c. God will do two things for his people in the day of his wrath against his enemies First he will make them to sing In that day shall this song be sung in the Land of Judah The world oft sing when the Saints mourn and therefore the world shall mourn when the Saints shall sing And another thing is In that day when the Lord shall open his arms as a swimmer for judgment The Saints shall have a strong City or Garison or Refuge to go to where they shall be safe We have a strong City that shall be their song Salvation will God appoint for Walls and for Bulwarks Now it shall not be an outward City or an outward Garison but the Lord will give them a spiritual Garison The salvation of the Lord shall be to them as Walls and Bulwarks So that beloved in few words this is the lesson that I would learn thorowly and would have you to learn from this Verse that In all the troubles and calamities that are in this world Observation God a sweet refuge the people of God have a sweet Refuge or a safe Garison to go into Let the judgments of God be out upon the earth upon the wicked and unbelievers never so much and let the Kingdoms be never so miserable yet the Saints have a Garison they have a sweet place of shelter of retreat and refuge and safety in the worst of times that can be in this world You shall see a blessed place to this purpose Heb. 12. 25 26 c. See that you do not turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven saith the Apostle whose voice then shock the earth but now he hath promised saying Yet once more will I shake not the earth onely but also heaven And this word yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken or moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably Beloved not to open the whole place this is that onely I would observe from it That there are times in the latter end of the world wherein the very heaven and earth shall once more be shaken That is there shall be such troubles and calamities now in the latter end of the world that men shall think that God is shaking not onely Kingdoms and Nations but Heaven and Earth the whole Vniverse and is ready to pull it down There will be such times saith the Apostle yet saith he We receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken It is a blessed place when all the Kingdoms in the world shall be shaken all the Earth and all the Heavens as it were shall be shaken too yet we have received a Kingdom that cannot be shaken The Saints are in a Garison or Kingdom that though all the world about them were shaken and totter they are safe and stand still Truly I have oft thought in my own apprehensions that the Saints differ as much from other men as if you could suppose a man to live in the middle Region where there is no wind nor storms nor tempest And you know here in all the sublunary world there is nothing but clouds and rain and storms and all weathers If one were above in the middle Region lot it rain or thunder or hail or be what it will here he is safe and quiet Just so it is with the Saints they are in the middle Region in a Kingdom that though all the Kingdoms of the world shake yet they receive a Kingdom that cannot be shaken But you will say Where is this Garison that we may go into it Where is this Kingdom Salvation saith the Prophet the Lord shall appoint us for walls and bulwarks That is this Kingdom is not outwardly to be found it is not an earthly garison but it is a figurative speech that they do finde in the Lord by the holy Spirit such security and such safety as if they were in a garison that cannot be assaulted or taken But you will say How can that be This is a meer Idea or Notion which no body can understand I shall shew presently how it can be by the help of God The troubles of a man the real troubles of a man are in his minde and soul and affections Now if you could finde a way to keep a mans minde and soul and heart it were easie to keep the whole man For our trouble is not a little imprisonment or poverty Paul or Sylas were in prison and were to be hanged the next day for ought they knew yet they could sing The man is as his minde is if we can finde a way to fortifie and garison the soul and minde and affections it will be easie to garison the whole man But now how shall we garison the minde or soul How a man may be said to be secure and impregnable or heart and affections to use no critical distinctions how shall we garison the heart of man You shall see that in Phil. 4. 7. The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and mindes through Christ Jesus There is saith the Apostle a peace of God that shall keep you or as the word in the Greek is garison you shall set up a garison in your hearts and mindes through Jesus Christ What peace is that You shall see if you compare it with the Gospel of John When our Lord Christ was going to Heaven he told his Disciples I will send the Comforter John 14. 7. among you and My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world gives give I unto you My peace I give unto you not as the peace of the world It is a legacy that we have in the New Testament from our Lord Jesus Christ that is now in heaven by the Holy Ghost there is a kinde of peace that comes into the hearts of the Saints that passeth understanding not onely the understanding of wicked men that they know it not and apprehend it not but it passeth the understanding of a godly man that hath it As we see in Isaiah there is a peace that comes and quiets and secures his soul such a peace as he never understood or did suppose could come into his soul according to that Neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor hath entred Isai 64. 4. into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that wait for him That is God sends this peace and many other blessings Such a peace as a man never conceived in his heart and this peace comes in and keeps the heart like a Castle or sets up a garison in the heart it keeps the heart and minde through Jesus Christ Therefore from that briefly you may learn a lesson or two that so I may proceed to that which remains Vse First Learn I desire and beseech
you that profess your selves to be Saints that you would make To repair to this refuge towards this refuge or this garison here in all your troubles I am ashamed and troubled and have been truly many yeers to see Saints and godly people when troubles come on them to spend their wits and beat their brains in finding refuge in outward things O if I were here or there in such a Town in such an Iland in such a Country in such a place I should have it Beloved our song should be Salvation God will appoint us for walls and bulwarks Our way is when all the Kingdoms of the world are shaken to seek to get into that Kingdom that shakes not That is let England and all the world shake I care not so I have the Spirit of Christ the comforter to bring peace to my soul that may set up a garison there that nothing may assault and trouble me Then let all the world let heaven and earth shake I am sure I am safe this is the way It is a common saying of many particular persons Let a man not seek himself any where without in the opinion of men So let not Saints seek refuge and shelter and salvation in outward helps but if they should see the Kingdom of England which God forbid involved in more miseries and troubles and desolations c. Lay this down alway by thee there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken England and Scotland and Ireland are shaken but there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Such a garison is besieged such a Town is in danger such a place is stormed but there is a garison that the Lord hath put into the hearts of his Saints that cannot be stormed or assaulted Therefore ply the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of the New Testament by his holy comforter that he would garison thy soul and put peace there And then what shall be the issue I will tell thee that thou with a holy joy and complacency and delight of Spirit when thou seest the very pillars of heaven shaken as it were shalt sollace thy self in thy own garison and walk in the streets of it and be safe thou shalt triumph over all storms and troubles and all that is here Not because that a Saint is able to encounter those things that are here For a Saint is not able to answer if you ask what he conceives will be the end of these things he cannot answer these things but onely he retreats to the middle Region as a bird he flies above sublunary things he can say I cannot tell what shall become of England or Scotland or Ireland but I am sure I know a back door that leads into a Kingdom that cannot be shaken to go into the middle Region where no storms of the Air shall trouble me and there I can rest my spirit I alway for my part with submission to the wise apprehend it as a thing too carnal and too low for Saints to think to finde a resting place in this world any place is heaven in such an Iland in such a Plantation and such a place let it be what it will But a Saint that hath this garison in his heart and minde he is at peace This garison David had when his enemies compassed him and he had no walls when there were 10000 about him he lay and slept For thou Lord sustainedst me saith he The salvation of God was walls and bulwarks about him If this peace of God be above understanding how can it be otherwise then be above expression We can therefore give but a hint of it but such a thing there is The Saints walk in a green meadow by the rivers of waters Psal 23. in the spring all the day and all the night long in beholding the love of God and the Covenant of God made in Iesus Christ the full forgivenesse of all their sins the everlasting union between them and Christ and through Christ between them and God and beholding the Spirit in its working within them and beholding the glory that shall be revealed at the last day the Crown that Christ shall bring with him they walk safely and sweetly and securely though all the Kingdoms of the world and the pillars of heaven be shaken As the heathen said If the world break about his ears he would undergo it without trouble Not because he can answer these things but withdrawing himself to his place from them I cannot tell whether the Kingdom shall stand but I can go to the middle Region to Iesus Christ where there is no storme Learn that and lay aside your great projects like the men of the world of building Castles in the air for Garisons but labour to get into this Garison Salvation will God appoint for walls and Bulwarks Open ye the gates that the righteous Nation which keepeth the truth may enter in This is a speech just alluding to a Garison they use there to open the gates and to shut them and when any body comes they bid them stand and ask them who they are for What are they One saith he is a friend and then they bid open the gates and let him come in if not to shut the gates against him Open ye the gates saith the Lord But none must come in but a friend but who is this friend It is The righteous Nation which keep the truth they shall enter in The word in the Originall it is Truth not Truth not one or two or three or four truths but the righteous Who have a right to Gods protection Nation that keepeth the truths let them enter in That is the word if you will passe this Court of Guard he that shall come into this Garison is he that keepeth truth with a good conscience notwithstanding all the troubles that befall him in this world he shall enter into this Garison Therefore I beseech you look to your selves Truly it is unconceiveable and unutterable what the joy the comfort the worth of that Garison is where it is set up in the soul yet there are no hypocrites no partiall obeyers of Iesus Christ and his laws that shall enter into it Therefore if I speak Hebrew or Greek as it were to you that you understand not what I mean by this Garison look to your selves it may be you have not the word and therefore you cannot get in It may be you walk not uprightly you are not of the upright Nation and people you keep not the truths It may be you pick one truth here and another there that pleaseth you that suits with your reason or your lusts and corruptions or with the stream of the world you honor and respect that and for the rest of the truth let you neighbours take it if they will you will none of it if it bring shame and persecution and reproch That is the reason when troubles come you are at your wits end you know not where to go because
from our littleness and weakness any thing he will draw arguments of his goodness from Yet many times we are of such a temper that we will not draw one argument to move us to do that which is pleasing in his eyes Well he is a glorious God and we are like our selves Let him lay hold on my strength Let the poor bramble go and lay hold upon the wall I have strength enough to destroy and devour them but I wish that they would lay hold of my strength There is a way that all the strength that is in God thou mayest make it for thee on thy side All the power and strength that is in God is against wicked men that receive not Christ but there is a way that thou mayest make that party on thy side thou mayest make God on thy side Take hold on him that is receive Christ and then thou art in the Covenant and all belongs to thee upon that and all the power whereby he made heaven and earth and rules the sea and every thing is thy power it is for thee And make peace with me and they shall make peace It is like the expression of some people that are wondrously given to love and peace and though other people desire to quarrell yet they will not quarrell but they will be freinds there is no neighbour so mischievous but they will be friends with them in spight of their heart so sayth God Let them make peace with me and they shall make peace It is like that expression of God I will put my spirit in their hearts and they shall keep my statutes That thy soul could creep along upon this blessed wall and make peace with him and lay hold of his promise and he saith thou shalt make peace He shall cause them that come of Iacob to take root c. You see how sweet God is in afflicting his Saints how he preserves them and hears them in whipping them Here he shewes three great differences between Three differences in the afflictions of the godly and wicked the afflictions of the godly and of the wicked The first is this saith he have I smitten him as I smote those that smote him Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him That is the Lord doth not lay such a weight of affliction upon his children as he doth upon wicked people that is one thing therefore he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind No east wind blowes on the Saints for in Scripture language that is the wrath of God All the other winds are growing but the East wind is cutting and chilling Secondly it is said God will debate with them that is besotted carnall men as Pharaoh and others he layes afflictions upon afflictions upon them and they never know why it makes him a sot and he brayes him as a fool in a Morter but I will debate with him saith God I will reason the case As a father when he whips his childe will you do so again saith he And is this handsome The Lord never whips his childe but he debates with him Thirdly the issue and fruit of it All the fruit is he doth it to take away sin he will make all the stones of the Altar as Chalk-stones he will beat them to pieces that is they shall pull down their Groves and their Altars as you do Chalk-stones when you burne them and beat them in pieces This should make us sweeten our thoughts of God he is sweet in his providence in his Ordinances in his corrections we see what a good God he is how he draws water out of the Flint he draws arguments of grace and mercy and goodnesse to save wretched creatures any way in such a way that if we were Judges we would condemn our selves The Lord sweeten your hearts and raise up your souls to apprehend his mercy Expositions and Observations on ISAIAH 28 15. Because ye have said we have made a Covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement c. We have made agreement with hell NOt that they said so but God brings in their thoughts as in Iob Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy laws That is the difference between Gods book and mens books men write books according to the words of men but the word of God is according to their thoughts Here are four or five things noted of wicked men Four things observed of wicked men 1. Their v. in conceits First we have made say they a covenant with death and with hell we are at an agreement The meaning is not that they did draw writings between them and hell for hell will make no agreement but the meaning is they were assured in their conceits that they should be delivered from hell and death and misery As a man that hath made a Covenant for his land c. and hath got witnesses to it he hath made sure he hath it in black and white so there was a foolish confidence in them they assured themselves that they should escape as if death and hell had given them an acquittance and had sealed it and there had been Covenants drawn between them and the Devill That is one thing But saith God Your Covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand That is you shall see that all those conceits are but vaine Just as if a man should go and make a Covenant with his neighbour and buy his land and he should never tell his neighbour that he would sell it this agreement would be broken and the Covenant would not stand So you build Castles in the aire you make a Covenant and agreement in your conceits that you are safe and you hope the best and God is mercifull but the day will come when all this will be done away As Iob saith it is just as a Spiders web that is a fine thing that she hath been working all the week and then the Maide comes to make clean the house and all is taken away with one stroak of a brush Another thing is the Lord compares them here to Illustrated in two comparisons Compa ∣ rison 1 people that would hide themselves by the sea side where the tide comes up As you see sometimes when the tide is low there are green medows and bushes before it be high spring and there they hide themselves and the water comes and overflowes their hiding place If they stay there a while and it may be are asleep the tide comes and drowns them all Do ye not think a man were mad that should go and hide himself in a hole of a bridge and sleep when the tide was low and then the tide come in and overwhelm him So it will be with thee if thou receive not Iesus Christ We have made lies our refuge and under falshood have we hid our selves Mr. Calvin saith they may be compared to little
Christ whereas he usually means Iesus Christ as I could fully cleare it if I had time Let me give you one instance In the last verse of the former Psalm Arise O God judge the earth for thou shalt inherit all nations That is clearly meant of Christ for we know that God inherits all Nations he made the world and he had the command and possession of it but to God in Iesus Christ there is a time when God hath promised that he shall inherit the nations from the uttermost ends of the earth And therefore here by God is meant Iesus Christ For indeed ordinarily and naturally you shall not finde a people conspiring against God properly you shall see no wicked man but in some sort or other he will speak honourably of God but God in Christ God in the mediator God in the Gospell God in his Saints God in Gospell ordinances and the like hence are all the tumults in the world and all the conspiracies against God and his Saints Therefore if you compare this place Thine enemies make a tumult against thee with Psal 2. Why do the heathen rage Or why do they make a tumult as some read it and why do the people imagine a vaine thing the Kings of the earth take counsell against the Lord and against his anointed That is meerly meant of Iesus Christ So take notice of that that carnall men ordinarily do not speak or think evil of God absolutely considered but the worst of men speak well of him when he gives them wealth they thank him when he gives them faire weather they blesse him when he gives them peace and preserves them in their journeys and wayes every one speaks well of God but God in Iesus Christ God manifest in the flesh God in the mediator God in his Saints God in his ordinances God in his commands and the like then the men of the world use to make tumults then they take crafty counsell together and conspire against the Lord and against his apointed Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace be not still You see the prophet looks upon God as one that in the midst of these conspiracies did keep silence and hold his peace and sit still Not that God doth use to speak or to stir properly as we men do but the meaning is this that many times when his son Iesus Christ and his laws and his ordinances are most conspired against God as it were doth keep silence I meane Iesus Christ God in Christ when his people and ordinances are conspired against he keeps silence and sits still as though he would let his enemies do what they would and what they list as though God did not see or heed which end did go forward The Lord oft doth this Keep not silent O God I remember that place in Isaiah 40. 27. Why sayest thou O Iacob and speakest O Israel My way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God The meaning of it is this that when the enemies of God as we see Chap. 39. did oppresse this people they did pray to him and looked for assistance from him but he was silent as it were or asleep therefore they begin to say in their heart My way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God that is Surely it is impossible that God should eye and see my wayes and how men deal with me while I am believing and waiting and praying and humbling my soul no my way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God that is my God hath forgotten to give ear to me Beloved there is a time when the Lord as it were gives cause to his people so to think that he is as it were asleep and lets their enemies go on and none contradict them I was thinking out of scripture that there are three Reasons 3. Reasons of Gods silence in the danger of the Saints 1. To try their faith why the Lord keeps silence when his people are in danger and sits still when there is most need to give help and assistance One is the Lord doth it to trie their faith as we see clearly Matthew 8. 23. where it is said that our Lord Christ was asleep There arose a great tempest insomuch as the ship was covered with waves but he was asleep and his disciples came and awaked him saying Lord save us we perish We read more fully in Mark 4. Luk. 8. he left them when the ship was covered with waves and they were rowing for their lives their Lord was asleep the while and he said to them Why are ye fearfull O ye of little faith Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea and there was a great calm Truly the Lord will not suffer his people to be overwhelmed that is certain but he will suffer them to come very near that the waves cover them and fear and horrour shall cover their souls and all to try their faith For faith is the evidence of things not seen take it in all senses take faith for the soul or faith for the body and we live not here by sense but by faith and as the Apostle saith of hope so we may say of faith If we see why do we yet hope If we did see God present striking of wicked men when they consult against his children this were sense men would see that it were better to stick to God then otherwise and there would be a world of hypocrites as Doct. Preston saith for every man would be a professor But God seems to sleep sometimes and keeps silence and leaves his people as he did this poor fishing boat here to see if when they see nothing they will keep faith to him I do find another reason in Isaiah 59 and that is the 2. To try their uprightness Lord doth keep silence in the midst of the troubles of his people as to trie mens faith so to trie mens uprightnesse who will stick to God as to see who will stick to God by faith so who will stick to his cause or his people out of uprightnesse of heart For if God should alwayes appear for his cause God and his cause should have many favourites and friends but sometimes God leaves his cause and leaves his people and leaves his Gospell and his ordinances to the wide world to see who will plead for it and stick to it As you see in that place of Isaiah Transgressions are multiplied saith the prophet in transgressing and lying against the Lord departing from our God and uttering words of falshood judgement is turned back and justice standeth afar off truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter Yea truth faileth and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey And the Lord saw it God was as it were asleep but he looked through the lattice the Lord beheld it and he saw that there was no man
blessed power and strength to do that it teacheth therefore saith the Apostle Sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are not under the Law but under Grace Expositions and Observations on EPHESIANS 3. 20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us THe Apostle ends his Prayer for the Ephesians in a general manner with a kinde of Thanksgiving Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly according to the power that worketh in us According to the power that worketh in us There is a mighty power that worketh in the Saints and you shall see that power Ephes 1. 19. saith he I desire that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward that believe according to the working of his mighty power It is not weakness but power and not a small power but a mighty power a great power an exceeding great mighty power That worketh in you The Saints are strong creatures If you ask what this power is you shall see in the verse following The power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places far above all principalities and powers c. That is the power of his holy Spirit that dwells in us greater is he that dwelleth in us then he that dwelleth in the world We have a greater power in us then can be from the world or hell against us And that power is illustrated here by the raising of Iesus from the dead and setting him up in heavenly places There was no active power that ever God expressed that can be compared to that of raising Christ from the dead It was a power and a great power and Gods power too to make this world and it is a power to preserve it but that power is not comparable to this when Jesus Christ was dead under the curse of the Law and under the wrath of God and under all our sins under the malice of men and under a great stone that was rowled on him and for a dead man to be raised up through all those oppositions of heaven and earth and hell and to be set in peace at the right hand of glory and majestie on high It must be an exceeding great power The Saints do not consider what strength they have If thou didst consider what strength thou hast in thee thou wouldest not be afraid to hear a Cross thou wouldst not be discouraged to attempt any work for God thou wouldest not be dismaied at the threatnings of men no nor at the temptations of the devil there is such an exceeding great and mighty power that works in them that believe This power is the power of the Spirit of God for that is the power of the most High the holy Ghost shall overshadow thee and the power of the most High shall come upon thee The holy Ghost is the power of God which dwelleth in the Saints And therefore my aime is to fasten that word on you and to shew you how you come short of that life and strength and grace that otherwise you might have for want of magnifying and exalting the Spirit of God which is the Conduit the Intelligencer that which brings light and life and strength to our souls from God The Spirit of God is lightly esteemed therefore we have little grace a low esteem of the Spirit will keep a Saint low all his days I thought to have instanced in a few things wherein you undervalue the Spirit One is that you do not hearken enough nor regard and observe enough the teaching of the Spirit of God and that is one cause why we are left to our selves and do so often miss the will of God For I know not according to the Covenant of Grace why a Saint should at any time miss the will of God but that he doth not observe his Leader For I will give you the Spirit saith Christ that shall lead you into all truth Now if you observe not this Leader this Teacher it is very just that you should be left to wander and go out of the way If a Christian would observe his way and observe his leader a Christian might easily finde when he is in and when he is out for truly if a man would ask himself Why did I miss the will of God so often since I have such a Teacher promised me and given me by Christ he must needs say that oftentimes I did not observe him I did not hearken to him I hearkened only to men and not to the Spirit of God And so he would easily finde when he began to give over harkning where he left the teaching of the Spirit for in my apprehension a Saint follows the holy Ghost with a kinde of sagacity if I may compare it with reverence just as we see the Dog follow the Hare there is something in Nature that the Dog knows which way the Hare went when a wiser creature knows not so there is something in a poor Saint that when all the wise men in the world know not which way God went a Saint can tell Onely the Dog may hunt upon a cold sent and think the Hare went that way and it grows colder and colder and he misseth So a Saint shall finde when he misseth the will of God that the Spirit of God hath not left him unless it be very rare as the Spirit left Christ to be tempted in the wilderness so he may leave thee to pull down thy pride and to humble thee Isay that is rare but ordinarily the Spirit leaves not thee but thou lettest goe thy leader and thou goest all the while on a cold sent A Saint though he headlong follows this or that conceit yet notwithstanding he may know when he comes to look upon himself surely I went upon a cold sent in those things though I followed them headlong and giddily it was not of the Spirit it was not the same teaching that I had ordinarily Therefore observe your leader hearken to the Spirit of God If God give you him as a master he expects that his children should learn and see when you go in the way of the Spirit of God and you may easily finde that if you will avoid headlongness and giddiness and rashness I speak not this as if the Spirit were contrary to the Word as some men to advance the Spirit set the Word and Spirit by the ears but the Spirit leads by the Word That which I chiefly intended to shew you was The power of the Spirit set out in four things to give you a few instances that you may have a little light to see the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit working in you I shall not shew in all respects nor in many as I might but onely in a few I will instance in these three or four things As first
flesh of his flesh that I may walk all the day thus cloathed with these reflexions then when we come to sin when temptation is offered it may be the devil will say such a one did it that is wiser then thou and such a one that is a fellow of the same calling then this positive actual reflexion upon the soul that thou art in Christ this would make thee say O but how shall I do it Jesus Christ died for me Jesus Christ hath washed me in his blood I am one with him What if the children of darkness do so is it fit for a childe of light what if sinners do so is it fit for a man that God hath called out of sin and out of the world is it fit for him to do so We seldome carry those reflexions about us when The Saints should reflect upon their high condition we go abroad among the snares of the world therefore we fall into sin for the older we are in grace the more full of snares the world is I could shew that you can name no place in the new Testament where our priviledges and relations are mentioned but as the holy Ghost mentions them to raise up the soul for comfort so expresly to stir us up to holiness 1 John 3. 1. Behold what manner of love God hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! I am perswaded that the Primitive Saints in the new Testament did generally look upon themselves distinct as a Common wealth and a people redeemed out of the world and in the light of that they did so walk they did alway speak so of themselves We are the first fruits of the spirit we are the sons of God we are redeemed and bought with a price We are the sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be but when he shall come we shall be like him O this gives comfort but what then what follows He that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure This hope is somewhat like that reflexion I am speaking of when there is an actual hope in the soul of being with the Lord and an actuall positive perswasion that I am the Lords then a man will purify himself as God is pure I might mention a hundred places in the new Testament 2 Cor. 6. Come out from among them seperate your selves and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be your father and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty This is very comfortable that we shall be his sons and daughters and that he will be our Father What then In the beginning of the next Chapter Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God If we be the sons and daughters of God and he be our Father therefore we should be holy in soul and body and spirit I remember a little Story of a great Monarch though I do not much trouble you with them but it doth a little illustrate what we speak of walking with his son a Prince the great Emperor seeing little poor children to play and tumble in the dirt he said to his son Why dost not thou go and play with them Saith he I would if I did see any Kings and Princes children play with them he reflected upon himself that he was a Prince a Kings son and it was not fit for them to tumble in the dirt So you may say when you see Drunkards and Whoremongers and Extortioners if the devil tempt you in your hearts and say Why dost not thou do so why dost not thou get money as yonder man doth or labor to be great in the world O say do the sons of God use to do so to cozen and cheat and be drunk and lie If the Saints did so then it were another thing but shall I that am a Prince that am a son of God shall I be a Scullion and wallow in the dirt Therefore I say it is enough to an honest heart to propose a pitch that is above him that he never attained and what will he do he will seek and not give over till God have wrought it God wrought it in most of the Saints of old therefore let us labor with the Lord that we may have such considerations alway about us O how gloriously should we walk if we had still actuall considerations I am a son I am a daughter of God! How humbly should we walk towards our brethren how weaned from this world what Pilgrims would we be here upon earth doubtless we run and lanch into the world by forgetting of our relations and stations so that as in Gen. 6. The sons of God married the daughters of men We walk as the sons of men and miscarry as the sons and daughters of mem If we did alway walk and look upon our selves as the sons and daughters of God we should in some poor measure express something of the sons and daughters of God in every word and carriage and action towards God and men c. Expositions and Observations on PHILIPPIANS 2. 1 2 3. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies Fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory but in lowliness of minde let each esteem other better then themselves THe Lesson that the Lord gave you and me lately to consider of and to do was rightly to love the Saints to love Saints ought to love though they be not beloved our brethren and the way you remember was that we should not make that the ground of our love to our brethren because they love us but because we are beloved of God we should love though we be not beloved of men He that will not love his brethren till he be loved of them nor no further nor no longer then he is beloved he shall never love them much nor love them rightly at all because all goes upon a wrong ground and by a false rule And therefore we should set upon the practice of that duty in these times of division that whatsoever man I look on as a Saint or see the Image of God in him I should indeavor to bring my heart to love him If he love not me let him look to that I shall not answer for that that shall be laid on his score but if I love not my brother that shall be laid on my score and as my account so my comfort I mean true spiritual comfort both here and hereafter it is not in this that I am much beloved but that I love much I spake to you of that more at large then and I hope you will indeavor to bring your souls to be doers of this blessed truth as