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temperancy of their affections removed; and so all the holes at which God's blessings might soke away, are stopped

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Secondly, The cisterns of wicked men are broken, and their bags full of holes by the secret judgment and curse of God, punishing their sinful lusts in their sinful gain, blasting and withering their fruitless estates, as Christ did the barren fig-tree. We see how the Lord threatens " to curse the people for their sins in their going out and coming in, in their basket, and in their store: to break the staff of their bread, to take away their cup from their mouth, to take his wine and oil to himself again, to consume their palaces with fire, to remove their banquets, to discover their treasures, and to seek out their hidden things, to hear the cry of the beam and of the stone out of the wall, and to pull them out of their nests, even from among the stars," with infinite other the like expressions, in which the Lord useth to shew unto us the power and vigilancy of his justice in the administration of the world. Whereas the faithful have the bread and the word, the creatures and the blessings of God together, and so have more certainty in these things. The woman's oil and meal was not much, yet it increased, and went along with her occasions: there was a spring in the cruse, and in the barrel; it was living oil, and living meal, that grew and held out in the famine. As a man's occasions are, so the fountain supplies him. If he want a cup, a bucket, a cistern full, there is in the fountain answerable to all his wants so whatever necessity the Lord brings the faithful unto, he gives them an eye to see, a heart to rest in, and to expect, in the use of honest means, a supply proportionable to each of them.-And as they have more certainty, so have they more sweetness in the waters, which they fetch from the fountain. Water in pits and cisterns, rots, and grows muddy and unsavoury; so do the creatures of God to wicked men. Cares, fears, jealousies, desires, hopes, ends, infinite commixtures and disturbances, deprive the creatures of their native relish and pureness. The sweetest wine, to an aguish palate, tastes of that bitter humour which it there finds. So lusts and curses, interweaving themselves with the creatures in a wicked man's hands, must needs take away the sense of their simple goodness, turn their table to

a snare, and the things which should have been for their good, into an occasion of falling. Whereas the faithful, by the word and prayer, have the creature sanctified, seasoned, and perfumed unto their use again,-have the curse of God removed, and their own lusts corrected, and withheld from mingling with them. Thus faith gives all things in the fountain, more certain, and more sweet, by stopping the holes which did let them out, and by removing the lusts and curses which did before embitter them.

Secondly, Faith gives us all things by giving us the promises. "Godliness hath the promises of this life, and that which is to come." Wicked men have good things only by God's general providence, which maketh his sun to shine, as well on them as on the just, by a common bounty. But this manner of tenure is liable to many forfeitures, curses, taxations, many inroads and devastations, by wolfish and wasting lusts, and, by consequence, is not able to settle and secure the heart in the enjoyment of them. But now by faith in the promises, the godly have their hold altered, have their estate settled in a better and surer tenure, delivered from those many encumbrances and entanglements, unto the which before they were obnoxious: so that now a man's heart is secured beyond all doubts or human fears. A poor man may object, I am not wise enough to order my affairs; I am disabled by sickness and weakness to attend my calling; my charge increaseth upon me, and my probabilities of providing for them, wax smaller than before.'-But yet faith is able to answer these and all other the like objections, by proposing the promise:- Dost thou live by thine own strength? Dost thou prosper by thine own wisdom and industry, or by the blessing and truth of God in his promises? and is God's truth an accepter of persons? is not his fidelity as firm towards weak and poor, as towards rich believers? Is there any want or weakness, any poverty or deficiency in Heaven? Do the promises of God stand in need of man's wisdom or strength to bring them to pass? Can thy increase of charge or occasions, exhaust the treasures, or dry up the fountains and truth, of God ?'—If an honourable and wealthy person have occasion to enlarge

b1 Tim. iv. 8.

his retinue, and live at a higher pitch than before, yet because he hath abundance, he doth not repine at this necessity. All the faithful are of the household and family of God, who is no whit the poorer in his state and power, by maintaining many or few. He gives to all men, and yet he gives liberally, which no rich man in the world is able to do, because as he gives to others, himself decreaseth. But God gives out of a fountain, as the sun gives light; which whether it shine to one or to thousands, retains still equal light in itself: neither can the eyes of men exhaust or draw out the light of the sun. "All the creatures are mine," saith God, upon a thousand hills." If a thousand hills can bear corn enough, or feed cattle enough for any poor man's relief, he need not doubt or fear: for God hath still thousands of mountains, as it were so many granaries or storehouses, in his truth and promises, for the faithful, in any straits, to have recourse unto.-And thus faith gives us all things by entitling us to the promises.

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Against all this which hath been spoken, touching the excellency of faith, may be objected that determination of the apostle, "Now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these, is charityd." By which comparison, this point touching the precedency of faith, seems to be impaired. To which I answer,-That the apostle speaks of a greatness extensive in regard of duration, charity being an everlasting grace, but faith pertaining only to this life, as being requisite to the present quality and state of the church: for faith and fruition are opposed ; faith looketh upon things in their promises,-fruition, in their real existence. But now consider faith as an instrument to lay hold on Christ, and the precious promises of life and grace in him, and consider it as a root, a living principle, to put the heart in work, to purify the conscience, to inflame the heart to spiritual obedience, and a retribution. of holy love to God for all his love to us in his Son. And thus faith exceeds charity, as the motion of the mouth, in eating, (which is an act that tends immediately to life) doth the motion of the mouth in speaking,-which tendeth not to an end so important, nor absolutely necessary.

© James i. 5. d 1 Cor. xiii. 10. e 2 Cor. v. 7.

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Another objection may be this :-Other graces make a man like Christ; which faith cannot do, because Christ could not believe unto justification or life, having the fountain of both abundantly in himself: whereas the proper and primitive work of faith is to carry a man out of himself, and to make him see all his sufficiency in another. To which I answer two ways: First, Christ had faith, though not to such purposes as we: faith in the common nature of it, as it imports assent to all divine truth, and adherence, or reliance of the soul, to the benefit and goodness which the same brings with it: (for ratio veritatis,' and 'ratio commodi,' are the two objects of a right faith, or rather several qualifications of the same object.) Thus it is a legal thing coming under the compass of those duties of the law, unto which Christ made himself subject; but faith as a condition, an officer, an instrument of justification: so it could not stand with Christ, who was not to be righteous by believing, but to be himself the righteousness of those that believe. But in other respects when the apostle saith, "He was heard in that which he feared," when he saith himself, "My God, my God:"-it is manifest, that though he had not faith for righteousness, yet he had it for deliverance; that though he were not saved by believing, yet he was obedient in believing.-Secondly, It is more to be one with Christ, than to be like him; more to be a part of him, than a picture. Now faith makes a unity with Christ; other graces, only a resemblance: faith makes a man a member; others, only a follower of him: and so in that respect, still faith hath the pre-eminence.

Now, then, from the great necessity and preciousness of this duty, we may first infer the greatness of their sin who neglect it, who live with no sense of the want, and little sorrow for the weakness, of it. To lie, swear, revel, cozen, to live in the practice of any notorious outrage and moral enormity, many men esteem heinous and unworthy but to live in infidelity, without the knowledge or fellowship of Christ, in an utter unacquaintance with their own unworthiness, and inexperience of their everlasting insufficiencies to compass or contrive their own salvation, are things seldom or never seriously thought on by them. And yet infidelity is indeed the edge and sting of all other

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sins; that which binds them and their guilt everlastingly upon the soul, and locketh them like shackles to the conscience, which otherwise, by the help of Christ, might easily shake them off. "He that believeth," saith Christ', "is not condemned; he that believeth not, is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him." There is a displeasure which is but for a moment, a wrath which doth only sing, and blow upon the soul, and then away: such the faithful themselves, after some bold adventure into the ways of sin, may have experience of. And there is a wrath which is constant, permanent, intimately and everlastingly adherent unto the soul", which will seize only upon unbelievers. "The Spirit shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not," saith Christ. Sin there stands in opposition to righteousness and judgment, or holiness*: so that the meaning is,-The Spirit shall convince men, that they are unrighteous and unholy men, held under by the guilt, condemnation, and power of sin; shut up in fast chains unto the wrath and judgment of the great day; unavoidably cast and condemned in the court of law, because they fled not by faith unto that office of mercy and reconciliation which the Father hath erected in his beloved Son. All sins do, of themselves, deserve damnation; but none do 'de facto' infer damnation without infidelity. This was that great provocation in the wilderness, which kept the people out of the land of promise, and for which God is said to have been grieved forty years together. "How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be, ere they believe in me? They despised the Holy Land; they believed not his word; they drew backward, and turned again in their hearts into Egypt.""-The apostle sums up all their murmurings and provocations, for which they were excluded that type of Heaven, in this one word, "They entered not in, di anioтíav, because of their unbelief." there be but one only medicine against a deadly disease, and when that is offered to the sick person, he refuse it, and throw it under his feet,-the state of that man is infallibly desperate and remediless. There is but one name, but one

f John iii. 18, 36. tissimam rei adhæsionem. Camer.

1 Heb. x. 39.

g Isai. liv. 7, 8.

m Acts vii. 39.

h Notat i John xvi. 8. n Heb. iii. 19.

If

constantiam et peni

k John xvi. 8. o Acts iv. 12.

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