A Taste of the Truth, Part 3 – Dedication
To conclude, What other doubts, fears, temptations, and jealousies you meet withall about your faith, reason with your soul, and commune with your own heart whether you have any just cause by them to question the truth of your faith, and if you have not, then your soul ought not thereby to be cast down, nor to be kept one moment of time from going on in beleeving: And if upon the examination of your self according to the word, you finde that you have just ground to suspect whether you doe, or ever did truly beleeve in Christ or no: yet you have no just ground thereby to be cast down unto despair, For if you be in unbelief you are but in the same condition (as I said before) that the beleeving people of God were in, before they did beleeve: and that God, that opened a door of faith unto them, can doe the like for you; Therefore charge your soul in the midst of all your fears, doubtings, temptations, and suspitions about your beleeving to trust in God, and labour your heart to cleave alwaies unto the Lord Jesus Christ for the everlasting salvation of your immortall soul: (k)Ps. 42.5, 11.wisely improving every thing you meet withall against your beleeving for to further you in beleeving; Who knows how soon you may here by attain the faith of Gods elect, yea, and know that you have attained it?
Come now (if I may speak in Gods stead and in Gods words unto you) let us reason together: Doe you look to be saved? Yea. By whom do you look to be saved, by your self or some other creature, by your own works, duties, and righteousnesse, or by the works worth and righteousnesse of some other creature? No, When you may be said to be in the covenant of grace, and so from under the covenant of works.But onelyonly by Christ and his merit and righteousnes; Then you are unbottomed of your self and of the creature, and so bottomed upon Christ, For you must be either under the covenant of works, or under the covenant of grace being there is no third condition in this world in which the soul can be in; And if you be bottomed upon Christ then you are founded upon a rock which hell gates cannot prevail against; Be not faithlesse but beleeve it, and live by faith upon it, above Satan, sin, infirmities, temptations, sence, disertions, reason, fears, persecutions, trouble… and doubts of all sorts and degrees whatsoever: waiting upon God in the use of all means for full assurance of faith (For he will give it you when he sees it most for his glory and your good; his time is the best time) untill he bestow it upon you; Would you not be satisfied for all your waiting in the use of all means, if Christ should say by his Spirit immediately before you give up the Ghost, Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee, and this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise?
Now the God of all grace that works in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure give you to beleeve, and to taste through faith how gracious the Lord is, and to desire (having tasted) as new born babes the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby: And work all other works of grace in you, and for you, and by you, that he requires of you for his glory and your own salvation? To whom be glory and Majesty, Dominion and Power, now and ever. Amen.
FINIS.
DIRECTIONS FOR The Private Worship of God:
Divided into two parts:
The first, Shewing how private Christians are to serve God in all the parts of his Worship.
The second, Manifesting how Christian Governours and Governesses of Families are to Worship God in all the ordinary and extraordinary duties of Gods Worship.
Serving for the use of my Kindred and Countreymen in Lancashire, as also for all young Beginners and weak Christians who shall carefully peruse them.
By JOHN JACKSON. M.A.
Speciall notice is to be taken of the Preface, and of the quotations of Scripture in the Treatise following.
LUKE 11.1, 2 —One of his Disciples said unto him, Lord teach us to pray, as Iohn also taught his Disciples. And he said unto them, when ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, &c.
London, Printed by A M. for Christopher Meredith at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls-Church-yard. 1648.
TO MY Loving Countreymen in Generall, Who desire to serve God in Spirit and in Truth: And in Speciall to my Beloved Kinsfolk and Acquaintance at Hathornwait in Over-Wiredale, and in other places in Lancashire.
Dear Friends,
I Observing in the severall places where I have lived among you, and in other countries: Some to pray Popishly (even among us Protestants) the Pater-noster, &c. Ave Maria, &c. and other Latine forms: Some grossely ignorantly, The Belief, the Lords Prayer, the ten Commandments, without understanding rightly one sentence thereof: Some meerly formally, by prayers in books, or by what they have got out of books, without praying, or praising God for any thing, more then is set down in a form: Some rashly, and more formally then sincerely, without remembring that God is in heaven before they call upon him: And the most of people to be formall in holy duties; The occasion that moved me to give these Directions.I, I say, observing these things, have given you these Directions as a help and furtherance to make you sincere in prayer, and in all other duties to God; For, I would not have you taken off, but directed in duty. And whereas I advise you to meditate of such and such things before prayer, and to take such and such words to your selves to pray with, and to follow such and such a method in keeping of a Fast, and a day of thanksgiving, and in the performance of other holy duties; My meaning is, that you meditate of those or the like things, or of those or the like Scripturall subjects: That you take those or the like words of Scripture to pray with: That you follow that or the like method in your Religious performances; For I doe not recommend them unto you as formes for you to tie your selves unto, but as exemplary rules for you to meditate, pray, and perform duty by, The scope of these Directions is, to take people off, from formality in duty.that you may be taken off, from formality, and carried on to sincerity in your entrance upon, in your continuance in, and in your finishing of duty. I have not directed you to any thing to my knowledge that may limit the spirit, or any way hinder its free workings: For the spirit helpeth not by miracle, but by means, (a)Matth. 6.9. to 14. Rom. 8 26. How the spirit helpeth our infirmities in prayer,minding us of some promises and principles of Scripture in the act of prayer, and quickning us to beleeve more, to love more, and to pray for more then we were able to think upon; and so the spirit helpeth our infirmities in, after, and above means, but not without means, no more then it helpeth Pagans and Heathens that know not so much that there is a holy Ghost. And therefore I counsell you to make use of these and all other helps, as if you were therewith to pray in your own strength; and to trust and rely upon God for his spirit, as if you used no means at all; And I beseech as many of you as are most against these Directions, Note.and most for forms of prayer, that you would be pleased to consider how that every time that you are solemnly to pray in your closet, you have new sins to confesse (b)1 Ioh. 1.8.new mercies to blesse God for (c)Lam. 3.23new wants to ask, which are not particularly set down in any form of prayer; (d)Matth. 6.11, 12.So as that you cannot sincerely serve God in private by forms of prayer, I mean so as to tie your selves unto them. Thus commending the successe of these my endeavours unto God, and the benefit of them unto you. I rest,
Your Friend, and Countreyman, JOHN JACKSON.