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In rebus mi

The Means and Inftruments to obtain
Faith are,

1. An humble, willing and docible mind, or defire to be inftructed in the way of God: for perfuafion enters like a Sun-beam, gently, and without violence; and open but the window, and draw the curtain, and the Son of Righteousness will enlighten your durknefs.

2. Remove all prejudice and love to every thing which may be contradicted by Faith. How can ye believe (faid Chrift) that receive praise one of another? An unchaft man cannot eafily be brought to believe that without purity he fhall never fee God. He that loves riches can hardly believe the Doctrine of pover ty and renunciation of the world: and Alms and Martyrdom and the Doctrine of the Cross is folly to him that loves his eafe and pleasures. He that hath with in him any principle contrary to the Doctrines of Faith, cannot eafily become a Disciple.

3. Prayer, which is inftruinental to every thing, hath a particular promise in this thing. He that lacks wifdom, let him ask it of God: and, If you give good things to your children, how much more shall your Hea venly Father give his Spirit to them that ask him?

4. The confideration of the Divine Omnipotence ris fumma and infinite wifdom, and our own ignorance, are great credendi ra- inftruments of curing all doubting, and filencing the potentia Cre- murinurs of infidelity.

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5. Avoid all curiofity of enquiry into particulars, and circumstances and myfteries: 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 Harveft finds himfelf not deceived.

6. In time of temptation be not bufie to difpute; but rely upon the Conclufion, and throw your felf

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upon God, and contend not with him but in prayer, and in the prefence and with the help of a prudent untempted Guide: and be fure to efteem all changes of beliet which offer themselves in the time of your greatest weakness (contrary to the perfuafions of your beft understanding) to be temptations, and reject them accordingly.

7. It is a prudent courfe, that in our health and beft advantages we lay up particular arguments and inftruments of perfuafion and confidence, to be brought forth and ufed in the great day of expence; and that especially in fuch things in which we ufe to be molt tempted, and in which we are leaft confident, and which are most neceffary, and which commonly the Devil ufes to affault us withal in the days of our vilitation.

8. The wisdom of the Church of God is very remarkable in appointing Festivals or Holy days, whofe Solemnity and Offices have no other special business but to record the Article of the Day; fuch as TrinitySunday, Afcenfion, Eafter, Christmas-day and to thofe perfons who can only believe, not prove or difpute, 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 Joy of a Holy-day.

SECT. II.

Of the Hope of a Chriftian.

Aith differs from Hope in the extention of its object, and in the intention of degree. S. Austin thus Enchirid. c.3. accounts their difference. Faith is of all things revealed, good and bad,rewards and punishments, of things paft, present 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 hoped for,future, and concerning our felves: and because

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these things are offered to us upon conditions. which we may fo fail as we may change our will, therefore our certainty is lefs than the adherences of Faith; which (because Faith relies only upon one propofition, that is, the truth of the Word of God) cannot be made uncertain in themfelves, though the ob ject 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 certain I fhall perfevere in the ways of God.

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 promise is made. Every degree of Hope is a degree of onfidence.

2. To esteem all the danger of an action, and the poffibilities of miscarriage, 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 trust in God when we ste him to be our confidence, and our felves the caufe of all mischances. The Hope of a Chriftian is prudent and religions.

3. Torejoyce in the midst of a misfortune or fee ming fadness, 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, Rejoycing in Tribulation, when the God of Hope fills us with all joy in believing. Every degree of Hope brings a degree of Joy.

4. To defire, to pray, and to long for the great ob ject of our Hope, the mighty price of our high Calhing; and to defire the other things of this life as they

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are promifed, that is, fo far as they are made neceffary and useful to us in order to God's glory and the great end of Souls. Hope and Fafting are faid to be the two wings of Prayer. Fafting is but as the wing of a Bird; but Hope is like the wing of an Angel foaring up to Heaven, and bears our prayers to the throne of Grace. Without hope it is impoflible to pray; but Hope makes our prayers reasonable, paffionate and religious; for it relies upon God's promile, or experience, or providence, and itory. Prayer is always in proportion to our Hope zealous and affectionate. 5. Perfeverance is the perfection of the duty of Hope, and its last act; and fo long as our Hope continues, fo long we go on in duty and diligence; but he that is to raise a Caftle in an hour, fits down and does nothing towards it: and Herod the Sophifter lett off to teach his Son, when he faw that twenty four Pages appointed to wait on him, and called by the feveral Letters of the Alphabet, could never make him to understand his Letters perfectly,

Rules to govern our Hope.

1. Let you Hope be moderate, proportioned to your ftate, perfon and condition, whether it be for gifts cr graces, or temporal favours. It is an ambitious hope for perfons whofe diligence is like them that are least in the Kingdom of Heaven, to believe themselves endeared to God as the greatest Saints,or that they fhall have a throne equal to S.Paul, or the bleffed Virgin Mary. A Stammerer cannot with moderation hope for the gifts of Tongues, or a Peasant to become lear ned as Origen: or if a Beggar defires or hopes to be come a King, or asks for a thoufand pound a year, we call him impudent, not paffionate, much lets reafonable. Hope that God will crown your endeavour with equal measures of that reward which he indeed freely gives, but yet gives according to our proportions. Hope for good fuccefs according to, or not much beyond, the efficacy of the caufes and the inftrument: and

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let the Husbandman hope for a good Harveft, not for a rich Kingdom, or a victorious Army.

2. Let your hope be well founded, relying upon juft confidences, that is, upon God according to his revelations and promifes. For it is poffible for a man to have a vain hope upon God: and in matters of Religion it is prefumption to hope that God's mercies will be poured forth upon lazy persons that do nothing towards holy and ftrict walking, nothing (I fay) but truft and long for an event befides, and against all difpofition of the means. Every falfe principle in Religion is a Reed of Egypt, false and dangerous. Rely not in temporal things upon uncertain Prophecies and Aftrology, not upon our own wit or industry, not upon gold or friends, not upon Armies and Princes; expect not health from Physicians that cannot cure their own breath, much less their mortality use all lawful inftruments, but expect nothing from them above their natural or ordinary effi cacy, and in the ufe of them from God expect a blefJer. 17. s. fing. A hope that is eafie and credulous is an arm of flesh, an ill fupporter without a bone.

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3. Let your Hope be without vanity or garishness of fpirit, but fober, grave and filent, fixed in the heart, not born upon the lip, apt to fupport our spirits with in, but not to provoke envy abroad.

4. Let your Hope be of things poffible, fafe and ufedi credenza ful. He that hopes for an opportunity of acting his refar fperanza, venge, or luft, or rapine, watches to do himself a mil chief. Ail evils of our felves or brethren are objects of our fear, not hope: and when it is truly understood, things useless and unfafe can no more be wished for, than things impoflible can be obtained.

5. Let your Hope be patient, without tediousness of fpirit, or haftinets of prefixing time. Make no limits or prescriptions to God, but let your prayers and endeavours go on ftill with a conftant attendance on the periods of God's providence. The men of Bethuliarefolved to wait upon God but five days longer: but deliverance ftayed feven days, and yet came at laft. And take not every accident for an argument of Despair

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