3-1 To be content with God for our Judge, for our Patron, for our Lord, for our Friend, defiring God to be all in all to us, as we are in our understanding and affections wholly his.

Add to thefe;

To be a ftranger upon earth in our affections, and to have all our Thoughts Thoughts and principal Defires fixed upon the matters of Faith, the things of Hea ven. For if a Man were adopted Heir to Cafar, he would (if he believed it real and effective) defpife the prefent, and wholly be at Court in his Father's eye, and his defires would out-run his fwifteft fpeed, and all his thoughts would fpend themfelves in creating Ideas and little phantaftick Images of his future condition. Now God hath made us Heirs of his Kingdom, and Co-heirs with Jefus : if we believed this, we would think, and affect, and ftudy accordingly. But he that rejoices in Gain, and his Heart dwells in the World, and is espoused to a fair Eftate, and tranfported with a light momentary Joy, and is afflicted with Loffes, and amazed with temporal Perfecutions, and efteems Difgrace and Poverty in a good Caufe to be intolerable, this Man either hath no Inheritance in Heaven, or believes none; and believes not that he is adopted to be the Son of God, the Heir of eternal Glory.

5. S.James his fign is the beft: [Shew me thy Faith by thy Works] Faith makes the Merchant diligent and ventrous, and that makes him rich. Ferdinando of Arragon believed the story told him by Columbus, and therefore he furnished him with Ships, and got the Weft-Indies by his Faith in the Undertaker. But Henry the Seventh of England believed him not, and therefore trufted him not with Shipping, and loft all the Purchase of that Faith. It is told us by Chrift [He that forgives (hall be forgiven.] If we believe this, it is certain we fhall forgive our Enemies; for none of us all but need and defire to be forgiven. No Man can poffibly defpife or refufe to defire fuch excellent Glories as are revealed to them that are Servants of

Christ,

Christ, and yet we do nothing that is commanded us as a condition to obtain them. No Man could work a day's labour without Faith: but because he believes he fhall have his Wages at the Day's or Week's end, he does his Duty. But he only believes who does that thing which other Men in the like cafes do when they do believe. He that believes Money gotten with danger is better than poverty with fafety, will venture for it in unknown lands or feas; and fo will he that believes it better to get Heaven with Labour, than to go to Hell with Pleafure.

26. He that believes does not make hafte, but waits patiently till the times of refreshment come, and dares truft God for the morrow, and is no more folicitous for the next year than he is for that which is paft and it is certain, that Man wants Faith, who dares be more confident of being fupplied when he hath Money in his Purfe, than when he hath it only in Bills of Exchange from God or that relies more upon his own Induftry than upon God's Providence, when his own Industry fails him. If you dare truft to God when the cafe to humane Reafon feems impoffible, and truft to God then alfo out of choice, not because you have nothing elfe to trutt to, but becaufe he is the only fupport of a juft confidence, then you give a good Teftimony of your Faith.

7. True Faith is confident, and will venture all the World upon the strength of its Perfuafion. Will you lay your Life on it, your Eftate, your Reputation, that the Doctrine of JESUS CHRIST is true in every Article? Then you have true Faith But he that fears Men more than God, believes Men more than he believes in God.

8. Faith, if it be true, living and justifying, cannot be feparated from a good Life: it works Miracles, makes a Drunkard become fober, a lafcivious Perfon

become chaft, a covetous Man become liberal; it over 2 Cor. 13. 5.. comes the World, it works Righteousness, and makes us Rom. 8. 10. diligently to do, and chearfully to fuffer whatsoever God hath placed in our Way to Heaven.

The

J

1. An humble, willing and docible Mind, or Defire to be inftructed in the way of God: for Perfuafion enters like a Sun-beami, gently, and without Violencer and open but the Window, and draw the Curtain, and the Son of Righteousness will enlighten your Darkness. 20rol da ed Ew 6

2. Remove all Prejudice and Love to every thing which may be contradicted by Faith. How can ye believe (faid Chrift) that receive praife one of another? An unchaft Man cannot easily be brought to believe that without Purity he fhall never fee God. He that loves Riches can hardly believe the Doctrine of Poverty and Renunciation of the World and Alms and Martyrdom and the Doctrine of the Crofs is Folly to him that loves his Eafe and Pleafures. He that hath within him any Principle contrary to the Doctrines of Faith, cannot eaflly become a Difciple.

3. Prayer, which is inftrumental to every thing, hath a particular Promife in this thing. He that lacks Wisdom, let him ask it of God; and, If you give good things to your Children, how much more fhall your Heavenly Father give his Spirit to them that ask him?: The confideration of the Divine Omnipotence and Infinite Wifdom, and our own Ignorance, are tio eft omni. great inftruments of curing all Doubting, and filencing the Murmurs of Infidelity.

In rebus miris fumma credendi ra

potentia Creatoris, S. Aug.

4.

1

5. Avoid all Curiofity of Enquiry into particulars and circumftances and mysteries: for true Faith is full of ingenuity and hearty fimplicity, free from fufpicion, wife and confident, trufting upon generals, without watching and prying into unneceffary or undifcernible particulars. No Man carries his bed into his field, to watch how his Corn grows, but believes upon the general Order of Providence and Nature; and at Harvest finds himfelf not deceived.

6. In Time of Temptation be not bufie to difpute, but rely upon the Conclufion, and throw yourself

upon

upon God, and contend not with him but in Prayer,
and in the prefence and with the help of a prudent
untempted Guides and be fure to esteem all changes
of Belief which offer themselves in the time of your
greatest weakness, (contrary to the perfuafions of
your beft Underftanding) to be Temptations, and
reject them accordingly.
Sut o joli mo to
31 7: It is a prudent Courfe, that in our Health and
beft Advantages we lay up particular Arguments and
Inftruments of Perfwafion and Confidence, to be
brought forth and ufed in the great Day of expence;
and that efpecially in fuch things in which we ufe to
be moft tempted, and in which we are leaft confident,
and which are moft neceffary, and which commonly
the Devil uses to affault us withal in the days of our
Vifitation.

8. The Wisdom of the Church of God is very remarkable in appointing Feftivals or Holy days, whofe Solemnity and Offices have no other fpecial Bufinefs but to record the Article of the Day; fuch as TrinitySunday, Afcenfion, Easter, Christmas day: and to thofe Perfons who can only believe, not prove or dif pute, there is no better inftrument to caufe the Remembrance and plain Notion, and to endear the Affection and hearty Affent to the Article, than the proclaiming and recommending it by the Feftivity and Foy of a Holy day o

Aith differs from Hope in the extention of its Obi ject, and in the intention of Degree. S. Austin thus Enchitid. 6.8, accounts their difference. Faith is of all things revealed, good and bad, rewards and punishments of things paft, prefent and to come, of things that concern us, and of things that concern us not; but Hope hath for its Object things only that are good and fit to be ho ped for, future, and concerning ourfelves: and becaufe

thefe

these things are offered to us upon conditions of which we may fo fail as we may change our Will, therefore our certainty is lefs than the adherences of Faith; which (becaufe Faith relies only upon one propofition, that is, the Truth of the Word of God) cannot be made uncertain in themselves, though the object of our Hope may become uncertain to us, and to our Poffeffion. For it is infallibly certain, that there is Heaven for all the Godly, and for me amongst them all if I do my Duty. But that I fhall enter into Heaven, is the object of my Hope, not of my Faith, and is fo fure as it is uncertain I shall perfevere in the Ways of God.no

The Acts of Hope are,

1. To rely upon God with a confident expectation of his promifes; ever efteeming that every promife of God is a magazine of all that Grace and Relief which we can need in that inftance for which the pro mife is made. Every degree of Hope is a degree of Confidence.

2. To efteem all the danger of an action and the poffibilities of mifcarriage, and every crofs accident that can intervene, to be no defect on God's part, but either a mercy on his part, or a fault on ours. for then we fhall be fure to truft in God when we fee him to be our Confidence, and ourfelves the cause of all mifchances. The Hope of a Chriftian is prudent and religious.

3. To rejoice in the midst of a misfortune or feeming fadnefs, knowing that, this may work for Good, and will, if we be not wanting to our Souls. This is a direct Act of Hope, to look through the cloud, and look for a beam of the light from God: and this is called in Scripture, Rejoicing in Tribulation, when the God of Hope fills us with all joy in believing. Every degree of Hope brings a degree of foy.

4. To defire, to pray, and to long for the great object of our Hope, the mighty price of our High-calling; and to defire the other things of this life as they

arc