THE

A XE LAID TO THE ROOT

OF THE

OLD CORRUPT TREE.

A DISTINCTION between the FAITH which is of MAN, and the FAITH which is of GOD: One whereof is the Faith of Sion, the other the Faith of Babylon: The one laying hold on Christ, as he is revealed the King of Life in Sion; the other lays hold on an Hiftorical Relation of Chrift, the Fame whereof hath founded in Babylon.

T

HERE is a faith which is of a man's felf; and a faith which is the gift of God: Or a power of believing, which is found in the nature of fallen man; and a power of believing, which is given from above. As there are two births, the firft and the second, fo they have each their faith; and each believe with their faith, and seem to lay hold on the fame thing for life; and the contention about the inheritance will not be ended, till God determine it. Cain will facrifice with his faith, and he believes he shall be accepted: if he had not believed fo, he would not have been fo angry when he found it otherwise: and the Cainish spirit in man, the vagabond from the life of God, which hath not an habitation in God, nor the eternal life of God abiding in him, is bufy with the fame faith at this day, and hath the fame expectation from it as Cain had.

This is the root of the falfe religion; of the falfe hope; of the falfe peace; of the false joy; of the falfe reft; of the falfe comfort; of the falfe affurance; as the other is of the true. In this faith, which is of man, and in the improvement of it, ftands all the knowledge, zeal, devotion, and worship of the world in general, and of the worldly part in every man in particular: but the true knowledge, the true zeal, the true devotion, the true worship, stands

f

in

in the faith which is given of God, to them which are born of the immortal feed; which lives in God, and in which God liveth for ever.

Now it deeply concerns every man, to confider from which of thefe his knowledge, religion, and worship proceed, and in which of them they ftand. For if they proceed from, and stand in, the faith which is of man, they cannot please God, nor conduce to the falvation of the foul. But tho' they may tafte very pleasantly to man's palate now, and adminifter much hope and fatisfaction to him at prefent, yet they will fail at the time of need: for, as Christ said concerning the righteousness of the scribes and Pharifees, fo may I concerning this faith; Except your faith, with the works of it, exceed that faith, and all the works of it (even to the utmost improvement thereof) which is to be found in man's nature, it will never lead you to the kingdom of God, nor be able to give you any right to the inheritance of life. For he that will inherit, must be the right heir, must have the faith of Abraham, the faith of Ifaac; which springs up from the root of life in the seed; and this leads the feed into that fpring of life (out of which it shot forth as a branch) which is the inheritance promised to the feed. And here is Christ, Alpha and Omega, in every particular foul where life is begun and perfected, running its courfe through time, back to that which was before the beginning.

Therefore observe, and confider well, what this faith, which is of a man's felf can do; and how far it may go in the changing of man, and in producing a conformity of him to the letter of the fcriptures. And then confider where it is shut out, what it cannot do, what change it cannot make, what it cannot conform to; that fo the true diftinction may be let into the mind, and not a foundation laid of fo great a mistake in a matter of fo great

concernment.

1. A man may believe the hiftory of the fcriptures; yea, and all the doctrines of them (fo far as he can reach them with his understanding) with this faith which is of man. As by this faith a man can believe an history probably related to him; fo by this faith he believes the histories of the fcriptures, which are more than probably related. As by this faith a man can receive doctrines of inftruction out of philofophers books; so by the same faith he may receive doctrines of inftruction out of the fcriptures. Reading a relation of the fall of man, of the recovery by Chrift, that there is no other way to life, &c. this faith can believe the relation of these things, as well as it can believe the relation of other things.

2. This being believed from the relation of the hiftory of these things, it naturally fets all the powers of man on work (kindling the understanding, will, and affections) towards the avoiding of mifery, and the attaining of happiness. What would not a man do, to avoid perpetual extremity of mifery on foul and body for ever, and to obtain a crown of everlasting bleffedness? This boils the affections to an height, and fets the understanding on work to the utmost, to gather all the rules of fcripture, and to VOL. I. practife

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practife all the duties and ordinances therein mentioned. What can the fcripture propose to be believed, that he will not believe? What can it propofe to be done, that he will not do? Muft he pray? He will pray. Must he hear? He will hear. Muft he read? He will read. Muft he meditate? He will meditate. Must he deny himself, and all his own righteousness and duties, and hope only for falvation in the merits of Chrift? He will feem to do that too; and fay, when he has done all he can, he is but an unprofitable fervant. Does the fcripture fay he can do nothing without the Spirit? He will acknowledge that too, and he hopes he has the Spirit. God hath promised the Spirit to them that afk it; and he has afked long, and asks still, and therefore hopes he has it. Thus man, by a natural faith, grows up and fpreads into a great tree, and is very confident and much pleafed; not perceiving the defect in his root, and what all his growth here will come to.

3. This being done with much seriousness and induftry, there must needs follow a great change in man: his understanding will be more and more enlightened; his will more and more conformed to that to which he thus gives himself up, and to which he thus bends himself with all his ftrength; his affections more and more warmed; he will find a kind of life and growth in this, according to its kind. Let a man's heart be in any kind of study or knowledge, applying himself strictly to it, he gathers understanding in his mind, and warmth in his affection: fo it is alfo here. Yea, this being more excellent in itself, must needs produce a more excellent understanding, and a more excellent warmth, and have a greater power and influence upon the will.

4. Now how easy is it for a man to mistake here, and call this the truth! First, he mistakes this for the true faith; and then he mistakes in applying to this all that which belongs to the true faith: and thus entering into the spirit of error at firft, he errs in the whole course of his religion, from the beginning to the end. He fees a change made by this in him; and this he accounts the true converfion and regeneration. This leads him to ask, and feek, and pray; and this he accounts the true praying, the true feeking, the true asking. This cleanfeth (after its kind) his understanding, will, and affections; and this he takes for the true fanctification. The juftification which is to the true believer, he also applies to this faith; and so he has a peace, a fatisfaction, a rest here, and an hope of happiness hereafter. Thus he receives what is already revealed; and he waits for what may be further revealed, which he can embrace and conform to, turning ftill upon this center, and growing up from this root. from this root. And he that does not come hither in religion, falls fhort of the improvement of man's nature, and of the faith that grows there (which naturally leads all the powers of nature hither, and fixes them here), which is but dead. And now this man is fafe; he is a believer; he is a worshipper of God; he is a Chriftian; he is an obferver of the commands of Chrift: when the overflowing fcourge

comes,

comes, it fhall not touch him: all the judgments, plagues, threatenings, in the fcriptures, belong not to him, but to the unbelievers; to them that know not God; to them that worship not God; to them that obferve not the commands of Chrift. Thus, by his untempered morter from his false faith, he has built up a wall against the deluge of wrath; which wall will tumble down upon him when the wrath comes. The growth of this faith, and great spreading of it into all this knowledge, zeal, and devotion, hath not changed the nature of it all this while; but it is the fame that it was at the beginning, even a power of nature in the first birth; and all these fruits are but the fruits of the firft nature, which is ftill alive under all this. All this can never kill the principle out of which it grows; but feeds it more, and fattens it for the flaughter.

Thus far this faith can go: but then there is fomewhat it is fhut out of at the very firft: there is fomewhat this faith cannot receive, believe, or enter into. What is that? It is the life, the power, the inward part of this. Though it may feem to have unity with all the fcriptures in the letter; yet it cannot have unity with one fcripture in the life: for its nature is fhut out of the nature of the things there witneffed. As for inftance: it may have a literal knowledge of Chrift, according as the fcripture relates; of his birth, preaching, miracles, death, refurrection, afcenfion, intercef fion, &c. Yea, but the thing fpoken of it knoweth not. The nature of Christ (which is the Christ), is hid from that eye. So it may have a literal knowledge of the blood of Chrift, and of juftification; but the life of the blood which livingly justifieth, that birth cannot feel; but can only talk of it, according to the relation it reads in the scripture. So it may have a literal knowledge of fanctification; but the thing that fanctifieth, it cannot receive into itself. So for redemption, peace, joy, hope, love, &c. it may get into the outward part of all thefe; but the inward part, the life, the spirit of them, it is fhut out of, and cannot touch or come near; nor can it witness that change which is felt and known here. And here is the great contention in the world between these two births; the one contending for their knowledge in the letter, and the other contending for their knowledge in the life: the one fetting up their faith from the natural part, calling it fpiritual; and the other, who have felt the ftroke of God upon this (and thereby come to know the difference), fetting up the faith of the true heir: which faith hath a different beginning, and a different growth from the other, and will be welcomed into the land and kingdom of life; when the other will be manifested to be but the birth of the bondwoman, and be thruft forth with its mother to feek their bread abroad: for the feed of the bond-woman is not to inherit with Ifaac, the feed of promise.

Queft. What then is that faith which is the gift of God? And which is diftinct from this?

Anfw. It is that power of believing which fprings out of the feed of eternal life; and leavens the heart, not with notions of knowledge, but with the powers of life. The other faith is drawn out of man's nature, by confiderations which affect the natural part, and is kept alive by natural exercises of reading, hearing, praying, ftudying, meditating in that part; but this fprings out of a feed of life given, and grows up in the life of that feed, and feeds on nothing but the flesh and blood of Chrift; in which is the living virtue, and immortal nourishment of that which is immortal. This faith, at its first entrance, ftrikes that part dead in which the other faith did grow, and by its growth perfects that death, and raiseth up a life which is of another nature than ever entered into the heart of man to conceive. And by the death of this part in us, we come to know and enjoy life; and by the life we have received, know, and enjoy, we come to fee that which other men call life (and which we ourselves were apt to call life formerly) to be but death. And from this true knowledge, we give a true teftimony to the world of what we have feen and felt; but no man receiveth our testimony. It grieves us to the heart to fee men fet up a perishing thing as the way to life; and our bowels are exceedingly kindled, when we behold an honeft zeal and fimplicity betrayed; and in tender love do we warn men of the pit, into which they are generally running so fast; though men reward us with hatred for our good-will, and become our bitter enemies because we tell them the truth, and the most neceffary truth for them to know; which they can bear neither in plain words, nor yet in parables. Yet be not rough and angry; but meekly wait to read this following parable aright, and it will open into life. The parable is briefly

this:

That which fold the birth-right, feeks the birth-right with tears and great pains; but shall never recover it. But there is one which lies dead (which hath the promise), which stirs not, which feeks not till he is raised by the power of the Father's life, and then he wrestles with the Father, prevails, and gets the bleffing from him. Therefore know that part which is up first, and is fo bufy in the willing and in the running, and makes fuch a noise about duties, and ordinances, and graces, to keep down the life which it hath flain: and know that feed of life which is the heir, which lies underneath all this, and must remain flain while this lives: but if ever ye hear the voice of the Son of God, this will live, and the other die. And happy for ever will he be, who knows this! But mifery will be his portion, who cannot witnefs a thorough change by the almighty power of the living God, but hath only painted the old nature and fepulchre, but never knew 'the old bottle broken, and a new one formed, which alone is able to receive and retain the new wine of the kingdom; whereas the other (Pharifeelike) can only receive a relation of the letter concerning the kingdom.

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