Exposition of the Apostles Creed, Sermon 4
HEB. 3.12.
12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Exodus 31.AS those skilful Bezaliels and Aholiabs, that work in gold, have not only a care of the Ingots and massy pieces, but even of the rayes and filings of that precious mettal, that nothing be lost: So also it behoves them who are to work about the Word of God, (which is more precious than gold,Psalm 19.10. yea than much fine gold) to take care not only while they are at work upon the main and substantial parts of the Text, that they be well set and cut; but even for the circumstantial also, that they be preserv'd. These,John 6.12. as the fragments and broken pieces are to be gathered up, that there be no loss, no waste committed at all.
The last day I dealt about the main point Infidelity, and the Caveat about it; Now I am to speak of
1. The place where it takes up its residence. The heart.
2. The Original whence it proceeds. The naughtiness of it.
3. The effect or danger of it; it makes Apostates; causeth a departure from the living God.
4. The persons that are in the only danger to be with-drawn. You that are enlightned,Heb. 6.4, 5. you that have tasted of the good Word of God, and given up your Names to Christ. Therefore take you heed that there be not in any of you this Heart.
1. A Heart of Ʋnbelief.
By the heart, you are not to understand the matter and substance of it.Mat. 13.15. Isa. 6.18. Th…s were to have a gross; and a fat heart; but the whole soul of man, and the parts and faculties of it. Take it for the inferiour, take it in the superiour, it is, foreign,Naz. foreign. the close shop of vertue or mischief; where God accepts, or rejects every work, as it is wrought within.
It is no offence to me, when I heare or read those pleasing Elogies of the soul of man, that it is the Image of the living God, a celestial ray, a taste of the Divinity, to which God hath given wit to search all, will to choose good, affections to love, joy, feare, hope, hate, grieve; and reason to sit at the sterne, to move, to guide, to moderate, to measure all. In a word, there is no miracle on earth more wonderful than man; in man nothing more wonderful than his Spirit. These are all plausible and pleasing words, and often rung into our ears; apt they are too, and they have transported some to think better of themselves than they ought; and to think as the fool, there is no God besides man.Psalm 14.1.
Cast your eye then off from the beauty of it, and enquire what is hid, and finde you shall, that for all these Elogies, it is both to it self, and the man a most dangerous and pernicious instrument, the leven that sowres the whole Lump, the Colloquintida that brings death into the Pot,1 Cor. 5.6, 7. 2 Kings 4.40. a tedious and importunate Parasite; and which, as a Juggler who playes at fast and loose, under the colour of some flye and pleasing motion, forgeth, inventeth, and produceth all the mischief in the World. For the Truth is, did not the heart set all awork, there would be none. For the heart is truly the Murderer, the heart is the Adulterer, the heart is the Thief,Mat. 15.19. the heart is the Infidel. 'Tis too long to tell you what the Heart is; and should I do it, I must call it by all the wicked names, by which sinners are reproached in the world.
We usually cast the blame upon others; as upon the evil spirit,Gen. 3.12, 13. The Serpent beguiled me; we accuse the woman, The woman deceiv'd me: We blame the Apple, 'tis a pleasing fruit to the eye, sweet to the taste. Alas,Verse 6. all these are but external solicitors; allure they may, compel they cannot. A Delilah there lies in the bosome, foreign,Judg. 16.6, 13. a bosome enemy worse than all; by her, Satan works, and takes his advantage to undo us. Satan is without, and if we resist him he will flye: But our heart is within, it stayes with us still, importunately presses, waits all times,James 4.7. catches all opportunities, and if great heed be not taken, it will deceive and kill.2 Kings 10.15. Please our selves (we may) as Jehu did with an hypocritical Question, Is thy heart upright as mine is upright? when it is most false, and deserves the Epithite the Apostle bestows upon an evil heart, in which he sets down the Root, whence this sin of unbelief and all other sins have their Original. viz. Mat. 15.19, 20.The naughtiness of the heart. Of which next.
2. An Evil Heart.
The words in Scripture used for Naughtiness and Wickedness are commonly two, foreign and foreign; and the first foreign, properly signifies a loose, licentious lewdness lightly perfected by lust. The other foreign, an unquiet working wickedness, that will take paines to do a shrewd turn, being commonly the effect of malice. This last the Apostle makes choice of here, that however faith in the heart be in this life but weak,1 Cor. 13.12. for we know but in part; yet there should not be in us a busie disposition to disturb, much less a malicious working brain, to invent Arguments by which we may dispute against the Truth.
An advice if at any time, needful for the age in which we live, where he is counted the most zealous Saint, and sincerest believer, who can with the fairest colour, overlay the foulest errour, though so varnish'd for no other end, but to shake and overturne the most Ancient and established foundations.2 Pet. 2. Jude Ep. Ephes. 4.14. 1 Tim. 1.6, 7. 4.1, 2. 2 Tim. 3.2, 3. Sceptiques shall I call these in Religion? rather such as the Apostles foretold, Spirits of errour, Seducers, Deceivers, Jugglers, Authours of divers Sects. Men of nature contentious, and unquiet, doating about Questions and strife of words. And to countenance this, there is not one of them who carries not a Bible under his arme; and to make his matter good, will, as did the Devil, urge Scriptum est, It is written; is it not written,Matth. 4. search the Scriptures, seek and ye shall finde? To seek and search is allow'd, so it be done with discretion. Now that it be discreetly done, these three things are to be observ'd; Res, tempus, modus. In the thing we must know what to search for.Tertul. de praescript. cap. 10. About the time, when we are to search. And for the manner, how farre.
The Summe of that Learned Fathers Discourse, is, That when we have attain'd the grounds, and are firmly built upon that foundation, of which Christ is the chief Corner-stone, Ephes. 2.20.being united by the holy Ghost; and after repaired and strengthened by the vertue of the Sacrament, that men content themselves, and seek curiously, contentiously, maliciously no farther. Nobis curiositate opus non est post Christum, nec inquisitione post Evangelium; We need not curiosity after Christ, nor inquisition after the Gospel. To do other, is the practice of Athens, not Hierusalem; and what hath the wrangling Schoole to do with the Church? Our instructions and examples must be fetcht not from the Stoa of Socrates, but from Solomons Porch, whose direction is, Seek the Lord in simplicity of heart. Read the Scriptures, but with sobriety. If any man upon presumption of his own wit, his own parts, either of Nature or Art, or (which is at this day pretended) Inspiration, or Revelation, seek farther than stands with the Rule of faith and peace of the Church: besides that this betrayes an evil heart, he shall be sure to cast himself into a Labyrinth, out of which it will not be easie to get. Cum credimus, nihil desideramus ultra credere, when we once know our Creed,Tertul. loc. co. and believe it, we do not desire to search farther what to believe. For let a licentious liberty be granted to that, and then Mr. Calvin will tell you what's like to come of it. Quanta um rixarum semen, & futura est confusio, si prout cui{que} libitum est mutare liceat quae ad communem statum pertinent! what seeds of Quarrels are sown, and how great will be the confusion, if, as every one list, he may change that which by grave and due consideration is established for the common state of the Church! What is agreed on will never please all; and therefore, saith he, There will never be an end of wrangling, if matters may be left indifferent to be determined by every mans private discretion.
It is then a certain Argument of this naughtiness of heart, and a plaine Note of Infidelity, when men move every stone of the foundation. The use that I shall make of it, is,
First, That we look to the heart, that this busie and malignant Infidelity lurk not there; that howsoever there may thoughts arise within, that would entice to this sinne, yet that they be repress'd, smother'd so soon as born. It is too much that they arise, for it discovers that the heart is evil; but if we cast a loving eye to them, nurse them up, and please our selves in them, it may bring us to that sinne out of measure sinful, Apostacy and hardness of heart, that heavy judgement about which the Apostle gives us the Caveat. That which Erasmus confess'd of himself about the reading of the Schoolmen, is as true in all contentions of Religion;Erasm. Co…loq. Relig os…m. I finde that by the reading of them, I am a little acuter, but no way the better; the subtiler disputant, not the better Christian; for when I come from them, my devotion is cooled; & frigidus affectus sum erga veram virtutem, sed irritatior ad contentionem, I am frozen to true vertue, but piping hot to contention. And the Learned Dr. White the Elder, in his Preface to his Orthodox,Dr. Whites Orthodox., Epist. Ded. among evils of contention in Religion, hath observed these four. First, That Religion and Faith, which of all other things ought to be most indubitate and certain, whiles it is questioned, beginneth to be doubted of: and discord in Religion nourisheth certain seeds of Atheism. Secondly,Nazianzen. As plants which are often removed, cannot take root and prosper; so points of Faith and Piety being removed out of their old standing, or bended this and that way, begin to lose their reverence and stability in the souls of men. Thirdly, As in building, so in contention, one Opponent gain-saying another, plucketh down, what (by a common labour and consent) ought to be builded up. Fourthly, Lastly, As it is impossible to follow guides, whose backs are each to other, and their faces look a contrary way; so Gods people, whose right it is to be led by their spiritual guides in one beaten path of faith and godliness, beholding their leaders call them a contrary way, are with peril of their salvation distracted, not knowing which way to take.
Secondly,Psalm 10.11. Hence we may learn not to please out selves with Atheistical thoughts, as if no eye saw them. For be it that we may smooth them over to men, yet God can see what is within. Though the Put-cases of the Church, do move their doubts as cunningly as Julian the Apostate,Naz. foreign. foreign, under a pretence forsooth to whet their wits, and tell us what may be said; yet God who searcheth the heart, knows that it is out of an evil intent; that it is foreign, a practice against the Truth, proceeding from the spirit of contradiction;Ephes. 4.15. for did they search the Truth indeed, it would be in love.
This practice though it come no farther than the heart, is yet open to his eye; for Caro & Spiritus Dei res, Flesh and Spirit are both from God;Tertul. de poenit. cap. 3. the flesh from his hand, the soul from his breath; both are the works and goods of the same Lord; and therefore both, if both offend, equally offensive to the same Lord. When you come to plead with God, 'tis a great vanity to plead Ʋolui, I confess I intended it, but non feai, I never did it: for a thought passeth for an act before him; and the very desires, plots, intentions, are so many breaches of his Law.
They may want many degrees of weight and haynousness in respect of man; for till man is hurt actually by them, to man they cannot be grievous: But as these thoughts are entertain'd, and harbour'd, and cherished within, to him they are as malicious, as if brought to act; and he will punish the soul no less for the plot, than the body for the act. For God is neither dissimulator nec praevaricator suae perspicaciae, he will neither hide nor palliate what he sees; he knows the will is the principal in the sinne, and therefore the soul (of which this is a faculty) must needs be so much the more liable to the punishment, by how much it is more guilty of the fact. This I have premised, that we take heed to free our selves from this malignity of the heart in this sin, and every other as well as the body; That since there is a common Law to both, and a common guilt of both, and a common beholder and Judge of both, and a common Trial for both, and a common paine for both, that both be aw'd by it. But especially the heart, because from that, as the Fountaine, flowes all the mischief. It is good advice then that the Spirit of God so often gives, That we keep the heart, and cleanse it.
First, That we keep it; so counsels the wise Solomon, Keep thy heart with all diligence. Prov. 4.23.Set the Word of God upon it to look to it, ne effluat; for as oft as it breaks over that bank, it puts all in hazard and danger. Set the Law to hammer it, and break it, and bruise it, that it may be a broken and a contrite heart, and so a fit Sacrifice to God. Set the Gospel upon it to melt and soften it, that of a stony and stubborne, it may become a trembling, a submissive, a tender, a fleshy heart, a fit Vessel to receive the Oyl of mercy.Psal. 51.17. Set Repentance to work upon it, Confession to acknowledge what's amiss, deprecation to ask pardon for what's amiss, sorrow for what is past, care for the time to come, that it may be a new reformed heart, mortified and dead to sin, but quickned and alive to grace.
Secondly, But notwithstanding all our care, it is not possible to keep it without filth; necessary it is that we cleanse it often. It is Prophetical counsel, O Hierusalem, wash thy heart! It is Apostolical counsel also, Purifie your hearts you double-mind…d. Jer. 4.14. James 4.8.If you purifie your braine, 'tis well; for the head is full of mischief and fancies; never more than now; and well it is that they be swept out; for such notions become not the mindes of well-meaning Christians. If you cleanse the hands 'tis well; I mean the outward man from impure acts: For actual wickedness dishonours our holy profession. Would we wash our mouths too, 'twere not amiss, for they are very foul with Oaths, blasphemies and slaunders. But let no man think when he hath brought his thoughts to some other order, or his outward man to some civil conformity, that he is cleane enough, and washed sufficiently. For the altering of the braine may be but vertigo capitis; and the clensing of the hand, as the Pharisaical washings of Pots, and Cups, and other Brazen Vessels,Mark 7.4, 8. condemned by our Saviour. A washing away there must be, not only of certain notions in our braines, but of the affections of the heart. And an alteration, not in the face for shame, or in the feet for feare, or in the hand for fashion, but in the heart, arising out of the pollution that dwells in it, and a conscience of the naughtiness we know by it.
For if we carry a heart about us, set upon evil; deceive others for a time we may, but shall at last be deceived our selves. Others we deceive carrying the name of Christians,2 Tim. 3.13. James 1.26. but hearts of Infidels: and deceiv'd we shall be; for when we expect the wages of Servants, we shall receive the portion of Hypocrites.Naz. foreign. Let what faire shew soever be made, this unsound heart, as water kept in Caverns of the earth by force, will break out and overflow all at last, and carry you away from the Living God. Which that it fall not out, Saint Paul here gives his Caveat, Take heed, lest in any of you there be an evil heart.
3. foreign, That you Depart, Revolt, Apostatize not, that you fall not off.
This is the labour of Infidelity, this the intent; to this purpose the whole battery is raised to make the heart revolt from, and forsake God. Now so many wayes as we may be said to draw near and cleave to God, so many wayes we may be said to disjoyne and go from him. The first way that a man approacheth God, and adheres to him, is Faith; and the other is Love: For by Faith he believes that God is, and what he is; a wise, good, true, just, merciful Deity; and upon this contemplation he falls in love with him, and unites to him as near as he can, and desires to do his will; because he is confident, that that God who is so wise, good, true, and just, will never set down any erroneous Law, nor command any foolish, naughty, or unjust action: and who is so merciful, will forgive, remit, and blot out his failings and imperfect services. By these two affections, Faith and Love, which continue us to God, easie it will be to know who are Apostates.
First, They which obstinately refuse the Faith being Revealed and proposed to them, are, though not so properly, in this rank; for these foreign keep and stand off: In this number are to be mustered the stiff-necked Jews, the incredulous Turks, and other Infidels; for whose Conversion we are bound to pray,Rom. 9.2. and for whose Obstinacy to have great sorrow in our heart.
Secondly, But those properly are to be branded with this name,Heb. 6, 4, 5. Who having been once enlightned, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the World to come, yet fall away,Cap. 10.29. and tread under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing, and do despight to the Spirit of grace.
A mans life is a warfarre upon the earth; Christ is the General, and leads the Army; and all that have given up their names to Christ, are his Souldiers, and bound to fight under his banner. From the Camp then this word is borrowed; and those that run away from their Captain and Colours, are of those Renegado's and Fugitives. This is done two manner of wayes; either in whole, or in part.
1. They are guilty of this Apostacy in the highest Decree, who totally renounce, deny, and fall from Christ; of whom the Apostle spoke in the former Chapters; and of which especially, as I conceive here; For as the Jews were the first Converts, so were they the first Apostates. Many tribulations those Jews who receiv'd the Faith,1 Thes. 2.14. sustain'd of their own Countrymen the Jews; There never being such a Jew to a Christian Jew, as a natural and apostate Jew. Those persecutions then of the obstinate incredulous Jews their Countrymen, was one great tentation to them. And another tentation was the perswasions they brought unto them out of Scriptures, to cleave unto the Law, and not to believe in Jesus the dead man. Besides there were many among them, who though they did not totally renounce Christ, yet did teach them to Judaize, to receive the whole Mosaical Law, as well as the Gospel, bringing them back again to that Yoke, which they had been taught to cast off. This was to begin in the Spirit, and to end in the flesh. This was to evacuate Christ, and to fall from grace.Gal. 3.3. Cap. 5.4. And to this end the Apostle here gives them this Caveat, That neither persecutions, nor perswasions should so far prevaile with them, that they depart from the living God.
For in parting from Christ, they must depart from the living God, since he was the Lord of life, nay life it self; I an the way, the truth, John 14.6. John 6.54.and the life. Which the Disciples acknowledg'd; for Christ proposing the question, What? will you also go away? Quo? Whither shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Totally then to renounce our Christian profession, as Demas and Julian the Apostate did; or to Judaize, as did many at Rome and Galatia, is to depart from the living God.
2. This is that sin out of measure sinful, and not many are guilty of it; but there is another kind of it, from which I cannot free very many who carry the Name of Christ. Arrius that denies the Deity of our Saviour; and Socinus that denies the ransome of his blood; In a word, all Hereticks that obstinately take from the verity,1 Tim. 1.19. and cap. 4.1. and all Scismaticks that rend and teare the unity of the Catholick Church, are in part revolters, and making shipwrack of a good conscience, do depart from the faith.
2. The guilt of this sin, though it be frequently and quickly fastned, yet it is hard to finde any man almost that will own it. For the veryest Heretick … tell you he is an Orthodox Christian, and contends for the faith; and …he unquietest Scismatick, that he is of a peaceable spirit, and desires to set up Christs Kingdome; It would draw me too farre from my purpose, to convict them both at this time. I shall therefore bring before you another kinde, of which there will be no dispute; because Saint Paul in expresse wordsavers,2 Tim. 3. & ver. 1. ad 8. that they are reprobate concerning the faith. He sets them out so to the life, and in such colours, that it is no hard matter to know them, together with the time they are to appeare. In the last dayes, saith he, perillous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to Parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traytours, heady, high-minded, having a forme of godliness, but denying the power thereof, &c. Whose description may be fuller read in St.2 Pet. 2. Jude Epist. Peter, and St. Jude; and to whom it belongs, is evident by the Declaration, extant for a day of Humiliation and Fasting, March 20. 1653.
Whosoever then they are, Qui magis vultum, quam ingenium bonum habent, Salust. Tit. 1.16.are all for the face, little for the heart; who in words confess Christ, in deeds deny him; who in profession are Christians, in their actions Heathens;1 Tim. 5.8. these men have denyed the faith, and are practical Atheists; for they want true love, which is the forme, the very life and soul of faith. They are not wrong'd when we charge them with that revolt, with which God charg'd the Jews, They have forsaken me the fountain of living water, and digg'd to themselves cisterns that will hold no water.Jer. 2.13.
Take heed therefore of Infidelity; for if you be guilty of this sin, there is neither true faith, nor true love in you. As this sin more or less increaseth, and seizeth the heart, so more or less we depart from the living God. For the less you believe God, the less you will regard him; the less you regard, the less you will love him; the less you love, the less you will trust him; the less you trust, the less you will obey him; and the less you obey, the further still you depart from God. Be it then a man be not guilty of an universal Apostacy, by which he doth obstinately and maliciously resist the holy Ghost,Acts 7.51. tread under foot the Son of God, and count the blood by which he was sanctified, an unholy thing. Yet so farre as he doth set himself to dis-esteem, or wilfully contradict any Article of the faith; yea, or come short of the Sincerity and Truth of the Gospel in his life and practice, so farre he may be said to have renounced the Faith, and departed from the living God.
It is by God laid to the charge of the Church of Ephesus, that she had left her first love; Rev. 2.4.and yet it appeares that the revolt was not Total. That which Christ had against her, was, a decay, a cooling, a defect in her affection. Her love was not so earnest, so constant, so hot as it was at first. The very cooling in Religious duties that brings a man to stagger in the faith, is interpretative,Isa. 29.9. a revolt from God.
To this the Devil labours to bring men; first he tempts to doubt, then to dispute; well knowing that doubts and disputes may possibly forme the understanding to a new-belief. Like Anaxagoras, that meerly at first inventing Arguments that the snow was not white, intending only to oppose Sophists, at last came to think so indeed. In the like manner, when a man sets his wits awork to discredit principles, by little and little thoughts steale upon him that they are false indeed, and bring him to the next step to Apostatize and Revolt from the living God.
4. Living God.
It seems to me these two words, Deus & vivens, are as the Angel in Balaams way, set as two impediments in the way of every Apostate. 'Tis from God we go, and will any start from him?N…mb. 22. 'Tis from the living God we depart,Isa. 8.19. and will any man in his right minde go from the living to the dead? From God it is; and when I named him unto you, 'tis all one as if I had name all Truth, all Goodness, all perfections. Let God be true, Rom. 3.4. Luke 18.19. Gen. 6 5.and all men lyars, and all the Idols, and vain imaginations of men lyes. There is none good but God only; for all the imaginations of mans heart, and his practices also are evil continually: And will any rational man wilfully depart from Truth, maliciously forsake goodness?
There is nothing excellent that may not be found in him;Jam. 1.17. no good thing that comes not from him. Even those very things which the estimation of men hath made precious, and for which you have a heart to forsake him, came from him: Any thing that you would faine cleave to, is but a beam of his Sun, a stream from that fountaine. Take these as love tokens from him, and love him the more affectionately for them, he is well pleased you enjoy them still. But if upon the detention of these you begin to repine and murmur, and shake him off: or if upon the having of these, you relye upon them, trust to them, sacrificing to your own wit, or your own net,Hab. 1.16. Infidelity hath brought forth, and is deliver'd of this Monster Apostacy; from God you go, and which is farther to be thought on, the Living God.
The LIƲING.
This is the true property of God; So proper to him, that it is primo in the first sense proper to nothing else. Other things have life, but it is by Deed of Gift from his Bounty. In him we and all creatures live;Col. 3.3. Acts 17.25, 28. Psalm 104.29. in him we and all Christians live; In him we live, and move, and have our being; our being of Nature, our being of Grace. He takes away our breath; the breath of his sanctifying Spirit, and the breath of our natural life, and we dye instantly. There being no more certaine Attribute to set forth his Being (for he must live, before he can be Omnipotent, just, merciful, good, &c.) he bound the Jews to swear by this Solemn Form,Jer. 4 2. The Lord liveth.
All other things which men call Gods, and adore as Gods (for there be Gods many, and Lords many) yet are but dead gods. The Idol, the World, your imaginations, your belly, your money,1 Cor. 8.5. savour all of the earth and mortality; there is no true life in them, not hold of them. As for your gold, the Thief steals it, the Rust eats it; for your Idol,Mat. 6.19. Isa 2.20. 1 Cor. 3.12. 1 Cor. 6.13. the Weather rots it, the Birds defile it; all the Religion of your own braine is but Wood, Hay, Stubble, the fire will burn it up. Meats are for the belly, and belly for meats; but this living God will consume it and them. And for the world, it is but a decaying, fading world;1 Cor. 7.31. the fash…on of it every day passeth away. These which by men are set up for Deities, yet are no living Gods.
'Tis your God alone that hath life in himself, nay who is life it self; and whatsoever hath life, hath it (as I said) from him. By his gift it is that we live the life of nature; by his spirit that we live the life of grace; and by his free-grace it is that we hope to live the life of glory. As you love your life then, this or that other, take heed you depart not from the Authour, giver, and finisher of it.
John 6.68.And to whom, or to what will you go? are not words of eternal life with him? Leave him once, and what is it that you can go to see or seek? A Reede shaken with the winde? Matth. 11.7.A Reede indeed, a hollow, empty, weak and vaine thing. To nothing more like than a Reede is whatsoever you can lean to, in the emptinesse, in the weaknesse, yea, and perhaps in the paine it may put you to,Isa. 36.6. breaking even then, when you put your selves upon it, and leaving behinde a splint in the hand, rather a wound in the heart.
And that I may pose you with a question, leave this living God, and quo ibitis? whither will you go? Nay, whither shall you not go? Into what mazes of errour shall you not fall? Unto what vaine imaginations, and monstrous opinions shall you not be brought? For God being forsaken, what can a man overtake but lies, sinne, darknesse, death, wrath, fire, hell, condemnation for ever and ever? To shut up this point then, since infidelity layes siege to the heart, makes an evil heart, withdraws the heart from God, from the living God, Take heed lest it be
5. In any of you.
Personarum adjectio habet emphasin. The addition of the persons is very emphatical.Aretius in loc. And it is a circumstance of great moment, in regard of the relation that was betwixt the persons and God now. For as the Masters of Rhetorique have taught us, relationes sunt minimae entitatis, sed maximae efficaciae, Relations however they be things of the least entity, yet they are of great force in the aggravation of any sinne. So it is here.
That any should disbeleeve, distrust, or fall from the living God, is a very foul over-sight; but it is more to be charged upon you, and leaves a heavier guilt upon you, than many others: and that for these reasons.
1. You have had more means and helps to beleeve; you have had the Law, and the Prophets.Heb. 1.1, 2. You have heard Moses speaking in the Law, Christ in the Gospel.August. Tolle & lege, take up and read, whether all you read were not confirmed by miracles from heaven: By miracles done in the name of Christ after he was crucified,Heb. 2.3, 4. dead, buried, or rather in the name of Christ risen, and ascended, which shews evidently that he is alive, that he is God, otherwise his name could not be virtual. Thus much you have been taught, thus much you know, and therefore let there not be in any of you this unbelieving heart. For the more light God hath given to any one, and the more means to beget faith, the greater is his sinne, if he be an Infidel, greatest if he revolt.
2. To you he comes by the secret motions of his holy Spirit, knocking at the door, as desirous of admittance. It labours to raise within you good meditations,Revel. 3.20. good inclinations and desires, in the mind, will, affections. Of this work David was sensible, when he did acknowledge,Psal. 16.7. My reins chasten me in the night season; When he was alone on his Couch, many a pious thought he had, many a good intention; and the fountain whence they all came was his reins, that is, the faculties of his soul sanctified and guided by the Spirit of God, that put him in mind of his duty.
Gal. 5.17.But this is not all; it labours to hinder and suppresse the bad motions of the flesh; as well knowing that where way is given to the bad, there will be cold entertainment for the good.Isa. 30.22. How often (I appeal to your own souls) when a man is going a wrong way, doth he hear a voice from within as it were from heaven calling unto him, that is not the way, this is the way, walk in it. And when we have left the right way,1 Sam. 25.31. Prov. 18.14. Isa. 29.10. then comes upon us Singultus cordis, as Abigail excellently calls it, an offence of heart, an upbraiding, a throbbing; or as Solomon, a wound and gall of spirit, or a sting and pricking of conscience, as Esay, that will not suffer us to go on quietly. Whence proceeds this disturbance I pray you? Why are we not let alone to be as bad as we desire? Is it not that the Spirit of God is chiding and checking us within, and striving against the rebellious desires of our flesh?
3. Besides, to you he hath spoken in the works of his providence,Gen. 12.3. Gal. 3.8. in mercies, in judgements, in blessings, in crosses: He promised to Abraham, that in his seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed, and he hath done it. He threatned the Jews, his own people,Rom. 11.17.20 1 Sam. 2.30. that they should be broken off through unbelief, and he hath done it: that the heathen should be planted in, and he hath done that too. That those that honour, him should be honoured; that despise him, should be despised. Go through the Prophesies, and finde one favour he promised, or one plague he hath threatned, which he hath not made good, and then distrust him, or believe him no more: But if this be not to be found, and this you must confesse is not to be found, then Ne sit in vobis, let not there be in you, in any of you, who have had these helps, these meanes, this light, those miracles, such checks of the Spirit, so many mercies, so many crosses, let there not be I say in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.
Men account those places happiest where the Word of God is preached, and where the plentifullest means to beget faith is offered; and so it is indeed if a right use be made of it, and faith begotten and strengthned by it:2 Cor. 2.16. But if men remain incredulous and disobedient, the Gospel will become the savour of death unto death. You have heard of the wo of Corazin, Matth. 11.21. Luke 10.13. Luke 12.47.and that other of Bethsaida, and sure I am you have read the Text often in which there is mention made of many stripes. The wo pronounced against both those Cities, was because they were not sensible of the many works and mighty done in them. And those many stripes, because they knew much, and did little. Live not then as if those Woes had never fallen from our Saviours lips, nor yet those stripes had nere been threatned.
These Texts concern you neere, and the lesson they teach is Ne sit, be not Infidels. Are you better than they? They perished, because Christ preached and they beleeved not, and were no better. He, that bad servant, because he knew his Masters will and did it not: and I know not how it can go better with you, with you that know, that have been taught, if you beleeve not, assent not, apply not. And perhaps for the present you begin to think of it, and are resolved to do it hereafter; And why not now? why not at this instant? Liberty there is not given you by the Apostle, no not for a minute; his advice is to do it presently.
6. foreign, Beware lest at any time.
God gives no dispensation to sinne, no time to incredulity; the Caveat is peremptory and negative, and therefore must binde ad semper, to all instants of time. And that you be perswaded at no time to give way to it, I pray consider, that that hour, that minute this is done, you come into great danger. For he that beleeveth not, hath the wrath of God abiding on him. John 3.63.Next as your persons, so all your actions civil or religious, are stained and spotted, because they proceed not from a conscience purged by faith;Titus 1.15. Heb. 11.3. and what proceeds not from faith is sinne. I know you would be all saved, but so long as you carry about you this malignant incredulous heart, Christ can do you no good; and without him how can you go to heaven?
Whilest he was on earth, the want of faith in his Countreymen did so binde up his hands, that he could not do any mighty works among them. Mark 6.5. Enthym. ex Naz.To make a sick man whole by miracle, two things are necessary, & fides ejus qui curandus, & potentia ejus qui curare debeat: both the saith of him who is to be cured, and the power of him who is to cure; the later as the cause, the first as the disposition in the subject; power in God, faith in the sick; whence we often read these solemn Acclamations from Christ to those that came to him for help,Mat. 15 28. Luke 7.50. Mat. 9.29. O woman, great is thy faith: Thy faith hath saved thee: Be it to thee according to thy faith, &c.
But what? was the Arme of the Lord shortned, or his power turned to weakness?Naz. de Theolog. No such matter. Two senses are given of these words He could not. The first is, That he would not; as we usually say, I cannot drink Wine, I cannot abide it; that is, I have no minde to drink Wine, I will not abide it; and that is said to be impossible, from which the will abhorres. The other Interpretation is,Them. 3.4.43.2. Mat. 9.15. That cannot is often used for non est congruum or consentaneum, that which is not congruous or fit to be done; as, Can the children of the Marriage Chamber fast? that is, is it fit they should fast? and in this sense it may well be taken here; for was it fit for him to work miracles,Mat. 13.55. Mark 6.3. and do good to them that asked in scorne, Is not this the Carpenters Sonne? are not his Brethren with us? whence hath he this great Wisdome?
Take it either way; either that he would not, or it was not fit for him to do it; sure I am the better they were not for Christ, because of their unbelief. And there is great reason for it, in that no sinne more dishonours God than Infidelity; For in effect, it makes God to be no God, Christ to be no Christ, his Word a lye, his Promises untruths, and his Threats brutum fulmen, a crack of Thunder, that may fright and feare, but scatter and never hurt.
Do you then beare any go…d-will to the honour of God? will you uphold his Truth, his Mercies? Nay, do you beare any good-will unto your selves? would you be glad your works should please him?Phil. 4.18. Heb. 13.16. your whole service be a sweet smelling sacrifice to him? Then take heed foreign, that at no time there enter into you this evil heart of unbelief; for at that time you are not capable of favour from him.
I know it is not in your power alwayes to suppress doubts that may arise in your hearts (for faith is weak in many, and yet it may be a sound faith, that is but like a graine of mustard seed) yet it is in your power to come to Christ,Mat. 17.20. Luke 17.5. and pray him, Lord encrease our faith. Yet it is in your power (for I speak now to regenerate persons) to call for,Horat. and use the means God hath ordain'd to remove those doubts. Sunt verba, & voces: God hath left in his Church meanes to beget, meanes to stirre up, meanes to strengthen your faith. There is his Word, there are his Sacraments, there are his Ministers to whom is committed the word of Reconciliation;2 Cor. 5.18, 19. hear diligently the one, and receive reverently the other, and God will give the encrease.
It lies upon you to call for these medicinable and corroborating Cordials. By Application of these, by Gods blessing, you shall go from strength to strength,Rom. 1.17. from faith to faith, from a less to a greater, from a weaker to a stronger degree, till you appear before God in Zion.