may be taken these ways 1. The immediate Communication of the Holy Spirit wherewith Christ himself was indued for as in respect of the Union of the Divine Nature there was an Essential Union between the Son and the Spirit so by that Union of both Natures in one Person there was a Communion of the same Spirit unto Christ The Spirit descended upon him like a Dove Matth. 3.16 God gave him not the Spirit by measure John 3.34 Now as Aaron's Ointment that was poured first upon his Head descended upon the Hem of his Garment so by virtue of our Union with him that Spirit that was without measure poured upon our Head was in some measure diffused upon all that are united to him and as the same Soul that actuates the Heart and the Head in a more plentiful and eminent manner doth inactuate the most inconsiderable part of the same Body so the same Spirit that is in Christ is in every one that is united unto him though in a different degree of operation Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his 2 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit And by this Spirit of Christ which he giveth and communicateth unto those that are united unto him they are said to be sealed by the Spirit of Promise Ephes 1.13 2 Cor. 1.22 viz. It is by this Spirit of Christ that we have access unto God Ephes 2.18 We have access by one Spirit unto the Father and it is this Spirit that forms our Desires in us and by this means our Desires are not only discovered unto God that knows the mind of his own Spirit but they are also conformable unto the Will of God Rom. 8.27 He that searcheth the heart knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit because be maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God. And as the Father did hear the Son always because his Desires were conformable to the Will of his Father John 11.42 I know that thou hearest me always so John 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he shall give it you for it is a Petition framed by that Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ and of God and what his own Spirit desires it is his own Will to grant And for this cause it is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 God is pleased to accept the Prayers and Services of the Members of Christ in him even as the obedience of his own Sons because they are moved and actuated by the very same Spirit which is the Spirit of his Son. And as the intrinsecal form of things is that which instrumentally conforms the qualities and proportions of the thing which it informs unto that intrinsecal form and suits it with Qualities and Conditions suitable to its Operations so this Spirit of Christ doth by degrees conform the Soul the Affections the whole Man unto the Image of Christ changing it into the same Image 2 Cor. 3.18 And this Spirit of Christ doth lead them into all Truth John 16.13 And from hence it is that he that is the true Member of Christ cannot continue in a constant course of sin 1 John 3.9 For his seed remaineth in him viz. That Spirit of Christ by which he is actuated and by which he is born of God John 3.6 That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit That abideth in him and will be degrees like a living Spring work out that mudd that our own flesh and corruption cast into us 2. Which is a fruit of the former The mind of Christ For this Spirit of God works a Conformity in the Heart and Life to Christ whose Spirit it is This Spirit of Christ makes an impression of the Image of Christ upon the Soul and Life The like Effect with this we find in all things In matters Natural the vicinity of two things together works a Conformity of the weaker to the stronger either Element or Form In matters Moral Conversation between two breed a Conformity in Manners even different from their otherwise natural Constitution much more where the Spirit of Christ lays hold on the Soul and unites a Man unto Christ there is not only new Company but a new Form and consequently of necessity a new frame and temper of Heart and Life conformable to such Company and to such a Form. And in order to this Conformity unto Christ the Old Conversation the Old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts Ephes 4.22 must be put off the Affections and Lusts must be crucified Galat. 5.25 the Body will be dead because of sin Rom. 8.10 Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts will be denied Tit. 2.12 For these make a deformity from Christ such a Spirit as the Spirit of Christ cannot long endure to inform or inhabit such a Soul but if it come into him it will change him And in stead thereof the Man shall be born again by the Spirit John 3.5 the Spirit will be Life Rom. 8.10 Christ will be new formed in them Galat. 4.19 the walking will be in the Spirit Galat. 5.25 the New Man will be put on even the Image of Christ Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes 4.24 Christ will be put on Galat. 3.27 Rom. 13.14 the Life will be the Life of Christ Galat. 2.20 the Heart will be the Habitation of Christ Ephes 3.17 of God Ephes 2.22 of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.19 the mind the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2.16 the temper of the Soul the same with his humble as he was humble Phil. 2.5 holy as he is holy 1 Pet. 1.16 long-suffering and indulgent as he was John 13.15 Behold have I not given you an example Patient under the Will of God c. And by Conformity unto Christ Man is put into a right state and in that order towards God himself and others as he was in his creation and thereby in some measure restored to that Happiness which he had by reason of that order The Happiness and Peace of every thing consisting in the due observance of that station and Rule which God hath given it And this Conformity unto Christ is our Sanctification which is nothing else but a restoring of Man in some measure to that Conformity unto the Will of God in which he was created Man by sin lost that impression of God's Image God was pleased to give us his Son who is the express Image of his Father and by this Spirit of his to re-imprint that Image again upon as many as behold him and come unto him by Faith 1. Thes 4.3 This is the will of God even your Sanctification so that the Sanctification or Obedience which is wrought in us and required of us is the Conformity of the Will of Man to the Will of God. The Obedience performed unto God by the Faithful ariseth from a double Principle 1. This whereof we now speak an intrinsecal Change of the Nature Conforming the Heart
that the very consideration of this Counsel of God is a means to effect its Execution in putting the Heart into such a frame as is fit to receive the impressions of God's Grace 2. In respect of those that are omitted The freedom of the Choice doth not in the least degree reflect upon the Justice of God He had no engagement to chuse any but might most justly have let all lie under that sin and misery into which we had cast our selves If God be pleased to chuse any it is the meer act of his Grace if he leaves any he leaves them but in that condition not in which he made them but in which they made themselves The act of his Bounty to the Elect is without any Injury to those he leaves for neither could challenge any thing but Misery as their Right 2. The Object of this Choice 1. Some are chosen from all Eternity The Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father 1 Pet. 1.2 The foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 These are those for whom a Kingdom was prepared from the Foundation of the World Matth 25.34 These are they which by an eternal Contract between God the Father and his Son were given unto Christ I pray for them which thou hast given me for they are thine John 17.9 24. 2. But some and not all Many there are that are not so much as called and of those that are called yet few are chosen Matth. 22.14 And this preterition of God putteth them not in any worse Condition than it finds them And indeed this Counsel of God is not so much as the Potter's making some Vessels to honour some to dishonour he made all Vessels of honour and Men made themselves all Vessels of dishonour God in his mercy to restore some to become again Vessels of honour and this is without any injury to those that are omitted because they are continued to be but what they made themselves and what they most freely desire still to be Thy destruction is from thy self O Jerusalem 3. To what this Election or Choice is or what is the End of this Counsel of God There is a twofold End in the Counsel of God. 1. The End of Intention subordinate the good of his Creature adequate the good pleasure of his own Will or his own Glory as to shew his wrath and make his power known towards the Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction so to make known the riches of his Glory in the Vessels of Mercy which he had before prepared unto Glory Rom. 9.23 2. The End in Execution or rather the subject matter of this Counsel of God it is the whole Series and all the Conjunctures of all things conducing thereunto wherein the Counsel of God doth not per saltum step from the Fall to Glory but doth take in all those intermediate passages which he hath by the same Counsel appointed to be the Means of effecting it 1. The great Mystery of the Incarnation which is the Cardo negotii 1 Pet. 1.20 Who was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times 2. Effectual calling by the Word and Spirit of God Rom. 8.28 Who are called according to his purpose 3. The effectual Assistance of the Spirit of God without which it were impossible these dry Bones should live Jer. 31.33 I will put my Law into their mind and write them in their hearts 3. Holiness and Sanctification John. 15.16 I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should bring forth fruit Ephes 14. Chosen to be holy Epes 2.10 Created in Christ unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Rom. 8.29 30. Conformity unto Christ and all linked together Glory to Justification Justification to Calling Calling to Election 4. In whom or by whom he hath elected us Christ In this Consists the greatest Mystery that ever was and of most concernment to Mankind And because it is impossible to attain to the knowledge of it but by Revelation from God himself we must in this keep precisely to the Word of God where alone this Mystery is by God ordinarily discovered which is briefly thus much Almighty God in the Creation of Man did primarily intend the Glory of his own Goodness and the Happiness of his Creature and to that End furnished him with such Faculties and Rules as might conduct him to that Happiness Man being seduced abused his Liberty and by his Disobedience violated that Rule and consequently in himself lost the acquisition of that Happiness to which he was created Yet this could not disappoint the Purpose of God who with an eternal and indivisible act did foresee all Mankind in this miserable and lost Condition and appoint a way for his Recovery The way of Man's Recovery was by the Eternal Purpose Consultation or Contract as I may call it between the Father Son and Eternal Spirit resolved to be that the Son of God should assume the Nature of Man into one Person by an ineffable Generation and that he should Satisfie for the Guilt of Man's Sin by his Death And because that the bare Satisfaction for Sin could only exempt Man from the deserved Punishment of his Sin but could not restore him to that Happiness which he lost by the same Eternal Covenant the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ was to be accepted by God as the Righteousness of Man that as in his Sufferings he did bear the Sin of Man to make Satisfaction for the Curse deserved so by his Obedience imputed unto Man Man might acquire that Happiness that he lost To the end that this Satisfaction and Righteousness might be effectually applied for the Purposes above-mentioned Christ must after this Righteousness fulfilled and this Satisfaction made by his Death rise from Death ascend into Heaven and so continue as well the Mediator of Intercession as he was before of Satisfaction Though this Righteousness and Satisfaction were sufficient for the Sins of all Mankind and accordingly freely propounded yet it was effectual only for such as should according to those immediate Means that God had fore-appointed to be useful for that Purpose sue forth the benefit of it This is the sum of that great work of Man's Redemption which the Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 and is discovered to Principalities and Powers by the Church Ephes 3.10 and therefore called The manifold Wisdom of God The Mystery of Christ Ephes 3.4 Ephes 6.19 The Mystery hid in God from the beginning of the world Ephes 3.9 The Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Colos 2.2 Colos 1.27 The Mystery hid from ages and generations but now made manifest to his Saints Colos 1.26 The Wisdom of God in a Mystery The Mystery of his Will 1 Cor. 2.7 The Revelation of the Mystery kept secret since the world began Rom. 16.25 The great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in
must needs drive to that End for if it should in any thing go beside that End or not aim at it there is so much want of Love My Love to a Creature may consist with a crossing of the End of that Creature out of my very love to it because the Creature which I love may drive to an End which is not for his own good but this is impossible in case of my Love to God for whatsoever most tends to his Glory is most conformable to his Will and whatsoever is conformable to his Will is most infallibly conformable to the soundest and best Wisdom 2. It makes the Heart Conformable unto the Will of God for he that loves God truly makes his Will the measure of his own and it is impossible to think that a Creature should love God truly and yet cross the Will of him whom he thus loves The Perfection of all Creatures even inanimate consists in their Conformity to the Will and Law of their Creator stampt upon them in their Creation and when they turn aside from this they contract Disorder and Deformity much more in case of a rational Creature who is endued with Faculties susceptive and executive of the Will of God in a higher measure And the Fruits of this Conformity to the Will of God are 1. A chearful Submission to the actings of the Will of God upon us with Patience and Contentedness for it is his Will whose Will I have made the measure of mine and though I shall not cease to make my humble application to him for the removing of his Hand of what kind soever yet I have learned of my Saviour to conclude Not my will but thy will be done 2. A solicitous inquiry what this Will of God is for the same Love that teacheth me to make his Will mine teacheth me likewise to make inquiry after this Will by my Prayers by my Studies and Inquiries c. 3. A strict walking according to that Will in all things and at all times 3. This Love of God works an awful Conversation and Heart before him And this is that Fear of God which the wise Man tells us is the great duty of Man Eccles 12.13 Now the Fear of God may arise upon some of these Considerations 1. Out of the meer Sense of a Guilt incurred and the Power and Wrath of God against the guilty Creature Such was the fear of Adam before God had revealed the Cure of his Guilt Gen. 2.10 I heard thy voice in the garden and was afraid and this fear drives the Heart from God and therefore he hid himself and therefore this Fear in the perfection of it is not consistent with the Love of God though so much of imperfection as our love unto God hath so much even of this Fear may be in the Soul Rom. 8.15 We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear 1 John. 4.18 He that feareth is not made perfect in Love. 2. Out of the mere sense of the Majesty and Glory and Power of God and the subordination and subjection and distance of the Creature And such a Fear as this as it may consist so it ought to be joined unto our Love of God. And although there were in us an impossibility to sin as in Angelical Natures or blessed Souls yet this Awfulness and Reverence to his Majesty will be and must be in us for all the Attributions of God must be received with answerable Affections in his Creature and one hinders not the other And this awe of the Majesty of God in the Heart expresseth it self in suitable Deportments and Expressions without Abraham that was the Friend of God yet forgets not his distance in his Prayer Gen. 18.27 Behold now I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord which am but dust and ashes Exod. 34.6 When God passed by Moses he proclaimed his Majesty and Glory as well as his Mercy and Goodness The Lord The Lord God Merciful c. And it found a suitable affection of reverence in Moses he bowed his Head towards the Earth and worshipped Even when we rejoyce in him it must be with Trembling Psal 2.11 And this is a great part of the Business of the Old Testament to acquaint revolting Man with the Majesty of God and to fence out those irreverent and unbecoming thoughts that the degenerate Sons of Men had of the infinite God Isa 40. per totum Vers 18. To whom then will ye liken God And as the Angels in awful reverence to his Majesty are said to cover their Faces Isa 6.2 so the twenty four Elders that sat about the Throne cast down their Crowns before the Throne â—ev 4.10 3. Out of a sense of his Goodness mingled with the consideration of his Greatness which doth at once improve the value of his Mercy that it should come from so great a Majesty and improve that Fear of his Greatness by mixing with an humble Love the Love of a Child to a Father And this is most seen in the care of avoiding any thing which may displease God 1 Pet. 1.17 Passing the sojourning here in fear This is that that makes them watchful and jealous of themselves lest any thing unbeseeming so great an Engagement should pass from them This Caution against Sin riseth from the Love of God under both the notions before expressed 1. As our Love is terminated in him as the Chiefest Good and so we avoid sin out of fear of that loss which we may have by it This it is true is not without a mixture of Love to our selves yet allowable to be a ground of our Care. 2. As our Love returns to him by way of Benevolence Where Love is to an Equal it creates an awe of giving distaste How much more when to the infinite God and yet that so far condescends in his Love to us 4. This Love of God breeds an endeavour of Likeness to him The genuine effect of Love is Union and Similitude to the thing loved hath a degree of Union in it Now because no Eye can see God and live neither can there be that proportion between us and him that we should frame our selves unto his Image immediately he hath given us three Copies of himself to take out viz. 1. In his Works in his Patience in his Goodness in his Mercy 2. In his Word he hath transcribed for us a Copy of his Holiness 1 Pet. 1.16 Be ye holy for your heavenly Father is holy 3. In his Son. God in the Creation printed his Image upon Man and Man by his sin broke it and defaced it as Moses did the two Tables of Stone God gives a new Image of himself to Man He hath given his Son into the World who is the Image of the invisible God Colos 1.15 2 Cor. 4.4 And while we look on him with Faith and Love we put him on Rom. 13.14 We grow up to the measure of his stature Ephes 4.13 We are changed into the same
MATHE ' HALE Miles Capitalis Gustic de Banco Regis Ano 1681 For W. Shrowsbery at the Sign of the Bible In Duck Lane 〈…〉 sculp 〈…〉 A DISCOURSE OF THE Knowledge of God and of our Selves I. By the Light of Nature II. By the Sacred Scriptures WRITTEN BY Sir MATTHEW HALE Knight late Chief Justice of the King's Bench in his younger time for his private Meditation and Exercise To which are added A Brief Abstract of the Christian Religion AND Considerations seasonable at all Times for the Cleansing of the Heart and Life By the same AUTHOR LONDON Printed by B. W. for William Shrowsbery at the Sign of the Bible in Duke-Lane MDCLXXXVIII THE PREFACE IN the Publication of this Book I design for the Reader a double Benefit 1. A useful and profitable Book 2. A clear Prospect into an Exemplary Life of a very eminent and famous Person The Book I may be bold to say is of it self such and yet I have good reason to hope that the great and known Worth of the Author which yet this very Book will further discover and demonstrate and the Esteem the World hath always had of him will make it more such But lest I should prejudice both it and its Author by unseasonably raising the Reader 's expectation I must to do Right and Justice to the Author acquaint the Reader with some particulars fit for his notice and consideration concerning the Author's Intention his manner of Writing it and the Work it self And 1. I may with much Confidence upon what I knew of the Author's mind and design in general in all his Writings of this kind and upon some Observations peculiar to this assure the Reader that it was not written with any Intention or thoughts that ever it should be published He had undoubtedly no other aim or design in it than what I have already mentioned in the Preface to the first Volume of his Contemplations He was a man who had an extraordinary faculty of doing much in a little time And yet did he as highly value and was as great a Husband of his time as any man I have known or read of But of no part of his time was he more frugal than of that which was set apart for Sacred Uses that none of that might be suffered to run waste especially of the Christian Sabbath or Lord's Day he was most religiously observant both in Publick and in Private in his Family and in his Study And his religious Observation thereof did not only procure to himself as he always believed a special Blessing upon his Employment of the rest of his time in his other Studies and Secular business but hath moreover produced which he little expected what may prove of great use and benefit to many others For that part of those dayes which did intervene between Evening Sermon and Supper-time he usually imployed in Pious Meditations and having a very ready hand at writing he usually wrote his thoughts that he might the better hold them intent to what he was about and keep them from wandring This was his first and principal reason for it He had indeed some thoughts of some other Uses that he or his might make thereof as that afterward reviewing what he had written long before he might see what Progress he had made in the mean time and possibly they might be of some use or benefit to some of his Family But what I first mentioned was the first and principal occasion and Motive to it Of the shorter Discourses I found divers of the Originals in the hands of his Children and Servants and a great part of the rest in a very neglected condition till I perswaded and prevailed with him to let them be collected and bound together in Volumes But of these among which this was one I am well satisfied there were none which he intended when he wrote them should ever be Printed though he hath since wrote others which he intended for the Publick But upon this occasion hath he written first and last many pious and useful Discourses which whether intended by him for the Press or not I am of opinion may do much good in the World if they were printed 2. His usual Manner of writing these things was this When he had resolved on the Subject the first thing He usually did was with his pen upon some loose piece of paper and sometimes upon a corner or the margin of the Paper he wrote on to draw a Scheme of his whole Discourse or of so much of it as he designed at that time to consider This done he tap'd his thoughts and let them run as he expressed it to me himself and they usually ran as fast as his hand though a very ready one could trace them insomuch that in that space as he hath told me he often wrote two sheets and at other times between one and two and I have my self known him write according to that proportion when I have been reading in the same room with him for divers hours together So that these writings are plainly a kind of extempore Meditations only they came from a Head and Heart well fraught with a rich Treasure of Humane and Divine Knowledge which the famous Legislator Justinian makes the necessary qualifications of a compleat Lawyer And here it is farther to be observed that all his larger Tracts such as this which could not be finished at one time were written upon great intervals of time and such wherein much business of a quite different Nature had interposed which usually interrupt the thread of a Mans thoughts 3. Concerning the Book it self the Reader may of himself perceive that it was not finished but that he had designed to have continued it farther He hath written a particular Tract Of doing as we would be done to which is the Subject at which this is left off But that as I take it was written long since this and not intended for any Continuation of it but it had been very proper to have been joyned with it had I had any Transcript of it Upon perusal of the Manuscript of his own hand-writing it may be further observed 1. That it was the Original draught and no Transcript for therein as I remember may in some places be seen some of those very Schemes which he first drew when he began to write 2. That he had not so much as revised any part of it it being for the most part as fair and without any Alteration as if it were a Transcript 3. The Original is one continued Discourse without any Distinction of Parts or Chapters or so much as any Title superscribed But I conceive it a very methodical Discourse and such as may very aptly be distinguished into those Parts and Chapters and under those Titles which I have assigned as it now appears in the Print And this is a further evidence that he did not design it for the Press Of the two Parts of it the first is wholly
Vultures have not seen the great God alone gave Man his End and appointed the way to that End we had once the knowledge of both but have lost it and we must owe the discovery of it to the Author of it And to Man he said Behold the Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Vnderstanding Job 18.28 6. It doth discover the whole Duty of Man to his Maker to himself and to others far beyond all other Books or Documents in the World. Man by his Sin hath lost the greatest part of his Light and Perfection his own discoveries of his Duty are lame and imperfect and till the God that first planted these Principles of Knowledge and Conformity to his Will give us a new Copy of them we shall never clearly attain unto them in our knowledge or practice There are these Eminencies touching Moral Precepts which this Book of God hath above all other Books in the World. 1. No other Book in the World doth discover the true ground of the Obligation unto Moral Precepts The Moral Philosopher perswades me to Temperance to Justice but what Obligation lies upon me for it If he tells me That it is his own Authority my Answer is He hath none over me more than I have over him If he tells me the Law under which I live binds me to it I shall enquire what binds me to observe those Laws but Power which if I can avoid by the like power or secrecy I am not bound or my own Consent which I am as well Master of as I was before I consented If he tells me the Law of Nature binds me I am still unsatisfied who gave that Law or when or to whom and there the Philosopher is to seek as well of my Conviction as of my Obedience But this Book shews what that Law is from whence the Obligation of Obedience to it ariseth even from that most Just and Uncontroulable Authority that God hath over his Creature 2. No other Book or Learning in the World perswades the observance of those Laws it injoyns with the like convincing and satisfying grounds of Reason that this doth The highest ground that ever Moral Philosopher could fetch to perswade to submit to Moral Precepts were but one of these viz. The Reputation and general esteem of Men which dies with me and while it lives is nothing else but a Fancie and contains no Reality or the Cohortion of the Laws which if I can avoid with secrecy or force I escape the strength of the Perswasion or that Congruity that sound Moral Precepts hold with Prudence and the permanent enjoyment of good here for it is a most certain Truth as appears before That the due observation of the Rules of right Reason hath a most clear connexion with Happiness in this Life and that the violation of these Precepts of Nature do necessarily introduce a loss of temporal Felicity These are the highest Motives of Obedience to these humane Documents But let us look upon the Motives that the very same Precepts are enforced with in this Book of God we shall find them of a higher Constitution we are there shewn they are commanded by that God to whom we owe our Being and therefore may justly challenge our Obedience as his Tribute by that God from whom we daily receive our Preservation and Mercies and therefore may justly expert the return of our Love and Thankfulness in the Observance of his Will by that God that hath annexed a Sanction to the breach of his Law which he both can and will inflict this may startle our Fear by that God that hath propounded and promised a Reward to our Obedience both in this Life and a future which he will certainly confer this doth quicken our Hope These and the like grounds and motives of Obedience fall upon the most active Affections with the most powerful and rational Perswasion and are able to conquer more difficulties in the Obedience of these very Precepts that are materially the same than all those faint and thin Perswasions that the wisest of Men could ever teach The great God that knows the frame of the Soul of Man hath not only given rational Laws to lead him to his great End and rational Means to draw out his Obedience by appointing Rewards or Punishments of his Obedience or Disobedience but also by the same Wisdom of his planted in him Affections which might be proper to receive the impressions of those Rewards and Punishments and by this Word of his conveys those Notions into his Heart which stick upon those active Affections of Love Hope and Fear in the most exact full and adequate manner This is therefore none else but the Finger of God. And this is not only evinced by the Threatnings and Promises in this Book but by the Historical part of it applying the Truths of both wherein we may see unriddled most of the varieties of Events that fall upon a People or Person especially knowing God which without this Light seem to be confused and meerly contingent Israel sins Israel is punished she repents and is delivered We are shewn by the very Historical passages of the Old Testament that when we are punished we eat but the fruit of our own ways 3. As the Eminence of the Scripture above other Learning and consequently its Original is discovered in the two former so in this that it doth distinctly and clearly evidence and set forth those Moral Precepts which are confusedly and imperfectly only delivered by the best of humane Writers especially in the Worship of God All agree God is to be worshipped but when they come to shew how then they are to seek for indeed as it is folly for any one to think that there can be any Worship of God acceptable but what is agreeable to his Will so it is vain to think that this Will of his could be discovered by any but himself And from the want of this grew Idolatries and other Vanities in Worship 4 The original of the Scriptures is discovered in this that it doth contain in it Precepts of a higher Constitution and therefore of a higher Pedegree than the best of all humane Learning ever did arrive unto such as are the Cleansing of the Heart and Thoughts from all Sin That the Formality of Sin consists in the Will even before it expresseth it self in Act That the outward Conformity of the Act to Vertue without the internal Conformity of the Will and Mind is but Hypocrisie and the seeming vertuous Action is at least dead and not of value if not sin That a Vertuous Action done out of any other End than in Obedience and Love to God that enjoyns it is not an Action rightly Principled nor acceptable to God The right directing of our Passions and Affections that nothing is worthy of our intense Love but God that nothing deserves our Hate but Sin and therefore teacheth us in the former to despise the World in the
and Moral And we may observe that even in this fundamental Truth That there is a God where these and the like Instructions are wanting Men that are naturally endued with the same Faculties of Reason and Understanding with us have not or not so clearly this Principle as among Atheists and Pagans 2. This Book sheweth us clearly the Essence Nature and Attributes of God as far forth as is comprehensible by our humane Understanding Many of these are by the help of natural Reason and Discourse legible in the things that are seen so far forth as to leave our Ignorance thereof unexcusable Rom. 1.20 yet as in the former so much more in this our Reason is helped and strengthened in our speedy discovery and firmer assent thereunto as likewise appears by the many Errors of Men of the same Faculties with us even concerning these Principles Herein we learn his Vnity Deut. 6.4 The Lord our â—â—d is one Lord. His Self-sufficiency and Subsistence of himself Exod. 3.14 I am that I am His Immâ—sity â— Kings 8.27 Behold the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee His Vbiquity Deut. 4.39 The Lord he is God in Heaven above and upon Earth beneath Psal 13.9 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or fly from thy presence Jer. 23.24 Can any hide himself that I shall not see him Do not I fill Heaven and Earth His Eternity Psal 90.2 Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. His Omniscience and intellectual Nature Psal 94.10 11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of Man that they are vanity Prov. 15.11 Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more the Hearts of the Children of Men His Omnipotence Gen. 17.1 I am the Almighty God. Psal 145.3 His Greatness is unsearchable His Wisdom Jer. 10.12 He hath established the World by his Wisdom and hath stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion Psal 147.5 His Vnderstanding is infinite His Will the only motive of all his actions Prov. 16.14 The Lord hath made all things for himself Exod. 33.19 And will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy Isa 43.25 I am he that blotted out thy transgressions for my own sake Himself the End of all de doth Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself Irresistibility Prov. 21.30 There is no Wisdom nor Vnderstanding nor Counsel against the Lord. Invisible Exod. 33.19 No Man can see my face and live Immutability Matth. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not Psal 102.6 Thou art the same and thy years have no end Isa 40.28 Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary there is no searching of his Vnderstanding It is true in these and the like Expressions or Attributions unto the Divine Nature we are nevertheless to observe 1. That it is impossible for any thing below God himself fully and clearly to understand the Nature or Essence of God because he is actually Infinite and nothing besides himself hath or can have an Act of his Intellect spacious enough to comprehend what is actually Infinite Hand Arm Goings Ways wherein nevertheless the Scripture whiles it useth these Expressions to help our Understanding and excite our Affections it nevertheless provides Cautions to avoid grossness and mistakes that so it may appear that they are only helps to us not derogations to the incomprehensible Purity Perfection and Majesty of God and for that very reason not any one thing so much fenced out by it as Image-making and Worshiping 3. By this Book we are taught the manner of his Subsistence in three Persons the Father the Word and the Spirit and that these three are one The Plurality of Persons in one Essence is a Mystery that is not attainable by all the Reason in the World and is but obscurely hinted in the Old Testament Gen. 1.26 c. and therefore it seems not understood by the Jews but in the New Testament more plainly related the diversity of Persons of the Father and Son in one Essence John 14.9 John 17.5 22. The Spirit All three together Matth. 28.19 1 John 5.7 The Manner of the Subsistence in Unity of Essence and Trinity of Persons is of that transcendent and incomprehensible Nature that as it could never be discovered without an immediate revelation from God himself so being discovered it is scarce conceptible by us The Disputes concerning it farther than it is there revealed are groundless and dangerous for it is utterly impossible that the Notion of Personality or Subsistence as we take it up from these inferiour Beings can fit that which is the highest and most arcane Mystery of the infinite Being and consequently those Disputes which are built upon those disproportionable Notions are not without a necessity of erring CHAP. II. Of the Acts and Works of God and 1. Of his Eternal Counsel 4. THE next great Point that we learn in this Book is concerning the Acts or Works of God 1. His Eternal Counsel 2. The Execution of that Counsel 1. Creation 2. Providence 1. General Concerning all things 2. Special Concerning Man. 1. Concerning the Eternal Counsel of God whereby he did predetermine all things that should be from all Eternity This as it evidently appears in all the Prophecies of the Old Testament which were fulfilled in their times so by divers Affirmations even of God himself by his Spirit The Creation Prov. 8.27 When he prepared the Heavens 29. When he appointed the Foundations of the Earth Job 38.4 When I laid the Foundations of the Earth 10. and brake up for it my decreed place The Redemption of Man by Christ 1 Pet. 1.20 Who was foreordained before the Foundation of the World. Acts 2.23 Him by the determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken c. Election of his Church and People Rom. 9.11 The Purpose of God according to Election The Successes of Nations and Kingdoms Isa 14.26 27. This is the Purpose that is purposed upon the whole Earth c. For the Lord hath purposed and who shall disanul it Dan. 4.35 The Extorted Confession of Nebuchadnezzar The particular and voluntary motions of Men Isa 10.5 O Assyrian the Rod of mine Anger c. yet he thinketh not so Jer. 10.23 The way of Man is not in himself Prov. 20.24 Man's goings are of the Lord. Prov. 21.30 There is no Wisdom nor Counsel against the Lord. The most contingent and inconsiderable Events that are the casting of a Lot Prov. 16.33 The falling of a Sparrow Matth. 10.29 Now touching the Counsel of the Almighty we are to distinguish between the act of Counsel and the act of Knowledge the first is properly an act of his Will predetermining what shall be the latter an act of his infinite understanding which foresees what shall be
he pleased but that were to infringe that Law which he at first planted in Voluntary Agents Here is the Wisdom of the great God his Will shall be effected yet Man's Will not forced Psal 110. Thy People shall be willing in the day of thy Power So that the Conclusion is The Wills of Men are ruled by the Counsel of God for the producing of his Ends yet without violation of Man's Freedom This is done by a rational Means And the Courses that God's Counsel useth to work the Will of Men to his Purposes are most usually these 1. By propounding Rational Objects or Motives conducing to the winning the Will to act those things that are conducible to the Purpose of God. In that one Instance concerning the hardening of Pharaoh's Heart God had a Purpose to be honoured upon Pharaoh in the miraculous delivery of his People it is propounded to him to let the People go it was a rational occasion for him to deny it for then he should lose their Work which was beneficial to him Moses to confirm his Embassage casts down his Rod it becomes a Serpent the Magicians that were of a contrary Counsel to Moses did the like this Object hardens the Heart of Pharaoh The like we may say concerning Perswasions Afflictions and those other Dispensations of the Divine Will brought upon a Man in ictu opportuno 2. By giving and administring Extraordinary Aids and Inlightenings strengthening the Faculties of the Soul. 3. By withdrawing the ordinary Supplies and concurrence of God's Assistance We are to know that as the Being of all things is from God so the very natural supportation of all things in their several Powers and Activities is from him and if he withdraw his Concurrence and Assistance our Wills will move freely but to other objects or in another manner than they did when assisted by him Now these we must not imagine to be Expedients or Helps pro re nata as it happens among us that when a thing beyond our expectation is gone beyond our mastery then to devise some helps to reclaim it or allay it But the whole Plat-form of all and every Circumstance was laid and set by the Purpose of God before the being of any thing Man shall work freely yet I will draw out that Freedom of his into these and these actions by this and that rational means supply or subduction of my aid of his Will shall not elude or defeat my Counsel nor yet the fulfilling of that Counsel violate the Freedom of that Will which I purpose to allow him 3. Contingent Effects which are such as arise from the conjuncture of several Causes not subordinate one to the other and this casual conjuncture of Causes denominates the Event neither Voluntary nor Necessary although it perchance arise from Causes of both or either Nature but these having no natural conjunction or connexion one with the other the Event that ariseth upon this conjuncture is Casual or Contingent And this Consideration leads us to the third thing wherein the Wisdom of this Counsel is eminent viz. 4. In ordering marshalling and managing of several Causes of several Natures wholly independent and unsubordinate one to another to the fulfilling of his own Eternal Infallible Counsel And this consists in the drawing out of the several activities and causations of things at such a time and such a distance as may be subservient to the Effect wherein though the Causes apart perhaps move simply according to their Nature yet the meddling and mingling of them together is a clear Evidence of the Unity and Wisdom of that Counsel by which they are governed In that admirable Piece of the Execution of God's Counsel concerning Joseph this is ligible almost in every pasâ—â—ge of it tâ—is the Purpose of God he shall be advanced for the preservation of his Father and Bretâ—â—â—n see but the last act of this Counsel preceding h◠〈…〉 He is â—â—mmitted to Prison by the a◠〈…〉 the chief Butler by the Command of 〈…〉 and Pharaâ—â— were several Voluntary Aâ—â—nts yet these acts of theirs drawn out upon seveâ—â—l grounds and independent one upon the other occâ—â—ion a meâ—ting between Joseph and the Butler in Prison and there they might have continued unacquainted till their deaths an Act of Divine Providence draws out an occasion for their Acquaintance the Butler is delivered and his Promise forgotten another occasion given by Pharaâ—h's Dream this had not been useful for Joseph unless communicated by Pharaâ—â— to the chief Butler this Communication draws out another Act of his viz. the remembrance of Josephâ— thus these several Voluntary Acts of Agents independent one upon another are drawn out to meet together in such a conjuncture of time as serves to produce that Event which if any one had failed could not have been effected The like is easily observable in all the great and predicted Changes in Commonwealths and Kingdoms how several Causes are without straining as it were interwoven and married together for the production of such a change And the like for the natural motions of the Elements in the constitution of mixt Bodies Though every Cause apart movâ—â— according to that Causality and course of Nature that is in him yet that Activity is drawn out in such a distance at such a time and with such Concurrences that makes appear at once the Efficacy and Wisdom of the Counsel of God that whiles every Cause moves according to his own Nature yet they are strangely mingled in the production of such an Effect that neither of them did foresee or intend but only the God that guided them 5. It is an Active and Irresistible Counsel This is evident by what hath been before observed viz. because it is the cause and measure of the being and power of every thing without it it is therefore impossible to be resisted because that strength that any thing hath it hath meerly by the efficacy of this Purpose of God. Although in the Divine Nature there is no difference in the Power or Act of his Understanding and Will yet for our Conceptions sake they are propounded under a different Notion his Purpose or Counsel is referred immediately to his Will and is not only a Foreknowledge of what shall be but hath an operative influence into the being and operations of all things His Prescience or Foreknowledge we conceive as an act of his Understanding by which he actually knows whatsoever shall be This Prescience is not an objective impression of the things themselves upon the Divine Understanding for that were to suppose a kind of Passibility which is incompetible to the Divine Perfection and supposeth a kind of Priority in Nature of the Object to the Power and a kind of dependance of the Act upon it But as all things have their Being by the Act of the Divine Will or Purpose so in that Purpose of his he sees the things purposed and it is impossible to sever the act of his Purpose from the act
hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said ibid. Verse 32. and divers other parts of the History The Lord hardened his Heart by Permission of the Magicians Miracles by permitting objective presenting to him the Profit of the Jews Labours by Withdrawing that external Concurrence and operation of his Grace which might have softned it and Pharaoh actively hardens his own Heart 2 Sam. 24.1 Israel had offended God and must be punished but there was an Impediment to the Execution of this Judgment David's Integrity who was concerned in the good or evil of his People if God withdraw his assistance from David and let in Satan to tempt him David will sin as well as his People and so both deservedly punishable And he moved David to number the people yet 1 Chron. 21.1 And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number the people Here were three Parties God moved by permitting Satan to provoke by withdrawing a powerful Countermotion by Ordering David's sin for the means of the punishment of Israel's sin Satan provoked incited and perswaded either immediately or mediately for now the Watchman is gone God hath withdrawn his Hand and Satan loseth not the opportunity David numbers David's Heart was as corrupt and vain-glorious as anothers and as easily surprized by a Temptation when the Keeper of Israel is absent and remoto impedimento sins as freely and more naturally as before it walked conformable to the Will of his Maker this Sampson hath lost his Locks and he becomes as another Man. In the mean time let us ever admire the Justice of our Maker who never necessitates us to incur a Punishment by necessitating our Sin and his Mercy in rewarding that Obedience which he alone performs in us Also to thee O Lord belongeth mercy for thou renderest to every Man according to his Works Psalm 62.12 CHAP. III. Of the Execution of the Eternal Counsel of God in his Works of Creation and Providence NOW we come to consider the Execution of that Counsel in those two greater transient Acts viz. Creation and Providence 1. Touching the Creation This we consider in general and particularly as concerning Man In general we resolve the work of Creation into three parts 1. The original production of all things out of nothing This is simply Creation Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth God Created This is the greatest conceptible motion viz. Ã non esse ad esse and though it be an act of Faith to believe it because related Heb. 11.3 yet it is a conclusion of Reason to know it as it appears by what hath been before observed concerning the impossibility to have any eternal subsistence but one And this truth though it be deducible by necessity of Reason if a God be once admitted yet so infinite is the distance between Nothing and a Being that divers of the acutest Naturalists were ignorant of it the ignorance of which Principle caused many of their absurd and unintelligible Positions and Superstructions to supply those difficulties which by this only Truth are avoided as concerning the First Matter the Eductions of Forms out of the power of it by I know not what Agents God created This infinite Motion could only proceed from an infinite Power who by the mere act of his Will constitutes something out of nothing In the beginning Time could not be before there were something that had succession of Being for it is the measure of a successive Being and therefore the beginning of created Beings must needs be the beginning of Time and Creation was the beginning of created Beings The Heavens and the Earth The indigested matter of the Heavens and the Earth 2. The dividing and ordering of this Mass calling out the particular Subsistences and furnishing of them with forms and qualities This was subsequent to the creation of the Matter and we find the Manner of this production in two Expressions 1. The motion of the Spirit of God upon the face of the Waters Vers 2. containing an act of the Divine Power whereby he fitted every thing to be ready for his call for though by the same instantaneous act the Divine Power could in the first instant of Creation have put things in their several Beings yet it was his Will to work successively first creating the Matter then breathing upon it and fitting this confused substance with aptitude for the things to be thereout produced 2. The Word of Command Let there be Light c. in the several works of the six days And here we may observe the admirable Wisdom of God as in divers particulars c. so especially in these 1. In the Order of the creating particular Creatures proceeding 1. to the finishing of Fundamentals then to Superstructions though of more curiosity and perfection yet more dependant upon those of the first creation 2. in the Variety of the Creatures and accommodating them with Qualities and Conveniences suitable to their Kinds whereby one doth not desire to encroach upon the Conveniences of the other's Subsistence For an Instance the Beasts Fishes Fowl endued with Appetites suitable to their Being yet the several Kinds affecting several Nourishments several places of Residence c. Herbs of contrary qualities drawing several Nourishments of several Natures even from the same Clod of Earth 3. In the Position and Situation of created Beings both for Beauty and Convenience so that the Wit of the most envious Atheist cannot imagine how the Elements the Heavens the several Creatures could be more beautifully or usefully placed every thing serves to accommodate and fit the other and speaks the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator the Position of the Earth the Water the Air with exquisite Convenience that they may meet for the constitution of mixt and the subsistence of animate Creatures The Earth and other Bodies have dependance upon the power and influence of the Sun and Heavens each is fitted with a Figure and the Heavens with a Motion that may with admirable convenience dispense that Influence the variety of Seasons depending upon the ecliptical motion of the Sun giving variety to the Creature and intermissions to the Earth whereby she may recover strength in the Winter for the supply of the Summer The very imprefect Creatures the Rain the Winds Snow c. of admirable use for the Earth Air and Water The Elements so placed and ordered that whiles their contrary motions and qualities of Rarety and Density preserve the extremity of their contrary active qualities from meeting yet their Vicinity is such that one allays the violence of the other and so are in a fit position and temper for production of mixt Bodies 3. The planting in every thing a radical Activity and Causality by which it moves This is by Virtue of that Word of the Power of God the very Multiplication of the Creature Gen. 1.22 The warming of our Garments by the South Wind Job 27.17 The Nourishment that comes from our Bread
be there your peace shall rest upon it And though our Saviour professeth Matth. 10.34 I came not to send peace but a sword it is ex accidente or eventu by the malignity of our own Nature and the contestation of the Devil to keep his Possession against Christ the right owner and Lord of Man His Doctrine spiritual and powerful Isaiah 11.3 4. He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his ears he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he stay the wicked The teaching of Christ in the Flesh as one having Authority and not as the Scribes Matth. 7.29 The breath or spirit of his mouth a consuming breath 2 Thes 2.8 and hence Rev. 1.16 Out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword His Sufferings Satisfaction Resurrection Intercession and Reign in his Church that Evangelical Chapter Isaiah 53. A despised man rejected when Barabbas and he in competition for Life We hid our faces from him forsaken and denied by his own Disciples Acquainted with grief we often find him in tears never in mirth He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows in his Passion when it eclipsed the Light of his Fathers Countenance from him in his Compassion a merciful high Priest touched with our Infirmities Heb. 2. Wounded by the Souldiers by the Nails for for our Transgressions By his stripes when whipt by the Souldiers are we healed Yet this Lamb dumb before his shearers when Pilate impiously interrogated him He made his grave with the wicked being crucified between Thieves and with the rich in the Garden of a rich and honourable Joseph yet though his Soul was made an offering for sin he survived his own death saw his seed prolonged his days and the pleasure of the Almighty prospered in his hands and the two and twentieth Psalm penned as if the Passion of our Saviour had been then acted His Cry Verse 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The scorns of the beholders Verse 7. All they that see me laugh me to scorn Matth. 27. Ver. 39. They that passed by reviled him wagging their heads The very Language of the reviling Scribes Verse 8. fulfilled Matth. 27.43 He trusted in God that he would deliver him c. The manner of his death Verse the 16. They pierced my hands and my feet The sharing of his Garments Verse 18. They parted my garments among them Again in several other Prophecies the several Occurrences of his Life and Death gathered up by other Prophets He never appeared more regally and triumphantly than in his Voyage to Jerusalem Matth. 21.5 and that coming of his not without a Prophecy Zach. 9.9 Behold thy King cometh unto thee meek and sitting upon an ass The price of Judas's treason and the imployment Zach. 11.13 They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver The Vinegar that he drank upon the Cross Psal 69.21 And in my thirst they gave me Vinegar to drink The time of his Birth and Death Dan. 9.25 26. From the going forth of the Command to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times And after threescore and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and sanctuary the desolation of Jerusalem shortly following the death of our Redeemer The manner of the Calculation hath been diversly conjectured yet all concur to a very near projection of times And lastly that undeniable evident Prophecy most clearly fulfilled through millions of difficulties to the eminent knowledge of God by Christ a matter that were there nothing else were sufficient to convince all gainsaying Isa 11.20 To it shall the Gentiles seek Isa 42.1 Behold my servant c. he shall bring forth Judgment to the Gentiles and Verse 6 I will give thee for a covenant of the People for a light of the Gentiles Isa 49.6 I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth Psal 72.8 His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth And this began to be fulfilled in the Homage of the wise Men that came from the East Matth. 2.1 In the diversity of Tongues Acts 2.4 In Peter's Vision Acts 10.15 In Paul and Barnabas turning to the Gentiles Acts 13.46 And if a Man do but consider the Antiquity and Particularity and Positiveness of these Prophecies the improbabilities of effecting it in respect of the Persons who were to be converted tenacious to their Idolatry Have a nation changed their Gods the improbability in respect of the Means a company of poor unlearned persecuted Apostles in respect of the Religion whereunto to be called to believe in a crucified Saviour whom they never saw a Religion persecuted and condemned by the great Masters of Religion Scribes and Pharisees a Religion promising nothing within the view of Reason or use of Sense a Religion that takes Men off from all that wherein Men naturally repose their Hopes and Delights a Religion opposed by the chiefest Wits in the World the Philosophers and wise Men a Religion studied to be supprest by the greatest Power Policies and Cruelties that the World could afford and yet for all this to master all these Difficulties and bring into subjection the greatest part of the World for these sixteen hundred Years though I confess not without mixtures of great Corruptions must wring from any reasonable Man an acknowledgment both of the great Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World and also of the Truth of Christ the Messiah 2. Touching the Typical Predictions of Christ Gen. 2.9 The Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden which by the Divine Dispensation had that efficacy given to it that it should seem by Gen. 3.22 if lapsed Man had eat thereof he had recovered his lost perpetuity This was nothing else but Christ at least typically the Wisdom of God that the wisest of Men called the Tree of Life Prov. 3.18 This that Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God Revel 2.7 whose Leaves were for the healing of the Nations Revel 22.2 Melchizedeck the Priest of the most high God Gen. 14.18 The Type of Christ's Eternal Priesthood Psal 110.4 Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck And of his peaceable Kingdom King of Salem without beginning of days or end of life Heb. 7.3 The whole State of the Jews even from Abraham was in effect Typical Abraham the Father of the Jews according to the Flesh the Father of the Faithful as believing the Promise Gal. 3 7. Rom. 9.7 Sarah and Agar typical of the Church and the World the Flesh and the Spirit the Covenant
liable to any of those consequences that fell upon Adam or his posterity by Sin because every Affliction of what kind soever is but a return upon the Creature of the Fruit of his obliquity therefore since we have concluded him without Sin he could not be of himself meritoriously obnoxious to any thing that had the Nature of Punishment in it therefore we must conclude that those inconveniences of his Life were Satisfactory It is time those defects of humane Nature which are not only consequents of Sin but have in them the Nature of Sin as disorder of Passions fell not upon Christ but such as were merely consequents of Sin Christ did suffer in his Life he became of no Repuâ—ation and took upon him the form of a Servant Ephes 2.7 Subject to scorns the Carpenters Son Matth. 14.55 a Friend to Publicans and Sinners Math. 11.19 casting out Devils by Beelzebub Matth. 12.24 a Samaritan and having a Devil John 8.48 a Friend to Publicans and Sinners Matth. 11.19 sometimes ready to be stoned John 8.59 had not where to lay his Head Matth. 8.20 and all this meritorious 2 Cor. 8.9 for our sakes became poor that we through his Poverty might be made rich tempted in the Wilderness by the Devil And these Sufferings in the Life of Christ as they were part of his Satisfaction so they are part of our Comfort Heb. 2.18 For that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Heb. 4.15 a High Priest touched with the feeling of our Infirmities hence are those passionate Expressions of his Compassion even to his infirm Members Isa 40.11 He shall gather the Lambs with his Arm and carry them in his Bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young Isa 42.3 A bruised Reed shall he not break Isa 63.9 In all their â—fflictions he was Afflicted and the Angel of his Presence saved them Matth. 1.29 Come unto me c. for I am meek and lowly of heart 2. The second great End of Christ's incarnation was that he might fulfil the Law and Will of God as well in the Command as in the Type Matth. 5.19 I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it For as it was requisite that he should be free from Sin so it was necessary he should fulfil all Righteousness and as the Imputation of our sins unto him is that which cleanseth us from the Guilt of our sin so the imputation of this Righteousness unto us is that which makes our Persons accepted in the sight of God hence he is called The Lord of Righteousness Jer. 23.6 And Christ of God is made unto us Righteousness as well as Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Grace reigned through Righteousness by Christ Jesus Rom. 5.21 and the imputation of this Righteousness is that which perfects our Peace with God Rom. 5.1 By the Righteousness of one the free Gift came upon all to Justification Rom. 5.18 And thus though it were the Righteousness of the humane Nature yet it is called the Righteousness of God by Faith Phil. 3.9 And this Righteousness of Christ was that exact Conformity to the Will of God in which God was well pleased with us as well as him Now it was impossible for any to fulfil that Righteousness which was the Righteousness of a ratâ—onal and humane Nature but he that had a rational and humane Nature as the Righteousness of any thing below the humane Nature bears not a proportion to the Righteousness of a humane Nature such are the Regularities of the sensitive and vegetative Nature so the Righteousness of any Nature above the humane Nature could not be suitable for us Thus the Righteousness of an Angelical Nature is not proportionable to the exigence of our Natures the Law which was given to our Natures cannot square with theirs for that Law was fitted to our whole Compositum therefore it was necessary for Christ to fulfil such a Righteousness as might hold proportion to those for whom it was intended and this could be no other than that Righteousness which must be performed in the Life of an humane Nature 3. The third great work of Christ's Life was for an Instruction and that double 1. Of Example In those several Vertues that are proper for the humane Nature especially in Meekneâ—s Matth. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek In Humility and Obedience â—hil 2.5 Let the same mind be in you as was in Christ who being c. humbled himself and became obedient Forgetfulness of Injuries Colos 3.13 Forgiving one another even as Christ forgave you Patience in suffering 1 Pet. 2.21 For even hereunto are ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an Example that ye should follow his Example who when he was reviled c. And this conformity to the Practical part of Christ's Life is called the Mind of Christ 1 Pet. 4.1 The following of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 The Life of Christ 2 Cor. 4.11 That the Life of Christ Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal Flesh The being changed into his Image 2 Cor. 3.18 The growing up into him in all things even to the measure of the Stature of his fulness Ephes 4.13 15. Now this Exemplary Life could not be given us but in our own Nature and yet without it we had been without a most rational means of pleasing God and so arriving at our Happiness the Pattern of the Tabernacle that Moses saw in the Mount was of as great use to him in framing it as the particular Dictamina concerning it 2. Of Doctrin The Will of God concerning man was in effect obliterated Partly by the corruption and decay of our Nature by sin Partly by the just Judgment of God in withdrawing himself and that light which Man had abused And as in the Principles of Truth man became defective so in the Principles of Practice Rom. 1.21 26. God gave them up to vile affections insomuch that among the very Jews who had the very Counsels of God among them the very Principles of their known Laws were adulterated and corrupted Now for this purpose was Christ born as he testifies of himself John 18.37 To this end was I born and for this end came I into the World that I should bear Witness unto the Truth and as he was the Light of the World as he affirms of himself 1 John 8.12 so he was furnisht with a Doctrin from God John 7.16 My Doctrin is not mine but his that sent me John 7.16 and with a Power of delivery beyond the Power of a mere Man John 7.46 Never man spake like this man and Matth. 7.29 He taught as one having Authority and not as the Sâ—ribes And thus we may observe that although the great God could have taught by a Miracle by his absolute power yet he chooseth to reveal his truth to his Creature by means apposite to our Nature the Son of God cloaths himself with Flesh and Blood and teaches Man the
work of Natural Reason working Opinion or at most knowledge differs as much as knowledge and Opinion Those things of God that are discoverable by natural Reason receive another kind of impression upon the Soul by the work of God as is evident by the Effects and Operations each have upon the Soul Rom. 1.21 When they knew God yet they glorified him not as God. 3. Of Love therefore so called because the Principal part of the Message that the Soul is acquainted with is a Message of Love and Goodness and so the Will inclined and ingaged to love that Goodness And this is the fruit of the work of God's Spirit 1. Mediately and naturally presupposing the former work of Illumination for some Objects are of so light a nature that when they are known all the work of the Soul is done so they are only known that they may be known But these objects of our Faith they do include a Goodness and Conveniency for the Soul and therefore being known they are desired so that in natural Consequence the Spirit of God if it demonstrates these Truths to the Soul it doth by consequence engage the Love of the Soul to them It is true that Education Instruction and Discipline may make us know these Truths speculatively and yet our Soul not affected with them but the Conviction which is wrought by the Power of God's Spirit is not so thin or jejune a union of these Truths to the understanding but deeper and more radicated and consequently doth more effectually work upon the Will and therefore it is the Logick of the Apostle 1 John 2.4 He that saith he knoweth God and keepeth not his Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him 2 Pet. 1.9 He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see The Argument is from the Negation of the necessary Effect or Consequent to the Negation of the Cause or Antecedent as if he should have said Wheresoever there is no true Obedience to the Will and Command of God there is certainly no Love of God. It is the conclusion of Truth and Reason Joh. 14.23 If a man love me he will keep my words And wheresoever there is a true knowledge of God there must of necessity be a true Love unto God because it doth represent God as the chiefest only and most suitable Good to the Soul. It is true that notional and speculative knowledge of God that is wrought by natural discourse cannot or at least seldom doth arrive to that full apprehension of the Goodness of God and consequently doth not raise up the Heart to that height of Love and Obedience for our Reason is weak and the disproportion between Him and our Understanding is infinite and therefore he hath chosen to reveal it unto us in his Word and Son and by his own Power working Knowledge in us And by this we see why the renovation and conversion unto God is sometimes expressed under the name of Knowledge John 17.3 This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God c. Colos 3.10 Having put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ c. Sometimes under the name of Trusting and depending upon God Galat. 3.6 Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness sometimes under the name of Love Jud. 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God 1 Tim. 1.14 with faith and love which is in Christ 2 Tim. 1.13 2 Thes 2.10 Receiving the Love of the Truth sometimes under the name of Obedience James 1.27 Pure religion and undefiled c. James 2. per tot 1 John 2.29 Every one that doth righteousness is born of him so sometimes under the name of Repentance Fear of God c. For all this is but one work of this Spirit of Grace and but the several Emanations of the same work of the Spirit of God upon the Soul diversified only in the faculties or objects the first act in Nature is Light and when it convinceth the heart of the sinfulness of sin that works Repentance when of the Promises of God that breeds Dependence and Confidence when of the Goodness and Love of God in Christ that breeds Love unto him Watchfulness over our selves Obedience to his Will when of the Majesty and Justice of God it breeds Fear and Reverence when of our own vileness it breeds Humility so that all these are but the bringing home and joyning of those Convictions wrought in our Understanding unto the Will and Affections and thereupon these Effects do as naturally follow upon this work of Illumination and Conviction wrought by the Spirit of God as the like Effects do arise upon natural convictions of Objects of inferiour kinds and goodness 2. But this is not all there is a work of strength and power upon the Will Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure As the death and disability was in both Faculties so the Life is conveyed into both universally And this Power of God's Spirit is not only in the first acts of our Conversion to him but it goes along with us All those actions which are pleasing to God are wrought by the same Spirit of Christ by which they were at first animated It is a Spirit of Supplication in our Prayers Rom. 8.26 The Spirit maketh intercession c. A Spirit of Access for our Prayers Eph. 2.18 A Spirit of Assurance and Sonship Gal. 3.6 Eph. 1.16 A Spirit of Wisdom to direct us in our difficulties Ephes 1.17 A Spirit of Comfort and Joy in our Distresses Rom. 14.17 A Spirit of Fruitfulness in our Conversation Galat. 5.22 25. A Spirit of Perseverance 1 Pet. 1.5 Ye are preserved by the power of God through faith unto salvation CHAP. X. How our Vnion with Christ is wrought on Man's part viz. By Faith Hope and Love. HITHERTO we have seen the motion of the Love of God to his Creature by which it may appear the whole Business of Man's Salvation is the work of God and Man appears in a manner passive in all the parts of it In the sending Light into his Understanding he is passive In the enabling the Understanding to receive this Light he is still passive In the subduing the Will to the entertainment of it he is still passive Yet there is some kind of motion in us which though it be the Work of our Creator in the first giving of it and againâ— his Work in reviving quickening and enabling it yet he is pleased to require it from us and to expect it of us Mori movemus And that are principally these three Faith Hope and Love we find them oftentimes joyned together 1 Tim. 1.14 The Grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is
and Glory that thy Being can return unto him But had he given thee a simple Being thy Debt had not been so great so have the most unaccomplisht Creatures But thy Being was dressed with an Intellectual Nature and that Nature furnished with Fruition of Happiness filling the uttermost extent of its Capacity and that Happiness guarded with such a Law as was suitable to that Nature full of Beauty and Order in the obedience whereof thou didst at once perform thy Duty and improve thy Felicity But thou rejectedst all this and becamest a Rebel to thy God and a ruine to thy self and thou hast improved thy ruine and rebellion by a voluntary rejection of thy Duty and thy Happiness until this hour And what canst thou expect but a just return of an infinite Vengeance from an omnipotent injured Creator for so ungrateful a breach of an infinite Obligation But consider what thy Lord hath done for thee for all this and stay thy self and wonder Thy Lord proclaims Return thou backsliding Soul and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you Jer. 12. Hadst thou offended thine Equal for thy offended Equal to have solicited thy Reconciliation had deserved Acceptation and Love But for the infinite God to whom thou owest an infinite Duty and hast violated it who is able to annihilate thee and can receive no advantage by thy return to solicit it with an offer of a Reprieve nay of a Pardon But here 's not all our Deliverance from the Wrath of God is wonder enough Let me now be as one of my Father's hired Servants No there is more yet 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love he is content to accept of us as Sons But what must the Price be of so great a Change or who shall give it Thy Lord whom thou hast thus injured hath paid the Price of thy Redemption and such a Price as Heaven and Earth may wonder at the mention of it The Son of God lays down his Life for his Rebels Pardon and Assumption into a Partnership with him in his own Kingdom But thou art not for all this at the End of thy Debt this Price is rendred to thee upon easie terms Believe and live and this Life accompanied with infinite Advantages even Communion with this Creator But yet like the murmuring Israelite thou wilt die with the Manna between thy Teeth unless God who hath given thee such a Price of thy Redemption enable thee to receive him He sends his Spirit into thy Heart with Light and Life to strive with thy unbelieving Heart and to subdue it and to cleanse thy filthy and polluted Heart to bring Redemption into thy Heart and to solicite perswade importune thy Heart to receive him for thy own Good. What remains then but that thou shouldest ever admire that Love that hath done all this for thee that thou shouldest in all humility and humble reverence return love to thy Lord and magnifie his condescension that he is pleased to accept the Love of his poor Creature that thou study not to grieve the Spirit of that God that hath taken this pains and care with thee for thy good not to crucifie again that Christ that hath died for thee that thou labour to find out what is the Will of thy Lord and to obey it and to walk in love as Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us Ephes 5.2 Now according to the measure of the true Knowledge of God and of his Love in Christ is the measure of our Love to him and as that Knowledge is the immediate cause of its production so it must of necessity be the measure of its Degree And although both the knowledge of his Absolute Goodness which excites the love of Desire and the knowledge of his Benefactoriness to us which increaseth the love of Gratitude or Benevolence are mingled in every Soul that truly loves God yet according to the different degrees of the discoveries of either to the Soul so are the different manners of their working upon the Soul. The knowledge of the Perfection and Absolute Goodness of God is more suitable to an Angelical Nature and therefore produceth an high Angelical and Intellectual Love for this Love begins with the Judgment But because our Nature as it now stands as it arrives seldom to such a Knowledge so seldom to such a Love and that Love which comes into the Heart meerly upon such Contemplations is weak mingled with Servile Fear unactive because the Knowledge like the Sun in a Cloud shines dim and the Heat proves waterish and weak But the knowledge of the Goodness of God to us as it draws the Goodness of God nearer to us in Sense so it strikes more our Affections which God hath placed in us for this End. And this was the motive of Love and consequently of Obedience both under the Law and under the Gospel though the Expressions of that Love under the Law had more in them of Sense and under the Gospel more of Spirit Deut. 30.20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and obey his voice and cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days c. Luk. 7.47 Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Christ argues from the measure of her Love to the measure of God's Goodness to her and her Sense of it And here we have the true Principle of all true Obedience to God The bare External act of any thing commanded by God unless it move from a Heart or Principle conformable to the Will of God is no Obedience for all External actions taking them divided from the Will they are all of one kind and nature The very same act proceeding from a Soul differently principled may be an act of Obedience viz. when proceeding from an obedient loving Heart an act of compulsion when proceeding from a bare servile Heart a bruitish act when it proceeds from a Soul not moved with any Consideration and an act of malignity against God when done out of a malicious cunning design Some even preached the Gospel for Envy Phil. 1.16 So then as the Knowledge of the Goodness and Love of God to us is the immediate cause of the return of our Love to God so this love of the Soul unto God is the true and immediate Principle of all true Obedience unto God Now these are the genuine and natural Effects of Love to God 1. It makes a Man to make God and his Honour and Glory the highest and supream End of all his actions And this must needs be so in Reason For as the great End of all the works of God are his own Honour so where there is true Love to God it cannot chuse but make the Soul value that most which God most values As he must needs be convinced in his Judgment that that which God makes his End must needs be the chief End of the Creatures actions so where this Affection is it
and Heirship Galat. 4.7 Heirs of God through Christ Now all these three Graces of God wrought in our 〈◊〉 by the Spirit of God are motions unto Union 〈…〉 is the first act of the Soul and there◠〈…〉 this Union is formally maâ—e 〈…〉 to be justified by Faith Rom. 3.28 To partake of of the Righteousness of God by Faith Rom. 3.22 Phil. 3.9 viz. That by the Eternal Counsel and Goodness of God Christ is put in the place of him that believes in respect of his sins and he that believes is in the sight of God put in place or stead of Christ and by that means is judged righteous in the sight of God even by that very Righteousness which was the Righteousness of Christ the Mediator And when we speak of Faith we must not intend that work of the Spirit of God in our Souls whereby we believe for by the very same work is wrought belief love of God and hope in him But it is that act of that Life so wrought which doth believe Now we shall consider Why or by what reason the act of Faith worketh our Vnion with Christ and so our Justification in the sight of God 1. Because it is the Will of God John 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life He that is the great dispenser of his own Goodness is pleased that this shall be the means of that Dispensation In ancient times before the coming of Christ he was pleased to use other immediate Instruments such were Circumcision Obedience to those Laws which he gave these had not their Efficacy of themselves for they were indifferent things but they had their Efficacy upon these grounds 1. The Divine Institution to that End 2. The mingling of the Efficacy of the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ with 3. A performance of them with an Obediential and believing Heart which though it was not always accompanied with an explicite and actual belief of Christ yet it was not without thus much Faith viz. That it was a thing injoined by God for some special Purpose for the good of his Creature And thus likewise in Infants who are not capable of an actual exercise of Faith God hath questionless some secret efficacious means of the application of Christ's Sacrifice unto them Thus proportionable to the Condition of his Elect in all times and Conditions God is pleased to proportion a means to make this Sacrifice effectual To the ancient Fathers that had not the same opportunity of believing in respect Christ was not revealed to them so clearly as to us it was his Will to appoint at least a more implicite and obscure act of Faith They were shut up unto the Faith that should afterwards be revealed Galat. 3.23 2. Because Faith is the first act of the New Life wrought in the Heart by the Spirit of God tending to Union It is true that Knowledge is that which precedes all the works of Grace in the Soul but in this the Soul is not so much active as passive and Knowledge doth not of it self unite the Soul to the Object viz. Christ as it doth unite the Object to the Soul But the first motion of the Soul to Union is not that Faith of Assent which differs not from Knowledge but the Faith of Recumbency or Adherence And this priority of the act of Faith is not in time for Life is wrought all at once in the Soul but in Nature and actual operation And this priority of Faith in this sense is upon three grounds 1. In respect of the nature of the Act. 2. In respect of the nature of that Truth upon which it fixeth 3. In respect of the Condition of the Creature 1. In respect of the nature of the Act The Creature is created essentially depending upon God and Dependance is the first relative act of the Creature unto the Creator as it is the first relation so the first motion of a rational Creature unto God is by an act of Dependance and Recumbence upon his Truth and Goodness And herein consisted as the first act of Union in our uncorrupted Nature unto God so herein was the first breach that was made upon Man Gen. 3.1 Yea hath God said c. Man's Duty was Recumbency and Trust and Reliance upon the Goodness of his Creator and the Devil weakens his Faith or Dependance upon his God and deceives him His first Fall was Distrust in the Word and Goodness of God and his first Recovery must be by Recumbency upon him his Truth and Goodness 2. In respect of the nature of the Message It is a Message that as it requires so it concerns our Faith and Recumbency It is a Promise of Mercy and Peace unto as many as believe the Message According to the nature of the thing known is the motion of the Heart towards it This is a Message of Deliverance and Peace with a Command to rest upon it therefore of necessity the first act must be Recumbence John 11.40 Said I not if thou wouldest believe thou shouldest see the Glory of God Exod. 14.13 Fear not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. The first act that a Message of Deliverance from God worketh upon the Heart that entertains it is Recumbency and Resting upon the Truth and Power of God. 3. In respect of the Condition that this Message of Deliverance finds us in We are incompassed every where with Guilt and the avenger of blood pursues that guilt and we cannot by any means find any Power in our selves or in any other Creature to escape it The Soul being seriously convinced of this God presents unto it the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ his Promise of Acceptation of it and our deliverance from his wrath by it And now the Soul like a Man ready to be drowned first lays hold of the Cable that is thrown out to him even before it hath leisure to contemplate the Goodness of him that did it So the condition of our Misery teacheth us first to clasp the Promise of Mercy and Salvation in Christ and then to consider and contemplate the great Mercy and Goodness of God and to entertain it with Love and Thankfulness An extream Exigence will give a Man some confidence to adventure upon a difficult and unlikely occasion of deliverance because it is possible his Condition may be bettered it cannot be made worse 2 Kings 8.4 Why sit we here until we die if we enter into the City the Famine is in the City and we shall die there if we sit still here we die also Now therefore let us fâ—ll into the Host of the Assyrians if they save us alive 〈…〉 live and if they kill us we shall but die Even so even in a way of Reason may the Soul debate with it seâ—f I find my Condition miserable and I know not how to avoid it when I look into my self I find
and consequently the Life to the Will of God the Mind of Christ for the same Spirit of Christ which dwells in Christ our Head dwells likewise in those that are the Members of the same Body and as the oneness of the Soul in Man makes that oneness of motion in all the Body and that Conformity that is in all its motions to the mind of the Soul so that oneness of the Spirit in Christ and his Members makes that Conformity of the Members of Christ unto the Mind and Will of Christ which is the uncreated Image of God This is Regeneration the birth of the Spirit the forming of Christ in us the Sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes 2.13 2. That whereof before is spoken Love unto God which is always the Soul of all true Obedience The Soul finds the Goodness and Rectitude and Beauty of God and of all his Commands and therefore out of a Judicial Love it is sensible of the ingagement that it ows to God and therefore out of Gratitude it will as far as the strength of the Soul can reach obey the Commands which are so Righteous of her God that is so Gracious It finds that it was the Purpose of God he created us unto good Works Ephes 2.10 that as many as are in Christ ought to walk as he walked 1 John 2.5 That the Son of God died to destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3.8 to purifie unto himself a People zealous of Good Works Tit. 2.14 That Christ hath ordained that his Disciples should bring forth Fruit John 15.16 That for this cause Christ died c. that from thenceforth they that live should not live unto themselves c. 2 Cor. 5.15 Now the true Love of God makes the Will of God to be his Will and the Glory of God his End if there were no Beauty in the thing commanded yet shall I dispute his Will that hath redeemed me shall I go about to disappoint him in the End of his Death for me ordinary Reason teacheth me to subscribe and yield Obedience to the Commands of God for they are all most Wise and most Just Commands and though I see not the Wisdom Usefulness and Justice of them yet the same Truth that tells me his ways are unsearchable and past finding out teacheth me to obey when I discern the Authority though not the Reason of the Command But if it were not so suppose I could be a loser by my Obedience I cannot lose so much as I have freely received from him that commands me When Abraham received a Son from the Goodness of God and God required him again Abraham obeys though his Obedience had left him as Childless as the Promise found him But the greatest Command that I can receive from my Saviour cannot return me to so bad a Condition as his Pity and Mercy found me in If he require my Riches my Liberty my Life yet he leaves me somewhat which without his Goodness I had lost and doth more than countervail all my other Losses even my Everlasting Soul When he requires these of me he pays me interest for them Matth. 19.29 But if he did not yet the Price of my Soul in ordinary Gratitude may deserve the life of my Body for what can a Man give in Exchange for his Soul Matth. 16 26. CHAP. XIII Concerning the putting off the Old Man and 1. What it is NOW concerning the putting off the Old Man two things are considerable 1. What this Old Man is 2. How we must put him off For the former it is nothing but that Ataxy Disorder and Corruption which by sin did fall upon our Nature It is not our Nature in its essentials for that is still good but the absence of the Goodness and Perfection of the reasonable Soul which consisted in the Conformity to the Will of God which is the Beauty and Perfection of every thing And from this disorder in the Soul proceeds the disorder in the Life and Actions And this Old Man hath a double strength and advantage uâ—on us 1. In it self the Corruption and Disorder is so universal that the whole Soul is bound under it it hath no supplies of its own to rescue it self for they are all corrupted it is therefore called a Dominion of Sin Rom. 6.12 a body of death Rom. 7.24 a Law of Sin bringing the Soul into captivity Rom. 7.23 2. Accidentally the Prince of the Power of the Air taking advantage of this confusion and disorder of the Soul gets as it were into it and so worketh in the children of disobedience Ephes 2.2 inhabits it as his Castle and useth the Faculties of the Soul as the Weapons wherein he trusteth became a Ruler of Darkness in the Soul Eph. 6.12 Is Judas covetous the Devil gets into that covetousness and acts it even unto the betraying of the Lord of Life Luke 22.3 Is Peter lifted up upon his Master's atâ—estation of his Confession the Devil gets into that Pride and he becomes a tempter of our Redeemer Matth. 6.23 Is a Man immoderately angry the Devil gets into that Anger and will turn it into Malice Ephes 4.27 The Prince of the World could get no advantage upon our Redeemer he had nothing in him John 14.30 but so much of the Old Man as remains in us such a party hath the Devil in us to entertain nourish and actuate his temptations We shall therefore consider wherein this Corruptition or Deficiency in our Soul consists It is in every part and faculty of the whole Man as may evidently appear by tne enumeration of particulars 1. In the Vnderstanding there wants Light Rom. 1.21 Their foolish heart was darkened Ephes 4.18 And from hence the imaginations become vain Rom. 1.21 and not only vain but evil and continually evil Gen. 6.5 pursues unprofitable Curiosities Acts 19.19 Lusts of the Mind Ephes 2.3 Fables and impertinent Questions Tit. 3.9 1 Tim. 1.4 vain deceit Colos 2.8 It wants a capacity to discern things of greatest concernment 1 Cor. 2.14 the best habits of the Understanding are corrupt The Wisdom of the World is not only Foolishness 1 Cor. 3.19 but Enmity to God is earthly sensual devilish James 3.15 These and the like are the Old Man in the Understanding for the Light being either out or dim the actings of the Understanding are irregular and it is one of the great works of Christ in our renovation to give us the Spirit of a sound Mind 2 Tim. 1.17 2. In the Conscience This is the tenderest part of the Soul the receptacle of that Light and Authority of God which he hath left in us to be our Monitor and his Vicegerent Rom. 2.15 And yet the Old Man hath mastered and corrupted this also puts it awry or out 1 Tim. 1.19 defiles the Mind and Conscience Tit. 1.15 sears the Conscience so that it is insensible and past feeling Ephes 4.19 And if the Conscience be so vigorous as not to be stifled by means of this
so much of the Creatures inferiour to my self as observe the Law of their Creation enjoy a measure of Perfection answerable to their Being and if interrupted in that law of their Nature they lose their Beauty if not their Being The degree of my Being was higher than theirs and so was consequently the End of my Being my Happiness of a higher Constitution than theirs And as my Debt was greater to my Creator for allowing me so high an End so was my ability proportionable to the pursuit and attaining of that End which was thus given to me But what have I been doing all this while I have measured my Heart by that great Law Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and I have found my Heart full of the love of the World of Pleasures of Vanities but scarce a thought bestowed on him that gave me Power to think and which is worse my Heart hath held confederacy with all that he hath forbidden insomuch that I may justly conclude that surely nothing but a Heart hating God could so constantly and universally oppose his Will I have measured my Life by the Law of God and I can scarcely find one regular action in it my Heart hath not been so out of frame but it hath still found a full subservience of my whole Man unto it and that with greediness and yet I find all this unsatisfactory and I have cause to fear that is not all Sense doth tell me that in the pursuit of the ways of my Heart I spend my self for that which is not Bread and my labour for that which profiteth not I find no fulness in them but much vexation And Reason as well as Conscience tells me it will be bitterness in the end and the end is death I cannot but know that the great Lord of all Being hath measured out to all his Creatures their Beings and their Happiness suitable to their Beings and their Ways and Rules and Laws to attain their Happiness and if all this while I have been out of that Way I am travelling to another End If in the way of God I should have found Life and everlasting Life for my End out of that Way my End must be Death If I were now to begin my Life I should order it better Though I cannot expiate what is past yet my Soul looks upon it with Sorrow with Indignation with Amazement This is the first degree 2. That they are Vnbecoming Vngrateful and Vndutiful Returns It is implanted even in the sensitive Nature to return good for good We have received all the Good from the hands of that God against whom the practice of our Hearts and Lives hath been a continual Rebellion and upon this Consideration natural Ingenuity works a Shame in the Soul and a secret Condemnation and some kind of loathing so Ungrateful and Undutiful a Constitution 3. But hitherto the Soul looks only backward and these Considerations though they are enough to breed Shame and Despair in the Soul yet they are not strong enough to work Repentance because in those Considerations the Soul looks upon it self in an unexpiable and irrecoverable Condition The amendment will prove fruitless where the former guilt is irreversible and yet enough to sink the Soul Therefore the third Conviction is of the love of God that hath provided a means of pardon and acceptation when a Man throughly convinced of the unprofitableness and desperateness of his actions and condition his extream Ingratitude unto God shall for all this hear a voice after all those things Return back thou back-sliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful and will not keep mine anger for ever only acknowledge thine iniquity Jer. 3.12 13. This conquers the Soul not only into a dislike of sin past as dangerous and unprofitable but unto a hatred of it and of our selves for it as the enemy to such an invincible Love. The Consideration of our ways past and comparing them with the Law will enforce the Conscience to condemn them but it must be the sense of the Love and Goodness of God in Christ that can only incline us to change them as by the former he concludes his ways dangerous and unprofitable so without the latter he will conclude his Repentance unuseful And hereupon the Soul is cast into such Expressions as these O Lord I have been considering the present temper of my Heart and reviewed the course of my Life and have compared them with the Duty I owe unto thee and the Law which thou gavest me to be the Rule of that Duty and I find my heart and ways infinitely disproportionable to that Rule and thereby I conclude my self a most ungrateful and a miserable Creature But though I have sinned away that stock of Grace and Blessedness with which I was once intrusted by thee I find I have not out-sinned that Fountain of Goodness and Mercy that is in thee even whiles the sight and sense of my own Condition bids me despair either of repenting or acceptation of it yet I hear the voice of that Majesty which I have injured bids me Return and live Ezek. 18.32 Were there no acceptance of my turning from those ways of death and destruction yet it were my duty and though thy Justice might justly reject it yet it might justly require it But yet when thy merciful and free Promise shall crown my Repentance with Acceptation and Life This Love constrains beyond the sense of my own misery And when I hear the voice of my Lord calling to me to return and I will heal your backslidings that Love warms my Heart into that answer Behold I will come unto thee for thou art the Lord my God Jer 3.22 But who can come unto thee unless thou draw him send therefore thy Power along with thy Command for it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth Turn me and I shall be turned I will engage the uttermost of my strength to forsake my ways but I will still wait upon the same Mercy that did invite me to enable me to forsake them By that which preceeds we see a double Repentance 1. That which is Preparatory unto the receiving of Christ which is nothing else but a sense of the unhappiness and evil of our ways as destructive unto our Happiness and dissonant from that Rule of Righteousness which we cannot but naturally subscribe to be Just and Good and this doth naturally breed a Sorrow for what hath been so done and a Purpose and Inclination of Heart to forsake those ways And this was the work of the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord his Doctrine was a Doctrine of Repentance and his Baptism a Baptism of Repentance a Seal of the Entertainment of that Doctrine to as many as received it Matth. 3.2 Luk. 3.16 Acts 19.4 2. That which is Subsequent to that entertainment of Christ in the Heart by Faith which is the sense of
say upon found grounds the Lord is my Portion Psal 16.5 Like the Tree that Moses cast into the Waters of Marah Exod. 15.23 It makes those bitter Waters sweet and puts more Joy in my Heart than in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased Psal 4.6 But if it please him together with the Light of his Countenance to give me a competency of Externals to feed me with Food convenient for me with Agar Prov. 30.8 though with David Psal 23. my Cup runs not over yet if the Lord be the Portion of my Cup Psal 16.5 O Lord shouldest thou deny me all things even necessary for my present subsistence yet I have Portion enough in thy Favour and the Light of thy Countenance for which I owe thee more than all the thankfulness and strength of my Soul and such a Portion as would bear up my Heart in the midst of all my Exigences When thy Son bore our Nature in the Flesh though the sence of thy Love supported him yet he wanted things of convenience he became poor that we might be rich But if it shall please God to add the Blessings of his left hand to the Blessings of his right hand as rather than deny me the latter I beseech thee give me not the former If he shall bless me in the Fruit of my Body and my Ground and command a Blessing upon my Store-houses and all that I set my hand unto Deut. 28.4 8. I will learn to serve the Lord my God with joyfulness and gladness of Heart for the abundance of all things Deut. 28.47 to contemplate and bless that good hand of God that giveth me power to get Wealth Deut. 8.18 To look with more comfort and delight upon that Hand that gives than in the very Blessing that is given to set a watch over that evil and deceitful Heart of mine that is able to turn my Blessing into my Snare to beware lest when all that I have is multiplied my Heart be lifted up and I forget the Lord my God Deut. 8.13 14. To beware lest when my Riches increase I set my Heart upon them Psal 62.10 and trust in uncertain Riches 1 Tim. 6.17 To remember that I am but a Fiduciary a Steward of them they are not given me to look upon but to use them as one that must give an account of them to watch over my self that I use them soberly with moderation and as in his presence that I turn not the Grace and Bounty of God into Excess or Wantonness to look upon all the Goodness Comfort and Use of them as flowing from the Blessing and Commission that God sends along with them Eccles 2.24 That a man should make his soul enjoy good in his labour this also is from the hand of God To beware that the multiplication of Blessings do not rob my Creator of one grain of that Love Service and Dependance that I owe unto him to carry a loose affection towards them for it is infallibly true that where the Heart is truly set upon God and makes him his Portion it enables a Man equally to bear all Conditions because the object of his Soul is immutable and invaluable though his external Condition alter an accession of Externals may carry up such a Soul in a more sensible apprehension of the Goodness of him whom the Soul loves it cannot steal away one jot of that Love which it owes to the giver the Creature it self is of too low a value to diminish the Love to the Creator a Heart that is rightly principled cannot find any good in the Creature but what he will derive from and carry to the object of his Love. 3. The Pride of Life There are two great Cardinal Truths whereof if the Mind be soundly convinced it puts a Man in a right frame and temper of Spirit in the whole course of his Life 1. That there is an essential universal Subjection due from all Creatures to the Will and Power of God This is the ground of all true Obedience and all true Humility which is nothing else but a putting of the Mind into a Posture and frame answerable to that Position wherein by Nature it is framed a conformity of the Mind to the Truth and Station wherein it is set 2. That all Goodness Beauty and Perfection is originally in God and nothing of Good Beauty or Perfection is in any thing but derivatively from him according to that measure that he is freely pleased to communicate This keeps the Heart in a continual Love of him Dependance upon him and Thankfulness unto him From the Ignorance of those is the ground of all the Pride in the World which is nothing else but a false placing of the Mind in such a Condition or Station or the opinion of such a Station wherein in truth he is not and so it disorders the Mind it makes a Man that is essentially subordinate to God and depending upon him to place himself above God and to be independent upon him And though this false opinion cannot alter his condition in truth for he that hath said My Will shall stand cannot be removed by the pride or resistance of Man yet as to the Man himself it puts him out of his place and in the room of God And therefore above all other distempers of the Soul this is the most hateful to God for as the proud Man resisteth God and labours to get into his place so God resisteth him 1 Pet. 5.5 Prov. 3.24 And this Ignorance or not full subscription to these two Truths will appear to be the foundation of all the Pride in Men. 1. From the Ignorance of the former of the subjection we owe to God proceeds that Pride that manifests it self in Rebellion and Disobedience against God. God challengeth the subjection of our Wills to his as justly he may and Man will have his own Will take place Jer. 42.14 No but we will go into the â—and of Egypt Luke 19.14 We will not have this Man to rule over us And as among Men Pride is the Mother of Contention because it puts a Man out of that place wherein he is and he doth consequently put himself in the place of another and thence come Contentions so from this Pride of Men putting themselves into the place of God comes the contention between God and man He that hath said he will not give his Glory to another will not give his Place to his Creature but resisteth the proud And from this ignorance of that subjection we owe to God proceeds that Haughtiness and Arrogance which we find in the Spirits of Men Exod. 5.2 Who is the Lord that I should let the people go Job 21.15 What is the Almighty that we should serve him Dan. 3.15 Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands This Ignorance was that which bred that haughty speech in Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.30 Is not this great Babylon c. Till God by his immediate hand
let thy words be few seasonable considerate true 4. Set a Watch upon thine Appetite it is of it self natural and consequently good but the distemper of our Nature hath put it out of its place and consequently out of its bounds Suspect thy Appetite and keep it under with Rules of Moderation put a Knife to thy Throat Prov. 23.2 look not upon the Wine when it gives its colour in the Cup Prov. 23.31 love not sleep Prov 20.13 and with Rules of Seasonableness the wise Man tells us every thing is beautiful in its time Eccles 3.11 because it is then in that order which God hath appointed for it the same Action that may be but tolerable and indifferent in one time may be necessary in another and sinful in another Isaiah 22.12 13. In that day did the Lord call for weeping and mourning and behold slaving of oxen surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die 2 Sam. 11.11 The Ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents c. shall I then go down to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife Regulate thy Reason by the Word and Counsel of God and discipline thy Appetite with thy Reason observe its motions and check them Rather deny it a lawful than countenance it in but a disputable Liberty CHAP. XX. Of Watchfulnes over our Affections and Passions of Love Anger and Fear 5. SET a Watch upon thine Affections and Passions Thy Affections are by thy natural corruption become inordinate Affections they are easily misplaced and more easily over-acted Take heed to thy Love according to the order or disorder of this Affection are all thy other Affections tempered See therefore that it be rightly placed Dispence thy Love in measures proportionable to the worth of the Object Nothing can challenge thy intensest Love but the intensest Good and that God that requires thy Heart is a jealous God let not out the whole Current of thy Affections upon any thing below him Lawful Pleasures natural Relations Conveniences in the World a Man 's own self may be Objects of a moderate and subordinate Love But when they take up the whole compass of our Love our Love becomes our Sin Matth. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me 1 John 2.15 If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 2 Tim. 3.2 4. lovers of themselves and lovers of Pleasures ranked amongst the worst of Men. When the Affection of thy Soul is moving after any thing before thou give it leave examine the Object whether worthy of any measure of thy Love and if so yet let it not go without a farther debate Consider the measure of Good that is in the Object and weigh out its proportion of Love answerable to the measure of its Good But rest not there neither remember it is but a subordinate a derivative Good as well as a measurable Good bestow not that measure of thy Love upon it absolutely but subordinately catechise thy Love with this Question Whether if thy Creator requires thee to hate that Object to forgo it to forsake it thou canst be better content to call home thy Affection than to let it rest where it is By this time and by this means thy Love will be under a discipline and a rule and the Precipitancy of this Affection beyond its due Proportion allayed and moderated And remember always it is the impotency of our Condition and the great cause of the disorders in our Souls and Lives that we are contented to give our Affections leave upon the first apprehension to pursue their Objects without debate lest we should interrupt the expectation of Contentment by a clear discovery of the unworthiness and vanity of the Object and the ill consequences of immoderation in the pursuit thus we are contented to deceive our selves with the Felicity of false Expectation rather than by pre-consideration to avoid a real Inconvenience or Disappointment Take heed to thine Anger Be angry but sin not Ephes 4.26 keep it not too long nor act it too far lest it prove Hatred Revenge Oppression Order thy Anger so that it may be rather an act of thy Judgment than of thy Perturbation If thou art provoked by an Injury before thou give a Commission to this Passion propose to thy self the Question which God asked Jonah Jonah 4.9 Dost thou well to he angry weigh well the Cause and remember thou art partial to thy self and apt to construe that for a just Provocation which it may be was none or deserved Suspect thy Judgment of Partiality put thy self in the others Condition before thou judgest remember that he that doth thee the Injury is but God's Instrument 2 Sam. 16 10. Because the Lord hath said unto him Curse David who then shall say Wherefore hast thou done so It may be his Injury is God's Justice and then thy Anger against the Instrument is Rebellion or at best it may be his Experiment of thy Patience and then thy Anger is Disobedience Remember the just occasions of Anger thou hast given to thy Creator and yet his Patience to thee and shouldest thou not have compassion on thy fellow servant Matth. 18.33 Remember thy Redeemer that bought thee with the Sacrifice of his Soul hath given thee another Precept Matth. 5.44 Love your Enemies and another Example who when he was reviled reviled not again and canst thou deny the denial of Passion for his sake Remember thy gentleness will more advantage thee than thy anger it may be he will be conquered with thy Patience and revenge thy Quarrel against himself with his Repentance but if not there is a God of Vengeance can and will do it Rom. 12.19 When a Man takes up the Office of his Judge he injures both the Judge and Party and in stead of doing himself right he makes himself guilty Again if thou doest well to be angry dost thou well to be angry so much or so long The Wise Man tells us That Anger resteth in the bosom of Fools Set a Watch therefore over thy Anger let it be just and moderate and let not the Sun go down on thy wrath Ephes 4.26 Set a Watch upon thy Fear There is nothing deserves thy fear of Reverence but thy Creator nâ— thy fear of Aversion but thy Sin If thy Peace he made with him thou art above the Fear of any thing below him objects of Terror shall not come near thee the Beasts of the Field shall be at peace with thee or if they are not they shall not hurt thee The terriblest things in the World are therefore terrible because they end in Death the King of Terrors And when thy Peace is made with thy Lord thou hast a double Security against them 1. Because they are in the hands of his Power and Wisdom and they cannot exceed their Commission that he gives them he can if it please him dissipate whole Armies of
hast endeavoured to walk humbly and perfectly before God that thou canst not find any thing upon the most faithful search thou canst make that might be the Spring of this affliction yet is not thy Labour lost the Clearness of thy Conscience will be thy support in thy Affliction and make thy Burden the easier But yet for all this know thy Affliction hath a Voice still if it look not backward yet it looks forward if it be not a Medicine to cure thee yet it may be an Antidote to preserve thee a Cordial to strengthen thee it bids thee improve thy Patience thy Faith thy Dependance upon God thy Experience of his Presence thy earnestness in Prayer thy neglect of the World thy Denyal of thy self Learn therefore before thou pourest out thy sorrow upon any Affliction to examine thy Heart to search out the meaning of God in it it will regulate thy Grief and instruct thy mind both how to bear it and how to use it 3. Beware thou put not on a Resolution not to be grieved or troubled at all upon any occasion of Grief The putting on of such a Stoical Resolution is to arm a Mans self against God to harden the Heart not to receive Correction and as much as in a Man is to disappoint the purpose of God He that put these Passions in the Heart of Man now sends this Messenger to stir up this Passion though thereby he intends a farther End And for a Man to fence his Soul against any object of Sorrow so as not to be moved thereby shall be sure to find either an absolute Ruine or that God will so plant his Batteries against that Resolution that at length he will master him and melt his Soul into a more pliable Disposition 4. When God sends an occasion of Sorrow entertain it with an Affection answerable to the Object both in kind and measure Let thy Grief be an humble Grief not mingled with murmuring or discontent If thou couldst imagine thou hadst not deserved it yet remember who it is that inflicts it even he that is absolute Lord of his Creature and owes him not his Being When thou goest and treadest upon a Worm or a Snail thou doest an injury to thy fellow Creature yet thou passest away and takest no notice of it But thy Creator can owe thee nothing Take up that incomparable Resolution and temper of Mind with old Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good And this same Consideration as it will teach thee to mingle Humility with thy Grief so it will teach thee Patience and Quietness in thy Sorrow because the occasion comes from the hand of a most Just and Wise and Merciful God. Impatience under any Affliction ariseth from the termination of the motion of our Souls upon the immediate Object he that knows and fears and loves his Creator and sees his hand dispensing the Afflictions will learn Patience and Moderation though he cannot forget Sorrow and Grief under it 4. Let thy Grief be moderate in Extent Measure and Duration Nothing but sin and the displeasure of God can deserve thy intensest Grief Learn to put a true value upon thy Loss and measure out Sorrow answerable to it Consider 1. Thy Loss is not of thy chiefest Good and therefore deserveth not thy intensest Sorrow Thy Peace with thy Creator thy Everlasting Hope as long as they are safe thou hast enough left to over-weigh the greatest Loss thou canst suffer What are light Afflictions and but for a Moment when put in the Balance with an Eternal Weight of Glory 2. Consider thy Loss is not of thy own Good. Cannot the Almighty lend thee a Blessing but thou must call it thine and deny the absolute Lord of it the Property of it It is his Corn and his Wine and his Oyl and all our Blessings are his and as they are his so they are taken away by him Learn to make the Will of thy Lord the measure of thine and then though Nature teach thee to grieve Grace will teach thee not to exceed in thy Grief CHAP. XXIII Of Watchfulness over our Will Conscience and Spirit AND as thus thou must carry a Watch over thy Affections so learn to carry a Watch over thy Will 1. Learn to Principle it aright the great Lord that hath put this power or faculty in the Soul hath therefore placed it there that it should have a Conformity to his Will and when thou crossest his Will it is thy sin and Deformity and it will be thy Misery Learn therefore to make his Will the Rule of thine 1. â—n what thou dost and herein God hath not left thee without a line to guide thee He hath shewed thee O man what to do and what doth the Lord require at thy hands c. he hath given thee a Rule or Law which is to be the guide of thy Obedience 1. The Rule of his written Word traduced unto thee by a wonder of Mercy and Providence a word that is nigh unto thee Deut. 30.14 a light that shineth in a dark place 2. The Rule secretly conveyed into thy Conscience by the Power and Wisdom of God Rom. 2.15 a Law written in thy Heart and Conscience 3. The Rule manifested in the Dispensation of Divine Providence asserting and confirming the two former if exactly observed in the measuring out of Rewards and Punishments 2. In what thou sufferest the great Lord is absolute Lord over all his Creatures and can owe them nothing but what he pleaseth only to confirm our Faith and encourage our Obedience he hath been pleased to give a Covenant that he will be our God if we remain his people yet in the Dispensation of outward things he hath not absolutely bound himself though such is his Goodness that even in those he observes a measure of Justice which he doth not owe us Learn therefore to make the Will of thy Maker in all things the measure of thine 2. Observe it in the first Motions of it while they are green and flexible and before they be hardened into Resolutions and so grow Masterless bring them to their Rule and examine them by it and accordingly entertain or reject them Clog them with Deliberation and by that means thou shalt be able to take off the Violence and Eagerness of them and likewise the Errours of them Dispense not with thy self in the first Motions of thy Will to any evil in Presumption that thou shalt be able to master them before they come to ripeness for thou sinnest even in those imperfect issues of thy Will and indulgence towards them will make them grow hardy and too strong for thy Mastery consider that in the first Motion of thy Heart thy Will which is the Mistress of thy Soul is the Party against whom thou must strive and thou hast nothing to reclaim the Current of those Motions but the Grace of God which may justly withdraw it self if it finds a Compliance with
Glory so every Creature having a conformity to the Will of God is moved by him towards that End. And as this is the greatest and chiefest End of all Creatures and Actions so the motion towards it must needs be the most perfect operation of the Creature And as this Truth is sounded in Nature and Reason so it is the good Pleasure of Almighty God to joyn the Perfection and Happiness of the Creature in this Conformity to his Mind and Will. When any thing therefore continues in an universal free subjection and subservience to the Will of God as that very subjection and subservience is an Honour to the Lord of his Being so by that subjection and subservience is the Creature moved and managed to the Glory of God even to the fulfilling of his Will and as a necessary Concomitant to it to its own Perfection and Happiness Christ that was in all things conformable to the Mind and Will of God for he came to do the Will of his Father came into this World to bring Honour to the great God by his Creature Man and as a concomitant and a necessary Consequent of it Happiness and Perfection to Man and to that End first he sets him free from that Guilt and Curse which he contracted by his Fall removes from him those Fetters of the Power and Reign of Sin whereby he was disabled to move conformably to the Will of God puts into him a Spirit of Life that may enable him to live to God and be conformable to his Will and move to his Glory and this is his Sanctification So then next to that great and ultimate End of the Glory of God the Sanctification of the Creature and rendering it conformable to the Will of God was the greatest End of Christ's work of Redemption Ephes 5.25 26 27. Even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. Luke 1.74 that we being delivered c. might serve him without fear in Holiness and Righteousness Tit. 2.14 who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people c. So that even our Justification is in order to our Sanctification and that in order to the Glory of God viz. that his Creature might be conformable to his Will and might actively move to the Glory of the Creator wherein consists his End and with which is joyned the Creatures Happiness Touching this matter these things are considerable 1. The Necessity of it 2. The Means whereby it is effected 3. The Degrees of it 4. The Parts or Extent of it 1. That the Sanctification of the Heart and Life is absolutely Necessary to every Christian in some measure answerable to his natural Perfection upon these Considerations 1. It was the End of the coming of Christ into the World and the very End of thy Justification His End was not only to remove thy Guilt and thy Curse but to make thee conformable to the Will of thy Creator that thou mayest be actively subservient unto his Glory which thou canst not be unless thy Nature be changed as well as thy Sin pardoned The great End of the coming of Christ was to bring Glory to his Father If he only free thee from thy Guilt he brings Mercy to his Creature but unless he cleanse and change thy Nature thou remainest useless to thy Master 2 It is impossible that there can be Justification of any Man but that according to the measure of his natural ability there will be likewise a cleansing and changing of his Nature because the knowledge and belief of the Love of God in Christ cannot be in Heart without a return of Love from the Soul again to God. The very same act of the Spirit and Grace of God which discovers and unites the sense of the Love of God to thy Soul doth as naturally cause Love in thee to God as the union of the Species to the Glass reflects the Resemblance from the Glass again 1 John 4.19 We love him because he loved us first his was a Love of Pity Compassion a Love of Bounty and Goodness a Love that broke through Death and greater difficulties than Death even the uniting of the Divinity to our Flesh a Love passing Knowledge and thine cannot chuse but be a Love of Admiration and Astonishment a Love of Thankfulness and Gratitude When the Spirit of God works Faith in thee it worketh by Love even by presenting the Love of God to thy Soul in as full dimensions as thy Soul can receive it and when Faith is wrought in thy Soul that worketh again by Love to God. If thou hast not Love to God thou hast not Faith in him and if thou hast Love to him thou canst not chuse but conform thy self to his Mind and his Will John 14.23 If a man love me he will keep my words And for this cause the Apostle makes it not only an inconsistency but a kind of impossibility for one justified to continue in sin Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein 1 John 3.9 he cannot sin because he is born of God In every act of known sin that thou committest and every omission of every known good that thou neglectest there is an actual intermission or suppression of the act of Faith and of thy Love to God. 3. It is a necessary consequent of our Vnion with Christ There is as hath been shewed a double act whereby our Union with Christ is wrought on our part an act of Faith to apprehend him on his part an act of his Spirit whereby he apprehends us Philip. 3.1 2. and this Union is so strict that it is resembled to those things that have the strictest Union the Vine and the Branches John 15.1 2. Rom. 11.18 Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones Ephes 5.30 and as in the virtue of this Union we partake of all these Priviledges which were in him his Satisfaction his Righteousness his Sonship his Intercession his Resurrection so likewise of his Spirit as there is one Body so there is one Spirit Ephes 4.4 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 It is his in Essence it is ours in Operation and Influence so that the inward Life of a Christian is not his own but he lives by the Life that is that living Spirit of the Son of God. Now as that Spirit or Life that is in the Root when it passeth into the Branch makes the Branch conformable in Nature and Fruit unto the Root So the Spirit of Christ transfused into a Christian doth conform his Nature and Operations unto Christ for that was the great End of God in sending his Son into the World who was in all things conformable unto him that we should be conformable to the Image of his Son Rom. 8.29 And thus that impression of the Image of God
its Author is infinite and boundless by all the Justice that can be 2. Faith doth find in that Word a farther ingagement of Conformity and Obedience if a farther may be in that it finds the immense overflowing Love of God to Man It is that Love that did at first furnish him with those Excellencies of his Nature with that greater excellency his image and Superscription It is that Love that upholds his temporal Being and blesseth it It is that love that when he was lost sent a Sacrifice and a Righteousness for him whereby he is not only pardoned from his Guilt and Curse but restored to Glory and immortality And this it doth truly and really believe and is thereby convinced that there is a greater obligation than that of his Nature to live conformable to the Will and Mind of so unspeakable a Benefactor 3. Faith doth find in this Word of God his Mind and Will and believes it to be that very Rule the conformity whereunto is well pleasing and acceptable to God. Mic. 6.8 and what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God It looks upon every Admonition Exhortation Reprehension and Direction as the very immediate Message of God unto the Soul and entertains it with the same awe and reverence as if it were audibly delivered in Thunder and trembles at it and therefore it receives it in the power and Life of it and in the uttermost compass and extent of it it will not take this part as most consonant to thy Temper Condition Designs Constitution or Ends and reject another part where it crosseth them because it is equally the Will and Command of the great God and so received 4. Faith finds in this Word the Rectitude Justice and Regularity of the Will of God concerning Man they are not only just as proceeding from him to whom his Creature owes an infinite Obedience as was the Command to Adam for forbearing the forbidden Fruit or to Abraham to sacrifice his Son but Faith finds in these Commands a natural Justice and Reasonableness and Perfection and concludes with David Psal 19. That his Statutes are right and his Commands pure such as include in themselves a natural and absolute Beauty and such as confer upon the Creature a Perfection and Happiness such as are exactly conformable to thy Nature were thy Nature conformable to it self for as the Rule or Law that God hath given to every Creature is that wherein consists its Beauty Preservation and Perfection according to the degree wherein it is placed and therefore every Creature labours according to its own Nature to continue in that Rule and when it misseth it it contracts Deformity and Corruption so the Divine Law or Command of God given to Man is that wherein consists his Perfection as being a Rule most exactly conformable to the reasonable Nature of Man sin hath deformed and blinded us that we cannot now see that Perfection and Excellency that is in our Conformity to his Will and hath perverted and corrupted us that as we are in this corrupted condition we cannot desire it but when God is pleased to anoint our eyes with the Eye-salve of Faith and presents this Glass this image of his mind in his Word unto that Eve Faith again discerns and discerning cannot chuse but desire that Beauty Perfection and Rectitude which is there discovered in the Commands of God and the conformity of the Soul to the â—ame 5. Faith doth find in that Word and finding it doth most assuredly believe the Presence of the Glorious and infinite God in every place even in the darkest and most remote Corners and Chambers of the Heart searching weighing and discerning the Spirit every thought of the Heart every word of the Tongue every action of the Life and measuring them exactly with the Rule that he hath given and this keeps the Heart in a continual awe of the Presence of God purgeth out all Hypocrisie sets a continual Watch upon the whole Man lays a Bridle upon the very thoughts and brings them into subjection to this Rule because that clear and pure and severe eye of the Great and Infinite God searcheth the most retired thoughts of the Heart and observes what conformity they hold with his most Just and Reasonable Command 6. Faith finds in this Word of God and doth more really and practically believe that that great God which hath given us his Will and is a witness to the Obedience and Disobedience of it hath most certainly annexed an everlasting Curse to the Disobedience of it so it hath most certainly annexed an everlasting Glory to the Obedience thereunto not as the merit of it but as the free and bountiful gift of his Goodness and Mercy in Jesus Christ And it finds and believes the Truth and Faithfulness and Glory and Power of the Infinite God there engaged for the performance of it and therefore it binds the Heart to the Obedience of this Will of God and Conformity unto it which is our Sanctification Thus the word mingled with Faith cleanseth and sanctifieth and perfecteth and purifieth the Heart and Life And as thus in Man God useth this instrument on Mans part to sanctifie his Creature and make him conformable to himself so Secondarily upon this Act of Faith upon the Word of God as its Object the Heart is likewise cleansed by Fear Hope and Love by way of emanation from this Act of Faith. Love Fear and Hope are those several Motions or Affections of the Soul that arise from the same Act of Faith only as Faith is diversified according to those different Objects apprehended by Faith or according to the different Notions Relations or Actions of the same Object as for instance God apprehended in his Goodness Love and Bounty moves our Love towards him as apprehended in his Glory Majesty Power and Justice excites Fear as apprehended in his Faithfulness Truth and Promises begets Hope and each of these Affections thus directed do habituate and dispose the Soul and Life to a religious frame and Constitution which is our Sanctification as will appear in these particulars 1. The Love of God this is that true Principle of all true Obedience where it is not the Obedience is a dead and unacceptable Obedience for God that is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and Truth will be obeyed likewise in Spirit and Truth and the outward Conformity without this is but a dead Obedience and Hypocrisie and where it is it will work a Conformity of the Heart and Life to the mind of God upon which it is pitched and therefore it is called the First and Great Commandment Matth. 22.51 the fulfilling of the Law because when it is once wrought in the Heart whatsoever it can discover to be agreeable to the Will of him that she loves it will most sincerely and intirely obey John 14.15.24 If ye love me keep my Commandments he that loveth
me not keepeth not my Sayings Now our Love to God ariseth upon two Grounds 1. From a Sense of the Perfection and Beauty and Purity and Excellency that is in him and in this respect our Love to him cannot chuse but move the Heart to desire to be like unto him as far forth as is or can be communicable to our Nature and Condition for whatsoever I love in another that is communicable unto me I cannot chuse but desire to be in my self 1 Pet. 2. Be ye holy for I am holy and this Love of that Goodness that is in God doth bring the Heart nearer to him for Love is a Motion unto Union and as we come nearer to that Purity of his it doth in some measure assimilate the Soul unto himself because his Goodness and Brightness is an assimilating active communicative Goodness and from this nearness to him doth grow much of our Holiness here and all our Happiness hereafter 1 John 3.2 We shall bâ— like him for we shall see him as he is 2 Cor. 3.18 But we with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory Our Love to God works in the Soul a desire of Union with him and likeness to him which is a kind of Union and that approximation to him doth derive from him an impression of his own Nature and likeness unto him 2. The ground of our Love to God is the Sense of that Love that he hath shewen to us 1 John. 4.19 We love him because he loved us first and this is a Love of Gratitude or Thankfulness arising from the full Sense of the undeserved and wonderful Love of God to his unworthy Creature revealed and dispensed in Jesus Christ and this cannot chuse but put the Soul into such kind of thoughts and purposes as these O Lord at first I received my Being from thee and when I had forfeited my Being and my Blessedness to thee thou wast patient towards me and didst not take that forfeiture which thou justly mightest thou wast merciful to me and didst pitty and forgive me and when I was in my Blood thou saidst unto me Live thou was bountiful unto and didst not only pardon me but restore me to that Blessedness which I unthankfully lost and thus thou didst without my seeking even when I was Senseless and knew not my own Misery when I was obstinate and would not have it and this thou didst not by an ordinary means but thy Love did send the Son of thy love to become my Sacrifice and my Righteousness and canst thou require any thing of me that can bear any proportion to so great Love If thou shouldest call for that Being again which thou hast thus freely given me I should but return unto thee that which is thine own But after all this what dost thou require of me but to do justly and love Mercy to walk humbly with my God Such a Service wherein consists my own Happiness and Perfection a conformity unto thy Beauty and Purity If the Service that thou shouldest have enjoyned me had been a Service mingled with my own Dishonour Shame Misery Ruin thy Love to me had deserved and commanded this from me how much more when all thou requirest from my Leprous Soul is but Wash and be clean I will bless thy Name for that Love which thou shewest to me in my Redemption from so great a Death and I will bless thy Name that thou art pleased to injoyn thy Creature such a Service wherein consists his Beauty and Perfection a reasonable Service and that thou art pleased to accept that as a Tribute unto thee which inricheth thy Creature by paying it even our Conformity to thy most Righteous and Holy Will and I will endeavour in the whole Course of my Life in the whole frame and temper of my Soul to express my Thankfulness to thee in the watchful universal diligent and sincere Conformity unto that will of thine and blessed be thy Name that hast given thy poor Creature an opportunity of expressing his Sense of thy Love in so reasonable a Service 2. Fear of God likewise cleanseth the Heart Psal 19.9 The fear of God is clean Prov. 8.13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil Prov. 16.16 By the fear of the Lord Men depart from evil And this was Joseph's fence against Temptations of all kinds Gen. 39.9 How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against the Lord and his highest security to his Brethren of keeping his Promise Gen 42.18 This do and live for I fear God. Now this fear of God is wrought upon the precedent Act of Faith in a double Relation 1. As it presents God unto the Soul in his Purity Majesty Power Justice and Presence even in the innermost and darkest Chambers of our Hearts And this Consideration becomes even the exactest Christian always to have about him for all the strongest ingagements even upon every Affection are too little God knows to fence and ward the Soul against the Corruptions within it and the Temptations without it And this Consideration will most opportunely bespeak the Soul in this manner Consider what thou art doing thou art now going about to purpose or do that which thy Creator forbids thee and thou art in the Presence of that God before whom all things are naked and manifest Heb. 4.13 whose eyes are upon all the ways of Man and he seeth all his goings Job 32.21 and his eyes are therefore upon his ways that he may give every Man according to his works Job 32.18 Consider thou art in his Presence that is a consuming Fire and a jealous God Deut. 4.24 A great God and a mighty and terrible that regardeth not Persons nor taketh rewards Deut. 10.27 That hath said that When any Man heareth the words of this Curse and shall bless himself in his Heart saying I shall have Peace though I walk in the immagination of my Heart the Lord will not spare him but his jealousie shall smoak against that man Deut. 29.19 20. That hath Justice and Wisdom and Truth and Power enough to fulfil and execute the most exquisite seasonable and unavoidable Vengeance upon any contemner of his Will and this is the God whom thou a Creature that art nothing in his hands art about to offend Consider this thou that forgettest God lest he tear thee in pieces and there be none to deliver thee But 2. Fear is a Fruit of Love and though we are not to neglect the former yet we must be sure to entertain this perfect Love casts out fear a fear of punishment but not a fear of sin a fear of a Malefactor not the fear of a Child And upon this Consideration this affection upon any Temptation thus bespeaks the Soul Consider what thou art now setting about It is that thy Lord thy Redeemer forbids thee he that hath died for thee to rescue thee from thy vain Conversation how
am an unclean things and all my righteousnesses are as filthy rags Isa â—â— 6 and my own Heart tells me that even to my most exact observance there be secret adheâ— of sin and defect and how much more are thâ— in thy sight who seest through every cranny of the Soul and therefore thou mayest justly reject them yet O Lord thou knowest that that little good that is in them proceeds from an upright Heart from an unfeigned desire to obey thee that it is my Hearts desire and my hearty and daily endeavour to serve thee better that it is the sorrow and gâ—f of my Heart that my returns of obedience and conformity unto thee are so infinite short of what I every way owe unto thee I do not content my self with these loose and half performances that I make before thee and though I see my best obedience gives me daily occasions of repentance yet I will not give over but what I want in my own strength I will beg thy Grace to perfect and thy Mercy to accept according to what I have and to pardon what I want 2 Cor. 8.12 and since I have prepared my Heart to seek the Lord God the good Lord pardon me though I am not cleansed according to the purification of thy Sanctuary 2 Chron. 30.19 2. An over-matching of the Power of Sin by the Power of Sanctifying Grace It is true that in the best Condition we can arrive unto in this World there is with us a body of Sin and Death as well as a Principle of Holiness and Life Rom. 7.24 a lusting of the Flesh against the Spirit as well as of the Spirit against the Flesh Gal. 5.17 a wrestling against Flesh and Blood actuated by Principalities and Powers Ephes 6.12 But where God is pleased to begin this work in the Heart though it never arrives to the abolition of sin yet it ever ariseth to a Victory over it Rom. 6.15 Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the Law but under Grace And now as where there is but one degree of heat in any subject more than there is of cold though that subject be not perfectly hot but there is a mixture of cold in every atom of it yet is denominated from the predominate quality so this Man though he be not exactly conformable to the exact Rule of Righteousness and therefore could not in the severe Justice of God be accepted but that rigorous course of the Law would lay hold upon him Gal. 3.10 Cursed be every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them which Book of the Law required a Love of God with all the Heart Might and Soul and that not only all that Heart Might and Soul which a Man now hath but which a Man once had and by his own fault hath lost and therefore that Law being weak through the Flesh Rom. 8.2 that is meeting with an impotency in us exactly to fulfil it became rather a Law of Death than Life yet when Christ came into the World and brought with him a perfect Righteousness of his own whereby to justifie us in the presence of God he did likewise by an Eternal Covenant of Peace with the Father stipulate for an acceptation of this imperfect Righteousness of ours which is wrought in us by his Grace and Spirit So that as the Righteousness of Christ the Lord our Righteousness which was perfect in Degrees was by the acceptation of the Father made our Justification so the Righteousness which is begun in us here by his Grace though mingled with our own defects is accepted by God with a Promise of increase of our Glory And the same Christ that hath fulfilled a perfect Righteousness for our Justification doth continually by his own Spirit begin and support a true though imperfect Righteousness in us to our Sanctification and helps against and pardons our many infirmities and defects as he hath promised Jer. 3.12 Return thou back-sliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you Jer. 31.19 Surely 〈◊〉 I was turned I repented Is Ephraim my dear 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do 〈◊〉 remember him still Isa 42.3 A bruised reed shall â—e nâ—t break and smoaking flax shall he not quench Isa â—â— 11 He shall â—ed his flâ—ck like a shepherd he shall gather 〈…〉 with his 〈◊〉 and carry them in his bosom and shall gerth lead thâ—se that are with young Hos 11.3 〈◊〉 Ephraim also to go taking them by the arm Which several expressions shew 1. The Original of that initiate Righteousness in us even the Grace of God in Christ continually by degrees mastering our corruptions and in some measure conforming us unto him â— His Tenderness towards those small inceptions of his Grace in us cherishing and encouraging 〈◊〉 His Mercy and Goodness accepting of our sincerity and pardoning our weakness And this is that Evangelical Perfection of our Righteousness and Sanctification here And from this Advantage that the Grace of God hath over our Perfections do arise these four Consequents of it 1. Universality of Obedience 2. Constancy in it 3. Growth and increase in it 4. Renewing of our Repentance all which as they are the gifts of God so they do naturally flow from the over-matching of our Corruptions by Grace as appears in these Particulars 1. Vniversality of Obedience The Heart wherein the Grace of God hath over-matched his sinful Nature cannot allow it self in any known Sin or any known neglect of any one Command but hath respect to all God's Commandments Psal 119.6 Whosoever shall keep the whole yet if he offend in one point he is guilty of all James 2.10 The Grace of God and Sin are universally opposite one to another and as they are so in the abstract so are they in the concrete Where Sin hath an advantage in the Soul it doth oppose universally the whole Will of God and where Grace is in the Soul it doth oppose the whole will of Sin and therefore where any one Sin or neglect of any one Command of God is entertained knowingly and advisedly in the Soul there the Grace of God hath not the upper hand for the same Principle by which it acts viz. the Love of God equally engageth the Soul to every Duty and against every Sin according to the measure of Knowledge that is commmunicated to the Soul. 2. Constancy and Perseverance The change that is wrought in our Nature it is true is not in the essence of it but it is the presence of the Grace of Christ in the Heart that preserves and upholds the Heart and Life in Holiness and Righteousness If that could be withdrawn or intermitted we should like the Iron removed from the Fire soon return to our ancient Nature again but that great God whose presence alone supports all the things in Heaven and Earth in their being and
operations and whose Gifts and Callings are without Repentance hath promised to be with us to the end of the World He cannot sin because his sâ—â—d abideth in him 1 John 3.9 It is true there may be intermissions of the acting of Grace in the Heart and there may be falls in the Life but to be given over to a course of sin without repentance to be brought under the power and dominion of Sin as a King or a Ruler the Honour and Truth of God is engaged in it it shall not be 2 Thes 3.3 The Lord is faithful who shall stablish you John â—0 28 Nâ—er shall any man pluck them out of my hand Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for 〈…〉 under the Law but under Grace And these Promises of God cannot make the Heart of any one to whom they truly belong any whit the more careless or loose in his watch over himself for that very Spirit whereby those Promises are sealed to us is an active vigilant pure Spirit and puts the Heart and Life upon those Practices that do naturally and properly conduce to this very Perseverance viz. Assiduity in Duties Humble and Watchful walking before God Examination and search of the state of our Souls and Lives Jealousie over the Treachery of our own Hearts and the snares that are within us and without us a Guard upon our Affections and Senses a frequent Consideration of the Will of God of his Goodness to us in Christ of the Price wherewith we are bought of the Hope whereunto we are redeemed and all those other helps that conduce to the settling and stablishing of our Hearts and Lives in a Conformity to the Will of God and in avoiding of all those things which are contrary thereunto and consequently as contraries do would impair corrupt and destroy that Life of Grace which he hath begun in us And from hence ariseth 3. An Increase and Growth in a more exact Conformity to the Will of God than formerly This is that which is so often commended unto us by the Spirit of God Colos 2.7 Rooted and built up in him Colos 4.12 Compleat in all the will of God Phil. 1.9 that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgment 1 Cor. 15.58 abounding in the work of the Lord Heb. 13.21 make you perfect in good works to do his will Phil. 3.13 forgetting what is past and reaching forth to the things that are before Ephes 4.13 growing to a perfect man 2.16 increase of the body 2 Pet. 3.17 beware lest ye fall from your own stedfastness but grow in grace Jude 20. building up your selves in your most holy faith Prov. 4.18 Increasing more and more unto the perfect day John 15.2 Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit And as this is the Will of God so it is as naturally the effect of this Life that is wrought in the Heart as it is the effect of natural Life in the Body for it is an active and operative Life If any quality have got the mastery in a mixt Body it doth ever more and more by degrees waste and consume the contrary qualities and assimulates the whole unto it self And although as long as our Flesh hangs about us it is impossible that a compleat and absolute conquest can be wrought of all that Sin that is in us because it is a spring of Corruption yet it is wasted weakned and decayed By this work of Grace Saul's House waxeth weaker and weaker Every habit though it be moral or natural only receiveth an augmentation and degrees by its continual actings And the Grace of God which is more operative and active in the Heart than any habit can be for it is accompanied with the immediate Power and Efficacy of the Divine Spirit never stands still but like the little Leven that was hid in the great quantity of Meal it never gives over till the whole be leavened 4. Renewed Repentance Thy corrupt Nature is a Body of Sin and Death a spring of Corruption that will ever cast up mire and dirt and Grace in thy Heart is a spring of living Waters that as often as that corrupts will be washing it again When thou hast made the chamber of thy Heart as clean as thou canst yet there will be leaks in it that will let in Corruptions enough quickly to make it as foul as ever Grace by the continual examination of thy self humbling of thy Heart before God renewing thy Covenant with him doth not only pump out the filth that would poyson and drown and dam thee but stops the decays and leaks of this thy infirm Vessel When the Grace of God at first found thee thou wast dead in trespasses and sins and it came into thee and by Repentance did exercise its own act of Life to quicken thee And that same Body of Death that did at first inclose thee is still about thee and takes all opportunities to get its old mastery of thee and by this means thou catchest many a fall and bruise but that same Life by which thou livest re-acts against those inroads of sin and death and doth conquer them so that though thy renewed sins are not thy ruine yet they ought to be thy burden though they must not make thee despair yet they cannot chuse but make thee mourn though thy Saviour hath born their Guilt yet it is but equal thou shouldest bear thy shame When thou hadst no Life in thee thou couldest not feel thy self dead But now thou hast Life in thee thou canst not chuse but be sensible of thy sickness and thy hurts which thy own folly have occasioned and judge and condemn and avoid that Folly of thine that occasioned it Though thou canst not be rid of thy sins that fight against thy Life yet thou wilt not entertain them with better Entertainment than Bread of Affliction and Water of Affliction Though thou canst not expiate for any of them yet thou canst not look upon them without indignation as Traytors against thy Life and thy Peace thou canst not look upon thy self without loathing and detestation thou canst not look unto Christ without shame and confusion that one that he hath redeemed from so great a Misery with so great a Price to so great a nearness as to be a member of himself a partaker of his Spirit a Co-heir of his Glory should so unworthily so unthankfully in his sight dishonour his Head and pollute himself Thou canst not look upon what is past without Repentance nor upon what is to come without a Resolution of more Vigilance and keeping a better Guard upon thy self And yet in the midst of all these thy perplexed thoughts thou canst not chuse but admire and bless that Mercy of Christ that when thou deniest him looks back upon thee as once on Peter and with that look sends in a Messenger that makes thee go by thy self and bewail thy Relapse that leaves
nearer to thee that I may live more by Faith than Sense and to make me more exact and watchful than before Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word In the midst of thy Glory Honour Wealth Preferment Provocations from Men Injuries and Scorns it will keep thee from swelling looking big upon thy inferiours or those that have Dependance upon thee or use of thee It will take thee off from Vain-Glory Revenge Envy Disdain and such like Distempers all which proceed from a mis-understanding of a Mans self It will make thee and keep thee meek gentle affable easie to be intreated long-suffering pittiful all which are the Fruits of the Spirit wrought in the heart by this Sobriety or right judgment of our selves Galat. 5.22 which our Saviour commended to all his Disciples Matth. 18.1 by the condition of a little Child wherein Pride is not grown up though it be there in the Seed for all these Distempers rise from an opinion of greater worth merit or excellence in a Mans self than in another which a sober Man that hath a right judgment of himself finds quite otherwise And from this Sobriety arising upon a right judgment concerning our selves will arise a Behaviour Carriages and Speech answerable it will be sutable to our Nature and the Station Condition and occasion in or about which we are not arrogant giddy haughty light vain but humble setled grave constant 2. Sobriety in reference to our sensual Appetite and those Passions or Motions which arise in reference to it As the first part of Religion consists in the Conformity and Subjection of our Reason to the Will and Truth of God so the second part of it consists in the Conformity of our sensual Appetite to Reason thus rectified Now the sensual Appetite is divided in respect of her Objects and her motion towards them into the Concupiscible which is the Motion of the sensual Nature to those things which tend to the Preservation of it self and kind by Desire or the Irascible which is the aversion from or Motion of the sensual Nature against those things that are prejudicial or so apprehended The Concupiscible Appetite is that Motion of Nature which tends to its own own Preservation or to the Preservation of its kind or those things that are in order to both viz. Wealth and Power The First of these is the desire of Eating and Drinking the Excess whereof is Luxury The Second is the desire of Propagation of the kind the Excess whereof is Lust or Wantonness The Third is the desire of those Supplies which conduce to the supplying of both viz. desire of Wealth the excess whereof is Covetousness and the desire of Power to defend our selves the Excess whereof is Ambition and these I likewise place in the sensual Appetite because they are in order to the immediate Objects thereof and we find them though not in so exact a degree even in Beasts Concerning these somewhat hath formerly passed therefore in general touching the two former we say 1. That these natural inclinations or desires are in themselves good and such as were planted in our Nature by the holy God and such as are conducible to good ends viz. the Preservation and support of our Nature and Kind and the Motions of our Nature are such as proceed from that Commission which God gave to the Creature Gen. 1.28 Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and Gen. 2.17 Of every tree of the Garden thou mayst freely eâ—t both which Commissions were again renewed and enlarged Gen. 9.13 2. That we are not allowed only the use of those inclinations of our Nature for Necessity but also for Delight so as the Prescriptions hereaftermentioned be observed Deut. 12.15 Thou mayst kill and eat flesh in all thy Gates whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after according to the blessing of the Lord thy God Deut. 28.47 Because thou servedst not God with joyfulness and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things c. Prov. 5.18 Rejoyce with the Wife of thy youth 3. The sin or obliquity that happens in these inclinations of our Nature or the use of them is when they become inordinate Affections viz. out of that due Order or Position that God hath placed them in us 1. When either the Motion of these Appetites or the exercise of them is without a due Subordination to Reason which God hath placed in a superior Authority in Man above this Appetite In bruit Beasts their sensitive Appetite is their highest faculty and it knows no other Moderator than that very Appetite that God hath placed in them but in Man he hath placed a higher Nature and therefore the actings of the sensitive Appetite without this Subordination to this higher Nature is in truth in Man unnatural and contrary to the Order and Course of Nature This concerns us as we are Men. 2. When either this Motion or the Actings of it are contrary to the Mind and Will of God for this ought to be the guide of our Reason as that ought to be the guide of our Appetite And this concerns us as we are Men enlightned with the Knowledge and quickned with the Love of God. Now for want of these the sins or obliquities that happen in our sensitive Appetites are when they are acted either inconsiderately immoderately or unseasonably 1. Inconsiderately when in the use of the Creatures in reference to those inclinations of the sensitive Appetite we consider not the End for which we have them nor use them in order to that End to eat because we will eat and not because we would be sustained or consider not the Hand from which we receive them that we may use them thankfully nor the Presence of Almighty God who observes all our carriage in the use of his Blessings that so we may use them soberly and reverently 2. Immoderately There is required of us a double Moderation in the use of this Faculty 1. Moderation of our Affection to the Object 2. Moderation in the use of the Object of our Appetite The want of the former robs God of that Affection or measure of Love which we owe to him When any thing is loved beyond the proportion or measure due to it it must needs invade the Love a Man ows to God and so places that Object in the place of God. Thus Covetousness becomes Idolatry Ephes 5.5 Gluttony becomes Idolatry Whose God is their Belly For that which hath the mastery of our Love hath the command of the whole Man and if my Love to the Objects of my sensual Appetite want that due subordination to the Love I owe to God or exceed that due proportion that I owe to them when any service I owe to God or any office I owe to Man comes in competition with the satisfaction of my sensual Appetite I shall neglect the Duty I owe to God or Man. The want of the latter is when we use them in such a
few days God forbid that I should look upon it as the merit of my Charity for it was his own or that I should be therefore charitable because I expected a temporal Reward for I have therein but done my duty and am therein an unprofitable Servant But I bless God that hath made good this Truth of his even to my sensible and frequent Experience CHAP. XXIX Of Sanctification in reference to our Neighbour viz. Righteousness the Habit and Rule of it 2. THE second general wherein our Sanctification consists is Righteousness viz. that just temperature of Mind and consequently of our Conversation that respecteth other Men Herein we will consider 1. The Habit it self or habitual Righteousness 2. The Rule of it 3. The Parts of it 1. The Habit it self it is a frame and temper of Mind arising from the Love of God to give every Man his due according to the Will of God. The great Duty that the Creature owes to his Creator is Love Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy Heart and this as hath been shewn is the first and great Commandment and the first and most natural Duty and Bond that can be the Consequence of this Love is the doing all the good we can unto him and for him from whom we receive our Being now all the good we can do him is but to please him to be conformable to his Will for it is impossible that any thing can contribute any thing to him that is infinitely full all the good we can do him therefore and all the expressions of our Love consists in this viz. A free subjection and obedience to his Will. And because we find this Righteousness and Justice and Love to our Neighbour is commanded by him and is evidenced to his Will both by that natural inclination that he hath put in us by the dispensation of his Providence whereby he makes every Man useful and beneficial to another in this way of mutual Justice and by his written Word whereby he expresly requires it this Cardinal and fundamental motion of the Soul viz. the Love of God doth presently conclude that since that great God to whom I owe my self and all my Love and all my Obedience requires this duty at my hands though I could see no reason for it I would presently submit unto much more when there is so much reason for it as indeed God doth not require my Obedience in any thing but if it be well considered is most admirably consonant to sound Reason and to my own advantage Deut. 4.6 Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations so that the foundation of habitual Righteousness is Love to God the Consequence of that Love to God is a rational universal and voluntary Obedience to his Will and Command the Command of God next to Love to himself is to love our Neighbours the expression of that Love is in acts of Righteousness and Justice to them hence it is called the second great Commandment the great Injunction that Christ gave to his followers the fulfilling of the whole Law. 2 The Rule of Righteousness In our original Condition God gave unto Man a Rule of Righteousness by the immediate impression and revelation of his own Mind unto him and inclination to submit â—to it And this although it was much defaced yet was not wholly taken away by his Fall. So much was by the Divine Providence conveyed from Man to Man as left the Offender without excuse But as the River ran farther from the Fountain so it became more foul and polluted the sins of Men contesting with and corrupting by degrees that traditional Righteousness which was derived from Man to Man But the merciful God was pleased as the sins and corruptions of Mankind did make breaches into this Rule of Righteousness and corrupted the manners of Men so he was pleased in the ways of his Providence to repair it in some measure in all Ages raising up Prophets and Preachers of Righteousness as Noah was to the old World exciting and by his powerful and wise Spirit enabling Men to make Laws and Constitutions in States and Kingdoms which though they were not of his own immediate dictating yet he attributes too little to the Wisdom and Providence of God that doth attribute the inventing and composing of those useful and righteous Laws even among the Heathen to the meer Wisdom and discovery of Men when he himself leads us up unto himself even in the low Projections of the Plowman Isa 38.26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him It is true that there is a kind of natural Consonancy of the Rules of Justice and Righteousness to the well being of Men and Societies of Men as is most evident both where that Justice is and where it is not and by the observation of the now aged World and of the success and motions of Mankind much may be collected both of the Necessity of Righteousness and of the Parts and Particulars wherein it consists But God yet more careful of his Creature hath not left us to our own Collections wherein the varieties of Manners the growth of Sin and Corruptions and our own Blindness may deceive us or perplex us but hath given us a written Rule of Righteousness the Word of the Old and New Testaments He hath shewed thee O man what is good Micah 6.8 Deuteronom 30.14 The word is very nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it Now the Word of God is considerable as a Rule of Righteousness 1. Absolutely and in it self and therein it is considerable how the Law Moral Ceremonial and Judicial alone or joyned with the Expositions and Counsels of the Gospel are a Rule of Righteousness 2. Relatively and thus the Word of God sends us to two other but subordinate Rules 1. Subjection to Humane Laws Be obedient to every Ordinance of Man for Conscience sake 1. Pet. 2.13 2. Conscience in that great Rule Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you that do you unto them 1. The first Consideration the Scripture as it is the Rule of all Divine Truth so it is a perfect Rule of Righteousness both towards God and Man 2 Tim 3.16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to every good work There wants nothing in the Rule to acquire Perfection though by reason of the defect in the subject it cannot be attained 1. The Law of God is a Rule of Righteousness viz. the Moral Law. It is true in these two â—derations the Law is not binding to the 〈…〉 since the coming of Christ to the 〈…〉 1. It is not binding to the Gentiles as a Covenant for so it was in a particular manner given to the Jews and not to the Gentiles The External
laid down for the Sins of the World namely the precious Life of his own Son Jesus Christ that published this Doctrine to the World And this Sacrifice and Satisfaction the glorious God would accept in a way of Justice and yet in a way of Mercy that his Justice might be satisfied his Mercy magnified and his Creature saved 8. And that because it would be neither agreeable to the Honour nor the Wisdom of Almighty God that any Man that had the use of his Reason and Understanding should have the fruit and benefit of this Mercy and Sacrifice without returning to his Duty to God by true Repentance for what he had done amiss and by better Obedience to God neither was there any fitness or suitableness between a Pure and Holy God or that Blessedness which Mankind might expect with him and a People that should yet continue desperately sinful and impure and it was also reasonable and fit that if Mankind would expect the Restitution to that everlasting Happiness that they lost by their own sins and the sin of their first Parents then they should also return to their Duty and Obedience to God and perform in some measure that End for which Mankind was at first created namely actively to glorifie that God that had made them especially after so great an addition of Mercy as the Redemption of the World by the Death of his own Son therefore he appointed and intended and published to the World that all that would have the fruit and benefit of this great Redemption should repent of their Sins and endeavour sincerely to obey the Precepts of Piety Sobriety and Righteousness commanded by Almighty God by the Message of his Son. 9. And because that if those to whom this Message of the Gospel of Christ should be published should yet not believe the same nor believe that Jesus was the true Messias or that his Doctrine was the true and real Message of Almighty God to the World it could never be expected that they would obey this Heavenly Command nor return to God or the Duty they owed him he did therefore require of all Persons that were of Understanding to whom the Gospel should be published that they should Believe it to be True and believe that Christ was the True Messias the great Sacrifice for the Sin of the World and the Doctrine which he preached was the Will of God concerning Man. 10. And thus there are these Conditions to be performed on the part of those that will expect the Benefit of the Redemption purchased by the Blood of Christ 1. That all that are of Understanding to whom the Gospel is preached should Believe it to be the Truth and rest upon it as the Truth of God 2. That they should be heartily sorry for their former Sins and Repent of them and turn from them This is Repentance 3. That they should in all Sincerity endeavour to conform their Hearts and Wills and Lives to the Precepts and Commandments of Christ and his Gospel which is called Sanctification and new Obedience 11. And because when we have done all we can yet we are in this Life compassed about with many Infirmities and Temptations and subject to fail in our Duty to God and to these Holy Precepts of the Gospel yet the merciful God hath assured us by his Son Christ Jesus that if we sincerely endeavour to obey the Precepts of the Gospel and repent for our Failings herein and so renew our Peace with God by unfeigned Repentance the same Sacrifice of his Son shall be accepted to expiate for our Sins and Failings and the blessed God will accept of our sincere though imperfect Obedience as a Performance of that part of the Covenant of the Gospel that concerns our Obedience to God and the Commands of the Gospel And this is called Evangelical Obedience which though it be not perfect yet being sincere and accompanied with real and sincere Endeavours to obey and Repentance for our daily Failings is accepted of God through the Sacrifice of Christ who is not only our Sacrifice and Propitiation but also our Intercessor and Mediator at the right hand of God. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ who sitteth at the right hand of the Father 1 John 2.1 Heb. 8.1 10.12 12. And because many times Example gives a great Light and Life to Precepts our blessed Saviour in his Life gave us an excellent Example of the Practice of those Precepts which he hath given to us as namely Obedience and Submission to the Will of God Invocation upon him Holiness Purity Sobriety Patience Righteousness Justice Charity Compassion Bounty Truth Sincerity Uprightness Heavenly mindedness low esteem of Worldly Glory Condescension and all those Graces and Vertues that he requires and expects from us 18. And as thus our Lord Jesus came to instruct us in all things necessary for us to believe and practise and to give us an admirable Pattern and Example of a Holy and Vertuous Life so 2. He came to die for us and to die such a Death as had in it all the Circumstances of Bitterness and yet accompanied with unspotted Innocence and incomparable Patience and he thus died for these Ends. 1. To lay down a Ransom for the Sins of Mankind and a Price for the Purchace of Everlasting Life and Happiness for all those that receive him believe in him and obey the Gospel 2. To satisfie the Justice of God to make good his Truth to vindicate the Honour of his Government and to proclaim his Justice his Indignation against Sin and yet to magnifie his Love and Mercy to Mankind in giving his Son to be a Price of their Redemption 3. To give a just indication unto all the World of the vileness of Sin the abhorrence of it that cost the Son of God his Life when he was but under the imputed guilt of it that so Mankind might detest and avoid Sin as the vilest of Evils 4. To give a most unparallel'd Instance of his Love to the World that did chuse to die for the Children of Men to redeem them from Everlasting Death 5. And thereby to oblige Mankind with the most obliging and indearing Instance to love and obey that Jesus that thus died for them and out of the common Principles of Humanity and Gratitude to love and obey him that thus loved them and laid down his Life for them 6. To give a most convincing Evidence of the Truth of his Doctrine and the Sincereness of his Professions of Love to Mankind by sealing the same with his own Blood. FINIS Considerations Seasonable at all Times for the Cleansing OF THE HEART AND LIFE Considerations Seasonable at all Times for the Cleansing OF THE HEART and LIFE 1. OF God and therein 1. Of his Purity and Holiness one that cannot endure to behold iniquity The Stars are not pure in his sight Job 25.5 Job 15.15 and his Angels he chargeth with folly Job 4.18
Rule whereby God justifies the equality of his ways Ezek. 18.25 Is not my way equal are not your ways unequal When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dyeth in them for his iniquity that he hath done he shall dye Again When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness c. he shall save his Soul alive which is but the same under the Gospel Rom. 2.6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds Though the great God be absolute Lord of his Creatures to do with them what he pleaseth yet the various conditions of his Creatures in the course of Judgments and Mercies are not from any change in God but in us it is the same Holiness and Purity of God that is uniform and constant to it self that works these different effects upon the Creature as the same uniform heat of the Sun works seeming contrary effects according to the diversity of the subject so that his ways are still equal streight and righteous And this consideration as it may strengthen our hearts in the Promises of God so it will make the Histories of the Book of God of singular use to us upon all occasions when we shall with David Psal 77.10 I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High I will remember the works of the Lord I will remember thy wonders of old and together with it consider that the same Lord that did thus or thus in former times is the same God yesterday to day and for ever And by this consideration every History in the Book of God is as a measure for all the present or future concernments of my self and others and will teach me how to behave my self in the like occasions and to judge even of future Events In the passages of Nature we see a wonderful order and constancy for the most part for all things conform themselves to those Rules which God hath put into them and that is the best and highest resolution we can give for them for when we come to make a particular inquiry into the particular causes of those things there is not the easiest part of his Work and that which long and constant continuance hath made obvious to all men but the wisest of men notwithstanding all these advantages are puzled and confounded in because the God of Nature hath not revealed it to men Psal 77.19 His way is in the Sea and his path in the great waters and his footsteps are not known There we see a certainty but we cannot find the immediate Instrument or Cause of it But in the passages of Mankind we are to seek for any certainty at all or the Causes of that uncertainty whch made the Wise man conclude that God had set the one against the other that men should find nothing after him Eccles 7.14 which is most certainly true as to a bare natural or rational observation Yet even these Works of God are sought out of all them that have pleasure in them Psal 111.2 and though his Judgments are a great deep Psal 36.6 unsearchable and past finding out Rom. 11.33 till he is pleased to discover them yet he is still Unchangeable and the same yesterday and to day and for ever So much even of those secret ways towards men as is expedient for our knowledge and use he hath discovered in his Book to those that will diligently observe it Thus the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psal 25.14 The most of the varieties that happen to the Children of men do arise from the Immutability of God in his Purity and in his Justice If a streight Line be drawn parallel to another though they be infinitely extended they will keep the same distance one from another but if the Line be crooked it will be in some places nearer some places farther off and it may be will cross the streight Line God hath given to man a Liberty of his Will and so long as his Will and the Actions of his Will ran parallel in a streight Line to the Will of God there was still a communication of Good from God to his Creature But when man chose crooked ways he is drawn thereby sometimes away from God and so is removed from his Blessings and Communion sometimes it crosseth and thwarts him and then it meets with his Wrath and Vengeance And this must needs be so unless we should with the presumptuous Fool in the Psalmist Psal 50.21 think that God is such a one as our selves and his Will as crooked as ours If a bare reasonable man had looked upon the state of the Jews from the time of their going out of Egypt until their final Captivity he would easily see as much variety as in any state of men and perhaps see as little cause for it But yet that very changeableness of their condition doth most admirably set forth the Immutability of God and instruct us how to judge of things and men They were a People in Covenant with him and he was pleased to enter into Covenant with them and so long as they kept to their undertaking not one tittle of all his Promise failed them But when they once forsook him he warns and if they repent not he forsakes them if they walk contrary to him he walks contrary to them and if after all this they return and repent he returns to them see Psal 106 107. the abbreviation of their Vicissitudes And when at last they were wholly corrupted then the wrath of God arose and there was no remedy All these varieties justifie the Equality and Evenness of the ways of God and manifest the crookedness and inequality of the ways of Men. And is God the same now that he was then his ways then are the same now that they were then Art thou one that hast entred into Covenant with God beware thou keep to it and walk humbly with thy God if not be sure thou shalt meet with the like measure as his People of old did his Justice is the same still he will scourge thee with the rod of men though if thou hast a heart to return he will not utterly take his loving-kindness from thee And hast thou met with the fruit of this sin in a temporal punishment consider it is an evil thing and a bitter to depart from the Living God. What madest thou wander from thy strength and thy safety as well as thy Covenant and thy Duty What couldest thou expect to find when thou straglest from him but that some evil should overtake thee Get home again as fast as thou canst and as thou hast found that he is the same God of Justice that ever he was so thou shalt find that he is the same God of Mercy and Tenderness upon returning that ever he was Psal 106.45 And he remembred for them his Covenant and repented according to the multitude of his Mercies It is true the same thing may befal
of the Law and Gospel Gal. 3.24 Circumcision typical of that of the Heart Rom. 2.29 Their state in Egypt Typical The Passover a most effectual Type of Christ 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ the true Passover and therefore the Sacrifice of Christ and of the Passover went together Matth. 26. Eaten whole Exod. 12. Not a bone of him to be broken eaten with bitter Herbs typifying Repentance the Blood sprinkled secures from the wrath of God with Hyssop a cleansing Herb Psal 51. Purge me with hyssop a Feast as well as a Sacrifice John 6.55 The Manna a Type of Christ who was that Bread of God that came down from Heaven John 6.33 The hidden Manna Revel 2.17 The Cloud and Red Sea a Type of Baptism into Christ 1 Cor. 10.1 The Jews in Egypt like the state of the unconverted World hence the World called Spiritual Egypt In their Passage out they are entertained with a Sacramental Initiation they are militant in the Wilderness of the World triumphant in Canaan the rest the water out of the Rock a Type of Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 That Rock was Christ But principally the Levitical Law was a shadow of the good things to come in Christ Heb. 8.5 Who was the End of the Law. And as the Judicial Law among the Jews did not only contain Precepts in themselves naturally good but also Typical and Sacramental Observations of that inward Sanctification and frame of Mind that God required so the Levitical Law did not only contain Precepts of that internal habitude of Love Fear and Obedience unto God admirably delivered through the whole Book of Deuteronomy but also divers Types and Figures which had a double use 1. Of evidencing the full Obedience to those Positive Commands of God because commanded by him 2. Figures of Christ to come and of that frame and constitution of Men and things in relation to him as we may observe in divers Particulars 1. The Covenant between God and Israel the Stipulation on God's part Exod. 19.5 If ye will obey my voice and keep my Covenant ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people and ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and an Holy Nation Exod. 34.10 Behold I make a Covenant Before all thy people I will do marvels c. The Stipulation on the Peoples part Exod. 19.8.24.7 All that the Lord hath spoken we will do This is that Covenant which the Lord made with the People in Horeb Deut. 5.2 And the tenor of this Covenant renewed and explained viz. Blessing to Obedience and Curses to Disobedience Deut. 29.10 c. Ye stand this day before the Lord your God that thou shouldest enter into Covenant with â—he Lord thy God and into his oath c. Accordingly in Christ a new Covenant made Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.10 A New Covenant I will put my Laws into their hearts I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People 2. As that Covenant was mutual consisted in somewhat promised by God somewhat undertaken by the People Obedience to the Law that God gave them so the Covenant here is reciprocal In the Gospel of God there is a double Covenant 1. A Covenant between God the Father and God the Son that the Son should take upon him Flesh and satisfie for the sins of the Elect Psal 40.6 Heb. 10.9 A body hast thou prepared me lo I come to do thy will O God on God's part a Covenant that those which should be so redeemed should be given over to Christ and united unto him in the nearest relation that is possible John 17. They whom thou hast given me Verse 21. That they may be one in us But of this more infra 2. A Covenant between God the Father in Christ with Man and this is likewise reciprocal On God's part to give Remission of Sins and Eternal Life in Christ to as many as lay hold of this Covenant John 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that every one that believeth on me should have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day Ibid. 47. He that believeth on me hath everlasting life John 7.37 John 12.44 John 3.36 Rom. 3.28 Heb. 8.10 And because he must make him a People that may entertain the Covenant before he can have a reciprocal from them God gives a heart to believe to those that are his that so they may enter into Covenant with God John 6.29 This is the work of God that ye believe Verse 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me Verse 65. No man can come unto me except it be given of my Father Ephes 2.8 This is the putting of the Law in their Hearts Heb. 8.10 And this part of God's Covenant is made rather for us than with us even with and in Christ in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 For these Promises are Eternal Promises an Eternal Covenant given to Christ for the Elect even before they had a Being or could possibly receive them On the part of the People of Christ there is likewise a Covenant too he hath given us Commandments of Obedience John 13 1â— Love one to another Ibid. Verse 34. If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14.15.21.23 Love to Christ Perseverance John 15.9 10. Bringing forth Fruit Ibid. 16. Doing Righteousness 1 John 2.29 Purifying our selves 1 John 3.3 7.9.10 Crucifying Affections and Lusts Galat. 5.24 Zealous of Good Works Tit. 2.14.3.18 Thus God out of his free Love appoints us to Eternal Life in Christ freely gives Christ to be the purchace of it freely promiseth Life for us in him through Faith freely gives us Faith to come to him which when it is wrought our Covenant again with God is but to return a fruit of his own Grace True Faith in Christ cannot be without a sense of this Love of God nor that without a return of Love to him again nor that without a Care to walk according to his Will for if ye love me ye will keep my Commandments And yet he is pleased to accept and reward the work of his own free Grace as the return of us poor and weak Men. 3. This Covenant was ordained in the hands of a Mediator Gal. 3.19 Moses alone came near the Lord and told the People all the words of the Lord and the People answered with one Voice All the words which the Lord hath said will we do Exod. 24.3 The Second Covenant ordained likewise in the hands of a Mediator even Christ Heb. 12.24 Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant 4. The first Covenant Sealed with Blood Exod. 24.8 Moses took the blood and sprinkled on the people and said Behold the blood of the Covenant thus likewise Christ sealed the second Covenant with his Blood Heb. 9.14 And therefore called the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10.29 The Blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 And the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet.