i?/
THE
PRACTICAL WORKS
REV. RICHARD BAXTER.
THE
PRACTICAL WORKS
THE REV. RICHARD BAXTER
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
AMD
A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF IlIS WRITINGS,
BY THE
REV. WILLIAM ORME,
AUTHOll OF " THE LIFE Of JOHN OWEN, D.V.]" "UIBLIOTUECA EI13LICA," ETC
VOL. XIL
IN TWENTY-THREE VOLUMES.
LONDON:
JAMES DUNCAN, 37, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCXXX.
V\ liL'/,^
V'X/^
LONDON:
PRINTED BY MILLS, JOWETT, AND MILLS,
BOLT-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
THE
PRACTICAL WORKS
OF THE
REV. RICHARD BAXTER.
VOLUME XII.
. CONTAINING *|
THE LIFE OF FAITH.
VOL. XII.
RICHARD EDWARDS, CRANK COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON.
CONTENTS
OF
THE TWELFTH VOLUME.
THE LIFE OF FAITH.
PART I.
PAGE
Ei'iSTLE Dedicatory iii
Preface vii
THE SERMON.
What Faith is « 9
The text opened 12
The grounds of the certainty of Faith briefly intimated. . . . ibid.
Why God will have us live by Faith, and not by sight .... 16
Use 1 . To inform us what a Christian or believer is j des-
cribed 18
Use 2. The reason why believers are more serious in matters
of religion, than unbelievers are 25
Use 3. Of examination 27
The misery of unbelievers 28
. Marks of a true Faith 29
Use 4. Exhortation to the serious exercise of Faith 33
Some assisting suppositions ibid.
How those will live who thus believe j opened in certain
questions 40
Motives to live by a foreseeing Faith on things not seen • • 51
The conclusion. 1. Exhorting to live by Faith. 2. And to
promote this life in others • . 52
THE ADDITIONS.
CHAP. 1. The conviction and reproof of hypocrites, who
live contrary to the Faith which they profess .... 54
iv CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAP. II. A general exhortation to live as believers • • • • 61
III. An exhortation to the particular duties of be-
lievers 68
. PART II.
CHAP. I. The Believer's Directory must shew^, 1. How to
strengthen Faith. 2. How to use it.
And 1 . For the first, the order of the presupposed
natural verities is briefly mentioned 85
- II. The true method of inquiry into the supernatu-
ral evidences of Faith, and the rules therein to be
observed 91
HI. The proper evidence of Faith. The Spirit and
the image of God himself 100
- IV. The image of God's wisdom on the Christian
religion. Its wonderful method opened, in thirty
instances. Six more instances 103
. V. The image of God's goodness and holiness on
the Christian religion, in thirty instances ...... 112
VI. The image of God's power upon the Christian re-
ligion, in twenty instances 119
I VII. The means of making known all this to us in-
fallibly. How the first witnesses knew it. How
the next age and churches knew it. How we know
it. Twenty especial historical traditions of Chris-
tianity, and matters of fact. What the Spirit's
witness to Christianity is 128
VIII. Twelve further Directions to confirm our faith 138
IX. Twenty general Directions how to use Faith, or
to live by it, when it is confirmed. What Chris-
tian Faith is. Errors about it 160
PART III.
CHAP. I. How to live by Faith on God 169
. II. How to live by Faith on Jesus Christ .,..,... 188
Abuses of the doctrine of redemption. The extent
of it. Of Christ's office. His merits and sacrifice.
Example, &c.
III. How to live by Faith on the Holy Ghost. Of
the Trinity. Several doubts resolved about believ-
ing in the Holy Ghost. Of giving the Spirit. His
operations. Whether love to God, or faith in
CONTENTS. V
PAGE
Christ go first ; exactly answered. (And conse-
quently whether faith or repentance be first.) Of
the Spirit in Christ and the apostles. Of sufficient
grace. How Faith procureth the Spirit. Whether
desires of grace be grace 201
CHAP. IV. How to live by Faith as to God's commands.
The admirable goodness of God's laws. Whether
the promise and reward be the end of obedience, or
obedience the end of the promise and reward. Of
Scripture examples 224
— V. How to live by Faith on God's promises. What
will of God it is, according to which they must ask
who will receive. Of a particular Faith in prayer.
Is the same degree of grace conditionally promised
to all? Directions for understanding the promises.
The true nature of Faith or Trust in God's pro-
mises, opened at large. Affiance is in the under-
standing, will and vital power. Whether Faith be
obedience, or how related to it. Ten acts of the
understanding essential to the Christian Faith in
the promises. Several acts of the will essential to
Faith. And in the vital power, whether all true
Faith hath a subjective certainty of the truth of the
word. Choice and venturing or forsaking aU, is
the sign of real trust. Promises collected for the
help of Faith, 1. Of pardon. 2. Of salvation.
3. Of reconciliation and adoption. 4. Of pardon
of new sins after conversion. 5. Of sanctification.
6. Promises to them that desire and seek. 7. To
prayer. 8. To groans that want expression. 9.
Promises of all that we want and that is good for
us. 10. To the use of God's word and sacraments.
11. To the humble, meek and lowly. 12. To the
peaceable. 13. To the diligent. 14. To the pa-
tient. 15. To obedience. 16. To the love of God.
17. To them that love the godly, and are merciful
in good works. 18. To the poor. 19. To the op-
pressed. 20. To the persecuted. 21. In dangers.
22. Against temptations. 23. To them that over-
come and persevere. 24. In sickness, and at death.
25. Of resurrection, final justification and glory.
26. For children of the godly. 27. To the church 233
I
I
vi CONTENTS.
PAGIi
CHAP. VI. How to exercise Faith on God's threatenings
and judgments. How far belief of the threaten-
ings is good, necessary and a saving Faith. How
saving Faith is a personal application. How to
perceive true Faith 287
VH. How to live by Faith for pardon and justifica-
tion. In how many respects and ways Christ jus-
tifieth us. Of the imputation of Christ's righteous-
ness. Twelve reasons to help our belief of pardon.
How far sin should make us doubt of our justifica-
tion 297
VIII. Fifty-eight dangerous errors detected^ which
hinder the work of Faith about our justification ;
and the contrary truths asserted 311
- IX. How to live by Faith of other graces and du-
ties. And 1. Of the doctrinal Directions. What
sanctification is. How Godloveththe unsanctified.
How he loveth us in Christ. Of preaching mere
morality 351
X. The practical Directions, to promote love to
God and holiness 357
- XI. Of the order and hormony of graces and duties,
which must be taken altogether. Of the parts
that make up the new creature. 1. The intellec-
tual order j or a method, or scheme of the heads
of Divinity. 2. The order of intention and affec-
tion. 3. The order of practice. Of the various
degrees of means to man's ultimate end. Of the
grace necessary to concur with these various means.
The circular motion by Divine communication to
our receiving graces, and so by our returning
graces, unto God again. The frame of the present
means of grace, and of our returning duties. Rules
about the order of Christian practice (which shew
that, and how the best is to be preferred, and
which is best), in fifty-three propositions. How
man's laws bind conscience (and many other cases)
resolved. A lamentation for the great want of or-
der, and method, and harmony in the understand-
ings, wills and lives of Christians. Many instances
of men's partiality as to truths, graces, duties^ sins,
&c. Twenty reasons why few Christians are com-
plete and entire, but lame and partial in their reli-
CONTENTS. vii
PAGE
gion. Ten consectaries. Whether all graces be
equal in habit. Religion not so perfect in us as in the
Scriptures j which therefore are the rule to us, &c. 363
CHAP. XII. How to use Faith against particular sins* • • • 405
— XIII. What sins the best are most in danger of, and
should most carefully avoid. And wherein the in-
firmities of the upright differ from mortal sins • • 409
— XIV. How to live by Faith in prosperity. The way
by which Faith doth save us from the world. Ge-
neral Directions against the danger of prosperity.
Twenty marks of worldliness. The pretences of
worldly minds. The greatness of the sin. The ill
effects • • • • • • 415
— XV. How to be poor in spirit. And I. How to es-
cape the pride of prosperous men. The cloaks of
pride. The signs of pride and of lowliness. The
sinfulness of it. Particular remedies 433
— XVI. How to escape the sin of fulness, gulosity or
gluttony, by Faith. The mischiefs of serving the
appetite. Particular remedies 452
— XVII. How Faith must conquer sloth and idleness.
Who are guilty of this sin. Cases resolved. The
evil of idleness. The remedies 461
-^— XVIII. Unmercifulness to the poor, to be conquered
by Faith. The remedies 478
— XIX. How to live by Faith in adversity 480
XX. How to live by Faith in trouble of conscience,
and doubts of our salvation. The difference be-
tween true and false repentance. How to apply
the universal grace to our comfort. The danger of
casting our part on Christ 3 and of ascribing all
melancholy disturbances and thoughts to the Spirit.
Of the trying the spirits ; and of the witness of
the Spirit - a 490
XXI. How to live by Faith in the public worshipping
of God. Overvalue not your own manner of wor-
ship, and overvilify not other men's. Of commu-
nion with others 505
XXII. How to pray in Faith 513
— — XXIII. How to live by Faith towards children and
other relations 516
XXIV. How by Faith to order our affections to pub-
lic societies, and to the unconverted world 521
viii CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAP. XXV. How to live by Faith in the love of one an-
other, and to mortify self-love. It is our own in-
terest and gain, to love our neighbours as ourselves.
Objections wherein it consisteth. What is the sin-
cerity of it. Consectaries. Loving others as your-
selves is a duty even as to the degree • • • • 525
XXVI. How by Faith to be followers of the saints,
and to look with profit to their examples and their
end, and to hold communion with the heavenly
society. Reasons of the duty. The nature of it.
Negatively, what it is not ; and affirmatively, what
it is. Wherein they must be imitated 541
XXVII. How to receive the sentence of death, and
how to die by Faith ••••... 574
• XXVIII. How by Faith to look aright to the coming
of Jesus Christ in glory 579
THE
LIFE OF FAITH
IN THREE PARTS.
THE FIRST IS A SERMON ON HEB. XI. 1. FORMERLY PREACHED
BEFORE HIS MAJESTY, AND PUBLISHED BY HIS COMMAND;
WITH ANOTHER, ADDED FOR THE FULLER APPLICATION.
THE SECOND IS INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONFIRMING BELIEVERS
IN THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.
THE THIRD IS DIRECTIONS HOW TO LIVE BY FAITH; OR HOW
TO EXERCISE IT ON ALL OCCASIONS.
For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Cbr. v. 7.
For which cause we faint not : but though our outward man perish, yet the inward
man is renewed day by day : For our light affliction which is but for a mo-
ment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory : While
we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:
For the things which are seen are tenijioral; but the things which are not seen are
eternal." 2 Cor. iv. 16—18.
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wralh of the King : for hie iendured, as
sieeing him that is invisible." Heb. xii, 27.
VOL. XI
if
TO TilR
WORSHIPFUL, MY MUCH HONOURED FRIEND,
RICHARD HAMPDEN OF HAMPDEN, Esq.
AND THE LADY LETITIA, HlS WIFE,
GRACE AND PEACE BE MULTIPLIED.
SlE,
Your name stands here in the front of this Treatise, on a
double account. First, that (the custom of writers having
given me such an advantage) I may tell the present and fu-
ture ages, how much I love and honour your piety, sobriety,
integrity and moderation, in an age when such virtues grow
into contempt, or into lifeless images and names t and how
much I am myself your debtor, for the manifold expressions
of your love ; and that in an age when love directed by the
superior faculties is out of fashion ; and towards such as I,
is grown a crime. Sincerity and love are things that shall
be honourable, when hypocrisy and malice have done their
worst ; but they are most conspicuous and refulgent in times
of rarity, and when the shame of their contraries set them off.
Secondly, to signify my love and gratitude by the best
return which I can make ; which is, by tendering to you and
to your family, the surest directions, for the most noble,
manly life on earth, in order to a blessed life in heaven.
Though you have proceeded well, you are not yet past need
of help : so great a work doth call for skilful counsel, and
studious learning, and industrious and unwearied practice.
And your hopeful children may be the readier to learn this
excellent life from these directions, for the love of your pre-
fixed names. And how happy will they be, if they converse
with God, when others are wallowing in the tilth of sen-
IV EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
suality! When the dead-hearted sinner thinketh not of
another world, with the wisdom of a foreseeing man, till he
is going out of this, ' securus quo pes ferat, atque ex tem-
pore vivit,' ut Per. et * quibus in solo vivendi causa palate
est,' ut Juv. When such sensual souls must be dragged
out of their pampered, corruptible flesh, to Divine revenge,
and go with the beginnings of endless horror to the world
where they might have found everlasting rest ; what joy will
then be the portion of mortified and patient believers, whose
treasures, and hearts, and conversations in heaven, are now
the foretaste of their possession, as the Spirit of Christ
which causeth this, is the seal of God, and the pledge and
earnest of their inheritance. If a flesh-pleasing life in a
dark, distracted, brutish world, were better than a life with
God and angels, methinks yet they that know they cannot
have what they would, should make sure of what they may
have : and they that cannot keep what they love, should
learn to love what they may keep. Wonderful stupidity !
that they who see that carrying dead bodies to the grave, is
as common a work as the midwifes' taking children into the
world, and that this life is but the road to another, and that
all men are posting on to their journey's end, should think
no more considerately whither so many souls do go, that
daily shoot the gulf of death ! And return no more to the
world which once they called their home ! That men will
have no house or home, but the ship which carrieth them so
swiftly to eternity ! And spend their time in furnishing a
dwelling on such a tempestuous sea, where winds and tide
are hastening them to the shore ! And even to the end are
contriving to live where they are daily dying ; and care for
no habitation but on horseback ! That almost all men die
much wiser than they lived ; and yet the certain foreknow-
ledge of death will not serve to make them more seasonably
and more safely wise ! Wonderful ! that it should be pos-
sible for a man awake, to believe that he must shortly be
gone from earth, and enter into an unchangeable, endless
life, and yet not bend the thoughts of his soul, and the la-
bours of his life, to secure his true and durable felicity !
But Adam hath given sin the antecedency to grace, and
madness the priority to wisdom ; and our wisdom, health
and safety, must now come after, by the way of recovery
and cure. The firstborn of lapsed man was a malignant.
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. V
persecuting Cain. The firstborn of believing Abraham,
was a persecutor of him that was " born after the Spirit ;"
1 John iii. 12. Gal. iv. 29. And the firstborn of this Isaac
himself, was a " profane Esau, that for one morsel sold his
birthright ;" Heb. xii. 16. And naturally we are all the off-
spring of this profaneness, and have not acquaintance
enough with God, and with healthful holiness, arid with the
everlasting, heavenly glory, to make us cordially prefer it
before a forbidden cup, or morsel, or a game at foolery, or a
filthy lust ; or before the wind of a gilded fool's acclamation
and applause ; or the cap and counterfeit subjection of the
multitude. But the * Fortunae, non tua turba' (ut Ov.), et
' quos sportula fecit amici,* (ut Juv.,) who will serve men's
lusts, and be their servants, and humble attendants to dam-
nation, are regarded more than the God, the Saviour, the
Sanctifier, to whom these perfidious rebels were once de-
voted. That you and yours may live that more wise and
delightful life, which consisteth in the daily sight of hea-
ven, by a living faith, which worketh by love, in constant
obedience, is the principal end of this public appellation ;
that what is here written for the use of all, may be first and
specially useful to you and yours, whom I am so much
bound to love and honour ; even to your safe and comforta-
ble life and death, and to your future joy and glory, is the
great desire of
Your obliged Servant,
RICH. BAXTER.
Feb. 4, 1669.
PREFACE.
Reader,
1. If it offend thee, that the parts of this Treatise are so un-
like, understand, 1. That they are for various uses. The
first part to make men willing, by awakening persuasions ;
and the rest, to direct them in the exercises of Faith, who
are first made willing. 2. That I write not to win thy praise
of an artificial, comely structure ; but to help souls to holi-
ness and heaven ; and to these ends I labour to suit the
means. 3. That the first sermon was published long ago ; and
the bookseller desiring me to give him some additions to it,
I thought meet first to make up the exciting part in the
same style, and then to add a directory for the practice of
judicious believers.
2. And if it offend thee that the second part containeth
but such matter as I have already published, in my " Rea-
sons of the Christian Religion," understand. 1. That I per-
ceived that that Treatise was neglected by the more un-
learned sort of Christians, as not descending enough to their
capacities ; and that it would be useful to the confirmation
of their faith, to draw forth some of the most obvious argu-
ments, in as plain a manner, and as briefly as I could, that
length or obscurity might not deprive them of the benefit,
who are too slothful, or too dull to make use of more co-
pious and accurate discourses. 2. And I knew not how to
write a Treatise of the Uses of Faith, which should wholly
leave out the Confirmations of Faith, without much reluc-
tancy of my reason, 3. And again, I say, I can bear the
dispraise of repetition, if I may but further men's faith and
salvation.
3. And if it offend thee that I am so dull in all the di-
rective part, I cannot well do both works at once, awaken
Vlll PREFACE.
the affections, and accurately direct the mind for practice.
Or at least if I had spoken all those directions in a copious,
applicatory, sermon style, it would have swelled the book to
a very tedious, costly volume : and affection must not too
much interpose, when the judgment is about its proper
work. And being done in the beginning, it may be the
better spared afterwards.
4. If it offend you that I open the " Life of Faith" in
somewhat an unusual manner, I answer for myself, that if
it be methodical, true and apt for use, I do that which I in-
tend. And on a subject so frequently and fully handled, it
were but an injury to the church, to say but the same which
is said already. Mr. John Ball, Mr. Ezekiel Culverwell, and
Mr. Samuel Ward, in a narrower room have done exceeding
well upon this subject. If you would have nothing more
than they have said, read their books only and let this
alone.
5. If it offend you that the directions are many of them
difficult, and the style requireth a slow, considerate reader,
I answer, the nature of the subject requireth it ; and with-
out voluminous tediousness, it cannot be avoided. Blame
therefore your unprepared, ignorant minds ; and while you
are yet dull of hearing, and so make things hard to be ut-
tered to your understanding, because you have still need of
milk, and cannot digest strong meat ; but must again be
taught the principles of the oraches of God ; (Heb. v. 1 1 — 14.)
Think not to get knowledge without hard study, and patient
learning, by hearing nothing but what you know already, or
can understand by one hasty reading over; lest you disco-
ver a conjunction of slothfulness with an ignorant and un-
humbled mind. Or at least, if you must learn at so cheap
a rate, or else stick still in your milk and your beginnings,
be not offended if others outgo you, and think knowledge
worthy of much greater diligence ; and if leaving the prin-
ciples we go on towards perfection, as long as we take them
along with us, and make them the life of all that followeth,
while we seem to leave them : and this we will do, if God
permit ; Heb. vi. 1. 3.
R. B.
Feb. 3, 1669.
HE LIFE OF FAITH,
PART I,
HEBREWS XI. 1.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.
Though the wicked are distinguished into hypocrites and
unbelievers, yet hypocrites themselves are unbelievers too.
They have no faith which they can justify, by its prevail-
ing efficacy and works ; and therefore have no faith by
which -they can be justified. Because their discovery is
needful to their recovery, and all our salvation depends on
the sincerity of our faith, I have chosen this text, which is
a description of Faith, that the opening of it may help us
for the opening of our hearts, and resolving the great ques-
tion, on which our endless life depends.
To be a Christian, and to be a believer iri Christ, are
words in Scripture of the same signification. If you have
not faith, you are not Christians. This faith hath various
offices and objects. By it we are justified, sanctified and
saved, We are justified, not by believing that we are justi-
fied, but by believing that we may be justified, Not by re-
ceiving justification immediately, but by receiving Christ
for our justification : nor by mere accepting the pardon in
itself, but by first receiving him that procureth and be-
stoweth it, on his terms : not by mere accepting health, but
by receiving the Physician and his remedies, for health.
Faith is the practical believing m God as promising, and
Christ as procuring justification and salvation. Or, the
practical belief and acceptance of life, as procured by Christ,
and promised by God in the Gospel.
The everlasting fruition of God in heaven, is the ulti-
mate object. No man believeth in Christ as Christ, that
believeth not in him for eternal life. As Faith looks at
Christ as the necessary means, and at the divine benignity
10 LIFE OF FAITH.
as the fountain, and at his veracity as the foundation or for-
mal object, and at the promise, as the true signification of
his will ; so doth it ultimately look at our salvation, (begun
on earth, and perfected in heaven) as the end, for which it
looketh at the rest.
No wonder therefore if the Holy Ghost here speaking of ,
the dignity and power of faith, do principally insist on that
part of its description, which is taken from this final object.
As Christ himself in his humiliation was rejected by the
Gentiles, and a stumbling-stone to the Jews, despised and
not esteemed ; (Isa. liii. 2, 3.) Having " made himself of no
reputation ;'' (Phil. ii. 7.) So faith in Christ as incarnate and
crucified, is despised and counted foolishness by the world.
But as Christ in his glory, and the glory of believers, shall
force them to an awful admiration ; so faith itself as exer-
cised on that glory, is more glorious in the eyes of all. Be-
lievers are never so reverenced by the world, as when they
converse in heaven, and " the Spirit of Glory resteth on
them;" 1 Pet. iv. 14.
How faith by beholding this glorious end, doth move
all the faculties of the soul, and subdue the inclinations and
interests of the flesh, and make the greatest sufferings tole-
rable, is the work of the Holy Ghost in this chapter to de-
monstrate, which beginning with the description, proceeds
to the proof by a cloud of witnesses. There are two sorts
of persons (and employments) in the world, for whom there
are two contrary ends hereafter. One sort subjects their
reason to their sensual or carnal interest. The other subjects
their senses to their reason, cleared, conducted and ele-
vated by faith. Things present or possessed, are the riches
of the sensual, and the bias of their hearts and lives : things .
absent but hoped for, are the riches of believers, which ac-
tuate their chief endeavours.
This is. the sense of the text which t have read to you ;
which setting things hoped for, in opposition to things pre-
sent, and things unseen, to those that sense doth appre-
hend, assureth us that faith (which fixeth on the first) doth
give to its object a subsistence, presence and evidence, that
is, it seeth that which supplieth the want of presence and
visibility. The Wotraffiff, is that which * quoad effectum' is
equal to a present subsistence. And the eXtyYoa, the evi-
dence is somewhat which * quoad efFectum' is equal to visi-
LIFE OF FAITH. 11
bility. As if he had said. Though the glory promised to
believers, and expected by them, be yet to come, and only
hoped for, and be yet unseen and only believed, yet is the
sound believer as truly affected with it, and acted by its at-
tractive force, as if it were present and before his eyes, as a
man is by an inheritance, or estate in reversion, or out of
sight if well secured, and not only by that which is present
to his view. The Syriac interpreter, instead of a transla-
tion, gives us a true exposition of the words, viz. * Faith is
a certainty of those things that are in hope, as if they did
already actually exist, and the revelation of those things
that are not seen.'
Or you may take the sense in this proposition, which I
am next to open further, and apply, viz. That the nature and
use of faith is to be as it were instead of presence, posses-
sion and sight : or to make the things that will be, as if
they were already in existence ; and the things unseen
which God revealeth, as if our bodily eyes beheld them.
1. Not that faith doth really change its object.
2. Nor doth it give the same degree of apprehensions
and affections, as the sight of present things would do.
But, 1. Things invisible are the objects of our faith. 2. And
faith is effectual instead of sight to all these uses : 1. The
apprehension is as infallible, because of the objective cer-
tainty, (though not so satisfactory to our imperfect souls)
as if the things themselves were seen. 2. The will is deter-
mined by it in its necessary consent and choice. 3. The
affections are moved in the necessary degree. 4. It ruleth
in our lives, and bringeth us through duty, and suffering,
for the sake of the happiness which we believe.
3. This faith is a grounded wise and justifiable act: an
infallible knowledge ; and often called so in Scripture ;
John vi. 69. Cor. xv. 58. Rom. viii. 28, &c. And the con-
stitutive and efficient causes will justify the name.
We know and are infallibly sure, of the truth of God,
which we believe : as it is said, " We believe and are sure
that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God;" John
vi. 69* " We know that if our earthly house of this taber-
nacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ;" 2 Cor. v. 1,
** We know that all things work together for good to them
that love God;" Rom. viii. 28. "You know that your
12 LIFE OF FAITH.
labour is not in vain in the Lord ;" 1 Cor. xv. 58. " We
know God spake to Moses ;" &c. John ix. 29. " We know
God heareth not sinners ;" John ix. 31. " We know thou
art a teacher come from God ;" John iii. 2. So 1 John iii.
5, 15, and 1 Pet. iii. 17; and many other Scriptures tell
you, that believing God, is a certain infallible sort of know-
ledge.
I shall in justification of the work of faith, acquaint
you briefly with, 1. That in the nature of it: 2. And that in
the causing of it, which advanceth it, to be an infallible
knowledge.
1. The believer knows (as sure as he knows there is a
God) that God is true, and his word is true, it being " im-
possible for God to lie ;" Heb. vi. 18. " God that cannot
lie hath promised ;*' Tjt. i. 2.
2. He knows that the Holy Scripture is the word of
God ; by his image which it beareth, and the many evidences
of Divinity which it containeth, and the many miracles (cer-
tainly proved) which Christ, and his Spirit in his servants,
wrought to confirm the truth. 3. And therefore he knoweth
assuredly the conclusion, that all this word of God is true.
And for the surer effecting of this knowledge, God doth
not only set before us the ascertaining evidence of his own
veracity, and the Scripture's divinity; but moreover, 1, He
giveth us to believe ; Phil. i. 29. 2 Pet. i. 3. For it is
" not of ourselves, but is the gift of God ;" Ephes. ii. 8.
Faith is one of the " fruits of the Spirit ;" Gal. v. 22. By
the drawing of the Father, we come to the Son. And he
that hath knowledge given from heaven, will certainly
know : and he that hath faith given him from heaven, will
certainly believe. The heavenly light will dissipate our
darkness, and infallibly illuminate. Whilst God sets before
us the glass of the Gospel in which the things invisible are
revealed, and also gives us eyesight to behold them, be-
lievers must needs be a heavenly people, as walking in that
light which proceedeth from, and leadeth to the celestial,
everlasting light.
2. And that faith may be so powerful as to serve in-
stead of sight and presence, believers have the Spirit of
Christ within them, to excite and actuate it, and help them
against all temptations to unbelief, and to work in them all
other graces that concur to promote the works of faith ;
LIFE OF FAITH. 13
and to mortify those sins that hinder our believing, and are
contrary to a heavenly life. So that as the exercise of our
sight, and taste, and hearing, and feeling, is caused by our
natural life ; so the exercise of Faith and hope, and love>
upon things unseen, is caused by the Holy Spirit, which is
the principle of our new life : ** We have received the Spirit,
that we might know the things that are given us of God ;*
1 Cor. ii. 12. This Spirit of God acquainteth us with God,
with his veracity and his word : " We know him that hath
said, I will never fail thee, nor forsake thee ;" Heb. x. 30'
This Spirit of Christ acquainteth us with Christ, and with
his grace and will ; 1 Cor* ii. 10 — 12. This heavenly Spirit
acquainteth us with heaven, so that " We know that
when Christ appeareth, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is;" 1 John iii. 2* And "we know that he
was manifested to take away sin ;" 1 John iii. 5. And will
perfect his work, and present us spotless to his Father ;
Eph. V. 26, 27. This heavenly Spirit possesseth the saints
with such heavenly dispositions and desires, as much facili-
tate the work of faith. It bringeth us to a heavenly con-
versation ; and maketh us live as '* fellow-citizens of the
saints," and "in the household of God ;" Eph. ii. 19. Phil,
iii. 20. It is within us a Spirit of supplication, breathing
heavenward, with sighs and groans which cannot be ex-
pressed ; and as God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit, so
the Spirit knows the mind of God; Rom. viii.37. ICor.ii. 11.
3. And the work of faith is much promoted by the
spiritual experiences of believers. When tliey find a con-
siderable part of the Holy Scriptures verified on themselves,
it much confirmeth their faith as to the whole. They are
really possessed of that heavenly disposition, called. The
Divine Nature, and have felt the power of the word upon
their hearts, renewing them to the image of God, mortifying
their most dear and strong corruptions, shewing them a
greater beauty and desirableness in the objects of Faith,
than is to be found in sensible things : they have found
many of the promises made good upon themselves, in the
answers of prayers, and in great deliverances, which strongly
persuadeth them to believe the rest that are yet to be ac-
complished. And experience is a very powerful and satis-
fying way of conviction. He that feeleth, as it were, the
first fruits, the earnest, and the beginnings of heaven al-
14 LIFK OF FAITH.
ready in his soul, will more easily and assuredly believe
that there is a heaven hereafter. " We know that the Son
of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that
we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is
true, even in the Son Jesus Christ : this is the true God
and eternal life ;" 1 John v. 20. *' He that believeth on the
Son hath the witness in himself;" ver. 10. There is so
great a likeness of the holy and heavenly nature in the
saints, to the heavenly life that God hath promised, that
makes it the more easily believed.
4. And it exceedingly helpeth our belief of the life that
is yet unseen, to find that nature afFordeth us undeniable
arguments to prove a future happiness and misery, reward
and punishment, in the general ; yea, and in special, that
the love and fruition of God is this reward ; and that the
effects of his displeasure are this punishment: nothing
more clear and certain than that there is a God, (he must
be a fool indeed that dare deny it;) Psal. xiv. 1. As also
that this God is the Creator of the rational nature, and hath
the absolute right of sovereign government ; and therefore
a rational creature oweth him the most full and absolute obe-
dience, and deserveth punishment if he disobey. And it is
most clear that Infinite Goodness should be loved above all
finite and imperfect created good: and it is clear that the
rational nature is so formed, that without the hopes and
fears of another life, the world neither is, nor ever was, nor
(by ordinary visible means) can be well governed ; (suppos-
ing God to work on man according to his nature.) And it
is most certain that it consisteth not with Infinite wisdom,
power and goodness, to be put to rule the world in all ages,
by fraud and falsehood. And it is certain that heathens do
for the most part through the world, by the light of nature,
acknowledge a life of joy, or misery to come : and the most
hardened atheists, or infidels must confess, that * for ought
they know there may be such a life ;' it being impossible
they should know or prove the contrary. And it is most
certain that the mere probability or possibility of a heaven
and hell, (being matters of such unspeakable concernment)
should in reason command our utmost diligence to the
hazard or loss of the transitory vanities below ; and conse-
quently that a holy, diligent preparation for another life, is
naturally the duty of the reasonable creature. And it is as
LIFE OF FAITH. 15
sure that God hath not made our nature in vain ; nor set us
on a life of vain employments, nor made it our business in
the world to seek after that which can never be attained.
These things, and much more, do shew that nature af-
ford eth us so full a testimony of the life to come that is yet
invisible, that it exceedingly helpeth us in believing the
supernatural revelation of it, which is more full.
5. And though we have not seen the objects of our faith,
yet those that have given us their infallible testimony by in-
fallible means, have seen what they testified. Though *' no
man hath seen God at any time, yet the only begotten Son
which is in the bosom of the Father, hath declared him ;"
John i. 18. " Verily, verily, (saith our Lord) we speak that
we know, and testify that we have seen;" John iii. 11. "He
that cometh from heaven is above all, and what he hath
seen and heard that he testifieth ;" ver. 31, 32. Christ that
hath told us, saw the things that we have not seen : and you
will believe honest men that speak to you of what they were
eye-witnesses of. And the disciples saw the person, the
transfiguration, and the miracles of Christ. Insomuch that
John thus beginneth his epistle : " That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have
handled of the word of life, (for life was manifested, and we
have seen it, and bear witness, and shew it to you, that
eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested
unto us :) That which we have seen and heard declare we
unto you;" 1 John i. 1 — 3. So Paul, 1 Cor. ix. 1. *' Am I
not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?"
" He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve : after that he
was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom
the greater part remain unto this present ;" 1 Cor. xv. 5 — 7.
" This great salvation at first began to be spoken by the
Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that heard him ; God
also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and
with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according
to his own will ;" Heb. ii» 3, 4. " For we have not followed
cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eye-witnesses of his majesty ; for he received from God the
Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to
him, from the excellent glory ; This is my beloved Son, in
16 LIFE OF faith!
whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from!
heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy
mount ;" 2 Pet. i. 16, 17. And therefore when the apostles
were commanded by their persecutors, not ** to speak at all,
or teach in the name of Jesiis," they answered, '* We can-
not but speak the things which we have seen and heard ;"
Acts iv. 18. 20. So that much of the objects of our faith to us
invisible, have yet been seen by those that have instrumen-
tally revealed them ; and the glory of heaven itself is seen
by many millions of souls that are now possessing it. And
the tradition of the testimony of the apostles unto us, is
more full and satisfactory, than the tradition of any laws of
the land, or history of the most unquestionable affairs that
have been done among the people of the earth (as I have
manifested elsewhere). So that faith hath the infallible
testimony of God, and of them that have seen, and therefore
is to us instead of sight.
6. Lastly, even the enemy of faith himself doth against
his will confirm our faith, by the violence and rage of ma-
lice that he stirreth up in the ungodly against the life of
faith and holiness ; and by the importunity of his opposi-
tions and temptations, discovering that it is not for nothing
that he is so maliciously solicitous, industrious and violent.
And thus you see how much faith hath, that should fully
satisfy a rational man, instead of presence, possession and
sighti
If any shall here say, ' But why would not God let us
have a sight of heaven or hell, when he could not but know
that it would more generally and certainly have prevailed
for the conversion and salvation of the world. Doth he envy
us the most effectual means V
I answer, 1. "Who art thou, O man, that disputest
against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that
formed it. Why hast thou made me thus ?" Must God come
down to the bar of man, to render an account of the reason
of his works ? Why do ye not also ask him a reason of the
nature, situation, magnitude, order, influences, &c. of all
the stars, and superior orbs, and call him to an account for
all his works ? When yet there are so many things in your
own bodies, of which you little understand the reason. Is
it not intolerable impudency, for such worms as we, so low,
so dark, to question the eternal God, concerning the reason
LIFE OF FAITH. 17
of his laws and dispensations? Do we not shamefully for-
get our ignorance and our distance ?
2. But if you must have a reason, let this suffice you. It
is tit that the government of God be suited to the nature of
the reasonable subject. And reason is made to apprehend
more than we see, and by reaching beyond sense, to carry
us to seek things higher and better than sense can reach.
If you would have a man understand no more than he sees,
you would almost equalize a wise man and a fool, and make
a man too like a beast. Even in worldly matters, you will
venture upon the greatest cost and pains for the things that
you see not, nor ever saw. He that hath a journey to go to
a place that he never saw, will not think that a sufficient
reason to stay at home. The merchant will sail a thousand
miles to a land, and for a commodity, that he never saw.
Must the husbandman see the harvest before he plough his
land, and sow his seed ? Must the sick man feel that he
hath health before he use the means to get it ? Must th^
soldier see that he hath the victory before he fight ? You
would take such conceits in worldly matters to be the symp-
toms of distraction. And will you cherish them where they
are most pernicious ? Hath God made man for any end, or
for none ? If none, he is made in vain : if for any, no rea-
son can expect that he should see his end, before he use the
means, and see his home before he begin to travel towards
it. When children first go to School, they do not see or en-
joy the learning and wisdom which by time and labour they
must attain. You will provide for the children which you
are like to have before you see them. To look that sight,
which is our fruition itself, should go before a holy life, is
to expect the end before we will use the necessary means.
You see here in the government of the world, that it is things
unseen that are the instruments of rule, and motives of
obedience. Shall no man be restrained from felony or mur-
ders, but he that seeth the assizes or the gallows ? It is
enough that he foreseeth them, as being made known by
the laws.
It would be no discrimination of the good and bad, the
wise and foolish, if the reward and punishment must be
seen. What thief so mad as to steal at the gallows, or be-
fore the judge ? The basest habits would be restrained from
VOL. XII. c c
18 LIFE OF FAITH.
acting, if the reward and punishment were in sight. The
most beastly drunkard would not be drunk ; the filthy for-
nicator would forbear his lust ; the malicious enemy of god-
liness would forbear their calumnies and persecutions, if
heaven and hell were open to their sight. No man will play
the adulterer in the face of the assembly : the chaste and
unchaste seem there alike : and so they would do if they
saw the face of the most dreadful God. No thanks to any
of you all to be godly if heaven were to be presently seen !
Or to forbear your sin, if you saw hell-fire ; God will have a
meeter way of trial. You shall believe his promises, if ever
you will have the benefit ; and believe his threatenings, if
ever you will escape the threatened evil.
CHAPTER II.
Some Uses.
Use 1. This being the nature and use of Faith, to apprehend
things absent as if they were present, and things unseen, as
if they were visible before our eyes ; you may hence under-
stand the nature of Christianity, and what it is to be a true
believer. Verily it is another matter than the dreaming,
self-deceiving world imagineth. Hypocrites think that they
are Christians indeed, because they have entertained a su-
perficial opinion that there is a Christ, an immortality of
souls, a resurrection, a heaven and a hell ; though their lives
bear witness, that this is not a living and effectual faith ^
but it is their sensitive faculties and interest that are predo-
minant, and are the bias of their hearts. Alas ! a little ob-
servation may tell them, that notwithstanding their most
confident pretensions to Christianity, they are utterly un-
acquainted with the Christian life. Would they live as they
do, in worldly cares, and pampering of the flesh, and neg-
lect of God and the life to come, if they saw the things
which they say they do believe? Could they be sensual,
ungodly and secure, if they had a faith that served instead
of sight.
Would you know who it is that is the Christian indeed ?
1. He is one that liveth (in some measure) as if he saw the
Lord ; believing in that God that dwelleth in the inaccessi-
LIFE OF FAITH. 10
ble light, that cannot be seen by mortal eyes, he liveth as
before his face. He speaks, he prays, he thinks, he deals
with men, as if he saw the Lord stand by. No wonder there-
fore if he do it with reverence and holy fear. No wonder if
he make lighter of the smiles or frowns of mortal man, than
others do that see none higher ; and if he observe not the
lustre of worldly dignity, or fleshly beauty, wisdom or vain-
glory, before the transcendent, incomprehensible Light, to
which the sun itself is darkness. When *' he awaketh he
is still with God ; Psal. cxxxix. 18. '*He sets the Lord al-
ways before him, because he is at his right hand, he is not
moved ; Psal. xvi. 8. And therefore the life of believers is
oft called a walking with God, and a walking before God,
as Gen. v. 22. 24. vi. 9. xvii. 1. in the case of Enoch,
Noah and Abraham. " All the day doth he wait on God ;"
Psal. XXV. 5. Imagine yourselves what manner of person he
must be that sees the Lord ; and conclude that such (in his
measure) is the true believer. For by ** faith he seeth him
that is invisible" (to the eye of sense), and therefore can
forsake the glory and pleasures of the world, and feareth
not the wrath of princes, as it is said of Moses ; Heb. xi. 27*
2. The believer is one that liveth on a Christ whom he
never saw, and trusteth in him, adhereth to him, acknow-
ledgeth his benefits, loveth him, and rejoiceth in him, as if
he had seen him with his eyes. This is the faith which
Peter calls *' more precious than perishing gold ;" that
maketh us ** love him whom we have not seen, and in whom
though now we see him not, yet believing we rejoice, with
unspeakable and glorious joy ;" 1 Pet. i. 8. " Christ dwell-
eth in his heart by faith ;" not only by his Spirit, but ob-
jectively, as our dearest absent friend doth dwell in our es-
timation and affection ; Ephes. iii. 17. O that the misera-
ble infidels of the world, had the eyes, the hearts, the ex-
periences of the true believer! Then they that with Thomas
tell those that have seen him, ** Except I may see and feel,
I will not believe,'* will be forced to cry out, ** My Lord and
my God ;" John xx. 25, &c.
3. A believer is one that judgeth of the man by his in-
visible inside, and not by outward appearances with a
fleshly, worldly judgment. He seeth by faith a greater
ugliness in sin, than in any the most deformed monster.
When the unbeliever saith, what harm is it to please my
20 LIFE OF FAITH.
flesh in ease, or pride, or meat and drink, or lustful wanton-
ness ? the believer takes it as the question of a fool, that
should ask, * What harm is it to take a dram of mercury or
arsenic?' He seeth the vicious evil, and foreseeth the
consequent penal evil by the eye of faith. And therefore
it is that he pitieth the ungodly, when they pity not them-
selves, and speaks to them oft with a tender heart in com-
passion of their misery, and perhaps weeps over them (as
Paul, Phil. iii. 18, 19.) when he cannot prevail ; when they
weep not for themselves, but hate his love, and scorn his
pity, and bid him keep his lamentations for himself; be-
cause they see not what he sees.
He seeth also the inward beauty of the saints, (as it
shineth forth in the holiness of their lives) and through all
their sordid poverty and contempt beholdeth the image of
God upon them. For he judgeth not of sin or holiness as
they now appear to the distracted world ; but as they will
be judged of at the day which he foreseeth, when sin will be
the shame, and holiness the honoured and desired state.
He can see Christ in his poor, despised members, and
love God in those that are made as the scorn and ofFscour-
ing of all things by the malignant, unbelieving world. He
admireth the excellency and happiness of those that are
made the laughingstock of the ungodly ; and accounteth the
saints the most excellent on earth ; (Psal. xvi. 2.) and had ra-
ther be one of their communion in rags, than sit with princes
that are naked within, and void of the true and durable
glory. He judgeth of men as he perceiveth them to have
more or less of Christ. The worth of a man is not obvious
to the sense. You see his stature, complexion, and his
clothes ; but as you see not his learning or skill in any art
whatsoever, so you see not his grace and heavenly mind.
As the soul itself, so the sinful deformity, and the holy
beauty of it, are to us invisible, and perceived only by their
fruits, and by the eye of faith, which seeth things as God
reveals them : and therefore in the eyes of a true believer,
" a vile person is contemned ; but he honoureth those that
fear the Lord;" Psal.. x v. 4.
4. A true believer doth seek a happiness which he never
saw, and that with greater estimation and resolution, than
he seeks the most excellent things that he hath seen. In
all his prayers, his labours >nd his sufferings, it is an un-
LIFE OF FAITH. 21
seen glory that he seeks. He seeth not the glory of God,
nor the glorified Redeemer, nor the world of angels and per-
fected spirits of the just ; but he knoweth by faith, that such
a God, such a glory, such a world as this there is, as certain
as if his eyes had seen it ; and therefore he provides, he
lives, he hopes, he waits for this unseen state of spiritual
bliss, contemning all the wealth and glory that sight can
reach in comparison thereof. He believes what he shall
see ; and therefore strives that he may see it. It is some-
thing above the sun, and all that mortal eyes can see, which
is the end, the hope, the portion of a believer, without which
all is nothing to him, and for which he trades and travels
here, as worldlings do for worldly things ; Matt. vi. 20, 21.
Col. iii. 1. Phil. iii. 20.
5. A true believer doth all his life prepare for a day that
is yet to come, and for an account of all the passages of his
life, though he hath nothing but the word of God to assure
him of it ; and therefore he lives as one that is hastening to
the presence of his Judge ; and he contriveth his affairs, and
disposeth of his worldly riches, as one that looks to hear of
it again, and as one that remembereth the ** Judge is at the'
door ;" James v. 9. He rather asketh * What life, what
words, what actions, what way of using my estate and inte-
rest, will be sweetest to me in the review, and will be best
at last, when I must accordingly receive my doom?' than
• What is most pleasant to my flesh, and what will ingratiate
me most with men ? and what will accommodate me best at
present, and set me highest in the world?' And therefore
it is that he pitieth the ungodly even iii the height of their
prosperity ; and is so earnest (though it offend them) to pro-
cure their recovery, as knowing that how secure soever they
are now, they ** must give an account to him that is ready
to judge the quick and the dead;'' 1 Pet. iv. 5. and that
then the case will be altered with the presumptuous world,
6. Lastly, a true believer is careful to prevent a threat-
ened misery which he never felt ; and is awakened by holy
fear to fly from the wrath to come, and is industrious to es-
cape that place of torment which he never saw, as if he had
seen it with his eyes. When he heareth but the " sound of
the trumpet, he takes warning that he may save his soul ;"
Ezek. xxxiii. 4. The evils that are here felt and seen, are
not so dreadful to him, as those he never saw or felt. He is
22 LIFE OF FAITH.
not so careful and resolute, to avoid the ruin of his estate or
name, or to avoid the plague, or sword, or famine, or the
scorching flames, or death, or torments, as he is to avoid the
endless torments which are threatened by the righteous God.
It is a greater misery in his esteem, to be really undone for
ever, than seemingly only for a time, and to be cast off by
God, than by all the world ; and to lie in hell, than to suffer
any temporal calamity. And therefore he fears it more, and
doth more to avoid it ; and is more cast down by the fears
of God's displeasure, than by the feelings of these present
sufferings. As Noah did for his preservation from the
threatened deluge, so doth the true believer for his preser-
vation from everlasting |w^rath. " By faith Noah being
warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear,
prepared an ark, to the saving of his house, by the which he
condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness,
which is by faith j" Heb. xi. 7. God first giveth warning
of the flood; Noah believeth it: not with a lifeless, but a
working faith, that first moved in him a self-preserving
fear. This fear moved Noah to obey the Lord in the use of
means, and to prepare the ark ; and all this was to save him-
self and his house from a flood, that was as yet unseen, and
of which in nature there was no appearance. Thus doth
God warn the sinful world of the day of judgment and the
fire that is unquenchable ; and true believers take his warn-
ing, and believing that which they cannot see, by fear they
are moved to fly to Christ, and use his means to escape the
threatened calamity. By this they became the " heirs of
that righteousness which is by faith," and condemn the un-
believing, careless world, that take not the warning and use
not the remedy.
By this time you may see that the life of faith is quite
another thing, than the lifeless opinion of multitudes that
call themselves believers. To say, * I believe there is a
God, a Christ, a heaven, a hell,' is as easy as it is common ;
but the faith of the ungodly is but an ineffectual dream.
To dream that you are fighting, wins no victories. To dream
that you are eating, gets no strength. To dream that you
are running, rids no ground. To dream that you are plough-
ing, or sowing, or reaping, procureth but a fruitless harvest.
And to dream that you are princes, may consist with beg-
gary. If you do any more than dream of heaven and hell,
LIFE OF FAITH. 23
how is it that you stir not, and make it not appear by the di-
ligence of your lives, and the fervour of your duties, and the
seriousness of your endeavours, that such wonderful, inex-
pressible, overpowering things, are indeed the matters of
your belief ? As you love your souls, take heed lest you
take an image of faith to be the thing itself. Faith sets on
work the powers of the soul, for the obtaining of that joy,
and the escaping of that misery which you believe. But
the image of faith in self-deceivers, neither warms nor works;
it conquereth not difficulties ; it stirs not up to faithful duty.
It is blind, and therefore seeth not God ; and how then
should he be feared and loved ? It seeth not hell, and there-
fore the senseless soul goes on as fearlessly and merrily to
the unquenchable fire, as if he were in the safest way. This
image of faith annihilateth the most potent objects, as to
any due impression on the soul. God is as no God, and
heaven as no heaven to these imaginary Christians. If a
prince be in the room, an image reverenceth him not. If
music and feasting be there, an image finds no pleasure in
tliem. If fire and sword be there, an image fears them not.
You may perceive by the senseless, neglectful carriage of
ungodly men, that they see not by faith the God that they
should love and fear ; the heaven that they should seek and
wait for, or the hell that they should with all possible care
avoid. He is indeed the true believer that (allowing the
difference of degrees) doth pray as if he saw the Lord ; and
speak and live as always in his presence ; and redeem his
time as if he were to die to-morrow, or as one that seeth death
approach, and ready to lay hands upon him ; that begs and
cries to God in prayer, as one that foreseeth the day of
judgment, and the endless joy or misery that folio weth ;
that bestirreth him for everlasting life, as one that seeth
heaven and hell by the eye of faith. Faith is a serious ap-
prehension, and causeth a serious conversation ; for it is in-
stead of sight and presence.
From all this you may easily and certainly infer, 1. That
true faith is a jewel, rare and precious ; and not so common
as nominal, careless Christians think. What say they, * Are
we not all believers ? Will you make infidels of all that are
not saints? Are none Christians, but those that live so
strictly V Answ. I know they are not infidels by profession ;
but what they are indeed, and what God will take them for,
34 LIFE OF FAITH.
you may soon perceive, by comparing the description of
faith, with the inscription legible on their lives. It is com-
mon to say, * 1 do believe ;' but is it common to find men
pray and live as those that do believe indeed? It is both in
works of charity and of piety, that a living faith will shew
itself. I will not therefore contend about the name. If you
are ungodly, unjust, or uncharitable, and yet will call your-
selves believers, you may keep the name and see whether it
will save you. Have you forgotten how this case is deter-
mined by the Holy Ghost himself; " What doth it profit my
brethren, if a man say,' he hath faith, and hath not works ?
Can faith save him? Faith if it hath not works is dead,
being alone. Thou believest that there is one God : thou
dost well : the devils also believe and tremble ;" James ii.
14. &c. If such a belief be it that thou gloriest in, it is not
denied thee ; " But wilt thou know, O vain man ! that faith
Avithout works is dead ?'' &c. Is there life where there is
no motion ? Had you that faith that is instead of sight, it
would make you more solicitous for the things unseen, than
you are for the visible trifles of this world.
2. And hence you may observe that most true believers
are weak in faith. Alas ! how far do we all fall short of
the love, and zeal, and care, and diligence, which we should
have if we had but once beheld the things which we do be-
lieve ! Alas ! how dead are our affections ! how flat are our
duties! how cold, and how slow are our endeavours! how
unprofitable are our lives, in comparison of what one hours'
sight of heaven and hell would make them be ! O what a
comfortable converse would it be, if I might but join in
prayer, praise and holy conference one day or hour, with a
person that had seen the Lord, and been in heaven, and
borne a part in the angelic praises ! Were our congrega-
tions composed of such persons, what manner of worship
would they perform to God ! How unlike would their hea-
venly, ravishing expressions be, to these our sleepy, heart-
less duties ! Were heaven open to the view of all this con-
gregation while I am speaking to you, or when we are
speaking in player and praise to God, imagine yourselves
what a change it would make upon the best of us in our ser-
vices ! What apprehensions, what affections, what resolu-
tions it would raise ; and what a posture it would cast us
all into ! And do we not all profess to believe these things,
LIFE OF FAITH. 25
as revealed from heaven by the infallible God ? Do we not
say, that such a Divine revelation is as sure as if the things
were in themselves laid open to our sight ? Why then are
we no more affected with them ? Why are we no more
transported by them? Why do they no more command
our souls, and stir up our faculties to the most vigorous
and lively exercise ? and call them off from things that
are not to us considerable, nor fit to have one glance of
the eye of our observation, nor a regardful thought, nor
the least affection, unless as they subserve these greater
things ? When you observe how much in yourselves and
others, the frame of your souls in holy duty, and the
tenor of your lives towards God and man do differ from
what they would be, if you had seen the things that you
believe, let^it mind you of the great imperfection of faith,
and humble us all in the sense of our imbecility. For
though I know that the most perfect faith is not apt to raise
such high affections in degree as shall be raised by the bea-
tifical vision in the glorified, and as present intuition now
would raise if we could attain it ; yet seeing faith hath as
sure an object and revelation as sight itself, though the
manner of apprehension be less affecting, it should do much
more with us than it doth, and bring us nearer to such af-
fections and resolutions as sight would cause.
Use 2. If faith be given us to make things to come as if
they were at hand, and things unseen as if we saw them,
you may see from hence, 1. The reasonof that holy serious-
ness of believers, which the ungodly want. 2. And the
reason why the ungodly want it. 3. And why they wonder
at, and distaste and deride this serious diligence of the
saints.
1. Would you make it any matter of wonder, for men to
be more careful of their souls, more fervent in their requests
to God, more fearful of offending him, and more laborious
in all holy preparation for eternal life, than the holiest and
most precise person that you know in all the world, if so be
that heaven and hell were seen to them ? Would you not
rather wonder at the dulness, and coldness, and negligence
of the best, and that they are not far more holy and diligent
than they are, if you and they did see these things ? Why
then do you not cease your wondering at their diligence?
Do you not know that they are men, that have seen the
26 LIFE OF FAITH.
Lord whom they daily serve ; and seen the glory which they
daily seek ; and seen the place of torments which they fly
from ? By faith in the glass of Divine revelation they have
seen them.
2. And the reason why the careless world are not as di-
ligent and holy as believers, is, because they have not this
eye of faith, and never saw those powerful objects, that be-
lievers see. Had you their eyes, you would have their
hearts and lives. O that the Lord would but illuminate you,
and give you such a sight of the things unseen, as every true
believer hath ! What a happy change would it make upon
you! Then instead of your deriding or opposing it, we
should have your company in the holy path. You would
then be such yourselves, as you now deride. If you saw
what they see, you would do as they do. When the hea-
venly light had appeared unto Saul, he ceaseth persecut-
ing, and inquires what Christ would have him to do, that he
might be such an one as he had persecuted. And when
the scales fell from his eyes, he falls to prayer, and gets
among the believers whom he had persecuted, and laboureth
and sufFereth more than they.
But till this light appear to your darkened souls, you can-
not see the reasons of a holy , heavenly life. And therefore you
will think it hypocrisy, or pride, or fancy, and imagination,
or the foolishness of crack-brained, self-conceited men. If
you see a man do reverence to a prince, and the prince him-
self were invisible to you, would you not take him for a
madman ; and say that he cringed to the stools or chairs,
or bowed to a post, or complimented with his shadow ? If
you saw a man's action in eating and drinking, and see not
the meat and drink itself, would you not think him mad ?
If you heard men laugh, and hear not so much as the voice
of him that gives the jest, would you not imagine them to
be brain-sick ? If you see men dance and hear not the mu-
sic; if you see a labourer threshing, or reaping, or mowing,
and see no corn or grass before him ; if you see a soldier
fighting for his life, and see no enemy that he spends his
strokes upon ; will you not take all these for men distracted ?
Why this is the case between you and the true believers.
You see them reverently worship God, but you see not the
majesty which they worship, as they do. You see them as
busy for the saving of their souls, as if a hundred lives lay
LIFE OF FAITH. 27
on it ; but you see not the hell from which they fly, nor the
heaven they seek ; and therefore you marvel why they make
so much ado about the matters of their salvation ; and why
they cannot do as others, and make as light of Christ and
heaven, as they that desire to be excused, and think they
have more needful things to mind. But did you see with
the eyes of a true believer, and were the amazing things that
God hath revealed to us but open to your sight, how quickly
would you be satisfied, and sooner mock at the diligence of
a drowning man, that is striving for his life, or at the labour
of the city, when they are busily quenching the flames in
their habitations, than mock at them that are striving for the
everlasting life, and praying and labouring against the ever
burning flames.
How soon would you turn your admiration against the
stupidity of the careless world, and wonder more that ever
men that hear the Scriptures, and see with their eyes the
works of God, can make so light of matters of such un-
speakable, eternal consequence ! Did you but see heaven
and hell, it would amaze you to think that ever many, yea,
so many, and so seeming wise, should wilfully run into ever-
lasting fire, and sell their souls at so low a rate, as if it were
as easy to be in hell as in an alehouse, and heaven were no
better than a beastly lust? O then with what astonishment
would you think, ' Is this the fire that sinners do so little
fear? Is this the glory that is so neglected?' You would
then see that the madness of the ungodly is the wonder.
Use 3. By this time I should think that some of your
own consciences have prevented me, in the use of examina-
tion, which I am next to call you to. I hope while I have
been holding you the glass, you have not turned away your
faces, nor shut your eyes ; but that you have been judging
yourselves by the light which hath been set up before you.
Have not some of your consciences said by this time, ' If
this be the nature and use of faith, to make things unseen^
as if we saw them, what a desolate case then is my soul in !
How void of faith ! How full of infidelity ! How far from
the truth and power of Christianity ! How dangerously
have I long deceived myself in calling myself a true Chris-
tian, and pretending to be a true believer ; when I never
knew the Life of Faith, but took a dead opinion, bred only
by education, and the custom of the country instead of it ;
38 LIFE OF FAITH.
little did I think tliat 1 had been an infidel at the heart,
while I so confidently laid claim to the name of a be-
liever ! Alas ! how far have I been from living, as one that
seeth the things that he professeth to believe !' If some of
your consciences be not thus convinced, and perceive not
yet your want of faith, I fear it is because they are seared or
asleep.
But if yet conscience have not begun to plead this cause
against you, let me begin to plead it with your consciences.
Are you believers ? Do you live the Life of Faith, or not ?
Do you live upon things that are unseen, or upon the pre-
sent visible baits of sensuality ? That you may not turn
away your ears, or hear me with a sluggish, senseless mind,
let me tell you first, how nearly it concerneth you to get
this question soundly answered ; and then, that you may
not be deceived, let me help you towards the true resolution.
1. And for the first, you may perceive by what is said,
that saving faith is not so common, as those that know not
the nature of it do imagine. ** All men have not faith -"
2 Thess. iii. 2. O what abundance do deceive themselves
with names, and shows, and a dead opinion, and customary
religion, and take these for the Life of Faith !
2. Till you have this faith, you have no special interest
in Christ. It is only believers that are united to him, and
are his living members. And it is by faith that he dwelleth
in our hearts, and that we live in him ; Ephes. iii. 17. Gal.
ii. 20. In vain do you boast of Christ, if you are not true
believers. You have no part or portion in him. None of
his special benefits are yours, till you have this living, work-
ing faith.
3. You are still in the state of enmity to God, and un-
reconciled to him, while you are unbelievers. For you can
have no peace with God, nor access unto his favour, but by
Christ ; Rom. v. 1 — 4. Ephes. ii. 14, 15. 17* And there-
fore you must come by faith to Christ, before you can come
by Christ unto the Father, as those that have a special in-
terest in his love.
4. Till you have this faith, you are under the guilt and
load of all your sins, and under the curse and condemnation
of the law; for there is no justification or forgiveness but
by faith ; Acts xxvi 18. Rom. iv. v. &c.
5. Till you have this sound belief of things unseen, you
LIFE OF FAITH. 29
will be carnal-minded, and have a carnal end to all your ac-
tions, which will make those to be evil, that materially are
good, and those to be fleshly that materially are holy.
" Without faith it is impossible to please God ;" Rom. viii.
5. 8, 9. Prov. xxviii. 9. Heb. xi. 6.
6. Lastly, till you have this living faith, you have no
right to heaven, nor could be saved if you die this hour.
" Whoever believeth shall not perish, but have everlasting
life. He that believeth on him, is not condemned ; but he
that believeth not, is condemned already. He that believeth
on the Son, hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not
the Son, shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on
him;" John iii. 16. 18.36.
You see if you love yourselves, it concerneth you to try
whether you are true believers : unless you take it for an in-
different thing, whether you live for ever in heaven or hell,
it is best for you to put the question close to your conscien-
ces betimes. Have you that faith that serves instead of
sight ? Do you carry within you " the evidence of things
unseen, and the substance of the things" which you say you
** hope for?" Did you know in what manner this question
must be put and determined at judgment, and how all your
comfort will then depend upon the answer> and how near
that day is, when you must all be sentenced to heaven or
hell, as you are found to be believers or unbelievers, it would
make you hearken to my counsel, and presently try whether
you have a saving faith.
2. But lest you be deceived in your trial, and lest you
mistake me, as if I tried the weak by the measure of the
strong, and laid all your comfort upon such strong affections
and high degrees, as sight itself would work within you, I
shall briefly tell you how you may know whether you have
any faith that is true and saving, though in the least degree.
Though none of us are affected to that height as we should
be if we had the sight of all that we do believe, yet all that
have any saving belief of invisible things, will have these
four signs of faith within them.
1 . A sound belief of things unseen, will cause a practical
estimation of them, and that above all earthly things. A
glimpse of the heavenly glory as in a glass, will cause the
soul deliberately to say, ' This is the chief desirable felicity ;
this is the crown, the pearl, the treasure ; nothing but this can
do LIFE OF FAITH.
serve my turn.' It will debase the greatest pleasures, or
riches, or honours of the world in your esteem. How con-
temptible will they seem, while you see God stand by, and
heaven as it were set open to your view ; you will see there
is little cause to envy the prosperous servants of the world ;
you will pity them, as miserable in their mirth, and bound
in the fetters of their folly and concupiscence, and as stran-
gers to all solid joy and honour. You will be moved with
some compassion to them in their misery, when they are
braving it among men, and domineering for a little while ;
and you will thiak, Alas ! poor man ! Is this all thy glory ?
JHast thou no better wealth, no higher honour, no sweeter
pleasures than these husks? With such a practics^l judg-
ment as you value gold above dirt, and jewels above com-
naon stones ; you will value heaven above all the richer and
pleasures of this world, if you have indeed a living, saving
faith ; Phil. iii. 7--9.
2, A sound belief of the things unseen, will habitually
incline your wills to embrace them, with consent and com-
placence, and resolution, above and against those worldly
things, that would be set above them, and preferred before
them. If you are true believers you have made your choice,
you have fixed your hopes, you have taken up your resolu-
tions, that God naust be your portion, or you can have none
that is worth the having ; that Christ must be your Saviour,
or you cannot be saved ; and therefore you are at a point
with all things else. They may be your helps, but not your
happiness. You are resolved on what rock to build, and
where to cast anchor, and at what port and prize your life
shall aim. You are resolved what to seek, and trust to ;
God or none; heaven or nothing; Christ o*r none, is the
voice of your rooted, stable resolutions. Though you are
full of feart* sometimes whether you shall be accepted, and
have a part in Christ, or no ; and whether ever you shall at-
tain the glory which you aim at ; yet you are off all other
hopes ; having seen an end of all perfections, and read va-
nity and vexation written upon all creatures, even on the
most flattering state on earth, and are unchangeably resolved
not to change your Master, and your hopes, and your holy
course, for any other life or hopes. Whatever come of it you
are resolved that here you will venture all ; knowing that
you have no other game to play, at which you are not sure
LIFE OF FAITH. 31
to lose, and that you can lay out your love, and care, and
labour on nothing else that will answer your expectations ;
nor make any other bargain whatsoever, but what you are
sure to be utterly undone by ; Psal. Ixxiii. 25. iv. 6, 7.
Matt. vi. 20, 21. xiii. 45, 46. Luke xviii. 33.
3. A sound belief of things invisible, will be so far an
effectual spring of a holy life, as that you will " seek first
the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ;" Matt. vi. 33.
and not in your resolutions only, but in your practices, the
bent of your lives will be for God, and your invisible feli-
city. It is not possible that you should see by faith the
wonders of the world to come, and yet prefer this world be-
fore it. A dead, opinionative belief, may stand with a
worldly, fleshly life; but a working faith will make you stir,
and make the things of God your business. And the labour
and industry of your lives will shew whether you soundly
believe the things unseen.
4. If you savingly believe the invisible things, you will
purchase them at any rate, and hold them faster than your
worldly accommodations ; and will suffer the loss of all
things visible, rather than you will cast away your hopes of
the glory which you never saw. A human faith and bare
opinion will not hold fast when trial comes. For such men
take heaven but for a reserve, because they must leave earth
against their wills, and are loath to go to hell. But they are
resolved to hold the world as long as they can, because their
faith apprehendeth no such satisfying certainty of the things
unseen, as will encourage them to let go all that they see,
and have in sensible possession. But the weakest faith that
is true and saving, doth habitually dispose the soul to let go
all the hopes and happiness of this world, when they are
inconsistent with our spiritual hopes and happiness ;
Luke xiv. 33.
And now I have gone before you with the light, and
shewed you what a believer is, will you presently consider
how far your hearts and lives agree to this description? To
know whether you live by faith or not, is consequently to
know, whether God or the world be your portion and felicity,
and so whether you are the heirs of heaven or hell. And is
not this a question that you are most nearly concerned in ?
O therefore for your souls' sakes, and as ever you love your
everlasting peace, " Examine yourselves, whether you are in
32 LIFE OF FAITH.
the faith or not ; Know you not that Christ is in you (by
faith) except you be reprobates?" 2 Cor. xiii. 5. Will you
hearken now as long to your consciences, as you have done
to me ? As you have heard me telling you, what is the na-
ture of a living, saving faith, will you hearken to your con-
sciences, while they impartially tell you, whether you have
this Life of Faith, or not ? It may be known if you are
willing, and diligent, and impartial : if you search on pur-
pose, as men that would know whether they are alive or
dead, and whether they shall live or die for ever; and not as
men that would be flattered and deceived, and are resolved
to think well of their state, be it true or false.
Let conscience tell you : what eyes do you see by, for
the conduct of the chief employment of your lives ? Is it by
the eye of sense or faith ? I take it for granted that it is by
the eye of reason. But is it by reason corrupted and biassed
by sense, or is it by reason elevated by faith ? What coun-
try is it that your hearts converse in? Is it in heaven or
earth ? What company is it that you solace yourselves
with ? Is it with angels and saints ? Do you walk with them
in the Spirit, and join your echoes to their triumphant praises,
and say, Amen, when by faith you hear them ascribing ho-
nour, and praise, and glory to the Ancient of Days, the Om-
nipotent Jehovah, that is, and that was, and is to come ?
Do you fetch your joys from heaven or earth? From things
unseen or seen ? Things future or present ? Things hoped
for> or things possessed? What garden yieldelh you your
sweetest flowers? Whence is the food, that your hopes and
comforts live upon ? Whence are the spirits and cordials
that revive you ; when a frowning world doth cast you into
a fainting fit or swoon ? Where is it that you repose your
souls for rest, when sin or sufferings have made you weary?
Deal truly, is it in heaven or earth ? Which world do you
take for your pilgrimage, and which for your home? I do
not ask you where you are, but where you dwell? Not
where are your persons, but where are your hearts? In a
word, are you in good earnest, when you say, you believe a
heaven and hell ? And do you think, and speak, and pray,
and live, as those that do indeed believe it ? Do you spend
your time and choose your condition of life^ and dispose of
your affairs, and answer temptations to worldly things, as
those that are serious in their belief? Speak out, do you
IIFE OF FAITH. 33
live the life of faith upon things unseen? Or the life of
sense on the things that you behold ? Deal truly ; for your
endless joy or sorrow doth much depend on it. The life of
faith is the certain passage to the life of glory. The fleshly
life on things here seen, is the certain way to endless misery.
" If ye live after the fleshy ye shall die ; but if ye by the
Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live;" Rom.
viii. 13. " Be not deceived ; God is not mocked ; for what-
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that
soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but
he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap ever-^
lasting life ;" Gal. vi. 7, 8. If you would know where you
must live for ever, knovir how, and for what, and upon what
it is that you live here.
Use 4. Having inquired whether you are believers, T am
next to ask you, what you will be for the time to come ?
Will you live upon things seen or unseen ? Will you arro-
gate the name and honour of being Christians, will you be-
think you what Christianity is ? And will you be indeed
what you say you are, and would be thought to be ? Oh !
that you would give credit to the word of God ! that the God
of heaven might be but heartily believed by you ! and that
you would but take his word to be as sure as sense ! and
what he hath told you is or will be, to be as certain as if you
saw it with your eyes J Oh ! what manner of persons would
you then be ! How carefully and fruitfully would you
speak and live ! How impossible were it then that you
should be careless and profane ! And here, that I may by
seriousness bring you to be serious, in so serious a business,
I shall first put a few suppositions to you, about the invisi-
ble objects of faith, and then I shall put some applicatory
questions to you, concerning your own resolutions and prac-
tice thereupon.
l. Suppose you saw the Lord in glory continually be-
fore you, when you are hearing, praying, talking, jesting,
eating, drinking, and when you are tempted to any wilful
sin. Suppose you saw the Lord stand over you, as verily
as you see a man ; (as you might do if your eyes could see
him ; for it is most certain that he is still present with you ;)
suppose you saw but such a glimpse of his back parts as
Moses did, (Exod. xxxiv.) when God put him into a cleft of
VOL. XII. D
34 LIFE OF FAITH.
the rock, and covered him while he passed by, (Exod. xxxiii.
23.) when the face of Moses did shine with the sight, that
he was fain to veil it from the people ; Exod. xxxiv. 33 — 35.
Or if you had seen but what the prophet saw, when he '* be-
held the Lord upon a throne, high and lifted up," 8cc. and
" heard the seraphim cry. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory." When he said,
" Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of un-
clean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips ; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts j"
Isa. vi. 1 — 6. Or if you had seen but what Job saw, when
he said, " I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ;
but now mine eye seeth thee ; wherefore I abhor myself, and
repent in dust and ashes ;" Job xlii. 5, 6. What course
would you take, what manner of persons would you be after
such a sight as this ? If you had seen but Christ appearing
in his glory, as the disciples on the holy mount ; Matt. xvii.
Or as Paul saw him at his conversion, when he was smitten
to the earth ; Acts ix. Or as John saw him. Rev. i. 13. where
he saith, " He was clothed with a garment down to the foot,
and girt with a golden girdle ; his head and his hairs were
white like wool or snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire,
and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a fur-
nace, and his voice as the sound of many waters ; and he
had in his right hand seven stars, and put of his mouth went
a sharp, two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the
sun shining in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at
his feet as dead ; and he laid his right hand upon me, say-
ing unto me. Fear not ; I am the first and the last ; I am he
that liveth and was dead ; and behold I am alive for ever-
more. Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death :" What
do you think you should be and do, if you had seen but such
a sight as this ? Would you be godly or ungodly after it ?
As sure as you live, and see one another, God always seeth
you. He seeth your secret filthiness, and deceit, and ma-
lice, which you think is hid : he seeth you in the dark ;
the locking of your doors, the drawing of your curtains, the
setting of the sun, or the putting out of the candle doth hide
nothing from him that is omniscient ; " Understand O ye
brutish among the people ! and ye fools when will ye be
wise ? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? He that
formed the eye, shall he not see ?" Psal. xciv. 8, 9. The lust.
Life of faIth. 56
and filthineSs, and covetousness, and envy, and vanity of
your very thoughts are as open to his view as the sun at
noon. And therefore you may well suppose him present
that cannot be absent ; arid you may suppose you saw him
that still seeth you, and whom you must see. Oh, what a
change a glimpse of the glory of his majesty would make in
this assembly ! Oh, what amazements, what passionate
workings of soul would it excite ! Were it but an angel
that did thus appear to you, what manner of hearers would
you be ! how serious ! how affectionate ! how sensible ! And
yet are you believers, and have none of this ; when faith
makes unseen things to be as seen? If thou have faith in-
deed, thou seest him that is invisible ; thou speakest to
him ; thou hearest him in his word ; thou seest him in his
works j thou walkest with him ; he is the life of thy com-
forts, thy converse and thy life.
2. Suppose you had seen the matters revealed in the
Gospel to your faith, as to what is past and done already.
If you had seen the deluge and the ark, and preservation of
one righteous family ; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah
with fire from heaven ; and the saving of Lot, whose righ-
teous soul was grieved at their sins, and hunted after as a
prey to their ungodly rage, because he would have hindered
them from transgressing. Suppose you had seen the open-
ing of the Red sea, the passage of the Israelites, the drown-
ing of Pharaoh and his Egyptians ; the manna and the quails
that fell from heaven, the flaming mount, with the terrible
thunder, when God delivered the law to Moses ; what man-
ner of people would you have been ! What lives would you
have led after such sights as all or any of these! Suppose
you had seen Christ in his state of incarnation, in his exam-
ples of lowliness, meekness, contempt of all the glory and
vanities of this worlds and had heard him speak his heavenly
doctrine with power and authority, as never man spake !
Suppose you had seen him heal the blind, the lame, the sick,
and raise the dead ; and seen him after all this made the
scorn of sinners, buffeted, spit upon, when they had crowned
him with thorns, and arrayed him gorgeously in scorn ; and
then nailed between malefactors on a cross, and pierced, and
die a shameful death, and this for such as you and I ! Sup-
pose you had seen the sun darkened without any eclipse,
the vail of the temple rent, the earth tremble ; the angels
36 LIFE OF FAITH.
terrifying the keepers, and Christ rise again ! Suppose you
had been among the disciples when he appeared in the midst
of them, and with Thomas had put your fingers into his
wounded side^ and had seen him walking on the waters,
and at last seen him ascending up to heaven. Suppose you
had seen when the Holy Ghost came down on the disciples
in the similitude of cloven tongues, and had heard them
speak in the various languages of the nations, and seen the
variety of miracles, by which they convinced the unbeliev-
ing world, what persons would you have been ! What lives
would you have led, if you had been eye-witnesses of all
these things ! And do you not profess to believe all this ?
And that these things are as certain truths, as if you had
seen them? Why then doth not your belief affect you, or
command you more ? Why doth it not do what sight would
do, in some good measure, if it were but a lively, saving
faith indeed, that serveth instead of sense ? Yea, I must tell
you, faith must do more with you in this case, than the sight
of Christ alone could do, or the sight of his miracles did on
most. For many that saw him, and saw his works, and
heard his word, yet perished in their unbelief.
3, Suppose you saw the everlasting glory which Christ
hath purchased and prepared for his saints. That you had
been once with Paul, rapt up into the third heavens, and
seen the things that are unutterable ; would you not after
that have rather lived like Paul, and undergone his suffer-
ings and contempt, than to have lived like the brain-sick,
brutish world ? If you had seen what Stephen saw before
his death ; ** The glory of God, and Christ standing at his
right hand ;" Acts vii. 55, 56. If you had seen the thou-
sands and millions of holy, glorious spirits, that are con-
tinually attending the Majesty of the Lord. If you had
seen the glorified spirits of the just, that were once in flesh,
despised by the blind, ungodly world, while they waited on
God in faith, and holiness, and hope, for that blessed crown
which now they wear : if you had felt one moment of their
joys: if you had seen them shine as the sun in glory, and
made like unto the angels of God: if you had heard them
sing the song of the Lamb, and the joyful hallelujahs, and
praise to their eternal king ; what would you be, and what
would you resolve on after such a sight as this ? If the rich
man (Luke xvi.) had seen Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, in
LIFE OF FAITH. 37
the midst of his bravery, and honour, and feasting, and other
sensual delights, as afterwards he saw it when he was tor-
mented in the flames of hell, do you think such a sight would
not have cooled his mirth and jollity, and helped him to un-
derstand the nature and value of his earthly felicity ; and
have proved a more effectual argument than a despised
preacher's words ? At least to have brought him to a freer
exercise of his reason, in a sober consideration of his state
and ways ? Had you seen one hour what Abraham, David,
Paul, and all the saints now see, while sin and flesh doth
keep us here in the dark, what work do you think yourselves
it would make upon your hearts and lives ?
4. Suppose you saw the face of death, and that you were
now lying under the power of some mortal sickness, physi-
cians having forsaken you, and said, * There is no hope :'
your friends weeping over you, and preparing your winding-
sheet and coffin, digging your graves, and casting up the
skulls, and bones, and earth, that must again be cast in to
be your covering and company. Suppose you saw a mes-
senger from God to tell you that you must die to-morrow ;
or heard but what one of your predecessors heard ; " Thou
fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee : then
whose shall these things be that thou hast provided ?" Luke
xii. 20. How would such a message work with you ? Would
it leave you as you are ? If you heard a voice from God this
night in your chamber in the dark, telling you that this is
the last night that you shall live on earth, and before to-
morrow your souls must be in another world, and come be-
fore the dreadful God ; what would be the effect of such a
message ? And do you not verily believe that all this will
very shortly be ? Nay, do you not know without believing,
that you must die, and leave your worldly glory ? And that
all your pleasures and contents on earth, will be as if they
had never been (and much worse) ? O wonderful ! that a
change so sure, so great, so near, should no more affect you,
and no more be fore-thought on, and no more prepared for !
and that you be not awakened by so full and certain a fore-
knowledge, to be in good sadness for eternal life, as you
seem to be when death is at hand I
5. Suppose you saw the great and dreadful day of judg-
ment, as it is described by Christ himself in Matt. xxv.
** When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the
38 ^^IF£ OF FAITH.
holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of
his glory : and before him shall be gathered all nations : and
he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd di-
yideth his sheep from the goats : and he shall set the sheep
Qn his right hand, but the goats on the left ;" ver. 31 — 33.
and shall sentence the righteous to eternal life, and the rest
into everlasting punishment. If you did now behold the
glory and terror of that great appearance, how the saints will
be magnified, and rejoice, and be justified against all the ac-
cusations of Satan, and calumnies of wicked men; and how
the ungodly then would fain deny the words and deeds that
now they glory in ; and what horror and confusion will then
Qverwhelm those wretched souls, that now outface the mes-
sengers of the Lord ! Had you seen them trembling before
the Lord, that now are braving it out in the pride and arro-
gancy of their hearts. Had you heard how then they will
change their tune, and wish they had never known their sins;
and wish they had lived in greater holiness than those whom
they derided for it. What would you say, and do, and be,
after such an amazing sight as this? Would you sport it
q^t in sin as you have done ? Would you take no better
care for your salvation ? If you had seen those sayings of
the Holy Ghost fulfilled ; " When the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey
not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be pu-
nished with everlastiug destruction from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glpry of his power ;" (Jude 14, 15. 2 Thess.
i. 7 — 9.) what mind do you think you should be of? What
course would you take, if you had but seen this dreadful
day ? Could you go on to think, and speak, and live as
sensually, stupidly and negligently as now you do? *' The
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the earth also,
and the works that are therein shall be burnt up ;" 2 Pet. iii.
10 — 12. Is it possible soundly to believe such a day, so
sure, so near, and no more regard it, nor make ready for it,
than the careless and ungodly do ?
6. Suppose at that day you had heard the devil accusing
you of all the sins that you have committed ; and set them
out in the most odious aggravations, and call for justice
LIFE OF FAITH. 39
against you to your Judge. If you heard him pleading all
those sins against you that now he daily tempts you to com-
mit, and now maketh you believe are harmless, or small, in-
considerable things. If you heard him saying, * At such a
time this sinner refused grace, neglected Christ, despised
heaven and preferred earth ; at such a time he derided god-
liness, and made a mock of the holy word and counsels of
the Lord ; at such a time he profaned the name of God, he
coveted his neighbour's wealth ; he cherished thoughts of
envy or of lust ; he was drunk, or gluttonous, or committed
fornication, and he was never thoroughly converted by re-
newing grace, and therefore he is an heir of hell, and belongs
to me : I ruled him, and I must have him.' What would you
think of a life of sin, if once you had heard such accusations
as these ? How would you deal by the next temptation, if
you had heard what use the tempter will hereafter make of
all your sins ?
7. What if you had seen the damned in their misery, and
heard them cry out of the folly of their impenitent, careless
lives ; and wishing as Dives, (Luke xvi.) that their friends on
earth might have " one sent from the dead, to warn them that
they come not to that place of torment," (1 speak to men that
say they are believers,) what would you do upon such a sight ?
If you had heard them there torment themselves in the re-
membrance of the time they lost, the mercy they neglected,
the grace resisted, and wish it were all to do again, and that
they might once more be tried with another life ! If you
saw how the world is altered with those that once were as
proud and confident as others, what do you think such a
sight would do with you ? And why then doth the believ-
ing of it do no more, when the thing is certain ?
8. Once more ; suppose that in your temptations you saw
the tempter appearing to you, and pleading with you, as he
doth by his inward suggestions, or by the mouths of his in-
struments. If you saw him, and heard him hissing you on
to sin, persuading you to gluttony, drunkenness or unclean-
ness. If the devil appeared to you, and led you to the place
of lust, and offered you the harlot, or the cup of excess, and
urged you to swear, or curse, or rail, or scorn at a holy life ;
would not the sight of the angel mar his game, and cool your
courage, and spoil your sport, and turn your stomachs?
Would you be drunk or filthy, if you saw him stand by you?
40 LIFE OF FAITH.
Think on it the next time you are tempted. Stout men have
been appalled by such a sight. And do you not believe that
it is he indeed that tempteth you ? As sure as if your eyes
beheld him, it is he that prompteth men to jeer at godliness ;
and puts your vv^anton, ribald speeches, and oaths, and
curses into your mouths : he is the tutor of the enemies of
grace, that teacheth them * doct^ delirare, ingeniose in-
sanire,* ingeniously to quarrel with the way of life, and
learnedly to confute the arguments that would have saved
them ; and subtlely to dispute themselves out of the hands
of mercy, and gallantly to scorn to stoop to Christ till there
be no remedy ; and with plausible eloquence to commend
the plague and sickness of their souls ; and irrefragably
maintain it, that the way to hell will lead to heaven ; and to
justify the sins that will condemn them; and honourably
and triumphantly to overcome their friends, and serve the
devil in mood and figure, and valiantly to cast themselves
into hell, in despite of all the laws and reproofs of God or
man that would have hindered them. It being most certain
that this is the devil's work, and you durst not do it if he
moved you to it with open face, how dare you do it when
faith would assure you, that it is as verily he, as if you saw
him?
More distinctly, answer these following questions, upon
the foregoing suppositions.
Quest. 1. If you saw but what you say you do believe,
would you not be convinced that the most pleasant, gainful
sin is worse than madness ? And would you not spit at the
very name of it, and openly cry out of your open folly, and
beg for prayers, and love reprovers, and resolve to turn with-
out delay ?
Quest. 2. What would you think of the most serious,
holy life, if you had seen the things you say you do believe ?
Would you ever again reproach it as preciseness, or count
it more ado than needs, and think your time were better
spent in playing than in praying ; in drinking, and sports,
and filthy lusts, than in the holy services of the Lord ? Would
you think then that one day in seven, were too much for the
work for which you live ; and that an hour on this holy day
were enough to be spent in instructing you for eternity ?
Or would you not believe that he is the blessed man, whose
delight is in the law of God, and n^editateth in it day and
LIFE OF FAITH. 41
night? Could you plead for sensuality, or ungodly negli-
gence, or open your mouths against the most serious holiness
of life, if heaven and hell stood open to your view ?
Quest, 3, If you saw but what you say you do believe,
would yoAi ever again be offended with the ministers of
Christ for the plainest reproofs, and closest exhortations,
and strictest precepts and discipline, that now are disrelished
so much? Or rather, would you not desire them to help
you presently to try your state, and to search you to the
quick, and to be more solicitous to save you than to please
you ? The patient that will take no bitter medicine in time,
when he sees he must die, would then take any thing.
When you see the things that now you hear of, then you
would do any thing. O then, might you have these days
again, sermons would not be too plain or long : in season
and out of season would then be allowed of. Then you
would understand what moved ministers to be so importu-
nate with you for conversion ; and whether trifling or se-
rious preaching was the best.
Quest, 4. Had you seen the things that you say you do
believe,what effect would sermons have upon you, after such
a sight as this ? O what a change it would make upon our
preaching, and your hearing, if we saw the things that we
speak and hear of! How fervently should we importune
you in the name of Christ ! How attentively would you
hear, and carefully consider and obey ! We should then
have no such sleepy preaching and hearing, as now we have.
Could I but shew to all this congregation, while I am
preaching, the invisible world of which we preach, and did
you hear with heaven and hell in your eyesight, how confi-
dent should I be (though not of the saving change of all)
that I should this hour teach you to plead for sin, and
against a holy life no more ; and send you home another
people than you came hither. I durst then ask the worst
that heareth me, * Dare you now be drunk, or gluttonous,
or worldly ? Dare you be voluptuous, proud or fornicators
any more? Dare you go home, and make a jest at piety,
and neglect your souls as you have done V And why then
should not the believed truth prevail, if indeed you did be-
lieve it, when the thing is as sure as if you saw it ?
Quest. 5. If you had seen what you say you do believe,
would you hunt as eagerly for wealth, or honour, and re-
42 LIFE OF FAITH.
gard the thoughts or words of men, as you did before?
Though it is only the believer that truly honourethhis rulers,
(for none else honour them for God, but use them for them-
selves) yet wonder not if he fear not much the face of man,
and be no admirer of worldly greatness, when he seeth what
they will be, as well as what they are. Would not usurpers
have been less feared, if all could have foreseen their fall?
Even common reason can foresee, that shortly you will all
be dust. Methinks I foresee your ghastly paleness, your
loathsome blackness, and your habitation in the dark. And
who can much envy, or desire the advancements that have
such an end ? One sight of God would blast all the glory
of the world, that is now the bait for man's perdition.
Quest. 6. Would temptations be as powerful as now they
are, if you did but see the things you hear of? Could all
the beauty or pleasures in the world entice you to filthiness
or sensuality, if you saw God over you, and judgment before
you, and saw what damned souls now suffer, and what be-
lievers now enjoy? Could you be persuaded by any com-
pany or recreation, to waste your precious time in vain, with
such things in your eye ? 1 am confident you would abhor
the motion ; and entertain temptations to the most honoured,
gainful, pleasant sin, as now you would do a motion to cut
your own throats, or leap into a coal-pit, or thrust your head
into a burning oven. Why then doth not faith thus shame
temptations, if indeed you do believe these things ? Will you
say, it is your weakness, you cannot choose, or that it is
your nature to be lustful, revengeful, sensual, and you can-
not overcome it ; but if you had a sight of heaven and hell,
you could then resist ; you cannot now because you will
not ; but did you see that which would make you willing,
your power would appear. The sight of a judge or gallows
can restrain men. The sight of a person whom you reve-
rence, can restrain the exercise of your disgraceful sins ;
much more would the sight of heaven and hell. If you were
but dying, you would shake the head at him that would then
tempt you to the committing of your former sins. And is
not a lively, foreseeing faith as effectual ?
Quest. 7. Had you seen what you say you do believe, you
would not so much stick at sufferings, nor make so great a
matter of it, to be reproached, slandered, imprisoned, or con-
demned by man, when God and your salvation command
LIFE OF FAITH. 43
your patience. A sight of hell would make you think it
worse than madness, to run thither to escape the wrath of
man, or any sufferings on earth j Rom. viii. 18.
Quest. 8. And O how such a sight would advance the
Redeemer, and his grace, and promises, and word, and or-
dinances in your esteem ! It would quicken your desires,
and make you fly to Christ for life, as a drowning man to
that which may support him. How sweetly then would you
relish the name, the word, the ways of Christ, which now
seem dry and common things !
Quest, 9. Could you live as merrily, and sleep as quietly
in a negligent uncertainty of your salvation, if you had seen
these things, as now you do ? Could you live at heart's ease,
while you know not where you shall be to-morrow, or must
live for ever ? Oh no ! were heaven and hell but seen before
you, your consciences would be more busy in putting such
questions, * Am I regenerate, sanctified, reconciled, justified,
or not V than any the most zealous minister is now.
Quest. 10. I will put to you but one question more. If
we saw God, and heaven, and hell before us, do you think it
would not effectually reconcile our differences, and heal our
unbrotherly exasperations and divisions ? Would it not
hold the hands that itch to be using violence, against those
that are not in all things of their minds ? What abundance
of vain controversies would it reconcile ! As the coming in
of the master doth part the fray among the schoolboys ; so
the sight of God would frighten us from contentious or un-
charitable violence. This would teach us how to preach and
pray better than a storm at sea can do, which yet doth it
better than some in prosperity will learn. Did we see what
we preach of, it would drive us out of our man-pleasing,
self-seeking, sleepy strain, as the cudgel drives the beggar
from his canting, ^nd the breaking loose of the bear did
teach the affected cripple to find his legs and cast away his
crutches. I would desire no better outward help to end our
controversies about indifferent modes of worship, than a
sight of the things of which we. speak. This would excite
such a serious frame of soul, as would not suffer religion to
evaporate into formality, nor dwindle into affectation, com-
pliment and ceremony. Nor should we dare to beat our
fellow servants, and thrust them out of the vineyard, and
say, you shall ilot preach, or pray, or live, but upon these or
44 LIFE OF FAITH.
those unnecessary terms. But the sense of our own frailty,
and fear of a severe disquisition of our failings, would make
us compassionate to others, and content that necessaries be
the matter of our unity, necessaries of our liberty, and both
of charity.
If sight in all these ten particulars would do so much,
should not faith do much, if you verily believe the things
you see not?
Alas ! corrupted reason is asleep (with men that seem
wise in other things,) till it be awakened by faith or sight.
And sleeping reason is unserviceable as folly. It doth no
work : it avoids no danger. A doctor that is asleep, can de-
fend the truth no better than a waking child. But reason
will be reason, and conscience will be conscience, when the
dust is blown out of men's eyes, and sight and feeling have
awakened, and so recovered their understandings ; or faith
more seasonable and happily awakened them.
And O that now we might all consent to addict ourselves
to the life of faith : and,
1. That we live not too much on visibles. 2. That we
live on things invisible.
(1.) One would think that worldliness is a disease that
carrieth with it a cure for itself; and that the rational nature
should be loath to love at so dear a rate, and to labour for
so poor a recompence. It is pity that Gehazi's leprosy and
Judah's death should no more prevent a succession of Ge-
hazis and Judahs in all generations. Our Lord went before
us most eminently in a contempt of earth : " his kingdom
was not of this world." No men are more unlike him than
the worldlings. I know necessity is the pretence ; but it is
the dropsy of covetousness that causeth the thirst which they
call necessity : and therefore the cure is * non addere opibus,
sed imminuere cupiditatem.' The disease must not be fed
but healed. ' Satis est divitiarum non amplius velle.' It
hath lately been a controversy, whether this be not the gol-
den age ? That it is ' aetas ferrea* we have felt ; our demon-
strations are undeniable : that it is * setas aurata,' we have
sufficient proof: and while gold is the god that rules the
most, we will not deny it to be ' aetas aurea,' in the poet's
sense,
*' Aurea nunc vere sunt secula : plurimus auro
Venit honos : auro couciliatur amor."
LIFE OF FAITH. 45
This prevalency of things seen, against things unseen, is
the idolatry of the world ; the subversion of nature ; the
perversion of our faculties and actions ; making the soul a
drudge to flesh, and God to be used as a servant to the world.
It destroyeth piety, justice and charity. It turneth *jus ' by
pj^version into ' vis ;* or by reversion into * sui.' No wonder
then if it be the ruin of societies, when
" Gens sine justitia, sine remige navis in unda."
It can possess even Demosthenes with a squinancy, if there
be but an Harpalus to bring him the infection. It can make
a judicature to be as Plutarch called that of Rome, ' dafjScJv
Ytoaav/ * impiorum regionem ;' contrary to Cicero's descrip-
tion of Sulpitius, who was, 'magis justitise quam juris con-
sultus, et ad facilitatem sequitatemque omnia contulit ; nee
maluit litium actiones constituere, quam controversias tol-
lere.' In a word, if you live by sense and not by faith, on
things present, and not on things unseen, you go backward ;
you stand on your heads and turn your heels against hea-
ven ; you cause the beast to ride the man ; and by turning
all things upside down, will turn yourselves into confusion.
(2.) Consider that it is the unseen things that are only
great and necessary, that are worthy of a man, and answer
the excellency of our nature, and the ends of our lives, and
all our mercies. All other things are inconsiderable toys,
except as they are dignified by their relation to these.
Whether a man step into eternity from a palace or a prison,
a lordship or a Lazarus state, is little to be regarded. All
men in the world, whose designs and business take up with
any thing short of heaven, are in the main of one condition,
and are but in several degrees and forms in the school of
folly. If the intendment of your lives fall short of God, it
matters not much what it is you seek, as to any great diffe-
rence. If lesser children play for pins, and bigger boys for
points and pence, and aged children for lands and money,
for titles of honour and command, what difference is there
between these in point of wisdom and felicity? But that
the little ones have more innocent delights, and at a cheaper
rate than the aged have, without the vexatious cares and
dangers that attend more grave and serious dotage. As
holiness to the Lord is written upon all that is faithfully
referred to his will and glory ; so vanity and sin is written
upon all that is but made provision for the flesh, and hath
46 LIFE OF FAITH.
no higher end than self. To go to hell with greater stir, and
attendance, and repute, with greater pomp and pleasure than
the poor, is a poor consolation, a pitiful felicity.
(3.) Faith is the wisdom of the soul ; and unbelief and
sensuality are its blindness, folly and brutishness. How
short is the knowledge of the wisest unbelievers ! Tlrr.y
know not much of what is past ; (and less they would know
if histories were not of more credit with them than the word
of God ;) but, alas! how little do they know of what is to
comel Sense tells them where they are, and what they are
now doing ; but it tells them not where they shall be to-
morrow. But faith can tell a true believer, what will be
when this world is ended, and where he shall live to all eter-
nity, and what he shall be doing, what thoughts he shall be
thinking, what affections shall be the temper and employ-
ment of his soul; what he shall see, and feel, and enjoy;
and with what company he shall converse for ever. If the
pretenders to astrological prediction, could but foretel the
changes of men's lives, and the time and manner of their
deaths, what resort would be to them ! And how wise would
they be esteemed ! But what is all this to the infallible pre-
dictions of the All-knowing God, that hath given us a pros-
pect into another world, and shewed us what will be for
ever, more certainly than you know what a day may bring
forth.
So necessary is foreknowledge in the common affairs of
men, that without it the actions of the world would be but
mad, tumultuary confusion. What would you think of that
man's understanding, or how would you value the employ-
ments of his life, that looked no further in all his actions,
than the present hour, and saw no more than the things in
hand ? What would you call him that so spends the day,
as one that knoweth not there will be any night : and so
passed the night, as one that looked not for the day ? That
knew not in the spring there would be an harvest, or in the
summer that there would be any winter, or in youth that
there would be age or death ? The silly brutes that have no
foreknowledge, are furnished with an instinct that supplieth
the want of it, and also have the help of man's foreknow-
ledge, or else their kind would be soon extinct. The bees
labour in summer, as if they foresaw the winter's need. And
can that man be wise, that foreseeth not his everlasting state?
LIFE OF FAITH. 47
Indeed, he that knoweth not what is to come, hath no true
knowledge of what is present : for the worth and use of pre-
sent things is only in their respect to things eternal : and
there is no means where there is no end. What wisdom then
remains in unbelievers, when all their lives are misemployed, .
because they know not the end of life ? and when all their
actions are utterly debased, by the baseness of those brutish
ends, to which they serve and are referred. Nothing is
truly wise or honourable that is done for small and worthless
things. To draw a curious picture of a shadow, or elegantly
write the history of a dream, may be an ingenious kind of
foolery ; but the end will not allow it the name of wisdom :
and such are all the actions of the world, (though called
heroic, valiant and honourable) that aim at transitory trifles,
and tend not to the everlasting end. A bird can neatly build
her nest, but is not therefore counted wise. How contrary
is the judgment of the world to Christ's! When the same
description that he giveth of a fool, is it that worldlings give
of a wise and happy man ; " One that layeth up riches for
himself, and is not rich towards God;" Luke xii. 20, 21.
Will you persuade us that the man is wise, that can climb a
little higher than his neighbours, that he may have the
greater fall? That is attended in his way to hell with
greater pomp and state than others ? That can sin more
syllogistically and rhetorically than the vulgar ; and more
prudently and gravely run into damnation ; and can learn-
edly defend his madness, and prove that he is safe at the
brink of hell ? Would you persuade us that he is wise, that
contradicts the God and rule of wisdom, and that parts with
heaven for a few merry hours, and hath not wit to save his
soul ? When they see the end, and are arrived at eternity^
let them boast of their wisdom, as they find cause : we will
take them then for more competent judges. Let the eternal
God be the portion of my soul ; let heaven be my inheritance
and hope ; let Christ be my Head, and the promise my se-
curity, let faith be my wisdom, and love be my very heart
and will, and patient, persevering obedience be my life ; and
then I can spare the wisdom of the world, because I can
spare the trifles that it seeks, and all that they are like to
get by it.
What abundance of complaints and calamity would fore-
sight prevent ! Had the events of this one year been (con-
48 LIFE OF FAITH.
ditionally) foreseen, the actions of thousands would have
been otherwise ordered, and much sin and shame have been
prevented k What a change would it make on the judgments
of the world ? How many words would be otherwise spoken ;
and how many deeds would be otherwise done ; and how
many hours would be otherwise spent, if the change that will
be made by judgment and execution were well foreseen !
And why is it not foreseen, when it is foreshewn? When
the omniscient God, that will certainly perform his word,
hath so plainly revealed it, and so frequently and loudly
warns you of it ? Is he wise, that after all these warnings
will lie down in everlasting woe, and say, ' I little thought of
such a day : I did not believe I should ever have seen so
great a change?'
Would the servants of Christ be used as they are, if the
malicious world foresaw the day when " Christ shall come
with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment on all
that are ungodly?" Jude 14, 15. When he shall " come to
be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that do
believe ;" 2 Thess. i. 10. When " the saints shall judge the
world ;" 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3. and when the ungodly seeing them
on Christ's right hand, must hear their sentence on this ac-
count, " Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it (or,
did it not) to one of the least of these, (my brethren,) you did
it unto me ;" Matt. xxv. Yet a few days, and all this will
be done before your eyes ; but the unbelieving world will
not foresee it.
Would malignant Cain have slain his brother, * " he had
foreseen the punishment, which he calleth afterwards into-
lerable ; Gen. iv. 13. Would the world have despised the
preaching of Noah, if they had believed the deluge ? Would
Sodom have been Sodom, if they had foreseen that a hell
from heaven would have consumed them? Would Achan
have meddled with his prey, if he had foreseen the stones
that were his executioners and his tomb? Would Gehazi
have obeyed his covetous desire, if he had foreseen the le-
prosy ? Or Judas have betrayed Christ, if he had foreseen
the hanging himself in his despair ? It is foreseeing faith
that saves those that are saved ; and blind unbelief that
causeth men's perdition.
Yea, present things as well as future are unknown to
foolish unbelievers. Do they know who seeth them in their
LIFE OF FAITH. 49
sin? And what many thousands are suffering for the like,
while they see no danger? Whatever their tongues say, the
hearts and lives of fools deny that there is a God that seeth
thena,, and will be their judgfe j Psal. xiv. 1. You see then
that you must live by faith, or perish by folly.
(4.) Consider that things visible are so transitory, and of
so short continuance, that they do not deserve the name of
things ; being nothings, and less than nothing, and lighter
than vanity itself, compared to the necessary Eternal Being,
whose name is I AM. There is but a few days difference
between a prince and no prince ; a lord and no lord ; a man
and no man, a world and no world. And if this be all, let
the time that is past inform you how small a difference this
is. Rational foresight may teach a Xerxes to weep over his
numerous army, as knowing how soon they were all to be
dead men. Can you forget that death is ready to undress
you ; and tell you, that your sport and mirth is done; and
that now you have had all that the world can do for those that
serve it, and take it for their part ? How quickly can a fe-
ver, or the choice of a hundred messengers of death, bereave
you of all that earth afforded you, and turn your sweetest
pleasures into gall, and turn a lord into a lump of clay ! It
is but as a wink, an inch of time, till you must quit the stage,
and speak, and breathe, and see the face of man no more. If
you foresee this, O live as men that do foresee it ! I never
heard of any that stole his winding-sheet, or fought for a
coffin, or went to law for his grave. And if you did but see
(as wise men should) how near your honours, and wealth,
and pleasures do stand unto eternity, as well as your wind-
ing-sheets, your coffins, and your graves, you would then
value, and desire, and seek them regularly and moderately
as you do these. Oh ! what a fading flower is your strength !
How soon will all your gallantry shrink into the shell ! ' Si
vestra sunt toUite ea vobiscum.' Bern. But yet this is not
the great part of the change : the * terminus ad quem* doth
make it greater. It is awful, for persons of renown and ho-
nour to change their palaces for graves, and turn to noisome
rottenness and dirt : to change their power and command for
silent impotency, unable to rebuke the poorest worm, that
saucily feedeth on their hearts or faces. But if you are be-
lievers, you can look further, and foresee much more. The
VOL. XII. E
50 LIFE OF FAITH.
largest and most capacious heart alive, is unable fully to
conceive what a change the stroke of death will make.
For the holy soul so suddenly to pass from prayer to an-
gelical praise, from sorrow unto boundless joys; from the
slanders and contempt, and violence of men, to the bosom
of Eternal Love ; from the clamours of a tumultuous world,
to the universal harmony, and perfect uninterrupted love and
peace ! O what a blessed change is this ; which believing
now we shall shortly feel.
For an unholy, unrenewed soul, that yesterday was
drowned in flesh, and laughed at threatenings, and scorned
reproofs, to be suddenly snatched into another world ; and
see the heaven that he hath lost, and feel the hell which he
would not believe : to fall into the gulf of bottomless eter-
nity, and at once to find that joy and hope are both de-
parted ; that horror and grief must be his company, and des-
peration hath locked up the door ! O what an amazing
change is this ! If you think me troublesome for mention-
ing such ungrateful things, what a trouble will it be to feel
them ! May it teach you to prevent that greater trouble,
you may well bear this. Find but a medicine against death,
or any security for your continuance here, or any preven-
tion of the change, and I have done: but that which un-
avoidably must be seen, should be foreseen.
But the unseen world is not thus mutable ; eternal life is
begun in the believer. The church is built on Christ the
rock; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Fix
here, and you shall never be removed.
(5.) Hence followeth another difference : the mutable
creature doth impart a disgraceful mutability to the soul that
chooseth it. It disappointeth and deceiveth ; and therefore
the ungodly are of one mind to-day, and another to-morrow.
In health they are all for pleasure, and commodity, and ho-
nour ; and at death they cry out on it as deceitful vanity.
In health they cannot abide this strictness, this meditating,
and seeking, and preparing for the life to come ; but at death
or judgment they will be of another mind. Then O that
they had been so wise as to know their time ! And O that
they had lived as holy as the best ! They are now the bold
opposers and reproachers of a holy life ; but then they would
be glad it had been their own : they would eat their words,
and will be down in the mouth, and stand to never a word
LIFE OF FAITH. 51
they say, when sight, and sense, and judgment shall con-
vince them.
But things unchangable do tix the soul. Piety is no
matter for repentance. Doth the believer speak against sin
and sinners; and for a holy, sober, righteous life^ He will
do so to the last: death and judgment shall not change his
mind in this, but much confirm it. Rom. viii. 35 — 37.
And therefore he perseveres through sufferings to death :
'* For this cause we faint not^ but though our outward
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh
for iis a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. While
we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things
which are not seen : for the things which are seen are tem-
poral; but the things which are not seen are eternal ;"
SCor.iv. 16—18.
(6.) Lastly, let this move you to live by a foreseeing faith,
that it is of necessity to your salvation. Believing heaven
must prepare you for it before you can enjoy it. Believing
hell is necessary to prevent it; Mark xvi. 16. John iii. 18.
36. "The just shall live by faith, but if any man draw
back (or be lifted up) the Lord will have no pleasure in
him;" Heb. x. 38. Hab. ii.4. "Take heed that there be
not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from
the living God ;" Heb. iii. 12. " And be not of them that
draw back to perdition, but of them that believe to the sav-
ing of the soul ;" Heb. x. 39. It is God that saith, **They
shall all be damned that believed not the truth, but had plea-
sure in unrighteousness ;" 2 Thess. ii. 10 — 12.
May I now, in the conclusion, more particularly exhort
you, 1. That you will live upon things foreseen. 2. That
you will promote this life of faith in others, according to
your several capacities.
Princes and nobles live not always : you are not the
rulers of the unmovable kingdom ; but of a boat that is in a
hasty stream, or a ship under sail that will speed both pilot
and passengers to the shore. * Dixi, estis Dii : ut morie-
mini ut homines.' It was not the least or worst of kings
that said, " I am a stranger upon earth ;" Psal. cxix. 19.
* Vermis sum, non homo :' " I am a worm and no man ;"
Psal. xxii. 6. You are the greater worms, and we the little
ones : but we must all say with Job, " The grave is our house.
52 LIFE OF FAITH.
and we must make our beds in darkness : corruption is our
father, and the worm our mother and our sister ;" Job xvii.
13, 14. The inexorable leveller is ready at your backs to
V convince you by irresistible argument, that dust you are,
and to dust you shall return. Heaven should be as desira-
ble, and hell as terrible to you as to others. No man will
fear you after death ; much less will Christ be afraid to judge
you ; Luke xix. 27. As the kingdoms and glory of the
world were contemned by him in the hour of his tempta-
tion ; so are they inconsiderable to procure his approbation.
Trust not therefore to uncertain riches : value them but as
they will prove at last. As you stand on higher ground than
others, it is meet that you should see further. The greater
are your advantages, the wiser and better you should be ;
and therefore should better perceive the difference between
things temporal and eternal. It is always dark where these
glowworms shine, and where a rotten post doth seem a fire.
Your difficulties also should excite you ; you must go as
through a needle's eye to heaven. To live as in heaven in a
crowd of business and stream of temptations from the con-
fluence of all worldly things, is so hard, that few such come
to heaven. Withdraw yourselves therefore to the frequent,
serious forethoughts of eternity, and live by faith.
Had time allowed it, I should have come down to some
particular instances : as, 1. Let the things unseen be stilL
at hand to answer every temptation, and shame and repel
each motion to sin.
2. Let them be still at hand to quicken us to duty, when
backwardness and coldness doth surprise us. What ! shall
we do any thing coldly for eternity?
3. Let it resolve you what company to delight in, and
what society to be of, even those with whom you must dwell
for ever. What side soever is uppermost on earth, you may
foresee which side shall reign for ever.
4. Let the things invisible be your daily solace, and the
satisfaction of your souls. Are you slandered by men?
Faith tells you, it is enough that Christ will justify you.
O happy day ! when he will bring forth our righteousness
as the light, and set all straight, which all the false histories
or slanderous tongues or pens in all the world made crooked.
Are you frowned on or contemned by men? Is it not
enough that you shall everlastingly be honoured by the
LIFE OF FAITH. 53
Lord? Are you wronged, oppressed, or trodden on by
pride or malice ? Is not heaven enough to make you repa-
ration? And eternity long enough for your joys? O pray
for your malicious enemies, lest they suffer more than you
can wish them !
2. Lastly, I should have become on the behalf of Christ,
a petitioner to you for protection and encouragement to the
heirs of the invisible world. For them that preach, and
them that live in this Life of Faith. Not for the honours
and riches of the world ; but for leave and countenance to
work in the vineyard, and peaceably travel through the
world as strangers, and live in the communion of saints as
they believe. But, though it be for the beloved of the Lord,
the apple of his eye, the people that are sure to prevail and
reign with Christ for ever ; whose prayers can do more for
the greatest princes than you can do for them, whose joy is
hastened by that which is intended for their sorrow ; I shall
now lay by any further suit on their behalf.
But for yourselves, O use your seeing and foreseeing fa-
culties ! Be often looking through the prospective of the
promise : and live not by sense on present things ; but live
as if you saw the glorious things which you say you do be-
lieve. That when worldly titles are insignificant words, and
fleshly pleasures have an end, and faith and holiness will be
the marks of honour ; and unbelief and ungodliness the
badges of perpetual shame, and when you must give account
of your stewardship, and shall be no longer stewards, you
may then be brought by faith unto fruition, and see with joy
the glorious things that you now believe. Write upon your
palaces and goods that sentence; " Seeing all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in
all holy conversation and godliness, looking for, and hasting
to the coming of the day of God ?" 2 Pet. iii. II.
54 LIFE OF FAITH.
HEBREWS xi. 1.
Noto Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.
CHAPTER I,
For Conviction,
In the opening of this text, I have already shewed, that ' it
is the nature and use of faith to be instead of presence and
sight; or to make things absent, future, and unseen, to be
to us as to our estimation, resolution and conversation, as if
they were present, and before our eyes : though not as to
the degree, yet as to the sincerity of our acts.*
In the handling of this doctrine, I have already shewed,
that this faith is a grounded, j ustifiable knowledge, and not a
fancy, or ineffectual opinion ; having for its object the infalli-
ble revelation and certain truth of God ; and not a falsehood,
nor a mere probability, or * verisimile/ I have shewed how
such a faith will work ; how far it should carry us if its evi-
dence were fully entertained and improved ; and how far it
doth carry all that have it sincerely in the least degree ; and
I have shewed some of the moving considerations, that
should prevail with us to live upon the things unseen, as if
they were open to our sight.
I think I may suddenly proceed here to the remaining
part of the application, without any recital of the ex-
plication or confirmation, the truth lying so naked in the
text itself.
The life of faith and the life of sense, are the two ways
that all the world do walk in to the two extremely different
ends which appear when death withdraws the veil. It is
the ordination of God, that men's own estimation, choice and
endeavours, shall be the necessary preparative to their frui-
tion. ' Nemo nolens bonus aut beatus est.' Men shall have
no better than they value, and choose, and seek. Where
earthly things are highest in the esteem, and dearest to the
mind of man, such persons have no higher nor more durable
portion. Where the heavenly things are highest and dearest
to the soul, and are practically preferred, they are the por-
LIFE OF FAITH, 55
tion of that soul. Where the treasure is, the heart will be ;
Matt. vi. 21. The sanctifying Spirit doth lead the spiritual
man, by a spiritual rule in a spiritual way, to a spiritual, glo-
rious, durable felicity. The sensual part, with the sensual
inclination communicated to the corrupted mind and will,
doth by carnal reasonings, and by carnal means, pursue and
embrace a present, fading, carnal interest ; and therefore it
findeth and attaineth no more. " The flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; and these are
contrary the one to the other ;" Gal. v. 17. " They that are
after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh ; but they that
are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. To be carnally
minded is death ; but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace : because the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for
it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. If
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of
his. If we live after the flesh, we shall die; but if by the
Spirit we mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live ;"
Rom. viii. 5 — 14. '* Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he also reap. He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh
reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of
the Spirit reap everlasting life." As a man is, so he loveth
and desireth ; as he desireth, he seeketh, and as he seeketh,
he findeth and possesseth. If you know which world, what
riches a man prefers, intends and liveth for, you may know
which world is his inheritance, and whither he is going as to
his perpetual abode.
Reason enableth a man to know and seek more than he
seeth : and faith informeth and advanceth reason, to know
that by the means of supernatural revelation, that by no
other means is fully known. To seek and hope for no bet-
ter than we know, and to know no more than is objectively
revealed, (while we hinder not the revelation) is the blame-
less imperfection of a creature that hath limited faculties
and capacities. To know what is best, and yet to choose
and seek an inferior, inconsistent good ; and to refuse and
neglect the best, when it is discerned, is the course of such
as have but a superficial opinion of the good refused, or a
knowledge not awakened to speak so loudly as may be effec-
tual for choice ; and whose sensuality mastereth their wills
and reason, and leads them backward : and those that know
5G LlFli OF KAITH.
not, because they would not know ; or hear not, because they
would not hear, are under that same dominion of the flesh,
which is an enemy to all knowledge, that is an enemy to its
delights and interest. To profess to know good, and yet re-
fuse it ; and to profess to know evil, and yet to choose it,
and this predominantly and in the main, is the description
of a self-condemning hypocrite. And if malignity and op-
position of the truth professed be added to the hypocrisy, it
comes up to that pharisaical blindness and obdurateness,
which prepareth men for the remediless sin.
Consider then but of the profession of many of the peo-
ple of this land, and compare their practice with it, and
judge what compassion the condition of many doth bespeak.
If you will believe them, they profess that they verily be-
lieve in the invisible God ; in a Christ unseen to them ; in
the Holy Spirit, gathering a holy church to Christ, and em-
ploying them in a communion of saints. That they believe
a judgment to come, upon the glorious coming of the Lord ;
and an everlasting life of joy or torment thereupon. All this
is in their creed : they would take him for a damnable he-
retic that denieth it ; and perhaps would consent that he be
burned at a stake. So that you would think these men
should live as if heaven and hell were open to their sight.
But O what a hypocritical generation are the ungodly ! How
their lives do give their tongues the lie ! (Remember that I
apply this to no better men.) It is a wonder that such men
can believe themselves, when they say they do indeed be-
lieve the Gospel : and shews what a monster the blind, de-
ceitful heart of an impenitent sinner is. In good sadness
can they think that they truly believe that God is God, and
yet so wilfully disobey him? That heaven is hearen, and
yet prefer the world before it? That hell is hell, and yet
will venture upon it for a lust, or a thing of nought ? What !
believe that there is at hand a life of endless joy, and no
more mind it ! but hate them that set their hearts upon it !
Do they believe, that except a man be converted and new
born, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven ? as
Christ hath told them. Matt, xviii. 3. John iii. 3. 5. and yet
never trouble their minds about it, to try whether they are
converted and new born or not? Do they beheve God, that
no man shall see him without holiness ? (Heb. xii. 14) and
yet dare they be unholy? and perhaps deride it? Do they
LIFE OF FAITH. 57
believe that Christ will " come in flaming fire, taking ven-
geance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gos-
pel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and
from the glory of his power ;" 2 Thess. ii. 8, 9. And yet
dare they disobey the Gospel ! Do they take God for their
absolute Lord and Governor, while they will not so much as
meditate on his laws, but care more what a mortal man saith,
or what their flesh and carnal reason saith, than what he
saith to them in his holy word ? Do they take Christ for
their Saviour, and yet would not be saved by him from their
sins, but had rather keep them ? Do they take the Holy
Ghost for their Sanctifier, while they will not have a sanc-
tified heart or life, and love it not in those that have it ? Do
they take heaven for their endless home and happiness,
while they neither mind nor seek it, in comparison of the
world ? And do they take the world for vanity and vexa-
tion, while they mind and seek it more than heaven ? Do
they believe the communion of saints, while they fly from it,
and perhaps detest and persecute it? Is light and darkness
more contrary than their words and deeds? And is not hy-
pocrisy as visible in their practice, as Christianity in their
profession ? It is the complexion of their religion. Hypo-
crite is legibly written in the forehead of it. They proclaim
their shame to all that they converse with. When they have
said, they believe the life to come, they tell men by their
ungodly, worldly lives, that they are dissemblers. When
their tongue hath loudly said, that they are Christians, their
tongue and hand more loudly say, that they are hypocrites.
And when they profess their faith but now and then, in a
lifeless, outside piece of worship, they profess their hypo-
crisy all the day long : in their impious neglect of God and
their salvation in their carnal speeches, in their worldly
lives, and in their enmity to the practice of the same religion
which they profess. Their hypocrisy is a web so thin, and
so transparent, that it leaves their nakedness open to their
shame. They have not profession enough to make a consi-
derable cover for their unbelief: they hide but their tongues ;
the rest, even heart and all, is bare.
O the stupendous power of self-love ! The wonderful
blindness and stupidity of the ungodly ! The dreadfulness
of the judgment of God in thus deserting the wilful resisters
58 LIFE OF FAITH.
of his grace ! That ever men (in other things of seeming
wisdom) should be such strangers to themselves, and so de-
ceived by themselves, as to think they love the thing they
hate I And to think that their hearts are set upon heaven,
when they neither love it, nor the way that leadeth to it ;
but are principally bent another way : that when they are
strangers or enemies to a holy life, they can make themselves
believe that they are holy 5 and that they seek that first,
which they never seek ; and make that the drift and busi-
ness of their lives, which was never the serious business of
an hour ! O hypocrites ! ask any impartial man of reason,
that sees your lives, and hears your prayers, whether you
pray and live like men that believe that heaven or hell must
be their reward ? Ask your families, whether they perceive
by your constant prayer, and diligent endeavours, and holy
conversations, that your hearts are set on a life to come?
It was a cutting answer of a late apostate, to one that told
him of the unreasonableness of infidels that denied the life
to come ; saith he, * There are none in the world so unrea-
sonable as you Christians, that believe that there is an end-
less life of joy or misery to come, and do no more to obtain
the one and escape the other. Did I believe such a life as
this, I would think all too little that I could do or suffer, to
make it sure/ Who sees the certainty, greatness and eter-
nity of the crown of life, in the resolvedness, fervency and
constancy of your holy labour? You take up with the pic-
ture of sermons and prayers, and with the name of Chris-
tianity and holy obedience. A little more religion you will
admit than a parrot may learn, or a puppet may exercise.
Compare your care, and labour, and cost for heaven, and for
this world. That you believe the flattering, deceitful world,
we see by your daily solicitousness about it : you seek it,
you strive for it ; you fall out with all that stand in your way,
you are at it daily, and have never done ; but who can see
that you seriously believe another world ? You talk idly,
and wantonly, and proudly by the hours, but you talk of
heaven and holiness but by the minutes. You do not turn
the glass when you go to your unnecessary recreations, or
your vain discourse, or at least, you can stay when the glass
is run ; but in hearing the most necessary truths of God, or
in praying for everlasting life, the hour seems long to you ;
and the tedious preacher is your weariness and molestation.
LIFE OF FAITH. $9
You do not feast and play by the glass ; but if we do not
preach and pray by it exactly, but exceed our hour, though
in speaking of, and for eternity, we are your burden, and put
your languid patience to it, as if we were doing you some
intolerable wrong.
In worldly matters, you are weary of giving, but^ldom
of receiving : you grudge at the asker, but seldom at the
giver. But if the gift be spiritual and heavenly, you are
weary to hear talk of it, and expostulate the case with him
that ofFereth it : and he must shew by what authority he
would do you good. If by serious, holy conference he would
further your preparations for the life to come, or help you to
make sure of life eternal, he is examined what power he hath
to meddle with you, and promote your salvation. And per-
haps he is snappishly told, he is a busy, saucy fellow, and
you bid him meddle with his own matters, and let you speed
as you can, and keep his compassion and charity for himself:
you give him no thanks for his undesired help. The most
laborious, faithful servant you like best, that will do you the
most work, with greatest skill, and care, and diligence.
But the most laborious, faithful instructer and watchman for
your souls, you most ungratefully vilify, as if he were more
busy and precise than needs, and were upon some unprofit-
able work ; and you love a superficial, hypocritical minis-
try, that teacheth you but to compliment with heaven, and
leads you such a dance of comical, outside, hypocritical
worship, as is agreeable to your own hypocrisy. And thus
when you are mocking God, you think you worship him, and
merit heaven by the abuse. Should a minister or other
friend be but half as earnest with you, for the life of your im-
mortal souls, as you are yourselves for your estates, or
friends, or lives in any danger, you would take them for fa-
natics, and perhaps do by them as his carnal friends did
once by Christ, (Mark iii. 21.) that went out to lay hold on
him, and said, " He is beside himself." For trifles you ac-
count it wisdom to be serious ; but for everlasting things,
you account it folly, or to be more busy and solicitous than
needs. You can desire an act of pardon and indemnity from
man ; when as you are little solicitous about a pardon from
God, to whose justice you have forfeited your souls. And
if a man be but earnest in begging his pardon, and praying
to be saved from everlasting misery, you scorn him, because
60 LIFE OF FAITH.
he does it without book, and say he whines, or speaks
through the nose ; forgetting that we shall have you one of
these days, as earnest in vain, as they are that shall prevail
for their salvation j and that the terrible approach of death
and judgment shall teach you also to pray without book, and
cry, '*,Xord, Lord, open to us," when the door is shut, and
it is all too late ; Matt. xxv. 11.
O sirs, had you but a lively, serious, foreseeing faith, that
openeth heaven and hell as to your sight, what a cure would
it work of this hypocrisy !
1. Such a sight would quicken you from your sloth, and
put more life into your thoughts and words, and all that you
attempt for God. *
2. Such a sight would soon abate your pride, and humble
you before the Lord, and make you see how short you are of
what you should be.
3. Such a sight would dull the edge of your covetous de-
sires, and shew you that you have greater things to mind,
and another kind of world than this to seek.
4. Such a sight would make you esteem the temptations
of men's reports but as the shaking of a leaf, and their al-
lurements and threats, as impertinent speeches, that would
cast a feather or a fly into the balance against a mountain,
or against the world*
5. Such a sight would allay the itch of lust, and
quench the drunkard's insatiable thirst, and turn your
gulosity into moderation and abstinence, and acquaint you
with a higher sort of pleasures, that are durable, and worthy
of a man.
6. Such a sight would cure your desire of pastime, and
shew you that you have no time to spare, when all is done
that necessity and everlasting things require.
7. Such a sight would change your relish of God's or-
dinances, and esteem of ministers, and teach you to love
and savour that which is spiritual and serious, rather than
hypocritical strains and shows. It would teach you better
how to judge of sermons and of prayers, than unexperienced
minds will ever do.
8. Such a sight would cure your malignity against the
ways and diligent servants of the Lord ; and instead of op-
posing them, it would make you glad to be among them,
and fast, and pray, and watch, and rejoice with them, and
LIFE OF FAITH. 6i
better to understand what it is to believe the communion of
saints.
In a word, did you but see what God reveals, and saints
believe, and must be seen, I would scarce thank you to be
all as serious and solicitous for your souls, as the holiest
man alive ; and presently to repent and lament the folly of
your negligence and delays, and to live as men that know
no other work to mind, in comparison of that which extend-
eth to eternity. I would scarce thank the proudest of you
all to lie down in the dust, and in sackcloth and ashes, with
tears and cries, to beg the pardon of those sins, which before
you felt no weight in. Nor the most sensual wretch, that
now sticks so close to his ambition, covetousness and liist,
that he saith he cannot leave them, to spit them out as
loathsome bitterness, and be ashamed of them as fruitless
things. You would then say to the most godly, that now
seem too precise, * O why do you not make more haste, and
lay hold on heaven with greater violence ? Why do you
pray with no more fervency, and bear witness against the
sins of the world with no more undaunted courage and reso-
lution ? And why do you not more freely lay out your time,
and strength, and wealth, and all that you have on the work
of God ? Is heaven worth no more ado than this ? Can
you do no more for an endless life, and the escaping of the
wrath to come ? Shall worldlings overdo you V These would
be your thoughts on such a sight.
CHAPTER II.
Use of Exhortation*
What now remains but that you come into the light, and
beg of God, as the prophet for his servant, (2 Kings vi. 17.)
to open your eyes, that you may see the things that would
do so much, " That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give you the spirit of revelation, in the
knowledge of him ; the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his call-
ing, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in
the saints ;" Ephes. i. 17, 18. O set those things conti-
nually before your eyes, that must for ever be before them !
02 LIFE OF FAITH.
Look seriously into the infallible word ; and whatsoever
that foretells, believe it as if it were come to pass. The un-
belief of God's threatenings and penal laws, is the perdition
of souls, as well as the unbelief of promises. God giveth
not false fire, when he dischargeth the cannons of his terrible
comminations. If you fall not down, you shall find that the
lightning is attended with the thunder, and execution will
be done before your are aware. If there were any doubt of
the things unseen, yet you know it is past all doubt that there
is nothing else that is durable and worthy of your estimation
and regard. You must be knights and gentlemen but a lit-
tle while ; speak but a few words more, and you will have
spoke your last. When you have slept a few nights more,
you must sleep till the resurrection awake you (as to the
flesh). Then where are your pleasant habitations and con-
tents? Your honours and attendance? Is a day that is
spent, or a life that is extinct, any thing or nothing? Is'
there any sweetness in a feast that was eaten, or drink that
was drank, or time that was spent in sports and mirth a year
ago ? Certainly a known vanity should not be preferred be-
fore a probable endless joy. But when we have certainty
as well as excellency and eternity, to set against certain,
transitory vanity, what room is left for further deliberation?
Whether we should prefer the sun before a squib, or a flash
of lightning that suddenly leaves us in the dark, one would
think should be an easy question to resolve.
Up then ! and work while it is day : and let us run and
strive with all our might ! Heaven is at hand as sure as if
you saw it. You are certain you can be no losers by the
choice. You part with nothing for all things. You escape
the tearing of your heart, by submitting to the scratching of
a briar. You that will bear the opening of a vein for the
cure of a fever, and will not forbear a necessary journey for
the barking of a dog, or the blowing of the wind; O leap
not into hell to escape the stinking breath of a scorner !
Part not with God, with conscience, and with heaven, to
save your purses or your flesh. Choose not a merry way to
misery, before a prudent, sober preparation for a perfect,
everlasting joy. You would not prefer a merry cup before
a kingdom. You would let go a lesser delight or commo-
dity for a greater here. Thus a greater sin can forbid the
LIFE OF FAITH. 63
exercises of a less : and shall not endless joy weigh down a
brutish lust or pleasure ?
If you love pleasure, take that which is true, and full, and
durable. For all that he calleth you to repentance and mor-
tification, and necessary strictness, there is none that is more
for your pleasure and delight than God ; or else he would
not offer you the rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand ;
nor himself to be your perpetual delight. If you come into
a room where are variety of pictures, and one is gravely
reading or meditating ; and another with a cup or harlot in
his hand is profusely laughing, with a gaping, grinning
mouth ; would you take the latter or the former to be the
picture of a wise and happy man? Do you approve of the
state of those in heaven ? And do you like the way that
brought them thither? If not, why speak you of them so
honourably ? and why would you keep holy days in remem-
brance of them ? If you do ; examine the sacred records,
and see whether the apostles and others that are now ho-
noured as glorified saints, did live as you do, or rather as
those that you think are too precise ? Did they spend the
day in feasting, and sports, and idle talk? Did they swag-
ger it out in pride and wealth, and hate their brethren that
were not in all things of their conceits ? Did they come to
heaven by a worldly, formal, hypocritical, ceremonious re-
ligion ; or by faith, and love, and self-denial, and unwearied
labouring for their own and other men's salvation, while they
became the wonder and the scorn of the ungodly, and as the
offscouring and refuse of the world ? Do you like holiness
when it is far from you ; in a dead man, that never troubled
you with his presence or reproofs, or in a saint in heaven,
that comes not near you? Why then do you not like it for
yourselves ? If it be good, the nearer the better. Your own
health, and your own wealth do comfort you more than
another man's : and so would your own holiness if you had
it. If you would speed as they that are now beholding the
face of God, believe, and live, and wait as they did. And
as the righteous God did not forget their work and labour
of love for his name, so he will remember you with the same
reward, if you shew the same diligence to the full assurance
of hope unto the end ; and '* be not slothful, but followers
of them, who through faith and patience inherit the pro-
raise ;" Heb. vi. 10—12.
64 J-IFE OF FAITH.
O did you but see what they now enjoy, and what they
see, and what they are, and what they do ; you would never
sure scorn or persecute a saint more! If you believe, you
see, though not as they, with open face. If you believe not,
yet it is not your unbelief, that shall make God's word of
none effect; Rom. iii. 3. God will be God if you be atheists.
Christ will be Christ if you be infidels. Heaven will be
heaven if you by despising it go to hell. Judgment sleep-
eth not when you sleep : it is coming as fast when you laugh
at it, or question it, as if your eyes were open to foresee it.
If you would not believe that you must die, do you think
that this would delay your death one year or hour? If ten
or twenty years time more be allotted you, it passeth as
swiftly, and death and judgment come as surely, if you spend
it in voluptuousness and unbelief, as if you watched and
waited for your change.
We preach not to you ifs and ands : it is not, perhaps
there is a heaven and hell ; but as sure as you are here, and
must anon go hence, you must as shortly quit this world,
and take up your abode in the world that is now to us invi-
sible. And no tongue can express how sensible you will then
be of the things that you will not now be made sensible of.
O then with what a dreadful view will you look before you
and behind you ! Behind you, upon time, and say, ' It is
gone, and never will return :' and hear conscience ask you.
How you spent it, and what you did with it ? Before you,
upon eternity, and say, ' It is come ;' and to the ungodly
will be an eternity of woe. What a peal will conscience then
ring in the unbelievers' ears ! ' Now the day is come that I
was forewarned of. The day and change which I would not
believe ! Whither must I now go ? what must I now do ?
what shall I say before the Lord for all the sin that I have
wilfully committed ? for all the time of nrercy which I lost ?
How shall I answer my contempt of Christ ? my neglect of
means, and enmity to a holy, serious life ? What a distracted
wretch was I, to condemn and dislike them that spent their
lives in preparation for this day ; when now I would give a
thousand worlds, to be but one of the meanest of them ! O
that the church doors, and the door of grace, were open to
me now, as once they were, when I refused to enter. Many
a time did I hear of this day, and would not believe, or so-
berly consider of it. Many a time was I entreated to pre-
LIFE OF FAITH. ^^
pare, and I thought a hypocritical, trifling show would have
been taken for a sufficient preparation. Now who must be
my companions ? How long must I dwell with woe and hor-
ror ? God by his ministers was wont to call to me : * How
long, O scorner, wilt thou delight in scorning ? How long
wilt thou go on impenitently in thy folly V And now I must
cry out, * How long, how long must I feel the wrath of the
Almighty? the unquenchable fire! the immortal worm!
Alas, for ever!' When shall I receive one moment's ease?
When shall I see one glimpse of hope ? O never ! never! ne-
ver ! Now I perceive what Satan meant in his temptations ;
what sin intended ; what God meant in the threatenings of
his law ; what grace was good for ; what Christ was sent for ;
and what was the design and meaning of the Gospel ; and
how I should have valued the offers and promises of life!
Now I understand what ministers meant, to be so importu-
nate with me for my conversion ; and what was the cause
that they would even have kneeled to me, to have procured
my return to God in time. Now I understand that holiness
was not a needless thing; that Christ and grace deserved
better entertainment than contempt; that precious time was
worth more than to be wasted idly ; that an immortal soul,
and life eternal should have been more regarded, and not
cast away for so short, so base a fleshly pleasure. Now all
these things are plain and open to my understanding ; but,
alas ! it is now too late ! I know that now to my woe and
torment, which I might have known in time to my recovery
andjoy.
For the Lord's sake, and for your soul's sake, open your
eyes, and foresee the things that are even at hand, and pre-
vent these fruitless lamentations. Judge but as you will all
shortly judge, and live but as you will wish that you had
lived, and I desire no more. Be serious, as if you saw the
things that you say you do believe.
I know this serious discourse of another life, is usually
ungrateful to men that are conscious of their strangeness to
it, and taking up their portion here, are loath to be tormented
before the time. This is not the smoothing, pleasing way.
But remember that we have flesh as well as you, which longs
not to be accounted troublesome or precise ; which loves
not to displease or be displeased : and had we no higher
VOL. XIT. F
Q6 LIFE OF FAITH.
light and life, we should talk as men that saw and felt no
more than sight and flesh can reach ; but when we are
preaching and dying, and you are hearing and dying, and we
believe and know that you are now going to see the things
we speak of, and death will straightway draw aside the veil,
and shew you the great, amazing sight, it is time for us to
speak, and you to hear, with all our hearts. It is time for
us to be serious, when we are so near the place where all are
serious. There are none that are in jest in heaven or hell.
Pardon us therefore if we jest not at the door, and in the
way to such a serious state. All that see and feel are se-
rious ; and therefore all that truly believe must be so too.
Were your eyes all opened this hour to see what we believe,
we appeal to your own consciences, whether it would not
make you more serious than we.
Marvel not if you see believers make another matter of
their salvation, than those that have hired their understand-
ings in service to their sense ; and think the world is no big-
ger or better than their globe or map ; and reacheth no fur-
ther than they can ken. As long as we see you serious
about lands and lordships, and titles and honours, the rat-
tles and tarrying irons of the cheating world, you must give
us leave (whether you will or no) to be serious about the life
eternal. They that scramble so eagerly for the bonds of
worldly riches, and devour so greedily the dregs of sensual
delights, methinks should blush (if such animals had the
blushing property) to blame or deride us for being a little
(alas, too little) earnest in the matters of God and our salva-
tion. Can you not pardon us if we love God a little more
than you love your lusts \ and if we run as fast for the crown
of life, as you run after a feather or a fly? Or if we breathe
as hard after Christ in holy desires, as you do in blowing the
bubble of vain-glory ? If a thousand pounds a year in pas-
sage to a grave, and the chains of darkness, be worth your
labour ; give us leave to believe that mercy in order to ever-
lasting mercy, grace in order to glory, and glory as the end
of grace, is worth our labour, and infinitely more.
Your end is narrow, though your way be broad, and our
end is broad, though our way be narrow. You build as
miners in coalpits do, by digging downwards into the dark ;
and yet you are laborious. Though we begin on earth, we
build towards heaven, where an attractive loadstone draws
LIFE OF FAITH. 67
up the workmen and the work ; and shall we loiter under so
great encourageiiients? Have you considered that faith is
the beholding grace ? the evidence of things not seen ? and
yet have you the hearts to blame believers, for doing all that
they can do, in a case of such unspeakable, everlasting con-
sequence? If we are believers, heaven and hell are as it
were open to our sight ! And would you wish us to trifle
in the sight of heaven ? or to leap into hell when we see it
as before us ? What name can express the inhuman cruelty
of such a wish or motion ? or the unchristian folly of those
that will obey you ?
O give us leave to be serious for a kingdom which by
faith we see ! Blame us for this, and blame us that we are
not besides ourselves. Pardon us that we are awake, when
the thunder of Jehovah's voice doth call to us, denouncing
everlasting wrath to all that are sensual and ungodly. Were
we asleep as you are, we would lie still, and take no heed
what God or man said to us.
Pardon us that we are Christians, aijd believe these
things, seeing you profess the same yourselves. Disclaim
not the practice till you" dare dist^laim the profession. If
we were infidels, we would do as the ungodly world ; we
would pursue our present pleasures and commodity, and
say, that things above us are nothing to us ; and would take
religion to be the troubler of the world ; but till we are in-
fidels or atheists at the heart, we cannot do so.
Forgive us that we are men ; if you take it to be pardon-
able. Were we brutes, we would eat, and drink, and play,
and never trouble ourselves or others with the care of our
salvation, or the fears of any death but one ; or with resist-
ing sensual inclinations, and meditating on the life to come ;
but would take our ease and pleasure while we may*
At least forgive us that we are not blocks or stones ; that
we have life and feeling. Were we insensate clods, we
would not see the light of heaven, nor hear the roaring of
the lion, nor fear the threats of God himself. We would
not complain, or sigh, or groan, because we feel not.
If therefore we may have leave to be awake, and to be in
our wits, to be Christians, to be men, to be creatures that
have life and sense, forgive us that we believe the living
God ; that we cannot laugh at heaven and hell, nor jest at
the threatened wrath of the Ahnighty. If these things must
68 LIFE OF FAITH.
make us the object of the world's reproach and malice, let
me rather be a reproached man, than an honoured beast, and
a hated Christian, than a beloved infidel ; and rather let me
live in the midst of malice and contempt, than pass through
honour unto shame, through mirth to misery, and through a
senseless to a feeling death. Hate us when we are in hea-
ven, and see who will be the sufferer by it. If ever we should
begin to nod and relapse towards your hypocritical forma-
lity and senseless indifFerency, our lively sight of the world
invisible, by a serious faith, would presently awake us, and
force us confidently to conclude, * Aut sanctus, aut bru-
tus :' there is practically and predominantly no mean. He
will prove a brute that is not a saint.
CHAPTER III.
Having done with this general conviction and exhortation
to unbelieving hypocrites, I proceed to acquaint believers
with their duty, in several particulars.
1. Worship God as believers ; *' serve him with reverence
and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire;" Heb. xii.
28, 29. A seeing faith, if well excited, would kindle love,
desire, fear, and all praying graces. No man prays well,
that doth not well know what he prays for. When it comes
to seeing, all men can cry loud, and pray when praying will
do no good. They will not then speak sleepily, or by rote,
' Fides intuendo, amorem recipit, amorem suscitat. Cor
flagrans amore desideria, gemitus, orationes spirat.* Faith
is the burning-glass which, beholding God, receiveth the
beams of his communicated love, and inflameth the heart
with love to him again ; which mounteth up by groans and
prayers, till it reach its original, and love for ever rest in
love.
2. Desire and use the creature as believers. Interpret all
things as they receive their meaning from the things unseen :
understand them in no other sense. It is only God and the
life to come that can tell you what is good or bad for you in
the world. And therefore the ungodly that cannot go to
heaven for counsel, are carried about by mere deceits. Take
heed what you love : and take heed of that you love. God
is very jealous of our love : he sheds abroad his own love
LIFE OF FAITH. 69
in our hearts, that our hearts may be fruitful in love to him,
which is his chief delight. By love he commandeth love ;
that we may suitably move towards him, and centre in him.
He communicateth so much for the procuring of a little, that
we should endeavour to give him all that little, and shed
none of it inordinately upon the creature by the way. No-
thing is great, or greatly to be admired, while the great God
is in sight. And it is unsuitable for little things to have
- great affections ; and for low matters to have a high esteem.
It is the corruption and folly of the mind, and the delusion
of the affections to exalt a shrub above a cedar, and magnify
a molehill above a mountain ; to embrace a shadow or spec-
trum of felicity, which vanisheth into nothing when you
bring in the light. The creature is * nihil et nullipotens :'
nothing should have no interest in us, and be able to do no-
thing with us (as to the motions that are under the domi-
nion of the will). God is All and Almighty: and he that
is All, should have all, and command all. And the Omni-
potent should do all things with us by his interest in mor-
tals, as he will do by his force in naturals. I deny not but
we may love a friend. One soul in two bodies will have one
mind, and will, and love. But as it is not the body of my
friend that I love or converse with principally, but the soul
(and therefore should have no mind of the case, the corpse,
the empty nest, if the bird were flown); so is it not the per-
son, but Christ in him, or that of God which appeareth on
him, that must be the principal object of our love. The man
is mutable, and must be loved, as Plato did commend his
friend to Dionysius ; * Hsec tibi scribo de homine, viz. ani-
mante natura mutabili.' And therefore must be loved with
a reserve. But God is unchangeable, and must be abso-
lutely and unchangeably loved. That life is best that is
likest heaven : there God will be all ; and yet even there it
will be no dishonour or displeasure to the Deity, that the
glorified humanity of Christ, and the New Jerusalem, and
our holy society, are loved more dearly than we can love any
creature here on earth. So here, God taketh not that affec-
tion as stolen from him, that is given to his servants for his
sake, but accepts it as sent to him by them. Let the crea-
ture have it, so God have it finally in and by the creature ;
and then it is not so properly the creature that hath it, as
God. If you choose, and love your friends for God, you
70 LIFE OF FAITH.
will use them for God ; not flattering them, or desiring to
be flattered by them ; but to kindle in each other the holy
flame which will aspire and mount, and know no bounds,
till it reach the boundless element of love. You will not
value them as friends, * qui omnia dicta et facta vestra lau-
dant, sed qui errata et delicta amice reprehendunt :' not them
that call you good ; but them that would make you better.
And you will let them know, as Phocian did Antipater, that
they can never use you, * ut amicis et adulatoribus ;' as
friends and flatterers, that differ as a wife and a harlot.
It is hard to love the imperfect creature, without mistakes
and inordinancy in our love : and therefore usually where
we love most, we sin most ; and our sin finds lis out ; and
then we suffer most : and too much affection is the forerun-
ner of much aflliction, which will be much prevented, if
faith might be the guide of love, and human love might be
made divine ; and all to be referred to the things unseen,
and animated by them. Love where you can never love too
much ; where you are sure to have no disappointments ;
where there is no unkindness to eclipse or interrupt it j
where the only error is, that God hath not all ; and the only
grief, that we love no more.
Especially in the midst of your enticing pleasures, or en--
ticing employments and profits in the world, foresee the end,
do all in faith, which telleth you, "The time is short; itre-
maineth therefore, that both they that have wives, be as
though they had none ; and they that weep, as though they
• wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced
not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and
they that use this world, as though they used it not (or not
abusing it) : for the fashion of this world passeth away ;"
1 Cor. vii. 29,30.
3. Employ your time as becomes believers. Faith only
can acquaint you, what an inconceivable weight doth lie
upon this inch of hasty time. As you behave yourselves for
a few days, it must go with you in joy or misery for ever.
You have your appointed time for your appointed work.
God hath turned the glass upon you ; much of it is run out
already. No price can call back one hour that you have
lost. No power or policy can retard its course ; * Sic fugiunt
frseno non remorante dies.' When it comes to the last sand,
and time is gone, you will know the worth of it. You will
LIFK OF FAITH. 71
then confess it should have seemed more precious in your
eyes, than to have been cast away upon things of nought.
O precious time! more worth than all the riches of the world!
how highly is it valued by all at last ! and how basely is
it esteemed now by the most ! Now it is no more worth with
them than to be sold for unnecessary sports and ease, and
wasted in idleness and vain delights ; but then when it is
gone, and all is too late, how loud would they cry, if cries
could call back, time again ! O then, what a mercy would it
seem, if God would try them once again ! and trust them
but with another life, or with Hezekiah's fifteen years ! or
but with fifteen days, or hours, upon such terms of grace, as
they held that life which they abused ! It amaze th me to
observe the lamentable stupidity of the world, how hard they
beg for time when they think it is near an end ! and how
carelessly they let it slide away, when they have strength
and faculties to improve it ! They are grievously afraid lest
death deprive them of it ; and yet they are not afraid to de-
prive themselves of the use and fruit of it, and to cast it
away as contemptuously, as if it were an useless thing. 1
seldom come near a dying man, but I hear him complain of
the loss of time, and wish it were to spend again, that it
might be better valued and used. And yet the living will
not be warned ! O value time, as wise men, while you have
it ; and not as miserable fools, when it is gone ! If our Lord
said, ** I must do the work of him that sent me while it is
day; for the night coraeth when no man can work;" (John
ix 4.) what need then have such as we to be doing, and make
much of time ! O let not company, mirth, or business make
you forget the work of time ! Can you play, or loiter away
your hours, with eternity in your eye ? Get the sun to stand
still, and time to make a truce with you, and to waste no
more of the oil of life, before you lose another hour.
O what heads, what hearts have all those men that stand-
ing at the verge of an endless world, can think they have any
time to spare ! Hath God given you too much? If not,
why do you lose it ? If he hath, why are you loath that he
should shorten it? You would not throw away your gold,
as contemptuously as you do your time, when an hour's time
is more valuable than gold. Frown on that company that
would rob you of half an hour's time. Tell them you have
something else to do than to feast, or play, or talk away
72 LIFK OF FAITH.
your time unnecessarily. O tell them you were not made
for nothing ! You are in a race, and must not stand still :
you are in a fight, and must not cease. Your work is great ;
much of it is undone. Your enemies are not idle : death
will not stop: the judge is coming, and still beholds you:
and heaven and hell are ready to receive our ending life, and'
tell us liow we spent our time : and can you find time to
spare? You are not made as weather-cocks, to stand up on
high for men to look at, and by turning about with every
wind, to shew them which way it standeth. Turn not your
lives into that curse, '* You shall spend your strength in
vain ;" Levit. xxvi. 20. Believe it, time must be reviewed.
The day is near, when every man of you had rather find it
in your accounts, * So many hours spent in self-examination
and holy meditation ; so many in reading the word of God ;
so many spent in fervent prayer ; and so many in doing good
to others,' than, * So many spent in needless sports and plea-
sures ; so many in idlenesses and vain discourses ; and so
many of the less necessary matters of the world.' Ask those
that tempt you to misspend your time, whether at death and
judgment they had rather themselves have a life of holy
diligence to review, or a life consumed in vanity, and tran-
sitory delights.
You will not suffer impertinences to interrupt your
counsels and serious business in the world. You will tell
intruders, that you are busy, and cannot have while to at-
tend them. And are you going into heaven or hell, and
have but a few days time of preparation (God knows how
few), and yet can you have while to pass this precious time
in vain? O what would you not give ere long for one of
the hours that you now misspend ! When the oath is per-
formed, ** That time shall be no longer !" Rev. x. 6. Won-
derful ! that men c'an find time for any thing, save that for
which they had their time! * Non quam bene vivant, sed
quamdiu, considerant (inquit Seneca,) cum omnibus possit
contingere ut bene vivant ; ut diu, nulli.' To live well is
both possible and necessary, and yet is disregarded. To
live long, is neither possible nor necessary ; and yet is sought
by almost all. * Incipiunt vivere cum desinendum est: im-
mo quidam ante desierunt vivere, quam inciperent.' Sen.
It is unseasonable we should begin to live, when we should
make an end ; but it is most unhappy to have made an end
LIKE OF FAITH. 73
before they do begin. ** Pulchrum est (inquit idem,) con-
summare vitam ante mortem ; et expectare secure reliquam
temporis partem/ Do the great work, and then you may
comfortably spend the rest in waiting for the conclusion.
Yet you have time, and leave, and helps : you may read and
meditate, and pray if you will ; but shortly time will, be no
more. O let not Satan insult over your carcases and tor-
mented souls, and say, * Now it is too late ! Now mourn and
repent as long as you will ! Now pray, and cry, and spare
not!' O use that faith which beholdeth the invisible world,
and maketh future things as present, and then delay and
loiter if you can : then waste your hours in idleness or va-
nity if you dare ! either light or fire shall awake you !
4. Suffer as believers. Fear not the wrath of man ; but
endure as seeing him that is invisible ; Heb. xi. 27. Shew
plainly, that you seek a better country ; ver. 14. 16. Read
often, Heb. xi. xii. Behold the kingdom prepared and se-
cured for you by Christ, and then you will be indifferent
which way the wind of human favour or applause shall sit ;
or what weather lunatic influences and aspects shall pro-
duce. Such a faith will make you, with Abraham, to turn
your back on all, and engage in pilgrimage for an inheritance
after to be received ; though he knew not whither he went,
(with a distinct, particular knowledge) ; Heb. xi. 8. As
strangers and travellers, you will not be troubled to leave
towns and fields, buildings and wealth, and walks behind
you, as knowing that you were but to pass by them, desiring
and seeking a better country, that is, a heavenly : and you
shall lose nothing by this passing by all in the world ; for
God will not be ashamed to be called your God ; and he
hath prepared for you a city; Heb. xi. 13, 16. Seriously
respect the recompence of reward, and it will make you
** choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God,
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of
the world ;" ver. 25, 26. Stephen's sight would cause Ste-
phen's patience. Hold on as Christians: the end is near:
•* Let us run with patience the race that is set before us ;
looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith ; who
for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, des-
pising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. Consider him that endured such contradic-
74 LIFE Ol FAITH.
tion of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied, and faint
in your mind ;" Heb. xii.2, 3.
You may well endure the buffeting and scorn, if you
foresee the honour. You may well endure the crown of
thorns, if you foresee the crown of glory: you may endure
to be forsaken of all, if you see him that will never fail you
nor forsake you. This foretaste of the rivers of pleasure
with the Lord, will drown the taste of vinegar and galU
Whine not like worldlings that have lost their portion, when
you are stript as bare as Job. If you are true believers, you
have all still, for God is All: you have lost nothing; for
faith hath made the world as nothing to you : and will you
whine and vex yourselves for nothing? Can you call it no-
thing so frequently and easily in your prayers, and ordinary
speech, and do you now recal this, or tell us by your serious
grief, that you speak but in hypocrisy and jest. * Frangitur
nemo raolestia adversorum, qui non capitur delectatione
prosperorum.' August. Had there been less idolatrous love,
there would have been less tormenting grief and care. Our
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that we
possess. He is not happy that hath them, but he that nei-
ther needeth nor desireth them, * Cum in his quag homines
eripiunt, optant, custodiunt, nihil inveneris, non dico quod
malis, sed quod velis.' Sen. Superfluity doth but burden
and break down : the corn that is too rank lodgeth ; and the
branches break that are overladen with fruit. ' Omnia quae
superfluunt nocent : segetem nimia sternit ubertas : rami
onere fraguntur, ad maturitatem non pervenit fcecunditas :
Idem quoque animis evenit, quos immoderata prosperitas
rumpit ; quia non tantura in aliorum injuriam, sed etiam in
suam utuntur.' Sen. It is pleasure, and not pain, that is the
world's most deadly sting. It hath never so much hurt us,
as when it hath flattered us into delights or hopes. * Et fera
et piscis spe aliqua oblectante decipitur.' Sen. Hope is the
bait ; prosperity and pleasure the net, that souls are ordina-
rily ensnared by. Men lose not their souls for poverty, but
for riches ; nor for dishonour, but for honour ; nor for sor-
row, but for delight.
" Luxuriant aninii rebus plerumque secundis."
The luxuriances of prosperity, bring us so frequently un-
der the pruning hook. The surfeits and summer fruits of
LIFE OF FAITH. 75
fulness and carnal contentments and delights, do put us to
the trouble of our sicknesses and our physic. " How hardly
shall rich men enter into heaven!" saith he that well knew
who should enter. Saith Augustine, * Difficile, immo im-
possibile est, ut prsesentibus et futuris quis fruatur bonis :
ut hie ventrem, et ibi mentem impleat : ut a deliciis ad de-
licias transeat ; et in utroque seculo primus sit ; ut in terr^
et in ccelo appareat gloriosus?' The hope is, that with God
such human impossibilities are possible. But it is more
terrible than desirable, to be put upon so great a difficulty.
Sweet dishes will have wasps and flies ; but most of them
are drowned in their delights. Saith Boetius of Prosperity
and Adversity ; * Ilia fallit, hfec instruit: ilia mendacium
specie bonorum mentes fruentium ligat : hsec cogitatione
fragilis faelicitatis absolvit. Itaque illam videas ventosam
fluentem, suique semper ignaram : banc sobriam, succinc-
tamque ac ipsius adversitatis exercitatione prudentem.' A
full meal seems best in the eating ; but a light meal is better
the next day. More thank God in heaven for adversity, than
for prosperity : and more in hell cry out of the fruit of pros-
perity, than of adversity. Many did never look towards
heaven, till affliction cast them on their backs, so that they
could look ho other way. ** It is good for me that I have
been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes," saith David,
Psal cxix. 71. '* Before I was afflicted, I went astray;"
ver. 76. ** In very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me;"
ver. 75. One sight of heaven by faith will force you to
reckon ** that the sufferings of this present time are unwor-
thy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us ;" Rom. viii. 18. To suffer for Christ and righteous-
ness sake, is but to turn an unavoidable, fruitless pain, into
that which being involuntary, is the more easy, and hath a
great reward in heaven ; Matt. v. 11, 12. And to part with
that for a crown of life, which else we must part with for no-
thing. Worldly friends, and wealth, and honour, are sum-
mer fruit that will quickly fall. Hungry fowl know where
it is harvest, ' At simul intonuit fugiunt.' Those that must
dwell with you in heaven, are your sure and stedfast friends,
' Caitera fortunae, 8cc.' Those that are now highest, and
least acquainted with the tongue of malice, the unfaithful-
ness of friends, or rage of enemies, shall shortly say.
76 LIFE OF FAITH.
" Atque hsc exemplis quondam cullecta priorura :
Nunc mihi sunt propriis^ cognita vera malis."
There is but the difference of an * est ' and an * erit/ be-
tween their mirth and endless sorrows ; their honour, and
their endless shame ; nor between our sorrow and our end-
less joy. Their final honour is to be embalmed, and their
lust to be covered with a sumptuous monument, and their
names extolled by the mouths of men, that little know how
poor a comfort all this is to the .miserable soul. In the
height of their honour you may foresee the surgeon open-
ing their bowels, and shewing the receptacles of the treasure
of the epicure, and what remains of the price that he re-
ceived for his betrayed soul. He cuts out the heart with a
* Hee sedes livoris erant : jam pascua vermis ;' you next tread
on his interred corpse, that is honoured but with a * Hie ja-
cet,' Here lieth the body of such an one. And if he have
honour to be magnified by fame or history, it is a fool- trap
to ensnare the living, but easeth not the soul in hell. And
shall we envy men such a happiness as this ? What if they
be able to command men's lives, and to hurt those that they
hate for a little while ? Is this a matter of honour or of de-
light? A pestilence is more honourable, if destroying be
an honour. The devil is more powerful (if God permit him)
to do men hurt, than the greatest tyrant in the world. And
yet I hope you envy not his happiness, nor are ambitious to
partake of it. If witches were not akin to devils, they would
never sell their souls for a power to do hurt. And how little
do tyrannical worldlings consider, that under a mask of go-
vernment and honour, they do the same !
Let the world then rejoice while w^e lament and weep.
** Our sorrow shall be speedily turned into joy ; and our joy
shall no man then take from us ;" John xvi. 20. 22. Envy
not a dying man the happiness of a feather-bed, or a merry
dream. You think it hard in them to deny you the liberties
and comforts of this life, though you look for heaven ; and
will yon be more cruel than the ungodly? Will you envy
the trifling commodities and delights of earth, to those that
are like to have no more, but to lie in hell when the sport is
ended ? It is unreasonable impatience that cannot endure
to see them in silks and gallantry a few days, that must be
so extremely miserable for ever. Your crumbs, and leavings,
and overplus is their all. And will you grudge them this '
LIFE OF FAITH. 77
much ? In this you are unlike your heavenly Father, that
doth good to the just and unjust. Would you changeJtases
with them ? Would you change the fruit of your adversity,
for the fruit of their prosperity.
Affliction maketh you somewhat more calm, and wise,
and sober, and cautelous, and considerate, and preventeth as
well as cureth sin. Prosperity makes them (through their
abuse) inconsiderate, rash, insensible, foolish, proud, un-
persuadable. " And the turning away of the simple slayeth
them, and the prosperity of fools destroyeth them ;" Prov.
i. 32. It is long since Lazarus' sores were healed, and his
wants relieved ; and long since Dives' feast was ended. O
let me rather be afflicted than rejected ; and be a door-
keeper in the house of God, than dwell in the tents of wicked-
ness ; and rather be under the rod, than turned out of doors.
Look with a serious faith upon eternity, and then make a
great matter of enjoyments or sufferings here if you can.
Great joys and sorrows forbid men to complain of the biting
of a flea. Thunder-cla]>s drown a whispering voice.
O what unbelief our impatience and disquietness in suf-
ferings do discover! Is this living by faith; and convers-
ing in another world, and taking God for all, and the world
for nothing ? What ! make such ado of poverty, imprison-
ment, - injuries, disgrace, with heaven and hell before our
eyes ! The Lord vouchsafe me that condition, in which I
shall be nearest to himself, and have most communion with
heaven ; be it what it will be for the things of earth. These
are the desires to which I will stand.
To thank God for the fruit of past afflictions, as the most
necessary mercies of our lives (as some of us have daily cause)
and at the same time to be impatient under presentafflictions,
or inordinately afraid of those to come, is an irrational as
well as unbelieving incongruity.
Are we derided, slandered, abused by the ungodly ? If
we repine that we have enemies and must fight, we repine
that we are Christ's soldiers, and that is, that we are Chris-
tians. * Quomodo potest imperator militura suorum virtu-
tem probare nisi habuerit hostem,' saith Lactantius. Ene-
mies of God do not use to fight professedly against himself,
but against his soldiers; 'Non qui contra ipsum Deum
pugnent, sed contra milites ejus,' inquit idem. If the rem-
nants of goodness had not been a derision among the hea-
78 LIFE OF FAITH.
thens themselves^ in the more sober sort, a heathen would
not h ifve said', ' Nondum felix es, si non te turba deriserit:
si beatus vis esse, cogita hoc prinium contemnere, et ab aliis
contemni.' Sen. Thou art not yet happy, if the rabble de-
ride thee not : if thou wilt be blessed, learn first to contemn
this, and to be contemned of others. No body will deride
or persecute us in heaven.
5. Improve your talents and opportunities in your call-
ings as believers ; especially you that are governors. God
is the original and end of government. The highest are but
his ministers ; Rom. xiii. 6. This world is but the way unto
another. Things seen are for things unseen : and govern-
ment is to order them to that end : especially by terrifying
evil doers, and by promoting holiness in the earth. The
moral as well as the natural motion of inferior agents, must
proceed from the influence of the superior. The spring and
the end of every action truly good, are out of sight. Where
these are not discerned, or are ignorantly and maliciously
opposed, the action is vitiated, and tendeth to confusion and
ruin. God is the end of all holy actions; and carnal self is
the end of sin. If God and self are infinitely distinct, you
may easily see that the actions materially the same, that are
intended to such distant ends, must needs be very distant.
Nothing but saving faith and holiness can conquer selfish-
ness in the lowest of the people. But where the flesh hath
more plentiful provision, and self is accommodated with the
fullest contents of honour and pleasure that the world af-
fords, how diflacult a work then is self-denial ! And the
reign of the flesh is contrary to the reign of Christ. Where
the flesh and visible things bear sway,^ the enemy of Christ
bears sway. ** The carnal mind is enmity against God ; for
it is not subject to his law, nor can be ;" Rom. viii. 7. And
how Christ's enemies will receive his laws, and use his mes-
sengers, and regard his ways and servants, the most of the
world have experience to their cost. The interest of the
flesh being contrary to Christ's interest, the competition
maintaineth a continual conflict. The word of God doth
seem to be against them : the faithful ministers that would
save them from their sins do seem to wrong them, and deal
too boldly with them. Were it an Elijah, he would be called
** The troubler of Israel;" and meet with an ** Hast thou
found me, O mine enemy." No measure of prudence, know-
LIFE OF FAITH. 79
ledge, piety, innocency, meekness or self-denial, will serve
to appease the wrath and displeasure of this carnal enmity.
If it would, the apostles had escaped it ; or at least it would
not have fallen so furiously upon Christ himself. Nay, these
are the oil that increase the flame. And Satan hath still the
bellows in his hand : he knoweth that if he can corrupt or
win the commander, he can rout the army, and ruin them
with the greatest ease. It hath been Satan's grand design,
since the Christian's name was known on earth, to advance
the selfish interest of men against the interest of Christ ; and
to entangle the rulers of the world in some cause, that Christ,
and his word and servants cannot favour, and so to make
them believe that there is a necessity on them to watch
against and subdue the interest of Christ. As if it were ne-
cessary that the shore be brought to the boat, and not the
boat to the shore : and that the physician be brought to the
patient's mind, or else destroyed or used as his enemy. I
am afraid to speak out the terrible words of God in Scrip-
ture that are against such persons, lest you should misun-
derstand me, and think I misapply them. But Christ feareth
no man, and hath not spoken his word in vain ; and his mes-
sengers must be faithful, for he will bear them out ; and
preventive cautions are easier and safer than reprehensive
corrosives. T will but refer you to the texts, that you may
peruse them ; Matt. xxi. 44. xviii. 3. 6. xxv. 45,46. Luke
xviii. 7. Psal. ii. Luke xix. 27. Acts ix. 4, 5. 1 Thess.
ii. 15, 16. Read them with fear as the words of God.
Blessed are those rulers and nations of the earth, that per-
ceive and escape this pernicious snare of the grand deceiver,
that with all his subtlety and industry, endeavoureth to
breed quarrels, and sow dissensions between them and the
universal King.
The more God giveth to the carnal and unwise, the more
they think themselves engaged against him ; because by his
commands he seems to take it from them again, by crossing
the flesh, which would use it only to fulfil its lusts. Like a
dog that fawneth on you till he have his bone ; and then
snarleth at you, lest you take it from him ; and will fly in
your face if you offer to meddle with it. Men readily con-
fess that they have their wealth from God ; because it can-
not be denied, and because they would use the name of God,
as a cover to hide their covetousness, and unlawful ways of
80 LIFE OP FAITH.
getting. But if you judge by their usage of it, and their
returns to God; you would think that they believed, that
they had nothing at all from God but some injuries ; and
that all their benefits and good were from themselves. The
Turkish and Tartarian emperor will say, that all his gran-
deur and power is from God ; that by making it most di-
vine, he may procure the more reverence and obedience to
himself: but when he hath said so for his own interest, he
iiseth the same power against God and his interest, to the
banishing of his word and holy worship, and the forbidding
the preaching of the Gospel of salvation ; and to the che-
rishing of tyranny, pride and lust. As if God had armed
them against himself, and made his officers to be his ene-
mies ; and gave them power that they might powerfully hin-
der men's salvation, and made them great, to be great op-
pressors.
As a believing pastor is a priest that standeth between
God and the people, to mediate under the great Mediator ;
to receive from God his word and ordinances, and deliver
them to the flock ; and to offer up supplications in their
names to God : So believing governors of civil societies or
families, receive from God a power to rule the subjects for
their good, and they use it to make the subjects good, that
God may be pleased and honoured by all : and the obedi-
ence which they require, is such as may be given to God in.
them. They take power from God to use it for God, and
are so much more excellent than the greatest of ambitious,
carnal princes, as the pleasing and honouring of God is a
more excellent design and work, than the gratifying of flesh-
ly lust, and the advancement of a lump of clay. The king-
doms of the world would all be used as the kingdoms of the
Lord, if the everlasting kingdom were well believed. The
families of men would be sanctified as churches unto God,
if the eternal house not made with hands, were truly taken
for their home, and their trade were to lay up a treasure in
heaven. In cities and countries, brethren would dwell in
holy peace, and all concur in honouring God, if once they
were made fellow citizens with the saints, and their burge-
ship and conversation were in heaven ; Ephes. ii. 19.
Phil.iii.20,21.
6. Resist temptations as believers. If you live by faith,
then fight against the world and flesh by faith. Faith must
LIFE OF FAITH. 81
be your helmet, and the word of faith must be your shield ;
(Ephes. vi. 16.) and your victory itself must be by faith ;
1 John V. 4. If satan tell the flesh of the preferment, riches
or the pleasures of lust, answer him with a believing fore-
sight of God's judgment, and the life to come. Never look
on the baits of sin alone, but still look at once on God and
on eternity* As a just judge will hear both parties speak,
or see their evidences before he will determine : so tell the
tempter, that as you have heard what fleshly allurements
can say, you will see also what the word of God saith, and
take a view of heaven and hell, and then you will answer
him.
7. Rejoice as believers. Can faith set open the windows
of the soul, and no light of heavenly pleasures enter? Can
it peruse the map of the land of promise, or see and taste
the bunch of grapes, without any sweetness to the soul?
This is the truest belief of heaven, which maketh men most
like those that are in heaven ! And what is their character,
work and portion, but the joys of heavenly light and love ?
Can we believe that we shall live in heaven for ever? Can
we believe that very shortly we shall be there, and not re-
joice in such believing ? I know we commonly say, that the
uncertainty of our proper title is the cause of all our want of
joy : but if that were all, if that were the first and greatest
cause, and our belief of the promise itself were lively, we
should at least set our hearts on heaven as the most delight-
ful and desirable state : and love would work by more eager
desires and diligent seekings, till it had reached assurance,
and cast out the hindrances of our joy. How much would
a mere philosopher rejoice, if he could find out natural evi-
dence of so much as we know by faith ! You may perceive
what their content in finding it would be, by their exceeding-
pains in seeking. The unwearied studies by day and night,
which many of them used, with the contempt of the riches
and greatness of the world, do tell us how glad they would
have been to have seen but half so far as we may. If they
could but discover more clearly and certainly, the princi-
ples, and elements, and forms of beings ; the nature of spi^
rits ; the causes of motion; the nature and cause of light
and heat ; the order, course and harmony of the universal
system of the world ; what joyful acclamations would this
VOL. XII. o
82 LIFE OF FAITH.
produce in the literate, studious «ort of men? What joy
then should it be to us, to know by faith the God that made
us ; the creation of the world ; the laws and promises of our
Creator ; the mysteries of redemption and regeneration ;
the frame of the new creature ; the entertainment of the spi-
rits of the just with Christ; the judgment which all the world
must undergo ; the work and company which we shall have
hereafter ; and the endless joys which all the sanctified shall
possess in the sight and love of God for ever ! How blessed
an invention would it be, if all the world could be brought
again to the use of one universal language ! Or if all the
churches could be perfectly reconciled, how joyful would
the author of so great a work be I Should we not then re-
joice, who foresee by faith a far more perfect union and con-
sent than ever must be expected here on earth ?
Alas ! the ordinary lowness of our comforts doth tell us
that our faith is very small ! I say not so much * the sor-
rows of a doubting heart/ as the little joy which we have in
the forethoughts of heaven, when our title seemeth not much
doubtful to us : for those sorrows shew that such esteem it
a joyful place, and would rejoice if their title were but
cleared. But when we have neither the sorrow nor solici-
tousness of the afflicted soul, nor yet the joy which is any
whit suitable to the belief of such everlasting joys, we may
know what to judge of such an ineffectual belief; at best,
it is very low and feeble. It is a "joy unspeakdble, and full
of glory," which unseen things should cause in a believer ;
(1 Pet. i. 6 — 8.) because it is "an exceeding eternal weight
of glory" which he believeth ; 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.
8. Finally, learn to die also as believers. The life of faith
must bring you to the very entrance into glory : where one
doth end the other begins. As our dark life in the womb by
nutriment from the mother, continueth till our passage into
the open world. You would die in the womb, if faith should
cease before it bring you to full intuition and fruition. " By
faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departing
of the children of Israel;'' Heb. xi. 22. Joseph's faith did
not die before him. " These all died in faith, confessing
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and de-
claring that they sought a better country ;" Heb. xi. 3.
They that live by faith, must die in faith ; yea, and die by
faith too. Faith must fetch in their dying comforts. And
LIl E OF FAITH. 83
O how full, and how near a treasure hath it to go to ! To
die to this world, is to be born into another. Beggars are
best when they are abroad. The travail of the ungodly is
better to them than their home : but the believer's home is
so much better than his travail, that he hath little cause to
be afraid of coming to his journey's end ; but should rather
every step cry out, * O when shall I be at home with Christ!'
Is it earth or heaven that you have prayed for, and laboured
for, and waited, and suffered for till now ? And doth he in-
deed pray, and labour, and suffer for heaven, who would not
come thither ?
It is faith which overcometh the world and the flesh,
which must also overcome the fears of death, and can look
with boldness into the loathsome grave, and can triumph
over both as victorious through Christ. It is faith which
can say, * Go forth, O my soul ; depart in peace : thy course
is finished : thy warfare is accomplished : the day of triumph
is now at hand : thy patience hath no longer work : go forth
with joy : the morning of thy endless joys is near ; and the
night of fears and darkness at an end. Thy terrible dreams
are ending in eternal pleasures ; the glorious light will ba-
nish all thy dreadful spectres, and resolve all those doubts
which are bred and cherished in the dark. They whose em-
ployment is their weariness and toil, do take the night of
darkness and cessation for their rest ; but this is their wea-
riness : defect of action is thy toil ; and thy most grievous
labour is to do too little work ; and thy incessant vision,
love and praise, will be thy incessant ease and pleasure ; and
thy endless work will be thy endless rest! Depart, O my
soul, with peace and gladness ! Thou leavest not a world,
where wisdom and piety, justice and sobriety, love, and
peace, and order do prevail ; but a world of ignorance and
folly, of brutish sensuality and rage, of impiety and malig-
nant enmity to good ; a world of injustice and oppression,
and of confusion and distracting strifes ! Thou goestnot to
a world of darkness and of wrath, but of light and love ;
from hellish malice, to perfect amity ; from Bedlam rage,
to perfect wisdom ; from mad confusion, to perfect order ;
to sweetest unity and peace ; even to the spirits of the just
made perfect, and to the celestial, glorious city of God !
Thou goest not from heaven to earth, from holiness to sin,
from the sight of God, into an infernal dungeon ;"but from
84 LIFE OF FAITH.
earth to heaven, from sin and imperfection into perfect ho-
liness ; and from palpable darkness, into the vital splendour
of the face of God ! Thou goest not among enemies, but to
dearest friends ; not amongst mere strangers, but to many
whom thou hast known by sight, and to more whom thou
hast known by faith, and must know by the sweetest com-
munion for ever. Thou goest not to unsatisfied justice, nor
to a condemning, unreconciled God ; but to love itself, to
infinite goodness, the fountain of all created and communi- *
cated good ; to the Maker, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of
souls ; to him who prepared heaven for thee, and now hath
prepared thee for heaven. Go forth then in triumph, and
not with terror, O my soul ! The prize is won : possess the
things which thou hast so long prayed for, and sought !
Make haste and enter into thy master's joy! Go view the
glory which thou hast so long heard of; and take thy place
in the heavenly choir ; and bear thy part in their celestial
melody ! Sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the
kingdom of God ; and receive that which Christ in his co-
venant did promise to give thee at the last. Go boldly to
that blessed God, with whom thou hast so powerful a Me-
diator, and to the throne of whose grace, thou hast had so
oft and sweet access. If heaven be thy fear or sorrow, what
can be thy joy? And where wilt thou have refuge, if thou
fly from God'.' If perfect, endless pleasures be thy terror,
where then dost thou expect content ? If grace have taught
thee long ago to prefer the heavenly and durable felicity,
refuse it not now when thou art so near the port. If it have
taught thee long ago to be as a stranger in this Sodom, and
to renounce this sinful world and flesh, linger not now as
unwilling to depart ; repent not of thy choice when all that
the world can do for thee is past, repent not of thy warfare,
when thou hast got the victory ; nor of thy voyage, when
thou art past the storms and waves, and ready to land at
the haven of felicity.
Thus faith may sing our ' nunc dimittis,' when the flesh
is loathest to be dissolved.
But we must live by faith if we would thus die by faith.
Such a death doth not use to be the period of a fleshly,
worldly life ; nor of a careless, dull and negligent life. Na-
ture, which brought us into the world, without our forecast
or care, will turn us out of the world without it. But it will
LIFE OF FAITH. 85
not give us a joyful passage, nor bring us to a better world
without it. It costeth worldlings no small care to die in an
honourable and plentiful estate, (if that they may fall from
a higher place than others, and may have something to make
death more grievous and unwelcome to them, and may have
a greater account to make at judgment; and that their pas-
sage to heaven may be as a camel's through a needle). And
may a believing, joyful death be expected, without the pre-
parations of exercise and experience in a believing life?
Nature is so much afraid of dying, and an incorporated soul
is so incarcerated in sense, and so hardly riseth to serious and
satisfying apprehensions of the unseen world, that even true
believers do find it a work of no small difficulty, to desire to
depart, and be with Christ, and to die in the joyful hopes of
faith. A little abatement of the terrors of death, a little
supporting hope and peace, is all that the greater part of
them attain, instead of the fervent desires, and triumphant
joys, which the lively belief of endless glory should produce.
O therefore make it the work of your lives! of all your
lives! your greatest work, your constant work, to live
by faith ; that the faith which hath first conquered all
the rest of your enemies, may be able also to overcome
the last ; and may do your last work well, when it hath
done the rest.
PART II.
CHAPTER I.
Directions how to Live by Faith. A7id,Jirsl, hoio to Strengthen
Faith, Andy secondly, the Natural Truths presupposed to be
considered.
The Directions which I shall give, as helps to live by faith,
are of two ranks. 1. Such as tend to the strengthening of
your faith. 2. Such as tell you how to use it.
Direct. 1. The first is the greatest part of our task: for
no man can use that faith which he hath not ; nor can use
more of it than he hath. And the most common reason why
we use but little, is because we have but little to use.
86 LIFE OF FAITH.
But on this subject (supposing it most weighty) I have
written many treatises already ; (the Second Part of " The
Saints' Rest ;" '* The Unreasonableness of Infidelity ;" and
last of all, " The Reasons of the Christian Religion ;" be-
sides others which handle it on the bye). And somewhat
is said in the beginning of this discourse But yet because
in so great a matter I am more afraid of doing too little than
too much, I will here give you an index of some of the chief
helps, to be close together before you for your memories, to
be the constant fuel of your faith.
In the work of faith it is first needful that you get all the
perquisite helps of natural light, and be well acquainted with
their order and evidence, and their usefulness to befriend
the supernatural revelations ; for it is supposed that we are
men before we are Christians ; we were created before we
were redeemed ; and we must know that there is a God, be-
fore we can know that we have offended him, or that we
need a Saviour to reconcile us to him. And we must know
that we have reasonable souls, before we can know that sin
hath corrupted them, or that grace must sanctify them.
And we must know, that whatsoever God saith is true, be-
fore we can believe that the Scripture is true, as being his
revelation. Faith is an act of reason, and believing is a
kind of knowing, even a knowing by the testimony of him
whom we believe, because we have sufficient reason to be-
lieve him.
2. And next we must be well acquainted with the evi-
dence of supernatural truth, which presupposeth the afore-
said natural verities. I shall set both before you briefly in
their order.
1. Think w^ell of the nature of your souls, of their facul-
ties or powers, their excellency and their proper use : and
then you will find that you are not mere brutes, who know
not their Creator, and live not by a law, and think not of
anothel* world, nor fear any sufferings after death ; but that
you have reason, freewill, and executive power to know
your Maker, and to live by rule, and to hope for a reward
in another life, and to fear a punishment hereafter. And
that, as no wise artificer maketh any thing in vain, so God
is much less to be thought to have given you such souls and
faculties in vain.
2. Consider next how all the world declareth to you.
LIFE OF FAITH. 87
that there is a God, who is infinitely powerful, wise and good.
And that it is not possible that all things which we see should
have no cause ; or that the derived power, and wisdom, and
goodness of the creature, should not proceed from that which
is more excellent in the first and total cause ; or that God
should give more than he had to give.
3. Consider next in what relation such a creature must
needs stand to such a Creator. If he made us of nothing,
it is not possible but that he must be our Owner, and we
and all things absolutely his own. And if he be our Maker
and Owner, and be infinitely powerful, wise and good ; and
we be reasonable, free agents, made to be guided by laws
or moral means unto our end, it is not possible but that we
should stand related to him, as subjects to their rightful
governor. And if he be our Creator, Owner and Ruler, and
also infinitely good, and the grand benefactor of the world ;
and if the nature of our souls be, to love God as good; it
cannot be possible that he should not be our End, who is
our Creator ; and that we should not be related to him as
to the Chiefest Good, both originally as our Benefactor, and
finally as our End.
4. And then it is easy for you next to see, what duty
you owe to that God to whom you are thus related. That
if you are absolutely his own, you should willingly be at his
absolute dispose. And if he be your Sovereign Ruler, you
should labour most diligently to know his laws, and abso-
lutely to obey them. And if he be infinitely good, and your
Benefactor and your End, you are absolutely bound to love
him most devotedly, and to place your own felicity in his
love. All this is so evidently the duty of man to God by
nature, that nothing but madness can deny it. And this
is it which we call sanctification, or holiness to the Lord.
And our cohabitation and relation to men will tell us, that
justice and charity are our duty as to them. And when a
man is fully satisfied that holiness, j ustice and charity are
our duty, he hath a great advantage for his progress towards
the Christian faith.
To which let me add, that as to ourselves also, it is un
deniably our duty to take more care for our souls, than for
our bodies, and to rule our senses and passions by our
reason, and to subject our lower faculties to the higher, and
so to use all sensible and present things, as conduceth to
8B LIFE OF FAITH.
the public good, and to the advancement of our nobler
part, and to our greater benefit, though it cross our sensual
appetites.
All this being unquestionably our natural duty, we see
that man was made to live in holiness, justice, charity, tem-
perance, and rational regularity in the world.
5. When you have gone thus far, consider next how far
men are generally from the performance of this duty ; and
how backward human nature is to it, even while they can-
not deny it to be their duty : and you will soon perceive
that God who made it their duty, did never put in them this
enmity thereto ; nor ever made them without some aptitude
to perform it. And if any would infer that their indisposed-
ness proveth it to be none of their duty, the nature of man
will fully confute him ; and the conscience and confession
of all the sober part of the world. What wretch so blind
(if he believe a Deity) who will not confess that he should
love God with all his heart, and that justice, charity and so-
briety are his duty; and that his sense should be ruled by
his reason, &c. ? The evidence before given is not to be
denied : and therefore something is marred in nature. Some
enemy hath seduced man : and some deplorable change hath
befallen him.
6. Yea, if you had no great backwardness to this duty
.yourself, consider what it must cost you faithfully to perform
it, in such a malignant world as we now live in ! What envy
,and wrath, what malice and persecution, what opposition
and discouragements on every side we must expect! Uni-
versal experience is too full a proof of this: (besides what
it costeth our restrained flesh).
7. Proceed then to think further, that certainly God
hath never appointed us so much duty, without convenient
motives to perform it. It cannot be that he should make
us more noble than the brutes, to be more miserable : or
that he should'make holiness our duty, that it might be our
loss, or our calamity. If there were no other life but this,
and men had no hopes of future happiness, nor any fears of
punishment, what a hell would this world be! Heart-wicked-
ness would be but little feared ; nor heart-duty regarded :
secret sin against princes, states, and all degrees, would be
boldly committed, and go unpunished (for the most part).
The sins of princes, and of all that have power to defeat the
LIFE OF FAITH. 89
law, would have little or no restraint. Every man s inieiest
would oblige him, rather to offend God, who so seldom pu-
nisheth here, than to offend a prince, or any man in power,
who seldom lets offences against himself go unrevenged :
and so man, more than God, v^^ould be the ruler of the world,
that is, our God.
Nay, actually the hopes and fears of another life, among
most heathens, infidels and heretics, is the principle of Di-
vine government, by which God keepeth up most of the or-
der and virtue which is in the world.
Yea, think what you should be and do yourself, as to
enemies, and as to secret faults, and as to sensual vices, if
you thought there was no life but this. And is it possible
that the infinitely powerful, wise and good Creator can be
put to govern all mankind by mere deceit, and a course of
lies ? As if he wanted better means.
By how much the better any man is, by so much the
more regardful is he of the life to come, and the hopes and
fears of another life are so much the more prevalent with
him. And is it possible that God should make men good,
to make them the most deceived and most miserable? Hath
he commanded all these cares to be our needless torments,
which brutes, and fools, and sottish sinners do all escape ?
Is the greatest obedience to God become a sign of the
greatest folly, or the way to the greatest loss or disap-
pointment ?
We are all sure that this life is short and vain. No in-
fidel can say that he is sure that there is no other life for us.
And if this be so, reason commandeth us to prefer the pos-
sibilities of such a life to come, before the certain vanities
of this life. So that even the infidel's uncertainty will un-
avoidably infer, that the preferring of the world to come is
our duty: and if it be our duty, then the thing in itself is
true : for God will not make it all men's duties in the
frame of their nature, to seek an Utopia, and pursue a sha-
dow; and to spend their days and chiefest cares for that
which is not ; godliness is not such a dreaming night-
walk.
Conscience will not suffer dying men to believe that
they have more cause to repent of their godliness, than of
their sin ; and of their seeking heaven, than of wallowing
in their lusts.
90 LIFE OF FAITH.
Nay then, these heavenly desires would be themselves
our sins, as being the following of a lie, the aspiring after a
state which is above us, and the abuse and loss of our fa-
culties and time. And sensuality would be more like to be
our virtue, as being natural to us, and a seeking of our most
real felicity.
The common conscience of mankind doth justify the
wisdom and virtue of a temperate, holy, heavenly person ;
and acknowledgeth that our heavenly desires are of God : and
doth God give men both natural faculties, which shall never
come to the perfection which is their end ? And also gra-
cious desires, which shall but deceive us, and never be sa-
tisfied? If God had made us for the enjoyments of brutes,
he would have given us but the knowledge and desires
of brutes.
Every king and mortal judge can punish faults against
man with death : and hath God no greater or further punish-
ment for sins as committed against himself? And are his
rewards no greater than a man's ?
These, and many more such evidences may assure you
that there is another life of rewards and punishments ; and
that this life is not our final state, but only a time of pre-
paration thereunto. Settle this deeply and fixedly in your
minds.
8. And look up to the heavenly regions, and think, ' Is
this world so replenished with inhabitants, both sea and
land, and air itself? And can I dream that the vast and
glorious orbs and regions are all uninhabited ? Or that they
have not more numerous and glorious possessors than this
small, opacous spot of earth ?
And then think, that those higher creatures are intellec-
tual spirits ; (this is many ways apparent ;) and also of the
communion which they have with man. And when we find
also an intellectual nature in ourselves, why should we not
believe that our likeness of nature doth infer our likeness in
our future duration and abode.
9. And mark well but the inward and outward tempta-
tions, which solicit all the world to sin ; and what notable
evidences there be in many of them, of an invisible power ;
and you will easily believe that man hath a soul to save or
lose, which is of longer duration than the body.
10. Lastly, if yet there be any doubt, consider but of the
LIFE OF FAITH. 91
sensible evidences of apparitions, witchcraft and posses-
sions, and it cannot choose but much confirm you. Though
much be feigned in histories of such things, yet the world
hath abundant evidence of that which was certainly un-
feigned. See the devil of Mascon ; Mr. Mompesson's story
lately acted and published ; Remigius, Bodinus, Danseus,
&c. of witches, Lavater de Spectris ; and what I have written
elsewhere.
CHAPTER II.
The true method of Inquiry into the Supernatural Evidences of
Faith, and Rules therein to be observed.
When you have thus seen what evidence there is of God,
and his government, and of a life of reward and punishment
hereafter, and of the natural obligations which lie on man
to a holy, just and sober life j and of the depraved state of
the world, which goeth so contrary to such undoubted duty ;
and how certain all this is, even by natural revelation; pro-
ceed next to consider what supernatural revelation God
hath added, both to confirm you in the same truths, and to
make known such other as were necessary for mankind to
know. Where I must first direct you in the true method of
inquiry, and then set before you the things themselves,
which you are to know.
1. Think not that every unprepared mind is immediately
capable of the truth (either this, or any other, except the
first principles which are * nota per se,' or are next to sense).
All truth requireth a capacity, and due preparation of the
recipient. The plainest principles of any art or science, are
not understood by novices at the first sight or hearing : and
therefore it were vain to imagine that things of the greatest
distance in history, or profundity in doctrine, can be com-
prehended at the first attempt, by a disused and unfurnished
understanding. There must be at least, as much time and
study, and help supposed and used, to the full discerning of
the evidences of faith, as are allowed to the attainment of
common sciences. Though grace, in less time, may give
men so much light as is necessary to salvation ; yet he that
will be able to defend the truth, and answer objections, and
^2 LIFE OF FAITH.
attain establishing satisfaction in his own mind, must (or-
dinarily) have proportionable helps, and time, and studies ;
unless he look to be taught by miracles.
2. Remember that it is a practical and heavenly doctrine
which you are to learn : it is the art of loving God, and be-
ing happy in his love : and therefore a worldly, sensual, vi-
cious soul, must needs be under very great disadvantage for
the receiving of such a kind of truths. Do not therefore im-
pute that to the doubtfulness of the doctrine, which is but
the effect of the enmity and incapacity of your minds. How
can he presently relish the spiritual and heavenly doctrine
of the Gospel, who is drowned in the love and care of con-
trary things? Such men receive not the things of the Spi-
rit : they seem to them both foolishness and undesirable.
3. Think not that the history of things done so long ago,
and so far off, should have no more obscurities, nor be liable
to any more objections, than of that which was done in the
time and country where you live. Nor yet that things done
in the presence of others, and words spoken in their hearing
only, should be known to you otherwise than by historical
evidence, (unless every revelation to others, must have a new
revelation to bring it to each individual person in the
world). And think not that he who is a stranger to all
other helps of church-history, should be as well able to un-
derstand the Scripture history, as those that have those other
helps.
4. Think not that the narrative of things done in a
country and age so remote, and to us unknown, should not
have many difficulties, arising from our ignorance of the
persons, places, manners, customs, and many circumstan-
ces, which if we had known would easily have resolved all
such doubts.
5. Think not that a book which was written so long ago,
in so remote a country, in a language which few do fully un-
derstand, and which may since then have several changes,
as to phrases, and proverbial and occasional speeches, should
have no more difficulties in it, than a book that were written
at home, in the present age in our country language, and the
most usual dialect. To say nothing of our own language,
what changes are made in all other tongues, since the times
that the Gospel was recorded ! Many proverbial speeches
and phrases may be now disused and unknown, which were
LIFE OF FAITH. 0S
tjien most easy to be understood. And the transcribing and
preserving of the copies, require us to allow for some defects
of human skill and industry therein.
6. Understand the different sorts of evidence which are
requisite to the different matters in the holy Scriptures.
The matters of fact require historical evidence (which yet
is made infallible by additional miracles). The miracles
which were wrought to confirm our history, are brought to
our knowledge only by other history. The doctrines which
are evident in nature, have further evidence of supernatural
revelation, only to help us whose natural sight is much ob-
scured. But it is the supernatural doctrines, precepts and
promises, which of themselves require supernatural revela-
tion, to make them credible to man.
7. Mistake not the true use and end of the holy Scrip-
tures.
1. Think not that the Gospel as written was the first con-
stitutive or governing law of Christ, for the Christian
churches. The churches were constituted, and the orders,
and offices, and government of it settled and exercised very
many years together, before any part of the New Testament
was written to them ; much more before the writing of th&
whole. The apostles had long before taught them what was
commanded them by Christ ; and had settled them in the
order appointed by the Holy Ghost : and therefore you are
not to look for the first determination of such doctrines or
orders in the Scripture as made thereby ; but only for the
records of what was done and established before : for the
apostles being to leave the world, did know the slipperiness
of the memory of man, and the danger of changing and cor-
rupting the Christian doctrine and orders, if there were not
left a sure record of it : and tlierefore they did that for the
sake of posterity*
2. You must not think -hat all is essential to the Chris-
tian religion, which is contained in the holy Scriptures : nor
that they are only the adequate form or record of that which
is strictly and primarily called our religion, or Christianity,
For there are divers particular books of the New Testam-ent,
which contain much more than is essential to Christianity.
And many appurtenances, and histories, and genealogies,
and circumstances are there recorded, which are indeed sub-
94 LIFE OF FAITH.
servient helps to our religion ; but are not strictly our reli-
gion itself.
8. As the use of the Scripture must thus be judged of,
according to the purpose of the Holy Spirit ; so the per-
fection of the Scripture must be judged of, in relation to its
intended use. It was not written to be a system of physics,
nor oratory ; nor to decide grammatical controversies about
words ; but to record in apt expressions the things which
God would have men to know, in order to their faith, their
duty, and their happiness. And in this respect it is a per-
fect word. But you must not imagine that it is so far the
word of God himself, as if God had shewed in it his fullest
skill, and made it as perfect in every respect, both phrase
and order, as God could do. And if you meet in it with
several words, which you think are less grammatical, logi-
cal, or rhetorical, than many other men could speak, and
which really savour of some human imperfection, remember
that this is not at all derogatory to Christianity ; but rather
tendeth to the strengthening of our faith ; for the Scrip-
tures are perfect to their intended use ; and God did pur^
posely chuse men of imperfect oratory, to be his apostles,
that his kingdom might not be in word, but in power ; and
that our faith might not be built upon the wisdom and ora-
tory of man, but on the supernatural operations of the Al-
mighty God : as David's sling and stone must kill Goliah :
so unlearned men, that cannot outwit the world to deceive
them, shall by the Spirit and miracles convince them.
Looking for that in the Scripture, which God never intend-
ed it for, doth tempt the unskilful into unbelief.
9. Therefore you must be sure to distinguish the Chris-
tian religion, which is the vital part or kernel of the Scrip-
tures, from all the rest ; and to get well planted in your
mind, the sum of that religion itself. And that is briefly
contained in the two sacramen^*, and more largely in the
creed, the Lord's prayer, and the decalogue, the summaries
of our belief, desire and practice. And then wonder no
more that the other parts of Scripture, have some things of
leas moment, than that a man hath fingers, Tiails and hair,
as well as a stomach, heart and head,
10. Distinguish therefore between the method of the
Christian religion, and the method of the particular books
LIFE OF FAITH. 9^
of Scriptures. The books were written on several occa-
sions, and in several methods ; and though that method of
them all, be perfect, in order to their proper end ; yet it is
not necessary that there be in the method no human im-
perfection, or that one or all of them, be written in that
method which is usually most logical, and best. But the
frame of religion contained in these books, is composed in
the most perfect method in the world. And those systems
of theology which endeavour to open this method to you,
do not feign it, or make it of themselves ; but only attempt
the explication of what they find in the Holy Scriptures,
synthetically or analytically : (though indeed all attempts
have yet fallen short of any full explication of this divine
and perfect harmony. )
11. Therefore the true order of settling your faith, is not
first to require a proof that all the Scriptures is the word of
God ; but first to prove the marrow of them, which is pro-
perly called the Christian religion, and then to proceed to
strengthen your particular belief of the rest. The contrary
opinion, which hath obtained with many in this age, hath
greatly hindered the faith of the unskilful ; and it came
from a preposterous care of the honour of the Scriptures,
through an excessive opposition to the Papists who under-
value them. For hence it comes to pass, that every seem-
ing contradiction, or inconsistency in any book of Scrip-
ture, in chronology or any other respect, is thought to be a
sufficient cause, to make the whole cause of Christianity as
difficult as that particular text is : and so all those readers,
who meet with great or insuperable difficulties, in their
daily reading of the Scriptures, are thereby exposed to equal
temptations, to damning infidelity in itself: so that if the
tempter draw any man to doubt of the standing still of the
sun in the time of Joshua ; of the life of Jonas in the belly
of the whale ; or any other such passage in any one book
of the Scriptures, he must equally doubt of all his religion.
But this was not the ancient method of faith : it was
many years after Christ's resurrection, before any one book
of the New Testament was written ; and almost an age be-
fore it was finished : and all that time the Christian churches
had the same faith and religion as we have now ; and the
same foundation of it : that is, the Gospel preached to them
by the apostles : but what they delivered to them by word
96 LIFE OF FAITH.
of mouth, is now delivered to us in their writings, with all
the appurtenances and circumstances, which every Chris-
tian did not then hear of. And there were many articles of
the Christian faith, which the Old Testament did not at all
make known: (as that this Jesus is the Christ, that he was
born of the Virgin Mary, and is actually crucified, risen,
and ascended^ &c.) And the method of the apostles was,
to teach the people ^the sum of Christianity (as Paul doth,
1 Cor. XV. 3, 4, &c. and Peter, Acts ii.) and to bring them
to the belief of that, and then baptise them, before they
wrote any thing to them, or taught them the rest which is
now the Holy Scriptures ; they were first to disciple the nations
and baptise them, and then to teach them to observe all
things whatever Christ commanded : and the main bulk of
the Scriptures is made up of this last, and of the main sub-
servient histories and helps.
And accordingly it was the custom of all the primitive
churches, and ancient doctors^ to teach the people first the
creed and sum of Christianity, and to make them Christians
before they taught them so much as to know what books
the canonical Scriptures did contain ; for they had the sum
of Christianity itself delivered down collaterally by the two
hands of tradition. 1. By the continuation of baptism, and
public church-professions, was delivered the creed or cove-
nant by itself. And 2. By the Holy Scriptures, where it
was delivered with all the rest ; and from whence every
novice was not put to gather it of himself, but had it col-
lected to his hand by the churches.
And you may see in the writings of all the ancient de-
fenders of Christianity (Justin, Athenagoras, Tatianus,
Clemens Alex^ndrinus, Arnobius, Theophil. Antioch, Lac-
tantius, Tertullian, Eusebius, Augustine, &c.) that they
used the method which I now direct you to.
And if you consider it well, you will find that the mira-
cles of Christ himself, and all those of his apostles after
him, were wrought for the confirmation of Christianity it-
self immediately, and mostly before the particular epistles
or books were written ; and therefore were only remotely
and coHsequentially for the confirmation of those books as
such : as they proved that the writers of them were guided
by the infallible Spirit, in all the proper work of their office ;
of which the writing of the Scriptures was a part.
LIFE OF FAITli. .97
1. Therefore settle your belief of Christianity itself;
that is, of so much as baptism containeth, or importeth :
this is more easily proved, than the truth of every word in
the Scriptures ; because there are controversies about the
canon, and the various readings, and such like : and this is
the natural method, which Christ and his Spirit have di-
rected us to, and the apostles and the ancient churches
used. And when this is first soundly proved to you, then
you cannot justly take any textual difficulties, to be suffi-
cient cause of raising difficulties to your faith in the essen-
tials ; but you may quietly go on in the strength of faith,
to clear up all those difficulties by degrees.
I know you will meet with some who think very highly
of their own mistakes, and whose unskilfulness in these
things is joined with an equal measure of self-conceited-
ness, who will tell you that this method smells of an under-
valuing of the Scripture ; but I would advise you not to
depart from the way of Christ, and his apostles and churches,
nor to cast yourselves upon causeless hindrances, in so high
a matter as saving faith is, upon the reverence of the words
of any perverted factious wrangler, nor to escape the fangs
of censorious ignorance. We can better justify the Holy
Scriptures in the true method, than they can in their false
one: and can better build up, when we have laid the right
foundation, than they can who begin in the middle, and omit
the foundation, and call the superstructure by that name.
2. Suspect not all church-history or tradition, in an ex-
treme opposition of the Papists, who cry up a private un-
proved tradition of their own. They tell us of apostolical
traditions, which their own faction only are the keepers of;
and of which no true historical evidence is produced ; and
this they call the tradition of the church : but we have ano-
ther sort of tradition, which must not be neglected or re-
jected, unless we will deny humanity and reject Christianity.
Our * traditio tradens,' or active tradition, is primarily no-
thing but the certain history or usage of the universal Chris-
tian church ; as baptism, the Lord's day, the ministry, the
church assemblies, and the daily church exercises ; which
are certain proofs what religion was then received by them.
And 2. The Scriptures themselves. Our ' traditio tradita,' is
nothing else but these two conjunctly : 1. The Christian re-
VOL, XII. H
98 LIFE OF FAITH.
ligion, even the faith then professed, and the worship and
obedience then exercised. 2. The books themselves, of the
Holy Scriptures, which contain all this, with much more.
But we are so far from thinking that apostolical oral tradi-
tion, is a supplement to the Scriptures, as being larger than
them, that we believe the Scriptures to be much larger than
such tradition ; and that we have no certainty by any other
Scriptural tradition, of any more than the common matters
of Christianity, which all the churches are agref^d in. But
he that will not believe the most universal practice and his-
tory of the church or world in a matter of fact must in rea-
son much less believe his eyesight,
12. When you have soundly proved your foundation,
take not every difficult objection which you cannot answer,
to be a sufficient cause of doubting : for if the fundamentals
be proved truths, you may trust to that proof, and be sure
that there are ways of solving the seeming inconsistent
points, though you are not yet acquainted with them.
There are few truths so clear, which a sophister may not
clog with difficulties ; and there is scarce any man that bath
so comprehensive a knowledge of the most certain truths,
as to be able to answer all that can be said against it.
13. Come not to this study in a melancholy or distracted
frame of mind ; for in such a case you are (ordinarily) in-
capable of so great a work, as the trial of the grounds of
faith : and therefore must live upon the ground-work be-
fore laid, and wait for a fitter time to clear it.
14. When new doubts arise, mark whether they proceed
not from the advantage which the tempter findeth in your
minds, rather than from the difficulty of the thing itself;
and whether you have not formerly had good satisfaction
against the same doubts which now perplex you : if «o,
suffer not every discomposure of your minds, to become a
means of unbelief : and suffer not Satan to command you to
dispute your faith at his pleasure ; for if he may choose the
time, he may choose the success. Many a man hath cast up
a large account well, or written a learned treatise or position
well, who cannot clear up all objected difficulties on a sud-
den, nor without books tell ypu all that he before wrote ;
especially if he be half drunk or sleepy, or in the midst of
other thoughts or business.
LIFE OF FAITH. 99
15. When you are once persuaded of the truth of Chris-
tianity, and the Holy Scriptures, think not that you need
not study it any more, because you do not already confi-
dently believe it ; for if your faith be not built on such co-
gent evidence as will warrant the conclusion, (whether it be
at the present sound or not) you know not what change as-
saults may make upon you (as we have known them do on
some ancient eminent professors of the strictest godliness,
who have turned from Christ, and the belief of immortality.)
Take heed how you understand the common saying of
the schools, that faith differeth from knowledge, in that it
hath not evidence : it hath not evidence of sense indeed ;
nor of the immediate evidence of things invisible, as in
themselves ; but as they are the conclusions which follow
the principles which are in themselves more evident. It is
evident that God is true ; and we can piiove by good evi-
dence, that the Christian verity is his revelation : and
therefore it is evident (though not immediately in itself)
that the matter of that word or revelation is true. And as
Mr. Richard Hooker truly saith, ' No man indeed believeth
beyond the degree of evidence of truth which appeareth to
him, how confidently soever they may talk.' I remember
that our excellent Usher answered me to this case, as out of
Ariminensis, that * Faith hath evidence of credibility, and
science hath evidence of certainty.' But undoubtedly an
evidence of divine revelation, is evidence of certainty. And
all evidence of divine credibility, is evidence of certainty ;
though of human faith and credibility, the case is otherwise.
16. Yea, think not that you have done the settling of
your faith, when once you have found out the soundest evi-
dences, and are able to answer all objections ; for you must
grow still in the fuller discerning and digesting the same
evidences which you have discerned ; for you may hold
them so loosely, that they may easily be wrested from you :
and you may see them with so clear and full a knowledge,
as shall establish your mind against all ordinary causes of
mutation. It is one kind (or degree rather) of knowledge
of the same things, which the pupil, and another which the
doctor hath. I am sure the knowledge which I have now of
the evidences of the Christian verity, is much different from
what I had fifty years ago, when perhaps I could say near
as much as now ; and used the same arguments.
100 LIFE OF FAITH.
17. Consider well the great contentions of philosophers ;
and the great uncertainty of most of those notions, to which
the infidels would reduce our faith, or which they would
make the test by which to try it. They judge Christianity
uncertain, because it agreeth not with their uncertainties,
or certain errors.
18. Enslave not your reason to the objects of sense :
while we are in the body, our souls are so imprisoned in
flesh, and have so much to do with worldly things, that
most men by averseness and disuse, can hardly at all em-
ploy their minds about any higher things than sensitive ;
nor go any further than sense conducteth them. He that
will not use his soul to contemplate things invisible, will be
as unfit for believing, as a lady is to travel a thousand miles
on foot, who never went out of her doors, but in a sedan or
coach.
19. Where your want of learning, or exercise, or light,
doth cause any difficulties which you cannot overcome, go
to the more wise and experienced believers, and pastors of
the church, to be your helpers ; for it is their office to be
both the preservers and expounders of the sacred doctrine,
and to be the helpers of the people's faith. ** The priest's
lips shall preserve knowledge, and they should seek the law
at his mouth : for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts ;"
Mai. ii. 7.
20. Lastly, Faithfully practice with love and alacrity
what you do believe, lest God in justice leave you to disbe-
lieve that which you would not love and practice.
So much to direct you in the method of your endeavours,
for the getting and strengthening of faith.
CHAPTER IIL
The Evidences of Faith.
These things in the order of your inquiry being presup-
posed, proceed to the consideration of the evidences them-
selves, which fully prove the Christian verity. And here,
omitting the preparatory considerations, recited at large in
my " Reasons of the Christian Religion," I shall only set be-
fore you the grand evidence itself, with a brief recital of
LIFE OF FAITH. 101
some of those means, which bring it down to our notice in
these times.
The great infallible witness of Christ, is the Spirit of
God, or the Holy Ghost ; or that divine operation of the
Holy Spirit, which infallibly proveth the attestation of God
himself, as interesting him in it, as the principal cause.
As we know the coin of a prince by his image and su-
perscription, and know his acts by his public proper seal :
and as we know that God is the Creator of the world, by the
seal of his likeness which is upon it; or as we know the
father of a child, when he is so like him, as no other could
beget: so know we Christ and Christianity to be of God,
by his inimitable image or impression.
The power, wisdom and goodness of God, are the essen-
tialities which we call the nature of God : these in their
proper form, and transcendent perfection, are incommuni-
cable : but when they produce an effect on the creature,
which for the resemblance may analogically be called by the
same names ; the names are logically communicable, though
the thing itself (which is the divine essence or perfections)
be still incommunicable : but when they only produce ef-
fects more heterogeneal or equivocal, then we call those
effects only the footsteps or demonstrations of their cause.
So God, whose power, wisdom and goodness in itself is in-
communicable, hath produced intellectual natures, which
are so like him, that their likeness is called his image ; and
analogically (yet equivocally) the created faculties of their
power, intellect and will, are called by such names, as we
are fain (for want of other words) to apply to God (the
things signified being transcendently and inexpressibly in
God, but the words first used of, and applied to the crea-
ture). But the same God hath so demonstrated his power,
and wisdom, and goodness in the creation of the material or
corporeal parts of the world, that they are the ' vestigia' and
infallible proofs of his causation and perfections, (being
such as no other cause without him can produce) but, yet
not so properly called his image, as to his wisdom and
goodness, but only of his power. But no wise man who
seeth this world, can doubt whether a God of perfect pow-
er, wisdom and goodness, was the Maker of it. Even so
the person and doctrine of Christ, or the Christian religion
objectively considered, hath so much of the image, and so
102 LIFE OF FAITH.
much of the demonstrative impressions of the nature of
God, as may fully assure us that he himself is the approving
cause.
And as the sun hath a double light, * lux et lumen/ its
essential light in itself, and its emitted beams, or communi-
cated light; so the Spirit and image of God, by which
Christ and Christianity are demonstrated, are partly that
which is essential, constitutive, and inherent, and partly
that which is sent and communicated from him to others.
In the person of Christ there is the most excellent image
of God. 1. Wonderful power, by which he wrought mira-
cles, and commanded sea and land, men and devils, and
raised the dead, and raised himself; and is now the glori-
ous Lord of all things. 2. Wonderful wisdom, by which
he formed his laws, and kingdom, and by which he knew
the hearts of men, and prophesied of things to come.
3. Most wonderful love and goodness, by which he healed
all diseases, and by which he saved miserable souls, and
procured our happiness at so dear a rate.
But as the essential light of the sun is too glorious to
be well observed by us ; but the emitted light is it which
doth affect our eyes, and is the immediate object of our
sight ; at least that we can best endure and use ; so the
essential perfections of Jesus Christ, are not so immediately
and ordinarily fit for our observation and use ; as the lesser
communicated beams, which he sent forth. And these are
either such as were the immediate effects of the Spirit in
Christ himself, or his personal operations, or else the effects
of his Spirit in others : and that is either such as went be-
fore him, or such as were present with him, or such as fol-
lowed after him: even as the emitted light of the sun, is
either that which is next to its essence; or that which
streameth further to other creatures : and this last is either
that which it sendeth to us before its own appearing or
rising, or that which accompanieth its appearing, or that
which it leaveth behind it as it setteth or passeth away ;
so must we distinguish in the present case.
But all this is but one light, and one Spirit.
So then I shall in order speak. 1. Of that Spirit in the
words and works of Christ himself, which constituteth the
Christian religion. 2. That Spirit in the prophets and
fathers before Christ, which was the antecedent light.
LIFE OF FAITH. 103
3. That Spirit in Christ*s followers, which was the con-
comitant and subsequent light or witness: Both, 1. In
those next his abode on earth : And 2. Of those that are
more remote.
CHAPTER IV.
The Image of God's Wisdom.
L And first, observe the three parts of God's image, or im-
press upon the Christian religion in itself as containing the
whole work of man's redemption, as it is found in the works
and doctrine of Christ.
1. The wisdom of it appeareth in these particular ob-
servations (which yet shew it to us but very defectively, for
want of the clearness, and the integrality, and the order of
our knowledge : for to see but here and there a parcel of
one entire frame or work, and to see those few parcels as
dislocated, and not in their proper places and order ; and
all this but with a dark imperfect sight, is far from that full
and open view of the manifold wisdom of God in Christ,
which angels and superior intellects have).
1. Mark how wisely God hath ordered it, that the three
essentialities in the divine nature, power, intellect and will,
omnipotency, wisdom and goodness, and the Three Persons
in the Trinity, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit ; and
the three causalities of God, as the efficient, directive, and
final cause, (of whom, and through whom, and to whom are
all things) should have three most eminent specimens or
impressions in the world, or three most conspicuous works
to declare and glorify them ; viz. nature, grace and glory.
And that God should accordingly stand related to man in
three answerable relations, viz. as our Creator, our Re-
deemer, and our Perfecter (by holiness initially, and glory
finally).
2. How wisely it is ordered, that seeing man's love to
God is both his greatest duty, and his perfection and feli-
city, there should be some standing eminent means for the
attraction and excitation of our love : and this should be
the most eminent manifestation of the love of God to us ;
and withal, of his own most perfect holiness and goodness ;
104 LIFE OF FAITH.
and that as we have as much need of the sense of his goodness
as of his power, (loving him being our chief work) that
there should be as observable a demonstration of his good-
ness extant, as the world is of his power.
3. Especially when man had fallen by sin from the love
of God, to the love of his carnal self, and of the creature ;
and when he was fallen under vindictive justice, and was
conscious of the displeasure of his Maker, and had made
himself an heir of hell ; and when man's nature can so
hardly love one that injustice standeth engaged or resolved
to damn him, forsake him, and hate him : how wisely is it
ordered, that he that w^ould recover him to his love, should
first declare his love to the offender in the fullest sort, and
should reconcile himself unto him, and shew his readiness
to forgive him, and to save him, yea, to be his felicity and
his chiefest good ; that so the remedy may be answerable to
the disease, and to the duty.
4. How wisely is it thus contrived, that the frame and
course of man's obedience, should be appointed to consist
in love and gratitude, and to run out in such praise and
cheerful duty as is animated throughout by love, that so
sweet a spring may bring forth answerable streams : that so
the goodness of our Master may appear in the sweetness of
our work ; and we may not serve the God of love and glory,
like slaves, with a grudging weary mind ; but like children
with delight and quietness : and our work and way mav be
to us a foretaste of our reward and end.
5. And yet how meet was it, that while we live in such
a dark material world, in a body of corruptible flesh, among
enemies and snares, our duty should have somewhat of
caution and vigilancy, and therefore of fear and godly sor-
row, to teach us to relish grace the more : and that our con-
dition should have in it much of necessity and trouble, to
drive us homeward to God, who is our rest. And how aptly
doth the very permission of sin itself subserve this end.
6. How wisely is it thus contrived, that glory at last
should be better relished, and that man who hath the joy
should give God the glory ; and be bound to this by a dou-
ble obligation.
7. How aptly is this remedying design, and all the work
of man's redemption, and all the precepts of the Gospel,
built upon, or planted into the law of natural perfection :
LIFE OF FAITH. 105
faith being but the means to recover love ; and grace being
to nature, but as medicine is to the body ; and being to
glory, as medicine is to health : so that as a man that was
never taught to speak, or to go, or to do any work, or to
know any science, or trade, or business, which must be
known acquisitively, is a miserable man, as wanting all that
which should help him to use his natural powers to their
proper ends ; so it is much more with him that hath nature
without grace, which must heal it, and use it to its proper
ends.
8. So that it appeareth, that as the law of perfection is
fitly called the law of nature, because it is agreeable to man
in his natural state of innocency ; so the law of grace
may be now called, the law of depraved nature, because it is
as suitable to lapsed man. And when our pravity is unde-
niable, how credible should it be, that we have such a law?
9. And there is nothing in the Gospel, either unsuitable
to the first law of nature, or contradictory to it, or yet of
any alien nature; but only that which hath the most excel-
lent aptitude to subserve it : " Giving the glory to God in
the highest," by restoring " peace unto the earth, and good^
will towards men."
10. And when the Divine Monarchy is apt in the order
of government, to communicate some image of itself to the
creature, as well as the divine perfections have communi-
cated their image to the creatures in their natures or beings,
how wisely it is ordered, that mankind should have one
universal vicarious head or monarch ! There is great reason
to believe that there is monarchy among angels : and in the
world it most apparently excelleth all other forms of go-
vernment, in order to unity, and strength, and glory : and if it
be more apt than some others to degenerate into oppressing
tyranny, that is only caused by the great corruption of hu-
man nature ; and therefore if we have a head who hath no
such corruption, there is no place for that objection. And
as it is not credible that God would make no communica-
tion of this image of his dominions in the world ; so it is
certain, that besides the Lord Jesus, the world hath no
other universal head (however the Pope may pretend, to be
an universal vicarious monarch, lander the Universal Vica-
lious Monarch). Kingdoms have their monarchs subordi-
nate to Christ ; but the world hath none but Christ alone.
106 LIFE OF FAITH.
11. And how meet was it that he who was the monarch
or deputy of God, should be also the Mediator ! And that
a polluted sinner dwelling in clay, should not come imme-
diately to God, but by a Reconciler, who is worthy to pre-
vail.
12. And when we had lost the knowledge of God, and
of the world to come, and of the way thereto ; yea, and of
ourselves too, and our own immortality of soul ; how meet
was it that a sure Revelation should settle us, that we might
know what to seek, and whither to return, and by what
way ! seeing light must be the guide of our love and power.
And who could so infallibly and satisfactorily do this, as a
Teacher sent from God, of most perfect knowledge and
veracity.
13. And when God intended the free forgiveness of our
sins, how meet was it that he who would be the Mediator of
our pardon, should yield to those terms, which are consis-
tent with the ends of government, and expose not the wis-
dom, and veracity, and justice, and the laws of God to the
world's contempt : if no mark of odiousness should be put
upon sin, nor any demonstration of justice been made, the
devil would have triumphed, and said, * Did not I say truer
than God ? when he told you of dying, and I told you that
you should not die V And if the grand penalty had been re-
mitted to the world, for four thousand years together suc-
cessively, without any sufficient demonstration of God's
justice undertaken, why should any sinner have feared hell
to the world's end? If you say, that repentance alone
might be sufficient, I answer, 1. That is no vindication of
the justice and truth of the Law-maker. 2. Who should
bring a sinner to repentance, whose heart is corrupted with
the love of sin ? 3. It would hinder repentance, if men
knew that God can forgive all the world upon bare repen-
tance, without any reparation of the breaches made by sin,
in the order of the world. For if he that threateneth future
misery or death for sin, can absolutely dispense with that
commination, they may think that he may do so as easily
by his threatening of death to the impenitent.
If you say, that threatenings in a law, are not false when
they are not fulfilled, because they speak not ' de eventu,'
but ' de debito psense ;' I answer, they speak directly only
* de debito ;' but withal he that maketh a law, doth thereby
LIFE OF FAITH. 107
say, This shall be the rule of your lives, and of my ordinary
judgment. And therefore consequently they speak of an
ordinary event also : and they are the rule of just judgment,
and therefore justice must not be contemned by their con-
tempt.
Or if any shall think, that all this proveth not a de-
monstration of justice on the Redeemer to be absolutely
necessary, but that God could have pardoned the penitent
without it ; it is nevertheless manifest that this was a very
wise and congruous way : as he that cannot prove that God
could not have illuminated, and moved, and quickened the
inferior sensitives without the sun, may yet prove that the
sun is a noble creature, in whose operations God's wisdom,
and power, and goodness do appear.
14. And how agreeable is this doctrine of the sacrifice
of Christ, to the common doctrine of sacrificing, which
hath been received throughout almost all the world ! And
who can imagine any other original of that practice, so
early and so universally obtaining, than either Divine Reve-
lation, or somewhat even in nature, which beareth witness
to the necessity of a demonstration of God's justice and dis-
pleasure against sin ?
15. How wisely is it determined of God, that he who
undertakes all this, should be man, and yet more than man,
even God ? That the Monarch of mankind, and the Media-
tor, and the Teacher of man, and the sacrifice for sin,
should not be only of another kind ; but that he be one that
is fit to be familiar with man, and to be interested naturally
in his concerns ; and one that is by nature and nearness
capable of these undertakings and relations? And yet that
he be so high and near the Father, as may put a suflicient
value on his works, and make him most meet to meditate
for us ?
16. How wisely is it ordered, that with a perfect doc-
trine, we should have the pattern of a perfect life, as know-
ing how agreeable the way of imitation is to our natures
and necessities?
17. And as a pattern of all other virtue is still before
us ; so how fit was it, especially that we should have a
lively example, to teach us to contemn this deceitful world,
and to set little comparatively, by reputation, wealth, pre-
108 LIFE OF FAITH.
eminence, grandeur, pleasures, yea and life itself, which are
the things which all that perish prefer before God and im-
mortality ?
18. And how needful is it that they that must be over-
taken with renewed faults, should have a daily remedy and
refuge, and a plaister for their wounds ; and a more accept-
able name than their own to plead with God for pardon ?
19. How meet was it that our Saviour should rise from
the dead (and consequently that he should die) to shew us,
that his sacrifice was accepted, and that there is indeed
another life for man ; and that death and the grave shall
still not detain us ?
20. And how meet was it that our Saviour should as-
cend into heaven, and therein our natures be glorified with
God ; that he might have all power to finish the work of
man's salvation, a.nd his possession might be a pledge of
our future possession ?
21. Most wisely also is it ordered of God, that man
might not be left under the covenant of works, or of entire
nature, which after it was broken, could never justify him,
and which was now unsuitable to his lapsed state, and that
God should make a new covenant with him as his Redeem-
er, as he made the first as his Creator : and that an act of
general pardon and oblivion, might secure us of forgiveness
and everlasting life ; and that as we had a rule to live by,
for preventing sin and misery, we might have a rule for our
duty in order to our recovery.
22. And what more convenient conditions could this
covenant have had, " than a believing and thankful accept-
ance of the mercy, and a penitent and obedient following
of our Redeemer into everlasting life ?"
23. And how convenient is it, that when our King is to
depart from earth, and keep his residence in the court of
heaven, he should appoint his officers to manage the human
part of his remaining work on earth ? And that some should
do the extraordinary work in laying the foundation, and
leaving a certain rule and order to the rest, and that the
rest should proceed, to build hereupon ; and that the wisest
and the best of men, should be the teachers and guides of
the rest unto the end.
24. And how necessary was it that our Sun in glory
LIFE OF FAITH. 109
should continually send down his beams and influence on
the earth? Even the Spirit of the Father to be his con-
stant Agent here below ; and to plead his cause, and do his
work on the hearts of men ? And that the apostles, who
were to found the church, should have that Spirit, in so
conspicuous a degree, and for such various works of won-
der and power, as might suffice to confirm their testimony
to the world : and that all others as well as they to the end,
should have the Spirit for those works of love and renova-
tion, which are necessary to their own obedience and sal-
vation.
25. How wisely it is ordered, that he who is our King,
is Lord of all, and able to defend his church, and xto repress
his proudest enemies.
26. And also that he should be our Final Judge, who
was our Saviour and Lawgiver, and made and sealed that
covenant of grace by which we must be judged ; that judg-
ment may not be over dreadful, but rather desirable to his
faithful servants, who shall openly be justified by him be-
fore all.
27. How wisely hath God ordered it, that when death is
naturally so terrible to man, we should have a Saviour that
went that way before us, and was once dead, but now liveth,
and is where we must be, and hath the keys of death and
heaven ; that we may boldly go forth as to his presence,
and to the innumerable perfected spirits of the just, and
may commend our souls to the hands of our Redeemer,
and our Head.
28. As also that this should be plainly revealed ; and
that the Scriptures are written in a method and manner
fit for all, even for the meanest, and that the ministers be
commanded to open it, and apply it, by translation, exposi-
tion, and earnest exhortation ; that the remedy may be
suited to the nature and extent of the disease ; and yet that
there be some depths, to keep presumptuous daring wits at
a distance, and to humble them, and to exercise our dili-
gence.
29. As also that the life of faith and holiness should
have much opposition in the world, that its glory and excel-
lency might the more appear, partly by the presence of its
contraries, and partly by its exercise and victories in its
110 LIFE OF FAITH.
trials ; and that the godly may have use for patience and
fortitude, and every grace; and may be kept the easier from
loving the world, and taught the more to desire the pre-
sence of their Lord.
30. Lastly, And how wisely is it ordered, that God in
heaven, from whom all cometh, should be the end of all his
graces and our duties? And that himself alone should be
our home and happiness ; and that as we are made by him,
and for him, so we should live with him, to his praise, and
in his love for ever ; and that there, as we shall have both
glorified souls and bodies, so both might have a suitable
glory ; and that our glorified Redeemer might there be in
part the Mediator of our fruition, as here he was the Media-
tor of acquisition.
I have recited hastily a few of the parts of this wondrous
frame, to shew you, that if you saw them all, and that in
the true order and method, you might not think it strange
that ** Now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly
places, is made known by the church the manifold wisdom
of God ;" Ephes. ii. 11. which was the first part of God's
image upon the Christian religion, which I was to shew you.
But besides all this, the wisdom of God is expressed in
the Holy Scriptures these several ways : 1. In the revelation
of things past, which could not be known by any mortal
man : as the creation of the world, and what was therein
done, before man himself was made ; which experience it-
self doth help us to believe, because we see exceeding great
probabilities that the world was not eternal, nor of any
longer duration than the Scriptures mention; in that no
place on earth hath any true monument of more ancient
original ; and in that human sciences and arts are yet so im-
perfect, and such important additions are made but of late.
2. In the revelation of things distant, out of the reach
of man's discovery. So Scripture-history, and prophecy do
frequently speak of preparations and actions of princes and
people afar off.
3. In the revelati<!^n of the secrets of men's hearts : as
Elisha told Gehazi wh^t he did at a distance : Christ told
Nathaniel what he said, and where : so frequently Christ
told the Jews and his disciples what they thought, and
shewed that he knew the heart of man : to which we may
LIFE OF FAITH. 1 1 1
add, the searching power of the word of God, which doth
so notably rip up the secrets of men's corruptions, and may
shew all men's hearts unto themselves.
4. In the revelation of contingent things to come, which
is most frequent in the prophecies and promises of the Scrip-
ture ; not only in the Old Testament, as Daniel, &c. but
also in the Gospel. When Christ foretelleth his death and
resurrection, and the usage and successes of his apostles,
and promiseth them the miraculous gifts of the Spirit ; and
foretold Peter's thrice denying him ; and foretold the griev-
ous destruction of Jerusalem, with other such like clear
predictions.
5. But nothing of all these predictions doth shine so
clearly to ourselves, as those great promises of Christ,
which are fulfilled to ourselves, in all generations. Even
the promises and prophetical descriptions of the great work
of conversion, regeneration, or sanctification upon men's
souls, which is wrought in all ages, just according to the
delineations of it in the word : all the humblings, the re-
pentings, the desires, the faith, the joys, the prayers, and
the answers of them, which were foretold, and was found in
the first believers, are performed and given to all true
Christians to this day.
To which may be added, all the prophecies of the extent
of the church ; of the conversions of the kingdoms of the
world to Christ ; and of the oppositions of the ungodly sort
thereto ; and of the persecutions of the followers of Christ,
which are all fulfilled.
6. The wisdom of God also is clearly manifested in the
concatenation or harmony of all these revelations : not only
that there is no real contradiction between them, but that
they all conjunctly compose one entire frame: as the age of
man goeth on from infancy to maturity, and nature fitteth
her endowments and provisions according to each degree ;
so hath the church proceeded from its infancy, and so have
the revelations of God been suited to its several times :
Christ who was promised to Adam, and the fathers before
Moses, for the first two thousand years, and signified by
their sacrifices ; was more fully revealed for the next two
thousand years, by Moses first in a typical Gospel (the
adumbration of the grace to come) and then by the pro-
phets, (especially Isaiah, Micah, Daniel, and Malachi) in
112 LIFE OF FAITH.
plainer predictions. And then came John the Baptist, the
forerunner, and Christ, the Messiah, and the Spirit upon
the apostles, and finished the revelation : so that it may ap-
pear to be all one frame, contrived and indicted by one
Spirit. And the effects of it have been according to these
degrees of the revelation.
And the end of the world (whether at the end of the last
two thousand years, or when else God pleaseth) will shortly
shew th€ unbelieving themselves, that the period shall ful-
fil what is yet unfulfilled to the least jot and tittle.
CHAPTER V.
The Image of God's Goodness.
II. The second part of God's image on our religion, is that
of his matchless goodness. The whole system of it is, the
harmonious expression of God's holiness and love. The
particulars I must but name, lest I be too long.
1. The author of it, Jesus Christ, was perfectly good
himself; being God and man; sinless in nature, and in
life ; living, and dying, and rising to do good ; and making
it his office and his work, even in heaven, to do mankind
the greatest good.
2. The matter o-f the Christian religion, is God himself
the infinite good. The use of it is, to teach men to know
God, and to bring us to him. To which end it maketh a
fuller discovery of his blessed nature, attributes and works,
than is any where to be found in this world.
3. The utmost end of it is the highest imaginable ; the
pleasing and glorifying of God : for he that is the beginning
of all, must needs be the end of all.
4. It leadeth man to the highest state of felicity for him-
self (which is an end conjunct in subordination to the
highest.) There can be no greater happiness imaginable,
than the Christian religion directeth us to attain.
5. It placeth our happiness so certainly and clearly in
that which is happiness indeed, that it directeth man's in-
tentions, and desires, and leaving them no longer to the old
variety of opinions about the chiefest good : nature per-
fected, and working by its most perfect acts upon the most
LIFE OF FAITH. I 13
perfect object, and receiving the most full coramnnications
from him, and this for ever, must needs be the most perfect
felicity of man. To have all our faculties fully perfect, and
to live for ever in the perfect light and love of God, and to
be accordingly beloved of him; this is the end of Chris-
tianity.
6. To this end, the whole design of the Christian reli-
gion is to make man good, and to cure him of all evil, and
to prepare him justly for that blessed state.
7. To that end the great vv^ork of Jesus Christ is, to send
down the sanctifying Spirit of God, to make men new crea-
tures, and to regenerate them to the nature of God himself,
and to a heavenly mind and life : that they may not only
have precepts which are good, but the power of God to
make them good, and a heavenly principle to fit them for
heaven.
8. To that end, the principal means is, the fullest revela-
tion of the love of God to man, that ever was made, and
more than is any where else revealed. All the design of
Christianity is but to shew God to man, in the fullest pros-
pect of his goodness and unmeasurable love, that so he may
appear more amiable to us ; and may be more beloved by
us ; that loving goodness may make us good, and make us
happy.
9. To encourage us to love and goodness, God doth in
the Gospel give us the pardon of all our sins, as soon as
ever we turn to him by faith and repentance : though we
have deserved hell, he declareth that he will forgive us that
desert. If we had come to hell before we had been redeem-
ed, I think we should have taken that religion to be good
indeed, which would have brought us the tidings of forgive-
ness, and shewed us so ready a way to escape.
10. And this mercy is given by an universal covenant,
offered to all, without exception : and the conditions are so
reasonable, that no one can have any just pretence against
them. It is but to accept the mercy offered with a believ-
ing thankful mind, as a condemned man would do a pardon.
And what can be more suitable to our miserable state ?
11. And to bring us to all this, and make us holy,
Christ hath given us a most holy word and doctrine : per-
fectly holy in its precepts, and in its prohibitions, and all
VOL. XII. I
[ 14 LIFE OF FAITH.
the subservient histories and narratives : and he hath added
the perfect pattern of his holy life, that our rule and example
might agree.
12. So good is this word, that it calleth us to the highest
degree of goodness, and maketh perfection itself our duty ;
that our duty and happiness may agree ; and we may not
have liberty to be bad and miserable ; but may be every
way bound to our own felicity: and yet so good is this co-
venant of grace, that it taketh not advantage of our infirmi-
ties to ruin us, but noteth them to humble us, in order to
our cure : and it accepteth sincerity, though it command
perfection. And Christ looketh not at our failings, as a
severe judge, but as a physician, and a tender father.
13. So good is our religion, that the great thing which
it requireth of us, is to prefer the greatest good, before the
lesser, and not be like children who take it for their riches
to fill their pin-box ; or like foolish merchants, who had
rather trade for trash, than for gold. The great business of
Christian precepts is, to make us know that we are capable
of better things than meat, and drink, and lust, and sports,
and wealth, and worldly honours ; that the love of God, and
thef felicity of the soul, in grace and glory, may be preferred
before the pleasure of a swine. And is not that good,
which calleth us up to the greatest good, and will not allow
us to be such enemies to ourselves, as to take up with the
less-er ?
14. Yea, when we have most, it still engageth us to
seek more : and will not allow us to take up with a low de-
gree of grace, or with a little measure of the greatest good :
but to shew us that God would have us to be still better,
and to have more, it is made our duty still to ask more, and
still to press higher, and labour to be better. Asking in
prayer is made our daily work ; and God's giving, and our
receiving may be our daily blessedness.
15. The mercies here provided for us, extend both to
soul and body; for though we may not prefer the less be-
fore the greater ; yet we shall have it in its place : if we
seek first the kingdom of God, and its righteousness, and
^abour first for the food which never perisheth, all other
things shall be added to us; we shall have them to do us
good, but not to do us hurt. '* For godliness is profitable to
LIFE OF FAITH, 115
all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of
that which is to come ;'* 1 Tim. iv. 7, 8. vi. 6.
16. And that future perfect goodness may invite us to
present imperfect goodness, the promises of the Gospel do
second the precepts, with the strongest motives in the
world : so that everlasting blessedness and joy is made the
reward of temporal sincerity, in faith, love, and obedience-
And if heaven itself be not a reward sufficient to invite men
to be good, there is none sufficient.
Yea, the penalties and severities of the Christian reli-
gion, do shew the goodness of it. When God doth there-
fore threaten hell to save men from it, and to draw them up
to the obedience of the Gospel. Threatened evil of punish-
ment is but to keep them from the evil of sin, and to make
men better; and he that will testify his hatred of sinful evil
to the highest, doth shew himself the greatest enemy of it,
and the greatest lover of good: and he that setteth the
sharpest hedge before us, and most terrible warnings to
keep us from damnation, doth shew himself most willing to
serve us.
18. So good is Christianity, that it turneth all our af-
flictions unto good : it assureth us that they are sent as
needful medicine, however merited by our sin ; and it di-
recteth us how to bear them easily, and to make them
sweet, and safe, and profitable, and to turn them to our in-
crease of holiness, and to the furtherance of our greatest
good ; Heb, xii. 10, 11. Rom. viii. 18. 2 Cor. iv. 16—18.
19. It also establisheth a perpetual office, even the sacred
ministry, for the fuller and surer communication of all this
good beforementioned. In which observe these particulars,
which shew the greatness of this benefit. 1. The person
called to it, must (by Christ's appointment) be the wisest
and best of men that can be had. 2. The number of them is
to be suited to the number of the people, so that none may
be without the benefit. 3. Their work is, to declare all this
beforementioned goodness and love of God to man, and to
offer them all this grace and mercy ; and to teach them to
be holy and happy, and to set before them the everlasting
joys. 4. The manner of their doing it must be with hu-
mility, as the servants of all ; with tender love, as fathers of
theflock ; with wisdom and skill, lest their works be frus-
trated; with the greatest importunity, even compelling
116 LIFE OF FAITH.
them to come in, as men that are loath to take any denial ;
and with patient enduring all oppositions, as those that had
rather suffer any thing, than the people's souls should be
unhealed, and be damned ; and they must continue to the
end, as those that will never give up a soul as desperate and
lost, while there is any hope ; and all this must be seconded
with their own example of holiness, temperance, and love ;
Acts XX. 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. Matt. xxii. 8, 9.
20. So good is our religion, that nothing but doing good
is the work in which it doth employ us. Besides all the
good of piety and self-preservation, it requireth us to live in
love to others, and to do all the good in the world that we
are able; Ephes. ii. 10. Matt. v. 16. and vi. 1, 2, &c,
Titus ii. 14. Gal. vi. 7 — 9. Good works must be our study
and our life ; our work and our delight ; even our enemies
we must love and do good to ; Matt. v. 44. Rom. xii. 19,
20, 21. And sure that doctrine is good, which is purposely
to employ men in doing good to all.
21. So good is Christianity, that it favoureth not any
one sin, but it is the greatest condemner of them all. It is
all for knowledge against hurtful ignorance : it is all for
humility against pride; and self-denial against all injurious
selfishness ; for spirituality, and the dominion of true rea-
son, against sensuality and the dominion of the flesh ; for
heavenliness against a worldly mind ; for sincerity and sim-
plicity against all hypocrisy and deceit; for love against
malice ; for unity and peace against divisions and conten-
tions ; for justice and lenity in superiors, and obedience and
patience in inferiors ; for faithfulness in all relations : its
precepts extend to secret as well as open practices ; to the
desires and thoughts, as well as to the words and deeds : it
alloweth not a thought, or word, or action, which is ungod-
ly, intemperate, rebellious, injurious, unchaste, or covetous
or uncharitable ; Matt. v.
22. All the troublesome part of our religion is but our
warfare against evil ; against sin, and the temptations which
would make us sinful : and it must needs be good, if all the
conflicting part of it be only against evil ; Gal. v. 17. 21. 23.
Rom. vi. vii. viii. 1. 7—10. 13.
23. It teacheth us the only way to live in the greatest
and most constant joy. If we attain not this, it is because
we follow not its precepts. If endless joy foreseen, and
LIFE OF FAITH. 117
all the aforesaid mercies in the way, are not matter for
continual delight, there is no greater to be thought on. Re-
joicing always in the Lord, even in our sharpest persecu-
tions, is a great part of religious duty ; Phil. iii. 1. iv. 4.
Psal. xxxiii. 1. Zech. x. 7. Matt. v. 11, 12. Deut. xii.
12. 18.
24. It overcometh both the danger and the fear of
death ; and that must be good, which conquereth so great
an evil ; and maketh the day of the ungodly's fears, and
utter misery, to be the day of our desire and felicity ; Rom.
vi. 23. ICor. XV. 55. Col. iii. 1. 4. Phil. iii. 21.
25. It obligeth all the rulers of the world to use all their
power to do good ; against all sin within their reach ; and
to make their subjects happy both in body and soul; Rom.
xiii. 3—6.
26. It appointeth churches to be societies of saints, that
holiness and goodness combined may be strong and honour-
able ; 1 Cor. i. 1. 2 Cor. i. 1. Heb. iii. 13. 1 Thes. v. 12,
13. That holy assemblies employed in the holy love and
praises of God might be a representation of the heavenly
Jerusalem ; Col. ii. 5.
27. It doth make the love and union of all the saints to
be so strict, that the mercies and joys of every member
might extend to all ; all the corporal and spiritual blessings
of all the Christians, (yea, and persons) in the world are
mine as to my comfort, as long as I can love them as my-
self: if it would please me to be rich, or honourable, or
learned myself, it must please me also to have them so,
whom I love as myself. And when millions have so much
matter for my joy, how joyfully should 1 then live ! And
though I am obliged also to sorrow with them, it is with
such a sorrow only, as shall not hinder any seasonable joy.
28. In these societies every member is bound to contri-
bute his help to the benefit of each other ; so that I have as
many obliged to do me good, as there be Christians in the
world ; at least, according to their several opportunities
and capacities ; by prayer and such distant means, if they
can do no more. And the religion which giveth every man
so great an interest, in the good of all others, and engageth
all men to do good to one another is evidently good itself;
1 Cor. xii. Ephes. iv. 15, 16.
29. And all this good is not destroyed, but advantaged
IIB LIFE OF FAITH.
and aggravated accidentally by our sin : so that where sin
abounded, there grace did superabound ; Rom. v. 15 — 19.
Grace hath taken occasion by sin to be grace indeed,
and to be the greater manifestation of the goodness of
God and the greater obligation for gratitude to the
sinner.
30. Lastly, all this goodness is beautified by harmony ;
it is all placed in a perfect order. One mercy doth not keep
us from another ; nor one grace oppose another ; nor one
duty exclude another. As it is the great declaration of
mercy and justice wonderfully conspiring in God (mercy so
used as to magnify justice ; justice so used as to magnify
mercy, and not only so as to consist) ; so also it worketh
answerably on us. It setteth not love against filial fear, nor
joy against necessary sorrow, nor faith against repentance,
nor praise and thanksgiving against penitent confession of
sin, nor true repentance against the profitable use of the
creatures, nor the care of our souls against the peace and
quiet of our minds, nor care for our families against con-
tentedness and trusting God, nor our labour against our
necessary rest, nor self-denial against the due care of our
own welfare, nor patience against due sensibility and law-
ful passion, nor niercy to men against true justice, nor pub-
lic and private good against each other, nor doth it set the
duty of the sovereign and the subject, the master and the ser-
vant, the pastor and the flock, nor yet their interest, in any
contrariety ; but all parts of religion know their place ; and
every duty (even those which seem most opposite) are help-
ful to each other ; and all interests are co-ordinate, and all
doth contribute to the good of the whole, and of every part ;
Ephes. iv. 2, 3. 15, 16.
And now peruse all this together (but let it have more of
your thoughts by far, than it hath had of my words), and
then determine indifferently, whether the Christian religion
bear not the lively image and superscription of God, the
Prime Essential Good.
But all this will be more manifest, when we have con-
sidered how Power hath in the execution, brought all this
into effect.
LIFE OF FAITH. 119
CHAPTER VI.
The Image of God's Power.
111. The third part of God's image and superscription on
the Christian religion, is his power. And as man's own
corruption lieth more in the want of wisdom and goodness,
than of power ; therefore he is less capable of discerning
God, in the impressions of his wisdom and goodness, than
of his power. Seeing therefore he is here most capable of
conviction, and acknowledging the hand of God, I shall
open this also in the several parts, in some degree.
1. In the history of the creation, the omnipotency of God
is abundantly set forth ; which is proved true, both by the
agreeableness of the history to the effects, and by much sub-
sequent evidence of the writer's veracity.
2. The same may be said of God's drowning the old
world, and the preserving of Noah and his family in the
ark.
3. And of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with
fire from heaven.
4. The many miracles done by Moses upon Pharaoh and
the Egyptians, and in the opening of the Red Sea, and in the
feeding of the Israelites in the wilderness, and keeping their
clothes from wearing for forty years ; and the pillar which
went before them as a fire by night, and a cloud by day, for
so long a time ; and the darkness, and thunder, and trem-
bling of the mount at the giving of the law ; with the rest
of the miracles then done, not in a corner, or before a few,
but before all the people ; who were persuaded to receive
and obey the law, by reason of these motives which their
eyes had seen. And if all this had been false ; if no plagues
had been shewn on Egypt ; if no Red Sea had opened ; if
no pillar had gone before them ; if no such terrible sights
and sounds at Mount Sinai had prepared them for the law ;
such reasons would have been so unfit to have persuaded
them to obedience, that they would rather with any reason-
able creatures, have procured contempt.
And to shew posterity that the history of all this was
not forged, or to be suspected ; 1. They had the law itself
then delivered ^in two tables of stone, to be still seen. 2.
J 20 LIFE OF FAITH.
They had a pot of manna still preserved. 3. They had the
miracle-working rod of Moses and Aaron kept likewise as a
monument. 4. They had an ark on purpose to keep these
in, and that in the most inviolable place of worship. 5.
They had the brazen serpent (till Hezekiah broke it) still to
be seen. 6. They had the song of their deliverance at the
Red Sea for their continued use. 7. They had set feasts to
keep the chief of all these things in remembrance. They had
the feast of unleavened bread, which all Israel was to ob-
serve for seven days, to keep the remembrance of their pass-
ing out of Egypt in so great haste, that they could not stay
to knead up, and make their bread, but took it as in meal or
unready dough. They had the feast of the passover, when
every family was to eat of the Paschal Lamb, and the door-
posts to be sprinkled with blood, to keep in remembrance
the night when the Egyptians' first-born were destroyed,
and the Israelites all preserved. And if these had been in-
stituted at that time, upon a pretended occasion which they
knew to be untrue, they would rather have derided than ob-
served them. If they had been afterwards instituted in
another generation which knew not the story, the beginning
would have been known, and the fiction of the name and
institution of Moses would have been apparent to all ; and
the institution would not have been found in the same law
which was given by Moses. And it could not have been so
expressly said, that the Israelites did all observe these feasts
and solemnities from the very time of their deliverance but
in those times when the forgery began, all would have
known it to be false. 8. And they had many other words and
ceremonies among them, and even in God's public worship,
which were all used to keep up the memory of these things.
9. And they had an office of priesthood constantly among
them, which saw to the execution and preservation of all
these. 10. And they had a form of civil policy then es-
tablished, and the rulers were to preserve the memory of
these things, and the practice of this law, and to learn it
themselves, and govern by it. So that the very form of the
commonwealth, and the order of it was a c(mimemoration
hereof. And the parents were to teach and tell their chil-
dren all these things, and to expound all these solemnities,
laws and ceremonies to them : so that the frame of church,
and state, and families, was a preservative hereof.
LIFE OF FAITH, 121
5. But, to pass by all the rest in the Old Testament, the
incarnation of Christ was such a work of omnipotent love,
as cannot by us be comprehended. That God should be
united to humanity in person ! That humanity should be
thus advanced into union with the Deity ! and man be set
above the angels ! That a virgin should conceive ! That
men from the east should be led thither to worship an in-
fant by the conduct of a star (which Caesarius thinks was
one of those angels or spirits which are called a flame of
fire ; Psal. civ. 4.) ! That angels from heaven should de-
clare his nativity to the shepherds, and celebrate it with
their praises ! That John the Baptist should be so called
to be his forerunner, and Elizabeth, Zachary, Simeon and
Anna, should so prophesy of him ! That the Spirit should
be seen descending on him at his baptism, and the voice be
heard from heaven, which owned him ! That he should fast
forty days and nights ! and that he should be transfigured
before his three disciples on the mount, and Moses and
Elias be seen with him in that glory ; and the voice from
heaven again bear witness to him ! These, and many such
like were the attestations of Divine omnipotency to the
truth of Christ.
6. To these may be next joined, the whole course of mi-
racles performed by Christ, in healing the sick, and raising
the dead ; and in many other miraculous acts, which are
most of the substance of the Gospel history, and which I
have recited together in my " Reasons of the Christian Re-
ligion;" see Heb. ii 2 — 4.
7. And to these may be added, the power which was
given over all the creatures, to Christ our Mediator. All
power in heaven and earth was given him ; Job xvii. 2.
xiii. 3. Matt, xxviii. 19. Rom. xiv. 9. Ephes. i. 22, 23.
He was made Head over all things to the church, and all
principalities and powers were put under him. And this
was not barely asserted by him but demonstrated. He
shewed his power over the devils in casting them out ;
and his power over angels by their attendance ; and his
power of life and death, by raising the dead ; and his power
over all diseases, by healing them ; and his power over the
winds and waters, by appeasing them ; and his power over
our food and natures, by turning water into wine, and by
feeding many thousands miraculously. Yea, and his power
122 LIFE OF FAITH.
over them into whose hands he was resolved to yield him-
self, by restraining them till his hour was come, and by
making them all fall to the ground at his name. And his
power over sun, and heaven, and earth by the darkening of
the sun, and the trembling of the earth, and the rending of
the rocks, and of the veil of the temple ; Matt, xxvii. 45. 51.
And his power over the dead, by the rising of the bodies of
many ; Matt, xxvii. 52. And his power over the saints in
heaven, by the attendance of Moses and Elias ; and his
power to forgive sins, by taking away the penal maladies ;
and his power to change hearts, and save souls, by causing
his disciples to leave all and follow him at a word ; and
Zaccheus to receive him, and believe ; and the thief on
the cross to be converted, and to enter that day into
paradise.
8. And his own resurrection is an undoubted attestation
of Divine omnipotency. If God gave him such a victory
over death, and raised him to life when men had killed him,
and rolled a stone upon his sepulchre, and sealed and
guarded it, there needeth no further evidence of the power
of God impressing and attesting the Christian religion, than
that which ascertaineth to us the truth of Christ's resurrec-
tion. For he was declared to be the Son of God with
power, by his resurrection from the dead ; Rom. i. 4.
9. And his bodily appearance to his congregated disci-
ples when the doors were shut ; his miracle at their fishing,
his walking on the sea, his vanishing out of their sight
(Luke xxiv.) when he had discoursed with the two disciples,
his opening their hearts to understand his word, &c. do all
shew this part of God's image on our religion, even his
power.
10. And so doth his bodily ascending into heaven before
the face of his disciples ; Acts i.
11. But especially the sending down the Holy Ghost up-
on his disciples according as he promised : to cause them
that were before so low in knowledge, to be suddenly in-
spired with languages, and with the full understanding of
his own will, and with unanimity and concord herein ; this
made his disciples the living monuments and effects of his
own omnipotency ; Acts ii.
12. And accordingly all the miracles which they did by
this power, recorded partly in the Acts of the Apostles (or
LIFE OF FAITH. 123
rather, the Acts of Paul, by Luke who was his companion ;)
which you may there read (and no doubt but other apostles
in their measures did the like as Paul, though they are not
recorded ; for they had all the same promise and spirit).
This is another impression of power.
13. Whereto must be added the great and wonderful
gifts of communicating the same spirit (or doing that upon
which God would give it) to those converted believers on
whom they laid their hands (which Simon Magus would fain
have bought with money ; Acts viii.). To enable them to
speak with tongues, to heal diseases, to prophesy, &c. as
they themselves had done, which is a great attestation of
omnipotency.
14. And the lamentable destruction of Jerusalem by the
Romans, foretold by Christ, was an attestation of God's
power in the revenge or punishment of their unbelief, and
putting Christ to death.
15. And so was the great fortitude and constancy of be-
lievers, who underwent all persecutions so joyfully as they
did for the sake of Christ ; which was the effect of the cor-
roborating power of the Almighty.
16. And so was the power which the apostles had to exe-
cute present judgments upon the enemies of the Gospel,
(as Elimas and Simon Magus), and on the abusers of religion
(as Ananias and Saphira), and on many whom they excom-
municated and delivered up to satan.
17. The same evidence is found in Christ's legislation,
as an universal sovereign making laws for heart and life, for
all the world : taking down the laws of the Jewish polity
and ceremonies, which God by Moses had for a time setup j
commanding his ministers to proclaim his laws to all the
world, and princes and people to obey them ; and by these
laws, conferring on believers no less than forgiveness and
salvation, and binding over the impenitent to everlasting
punishment.
18. But the great and continued impress of God's power,
is that which together with his wisdom and love, is made and
shewed in the conversion of men's souls to God by Christ.
You may here first consider the numbers which were sud-
denly converted by the preaching of the apostles at the first.
And in how little time there were churches planted abroad
the world : and then, how the Roman empire was brought
124 LIFE OF FAITH.
in, and subdued to Christ, and crowns and sceptres resigned
to him ; and all this according to his own prediction, that
when he was lifted up, he would draw all men to him ; and
according to the predictions of his prophets. But that
which I would especially open is, the power which is mani-
fested in the work of the Spirit on the souls of men, both
then and to this day.
Hitherto what I have mentioned belonging to the Scrip-
ture itself, is to be taken as part of our religion objectively
considered. But that which foUoweth is the effect of that,
even our religion subjectively considered. To observe how
God maketh men believers, and by believing sanctifieth
their hearts and lives, is a great motive to further our own
believing. Consider the work, 1. As it is in itself. 2. As
it is opposed by all its enemies, and you may see that it is
the work of God.
1. As the goodness, so also the greatness of it, is God's
own image. It is the raising up of our stupid faculties to
be lively and active to those holy uses, to which they were
become as dead by sin. To cause in an unlearned person,
a firmer and more distinct belief of the unseen world, than
the most learned philosophers can attain to by all their na-
tural contemplations : to bring up a soul to place its happi-
ness on things so high and far from sense ! To cause him
who naturally is imprisoned in selfishness, to deny himself,
and devote himself entirely to God ; to love him, to trust
him, and to live to him ! To raise an earthly mind to hea-
ven, that our business and hope may be daily there ! To
overcome our pride and sensuality, and bring our senses in
subjection unto reason, and to keep a holy government in
our thoughts, and over our passions, words and deeds : and
to live in continual preparation for death, as the only time
of our true felicity ; and to suflPer any loss or pain for the
safe accomplishment of this ! All this is the work of the
power of God.
2. Which will the more appear when we consider, what
is done against it within us and without us ; what privative
and positive averseness we have to it, till God do send down
that life, and light, and love into our souls, which is indeed
his image ! How violently our fleshly sense and appetite
strive against the restraints of God, and would hurry us con-
trary to the motions of grace ! How importunately Satan
LIFE OF FAITH. 125
joineth with his suggestions ! What baits the world doth still
set before us, to divert us and pervert us ! And how many
instruments of its flattery, or its cruelty are still at work, to
stop us, or to turn us back ; to invite our affections down to
earth, and ensnare them to some deluding vanity, or to dis-
tract us in our heavenly design, and to affright or discourage
us from the holy way.
And if we think this an easy work, because it is likewise
reasonable, do but observe how hardly it goeth on, till the
power of God by grace accomplish it ! What a deal of pains
may the best and wisest parents take with a graceless child,
and all in vain ! What labours the worthiest ministers lose
on graceless people ; and how blind, and dead, and senseless
a thing the graceless heart is to anything that is holy, even
when reason itself cannot gainsay it ! And God is pleased
oftimes to weary out parents, and masters, and ministers,
with such unteachable and stony hearts, to make them know
what naturally they are themselves, to bring them to the
more lively acknowledgment of the power which is neces-
sary to renew and save a soul. But having spoken at large
of this in the forementioned Treatise, I shall take up with
these brief intimations.
19. And the preservation of that grace in the soul which
is once given us, is also an effect of the power of God. Our
strength is in the Lord, and in the power of his might ;
Ephes. vi. 10. It is our Lord himself who is the Lord of
Life, and whose priesthood was made after the power of an
endless life (Heb. vii. 16.) ; who giveth us the Spirit of
power, and of love, and of a sound mind ; 2 Tim. i. 7. (or of
received wisdom, for * o-w^joovt^ftoc ' is sound understanding
received by instruction). And this text expresseth the three
parts of God's image in the new creature, * wvevfxa Stuva/i£wc»
Kai dydirr^g Kai a(o(f>^ovi(Tfi8»' And as power is given us with
love and wisdom ; so power with love and wisdom do give
it us ; and power also must preserve it. " We are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation ;" 1 Pet. i. 5.
" Acccording to the power of God ; who hath saved us ;"
2 Tim. i. 8. The Gospel is the power of God (that is, the
instrument of his power) to our salvation; Rom. i. 16. So
1 Cor. i. 18. "To us that are saved it is the power of God;"
because Christ whom it revealeth, is the " power and wis-
dom of God ;'" ver. 24. And thus our faith standeth in the
126 LIFE OF FAITH.
power of God ; 1 Cor. ii. 5. 2 Cor. vi. 7. And the king-
dom of God in us doth consist in power ; 1 Cor. iv 20. The
mind of man is very mutable ; and he that is possessed once
with the desires of the things spiritual and eternal, would
quickly lose those desires, and turn to present things again,
(which are still before him, while higher things are beyond
our sense) if the power and activity of the divine life did not
preserve the spark which is kindled in us. Though the
doctrine of perseverance be controverted in the Christian
church, yet experience assureth us of that which all parties
are agreed in. Some hold that all true Christians persevere ;
and some hold that all confirmed Christians persevere (that
is, those who come to a strong degree of grace) ; but those
that think otherwise do yet all grant, that if any fall away,
it is comparatively but a very few of those that are sincere.
When none would persevere if Omnipotency did not pre-
serve them.
20. Lastly, the power of God also doth consequently
own the Christian religion, by the preservation of the
church, in this malicious and opposing world (as Vv^ell as
by the preservation of grace in the soul), which will be
the more apparent if you observe, 1. That the number of
true Christians is still very small in comparison of the
wicked. 2. That all wicked men are naturally (by the cor-
ruption of nature) their enemies ; because the precepts and
practice of Christianity are utterly against their carnal minds
and interests. 3. That the doctrine and practice of Chris-
tianity is still galling them, and exciting and sublimating
this enmity into rage : and God doth by persecutions ordi-
narily tell us to our smart, that all this is true. 4. That all
carnal men are exceeding hardly moved from their own way.
5. That the government of the earth is commonly in their
hand, because of their numbers, and their wealth. For it is
commonly the rich that rule ; and the rich are usually bad ;
so that the godly Christians are in their power. 6. That all
the hypocrites that are among ourselves, have the same sin-
ful nature and enmity against holiness, and are usually as
bitter against the power and practice of their own profes-
sion, as open infidels are. 7. That Christianity is not a fruit
of nature ; ' Non nati sed facti sumus Christiani ;' said Ter-
tuUian. And therefore if God's power preserved not reli-
gion, the degenerating of the Christian's children from their
LIFE OF FAITH. 127
parent's mind and way, would hasten its extinction in the
world. 8. And as it is a religion which must be taught us ;
so it requireth or consistethin so much wisdom, and willing-
ness, and fortitude of mind, that few are naturally apt to re-
ceive it ;; because folly, and badness, and feebleness of mind
are so common in the world. And as we see that learning
will never be common but in the possession of a very few,
because a natural ingenuity is necessary thereto, which few
are born with ; so it would be with Christianity, if Divine
power maintained it not. 9. And it is a religion which re-
quireth much time and contemplation, in the learning and
in the practising of it ; whereas the world are taken up with
so much business for the body, and are so slothful to those
exercises of the mind, which bring them no present, sensi-
ble commodity, that this also would quickly wear it out.
10. And then the terms of it being so contrary to all men's
fleshly interest and sense, in self-denial, and forsaking all
for Christ ; and in mortifying the most beloved sins, and the
world putting us to it so ordinarily by persecution ; this
also would deter the most, and weary out the rest, if the
power of God did not uphold them. That which is done by
exceeding industry, against the inclinations and interest of
nature, will have no considerable number of practisers. As
we see in horses and dogs which are capable, with great la-
bour, of being taught extraordinary things which resemble
reason : and yet because it must cost so much labour, there
is but one in a century that is brought to it. But (though
the truly religious are but few in comparison of the wicked,
yet) godly persons are not so few as they would be, if it
were the work of industry alone. God maketh it as a new
nature to them ; and (which is very much to be observed)
the main change is oftimes wrought in an hour, and that
after all exhortations, and the labours of parents and teach-
ers have failed, and left the sinner as seemingly hopeless.
And thus I have shewed you, 1. That our religion ob-
jectively taken, is the image of God's Wisdom, Goodness
and Power, and thereby fully proved it to be from God. 2.
And that our religion subjectively taken, is answerably the
spirit or impress of Power, and of Love, and of Sound Un-
derstanding, and is in us a constant seal and witness to the
truth of Christ.
128 LIFE OF FAITH.
CHAPTER VII.
The Means of making known all this Infallibly to us.
I SUPPOSE the evidence of Divine attestation is so clear in
this image of God on the Christian religion, which I have
been opening, that few can doubt of it who are satisfied of
the historical truth of the facts ; and therefore this is next
to be considered, 'How the certain knowledge of all those
things cometh down to us V
The first question is, whether this doctrine and religion
indeed be the impress of God's Wisdom, and his Goodness
and Power, supposing the truth of the historical part ? This
is what I think few reasonable persons will deny : for the
doctrine is legible, and sheweth itself.
But the next question, which I am now to resolve, is,
* How we shall know that this doctrine was indeed delivered
by Christ and his apostles, and these things done by them,
which the Scriptures mention?'
And here the first question shall be, * How the apostles,
and all other the first witnesses, knew it themselves V For
it is by every reasonable man to be supposed, that they who
were present, and we who are at seventeen hundred years
distance, could not receive the knowledge of the matters of
fact, in the very same manner. It is certain that their know-
ledge was by their present sense and reason : they saw
Christ and his miracles : they heard his words : they saw
him risen from the dead : they discoursed with him, and eat
and drank with him : they saw him ascending up bodily to
heaven. They needed no other revelation to tell them what
they saw, and heard, and felt.
If you had asked them then, * How know you that all
these things were said and done?' They would have an-
swered you, * Because we saw and heard them.' But we
were not then present : we did not see and hear what they
did: nor did we see or hear them, who were the eye-
witnesses. And therefore as their senses told it them ; so
the natural way for our knowledge, must be by derivation
from their senses to ours : for when they themselves received
it in a way so natural, (though not without the help of God's
Spirit, in the remembering, recording and attesting it,) we
LIFE OF FAITH. 129
that can less pretend to inspiration, or immediate revelation,
have small reason to think that we must knov^ the same
facts by either of those supernatural ways. Nor can our
knowledge of a history, carried down through so many ages,
be so clearly satisfactory to ourselves, as sight and hearing
was to them. And yet we have a certainty, not only infal-
lible, but so far satisfactory, as is sufficient to warrant all
ourfaith, and duty, and sufferings for the reward which Christ
hath set before us.
Let us next then inquire, * How did the first churches
know that the apostles and other preachers of the Gospel
did not deceive them in the matter of fact V I answer.
They had their degrees of assurance or knowledge in this
part of their belief. 1. They had the most credible human
testimony of men that were not like to deceive them. But
this was not infallible.
2. They had in their testimony the evidence of a natural
certainty. It being naturally impossible, that so many per-
sons should agree together to deceive the world, in such
matters of fact, at so dear a rate, in the very place and age
when the things were pretended to be done and said, when
any one might have presently evinced the falsehood, if they
had been liars ; about the twice feeding of many thousands
miraculously, and the raising of the dead, and many other
public miracles, and the darkness at his death, and the rend-
ing of the rocks and veil of the temple, and the earthquake,
and the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon themselves,
with many the like ; they would have been detected and con-
futed to their confusion. And we should have read what
apologies they made against such detections and confuta-
tions ! And some of them (at least at their death) would
have been forced by conscience to confess the plot.
3. But to leave no room for doubting, God gave those
first churches the addition ofvhis own supernatural attesta-
tion, by the same threefold impress of his image before des-
cribed. 1. In the holy wisdom and light which was in their
doctrine. 2. In the holy love, and piety, and purity, which
was conspicuous in their doctrine, and in their lives. 3.
And in the evidences of Divine power, in the many gifts,
and wonders, and miracles which they wrought and mani-
fested. And these things seem a fuller testimony than the
VOL. XII. K
130 LIFE OF FAITH.
miracles of Christ himself. For Christ^s miracles were the
deeds of one alone ; and his resurrection was witnessed but
by twelve chosen witnesses, and about five hundred other
persons ; and he conversed with them but forty days, and
that but seldom ; but the miracles of the disciples were
wrought by many, and before many thousands, at several
times, and in many countries, and for many, many years to-
gether, and in the sight and hearing of many of the churches :
so that these first churches had sight and hearing to assure
them of the divine, miraculous attestation of the truth of
their testimony, who told them of the doctrines, miracles
and resurrection of Christ : and all this from Christ's solemn
promise and gift ; " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also ; and
greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the
Father;" John xiv. 12.
But if it be demanded, * How did the next Christians of
the second receive all this from the first churches, who re-
ceived it from the apostles V I answer, by the same evi-
dence, and with some advantages. For, 1. They had the
credible human testimony of all their pastors, neighbours,
parents, who told them but what they saw and heard. 2.
They had a greater evidence of natural infallible certainty.
For, (1.) The doctrine was now delivered to them in the re-
cords of the sacred Scriptures, and so less liable to the mis-
reports of the ignorant, forgetful or erroneous. (2.) The
reporters were now more numerous, and the miracles re-
ported more numerous also. (3.) They were persons now
dispersed over much of the world, and could not possibly
agree together to deceive. (4.) The deceit would now have
been yet more easily detected and abhorred.
3. But besides this, they had also the supernatural tes-
timony of God : for the apostles' converts received the same
Spirit as they had themselves : and though the miracles of
other persons were not so numerous as those of the apos-
tles, yet the persons were many thousands more that wrought
them. All this is asserted in the Scripture itself; as Gal.
iii. 3, 4. 1 Cor. xiv. xii. and many places. And he that
should have told them falsely that they themselves had the
spirit of extraordinary gifts and miracles, would hardly have
been believed by them. And all this also the following ages
have themselves asserted unto us.
LIFE OF FAITH. 131
The question then which remaineth is, ' How we receive
all this infallibly from the subsequent ages or churches to
this day T The answer to which is, still by the same way,
with yet greater advantages in some respects, though less
in others. As, 1. We have the human testimony of all our
ancestors, and of many of our enemies. 2. We have greater
evidence of natural certainty, that they could not possi-
bly meet or plot together to deceive us. 3. We have still
the supernatural, divine attestation (though rarely of mira-
cles, yet) of those more necessary and noble operations of
the Spirit, in the sanctification of all true believers ; which
Spirit accompanieth and worketh by the doctrine which from
our ancestors we have received.
More distinctly observe all these conjunct means of our
full reception of our religion.
1. The very being of the Christians and churches, is a
testimony to us that they believed and received this religion.
For what maketh them Christians and churches but the re-
ceiving of it?
2. The ordinance of baptism is a notable tradition of it.
For all that ever were made Christians have beefn baptized :
and baptism is nothing but the solemn initiation of persons
into this religion, by a vowed consent to it, as summarily
were expressed in the Christian covenant. And this was
used to be openly done.
3. The use of the creed, which at baptism and other sa-
cred seasons, was always wont to be professed (together with
the Lord's prayer and the decalogue ; the summaries of our
faith, desire and practice) is another notable tradition ; by
which this religion hath been sent down to the following
ages. For though perhaps all the terms of the creed were
not so early as some think, thus constantly used ; yet all the
sense and substance of it was.
4. The holy Scriptures or records of this religion, con-
taining integrally all the doctrine, and all the necessary
matter of fact, is the most complete way of tradition. And
it will appear to you in what further shall be said, that we
have infallible proof, that these Scriptures are the same
which the first churches did receive ; whatever inconsidera-
ble errors may be crept into any copies by the unavoidable
oversight of the scribes.
132 LIFE OF FAITH.
5. The constant use of the sacred assemblies, hath been
another means of sure tradition : for we have infallible proof
of the successive continuation of such assemblies ; and that
their use was still, the solemn profession of the Christian
faith, and worshipping God according to it.
6. And the constant use of reading the Scriptures in
those assemblies, is another full historical tradition : for that
which is constantly and publicly read, as the doctrine of
their religion, cannot be changed, without the notice of all
the church, and without an impossible combination of all
the churches in the world.
7. And it secureth the tradition that one set day hath
been kept for this public exercise of religion, from the very
first ; even the Lord's day (besides all occasional times)*
The day itself being appointed to celebrate the memorial of
Christ's resurrection, is a most current history of it; as the
feast of unleavened bread, and the passover was of the
Israelites' deliverance from Egypt. And the exercises
still performed on that day, do make the tradition more
complete.
And because some few Sabbatarians among ourselves da
keep the old sabbath only, and call still for Scripture proof
for the institution of the Lord's day ; let me briefly tell them,
that which is enough to evince their error.
L That the apostles were officers immediately commis-
sioned by Christ, to disciple the nations, and to teach them
all that Christ commanded, and so to settle orders in the
church ; Matt, xxviii. 19 — 21. Acts. xv. &c.
2. That Christ promised and gave them his Spirit infal-
libly to guide them in the performance of this commission
( though not to make them perfectly free from sin ) ;
John xvi. 13^.
3. That ' de facto ' the apostles appointed the use of the
Lord's day for the church assemblies. This being all that
is left to be proved, and this being matter of fact, which re-
quireth no other kind of proof but history, part of the his-
tory of it is in the Scripture, and the rest in the history of
all the following ages. In the Scripture itself it is evident
that the churches and the apostles used this day accordingly.
And it hath most infallible history (impossible to be false)
that the churches have used it ever to this day, as that which
they found practised in their times by their appointment :
LIFE OF FAITH. 133
and this is not a bare narrative, but an uninterrupted matter
of public fact and practice ; so universal, that I remember
not in all my reading, that ever one enemy questioned it, or
ever one Christian or heretic denied, or once scrupled it. So
that they who tell us that all this is yet but human testi-
mony, do shew their egregious inconsiderateness, that know
not that such human testimony or history in a matter of pub-
lic, constant fact, may be most certain, and all that the na-
ture of the case will allow a sober person to require. And
they might as well reject the canon of the Scriptures, be-
cause human testimony is it which in point of fact doth cer-
tify us that these are the very unaltered canonical books,
which were delivered at first to the churches. Yea, they
may reject all the store of historical tradition of Christianity
itself, which I am here reciting to the shame of their under-
standings.
And consider also, that the Lord's day was settled, and
constantly used in solemn worship by the churches, many
and many years before any part of the New Testament was
written, and above threescore years before it was finished.
And when the churches had so many years been in public
possessionofit,who would require that the Scriptures should
after all, make a law to institute that which was instituted
so long ago ?
If you say, that it might have declared the institution, I
answer, so it hath, as I have shewed ; there needing no
other declaration, but 1. Christ's commission to the apos-
tles to order the church, and declare his commands. 2. And
his promise of infallible guidance therein. 3. And the his-
tory of the churches' order and practice, to shew * de facto'
what they did : and that history need not be written in
scripture for the churches that then were ; any more than
we need a revelation from heaven to tell us that the Lord's
day is kept in England. And sure the next age needed no
supernatural testimony of it ; and therefore neither do we :
but yet it is occasionally oft intimated or expressed in the
Scripture, though on the bye, as that which was no further
necessary.
So that I may well conclude, that we have better histori-
cal evidence that the Lord's day was actually observed by
the churches, for their public worship and profession of the
Christian faith, than we have that ever there was such a man
/34 LIFE OF FAITH.
as William the Conqueror in England, yea, or King James ;
much more than that there was a Caesar or Cicero.
8. Moreover, the very office of the pastors of the church,
and their continuance from the beginning to this day, is a
great part of the certain tradition of this religion. For it is
most certain that the churches vi^ere constituted, and the as-
semblies held, and the worship performed with them, and
by their conduct, and not without. And it is certain by in-
fallible history, that their office hath been still the same,
even to teach men this Christian religion, and to guide them
in the practice of it, and to read the same Scriptures as the
word of truth, and to explain it to the people. And there-
fore as the judicatures and offices of the judges is a certain
proof that there have been those laws by which they judge,
(especially if they had been also the weekly public readers
and expounders of them), so much more is it in our case.
9. And the constant use of the sacrament of the body
9,nd blood of Christ, hath according to his appointment,
been an infallible tradition of his covenant, and a means to
keep him in remembrance in the churches. For when all
the churches in the world have made this sacramental com-
memoration, and renewed covenanting with Christ as dead
and risen, to be their constant public practice here, this is a
tradition of that faith and covenant which cannot be coun-
terfeit or false.
10. To this we may add, the constant use of discipline
in these churches : it having been their constant law and
practice, to inquire into the faith and lives of the members,
and to censure or cast out those that impenitently violated
their religion : which sheweth, that * de facto' that faith and
religion was then received ; and is a means of delivering it
down to us. Under which we may mention, 1. Their sy-
nods and officers. 2. And their canons by which this dis-
cipline was exercised.
11. Another tradition hath been the published confes-
sions of their faith and religion in those apologies, which
persecutions and calumnies have caused them to write.
12. And another is, all those published confutations of
the many heresies, which in every age have risen up ; and all
the controversies which the churches have had with them,
and among themselves.
LIFE OF FAITH. 135
13. And another is, all the treatises, sermons and other
instructing writings of the pastors of those times,
14. And another way of tradition hath been by the tes-
timony and sufferings of confessors and martyrs, who have
endured either torments or death, in the defence and owning
of this religion, in all which ways of tradition, the doctrine
and the matter were jointly attested by them. For the re-
surrection of Christ (which is part of the matter of fact) was
one of the articles of their creed, which they suffered for.
And all of them received the holy Scriptures, which declare
the apostles' miracles ; and they received their faith, as de-
livered by those apostles, with the confirmation of those mi-
racles. So that when they professed to believe the doctrine,
they especially professed to believe the history of the life
and death of Christ, and of his apostles : and the religion
which they suffered for, and daily professed, contained both :
and the historical books called the Gospels, were the chief
part of the Scripture which they called * The Word of God/
and the records of the Christian Religion.
15. To this I may add, that all the ordinary prayers and
praises of the churches, did continue the recital of much of
this history, and of the apostles' names and acts, and were
composed much in Scripture phrase, which preserved the
memory, and professed the belief of all those things.
16. And the festivals or other days, which were kept in
honourable commemoration of those apostles and martyrs,
was another way of keeping these things in memory. Whe-
ther it were well done or not, is not my present inquiry (only
I may say, I cannot accuse it of any sin, till it come
to overdoing, and ascribing too much to them). But
certainly it was a way of transmitting the memory of those
things to posterity.
17. Another hath been by the constant commemoration
of the great works of Christ, by the days or seasons of the
year, which were annually observed. How far here also the
church did well or ill, I now meddle not; but doubtless the
observing of anniversary solemnities for their commemora-
tion, was a way of preserving the memory of the acts them-
selves to posterity. How long the day of Christ's nativity
hath been celebrated, I know not. Reading what Selden
hath said on one side ; and on the other finding no current
author mention it (that I have read) before Nazianzen ; and
136 LIFE OF FAITH.
finding by Chrysostom, that the churches of the east, till his
time had differed from the western churches, as far as the
sixth of January is from the twenty-fifth of December. But
that is of less moment, because Christ's birth is a thing un-
questioned in itself. But we find that the time of his fast-
ing forty days, the time of his passion, and of his resurrec-
tion, and the giving of the Holy Ghost, were long before
kept in memory by some kind of observation by fasts or
festivals. And though there was a controversy about the
due season of the successive observation of Easter, yet that
signified no uncertainty of the first day, or the season of the
year. And though at first it was but few days that were
kept in fasting at that season, yet they were enough
to commemorate both the forty days fasting, and the death
of Christ.
18. And the histories of the heathens and enemies of the
church, do also declare how long Christianity continued, and
what they were, and what they suffered who were called
Christians ; such as Pliny, Celsus, Porphyry, Plotinus, Lu-
cian, Suetonius, and others.
19. And the constant instruction of children by their
parents, which is family tradition, hath been a very great
means also of this commemoration. For it cannot be (though
some be negligent) but that multitudes in all times would
teach their children what the Christian religion was, as to
its doctrine and its history. And the practice of catechising,
and teaching children the creed, the Lord's prayer, and the
decalogue, and the Scriptures, the more secured this tradi-
tion in families.
20. Lastly, a succession of the same Spirit which was
in the apostles, and of much of the same works which were
done by them, was such a way of assuring us of the truth of
their doctrine and history, as a succession of posterity telleth
us, that our progenitors were men. The same spirit of wis-
dom and goodness in a great degree continued after them to
this day. And all wrought by their doctrine : and very cre-
dible history assureth us, that many miracles also were done,
in many ages after them, though not so many as by them.
Eusebius, Cyprian, Augustine, Victor Uticensis, Sulpitius
Severus, and many others, shew us so much as may make
the belief of the apostles the more easy.
And indeed, the image of God's Wisdom, Goodness and
LIFE OF FAITH. 137
Power on the souls of all true Christians in the world, sue-'
cessively to this day, considered in itself, and in its agree-
ment with the same image in the holy Scriptures, which do
imprint it, and in its agreement or sameness as found in all
ages, nations and persons, is such a standing perpetual evi-
dence that the Christian religion is divine, that (being still
at hand) it should be exceeding satisfactory to a considerate
believer, against all doubts and temptations to unbelief.
And were it not, lest I should instead of an index, give you
too large a recital of what I have more fully written in my
aforesaid Treatise, I would here stay yet to shew you how
impossible it is that this spirit of holiness, which we feel
in us, and see by the effects in others, even in every true be-
liever, should be caused by a word of falsehood, which he
abhbrreth, and, as the just ruler of the world, would be
obliged to disown.
I shall only here desire you by the way to note that
when I have all this while shewed you that the Spirit is the
great witness of the truth of Christianity, that it is this Spi-
rit of wisdom, goodness and power, in the prophets, in
Christ, in the apostles, and in all Christians, expressed in
the doctrine, and the practices aforesaid, which I mean; as
being principally the evidences, or objective witness of Je-
sus Christ; and secondarily, being in all true believers,
their teacher, or illuminator and sanctifier, efficiently to
cause them to perceive the aforesaid objective evidences in
its cogent, undeniable power. And thus the Holy Ghost is
the promised agent or advocate of Christ ; to do his work
in his bodily absence in the world : and that in this sense
it is, that we believe in the Holy Ghost, and are bap-
tized into his name ; and not only as he is the third person
in the eternal Trinity.
And therefore it is to be lamented exceedingly, 1, That
any orthodox teachers should recite over many of these
parts of the witness of the Spirit, and when they have done,
tell us, that yet all these are not sufficient to convince us
without the testimony of the Spirit : as if all this were none
of the testimony of the Spirit ; and as if they would per-
suade us and our enemies, that the testimony which must
satisfy us, is only some inward impress of this proposition
on the mind, by way of inspiration, * The Scriptures are the
Word of God, and true.' Overlooking the great witness of
138 LIFE OF FAITH.
the Spirit, which is his especial work, and which our bap
tism relateth to, and feigning some extraordinary new thing
as the only testimony.
And it is to be lamented, that Papists, and quarrelling
sectaries should take this occasion to reproach us as infidels,
that have no true grounded faith in Christ 5 as telling us
that we resolve it all into a private, inward, pretended wit-
ness of the Spirit : and then they ask us, * Who can know
that witness but ourselves ? And how can we preach the
Gospel to others, if the only cogent argument of faith be
incommunicable, or such as we cannot prove?' Though
both the believing soul and the church be the kingdom of
the Prince of Light, yet O what wrong hath the prince of
darkness done, by the mixtures of darkness in them both !
So much for the first Direction for the strengthening of
faith ; which is, by discerning the evidences of truth in our
religion.
CHAPTER VIII.
The rest of the Directions for strengthening our Faith,
I SHALL be more brief in the rest of the Directions, for the
increase of faith : and they are these.
Direct, 2. ' Compare the Christian religion with all
other in the world. And seeing it is certain that some way
or other God hath revealed, to guide man in his duty, unto
his end, and it is no other; you will see that it must needs
be this.'
1. The way of the heathenish idolaters cannot be it.
The principles and the effects of their religion may easily
satisfy you of this. The only true God would not command
idolatry, nor befriend such ignorance, error and wickedness
as do constitute their religion, and are produced by it as its
genuine fruits.
2. The way of Judaism cannot be it : for it doth but
lead us up to Christianity, and bear witness to Christ, and
of itself is evidently insufficient ; its multitude of ceremo-
nies being but the pictures and alphabet of that truth
which Jesus Christ hath brought to light, and which hath
LIFE OF FAITH. 139
evidence, which to us is more convincing than that of the
Jewish law.
3. The Mahometan delusion is so gross, that it seemeth
vain to say any more against, than it saith itself ; unless it
be to those who are bred up in such darkness, as to hear of
nothing else, and never to see the sun which shineth on the
Christian world ; and withal are under terror of the sword,
which is the strongest reason of that barbarous sect.
4. And to think that the atheism of infidels is the way,
(who hold only the five articles of the unity of God, the du-
ty of obedience, the immortality of the soul, the life of retri-
bution, and the necessity of repentance) is but to go against
the light. For, 1. It is a denial of that abundant evidence
of the truth of the Christian faith, which cannot by any
sound reason be confuted. 2. It is evidently too narrow for
man's necessities, and leaveth our misery without a suffi-
cient remedy. 3. Its inclusions and exclusions are contra-
dictory : it asserteth the necessity of obedience and repen-
tance, and yet excludeth the necessary means (the revealed
light, and love, and power,) by which both obedience and
repentance must be had. It excludeth Christ and his Spi-
rit, and yet requireth that which none but Christ and his
Spirit can effect. 4. It proposeth a way as the only reli-
gion, which few ever went from the beginning (as to the ex-
clusions). As if that were God's only way to heaven, which
scarce any visible societies of men, can be proved to have
practised to this day.
Which of all these religions have the most wise, and holy,
and heavenly, and mortified, and righteous, and sober per-
sons to profess it ; and the greatest numbers of such ? If
you will j udge of the medicine by the effects, and take him
for the best physician, who doth the greatest cures upon the
souls, you will soon conclude that Christ is the " way, the
truth, and the life, and no man cometh to the Father but by
him ;" John xiv. 6.
Direct. 3. ' Think how impossible it is that any but God
should be the author of the Christian religion.'
1. No good man could be guilty of so horrid a crime as
to forge a volume of delusions, and put God's name to it ; to
cheat the world so blasphemously and hypocritically, and
to draw them into a life of trouble to promote it. Much
less could so great a number of good men do this, as the
140 LIFE OF FAITH.
success of such a cheat (were it possible) would require.
There is no man that can believe it to be a deceit, but must
needs believe, as we do of Mahomet, that the author was one
of the worst men that ever lived in the world.
2. No bad man could lay so excellent a design, and frame
a doctrine and law so holy, so self-denying, so merciful, so
just, so spiritual, so heavenly, and so concordant in itself;
nor carry on so high and divine an undertaking for so divine
and excellent an end. No bad man could so universally
condemn all badness, and prescribe such powerful remedies
against it, and so effeclually cure and conquer it in so con-
siderable a part of the world.
3. If it be below any good man, to be guilty of such a
forgery as aforesaid, we can much less suspect that any good
angel could be guilty of it.
4. And if no bad man could do so much good, we can
much less imagine that any devil or bad spirit could be the
author of it. The devil, who is the worst in evil, could ne-
ver so much contradict his nature, and overthrow his own
kingdom, and say so much evil of himself, and do so much
against himself, and do so much for the sanctifying and
saving of the world : he that doth so much to draw men to
sin and misery, would never do so much to destroy their
sin. And we plainly feel within ourselves, that the spirit or
party which draweth us to sin, doth resist the Spirit which
draweth us to believe and obey the Gospel ; and that these
two maintain a war within us.
5. And if you should say, that the good which is in Chris-
tianity, is caused by God, and the evil of it by the father of
sin ; I answer, either it is true or false : if it be true, it is so
good, that the devil can never possibly be a contributor to
it : nay, it cannot then be suspected justly of any evil. But
if it be false it is then so bad, that God cannot be any other-
wise the author of it, than as he is the author of any com-
mon natural verity which it may take in and abuse ; or as
his general concourse extendeth to the whole creation. But
it is somewhat in Christianity, which it hath more than other
religions have, which must make it more pure, and more
powerful and successful than any other religions have been.
Therefore it must be more than common natural truths : even
the contexture of those natural truths, with the supernatu-
ral revelations of it, and the addition of a spirit of power.
LIFE OF FAITH. 114
and light, and love, to procure the success. And God can-
not be the author of any such contexture, or additions; if it
be false.
6. If it be said, that men that had some good, and some
bad in them, did contrive it (such as those fanatics or en-
thusiasts, who have pious notions and words, with pride and
self-exalting minds) ; I answer. The good is so great which
is found in Christianity, that it is not possible that a bad
man, much less an extremely bad man, could be the author
of it. And the wickedness of the plot would be so great if
it were false, that it is not possible that any but an extremely
bad man could be guilty of it : much less that a multitude
should be found at once so extremely good as to promote
it, even with their greatest labour and suffering, and also so
extremely bad as to join together in the plot to cheat the
world, in a matter of such high importance. Such exceed-
ing good and evil, cannot consist in any one person, much
less in so many as must do such a thing. And if such a
heated, brain-sick person as Hacket, Nailer, David George
or John of Leyden, should cry up themselves upon prophe-
tical and pious pretences, their madness hath still appeared,
in the mixture of their impious doctrines and practices : and
if any would and could be so wicked, God never would or
did assist them, by an age of numerous open miracles, nor
lend them his omnipotency to deceive the world ; but left
them to the shame of their proud attempts, and made their
folly known to all.
Direct. 4. 'Study all the evidences of the Christian veri-
ty, till their sense, and weight, and order be thoroughly di-
gested, understood and remembered by you ; and be as plain
and familiar to you, as the lesson which you have most
thoroughly learned.'
It is not once or twice reading, or hearing, or thinking
on such a great and difficult matter, that will make it your
own, for the establishing of your faith. He that will under-
stand the art of a seaman, a soldier, a musician, a physi-
cian, &c. so as to practise it ; must study it hard, and un-
derstand it clearly and comprehensively, and have all the
whole frame of it printed on his mind ; and not only here
and there a scrap. Faith is a practical knowledge : we must
have the heart and life directed and commanded by it : we
must live by it, both in the intention of our end, and in the
142 LIFE OF FAITH.
choice and use of all the means. Whilst the Gospel and the
reasons of our religion are strange to people, like a lesson
but half learned, who can expect that they should be settled
against all temptations which assault their faith, and be able
to confute the tempter ? We lay together the proofs of our
religion, and you read them twice or thrice, and then think
that if after that you have any doubting, the fault is in the
want of evidence, and not in your want of understanding :
but the life of faith must cost you more labour than so ;
study it till you clearly understand it, and remember the
whole method of the evidence together, and have it all at
your finger's ends, and then you may have a confirmed faith
to live by.
Direct, 5. ' When you know what are the sorest tempta-
tions to unbelief, get all those special arguments and provi-
sions into your minds, which are necessary against those
particular temptations. And do not strengthen your own
temptations by your imprudent entertaining them.'
Here are three things which I would especially advise
you to against temptations to unbelief. 1. Enter not into
the debate of so great a business when you are incapable of
it. Especially, 1. When your minds are taken up with
worldly business, or other thoughts have carried them away,
let not Satan then surprise you, and say, * Come now and
question thy religion.' You could not resolve a question in
philosophy, nor cast up any long account, on such a sud-
den, with an unprepared mind. When the evidences of your
faith are out of mind, stay till you can have leisure to set
yourselves to the business with that studiousness, and those
helps which so great a matter doth require. 2. When sick-
ness or melancholy doth weaken your understandings, you
are then unfit for such a work. You would not in such a
case dispute for your lives with a cunning sophister upon
any difficult question whatsoever : and will you in such a
case dispute with the devil, when your salvation may lie
upon it?
2. When your faith is once settled suffer not the devil to
call you to dispute it over again at his command. Do it
not when his suggestions urge you at his pleasure ; but
when God maketh it your duty, and at his pleasure : else
your very disputing with Satan, will be some degree of yield-
ing to him, and gratifying him. And he will one time or.
LIFE OF FAITH. 148
other take you at the advantage, and assault you when you
are without your arms.
3, Mark what it is that atheists and infidels most object
against Christianity ; but especially mark what it is which
Satan maketh most use of against yourselves, to shake your
faith : and there let your studies be principally bent, that
you may have particular armour to defend you against par-
ticular assaults : and get such light by communication with
wiser and more experienced men, as may furnish you for that
use ; that no objection may be made against your faith,
which you are not always ready to answer. This is the true
sense of 1 Pet. iii. 15. " Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with
meekness and fear."
Direct, 6. ' Mark well those works of God in the world,
which are the plain fulfilling of his word.'
God doth not make such notable diiference by his judg-
ments, as shall prevent the great discoveries at the last, and
make his assize and final judgment to be unnecessary, by
doing the same work before the time. But yet his provi-
dences do own and bear witness to his word ; and he leav-
eth not the world without some present sensible testimo-
nies of his sovereign government, to convince them, and res-
train them.
1. Mark how the state of the sinful world agreeth to
God's description of it, and how maliciously godliness is
every where opposed by them, and how notably God still
casteth shame upon sinners ; so that even in their prosperity
and rage they are pitied and contemned in the eyes of all
that are wise and sober, and in the next generation their
names do rot ; Psal. xv. 3, 4. Prov. x. 7. And it is won-
derful to observe, that sin in the general and abstract is still
spoken of by all as an odious thing, even by them that will
be damned rather than they will leave it : and that virtue
and godliness, charity and justice, are still praised in the
world, even by them that abhor and persecute it.
2. And it is very observable, how most of the great
changes of the world are made ; by how small, contempti-
ble and unthought of means ! Especially where the interest
of the Gospel is most concerned ! The instance of the re-
formation in Luther's tim^, and many others nearer to our
144 LIFE OF FAITH.
days, would shew us much of the conjunction of God's
works with his word, if they were particularly and wisely
opened.
3. The many prodigies or extraordinary events which
have fallen out at several times, would be found to be of use
this way, if wisely considered. A great number have fallen
out among us of late years, of real certainty, and of a con-
siderable usefulness ; but the crafty enemy (who useth most
to wrong Christ and his cause, by his most passionate, in-
judicious followers) prevailed with some over-forward mi-
nister of this strain, to publish them in many volumes, with
the mixture of so many falsehoods and mistaken circum-
stances, as turned them to the advantage of the devil and
ungodliness, and made the very mention of prodigies to be-
come a scorn.
4. The strange deliverances of many of God's servants
in the greatest dangers, by the most unlikely means, is a
great encouragement to faith : and there are a great number
of Christians that have experience of such. The very man-
ner of our preservations is often such as forceth us to say,
' It is the hand of God.'
o. The notable answer, and grant of prayers, (of which
many Christians have convincing experience,) is also a
great confirmation to our faith, (of which I have before
spoken).
6. The three sensible evidences formerly mentioned,
compared with the Scriptures, may much persuade us of its
truth. I mean, 1. Apparitions. 2. Witches. 3. Satani-
cal possessions or diseases, which plainly declare the opera-
tion of Satan in them ; of all which I could give you mani-
fold and proved instances. These, and many other instances
of God's providence, are great means to help us to believe
his word (though we must not, with fanatical persons, put
first our interpretation upon God's works, and then expound
his word by them ; but use his works as the fulfilling of his
word, and expound his providences by his precepts, and his
promises and threats).
Direct. 7. * Mark well God's inward work of government
upon the soul ; and you shall find it very agreeable to the
Gospel.'
There is a very great evidence of a certain kingdom of
God within us. And as he is himself a Spirit, so it is with
LIFE OF FAITH. 145
the Spirit that he doth most apparently converse, in the work
of his moral government in the vi^orld.
1. There you shall find a law of duty, or an inward con-
viction of much of that obedience which you owe to God.
2. There you shall find an inward mover, striving with
you to draw you to perform this duty.
3. There you shall find the inward suggestions of an
enemy, labouring to draw you away from this duty, and to
make a godly life seem grievous to you ; and also to draw
you to all the sins which Christ forbiddeth.
4. There you shall find an inward conviction, that God
is your Judge, and that he will call you to account for your
wilful violations of the laws of Christ.
5. There you shall find an inward sentence passed upon
you, according as you do good or evil.
6. And there you may find the sorest judgments of God
inflicted, which any short of hell endure. You may there
find how God for sin doth first afflict the soul that is not
quite forsaken, with troubles and afFrightments, and some
feeling of his displeasure. And where that is long despised,
and men sin on still, he useth to withhold his gracious mo-
tions, and leave the sinner dull and senseless, so that he can
sin with sinful remorse, having no heart or life to any thing
that is spiritually good. And if yet the sinner think not of
his condition, to repent, he is usually so far forsaken as to
be given up to the power of his most brutish lust ; and to
glory impudently in his shame, and to hate and persecute
the servants of Christ who would recover him ; till he hath
filled up the measure of his sin, and wrath be come upon
him to the uttermost; (Ephes. iv. 18, 19. 1 Thess.ii. 15, 16.)
being abominable, and disobedient, and to every good work
reprobate ; Titus i. 15, 16. Besides the lesser penal with-
drawings of the Spirit, which God's own servants find in
themselves, after some sins or neglects of grace.
7. And there also you may find the rewards of love and
faithful duty; by many tastes of God's acceptance, and
many comforts of his Spirit, and by his owning the soul, and
giving out larger assistances of his Spirit, and peace of con-
science, and entertainment in prayer, and in all approaches
of the soul to God, and sweeter foretastes of life eternal. In
a word, if we did but note God's dreadful judgments on the
VOL. xn. h
146 Life of faith.
souls -of the ungodly in this age, as well as we have noted
our plagues and flames ; and if God's servants kept as exact
observations of their inward rewards and punishments, and
that in particulars, as suited to their particular sins and du-
ties ; you would see that Christ is King indeed, and that
there is a real government according to his Gospel, kept up
in the consciences or souls of men (though not so observable
as the rewards and punishments at the last day).
Direct. 8. * Dwell not too much on sensual objects, and
let them not come too near your hearts.'
'fhree things I here persuade you carefully to avoid : 1.
That you keep your hearts at a meet distance from all things
in this world ; that they grow not too sweet to you, nor too
great in your esteem. 2. That you gratify not sense itself
too much ; and live not in the pleasing of your taste or lust.
3. That you suifer not your imaginations to run out gree-
dily after things sensible, nor make them the too frequent
objects of your thoughts.
You may ask perhaps, what is all this to our faith?
Why, the life of faith is exercised upon things that are not
seen ; and if you live upon the things that are seen, and im-
prison your soul in the fetters of your concupiscence, and
fill your fancies with things of another nature, how can you
be acquainted with the life of faith ? Can a bird fly that
hath a stone tied to her foot ? Can you have a mind full of
lust, and of God at once ? Or can that mind that is used
to these inordinate sensualities, be fit to relish the things
that are spiritual? And can it be a lover of earth and fleshly
pleasures, and also a believer and lover of heaven?
Direct. 9. * Use yourselves much to think and speak of
heaven, and the invisible things of faith.'
Speaking of heaven is needful both to express your
thoughts, and to actuate and preserve them. And the often
thoughts of heaven, will make the mind familiar there : and
familiarity will assist and encourage faith : for it will much
acquaint us with those reasons and inducements of faith,
which a few strange and distant thoughts will never reach
to. As he that converseth much with a learned, wise or
godly man, will more easily believe that he is learned, wise
or godly, than he that is a stranger to him, and only now
and then seeth him afar off". So he that thinketh so fre-
quently of God and heaven, till his mind hath contracted a
LIFE OF FAITH. 147
humble acquaintance and familiarity, must needs believe
the truth of all that excellency which before he doubted of.
For doubting is the effect of ignorance : and he that knoweth
most here, believeth best. Falsehood and evil cannot bear
the light : but the more you think of them, and know them,
the more they are detected and ashamed: but truth and
goodness love the light ; and the better you are acquainted
with them, the more will your belief and love be increased.
Direct. 10. • Live not in the guilt of wilful sin ; for that
will many ways hinder your belief/
1. It will breed fear and horror in your minds, and make
you wish that it were not true, that there is a day of judg-
ment, and a hell for the ungodly, and such a God, such a
Christ, and such a life to come, as the Gospel doth de-
scribe : and when you take it for your interest to be an un-
believer, you will hearken with desire to all that the devil
and infidels can say : and you will the more easily make
yourselves believe that the Gospel is not true, by how much
the rtiore you desire that it should not be true. 2. And you
will forfeit the grace which should help you to believe ;
both by your wilful sin, and by your unwillingness to be-
lieve : for who can expect that Christ should give his grace
to them, who wilfully despise him and abuse it : or that he
should make men believe, who had rather not believe ?
Indeed he may possibly do both these, but these are not
the way, nor is it a thing which we can expect. 3. And
this guilt, and fear, and unwillingness together, will all
keep down your thoughts from heaven ; so that seldom
thinking of it, will increase your unbelief: and they will
make you unfit to see the evidences of truth in the Gospel,
when you do think of them, or hear them : for he that
would not know, cannot learn. Obey therefore according
to the knowledge which you have, if ever you would have
more, and would not be given up to the blindness of infi-
delity.
Direct. 11. ' Trust not only to your understandings, and
think not that study is all which is necessary to faith : but
remember that faith is the gift of God, and therefore pray
as well as study.'
"Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not to
thy own understanding;" Prov. iii. 5. It is a precept as
necessary in this point as in any. In all things God ab-
148 LIFE OF FAITH.
horreth the proud, and looketh at them afar off, as with dis-
owning and disdain : but in no case more, than when a blind
ungodly sinner shall so overvalue his own understanding, as
to think that if there be evidence of truth in the mystery of
faith, he is able presently to discern it, before or without
any heavenly illumination, to cure his dark distempered
mind. Remember that as the sun is seen only by his own
light ; so is God, our Creator and Redeemer. Faith is the
gift of God, as well as repentance ; Ephes. ii. 8. 2 Tim. ii.
25, 26. Apply yourselves therefore to God by earnest
prayer for it. As he, Mark ix. 24. " Lord, I believe, help
thou my unbelief." And as the disciples, Luke xvii. 5, ** In-
crease our faith." A humble soul that waiteth on God in
fervent prayer, and yet neglecteth not to study and search
for truth, is much liker to become a confirmed believer, than
ungodly students, who trust and seek no further than to
their books, and their perverted minds. For as God will be
sought to for his grace ; so those that draw near him, do
draw near unto the light ; and therefore are like as children
of light to be delivered from the power of darkness j for in
his light we shall see the light that must acquaint us with
him.
Direct, 12. Lastly, ' What measure of light soever God
vouchsafeth you, labour to turn it all into love ; and make
it your serious care and business to know God, that you
may love him, and to love God so far as you know him,'
For he that desireth satisfaction in his doubts, to no
better end, than to please his mind by knowing, and to free
it from the disquietude of uncertainty, hath an end so low
in all his studies, that he cannot expect that God and his
grace should be called down, to serve such a low and base
design. That faith which is not employed in beholding the
love of God in the face of Christ, on purpose to increase
and exercise our love, is not indeed the true Christian faith,
but a dead opinion. And he that hath never so weak a faith,
and useth it to this end, to know God's amiableness, and to
love him, doth take the most certain way for the confirma-
tion of his faith. For love is the closest adherence of the
soul to God, and therefore will set it in the clearest light,
and will teach it by the sweet convincing way of experience
and spiritual taste. Believing alone is like the knowledge
of our meat by seeing it : and love is the knowledge of our
LIF£ OF FAITH. 149
meat by eating and digesting it. And he that hath tasted
that it is sweet, hath a stronger kind of persuasion that it is
sweet, than he that only seeth it ; and will much more tena-
ciously hold his apprehension : it is much more possible to
dispute him out of his belief, who only seeth, than him that
also tasteth and concocteth. A parent and child will not
so easily believe any false reports of one another, as stran-
gers or enemies will ; because love is a powerful resister of
such hard conceits. And though this be delusory and
blinding partiality, where love is guided by mistake ; yet
when a sound understanding leadeth it, and love hath
chosen the truest object, it is the naturally perfective mo-
tion of the soul.
And love keepeth us under the fullest influences of
God*s love : and therefore in the reception of that grace
which will increase our faith : for love is that act which the
ancient doctors were wont to call, the principle of merit, or
first meritorious act of the soul ; and which we call the
principle of rewardable acts. God beginneth and loveth us
first, partly with a love of complacency, only as his crea-
tures, and also as * in esse cognito,' he foreseeth how amia-
ble his grace will make us ; and partly with a love of
benevolence, intending to give us that grace which shall
make us really the objects of his further love ; and having
received this grace, it pauseth us to love God : and when
we love God, we are really the objects of his complacential
love; and when we perceive this, it still increaseth our
love : and thus the mutual love of God and man, is the true
perpetual motion, which hath an everlasting cause, and
therefore must have an everlasting duration. And so the
faith which hath once kindled love, even sincere love to
God in Christ, hath taken rooting in the heart, and lieth
deeper than the head, and will hold fast, and increase as
love increaseth.
And this is the true reason of the steadfastness and hap-
piness of many weak unlearned Christians, who have not
the distinct conceptions and reasonings of learned men;
and yet because their faith is turned into love, and their
love doth help to confirm their faith : and as they love more
heartily ; so they believe more steadfastly, and perseveringly,
than many who can say more for their faith. And so much
for the strengthening of your faith.
150 LIFE OF FAITH.
CHAPTER IX.
General Directions for exercising the Life of your Faith,
Having told you how faith must be confirmed, I am next
to tell you how it must be used. And in this I shall begin
with some general directions, and then proceed to such
particular cases, in which we have the greatest use for faith.
Direct. 1. * Remember the necessity of faith in all the
business of your hearts and lives, that nothing can be done
well without it.' There is no sin to be conquered, no grace
to be exercised, no worship to be performed, nor any acts of
mercy, or justice, or worldly business, to be done well with-
out it, in any manner acceptable to God. " Without faith
it is impossible to please God ;" Heb. xi. 6. You may as
well go about your bodily work without your eyesight, as
about your spiritual work without faith.
Direct, 2. * Make it therefore your care and work to get
faith, and to use it ; and think not that God must reveal his
mind to you, as in visions, while you idly neglect your pro-
per work.' Believing is the first part of your trade of life;
and the practice of it must be your constant business. It
is not living ordinarily by sense, and looking when God
will cast in the light of faith extraordinarily, which is in-
deed the life of faith ; nor is it seeming to stir up faith in a
prayer or sermon, and looking no more after it all the day ;
this is but to give God a salutation, and not to dwell and
walk with him ; and to give heaven a complimental visit
sometimes, but not to have our conversation there ; 2 Cor. v.
7, 8.
Direct, 3. * Be not too seldom in solitary meditation.'
Though it be a duty which melancholy persons are disabled
to perform, in any set, and long, and orderly manner ; yet
it is so needful to those that are able, that the greatest works
of faith are managed by it. How should things unseen be
apprehended so as to affect our hearts, without any serious
exercise of our thoughts ? How should we search into mys-
teries of the Gospel, or converse with God, or walk in hea-
ven, or fetch either joys or motives thence, without any
retired studious contemplation ? If you cannot meditate or
think, you cannot believe. Meditation abstracteth the
LIFE OF FAITH. 151
mind from vanity, and lifteth it up above the world, and
setteth it about the v^^ork of faith ; which by a mindless,
thoughtless, or worldly soul, can never be performed ;
2 Cor. iv. 16—18. Phil. iii. 20. Matt. vi. 21. Col. iii. 1.3.
Direct. 4. ' Let the image of the life of Christ, and his
martyrs, and holiest servants, be deeply imprinted on your
minds.' That you may know what the way is which you
have to go, and what patterns they be which you have to
imitate ; think how much they were above things sensitive,
and how light they set by all the pleasures, wealth, and
glory of this world. Therefore the Holy Ghost doth set be-
fore us that cloud of witnesses, and catalogue of martyrs,
in Heb. xi. that example may help us, and we may see with
how good company we go, in the life of faith. Paul had well
studied the example of Christ, when he took pleasure in in-
firmities, and gloried only in the cross, to be base and af-
flicted in this world, for the hopes of endless glory ; 2 Cor.
xi. 30. xii. 5. 9, 10. And when he could say, " I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus, my Lord : for whom I have suffered the loss of ail
things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ
that I may know him, and the power of his resurrec-
tion, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made con-
formable to his death ;" Phil. iii. 8 — 10. No man will mili-
tate in the life of faith, but he that followeth the " Captain of
his salvation'' (Heb. ii. 10.); who for the bringing of many
sons to glory (even those whom he is not ashamed to call
his brethren) was made perfect, (as to the perfection of
action or performance) by suffering; thereby to shew us,
how little the best of these visible and sensible corporeal
things, are to be valued in comparison of the things invisi-
ble ; and therefore as the general and the soldiers make up
one army, and militate in one militia ; so *' he that sancti-
fieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one ;" Heb. ii.
10 — 12. Though that which is called the life of faith in us,
deserved a higher title in Christ, and his faith in his Fa-
ther, and ours, do much differ, and he had not many of the
objects, acts, and uses of faith, as we have who are sinners ;
yet in this we must follow him as our great example, in
valuing things invisible, and vilifying things visible in com-
parison of them. And therefore Paul saith, " I am crucified
with Christ : nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
152 LIFE OF FAITH.
ill me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself
forme;" Gal. ii. 20.
Direct, 5. * Remember therefore that God and heaven,
the unseen things, are the final object of true faith ; and
that the final object is the noblest ; and that the principal
use of faith is to carry up the whole heart and life from
things visible and temporal, to things invisible and eternal ;
and not only to comfort us in the assurance of our own for-
giveness and salvation/
It is an exceeding common and dangerous deceit, to
overlook both this principal object and principal use of the
Christian faith. 1. Many think of no other object of it,
but the death and righteousness of Christ, and the pardon
of sin, and the promise of that pardon : and God and hea-
ven they look at as the objects of some other common kind
of faith. 2. And they think of little other use of it, than to
comfort them against the guilt of sin, with the assurance of
their justification. But the great and principal work of
faith is, that which is about its final object ; to carry up the
soul to God and heaven, where the world, and the things
sensible, are the * terminus a, quo,' and God, and things in-
visible, the ' terminus ad quem :' and thus it is put in con-
tradistinction to living by sight, in 2 Cor. v. 6, 7. And thus
mortification is made one part of this great effect, in Rom. vi.
throughout, and many other places : and thus it is that
Heb. xi. doth set before us those numerous examples of a
life of faith, as it was expressed in valuing things unseen,
upon the belief of the word of God, and the vilifying of
things seen which stand against them. And thus Christ
tried the rich man, (Luke xviii. 22.) whether be would be his
disciple, by calling him to sell all, and give to the poor, for
the hopes of a treasure in heaven. And thus Christ maketh
bearing the cross, and denying ourselves, and forsaking all
for him, to be necessary in all that are his disciples. And
thus Paul describeth the life of faith, (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.) by
the contempt of the world, and suffering afiiictions for the
hopes of heaven : " For our light affliction, which is but for
a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory ; while we look not at the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen : for the things
which are seen, are temporal, but the things which are not
LIFE OF FAITHt 153
seen, are eternal." Our faith is our victory over the world,
even in the very nature of it, and not only in the remote ef-
fect ; for its aspect and believing approaches to God and
the things unseen, and a proportionable recess from the
things which are seen, is one and the same motion of the
soul, denominated variously from its various respects to the
* terminus ad quem,* and * a quo/
Direct. 6. * Remember, that as God to be believed in, is
the principal and final object of faith; so the kindling of
love to God in the soul, is the principal use and effect of
faith : and to live by faith, is but to love (obey and suffer)
by faith/ Faith working by love, is the description of our
Christianity ; Gal. v. 6. As Christ is the way to the Father,
(John xiv. 6.) and came into the world to recover apostate
man to God, to love him, and be beloved by him ; so the
true use of faith in Jesus Christ is to be as it were the bel-
lows to kindle love ; or the burning-glass as it were of the
soul, to receive the beams of the love of God, as they shine
upon us in Jesus Christ, and thereby to inflame our hearts
in love to God again. Therefore if you would live by faith
indeed, begin here, and first receive the deepest apprehen-
sions of that love of the Father, *' who so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be-
lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life :"'
and by these apprehensions, stir up your hearts to the love
of God ; and make this very endeavour the work and busi-
ness of your lives.
Oh that mistaken Christians would be rectified in this
point ! How much would it tend to their holiness and their
peace ? You think of almost nothing of the life of faith ;
but how to believe that you have a special interest in Christ,
and shall be saved by him : but you have first another work
to do : you must first believe that common love and grace
before-mentioned ; Job iii. 16. 2 Cor. v. 19, 20. 14, 15.
1 Tim. ii. G. Heb. ii. 9. And you must believe your own
interest in this ; that is, that God hath by Christ, made to
all, and therefore unto you, an act of oblivion, and free deed
of gift, that you shall have Christ, and pardon, and eternal
life, if you will believingly accept the gift, and will not
finally reject it. And the belief of this, even of this com-
mon love and grace, must first persuade your hearts accord-
ingly to accept the offer, (and then you have a special in-
154 life' OF FAITH.
terest) and withal, at the same time must kindle in your
souls a thankful love to the Lord and fountain of this grace :
and if you were so ingenuous as to begin here, and first use
your faith upon the aforesaid common gift of Christ, for the
kindling of love to God within you, and would account this
the work which faith hath every day to do ; you would then
find that in the very exciting and exercise of this holy love,
your assurance of your own special interest in Christ,
would be sooner and more comfortably brought about, than
by searching to find either evidence of pardon before you
find your love to God ; or to find your love to God, before
you have laboured to get and exercise it.
I tell you, they are dangerous deceivers of your souls,
that shall contradict this obvious truth ; that the true me-
thod and motive of man's first special love to God, must
not be by believing first God's special love to us ; but by
believing his more common love and mercy in the general
act and offer of grace before-mentioned. For he that be-
lieveth God's special love to him, and his special interest in
Christ, before he hath any special love to God, doth sin-
fully presume, and not believe. For if by God's special
love, you mean his love of complacency to you, as a living
member of Christ; to believe this before you love God
truly, is to believe a dangerous lie : and if you mean only,
God's love of benevolence, by which he decreeth to make
you the objects of his aforesaid complacency, and to sanc-
tify and save you ; to believe this before you truly love
God, is to believe that which is utterly unknown to you,
and may be false for ought you know, but it is not at all re^
vealed by God, and therefore is not the object of faith.
Therefore if you cannot have true assurance or per-
suasion of your special interest in Christ, and of your justi-
fication, before you have a special love to God, then this
special love must be kindled (I say not by a common faith,
but) by a true faith in the general love and promise men-
tioned before.
Nay, you must not only have first this special love, but
also must have so much knowledge, that indeed you have
it, as you will have knowledge of your special interest in
Christ, and the love of God : for no act of faith will truly
evidence special grace, which is not immediately and inti-
mately accompanied with true love to God, our Father and
LIFE OF FAITH. 155
Redeemer, and the ultimate object of our faith: nor can
you any further perceive or prove, the sincerity of your
faith itself, than you discern in or v^^ith it, the love here
mentioned. For faith is not only an act of the intellect,
but of the vi'ill also : and there is no volition or consent to
this or any offered good, which hath not in it the true na-
ture of love : and the intention of the end, being in order of
nature, before our choice or use of means ; the intending of
God as our end, cannot come behind that act of faith,
which is about Christ as the chosen means or way to God.
Therefore make this your great and principal use of
your faith, to receive all the expressions of God's love in
Christ, and thereby to kindle in you a love to God ; that
first the special true belief of God's more common love and
grace, may kindle in you a special love, and then the sense
of this may assure you of your special interest in Christ;
and then the assurance of that special interest, may increase
your love to a much higher degree : and thus live by faith
in the work of love.
Direct, 7. ' That you may understand what the faith is
which you must live by, take in all the parts (at least that
are essential to it) in your description ; and take not some
parcels of it for the Christian faith ; nor think not that it
must needs be several sorts of faith, if it have several ob-
jects ; and hearken not to that dull philosophical subtlety,
which would persuade you that faith is but some single
physical act of the soul/
1. If you know not what faith is, it must needs be a
great hinderance to you, in the seeking of it, the trying it,
and the using it. For though one may use his natural fa-
culties, which work by natural inclination and necessity,
without knowing what they are ; yet it is not so where the
choice of the rational appetite is necessary ; for it must be
guided by the reasoning faculty. And though unlearned
persons may have and use repentance, faith, and other
graces, who cannot define them, yet they do truly (though
not perfectly) know the thing itself, though they know not
the terms of a just definition : and all defect of knowing
the true nature of faith, will be some hinderance to us in
using it.
2. It is a moral subject which we are speaking of; and
terms are to be understood according to the nature of the
156 LIFE OF FAITH*
subject : therefore faith is to be taken for a moral act, which
comprehendeth many physical acts : such as the act of be-
lieving it, or taking such a man for my physician, or my
master, or my tutor, or my king. Even our philosophers
themselves know not what doth individuate a physical act
of the soul : (nay, they are not agreed whether its acts
should be called physical properly, or not.) Nay, they
cannot tell what doth individuate an act of sense; whether
when my eye doth at once see many words and letters of
my book, every word or letter doth make as many indivi-
dual acts, by being so many objects? And if so, whether
the parts of every letter also do not constitute an individual
act ; and where shall we here stop ? And must all these
trifles be considered in our faith ? Assenting to the truths
is not one faith (unless when separated from the rest) and
consenting to the good, another act : nor is it one faith to
believe the promise, and another to believe the pardon of
sin, and another to believe salvation, and another to believe
in God, and another to believe in Jesus Christ ; nor one to
believe in Christ as our ransom, and another as our Inter-
cessor, and another as our Teacher, and another as our
King, and another to believe in the Holy Ghost, &c. I deny
not but some one of these may be separated from the rest,
and being so separated may be called faith ; but not the
Christian faith, but only a material parcel of it, which is like
the limb of a man, or of a tree, which, cut off from the rest,
is dead, and ceaseth when separated to be a part, any other
than logical (a part of the description.)
The faith which hath the promise of salvation, and which
you must live by, hath, 1. God for the principal Revealer,
and his veracity for its formal object. 2. It hath Christ,
and angels, and prophets, and apostles, for the sub-reveal-
ers. 3. It hath the Holy Ghost by the divine attesting
operations before described, to be the seal and the con-
firmer. 4. It hath the same Holy Ghost for the internal
exciter of it. 5. It hath all truths of known divine revela-
tion, and all good of known divine donation by his cove-
nant, to be the material general object. 6. It hath the
covenant of grace, and the Holy Scriptures, (and formerly
the voice of Christ and his apostles) or any such sign of the
mind of God, for the instrumental efficient cause of the ob-
ject ' in esse cognito :' and also the instrumental efficient of
LIFE OF FAITH. 157
the act. 7. It hath the true Deity, God himself, as he is
to be known and loved, inceptively here, and perfectly in
heaven, for the final and most necessary material object. 8. It
hath the Lord Jesus Christ, entirely in all essential to him,
as God and man, and as our Redeemer or Saviour, as our
ransom. Intercessor, Teacher and Ruler, for the most neces-
sary, mediate, material object. 9. It hath the gifts of par-
don, justification, the Spirit of sanctification or love, and
all the necessary gifts of the covenant, for the material,
never-final objects. And all this is essential to the Chris-
tian faith, even to that faith which hath the promise of par-
don and salvation : and no one of these must be totally left
out in the definition of it, if you would not be deceived. It
is heresy, and not the Christian faith, if it exclude any one
essential part ; and if it include it not, it is infidelity : and
indeed there is such a connexion of the objects, that there
is no part (in truth) where therq is not the whole. And it
is impiety if any one part of the offered good that is neces-
sary be refused. It is no true faith, if it be not a true com-
position of all these.
Direct, 8. * There is no nearer way to know what true
faith is, than truly to understand what your baptismal co-
venanting did contain.'
In the Scripture phrase, to be a disciple, a believer, and
a Christian, is all one ; Acts xi. 26. Acts v. 14. 1 Tim. iv.
12. Matt. X. 42. xxvii. 57. Luke xiv. 26, 27. 33. Acts
xxi. 16. John ix. 28. And to be a believer, and to have
belief or faith, is all one : and therefore to be a Christian,
and to have faith is all one. Christianity signifieth either
our first entrance into the Christian state, or our progress
in it. (As marriage signifieth either matrimony, or the con-
jugal state continued in.) In the latter sense Christianity
signifieth more than faith ; for more than faith is necessary
to a Christian. But in the former sense, as Christianity
signifieth but our becoming Christians, by our covenanting
with God, so to have faith, or to be a believer, and internally
to become a Christian in Scripture sense, is all one; and
the outward covenanting is but the profession of faith or
Christianity: not that the word faith is never taken in a
narrower sense, or that Christianity, as it is our heart-cove-
nant or consent, containeth nothing but faith, as faith is so
taken in the narrowest sense : but when faith is taken (as
158 LIFE OF FAITH.
ordinarily in Scripture) for that which is made the condition
of justification and salvation, and opposed to heathenism,
infidehty, Judaism, or the works of the law, it is commonly
taken in this larger sense.
Faith is well enough described to them, that understand
what is implied, by the usual shorter description ; as, that
it is a believing acceptance of Christ, and relying on him as
our Saviour, or for salvation : or, a belief of pardon, and the
heavenly glory as procured by the redemption wrought by
Christ, and given by God in the covenant of grace : but
the reason is, because all the rest is con-noted, and so to be
understood by us, as if it were expressed in words : but the
true and full definition of it is this:
The Christian faith which is required at baptism, and
then professed, and hath the promise of justification and
glorification, is a true belief 'of the Gospel, and an accep-
tance of, and consent unto the covenant of grace : particu-
larly, a believing that God is our Creator, our Owner, our
Ruler, and our chief good ; and that Jesus Christ is God
and man, our Saviour, our ransom, or Teacher, and our
King ; and that the Holy Ghost is the sanctifier of the
church of Christ : and it is an understanding, serious con-
sent, that this God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be
my God and reconciled Father in Christ, my Saviour, and
my Sanctifier ; to justify me, sanctify me, and glorify me,
in the perfect knowledge of God, and mutual complacence
in heaven ; which belief and consent wrought in me by the
word and Spirit of Christ, is grounded upon the veracity of
God and his chief Revealer, and upon his love and mercy
as the donor ; and upon Christ and his apostles as the mes-
sengers of God ; and upon the Gospel ; and especially the
covenant of his grace, as the instrumental revelation and
donation itself: and upon the many signal operations of the
IJoly Ghost, as the divine infallible attestation of their truth.
^. Learn this definition, and understand it thoroughly, and
it may prove a more solid useful knowledge (to have the
true nature of faith or Christianity thus methodically printed
on your minds) than to read over a thousand volumes in a
rambling and confused way of knowledge.
If any quarrel at this definition, because the foundation
is not first set down, I only tell him that no logicians do
judge of the logical order of words by the mere propriety
LIFE OF FAITH. 159
and posteriority of place. And if any think that here is
more than every true Christian doth understand and remem-
ber, I answer, that here is no more than every true Christian
hath a true knowledge of; though perhaps every one have
not a knowledge so methodical, explicit and distinct, as to
define faith thus, or to think so distinctly and clearly of it,
as others do, or to be able by words to express to another,
what he hath a real conception of in himself. There is first
in the mind of man a conception of the object or matter
(by those words or means which introduce it) and next that
' verbum mentis,' or inward word, which is a distincter con-
ception of the matter in the mould of such notions as may
be expressed ; and next the * verbum oris,' the word of
mouth expresseth it. Now many have the conception of
the matter, long before they have the ' verbum mentis,' or
logical notions of it : and many have the ' verbum mentis,'
who by a hesitating tongue are hindered from oral expres-
sions ; and in both there are divers degrees of distinctness
and clearness.
Direct. 9. ' Turn not plain Gospel doctrine into the phi-
losophical fooleries of wrangling and ill-moulded wits ; nor
feign to yourselves any new notions, or offices of faith, or
any new terms as necessary, which are not in the Holy
Scriptures.'
I do not say, use no terms which are not in the Scrip-
tures ; for the Scriptures were not written in English : nor
do I persuade you to use no other notions than the Scrip-
tures use ; but only that you use them not as necessary,
and lay not too great a stress upon them. I confess new
heresies may give occasion for new words (as the bishops
in the first council of Nice thought) : and yet as Hilary ve-
hemently inveigheth against making new creeds on such
pretences, and wisheth no such practice had been known
(not excepting those at Nice) because it taught the heretics
and contenders to imitate them ; and they that made the
third creed, might have the like arguments for it as those
that made the second ; and he knew not when there would
be an end ; so I could wish that there had been no new no-
tions in the doctrine of faith, so much as used ; for the same
reasons: and especially because that while the first in-
ventors do but use them, the next age which followeth them
1150 LIFE OF FAITH.
will hold them necessary, and lay the churches' communion
and peace upon them.
For instance, I think the word * satisfaction,' as used by
the orthodox, is of a very sound sense in our controversies
against the Socinians ; and yet I will never account it
necessary, as long as it is not in the Scriptures, and as long
as the words * sacrifice, ransom, price, propitiation, atone-
ment, &c.' which the Scripture useth, are full as good.
So I think that * imputing Christ's righteousness to us,*
is a phrase which the orthodox use in a very sound sense ;
and yet as long as it is not used by the Spirit of God in the
Scriptures ; and there are other phrases enough, which as
well, or better, express the true sense, I will never hold it
necessary.
So also the notions and phrases of 'faith being the in-
strument of our justification,' and * faith justifieth only ob-
jectively,' and * that faith justifieth only as it receiveth
Christ's blood, or Christ's righteousness, or Christ as a
priest ;' ' that faith is only one physical act ;' that it is
* only in the understanding ;' or * only in the will ;' that ' its
only justifying act is recumbency, or resting on Christ for
justification ;' that * it is not an action, but a passion ;' that
* all acts of faith save one, and that one as an act, are the
works which Paul excludeth from our justification ;' and
that ' to expect justification by believing in Christ for sanc-
tification, or glorification, or by believing in him as our
Teacher, or King, or justifying Judge, or by repenting, or
loving God, or Christ, as our Redeemer, or by confessing
our sins, and praying for pardon and justification, &c. is to
expect justification by works, and so to fall from grace or
true justification;' that * he that will escape his pernicious
expectance of justification by works, must know what that
one act of faith is by which only we are justified, and must
expect justification by it only relatively, (that is, not by it
at all, but by Christ, say some) or as an instrument (say
others) &c.'
Many of these assertions are pernicious errors ; most of
them false ; and the best of them are the unnecessary in-
ventions of men's dark, yet busy wits, who condemn their
own doctrine by their practice, and their practice by their
doctrine; whilst they cry up the sufficiency of the Scrip-
LIFE OF FAITH. 161
tures» and cry down other men's additions > and yet so
largely add themselves.
Direct. 10. * Take heed lest parties and contendings
tempt you to lay so much upon the right notion or doctrine
of faith, as to take up with these alone as true Christianity;
and to take a dead opinion, instead of the life of faith.'
This dogmatical Christianity cheateth many thousands
into hell, who would scarce be led so quietly thither, if they
knew that they are indeed no Christians. It is ordinary, by
the advantages of education, and converse, and teachers,
and books, and studies, and the custom of the times, and
the countenance of Christian rulers, and for reputation, and
worldly advantage, &c. to fall into right opinions about
Christ, and faith, and godliness, and heaven ; and tenaci-
ously to defend these in disputings ; and perhaps to make a
trade of preaching of it : and what is all this to the saving
of the soul, if there be no more ? And yet the case of many
learned orthodox men, is greatly to be pitied, who make
that a means to cheat and undo themselves, which should
be the only wisdom and way to life ; and know but little
more of Christianity, than to hold, and defend, and teach
sound doctrine, and to practise it so far as the interest of
the flesh will give them leave ; I had almost said, so far as
the flesh itself will command them to do well, and sin itself
forbiddeth sin ; that it may not disgrace them in the world,
nor bring some hurt or punishment upon them.
Direct. 11. ' Set not any other graces against faith ; as
raising a jealousy, lest the honouring of one, be a diminution
of the honour of the other : but labour to see the necessary
and harmonious consent of all, and how all contribute to
the common end.'
Though other graces are not faith, and have not the
office proper fb faith ; yet every one is conjunct in the work
of our salvation, and in our pleasing and glorifying God :
some of them being the concomitants of faith, and some of
them its end, to which it is a means : yea, oftimes the
words * faith and repentance' are used as signifying much of
the same works, the latter named from the respect to the
term from which, and the former from the respect to part of
the term to which the soul is moving: and faith is often
taken as containing somewhat of love and desire in it ; and
VOL. XII. M
162 LIFE OF FAITH.
he that will without any prejudice and partiality study
Paul where he opposeth faith and works, as to our justifica-
tion, shall find by his almost constant naming ** the works
of the law," or by the context and analysis, that indeed his
chief meaning is to prove, that we are justified by the
Christian religion, and must be saved by it, and not by the
Jewish which the adversaries of Christianity then pleaded
for, and trusted to.
Direct. 12. * Set not the helps of faith as if they were
against faith ; but understand their several places and of-
fices, and use them accordingly.'
Do not like those ignorant self-conceited heretics, who
cry out, * It is by believing, and not by repenting, or read-
ing, or hearing sermons, or by praying, or by forbearing sin,
or by doing good, that we are justified ; and therefore it is
by faith only that we are saved ; the same which is sufii-
cient for our justification, being sufficient for our salvation ;
seeing the justified cannot be condemned ; and justification
and salvation are both equally ascribed to faith without the
works of the law, by the apostle.' For we are justified only
by such a faith, as is caused by God's word, and maintained
and actuated by hearing, reading, meditation, prayer and
sacraments ; and as is accompanied by repentance, and
worketh by love, and is indeed the beholding of those in-
visible and glorious motives, which may incite our love,
and set us on good works, and obedience to our Redeemer.
And he that by negligence omitteth, or by error excludeth
any one of these in the life of faith, will find that he hath
erred against his own interest, peace and comfort, if not
against his own salvation. And that he might as wisely
have disputed that it is his eyes only that must see the way,
and therefore he may travel without his legs.
Direct, 13. ' Take heed lest a misconceit of the certainty
of some common philosophical opinions, should make you
stagger in those articles of faith which seem to contradict
them.'
Not indeed that any truths can be contrary one to ano-
ther : for that which is true in philosophy, is contrary to no
one truth in theology : but philosophers have deceived them-
selves and the world, with a multitude of uncertainties and
falsities ; and by straining them to subtle niceties, and lock-
LIFE OF FAITH. 163
ing them up iii uncouth terms, have kept the common peo-
ple from trying them, and understanding them ; and thereby
have made it their own prerogative explicitly to err, and
the people's duty not to contradict them ; but to admire that
error as profound parts of learning, which they cannot un-
derstand. And then their conclusions often go for princi-
pies which must not be gainsaid, when they are perhaps
either false, or nonsense. And when they meet with any
thing in Scripture, which crosseth their opinions, the repu-
tation of human folly maketh them despise the wisdom of
God. I have given you elsewhere some instances about the
immortality of the soul : they know not what generation is ;
they do not know it : nor what are the true principles and
elements of mixed bodies ; nor what is the true difference
between immaterial and material substances-; with an hun-
dred such like : and yet some expect, that we should sacri-
fice the most certain useful truths, to their false or uncer-
tain useless suppositions, which is the true reason why
Paul saith, " Beware lest any man spoil you through philo-
sophy, and vain deceit (not true philosophy, which is the
true knowledge of the works of God, but the vain models
which every sect of them cried up) after the tradition of
men, (that is, the opinions of the masters of their sects) af-
ter the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ : for in
him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; and ye
are complete in him ;" Col. ii. 8 — 10. See Acts xvii. 18.
It is Christ who is the kernel and summary of the Christian
philosophy ; who is therefore called "The wdsdom of God,"
(1 Cor. i. 24, 30.) both because he is the heavenly Teacher
of true wisdom, and because that true wisdom consisteth in
knowing him. And indeed even in those times, the several
sects of philosophers accounted much of each other's prin-
ciples to be erroneous ; and the philosophers of these times,
begin to vilify them all ; and withal to confess that they
have yet little of certainty to substitute in the room of the
demolished idols ; but they are about their experiments, to
try if any thing in time may be found out.
Direct, 14. ' Especially take heed lest you be cheated
into infidelity, by the Dominicans' metaphysical doctrine,
of the necessity of God's physical predetermining promo-
tion as the first total cause, to the being of every action
natural and free, not only • in genere actionis,' but also as
164 LIFE OF FAITH.
respectively and comparatively exercised on this object
rather than on that.'
I add this only for the learned, who are as much in dan-
ger of infidelity as others ; and will use it to the greater in-
jury of the truth. I will meddle now with no other reasons
of my advice, but what the subject in hand requireth. If
Ood can, and do thus premove and predetermine the mind,
will and tongue of every liar in the world, to every lie (or
material falsehood) which ever they did conceive or speak,
there would be no certainty of the Gospel, nor of any
divine revelation at all : seeing all such certainty is resolved
into God's veracity : that God cannot lie. And God
speaketh not to us, by any but a created voice : and if he
can thus predetermine others to those words which are a
lie, rather than to the contrary which are true, there would
be no certainty, but he may do so by prophets and apostles:
and let them tell you what they will of the greater certainty
of inspirations and miracles, than of predeterminations, it
will be found upon trial, that no man can prove, or make it
so much as probable, that any inspiration hath more of a
divine causation, than such a premoving predetermination
as aforesaid doth amount to ; much less so much more, as
will prove that one is more certain than the other.
This doctrine therefore which undeniably (whatever
may be wrangled) taketh down Christianity, and all belief of
God, or man, is not to be believed merely upon such a phi-
losophical conceit, that every action is a being, and there-
fore must in all its circumstances be caused by God. As if
God were not able to make a faculty, which can determine
its own comparative act to this rather than to that, by his
sustentation, and universal precausation and concourse,
without the said predetermining premotion: when as an
action as such is but a ' modus entis ;' and the comparative
exercise of it, on this rather than on that, is but a * modus
vel circumstantia modi.' And they leave no work, for gra-
cious determination, because that natural determination
doth all the same thing (equally to duty and sin) without it.
Direct. 15. ^ Consider well how much all human converse
is maintained by the necessary belief of one another, and
what the world would be without it ; and how much you ex-
pect yourselves to be believed : and then think how much
more belief is due to God.'
LIFE OF FAITH. 165
Though sin hath made the world so bad, that we may
say, that all men are liars, that is, deceitful vanity, and lit-
tle to be trusted ; yet the honesty of those that are more
virtuous, doth help so far to keep up the honour of veracity,
and the shamefulness of lying, that throughout the world, a
lie is in disgrace, and truth in speech and dealing is well
spoken of. And the remnants of natural honesty in the
worst, do so far second the true honesty of the best, that no
man is so well spoken of commonly in the world, as a man
of truth and trustiness, whose word is his law and master,
and never speaketh deceitfully to any : nor is any man so
commonly ill spoken of as a knave, as he that will lie, and
is not to be trusted : insomuch, that even those debauch-
ed ruffians, who live as if they said in their hearts, ' There is
no God,* will yet venture their lives in revenge against him
that shall give them the lie. Perhaps you will say, that this
is not from any virtue, or natural law, or honesty, but from
common interest, there being nothing more the interest of
mankind, than that men be trusty to each other. To which
I answer, that you oppose things which are conjunct: it is
both : for all God's natural laws are for the interest of man-
kind, and that which is truly most for our good, is made
most our duty ; and that which is most our duty, is most
for our good. And that which is so much for the interest
of mankind, must needs be good : if it were not for credi-
bility and trustiness in men, there were no living in families ;
but masters and servants, parents and children, husbands
and wives, would live together as enemies : and neighbours
would be as so many thieves to one another : there could be
no society or commonwealth, when prince and people could
put no trust in one another : nay, thieves themselves, that
are not to be trusted by any others, do yet strengthen them-
selves by confederacies, and oaths of secrecy, and gather
into troops and armies, and there put trust in one another.
And can we think that God is not much more to be trusted,
and is not a greater hater of a lie ? And is not the foun-
tain of all fidelity ? And hath not a greater care of the in-
terest of his creatures ? Surely he that thinketh that God
is a liar, and not to be trusted, will think no better of
any mortal man or angel, (and therefore trusteth no one,
and is very censorious) and would be thought no better of
166 LIFE OF 1 AITH.
himself, and therefore would have none believe or trust
him : for who would be better than his God ?
Direct, 16. * Consider also that veracity in God is his
nature or essence ; and cannot be denied without denying
him to be God/
For it is nothing but his three essentialities, or princi-
ples, power, wisdom and goodness, as they are expressed in
his word or revelations, as congruous to his mind, and to the
matter expressed. He that neither wanteth knowledge (to
know what to say and do) nor goodness (to love truth, and
hate all evil) nor power to do what he please, and to make
good his word, cannot possibly lie ; because every lie is for
want of one, or more of these ; Heb. vi. 18. Titus i. 2. And
there as it is said, that he cannot lie, and that it is impossible ;
so it is called, a denying of himself, if he could be unfaith-
ful. " If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, and cannot
deny himself;" 2 Tim. ii. 13.
Direct. 17. * Exercise faith much in those proper works,
in which self and sense are most denied and overcome.'
Bodily motions and labours which we are not used to,
are done both unskilfully, and with pain. If faith be not
much exercised in its warfare, and victorious acts, you will
neither know its strength, nor find it to be strong, when
you come to use it. It is not the easy and common acts of
faith, which will serve turn, to try and strengthen it. As
the life of sense is the adversary which faith must conquer ;
so use it much in such conflicts and conquests, if you
would find it strong and useful : use it in such acts of
mortification and self-denial, as will plainly shew, that it
over-ruleth sense : use it in patience and rejoicing in such
sufferings, and in contentment in so low and cross a state,
where you are sure that sight and sense do not contribute
to your peace and joy : use it not only in giving some little
of your superfluities, but in giving your whole two mites,
even all your substance, and selling all and giving to the
poor, when indeed God maketh it your duty : at least in
forsaking all for his sake in a day of trial. Faith never
doth work so like itself, so clearly, so powerfully, and so
comfortably, as in these self-denying and overcoming acts,
when it doth not work alone, without the help of sense to
comfort us ; but also against sense, which would discourage
us ; Luke xviii. 22, 23. xiv. 26. 33. 2 Cor. v. 7.
LIFE OF FAITH. 167
Direct. 18. * Keep a constant observation of God's con-
verse with your hearts, and workings on them.'
For, as I said before, there are within us such demon-
strations of a kingdom of God, in precepts, mercies, re*-
wards and punishments, that he which well marketh them,
will have much help in the maintaining and exercising his
belief of the everlasting kingdom : especially the godly,
who have that Spirit there working, which is indeed the
very seal, and pledge, and earnest of life eternal ; 2 Cor. i.
22. V. 5. Ephes. i. 13, 14. Gal. iv. 5, 6. Rom. viii. 16, 17.
There is so much of God and heaven in a true believer's
heart, that (as we see the moon and stars when we look
down into the water, so) we may see much of God and hea-
ven within us, if the heart itself be throughly studied.
And I must add, that experience here must be carefully
recorded : and when God fulfilleth promises to us, it must
not be forgotten.
Direct. 19. * Converse much with them that live by faith,
und fetch their motives and comforts from the things unseen.'
Converse hath £u transforming power. To converse with
them that live all by sense, and shew no other desires, or
joys, or sorrows, but what are fetched from fleshly sensible
things, is a great means to draw us downwards with them.
And to converse with them who converse in heaven j and
speak of nothing else so comfortably or so seriously ; who
shew us that heaven is the place they travel to^ and the
state that all their life doth aim at; and who make little of
all the wants or plenty, pains or pleasures of the flesh ; this
much conduce th to make us heavenly As men are apt to
learn and use the language, the motives, and the employ-
ments of the country and people where they live ; so he
that is most familiar with such as live by faith, upon things
unseen, and taketh God's promise for full security, hath a
■very great help to learn and live that life himself; Heb. x.
24, 25. 1 Thes. iv. 17, 18. Phil. iii. 20, 21.
Direct. 20. * Forget not the nearness of the things un-
seen, and think not of a long continuance in this world ;
but live in continual expectations of your change.'
Distant things, be they never so great, do hardly move
us : as in bodily motion, the mover must be contiguous :
and as our senses are not fit to apprehend beyond a certani
distance ; so our minds also are finite, and have their
108 LIFE OF FAITH,
bounds and measure : and sin hath made them much nar-
rower, foolish and short-sighted than they would have been.
A certainty of dying at last, should do much with us : but
yet he that looketh to live long on earth, will the more
hardly live by faith in heaven ; when he that daily waiteth
for his change, will have easily the more serious and ef-
fectual thoughts of the world in which he must live next,
and of all the preparations necessary thereunto ; and will
the more easily despise the things on earth, which are the
employment and felicity of the sensual ; Col. iii. 1 — 3.
Phil. i. 20—23. 1 Cor. xv. 31. As we see it in constant
experience in men, when they see that they must pre-
sently die indeed, how light then set they by the world ?
How little are they moved with the talk of honour, with the
voice of mirth, with the sight of meat, or drink, or beauty,
or any thing which before they had not power to deny t
And how seriously they will then talk of sin and grace, of
God and heaven, which before they could not be awakened
to regard ? If therefore you would live by faith indeed, set
yourselves as at the entrance of that world which faith fore-
seeth, and live as men that know they may die to-morrow,
and certainly must be gone ere long. Dream not of I know
not how many years more on earth, which God never pro-
mised you ; unless you make it your business to vanquish
faith by setting its objects at a greater distance than God
hath set them. Learn Christ's warning to one and all. To
watch, and to be always ready; Mark xiii. 33. 35. 37.
1 Pet. iv. 7. Matt. xxiv. 44. Luke xii. 40. He that thinketh
he hath yet time enough, and daylight before him, will be
the apter to loiter in his work or journey : when every man
will make haste when the sun is setting, if he have much to
do, or far to go. Delays, which are the great preventers
of repentance, and undoers of the world, do take their
greatest advantage from this ungrounded expectation of
long life. When they hear the physician say, * He is a dead
man, and there is no hope,* then they would fain begin to
live, and then how religious and reformed would they be?
Whereas if this foolish error did not hinder them, they
might be of the same mind all their lives, and might have
then done their work, and waited with desire for the crown ;
and said with Paul, '* For I am now ready to be offered, and
thfe time of my departure is at hand : I have fought a good
LIFE OF FAITH. 169
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ;
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that
day ; and not me only, but to them also that love his ap-
pearing ;" 2 Tim. iv. 4. 6—8.
And so much for the general Directions to be observed
by them that will live by faith : I only add, that as the well-
doing of all our particular duties, dependeth mo&t on the
common health and soundness of the soul, in its state of
grace ; so our living by faith in all the particular cases after
instanced, doth depend more upon these general Direc-
tions, than on the particular ones which are next to be ad-
joined.
PART IIL
CHAPTER I.
An Enumeration of the Particular Cases i?i which especially
Faith must he used. 1. How to live by Faith on God.
The general Directions before given must be practised in
all the particular cases following, or in order to them ; but
besides them, it is needful to have some special Directions
for each case. And the particular cases which I shall in-
stance in are these: 1. How to exercise faith on God him-
self. 2. Upon Jesus Christ. 3. Upon the Holy Ghost.
4. About the Scripture precepts and examples. 5. About
the Scripture promises. 6. About the threatenings. 7.
About pardon of sin, and justification. 8. About sanctifi-
cation, and the exercises of other graces. 9. Against in-
ward vices and temptations to actual sin. 10. In case of
prosperity. 11. In adversity and particular afflictions. 12.
In God's worship, 'public and private. 13. For spiritual
peace and joy. 14. For the world, and the church of God.
15. For our relations. 16. In loving others as ourselves.
17. About heaven, and following the saints. 18. How to
die in faith. 19. About the coming of Christ to judgment.
God is both the object of our knowledge, as he is re-
vealed in nature, and of our faith, as he is revealed in the
170 LIFE OF FAITH.
Holy Scriptures. He is the first and last object of our faith.
" It is life eternal to know him the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom he hath sent." *' Ye believe in God, believe
also in me," was Christ's order in commanding and causing
faith; John xiv. 1. Seeing therefore this is the principal
part of faith (to know God, and live upon him, and to him),
I shall give you many (though brief) Directions in it.
Direct. 1 . * Behold the glorious and full demonstrations
of the being of the Deity, in the whole frame of nature, and
especially in yourselves.'
The great argument from the effect to the cause is un-
answerable. All the caused and derived beings in the
world, must needs have a first being for their cause. All
action, intellection and volition ; all power, wisdom and
goodness which is caused by another, doth prove that the
cause can have no less than the total effect hath. To see
the world, and to know what a man is, and yet to deny that
there is a God, is to be mad. He that will not know that
which all the world doth more plainly preach than words
can possibly express, and will not know the sense of his own
being and faculties, doth declare himself incapable of teach-
ing; Psal. xiv. 1. xlix. 12. 20. Isa. i. 2, 3. It is the great-
est shame that man's understanding is capable of, to be ig-
norant of God, (1 Cor. XV. 34.) and the greatest shame to
any nation (Hos.iv. 1. vi.6.), as it is the highest advance-
ment of the mind to know him, and therefore the sum of all
our duty ; Prov. ii. 5. Hos. vi. 6. 2 Chron. xxx. 21, 22.
Isa. xi. 9. 2 Pet. ii. 20. Rom. i. 20. 28. John xvii. 3.
Direct, 2. * Therefore take not the being and perfections
of God, for superstructures and conclusions, which may be
tried, and made bow to the interest of other points ; but as
the greatest, clearest, surest truths, next to the knowledge
of our own being and intellection : and that which all other
(at least, not the proper objects of sense) must be tried and
reduced to.'
When there is no right method or order of knowledge,
there is no true and solid knowledge. It is distraction, and
not knowing, to begin at the top, and to lay the foundation
last, and reduce things certain to things uncertain. And
it is no more wisely done of atheists, who argue from their
apprehensions of other things, against the beings or perfec-
tions of God. As when they say, * There is much evil in
LIFE OF FAITH. 171
the world permitted by God, and there is death and many
tormenting pains befal even the innocent brutes ; and there
are wars and confusions, and ignorance and wickedness have
dominion in the earth : therefore God is not perfectly good,
nor perfectly wise, and just, and powerful in his government
of the world.' The error in the method of arguing here,
helpeth to continue their blindness. That God is perfectly
good, is * prius cogaltum.' Nothing is more certain than
that he who is the cause of all the derived goodness in the
whole universe, must have as much or more than all him-
self. Seeing therefore that heaven and earth, and all things,
bear so evident a witness to this truth, this is the founda-
tion and first to be laid, and never more questioned, nor any
argument brought against it. For all that possibly can be
said against it, must be ' a minus notis,' from that which is
more obscure. Seeing then that it is most certain by sense,
that calamities and evils are in the world ; and no less cer-
tain that there is a God, who is most perfectly good ; it
must needs follow that these two are perfectly consistent,
and that some other cause of evil must be found out, than
any imperfection in the chief good. But as to the being of
things, and order in the world, it foUoweth not that they
must be as good and perfect as their Maker and Governor
is himself; nor one part as good and perfect in itself as any
other. Because it was not the Creator's purpose when he
made the world, to make another God, that should be equal
with himself (for two infinite beings and perfections is a
contradiction). But it was his will to imprint such measures
of his own likeness and excellencies upon the creatures, and
with such variety as his wisdom saw most fit ; the reasons
of which are beyond our search. The Divine agency, as it
is in him the agent, is perfect ; but the effect hath those mea-
sures of goodness which he was freely pleased to com-
municate.
And as 1 have given you this instance, to shew the folly
of trying the certain foundation by the less certain notions
or accidents in the world ; so you must abhor the same
error in all other instances. Some wit may consist with the
questioning of many plain conclusions ; but he is a fool in-
deed, who saith, " There is no God,'* or doubteth of his es-
sential properties; Psal. xiv. 1, 2. Rom. i. 19 — 21.
Direct. 3. * Remember that all our knowledge of God,
172 LIFE OF FAITH.
while we are in the body here, is but enigmatical, and as in
a glass ; and that all words which man can speak of God
(at least except being and substance) are but terms below
him, borrowed from his image on the creatures, and not sig-
nifying the same thing formally in God, which they signify
in us.'
If you think otherwise, you will make an idol in your
conception, instead of God : and you will debase him, and
bring him down to the condition of the creature. And yet
it doth not follow that we know nothing of him, or that all
such expressions of God are vain, or false, or must be dis-
used ; for then we must not think or talk of God at all. But
we must speak of him according to the highest notions
which we can borrow from the noblest parts of his image ;
confessing still, that they are but borrowed : and these
must be used till we come nearer, and see as face to face ;
and " when that which is perfect is come, then that which
is imperfect shall be done away;" 1 Cor. xiii. 10 — 12. And
yet it is (in comparison of darker revelations) as with open
face that we behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord ; and
it is a sight that can change us into the same image, as from
glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord ; 2 Cor. iii. 18.
Direct. 4. * Abhor the furious ignorance which brandeth
every one with the names of heresy or blasphemy, who
differ from them in the use of some unnecessary metaphor
of God, when their different phrases tend not indeed to his
dishonour, and perhaps may have the same signification
with their own.'
When we are all forced to confess, that all our terms of
God are improper or metaphorical, and yet men will run
those metaphors into numerous branches, and carry them
unto greater impropriety, and then rail at all as blasphe-
mers that question them ; this practice is (though too com-
mon) a heinous sin in them, as it hath direful effects upon
the church. Should I recite the sad histories of this iniquity,
and shew what it hath done between the Greek and Latin
churches, and between those called orthodox and catholic,
and many through the world that have been numbered with
heretics ; it would be too large a subject for our sorrow and
complaints.
Direct. 5. * Abhor presumptuous curiosities in inquiring
into the secret things of God ; much more in pretending to
LIFE OF FAITH. 173
know them ; and most of all in reviling and contending
against others upon those pretences/
It is sad to observe abundance of seemingly learned men,
who are posed in the smallest creature which they study,
yet talking as confidently of the unsearchable things of God,
yea, and raving as furiously and voluminously against all
that contradict them, as if they had dwelt in the inaccessi-
ble light, and knew all the order of the acts of God, much
better than they know themselves, and the motions of their
own minds ; or better than they can anatomize a worm or a
beast. They that will not presume to say, that they know
the secrets of their prince, or the heart of any of their neigh-
bours; yea, they that perceive the difficulty of knowing the
state of a man's own soul, because our hearts are a maze and
labyrinth, and our thoughts so various and confused, can
yet give you so exact a scheme of all God's conceptions,
that it shall be no less than heresy to question the order of
any part of it. They can tell you what ideas are in the mind
of God, and in what order they lie ; and how those ideas are
the same unchanged about things that are changed ; about
things past, and present, and to come ; and what futurition
was from eternity, as in the idea of God's mind ; they can
tell me in what order he knoweth things, and by what means ;
and whether future contingents are known to him in their
causes, or in his decree, or in their co-existence in eternity.
They can tell what decrees he hath about negatives ; as that
such a man shall not have faith given him ; that millions of
things possible shall not be ; that you shall not be a plant,
or a beast, nor any other man, nor called by any other name,
&c. : and how^ all God's decrees are indeed but one, and yet
not only inconceivably numerous, but the order of them as
to priority and posteriority is to be exactly defined and de-
fended, though to the detriment of charity and peace. As
to sin, they can tell you whether he have a real positive de-
cree, * de re evenieate,' or only ' de eventu rei,' or oply ' de
propria permissione eventus, 'i.e.* de non impediendo,'
i. e. ' de non agendo;' whether *non agere' need and have
a positive act of volition or nolition antecedent : though
they know not when they hear the sound of the wind, either
whence it cometh, or whither it goeth ; yet know they all
the methods of the Spirit. They know how God as the first
mover, predetermineth the motions of all agents, natural and
174 LIFE OF FAITH.
free, and whether his influence be upon the essence, or fa-
culty, or act immediately, and what that influx is. In a word,
how voluminously do they darken counsel by words without
knowledge ! As if they had never read God's large expos-
tulation with Job, (Job xlii. &c.) ** The secret things belong
unto the Lord our God ; but those things which are revealed
belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do
all the words of this law ;" Deut. xxix. 29. Even an angel
could say to Manoah, " Why askest thou thus after my
name, seeing it is secret?" Judges xiii. 18. ** No man hath
seen God at any time, (saving) the only begotten Son, who
is in the bosom of the Father ; he hath declared him ;" John
i. 18. And what he hath declared we may know ; but how
much more do these men pretend to know, than ever Christ
declared ! But " who hath known the mind of the Lord, or
who hath been his counseller?" Rom. xi. 34.
* Etiam vera de Deo loqui periculosum.' Even things
that are true should be spoken of God, not only with reve-
rence, but with great caution. And a wise man will rather
admire and adore, than boldly speak what he is not certain
is true and congrous.
Direct, 6. * Let all your knowledge of God be practical ;
yea, more practical than any other knowledge ; and let not
your thoughts once use God's name in vain.'
If it be a sin to use idle or unprofitable words, and es-
pecially to take God's name in vain ; it cannot be faultless
to have idle, unprofitable thoughts of God : for the thoughts
are the operations of the mind itself. There is no thought
or knowledge which ever cometh into our minds, which, 1.
Hath so great work to do ; and 2. Is so fit and powerful to
do it, as the knowledge and thoughts which we have of God.
The very renovation of the soul to his image, and transform-
ing it into the Divine nature, must be wrought hereby. The
thoughts of his wisdom, must silence all our contradicting
folly, and bring our souls to an absolute submission and sub-
jection to his laws. The knowledge of his goodness, must
cause all true saving goodness in us, by possessing us with
the highest love to God. The knowledge of his power,
must cause both our confidence, and our fear : and the im-
press of God's attributes must be his image on our souls.
It is a common (and true) observation of divines, that in
Scripture, words of God which express his knowledge, do
LIFE OF FAITH. 175
imply his will and affections : (as his knowing the way of
the righteous (Psal. ii. 6,) is his approving and loviRg it,
&c.) : and it is as true, that words of our knowledge of
God, should all imply affection towards him. It is a grie-
vous aggravation of ungodliness, to be a learned, ungodly
man : " To profess to know God, and deny him in works,
being abominable and disobedient, and reprobate to every
good work ;'' Titus i. 16. (though as orthodox and ready in
good words as others).
A thought of God should be able to do any thing upon
the soul. It should partake of the omnipotency and perfec-
tion of the blessed object. No creature should be able to
stand before him, when our minds entertain any serious
thoughts of him, and converse with him. A thought of God
should annihilate all the grandeur and honours of the world
to us ; and all the pleasures and treasures of the flesh ; and
all the power of temptations. What fervency in prayer!
What earnestness of desire! What confidence of faith!
What hatred of sin ! What ardent love ! What transport-
ing joy • What constant patience should one serious
thought of God possess the believing, holy soul with !
If the thing kno*vn become as much one with the un-
derstanding, as Plotinus and other Platonists thought, or if
man were so far a partaker of a kind of deification, as Gibieuf
and other Oratorians, and Benedictus de Benedictis, Bar-
banson, and other fanatic friars think, surely the knowledge
of God should raise us more above our sensitive desires and
passions, and make us a more excellent sort of persons, and
it should make us more like those blessed spirits who know
him more than we on earth ; audit should be the beginning
of our eternal life ; John xvii. 3.
Direct, 7. ' By faith deliver up yourselves to God as your
Creator and your Owner, and live to him as those that per-
ceive they are absolutely his own.'
The word * God ' doth signify both God's essence, and
his three great relations unto man, and we take him not for
our God, if we take him not as in these divine relations.
Therefore God would have faith to be expressed at our en-
trance into his church, by baptism ; because a believing
soul doth deliver up itself to God. The first and greatest
work of faith, is to enter us sincerely into the holy cove-
nant : in which this is the first part, that we take God for
176 LIFE OF FAITH.
our Owner, and resign up ourselves to him, without either
expfess or implicit reserve, as those that are absolutely his
own. And though these words are by any hypocrite quickly
spoken, yet when the thing is really done, the very heart of
sin is broken : for as the apostle saith, " He that is dead is
freed from sin ;" Rom. vi. 7. Because a dead man hath no
faculties to do evil. So we may say. He that is resigned to
God as his absolute Owner, is freed from sin ; because he
that is not his own, hath nothing which is his own, and
therefore hath nothing to alienate from his Owner. " We
are not our own, we are bought with a price" (which is the
second title of God's propriety in us), and therefore " must
glorify God in body and spirit, as being his ;" 1 Cor. vi. 20.
And from this relation faith will fetch abundant conso-
lation, seeing they that by consent, and not only by con-
straint, are absolutely his, shall undoubtedly be loved and
cared for as his own, and used and provided for as his own.
He will not neglect his own, and those of his family, who
will take us to be worse than infidels, if we do so; lTim.i.5.
Direct. 8. ' By faith deliver up yourselves to God, as
your sovereign Ruler, with an absolute resolution to learn,
and love, and obey his laws.*
Though I have often and more largely spoken of these
duties in other treatises, I must not here totally omit them,
where I speak of that faith in God, which essentially con-
sisteth in them. It is a narrow, and foolish, and pernicious
conceit of faith, which thinketh it hath no object but pro-
mises and pardon ; and that it hath nothing to do with God
as our sovereign Governor. And it is too large a descrip-
tion of faith, which maketh actual and formal obedience to
be a part of it. As marriage is not conjugal fidelity and
duty, but it is a covenant which obligeth to it ; and as the
oath of allegiance is not a formal obedience to the laws, but
it is a covenanting to obey them ; and as the hiring or co-
venant of a servant, is not doing service, but it is an enter-
ing into an obligation and state of service : so faith and our
first Christianity, is not strictly formal obedience to him
that we believe in, as such ; but it is an entering of ourselves
by covenant into an obligation and state of future obedience.
Faith hath God's precepts for its objects as truly as his pro-
mises ; but his own relation as our King or Ruler is its pri-
LIFE OF FAITH. 177
mary object, before his precepts ; Hos. xiii. 10. Psal. ii. 6.
V. 2. X. 16. xxiv. 7,8. 10. xlvii.6, 7. Ixxxix. 18. cxlix.
2. Rev. XV. 3. 1 Tiai. i. 17. Luke xix. 27.
Direct. 9. ' By faith acknowledge God as your total be-
nefactor, from him you have, and must have all that is
worth the having ; and accordingly live in a dependance
on him.'
Faith taketh every good thing as a stream from this in-
exhausted spring, and as a token of love, from this unmea-
surable love. It knoweth a difference in the means and way
of conveyance, but no difference as to the fountain ; for all
that we receive is equally from the same original ; though
not sent to us by the same hand. Faith should not take or
look at any good abstractedly, as separated from God ; but
ever see the streams as continued up to the fountain ; and
the fruit as proceeding from the tree and roots. Remember
still that he doth illuminate you by the sun ; and he doth
nourish you by your food (for you live not by bread only,
but by his word and blessing) ; and it is he that doth teach
you by his ministers, and protect you by his magistrates,
and comfort you by your friends. You have that from one,
which another cannot give you ; but you have nothing from
any creature whatsoever, which is not totally from God :
for though he honour creatures to be his messengers or in-
struments, the benefit is equally from him, when he useth
an instrument, and when he useth none. From him we have
our being and our comforts, and all the means and hopes of
our well-being ; and therefore our dependance must be ab-
solutely on him. The blessings of this life, and of that to
come, all things which appertain to life and godliness, are
the gifts of his incomprel^ensible benignity. For it is natu-
ral to him, who is infinitely good, to do good, when he doth
work * ad extra ;' though when to communicate, and in what
various degrees is free to him ; 1 Tim. iv. 8. Matt. vi. 33.
2 Pet. i. 3. Psal. cxlv. 14, 15. cxlvi. 7. xviii. 50. 1 Tim.
vi. 17. James i. 5. iv. 6. Jer. v. 24, 25.
Direct. 10. * By faith set your eye and your heart most
fixedly and devotedly on God, as your ultimate end (which
is your felicity, and much more).*
He taketh not God for God indeed, who taketh him not
as his ultimate end. Nay, he debaseth God, who placing
VOL. XII. N
i.7S LIFE OF FAITH.
his felicity in any thing else, doth cleave to God but as the
means to such a felicity. But to make God our felicity is
lawful and necessary ; but not to dream that this is the
highest respect that we must have to God, to be our felicity.
To love him, and to be beloved by him ; to please him, and
to be pleased in him, is our ultimate end ; which though it
be complex, and contain our own felicity, yet doth it, as in-
finitely supereminent, contain the complacency of God, and
God as the object of our love, considered in his own infinite
perfections : for he is the Alpha and Omega, the first and
the last ; " and of him, and through him, and to him are all
things ;" Rom. xi. 36. It is the highest and noblest work
of faith, to make our own original to be our end, and to set
our love entirely upon God ; and to see that we ourselves
are but worms and vanity ; capable of no higher honour,
than to be means to please and glorify God ; and must not
take down God so, as to love him only for ourselves. And
he only who thus denieth himself for God, doth rightly im-
prove self-love, and seek the only exaltation and felicity, by
carrying up himself to God, and adhering to the eternal
good; 1 Cor. x. 31. Luke xiv. 33. Matt. xvi. 25. Mark
viii. 35.
Direct. 11. ' Distinguish these relations of God, but di-
vide them not ; much less set them in any opposition to each
other ; and remember that the effects of them are all mar-
vellously and harmoniously mixed, but undivided.'
The effects of God's power, are always the effects also of
his wisdom and goodness : and the effects of his wisdom,
are always the effects of his goodness and his power : and
the effects of his goodness, are always the effects of his
power and his wisdom. The effects of his dominion on his
rational subjects, are always the effects also of his govern-
ment and love : and the effects of his government, are al-
ways the effects also of his dominion and love : and the ef-
fects of his love as Benefactor, are always the effects of his
dominion and government. Though some one principal,
and some one relation, may more eminently appear in one
work Ss others do in the other works. Disposal is the effect
of propriety ; but it is always a regular and loving disposal
of the subjects of his government. Legislation and judg-
ment are the effects of his kingdom ; but dominion and love
LIFE OF FAITH. 179
have a hand in both, till rebellion turn men from subjection.
Glorification is the highest effect of love ; but it is given
also by our Owner, as by one that may do as he list with
his own; and by our Governor by the way of a reward ;
Matt. XX. 15. 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. Matt. xxv. throughout.
Direct. 12. * Especially let faith unveil to you the face
of the goodness of God ; and see that your thoughts of it
be neither false nor low ; but equal to your thoughts of his
power and understanding.'
1. As our loss by sin is more in the point of goodness
than of power or knowledge (the devils having much of the
two last, who have but little or nothing of the first) ; so it
is the goodness of God which must be more studied by a
believer, than his power or his wisdom, because the impress
of it is more necessary to us in our lapsed state.
2. They have false thoughts of God's goodness, who
make it to consist only or chiefly, in a communicative incli-
nation * ad extra,' which we call benignity : for he was as
good from eternity, before he made any creature, as he is
since : and his goodness considered as essential in himself,
and as his own perfection, is infinitely higher than the con-
sideration of it, as terminated on any creature. Man is de-
nominated good from his adaptation to the will of God, and
not God chiefly from his adaptation to the commodity or
will of man. And they do therefore debase God, and deify
his creature, who make the creature the ultimate end of
God and itself; and not God the ultimate end of the crea^
ture. And they might as well make the creature the be-
ginning also of itself and God. (And yet this sottish no-
tion taketh much with many half-witted novelists in this age,
who account themselves the men of ingenuity.)
And they have also false thoughts of the goodness of
God, who think that there is nothing of communicative be-
nignity in it at all. For all the good which God doth, he
doth it from the goodness of his nature. " Thou art good,
and doest good ;" Psal. cxix. 68. And his doing good is
usually expressed by the phrase of being good to them.
"The Lord is good to all;" Psal. cxlv.9. xxv. 8. Ixxxvi. 5.
Object. ' But if communicative benignity be natural to
God as his essential goodness is, then he must do good
* per modum naturae, et ad ultimum potentiae ;' and then
180 LIFE OF FAITH.
the world was from eternity, and as good as God could
make it.'
Answ. 1. Those Christian divines who do hold that the
universe was from eternity, and that it is as good as God
can make it ; do not yet hold that it was its own original,
but an eternal emanation from God, and therefore that God
who is the beginning of it, is the ultimate end, and eternally
and voluntarily, though naturally and necessarily produced
it for himself, even for the pleasure of his will : and therefore
that God's essential goodness, as it is in itself, is much
higher than the same as terminated in, or productive of the
universe. And that no mixed bodies which do ' oriri et in-
terire,' are generated and corrupted, were from eternity ;
and consequently, that this present system called the
World, which is within our sight, was not from eternity ;
but that as spring and fall doth revive the plants, and end
their transitory life ; so it hath been with these particular
systems ; the more simple and noble parts of the universe
continuing the same. And they hold that the world is next
to infinitely good ; and as good as it is possible to be with-
out being God ; and that for God to produce another God,
or an infinite good, is a contradiction : and that all the baser
and pained, and miserable parts of the world, are best res-
pectively to the perfection of the whole, though not best in
and to themselves. (As every nuck and pin in a watch is
necessary as well as the chief parts.) And that all things
set together, it is best that all things be as they are, and
will be. But of this, the Infinite Wisdom, who seeth not
only some little parts, but the whole universe at one perfect
view, is the fittest judge.
2. But the generality of divines do hold the contrary,
and say, that it is natural to God to be the all-sufficient,
pregnant good; not only able to communicate goodness,
but inclined to it, as far as his perfection doth require ;
but not inclined to communicate in a way of natural, con-
stant necessity, as the sun shineth, but in a way of liberty,
when, and in what degrees he pleaseth ; which pleasure is
guided by his infinite understanding, which no mortal man
can comprehend ; and therefore must not ask any further
reason of the first reason and will, but stop here, and be sa-
tisfied to find that it is indeed God's will and reason, which
LIFE OF FAITH. 181
causeth all things when and what they are, and not other-
wise. And that God hath not made the universe as good in
itself, as by his absolute power he could have made it ; but
that it is best to be as it is and will be, because it is most
suitable to his perfect will and wisdom. And this answer
seemeth most agreeable to God's word.
And as you must see that your thoughts of God's good-
ness be not false ; so also that they be not diminutive and
low. As no knowledge is more useful and necessary to us,
so nothing is more wonderfully revealed by God, than is his
amiable goodness : for this end he sent his Son into flesh,
to declare his love to the forlorn world, and to call them to
behold it, and admire it; John i. 8 — 10. iii. 16. 1 John
iii. 1. Rev. xxi. 3. And as Christ is the chief glass of the
Father's love on this side heaven ; so it is the chief part of
the office of faith, to see God's love and goodness in the
face of Christ. Let him not reveal his love in vain, at so
dear a rate, and in a way of such wonderful condescension.
Think of his goodness, as equal to his greatness : and as you
see his greatness in the frame of the world ; so his goodness
in the wonderful work of man's redemption and salvation.
Let faith beholding God in Christ, and daily thus gazing on
his goodness, or rather tasting it, and feasting on it, be the
very sum of all your religion and your lives. This is indeed
to live by faith, when it worketh by that love, which is our
holiness and life.
Direct. 13. * Let not faith overlook the books of the
creation, and the wonderful demonstrations of God's attri-
butes therein.'
Even such revelations of God's goodness and fidelity as
are made in nature, or the works of creation, are sometimes
in Scriptures made the objects of faith. At least we who
by the belief of the Scriptures do know how the worlds were
made, (Heb. xi. 2,3.) must believingly study this glorious
work of our great Creator. All those admirations and
praises of God as appearing in his works, which David
useth, were not without the use of faith. Thus faith can
use the world as a sanctified thing, and as a glass to see the
glory of God in, while sensual sinners use it against God to
their own perdition, and make it an enemy to God and them ;
so contrary is the life of faith and of sense. He hath not
the heart of a man within him, who is not stricken with ad-
182 LIFE OF FAITH.
miration of the power, and wisdom and goodness of the in-
comprehensible Creator, when he seriously looketh to the
sun and stars, to sea and land, to the course of all things,
and to the wonderful variety and natures of the particular
creatures. And he hath not the heart of a believer in him,
who doth not think, * O what a God is it whom I am bound
to serve, and who hath taken me into his covenant as his
child ! How happy are they who have such a God, en-
gaged to be their God and happiness ! And how miserable
are they who make such a God their revenging judge and
enemy ! Shall I ever again wilfully or carelessly sin against
a God of so great majesty? If the sun were an intellectual
deity, and still looked on me, should I presumptuously of-
fend him ? Shall I ever distrust the power of him that made
such a world ? Shall I fear a worm, a mortal man, above
this great and terrible Creator ? Shall I ever again resist or
disobey the word and wisdom of him, who made and ruleth
such a world ? Doth he govern the whole world, and should
not I be governed by him? Hath he goodness enough to
communicate as he hath done to sun and stars, to heaven
and earth, to angels and men, and every wight? And hath
he not goodness enough to draw, and engage, and conti-
nually delight this dull and narrow heart of mine ? Doth the
return of his sun turn the darksome night into the lightsome
day, and bring forth the creatures to their food and labour ;
doth its approach revive the torpid earth, and turn the con-
gealed winter into the pleasant spring, and cover the earth
with her fragrant, many-coloured robes, and renew the life
and joy of the terrestrial inhabitants ; and shall I find no-
thing in the God who made and still continueth the world,
to be the life, and strength, and pleasure of my soul ? ** Make
a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands : sing forth the ho-
nour of his name ; make his praise glorious : say unto God,
How terrible art thou in thy works ! Come and see the
works of God : he is terrible in his doing towards the chil-
dren of men. He ruleth by his power for ever : his eyes
behold the nations : let not the rebellious exalt themselves.
O bless our God ye people, and make the voice of his praise
to be heard ! who holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not
our feet to be moved!" Psal. Ixvi. 1, &c. "Among the
gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there
any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou
LIFE OF FAITH. 1B3
hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and
shall glorify thy name ; for thou art great and dost won-
drous things : tho\i art God alone f Psal. Ixxxvi. 8—10.
** O Lord, how great are thy works ! Thy thoughts are very
deep, a brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool under-
stand this ;" Psal. xcii. 5, 6.
Faith doth not separate itself from natural knowledge,
nor neglect God's works while it studieth his word ; but
saith, " I meditate on all thy works ; I muse on the work of
thy hands ;" Psal. cxliii. 5. " O Lord, how manifold are
thy works ! in wisdom hast thou made them all : the earth
is full of thy riches ; so is the great and wide sea," &c. j
Psal. civ. 24.
Nay, it is greatly to be noted, that as redemption is to
repair the creation, and the Redeemer came to recover the
soul of man to his Creator, and Christ is the way to the Fa-
ther ; so on the Lord's day our commemoration of redemp-
tion includeth and is subservient to our commemoration of
the creation, and the work of the ancient sabbath is not shut
out, but taken in with the proper work of the Lord's day :
and as faith in Christ is a mediate grace to cause in us the
love of God, so the word of the Redeemer doth not call off*
our thoughts from the works of the great Creator, but call
them back to that employment, and fit us for it by reconcil-
ing us to God.
Therefore it is as suitable to the Gospel church at least,
as it was to the Jewish, to make God's works the matter of
our sabbath praises, and to say, as Psal. cxlv. 4, 5. 10. '* One
generation shall praise thy works to another ; and shall de-
clare thy mighty acts : I will speak of the glorious honour
of thy Majesty, and of thy wondrous works : and men shall
speak of the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare
thy greatness. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord,
and thy saints shall bless thee." '* I will wash my hands
in innocency, and so I will compass thine altar, O Lord,
that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell
of all thy wondrous works ;" Psal. xxvi. 6, 7. ** I will praise
thee O Lord, with my whole heart, I will shew forth all thy
marvellous works ;" Psal. ix. 12.
Direct. 14. ' Let faith also observe God in his daily pro-
vidences ; and equally honour him for the ordinary and the
extraordinary passages thereof.'
184 LIFE OF FAITH.
The upholding of the world is a continual causing of it ;
and differeth from creation, as the continued shining of a
candle doth from the first lighting of it. If therefore the
creation do wonderfully declare the power, and wisdom, and
goodness of God; so also doth the conservation. And note
that God's ordinary works are as great demonstrations of
him in all his perfections, as his extraordinary. Is it not as
great a declaration of the power of God, that he cause the
sun to shine, and to keep its wondrous course from age to
age, as if he did such a thing but for a day or hour ? and as
if he caused it to stand still a day ? And is it not as great
a demonstration of his knowledge also, and of his goodness ?
Surely we should take it for as great an act of love, to have
plenty, and health, and joy continued to us as long as we
desired it, as for an hour. Let not then that duration and
ordinariness of God's manifestations to us, which is their
aggravation, be looked upon as if it were their extenuation ;
but let us admire God in the sun and stars, in sea and land,
as if this were the first time that ever we had seen them.
And yet let the extraordinariness of his works have its
effects also. Their use is to stir up the drowsy mind of man
to see God in that which is unusual, who is grown custo-
mary and lifeless in observing him in things usual. Pharoah
and his magicians will acknowledge God, in those unusual
works, which they are no way able to imitate themselves,
and say, " This is the finger of God ;*' Exod. viii. 19. And
therefore miracles are never to be made light of, but the fin-
ger of God to be acknowledged in them, whoever be the in-
strument or occasion ; Luke xi, 20.
There are frequently also some notable, though not mi-
raculous providences in the changes of the world, and in the
disposal of all events, and particularly of ourselves, in which
a believer should still see God ; yea, see him as the total
cause, and take the instruments to be next to nothing ; and
not gaze all at men as unbelievers do ; but say, " This is the
Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes ;" Psal. cxviii.
23. *' Sing unto the Lord a new song ; for he hath done
marvellous things; Psal. xcviii. 1. "Marvellous are thy
works, and that my soul knoweth right well ;" Psal.
cxxxix. 14.
Direct. 15. ' But let the chief study of faith for the know-
LIFE OF FAITH. 185
ledge of God, be of the face of Jesus Christ ; and the most
wonderful mystery of his incarnation, and our redemption.'
For God is nowhere else so fully manifested to man, in
that goodness, love and mercy, which it most concerneth us
to know ; and the knowledge of which will be most healing
and sanctifying to the soul : but of this I must speak more
in the Chapter next following.
Direct. 16. * Let faith make use of every mercy, not only
to acknowledge God therein, but to have a pleasant taste
and relish of his love.'
For thus it is that they are all sanctified to believfers,
and this is the holy use of mercies. Remember that as in
order to understanding, your eyes and ears are but the pas-
sages or inlets to your minds j and if sights and sounds
went no further than the senses, you would be no better, if
not worse than beasts. So also in order to affection, the
taste and sense of sweetness or any other pleasure, is to
pass by the sense unto the heart ; and what should it do
there, but affect the heart with the love and goodness of the
giver. A beast tasteth as much of the sensitive sweetness
of his food and ease as you do : but it is the believer who
heartily saith, ' How good is the Author and End of all this
mercy ! Whence is it that this cometh? And whither doth
it tend?' ** I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice
of my supplication;" Psal. cxvi. 1. "O that men would
praise the Lord for his goodness;" Psal. cxlv. 15, 16.
" The eyes of all things wait on thee ; thou givest them
their meat in due season. Thou openest thy hand, and sa-
tisfiest the desires of every living thing. He leaveth not
himself without witness in that he doth good, and giveth us
rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with
food and gladness ;" Acts xiv. 17. The near conjunction
of soul and body, and the near relation of God and his mer-
cies, do tell us plainly, that every pleasure which toucheth
the sense, should touch the heart, and reach unto the soul
itself; and that the creature is fitted to the sense, and God
is suitable to the soul ; so the creature should be but God's
servant to knock and cause us to open the door to himself,
and the way of his communication and accession to the
heart. Therefore so great a judgment is threatened against
the Israelites in their prosperity, if they did not serve God
with joyfulness and gladness of heart, for the abundance of
186 LIFli Oy FAITH.
all things ; Deut. xxviii. 47. And therefore the days in-
which men were to rejoice in God with the greatest love and
thankfulness, were appointed to be days of feasting, that
the pleasure of the bodily senses might promote the spiritual
pleasure and gratitude of the mind ; 2 Chron. xix. 21.
xxix. 30. Neh. viii. 17. xii. 27. Esther ix. 17—19.
Num. X. 10.
Direct. 17. ' Let faith feel God's displeasure in every
chastisement and judgment.'
For we must be equally careful that we despise them
not, and that we faint not under them ; Heb. xii. 5. They
that pretend that it is the work of faith to see nothing in
any affliction but the love and benefit, do but set one act of
faith against another : for the same word which telleth us,
that it shall turn to a true believer's good doth tell us that
it is of itself a natural evil, and that as the good is from
God's love, so the evil is from our sins, and his displeasure ;
and that he would give us the good without the evil, if man
were without sin. He therefore that belie veth not that it is
a castigatory punishment for sin, is an unbeliever, as well
as he that believeth not the promise of the benefit ; Rom.
v. 12. 14. 16—18. 1 Cor. xi. 30. 32. Jer. v. 25. Micah
i. 5. Amos iii. 2.
Yea, this opinion directly frustrateth the first end and
use of all chastisements which is to further men's repentance
for the evil of sin, by the sense of the evil of punishment,
and the notice of God's displeasure manifested thereby :
and next to make us warnings to others, that they incur not
the same correction and displeasure as we have done. For
he that saith, there is no penalty or evil in the suffering, nor
no displeasure of God expressed thereby, doth contradict
all this. But as it is a great benefit which we are to reap
by our corrections, even the furtherance of our repentance
and amendment ; so it is a great work of faith, to perceive
the bitterness of sin, and the displeasure of God in these
corrections ; of which more anon.
Direct. 18. ' Faith must hear the voice of God in all his
word, and in all the counsel which by any one he shall
send us.'
When sense taketh notice of nothing but a book, or of
none but a man, faith must perceive the mind and message
of God : not only in preachers, (2 Cor. v. 19, 20. 1 Thess.
LIFE OF FAITH. 187
ii. 13. Titus ii. 5. Heb. xiii. 7.) but also in the mouth of
wicked enemies, when it is indeed the will of God which
they reveal. And so David heard the curse of Shimei,
speaking to him the rebukes of God, for his sin in the mat-
ter of Uriah; 2 Sam. xvi. 10, 11. And Paul rejoiced that
Christ was preached by men of envy and strife, who did it
to add affliction to his bonds; Phil. i. 18. Moses perceived
the will of God in the counsel of Jethro, even in as great a
matter as the governing and judging of the people ; Exod.
xviii. 19. The counsel of the ancients which Rehoboam
forsook, was the counsel of God which he rejected ; 1 Kings
xii. 8. David blessed God for the counsel of a woman,
Abigail. Whoever be the messenger, a believer should be
acquainted with the voice of God, and know the true signi-
fications of his will. The true sheep of Christ do know his
voice, and follow him, because they are acquainted with his
word ; and though the preacher be himself of a sinful life,
he can distinguish between God and the preacher ; and will
not say, it is not the word of God, because it cometh from
a wicked mouth. For he hath read Psal. 1. 16. where God
saith to the wicked, ** What hast thou to do to take my co-
venant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and
hast cast my words behind thee :" but he never read ' to the
godly, saith God, Why didst thou hear a wicked preacher?'
He hath read, " The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses'
chair, hear them, but do not as they do :" but he never read,
* Hear none that live not according to their doctrine/ An
unbeliever will not know Christ's word, if a Judas be the
preacher of it ; but a believer can read the commission of
Judas, or at least can understand whose counsel he deliver-
eth : and though he would be loath to choose a Judas, or to
prefer him before a holy man ; yet if workers of iniquity do
preach in Christ's name, he leaveth it to Christ to say
at judgment, " I know you not ; " Matt. vii. 21, 22. Acts
i. 17.24.
Direct. 19. * Faith must not look at God now and then,
and leave the soul in ordinary forgetfulness of him ; but re-
member that he is always present, and must make us rather
forget them that are talking to us, or conversing with us,
than to forget the Lord.'
: Nothing is more the work of faith, than to see him who
is invisible ; Heb. xi. 27. And to live as one that still re-
188 LIFE OF FAITH.
membereth that God standeth by: to think as one that
knoweth that our thoughts are always in his sight, and to
speak and do as one that forgetteth not, that he is the con-
stant and most reverend witness of all. To hear, and pray,
and live, and labour as if we saw the God who employeth
us, and will reward us ; Matt. vi. 4. 6. Isa. lix. 18. Rev. xx.
12. Matt. xvi. 27. Rom. ii. 6.
Direct, 20. * Faith must lay the heart of man, to rest in
the will of God, and to make it our chief delight to please
him, and quietly to trust him whatever cometh to pass : and
to make nothing of all that would rise up against him, or
entice us from him, or would be to us as in his stead.'
Faith seeth that it is the pleasing of the will of God,
which is all our work, and all our reward : and that we
should be fully pleased in the pleasing of him : and that
there is no other rest for the soul to be thought on, but the
will of God : and it must content the soul in him alone ;
2 Thess. i. 11. Col. iii. 20. 1 Cor. vii. 32. 1 Thess. iv. 1.
2 Tim. ii. 4. Heb. xi. 6. Matt. iii. 17. xvii. 5. Heb. xiii.
16. Psal. xvi. 5. Ixxiii. 26. cxix. 57. cxlii. 5.
As God is often called jealous, especially over the heart
of man ; so faith must make us jealous of ourselves, and
very watchful against every creature, which would become
any part of the felicity or ultimate object of our souls. God
is so great to a believing soul, that ease, and honour, and
wealth, and pleasure, and all men high and low must be as
dead and nothing to us, when they speak against him, or
would be loved, or feared, or trusted, or obeyed before him',
or above him. It is as natural to a true life of faith on God,
to make nothing of the incroaching creature, as for our be-
holding the sun, to make nothing of a candle. And thus is
faith our victory over the world ; 1 John v. 4. Jer. xvii. 5.
Isa. ii. 22. 1 Cor. xv. 28. Ephes. iv. 6. Col. iii. 11.
CHAPTER II.
Directions how to Live by Faith on Jesus Christ,
So much is said already towards this in opening the grounds
of faith, as will excuse me from being prolix in the rest
LIFE OF FAITH. 18.^
and the following parts of the life of faith, are still supposed
as subordinate to these two which go before.
Direct. 1. * Keep still the true reasons of Christ's incar-
nation and mediation upon your mind (as they are before ex-
pressed) else Christ will not be known by you as Christ.'
Therefore the Scriptures are much in declaring the reasons
of Christ's coming into the world, as to be a sacrifice for
sin, to declare God's love and mercy to sinners ; to seek and
to save that which was lost ; to destroy the works of the
devil, &c. ; 1 Tim. i. 15. 1 John iii. 8. Heb. ii. 14. Luke
xix. 10. Rom. V. 10. 1 John iii. 1. Gal. iv. 4. 6. &c.
Let this name or description of Christ be engraven as in ca-
pital letters upon your minds, ' THE ETERNAL WISDOM
OF GOD INCARNATE TO REVEAL AND COMMU-
NICATE HIS WILL, HIS LOVE, HIS SPIRIT TO SIN-
FUL, MISERABLE MAN.'
Direct, 2. * See therefore that you join no conceit of
Christ, which dishonoureth God, and is contrary to this cha-
racter, and to God's design.'
Many by mistaking the doctrine of Christ's intercession,
do think of God the Father, as one that is all wrath and
justice, and unwilling of himself to be reconciled unto man :
and of the second Person in the Trinity, as more gracious
and merciful, whose mediation abateth the wrath of the Fa-
ther, and with much ado maketh him willing to have mercy
on us. Whereas it is the love of God which is the original
of our redemption, and it was God's loving the world, which
provoked him to give his Son to be their Redeemer ; John
iii. 16. Rom. viii. 32. " And God was in Christ reconcil-
ing the world unto himself, not imputing to them their tres-
passes;" 2 Cor. V. 19. And therefore we still read of
Christ's reconciling man to God, and not the phrase of his
reconciling God to man : not but that both are truly
wrought by Christ's mediation (for the Scripture frequently
speaketh of God's hating the workers of iniquity, and of his
vindictive justice, and of that propitiating and atonement
which signifieth the same thing) ; but the reason is, because
the enmity began on man's part, and not on God's, by man's
forsaking God, and turning his love from him to the crea-
ture, and not by God's forsaking man ; and the change of
man's state and heart towards God, by true reconciliation,
will make him again capable of peace with God ; and as
190 LIFE OF FAITH.
soon as man is made an object fit for the complacency of
God, it cannot be but that God will again take complacency
in him ; so that the real change must be only on man ; and
then that relative or denominative change which must be
on God, will thence immediately result.
Some also there be who gather from Christ's death, that
God desired the sufferings of Christ as pleasing to him in
itself; as if he made a bargain with Christ to sell so much
mercy to man, for so much blood and pains of Christ; and
as if he so delighted in the blood of the innocent, that he
would the more willingly do good to us, if he might first
forsake and crucify Christ. But this is to contradict
Christ's business in the world, as if he who came from hea-
ven to declare God's love, had come to declare him to delight
in doing hurt; and as if he who came to demonstrate God's
justice, had come to shew, that he had rather punish the in-
nocent, than the guilty : but the case is quite otherwise :
God doth not delight in man's sufferings as such ; no, not
of the guilty, much less of the innocent : he desired not
Christ's suffering for itself; but as it was a convenient
means, to demonstrate his justice, and his holiness, and to
vindicate the honour of his government and law, and to be
a warning to sinners, not to sin presumptuously ; and yet to
declare to them the greatness of his love.
And some are ready to gather from Christ's propitiation,
that God is now more reconcilable to sin, and so they blas-
pheme him as if he were unholy : and as if he made a smaller
matter of our misdoings, since he is satisfied for them by a
Mediator. And they are ready to gather, that God can now
take complacency in man, though he have no inherent holi-
ness at all, because of the righteousness of Christ imputed
to him. And some take God's imputation of Christ's righ-
teousness to us, to be a reputing us to be the persons, who
ourselves fulfilled the law in or by Christ; so that his very
attributes of wisdom, and love, and holiness, and justice,
and mercy, &c. which Christ came purposely to declare,
are by some denied, blasphemed or abused, on pretence of
extolling Christ and our redemption; as if we might sin
that grace may abound ; Rom. vi. 1, 2. *' But if while we
seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found
sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God for-
bid ;" Gal. ii. 17.
LIFE OF FAITH. 191
Direct, 3. ' Distinguish between the common and the
special benefits of man's redemption by Christ ; and see
how the latter do suppose the former ; and set not these
parts against each other, which God in wisdom hath joined
together.'
To pass by all other the great and notable common bene-
fit, is the conditional covenant of grace ; or the conditional
pardon of sin, and gift of eternal life to all without excep-
tion; John iii. 16. Mark xvi. 15, 16. Rom. x. 9. Matt. vi.
14, 15. xxii. 7 — 9. And this general conditional promise
must be first preached ; and the preaching of this is the
universal or common call and offer of grace : and it must
be first believed, as is before said. But the actual belief of
it, according to its true intent and meaning, doth prove our
actual personal title to all the benefits which were before
given but conditionally ; John iii. 16. 1 John v. 10 — 12.
2 Cor. V. 19—21.
Direct. 4. * Accordingly judge how far redemption is com-
mon or special, by the common and special benefits procured.'
For no man can deny but it is so far common, as the
benefits are common : that is, so far as to procure and give
to sinners a common conditional pardon as aforesaid (as
Dr. Twisse very often taketh notice). And no man can af-
firm, that it is common to all, so far as absolutely or even-
tually to give them actual pardon and salvation, unless they
dream that all are saved. But that some eventually and infal-
libly are saved all confess : and we had rather think that Christ
and the good pleasure of God, is the chief differencing cause,
than we ourselves.
Direct, 5. * Set not the several parts of the office of
Christ against each other ; nor either depress or forget any
one part, while you magnify and meditate only on the other.'
It is most ordinary to reduce all the office of Christ, to
the prophetical, priestly, and kingly part. (For it is more
proper to call them three parts of one office, than three of-
fices :) but it is hard to reduce his incarnation, or his infant-
humiliation, and his whole course of obedience, and fulfill-
ing the law to any one, or all of these, totally. Though in
some respect, as it is his example, it is teaching, and as it
is part of his humiliation, it may be called a part of his
sacrifice ; yet as it is meritorious, obedience and perfection,
it belongeth indeed to our high-priest, but not formally to
192 LIFE OF FAITH.
his priesthood : no nor yet as he himself is the sacrifice for
sin ; for it is not an act of priesthood to be himself a sacri-
fice. But yet I think the common distribution intimateth
to us that sense which containeth the truth which we in-
quire after : for the word priesthood is applied to Christ in
a peculiar notion, so as it is never applied to any other ;
and therefore is taken more comprehensively, as including
all that good which he doth for us (as good) by the way of
mediation with the Father, and all his acts of mediation
with God ; as the prophetical and kingly parts, contain his
other acts towards men. But yet a more plain and accurate
distribution should be made ; in which it should be mani-
fested also to what heads his many other assumed titles of
relation are to be reduced ; but this is not a work for this
place.
But that which now I advise you to avoid, is the error
of them who look so much at Christ's mediation with God,
that they scarce observe his work with man : and the error
of them who look so much at his work on man, that they
overlook his mediation with God : and their's that so ob-
serve his sacrifice, as to make light of his continual inter-
cession : or that observing both, make light of his doctrine
and example : or that observe these so much as to make
light of his sacrifice and intercession : or that extol his
doctrine and example, and overlook his giving of the Spirit
to all his living members ; or that cannot magnify any one
of these, without depressing or extenuating some other.
If Christ's kingdom be not divided (Matt. xii. 25.), sure
Christ himself is not divided, nor his works; 1 Cor. i. 13.
Direct* 6. * Still distinguish between Christ's work of
redemption, which he hath already wrought on earth, to
constitute him our Mediatory Head, and that which he was
further to do for us in that relation ; that you may ground
your faith on the first as a foundation laid by him, and may
seek after the second as that which requireth somewhat
from yourselves to your own participation.'
The first part is commonly called the impetration, the
second the application (or rather the communication.) As
God did first do himself the work of creation, and thence
result his relations of our Owner, our Ruler, and our chief
good (or our love, or end, or benefactor) ; so Christ first
doth the works which make him our Redeemer towards
LIFE OF FAITH. 193
God ; and then he is also our Owner, our Ruler, and our
communicative Benefactor, hereupon. And this seemeth
intimated by those phrases, (Heb. v. 8. ii. 9, 10.) where he
is said to " learn obedience by the things which he suffered,''
that IS, as a subject exercised obedience, and so learnt to
know by experience what obeying is. And that ''the Cap-
tain of our salvation was made perfect by sufferings, and for
suffering death was crowned with glory," because his suffer-
ings did constitute him a perfect Captain or Redeemer in
performance ; though before he was perfect in ability. As
he that undertaketh to redeem some Turkish galley-slaves by
conquering their navy, is made a perfect redeemer, or con-
queror, when he hath taken the fleet, though yet the prison-
ers are in his power, to release them on such terms as seem
best to him. And as a man is a perfect chirurgeon, when
(besides his skill) he is furnished with all his instruments
or salves (how costly soever) though yet the cure is not
done : or as he that hath ransomed prisoners is a perfect
ransomer, when he hath paid the price, though yet they are
not delivered, nor have any actual right themselves to claim
deliverance by. I here mention this, because the building
upon that foundation, which is supposed to be already laid
and finished, and the seeking of the further salvation which
yet we have no possession of, nor perhaps any title to, are
works so very different, that he that doth not discern the
difference, cannot exercise the Christian faith ; because it is
to be necessarily exercised by two such different acts, or
different ways of acting and applying ourselves to our Re-
deemer.
Direct. 7. * Still think of Christ's nearness both to the
Father and to us ; and so of our nearness to God in and by
him.'
Our distance is the lamentable fruit of our apostacy ;
which inferreth our fears, and estrangedness, and back-
wardness to draw near to God ; it causeth our ignorance of
him, and our false conceits of his will and works ; it greatly
hindereth both love and confidence : whereas the appre-
hension of our nearness to God will do much to cure all
these evils. As it is the misery of the proud, that God
looketh on them as afar off, that is, with strangeness, and
abhorrence, and disdain ; Psal. cxxxviii. 6. And accord^
VOL. XII. o
194 LIFE OF FAITH.
ingly they shall be far off from the blessed ones hereafter ;
Luke xvi. 23. So it is the happiness of believers to be nigh
to God, in Jesus Christ, who condescended to be nigh to
us ; which is our preparation to be yet nearer to him for
ever; Psal. cxlviii. 14. xXxiv. 18. cxlv. 18. Ephes. ii. 13.
It giveth the soul more familiar thoughts of God, who
seemed before to be at an inaccessible distance ; which is
part of the boldness of access and confidence mentioned ;
Ephes. iii. 12. ii. 18. Rom. v. 2. Heb. x. 19. We may
come boldly to the throne of grace ; Heb. iv. 16. And it
greatly helpeth us in the work of love, to think how near
God is come to us in Christ, and how near he hath taken
the human nature unto him. When a sinner looketh at
God only as in himself, and as he is estranged from the
guilty, he is amazed and confounded, as if God were quite
out of the reach of our love ; but when he thinketh how he
hath voluntarily come down into our flesh, that he might be
man, and be familiar with man, and what a wonderful mar-
riage the divine nature hath made with the human, this
wonderfully reconcileth the heart to God, and maketh the
thoughts of him more sweet and acceptable. If the life of
faith be a dwelling in God, and God in us, and a walking
with God; 1 John iii. 24. iv. 12. 15, 16. Ephes. iii. 17.
Gen. xvii. 1. xxiv. 40. v. 22. vi. 9. Heb. xi. 5. Then
must we perceive our nearness to God : the just apprehen-
sion of this nearness in Christ's incarnation and relation to
us, is the chief means to bring us to the nearness of love
and heavenly conversation ; Col. iii. 1. 3, 4.
Direct, 8. * Make Christ therefore the mediation of all
your practical thoughts of God.'
The thoughts of God will be strange to us through our
distance, and terrible through our guilt, if we look not up-
on him through the prospective of Christ's humanity and
cross. God out of Christ is a consuming fire to guilty
souls. As our acceptance must be through the beloved, in
whom he is well pleased ; so our thoughts must be encou-
raged with the sense of that acceptance ; and every thought
must be led up to God, and emboldened by the Mediator;
Matt. iii. 17. xvii. 5. vii. 18. Ephes. i. 6. Heb. ii. 9, 10.
12, 13. 17.
Direct, 9. * Never come to God in prayer, or any other
LIFE OF FAITH. 195
act of worship, but by the mediation of the Son ; and put
all your prayers as into his hand, that he may present them
to the Father.'
There is no hoping for any thing from God to sinners,
but by Christ : and therefore there is no speaking to God
but by him : not only in his name, but also by his media-
tion : and this is the exercise of his priesthood for us, by
his heavenly intercession, so much spoken of by the Holy
Ghost in the Epistle to the Hebrews : *' Seeing then that we
have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession : Let
us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need ;''
Heb. iv. 14. 16.
Direct. 10. 'Hear every word of Scripture precept; and
ministerial exhortation (consonant to the Scripture) as sent
to us by Christ, and from the Father by him, as the ap-
pointed Teacher of the church.'
Hear Christ in his Gospel and his ministers, and hear
God the Father in the Son. Take heed of giving only a
slight and verbal acknowledgment of the voice of Christ,
whilst you really are more taken with the preacher's voice,
as if he had a greater share in the sermon, than Christ hath.
The voice in the holy Mount, which Peter witnesseth that
he heard, was, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased, hear ye him ;" 2 Pet. i. 17. ** And it shall
come to pass, that every soul which will not hear that pro-
phet, shall be destroyed from among the people ;" Acts iii.
23. Matt. xvii. 5. ** When ye received the word of God
which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men,
but as it is in truth the word of God, which worketh effec-
tually in you that believe;" 1 Thes. ii. 13. "The sheep
will follow him, for they know his voice : a stranger they
will not follow ;" John x. 4, 5.
Direct, 11. * Take every mercy from God as from the
hand of Christ ; both as procured by his cross, and as de-
livered by his Mediatory administration.'
It is still supposed that the giving of the Son himself
by the Father to this office, is excepted as presupposed.
But all subsequent particular mercies, are both procured
for us, and given to us, by the Mediator. Yet is it never-
theless from God the Father, nor doth it ever the less, but
196 LIFE OP FAITH.
the more fully signify his love. But the state of sinners
alloweth them no other way of communication from God,
for their benefit and happiness, but by one who is more
near and capable to God, who from him may convey all
bkssings unto them. *' Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in things heavenly in Christ ;" Ephes. i. 3. " He
that spareth not his own Son, but gave him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ?
Rom. viii. 32. Through the knowledge of him, the Divine
power giveth us ** all things that pertain to life and godli-
ness ;" 2 Pet. i. 3. God hath given us eternaJ life, and this
life is in his Son; 1 John v. 10, 11. All things are deli-
vered into his hand ; John xiii. 3. xvii. 2. Therefore re-
ceive every partijcular mercy for soul and body, as from the
blood, and from the present Mediation of Christ, that you
may rightly understand it, and have it as sanctified and
sweetened by Christ.
Direct, 12. ' Let faith take occasion by every sin, to re-
new your sense of the want of Christ, and to bring you to
him, to mediate and grant you a renewed pardon.'
Therefore entertain not their mistake, who tell men that
all sin, past, present, and to come, is fully pardoned at once
(whether it be before you were born in God's decree, or
Christ's satisfaction, or at the time of your conversion) nor
their's who teach that Christ pardoneth only sins before
conversion, but as for all that are committed afterward, he
doth prevent the need of pardon, by preventing all guilt and
obligation to punishment (except mere temporal chastise-
ment.) The preparation which Christ hath made for our
pardon, is in itself sufficient, yea, and effectual as to that
end which he would have it attain before our believing :
but our actual pardon is no such end : nor can sin be for-
given before it be committed ; because it is no sin. Christ
never intended to justify or sanctify us perfectly at the first
(whatsoever many say to the contrary, because they under-
stand not what they say) but to carry on both proportiona-
bly and by degrees, that we may have daily use for his daily
mediation, and may daily pray, ** Forgive us our trespasses."
There is no guilt on them that are in Christ, so far as they
"walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ;" nor no pro-
per condemnation by sentence or execution at all ; because
LIFE OF FAITH. 197
their pardon is renewed by Christ, as they renew their sins
of infirmity : but not because he preventeth. their need of
any further pardon.
Therefore as God made advantage of the sins of the
world, for the honouring of his grace in Christ, that grace
might abound where sin abounded; Rom. v. 12. 16, 17.
So do you make advantage of your renewed sins, for a re-
newed use of faith in Christ ; and let it drive you to him
with renewed desires and expectations of pardon by his in-
tercession : that Satan may be a loser, and Christ may have
more honour by every sin that we commit. Not that we
should sin that grace may abound ; but that we may make
use of abounding grace when we have sinned. It is the
true nature and use of faith and repentance to draw good
out of sin itself, or to make the remembrance of it to be a
means of our hatred and mortification of it, and of our love
and gratitude to our Redeemer : not that sin itself doth
(formallj'^ or efficiently) ever do any good : but sin ob-
jectively is turned into good:. for so sin is no sin; because
to remember sin is not sin. When David saith, (Psal. li. 3.)
that ** his sin was ever before him," he meaneth not only in-
voluntarily to his grief, but voluntarily as a meditation use-
ful to his future duty, and to stir him up to all that which
afterwards he promiseth.
Direct. 13. 'In all the weaknesses and languishings of
the new creature, let faith look up to Christ for strength.'
For God hath put our life into his hand, and he is our
root, and hath promised that we shall live because he liveth ;
John xiv. 19. Do not think only of using Christ, as you
do a friend when you have need of him ; or as I do my pen,
to write, and lay it down when I have done : but as the
branches use the vine, and as the members use the head,
which they live by ; and from which when they are separated,
they die and wither ; John xv- 1, 2, 3, &c. Ephes. i. 22.
V. 27. 30. iv. 4, 5. 12. 15, 16. Christ must even *' dwell in
our hearts by faith," (Ephes. iii. 17.) that is, 1. Faith must
be the means of Christ's dwelling in us by his Spirit ; and
2. Faith must so habituate theheart to a dependance upon
Christ, and to an improvement of him, that objectively he
must dwell in our hearts, as our friend doth whom we most<«
dearly love; as that which we cannot choose but always
think on.
198 LIFE OF FAITH.
Remember therefore that we live in Christ, and that the
life which we now live is by the faith of the Son of God,
who hath loved us, and given himself for us ; Gal. ii. 20.
And his grace is sufficient for us, and his strength most
manifested in our weakness ; 2 Cor. xii. 9. And that when
Satan desireth to sift us, he prayeth for us that our faith
may not fail ; Luke xxii. 32. And that our life is " hid with
Christ in God," even with " Christ, who is our life ;" Col.
iii. 3, 4. That he is the Head, in whom all the members
live, by the communication of his appointed ligaments and
joints ; Ephes. iv. 14 — 16. Therefore when any grace is
weak, go to your Head for life and strength. If faith be
weak, pray, *' Lord increase our faith;" Luke xvii. 5. If
you are ignorant, pray to him to open your understandings ;
Luke xxiv. 45. If your hearts grow cold, go to him by
faith, till he shed abroad the love of God upon your hearts ;
Rom. V. 3, 4. For of his fullness it is that we must receive
grace for grace; John i. 16.
Direct. 14. ' Let the chief and most diligent work of
your faith in Christ be, to inflame your hearts wath love to
God, as his goodness and love is revealed to us in Christ.'
Faith kindling love, and working by it, is the whole sum
of Christianity ; of which before.
Direct. 15. * Let faith keep the example of Christ con-
tinually before your eyes ; especially in those parts of it,
which he intended for the contradicting and healing of our
greatest sins.'
Above all others, these things seem purposely and
specially chosen in the life of Christ, for the condemning
and curing of our sins ; and therefore are principally to be
. observed by faith.
1. His wonderful love to God, to his elect, and to his
enemies : expressed in so strange an undertaking, and in
his sufferings, and in his abundant grace, which must teach
us, what fervours of love to God and man, to friends and
enemies must dwell and have dominion in us ; 1 John iv.
10. Rev. i. 5. Rom. v. 8. 10. John xiii. 34, 35. xv. 13.
J John iii. 14. 23. 17. iv. 7, 8. 20, 21.
2. His full obedience to his Father's will, upon the
^ dearest' rates or terms : to teach us that no labour or cost
should seem too great to us in our obeying the will of God ;
nor any thing seem to us of so much value, as to be a price
LIFE OF FAITH. 199
great enough to hire us to commit any wilful sin ; Rom. v.
19. Heb. V. 8. Phil. ii. 8. I Sam. xv. 22. 2 Cor. x. 5, 6.
Heb. V. 9. John xiv. 15. xv. 10. 1 John ii. 3. iii. 22.
V. 2, 3. Rev. xxii. 14.
3. His wonderful contempt of all the riches, and great-
ness of the world, and all the pleasures of the flesh, and all
the honour which is of man ; which he shewed in his taking
the form of a servant, and making himself of no reputation,
and living a mean inferior life : He came not to be served
(or ministered to) but to serve : not to live in state with
abundance of attendants ; with provisions for every turn and
use, which pride, curiosity, or carnal imagination, taketh
for a conveniency, or a decency, no nor a necessity : but he
came to be as a servant unto others ; not as despising his
liberty, but as exercising his voluntary humility and love :
he that was Lord of all, for our sakes became poor, to make
us rich : he lived in lowliness and meekness : he submitted
to the greatest scorn of sinners ; and even to the false ac-
cusations and imputations of most odious sin in itself,
(Phil. ii. 6—9. Heb. xii. 1—3. Matt. xxvi. 55. 60, 61. 63.
66, xxvii. 28—31. Matt. xi. 29, 30. xx. 28. 2 Cor. viii.
9.) which was to teach us to see the vanity of the wealth
and honours of the world, and to despise the idol of the un-
godly, and to lay that under our feet, which is nearest to
their hearts; and to be able without impatiency to be
scorned, spit upon, buffeted and abused ; to be poor and of
no reputation among men ; and though not to enslave our-
selves to any (but if we can be free to use it rather ; 1 Cor.
vii. 21.) yet to be the loving and voluntary servants of as
many as we can to do them good; and not to desire to
have a great retinue, and to be such voluntary burdens to
the world, as to be served by many, while we serve none ;
as if we (who are taught by Christ and nature, that it is
more honourable to give than to receive, and to be helpful
unto many,, than to need the help of many) would declare
our impotency to be so great, that when every poor man
can serve himself and others, we are (and had rather be) so
indigent, as not to live and help ourselves, without the
help of many servants ; yea, scarce to undress and dress
ourselves, or to do any thing which another can do for us.
Only such persons are willing to eat, and drink, and sleep
for themselves, and to play, and laugh, and to sin for them-
•200 LIFE OF FAITH.
selves ; but as to any thing that is good and useful, without
their present sensitive delight, they are not only unservice-
able to the world, but would live like the lame or dead, that
must be moved and carried about by others. Among
Christ's servants, he that is the chief, must be the chief in
service, even as a servant unto all ; Luke xxii. 26. Matt,
xxiii. 11. And all "by love must serve one another;"
Gal. V. 13.
4. His submission unto death, and conquest of the na-
tural love of life, for a greater good, even the pleasing of
God, and the crown of glory, and the good of many in their
salvation : to teach us that not only the pleasures of life,
but life itself must be willingly laid down, when any of
these three ends require it ; Matt. xx. 28. John x. 11. xv.
13. IJohniii. 16. John x. 17. Acts xx. 24. Matt. x. 39.
xvi. 25. Mark xiv. 26. Phi), ii. 30. 1 John iii. 16. Rev.
xii. 11.
Direct. 16. * Let faith behold Christ in his relation to
his universal church, and not unto yourselves alone.'
1. Because else you overlook his most honourable rela-
tion : it is more his glory to be the church's Head and Sa-
viour, than yours ; Ephes. v. 23. i. 21, 22. And 2. You
else overlook his chief design and work ; which is for the
perfecting and saving of his body ; Ephes. i. 23. Col. i.
24. 18. And 3. Else you overlook the chief part of your
own duty, and of your conformity to Christ, which is in
loving and edifying the body ; Ephes. iv. 12. 16. Whereas
if you see Christ as the undivided and impartial Head of all
saints, you will see also all saints as dear to him, and as
united in him : and you will have communion by faith with
them in him ; and you will love them all, and pray for all,
and desire a part in the prayers of all (instead of carping at
tlieir different indifferent manner, and forms, and words of
prayer, and running away from them, to shew that you dis-
own them.) And you will have a tender care of the unity,
and honour, and prosperity of the church, and regard the
welfare of particular brethren as your own, (1 Cor. 12.
throughout, John xiii. 14. 34. xv. 12. 17. Rom. xiii. 8.)
stooping to the lowest service to one another, if it were the
washing of the feet ; and in honour preferring one another ;
Rom. xii. 10. Not judging nor despising, nor persecuting,
but receiving and forbearing one another; Rom* xiv.
LIFE OF FAITH. 201
throughout, xv. 1—4. 7, 8. Gal. v. 13. vi. 1—3. Ephes.
iv. 2. 32. Col. iii. 13. Edifying, exhorting, and seeking
the saving of one another; 1 Thes. v. 11. iv. 9. 18. Heb.
iii. 13. X. 24. Not speaking evil one of another ; James
iv. 11. Much less biting and devouring one another ; Gal.
v. 15. But " having compassion one of another," as those
that are " members one of another ;" 1 Pet. iii. 8. Rom.
xii. 5.
Direct, 17. * Make all your opposition to the temptations
of Satan, the world and the flesh, by the exercise of faith
in Christ.'
From him you must liave your weapons, skill and
strength. It is the great work of faith, to militate under
him, as the Captain of our salvation ; and by virtue of his
precepts, example and Spirit to overcome as he hath over-
come. Of which more anon.
Direct. 18. 'Death also must be entertained and con-
quered by faith in Christ.'
We must see it as already conquered by him, and entertain
it as the passage to him : this also will be after spoken to.
Direct, 19. * Faith must believe in Christ as our judge,
to give us our final justification, and sentence us to endless
life ;' Rom. xiv. 9, 10. John v. 22. 24, 25.
Direct. 20. Lastly, ' Faith must see Christ as preparing
us a place in heaven, and possessing it for us, and ready to
receive us to himself.' But all this I only name, because it
will fall in the last chapters.
CHAPTER III.
Directions to live hy Faith on the Holy Ghost.
This is not the least part of the life of faith. If the Spirit
give us faith itself, then faith hath certainly its proper work
to do towards that Spirit which giveth it : and if the Spirit
be the worker of all other grace, and faith be the means on
our part, then faith hath somewhat to do with the Holy
Ghost herein. The best way that I can take in helping you
to believe aright in the Holy Ghost, will be by opening the
true sense of this great article of our faith to you, that by
202 LIFE OF FAITH.
understanding the matter aright, you may know what you
are here both to do, and to expect.
Direct. 1. * The name of the Holy Ghost, or Spirit of
God, is used in Scripture for the third person in the Trinity
as constitutive, and as the third perfective principle of ope-
ration ; and most usually as operating ' ad extra,' by com-
munication.* And therefore many fathers, and ancient di-
vines and schoolmen say, * That the Holy Ghost the third
person and principle is the love of God ; which, as it is
God's love of himself, is a constitutive person or principle in
the Trinity ; but as it is pregnant and productive, it is the
third principle of operation ' ad extra ;' and so that it is
taken usually for the pregnant, operative love of God.'
And thus they suppose that the Divine power, intellect
and will (or wisdom and love) are the three constitutive
persons in themselves, and the three principles of operation
* ad extra.' To this purpose writeth Origeu, Ambrose, and
Richardus the schoolman ; but more plain and full Dama-
scene and Bernard, and Edmundus Cantuariensis, and
Potho Prumensis cited by me in my '* Reasons of the
Christian Religion." Augustine only putteth memory
for power, by which Campanella think eth he meant power,
(Metaphys. par. 2. 1. 6. c. 12. art. 4. pag. 88.) what Csesa-
rius and many others say, * de triplici lumine,' I pass
by : the * Lux Radii et Lumen,' are thought a fit similitude
by many : but the motion, light and heat, is a plain impres-
sion of the Trinity on that noble element of fire. The holy
man, Ephrsem Syrus, in his Testament, useth the phrase (in
his adjuration of his Disciples, and the protestation of his
own steadfastness in the doctrine of the Trinity against all
heresies) * by that three named fire of the most Holy Trini-
ty, (or 'Divine Majesty,' as another copy hath it) and by
that infinite and sole, one power of God; and by those
three subsistences of the intelligible (or intellectual) fire.'
And as it is a most great and certain truth, that this Sacred
Trinity of Divine principles, have made their impress com-
municatively upon the frame of nature, and most evidently
on the noblest parts, which are in excellency nearest
their Creator ; so it is evident that in the creatures, love is
the pregnant communicative principle : so is natural love in
generation and friendly love in benefiting others ; and spi-
LIFE OF FAITH. 203
ritual love, in propagating knowledge and grace, for the
winning of souls.
What I said of the Scripture use of the word is found in
1 John V. 5—8. Heb. ix. 14. 1 Cor. xii. 2—4. Rom. i. 4.
John i. 32, 33. iii. 5. 34. vi.63. Gen. i.2. Jobxxxiii.4.
2Cor. iii. 17, 18. Luke iv. 18. Micah iii. 8. Isa. xi. 2.
Ixi. 1.
Direct. 2. * The most excellent measure of the Spirit
given by Christ after his ascension to the Gospel church, is
to be distinguished from that which was before communi-
cated ; and this Spirit of Christ is it which our Christian
faith hath special respect to.'
Without the Spirit of God, as the perfective principle,
nature would not have been nature ; Gen. i. 2. All things
would not have been good, and very good, but by the com-
munication of goodness : and without somewhat of that
Spirit, there would be no moral goodness in any of man-
kind : and without some special operations of that Spirit,
the godly before Christ's coming in the flesh, would not
have been godly, nor in any present capacity of glory :
therefore there was some gift of the Spirit before.
But yet there was an eminent gift of the Spirit proper
to the Gospel times, which the former ages did not know ;
which is so much above the former gift, that it is sufficient
to prove the verity of Christ.
For 1. There was use for the special attestation of the
Father by way of power, by miracles, and his resurrection
to own his Son. 2. The wisdom and word of God incarnate,
must needs bring a special measure of wisdom to his disci-
ples ; and therefore give a greater measure of the Spirit for
illumination. 3. The design of redemption being the reve-
lation of the love of God, and the recovery of our love to
him, there must needs be a special measure of the Spirit of
love shed abroad upon our hearts. And in all these three
respects, the Spirit was accordingly communicated.
Quest, * Was it not the Spirit of Christ which was in the
prophets, and in all the godly before Christ's coming V
Afisw. The Spirit of Christ is either that measure of the
Spirit which was given after the first covenant of grace, as
it differeth from the state of man in innocency, and from the
state of man in his apostacy and condemnation : and thus
it was the Spirit of Christ which was then given, so far as
204 LIFE OF FAITH.
it was the covenant and grace of Christ. By which men
were then saved. But there was a fuller covenant to be
made after his coming, and a fuller measure of grace to be
given, and a full attestation of God for the establishment
and promulgation of this covenant : and accordingly a
fuller and special gift of the Spirit. And this is called The
Spirit of Christ, in the peculiar Gospel sense.
Quest, * How is it said, John vii. 37., that the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because Christ was not yet glori-
fied ?'
Answ» It is meant of the special measure of the Spirit,
which was to be Christ's special Witness and Agent in the
world. They had before that measure of true grace which
was necessary to the salvation of believers, before the in-
carnation and resurrection of Christ, (which was the Spirit
of Christ, as the light before sun-rising is the light of the
sun ;) and if they died in that case, they would have been
saved : but they had not the signal Spirit of the Gospel,
settled and resident with them, but only some little taste
of it for casting out devils, and for cures at that time when
Christ sent them by a special mission to preach, and gave
them a sudden special gift; Luke ix. 1. x. 17.
Quest. ' How is it said of those baptized believers, (Acts
xix.) that they had not Jieardthat there was a Holy Ghost?'
Answ, It is meant of this eminent Gospel gift of the
Holy Ghost, as he is the great Witness and Agent of Christ ;
and not of all the graces of the Holy Ghost.
Quest, * Was it before necessary to have an explicit be-
lief in the Holy Ghost as the third person in the blessed
Trinity, and as the third principle of the Divine operations,
and were the faithful then in covenant with him V
Answ. Distinguish between the person and the name :
no name is necessary to salvation ; else none could be saved
but men of one language : to believe in the Holy Ghost un-
der that name, was not necessary to salvation (nor yet is) ;
for he that speaketh and heareth of him in Greek, or Latin,
or Sclavonian, &c. may be saved, though he never learnt
the English tongue : but to believe in the energetical, or
operative, or communicative love of God, was always neces-
sary to salvation, considered in the thing, and not only in
the name : as it was to believe in his power and his wis-
dom : and to believe which is the first, and which the
LIFE OF FAITH. 205
second, and which the third, is not yet of absolute neces-
sity to salvation ; while they are co-equal and co-essential ;
and it was necessary to the Jews to believe, that this love of
God did operate, and was communicated to the faithful ;
not upon the terms of innocency, according to the first co-
venant ; but to sinners that deserved death, and upon terms
of mercy, through the covenant of grace, which was made
with lapsed man in order to his recovery, through a Re-
deemer.
Direct, 3. ' All that is efficiently necessary to our salva-
tion, in or of God, is not objectively necessary to be known.
And such a measure of the knowledge of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost is necessary to save us, as is necessary ob-
jectively to sanctify us under the efficiency of the said Spi-
rit : And all the rest is not of such necessity. And there-
fore as under the Gospel, the Spirit is Christ's great Wit-
ness, as well as Agent in the world, it is more necessary
now to believe distinctly in the Holy Ghost in that relation,
than it was before Christ's coming in the flesh.'
There is a great deal of the Divine perfection, which
causeth our salvation, unknown to us: as the sun will shine
upon us, and the wind will blow, and the rain will fall, and
the earth will bear fruits, whether we know it or not ; so
our knowledge of it is not at all necessary to any Divine
efficiency as such : the Spirit by which we are regenerate,
is like the wind that bloweth, whose sound we hear, but
know not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth (no nor
what it is) ; John iii. 6 — 9. But all those things which are
necessary to work objectively and morally on the soul, do
work * in esse cognito ;' and the knowledge of them is as
necessary as the operation is. It was of absolute necessity
to the salvation of all, before Christ's coming, and among
the Gentiles as well as the Jews, that the Spirit should
sanctify them to God, by possessing them with a predomi-
nant love of him in his goodness ; and that this Spirit pro-
ceed from the Son or wisdom of God : but it was not so
necessary to them as it is now to us, to have a distinct
knowledge of the personality and operations of the Spirit
and of the Son. And though now it is certain that Christ
is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh to the
Father, but by the Son (John xiv. 6.) ; yet Ahat knowledge
of him which is necessary to them that hear the Gospel, is
206 LIFE OF FAITH.
not at all necessary to them that never hear it ; though the
same efficiency on his part be necessary : and so it is about
the knowledge of the Holy Ghost, without which Christ
cannot be sufficiently now known and rightly believed in.
Direct. 4. ' The presence or operation of the Spirit of
God is causally the spiritual life of man, in his holiness :
as there is no natural being but by influence from his being ;
so no life but by the communication from his life, and no
light but from his light, and no love or goodness, but from
this Spirit of love.'
It is therefore a vain conceit of them, that think man in
innocency had not the Spirit of God : they that say, his
natural rectitude was instead of the Spirit, do but say, and
unsay : for his natural rectitude was the effect of the influx
or communication of God's Spirit : and he could have no
moral rectitude without it ; as there can be no effect with-
out the chief cause : the nature of love and holiness cannot
subsist, but in dependance on the love and holiness of
God : and those Papists who talk of man's state first in
pure naturals, and an after donation of the Spirit, must
mean by pure naturals, man in his mere essentials, not
really, but notionally by abstraction distinguished, from the
same man at the same instant as a saint ; or else they
speak unsoundly : for God made man in moral dispositive
goodness at the first; and the same love or Spirit, which
did first make him so, was necessary after to continue him
so. It was never his nature to be a prime good, or to be
good independently without the influence of the prime
good ; Isa. xliv. 3. Ezek. xxxvi. 27. Job xxvi. 13. Psal.li.
10. 12. cxliii. 10. Prov. xx. 27. Mai. ii. 15. John iii.
5, 6. vi. 63. vii. 39. Rom. viii. 1. 5, 6. 9. 13. 16. 1 Cor.
vi. 11. ii.ll, 12. vi. 17. xii. 11. 13. xv. 45. 2 Cor. iii.
3.17. Ephes. ii. 18. 22. iii. 16. v. 9. Col. i. 8. Jude 19.
Direct. 5. 'The Spirit of God, and the holiness of the
soul may be lost, without the destruction of our essence, or
species of human nature ; and may be restored without
making us specificilly other things.'
That influence of the Spirit which giveth us the faculty^
of a rational appetite or will, inclined to good as good, can-
not cease, but our humanity or being would cease : but
that influence of the Spirit, which causeth our adherence to
God by love may cease, without the cessation of our be-
LIFE OF FAITH. '207
ings ; as our health may be lost, while our life continueth ;
Psal. li. 10. 1 Thess. v. 19.
Direct, 6. * The greatest mercy in this world, is the gift
of the Spirit, and the greatest misery is to be deprived of
the Spirit; and both these are done to man by God, as a
Governor, by way of reward and punishment oftimes :
therefore the greatest reward to be observed in this world, is
the increase of the Spirit upon us, and the greatest punish-
ment in this world is the denying or withholding of the
Spirit.'
It is therefore a great part of a Christian's wisdom and
work, to observe the accesses and assistances of the Spirit,
and its withdrawings ; and to take more notice to God in
his thankfulness of the gift of the Spirit, than of all other
benefits in this world : and to lament more the retiring or
withholding of God's Spirit, than all the calamities in the
world ; and to fear this more as a punishment of his sin ;
lest God should say as Psal. Ixxxi. 11, 12. " But my people
would not hearken to my voice, Israel would none of me: so I
gave them up to their own hearts' lust, to walk in their own
counsels." And we must obey God through the motive of this
promise and reward, " Turn you at my reproof; behold, I will
pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words
unto you ;" Prov. i. 23. " But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive ;" John vii.
39. Luke xi. 13. God will give his Holy Spirit to them
that ask it. And we have great cause when we have sinned,
to pray with David, ** Cast me not away from thy presence ;
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Create in me a
clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation ; and uphold me
with thy free Spirit;" Psal. li. 10—12. And as the sin to
be feared is the grieving of the Holy Spirit, (Ephes. iv. 30.)
so the judgment to be feared, is accordingly the withdraw-
ing of it. '* But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit ;
therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought
against them. Then he remembered the days of old, Moses,
and his people, saying. Where is he that brought them up —
Where is he that put his holy Spirit within them?" Isa. Ixiii.
10, 11. The great thing to be dreaded, is, lest '* those who
were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost — should fall
208 LIFE OF FAITH.
away, and be no more renewed by repentance, " Heb.
vi. 4. 6.
Direct. 7. * Therefore executive pardon or justification
cannot possibly be any more perfect than sanctification is : be-
cause no sin is further forgiven, or the person justified exe-
cutively, than the punishment is taken off; and the privation
of the Spirit, being the great punishment, the giving of it,
is the great executive remission in this life.'
But of this more in the chapter of justification following.
Direct. 8. * The three great operations in man, which
each of the three persons in the Trinity eminently perform,
are * Natura, medicina, salus ;' the first by the Creator, the
second by the Redeemer, the third by the Sanctitier.'
Commonly it is called Nature, Grace and Glory : b^it
either the terms * Grace and Glory' must be plainer ex-
pounded, or that distribution is not sound : If by * Grace*
be meant all the extrinsic medicinal preparations made by
Christ ; and if by * Glory' be meant only the holiness of the
soul, the sense is good : but in common use those words
are otherwise understood. Sanctification is usually ascribed
to the Holy Ghost : but glorification in heaven, is the per-
fective effect of all the three persons in our state of perfect
union with God ; Rom. xv. 16. Titus iii. 5, 6. But yet in
the work of sanctification itself, the Trinity undividedly
concur : and so in the sanctifying and raising the church,
the apostle distinctly calleth the act of the Father, by the
name of operation ; and the work of the Son by the name
of administration, and the part of the Holy Ghost by the
name of gifts ; 1 Cor. xii. 4 — 6. And in respect to these
sanctifying operations of God, ' ad extra,' the same apostle
distributeth them thus : ** The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the
Holy Ghost, be with you all ;" 2 Cor. xiii. 14. Where by
God, seemeth to be meant all the persons in the Trinity in
their perfection ; but especially the Father, as the fountain
of love, and as expressing love by the Son and the Spirit;
and by the grace of Christ, is meant all that gracious provi-
sion he hath made for man's salvation, and the relative ap-
plication of it, by his intercession, together with his mission
of the Holy Spirit. And by the communion of the Spirit
is meant that actual communication of life, light and love
to the soul itself, which is eminently ascribed to the Spirit
LIFK OF FAITH. 209
Direct. 9. * The Spirit itself is given to true believers,
and not only grace from the Spirit.'
Not that the essence of God, or the person of the Holy
Ghost, is capable of being contained in any place, or re-
moving to or from a place, by local motion: But 1. The
Holy Ghost is given to us relatively, as our covenanting
Sanctifier in the baptismal covenant : we have a covenant-
right to him, that is, to his operation. 2. And the Spirit
itself is present as the immediate Operator : not so imme-
diate as to be without means, but so immediately as to be
no distant agent, but by proximate attingency, not only
' ratione virtutis,' but also * ratione suppositi,' performeth
his operations : if you say, so he is present every where ; I
answer, but he is not a present operator every where alike.
We are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost, both because
he buildeth us up, for so holy a use, and because he also
dwelleth in us ; 1 Cor. vi. 19.
Direct. 10. * By the sanctification commonly ascribed to
the Holy Ghost, is meant that re(iovery of the soul to God,
from whom it is fallen, which consisteth in our primitive
holiness, or devotedness to God, but summarily in the love
of God, as God.'
Direct. 11. * And faith in Christ is often placed as before
it, not as if the Spirit were no cause of faith, nor as if faith
were no part of our saving special grace ; nor as if any had
saving faith before they had love to God ; but because as
Christ is^the Mediator and way to the Father; so faith in
him is but a mediate grace to bring us up to the love of
God, which is the final perfective grace : and because,
though they are inseparably complicate, yet some acts of
faith go before our special love to God in order of nature,
though some others follow after it, or go with it.'
It is a question that seemeth very difficult to many,
whether love to God, or faith in Christ must go first (whe-
ther in time or order of nature.) For if we say that faith
in Christ must go first, then it seemeth that we take not
faith or Christ as a means to bring us to God as our end ;
for our end is ! Deus amatus,' God as beloved; and to
make God our end, and to love him, are inseparable. We
first love the good which appeareth to us, and then we
choose and use the means to attain it ; and in so doing we
VOL. xii. p
•210 LIFE OF FAITH.
make that our end, which we did love ; so that it is the first
loved for itself, and then made our end. Now if Christ be
not used as a means to God, as our ultimate end, then he is
not believed in, or used as Christ, and therefore it is no true
faith : and that which hath not the true end, is not the true
act or grace in question, nor can that be any special grace
at all, which hath not God for his ultimate end : on both
which accounts, it can be no true faith : the * intentio finis,'
being before the choice or use of means, though the assecu-
tion be after.
And yet on the other side, if God be loved as our end,
before we believe in Christ as the means, then we are sancti-
fied before we believe. And then faith in Christ is not the
means of our first special love to God. And the conse-
quents on both parts are intolerable ; and how are they to
be avoided ?
Consider here, 1. You must distinguish betwixt the as-
senting or knowing act of faith, and the consenting or
choosing act of it in the will. 2. And between Christ as he
is a means of God's choosing and using, and as he is a
means of our choosing and using. And so I answer the
case in these propositions.
1. The knowledge of a Deity is supposed before the
knowledge of Christ as a Mediator; for no man can believe
that he is a teacher sent from God, nor a Mediator between
us and God, nor a sacrifice to appease God's wrath, who
doth not believe first that there is a God.
2. In this belief or knowledge of God, is contained the
knowledge of his essential power, wisdom and goodness,
and that he is our Creator and Governor, and that we have
broken his laws, and that we are obnoxious to his justice,
and deserve punishment for our sins. All this is to be
known before we believe in Christ as the Mediator.
3. Yet where Christianity is the religion of the country,
, it is Christ himself by his word and ministers, who teacheth
us these things concerning God ; but it is not Christ as a
means chosen or used by us, to bring us to the love of God ;
(for no man can choose or use a means for an end not yet
known or intended :) but it is Christ as a means chosen and
used by God, to bring home sinners to himself: (even as
his dying for us on the cross was.)
LIFE OF FAITH. 211
4. The soul that knoweth all this concerning God, can-
not yet love him savingly, both because he wanteth the
Spirit to effect it, and because a holy sin-hating God, en-
gaged in justice to damn the sinner, is not such an object,
as a guilty soul can love: but it must be a loving and re-
conciled God that is willing to forgive.
5. When Christ by his word and ministers hath taught
a sinner both what God is in himself, and what he is to us,
and what we have des,erved, and what our case is ; and then
hath taught him, what he himself is as to his person and
his office, and what he hath done to reconcile us to God,
and how far God is reconciled hereupon, and what a com-
mon conditional pardoning covenant, he hath made and of-
fereth to all, and what he will be and do to those that do
come in, the belief of all this seriously (by the assenting
act of the understanding) is the first part of saving faith,
going in nature before both the love of God, and the con-
senting act of the will to the Redeemer. (And yet perhaps
the same acts of faith in an ineffectual superficial measure,
may go along before this in many.)
6. In this assent our belief in God, and in the Mediator,
are conjunct in time and nature ; they being relatives here
as the objects of our faith. It is not possible to believe in
Christ as the Mediator, who hath propitiated God to us, be-
fore we believe that God is propitiated by the Mediator ;
nor * vice versa :' indeed there is a difference in order of
dignity and desirableness ; God as propitiated being repre-
sented to us as the end, and the Propitiator, but as the
means : but as to the order of our apprehension or believ-
ing, there can be no difference at all, no more than in the
order of knowing the father, and the son, the husband
and wife, the king and subjects : these relatives are ' simul
natura et tempore.'
7. This assenting act of faith, by which at once we be-
lieve Christ to be the Propitiator, and God to be propitiated
by him, is not the belief that my sins are actually pardoned,
and my soul actually reconciled and justified; but it in-
cludeth the belief of the history of Christ's satisfaction, and
of the common conditional covenant of promise and offer
from God, viz. that God is so far reconciled by the Media-
tor, as that he will forgive, and justify, and glorify all that
repent and believe, that is, that return to God by faith in
^12 LIFE OF FAITH.
Christ ; and offerelh his mercy to all, and entreateth them
to accept it, and will condemn none of them but those that
finally reject it. '* All things are of God, who hath recon-
ciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation ; to wit, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their tres-
passes to them ; and hath committed to us the word of re-
conciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God did beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled unto God ;" 2 Cor. v. 18 — 20. So
that it is at once the belief of the Father as reconciled, and
the Son as the Reconciler, and that according to the tenor
of the common conditional covenant, whichis the first as-
senting part of saving faith.
8. This same covenant which revealeth God as thus far
reconciled by Christ, doth offer him to be further actually
and fully reconciled, and to justify and glorify us, that is,
to forgive, accept, and love us perfectly for ever. And it
offereth us Christ to be our actual Head and Mediator, to
procure and give us all this mercy, by communicating the
benefits which he hath purchased according to covenant-
terms : so that as before the Father and the Son were re-
vealed to our assent together ; so here they are offered to
the will together.
9. In this offer, God is offered as the end, and Christ as
Mediator is offered as the means ; therefore the act of the
will to God, which is here required, is simple love of com-
placency (with subjection, which is a consent to obey), but
the act of the will to Christ, is called choice or consent,
though there be in it ' amor medii,' the love of that means
for its aptitude as to the end.
10. This love of God as the end and consent to Christ
as the means, being not acts of the intellect, but of the will,
cannot be the first acts of faith, but do presuppose the first
assenting acts.
11. But the assenting act of faith, doth cause these acts
of the will to God and the Mediator. Because we believe
the truth and goodness, we consent and love.
12. Both these acts of the will are caused by assent at
one time, without the least distance.
• 13. But here is a difference in order of nature, because
we will God as the end, and for himself, and therefore first
LIFE OF FAITH. 213
in the natural order of intention ; and we will Christ as the
means for that end, and therefore but secondarily. Though
in the intellects, apprehension and assent, there be no such
difference ; because in the truth, which is the understand-
ing's object, there is no difference, but only in the goodness
which is the wilFs object : and as goodness itself is appre-
hended by the understanding, * ut vere bonum,' there is
only an objective difference of dignity.
14. Therefore as the Gospel revelation cometh to us in
a way of offer, promise and covenant, so our faith must act
in a way of acceptance and covenanting with God and the
Redeemer and Sanctifier. And the sacrament of baptism
is the solemnizing of this covenant on both parts. And till
our hearts do consent to the baptismal covenant of grace,
we are not believers in a saving sense.
15. There is no distance of time between the assent of
faith, and the first true degree of love and consent ; (though
an unsound assent may go long before ; yet sound assent
doth immediately produce love and consent;) and though a
clear and full resolved degree of consent may be some time
afterward : and therefore the soul may not at the first de-
gree so well understand itself, as to be ready for an open
covenanting.
16. This being the true order of the work of faith and
love, the case now lieth plain before those that can observe
things distinctly, and take not up with confused know-
ledge (and no other are fit to meddle with such cases);
viz. that the knowing or assenting acts of faith in God as
reconciled (so far) and in Christ as the Reconciler, so far as
to give out the offer or covenant of grace, are both at once,
and both go before the acts of the will, as the cause before
the immediate effect ; and that this assent first in order of
nature (but at once in time) causeth the will to love God as
our end, and to consent to, and choose Christ in heart
covenant as the means, and so in our covenant we give up
ourselves to both : and that this repentance and love to
God, which are both one work called conversion, or turning
from the creature to God, the one as denominated from the
• terminus a quo,' (viz. repentance) the other from the * ter-
minus ad quem,' (viz. love) are twisted at once with true
saving faith. And that Christ as the means used by God is
our first Teacher, and bringeth us to assent : and then that
214 LIFE OF FAITH.
assent bringeth us to take God for our end, and Christ for
the means of our actual justification and glory; so that
Christ is not by faith chosen and used by us under the no-
tion of a Mediator or means to our first act of love and con-
sent ; but is a means to that of the Father's choosing only ;
but is in that first consent chosen by us for the standing
means of our justification and glory, and of all our following
exercise and increase of love to God, and our sanctification ;
so that it is only the assenting act of faith, and not the elect-
ing act, which is the efficient cause of our very first act of
love to God, and of our first degree of sanctification ; and
thus it is that faith is called the seed and mother grace : but
it is not that saving faith which is our Christianity, and the
condition of justification and of glory, till it come up to a
covenant-consent of heart, and take in the aforesaid acts of
repentance and love to God as our God and ultimate end.
The observations of many written mistakes about the
order of the work of grace, and the ill and contentious con-
sequents that have followed them, hath made me think that
this true and accurate decision of this case is not unuseful
or unnecessary.
Direct. 12. * The Holy Ghost so far concurred with the
eternal word, in our redemption, that he was the perfecting
Operator, in the conception, the holiness, the miracles, the
resurrection of Jesus Christ/
Of his conception it is said, ** For that which is con-
ceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost;" Matt. i. 20. And
ver. 18. " She was found with child of the Holy Ghost. '^
And of his holy perfection, as it is said, that ** he increased
in wisdom and stature, and favour with God and men ;''
Luke ii. 52. (meaning those positive perfections of his hu-
man nature which were to grow up with nature itself, and
not the supply of any culpable or privative defects) so when
he was baptized, the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily
shape like a dove upon him ; Luke iii. 22. And Luke iv. 1.
it is said, ** Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost," &c. " And
the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him ; the Spirit of
wisdom and understanding ; the Spirit of counsel and might;
the Spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord, and shall
make him quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord/'
&c. ; Isa. xi. 2. " For God giveth not the Spirit by mea-
sure unto him ;" John iii. 34. *• After that he through the
LIFE OF FAITH. 215
Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles
whom he had chosen ;" Acts i. 2. " And was declared to
be the Son of God, with power, according to the Spirit of
Holiness, (that is, the Holy Spirit) by the resurrection from
the dead ;" Rom. i. 4. *' If I cast out devils by the Spirit
of God," &c. ; Matt. xii. 28. " The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me ; because he hath anointed me to preach the Gos-
pel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal," &c. ; Luke iv. 18.
Isa. Ixi. 1.
In all this you see how great the work of the Holy Spirit
was upon Christ himself, to fit his human nature for the
yvork of our redemption, and actuate him in it ; though it
was the word only which was made flesh, and dwelt among
us ; John i. 3.
Direct. 13. * Christ was thus filled with the Spirit, to be
the Head or quickening Spirit to his body : and accordingly
to fit each member for its peculiar office : and therefore the
Spirit now given is called the Spirit of Christ, as communi-
cated by him.'
** If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is
none of his ;" Rom. viii. 9. " This spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive ;" (John vii.
39.) viz. it is the water of life, which Christ will give them.
" The last Adam was made a quickening Spirit ;" 1 Cor. xv. 45.
" God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father ;" Gal. iv. 6. " Through your prayer,
and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ ;" Phil. i. 19.
See also Ephes. i. 22, 23. iii. 17—19. ii. 18. 22. iv. 3.
12. 16. 1 Cor. xii. &c.
Direct. 14. * The greatest extraordinary measure of the
Spirit, was given by him to his apostles, and the primitive
Christians, to be the seal of his own truth and power, and
to fit them to found the first churches, and to convince un-
believers, and to deliver his will on record in the Scriptures,
infallibly to the church for future times.'
It would be tedious to cite the proofs of this, they are
so numerous ; take but a few : " Teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you ;" Matt, xxviii.
20. (that is the commission.) " And these signs shall fol-
low them that believe," &c. ; Mark xvi. 17. " Receive ye
the Holy Ghost," &c. ; John xx. 22. '* But the Comforter,
2J6 LIFE OF FAITH.
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he
will teach you all things, and bring all things to your re-
membrance, whatsoever I have said unto you j "John xiv.26.
** When the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into
all truth," &c. ; John xvi. 13. " God also bearing them
witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers mira-
cles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own
will ;" Heb. ii. 4. ,
Direct. 15. * And as such gifts of the Spirit were given
to the apostles as their office required ; so those sanctifying
graces, or that spiritual life, light and love, are given by it
to all true Christians, which their calling and salvation doth
require.'
'* Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. That which is
born of the flesh, is flesh ; and that which is born of the
Spirit, is Spirit;" John iii. 5, 6. "Without holiness none
shall see God ;" Heb. xii. 14. " They that are in the flesh
cannot please God : but ye are not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his ;"
Rom.viii.8 — 10.14. See also ver. 1. 3 — 7, &c. *' He saved
us by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the
Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through
Jesus Christ our Saviour ; that being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs, according to the hope of eternal
life ;" Titus iii. 5 — 7. But the testimonies of this truth are
more numerous than 1 may recite.
Direct. 16. ' By all this it appeareth that the Holy Ghost
is both Christ's great witness objectively in the world, by
which it is that he is owned of God, and proved to be true ;
and also his Advocate or great Agent in the church, both to
indite the Scriptures, and to sanctify souls.'
So that no man can be a Christian indeed, without these
three: 1. The objective witness of the Spirit to the truth of
Christ. 2. The Gospel taught by the Spirit in the apostles.
3. And the quickening, illuminating and sanctifying work
of the Spirit upon their souls.
Direct. 17. * It is therefore in these respects that^we are
baptized into the name of the Holy Ghost, as well as^'of the
Father and the Son, it being his work to make us thus both
LIFE OF FAITH. 217
believers and saints ; and his perfective work of our real
sanctification, being as necessary to us as our redemption or
creation ;' Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. Heb. vi. 1, 2. 4—6.
Direct. 18. * Therefore as every Christian must look
upon himself, as being in special covenant with the Holy
Ghost, so he must understand distinctly what are the be-
nefits, and what are the conditions, and what are the duties
of that part of his covenant.'
The special benefits are the life, light and love before
mentioned, by the quickening illumination and sanctifica-
tion of the Spirit ; not as in the first act or seed ; for so they
are presupposed in that faith and repentance which is the
condition : but as in the following acts and habits, and in-
crease of both unto perfection : " Repent and be baptized
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the re-
mission of sins ; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost; for the promise is to you and to your children, and
to all that are afar off, and to as many as the Lord our God
shall call." See Acts xxvi. 18. Ephes. i. 18, 19. Titus
iii. 5—7.
The special condition on our parts, is our consent to the
whole covenant of grace, viz. To give up ourselves to God
as our reconciled God and Father in Christ, and to Jesus
Christ as our Saviour, and to the Holy Ghost as to his agent
and our Sanctifier. There needeth no other proof of this,
than actual baptism as celebrated in the church from
Christ's days till now. And the institution of it ; Matt,
xxviii. 19. with 1 John v. 7—9. 1 Pet. iii. 21. with
John iii. 5.
The special duties afterwards to be performed, have their
rewards as aforesaid, and the neglect of them their penalties ;
and therefore have the nature of a condition as of those par-
ticular rewards or benefits.
Direct. 19. * The duties which our covenant with the
Holy Ghost doth bind us to, are, 1. Faithfully to endeavour
by the power and help which he giveth us, to continue our
consent to all the aforesaid covenant. And, 2. To obey
his further motions, for the work of obedience and love. 3.
And to use Christ's appointed means with which his Spirit
worketh. And, 4. To forbear those wilful sins which grieve
the Spirit.
" Abide in me, and I in you ;" John xv. 4. ** If ye
218 LIFE OF FAITH.
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what
ye will, and it shall be done unto you ;" ver. 7. ** Continue
ye in my love ;" ver. 9. " If ye continue in the faith,'' &c.
Col. i. 23. " Keep yourselves in the love of God ;" Jude 21 .
" Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, &c.
For if we sin wilfully, &c. Of how much sorer punishment
shall he be thought worthy, who hath done despite to the
Spirit of grace ;" Heb. x. 25, 26. 29. vi. 4—6. " Grieve
not the holy Spirit of God ;" Ephes. iv. 30. ** Quench not
the Spirit;" 1 Thess.v. 19.
Direct. 20, * By this it is plain that the Spirit worketh
not on man as a dead thing, which hath no principle of ac-
tivity in itself; nor as on a naturally necessitated agent,
which hath no self-determining faculty of will ; but as on a
living, free, self-determining agent, which hath duty of its
own to perform for the attaining of the end desired."
Those therefore that upon the pretence of the Spirit's
doing all, and our doing nothing without him, will lie idle
and not do their parts with him, and say that they wait for
the motions of the Spirit, and that our endeavours will not
further the end, do abuse the Spirit, and contradict them-
selves ; seeing the Spirit's work is to stir us up to endeavour,
which when we refuse to do, we disobey and strive against
the Spirit.
Direct. 21. * Though sometimes the Spirit work so effi-
caciously, as certainly to cause the volition, or other effect
which it moveth to ; yet sometimes it so moveth, as procur-
eth not the effect, when yet it gave man all the power and
help which was necessary to the effect ; because that man
failed of that endeavour of his own, which should have con-
curred to the effect, and which he was able without more
help to have performed.'
That there is such effectual grace. Acts ix., and many
Scriptures, with our great experience tells us. That there
is such mere necessary ineffectual grace possible, and some-
times in being (which some call sufficient grace), is unde-
niable in the case of Adam ; who sinned not for want of ne-
cessary grace, without which he could not do otherwise.
And to deny this, blotteth out all Christianity and religion
at one dash.
By all which it appeareth, that the work of the Spirit is
such on man's will, as that sometimes the effect is suspended
LIFE OF FAITH. 219
on our concurrence ; so that though the Sphit be the total
cause of its own proper effect, and of the act of man, in its
own place and kind of action ; yet not simply a total cause
of man's act or volition ; but man's concurrence may be fur-
ther required to it, and may fail.
Direct. 22. * Satan transformeth himself oit into an angel
of light, to deceive men by pretending to be the Spirit of
God : therefore the spirits must be tried, and not every spi-
rit trusted;' 2 Cor. xi. 14, 15. Matt. xxiv. 4, 5. 11. 24.
1 John iii. 7.' Ephes. iv. 14. Rev. xx. 3. 8. 2 Thess. ii. 2.
1 Johniv. 1.3. 6.
Direct. 23. * The way of trying the spirits is to try all
their uncertain suggestions, by the rule of the certain truths
already revealed in nature, and in the holy Scriptures : and
to try them by the Scriptures, is but to try the spirits by
the Spirit; the doubtful spirit, by the undoubted Spirit,
which indited and sealed the Scriptures more fully, than
can be expected in any after revelation;' 1 Thess. i. 21.
Isa. viii. 16. 20. 2 Pet.* i. 19. John v. 39. Acts xvii. 11.
The Spirit of God is never contrary to itself. Therefore no-
thing can be from that Spirit, which is contrary to the Scrip-
tures which the Spirit indited.
Direct. 24. * When you would have an increase of the
Spirit, go to Christ for it, by renewed acts of that same
faith, by which at first you obtained the Spirit ;' Gal. iii. 3,
4. iv. 6.
Faith in Christ doth two ways help us to the Spirit. 1.
As it is that condition upon which he hath promised it, to
whom it belongeth to give us the Spirit. 2. As it is that
act of the soul which is fitted in the nature of it to the work
of the Spirit : that is, as it is the serious contemplation of the
infinite goodness and love of God, most brightly shining to
us in the face of the Redeemer: and as it is a serious con-
templation of that heavenly glory procured by Christ, which
is the fullest expression of the love of God ; and so is most
fit to kindle that love to God in the soul, which is the work
of the Spirit. These are joined, Rom. v. 1, 2. 5, 6. " Being
justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our
Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith
into this grace, wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the
glory of God. The love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. For when
220 LIFE OF FAITH.
we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. God commended his love to us, that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'* So Ephes. iii,
17 — 19. Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith, and it
would help you to be rooted and grounded in love, and to
comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length,
and depth, and height ; and to know the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge, and so to be filled with the fulness of
God. If faith be the way to see God's love, and faith be
the way thereby to raise our love to God, then faith in Christ
must needs be the continual instrument of the Spirit, or
that means which we must still use for the increase of the
Spirit.
Direct. 25. * The works of the Spirit, next to the excita-
tion of life, light and love, do consist in the subduing oi the
lusts of the flesh, and of the power of all the objects of sense
which serve it. Therefore be sure that you faithfully serve
the Spirit in this mortifying work, and that you take not
part with the flesh against it.'
A great part of our duty towards the Holy Ghost, doth
consist in this joining with him, and obeying him in his
strivings against the flesh : and therefore it is that so many
and earnest exhortations are used with us, to live after the
Spirit, and not after the flesh ; and to mortify the lusts of
the flesh, and the deeds of it by the Spirit; especially in
Rom. viii. 1 — 16. and in Gal. v. throughout. Rom. vi. vii.
Col. iii. Ephes. v.
Direct. 26. * Take not every striving for a victory, nor
every desire of grace, to be true grace itself; unless grace
be desired as it is the lovely image of God, and pleasing to
him, and be desired before all earthly things ; and unless
you not only strive against, but conquer the predominant
love of every sin.'
There are many ineffectual desires and strivings which
consist with the dominion of sin. Many a fornicator, and
glutton, and drunkard, hath earnest wishes that he could
leave his sin, when he thinketh of the shame and punish-
ment ; and hath a great deal of striving against it before he
yieldeth ; but yet he liveth in it still, because his lovejto it
is the predominant part in him. " How shall we that are
dead to sin, live any longer therein ?" Rom. vi. 2. " Know
ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Christ,
LIFE OF FAITH. 221
were baptized into his death. We were buried with
him by baptism. Knowing this, that our old man is
crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin : for he that is dead
is freed from sin ;" ver. 12. " Let not sin reign there-
fore in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts
thereof;" ver. 13. Neither yield your members servants
of unrighteousness unto sin. For sin shall not have do-
minion over you. Know ye not that to whom you yield
yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye
obey ? whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness?" "If ye live after the flesh ye shall die ;
but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the
body ye shall live ;" Rom. viii. 13. See Gal. v. 16. 18—23.
** They that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh, with the
affections and lusts :" ver. 24. " The foundation of God
standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth who are
his. And let every one that nameth the name of Christ de-
partTrom iniquity ;" 2 Tim. ii. 19.
Object, * But it is said, " The flesh lusteth against the
Spirit so that ye cannot do the things that ye would ;"'
Gal. V. 17.
Answ, That is, every true Christian would fain be perfect
in holiness and obedience, but cannot, because of the lust-
ings of the flesh. But it doth not say or mean, that any
true Christian would live without wilful, gross, or reigning
sin, and cannot ; that he would live without murder, adul-
tery, theft or any sin which is more loved than hated, but
cannot. We cannot do all thatVe would ; but it doth not
follow that we can do nothinaj which weVould, or cannot
sincerely obey the Gospel.
Object. * Paul saith, "To will is present with me ; but
how to perform that which is good I find not : and what I
would, that I do not." ' Rom. vii. 15. 18.
Answ. The same answer will serve. To will perfect
obedience to all God's laws was present with Paul ; but not
to do it. He would be free from every infirmity, but could
not (and therefore could not be justified by the law of
works). But he never saith, that he would obey sincerely,
and could not ; or that he would live without heinous sin,
and could not. Indeed in his flesh he saith, " there dwelleth
no good thing;" but that denieth not his spiritual power
222 LIFE OF FAITH.
(who so often proposeth himself as an example to be imitated
by those that he wrote to). Thousands are deceived about
their state, by taking every ineffectual desire and wish, and
every striving before they sin, to be a mark of saving grace.
Misunderstanding Mr. Perkins, and some others with him,
who make a desire of grace to be the grace itself, and a
combat against the flesh, to be a sign of the renovation by
the Spirit ; whereas they mean only, such a desire of grace,
as grace for the love of God, as is more powerful than any
contrary desires ; and such a combating as conquereth gross
(or mortal) sin, and striveth against infirmities. And of
this, this saying is very true.
Direct, 27. ' Strive with your hearts when the Spirit
is striving with you. And take the season of its special
help ; and make one gale of grace advantageous to another.'
This is a great point of Christian wisdom. The help of
the Spirit is not at our command : take it while you have it.
Use wind and tide before they cease. God will not be a
servant to our slothfulness and negligence. As he that will
not come to the church at the hour when the minister of
Christ is there, but say, I will come another time, will have
none of his teaching there ; so he that will not take the
Spirit's time, but say, I am not now at leisure, may be left
without its help, and taught by sad experience to know,
that it is more fit for man to wait on God, than for God
to wait on man. More may be done and got at one hour,
than at another, when we have no such help and motions.
Direct. 28. * Be much in the contemplation of the hea-
venly glory; for there are the highest objects, and the
greatest demonstrations of God's love and goodness ; and
therefore in such thoughts we are most likely to meet
with the Spirit with whose nature and design they are so
agreeable.'
We fall in with the heavenly Spirit in his own way, when
we set ourselves to be most heavenly. Heavenly thoughts
are the work which he would set you on ; and the love of
God is the thing which he works you to thereby : and nothing
will so powerfully inflame the soul with the love of God, as
to think that we shall live in his love and glory for evermore.
Set yourselves therefore to this work, and it will be a sign
that the Spirit sets you on it ; and you may be sure that he
will not be behind with you, in a work which both he and
LIFE OF FAITH. 22:^
you must do. To this sense the apostle bids us, " pray in
the Holy Ghost ;" Jude 20. Because though prayer must
be from the Spirit, which is not in our power ; yet when we
set ourselves to pray, it is both a sign that the Spirit exciteth,
and a certain proof that he will not be behind with us, but
will afford us his assistance.
Direct, 29. * Converse with those who have most of the
Spirit, as far as you can attain it.'
And that is not those that are most for revelations or
visions, or that pretend to extraordinary illuminations, or
that set the Spirit against the word ; or that boast most of
the Spirit in contempt of others ; but those who are most
humble, most holy, and most heavenly, who love God most,
and hate sin most. Converse with such as have most of the
Spirit (of love and heavenliness) is the way to make you
more spiritual ; as converse with learned men is the way to
learning : for the Spirit giveth his graces in the use of suita-
ble means, as well as he doth his common gifts; Jude 20, 21.
Heb. X. 24, 25. iii. 13. Ephes. iv. 12. 15, 16.
Direct. 30. * Lastly, * The right ordering of the body it-
self, is a help to our spirituality.' A clean and a cheerful
body is a more fit instrument for the Spirit to make use of
than one that is opprest with crudities, or dejected with
melancholy. Therefore especially avoid two extremes : 1.
The satisfying the lusts of the flesh, and clogging the body
with excess of meat or drink, or corrupting the fancy with
foolish pleasures. 2. And the addicting yourselves to dis-
tracting melancholy, or to any disconsolate or discontented
thoughts.
And from hence you may both take notice of the sense
of all that fasting and abstinence which God comraandeth
us, and of the true measure of it, viz. as it either fitteth or
unfitteth the body for our duty, and for our ready obedience
to the Spirit of God ; '* I keep under my body, and bring it
into subjection, lest by any means when I have preached to
others, I myself should be a castaway ;" 1 Cor.ix. 27. *' Let
us walk honestly as in the day ; not in rioting and drunken-
ness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and
envying ; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no
provision for the flesh, for lust ;" Rom. xiii. 12 — 14. Pam-
pering the body, and addicting ourselves to the pleasing of
it, turneth a man from spirituality into brutishness ; and
224 LIFE OF FAITH.
savouring or minding the things of the flesh, destroyeth
both the relish and minding of the things of the Spirit ;
Rom. viii. 5 — 8. And a sour, discontented, melancholy
temper, is contrary to that alacrity requisite in God's
service ; and to those which the comforter is to work
in us.
So much for living by faith on the Holy Ghost.
CHAPTER VI.
Directions how to exercise Faith upon God's Commandments,
for Duty,
It being presupposed that your faith is settled about the
truth of the Scriptures in general (by the means here before
and elsewhere more at large described), yoa are next to learn
how to exercise the life of faith about the precepts of God
in particular; and herein take these helps.
Direct. 1. * Observe well how suitable God's commands
are to reason and humanity, and natural revelation itself;
and so how nature and Scripture do fully agree, in all the
precepts for primitive holiness.'
This is the cause why divines hath thought it so useful
to read heathen moralists themselves, that in a Cicero, a
Plutarch, a Seneca, an Antoninus, an Epictetus, &c., they
might see what testimony nature itself yieldeth, against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. See Rom. xix.
20, &c. But of this I have been larger in my ** Reasons of
the Christian Religion."
Direct. 2. * Observe well how suitable all God's com-
mandments are to your own good, and how necessary to
your own felicity.'
All that God commandeth you, is, 1. To be active, and
use the faculties of your souls, in opposition* to idleness.
2. To use them rightly, and on the highest objects, and not
to debase them by preferring vanity and sordid things, nor
to pervert them by ill-doing. And are not both these
suitable to your natural perfection, and necessary to your
good ?
1. If there were one law made, that men should lie or
stand still all the day, with their eyes shut, and their ears
LltE OF FAITH. 225
sjtopped, and their mouths closed, and that they should not
stir, nor see, nor hear, nor taste ; and another law that men
should use their eyes, and ears, and limbs, &c., which of
these were more suitable to humanity, and more easy for a
sound man to obey (though the first might best suit with
the lame, and blind, and sick) ? and why should not the
goodness of God's law be discerned, which requireth men
to use the higher faculties, the reason, and elective, and ex-
ecutive powers, which God hath given them. If men should
make a law that no one should use his reason to get learning,
or for his trade or business in the world, you would think
that it were an institution of a kingdom of bedlams, or a
herd of beasts : and should not you then be required to use
your reason faithfully and diligently in greater things ?
2. And if one law were made, that every man that travel-
leth shall stumble and wallow in the dirt, and wander up and
down out of his way ; and that every man that eateth and
drinketh, should feed on dirt, and ditch-water, or poison,
&c. And another law, that all men should keep their right
way, and live soberly, and feed healthfully ; which of these
would fit a wise man best, and be easiest to obey ? Or if
one law were made, that all scholars shall learn nothing but
lies and errors ; and another, that they shall learn nothing
but truth and wisdom, which of them would be more easy
and suitable to humanity? (Though the first might be more
pleasing to some fools. ") Why then should not the goodness
of God's laws be confessed, who doth but forbid men learn-
ing the most pernicious errors, and wandering in the maze
of folly, and wallowing in the dirt of sensuality, and feeding
on the dung and poison of sin ? Is the love of a harlot, or
of gluttony, drunkenness, rioting or gaming, more suitable
to humanity, than the love of God, and heaven, and holiness,
of wisdom, temperance, and doing good ? To a swine or a
bedlam it may be more suitable ; but not to one that liveth
like a man. What did God ever forbid you, that was not
hurtful to you? And what did he ever command you, which
was not for your benefit? either for your present delight, or
for your future happiness ; for the healing of your diseases,
or the preventing them ?
And if reason can discern the goodness of God's laws to
us, faith can acknowledge it with more advantage. For we
VOL. XII. Q
226 LIFE OF FAITH.
can see by faith, the goodness of their author, and the good-
ness of the reward and end, more fully than by reason only.
And a believer hath found by sad experience, how bad and
bitter the ways of sin are, and by sweet experience, how
good and pleasant the ways of God are. He hath found
that it is the way to peace, and hope, and joy, to deny his
lusts, and obey his Maker and Redeemer. And it is the
way to terror and a troubled soul, and a broken heart, to sin
and to gratify his sensuality ; " All her ways are pleasant-
ness, and all her paths are peace ;" Prov. iii. 17. *' Great
peace have they which love thy law, and nothing can offend
them;" Psal. cxix. 165. *• Mark the upright man, and be-
hold the just, for the end of that man is peace ;" Psal. xxxvii.
37. " Righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,
are the kingdom of God ;" Rom. xiv. 17. Grace, mercy
and peace are God's entertainment of the faithful sonl ;
Titus i. 4. 1 Tim. i. 2. 2 Tim. i. 2. 1 Cor. i. 3, &c. " But
there is no peace to the wicked, saith my God ;" Isa. Ivii.
21. xlviii. 22. " For the way of peace they have not known.
They have made them crooked paths ; whosoever goeth
therein, shall not know peace ;" Isa. liv. 8.
Direct. 3. ' Mark well how those commands of God, which
seem not necessary for yourselves, are plainly necessary for
the good of others, and for the public welfare, which God
must provide for as well as yours.'
He is not your God only, but the God of all the world.
And the welfare of many, especially of kingdoms and socie-
ties, is more to be regarded than the welfare (much more
than the humouring or pleasing) of any one. You may
think that if you had leave to be fornicators, and adulterers,
to be riotous, and examples of evil, to be covetous, and to
deceive, and steal, and lie, that it would do you no harm :
but suppose it were so, yet a little wit may serve to shew
you how pernicious it would be to others, and to societies.
And faith can tell a true believer, what is like to be the
end : and that " sin is a reproach to any people ;*' Prov. xiv. 34.
You may think perhaps that if you were excused from
many duties of charity and justice, in ministry, magistracy,
or a more private state, it would be no harm to yourselves.
But suppose it were so, must not others be regarded ? If
God should regard but one, why should it fall to your lot
LIFE OF FAITH. 227
rather than to another's ? And why should any others be
bound to use justice or charity to you any more than you
to them ? There is no member of the body politic or eccle-
siastic, which will not receive more good to itself, by the
laws of communion, if truly practised, than it can do to
others. For you are but one who^ are bound to be charita-
ble and do good to others, and that but according to your
own ability ; but it may be hundreds or thousands who may
be all bound to do good to you. You have the vital in-
fluences and assistances of all the parts : you have the
prayers of all the Christians in the world.
Suppose that the laws were made to secure yourselves of
your estate and lives ; but to leave the estates and lives of
your children to the will of any one that hath a will to wrong
them, would you be content with such kind of laws as these ?
And why should not others' good be secured, as well as your
posterities ? 1 Cor, xii. 12. 14. 20, &c. Rom. xii. 4, 5.
xvi. 2. 1 Cor. X. 17. 33. Ephes. iv. 3. II, 12. 14—16.
Direct. 4. * The chief work of faith is to make the obe-
dience of God's commands to be sweet and pleasant to us,
by seeing still that intrinsical goodness, and the extrinsical
motives, and the eternal rewards, which may cause the soul
to embrace them with the dearest love.'
They are much mistaken who know no use for faith but
to comfort them, and save them from hell : the great work
of faith is to bring up the soul to obedience, thankfulness
and love. Therefore it hath to do with the precepts, as well
as with the promises, and with the promises to sweeten the
precepts to us. Believers are not called to the obedience of
slaves ; nor to be actuated only by the fear of pain ; but to
the obedience of redeemed ones and sons ; that faith may
cause them to obey in love ; and the essential act of love is
complacency. Therefore it is the work of faith, to cause us
to obey God with pleasure and delight. Forced motives
endure not long ; they are accompanied with unwillingness
and weariness, which at last will sit down, when the fears
do by distance delay or dulness abate. Love is our nature ;
but fear is only a servant to watch for us while we do the
work of love. '* As many as are led by the Spirit of God,
are the sons of God (and therefore will obey as sons). For
w e have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but
we have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry,
2^8 LIFE OF FAITH.
Abba, Father;" Rom. viii. 14, 15. Christ suffered death to
overcome the devil that had the power of death, and to de-
liver us from the fears of it, which was the bondage of our
lives ; Heb. ii. 14, 15. That we might servfe God without
fear, in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our lives ;
Luke i. 74. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love
casteth out fear, because fear hath torment;" 1 John iv. 18.
The meaning is, not only that the love of God casteth out
the fear of men, and persecution ; but also it maketh the
fear of tormenting punishment, to become unnecessary to
drive us to obedience, so far as the love of God and of obe-
dience doth prevail. He that loveth more to feast than to
fare hardly, to be rich, than to be poor, (and so to be obe-
dient and holy, than to be unholy) need not (so far) any fear
of punishment to drive him to it. Even as the love of the
world, as adverse to the love of God, is overcome by faith,
(1 John ii. 15.) and yet the love of the world as God's crea-
ture, and as representing him, and sanctified to his service,
is but subordinate to the love of the Father, so also fear as
adverse to love, or as disjunct from it, is cast out by it:
but as it subserveth it in watching against the enemies of
love, and is truly tilial, it is a fruit of faith, and the begin-
ning of wisdom.
Employ faith therefore day by day, in looking into the
love of God in Christ, and the kingdom of glory, the reward
of obedience, and the beauties of holiness, and the merciful
conditions of filial obedience (when we have a pardon of our
infirmities and are accepted in Christ), that so we may feel
that Christ's ** yoke is easy, and his burden light, and his
commandments are not grievous ;" Matt. xi. 28, 29. 1 John
y. 3. And when faith hath taught you to hunger and thirst
after righteousness, and to delight to do the will of God,
love, which is the end of faith, will satisfy you ; Matt. v. 6.
Psal. xl. 8.
Diiect. 5. ' Take especial notice how suitable a holy law
is to the nature of a most holy God ; and how much he is
honoured in that demonstration of his holiness ; and how
odious a thing it would be to wish, that the most holy one
would have made for us an unholy law.'
Would you draw the picture of your friend like an ape
or a monkey, or a monster? Or would you have the king
pictured like a fool ? Or would you have his laws written
LIFE OF FAITH. 229
like the words of a Bedlam, or the laws of barbarians or can-
nibals ? How much more intolerable were it to wish, that
an unholy or unrighteous law should be the product and
impress of the most great, most wise and holy God ! This
thought should make every believer exceedingly in love with
the holiness of God's commands, because they are the ap-
pearance or image of his holiness, and necessary to his ho-
nour, as he is the governor of the world ; Rom. vii. 6, 7. 12.
When Paul confesseth that he could no more perfectly keep
the law without sin, than a fettered prisoner could walk at
liberty (for that is the sense of the text), yet doth he give
the law this honour, that it is holy, just and good, and there-
fore he loveth it, and fain would perfectly obey it, if he
could. See Psal. xix. 7. 12, &c. cxix. 72. xxxvii. 31. i. 2.
Isa. v. 24, &c.
Direct, 6. * Remember that both promises, and threat-
enings, and God's mercies, and his judgments, are appointed
means to bring us to obey the precepts ; and therefore obe-
dience, which is their end, is highly to be esteemed.'
It seemeth a great difficulty whether the precept before
the promise, or the promise before the precept ; which is the
end, and which is the means ; whether obedience be a means
to attain the reward, or the reward be a means to procure
obedience. And the answer is as pleasant to our conside-
ration, viz. that as the works of the Trinity of Persons, and
of God's power, and wisdom, and goodness * ad extra,' are
undivided ; so are the effects of the one. in God's laws, the
effects also of the other ; and they are harmoniously and in-
separably conjunct. So that we must obey the command,
that we may attain the blessing of the promise, and be as-
sured of it. And we must believe the promise, and the re-
ward, that we may be moved to obey the precept : and when
all is done, we find that all comes to one j and in the end,
the duty and the reward will be the same, when duty cometh
to perfection : and that the reward which is promised is our
perfection in that holiness, and love, and conformity to the
will of God, in which God doth take that complacency which
is our ultimate end.
But if you look at the matter of obedience rather than
the form, it sometimes consisteth in troublesome things, as
suffering persecution, &c., which is less desirable than the
promised reward, which is but pleasing God, and obeying
230 LIFE OF FAITH.
him, in a more desirable and grateful matter, even in perfect
love for ever: and therefore the more desirable must be
considered to draw us to the less desirable ; and that con-
sideration of the reward, (and not the possessing of it,) is
the means to our obedience, not for the sake of the ungrate-
ful matter, but of the form and end ; Matt. v. 10—12. vi.
1. 4. X. 41, 42. 1 Cor. ix. 17, 18. 1 Tim. v. 18. Heb. xi.
6. X. 35. xi. 26. Col. iii. 24.
Direct. 7. * Remember how much Christ himself hath
condescended, to be made a means or Mediator to procure
our obedience to God.'
And surely that must be an excellent end, which Christ
himself became a means to ! He came to save his people
from their sins ; Matt. i. 21. And " to call ^sinners to re-
pentance ;" Luke v. 32. Matt. ix. 13. " Is Christ the mi-
nister of sin ? God forbid ;" Gal. ii. 17. " For this end was
he revealed, that he might destroy the works of the devil j"
1 John iii. 8. And he died to redeem and " purify to him-
self a peculiar people, zealous of good works;" Titus ii. 14.
Christ came as much to kill sin, as to pardon it. Judge
therefore of the worth of obedience by the nobleness and
dignity of the means.
Direct. 8. ' Remember still that the same law which go-
verneth us, must judge us. Let faith see the sure and close
connexion between obedience and judgment.'
If faith do but speak aloud to a sluggish soul, * Thou
must be judged by the same word which commandeth thee
to watch and pray, and to walk in holiness with God,' it will
much awaken the soul to duty ; and if faith do but say aloud
to a tempted sinner, 'The Judge is at the door, and thou
must hear of this again, and review sin when it will have
another countenance,' it will do much to kill the force of
the temptation; Rom.xiv. 12. Phil. iv. 17. Heb. xiii. 17.
Matt. xii. 36. 2 Pet. iii. 11, 12.
Direct. 9. ' Be sure that your heart-subjection to God
be fixed, that you may live under the sense of his authority.'
For as God's veracity is the formal object of all faith ; so
God's authority is the formal object of all obedience. And
therefore the deep, renewed apprehensions of his majesty,
his wisdom and absolute authority, will make us perceive
that all things and persons must give place to him, and he
to none ; and will be a constant spring within us, to move
LIFE OF FAITH. 231
the will to a ready obedience in particular cases ; Mai. i. 6.
Matt, xxiii. 8. 10. Jer. v. 22.
Direct. 10. ' Keep in memory some plain texts of Scrip-
ture for every particular duty, and against every particular
sin ;' which I would willingly here write down, but that the
book swelleth too big, and it is so plentifully done already
in most catechisms, where they confirm all such commands
with the texts of Scripture cited to that use. As you may
see in the Assembly's Catechism, with the proofs, and more
briefly in Mr. Tobias Ellis's " English School," where a text
or more for every article of faith, and every duty, is recited
for the use of children. God's word, which is the object and
rule of faith, should be before the eye of faith in this great
work of causing our obedience.
Direct, 11. * Understand well the different nature and
use of Scripture examples ; how some of them have the na-
ture of a divine revelation and a law ; and others are only
motives to obedience, and others of them are evils to be
avoided by us.'
1. To Moses and the apostles of Christ, a special com-
mission was granted, to one to settle the tabernacle and its
worship, and to the other, to settle the orders of the Gospel
church. Christ sent them to '* teach all things, whatsoever
he commanded ;" Matt, xxviii. 20. And he promised to be
with them, and to send them the ** Spirit to lead them into
all truth, and to bring all things to their remembrance.'*
Accordingly they did obey this commission, and settle the
Gospel churches according to the will of Christ ; and this
many years before any of the New Testament was written.
Therefore these acts of theirs have the nature and use of a
divine revelation and a law. For if they were fallible in this,
Christ must break the aforesaid promise.
2. But all the acts of the apostles which were either
about indifferent things, or which were about fore-com-
manded duties, and not in the execution of the aforesaid
commission, for which they had the promise of infallibility,
have no such force or interpretation. For, (I.) Their holy
actions of obedience to former laws, are not properly laws
to us, but motives to obey God's laws. And this is the com-
mon use of all other good examples of the saints in Scrip-
ture : their examples are to be tried by the law, and followed
as secondary copies or motives, and not as the law itself:
'232 LIFK OF FAITH.
*• Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ ;" 1 Cof.
xi. 1. '* Be ye followers of them, who through faith and
patience do inherit the promise ;" Heb. vi. 12. 1 Cor. iv. 16.
Phil. iii. 17. 1 Thess. i. 6. ii. 16. iii. 7 9. Heb. xiii. 7.
(2.) And the evil examples even of apostles, are to be
avoided,, as all other evil examples recorded in the Scrip-
tures are, such as Peter's denial of his Lord, and the disci-
ples all forsaking him, and Peter's sinful separation and dis-
simulation, and Barnabas's with him (Gal. ii.), and the falling
out of Paul and Barnabas, &c.
(3.) And the history of indifferent actions, or those which
were the performance of but a temporary duty, are instruct-
ing to us, but not examples which we must imitate. It is
not divine faith which forgeth an object or rule to itself.
Whatsoever example we will prove to be obligatory to us to
imitate, we must either prove, 1. That it was an execution
of God's own commission, which had a promise of infallible
guidance. Or, 2. That it was done according to some for-
mer law of God, which is common to ihem and us. (As the
first must be the revealing of some duty extended to this age,
as well as that.)
Direct. 12. * Faith must make great use of Scripture ex-
amples, both for motive and comfort, when we find their
case to be the same with ours/
We cannot conclude that we must imitate them in ex-
traordinary circumstances ; nor can we conclude that God
will give every extraordinary mercy to us, which he gave to
them, (as that he will make all kings as he did David, ov all
apostles, or raise all as he did Lazarus now, 8cc.) nor that
every believer shall hare the same outward things, or will
have just the same degrees of grace, &c. But we may con-
clude that we shall have all God's promises fulfilled to us,
as they had to them ; and shall have all that is suitable to
our condition. As David was pardoned upon repentance,
so many others : ** I confessed, and thouforgavest : for this
shall every one that is godly pray to thee." Psal. xxxii.
5, 6. Hath God pardoned a Manasseh, a Peter, a Paul, &c.
upon repentance ? So is he ready to do to us. Hath he
helped the distressed ? Hath he heard and pitied, even the
weak in faith ? So we may hope he will do by us ; Isa.
xxxviii. 10, 11. Psal. cxvi. 3. Acts xxvii. 20. Jonah ii. 4.
We have the same God, the same Christ, the same promise.
LIF£ OF FAITH. 235
if tve have the same faith, and pray with the same Spirit ;
Rom. viii. 26. Heb. iv. 15. Though we may not have jusfe
the same case, or the same manner of deliverance. Therefore
it is a mercy that the Scripture is written historically : and
therefore we should remember such particular examples- as
suit our own case.
CHAPTER V.
Directions how to Live hy Faith upon God's Promises.
This part of the work of faith is more noble, because the
eminent part of the Gospel is the promises, or covenant of
grace ; and it is the more necessary, because our lapsed, mi-
serable state hath made the promises so necessary to our
use. The helps to be used herein are these :
Direct. 1. ' Consider that every promise of God, is the
expression of his immutable will and counsel.'
It is a great dispute among the schoolmen, whether God
be properly obliged to us by his promises : when the word
* obligation ' itself is but a metaphor, which must be cast
away or explained, before the question can be answered.
God cannot be bound as man is, who transferreth a propriety
to another from himself; or maketh himself a proper debtor
in point of communicative justice; or may be sued at law,
and made to perform against his will. But it is a higher
obligation than all this which lieth upon God. His power,
wisdom and goodness, which are himself, do constitute his
veracity: and his very nature is immutable and just; and
therefore his nature and being is the infallible cause of the
fulfilling of his promises. He freely made them ; but he ne-
cessarily performeth them ; and therefore the apostle saith,
that •* God that cannot lie hath promised eternal life, before
the world began ;" which is either * promised according to
his counsel which he had before the world began,' or * from
the beginning of the world ;' Titus i. 2. Or as the word
also signifieth, 'many ages ago.' And Heb. vi. 17, 18.
" Wherefore God willing more abundantly to shew to the
heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed
it by an oath ; that by two immutable things, in which it
was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong con-
234 LIFE OF FAITH.
solation, whp have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope
set before us ; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast." And therefore when the
apostle meaneth, that Christ will not be unfaithful to us, his
phrase is, " He cannot deny himself;" 2Tim.ii. 13. As if his
very nature and being consisted more in his truth and fide-
lity, than any mortal man's can do.
Direct. 2. ' Understand the nature and reasons of fidelity
among men, viz. 1. To make them conformable to God :
and, 2. To maintain all justice, order and virtue in the world.'
And when you have pondered these two, you will see that
it is impossible for God to be unfaithful : For, 1. If it be a
vice in the copy, what would it be in the original ! Nay,
would not falsehood and perfidiousness become our perfec-
tion, to make us like God ? 2. And if all the world would
be like a company of enemies, bedlams, brutes, or worse, if
it were not for the remnants of fidelity, it is impossible that
the nature or will of God, should be the pattern or original
of so great evil.
Direct. 3. * Consider what a foundation of his promises
God hath laid in Jesus Christ, and what a seal his blood
and resurrection is unto them.'
When it hath cost Christ so dear to procure them, cer-
tainly God will not break them. A promise ratified in the
blood of the Son of God, called the " blood of the everlast-
ing covenant," (Heb. xiii. 20.) and by his rising from the
dead, can never be broken. If the law given by Moses was
firm, and a jot or tittle should not pass away till all were
fulfilled, much more the word and testament of the Media-
tor of a better covenant; " All the promises in him are yea
and amen ;" (2 Cor. i. 20.) that is, they are asserted or made
in him, and they are ratified, and shall be fulfilled in him.
" He hath obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much
also he is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was es-
tablished on better promises ;" Heb. viii. 6. And those that
are better cannot be less sure. It is the sure mercies of
David that are given us, by a promise which is sure to all
tbe seed ; Acts xiii. 34. Isa. Iv. 3. Rom. iv. 16.
Direct. 4. * Consider well that it is God's own interest
to fulfil his promises ; for he attaineth not that glory of his
love and grace in the perfection of his people till it be done,
which he designed in the making of them.'
LIFE OF FAITH. 235
And certainly God will not fail himself and his own in-
tei^st. The happiness will be ours, but it will be his ever-
lasting pleasure to see his creatures in their perfection. If
he was so pleased after the creation, to see them all good,
that he appointed a sabbath of rest, to celebrate the com-
memoration of it ; how much more will it please him to see
all restored by Jesus Christ, and brought up to that perfec-
tion which Adam was but in the way to when he sinned and
fell short of the glory of God. He will not miss of his
own design, nor lose the everlasting complacency of his
love.
Direct. 5. ' Consider how great stress God hath laid upon
the belief of his promises, and of how great use he hath made
them in the world.'
If the intimation of another world and reward which we
find in nature, and the promise of It in Scripture, were out
of the world, or were not believed, and so men had nothing
but temporal motives to rule their hearts and lives by, O
what an odious thing would man be ! And what a hell
would the world be ! I have elsewhere shewed that the
government of the world is mainly steered by the hopes
and fears of another life, and could not be otherwise,
unless man be turned into far worse than a beast. And
certainly those promises cannot be false, which God hath
laid ^io great a stress on, and the belief of which is of so
great moment. For the wise, and holy, and powerful God,
neither needeth a lie, nor can use it to so great a work.
Direct. 6. ' Take notice how agreeable God's promises
are to the nature both of God and man.'
It is not only God's precepts that hav« a congruence to
natural reason, but his promises also. It is agreeable to the
nature of Infinite Goodness to do good : and yet we see that
he doth not do to all alike. He maketh not every creature
an angel, nor a man : how then shall we discern what he in-
tendeth to do by his creatures, but by their several natures ?
The nature of every thing is fitted to its use. Seeing there-
fore God hath given man a nature capable of knowing, lov-
ing and enjoying him, we have reason to think he gave it
not in vain. And we have reason to think that nature may
be brought up to its own perfection ; and that he never in-
tended to employ man all his days on earth, in seeking an
end which cannot be attained. And yet we see that some
236 LIFE OF FAITH.
do unfit themselves for this end, by turning from it, and fol-
lowing vanity : and that God requireth every man as a free
agent, to use his guidance and help aright, for his own pre-
paration to felicity. Therefore reason may tell us, that those
who are so prepared by the nearest capacity, and have a love
to God, and a heavenly mind, shall enjoy the glory which
they are fitted for. And it helpeth much our belief of God's
promise, to find that reason thus discerneth the equity of
it : yea, to find that a Cicero, a Seneca, a Socrates, a Plato,
&c. expected much the like felicity to the just, which the
Scripture promiseth.
Direct. 7. * Be sure to understand God's promises aright,
that you expect not that which he never promised, and take
not presumption to be faith/
Many do make promises to themselves by misunderstand-
ing, and look that God should fulfil them. And if any of
them be not fulfilled, they are ready to suspect the truth of
God. And thus men become false prophets to themselves
and others, and speak words in the name of the Lord, which
he hath never spoken, and incur much of the guilt, which
God oft chargeth on false prophets, and such as add to the
word of God. It is no small fault to father an untruth on
God, and to call that his promise which he never made.
Direct. 8. * Think not that God promiseth you all that
you desire or think you want, in bodily things.' ■(
It is not our own desires which he hath made the mea-
sure of his outward gifts ; no nor our own opinion of our
necessity neither : else most men would have nothing but
riches, and health, and love, and respect from men ; and few
would have any want, or pain, or suffering. But it is so
much as is good, 1. To the common ends of government, and
the societies with which we live. 2. And to our souls, which
God doth promise to his own. And his wisdom, and not
their partial conceits, shall be the judge. Our Father know-
eth what we need, and therefore we must cast our care on him,
and take not too particular nor anxious thoughts for your-
selves ; Matt. vi. 24, to the end, 1 Pet. v. 7.
Direct. 9. * Think not that God promiseth you all that
you will ask ; no not that which he commandeth you to ask ;
unless it agree with his promising will, as well as with his
commanding will.'
That promise of Christ, ** Ask and ye shall receive," &c.
LIFK OF FAITH. ' 237
** And whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, accord-
ing to his will, he will give it you," are often misunderstood.
And there is some difficulty in understanding what will of
God is here meant. If it be his decreeing will, that is se-
cret, and the promise giveth us no sure consolation : if it be
meant of his promising will, what use is this general promise
for, if we must have a particular promise also for all that we
can expect? If it be meant of his commanding will, the
event notoriously gainsayeth it : for it is most certain, that
since the church hath long prayed for the conversion of the
infidel world, and the reforming of the corrupted churches,
&c. it is not yet done : and it is all Christian's duty, to pray
for kings, and all in authority ; and to ask that wisdom and
grace for them which God doth seldom give them. And all
parents who are bound to pray for grace for their children,^
do not speed according to their prayers.
Object. ' That is because that prayers for other men, sup-
pose others to concur in the qualifying conditions as well as
ourselves. But the promise is meant only of whatsoever we
ask for ourselves as he commandeth, or for others who are
prepared as he requireth.' Answ. i. If so, then the promise
is not only made to our praying as commanded. 2. It can-
not be thought that our prayers for infidels, who must have
preparing grace before they can be prepared, should be thus
suspended in their preparation of themselves. 3. It may be
a duty to pray for many things for ourselves too, which yet
we shall not particularly receive : as a minister may pray for
greater abilities for his work, &c.
Object, * We pray not as commanded for any such things,
if we pray not conditionally for them.' Answ. But still the
difficulty is. What is the condition to be inserted? Whe-
ther it be. If God will ? Or, If it be for our good ? Or,
If it be for the universal good of the world ? If it were the
last, then we might be sure of the salvation of all men, when
we ask it ; and the second cannot be the condition when we
pray for others : and if it be the first, then it telleth us that
the commanding will of God is not it which is principally
meant in the promise.
In this difficulty we must conclude, that the text res-
pecteth God's will comprehensively in all these three fore-
mentioned respects ; but primarily his promising will in
matters which fall under promise, and his decreeing will in
238 LIFE OF FAITH.
things which he liath thought meet to make no promise of;
and then secondarily, his commanding will to us ; but this
extendeth not only to prayer itself, but also to the manner
of prayer, and to our conjunct and subsequent endeavours.
And so this meeteth and closeth with the former will of God ;
because we do not pray according to his commanding will,
unless we do it with due respect to his promising and de-
creeing will. And so it is, as if it were said, * Of all these
things which God hath promised or decreed, whatsoever you
ask in my name, in a manner agreeable to his command, and
do second your prayers with faithful endeavours, you shall
obtain it ; because neither his decrees or promises are na-
kedly, or merely to give such a thing ; but complicately to
give it in this way of asking.'
And as to the objections in the beginning, I answer, 1.
Where only God's decreeing will is the measure of the mat'
ter to be granted, the text intendeth not to us a particular
assurance of the thing ; but the comfort that we and our
prayers are accepted, and they shall be granted if it be not
such a thing as God in his wisdom and eternal counsel hath
secretly determined not to do. As if you pray for the con-
version of the kingdom of China, of Japan, of Hindostan,
of Tartary, &c.
And, 2. Where God's promise hath given us security of
the thing in particular ; yet this general promise, and our
prayer, are neither of them in vain. For, 1. The general
promise doth both confirm our faith in general, which is a
help to us in each particular case ; and also it directeth us
to Christ as the means, in whose name we are to ask all
things of the Father ; and assureth us, that it is for his sake
that God doth fulfil those particular promises to us. 2.
And prayer in his name, is the condition, way, or means of
the fulfilling them.
It is a very common error among many praying persons,
to think that if they can but prove it their duty to ask such
a thing, this promise telleth them, that they shall have it :
but you see there is more necessary to the understanding of
it than so.
Direct. 10. ' Think not that God promiseth you all that
you do believe that you shall receive, when you ask it ;
though it be with never so confident an expectation/
This is a more common error than the former. - Many
LIFE OF FAITH. 239
think that if the thing be but lawful which they pray for,
much more if it be their duty to pray for it, then a particu-
lar belief that they shall receive it, is the condition of the
promise, and therefore that they shall certainly receive it.
As if they pray for the recovery of one that is sick, or for
the conversion of one that is unconverted, and can but be-
lieve that it shall be done, they think God is then obliged
by promise to do it. " If thou canst believe, all things are
possible ;" Mark ix. 23. And Mark xi. 23, 24. " Whoso-
ever shall say to this mountain. Be thou removed, &c. and
shall not doubt in his heart, but believe, &c. Therefore I
say unto you, what things soever ye desire when ye pray,
believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
Answ, The reason of this was, because they had a spe-
cial promise of the gift of miracles, as is expressed, Mark
xvi. 17, 18. And even this text is such a particular pro-
mise : for the spirit of miracles was then given to confirm
the Gospel, and gather the first churches, and faith was the
condition of them : or the Spirit, whenever he would work
a miracle, would first work an extraordinary faith to prepare
for it. And yet if you examine well the particular texts
which speak of this subject, you shall find that as it was the
doubt of the Divine authority of Christ's testimony, and of
his own real power, which was the unbelief of those times ;
so it was the belief of his authority and power, which was
the faith required : and this is the oftener expressed than the
belief of the event is extolled, it is because the belief of
Christ's power is contained in it. '* If thou canst believe,
all things are possible ;" Mark ix. 23. Not * all things shall
come to pass.' " The blind men came to him, and Jesus
said. Believe ye that I am able to do this ? They said unto
him, yea. Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, accord-
ing to your faith be it unto you ;" Matt. ix. 28. So the cen-
turion's faith is described as a belief of Christ's power ;
Matt. viii. 7 — 10. So is it in many other instances.
So that this text is no exception from the general rule ;
but the meaning of it is. Whatsoever promised thing you
ask, not doubting, ye shall receive it : or doubt not of my
enabling power, and you shall receive whatever you ask,
which I have promised you ; and miracles themselves shall
be done by you.
S40 LIFE OF FAITH.
Object. * But what if they had only doubted of Christ*s
will?' Answ. If they had doubted of his will in cases where
he never expressed his will, they could not indeed have been
certain of the event (for that is contrary to the doubt). But
they could not have charged Christ with any breach of pro-
mise ; and therefore could not themselves have been charged
with any unbelief. (For it is no unbelief to doubt of that
will which never was revealed.) But if they had doubted of
his revealed will concerning the event, they had then charged
him with falsehood, and had sinned against him, as ill as
those who deny his power.
- And the large experience of this our age, confuteth
this aforesaid error of a particular belief: for we have
abundance of instances of good people who were thus mis-
taken, and have ventured thereupon to conclude with confi-
dence, that such a sick person shall be healed, and such a
thing shall come to pass ; when over and over the event
hath proved contrary, and brought such confidence into con-
tempt, upon the failing of it.
Direct. 11. * Think not that because some strong imagi-
nation bringeth some promise to your minds, that therefore
it belongeth unto you, unless upon trial, the true meaning
of it do extend to you.'
Many and many an honest, ignorant, melancholy woman
hath told me what abundance of sudden comfort they have
had, because such a text was brought to their minds, and
such a promise was suddenly set upon their hearts ; when as
they mistook the very sense of the promise, and upon true
inquiry, it was nothing to their purpose. Yet it is best not
always to contradict those mistaken and ungrounded com-
forts of such persons : because when they are godly, and
have true right to sounder comforts, but cannot see it, it is
better that they support themselves a while with such mis-
takes, than that they sink into despair. For though we may
not offer them such mistakes, nor comfort them by a lie;
yet we may permit that which we may not do (as God him-
self doth). It is not at all times that we are bound to rec-
tify other men's mistakes, viz. not when it will do them more
harm than good.
Many an occasion may bring a text to our remembrance
which concerneth us not, without the Spirit of God. Our
LIFE OF FAITH. 241
own imaginations may do much that way of themselves. Try
therefore what is the true sense of the text, before you build
your conclusion on it.
But yet if indeed God bring to your minds any perti-
nent promise, I would not have you to neglect the comfort
of it.
Direct. 12. * Think not that God hath promised to all
Christians the same degrees of grace ; and therefore that you
may expect as much as any others have.'
Object, * But shall not all at last be perfect? And what
can there be added to perfection V
Answ. The perfection of a creature is to be advanced to
the highest degree, which his own specifical and individual
nature are capable of. A beast may be perfect, and yet not
be a man. And a man may be perfect, and yet not be an
angel. And Lazarus may be perfect, and yet not reach the
degree of Abraham. For there is, no doubt, a gradual diffe-
rence between the capacities of several individual souls, of
the same species ; as these is of several vessels of the same
metal, though not by such difference of corporal extension.
And there is no great probability that all the difference in
the degrees of wit from the idiot to Achitophel, is founded
only in the bodily organs, and not at all in the souls. And
it is certain, that there are various degrees of glory in heaven,
and yet that every one there is perfect.
But if this were not so, yet it is in this life only that we
are now telling you, that all Christians have not a promise
of the same degrees.
Object, ' But is not additional grace given by way of re-
ward? And then have not all a promise of the same degree
which the best attain, conditionally if they do as much as
they for it V
Answ. Of objective grace, yes, objective ; but not sub-
jective ; because all have not the same natural capacity, nor
are bound to the same degree of duty as to the condition it-
self. As perfection in heaven is given by way of reward,
and yet all shall not have the same degree of perfection ; so
is it as to the degree of grace on earth. 2. All have not the
same degrees of the first preventing grace given them ; and
therefore it is most certain that all will not use the same de-
gree of industry for more. Some have but one talent, and
VOL. XII. k
m
242 LIFE OF FAITH.
some two, when some have five, and therefore gain ten ta-
lents in the improvement ; Matt. xxv.
All must strive for the highest measure : and all the sin-
cere may at last expect their own perfection : But God
breaketh no promise, if he giveth them not all as much as
some have.
Direct, 13. ' Much less hath God promised the same de-
gree of common gifts to all.'
If you never attain to the same measure of acuteness,
learning, memory, utterance, do not think that God breaketh
promise with you : nor do not call your presumption by the
name of faith, if you have such expectations. See 1 Cor. xii.
throughout.
Direct. 14. *God often promiseth not the thing itself,
when he promiseth the time of giving it : therefore do not
take it to be an act of faith, to believe a set time, where
God hath set no time at all."
Many are the troubles of the righteous, but God will
deliver them out of all; Psal. xxxvii. But he hath not set
them just the time. Christ hath promised to come again
and take us to himself; John xiv. 1 — 3. But of that day
and hour knoweth no man. God will give necessary com-
fort to his servants ; but he best knoweth when it is neces-
sary : and therefore they must not set him a time, and say,
* Let it be now, or thou breakest thy word.' Patient wait-
ing God's own time, is as needful as believing : yea, he that
believeth, will not make haste ; Isa. xxviii. 16. Rom. ii. 7.
2 Thess. iii. 5. James v. 7, 8. Heb. vi. 12. x. 36. xii. 1.
James v. 7. Rev. xiii. 10. xiv. 12. 1 Thess. i. 3. 11.
Direct. 15. ' God often promiseth the thing, when he
promiseth not either in what manner, or by what instrument
he will do it.'
He may deliver his church, and may deliver particular
persons out of trouble ; and yet do it in a way, and by such
means as they never dreamed of. Sometimes he foretelleth
his means, when it is we that in duty are to use them. And
sometimes he keepeth them unknown to us, when they are
only to be used by himself. In the mount will the Lord be
seen ; but yet Abraham thought not of the ram in the
thicket. The Israelites knew not that God would deliver
them by the hand of Moses ; Acts vii. 25.
Direct. 16. * Take not the promises proper to oiie time or
LIFE OF FAITH. 243
age of the church, as if they were common to all, or unto us.'
There were many promises to the Israelites, which be-
long not to us, as well as many precepts : the increase of
their seed, and the notable prosperity in the world which
was promised them, was partly because that the motive
should be suited to the ceremonial duties, and partly be-
cause the eternal things being not then so fully brought to
light as now, they were the more to be moved with the pre-
sent outward tokens of God's love. And so the gift of the
spirit of miracles, and infallibility, for writing and confirm-
ing Scriptures, was promised to the first age, which is not
promised to us.
Direct. 17. ' Take not any good man's observation in
those times for an universal promise of God.'
For instance, David saith, " I have been young, and
now am old ; yet did I never see the righteous forsaken, nor
his seed begging their bread ;" Psal. Ixxiii. But if he had
lived in the Gospel times, where God giveth greater hea-
venly blessings and comforts, and calleth men to higher de-
grees of patience and mortification, and contempt of the
world, he might have seen many both of the righteous, and
their seed begging their bread, though not forsaken ; yea,
Christ himself asking for water of a woman ; John iv.
Direct. 18. ' Take heed of making promises to seem in-
stead of precepts ; as if you were to do that yourselves,
which God had promised that he will do.'
If God promise to deliver his church, or to free any of
his servants from trouble or persecution, you must have a
precept to tell you what is your own duty, and what means
you must use, before you must attempt your own deliverance.
What God will do, is one thing ; and what you must do, is
another. This hath been the strange delusion of the people
that call themselves the Fifth-monarchy-men in our times ;
who believing that Christ will set up righteousness, and
pull down tyrants in the earth, have thought that therefore
they must do it by arms ; and so have been drawn into
many rebellions, to the scandal of others, and their own
ruin.
Direct, 19. * Take heed of mistaking prophecies for pro-
mises ; especially dark prophecies not understood.'
Many things are foretold by God in prophecies, which
are men's sins : Herod and Pontius Pilate, and the people
244
LIFE OF FAITH.
of the Jews, fulfilled prophecies in the crucifying of Christ :
and all the persecutors and murderers of the saints, fulfil
Christ's prophecies ; and so do ail that hate us, " and
say all manner of evil falsely against us for his sake ;"
Matt. V. 11, 12. But the sin is never the less for that. It
is "prophesied that the ten kings shall give up their king-
doms to the beast ; that in the last days shall come scoffers
walking after their own lusts ; and in the last days shall
be perilous times," &c. These are not promises nor precepts.
It hath lamentably disturbed the church of Christ, when
ignorant self-conceited Christians, who see not the diffi-
culty, grow confident that they understand many prophecies
in Daniel, the Revelations, &c. and thereupon found their
presumption (miscalled faith) upon their own mistakes, and
then form their prayers, their communion, their practice
into such schism and sedition, and uncharitable ways, as
the interest of their opinions do require (as the Millenaries
before mentioned have done in this generation).
Direct, 20. * Think not that all God's promises are made
to mere sincerity ; and that every true Christian must be
freed from all penal hurt, however they behave themselves.'
For there are further helps of the Spirit, which are pro-
mised only to our diligence in attending the Spirit, and to
the degrees of industry, and fervour, and fidelity in watch-
ing, praying, striving, and other use of means. And there
are heavy chastisements which God threateneth to the god-
ly, when they misbehave themselves ; especially the hiding
of his fece, and withholding any measure of his Spirit.
The Scripture is full of such threatenings and instances.
Direct. 21. * Much less may you imagine that God hath
made any promise, that all the sins of true believers shall
work together for their good.'
They misexpound, Rom. viii. 28. who so expound it,
(as I have elsewhere shewed.) For 1. The context confineth
it to sufferings. 2. The qualification added " to them that
love God" doth shew that the abatement of love to God, is
none of the things meant that shall work our good. 3. And
it sheweth that it is love as love, and therefore not the least
that is consistent with neglect and sin, which is our full
condition. 4. Experience telleth us, that too many true
Christians may fall from some degrees of grace, and the
love of God, and die in a less degree than they once had :
LIFE OF FAITH. 245
and that loss of holiness doth not work for their good.
,6. And it is not a thing suitable to all the rest of God's
method in the Scriptures, that he should assure all before-
hand, that all their sins shall work for their good. That he
should command obedience so strictly, and promise re-
wards so liberally, and threaten punishment so terribly, and
give such frightful examples as Solomon's, David's, and
others are ; and at the same time say. Whatever sin thou
committest inwardly or outwardly by neglecting my love,
and grace, and Spirit, by loving the world, by pleasing the
flesh, as David did, &c. it shall all be turned to do thee
more good than hurt. This is not a suitable means to men
in our case, to keep them from sin, nor to cause their per-
severance.
Direct. 22. * Understand well what promises are univer-
sal to all believers, and what are but particular and proper
to some few.'
There are many particular promises in Scripture, made
by name, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to Aaron, to
David, to Solomon, to Hezekiah, to Christ, to Peter, to
Paul, &c. which we cannot say are made to us. Therefore
the covenant of grace, which is the universal promise, must
especially be made the ground of our faith, and all other, as
they are branches and appurtenances of that, and have in
the Scripture some true signification, that they indeed ex-
tend to us. For if we should believe that every promise
made to any saint of God (as Hannah, Sarah, Rebecca, Eli-
zabeth, Mary, &c.) do belong to us, we should abuse our-
selves and God. And yet to us they have their use.
Direct. 23. * It is of very great importance, to under-
stand what promises are absolute, and which are suspended
upon any condition to be performed by us ; and what each
of those conditions is.'
As the promise to the fathers that the Messiah should
come, was absolute. God gave not a Saviour to the world,
so as to suspend his coming on any thing to be done by
man. The not drowning of the world, was an absolute pro-
mise made to Noah : so was the calling of the Gentiles pro-
mised. But the covenant of promises sealed in baptism, is
conditional : and therefore both parties, God and man,
are the covenanters therein.
And in the Gospel the promises of our first justification
246 LIFE OF FAITH.
and adoption, and of our after pardon, and of our justifica-
tion at judgment, and of our additional degrees of grace,
and of our freedom from chastisements, have some dif-
ference in the conditions, though true Christianity be the
main substance of them all. Mere Christianity, or true
consent to the covenant, is the condition of our first justifi-
cation. And the continuance of this, with actual sincere
obedience, is the condition of nonamission, or of con-
tinuance of this state of justification : and the use of prayer
and other means, is a condition of our further reception of
more grace. And perseverance in true holiness with faith,
is the condition of our final justification and glorification;
(of which more anon).
Direct. 24. ' You can no further believe the fulfilling of
any of these conditional promises, than you know that you
perform the condition.'
It is presumption, and not faith, for an impenitent per-
son to expect the benefit of those promises, which belong
to the penitent only : and so it is for him that forgiveth not
others, to expect to be forgiven his particular sins ; and so
in all the rest of the promises.
Direct, 25. * But be sure that you ascribe no more to
yourselves, for performing any condition of a promise, than
God doth.'
A condition as such is no cause at all of the performance
of the promise ; either natural or moral : only the non-per-
formance of the condition is a cause of the non-performance
of the promise : for the true nature of a condition as such,
is only to suspend the benefit. Though naturally a condi-
tion may be meritorious among men; and for their own
commodity (which God is not capable of) they ordinarily
make only meritorious acts to be conditions : as God also
doth only such acts as are pleasing to him, and suited to
their proper ends. But this is nothing to a condition for-
mally, which is but to suspend the benefit till it be done.
Direct, 26. * When you find a promise to be common or
universal, apply it as boldly as if your name were written in
it : and also when you find that any particular promise to a
saint is but a branch of that universal promise to all saints ;
or to all that are in the same case, and find that the case
and reason of the promise proveth the sense of it to belong
to you as well as them.'
LIFE OF FAITH. 247
If it be said, that " whosoever believeth shall not perish,
but have everlasting life ;" (John iii. 16.) you may apply it
as boldly as if it were said, ' If thou John, or Thomas be a
believer, thou shalt not perish, but have everlasting life.'
As I may apply the absolute promise of the resurrection to
myself as boldly, as if my name were in it, because it is all
that shall be raised (John v. 22. 24, 25. 1 Cor. xv.) : so
may I all the conditional promises of pardon and glory con-
ditionally, if I repent and believe. And you may abso-
lutely thence conclude your certain interest in the benefit,
so far as you are certain that you repent and believe.
And when you read that Christ promiseth his twelve
apostles, to be with them, and to reward their labours, and
to see that they shall be no losers by him, if they lose their
lives, &c. You may believe that he will do so by you also.
For though your work be not altogether the same with
theirs ; yet this is but a branch of the common promise to
all the faithful, who must all follow him on the same terms
of self-denial ; Luke xiv. 26, 27. 33. Matt. x. Rom. viii.
17, 18. And on this ground the promise to Joshua is ap-
plied : "I will never fail thee nor forsake thee," (Heb. xiii.
5.) because it is but a branch of the covenant common to all
the faithful.
Direct, 27. ' Be sure that you lay the stress of all your
hopes on the promises of God, and venture all your happi-
ness on them, and when God calleth to it, express this by
forsaking all else for these hopes, that it may appear you
really trust God's word, without any secret hypocritical re-
serves.'
This is the true life, and work, and trial of faith : whe-
ther we build so much on the promise of God, that we can
take the thing promised for all our treasure, and the word of
God for our whole security.
As faith is called a trusting in God ; so it is a practical
kind of trust ; and the principal trial of it, lieth in forsaking
all other happiness and hopes, in confidence of God's pro-
mise through Jesus Christ.
To open the matter by a similitude : Suppose that Christ
came again on earth as he did at his incarnation, and should
confirm his truth by the same miracles, and other means ;
and suppose he should then tell all the country, 1 have a
kingdom at the Antipodes, where men never die, but live in
'i4B LIFE OF FAITH,
perpetual prosperity ; and those of you shall freely possess
it, who shall part with your own estates and country, and go in
a ship of my providing, and trust me for your pilot to bring
you thither, and trust me to give it you when you come
there. My power to do all this, I have proved by my mira-
cles, and my love and will, my offer proveth. How now
will you know whether a man believe Christ, and trust this
promise or not? Why, if he believe and trust him, he will
go with him, and will leave all, and venture over the seas
whithersoever he conducteth him, and in that ship which he
prepareth for him: but if he dare not venture, or will not
leave his present country and possessions, it is a sign that
he doth not trust him.
If you were going to sea, and had several ships and
pilots offered you, and you were afraid lest one were unsafe,
and the pilot unskilful, and it were doubtful which were to
be trusted ; when after all deliberation you choose one, and
refuse the rest, and resolve to venture your life and goods
in it, this is properly called trusting it. So trusting in God,
and in Jesus Christ, is not a bare opinion of his fidelity,
but a practical trust ; and that you may be sure to under-
stand it clearly, I will once open the parts of it distinctly.
Divines commonly tell us that faith is an affiance or trust
in God : and some of them say, that this is an act of the
understanding, and some, that it is an act of the will, and
others say, that faith consisteth in assent alone, and that
trust or afl&ance is as hope, a fruit of faith, and not faith it-
self: and what affiance itself is, is no small controversy,
(and so it is what faith and Christianity is, even among the
teachers of Christians).
The plain truth is this : As to the name of faith, it some-
times signifieth a mere intellectual assent, when the object
requireth no more : and sometimes it signifieth a practical
trust or affiance, in the truth or trustiness of the undertaker
or promiser, that is, in his power, wisdom and goodness, or
honesty, conjunct as expressed in his word; and that is,
when the matter is practical, requiring such a trust. The
former is often called, the Christian faith ; because it is the
belief of the truth of the Christian principles : and is the
leading part of faith in the full sense. But it is the latter
which is the Christian faith, as it is taken, not * secundum
quid,* but simply ; not for a part, but the whole ; not for
LIFE OF FAITH. 249
the opinion of men about Christ, but for Christianity itself,
or that faith which must be professed in baptism, and which
hath the promise of justification and salvation.
And this trust or affiance is placed respectively on all
the objects mentioned in the beginning ; on God as the first
efficient foundation ; and on God as the ultimate end ; as
the certain full felicity, and final object of the soul: on
Christ as the Mediator, and as the secondary foundation,
and the guide, and the finisher of our faith and salvation ;
the chief sub-revealer and performer: on the Holy Ghost,
as the third foundation ; both revealing and attesting the
doctrine by his gifts : and on the apostles and prophets as
his instruments and Christ's chief entrusted messengers :
and on the promise or covenant of Christ as his instrumen-
tal revelation itself: and on the Scriptures as the authentic
record of this revelation and promise. And the benefit
for which all these are trusted, is, recovery to God, or re-
demption and salvation, viz. pardon of sin, and justification,
adoption, sanctification and glorification ; and all things
necessary hereunto.
This trust is an act of all the three faculties : (for three
there are) even of the whole man : of the vital power, the
understanding and the will : and is most properly called a
practical trust ; such as trusting a physician with your life
and health ; or a tutor to teach you ; or a master to govern
and reward you ; or a ship and pilot (as aforesaid) to carry
you safe through the dangers of the sea : as in this simili-
tude ; affiance as in the understanding, is its assent to the
sufficiency and fidelity of the pilot and ship (or physician)
that I trust : affiance in the will is the choosing of this ship,
pilot, physician, to venture my life with, and refusing all
others ; which is called consent, when it followeth the mo-
tion and offer of him whom we trust. Affiance in the vital
power of the soul, is the fortitude and venturing all upon
this chosen Trustee : which is the quieting (in some mea-
sure) disturbing fears, and the * exitus' or * conatus,' or first
egress of the soul towards execution.
And whereas the quarrelling peevish ignorance of this
age, hath caused a great deal of bitter, reproachful, un-
charitable contention on both sides, about the question,
* How far obedience belongeth to faith?' Whether as a
part, or end, or fruit, or consequent? In all this it is easily
250 LIFE OF FAITH.
discerned, that as allegiance or subjection differ from obe-
dience, and hiring myself to a master, differeth from obey-
ing him; and taking a man for my tutor, differeth from
learning of him ; and marriage differeth from conjugal duty,
and giving up myself to a physician, differeth from taking
his counsel and medicines ; and taking a man for my pilot,
differeth from being conducted by him ; so doth our first
faith or Christianity differ from actual obedience to the
healing precepts of our Saviour. It is the covenant of obe-
dience and consent to it, immediately entering us into the
practice : it is the seed of obedience, or the soul, or life of
it, which will immediately bring it forth, and act it. It is
virtual, but not actual obedience to Christ ; because it is
but the first consent to his kingly relation to us ; unless
you will call it that inception from whence all obedience
followeth. But it may be actual (common obedience to
God, where he is believed in and acknowledged before
Christ : and all following acts of faith after the first, are
both the root of all other obedience, and a part of it : as
our continued allegiance to the king is : and as the heart,
when it is the first formed organ in nature, is no part of the
man, but the organ to make all the parts, because it is soli-
tary ; and there is yet no man, of whom it can be called a
part; but when the man is formed, the heart is both his
chief part, and the organ to actuate and maintain the rest.
Object, ' But faith, as faith, is not obedience.'
Answ, Nor learning, as learning, is not obedience to
your tutor : nor ploughing, as ploughing, is not obedience
to your master : or to speak more aptly, the continuance of
your consent, that this man may be your tutor as such, is
not obedience to him ; but it is materially part of your obe-
dience to your Father who commandeth it ; and your con-
tinued allegiance or subjection as such, is not obedience to
your King ; but as primarily it was the foundation or heart
of future obedience; so afterward it is also materially a
part of your obedience, being commanded by him to whom
you are now subject. And so it is in the case of faith : and
therefore true faith and obedience are as nearly conjoined as
life and motion ; and the one is ever connoted in the other !
Faith is for obedience to Christ's healing means, as trusting
and taking a physician, is for the using of his counsel : and
faith is for love and holy obedience to God, which is called
LIFE OF FAITH. 251
our sanctification, as trusting a physician, is for health.
Faith is implicit virtual obedience to a Saviour : and obe-
dience to a Saviour, is explicit operating faith or trust.
I. In the understanding, faith in God's promises hath
all these acts contained in it.
1. A belief that God is, and that he is perfectly powerful,
wise and good.
2. A belief that he is our Maker, and so our Owner, our
Ruler, and our chief good, (initially and finally) delighting
to do good, and the perfect felicitating end and object of
the soul.
3. A belief that God hath expressed the benignity of his
nature, by a covenant or promise of life to man.
4. To believe that Jesus Christ, God and man, is the
Mediator of this covenant, (Heb. viii. 6. ix. 15. xii. 24.)
procuring it, and entrusted to administer or communicate
the blessings of it ; Heb. v. 9.
5. To believe that the Holy Ghost is the seal and wit-
ness of this covenant.
6. To believe that this covenant giveth pardon of sin,
and justification and adoption, and further grace, to peni-
tent believers ; and glorification to those that persevere in
true faith, love and obedience to the end.
7. To believe that the Holy Scriptures, or word deli-
vered by the apostles, is -the sure record of this covenant,
and of the history and doctrine on which it is grounded.
8. To believe that God is most perfectly regardful and
faithful to fulfil this covenant, and that he cannot lie or
break it ; Titus i. 2. Heb. vi. 17, 18.
9. To believe that you in particular are included in this
covenant, as well as others, it being universal as conditional
to all if they will repent and believe, and no exception put
in against you to exclude you; John iii. 16. Mark xvi. 15, 16.
10. To believe or know that there is nothing else to be
trusted to, as our felicity and end instead of God ; nor as
our way instead of the Mediator, and the aforesaid means
appointed by him.
11. In the will, faith or trust hath, 1. A simple compla-
cency in God as believed to be most perfectly good as
afore-described.
2. It hath an actual intending and desiring of him as
our end and whole felicity to be enjoyed in heaven; Gal. v.
252 LIFE OF FAITH.
6, 7. Ephes. iii. 17—19. Col. iii. 1. 3, 4. 1 Cor. xiii.
Heb. xi. Matt. vi. 20, 21.
3. It is the turning away from, and refusing all other
Beeming felicity or ends, and casting all our happiness and
hopes upon God alone.
4. It is the choosing Jesus Christ as the only way and
Mediator to this end ; with the refusing of all other, (John
xiv. 6.) and trusting all that we are or hope for upon his
mediation.
III. In the vital power, it is the casting away all in-
consistent fears, and the inward resolved delivering up the
soul to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in this covenant,
entering ourselves into a resolved war with the devil, the
world, and the flesh, which in the performance will resist
us. And thus faith or trust is constituted and completed
in the true baptismal covenant.
Direct, 28. ' In all this be sure that you observe the dif-
ference between the truth of faith, and the high degrees.'
The truth of it is most certainly discerned by (as consist-
ingin)THE absolute casting or venturing notpart,but
ALL YOUR happiness and hopes upon Goi> and the Me-
diator ONLY, and LETTING GO ALL WHICH IS INCON-
SISTENT WITH THIS CHOICE AND TRUST. This is ti'ue and
saving faith and trust.
Pardon me that I sometimes use the word venturing
ALL, as if there were any uncertainty in the matter. I in-
tend not by it to express the least uncertainty or fallibility
in God's promise : for heaven and earth shall pass away,
but one jot or tittle of his word shall not pass, till all be
fulfilled : but I shall here add,
1. True faith or trust may consist with uncertainty in
the person who believeth ; if he believe and trust Christ but
so far, that he can cast away all his worldly treasures and
hopes, even life itself upon that trust. Every one is. not an
infidel; nor a hypocrite, who must say, if he speak his
heart, * I am not certain past all doubts, that the soul is
immortal, or the Gospel true : but I am certain, that im-
mortal happiness is most desirable, and endless misery most
terrible ; and that this world is vanity, and nothing in it
worthy to be compared, with the hopes which Christ hath
ij-iven us of a better life : and therefore upon just delibera-
tion 1 am resolved to let go all, my sinful pleasures, profits.
LIFE OF FAITH. 3^3
and worldly reputation, and life itself, when it is inconsist-
ent with those hopes : and to take God's love for my felicity
and end, and to trust and venture absolutely all my happiness
and hopes on the favour of God, the mediation of Christ, and
the promises which he hath given us in the Gospel.'
I know I shall meet with abundance of teachers and
people, that will shake the head at this doctrine as dan-
gerous, and cry out of it as savouring unbelief, that any one
should have true saving faith, who doubteth, or is uncer-
tain of the immortality of the soul, or the truth of the Gos-
pel ! But I see so much in hot-brained proud persons, to be
pitied, and so much of their work in the church to be with
tears lamented, that I will not by speech or silence favour
their brain-sick, bold assertions, nor will I fear their phrentic
furious censures. If it be not a mark of a wise and good
minister of Christ, to be utterly ignorant of the state of
souls, both his own, and all the people's, then 1 will not
concur to the advancement of the reputation of such igno-
rance. It is enough to pardon the great injury which such
do to the church of God, without countenancing it. Though
this one instance only now reminds me of it, abundance
more do second it, and tell us, that there are in the churches
through the world, abundance of divines, who are first
taught by a party which they most esteem, what is to be
held and said as orthodox, and then make it their work, to
contend for that orthodoxness which they were taught so to
honour, even with the most unmanly and unchristian scorns
and censures; when, as if they had not been dolefully igno-
rant both of the Scriptures, and themselves, and the souls
of men, they would have known, that it is the fool that
rageth and is confident, and that it was not their knowing
more than others, but their knowing less, which made them
so presumptuous ; and that they are themselves as far from
certainty as others, when they condemn themselves to de-
fend their opinions ; even like our late perfectionists, who
all lived more imperfectly than others, but wrote and railed
for sinless perfection, as soon as they did but take up the
opinion. As if turning to that opinion had made them per-
fect. So men may pass the censure of hypocrisy and dam-
nation upon themselves when they please, by damning all
as hypocrites, whose faith is thus far imperfect; but they
254 LIFE OF FAITH.
shall never make any wise man believe by it, that their own
faith is ever the more certain or perfect.
As far as I can judge by acquaintance with persons
most religious, though there be many who are afraid to
speak it out, yet the far greater number of the most faithful
Christians, have but such a faith which I described, and
their hearts say, ' I am not certain, or past all doubt, of the
truth of our immortality, or of the Gospel ; but I will ven-
ture all my hopes and happiness, though to the parting with
life itself upon it.*
And I will venture to say it, as the truth of Christ, that
he that truly can do this, hath a sincere and saving faith ;
whatsoever opinionists may say against it. For Christ hath
promised, that he that loseth his life for his sake and the
Gospel's, shall have life everlasting ; Matt. x. 37—39. 42.
xvi. 25. xix. 29. Luke xviii. 30. And he hath appointed
no higher expressions of faith, as necessary to salvation,
than denying ourselves, and taking up the cross, and for-
saking all that we have ; or in one word, than martyrdom ;
and this as proceeding from the love of God ; Luke xiv. 26,
27. 29. 33. Rom. viii. 17, 18. 28—30. 35—39.
And it is most evident that the sincere have been weak
in faith : " And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase
our faith ;," Luke xvii. 5. " Lord I believe, help thou my
unbelief;'* Mark ix. 24. " I have not found so great faith,
no, not in Israel ;" Luke vii. 9. The weak faith was the
more common.
2. And as true faith or trust may consist with doubts
and uncertainty in the subject ; so may it with much
anxiety, care, disquietment and sinful fear ; which sheweth
the imperfection of our faith. " Shall he not much more
clothe you, O ye of little faith?" Matt. xvi. 8. "O ye of lit-
tle faith, why'reason you among yourselves?" &c. ; Matt. viii.
26. " Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith ?" Matt. xiv.
31. Peter had a faith that could venture his life on the
waters to come to Christ, as confident of a miracle upon his
command ; but yet it was not without fear, (ver. 30.) " when
he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid ;'* which caused
Christ to say, " O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt?"
And you cannot say that this is only a hindrance in the
LIFE OF FAITH. 255
applying act, and not in the direct and principal act of
faith : for we find some disciples at this pass \ " But we
trusted that it had been he, who should have redeemed
Israel ;" Luke xxiv. 21. Christ saith unto them, ** O fools,
and slow of heart to believe all that the [prophets have
spoken ; ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and
to enter into his glory?" Luke xxiv. 25, 26. The words of them
who told the apostles, that Christ was risen, " seemed but
as tales to them, and they believed them not ;" Luke xxiv. 1 1 .
"While they believed notfor joy, and wondered," &c. ; ver.41 .
3. Nay, a weak faith may have such a swooning fit, as
to fail extraordinarily in an hour of temptation, so far as to
deny Christ, or shrink from him in this fear : so did Peter,
and not only he, but " all the disciples forsook him, and
fled ;" Matt. xxvi. 56.
But yet he that according to the habituated state of his
soul, hath so much faith, and love, as will cause him to
venture life and all, upon the trust which he hath to the
promises of the Gospel, hath a true and saving faith.
And here I desire all doubting Christians, to lay by the
common mistake in the trying of their faith or trust in
Christ, and to go hereafter upon surer grounds. Many say,
' I cannot believe or trust Christ for salvation, for I am full
of doubts, and fears, and troubles ; and surely this is not
trusting God.' Answ. 1. The question is not, whether you
trust him perfectly, so as to have no fears, no troubles, no
doubts ; but whether you trust him sincerely, so far as to
venture all upon him in his way. If you can venture all on
him, and let go all to follow him, your faith is true and
saving.
This would abundantly comfort many fearful, troubled
Christians, if they did but understand it well : for many of
them that thu? fear, would as soon as any, forsake all for
Christ, and let go all carnal pleasures, and worldly things,
or any wilful sin whatsoever, rather than forsake him ; and
would not take to any other portion and felicity than God,
nor any other way than Christ, and the Spirit of Holiness,
for all the temptations in the world : and yet they fear be-
cause they fear; and doubt more because they doubt.
Doubting soul, let this resolve thee ; suppose Christ and his
way were like a pilot with his ship at sea : many more pro-
mise to convey thee safely, and many persuade thee not to
25(5 LIFE OF FAITH.
venture, but stay at land : but if tbou bast so mucb trust as
that thou wilt go, and put thyself, and all that thou hast in-
to this ship, and forsake all other, though thou go trembling
all the way, and be afraid of every storm, and tempest, and
gulf; yet thou hast true faith, though it be weak. If thy
faith will but keep thee in the ship with Christ, that thou
neither turn back again to the flesh, and the world ; nor yet
take another ship and pilot, (as Mahometans, and those
without the church), undoubtedly Christ will bring thee
safe to land, though thy fear and mistrust be still thy sin.
For the hypocrite's case is always some of these : 1.
Some of them will only trust God in some smaller matter,
wherein their happiness consisteth not ; as a man will trust
one with some trifle which he doth not much regard, whom
yet he thinks so ill of, that he cannot trust him in a matter
of weight.
2. Some of them will trust God for the saving of their
souls, and the life to come, (or rather presume on him,
while they call it trusting him), but they will not trust him
with their bodies, their wealth, and honours, and fleshly
pleasures, or their lives. These they are resolved to shift
for, and secure themselves, as well as they can. For they
know that for the world to come, they must be at God's dis-
posal, and they have no way of their own to shift out of his
hands : whether there be such a life or no, they know not ;
but if there be, they will cast their ^ouls upon God's mercy,
when they have kept the world as long as they can, and
have had all that it can do for them. But they will not
lose their present part, for such uncertain hopes as they ac-
count them.
3. Some of them will trust him only in pretence and
name, while it is the creature which they trust indeed.
Because they have learned to say, that God is the disposer
of all, and only to be trusted, and all creatures are but
used by his will ; therefore they think that when they trust
the creature, it is but in subordination to God ; though in-
deed they trust not God at all.
4. Some of them will trust God and the creature jointly ;
and as they serve God and Mammon, and think to make
sure of the prosperity of the body, and the salvation of the
soul, without losing either of them ; so they trust in both
conjunctly, to make up their felicity. Some think when
LIFE OF FAITH. 257
they read Christ's words, *' How hard is it for them that
trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God !" (Mark x.
24.) that they are safe enough if that be all the danger ;
for they do not trust in their riches, though they love them:
he is a madman, they say, that will put his trust in them.
And yet Christ intimateth it as the true reason why few
that have riches, can be saved, because there are few that
have riches, who do not trust in them. You know that
riches will not save your souls ; you know that they will not
save you from the grave ; you know that they will not cure
your diseases, nor ease your pains : and therefore you do
not trust to riches, either to keep you from sickness, or
from dying, or from hell : but yet you think that riches may
help you to live in pleasure, and in reputation with the
world, and in plenty of all things, and to have your will, as
long as health and life will last; and this you take to be
the chiefest happiness which a man can make sure of: and
for this you trust them. The fool in Luke xii. 19. who
said, " Soul, take thy ease, eat, drink, and be merry, thou
hast enough laid up for many years," did not trust his
riches to make him immortal, nor to save his soul : but he
trusted in them, as a provision which might suffice for
many years, that he might '* eat drink, and be merry, and
take his ease ;" and this he loved better, and preferred be-
fore any pleasures or happiness which he hoped for in ano-
ther world. And thus it is that all worldly hypocrites do
trust in riches : yea the poorest do trust in their little poor
provisions in this world, as seeming to them surer, and
therefore better than any which they can expect hereafter.
This is the way of trusting in uncertain riches, (viz, to be
their surest happiness) instead of trusting in the living God ;
1 Tim. vi. 17. iv. 10. Psal. xlix. 6. Hi. 7.
But yet because the hypocrite knoweth, that he cannot
live here always, but must die, and his riches must be parted
with at last, and heareth of a life of glory afterwards, he
would fain have his part in that too, when he can keep the
world no longer : and so he taketh both together for his
part and hope, viz. as much bodily happiness as he can get
in this world, and heaven at last, when he must die : not
knowing that God will be all our portion and felicity, or
VOL. XII. s
258 LIFE OF FAITH.
none; and that the world must be valued and used but for
his sake, and in subordination to him and a better world.
5, Yet some hypocrites seem to go further (though they
do not), for they will seem, even to themselves, to resign
goods, and life, and all things absolutely to the will of God.
But the reason is, because they are secretly persuaded in
their hearts, that their resignation shall no whit deprive them
of them ; and that God will never the more take it from them ;
but that they may possess as much present corporal felicity
in a life of religion, as if they lived in the dangerous case of
the ungodly : or at least that they may keep so much, as
not to be undone or left to any great sufferings in the world :
or at least, their lives may not be called for. For they live
in a time when few suffer for Christ j and therefore they see
little cause to fear that they should be of the smaller num-
ber : and it is but being a little the more wise and cautelous,
and they hope they may escape well enough. And if they
had not this hope, they would never give up all to Christ.
But like persons that will be liberal to their physician, they
will offer a great deal, when they think he will not take it ;
but if they thought he would take all that is offered, they
would offer less. Or as if a sick person should hear that
such a physician will give him no very strong or loathsome
physic ; and therefore when the physician telleth him, * I
will be none of your physician unless you will absolutely
promise to take every thing which I shall give you.' He
promiseth that he will do it ; but it is only because he sup-
poseth that he will give him nothing which is troublesome.
And if he find his expectation crossed, he breaketh his pro-
mise, and saith, * If I had known he would have used me thus,
I would never have promised it him.' So hypocrites by pro-
mise give up themselves absolutely to God, and to be wholly
at his will, without excepting life itself: but their hearts do
secretly except it : for all this is because they doubt not
but they may save their earthly prosperity and lives, and be
Christians too : and if once Christ call them to suffer death
for him, they shew then what was the meaning of their hearts.
To reassume the former similitude : If Christ on earth
should offer to convey you to a kingdom at the antipodes,
where men live for ever in glorious holiness, if you will but
trust him, and go in his ship, and take him for your pilot.
LIFE OF FAITH. 259
Here one saith, I do not believe him that there is such a
place, and therefore I will not go (that is the infidel). An-
other saith, I like my merry life at home, better than his
glorious holiness (that is the open worldly and profane).
Another saith, I will live in my own country, and on my own
estate as long as I can, and when I find that I am dying,
and can stay here no longer, that I may be sure to lose no-
thing by him, I will take his offer. Another saith, I will go
with him, but I will turn back again, if I find any dangerous
storms and gulfs in the passage. Another saith I will take
another ship and pilot along with me, lest he should fail me,
that I may not be deceived. Another saith, I am told that
the seas are calm, and there is no danger in the passage, and
therefore I will absolutely trust him, and venture all ; but
when he meets with storms and hideous waves, he saith.
This is not as I expected ; and so he turneth back again.
But another (the true Christian) saith, ' I will venture all,
and wholly trust him :' and so, though he is oft afraid in
danger, when he seeth the devouring gulfs, yet not so fear-
ful as to turn back, but on he goeth, come on it what will ;
because he knoweth that the place which he goeth to is
most desirable, and mortality will soon end his old prospe-
rity ; and he hath great reason to believe his pilot to be
trusty.
By all this you may see how it cometh to pass that
Christ who promiseth life'to believers, doth yet make self-
denial, and forsaking all that we have, even life itself, to be
also necessary ; and what relation self-denial hath to faith :
Luke xiv. 26. 33. nearer by far than most consider. You
may see here the reason why Christ tried the rich man,
(Luke xviii. 22.) with selling all, and following him in hope
of a reward in heaven. And why he bid his disciples,
(Luke xii. 33.) " Sell that ye have and give alms ; provide
yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the hea-
vens which faileth not." And why the first Christians
were made a pattern of entire Christianity, by selling all,
and laying down at the apostle's feet ; and Ananias and Sap-
phira were the instances of hypocrisy, who secretly and ly-
ingly kept back part. You see here how it comes to pass,
that all true Christians must be heart-martyrs, or prepared
to die for Christ and heaven, rather that forsake him. You
may plainly perceive that faith itself is an affiance or trust-
260 LIFE OF FAITH.
ing in God by Christ, even a trusting in God in heaven as
our felicity, and in Christ as the Mediator and the way ; and
that this trust is a venturing all upon him, and a forsaking
all for God, and his promises in Christ. And that it is one
and the same motion, which from the 'terminus a quo' is
called repentance and forsaking all ; and from the * termi-
nus ad quem' is called trust and love. They that are willing
to see, may profit much by this observation ; and they that
are not may quarrel at it, and talk against that which their
prejudice will not allow them to understand.
And by all this you may see also wherein the strength
of faith consisteth : and that is, 1. In so clear a sight of the
evidences of truth as shall leave no considerable doubtings ;
Matt. xxi. 21. So Abraham " staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God ;" Rom. iv.
2. In so confirmed a resolution to cleave to God and
Christ alone, as leaveth no wavering, or looking back ; that
we may say groundedly with Peter, ** Though I die, I will
not deny thee ;" which doubtless signified then some strength
of faith : and as Paul, ** I am ready not only to be bound,
but to die for the name of the Lord Jesus ;" Acts xxi. 13.
3. In so strong a fortitude of soul, as to venture and give
up ourselves, our lives, and all our comforts and hopes into
the hand of Christ, without any trouble or sinful fears, and
to pass through all difficulties and trials in the way, without
any distrust or anxiety of mind. These be the characters of
a strong and a great degree of faith.
And you may note how Heb. xi. describeth faith com-
monly by this venturing and forsaking all upon the belief of
God. As in Noah's case, ver. 7. and in Abraham's leaving
his country, ver. 8. and in his sacrificing Isaac, ver. 17. and
in Moses forsaking Pharaoh's court, and choosing the re-
proach of Christ, rather than the pleasures of sin for a sea-
son, ver. 24 — 26. and in the Israelites venturing into the Red
Sea, ver. 29. and in Rahab's hiding the spies, which must
needs be her danger in her own country. And in all those,
who "by faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched
the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword ; out of
weakness were made strong. Others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resur-
LIFE OF FAITH. 261
rection ; and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourg-
ings ; yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments ; they
were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were
slain with the sword ; they wandered about in sheep-skins,
and goat-skins, beingdestitute,afflicted, tormented, of whom
the world was not worthy : they wandered in deserts and
mountains, and in dens, and caves of the earth." And in
Heb. X. 32, 33, &c. " They endured a great fight of afflic-
tion ; partly whilst they were made a gazing-stock, both by
reproaches and afflictions ; and partly whilst they became
companions of them that were so used. And took joy-
fully the spoilingof their goods, knowing in themselves that
they had in heaven a better a and an enduring substance.
And thus the just do live by faith ; but if any man draw
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him, saith the Lord."
See also Rom. viii. 33. 36, 37, &c.
These are the Spirit's descriptions of faith ; but if you
will rather take a whimsical, ignorant man's description,
who can only toss in his mouth the name of free grace, and
knoweth not of what he speaketh, or what he affirmeth, or
what that name signiiieth, which he clieateth his own soul
with, instead of true free grace itself, you must suffer the
bitter fruits of your own delusion. For my part I shall say
thus much more, to tell you why I say so much, to help
you to a right understanding of the nature of true Christian
faith.
1. If you understand not truly what faith is, you under-
stand not what religion it is that you profess. And so you
call yourselves Christians, and know not what it is. It seems
those that said, ** Lord, we have eaten and drunken in thy
presence, and prophesied in thy name," did think they had
been true believers ; Matt. vii. 21, 22.
2. To err about the nature of true faith, will engage
you in abundance of other errors, which will necessarily
arise from that; as it did them, against whom James disput-
eth (James ii. 14, 15, &c.) about justification by faith and
by works.
3. It will damnably delude your souls, about your own
state, and draw you to think that you have saving faith, be-
cause you have that fancy which you thought was it. One
comes boldly to Christ. ** Master I will follow thee whither-
soever thou goest ;" Matt. viii. 19. But when he heard.
262 LIFE OF FAITH.
" The foxes have holes, and the birds have nests, but the Son
of Man hath not where to lay his head," we hear no more of
him. And another came with a ** Good Master, what shall
I do to inherit eternal life ?" (Luke xviii. 13.) as if he would
have been one of Christ's disciples, and have done any thing
for heaven. (And it is like that he would have been a Chris-
tian, if free grace had been as large, and as little grace, as
some now imagine.) But when he heard, " Yet lackest
thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. Come, fol-
low me : he was then very sorrowful, for he was very rich ;"
Luke xviii. 21 — 23. Thousands cheat their souls with a
conceit that they are believers, because they believe that
they shall be saved by free grace, without the faith and grace
which Christ hath made necessary to salvation.
4. And this will take off all those needful thoughts and
means, which should help you to the faith, which yet you
have not.
5. And it will engage you in perverse disputes against
that true faith which you understand not. And you will
think, that you are contending for free grace, and for the
faith, when you are ** proud, knowing nothing, but sick or
doting about questions," which engender no better birth
than ** strifes, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings,"
&c. 1 Tim. vi. 4, 5.
6. Lastly, You can scarce more dishonour the Christian
religion, nor injure God and our Mediator, or harden men in
infidelity, than by fathering your ill shapen fictions on Christ,
and calling them the Christian or justifying faith.
Direct. 29. * Take not all doubts and fears of your sal-
vation, to be the proper effects and signs of unbelief; seeing
that in many they arise from the misunderstanding of the
meaning of God's promise, and in more from the doubtful-
ness of their own qualifications, rather than from any unbe-
lief of the promise, or distrust of Christ.'
It is ordinary with ignorant Christians to say, that they
cannot believe, because they doubt of their own sincerity
and salvation : as thinking that it is the nature of true faith,
to believe that they themselves are justified, and shall be
saved ; and that to doubt of this, is to doubt of the promises,
because they doubtingly apply it. Such distresses have
false principles brought many to. But there are two other
LIFE OF FAITH. 263
things besides the weakness of faith, which are usually th^
causes of all this. 1. Many mistake the meaning of Christ's
covenant, and think that it hath no universality in it ; and
that he died only for the elect, and promiseth pardon to
none but the elect (no not on the condition of believing).
And therefore thinking that they can have no assurance that
they are elect, they doubt of the conclusion.
And many of them think that the promise extendeth not
to such as they, because of some sin or great unworthiness
which they are guilty of.
And others think that they have not that faith and repen-
tance which are the condition of the promise of pardon and
salvation : and in some of these the thing itself may be so ob-
scure, as to be indeed the matter of rational doubtfulness.
And in others of them, the cause may be either a mistake
about the true nature and signs of faith and repentance ; or
else a timorous, melancholy, causeless suspicion of them-
selves ; but which of all these soever be the cause, it is some-
thing different from proper unbelief or distrust of God. For
he that mistaketh the extent of the promise, and thinketh
that it belongeth not to such as he, would believe and trust
it, if he understood it, that it extends to him as well as others.
And he that doubteth of his own repentance and faith, may
yet be confident of the truth of God's promise to all true, pe-
nitent believers.
I mention this for the cure of two mischiefs : the first is
that of the presumptuous opinionist, who goeth to hell pre-
suming that he hath true saving faith, because he confi-
dently believeth, that he himself is pardoned, and shall be
saved. The second is that of the perplexed, fearful Chris-
tian, who thinks that all his uncertainty of his own sincerity,
and so of his salvation, is properly unbelief, and so conclud-
eth that he cannot believe, and shall not be saved: because
he knoweth not that faith is such a belief and trust in Christ,
as will bring us absolutely and undeservedly to venture our
all upon him alone.
And yet I must tell all these persons, that all this while
it is ten to one, but there is really a great deal of unbelief in
them which they know not. And that their belief of the
truth of the immortality of the soul, and the life to come,
and of the Gospel itself, is not so strong and firm, as their
never doubting of it would intimate, or as some of their de-
264 LIFE OF FAITH.
finitions of faith, and their book-opinions and disputes im-
port. And it had been well for some of them, that they had
doubted more, that they might have believed, and have set-
tled better.
Direct. 30. * Think often of the excellencies of the life of
faith, that the motives may be still inducing you thereto.'
As, 1. It is but reasonable that God should be trusted ;
or else indeed we deny him to be God ; Psal. xx. 7.
2. What else shall we trust to? Shall we deify crea-
tures, and say to a stock, " Thou art my Father ?" Jer. ii. 27,
Lam. i. 19. Shall we distrust God, and trust a liar and a
worm ?
3. Trying times will shortly come ; and then woe to the
soul that cannot trust in God ! Then nothing else will serve
our turns. Then ** cursed be the man that trusteth in man,
and maketh flesh his arm, and withdraweth his heart from
the Lord ; he shall be like the barren wilderness, &c. Then
none that trusted in him shall be ashamed ;" Jer. xvii. 5, 6.
Psal. XXV. 3, 4. Ixxiii. 26—28.
4. God's all-sufficiency leaveth no reason for the least
distrust. There is the most absolute certainty that God
cannot fail us, because his veracity is grounded on his es-
sential perfections.
5. No witness could ever stand up against the life of
faith, and say that he lost by trusting God, or that ever God
deceived any.
6. The life of faith is a conquest of all that would dis-
tress the soul, and it is a life of constant peace and quietness :
yea, it feasteth the soul upon the everlasting joys. Though
the mountains be removed ; though this world be turned
upside down, and be dissolved ; whether poverty or wealth,
sickness or health, evil report or good, persecution or pros-
perity befal us ; how little are we concerned in all this !
And how little should they do to disturb the peace and com-
fort of that soul, who believeth that he shall live with God
for ever. Many such considerations should make us more
willing to live by faith upon God's promises, than to live by
sense on transitory things.
Direct, 3L ' Renew your covenant with Christ in his
holy sacrament, frequently, understandingly and seriously.'
For, 1. When we renew our covenant with Christ, then
Christ reneweth his covenant with us ; and that with great
LIFE OF FAITH. 265
advantage to our faith. 1. In an appointed ordinance which
he will bless. 2. By a special minister appointed to seal
and deliver it to us as in his name. 3. By a solemn, sacra-
mental investiture.
2. And our own renewing our covenant with him, is the
renewed exercise of faith, which will tend to strengthen it,
and to shew us that we are indeed believers. And there is
much in that sacrament to help the strengthening of faith :
therefore the frequent and right using of it, is one of God*s
appointed means, to feed and maintain our spiritual life ;
which if we neglect, we wilfully starve our faith ; 1 Cor. xi.
26. 28, &c.
Direct. 32. * Keep all your own promises to God and man.'
For, 1. Liars always suspect others. 2. Guilt breedeth
suspiciousness. 3. God in justice may leave you to your
distrust of him, when you will be perfidious yourselves.
You can never be confident in God, while you deal falsely
with him or with others. "The end of the commandment
is charity out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith
unfeigned ;" 1 Tim. i. 5.
Direct. 33. * Labour to improve your belief of every pro-
mise, for the increase of holiness and obedience : and to get
more upon your souls that true image of God in his power,
wisdom and goodness, which will make it easy to you to be-
lieve him.'
1. The more the hypocrite seemeth to believe the pro-
mise, the more he boldly ventureth upon sin, and disobey-
eth the precept; because it was but fear that restrained him;
and his belief is but presumption abating fear. But the more
a true Christian belie veth, the more he flyethfrom sin, and
useth God's means, and studieth more exact obedience ; and
'* having these promises, laboureth to cleanse himself from
all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the
fear of God;" 2 Cor. vii. \. "And receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, we must serve God acceptably with
reverence and godly fear ;" Heb. xii. 28, 29.
2. The more like the soul is to God, the easier it will be-
lieve ?and trust him. As faith causeth holiness, so every
part of holiness befriendeth faith. Now the three great im-
pressions of the Trinity upon us are expressed distinctly by
the apostle ; " For God hath not given us the spirit of fear,
266 LIFE OF FAITH.
but of power, of love, and of a sound mind;*' 2 Tim. i. 7.
* TTvevfia ^uva/i£Ct>c, Km dyaTrr^g, Kai a(i)(^poviafiH,' Power, love,
and a sound mind or understanding, do answer God's nature
as the face in the glass doth answer our face, and therefore
cannot choose but trust him.
Direct. 34. ' Lay up in your memory, particular, pertinent
and clear promises, for every particular use of faith.'
The number is not so much ; but be sure that they be
plain and well understood, that you may have no cause to
doubt whether they mean any such thing indeed or not. Here
some will expect that I should do this for them, and gather
them such promises. Two things dissuade me from doing
it at large. 1. So many books have done it already. 2. It
will swell this book too big : but take these few.
1. For forgiveness of all sins, and justification to peni-
tent believers.
"Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a
Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and for-
giveness of sins ;" Acts v. 31.
" Be it known unto you, that through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins ; and by him all
that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could
not be justified by the law of Moses ;" Acts xiii. 38, 39.
" To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them
that are sanctified, by faith, that is in me ;" Acts xxvi. 18.
" If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to for-
give us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous-
ness ;" 1 John i. 9.
" I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and
their sins and iniquities I will remember no more ;" Heb.
viii. 12.
" To him give all the prophets witness, that through his
name, whoever believeth in him shall receive remission of
sins;" Actsx. 43.
** That repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in his name to all nations ;" Luke xxiv. 47.
2. Promises of salvation from hell, and possession of
heaven.
" God so loved the world, that he gave his only begot-
LIFE OF FAITH. 267
ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish,
but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. He that believeth on the Son, hath ever-
lasting life ;" John iii. 16. 18. 36. ** And this is the record
that God hath given us, eternal life ; and this is in his Son.
He that hath the Son, hath life ;" 1 John v. 11, 12.
Acts xxvi. 18. Before cited. " Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners ;" 1 Tim. i. 15.
" He is able to save to the uttermost all that come to
God by him;" Heb. vii. 25.
" And being made perfect, he became the Author of eter-
nal salvation to all them that obey him ;" Heb. v. 9.
" He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved ;"
Mark xvi. 16.
" By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved ;" John
X. 9.
*' My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me, and I will give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish ;" John x. 27, 28.
" Being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him. Much more being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life ;" Rom. v. 9, 10. See Luke xviii.
30. John iv. 14. vi. 27. 40.47. xii. 50. Rom.vi.22. Gal.vi.
8. 1 Tim. i. 16.
3. Promises of reconciliation, adoption, and acceptance
with God through Christ.
" God hath reconciled-us to himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation ; to wit, that
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not
imputing their trespasses to them, and hath committed to us
the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us ; we pray
you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God : for he
hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him ;" 2 Cor. v.
18—20.
" Being justified by faith, we have peace with God,
through our Lord Jesus Christ ; by whom also we have ac-
cess by faith, into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. When we were enemies
we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ; Rom.
\. 1, 2. 10.
268 LIFE OF FAITH.
" I will dwell in them, and walk in them ; and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people. I will receive you,
and be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty ;" 2 Cor. vi. 16 — 18.
" There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ;"
Rom. viii. 1.
" As many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God ; even to them that believe on his
name : which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God ;" John i. 12.
" In every nation he that feareth God and worketh righ-
teousness, is accepted of him ;" Acts x. 35.
" He hath made us accepted in the beloved ;" Ephes. i. 6.
ii. 14. 16. Col. i. 20.
" The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved
me, and believed that I came out from God ;" John xvi. 27.
4. Promises of renewed pardon of sins after conversion.
** If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our
sins ; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole
world;" 1 John ii. 1,2.
" Forgive us our trespasses. For if we forgive men
their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you ;"
Matt. vi. 14.
" If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him ;"
James v. 15.
" I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall
be forgiven unto men ; but the blasphemy against the Spi-
rit;" Matt. xii. 31.
*' Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ;" Psal. ciii. 3.
" If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins ;" 1 John i. 9.
5. Promises of the Spirit of sanctification to believers ;
and of Divine assistances of grace.
" How much more shall your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask him ;" Luke xi. 13.
" If any man thirst let him come to me and drink. He
that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water. This he spake of the
Spirit, which they that believe on him shall receive ;"
John vii. 37—39.
LIFE OF FAITH. 269
" If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is, thou
wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee
living waters ;" John iv. 10. 14.
** A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will
I put within you : and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh : and I will
put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my sta-
tutes ;" Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27.
** And 1 will give them one heart, and I will put a new
Spirit within you ;" Ezek. xi. 19.
" Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost : for the promise is to you, and
to your children, and to all that are afar off", even as many as
the Lord our God shall call ;" Acts ii. 38, 39.
" And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the
Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father ;"
Gal. iv. 6.
" Turn you, at my reproof; behold I will pour out my
Spirit unto you ; I will make known my words unto you ;'*
Prov. i. 23.
" Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities ; for we
know not what we should pray for as we ought ; but the
Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings which
cannot be uttered ;" Rom. viii. 26.
6. Promises of God's giving his grace lo all that truly
desire and seek it.
*' Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righ-
teousness, for they shall be filled ;" Matt. v. 6.
" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
and he that hath no money : come ye, buy and eat, yea,
come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Hearken diligently to me, and eat ye that which is good,
and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear,
and come unto me ; hear and your soul shall live, and I will
make an everlasting covenant with you. Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found ; call upon him while he is near;"
Isa. Iv. 1. 6.
" Let him that is athirst come ; and whosoever will, let
him take the water of life freely;" Rev. xxii. 17.
7. Promises of God's giving us all that we pray for ac-
cording to his promises and will.
270 LIFE OF FAITH.
" Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek and ye shall find ;
knock, and it shall be opened to you : for every one that
asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; and to him
that knocketh, it shall be opened. If ye being evil know
how to give good gifts unto your children ; how much more
shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to
them that ask him?" Matt. vii. 7, 8. 11.
" Pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father
which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly;" Matt.vi.6.
*' If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall
ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you;" Johnxiv.
13, 14. XV. 16. xvi. 23. xv. 7.
" And this is the confidence which we have in him, that
if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.
And if we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we
know that we have the petitions which we desired of him ;"
1 Johnv. 14, 15.
" And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we
keep his commandments, and do those things which are pleas-
ing in his sight ;" 1 John iii. 22.
" The prayer of the upright is his delight. He heareth
the prayer of the righteous ;" Prov. xv. 8. 29.
'* The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his
ears are open to their prayers ;" 1 Pet. iii. 12.
8. That God will accept weak prayers and groans, which
want expressions, if they be sincere.
" The Spirit helpeth our infirmities. The Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be
uttered ; and he that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is
the mind of the Spirit;" Rom. viii. 26, 27.
" Crying, Abba, Father ;" Gal. iv. 6.
" I remembered God, and was troubled, and my spirit
was overwhelmed ;" Psal. Ixxvii. 3.
" Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is
not hid from thee ;" Psal. xxxviii. 9.
"God be merciful unto me a sinner;" Luke xviii. 14.
9. Promises of all things in general which we want, and
which are truly for our good.
" For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will
give grace and glory : no good thing will he withhold from
them that walk uprightly ;" Psal. Ixxxiv. 11.
" O fear the Lord, ye his saints ; for there is no want to
LIFE OP FAITH. 271
them that fear him They that seek the Lord shall not
want any good thing;" Psal. xxxiv. 9, 10.
" All things work together for good to them that love
God He that spared not his own Son, but gave him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all
things ?" Rom. viii. 28. 32.
" Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to you ;" Matt, vk 33.
** According as his Divine Power hath given us ail
things that pertain to life and godliness ;" 2 Pet. i. 3.
" But godliness is profitable to all things, having the
promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to
come ;" 1 Tim. iv. 8.
10. Promises of a blessing on them that sincerely hear
and read God's word, and use his sacraments and other
means.
" Incline your ear and come unto me ; hear and your
souls shall live ;" Isa. Iv. 3.
Read the eunuch's conversion, in Acts viii., who was
reading the Scripture in his chariot.
" Laying aside all malice, and all guile and hypocrisy,
and envies, and evil speakings, as newborn babes desire
the milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby ;" 1 Pet. ii. 1.
" Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the
words of this prophecy, and keep those things that are
written therein ;" Rev. i. 3.
" Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of
the ungodly But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and in his law doth he meditate day and night ;" Psal. i. 1, 2.
" Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doth
them, I will liken him to a wise man, that built his house
upon a rock," &c. ; Matt. vii. 24, 25.
" Rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and
do it;" Luke viii. 21.
" Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be
taken from her;" Luke x. 42.
" If any man have ears to hear, let him hear And
unto you that hear shall more be given ;" Mark iv.
23, 24.
" Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy
household shall be saved ;" Acts xi. 14.
" Take heed to thyself and unto the doctrine, and con-
272 LIFE OF FAITH.
tinue therein; for in doing this thou shall both save thy-
self, and them that hear thee ;" 1 Tim. iv. 16.
"Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound!
they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance ;
in thy name shall they rejoice all the day ;" Psal.
Ixxxix. 15.
** The word of God is quick and powerful," &c. ; Heb.
iv. 12.
" The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the com-
munion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break,
is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" 1 Cor. x. 16.
" For where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst of them;" Matt, xviii. 20.
** And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of
Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke
by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night ; for up-
on all the glory shall be a defence ;" Isa. iv. 5.
11. Promises to the humble, meek and lowly.
" Blessed are the poor in spirit ; for their's is the king-
dom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn; for they
shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek; for they shall
inherit the earth ;" Matt. v. 3—5.
" Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart ; and ye
shall find rest unto your souls : for my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light;" Matt. xi. 28, 29.
" The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart,
and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit ;" Psal. xxxiv. 18.
" The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : a broken
and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise ;" Psal .
li. 17.
" For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in height and holiness
(or in the high and holy place), with him also that is of a
contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to
revive the heart of the contrite ones;" Isa. Ivii. 15.
" To this man will I look, even to him that is poor,
and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word ;" Isa.
Ixvi. 2.
" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me : he hath anointed
me to preach the Gospel to the poor : he hath sent me to
LIFE OF FAITH. 273
heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the cap-
tives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at
liberty them that are bruised — ;" Luke iv. 18.
" He giveth grace to the humble ;" James iv. 6.
" Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child,
the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven ;" Matt,
xviii. 4.
" He that shall humble himself shall be exalted ;" Matt,
xxiii. 12.
" Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he
shall lift you up;" James iv. 10.
" He giveth grace to the lowly;" Prov. iii. 34.
12. Promises to the peaceable and peace-makers.
" Blessed are the peace-makers ; for they shall be called
the children of God ;" Matt. v. 9.
** The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle, easy to be entreated And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace, of them that make peace;" James iii.
17, 18.
"Be perfect; be of good comfort; be of one mind;
live in peace ; and the God of love and peace shall be with
you;" 2 Cor. xiii. 11.
"To the counsellors of peace is joy;" Prov. xii. 20.
" The God of peace shall be with you, &c. shall bruise
Satan under your feet shortly— — Grace and peace are the
blessing of saints ;" Rom. xv. 33. xvi. 20. Phil. iv. 9.
13. Promises to the diligent and laborious Christian.
" He that cometh to God, must believe that God is, and
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him ;"
Heb. xi. 6.
"The soul of the diligent shall be made fat;" Prov.
xiii. 4.
" Be stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not
in vain in the Lord ;" 1 Cor. xv. 58.
" Give diligence to make your calling and election sure ;
for if ye do these things, ye shall never fail ;" 2 Pet. i. 10.
" Give all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to vir-
tue knowledge, &c. For if these things be in you, and
abQund, they make you that you shall neither be barren
VOL. XII. T
274 LIFE OF FAITH.
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ;''
2 Pet. i. 5, 8.
'* Wherefore we labour, that whether present or absent,
we may be accepted of him;" 2 Cor. v. 9.
" Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to you ;" Matt. vi. 33.
" Every man shall receive his own reward, according to
his own labour;" 1 Cor. iii. 8.
" The kingdom of heaven sufFereth violence, and the
violent take it by force;" Matt. xi. 12. See Prov. iii. 13,
&c. iv. to xiv. vi. 20, &c. vii. 1, &c. viii. and ix. throughout.
14. Promises to the patient waiting Christian*
'* And we desire that every one of you do shew the same
diligence, to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that
ye be not slothful, but followers of them, who through faith
and patience inherit the promises;" Heb. vi. 11, 12.
" Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh pa-
tience ; but let patience have its perfect work, that ye may
be perfect and entire, wanting nothing ;" James i. 3, 4.
" Wait on the Lord ; be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen thine heart ; wait, I say, on the Lord ;" Psal,
xxvii. 14.
" Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him Those
that wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth. Wait on the
Lord, and keep his way ; he shall exalt thee to inherit the
land ;" Psal. xxxvii. 7. 9. 34.
" Wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee ;" Prov. xx. 22.
" Blessed are all they that wait for him;" Isa. xxx. 18.
" They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength ;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run,
and not be weary ; they shall walk, and not be faint ;" Isa.
xL 31.
" They shall not be ashamed that wait for me ;" Isa.
xlix. 23.
'* The Lord is good to them that wait for him ; to the
soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should hope,
and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord ;" Lam. iii. 25, 26.
" But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with
patience wait for it ;" Rom. viii. 25.
" For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righte-
ousness by faith ;" Gal. v. 5.
LIFE OF FAITH. 275
" The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and
into the patient waiting for Christ ;" 2 Thess. iii. 5.
** To them who by patient continuance in well doing,
seek for glory, honour and immortality, eternal life ;'* Rom.
ii. 7.
'* Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the
will of God, ye may inherit the promise ;" Heb. x. 36.
15. Promises to sincere obedience.
** Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they
may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through
the gates into the city ;" Rev. xxii. 14.
" Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we
keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleas-
ing in his sight ;" 1 John iii. 22. ** He that keepeth his
commandments, dwelleth in him, and he in him ;" ver. 24.
" He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me, shall be
loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest
myself to him;" John xiv. 21.
" If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my
love ; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and
abide in his love ;" John xv. 10.
"Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is no-
thing, but the keeping of the commandments of God ;"
1 Cor. vii. 19. See Psal. cxii. 1. cxix. 6. P^o^r. i. 20—22,
&c. Isa. xlviii. 18. Psal. xix. 8, 9, &c.
" He became the author of eternal salvation to all
them that obey him ;" Heb. v. 9.
" Here are they that keep the commandments of God,
and the faith of Jesus ;" Rev. xiv. 12.
" For this is the love of God, that we keep his com-
mandments ;" 1 John V. 3.
" Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter : fear
God, and keep his commandments ; for this is the whole
duty of man; for God shall bring every work into judg-
ment," &c. ; Eccles. xii. 13, 14.
** Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall aee God ;"
Matt. V. 8.
" You see then how that by works a man is justified,
j^nd not by faith only ;" James ii. 24.
*' Who will render to every man according to his deeds :
276 LIFE OF FAITH.
to them who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for
glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life — glory,
honour and peace to every man that worketh good Rom.
ii. 6, 7. 10.
" In every nation he that feareth God, and worketh
righteousness, is accepted with him;" Acts x. 35.
" Of obedience unto righteousness;" Rom. vi. 16.
'* He that^oth righteousness is righteous, even as he is
righteous ;" 1 John iii. 7.
" The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace ;*' James
iii. 18.
** He that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap
life everlasting ;" Gal. vi. 8.
** If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the
body, ye shall live ;" Rom. viii. 13.
16. Promises to them that love God.
** All things work together for good to them that love
•God ;" Rom. viii. 28.
" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him ;" 1 Cor. ii. 9.
" He shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath
promised to them that love him ;" James i. 12.
" Rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath
promised to them that love him ;" James ii. 5.
" He that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I
will love him, and will manifest myself to him ;" John xiv. 21.
" I love them that love me ;" Pro v. viii. 17.
*' If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will
pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you for ever ;" John xiv. 15.
" The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved
me, and believed ;" John xvi. 27.
17. Promises to them that love the godly, and that are
merciful, and do the works of love.
" By this shall all men know, that ye are my disciples,
if ye have love one to another ;" John xiii. 35.
" In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any
thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.
— — By love serve one another ; for the law is fulfilled in
one word, even in this ; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
LIFE OF FAITH. • 277
thyself. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-
suffering, gentleness, goodness Against such there is no
law ;" Gal. v. 6. 13, 14. 22.
" God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour
of love;" Heb. vi. 10.
" We know that we have passed from death to life, be-
cause we love the brethren. My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue ; but in deed and in truth :
and hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall as-
sure our hearts before him ;" I John iii. 14. 18, 19.
" Beloved, let us love one another ; for love is of God,
and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God
God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in
God, and God in him. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and his love is perfected in us ;" 1 John iv. 7. 16. 12.
" God loveth a cheerful giver. He that soweth bounti-
fully, shall reap bountifully ;" 2 Cor. ix. 7. 6.
'* Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy ;"
Matt. V. 7.
** He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet,
shall receive a prophet's reward ; and he that receiveth a
righteous man, in the name of a righteous man, shall re-
ceive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give
to drink unto one of these little ones, a cup of cold water only
in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in
no wise lose his reward ;" Matt. x. 41, 42.
** Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom —
Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto
me The righteous shall go into life eternal ;" Matt. xxv.
34. 40. 46.
" But to do good, and to communicate, forget not ; for
with such sacrifices God is well pleased ;" Heb. xiii. 16.
" I desire fruit that may abound to your account ;" Phil,
iv. 17.
" As it is written. He hath dispersed abroad ; he hath
given to the poor : his righteousness remaineth for ever j"
2 Cor. ix. 9.
18. Promises to the poor and needy Christian.
" If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is,
and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? Your heavenly Fa-
278 • LIFE OF FAITH.
ther kuoweth that ye have need of all these things. But
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to you ;" Matt. vi. 30*
32, 33.
" Let your conversations be without covetousness, and
be content with such things as ye have : for he hath said, I
will never fail thee nor forsake thee ;" Heb. xiii. 5.
** Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in
faith, and heirs of the kingdom ?" James ii. 5.
*• They that seek the Lord shall not want any good
thing '" Psal. xxxiv. 10.
" The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want ;" Psal.
xxiii. 1.
" My God shall supply all your need ;" Psal. iv. 19.
'* I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to
be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know
how to abound ; every where, and in all things I am in-
structed, both to be full, and to be hungry ; both to abound,
and to suffer need ;" Phil. iv. 11 — 13.
" The needy shall not always be forgotten : the expecta-
tion of the poor shall not perish for ever ;" Psal. ix. 18.
19. Promises to the oppressed and wronged Christian.
** For the oppression of the poor, and for the sighing of
the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord : I will set him
in safety from him that puffeth at him Thou shalt keep
them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation
for ever ;" Psal. xii. 5 — 7.
'* All my bones shall say. Lord, who is like unto thee,
which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for
him ; yea the poor and needy from him that spoileth him ;''
Psal. xxxv. 10.
** But I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh on
me ; thou art my helper and deliverer ;" Psal. xl. 17.
"He shall judge thy people with righteousness; and
thy poor with judgment. He shall judge the poor of the
people ; he shall save the children of the needy ; and shall
break in pieces the oppressor. For he shall deliver the
needy when he crieth ; the poor also, and him that hath no
helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save
the souls of the needy : he shall redeem their souls from
deceit and violence ; and precious shall their blood be in
his sight;" Psal. Ixxii. 2. 4. 12~-14.
LIFE OF FAITH. 279
" He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the
needy out of the dunghill ;*' Psal. cxiii. 7. See Isa. xxv.
3—5. xiv. 30. Zech. ix. 8. Isa. li. 13.
** If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent
perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel
not at the matter : for he that is higher than the highest,
regardeth ; and there be higher than they ;" Eccles. v. 8.
20. Promises to the persecuted who suffer for righte-
ousness.
*' Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteous-
ness' sake ; for their's is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and
say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Re-
joice, and be exceeding glad ; for great is your reward in
heaven : for so persecuted they the prophets which were
before you ;" Matt. v. 10—12.
" Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to
kill the soul Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ?
and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your
Father : but the very hairs of your head are all numbered :
fear you not therefore ; ye are of more value than many
sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before
men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in
heaven. He that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it;"
Matt. X. 28—32. 39.
" And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands,
for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall
inherit everlasting life ;" Matt. xix. 29.
" Your patience and faith in all your persecutions and
tribulations that ye endure : which is a manifest token of
the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted
worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer :
seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribu-
lation to them that trouble |you ; and to you who are trou-
bled, rest with us — when Christ shall come to be glorified
in his saints, and admired in all them that believe ;"
2 Thess. i. 4—6.
" Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Acts ix. 4.
Read Rom. viii. 28. to the end. Rev. ii. iii. Heb.xi. xii,
** There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is
common to man : but God is faithful, who will not suft'er
280 LIFE OF FAITH.
you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able
to bear it ;" 1 Cor. x. 13.
** I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds ; but
the word of God is not bound : I endure all things for tht
elect's sake It is a faithful saying : For if we be dead with
him, we shall also live with him : if we suffer, we shall also
reign with him ;" 2 Tim. ii. 9 — 12.
*' If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified together. For I reckon that the suff'erings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us ;" Rom. viii. 17, 18.
'* For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory ;" 2 Cor. iv. 17.
" But if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye :
and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; " 1 Pet.
iii. 14, 15. Read 1 Pet. iv. 12—16. 18, 19. Rom. v. 1—4.
" The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eter-
nal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile,
make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you — ;" 1 Pet.
V. 10."
21. Promises to the faithful in dangers, daily and ordi^
nary, or extraordinary.
" The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them
that fear him; and delivereth them. The righteous cry,
and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their
troubles. Many are the afflictions of the righteous ; but
the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all
his bones, not one of them is broken. The Lord redeemeth
the soul of his servants ; and none of them that trust in
him shall be desolate ;" Psal. xxxiv. 7. 17. 19, 20. 22.
*' He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High,
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say
of the Lord, He is my refuge, and my fortress ; my God, in
him will I trust — Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare
of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. Thou
shalt not be afraid for the terror by night — For he shall give
his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy
foot against a stone ;" Psal. xci. 1 — 3. 5. 11, 12. Read the
whole.
LIFE OF FAITH. 281
" My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven
and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved ; he
that keepeth thee will not slumber — The Lord is thy keeper ;
the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand : the Lord shall
preserve thee from all evil ; he shall preserve thy soul. The
Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in,
from this' time forth, and even for evermore ;" Psal. cxxi.
2-8.
** The Lord preserveth all them that love him — ;" Psal.
cxlv. 20.
" When thou passest through the waters, I will be with
thee—;" Isa. xliii. 2. PsaL xxxi. 23. xcvii. 10. cxvi. 6.
Prov. ii. 8.
*' Casting all your care upon him ; for he careth for
you ;" 1 Pet. v. 7.
22. Promises for help against temptations, to believers.
" The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of
temptations ;" 2 Pet. ii. 9. 1 Cor. x. 13. before cited.
Compare Matt. iv. Where Christ was tempted even to
worship the devil, &c. with Heb. iv. 15. ii. 18. " For we
have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as
we are, yet without sin — Wherefore in all things it behoved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful high priest, in things God-ward for us — For in
that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succour them that are tempted.
'* My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers
temptations (that is, by sufferings for Christ). Blessed is
the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he
shall receive the crown of life ;" James i. 2. 12.
*' My grace is sufficient for thee : my strength is made
perfect in weakness ;" 2 Cor. xii. 9.
** I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
me ;" Phil. iv. 13.
" Whom resist, stedfast in the faith ;" 1 Pet. v. 9, 10.
** Resist the devil, and he will flee from you ;" James iv.
7. Eph. vi. 10, 11, &c.
" For sin shall not have dominion over you ; for ye are
not under the law, but under grace ;" Rom. vi. 14.
** Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world ;*' John
xvi. 33.
282 LIFE OF FAITH.
" This is the victory that overcometh the world, even
our faith ;" 1 John v. 4.
23. Promises to them that overcome and persevere.
'* To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree
of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God ;"
Rev. ii. 7.
" He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second
death;" ver. 11.
" To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hid-
den manna, and will give him a white stone, &c. Be
faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life ;"
ver. 17. 10.
" He that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the
end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall
rule them with a rod of iron Even as I received of my
Father : and I will give him the morning-star;" ver. 26. 28.
" He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in
white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the
book of life ; but I will confess his name before my Father,
and before his angels. Him that overcometh will I make a
pillar in the temple of God, and he shall go no more out :
and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the
name of the city of my God, New Jerusalem, which cometh
down out of heaven from my God, and my new name ;'»
Rev.iii.5. 12.
'* To him that overcometh will I grant to sit down with
me on my throne, even as I overcame, and am set down
with my Father on his throne ;" ver. 21.
" If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples
indeed ; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free;" John viii. 31.
" To present you holy and unblamable, and unreprov-
able in his sight ; if ye continue in the faith; grounded and
settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gos-
pel—" Col. i. 22, 23.
'* If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall
ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you ;" John xv. 7.
" He that endureth to the end shall be saved;" Matt.
X. 22.
24. Promises to believers in sickness and at death.
" But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord,
LIFE OF FAITH. 283
that we should not be condemned with the wo,rld ;" 1 Cor.
xi. 32.
" For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth : if ye endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons— — Shall we not be in
subjection to the Father of Spirits, and live But he for
our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness : No
chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but griev-
ous ; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceful fruit of
righteousness to them that are exercised thereby ;" Heb. xii.
6—8.11.
*' Is any sick, let them send for the elders of the church
« ^The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord
shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall
be forgiven him ;" James v. 14.
" He whom thou lovest is sick ;" John xi. 3.
" Blessed is the man that considereth the poor: the
Lord shall deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord shall
preserve him and keep him alive The Lord will strengthen
him upon the bed of languishing : thou wilt make all his
bed in his sickness ;" Psal. xli. 1 — 3.
" For we know that if our earthly house of this taber-
nacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this
we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon, with our
house which is from heaven For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened ; not for that we would
be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality may be swal-
lowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the
self same thing is God ; who also hath given to us the ear-
nest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident,
knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are ab-
sent from the Lord. (For we walk by faith, not by sight :)
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent
from the body, and to be present with the Lord ;" 2 Cor. v.
1, &c.
" Now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whe-
ther it be by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain 1 am in a strait betwixt two, having a
desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better;"
Phil. i. 20, 21.23.
284 LIFE OF FAITH.
" To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise ;" Luke
xxiii. 43.
** I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me, write.
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from hence-
forth ; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their
labours, and their works do follow them ;" Rev. xiv. 13.
" Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and
blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that
through death, he might destroy him that had the power
of death, that is, the devil ; and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage;"
Heb. ii. 14.
'* He that is our God, is the God of salvation, and to
God the Lord belong the issues from death ;" Psal. Ixviii. 20.
" Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and
immortality to light by the Gospel;" 2 Tim. i. 10.
*• O death ! where is thy sting? O grave ! where is thy
victory ? The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin
is the law : but thanks be to God, which giveth us the vic-
tory through our Lord Jesus Christ ;" 1 Cor. xv. 54.
25. Promises to persevering believers, of the resurrec-
tion unto life, and of justification in judgment, and of glori-
fication.
" He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into con-
demnation, but is passed from death to life The hour is
coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his
voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good, to
the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, to the
resurrection of damnation ;" 1 Cor. xv. throughout. John
V. 22. 24. 28, 29.
" Because I live, ye shall live also ;" John xiv. 19.
** If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are
above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set
your affections on things above, not on things on the earth :
for ye are dead ; and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with him in glory ;" Col. iii. 1. 3, 4.
" He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired
in all them that believe ;" 2 Thess. i. 10.
*• Come ye blessed, &c. The righteous into life eternal ;"
Matt. XXV. 34. 46.
LIFE OF FAITH. 285
" If any man serve me, let him follow me ; and where T
am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me,
him will my Father honour ;" John xii. 26.
*' Let not your heart be troubled In my Father's
house are many mansions 1 go to prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will
come again, and receive you to myself, that where I am,
there ye may be also ;" John xiv. 1 — 3.
" Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given
me, be with me where I am, that they may behold the glory
which thou hast given me;" John xvii. 24.
" Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my
Father, and to your Father, to my God, and to your God ;"
John ii. 17.
'* Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?
Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3.
" Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out, when the time of refreshing shall come from the pre-
sence of the Lord ; and he shall send Jesus Christ ;"
Actsiii. 19. H
** Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the
just;" Luke xiv. 14.
Let the reader here take notice of that most important
observation of Dr. Hammond, that avao-ram'c, the resurrection,
doth often signify, in general * our living in the next world,
or our next state of life' in the Scriptures ; and not the last
resurrection only, unless it be called. The Resurrection of
the Flesh, or of the Body, for distinction ; or the context
have before explained it otherwise. By which 1 Cor. xv.
and Christ's answer to the Sadducees,may be better under-
stood^
" 26. Promises to the godly for their children, supposing
them to be faithful in dedicating them to God, and educat-
ing them in his holy ways.
"Shewing mercy to thousands in them that love me,
and keep my commandments ;" Exod. xx. commandment 2d.
" For the promise is made to you, and to your children,
and to all that are afar off," 8cc. ; Acts ii. 39.
" His seed is blessed ;" Psal. xxxvii. 26.
'* Else were your children unclean, but now are they
holy ;" I Cor. vii. 14.
" O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered
286 LIFE OP FAITH.
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not;" Matt, xxiii. 37.
" Through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, ''
Rom. xi. 11. Ver. 16 — 18, &c. shew that they were broken
off by unbelief, and we are grafted in, and are holy as they
were.
" Go and disciple all nations, baptizing them," &c. ;
Matt, xxviii. 19, 20.
That the promise might be sure to all the seed. The
children of promise are counted for the seed ;" Rom. iv. 16.
9.8.
" Jesus said. Suffer little children, and forbid them not
to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven;''
Matt. xix. 13, 14.
27. Promises to the church, of its increase, and preser-
vation, and perfection.
" The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms
of the Lord, and of his Christ;" Rev. xi. 15.
" He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of
his kingdom there shall be no end ;" Luke i. 33.
" The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard-
seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field : which is
indeed the least of all seeds ; but when it is growri, it is the
greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree ; so that the
birds of the air lodge in the branches of it The kingdom
of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid
in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened;"
Matt. xiii. 31. 33.
" And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me ;"
John xii. 32.
" In the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven
set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed ; and the
kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break
in pieces, and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall
stand for ever ;'* Dan. ii. 44.
" Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it;" Matt. xvi. 18.
" For the perfecting of the saints ; for the work of the
ministry; for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all
come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the
Son of God, unto a perfect man ; unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ : that henceforth we may be
LIFE OF FAITH. 287
no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive ; but speak-
ing the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things,
who is the Head, Christ : from whom the whole body fitly
joined together and compacted, by that which every joint
supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure
of every part, maketh increase of the body to the edifying
of itself in love;" Ephes. iv. 12. 16.
" Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word ; that he might present it to himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ;
but that it should be holy, and without blemish ;" Ephes. v.
26 — 27. Read Rev. xxi. xxii.
" Lo, I am with you to the end of the world ;'' Matt,
xxviii. 20.
" And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in
all the world for a witness to all nations ; and then shall
the end come ;" Matt. xxiv. 14.
" Whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken ;
but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to pow-
der ;" Matt. xxi. 44.
The obscure prophetic passages I pass by.
So much for living by faith on the promises of God.
CHAPTER VL
How Faith must be exercised on GocTs Threatenings and
Judgments,
The exercise of faith upon God*s threatenings and judg-
ments, m'ust be guided by such rules and helps at these :
Direct, 1. * Think not either that Christ hath no threat-
ening penal laws, or that there are none which are made for
the use of believers.'
If there were no penalties, or penal laws, there were no
distinguishing government of the world. This Antinomian
fancy destroyeth religion. And if there be threats, or penal
laws, none can be expected to make so much use of them
as true believers. 1. Because he that most believeth them,
288 LIFE OF FAITH.
must needs be most affected with them. 2. Because all
things are for them, and for their benefit; and it is they
that must be moved by them to the fear of God, and an
escaping of the punishment.
And therefore they that object, that believers are passed
already from death to life ; and that there is no condemna-
tion to them; and they are already justified, and therefore
have no use of threats or fears; do contradict themselves :
for it will rather follow, ' Therefore they, and they only, do
and will faithfully use the threatenings in godly fears.' For,
1. Though they are justified, and passed from death to life,
they have ever faith, in order of nature before their justifi-
cation ; and he that believeth not God's threatenings with
fear, hath no true faith. And, 2. They have ever inherent
righteousness or sanctification, with their justification : and
this faith is part of that holiness, and of the life of grace,
which they are passed into. " For this is life eternal, to
know the only true God, and Jesus Christ;" John xvii. 3.
And he knoweth not God, who knoweth him not to be true.
And this is part of our knowledge of Christ also, to know
him as the infallible author of our faith, that is, of the Gos-
pel, which saith not only, " He that believeth and is
baptized, shall be saved;'' but also, "He that believeth
not shall be damned ;" Mark xvi. 16. And this is the re-
cord which God gave of his Son, which he that believeth
not maketh him a liar ; " that God hath given us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son : he that hath the Son, hath life ;
and he that hath not the Son, hath not life;" 1 John v. 11,
12. Yea as '* he that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting
life; so he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but
the wrath of God abideth on him ;" John iii. 36. And
therefore, 3. The reason why there is no condemnation to
us, is because believing, not part only, but all this word of
Christ, we fly from sin and wrath, and are in Christ Jesus,
as giving up ourselves to him, and " walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit ;" being moved so to do both by the
promises and threats of God. This is plain English, and
plain and necessary truth, the greater is the pity, that many
honest, well meaning Antinomians should fight against it,
on an ignorant conceit of vindicating free grace : if the
plain word of God were not through partiality overlooked
by them, they might see enough to end the controversy in
LIFE OF FAITH. 289
many and full expressions of Scripture, I will cite but
three more. Matt. x. 28. Luke xii. 5. " But fear him who is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell ; or when he hath
killed, hath power to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto you,
fear him." Doth Christ thus iterate that it is he that saith
it, and saith it to his disciples ; and yet shall a Christian
say, it must not be preached to disciples as the word of
Christ to them?
** Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of
entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come
short of it;" Heb. iv. 1.
" By faith Noah being warned of God, of things not
seen as yet (that is, of the deluge), moved with fear, pre-
pared an ark, to the saving of his house ; by the which he
condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith ;" Heb. xi. 7.
Note here, how much the belief of God's threatenings
doth to the constitution of that faith which is justifying
and saving.
Direct, 2. * Judge not of God's threatenings by the evil
which is threatened, but by the obedience to which the
threatenings should drive us, and the evil from which they
would preserve us, and the order of the world which they
preserve, and the wisdom, and holiness, and justice of God,
which they demonstrate.'
When men think how dreadful a misery hell is, they are
ready to think hardly of God, both for his threatening and
execution ; as if it were long of him, and not of themselves,
that they are miserable. And as it is a very hard thing to
think of the punishment itself with approbation ; so is it
also to think of the threatening, or law which binds men
over to it ; or of the judgment which will pass the sentence
on them. But think of the true nature, use and benefits of
these threats or penal laws, and true reason, and faith will
not only be reconciled to them ; but see that they are to be
loved and honoured, as well as feared. 1. They are of
great use to drive us to obedience. And it is easier to see
the amiableness of God's commands, than of his threats :
and obedience to these commands, is the holy rectitude,
health and beauty of the soul. And therefore that which
is a suitable and needful means, to promote obedience, is
VOL. XIT. U
290 LIFE OF FAITH.
amiable and beneficial to us. Though love must be the
principle or chief spring of our obedience ; yet he that
knoweth not that fear must drive, as love must draw, and is
necessary in its place to join with love, or to do that which
the weaknesses of love leave undone, doth neither know
what a man is, nor what God's word is, nor what his go-
vernment is, nor what either magistracy, or any civil, or do-
mestical government is ; and therefore should spend many
years at school before he turneth a disputer.
2. They are of use to keep up order in the world ; which
could not be expected if it were not for God*s threatenings.
If the world be so full of wickedness, rapine and oppres-
sions, notwithstanding all the threatenings of hell, what
could we expect it should be, if there were none such, but
even as the suburbs of hell itself. When princes, and lords,
and rich men, and all those thieves and rebels that can bnt
get strength enough to defend themselves, and all that can
but hide their faults, would be under no restraints consider-
able, but would do all the evil that they have a mind to do :
men would be worse to one another, than bears and tigers.
3. God's threatenings, in their primary intention or use,
are made to keep us from the punishment threatened. Pu-
nishment is naturally due to evil doers : and God declareth
it, to give us warning, that we may take heed, avoid it and
escape.
4. That which doth so clearly demonstrate the holiness
of God, in his righteous government, his wisdom and his
justice is certainly good and amiable in itself. But we must
not expect that the same thing should be good and amiable
to the wicked, who run themselves into it ; which is good
to the world, or to the just about them, or to the honour of
God. Assizes, prisons and gallows are good to the country,
and to all the innocent, to preserve their peace, and to the
honour of the king and his government; but not to mur-
derers, thieves or rebels; Isa. xxvi. 7 — 9. Psal.xlviii.il.
ix. 16. Ixxxix. 14. xcvii. 2. cxlix. 9. cxlvi. 7. xxxvii.
6. 28. Jude 6. 15. Rev. iv. 7. xv. 4. xvi. 7. xix. 2.
Eccles. xii. 14.
Direct, 3. * Judge of the severity of God's threatenings,
partly by the greatness of himself whom we offend, and
partly by the necessity of them for the government of the
world.'
LIFE UF FAITH. -291
•I. Remember that sinning wilfully against the Infinite
Majesty of Heaven, and refusing his healing mercy to the
last, deserveth worse than any thing against a man can do ;
i Sam. ii. 25.
2. And remember that even the threatening of hell doth
not serve turn with most of the world, to keep them from
sinning and despising God : and therefore you cannot say
that they are too great. For that plaster draweth not too
strongly, which will not draw out the thorn. If hell be not
terrible enough to persuade you from sin, it is not too terri-
ble to be threatened and executed : He that shall say, ' Why
will God make so terrible a law V and withal should say,
' As terrible as it is I will venture at it, rather than leave my
pleasures, and rather than live a holy life ;' doth contradict
himself, and telleth us, that the law is not terrible enough
to attain its chief and primary end, with such as he, that
will not be moved by it, from the most sordid, base, or
brutish pleasure.
Direct. 4. ' Remember how Christ himself, even when he
came to deliver us from God's law, did yet come to verify
his threatening in the matter of it, and to be a sacrifice for
sin, and public demonstration of God's justice.'
For this end was Christ manifested, to destroy the works
of'the devil ; I John iii. 5. 8. And the first and great work
of the devil was, to represent God as a liar, and to persuade
Eve not to believe his threatenings, and to tell her, that
though she sinned, she should not die. And though God
so far dispensed with it, as to forgive man the greatest
part of the penalty, it was by laying it on his Redeemer ;
and making him a sacrifice to his justice : that his cross
might openly confute the tempter, and assure the world,
that God is just, and that " the wages of sin is dearth;"
(Rom. vi. 23.) though eternal life be the gift of God through
Jesus Christ.
And he that well considereth this, that the Son of God
would rather stoop to sufferings and death, than the devil's
reproach of God's threatenings should be made true, and
that the justice of God against sin should not be manifested,
will sure never think, that this justice is any dishonour to
the Almighty.
) Direct, 5. ' Let this be your use of the threatenings of
292 LIFE OF FAITH.
God, to drive you from sin to more careful obedience, and
to help you against the defects of love, and to set them
against every temptation when you are assaulted by it/
When a tempting bait is set before you, set hell against
it, as well as heaven ; and say, Can I take this cup, this
whore, this preferment, this gain of Judas, with hell, for my
part instead of heaven? If men threaten death, imprison-
ment, or any other penalty ; or if losses or reproaches be
like by men to be made your reward, remember that God
threateneth hell, and ask if this be not the most intolerable
suffering.
And if any Antinomian revile you for thus doing, and
say, * You should set only free grace before you, to keep
you from sinning, and not hell and damnation.' Tell him
that it is Christ the Mediator of free grace, which hath set
hell before you in the Scripture, and not you : and that you
do but consider of that which Christ hath set there be-
fore you to be considered of. Ask them whether it be not
God that prepared hell for the devil and his angels, and
Christ himself that will adjudge all impenitent sinners to it ;
Matt. XXV. And ask them why Christ doth so often talk of
it in the Gospel, (Matt, xiii.) of the '•' worm that never dieth,
and the fire that never shall be quenched ;" Luke xix. 27.
Mark xvi. 16. John iii. 36. 2 Thess. i. 8, 9, &c. And
whether they know why fear was given to man ; and whe-
ther Christ mistook in all such commands, Luke xii. 4.
Heb. xi. 7. iv. 1. And whether God hath made any part
of his laws in vain.
If they say, that the " Law was not made for a righteous
man ;" 1 Tim. i. 9. Tell them that the words are expounded.
Gal. V. 23. " Against such there is no law." The law was
not made to condemn and punish a righteous man ; because
he feared the threatening of it, and so fell not under the
condemnation. If you speak of the law of Christ, or any
law which supposeth the subject righteous : there is no law
can be pleaded against such to their damnation. That there is
no law against them is but as, Rom. viii. 1. "There is no
condemnation to them." And we grant also, that in that
measure as men's souls are habituated with love to God,
and duty, and hatred of sin, they need no law to urge and
threaten them, no more than a loving wife need to have, a
LIFE OF FAITH. 293
law to forbid her murdering her husband, or abusing him.
But withal we know, that no man on earth is perfect in the
degrees of love ; and therefore all need laws and fear.
Use all God's penal laws to the ends that he appointed
them, to quicken you in your obedience, and restrain you
from yielding to temptations, and from sinning, and then
your own benefit will reconcile you to the wisdom, holiness,
and justice of the laws.
Direct. 6. * Remember that all Christians have solemnly
professed their own consent, to the threats and punishments
of the Gospel.'
Though God will punish sinners whether they consent
or not; and though none consent to the execution upon
themselves, when it comes to it ; yet all that profess Chris-
tianity do profess their consent to the condemning, as well
as to the justifying part of God's word. For every Chris-
tian professeth his consent to be governed by Christ, and
therefore he professeth his consent to be governed by Christ's
laws : for if Christ be a King, he must have laws : and if he
govern us at all, he governeth us by laws. And this is Christ's
law ; " He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved ;
and he that believeth not, shall be damned ;" Mark xvi. 16.
He that professeth to be governed by Christ, professeth his
consent to be governed by this very law ; and therefore he
professeth his consent to be damned if he believe not.
Christ told you that you must consent to both parts, or to
neither : and will you grudge at the severity of that law
which you have professed your consent to ? The curses of
the covenant (Deut. xxix. 21.) were to be repeated to the
people of Israel, and they were expressly to say Amen to
each of them. For life and death were set before them ;
blessings and cursings, (Deut. xxx. 1. 19.) and not life and
blessings alone. And so the Gospel which we are to believe,
containeth though principally and eminently the promises ;
yet secondarily also the threatenings of hell to impenitent
unbelievers. And our consent doth speak our approbation.
Direct. 7. * Observe that the belief of Christ's threaten-
ings of damnation to impenitent unbelievers, is a real part
of the Christian saving faith, and that whenever it is joined
with a true love and desire after holiness, it certainly proveth
that the promises also are believed, though the party think
that he doth not believe them.'
W4 LIFE OF FAITH.
Note here, 1. That I do not say, that all belief or fear
of Grod's threatenings is saving faith. But, 2. That all
saving faith containeth such a belief of the threatenings.
3. And that many times poor Christians, who believe and
tremble at the threatenings, do truly believe the promises,
and yet mistake, and verily think that they do not believe
them, 4. But their mistake may certainly be manifested, if
their faith do but work by a love and desire after holiness,
and the fruition of God.
For, 1. It is evident that the same Gospel which saith,
" He that believeth shall be saved ;" doth say, ** He that
belie veth not shall be damned." Therefore the same faith
believeth both. 2. It is plain that the same formal object
of faith, which is God's veracity, will bring a man to be-
lieve one as well as the other, if he equally know it to be
a divine revelation : he that believeth that * All that God
saith is true :' and then believeth that God saith that * All
true believers shall be saved ;' must needs believe that this
promise is true. And he that understandeth that Christ
saith, * Unbelievers shall be damned ;' cannot but find also
that he saith, * True believers shall be saved.' And if he
believe the one, because it is the word of Christ ; he doth
sure believe the other, because it is the word of Christ.
3. Yea it is in many respects harder to believe God*s
threatenings, than his promises ; partly because sinners are
more unwilling that they should be true ; and they have
more enmity to the threatenings, than to the promises ; and
partly because they commonly feign God to be such as
they would have him be : " Thou though test that I was alto-
gether such an one as thyself," &c. ; Psal. 1, And partly
because God's goodness being known to be his very essence,
and all men being apt to judge of goodness, by the measure
of their own interest, it is far more obvious and facile to
man's understanding, to conclude that some are saved, than
that some are damned ; and that the penitent believers are
saved, than that the impenitent unbelievers are damned :
We hear daily how easily almost all men are brought to be-
lieve that God is merciful ; and how hard it is to persuade
them of his damning justice and severity. Therefore he
that can do the harder, is not unlike to do the easier.
And indeed it is mere ignorance of the true nature of
faith, which maketh those whom I am now describing, to
LIFE OF FAITH. 295
think that they do not believe God's promises, when they
believe his threatenings. They think that because they be-
lieve not that they themselves are pardoned, justified, and
shall be saved, that therefore they believe not the promise
of God ; but this is not the reason ; but it is because you
find not the condition of the promise yet in yourselves, and
therefore think that you have no part in the benefits : but it
is one thing to doubt of your own sincerity, and another
thing to doubt whether the promise of God be true. Sup-
pose that the law do pardon a felon if he can read as a clerk ;
and one that is a felon be in doubt whether his reading will
serve or not ; this is not to deny belief to the pardoning act
of the law. Suppose one promise a yearly stipend to all
that are full one and twenty years of age, in the town or
country : to doubt of my age, is not to doubt of the truth of
the promise.
Object. * But do not Protestant divines conclude against
the Papists, that saving faith must be a particular applica-
tion of Christ and the promise to ourselves, and not only a
general assent?'
Answ. It is very true ; and the closer that application is
the better. But the application which all sound divines (in
this point) require as necessary in saving faith, is neither an
assurance, nor persuasion that your own sins are already
pardoned, or that they ever will be : but it is, 1. A belief
that the promise of pardon to all believers, is so universal,
as that it includeth you as well as others, and promiseth and
ofFereth you pardon, and life, if you will believe in Christ.
2. And it is a consent or willingness of heart that Christ be
yours, and you be his, to the ends proposed in the Gospel.
3. And it is a practical trust in his sufficiency, as choosing
him for the only Mediator, resolving to venture your souls,
and all your hopes upon him: though yet through your
ignorance of yourselves, you may think that you do not this
thing in sincerity, which indeed you do; yea, and much
fear (through melancholy or temptation) that you never
shall do it, and consequently never shall be saved.
He that doubteth of his own salvation, not because he
doubteth of the truth of the Gospel ; but because he
doubteth of the sincerity of his own heart, may be mistaken
in himself, but is not therefore an unbeliever (as is said
before).
2D6 LIFE Of FAITH.
If you would know whether you believe the promises
truly, answer me these particular questions : 1. Do you be-
lieve that God hath promised that all true believers shall
be saved? 2. Do you believe that if you are or shall be a
true believer, you shall be saved? 3. Do you choose or
desire God as your only happiness and end, to be enjoyed
in heaven, and Christ as the only Mediator to procure it;
and his Holy Spirit as his Agent in your souls, to sanctify
you fully to the image of God ? Are you truly willing that
thus it should be ? And if God be willing, will not you re-
fuse it ? 4. Do you turn away from all other ways of feli-
city, and choose this alone, to venture all your hopes upon,
and resolve to seek for none but this ; and to venture all on
God and Christ, though yet you are uncertain of your sin-
cerity and salvation ? Why this makes up true saving faith.
5. And I would further ask you ; Do you fear damna-
tion, and God's wrath, or not? If not, what troubleth you?
And why complain you ? If you do, tell me then whether
you do believe God's threatenings, that he that believeth
not shall be damned, or not? If you do not, what maketh
you fear damnation? Do you fear it, and not believe that
there is any such thing? If you do believe it, how can you
choose but believe also, that every true believer shall be
saved ? Is God true in his threatenings, and not in his
promises? This must force you plainly to confess, that
you do believe God's promises, but only doubt of your own
sincerity, and consequently of your salvation; which is
more a weakness in your hope, than in your faith, or rather
chiefly in your acquaintance with yourself.
Direct, 8. * Yet still dwell most upon God's promises in.
the exercise of love, desire and thankfulness ; and use all
your fear about the threatenings, but in a second place, to
further and not to hinder the work of love.'
Direct. 9. * Let faith interpret all God's judgments,
merely by the light of the threatenings of his word ; and do
not gather any conclusions from them, which the word af-
fordeth not, or alloweth not; God's judgments may be dan-
gerously misunderstood.'
LIFE OF FAITH. 297
CHAPTER VII.
How to exercise Faith about Pardon of Sin and Justification.
The practice of faith about our justification, is hindered by
so many unhappy controversies and heresies, that what to
do with them here in our way,' is not very easy to deter-
mine. Should I omit the mention of them, I leave most that
I write for, either under that disease itself, or the danger of
it, which may frustrate all the rest which I must say : for
the errors hereabout are swarming in most quarters of the
land, and are like to come to the ears of most that are stu-
dious of these matters : so that an antidote to most, and a
vomit to the rest, is become a matter of necessity, to the
success of all our practical directions.
And yet many cannot endure to be troubled with diffi-
culties, who are slothful, and must have nothing set before
them that will cost them much study ; and many peaceable
Christians love not any thing that soundeth like contro-
versy or strife (as others that are sons of contention relish
nothing else). But averseness must give place to necessity.
If the leprosy arise, the priest must search it, and the physi-
cian must do his best to cure it, notwithstanding their
natural averseness to it. Though I may be as averse to
write against errors, as the reader is to read what I v/rite,
we must both blame that which causeth the necessity, but
not therefore deny our necessary duty : but yet I will so
far gratify them that need no more, as to put the more prac-
tical directions first, that they may pass by the heap of
errors after, if their own judgments prevail not against their
unwillingness.
Direct. 1. * Understand well what need you have of par-
don of sin, and justification, by reason of your guilt, and of
God's law and justice, and the everlasting punishment which
is legally your due.'
1. It must be a sensible, awakening, practical know-
ledge of our own great necessity, which must teach us to
value Christ as a Saviour, and to come to him in that
empty, sick and weary plight, as is necessary in those who
will make use of him for their supply and cure ; Matt. ix«
12. xi. 28, 29. A superficial, speculative knowledge of our
298 LIFE OF FAITH.
sin and misery, will prepare us but for a superficial opinion-
ative faith in Christ, as the remedy ; but a true sense of
both, will teach us to think of him as a Saviour indeed.
2. Original sin, and actual, the wickedness both of the
heart and life, even all our particular sins of omission and
commission, and all their circumstances and aggravations,
are the first reason of our great necessity of pardon : and
therefore it cannot but be a duty to lay them to heart as
particularly as we can, to make that necessity, and Christ's
redemption the better understood ; Acts ii. 37. xxii. 8, 9, &c.
3. The wrath of God, and the miseries of this life, and
the everlasting miseries of the damned in hell, being the
due effects or punishment of sin, are the second cause of
our necessity of pardon : and therefore these also must be
thought on seriously, by him that will seriously believe in
Christ.
4. The law of God which we have broken, maketh this
punishment our due ; Rom. iii. v. vii. And the justice of
God is engaged to secure his own honour, in the honour of
his law and government.
Direct. 2. * Understand well what Christ is and doth,
for the justification of a sinner, and how (not one only) but
all the parts of his office are exercised hereunto.'
In the dignity of his person, and perfect original holi-
ness of his natures, divine and human, he is fitly qualified
for his work of our justification and salvation.
His undertaking (which is but the Divine decree) did
from eternity lay the foundation of all, but did not actually
justify any.
His promise, (Gen. iii. 15.) and his new relation to man
thereupon, did that to the fathers in some degree, which his
after-incarnation and performance, and his relation there-
upon, doth now to us.
His perfect obedience to the law ; yea, to that law of
mediation also peculiar to himself (which he performed nei-
ther as priest, or prophet, or king, but as a subject) was
the meritorious cause of that covenant and grace which
justifieth us, and so of our justification. And that which is
the meritorious cause here, is also usually called the mate-
rial, as it is that matter or thing which meriteth our justifi-
cation ; and so is called our righteousness itself.
As he was a sacrifice for sin, he answered the ends of
LIFE OF FAITH. 290
the law which we violated, and which condemned us, as
well as if we had been all punished according to the sense
of the law : and therefore did thereby satisfy the Law-giver:
and thereby also merited our pardon and justification ; so
that his obedience as such, and his sacrifice (or whole
humiliation) as satisfactory by answering the ends of the
law, are conjunctly the meritorious cause of our justifi-
cation.
His new covenant (which in baptism, is made mutual by
our expressed consent) is a general gift or act of oblivion,
or pardon, given freely to all mankind, on condition they
will believe and consent to it, or accept it ; so that it is
God's pardoning and adopting instrument : and all are par-
doned by it conditionally ; and every penitent believer ac-
tually and really. And this covenant or gift is the effect of
the aforesaid merit of Christ, both founded and sealed by
his blood.
As he merited this as a mediating subject and sacrifice,
so as our High Priest he offered this sacrifice of himself to
God.
And as our King, he being the Law-giver to the church,
did make this covenant as his law of grace, describing the
terms of life and death : gftid being the Judge of the world,
doth by his sentence justify and condemn men, as believers
or unbelievers, according to this covenant : and also ex-
ecuteth his sentence accordingly (partly in this life, but
fully in the life to come).
As our Teacher, and the Prophet, or Angel of the Cove-
nant, he doth declare it as the Father's will, and promulgate
and proclaim this covenant and conditional pardon and jus-
tification to the world ; and send out his ambassadors with
it to beseech men in his name to be reconciled to God, and
to declare, yea, and by sacramental investiture, to seal and
deliver a pardon and actual justification to believers when
they consent.
And as our Mediating High Priest now in the heavens,
he presenteth our necessity, and his own righteousness
and sacrifice as his merits, for the continual communication
of all this grace, by himself, as the Head of the church, and
administrator of the covenant.
So that Christ doth justify us both as a subject meriting,
as a sacrifice meriting, as a Priest ofiering that sacrifice ; as
300 LIFE OF FAITH.
a King actually making the justifying law, or enacting a
general pardon; as a King sententially and executively jus-
tifying; as a Prophet or Angel of the Covenant promulgating
it ; as King, and Prophet, and Priest, delivering a sealed
pardon by his messengers ; and as the Priest, Head and Ad-
ministrator communicating this with the rest of his bene-
fits. By which you may see in what respects Christ must
be believed in to justification, if justifying faith were (as it
is not) only the receiving him as our justifier: it would not
be the receiving him as in one part of his office only.
Direct. 3. * Understand rightly how far it is that the
righteousness of Christ himself is made ours, or imputed to
us, and how far not.'
There are most vehement controversies to this day,
about the imputation of Christ's righteousness ; in which I
know not well which of the extremes are in the greater
error, those that plead for it in the mistaken sense, or those
that plead against it in the sober and right sense : but I
make no doubt but they are both of them damnable, as
plainly subverting the foundation of our faith. And yet I
do not think that they will prove actually damning to the
authors, because I believe that they misunderstand their
adversaries, and do^not well understand themselves ; and
that they digest not, and practise not what they plead for,
but digest and practise that truth which they doctrinally
subvert, not knowing the contrariety ; which if they knew
they would renounce the error, and not the truth. And I
think that many a one that thus contradicteth fundamentals,
may be saved.
Some there be (besides the Antinomians) that hold that
Christ did perfectly obey and satisfy, (not in the natural,
but) in the civil or legal person of each sinner that is elect
(representing and bearing as many distinct persons as are
elect), so fully as that God doth repute every elect person
(or say others, every believer) to be one that in law sense,
did perfectly obey and satisfy justice himself; and so im-
puteth Christ's righteousness and satisfaction to us, as that
which was reputatively or legally of our own performance,
and so is ours, not only in its effects, but in itself.
Others seeing the pernicious conseq^uences of this opi-
nion, deny all imputed righteousness of Christ to us, and
write many reproachful volumes against it (as you may see
LIFE OF FAITH. 301
inThorndike's last Works, and Dr. Gell, and Parker, against
the Assembly, and abundance more).
The truth is, Christ merited and satisfied for us in the
person of a Mediator: but this Mediator was the Head and
root of all believers, and the second Adam, the Fountain of
spiritual life ; and the Surety of the new covenant, (Heb. vii.
22. 1 Cor. XV. 24, 25.) and did all this in the nature of
man, and for the sake and benefit of man ; suffering, that
we might not suffer damnation, but not obeying that we
might not obey ; but suffering and obeying that our sinful
imperfection of obedience might not be our ruin, and our
perfect obedience might not be necessary to our own justi-
fication or salvation, but that God might for the sake and
merit of this his perfect obedience and satisfaction, forgive
all our sins, and adopt us for his sons, and give us his Holy
Spirit, and glorify us for ever ; so that Christ's righteous-
ness,both obediential and satisfactory, is ours in the effects
of it in themselves, and ours relatively for these effects, so •
far as to be purposely given for us to that end ; but not
ours in itself simply, or as if we were reputed the legal per-
formers ourselves, or might be said in law sense, or by Di-
vine estimation or imputation, to have ourselves in and by
Christ fulfilled the law, and suffered for our not fulfilling it
(which is a contradiction).
As he that both by a price, and by some meritorious act,
doth redeem a captive, or purchase pardon for a traitor,
doth give the money and merit in itself to the prince, and
not to the captive or traitor himself. (He never saw it, nor
ever had propriety in the thing itself;) But the deliverance
is the prisoner's, and not the prince's ; and therefore it is
given to the prisoner, as to the effects, though not in itself;
in that it was given for him.
And because Christ suffered what we should have suf-
fered (as to the value), to save us from suffering, and our
sins were not the cause of our guilt or punishment, and so
the remote cause of the sufferings of Christ (his own spon-
sion being the nearer cause), therefore it may be said truly,
that Christ did not only suffer for our benefit, but in our
stead or place ; and in a larger and less strict and proper
sense, that he suffered in the person of a sinner, and as one
to whom our sins were imputed ; meaning no more but that
302 LIFE OF FAITH.
he suffered as one that by his own consent undertook to
suffer for the persons of sinners, and tliat as such an under-
taker only he suffered; and that thus our sins were imputed
to him (not in themselves, as if he were in law sense the
committer of them, or polluted by them, or by God esteemed
so to have been, but) as to the effects, that is, his suffering ;
in that they were the occasion, and the remote or assumed
cause of his sufferings ; as his righteousness is imputed to
us, as the meritorious cause of our pardon and justification.
But he could not be said, no not in so large a sense as
this, to have obeyed in our stead (considering it as obedi-
ence or holiness, but only as merit), because he did it not
that we might not obey, but that we might not suffer for
disobeying.
More of this will follow in the next chapter.
Direct. 4. * Understand well what guilt it is that Christ
doth remit in our justification; not the guilt of the fact,
nor of the fault in itself, but the guilt of punishment;
and of the fault only so far as it is the cause of wrath and
punishment.'
1. The guilt of fact, is in the reality or truth of this
charge, that such a fact we did or omitted : so far it is but
physically considered, and would not come into legal con-
sideration, were it not for the following relation of it.
2. The guilt of fault, * reatus culpae,' is the reality of
this charge (or the foundation of it in us) that we are the
committers or emitters of such an action contrary to the
law : or that our act or omission was really a crime or fault.
3. The guilt of punishment, * reatus poense, vel ad poenam,
is the foundation of this charge, that we are by that law
which must judge us, conderanable, or obliged to punish-
ment (or it is our right) for the sins so committed.
Now Christ doth not by justifying us, or pardoning us,
make us either to be such as really did not do the fact ;
or such as did not a culpable fact ; no, nor such as did not
deserve damnation, or to whom it was not due by the first
law alone ; but to be such who are not now at all con-
demnable for it, because the new law which we must be
judged by, doth absolve us, by forgiving us; not making
the fault no fault, nor causing God to think that Christ
committeii it, and not we ; or to esteem us to be such as
LIFE OF FAITH. 303
never did commit it ; but remitting the punishment, and
that dueness of punishment and obligation to it, which did
before result from the fault and law together ; and so the
fault itself is remitted as it is the foundation from whence
that obligation to punishment resulteth, respectively, but
not simply, nor as a fault in itself at all.
When I say the punishment and the dueness of it to us,
is forgiven, 1 mean not only the punishment of sense, but
of loss also : nor only the outward part which is executed
by creatures, but especially the first and great penalty, of
God's own displeasure with the person, and the withdraw-
ing of his Spirit and complacential love, and that which we
may improperly call, his obligation in justice to condemn
the sinner. There was upon God, before Christ's satisfac-
tion and our title to him, that which we may so call a legal
or relative obligation on God to punish us, because else he
should have done contrary to the due ends of government,
and so contrary to the wisdom and j ustice of a Governor,
which is not consistent with his perfection. But now the
ends of government are so answered and provided for, that
there is no such obligation on God to punish us, but he
may remit it without any dishonour at all ; nay with the
honour of his wisdom and justice. We are now, *non con-
demnandi,' not condemnable, though we are sinners. In
judgment we must confess the latter, aVi(J deny the former
only.
Direct. 5. * Understand well what sins Christ justifieth
men from, or forgiveth to them, and what not : All sins
which consist with true faith and repentance, (^or true con-
version to God in love, by faith in Christ) and all that went
before : but he forgiveth no man in a state of impenitency
and unbelief, nor any man's final impenitency and unbelief
at all ; nor any other sins, where those are final ; except it
be with the common conditional forgiveness before men-
tioned ; or that absolute particular forgiveness of some pre-
sent penalties, which saveth no man from damnation ;'
Matt. xii.31. Acts xxvi. 18. Rom. viii. I. 30. Actsv.31.
ii. 38, 39. Mark xvi. 16. John iii. 16. 18. 36. 1 John v.
11, 12. Mark iv. 12. Matt, xviii. 27. 32.
Direct. 6. * Understand well the true nature of that faith
and repentance, which God hath made the condition of our
justification.' This is sufficiently opened before ; and the
304 LIFE OF FAITH.
confutation of all the cavils against it, would be tedious
and unsavoury here.
Direct. 7. ' Understand well the covenant and promise
of justification; and measure your belief and expectations
by that promise.'
Expect no other pardon, nor on any other conditions or
terms than the promise doth contain : for it is God's par-
doning act or instrument; and by it we must be justi-
fied or condemned : and we know not but by it, whom God
will justify.
Direct. 8. ' Keep always the assuring grounds of faith
before your eyes, when you look after pardon, that your
faith may be firm, and powerful, and quieting; especially
consider the following grounds.'
1. God's gracious nature proclaimed even to Moses, as
abundant in mercy, and forgiving iniquity, transgressions
and sins (to those, and upon those terms that he pro-
miseth forgiveness), though he will by no means clear the
guilty (that is, will neither take the unrighteous to be righ-
teous; nor forgive them, or acquit them in judgment, whom
his covenant did not first forgive).
2. The merciful nature also of our Redeemer ; Heb. ii. 17.
3. How deeply Christ hath engaged himself to shew
mercy, when he assumed our nature, and done so much
towards our salvation, as he hath done ; Heb. viii. ix.
4. That it is his very ofiice and undertaking, which
therefore he cannot possibly neglect; Luke xix. 10. ii. 11.
John iv. 42. Acts v. 31. xiii. 23.
5. That God the Father himself did give him to us, and
appoint him to this saving oflSce ; John iii. 16. 18. Acts v»
31. xiii. 23. Yea " God was in Christ reconciling the
world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them;". 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. And God made "him sin (that is,
a sacrifice for sin) for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him," (that is, might
be the public instances of God's merciful justice, as Christ
was of his penal justice) ; and this by a righteousness given
us by God himself, and purchased or merited for us by
Christ, (2 Cor v. 21.) yea, and be renewed in holiness and
righteousness according to his image.
6. That now it is become the very intjcrest of God, and
of Jesus Christ himself to justify us; as ever he would
LIFE OF FAITH. 305
not lose either the glory of his grace, or the obedience and
suffering which he hath performed ; Isa. liii. 19. Rom. v.
12, 13. 18, 19, &c. iv. throughout.
7. Consider the nearness of the person of Christ, both
to the Father and to us; Heb. i. ii. iii.
8. Think of the perfection of his sacrifice and merit, set
out throughout the Epistle to the Hebrews.
9. Think of the word of promise or covenant, which he
hath made, and sealed and sworn ; Heb. vi. 17, 18. Titus
i. 2.
10. Think of the great seal of the Spirit, which is more
than a promise, even an earnest, which is a certain degree
of possession, and is an executive pardon (as after shall be
declared); Rom. viii. 15, 16. Gal. iv. 6.
11. Remember that God's own justice is now engaged
for our justification, in these two respects conjunct : 1. Be-
cause of the fulness of the merits and satisfaction of Christ :
2. And because of his veracity which must fulfil his pro-
mise, and his governing or distributive justice, which must
judge men according to his own law of grace, and must
give men that which he himself hath made their right;
2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. 1 John v. 9—12.
12. Lastly, Think of the many millions now in heaven,
of whom many were greater sinners than you ; and no one
of them (save Christ) came thither by the way of innocency
and legal justification : There are no saints in heaven that
were not redeemed from the captivity of the devil, and jus-
tified by the way of pardoning grace, and were not once the
heirs of death ; John iii. 3. 5. Rom. iii. iv.
Upon these considerations trust yourselves confidently
on the grace of Christ, and take all your sins but as the ad-
vantages of his grace.
jDzrec^. 9. * Remember that there is somewhat on your own
parts to be done, for the continuing, as well as for the begin-
ning of your justification ; yea somewhat more than for the
beginning ; even the faithful keeping of your baptismal cove-
nant, in the essentials of it ; and also that you have con-
tinual need of Christ, to continue your justification.'
Many take justification to be one instantaneous act of
God, which is never afterwards to be done : and so it is, if
we mean only the first making of him righteous who was
VOL. XII. X
306 lilFE OF FAITH.
unrighteous : (as the first making of the world, and not the
continuance of it, is called Creation :) but this is but about
the name : for the thing itself, no doubt but that covenant
which first justified us, doth continue to justify us ; and if
the cause should cease, the effect would cease. And he
that requireth no actual obedience, as the condition of our
begun justification, doth require both the continuance of
faith, and actual sincere obedience, as the condition of con-
tinuing, or not losing our justification, (as Davenant, Ber-
gius. Blank, Sec. have well opened, and 1 have elsewhere
proved at large.) As matrimony giveth title to conjugal
privileges to the wife; but conjugal fidelity and per-
formance of the essentials of the contract is necessary to
continue them. Therefore labour to keep up your faith,
and to abide in Christ, and he in you, and to bring forth
fruit, lest ye be branches withered, and for the fire ; John
XV. 2, 3. 7—9, &c.
And upon the former misapprehension, the same persons
do look upon all the faith which they exercise through their
lives ; after the first instantaneous act, as no justifying faith
at all (but only a faith of the same kind), but to what use
they hardly know. Yea they look upon Christ himself, as
if they had no more use for him, either as to continue their
justification, or to forgive their after sins ; when as our
continued faith must be exercised all our lives on the same
Christ, and trust on the same covenant, for the continuation
and perfection of that which was begun at the time of our
regeneration ; Col. i. 23. 1 John ii. 24. Heb. iii. 6. 12, 13.
vi. 11, 12. X. 22, 23.
Direct. 10. * Understand that every sin which you com-
mit, hath need of a renewed pardon in Christ : and that he
doth not prevent your necessity of such pardon. And
therefore you will have constant need of Christ, and must
daily come to God for pardon by him ; not only for the
pardon of temporal chastisements, but of everlasting punish-
ment/
Of the sense of this, I shall say more anon : The proof
of it is in the forecited promises ; and in all those texts of
Scripture which tell us that death is the wages of sin, and
call us to ask pardon, and tell us on what terms it may be
had.
Direct, 11. 'Yet do not think that every sin doth put
LIFE OF FAITH. 307
you into a state of condemnation again ; or nullify your
former justification : for though the law of nature is so far
still in force, as to make punishment by it your natural due ;
yet the covenant of grace is a continually pardoning act ;
and according to its proper terms, doth dissolve the afore-
said obligation, and presently remit the punishment: and as
its moral action is not interrupted ; no more is our justified
state/
" There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ
Jesus," &c. ; Rom, viii. 1. John iii. 16. 18. 1 John v. 11, 12.
*' If any may sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous ; and he is the propitiation for
our sins ;" 1 John ii. 1, 2. ** If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness." If all need of pardon had been
prevented by Christ, what use were there of his advocation
for our future forgiveness ?
Direct. 12. * Remember, that though unknown infirmi-
ties, and unavoidable ones, have an immediate pardon, be-
cause the believer hath an habitual faith and repentance ;
yet great and known sins must have actual repentance, be-
fore the pardon will be plenary or perfect ; though the per-
son is not in the meantime an unregenerate nor justified
person.'
1. That great and known sins must have a particular re-
pentance, appeareth, 1. In that it is utterly inconsistent
with the sincerity of habitual repentance, not to be actual,
when sins are known, and come into our deliberate remem-
brance. 2. By all those texts which require such repen-
tance, confession and forsaking ; 1 John ii. 1,2. i, 9. Prov.
xxviii. 13. Psal. xxxii. Ii. 2 Cor. vii. 11. Rev. ii. 5. 16.
Luke xiii. 3. 5. James v. 14, 15. Luke vi. 37. xi. 4. Re-
pentance consisteth chiefly in forsaking sin ; and if men
forsake not such known wilful sins, they are wicked men,
and therefore are not pardoned.
2. That unavoidable frailties, are mere infirmities, and
unknown faults, are pardoned immediately to them that are
truly godly, and have a general and implicit repentance, is
plain, because else no man in the world could be saved ;
because every man hath such infirmities and unknown sins ;
1 John i. lO:
308 LIFE OF FAITH.
3. Yet David himself is not put by his sin into a mere
graceless state, and as a person that hath no former justifi-
cation ; for he prayeth God not to take his Spirit from him,
and he was not deprived of the true love to God, which is
the character of God's children : but he had incurred heinous
guilt, and put himself in the way towards utter damnation,
and caused a necessity of a more particular deep repen-
tance before he could be fully pardoned, than else he needed.
Before the world had a Saviour, we were all so far un-
pardoned, that a satisfying sacrifice was necessary to our
justification : but afterward, all men are so far pardoned,
that only the acceptance of what is purchased and freely
(though conditionally) given, is necessary to it. Before
men are converted, they are yet so far unpardoned, that
(though no more sacrifice be necessary, yet) a total conver-
sion and renovation, by turning from a life of sin to God by
faith in Christ, is necessary to their actual justification and
forgiveness. When a man is turned from a life of sin to
God, and liveth in the state of grace, all his following sins,
which consist with the loving of God and holiness above
the world and sinful pleasures, are so far forgiven immedi-
ately upon the committing, that they need neither another
sacrifice, nor another regeneration, or justification, (' quoad
statum') but only an acting of that faith and repentance,
which habitually he had already. But the unknown errors
and faults of such godly persons are pardoned even without
that actual repentance : and infirmities, without forsaking
of the sin overcomingly in practice. And so every one
liveth and dieth, in some degree of sinful defectiveness and
omission, of his love to God, and trust, and hope, and zeal,
and desire, and love to men, and care of his duty, and
watchfulness, and fervency in prayer, meditation. Sec. And
in some degree of sinful disorder.in our ill-governed thoughts,
and words, and affections, or passions, and actions : we are
never sinless till we die.
Direct. 13. 'Remember that you must neither think that
every sin which is a cause of repentance, is a sufficient rea-
son for you to doubt of your present state of justification;
nor yet that no sin car be so great as to be a necessary
cause of doubting.'
If every sin should make us doubt of our justification.
LIFE OF FAITH. 309
then all men must always doubt : and then it must be be-
cause no sin is consistent with sincerity, and the knowledge
of sincerity ; which is apparently false.
If no sin should cause our doubting, then there is no
sin which is not consistent both with sincerity, and with
the knowledge of it ; which is as false, and much more dan-
gerous to hold. 1. There are many sins that are utterly in-
consistent with true godliness ; otherwise the godly were
ungodly, and as bad as others : and if you say that no godly
man committeth these, it is true ; and therefore it is true
that he that committeth them, is not a godly man, or justi-
fied. And how shall a man know his godliness, but by his
life as the product of his inward graces ? It is arguing
from an uncertainty against a certainty, to say, I am justi-
fied and godly, and therefore my wilful sins of drunken-
ness, fornication, oppression, lying, malice, &c. are consis-
tent with justification: and it is arguing from a certain
truth, against a doubted falsehood, to say, I live in ordinary,
wilful, heinous sin; therefore I am not justified or sincere.
** For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean per-
son, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheri-
tance in the kingdom of Christ, and of God. Let no man
deceive you with vain words ; for because of these things
Cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobe-
dience ;" Ephes. v. 5, 6. ** Know ye not that the unrighte-
ous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Be not deceived ;
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effemi-
nate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of
you ; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified," &c. ; 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.
" There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die," 8cc. ;
Rom. viii. 1. 13. Gal. v. 20—24.
2. And there are many sins which consist with true
grace, which will not consist with the assurance of its sin-
cerity. And that, 1,. From the nature of the things ; be-
cause the least degree of grace conjunct with, and clouded
by the greatest degree of sin, which may consist with it, is
not discernible to him that hath it; he that is so very near
310 I^IFE OF FAITH.
a state of death, ancj so very like to an unjustified persoo,
can never be sure, in tbat case, that he is justified. 2. And
also God in wisdom and justice will have it so ; that sin
may not be encouraged, nor presumption cherished, nor the
comforts which are the reward of an obedient child, be ca&t
away on an incapable child in his stubborn disobedience ;
Psal. li. xxxii. Ixxvii.
Therefore for a man that liveth in gross sin, to say that
he is sure that he is justified, and therefore no sin shall
make him question it ; is but to believe the Antinomian
devil transforming himself into an angel of light, and his
ministers, when they call themselves the ministers of righte-
ousness ; and to deny belief to the Spirit of holiness and
truth. And if a true believer should come very near such a
state of death, common reason, and the due care of his own
soul, obligeth him to be suspicious of himself, and to fear
the worst, till he have made sure of better ; Heb. vi. iii. 10.
iv. 1. 12—14. 1 Cor. X. John xv. 2. 7, 8, 8cc.
Direct. 14. * Let not the persuasion that you are justified,
make you more secure and bold in sinning, but more to
hate it, as contrary to the ends of justification, and to the
love which freely justified you.'
It is a great mark of difference between true assurance,
and blind presumption, that the one maketh men hate sin
more, and more carefully to avoid it ; and the other causeth
men to sin with less reluctancy, and remorse ; because with
less fear.
Direct, 15. ' When the abuse of the doctrine of justifica-
tion by faith alone, and not by works, doth pervert your
minds and lives, remember that all confess, that we shall be
judged according to our works (as the covenant of grace is
the law by which we shall be judged): and to be judged, is
to be justified or condemned.'
I need not recite all those Scriptures to you, that say,
that we shall be judged, and shall receive according to
what we have done in the body, whether it be good or evil :
and this is all that we desire you to believe, and live ac-
cordingly.
Direct. 16. * Remember still that faith in Christ is but a
means to raise us to the love of God, and that perfect holi-
ness is higher and mpre excellent than the pardon of sin :
and therefpre desire faith, and use it, for the kindling of
LIFE OF FAlTil. 311
love, and pardon of sin, to endear you to God, and that you
may do so no more : and do not sin, that you may have the
more to be pardoned.'
** The end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure
heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Shall
we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? God forbid :
How shall they that are dead to sin, live any longer there-
in ?" Rom. vt. 1, 2. See Titus iii, 5—7. Rom. v. 1. 4—6.
viii. 1.4. 9. Gal. iv. 6. v. 24. 26. So much for those prac-
tical directions, which are needful for them that love not
controversy.
CHAPTER VIII.
The pernicious and dangerous Errors detected, which hinder the
Work of Faith about our Justification; and the contrary
Truths asserted.
There is so much dust and controversy raised here to
blind the eyes of the weak, and to hinder the life of faith,
and so much poison served up under the name of justifica-
tion and free grace, that I should be unfaithful if I should
not discover it, either through fear of offending the guilty,
or of wearying them that had rather venture upon deceit,
than upon controversy. And we are now so fortified against
the Popish and Socinian extremes, and those whom I am
now directing to live by faith, are so settled against them,
that 1 think it more necessary (having not leisure for both,
and having done it heretofore in my " Confession") to open
at this time the method of false doctrine on the other ex-
treme, which for the most part is it which constituteth
Antinomianism, though some of them are maintained by
others.
And 1 will first name each error ; and then with it, the
contrary truth.
Error 1. * Christ's suffering was caused by the sins of
none, as the assumed meritorious cause, or as they usually
say, as imputed to him, or lying on him, save only of the
elect that shall be saved.'
Contr. The sins of fallen mankind in general, except
those rejections of grace, whose pardon is not offered in the
312 LIFE OF FAITH.
conditional covenant, did lie on Christ as the assumed
cause of his sufferings.
See John i. 29. 2 Cor. v. 18— 20. John iii. 16--19. Heb.
ii. 9. ITim. ii.4-6. lJohnii.2. 1 Tim. iv. 10. 2Pet.ii.
2. See Parseus in his ' Irenicon ;' and * Twisse vind. et alibi
passim/ saying as much ; and Amyrald, Davenant, Dalleus,
Testardut Usher, &c. proving it.
Mrror 2. * Christ did both perfectly obey, and also make
satisfaction for sin by suffering, in the person of all the elect
in the sense of the law, or God's account ; so that his righ-
teousness of obedience and perfect holiness, and his satis-
faction, is so imputed to us, as the proprietaries, as if we
ourselves had done it, and suffered it : not by an after do-
nation in the effects, but by this strict imputation in itself.'
Contr. The contrary truth is at large opened before, and
in my "Confession."
Christ's satisfaction, and the merit of his whole obe-
dience, is as effectual for our pardon, justification and sal-
vation, as if believers themselves had performed it ; and it
is imputed to them, in that it was done for their sakes, and
suffered in their stead, and the fruits of it by a free cove-
nant or donation given them. But, 1. God is not mistaken,
to judge that we obeyed or suffered when we did not.
2. God is no liar, to say, we did it, when he knoweth that
we did it not. 3. If we were not the actors and sufferers,
it is not possible that we should be made the natural sub-
jects of the accidents of another's body, by any putation,
estimation or misjudging whatsoever; no, nor by any dona-
tion either. It is a contradiction, and therefore an impos-
sibility that the same individual actions and passions, of
which Christ's human nature was the agent and subject so
many hundred years ago, and have themselves now no ex-
istence, should in themselves, I say, in themselves, be made
yours now, and you be the subject of the same accidents.
4. Therefore they can no otherwise be given to us, but,
1. By a true estimation of the reasons why Christ under-
went them, viz. for our sakes as aforesaid. 2. And by a
donation of the effects or fruits of them, viz. pardoning, and
justifying, and saving us by them (on the terms chosen by
the Donor himself, and put into his testament or covenant)
as certainly (but not in the same manner) as if we had done
and suffered them ourselves. 5. If Christ had suffered in
LIFE OF FAITH. 313
our person reputatively in all respects, his sufferings would
not have redeemed us : because we are finite worms, and
our suffering for so short a time, would not have been ac-
cepted instead of hell sufferings. But the person of the
Mediator made them valuable. 6. God never made any
such covenant with us * that he will justify us, and use us
just as he would have done, if we had ourselves perfectly
obeyed and satisfied.' They that take on them to shew
such a promise, must see that no wise man examine it.
7. God hath both by his covenant, and his works, ever
since confuted that opinion ; and hath not dealt with us as
he would have done, if we had been the reputed doers and
sufferers of it all ourselves. For he hath made conveyance
of the benefits, by a pardoning and justifying law, or pro-
mise ; and he giveth us additional pardon of renewed sins
as we act them, and he addeth threatenings in his law or
covenant ; and he inflicteth penalties ; yea some that are
very grievous, even the withholding of much of his Spirit's
help and grace ; all which are inconsistent with that con-
ceit ; nor would he so have used us, if we had been per-
fectly innocent, and had fully satisfied for our sins ourselves.
8. All men would have had present possession of glory, if
God had so reputed us the perfect meriters of it. For his
justice would no more have delayed our reward, than denied
it. 9. All that are saved would have equal degrees of holi-
ness and happiness, as well as of righteousness, because all
would equally be reputed the perfect fulfillers of the law.
And as no penalty could ever be justly inflicted on them
here ; so no degree of glory could be denied them hereafter
for their sin, or for want of perfect righteousness. 10. The
opinion of this kind of imputation, is a most evident con-
tradiction in itself. For he that is imputatively a satisfier for
all his own sin, is therein supposed to be a sinner : and he
that is imputatively a perfect innocent fulfiller of the law, is
thereby supposed to need no satisfaction to justice for his
sin, as being imputatively no sinner. 11. By this all
Christ's sacrifice and satisfaction is made a work of need-
less supererogation ; yea unjust, or rather impossible. For
if we perfectly obeyed in him, he could not suffer for our
disobedience. 12. Hereby pardon of sin is utterly denied :
for he that is reputatively no sinner hath no sin to pardon.
If they say that God did first impute the satisfaction for
314 LIFE OF FAITH.
sin, then there was no room after for the imputation of per-
fect obedience. We cannot feign God to receive all the
debt, or inflict all the penalty, and then to say, now I
will esteem thee one that never didst deserve it.
If they say that he doth neither impute the obedience or
the suffering to us simply, and to all effects, but * in tantum
ad hoc,' or * secundum quid' only : so that we shall be par*
doned for his suffering, and then judged worthy of heaven
for his obedience : this is but to come up towards the truth
before you are aware, and to confess that neither of them is
given us in itself, but in the effects, as being itself paid to
God to procure those effects.
But withal, the matter must be vindicated from their un-
sound inventions, and it must be said, that Christ died not
only for our sins of commission, but of omission also ; and
that he that is pardoned both his sins of commission and
omission, is free from the punishment both of sense and
loss ; yea, and is reputed as one that never culpably omitted
any duty ; and consequently fell short of no reward by
such omission : so that there remaineth no more necessity
of righteousness in order to a reward where the pardon is
perfect, save only (N. B.) to procure us that degree of re-
ward which must be superadded to what we forfeited by
our sin ; and which we never by any culpable omission de-
served to be denied. And thus much we do not deny that
somewhat (even adoption) which is more than mere pardon
and justification must confer on us. But withal, as we hold
not that the sun must bring light, and somewhat else must
first banish darkness ; that one thing must cure death, and
another cause life ; that satisfaction must procure the par-
don of sins of omission and commission, as to the ' poena
damni et sens us,' and make us esteemed and used as no
sinners, and then imputed obedience must give us right to
that reward, which the * poena damni,' deprived us of; so
(N. B.) we maintain that Christ's sufferings have merited
our eternal salvation, and our justification and adoption f
and that his obedience hath merited our forgiveness of sin :
and that both go together, the merit of the one and of the
other, to procure all that we receive, and that the effects
are not parcelled out as they have devised : though yet we
believe that Christ's sufferings were paid to God, as for our
sins, to satisfy justice, and that in the passive obedience, it
LIFE OF FAITH. 315
is first satisfactory, and then and therefore meritorious, and
in the active it is merely meritorious.
13. And the maintainers of the contrary opinion ; be-
sides all the beforementioned evils, could never agree how
much of Christ's righteousness must be in their sense im-
puted : some holding only the passive; a second sort the
active and passive ; a third sort, the habitual, active and
passive ; a fourth sort, the divine, the habitual, the active
and the passive.
But of all these things there is so much written against
them, by Cargius, Ursinus, Olevian, Piscator, Paraeus, Soul-
teus, Alstedius, Windeline, Camero, Bradshaw, Gataker,
and many more, that I need not to add any more for con-
futation.
Error 3. * That no one shall suffer whose sins lay on
Christ, and were suffered for by him.'
Contr, Many such shall suffer the sorer punishment, for
sinning against the Lord that bought them, and treading
under foot the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were
so far sanctified, as to be a people by their own covenant
separated to God ; Heb. x. 25, 26. vi. 4—6. 2 Pet. ii. 2.
Heb. iv. 1. ii. 3. xii. 29.
Error 4. ' That no godly man (say some), or elect per-
son, though ungodly (say others), is ever punished by God,
because Christ suffered all their punishment himself.'
Contr. Every godly man is chastened of God, and all
chastisement is a fatherly correcting punishment : and many
justified persons are punished to their final loss, by the
denial of forfeited degrees of grace, and consequently of
glory; Heb. xii. 7—10. 1 Cor. xi. 32. 1 Thess. v. 19.
Ephes. iv. 30. But sad experience is too full a proof. See
my " Confession."
Error 5. * That God were unjust if he laid any degree of
punishment on those that Christ died for ; or (say others)
on the justified ; because he shall punish one sin twice.'
Contr. It is certain, that God punisheth the justified in
some degree (much more the elect before conversion), and it
is certain that God is not unjust. Therefore it is certain
that the ground of this accusation is false ; for it was not
our deserved punishment itself, or the same which was due
in the true sense of the law which Christ endured : but it
was the punishment of a voluntary sponsor, which was the
316 LIFE OF FAITH.
' equivalens/ and not the ' idem' that was due ; and did
answer the ends of the law, but not fulfil the meaning of
the threatening ; which threatened the sinner himself, and
not another for him : seeing then it was a satisfaction, or
sacrifice for sin, which God received for an atonement and
propitiation, and not a solution or suffering of the sinner
himself in the sense of the law, the charge of injustice on
God is groundless.
And no man can have more right to Christ's sufferings
or benefits, than he himself is willing to give : and it is not
his own will (into whose hands all power and judgment is
committed) that we should be subject to no punishment be-
cause he suffered for us.
Error 6. * That the elect are justified from eternity (say
some), or from Christ's death before they were born (say
others), or before they believed' (say others).
Against this I have said enough in many volumes here-
tofore.
Error 7. ' That faith justifieth only in the court of our
own consciences, by making us to know that we were justi-
fied befor^.'
Against this also I have said enough elsewhere.
Error 8. * That sins to come, not yet committed, are par-
doned in our first justification.'
Contr. Sins to come are no sins : and no sins have no
actual pardon: but only the certain remedy is provided,
which will pardon their sins as soon as they are capable.
Error 9. ' Justification is not a making us just, but a
sentence pronouncing us just.'
Contr, Justification is a word of so many significations,
that he that doth not first tell what he meaneth by it, will
not be capable of giving or receiving satisfaction.
And here once for all, I must entreat the reader that
loveth not confusion and error, to distinguish of these
several sorts of justification, as the chief which we are to
note.
Justification is either public by a governor, or private
by an equal or mere discerner ; justification is by God, or by
man. Justification by God is either as he is Law-giver, and
above laws, or as he is Judge according to his laws : In the
first way God maketh us just, by his act of oblivion, or
pardoning law, or covenant of grace. In the second respect
LIFE OF FAITH. , 317
God doth two ways justify and forgive : 1. As a determin-
ing Judge : 2. As the Executioner of his judgment. In the
former respect God doth two ways justify us : 1. By esteem-
ing us just. 2. By public sentencing us just. As Execu-
tioner, he useth us as just, and as so is judged.
I pass by here purposely all Christ's justification of us
by way of apology or plea; and all justification by wit-
nesses and evidences, &c. and all the constitutive causes of
our righteousness, lest I hinder them whom I would help,
by using more distinctions than they are willing to learn.
But these few are necessary.
1. It is one thing for God to make us righteous, by for-
giving all our sins of commission and omission, for the sake
of Christ's satisfaction and obedience.
2. It is another thing for God to esteem us to be so
righteous when he hath first made us so.
3. It is another for God to sentence us righteous as the
public Judge, by Jesus Christ.
4. And it is another thing for God to take off all penal-
ties and evils, and to give us all the good which belong to
the righteous ; and so to execute his own laws and sen-
tence. And he that will not distinguish of these senses or
sorts of justification, shall not dispute with me.
And while I am upon this, I will give the reader these
two remarks and counsels. 1. That he will not in disputing
about justification, with any sect, begin the dispute of the
thing, till he hath first determined and agreed of their sense
of the word. And that he will not confound the contro-
versies ' de nomine' about the word, with those ' de re,'
about the matter. And that he will remember in citing
texts of Scripture, that Beza, and many of our best exposi-
tors, do grant to the Papists (as 1 heard Bishop Usher also
do) that some texts of Scripture do take the word ' Justify'
as they do, for pardon and sanctification conjunctly : As
Titus iii. 7. 1 Cor. vi. 11. Rom. viii. 30. three famous
texts ; of which see Le Blanc at large in his ' Thes. de nom.
Justific' If the controversy be only of the sense of a text,
handle it accordingly : If of the matter, turn it not to
words.
2. Note this observation, that sanctification itself, or
the giving us the Spirit, is a great act (though I say not the
only) of executive justification. The withholding of th^
318 LIFE OF FAITH.
Spirit, is greatest punishment inflicted in this life : and
therefore the giving* of the Spirit is the removal or execu-
tive remitting of the greatest penalty : so that if pardon
vv^ere only as Dr. Twisse thought, a * non-punire,' a not
punishing, then this were the most proper, as well as
plenary pardon in this life. But the truth is, that our par-
don and justification in right goeth first, which God efFecteth
by his covenant-gift: and then God esteemeth us just or
pardoned, when by pardon he hath made us just : and if
there be any sentence, or any thing equivalent before the
day of judgment or death, he next sentenceth us just ; and
lastly, he useth us as just, that is, as pardoned (all sins of
omission and commission) which is by taking off all punish-
ment both of pain (or sense) and loss ; of which part the
giving of the Spirit is the chief act on this side our glorifi-
cation.
Note therefore, that thus far no Protestant can deny to
the Papists, nor will do, that sanctification and justification
are all one, that is, that God having pardoned us * de jure,'
doth pardon us executively, by giving us his forfeited Spirit
and Grace ; and by all the communion which we have after
with him, and the comfort which we have from him.
And further let it be well noted, that the nature of this
executive pardon or justification (of which read Mr. Hotch-
kis at large) is far better known to us, than the nature of
God's sentential pardon and justification: and therefore
there is less controversy about it. For what it is to forbear
or take off a punishment, is easily understood : But though
most Protestants say, that justification is a sentence of God,
they are not agreed what that sentence is. Some think
(truly) that our first justification by faith is but a virtual
sentence of the law of grace, by which we must be judged.
Others say, that by a sentence is meant God's secret mental
estimation : others say, that as angels are his executioners ;
so it is before them, where joy is said to be for a sinner's
conversion, (Luke xv.) that doth declare and sentence us
pardoned and just. Others think that there is no sentence
but God's notification of pardon to our consciences, or
giving us the sense or knowledge of it. Others think that
there is no sentence till death, or public judgment. Others
say, that God doth sentence us just> though we know not
where or how. And Mr. Lawson noteth, that (as all con*-
LIFE OF FAITH. 319
fess that God hath no voice, but a created voice ; and there-
fore iiseth not words as we ; unless what Christ as man
may do in that we know not; so) his sentence is nothing
but his declaration that he esteemeth us pardoned and just
in title, which is principally, if not only, by his execution,
and taking off all penalties of sense and loss, and using fcs
as pardoned in title : and so that the giving of his Spirit, is
his very sentence of justification in this life, as it is his de-
claration as aforesaid.
And doubtless executive pardon is the most perfect and
complete, as being the end and perfection of all the rest.
Therefore God maketh us just in title by covenant pardon;
and therefore he sentenceth us as just, that he may take off
all penalty, and give us the felicity due to the righteous ;
and may use us as those that are made just.
There is much truth in most of the aforesaid opinions in-
clusively, and much falsehood in their several exclusions of
all the rest (unless their quarrel be only * de nomine,' which
of all these is most fitly called justification). For, 1. There
is no doubt but our pardon, or constituted justification in
covenant- title, is a virtual sentential justification. 2. And
there is no doubt but God doth esteem them just, that are
first made just, and no other (because he erreth not): And
that this estimation is ' sententia concepta,' as distinct from
' sententia prolata.' 3. And it is certain that those angels
that must execute his sentence, must first know it : and it
is probable that the joy tvwTrtov rwv a-yyfXwv rs Ots, in the
presence of the angels of God, doth intimate that God
useth ordinarily to notify the conversion of a sinner to
angels (whether the joy here be meant as Dr. Hammond
and others think, ' God's joy signified to angels,' or rather
the * angels' joy,' by their presence being, * in Choro An-
gelorum,' or among them, that is, in them ; or both).
4. And it is granted that God doth usually give some no-
tice of his pardon, at one time or other, more or less to a
sinner's conscience (though that is too late, too uncertain,
too low, and too unequal, and too unconstant to be the
great and famous justification by faith). 5. And it is clear,
that till death or judgment, there is no such solemn plenary
judicial sentence or declaration as there will be then.
6. And it is certain, that at death and judgment, Christ rs
man, a creature, can speak or express himself, as. the blessed
320 LIFE OF FAITH.
creatures do to one another. 7. And it is certain that God
hath a way of expressing himself to creatures, which is be-
yond our present understandings : but we may conceive of
it by the similitude of light, which in the same instant
revealeth millions of things to millions of persons re-
spectively. (Though that is nothing to his present justifi-
cation of us by faith, unless as he revealeth it to angels).
8. And it is certain, that at the day of death and judgment,
God will thus by an irresistible light, lay open every man to
himself, and to the world, which may be called his sentence,
differing from the execution ; and that Christ in our nature
will be our Judge, and may express that sentence as afore-
said. 9. And it is certain, that God's actual taking off
punishment, and giving the blessing which sin had deprived
us of, is a declaration of his mind, which may be called, an
executive sentence, and might serve the turn if there were
no more : and that in Scripture, the terms of " God's judg-
ing the world" doth usually signify God's executive govern-
ment, rewarding and punishing : and that God doth begin
such execution in this life : and that his giving the Spirit is
thus his principal pardoning and justifying act; and yet
that this is but part, and not the whole of our present ex-
ecutive pardon : and that glorification in this sense is the
highest and noblest justification or pardon : when God
giveth us all that sin had forfeited. (But yet we deny not that
glorification is somewhat more than an executive pardon,
so far as any more is then given us, than we did forfeit by
our sins.)
I must desire the reader not to forget all this explica-
tion of the nature of justification, because it will be sup-
posed to the understanding of all before and after.
Error 10. * That the justified or regenerate never incur
any guilt or obligation to any punishment, but only tem-
poral corrections ; and therefore need no pardon at all of
any sin, at least, since regeneration, as to the everlasting
punishment ; because Christ died to prevent that guilt, and
consequently the necessity of any such pardon.'
Contr, This is before explained. Christ died to procure
us that pardoning covenant, which (on its own terms) will
pardon every sin of the justified when they are committed ;
but not to prevent the need of pardon. Otherwise Christ
should not satisfy for any sins after regeneration, nor bear
LIFE OF FAITH. 321
them in his sufferings at all : for his satisfaction is a bear-
ing of a punishment, which in its dignity and usefulness is
equivalent to our deserved, or (to be deserved) punishment.
Now if we never do deserve it, Christ cannot bear that in
our stead, which we never deserve : as the preventing of the
sin or * reatus culpae' proveth that Christ never suffered for
that sin prevented, because it is * terminus diminuens,' and
is no sin ; so is it in preventing the desert of punishment.
And as for correction Christ doth inflict so much as is good
for us; and therefore did not die to prevent it. But of this
controversy I have said more at large elsewhere.
Error 11. ' That justification by faith is perfect at the
first instant ; though sanctification be imperfect.*
Contr. Against this error read Mr. George Hopkins's
book of * Salvation from Sin ;' shewing how justification and
sanctification are equally carried on.
It is granted that at our first true faith, we are pardoned
all the sins that ever we committed before, as to the eternal
punishment : and so we are converted from them all : but
(as our sanctification is imperfect, so) our pardon is yet
imperfect in many respects: For 1. We are still liable to
death, which is the wages of sin, though it be so far con-
quered as not to hinder our salvation: Enoch and Elias
went to heaven without it ; Rom. v. 12. 14. 17. 21. Gen.
iii. 16, 17. 19. 1 Cor. xv. 21. 26. 2. We are still liable to
many penal chastisements in this life ; which though they
do us good by accident, are yet the fruits of sin, no father
chastising a faultless child, but doing him good in another
way. 3. There are many sins yet left uncured, which
though as sins, they are our own only, yet as an evil not
cured, are also penal : T am sure that the not giving of more
of his Spirit and Grace is penal. Therefore till our grace
be perfect, we are not perfectly delivered from the penal
fruits of sin, and therefore not perfectly justified and par-
doned. 4. That pardon and justification is not perfect,
which hath so many conditions, and of such a nature for its
continuation, as our's now hath : as to say, you shall lose
your justified state, unless you fight and overcome, in mor-
tification, sufferings, perseverance, &c. He hath a title to
an estate, which is held by such a tenure, and would be lost
if he should fail in such conditions, hath not so perfect a
VOL. XII. Y
322 LIFE OF FAITH.
title, as he that is past all such conditions. 6. That pardon
which is only of sins past, while there are thousands more
hereafter to be pardoned (or else we should yet perish), is
not so perfect as that pardon and justification in the conclu-
sion of our lives, when all sin that ever will be committed is
forgiven absolutely. 6. The kind of our present justifica-
tion is imperfect ; it being but in covenant-title, and some
part of execution ; the full and perfect sentence and execu-
tion, being at the day of judgment.
I leave them therefore to say, ' Christ's righteousness
imputed to us is imperfect ; therefore we are as perfectly
just and justified as Christ,' who know not what imputation
here is ; nor that Christ's personal righteousness is not given
to us as proprietors, in itself, but in the effects ; and who
know not the difference between believing and blaspheming,
and making ourselves as so many Christs to ourselves ; and
that know not what need they have of Christ, or of faith, or
prayer, or of any holy endeavour for any more pardon, and
righteousness or justification, than they have already: or
who think that David in his adultery and murder was as per-
fectly pardoned and justified as he will be in heaven at last:
and in a word, who know not the difference between earth
and heaven.
Error 12. ' That Christ justifieth us only as a Priest: or
(say others) only as obeying and satisfying.'
Contr, Christ merited our justification in his state of
humiliation, as a Mediator subjected to the law, and perfectly
obeying it, and as a sacrifice for sin. But this is not justi-
fying us. Christ offered that sacrifice as the High Priest
of the church or world : but this was not justifying us.
Christ made us the new covenant as our King, and as the great
Prophet of the Father or Angel of the Covenant ; Mai. iii.
1. And this covenant giveth us our pardon and title to im-
punity, and to life eternal ; and Christ as our King and
Judge doth justify us by a judiciary sentence, and also by
the execution of that sentence : so that the relations which
most eminently appear in our justification, are all excluded
by the aforesaid error.
Error 13. * That we are justified only by the first act of
faith ; and all our believing afterwards to the end of our
lives, are no justifying acts at all.'
LIFE OF FAITH. 323
Contr. Indeed if the question be only about the name of
justifying, if you will take it only for your first change into
a state of righteousness by pardon, it is true. But the fol-
lowing acts of faith are of the same use and need to the
continuing of our justification, or state of righteousness, as
the first act was for the beginning of it.
Error 14, 'That the continuance of our justification
needeth no other conditions to be by us performed, than
the continuance of that faith on which it was begun.*
Contr, Where that first faith continueth, there our justi-
fication doth continue : but that faith never continueth
without sincere obedience to Christ ; and that obedience is
part of the condition of the continuance, or not losing our
justification (as is proved before, and at large elsewhere).
The faith which in baptism we profess, and by which we
have our first justification or covenant-right, is an accept-
ing of Christ as our Saviour and Lord to be obeyed by us in
the use of his saving remedies ; and we there vow and cove-
nant future obedience. And as our marriage to Christ, or
covenant-making, is all the condition of our first right
to him and his benefits, without any other good works or
obedience ; so our marriage-fidelity, or covenant-keeping,
is part of the condition of our continuance herein, or not
losing it by a divorce ; John xv. Col. i. 23, &c.
Error 15. ' That faith is no condition of our part in
Christ, and our justification, but only one of God's gifts of
the covenant, given with Christ and justification.'
Error 16. * That the covenant of grace hath no condi-
tions on our part, but only donatives on God's part.'
Error 17. ' That if the covenant had any conditions, it
were not free. And that every condition is a meritorious
cause, or at least some cause.'
Contr, All these I have confuted at large elsewhere, and
proved, 1. That faith is a proper condition of those benefits
which God giveth us by the conditional covenant of grace ;
but not of all the benefits which he any other way giveth
us. It was not the condition of his giving Christ to live
and die for us ; or of his giving us the Gospel, or this cove-
nant itself, nor of his giving us preachers, or qf the first
motions of his Spirit; nor was faith the condition of the
gift of faith itself ; because all these are not given us ii>
324 LIFE OF FAITH.
that way, by that covenant, but absolutely, as God shall
please.
2. That some promises of God of the last mentioned
gifts, have no condition : The promises of giving a Saviour
to the world ; and the promise of giving and continuing the
Gospel in the world ; and of converting many by it in the
world, and of making them believers, and giving them new
hearts, and bringing them to salvation, &c. have no condi-
tions. But these are promises made, some of them to
Christ only, and some of them to fallen mankind, or the
world in general, or predictions, what God will do by cer-
tain men unborn, unnamed, and not described, called the
Elect. But all this giveth no title to pardon, or justifica-
tion, or salvation to any one person at all.
Remember therefore once for all, that the covenant
which I still mean, by the covenant of grace, is that which
God offereth men in baptism, by the acceptance whereof we
become Christians.
3. That God's gift of a Saviour, and a new covenant to
the world, are so free as to be without any condition : but
God's gift of Christ with all his benefits of justification,
adoption, &c. to individual persons, is so free as to be with-
out and contrary to our desert ; but not so free as to be
without any condition : and that he that will say to God, ' Thy
grace of pardon is not free if thou wilt not give it me, but
on condition that I accept it, yea, or desire it, or ask it,'
shall prove a contemner of grace, and a reproacher of his
Saviour, and not an exalter of free grace. There is no in-
consistency for God to be the giver of grace to cause us to
believe and accept of Christ, and yet to make a deed of
gift of him to all on condition of that faith and acceptance ;
no more than it is inconsistent to give faith and repentance,
and to command them : of both which the objectors them-
selves do not seem to doubt. For he maketh both his com-
mand, and his conditional form of promise to be his chosen
means (and most wisely chosen) of working in us the thing
commanded.
4. That a condition as a condition is no cause at all,
much less a meritorious cause : but only the non-per-
formance of it suspendeth the donation of the covenant, by
the will of the Donor : or rather it is the Donor's will that
LIFE OF FAITH. 325
suspendeth it till the condition be done. And some condi-
tions signify no more than a term of time : and some (in
the matter of them, and not in the form) are a not-demerit-
ing, or not-abusing the Giver, or not-despising the gift :
and some among men are meritorious. And with God
every act that is chosen by him to be a condition of his
gift, is pleasing to him, for some special aptitude which it
hath to that office. This is the full truth, and the plain
truth about conditions.
Error 18. 'There is no degree of pardon given to any
that are not perfectly justified, and that shall not be saved :
but the giving of the Spirit, so far as to cause us to believe
and repent, is some degree of executive pardon ; therefore
we are justified before we believe.'
Contr. There is a great degree of pardon given to the
world before conversion, which shall yet justify and save
none but believers : God's giving a Saviour to the world,
and a new covenant, and in that an universal conditional
pardon ; yea, his giving them teaching, exhortations and
offers of free grace ; and his giving them life and time, and
many mercies which the full execution of the law would
have deprived them of, is a very great degree of pardon.
God pardoned to mankind much of the penalty which sin
deserved, even presently after the first transgression, in the
promise made to Adam; Gen. iii. 15. Many texts of Scrip-
ture (which partial men for their opinions* sake do pervert)
do speak magnificently of a common pardon, which must
be sued out, and made particular upon our believing. The
world was before under so much impossibility of being
saved by any thing that they could do, that they must have
procured all to be done first which Christ hath done and
suffered for them; which was utterly above their power.
They that were actually obliged to bear the pains of death,
both temporal, spiritual and eternal, are now so far re-
deemed, pardoned and delivered, that all the merit and
satisfaction necessary to actual forgiveness, is made for
them by another, and no one of them all shall perish for
want of a sacrifice made and accepted for them ; and an
universal conditional pardon is enacted, sealed, and record-
ed, and offered and urged on all to whom the Gospel
Cometh; and nothing but their obstinate, wilful refusal or
neglect, can deprive them of it : and this is so great a de-
326 LIFE OF FAITH.
gree of" pardon, that it is called often by such alsolute
names, as if all were done ; because all is done which con-
cerneth God as Legislator or Covenant-maker, to do, be-
fore our own acceptance of it.
Suppose a prince redeem all his captive subjects from
the Turkish slavery, and one half of them so love their state
of bondage, or some harlot or ill company there (yea, if all
of them do so, till half of them are persuaded from it) that
they will not come away. It is no improper nor unusual
language to say that he hath redeemed them, and given
them a release, though they would not have it. That may
be given to a man, which he never hath, because he refuseth
to accept it ; when the donor hath done all that belongeth
to him in that relation of a donor ; though perhaps as a per-
suader he might do more.
This is the sense of Heb. i. 3. " When he had by himself
purged our sins, (or made purgation of our sins) he sat down
on the right hand of the Majesty on high j" that is, when
he had become a sacrifice for sin, and sealed the covenant
by his blood. For actual personal pardon was not given by
him before our acceptance.
This is the plain sense of 2 Cor. v. 18- — 20. " God was in
Christ, reconciling the world to himself; not imputing to
them their trespasses (that is, purchasing and giving them
a pardoning covenant) ; and hath committed to us the
word and ministry of reconciliation : Now then we are am-
bassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us,
we pray you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God."
John i. 29. 36. " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world ;" (that is, as a sacrifice for sin.)
As Heb. ix. 26. " Once in the end of the world he hath ap-
peared to put away sin, by the sacrifice of himself:"
(Though the sacrifice as offered only, doth not actually and
fully pardon it.) The same as Heb. x. 12. ** After he had
offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right
hand of God."
So Matt, xviii. 27. 32. " He forgave him the debt
I forgave thee all that debt " viz. conditionally, and as
David forgave Shimei.
Psal. Ixxviii. 38. " He forgave their iniquity, and de-
stroyed them not;'' that is, he forgave them the temporal
punishment, and suspended the execution of eternal punish-
LIFE OF FAITH. 327
ment, giving them yet more time and offers of repentance
and of further mercy. And so he forgave Ahab and Nineveh
upon their humiliation. Numb. xiv. 19. " Pardon, I beseech
thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness
of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from
Egypt until now."
So Psal. Ixxxv. 2, 3. " Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of
thy people; thou hast covered all their sins: Thou hast
taken avt^ay all thy wrath Turn us, O God of our sal-
vation, and cause thine anger to cease : Wilt thou be angry
with us for ever?" So that they are two palpable errors
here asserted by the objectors, viz. that * there is no degree
of pardon to such as are not saved ;' and that ' we are justi-
fied whenever we have any degree of pardon.' We may be
so far pardoned as to have grace given us effectually to be-
lieve, and yet our justification, or the covenant-forgiveness
of eternal punishment, is in order of nature after our be-
lieving, and not before it.
Error 19. * That our natures are as far from being able
to believe in Christ, as from being able to fulfil the law of
works, and to be justified by it; they being equally impos-
sible to us ; and as much help is necessary to one as to the
other.'
Contr. To be justified by the law of works, when we
have once broken it, is a contradiction, and a natural im-
possibility; as it is to be at once a sinner, and no sinner.
But so it is not for a sinner to believe in Christ : The im-
possibility is but moral at most ; which consisteth not in a
want of natural faculties or power, but in the want of a
right disposition, or willingness of mind.
And to fulfil the law of God, and to be perfect for the
future, is surely a far higher degree of spiritual grace and
excellency, than to be a poor, weak, sinful believer, desiring
to fulfil it. Therefore our sinful natures are much farther
off from perfection than from faith.
3. And though the same Omnipotency do all God's
works, (for all God's power is Omnipotency) yet it is not
equally put forth, and manifested in all his works : the
moving of a feather, and the making of the world, are both
works of Omnipotency ; but not equal works or exertions of it.
4. And it is certain that * in rerum natura,' there is such
328 LIFE OF FAITH.
a thing as a proper power given by God, to do many things
that never are done ; and that necessary grace (which some
call sufficient) which is not eventually effectual : for such
Adam had (such power, and such necessary grace or help)
to have forborn his first sin, which he did not forbear. And
no man can prove that no final unbelievers have had such
power and help to have believed, as Adam had to have
stood. But it is certain that we have not such power and
necessary grace, to have perfectly fulfilled all the law.
Error 20. * That faith justifieth as an instrument, and
only so.'
Of this I have written at large heretofore. An instru-
ment properly so called, is an efficient cause : faith is no
efficient cause of our justification; neither God's instru-
ment, nor ours : for we justify not ourselves instrumentally :
the known undoubted instrument of our justification, is
God's covenant or deed of gift ; which is his pardoning act :
they that say it is not a physical, but a moral instrument,
either mean that it is morally called an instrument, that is,
reputatively, and not really ; or that it is indeed a moral in-
strument, that is, effecteth our justification morally. But
the latter is false ; for it effecteth it not at all : and the for-
mer is false; for as there is no reason ; so there is no Scrip-
ture to prove that God reputeth it to be what it is not.
All that remaineth to be said is that indeed faith in
Christ is an act whose nature partly (that is, one act of it)
consisteth in the acceptance of Christ himself who is given
to us for our justification and salvation, by a covenant
which maketh this believing acceptance its condition. And
so this accepting act in the very essence of it, is such as
some call a receiving instrument (or a passive) which is in-
deed no instrument, but an act metaphorically called an in
strument ; (and in disputes, metaphors must not be used
without necessity ; and to understand them properly is to
err.) So that such an improper instrument of justification
faith is, as my trusting my physician (and taking him for
my physician) is the instrument of my cure : and as my
trusting myself to the conduct of such a pilot, is the instru-
ment of my safe voyage ; or as my trusting my tutor is the
instrument of my learning ; or rather as a woman's marriage-
consent is the instrument of all the wealth and honour
LIFE OF FAITH. 329
which she hath by her husband. Indeed marriage may be
better called the instrument of it ; that is, not her own con-
sent, (which is properly the receiving condition) but the
consent and actual marriage by her husband : for he is the
giver. And so the covenant is God's justifying instrument,
as signifying his donative consent ; and baptism is the in-
instrument of it, by solemn investiture or tradition ; as the
delivering of a key, is the instrumental delivery of the
house.
The case then is very plain to him that is but willing ta
understand, viz. that faith in its essence, is besides the as-
senting acts, an accepting of an offered Saviour for our jus-
tification, sanctification and salvation, and a trusting in
him : that this act of faith being its essence, is the most apt
for the use that God in his covenant hath appointed it unto :
because he will give us a Saviour freely, but yet not to be
refused and neglected, but to be thankfully and honourably
received and used : that this special aptitude of faith, or its
very essence, is the reason why it is chosen to be the con-
dition of the Testament or gift : that this same essence and
aptitude, is that which some call its receptive or passive in-
strumentality : that this essence and aptitude is not the
nearest reason why we are justified by it ; for then faith as
faith, and as such an act or work of ours should justify,
and that ' ex opere operato ;' and that without or against
God's will. For if God's will have interposed, the signifier
of that will must needs be the chief and nearest reason :
therefore this act so apt being by God made the condition
of the gift or covenant, its nearest and chief interest (I will
not call it causality) in our justification, is this office of a
condition. Therefore in a word, we are justified by faith
directly as, or because it is the ' conditio prsestita,' the per-
formance of the condition of the justifying act; and it was
by God made the condition, because it was in its nature
most apt thereto ; which aptitude may be metaphorically
called its receptive instrumentality : and that thus as it ac-
cepteth Christ for justification, adoption, sanctification and
glorification; so it is first the metaphorical instrument of
our part in Christ; and but consequently the metaphorical
instrument of our title to pardon, the Spirit and heaven ;
and in no tolerable sense at all (how figurative soever) is it
any instrument of God's sentence of justification (which yet
330 LIFE OF FAITH.
is all the justification acknowledged by the usual defenders
of instrumentality) saving as it may be said to give us a
right to it, by giving us constitutive justification in the
pardon of our sins.
And the Scripture never saith that faith justifieth us,
nor calleth it justifying faith; but that we are justified by
faith, and most commonly [of faith], for the most usual phrase
is sK Tr/tTTfwc, ' ex fide,' as it is ' ex operibus,' when justifica-
tion by works is denied ; which is not the mere instrumen-
tality of works.
So that here is a double error; 1. That faith justifieth
as a true and proper instrument : 2. And no other way.
Error 21. ' That faith causeth justification, as it causeth
sanctification ; as much and as properly.'
Contr. Faith causeth not justification at all, but only is
the condition of it : but faith causeth the acts of other
graces by a proper efficiency ; believing is a proper efficient
cause of the will's volition, complacency, consent, (though
but a moral efficient, because the liberty of the will for-
biddeth the intellect to move it ' per modum naturae.') And
the will's consent produceth other acts, and physically ex-
citeth other graces : because to love, and desire, and fear,
and seek, and obey, are acts of our own souls, where one
may properly cause another : but to justify or pardon is an
act of God : and therefore faith equally procureth our right
or title to justification, and to sanctification, and glorifica-
tion ; but it doth not equally effect them. " Let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness," &c. ; 2 Cor. vii. 1. Not let us pardon and justify
ourselves. Cleanse your hearts, you sinners, &c. ; James
iv. 8. *' Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil of
your doings ;" Isa. i. 16. (not your guilt and punishment.)
So only Christ cleanseth us from all sin and unrighteous-
ness ; 1 John i. 7. 9. *' Keep yourselves in the love of God ;"
Jude 21. " Abide in me," &c.; John xv. 4. " He that is
begotten of God, keepeth himself," &c. ; 1 John v. 18.
Error 22. * That the faith by which we are justified, is
not many physical acts of the soul only, but one.'
Error 23. ' That it is not only an act of one faculty of
the soul.'
Contr, The contrary is fully opened before ; and proved
at large elsewhere, and through the Scripture. Faith is (as
LIFE OF FAITH. 331
Davenant well noteth) the act of the whole man : I was
wont to say of both faculties, I now say of the three facul-
ties, which constitute the soul of man, the potestative, the
intellective and the volitive. And the assent itself is many
acts, (as acts are physically specified by their objects) as is
shewed. It is one moral act or work of the soul : like
trusting a man as my physician, which is a fiducial consent
that he be my physician, in order to the use of his remedies ;
or as taking a man to be your prince, husband, tutor, mas-
ter, &c. where he that will tell people that taking signifieth
but one physical act, would be ridiculous. And he that
will tell people that only one physical act of one faculty is
it that they must look to be justified by, will be much
worse than ridiculous.
Error 24. * That we are justified by faith, not as it re-
ceiveth Christ's person, but his benefits or righteousness.'
Contr. The contrary is before and after proved (and in-
sisted on by Dr. Preston at large). Indeed we receive not
Christ's person itself physically ; but his person in the of-
fice and relation of our Saviour ; as we must choose what
person shall be our physician, before we take his medicines,
or receive our health ; but it is only a consent that he and
no other, be our physician, which we call the taking of his
person. And so it is here.
Error 25. * That it is one act of faith which giveth us
right to Christ, and another to his righteousness, and ano-
ther to his teaching, and another to his Spirit, and another
to adoption, and to heaven,' &c. and not the same.
Contr. This is, 1. Adding to the word of God, and that
in a matter near our chiefest comfort and safety. Prove
it, or affirm it not. 2. It is corrupting, and perverting, and
contradicting the word and covenant of God, which unitedly
maketh the same faith (without any such distinction) the
condition of all the covenant-gifts ; Mark xvi. 16. John iii.
16. &c.
Error 26. ' That though the same faith which justifieth
doth believe in him as a Teacher, as a King and a Judge,
&c. yet it justifieth us only ' quatenus receptio justitiae,' as
it is the receiving of Christ's righteousness.'
Contr, See my Dispute of Justification, my confutation
of this assertion in Mr. Warner. Properly faith justifieth
not at all ; but we are justified of or by it as a condition by
332 LIFE OF FAITH.
the tenor of God*s deed of gift. And so far a8 it is the
condition in that gift, so far we are justified by it. But it
is one entire faith in Christ, which is the condition, without
such distinction ; therefore we are so justified by it. 2. Ac-
cording to that rule, there must be as many acts of faith, as
there are benefits to be received, and the title to be ascribed
to each one accordingly. 3. The natural relation of the
act to the object, sheweth no more but what the nature or
essence of that faith is, and not how we come to be justified
by it. 4. The sense containeth this false proposition, * Haec
fides qua talis,* or ' qua fides justificat:' faith as faith, or
as this faith is specie, justifieth (which some call the 'To
credere'). For it is the essence of faith which they call its
reception of Christ's righteousness. 5. The true passive
reception of righteousness and pardon, is that of the per-
son, as he is the ' terminus' of the donative or justifying act
of the covenant : to receive pardon properly, is to be par-
doned : but our active receiving or consent, is but the con-
dition of it ; and there is no proof or reason that the con-
dition should be so parcelled 6. Yet if by your ' quatenus'
you intend no more than the description of the act of faith
as essentially related to its subsequent benefit, and not at
all to speak of its conditional nearest interest in our justifi-
cation, the matter were less. 7. But the truth is, that if
we might distinguish where God doth not distinguish, it
were much more rational to say, that taking Christ for a
true Messenger of God, and a Teacher, and Sanctifier, and
King, hath a greater hand in our justification, than taking
him to justify us (supposing that all be present). Because
the common way and reason of conditions in covenants is,
that somewhat which the party is willing of, is promised
upon condition of something which he is unwilling of, that
for the one he may be drawn to consent unto the other : as
if the physician should say, * If you will take me for your
physician, and refuse none of my medicines, I will under-
take to cure you.' Here it is supposed that the patient is
willing of health, and not willing of the medicines, but for
health's sake ; and therefore consenting to the medicines
(or receiving this man to be a physician as a prescriber of
the medicines) is more the condition of his cure, than his
consenting to the cure itself, or receiving the physician as
the cause of his health ; so here it is supposed that con-
LIFE OF FAITH. 333
demned sinners are already willing to be justified, pardoned,
and saved from punishment, but not willing to repent and
follow the teaching and counsel of a Saviour ; and there-
fore that pardon and justification is given and offered them,
on condition that they accept of, and submit to the teach-
ing and government of Christ, and of salvation from their
sins : but the truth is, we must not presume beyond his re-
velation, to give the reasons of God's institutions We are
sure that the entire belief in Christ, and accepting of him-
self as our perfect Saviour in order to all the ends of his
relation, is made by God in his covenant, the condition
of our title to the benefits of his covenant conjunctly : and
it is not only the believing in Christ for pardon that as such
is the condition of pardon ; nor is any one act the condi-
tion of any benefit, but as it is a part of that whole faith
which is indeed the condition.
The occasion of their error is, that they consider only
what it is in Christ the object of faith which justifieth,
sanctifieth, &c. and they think that the act only which is
exercised on that object must do it; which is a gross mis-
take : because faith is not like taking of money, jewels,
books, &c. into one's hand, which is a physical act which
taketh possession of them; but it is a * jus' or ' debitum,' a
right and relation which we are morally and passively to
receive, as constituting our first justification and pardon;
and as the condition of this we are to take Christ for our
Saviour, which is but a physical, active, metaphorical re-
ceiving, in order to the attainment of the said passive pro-
per receiving (for * recipere proprie est pati*).
If an act be passed, that all traitors and rebels, who will
give up themselves to the king's son, as one that hath ran-
somed them, to be taught and ruled by him, and reduced
to their obedience, and to be their general in the wars
against his enemies ; shall have pardon, and lands, and
honours, and further rewards after this service; here the
prince himself doth deliver them by his ransom, and enrich
them by his lands, and honour them by his honour or
power, &c. But their act of giving up themselves to him
under the notion of a ransomer, doth no more to their de-
liverance, than their giving up themselves to him under the
notion of a general or ruler, &c. ; because it doth not free
334 LIFE OF FAITH.
them as it is such an act, but as it is an act made the con-
dition of his gift.
And note that I have before proved, that even as to the
object Christ justifieth us in all the parts of his office.
Error 27. ' That believing in God as God and our Father
in Christ, is not an act of justifying faith, but only a conse-
quent or concomitant of it/
Contr. 1. No doubt but God must some way be believed
in, in order of nature, before Christ can be believed in (as
is proved) who can believe that Christ is the Son and Mes-
senger of God ? Who believeth not that there is a God ?
Or that Christ reconcileth us to God, before he believe that
he is our offended God and Governor. 2. But to believe
in God as the end of our redemption ; to whose love and
favour we must be restored by faith in Christ, and who par-
doneth by the Son, is as essential an act of justifying faith,
as our belief in Christ.
Object, ' But not ' quatenus justificantis,' not of faith as
justifying.'
Answ, If by * as justifying,' you mean 'not as effecting
justification,' it is a false supposition : there is no such
faith. If you mean ' not as the condition of justification,'
it is false : it is as essential a part of it as the condition.
If you mean ' not as faith is denominated justifying from the
consequent benefit,' it is true, but impertinent ; for the same
may be said of faith in Christ ; it is not called ' faith in
Christ,' as it is called (by you) justifying. And yet I may
add, that in the very physical nature of it, belief in God as
our God and end, is essential to it : as consenting to be
healed, is essential to consenting to the physician ; and
consenting to be reconciled is essential to our consenting
to a mediation for that end ; because the respect to the end
is essential to the relation consented to.
All the faith described Heb. xi. in all those instances,
hath special essential respect to God.
So hath Abraham's faith, Rom. iv. 3. "Abraham be-
lieved God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness."
" To him that worketh not, but believeth on him (on God)
that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righte-
ousness ;" ver. 5^ " Blessed is the man to whom the Lord
will not impute sin ;" ver. 8. " Before him whom he be-
LIFE OF FAITH. 335
lieved, even God who quickeneth the dead ;" ver. 17. "He
staggered not at the promise of God Being fully per-
suaded, that what he had promised, he was also able to per-
form;'* ver. 20, 21. " And therefore it was imputed to him
for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake
alone, that it was imputed to him ; but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed, if we believe on him who raised Jesus
our Lord from the dead ;" ver. 22 — 24.
Abundance such testimonies are obvious in Scripture ;
but this being as plain as can be spoken, he maketh his own
faith, who refuseth to believe it. Our faith in God as God
hath as much hand in our justification, as our faith in
Christ as Mediator.
But the form of the baptismal covenant which the
church ever used, fully proveth it as aforesaid, though to
answer all ignorant cavils against it, as an unnecessary
tediousness 1 pass by.
Error 28. ' The belief of heaven, or the life to come, is
no essential part of justifying faith as such.'
Contr, The last answer to this error is sufficient : Hea-
ven is the everlasting vision and love of God ; and there-
fore we are justified by believing it, though not it alone : it
is essential to our Saviour, to save and bring us to the frui-
tion of God.
Error 29. 'That justifying faith is a believing that I am
justified, or elect, and shall be saved by Christ.*
Error 30. * That this faith is a full assurance, or persua-
sion at least, excluding doubting.'
Contr, 1. We are justified by believing and accepting
God for our God, and Christ for our Saviour, that we may
be justified; and not by believing that we are justified.
2. It is false, and ever will be, that any of the ' prsesciti' (as
Austin and Prosper call them) or the non-elect, are elect, or
justified, or will be saved ; but the non-elect are commanded
and bound to believe with that same kind of faith by which
we are justified; therefore to believe that they themselves
are elect, justified, and shall be saved, is not that kind of
faith by which we are justified. No men are bound by God
on pain of damnation to believe a lie, nor damned for not
believing it. 3. Assurance of personal pardon, is the hap-
piness but of few true Christians in this life ; and where it
336 LIFE OF FAITH.
iSj it is only an effect or consequent participating of faith.
See Mr. Hickman on this subject.
Error 31. * The meaning of that article of our creed ' I
believe the remission of sins' is, I believe that my own sins
are forgiven to me personally.'
Contr. Though worthy Mr. Perkins, and other ancient
divines have too much countenanced this exposition, it is
false. The meaning of that article is but this, ' I believe
that a sufficient provision for pardon is made by Christ,
both for sins before regeneration, and after-faults which
shall be repented of; and that a pardoning covenant is
made to all, if they will repent and believe ; and to me as
well as others, and I accept of that gracious offer, and trust
in that covenant in Christ.*
It is dangerous mssexpounding articles of the creed.
Error 32. ' At least it is an act of divine belief to be-
lieve that I am elect, and justified, and shall be saved.'
Contr. Many have been a great scandal or snare to
harden the Papists by asserting this. But the truth is, it is
but a rational conclusion from two premises; the one of
which is of divine revelation, and the other of inward ex-
perience ; and all that is capable of being a controversy to
the judicious, is only ' de nomine/ whether logically the
conclusion be to be denominated from the more debile of
the premises, or from both, by participation, as being both
an act of faith, and of reason, ' secundum quid,' and of nei-
ther simpliciter. But it is commonly concluded, that the
more debile of the premises must denominate the conclu-
sion : and it is certain ' de re/ that the conclusion can be no
more certain than it.
Object, * But when the Scripture saith, " He that be-
lieveth shall be saved ;" it is equivalent to this, * I John
believe, and therefore I shall be saved.'
Answ. A gross deceit. That I believe, is no where in
the Scripture : if it be, doth the Scripture say, that all men
believe, or only some ? If some, doth it name them, or
notify them by any thing but the marks by which they must
find it in themselves ?
Object. ' But he that believeth may be as sure that he
believeth, as that the Scripture is true.'
Amw. But not that he is sincere, and exceeding all
LIFE OF FAITH. .'337
hypocrites and common believers ; at least there are but
few that get so full an assurance hereof.
Object. * The Spirit witnesseth that we are God's chil-
dren ; and to believe the Spirit, is to believe God.'
Answ. The Spirit is oft called in Scripture, the Witness,
and Pledge, and Earnest, in the same sense ; that is, it is
the evidence of our right to Christ and life. " If any man
have not his Spirit, he is none of his ;" Rom. viii. 9. And
hereby we know that he dwelleth in us, by the Spirit which
he hath given us. As the Spirit's miracles were the witness
of Christ, (Heb. ii. 3, &c.) objectively, as evidence is called
witness. 2. And withal the Spirit by illumination and ex-
citation helpeth us to see itself as our evidence. 3. And to
rejoice in this discovery. And thus the Spirit witnesseth
our adoption. But none of these are the proper objects of
a divine belief. 1. The objective evidence of holiness in
us, is the object of our rational self-acquaintance, or con-
science only. 2. The illuminating grace by which we see
this, is not a new divine testimony, or proper revelation, or
word of God ; but the same help of grace by which all other
divine things are known. And all the Spirit's grace for our
understanding of divine revelations are not new objective
revelations themselves; requiring a new act of faith for
them. A word or proper revelation from God is the object
of divine belief; otherwise every illuminating act of the
Spirit for our understanding God's word, would be itself a
new word, to be believed, and so * in infinitum.'
Error 33. * Doubting of the life to come, or of the truth
of the Gospel, will not stand with saving faith.'
Contr. It will not stand with a confirmed faith ; but it
will with a sincere faith. He that doubteth of the truth of
the promise, so far as that he will not venture life and soul,
and all his hopes and happiness, temporal and eternal upon
it, hath no true faith; but he that doubteth, but yet so far
belie veth the Gospel, as to take God for his only God and
portion, and Christ for his only Saviour, and the Spirit for
his Sanctifier, and will cast away life, or all that stand in
competition, hath a true and saving faith ; as is before
proved.
Error 34. * That repentance is no condition of pardon
or justification ; for then it would be equal therein with faith.'
VOL. XII. z
338 LIFE OF FAITH.
Cantr, I have elsewhere at large proved the contrary
from Scripture. Repentance hath many acts as faith hath.
To repent (as it is the change of the mind) of our atheism,
idolatry, and not loving God, and obeying him, is the same
motion of the soul denominated from the * terminus a quo,'
as faith in God, and love to God is denominated from the
' terminus ad quem :' this is repentance towards God. Re-
penting of our infidelity against Christ, is the same motion of
the soul as believing in Christ, only one is denominated
from the object turned from, and the other from the object
turned to. By which you may see that some repentance is
the same with faith in Christ ; and some is the same with
faith in God ; and some is the same with love to God ; and
some is but the same with the leaving of some particular
sin, or turning to some particular fore-neglected duty. And
so you may esily resolve the case how far it is the condition
of pardon, repentance, as it is a return to the love of God,
as he is our God, and end, and all, is made the final condi-
tion or further blessings as necessary in and of itself as the
end of faith in Christ ; and repentance of infidelity, and
faith in Christ is made the mediate or medicinal condition.
As consenting to be friends with your father or king after a
rebellion ; and consenting to the mediation of a friend to
reconcile you, are both conditions, one (the more noble)
' de fine,' and the other ' de mediis :' or as consenting to be
cured, and consenting to take physic. They that will or
must live in the darkness of confusion, were best at least
hold their tongues there, till they come into distinguishing
light.
Error 35. * That all other acts of faith in Christ (as our
Lord, or Teacher, or Judge), or of faith in God, or the Holy
Ghost ; all confessing sin, and praying for pardon, and re-
penting and forgiving others, and receiving baptism, &c.
are the works which Paul excludeth from justification ; and
one act of faith only being the justifying instrument, he that
looketh to be justified by any of all these, besides that one
act, doth look for justification by works, and consequently
is fallen from grace.'
Contr. This is not only an addition to God's word and
covenant (not to be used by them that judge it unlawful to
add a form or ceremony in his worship) but it is a most
LIFE OF FAITH. 339
dangerous invention to wrack men's consciences, and keep
all men under certain desperation. For whilst the world
standeth, the subtlest of these inventers of new doctrines
will never be able to tell the world, which is that one sole
act of faith, by which they are justified, that they may
escape looking for a legal justification by the rest : whether
it be believing in Christ's divinity, or humanity, or both ; or
in his divine, or human, or habitual righteousness, or his
obedience as a subject, or his sacrifice, or his priesthood
offering that sacrifice, or his covenant and promise of par-
don and justification, or in God that giveth him and them ;
or in his resurrection, or in God's present sentential or exe-
cutive justification; or in his final sentential justification,
&c. No man to the end of the world shall know which of
these, or any other is the sole justifying act; and so no
man can escape being a legal adversary to grace. Unhappy
Papists, who by the contrary extreme, have frightened or
disputed us into such wild and scandalous inventions. Of
this see fully my Dispute of Justification, against the wor-
thy and excellent Mr. Anthony Burgess.
Error 36. * That our own faith is not at all imputed to
us for righteousness, but only Christ's righteousness re-
ceived by it.'
Contr. The Scripture no where saith, that Christ or his
righteousness, or his obedience, or his satisfaction is im-
puted to us; and yet we justly defend it, as is before ex-
plained, and as Mr. Bradshaw and ' Grotius de satisfact.'
have explained it. And on the other side, the Scripture
often saith, that faith is imputed for righteousness, and shall
be so to all that believe in God that raised Christ ; Rom. iv.
And this these objectors peremptorily deny. But expound-
ing Scripture amiss, is a much more clean pretence for error
than a flat denial of its truth. And a true exposition is
better than either.
The same God who hath given us a Saviour to satisfy
legal justice, and to merit our justification against the
charge that we are condemnable by the law of works ; hath
thought meet to convey our title to this Christ and justifica-
tion, by the instrumentality of a new covenant, testament,
or pardoning act; in which (though he absolutely gave
many antecedent mercies, yet) he giveth these and other
.340 LIFE OF I AITH.
rights, by a conditional gift, that as the reward of glory
should have invited man to keep the law of nature and his
innocency ; so the reward should be a moving means to
draw men to believe. So that there is a condition to be
performed by ourselves (through grace) before we can have
the covenant-right to justification. Now when that is per-
formed, Christ then is our only righteousness (as aforesaid)
by which we must answer the charge of breaking the first
law, and being condemnable by it. But we can lay no
claim to this righteousness of Christ, till we first prove that
we are ourselves inherently righteous, against the charge of
being impenitent unbelievers. This false accusation we
must be justified against by our own faith and repentance ;
that we may be justified by Christ, against the true accusa-
tion of sinning against the law, and thereby being con-
demnable by it. Now as to our legal righteousness, or pro-
legal rather, by which this last must be avoided, it is * only
the merits of Christ, given to us in its fruits, in the new
covenant, even the merits of his obedience and sacrifice.'
But our faith itself is the other righteousness, which must
be found in our persons to entitle us to this first : and this
being it, and being all (in the sense aforesaid) that is made
the condition of our pardon by the new covenant; therefore
God is said to impute it itself to us for a righteousness, be-
cause that condition maketh it so ; and to impute it to us
for our righteousness, that is, as all that now by this cove-
nant he requireth to be personally done by us, who had
formerly been under a harder condition, even the fulfilling
of the law by innocency, or suffering for sin ; because he
that doth not fulfil nor satisfy, as is said, yet if he believe,
hath a right to the justification merited by Christ, who did
fulfil and satisfy. This is easy to be understood as un-
doubted truth by the willing ; and the rest will be mo&t
contentious where they are most erroneous.
Error 37. ' That sincere obedience, and all acts of love,
repentance, and faith save one, do justify us only before
men ; and of that speaketh St. Jimes, Ch. ii.'
Coiitr, I must refer the reader to other books, in which
1 have fully confuted this. How can men judge of the acts
of repentance, faith, love, &c. which are in the heart ? And
James plainly speaketh of God's imputing righteousness to
LIFE OF FAITH. 341
Abraham; James ii. 21. 23. And how shall men justify
Abraham for killing his only son ? And how small a matter
is justification by man, when we may be saved without it?
2. Sincere obedience to God in Christ, is the condition
of the continuance, or not losing our justification here, and
the secondary part of the condition of our final sentential
and executive justification.
Error 38. ' That our inherent righteousness before de-
scribed, hath no place of a condition in our justification in
the day of judgment.'
Contr. The Scriptures folly confuting this, I have else-
where cited. All those that say, we shall be judged ac-
cording to our works, &c. speak against it ; for to be judged,
is only to be justified or condemned : So Rev. xxii. 14.
Matt. XXV. &-C.
Error 39. * That there is no justification at judgment to
be expected, but only a declaration of it.'
Contr, The decisive sentence and declaration of the
Judge, is the most proper sense or sort of justification, and
the perfection of all that went before. I^. we shall not be
then justified, then there is no such thing as justification
by sentence : nay, there is no such thing as a day of judg-
ment; or else all men must be condemned. For it is most
certain that we must be justified, or condemned, or not
judged.
Error 40. * That no man ought to believe that the con-
ditional covenant, act or gift of justification, belongeth to
him as a member of the lost world ; or as a sinner in Adam;
because God hath made no such gift or promise to any but
to the elect.*
Contr, This is confuted on the by before.
Error 41. * That though it be false that the non- elect
are elect, and that Christ died for them, yet they are bound
to believe it ; every man of himself, to prove that they are
elect.'
Contr, This is confuted on the by before. God bindeth,
or biddeth no man to believe a lie.
Error 42. * That we must believe God's election, and
our justification, and the special love of God to us, before
we can love him with a special love ; because it will not
cause in us a special love, to believe only a common love of
God, and such as he hath to the wicked and his enemies.'
342 LIFE OF FAITH.
Contr. No man can groundedly believe the special love
of God to hira, nor his own election or justification, before
he hath (yea before he find in himself) a special love to
God. Because he that hath no special love to God, must
believe a lie if he believe that he is justified, or that ever
God revealed to him that he is elect, or specially beloved of
God ; and no man hath any evidence or proof at all of his
election, and God's special love, till he have this evidence
of his special love to God. Till he know this, he cannot
know that any other is sincere.
2. They that deny or blaspheme God's common love to
fallen man, and his universal pardoning covenant, do their
worst to keep men from being moved to the special love of
God by his common love ; but when they have done their
worst, it shall stand as a sure obligation. Is there not rea-
son enough to bind men to love God above all, even as one
that yet may be their happiness in his own infinite good-
ness, and all the revelations of it by Christ, and in his so
'* loving the world, as to give his only Son that whosoever
believeth in hin» should not perish, but have everlasting
life." And in his giving a free pardon of all sin to man-
kind, and offering life eternal to them, so that none but the
final refusers shall lose it, and entreating them to accept it.
Sec. Is not all this sufficient in reason to move men to the
love of God, if the Spirit help them to make use of rea-
son (as he must do what reasons soever are presented to
them), unless men think that God doth not oblige them by
any kindness they can possibly reject? Or by any thing
which many others do partake of?
Yet here note, that by God's common love to man, I do
not mean, any which he hath to reprobates, under the con-
sideration of final despisers of his antecedent love ; but of
that antecedent love itself, which he hath shewed to lost
mankind in Christ.
And note also, that I do not deny but that love of God
in some men may be true, where their own presumption
that God hath elected them, and loved them above others,
before they had any proof of it, was an additional motive ;
but this is man's way, and not God's.
Error 43. ' That trusting to any thing, save God and
Jesus Christ, for our salvation, is sin and damnable.'
Contr, Confusion cheateth and choketh men's under-
LIFE OF FAITH. 343
standing. In a word, to trust to any thing but God, and
Christ, and the Holy Spirit, for any of that which is the
proper part of God, of Christ, of the Spirit, is sin and dam-
nable. But to trust to any thing or person, for that which
is but his own part, is but our duty. And he that prayeth,
and readeth, and heareth, and endeavoureth, and looketh to
be never the better by them, nor trusteth them for their
proper part, will be both heartless and formal in his work.
And I have shewed before, that the Scriptures, the pro-
mise, the apostle, the minister, and every Christian and
honest man, hath a certain trust due to them for that which
is their part, even in order to our salvation. I may trust
only to the skill of the physician, and yet trust his apo-
thecary, and the boy that carrieth the medicine for their
part.
Error 44. ' That it is sinful, and contrary to free grace,
to look at any thing in ourselves, or our own inherent righ-
teousness, as the evidence of our justification.'
Coritr. Then no man can know his justification at all.
Hie Spirit of holiness and adoption in ourselves, is our
earnest of salvation, and the witness that we are God's chil-
dren, and the pledge of God's love; as is proved before.
This is God's seal, as God knoweth who are his ; so he that
will know it himself, must depart from iniquity, when he
nameth Christ. If God sanctify none but those whom he
justifieth, then may the sanctified know that they are justi-
fied. Hath God delivered in Scripture so many signs or
characters of the justified in vain ?
Object, * The witness of the Spirit only can assure us.'
Answ. You know not what the witness of the Spirit is ;
or else you would know that it is the Spirit making us
holy, and possessing us with a filial love of God, and with a
desire to please him, and a dependance on him, &c. which
is the witness, even by way of an inherent evidence (and
helping us to perceive that evidence, and take comfort in
it). As a childlike love, and a pleasing obedience, and
dependance, with a likeness to the father, is a witness, that
is, an evidence which is your child.
Error 45. * That it is sinful to persuade wicked men to
pray for justification, or any grace, or to do any- thing for it ;
seeing their prayers and doings are abominable to God, and
cannot please him.'
344 LIFE OF FAITH.
Contr. Then it is sinful to persuade a wicked man from
his wickedness : praying and obeying, is departing from
wickedness. He that prayeth to be sanctified indeed, is re-
penting and turning from his sin to God. We never exhort
wicked men to pray with the tongue, without the desire of
the heart. Desire is the soul of prayer, and words are but
the body. We persuade them not to dissemble ; but as
Peter did Simon, repent and pray for forgiveness ; Acts viii.
And if we may not exhort them to good desires (and to ex-
cite and express the best desires they have) we may not ex-
hort them to conversion. " Seek the Lord while he may be
found, and call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked
forsake his way," &c. ; Isa. Iv. 6. 10. You see there that
praying is a repenting act ; and when we exhort them to
pray, we exhort them to repent and seek God.
Object. * But they have no ability to do it.'
Answ. Thus the devil would excuse sinners and accuse
God. Thus you may put by all God*s commands, and say,
God should not have commanded them to repent, believe,
love him, obey him, nor love one another, nor forbear their
sins ; for they have no ability to do it. But they have their
natural faculties, or powers, and they have common grace ;
and God's way of giving them special grace, is by meeting
them in the use of his appointed means ; and not by meet-
ing them in an alehouse, or in sinful courses. (However a
soul may be met with in his persecuting, and God may be
found of them that sought him not ; yet that is not his usual,
nor his appointed way.) Can any man of reason dream that
it is not the duty of a wicked man to use any means for the
obtaining of grace, or to be better ; nor to do any thing
towards his own recovery and salvation ? Nature and Scrip-
ture teach men as soon as they see their sin and misery,
to say, " What must I do to be saved ?" As the repenting
Jews, and Paul, and the Gaoler did ; Acts ii. 37. viii. xvi.
The prayers of a wicked man as wicked, are abominable ;
that is, both his wicked prayers, and his praying to quiet
and strengthen himself in his wickedness, or praying with
the tongue without the heart. The prayers which come
from a common faith, and common good desires are better
than none, but have no promise of justification. But the
wicked must be exhorted both to this, and more, even to
repent, desire and pray sincerely.
LIFE OF FAITH. 345
Error 46. ' It is sinful, and against free grace, to think
that any works or actions of our own, are rewardable ; or to
say, that they are meritorious, though it be nothing but re-
wardableness that is meant by it.*
Contr. The Papists have so much abused the word merit,
by many dangerous opinions about it, that it is now become
more unmeet to be used by us, than it was in ancient times,
when the doctors and churches (even Austin himself) did
commonly use it. But if nothing be meant by it, but re-
wardableness, or the relation of a duty to the reward as
freely promised by God (as many Papists themselves un-
derstand it, and the ancient fathers generally did), he that
will charge a man with error in doctrine for the use of an
inconvenient word, is uncharitable and perverse ; especially
when it is other men*s abuse, which hath done most to
make it inconvenient. The merit of the cause is a common
phrase among all lawyers, when there is commutative merit-
ing intended. I have fully shewed in my Confession, that
the Scripture frequently useth the word worthy^ which is
the same or full as much : and a subject may be said to
merit protection of his prince ; and a scholar to merit praise
of his master, and a child to deserve love and respect from
his parents, and all this in no respect to commutative jus-
tice, wherein the rewarder is supposed to be a gainer at all ;
but only in governing distributive justice, which giveth
every one that which (by gift or any way) is his due. And
that every good man, and every good action, deserveth
praise, that is, to be esteemed such as it is. And that there
is also a comparative merit, and a not-meriting evil : as a
believer may be said not to deserve damnation by the cove-
nant of grace, but only by (or according to) the law of na-
ture or works.
But to pass from the word merit (which I had rather
were quite disused, because the danger is greater than the
benefit) the thing signified thus by it, is past all dispute,
viz. that whatever duty God hath promised a reward to,
that duty or work is rewardable according to the tenor of
that promise : and they that deny this, deny God's laws,
and government, and judgment, and his covenant of grace,
and leave not themselves one promise for faith to rest upon :
so certainly would all these persons be damned, if God in
346 LIFE OF FAITH.
mercy did not keep them from digesting their own errors,
and bringing them into practice.
Error 47. ' God is pleased with us only for the righte-
ousness of Christ, and not for any thing in ourselves.'
Contr, This is sufficiently answered before. He blas-
phemeth God, who thinketh that he is no better pleased
with holiness than with wickedness ; with well doing, than
with ill doing. They that are in the flesh cannot please
God (Rom. viii. 6, 7.) ; but the spiritual and obedient may.
Without faith it is impossible to please him, because unbe-
lievers think not that he is a Rewarder, and therefore will
not seek his reward aright : but they that will please him,
must believe that " he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him ;" Heb. xi. 6. They forget not to
do good and distribute, because with such sacrifices God
is well pleased ; Heb. xiii. And in a word, it is the work of
all their lives to labour, that whether living or dying they
may be accepted of him, (2 Cor. v. 8, 9.) and to be such, and
to do those things as are pleasing in his sight. Nay, 1 will
add, that as the glory of God, that is, the glorious demon-
stration or appearance of himself in his works, is materially
the ultimate end of man ; so the pleasing of himself in this
his glory shining in his image and works, is the very ' apex,'
or highest formal notion of this ultimate end of God and of
man, as far as is within our reach.
No man's works please God out of Christ, both because
they are unsound and bad in the spring and end, and be-
cause their faultiness is not pardoned. But in Christ, the
persons and duties of the godly are pleasing to God, be-
cause they have his image, and are sincerely good, and
because their former sins, and present imperfections are for-
given for the sake of Christ (who never reconciled God to
wickedness).
Error 48. * It is mercenary to work for a reward, and
legal to set men on doing for salvation.'
Contr. It is legal or foolish to think of working for any
reward, by such meritorious works, as make the reward to
be not of grace, but of debt; Rom. iv. 4. But he that
raaketh God himself, and his everlasting love to be his re-
ward, and trusteth in Christ the only reconciler, as know-
ing his guilt and enmity by sin ; and laboureth for the food
LIFE OF FAITH. 347
which perisheth not, but endureth to everlasting life ; and
layeth up a treasure in heaven, and maketh himself friends
of the mammon of unrighteousness, and layeth up a good
foundation for the time to come, laying hold upon eternal
life, and striveth to enter in at the strait gate, and fighteth a
good fight, and finisheth his course for the crown of righte-
ousness, and sufFereth persecution for a reward in heaven,
and prayeth in secret that God may reward him, and always
aboundeth in the work of the Lord, because his labour is
not in vain in the Lord, and endureth to the end, that he
may be saved, and is faithful to the death, and overcometh,
that he may receive the crown of life ; this man taketh
God's way, and the only way to heaven; and they that
thas seek not the reward (being at the use of reason) are
never like to have it.
Error 49. * It is not lawful for the justified to pray for
the pardon of any penalties, but temporal/
Contr. The ground of this is before overthrown.
Error 50. ' It is not lawful to pray twice for the pardon
of the same sin ; because it implieth unbelief, as if it were
not pardoned already.'
Contr, It is a duty to pray oft and continuedly for the
pardon of former sins: 1. Because pardon once granted
must be continued ; and therefore the continuance must be
prayed : If you say, ' It is certain to be continued,' I an-
swer, then it is certain that you will continue to pray for it
(and to live a holy life. 2. Because the evils deserved, are
such as we are not perfectly delivered from, and are in dan-
ger of more daily. And therefore we must pray for daily
executive pardon, that is, impunity ; and that God will
give us more of his Spirit, and save us from the fruit of
former sin ; because our right to future impunity is given
before all the impunity itself. 3. And the complete justifi-
cation from all past sins, is yet to come at the day of judg-
ment. And all this, (besides that some that have pardon,
know it not) may and must be daily prayed for.
Error 51. 'The justified must not pray again for the
pardon of the sins before conversion.'
Contr, What was last said confuteth this.
Error 52. ' No man at all may pray for pardon, but only
for assurance : for the sins of the elect are all pardoned be-
fore they were born ; and the non-elect have no satisfaction
348 LIFK OF I AITH.
made for their sins, and therefore their pardon is impos-
sible.'
Contr. Matt. vi. " Forgive us our trespasses," &c.
These consequences do but shew the falsehood of the
antecedents.
Error 53. * No man can know that he is under the guilt
of any sin ; because no man can know but that he is elect,
and consequently justified already.'
Contr, No infidel, or impenitent person is justified.
Error 54. * Christ only is covenanted with by the Father,
and he is the only Proraiser as for us, and not we for our-
selves.'
Contr, Christ only hath undertaken to do the work of
Christ ; but man must undertake, and promise, and cove-
nant, even to Christ himself, (that by the help of his grace)
he will do his own part. Or else no man should be bap-
tized. What a baptism and sacramental communion do
these men make ? He that doth not covenant with the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, hath no right to the benefits
of God's part of the covenant. And no man (at age) can be
saved that doth not both promise and perform.
Error 55. * We are not only freed from the condemning
sentence of the law, but freed also from its commands.'
Contr, We are not under Moses's judaical law, which
was proper to their nation, and their proselytes ; nor are we
under a necessity or duty, of labouring after perfect obe-
dience in ourselves, as the condition of our justification or
salvation ; but to renounce all such expectations. Nor
will the law of works itself ever justify us (as some affirm)
as having perfectly fulfilled it by another : but we are jus-
tified against its charge, and not by it, by the covenant of
grace, and not of works. But perfect obedience to all the
law of nature and all the commands of Christ, is still our
duty, and sincere obedience is necessary to our salvation.
All our duty is not supererogation.
Error 56. * When a man doubteth whether he be a be-
liever or penitent, he must believe that Christ repented and
believed for him.'
Contr, Christ never had sin to repent of, and it is not
proper to say one repenteth of another's sin ; Christ be-
lieved his Father ; but had no use for that faith in a Me-
diator which we must have. He that repenteth not and
LIFE OF FAITH. 349
believetli not himself, shall be damned ; therefore you may
see how Christ repented and believed for us.
Error- 57. * A man that trusteth to be justified at the day
of judgment, against the charge of unbelief, impenitency
and hypocrisy, by his own faith, repentance and sincerity,
as his particular subordinate righteousness, and not by
Christ's righteousness imputed only, sinneth against free
grace.'
Contr. Christ's righteousness is imputed or given to
none, nor shall justify any that are true unbelievers, impeni-
tent or hypocrites ; therefore if any such person trust to be
justified by Christ, he deceiveth him. If the charge be,
'- Thou art an infidel or impenitent;' it is frivolous to say,
* But Christ obeyed, suffered, or believed, or repented for
me.' But he that will then be justified against that charge,
must say, and say truly, I truly believed, repented and
obeyed.
Er)or, 58. 'There is no use for a justification against
any such false accusation before God, vy^ho knoweth all
men's hearts.'
Contr. 1. You might as well say, there is no use of judg-
ing men according to what they have done, when God
knoweth what they have done already. 2. We are to be
justified by God before men and angels, that Christ may be
glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe,
because the Gospel was believed by them ; 2 Thess, i. 10, 11.
And not only the mouth of iniquity may be stopped, and
open false accusations confuted ; but that the prejudices and
heart-slanders of the wicked may be refelled, and our righ-
teousness be brought forth as the light, and our judgment as
the noon-day: that all the false judgments and reproaches
of the wicked against the just may be confounded ; and they
may answer for all their ungodly sayings, and hard speeches
(as Enoch prophesied) against the godly ; and that they
that speak evil of us, because we run not with them to all
excess of riot, may ** give an account to him who is ready to
judge the quick and the dead;" 1 Pet. iv. 4, 5. And that
all may be set straight which men made crooked, and hidden
things be all brought to light.
3. And we must be better acquainted with the ingenuity
of the great Accuser of the brethren, before we can be sure
350 LIFE OF FAITH.
that he who belieth God to man, will not belie man to God ;
seeing he is the father of lies, and did so by Job, &c.
4. But we must not think of the day of judgment, as a
day of talk between God, and Satan, and man ; but as a
day of DECISIVE light or manifestation. And so the case
is out of doubt. The faith, repentance, and sincerity of the
just will be there manifest, against all former or latter, real
or virtual calumnies of men or devils to the contrary.
5. But above all let it be marked, that nothing else can
be matter of controversy to be decided. That Christ hath
obeyed, and suffered, and satisfied for believers' sins, and
made a testament or covenant to pardon all true believers,
will be known to the Accuser, and past all doubt. The
day of judgment is not to try Christ's obedience and suffer-
ings, nor to decide the case whether he fulfilled the law,
and satisfied for sin, or made a pardoning covenant to be-
lievers : but whether we have part in him or not, and so are
to be justified by the Gospel-covenant, through his merits
against the legal covenant ; and whether we have fulfilled
the conditions of the pardoning covenant or not. This is
all that can then be made a controversy ; this is the secrets
of men's heart, and case that must be opened before the
world by God. However we doubt not, but the glory of all
will redound to Christ, whose merits are unquestioned.
6. Note also, that Christ will be the Judge on supposi-
tion of his merits, and not the party to be tried and judged.
7. Note also, that we are to be judged by the new cove-
nant or law of liberty, and therefore it is the condition of
that covenant (as made with us) which is to be inquired
after.
8. Note also, that Christ himself in Matt. xxv. (and
every where) when he describeth the day of judgment, doth
not at all speak of any decision of such a controversy, as
whether he was the Lamb of God, who took away the sin
of the world ? Or whether he did his part or not ; but only
whether men did their parts or not, and shewed the since-
rity of their love to God and him, by venturing all for him,
and owning him in his servants, to their cost and hazard.
And the fruit of Christ's part is only mentioned as a pre-
supposed thing, " Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you For I was hungry," &c.
LIFE OF FAITH. 351
The preparation (in God's decree and Christ's merits) is un-
questioned, and so is the donation to all true believers ;
therefore it is the case of their title to this gift, and of the
condition or evidence of their title, which is here tried and
decided.
Lastly, Note that upon the decision, in respect of both
together (Christ's merits and covenant as supposed, and
their own true faith and love, as manifested decisively,) they
are called righteous. Matt. xxv. 46. " The righteous into
life eternal."
So much to take the stumbling-blocks out of the way
of faith, about free grace and justification, which the weak-
ness of many well-meaning erroneous men hath laid there
of late times, to the great danger or impediment of weak
believers.
" Take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my
people ;" Isa. Ivii. 14.
" Thou shalt not put a stumbling-block before the blind,
but shalt fear God ;" Levit. xix. 14.
CHAPTER IX.
How to live by Faith, in order to the exercise of other Graces
and Duties of Sanctification, and Obedience to God,
And first of the Doctrinal Directions,
We cannot by faith promote sanctification, unless we under-
stand the nature and reasons of sanctification. This there-
fore must be our first endeavour.
The word sanctified doth signify that which is sepa-
rated to God from common uses. And this separation is
either by God himself (as, he hath sanctified the Lord's
day, &c.) or by man's dedication ; either of persons to a
holy office ; and so the ministers of Christ are sanctified in
their ordination (which is a consecration) and their self-
dedication to God. And it is high sacrilege in themselves,
or any other, that shall alienate them unjustly from their
sacred calling and work. Or of things to holy uses (as
places and utensils may be sanctified.) Or it may be a
dedication of persons to a holy state, relation and use ; as
3S2
LIFE OF FAITH.
is that of every Christian in his baptism. And this is either
an external dedication ; and so all the baptized are sanctified
and holy ; or an internal dedication, which if it be sincere,
it is both actual and habitual, when we both give up our-
selves to God in covenant, and are also disposed and in-
clined to him ; and our hearts are set upon him ; yea and
the life also consisteth of the exercise of this disposition,
and performance of this covenant. This is the sanctifica-
tion which here I speak of. And so much for the name.
The doctrinal propositions necessary to be understood
about it are these, (more largely and plainly laid down in
my * Confession,' chap. 3.)
Prop, 1. So much of the appearance or image of God as
there is upon any creature, so much it is good and amiable
to God and man.
Object, ' God loveth us from eternity, and when we were
his enemies ; not because we were good, but to make us
better than we were.
Answ, God's love (and all love) consisteth foraially in
complacency. God hath no complacency in any thing but
in good ; or according to the measure of its goodness.
From eternity God foreseeing the good which would be in
us, loved us as good in ' esse cognito*; and not as actually
good, when we were not. When we were his enemies, he had
a double love to us (or complacency), the one was for that
natural good which remained in us as we were men, and re-
pairable, and capable of being made saints. The other
was for that foreseen good as in * esse cognito', which he
purposed in time to come, to put upon us. This compla-
cency exceeded not at all the good which was the object of
it: but with it was joined a will and purpose to give us
grace and glory hereafter ; and thence it is called, a love of
benevolence : not but that complacency is the true notion
of love ; and benevolence, or a purpose to give benefits, is
but the fruit of it. But if any will needs call the benevo-
lence alone by the name of love, we deny not in that sense
that God loveth Saul, a persecutor, as well as Paul, an
apostle ; in that his purpose to do him good is the same.
Object. ' God loveth us in Christ, and for his righteous-
ness, and not only for our own inherent holiness.
Answ. 1. The benevolence of God is exercised towards
us in and by Christ ; and the fruits of his love are Christ
LIFE OF FAITH. 353
himself, and the mercies given us with Christ, and by Christ.
And our pardon, and justification, and adoption, and ac-
ceptance is by his meritorious righteousness : and it is by
him that we are possessed of God's Spirit, and renewed ac-
cording to his image, in wisdom, and righteousness, and
holiness. And all this relative and inherent mercy we have
as in Christ, related to him, without whom we have nothing.
And thus it is that we are accepted and beloved in him, and
for his righteousness. But Christ did not die or merit to
change God's nature, and make him more indifferent in his
love to the holy and the unholy, or equally to the more holy,
and to the less holy. But his complacency is still in no
man further than he is made truly amiable in his real holi-
ness, and his relation to Christ, and to the Father. (The
doctrine of imputation is opened before.) ** The Father
himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have
believed,'* &c. ; John xvi. 27. " He that loveth me, shall be
loved of my Father ;" John xiv. 21. As God loved us
with the love of benevolence, and so much complacence as
is before described, before we loved him (1 John iv. 10.
Ephes. ii. 4.), so he now loveth us complacentially for his
image upon us, and so much of his grace as is found in us ;
and also for our relation to his Son, and to himself, which
we stand in by this grace : but as he loveth not Saul, a
persecutor, under the notion of a fulfiUer of his law in
Christ ; so neither doth he love David in his sin, under the
notion of one that is without sin and perfect, as having ful-
filled the law in Christ : but so loveth him in Christ, as to
pardon his sin, and make him more lovely in himself,
by creating a clean heart, and renewing a right spirit
within him, for the sake of the satisfaction and merits of
Christ.
Prop, 2. Holiness is God's image upon us, and that
which was our primitive amiableness ; Col. iii. 10.
Prop, 3. The loss of holiness, was the loss of our ami-
ableness, and our state of enmity to God.
Prop, 4. Holiness consisteth in, 1. Our resignation of
ourselves to God as our owner, and submission to his pro-
vidence : 2. And our subjection to God as our ruler; and
obedience to his teaching and his laws : 3. And in thank-
VOL. XIT. A A
354 LIFE OF FAITH.
fulness and love to God as our chief good, efficiently and
finally.
Prop, 5. Love is that final perfective act, which implieth
and comprehendeth all the rest ; and so is the fulfilling of
the law, and the true state of sanctification ; Rom. xiii. 10.
Matt. xxii. 37. Mark xii. 33. 1 John vii. 16.
Prop. 6. Heaven itself, as it is our ultimate end and
perfection, is but our perfect love to God maintained by
perfect vision of him, with the perfect reception of his love
to us.
Prop, 7. Therefore it was Christ's great business in the
world, to destroy the works of the devil, and to bring us to
this perfect love of God.
Prop, 8. Accordingly the greatest use of faith in Christ
is to subserve and kindle our love to God.
Prop. 9. This it doth two special ways : 1. By procuring
the pardon of sin, which forfeited the grace of the Spirit ;
that so the Spirit may kindle the love of God in us : 2. By
actual beholding the I'ove of God, which shineth to us most
gloriously in Christ, by which our love must be excited, as
the most suitable and effectual means; John iii. 1. iv, 10.
Prop. 10. Our whole religion, therefore, consisteth of
two parts: 1. Primitive holiness, restored and perfected:
2. The restoring and perfecting means : or, 1. Love to God,
the final "and more excellent part : 2. Faith in Christ, the
mediate part. Faith causing love, and love caused by faith ;
1 Cor. xii. 31. xiii. Rom. viii. 35, Ephes. vi.23. 1 Tim.
i. 5. 2 Thess. iii. 5. 1 Cor. ii. 9. viii. 3. Rom. viii. 28.
James 1. xii. ii. 5. 1 Pet. i. 8.
Prop. 11. Repentance towards God, is the soul's return
to God in love ; and regeneration by the Spirit, is the Spirit's
begetting us to the image and nature of God our heavenly
Father, in a heavenly love to him ; so that the Holy Ghost
is given us to work in us a love to Gpd, which is our sanc-
tification; Rom. V. 5. Titus iii. 4 — 7. 2 Cor. xiii. 14.
1 John iv. 16.
Prop. 12. When sanctification is mentioned as a gift
consequent to faith, it is the love of God as our Father in
Christ, and the Spirit of love, that is principally meant by
that sanctification.
Prop. 13. The pardon of sin consisteth more in the
LIFE OF FAITH. 36f)
' poenam damni ', the forfeiture and loss of love, and the
spirit of love, than in remitting any corporal pain of sense.
And the restoring of love, and the spirit of love, and the
perfecting hereof in heaven, is the most eminent part of our
executive pardon, justification and adoption. Thus far
sanctification is pardon itself; Rom. viii. 15 — 17. Gal. iv.
6. 1 Cor. vi. 10, 11. Titus iii. 6, 7. Titus ii. 13, 14.
Rom. vi. viii. 4. 10. 13.
Prop, 14. The pardon of the pain of sense, is given us as
a means, to the executive pardon of the pain of loss, that is,
to put us in a capacity, with doubled obligations and advan-
tages to love God; Luke vii. 47.
Prop. 15. Sanctification therefore being better than all
other pardon of sin, as being its end; we must value it
more, and must make it our first desire to be as holy as may
be, that we may need as little forgiveness as may be, and in
the second place only desire the pardon of that we had
rather not have committed ; and not make pardon our chief
desire; Rom. vi. vii. viii. throughout. Gal. v. 17, to the
end.
Prop. 16. Holiness is the true morality ; and they that
prefer the preaching, and practice of faith in Christ, before
the preaching and practice of holiness, and slight this as
mere morality, do prefer the means before the end, and their
physic before their health : and they that preach or think
to practise holiness, without faith in Christ, do dream of a
cure without the only Physician of souls. And they that
preach up morality as consisting in mere justice, charity to
men, and temperance, without the love of God in Christ, do
take a branch, cut off and withered, for the tree.
Some ignorant sectaries cry down all preaching, as mere
morality, which doth not frequently toss the name of Christ,
and free grace.
And some ungodly preachers, who never felt the work
of faith or love to God in their own souls, for want of holy
experience, savour not, and understand not holy preaching ;
and therefore spend almost all their time, in declaiming
against some particular vices, and speaking what they have
learned of some virtues of sobriety, justice or mercy. And
when they have done, cover over their ungodly unbelieving
course, by reproaching the weaknesses of the former sort.
350 LIFE OF FAITH.
who cry down preaching mere morality. But let such
know, that those ministers and Christians, who justly la-
ment their lifeless kind of preaching, do mean by morality,
that which you commonly call ethics in the schools, which
leaveth out not only faith in Christ, but the love of God,
and the sanctitication of the Spirit, and the heavenly glory.
And they do not cry down true morality, but these dead
branches of it, which are all your morality. It is not mo-
rality itself inclusively that they blame, but mere morality,
that is, so much only as Aristotle's ethics teach, as exclusive
to the Christian faith and love; and do you think with any
wise men (or with your own consciences) long to find a
cloak to your infidel or unholy hearts and doctrine, to mis-
take them that blame you, or to take advantage of the ig-
norance of others ? " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the
Holy Ghost," do shut up your liturgy by way of benedic-
tion ; but it is almost all shut out of your sermons, unless
a few heartless customary passages; and when there is
nothing less in your preaching, than that which is the sub-
stance of your baptismal covenant and Christianity, and
your customary benediction; you do but tell the people
what kind of Christianity you have, and what benediction ;
that is, that you are neither truly Christians, nor blessed.
True morality, or the Christian ethics, is the love of God
and man, stirred up by the Spirit of Christ, through faith ;
and exercised in works of piety, justice, charity and tem-
perance, in order to the attainment of everlasting happiness,
in the perfect vision and fruition of God. And none but
ignorant or brain-sick sectaries will be offended for the
preaching of any of this morality. " Woe unto you, Pha-
risees ! for ye tithe mint and rue and pass over judg-
ment and the love of God : these ought ye to have done,
and not to leave the other undone ;" Luke xi. 42.
LIFE OF FAITH. 357
CHAPTER X.
The practical Directions to live by Faith, a Life of Holiness
or Love.
Direct. 1. * Take Jesus Christ as a Teacher sent from
heaven ; the best and surest revealer of God and his will
unto mankind.'
All the books of philosophers are sapless and empty, in
comparison of the teaching of Jesus Christ; they are but
inquiries into the nature of the creatures, and the lowest
things, most impertinent to our happiness or duty ; or if
they rise up to God, it is but with dark and unpractical
conjectures, for the most part of them ; and the rest do but
grope and fumble in obscurity. And their learning is mostly
but useless speculations, and striving about words and sci-
ences, falsely so called, which little tend to godly edifying.
It is Christ who is made wisdom to us, as being himself the
Wisdom of God. If you knew but where to hear an angel,
you would all prefer him before Aristotle, or Plato, or Car-
tesius, or Gassendus ; how much more the Son himself ?
He is the true light, to lighten every man that will not serve
the prince of darkness. Christians were first called Christ's
disciples ; and therefore to learn of him the true knowledge
of God, is the work of every true believer ; John xvii. 3.
Acts iii. 23. John viii. 43, 47. x. 3, 27. xii. 47. xiv. 24.
Matt. xvii. 5.
Direct, 2. * Remember that Christ's way of teaching is,
— 1. By his word ; 2. His ministers ; 3. And his Spirit con-
junct; and the place for his disciples is in his church.'
1. His Gospel written is his book which must be taught
us. 2. His ministers' office is to teach it us. 3. His Spirit
is inwardly to illuminate us that we may understand it.
And he that will despise or neglect either the Scripture
ministry or Spirit, is never like to learn of Christ.
Direct, 3. ' Look on the Lord Jesus, and the work of
man's redemption by him, as the great designed revelation
of the Father's love and goodness ; even as the fabric of
the world is set up to be ths glass or revelation (eminently)
of his greatness.'
Therefore as you choose your book for the sake of the
358 LIFE OF FAITH.
science or subject which you would learn ; so let this be
the designed, studied, constant use which you make of
Christ, to see and admire in him the Father's love. When
you read your grammar, if one ask you why? you will say
it is to learn the language which it teacheth ; and he that
readeth law-books, or philosophy, or medicine, it is to iearn
law, philosophy, or physic ; so whenever you read the
Gospel, meditate on Christ, or hear his word ; if you are
asked, why you do it? be able to say, I do it to learn the
love of God, which is no where else in the world to be learn-
ed so well. No wonder if hypocrites have learned to mor-
tify Scripture, sermons, prayeps, and all other means of
grace ; yea all the world which should teach them God ;
and to learn the letters and not the sense : but it is most
pitiful that they should thus mortify Christ himself to them;
and should gaze on the glass, and never take much notice
of the face even of the love of God which he is set up to
declare.
Direct. 4. * Therefore congest all the great discoveries
of this love, and set them all together in order ; and make
them your daily study, and abhor all doctrines or sugges-
tions from men or devils, which tend to disgrace, diminish
or hide this revealed love of God in Christ.'
Think of the grand design itself; the reconciling and
saving of lost mankind : think of the gracious nature of
Christ ; of his wonderful condescension in his incarnation ;
in his life and doctrine ; in his sufferings and death ; in his
miracl&s and gifts : think of his merciful covenant and
promises ; of all his benefits given to his church ; and
all the privileges of his saints ; of pardon and peace ; of
his Spirit of holiness; of preservation and provision; of
resurrection and justification, and of the life of glory which
we shall live for ever. And if the faith which looketh on
all these cannot yet warm your hearts with love, nor engage
them in thankful obedience to your Redeemer, certainly it
is no true and lively faith.
But you must not think narrowly and seldom of these
mercies ; nor hearken to the devil or the doctrine of any
mistaken teachers, that would represent God's love as veiled
or eclipsed ; or show you nothing but wrath and flames.
That which Christ principally came to reveal, the devil
principally striveth to conceal, even the love of God to sin-
LIFE OF FAITH. 3f59
ner« ; that so that which Christ principally came to work in
us, the devil might principally labour to destroy ; and that
is, our loveto him that hath so loved us.
Direct. 5. * Take heed of all the Antinomian doctrines
before recited, which, to extol the empty name and image of
free grace, do destroy the true principles and motives of
holiness and obedience.
Direct. 6. ' Exercise your faith upon all the holy Scrip-
tures, precepts, promises and threatenings, and not on one of
them alone. For when God hath appointed all conjunctly
for this work, you are unlike to have his blessing, or the
effect, if you will lay by most of his remedies.*
Direct, 7. ' Take not that for holiness and good works,
which is no such thing ; but either man's inventions, or
some common gifts of God.'
It greatly deludeth the world, to take up a wrong des-
scription or character of holiness in their minds. As,
1. The papists take it for holiness, to be very observant in
their adoration of the supposed transubstantiated hosts ; to
use their relics, pilgrimages, crossings, prayers to saints
and angels, anointings, candles, images, observation of
meats and days, penance, auricular confession, praying by
numbers and hours on their beds, &c. ; they think their idle
ceremonies are holiness, and that their hurtful austerities,
and self-afflictings (by rising in the night, when they might
pray as long before they go to bed, and by whipping them-
selves) to be very meritorious parts of religion. And their
vows of renouncing marriage and propriety, and of absolute
obedience, to be a state of perfection.
2. Others think that holiness consisteth much in being
rebaptized, and in censuring the parish-churches and minis-
ters as null, and in withdrawing from their communion ;
and in avoiding forms of prayers, &c.
3. And others (or the same) think that more of it con-
sisteth in the gifts of utterance, in praying, and preaching,
than indeed it doth ; and that those only are godly, that can
pray without book (in their families, or at other times), and
that are most in private meetings ; and none but they.
4. And some think that the greatest parts of godliness,
are the spirit of bondage to fear; and the shedding of tears
for sin; or finding that they were under terror, before
they had any spiritual peace and comfort ; or being able to
360 LIFE OF FAITH.
tell at what sermon, or time, or in what order, and by what
means they were converted.
It is of exceeding great consequence, to have a right
apprehension of the nature of holiness, and to escape all
false conceits thereof. But I shall not now stand further to
describe it, because I have done it in many books, especially
in my ** Reasons of the Christian Keligion," and in my '* A
Saint or a Brute," and in a treatise only of the subject,
called ** The Character of a Sound Christian."
Direct. 8. * Let all God's attributes be orderly and deeply
printed in your minds ; (as I have directed in my book
called " The Divine Life ;") for it is that which must most
immediately form his image on you. To know God in
Christ is life eternal;' Johnxvii.3.
Direct. 9. * Never separate reward from duty, but in
every religious or obedient action, still see it as connext with
heaven. The means is no means but for the end ; and must
never be used but with special respect unto the end. Re-
member in reading, hearing, praying, meditating, in the
duties of your callings and relations, and in all acts of
charity and obedience, that, all this is for heaven. It will
make you mend your pace, if you think believingly whither
you are going ;' Heb. xi.
Direct, 10. * Yet watch most carefully against all proud
self-esteeming thoughts of proper merit as obliging God ;
or as if you were better than indeed you are. For pride is
the most pernicious vermin that can breed in gifts or in
good works. And the better you are indeed, the more hum-
ble you will be, and apt to think others better than yourself.
Direct, 11. * So also in every temptation to sin, let faith
see heaven open, and take the temptation in its proper sense,
q. d. [Take this pleasure instead of God : sell thy part in
heaven for this preferment or commodity : cast away thy
soul for this sensual delight.] This is the true meaning of
every temptation to sin, and only faith can understand it.
The devil easily prevaileth, when heaven is forgotten and out
of sight ; and pleasure, commodity, credit and preferment,
seem a great matter, and can do much, till heaven be set in
the balance against them ; and then they are nothing, and
can do nothing; Phil. iii. 7 — 9. Heb. xii. 1 — 3. 2 Cor. iv.
16, 17.
Direct. 12. * Let faith also see God always present-
LIFE OF FAITH. ti6l
Met! dare do any thing when they think they are behind his
back ; even truants and eye-servants will do well under the
master's eye. Faith seeing him that is invisible (Heb. xi.)
is it that sanctifieth heart and life. As the attributes of
God are the seal which must make his image on us ; so the
apprehension of his presence setteth them on, and keepeth
our faculties awake/
Direct. 13. * Be sure that faith makes God's acceptance
your full reward, and set you above the opinion of man.'
Not in self-conceitedness, and pride of your self-suffi-
ciency, to set light by the judgment of other men : (that is
a heinous sin of itself, and doubled when it is done upon
pretence of living upon God alone.) But that really you
live so much to God alone, as that all men seem as nothing
to you ; and their opinion of you, as a blast of wind, in re-
gard of any felicity of your own, which might be placed in
their love or praise ; though as a means to God's service,
and their own good, you must please all men to their edifi-
cation, and become all things to all men, to win them to
God ; Gal. i. 10, 11. Rom. xv. 1, 2. Prov. xi. 30. 1 Cor.
ix. 22. x. 33. Yea, and study to please your governors as
your duty ; Titus ii. 9. But as manpleasing is the hypo-
crite's work and wages; so must the pleasing of God be
ours, though all the world should be displeased ; Matt. vi.
1— 3, 5, 6, &c. 2Tim. ii. 4. 1 Cor. vii. 32. 1 Thess. iv. 1.
2 Cor. V. 8, 9. 1 Thess. ii. 4. 1 John iii. 22.
Direct. 14. ' Let the constant work of faith be, to take
you off from the life of sense, by mortifying all the concu-
piscence of the flesh, and overpowering all the objects of
sense.'
The nearness of things sensible, and the violence and
unreasonableness of the senses and appetite, do necessitate
faith to be a conflicting grace. Its use is to illuminate,
elevate and corroborate reason, and help it to maintain its
authority and government. The life of a believer is but a
conquering warfare between faith and sense, and between
things unseen, and the things that are seen. Therefore it is
said, that they that are in the flesh cannot please God ;
because the flesh being the predon|j;iant principle in them,
they most savour and mind the things of the flesh ; and
therefore they can do more with them, than the things of the
Spirit can do, when both are set before them; Rom. viii. 5 — 8.
362 LIFE OF FAITH.
Direct. 15. ' Let faith set the example, first of Christ,
and next of his holiest servants, still before you.'
He that purposely lived among men in flesh, a life of
holiness and patience, and contempt of the world, to be a
pattern or example to us, doth expect that it be the daily
work of faith to imitate him; and therefore that we have
this copy still before our eyes. It will help us when we are
sluggish, and sit down in low and common things, to see
more noble things before us. It will help us when we are
in doubt of the way of our duty ; and when we are apt to
favour our corruptions : it will guide our minds, and quicken
our desires, with a holy ambition and covetousness to be
more holy : it will serve us to answer all that the world or
flesh can say, from the contrary examples of sinning men :
If any tell us what great men, or learned men think, or say,
or do, against religion, and for a sinful life ; it is enough, if
faith do but tell us presently, what Christ, and his apostles,
and saints, and martyrs, have thought, and said, and done
to the contrary; Matt. xi. 28, 29. 1 Pet. ii. 21. John xiii.
15. Phil, iii, 17. 2 Thess. iii. 9. 1 Tim. iv. 12. Ephes.
V. 1. Heb. vi. 12. 1 Thess. i. 6. ii. 14.
Drect, 16. ' Let your faith set all graces on work in their
proper order and proportion ; and carry on the work of ho-
liness and obedience in harmony ; and not set one part
against another, nor look at one while you forget or neglect
another.'
Every grace and duty is to be a help to all the rest :
and the want or neglect of any one, is a hindrance to all :
as the want of one wheel or smaller particle in a clock or
watch, will make all stand still, or go out of order. The
new creature consisteth of all due parts, as the body doth of
all its members. The soul is as a musical instrument, which
niust neither want one string, nor have one out of tune, nor
neglected, without spoiling all the melody. A fragment of
the inost excellent work, or one member of the comeliest
body cut off*, is not beautiful : the beauty of a holy soul
and life, is hot only in the quality of each grace and duty,
but much in the proportion, feature, and harmony of all.
Therefore every part hp-th its proper armour; Ephes. vi.
iv — 14. And the whole armour of God must be put on :
becatise all fulness dwelleth in Christ ; we are complete in
LIFE OF FAITH. 363
him, as being sufficient to communicate every grace, Epa-
phras laboured always fervently in prayers for the Colos-
sians, that they might stand perfect and complete in all the
will of God; Col. iv. 12. "Let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing ;"
James i. 4. We oft comfort ourselves, that though wewant
the perfection of degrees, yet we have the perfection of
parts, or of integrity. But many are fain to prove this only
by inferring, that he that hath one grace, hath all ; but as to
the discerning and orderly use of all, they are yet to seek.
CHAPTER XI.
Of the Order of Graces and Duties,
Because I find not this insisted on in any writers for the
people's instruction, as it ought, I will not pass over so
needful a point without some further advertisement about
it. I will therefore shew you. 1. What is the completeness
and the harmony to be desired : 2. What are our contrary
defects and distempers : 3. What are the causes of them,
and what must be the cure : 4. Some useful inferences
hence arising.
I. He that will be complete and entire, must have all
these graces and duties following.
1. A solid and clear understanding of all the great, the
needful and practical matters of the sacred Scriptures ;
2 Tim. iii. 16. (And if he have the understanding of the
Scripture languages, and the customs of those times, and
other such helps, his understanding of the Scripture will be
the more complete ; Acts xxvi. 3. If he have not, he must
make use of other men's.)
2. A settled well-grounded belief of all God's super-
natural revelations (as well as the knowledge of natural
verities).
3. Experience to make this knowledge and belief to be
satisfactory, powerful and firm. Especially the experience
of the Spirit's effectual operations in ourselves, by the
means of this Word ; Rom. v. 4. viii. 9. Gal. iv. 6.
4. The historical knowledge of the Scripture matters of
fact, and how God in all ages (since Scripture times) hath
364 LIFE OF FAITH.
fulfilled his word, both promises and threatenings, and
what Christ, and Satan, grace and sin, have been doing in
the world. Therefore the Scripture is written so much by
way of history ; and therefore the Jews were so often
charged to tell the history of God's works to their children ;
1 Cor. X. 1, 2. 6, 7. 11. Exod. xii. 29. Deut. xxvi. 22.
Josh. iv. 6. 21, 22. xxii. 24. 27. Therefore the writing of
church-history is the duty of all ages, because God's works
are to be known, as well as his word : and as it is your
forefather's duty to write it, it is the children's duty to learn
it (or else the writing it would be vain). He that knoweth
not what state the church and world is in, and hath been
in, in former ages, and what God hath been doing in the
world, and how error and sin have been resisting him, and
with what success, doth want much to the completing of
his knowledge.
5. And he must have prudence to discern particular
cases ; and to consider of all circumstances, and to com-
pare things with things, that he may discern his duty, and
the seasons and manner of it ; and may know among in-
consistent seeming duties, which is to be preferred; and
when and what circumstances or accidents do make any
thing a duty, which else would be no duty or a sin ; and
what accidents make that a sin which without them would
be a duty. This it the knowledge which must make a
Christian entire or complete.
2. And in his will there must be. 1. A full resignation
and submission to the will of God his owner ; and a full
subjection and obedience to the will of God his governor;
yielding readily and constantly, and resolutely to the com-
mands of God, as the scholar obeyeth his master, and as
the second wheel in the clock is moved by the first : and a
close adhering to God as his chief good, by a thankful re-
ception of his benefits ; and a desirous seeking to enjoy,
and glorify him, and please his will : In a word, loving him
as God, and taking our chiefest complacency in pleasing
him ; in loving him, and being loved of him.
2. And in the same will there must be a well regulated
love, to all God's works, according as he is manifested or
glorified in them : to the humanity of our Redeemer ; to the
glory of heaven, as it is a created thing ; to the blessed
LIFE OF FAITH. 365
angels, and perfected spirits of the just, to the Scripture, to
the church on earth, to the saints, the pastors, the rulers,
the holy ordinances, to all mankind, even to our enemies ;
to ourselves, our souls, our bodies, our relations, our estates,
and mercies of every rank.
3. And herewithal must by a hatred of every sin in our-
selves and others : of former sin, and present corruption,
with a penitential displacence and grief; and of possible
sin, with a vigilancy and resistance to avoid it.
4. And in the affections there must be a vivacity and
sober fervency, answering to all these motions of the will ;
in love, delight, desire, hope, hatred, sorrow, aversation
and anger ; the complexion of all which is godly zeal.
6. In the vital and executive power of the soul, there
must be a holy activity, promptitude and fortitude, to be
up and doing, and to set the sluggish faculties on work ;
and to bring all knowledge and volitions into practice, and
to assault and conquer enemies and difficulties. There must
be the Spirit of power (though I know that word did chiefly
then denote the Spirit of Miracles, yet not only) and of
love, and of a sound mind.
6. In the outward members there must be by use a habit
of ready obedient execution of the soul's commands. As
in the tongue a readiness to pray, and praise God, and de-
clare his word, and edify others, and so in the rest.
7. In the senses and appetitie, there must by use be a
habit of yielding obedience to reason ; that the senses do
not rebel and rage, and bear down the commands of the
mind and will.
8. Lastly, In the imagination there must be a clearness
or purity from filthiness, malice, covetousness, pride and
vanity ; and there must be the impressions of things that
are good and useful ; and a ready obedience to the superior
faculties, that it may be the instrument of holiness, and not
the shop of temptations and sin, nor a wild, unruly, dis-
ordered thing.
And the harmony of all there must be as well observed
as the matter : As
1. There must be a just order among them: every duty
must keep its proper place and season.
2. There must be a just proportion and degree : some
graces must not wither, whilst others alone are cherished :
366 LIFE OF FAITH.
nor some duties take up all our heart and time, whilst
others are almost laid by.
3. There must be a just activity and exercise of every
grace.
4. And a just conjunction and respect to one another,
that every one be used so as to be a help to all the rest.
1. The order. — 1. Of intellectual graces, and duties,
must be this. 1. In order of time, the things which are
sensible are known before the things which are beyond our
sight, and other senses.
2. Beyond these the first thing known both for certainty
and for excellency, is, that there is a God.
3. This God is to be known as one being in three essen-
tial principles, vital power, intellect and will.
4. And these in their essential perfections, omnipotency,
wisdom and goodness (or love).
5. And also in his perfections called modal and negative,
&c. (as immensity, eternity, independency, immutability,
&c.)
6. God must be next known in his three personalities ;
as the Father, the Word, or Son, and the Spirit.
7. And these in their three causalities ; efficient, diri-
gent and final.
8. And in their three great works, creation, redemption,
sanctification, (or perfection) producing nature, grace and
glory, or our persons, medicine, and health.
9. And God who created the world, is thereupon to be
known in his relations to it ; as our Creator in unity, and
as our Owner, Ruler, and Chief Good (efficient, dirigent and
final) in a trinity of relations. You must know how the In-
finite vital power of the Father, created all things by the
Infinite wisdom of the Word, or Son, and by the Infinite
goodness and love of the Holy Spirit. (As the Son re-
deemed us as the Eternal Wisdom, and Word incarnate, sent
by the Eternal vital power of the Father, to reveal and com-
municate the Eternal love in the Holy Ghost : and as the
Holy Ghost doth sanctify and perfect us as proceeding and
sent from the power of the Father, and the wisdom; of the
Son, to shed abroad the Jove of God upon our hearts, &c.)
10. Next to the knowledge of God as Creator, is to be
considered the world which he created, and especially the
ifvt^ll^ctual creatures j angels, prs heavenly, spirits^ and men.
LIFE OF FAITH. 3()7
Man is to be known in his person or constitution first, and
afterward in his appointed course, and in his end and per-
fection.
11. In his constitution is to be considered, 1. His being
or essential parts : 2. His rectitude or qualities : 3. His re-
lations, l.To his Creator ; And, 2. To his fellow creatures.
12. His essential parts are his soul and body : his soul
is to be known in the unity of its essence, and trinity of
essential faculties (which is its natural image of God). Its
essence is a living Spirit : its essential faculties are, 1. A
vital activity, or power ; 2. An understanding : 3. A will.
13. His rectitude, which is God's moral image on him,
consisteth, 1. In the promptitude and fortitude of his active
power : 2. In the wisdom of his understanding ; 3. In the
moral goodness of his will, which is its inclination to its
end, and readiness for its duty.
14. Being created such a creature, by a mere resultancy
from his nature, and his Creator, he is related to him as his
creature ; and in that unity is the subsequent trinity of re-
lations : 1. As we are God's propriety, or his own : 2. His
subjects : 3. His beneficiaries and lovers : All comprised in
the one title of his children. And at once with these rela-
tions of man to God, it is that God is as before related to
man, as his Creator, and as his Owner, Ruler, and Chief
Good.
15. Man is also related to his fellow creatures, below
him, 1. As their owner, 2. Their ruler, 3. Their end, under
God ; which is God's dominative or honourary image upon
man, and is called commonly our dominion over the crea-
tures : so that by mere creation, and the nature of the crea-
tures there is constituted a state of communion between
God and man, which is, 1. A dominion, 2. A kingdom,
3. A family or paternity. And the whole is sometimes called
by one of these names, and sometimes by the other, still im-
plying the rest.
16. God's kingdom being thus constituted, his attributes
appropriate to these his relations follow : 1. His absolute-
ness as our Owner: 2. His holiness, truth and justice as our
Ruler : 3. And his kindness, benignity and mercy as our
Father or Benefactor.
17. And then the works of God as in these three rela-
tions follow ; which are, 1. To dispose of us at his pleasure
.368 LIFE OF FAITH.
as our Owner : 2. To govern us as our King : 3. To love us,
and do us good, and make us perfectly happy as our Bene-
factor and our End.
18. And here more particularly is to be considered. 1.
Hovy God had disposed of Adam when he had new made
him: 2. How he began his government of him: And, 3.
What benefits he gave him, and what he further offered or
promised him.
19. And as to the second, we mu§t 1. Consider the an-
tecedent part of God's government, which is legislation,
and then (hereafter the consequent part; which is, 1. Judg-
ment, 2. Execution. And God's legislation is, 1. By
making our natures such as compared with objects, duty
shall result from this nature so related : 2. Or else by pre-
cept or revelation from himself, besides our natures. 1. The
law of nature is fundamental and radical in our foresaid re-
lations to God themselves, in which it is made our natural
duty: 1. To submit ourselves wholly to God, and his dis-
posal, as his own : 2. To obey his commands : 3. And to re-
receive his mercies, and thankfully to return them, and to
love him. But though (as God's essential principles, and
his aforesaid relations, are admirably conjunct in their ope-
rations * ad extra ;' so) our relative obligations are conjunct,
yet are they so far distinguishable, that we may say, that
these which conjunctly make our moral duty, yet are not
all the results of our relation to a Governor, as such ; but
the second only ; and therefore that only is to be called the
radical law in the strict sense, the other two being the moral
results of our rectitude. The duty of subjection and obe-
dience in general, arising from our natures related to our
Creator, is the radical governing law of God in us. But
yet the same submission, and gratitude, and love, which
are primarily our duty from their proper foundations, are
secondarily made also the matter of our subjective duty,
because they are also commanded of God. 2. The particu-
lar laws of nature are, 1. Of our particular duties to God ;
or of piety : 2. Or of our duties to ourselves and others :
1. Acts of justice, 2. And of <iharity. These laws of nature
are, 1. Unalterable; and that is, where the nature of our
persons, and of the objects, which are the foundations of
them are unalterable, or still the same : 2. Or mutable, when
the nature of the things which are its foundation, is mutable.
LIFE OF FIATH. 369
As it is the immutable law of immutable nature, that we
love God as God, and that we do all the good we can, &c.
because the foundation of it is immutable : but e. g. the law
against incest was mutable in nature : for nature bound
Adam's children to marry one another ; and nature bindeth
us since (ordinarily) to the contrary : 2. The revealed law
to Adam was superinduced. The parts of God's law must
also here be considered. 1. The introductive teaching part
(for God's teaching us, is part of his ruling us) and that is,
doctrines, history and prophecy. 2. The imperative part,
commands to do, and not to do. 3. And the sanctions or
motive parts in law and execution, which are, 1. Promises
of beneficial rewards : 2. Threatenings of hurtful penalties.
20. God's laws being thus described in general, and
those made to Adam thus in particular, the next thing to
be considered, is man's behaviour in breaking those laws ;
which must be considered in the causes, and the nature of
it, and the immediate effects and consequents.
21. And next must be considered God's consequent
part of government as to Adam, viz. his judging him ac
cording to his law.
22. And here cometh in the promise, or the first edition
of the new covenant, or law of grace ; which must be opened
in its parts, original and end.
23. And then must be considered God's execution of
his sentence on Adam, so far as he was unpardoned ; and so
upon the world, till the end.
24. And next must be considered God's enlargements
and explications of his covenant of grace, till Christ's in-
carnation.
25. And next, men's behaviour under that explained
covenant.
26. And God's sentence and execution upon them there-
upon.
27. Then we come to the fulness of time, and to ex-
plain the work of redemption distinctly. And, 1. Its ori-
ginal, the God of nature giveth the world a Physician or a
Saviour : 2. The ends : 3. The constitutive causes : Where,
1. Of the person of the Redeemer, in his essence, as God
and man, and in his perfections, both essential, and modal,
and accidental.
VOL. XII. B B
370 LIFE OF FAITH.
28. And, 2. Of the fundamental works of our redemp-
tion (such as creation was to the first administration), viz.
(his first undertaking, interposition, and incarnation, being
all presupposed.) 1. His perfect resignation of himself to
his Father, and submission to his disposing will : 2. His
perfect subjection and obedience to his governing will:
3. His perfect love to him : 4. And the suffering by which
he expressed all these. The three first meriting of them-
selves ; and the last meriting as a satisfactory sacrifice, not
for itself, but for its usefulness to its proper ends.
29. From this offering once made to God, Christ ac-
quired the more perfect title of a Saviour, or Redeemer, or Me-
diator, which one contained this trinity also of relations
towards man : 1. Their Owner : 2. Their Ruler : 3. Their
Benefactor : The Father also as the first principle of re-
demption, acquiring a second title (besides the first by
creation) to all these : and towards God, Christ continueth
the relation of a Heavenly Priest.
30. In order to the works of these relations for the fu-
ture, we must consider of Christ's exaltations; 1. Of his
justification and resurrection : 2. Of his ascension and glo-
rification : And, 3. Of the delivering of all power, and all
things into his hands.
31. The work of redemption thus fundamentally wrought,
doth not of itself renew man's nature ; and therefore putteth
no law of nature into us of itself, as the creation did : and
therefore we must next proceed to Christ's administration
of this ofiice, according to these relations ; which is, 1. By
legislation or donation ; enacting the new covenant where
this last and perfect edition of it is to be explained ; the
perceptive, the promissory and the penal parts, with its
effects, and its differences from the former edition, and
from the law of nature and of works.
32. And, 2. By the promulgation or publication of this
covenant or Gospel to the world, by calling special officers
for that work, and giving them their commission, and pro-
mising them his Spirit, his protection, and their reward.
33. And here we come to the special work of the Holy
Ghost; who is, 1. To be known in Lis essence and person,
as the thir^ in Trinity, and the eternal love of God : 2. And
as he is the grand Advocate or Agent of Christ in the
LIFE OF FAITH. 371
world, where his works are to be considered, 1. Prepara-
tory, on and by Christ himself: 2. Administralory : 1. Ex-
traordinary, on the apostles and their helpers : 1. Being in
them a Spirit of extraordinary power, by gifts and mira-
cles : 2. Of extraordinary wisdom and infallibility, as far as
their commission-work required : 3. And of extraordinary
love and holiness. 2. By the apostles, 1. Extraordinarily
convincing and bringing in the world : 2. Settling all church
doctrines, officers and orders which Christ had left un-
settled (bringing all things to their remembrance which
Christ had taught and commanded them ; and guiding them
in the rest.) 3. Recording all this for posterity in the Holy
Scriptures. 2. His ordinary Agency, 1. On ministers, 2.
By sanctification on all true believers is after to be opened.
34. And here is to be considered the nature of Chris-
tianity ' in fieri :' faith and repentance in our three great re-
lations to our Redeemer, as we are his own, his (disciples
and) subjects, and his beneficiaries ; with all the special
benefits of these relations as antecedent to our duty ; and
then all our duty in them as commanded : and then the
benefits after to be expected (as in promise only).
35. Next must distinctly be considered, the preaching,
and converting, and baptizing part of the ministerial office ;
1. As in the apostles: 2. And in their successors to the
end ; with the nature of baptism, and the part of Christ,
and of the minister, and of the baptized in that covenant.
36. And then the description of the universal church,
which is the baptized constitute.
37. Next is to be considered the state of Christians after
baptism: 1. Relative, 1. In pardon, reconciliation, justifica-
tion, 2. Adoption. 2. Physical, in the Spirit of sanctifica-
tion.
38. Where is to be opened, 1. The first sanctifying
work of the Spirit : 2. Its after-helps and their conditions :
3. All the duties of holiness, primitive and medicinal to-
wards God, ourselves and others.
39. Our special duties in secret : reading, meditation,
prayer, &c.
40. Our duties in family relations and callings.
41. Our duties in church relations; where is to be de-
scribed the nature of particular churches, their work and
372 LIFE OF FAITH.
worship, their ministry, and their members, with the duties
of each.
42. Our duties in our civil relations.
43. Whart temptations are against us, as be to be over-
come.
44. Next is to be considered the state of Christians and
societies in the world : how far all these duties are per-
formed ; and what are their weaknesses and sins.
45. And what are the punishments which God useth in
this life.
46. And what Christians must do for pardon and repa-
ration after falls, and to be delivered from those punish-
ments.
47. Of death, and the change which it maketh, and of
our special preparation for it.
48. Of the coming of Christ, and the judgment of the
great day.
49. Of the punishment of the wicked impenitent in hell.
50. And of the blessedness of the saints in heaven, and
the everlasting kingdom.
These are the heads, and this is the method of true
divinity, and the order in which it should lie in the under-
Btanding of him that will be complete in knowledge.
II. And as this is the intellectual order of knowledge ;
so the order which all things must lie in at our hearts and
wills, is much more necessary to be observed : 1. That no-
thing but God be loved as the infinite simple good, totally
with all their heart, and finally for himself: and that no-
thing at all be loved with any love, which is not purely
subordinate to the love of God, or which causeth us to love
him ever the less.
2. That the blessed person of our Mediator, as in th?
human nature glorified, be loved above all creatures next to
God : because there is most of the Divine perfections, ap-
pearing in him.
3. That the heavenly church or society of angels and
saints be loved next to Jesus Christ, as being next in ex-
cellence.
4. That the universal church on earth be loved next to
the perfect church in heaven.
5. That particular churches and kingdoms be next loved ;
LIFE OF FAITH. 373
and wherever there is more of God's interest and image,
than in ourselves, that our love be more there, than on our-
selves.
6. That we next love ourselves, with that peculiar kind
of love which God hath made necessary to our duty, and
our happiness and end; with a self-preserving, watchful,
diligent love; preferring our souls before our bodies, and
spiritual mercies before temporal, and greater before less.
7. That we love our Christian relations with that double
love which is due to them as Christians and relations ; and
love all relations according to their places, with that kind
of love which is proper for them, as fitting us to all the
duties which we must perform to them.
8. That we love all good Christians as the sanctified
members of Christ, with a special love according to the
measure of God's image appearing on them*
9. That we love every visible Christian (that we cannot
prove hath unchristened himself by apostacy or ungodli-
ness) with the special love also belonging to true Chris-
tians, because he appeareth such to us : but yet according
to the measure of that appearance, as being more confident
of some, and more doubtful of others.
10. That we love our intimate suitable friends that are
godly with a double love, as godly, and as friends.
11. That we love neighbours and civil relations, with a
love which is suitable to our duty towards them (to do to
them, as we would have them do to us; which is partly
meant by loving them as ourselves).
12. That we love all mankind, even God's enemies,
much more our own, as they are men ; for the dignity of
human nature, and their capacity to become holy and truly
amiable.
13. That all means be chosen according to the end
(which is to be preferred before other ends), and their suita-
bleness and fitness for that end (as they are to be preferred
before other means).
III. And the order of practice is, 1. That we be sure to
begin with God alone, and proceed to God in the creature,
and end in God alone.
It is the principal thing to be known for finding out the
true method of divinity and religion, that (as in the great
374 LIFE OF FAITH.
frame of nature; so) in the frame of morality, the true mo-
tion is circular : from God, the efficient by God, the diri-
gent to God, the final cause of all ; therefore as God is the
first spring or cause of motion ; so the creature is the re-
cipient first, and the agent after, in returning all to God
again.
Therefore mark, that our receiving graces, are our first
graces in exercise ; and our receiving duties are our first
duties; and then our returning graces and duties come
next ; in which we proceed from the lesser to the greater,
till we come up to God himself.
Therefore in point of practice, the first thing that we
have to do, is to learn to know God himself as God and our
God, and to live as from him, and upon him as our Benefac-
tor, from our hearts confessing that we have nothing but
from him, and shall never be at rest but with him, and in
him, as our ultimate end ; and therefore to set ourselves to
seek him as our end accordingly ; which is but to seek to
love him, and be beloved by him, in the perfection of know-
ledge and delight.
2. The whole frame of means appointed by God for the
attainment of this end, must be taken together, and not
broken asunder; as they have all relation each to other.
And, 1. The whole frame of nature must be looked on as
the first great means appointed to man in innocency, for
the preservation and exercise of his holiness and righteous-
ness : 2. And the covenant or law-positive, as conjoined
unto this : 3. And the Spirit of God, communicated only
for such a mere sufficiency of necessary help, as God saw
meet to one in that condition. And though these means
(the creatures, and the Spirit of the Creator in that degree)
be not now sufficient for lapsed man ; yet they are still to
be looked on as delivered into the hand of Christ the Me-
diator, to be used by him on his terms, and in order to his
blessed ends.
3. But it is the frame, of the recovering and perfecting
means, which we are now to use. And in this frame, 1 .
Christ the Mediator is the first and principal ; and the
author of our faith, or religion ; and therefore from his
name it is called Christianity. He is now the first means,
used on God's part for communicating mercy unto man ;
LIFE OF FAITH. 375
and the first in dignity to be received and used by man
himself; but not the first in time, because the means of re-
vealing him must go first.
2. The second means in dignity (under Christ) is the
operation of the Holy Spirit as sent or given by the Re-
deemer ; w^hich Spirit being as the soul of outward means
(which are as the body) is given variously in a suitableness
to the several sorts of means (of which more anon).
3. The outward means for this Spirit to work by and
with, have been in three degrees: 1. The lowest degree, is
the world or creatures (called The Book of Nature) alone :
2. The second degree was the law and promises to the Jews
and their forefathers (together with the law of nature). 3/
The third and highest degree of outward means, is the
whole frame of Christian institutions, adjoined to the Book
of Nature, and succeeding the foresaid promises and law.
Every one of these hath a sufficiency in its own kind,
and its proper use. 1. The law of nature is suflficient in its
own kind, to reveal a God in his essential principles and re-
lations ; and to teach man the necessity now of some super-
natural revelations and institutions ; and so to direct him
to inquire after them (what and where they be).
2. The promises and Jewish law (of types, &c.) was
sufficient in its own kind, to acquaint men that a Saviour
must be sent into the world, to reveal the will of God more
fully, and to be a sacrifice for sin, and to make reconcilia-
tion between God and man, and to give a greater measure of
the Spirit, and to renew men's souls, and bring them to full
perfection, and to the blessed fruition of God. The Jewish
Scriptures teach them all this, though it tell them not
many of the articles of our Christian belief.
3. The Christian Gospel is sufficient in its own kind, to
teach men first to believe aright, in the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit ; and then to love and live aright.
When I say that each of these is sufficient in its own
kind, the meaning is, not that these outward means are of
themselves sufficient without the Holy Spirit ; for that were
to be sufficient not only ' in suo genere,' but ' in alieno vel
in omni genere ;' not only for its own part and work ; but
for the Spirit's part also : but other causes being supposed
to concur, it is sufficient for its own part : as my pen is a
376 LIFE OF FAITH.
sufficient pen, though it be not sufficient to write without
my hand.
Now the measure of the Spirit's concourse with all these
three degrees of means is to be judged of by the nature of
the means, and by God's ends in appointing them, and by
the visible effects. And whereas the world is full of volu-
minous contentions about the doctrine of sufficient and
effectual grace, I shall here add thus much in order to their
agreement. 1. That certainly such a thing there is, or hath
been, as is called sufficient not-effectual grace : by suffi-
cient they mean so much as giveth man all that power
which is necessary to the commanded act (or forbearance),
so that man could do it without any other grace or help
from God (which supposeth that man's will in the nature of
it, hath such a vital, free, self-determining power, that
(sometimes at least) it can act, or not act, when such bare
power is given to it, and sometimes doth, and sometimes
doth not. But the word necessaiy is more proper than sujji'
dent: the latter being applicable to several degrees; but
necessary signifieth that degree, without which the act can-
not be performed.
That there is such a thing, is evident in Adam's case,
who had that grace which was necessary to his forbearing
the first sin (or ehe farewell all religion). And there are
few men will deny but that all men have still such a degree
of help for many duties which they do not perform ; and
against many sins which they do not forbear ; (as to for-
bear an oath, or a lie, or a cup of drink, to go to church
when they go to an alehouse, &c.) Such a thing therefore
there is, and such a power man's will hath to do or not do,
when such a degree only of help is given.
Therefore we have reason enough to suppose, 1. That
such a degree of the Spirit's help is given under the bare
teachings of the creature, or to them that have no outward
light but natural revelation, as is necessary to the foresaid
ends and uses of that light or means, that is, to convince
man that there is a God, and what he is, as aforesaid, and
that we are his subjects and beneficiaries, and owe him our
chiefest love and service ; and to convince them of the need
of some further supernatural revelation. Not that every one
hath this measure of spiritual help ; for some by abusing
LIFE OF FAITH. 377
the help which they have, to learn the alphabet of nature, or
to practise it, do forfeit that help which should bring them
into nature's higher forms. But so much as I have men-
tioned of the help of the Spirit is given to those that do not
grossly forfeit it by abuse, among the pagans of the world :
and so much multitudes have attained.
2. And so much of the Spirit was given ordinarily to the
Jews, as was sufficient to have enabled them to believe in the
Messiah to come, as aforesaid ; if they did not wilfully re-
ject this help.
3. And so much seemeth to be given to many that hear
the Gospel, and never believe it ; or that believe it not with
a justifying faith, is as sufficient to have made them true be-
lievers, as Adam's was to have kept him from his fall. For
seeing it is certain that such a sufficient ineffectual grace
there is, we have no reason to conceit that God doth any
more desert his own means now, than he did then ; or that
he maketh believing a more impossible condition of justifi-
cation under the Gospel, to them that are in the nearest ca-
pacity of it (before effectual grace) than he made perfect
obedience to be to Adam. The objections against this are
to be answered in due place, and are already answered by
the Dominicans at large.
4. The outward means of grace under Christ are all one
frame, and must be used in harmony as followeth.
1. The witness and preaching of Christ and his apostles,
was the first and chief part ; together with their settling the
churches, and recording so much as is to be our standing
rule in the holy Scriptures, which are now to us the chief
part of this means.
2. Next to the Scriptures, the pastoral office and gifts,
to preserve them, and teach them to us, is the next princi-
pal part of this frame of means. In which I comprehend
all their office. * Preaching for conversion, baptizing, preach-
ing for confirmation and edification of the faithful, praying
and praising God before the church ; administering the body
and blood of Christ in the sacrament of communion ; and
watching over all the flock, by personal instruction, admo-
nition, reproofs, censures and absolutions.'
3. The next part (conjunct with this) is the communion
of the faithful in the churches.
378 LIFE OF FAITH.
4. The next is our holy society in Christian families, and
family instructions, worship and just discipline.
5. The next is our secret duties between God and us
alone. As 1. Reading. 2. Meditation, and self-examina-
tion. 3. Prayer and thanksgiving, and praise to God.
6. The next part is our improvement of godly men's in-
timate friendship, who may instruct, and warn, and reprove,
and comfort us.
7. The next is the daily course of prospering providen-
ces and mercies, which express God's love, and call up ours ;
(as provisions, protections, preservations, deliverances, &c.)
8. The next is God's castigations (by what hand or
means soever) which are to make us partakers of his holi-
ness 5 Heb. xii. 9, 10.
9. The next is the examples of others. 1. Their graces
and duties. 2. Their faults and falls. 3. Their mercies.
And 4. Their sufferings and corrections ; 1 Cor. x. 1. 10, 11.
10. And lastly, our own constant watchfulness against
temptations, and stirring up God's graces in ourselves.
These are the frame of the means of grace, and of our re-
ceiving duties.
2. The next in order to be considered, is the whole
frame of our returning duties, in which we lay out the
talents which we receive, which lie in the order following.
1. That we do what good we can to our own souls. That
we first pluck the beam out of our own eyes, and set that
motion on work at home, which must go further : therefore
all the foregoing means were primarily for this effect ; (though
not chiefly and ultimately for this end).
2. Next we must do good according to our power to our
near relations.
3. And next to our whole families, and more remote re-
lations.
4. And next them, to our neighbours.
5. And next, to strangers.
6. And lastly, to enemies of ourselves and Christ.
7. But our greatest duties must be for public societies,
viz. 1. For the commonwealth (both governors and people).
2. And for the church.
8. And the next part (in intention and dignity) must be
for the whole world (whose good by prayer and all just
means we must endeavour).
LIFE OF FAITH. 37f)
9. And the next for the honour of Jesus Christ our Me-
diator.
10. And the highest ultimate termination of our return-
ing duties, is the pure Deity alone.
For the further opening to you the order of Christian
practice, take these following notes or rules.
1. Though receiving duties (such as hearing, reading,
praying, faith, &c.) go first in order of nature and time, be-
fore expending, or returning duties ; so that the motion is
truly circular ; yet we must not stay till we have received
more, before we make returns to God of that which we have
already. But every degree of received grace, must presently
work towards God our end ; and as there is no intermission
between my moving of my hand and pen, and its writing
upon this paper ; so must there be no more intermission
between God's beams of love and mercy to us, and our re-
flections of love and duty unto him. Even as the veins and
arteries in the body lie much together, and one doth often
empty itself into the other, for circulation, and not stay till
the whole mass hath run through all the vessels of one sort
(veins or arteries) before any pass into the other.
2. The internal returns of love are much quicker than
the return of outward fruits. The love of God shed or
streamed forth upon the soul, doth presently warm it to a
return of love ; but it may be some time before that love ap-
pear in any notable, useful benefits to the world, or in any
thing that much glorifieth God and our profession. Even
as the heat of the sun upon the earth or trees, is suddenly
reflected ; but doth not so suddenly bring forth herbs, and
buds, and blossoms, and ripe fruits.
3. All truly good works must have one constant order of
intention (which is before opened ; God must be first in-
tended, then Christ, then the universal church in heaven and
earth, &c.). But in the order of operation and execution,
there may be a great difference among our duties : as God
appointeth us to lay out some one way, and some another.
Yet ordinarily, as the emitted beams begin from God, and
dart themselves on the soul of man ; so the reflected beams
begin upon, or from our hearts, and pass towards God
(though first beloved and intended) by several receptacles,
before they bring us to the perfect fruition of him.
4. Therefore the order of loving (or complacency), and
380 LIFE OF FAITH.
the order of doing good (or benevolence) is not the same.
We must love the universal church better than ourselves ;
but we cannot do them sincere service, before we do good
to ourselves. And our nearest relations must be preferred
in act of beneficence before many vi^hom we must love more.
5. When two goods come together (either to be received,
or to be done), the greater is ever to be preferred ; and the
choosing or using of the lesser at that time, is to be taken
for a sin. I lately read a denial of this, in a superficial sa-
tire ; but the thing itself, if rightly understood, is past all
doubt with a rational man. For, 1. Else good is not to be
chosen and done as good, if the best be not to be preferred.
2. Else almost all wicked omissions might be excused. 1
may be excused for not giving a poor man a shilling (what-
ever his necessity be) because I give him a farthing. No
doubt but Dives, (Luke xvi.) did good at such a rate as this
at least. And else a man might be excused from saving a
drowned man, if he save his horse that while, &c. ' A qua-
tenus ad summum valet consequentia,' in the case of desiring
and doing good. But then mark the following explications.
6. That is not always to be accounted the greatest good,
which is so only in regard of the matter simply considered ;
but that is the greatest good, which is so * consideratis, con-
siderandis,' all things considered and set together.
7. When God doth peremptorily tie men to certain duty,
without any dispensation or liberty of choice, that duty at
that time is a greater good and duty than many others which
may be greater in their time and place. A duty materially
less, is formally (and by accident materially) greater in its
proper season. Reaping, and baking, and eating, are better
than ploughing and weeding the corn, as they are nearer to
the end ; but ploughing and weeding are better in their sea-
son. To make pins or points, is not materially so good a
work as to pray ; but in its season (as then done) it is better :
and he that is of this trade, may not be praying when he
should be about his trade : not that he is to prefer the mat-
ter of it before praying ; but praying is to keep its time, and
may be a sin when it is out of time. He that would come
at midnight to disturb his rest, to present his service to his
lord or king, would have little thanks for such unseasona-
ble service.
8. He that is restrained Ijy a lower calling, or any true
LIFE OF FAITH. 381
restraining reasons, from doing a good which is materially
greater, yet doth that which is greatest unto him. Ruling
and preaching are materially a greater good, than threshing
or digging ; and yet to a man whose gifts and calhng res-
train him from the former to the latter, the latter is the
greatest good.
9. Good is not to be measured principally by the will or
benefit of ourselves, or any creature; but by 1. The will of
God in his laws. And, 2. By the interest of his pleased-
ness^and glory : But secondarily, human interest is the mea-
sure of it.
10. It followeth not that because the greatest good is
ever to be preferred, that therefore we must perplex and dis-
tract ourselves, in cases of difficulty, when the balance seem-
eth equal : for either there is a difference, or there is none :
and if any, it is discernible, or not. If there be no difference,
there is room for taking one, but not for choosing one. If
there be no discernible difference, it is all one to us as if
there were none at all. If it be discernible by a due pro-
portion of inquiry, we must labour to know it, and choose
accordingly. If it be not discernible in such time, and by
such measure of inquiry as is our duty, we must still take it
as undiscernible to us. If after just search, the weakness
of our own understandings leave us doubting, we must go
according to the best understanding which we have, and
cheerfully go on in our duty, as well as we can know it, re-
membering that we have a gracious God and covenant, which
taketh not advantage of involuntary weaknesses, but ac-
cepteth their endeavours, who sincerely do their best.
11. Mere spiritual or mental duties require most labour
of the mind ; but corporal duties (such as the labours of our
cabling) must have more labour of the body.
12. All corporal duties must be also spiritual (by doing
t>.em from a spiritual principle, to a spiritual end, in a spi-
ritual manner) ; but it is not necessary that every spiritual
duty be also corporal.
13. The duties immediately about God our End, are
greater than those about any of the means ' cseteris paribus.'
And yet those that are about lower objects, may be greater
by accidents, and in their season : as to be saving a man's
life is then greater than to be exciting the mind to the act-
ing of divine love or fear : but yet it is God the greatest ob-
.382 LIFE OF FAITH.
ject then, which putteth the greatness upon the latter duty ;
both by commanding it, and so making it an act more pleas-
ing to him ; and because that the love of God is supposed to
be the concurring spring of that love to man, which we shew
in seeking their preservation.
14. Our great duty about God our ultimate End, can
never be done too much, considered in itself, and in res-
pect to the soul only; we cannot so love God too much.
And this love so considered, hath no extreme; Matt.xxii.37.
15. But yet even this may by accident, and in the cir-
cumstances be too much : as, 1. In respect to the body's
weaknesses ; if a man should so fear God, or so love him,
as that the intenseness of the act did stir the passions so
much as to bring him to distraction, or to disorder his mind,
and make it unfit for that or any other duty. 2. Or if he
should be exciting the love of God, when he should be
quenching a fire in the town, or relieving the poor that are
ready to perish. But neither of these is properly called, a
loving God too much.
16. The duties of the heart are in themselves greater and
nobler than the actions of the outward man, of themselves
abstractedly considered ; because the soul is more noble
than the body.
17. Yet outward duties are frequently i yea most fre-
quently greater than heart-duties only; because in the out-
ward duty it is to be supposed that both parts concur (both
soul and body). And the operations of both, is more than
of one alone : and also because the nobler ends are attained
by both together more than by one only : for God is loved,
and man is benefitted by them. As when the sun shineth
upon a tree, or on the earth, it is a more noble effect, to have
a return of its influences, in ripe and pleasant fruits, than in
a mere sudden reflection of the heat alone.
18. All outward duties must begin at the heart, and it
must animate them all ; and they are valued in the sight
of God, no further than they come from a rectified will,
even from the love of God and goodness. However without
this, they are good works materially, in respect to the re-
ceiver. He may do good to the church, or commonwealth,
or poor, who doth none to himself thereby.
19. As the motion is circular from God to man, and
from man to God again (mercies received, and duties and
LIFE OF FAITH. 383
love returned) so is the motion circular between the heart
and the outward man. The heart moving the tongue and
hand, &c. and these moving the heart again ; (partly of their
own nature, and partly by Divine reward). The love of
God and goodness produceth holy thoughts, and w^ords,
and actions ; and these again increase the love which did
produce them ; Gal. v. 6. 13. Heb. x. 24. 2 John vi.
Jude21.
20. The judgment must be well informed before the will
resolve.
21. Yet when God hath given us plain instructions, it is
a sin to cherish causeless doubts and scruples.
22. And when we see our duty before us, it is not every
scruple that will excuse us from doing it : but when we have
more conviction that it is a duty, than that it is none, or
that it is a sin, we must do it, notwithstanding those mis-
taking doubts. As if in prayer or alms-deeds you should
scruple the lawfulness of them, you ought not to forbear till
your scruples be resolved, because you so long neglect a
duty : else folly might justify men in ungodliness and dis-
obedience.
23. But in things merely indifferent, it is a sin to do them
doubtingly ; because you may be sure it is no sin to forbear
them; Rom. xiv. 23. 1 Cor. viii. 13, 14.
24. An erring judgment entangleth a man in a necessity
of sinning (till it be reformed), whether he act or not accord-
ing to it. Therefore if an erring person ask, * What am I
bound to V the true answer is, to lay by your error, or reform
your judgment first, and then do accordingly ; and if he ask
a hundred times over, ' But what must I do in case I can-
not change my judgment?' the same answer must be given
him, * God still bindeth you to change your judgment, and
hath given you the necessary means of information ; and
therefore he will not take up with your supposition, that you
cannot: his law is a fixed rule, which telleth you what you
must believe, and choose, and do : and this rule will not
change, though you be blind, and say, I cannot change my
mind. Your mind must come to the rule, for the rule will
not come to your perverted mind. Say what you will, the
law of God will be still the same, and will still bind you to
believe according to its meaning.'
25. Yet supposing that a man's error so entangleth him
384 LIFE OF FAITH.
in a necessity of sinning, it is a double sin to prefer a greater
sin before a lesser: for though no sin is an object of our
choice, yet the greater sin is the object of our greater hatred
and refusal ; and must be with the greater fear and care
avoided.
26. An erring conscience then, is never the voice or mes-
senger of God, nor are we ever bound to follow it ; because
it is neither our God, nor his law, but only our own judg-
ment which should discern his law. And mis-reading or
mis-understanding the law, will not make a bad cause good,
though it may excuse it from a greater degree of evil.
27. The j udicious fixing of the wills, resolutions, and es-
pecially the increasing of its love, or complacency and de-
light in good, is the chief thing to be done in all our duties,
as being the heart and life of all; Prov. xxiii. 26. 12. iv.
23. vii. 3. xxii. 17. iii. 1—3. iv. 4. 21. Deut. xxx. 6.
Psal. xxxvii. 4. xl. 8. cxix. 16. 35. 70. 47. i. 2. Isa.
Iviii. 14.
28. Th€ grand motives to duty, must ever be before our
eyes, and set upon our hearts, as the poise of all our mo-
tions and endeavours. (As the traveller's home and business,
is deepest in his mind, as the cause of every step which he
goeth.)
29. No price imaginable must seem great enough to hire
us to commit the least known sin ; Luke xii. 4. xiv. 26.28.
33. Matt. X. 39. xvi. 26.
30. The second great means (next to the right forming
of the heart) for the avoiding of sin, is to get away from
the temptations, baits and occasions of it. And he that
hath most grace, must take himself to be in great danger,
while he is under strong temptations and allurements, and
when sin is brought to his hands, and alluring objects are
close to the appetite and senses.
31. The keeping clean our imaginations, and command-
ing our thoughts, is the next great means for the avoiding
sin. And a polluted fantasy, and ungoverned thoughts are
the nest where all iniquity is hatched, and the instruments
that bring it forth into act.
32. The governing of the senses is the first means to keep
clean the imagination. When Achan seeth the wedge of
gold, he desireth it, and then he taketh it. When men wil-
fully fill their eyes with the objects which entice them to
LIFE OF FAITH. ^ 385
lusts, to covetousness, to wrath, the impression is presently
made upon the fantasy ; and then the devil hath abundance
more power to renew such imaginations a thousand times,
than if such impressions had been never made. And it
is a very hard thing to cleanse the fantasy which is once
polluted.
33. And the next notable means of keeping out all evil
imaginations, and curing lust and vanity of mind, is constant,
laborious diligence in a lawful calling, which shall allow the
mind no leisure for vain and sinful thoughts ; as the great
nourisher of all foul and wicked thoughts, is idleness and
vacancy, which inviteth the tempter, and giveth him time
and opportunity.
34. Watchfulness over ourselves, and thankful accept-
ing the watchfulness, fault-findings, and reproofs of others,
is a great part of the safety of our souls ; Matt. xxvi. 41.
XXV. 13. Mark xiii. 37. Luke xxi. 36. I Cor. xvi. 13.
1 Thess. V. 6. 2 Tim. iv. 5. Heb. xii. 17. 1 Pet. iv. 7.
35. Affirmative precepts, bind not to all times ; that is,
no positive duty is a duty at all times. As to preach, to
pray, to speak of God, to think of holy things, &c. it is not
always a sin to intermit them.
36. All that God commandeth us to do, is both a duty
and a means ; it is called a duty in relation to God the effi-
cient Lawgiver, first : and it is a means next in relation to
God the End, whose work is done, and whose will is pleased
by it. And we must always respect it in both these notions
inseparably. No duty is not a means ; and no true means
is not a duty ; but many seem to man to have the aptitude
of a means, which are no duty but a sin ; because we see not
all things, and therefore are apt to think that fit, which is
pernicious.
37. Therefore nothing must be thought a true means to
any good end, which God forbiddeth : for God knoweth
better than we.
38. But we must see that the negative or prohibition be
universal, or indeed extendeth to our particular case. And
then (and not else) you may say that the negatives bind to
all times.
39. Nothing which is certainly destructive to the end,
and contrary to the nature of a means, is to be taken for
VOL. XII. c c
386 LIFE OF FAITH.
a duty. For it is certain that Qod*s commands are for
edification, and not for destruction, for good, and not for
evil.
40. Yet that may tend to present, inferior hurt, which ul-
timately tendeth to the greatest good. Therefore it is not
some present or inferior incommodity that must cause us to
reject such a means of greater future good.
41. Whatsoever we are certain God cbmmandeth, we
may be certain is a proper means, though we see not the ap-
titude, or may think it to be destructive ; because God know-
eth better than we : but then we must indeed be sure that
it is commanded ' hie et nunc,' in this case, and place, and
time, and circumstances.
42. It is one of the most needful things to our innocency,
to have Christian wisdom to compare the various accidents
of those duties and sins which are such by accident, and to
judge which accidents do preponderate. For indeed the
actions are very few which are absolutely and simply duties
or sins in themselves considered, without those accidents
which qualify them to be such. Accidental duties and sins
are the most numerous by far : and in many cases the diflS-
culty of comparing the various accidents, and contrary mo-
tives, is not small.
43. Therefore it is, that (as in physic and law cases, &c.
the common people have greatest need of the advice of skil-
ful artists, to help them to judge of particular cases, taking
in all the circumstances, which their narrow understandings
cannot comprehend ; which is more of the use of physicians
and lawyers, than to read a public lecture of physic, or of
law, so) the office of the church guides, or bishops, is of so
great necessity to the people, in every particular church.
And that not only for public preaching, but also to be at
hand, to help the people, who have recourse unto them in
all such cases, to know in particular what is duty and what
is sin.
44. And therefore it is (besides other reasons) that the
office of the bishops or pastors of the churches, must in all
the proper parts of it be done only by themselves, or men in
that office, and not 'per alios,' by men of another office:
and therefore it is, that bare titles or authority will not serve
the turn, without proportionable or necessary abilities or
LIFE OF FAITH. 387
gifts f because the work is done by personal fitness ; and
cases and difficulties can no more be resolved, nor safe coun-
sel given for the soul in matters of morality, by men unable,
than for the body or estate, in points of physic, or of law.
(As the lord Verulam in his considerations of ecclesiastical
government hath well observed.)
45. In such cases where duty or sin must be judged of
by compared accidents ; the nature of a means, or the in-
terest of the end, is the principal thing to be considered ;
and that which will evidently do more harm than good, is
not to be judged a duty (in those circumstances) but a sin.
as if the question were whether preaching be at this time,
in this place, to this number, to these individuals, a duty.
If it appear to true Christian prudence, that it would be like
to do more hurt than good, it is a sin at that time, and not
a duty : and yet preaching in due season is a great duty still.
So if the question were. Whether secret prayer be at this
hour or day a duty. If true reason tell you, that it is like
to hinder, either family prayer, or any other greater good, it
is not at that time a duty. Or if the question be. Whether
reproof or personal exhortation of a sinner be now a duty :
if true reason tell me, that it is like to do more harm than
good, it is not a duty then, but accidentally a sin : for we
must not cast pearls before swine, nor give that which is
holy unto dogs, lest they tread it underfoot, or turn again
and all to rend us. And there is a time when preachers that
are persecuted in one city, must fly to another ; and when
they must shake off the dust of their feet for a witness against
the disobedient, and turn away from them. (The imprudent
people can easily discern this when it is their own case, but
not when it is the preacher's case ; so powerful is self-love
and partiality) ; Matt. vii. 6, 7. x. 14. xxiii. 34. x, 23.
The reason of all this is, 1. Because God appointeth all
means for the end. 2. And because the law by which in
such cases we must be ruled, is only general ; as, " Let all
things be done to edification ;" as if he should say, ' Fit all
your actions, which I have not given you a particular, pe-
remptory law for, to that good which is their proper end ;»
1 Cor. xiv. 5. 12. 3. 26. 17. 2 Cor. x. 8. xii. 19. xiii. 10.
1 Cor. X. 23. Ephes. iv. 12. 16. 29. 1 Tim. i. 4. Rom. xv.
2. 1 Cor. xii. 7.
46. Public duties, ordinarily, must be preferred before
388 LIFE OF FAITH.
private : and that which is for the good of many, before that
which is for the good of one only.
47. Yet when the private necessity is more pressing, and
the public may be omitted at that time with less detriment,
the case doth alter. As also when that one that we do good
to is more worth than the many, in order to the honour of
God, or the more public good of the whole society : or when
it is one that by special precept, we are obliged to prefer in
our beneficence.
48. Civil power is to be obeyed before ecclesiastical, in
things belonging to the office of the magistrate ; and eccle-
siastical before the civil, in things proper to the ecclesiasti-
cal governors only. And family power before both, in things
proper to their cognizance only. But what it is that is pro-
per to each power, I shall tell them when I think they are
willing to know, and it will do more good than harm to tell
it them.
49. The supreme magistrate is ever to be obeyed before
his inferiors ; because they have no power but from him ;
and therefore have none against him (unless he so give it
them).
50. No human authority is above God's, nor can bind us
against him ; but it is all received from him, and subordi-
nate to him.
51. No human power can bind us to the destruction of
the society which it governeth ; because the public or com-
mon good is the end of government.
52. The laws of kings, and the commands of parents,
masters and pastors (in cases where they have true authori-
ty) do bind the soul primarily, as well as the body seconda-
rily ; but not as the primary, but the secondary bond. It is
a wonderful and pitiful thing, to read Divines upon this
point, 'Whether the laws of men do bind the conscience?'
what work they have made as in the dark, when the case is
so very plain and easy ! Some are peremptory that they do
not bind conscience; and some that they do ; and some call-
ing their adversaries the idolizers of men ; and others again
insinuating that they are guilty of treason against kings,
who do gainsay them ; when surely they cannot differ if
they would.
1. The very phrase of their question is nonsense, or very
unfit. Conscience is but a man's knowledge or judgment
LIFE OF FAITH. 389
of himself as he is obliged lo his duty and the effects ; and
consequently of the obligations which lie upon him.
It is a strange question, whether I am bound in know
ledge of myself: but it were a reasonable question, whether
I be bound to know ; or whether I know that I am bound.
It is the whole man, and most eminently the will, which
is bound by laws, or any moral obligations. The man is
bound.
But if by conscience, they mean the soul, it is a ridicu-
lous question : for no bonds can lie upon the body imme-
diately, but cords or iron, or such like materials. The soul
is the first obliged, or else the man is not morally obliged
at all.
If the sense of the question be, whether it be a divine or
a religious obligation, which men's commands do lay upon
us ? the answer is easy. 1. That man is not God ; and there-
fore as human it is not divine. 2. That man's government
is God's institution, and men are God's officers ; and there-
fore the obligation is religious, and instrumentally or me-
diately divine. Either men's laws and commands do bind us
or not : if not, they are no laws nor authoritative acts : if
they do bind, either it is primarily by an authority originally
in themselves that made them (and then they are all gods ;
and then there is no God) ; or else it is by derived authority.
If so, God must be the original (or still the original must be
God). And then is the highway any plainer than the true
answer of this question, viz. That princes, parents, &c. have
a governing or law-giving power from God, in subordination
to him ; and that they are his officers in governing : and
that all those laws which he hath authorised them to make
do bind the soul, that is, the man, immediately as human
and instrumentally or mediately as divine, or as the bonds
of God. As my covenant binds myself to conscience, (if
you will so speak, rather than that they bind my conscience)
so do men's laws also bind me. You may as well ask
whether the writing of my pen be its action or mine ; and
be an animate, or inanimate act ; which is soon resolved.
53. To conclude these rules, as the just impress of the
Spirit, and image of God upon the soul, is divine life, light
and love, communicated from God by Jesus Christ, by the
Holy Spirit, to work in us and by us for God (in the soul and
in the world) and by Christ to bring us up at last, to the
390 LIFE OF FAITH.
sight and fruition of God himself; so this trinity of Divine
principles, must be inseparably used, in all our internal and
external duties towards God or men ; and all that we do
must be the work of Power, and of Love, and of Wisdom or
a sound mind ; 2 Tim. i. 7.
II. Having been so large in opening the order of our du-
ties, 1 must be more brief than our case requireth, in telling
you our disorders, or contrary disease. Oh ! what a humbling
sight it would be, if good Christians did but see the pitiful
confusions of their minds and lives. They find little melody
in their religion, because there is little harmony in their ap-
prehensions, affections or conversations. If the displacing
one wheel or pin in a clock, will so much frustrate the ef-
fect, it is a wonder that our tongues or lives do ever go true,
which are moved by such disordered parts within ; that were
it not that the Spirit of grace doth keep an order where it is
essential to our religion (between the end and the means, &c.)
we should be but like the parts of a watch pulled in pieces,
and put up together in a bag. But such is God's mercy,
that the body may live when many smaller veins are ob-
structed ; so that the master vessels be kept clear.
I. There are so few Christians that have a true method
of faith or divinity in their understandings, even in the
great points which they know disorderly, that it is no won-
der if there be lamentable defectiveness and deformity, in
those inward and outward duties, which should be harmo-
niously performed, by the light of this harmonious truth.
And no divine in the world can give you a perfect scheme
of divinity in all the parts ; but he is the wisest that cometh
nearest to it. Abundance of schemes and tables you may
see, and all pretending to exactness : but every one pal-
pably defective and confused ; even those of the highest
pretenders that ever I have seen. And one error or disor-
der usually introduceth, in such a scheme, a confusion in
all that foUoweth as dependent on it.
Some confound God's attributes themselves (nay who
doth not) : they confound the three great essential princi-
ples, with all the attributes, by similitude called modal and
negative : and they use to name over God's attributes, like
as they put their money or chess-men into a bag, without
any method at all.
Some confound God's primary attributes of being, with
LIFE OF FAITH. 391
his relations, which are subsequent to his works, and with
his relation-attributes.
Some confound his several relations to man, among
themselves ; and more do confound his works, as they flow
from these various relations.
The great works of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sancti-
fier, and their several designs, significations, and effects,
are opened obscurely and in much confusion.
The legislative will of God ' de debito' institutive, (which
is it that Damascene, Chrysostom, and the schoolmen
mean by his antecedent will, if they speak properly) which
ever goeth before man's actions duties or sins, or as the
fathers 'call them, merits or demerits) is confounded by
many with the acts of his judgment and execution (called
his consequent will, because it ever presupposeth men's
precedent actions) : or, his works, as Law-giver, Judge and
Executioner, are oft confounded.
And so are the orders of his precepts promises, and
penal threats, and the conditions of his promises : and the
order of his precepts among themselves ; and of his promises
as one respecteth another.
And our relations to God, and the several respective
duties of those relations, are ordinarily much confounded.
The work of the Holy Ghost (as we are baptized into
the belief of him) is poorly, lamely and disorderly opened,
to the encourging of the carnal on one hand, or the en-
thusiasts on the other.
Law and Gospel, and covenant and covenant; words
and works ; the precepts of Christ, and the operations of
the Spirit, are seldom thought on in their proper place and
order, and differences.
In a word, consectaries are confounded with principles :
nature, medicine and health ; th^ precepts and parts of
primitive sanctity, with the pi'ecepts and means of medici-
nal grace 5 the end and the means ; yea, nothing more
usually than words and things are confounded and disor-
dered by the most (that I say not by us all).
The circular motion of grace, from God, and by God,
and to God, and in man the receiving duties as distinct
from the improving duties ; and these, as communicative
and dispersing unto man, from those ascendant unto God,
partly in the fruits, and partly in the exaltation of the mind
»392 LIFE OF FAITH.
itself, these are not to be found, nor abundance more which
I pass by, in any just harmonious scheme.
II. And Oh! what confusion is in our hearts or wills, and
lameness, and defect as well as confusion; which must
needs be the consequent of a lame and confused under-
standing. It is so great that I am not willing to be so
tedious as to open it at large.
III. And the confusion in our practices, taking it in,
and expressing it, will shew you your heart-confusion of it-
self. But to open this also would be long ; and the regular
order before laid down, will shew you our disorders without
any further enumerations or instances.
Only some of our lameness and partialities, contrary to
entire and complete religiousness, I shall briefly mention,
because I think it to be of no small need, to the most, even
of the more zealous part of Christians.
1. In our studies and meditations, we are partial and
defective : we search hard perhaps for some few truths, with
the neglect of many hundred more.
2. In our zeal for truth, we are oft as partial, greatly
taken with some one or few, which we think we have sud-
denly and happily found out, and see more into than others
do ; or in which we think we have some singular or special
interest; and in the meantime little affected with abun-
dance of truths, of greater clearness and importance, and of
more daily usefulness ; because they are things that all
men know, and common unto you with the most of Chris-
tians.
3. In your love to the godly, and your charity, in ex-
pressions, and in your daily prayers, what lameness and
partiality is there ? Those that are near you, and conver-
sant with you, you remember; and perhaps those in the
kingdom, or country where you dwell ; or at least those of
your own society, opinions and party. But when it cometh
to praying for the world, and all the church abroad ; and
when it cometh to the loving of those that differ from you,
what partiality do you shew ?
4. In the course of duties to God and man, how rare is
that person that doth not quite omit, or slubber over some
duty, as if it were nothing, while he doth with much earnest-
ness prosecute another? One that is much in receiving
duties for themselves (as hearing, reading, meditating, pray-
LIFE OF FAITH. 393
ing) can live all the week with quietness of conscience,
without almost any improving duties, or doing any good to
others : as if they were made for themselves alone. And
some ministers lay out themselves in preaching, as if they
were all for the good of others ; but pray as little, and do
as little about their own heart, as if they cared not for
themselves at all ; or else were good enough already.
Some are constant in church-duties, perhaps with some
superstitious strictness ; but in family-duties how neglective
are they ? They are for very strict discipline in the church,
and cannot communicate with any that wear not the same
badge of sanctity which they affect : but in their families,
what profaneness, carelessness and confusion is there ? They
can have family-communion with the most ungodly ser-
vants, that will but be profitable to them, dumb ministers
are their scorn ; but to be dumb parents and masters to
their children and servants, they can easily bear. Formal
preaching and praying in the church they exclaim against ;
but how formally do they pray at home, and catechise and
instruct their family ? If a magistrate should forbid them
to pray, or catechise, or instruct their families, they would
account him an impious, odious persecutor ; but they can
neglect it ordinarily when none forbiddeth them, and never
lay any such accusation on themselves.
Some are much for the duties of worship in private ; but
negligent of public worship ; and some are diligent in both,
that make little scruple of living idly without a calling, or
doing the works of their callings deceitfully and unprofit-
ably. They are censorious of one that is negligent in God's
worship ; but censure not themselves (nor love to be cen-
sured by others) for being idle and negligent servants to
their masters; and omitting many an hour's work, which
was as truly their duty as the other. Yea, when they are
told of such duties as they love not (as obedience, labour,
charity, patience, mortifying the flesh, &c.) their consci-
ences are just as senseless, or as prejudiced, or quarrelsome,
as the consciences of other men are against religious ex-
ercises.
5. And in our reformation and resisting sins of commis-
sion, such lameness and partiality is common with the most.
He that is most tender of a sin which is in common dis-
grace among the godly, is little troubled at as great a one
394 LIFB OF FAITH.
which hath got any reputation among them by the advan-
tage of some errors. In England, through God's mercy,
the profanation of the Lord's Day, is noted as a heinous
sin. But beyond sea, where it is not so reputed, how ordi-
narily is it committed ? Many would condemn Joseph, if
they had heard him swear by the life of Pharaoh, because
through God's mercy, swearing is a disgraced sin. But how
ordinarily do the dividing sort of Christians, rashly or
falsely, censure men behind their backs that differ from
them ; upon unproved hearsay, and gladly take up false re-
ports, and never shed a tear for many such slanders, back-
bitings and wrongs ? Many a one that would take an oath
or curse for a certain sign of an ungodly person, yet make
little of a less disgraceful way of evil-speaking, and of a
peevish, unpleasable disposition ; and when they are impa-*
tient of a censure, gr a foul word, are patient enough with
their impatiency.
And it deserveth tears of blood to think how little the
sins of selfishness and pride are mortified in most of the
forwardest Christians (even in them that go in mean attire).
How much they love and look to be esteemed, to be taken
notice of, to be well thought of, and well spoken of! How
ill they bear the least contempt, neglect or disrespect!
How abundantly they overvalue their own understandings !
And how wise they are in their own conceits ! And how
hardly they will think ill of their most false or foolish ap-
prehensions ! And how proudly they disdain the judgments
of wiser men, from whom, if they had humility, they might
learn perhaps twenty years together, and yet not reach the
measure of their knowledge ! And what a strange difference
there is in their judging of any case, when it is another's,
and when it is their own !
And among how few is the sin of flesh-pleasing sen-
suality mortified ! Abundance take no notice of it, because
it is hid, and can be daily exercised in a less disgraceful
way. If they be rich, they can enjoy that which is their
own ; and they can cleanlily do as Dives did, (Luke xvi.) and
take their good things here. Having enough laid up for
many years, they think they may take their ease, and eat,
drink, and be merry, without rebuke; Luke xii. 19.20.
They that are the most zealous in strict opinions, and modes
of worship, can live as Sodom did, in pride, fulness of bread.
LIFE OF FAITH. 395
and abundance of idleness, and use meat for their lusts,
and make provision for the flesh, to satisfy those lusts, and
yet never seem to themselves, nor those about them to offend ;
much less to do any thing that is grossly evil ; Ezek. xvi.
49. Psal. Ixxviii. 18. 30. Rom. xiii. 13, 14. They drink
not till they are drunk ; they eat not more in quantity than
others ; they labour as far as need compels them ; and this
they think is very tolerable. And because the papists have
turned the just subduing of the flesh into hurtful austerities,
or formal mockeries, therefore they are more hardened in
their flesh-pleasing ways. They take but that which they
love, and that which is their own, and then they think that
the fault is not great ; and what Christ meant by Dives's
being " clothed in purple and silk, and faring sumptuously
every day," they never truly understood : nor yet what he
meaneth by the poor in spirit, Matt. v. 3. which is not (at
least only or chiefly) a sense of the want of grace, but a
spirit suited to a life of poverty, contrary to the love of
money, and of fulness, and luxury, and pride : when we are
content with necessaries, and eat and drink for health more
than for pleasure, or for that pleasure only which doth con-
duce to health ; and when we will be at no needless super-
fluous cost upon the flesh, but choose the cheapest food and
raiment which is sufficient to our lawful ends ; and use not
our appetites, and sense, and fantasy to such delight and
satisfaction as either increaseth lust, or corrupteth the mind,
and hindereth it from spiritual duties and delights, by hurt-
ful delectation or diversion: nor bestow that upon ourselves
which the poor about us need to supply their great necessi-
ties. This is to be poor in spirit; and this is the life of ab-
stinence and mortification which these sensual professors
will not learn. Nay, rather than their throats shall not be
pleased, if they be children in their parents* families, or ser-
vants, they will steal for it, and take that which their parents
and masters (they know) do not consent to, nor allow them:
and they are worse thieves than they that steal for hunger
and mere necessity ; because they steal to satisfy their ap-
petites and carnal lusts ; that they may fare better than
their superiors would have them. And yet perhaps be really
conscientious and religious in many other points, and never
humbled for their fleshly minds, their gluttony and thievery;
especially if they see others fare better than they : and they
396 LIFE OF FAITH.
quiet their consciences, as the most ungodly do, with put-
ting a handsome name upon their sin, and calling it taking,
and not stealing ; and eating and drinking, and not fulness
of bread or carnal gulosity. Abundance of such instances
of men's partiality in avoiding sin, I must omit, because it
is so long a work.
6. Yea, in the inward exercise of graces, there are few
that use them completely, entirely, and in order ; but they
neglect one, while they set themselves wholly about the ex-
ercise of another; or perhaps use one against another.
Commonly they set themselves a great while upon nothing
so much as labouring to affect their hearts with sorrow for
sin, and meltingly to weep in their confessions (with some
endeavours of a new life). But the love of God, and the
thankful sense of the mercy of redemption, and the rejoicing
hopes of endless glory, are things which they take but little
care about : and when they are convinced of the error of
this partiality, they next turn to some Antinomian whimsy,
under the pretence of valuing free grace ; and begin to give
over penitent confessions, and the care and watchfulness
against sin, and diligence in a holy and fruitful life, and say
that they were long enough legalists, and knew not free
grace, but looked after doing, and something in themselves ;
and then they could have no peace ; but now they see their
error, they will know nothing but Christ ; and thus that
narrow foolish soul cannot use repentance without neg-
lecting faith in Christ ; and cannot use faith, but they
must neglect repentance ; yea, set faith and repentance,
love and obedience in good works, like enemies or hin-
drances against each other: they cannot know them-
selves and their sinfulness, without forgetting Christ and
his righteousness : and they cannot know Christ, and his
love and grace, without laying by the knowledge or resis-
tance of their sin. They cannot magnify free grace, unless
they may have none of it, but lay by the use of it as to all
the works of holiness, because they must look at nothing
in themselves. They cannot magnify pardon and justifica-
tion, unless they may make light of the sin and punishment
which they deserve, and which is pardoned, and the charge
and condemnation from which they are justified : they can-
not give God thanks for remitting their sin, unless they may
forbear confessing it, and sorrowing for it. They cannot
LIFE OF FAITH. :i97
take the promise to be free, which giveth Christ and pardon
of sin, if it have but this condition, that they shall not
reject him : nor can they call it the Gospel, unless it leave
them masterless and lawless; whereas there is indeed no
such thing as faith without repentance, nor repentance
without faith : no love to Christ without the keeping of his
commandments; nor no true keeping of the commandments
without love ; no free grace without a gracious sanctified
heart and life ; nor no gift of Christ and justification, but on
the condition of a believing acceptance of the gift ; and yet
no such believing but by free grace : no Gospel without the
law of Christ and nature ; and no mercy and peace but in a
way of duty. And yet such Bedlam Christians are among
us, that you may hear them in pangs of high conceited zeal,
insulting over the folly of one another, and in no wiser lan-
guage, than if you heard one lunatic person say, ' I am for
health, and not for medicine ;' and another, ' I am for medi-
cine, and not for the taking of it ;' and another, ' I am for
the physic, and not for the physician ;' and another, ' 1 am
for the physician, and not the physic;* and another, * I am
for the physic, and not for health.' Or as if they contended
at their meats, ' I am for meat, but not for eating it ;' and
' I am for putting it into my mouth, but not for chewing it;'
or ' I am for chewing it, but not for swallowing it ;' or * I am
for swallowing it, but not for digesting it;' or ' I am for di-
gesting it, but not for eating it,' &c.
Thus is Christ divided among a sort of ignorant, proud
professors: and some are for his sacrifice, and some for his
intercession ; some for his teaching, and some for his com-
mands, and some for his promises ; some for his blood, and
some for hi§ spirit ; some for his word, and some for his
ministers and his church ; and when they have made this
strange proficiency in wisdom, every party claims to be this
church themselves ; or if they cannot deny others to be
parts with them of the mystical church, yet the true ordered
political disciplined church is among them, the matter of
their claim and competition ; and one saith, ' it is we,' and
the other, ' no, but it is we ;' and the kitchen, and the coal-
house, and the cellar, go to law, to try which of them is the
house. Thus when they have divided Christ's garments
among them, and pierced if not divided himself, they quarrel
rather than cast lots for his coat.
398 ' LIPB OF FAITH.
7. I perceive this treatise swelleth too big, or else I
might next shew you, how partial men are in the sense of
their dangers.
8. And in the resisting of temptations ; he that escapeth
sensuality, feareth not worldliness ; or he that feareth both,
yet falleth into heresy or schism ; and he that escapeth
errors, falleth into fleshly sins.
9. And what partial regard we have of God's mercies.
10. And how partial we are as to our teachers, and good
books.
11. .And also about all the ordinances of God, and all
the helps and means of grace.
12. And how partial we are about good works, extolling
one, and senseless of another ; and about the opportunities
of good. In a word, what lame apprehensions we have of
religion, when men are so far from setting all the parts to-
gether in a well-ordered frame, that they can scarce forbear
the dividing of every part into particles : and must take the
food of their souls as physic, even like pills which they can-
not get down, unless they are exceeding small.
III. The causes of this calamity I must for brevity but
name.
1. The natural weakness of man's mind, doth make him
like a narrow-mouthed bottle that can take in but a little
at once, and so must be long in learning and receiving.
2. The natural laziness and impatience of men, will not
give them leave to be at such long and painful studies as
completeness of knowledge doth require.
3. The natural pride of men's hearts will not give them
leave to continue so long in a humble sense of their empti-
ness and ignorance, nor to spend so many years in learning
as disciples : but it presently persuadeth them that their
first apprehensions are clear and right, and their knowledge
very considerable already ; and they are as ready to dispute
and censure the ignorance of their teachers, if not to teach -
others themselves, as to learn.
4. The poverty and labours of many, allow them not
leisure to search and study so long and seriously, as may
bring them to any comprehensive knowledge.
5. The most are not so happy as to have judicious, me-
thodical and laborious teachers, who may possess them
with right principles and methods, but deliver them some
LIFE OF FAITH. 399
truths, with great defectiveness and disorder themselves ;
and perhaps by ther weakness tempt the people into pride,
when they see that they are almost as wise as they.
6. Most men are corrupted by company and converse
with ignorant, erroneous, and self-conceited men ; and
hearing others (perhaps that are very zealous) make some-
thing of nothing, and make a great matter of a little one,
and extolling their own poor and lame conceits, they learn
also to think that they are something when they are no-
thing, deceiving themselves ; Gal. vi. 3, 4.
7. Most Christians have lost the sense of the need and
use of the true ministerial office, as it consisteth in personal
counsel and assistance, besides the public teaching; and
most ministers by neglecting it, teach them to overlook it.
8. Every man hath some seeming interest in some one
opinion, or duty, or way, above the rest ; and selfishness
causeth him to reel that way that interest leadeth him.
9. Education usually possesseth men with a greater re-
gard of some one opinion, duty, way or party, than of the
rest.
10. The reputation of some good men doth fix others
upon some particular ways or notions of their's above others.
11. Present occasions and necessities sometimes do urge
us harder to some means and studies, than to others : espe-
cially for the avoiding of some present evil, or easing of
some present trouble ; and then the rest are almost laid by.
12. Some doctrines more deeply affect us in the hearing,
than others ; and then the thoughts run more on that, to
the neglect of many things as great.
13. Perhaps we have had special experience of some
truths and duties, or sins, more than others ; and then we
set all our thoughts about those only.
14. Usually we live with such as talk most of some one
duty, or against some one sin, more than all the rest, and
this doth occasion our thoughts to run most in one stream,
and confine them by hearing and custom to a narrow
channel-
is. Some things in their own quality, are more easy and
near to us, and more within the reach of sense. And there-
fore as corporal things, because of their sensibility and
nearness, do possess the minds of carnal men, instead of
things spiritual and unseen ; even so Paul and Apollos, and
400 LIFE OF FAITH.
Ceplias ; this good preacher, and that good book, and this
opinion, and that church-society, and this or that ordi-
nance, do possess the minds of the more carnal, narrow sort
of Christians, instead of the harmony of Christian truth,
and holy duty.
16. Nature itself as corrupted, is much more against
some truths, and against some duties, internal and external,
than against others. And then when those that it is less
averse to^ are received, men dwell on them, and make a re-
ligion of them, wholly or too much, without the rest. As
when some veins are stopped, all the blood is turned into
the rest ; or when one part of the mould is stopped up, the
metal all runneth into the rest, and maketh a defective ves-
sel : or when one part of the seal is filled up before, it
maketh a defective impression on the wax. Therefore the
duties of inward self-denial, humility, mortification, and
heavenliness, are almost left out in the I'eligion of the most.
17. Temptations are ever more strong and violent against
some duties, than against others, and to some sins, than to
others.
18. Most men have a memory, which more easily re-
taineth some things than others : especially those that are
best understood, and which must affect them. And grace
cannot live upon forgotten truths.
19. There is no man but in his calling, hath more fre-
quent occasion for some graces and duties, and useth them
more, and hath more occasions to interrupt and divert his
mind from others.
20. The very temperature of the body inclineth some all
to fears and grief, and others to love and contentedness of
mind : and it vehemently inclineth some to passion, some to
their appetite, some to pride, and some to idleness, and
some to lust ; when others are far less inclined to any of
them : and many other providential accidents, do give men
more helps to one duty than to another, and putteth many
upon the trials, which others are never put upon : and all
this set together is the reason that few Christians are entire
or complete, or escape the sin and misery of deformity ; or
ever use God's graces and their duties, in the order and
harmony as they ought.
IV. I shall be brief also in telling you what inferences
to raise from hence for your instruction.
LIVE OF FAITH. 401
1. You may learn hence how to answer the question,
Whether all God's graces live and grow in an equal propor-
tion in all true believers? I need to give you no further
proof of the negative, than I have laid down before: I once
thought otherwise ; and was wont to say, as it is commonly
said, that in the habit they are proportionable, but not in
the act. But this was because I understood not the dif-
ference between the particular habits, and the first radical
power, inclination or habit (which I name that the reader
may choose his title, that we may not quarrel about mere
words). The first principle of holiness in us, is called in
Scripture, The Spirit of Christ or of God : in the unity of
this are three essential principles, life, light, and love ; which
are the immediate effects of the heavenly or divine influx
upon the three natural faculties of the soul, to rectify them,
viz. on the vital power, the intellect, and the will : and are
called the Spirit, as the sunshine in the room is called the
sun. Now as the sunshine on the earth and plants, is all one
in itself as emitted from the sun, light, heat and moving
force concurring, and yet is not equally effective, because
of the difference of recipients; and yet every vegetative re-
ceiveth a real effect of the heat and motion at least ; and
sensitives also of the light ; but so that one may (by inca-
pacity) have less of the heat, and another less of the motion,
and another less of the light ; so I conceive that wisdom,
love and life (or power) are given by the Spirit to every
Christian : but so that in the very first principle or effect of
the Spirit, one may have more light, another more love,
and another more life: but this is accidental from some
obstruction in the receiver ; otherwise the Spirit would be
equally a Spirit of power (or life), and of love, and of a
sound mind (or light).
But besides this new moral power, or inclination, or
universal radical habit, there are abundance of particular
habits of grace and duty, much more properly called habits,
and less properly called the vital or potential principles of
the new creature : there is a particular habit of humility,
and another of peaceableness, of gentleness, of patience, of
love to one another, of love to the word of God ; and many
habits of love to several truths and duties : a habit of de-
sire, yea many, as there are many different objects desired ;
VOL. XII. D D
402 LIFE OF FAITH.
there is a habit of praying, of meditating, of thanksgiving,
of mercy, of chastity, of temperance, of diligence, &c. The
acts would not vary as they do, if there were not a variety
and disposition in these habits ; which appear to us only in
their acts. We must go against Scripture, reason, and the
manifold hourly experience of ourselves, and all the Chris-
tians in the world, if we will say that all these graces and
duties are equal in the habit in every Christian. How im-
potent are some in bridling a passion, or bridling the
tongue, or in controling pride and self-esteem, or in deny-
ing the particular desires of their sense, who yet are ready
at many other duties, and eminent in them. Great know-
ledge is too oft with too little charity or zeal ; and great
zeal and diligence often with as little knowledge. And so
in many other instances.
So that if the potentiality of the radical graces of life,
light and love, be or were equal, yet certainly proper and
particular habits are not.
But here note further, 1. That no grace is strong where
the radical graces, faith and love are weak : as no part of
the body is strong, where- the brain and heart are weak ;
yea, or the naturals, the stomach and liver.
2. The strength of faith and love is the principal means
of strengthening all other graces ; and of right performing
all other duties.
3. Yet are they not alone a sufficient means, but other
inferior graces and duties may be weak and neglected,
where faith and love are strong; through particular ob-
structing causes. As some branches of the tree may perish
when the root is sound ; or some members may have an
atrophy, though the brain and heart be not diseased.
4. That the three principles, life, light, and love, do
most rarely keep any disproportion; and would never be
disproportionate at all, if some things did not hinder the
actings of one more than the other, or turn away the soul
from the influences and impressions of the Spirit more as
to one than to the rest.
2. Hence you may learn. That the image of God is much
more clearly and perfectly imprinted in the holy Scriptures,
than in any of our hearts. And that our religion, objec-
tively considered, is much more perfect, than subjectively
LIFE OF FAITH. 403
in us. In Scripture, and in the true doctrinal method our
religion is entire, perfect and complete ; but in us, it is
confused, lame, and lamentably imperfect. The sectaries
that here say, * None of the Spirit's works are imperfect,'
are not to be regarded : for so they may as well say, that
there are no infants, diseased, lame, distracted, poor, or
monsters in the world ; because none of God's works are
imperfect. All that is in God is God, and therefore perfect ;
and all that is done by God is perfect as to his ends, and as
it is a part in the frame of his own means to that end which
man understandeth not : but many things are imperfect in
the receiving subject. If not, why should any man ever
seek to be wiser or better than he was in his infancy, or at
the worst.
3. Therefore we here see that the Spirit in the Scripture
is the rule by which we must try the Spirit in ourselves, or
any other. The fanatics or enthusiasts, who rail against
us, for trying the Spirit by the Scriptures, when as the Spi-
rit was the author of the Scriptures, do but rave in the dark,
and know not what they say. For the essence of the Spirit
is every where ; and it is the effects of the Spirit in both
which we must compare : The Spirit is never contrary to it-
self : and seeing it is the sunshine which we here call the
sun, the question is but, where it shineth most? whether
in the Scripture, or in our hearts ? The Spirit in the apos-
tles indited the Scriptures, to be the rule of our faith and
life unto the end ; the Spirit in us doth teach and help us
to understand and to obey those Scriptures. Was not the
Spirit in a greater measure in the apostles than in us ? Did
it not work more completely, and unto more infallibility in
their writing the Scriptures, than it doth in our understand-
ing, and obeying them ? Is not the seal perfect, when the
impression is oft imperfect ? Doth not the master write his
copy more perfectly, than his scholar's imitation is, though
he teach him, yea, and hold his hand ? He that knoweth
not the religious distractions of this age, will blame me for
troubling the reader with the confutation of such dreams :
but so will not they that have seen and tasted their effects.
4. Hence we may learn that he that would know what
the Christian religion is indeed (to the honour of God, or
their own just information), must rather look into the Scrip-
ture to know it, than into believers. For though in be-
404 LIFE OF FAITH.
iievers it be more discernible in the kind (as men's lives
are more conspicuous than laws and precepts, and the im-
press than the seal, &c.), yet it is in the laws or Scriptures
more complete and perfect, when in the best of Christians
(much more in the most) it is broken, maimed, and con-
fused.
5. This telleth us the reason why it is unsafe to make
any men (popes, or councils, or the holiest pastors, or
strictest people) the rule either of our faith or lives. Be-
cause they are all imperfect and discordant, when the Scrip-
ture is concordant and complete. He that is led by them,
may err, when as the Scripture hath no error. And yet it
is certain, that even the imperfect knowledge and grace of
faithful pastors and companions, is of great use to those
that are more imperfect than they, to teach them the Scrip-
tures, which are more perfect than they all.
6. Hence we see why it is, that religion bringeth so
much trouble, and so little comfort to the most, or too many
that are in part religious ; because it is lame and confused
in them. Is it any wonder that a displaced bone is pain-
ful ? Or that a disordered body is sick, and hath no great
pleasure in life ? Or that a disordered or maimed watch or
clock, doth not go right? O what a life of pleasure should
we live, if we were but such as the Scripture doth require !
and the religion in our hearts and lives were fully agreeable
with the religion described in the word of God.
7. And hence we see why most true Christians are so
querulous, and have always somewhat to complain of and
lament; which the senseless, or self-justifying hypocrites
overlook in themselves. No wonder if such diseased souls
complain.
8. And hence we see why there is such diversity and
divisions among believers, and such abundance of sects
and parties, and contentions, and so little unity, peace, and
concord. And why all attempts for unity take so little in
the church : because they have all such weakness, and dis-
tempers, and lameness, and confusedness, and great dispro-
portions in their religion. Do you wonder why he liveth
not in peace, and concord, and quietness with others, who
hath no better agreement in himself? And no more com-
posedness and true peace at home? Men's grace and parts
are much unequal.
LIFE OF FAITH. 405
9. And hence we see why there are so many scandals
among Christians, to the great dishonour of true Chris-
tianity, and the great hindrance of the conversion of the in-
fidel, heathen and ungodly world. What wonder if some
disorder, falsehood, and confusion appear without, in words
and deeds, when there is so much ever dwelling in the
mind?
10. Lastly, Hence we may learn what to expect from
particular persons, and what to look for also publicly, in
the church, and in the world. He that knoweth not what
man is, and what godly men are, but as well as I do, will
hardly expect a concordant uniform building to be made of
such discordant and uneven materials ; or that a set of
strings, which are all, or almost all out of tune, should
make any harmonious melody ; or that a number of infants
should constitute an army of valiant men ; or that a com-
pany that can scarce spell, or read, should constitute a
learned academy. God must make a change upon indivi-
dual persons, if ever he will make a great change in the
church. They must be more wise, and charitable, and
peaceable Christians, who must make up that happy church-
state, and settle thai amiable peace, and serve God in that
concordant harmony as all of us desire, and some expect.
CHAPTER XII.
How to use Faith against particular Sins,
The most that I have to say of this, is to be gathered from
what went before, about sanctification in the general. And
because I have been so much longer than I intended, you
must bear with my necessary brevity in the rest.
Direct. 1. ' When temptation setteth actual sin before
you, or inward sin keeps up within, look well on God and
sin together.' Let faith see God's holiness and justice,
and all that wisdom, goodness and power, which sin des-
piseth. And one such believing sight of God, is enough
to make you look at sin, as at the devil himself; as the most
ugly thing.
Direct. 2. ' Set sin and the law of God together ;' and
then it will appear to be exceeding sinful; and to be the
40t> LIFE OF FAITH.
crooked fruit of the tempting serpent. You cannot know
sin, but by the law ; Rom. vii. 14, &c.
Direct. 3. * Set sin before the cross of Christ :' Let faith
sprinkle his blood upon it, and it will die and wither. See
it still as that which killed your Lord ; and that which
pierced his side, and hanged him up in such contempt ^
and put the gall and vinegar into his mouth.
Direct. 4. * Forget not the sorrows and fears of your
conversion (if you are indeed converted) : or (if not) at least
the sorrows and fears which you must feel if ever you be
converted.' God doth purposely cast us into grief and
terrors, for our former sins, that it may make us the more
careful to sin no more, lest worse befal us : If the pangs of
the new birth were sharp and grievous to you, why will you
again renew the cause, and drink of those bitter waters ?
Remember what a mad and sad condition you were in while
you lived according to the flesh, and how plainly you saw
it when your eyes were opened ? And would you be in the
same condition again ? Would you be unsanctified, and un-
justified, and unpardoned, and unsaved ? Every wilful sin
is a turning backward, toward the state of your former
captivity and misery.
Direct. 5. * When Satan sets the bait before you, let
faith always set heaven and hell before you, and take alto-
gether, the end with the beginning.' And think when you
are tempted to lie, to steal, to deceive, to lust, to pride, to
gulosity or drunkenness, &c. what men are now sufi'ering
for these same sins ! And what all that are in hell and in
heaven do think of them ! Suppose a man offered you a
cup of wine, and a friend telleth you, * I saw him put poi-
son into it, and therefore take heed what you do.' If the
offerer were an enemy, you would hardly take it. The
world, and the flesh, and the devil, are enemies : when they
offer you the delights of sin, hear faith, and it will tell you,
there is poison in it ; there is sin, and hell, and God's dis-
pleasure in it.
Direct. 6. * Let faith keep you under the continual ap-
prehensions of the Divine authority and rule; that as a
child, a servant, a scholar, a subject, doth still know that
he is not masterless, but one that must be ruled by the will
or law of his superior; so may you always live with the
yoke of Christ upon your necks, and his bridle in your
LIFE OF FAITH. 407
mouths : remembering also that you are still in your Mas-
ter's eye.
Direct. 7. ' Remember still that it is the work of faith to
overcome the world and the flesh, and to overrule your
sense and appetite ; and to make nothing of all that would
stand up against your heavenly interest ; and to crucify it
by the cross of Christ/ Gal. vi. 14. v. 24. Rom. viii. 1.
9, 10. 13. Set faith therefore upon its proper work ; and
when you live by faith, and walk after the Spirit, you will
not live by sight, nor walk after the flesh ; 2 Cor. v. 7.
Direct, 8. ' It is also the work of faith to take off" all the
masks of sin and open its nakedness and shame, and cast
by all shifts, pretences, and excuses.' When Satan saith.
It is a little one, and the danger is not great, and it will
serve thy pleasure, profit, or preferment ; faith should say.
Doth not God forbid it? There is no dallying with the fire
of God : " Be not deceived, man ; God will not be mocked !
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap : If you
sow to the flesh, of the flesh you shall reap corruption ;"
Gal. vi. When Satan saith, " Ye shall not die :" And when
the sinner with Adam hideth himself, faith will call him out
to judgment, and say, " What hast thou done? Hast thou
eaten the fruit which God forbade ?"
Direct. 9. ' Let faith still keep you busied in your mas-
ter's work.* Nothing breedeth and feedeth sin so much as
idleness of mind and life : sins of omission have this dou-
ble mischief, that they are the first part of Satan's game
themselves, and they also bring in sins of commission.
When men are not taken up with good, they are at leisure
for temptations to entice them ; and they set open their
doors to the tempter, and tell him he may speak with them
when he will. Wanton thoughts, and covetous thoughts,
may dwell there when better thoughts are absent. But
when you are so wholly taken up with your duty (spiritual
or corporal), and so constantly and industriously busy in
your proper work, sin cannot enter, nor Satan find you at
leisure for his service.
Direct. 10. ' Let faith make God's service pleasant to
you, and lose riot your delight in God and godliness, and
then you will not relish sinful pleasures.' You will find no
need of such base delights, when you live on the foretaste
of angelical pleasures. You will not be easily drawn to
408 LIFE OF FAITH.
steal a morsel of dung or poison from the devil's table,
while you daily feast your souls on Christ : or to steal the
onions of Egypt, when you dwell in a land that floweth
with milk and honey. But while you keep yourselves in
the wilderness, you will be tempted to look back again to
Egypt. The great cause of men's sinning, and yielding to
the temptations of forbidden pleasures, is because they are
negligent to live upon the pleasures of believers.
Direct, 11.* Take heed of the beginnings, if ever you
would escape the sin.' No man becometh stark naught at
the first step. He that beginneth to take one pleasing un-
profitable cup or bit, intendeth not drunkenness and glut-
tony in the grossest sense : but he hath set fire in the
thatch, though he did not intend to burn his house ; and it
will be harder to quench it, than to have forborne at first.
He that beginneth but with lascivious dalliance, speeches
or embraces, thinketh not to proceed to filthy fornication :
but he might better have secured his conscience, if he had
never meddled so far with sin. Few ruinating, damning
sins, began any otherwise than with such small approaches,
as seemed to have little harm or danger.
Direct. 12. ' If ever you will escape sin, keep oflp from
strong temptations and opportunities.' He that will be still
near the fire or water, may be burnt or drowned at last.
No man is long safe in the midst of danger, and at the next
step to ruin. He that liveth in a tavern or alehouse, had
need to be very averse to tippling. And he that sitteth at
Dives' table, had need to be very averse to gulosity : and
he that is in the least danger of the fire of lust, must keep
at a sufficient distance, not only from the bed, and from im-
modest actions, but from secret company and opportunities
of sin, and from a licentious, ungoverned eye and imagina-
tion. This caused Christ to say. How hard it is for the
rich to be saved ! because they have a stronger fleshly in-
terest to keep them from Christ, and godliness, which must
be denied ; and because their sin hath plentiful provision,
and the fire of concupiscence wanteth no fuel, and it is a
very easy thing to them still to sin, and always a hard thing
to avoid it : and man's sluggish nature will hardly long
either hold on in that which is hardly done, or forbear that
which is still hard to forbear. Good must be made sweet
and easy to us, or else we shall never be constant in it.
LIFE OF FAITH. 409
Direct, 13. * If you find any difficulty in forsaking any
disgraceful sin, cherish it not by secrecy ; but, 1. Plainly
confess it to your bosom friend : And, 2. If that will not
serve, to others also, that you may have the greater engage-
ments to forbear.*
I know wisdom must be used in such confessions, and
they must be avoided when the hurt will prove greater than
the good. But fleshly wisdom must be no counsellor, and
fleshly interest must not prevail. Secrecy is the nest of
sin, where it is kept warm, and hidden from disgrace : turn
it out of this nest, and it will the sooner perish. God's eye
and knowledge should serve turn ; but when it will not, let
man know it also, and turn one sin against another, and let
the love of reputation help to subdue the love of lust.
Opening a sin (yea, or a strong temptation to a sin) doth
lay an engagement in point of common credit in the world,
upon them that were before under the Divine engagements
only. It will be a double shame to sin when once it is
known. And as Christ speaketh of a right hand, or eye, so
may I of your honour in this case ; it is better go to heaven
with the shame of a penitent confession, than to keep your
honour till you are in hell. The loss of men's good opinion
is an easy price, to prevent the loss of your salvation ; Prov.
xxviii. 13. " He that covereth his sins shall not prosper ; but
whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.'*
So 1 John i. 9, 10. James v. 15, 16.
Direct. 14. * Especially take heed of heinous sins, called
mortal,' because inconsistent with sincerity.
Direct, 15. * And take heed of those sins which your-
selves or others that fear God are in greatest danger of:'
of which I will speak a little more distinctly.
CHAPTER XIIL
What Sins the best should most watchfully avoid. And wherein
the Infirmities of the upright differ from the Mortal Sins.
Quest. ' What sins are religious people who fear sin,
most in danger of? And where must they set the strongest
watch V
Answ, 1. They are much in danger of those sins, the
410 LIFE OF FAITH.
temptations to which are near, and importunate, and con-
stant, and for which they have the greatest opportunities :
they have senses and appetites as well as others : and if the
bait be great, and always as at their very mouths, even a
David, a Solomon, a Noah, is not safe.
2. They are in danger of those sins which they little
think of; for it is a sign that they are not forewarned and
fortified ; nor have they overcome that sin ; for victory here
is never got at so cheap a rate : especially as to inward
sins. If it have not cost you many a groan, and many a
day's diligence, to conquer selfishness, pride and appetite ;
it is twenty to one they are not conquered.
3. They are much in danger of those sins which they
extenuate, and count to be smaller than they are. For in-
deed their hearts are infected already, by those false and
favourable thoughts. And they are prepared to entertain a
nearer familiarity with them. Men are easily tempted up-
on a danger which seemeth small.
4. They are much in danger of those sins, which their
constitutions and temperature of body doth incline them to;
and therefore must here keep a double watch. No small
part of the punishment of our original sin (both as from
Adam, and from our nearest parents) is found in the ill
complexion of our bodies : the temperature of some in-
clineth them vehemently to passion ; and of others unto
lust ; and of others to sloth and dullness ; and of others to
gulosity, &c. And grace doth not immediately change this
distemper of the complexion ; but only watch over it, and
keep it under, and abate it consequently, by contrary ac-
tions, and mental dispositions : therefore we shall have here
incessant work, while we are in the body. Though yet the
power of grace by long and faithful use, will bring the very
sense, and imagination, and passions into so much calm-
ness, as to be far less raging, and easily ruled : as a well
ridden horse will obey the rider ; and even dogs and other
brutes will strive but little against our government : and
then our work will grow more easy : For as Seneca saith,
* Maxima pars libertatis est bene moratus venter :' A good
conditioned belly is a great part of a man's liberty : mean-
ing, an ill conditioned belly is a great part of men's slavery.
And the same may be said of all the senses, fantasy and
passions in their respective places.
LIFE OF FAITH. 411
6. We are much in danger of the sins which our call-
ings, trades and worldly interest, do most and constantly
tempt us to. Every man hath a carnal interest, which is his
great temptation; and every wise man will know it, and
there set a double watch. The carnal interest of a preacher,
is applause or preferment. The carnal interest of rulers and
great men, I shall pass by ; but they must not pass it by
themselves. The carnal interest of lawyers and tradesmen,
is their gain, &c. Here we must keep a constant watch.
6. We are much in danger of those sins, the matter of
which is somewhat good and lawful, and the danger lieth
only in the manner, circumstances or degree. For there
the lawfulness of the matter, occasioneth men to forget the
accidental evil. The whole kingdom feeleth the mischief
of this, in instances which I will now pass by. If eating
such or such a meat were not lawful itself, men would not
be so easily drawn to gluttony. If drinking wine were not
a lawful thing, the passage to drunkenness were not so
open. The apprehension that a lusory lot is a lawful thing
(as cards, dice, &c.) doth occasion the heinous sin of time-
wasting, and estate-wasting gamesters. If apparel were not
lawful, excess would not be so easily endured. Yea, the
goodness of God's own worship, quieteth many in its great
abuse.
7. We are much in danger of those sins, which are not
in any great disgrace among those persons whom we most
honour and esteem. It is a great mercy to have sin lie un-
der a common odium and disgrace : as swearing and drun-
kenness, and cursing, and fornication, and Popish errors,
and superstition, is now amongst the forwardest professors
in England: for here conscience is most awakened, and
helped by the opinion of men ; or if there be some carnal
respect to our reputation in it sometimes, yet it tendeth to
suppress the sin : and it is a great plague to live where any
great sin is in little disgrace (as profanation of tlie Lord's
day in most of the reformed churches beyond sea ; and
they say, tippling, if not drunkenness in Germany 5 and as
backbiting and evil-speaking against those that differ from
them, is among the professors in England, for too great a
part J and also many superstitions of their own ; and divid-
ing principles and practices),
8. But especially if the greater number of godly people
412 LIFE OF FAITH.
live in such a sin, then is the temptation great indeed ; and
it is but few of the weaker sort, that are not carried down
that stream. The Munster case, and the rebellion in which
Munster perished in Germany, and many others ; but espe-
cially abundance of schisms from the apostles' days till now,
are too great evidences of men's sociableness in sinning.
" We all like sheep have gone astray, and turned every one
to his own way ;" Isa. liii. 6. And like sheep in this, that if
one that is leading, get over the hedge, all the rest will fol-
low after ; but especially if the greater part be gone. And
do not think that our churches are infallible, and that the
greater part of the godly cannot err, or be in the wrong :
for that would be but to do as the Papists, when we have
sinned by fallibility, to keep off repentance by the conceit
of infallibility.
9. We are in great danger of sinning, in cases where we
are ignorant : for who can avoid the danger which he
seeth not ? And who can walk safely in the dark ? There-
fore we see that it is the more ignorant sort of Christians,
and such as Paul calleth novices, that most err ; especially
when pride accompanieth ignorance, for then they fall into
the special condemnation of the devil ; 1 Tim. iii. 6. Study
therefore painfully and patiently till you understand the
truth.
10. But above all,|we are in danger of those sins which
are masked with a pretence of the greatest truths and duties,
and use to be fathered on God and Scripture ; and go under
the specious titles of holiness and of free grace. For here
it is the understanding chiefly that resisteth, while the very
names and pretences secretly steal in, and bring them into
love and reverence with the will. And the poor honest
Christian is afraid of resisting them, lest it should prove a
resisting God. What can be so false that a man will not
plead for, if he take it to be a necessary truth of God ? And
what can be so bad that a man will not do, if he take it
once to be of God's commanding? The aforesaid instances
of the Munster and German actions, with those of the fol-
lowers of David George in Holland, (who took himself to be
the Holy Ghost, or the immediate prophet of his kingdom,^
and Racket and his Grundletonians 5 and the Familists, the
Ranters, the Seekers, the Quakers, the Church-dividers, and
the Kingdom and State-overturners in England, have given
LIFE OF FAITH. 413
SO great a demonstration of this, that it is not lawful to
overlook it or forget it. " The time cometh, that they that
kill you, shall think that they do God service ;" John xvi. 2.
And then who can expect that their consciences should
avoid it? Why did Paul persecute the Christians, and com-
pel them to blaspheme? Because he verily thought that he
ought to do many things against the name of Jesus ; Acts
xxvi. 9. O ! it is religious sins which we are in danger of!
such as come to us as in the name of God, and Christ, and
the Spirit : such as pretend that we cannot be saved with-
out them : and such as plead the Holy Scriptures : such as
James iii. is written against, when a wisdom from beneath,
which is earthly, sensual and devilish, working by envy
and strife, unto confusion and every evil work, pretendeth
to be the wisdom from above: when zeal consumeth love
and unity, under pretence of consuming sin ; which made
Paul and John require us not to " believe every Spirit, but
to try the Spirits whether they be of God ;" 1 John vi. 1 — 3.
2Thess. ii. 2. 1 Thess. v. 20, 21. And made Paul say, " If
an angel from heaven bring you another Gospel, let him be
accursed ;" Gal. i. 7, 8. And more plainly, 2 Cor. xi. 13, 14.
" Such are false apostles ; deceitful workers ; transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ : and no marvel, for
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light ; there-
fore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed
as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be ac-
cording to their works. And, Acts xx. 30. *' Also of your
ownselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to
draw away disciples after them." And what need any dis-
ciple of Christ greater warning, than to remember that their
Saviour himself was thus assaulted by the devil in his
temptation with *' It is written."
Yet let no Papist hence take occasion to vilify the
Scripture, because it is made a plea for sin : for so he might
as well vilify human reason, which is pleaded for all the
errors in the world; and vilify the law, because lawyers
plead it for ill causes ; yea, and vilify God himself, because
the same and other sinners plead his will and authority for
their sins : when contrarily, it is a great proof of the Scrip-
ture authority and honour, that Satan himself, and his sub-
tilest instruments, do place their greatest hope of prevailing,
414 LIFE OF FAITH.
by perverting and misapplying it ; which could be of no
use to them, if its authority were not acknowledged.
11. We are in constant danger of those sins which we
think we can conceal from men : therefore suppose still that
all that you do will be made known ; and do all as in the
open streets. It is written (by two) in the life of holy
Ephrem Syrus, that when a harlot tempted him to unclean-
ness, he desired but that he might choose the place ; which
she consenting to, he chose the open market-place, among
all the people ; and when she told him, that there they
should be shamed, for all would see ; he told her such a les-
son of sinning in the sight of God, who is every where, as
was the means of her conversion. Conceit of secrecy era-
boldeneth to sin.
12. We are in constant danger of sins of sudden passion
and irruption, which allow us not season to deliberate, and
surprise us before our reason c^n consider.
13. We are in danger of sins that come on by insensible
degrees, and from small beginnings creep upon us, and
come not by any sudden wakening assaults : thus pride,
and covetousness, and ambition, do infect men : and thus
our zeal and diligence for God, doth usually decay.
14. Lastly, We are in much danger of all sins which re-
quire a constant, vigorous diligence to resist them ; and of
omitting those duties, or that part or mode of duty, which
must have a constant vigorous diligence to perform it ; be-
cause feeble souls are hardly kept (as is aforesaid) to con-
stant vigorous diligence.
Quest, 2. * Wherein difFereth the sins of a sanctified per-
son from other men's that are unsanctified V
Answ. 1. In a sanctified man the habitual bent of his will,
is ever more against sin, than for it ; however he be tempted
into that particular act.
2. And as to the act also, it is ever contrary to the scope
and tenor of his life ; which is for God and sincere obe-
dience.
3. He hath no sin which is inconsistent with the true
love of God, in the predominant habit : it never turneth his
heart to another end, or happiness, or master.
4. Therefore it is more a sin of passion, than of settled
interest and choice. He is more liable to a hasty passion,
LIFE OF FAITH. 415
or word, or unruly thoughts, than to any prevalent covetous-
ness or ambition, or any sin which is a possessing of the
heart instead of God; 1 John ii. 15. James iii. 2. Though
some remainders of these are in him, they prevail not so far
as sudden passions.
5. There are some sins which are more easily in the
power of the will, so that a man that is but truly willing,
may forbear them ; as a drunkard may pass by the tavern
or alehouse, or forbear to touch the cup ; and the fornica-
tor to come near, or commit the sin, if they be truly will-
ing : but there be other sins which a man can hardly forbear
though he be willing ; because they are the sins of those
faculties over which the will hath not a despotical power :
as a man may be truly willing to have no sluggishness,
heaviness, sleepiness at prayer, no forgetfulness, no wander-
ing thoughts, no inordinate appetite or lust at all stirring in
him, no sudden passions of anger, grief or fear; he may be
willing to love God perfectly ; to fear him and obey him
perfectly, but cannot. These latter are the ordinary in-
firmities of the godly : the former sort are, if at all, his ex-
traordinary falls ; Rom. vii. 14, to the end.
6. Lastly, The true Christian riseth by unfeigned repen-
tance, which his conscience hath but leisure and helps to
deliberate, and to bethink him what he hath done. And his
repentance much better resolveth and strengtheneth him
against his sin for the time to come.
To sum up all ; 1. Sin more loved than hated. 2. Sin
wilfully lived in, which might be avoided by the sincerely
willing. 3. Sin made, light of, and not truly repented of
when it is committed. 4. And any sin inconsistent with
habitual love to God, in predominancy, is mortal, or a sign
of spiritual death, and none of the sins of sanctified be-
lievers.
CHAPTER XIV.
How to live by Faith in Prosperity.
The work of faith in respect of prosperity, is twofold:
1. To save us from the danger of it. 2. To help us to a
sanctified improvement of it.
416 ' LIFE OF FAITH.
1, And for the first, that which faith doth, is especially,
1. To see deeper and further into the nature of all things in
the world, than sense can do : 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. 1 Cor. vii.
29 — 31. To see that they were never intended for our rest
or portion, but to be our wilderness-provision in our way.
To foresee just how the world will use us, and leave us at
the last, and to have the very same thoughts of it now, as
we foresee we shall have when the end is come, and when
we have had all that ever the world will do for us. It is
the work of faith, to cause a man to judge of the world,
and all its glory, as we shall do when death and judgment
come, and to have taken off the mask of splendid names,
and shows, and flatteries : that we may use the world as if
we used it not, and possess it as if we possessed it not, be-
cause its fashion doth pass away. It is the work of faith to
crucify the world to us, and us to the world by the cross of
Christ, (Gal. vi. 14.) that we may look on it as disdainfully
as the world looked upon Christ, when he hanged as for-
saken on the cross. That when it is dead, it may have no
power on us, and when we are dead to it, we may have no
inordinate love, or care, or thoughts, or fears, or grief, or
labour to lay out upon it. It is the work of faith to make
all worldly pomp and glory, to be to us but loss, and dross,
and dung, in comparison of Christ, and the righteousness
of faith ; Phil. iii. 7 — 9. And then no man will part with
heaven for dung, nor set his God below his dung, nor fur-
ther from his heart; nor will he feel any great power in
temptations to honour, wealth, or pleasure, if really he
count them at all but dung ; nor will he wound his consci-
ence, or betray his peace, or cast away his innocency for
them.
2. Faith sheweth the soul those sure, and great, and
glorious things, which are infinitely more worthy our love
and labour. And this is the highest and most proper work ;
Heb. xi. It conquereth earth by opening heaven; and
shewing it us as sure, and clear, and near. And no man
will dote on this deceitful world, till he have turned away
his eyes from God ; and till heaven be out of his sight and
heart. Faith saith, I must shortly be with Christ; and
what then are these dying things to me? I have better
things, which God that cannot lie hath promised me with
Christ ; Titus i. 2. Heb. vi. 18. I look every day when I
LIFE OF FAITH. 417
am called in. " The Judge standeth before the door ;"
James v. 9. " The Lord is at hand ;" Phil. iv. 5. And
•' the end of all these things is at hand ;" 1 Pet. iv. 7. And
shall I set my heart on that which is not?
Therefore when the world doth smile and flatter, faith
setteth heaven against all that it can say or offer. And
what is the world when heaven stands by ? Faith seeth
what the blessed souls above possess, at the same time
while the world is alluring us to forsake it; Luke xvi. Heb.
xi. xii. 1,2, &c. Faith setteth the heart upon the things
above, as our concernment, our only hope and happiness : it
kindleth that love of God in the soul, and that delight in
higher things, which powerfully quench worldly love, and
mortifieth all our carnal pleasures ; Matt. vi. 20, 21. Col.
iii. 1—4, Rom. viii. 5—7. Phil. xxx. 20, 21.
3. Faith sheweth the soul those wants and miseries in
itself, which nothing in the world is able to supply and cure.
Nay, such as the world is apter to increase. It is not gold
that will quench his thirst, who longs for pardon, grace and
glory. A guilty conscience, a sinful and condemned soul
will never be cured by riches, or high places, by pride, or
fleshly sports and pleasures ; James v. 1 — 3. This humbling
work is not in vain.
4. Faith looketh to Christ, who hath overcome the
world, and carefully treadeth in his steps ; John xvi. 33.
Heb. xii. 2 — 5. It looketh to his person, his birth, his
life, his cross, his grave, and his resurrection : to all that
strange example of contempt of worldly things which he gave
us from his manger, to his shameful kind of death. And
he that studieth the * Life of Christ,' will either despise the
world, or him. He will either vilify the world in imitation
of his Lord, or vilify Christ for the pleasures of the world.
Faith hath in this warfare the surest and most honourable
Guide, the ablest Captain, and the most powerful Example
in all the world. And it hath with Christ an unerring rule,
which furnisheth him with armour for every use. Yea, it
hath through him a promise of victory before it be attained ;
so that in the beginning of the fight, it knows the end ;
Rom. xvi. 20. John xvi. 33. It goeth to Christ for that
Spirit which is our strength ; Ephes. vi. 10. Col. ii. 7.
And by that it mortifieth the desires of the flesh ; and
VOL. XII. E E
418 LIFE OF FAITH.
when the flesh is mortified, the world is conquered ; for it is
loved only as it is the provision of the flesh.
5. Moreover, faith doth observe God's particular provi-
dence, who distributeth his talents to every man as he pleaseth,
and disposeth of their estates and comforts : so that the "race
is not to the swift, nor the victory to the strong, nor riches to
men of understanding ;" Eccles. ix. 11.
Therefore it convinceth us, that our lives and all being
in his hand, it is our wisdom to make it our chiefest care to
use all so as is most pleasing unto him ; 2 Cor. v. 8. It
foreseeth also the day of judgment, and teacheth us to use
our prosperity and wealth, as we desire to hear of it in the
day of our accounts. Faith is a provident and a vigilant
grace, and useth to ask when we have any thing in posses-
sion. Which way may I make the best advantage of it for
my soul ? Which way will be most comfortable to me in
my last review ? How shall I wish that I had used my time,
my wealth, my power, when time is at an end, and all these
transitory things are vanished ?
6. And faith doth so absolutely devote and subject the
soul to God, that it will suffer us to do nothing (so far as it
prevaileth) but what is for him, and by his consent. It telleth
us that we are not our own, but his ; and that we have no-
thing but what we have received ; and that we must be just
in giving God his own : and therefore it first asketh. Which
way may I best serve and honour God with all that he hath
given me ? Not only with my substance, and the first-fruits
of mine increase, but with all; 1 Cor. x. 31. When love
and devotion hath delivered up ourselves entirely to God, it
keeps nothing back, but delivereth him all things with our-
selves : even as Christ with himself doth give us all things ;
Rom. viii.32. And faith doth so much subject the soul to
God, that it maketh us like servants and children, that use
not their master's or parent's goods at their own pleasure ;
but ask him first, how he would have us use them, " Lord,
what wouldst thou have me to do ?" is one of the first words of
a converted soul ; Acts ix. 6. In a word, faith writeth out
that charge upon the heart, " Love not the world, nor the
things that are in the world (the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life). For if any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. Ye cannot serve
God and mammon ;" 1 John ii. 15.
LIFE OF FAITH. 419
But on this subject Mr. Alleine hath said so much in his
excellent book of the "Victory of Faith over the World,"
that I shall at this time say no more.
The Directions which 1 would give you in general, for
preservation from the danger of prosperity by faith, are these
that follow.
Direct. 1. * Remember still that the common cause of
men's damnation is their love of this world more than God
and heaven ; and that the world cannot undo you any other
way, but by tempting you to over-love it, and to undervalue
higher things :' and therefore that is the most dangerous
condition, which maketh the world seem most pleasing, and
most lovely to us. And can you believe this, and yet be so
eager to be humoured, and to have all things fitted to your
pleasure and desires? Mark here what a task faith hath !
And mark what the work of self-denial is ! The worldling
must be pleased ; the believer must be saved. The world-
ling must have his flesh and fancy gratified : the believer
must have heaven secured, and God obeyed. Men sell not
their souls for sorrow, but for mirth : they forsake not hea-
ven for poverty, but for riches: they turn not away from God
for the love of sufferings and dishonour, but for the love of
pleasure, preferments, dignities and estimation in the world.
And is that state better and more desirable, for which all
that perish turn from God, and sell their souls, and are be-
fooled and undone for ever ? Or that which no man ever
sinned for, nor forsook God for, or was undone for ? Read
over this question once and again, and mark what answer
your hearts give to it, if you would know whether you live
by sense or faith. And mark what contrary answers the
flesh and faith will give to it, when it comes to practice ! I
say, though many sin in poverty, and in sufferings and in
disgrace, yea, and by occasion of them, and by their temp-
tations, yet no man ever sinned for them. They are none of
the bait that stole away the heart from God. Set deep
upon your heart the sense of the danger of a prosperous state,
and fear and vigilancy will help to save you.
Direct. 2. * Imprint upon your memory the characters of
this deadly sin of worldliness, that so you may not perish by
it, whilst you dream that you are free from it ; but may
always see how far it doth prevail.' Here, therefore, to help
you, I will set before you the characters of this sin; and I
420 LIFE OF FAITH.
will but briefly name them, lest I be tedious because they
are many.
1. The great mark of damning worldliness is, when God
and heaven are not loved and preferred before the pleasures,
and profits, and honours of the world.
2. Another is, when the world is esteemed and used more
for the service and pleasure of the flesh, than to honour God,
and to do good with, and to further our salvation. When
men desire great places and riches, more to please their ap-
petites and carnal minds with, than to benefit others, or to
serve the Lord with : when they are not rich to God, but to
themselves ; Luke xii. 20, 21.
3. It is a mark of some degree of worldliness, to desire
a greater measure of riches and honour, than our spiritual
work, and ends, and benefit do require ; for when we are
convinced that less is as good or better to our highest ends,
and yet we would have more ; it is a sign that the rest is de-
sired for the flesh ; Rom. xiii. 14. viii. 8 — 10. 13.
4. When our desires after worldly things are too eager
and violent : when w^e must needs have them, and cannot be
without them; 1 Tim. vi. 9.
5. When our contrivances for the world are too solicitous,
and our cares for it take up an undue proportion of our time ;
Matt. vi. 24, 25. to the end.
6. When we are impatient under want, dishonour or dis-
appointments, and live in trouble and discontent, if we want
much, or have not our wills.
7. When the thoughts of the world are proportionably
so many more than our thoughts of heaven, and our salva-
tion, that they keep us in the neglect of the duty of me-
ditation, and keep empty our minds of holy things ;
Matt. vi. 21.
8. When it turneth our talk all towards the wrorld, or
taketh up our most free, and our sweetest and most serious
words, and leaveth us to the use of seldom, dull, or formal,
or affected words, about the things which should profit the
soul, and glorify our great Creator.
9. When the world encroacheth upon God's part in our
families, and thrusts out prayer, or the reading of the Scrip-
tures, or the due instruction of children or servants : when
it cometh in upon the Lord's day : when it is intruding in
God's worship, and at sermon, or prayer, our thoughts are
LIFE OF FAITH. 421
more pleasingly running out after some worldly thing, than
kept in^ attendance upon God ; Ezek. xxxiii. 31.
10. When worldly prosperity is so sweet to you, that it
can keep you quiet under the guilt of wilful sin, and in the
midst of all the dangers of your souls. Because you have
your heart's desire awhile, you can forget eternity, or bear
those thoughts of it with security, which otherwise would
amaze your souls ; Luke xii. 19, 20.
11. When the peace and pleasure which you daily live
upon, is fetched more from the world, than from God and
heaven ; so that if at any time you ask yourselves the true
reason of your peace, and whence it is that you rise and lie
down in quietness of mind, your consciences must tell you,
it is not so much from your belief of the love of God in
Christ, nor from your hope to live in heaven for ever, as be-
cause you feel yourself well in body, and live at ease and
prosperity in the world : and when any mirth or joy pos-
sesseth you, you may easily feel, that it is more from some-
thing which is grateful to your flesh, than from the belief of
everlasting glory.
12. When you think too highly and pleasingly of the
condition of the rich, and too meanly of the state of poor
believers : when you make too great a difference between
the rich and the poor, and say to the man with the gold ring
and the gay apparel, " Come up hither ; and to the poor. Sit
there at my footstool ;" James iv. v. When you had rather
be made like the rich and honourable in the world, than like
the poor that are more holy ; and think with more delight of
being like lords or great men in the world, than of being more
like to humble, heavenly believers,
13. When you are at the heart more thankful to one that
giveth you lands or money, than to God for giving you Christ
and the Scriptures, and the means of grace : and would be
better pleased if you were advanced or enriched by the king,
than to think of being sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. And
when you give God himself more hearty thanks for worldly
than for spiritual things.
14. When you make too much ado for the things of the
world ; and labour for them with inordinate industry ; or
plunge yourselves into unnecessary business as one that can
never have or do enough.
15. When you are too much in expecting liberality, kind-
422 LIFE OF FAITH.
nesses and gifts from others ; and are too muqh pleased in
it; and grudge at all that goeth beside you ; and think that
it is men's duty to mind all your concernments, and further
your commodity more than other men's.
16. When you are selfish and partial about worldly in-
terest, and have little sense of your neighbours' concern-
ments in comparison of your own. If one give never so li-
berally to many others, and give nothing to you, it doth
never the more content you, nor reconcile your mind to the
charity of the giver. If one give to you, and pass by many
that have more need, you love and honour the bounty which
satisfieth your own desires. If you sell dear, you rejoice;
and if you buy cheap, you are glad of your good bargain,
though perhaps the seller be poorer than you. He that
wrongeth you, or any way hindereth your commodity, is £^1-
ways a bad man in your esteem : no virtue will save him
from your censures and reproach : but he that dealeth as
hardly by your neighbour, and well with you, is a very ho-
nest man, and worthy of your praise.
17. When you are quarrelsome for worldly things, and
the love of them can at any time break your charity and
peace, and make an enemy of your nearest friend ; or engage
you in causeless lawsuits and contentions. What abundance
doth the world set together by the ears !
18. When you can see your poor brother or neighbour in
want, and shut up the bowels of your compassion from him ;
and do little good with what God hath given you, but the
flesh and self devoureth all.
19. When you will venture upon unlawful ways of get-
ting ; or will sin for honour or commodity ; or at least will
let go your innocency and conscience, rather than lose your
prosperity in the world ; and will distinguish yourselves out
of every danger, or costly duty, or suffering for righteousness
sake ; and will prove every thing lawful, which seemeth ne-
cessary to the prosperity and safety of the flesh.
20. When you are more careful to provide riches and ho-
nours for your children after you, than to save them from
vvorldliness, voluptuousness and pride, and to bring them up
to be the heirs of heaven : and had rather venture their souls
in the most dangerous temptations, than abate any of their
plenty or grandeur in the world.
LIFE OF FAITH. 425
These be the plain marks of worldly minds, whatever a
blinded heart may devise to hide them.
Direct. 3. ' Take heed of those blinding pretences which
worldly minds do commonly use, to flatter, deceive and undo
themselves. For instance.
1. The most common pretence is ' That God's creatures
are good, and prosperity is his blessing, and that our bodies
must be cherished, and that cynical and eremitical extremes
and austerities, are far from the genius of true Christianity.*
There is truth in all this, or else it would not be so fit to
be made a cloak for sin by misapplication. The world and
all God's works are good ; and to the pure they are pure ;
to the sanctified they are sanctified ; that is, they are de-
voted to the service of God, and used for him from whom
they come : God hath given us nothing which may not be
used for his service, and our salvation. No doubt but you
may make you friends of the mammon of unrighteousness,
to further your reception into the everlasting habitations :
you may lay up a good foundation for the time to come ;
and you may sow to the Spirit, and reap in the end everlast-
ing life ; Gal. vi. You may provide you bags that wax not
old. You may please God by the sacrifices of distributing
and communicating; Heb.xiii. But yet I must tell you,
the world and all God's creatures in it, are too good to be
sacrificed to the flesh, and to the devil ; and not good enough
to be loved and preferred before God, and your innocency
and salvation.
The body must be cherished, but yet the flesh must be
subdued ; and if you live after it you shall die. Health and
alacrity must be preserved, because they make you fit for
duty ', but wanton appetites must be restrained, and no pro-
vision must be made for the flesh, to satisfy its lusts (or
wills) ; Kom. xiii. 14. It must be cherished as your horse
or servant for his work ; but it must not be pampered, and
made unruly, or your master. You may seek food for your
necessity and use ; and ask of God your daily bread (Matt.
vi. Psal. cxlv.) ; but you may not with the Israelites, ask
meat for your lust, as being weary of eating manna so long ;
Psal. Ixxviii. Hurting your health by useless austerities, is
not pleasing unto God ; but sensuality, and flesh-pleasing,
and love of the world, is nevertheless abominable in his
sight.
424
LIFE OF FAITH.
Object. 2. ' Necessity makes me mind the world. I have
children to maintain, and am in debt, and cannot pay every
one his own/
Answ. Whether you have necessity or not, you ought to
labour faithfully in your callings : but no necessity will ex-
cuse your worldly love and cares. What will the love of the
world do towards the supply of your necessities 'I Or what
will your eager desires, and your cares do, more than the la-
bours and quiet forecast of one that hath a contented mind?
Surely in reason, the less you have in the world, and the
harder your condition is, the less you should love it, and the
more you should abound in care and diligence, to make sure
of a better world hereafter.
Object. 3. * I covet no man's but my own.'
Answ. 1. Why then are you so glad of good bargains, or
of gifts ? 2. But what if you do not ? You covet to have
more to be your own, than God allotteth you. Perhaps you
have already as much as your flesh knoweth what to do with ;
and therefore need not covet niore. But will this excuse
you for loving your riches more than God ? The question
s not now, what you covet, but what you love. If the world
hath your hearts, the devil hath your lives ; for it is by the
world that he deceiveth souls : and do you think then that
you are fit to dwell with God ? " Know ye not that the
love of the world is enmity to God?" And that if "ye
will be friends of the world, you are God's enemies ?"
James iv. 4.
Object, 4. * It is not by any unlawful means that I desire
to grow rich. I wait on God in my lawful labour, and crave
his blessing.'
Answ, It is not now your getting, but your loving the
world that I am speaking of. If your hearts be more set on
your riches or prosperity, than on God, and the world by
loving it be made your idol, you do but turn prayer and la-
bour into sin, (though they be good in themselves) while you
abuse them to your ungodly, worldly ends.
What wretched muckworm would not pray, if he believed
that praying would make him rich ? I warrant you then their
tune would be turned. They would not cry out, What need-
eth all this praying? If God would give them money for the
asking, they would quickly learn to pray without book, and
long prayers would come into request, upon the Pharisees'
LIFE OF FAITH. 425
old account. . Can any thing in the world be more unlawful
and abominable, than to love the flesh and the world, above
God and heaven ? And yet do you say that you get not your
wealth by any thing that is unlawful ?
Object, 5. ' But I am contented with my condition, and
desire no more.'
Answ, So is a swine when his belly is full. But the ques-
tion is. Whether heaven and holiness, or the worldly condi-
tion which you are in seem more lovely to you.?
Object, 6. * I give God thanks for all I have.'
Answ. So would every beggar in the country give God
thanks if he would make him rich. Some drunkards and
gluttons, and some malicious people, do give God thanks for
satisfying their sinful lusts. This is but adding hypocrisy
to your sin, and to aggravate it by profaning the name of
God, by thanking him as a cherisher of your lusts. But
the question is, Whether you love God for himself, and
as your Sanctifier, better than you do the gratifying of your
flesh?
Object. 7. ' But I give something to the poor, and I mean
to leave them something at my death.'
Answ. So it is like the miserable gentleman did, in Luke
xvi. Or else why would Lazarus lie at his gates, if he used
not to give something to the poor ? What worldling or hy-
pocrite is there that will not drop now and then an alms,
while he pampereth his flesh, and satisfieth its desires ? Do
you look to be saved for doing as a swine will do, in leav-
ing that which he can neither eat nor carry away with him?
The question is. Whether God or the world have your hearts ?
And what it is that you most delight in as your treasure ?
Object, 8. *^ I am fully satisfied that heaven is better than
earth, and God than the creature, and holiness than the pros-
perity or pleasure of the flesh.'
Answ. Thousands of miserable worldlings, are satisfied
in opinion that this is true. They can say the same words
that a true believer doth : and in dispute they can defend
them, and call the contrary opinion blasphemy. But all
this is but a dreaming speculation : their hearts never prac-
tically preferred God, and holiness, and heaven, as most
suitable and best for them. Mark what you love best, and
most long after, and most delight in, and what it is that you
are most loath to leave, and what it is that you most eagerly
426 LIFE OF FAITH.
labour for, and there you may see what it is that hath your
hearts.
Object, 9. ' Worldliness is indeed a heihous sin, and of
all people, I most hate the covetous ; and I use to preach or
talk against it, more than against any sin.'
Answ. So do many thousands that are slaves to it them-
selves, and shall be damned for it. It is easier to talk
against it, than to forsake it. And it is easy to hate covet-
ousness in another, because it will cost you nothing for an-
other to forsake his sin ; and perhaps the more covetous he
is, the more he standeth in your way, and hindereth you from
that which you would have yourselves. Of all the multi-
tude of covetous preachers that be in the world, is there any
one that will not preach against covetousness? Read but
the lives of cardinals, and popes, and popish prelates, and
you will see the most odious worldliness set forth without
any kind of cloak or shame : how such a one laid his design
at court, and among the great ones for preferment : how stu-
diously he prosecuted it, and conformed himself to the hu-
mours and interest of those, from whom he did seek it : how
they first got this living, and then got that prebendary, and
then got that deanery, and then got such a bishopric, and
then got a better (that is a richer), and then got to be arch-
bishops, and then to be cardinals, &c. O happy progress if
they might never die ! They blush not openly before angels
and men to own this worldly, ambitious course, as their de-
sign and trade of life. And the devil is grown so impudent,
as if he were now the confessed master of the world, as to
set divines themselves at work, to write the history of such
cursed, ambitious, worldly lives, with open applause, and
great commendations ; yea to make saints of them, that have
a character far worse than Christ gave of him in Luke xvi.
that wanted a drop of water to cool his tongue. He openly
now saith, " All this will I give thee ;" and they as impu-
dently boast, * All this have I gotten ;' but they forget or
know not how much they have lost. A Judas's kiss is
thought sufficient to prove him a true Christian and pastor
of the church, though it be but the fruit of " what will you
give me?" Instead of a scourge to whip out these buyers
and sellers from Christ's temple, their merchandise is ex-
posed without shame, and their signs set forth, and the trade
of getting preferments openly professed, and it is enough to
LIFE OF FAITH. 427
wipe off all shame, to put some venerable titles upon this
den of thieves. " But the Lord whom we wait for, will once
more come and cleanse his temple. But who may abide
the day of his coming? For he is like a refiner's fire, and
like fuller's soap, and will throughly purge the sons of Levi ;"
Mai. iii. 1—4.
If talking again.st worldliness, would prove that the world
is overcome, and that God is dearest to the soul, then
preachers will be the happiest men on earth. But it is easier
to commend God, than to love him above all ; and easier to
cry out against the world, than to save a heart that is truly
weaned from it, and set upon a better world.
Object, 10. ' But all this belongeth only to them that are
in prosperity ; but I am poor, and therefore it is nothing to
me.*
A71SW. Many a one loveth prosperity, that hath it not :
and such are doubly sinful, that will love a world which
loveth not them ; even a world of poverty, misery and dis-
tress. Something you would have done, if you had a full
estate, and honour, and fleshly delights to love. Nay, many
poor men think better of riches and honour, than those that
have them ; because they never tried how vain and vexatious
they are ; and if they had tried them, perhaps would love
them less. The world is but a painted strumpet, admired
afar off; but the nearer you come to it, and the more it is
known, the worse you will like it. Is it by your own desire
that you are poor ? Or is it against your wills ? Had you
not rather be as great and rich as others ? Had you not ra-
ther live at ease and fulness ? And do you think God will
love you ever the better, for that whidh is against your wills ?
Will he count that man to be no worldling, that would fain
have more of the world, and cannot ? And that loveth God
and heaven no better than the rich ? Nay, that will sin for
a shilling, when great ones do it for greater sums ? Who
can be more unfit for heaven, than he that loveth a life of
labour, and want, and misery better ? Alas ! it is but little
that the greatest worldlings have for their salvation; but
poor worldlings sell it for less than they, and therefore do
despise it more.
Direct. 4. * Let the true nature and aggravations of the
sin of worldliness, be still in your eye to make it odious to
you.' As for instance :
428 LIFE OF FAITH.
1. It is true and odious idolatry ; Ephes. v. 5. Col. iii.
5. To have God for our God indeed, is to love him as our
God, and to delight in him, and be ruled by him. Who then
is an idolater, if he be not one who loveth the world, and de-
lighteth in it more than in God, or esteemeth it fitter to be
the matter of his delight? And is ruled by it, and seeketh
it more ? Isa. Iv. 1 — 3.
2. It is a blasphemous contempt of God and heaven, to
prefer a dunghill world before him: to set more by the pro-
visions and pleasures of the flesh, than by all the blessed-
ness of heaven. It is called profaneness in Esau, to sell his
birthright for one morsel ; Heb. xii. 16. What profaneness
is it then to say, as worldlings' hearts and lives do, * The sa-
tisfying of my flesh and fancy for a time, is better than God
and the joys of heaven to all eternity.'
3. It is a sin of interest and not only of passion ; and
therefore it possesseth the very heart and love, which is the
principal faculty of the soul, and that which God most re-
serveth for himself. No actual sin, which is but little loved,
is so heinous and mortal, as that which is most loved. Be-
cause these do most exclude the love of God. Some other
sins may do more hurt to others, but this is worst to the sin-
ner himself. We justly pity poor heathenish idolaters, and
pray for their conversion (and I would we did it more) : but
do not you think that our hypocrite worldlings, do love their
riches, and their honours and pleasures, better than the poor
heathens love their idols ? They bow the knee to a creature,
and you entertain it in your heart.
4. It is a sin of deliberation and contrivance, which is
much worse than a surprise by a sudden temptation. You
plot how you may compass your voluptuous, covetous and
ambitious ends : therefore it is a sin that standeth at the
furthest distance from repentance, and is both voluntary and
a settled habit.
5. It is a continued sin. Men be not always lying, though
they be never so great liars ; nor always stealing, if they be
the most notorious thieves ; nor always swearing, if they be
the profanest swearers. But a worldly mind is always
worldly : he is always committing his idolatry with the world,
and always denying his love to God.
6. It is not only a sin about the means to a right end (as
mischosen ways of religion may be), but it is a sin against
LIFE OF FAITH. 429
the end itself, and a mischoosing of a false, pernicious end.
And so it is the perverting, not only of one particular action,
but even of the bent and course of men's lives : and conse-
quently a misspending all their time.
7. It is a perverting of God's creatures, to a use clean con-
trary to that which they are given us for ; and an unthank-
ful turning of all his gifts against himself. He gave us his
creatures to lead us to him, and by their loveliness to shew
his greater loveliness ; and to taste in their sweetness, the
greater sweetness of his love. And will you use them to turn
your affections from him?
8. It is a great debasing of the soul itself, to fill that no-
ble spirit with nothing but dirt and smoke, which was made
to know and love its God.
9. It is an irrational vice, and signifieth not only much
unbelief of the unseen things which should take up the soul ;
but also a sottish inconsiderateness, of the vanity and bre-
vity of the things below. It is an unmanning ourselves,
and hiring out our reason to be a servant to our fleshly
lusts.
10. Lastly, it is a pregnant, multiplying sin ; which bring-
eth forth abundance more : " The love of money is the root
of all evil;" 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10. Therefore,
Direct. 5. ' Let the mischievous effects of this sin, be
still before your eyes.' As for instance :
1. It keepeth the heart strange to God and heaven. The
love of God and of the world are contrary ; 1 John ii. 15.
iii. 17. James iv. 4. So is an earthly and a heavenly con-
versation ; Phil. iii. 18 — 20. And the laying up a treasure
in heaven and upon earth; Matt. vi. 19 — 21. And the liv-
ing after the flesh, and after the Spirit; Rom. viii. 1.5,6. 13.
Ye cannot possibly serve God and mammon ; nor travel two
contrary ways at once ; nor have two contrary felicities, till
you have two hearts.
2. It setteth you at enmity with God and holiness ; be-
cause God controlleth and condemneth your beloved lusts :
and because it is contrary to the carnal things which have
your hearts.
3. By this means it maketh men malignant enemies of
the godly, and persecutors of them ; because they are of
contrary minds and ways. " As then, he that was born after
the flesh, persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even
430 LIFE OF FAITH.
SO it is now ;" Gal. iv. 29. *' The world cannot love us be-
cause we are not of the world ;" John xv. 19, 20. Pride,
covetousness and sensuality, are the matter which the burn-
ing fever lodgeth in, which hath consumed so much of the
church of Christ.
4. It is the sin that hath corrupted the sacred office of
the ministry throughout most of the Christian churches in
the world : and thereby caused both the schisms and cruel-
ties, and the decay of serious godliness among them, which
is their present deplorable case. Ignorant persons are like
sick men in a fever : they lay the blame on this and that,
and commonly on that which went next before the paroxysm ;
and know not the true cause of the disease. We are all
troubled (or should be) to see the many minds, the many
ways, the confused state of the Christian churches, and to
hear them cry out against each other. And one layeth the
blame on this party or opinion, and another on that : but
v\hen we come to ourselves, we shall find that it is, the
worldly mind that causeth our calamity. Many well mean-
ing friends of the church do think how dishonourable it is
to the ministry, to be poor and low, and consequently des-
picable ; and what an advantage it is to their work, to be
able to relieve the poor, and rather to oblige the people, than
to depend upon them, and to be above them rather than be-
low them. And supposing the pastors to be mortified, holy,
heavenly men, all this is true ; and the zeal of these thoughts
is worthy of commendation. But that which good men in-
tend for good, hath become the church's bane. So certain
is the common saying, that Constantine's zeal did poison the
church, by lifting up the pastors of it too high, and occa-
sioning those contentions for grandeur and precedency,
which to this day separate the east and west. When well-
meaning piety hath adorned the office with wealth and ho-
nour, it is as true as that the sun shineth, that the most
proud, ambitious, worldly men, will be the most studious
seekers of that office ; and will make it their plot, and trade,
and business, how by friends, and observances, and wills, to
attain their ends : and usually he that seeks shall find. When
in the meantime the godly, mortified, humble man, will not
do so ; but will serve God in the state to which he is clearly
called. And consequently, except it be under the govern-
ment of an admirably wise and holy ruler, a worthy pastor.
LIFE OF FAITH. 431
in such a wealthy station, will be a singular thing, and a ra-
rity of the age ; whilst worldly men, whose hearts are ha-
bited with that which is utterly contrary to holiness, and
contrary to the very ends and work of their own office, will
be the men that must sit in Moses' chair ; that must have
the doing and ruling of the work which their hearts are set
against. And how it will go with the church of Christ, when
the Gospel is to be preached, and preachers chosen, and
godliness promoted by the secret enemies of it ; and when
ambitious, fleshly, worldly men, are they that must cure the
people's souls (under Christ) of the love of the flesh and the
world, it were easy to prognosticate from the causes, if the
Christian world could not tell by the effects. So that, ex-
cept by the wonderful piety of princes there is no visi-
ble way in the eye of reason, to recover the miserable
churches, but to retrieve the pastoral office into such a state,
as that it may be no bait to a worldly mind, but may be de-
sired and chosen purely upon heavenly accounts. And then
the richer the pastors are the better ; when they are the sons
of nobles, whose piety bringeth with them their honour, and
their wealth to serve God and his church with, and they do
not find it there to be their end or inducement to the work ;
but instead of invitations or encouragements to pride and
carnal minds, there may be only so much as may not deter
or drive away candidates from the sacred function.
5. Worldliness is a sin, which maketh the word of God
unprofitable; (Matt.xiii.22. Johnxii.43. Ezek. xxxiii.31.)
prepossessing the heart, and resisting that Gospel which
would extirpate it.
6. It hindereth prayer, by corrupting men's desires, and
by intruding worldly thoughts.
7. It hindereth all holy meditation, by turning both the
heart and thoughts another way.
8. It drieth up all heavenly, profitable conference, whilst
the world doth fill both mind and mouth.
9. It is a great profaner of the Lord's day, distracting
men's minds, and alienating them from God.
10. It is a murderous enemy of love to one another : all
worldly men being so much for themselves, that they are sel-
dom hearty friends to any other.
11. Yea, it maketh men false and unrighteous in their
432 LIFE OF EAITH.
dealings : their being no trust to be put in a worldly man
any farther than you are sure you suit his interest.
12. It is the great cause of discord and divisions in the
world. It setteth families, neighbours, and kingdoms to-
gether by the ears ; and setteth the nations of the earth
in bloody wars, to the calamity and destruction of each
other.
13. It causeth cheating, stealing, robbing, oppressions,
cruelties, lying, false witnessing, perjury, murders, and many
such other sins.
14. It maketh men unfit to suffer for Christ, because they
love the world above him : and consequently it maketh them
as apostates to forsake him in a time of trial.
15. It is a great devourer of precious time. That short life
which should be spent in preparing for eternity, is almost all
spent in drudging for the world.
16. Lastly, it greatly unfitteth men to die; and maketh
them loath to leave the world : and no wonder when there
is no entertainment for worldlings in any better place here-
after.
Direct. 6. * If you would be saved from the world, and
the snares of prosperity, foresee death, and judge of the
world as it will appear and use you at the last.' Dream not
of long life : he that looks to stay but a little while in the
world, will be the less careful of his provisions in it. A little
will serve for a little time. The grave is a sufficient disgrace
to all the vanities on earth, though there be more to raise
the heart to heaven.
Direct, 7. ' Mortify the flesh, and you overcome the
world.' Cure the thirsty disease, and you will need none of
the worldling's ways to satisfy it. When the flesh is mas-
tered, there is no use for plenty, or pleasures, or honours, to
satisfy its lusts : your daily bread to fit you for your work,
will then suffice.
Direct. 8. ' But it is the lively belief of endless glory, and
the love of God prevailing in the soul, that must work the
cure.' Nothing below a life of faith and a heavenly mind
and conversation, and the love of God, will ever well cure a
sensual life, and an earthly mind and conversation, and the
the love of the world.
Direct. 9. ' Turn away from the bait ; desire not to have
LIFE OF FAITH. 43.*}
your estate, your dwelling, &c. too pleasing to your flesh and
fancy.' Remember that it killeth by pleasing, rather than
by seeming unlovely and displeasing.
Direct. 10. * Turn Satan's temptations to worldliness
against himself.' When he tempteth you to covetousness
give more to the poor than else you would have done.
When he tempteth you to pride and ambition, let your
conversation shew more aversation to pride than you did
before. If he tempt you to waste your time in fleshly
vanities, or sports, work harder in your calling, and spend
more time in better things; and thus try to weary out the
tempter.
Direct. 11.' Take heed of the hypocrite's designs, which
is to unite religion and worldliness, and to reconcile God
and mammon ;' and to secure the flesh and its prosperity
here, and yet to save the soul hereafter. For all such hopes
are mere deceits.
Direct. 12. ' Improve your prosperity to its proper ends.*
Devote all entirely and absolutely to God ; and so it
will be saved from loss, and you from deceit and con-
demnation.
CHAPTER XV.
How to he poor in Spirit. And how to escape the Pride of
Prosperity.
Though no man is saved or condemned for being either
rich or poor ; yet it is not for nothing that Christ hath so
often set before us the danger of the rich, and the extraor-
dinary difficulty of their salvation : and that he began his
sermon. Matt. v. 3. with, " Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for their's is the kingdom of heaven." The sense of which
words, is not as is commonly imagined, ' Blessed are they
that find their want of grace.' For, 1. So may a despairing
person. 2. The text compared with Luke xvi. where simply
the poor and rich are opposed, doth plainly shew another
sense; agreeing with the usual doctrine of Christ. And
whereas expositors doubt whether Christ spake that sermon
to his disciples, or to the multitude, the text maketh plain,
VOL. XII. F F
434 LIFE OF FAITH.
that he spake it to both, viz. that he called his disciples to
him, and as it were pointed the finger at them, and made
his text on which he preached to the multitude ; and the
sense is contained in these propositions ; as if he had said,
' See you these followers of me : you take them to be con-
temptible or unhappy, because they are poor in the world ;
but I tell you, 1. That poverty maketh not believers miserf
able : 2. Yea, they are the truly blessed men, because thej
shall have the heavenly riches : 3. And the evidence of theii
right to that, is that they are poor in spirit, that is, their
hearts are suited to a low estate, and are saved from the
destructive vices of riches and prosperity. 4. And their
outward poverty is better suited and conducible to this de-
liverance, and this poverty of spirit, than a state of wealth
and prosperity is.' All these four propositions are the true
meaning of the text.
That we may see here what is the special work of faith,
we must know which are the special sins of prosperity,
which riches and honours occasion in the world. And
though the apostle tells us, (1 Tim. vi. 10.) that "the love
of money is the root of all evil," I will confine my discourse
to that narrower compass, in the enumeration of the sins of
Sodom, in Ezek. xvi. 49. Pride, fulness of bread, idle-
ness: and of these but briefly, because I have spoken more
largely of them elsewhere (in my Christian Directory).
And first of the pride of the rich and prosperous.
Pride is a sin of so deep radication, and so powerful in
the hearts of carnal men, that it will take advantage of any
condition ; but riches and prosperity are its most notable
advantage. As the boat riseth with the watery so do such
hearts rise with their estates. Therefore saith the apostle,
1 Tim. vi. 17. "Charge the rich that they be not high-
minded." Highmindedness is the sin that you are first
here to avoid. In order whereunto I shall give you now
but these three general directions.
Direct. 1. * Observe the masks or covers of highminded-
ness or pride, lest it reign in you unknown.* For it hath
many covers, by which it is concealed from the souls that
are infected, if not undone and miserable by it.
For instance : 1. Some think that they are not proud,
because that their parts and worth will bear out all the
LIFE OF FAITH. 435
estimation which they have of themselves. And he that
thinketh of himself but as he really is, being in the right, is
not to be accounted proud.
But remember that the first act of pride is the over-
valuing of ourselves : and he that is once guilty of this first
act, will justify himself both in it, and all that follow. So
that pride is a sin which blindeth the understanding, and
defendeth itself by itself, and powerfully keepeth off repen-
tance. When once a man hath entertained a conceit, that
he is wiser or better than indeed he is, he then thinketh
that all his thoughts, and words, and actions, which are of
that signification, are just, and sober, because the thing is
so indeed. And for a man to deny God's graces, or gifts,
and make himself seem worse than he is, is not true humi-
lity, but dissimulation or ingratitude.
But herein you have great cause to be very careful, lest
you should prove mistaken: Therefore, 1. Judge not of
yourselves by the bye as of self-love ; but, if it be possible,
lay by partiality, and judge of yourselves as you do by
others, upon the like evidences. 2. Hearken what other
men judge of you, who are impartial and wise, and are near
you, and thoroughly acquainted with your lives. It is pos-
sible they may think better or worse of you than you are :
but if they judge worse of you, than you do of yourselves,
it should stop your confidence, and make you the more sus-
picious, and careful to try lest you should be mistaken.
2. And remember also that you are obliged to a greater
modesty in judging of your own virtues, and to a greater
severity in judging of your own faults, than of other men's ;
though you must not wilfully err about yourselves, or any
others, yet you are not bound to search out the truth about
the faults of another, as you are about your own. We are
commanded to " prefer one another in honour;" Rom. x. 21.
And ver. 3. " For 1 say, through the grace given to me, to
every man that is among you, not to think of himself more
highly, than he ought to think ; but to think soberly, ac-
cording as God hath dealt to every man the measure of
faith."
2. Another cloak for pride is, the reputation of our reli-
gion, profession or party, which will seem to be disgraced
by us, if we seem not to be somewhat better than we are.
If we should not hide or extenuate our faults, and set out
436 LIFE OF FAITH.
our graces and parts to the full, we should be a dishonour
to Christ, and to his servants, and his cause.
But remember, 1. That the way by which God hath ap-
pointed you to honour him, is, by being good, and living
well, and not by seeming to be good, when you are not, or
seeming better than you are : The God of truth, who hateth
hypocrisy, hath not chosen lying and hypocrisy to be the
means by which we must seek his honour. It is damnable
to seek to glorify him by a lie; Rom. iii. 7, 8. We must
indeed cause our light so to shine before men that they
may see our good works, and glorify our heavenly Father ;
Matt. v. 16. But it is the light of sincerity and good works,
and not of a dissembling profession that must so shine.
2. And the goodness of the pretended end doth greatly
aggravate the crime : as if the honour of God and our reli-
gion must be upheld, by so devilish a means as proud hy-
pocrisy.
3. And, though it be true, that a man is not impru-
dently without just cause, to open his sins before the world,
when it is like to tend to the injury of religion, and any
way to do more hurt than good ; yet it is as true, that when
there is no such impediment, true repentance is forward to
confess, and when the fault is discovered, defending and
extenuating it, is then the greatest dishonour to religion.
(As if you would father all on Christ, and make men believe
that he will justify or extenuate sin as you do.) And then
it is a free self-abasing confession, and taking all the shame
to yourselves (with future reformation) which is the repara-
tion which you must make of the honour of religion. For
what greater dishonour can be cast upon religion, than to
make it seem a friend to sin ? Or what greater honour can
be given it, than to represent it as it is, as an enemy to all
evil ; and to take the blame, as is due, unto yourselves ?
3. Another cloak for pride, is the reputation of our of-
fices, dignities and places. *^ We must live according to our
rank and quality : all men must not live alike. The gran-
deur of rulers must be maintained, or else the magistracy
will fall into contempt. The pastor's office must not by
a mean estate, and low deportment, be exposed to the
people's scorn.' And so abundance of the most ambitious
practices, and hateful enormities of the proud, must be
veiled by these fair pretences.
LIFE OF FAITH. 437
Answ. 1. We grant that the honour of magistrates must
be kept up by a convenient grandeur ; and that a competent
distance is necessary to a due reverence : but goodness is
as necessary an ingredient in government, as greatness is ;
and to be great in wisdom and goodness, is the principal
greatness : and goodness is loving, and humble, and conde-
scending, and suiteth all deportments to the common
good, which is the end of government. See then that you
keep up no other height, but that which really tendeth to
the success of your endeavours, in order to the common
good.
2. And look also to your hearts, lest it be your own ex-
altation which you indeed intend, while you thus pretend
the honour of your office : for this is an ordinary trick of
pride. To discover this, will you ask yourselves these
questions following?
Quest, 1. How you came into your offices and honours ?
Did they seek you, or did you seek them ? Did the place
need you, or did you need the place? If pride brought you
in, you have cause to fear, lest it govern you when you are
there ?
Quest, 2. What do you in the place of honour that you
are in? Do you study to do all the good you can, and to
make men happy by your government? And is this the la-
bour of your lives 1 If it be, we may hope that the means is
suited to this end. But if you do no such thing, you have
no such end : and if you have no such end, you do but dis-
semble, in pretending that your grandeur is used but as a
means to that end which really you never seek. It is then
your own exaltation that you aim at, and it is your pride
that playeth all your game.
Quest. 3. Are you more offended and grieved when you
are crossed and hindered in doing good, or when you are
crossed and hindered from your personal honour?
Quest. 4. Are you well contented that another should
have your honour and preferment, if God and the Sovereign
Power so dispose of it, so be it, it be one that is like to do
more good than you ?
By these questions you may quickly see if you are will-
ing, whether your grandeur be desired by your pride for
self-advancement, or by Christian prudence to do good.
43Q LIFE OF FAITH.
3. And I must tell you, that there is abundance of dif-
ference betwixt the case of the civil magistrates, and the
pastors of the church in this. Magistracy must have more
fear and pomp : but pastors must govern by light and love :
When his apostles strove for superiority, Christ left a deci-
sion of the controversy for the use of all following ages. It "
is the contempt of the world, and the mortifying of the
flesh, and self-denial, that pastors have to teach the people,
and withal to seek a heavenly treasure : and will not their
own example further the success of their doctrine? The
reverence that a pastor must expect, is not to be feared as
one that can do hurt (for all coercion or corporal force is
proper to the magistrate) : but it is to be thought one that
is above all the riches and pleasures of the world, and hath
set his heart on higher things : such a one therefore he
must both be and seem. A pastor will be but the sooner
despised, if he look after that riches and worldly pomp,
which is seemingly for a magistrate : If he have a sword in
his hand, it is the way to be hated ; if he have teeth that are
bloody, or claws that can tear, he will be accounted a wolf,
though he have the clothing of a sheep. When our divines
give the reason of Christ's humiliation, they say, that if he
had preached up heavenlymindedness, self-denial, and
mortification, and had himself lived in pomp and fulness,
the people would not have regarded his words : and surely
the same reason holdeth in some measure as to all his
ministers. Again, I say, that if ever the church be univer-
sally reformed, the pastoral office must be only encouraged
with necessary support, to keep the pastors from despon^
dency, and distracting cares ; but it must not be made a
bait of ambition, covetousness or sloth ; but must be stripped
of that which makes it thus desirable to a carnal mind.
Otherwise we must expect, that except when princes are
very holy, the churches be ordinarily guided by carnal and
ungodly men ; who will do it according to their minds and
interest. All the world cannot answer the reason of this :
which is, honours and wealth will be certainly sought with
greatest industry by the worldly, that is, the worst of men :
and not by the heavenly, mortified persons : And they that
seek shall usually find : and so while the humble, holy per-
son stayeth till he is called, and the proud and worldly, who
LIFE OF FAITH. 439
have the keenest appetite, use all their art and friends to
rise, the conclusion is as sure as sad, and hath been so
proved by woeful experience almost thirteen hundred years.
4. Another of pride's pretences is decency, and the
avoiding of reproach and scorn: If we live not as high as
others, we shall be derided and contemned ; or thought to
be sordid, beggarly, or base.
Answ. 1. This is one of the signs and effects of pride,
that it maketh a greater matter of other men's thoughts of
you, than you ought to make : it cannot bear contempt and
scorn so easily as humility can do : too careful avoiding of
contempt, is the proper work of pride. 2. It is granted that
you should not be contemptuous of your just reputation;
and also that you must not by any causeless, affected singu-
larity, or by any practice which is indeed uncomely, make
yourselves the scorn of others. But it is as true that you
must not desire a higher estimation than is really your due ;
nor yet be over solicitous for that which is your due indeed ;
nor must you follow the proud in any thing which is con-
trary to true humility, for the keeping of their good report,
nor go above your rank to avoid contempt. 3. And forget
not whose good word it is that you should especially re-
gard : Your truest honour is in the esteem of God, and all
good men, and not in the opinion or praises of the proud.
They that are addicted to this vice themselves, perhaps may
deride those that go below them (and yet they will more
envy those that go above them) : but the humble will think
much better of you for being humble, and nothing can make
you viler in their eyes than pride. If you were humble
yourselves, you would prefer your honour with humble,
wise and sober persons, above the opinions of the proud,
who know not good from evil.
5. Another cloak of pride is opinionative and doctrinal
humility. When we have heard and read much against pride,
and can speak (or preach) against it, as freely, and fluently,
and vehemently, and movingly, as any others ; and in all
company and conference signify our dislike of it ; when we
are much in dissuading others from it, and in extolling hu-
mility, and lowliness of mind ; this doth not only deceive
others, but very often the speaker himself; and makes him
think that he hath no great degree of pride.
But speculation, and opinion, and talk, are one thing.
440 LIFE OF FAITH.
and a renewed, truly humble soul is another thing. If all
this while you are as great, and wise, and good in your own
esteem, and make as great a matter of men's opinion of you,
as others do that speak less against pride, your speeches and
preachings serve but to condemn yourselves. It is easy to
talk against covetousness, gluttony, and other sins, whilst
he that condemneth them, continueth in them, and con-
demneth himself. Talking against an enemy, obtaineth no
victory ; and talking against sin, may signify what you
have learned to say, or perhaps what dislike you have to
that sin at a distance, or in specie, or in another; when yet
you may damnably love it in yourselves. It were well for
preachers, if it were as easy or common to conquer sin, as
to preach against it : but alas! it is not so.
6. Another cloak of pride is, the presence of a real par-
tial humility, together with an outward, humble garb. A
man may be really humble in some, yea, in many respects,
and yet be exceeding proud in others : he may be vile in his
own eyes, because he is conscious of many great and odi-
ous sins, and because he knoweth that sin is a thing odious
to God, and all that will be saved, must be humble for it ;
and because he knoweth that his body is earth, and must
return by death to filth and dust : and he may go in sordid
poor apparel ; and such may have a humble tone and man-
ner of speech ; and perhaps speak so self-abasingly, as if
there were none so lowly as they : and yet they may be ex-
ceeding proud of their supposed wisdom, or spiritual un-
derstanding, and of a supposed extraordinary measure of
holiness, or revelations, or interest in God, or of this hu-
mility itself: yea, their common natural pride may be taken
down, though there be frequent expressions of great humi-
liation.
And if the proudest gallants can, with their hat at your
foot, profess themselves your humble servants, why may
not religious pride go as far ?
And note here, that this religious pride is of a higher and
more aggravated strain than the other: 1. Because it is
committed against more humbling means. 2. Because it is
a sin against more knowledge. 3. Because it is accompa-
nied with the profession of humility, and so is aggravated
by more hypocrisy. 4. Because it is an abuse of more ex-
cellent things: it is more odious to turn the pretence of
LIFE OF FAITH. 441
wisdom, revelations, humility, godliness, good works, 8cc.
into pride, than to be proud as children are of their fine
clothes ; or as addle-brained women are of their precedencies.
5. Because it most odiously fathereth itself on God, as it
were but the grateful magnifying of his graces : to put
God's name into the boasts of pride, and say, ** I thank thee.
Lord, that I am not as other men, nor as this publican ;"
Luke xviii. IL To say, God hath revealed more to me than
to you ; or hath made me more holy and spiritual than you ;
"Stand by thyself; come not near me; for I am holier
than thou ;" Isa. Ixv. 5. This is, when pride speaketh it, most
odious blasphemy ; to father the firstborn of the devil up-
on God.
There are two sad instances of this kind of pride, which
are now too familiarly seen among us.
The one is in the case of many convinced hypocrites, yea,
and many passionate, feeble Christians, who are affrighted
with the terrors of the Lord, and partly disturbed by their
guilt or passions, and partly take it to be an honourable
sign of humility to condemn themselves ; and therefore will
fill the ears of ministers with sad complaints of their fears,
and doubts, and sins, and wants, as if they would hardly be
kept from desperation. And yet if they know that another
doth believe them, and think and speak as bad of them as
they speak of themselves ; yea, if he doth but slight them,
and prefer others before them, or plainly reprove them for
any disgraceful sin, they will swell with the wrath of pride
against him, and will not easily think or speak well of such
a one : and they love him best that thinketh best of them,
and praiseth them most, even when they most dispraise
themselves ; which sheweth that a man may be really hum-
bled in some respects, and seem to be humbled in more,
and yet at the heart be dangerously proud.
The other instance is, in the common separating spirit
of sectaries ; and in particular, in those called Quakers in
these times, (for against commanded separation from sin, by
self-preservation or discipline, I am far from speaking).
Their great pretence of singularity is, to avoid and detest
the pride of others ; they cry out against pride as much as
any. Their garb is plain ; humility, and self-emptiness, and
poverty of spirit, is their profession. And yet when they
are so ignorant, that they can scarce speak sense ; and
442 LIFE OF FAITH.
when they understand not the catechism or creed, but have
need to be taught which are the principles of the oracles of
God ; they think they are taken into the counsels of the Al-
mighty ; they think they abound in the Spirit, and in wis-
dom, in revelations, and in holiness; and the wisest and
holiest of Christ's ministers and people, who are as far above
them in knowledge and godliness, as the aged are above a
stammering infant, are proudly despised by them, and open-
ly and impenitently reviled and railed at, as ignorant fools,
and ungodly, worldly, self-seeking men, and as the deceiv-
ers of the people, and as void of the Spirit ; which could
never proceed to the height that we have seen it, and which
their words and writings utter at this day, without a very
strange degree of pride, and such as either maketh men
mad, or is made by madness, or little less.
And here note also, that it is no wonder if religious
pride can despise the common applause of the world, and
bear a great deal of ignominy from the vulgar; because
they have learned so much as to know that wicked men are
fools, and base, and their judgment is no great honour or
dishonour to any man ; and that godly men only are truly
wise, and their judgment most to be regarded. And there-
fore it is with them whom they think most highly of them-
selves, that they desire to be thought most highly of; and
it is among the religious sort, that religious pride doth fish
for honour : even as men that are proud of their learning,
do hunt after the applause of learned men, and can despise
the judgment of the unlearned-vulgar, as quite below them.
I know that this last instance of pride, is not always an
attendant of prosperity : but oft it is, a kind of wantonness
thence arising, which is much restrained in suffering times ;
and being speaking of the rest, I thought not meet to pass
it by.
Direct, 2. * Understand which are the ordinary effects
and characters of pride, that you may not live in it, and
perish by it, whilst you thought you had overcome it.' At
this time (having said more of it elsewhere,) I shall recite
but these marks of prosperous pride, and shew the contrary
signs of lowliness.
1. The highminded are self-willed, and much addicted
to rule and domineer. They would have their own wills, in
all their own matters, and are hardly brought to submit to the
LIFE OF FAITH. 443
judgment and will of others. Obeying, goeth quite against
their grain, any further than they like the commands of
their superiors : and if they are in any hope of reaching it,
they aspire to be the governors of others, that they may
still stand uppermost, and have their will in all the matters
about them, as well as in their own. If there be a place of
power and preferment void, the proud man is the forwardest
expectant j and niaketh no great question of his fitness ;
but thinketh that he is injured if he be put by, how worthy
a man soever be preferred before him : he snuffs and scorns
at inferiors that stick at his most sinful and unreasonable
commands; and thunders out the charge of rebellion -or
schism against those that question his infallibility, or that
will stick at obeying him before God, and against him ; as
if he had been born to rule, and other men to obey him ;
and all do him wrong, who fall not down and worship not
his will, at the first intimation : though perhaps he be but a
minister of Christ, who should be as a little chil,d, and the
servant of all, and should stoop to the feet of the poorest of
the flock, and should receive the weak, and bear with their
infirmities ; yet pride will their lift up the head, and forget
all the humbling examples and admonitions of Christ, and
will either seek to draw disciples after it, by speaking per-
verse things, (Acts xx. 30.) or forget 1 Pet. v. 3. "Neither
as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to
the flock."
But on the contrary, the poor in spirit are readier to
obey than rule, as knowing that ruling requireth the greater
parts and graces ; and are inclined to think others to be
fitter for places of teaching or authority than themselves
(further than clear experience constraineth them to know
the contrary) : for in honour they prefer others, instead of
striving to be preferred before others : they have a tractable,
humble, yielding disposition, except when they are tempted
to sin. They are gentle, and easy to be entreated, (James
iii. 17.) and can submit themselves to one another; yea,
and be their voluntary subjects; 1 Pet. v. 5. Ephes. v. 21.
(Yet not becoming unnecessarily the servants of men ; but
choosing it rather when they may be free.) They are as lit-
tle children, in that they expect not rule, but to be ruled y
Matt, xviii. 3. They have learned to serve one another in
love, (Gal. v. 13.) and take it not for Christian love, that
444 LIFE OF FAITH.
can do good only upon terms of equality, and cannot stoop
to voluntary service. They can go two miles with him that
compelleth them to go one : no man more obedient when
you command not sin. For as he affecteth not to be called
Master, or Rabbi, or to have the highest seat or name
(Matt, xxiii. 11, &c.); so he hath learned not to please
himself, but to please others for their good to edification ;
Rom. XV. 2. Especially if he be a pastor of the church,
though he do by an excelling light, and love, and good life,
keep up the true honour of his calling ; yet is he the more
averse to lord it over the flock, because he knoweth that he
m>2st be an example to them : and it is not an example of
pride, but of lowliness, which Christ did give, and he must
give; and therefore both are joined together; 1 Pet. v.
3. 5.
2. The proud do make too great a matter of that honour
which perhaps may be their due : they plot for it: they set
their hearts upon it. If they are slighted, or others pre-
ferred before them, their countenances are cast down, as
Cain's ; or they are troubled, as Haman ; or they will re-
venge it, as Cain, and as Joab upon Abner. Touch their
honour, and you touch their hearts : despise them, and you
torment them, or make them your enemies.
But the poor in spirit regard their honour, as they do
other matters of this world ; that is, with moderation, and
so far as it is conducible to the honour of religion, or their
country, or to the service and business of their lives. They
will not be prodigals of that which they may serve God by :
and they will not be over-desirous of that which may be a
bait to pride, and a snare to their souls, though it gratify
the fleshly fancy. They will seek it, as if they sought it
not ; and possess it, as if they possessed it not, remember-
ing how vain a thing man is, and how little his thoughts or
breath can do, to make us happy : God is so great in a be-
liever's eye, and man and worldly vanity is so small, that a
lowly mind can scarce have room and time to regard the
honour which is the proud man's portion ; because he is
taken up with honouring his God, and esteemeth the ho-
nour which consisteth in his approbation.
Therefore it is tolerable to him, to be made of no reputa-
tion, to be laden with reproaches, to be spit upon and buf-
feted ; to be made as the scorn and offscouring of the
LIFE OF FAITH. 445
world, and to have his name cast out as an evil-doer, so
he be not an evil-doer indeed ; 1 Cor. iv. 13. Luke vi. 22.
Whatever you think of him, or whatever you say of him, he
knoweth that it is little of his concernment : your favour
is not his felicity; nor are you the judge, whose sentence
must finally decide his cause. He humbleth himself, and
therefore can endure to be humbled by others. He chooseth
the lowest place himself, and therefore can endure to be
low; ICor. iv. 3 — 5. Luke xiv. 11. xviii. 14. xiv. 10.
3. The highminded are ashamed to be thought to come
of a low descent ; or that their parents or ancestors were
poor : and if their ancestors were rich and great, that little
honour doth help to elevate their minds ; because they want
that personal worth which is honourable indeed, they are
fain to adorn themselves with these borrowed feathers.
But the lowly know that riches prove such a hindrance
of salvation, and so few of the rich proportionably are
saved, as Christ hath told us, it can be no great honour to
be the offspring of the rich : it is a sad kind of boast to say,
' My ancestors are more like to be in hell than yours ; or if
any of them be in heaven, they came thither as a camel
through a needle's eye.' We know we are all of the com-
mon earth, and there our flesh will all be levelled, and our
noblest blood will turn to the common putrefaction : we
are all the seed of sinful Adam ; our father was an Amorite,
and our mother an Hittite; Ezek. xvi. 3. And good men
have used humbly to lament their forefathers' pride and
wickedness, instead of boasting of their worldly wealth ; as
you may read, Neh. ix. 16. 39. Dan. ix.
4. The highminded are ashamed to be thought poor
themselves ; because wealth is the idol which they most
honour ; they think that it will most honour them. Because
they see that most men admire and honour it in the world ;
therefore they being of the world, do judge as the world,
and conform themselves to its opinion. Even the poor that
is proud, is ashamed of his poverty, and would be fain ac-
counted rich.
But the lowly are not ashamed to say with Peter, (Acts
iii. 6.) " Silver and gold have I none ;" while they have better
riches to rejoice in. They are glad, when with Paul they can
say. We are poor, but making many rich ; 2 Cor. vi. 10. They
will not deny, or cast away any riches (which God doth
446 LIFE OF FAITH.
lend them) because as his stewards, they must be account-
able for them to their Lord. But they take it to be no
shame to be more like Christ than Croesus ; or more like
his apostles than the prelates and cardinals of Rome ; or to
be of those poor that are poor in spirit, who are rich in
faith, and heirs of heaven ; James ii. 5. Matt. v. 3. Nor
is it any desirable honour to have our salvation so much
hindered and hazarded, as the rich have. God, and angels,
and wise men, do think never the worse of a good man for
being poor.
5. The highminded are therefore usually addicted to
some excess in ornaments and apparel, because they would
be taken to be rich and comely (unless when their pride
worketh some other way). Yea, if they be never so mean
and poor, they would seem by their clothing to be some-
what richer than they are ; or would be rich in hypocrisy,
or outward appearance, except it hinder their relief. They
that wear soft clothing were wont to dwell in the houses of
kings, (Matt. xi. 8.) but now they dwell in the houses of
most citizens, tradesmen, husbandmen; yea, of ministers
themselves ; wives, children and servants are commonly
sick at once of this disease : and though it be one of the
lowest and foolisb^st games, which pride hath to play ; yet
women, and children, and lightheaded youths, do make up
the greater number of this vanity ; while the pride of the
graver, wiser sort, doth turn itself to greater things.
But the lowly who are not ashamed to be poor, are not
ashamed of poor apparel ; though they are not for unclean-
liness, nor for an affected singularity, for ostentation of
humility; yet they had rather go below their rank, than
above it, as taking pride to be a greater shame and hurt
than poverty: if their clothing be convenient to their
health and use, and not offensive to others, it sufficeth
them : and a patch, or a rent, or a garment that is old, will
not make them blush : they have learned, 1 Pet. iii. 3.
** Whose adorning, let it not be that outward, of plaiting
the hair, or of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel ;
but the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not cor-
ruptible, even of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the
sight of God of great price."
6. The highminded have high thoughts of worldly
pomp, and wealth, and greatness ; and think of such as ex-
LIFE OF FAITH. 447
eel in these, with great esteem and reverence : they bow to
the man that hath the gold ring, and the gay apparel, while
they slight the best and wisest that are poor : " They bless
the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth ;" Psal. x. 3. And
they think if they be poor and low themselves, how brave a
thing is it to be high and rich : and had far rather be rich
than gracious, and be higher in the world, than to have a
lowly mind.
But the humble have learned of Christ to be meek and
lowly; Matt. xi. 29. and are still learning it of him more
and more : they had rather have Paul's heart, that counted
all things as loss and dung for Christ, and learned to
abound and to suffer want, and in every state to be content,
than to be lifted up with worldly vanity. They know that
"it is better to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than
to divide the spoils with the proud ;" Prov. xvi. 19. And as
the brother of low degree (being a sanctified believer that
can use all for God) must rejoice when he is exalted ; so
must the brother of high degree, when he is made low ;
James i. 9, 10. They pity a Dives in his purple and silk,
more than a Lazarus at his gates in rags. They wish not
too eagerly for so dangerous an exaltation, from which they
see so many terribly cast down. They much more honour
a poor believer, than a pompous sinner. For in " their eyes
a vile person is contemned, but they honour them that fear
the Lord ;" Psal. xv. 4.
7. The highminded are ashamed of low employments :
if they be seen doing such work as is accounted base, or
proper to poor, inferior persons, they think they are disho-
noured : if the proud sort of the pastors of the church, had
been sent as Paul and the apostles, to travel about the
world on foot, and to preach the Gospel in their humble,
self-denying terms, they would have said that this was an
unsufferable drudgery ; and Christ must have provided more
encouraging rewards of learning, or else he should have
been no Master of their's. Yea, a servant that is proud,
will disdain the lowest works of your service, as if it were a
disgrace to stoop so low.
But the lowly do learn of Christ another lesson. He
stooped to wash and wipe the feet of his disciples, to teach
them what to do toward one another. Not as the Pope doth
once a year wash some poor men's feet, by a scenical cere-
448 LIFE OF FAITH.
mony (for piety and charity are both turned into imagery
and ceremony by Satan, when he would destroy them) ; but
seriously to instruct his ministers themselves, what lowli-
ness they must use towards one another, and to all the
flock. Christ went on foot to preach the Gospel, and so
did his apostles ; not to oblige us to do so when weakness
doth forbid us; nor to deny the benefit of a horse, when we
may have it ; but to teach us that neither pride should make
us ashamed to go on foot, nor laziness make it seem intoler-
able, when we are called to it. When Christ would ap-
pear in state at Jerusalem, he rode upon a borrowed ass, to
fulfil the prophecy ; Zech. ix. 9. ** Behold thy King cometh
unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass ;" Matt. xxi. 5.
Paul refused not (with other preachers) to labour at the
trade of a tent-maker ; Acts xviii. 3. And Timothy was not
ashamed to bring him his cloak and parchments, so great a
journey; 2 Tim. iv. 13. Nothing is avoided by the lowly
as a shame, but that which is displeasing to God, and dis-
agreeable to his Christian duty ; but not that which he can
call the service of God, and which God accepteth and will
reward.
8. The highminded are ashamed of the company and
familiarity of the poor (unless when they seek for applause
by popularity): and they greatly affect the favour and
company of the rich ; James v. 4. 6. Therefore Solomon
saith, that " the rich hath many friends, when the poor is
hated of his neighbour;" Prov. xiv. 20.
But the lowly choose to converse with the low. For so
did Christ who was our pattern : and it is his law, (Rom.
xii. 16.) "Mind not high things, but condescend to men of
low estate." Christ was not ashamed to call us brethren,
(Heb. iii. 11.) nor will he be ashamed so to call the least of
his true disciples before God and angels at the dreadful day ;
Matt. XXV. 40. xxviii. 10. John xx. 17. They are the
most honourable company, who are likest to Christ, and are
the wisest and the holiest ; and not those who are most
like to his crucifiers and enemies, and have their portion in
this world.
9. Pride is usually attended with vain curiosity: curio-
sity in ornaments, in fashions, in dressings, in attendance,
in furniture, in rooms, and in abundance of small, inconsi-
derable circumstances. The proud (who go this lower way)
LIFE OF FAITH. 449
do make a great matter of so many such trifles, that their
minds have no room for the greatest things. They do not
only trouble themselves " with many things," v^rhile the "one
thing needful" is the more neglected (Luke x. 42.); but all
about them must be partakers of the trouble. What abun-
dance of trades doth pride maintain ! And how many are
continually at w^ork to serve it !
But the lowly who mind not vain ostentation, do save
themselves all this unprofitable pains : they can avoid inde-
cent sordidness at a cheaper rate than by proud curiosity.
They are accurate and curious in greater matters, in doing
good, in securing their salvation, in escaping sin, and in
pleasing God : which will one day prove a wiser curiosity,
than to be curious in courtship, and compliments, and dress-
ings, and other impertinent, childish things : though the
least just decency is not to be neglected in its place, it is
foolish pride to prefer it before things of importance and
necessity. Man's mind and time are not sufficient for all
things. Somewhat must be omitted ; and it is wisdom which
chooseth to omit the least, and folly which chooseth to omit
the greatest. As in learning, they prove the soundest scholars
who spend their studies on the most excellent and useful
parts of learning ; whilst those that too much study things
superfluous, are ever empty of necessary knowledge. It is
so also in the actions of our lives. As Paul so vehemently
condemneth vain jangling about unnecessary and unedify-
ing questions, though truth was not contemptible in those
matters : so also vain curiosity, and unedifying diligence
(though about things not altogether contemptible) is but
the perilous diversion of the mind from greater things;
1 Tim. i. 6, 7, &c.
10. The highminded cannot endure to be beholden (un-
less necessity or covetousness prevail against their pride).
But they would have all others beholden to them, that they
may seem as petty deities in the world. O how it pufFeth
them up to have the people depend upon them, and acknow-
ledge them for their benefactors, and to have crouded sa-
crifices of thanks and praise to be offered them as they go
about the streets. If they were accounted such as the world
could not live, nor be happy without them, as being the
VOL. XII. G G
450 LIFE OF FAITH.
most necessary parts or pillars thereof, nothing coi^ld more
content their humour.
But the lowly mind desireth rather to do good, than to
be known to do it. And it is not men's unthankfulness that
will take him off, because it is not their thanks which is his
reward. He would be as like God as he can in doing good,
but not for his own glory, but for God's. As he is God's
steward, it is with God that he keepeth reckoning ; and if
his accounts will pass with him, he hath enough. And if
God will have him to need the help of others, he is not too
stout to seek and be beholden. Though every ingenuous
man should value his freedom from the servitude of man
(i Cor. vii. 23.), and if he can be free, " should choose it
rather;" ver. 21. And "the borrower is a servant to the
lender ;" Prov. xxii. 7. And we may say with him in Luke
xvi. 3. *' To beg I am ashamed." Yet here humility will
make us stoop, when God requireth it. Christ himself re-
fused not to be a receiver ; Luke viii. 3. No, nor to ask a
draught of water ; John iv. And poverty is of a great mercy
to the proud, to take them down, and make them stoop.
" The rich answereth roughly ; but the poor useth entreaties ;"
Prov. xviii. 23. So much of the marks of Pride.
Direct, 3. ' Overlook not the odiousness and peril of
pride.* I will name you now but a few of its aggravations,
because I have more largely mentioned them elsewhere.
1. It is the most direct opposition to God, to set up our-
selves as idols in his place, and seek for some of his honour
to ourselves.
2. It is the firstborn of the devil, and an imitation of
him whom God in nature hath taught us to take for the
greatest enemy of him and us ; and the most odious of all
the creatures of God.
3. It is madness to fall by that same sin, which we know
was the overthrow of our first parents, and of the world.
4. And it is sottish impudency in such as we, who know
that our bodies are going into rottenness and dust, and think
in what a place and plight we must there lie, and that those
days of darkness will be many : and who know that our
souls are defiled with sin, and if we have any saving know-
ledge and grace, it is small, and mixed with abundance of
LIFE OF FAITH. 451
igBaranee and corruption ; and the nature of it is contrary
to pride.
5. It is contrary to the design of redeeming grace, which
is to save the humble, contrite soul.
6. It betrayeth men to a multitude of other sins (as va-
nity of mind, loss of time, neglect of duty, striving for pre-
ferment, quarrelling with others, upon matters of reputation
or precedency, &c.).
7. And it is a sin that God is especially engaged against,
and the surest way to dejection and self-frustration; 1 Pet.
v. 5. James iv. 6. Isa. ii. 12. Prov. xv.22. xvi. 5. xxi.
4. Psal. cxxxviii. 6. xxxl. 23. Job xl. 11,12. Lukexiv.
11. xviii. 14.
II. After these three general Directions, I shall briefly
name a few particular ones.
Direct. 1. * Remember continually what you are, and
what you were, what your bodies are, and will be ; and what
your souls are by the pollution of sin ; and how close it still
adhereth to you ; and from how great a misery Christ re-
deemed you.' He neither knoweth his body, nor his soul,
his sin, or misery, nor Christ, nor grace, who is a servant
unto pride.
Direct, 2. ' Remember the continual presence of the
most holy, dreadful God ; and can pride lift up the head be-
fore him ? '
Direct. 3. ' Look to the example of a humbled Saviour,
and learn of God incarnate to be lowly ; Matt. xi. 29. From
his birth to his ascension, you may read the strangest lec-
ture of lowliness, that ever was delivered to the haughty
world.'
Direct. 4. * Turn all your desires to the glorifying of
God ; remembering that you were not made for your own
glory, but for his.'
Direct. 5. * Think much of the heavenly glory, and it will
cloud all the vainglory of the world.'
Direct. 6. * Think what it is that is your honour among
the angels in heaven, and what is most] approved and ho-
noured by God himself; and therein place your honour; and
not in the conceits of foolish men.'
Direct, 7. Lastly, * Make use of humbling occasions to
exercise your self-denial and lowliness of mind.' I commend
not to you the pious folly of those popish saints, who are
452 LIFE OF FAITH.
magnified by them for making themselves purposely ridicu-
lous to exercise their humility, (as by going through the
streets with their breeches on their heads, and other such
fooleries) ; for God will give you humbling occasions enough,
when he seeth good : but when he doth it, be sure that you
improve them to the abasing of yourselves. And use your-
selves to be above the esteem of man, and to bear contempt
when it is cast upon you (as Christ did for your sakes), though
not to draw it foolishly or wilfully upon yourselves. He
that hath but once borne the contempt of men, is better able
to bear it afterwards, than he that never underwent it, but
thinketh that he hath an entire reputation to preserve : and
he that is more solicitous pf his duty, and most indifferent
in point of honour, doth usually best secure his honour by
such neglect, and always best undergo dishonour.
CHAPTER XVI.
How to escape the Sin of Fulness or Luxury hy Faith.
The second sin of Sodom, and fruit of abused prosperity,
is Fulness of Bread; Ezek. xvi. 49. Concerning which
(having also handled it elsewhere more at large), I shall now
briefly give you these general Directions first, and then a few
that are more particular.
Direct. 1. ' Understand well what sinful fulness is/ It is
sinful when it hath any one of these ill conditions.
1. When you eat or drink more in quantity than is con-
sistent with the due preservation of your health : or so much
as hurteth your health or reason. For the use of food is to
fit us for our duty ; and therefore that which disableth or un-
fitteth us, is too much. But here both the present and fu-
ture must be considered.
2. When you have no higher end in eating and drinking,
than the pleasing of your appetite. Be it little or much, it
is to be judged of according to its end. A beast hath no
other end because he hath no reason, and so properly hath
no end at all ; but we are bound to eat and drink to the glory
of G od, and to do all to further us in his service ; 1 Cor. x.
31. The appetite may be pleased in order to a higher end ;
that is, 1. So far as it is a true directer what is for our health.
LIFE OF FAITH. 453
and will be best digested. 2. So far as by moderate and
seasonable exhilaration, it fitteth us by cheerful alacrity for
our duty ; and therefore it hath been good men's use to have
holy feasts, as well as holy fasts. But the appetite must be
restrained and denied, 1. When it is against health. And 2.
When it hindereth from duty. Or 3. When it would be the
ultimate end of our repast, and there is no higher reason for
it, than the appetite*s delight.
It is not said that the sensualist in Luke xvi. did eat too
much ; but that he " fared sumptuously every day," and that
he had his good things here : that is, that he lived to the
pleasing of his flesh. It is not said of him in Luke xii. 19,
20. that he ate or drank too much ; but that he said, " Soul,
take thy ease, eat, drink, and be merry ;*' that is, that he
preferred the pleasing of his appetite or flesh, before the
everlasting pleasures. The sin of the Israelites was, that
they were weary of eating manna only, so many years, and
desired flesh only to please their appetite : and therefore it
is said, that "they asked meat for their lust ;" (Psal. Ixxviii.
18.) that is, to gratify their flesh or sense. And the terrible
threatenings thundered out by James against the rich, are
on such accounts ; " Ye have lived in pleasure on earth, and
been wanton ; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of
slaughter ;" James v. 4, 5. And we are commanded to
make no provision for the flesh, to satisfy the wills or lusts
thereof; that is, merely or chiefly to please our senses.
3. It i^^sinful fulness, when you needlessly strengthen
either lustful or sluggish inclinations by the quantity or
quality of your food. I know nature must not be famished,
nor our health and life destroyed, under pretence of conquer-
ing sin ; but when necessity of life and health doth not re-
quire it, all that must be avoided, which cherisheth any vi-
cious disposition. And these two are the usual effects of
fulness. (1.) Some, especially idle youths, abound with lust-
ful thoughts and inclinations, which fulness greatly cherish-
eth ; and pleasing their appetite is the fuel of their lust :
whereas if they would drink water, and eat coarser food, and
little of it (and withal be laborious in some serious work),
their lusts would be more extinguished. These persons are
guilty of sinful fulness, if they take but near as much as
other men may do ; because for the pleasing of one lust, they
feed another.
454 LIFE OF FAITH.
(2.) Others that are phlegmatic and dull, can never feed
fully; but they are heavy and drowsy, unfit for prayer, and
unfit for work : usually the health, as well as the consciences
of these persons, doth require a spare kind of diet ; and that
which is but enough for others, is too much for them. Be-
cause the avoiding of sin, and the performance of our duties,
is the measure of our food.
4. It is sinful fulness, when any of God's creatures are
taken without any benefit, and in vain. It is a sin to take
any more than we have cause to think is like to do us good ;
though we thought it were like to do no harm. That which
is used only to gratify the appetite, or for any other unpro-
fitable cause, and neither furthereth health nor duty, is sin-
fully cast away. And if vain words be forbidden, vain eat-
ing and drinking can be no better.
The evil of the sin is, 1. Because man being a rational
creature, should do nothing in vain. 2. Because we are
God's stewards, and must give an account of all our talents.
3. Because God's mercies are not to be contemned, nor cast
away as nothing worth. 4. But especially because there
are thousands in want, while you abound ; and if you spend
that in vain, which others need, you wrong God, and rob
them, and shew that you want love to your brethren, and
prefer your appetites before their necessities. If you think
any thing that you have is absolutely your own, you are but
foolish pretenders against God ; but if you know that God
hath lent it you for his service, how dare you cast it away
in vain ? Job vi. 12. When Christ had multiplied food (or
satisfied men's appetite) by miracle, he saith, " Gather up
the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost :" nothing-
then must be lost, on yourselves or others.
5. To bestow too much cost upon the belly, is a sinful
fulness too, though the quantity of food be never so small.
Cost is too much when it is more than is profitable ; or when
the cost exceedeth the profit. The reasons of this are the
same as of the former ; because we are God's stewards, and
must give account of all that we have, and must improve it
all to our Master's use ; and because thousands want what
we might spare, and superfluously spend. What are the oc-
casions which will justify some extraordinary costliness, is
too long now to explicate. In general, it must be for some
end and benefit, which is better than any which might be
LIFE OF FAITH. 455
procured otherwise by that expence : but pride or appetite
are no justifying causes of it. It was faring sumptuously
which was that carnal gentleman's sin, in Luke xvi. It is
said of such, that their '* belly is their God ;" (Phil. iii. 18.)
for they daily sacrifice much more to it, than they do to
God. Many hundred pounds a year, is little enough for
many men to sacrifice to their throats. It is such a sacri-
fice which James calleth, the " cherishing of their hearts as
in a day of slaughter ;" James v. 5. This is the hid treasure
which their bellies are filled with ; Psal. xvii. 14. The rich
man's full barns (Luke xii. 20.) were but to fill his belly, and
please his flesh ; " Thou hast enough laid up for many years."
For what ? Why for ease, and eating, and drinking, and
mirth. They think it is their own, and that they may spend
it on themselves ; but O the terrible account ! As David
would not offer that to God which cost him nothing (2 Sam.
xxiv. 24.), so neither will they offer too cheap a sacrifice to
their bellies. But lust deserveth not much cost : he that is
your God, is the God of others as well as of you ; and careth
for them as well as for you ; even when he giveth them less
than you : and he giveth it you, that you may have the
trial, and the honour of giving it according to his will to
them.
It is every man's duty to choose the cheapest diet (and
other accommodations) which will but answer his lawful
ends ; that is, 1. His health and welfare. 2. And the meet
entertainment of others, and the avoiding of those evils which
are greater than the charge.
He that loveth his neighbour as himself, will not see
multitudes cold and hungry, while he gratifieth his own sen-
suality with superfluities. Though all men are not to live
at the same rates, yet all are to observe this common rule of
charity and frugality. The rule given by Paul for apparel,
must be used also for our food ; that women adorn them-
selves with modest apparel, with shamefacedness and so-
briety, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly
array ; 1 Tim. ii. 9. So must we feed with moderation and
sobriety, and not with too rich and costly food.
6. And it is a great aggravation of this sin, to bestow
too much of our time upon it. When those precious hours
are spent in needless eating and drinking, or sitting at it,
which are given us for far greater work. Though no set
456 LIFE OF FAITH.
time can be determined for all men, yet all must feed as those
that have still necessary business upon their hand, which
stayeth for them, and for which it is that they cherish
themselves : and therefore let not time pass away in vain,
but make haste to your work, and feed not idleness instead
of diligence.
7. And the root of all this mischief is, when the hearts
of men are set upon their bellies ; and their fancies and wits
are slaves unto their appetites : when they are not indiffe-
rent about things indifferent, but make a great matter of it,
what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, beyond the
necessity or real benefit of it. When they are troubled if
their appetite be but crossed, and they are like crying chil-
dren, or swine, that are discontented and complaining if they
have not what they would have, and if their bellies are not
full. When they are like the Israelites, that wept for flesh ;
Numb. xi. 4. Because " they serve not the Lord Jesus, but
their own bellies ;" Rom. xvi. 17, 18. But the poor in spi-
rit can live upon a little, and mind the things of the Spirit
so much, that they are more indifferent to their appetite.
And custom maketh abstinence and temperance sweet and
easy to them. For a well-used appetite is like well taught
children ; not so unmannerly, nor craving, nor bawling, nor
troublesome, as the glutton's ill-used appetite is. It troubles
men's minds, and taketh up their thoughts, and commandeth
their estates, and devoureth their time, and turneth out God,
and all that is holy ; and like a thirst in a dropsy, it devour-
eth all, and is satisfied with nothing, but increaseth itself and
the disease : as if such men did live or eat, when the tempe-
rate do eat to live.
8. Lastly, it is the height of his sin, when you also che-
rish the gulosity and excess of others. When for the pride
of great housekeeping, you cause others to waste God's
creatures and their time ; and waste your estates to satisfy
their luxury, and to procure their vain applause. ** Woe to
him that giveth his neighbour drink ; that puttest thy bottle
to him, and makest him drunken also ;" Hab. ii. 15. This
is the fulness which is forbidden of God.
Object. * But is it not said that Christ came eating and
drinking, and the Pharisees quarrelled with him and his dis-
ciples, because they did not fast as John and his disciples
LIFE OF FAITH. 457
did; and they called him a gluttonous person, and a wine-
bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners?'
Answ. 1. John lived in a wilderness, upon locusts and
wild honey ; and because Christ lived not such an austere,
eremetical life, the quarrelsome Pharisees did thus calum-
niate him. But Christ never lived in the least excess. Mark
that part of his life which they thus accused, and you will
find it such as the sensual will be loath to imitate. 2. Christ
was by office to converse with publicans and sinners for their
cure : and this gave occasion to the calumnies of malice.
3. There was a difference of reasons for John's austerity,
and Christ's : but when he, the Bridegroom, was taken
away, he foretelleth that his followers should fast. 4.
Christ fasted forty days at once, and drank water, and lived
in perfect temperance. Imitate him, and we will not blame
you for excess: his example preached poverty in spirit.
Direct, 2. ' Remember the reasons why fulness and gu-
losity are so much condemned by God,' viz.
1. A pampered appetite is unruly; and feedeth your
concupiscence. The flesh is now become our most dan-
gerous enemy ; and therefore it must be dangerous to pam-
per it, to the strengthening of its lusts : when even Paul was
to buffet and tame it, and bring it into subjection, for fear
of proving a cast-away after all his wondrous labours.
2. The pleasing of the appetite too much, corrupteth the
delight and relish of the soul. Delight in God, and heaven,
and holiness, is the sum and life of true religion ; and the
delights of sense and fleshly appetite, turn away the soul
from this, and are most mortal enemies to these true delights.
" For they that are after the flesh, do mind or savour the
things of the flesh ; and they that are after the Spirit, the
things of the Spirit ;" Rom. viii. 6, 7. And " the carnal
mind is enmity to God :" if it " cannot be subject to his law,"
certainly it is unfit to relish the sweetness of his love, and
spiritual mercies.
3. And the thoughts themselves are corrupted and per-
verted by it. They that should be thinking and caring how
to please God, are thinking and caring for their bellies.
Even when all their powers should be employed on God, in
meditation, or in prayer, their thoughts will be going after
their fleshly appetite, as Ezekiel's hearers were after their
458 LIFE OF FAITH.
covetousness ; Ezek. xxxiii. 31. And as some of Christ's
hearers were after the loaves.
4. The use of pleasing the fleshly appetite doth make
men need riches ; which is a misery, and a snare. Such
must needs have their desires satisfied, and therefore cannot
live on a little : and therefore if they have riches, their flesh
devoureth almost all, and they have little to spare for any
charitable uses : and if they have none, they are tempted to
steal or get by some unlawful means. And so it tempteth
them to the love of money (which is the root of all evil) be-
cause they love the lust which needeth it.
5. And it maketh them utterly unfit for suffering (which
Christ will have all his followers to expect). He that is
used to please his appetite, will take that for a grievous life,
which another man will feel no trouble in. If a full fed
gentleman or Dives were tied to fare as the poor labourer
doth at the best, he would lament his case as if ke were un-
done, and would take for half a martrydom (if it were on a
pious pretence) which his neighbour would account no suf-
fering, but a feast. And will God reward men for such self-
made sufferings ? How unfit is he to endure imprisonment,
banishment and want, who hath always used to please his
flesh ? If God cast him into poverty, how impatient would
he be ! How plentifully and pleasantly would most poor
countrymen think to live, if they had but a hundred pounds
a year of their own ! But if he that hath thousands, and is
used to fulness, should be reduced to a hundred, how que-
rulous or impatient would he be.
6. It maketh the body heavy and unfit for duty : both
duties of piety, and the honest labours of your calling.
7. It maketh the body diseased; and so more unfit to
serve the soul. It is to be noted, that the excess reproved
by Paul at their love-feasts, was punished with sickness,
and with death : and as that punishment had a moral suita-
bleness to their sin ; so it is not unlike that (according to
God's ordinary way of punishing) it was also a natural effect
of their excess.
8. It is a most unsuitable thing to such great sinners as
we are, who have forfeited all our mercies, and are called so
loud to penitent humiliation ; when we should turn to the
Lord with all our hearts, with fasting, weeping and mourn-
ing, to be then pleasing our fleshly appetites with curiosities
LIFE OF FAITH. 459
and excess, is a sin that God once threatened in a terrible
sort ; Isa. xxii. 12, 13. Fasting is in such cases a 4uty of
God's appointment ; Joel ii. 12. Luke ii. 37. 1 Cor. vii.
5. Cornelius's fasting and alms-deeds came up before God ;
Acts X. 30. Daniel was heard upon his fast; Dan. ix. 3.
Christ fasted when he entered solemnly on his work ; Matt,
iv. And some devils would not be cast out without fasting
and prayer : and is luxury fit in such a case ?
9. Lastly, remember what was said before, that others
are empty, while we are full. Thousands need all that we
can spare : and they are members of Christ, and of the same
body with us : and so much as we waste on our appetite or
pride, so much the less we have to give. And " he that
seethhis brother in need, and shutteth up his bowels of com-
passion from him (when he cannot deny superfluities to
himself), how dwelleth the love of God in him !" When the
" poor we have always with us," that we may always have
exercise for our love : and he that glutteth his own flesh to
the full, and giveth the poor but the leavings of his lust, if
it were a thousand pounds a year that he giveth, must look
for small reward from God, however he may do good to
others.
More particular Directions may be as folio weth.
Direct. 1. * Understand well how much the flesh in this
lapsed state is our enemy ;* and how much gulosity doth
strengthen it against us ; and how much of the work of
grace lieth in resisting and overcoming it ; and what need
we have to serve the Spirit, and not to be helpers of the
flesh : and the true consideration of these things may do
much ; GaL v. 17—19. 22, 23. Rom. viii. 6—10. 13.
Direct, 2. * Set yourselves to the work of God according
to your several places ; and live not idly. And then mark
what helpeth or hindereth you in your work.' If you play
not the loitering hypocrite, but make your duties the serious
business of all your lives, you will quickly find how incon-
sistent a brutish appetite, and a full belly, and a curious,
costly and time-wasting pampering of the flesh, is with such
a Christian life.
Direct, 3. * Study well the life of Christ, and the exam-
ple of the ancient saints.' Remember what diet was in use
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; with the apostles, and ho-
liest servants of Christ. And that it was Solomon the most
460 LIFE OF FAITH,
voluptuous king of Israel, that was told by his mother, that
** it is not for kings to drink wine, but for them that are of
a sorrowful heart :" and that the description of the luxurious
then was " riotous eaters of flesh;" Prov. xxxi. 5. xxiii. 20.
And that it was the mark of fleshly heretics, " to feast them-
selves without fear;" Jude 12. And that they were des-
troyed by God's wrath, though they had their desire who
murmured for want of flesh, after many years abstinence in
a wilderness ; and it is called, " Asking meat for their lust ;"
Psal.lxxviii. 18. I doubt many of our servants now would be
discontented, and think their bellies too hardly used, if they
had no better than the milk and honey of the land of pro-
mise ; yea, or the onions and flesh-pots of Egypt.
Direct, 4. * Think what a base and swinish kind of sin it
is, to be a slave to one's guts or appetite.' And how far it
is below, not only a Christian, but a man, and what a shame
to human nature.
Direct. 5. ' Look often to the grave,' and observe those
skulls into which once the pleasant meats and drinks were
put ; and those jaws that were so often employed, in grind-
ing for the belly : and remember how quickly this will be
your case, and think then whether such a carcase deserve so
much care, and cost, and curiosity, to the neglect and dan-
ger of an immortal soul.
Direct. 6. ' Lay a constant law upon your appetite, and
use it not to be pleased without cause and benefit ;' but use
it to a wholesome, but not a full, a costly, a curious, or a
delicious food : and use will make intemperance to be loath-
some to you, and temperance to be sweet.
Direct, 7. * Learn so much reason as to know truly what
is most conducible to your health, both for quantity and
quality ;' and mark what diseases and deaths are usually
caused by excess. It is more reasonable to be temperate for
prevention of diseases, than under the power and feeling of
them; when pain and sickness force you to it, whether you
will or not. If you will not obey God so carefully as your
physician ; yet obey the preventing counsels of your physi-
cian, before you need his curing counsel.
Direct. 8. * Neglect not the manly and the sacred de-
lights which God alloweth.* I mean, the pleasures of ho-
nest labours, and of your calling, and of reading and know-
ledge, of meditation and prayer, and of a well ordered soul
LIFE OF FAITH. 461
and life, and of the certain hopes of endless glory. Live
upon these, and you will easily spare the fleshly pleasures
of a swine.
CHAPTER XVII.
How to conquer Sloth and Idleness hy the Life of Faith,
The third sin of Sodom, and of abused prosperity, is Idle-
ness; Ezek. xvi. 49. Concerning which I shall first tell
you the nature and signs of it, and then the evil of it;
and then give you more particular Directions against it.
But this also but briefly, because I have done it more largely
in my "Christian Directory."
I, That you may know who are guilty of this sin, and
who not, I shall first premise these propositions.
1. Nothing but disability will excuse any one from the
ordinary labours of a lawful calling. Riches or honours will
excuse none. They are the subjects of God, as well as others
that have less ; and he that hath most, hath most to use, and
most to answer for : to whom men commit much, of them
they require the more ; Luke xii. 48. xix. 23. Greatness
and wealth is so far from excusing the forbearance of a call-
ing, that it will not allow any one the omission of one hour's
labour and diligence in his calling. If God give the rich
more wages than others, it is unreasonable to think that
therefore they may do less work.
2. Yet when mere necessity compelleth the poor to la-
bour more than else they were obliged to do, even to the de-
triment of their health, or shortening of God's worship, the
rich are not bound therefore to imitate them, and to incur
the same inconveniences ; because they have not the same
necessities. As in their diet, the rich are not allowed to
take any more for quantity or quality than is truly for their
good, any more than the poor; but they are not bound to
live as those poor do, who want that either for quantity or
quality, which is truly for their good ; so is it also in this
case of labouring.
3. The labours of every one's calling must be the ordi-
nary business of his life ; and not a little now and then in-
462- LIFE OF FAITH.
stead of a recreation. If it be a man's calling, he must be
constant and laborious in it.
4. Yea, no interposed recreation or idleness is lawful,
but that which is either necessitated by disability, or that
which is needful to fit the mind or body for its work : as
whetting to the mower.
5. All men's callings tie them not constantly to one kind
of labour ; but some may be put to vary their employments
every day : as poor men that live by going on errands, and
doing other men's business, under several masters, several
ways : and as many rich people whose occasions of doing
good may often vary.
6. The rich and honourable are not bound to the same
kind of labour as the poor. A magistrate or pastor is not
bound to follow the plough ; nay, he is bound not to do it
ordinarily, lest he neglect his proper and greater work.
Some men's labours are with the hand, and some men's with
the head.
7. Every man should choose that calling which is most
agreeable to his mind and body. Some are strong, and
some are weak. Some are of quick wits, and some are
dull. All should be designed to that which they are most
fit for.
8. Every one should choose that calling (if he be fit
for it) in which he may be most serviceable to God, for
the doing of the greatest good in the world : and not that
in which he may have most ease, or wealth, or honour.
God and the public good must be our chiefest ends in the
choice.
9. And in the labours of our calling, the getting or riches
must never be our principal end ; but we must labour to do
the most public good, and to please God by living in obe-
dience to his commands.
10. Yet every man must desire the success of his labour,
and the blessing of God on it, and may continue his work
as best tendeth to success. And though we may not labour
to be rich (Prov. xxiii. 4.) as our principal end ; yet we must
not be formal in our callings ; nor think that God is de-
lighted in our mere toil, to see men fill a bottomless vessel ;
but we must endeavour after the most successful way, and
pray for a just prosperity of our labours. And when God
doth prosper us with wealth, we must take it thankfully
LIFE OF FAITH. 463
(though with fear), and use it to his service, and do all the
good with it we can. Lay by as God hath prospered every
man ; 1 Cor. xvi. 2. " Let him work with his hands the
thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that
needeth ;" Ephes. iv. 28. " Let the brother of low degree
rejoice in that he is exalted ;" James i. 9.
11. The lowness of a man's calling, or baseness of his
employment, will not allow him to be negligent or weary of
it, or uncomfortable in it : seeing God must be obeyed in
the lowest service, as well as in the highest ; and will re-
ward men according to their faithful labour, and not accord-
ing to the dignity of their place : and indeed no service
should be accounted low and base, which is sincerely done
for so great and high a Master, and hath the promise of so
glorious a reward ; Col. iii. 23, 24.
12. The greater and more excellent any man's work and
calling is, his idleness and negligence is the greater sin. It
is bad in a ploughman, or any daylabourer ; but it is far
worse in a minister of the Gospel, or a magistrate. Because
they wrong many, and that in the greatest things, and violate
the greatest trust from God. Christ biddeth us pray the
" Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into his har-
vest;" (Luke X. 27.) and not proud, covetous, idle drones,
that would have honour only for their wealth and titles : and
he saith, that the labourer is worthy of his hire, but not the
loiterer. Among the elders that rule the church, it is espe-
cially the labourers in the word and doctrine that are worthy
of double honour. Dr. Hammond noteth on 1 Thess. v. 12.
that the bishops whom they are required to know and ho-
nour, were those that laboured among them, and were over
them in the Lord, and admonished them ; and that it was
" for their work's sake " that they were to esteem them very
highly in love. The highest title that ever was put on pas-
tors, was to be *' Labourers together with God ;" 1 Cor. iii. 9.
And the calling of magistrates also requireth no small
diligence ; Jethro persuadeth. Moses to. take helpers, not
that he might himself be idle, but lest he should wear away
himself with doing more than he could undergo ; Exod.
xviii. 18.
So the calling of a schoolmaster, and of parents and
masters of families, who have rational souls to instruct and
govern, requireth a special diligence : and negligence in
464 LIFE OF FAITH.
such is a greater sin, than in him that neglecteth sheep or
horses.
So also it is a great sin in a physician, because he doth
neglect men's lives ; and in a lawyer, when by sloth he des-
troyeth men's estates. The greatness of the trust, must
greaten men's care.
13. He that hath hired his labour to another (as a ser-
vant, a lawyer, a physician,) is guilty of a thievish fraud, if
he give him not that which he hath paid for. " Owe nothing
to any man but love ;" Rom. xiii. Hired labour is a debt
that must be paid.
14. Religious duties will not excuse idleness, nor neg-
ligence in our callings (but oblige us to it the more) : nor
will any bodily calling excuse us from religious duties ; but
both must take their place in their seasons and due pro-
portions.
Quest, 1. ' But what if a man can live without labour; may
not he forbear who needeth it not?' Answ. No, because he
is nevertheless a subject of God, who doth command it : and
a member of the commonwealth which needeth it.
Quest, 2. ' What if I were not brought up to labour ; am
I bound to use it?' Answ, Yes, you must yet learn to do
your duty, and repent, and ask pardon for living so long in
sinful idleness. What if you had not been brought up to
pray, or to read, or to any needful trade, or ornament of life ?
What if your parents had never taught you to speak ? Is it
not your duty therefore to learn it when you are at age, ra-
ther than not at all ?
Quest, 3. * But what if I find that it hurteth my body to
labour ; may I not forbear V Answ, If it so hurt you, that
you are unable to do it, there is no remedy. Necessity hath
no law. Or if one sort of labour hurt you, when you can
take up another in which you may be as serviceable to the
commonwealth, you may choose that to which your strength
is suitable ; but if you think that every sudden pain or wea-
riness is a sufficient excuse ; or that some real hurt will war-
rant you in an idle life, you may as well think that your
servant, and your horse or ox may cease all their labour for
you, when they are weary. Or that your candle should not
burn, nor your knife be used in cutting, because that use
consumeth them.
Quest. 4. ' What if I find that wordly business doth hin-
LIFE OF FAITH. 46»5
der me in the service of God ; I cannot pray, or read, or
meditate so much V Ajisw. The labours of your callings are
part of the service of God : he hath set you both to do, and
you must do both ; that is, both spiritual and corporal work :
and to quarrel with either, is to quarrel against God who
hath appointed them.
Quest. 5. ' But is it not worldliness when we follow
worldly business without any need?* Ansv). 1. Yes, if you
do it only from the love of the world, and with a worldly
mind : but not when you do it in obedience to God, and
with a heavenly mind. 2. He cannot be said to have no
need, who hath a body that needeth it, or liveth in a com-
monwealth that needeth it, and is a subject to God who com-
mandeth it.
Quest. 6. ' But what if I find by constant experience,
that my soul is more worldly after worldly business, and
more cold and alienated from God?' Answ. What if you
should find it so after giving to the poor, or visiting the
sick, or providing for your family? What then must you
do ? You must lament the carnality of your minds, and beg
of God for such grace as may fit you for your duties : and
not cast off your duty, because you are so bad ; but labour
to be better and to do it better. And 2. You must not judge
of the benefit only by present feeling ; but if God hath pro-
mised a blessing to you, believe it; and you shall certainly
meet with it at the last. Many a one thinks that to forsake
all bodily labour, and to do nothing but the duties of reli-
gion, doth benefit them more at the present; when perhaps
in a little time, the sickness of their bodies, or the melan-
choly distraction of their minds, doth lose them more than
they had gotten, and make them unfit for almost any duty
at all. And many a one that think their spiritual benefit is
interrupted by their callings, do find all God's promises ful-
filled at last, to their satisfaction.
Quest. 7. ' But is it not lawful to set one's self only to
religion, as John Baptist, Anna, &c. did V
Answ. It is a duty to be as religious as you can : but it
is also a duty to labour in your calling, and do all the good
you can to others. The aged and impotent that cannot la-
bour in a calling, are excused from it : and they that give
up themselves to the magistracy, ministry, physic, &c. must
VOL. XII. H H
466 LIFE OF FAITH.
meddle with no lower things, which would hinder them in
the higher. But no man can be excused from doing all the
good he can to others, by any pretences of looking to his
soul : for he can no way more surely further his salva-
tion ; nor can he hinder it more, than by sinful negligence
or sloth.
Quest. 8. * But was not labour and toil a curse upon
Adam after his sin? And any man that can may labour to
escape a curse.'
jlnsw. 1. Adam in innocency was set to dress and keep
the garden. 2. The curse was in the toil and the frustration
of his labour. 3. And even that is such a curse, as God will
not take off, or remit.
Quest, 9. ' Doth not Paul say to servants, " If ye can be
free, use it rather ?" '
Answ, True ; but he saith not, * If you can be idle use it
rather.' A freeman may work as hard as a bondman.
Quest, 10. ' May not a man that hath several callings
before him, choose the easiest?'
Answ, Not merely or chiefly because it is easy ; but he
must choose the most profitable to the common good, be it
easy or bard, if it be such as he can undergo. Yet he may
avoid such a calling, as by tiring his body, indisposeth him
to spiritual things ; or by taking up all his time, will deprive
him of convenient leisure for things spiritual. But he that
only to ease his flesh, doth put by more profitable employ-
ments because they will cost him labour, doth serve his flesh,
and cast ofl" his duty to his God.
II. The signs of wealthy-idleness are these:
1. When men think it unnecessary for them to labour
constantly and diligently, because they are rich, and can
live without it ; or because they are great, and it is below
them. The confutation of which error I gave you before,
and shall give you more of it anon. The poor in spirit think
not a laborious life below them.
2. When men have time to spare. This is a most evi-
dent mark of idleness : for God hath given us no time in
vain ; but hath given us full work for all our time. They
that have time to play away needlessly, to sleep away need-
lessly, to, prate away needlessly, do tell the world that So-
dom's idleness is their sin. Especially poor souls, who are
LIFE OF FAITH. 467
yet unsanctified, and are strangers to a renewed heart and
life, and are utterly unfit to die : O what abundance of im-
portant work have these to do ! And can they be idle, while
all this lieth undone? Indeed if they are in despair of be-
ing* saved, it is no wonder : and one would think by their
lives that they did despair : for surely a man so near another
world, that must be in heaven or hell for ever, would never
live idly, if he had any good hope that his endeavours should
not be all in vain. The poor in spirit have no time to spare :
labour is their life : eternity is still before their eyes : ne-
cessity is upon them ; and they know the woe that folio weth
idleness. Repentance for sin and negligence past, is a con-
stant spur to future diligence. And their work is sweet, and
incomparably more pleasant to them than idleness. If the
devil be so diligent, be<iause he knoweth that his time is
short (Rev. xii. 12.), it is a shame to them that are not so,
who call themselves the servants of the Lord.
3* When men's labour hath but the time that is due to
recreation ; and recreation and idleness hath the great part
of time that is due to labour. The labour of the idle Sodo-
mite, is like the religion of the reserved hypocrite : it is but
the leavings of the flesh, or somewhat that cometh in upon
the bye. But God is not inconstant in his mercies unto us :
he is still preserving us, and maintaining us : the angels are
still guarding us : the faithful ministers of Christ are con-
stant in teaching us (and loath that Satan should hinder
them, and save their labour). Faithful magistrates also
watch continually, to be a terror to evil doers, and a praise
to them that do well, as the ministers of God for our good.
And can a short and idle kind of labour then excuse us ?
Christ said, " It was his meat to do his Father's will," when
he was endeavouring man's salvation ; John iv. 34. And
that " he must do the work of him that sent him while it was
day ;" John ix. 4. And shall idleness be excused in us ?
Even in us who must be "judged according to our works"
(Rev. xxii. 12. Mark xiii. 34.) by him that hath commanded
every man his work ? Yea, when we are redeemed and pu-
rified to be '* zealous of good works" (Titus ii. 14.), and
'* are his workmanship created to good works in Christ,
which God hath ordained, that we should walk in them ;"
Ephes. ii. 10.
4. When men: make a great matter of all their labour ;
408 LIFE OF FAITH.
and of that which to a diligent man is small. The sluggard
hath his thorn hedge, and *' a lion in the way ;" Prov. xxii.
13. xxvi. 13. 15, 16. But the diligent say, when they have
done their best, " We are unprofitable servants." Nothing
is so weary to them as unprofitable idleness (except hurtful
wickedness). They think still, O how short is time ! and
how much work is yet undone ! And as every faithful mi-
nister in his calling, is never so well pleased as when he doth
most for the good of souls ; so it is with every faithful Chris-
tian in his place. A candle if it be not burnt, is lost, and
good for nothing.
5. The idle Sodomite hath a mind which followeth the
affections of his body : and as soon as his body is a little
weary, his mind is so too, and sufFereth the weariness of the
body to prevail ; because the flesh is king within them_. Nay,
a slothful mind doth often begin, and they are weary to look
upon their work, or to think of it, before it hath wearied the
body at all. And what they do, they do unwillingly ; be-
cause they are in love with idleness ; Mai. i. 13. But the
lowly and laborious are in love with diligence and work :
and therefore though they cannot avoid the weariness of the
body, their willing minds will carry on the body as far as it
can well go. The diligent woman " worketh willingly with
her hands ; her candle goeth not out by night," &c. ; Prov.
xxxi. 13, &c. Servants must "do service with goodwill,
as to the Lord ;" Ephes. vi. 7. If ministers preach and la-
bour "willingly, they have a reward;" 1 Cor. ix. 17. But
not if they are only driven on by necessity, and the fear of
woe ; 1 Pet. v. 2. What shall we do willingly, if not our
<iuties ? He that sinneth willingly, and serveth God, and
followeth his labour unwillingly, shall be rewarded accord-
ing to his will.
6. The idle Sodomite doth love and choose that kind of
life which is easiest, and hath least work to be done. This
is the chief provision by which he fulfilleth his fleshly lust.
An idle servant thinketh that the best place, in which he
shall have most ease and fulness. An idle parent will cast all
the burden of his children's teaching, upon the schoolmas-
ter and the pastor. An idle minister thinketh himself best,
where he may have no more labour, than what tendeth to
his public applause ; and when he hath the most wealth and
honour, and least to do, he taketh that to be the flourishing
LIFE OF FAITH. 46fl^
prosperity of the church. And indeed if our calling were
like the soldier's, to kill men, and not like the surgeon's, to
cure them, we might think it is the best time when we have
least employment.
But the faithful servant will be most thankful for that
state of life, in which he doth most good : and as he taketh
doing good, to be the surest way of getting and receiving ;
so he taketh the good of another as his own ; and another's
necessity is his necessity. He knoweth that he is best, who
is likest unto God ; and that is he that is the most abundant
in love, and doing good : like the sun that never resteth
from moving or giving light and heat. The running spring
is pure, when the standing water is muddy and corrupt. The
cessation of motion quickly mortifieth the blood. He that
said as to works of charity, " Be not weary of well doing;
for in due time you shall reap, if you faint not" (Gal.vi.9.),
hath said so too as to our bodily labour in our common call-
ings in the world ; 2 Thess. iii. 13.
I know that a servant may be glad of a place where he is
not oppressed with unreasonable labour, and where he hath
competent time for the learning of God's word. And a poor
man may be glad when he is freed from necessity of doing that
which is to his hurt : but otherwise no man but a fleshly
brute will wish or contrive for a life of idleness.
Object. * Is it not said, *' Blessed are the dead, for they
rest from their labours?" Rev. xiv. 13.' Answ. True; but
mark that ** their works follow them :" and what are the
works which follow you ? And note, that it is not work or
duty that they shall rest from : (for "they rest not crying,
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty," 8cc.) but it is only
their labours ; that is, the painful sort of work and suffering,
proper to this sinful life. The blessed indeed are freed in
heaven from this ; because they were not freed from it on
earth, as the ungodly and slothful servant are.
7. Lastly, idleness is seen by the work that is undone.
The sluggard's vineyard is overgrown with weeds ; Prov.
xxiv. 30. If your souls be unrenewed, and your assurance
of salvation and evidences yet to get, and few the better for
you in the world, and you are yet unready for death and
judgitient, you give too full a proof of idleness. The dili-
gent woman (Prov. xxxi. 16, &c.) could shew her labours in
her treasures, her vineyard, the clothing and provisions of
4^0
LIFE OF FAITH.
her family, &c. shew yours by the good which you have done
in the world, and by the preparation of your souls for a
better world. " Let every man prove his own work, that he
may have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another ;"
Gal. vi. 3, 4. What case are your children in ? Are they
taught, or untaught? What case is your soul in ? Your
fruit must judge you.
III. The mischiefs of this Sodomitical idleness, and the
reasons against it, are (briefly) these.
1 . It is contrary to the active nature of man's soul i which
in activity exceedeth the fire itself. It is as natural for a
soul to be active, as for a stone or clod of earth to lie still.
And this active nature animateth the passive body, to move
it, and use it in its proper work. And should this heavenly
fire be imprisoned in the body, which it should command
and move ? " Man goeth forth to his work and to his la-
bour till the evening ;" Psal. civ. 23.
2. It is contrary to the common course of nature. Doth
the sun shine for you as well as for others ; or doth it not?
Doth all the frame of nature continue in its course (the air,
the waters, summer and winter,) for you as well as for others,
or not? If not, then you take not yourselves beholden to
God for them : and if you have no use for the sun and other
creatures, you have no use for life ; for by them you live.
But if yea, then what is it that they serve you for ? Did
God ever frame you so glorious a retinue, to attend you only
to sleep, and laugh, and play, and to be idle ? What ! is all
this for no higher an end ? Or rather do you not by your
idleness forfeit life, and all these helps and maintainers of
your lives.
3. It is an unthankful repro^th and blasphemy against
the God of nature ; yea, and against the Lord our Redeemer,
to think that the wise Almighty God did make so noble a
thing as a soul, and place it in so curious an engine as the
body, where spirits, and blood, and heart, and lungs, are
never idle, but in constant motion ; and that he hath ap-
pointed us so glorious a retinue as aforesaid, and all this to
do nothing with, or worse than nothing ! To sleep, and rise,
and dress yourselves, and talk, and eat, and drink ; to tell
men only that you are not dead, lest they should mistake,
and bury you alive ! What is it but to put a scorn on your
LIFE OF FAITH. 471
Creator and Redeemer, to live as if he had created and re-
deemed you for no better and nobler ends than these ?
4. You do as it were pray for death, or provoke God to
take away your lives. For if they be good for nothing else
but idleness and beastly pleasures, why should you expect
to have them continued ? Or at least, why should he not
use you as Nebuchadnezzar, and take away your reason, and
turn you into beasts, if the life and pleasure of a beast be
all tnat you desire? Could not you eat, and drink, and
sleep, and play, without an intellectual soul ? Cannot the
birds make their nests, and breed, and feed their young, and
sit and sing, without an intellectual nature ? Cannot a swine
have his ease, and meat, and lust, without reason ? What
should you do with reason for such uses ?
5. You shew a stupid, senseless heart, that can live idly,
and have so much to do ; and have so many spurs to rouse
you up. To live continually in the sight of God, to have a
soul so ignorant, so unbelieving, so unholy, so unfurnished
of faith and love, so unready for death, so uncertain of sal-
vation ; nay, in such apparent danger of damnation, and to
be still uncertain of living one day or hour longer j and yet
to live idly in such a case, as if all were well, and your work
were done, and you had no more to fear or care for. O what
a mad, what a dead, what a sottish kind of soul is this ! To
see the graves before your eyes ; to see your neighbours
carried thither ; to feel the tokens of mortality daily in your-
selves ; to be called on and warned to prepare, and yet un-
der this to live as if you had nothing to do, but to shew your-
selves in the neatest dress, and as a peacock, to spread your
plumes for yourselves and others to look upon, or to pam-
per a carcase for*worms and rottenness ! what a deplo-
rable case is this ! The Lord pity you, and awaken your
understandings, and bring you to your wits, and you will then
wonder at your own stupidity.
6. Idleness is a sin which is contrary to God's universal
law : the law which extended to all times and places.
Adam in innocency was to labour ; he that had all things
prepared for his sustenance by God, was yet himself to la-
bour: he that was Lord of all the world, and was richer
than any of our proud ones whosoever, was yet to dress and
keep the garden. Cain was a tiller of land, and Abel was a
keeper of cattle, when they were heirs of all the earth.
472
LIFE OF FAITH.
Noah also was lord of all the world, and richer than you,
and yet he was an husbandman. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
were princes, and yet keepers of sheep and cattle : It is not
a bare permission, but a precept of diligence in the fourth
commandment, " Six days shalt thou labour, and do all
that thou hast to do." Christ himself did not live idly, but
before his ministry they said, " Is not this the carpenter V
Mark vi. 3. And afterwards how incessantly was he doing
good to men's bodies and souls ? And what laborious lives
did his apostles live ? See 2 Cor. vi. 5. xi. 23. Acts xviii. 3.
And are you exempt from the universal law ?
7. You shew a base and fleshly mind. The noblest na-
tures are the most active, and the basest the most dead and
dull. The earth is not baser than the fire, in a greater de-
gree than an idle soul is baser than one that is active, and
spendeth himself in doing good. Methinks your pride it-
self should keep you from proclaiming such a dead and
earthen disposition.
8. Idleness is of the same kind with fornication, glut-
tony, drunkenness, and other such beastly sins : for all is
but sinful flesh-pleasing, or sensuality : the same fleshly
nature which draweth them to the one, doth draw you to
the other ; and they do but gratify their flesh in one kind
of vice, as you do in another. And it is pity that idleness
should be in so much less disgrace than they. And truly if
you cannot deny your flesh its ease, I cannot see if the
temptation lay as strong that way, how you should deny it
in any of those lusts ; so that you seem to be virtually for-
nicators, gluttons, drunkards, &c. and ready to commit the
acts.
9. And hereby you strengthen the flesh as it is your
W enemy for the time to come. When you have long used to
please it by idleness, it will get the victory, and must be
pleased still : and then you are undone for ever, if grace do
not yet cause you to overcome it. ** For if ye live after the
flesh, ye shall die : but if ye through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, ye shall live;" Rom. viii. 13. None
are freed from condemnation, nor are members of Christ,
but they that *' walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ;"
Rom. viii. 1. For "the carnal mind is enmity against
God ;" ver. 7.
10. Idleness is a sin much aggravated by its continuance.
[^
LIFE OF FAITH. 473
A drunkard is not always drunken, nor a swearer is not al-
ways swearing, nor a thief is not always stealing ; but an
idle person is almost always idle : whole hours and days, if
not weeks and years together. O what a continual course
of sin do our rich and gentle drones still live in ! As if they
were afraid to do any thing, which when death cometh,
they could comfortably be found doing !
11. And O what a time-wasting sin is idleness ! O pre-
cious time, how art thou despised by these drowsy despisers
of God and of their souls ! O what would the despairing
souls in hell give for some of that time which these bedlams
prate away, and game and play away, and trifle and fool
away, and sleep and loiter away ! And what would they
give for a little of it themselves, upon the same terms, when
it is gone, and when wishing is too late !
12. Idleness is a self-contradicting sin: none are so
much afraid of dying as the idle, (and I do not blame them
if they knew all) and yet none more cast away their lives :
they die voluntarily continually : he that loseth the use and
benefit of life, doth lose his life itself: for what is it good
for, but as a means to its ends ? What difference between
a man asleep and dead, but only that one is more in ex-
pectation of usefulness when he awaketh ? It is a pitiful
sight to a man in his wits, to see the bedlam world afraid of
dying, and trembling at every sign of death ; and in the
meantime setting as little by their lives, as if they were
worth no more, than to spend at cards, or dice, or stage-
plays, or dressings, or feastings, or ludicrous compliments.
13. You teach your servants that life which yet you will
not endure in them : for why should they be more careful
and diligent in the work which you command them, than
you in the work which God commandeth you ? Are you
the better masters? Or, will you find them better work?
Or, will you pay them better wages ? I know God needeth
not your service, as you do their's : but he commandeth it,
for other ends, though he need it not. And should any be
more careful to please you, that are but worms and dust,
than you should be to please your Maker ? If an idle life
be best, why do you blame it in your servants ? If it be
not, why do you live such lives yourselves ?
14. By idleness you shew that when you do labour, it is
but for your carnal selves, and that it is not God whom you
474 LIFE OF FAITH.
serve in your daily callings. He that will labour when he
is poor, and feeleth the necessity of it, and will give over
all, and live idly, and playfully when he is rich, doth shew
that he laboureth not in obedience to God (or else he would
continue it), but merely to supply his bodily wants. You
have your reward then from yourselves, and you cannot in
reason expect any from God. But true believers have ano-
ther rule, by which they live : " Whatsoever ye do, do it
heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men ; knowing that of
the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for
ye serve the Lord Christ ;" Col. iii. 23, 24.
15. Idleness is a forfeiture of your protection, and of your
daily bread. God is not bound to keep you to play, and
loiter, and do nothing. You have not a plenary right to
your meat, if you live in wilful idleness. I shewed you
God's commands before. God's promise of prosperity, is,
** Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands ;" Psal. cxxviii. 2.
(And if many in England that have most, should eat no
other than the labour of their hands, it would cure their
fulness.) The diligent woman, (Prov. xxxi. 27.) doth " not
eat the bread of idleness." And Paul maketh it a church-
canon (2Thess. iii. 6. 10. 12.), and commandeth and ex-
horteth us, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that
all work with quietness, and eat their own bread ; and that
the church withdraw themselves from every brother that
walketh disorderly ; and " that if any would not work, nei-
ther shall he eat."
16. The idle rob themselves and others : you rob your-
selves of the fruit of your own labours ; and you rob your
masters, or your families, or whomsoever you should labour
for : " He that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that
is a great waster ;*' Prov. xviii. 9. " The desire of the sloth-
ful killeth him, because his hands refuse to labour ;" (Prov.
xxi.25.) that is, 1. The sluggishness of the wisher famisheth
him : And, 2. The hunger of desire tormenteth him when
he hath not the thing desired. " By much slothfulness the
building decayeth ; and through idleness of the hands the
house droppeth through ;" Eccles. x. 18. " Slothfulness
casteth into a deep sleep ; and an idle soul shall suffer hun-
ger ;" Prov. xix. 15. And he that provideth not for his own
(kindred and relations), but especially for those of his
family, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel j
LIFE OF FAITH. 475
1 Tim. V. 8. Hath no one need of you? Hath no one hired
you? Hath no one any right to your labours, that you are
so long idle? If none have need of you, what do you in
the world ?
17. The idle are drones and burdens of the common-
wealth : and the best ordered governments have made laws
against them, as they did against other pernicious crimes ;
Paul laboured day and night that he might not be liable to
any ; 2 Thess. iii. 8. And you think because you hav€
enough, that other men must labour for you, but you may
live idly without any blame. You. live then upon the la-
bours of others, but who liveth upon yours ? Yea, I have
known some lazy persons, that because they are professors
of zeal in religion ; or because they are ministers or scho-
lars, live idly in their callings, and take their ease, and
think that all others that have riches are bound to maintain
them (like the popish begging friars), and they say. He is
covetous that cherisheth not them in idleness ; and he that
giveth not to them, doth them wrong ; when Paul com-
mandeth that they should not eat : and when we ask them
how they live, they say, * Upon the providence of God :'
and when the tenderness of people causeth them to contri-
bute to relieve these drones, they hypocritically admire
the providence of God, who provideth for them, and live in
idleness, and call it living upon Providence.
18. Idleness depriveth you of the great delight of doing
good. There is no such pleasure in this world, as is found
in successful doing good : no man knoweth it but he that
trieth it, (and that without any conceits of merit, in commu-
tative justice). To do good in magistracy for the piety,
peace and safety of the people ; to do good as ministers, for
the saving of souls ; to do good as parents, to educate a
holy seed ; to do good as physicians, to save men's lives,
&,c. It is a pleasure exceeding all voluptuousness. And
this the idle wilfully reject.
19. You lose all the reward of well-doing at the last,
and fall under the doom of the unprofitable servant (Matt.
XXV.), who must be cast into outer darkness. You must
answer for all the talents of time, and health, and strength,
and parts, to Him who will judge all according to what they
have done in the body : and where shall the idle then ap-
pear?
476 LIFE OF FAITH.
20. Idleness will destroy your health and lives : nothing
but fulness (which is its companion) doth bring so many
thousands unseasonably to the grave. And do you neither
love your souls, nor your lives? Are you only for your
present ease ?
21. Idleness breedeth melancholy, and corrupteth the
fantasy and mind, and so unfitteth you for all that is good.
Therefore the idle that will do no good, are fain to devise
some vanity to do ; some game, or play, or dress, or com-
pliment, &c. or else they would grow addle-brained, and a
shame and burden to themselves. The constant labours of
a lawful calling is one of the best cures of melancholy in
the world, if it be done with willingness, success, and plea-
sure.
22. Lastly, Idleness is the nursery of a world of vices.
It is the field of temptation, where Satan soweth his tares
while men are sleeping. When they are idle, they are at
leisure for lustful thoughts ; for wanton dalliance j for idle
talk ; for needless sports, and plays, and visits ; for gaming,
and riotous feasting, drinking and excess ; for pride, and
an hundred curiosities : yea, for contentions and mischiev-
ous designs : needless and sinful things must be done,
when necessary duties are laid by.
And if they are poor, idleness prepareth them to mur-
mur and be discontent, and fall out, and contend with one
another ; to defraud others, and to steal. These and more
are the natural fruits of idleness.
But here I must annex two cautions.
1 . That none make this a pretence for a worldly mind
and life ; nor think that religion is a fruit of idleness ; nor
say as Pharaoh did of the Israelites, when they would go
to sacrifice to God, " Ye are idle ;" Exod. v. 17. It is idle-
ness that maketh most men ungodly : they are convinced
that it is better to meditate on God's word, and call upon
his name, and give all diligence to make our calling and
election sure : but they are idle, and say. There is a lion in
the way ; what a weariness is it ? We shall never endure it.
As if their souls and heaven were not worth their labour,
and as if they would go to hell for ease ; and as if the feast
of joy and glory were not worth the labour of eating or re-
ceiving it.
,2. Make not this a pretence to oppress your servants
LIFE OF FAITH. 477
with unmerciful labours, beyond their strength ; or such as
so weary them, and take up all their time, that they have
not leisure so much as to pray. It is God's great mercy to
servants, that he hath separated the Lord's day for a holy
rest ; or else many would have little rest, or means of holi-
ness. Some think that others can never labour enough for
them, because they pay them wages ; and yet that they are
bound to do nothing themselves, even because God hath
given them more wages and wealth than he hath given to
others.
More particular directions are as followeth.
1. Give up yourselves by absolute subjection to God as
his servants ; and then you can never rest in an idle, unser-
viceable life.
2. Take all that you have, as God's talents, and from his
trust; and then you dare not but prepare in the use of
them, for your account.
3. Live as those that are certain to die, and still uncer-
tain of time, and that know what an eternal weight of joy
or misery dependeth upon the spending of your present
time : and then you dare not live in idleness. Live but as
men whose souls are awake, to look before them into ano-
ther world, and you will say (as I have long been forced to
do), O how short are the days ! How long are the nights !
How swift is time ! How slow is work ! How far am I be-
hindhand ! I am afraid lest my life will be finished before
the work of life ; and lest my time will be done, while
much of my work remaineth undone.
4. Ask yourselves what you would be found doing if
death now surprise you ? And whether work or idleness
will be best in the review ?
5. Try a laborious life of well-doing awhile, and the ex-
perience will draw you on.
6. Try yourselves by a standing resolution, and engage
yourselves in necessary business, and that in a set and
stated course ; that necessity and resolution may keep you
from an idle life.
7. Forsake the company of the idle and voluptuous, and
accompany the laborious and diligent.
8. Study well how to do the greatest good you can, that
the worth of the work may draw you on. For they that are
of little use, for want of parts, or skill, or opportunity, are
478 LIFE OF FAITH.
more liable to be tempted into idleness, as thinking their
work is to no purpose : when the well-furnished person doth
long to be exercising his wisdom and virtue in profitable
well-doing.
CHAPTER XVIII.
How by Faith to overcome Unmercifulness to the Needy.
IV. The fourth sin of Sodom, and of prosperity, mentioned
Ezek. xvi. 49. is. They did not " strengthen the hand of the
poor and needy." Against which at the present I shall give
you but these brief directions.
Direct. 1. Love God your Creator and Redeemer, and
then you will love the poorest of your brethren for his sake.
And love will easily persuade you to do them good.
Direct. 2. Labour most diligently to cure your inordi-
nate self-love, which maketh men care little for any but
themselves, and such as are useful to themselves: and
when once you love your neighbours as yourselves, it will
be as easy to persuade you to do good to them as to your-
selves, and more easy to dissuade you from hurting them
than yourselves : (because sensuality tempteth you more
strongly to hurt yourselves, than any thing doth to hurt
them).
Direct* 3. Overvalue not the things of the world ; and
then you will not make a great matter of parting with them,
for another's good.
Direct. 4. Do as you would be done by : and ask your-
selves how you would be judged of and used, if you were in
their condition yourselves.
Direct. 5. Set the life of Christ and his apostles before
you : and remember what a delight it was to them to do
good : and at how much dearer a rate Christ shewed mercy
to you and others, than he requireth you to shew mercy at
to any.
Direct. 6. Read over Christ's precepts of charity and
mercy, that a thing so frequently urged on you, may not be
senselessly despised by you.
Direct. 1 . Remember that mercy is a duty applauded by
all the world ; as human interest requireth it ; so human
LIFE OF FAITH. 479
nature approveth it in all. Good and bad, even all the
world do lov€ the merciful : or if the partial interest of some
proud and covetous persons (as the popish clergy for in-
stance), do call for cruelty against those that are not of
their mind, and for their profit; yet this goeth so much
against the stream of the common interest, and the light of
human nature, that mankind will still abhor their cruelty,
though they may affright a few that are near them from
uttering their detestation. All men speak well of a merci-
ful man, and ill of the unmerciful.
Direct. 8. Believe Christ's promises which he hath made
to the merciful, so fully and frequently in Scripture : as in
Matt. v. 7. Luke vi. 36. Prov. xi. 17. Psal. xxxvii. 26,
&c. And believe his threatenings against the unmerciful,
that they shall find no mercy ; Prov. xii. 10. James ii. 13.
And remember how Christ hath described the last judg-
ment, as passing upon this reckoning ; Matt. xxv.
Direct, 9. Live not in fleshly sensuality yourselves : for
else your flesh will devour all ; and if you have hundreds
and thousands a year, will leave you but little or nothing
to do good with.
Direct. 10. Engage yourselves (not by rash vows, but
by resolution and practice) in a stated way of doing good,
and take not only such occasions as fall out unexpectedly.
Set apart a convenient proportion of your estates, as God
doth bless you ; and let not needless occasions divert it,
and defraud the poor, and you of the benefit.
Direct, 11. Remember still that nothing is absolutely
your own, but God who lendeth it you hath the true pro-
priety, and will certainly call you to an account. And ask
yourselves daily, How shall I wish at the day of reckoning,
that I had expended and used all my estate ? and do ac-
cordingly.
Direct. 12. Forget not what need you stand in daily of
the mercy of God; and what need you will shortly be in,
when your health and wealth will fail you. And how
earnestly then you will cry to God for mercy, mercy !
*' Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also
shall cry himself, but shall not be heard ;" Prov. xxi. 13.
Direct. 13. Hearken not to an unbelieving heart, which
will tell you that you may want yourselves, and therefore
would restrain you from well-doing. If God be to be trusted
480 LIFE OF FAITH.
with your souls, he is to be trusted with your bodies. God
trieth whether indeed you take him for your God, by trying
whether you can trust him. If you deal with him as with a
bankrupt, or a deceitful man, whom you will trust no fur-
ther than you have a present pawn or security, in case he
should deceive you ; you blaspheme him, instead of taking
him for your God.
Direct, 14. Let your greatest mercy be shewed in the
greatest things ; and let the good of men's souls be your
end even in your mercy to their bodies. And therefore
do all in such a manner as tendeth most to promote the
highest end. " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall ob-
tain mercy."
CHAPTER XIX.
How to live hy Faith in Adversity.
If I should give you distinct directions, for the several
'cases of poverty, wrongs, persecutions, unkindnesses, con-
tempt, sickness, &c. it would swell this treatise yet bigger
than I intended. I shall therefore take up with this general
advice.
Direct, 1. * In all adversity remember the evil of sin,
which is the cause, and the holiness and justice of God
which is exercised;' and then the hatred of sin, and the
love of God's holiness and justice will make you quietly
submit. You will then say, when repentance is serious, *' I
will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned
against him ;" Micah vii. 9. And, *' why doth a living man
complain, a man for the punishment of his sins ?" Lam. iii.
39. " Let us search and try our ways, and turn again unto
the Lord ; for he hath smitten, and he will heal," &c. ; ver.
40, 41.
Object, * But doth not Job's case tell us, that some af-
flictions are only for trial, and not for sin V
Answ. No ; it only telleth us that the reason why Job is
chosen out at that time, to suffer more than other men, is
not because he was worse than others, or as bad ; but for
his trial and good. But, 1. Affliction as it is now existent
in the world upon mankind, is the fruit of Adam's sin at
LIFE OF FAITH. 481
first, and contained in the peremptory unremitted sentence.
2. And this general state of suffering- mankind, is now in
the hand and power of Christ, who sometimes indeed doth
let out more on the best than upon others, and that espe-
cially for their trial and good; but usually some sins of
their own also have a hand in them, and procure the evil,
though his mercy turn it to their benefit.
Direct. 2. * Deal closely and faithfully with your hearts
and lives in a suffering time,' and rest not till your consci-
ences are well assured that no special provocation is the
cause, or else do testify that you have truly repented, and
resolved against it.
Otherwise you may lengthen your distress, if you leave
that thorn in your sore which causeth it : or else God may
change it into a worse ; or may give you over to impeni
tency, which is worst of all : or at least, you will want that
assured peace with God, and solid peace of conscience,
which must be your support and comfort in afliiction ; and
so will sink under it, as unable to bear it.
Dixect. 3. * Remember that the sanctifying fruit of ad-
versity is first and more to be looked after, than either the
comfort or the deliverance.' And therefore that all men,
no nor all Christians, must not use the same method, in the
same affliction, when as their spiritual cases differ.
A clear conscience, and one that hath walked faithfully
with God, and fruitfully in the world, and kept himself
from his iniquity, may bend most of his thoughts to the
comforting promises, and happy end. But one man hath
been bold with wilful sin, and his work must be first, to re-
new repentance, and see that there be no root of bitterness
left behind, and to set upon true reformation of life, and re-
paration of the hurt which he hath done.
Another is grown into love with the world, and hath let
out his heart to pleasant thoughts and hopes of prosperity,
and alienated his thoughts more than before from God.
This man must first perceive his error, and hear God's voice
which calleth him home, and see the characters of vanity
and vexation written on the face of that which he over-
loved ; and then think of comfort when he hath got a cure.
Another is grown dull and careless of his soul, and hath
lost much of his sense of things eternal, and is cold in love,
VOL. XII. I I
482 LIFE OF FAITH.
and cold in prayer, and liveth as if he were grown weary of
God, and weary of well-doing. His work must be to feel
the smart of God's displeasure, so far as to awaken him td
repentance, and set him again with former seriousness, up-
on his duty : and when he mendeth his pace, he may desire
to be eased of the rod and spur. But to give unseasonable
cordials to any of these, is but to frustrate the affliction,
and to hurt them, and prepare for worse. Nay, and when
they are comforted in season, it must be with due caution :
** Go thy way, and sin no more, lest a worse thing come
unto thee.*' It is pernicious unskilfulness in those com-
forters of the afflicted, who have the same customary words
of comfort for all ; and by their improper cordials unseason-
ably applied, delude poor souls, and hinder that necessary
rfepentance which God by so sharp a means doth call
them to.
Direct. 4. * Remember that your part in affliction is to
do your duty, and to get the benefit of it : but to remove it
is God's part:' Therefore be you careful about that part
which is your own, and then make no question but God will
do his part. Let it be your first question therefore, ' What
is it that I am obliged to in this condition V ' What is the
special duty of one in this sickness, this poverty, imprison-
ment, restraint, contempt, or slander, which I undergo?'
Be careful daily to do that duty, and then never fear the
issue of your suffering : nothing can go amiss to him that is
found in the way of his duty.
And let it be your next question, ' What spiritual good
may be got by this affliction ? May not my repentance be
renewed ? My self-denial, humility, contempt of the world,
patience, and confidence on God, be exercised and in-
creased by it? And is not this the end of liiy heavenly
Father ? Is not his rod an act of love and kindness to me ?
Doth he not offer me by it all this good ?'
And let your next question be, * Have I yet got that
good which God doth offer me ? Have I any considerable
benefit to shew, which I have received by this affliction
since itcatne?' If not, why should you desire it to be
taken away ? Play not the hypocrite in speaking that good
of an afflicting God, which you do not seriously believe :
If you believe that God is wisier than you, to know what is
LIFE OF FAITtt. 483
fittest for you, and that he is better than you, and therefor©
hath better ends than you can have ; and that really he of-
fereth you far greater good by your sufferings, than he
taketh from you : let your affections then be agreeable to
this belief: Are you afraid of your own commodity? Do
you impatiently long to be delivered from your gain? Are
you so childish as to pull off the plaister, if you believe that
it is curing the sore ? And that it cannot be well and safely
done without it : Do you call it the fruit of God's wisdom
and love, and yet be as weary of it, as if there were nothing in
it but his wrath ? Trust God with his work who never faileth ;
and be careful of your own, who are conscious of un-
trustiness.
Direct. 5. ' Look principally to your hearts, that they
grow not to an overvaluing of the prosperity of the flesh ; nor
to an undervaluing of holiness and the prosperity of the
soul. For this unhappy carnality doth both cause affliction,
and make us unprofitable and impatient under it.
1. He that is a worldling, or a voluptuous flesh-pleaser,
and savoureth nothing but the things of the flesh, will
think himself undone, when his pleasure, and plenty, and
honour with men, is taken away. Nothing maketh men
grieve for the loss of any worldly commodity, bo much as
the overloving of it. It is love that seeketh it when you are
in hope, and love that mourneth when you are in want, as
well as love which delighteth in it when you possess it : as
sick men use to love health better than those that never
felt the want of it ; so it is too common with poor men to
love riches better than the rich that never needed : (and yet,
poor souls, they deceive themselves, and cry out against
the rich, as if they were the only lovers of the world, when
they love it more themselves, though they cannot get it.)
Never think of bearing affliction with a patient and submis-
sive mind, as long as you overlove the things which afflic-
tion taketh from you : for the loss of them will tear those
hearts which did stick so inordinately to them.
2. And if you grow to an undervaluing of holiness, you
can never be reconciled to afflicting Providence. For it is
for our profit that God correcteth us ; but for what profit?
That we ** may be partakers of his holiness ;" Heb. xii. 10.
14. If therefore you undervalue that which is God's end.
484 LIFE OF FAITH.
and goeth for your gain, you will never think that you are
gainers or savers by his rod. In correction God doth as it
were make a bargain with you ; he will take away your
riches, or your friends, or your health, and he will give you
(if you refuse it not) increase of patience, and mortification
in the stead of them : he will exchange so much heavenly-
mindedness, for so much of the treasures or pleasures of
the world. And now, if you do not like the bargain, if
really you had rather have more health, than more holiness ;
more of the world, than more heavenly-mindedness ; more
fleshly pleasure, than more mortification of fleshly desires,
you will never then like the correcting hand of God, nor
rightly profit by it : you will grudge at his dealing, and
wish that you were out of his hand, and in your own ; and
that your estates, and health, and friends, were not at his
disposal, but at your's ; and you will lose the offered bene-
fit, because you value it not, and accept it not as it is of-
fered you.
3. And those that have some esteem of holiness, and yet
neglect the duty which should procure the exercise and in-
crease of grace, do make correction burdensome by making
it unprofitable to them. For to hear that they may be gain-
ers by affliction, and to find that they are not, will not re-
concile them to it. Whereas if they had really got the
benefit, it would quiet them, and comfort them, and make
them patient, and thankful to their Father. What have you
to shew that you gained by your sufferings ? Are you
really more mortified, more penitent, more humble, more hea-
venly, more obedient, more patient than you were before ?
If you are so, you cannot possibly think that it hath been
to your loss to be afflicted : for no one that hath these
graces can so undervalue them, as to think that worldly
prosperity or ease is better. But if you have not such gain
to shew, what wonder if you are weary of the medicine
which healeth not? And if, when you have made it to do
you no good, you complain of it, when it is yourselves, that
you should complain of. If you could say, that before you
were afflicted, you went astray, but now you have learnt
and kept God's precepts, you might then say by experience,
" It is good for me that I was afflicted ;" Psal. cxix. 67. 71.
And men are taught by natural self-love, not to think ill of
LIFE OF FAITH. 485
that which doth them good, if by experience they know it.
You will then confess that God in very faithfulness afflicteth
you ; Psal. cxix. 75.
Direct. 6, * Remember that nothing can be amiss which
is done by God :' for where there is perfection of power,
and wisdom, and goodness, no actions can be bad. And
there is nothing done by any of your afflicters, which is not
governed by the will of God : " Shall there be evil in a city,
and the Lord hath not done it?" Amos iii. 6. "So the
king hearkened not to the people ; for the cause was of
God, that the Lord might perform his word ;" 2 Chron. x.
15. God who would not cause the sin, is said to be the
cause of the event as a punishment, because he wisely per-
mitted it for that end ; " Him being delivered by the deter-
minate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken,
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain ;" Acts ii. 23.
" The people of Israel were gathered to do, whatsoever thy
hand and thy counsel determined before to be done ;" (Acts
iv. 28.) that is, he willed by his antecedent will, that Christ
should be a sacrifice for sin ; and he willed by his conse-
quent will, (as a Judge and punisher of man's sin) that the
rebellious Jews should be left to their malicious wills, to
execute. And that God Vf^hich moderateth the wills and
actions of the most malicious men and devils, will restrain
them from violating any of his promises for his servants'
good.
Direct. 7. * Always keep before your eyes the example
of a crucified Christ, and of all his holy apostles and mar-
tyrs which have followed him.' " Look still to Jesus the
author and finisher of your faith, who for the joy that was
set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your mind ;"
Heb. xii. 2, 3. If you did determine to know nothing but
Christ crucified, and by his cross had crucified the world,
(1 Cor. ii. 2. Gal. vi. 14.) you would be able to say, *' I
am crucified with Christ, yet I live," that is, " not I, but
Christ liveth in me ;" Gal. ii. 20. And to look on the plea-
sure and glory of the world, as the world did look on a
crucified Christ, when they shook the head at him as he
hanged on the cross. You would love the narrow suffering
48G LIFE OF FAITH.
way, where you see before you the footsteps of your Lord,
and of so many holy martyrs and believers : you would say,
sure this is the safe and blessed way, in which Christ, and
all the heavenly army have passed hence unto their crown :
you would say, '* Is the servant greater than his Lord?" If
thus the innocent Lord of life, and Master of the house was
injured and afflicted, am I better than he ? Though he suf-
fered to save me from hell, yet not to save me from the
purifying trials here on earth. ** Doubtless you would
count all things but loss, for the excellency of the know-
ledge of Jesus Christ, and count them but dung that you
might win him and that you might know him, and the
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffer-
ings, being made conformable to his death;" Phil. iii. 8. 10.
Direct. 8. * Keep the eye of faith still fixed on the eter-
nal glory ; that you may understand what affliction is, when
you take it with its ends.' Remember what eternal joys it
leadeth to ; and what thoughts you will have of all your
pain, when you find yourselves in the everlasting rest. Re-
member where all tears shall be wiped from yaur eyes ; and
who dare blame that way as narrow or foul, which bringeth
us to such an end. ** They that sow in tears, shall reap in
joy : He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious
seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him ;" Psal. cxxvi. 5,Q. '* Blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted ;" Matt. v. 4,
Is not eternal joy sufficient for you? When you are suffer-
ing with the church-militant, look up to the church-tri-
umphant ; and remember that they were lately as low, as
sad, as sorrowful as you, and you shall shortly be as high,
as glad, as joyful as they. Look into heaven, and see what
you suffer for, and think whether that be not worthy of
harder terms than any you can undergo. " If we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified together : For I
reckon that the sufferings of this present time, are not wor-
thy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us ;" Rom. viii. 17, 18. ** For which cause we faint not:
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day ; For our light affliction which is but
for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory : While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen : For
LIFE OF FAITH. 487
the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a
building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens ;" 2 Cor. iv. 16 — 18. Heaven well believed,
will enable us patiently and cheerfully to bear all things.
He will account the very reproach of Christ to be greater
riches than the treasures of the world, who looketh believ-
ingly to the recompence of reward ; Heb. xi. 26.
Direct. 9. ' Learn to die, and then you have learned to
suffer.' He that can bear death, by the power of faith, can
bear almost any thing. And he that is well prepared to die,
is prepared for any affliction ; and he that is not, is unpre-
pared for prosperity.
Direct. 10. * Remember still that life being so very short,
the afflictions of believers are as short.' We have so little
a time to live, that we have but a little while to suffer. And
*• if thou faint in the day of adversity,'' when it is so little
awhile to night, ** thy strength is small ;" Prov. xxiv. 10.
Direct. 11. * Remember that thou bearest but the com-
mon burden of the sons of Adam, who are born to sorrow as
the sparks fly upward : and that thou art like to all the
members of Christ, who must take up their cross, and suf-
fer with him, if they will reign with him : and that thou art
but going the common way to heaven, which that heavenly
society hath trod before thee.' And canst thou expect to be
exempted both from the lot of human lapsed nature, and
from the lot of all the saints ? If thou wouldst be carried
to heaven in the chariot of Elias, and couldst expect to
escape the jaws of death, yet must thou endure the persecu-
tion, weariness and hunger of Elias before such a change.
Direct. 12. ' Think also how unreasonable it is, for one
that must have eternal glory, to grudge at a little suffering
in the way, and for one that is saved from the torments of
hell, to think it much to be duly chastened on earth.' For
a Lazarus that must be comforted in Abraham's bosom, to
murmur that he waiteth awhile in poverty at the rich man's
doors ? Shall a wicked worldling venture into endless pains,
and put himself out of the hopes of heaven, and all this for
a short and foolish pleasure? And will you grudge to suffer
so small and short a chastisement in the way to an endless
rest and joy?
488 LIFE OF FAITH.
Direct. 13. ' Think why it is that Christ hath so largely
commanded, and blest a suffering state, and chosen such a
life for those that he will save : and why he so often pro-
nouncethawoe to the prosperous world :' It is not for want
of love to his disciples ; nor for want of power to secure
their peace. *' Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their's is
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for
they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that are perse-
cuted for righteousness* sake ; for their's is the kingdom of
heaven ;" Matt. v. 3, 4. 10. " Woe unto you that are rich !
for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that
are full ! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now!
for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you when all men
shall speak well of you ! for so did their fathers to the false
prophets ;" Luke vi. 24 — 26. ** My brethren, count it all joy
when ye fall into divers temptations (that is, trying afflic-
tions), knowing that the trying of your faith worketh pa-
tience ;" James i. 2, 3. " Go to now ye rich men, weep
and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you ;" James
v. 1,2. All these words are not for nothing: and judge
how he should think of adversity who believeth them.
Direct, 14. * Mark well whether you find not that your-
selves and others are usually much better in affliction, than
in prosperity :' and whether there be not something in the
one to make you better, and in the other to delude men,
and make them worse. O look and tremble at the dangers
and doleful miseries of most that are lifted high ! how they
are blinded, flattered, and captivated in sin, and are the
shame of nature, and the calamity of the world ! and mark
when they come to die, or lie in sickness, how enlightened,
how penitent, how humble, how mortified and reformed
they then seem to be, and how much they condemn all sin,
and justify a holy life : and observe yourselves whether you
be not wiser and better, more penitent, and less worldly in
an afflicted state : and will you think that intolerable,
which so much bettereth almost all the world ? Alas ! were it
not for affliction, there are some Nebuchadnezzars that would
never be humbled, and some Pharaohs that would never
confess their sins, and some Manassehs that would never
be converted. Many in heaven are thankful for affliction,
and so should we. "It is better to go to the house of
mourning, than to the house of feasting : for that is the end
LIFE OF FAITH. 489
of all men, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is
better than laughter ; for by the sadness of the countenance
the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the
house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of
mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for
a man to hear the song of fools : for as the crackling of
thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool ;" Eccles-
vii. 2—6.
Do you not perceive that a merry, prosperous state in-
clineth to folly, levity, rashness, inconsiderateness, stupi-
dity, forgetting the latter end, &c. ? And that a sadder
frame is more awakened, illuminated, fixed, sensible, consi-
derate and fit for great employments ? Quarrel not then
with your physician, because he dieteth you as tendeth to
your cure, and turneth you not over to the diet of desperate
patients, or of fools.
Direct, 15. * If God afilict you, add not causeless afflic-
tion to yourselves.' If he touch your friends, or body, or
estate, do not you therefore touch and tear your hearts. If
you have not enough, why do you complain of it? If you
have enough, why do you make yourselves more? He that
hath said, " Bessed are they that mourn," did never mean
that those are blessed that mourn erroneously, for nothing,
or for that which is their benefit, or that peevishly quarrel
with God and man, or that wilfully by pride or impatiency
torment themselves. He meant not to bless the sorrow of
the covetous that grieveth because he is not rich, or be-
cause he is wronged, or is a loser in some commodity ; nor
to bless the sorrow of the proud, who is troubled because
he is not observed, honoured or preferred : nor the sorrow
of the sensual, who grieve when their lusts and pleasures
are restrained : nor the sorrows of the idle, who grieve if
they are called to diligent labour 5 nor the sorrows of the
envious, who grieveth to see another prosper ; nor the sor-
rows of the cruel, who grieve when they cannot be as hurt-
ful to God's servants, and their neighbours or enemies, as
they desire. It is neither wicked sorrows, nor wilful self-
vexation, which Christ doth bless : but it is the holy im-
proving, and patient enduring the sufferings laid upon us
by God or man.
Direct, 16. * Let patience have its perfect work.' He
that believeth, will not make haste, (James i. 3. Isa. xxviii.
490 LIFE OF FAITH.
16.) God*8 time is best ; and eternity is long enough for
our ease and comfort. It is by patient continuance in well
doing, that glory, honour and immortality must be sought ;
Rom. ii. We shall reap in due season, if we faint not ;
Gal. vi. 9. " Be patient therefore brethren unto the com-
ing of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the
precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it,
until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also pa-
tient : stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord
draweth nigh ;" James v. 7 — 9. When others by impa-
tience lose themselves, do you *' in your patience possess
your souls ;" Luke xxi. 19. " Patience worketh experience,
and experience hope, which maketh not ashamed ;" Rom.
V. 4. *' If we hope for that we see not, then do we with pa-
tience wait for it ;" Rom. viii. 25. Through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures it is that we have hope ; Rom. xv.
4. Therefore we have need of patience, that when we have
done the will of God, we may inherit the promise ; Heb. x.
36. 11.
CHAPTER XX.
How to live by Faith, in Troubles of Conscience , and Doubts or
Terrors about our Spiritual and Everlasting State.
Having written a treatise called, " The Right Method for
Spiritual Peace and Comfort," &c. upon this subject already,
I must refer the reader thither, and here only add these few
directions.
Direct. 1. ' Distinguish of the several causes of these
troubles;* and take heed of those unskilful mountebanks,
who have the same cure for every such disease, and speak
present comfort to all that they hear complain ; and that
think every trouble of mind is some notable work of the
Spirit of God ; when it is often the fruit of the manifold
weakness or wilfulness of the troubled complainers.
Direct. 2. ' When it is some heinous sin committed, or
great corruption indulged, which doth cause the trouble, be
sure that sound repentance be never omitted in the cure ;
and that a real reformation prove the truth of that repen-
tance.' For Christ never died to justify and save the im-
LIFE OF FAITH. A^l
penitent siiiner : and a deceitful repentance is tbe common
self-deceit and undoing of the world. And how can that be
true repentance, which changeth not the will and life ? God
will not give you peace and comfort, as long as you indulge
your wilful sin.
Note here the difference between, 1. The grossly impeni-
tent : 2. And the mock-repentance of the hypocrite : 3. And
the true repentance of sound believers.
1. The grossly impenitent cannot bring his heart to a
serious purpose to let go his sin, nor to a consent or will-
ingness that God should cure him, and change his mind :
but he had rather have his pride, and covetousness, and
sensuality, to be fully pleased, than to be mortified. Like
a fool in a fever or dropsy, that had rather have drink, than
have the cure of his thirst.
2. The mock-repentance of the hypocrite hath some
purposes under an extraordinary conviction, to leave his
sin; and for a time may seem to do it. But when the
temptation is as strong again, he is the same, and returneth
to his vomit ; or else exchangeth his sin for a worse. And
if you ask him whether he had rather have the mortifying
of all his lusts, or the pleasing of them, his understanding
and conviction may cause him truly to say at the present,
that if God would presently mortify his sin, or offer him
this in choice, he would rather consent to it, than take the
pleasing of them. But mark it, 1. That though he consent
that God should do this himself ; yet he will not consent
to use the means, and do his duty to attain it. If a cold
wish, or a bare consent would change his soul, and take
away all sinful inclinations at once, that he might never
more desire the pleasure of sin, nor be put to any conflict
to overcome it, nor any great difficulty to deny it, and all
this might be done without any labour of his own, I doubt
not but the hypocrite would consent to be so mortified.
But to watch, and pray, and read, and meditate, and use
the means which God appointeth him, both to get mortifi-
cation, and to use it for the conquering of every tempta-
tion; this the hypocrite will not consent to.
2. And what he doth consent to at the present, he con-
senteth not to when his sinful pleasure is revived by the
next temptation.
3. But the true penitent Christian is both willing to be
492 LIFE OF FAITH.
changed and had rather have his lusts to be killed, than
pleased ; and also willing to use God's means both to mor-
tify the inward lust, and to overcome the outward sin : and
this in sincerity is his habitual state.
Direct, 3. * Never forget that, 1. The gracious nature of
God : 2. The sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice and merit ;
And, 3. The truth of the universal offer or promise of par-
don to all (if they will accept the offer) are the foundation
of all our faith and comforts ; and are that universal grace
which is before our special grace or faith, and is presup-
posed to it :' On this foundation all our faith and peace is
to be built.
Direct. 4. ' The particular application of this to our-
selves, is, 1. By believing, and then by knowing that we do
believe ; and then by discerning our privileges upon be-
lieving.'
1. Our believing itself is, 1. Our assent to the truth of
the Gospel : 2. Our acceptance of the good (even Christ
and life) which is offered in it, and consent to the baptismal
covenant with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit : And,
3. Our affiance in Christ and his covenant.
2. To know that we do believe (somehow) is easy, when
we do it : but to be sure that this belief is sincere and sav-
ing, is more difficult, because of the deceitfulness of the
heart of man, and the mixtures of unbelief, and other sins,
and the weakness of grace where it is true, and the counter-
feits of it, and the insufficient degrees which are in hypo-
crites ; so that it is not easy to discern whether the faith
which we have be sincere, and predominant above our sense
and our unbelief (as it must be). But yet it may be known
by such means as these :
1. By labouring to strengthen and increase our faith
and grace, that it may not by the smallness be next to un-
discernible. 2. By subduing all contrary inward corrup-
tions, which obscure it. 3. By frequent exercising it;
seeing habits are discerned only in their acts. 4. By re-
sisting and conquering temptations, and doing all the good
we can in the world, and living as wholly devoted to God,
above all worldly, fleshly interest ; and so, 1. Faith may be
evidenced by its fruits : 2. And God may reward the faith-
ful soul with his assuring seal, and light, and comfort. 5.
By escaping all those lapses into heinous and wilful sin.
LIFE OF FAITH. 493
which cause wounds, and fears, and hinder assurance,
peace and joy. 6. By a wise and constant examination of
the heart, and observation of it, in the time of trial, and
finding the habits and strength of faith, and of unbelief, in
their several actings, and prevalencies in their conflicts. 7.
And withal, escaping those ignorances and errors, about
the nature, means, causes and signs of grace and assurance,
which keep many from it, who have justifying faith. These
seven are the true and necessary means to get assurance of
your own sincerity, and that indeed you have the true seal,
and earnest, and witness of the Spirit of Christ.
3. When you have first truly believed (or consented to
the baptismal covenant of grace), and next got assurance
that you do this in sincerity, the last part is the easiest,
which is to gather up the privileges, or comfortable con-
clusions which follow hereupon: which are your pardon
a.nd justification, your adoption and right to life eternal,
and to all the benefits promised by God, in that covenant
to which you do consent ; which are all comprehended in
the three great relations established by the covenant, viz.
that God is your reconciled God and Father, Christ is your
Head and Saviour, and the Holy Spirit is your Life and
Sanctifier.
These three works which make up assurance, are con-
tained in the three parts of this syllogism. 1. He that truly
believeth, is justified, and adopted, and an heir of life. But
I do truly believe: therefore I am justified, adopted, and
am an heir of life.
Or thus to the same sense.
Every one who truly consenteth to the baptismal cove-
nant, hath right to the blessings of the covenant ; God is
his Father, Christ is his Saviour, and the Holy Spirit is his
Sanctifier. But I do truly consent to the baptismal cove-
nant: therefore I have right to all the benefits of it: God
is my Father, &c.
Direct. 5. * Remember that when you have got assurance,
and have truly gathered this conclusion, the continual and
lively exercise of faith, is still necessary to your actual joy.'
For it is possible for a man to have no notable doubt-
ings of his own sincerity or salvation, and yet to have such
dulness of soul, and such diversions of his thoughts, as that
he shall enjoy but little of the comforts of his own assurance.
494 LIFE OF FAITH.
Therefore true joy requireth much more than bare self-ex-
amination, and discernings of our evidences, and right to
life.
Direct. 6. * When doubts and troubles are caused by
ignorance or error, about the true nature and signs of grace,
and the way of assurance (which is very common) nothing
then is more necessary than a sound and skilful teacher ;*
to work out those mistakes, and to help the ignorant Chris-
tian to a clearer understanding of the terms of the covenant,
and the sense of the promise, and the true methods of
Christ in his gifts and operations. Otherwise the erring
soul will be distracted and lost in a wilderness of doubts,
and either sit down at last presumptuously on false grounds,
or turn to one error to cure the troubles of another ; or
languish in despair ; so lamentable a thing is it to be pos-
sessed with false principles, and to attempt so great work
in the dark.
Direct. 7. * And here there are these two extremes to be
carefully avoided: 1. That of the infidel and justiciary,
who trusteth and teacheth others to trust to his own virtues
and works without a Saviour, or ascribeth the part of a
Saviour to them. 2. The Antinomian and libertine, who
teach men not to look at any thing in themselves at all, no
not as an evidence, or condition, or means, much less as
any cause of life ; but to trust to Christ's blood, to be to
you instead of faith, and repentance, and obedience, and all
your use of means ; and do ascribe the part of these duties
of man, to the blood of Christ ; as if it did belong only to
Christ to do that same thing which belongeth unto them.'
Therefore here you must be sure to be well acquainted
what is truly the office and part of Christ ; and what is truly
the office and part of faith, of repentance, of confession, of
prayer, &c. And to be sure that you wholly trust Christ
for his part, and join not faith, nor any of your own works
or duties in the least degree of that trust or honour which
belongeth to Christ, and his office and work : and that you
faithfully use (yea, I will say, trust too, though ignorance
snarl at it) your faith, repentance, prayer, &c. in and for its
own office and part ; and do not foolishly blaspheme Christ,
by ascribing the part and office of your duty unto him and
his office, under pretence of giving him the honour of them.
It is Christ's office and honour to be a sacrifice for sin, and
LIFE OF FAITH. 495
a propitiation for us, and a perfect Saviour and Intercessor,
and to give us the Spirit, by which we believe, repent, pray,
obey, hope, love, &c. But not to be a penitent believing
sinner, nor to accept of an offered Saviour, nor to be a con-
senting covenanter with God the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, nor to be washed from sin in his blood, reconciled,
adopted, nor to pray for pardon in the name of another, nor
to trust upon a Saviour, nor to be a Disciple, a Subject,
a Member of a Saviour, &c. Nor yet that his blood, or
merits, or righteousness, should be to you instead of these.
No, these are to be done by you.
Direct. 8. In this case also take heed of those ignorant
guides, who know not the errors of fancy, melancholy, or
disturbed passions, from the proper works of the Spirit of
God : for they wrong the Spirit, when they ascribe men's
sinful weaknesses to him. And they greatly wrong the trou-
bled sinner many ways. 1. They puff up men with conceits
that they are under some great and excellent workings of
the Spirit, when they are the works of Satan, and their own
infirmity or sin. 2. They teach them hereby to magnify and
cherish those distempers, and passions, and thoughts, which
they should resist, and lament, and cast away. 3. And they
set them in an enthusiastic, or truly fanatical way of reli-
gion, to look for revelations, or live still upon their own fan-
cies, and passions, and distempers, and Satan's temptations,
conceiting that they live upon the incomes of God, and are
actuated in all this by the Holy Ghost. And of what mis-
chievous importance and consequence all this is, and how
much hurt such zealous ighomnce doth, both in the teachers
and the people, the thing itself doth plainly shew ; and the
sad experience of this age doth shew it more plainly, in
Ranters, Quakers, and other true fanatics, and in many wo-
men, and other weak persons, of better principles than
theirs.
And it is an unsafe course which many such weak per-
sons use, to think in their troubles that every text of Scrip-
tute which cometh into their mind, or every conceit of their
own is a special suggestion of the Spirit of God. You shall
ordinarily hear them say, * Such a text was brought to me,
or was set i^pon my heart, and such a thing was set upon my
mind,' when two to One, it was no otherwise brought unto
them, nor set upon them, than any other ordinary thoughts
496 LIFE OF FAITH*
are; and had no special or extraordinary operation of Cod
in it at all. Though it is certain that every good thought
which cometh into our minds, is some effect of the working
of God's Spirit, as every good word, and every good work
is ; and it is certain that sometimes God's Spirit doth guide
and comfort Christians as a remembrancer, by bringing in-
forming and comforting texts and doctrines to their remem-
brance ; yet it is a dangerous thing to think that all such
suggestions or thoughts are from some special or extraor-
dinary work of the Spirit, or that every text that cometh
into our minds, is brought thither by the Spirit of God
at all.
The reasons are these,
1. Satan can bring a text or truth to our remembrance
for his own ends, as he did to Christ (Matt.iv.) in his temp-
tations.
2. Our own passions or running thoughts, may light
upon some text or truth accidentally, as they do on other
things which so come in.
3. When the Spirit doth in an ordinary way help us in
remembering or meditating on any text or holy doctrine, he
doth it according to our capacity and disposition, and not
in the way of infallible inspiration, and therefore there is
much of our weakness and error usually mixed with the
Spirit's help, in the product: as when you hold the hand of
a child in writing, you write not so well by his hand, as by
your own alone, but your skill and his weakness and un-
skilfulness do both appear in the letters which are made ;
so is it in the ordinary assistance of the Spirit in our studies,
meditations, prayers, &c. otherwise all that we do would be
perfect, in which we have the Spirit's help ; which Scripture,
and all Christians' experience do contradict.
4. And to ascribe that to the Spirit which is not at all
his work, or that which is partly our own work, so far as it
is our own, and savoureth of our weaknesses and error, is a
heinous inj ury to the Spirit.
5. And it tosseth such mistaken Christians up and down
in uncertainties ; while they think all such thoughts are the
suggestions of the Spirit, they meet with many contrary
thoughts, and so are carried like the waves of the sea, some-
times up, and sometimes down ; and they have sometimes a
humbling, terrible text, and the next day perhaps a com-
LIFE OF FAITH. 497
forting text cometh into their minds, and so are between
terrors and comforts, distracted by their own fantasies, and
think it is all done by the Spirit of God.
6. And it is a perverse abusing of the holy Scripture, to
make such remembrances the rule of your application of it
to yourselves : that text which you remember had the same
sense before you remembered it ; and your spiritual state was
the same before. If that text agree with your state, and
either the terror or the comfort of it belong to you, this must
be proved by solid reason, drawn from the true meaning of
the text, and the true state of your souls ; and not supposed
merely because it cometh into your thoughts, or because it
is set upon your hearts. Do you think that your remem-
bering it will prove that it especially belongs to you ? Do
not many comfortable texts come into the minds of hypo-
crites, who are unfit for comfort ? And many terrible texts
come into the minds of humble souls, that have right to com-
fort, and should not be more terrified? You may as well
think that your money or estate is another man^s, because
he thinketh on it : or that another man's dangers and mi-
series are yours^ because you think of them : or that you are
either kings, or lords, or beggars, or thieves, or whatever
cometh into your minds : or that another man's leases or
deeds by which he holdeth his lands, are all yours, because
they are put into your hands to read.
7. And if you go this way to work, you are in danger to
be carried into many other errors and sins, and think that all
is of the Spirit of God, because you feel it set upon your
hearts. And so you will feign the sanctifying Spirit to be
the author of sin, and the lying spirit shall be honoured and
called by his name.
Mark well these following texts of Scripture. " We be-
seech you brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or troubled,
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as
that the day of Christ is at hand : let no man deceive you ;"
2Thess. ii. 1 — 3. You see here that spirit, word and scrip-
ture may be pretended for an untruth.
Satan often saith, " It is written ;'* Matt. iv.
"False apostles and deceitful workers may transform
themselves into the apostles of Christ, and ministers of
VOL. XII. K K
498 LIFE OF FAITH.
righteousness ; and no marvel, for Satan himself is trans-
formed into an angel of light ;'* 2 Cor. xi. 12 — 15.
" Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits,
whether they be of God ;" 1 John iv. 1.
" If we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel
to you, let him be accursed ;" Gal. i. 7, 8.
Quest, ' But how then shall I know when it is the Spirit
which putteth any thing into my mind?'
Answ. 1. The matter itself must be tried, whether it agree
with the sacred Scripture, and must be proved true by the
word of God. 2. The end to which that truth is brought,
must be proved to be just and good ; for Satan pleadeth
truths to sinful ends. 3. The application of them to your
own case must be such as will hold trial, and it must be
proved by sound argument, that indeed they do thus and
thus belong to you : for God's Spirit will not belie you, nor
make you better or worse than you are ; no more than he
will belie the Scriptures.
Object. ' But is it not the same Spirit which spake to the
apostles, which speaketh to us ? If they were to believe him
immediately, so must we ; and seeing the Spirit is above the
Scripture, we must try the Scriptures by the Spirit, and not
the Spirit by the Scriptures.'
Answ. Alas ! how pitifully ignorance bewildereth men !
1. It is the same Spirit which was in the apostles, and is in
the weakest Christian ; but he worketh not in the same de-
gree. He inspired them to infallibility ; being promised to
" lead them into all truth, and to bring all things which
Christ had spoken to their remembrance ; and he enabled
them to prove this by manifold miracles : doth he do all this
by you ? Or had you the same promises ?
2. The same Spirit in them was given to one end, and to
you for another. To them it was given to cause them by
his inspiration to deliver all that Christ had taught them,
and to leave it on record to all generations, as his infallible
word and law, to be the rule of doctrine and practice to the
end of the world. But to you the same Spirit is given, to
cause you to understand, and love, and obey this law which
is already written, and not to write or know another.
3. The Spirit indited the Scriptures before you were born :
and we are sure that that is the word of God ; and we are
LIFE OF FAITH. 409
sure that God's Spirit contradicteth not itself. Therefor^
your after pretended revelations, must be tried by the cer-
tain ancient rule, which had the seal of miracles which yours
hath not.
Object. * But how shall I know what application to make
of Scripture to myself, but by the teaching of the Spirit of
God?'
Answ. But you must not take every thought and sugges-
tion or remembrance, to be the Spirit's application. God's
Spirit teacheth men by the light of sound evidence, which
may be proved, and will hold good in trial. He teacheth
you by exciting you to rational studies and argumentation,
and by blessing you in such sober use of God's means : but
he doth not teach you to know your state, by the bare re-
membering of a text.
Direct. 9. ' Take heed also of misunderstanding what is
the witness of the Spirit, that we are God's children.'
Many think it is like some voice, or suggestion, or inspi-
ration within them, saying. Thou art the child of God. And
so many Christians languish in terrors, that feel no such
persuading Spirit in them. And many hypocrites are deluded
by the persuasions of their own imaginations. But in Scrip-
ture the word witness is oft taken for evidence, or an ob-
jective testimony. And the Spirit's being a witness, and
being a seal, an earnest, a pledge, a white stone, a new
name, &c. are all of the like signification : and the meaning
is, " By this we know that we are the children of God, or
that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us ;"
1 John iii. 10. 24. iv. 13. And " if any one have not the
Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his ;" Rom. viii. 9. As
if he should say. Have you the Spirit of Christ, or have you
not ? If you have, that is a seal, an earnest, a pledge of
God's love, and of your heavenly inheritance, and a certain
evidence or witness that you are his children ; Gal. iv. 6.
He that loveth God as his Father in Christ, and is sanctified
to God, hath the Spirit. Shew this love, and this sanctifi-
cation, and you produce the true witness that you are the
heirs of life. Holiness, and heavenliness, and love, is the
witness, seal and earnest ; and not chiefly an inward per-
suasion that we are God's children.
2. Yet this much more the Spirit doth ; when it hath
sanctified us, and given us the witness or evidence in our-
500 LIFE OF FAITH.
selves (1 John v. 10, 11.), he also helpeth us to see and know
that grace which he giveth and actuateth in us.
3. And also to conclude from that evidence, that we are
God's children : and also to feel the inward comfort of that
conclusion. But all this he doth by these means in a dis-
carsive or rational way, and by blessing such reasoning to
our comfort.
4. Also he comforteth the soul in another way, distinct
from the way of concluding from evidence ; and that is by
exciting the love of God and his praises in us, which are of
themselves delighting acts. But of this anon.
Direct, 10. ' Take heed of heretical seducers, who use to
fish in troubled waters, and to fall in with such perplexed
consciences, to persuade them that all the cause of their
trouble is their opinions, and unsound religion, and not in
them ; and that the only way to comfort, is to change their
religion, and to come over unto them.
No person more fit for a Quaker, a Papist, or any sectary
to work upon, than a troubled mind. For such are like the
ignorant country people in their sickness, who will hearken
to any one who putteth them in hope, and promiseth them
ease, and most confidently tells them, that he can cure them,
and saith, * I was just in your case, and such, or such a thing
cured me :' so will the formalist, and the fanatic, the Papist,
and the Quaker say, ' I was just in your condition.' ' I was
troubled, and could get no peace of conscience, no joy in
the Holy Ghost, but was always held in fears and doubting,
till I changed my religion ; and ever since that I have been
well, and O what joys I have to boast of!* And if it be an
unsound hypocrite that is thus tempted, perhaps God may
give them over to find abundance of bedlam joy, in the sud-
den change of their opinion : and falsehood may comfort
that man, whom the truth which he was false to, would not
comfort. ;^ut if it be a weak, sincere believer ; if God shew
him not so much mercy as to rescue him from the tempta-
tion, he will do as the aforesaid country patient ; he will try
one man's medicines, and another woman's medicines, and
hearken to every one that can speak confidently, and pro-
mise him a cure, till he hath tried, that their case and his
were not the same, and that they were all but ignorant, de-
ceived deceivers ; and when all fail him, he will come back
again, to the faithful, experienced directors of his soul.
LIFE OF FAITH. 501
Direct, 11. 'If weakness of grace be the cause of doubt-
ing (which is of all other, the most common cause in the
world), the way to comfort is that same which is the way to
strengthen grace.'
Such a one, if ever he will have joy, must be taught how
to live the life of faith, and to walk with God, and to mor-
tify the flesh, and get loose from the world, and to live as
entirely devoted to God ; and especially how to keep every
grace in exercise ; and then grace will shew itself, as the air
doth in a windy season, or as the fire when it is blown up
and flameth. There is no surer or readier way to comfort,
than to get faith, repentance, love, hope and obedience, in
a vigorous activity, and great degree, and then to keep them
much in action. Mountebanks and sectaries have other
ways ; but this is the constant, certain way.
Direct. 12. ' If you perceive that trouble is caused by
misunderstanding the covenant of grace, and looking at le-
gal works of merit, as the ground of peace, and overlooking
the sufficiency of the sacrifice, merits, or intercession of
Christ, the principal thing to be done with such a soul is,
to convince him of the impossibility of being justified by
works, on legal terms ; and to shew him the necessity of a
Saviour, and the design of God in man*s redemption, and
that there is " but one Mediator between God and man, and
one name by which we can be saved ; and that Christ is the
Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man cometh to the
Father, but by the Son ; and that be was made sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him ; and that of God he is made unto us, wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption ; and
that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son ;
and that he that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath
not the Son, hath not life ; and that there is no condemna-
tion to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit ; but he that believeth not is con-
demned already." Thus must Christ crucified, the propitia-
tion for the sins of all the world, be preached to them, who
are troubled as for want of a Saviour, or an atonement, a sa-
crifice, or ransom, or propitiation for sin ; or because they
are not instead of a Saviour to themselves.
But to tell a man only of the sacrifice and merits of
Christ, who doubteth only of his interest in him, and of the
502 LIFE OF FAITH.
truth of his own faith, repentance and sanctification, is to
prate impertinently, and to delude the sinner, and to deal
injuriously with Christ.
Direct. 13. * If melancholy be the cause of the trouble
(which is very ordinary) it will be necessary, 1. Well to un-
derstand it : And, 2. To know the cure :' Of which having
spoken more largely elsewhere, I shall now give you only
this brief information.
1. The signs of this melancholy are, overstretched, con-
fused, ungovernable thoughts ; continual fear, and inclina-
tion to despair, and to cry out, undone, undone ; I am for-
saken of God ; the day of grace is past ; I have sinned
against the Holy Ghost ; never any man's case was like
mine ! And usually their sleep is gone or broken, and they
are inclined to be alone, and to be always musing, with
their confounded thoughts ; and at last are tempted to blas-
phemous thoughts against the Scriptures, and the life to
come, and perhaps urged to utter some blasphemous words
against God ; and if it go to the highest, they are tempted to
famish or make away with themselves.
2. The cure of it lieth, 1. In setting those truths before
them which tend most to quiet and satisfy their minds. 2.
In engaging them in the constant labours of a calling, in
which both mind and body may be employed. 3. In keep-
ing them in fit and cheerful company which they love, and
suffering them to be very little alone. 4. In keeping them
from musing, and that meditation or thoughtfulness which
to others is most profitable, and a duty. 5. Keeping them
from over-long secret prayer (because they are unable for
it, and it doth but confound them, and disable them for
other duties) ; and let them be the more in other duties
which they can bear. 6. And if the state of their bodies
require it, physic is necessary, and hath done good to many
(if rightly chosen).
Direct. 14. * Take heed of foolish, carnal, hasty expecta-
tions of comfort from the bare words of any man ; but use
men's advice only to direct you in that way, where, by pa-
tience and faithfulness, you may meet with it in due season.'
Nothing is more usual with silly souls, than to go to
this or that excellent minister, whom they deservedly ad-
mire, and to look that with an hour or two's discourse he
should comfort them, and set all their bones in joint : and
LIFE OF FAITH. 503
when they find that it is not done, they either despair, or
turn to the next deceivers, and say, ' I tried the best of
them : and if such a man cannot do it, none of them can do
it/ But, silly soul, do physicians use to charm men into
health ? Wilt thou go and talk an hour with the ablest phy-
sician, and say, that because his talk doth not cure thee,
thou wilt never go to a physician more, but go to ignorant
people that will kill thee? Thou hast then thy own de-
serving; even take the death that thou hast chosen, and
drink as thou hast brewed. The work of a minister is not
to cure thee always immediately, by comfortable words.
(What words can cure an ignorant, melancholy, or uncapa-
ble soul !) But to direct thee in thy duty, and in the use of
those means, which if thou wilt faithfully and patiently
practise, thou shalt certainly be cured in due time : if thou
wilt use the physic, diet and exercise, which thy physician
doth prescribe thee, it is that which must restore thy health
and comfort, and not the saying over a few words to thee.
If thou lazily look that other men's words or prayers should
cure and comfort thee without thy own endeavours, thou
may est thank thyself when thou art deceived.
Direct, 15. ' The principal means of comfort is to live in
the exercise of comfortable duties.'
Faith, hope, and especially the love of God, are duties
which are also man's felicity : and the exercise of these in
praises and thanksgiving, are the proper pleasure of the
soul. Give up thyself wholly to study the goodness and
love of God in Jesus Christ, till thou feel thy heart inflamed
with his love, and spend half thy godly conference in God's
praises, and half thy daily prayers in that, and in thanks-
giving ; and this will comfort thee not only by the reason-
ing way of evidence ; but as a feast pleaseth thy taste, and
as a fire warmeth thee, or as the loving of thy friend de-
lighteth thee, or as health itself is the pleasure of thy flesh.
As the sins themselves of not knowing God, nor loving
him, nor delighting in him, are the greatest part of the
penalty, or rather misery of the sinner (which hath its pecu-
liar way of remission), so the knowledge, and love, and
praise of God, and delighting in him, is instead of a reward
unto itself, and a beginning of heaven to the heavenly be-
liever.
Direct. 16. ' Dwell much in heaven, if thou would dwell
504 LIFE OF FAITH.
in comfort. Comfort yourselves and one another with these
words, that we shall for ever be with the Lord.' Heaven is
the place or state of our everlasting comfort ; and all that
we have here must come from thence : and faith, and hope,
and love must fetch it. He that will have carnal joy, must
go for it to pastime, or lasts and pleasure, to an alehouse,
or a whore, or to a gaming-house, or a playhouse, or to his
wealthy and worldly honours : but he that will have hea-
venly joy, must go for it by faith to heaven ; and dwell there
every day by faith, where he hopes to dwell for ever.
Heaven will not comfort either them that believe it not, or
them that remember it not; but them whose conversation
and hearts are there ; Phil. iii. 20, 21.
Direct, 17. ' Set yourselves wholly to do good.' Resolve
that you will be faithful to Christ, and do all the good that
you can in the world, and let him do with you what he will :
and in this way you shall quickly find, that the soundest
consolation will come into your souls, before you could ex-
pect it. Though no works of our own can add any thing to
God, nor must be trusted to at all, in a legal sense ; and
though blind libertines tell you, that all comfort is legal
and unsound, which came by the thoughts of any thing in
yourselves, or any of your own doings ; yet God is no such
enemy to godliness, but he that will hereafter judge you to
heaven or hell according to your works, will now judge you
to joy and sorrow of heart, usually according to your
works : Well-doing shall afford you peace, and ill-doing
shall disquiet you, when all is said.
Direct, 18. * Lastly, Be sure, while you want the com-
forts of assurance, to hold fast those comforts which ration-
ally belong to common grace, and to them that have the
Gospfel offers of salvation.' When the Gospel came to
Samaria, (Acts viii.) "there was great joy in that city." It
is glad tidings in itself for guilty souls to have Christ and
pardon freely offered to them. Can you not say, I am sure
that I am regenerate, justified, and adopted ? For all that,
if you be not infidels, you can say, * I am sure that Christ,
and pardon, and heaven, are freely offered me, and ministers
are commissioned to entreat me to accept it ; and nothing
but my wilful and final refusal can deprive me of it, and
shut me out.' This is certain ; take but so much comfort
as this much should rationally infer.
LIFE OF FAITH. 505
To which I might add, the comforts of your probability,
when you are in some degree of hope, that your faith and
repentance are sincere, though you are not certain: but
this I have more largely spoken of (and the rest which is
needful to be spoken on this subject) in the fore-named
treatise long ago.
The ordinary and long troubles and unsettledness of
honest Christians, are caused most, 1. By unskilful guides,
who are most confident, where they are most ignorant, and
revile those truths and methods which God hath appointed
for the settling of men's peace : 2. And by their own lazy
and unskilful course ; who take up most with examining
and complaining, instead of learning more understanding in
God's methods, and diligent amending what is amiss, that
the cause of their trouble might be taken away.
CHAPTER XXI.
How to live hy Faith in the Public Worshipping of God.
I MAY not be so tedious (nor do that which is done else-
where) as to direct you in the several parts of worship dis-
tinctly ; but shall only give you some brief directions about
public worship in general.
Direct, 1. * Come not before God with Pharisaical con-
ceits of the worthiness of yourselves, or worship, as if you
offered him something which did oblige him : but come as
humble receivers, that need him and his grace, who needeth
not you ; and as learners that hope to be wiser and better
by drawing near to God.'
You know Christ's instance of the prayers of the Pha-
risee and the Publican : and remember that many a one's
heart saith, " I thank thee Lord that I am not as other men,
or as this Publican," whose tongue can spend an hour or
more in sad confessions ; yea, and that it is those very co-
pious confessions of their badness, that puiF them up as if
they were so good.
Yea, many a one that in opinion is most vehement against
all our works in our justification, or looking at any thing in
ourselves at all, to make us acceptable with God, as being
against free grace in Christ, do yet look so much at that
506 LIFE OF FAITH.
which is (or is conceited to be) in themselves, that few
churches on earth are thought worthy of their communion.
Note also, that it is sacrificing which is commonly the
hypocrite's worship in the Old Testament, and hearing and
obeying which he neglecteth, and God calls him to : as
you may see at large in Isa. i. throughout ; and many other
places : " Sacrifice and offering thou didst not require ;
mine ears hast thou opened," &c. ; Psal. xl. 6. " I will
not reprove thee for thy sacrifices and burnt- offerings, to
have been continually before me ; I will take no bullock
out of thy house For every beast of the forest is mine,
&c. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world
is mine, and the fulness thereof Offer to God thanks-
giving, and pay thy vows to the Most High. And call upon
me in the day of trouble But to the wicked, saith God,
What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou
shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou
hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee ;
Psal. 1. 8, 9, &c.
"Hath the Lord delight in burnt-ojfferings, and sacri-
fices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey
is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of
rams ;" 1 Sam. xv. 22, 23.
" Know, that the Lord hath chosen the man that is godly
for himself Stand in awe and sin not— — Offer the sacri-
fices of righteousness ;" Psal. iv. 3 — 5.
" The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit ;" Psal.li. 17.
" Learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice ;'* Matt. ix. 13. xii. 7.
" Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God,
and be more ready to hear, than to offer the sacrifice of
fools, for they know not that they do evil ;" Eccles. v. 1 .
All this telleth us, that fools and hypocrites, while they
disobeyed God's law, do think to make up all with sacri-
fice, or to appease God with offering him something that is
excellent : but the acceptable worshipper cometh to God as
a penitent, a learner, resolving to obey; as a receiver of
mercy, and not a meriter.
Direct. 2. ' Over- value not therefore the manner of your
own worship, and over-vilify not other men's of a different
mode :' And make not men believe that God is of your
childish humour, and valueth or vilifieth words, and or-
LIFE OF FAITH. 507
der«, and forms, and ceremonies, as much as self-conceited
people do.
If one man hear another pray only from the habits of his
mind, and present desires, he reproacheth him as a rash,
presumptuous speaker, that talketh that to God which he
never fore-considered. As if a beggar did rashly ask an
alms, or a corrected child, or a malefactor did inconsider-
ately beg for pardon, unless they learn first the words by
rote : or as if all men's converse, and the words of judges
on the bench were all rash ; or the counsel of a physician
to his patient, because they use not books and forms, or set
not down their words long before.
And if another man hear a form of prayer, especially if
it be read out of a book ; and especially if it have any dis-
order or defect, he sticketh not to revile it, and call it false
worship, and man's inventions, and perhaps idolatry, and to
fly from it, and make the world believe, that it is an odious
thing which God abhorreth. And why so ? Are your words
so much more excellent than the words of others ? Or doth
the book, or press, or pen, make them odious to God ? Or
are all words bad which are resolved on beforehand ? Is
the Lord's Prayer, and Psalms all odious, because they are
book-forms ? Or doth the command of other men make God
hate them? Let parents take heed then of commanding
their children prescribed words. (Nay, rather let them take
heed lest they omit such prescripts :) Or, is it the disorder
or defects that makes them odious? Such are not to be
justified indeed wherever we find them: but woe to us all,
if God will not pardon disorders and defects, and accept
the prayers that are guilty of them.
Many a time I have heard such forms of prayers, whose
disorders and defects I have much lamented (and done my
part to have cured), and yet I durst not so reproach them as
to say, God will not accept and hear them : or that it is
unlawful to join in communion with them. And many a
time I have heard as sad disorder in extemporate prayers :
sometimes by wrong methods, or no method at all ; some-
times by vain repetitions ; sometimes by omitting the chiefest
parts of prayer, and sometimes in the whole strain, by turn-
ing a prayer into a sermon to the hearers, or a mere talk or
narrative to God, that had little of a prayer in it, &ave very
good matter, and honest zeal. And though this prayer was
508 LIFE OF FAITH.
more disorderly than the forms which (perhaps in that
prayer) were accused of disorder ; yet durst I not run away
from this neither, nor say, it is so bad, that God will not
hear it, nor good men should have no communion in it.
It is easy (but abominable) to fall in love with our own,
and to vilify that which is against our opinion, and to think
that God is of our mind, and is as fond of our mode and
way as we are, and as exceptious against the way or words
of other men, as childish, peevish Christians are. Look on
your book, and read, or learn your prayer in words, saith
one, or else God will not hear you : look off your book,
and read not, or learn not the words, saith another, or God
will not hear you. But oh lamentable ! that both of them
tremble not thus to abuse God, and add unto his word, and
to prophesy or speak falsely against their brethren in his
name ; nor to reproach the prayers which Christ presenteth
from his servants to the Father, and which (notwithstand-
ing their defects) are his delight !
Direct.^, * Offer God nothing as worship, which is con-
trary to the perfection of his nature, as far as you can avoid
it •/ and yet feign not that to be contrary to his nature which
he commandeth. For then it is certain that you misunder-
stand either his nature or command.
Direct, 4. * Never come to the Father but by the Son ;
and dream not of any immediate access of a sinner unto
God, but wholly trust in Christ's mediation. Receive the
Father's will from Christ your Teacher, and his commands
from Christ your King, and all his mercies from Christ your
Head, and the Treasury of the Church, and your continual
Intercessor with God in heaven. And put all your prayers,
praises, duties, alms, into his hand ; that through him alone
they may be accepted of God.
Direct. 5. * Understand well how far the Scripture is a
particular rule (as to the substance of God's worship), and
how far it is only a general rule (as to the circumstances),
that so you may neither offer God a worship which he will
not accept ; nor yet reject or oppose all those circumstances
as unlawful, which are warranted by his general commands.'
(Of which I have said enough elsewhere.)
Direct, 6. ' Look first and most to the exercise of inward
grace, and to the spiritual part of worship ; (for God will be
worshipped in Spirit, and in truth, and hateth the hypocrite, .
LIFE OF FAITH. 509
who ofFeretli him a carcase, or empty shell, and ceremony,
and pomp, or length of words, instead of substance, and
draweth near him with the lips, without the heart:) And
yet, in the second place, look carefully also to your words,
and order, and outward behaviour of the body : for God
must be honoured with soul and body/ And order and
reverend solemnity is both a help to the affections of the
soul, and a fit expression of them.
Never forget that hypocritical, dead formality, and igno-
rant, self-conceited, fanatical extravagancies, are the two
extremes by which the devil hath laboured in all ages, to
turn Christ's worship against him, and to destroy the
church and religion by such false religiousness.
The poor popish formalists on one side, mortify religion,
and turn it into a carcase, and a comely image that hath
any thing save life. And the fanatics on the other side, do
call all the enormities of their proud and blustering fancies
by the name of Spiritual devotion ; and do their worst to
make Christianity to seem a ridiculous fancy to the world :
Escape both these extremes, as ever you will escape the
dishonouring of God, and dividing, and disturbing, and
corrupting of the church, the deluding of others, and the
disappointing and deceiving of yourselves.
Direct. 7. ' Neglect not any helps which you can have,
by the excellent gifts of any of Christ's ministers or flocks ;
and yet take heed that through prejudice, or for the faults of
either, you vilify or reject nothing which is of God. But
carefully distinguish between Christ's and their's.'
Communion with the holiest and purest assemblies, is
more desirable than with the less pure. But yet all that is
less desirable comparatively, is not simply unlawful, nor to
be rejected. The labours of an abler and more faithful
minister, are much to be preferred before their's that are
less able and faithful : for God worketh usually according
to the aptitude of the means, and of the receiver. To the
recovery and salvation of a soul it is necessary, 1. That the
understanding be made wise. 2. That the heart or will be
sanctified by love. 3. That the life be holy and obedient.
To the first of these are three things needful; 1. That
the understanding be awakened : 2. That it be illuminated :
3. That it be preserved from the seduction of temptations to
deceit.
510 LIFE OF FAITH.
Now an able and faithful pastor is suited to all these ef-
fects. 1. He is a lively preacher to awaken the understand-
ing ; 2. He is a clear, intelligent, methodical and convincing
teacher, to illuminate it : 3. He can confute gainsayers, and
refute objections, and shame the cavils of tempters and de-
ceivers to preserve it.
And, 2. He speaketh all from the unfeigned love of
God and men ; and as all his words do breathe forth love ;
so they are apt to kindle such love in the hearers : for every
active nature tendeth to propagation.
3. And the holiness of his life, as well as doctrine,
tendeth to win the people to a holy life : so that he that
ioveth his own soul, must not be indifferent what pastor he
chooseth for the help and conduct of his soul ; but should
most carefully seek to get the best or fittest for such neces-
sary ends.
But yet it foUoweth not that a weaker or worse may not
be heard, or may not be accepted or submitted to, in a case
of necessity ; when a better cannot be had, without more
disturbance and hurt than the benefits are like to recom-
pense. And when we live under such a weak, or cold, or
faulty pastor, our care must be so much the greater, that we
may make up that in the diligence of our attention, which
is wanting in his manner of expression ; and that we make
up that in a care of our own souls, which is wanting in his
care : and that our knowledge of his failings tempt us not
to slight the truth which he delivereth ; and that we reject
not the matter for the manner. The sheep of Christ do
know his voice, and they know his words, and reverence
and love them, from what mouth soever they proceed. A
religious, zealous man that preacheth false doctrine, is more
to be avoided, than a cold or scandalous man who preacheth
the truth. If you doubt this, observe these texts.
"The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; All
therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe
and do : But do not ye after their works, for they say and
do not ;" Matt, xxiii. 2, 3.
" For he (Judas) was numbered with us, and had ob-
tained part of this ministry f Acts i. 17. Judas the thief
and traitor was an apostle, called and sent out by Jesus
Christ.
" Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife.
LIFE OF FAITH. 511
and some also of good will. The one preach Christ of con-
tention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my
bond s what then ? Notwithstanding every way, whether
in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached, and I do there-
in rejoice, yea, and will rejoice ; Phil. i. 15, &c.
" Now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause
divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye
have learned, and avoid them ;" Rom. xvi. 17.
" Of your ownselves shall men arise speaking perverse
things, to draw away disciples after them ;" Acts xx. 30.
" If we, or an angel from heaven, bring another Gos-
pel, let him be accursed ;" Gal. i. 7, 8.
Is not all this a plain decision of the case ?
Direct, 8. ' While you prefer local communication with
the purest churches, and best taught and ordered, for your
own edification, take heed that you disown not a distant
and mental communion with any part of the church of
Christ on earth, which Christ himself disowneth not.' But
first remember that you are members of the universal
church, and as such in mental communion with the whole
present yourselves and services to Christ; and next as
members of your particular church.
It is true, that you must not own the corruptions of any
church, or of any of their worship ; but you must own the
church itself, and own all the substance of the worship
which is good, and which God owneth. God doth not reject
the matter for the manner, nor the whole for a faulty part,
where the heart is sincere that offereth it: nor no more
must you. And if they force you not to any actual sin (as
by false speaking, subscribing, or the like) you must some-
times also locally join with such churches, when occasion
requireth it: (As when you have no better to go to, or
when it is necessary to shew your mental communion, or to
avoid schism, scandal or offence.) As you must not ap-
prove of your own failings in God's worship (as in the man-
ner of praying, preaching, &c.) and yet must not give over
worshipping God, though you are always sure to fail ; even
so must you do by your communion with others.
And here I would earnestly entreat all those that are in-
clinable to sinful separation, to think but of these few things.
1. What is more contrary to Christianity than pride?
and what is a plainer sign of pride, than to separate from
512 LIFE OF FAITH.
whole churches (and perhaps from most part of the Chris-
tian world) for such faults as are no greater than others of
our own ? and to say. They are too bad for such as you to
communicate with ?
2. Whether it be not much contrary to the clemency of
Jesus Christ, by which he pardoneth the failings of be-
lievers; and which we have need of ourselves as well as
others ? And whether it be not an horrid injury to our Lord,
to ascribe his inheritance to the devil, and to cast those out
of his church whom he himself receiveth, and to deny so
many of his servants to be his ?
3. How great a loss is it, to lose your part in all those
prayers of the churches (how weak soever) which you dis-
own? And how can you justly expect the benefit of such
prayers ?
I would not take all their riches for my part of the bene-
fit of those prayers of the churches of Christ, which some
reject because they are extemporate, and others because
they are forms, or book-prayers, or imposed ; nor would I
take all their wealth and honour, for my part in all the
prayers of the universal church, which are guilty of more
disorders, tautologies, unmeet expressions, and manifold
defects, than any that I ever yet heard from those ministers
that pray either by habit or book.
Direct, 9. ' Take heed both of carelessness and curiosity
in the worshipping of God/ Avoid carelessness, because it
is profaneness and contempt : therefore watch against idle-
ness of mind, and wandering thoughts, and remember how
great a work it is, to speak to God, or to hear from him
about your everlasting state.
And yet curiosity is a heinous sin; when men are so
nice, that unless there be quaint phrases, and fine cadences
and jingles, or at least a very laudable style, they nauseate
all, and are weary of hearing a homely style, or common
things : when every unmeet expression, or tautology of the
speaker, doth turn their stomachs against the wholesomest
food. This curiosity cometh from a weak and an unhealth-
ful state of soul.
Direct, 10. Lastly, ' Let your eye of faith be all the while
upon the heavenly host, or church triumphant :' remember
how they worship God : with what wisdom, and purity, and
fervour of love, and sacred pleasure, and with what unity.
LIFE OF FAITH. 513
and peace, and concord ! and let your worship be as much
composed to the imitation of them, as is agreeable to the
likeness of our condition unto their's.
There is no hypocrisy, dulness, darkness, errors, self-
conceitedness, pride, division, faction, or uncharitable con-
tention : O how they burn in love to God ! and how sweet
that love is to themselves ! and how those souls work up in
heavenly joys to the face of God, in all his praises. Labour
as it were to join yourselves by faith with them, and as far
as standeth with your different case, to imitate them. They
are more imitable and amiable, than the purest churches up-
on earth. Their love and blessed concord is mora lovely,
than our uncharitable animosities, and odious factions and
divisions are.
And remember also the time when you must meet all
those upright souls in heaven, whose manner of worship you
vilified, and spake reproachfully of on earth, and from
whose communion you turned away : and only consider
how far they should be disowned, who must be dear to
Christ and you for ever.
The open disowning and avoiding the ungodly and scan-
dalous, is a great duty in due season, when it is regularly
done, and is necessary to cast shame on sin and sinners,
and to vindicate the honour of Christianity before the world.
But otherwise it is but made an instrument of pernicious
pride, and of divisions in the church, and of hindering the
successes of the Gospel of Christ.
CHAPTER XXII.
How to pray in Faith.
Passing by all the other particular parts of worship as
handled elsewhere (in my " Christian Directory"), I shall
only briefly touch the duty of prayer ; especially as in pri-
vate.
Direct, 1. * Let your heart lead your tongue, and be the
fountain of your words ; and suffer not your tongues in a
customary volubility to overrun your hearts.' Desire first,
and pray next ; and remember that desire is the soul of
VOL. XII. L L
514 LIFE OF FAITH.
prayer ; and that the heart-searching God doth hate hypo-
crisy, and will not be mocked ;" Matt. vi. 1. 3, 4.
Direct. 2. * Yet do not forbear prayer, because your de-
sires are not so earnest as you would have them.' For, 1,
Even good desires are to be begged of God : 2. And such
desires as you have towards God, must be exercised and ex-
pressed. 3. And this is the way of their usual increase.
4. And a profane turning away from God, will kill those
weak desires which you have, when drawing near him in
prayer may revive and cherish them.
Direct. 3. * Remember still that you pray to a heavenly
Father, who is readier to give, than you are to receive or
ask.' If you knew his fulness and goodness, how joyfully
would you run to him, and cry, " Abba, Father !" John xx.
17. Luke xii. 30. 32. Mark xi. 25. Matt. vi. 8. 32.
Direct. 4. * Go boldly to him in the name of Christ
alone.' Remember that he is the only Way and Mediator,
When guilt and conscience would drive you back, believe
the sufficiency of his sacrifice and atonement. When your
weakness and unworthiness would discourage you, remem-
ber that no one is so worthy, as to be accepted by God on
any other terms, than Christ's mediation. Come boldly
then to the throne of grace, by the new and living way, and
put your prayers into his hand, and remember that he still
liveth to make intercession for you, and that he appeareth
before God in the highest, in your cause; Heb. x. 19.
Ephes. iii. 12. Rom. v. 2. Heb. ix. 24. vii. 25, 26.
Direct, 5. * Desire nothing in your hearts which you dare
not pray for, or v^hich is unmeet for prayer :' Let the rule
of prayer be the rule of your desires. And undertake no
business in the world, which you may not lawfully pray for
a blessing on.
Direct, 6. ' Desire and pray to God, first, for God him-
self, and nothing lower ; and next for all those spiritual
blessings in Christ, which may fit you for communion with
him. And lastly, for corporal mercies, as the means to
these;' Matt. vi. 33. Psal. xlii. 1—3, &c. Psal. Ixxiii.
25, 26.
Direct. 7. * Pray only for what is promised you, or you
are commanded to pray for :' and make not promises to
yourselves, and then look that God^should fulfil them, be-
LIFE OF FAITH. 515
cause you confidently believe that he will do it ; and do not
so reproach God, as to call such self-conceits and expecta-
tions, by the name of a particular faith : for where there is
no word, there is no faith.
Direct. 8. * What God hath promised, confidently ex-
pect ; though you feel no answer at the present.' For most
of our prayers are to be granted (or the things desired to be
given) at the harvest time, when we shall have all at once.
Whether you find yourselves the better at present for prayer
or not ; believe that a word is not in vain, but you shall
reap the fruit of all in season; Luke xviii. 1. 7. 8. James
V. 7, 8.
Direct. 9. ' Let the Lord's Prayer be the rule, for the
matter and method of your desires and prayers.' But with
this difference : It must always be the rule which your de-
sires must be formed to, both in matter and method. You
must always first, and most desire the hallowing of God's
name, the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will
on earth as it is in heaven, before your own being, or well-
being : but this is only a rule for your general prayers
(which take in all the parts) : for when you either intend to
pray only, or chiefly for some one particular thing, you
may begin with that, or be most upon it.
Therefore all Christians should specially labour to un-
derstand the true sense and method of the Lord's Prayer
(which, God willing, I hope elsewhere to open).
Direct. 10. ' Be more careful in secret of your affections,
than of the order of your words (yet choosing such as are
aptest to the matter, and fittest to excite your hearts) ; but
in your families, or with other, be very careful to speak to
God, in words which are apt, and orderly, and moving;'
and to do all with such skill, and reverence, and serious-
ness, as tendeth (not to increase, but) to cure the dulness,
hypocrisy and unreverence of others ; Eccles. v. 1,2. Matt,
vi. 7—10, &c.
Direct. 11. * Pray as earnestly as if God himself were to
be moved with your prayers :' yet so as to remember, that
the change is not to be made upon him, but upon you. As
when the boatman layeth hold upon the bank, he draweth
the boat to it, and not the bank unto the boat. Prayer
fitteth you to receive the mercy ; both naturally as it ex-
citeth your desires after it, and morally as it is a condition
516 LIFE OF FAITH.
on which God hath promised to give it. When you pray you
tell God nothing which before he knew not better than you :
but you tell him that in confession and petition, which he will
hear from your own mouths, before he will judge you meet
for the mercies which you are to pray for.
In sum, pray, because you believe that praying believers
shall have the promised blessing : and believe particularly
and absolutely, that you shall have that promised blessing
through Christ, because you are praying believers, and
therefore the persons to whom it is promised.
CHAPTER XXIII.
How to live by Faith towards Children^ and other Relations.
Direct, 1. ' Believe God's promises made to believers and
their seed :' (of which I have written at large in my " Trea-
tise of Infant Baptism.") And labour to understand how far
those promises extend, both as to the persons and the
blessings. There was never an age in the world, in which
God did not distinguish the holy seed, even believers and
their children, from the rest of the world, and take them as
those that were specially in his covenant.
Direct, 2. ' Let not your conceits of the bare birth-privi-
lege, make you omit your serious, solemn, and believing
dedication of them unto God, and entering them into his
covenant.'
For the reason why your seed is called holy, and in a
better case than the seed of infidels, is not merely because
they are the offspring of your bodies, and have their natures
from you ; much less as deriving any grace or virtue from
you by generation : but because you are persons yourselves
who have dedicated yourselves with all that you have, ab-
solutely to God by Christ : and they being your own, and
therefore at your disposal, your wills are taken for their
wills, so far as you act in their names, and on their behalf:
and therefore when you dedicate them to God, you do but
that which you have both power and command to do : and
therefore God accepteth what you so dedicate to him. And
baptism is the regular way in which this dedication should
be solemnly made : but if through the want of a minister.
LIFE OF FAITH. 517
or water, or time, this be not done, your believing dedica-
tion of your child to God, without baptism shall be ac-
cepted. For it is the substance, and not the sign, the will,
and not the water, which God requireth in this case.
Quest. ' But what then shall we think of the children of
godly Anabaptists, whose judgment is against such dedica-
tion?'
Answ. Many whose judgment is against baptizing them,
is not against an offering or dedicating them to God. And
those who think that they are not allowed solemnly to enter
them into covenant with God, yet really do that which is
the same thing : for they cannot be imagined, to be unwill-
ing, to dedicate them to God, to the utmost of that interest
and power, which they understand that God hath given
them : and doubtlecs they most earnestly desire that ac-
cording to their capacity, they may be the children of God,
and God will be their God in Christ. And this virtual
dedication seemeth to be the principal requisite condition.
But yet as the unbaptized are (ordinarily) without the
visible church and its privileges ; so if any be so blind, as
neither explicitly nor virtually to dedicate their seed to
God ; I know no promise of their children's salvation, any
more than of the seed of infidels.
Direct. 3. ' If the children of true Christians dedicated
by the parents* will to God, through Christ, shall die before
they come to the use of reason, the parents have no cause
to doubt of their salvation.'
It is the conclusion of the Synod of Dort in Artie. 1.
And the reason is this.
If the parent and child be in the same covenant, then if
that covenant pardon and adopt the parent, it doth pardon
and adopt the child : but the parent and child are in the
same covenant : therefore, &c.
God hath but one covenant on his part, which is sealed
by baptism (as I have proved at large to Mr. Blake). In-
deed some are only externally in covenant with him on their
part, that is, they did covenant only with the tongue, and
not the heart : and consequently God is no further in cove-
nant with them, than to allow and command his ministers
to receive them into the visible church, and give them its
privileges ; and is not as a promiser in covenant with them
518 LIFE OF FAITH.
at all himself, either for inward, or for outward blessings.
He hath not one covenant which giveth outward, and ano-
ther which giveth inward blessings.
And it is here supposed, that the only condition pre-
requisite on the infant's part, that he may have right to this
covenant, and its blessing, is that he be the seed of a true
believer, and dedicated in covenant to God by the parent's
will or act. Actual faith is not pre-required : seminal grace
may be inherent, but, 1. Not known to the baptizer : 2. Nor
pre-required as a condition ; but more likely to be given by
virtue of the covenant. Nothing else therefore being pre-
requisite as a condition, it foUoweth, that as the parents
dedicating themselves to God, if baptized at age, is the
condition of their certain title to the present blessings of
the covenant, (viz. that God be their Father, Christ their
Saviour, and the Spirit in covenant to operate in them to
sanctification, and their sins are all pardoned, and they are
heirs of heaven,) even so upon the parents' dedication of
their children to God, they have right to the same bless-
ings ; else why do we baptize them, seeing baptism in the
true nature and use of it, is a solemn dedicating them to
God, in that same covenant, and a solemn investing them
in the relations and rights of that same pardoning covenant,
and not in any other.
I do not say that all baptized infants, so dying, are
saved, be they the children of infidels, or heathens, and re-
maining their true propriety ; nor those that are offered and
baptized never so wrongfully, or hypocritically ; nor will I
stay to dispute for what I have asserted. But, 1. I exhort
Christians believingly to dedicate their children in covenant
with God in Christ : And, 2. To believe that if they so die,
that covenant of Christ forbiddeth them to doubt of their
salvation.
Direct. 4. * Let your duty be answerable to your hope :
and do not only pray for your children's sanctification, but
if they live, endeavour it by all possible care, in a wise and
godly education.'
Remember that nature, and your dedicating them to
God, do both oblige you to this care of their salvation.
And that the education of children, is one of the greatest
duties in the world, for the service of Christ, and the pros-
LIFE OF FAITH. 519
perity of church and state : and the neglect of it, not
the smallest cause of the ruin of both, and of the world's
calamity.
Many a poor, sottish, lazy professor have I known, who
cry out against ignorant, dumb, and unfaithful ministers, as
guilty of the blood of souls, and are so religious, as to
separate from the assemblies that have ministers that are
but partly such ; when as their own children are almost as
ignorant as heathens, and they only use them to a few cus-
tomary formal duties (while they think they are enough
against forms), and turn over the chief care of their instruc-
tion to the schoolmaster. And are themselves so ignorant,
dumb, and idle ; unfaithful and unnatural to their poor
children's souls, as that it is a doubt whether in a well-or-
dered church they ought not to be denied communion them-
selves. They ^so little practise Deut. xi. 18, i9. vi. 7*
Ephes. vi. 4, &c.
Direct. 5. ' If your children live to the flesh in an un-
godly course of life, contrary to the covenant which by you
they made, they forfeit all the benefits of the covenant:
and you can have no assurance by any thing that you can
do for them, that ever they should be converted (though it
is not past hope). And if they be converted at age, their
pardon and adoption will be the effect of God's covenant,
as then it was newly entered with themselves, and not as it
was made before for them in infancy.'
Direct. 6. ' Yet because that still while there is life, there
is hope, you ought not by despair or negligence to omit
prayer, exhortation, or any other duty which you can per-
form in order to their recovery :* and though now they have
wills of their own, their salvation is not laid so much upon
you, as it was in infancy, at their first covenanting with
God ; yet still God will shew his love to his servants in
their seed ; and faithful endeavours are not vain or hope-
less ; and therefore it is still one of your greatest duties in
the world, to seek their true recovery to Christ.
Direct. 7. * If God make your children a scourge, or a
heart-breaking to you, bear and improve it as becomes be-
lievers :' That is ;
1. Repent of your own former sin ; your own youth-
ful lusts ; your disobedience to your parents ; your carnal
520
LIFE OF FAITH.
fondness on your children ; your loving them too much,
and God too little ; the evil examples you have given them ;
and your manifold neglect of a prudent, seasonable, earnest,
unvi^earied instructing them in godliness ; your bearing with
their sin, and giving them their own wills, till they were
masterless, &c. Renew your repentance, and you have got
some benefit.
2. Think how unkindly and unthankfuUy you have dealt
with a gracious Saviour, and a heavenly Father.
3. Let it take off your affections from all things under
the sun, and call them up the more to God : for who would
love a world, where none are to be trusted, and where all
things are vexatious, even the children of your love and
bowels.
Direct. 8. ' If they die impenitently, and perish, mourn
for them, but with the moderation of believers: That is, I.
Consider that God is more the owner of your children, than
you are ; and may do with his own as he list. 2. And he is
more wise and merciful than you ; and therefore not to be
murmured at as wanting either. 3. And it is an invaluable
mercy that your own soul is sanctified, and shall be saved.
4. And the most godly have had ungodly children before
you. Adam had a Cain, Noah had a Ham, Isaac had an
Esau, David had an Absalom, See. 5. And if all the godly
that pray for their children's salvation must be therein gra-
tified, all the world would then have been saved. For Noah
would have prayed for all his children, and they for their's,
and so to the world's end.
Object, ' Oh btit my conscience telleth me, that it is my
own sin which hath had a hand in their undoing.'
Answ. Suppose it be so; it is certainly a pardonable
sin. Do you then repent of it, or not ? If you repent ; as
you mourn for your relations; so you should rejoice that
God hath forgiven you. For repented sin is certainly par-
doned to you, and pardoned sin to you, is as great cause of
joy, as unpardoned sin in your relations is cause of sorrow.
Therefore mourn with such moderation, and mixed comfort
and thanksgiving, as becometh one that liveth by faith.
The affliction indeed is near and great ; and heavier than
any calamity that could have befallen their bodies, and is
not to be slighted by an unnatural insensibility ; but yet
LIFE OF FAITH. 521
you have a God who is better to you than a thousand chil-
dren ; and your cross is but as a feather, if you set it in the
balance against your blessings, even the love of God, and
your part in Christ, and life eternal.
CHAPTER XXIV.
How hy Faith to order our Affections to public Societies, and the
unconverted World,
Direct. 1. * Take heed that you lose not that common love
which you owe to mankind, nor that desire of the increase
of the kingdom of Christ, which must keep up in you a
constant compassion to the unconverted world, viz. idola-
ters, infidels, and ungodly hypocrites.'
It is pitiful to observe the unchristian senselessness of
most zealous professors of religion in this point. Though
God hath purposely put the three public petitions first in
the Lord's Prayer, to tell them what they must first and
most desire, that is, the hallowing of his name, and the
coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will on earth
as it is in heaven ; yet they seemed not to understand it, or
to regard it: but their thoughts and desires are as selfish,
and private, and narrow, as if they knew nothing what the
world or the church is, or cared for neither. Their mind
and talk is all of their own matters, for body or soul, or of
their several parties, and particular churches ; or if any ex-
tend his care as far as this spot of land in Britain and Ire-
land, or some of the reformed churches, they go further
than their companions ; themselves, and their side or party
is almost all that most regard : perhaps the poor scattered
Jews have a few words in the prayers of some ; but the
miserable case of the vast nations of the earth, who seem
to be forsaken of God is neglected by them. Five parts in
six of the earth are heathens and Mahometans : and of the
sixth part, the Protestants are but about a sixth, compared
with the poor ignorant Abbassines, Armenians, Syrians, the
Greek churches, and the Papists ; (to say nothing what the
most of the Protestants themselves are.) Yet are almost all
these put by, with a word or two, or none at all, in the daily
prayers of most professors : and it is rare to hear any to
522 LIFE OF FAITH.
pray with any importunity for their conversion. Is this
men's love to mankind ? Is this their love to the kingdom
of Christ? or to God and godliness? Is God of as narrow
a mind as you ? Are you and your party all the world, or
all the church, or all that is to be regarded and prayed
for ?
Direct. 2. * Do not only pray for them, but study what is
within the reach of your power to do for their conversion.'
For though private men can do little in comparison of what
Christian princes might do (who must not be told their
duty by such as I). Yet somewhat might be done by mer-
chants and their chaplains, if skill and zeal were well
united ; and somewhat might be done by writing and trans-
lating such books as are fittest for this use : " And greater
matters might be done, by training up some scholars in the
Persian, Indostan, Tartarian, and such other languages,
who are for mind and body fitted for that work, and willing
with due encouragement to give up themselves thereto.
Were such a college erected, natives might be got to teach
the languages : and no doubt but God would put it into
the hearts of many young men, to devote themselves to so
excellent a service ; and of many rich men, to settle lands
sufla.cient to maintain them ; and many merchants would
help them in their expedition." But whether those that
God will so much honour, be yet born, I know not.
Direct, 3. ' Pray and labour for the reformation and
concord of all the Christian churches ; as the most proba-
ble means to win to Christ the world of heathens and un-
believers.'
If the Protestant churches were more pure and peacea-
ble, more holy, and more unanimous and charitable to each
other, it would do much to win the Papists that are near
them : and if the Papists, and Greeks, and Armenians, and
Abassines were more reformed, wise and holy, it would do
much to win the Heathens and Mahometans round about
them. They would be the salt of the earth, and the lights
of the world, and the leaven which must leaven the whole
lump : the neighbouring Mahometans, and Heathens, would
see their good works, and glorify God; Matt. v. 16. A
holy, harmless, loving conversation, is a sermon which men
of all languages can understand : thus as apostles we might
preach to men of several tongues, though we have but one.
LIFE OF FAITH. 523
O that the sanctifying Spirit would teach Christians this
art, and reform and unite the churches of Christ, that they
might be no longer a scandal, to hinder the saving of the
world about tliem! It is the sense of Christ's prayer before
his death, (John xvii. 21 — 23. 25.) that ** they all may be one,
as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me 1 in them, and thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the
world may know that thou hast sent me ; and hast loved
them, as thou hast loved me."
Direct. 4. * Be sure at least that your holy, loving and
blameless lives, be an example to those that are about you.'
If you cannot convert kingdoms, nor get other men to do
their duty towards it, be sure that you do your part within
your reach : and believe that your lives must be the best
part of your labours, and that good works, and love, and
good example must be the first part of your doctrine.
Direct. 6. * When you see that the world lieth still in
wickedness, and there seemeth to be no possibility of a
cure, yet search the Scripture, and so far as you can find
any prophecy or promise of their conversion, believe that
God in his time will make it good.'
Direct. 6. ' But take heed that on this pretence, you
plunge not yourselves into any inordinate studies, or con-
ceited expositions of the Revelations, and other Scripture
prophecies, as many have done, to the great wrong of them-
selves, and the church of God.
By inordinate studies, I mean, 1. When you begin there
where you should end, and before you have digested the
necessary greater truths in theology, you go to those that
should come after them. 2. When an undue proportion of
your zeal, and time, and study, and talk, is bestowed upon
these prophecies, in comparison of other things. 3. When
you are proudly and causelessly-conceited of your singular
expositions : That when of ten of the most learned and
hardest studied expositors of the Revelation, perhaps in
many things scarce two are of a mind ; yet when you differ
from them all, or all save one, you can be as peremptory
and confident in your opinion, as if you were far wiser, or
more infallible than they> 4. When you place a greater
necessity in it than there is ; as if salvation, or church-
communion lay upon your conceits. Whereas God hath
524 LIFE OF FAITH.
made the points that are of necessity to salvation, to be few
and plain.
Direct, 7. ' When you look on the sin and misery of the
world, and see small hope of its recovery, look up by faith
to that better world, where all is light, and love, and peace.'
And pray for the coming of Christ, when all this sin shall
be brought to judgment, and wisdom and godliness be fully
justified before all the world. Let the badness of this
world drive up your hearts to that above, where all is better
than you can wish.
Direct. 8. ' When you are ready to stumble at the consi-
deration of God's desertion of so great a part of the world,
quiet your minds in the implicit submission to his infinite
wisdom and goodness.' Dare you think that you are more
gracious and merciful than God ? Or that it is meet you
should know all the secrets of his providence, who must not
know the mysteries of government, in the state or kingdom
where you live ? He that cannot rest in the wisdom, will,
and mercies of Infinite Goodness itself, but must have all
his own expectations satisfied, shall have no rest.
And think withal, how little a spot of God's creation
this earthly world is ; and how incomprehensibly vast the
superior regions are in comparison of it. And if all the
upper parts of the world be possessed with none but holy
spirits, and even this lower earth, have also many millions
of saints, prepared here for the things above, we have no
more reason to judge God to be unmerciful, because this
lower world is so bad, than we have to judge the king un-
merciful, when we look into the common gaol ; nor to judge
of his government by the rogues in a gaol, but by his court,
and all the subjects of his kingdom.
If God should forsake no place but hell, of all his crea-
tion, you could not grudge at him as unmerciful. And it is
a very hard question whether this earth, and the air about
it, be not the place of hell ; when you consider that the
devils are cast down from heaven, and yet that they dwell
and rule in the air, and compass the earth, and tempt the
wicked, and " work in the children of disobedience ;" Ephes.
ii. 1, 2. Job i. 2 Tim. ii. 26. And that Satan is called,
the God and " prince of this world ;" John xii. 31, xiv. 30.
xvi. 11. 2 Cor. iv. 4. Ephes. vi. 12.
But if it be not the place of final execution, it is the^
LIFE OF FAITH. 525
place where they are kept in prison till the Great Assizes,
and where they are reserved in chains of darkness, to the
judgment of the great day, and where they are tormented
before the time ; 2 Pet. ii. 4. Jude 6. Matt. viii. 29.
Look then from this dungeon, to the glorious incompre-
hensible mansions of the holy ones ; and judge by them and
not by this prison, of the goodness and infinite benignity of
God. And if he will give so many obstinate despisers of
his grace, a place with those devils that did seduce and rule
them, think not God to be therefore unmerciful ; but be-
hold his mercy in the innumerable vessels of honour and
mercy, that shall possess the higher mansions for ever.
CHAPTER XXV.
How to live by Faith in the Love of one another, against
Self-love.
Direct. 1. ' Let faith first employ you in the knowledge of
God : and when you know him who is love itself, you will
best learn of him to love.* You will see that that is best,
which is most like unto God ; and that is worst, which is
most unlike him. And when you consider how universally,
though variously, he loveth his creatures, and how he ex-
presseth it, and how he loveth benevolently, because he is
good, and loveth complacentially, because also the thing is
good which he loveth, you will learn the art of love from
God ; Rom. ix. 13. Deut. iv.37. vii. 8. xxiii.5. xxxiii. 3.
1 John iii. 16, 17. iv. 7. 9. 11, 12. 19-- 21.
Direct. 2. ' Study Jesus Christ aright, and you will also
learn to love him.* There you will see self-denying Love;
which stooped to earth, to reproach, to sufferings, to la-
bours, to death, and spared not life or any thing to do
good. It is the chief lesson which you go to school to
Christ to learn : and it is as proper to go to him to learn to
love, as it is to go to the sun for light; Rom. v. 8. John
xiii. 34. 1 Thess. iv. 9. John xi. 5. 36. xiii. 1. xv. 9.
Ephes. V. 2. 25. John xv. 12.
Direct. 3. ' Know God in his works and image, and then
you will see him in his natural image, in all men as rational,
and in his moral image in all his saints ; and then you will
52(> LIFE OF FAITH.
see what to love, and why. He that cannot see God in a
glass in this world, cannot see him at all, and cannot love
him. Remember that it is in his servants and creatures,
that he exposeth himself to be seen, and known, and loved ;
1 John ii. 10. iii. 10. 14. iv. 7, 8. 20, 21. v. 1. Matt.
XXV. 40.
Direct. 4. ' Abhor that proud malignant censoriousness,
which is apt to make the worst of others, and to deny, and
extenuate, and overlook God's graces in them (as the devil
did by Job) : and which can see no goodness in them that
are not eminently good.' For this is but the devil's artifice,
I to kill men's love to one another. Though he pretend the
honour of godliness, and the hatred of sin, when he telleth
you, — such an one is an hypocrite, and such an one hath
nothing but a form, and no power of godliness ; I can see
nothing of God in him; alas, they are poor carnal people :
all is but to destroy your love. And thus he mightily pros-
pereth in the malignant spirit of separation ; by which he
can make you unchurch whole churches, and unchristian
whole towns and parishes, and all because that you that are
strangers to them, see not their godliness, or hear of nothing
eminent in them. But the world of dividers will take no
warning, any more than the world of the profane. Satan
doth deceive them all.
Direct. 5. * Abhor therefore the sin of backbiting and
evil-speaking ; and when you hear a malignant censurer
thus unchristian and unchurch men without proof, behind
their backs, if gentler reproofs will not serve the turn, frown
them away, and say, — " Get thee behind me Satan." ' The
accuser of the brethren and the spirit of hatred, maketh it
his work in the world to destroy men's love to one another ;
and he hath no such way to do it, as by making them seem
unlovely to one another : and he that persuadeth me that
my neighbour is not good, persuadeth me that he is not
lovely, and so persuadeth me from loving him ; Prov. xxv.
23. Rom. i. 30. Psal. xv. 3. 2 Cor. xii. 20. Rom. xiv.
3, 4. 10. 13. James iv. 11, 12. Matt. vii. 1, 2. 1 Cor.iv. 5.
Direct. 6. * Above all, seek to mortify selfishness, which
is the great enemy of love to God and man.' A selfish man
can faithfully love none but himself; for he loveth all others
but for himself ; his own opinions, interests and ends, are
the disposers of his love. Therefore he never heartily loveth
LIFE OF FAITH. 527
his enemy ; no nor the best, that do not honour him, but
seem to slight him. If any should neglect him, or speak
hardly of him, or do him any real or seeming wrong, or be
of another side, against his party or his cause, no censures
are too sharp, and no love too little for such a one. And yet
these that can love none heartily but themselves, will find
that they had no greater enemies than themselves, and that
hell and earth did not so much as themselves against them.
Direct. 7. ' Subject yourselves truly to God's authority,
and his commands will further love :' for it is the sum of
them all, and the fulfilling of his law, both old and new;
Gal. V. 14. Rom. xiii. 8—10. John xiii. 34. xv. 12. 17,
Matt. xii. 30. 32, 33.
Direct. 8. * Remember that love is the bond, and life, and
interest of the church and of the world.' Without love the
world would have neither unity, peace or safety : what were
a family without it? Were it not for love, men that were
not kept fettered in jails or bedlams, would be as robbers,
or wolves, or mad dogs, one to another. Were it not for
love, the church would be crumbled into malicious sects,
that would spend their time in prating and militating against
each other ; and preach and talk down love to one another ;
and would call this devilish work, — the preaching of the
Gospel, or the worshipping of God ; while they blaspheme
him by offering him a sacrifice of hatred and reviling, as
they do that offer him a sacrifice of man's blood. " But
speaking the truth in love, you may grow up into him in
all things, which is the head, even Christ. From whom the
whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that
which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual
working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of
the body to the edifying of itself in love ;" Ephes. iv. 15, 16.
Yea their own sects would turn to dust and atoms, if
love, which is there confined, did not solder them together,
when it is dead in them as to all others, or as to the most.
Direct, 9. * Love is our spiritual health, and selfishness
is our sickness, sin and death. When we fell from the love
of God to ourselves, we fell also from the love of others to
ourselves : the individuate creature was contracted in him-
self, and altogether set upon propriety, and forgot his rela-
tions to God and man : and when grace destroyeth this
selfish privateness of spirit, it setteth us again in love with
528 LIFE OF FAITH.
God and man together ;' and the better any man is, the more
public spirit he is of, and the less difference he maketh be-
twef'n his neighbour's interest and his own (when God and
his interest make not a difference). And this is to love our
neighbour as ourselves ; that is, without the vice of partial
selfishness ; nor setting up our own interest against his, but
equally measuring both by God's ; and referring them there-
unto ; Levit. xix. 18. 34. Matt. xix. 19. Gal. xv. 4.
Direct, 10. * Remember that loving others as ourselves is
our own interest and benefit, as well as our duty.'
And a notable instance it is, how much our duty is our
own interest and good, and how merciful God is in his
strictest laws. As the love of God is heaven itself, and
sinners that love him not do damn themselves, and put
themselves from heaven and happiness (and to pardon them
is to sanctify them), even so it is an unspeakable loss and
misery which sinners draw upon themselves, by not loving
their neighbours as themselves, but only in a subordination
to themselves, and for their proper private ends. I pray you
mark but these few particular instances :
1. If I love my neighbour as myself, my very love is my
delight and ease. The form of love consisteth in compla-
cency or pleasedness ; and therefore it must needs be plea-
sant to every one that useth it (however bad love hath bitter
fruits). And whenever wrath, or envy, or hatred, comes in-
stead of love, it is my sickness, I feel myself diseased by it.
2. If I love others, others will love me. They are scarce
free to do otherwise. You may almost constrain any man
to love you, if you love him heartily, and shew it plainly,
and were within his view to make him see it. All men love
a loving nature ; but especially if they be loved by such
themselves.
3. If I love my neighbour as myself, to do good to him
will be as easy and pleasant as to myself. I can ride, and
run, and labour contentedly for myself; I can stoop to the
most sordid employment for myself; and so I should as
easily do for others : whereas want of love doth make all
tedious that I do, and maketh my duty a continual burden,
and too often tempts me to omit it. Love made both Christ
and his apostles do so much for souls with ease and pleasure,
which else they could not have undergone ; John xv. 13. 9.
2 Cor. xii. 15. Ephes. iii. 17. v. 2. Col. ii. 2.
LIFE OF FAITH. 529
4. If I love my neighbour as myself, I can as easily
suffer any thing from him as from myself. I can easily bear
that in myself, as to sight or smell, the most loathsome
sores or ulcers, which others cannot bear. I am easily
brought to forgive myself, and to forbear self-hurting and
self-revenge ; and so should I do to others, if I thus loved
them. And then how easy would my life be among all the
injuries of the world!
5. If I loved my neighbours as myself; if my flesh did
want, my mind (which is myself) could never be in want :
because all that my neighbours have is mine, as to my com-
fort and content. My house is homely, but my neighbour's
is comely and convenient ; and, to my mind, that is as com-
fortable as if it were my own : my land is small, but my
neighbour's is large ; my grounds are barren, but my neigh-
bour's fruitful ; my corn is bad, but his proves good ; my
cattle die, or prosper not, but his do well ; I am low and
despicable, and no man careth for me, but others are lords,
and princes, and honourable ; and if I love them as myself,
their corn, their cattle, their houses and lands, their king-
doms and honours, are as much my comfort, as if they were
my own. I know these are paradoxes to depraved, selfish
nature ; but thus it would be if love were perfect ; and thus
it is in that measure that we love. And should that duty
be taken for a burden, which as to my comfort maketh all
the wealth, and honour, and kingdoms of others to be my
own?
Object, ' If you love your neighbours as yourselves, you
must mourn with them that mourn ; and all the calamities
and sorrows of the world must be yours ; which will over-
come your joys.'
Answ. 1. I am not to sorrow as much as they do sorrow,
but as much as they rationally ought to do. And men are
not to think, that a loving correction, which worketh for
their good and salvation, is worse than the snares of pros-
perity. The brother of high degree must rejoice when he is
made low, as well as the brother of low degree must rejoice
when he is exalted ; James xix. 10. And why should that
be my sorrow, which is his benefit, and should be his joy?
If Paul and Silas sing in the stocks, why should not I sing
VOL. XIT. M M
630 LIFE OF FAITH.
with them? Patience and rejoicing are the duty of all
believers in affliction.
2. The mercies and happiness of every one that feareth
God is far more than his misery : therefore his joy and gra-
titude should be more than his sorrows and complaints. If
a man's tooth do ache, and all the rest of his body be well,
should not he and I be more thankful for the health of all
the rest, than troubled for a tooth ? A believer hath always
the Spirit of God, and a part in Christ, and the pardon of
sin, and a right to heaven : and then how much greater
should his joy be than his sorrows, and mine also on his
behalf?
3. The goodness and love of God is manifested to the
world more abundantly than his justice and severity. We
know of no afflicted saints, but on this spot of earth ; and
we know of no damned ones but devils and wicked men :
But we know that the worlds above us are incomparably
more vast than this, and that the glory of the celestial
spirits, is far greater than our sufferings and sorrows here :
therefore our joy which love procureth, should be a thou-
sandfold greater than our sorrows.
4. And as for the wicked, as the consequent will of God
layeth by compassion, so consequently, considering them
as the obstinate final refusers of grace, they are not those
neighbours whom we are bound to love as ourselves ; for
they are enemies to God, and deprived of his image, and
therefore our obligations to mourn for them are abated, as
Samuel's for Saul, when he knew that God had rejected him
(1 Sam. XV. 35. xvi. 1.) ; and we are obliged to rejoice in
the declarations of the justice and holiness of God, and the
universal benefit which redoundeth from his judgments;
Rev. xviii. 20. xii. 12. Esther viii. 15. So that it still
remaineth clear, that loving our neighbours as ourselves,
doth entitle us to the comforts of all men's health, estates,
prosperity, honours ; yea, and their holiness and wisdom
too ; and this without any such participation of their sor-
rows, as should be any considerable eclipse of our delights ;
if we do it all regularly, as God requireth us.
5. If I love my neighbour as myself, I am freed from all
the trouble of cross interests; in buying and selling, in
trespassing, in lawsuits ; it will comfort me as much if he
LIFE OF FAITH. 531
get by me, as if I get by him ; if his bargain prove the bet-
ter, as if mine did ; if he have the better at law, as if it
were judged to myself. Yea all his successes, prosperity,
and whatever good befalleth any that I know of in the
world, will all be mine.
6. And I shall never be loath by death to leave the world
(while I have no cause to fear the missing of salvation), be-
cause whatever I leave behind me, will be possessed by such
as I love as myself. They will have life, and time, and
health, and comforts, and whatever my nature is loath to
leave : therefore whilst I live, why should it not be as com-
forting to me to think that so many shall live and prosper,
whom I love as myself, as if I were myself to live and
prosper.
7. Yea, more than so, I have by love a part in the joys
of heaven, before I am actually there. For the joys of all
those blessed souls, and of those holy angels, are mine by
participation, so far as to cause me to rejoice in their felicity,
as if it were my own, as far as I can now apprehend it.
Yea the glory of the Lord Jesus, and the eternal blessed-
ness of God himself, would rejoice us more than our own
felicity ; if we loved him as much above ourselves, as we
ought to do, we should partake of our Master's joy.
And now judge whether loving God as God, and our
neighbours sincerely as ourselves, would not cure almost
all the calamities of our minds and give us a kind of heaven,
and be a cheap and certain way, to have what we can wish
in all the world, and even to make all the world our own.
And whether it be not sin itself, which is the first part of
all men's hell and misery ?
Object, * But my neighbour's meat will not fill my belly;
nor his health doth not ease my pain, nor his fire keep me
warm.'
Answ. The flesh hath got the dominion indeed, when
men cannot distinguish between soul and body, between the
pain and pleasures of the body and of the mind. 1 do not
say that love will change the pain or pleasure of your bodies,
but of your minds. Your appetites will not be satisfied
with your neighbour's food, but your minds may be com-
forted to see his welfare. Your pain is not eased by your
neighbour's health, but your minds may be pleased by it, as
much as if it were your own, if you loved him as much as
632 LIFE OF FAITH.
if it were your own, if you loved him as much as you do
yourself. And therefore many in a danger have saved the
life of a prince, a captain, a parent, a child, a friend, with
the voluntary loss of their own.
Object. ' This is all true ; but who is there in the world
that doth it, or findeth it possible to love another as himself?
And how can that be a duty, which is to nature itself an
impossibility ? Therefore, let us first know what this duty is,
of loving our neighbours as ourselves.*
Answ. Doubtless if it be the sum of the law, all true
Christians do it in sincerity, though not in perfection. And
as to the sense of it, — 1. You must distinguish between that
sensitive and passionate^ affection, which is in the soul as
sensitive, and is common to beasts with men, and that ra-
tional appetite, which doth will, and choose, and is pleased
according to the conduct of pure reason. The first we
doubt not will be still more to ourselves than others ; and it
is not the use of grace to destroy it, but to rule and mode-
rate it.
2. You must distinguish between love, and outward
actions, which are the expressions of it. When our love is
due as much to one, as to another, yet our outward actions
may be under a particular law, which obligeth us to do that
for one, which we are not bound to do for others. As to
maintain our own children, families, servants, and so our-
selves, rather than others. And the reason is, because the
difference of individuals maketh that fit for one, which is
not fit for another ; and so maketh every man the fittest
chooser for himself, and those that are nearest to him ; and
nature instigateth him to the greatest care in doing it : and
all good must be done in a regular order, or else confusion
will destroy it. And nature maketh this most orderly, as
every parish must keep their own poor, and yet must love
other poor as well.
3. You must know that love is formally nothing but
complacence (as aforesaid), but love joined with a will and
purpose to do good to another, is called love of benevo-
lence ; when yet the love there is one thing, and the doing
good, or purpose to do it, is another ; and I may, in obedi-
ence to God, purpose and do more good to one whom I am
bound to love, not more but less.
LIFE OF FAITH. 533
And now you may see what it is to love our neighbours
as ourselves.
1. God must be loved above our neighbours and our-
selves ; and both must be loved purely as related and sub-
ordinate to him, and for his sake. There is a double respect
which all things have to God : — 1. As they contain that
excellency which he hath put upon them, which is some
likeness, representation, or signification of himself; and is
called his glory shining in the creature ; that is, its derived
goodness. 2. As they conduce to his further service, and
may honour him, and please him. Thus all creatures must
be loved only as a means, even a means declaring God, being
derivatively and significantly good and useful ; and as a
means to serve and please him.
2. Therefore this being the formal reason of our rational
love, must also be the measure of it (* h quatenus ad quan-
tum'). As it is certain that I must love that best which is
best, because I must love it only as good ; so it is certain
that that is best which hath most likeness to God, and most
of his glory upon it, and that which is most pleasing to
hiui, and useful to his service. Therefore if my neighbour
be better than I am, I must judge him better, and love him
better.
3. Though natural self-appetite, and self-preservation,
by which all creatures are for themselves only (not feeling
the hunger, cold, or pain of others) be not sinful, but the ef-
fect of creating individuation, yet reason was perfect, and
the will could perfectly follow reason, in its complacency
and choice, till sin corrupted it : reason could judge that
best which was best, and the will could love that best which
was best. Therefore wherever any of this is wanting, it is
sin.
4. The principal part or sum of positive sin, doth consist
in selfishness. Man is fallen from the love of God and
man, to himself; and grace recovereth him from this. There-
fore it is, that this duty is not only unperformed, but hardly
discerned by unrenewed men : so far as they are selfish, they
hardly believe that they should love their neighbours as
themselves.
5. To love our neighbours as ourselves, in point of duty,
containeth these two things : First, To love them simply
according to their goodness without any hindrance of sel-
534 tlFE OF FAITH.
fishness or partianty : not to forbear loving them, because
they are not ourselves, or because they are against any in-
ordinate selfish interest or appetite of our own. And also
comparatively, to love them in the same degree with our-
selves, if they have the same degree of loveliness ; so that
it cannot extend to the kind, and the end, and reason of the
love, but it must needs also extend to the degree. If I love
him less than myself, who is better than myself, I love him
not as myself, as to ends and reason.
6. Yea I am bound by this law to love every man better
or more than myself, who is really better, and is so manifest
to me : or else I love him not as myself, that is, on the same
true reason as I must love myself (for God and the goodness
of the object).
7. JSut as all men fail in the degree of this love (and
therefore none perfectly keep the law); so the sincerity
which all God's servants have, doth consist in this ; that,
1. Our love to others is for God's sake, and for the good-
ness which he has endued them with, and the service they
may do him. 2. That this God and his service, for whose
sake we love them, be preferred before ourselves, and every
creature, and loved better than all our sinful pleasures. 3.
That our love to them for God's sake and grace's be such,
as ordinarily in the exercise and effects will prevail against
our love of sensual interest and delights ; and will bring us
effectually to succour, relieve, and do them good, though to
our fleshly loss, when God requireth it. He that cannot
love Christ in his servants, better than his carnal pleasures,
loveth him not at all sincerely, God's image and interest in
his servants, and in mankind, must be practically more pre-
cious to us, and more beloved by us, than all our carnal
sinful pleasures. (For as for our own spiritual good, it
standeth in such a connexion with God's will and glory, and
our neighbour's good, that I know not how to put them into
comparison in the trial, much less in opposition.) 4. That
all carnal self-love and uncharitableness contrary to this, be
hated, resisted, repented of, and subdued, and be not pre-
dominant in us, against the love of God and man.
8. The meaning of the command is not that we shall love
our neighbours as we inordinately and sinfully love our-
selves ; but as we ought to love ourselves ; and as we regu-
larly and justly do love ourselves. He that loveth himself
LIFE OF FAITH. 535
too much and sinfully, must not therefore so love his neigh-
bour.
9. He that loveth his neighbour as himself (that is, with-
out selfish partiality, and for the same reasons as he must
love himself, viz. for the image and interest of God,) is
obliged by this very rule, to love himself more than his
neighbour, when he is better, and more pleasing and ser-
viceable to God. (Therefore he that would warrantably
love himself most, must labour to be himself the best, and
then he may lawfully do it, so far as his own goodness, and
other men's defects are truly known to him.)
10. As a father's love may consist with the correction of
his children, and self-love with blood-letting, purging,
labour, and other unpleasing things ; so we may love our
neighbours as ourselves, and yet correct and punish evil
doers : for sometimes their own good requireth it ; and
ordinarily the public good requireth it (' poena debetur rei-
publicse'), and also God's command requireth it ; so that this
is not loving ourselves more than our neighbour; but loving
him more than his ease, or his favour ; and loving God, and
the commonwealth, more than him.
11. Our love of our neighbours as ourselves, doth not
at all make our natural selfish appetites and senses, or desire
of food, health, ease, rest, &c. to be sinful : nor oblige us to
have such natural senses and appetites for others ; but only
rationally to equal them in estimation and complacence, and
to do them so much good as God requireth us.
12. And it doth not oblige us to do as much for them as
for ourselves, for the reasons before alleged; but to do
them good without the hindrance of self-interest : That sel-
fishness be not to us as a bile or imposthume, which draweth
the humours and spirits unequally and disorderly from the
rest of the body to itself.
By all this it is evident, 1. That no man hath an inequa-
lity in his love to himself and his neighbour, beyond the
inequality of goodness, but it is sinful (speaking of rational
love).
2. That all love to our neighbour is not sincere. There
is a real love to them, which bad men may have, which is
not the sincere love which God requireth.
3. Every man that loveth another for his goodness and
godliness, loveth him not sincerely : for he may have a love
536 LIFE OF FAITH.
to goodness itself, which is not sincere : as if he love his
lusts and pleasures more.
4. Every man that doth good to another in love, doth
not therefore sincerely love him. A Dives may give Lazarus
his scraps ; and the very sensualist may give another some
of the leavings of his fleshly lusts. And though the giving
of a cup of cold vs^ater to a disciple, v^^hen we have no better
to give, doth shew sincerity, and shall have its reward (be-
cause God accepteth it, according to men's will, and to
what they have, and not according to what they have not) ;
yet it is certain that an unhappy worldling may give much
more. And if Christ had bid him, Luke xviii. 23. sell
part, instead of selling all, it is like he might not have gone
away sorrowful.
5. It is not therefore the value or proportion of the gift,
which is it that must try our love to others, in itself con-
sidered ; for it may oft fall out that a widow's mite may
signify more true charity, than the substance of some
others. But it is the prevalency of the love of God in
man, and of man for the sake of God, against our sinful
self-love, and carnal interest.
And now I will add a little more evidence, to the princi-
pal thing in question, viz. that in the very degree the
rational appetite or will should love another equal with
ourselves.
And 1. The forementioned reason is undeniable, that
the will should love that best which is best, and must mea-
sure that by the respect which things have to God, and not
to our own commodity in the world.
2. No man can deny this principle but by setting up
natural self-love or appetite, and making the rational stoop
to that, which would infer as well, that we may love our-
selves better than God himself; and that our sense is nobler
than our reason, and must rule it.
3. We find our own reason tells us much more of our
duty in this, than our corrupted wills do follow. The best
way therefore to discern the truth, is to treat with reason
alone, and leave out the will, till we have dispatched
with reason. And you will find that the common light of
nature justifieth this law of God.
1. He that would not confess that it is better he had no
being, than that there were no God, or no world besides
LIFE OF FAITH. 537
him, is a monster of selfishness. And if a man say never
so much (I cannot do so), yet while he confesseth that this
should be his desire, it sufficeth to the decision of our pre-
sent case.
2. He that will not confess that it is better that he him-
self should die, than all the church of Christ, or the whole
kingdom die, is unreasonably selfish in the eyes of all im-
partial men. The gallant Romans and Athenians had learnt
it, as one of their plainest, greatest lessons, to prefer their
country before their lives : and is not that to love their
countries better than themselves.
3. For the same reason many of them saw, that it was
the duty of a good subject, or a gallant soldier, to save the
life of his king or general, with the loss of his own : because
their lives were of more public utility. And the ground of
all this was these natural verities :
' The best should be best loved.' — ' Goodness must be
measured by a higher rule than personal self-interest.' —
* Multitudes are better than one.' &c.
4. All men acknowledge that a man of eminent learning,
piety, wisdom, and usefulness to the church or world, should
be loved and preserved rather than a wicked, sottish, worth-
less child of our own. Yea God himself requireth that
parents procure the death of their own children, by public
justice, if they be obstinately wicked j Deut. xxi.
5. The same reasons plainly infer, that I ought rather to
desire the life of a much more worthy useful instrument for
the church and state than my own ; and so to love a better
man better than myself, if I be acquainted sufficiently with
his goodness.
And if this be all so sure and plain, hence observe, —
1. How much human nature is corrupted.
Alas, how rare is this equal love !
2. How few true Christians are ; and how defective and
imperfect grace is in the best. Alas ! how strange are many
Christians to the extent of this duty, and how far are we all
from practising it in any eminent degree !
3. Wherein it is that nature's corruption most con-
sisteth ', and what is the chief part of the nature and work
of sanctifying grace and reformation.
4. Whence come all the oppressions, injuries, persecu-
538 LIFE OF FAITH.
tions, frauds and cruelties on the earth : For want of loving
men's neighbours as themselves : otherwise how tenderly
would they handle one another ! How easily would they
pardon wrongs ! How patiently would they bear the dissent
of honest, upright Christians, who cannot force their judg-
ments to be of other men's mould and size ! How apt would
men be to suspect their own understandings, of weakness,
presumption, or error, rather than to rave with the fury of
the dragon against all others, who think them to be mis-
taken ! How safely and quietly might we live by them in
the world, if they loved their neigbours as themselves ! I
do not say now. How plentiful would men be in doing good
to others ? I am but pleading a lower cause. How seldom
they would be in doing hurt ? But, alas, miserable Britain !
it was in thee that one extraordinary emperor, Alexander
Severus was betrayed and murdered, who made that Chris-
tian precept his motto, and wrote it on his doors, and books,
and goods, " Do as you would be done by." In thee it is
that love hath been beheaded, while nothing hath been
more acknowledged and professed. If love be treacherous,
hurtful, envious, scandalous, ensnaring, and plotting for
men's destruction : If love teach proud and vicious sots, to
take themselves for deities, and oracles, and all for vermin
that must be hunted unto death, who bow not to their car-
nal, erroneous conceits, and do not with the readiest prosti-
tute consciences, serve their carnal interests and ends : If
love be known by reviling those that are much better than
ourselves ; and stigmatizing the faithfullest servants of
Christ with the most odious character that lies can utter :
If it was love that called Paul a pestilent fellow, and a
mover of sedition among the people, and represented Christ
as an enemy to Cassar and his followers, as the filth and off-
scouring of the earth ; then happy age in which we live ;
and happy they which are possessed with the proud and
factious spirit. But if it be otherwise, alas, where be they,
and how few that love their neighbours, or betters, as them-
selves ?
5. You see here what a plague sin is to the earth, and
how great (a punisfeinent may I call it, or rather) a misery
to the sinner, and to the world.
6. And you see how joyful and heavenly a life we should
LIFE OF FAITH. 539
live, if we did but follow God's commands : and what a
felicity love itself is to the soul.
7. And you see by what measure to try men's spirits,
and to know who are the best among all the pretenders to
goodness in the world. Certainly not the most censorious,
contemptuous, backbiters and cruel, that seek to make all
odious that are not for their interest : but those that most
abound in love, which faith itself is given to produce.
Object. ' All this is true ; but still we find it a thing im-
possible to love our neighbour equally with ourselves : Can
you teach us how to do it?'
Answ. It is that I have been teaching you in the ten di-
rections before set down : but it is this which I have re-
served to the close that must do the work indeed, and
without it nothing else will do it.
Direct, 11. ' Make it the work of all your lives, by faith
in Christ, to bring up your souls to the unfeigned love of
God, and then it will be done.' For then you will love God
above all, and love God in all; and love yourselves and
your neighbours principally for God : then God's image,
and glory, and will, will be goodness or amiableness in your
eyes ; and not carnal pleasure, honour, or commodity. And
then it will be easy to you to love that most, which hath
most of God. You will then easily see the reason of this
seeming paradox, and that the contrary is most unreason-
able. You will then be as Timothy, who had a natural love
to others, as others have to themselves, and who sought
the things of Jesus Christ, when all others (even the best
ministers too much) sought their own ; Phil. ii. 20, 21. You
will understand Paul's charge, Phil. ii. 3—5. " In lowliness
of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves^
Look not every man on his own, but every man also on the
things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus." You will learn of Christ to take your
nearest friend for a Satan, that would persuade you to save
or spare yourself (yea, your life) when you ought to lay it
down for the glory of God, and the good of many, (Matt,
xvi. 22, 23.) SELF and own are words which would then be
better understood, and be more suspected : and the reason
of the great Gospel duty of self-denial would be better
discerned.
540 LIFE OF FAITH.
Therefore set yourselves to the study of God, especially
in his goodness ; study him in his works, and in his word,
and in his Son, and in the glory where you hope everlast-
ingly to see him : and if you once love God as God indeed,
it will teach you to love your brethren, and in what sort,
and in what degree to do it. For many ways are we taught of
God to love one another : Even, 1 . By the great and hea-
venly teacher of love, Jesus Christ : 2. And by God's own
example. Matt. v. 44, 45. 3. And, by the shedding abroad
of his love in our hearts by the spirit of love ; Rom. v. 5.
4. And by this actual loving God, and so loving all of God
in the world.
Object, ' But by this doctrine you will prepare for the
Levellers and Friars, to cast down, or cry down propriety.'
Answ. 1. There is a propriety of food, raiment, &c.
which individuation hath made necessary. 2. There is a
propriety of stewardship, which God causeth by the various
disposal of his talents, and which is the just reward of hu-
man industry, and the necessary encouragement of wit, and
labour in the world : none of these would we cast down, or
preach down. 3. But there is a common abuse of pro-
priety to the maintenance of men's own lusts, and to the
hurt of others, and of all societies ! This we would preach
down if we could : but it is love only which must be the
Leveller. In the primitive church, love shewed its power
by such a voluntary community ; Acts iv. And all politi-
cians, who have drawn the idea of a perfect commonwealth,
have been fumbling at other ways of accomplishing it : but
it is Christian love alone that must do it. Unfeignedly lovie
God as God, and love your neighbours really as yourselves,
and then keep your proprieties as far as this will give you
leave.
I will conclude with this considerable observation ; that
though it is false which some affirm, that individuation is a
punishment for some former sin (for how could a soul not
individuate sin ?) And though sensitive self-love, which is
the principle of self-preservation, be no sin itself; nor doth
grace destroy it ; yet the inordinacy of it is the sum and
root of all positive sin, and an increaser of privative sin :
and this inseparable sensitive self-love, was made to be
more under the power of reason, and to be ruled by it, than
LIFE OF FAITH. 541
now we find it in any the most sanctified person ; even as
Abraham's love of the life of his only son, was to be sub-
ject to his faith.
And holiness lieth more in this subjection, than most
men well understand. And the inordinacy of this personal
self-love, hath so strangely perverted the mind itself, that it
is not only very hard to convince men of the evil of any
selfish principles or sins ; but it greatly bindeth them, as to
all duties of public interest, and social nature : yea, and
maketh them afraid of heaven itself; where the union of
souls will be as much nearer than now it is, as their love
will be greater and more perfect. And though it will not be
by any cessation of personal individuation, and by falling
into one universal soul; yet perfect love will make the
union nearer, than we who have no experience of it, can
possibly now comprehend. (And when we feel the strongest
love to a friend, desiring the nearest union, we have the best
help to understand it.) But men that feel not the divine
and holy love, are by inordinate self-love, and abuse of in-
dividuation, afraid of the life to come, lest the union should
be so great as to lose their individuation, or prejudice their
personal divided interests. Yea, true believers, so far as
their holy love is weak, and their inordinate sensitive self-
love is yet too strong, are from hence afraid of another
world, when they scarce know why ; but indeed it is much
from this disease ; which maketh men still desire their per-
sonal felicity, too partially, and in a divided way, and to be
afraid of losing their personality or propriety, by too near a
union and communion of souls.
CHAPTER XXVI.
How hy Faith to he followers of the Saints, and to look with
profit to their Examples, and to their End,
The great work of living in heaven by faith, I have said so
much of as to the principal part in my " Saints' Rest,'* that
no more of that must be expected here. Only this subject
which is not so usually and fully treated of, to the people as
it ought (being one part of our heavenly conversation), I
think meet to speak to more distinctly at this time.
542 LIFE OF FAITH.
As we are commanded first, to " look to Jesus the au-
thor and perfecter of our faith," (Heb. xii. 2, 3.) so are we
commanded to remember our guides, and to follow their
faith, and consider the end of their conversation; Heb. xiii.
7. And " not to be slothful, but followers of them who
through faith and patience inherit the promises;" Heb. vi.
12. To which end we have a cloud of witnesses set before
us, in Heb. xi. that next to Jesus whom they followed, we
should look to them, and follow them; James v. 10. My
brethren, take the prophets for an example —
The reasons of this duty are these.
1. God hath made them our examples two ways : 1. By
his graces, making them holy and fit for our imitation. He
gave them their gifts, not only for themselves, nor only for
that present generation, but for us also, and all that must
survive, to the end of the world. As it is said of Abraham's
justification, Rom. iv. 23, 24. It was said that faith was
imputed to him for righteousness, not for his sake alone,
but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe —
So I may say in this case ; their faith, their piety, their pa-
tience was given them, and is recorded, not for their salva-
tion, or their honour only ; but also to further the salvation
of their posterity, by encouragement and imitation. If " all
things are for our sakes" (2 Cor. iv. 15.), then the graces of
God's saints were for our sakes : For the church's edifica-
tion it is that Christ giveth both offices, gifts and graces to
his ministers (Ephes. iv. 5. 12. 14 — 16.), yea, and sufferings
too ; Phil. i. 12. 20. 2 Cor* i. 4. 6. " I endure all things
for the elect's sake ;" 2 Tim. iii. 10.
2. By commanding us to follow them. For " yourselves
know how ye ought to follow us To make ourselves an
example for you to follow us ;" 2 Thess. iii. 7. 9. " Be fol-
lowers together of me, and mark them that so walk, as ye
have us for an ensample ;" Phil. iii. 17. "I beseech you
be ye followers of me ;" 1 Cor. iv. 16. " Ye became fol-
lowers of us and of the Lord ;" 1 Thess. i. 6. So well are
both examples consistent.
2. The likeness of other men's cases to ours, is greatly
useful to our direction and encouragement. If we are to
travel in dangerous ways, we will be glad to hear how
others have sped before us ; and if we were to deal with a
crafty deceiver, we would willingly advise with others that
LIFE OF FAITH. 543
have dealt with him. If we be to learn any trade or artifice,
we would learn it of them who with best success have prac-
tised it before us. If we are sick of any disease, we are
glad to talk with them that have had the same, and have
been cured of it; to hear what means they used for their *
cure. In all such cases reason teacheth us, both to observe
how others were affected ; whether their case and our's
were the same ; what course they took ; and how they
sped ; especially if they were persons known to us, and the
likeness of their case well known ; and if they were such as
for wisdom and fidelity we could trust : so is it in this great
business of our salvation. We have nothing to do, but
what many thousands have done before us ; nothing to suf-
fer but what they have suffered ; no temptation to resist,
but what they have been assaulted with, and overcame
(1 Cor. X. 13.), and we want no grace, no help or comfort,
but what they did attain : and the glory which we seek and
hope for, they possess. To look to them therefore, must
needs be useful to us in this our wilderness state.
3. And as experience is a powerful teacher; so to be
the master of other men's experience, and so many, and so
wise, and in such various cases, and in so many ages, must
needs be very useful to us. We that are born in the last
ages of the world, have the benefit of the experience of all
the world that have gone before us : therefore is the Scrip-
ture written so much historically ; that all who are there
mentioned, may still be our instructors. Even the first
brethren that were born into the world, were so plain a dis-
covery of the nature of sin and grace, and of the difference of
the woman's and the serpent's seed, that their history is
useful to all generations. And Abel by his faith, and sa-
crifice, and righteousness, "being dead (by malignant cruelty)
yet speaketh ;" Heb. xi. 4. He that will but soberly look
back to all the world's experience, may quickly be resolved,
whether wisdom or folly, labour or idleness, godliness or
ungodliness, temperance or sensuality, furthering the Gos-
pel of Christ, or persecuting it, have sped better at the last,
and have provided best to the actors upon full experience.
I shall therefore here give you some directions how you
may believingly follow the saints. And first observe that
the duty hath these parts, which you must distinctly mind ;
1. To take them for your examples under Christ, and so to fix
544 LIFE OF FAITH.
your eyes upon them, and look at them, and mind them as
examples must be minded : 2. To improve these examples
which you look upon: And that is, 1. For your direction
in duty, and for your warning against sin : 2. To your
encouragement and consolation.
Direct. 1. * Look after them to their end,' and consider,
1. Whither they are gone. We see nothing of them after
death, but the corpse which we leave in dust and darkness :
but faith can attend their souls to glory, and see where
they now are ; even with Christ, according to his promise,
(John xii. 26. Phil. i. 23. John xvii. 24.) with angels, and
with one another, in the heavenly society, the city of God.
2. What they are doing. And faith can see that they
are beholding God, and their glorified Redeemer ; Matt. v.
8. Heb. xii. 14. 1 John iii. 2. They are loving God with
perfect love ; 1 Cor. xii. xiii. 1, 2, &c. They are praising
him with perfect alacrity and joy; saying, *' Holy, holy,
holy. Lord God Almighty," &c. ; Rev. iv. 8. They are so
far minding the state of the world, as to cry, " How long, O
Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our
blood on the inhabitants of the earth : and they are waiting
in white robes, till their fellow-servants also, and their
brethren that shall be killed as they were, shall be fulfilled ;"
Rev. vi. 10, 11. They are rejoicing when the enemies of
Christ and his church are subdued j Rev. xviii. 20. And
they shall judge the malignant angels and the world ; 1 Cor.
iv. 2, 3. And this seemeth not to be only an approbation
of Christ's final judgment: For, 1. Judging is very often
put in Scripture for governing : as in the book of the
Judges, it is said, such and such a one "judged Israel;"
that is, ruled them according to the laws of God. 2. And a
kingdom and reign is often promised to the saints : " To
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my
Father in his throne;" Rev. iii. 21. Which must needs
signify some participation in power of government, and not
only in splendour of glory. And so Christ expoundeth.
Matt. xix. 28. Luke xxii. 30. Ye which have followed me,
in the regeneration shall sit on twelve thrones judging the
twelve tribes of Israel. (And of God it is said, " Thou
satest in the thrones judging right;" Psal. ix. 4.) It is too
jejune and forced an exposition of them that say this is
LIFE OF FAITH. 640
spoken only of the power which the apostles had in their
ministration on earth : and as absurd is the other, that it
is spoken only of apostles, pastors, and saints, and martyrs
in specie that their successors shall be popes and prelates*
and great men in the world, and the saints be uppermost
after Constantine's conversion. As if the promise meant
only to reward one man, because another suffered for Christ,
and God had promised these great things, not to the per-
sons mentioned, but to others that should be their succeti-
sors ; yea, as if that venom then poured into the church,
were all the benediction. And though I know not what
changes are yet to come before the final judgment, yet the
Millenaries* opinion, who restrain all this to an earthly tem-
poral reign of some saints for a thousand years, doth seem
as unsatisfactory on many accounts. It is most likely
therefore that as the wicked (who are now very like them)
must be hereafter of the same region and society with the
devil and his angels, (Matt. xxv. 41.) And as the godly
shall be like and equal to the angels, (Luke xx. 36.) so we shall
be of the same society with the angels ; and consequently
shall have their employment. And as the angels have a
ministerial stewardship or superintendency over men and
their affairs (as many Scriptures fully shew), so also shall
the saints : and it is not likely that this is wholly deferred
till the resurrection ; but as they have a glory before that
with Christ and his angels ; so they have now their part in
this superintendency before ; though both will be greater
at the resurrection. If any say, what use will there be of
our superiority, after the world is destroyed ? I answer, 1 .
The Apostle Peter plainly telleth us (though some would
force his words into the dark) " that we according to his
promise, expect a new heaven and a new earth, in which
dwelleth righteousness." And the creation " groaneth to be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the sons of God ;" Rom. viii. 21. And the " hea-
vens must contain Christ, till the times of restitution of all
things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his
holy prophets, since the world began ;" Acts iii. 21. 2. And
he that said, '* the saints shall judge the angels," seemeth
to intimate, that the devils with the wicked will be in a
state of subjection or servitude to them hereafter. Certain
VOL. XII. N N
546 LIFE OF FAITH.
it is, that Michael and his angels shall be the conqueroTs of
the dragon and his angels ; Rev. xii. 7. 9. And that the
serpent's head shall be bruised by all the woman's seed,
though chiefly by the Captain of our Salvation. But this
shall now suffice concerning their employment.
3. Behold also by faith what the departed saints are
now enjoying. And what is said of their place and work
will tell you that. They enjoy the sight of their glorified
Head ; John xvii. 24. They are " with him in Paradise/*
and therefore also enjoy the sight of the " glory of God : be«
ing absent from the body, they are present with the Lord ;"
2 Cor. v. 8. They see not as in a glass, as here they did,
but with open face. They enjoy the pleasures of a more
perfect knowledge of God and all his wondrous works, than
this world affords. They are happy in their works, in the
perfect love and praises of God ; and they are filled with
the pleasures of his love to them. This is their fruition.
4. Let faith also behold what evils they are delivered
from. 1. From a heavy drossy body which since the fall
hath been an enemy, a prison and fetters to the soul : and
therefore they here groaned to be better clothed ; 2 Cor. v.
4, 5. Rom. viii. 21. 2. From the world's temptations : 3.
From wicked men's malice and persecutions : 4. From sick-
ness, pain, necessities, labours, weariness, and all the trou-
blesome effects of sin : 5. From all troublesome passions,
desires, anger, discontent, disappointments, griefs, and
cares, and fears of evil. 6. Specially from the fears of hell,
and the doubts of their own sincerity and salvation ; and
from the desertions of God, and the terrible sense of his
displeasure. 7. From the troubles and errors of ignorance,
and all our natui'al imperfection. 8. From the fears of
death, which now is more painful than death itself. 9.
From the suggestions of Satan, and his malicious vexing,
disquieting temptations, and from his flattering allurements,
which are much worse. 10. From the company, and the
tempting or grieving examples of ungodly men. 11. From
all sin itself, and all our moral imperfections and defects.
12. And finally from all danger, and fear of ever losing the
felicity they possess. These are the immunities of the
blessed.
Direct, 2. * When faith hath seen the saints in glory.
LIFE OF FAITH. 547
look back and think next what they were lately here on
earth; that it may help you to compare your state and
theirs/ And here you will see, 1. That they were lately in
flesh, as we now are. They had bodies as drossy, as vile,
as frail, as burdensome as ours are. It cost them as dear
(not as it doth the sensual, but) as it doth the temperate
person now to keep them up awhile for the service to which
they were appointed. 2. They had pains and sicknesses as
we have. The souls in heaven have escaped thither from
bodies which have lain as long tormented with the stone,
with stranguries, colics, gripes, convulsions, consumptions,
fevers, and other the most tedious, painful, and loathsome
diseases, as sober men on earth now feel. 3. Satan was as
malicious to them, as he is to us ; and to many of them as
troublesome : he haunted them with as ugly temptations,
to the greatest sins, to unbelief, and pride, and despair, and
self-murder, and horrid blasphemy, as he doth any of us.
(Yea, he did so by Christ himself. Matt, iv.) 4. They met
with as many allurements to worldliness, sensuality, pride,
and lust, in the world's deceiving baits, and flatteries, as
now we do ; and were fain to proceed every step towards
heaven, by conflict and conquest as we must do. 5. They
were in as many wants and straits ; in as poor, and low, and
despised a state, as we are now : they were tempted to
cares, and murmurings, and discontents, through their
wants and crosses, as well as we. 6. They have been in
dangers, and in fears, and many a time at the brink of
death, before it came : and put to cry to God for deliver-
ance in the terrors and anguish of their hearts. Their flesh,
and heart, and friends have failed . them, and all the crea-
tures cast them off". 7. They have gone through far greater
persecutions for the sake of Christ and righteousness, than
ever we did : " So persecuted they the prophets before you ;"
Matt. V. 11, 12. Which of the prophets did not your fathers
kill and persecute ? Even of them for whom their posterity
erected monuments ? Matt, xxiii. 36—38. We have not re-
sisted unto blood, as many of them did; Heb. xi. The
same and greater afflictions which we have undergone, were
accomplished on our brethren in this world ; 1 Pet. v. 9.
We go through the same conflict as they did ; Phil. i. 30.
We are no more falsely nor odiously slandered in any of
our suff'erings than they were; Matt. v. 11, 12. 8. They
548 LIFE OF FAITH.
were men of like passions as we are ; for so James saith
even of Elias, that was carried to heaven without our kind
of death. They had their ignorances, uncertainties, doubts,
mistakes ; their dark thoughts of God, and that world
where they now are. Many of them knew as little of it, till
they saw it, as we do now. Many a fearful, trembling hour,
many a thought that God had forsaken them, and that the
day of grace was past, have many of them had as well as we.
9. Yea, they were imperfect in all their graces ; they had
an imperfect faith, an imperfect hope, an imperfect love to
God and man, and many an hour in such groans as ours
now are, O when shall we be saved from our darkness and
unbelief! When shall we better love the Lord! 10. They
had their actual sins also. (Though none that were regnant
after conversion) their obedience was imperfect as ours
now is. Many of their faults and falls are left on record
for our warning. There is not one human soul in heaven
besides our Saviour's, that was not once a sinner : they all
came thither by a Redeemer as we must do. They had
their too great selfishness ; Phil. ii. 21. They had their pu-
sillanimity and fears of men (as Peter and the apostles).
They had tlieir sinful controversies, as Paul and Barnabas ;
and sinful separations in compliance with the censorious,
as Peter and Barnabas had ; Gal. ii. 16, 17. They had
their carnal sidings, factions, and divisions in the church ;
1 Cor. i. iii. Many a time have they been put to groan,
" O wretched man, who shall deliver me from this body of
death;" Rom. vii. &c. 11. They had as difficult duties to
go through, as any of us : they were put upon as many tears
and troubles, watchings and travels, fastings and self-denial,
as the most laborious and suffering Christians now. 12.
They had as long delays of the accomplishment of their de-
sires, as any of us. 13. And lastly, they passed through
death itself, as we must do. They lay gasping on their beds
of languishing, and death broke in upon every part, and
they underwent that separation of soul and body, as we
must do : their flesh was turned to rottenness and dust, and
laid out of the sight of man in darkness, and remaineth to
this day as common earth.
All this the saints in heaven have undergone. This was
their case awhile ago, who are now in glory. And this was
not only the case of some few, but of thousands and mil-
LIFE OF FAITH. 549
lions, and that in the most of these particulars, even of all
that are gone before us into blessedness. It is not we that
are tempted first, that are persecuted or afflicted first, that
have sinned first, that must die first ; but all this host broke
the ice, and are safely past through this Red Sea, and are
now triumphing in felicity with their Saviour.
Direct. 3. * Let faith next look back, and see by what
way these saints have come to this felicity ; I mean, by
what means they did overcome, and win the crown. And
briefly, you will find, 1. That they all came to heaven by
the mediation, the sacrifice, the meritorious righteousness
of a Redeemer, Jesus Christ (either as promised, or as in-
carnate) none of them were justified by the works of the law,
or the covenant of innocency.
2. That their common way was by faith, repentance, love
and obedience ; " not by works of righteousness which we
have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the
washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which he shed on us abundantly through Christ ;" Titus iii.
5. Even by the triple image of the Divine perfections,
power, love and wisdom ; 2 Tim. i. 7. They lived soberly,
righteously and godly in the world, and were zealous of
good works, looking for the blessed hope which they have
attained ; Titus ii. 14, 15. Knowing that repentance towards
God, and faith towards our^ Lord Jesus Christ, are the sum
of saving doctrine and duty ; Acts xx. 21. And that to fear
God and keep his commandments, is the whole duty of
man; Eccles. xii. 13. And that "the end of the command-
ment is charity, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience,
and of faith unfeigned ;" 1 Tim. i. 5. And that love is the
fulfilling of the law.
3. They studied the word of God, or such means of know-
ing him as God afforded them, in order to the attaining and
maintaining of these graces (Psal. i. 2.), and sought the
Lord with all their hearts, while he might be found, and
called upon him while he was near (Isa. Iv. 5. 10.) ; and did
not presumptuously neglect God's helps, and despise his
word, while they trusted for his mercy.
4. They lived in a continual conflict against the tempta-
tions of the devil, the world and the flesh, and in the main
did conquer as well as strive. They made it their work to
550 LIFE OF FAITH.
mortify those fleshly lusts, which others make it their in-
terest and work to please ; Gal. v. 17.21, 22. vi. 14.
6. They suffered afflictions and persecutions patiently ;
and being reviled, they did. not revile: they "loved their
enemies, and blessed those that cursed them, and prayed for
those that despitefully used and persecuted them ;" Matt. v.
44, 45. 1 Cor. iv. 11—13. 2 Cor. i. 6, 7. Heb. xi. They
would not accept of deliverance from imprisonment, tor-
ments and death, upon sinning terms.
6. They endured to the end, and did not fall off and for-
sake the covenant of their God ; Rev. ii. iii.
7. Lastly, they did all this by the motive of their hopes
of heaven, and by a confidence in the promises of it, and in
a heavenly mind and conversation, as knowing that they did
not labour or suffer in vain ; 1 Cor. xv. 58. 2 Cor. iv. 17.
1 Tim. iv. 10. Rom. viii. 18. Matt. v. 11. 2 Thess. i. 6,7.
Heb. xii. 2.
This was the way by which the saints have gone to hea-
ven ; the only true, successful way.
Direct, 4. * Consider next what helps and means God
gave them for this work, and compare our own with them,
and see whether ours be not as great.
1. We have the same natural capacity as they : we are
intellectual, free agents, made for another world, and capa-
ble of all that they attained. There is no difference in our
natural faculties.
2. We have the same God to shew us mercy ; 1 Cor. xii.
5. There are divers operations, but the same God ; Ephes.
iv. 4, 5. " There is one God, one Lord, &c. even the Lord
over all, good to all that call upon him ;" Rom. x. 12. The
same mercy which called them, and waited on them, calleth
us, even a God who hath " no respect of persons ; but in
every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness
is accepted of him ;" Acts x. 37. Though he be a free be-
nefactor, he is a righteous Judge, and he is good to all, and
the Father of every member of his Son.
3. They had the same Saviour as we have ; the same Sa-
crifice for their sins ; the same Teacher, and the same Ex-
ample ; the same Intercessor with the Father : for though
** there be divers administrations, there is the same Lord ;"
1 Cor. xii. 5. Ephes. iv. 4. •* For other foundation can no
LIFE OF FAITH. Ml
man lay, than Him who is the chief Corner-stone ;" 1 Cor. iii.
11. " They all did eat of the same spiritual meat, and drank
of the same rock as we do, which is Christ 5" 1 Cor. x. 3, 4.
It was the reproach of Christ which Moses in Egypt es-
teemed better than their treasures ; Heb. xi. 26. The same
Physician of souls who hath us in cure, did cure all them :
the same Captain who is conducting us to salvation, is he
that saved them. The same Prince of the Covenant, and
Lord of Life, who conquered death and all their enemies,
hath conquered them for us, and is preparing us for life with
them. They had no greater or better High Priest and Me-
diator with God than we have.
4. They had the same rule to walk by, and the same
way to go, as all we have ; Gal. i. 7, 8. vi. 16. Phil. iii.
14, 15. The same Gospel and word of God in the main,
though under various promulgations and administrations.
Those before the flood were under the covenant of the Pro-
mised Seed, made universally to mankind in Adam. Those
after the flood were under the same covenant renewed uni-
versally to mankind in Noah. The Israelites were under the
same covenant renewed to them especially in Abraham, with
special additions ; and after under that covenant seconded
with the law which was given to Moses : and all Christians
after Christ's resurrection are under the perfected covenant
of grace, and have the same word of salvation for their rule ;
even the " Gospel of Christ, which is the power of God, to
the salvation of every one that believeth;" Rom. i. 16.
5. They had but the same promises in this covenant to
believe, and to assure them of the salvation which they now
possess. They had no other character from God to shew,
nor any but this universal act of oblivion to trust to for the
pardon of all their sins, which we have to trust to for the
pardon of ours ; John iii. 16. 18. Mark xvi. 16. The pro-
mise which was made to the Jews, and to their children,
was made also to them " that are afar off, and to as many as
the Lord shall call ;" Acts ii. 39. " For the promise that
he should be heir of the world, was not to Abraham or his
seed through the law, but through the righteousness of
faith ;" Rom. iv. 13. " And therefore it was of faith, that
it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure
to all the seed, not only to that which is of the law, but to
that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the Fa-
652 LIFE OF FAITH.
ther of us all ;" ver. 16. That it might appear that God
justified not Abraham for any peculiar carnal privilege, but
as a believer, which is a reason common to him with all be-
lievers. *' To whom also their faith shall be imputed for
righteousness ;" ver. 24. " Godliness still is profitable to
all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of
that which is to come ;" 1 Tim. iv. 8. ^i>
Yea, what difference there is in both these forementioned
respects, it is to our advautage. We have the most perfected
rule, and the fullest promises ; and we have many promises
fulfilled to us, which were not fulfilled to them in their
days ; Heb. xi. 40. And we are near the final accomplish-
ment of all the promises.
6. They had the same motives to faith, and patience, and
godliness as we have. They could have no greater happi-
ness offered them, nor any greater punishment threatened to
drive them from sin by fear. They could have no higher
ends than ours ; nor any nobler reasons to be religious. The
same reasons and ends did bring them through all tempta-
tions and difficulties, to everlasting life, which we have also
to satisfy us, and to carry us on ; 2 Tim. iv. 8.
7. The same Spirit did illuminate, sanctify and quicken
them, which is illuminating, sanctifying and quickening us.
All the most excellent and heavenly endowments and work-
ings of their souls, were wrought by the same operator who
is still at work in all the saints ; Rom. viii. 9. *' There are
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit ;" 1 Cor. xii. 4. " We
have the same Spirit of faith ;" 2 Cor. iv. 13. All that are
sons have the same Spirit of the Son, even the Spirit of adop-
tion (Gal. iv. 6. Rom. viii. 16, 26.), which is the Spirit of
power, of love and of a sound mind ; 2 Tim. i. 7. We have
the same Almighty Power within us, to destroy our sins, to
raise up our sluggish hearts to God, to keep us in his love,
to overcome the flesh, which did all these excellent works
in them. We are sealed with the same seal, and are known
by the same mark (1 John iii. 24.), and are actuated by the
same heavenly principle as they were.
8. We are members of the same universal church, which is
the body of Christ : for there is but one body, whatever di-
versity of the members there be ; Ephes. iv. 4 — 7. 12. 1 Cor.
xii. We are members of the same city and family of God ;
Ephes. ii. 19. We are in the same ship which conveyed
LIFE OF FAITH. 553
them to the haven. We are disciples in the same school,
where they learned the way to life eternal. We are workmen
in the same vineyard, where they procured their reward.
9. They had the same work to do as we have ; the same
God to love and serve ; the same Christ to believe in ; the
same Spirit to obey ; the same things to believe (in the main) ;
the same things to desire and pray for ; the same things to
love, and the same to hate ; the same things (in the main)
which are sin tojus, were sin to them, and the same life of
holiness, temperance and righteousness, which is com-
manded us, was commanded them. They had the same
temptations to resist, and the same fleshly mind to overcome,
and the same senses, and appetites, and passions to rule ; the
same enemies to overcome ; and the same or greater suffer-
ings to bear, as is said before.
10. They had but the same means and helps as we have
(except some prophets and apostles, and extraordinary per-
sons in one age). And what " they received of the Lord,
they have delivered unto us ;" 1 Cor. xi. 23. We have the
same Gospel to teach us ; the same sacraments to initiate
and confirm us ; the same pastors and teachers, for office, to
instruct us ; Ephes. iv. 12 — 14. 16. Matt, xxviii. 20. Fast-
ing, and prayer, and thanksgiving, and church communion,
and mutual exhortation, which are our helps and means,
were theirs.
11. The same method of providence which carried them
on, is still on foot for all the saints ; Psal. cxlv. 9. 18. Ixxxvi.
5. He broke them, and bound them up ; he cast them down,
and raised them, as he doth us now. He made them con-
trite, and then did comfort them. He led them through as
rude a wilderness, and they had as many wild beasts to as-
sault them, and as many dangers round about them as we
have. They had seasons of adversity, and seasons of pros-
perity ; their stormy and their sunshine days ; their trou-
bles, which quickened their cries to God, and the gracious
answer of those cries ; and were led to heaven in the same
course of providence as we are.
12. And, to conclude, the same heaven is prepared for
us, and offered, yea given to us, which they possess. It is,
ours in right, though our title be not absolutely perfect, till
we have finally persevered and overcome. We are heirs of
God; and co-heirs with Christ, having his seal and earnest ;
554 LIFE OF FAITH.
if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified
with him ; Rom. xv. 16, 17. The kingdom is prepared for
all them that love him. Christ prayed for all that the Fa-
ther had given him ; and for ail that should believe by his
word (John xvii. 2. 20. 27.), even that they may have eternal
life, and may be with him where he is, to see his glory. Who-
soever believeth shall not perish, but have everlasting life ;
Johniii. 16.
In all this you may see, how like theiitcondition in this
world was unto ours, and that our way is the same which all
those have gone, that are now past all these snares and dan-
gers, sins and miseries, in the presence of their Lord.
Direct, 5. * When you have made these comparisons,
think next what an excellent benefit it will be to you, to look
thus believingly and frequently to the saints, that are gone
before you into glory. All these unspeakable benefits will
follow it.
1. It will much quicken and confirm our faith. As we
do the more easily trust the boat, and boatman, when we
see many thousand passengers safely landed by him : and
we easily trust the physician, when we see many thousands
cured by him, who were once in our case ; so it will greatly
satisfy the soul against the suspicions and fears of unbelief,
when faith seeth all the glorified saints, that are actually
saved by Christ already, and have obtained all that we be-
lieve and seek. Methinks I hear Enoch, Joshua, Abraham,
Peter, Paul, John, Cyprian, Macarius, Augustine, Melanc-
thon, Calvin, Zanchius, Rogers, Bradford, Hooper, Jewel,
Grindal, Usher, Hildersham, Ames, Dod, Baines, Bolton,
Gataker, with thousands such, as men standing on the fur-
ther side of the river, and calling to us that must come after
them, ' Fear not the depths, or storms, or streams ; trust
boldly that vessel, and that faithful pilot ; we trusted him,
and none of us have miscarried, but all of us are here landed
safe. We were once in storms, and doubts, and fears, as you
now are ; but it is our diffidence, and not our confidence,
which proved our infirmity and shame.' Who would not
boldly follow such a multitude of excellent persons, who
have sped so well ?
2. It will also much confirm our hope (that is, our glad
expectation of the crown) when our apprehensions of it grow
dull and slack, and our fears do grow upon us, and we are
LIFE OF FAITH. 555
ready to question whether ever such a happiness will be our
lot, the sight of these that are now triumphing in the actual
possession, will banish despair, and much revive us. We
cannot but think, they were once as low and bad as I, and
had as many difficulties to overcome. And why may not I
then be as holy and as happy as they ?
3. Such a sight will greatly quicken our desires, to at-
tain their happiness, and to go their way. As when world-
lings see the grandeur, and honours, and power of great men
(as they are yet called) it maketh them think, how brave a
life is this ? And as the sensual, when they see their com-
panions in the tavern, or gaming-house, or play-house, or
the merry fool-house, as Solomon accountethit (Eccles.vii.
4.), do long to be with them, and to partake of their beloved
pleasure : so when by faith we see the departed saints in
glory, and think where our old acquaintance are, and the
multitudes of wise and holy souls, that are gone before, it
will greatly stir up our sluggish desires, and make us long
for the same felicity, and to be as near to God as they are.
4. And it will do much to direct us in the way : for we
must follow them as they followed Christ. As the history
of the wars of Alexander, Csesar, Tamerlane, &c. will teach
men how to fight for temporal, tyrannical domination ; so
the history of the saints does teach us how to fight against
spiritual wickednesses and powers, and how to take the pros-
pering way. It is easy there to find, whether laziness or la-
bour, whether sensuality or spirituality hath always been the
way to heaven. Whether saints were gluttons, drunkards,
whoremongers, riotous, licentious and proud ; or temperate,
chaste, mortified and humble. Whether the saints were the
scorners, or the scorned ; the oppressors, or the oppressed ;
the persecutors, or the persecuted ; the burdens, or the
blessings of the times they lived in. When the world is di-
vided about matters of religion, and every party hath a se-
veral way, for the unity, and the reformation, and the com-
munion of the churches, and the right government, disci-
pline and worshipping of God ; how easy and safe is it (in
the main, and in all things of necessity) to look back and
see which way it was that Peter and Paul did go to heaven
by ; and what terms they were, on which their union, com-
munion, government, discipline and worship were performed.
5. The sight of blessed souls by faith, will also increase
556
LIFE OF FAITH.
the resolution and fortitude of the mind. Faintness and
pusillanimity seize upon us when we look only on the diffi-
culties and dangers : but when we see the thousands that
have overcome them all, by the same means which we are
called to use ; it steeleth our courage, and maketh us re-
solve to break through all : when we think only how mortal
our diseases are, our hearts do fail us : but when all that
were cured of the very same, do call to us, and say, * Never
fear; there is no disease too hard for your Physician; he
hath cured us of the very same, and cureth all that ever
trust him, and use his remedies.' This will embolden a
fainting mind. Therefore in the forecited text, (Heb. vi. 12.)
it is said, " Be not slothful, (which there meaneth, such as
faint with despondency, despair or fears) but followers of
them who by faith and patience inherit the promises."
When we look on the saints' tribulations for the faith, we
are apt to faint (as some do that stand by another that is
under the surgeon's hands); Ephes. iii. 13. But when we
see them in triumph, it cureth our cowardice (and it is they
only that labour and faint not, that are crowned, and that
reap in due season, &c. ; Rev. ii. 3. Gal. vi. 9) : that is,
who faint not into cessation, or so as to be overcome). Do
you think when the Israelites passed through the Red Sea,
that the leaders had not the greatest trial? And that it was
not an exceeding increase of their courage, who came after
in the rear, when they saw most of their brethren safely
passed through ? Look believingly upon the souls in hea-
ven, and you will do or suffer any thing to follow them.
6. And it will greatly provoke us to diligence in well-
doing : Look up to your brethren, and you will mend your
pace. If a horse be going towards his pasture, he will go
cheerfully ; especially when he sees his companions there.
It will make us pray hard, and meditate studiously, and
work laboriously, and watch diligently, that we may be
with Christ, where our brethren are, and receive the end of
our faith and labour.
7. And to see our brethren in heaven before us, will
greatly help us to suffer for Christ, and to be patient in any
tribulation which befalleth us. When we see them in glory,
we shall scarce stay to complain of the foulness or narrow-
ness of the way : but look before us, and go on through all.
Or if the flesh do repine, and our hearts begin to fail us, it
LIFE OF FAITH. 557
will make us " lift up the hands which hang down, and the
feeble knees, and make straight paths for our feet," (Heb.xii.
12, 13.) and ** to gird up the loins of our minds, and be
sober, and hope to the end ;" 1 Pet. i. 13. When we look
forward to the end of former sufferers, it will cause us to
possess our souls in patience, and to let it have its perfect
work.
8. It will much overcome the fears of death : It is no
small abatement of them that Cicero, and such honest hea-
thens had, to think of the thousands of their worthiest an-
cestors, and that they were to go the common way of all
mankind : but how much more may it encourage a believer,
to think that he is not only to go the way of all the world,
through the gate of mortality ; but the way also which all
God's saints have gone (save Enoch and Elias) who are
now in heaven. Thus died all the prophets, and the holy
men of God ; yea, Jesus Christ himself, before us ; that
death might be conquered when it seemed to have con-
quered ; Heb. ii. 14.
9. It will do much to raise us from hypocritical re-
serves, and temporizings, and from lukewarmness, and rest-
ing in low degrees. When our conversation is with the
holy ones above, we shall have upon our minds an ambition
to attain to their degrees ; and to do God's will on earth,
as it is done in heaven. It will much incline us to the
highest and noblest sort of duty, which the spirits of the
just made perfect do perform. He that converseth only
with his own sad, tempted, sinful heart, and with tempted,
faulty, mourning Christians, may learn to confess, and
mourn, and weep, and pray ; but he that also converseth
with glorified spirits, will be so wrapped up with their hea-
venly melody, that he will learn and long to love God more
fervently, to praise him more cheerfully, and to give him
thanks more abundantly for his mercies. Heavenly work is
learnt by a heavenly mind, in the use of a heavenly conver-
sation.
10. And to look much at our brethren that are now in
glory, will also fill our lives with pleasure, and make our
religion our continual joy ; and will help us to a foretaste
of heaven on earth : for we shall as it were take ourselves
to be almost with them ; and their melodies will be our de-
light; and love to them,, will make their joys to be our
d^ LIFE OF FAITH.
own. And though it is the sight of God and our Mediator
by faith, which must be our chiefest hope and joy ; yet
while we are here men in flesh, yea, more when we have laid
by flesh and blood, the presence of all the blessed spirits,
and heavenly host, will be a great though subordinate part
of our heavenly felicity and delight.
Direct, 6. ' When you have gone thus far, consider what
obligations lie upon you to converse by faith with your
brethren in heaven, and to look up frequently to their state
and work.'
1. Your necessary love to God requireth it: for as your
love to him must be shewed by your loving his image in
your brethren ; so it requireth you, to love them most that
are most like God : or else you love them not for his like-
ness. And it requireth you to love them most whom God
loveth most ; and that is those that are most like him, and
nearest him. And he that loveth God in his creatures, and
loveth any one truly for God, must love the angels and per-
fected spirits best, because they love him best, and are
nearest him, and most like to him, and are also most be-
loved by him.
2. The common nature of love and humanity requireth
it : for it requireth us to love that best which is best (as is
said) : but the blessed ones in heaven are better than any
here on earth ; and therefore should be better loved.
3. The nature of our love to the saints requireth it : for
if we love them as saints and godly, we shall love those
most that are most holy ; and that is the blessed ones
above. And if we love them most, we shall certainly mind
them, and converse with them by faith, and not be volun-
tary strangers to them.
4. It is part of that heavenly conversation, which is
commended to us, Phil. iii. 20, 21. When is is said, that
our " conversation is in heaven," it signifieth that our
burgeship is there, and our interest and great concerns are
there, and our dwelling is there, and our trading and thriv-
ing business is there, and for it ; and our friends and fel-
low-citizens, and those that we daily trade and converse
with, in love and familiarity, are there ; even as our God,
and our Head, and our inheritance are there. He never knew
a heavenly conversation, that pretending there to know
God alone, hath no converse with his holy ones that attend
LIFE OF FAITH. 559
him ; and doth not live as a member of their society in the
city of God ; that doth not with some delight behold their
holiness, unity, and order, &c.
5. The honouring of God and our Redeemer doth re-
quire it, (that we daily converse with the saints in heaven :)
because it is in them that God is seen, in the greatest glory
of his love ; and it is in them that the power, and ejfficacy,
and love of our dear Redeemer most appeareth. You judge
now of the father by his children, and of the physician by
his patients, and of the builder by the house, and of the
captain by his victories. And if you see no better children
of God, than such childish crying, feeble, froward, diseased,
burdensome ones as we are, you will rob him of the chief of
this his honour. And if you look at none of the patients of
our Saviour, but such lame and languid, pained, groaning,
diseased, half-cured ones as we ; you will rob him of the
glory of his skill and cures. And if you look but to such
an imperfect broken fabric, as the church on earth, you will
dishonour the builder. And if you look to no other victo-
ries of Christ and his Spirit, but what is made in this con-
fused, dark, and bedlam world, you will be tempted to
dishonour his conduct and his conquests. But if you will
look to his children in heaven, who are perfected in his
love and likeness, and to Christ's patients which are there
perfectly cured, and to his building in the heavenly unity
and glory, and to all his victories as there complete, then
you will give him the glory which is his due ; Rev. xxi,
xxii. 2Thess.i. 10—12.
6, So also you will dishonour religion, and the church,
if you converse not with the saints above. For the reasons
last given : for you will judge of the church, and of reli-
gion, by such imperfect things as here you see, where men
turn religion to the service of their worldly interests and
ends, and fight for ambition, faction, tyranny/ usurpation,
and worldly lusts, under the sacred names of Religion and
the Church ; and for the pretended love of Christ, and one
another, do tear the church into shreds, and worry, and
hunt, and devour one another. You will be tempted to be
infidels, if you do not here converse with the sincere, hum-
ble, holy, charitable Christians, and look up to heaven to
perfect souls : and then you will see a church that is truly
amiable, holy, unanimous and glorious in perfect love.
560 LIFE OF FAITH.
7. If you look not up to those in heaven, you will quite
misunderstand the providences of God, in the prosperity of
the wicked, and the sufferings of the saints, and the changes
that are usually made on earth. You will begin to think,
that sin is safe, and the wicked are not so miserable as they
are, nor godly diligence so profitable a thing ; you will not
know the reasons of Providence, unless you can see unto
the end : and the ultimate end is not on earth. But go in-
to the sanctuary, and take the prospective of the promise,
and look to the blessed souls with Christ, and all the riddle
will be expounded to you, and you will be reconciled to all
the providences of God : you are strange to truth, if you
are strange to the triumphing saints in heaven.
8. The progressive nature of your faith and godliness
requireth it. You are travelling to heaven, where the blessed
are, and are nearer to them than when you first believed :
and the nearer you are to them, the more you should mind
them, and by faith and love be familiar with them : and
when you are almost at home, you should be even ready to
embrace your friends at the meeting.
9. Your relation to the blessed spirits doth require it ;
and your Christian and ingenuous disposition towards them.
1. Are they not such as were lately near you in the flesh ;
some of them your dearest companions and friends ; and
should you causelessly forget them? 2. Are they not now
your friends who love you better than they could do on
earth? Doubtless their knowledge and memory is not
grown less, to forget you, if once they knew you ; but they
are like to know much more : and their goodness being in-
creased, their love is increased, and not diminished. 3. And
you belong to the same society with them; even to the
body or church of Christ, whose nobler part above, and in-
ferior part on earth, do make up the whole. Is it not ex-
pressly said, Heb. xii. 22, 23. that '* we are come unto
Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the hea-
venly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
and to the general assembly, and church of the first-born,
which are written in heaven ?" (that is, to those which as
the first-born, are most noble, and possessed of the heavenly
inheritance, and are there entered inhabitants already) :
'* And to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new cove-
LIFE OF FAITH. 561
nant," &c. And what is it to come to them, but to come, or
be joined to that society, of which they are the nobler part?
Will you be fellow citizens with them, and have no com-
munion with them, nor seriously remember them? How
can you remember God himself, and not remember those
that are his courtiers, and nearer to him than you are?
And how can you think of Christ, and not think of his
body ? Or how can you think of his body, and forget the
most excellent and honourable parts? Or how can you re-
member yourselves, and forget your chiefest friends and
lovers ?
10. The very nature of the life of faith requireth us, to
look much to the departed saints. The life of faith con-
sisteth in our conversing with the things unseen ; as the
life of sight or sense is our conversing with things seen : If
you love, and think on none of the saints, but those that
are within your sight, you live (so far) but as by sight :
though faith live not upon saints properly, but on God, and
our Redeemer ; yet it liveth and converseth with the saints ;
if it work aright, it will as it were set you among them, and
make you live on earth, as if you heard their songs of
praise, and saw their thrones of glory.
11. The present necessities of your condition in this
world, do require you to look much to the saints above (as
is before shewed in the benefits recited): We live here
among such persons and things as are objects of continual
sorrow to us : And have we not need of some more com
fortable company ? If you had nothing at home but chid-
ing, and discontent, and poverty, you would be willing of
so much recreation, as to be invited to feast sometimes,
where there is plenty, pleasure, and content. If you lived
among groaning, sick or melancholy persons in the hospi-
tal, you would be glad sometimes of merrier company, a
little to refresh your minds. Alas ! what a deal of sin do
we daily see or hear of! And what a deal of sorrow is
round about us ! What are our newsbooks filled with, or
the daily reports which come to our ears, but sin, and sor-
row, vanity and vexation? What is the employment of
most of the world ? What is it that court and country, city,
and all societies ring of, but vanity and vexation, sin and
sorrow ? And is not a walk in heaven with better company
VOL. XII. o o
562 LIFE OF FAITH.
a pleasure desirable in such a case? What grief must needs
dwell on the minds of sober Catholic Christians, to see the
church on earth so torn, so worried, so reproached as it is
throughout the earth ; so torn in pieces by its zealous, igno-
rant, self-conceited pastors and members ? So worried by
its open and secret enemies ; even by the usurping tyran-
nising "wolves in sheep's clothing, who spare not the
flock ;" (Matt. vii. 15. x. 16. Acts xx. 29.) so reproached
by the world of infidels and heathens, who fly from it as
from an infected city, and say, * Christians are drunkards,
and deceivers, and liars ; they are all in pieces among them-
selves ; they revile and persecute one another ; we will
therefore be no Christians.' How sad is it to see the one
part of the world professing Christianity, to make it odious
by their wickedness, and their divisions ; and the rest of
the world abhorring it, because these have made it seem
odious to them ! How sad is it to hear all Christians speak
of love and concord, unity and peace, while few of them
know the way of peace, or how to hold their own hands
from tearing the church into more pieces, while these peace-
able words are in their mouths ! To see the pastors and
people, as if it were for unity and peace, contriving the
ruin of all that are not of their party and way, and studying
how to extirpate one another ; and multiplying snares and
stumbling-blocks, as necessary means to heal the church !
How sad is it to see so great a faction as the Roman king-
dom (for it is more properly a kingdom than a church) to
lay the necessary unity and communion of all the churches,
upon so many forgeries of their own ; upon the supposed
certainty of the falseness of men's senses (in point of tran-
substantiation), and upon the subjection of the church to an
universal usurper; and to keep up ignorance, lest know-
ledge (by reading the translated Scriptures, and such books
as do detect their frauds) should mar their markets, and
spoil their trade ! To see their prelates take their own domi-
nation, wealth and greatness, to be really the prosperity of
the church, and the interest of the Gospel and kingdom of
Christ ; and to promote the Gospel by silencing or prohibit-
ing the most able, zealous, faithful preachers of it ; and to
go with a drawn sword among the people, and say, * Love
us, or we will kill you : love Christ and us, or the inquisi-
tion and rack shall teach you love !' To see them take the
LIFE OF FAITH. 563
terrifying of men by corporal penalties, to be their chiefest
work, and the way of love to be but such popularity as de-
stroyeth the church. Will not now and then a walk in hea-
ven, be a great refreshing to the mind that hath been long
haunted with such hideous and ugly spectres as all these ?
Will not some converse with the most wise, and holy, and
peaceable society, whose life is love, be a great recreation
to your minds, when such sights as these have made them
sad?
Moreover, you have many burdens of your own to bear ;
your own ignorance, your own temptations, your passions,
your wants, and worst of all, the relics of your sin, which
you cannot bear with that hope and support which is need-
ful to you, without oft looking to the happiness of those
that have overcome all these, and are now at rest.
And you have many excellent duties to perform, which
will not be so well done without looking oft on such a copy.
Yea, you have the fears of death to overcome, which will
not be so easily done, as by looking to all the world of
souls, that have already gone that way before you.
Yea, in your converse with God himself, though you
have one only sufficient Mediator, you will cast yourselves
upon great disadvantages, if your thoughts leave out the
blessed society of saints and angels, who are nearest to him :
you cast away your stepping-stones, or stairs of ascent, and
you will but tempt yourselves to look at Gqi, as through
the great interposing gulf; and hinder the needful fami-
liarity of your thoughts above. Neglect not then a help so
needful to you in your present state.
12. Lastly, The remembrance and observation of the
heavenly inhabitants, is the way that is commended and
commanded to all believers, and that as part of their ordi-
nary duty, in their prayers to God. He hath not only
minded us that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still living,
to prove the resurrection (Matt. xii. 27.), but hath also
comforted the expectants of heaven, by describing the joy
of Lazarus as in Abraham's bosom (Luke xvi. 22, 23.), and
introduced Abraham as pleading Lazarus's cause ; ver. 25,
26. And hath made it a part of the comfortable descrip-
tion of his kingdom, that we shall sit down with Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob in it; Matt. viii. 11. And when he would
appear transfigured in a glimpse of his glory, to Peter,
664: LIFE OF FAITH.
James and John, he would not do it alone, but with Moses
and Elias talking with him ; Matt. xvii. And the comfort
which Paul giveth to the suffering Thessalonians is, ** Rest
with us ;" 2 Thess. i. 7. not only rest with Christ, but with
his servants. And when he describeth the glory of Christ's
appearing it is that, " He shall come to be glorified in his
saints, and admired in all them that do believe ;" ver. 10.
As himself describeth his appearing as with his glorious
angels. Matt. xxv. 31. '* All the holy angels with him.'*
Whether it be all the blessed spirits of the higher worlds, or
only all those of them who were deputed to the service of
the church on earth, (Matt, xviii. 10.) and so were made
angels to man, I pass over. And Enoch, the seventh from
Adam, prophesied, saying, " Behold the Lord cometh with
ten thousands of his saints," &c. ; Jude 14. Many other
Scriptures tell us, that we must not leave out the saints and
angels, when we look towards heaven by faith, and when we
converse and walk above.
But this is but as on the by : That which I intend for
your special observation is, the third petition of the Lord's
prayer, where the annexed clause (which seemeth to refer to
all the three first petitions) doth set the heavenly church be-
fore us, as the pattern of that obedience to the will of God,
which both we, and all the world must imitate, and pray to
God that we may imitate. " Thy will be done on earth, as
it is done in heaven." Here Christ requireth all Christians
in prayer, to look up to the heavenly society, and to con-
sider how they do the will of God, and make it their pattern,
and in their daily prayers, as men that long for their celes-
tial perfection, to pray that they may become their imita-
tors : even as the scholars in the lowest form in the school,
must look at those in the highest form, and desire and en-
deavour to attain to their degree. You see then that this is
a commanded ordinary duty.
Direct. 7. ' Consider next, wherein it is that your con-
verse with angels, and the perfected spirits of the just con-
sisteth ; that you may neither, by your mistake, neglect it
nor carry it too far.*
L Negatively : 1. It is not a deifying them, as the hea-
thens did their heroes and their Divi : they are still but God's
ministers, and must have nothing ascribed to them of the
Divine prerogative.
LIFE OF FAITH. 56e5
2. Nor doth it consist in building temples and altars to
their honour, which savoureth at least of a compliance with
idolatry.
3. Nor doth it at all consist in praying to them. 1. Be-
cause, as we know that they are not omnipresent or omni-
scient ; so, 2. We know not at all when they are present,
and when they do hear us, and when not. 3. Nor do we
know which of them it is that is at any time present with
us. 4. Nor have we any precept, precedent, promise, or
other encouragement to such prayers in God's word, but
rather much to keep us from it.
4. Nor yet is it in desiring them to pray for us : for that
which is their duty they better know than we ; and it is
little that we know of their capacities or opportunities.
And we have no word of God neither to encourage us to
this.
5. Nor doth it consist in choosing any one of them
above the rest for our guardian and protector ; and so com-
mitting ourselves to their care. For we have no reason to
be so presumptuous, as to think that we have the choice of
our own protector ; or that it is a matter at all referred to
us ; or that they will undertake ever the more for our choice.
6. Nor yet may we pretend to know what particular
saint or angel is deputed of God to our protection : for there
is not the least discovery of it in the nature, or in the word
of God : and he that pretendeth extraordinary revelation of
it, must be sure to prove it.
7. Nor may we pray for them, as if they were in purga-
tory, or in any misery or danger which did need our prayers
for them : for we have neither reason to believe the thing,
nor any precept or encouragement to the work.
And as all these seven are unlawful things ; so these also
that follow must be meddled with very tenderly and cau-
tiously.
1. Our praises of them must be sober and wary, and
such as are in plain tendency to the praises of God and
godliness, lest before we are aware, we kindle superstition
in the minds of the auditors. Praise them we may ; but
with a care of the manner, measure and consequence, and
with a due respect to the praise of God.
2. Our prayers for the resurrection of their bodies, and
their solemn justification at the day of judgment, though
566 LIFE OF FAITH,
lawful in itself, yet must be done with very great caution*
And it is fitter that we pray together in general for the
resurrection of all the members of Christ, both those that
are dead, and those that will be, than to fix upon the dead
distinctly; because as we have no precept nor example
for it in the Scriptures, so the minds of the hearers (if it
be public,) may easily abuse our example to error and
excess.
3. Our thankfulness to them for their love and benefits,
must be very cautiously expressed : not by a verbal thanks-
giving to them, of whom we are uncertain when they hear
us : nor yet in any such language as tendeth to encroach
upon the honour of our great Benefactor ; nor to acknow-
ledge any more as from them, than as the ministers of Christ*
4. And in our acknowledgments of their general prayers
for the church, we must take heed of feigning them to be
more particular than we can prove they are.
5. And we must take heed of all such rhetorical proso-
popoeias as tend to delude the hearers or the readers ; as if
we would draw them to believe the presence and audience
of those spirits which we intend not to express.
6. And our honouring of the memory of their martyr-
dom or holiness must be so cautious, that it tend not to
idolatry or superstition : it is lawful in itself to keep the
relics of a saint or a friend, and to keep a solemn, thankful
memorial of God's mercy to his church, in her most excel-
lent helpers and most successful instruments of her good :
but in a time when these are commonly abused to supersti-
tion, the consequence may make that evil, which in other
circumstances might be good. When the primitive pastors
led their people, sometimes to the places where their neigh-
bours suffered martyrdom for Christ, and there praised God
for their praised constancy, to encourage the people, and
engage themselves to be true to Christ, and die as constantly
as others did ; this then had good effects ; and if it had been
used more cautiously, had been laudable : but they did not
foresee the great inconveniences of relics, pilgrimages^
prayers to saints, &c. which in after ages it introduced j and
now, it must be with very great caution indeed, if we will
imitate them.
7. To pray to God to hear their general prayers for the
church (such as those mentioned Rev. vi. 9, 10.), doth inti-
LIFE OF FAITH. 567
mate no false doctrine that I know of. But it is a practice
that hath danger, and no Scripture precept or example to
encourage it, nor solid reason, that I remember : and if God
would have had us use it, it is like he would have made it
known.
II. Affirmatively: our converse with those in heaven
consisteth in all these parts.
1. We must acknowledge our relation to them, and not
think that they are nothing to us.
2. We must not forget them, but see them by faith, and
take it as part of our daily business to have some daily con-
versation with them.
3. We must love them with a peculiar love; even better
\han we love the godly upon earth : because they are better,
nd liker unto God, and love him more, and are more he-
lved by him.
4. We must specially rejoice that God is glorified in and
bythem ; and look often to them as the most illustrious
repesenters of the Divine perfections than any of the saints
on ^rth.
^ We must greatly rejoice in their own felicity and
glory even as if it were our own. If we did see with our
eyes ar old dear friends, as Lazarus in Abraham's bosom,
triumpiing now in the glory of the blessed, we could not
choose but be daily very glad on their behalf; to see and
think, ' what felicity do my friends enjoy !' And faith should
make itin some measure to you, as if you saw it.
6. W3 must have a grateful sense in our minds of their
Icve to us; and must give God thanks for his angels' minis-
tritions fcr us. For doubtless, as they are wiser and better
thin any of our friends on earth ; so they have a better, a
puier and diviner kind of love to us, than these below have.
And the angels disdain not to be Christ's servants for our
gooc, yea for our salvation. For " are they not all minis-
tering spirits, sent^^forth to minister for them, who shall be
heirs of salvation ;" Heb. i. 14. " Their angels always
b^hojd the face of my Father in heaven ;" Matt, xviii. 10.
" ^he angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that
fea him, and delivereth them ;" Psal. xxxiv. 7. " He shall
givthis angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy
wayi. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou
dashvhy foot against a stone ;" Psal. xci. 11, 12. " There
568 LIFE OF FAITH.
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repenteth ;" Luke xv. 10. " The beggar died, and wa&
carried by angels into Abraham's bosom ;" Luke xvi. 22.
Though the great love is that of God, our creator, redeemer,
and sanctifier, and our chiefest gratitude is due to him,
even for the benefit which we have by any of his creatures ;
yet love and mental thankfulness is due to the rational crea-
tures vi^hich are his voluntary instruments ; because they do
what they do out of real love to us ; otherwise we should
owe thankfulness to none, either benefactor, friend or pa-
rents.
7. And our believing converse with the blessed spirits,
must make us earnestly desire to be like them ; even to be
as like them here as possibly we may, and to be with them
that we may be perfect as they are perfect. We must Ion,
to be near God, as they are, and to know him, and love hh,
as they do ; and this holy ambition is well pleasing to Gc^ :
though we must not desire to be as God, we must desirfto
know and love him perfectly.
8. And hence we must proceed to a sober imitati-n of
them as they are now employed in heaven: not in hose
particulars wherein their case and ours differ (as to-hank
God for that conquest which they have made, and tha glory
which they do possess, &c.). But in all these duties which
in some degree, belong to us as well as them.
For instance, ask what kind of religion is likest to that
which is in heaven ? Is it studying bare words, jnd dis-
puting about things unprofitable, or contending gnd quar-
relling about precedency, preeminence or domination ? Or
is it not rather the clearest knowledge, and the mcst ferveit
love of God, and all his holy ones, and the fullest conteit,
delight and rest of the soul in God, and the highest praises
and thanksgivings, with the readiest and most cheerful
obedience ?
And what kind of religious performances are mos- ex-
cellent which we must principally intend? Groans, anl
tears, and penitent confessions, and moans, are very sui^abe
to our present state, while we have sin and suffering , Vut
surely they are duties of the lower rank ; for heaven nore
aboundeth with praises and thanksgiving ; and therebre
we must labour to be fitter for them, and more abundant in
them ; not casting off* any needful humiliations, andp^"^"
LIFE OF FAITH. 569
tent complaints ; but growing as fast as we can above the
necessity of them, by conquering the sin which is the cause.
So ask, what is it that would make the church on earth
to be likest to that part which is in heaven ? Is it striving
what pastors shall be greatest, or have precedency, or be
called gracious lords or benefactors ? Luke xxii. 24, 25, 26.
1 Peter v. 3, 4, 5. Or is it in making the flock of Christ to
dread the secular power of the shepherds, and tremble
before them, as they do before the wolf? Or is it in a proud
conceit of the people's power to ordain their pastors, and to
rule them and themselves by a major vote ? Or in a super-
cilious condemning the members of Christ, and a proud
contempt of others as too unholy for our communion, when
we never had authority to try or judge them ? Is it in the
multitude of sects and divisions ; every one saying our
party, and our way is best ? Surely all this is unlike to
heaven : it is rather in the wisdom, and holiness, and unity
of all the members : when they all know God, especially in
his love and goodness, and when they fervently love him,
and cheerfully, universally obey him ; and when they love
each other fervently, and with a pure heart, and without
divisions do hold the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace ; and with one heart, and mind, and mouth, do glorify
God and our Redeemer. Leaving that church -judgment to
the pastors which Christ hath put into their hands ; and
leaving God's part of judgment unto himself. This is to be
like our heavenly Exemplar, and to do God's will on earth
as it is done in heaven ; Ephes. iv. 2 — 4. 11, 12. 16.
9. And we must also look back to the examples of their
lives, while they were on earth ; and see wherein they are
to be imitated as the imitators of Jesus Christ : which way
went they to heaven before us ?
10. Lastly, We must give God thanks on their behalf;
for making them so perfect, and bringing them so near him,
and saving them from sin, and Satan, and the world, and
bringing them safe to heaven, through so many temptations,
difficulties and sufferings : for making them such instru-
ments of his glory, in their times, and shewing his glory
upon them, and to them in the heavens. For making them
such blessings to the world in their generations, and for
giving us in them such patterns of faith, obedience and pa-
570 LIFE OF FAITH.
tience, and making them so great encouragements to us,
who may the more boldly follow them in faith, duty and suf-
ferings, who have conquered all, and sped so well: for
showing us by faith their present state of glory with Christ,
for our confirmation and consolation. Thus far in all these
ten particulars we must have a heavenly conversation with
the glorified by faith.
Direct, 8. ' Consider next, wherein your imitation of the
example of their lives on earth consisteth.'
And it is 1. Not in committing any of their sins, nor
indulging any such weaknesses in ourselves, as any of them
were guilty of. 2. Nor in extenuating a sin, or thinking
ever the better of it, because it was theirs. 3. Nor in doing
as they did in exempted cases, wherein their law and ours
differed (as in the marriage of Adam's children, in the Jews
polygamy, &c.). 4. Nor in imitating them in things indif-
ferent, or accidental, that were never intended for imitation,
nor done as morally good or eviL 5. Nor in pretending to,
or expecting of their extraordinary revelations, inspirations,
or miracles. 6. Nor in pretending the high attainments of
the more excellent, to be the necessary measure of all that
shall be saved, or the rule of our church-communion : our
imitation of them consisteth in no such things as these.
But it consisteth in these.
1. That you fix upon the same ultimate ends as they did.
That you aim at the same glory of God, and choose the
same everlasting felicity.
2. That you choose the same Guide and Captain of your
Salvation ; the same Mediator between God and man ; the
same Teacher and Ruler of the church, and the same Sacri-
fice for sin, and Intercessor with the Father.
3. That you believe the same Gospel, and build upon
the same promises, and live by the same rule, the word of
God.
4. That you obey the same Spirit, and trust to the same
Sanctifier, and Comforter, and Illuminater, to illuminate,
sanctify and comfort your souls.
5. That you exercise all the same graces of faith, hope,
love, repentance, obedience, patience, as they did.
6. That you live upon the same truths, and be moved by
the same motives as they lived upon and were moved by.
LIFE OF FAITH. 671
7. That you avoid the same sins as they avoided ; and
see what they feared, and fled from, and made conscience
of, that you may do the same.
8. That you choose and use the same kind of company,
helps and means of grace (so far as yours and theirs are the
same) as they have done : and think not to find a nearer, or
another way to that state of happiness which they are come
to. " Walk by the same rule, and mind the same things;
and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall re-
veal even this unto you ;" Phil. iii. 16. " If any preach
another Gospel, let him be accursed ;" Gal. i. 7, 8. " Mark
them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the
doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them ;" Rom.
xvi. 17. " We desire that every one of you do shew the
same diligence, to the full assurance of hope to the end, that
you be not slothful, but followers of them," &c. Heb. vi.
11, 12.
9. Tliat you avoid, resist, and overcome the same temp-
tations, as they did, who now are crowned.
10. That you bear the same cross, and exercise the same
faith, and hope, and patience, unto the end. Arm your-
selves with the same mind, &c. 1 Pet. iv. 1.
In brief, this is the true imitation of the saints.
Direct. 9. Never suffer your life of sense to engage you
so deeply in sensible converse with men on earth, as to
forget your heavenly relations and society ; but live as men
that unfeignedly believe, that you have a more high, and
noble converse every day to mind.
If you are believers indeed, let your faith go along with
the souls of your departed friends into glory : and if you
have forgot them by an unfriendly negligence, renew your
acquaintance with them. Think not that those only that
live on earth, are fit for our converse, and our comfort : will
you converse with none but ignorant, selfish, worldly sin-
ners? Are you more contemptuous of the heavenly inha-
bitants, than the gentleman in hell torments was, (Luke xvi.
26, 27.) that thought one from the dead, though it had been
but a beggar, would have been reverenced even by his sen-
sual brethren on earth, so far as to have persuaded them
unto saving repentance. I tell you, a dead man's skull is
oftimes a more profitable companion than most you shall
converse with in the common world. The dust of your de-
572 LIFE OF FAITH.
parted friends, and the clay that corpse are turned into, is a
good medicine for those eyes that are blinded with the dust
of worldly vanities. Much more should you keep your
acquaintance with the soul, which may, for all the distance,
be perhaps more useful to you, than it was in the flesh.
Alas ! how carnally, and coldly, or seldom, do most profes-
sors look at their brethren, and at the angelical hosts that
are above. They long for our conversion, and mind our
great concernments, and rejoice in our felicity ; and shall
we be so swinishly ungrateful, as seldom to look up, and re-
member their high and blessed state ?
Many think that they have no more business with their
deceased friends, than to see them decently interred, and to
mourn over them, as if their removal were their loss ; or to
grieve for our own loss, when we perceive their places
empty ; but we scarce look up after them with an eye of
faith, much less do we daily maintain our communion with
them in heaven : when Christ was taken up, his disciples
gazed after him; Acts i. 10. Stephen looked up stedfastly
into heaven, and saw Christ sitting at the right hand of God ;
Acts vii. 55. And how seldom, how slightly do we look up,
either to Jesus, his angels or his saints.
I tell you, sirs, you have not done with your friends
when you have buried their flesh. They have left you their
holy examples : they are entered before you into rest : you
are hastening after them, and must be quickly with them, if
you are true believers : you must see them every day by
faith. When you look to Christ, you must look to them, as
his beloved friends, entertained by him in his family of
glory. When you look up to heaven, remember that they
are there : when you think of coming thither, remember that
you must there meet them. You must honour their memo-
ries more than you did on earth, because they are more ho-
nourable, being more honoured of God. You must love
them better than you did when they were on earth, because
they are better, and so more lovely : you must rejoice much
more for their felicity, than you did whilst they were on
earth ; because they are incomparably more happy than they
were. Either you believe this, or you do not. If you do
not believe that the dead are blessed that die in the Lord,
and rest from their labours, and are with Christ in Paradise,
why do you seem Christians i If you do believe it, why do
LIFE OF FAITH. 573
you not more rejoice with your glorified friends, than you
would have done if they had been advanced to the greatest
honours in the world ? It is the natural duty of friends to
mourn with them that mourn, and to rejoice with them that
rejoice; and if one member be honoured or dishonoured,
the rest of the body is accordingly affected. Do not your
sorrows then instead of joys, tell all men that you believe
that your friends are gone to sorrow, and not to joy ? If not,
you are very selfish or inconsiderate.
Direct. 10. * Lastly, Let not your aversation to popery,
turn to a factious, partial forsaking of God's truth, and your
own duty and consolation, in this point.' Abundance of
Christians have taken up opinions in religion, upon the love
and honour of the parties that they took them of; and being
possessed with a just dislike of popery in the main, they
suspect and cast away, not a few great truths and duties
upon a false information, that they are parts of popery. It
hath grieved me more than once to hear religious persons
come from hearing some ministers with disdain and censure,
saying that they prayed for the dead ; and all their proof
was that, ' Thanksgiving is a part of prayer : but they gave
God thanks for the glorification of the spirits of the just;
therefore they prayed for them.' And so have they argued,
because they have read the 1 Cor. xv. at the grave ; or be-
cause they have preached a funeral sermon while the corpse
was present, or because they prayed for themselves, or for
the church. Alas, for the childish ignorance, and peevish-
ness, and foolish wranglings of many Christians, who think
they are better than their neighbours ! How much is Christ's
family dishonoured by his silly froward children ! And they
will not be instructed by their friends ; and therefore they
are posted up, and openly reproached by their enemies.
Have angels or heavenly saints deserved so ill of God or us,
that we should be so shy of their communion ? Are they
nothing to us ? Have we nothing to do with them ? Have
we cause to be ashamed of them? Is their honour any dis-
honour to God or us, if it be no more than what is their
due ? Can we give so much love, respect and honour to
magistrates, ministers and friends on earth (imperfect, sin-
ful, troublesome mortals) ; and shall we think that all is
idolatrous or castaway, which is given to them which so far
excel us ? Is it your design to make heaven either con-
574 LIFE OF FAITH.
temptible or strange to men on earth? Or would you per-"
suade the world, that the souls of the saints are not immor-
tal, but perish as the brutes ? Or that there is no heaven ?
Or that God is there alone without any company ? Are so
many fond of the opinion of a personal reign on earth, for
Christ with his holy ones ; and yet is it popery so much as
to speak honourably and joyfully of the saints in heaven?
My brethren, these things declare you yet to be too dark,
too factious, and too carnal ; and to hold the faith of our
Lord Jesus Christ, with respect to parties, sides and persons.
Christ taketh not his saints as strangers to him : he that
judgeth men as they love and use him, in the least of his
brethren upon earth, will not so soon censure and quarrel
with us as the sectary will do for loving and honouring him
in his saints in heaven ; for it is his will and prayer that they
be with him where he is to behold his glory ; John xii. 26.
xvii. 24. And he will come with his holy angels to be glo-
rified in his saints (who shall judge the world and angels)
and to be admired in all them that do now believe ; 2 Thess.
i. 10—12.
CHAPTER XXVII.
How to receive the Sentence of Death ; and how to die by Faith.
Having said so much of this elsewhere (in my books called,
" A Believer's last Work :" " The last Enemy :" My
" Christian Directory :" " Treatise of Self-Denial,'' &c.), I
shall be here but very brief.
I. For the first case, before sickness cometh:
Direct. 1. ' Be sure that you settle your belief of the life
to come, that your faith may not fail.'
Direct. 2. ' Expect death as seriously all your life, as
wise believers are obliged to do :' that is, as men that are
always sure to die ; as men that are never sure to live a
moment longer ; as men that are sure that life will be short,
and death is not far off; and as foreseeing what it is to
die ; of what eternal consequence ; and what will then
appear to be necessary to your safe, and to your comfortable
change.
Direct, 3. ' All your days habituate your souls to be-
LIFE OF FAITH. 575
lieving, sweet, enlarged thoughts of the infinite goodness
and love of God, to whom you go, and with whom you hope
to live for ever.'
Direct, 4. ' Dwell in the studies of a crucified and glo-
rified Christ, who is the way, the truth and life ; who must
be your hope in life and death ;' Ephes. iii. 17—19.
Direct, 5. * Keep clear your evidences of your right to
Christ and all his promises ; by keeping grace or the hea-
venly nature, in life, activity and increase ;' 2 Peter i. 10.
2 Cor. xiii. 5. John xv. 1. 1 John iii.
Direct, 6. ' Consider often of the possession which your
nature in Christ hath already of heaven ; and how highly it
is advanced, and how near his relation is, and how dear his
love is to his weakest members upon earth : and that as
souls in heaven have an inclination and desire to communi-
cate their own felicity to their bodies ; so hath Christ as to
his body the church ;' John xvii. 24. Ephes. v. 25. 27, &c.
Direct, 7. * Look to the heavenly host, and those who
have lived before you, or with you in the flesh, to make the
thoughts of heaven the more familiar to you (as in the former
chapter).'
Direct. 8. ' Improve all afflictions, yea the plague of sin
itself, to make you weary of this world, and willing to be
gone to Christ ;' Rom. vii.
Direct, 9. ' Be much with God in prayer, meditation and
other heart-raising duties ; that you may not by strangeness
to him be dismayed.'
Direct, 10. * Live not in the guilt of any wilful sin, nor
in any slothful neglect of duty,' lest guilt breed terror, and
make you fly from God your judge. But especially study
to redeem your time, and to do all the good you can in the
world, and to live as totally devoted to God, as conscious
that you live to no carnal interest, but desire to serve him
with all you have ; and your consciences' testimony of this
will abundantly take off" the terrors of death (whatever any
erroneous ones may say to the contrary, for fear of being
guilty of conceits of merit). A fruitful life is a great pre-
parative for death ; 2 Tim. iv. 8. 2 Cor. i. 12, &c.
Direct, 11.* Fetch from heaven the comforts which you
live upon through all your life.' And when you have truly
learned to live more upon the comforts of believed glory,
than upon any pleasures or hopes below, then you will be
5 76 LIFE OF FAITH.
able to die in and for those comforts ; Matt. vi. 20, 21. Col.
iii. 1. 4. Phil. iii. 20, 21. 1 Thess. iv. 18. Phil. i. 21. 23.
Direct. 12. ' The knowledge and love of God in Christ
is the beginning or foretaste of heaven,' (John xvii. 3. 1 Cor.
xiii. &c.) and the foretastes are excellent preparations ;
therefore still remember that all that you do in the world,
for the getting and exercising the true knowledge and love
of God in Christ; so much you do for the foretastes (and
best preparations) for heaven. " If any man love God, the
same is known of him" (with approbation and love) ; 1 Cor.
viii. 3.
II. In the time of sickness, and near to death.
Direct. 1. ' Let your first work, when God seemeth to
call you away, be, to renew a diligent search of your hearts
and lives, and to see lest in either of them there should be
any sin which is not truly hated and repented of.'
Though this must be done through all your lives, yet
with an extraordinary care and diligence when you are like
to come so speedily to your trial : for it is only to repenting
believers, that the covenant of grace doth pardon sin : and
the impenitent have no right to pardon. Though for ordinary
failings which are forgotten, and for sins which you are
willing to know and remember, but cannot, a general repen-
tance will be accepted (as when you pray God to shew you
the sins which you see not, and to forgive those which you
cannot remember or find out) ; yet those which you know
must be particularly repented of: and repentance is a re-
membering duty, and will hardly forget any great and heinous
sins, which are known to be sins indeed. If your repen-
tance be then to begin, alas it is high time to begin it : and
though if it be sound, it will be saving (that is, if it be such
as would settle you in a truly godly life, if you should reco-
ver); yet you will hardly have any assurance of salvation,
or such comfort in it as is desirable to a dying man : because
you will very hardly know whether it come from true con-
version, and contain a love to God and godliness ; or whether
it be only the fruit of fear, and would come to nothing if you
were restored to health. But he that hath truly repented
heretofore, and lived in uprightness towards God and man,
and hath nothing to do, but to discern his sincerity, and to
exercise a special repentance for some late or special sins ;
or to do that again which he hath done unfeignedly before.
LIFE OF FAITH. 577
will much more easily get the assurance and comfort of his
forgiveness and salvation.
Direct. 2. ' Renew your sense of the vanity of this
world :' which at such a time one would think, should be
very easy to do. When you see that you are near an end of
all your pleasures, and have had all (except a grave to rot
in) that ever this world will do for you, may you not easily
then see, whether the godly or the worldly be the wiser and
the happier man ; and what it is that the life of man should
be spent in seeking after? Matt. vi. 33. Isa.lv. I — 3. Eccles.
vii. 3—6.
Direct. 3. ' Remember what flesh is, and what it hath
been to you;' that you may not be too loath to lay it down.
Of the dust it was made, and to the dust it must return.
Corruption is your father, and the worm is your mother and
your sister; Job xvii 14. ** Drought and heat consume the
snow waters ; so doth the grave those which have sinned :
the womb shall forget him ; the worm shall feed sweetly on
him ;" Job xxiv. 19, 20. *' Flesh and blood shall not inherit
the kingdom of God ; but this mortal must put on immor^
tality," by being made a spiritual body ; 1 Cor. xv.
And this flesh hath cost you so dear to carry it about ;
so much care and labour to provide it food, to repair that
which daily vanisheth away ; and so many weary, painful
hours ; and so many fearful thoughts of dying, that me-
thinks you should quietly resign it to the grave, which hath
been so long calling for it.
Especially considering what it hath done, by the temp-
tations of a vitiated appetite and sense, against your souls;
into how many sins it hath drawn you ; and what grief and
shame it hath procured you ; and what assurance and heavenly
pleasures it hath hindered ; and how many repentings, and
purposes, and promises it hath frustrated or undone ; me-
thinks we should conceive that we have long enough dwelt
in such an habitation.
Direct. 4. * Foresee by faith the resurrection of the body,
when it shall be raised a spiritual body unto glory ; and
shall be no more an enemy to the soul.'
Direct. 5. ' Renew your familiarity with the blessed ones
above.' Remember that the great array of God (the souls
of the just from Adam till now) are all got safe through this
VOL. XH. P P
578 LIFE OF FAITH.
Red Sea, and are triumphing in heaven already ; and that it
is but a few stragglers in the end of the world that are left
behind : and which part then should you desire to be with?
And remember how ready those angels which rejoiced at
your conversion, are to be your convoy unto Christ ; Luke
xvi. 23.
Direct. 6. * But especially think with greatest confidence
and delight, that Jesus your head is entered into the heavens
before you, and is making intercession for you, and is pre-
paring you a place, and loveth your company, and will not
lose it. You shall find him ready to receive your souls, and
present them spotless unto God, as the fruit of his media-
tion : he will have you be with him to behold his glory ; and
none shall take you out of his hands. Let his love there-
fore draw up your desires, and establish your hearts in con-
fidence and rest.'
Direct. 7. ' Remember, that all that are living must come
after you ; and how quickly their turn will come ;' and
would you wish to be exempt from death alone, which the
whole world below must needs submit to ?
Direct. 8. * Think still of the resurrection of Christ your
head ;' that you may see that death is a conquered thing,
and what a pledge you have of a life to come.
Direct, 9. ' Dwell still in the believing forethoughts of
the blessedness of the life to which you go, as it is your
personal perfection, and the perfect love and fruition of God,
with his perfect joyous praise.'
Remember still what it is to see and know the Lord,
(and all things else in him, which are fit for us to know ;)
and labour to revive your love to God, and then you revive
your desires and preparations.
Direct. 10. ' Give up yourselves wholly to the will of God j
and think how much better it is for upright souls to be in
God's hand than in your own.* The will of God is the first
and last, the original and end of all the creatures. Besides the
will of Infinite Goodness, there is no final rest for human
souls. But man's will is the alpha and omega, the beginning
or first efficient, and the ultimate end of all obliquity and
sin : be bold then and thankful in your approach to God,
remembering how much more safe and comfortable it is to
be (for life and death) at God's disposal, than our own.
LIFE OF FAITH. 579
Besides these, read the directions against the fear of
death, in my book of " Self-Denial ;" and what is said in
my "Saints' Rest," and other the treatises before mentioned,
CHAPTER XXVIIL
How by Faith to look aright to the coming of Jesus Christ in
Glory.
Because I have said so much of this also, in my " Saints'
Rest," and in many other treatises, I will now pass it over
with these brief directions.
Direct. 1. ' Delude not your souls, nor corrupt your faith
and hope, by placing Christ's kingdom in things too low, or
that are utterly uncertain.'
Think not so carnally of the second coming of Christ,
as the Jews did of the first, who looked for an earthly king-
dom, and despised the spiritual and heavenly : and make
not the unknown time, or other circumstances of his coming,
to be to you as the certain and necessary things ; lest you
do as many of those called Millenaries or Fifth- Monarchy-
Men among us, who have turned the doctrine of Christian
hope into an outrageous fury, to bring Christ down before
his time, and to make themselves rulers in the world, that
they might presently reign under the name of the Reign of
Christ ; and have by seditious, rebellious railing at Christ's
ministers, and hating those that are not of their mind, done
much to promote the kingdom of Satan, while they cried up
nothing but the kingdom of Christ.
Direct. 2. ' Do all that you can in this day of grace, to
promote Christ's present kingdom in the world, and that
will prove your best preparation for his glorious coming.'
To that end labour with all your might, to set up life,
and light, and love, abhorring hypocrisy, ignorance, and un-
charitableness ; turn not religion into a ceremony, carcase,
or dead imagery or form : nor yet into darkness, error, or a
human, wandering, distracting maze : nor into selfish, proud,
censorious faction : Build not Christ's kingdom as the devil
would do, by hypocritical dead shows, or by putting out his
lights, or by schism, division, hatred and strife. Read
Jgimes iii.
580 LIFE OF FAITH.
Direct, 3. * Yet leave not out of your faith and hope, any
certain part of Christ's glorious kingdom/ We know that
we shall for ever be with the Lord, and in the presence of
the Father in heavenly glory ; and withal, that we shall be in
the New Jerusalem; and that there shall " be anew heaven,
and a new earth, in which shall dwell righteousness ; and
that we shall judge the angels and the world." And if we
know not the circumstances of all these parts, let not there-
fore any of them be denied ; 1 Thess. iv. 11. 2 Cor. v. 1.
3. 8. Rev. XX. xxii. 2 Peter iii. 13.
Direct. 4. ' Think what a day of glory it will be to Jesus
Christ;' Matt. xxv. 31. O how different from his state of
humiliation ! He will not come again to be despised, spit
on and buffetted, blasphemed and crucified : Pilate and
Herod must be arraigned at his bar ; it is the marriage-day
of the Lamb ; a day appointed for his glory; Rev. xxi. xxii.
Direct. 5. * Think what a day of honour it will be to God
the Father ; how his truth will be vindicated, his love and
justice gloriously demonstrated ; Matt. xxv. 2 Thess. i. 8,9.
Direct. 6. * Think what a day it will be to all the chil-
dren of God ;' to see their Lord, when he purposely cometh
to be "admired and glorified in them ;" 2 Thess. i. 11, 12. To
see him in whom they have believed, whom they loved and
longed for; 2 Peter iii. 11 — 13. 1 Peter i. 8. To see him
who is their dearest head and Lord; who will justify them
before all the world, and sentence them to life eternal : to
see the day in which they must receive the end of all their
faith and hope ; their prayers, labours and patience to the
full ; 1 Peter i. 8, 9. Rev. ii. iii. Matt. xxv. 2 Peter iv. 13.
Direct. 7. * Think what a day it will be to the shame of
sin, when it shall be the reproach and terror of the world ;
and to the honour of holiness, when faith, obedience and
love shall be the approved honour of all the saints : and
what a day of admirable justice it will be, when all that
seems crooked here, shall be set straight :' O the difference
that there will then be in the thoughts of sin and holiness,
in comparison of those that men have of them now !
Direct. 8. * Think what a confounding day it will be to
the infernal serpent, and all his seed;' Matt. xxv. 41. 16.
When impudent boasters shall then be speechless, and all
iniquity shall stop her mouth; Matt. xxv. 44. xxii. 12.
LIFE OF FAITH. " 581
Psal. cvii. And when Lazarus shall be seen in Abraham's
bosom ; and the enemies of the saints shall see them ad
vanced (as Haman did Mordecai) and rejoicing when the
glory of Christ is revealed ; 1 Peter iv. 13. When every
scorner's mouth shall be stopped, and all stand guilty before
their Judge, (Rom. iii. 4. 19.) and the wretched unprepared
souls must, for departing from God, be sentenced to depart
into misery for ever! Matt. xxv. 41. 46. Jude 6.
Direct, 9. ' And think what a change that day beginneth
both with the saints and with the world :' What a glory it is
that we must immediately possess, in body and soul ; and
how we must partake of the kingdom of our Lord : saints
shall be scorned and persecuted no more : the threatenings
and promises of Christ shall be no more denied by unbe-
lievers : sin will be no more in honour, nor pride and sensu-
ality bear sway : the church will be no more eclipsed, either
by its lamentable imperfections and diseased members, or
by the divisions of sects, or the scatterings of the cruel, or
the slanders of the lying tongue ; Ephes. v. 27. Satan will
no more tempt or trouble us (Rev. xii. 9. Matt. xxv. 41.);
Sin and Death will be excluded ; and all the fears and hor-
rors of both : for the face of Infinite Love will perfectly and
perpetually shine upon us, and shine us into perfect perpe-
tual gloiy, love and joy; and will feed these, and the thank-
ful and praiseful expressions of them, to all eternity ; Matt.
V. 46. 2 Cor. iv. 17. Rev. ii. iii.
Direct. 10. ' Lastly, Think how near all this must needs
be.' If the day of the Lord was near in the times of the
apostles, it cannot be far off to us. If the world's duration
be to six thousand years (the time which arrogant presump-
tion most plausibly guesseth at), it will be less than three
hundred and fifty years to it. Though we know not the
time, we know it cannot be long.
And let me conclude with a warning to both sorts of
readers: And 1. To the ungodly, unprepared sinner. Poor
soul ! dost thou believe this dreadful day or not ? If not,
why dost thou dissemble, by professing it in thy creed ? If
Ijhou do, how canst thou live so merrily or quietly in a
careless, unprepared state ? Canst thou ])ossibly forget so
great, so sure, so near a day ? Alas, it will be another kind
of meeting, than Christ had with sinners upon earth ; when
682 LIFE OF FAITH4
he came in meekness and humiliation, not to judge and con*
demn the world, but to be falsely judged and condemned by
them; Johniii. 17* xxii. 47. Nor will it be such a meet-
ing as Christ had with thee, either by his ministers that
called thee to repent, who were men whom thou couldst
easily despise ; or by his Spirit which thou couldst resist and
quench : or by his afflicting rod, which did but say to thee,
" Go, sin no more, lest worse befal thee ; John v. 14. Heb*
xii. 10. 12* 1 Tim. v. 24« Nor as the judgment of man's
assize, which passeth sentence only against a temporal life ;
Luke xii. 4. Nor like the treaty of a Judas with his new
awakened conscience here* O no ! it will be a more glori^
ous, but more dreadful day : it will be the meeting, not only
of a creature with his Creator, but of a sinner with a just
and holy God, and of a despiser of grace, with the God
whom he despised. O terrible day to the unbelieving, un-
godly, carnal and impenitent; Heb. x. 31. ii. 3. x. 12*
Luke xix. 27. There must thou appear to receive thy final
doom ; to hear the last word that ever thou must hear from
Jesus Christ (unless his everlasting wrath be called his
word); and O, how different will it be from the words which
thou wast wont to hear ! Thou wast wont to hear the calls of
grace *, mercy did entreat thee to return to God ; Christ by
his ministers did beseech thee to be reconciled : but if thou
entreat him for pardon and peace, with the loudest cries, it
would be all in vain; Matt. vii. 21—23. Prov. i. 27,. 28.
Now the voice is, " Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh
away the sin of the world !" John i. 29. But then it will
be, " Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see
him, and they also which pierced him, and all the kindreds
of the earth shall wail, because of him ;" Rev. i. 7. And,
•* Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are
ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which they
have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches,
which ungodly sinners have spoken against him ;" Jude 14,
15. Now he entreateth you to " come to him that you may
have life ;" John v. 40. But then you will cry to the moui^f
tains to fall upon you, and the hills to cover you from his
presence ; Luke xxiii. 30. Rev* vi. 16. Now he aaith,
'* Behold I stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear
LIFE OF FAITH. 5B3
ray voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will
sup with him, and he with me ;" Rev. iii. 20. But when
once you hear that midnight cry, " Behold the bridegroom
cometh, go ye forth and meet him ; then they that are ready
shall go in, and the door shall be shut against the rest;" Matt.
XXV. 9, 10. The door of mercy shall be shut : your repro-
bation will be then made sure ; Rom. ix. 22. ii. 5. The
day of thy visitation is then past ; Luke xix. 41, 42. No
more offers of Christ and mercy : no more entreaties to
accept them ; no more calls to turn and live. Ministers must
no more preach, and persuade, and entreat in vain. Friends
must no more warn thee, and pray for thee. All is done
already that they can do for thy soul for ever. No more
strivings of the Spirit with thy conscience ; and no more
patience, health or time to be abused upon fleshly lusts and
pleasures: all these things are past away; 1 Cor. vii. 31.
2 Cor. iv. 17. And the door of hope will be also shut; no
more hope of a part in Christ ; no more hope of the success
of sermons, of prayers, or of any other means ; no hopes of
pardon, of justification, of salvation ; or of any abatement
of woe; Luke xvi.25,26. "Behold, this is the accepted time;
behold, this is the day of salvation;" 2 Cor. vi. 2. Heb. vi.
4—6. 8. Psal. V. 4, 5. ix. 7. James i. 15.
By this time, methinks, you should better know what the
use and meaning of the Gospel, and grace, and ministers are ;
and what is the design of preaching and in what man-
ner it should be done. Would you have us silent, or talk to
you as in jest, while we see such a day as this before us!
Every true preacher speaketh to you with judgment and
eternity in his eye. Our work is to prepare you, or to help
you to prepare to meet the Lord, and to be ready for your
final sentence : O then with what seriousness should we
speak, and should you hear, and should both we and you
prepare ! It is a pity to see people hear sermons many
years, and not so much as know what a sermon is; and what
is the use and nature of it. If our business were to draw
away disciples after us, and to make ourselves the admired
heads of factions, then we would speak those perverse things
contrary to the doctrine which you have been taught, by
which our ends might be carried on ; Acts xx. 30. Rom
xvi. 17. Or if our design were to be high, and great, and
584
I.IFE OP FAITH.
rich, we would flatter the great ones of the world, that we
might rule you with violence instead of love : or if we con-
sulted our ease, we should spare much of this labour, and
let you silently alone, at cheaper rates to the flesh, than now
we speak to you. But O, who can be silent, who is engaged
in this sacred office, when he foreseeth what will shortly be
the issue of our prevailing, or not prevailing with you ! Now
as we love Christ, we must feed his sheep ; and " necessity is
laid upon us, and woe be unto us, if we preach not the Gos-
pel;" 1 Cor. ix. 16. Our preaching Christ is to " warn every
man, and teach every man, that we may present every man
perfect in Christ Jesus ;'' Col. i. 22. And to " persuade men
as knowing the terrors of the Lord ;'' 2 Cor* ix. 10, 11. Heb.
xii. 25. 29. If it were only that we loved so to hear our-
selves talk ; or to be cried up by many followers, we de-
serve to pay dear indeed for such preaching. But when our
Lord loved and pitied souls at the rate of his sufferings and
bloody death, surely our rates are not above the worth of
souls. O what a doleful sight is it to us, to foresee by faith
how loud, how earnestly you would knock and cry, when
the door is shut, and hope is gone ! and what you would
then give for one of these days which you now are weary
of; and for a drop of that mercy which now doth beg your
entertainment !
What then remaineth, but as ever you believe that day ;
and as ever you care what becometh of your souls and
bodies for ever ; and as ever you would not be charged and
condemned, as final and obstinate refusers of mercy and
salvation ; yea, and for wronging the ministers of Christ,
by making them study and preach in vain : that you harden
not your hearts, but hear Christ's voice, to day, while it
is called to day, before the door of grace be shut : O cry,
while crying and begging may do good : meet Christ now
as may best prepare you to meet him then. Meet him now
as the prodigal met his father, (Luke xv.) saying, *' I have
sinned, and am no more worthy to be called thy son,
make me as one of thy hired servants."
Meet God as Abigail met David, (1 Sam. xxv. 32. 34.)
with an offering of peace (even Christ apprehended by an
obedient faith) : when she heard from David, " Except thou
hadst hasted and come to meet me, all had been destroyed."
LIFE OF FAITH. e>85
Meet him to inquire of his sacred oracle, what is like to
become of thy soul ; as the king of Syria sent Hazael with
a present to Elisha, to meet him, saying, " Shall I recover
of this disease V 2 Kings viii. 8. Or as Paul met with
Christ when he humbled and converted him, saying, " Wlio
art thou, Lord? And what wouldst thou have me do?"
Acts ix.
Meet him as the men of Israel and Judah did David their
king, (2 Sam. xix.) striving who should first own and ho-
nour him; Amos iv. 12. Meet God thus now when he
calleth you by his word, when he persuadeth you by his
ministers, when he moveth you by his Spirit, when he al-
lureth and obligeth you by his mercies, while he driveth
you by affliction, while he waiteth on you by his patience,
and by all these calleth you to repent, to love him, and to
obey; to set your hearts on heaven if ever you hope it
should be your portion. Meet him thus now, and then you
may joyfully meet him in his glory.
II. And O all you that are true believers, lift up your
heads with hope and joy, for your final deliverance draweth
nigh. The world hath but a little while longer to abuse
you : Satan hath but a little while more to molest you : the
blinded Sodomites shall not long be groping for your doors :
you shall not long walk among snares and dangers ; nor
live with enemies, nor with troublesome, unsuitable friends :
You have not long to bear the burden of that wearisome
body, of that seducing flesh, of those unruly passions, or
those disordered thoughts ; you have not long to groan un-
der the misery of that troubled and doubting conscience,
that darkened mind, those dull aiFections, those remnants
of unbelief, stupidity, and carnality ; nor to cry out with
weariness from day to day, O when shall I know God bet-
ter, and love him more ! Death is coming, and quickly after,
Christ is coming : one will begin, and the other perfect
your full deliverance, and put an end to these complaints.
And remember, that though death hath somewhat in it,
which to nature is terrible (God having made the love of
life to be the ' pondus,' or spring of motion to the great
engine of the sensitive world), yet what is there in the
second coming of Christ, that should seem unwelcome to
you ? You shall not meet an enemy, but a friend ; your
686 LIFE OF FAITH.
surest, and your greatest friend ; one that hath done more
for you than all the world hath done ; and one that is ready
now to do much more, and shew his love and friendship to
the height. One that will be then your surest friend, when
all the world shall cast you off. You go not to be con-
demned, but to be openly justified ; yea, honoured before
all the world, and sentenced to endless glory. You go not
to be numbered with the enemies of holiness, or with the
slothful and unprofitable servants ; but to be perfectly in-
corporated into the heavenly society, and to see the glori-
fied faces of Enoch, Moses, and Elias ; of Peter, and John,
and Paul, and Timothy, and all the saints that ever you
knew, or whose writings you have ever read, or whose
names you ever heard of, and millions more. You go to be
better acquainted with those angels that rejoice at your re-
pentance, and that ministered for your good, and that bore
you in their hands, and were your continual guard both
night and day. You go to join in consort with all these, in
those seraphic praises which are harmoniously sounded
forth continually, through all the intellectual world, in the
greatest fervours of perfect love, and the constant raptures
of perfect joy, in the fullest intuition of the glory of the
Eternal God and the glorified humanity of your Redeemer,
and the glory of the celestial world and society, and under
the streams of infinite life, and light, and love, poured
forth upon you to feed all this, to all eternity* And all
this in so near and sweet an union with the glorified ones,
who are the body and spouse of Christ, that it shall be all
as one praise, one love, one joy in all.
O for a more lively and quick-sighted faith, to foresee
this day in some measure as affectingly, as we shall then
see it! * Alasl my Lord, is this dark prospect all that I
must here hope for ? Is this dull, and dreaming, and amaz-
ing apprehension, all that I shall reach to here? Is this sense-
less heart, this despondent mind, these drowsy desires, the
best that I must here employ in the contemplation of so
high a glory ? Must I come in such a sleepy state to God ?
And go as in a dream to the beatifical vision ? I am ashamed
and confounded to find my soul, alas, so dark, so dead, so
low, so unsuitable to such a day and state, even whilst I am
daily looking towards it, and whilst I am daily talking of
Lll E or FAITH. 587
it, and persuading others to higher apprehensions than I
can reach myself; and even whilst I am writing of it, and
attempting to draw a map of heaven, for the consolation of
myself, and fellow-believers. Thou hast convinced my rea-
son of the truth of the predictions, and of the certain futu-
rity of that glorious day ; and yet how little do my affections
stir ! and how unanswerable are my joys, and my desires, to
those convictions ! When the light of my understanding
should cure the deadness of my heart, alas, this deadness
rather extinguisheth that light, and cherisheth temptations
to unbelief; and my faith, and reason, and knowledge, are
as it were asleep, and useless, for want of that life which
should awaken them unto exercise and use. Awakened
reason serveth faith, and is always on thy side : but sleepy
reason in the gleams of prosperity, is ready to give place to
flesh and fancy, and had a thousand distracted, incoherent
dreams. O now reveal thy power, thy truth, thy love and
goodness effectually to my soul, and then I shall wait with
love and longing, for the revelation of thy glory. Thy in-
ward, heavenly, powerful light, is kin to the glorious
brightness of thy coming ; and will shew me that which
books and talk only, without thy Spirit, cannot shew. Thy
kingdom in me, and my daily faithful subjection to thy
government there, must prepare me for the glorious, endless
kingdom. If now thou wouldst pour out thy love upon my
soul, it would flame up towards thee, and long to meet thee,
and think with daily pleasure on that day : and my perfect
love would cast out that fear, which maketh the thoughts
of thy coming to be a torment. O meet me now when my
soul doth seek thee, and secretly cry after thee ; that I may
know thou wilt meet me with love and pity at the last. O
turn not now thine ears from my requests : for if thou re-
ceive me not now as thy humble supplicant, how shall I
hope that thou wilt receive me then ? And if thou wilt not
hear me in the day of grace and visitation, and in this time
when thou mayest be found, how can I hope that thou wilt
hear me then, when the door is shut, and the seeking and
finding time is past? If thou cast me out of thy presence
now, and turn away thy face from my soul and my suppli-
cation, as a loathed thing, how can I then expect thy smiles,
or the vital embracements of thy glorifying love ? Or to be
i588 LIFE OF FAITH.
owned by thee before all the world, with that cordial and
consolatory justification, which may keep my conscience
from becoming my hell. If thou wilt permit my flesh and
sense to conquer my faith, and to turn away my love and
desire from thee ; how shall I then expect that joy, that
heaven, which consisteth in thy love : and if thou suffer
this unstedfast heart to depart from thee now, will it not be
the forerunner of that dreadful doom, ** Depart from me, ye
workers of iniquity, I know you not :" and if for the love of
transitory vanity, I now deny thee, but can I then expect
but to be finally denied by thee ? Come Lord, and dwell
by thy Spirit in my soul, that I may have something in me
to take my part, and may know that I shall dwell with thee
for ever ; if now thou wilt make me thy temple and habita-
tion, and wilt dwell by faith and love within me ; I shall
know thee by more than the hearing of the ear, and thy
last appearing will be less terrible to my thoughts. Thou
wilt be health to my soul, when my body lieth languishing
in pain : and when flesh and heart fail, my failing heart will
find reviving strength in thee: and when the portion of
worldlings is spent, and at the end, I shall find thee a never-
ending portion. Why wouldst thou come down from hea-
ven to earth in the days of thy voluntary humiliation, but to
bring down grace to dwell where God himself hath dwelt?
If the eternal world will dwell in flesh, the Eternal Spirit
will not disdain it, whose dwelling is not by so close an
union, but by sweet unexpressible inoperations ; this world
hath had the pledge of thy bodily presence, when thou
broughtest life and immortality to light: O let my dark
and fearful soul have the pledge of thy illuminating, quick-
ening, comforting Spirit, that life and immortality may be
begun within me ! Thy word of promise is certain in itself;
but knowing our weakness, thou wilt give us more : thy
seal, thy pledge, thy earnest, will not only confirm my faith,
as settling my doubting mind ; but it will also draw up my
love and desire, as suited to my intellectual appetite ; and
will be a true foretaste of heaven. How oft have I gazed in
the glass, and yet overlooked, or not been taken with the
beauty of thy face ! But one drop of thy love, if it fall into
my soul, will fill it with the most fragrant and delectable
odour, and will be its life, and joy, and vigour. I shall
LIFE OF FAITH. 589
never know effectually what heaven is, till I know what it
is to love thee, and to be beloved by thee : for what but
love will tell me what a life of love is ? If I could love thee
more ardently, more absolutely, more operatively, I should
quickly know and feel thy love. And O when I shall know
that prosperous life, and live in the delicious entertainments
of thy love, and in the sweet and vigorous exercise of mine,
then I shall know the nature of heaven, the wisdom of be-
lievers, and the happiness of enjoyers! And then foretaste
will do more than foresight alone, and will make me love
the day of thy appearing, and long to see thy glorious love !
* But alas, this feeble sleeping love, doth threaten, if not
the thrusting of me our of doors (for none but friends and
hearty lovers dwell with thee) at least, that 1 shall be set
behind the door, and be one of the lowest in thy kingdom,
as I was in thy love. For if I have the least degree of love,
I must needs have the least degree of glory, seeing that
blessedness is love itself: and if I have the least in this life,
how can I hope to have proportionably with others, the
most in that? I know it is better to be a door-keeper in
thy house, than to reign in the palaces of earthly, sordid,
and polluting pleasures : and that the least in thy kingdom,
is greater than emperors in the kingdoms of darkness. But
how can I have faith indeed, and not desire intuition? or
grace, and not desire glory ? Or who can love thee truly,
and yet be contented to love thee but a little ? or who ever
tasted truly of thy love, that desired not the fulness of it ?
If sincerity consist in the desire of perfection ; and if mu-
tual love be heaven itself, I am not sincere then, if I desire
not the highest place in heaven, wliich is suited to the mea-
sure of my natural capacity, and with the freedom and wis-
dom of thy bounteous will. Did I grudge at my natural
capacity, and my rank among my fellow-creatures, and
aspired after the divine prerogatives, or a greatness without
goodness, or any prohibited station or degree, I might then
expect the reward of pride, and to fall into Satan's con-
demnation for falling into sin. But when wast thou ever
offended at the ambition of loving thee with the most per-
fect love ? Thou forbiddest our carnal pride, as our self-
abasing folly : not thinking preferments, lordships and
domination to be things too high for us, but too low : thou
690 I.IFE OF FAITH.
allowest and commandest the poorest Lazarus to seek and
hope for things ten thousand times more high ; in compari-
son with which these pleasures are pain ; these lordships
are losses ; this wealth is dung ; these courts are dens of
uncleanness, wild and ravenous beasts ; and all this earthly
pomp is shame. Thou forbiddest not the pleasures and
glory of the world, as too good for thy servants, but as too
bad, and base, and hurtful.
' O therefore encourage in my drooping soul, that holy
ambition which thou commandest ! Disappoint not the de-
sires which thyself, by thy precept and thy Spirit hast ex-
cited. I know thou hast promised to satisfy them that
hunger and thirst after righteousness : and (if my soul be
acquainted with itself) it is righteousness which I desire.
Though the soliciting calls of vanity have drawn me too
often to look aside, it is the knowledge and love of my
Creator, and Redeemer, and Sanctifier, which I pursue ;
and my prayer is, that thou wilt turn away mine eyes from
beholding vanity, and quicken me in thy way. But it is
the dullness of my desires which I fear ; lest they are not
the hungering and thirsting which have thy promise ; and
lest they should prove but as the desires of the slothful
which kill him, because his hands refuse to labour :
thou knowest I hate the sluggishness and indifFerency
of my soul, and the coldness and interruptions of my de-
sires : and what is there in this world which I desire more,
than more desires after thee ; even more of that desiring,
seeking love, which is the way to enjoying and delighting
love. O breathe upon my soul, by thy quickening Spirit,
that it may pant, and gasp, and breathe after thy presence !
The most dolorous motions of life and love, have more con-
tenting sweetness in them, than my dead insensibility and
sleep. When I can but long to love thee, or when I lie in
tears for want of love, or when I am hating and reviling this
sluggish, carnal, disaffected heart, even in my very doubts,
and fears, and moans, I find myself nearer to content and
pleasure, than when I neglect thee with a dead and drowsy
heart. If therefore my vileness make me unfit to enjoy
that pleasure in the daily prospect of thy kingdom, which
reason itself adjudgeth to a serious, lively faith; O yet
keep up the constant fervour of desire, that I may never
LIFE OF FAITH. 591
grow in love with vanity and deceit, nor ever be indif-
ferent whether I stay on earth, or come to thee ! and that
in my greatest health 1 may never think of thee without de-
sire ; nor ever kneel in prayer to thee with such an unbe-
lieving, and unprayer-like heart, which doth not unfeignedly
say, " Let thy glorious kingdom come :" that so when on
the bed of languishing, I am waiting for the dissolution of
this frame, I may not draw back, as flying from thy pre-
sence ; nor look at heaven as less desirable than earth ; nor
be driven unwillingly from a more beloved habitation ; but
with that faith, hope, and love, which- animateth all thy
living members, I may in consort with thy saints to the last
sincerely break fortli, our common suit ;
Come Lord Jesus j come quickly. Amen/
END OF THE TWELFTH VOLUME.
R. EDWARDS, CRANE COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON.
Bl^rOING SECT. NUV lUlSb/
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