, Be diligent in observing the workings of GOD'S Pro●idence. But first a little of the Caution: Be wary that you cheek not the spirit of God when it comes from God to work over, and to seal up your souls in the belief of himself; GOD and Christ hath promised that the spirit of God shall bear witness with our spirit that we are the Children of God; now this promise is fulfilled many times in the hearing of the Gospel, in reading of his Word, or it may be in the immediate workings of himself upon our souls; O be careful to entertain this spirit well, a wound here may danger eternal life; But it may be you will say, how shall I know the spirit of God from the d●ltisi●ns of my own heart, and the temptations of Satan. I answer, Try God's Spirit by his Word, and you shall find them both centre in the manifesting Gods free gra●e in the salvation of the worst of sinners through Christ in believing. Now the delusions of our own hearts will lift up self, not God and Christ, and the motions of Satan will be to distrust God, as it was to our first Parents, Does God say the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die, says he, It is not so, God doth but delude thee, ●●te and thou shalt be as God knowing Good and Evils. By this we may distinguish what spirit speaks in us, and as the word and spirit of God, bears witness each to other, so doth Satan's contradicting what God says confirm the truths of God, for were it not truth, he could not oppose, himself being the Father of lies; so that when I would lay hold of truth, I would observe what Satan says to choose the contrary; well then, if God by his spirit make known● a Christ crucified to●● and bid us believe on him through this Christ for everlasting salvation; have a care of checking this spirit, if the Devil and our own dark hearts in which by nature the Prince of darkness rules, doth contradict the testimony of God's spirit in this truth; that is, the fuller confirmation of the truth, if in any straight or condition whatsoever, God shall by his spirit bring to your hearts any suitable promise's or place of Scripture, be exceeding watchful that you check not that spirit; this spirit is a free spirit, it is as the wind, blows where it pleaseth; this i● Scripture advice, try all spirits if they be of God; that which comes from God will lead thee to God, quench not the spirit which leads thee to God in himself, in his Son, in his word and in his works, for that spirit which thus leade● thee, will bring thee to God whom will establish thee; Oh prise that spirit that prizes God, and tells thee his grace is free and rich, his redemption full and complete, his word true and faithful, his works great and glorious, and the enjoyment of him to be eternally with him, if this spirit be dear to thee, it will seal thee up in this belief, that thou art dear and near to God in Christ, and so establish thy soul by believing in the Lord thy God. Now a little of the Rules. First, Nourish all thy experiences of God; this will much advantage faith in the soul, we are apt to trust experimented creatures, much more if spiritually wise shall we trust an ●●●●●mented God; I have been large in the particulars of this be●on, I only mention it here by way of Rule, for doubtless such souls as nourish their experiences of God do thereby nourish and increase faith in God; if such as have fought God's battles do preserve and nourish the experiences they have had of the powerful presence and loving kindnesses of God in those dying and difficult works, surely it will nourish faith in their soul to trust God, if ever he shall bring to any more such works against; Surely Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, did never fear to follow GOD through the fire, after they had experimented the power of his presence with them in the fire, nor Daniel the Lions: Experiences are to faith as oil to the fire, it increaseth the flames, where they meet in any soul there is much mounting up to God, that soul which keeps its experiences of God fresh and green, will be sure to have its faith flourish; God gives many experiences of his love and goodness to his people that they may believe on his Name: Now what God uses to his ends must needs be an effectual means, therefore such souls as would have faith live, must be sure to keep their experiences of God alive; these are choice Jewels, they will be no burdens to our bosoms, every one that reads knows his own experiences best, be they more or less keep them all alive, faith will delight to live with them in the soul; but if these be lost, faith will judge there is no company fit for him, and so take his leave and be gone, and then will doubting and shake be the companions to such a soul, be he that keep experiences alive, will thereby keep a living faith; and such souls as believe in the Lord their God shall be established: This is the first Rule for the preservation and nourishment of faith in the soul. The second Rule, is this: Be diligent in observing the workings of God's Providence; God is various in those dispensations, but they all work● together to the fulfilling and making good of his promises, his wisdom is passed finding out, and his footsteps cannot be traced; no man can certainly say by the present dispensations of God in his providences either to Person, or Nation, what will be his next, but whom ever doth diligently observe Gods providential workings in the World, will find that though one after another it may be many years, yet that they work one with another to the accomplishing of the most glorious will, word, and promises of God, the former making way for the latter, and those that come after, confirm them that went before; so that such soul● which like the Virgin Mary doth ponder and lay up the words and the workings of God's providences in their bosoms, will find such eying of God and treasuring up of his ways of providence to be exceeding useful to the maintaining and increasing of faith to God in the soul. This was the Prophet David's frame of spirit, Lord, says he, thou hast delivered me from the Lion and the Bear, and thou wilt also deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistim: Mark it, he had diligently observed and treasured up in his heart God's former providences to him, and this is the use his soul makes in the remembrance of them, to trust God in another great undertaking for him, as if he had said, I have had ample experience of thee in former acts of thy Providences to me, and thou are the same God for love, power, faithfulness, and goodness; so that in the remembrances of thy loving kindness of old will I t●●st in thee, and though I contend with a Giant, yet that I shall be safe under the shadow of thy wings. Again, it is worth the observe of the most curious eye in the World, how God doth Season his providences, he brings them forth in such seasons that when they appear they are like Apples of Gold in pictures of Silver; not only 〈◊〉 o● beauty in themselves, but also exceeding glorious in their season; E●●her 5. such wa● the workings of God upon the heart of Abas●●●● the King, to hold forth to Esther the Queen the Royal Sceptre, when as she hazarded her own life to plead for the life of has Nation; the season of this kindness and Providence of God, had as much beauty upon it as the life of Esther and the whole Nation of the Jews could make, one wrinkle in the brow at this time would have killed all the smiles of former times, but a holding forth the Sceptre at this very nick of time, doth crown all former kindnesses with life; the King knew not what was in esther's heart, but God knew, and by his most seasonable Providence did prepare the heart and hand of the King for her entrance and her motion: I shall give but this one instance, though there be many more in Scripture of the like kind, and sure I am, the experiences of this present Age is not without instances of the same nature, I mean the seasonable working of God's provilences, to, and for his people; many times when our unbelieving hearts have given all for lost, and could see no way of deliverance, all lower helps proving either weak or false, then even then, hath God divided the Red Sea to make way for his people's deliverances and their enemy's destruction; God hath laid his own, and his people's enemies low in the highest pride of their hearts, and raised his people from the lowest of their fears, both which reasons do much advance the glory of his Providences: Now sure I am, such hearts as spiritually treasures up these ways and workings of Gods seasonable acts of Providence will be much advantaged to trust God in all times and trials they shall meet with through their whole pilgrimage; therefore I beseech you make use of these Rules, if they advantage your souls to such an end as faith in God, you will bless his Name, and be blessed in the trusting upon his Name. Now give me leave to argue with my own soul and others, in the behalf of God. Methinks I hear the Lord say, You that distrust me come forth and produce your reasons; Am I not God, and for ever God, is there, or can there ever be any above me? I say I am infinite, Almighty, and eternal; disprove me if you can, but if you gre●●● me this, says God, than you can pretend no cause to distrust me in point of power; Nay, says God, I am not only powerful, but I am also faithful; I affirm it, that I am God and cannot lie, and I call your own hearts to be my witness, I challenge you to produce one tittle of all my Word, my Covenant, and my promises, that I have made to you, and you have trusted in me to make good wherein I have failed and deceived your trust, if you can produce none, but that your own hearts are the witnesses within you of my faithfulness, then sure I am, those very witnesses will upbraid your unbelie●e, and make as black as Hell all those black and hard thoughts you have of me; you will choose a faithful man to trust, that very choice will condemn you in distrusting me that am the faithful God, if I have my witness in your hearth that I am faithful, why do you distrust me, you must be false to your own bosoms, when you have thoughts that I should be false to you. But it may be you will argue that you are sinful mortals, so that you fear my Justice, and my Majesty, that you dare none draw near to me or rest upon me, for fear I should consume you; why then come and argue with my free grace, my eternal and unchangeable love, my Christ crucified, and therein my justice satisfied, and a perfect righteousness freely given to all that believe in me through him, the pourings forth of my holy spirit, and those mantions prepared in Heaven from all eternity for all that shall thus believe on my Nature through Christ: I tell you poor doubting trembling souls, it is my chief delight as God to glorify my free grace in the salvation of sinners, and to show forth the riches of my eternal and unchangeable love to poor souls lost in themselves, do not fear to draw near to me to call me Father, and to trust in my free grace, for you cannot please me better; if your hearts say you are unworthy to be beloved, yet hear what I say, I love purely from myself, and I save only of my grace, so that your unworthiness may heighten my grace, but it cannot hinder your salvation that believe in my grace; argue not that against yourselves which I will never aggrevate against you, believe in my grace, I will never charge you with your own● 〈◊〉, for I have laid them upon Christ, and he hath 〈…〉 my Justice fully for them all, I tell you so, and he is your righteousness made so of me, that now you are righteous before me in him to all eternity. If I that can only charge you will acquit you, why do you fear; if I acknowledge myself satisfied for all your sins in Christ, why do● you so injure my justice and my grace, to think I will ever charge them upon you again; nay methinks Christ speak to our souls in this, as he did to Thomas, put your hands into my wounds, be no longer faithless, but faithful; by this hand of faith in my wounds, you may feel my Father's justice satisfied, he loved me so dearly that he would never have wounded me upon any consideration whatsoever, but to save you: Oh says God, distrust not my saving grace, & Christ he says, Oh distrust not my bleeding wounds, for your salvation is the end of both these, and the eternal salvation of your souls lies in believing this; God's grace, says Christ, is so full, and the redemption of my blood so complete, that no sin or sins, without unbelief in these can damn you: Now why will you die O house of Israel, says God; here is my free grace and the blood of my Son for your lives; believe, and you have eternal life; nay I have promised my spirit to them that ask it, a●ke me and trust me, see if I deny. For your own sakes, says Christ, I beseech you believe in God through me, your salvation doth not advantage my Father, for he is in himself that perfection to which there can be no addition; it is for your sakes that I took flesh and died; methinks you should believe this love. And now for your own sakes, I beseech you cast your eternal souls upon the eternal love and free grace of God in his redemption through my blood; stronger arguments of love cannot be given: but if refused, they will be the stronger aggravations against your unbelief. Nay, says Christ, there is mansions above prepared for them that love the Lord, and believe in him; God loves you so dearly, that he will have you for ever with himself: Oh let there never more be a hard thought of this love of God, and this God of love; trust him, love him, admire him, rejoice in him, and speak good of his Name the longest day of your lives. His free grace, says Christ, hath plucked you our of the power of the Prince of darkness, and made you heirs of glory: Oh glory in this inheritance, be you filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory in believing; Nothing can hurt you but unbelief: Oh beg hearty, and watch carefully against those wounds of Satan: Nothing but unbelief can shake our souls in the rest and joys of them through this shaking World, therefore such as love and seek establishment must take this way to attain it, for it will be found in nothing else but by believing in the Lord your God, and so shall you be established. To wind up all, let this faith live in our bosoms in all God's ways to us, and our walkings with God in the World; it hath pleased God to make our beings in those latter days, in which the Scripture tells us shall be perilous times, and that because of this, men shall be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God. We see that Scripture fulfilled in our daye● most exactly; why, what shall we do now for establishment in these perilous times: why believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. Search his word, and what ever Scripture you find which administered comfort, believe in him, he will make that good as well as this, let not this be our relief, that a little time may settle the world's shake, and give us a more fixed being here: but let this be our rest, to live in God himself, let him be our all here then, though the whole world be not only shaken, but overturned also, yet we shall have rest in him on these troubled Seas, and fullness of glory when we come into that safe harbour of Heaven; to live believing on him will make us all the wilderness along, ●●●dy in our way and work; we shall do Gods work in the world faithfully, and live by faith in himself above the World; though Devils & men rage, yet such souls as live by faith in God will be fixed, so that they as David, will in their souls sing and give praise: If the earth tremble, yet this soul is established, because it liven upon that rock which is higher than itself, yea as high as heaven, even God himself. Oh then, we cannot complain of God when as we complain of shake, but of ourselves; for if we live in God through Christ by faith, we shall find he will establish our hearts above the fears of Devils, World, or ●e: Though thousands encamp against me (says David) and 〈…〉 sands make war with me, yet will I not be afraid, for my 〈…〉 in thee. Thou art my shield, my buckler, my defence, 〈…〉 all, and therefore was his soul so full of joy, rest, and holy confidence, because he knew whom he had trusted, so shall all sucle as trust in God be established upon his fullness: such souls will by faith be able to bring the whole Nations of the earth before God, and to see them as the drop of a bucket, and the small dust of the balance, when as they contend with God, and herein keeping close to God, he knows nothing can hurt him, he can with God go through fire and water, and believe that God will bring him safely out of all: Base fear can find no corner to creep into, when as by faith the soul is embosomed in God, and bathed in the blood of Christ: This is not only the couns●ll of King Jehoshaphat, but of our King Jesus, to believe in the Lord our God for establishment. This I will end withal: Believe in the Lord your God through Jesus Christ, so shall your hearts be established, though in a shaking World even for this life and to eternity. FINIS.