leave impressions of an immortall nature on their spirits How can soules see Jesus Christ as the manifestation of God behold him as one received up into glory and sitting at the right hand of God and have it as truth within him and not be drawn out in strong desires of Communion with him and have the reflexions of his holiness and glory on the heart What is godliness but God shining in light and working in life in the soule Take thy picture of truth which thou thinkest thou hast in thy understanding and sit down and rejoyce in the high-flown notions of God and Christ thou knowing Professor while poore soules enjoy the life and power the beauty and substance of all truth within their hearts Obs 2. The second thing of worth is this How full Pauls heart is when he begins to speake of the things of the Gospell like a man that is full of griefe or joy longs to have vent and breakes off on a sudden from his former discourses so doth the Apostle he was to swim out into a great deep and his heart cannot hold he speaks as a man overmatched with matter that is faine to speake broken expressions without controversie c. High manifestations of God should be expressed with great affections as God let out himselfe so our hearts must be taken a little love and admiration will not serve when God manifests himselfe in a mystery the best frame of spirit a soule can be in when he is meditating or to speake of Gospell-mysteries is to be astonished at them as one that knows not where to begin or end you never have known the mysteries of God which have not admired them Use All the use I would make of this to you is to get affections sutable to manifestations to rise as God rises Oh let not your hearts be low when God is high in love and glory Souls which are wrapt up in the bosome of glorious enjoyments that apprehend God in his discoveries of himself cannot but be lost in the thoughts of them then are your soules in a spirituall frame when they worke in the sight of God in Christ and sutable to the openings of his heart the more your hearts are full of these apprehensions the more you will breake forth in admirations But now to the words themselves and in them first of the Preface without Controversie c. The Apostle speaks as one so confident that all did grant it to be truth that there need no farther debate but the laying down the very things themselves The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies an absolute and cleare confession of a thing without doubt or scruple and it is as much as if the Apostle had said by the confession of all it is so it is a confessed truth by all the Saints not one disputing or denying it that godlinesse is a great mystery in all these particulars I need give you no confirmation at all of it it is without question to deny it is to be wilfully blind and desperate Obs That there are principles and mysteries of godliness cleare and undeniable to all the Saints He doth not say I confess it is so and all that I have conversed withall but all that have had any light of the spirit confesse this to be true it is a thing generally received without any controversie at all In the opening this I shall shew 1. That there are principles of godliness as of other things 2. That they are confest by the Saints For the first As there are principles in every Art or Science which are as the foundations of other things so likewise in divinity such as the Apostle Heb. 6.1 cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation and Heb. 5.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first principles and now cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mystery and to prove 1. Because divinity or godliness is the most demonstrative and certaine knowledge of things that can be now principles are the foundation of all demonstration if there were not principles there could be no certainty of knowledge No man could speake any thing no man could beleeve any thing if there were not common and generall foundations or principles to build upon therefore this must be granted that God hath left something in Religion which is without dispute 2. If there were not set and absolute principles there could be no common faith or common experience among the Saints none could know the condition of one another or be able to judge of one another neither of things themselves Now the Apostle speakes of a common faith and in another place there is but one faith one baptisme one hope among all the Saints 2 Pet. 1.2 That other Foundation no man can lay than what is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 in Gal. 1. no preaching of anothor Gospell no though by an Angell from heaven But I need prove that no farther 2. These principles are confest by all the Saints this is that the Apostle aimes at that none of the Saints scrupled this That Godlinesse was a great mystery in every one of the particulars mentioned Consider 1. That which belongs to a Saint as a Saint to his very being he cannot be ignorant of as that Jesus Christ died and by his merits we are pardoned that from him is all life that God was manifested in him and accepts us by him that we come to him by faith and enjoy him by our union these things go to the constitution of a Saint faith towards our Lord Jesus and repentance towards God he is not a Saint which knows not this for they are the principles of his being indeed the largeness and extent of these principles The priviledge of his being he may be ignorant for they are successively manifested as the glory of his union and the fulnesse of grace and the rich assurance of it to his own soule these he may be doubtfull in but to question this whether Christ be the Son of God hath died and is risen againe these he cannot be ignorant of for his faith is vaine if these things be not true and granted by him he is no Saint if Christ be no Saviour but for the manner of making out this of what full efficacy Christs Death and Resurrection is and the like and the manner of applying this he may be exceeding darke in 2. The principles of godliness are laid down so positive and so plaine that the light that every Saint receives makes him beleeve them these things are exprest in absolute termes that Christ is the only Saviour and nothing to be joyned with him that justification is freely by grace that in Adam all have sinned that all which are in Christ are new Creatures with such like expressions so that the first and most common light of faith assents to them there be some things in the Word in which there lies a great deale of beauty and glory not so nakedly exprest nor so obvious
that to us which we were to be made he makes that person for the glory of the transaction a head to Angels and men and presents him to the view of these blessed creatures that they might admire him and then as a way to manifest it to us makes a Gospell which shall containe the sum of all this designe and causeth it to be preached and proclaimed to all the world and because there was nothing in the creatures at all to move him it is to be preached freely and that to the Gentiles to the worst of sinners without exception and then these poore sinners which have been thus loved they beleeve on it entertaine it joyfully are made one with this person thus set forth have all applied to themselves and then this person and all these soules are taken up unto glory together and enjoy the fulnesse of God himselfe this is the Epitome of the mystery but every particular as well as the whole is a great mystery and past the apprehension of men and Angels to fathome The whole work of Salvation is acted by none other than God himselfe severall manifestations first in the person of Christ and that in severall habits and then in us and that in severall conditionâ— but still it is God acting towards us and acting us towards him God comes down from heaven and acts out his love to us in five various formes and under divers considerations and as he goes along gathers us into it and then at last goes up againe into glory and carries all us with him he lets down Christ as a platforme of his own love and makes him act before our eyes all his glory and then according to the severall out-goings of his love discovers him to us and at last wraps us up with Jesus Christ into his own fulnesse glory was the end that was the condition which we were designed unto but God lets out this glory first in severall sparkles and then contracts them all in himselfe againe and receives us up into it herein lie mysteries like mountaines one upon another and they reach up to the heavens not a manifestation of God but hath been in a mystery beyond all the apprehensions of the whole world love breaks out in a direct line but as it goes along winds up it selfe in such a variety of contrary and unthought of discoveries as that it amazeth men and Angels So that this is the totall God acting in Christ and he in us and both received up into his infinite fulnesse which is here called glory Oh therefore to conclude all let all your spirits be taken up in the admiration of these mysteries what we cannot expresse do you labour to enjoy take not up your heads and hearts with trifles ordinary and low things when you have such depths of love and wisdome to study and enjoy the sweetnesse of thinke nothing worthy of a glance of your eye or a thought of your heart but this Great mystery of Godlinesse And in all your apprehensions of the Gospell wonder not if you see not at first the glory and beauty of them you must consider there is a mystery in every one of them thinke not in a slight and ordinary glance to understand divine mysteries they will take up the most serious and most sublime thoughts and swallow them up at the very entrance on them Get the key of divine mysteries if you will open them exactly that is the Spirit of the Lord sence and reason will never unlock the depths of such mysteries he which will know the mind of God must have his own Spirit to reveale it Foure things are required to all knowledge An Eye an Object a Medium and Light the Object is supposed 1. There must be an organ or capacity to see though things be never so cleare no man can see without an Eye therefore the naturall man cannot see the things of God because he wants an Eye you must get a spirituall eye a divine judgement for whatsoever is received in is per medium recipientis your old understandings will not serve to judge of Gospell-mysteries 2. You must have a divine light to shine on this Object before you can see it Christ is in himselfe out of sight and the mysteries of the Gospell are too far above all the light of nature and reason too and therefore the light of the Spirit must be waited on 3. You must have a fit medium to convey this light to your eye and that is the Word of God in the Scriptures through that word the Spirit shines and opens the light and beauty of these truths to us Study the Scriptures wait on the Spirit in them and you shall know the deep things of God and I may adde this as the last get the power and life of truth in your hearts and then you will soone know the mystery get your hearts wrapt up in the life and beauty of truth and you will soone know the meaning of it FINIS
not wherewithall to lay his head he dies in that flesh and is glorified in it and joynes it so nigh as that there is a communion of properties between them that attributed to God which is proper to flesh as to be borne to suffer that to flesh which is only proper to God who can choose but wonder when he thinkes of this phrase that a peece of flesh should be called God and God who is immortall incomprehensible be made flesh and dwell among us flesh infinitely provoking God and God in the same Flesh infinitely pleased and satisfied God veiling himselfe with Flesh which was a way to darken his glory and yet unveiling at the same time the deepest and darkest of his designes in the most blessed and comfortablest way to soules this swallows up our thoughts and raiseth our faith to beleeve any thing after this when a soule can look on God as in his owne flesh and see him at one time as Saviour and his Father and his Friend and his Reconciler as his Justification and his Sanctification how can his heart containe within it selfe but leap out of it selfe as one lost in the admiration of it all the actings of Salvation turne upon this hinge when Christ was borne into the world the Apostle saith Joh. 1.14 We saw his glory as of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth noting out that at first sight of him so much glory sparkled from him as could appear from none but a God walking up down the world or at least his own naturall Son that came out of his bosome I will adde but two things by way of use to shut up this point Vse 1. Study this mystery above all things nothing so pleasant nothing more deep come but once to know the mystery of God in our flesh and thou wilt desire soone to be taken into fellowship with it the Apostle desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified this is none other than the Lord Jesus whatever expression is given of godlinesse it is none other than God in Christ what delight should soules take in the looking on their own happinesse with what joy should we draw water out of this well of Salvation the great reason of the shallownesse of our comforts the shortnesse of our hopes the faintnesse of our spirits the lownesse of our graces is from the not knowing this mystery we looke on our selves on our present attainements at some scattered promises but not fully on God in Christ God in our own flesh a soule would see here a fountaine opened of grace and comfort that could never run dry 1. God hath set our own nature as a vast pipe to his Godhead that it may flow out in all manner of fulnesse upon our hearts our flesh stands not for a cypher but it is an Organ of life and grace to us If we saw such a fulnesse in our owne flesh laid in on purpose to inrich us would we be so poor want so much VVe eye this and that but know not that all the fulnesse of God lies in our own Flesh to be emptied upon us 2. God hath in our own flesh laid out the modell and draught of what he will doe unto all his Saints for ever for he made Christ the great Epitome of all his designe and thou maiest see thorough thy flesh at once what thou art design'd unto and how high and rich thou shalt be what a design God hath upon thee for look what was done to our Nature in Christ shall at length be done to all the persons of the Saints in Heaven If we knew this how high would our hopes be and how lofty our expectations after the utmost inrichings of the great God For to what end hath God made flesh so glorious but to shew what he will by that make us 3. What ever God is in himselfe thorough our flesh he is to us if he be good or mercifull or gracious or powerfull c. For this manifestation is a suiting of all that God is to us that when we eye this mystery we may see what ever God is acted out to the comfort and benefit of our owne poor soules God himselfe making all his attributes and glory serviceable to the good ends of his poor creature and that in and thorough their owne flesh Oh my Brethren let not such a strong hold be passed by not such a treasury be unlookt into In this mystery you have Heaven brought downe to Earth yea more then Heaven For God himselfe is come downe to open his heart to you Let nothing take off your eye from this set Faith on work immediately to eye this fulnesse one mite of Faith on God in Christ that is in our owne Nature brings in more grace and comfort then a thousand considerations of any thing else yea indeed it is the only spirituall way of conveighing all comfort to the soule there is no saving knowledge of God but as he is manifest in Christ and doe not thinke that God is gone out of flesh that is that Christ hath left his humane Nature behind him and is only gone up in his spirit to Heaven nor but this flesh of thine is received up into glory and stand as an eternall monument of love and is the great Ordinance unto the end of the world of life and salvation and God shall come againe in the same flesh though not as abased but glorified Oh Brethren what successive sweetnesse and without any intermission would flow out on your hearts if you did by Faith lay your heads at this pipe How canst thou want grace when thy own flesh hath it without measure and on purpose to fill thee why art thou sad when thy own Nature is made reconciler of thee to God Bretheren you live not like men under this design that know what such a mystery meanes you would see enough and to spare a redundancy of every thing you want in this Lord Jesus and the floods of immortality and glory would soone break over your unbeliefe and swell your hopes and joyes beyond all bounds God hath made our Nature a Myne of all sorts of rich and pretious graces that by digging into it we may see our estate Whatever the person of Christ hath in himselfe is all to convey unto us Oh that you were but insighted into these glories had but acquaintance with this discovery of God how blessed might you live What a happinesse must it needs be to see God in our own Nature and our Natures in him and to behold nothing else but love acting in a fulnesse of all grace and glory to a poor soule Let your whole spirits be carried out thus fully to Jesus Christ and with both hands even with heart and soule claspe about Jesus Christ and you will soon find depths of love and grace power and sweetnesse overflowing and swallowing up your heart A soule hath space enough to expatiate its selfe and hath a
sure Rock to rest on other things are narrow and circumscribe the thoughts all the promises of particular graces are gathered up in this one manifestation of God Thinke upon love in this or that communication either in outward or inward graces still we are shut up our thoughts can goe beyond all that but God manifested in Christ there is room enough for a soule to let out his utmost thoughts and to inlarge his affections and yet there is no taking in by one soule the vastnesse of this mystery or the compleatnesse of this fulnesse When a soule hath got out grace enough for this condition and yet still that fountaine runs and knowes no proportion if we would therefore study to know how to use this mystery we should find out comforts exceeding our doubts and our supplies our wants VVhen Saylers are out in the Ocean they feare not though storms arise and the Ship tosse But when they come nigh land then they feare Sand and Rocks then lye undiscovered So it is with a poor soule as long as he lancheth out by Faith into the fulnesse of Christ it is safe in the midst of the greatest stormes all the feares of unbeliefe are when we come nigh the shore of our own duties and performances and come to see the land of our weak workings then wee come into shallow water and stick fast in misprisions and are scattered by doubts and feares because there is not water enough not a stream deep enough to bear up the burthen of our sinking and dying soules That we may therefore know how to act our Faith to get strong consolation and full supplies 1. Faith must goe directly unto God as in our flesh that is unto Jesus Christ and take in nothing by the way which may divert its strength never stop untill it fasten on this fulnesse of God in Christ For when the eye of Faith roles here and there and takes in but partiall sights of Christ as in some particular promise only of this and that grace and doth not fully set on Jesus Christ as God in our Nature it loseth the efficacy of that influence which also would come and besides it divides the strength of its owne act which is most strong as it doth adaequately relye on Jesus Christ and singly closeth in with him for the truth is promises and actings or what ever way God lets out himselfe is but to allure and draw on the soule to an immediate close with the person of Jesus Christ 2. Know that though there be some things in Christ which are most proper for some acts of Faith as Christ dying and crucified for a recumbents Faith unto the satisfying of his soule in the pardon of sin yet the strongest and purest acts of Faith are these which take in Christ as such a person laid out in all his glory and all his offices as sutable to the condition of the soule And the more comprehensive acts of Faith are taken in Christ in his fulnesse the more are the injoyments of it and the more lively the influences As the more Iron is set at the advantage of the strongest point of the Loadstone and adaequately laid for an immediate close the stronger expression is left and the more powerfull it is attracted all such electricall bodies worke as all other according to the propinquity immediation and adaequatenesse of the approach of other things of a sutable Nature to them Therefore the Apostle saith Heb. 12. looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith standing and beholding as with a stedfast eye what he is from first to last as the Author and finisher of our Faith So in another place 1 Pet. 2. To whom come as to a living stone we are built up c. These loose and transient glances on the actions and offices of Christ bring in but loose and ordinary communications but hearty and full out-goings to him as God is in him and as such a person thus and thus qualified from Heaven carries power and life with it And these vast and serious spirits who are not content only with flashie or secondary actings on Jesus Christ but are longing to be diving into the depths of Christs glory and excellency carry along with them impressions of an abiding and transforming Nature Oh therefore be ambitious only of apprehending what is the riches of this glorious mystery and let not course and common apprehensions of Christ content you Some think it a carnall apprehension of Jesus Christ to know him as in flesh it is true to apprehend him absolutely so as only having flesh and going up and down in weaknesse But to consider Christ as God manifested in flesh and that flesh acted by God and filled with God is a true and spirituall apprehension of Christ and that wherein lies one of the greatest mysteries of godlinesse for we are not to understand this as a mystery only for that time As if God came and once manifested himself in flesh to satisfie for the sins of his Elect and so to leave it down againe but very flesh remaines to this day and shall remaine and all the spirit and life which the Saints shall have unto the end of the world is to be conveyed through that person which hath our flesh yea the Spirit it selfe dwels in it and is conveyed through it therefore looke upon this as a standing manifestation of God to your soules and beleeve perfectly on it See but how God hath fitted an object for faith in this mystery This expression that God was manifest in Flesh is so laid out that it doth as it were create faith in every soule that looks in it 1. What is fitter for a poore soule who hath nothing than God himselfe who is the utmost object of faith the happinesse of the poore creature depending on his relying on God But 2. Because God himselfe is offended and the soule cannot find ground for faith in God himselfe you have God manifested in our own Flesh that is God takes up our nature and joynes it to himselfe as one person and laies out that before faith So that here is God and God suited to the particular state and condition of the sinner and not only barely acting towards us but manifested in the greatest love and fulnesse to us whatever may feed the humour of unbeliefe is destroyed in this For God hath laid in that in our own nature which doth not only suit but swallow up the wants and miseries of poore soules There be but three things can hinder faith 1. The infinite exactnesse of divine justice which must be satisfied 2. The exceeding unworthinesse of the soule 3. And in the sight of both these the want of a Mediatour or some sutable person which may stand between the sinner and God which the soule may go unto and first close withall before it deales with the infinite glory of God himselfe Now in this mystery faith is fully satisfied 1. God hath
eye fast on one thing but another as glorious comes to be presented Brethren what a blessed thing is it to live in God to be viewing the mysteries of godlinesse Seeing God himselfe is laid out before your eye as in manifold manifestations of his own glory Saints may do nothing else but ravish their hearts with the diversity of heavenly light which breakes forth from the bosome of God One would thinke there needed no other mystery to take up the thoughts of a Saint but this that the blessed God is manifested in flesh Who is able to reach the fulnesse of this discovery But yet you have another mystery as great and amazing springs out before your eyes to astonish you that this God was justified in spirit The first respects his humiliation in our flesh The other the beginning of his exaltation and yet these are only various expressions of Jesus Christ our Mediatour There was two great things to be done for the salvation of sinners Satisfaction and Justification God now in regard of these two considerations manifests himselfe as in two form as First in flesh as abased and humbled that in our own nature he might satisfie for our sins and lay a ground-worke of eternall communion with us and then as a testimony of the reality of this satisfaction he was justified by or in the spirit So that you have Christ set out in these two considerations as standing in our own flesh to beare the guilt and charge the misery and punishment of our sins and as discharged and justified from all these by the spirit There be these things to be opened 1. What it is to justifie 2. What meant by spirit 3. How God is said to be justified in spirit For the first to justifie or to be justified are words though commonly spoken yet much mistaken Bellarmine and the Jesuits take it ever in a Physicall sence for the infusing habituall principles of grace in the heart and so make it all one with Sanctification that so by that they might have a way of setting up their own righteousnesse equall with if not above the righteousnesse of Christ and yet it is not to be denied but sometimes this word signifies to make just But the common and usuall signification is first to pronounce or declare one just So Luke 16.15 Wisdome is justified of her children that is all the sons of wisdome will vindicate her from all the false aspersions cast on her by the sons of folly in the world and pronounce her righteous that there are the issues of life in her waies That thou mayest be justified by thy sayings Rom. 3.4 that is declared to be just So in Mat. 12. saith Christ out of thy words thou shalt be justified or condemned that is pronounced just according as thy words are good Secondly It is taken sensu forensi in a legall sense for the acquitting or absolving a Malefactor from the guilt and punishment of the Law Esa 5.23 he which justifies the wicked and condemns the righteous is an abomination to the Lord speaking of the Rulers and these which sit in judgement that is he which laies guilt on an honest man but acquits a wicked man How is a man said to be justified this way 1. When as he is falsely accused and is declared by the Judge not to have done the fact but to be righteous then he is justified from that act 2. When a man is really accused and yet for and in consideration of some other thing is acquitted and absolved from the guilt and punishment of that which was laid to him then he is said to be justified also For the second thing what is meant by Spirit This word is likewise taken divers waies in Scripture Sometimes for the soule and life of a man Into thy hands I commend my spirit Psal 31. Christ cried and gave up his spirit Mat. 27. that is his life departed from him But especially it is taken these foure waies 1. For the whole divine Nature or the God-head God is a spirit that is the Nature of God is spirituall unknown to flesh 2. It is sometimes taken for the divine Nature of Christ so the Lord is that spirit that is Jesus Christ is that spirit which is opposed to all the outward and fleshly ordinances of the Law 3. It is taken for the Holy Ghost or third person of the Trinity as distinct from the Father and the Sonne There be three that beare witnesse in Heaven the Father the VVord and the Spirit 1 John 5. It is the spirit which beares witnesse for he is truth I will send the Comforter even the spirit of truth Iohn 14. And I will pray the Father for it Iohn 3. 4. Taken for the product or work of the Spirit what is borne of the Spirit is Spirit that is of the same Nature with the Spirit it selfe So that now for God to be justified in the Spirit is not meant as if he had any righteousnesse infused in him which he had not before but that he was justified that is declared to be righteous one who had no sin neither was guile found in his mouth and that he was absolved from all that charge of the guilt and punishment of sin which was laid upon him and one who had finished his course and done his worke compleatly both satisfyed the law and the justice of God and that in or by the Spirit that is his God-head or by the vertue and merit of his divine Nature which made all he did efficacious and satisfactory the Spirit it selfe bearing witnesse of it and fully discharging him from what was laid upon him For these words as one saith to be brought in answer to an objection which might be made on this that Christ was God manifest in flesh that is humbled and abased or else he could not have suffered why hence the world thought he was a deceiver that he was not such a one as he pretended took upon him as a malefactor and used him so why but he was not so for though he was manifested in that base and low way and so united and clouded in flesh yet he was justifyed in the spirit they saw not that inward glory and power which was in Christ's Nature but what ever men esteemed of him yet the spirit it selfe justified him But seeing this is so great a mystery set in the second ranck of the deep things of God we had need look more narrowly into it and see what the Scripture saith concerning this how Jesus Christ may be said to be justified This is to be premised in generall that it is spoken in opposition to his humiliation or manifestation in flesh for in that he seemed to be condemned to walke up and downe as a sinner one which was the shame of the world and therefore he is said to be justified in the spirit that is 1. Internally what ever he was without yet within he had a spirit of glory his outside was meane
should be content to goe a begging to one we naturally hate for a man to deny his sense reason selfe righteousnesse lusts prejudices and submit to an unknowne Christ to be made nothing of live at the finding of another For this is the language of Faith I am nothing Christ is all I cannot live without him In a word there are the greatest paradoxes in the workings of Faith as any thing Nothing living as if it had all things unrighteousnesse making its selfe most righteous a soule at the greatest distance from God going most boldly to him one which hath most offended him most relying on him a soule which hath nothing but sin assured it shall have all grace in the midst of greatest unworthinesse triumphing in the compleatest righteousnesse The greatest enemy made submit to the hardest termes to his Nature with many such are found in the acting of Faith that you see what a mystery is in this expression beleeved on in the world and how it may be well rancked in the number of these great mysteries Us 1. If this be so then let shame cover our faces that ever this should be reckoned up as a mystery that we beleeve that God should manifest himselfe to us bring downe his owne glory to our eyes offer life and immortality to us and it should be a wonder for us to take it that God should act in so much love unto us and frame such a Fabrick of glory to take us into it may well be a mystery who can expresse it But that it should be a mystery for us to beleeve this and to take God on his owne word so faithfully spoken is our misery though in it selfe a mystery Must it be a wonder for hungry creatures to eat the bread set before them and for beggers to take the Almes offer'd them yet the Holy Ghost makes this a mystery that we beleeve on Jesus Christ What should shame us more then this that we have not a hand to take in our owne happinesse cannot swallow downe a drop of the water of life except it be poured in us What an aggravation must it be of our sin that we are harder to beleeve and take in what God hath done for us then for God to kill his owne Sonne and part with him out of his owne bowels We have nothing to doe but beleeve and yet it is a wonder we doe beleeve Oh strange creatures God manifested in flesh came in a sensible and demonstrative way of love and glory to wooe poor sinners and yet they will not beleeve Are you not yet ashamed what shall God present his owne heart in blood to you and yet you will not receive it Christ is come as justification and righteousnesse with peace and sweetnesse and yet men will not beleeve this is most unreasonable and wicked 2. Vse Have not slight thoughts of beleeving it is not an ordinary worke men thinke it is nothing to beleeve If a man doe but live under the Gospell and have a generall profession of it he thinks he is a beleever Oh know Faith is the highest worke of a Christian that which is the acting of a mystery if thou didst but know thy owne heart and see thy sinne thou wouldst wonder how ever thou camest to beleeve on Jesus Christ There is a common Faith indeed which the world hath but it is not worthy the name of Faith a Faith which is meerly historicall and traditionall but for the Faith here spoken of the Faith of God's Elect that is another manner of work thou wilt find it a mystery for thee to beleeve on Jesus Christ It is an easie matter for men to say they beleeve when they see neither sin nor Christ but hast thou ever had but an aspect into thy owne sinfull Nature and a right knowledge of thy wretched state then tell me whether Faith be a common or an easie thing it is that which many soules see it harder to act then remove Mountaines For a poor trembling soule who stands on the brink of Hell to leap into Christ's bosome and such a proud heart as thou hast to be willing to be at the disposing of Jesus Christ and make a totall resignation of selfe and all interest to Christ yea though thou mayest injoy them this is Faith and a great mysterie therefore deceive not thy own heart 3. Use Let us from hence see what is the great thing the Gospell requires of us it is to believe all is summed up in this all the mysteries of the Gospell are nothing to us without beleeving Though God be manifested in flesh and justified in spirit that is made redemption and justification for us yet if he be not beleeved on by the world it is nothing to us Faith brings downe the particular sweetnesse and comfort of all this unto us and puts us in actuall possession of it what ever God is to us before Faith yet we have no benefit really by it untill we beleeve Oh therefore make this your work admit of no exception against beleeving this is the great duty of the Gospell and the great way of God's revealing himselfe to us it is a taking hold of all that Christ doth and hath for us and gives us the actuall injoyment of it God requires no more of us but that we beleeve the work is done really for us in Christ's person and this is preached unto us and nothing else remaines but the putting to our seal by Faith that all is true The blood of Christ is drawn out and his graces run out in justification and sanctification nothing is behind but the laying of our mouths to his brests the stretching out of our hands to receive in that life and righteousnesse which is purchased for us Oh let not the work stick in you your beleeving doth as it were perfect the mystery of the Gospell According as God hath discovered himselfe so should we act Faith the mystery of God in Christ hath wrought exceeding strongly so should our Faith The mystery of your salvation is opened the materials of it made ready and brought downe to you to take only your worke is to beleeve lay hold on them by Faith God in flesh condemned and justified in spirit is preached to you that you may beleeve The blood of Christ is shed and fitly temper'd for to quiet your consciences only your mouth must be opened wide to receive it Faith is nothing else but the eying of what Christ hath done and taking it home to its selfe and living in the mystery as its owne Oh now God hath done all so well will not you set to your soule that it is true By beleeving you witnesse unto all the other mysteries The Apostle saith he that beleeveth not hath made God a lyer because he beleeveth not the record that God hath given of his Son 1 John 5.10 Unbeliefe belies God in all he hath done for us Let Faith have no stop nor stint in its actings