fast and not turning therefrom be sure not to fail of it and we have their prayers for us that we may therefore hold fast and go on to the end with manifold provocations by word writings and examples to it Yea and many of our enemies too though they hate us for the the thing it self as practised by us yet they preach and approve what they hate in their doctrines and declarations even as the Jews approve and magnifie those Scriptures which hold forth what the Christians belieâ—â— though they believe not what is in their own Scriptures Joh 5.45 46. and 10.34 Yea and we have all Gods providences therein working together for us all things working together for good to them that love God all the paths of the Lord mercy and truth to them that keep his Covenant and his Testimonies Psal 25.9 Rom. 8.28 Yea all things ours Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or life or death or things present or things to come all are ours if we be Christs as Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.21 22 Gal. 3.29 and therefore great encouragement have we to hold fast faith and go on believing in the Son of man the Son of God Encour 3. The great profit and benefit proposed to be received and injoyed in beleiving on him both the avoiding and escaping so great misery as perishing and the greatness of the good things contained in the eternal life to be injoyed a great recompence of reward Therefore cast we not away our confidence it 's life a Kingdom yea Eternal life and an everlasting Kingdom the Kingdom and Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ an eternal weight of glory Heb. 10.36 2 Thess 2.14 1 Pet. 5.10 2 Cor. 4.17 18. Yea and Encour 4. All the assurances given us of the certain fulfilling of what is said herein certifying us that we shall not perish but have Eternal life in such believing are strong Encouragements to us worthy to be minded by us As to say 1. We have Gods promise for it God that cannot lye hath promised Eternal life to the believer Tit. 1.2 1 Joh. 2.24 25. And faithfull is he that hath promised and he will perform it Heb. 10.23 And if we would trust an honest man upon his word or promise may we not much more trust God 2. We have the oath of God That by two immutable things in which it is not possible that God should lye namely his promise and his oath we might have strong consolation that flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us seeing therein appears the immutability of his counsel Heb. 6. 17 18. By my self have I sworn saith the Lord to Abraham and in him to his seed them that are Christs Gal. 3.29 that in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee Gen. 22.16 Heb. 6.13 And if we believe men upon their solemn oaths shall we not much more believe God when to confirm our faith he adds his oath to his promise ingaging himself thereby to the performance 3. We have manifold evidences of Gods truth and the truth of his Word in which these things are covenanted and promised all that evidences Gods truth and faithfulness in making good his words increases this assurance and that 's much as the casting off the Jews for their Idolatry and unbelief according to what or so far as Moses and the Prophets long since fore-signified Deut. 31.17 18. 32.21 22. 30.1 with Rom. 9 10 11.11 The calling and bringing in us Gentiles to be his people which was prophesied off long before while we were all worshippers of Idols and Devils Yet God hath made good this against all appearing probability even then when that one Nation that had the Oracles of God and boasted themselves to be his people and to have him for their God and he a greater God than all the gods of the Gentiles was for their sins rejected so as to have their City sackt and burnt their Land laid wast their people destroyed by famine pestilence sword and led captive into all lands and that by those who opposed the Lord his word and ways and were ready to attribute all their successes to the strength of their Gods or Idols and the ruine of their enemies to the weakness of their God Judg. 16.23 24. 2 King 18.33 and 19.22 Yet even then by the preaching of the Apostles a few despised persons he got himself the victory over them and brought in the Gentiles against all the malice of the Devils and thier worshippers to confesse him and his oracles the holy Scriptures Many other things might be noted to confirm the truth of the Scriptures as but I shall note it as another ground 4. The raising up Jesus and so sending us his own Son his only begotten according to the promises and prophecies that fore-went of him to be our Saviour the light to lighten us Gentiles and to be his salvation to the ends of the earth Act. 13.32 47. and 26.22 23. with Isai 42.1 6. 49.6 7 8. And he was discovered to be the Son of God by the testimony of the Scriptures of the Prophets by his own miracles and doctrine by the voyce of God and by the Spirit of holiness in the resurrection from the dead Joh. 5.36 37 39 and 20.31 Rom. 1.3 4. He as given of God for us and giving himself to be the ransome of our souls the propitiation for our sins the peace-maker and reconciler of us to God is an evident witness and assurance of the love and faithfulness of God to us and that in our believing on him he will be to us the Author of eternal salvation and everlasting life Isai 55.4 1 Tim. 2.6 Heb. 5.7.9 Having not spared his own Son but delivered him up to death for us all How shall not he with him freely give us all things Rom 8 32. 5. The holy Spirit given us as an earnest of the inheritance both as gifting the Apostles and believers at first with extraordinary and most usefull gifts inabling them to work miracles wonders and signs according to the fore-sayings of the holy Prophets Joel 2.28 29 in the name of Jesus witnessing therein to him and to the truth of his doctrine and also as inlighting the mind renewing the heart and assuring the conscience by his divine and heavenly operations in which we have included those three witnesses on earth mentioned in 1 Joh. 5.7 8. The Spirit inlightning and gifting the water washing and cleansing and the blood pâ—â—ging and pacifying and so the spirit by all assuring the conscience give assurance of Gods truth and faithfulnesse in making good his promises for saving the believer from perishing and giving him Eternall life Having therefore such motives and incouragements to believe and such assurances of welfare therein How should we not be strengthned to believe on him and to follow on to believe yet more and more strongly against all temptations and oppositions using
have their share in that Yea some that have been the best have dyed the youngest As Enoch was translated far short of that age to which others then lived But that that is said is That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life Where the profit and advantage of believing on Christ is set forth 1. Negatively He shall not perish 2. Affirmatively but have eternal life Concerning which advantages I shall speak to these four following Enquiries The former two whereof are touching the former part The latter two touching the latter 1. What is this perishing from which the Believer on Christ is and shall be saved or preserved And 2. How he shall be saved from this perishing These about the former part Then in the latter 3. What that eternal life is that the Believer on Christ shall have And 4. How and when he shall have that eternal life 1. As for this perishing it may be understood to be either 1. From the way Or 2. In the end 1. A perishing from the way as it is said Psal 2.11 Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his anger is kindled but a little In such a sense it is said of the Prodigal This my son was lost The Greek word signifies and is sometimes rendred yea in this John 3.15 â—6 it is so for the word here used is the same in its root with that there was perisht He was quite gone out of the way the way of life and peace Now he that credits the testimony of God concerning Christ so as seeing his beauty and goodness he believes on receives comes to attends and relies on and trusts in him shall not perish or be lost much less wholly lost from the way but being in it shall be preserved therein shall continue in the Son and in the Father 1 John 2.24 2 John 9. They who believe not on the Son of Man as evidenced to them of God they do and are in danger to perish from the way continually they that do not know come to and close with him know not the way of peace Rom. 3.18 they find not the way that tends to life Matth. 7.14 Though they seek wisdom they find it not scorning to seek and accept it of him in his way of giving it Prov. 14.6 Though they may have a zeal of God and follow after righteousness yet not seeking it by faith the belief of Gods Word and Testimony concerning him and so in a way of looking to and depending on him but as it were by the works of the Law they attain not to the righteousness that they seek Rom. 9.31 32. The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them because though they labour and toil in their own wisdom never so much yet they find not the way into the city Eccles 10.15 Yea he that believeth not on him Satan gets power to blind his mind that the light of the glory of the Gospel of Christ should not shine into them 2 Cor. 4.4 And the Gospel being hid from them they are lost verse 3. Lost out of the way of understanding And if men have known something of the Grace of God and come to Christ in some measure yet if they go not on to believe and exercise faith in him they are in danger to be lost and perish out of the way of truth and righteousness Every condition is likely to destroy them from it as to say 1. Let God try and exercise them with affliction poverty and temptations that lye heavy upon them they are in danger to perish out of the way of truth and life and to say with Jobs wife Curse God and dye or rather to do so Job 2.9 As it 's likely what counsel she gave her Husband she would have her self practised had she been in his case Asaph or the Pen-man of Psal 73. was in danger so to have done when he came to that in ver 13 14. Verily in vain have I cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocency for I have been plagued all the day long and chastened every morning Thus they that receive the word like seed in a rocky ground in the day of temptation fall away wanting depth of earth or rooting in their faith Matth. 13.5 6 20 21. So Israel in the day of temptation did in the wilderness The word that they heard being not mixed with faith in them nor they trusting on his salvation Heb. 4.2 Psal 78.22 23. 106.12 13. Jude 5. For if the faith or believing on the Son of Man fail then they fail of receiving his light direction strength or of the prevalency of the light and life given so as not to walk aright in the way of God and then they must needs turn out of it into crooked paths as is implied in Psal 125. That they do who trust not in the Lord ver 1 2 5. whereas if the faith or believing on the Son of God fails not for the faith or that object of faith never fails any man that trusts to it then he therein receives that understanding and discretion that delivers him from the way of the evil man that walks in crooked paths and from the way of the evil woman that flatters with her tongue yea such understanding as causes to hate every false way Prov. 2.10 11 12 15. Psal 119.104 And if a man should through temptations get a fall in the way as Peter did when through fear he denied his Master yet he will get up again and go on in his way his faith not failing as Peter did for Christ will help him up again to whom he looketh and in whom he believeth not imputing the weaknesses of his believing though reproving them And so he shall go on in his way still Luke 22.31 32. Matth. 14.30 31. 2. If God orders persecutions for the Gospel sake to befall unless the Son of Man be believed on and looked to and received in his instructions counsels and grace extended a man will perish from the way from attending to and walking with God in Christ in the way of his commandments for he will want strength and courage to persevere and so will turn to the world again either through fear of what will come the fear of man proving a snare Prov. 29.25 as it did to Israel who for fear of the Giants and strong Nations in the Land of Canaan turned back in their hearts Numb 14. and were reputed as unbelievers and destroyed therefore in the Wilderness ver 10 11 22 23. and as it was to Peter in the case above-mentioned or else through the feeling of troubles that come upon them and press them Like to many of the Israelites in the Wilderness whose souls were discouraged through the difficulties they felt in the way Numb 21.4 5. But where the Son of Man is believed on with the heart trusted to and relied upon he gives strength and courage both against the fears
glorious Body according to the working of that glorious Power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself Rom. 8.10 11. Phil. 3.21 Yea The Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 Oh how Excellent a Person then is Christ that is so comprehensive of all Good and Excellency even from the highest to the lowest Who is both Creator and Creature and hath the Nature and Perfections of both And hath had as well the Infirmities of the one sin excepted out of his great Love and Pity to us as the Form and Excellency Majesty and Glory of the other He that is the high and holy One the Great and Mighty God hath also cried out and acknowledged I am a worm and no man the very scorn of men and the out-cast of the people For he hath had the Experiences of Fallen man the Snares and Bitterness of Death and the Pangs of Hell as well as he hath had and hath experience and full injoyment of the infinite Joys and Glorys and inexpressible Satisfactions of Heaven and God no place is there wherein he is not and hath not been He was aâ— man on the Earth and sometimes Walking on the Seas Yea as to his Body he was in the Grave in the heart of the Earth though not left there to see Corruption and as to his Soul he was in though not left in Hell and yet he was Lord in Heaven and is so for ever 1 Cor. 15.45 John â—3 13 Psal 16.11 with Acts 2.31 Able to save us to the utmost while we are on the Earth and from Grave to Hell and to bring us to the Possession of Heaven and happiness For though he was dead to redeem us from thence yet he is now alive for evermore Amen and hath the Keys of hell and death to keep or bring us out from thence Rev. 1.18 and The Keys of the house of David too so to open as no man shall shut and so to shut as no man can open and he can and will admit into his Kingdom all that are faithful to obey and follow him Greatness and Goodness yea all Perfections and Excellencies are compleatly and everlastingly in him Oh therefore how ought we to admire and love him and with all acceptation to receive and cleave to him honour and obey him Surely that 's the way for us also to be made an excellent and precious People in the sight of God and useful to and among men For this also is of the Commendations of Christ that his Excellencies and Preciousness communicate and contribute an Excellency to all in whom he is It 's his Excellency as we noted before that renders the Gospel a more excellent and glorious Doctrine and so it 's his Excellency and Preciousness derived to them that makes his People those that own and believe on him to be a more excellent People then others as it is said The Righteous is more excellent then his Neighbour Prov. 12.26 it is because Christ is in them as it is said again God is in the Generation of the Just Psal 14.5 And the Riches of the Mystery of the Gospel Preached among the Gentiles is Christ in or among them the hope of Glory Col. 1.27 As Christ also prayed for his Disciples that they may be one as the Father and Son are one he Christ in them and the Father in him John 17.23 For as the Comeliness of Jerusalem and her Beauty that was perfect was so through his Beauty and Comeliness put upon her Ezek. 16.14 So the Excellency of his People is his Excellency put upon them who are said to have put on Christ and to be as it were clothed with him Now he being so precious how must they needs be also precious in and by him And indeed others who have not him and much more they who reject and refuse him lifting up themselves or other things and glorying in them are vile persons Psal 15.4 For indeed every thing or person according to the Spirit is to be accounted of as it hath reference to or hath more or less of or conduceth more or less to our injoyment of him And so those things or persons are to be more esteemed or chosen of us and loved by us by whom or by which we are or may be more led to Christ or built up in him or more of him and his excellencies are or may be conveyed to us But I may seem to have insisted too largely upon this Subject and to have made too long a Digression if I may call it a Digression and yet I may too truly say I have spoken nothing in effect to it but rather have but darkned wisdom by words without knowledge his excellencies being indeed such as cannot be so spoken or written of but that all that is spoken and written of them is as far below them as He who would go about to paint the glory and luster of the Sun would necessarily fail and fall short of its proper and native splenâ—or and glory in all his painting Verily though there be very much said of him and of his excellencies in the Scriptures yet it may and will be said when we come to see him and enjoy him if we being found in him shall be accounted worthy thereof as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon when she saw him and his excellency and glory It was a true report indeed said she which I heard of thee in mine own Land of thy acts and of thy wisdom howbeit I believed not the words till I came and mine eyes have seen and behold the half was not told me thy wisdom and thy prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard So may we say then the Prophets and Apostles knew in part and prophesied in part not in perfection and surely that which is but in part will be found as short of that that is perfect as the capacities of a little child fall below the most perfect capacities of a grown and most accomplished man as the Apostle signifies in 1 Cor. 13.10 12. And surely if they knew and prophesied in part only what then could I do or have I done who have but gleaned some small part of what they have declared Surely I must needs have fallen unspeakably short of his infinite perfections whose Name alone is excellent and whose glory is not only above the earth but above the Heavens also Psal 148.13 For who can declare as I said in the beginning hereof all his mighty acts Who can set forth all his praises Psal 106.2 I should but still fall below him yea and too much darken his glory should I assay to add any thing more hereabout and therefore I shall say no more but rather desire and pray that the spirit of wisdom and revelation may be granted to me in the knowledge of him that the eyes of my understanding being inlightned I may know more distinctly for my self and for the
perfect possessing them of himself and of that Eternal life that is in him Such the true Church its Manners and Priviledges Use 10. Lastly that at length we may come to a Conclusion By all that hath been said we may be and let us be provoked and stirred up to admire Love Laud and Magnifie the Lord even the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and his great Love and Grace that hath devised found out made set forth and discovered such an Object as this to be looked to by us and therein such a way of Salvation and Life Eternal for us That hath chosen out of the People the Son of man one of us as it were as to his Humanity and united that to and filled it with the Deity and its infinite Virtues and perfections that he hath magnified his blessed Son and that through so great Sufferings and Abasement to so high Dignity and Glory in the Nature of man for us and so lifted him up also in the discoveries of him by his Spirit in the Gospel to us even to us such sorry and miserable Creatures so fallen and rendred so unprofitable that we neither could or can be of any advantage or profit to him that so in his being lifted up before us and looked to by us we might be healed of all our spiritual Diseases and Maladies delivered from all the things of the old fiery Serpent the Devil and Satan the venome and poyson of it and the pain and destruction brought into and upon us by it the sin and guilt thence derived the infirmities death grave hell that it brought upon us Yea and from all the several stingings of the said Serpent and his Angels and Instruments whether by inward Temptations and their Prevalencies or outward sufferings and afflictions keeping us alive that we may not die of them Yea so expelling the venome and poyson of them and infusing Virtue and Vigour into us that we may be safe and found from them and live in a perfect life and walk in a perfect way and serve and honour him This Grace may be somewhat Illustrated by Gods dealings of old with Israel they were in a sore and heavy Bondage in Egypt God beheld it came down and with various Wonders wrought deliverance for them so as he brought them all out thence not one of them being left behind and then also he became their Perfect Alsufficient Merciful and Faithful Leader and Bringer in in their following after him into the Land of Canaan Even so God seeing us mankind all in great misery and destruction under the Power and Tyranny of the Devil and the first Death and Judgment which we fell into in and through Adam came down in the person of the Son and by more wonderful ways of bearing the Judgment and Curse of the Law for us tasting Death for every man and giving himself a Ransome for all men hath bought all men from under that misery the Free gift being to all men through his Righteousness to Justification of Life Rom. 5.18 So as to justifie them from that fault and condemnation so as they live now under the patience of God and merciful Lordship of Christ as Lord of all through his said Death and Sufferings who also offers to all men in the Gospel a free Justification of them from all their forepast sins in yielding themselves up to his Government so as they may live in his Sight Yea and now the same Christ that died for all and every one and hath so Ransomed us is become the Leader and Captain of our Salvation calling all men to look to and follow him Isa 55.4 Heb. 2.10 with Psal 50.1 Prov. 1.20 23. Isa 45.22 And he will save them in so doing and every way secure them from perishing and bring them into the possession of an Heavenly Canaan an everlasting and glorious Kingdom For which Guidance and Conduct of us thereto he is every perfected and most gloriously Accomplished with Power Authority Strength Wisdom Riches for Supply of all Wants and is infinitely Merciful and Gracious Compassionate and Faithful and will not fail or be discouraged but will bring every faithful Follower of him or Believer on him to the Injoyment of his Kingdom Indeed as there God having saved his People out of Egypt afterward destroyed those that believed not which also for our Admonition the Apostle Jude would have us to remember though we have once known it but that was not through any defect or want of Power Pity or Faithfulness in God toward them but through their unbelief not depending on him obeying and Following him but stubbornly rebelling against him and provoking him to anger with their Disobediences towards and withdrawings from him So also here though all men be Ransomed by Christ from perishing in the first Death and Condemnation that namely which passed upon all men in Adam before any man was Born to him yet there will many perish in the second Judgment that which shall be by Christ after all are Dead and Raised again In the second Death but that proceeds not neither from want of Power or Pity Fulness or Faithfulness in Christ but from the want of their Compliance with his Calls and Counsels to believe on and Obey him as the Scripture every where declares as was Noted before in Use 7. It 's most sure that every one that will hearken to his Voice and Believing on him Follow him shall have Eternal Life Yea and though many Sins and Failings may be found with us in our Hearing and Following him as well as many sticks and Hang-backs before our first yielding to him to be Followers of him as were also found in Israel Exod. 5. and 14. Yet as there were many Sacrifices and a Priesthood appointed to make atonement for their offences so as they were kept still in Gods favour and under his conduct to the Land of Promise not stubbornly and persistingly rebelling against him so here also we have a far better Priest and Sacrifice greater fuller and faithfuller and of an eternal vertue and continuance to keep the Followers after Him from perishing from Gods favour and for bringing them to the injoyment of eternal glory so that we may well say Herein is manifested the love of God to us in that He sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 4.9 10. Yea we may well cry out with admiration and thankfulness Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou hast so visited him c. Heb. 2.6 7. Yea surely in the mindfulness and consideration of this his so rich and wonderful love and mercy which led him to this as the next verse saith God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but