often striving who should be greatest expecting fleshly pomp and advantage by him much failing in love to him what not watch with me one hour in so much as they left him when he had most need of them they hid themselves from him they denyed him they feared a little reproach or danger for his sake who feared nothing for theirs And yet how tender was he of them continually not upbraiding them for their unkindnesses nor neglecting any act of kindness towards them After his Resurrection he stayeth forty days from glory for then sakes to satisfie them about his Resurrection and his love to them and to give them full instructions about the ordering of his Kingdom here on Earth wherein their safety peace and comfort lay And now he is in Heaven he spends his whole time for them He is taking up still there what belongs to them He is keeping all surmises from the heart of God and dashing all pleas which the Devil craftily and maliciously is still entering in against them He is suing out warrants from God to have dayly bestowed upon them what grace can do for them for the best according to their conditions And he sends his best friend the Spirit out of his own bosom to bring him news how it fares with them and to look to their hearts while they are in this world and to be dayly working them up to blessedness And methinks I hear Christ ever and anon renewing his charge as he sends him Go look to my little ones see they want nothing that thou canst do for them See that they want no light in that dark world wherein they are See they want no life in the midst of that dead world See they want no comfort in the midst of those distresses which it pleaseth my Father to exercise them with Go and bear with their unkind actings towards thee Consider where they are consider what they are consider what they suffer and deal gently with them for my sake and what affronts they put upon thee or what injuries they offer thee I will make up to thee as I have already done unto my Father 2. Look on the actings of his love towards them under the variety of their conditions First In their unconverted estate in that most loathsom estate wherein he findeth them lying before he bringeth them home to God His heart doth not then loath them but is pitying them and contriving how he may bring them home with most advantage Other sheep I have which are not of this fold them also I must bring Joh. 10.16 He shews where his heart was when he said little namely upon his sheep his lost sheep his scattered sheep about bringing them into the fold where they may be safe and at rest 2dly In their converted estate and their several turns and changes there In all their sicknesses in all their relapses in all the miseries which befall them by their own folly in all their sinful actings against God in all their unkind actings towards him in the midst which goeth most to his heart of their grieving of his holy Spirit when they are stubborn and rebellious and act most unthankfully when they will not trust him nor by no means be perswaded of the love he beareth towards them but are interpreting that ill which he intended well striving against all the good which he is doing them and doing that most eagerly which his Soul most abhorreth in them yet then even then is he doing for them the best offices of love which possibly can be done As they then most need the care love and tenderness of Christ so he will be sure then to lay it out for them And when at any time he worketh in them by his own Spirit what is pleasing in his eyes he attributeth it to them and accepteth it from them as if it were their own Indeed they do nothing not so much as think a good thought of themselves but he doth all in them and yet he attributeth all to them If he put it into their hearts and enable them to feed or clothe any of his he setteth it upon their account and upon an high account too even as their feeding and clothing of him He thinks no ill of them he interprets every thing in the best kind concerning them He loves them so as nothing in them or from them can mitigate his affection to them or hinder him from doing the utmost he can for their good He takes occasion from all their unloveliness to stir up his heart to acts of love towards them suitable to that their state but never to decline thereby from them Here is love indeed It would be too tedious to instance in the several acts in the several kinds of it as in pity in care in bounty in delight c. wherein the high and noble strain of his love doth on every occasion put forth it self Let it suffice therefore to have given a little touch at it V. For the manner of his acting love Love acteth in him this fourfold way or he performeth the acts of love after this fourfold manner Primarily Purely Suitably and Fervently 1. Primarily He is first in love and first in every act of love What he speaketh of that one act of love viz. of Election Joh. 15.16 Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you he was first in it is true of every act else He doth not stay for acts of love from us before he performeth acts of love to us but we love him because he loved us first and we perform acts of love to him because we first learned them of him As Christ learned his love of the Father so we learn our love of Christ Yea before we can perform any act of love to him there must several acts of love go forth from him towards us he must both give us the grace and quicken it and draw it forth whensoever we act any thing with affection towards him They are not our prayers that move him but his love is before them and yet what can move him more but it is his love the spirit of his love from and according to his love that teacheth guideth and enableth us to pray 2. Purely not with by-ams or by-ends concerning himself but as he loves with pure affection so he loves in a pure manner As his love is spiritual love so it acts spiritually it hath no by-ends no by-ways but all its motions are like it self It s purity discovereth it self in these three respects 1. It will do nothing to dishonour God through love to them Though Christ love them unspeakably exceedingly desiring their happiness and his enjoyment of them yet he will not intrench upon God in the least in effecting of it Lo I come I delight to do thy will O my God And again I do always the things which please him And when he speaks of having finished his course Joh. 17. I have glorified thy Name saith he Though
The LIFE of a CHRISTIAN WHICH IS A Lamp kindled and lighted from the Love of Christ and most naturally discovereth its Original by the purity integrity and fervency of its motion in love to its fellow-partners in the same life Briefly displayed in this its peculiar and distinguishing strain of Operation As also some few Catechistical Questions concerning the way of Salvation by CHRIST Together with a Post-script about Religion By ISAAC PENINGTON junior Esq John 13.34 35. A new Commandment I give unto you That ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another LONDON Printed by John Macock for Lodowick Lloyd and Henry Cripps and are to be sold at their shop in Popes-head Alley neer Lumbard-street 1653. The Preface THe most excellent kind of things is hid and those kinds which appear in their greatest worth and excellency are but vails to that life wherein lieth our happiness Miserable were the estate of man could he enter into that estate of life which he desireth and seeketh to enjoy but more miserable is his condition in that he is not only fallen short of that glory which is perfectly satisfactory in God but of that glory which belongs to him to adore and solace himself in in his estate and condition All Truth is a shadow except the last except the utmost yet every Truth is true in its kind It is substance in its own place though it be but a shadow in another place for it is but a reflection from an intenser substance and the shadow is a true shadow as the substance is a true substance But this is the exceeding great misery of man he meets not with Truth either in substance or shadow but that which the world is full of vanity a lye a fiction of his own heart and the Devils in imitation of the Truth of God A Doctrine of his own framing out of the Scriptures Graces of his own forming in his Soul and a Worship and Ordinances of his own creating for his publique or private Devotion And yet such hath always been the thick darkness of man that he could never see the lye though never so palpable in his right hand When the light shineth we shall all see where we are but in the dark who is it that doth not mistake We are all justifying our selves and condemning one another but who is it that shall be found able to stand before the righteous Judgment of God who is it in whom the true light and life of God is sown and in whom doth it truly spring up and shoot forth Surely if ever there was need of provoking one another to love and good works the season is now proper Religion is grown so outward and hath spread forth into such various forms pleasing it self so much in that dress which it most affects that the inward substantial part viz. the life and power of it is almost lost in the varieties of shapes and shadow The excrescencies of Religion are become so exuberant that the vigor of it is much drawn from the heart I profess I can hardly blame men for growing out of love with Religion both it and the Professors of it being grown so unlike what it and they once were and still pretend to be The worth of Religion consisteth not in a name or profession but in such a life power righteousness and holiness as the spirit of man with all the art and strength of man cannot attain Where this is and appears in truth it will gain esteem in the spirits hearts and consciences of men whereas a name and profession of Religion falling short of the truth and substance of that common righteousness and good-will which is found in man cannot but most deservedly become a reproach Love true love the love of Christ sown and springing up is the life of true Religion which as it is like the love in Christ so it will appear and act like it This love being of a deep intense and most pure nature goeth forth with mighty strength and entireness towards the fountain of life from which it came and towards all the branchings forth of this life into such as are changed and renewed by it nay it extends it self to all men even the greatest enemies blessing them that curse and wishing well to them that use the subjects of it in the most despightful manner nay to all creatures expressing it self in sweetness meekness tenderness pity mercifulness and in what way else soever it can vent it self in doing good to any sorts of things persons or creatures This love in its way of acting according to the pattern to the houshold of faith is in part here described and exposed for the view of such as may stand in need of such an help and shall find hearts to make use of it And now Sirs ye that profess Christianity look to your spirits Watch and keep your garments close about you lest the Lord discover your nakedness and men see your shame Little do ye think what the Lord is in doing This great noise which ye have heard is not for nothing Life is sunk into the root The branches are withered and a purifying fire will not now serve the turn God as he can embrace where it may seem impossible even that which was utterly cast off and lost for ever so he can throw away that which seemeth saved he can cast off that which seemeth united to him in a link of perpetuity God can both rais up from among the stones children unto Abraham causing them to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom and likewise keep out the children of the Kingdom nay thrust them out of that Kingdom whereof they have already possession in part Ye have had the experiment of this already in the Jews take heed of it the second time But ye will say the natural people were but a type or shadow and stood upon other terms then the spiritual seed did and therefore that might very well befall them which cannot befall these This is very true in it self though not true as it is understood and applyed They are not the spiritual seed which account themselves so but those whom God maketh so by the generating vertue of his own Spirit and yet those that are the spiritual seed or rather they in whom the spiritual seed is may fall in their outward station and so lose that life and sweetness which they had in their standing But I shall not at this time dispute the case All that I shall now say to you is Look to your feet Look to your standing Look well to the Rock whereupon ye bottom your Souls and look that ye be well bottomed on that Rock lest either your bottom fail under you or the boisterousness of a wind ye have not yet been acquainted with shake you from it He who is not
life wastes and the Soul runs further and further into the danger of the fire which by faith alone is avoyded Thirdly Hereby ye may have what ye will If ye abide in me and my words abide in you if your faith remain and your obedience also ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you And therefore he bids them also look to their Obedience for that was the way both to glorifie God Vers 8. and to abide in the love of Christ Vers 9 10. As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue ye in my love If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love Not as if Christ did love them simply for their obedience no more then God did love him for his obedience simply but as this was the way wherein the power of the Father led him to remain in the love of the Father so this is the way Christs power guides them in to abide in his love for God and Christ must be just in dispensing their love even to their own according to the Rule of that dispensation which they set up and under which they put their own Now Christ tells them plainly vers 11. the ground why he did thus vehemently urge these things upon them which was double 1. That his joy might remain in them that that joy which he had in them from their obedience in and unto the faith might remain that he might still find the same cause of joy in them 2. That their joy which they had in him might be filled that they might have not only joy but fulness of joy in Christ which ariseth from the other for our joy in Christ is filled from Christs joy in us When he delights in us in our state temper and motions in the dispensation wherein he sets us then he spreadeth himself abroad so sweetly and pleasantly in us as causeth us abundantly to delight in him both these are mentioned in the 11 vers These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full As if he had said 'T is true though ye should be negligent of these things and run into great dangers thereby yet I might bring you to Heaven at last nay I would not lose you but I should have no great delight in you here nor would ye take any great delight in me neither would God get any great honour by you according to verse 8. But now I would not only bring you to Heaven at last but take great delight in you here and fill your hearts with joy too and therefore would I have you abide in me and keep my Commandments which is the only way thereunto These are the very ends that I so press these things thus earnestly upon you for Now if ye would know what Commandments I mean this is it I chiefly intend namely of love one to another This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you In the words we may take notice of three particulars 1. The Command it self That ye love one another 2. The rule of this command the rule whereby the love that answers this command must be squared and that is Christs love it must be squared by the love which Christ had in him and which he manifested unto and exercised towards his As I have loved you 3. Christs peculiar owning of both both of the command and the rule or of the command according to the rule This is my commandment This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you To glance a little at the sence of the words That ye love one another That ye Ye my disciples whom I have cherished all my days and am now about to dye for for whom I came from Heaven and for whom I go again to Heaven Ye who were mine before the world was Ye who are mine and have been mine throughout my whole ministry Ye who shall be mine for ever and ever That ye love Love in heart love in word love in action Bear a tender affection to them in the bottom of your souls Speak well of them and good for them both to God and men and do any service of love for them Let them have all the interest in you and power with you that love can command Think it not much to suffer with them nay to suffer even death it self for them Love is the continual drinking in and the continual letting out of desire delight and service Our desire is still after our delight is still in our service is still about what we love And love though it be still busie about what it loves yet it can never drink in enough nor let out enough towards it Two things make it unsatisfiable Want of fulness to vent upon its love and want of ability and skill to vent what it hath upon its love One another This is the extent the bounds of this love it must reach to all that belong to Christ and it is no difficult matter no hard task for it is only to them that have the same image the same nature the same life the same beginning the same end If thou lovest thy self aright if thou lovest Christ aright then thou wilt also love these who are truly part of thy self and part of Christ I know the world will hate you and I do not bid you love it for there is none of this kind of loveliness in it nothing in them to receive this love nothing in them for you to fasten this love upon but I bid you love one another The world is not to draw forth your love not to partake of this love be it never so excellent nor must any of these miss of it be they never so weak never so vile As I have loved you Just as I have caused my heart to go forth toward you as I have ever been tender of you and passed by all manner of weaknesses in you as I have ever thought well of you my self and spoke well of you to the Father not taking notice of any of your sins or frailties further then for your good as I have performed all manner of services to you I have descended that ye might ascend I have fallen that ye might arise I have not stuck at giving my very life for you and all my strength and glory to you so true so great so strong hath my love unto you been even so after this manner do ye kindle affections and so act them one towards another This is my commandment This is that commandment which is properly mine This is that commandment which of all other I will own This is that especial commandment which God in this his ministration by me towards you giveth you This is that commandment which my soul which my heart which my nature is most in This is that which I most
they were in Christ and had the eternal life of God and Christ in them They knew that they were of God and that the Son of God was come who gave them an understanding to know him that is true and that they were in him that is true in his Son Jesus Christ And this was no high-flown fancy concerning God and eternal life which consists only in the elevation of the imagination but the truth This is the true God and eternal life 1 Joh. 5.19 20. What shall we say then to these things Is it not time for us to make a stand and look about us Is it not time for us to miss the Lord and seek to begin with him Man is naturally confident and yet commonly deceived in the ground-work of his confidence From our first springing up in Popery unto all our rents and divisions thence both in Doctrine and Worship we have still been confident that we have always been in the right How vain is man In every change he confesseth himself wrong and yet that still to which he changeth must needs be right Ah wretched man There is a lye in thy heart which springs up in all thy thoughts and ways of devotion and until thou beest new formed thou wilt not be capable of entertaining the truth but only of deluding thy self What should I advise thee what can be proper for thee but to examine the true ground and joyn with the house of Israel lamenting after the Lord to bewail the loss of his light his life his guidance his presence The cause of joy is not the cause of grief only is and is in abundance and where it is manifested with demonstration and power there will not need any exhortation to it I must profess I would rather chuse tears although I were sure they should never be wiped away from mine eyes after substance after that which my spirit wants and can alone take up with then the greatest mirth or pleasure which vanity for such I account all the Religion of man with all that springs from it can afford Rejoyce in the Lord always They might well rejoyce always in the Lord who enjoyed the Lord who had a kind of constant presence of the Bridegroom in their spirits Their Lord lived in them walked with them and kept them company by his Spirit But is this spoken to us who are Orphans Though the spirit of man in his several ways of Religion is not an Orphan therefore he may rejoyce also The same Spirit of the Lord which piped unto the Apostles and primitive Christians administring unto them occasion of dancing mourneth unto us and our proper way of answering it is in lamentation Lament therefore after the Lord and mourn over Jerusalem Mourn over the ruines and desolations of Jerusalem Pity the dust of Sion Jerusalem hath been layd waste Sion lieth in the dust nay Sion is it self burnt into dust by the extream jealousie and fury of the Eternal who hath let out his flames more fiercely upon her then upon any abomination to be found among men Jerusalem hath drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury yea it hath drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them out Isai 52.17 Yet she is still Jerusalem she is still Sion and her very dust is lovely The Lord knoweth her and loveth her dust and it is impossible for any to discover her native worth and beauty and not to pity and mourn over her present condition What is this the Lords darling is this the only beauty will scoffing earth say Ishmael cannot but despise Isaac though growing though thriving though owned by the Lord how contemptible then must he needs be in his death and burial The world wanting the inward eye wonders to hear God speak such great things of his people of the abundantly rich glory and excellency of their life they appear so mean to them at the best They never have the loveliness of man in them how loathsom then must they needs be when all that which is their own beauty is broken down in them when the remainders of their earthly beauty with the whole frame of their spiritual beauty is dashed in peeces like a potters vessel and burnt up together Yet how precious is the seed of God under all these how amiable is this very dust of Sion The very brokenness sickness misery of this estate is of more true value then all the soundness then all the health of life and Salvation that is any where else to be found throughout the whole Earth Yet this object is very lamentable and it would grieve any ones heart to behold it He who hath seen known tasted or had the least glimpse of Sion in her glory O how would his heart throb at the view of her here yet here if not here alone is she to be found Is it nothing to thee O thou Preserver of man that the foundations of thine own holy Habitation are thus shaken Where is thy Zeal where is the sounding of thy Bowels at the death and misery of thine own seed O Lord wilt thou also bring forth children to the Murtherer Awake O Lord Rouze up thy self Let thine own everlasting Spirit stir in the motions of its own life and never leave till it hath raised up disconsolate Jerusalem desolate Jerusalem afflicted Jerusalem distracted Jerusalem Jerusalem which is sunk dead and rotten Jerusalem which is not and hath made it the praise of the whole Earth AMEN FINIS