any neglect against a conviction of Judgment and Conscience For your own Heart and Conscience must condemn you if you consider and it betrays you if you consider not How fearful a thing is it for a man to carry his own Doom in his own Bosom to go up and down the World with a Self-condemning Heart if it be awake and which if it be not yet cannot sleep always and must awake with the greater terror at length And in so plain case 't is most certainly Gods Deputy and speaks his Mind If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts c. 2. 'T is that therefore the refusal whereof none of you would avow Who among us can have the confidence to stand forth and say I will be none of the Lords Would any man be content to go with this writ upon his Forehead from day to day And doth not that signifie such a refusal to be a shameful thing That must needs be an ill temper of Mind which one would be asham'd any one should know 3. And 't is a mean thing to dissemble to be willing to be thought and counted what we are not or to do what in truth we do not 4. And considering what inspection we are under 't is a vain thing For do we not know that eyes which are as a flame of fire behold us and pierce into our very Souls Do we not know all things in us are naked and manifest to him with whom we have to do And that he discerns it if there be any heart among us that is not sincere in this thing 5. Consider that this is the very design of the Gospel you live under What doth it signifie or intend but to recal Apostate Creatures back again to God What is the Christian Religion you profess but a State of devotedness to God under the conduct and thorough the mediation of Christ You frustrate the Gospel and make your Religion a nullity and an empty name till you do this 6. And how will you lift up your heads at last in the great day and before this God the judge of all You cannot now plead ignorance If perhaps any among you have not been formerly so expresly call'd and urg'd to this yielding your selves to God now you are and from his own plain Word 't is chargd upon you Will not this be remembred hereafter What will you say when the great God whose Creature you are speaks to you with the voice of Thunder and bids you gird up your Loins and give him an answer Were you not on such a day in such a place demanded and claim'd in my Name Were you not told were you not convinc't you ought to yield your selves to me and yet you did it not Are you prepar'd to contest with your Maker Where is your right where is your power to stand against me in this contest 7. But if you sincerely yield your selves the main Controversie is at end between the Great God and you All your former sins are pardon'd and done away at once Those glad-tydings you have often heard that import nothing but glory to God in the highest peace on earth and good will towards men plainly shew that the Great God whom you had offended hath no design to destroy you but only to make you yield and give him back his own Though you have formerly liv'd a wandering life and been as a Vagabond on the Earth from your true Owner it will be all forgotten How readily was the returining Prodigal receiv'd and so will you How quiet rest will you have this night when upon such terms there is a reconciliation between God and you You have given him his own and he is pleas'd and most of all for this that he hath you now to save you You were his to destroy before now you are his to save He could easily destroy you against your will but 't is only with your will he having made you willing that he must save you And his bidding you yield implies his willingness to do so O how much of Gospel is there in this invitation to you to yield your selves to God! consider it as the voice of Grace Will he that bids a poor wretch yield it self reject or destroy when it doth so 8. And how happily may you now live the rest of your days in this World. You will live under his care for will he not take care of his own those that are of his own House An Infidel would You are now of his Family under his immediate Government and under his continual Blessing And were you now to give an account where you have been to day and what you have been doing If you say you have been engag'd this day in a solemn treaty with the Lord of Heaven and Earth about yielding your selves to him And it be further askt Well and what was the issue Have you agreed Must you any of you be oblig'd by the truth of the case to say No astonishing answer What! Hast thou been treating with the Great God the God of thy life and not agreed What man Did he demand of thee any unreasonable thing Only to yield my self Why that was in all the World the most reasonable thing Wretched Creature whither now wilt thou go What wilt thou do with thy self Where wilt thou lay thy hated head But if you can say Blessed be God I gladly agreed to the Proposal He gave me the Grace not to deny him Then may it be said this was a good days work and you will have cause to bless God for this day as long as you have a day to live FINIS Joh. 4. 24. Rom. 11. 36. Act. 17. 28. * The Gallican Church c. †Du Pin c. Deut. 30. 11 12 c. Rom. 10. 6 7 8. Jam. 1. 21. Psa. 37. 31. 1 Sam. 12. 23. Psal. 68. 18. Eph. 4. 11. Rom. 1. 18. 2. 14. 2 Cor. 4. 2. Eph. 4. 18. Col. 1. 21. Rom. 8. 7. Rom. 8. 7. latter part Verse 2. Psal. 73. 25. John 14. 6. 1 John 2. 23. Rom. 14. 5. Second Sermon Jerem. 31. 18 19. Psa. 110. 3. Prov. 1. 24. Psal. 118. 1 Chron. 29. 9. See the Treatise of Self-dedication from p. 71. to 103. Jer. 50. 5. 1 Joh. 3. 20. Heb. 4. 12.
greater length and leaves no impression Perhaps there is less in their minds to answer it than most other words which men use in common discourse For they have usually distinct thoughts of the things they speak of otherwise they should neither understand one another nor themselves but might speak of an Horse and mean a Sheep Or be thought to mean so And it would no more move a man or impress his mind to hear or mention a Jest than a matter of life and death But the holy and reverend Name of God is often so slightly mentioned as in common Oaths or in idle talk is so meerly taken in vain that if they were on the sudden stopt and askt what they thought on or had in their mind when they mentioned that word and were to make a true answer they cannot say they thought of any thing As if the Name of God the All were the name of Nothing Otherwise had they thought what that great Name signifies either they had not mentioned it or the mention of it had struck their hearts and even overwhelm'd their very souls I could tell you what awe and observance hath been wont to be exprest in reference to that sacred Name among a people that were called by it and surely the very sound of that Name ought ever to shake all the powers of our souls and presently form them to reverence and adoration Shall we think it fit to play or trifle with it as is the common wont My Friends shall we now do so when we are call'd upon to yield our selves to God Labour to hear and think and act intelligently and as those that have the understandings of men And now especially in this solemn transaction endeavour to render God great to your selves Enlarge your minds that as far as is possible and needful they may take in the entire notion of him As to what he is in himself you must conceive of him as a Spirit as his own Word which can best tell us what he is instructs us and so as a Being of far higher excellency than any thing you can see with your eyes or touch with your hands or than can come under the notice of any of your senses You may easily apprehend Spiritual Being to be the source and spring of life and self-moving power This World were all a dead unmoving lump if there were no such thing as Spirit as your bodies when the soul is fled You must conceive him to be an Eternal Self-subsisting Spirit not sprung up into Being from another as our souls are But who from the excellency of his own Being was necessarily of and from himself comprehending originally and eternally in himself the fulness of all Life and Being I would fain lead you here as by the hand a few plain and easie steps You are sure that somewhat now is of this you can be in no doubt and next you may be as sure that somewhat hath of it self ever been For if nothing at all now were you can easily apprehend it impossible that any thing should ever be or of it self now begin to be and spring up out of nothing Do but make this supposition in your own minds and the matter will be as plain to you as any thing can be that if nothing at all were now in being nothing could ever come into being wherefore you may be sure that because there is somewhat now in being there must have been somewhat or other always in being that was eternally of it self And then to go a little farther since you know there are many things in being that were not of themselves you may be sure that what was always of it self had in it a sufficiency of active power to produce other things otherwise nothing that is not of it self could ever be As you know that we were not of our selves and the case is the same as to whatsoever else our eyes behold You must conceive of God therefore as comprehending originally in his own Being which is most peculiar to himself a power to produce all whatsoever Being Excellency and Perfection is to be found in all the whole Creation For there can be nothing which either is not or arises not from what was of it self And therefore that he is an absolutely universally and infinitely perfect Being and therefore that Life Knowledge Wisdom Power Goodness Holiness Justice Truth and whatsoever other conceivable Excellencies do all in highest perfection belong as necessary Attributes unchangeably and without possibility of diminution unto him And all which his own Word agreeably to the plain reason of things doth in multitudes of places ascribe to him as you that are acquainted with the Bible cannot but know You must therefore conceive of him as the All in All. So great so excellent so glorious a One he is to whom you are to surrender and yield your selves You are to conceive of him as most essentially One for there can be but one All. And so his Word teaches you to conceive Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord Deut. 6. 4. We know there is no other God but one c. 1 Cor. 8. 4 5 6. Your thoughts therefore need not be divided within you nor your minds hang in doubt to whom you are to betake and yield your selves there is no place or pretence for halting between two Opinions He most righteously lays the sole claim to you a just God and a Saviour and there is none besides him Isa. 45. 21. And so we are told often in that and the foregoing Chapters He whose far-discerning eye projects its beams every way and ranges thorough all infinity says he knows not any ch 44. 8. Yet again you are to conceive of him as Three in One and that in your yielding your selves to him as the prescrib'd form when this surrender is to be made in Baptism directs which runs thus In the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Matth. 28. 19. You are not to be curious in your enquiries beyond what is written in this matter how far the Subsistents in the Godhead are three an in what sense one they cannot be both in the same sense But there is latitude enough to conceive how they may be distinct from each other and yet agree in one Nature which in none of them depending upon will and pleasure sets each of them infinitely above all created Being which for the Divine pleasure only was and is created Rev. 4. 11. And that we so far conceive of them as three as to apprehend some things spoken of one that are not to be affirm'd of another of them is so plain of so great consequence and the whole frame of practical Religion so much depends thereon and even this transaction of yielding up our selves which must be introductive and fundamental to all the rest that it is by no means to be neglected in our daily course and least of all in this solemn business as will more appear
and in great part we are to appeal in our Teaching you So the more early Christian Teachers did Not handling say they the Word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the Truth commending our selves to every man's Conscience in the sight of God. In the most deeply fundamental things that concern your practice every day we may appeal to your selves and your own Consciences If we say to you Ought you not to live according to his Will that gave you breath Should you not above all things fear and love and trust and obey him that made you and all things Should you not do as you would be done unto Should you not take more care for your immortal Souls than for your mortal flesh You must every one say I believe in mine own Conscience this is so If I appeal to you in the very thing I am speaking of should you not yield your selves to God whose Creatures you are I doubt not you will any of you say I think in my very Conscience I should We have you witnesses against your selves if you will not hear us in such things And again it being a matter very capable of plain proof that those writings which we call the Holy Scriptures were from God our Teaching ought so far to be regarded by you as 2. We can manifest to you that it agrees with the Scriptures And we are sure he will never teach you inwardly against what he hath there taught Will the God of Truth say and unsay the same thing That were to overthrow the design of all his Instructions and to subvert the Authority which he requires men to reverence No man could expect to be regarded on such terms And by this Rule freely examine all that we teach you as our Saviour directed the Jews to do John 5. 39. And for the doing whereof the Apostle commended the Berean Christians Acts 17. 11. And we have here the same advantage at length tho' not so immediately upon your Consciences which cannot but judge that whatsoever is found in that Word which you confess to be Divine must be most certainly true And if within such limits you take the help of men for your Instruction having yielded your selves to God as your supream and highest Teacher you are upon safe terms Only be sincere in listening to his dictates whether internal or external Let not a prepossest heart or vicious inclination be their Interpreter If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God c. John 7. 17. 3. You must consider God in your yielding your selves as your Sovereign Ruler For to whom you yield your selves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey as by v. 16. Tho' Teaching and Ruling may be diversly conceiv'd of they cannot be separate in this case The nobler and final part of God's Teaching you is teaching you your duty what you are to practise and do And so when he teaches you he commands you too and leaves it not arbitrary to you whether you will be directed by him or no. What is his by former right and by after-consent and self-resignation shall it not be govern'd by him if it be a subject capable of Laws and Government as such consent shews it to be Your yielding your selves to God is not an homage but a mockery if you do it not with a resolution to receive the Law from his mouth and that wherein soever he commands you will to your uttermost obey But in this and the other things that follow my limits constrain me unto more brevity Only let not this apprehension of God be frightful yea let it be amiable to you as in it self it is and cannot but be to you if you consider the loveliness of his Government the kind design of it and how suitable it is to the kindest design that it is a Government first and principally over minds purposely intended to reduce them to an holy and peaceful order wherein it cannot but continue them when that Kingdom comes to be setled there which stands in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost and all the Laws whereof are summ'd up in Love being such also as in the keeping whereof there is great reward 4. You are to consider him and accordingly to yield your self as your greatest Benefactor or rather as your best and supream good Indeed you cannot sever his being your Ruler from his being your Benefactor more than his being your Teacher from his being your Ruler when the tendency and design of his Government is understood For it is a very principal part of our felicity to be under his Government and he doth you the greatest good by ruling you when otherwise nothing is more evident than that you would run your selves into the greatest of evil and soon be most miserable creatures You are now so far happy as you are subject to his Government and that which it aims at is to make you finally and compleatly happy For it is the design of his Government not only to regulate your actions but your inclinations and principally towards himself You have been alienated from the life of God were become strangers to him yea and enemies in your very minds for the carnal mind is enmity against God. The very business of his Government is in the first place to alter the temper of your minds for continuing carnal they neither are subject to the Law of God nor can be as the same place tells you Therefore if his Government take place in you and you become subject you become spiritual the Law of the Spirit of Life having now the possession and the power of you Nor was it possible he should ever be an effectual Benefactor to you without being thus an over-powering Ruler so do these things run into one another To let you have your own will and follow your carnal inclination and cherish and favour you in this course were to gratifie you to your ruine and concur with you to your being for ever miserable Which you may see plainly if you will understand wherein your true felicity and blessedness must consist or consider what was intimated concerning it in the proposal of this head that he is to be your Benefactor in being to you himself your supream and only satisfying Good. He never doth you good effectually and to purpose till he overcome your carnal inclination For while that remains will you ever mind him Can you love him desire after him or delight in him The first and most fundamental Law which he laies upon you is that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and might What will become of you if you cannot obey this Law This World will shortly be at an end and you must 't is like leave it sooner you are undone if your hearts be not before-hand so framed as that you can savour and take complacency in a