is but a peradventure we have that which will shut it out of all consideration and eclipse that which otherwise might have had some lustre vers 8. God commends his love to us that when we were yet sinners Christ died for us § 2. If the love of relations will not afford us a just Measure for the Love of Christ let 's see if there be any thing else in the whole scale of Nature that may furnish us with a line commensurate to it And we can no sooner think of making the Inquiry but we propose to our selves the height of Heaven the breadth of the Earth Prov. 25.3 The Heaven for height and the Earth for breadth but we must despair of finding any thing that may measure or circumscribe this love since the Apostle has assured us Ephes 3.8 that the riches of Christ are unsearchable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as we must expect no footsteps of in the whole Creation The Apostle might Preach it but could not fully reach it The treasures of Gold and Silver which wise providence has hid so deep in the bowels of the Earth yet the vein may be pursued so far till it s worn out but this treasure of Love in the Heart of Christ is so deep and is so rich that we can neither find out nor exhaust the fulness of it when God would give us some shadow of his Love he represents it by the height of the Heavens not that his Love reaches no higher but because there 's nothing in created Nature higher to represent it by Psal 103.11 As the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his Mercy towards them that fear him The Love of God is only to be measur'd by it self that is by himself for God is Love 1 John 4.8 No Creature no Saint no Angel can fadom the Love of Gods heart Jer. 29.11 I know the thoughts that I think towards you And we must say the same of Christ's Love there 's one Dimension more in the Love of Christ than in the Creation Ephes 3.18 That you may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are taught to distinguish between the measure of a Man and the measure of God All bodies have but three dimensions Rev. 21.17 He measured the City with a Reed twelve thousand furlongs the length the breadth the height were equal according to the measure of a Man but in the measuring Spiritual Heavenly things such as are the Love of God and of Christ there 's one dimension more So we have it in that sublime discourse of Zophar Job 11.7 8 9. Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection It is as high as Heaven what canst thou do Deeper then Hell what canst thou know The measure thereof is longer then the Earth and broader then the Sea And thus we are taught modesty and not to limit God and his purposes of Love by our narrow conceptions Isa 55.8 My thoughts are not your thoughts for as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are my thoughts then your thoughts saith the Lord. And 1. for the Breadth of the Love of Christ It reaches Jews and Gentiles it extends to all ranks of Men high and low rich and poor it reaches all the cases of Men's Souls the Tempted Deserted the Backslider and Persecutor it reaches the bruised Reed the smoaking Flax it extends to the pardon of all sins truly repented of so that we may say that his promises which are the vehicles of Truth and Love are exceeding broad as well as his Precepts which are the indications of his Authority and Power The Love of Christ is wider than Mans will Rom. 10.21 All the day long I have stretched out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people It s wider than Mans power for John 6.44 No Man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him And yet vers 37. All that the Father has given me shall come unto me It is wider than all our wants and necessities there 's more bread in his house than there are hungry Souls to eat more mansions in Heaven than there are Souls to fill it s wider than our capacities and we may sooner enter into our Masters joy Matth. 25. than that joy can enter into us 1 Cor. 2.9 It cannot enter into the heart of Man what things God has prepared for them that love him 2. The length of the Love of Christ An extent of Grace and Love that reaches Souls at the greatest distance It reacht Paul when he was in the heat and height of his desperate fury mad and desperately mad with an inveterate enmity against Christ It reacht Mary Magdalen when she was possest with seven Devils it reacht the Gentiles when they were far off from God estranged from the light and life of God by their Abominable Idolatries Ephes 2.13 Ye who sometimes were a far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ It reacht the Prodigal when he was far off Luke 15.20 And as it finds and reaches Souls at the greatest distance of sin and enmity so it reaches a length which we cannot with consistence of thought conceive of Hebr. 7.25 Able to save to the utmost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the uttermost length of Gods Promise and the believers Faith and Hope to the uttermost extent of Gods Purposes and our Prayers to the uttermost duration of this Life and the next through all time beyond all time to eternity 3. The depth of the Love of Christ And here unless we could sound the depth of our Misery we can never fadom the depth of Christs Love unless we could know the power of Gods Anger Psal 90.11 we can never reach the power of Christs Love The Torments of Hell are unknown Torments and those Torments which Christ endured in his Soul to deliver us from thence were unknown Torments The Love of Christ does not only reach the depth of our Misery by reason of Sin but those depths of Sorrow into which sometimes even holy Souls are plunged by Desertion The Psalmist cryed unto God out of the Depth Divine Love heard him and reacht him there Psal 130.1 Jonah cryed unto God out of the belly of Hell Divine Love heard him there and deliver'd him thence Jonah 2.2 Heman was plunged in the lowest pit in darkness in the deeps yet Love reacht him in that sad and dismal condition Psal 88.6 4. The height of the Love of Christ All the measure of the height of Christs Love we can take is to say its unmeasurable It is high we cannot attain unto it Psal 139.6 his Love reaches the Soul on Earth and never leaves it till it has conducted it to Heaven he Loves Grace into the Soul and Loves the Soul into Glory what that Glory is Go and see The taste of it is to be had
continues still to do in order to the freeing and delivering the Children of God from the fear of death and the bondage that ensues thereon 1. He worketh and increaseth those Graces of his Spirit in them which are destructive hereof and opposite hereunto you 'l say which are they 1. There is the Grace of Faith This is the Grace that conquers the World that conquers the Devil and that conquers also the slavish fear of Death This excellent Grace of Faith hath such an excellent hand in the conquering of all these that it is call'd the conquest and victory it's self This is the victory says the Apostle John 1 John 5.4 even your Faith Our Saviour tells Peter Luke 22.31 32. That Satan had desired to have him that he might sift him as Wheat And with what did he sift and shake him Why it was with the fear of Death he was afraid they would deal with him as they did with his Master It was his slavish fear of Death that made him deny Christ and to do it once and again but anon he recovered himself and got above this fear he was reâ—dy by and by boldly to confess Christ and that in the face of Death and danger How came this about Why it was by means of Faith Christ had pray'd for him that his Faith should not fail it may be said of those that are fearful of death that they are of little Faith 2. A second Grace is Love An ardent love of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ will banish all slavish fear of death out of the Soul 1 John 4.18 There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear Of what fear doth he speak The next words tell you he speaks of slavish tormenting fear of that fear which hath torment By perfect love he means a greater measure and degree of love I said but now of fearfull Christians that they have but little Faith I may add also that they have but little Love for perfect or great love expells all tormenting and servile fear 3. A third Grace is Hope The very nature of Hope is quite contrary to fear Where there is a Hope of eternal life there can be no prevailing fear of Death 'T is said of the righteous Prov. 14.32 that they have Hope in their death and those that have Hope in their death they are not afraid to dye Then Hope doth more especially free us from an inordinate fear of Death when it grows up to that which the Scripture calls The full assurance of Faith Heb. 6.11 this is a gracious Gift which the Father bestows upon many of his Children they know that they are in him that they are pass â—â— from death to life 1 John 2.5.3.14 2 Cor. 5.1 that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolv'd they shall have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Ay this is that which steels and fortifies them against the fear and terror of Death This leads me to consider of a second way or means whereby Christ delivers the Children from a slavish fear of death 2. He delivers them from it by convincing and parswading them that they shall not be Losers but Gainers yea great gainers thereby It was this perswasion that made the Apostle Paul to desire death rather than to dread it I desire says he to depart or to be dissolv'd which is far better Philip. 1.23 And again v. 21. he saith For me to dye is gain It were easie here to expatiate and shew the advantage the exceeding great advantage that Believers have by Death It is commonly said to consist in these two things in a freedom from all Evil in the fruition of all Good 1. It consists in a freedom from all Evil which is sub-divided into the evil of Sorrow and the evil of Sin Believers are freed by Death from the evil of Sorrow 'T is one blessed Notion of the life to come that God will wipe off all tears from his peoples eyes and remove all sorrow and causes of Sorrow from their Hearts Believers also are freed by Death from the evil of sin which is indeed the greatest evil the evil of evils all the evils of sorrow are but the effects and fruits of the evil of sin By Death they are deliver'd from all actual sins not only from Fleshly but Spiritual filthiness Now they are deliver'd ordinarily from inordinate actions but then also from inordinate affections they shall never any more be troubled with Pride Passion Discontent Unbelief or the like By Death also they are discharg'd from Original sin and all remainders thereof when the Body dies Believers are rid of that body of death which dwelleth in them and is always present with them they no more complain of themselves as wretched creatures upon the account thereof 2. It consists in the fruition of all Good Believers when they dye they enjoy God Himself who is the chiefest Good He is bonum in quae omnia bona all other things that are good and desireable are comprized in him as the Sun-beams are in the Sun the Saints enjoyment of God in this life is a Heaven upon Earth but our enjoyment of God after death will be the Heaven of Heavens David says in one Place Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee There are Saints and Angels and Arch-Angels in Heaven says Musculus with whom David and such as he will have to do but what are these to God Believers won't barely enjoy God after death but they will enjoy him fully In this life they enjoy a little of God and oh how sweet and refreshing it is But in the life to come they shall have as much enjoyment of God as their hearts can wish or hold Now they enjoy God in the use of means in Prayer in hearing the Word and in receiving the Lords Supper but hereafter they shall have not only a full but an immediate fruition of God Now they see the Face of God in the Glass of his Word and Ordinances and 〈◊〉 what a lovely sight is it But then they shall see God face to face and what tongue can mention or heart imagine the loveliness of that sight If it were not too great a digression I could readily demonstrate the gain and advantage of Death from other Topicks Believers in the other life shall possess and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven which doth more transcend the Kingdoms of this World and all the glory of them than the light of the Sun doth excell the light of a Candle they shall be most gloriously perfected both in their Souls and in their Bodies their vile bodies at the Resurrection shall be changed and fashioned like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3.21 Their gain and happiness will be greatly augmented in the other life by the work and employment that they shall do and by the Society and Company that they shall
tells us may be gained to Christ by his Wife thus a Servant that does his Service as to the Lord may convert his Master Oh! up and be doing your labour shall not be in vain No 1 Cor. 15.58 but great shall be your Reward in Heaven When you shall be taken up to shine as the Stars in the Firmament for ever and ever Dan. 12.3 Matth. 25.11 But if you shall neglect or refuse my Soul shall mourn in secret for you as knowing that the crying Lord Lord will not avail you nor any confident Profession of Christs Name stand you in any stead When the Deluge came how many perishing Wretches ran to the Ark and laid hold on it cryed earnestly for to be admitted into it but in vain Fac quod dicis fides est You know whom the Ark represented even this Christ in whom alone is Salvation Oh get into him by a true and living Faith and that to day whilest it is called to day 2 Pet. 2.1 least swift destruction come upon you 2 Cor. 5.11 May we all so know and consider the terrors of the Lord that we may be perswaded Quest What is that fulness of God every true Christian ought to pray and strive to be filled with SERMON VI. Ephes III. 19. And to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge that you might be filled with all the Fulness of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THESE words are a considerable part of that excellent Prayer put up to God by the Apostle for his beloved Ephesians from vers 16. to the end And indeed Prayer was his tryed Engine by which he always could bring down supplies of Grace from the God of all Grace for his own and the Souls of others In this Branch of it you will easily observe he prays for Grace the End and Grace the Mean to reach that End 1. He Prays for Grace the End That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God This being the utmost of the Souls Perfection ought to be the height of its Ambition beyond this we cannot reach and therefore in the attainment of this we must rest 2. He Prays for Grace the Mean to compass that End viz. To know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge As we grow up into a greater Measure of the knowledge of the Love of Christ to us we shall enjoy more of the fulness of God in us But here we meet in each of these parts of the Text with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a seeming contradiction in the Terms To know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge What is that but to know what is unknowable And to be filled with all the fulness of God What is that but to comprehend what is incomprehensible The narrow vessel of our Heart can no more contain the boundless and bottomless Ocean of the Divine fulness than our weak intellectual Eye can drink in the glorious Light of that knowledge And yet there are many such expressions in the Holy Scripture Thus Moses Hebr. 11.27 saw him that was invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He saw him by the Eye of Faith in the glass of a Revelation whom he could not see by the Eye of Reason in the glass of Creation And thus we are instructed in the Gospel how to approach that God who is unapproachable 1 Tim. 6.16 To approach that God by Jesus Christ according to the Terms of the New Covenant to whom considered absolutely in himself we could never approach Let us therefore first clear and remove the obscurity of the Phrases that we may more comfortably handle the Divine matter contained in them Always taking along with us this useful caution That we run not away with a swelling metaphor and from thence form in our minds rude undigested Notions of Spiritual things nor fancy we see Miracles when we should content our selves with Marvels 1. The former of these seeming repugnances is To know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge If this love of Christ passeth knowledge why do we pray why should we strive to know it If it be our duty to pray that we may know it how is it supposed to pass knowledge Must we endeavour to reach that which is above all heights To fathom that which is an Abyss and has no bottom Or to take the Dimensions of that which is unmeasurable To remove this difficulty there have been many expedients found out 1. I. Some carry the sense thus To know the Love of Christ which passeth or surpasseth the knowledge of all other things There is an excellency an usefulness in the knowledge of Christs Love which is not to be found in the knowledgc of any thing else A man may know to his own pride to the Admiration of others he may have the knowledge of all Tongues and Languages may understand all Arts and Sciences may dive deep into the secrets of Nature may be profound in Worldly Policies may have the Theory of all Religions true and false and yet when he comes to cast up his Accounts shall find himself never the better never the holier indeed never the wiser never the nearer satisfaction till he can reach this blessed knowledge of the Love of Christ Only the excellency of the knowledge of the Love of Christ consists herein 1. It must be a knowledge of Christs Love by way of Appropriation to know with the Apostle Gal. 2.20 That he loved me and gave himself for me 2. By way of efficacious Operation Rev. 1.5 That he loved us and washt us from our sins in his own blood 3. By way of Reflection that his Love has kindled a mutual Love in our Souls to him 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us 4. By way of practical Subjection when his Love subdues our Hearts to himself and constrains us to new obedience 2 Cor. 5.14 The Love of Christ constrains us it restrains us from sinning against him and engages us to obey him To know that we may know and make knowledge the end of it self is nothing but vain curiosity To know that we may be known is nothing but vainglorious arrogancy To know that we may make others know is indeed an edifying charity but to know that we may be transformed into the image and likeness of what we know of the Love of Christ this is the true the excellent the transcendent way of knowledge And this was that knowledge of Christ and of his Love which the Apostle set such a price upon 1 Cor. 2.2 when he determined not to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified That he might there see the Love of Christ streaming out of his heart at his wounds in his blood and there see Divine Justice satisfied the Law fulfilled and thence feel his Conscience purified and pacified and his Soul engaged and quicken'd to walk in all new obedience This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The transcendent
the Psalmist declaring their inward sentiments The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Lastly The sinner slights the power of God This attribute renders God a dreadful Judge He has a right to punish and power to revenge every transgression of his Law His judicial power is supreme his executive is irresistible He can with one stroke dispatch the Body to the Grave and the Soul to Hell and make Men as miserable as they are sinful Yet sinners as boldly provoke him as if there were no danger We read of the infatuated Syrians that they thought that God the Protector of Israel had only power on the Hills and not in the Vallies and renewed the War to their destruction Thus sinners enter into the lists with God and range an Army of lusts against the Armies of Heaven and blindly bold run upon their own destruction They neither believe his all-seeing Eye nor all-mighty Hand They change the glory of the living God into a dead Idol that has Eyes and sees not and Hands and handles not and accordingly his threatnings make no impression upon them Thus I have presented a true view of the evil of sin consider'd in it self but as Job saith of God how little a portion of him is known May be said of the evil of sin how little of it is known For in proportion as our apprehensions are defective and below the greatness of God so are they of the evil of sin that contradicts his Sovereign will and dishonours his excellent perfections 2. Sin relatively to us is the most pernicious and destructive Evil. If we compare it with temporal Evils it preponderates all that Men are liable to in the present World Diseases in our Bodies disasters in our Estates disgrace in our Reputation are in just esteem far less evil than the evil of sin for that corrupts and destroys our more excellent and immortal part The vile Body is of no account in comparison of the precious Soul Therefore the Apostle enforces his exhortation Dearly beloved brethren abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the Soul The issue of this War is infinitely more woful than of the most cruel against our Bodies and Goods our Liberties and Lives for our Estates and Freedom if lost may be recover'd if the present Life be lost for the cause of God it shall be restor'd in greater lustre and perfection but if the Soul be lost 't is lost for ever All temporal Evils are consistent with the love of God Job on the dunghil roughcast with Ulcers was most precious in Gods sight Lazarus in the lowest poverty and wasted with loathsom Sores was dear to his affections a guard of Angels was sent to convey his departing Soul to the Divine Presence But sin separates between God and us who is the fountain of felicity and the center of rest to the Soul Other evils God who is our wise and compassionate Father and Physitian makes use of as Medicinal preparations for the cure of sin and certainly the Disease which would be the death of the Soul is worse than the Remedy tho' never so bitter and afflicting to sense Sin is an evil of that malignity that the least degree of it is fatal If it be conceiv'd in the Soul tho' not actually finisht 't is deadly One sin corrupted in an instant angelical excellencies and turn'd the glorious Spirits of Heaven into Devils 'T is a poison so strong that the first taste of it shed a deadly taint and malignity into the veins of all mankind Sin is such an exceeding Evil that 't is the severest punishment Divine Justice inflicts on sinners on this side Hell The giving Men over to the power of their lusts is the most fearful judgment not only with respect to the cause Gods unrelenting and unquenchable anger and the issue everlasting destruction but in the quality of the judgment Nay did sin appear as odious in our Eyes as it does in Gods we should account it the worst part of Hell it self the pollutions of the damned to be an evil exceeding the torments superadded to them Sin is pregnant with all kinds of Evils the seeds of it are big with Judgments The evils that are obvious to sense or that are Spiritual and Inward Temporal and Eternal Evils all proceed from sin often as the Natural cause and always as the Meritorious And many times the same punishment is produc'd by the efficiency of sin as well as inflicted for its guilt Thus uncleanness without the miraculous waters of Jealousie rots the Body and the pleasure of sin is revenged by a loathsom consuming Disease the natural consequence of it Thus intemperance and luxury shorten the lives of Men and accelerate damnation Fierce desires and wild rage are fewel for the everlasting fire in Hell The same evils considered Physically are from the efficiency of sin consider'd legally are from the guilt of sin and the justice of God This being a point of great usefulness that I may be more instructive I will consider the evils that are consequential to sin under these two Heads 1. Such as proceed immediately from it by Emanation 2. Those evils and all other as the effects of Gods justice and sentence 1. The evils that proceed immediately by emanation from it and tho' some of them are not resented with feeling apprehensions by sinners yet they are of a fearful nature Sin has deprived Man of the purity nobility and peace of his innocent state 1. It has stain'd and tainted him with an universal intimate and permanent pollution Man in his first Creation was holy and righteous a beam of beauty derived from Heaven was shed upon his Soul in comparison of which sensitive beauty is but as the clearness of Glass to the lustre of a Diamond His understanding was light in the Lord his will and affections were regular and pure the Divine Image was imprest upon all his faculties that attracted the love and complacency of God himself Sin has blotted out all his aimiable excellencies and superinduc'd the most foul deformity the original of which was fetcht from Hell Sinners are the natural Children of Satan of a near resemblance to him The Scripture borrows comparisons to represent the defiling quality of sin from pollutions that are most loathsom to our senses from pestilential Vlcers putrifying Sores filthy Vomit and defiling Mire This pollution is universal through the whole Man Spirit Soul and Body It darkens the mind our supreme faculty with a cloud of Corruption it depraves the will and vitiates the affections 'T is a pollution so deep and permanent that the Deluge that swept away a World of sinners did not wash away their sins and the fire at the last day that shall devour the dross of the visible World and renew the Heavens and the Earth shall not purge away the sins of the guilty Inhabitants This pollution hath so defil'd and disfigur'd Man who was a fair and lovely type wherein
Jesus You are espoused to Him and should you not consent to be like to him who has betrothed you unto himself in Loving-kindness Mercy and Faithfulness for ever Hos 2.19 20. Nay you are members of his body Therefore you should grow up into Him in all things which is the Head even Christ Eph. 4.15 You should discover such a mind as Christ had you should manifest the same Spirit and act as he acted when he was here in the World 3. Consider that God did fore-ordain you that are Believers to a conformity to the Lord Jesus Rom. 8.29 For whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many Brethren If you would appear with Christ in Glory you must be now changed into his Image Holiness and patient suffering will make you like him and is the decreed way unto his Kingdom 4. Walking as Christ walked will make it evident that you are indeed in him 1 Joh. 2.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought to prove what he saith and himself so to walk even as he walked To be in Christ is to be a new creature And these new Creatures do all resemble him for he is formed in them Naming the name of Christ will never demonstrate your Christianity unless you depart from iniquity which makes you so unlike unto your Lord. But likeness to him will prove you His in Truth And an evidence of this what strong consolation will it afford If you are in Christ how safe are you you are secured from the curse of the Law the stroke of vindictive Justice the wrath of the Destroyer the bondage of Corruption and Sin the sting of the first Death and the power of the second If you are in Christ His God is your God his Father your Father Joh. 20.17 You are loved as He is loved Joh. 17.23 That the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me And v. 26. That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them You are joint-heirs with Christ unto the same incorruptible inheritance how firm and sure is your title how certain and soon will be your possession and after possession is taken you shall not be dispossess'd unto Eternity 5. Your following the Example of Christ very much honours Him and credits Christianity 't is a sign that Christs death has a mighty vertue in it when it makes you to die to Sin and to be unmoved by the biggest offers that Mammon makes to you 'T is an argument that He is truly Christ when you are truly Christians that He is indeed alive when he lives in you and makes you to live to him and like him 'T is a demonstration that our Lord is risen indeed when you rise with him and seek those things that are above Col. 3.1 Christ is very much unknown and being unknown is undesired and neglected because so little of him is seen in Christians conversation How few deserve digito monstrari to be pointed at and to have such a Character given them There go the persons who discover such a Spirit who talk and walk too after such a manner that 't is evident Christ dwells and speaks and walks and works in them Be all of you prevailed with to honour your Lord Jesus by shewing the world what he was when here upon Earth and how powerfully he works in you though now he is in Heaven Chrysostom with great reason does call good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unanswerable Syllogisms and demonstrations to confute and convince Infidels The World would flock into the Church being struck with the Majesty and Glory shining forth in Her if She were but more like unto her glorious Head But when they who are called Christians are so like unto the World 't is no wonder if the men of the World continue still as they are 6. Christ frequently speaks to you to follow him and observes whether and how you do it His word is plain that you should learn his Doctrine and live after his example And his eyes which are as a flaming fire are upon Professours ways His Omniscience should be more firmly believed and seriously considered by the Church it self Rev. 2.23 All the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the Reins and Hearts and I will give to every one of you according to your works I shall here by a Prosopopeia bring in our Lord Jesus speaking to you and himself propounding his own Example that you may hear and heed and follow the Lamb of God To this effect Christ speaks to you Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the Earth Look unto me and become like me all you that profess your selves to be my Members What Do you see in me that in any reason should turn away your faces or your hearts from me Blessed is He whosoever shall not be offended in Me. The Father is well pleased in Me and so should you as you value his favour and would consult your own interest I never took so much as one step in the ways of misery and destruction be you sure to avoid them I always trod in those paths which to you will prove pleasantness and peace though to satisfy for your deviations and going astray I was fain my self to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Consider your Lord and Master you that call your selves my disciples Many look upon you that will not look into my word and will judge of Me by your practices Be not so injurious to Me by misrepresenting Me as if I allowed those evils which you allow your selves in Why should I be wounded in my honour in the house of my Friends Why should you crucify me afresh And put me to an open shame When you yield to Satans temptations are you like to me When you are eager after worldly wealth the applause of men and flesh-pleasing delights are you like to me When you are proud and haughty bitter envious and revengeful do you at all resemble Me When you seek your selves and please your selves and matter not how much God is forgotten and displeased Am I in this your example O all you upon whom my name is called content not your selves with an empty name Be my disciples in truth and let the same mind that was in me be in you also be my disciples indeed live as I did in the World to honour God and to do good to man let it be your business for I have left you an example that you should follow my steps 7. Follow Christs Example that you may enter into his glory For if we be dead with him says the Apostle we shall live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. Be of good courage and conflict but do it in his Strength with your Spiritual enemies and
you shall be conquerours nay more than conquerours over them and hark what Christ promises to them that overcome Nay to every one of them Rev. 3.21 To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne even as I overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne Conformity to Christ in his Humiliation will end in a conformity to him in his Exaltation All in the next world shall resemble in glory whom grace in this world has made to resemble him Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory 8. One word farther I would speak to my self and my brethren in the Ministry of the Gospel We are under special obligations to follow Christs Example All the flock should be like the great Shepherd but especially the Vnder-Shepherds should resemble him that they may be able to say with the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of us for we are followers of Christ How clear should be the light in our Heads who have special instruction from him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.3 With what authority should we speak who speak in his Name Who speak his words and preach his everlasting Gospel and what we bind on Earth is bound in Heaven and what we loose on Earth is loosed in heaven How should we have compassion on the ignorant and them that are out of the way How faithfully should we warn the secure to flee from wrath How earnestly should we intreat sinners to be reconciled How should we long after Souls in the bowels of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.8 And since He thought not his blood too dear to redeem them we should not think much of our Prayers Tears Study Sweat and Labour for their Salvation How self-denying should we be counting it far greater wisdom to win Souls than to seek great things for our selves How exemplary should we be in Word in Conversation in Charity in Spirit in Faith in Purity * Memento voci tuae dare vocem virtutis ut opera tua verbis concinant Cures prius facere qâ—à m docere Sermo quidem vivus efficax exemplâ—m est operis facile faciens suadibile quod dicitur dum monstrat factibâ—â— quod suadetur Bernard Epist 201. Passione ostendit quid pro veritate sustinere Resurrectione quid in aeternitate sperare debeâ—mus Aug. de C. D. lib. 18. c. 49. 1 Tim. 4.12 In all things we should shew our selves patterns of good works That our Sermons being practised by our selves as well as preached may be with greater efficacy upon others And since our Lord Jesus after he had preached the Kingdom of God was himself a Sacrifice we should not be unwilling to confirm the doctrine we deliver with our blood nor refuse if called to it to be offered upon the Sacrifice and Service of the Churches Faith Phil. 2.17 This kind of Spirit made the Apostle like to Christ indeed Acts 20.24 But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear to my self that I may finish my course with joy and the Ministry I have received of the Lord Jesus Christ to testify the Gospel of the grace of God In the fourth and last place I am to conclude with some Directions how you may be able to follow the Example of our Lord Jesus 1. Let your unlikeness to Christ be matter of your great humiliation It should be your trouble that you have been so long learning and have learned Christ no better That so much of the old Man remains to be put off that no more of the new man is put on Look upon the passions and lusts of the flesh as so many foul blemishes as so many deforming wrinkles of the Old Adam the more of these there is in you they make you the more unlike to him who is altogether lovely Be humbled for your sin and hate it that 's the way to be rid of it Sin cannot stand before a perfect hatred but languishes and dies away whereas love to it is the life and strength of it 2. Study more the admirable excellency and fairness of the copy Christ has set you And how desireable it is still to be growing up more and more into him in all things The beauty of Men and Angels is black to Christ's fairness to be like Him is to have that which truly deserves the name of excellency With open face and intentive eyes behold as in a glass the glory of your Lord that you may be changed into the same image and become glorious your selves 2 Cor 3. ult 3. Being sensible of your own impotency live by Faith on the Son of God Remember 't is in Him that you have both righteousness and strength Isa 45.24 Grace to be like Christ is from him He strengthens the weak hands he confirms the feeble knees that we may work and walk after his Example If you should attempt to do this in your own might that attempt would be not only vain but an argument of your pride and ignorance Can the branch bear fruit of it self 'T is from the Vine that sap is communicated to it to make it fruitful You must be and abide in Christ and ever be deriving life and virtue from Him that you may bear fruit worthy of Him Joh. 15.4 5. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me I am the Vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing 4 Give up your selves to the conduct of Christs own Spirit How often is it said He that hath an ear let him hâ—ar what the Spirit saith unto the Churches The Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus represents his amiableness and anoints the eyes with eye-salve that it may be seen And where-ever the Image of Christ is 't is this Spirit that has instampt it upon the Soul Live in the Spirit and Walk in the Spirit so your feet shall not decline from the Steps of Christ you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Gal. 5.16.25 He will cause you to look unto Jesus and enable you to follow him without turning aside or drawing back Till you come to be where he is and behold his glory and then you will be satisfied with his likeness and be for ever with the Lord. The Case Proposed Quest How may a luke-warm Temper be effectually cured I add in our selves and in one another The Resolution given SERMON XIV Heb. x. 24 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And let us consider one another to provoke to love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day to be approaching THE inspired Author of this profound
the most notorious Sinners among all the Heathens worse than Tire and Sidon before mention'd or any Heathen City and yet shall fare better than Capernaum though none of Sodom's sins be charged by our Saviour upon it But they repented not under the means of Grace and Salvation Because they repented not saith the Text this was their sin Q. But what is this Impenitency under the Gospel A. 1. It is not all hardness of Heart that is Impenitency many good Christians may still find something of it but it is when men harden their own hearts Heb. 3.8 which are two different things 2. It is not any particular act of Sin that may be call'd Impenitency but a trade and course of Sin 3. It implies a wilful rejecting the Offers of Grace and Salvation by Christ in those that live under the Gospel 4. It implies a slighting and contempt of the threatnings denounced against Sin and Sinners 5. It implies a resolved purpose to persist in Sin though Man knows it to be Sin when the Sinner's mind is not changed nor he comes to himself and to grow wise after all his folly as the Greek word for Repentance doth import this is Impenitency This I premise to clear my way to the following discourse As also by answering the following Objection Obj. But Capernaum's case is not ours Capernaum saw Christ in the Flesh which we never did they heard Doctrine preached from his own mouth which we never did they saw his Miracles wrought before their eyes which we never saw Had we had their advantages and priviledges we would not have done as they did nor been impenitent as they were Ans This Evasion is much like that of the Scribes and Pharisees mentioned Matth. 23.30 Had we been in the days of our Fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets When they at the same time were fill'd with that malice against Christ which issued in the shedding of his precious blood But I answer 1. Though we have not Christ with us in his fleshly Presence yet we have his Doctrine still with us and preached to us And it was not his fleshly Presence that brought any Sinners to repentance but his Doctrine 2. Though we see not Christ's Miracles wrought before our eyes yet we hâ—â—e them recorded by the four Evangelists and by such as were either eye-witnesses or wrote by an infallible Spirit or rather both And if we believe the Gospel we believe what is there recorded and Faith is the evidence of things not seen and will make their impression upon the Heart as if seen with the Eye 3. Of those many thousands both of Jews and Gentiles that were brought to repentance by the Gospel in the Primitive times not one of an hundred or of a thousand did either see Christ in the Flesh heard him Preach or saw him work any Miracle 4. Of those many thousands that did see him and his Works and hear him preach when he was upon Earth not one of an hundred were brought to repentance thereby vid. John 12.37 And are any sure in these days had they then lived they should not have been of that number Considering that men have now the same blindness and hardness upon their minds and hearts which they had then and the same love to their sins and prejudices against Holiness as was then And therefore Impenitency now will expose a man to as severe punishment and present him as guilty before God at the day of Judgment as it will Capernaum And doth not our Saviour denounce the same severities against them that received not his Disciples preaching as his own Matth. 10.14 15. Whosoever shall not receive you having offer'd peace to them depart and shake off the dust of your feet against them Verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah than that City And this holds true in every Age and in the present Age in every City and in this City in every Nation and in our own Nation Thus having made my way clear I now proceed And shew That Impenitency under the Gospel will expose men to the most intolerable Judgment in the day of Christ 1. I shall prove that it will do so 2. Why it will do so 3. Wherein will this greater Intolerableness consist 1. That it will do so I need not prove it by any other Argument than what we have in the Text. I say unto you saith our Saviour And again v. 22. I say unto you it shall be more tolerable c. And he adds his Amen and Verily to it Matth. 10.15 Verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tire and Zidon in the day of Judgment c. If we believe not that Christ hath said this we are Infidels to the Gospel If we think he hath said false we are guilty of Blasphemy Is it not he that saith Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my Words shall not pass away that saith this Is it not he who is styled the Amen the true and faithful witness that hath said this Is it not he who came down from Heaven out of the bosom of God and spake nothing but what he had seen and heard from his Father that saith this And therefore it may seem some reflection upon Christ's Veracity and my Auditor's Infidelity and incredulity to bring any other proof 2. Next Why will it be so at the day of Judgment R. Because Impenitency under the Gospel hath more of sin in it than any sin of the Heathen And this is the general Reason And where there is most Sin there will be the severest Judgment I suppose none of you think as some Philosophers of old that all sins are equal And inequality of sin requires in justice inequality in punishment That saying of Christ to Pilate shews that there are degrees of sin He that delivered me to thee hath the greater sin John 19.11 And so we may conclude there will be degrees of punishment And these degrees of sin must needs be known to God who is a God of Knowledge and being known to him his Justice requires of him Punishment in a proportion though not in this life yet at the day of the Revelation of the righteous judgment of God When all men shall be put into the Scale as Daniel told Belshazzar and Judgment past upon them according to what weight they bear And their Actions also consider'd and weighed in all their Circumstances what Grace and Holiness may be found in the actions of some and what Sin in the actions of others So that many sins that may pass for no sins now may be found sinful then and such as pass for small sins and of little scandal before men now may be found highly sinful in that day There are many sins that have more Scandal than Impenitency under the Gospel and yet not so much guilt As we use to say in Divinity that
Devotions By all which it is evident that as there have been different Opinions and Practices among all sorts of Religions in the World so the Church of God hath been subject to the same Malady And as it was from the beginning so it is now and so will it be 'till the World have an end until the Church of God be presented to Jesus Christ without spot or wrinkle or any such thing And the Causes hereof are evident 1. Our general Imperfection in this Life As the best men are imperperfect in their Holiness so are they in their Knowledge there will be Defects in our Vnderstanding as well as in our Will Some are Babes in Knowledge others are strong Men some have need of Milk being unskilful in the Word of righteousness others are of fuller Age and have their senses exercis'd to discern both good and evil Heb. 5.12 13 14. Foolish men are ready to burthen the Scriptures in Vulgar Tongues with the Differences that are found in Religion but therein they blaspheme the Holy Ghost for the Word of God is a clear Light the Cause of Mistakes is the weakness and blindness of our Eye-sight whereby we cannot all with equal clearness see into the meaning of it by reason of this our Imperfection So that it is scarce possible to prevent all Diversity of Opinions in Religion unless every pious Man had a Promise of Infallibility annexed to his Piety 2. Mens Education contributes much hereunto It is manifest how strong an Influence this hath upon all Peoples Understandings The Principles which then they imbibe be they right or wrong they generally live and dye with Few will be at the pains to examine them and few have a mind to alter them So that it is much to be doubted that if it had been the fate of many of our professed Christians to have been born and bred under the Turk or Mâ—guâ— they had both quietly and resolutely proceeded in their Religion And proportionably to be bred under Parents Masters or Tutors of a different Opinion or Practice in the true Religion must needs greatly byass such Persons towards the same and every one not having the very same Education there follows a kind of necessity of some difference in Religion 3. Mens Capacities are different Some have a greater sagacity to penetrate into things than others some have a clearer Judgment to weigh and determine of things than others some have more solid Learning by far than others and these doubtless will attain to an higher Form and Class than others can Others have neither such natural Abilities nor Time to read and think of matters so as to improve and advance their minds to the pitch of others And there are not a few who as they are duller in Apprehension so they are commonly hotter in Affection and Resolution And it is scarce possible to reduce these Persons that are so unequal in their Capacity to an Identity of Opinion And then out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth will be apt to speak and so there will follow some Difference in the matters of Religion 4. Mens natural Tempers are different some more airy and Mercurial some more stiff and Melancholy and those Complexions do strongly and insensibly incline People to those Sentiments that are most suitable and proper to such Temperaments which being diverse yea almost contrary must of necessity when they are applied to matters of Religion breed variety of Apprehensions And the same Holy Spirit which inspired the sacred Pen-men of the Scriptures and yet therein adapts himself as is manifest to their Natural Genius cannot be expected in his Ordinary Illuminations to thwart and stifle the natural temper of all Mankind neither are those Notions which do grow upon mens Natural Constitution easily any other way altered And 5. Mens Interests are different the best of Men have something of the Old Adam in them And though the sincere Christian must and will strive against any such Temptation yet according to the strength of unmortified Corruption Men will be prone to be for this Opinion Practice or Party and against that Opinion Practice or Party that falls in or out with their Worldly Interest Not that any good Man doth wittingly calculate his Profession for his baser ends but yet they may secretly byass him especially in more minute and dubious matters belonging to Religion It is a great Question what Way or Party many Men would chuse if their present Profession were quite stript of all carnal and worldly Advantages and Considerations and that they were left to square out their Religion only with the Bible Now from these and many other Causes it sadly follows for the consequence is a matter to be bewailed there will be Differences among the People of God in Points of Religion especially in minuter matters which are but darkly describ'd and more darkly apprehended by the Sons of Men. In short that there is no more hope of perfect Unity on Earth than there is of perfect Holiness 'T is to be endeavoured but not fully attained 'till we arrive in Heaven Then we shall come in the Vnity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God when we are grown perfect men according to the measure of the sâ—â—ture of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4.11 Propos 2. These Differences may and should be managed with Charity Not but that Vnity should by all good men be first endeavoured and to that end they should all impartially seek for Truth on which side soever it lies and this every humble diligent man shall find The Spirit of God which is promised unto his Church and which every true Believer shall have for asking will guide all such into all necessary saving Truth and all other Vnity save in the Truth is but Conspiracy Accursed is that Charity saith Luther which is preserved by the Shipwrack of Faith or Truth to which all things must give place both Charity yea on Apostle yea an Angel from Heaven If the one must be dispensed withal it is Peace and not Truth Better to have Truth without publick Peace than Peace without saving Truth So Dr. Gauden We must not sail for the Commodity of Peace beyond the Line of Truth we must break the Peace in Truths quarrel so another Learned man But this is to be understood of necessary and essential Truths in which Case that Man little consults the Will and Honour of God who will expose the Truth to obtain as saith Nazianzen the repute of an easie mildness Speciosum quidem nomen est pacis pulchra opinio Vnitatis sed quis dubitat eam solam Ecclesiae pacem esse qua Christi est saith Hilary But when as after all such endeavours have been used as are within the reach of a Mans Parts and Calling â—â—ill Differences do remain in smaller matters these ought to be managed with all Charity that is with true Love a Love of Honour and respect to those that
and then these must evidently offend and cross his Blessed Nature The more patient quiet and mild men are the liker are they to God and the more uncharitable and implacable the liker to the Devil the Accuser of the Brethren When our dear Saviour who came on purpose to reconcile God and Man and men to men The Anthem which was sung by Angels was Glory to God in the highest on Earth peace and good-will unto men These Contentions do ring these Bells backward and chase away that peace and good-will back to Heaven again When Joseph was so kind to his guilty Brethren as to be reconciled to them he sent them back again with this charge Genes 45.24 See that ye fall not out by the way q. d. See I am reconciled to you all quarrel not among your selves a most kind and equal advice In like manner our Blessed Saviour when he had obtained Remission for us commanded all his Disciples to have salt in themselves and to have peace one with aaother he renews no Commandment but that of loving one another And the Holy Ghost in the Apostles doth still inculcate this Lesson above all others to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace to be like minded to have the same Love to do nothing through strife or vain-glory to avoid the provoking one another Now how inexcusable doth this leave all fiery and contentious spirits And how justly may they be handled without any Mercy that handle their brethren without any Charity And certainly as the Lord commands a blessing upon Brethren that dwell together in unity Psal 133. so it is a manifest token of his wrath when a spirit of dissention is sent upon People when Manasseh is set against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manassâ—h and they together against Judah then it follows for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Isa 9.21 And look as the Husbandman deals with his way-ward Cattel when they cannot agree in the Field he pounds them up and makes them quiet in the Fold so may our Just and Holy God make all those that cannot unite in the Church to agree at the Stake As Meletius and Peter Bishop of Alexandria who fell into such debate when they were in Prison for the same Cause that they refused to hold communion together till they both at length agreed in Red. And so two other learned men were at such discord in the Mines whither they were condemn'd for Christianity that they made up a Wall between their Works to keep them asunder till at last they met at the fatal Pile 2. They consume the Power and Life of Godliness God's grace never thrives in an unquiet Spirit The Jews say that Jehovah lives in Salem which signifies Peace but he cannot live in Babel which signifies Confusion That Zeal that Time those Studies which should be employed in the increasing of saving Knowledge Faith Hope and Holiness they are all consum'd in these uncharitable Contentions Instead of making our own Calling and Election sure we are busie to reprobrate our Brethren and to render their Calling ineffectual Instead of considering one another to provoke to Love and good Works these engage us to consider all the defects and faults of others and to provoke them to Anger and to every evil Work This is fasting for strife and debate these imbitter our Prayers and hinder our access to God when we cannot lift up unto him holy hands without wrath nor without doubting yea they 'll tempt us to restrain Prayer before God or to do as Mr. Latimer tells of some that would not say the Lord's-Prayer at all lest they should be thereby obliged to forgive others and therefore in the stead thereof went to our Ladies Psalter How can such approach the Holy Table that will make no agreement with their Adversaries that will not forgive that desire not to be forgiven In short where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Jam. 3.16 17 18. It will be Objected here That it is our Duty where we have Right and Truth on our side to contend earnestly So they were exhorted Jude 3. to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints To be cool or lukewarm is to betray and sell the Truth and this Neutrality becomes no man in the Cause of Truth To this I Answer 1. We must consider the Nature and Consequence of Truth that is that it be a great or necessary Truth For though no Truth must be deny'd yet many Truths may be forborn If every Man should be oblig'd to vent and propagate at all times every thing which he holds to be true no place or conversation would be quiet It was a Truth that a Believer might eat all things yet the Apostle did not think it necessary to urge or insist upon it nor that it would quit the cost of a doubtful disputation Rom. 14.12 2. In asserting any Truth a Man may be earnest and yet charitable he may think well of his Opposites and yet think ill of their Opinions he may oppose an error with a spirit of meekness with soft words and hard arguments An excellent direction there is for this 2 Tim. 2.23 24 25. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes And the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves This is far from aggravating mens mistakes spinning out odious consequences from them concluding that all of another perswasion do militate against their own Consciences that worldly interest or vain Humour swayes them that they are ignorant Sotts or superstitious Time-servers and the like these kind of strivings are not for any Servant of the Lord. When Michael had the worst of all adversaries to dispute with he durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said The Lord rebuke thee Jude 9. And if a little railing might not be mixt in a Dispute with the Devil himself how dare any man use it against any one of the same Nature Nation and Religion with himself Most piously therefore was it resolved by divers eminent German Divines who met at Marpurg to discuss the point of the Real Presence that though they could not accord therein yet that they would preserve the bond of Charity inviolable among them Yea but you Object That our Opposites are violent and if we be gentle we shall but incourage them Shall they be hot in the wrong and we lukewarm in the right How can we handle charitably such uncharitable persons Unto this I Answer We may be resolute and yet charitable for one Grace never crosses another As the greatest Courage is still accompanied with the
Nay 2. Reason From the requisites in the Gospel its self 2. All the Priviledges of the Gospel do include or presuppose departing from Iniquity An unholy Person whilst such Ipsa salus non potest salvare Salvation its self cannot preserve How did the Jews search every hole and corner of their houses to find out leaven and how earnestly did they cast it away or else the Paschal Lamb would not have availed them and the destroying Angel would not have pass'd from them 1 Cor. 10.6 And these things are our Examples and tell us that unless we industriously search out and cast away the leaven of sin and wickedness the very Death of Christ the Lamb of God will profit us nothing 'T is as the first Principle of the Christian Religion that the Unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God which the Apostle took for granted the Corinthians could not but know Vers 10. And what a Bead-roll is there of such as he declares shall not inherit the Kingdom of God! No less than ten abominations are there mentioned to exclude from Heaven and some of them valued in common account but as Peccadillo's Men are apt to say of any sin Is it not a little one and my Soul shall live But as the Apostle there cautions Be not deceived deceits of this nature are frequent but very dangerous And this is the Gospel to which we appeal when we are scared and frighted by the Law But in all the Gospel there is nothing that can take away or lessen our Obligation to God's Commandments but what does every way straighten and strengthen it Now we are bound with a double Cord which is harder to be broken and it shews that sin under the Gospel hath acquired greater strength when it snaps it asunder Let us take a view of the Priviledges of those that are saved by the Gospel and see how they are obliged to Holiness by them Eph. 1.4 1. Election is the first and if we are chosen in Christ Jesus the Apostle tells us that We are chosen in him that we should be holy and without blame before him 2 Pet. 1.10 and if we should make our Calling and Election sure it must be with fear and trembling The Book of Life is with God in Heaven thou canst not see thy Name there but it is transcribed for thy comfort in thy Heart when thou art sanctified and the more thou proceedest in Holiness the more legible it will be unto thee 2. Our Vocation is unto Holiness Does God call any of his to come from the World and Sin unto him As Christ called Saul and His Sheep do hear his voice they are called to be Saints Rom. 1.7 they are called to be made holy and to be sanctified whatsoever they were before when once they come to Christ 1 Cor. 6.11 but ye are washed but ye are sanctified Christ comes by Water and Blood and not by Water or Blood only and Christ is made of God unto us not only Righteousness but Sanctification 1 Cor. 1.30 3. Our Regeneration or being Born again which the Gospel insists so much upon is in being made like unto God 2 Pet. 1.4 partakers of the Divine Nature enabled to love what he loves and to hate what he hates and to be conformed unto him in all things So that God and regenerate Ones have but one Will Thus they are said to be created again unto good works 4. And what is Glory which we seek for and endeavour after Rom. 2.7 but only Holiness in perfection Grace is Glory in the Bud Glory is Grace in the Flower hence they are put together and we are said to be called to Glory and Vertue Wheresoever true Grace is 2 Pet. 1.3 there will be Glory and in whomsoever Glory is there hath been Grace God hath put these two together and let no Man put them asunder As Laban's two Daughters were disposed of the Elder thô less lovely must be first accepted by Jacob Gen. 29.26 so God deals with his two Grace and Glory Grace is the elder and thô not so desireable every one would covet Glory yet this is the Law of the Land the Younger must not be given before the Elder you must woo for and obtain Grace before you can be admitted to the enjoyment of Glory Nay we are only so far Christians as we are like Christ in Principle and Practice as we partake of the Spirit which he had and lead such a Life as he did Christian is not an empty name and being called so makes us not to be so Every one is not a Scholar or an Artist in any faculty who is called so Besides Christianity is a practical Science and thou hast no more of it than thou dost practise Oh how little have most men The Heathen painted their Deified Heroes with this sentence proceeding from them Si feceritis sicut nos eritis sicut nos We may imagine we hear our Saviour telling us from Heaven If ye do as I did ye shall be as I am And certainly thô Heaven and the Glory of it be freely promised and 't is no contradiction to say that it is fully purchas'd and sufficiently paid for Eph. 1.14 being the Apostle calls it a purchased possession yet there must be a meetness and suitableness to it in every one that shall be admitted to the fruition of it We must be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 What should an unholy heart do in Heaven Heaven would not be Heaven unto it that is it could not be a place of Bliss and Joy unspeakable unto such There are no carnal delights not so much as the here lawfull because necessary ones of eating and drinking marrying and giving in mariage there is no Gold and Silver to fill the Bags of the covetous Earth-worms no Dalilah's for the Wantons no Company to debauch and carouze with If a Sermon or a Lord's day be so tedious when will it be gone How unhappy would an unchanged unsanctified Soul think its self to hear perpetual Hallelujah's and Praises to be confined amongst the Souls of just men and Holy Angels God certainly will not cast his Jewels before such Swine Heb. 12.23 14. Besides the Gospel does by no means take away the ground of that Discrimination which will be at the last between the Sheep and Goats between them that shall stand on the right hand and on the left of the Judge of the quick and dead In the final Sentence there must be a Truth in what shall be said to the Blessed I was an hungred and ye gave me meat Mat. 25.35 vers 42. as well as the final Condemnation of the Cursed I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat c. But I need not multiply Reasons to prove that every one must depart from Iniquity even such as hope to be saved For
to be the best interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That ye may be perfect in every Divine perfection knowing all Spiritual things as far as 't is possible Seeing then there is a fulness of God which we cannot comprehend cannot receive and yet there is something of the fulness of God which we may receive it will be seasonable to propound that Question which has been recommended to our Consideration Question What is that fulness of God which every true Christian ought to pray and strive to be filled with This Inquiry will oblige us to speak something by way of Supposition and then something further by way of direct Solution § 1. That which is necessary to be spoken by way of Supposition will fall under these two Heads That there is a fulness in God and of God which we cannot be filled with And that there is a fulness of God with which we may and therefore ought to pray and strive to be filled with 1. Supposition It is presupposed to this Inquiry That there is a fulness in God with which we cannot be filled and therefore ought not to pray ought not to strive to be filled with it It was the destructive suggestion and temptation of Satan to persuade our first Parents to be ambitious of being like to God Gen. 3.5 Ye shall be as Gods And the Tempter never shew'd himself to be more a Devil than when he prosecuted this Design nor did Man ever fall more below himself than when he was blown up to an Ambition to be above himself It is the perfection the glory the happiness of the Rational creature to be like unto God in his communicable Attributes It is the destruction the ruin of the Rational creatures to aspire after a likeness to God in his incommunicable ones And 't is a sinful ambition too to aspire after a likeness to God even in his communicable Attributes and perfections in that way wherein they are in God so that it may be our destruction to aspire after a conformity to God and it may be our perfection to aspire after a conformity to him For first God is essentially full of all Divine excellencies he is so by nature by essence what we are we are by Grace 'T is not much we have and that little is Grace 1 Cor. 15.10 By the grace of God I am that I am Holiness is not our essence there was a time when we were not holy we were born without it and may die without it but if we die as empty of Grace as we were born it had been good for us never to have been born Secondly The holiness of God is a Self-holiness God is not only full § 2 but self-full full with his own fulness he lends to all borrows of none But the fulness of a Believer is a borrowed a precarious fulness we depend on God for the beginning and begetting of Grace for the encreasing and nourishing of that Grace he has begotten and begun for the confirming and strengthning that Grace he has encreased for the perfecting and compleating of that Grace he has confirmed and strengthned and for the crowning of what he has so perfected and compleated Chrysostom upon that John 1.16 And of his fulness we all have received and grace for grace informs us that Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Self-fountain Believers must confess with David Psal 71.8 That all our Springs are in him Again that Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Self-root We must freely and thankfully own that in him is our fruit found Hosea 14.8 Again that Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Self-life John 5.26 He has Life in himself That we have we acknowledge it to be from him as our Principle Spring Root with whom is the fountain of life Psal 36.9 And that the life which we live in the Flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 In a word all our Obedience is rooted in the habits of Grace wrought in the Soul and those habits are all rooted in Christ who as Chrysostom goes on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contains in himself the treasures of all good things and not only so but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he overflows and ever flows with Streams of Grace to all the Saints not only being full but filling others not only rich but enriching others a living Jesus and giving Life to others And thus by Faith engraffed into Christ we partake of the root and of the fatness of the Olive-tree Rom. 11.17 Thirdly The fulness of holiness of Grace of all perfections that are in God are unlimited boundless and infinite God is a Sea § 3 without a Shoar an Ocean of Grace without a Bottom The fulness of Believers is circumscribed within the bounds and limits of their narrow and finite Beings And this finiteness of Nature will for ever cleave to the Saints when they shall be enlarged in their Souls to the utmost capacity Mortal shall put on Mortality but finite shall never put on Infiniteness Corruptible shall put on Incorruption but our measured Natures shall never put on Immensity Fourthly And hence the fulness of God is inexhaustible As all the § 4 lesser Stars replenish their Urns with light from the Sun and yet he 's never the less full of light Thus God is called the Father of lights Jam. 1.17 by which some think is meant the Father of Spirits who as so many Lamps are lighted up from the Sun or else the Father of all Grace Comfort Peace each of which may be termed Light Now when all the Saints in Earth all the Angels in Heaven have filled up their Vessels from this Fountain yet he is still the same infinitely blessed all-full God Fifthly And the forementioned Father thinks that the similitude of § 5 the Fountain and of the Ocean do not fully express the fulness of God For if you take but one drop from the Ocean there is that drop less in the Ocean than there had been if it had not been taken thence and therefore we add this last Head That the fulness of Goodness Grace Holiness and all other Divine Perfections that are in him are not only inexhaustible but undiminishable For after all the derivations of Grace from the God of Grace he remains full and not only so but as he expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not at all lessened by those communications Nor need we puzzle our selves with this matter for our Derivations from God are not essential but influential the Soul partakes not of the Divine Nature materially but by way of efficiency Believers are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Not by substance but resemblance for we must hold this as a fixt Principle that the Divine Nature essentially considered is not discerptible nor divisible and therefore not communicable This therefore is the first thing we must suppose and take as granted That there is a
Faith and work out thy own Salvation see you neglect it no longer no Man can save another Mans Soul by his Faith his own he may Faith busies it self about our own Salvation shews us what we must do to be saved were there more of this Faith among Professors we should every one have work enough upon our hands and not find it so easie a matter to secure our Souls into eternity General Professors carry it as if they had nothing to do were sure of Heaven already at this rate we may count it an easie matter to believe but when we come to die we shall not find it so any Faith may serve some Mens turns to live by but every Faith will not serve our turns to die by when we are dying in good earnest a feigned Faith signifies little to our comfort we see thorow it and sink under it If your Faith do not often call upon you to look to your own Souls it cannot be saving Faith he that seeks not to save himself let him talk what he will of his Faith it is not saving Faith that is intent upon the salvation of a believer and finds enough to do in carrying on that work with fear and trembling lest it should not go thorow with it You who have been at this work in good earnest don't find it so easie as some would make it new doubts new difficulties new temptations do arise every day that put the Faith of the best Christians to it if Faith do's not bestir it self the Devil may be too hard for you and your Faith too if the righteous are scarcely saved surely 't is no easie matter to get to Heaven you must run wrestle strive fight contend earnestly else you may miss of Heaven and come short of all your expectation of eternal glory I speak not this to discourage you but to awaken you to that diligence and care that so weighty a business calls for Saving Faith is to cast my Self and my own Soul upon Christ for salvation what ever your Faith may be 't is not come to saving Faith till you do this you may carry all your knowledge and all your Faith to Hell with you any Faith that is not saving but remains separate from it will prove a damning Faith to you 't will greatly aggravate your condemnation that you who knew such things believed such things assented to such Truths and Gospel Doctrins should never put forth an act of saving Faith for your own Souls in particular according to the import of those Doctrins 't is strange to see how many Professors do leave themselves quite out of their own Faith they will not be at the pains to act it for themselves but in general they believe as the Church believes but let me tell you 't is not the Church nor all the Churches in the World 't is not all the Angels in Heaven nor all the Saints upon Earth can believe for you you must every one believe for your selves and act your own business cast your own Souls upon Christ for Salvation else they will be eternally lost How many knowing historical Believers are there in Hell who have Prophesied in his Name Prayed in his Name have Written Disputed Argued strongly for the Faith have done every thing that belongs to a common Faith but could never be brought to put forth one act of saving Faith upon Christ for the Salvation of their own Souls Come unto me all ye that are weary c. is this done till you personally come to Christ for the pardon of your sins and for the Justification of your persons by name John Thomas Mary whatever your names are he or she I am sent this day to give you a particular call to come to Christ and I do warn every one of you and exhort every one to go to Christ by a personal act of your own Faith for eternal life he has purchased it for all who come unto him if you neglect it and will not go your blood be upon your own heads I have delivered my own Soul Brethren be perswaded to hearken to the invitation that is given you in the Gospel before it be too late O what a do is there to bring a sinner to Christ O that you would bethink your selves this day and set about saving Faith act that Faith that will save you and say Lord after all my Knowledge and long Profession after all my Praying Hearing Reading I now see these are but means in order to something else the end of all is real believing in Christ and I am now at last come to do that to commit my self wholly to Christ to cast my sinful Soul upon him for Righteousness and Life Lord help me to do this bring me to a through reliance upon Christ and keep me in the frequent exercise and lively actings of this Faith every day that I may see my self safe in him who is faithful and will keep that which I so commit unto him The Just shall live by his own Faith which he acts for himself and for his own Soul if you do not thus commit your selves to Christ every day by a renewed act of Faith you may lose the joy of your Salvation ere you are aware If you say this is done I will not ask you when you did it first that may seem too nice a question to some but I will ask you when you did it last I hope you do it every day if you are at any stand in your thoughts about this your wisest course is to act over this saving Faith more distinctly more particularly more frequently for the Salvation of your own Soul then your Faces will shine and your Hearts will rejoyce we shall know you have been with Jesus 'T is impossible to experience the power and efficacy of saving Faith till we act it in our own case for our own Souls then it comes home indeed to our selves then we feel the comfort of it we may own the general Doctrin of Faith and be little affected with it or concerned about it but when the Grace of Faith comes and makes a particular application of that Doctrin to thy Soul and my Soul then we believe for our selves and are filled with joy unspeakable and full of Glory that we should be received unto mercy have all our sins pardoned our persons accepted and our Souls eternally saved all this Faith makes out to us by name from such undeniable grounds and reasons that we cannot gainsay They count it easie to believe who shut all acts of self-denial quite out of their Faith they live as they did before it may be walk on more securely in their evil courses from a presumptuous perswasion of mercy at last pray God deliver us from such a Faith that gives encouragement to sin If your Faith do not strongly incline you to a holy Life you may be sure 't is not right saving Faith 'T is a sad thing to consider how little
of Scripture hath he revealed it where doth he promise you repentance and pardon at the last when you had never seriously sought either all your days 2. The wickedness and profaneness of them You resolve you will repent when you die and that implies you will not repent till then i. e. you do and resolve still to love sin as long as you live but you intend to leave it when you can live no longer in it you hate God now and resolve to hate him till you die and then you will begin to love him You will make work for repentance now and seek for repentance at last offend God and provoke him and make work for pardoning mercy all your days and then sue to him for it You will persevere to affront the grace of Christ and throw his blood back into his face and then expect to be washed in it from your sins and saved by it when you go out of the World It is to as little purpose to say Object You will then send for the Minister to instruct you to pray with you c. For what if you do your case may be such that all the good Men Ans good Ministers good Instructions good Counsels in the World may not help you not save you All may come too late and signifie no more to your Souls than Physitians and Physick at that time do to your Bodies Alas what can Ministers do for you Can their instructions enlighten your minds when God hath blinded them Can their counsels soften your hearts when he hath hardned them Can the breath of prayer waft your Souls to Heaven in the last moment of your life when you have been stearing towards Hell all your days What can your Spiritual Physitians do for the cure of your Souls when the great Physitian of all hath left you as incurable and will never any more visit you Do not tell me on the other side That repentance is Gods gift Object and you cannot have it till he give it you and therefore you must tarry till he do For 1. It is as much Gods gift at last as at first Ans and you can no more have it at your death if he do not give it you than you can have it now 2. Tho it be Gods gift and you cannot work it in your selves yet cannot you seek it of God desire him to work it in you And can you not use the means by which he ordinarily works it And are you not as capable of so doing when you live and are in health as when you are sick and dying When you are sick you cannot heal your selves health is Gods gift as well as grace is tho of another kind But do you then use to lie still and say you must wait till God restore you Or do you not rather send for your Physitian and betake your selves to the use of means by which God is wont to work it You cannot get an estate unless God give it you riches are his gift Prov. 10.22 Do you therefore sit still and fold your hands in your bosom and say you must tarry till God give you an estate Or do you not rather engage in some honest Calling or Trade as the ordinary way God is wont to bless to that end The diligent hand maketh rich vers 4. and why do you not do so here too If you will go on in sin and say you wait till God give you repentance you may wait long enough when every day you continue in sin so much the farther off from repentance you are and so much the more you provoke God to deny it you To conclude Take heed especially of those things which are the ordinary hinderances of a timely repentance I. Wrong notions of repentance 1. That it is an easie thing and so may be done at any time that it is but sorrowing for sin and crying God mercy for having offended him This prevails with too many that know not wherein the nature of it consists Remember therefore that it is no easie thing to get a through change wrought in your hearts to divorce your lusts to which you have been so long wedded to part with those sins you love best and engage in those ways of strict holiness which of all things in the World you hate most The old Man will fight hard ere he die The flesh will never yield and hardly be overcom And if ever God work repentance to you he will so work it as to make you work at it too and labour after it his grace using and employing your faculties And what can you ever do either in seeking repentance before the infusion of the grace or exercising it when infused but you will find sin opposing you in it and so creating difficulties in your work 2. That it is a sour and an unpleasant thing made up of sorrow and sadness and unquietness of Spirit They know no delights but sensual ones and think if they part with the pleasure of sin they part with the comfort of their lives Do not therefore look meerly on the dark side of repentance or what may make it seem uneasie to you look through it and you will find that which will make it more pleasant In the very sorrow you fear if it be right i. e. godly sorrow there will be such a mixture of Love as will make it in a good measure delightful to you If it seem painful to you to strive against sin and there be trouble in the combat yet when you prevail over it you will find comfort in the Victory You will be more pleased with having denied your selves than you could with having gratified your selves Our Saviours promise Matth. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted one would think should reconcile you not only to any seeming trouble in the work of repentance but to all the greatest difficulties and severities of the most strict and mortified life If indeed your repentance be meerly legal proceeding from fear of wrath or Popish for the expiation of your sins I grant it may be a sad and unpleasant thing but if it be a true Protestant repentance i. e. an Evangelical one mixed with Love to God and proceeding from the Faith of Free Grace and remission of sin through the Blood of Christ it need not be such a scare-crow to you as to make you hazard your Salvation by shifting your duty II. Presumptuous thoughts of Gods mercy that God may be merciful to them and give them repentance and pardon their sins at the very last Consider therefore 1. As merciful as God is yet his will sets bounds even to that infinite mercy as to the actings and outgoings of it and beyond those bounds it will never pass There is a time a day a now of grace which when it is once over no mercy will be shewn you Offers of mercy invitations made to sinners and the acceptation of them are but for a time the door is
Spirit of God Sure he who hath an Immortal Soul within him and a Dubious State to himself as that dreadful Eternity before him should never be sick of his time that lies upon his Hand one hour whereof millions of Wolds can't redeem 2. Covetousness is a weighty Argument Thousands are enough to break the Loyns of most Mens minds too heavy for the back of the strongest Rationalist in the World the Scale of Judgment cannot turn while this beam is in the Eye nor any Argument counterpoise this dead and deadly weight but Tythe Mint and Cummin will outweigh Faith and the Love of God Luke 11.42 St. Briget prophesied Fox's Martyr The Roman Clergy would ruin the Church by their avarice for she said They had already reduced the Ten Commands to two words da pecuniam 3. Pride of Life swells Men till they break all bonds and bounds like Stum in the Cask makes all the Hoops fly off The zeal of a party and having declared for a way makes Men they cannot retreat but will spur on for honour and profit though the Angel of the Lord oppose them till they are crushed to the Wall If Christian Religion be founded in Self-denyal Mortification and bearing the Cross they who seek their own glory are not of God John 7.18 that is either no Gospel or these certainly are no Disciples of Christ We had need look to ourselves for this lust of domination and glory as Charon saith Is the very Shirt of the Soul on from the first but last put off Secondly I am to shew you that the practice of holy Duties clearly commanded is the ready way to have our minds inlightned in the knowledge of Principles Reading the Scriptures discoursing about Heaven and about their Souls everlasting welfare Reproving one another and admonishing Rom. 15.14 comforting and supporting the weak and dejected Soul 1 Thes 5.14 To exhort one another dayly lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.13 Duties so much out of fashion in these days that it is not counted good manners or civility to practise them friendly reproof is esteemed want of good breeding But are they not strange Christians who are strangers to Scripture Duties 1. These Practical Duties performed would give us light He that doth the Truth cometh to the light John 3.21 not only out of boldness but discovery of knowledge Truth is nothing but goodness explained and goodness is nothing but Truth consolidated Rudiments of knowledge are prerequisite to practice but examples clear all things to us Demonstration by the Compasses maketh the Maxim evident He that doth best knoweth best for he seeth the actions as they are in themselves and circumstances he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he seeth the bottom by diving into them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 119.130 pethac pethaiim the very entrance into the command giveth light the Door is a Window to him that hath a weak sight even those things Men have formerly ridiculed practice hath reconciled them to be their Diana and great delight As the Gnostick in Clem. Alex. who could not taste lewdness till he was in all evil as t is Prov. 5.14 If wicked practices darken the mind as all the works of darkness do than holy actions illuminate the Soul 2. The exercise of holy Duties advanceth light every step a Man takes he goeth into a new Horizon and gets a further prospect into Truth Motion is promoted by motion actions breed habits habits fortifie the powers the new life grows stronger and fuller of Spirit The yoke of Christ is easier smoother and lighter by often wearing it this anoints us with the oyl of gladness and makes the ways of Wisdom pleasantness Prov. 3.17 Life and light are nearly related John 1.4 The life was the light of Men Acts 1.1 These things Jesus first did then taught and so he was mighty in Deed and in Word Luke 24.19 very airing and motion heateth to a flame this made his light burn vers 32. and shine too Truth incarnate in action seems a lively resemblance of God in flesh the unfolding a doubt to another hath often expounded and resolved it to the proponent 3. If any be in danger of Error or got into an ill way keeping up warm Duties Meditation and Prayer will keep him in or help him out communion with the Saints is an admirable antidote against sin or Error As in a Team of Horses if one lash out of the way if the other hold their course they will draw the former to the right path 1 John 2.20 ye have an unction and ye know all things when there are Antichrists and great Apostacies keeping to Duty like keeping the Road preserveth us from by-paths I remember a Snowy night when many wandring homeward were frozen to death A Shepherd feeling himself foiled by often falling set down his Crook in one point and beat a path round and so preserved his life and kept him out of precipices and ditches And we have a promise of light if we press to the mark and prize of our high calling Phil. 3.15 carry the Goale in your Eye and it will direct you a path where there is none upon a plain Sincerely aim at Gods glory and your Souls salvation and you shall not miss your way If in any thing you should miss it and be otherwise minded God will reveal even this unto you Yea our great Lord and Master assureth us John 7.17 He that doth the will of God he shall know the Doctrin whether it be of God or I speak of my self But if Men will make bold with God and Conscience and act for their own ends and glory they rob God of his supremacy and will lose both their way and their end He that walketh uprightly hath God for his guard and guide with devout Zachary he is within the Vail and if he be in a mistake God will reveal it to him For the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will make them know his Covenant Psal 25.14 Go to thy Oracle and pray and a ray of heavenly light shall direct you as the Wise-mens Star to the holy Jesus their minds are Gods candles Prov. 20.27 and as Father of Lights he will light them when they approach him with ardent supplication Thirdly I am to shew that Christian charity and reception will sooner win weak ones to the Truth than rigid Arguments for so the Apostle adviseth them who were to deal with people weak in Faith and strongly zealous for Ceremonies dispute not with them but receive them first 1. In regard opposition breeds oppositions a Man will never believe that he Loves his Soul who cuts his purse belies his actions torments his Body Passion begets passion but love only kindles love when Men do hotly Dispute they jostle for the way and so one or both must needs leave the path of Truth and Peace The Saw of contention reciprocated with its keen teeth
it was a rule amongst the Heathens that a wise man should worship all their Deities The Romans were so insatiable in Idolatry that they sent to forreign Countries to bring the gods of several Nations an unpolisht Stone a tame Serpent that were reputed Deities they received with great solemnity and reverence But the true God had no Temple no Worship in Rome where there was a Pantheon dedicated to the honour of all the false gods The reason he gives of it is that the true God who alone has Divine Excellencies and Divine Empire will be worshipt alone and strictly forbids the assumption of any into his Throne To adore any besides him is infinitely debasing and provoking to his dread Majesty Now sin in its nature is a conversion from God to the creature and whatever the temptation be in yielding to it there is signified that we choose something before his favour Sin is founded in bono jucundo something that is delectable to the carnal Nature 't is the universal character of carnal Men they are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God To some riches are the most alluring object The young Man in the Gospel when our Saviour commanded him to give his estate to the poor and he should have treasure in Heaven went away sorrowful as if he had been offer'd to his loss To others the pleasures that in strict propriety are sensual are most charming Love is the weight of the Soul that turns it not like a dead weight of the Scales but with election freely to its object in the carnal ballance the present things of the World are of conspicuous moment and outweigh Spiritual and Eternal blessings Altho the favour of God be eminently all that can be desir'd under the notion of riches or honour or pleasure and every atom of our affection is due to him yet carnal Men think it a cheap purchase to obtain the good things of this World by sinful means with the loss of his favour This their actions declare Prodigious folly as if a few sparks struck out of a Flint that can neither afford light or warmth were more desirable than the Sun in its brightness And how contumelious and provoking it is to God he declares in the most moving expressions Be astonished O ye Heavens Jer. 2.12 13. at this and be horribly affraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out broken cisterns that can hold no water This immediately was charg'd upon the Jews who set up Idols of jealousie and ador'd them rather than the glorious Jehovah and in proportion 't is true of all sinners for every vicious affection prefers some vain object before his Love and the enjoyment of his glorious presence that is the reward of obedience 5. The sinner disparages the impartial Justice of God In the Divine Law there is a connexion between sin and punishment the evil of doing and the evil of suffering This is not a mere arbitrary constitution but founded on the inseparable desert of sin and the rectitude of Gods nature which unchangably loves holiness and hates sin Altho the threatning does not lay a strict necessity upon the Lawgiver always to inflict the punishment yet God having declar'd his equal Laws as the rule of our duty and of his judgment if they should be usually without effect upon offenders the bands of Government would be dissolved and consequently the honour of his justice stain'd both with respect to his nature and office for as an essential attribute 't is the correspondence of his will and actions with his moral perfections and as Sovereign Ruler he is to preserve equity and order in his Kingdom Now those who voluntarily break his Law presume upon impunity The first rebellious sin was committed upon this presumption God threaten'd if you eat the forbidden fruit you shall die the Serpent says eat and you shall not die and assenting to the temptation Adam fell to disobedience And ever since Men are fearless to sin upon the same motive Psalm 50. God chargeth the wicked Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self not concern'd to punish the violation of his sacred Laws The sinner commits the Divine Attributes to fight against one another presuming that Mercy will disarm Justice and stop its terrible effects upon impenitent obstinate sinners From hence they become bold and hardnen'd in the continuance of their sins Deut. 29.17 19 20. There is a root that beareth gall and wormwood and when the curse of the Law is declar'd and denounc'd against sin the wicked blesseth himself in his heart saying I shall have peace tho I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst This casts such a foul blemish upon the Justice of God that he threatens the severest vengeance for it The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that Man and all the curses written in this book shall be upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven Psalm 50. Consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver 6. The sinner implicitly denies Gods omniscience There is such a turpitude adhering to sin that it cannot endure the light of the Sun or the light of Conscience but seeks to be conceal'd under a mask of vertue or a vail of darkness There are very few on this side Hell so transform'd into the likeness of the Devil as to be impenetrable by shame What is said of the Adulterer and Theif sinners of greater guilt and deeper dye Job is true in proportion of every sinner If a Man sees them they are in the terrors of the shadow of death Now from whence is it that many who if they were surpriz'd in the actings of their sins by a Child or a stranger would blush and tremble yet altho the holy God sees all their sins in order to judge them and will judge in order to punish them are secure without any fearful or shameful apprehensions of his presence Did they stedfastly believe that their foul villanies were open to his piercing pure and severe Eye they must be struck with terrors and cover'd with Confusion Will he force the Queen before my face was the speech of the King inflamed with wrath and the prologue of Death against the fallen favourite Would Men dare to affront Gods authority and outragiously break his Laws before his face if they duly consider'd his omnipresence and observance of them it were impossible And infidelity is the radical cause of their inconsideration It was a false imputation against Job but justly applied to the wicked Jâ—â— 22.13 14 Thou sayest How does God know can he judge through the dark cloud Thick clouds are a covering to him that he sees not And such are introduced by
and terrifie the imagination that may work upon the Principles of Reason and Sense by which Men are naturally and strongly moved 1. Sinners shall be excluded from Communion with the blessed God in Heaven in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore In the clear and transforming vision of his glory and the intimate and indissolvable union with him by love consists the perfection and satisfaction of the immortal Soul The felicity resulting from it is so entire and eternal as God is great and true who has so often promis'd it to his Saints Now sin separates lost Souls forever from the reviving presence of God Who can declare the extent and degrees of that evil For an evil rises in proportion to the good of which it deprives us it must therefore follow that Celestial blessedness being transcendent the exclusion from it is proportionably evil and as the felicity of the Saints results both from the direct possession of Heaven and from comparison with the contrary state so the misery of the damned arises both from the thoughts of lost happiness and from the lasting pain that torments them But it may be replied if this be the utmost evil that is consequent to sin the threatning of it is not likely to deter but few from pleasing their corrupt appetites for carnal Men have such gross apprehensions and vitated affections that they are careless of Spiritual glory and joy They cannot taste and see how good the Lord is nay the Divine Presence would be a torment to them for as light is the most pleasant quality in the World to the sound Eye so 't is very afflicting and painful to the Eye when corrupted by a suffusion of humors To this a clear answer may be given in the next state where the wicked shall for ever be without those sensual objects which here deceive and delight them their apprehensions will be changed they shall understand what a happiness the fruition of the blessed God is and what a misery to be uncapable of enjoying him and expell'd from the Celestial Paradise Luke 15.28 Our Saviour tells the infidel Jews There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your selves shut out How will they pine with envy at the sight of that triumphant felicity of which they shall never be partakers Depart from me will be as terrible a part of the judgment as eternal Fire 2. Gods justice is not satisfied in depriving them of Heaven but inflicts the most heavy punishment upon Sense and Conscience in the damned for as the Soul and Body in their state of union in this life were both guilty the one as the guide the other as the instrument of sin so 't is equal when reunited they should feel the penal effects of it The Scripture represents both to our capacity by the worm that never dies and the fire that never shall be quenched and by the destroying of Body and Soul in Hell fire Sinners shall then be tormented wherein they were most delighted they shall be invested with those objects that will cause the most dolorous perceptions in their sensitive faculties The lake of Fire and Brimstone the blackness of darkness are words of a terrible signification and intended to awaken sinners to fly from the wrath to come But no words can fully reveal the terrible ingredients of their misery the punishment will be in proportion to the glory of Gods Majesty that is dishonour'd and provok'd by sin and the extent of his power And as the Soul was the principal and the Body but an accessary in the works of sin so its capacious faculties will be far more tormented than the more limited faculties of the outward senses The fiery Attributes of God shall be transmitted through the glass of Conscience and concenter'd upon damned Spirits the fire without them is not so tormenting as this fire within them How will the tormenting passions be inflam'd What rancour reluctance and rage against the power above that sentenc'd them to Hell What impatience and indignation against themselves for their wilful sins the just cause of it How will they curse their Creation and wish their utter extinction as the final remedy of their misery But all their ardent wishes are in vain for the guilt of sin will never be expiated nor God so far reconcil'd as to annihilate them As long as there is justice in Heaven and fire in Hell as long as God and Eternity shall continue they must suffer these torments which the strength and patience of an Angel cannot bear one hour From hence we may infer what an inconceivable evil there is in sin and how hateful it is to the most High when God who is love who is stiled the Father of mercies has prepared and does inflict such Plagues for ever for the transgression of his holy Laws and such is the equity of his judgment that he never puniâ—â—es offenders above their desert I shall now apply this Doctrin by reflecting the light of it upon our minds and hearts 1. This discovers how perverse and depraved the minds and wills of Men are to chuse sin rather than affliction and break the Divine Law for the obtaining temporal things If one with an attentive Eye regards the generality of mankind what dominion present and sensible things have over them how securely and habitually they sin in prosecution of their carnal aims as if the Soul should not survive the Body as if there were no Tribunal above to examine no Judge to sentence and punish sinners if he has not marble bowels it will excite his compassion or indignation What comparison is there between the good things of this World and of the next in degrees or duration Aiery honour Sensual pleasures and Worldly riches are but the thin appearances of happiness shadows in masquerade that cannot afford solid content to an immortal Spirit the blessedness of Heaven replenishes with everlasting satisfaction What proportion is there between the light and momentary afflictions here and a vast eternity fill'd with indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish and desperate sorrow What stupid Beast what monster of a Man would prefer a superficial transient delight the pleasure of a short dream before ever-satisfying joys Or to avoid a slight evil venture upon destruction Yet this is the true case of sinners if they can obtain the World with the loss of Heaven they count it a valuable purchase if they can compound so as to escape temporal troubles tho involved under guilt that brings extream and eternal misery they think it a saving bargain Amazing solly Either they believe or do not the recompenses in the future state if they do not how unaccountable is their impiety If they do 't is more prodigious they do not feel the powers of the World to come so as to regulate their lives and
those who preach it at home with your prayers that they may receive grace and assistance from God and be blessed with Success And now I shall take the liberty to present another to you in the behalf of many who preach the Gospel among us your Contributions for Wales and the Collection made at Pinners-hall for the encouragement of several poor Ministers in the Country hath afforded matter of rejoicing to many And I doubt not have drawn forth many praises and prayers to God on your behalf and let me beseech you be not weary of well-doing in this Instance The Apostle found that Professors are as likely to faint and tire in works of Charity especially if they be frequent as in any Christian duty whatsoever and therefore he fixeth his Counsel and Encouragement there Gal. vi 9. And let us not be weary of well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Bear with me if in special I commend to your care those whom the Providence of God hath disposed of in good Market-Towns and Corporations Possibly some may think that such are well enough provided for But many find that the Corinthian temper hath not left the World Even in good Towns Ministers may Preach and want I think I shall not speak beside the purpose if I shut up this with 1 Tim. v. 8. He that provideth not for his own is worse than an Infidel This may suffice to have been spoken touching the second means whereby private Christians who live remote from such places as have not entertained the Gospel may be helpful toward the bringing of it among them 3. The third way wherein private Christians who live far from those places where the Gospel is not entertained may be helpful to promote the admission of it among them is to use their interest in those who on several occasions may go to such places by importunate perswasions and pertinent directions to excite them to carry a Love and Zeal for Christ in their own hearts and from that principle to act to the uttermost of their capacity for the spreading of his Gospel and the enlargement of his Kingdom It was I think a good design of Hugo Grotius who as he tells us wrote his Book Of the verity of the Christian Religion for the use of his Country-men who Sail to the uttermost ends of the Earth to furnish them with proper Arguments which might leave a due impression thereof upon the hearts of the poor Heathen Private Christians may also write to their friends who live abroad to endeavour to convince the miserable Captives of Satan that their Idols are vanities This course did the Prophet Jeremy take to excite and direct the Jews who were in Babylon how they should deal with those among whom the providence of God had cast them Jer. x. 11. Thus shall ye say to them The Gods who have not made the Heaven and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under the Heavens It is observed by learned men that this verse is written in the Chaldee tongue tho the rest of the book be written in Hebrew whereby he doth as it were put the words into their mouths that they might speak to them in their own language so as to be understood by them and by this he doth instruct us That it is not sufficient for the worshipers of the true God to keep themselves from the pollutions of Idols but they must do more for they must make Profession of the true God and his worship The like course may private Christians take to promote the conversion of the Ignorant Earthly and Profane at home with whom they have no personal converse and that is To stir up others who have that advantage to deal with them about the everlasting concernments of their Souls Thus I have spoken something touching the case of such private Christians as come within the first Circumstance viz. Such as live remote from the places where the Gospel is not entertained and in what ways they may be helpful in order to their reception of it 2. I proceed to consider the case of such private Christians as occasionally or providentially are brought among those people which have not entertained the Gospel and to shew how they may be helpful in bringing them into acquaintance with the Doctrine of Salvation Let none pretend that because this work doth specially belong to the Ministers of Christ that thereupon private Christians are exempted or discharged from that which God hath made their Duty Let none think to excuse themselves by saying They are not learned for they are a Reproach to Christianity who have not learned the Essentials of their Religion and the enforcing and inculcating of these must lead the way in the Conversion of Infidels Let none say They have enough to do to mind their own business For I doubt not but if they minded the Interest of Christ more their own would prosper the better But if they drive on any Design that is contrary to the Faith or Precepts of the Gospel it will be found their Duty and safety to extricate themselves out of it as soon as they can If they suggest that it would be a vain thing for them to expect or attempt to do any good among Infidels That will be found to be only the sluggards Plea There is a Lion in the way Prov. xxvi 13. He who hath no heart to an undertaking will not fail to lay in his own way huge Mountains of insuperable difficulties But to prevent or remove all Evasions it shall be proved that among private Christians if we may judge by circumstances or visible appearance few or none if they really be such as they profess themselves do labour under such disadvantages or improbabilities of succeeding in their attempts of recommending Christ and his Gospel as many of those were under whom yet the Lord made use of and eventually blessed in communicating the knowledge of Himself to such as were before strangers to him To manifest this I shall produce four Examples two out of the holy Scriptures and two out of Ecclesiastical History Out of the holy Scriptures one shall be out of the Old Testament the other out of the New Out of the Old Testament it is surprizing and astonishing to observe what a glorious work the Lord brought about by the Instrumentality of a little captive Maid whom the Syrians had brought out of the Land of Israel Read 2 Kings v. 2 3. to verse 19. The brief summary whereof is this The poor little Girl waiting on her Lady dropt a few words Would God my Lord were with the Prophet in Samaria for he would recover him of his Leprosie Another takes up those words and reports them to Naaman Many such Discourses are breathed and expire in the same moment The more wonderful is the conduct of Gods Providence who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will I may accommodate to this case
so doing though very ill requited for it this is high and noble indeed this is an honour not vouchsafed to the elect Angels who are not capable of suffering this is to be a Christian in truth and eminency and to resemble Christ himself who suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps In the words which I have read you may take notice 1. Of one end of Christ in Suffering and that is that he might leave us an example To say that this was the principal end of his passion to deny his satisfaction as if it were impossible or needless is heretical in a very high degree to deny the Blood of Christ to be the price of our redemption is to deny the Lord that bought us And truly the only propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin being rejected there is no other remaining but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries And yet though Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree He is not only our Redeemer but our Example He hath bequeathed Blessings never enough to be valued in his Testament he has also left us an incomparable Example The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Example is either taken from excellent Writing-Masters who set a fair Copy for their Scholars to write after or 't is taken from Painters who draw a curious Masterpiece for inferiour Artists their Admiration and Imitation 2. They were remarkable steps that Christ took when he was here in the days of his flesh and among them all he did not take one wrong one He was made of a Woman made under the Law and he did not in the least transgress the Law He came upon this Earth to do his Father's Will Heb. 10.7 Lo I come in the volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy will O God And never did he any thing that was in any degree contrary to it 3. The Steps of Christ are to be followed Good men in Scripture are our patterns whose Faith and Patience we are to follow Heb. 6.12 That ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise The Cloud of witnesses is to be minded and the bright side of it gives a good light unto our feet but there is a dark side of the Cloud which may make us cautious we must take heed of resembling the best of Men in that which is bad in their falls and infirmities Abraham is renowned for his faith yet not to be imitated in the carnal shifts he made for the saving of his life Barnabas was to be blamed for being carried away by Peter's dissimulation But Christ is such an example as to walk according to it and to walk by the strictest rule is all one for our Lord did whatsoever became him and exactly fulfill'd all righteousness 4. Here is a special intimation as appears by the context of a Christian's Duty patiently to bear injuries and to take up the cross Though the Gospel be the gladdest tidings yet Suffering is a word that sounds very harsh to flesh and blood But the Apostle bids us behold Christ in his Sufferings and not think mâ—ch of our afflictions which were but a drop compared with His which were a vast Ocean The Sufferings of Christ the Head were unconceivably greater than those which any of his Members at any time are called to undergo And indeed when he drank the Cup his Father gave him he drank out the Curse and bitterness of it so that it is both bless't and sweetned to the Lambs followers who are to drink after him 5. The Sufferings of Christ and his Example being joyned together in the Text here is a signification that by his Death he has purchased Grace to assist and enable us to follow his example Our Lord knows our natural impotency nay averseness to follow him or so much as to look to him His death is effectual therefore to kill our Sin and to heal our depraved Nature his power rests upon us that we may tread the Path in which he is gone before us I am able to do all things says the Apostle through Christ strengthning me I am desired this Morning to speak of Christ as our Example and to shew how Christians are to follow him This is a Theme that commends it self to you by its excellency usefulness and seasonableness in such an Age wherein there is such a sinful sad and almost universal degenerating from true and real Christianity Glorious Head had'st thou ever on earth a Body more unlike thee than at this day How few manifestly declare themselves the Epistles of Christ written by the Spirit of the living God! Few Professors have his Image who yet bear his superscription In the handling of this Subject I shall 1. Premise some things by way of Caution 2. Shew you in what respects Christ is an Example to be followed 3. Produce some Arguments to perswade you to the imitation of him 4. Close with some Directions how this duty may be done effectually In the first place I am to premise some things by way of Caution 1. Think not as long as you remain in this world to be altogether free from Sin as Christ was He indeed was from his Conception in the Womb to his Ascension far above all visible Heavens altogether immaculate and without blemish Some have fancied spots in the Sun but sure I am in the Sun of righteousness there is none The Sins of all that are saved were laid upon him but no Sin was ever found in him or done by him The Apostle tells us that he was holy harmless and undefiled Heb. 7.26 You are indeed to imitate Christ in Purity but perfect Holiness you cannot attain to while you carry such a body of Death about you and are in such a world as this It may comfort you to consider after the fall of the first Adam and the sad consequences of it how the second Adam stood and conquer'd and kept himself unspotted from the world all the while he conversed in it But as long as you remain on Earth some defilement will cleave to you to admonish you where you are and to make you long for the heavenly Jerusalem More and more holy you may and ought to be but to be compleatly holy is the happiness not of Earth but Heaven 2. Think not that Christ in all his actions is to be imitated There are Royalties belonging to our Lord Jesus which none must invade He alone is Judg and Lawgiver in Zion and that worship is vain which is taught by the Precepts of Men. Christ is all in all he fills all in all Eph. 1.23 When the Fathers of the last Lateran Council told Leo the Tenth That all Power was given to him in Heaven and Earth As it was blasphemous flattery in them to give so it was blasphemous pride and right Antichristian arrogancy in
address your selves in your Devotions to him serve him and walk before him trust him and depend upon him all that you are and have design and do let it be suited to and worthy of that Glorious and fearful Name the Lord Your God whose eminent and perfect Name you love so well Hebr. xii 28. i Thess ii 10-12 Rom. xii 1 2. Mat. v. 16. Joh. xv 8. i Pet. iv 11. away with such mean Things and Actions such flat Devotions and such tantum non offensive Conversations and such lean and stingy Offerings to God or actings for him as must put Charity upon the Rack to observers of you for to conclude or think you love him Mal. i. 13 14. ii Pet. iii. 11. i Cor. xv 58. nothing below that cluster in Phil. iv 8. and that in Tit. ii 10-14 can escape its Mene Tekel in this balance of the Sanctuary rich in Good Works i Tim. vi 18. and rich towards God Luk. xii 21. and fruitful in every good work Col. i. 10. actings continually towards God and for him facing the Eyes and Consciences of all Observers with such illustrious and large Characters and Signatures of this Divine Principle of Love as to convince even the most critical Observers of you and to extort Confessions from them that none could act and live as you do did they not love God dearly and most entirely and constantly live to him and upon him as their all i Pet. ii 12. and iv 16 Hebr. xi 13-16 for I take not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here to import what may be barely Good but something generous and fit to strike the Beholders Eye and Conscience with some astonishing Convictions that what you do for God looks too majestically great to come from any ordinary Principle yea from any thing below your God enthroned in your best affections Love is the very Soul of Godliness the very Heart of the new Man a Principle so impetuous and charming as that it scorns where it is Regent to be confined to or signalized by any thing mean or base Such objects and concerns in its most intimate and close embraces and in its stated prospect and yet act sparingly sordidly or sneakingly for God! Love burns and blushes at the thought And Heaven it self ere long will irritate exert and shew the Purity and generous Vigours of this Grace in such a stated and inviolable series of great and generous actions so full of God and every way so fully for him and so worthy of him as that the life of God in glory shall evidence the force and excellence of that spring and principle whence it proceeds and yet even here even in this its Infant and Imperfect State it groans and labours to have God's Will done on Earth as it is in Heaven Well in a word such must your Actions and your Conversations be as that whatever you are conversant about or with the temper of your Spirits and the fervours and vigours of your love to God his Image Interest Son Spirit Gospel and all that do profess and own respects hereto every step you take and every thing you do ought to be great and exemplary and impregnated with what may speak the greatness largeness chearfulness and energies of your enflamed exalted and invigorated Souls through love to God Christ Souls and Christianity O to be exemplary in all Conversation to live each other into awakened Considerations of Spiritual concerns to dart forth all those glorious rays of Christian Wisdom of which we are told in Jam. iii. 17 18. to make men feel as well as see the force and flames of Christian Love to charm Exasperated Passions down by all the sweetnesses of true Wisdom Patience Meekness Gentleness and every way endearing Conversation with them to have the Law of Kindness always in your Mouths the notices of true Friendliness in your Looks the gifts and proofs of generous Charity in your Hands in constant readiness to minister to the Necessities of the Saints as God shall prosper your Endeavours in your lawful and regularly managed Occupations and Employments to have your Dealings and Commerces each with other accurately and severely just and yet sufficiently securing the credit and concerns of Christianity And in a word to be blameless and harmless as the Sons of God without rebuke shining as lights and holding forth the Word of Life to Universal Satisfaction and Advantage wherever groundless prejudice and partiality do not prevail and govern and to fill up every relation step and station with the fruits of Goodness Righteousness and truth these are the good and generous Works of Love whereto we are to be provoked For thus we do not love in word and tongue but indeed and truth i Joh. iii. 28. 4. The Intenseness of the principle and vigor of the practice called here as the designed effect of the prescribed means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Provocation the warmth and vigour wherewith Love and Good Works are as it were to be inspired Zealously affected in a good thing Gal. iv 18. zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. the Motive so effectually Cogent as to fix and fortifie the Principle and the Principle so powerful as to go thorow with its great enterprize and concern Principles are the Springs of Action and Love importeth intimacy it is a Principle rooted in the heart and it lays its beloved objects deep therein warmth it is essential to it and where it is perfect or considerably grown it is serious and fervent It is a commanding thing and affects Regency over all the Actions Faculties and Passions it is peremptory in its Precepts fixt in the Purposes and Concerns which it espouses it is powerful in its Influences pressing in its Claims diffusive of it self through all that is performed by us Impatient of Resistances Denials or Delays and moved to Jealousies Indignation and vigorous Contentions when any Injury Affront or Rape is threatned attempted or pursued that any way is prejudicial to its object and its concerns therewith it claims and pleads it urges and provokes to diligence and to all eager prosecutions of what it aims at and endears unto it self and it entirely reconciles the whole Man to all the cost and difficulties of its Divine pursuits 'T is never well but in its motions towards its actings for its conversation with and its reposes in its Pearl of Price and hence its actions are invigorated it gives no faint blows in its holy War it runs not in its Race it deals not triflingly in its Merchandize for God and Heaven it is all mettle fortitude patience action desire and delight in every thing relating to its grand Affair and Scope and it makes all its actions and performances to bear their Testimony to its own fortitude and fervours and this is the Paroxysm of Love and Good Works 2. The things provoking hereto And here behold a Troop as it was said of Gad Gen. xxx 11. How do inducements and incentments spring
The Vsefulness of the worshipping Assemblies of Saints and Christians to this great and needful provocation must quicken us unto and keep us in these Courts of God Psal .xcii. 13. 15. Exod. xx 24. There God commands the blessing even Life for evermore Psal cxxxiii 3. There you have the openings of the Gospel Teasury there are these golden Candlesticks which bear the burning shining Tapers whose light and heat diffuse themselves through all within their reach who are receptive of them The Gifts and Graces the Affections and Experiences of Gospel Ministers are in their Communicative Exercises there God the Father sets and keeps his Heart and Eye there the Lord Redeemer walks by and amongst his Commissionated Officers and Representatives dispensing warmth and vigour through their Ministry to Hearts presented to him at his Altar There doth the Holy Spirit fill Heads with Knowledge Hearts with Grace and all our Faculties and Christian Principles with Vigour There Mysteries are unfolded Precepts explained and enforced Promises fulfilled in Soul improvements Incense is offered up in golden Censers and foederal concernments are solemnly transacted and confirmed in open Court And there through the Angel of the Covenant his moving upon the Waters of the Sanctuary are Soul distempers and Consumptions healed And there you are informed acquainted with and confirmed in what may instruct you in and encourage you unto this Provocation to Love and to good works And there Prayer gets fuel and gives vent to Love drawing forth all the Energies of Souls and Thoughts towards God And thus fervent Prayers and love quickning returns thereto are like the Angels of God ascending and descending from and upon the Heart while the deserters hereof grow cold thereto and starve their Love and practical Godliness thereby All there is known obtained and exercised There you may fill your Heads with Knowledge your Hearts with Grace your Mouths with Arguments your Lives with Fruitfulness your Consciences with Consolations and your whole selves with those experiences of Divine regards to Soul concerns which may inflame your Hearts with Love to God and Christ to Holiness and Heaven and fit you both to kindle and increase this holy flame both in your selves and in each other And indeed what greater advantages can be derived into our Souls to make our Altars burn than what our Christian Assemblies duly managed will entertain us with What understanding do the Inspirations of the Almighty here afford Such curious Explications of the Name and Counsels of your God Such large and full accounts of all the endearing Grace of Christ Such Critical dissections and anatomizings of the state of Souls Such over-shâ—dowings of the Spirit of God Such clear and full descriptions and accounts of the Divine Life and Nature in all their Strength and Glory How are desires invigorated and twisted to make them more effectual to our selves and others This Sanctuary Love is like the best wine going down sweetly and causing the Lips even of those that are asleep to speak Keep then to these Assemblies that you may duly know whom what how and why to Love and how to suit your selves in spirit speech and practice towards God your selves and towards each other unto this generous and noble Principle Thus will you grow exceedingly both in the knowledge and savour of what is most considerable and most deservingly affecting both as to Things and Persons for Christianity is contrived for Love and Godliness in all its Doctrines Laws and Ordinances and in assemblies you have the Explications and Enforcements of those Truths which will compleat the Man of God as to his Principles Disposition and Behaviour Here you may know your most holy Faith as to it's matter evidences and designs upon you and it 's improvableness by you to it 's determined and declared ends and services That Faith which is to illuminate your Eyes to exercise your thoughts to fix your holy purposes to form and cherish expectations to raise desires to embolden prayer to fire your affections and regulate them as to their Objects Ends and Measures and Expressions And when you there attend you are in the way of Blessings How oft and evidently are Divine Truths there sensibly sharpened and succeeded by the God of Truth Rom. i. 16. Paul and Barnabas so spake as that a Multitude believed of Jews and Gentiles Act. xiv 1. And thither must you and I resort and there attend for Doctrine Exhortation and Instruction in Righteousness The Priests Lips must preserve Knowledge how to speak of God with him and for him there Gospel luminaries are to diffuse their Light and there must we receive it and know what is considerable eligible practicable and encouraging to love and to good Works Why then should we forsake that 3. But let us exhort each other â—or consideration and attendance on Assemblies are for our own and others good for personal and mutual quickenings to Love to good works I know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes used more largely for any pleading of and pressing home a thing pursuant to it's import and design whether by Counsel Comfort or sometimes it imports Consolation or Encouragement This is too well seen and known to need its Scriptural Instances and Quotations That which is here intended I offer in this Paraphrase Draw forth all the Spirit and Strength of what you know and have advisedly considered as to your selves and others of what you have seen and heard in your Assembling of your selves together concerning your obligations to attend them their fitness to advantage you and all the benefit derived or deriveable therefrom Draw forth the vigour of all your received Discoveries Directions Assistances and Inducements to do and be what is required and expected from you professed by you and of eternal Consequence and Concernment to you Plead this throughly with your selves and one another that so your Christian love be not extinguisht or abated but wrought and kept up to its genuine and just pitch of fervour and effectual Operations and Eruptions in Good works Drive home upon your selves by deep and serious thoughts and pertinent applications of them to your selves and warm debates about them with your selves the things which God hath manifested and proposed to you as credible acceptable and practically Improveable He that expects this flame upon his heart must be a thoughtful man severely contemplative and sollicitous about the things of the Kingdom of God and the Name and Interest and Servants of the Lord Redeemer How can that man be warm and active or zealous of Good works whose knowledge is not actuated by self-awakening Meditations and whose furniture Principles and Spirit are commonly neglected by himself What! are divine Truths Laws Promises and Institutions only to be with us or in us as empty Speculations or thin Notions Have Divine Revelations and Endearings no Errand to our Hearts and Consciences and no business there and no practical Vigours to
and Provisions to bring and keep our God and us together in order to all the Solaces and Satisfactions of Steady Full Eternal Friendship the eminent importance of his Gospel Interest and Kingdom in and to the world the Church and us the loveliness and vigours of his Interest and Image in us as formed fixt and actuated and possessed by his eternal Spirit to his eternal praise by Jesus Christ the solid pleasures peace and usefulness of regular zeal for God Christ Christianity and all that are near and dear to God with all the comforts and renown which this well fixt and ordered zeal prepares us for All that we are saved from by to through the effectual cure of this disease All the solemnities of Christs approaching day and our great concerns therein All the good that is in that attends upon and that issues from the prosperous Successes of the Gospel the holiness and and peace of the Church and the health the usefulness the possession the Conflicts and Conquests of a well cured Soul and all the Honours Ease and Blessings that attend our glorious Gospel All this and much more deserves deep thoughts and all the fervours and acknowledgments and Services of love And the plain truth is this We are both constituted of and surrounded with enflaming objects of this love And the great object and attractive shines even most gloriously in all Nature in all its Harmonies Stores and Beauties Providence in all its illustrations of its excellencies and exactness suiting it self in all the Articles thereof to every thing and being and concern in Heaven and Earth The sacred Scriptures every way entertaining us with what may exercise and enrich the mind of man heal and compose his Conscience enthroning it as Gods vicegerent to inspect the principles designs and practices and State of men to make and keep them orderly safe and easy and so to affect the heart and life as that we may be lovely in the sight of God the blessings of our Stations in our generations and a most comfortable entertainment to our selves Our very selves are most provoking objects unto love So many faculties in our Souls So many passions and affections to be ordered and exercised aright So many sences for reception So many Organs and Instruments for the commodious promoting and securing of our own Good So many Objects Employments and Acquests to be engaged vigorously about and orderly conversant with all continually And God in all this eminently beaming forth those perfections which are so fit and worthy to take endearingly with us How inexcuseable is cold heartedness whenas it may so easily be cured by serious Contemplations of these objects Light and Colours and beautiful proportions to the eye Words and Melodies to the Ears Food to the tast and all the objects exercises and entertainments of every sense afford our very minds and hearts their delicacies to feed on and urge us to love God and Man And let me add this also the beauties and delightfulness of holiness and practical Religion as exemplified in holy persons those excellent ones in whom is my delight saith David Psal xvi 3. O to observe them in all their curious imitations and resemblances of their God in the Wisdom of their Conduct the fervours of their Spirits the steadiness of their purposes the evenness of their tempers the usefulness and blamelessness of their lives the loftiness of their aims the placed gravity of their Looks the savour and obligingness of their Speeches the generous largeness of their Hearts the openness of their Hands the impartiality of their Thoughts the tenderness of their Bowels and all the sweetnesses of their Deportments towards all Such things are really where Christian Godliness obtains indeed Tho meer pretenders or real Christians in their decays and swoons may represent Religion under its eclipses to it's great disadvantage and reproach When therefore we contemplate all these excellencies and many more not mentioned will not our Hearts take fire and burn with love of Complacency where these things are visible and with the Love of benevolence and beneficence to that degree towards those that are receptive of but want them which shall enrage Desires and Prayers and quicken us to diligent endeavours after what by such may be attained unto were they but closely and warmly followed by us and brought to the diligent pursuits thereof Thus you see deep thoughts about lovely Objects will get up love and cure luke-warmness in us to the purpose Let this then be done 3. Heart-awakening and Love-quickning Truths are to be duly and intimately considered And this is indeed in part to truthifie in Love if I may make an English Word to express the valor of the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. iv 15. The existence and excellence of the great Jehovah the Trine-Vne Holy one the care which he hath taken and the expensive cost he hath been at to cure this Malady by the fore-mentioned means and helps The critical Inspections of his Eye into the Heart of Man and his making this the test and balance of the Sanctuary to try us by counting and judging us more or less fit for Mercies and Judgments Heaven or Hell Service or to be thrown aside as refuse as our Hearts stand affected No exact soundness in our Spirits no safety in our State no real ease and chearfulness in our Souls no evidence of our acceptance with our God no Duty well performed towards God or Man no Sins subdued no Trial bravely managed and resulted no Talents used fully to the Masters Satisfaction and Advantage nothing profest performed endured or obtained without this Love And according to it's Ebbs and Flows it's Inflammations and Abatements so doth it fare and go with all our Christianity and Concerns The Truth is all the concerns of Souls and Persons in Life Death Judgment Heaven and Hell are hereupon depending These Articles of Truth considered well will make us serious fervent resolute and industrious in the things of God 4. Heart-warming Duties are to be performed throughly in Publick Private and in Secret Eccl. ix 10. Rom. xii 11 12. Pray hard read frequently and seriously hear diligently and impartially meditate closely and concernedly upon all you read or hear relating to the great concern Be much in Christian conference in the due Spirit and to the genuine design and purposes thereof be much in Praise Thanks Self-observation Government and Discipline Look up to Heaven for help and improve faithfully what you thence obtain And I do take the Supreme Essentially Infinite Good to be dishonoured and degraded by us in our Thoughts and Walk if any Creature Interests or Excellencies do ultimately terminate our Affections and Intentions For my part I take converses Employments Ingenious Recreations and even sensitive Entertainments to be most delicious and grateful when they occasion or provoke me to those Observations of God in all which carry up my thoughts through and from them to him with
Thanks and holy Wonder And when these thoughts do as it were return again from Heaven to set us more delightfully and strenuously to our needful work on Earth for Heaven and for the most generous and true services to the great benefit of the Church and World O what a Sea of Pleasures and Advantages do Love and good Works cast us then into and keep us in How often have the delicate composures of grave and sprightly Musick well managed by the sweet and skilful Voice or touch provoked and urged my Soul to admire the chief good and the Eternal source of all communicated and communicable ingenuity and expertness in that and in all sorts of Arts and Sciences The delicate composure of the ear to render it receptive of melodious sounds the usefulness of the Air for the conveyance of them to the prepared Ear The pregnancies of humane Souls and Fancies for the endlessness of various compositions The command that the Soul hath over the Animal Spirits to order and command the Voice or Fingers the rules of harmony and the particular gracefulness of relishes and flourishings and humourings of some particular Notes and Touches And the different tempers that God hath made whereto the varieties of sounds have their as various degrees and ways of gratefulness these things with all the Mysteries of sounds and numbers O what is their cry How lovely is the Eternal God that gives us such Abilities and Entertainments How lovely are the Souls of Men that are receptive of such things How lovely are those Labours and Designs that are with Wisdom Diligence and Faithfulness directed to the Cultivation and Salvations of such Souls O how beautiful and lovely are the feet of those and how deserving of our Prayers and universal helpfulness are they themselves who lay out all their Time and Strength to get each other and as many as they can in readiness to bear their parts and take their share in the Melodies and Entertainments of that Triumphant state of Love and Holiness in the Heavenly Glory The cry of all is Love Love These are things and objects that require and deserve our Love in it's most urgent vehemencies to promote their Interests this noble flame is desecrated and prophaned by us and used to it 's own prejudice and reproach when it is not directed to and diligently conversant about Objects and Services truly worthy of it self Gal. iv 18. I should have thought my Thoughts and Heart not only Faeculant but in a sort prophane had I applyed my Studies or this Sacred Directory in my Text to the promoting of fervour noise and stir about things much below or repugnant to the weightier things and matters of Christs Gospel Kingdom Judgment Mercy and Love Mat. xxiii 23. The love of God saith Luk xi 42. Wo worth that Papal zeal and diligence that is for the promotion of an universal Visible Headship wherein they pretend that all the Church Militant must be united into whose Arbitrary and bold dictates it must resolve it's Faith according to whose Edicts it must form all it's practices and to the supports whereof in all it 's secular Grandeurs Pageantries and usurped Prerogatives it must devote and sacrifice it 's all Is He luke-warm in Gods account that will not Anathematize traduce distress destroy Souls Persons Families Churches Kingdoms and the choicest and most useful Persons who will not absolutely devote himself hereto and shew his zeal in desolating flames and slaughters Such Zeal we know by whom it was called Madness Act. xxvi 9. 11. Phil. iii. 6. Wo worth Malignant and Censorious zeal that overlooks much excellence in others and that envies or despises all deserving Services Gifts and Graces if not seated in and performed by themselves Wo worth dividing zeal that intimately espouses particular opinions modes forms and humours and then makes these the main or the only terms of Peace and Concord that lays out all it's Time Strength Interest and Fervours to gain Proselytes and Votaries hereto and to defend their own Fictions and quarrel with and keep at sinful distances from Persons better perhaps than themselves because their Schibboleth is not pronounced by them Wo worth partial zeal that measures things and Persons by their discords and agreements with our own Interests Parties or Perswasions Every thing is Idolatry Superstition and rigorously to be dealt withal that falls not even with our sentiments and ways Wo worth self-conceited zeal that lays it's quarrels upon this cause and bottom that others will not reverence and yield to us as wiser and better than themselves And wo worth all zeal that lays the Christian Interest Peace and Welfare on Covenants Subscriptions or any terms too mean and narrow to sustain them I shall never value vindicate practise nor endure that zeal which bears not all those Characters of God mentioned in Jam. iii. 17 18. Postscript ANd now Reader let me bespeak thy Candour I am very sensible of very great inaccuracies and defects in this Resolution of so great a Case It became my work under unusual disadvantages not fit to be mentioned here I have exposed my first draught to an observant Generation the Truths contained therein are Gods and the Directions offered are for the substance of them according to the Doctrine of the Scripture of Truth May they but prosper to the câ—re of luke-warm hearts I can the better spare the praise of men and bear their Censures and Contempt It is the desire endeavour and design of my poor Soul to think as meanly of my self as other's can I have no time and through the infirmity of my Right hand writing is the most tedious part of my work to correct my first Copy which entertains me in the perusal thereof with many superfluous expressions to be retrenched many inaccuracies of Phrase and Method to be rectifyed many defects to be made up as to that matter which the full Resolution of the Case requires Many hints and heads which might more copiously have been insisted on yea and some passages in the Text it self I find upon review might have been more fully and nervously improved to the exacter Resolution of the Case Much more I could have said and much more than that can a Multitude of my Brethren speak were they to undertake the Subject and handle it according to the Grace and Wisdom which God hath more copiously given unto them than unto me Tho I will leave this Testimony to his Great and Gracious Name upon record that he hath ever helped me and had done more for me had I not unworthily obstructed the Current of his kindnesses to me My Books and helps are nothing to me without him it is ignorance of our selves and of God that makes us proud but our sensible approaches to Eternity and to himself will make us sneak and lay us in the dust before him we being hereby made to see how little we know can signifie obtain or do without him Some may perhaps
declining Old Age must be judged to come under the name of Evil Dayes No reason appears why all the periods of the contrary Age should not be put under the name of Youthful or Choice Dayes All young Gamesters are here called to God Children from their playing for Pins Boys from their playing for Pence Young Men from their playing for Mony and Land All from their several Games of equal folly The Games in which invaluable Souls be lost and the best that is got is but Yellow Dust These Spritful Sportive People are all called to play wiser parts and lay out their various degrees of Strength for the good that in weak Old Age in the last and worst Childhood they will be as unable as now they are unwilling to seek The Time wherein these Tribes are all of them commanded to Convert is the present Remember hath its Now expresly added Forbidding both your Delay until the Afternoon of your Life-day and your Delay unto any other Day Hour or Minute of your Forenoon Requiring that God's Tribute be paid as the Kings Tax is upon sight And that not the least distance of time be admitted between your discerning and your doing your Duty The Doctrine thus offers now it self Present Conversion is the Duty of Youths and Children even the very Youngest that are come to Vnderstanding Or thus It is not for Young Men and Maidens for School-Boyes and Girls or very Children in Hanging-sleeves to put off their Conversion to God so much as a Minute of an Hour This I shall competently demonstrate if I make good these two Assertions viz. 1. That these Young Folk are really bound to Convert presently 2. That they are singularly engaged and encouraged by God so to do and are advantaged more for it than Older People are and than they themselves can be when they are Older And this I essay by these following very Intelligible and Invincible Reasons Hear them as for your Lives O you Young ones to whom I direct them If you hear aright you live and Joy will be in Heaven by and by for your new Birth If not we despised Preachers shall shortly hear you accursing your closed Ears Exclaiming much like unto Joseph's Brethren Gen. 42.21 We are verily guilty concerning our Ministers in that we saw the anguish of their Souls when they besought us to convert presently and we would not hear therefore is distress and it may be remediless Damnation come upon us However in Duty unto all and in hope of gaining some in God's fear I tell you R. 1 You are Commanded as truly as the Oldest People Living to turn unto God presently Therefore 't is your Duty The King of Babylon would have Young Men stand before him So would the King of Heaven He calls you the Youngest of you And as expresly and frequently and more frequently than he calls Old People For he calls you conjunctly with them in most or all Texts in the Bible and he calls you apart here and in other Portions of Scripture by your selves Ezek. 33.11 Turn ye turn ye 'T is not turn ye O ye Old decrepit Folk But Turn ye Indefinitely that is Universally O ye of all Ages that hear the Word Psal 148.12 13. Young Men and Maidens and as Old Men Children are called to Praise the Lord. Nagnarim little Children the word indeed is put for Joseph in Egypt Gen. 41.12 and Gideons Son Judg. 8.20 But as the Etymology carryes it 't is most frequently used to signifie New-born Children just shaken out of the Womb And is very often put to signifie Children just able to speak and run up and down 2 Kings 2.23 You the Children of Believing Parents have an Holiness of Covenant-Relation before you are born 1 Cor. 7.14 You have an Holiness of Solemn Dedication by and by after you are born in Holy Baptism Col. 2.11 12. And God requires your Parents and Ministers to be dealing with you as soon as you come to Understanding for Holiness of Inhesion and Qualification He saith there is a way of Holiness in which every Nagnar little Child should go and commands us to Catechise and Train you up in it Prov. 22.6 Ephes 6.4 Nor doth he allow you to delay the little that you can do for your Souls any more than he allows the Oldest People to delay any thing that is in their Power to do Now now is his Word unto all Sinners 2 Cor. 6.2 And Now now is his Word unto you His Command for Duty and for Hast of Duty equally binds Children of tender Years and people of Fourscore Remember it Young People if you be not commanded to come unto God and to abide with him there is no Sinner in the World commanded to Convert nor any Saint in the Church commanded to Persevere Need I tell you what an Authority his is who doth so command And how infinitely obliging 'T is such an one as cannot be told you by Man or Angel Should God command you to cut off your Right hands or to run into the Fire it would be infinitely your Duty and Interest presently to do it For so Supream and Absolute is his Authority that he cannot Command beyond his Right And 't is an Authority so constantly governed by Infinite Goodness that he cannot command us against our Interest So that it is as perfectly impossible for us to Obey him and not benefit our selves as to disobey him and not hurt our selves In a word Could you see this Soveraign Commander but as Moses saw him Exod. 34 Or as Isaiah Isa 6. or as Job Job 42. Or as St. Paul Act. 9. Or as St. John Rev. 1. It would be no Question with you Whether he were to be obeyed or no Or to be obeyed presently or no. You would then think no Obedience great enough no Hast swift enough no Grief for Converting no sooner heavy enough O how late did I love thee St. Austin exclaimed Twenty years was I a bondslave to the Devil cryed Mr. Jo. Machin who was Converted in his Twentieth year Remember not the sins of my Youth saith the Man who knew God's Heart better than to imagine that Youth was Lawless Psal 25. But R. 2. You are threatned just as Old People be if you turn not unto God presently Therefore 't is your Duty Sirs as you are not Lawless so neither are you less under the Menaces and Threats of the Law-giver than other Folk be Psal 9.17 The Wicked shall be turned into Hell 'T is not said Old Sinners shall into the place of Devils No 't is unlimitedly the Wicked all of them Wicked Parents and wicked Children wicked Masters and wicked Scholars or Apprentices Every thing wicked every Minute that you delay your Conversion that Threat stands ready charged against your Breasts And who knows but God will shoot it off this very moment if you Convert not this very moment Rom. 1.18 The Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Sin 'T is not said
Duty beforehand that as soon as he came to Capacity of Understanding he should not want for Attractives of his Affection to Convert and Cleave to God And no otherwise doth God deal with you You that know what your Baptism means do know so much Now no sooner do you Understand Consent unto and Profess the Imports of your Baptism but God calls you to his Holy Table There to confirm again and again with great frequency all the foresaid Promises O ye height length bredth and depth of the Divine Munificence and Kindness The Blessing of Abraham and every Iota of it comes on every sincere Convert Gal. 3.13 14. Speak Sirs is God so ill a Master that no offer can perswade you to return unto him Or What is there more than God has offered that you desire Or what further Confirmation and Ratification of his Promises than he gives do you crave Or which is that I listen after will you now straitway turn unto him And here right take on the Spiritual Robe the Ring and the Shoes And make Joy in Heaven and in this Congregation I do hope the Sun shall not go down before some of you are reconciled to God I have heard of a sinful Boy that offered to Convert presently if a Friend of his could make it out to him that he should fare the better for it in his Body and things of this Life Which being done he did Convert and lived and dyed an eminent Saint I am aware there is much of that Boys Spirit in all young People And it likes me to try whether I may so draw you with the Considerations that drew him Hear then what I say to evince that Conversion is a very Friend unto good Health Estate Mirth and Name that the state of Grace is in respect of these like the City Triocala one of Water-springs sweetest Vineyards choicest and Rocks most impregnable That when you once enter into Covenant with God your wants will be of nothing but things worse than nothing and wherever you are lodged the worst of your Wounds will be but Flea bites Or however ye are wounded ye can never be hurt Health is the Salt and sweetest Sawce of Life 'T is Sin Peoples own or their Ancestors or both that ordinarily is the working cause as well as deserving cause of sickness The Spirit and Grace and Service of God every way make for Health Particularly Temperance and good Conscience are the most benâ—gn of all things unto your Blood and Spirits And Converting Grace is not it self without them Go ask Physicians they will tell you Luxury and Lechery do make them an hundred Patients for every one that is made them by Fasting and Prayer No Precept of Christ is for any Duty Fasting it self unto Sickness if his precepts were observed they would prevent more than ever his Miracles healed If a good Man be at any time so weak as to hate his own Flesh he is not led to it by God's Spirit He ought indeed to beat it down and keep it in subjection to Gods Law and from the Usurpation of sinful Lusts But withal 't is those Lusts he is to mortifie and not his Body A Convert's Body is the Holy Ghost's Temple And if so be sure God will be kind unto it and his Servants ought to be duly careful of it An Estate is a very useful Hedge about you to keep off those many Proud that will be trampling upon all that is Poor And nothing raises or keeps up this Hedge like the Grace of God For it spirits you with Diligence which gets Riches with Humility which hates superfluity and saveth what is got with Charity which puts out all to Use and unto that Lord who never pays less than an hundred Fold in this Life it self Sin is this Hedge-breaker Rags are mostly Sins Livery When 't is otherwise and Sin makes you a Hedge it will be full of Snakes and Snares In the fullness of sinful sufficience you will be in straits And 't is odds but the Straits will be long and the Fullness a very little while On the other hand when a Converts Duty to God makes him poor it makes him rather a Martyr than a Beggar For he thereby testifies God's Truth and through the Truth of God to his Covenant he abounds in the middle of his wants For God doth but prune his Vines he burns up none but Thorns By Poverty he may undo Sinners but he still enricheth Saints Do but Convert you can never want what is truly good for you while God has it The first Minute that a great Estate begins to be good for you you shall have it And if you never have a Great one you shall still have a Good one Whereas Unconverts can have but one of these two a vexing Adversity or what is worse a slaying Prosperity One made of thick Clay and deeper Cares Mirth and Comfort are the Hony and Sweetness of your Beings Now Conversion makes exchange but no Robbery of these There is in Africa an Hony lusciously sweet but the Bees gather it from poysonous Weeds and it affects with madness and Frenzy all that eat of it He were no Thief that should take that sort of Hony from you and give the most wholesom to you Conversion deals no otherwise by you Only what it gives is more sweet as more wholsom And the quantity greater as well as the quality better For observe ye God forbids not any one Kind or Degree of pleasures but what is injurious And what your very Nature Reason and Interest do forbid you I deny it not Converts have Valleys of Troubles but then they have doors of Hope They are in Wildernesses but God prepares them Tables therein Dryest Rocks yield them Water and in darkest Dungeons they have shining Lights They receive here their Evil things and have their Hell upon Earth but then 't is a Heaven upon Earth to think this is all the Hell they shall ever endure And as for the Wayes he commandeth Converts to walk in they are all of Pleasantness Mysteriously yet most certainly Godly sorrow is made a sweet thing Every Week almost have I People crying for more of it than I think God allows them O Youth scies cum fies when thou art a Convert thou shalt feel what I tell thee No such Manna falls in Calabria none falls from Heaven like that which feasteth the Camps of sincere Converts The Convert state hath of the Joy as well as of the Purity of Heaven Unthought of Delights Such as don't Dye in the Enjoyment No but be stronger than Death as well as sweeter than Life Such as none of the Busie-bodies of this World ever found in the Mills of their Business or the Circles of their pleasure Gilboa's Mountains had not Rain or Dew Unconvert Youths have not Joy or Peace Madness is theirs Mirth they know not The three Hebrew Martyrs were merrier in the fiery Furnace than their Persecutor was in his
may not be expected to cleanse a Young Mans way nor any others Get a Promise from him to lend you his best Direction to thorough Conversion A Youth without a Pastor is a Child without a Nurse Direct 2. Vse him whom you chuse your Guide for your Soul and follow him as far as he follows Jesus Christ Hear him ordinarily a Child 's own Parents Milk is commonly best for it Write after him the Heads of his Sermon I mean and his Chief Notes Incomparable King Edward the Sixth used to write Sermon Notes Go often to his House and always to ask things worth his time and your own Little rest give him till Grace has blest his labors to fit you for the Lords Table Plainly tell him you shall count small good gotten by the Word till you are qualified for the Sacrament And that it is to you a dolorous thing to have but a Place in Gods House and no Room at his Table It looks as if you were but a Dog and not a Child Direct 3. Look alway and adhere closely unto God's Son and Spirit Without these the Holy Bible can no more make you wise unto Salvation than the Fables of Aesop that Papists dare compare it to The Word of Life is a Word of Death to you without these to make it beneficial These without whom you can expect no more Edification from the best Minister than from a blind Harper In all things ye want Jesus Christ for Acceptance in all you want the Holy Ghost for Assistance in all things and at all times Without right use of them no Soul can fetch a Breath of Divine Life or take a Step of Holy Walk Nature indeed shews you an Heavenly Father and ties all of you unto him But 't is only special Revelation Jupiter q. Juvani Pater reveals a Redeeming Son of God and an Holy Sanctifying Spirit of God And 't is much Grace and that much used too that can keep you close unto these VVithout which you may be great Socinians but no Christians Direct 4. Beware of setting against each other Gods Mercy Christs Merits Holy Faith and Good Works VVe cannot say to either of them we have no need of thee All are truly necessary and unspeakably But in the Countrey I saw it and in this City I see it most people do fix on some one of them and cry it up to the Exclusion of the rest To the virtual Exclusion Of so Epidemical and fatal a hindrance of Conversion beware you The Mercy of God! All the Rhetorick of Heaven cannot praise enough but wo be to you if you expect the Pardon of the least Sin by it otherwise than through Christs Merits The Merits of Christ These without question are infinite But you are undone if you dream you shall have the saving benefit of them Living and Dying without Marriage unto him by Faith Holy Faith Is a Grace most Precious by God most highly honoured and of all most honouring God Honouring him in some respects more than Adam's personal Obedience did before the Fall But mortally you erre if you look to put off God with it without Obedience And slight good VVorks as Supererogations Good Works Are the blessed Fruit of God's indwelling Spirit and the very end of our Election Redemption and Conversion But what then they be neither acceptable to God nor profitable to us but through the Gift of the Mercy the Purchase of the Merits and the Means of the Faith aforesaid If you rest on VVorks and imagine them otherwise good your Eternal Lodging will be among Evil-workers Young people make your Pastor set you well at rights about these things And let the Excellency Connexion Order and Necessity of them be judged worthy of your frequent and serious thoughts Direct 5. Be very Critical in the Choice of your Company Be sowre and unkind unto none Affable to all but pleased with Few to wit the Best Which are those that will either best teach you or best learn from you Companions of Fools are doomed to destruction But where ere you are walking with wise Men you are on your way to Heaven Prov. 13.20 Souls the most thoughtful of Eternity are still the most careful of their Company And it is certain the Company of your Choice in this World is both that which you would have and shall have in the next Direct 6. Besides the Holy Scriptures read ye such good Books as shall be commended to you by your Pastors 'T is not every good Book that is for you good Nor every one that will hereafter be good for you that is good Now. Your Pastors can judge best which are most sutable I think it Soul-Felony for you to be without the Westminster Assemblies Catechisms And I should think it as little needful to commend Mr. Baxter's Call or Mr. Alleyn's or Mr. How 's very Jewel of Yielding unto God or Mr. F. Fuller's Words to give Wisdom with his piece of Repentance and Faith or Mr. Lawson's Magna Charta England is blest with the best in this World and I do not light upon any that excel or equal them in England You must search farther than I have done young people if you find things better worth your most careful reading Books be dead things but God makes them oftentimes Lively Preachers These several last years many have acknowledged to me that they have been blessed Stars to lead them unto Christ Yet do not for your Lives ever neglect reading the Scriptures Take some portion of God's Word as daily as you eat of his Bread 'T is very honourably that I do remember a poor Soul who sometimes burned the Thatch of her House to read her Bible by the Light of it And no less a Saint than Mr. Richard Fairclough told me she died a glorious one It was Luther's saying The reading of the Scriptures is the terror of Devils Direct 7. Examine often the state of your Souls Scrupulousness it self is as much more safe as 't is less sweet than Audaciousness But humble and careful Inquisitiveness is sine naevo Venus as unspotted a Virtue as the state of Grace is adorned with Humility one calls the Violet of Graces of sweetest scent though lowest place And Care is the commanded Fear of falling short of Gods rest Heb. 4.1 The Exertion of humble Care in heart-searches doth answer many Gospel-precepts And when it is much and often it is not the least Evidence of truest grace For Bankrupts can no more endure much looking into their Count-books than sore Eyes can bear long beholding of Sun-shine And as impatient be Hypocrites of very much conning the Scriptures and their Hearts But I conclude Young people Mahomet gat the Turkish Empire by making extraordinary hast And Alexander Conquered the World by the same Policy Never Delaying Go you and out-do them Conquer VVorld Flesh and Devil And take by violence the Kingdom of Heaven by your hasting to Remember and Convert just now VVith great
Reason our Law makes it Death to conceal High Treason so much as four and twenty hours I am sure God's Law requires you to Confess and Forsake your higher Treason against Christs Crown without so much as a Minutes delay And with much more Reason and Equity I thought I had done But I am sensible how little I have done And therefore before I make an end I must try to set two sorts of People a doing more for poor Unconvert young ones Two very concerned ones in the case Two that my Text hath surely somewhat to do with I mean Parents and Ministers Surely Natural and Ecclesiastical Fathers are all bound to joyn me in preaching of this portion of Scripture To you Natural Parents I first Address Beseeching you that you go study what you have to do and do all that you shall know for your Childrens early Conversion I am of the mind that gallant Language ne're did Gods Work And do find it what you call Wild Note rather than set Musick that I can ever move you by VVherefore plainly I tell you we may thank you for Earth's becoming thus unlike Heaven and like to Hell VVe may thank your Negligence and worse for the ruin of more Children than ever Herod slew or the Lyar and Murderer of France himself VVe may thank you that Children be so generally Beasts before they are Young Men and young Devils before they are Old Men. VVe may thank you for vitiating the most numerous the most ductile and the most hopeful part of the VVorld For robbing God of his First Fruits in the VVorld I beseech you by Gods tender Mercies repent of your Cruelties And I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ reform ye straitway and do as aforesaid The Light of Nature that guides you to help your Children to go and to speak and to do what is necessary for this Life guides you also to help them for the Divine Life Nor can you doubt but Gods Ordinance in the old Church for the appearanee of the Male-children before him thrice in the Year was to bring them to an early Acquaintance with himself And there is still both need and obligation to keep the substance of that precept now under the Gospel O let it not be said any longer that your care is more for your Childrens Cloaths than their Souls For shame Sirs for shame let them not be wicked without your pity nor Converted without your pains Think ye daily of both the Advantages and Engagements to do it Your Advantages You do Love your Children best do you not And you are best Beloved by them You are Nearest unto them and have most Authority over them You do know their Capacities and their Tempers VVho can suit them as you Your Engagements Their sore Needs do engage you And so do the sore Evils that however undesignedly you have done them Who brought Adam's Sin upon them and into them but you And who dares say that your own personal Sins have done them no wrong Dying Dr. Harris said He had made his Peace with God A Minister of the Church of England told me he had refused to Baptize some of his Parishioners Children because as he saw they would not afterward breed them up to Christianity And told his Children that his Sins should not hurt them therefore unless they made them their own Can you say so if you were now to dye Well very Nature also engages you Ay and Equity binds you For your Children are God's more than yours and sure it is to him and for him that you should educate his Children Truth also engages you For you promised you would so educate them when you had them Baptized did you not The Fear and Love of God if any be in you do engage you And so doth your own Interest also Yea lastly Shame engages you For 't is a shame is it not To teach Children to honour and serve you and not to honour and serve their God and yours I have bid many Children ask you whether if they were too young to be bound to keep Gods Commands they were not also too young to be bound to keep yours Listen not to the White Devils that will suggest If your Children take not to Religion of themselves without your ado your pains will do but little good Do Horses or Camels tame themselves Do Men tame Beasts of the Wilderness and you not tame the Children of your own Bodies and Families But all in a Word Does God set you a work and promise you Success and you dream it to no purpose to set about it Read you Prov. 22.6 23.13 14. 29.17 15. As for you Church-Fathers may I humbly assume to stir up your Minds but in way of Remembrance You know if the Lambs be lost the Lord of the Flock will with great anger ask Where were the Shepherds all the while What were they doing Nor will our highest feeding of the Sheep compound for the loss of his Lambs And I doubt it will not suffice to say Lord we were the while digging for profound Notions or Disputing Nice Questions or studying polite Sermons for people whose Peace and whose Praise we could not have cheaper Brethren for the Lords Sake let us all do somewhat weekly and set the Parents of our Congregations doing somewhat daily for young people's Souls And let both set to it Hopefully for the Reasons foresaid The Difficulty and Impossibility as to our Endeavours be left but to drive us to Diligence and Dependance on him to whom nothing is Difficult or Impossible The more we do look for success the more it will come Let not Catechising that is praised by all be Unpractised by any And in Preaching let none of us make need where we find none to shoot over young folks heads and use a Language we must needs know they understand not Love of God and of them would make us willing rather to be trampled under Scorners feet for our Faithfulness then to ride over their heads in Figures of Vain-glorious impertinence The which wise Hearers do no more commend than weak Hearers do Understand Neither be it any more grievous to us than it was to St. Austin to have now and then an Ad vos Juvenes To call and tell them Young people this is for you I would be glad to see wanton Wits have less Sawce and weak Souls have more Meat in all our Sermons And to discern that our pains in making Converts did exceed the Papists in making Proselytes For it must be owned 't is an uncolourable Profaneness to Baptize Infancy and not teach Youth or but slightly Because otherwise we shall starve the Nursery and then what becomes of Jesus Christ's Family The good Lord awaken us all And set Ministers Parents Young people themselves all a doing and well doing Our Churches then shall be Beautified and Joyed and Strengthned with abundance of young Meditating Isaac's Young Jacob's seeking
any thing our Apostle tells him He knoweth nothing as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 He is not sufficient as of himself for one good or true thought 2 Cor. 3.5 which cuts the top sinew of Pelagianism and the Champions of the power of Nature 2. His judgment therefore must needs be dubious or wrong whereby he is to compare things that differ or agree together If God leave him or give him up to himself the Prophet is a fool and the Spiritual Man is mad Hos 9.7 so as he will put darkness for light and light for darkness bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter call good evil and evil good Isa 5.20 Conscience the Souls taster and common sense is so vitiated and defiled Tit. 1.15 that he hath no true judgment or discretion having not his senses exercised to discern between good and evil Heb. 5.14 3. His conclusions therefore must needs be distorted from these premises and the Errors in the first and second concoction are not corrected and amended by the third he who cannot make one strait step can never take three together All the Errors and Fallacies in the World are but the products of his Ratiocinations viz. I can go to the Tavern or Exchange I find therefore I can Repent and Believe when I will whereas these are actions of another Life and Nature which he was never born to unless Regenerated by the Spirit of God To Repent and Believe are God's gift Acts 5.31 His work in us John 6.65 and Ephes 2.8 Though for this very Doctrin many of his ignoranter Disciples went back and walked no more with him John 6.66 And so Men jog on in their sensuality presumptuously as if there was something in the pleasures of sin which was sweeter and dearer to them than God or Heaven and when they have no more strength to serve their Lusts nor any thing else to do but to die they can in one quarter of an hour make their peace with God as one of that herd said to me who soon after drawing Water out of his own Well and being Drunk was by the weight of the Bucket drawn into the Well and drown'd Another saith I may sin because Grace aboundeth this is a most disingenuous and unnatural argument I may hate God and my Saviour because he hath so loved me when holy Herbert said Let me not Love thee if I love thee not love being stronger than Death or Hell in the Hearts of Gods beloved ones So without holiness none shall see God therefore we must be justified by our Evangelical Obedience and Righteousness whereas this is only a concomitant for the cause for God pronounceth and declareth none to be Righteous but such as are Righteous now there is none Righteous no not one Rom. 3.10 but in the Righteousness of Christ who of God is made Wisdom Righteousness and Redemption Dav. de Just 1 Cor. 1.36 In sound Davenant's words An Alderman sits in the Court not because he is to come in his Gown but because he is an Alderman by Election c. So you must obey the Laws of the Church if that wedge will drive if not the Laws of the State both which are inconsequent if they be not according to the Law of God the establishing perversness by a Law Psal 94.20 made neither Davids nor Christs sufferings the worse but their sin the greater who twisted such a Law So that we need a new Logick from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal Word as a directory to our Reasonings as well as the common Logick which teacheth us the regulation of the operations of our minds II. As we are lame in our Feet by our Naturals so even those who by the light of the Gospel and Grace are brought over to better understanding yet by vertue of the old crasiness they are not throughly illuminated and refined The very Apostles themselves Luke 18.34 were plainly told by our Saviour that he should suffer Death and rise again the third day yet they understood none of these things these sayings were hid from them until he opened their understandings to understand the Scriptures Luke 24.45 We have all a dark side and Paul says We know but in part 1 Cor. 13.12 we see but one side of the Globe we cannot view things round about they are above our Hemisphere These weak Jews were Zealous for their Ceremonies as being instituted by God the Gentiles as hot for theirs let no Man think himself infallible for these were all out and mistaken Form Custom and Education do wonderfully confirm Men in Error How hardly were People in our first Reformation drawn from their Prayers in Latin to English yet they understood not Latin as hardly would they still be weaned from little formalities though it were to entertain the most real and reasonable service in the World So great a Tyrant is tough custom over Phlegmatick Souls so apt are Men to heats for trifles by which Straw and Stubble they turn the Church into a Brick-kiln These Jews had Divine Right to plead and the usage and practice of all the seed of the Faithful enough to stagger a weak Christian Errors fairly set off may pass for Truths and if but weakly confuted may hang a doubt in Mens minds so Truths ill guarded may go for Errors objections not well cleared had better never have been started for they may puzzle a weak Head and Heart and make them both ake with fear of mistakes A Sophistical Disputant will prove there is no Motion the best way to confute him is in our Saviours words rise up and walk John 5.8 which is a real silent demonstration of it III. Nothing so convulseth Mens reason as interest as Hobs saith Though there is no Problem in Mathematicks more demonstrable than that all strait Lines drawn from the Center to the Circumference are equal yet if this did but cross any Mans interest it would be disputed Now 1 John 2.16 the Apostle reduceth the whole World to those three Elements the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the pride of Life a threefold cord strong enough to pull any Truth in pieces as easily as Sampson did his Wyths 1. The lust of the Flesh modo hic sit bene pleasing the Flesh goeth a great deal further than the Monks Bellies who yet have a lusty share in it as one of their own said They had all things so complacent that they wanted only a Vicar to go to Hell for them when they should die The Bishop of Romes Kitchin and Purgatory mutually support one another Disorders of Life hold up Celibacy in Men in Orders The lust of Idleness inviteth to Stage-plays the nurseries of Vanity and Vice to Cards and Dice in defiance of that Canon which pronounceth them unlawful Games A lusty Dinner makes the Veins so strut they can leap or fly to Heaven by their Free-will without the necessity of Free-grace so strong is Flesh and Blood without the