Heaven and its Eternal Glory and yet to be unresolved whether to turn or not Or canst thou think of the endless miseries of the damned and yet be unresolved whether to turn or not Can any heart be so senseless or deluded Moreover he pleadeth with thee from the equity and sweetness of his Service It is but to Love him and to seek his Kingdom and forbear those things that hurt thy Soul His Commands are not unreasonable nor grievous Darest thou speak out and say that sinne is better and that Satan hath provided thee a better work then God hath done He reasoneth with thee also from his Wisdom and his Justice He tels thee that as Satan hath nothing to do with thee and as he is none of thy friends and meaneth thee not so well as God doth so he is not able to prescribe thee a more just and perfect law then God hath done Follow God and thou art sure thou shalt never be deceived or misled For he wanteth not Wisdom or Power or Goodness to be a meet Law-giver and Guide But if thou follow the Devil the world or the flesh thou followest a blind and a deceifull guide And yet after all these Reasons art thou not Resolved He Reasoneth with thee also from thy own experience What good hath sinne done thee And what hurt would Holiness do thee Yea he reasons with thee from the experience of all the world Who was ever the bâ—tter for sinning And who was ever the worse for Holiness How long will thy fleshly delights endure What will this do for thee in thy extremity Was ever man made Happy by it Thou knowest well enough thou must shorty leave it and that it will forsake thee in thy greatest need But so would not God if thou hadst Resolvedly given up thy self to him All men that refuse a Heavenly life do sooner or later wish that they had chosen it Abundance of such Reasonings God useth with thee in his Word and by his Ministers and dost thou think indeed that there is not weight enough in these to give thee cause immediately to Resolve How little or nothing canst thou say against them Canst thou bring any Reason that is Reason indeed against these or any of these Reasons of the Lord Darest thou say that ever a one of them is false or insufficient And what are the Reasons which you have on the contrary to hinder you from Resolving Forsooth because your sinnes are sweet you would fain have the pleasure of them a little longer yet O wretched Souls that find more pleasure in the abusing of your Maker and Redeemer then in loving honoring and pleasing him That delight more in serving the flesh and the Devil then in serving God and seeking after his Favour and your own Salvation You are a hundred times madder then a man that lieth tumbling himself in his dung and will not rise out of it to receive a Kingdom because it is so soft and so sweet that he is loth yet to leave it You are foolisher then Nebuâ—hadnezzar had been if he had been loath to return again to his Kingdom because he would fain stay longer among the beasts of the fields among whom in his distraction he had betaken himself Dan. 4. 31 32 33. And what other Reasons have you against Resolving Forsooth you shall be mockt or jested at by others By whom I pray you Not a man but a miserable fool will do it Yea but you are told you must forsake â—ll and be ready to die for Christ if he â—all you to it Very true and can you â—eep that which he calleth you to forsake How long will you keep it Silly Souls do you not know that you forsake it by not for saking it and lose all by saving any thing and that you have no way to save it but by losing and forsakeing it Suppse you were by enemies banished out of England and upon pain of death you must be gone within a twelve-month And a King that loveth you inviteth you to his Country and tells you for the poor livings that you have lost he will make you Lords and Princes so you will bring with you the little goods you have and leave nothing behind you Hereupon one man takes the next wind and ships over all his riches that he may have it when he comes there Another saith I am loath to leave my goods I have a while longer to stay here and what shall I do without them I am loath to see the habitation of my Ancestours impoverished And so when his time is expired he is fain to leave them all behind him and hath none that will receive him in the Country where he must abide Which of these think you is the wiser man Which of them was it that lost his goods and which did save them I speak to you but such another parable as Christ used to you himself Luke 16. 2 3 4 9. Where you are advised to send your riches before you and to make you friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when you dye you may be received into the everlasting habitations I know there are other vain delusions that hinder you from Resolving I will not call them Reasons for they are unreasonable I shall only say this to you that if there be ever a man of you that heareth his words that dare be such a Blasphemer as to reproach the Laws and Image of his maker and say that he hath made you too strict a Law and laid too heavy a task upon you and a Heavenly life is troublesome and unnecessary If there be a man of you that is so devilish as that you dare plead the Devils cause and justifie his work before the Lord's and say that it is better to please the flesh let that man prepare himself to make good these words before the Lord and his Holy Angels and be sure that he shall be there put to it in another manner then he is here by me And if you have such Reasons as you will stand to before the Barre of God to prove the Devil the better Master and an unholy life to be better then a Heavenly see then that you look them up and there make your best of them and expect to live with the Master that you served and to reape as you sowed and eate the fruit of your fleshly waies which you took to be the best But if you have no such Reasons but your Consciences are convinced that God should be served and sinne should be speedily forsaken and Heaven should be provided for above all Resolve then to do it before you stirre Or else say plainly I have no Reason to be wicked but because I will be wicked I will forseke God and damn my own Soul without any Reason because I will do it And if you are at this pass you may take your course 11. Another thing that I would intreat you to consider of is this It is a most
in the dark and therefore we call you to the Law and to the Testimony and desire you to take our words into the light and see whether they be according to the Word of the Lord. Nothing troubleth us more then that we cannot perswade our hearers to this tryal Some of them are so hardened in their sinne and misery that they will not be at so much labour as to open their Bibles and try whether we say true or not Some of them will not trouble their minds with the thoughts of it Psal. 10 4. God is not in all their thoughts And some are already too wise to learn they will not so long abate their confidence of their former opinions though poor soules their ignorance doth threaten their damnation And some are so engaged in a sinfull party that their companions will not give them leave to make so much question of the way that they are in And some will scarce take the Scripture for the Rule by which they must try and be tryed but look more to custom and the will of those in power over them And most are unwilling to try because they are unwilling to know the truth and cannot endure to find themselves miserable nor see the sinne which they would not leave nor see the duty which they love not to practice And thus we cannot get them to try whether the things that we teach them be so For want of this it is that men deceive themselves and think their case to be safe when it is miserable because they will not try it by the Word This makes them rage and be confident in their folly Prov. 14. 16. and laugh and sing at the brink of Hell and swimme as merrily down the stream to the devouring gulf as if no evil were near them This makes them in the depth of misery to have no pitty on themselves and to do so little to escape it Though they have time and means and helps at hand yet there are not hearts in them to make use of them yea they runne themselves daily further on the score and all because we cannot get them to search the Scripture and try whether sinne be so small a matter and whether this will not be bitterness in the end Hence it is that they are so easily drawn by a temptation and that they dislike a holy life and have base thoughts of them that are most diligent for salvation and are most precious in the eyes of God and that they can even deride the way that they should walk in Prov. 1 22. Psal. 1. 2. because they will not search the Scripture to see what it saith to these matters The Word is a Light and would do much to open their eyes and winne them over to God if they would but come to it with a desire to know the truth You think that the ungodly that are rich and great are in a better condition then a godly man that is poor and despised And why is this but because you will not go into the Sanctuary and see in what a slippery place they stand and what will be the end of these men Psal. 73. 16 17 22. In a word this is the undoing of millions of souls They are all their life time out of the way to Heaven and yet will not be perswaded to ask the way but they runne on and wink and put it to the venture Many a thousand are gone out of the world before they ever spent the quantity of one day in trying by the Scripture whether their state were good and their way were right Nay let their Teachers tell them that they must be sanctified and take another course they will differ from their Teachers though they be never so wise or Learned and they will contradict them and not believe or regard them And yet we cannot get them to come to us and put the case to the tryal and let the Scripture be the jndge Would they but do this they could never sure have such hard thoughts of their Teachers and be offended at their plainest closest dealing You would then say I see now the Minister saies not this of himself he speaks but that which God commandeth him And if he would not deliver the Message of the Lord he were unworthy and unfit to be his Embassadour He were cruel to me if he would not pull me out of the fire by the plainest closest meanes Jud. 23. He hated me if he would not rebuke me but suffer sinne upon me Lev. 19. 17. If he would please men he should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. I know it is no pleasure to him to trouble me or to provoke me but it would be his own destruction if he tell me not of my danger Ezek. 3. 18. And I have no reason to wish him to damn his own soul and suffer me to do the like by mine and all for fear of displeasing me in my sinne These would be your thoughts if you would but try our words by the Scripture and see whether we speak not the mind of God And sure it would go somewhat deeper in your hearts and it would stick by you and be more before your eyes when you once understood that it is the Word of God This then is my request to you sirs that the work of your Conversion may not miscarry that you would carry all that you hear to the Scripture and search there and see whether it be so or not that so you may be put out of doubt and may be at a certainty and not stand wavering and that your Faith may be resolved into the Authority of God and so the work may be Divine and consequently powerfull and prevailing when the Ground and Motive is Divine If you be not satisfied in the Doctrine which the Minister delivereth to you first search the Scripture your selves and if that will not do go to him and desire him to shew you his grounds for it in the Word of God and joyn with you in Prayer for a right understanding of it Do you question whether there be so severe a judgment and a Heaven and a Hell as Ministers tell you Search the Scripture in Mat. 25. 2 Thes. 1. 8 9 10. Joh. 5. 29 Matth. 13. Do you question whether a man may not be saved without conversion regeneration and holyness Open your Bibles and see what God saith John 3. 3 6. Mal. 18. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Rom. 8. 9. Heb. 12. 14. Do you think a man may be saved without Knowledge Let Scripture judge 2 Cor. 4 3 4. Joh. 17. 3. Hos. 4. 6. Do you think a man may be saved that doth as the most do and goeth in the common way of the world Search the Scripture and see Mat. 7. 13. and 20. 16. and 22. 14. Luke 12. 32. Do you think an unhumbled Soul may be saved that never was contrite and broken hearted for sin Try by Isa. 57. 15. and 66. 2.
knew where you are you would sit as upon thornes as long as you are unconverted you would be as a man that stood up to the knees in the Sea and saw the tide coming towards him who certainly would think that there 's no standing still in such a place Read what I have said of the state of the unconverted in my first Treatise of Conversion In a word you are the drudges of sinne the slaves of the Devil the enemies of God the abusers of his Grace and Spirit the despisers of Christ the heirs of Hell And is this a state to stay in an hour You have all your sin unpardoned you are under the Curse of the Law the Wrath of God is upon you and the fulness of it hangs over your heads Judgment is coming to pass upon you the dreadfull doom the Lord is at hand death is at the door and waits but for the Word from the mouth of God that it may arrest you and bring you to Everlasting misery And is this a state for a man to stay in 6. Moreover Your Delaying giveth great advantage to the Tempter If you would presently turn and forsake your sinnes and enter a faithfull Covenant with God the Devil would be almost out of hope and the very heart of his temptations would be broken He would see that now it is too late there 's no getting you out of the arms of Christ. But as long as you delay you keep him still in heart and hope He hath time to strengthen his prison and fetters and to renew his snares and if one temptation serve not he hath time to try another and another As if you would stand as a mark for Satan to shoot at as long as he please What likelihood is there that ever so foolish a sinner should be recovered and saved from his sinne 7. Moreover Your Delaying is a vile abuse of Christ and the holy Ghost and may so farre provoke him as to leave you to your self and then you are past help If you delight so to trample on your crucified Lord and will so long put him to it by your refusing his Grace and grieving his Spirit What can you expect but that he should turn away in wrath and utterly forsake you and say Let him keep his sinne seeing he had rather have it then my Grace Let him continue ungodly seeing he is so loath to be sanctified let him take his own course and die in his sinne and repent in Hell seeing he would not repent on Earth You provoke Christ thus to give you up 8. Consider also I beseech you if you ever mean to turn what it iâ— that you stay for Do you think to bring down Christ and Heaven to lower rates and to be saved hereafter with less adoe Sure you cannot be so foolish For God will be still the same and Christ the same and his Promise hath still the same Condition which he will never Change and Godliness will be the same and as much against your carnall interest hereafter as it is now When you have lookt about you never so long you 'l never find a fairer or nearer way but this same way you must go or perish If you cannot leave sinne now how should you leave it then It will be still as sweet to your flesh as now Or if one sinne grow stale by the decay of nature another that 's worse will spring up in its stead and though the acts abate they will all live still at the root for sinne was never mortified by age So that if ever you will turn you may best turn now 9. Yea more then that The longer you stay the harder it will be If it be hard to day it is like to be harder to morrow For as the Spirit of Christ is like to forsake you for your wilfull delayes so custom will strengthen sinne and custom in sinning will harden your hearts and make you as past feeling to work all uncleanness with greediness Eph. 4. 19. Cannot you crush this Serpent when it is but in the Spawne and can you encounter it in its Serpentine strength Cannot you pluck up a tender Plant and can you pluck up an Oak or Cedar O sinners what do you do to make your recovery so difficult by delay You are never like to be fairer for Heaven and to find Conversion an easier work then now you may do Will you stay till the work be ten times harder and yet do you think it so hard already 10. Consider also That fin gets daily Victories by your delay We lay our batterâ—es against it and preach and exhort and pray against it and it gets a kind of victory over all as long as we prevail not with you to turn It conquereth our perswasions and advice It conquereth all the stirrings of your Consciences It conquereth all your heartless purposes and deceitfull Promises And these frequent Conquests do strengthen your sinne and weaken your resistance and leave the matter almost hopeless Before a Physician hath used remedies he hath more hope of a cure then when he hath tried all means and finds that the best Medicines do no good but the man is still as bad or worse So when all meanes have been tried with you and yet you are unconverted the case draws towards desparation it self The very means are disabled more then before that is your hearts are unapter to be wrought upon by them When you have long been under Sermons and Reading and among good examples and yet you are unconverted these Ordinances lose much of their force with you Custom will make you slight them and be dead-hearted under them And it is these very same Means and Truths that you have frustrated that must do the work or it will never be done The same Plaister must heal you that you have thrown off so oft And what a sad case is this that there is no hope left but in the very same Medicine which you have taken so oft in vain 11. Moreover Age it self hath many inconveniences and youth hath many great advantages and therefore it is folly to delay In age the understanding and memory grows dull and people grow uncapable and almost unchangeable We see by our every daies experience that men think they should not change when they are old that opinion or practice that they have been brought up in they think that they should not then forsake To learn when they are old and to turn when they are old you see how much they are against it Besides how unfit is age to be at that paines that youth can undergo How unfit to begin the holy Warfare against the flesh the world and Devil Gods way is to list his Souldiers as soon as may be Even in their infancy which they must own as soon as ever they come to age And the Devil would not have it done at all and therefore he would have it put off as long as may be In infancy he will
lay the blame on God because he doth not give it you and say We cannot convert our selves But would you have the Spirit come in while you hold the dore against him He knocks and desireth you to open and let him in and you wish him to come in but you bolt the dore and no intreaty will procure you to open it It is Consideration of the saving doctrine of the Gospell that openeth the heart and giveth it entertainment Set you selves therefore on purpose to this work open the doores of your heart which are now shut and let the King of Glory come in Who will believe that you love the Light when you shut the windows and draw the curtains If you will set your selves to consider of the Truth the windows of your Soul will be set open and then the light will certainly come in Now you read over whole Chapters and hear Sermon after Sermon and either they never stir you or at least it 's but a little for a fit like a man that hath a little warmd him at the fire in the winter and when he goes from it is colder then before But if you would but set your selves to consider of what you hear or read one line of a Chapter or one sentence of a Sermon would say you in tears or make you groane or at least do more then now is done Satan hath garrisond the heart of every carnall man And consideration is the principall means to cast him out If by considering of the terrible threatnings of the word you would discharge these Canons of God against them what a battery would it make in the corruptions of your Souls Our God is a consuming fire and the fire of hell is threatned in his Law as the wages of sin By serious Consideration you may as it were fetch fire from God and from his word and set to the very gates of Satans garrison and fire him out of many of his holds But because this is so needfull a point I shall be so large upon it as 1º to tell you some of those things that you should consider of 2o. to tell you in what manner you should do it and 3o. to give you some Motives to put you on I. The first thing that I would have you oft to think on is The Nature of that God with whom you have to do Consider that if he be the most wise it is all the reason in the world that he should rule you If he be Good and infinitely Good there is all the reason in the world that you should Love him and there is no shew of reason that you should love the world or sin before him If he be faithfull and true his threatnings must be feared and his promises must not be distrusted and there is no reason that you should make any question of his Word If he be Holy then Holiness must needs be most excellent and those that are the Holiest must needs be the best because they are most like to God And then he must be an enemy to sin and to all that are unholy because they are contrary to his nature Consider that he is Almighty and there is no resisting him or standing out against him In the twink of an eye can he snatch thy guilty Soul from thy body and cast it where sin is better known A word of his Mouth can set all the world against thee and set thine own conscience against thee too A frown of his face can turn thee into Hell And if he be thine enemy it is no matter who is thy friend For all the world cannot save thee if he do but condemne thee They are blessed whom he blesseth and they are cursed indeed whom he curseth He was from Eternity and thou art but as it were of yesterday Thy being is from him thy life is alwaies in his hands Thou canst not live an hour without him thou canst not fetch a breath without him nor think a thought nor speak a word nor stir a foot or hand without him Thou mayst better live without bread or drink or fire or aire or earth or water then without him All the world is before him but as the drop of a bucket or a little sand of dust that should be laid in ballance with all the earth Hadst thou but compassed about this lower world and seen all the Nations of it and its wonderfull furniture and seen the great deeps of of the mighty Ocean and the abundance of Creatures that be in all O what thoughts then wouldst thou have of God! But if thou hadst been above the Starres and seen the Sun in all its glory and seen the frame and course of those higher Orbes and seen the blessed glorious Angels and all the inhabitants of the higher world O then what thoughts of God wouldst thou entertaine O but if it were possible that thou hadst seen his Glory or seen but his back-parts as Moses did or seen him in Christ the now glofied Redeemer what apprehensions wouldst thou have of him then Then how wouldst thou abhor the name of sin and how weary wouldst thou be of the pleasantest life that sensuality could afford thee Then thou wouldst quickly know that no Love can be great enough and no praises can be high enough and no service can be holy and good enough for such a God Then you wouldst soon know that this is not a God to be neglected or dallyed with nor a God to be resisted nor provoked by the wilfull breaking of his Laws It is Eternal Life to know this God Joh. 17. 3. and for want of knowing him it is that sin aboundeth in the world This maketh Holyness so scarce and leane Men worship they care not how because they worship they know not whom O therefore dwell on the Meditations of the Almighty So far as he doth possess thy mind there will be no place for sin and vanity One would think if I should set you no further task and tell you of no other matter for your Meditation this one should be enough For this one is in a manner all What will not the due knowledge of God do upon the Soul That 's the best Christian and the most happy man that knoweth most of him And that 's the most vile and miserable wretch that is furthest from him and strangest to him It is the Character of the foole of fooles to have a heart whose disposition and practice saith There is no God Psal 14. 1. That is To be so affected and employed in their hearts as if there were no God and when God is not in all his thoughts Psal. 10. 4. It was better with man when he had less knowledge for himself and fewer thoughts for himself and more of God And there is no way to restore us to sound understanding and to perfect our knowledge but to turn our eye upon God again For in knowing him we know all that 's worth the knowing Take
they would have been if they had been judged only by the first Law When they see Christ and Heaven that was offered them and remember their wilfull and obstinate contempt of them their own Consciences and tongues shall justifie God and confess that he is Righteous in the dreadfulest of his Judgments If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall they escape that neglect of great Salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and then was confirmed by them that heard him God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders and with divers Miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost Heb. 2. 3 4. And if they escaped not that refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not they escape that turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven For our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 25 29. So much of the Ends of Christ's undertaking in our Redemption In which you may see that there are divers things which Demonstrate the Glory of the forementioned Attributes of God in this Gospel Dispensation 1. It shineth forth in the Person of the Redeemer as he was on Earth in his Nature and wonderfull conception and his perfections 2. And it also shineth forth in the Actions of his life overcoming the world and the Devil and perfefectly fullfilling the Law of God So that the Image of his Father did shine forth in his Conversation 3. And also in his Death and Sufferings was the Father glorified as I shewed before 4. And also in the most Wise and Holy frame of those Laws by which the grace of the Mediator is conveyed and the Church governed 5. And by the Image of God by the impress of those Laws on the Souls of his Saints and by the holiness of their lives the Glory of God is also demonstrated 6. As also by the Justifying sentence of the Judge and the glorious Reward bestowed on the Faithfull 7. And by the Condemning sentence and execution on the ungodly in whom Vindictive Justice will be honoured 8. And in the perfection of the Individual Saints and their perfect Love and Praise 9. And in the Saints as imbodyed in the Heavenly Jerusalem the Glory of which will be the Glory of God 10. And pricipally in the Blessed Person and Work of the Redeemer In all these will Gods Glory shine forth for ever Quest. But to whom is it that God doth thus Demosntrate his Glory Answ. 1. To the Saints in this life in that degree as is suited to a state of Grace and the condition of a travailer that lives by Faith We are apt to look upward and long after fuller revelations of the Heavenly Kingdom and mystery and marvail that God will not shew himself more fully to his Saints on Earth Fain we would know more of God and Christ and the life to come and it is oft matter of some temptation to us that God doth not satifie these desires but leaveth them in so much darkness that are willing of his light But this is because we do not consider how much of Glory consisteth in the light and that Grace is more in the Disires of it then in the possession and if we should have as much of it as we desire it were but to bring down Heaven to Earth Means must be suited to their ends God will discover to us so much of his Glory as may quicken our desires and keep alive our hope and patience and endeavours but not so much as shall satisfie us and answer our expectations For Heaven is not here We must not carry our Home about with us but travail towards it that we may reach it at the last 2. God doth even now Demonstrate the Glory of his forementioned Attributes in the work of Redemption not only to his Saints but to the Angels of Heaven The consideration of this hath often satisfied me when I have been tempted to wonder at the work of Redemption that God should so far condescend as to be incarnate and make such glorious discoveries of himself and yet that so few in the world should take notice of it and be should have from men so little of the honour that he seemeth by his preparations to expect But the most part of the world did never once see the Glory that shineth to them in the Redeemer But God hath another world besides this and other Creatures besides man in all likelyhood incomparably more numerous perhaps thousands for one and certainly more excellent And though Christ did assume the Nature of Angels and came not to Redeem them that needed no Redeemer yet may the lustre of this work of Redemption appear to the Angels more clearly then to man and God may have a thousand-fold more Glory from them that are but the spectators and admirers then from us in our present darkness that are yet possessors As we that are here on Earth do look upon and admire the Glory of the Sunne which is as it were in another world and out of our reach so the Angels much more may gaze upon the Glory of the Sonne of God and admire the Lord in the work of our Redemption though they were not the Redeemed ones So that unto them doth God shine forth by it in his excellencies Perhaps you 'l say that cannot be because this is but seeing him in a glass when the Angels see him face to face and immediately behold his blessed Essence or else how can the Saints expect that beatificall Vision To which I answer First that I am uncertain whether seeing face to face bean immediate intuition of the Essence of God or only such a sight of his Glory in those emanations that are as appropriated to the place or state of Bliss Gods Essence is every where but that Glory is not every where And so I know not whether our present knowledg be not called Enigmaticall and as in a glass comparatively to that Glory prepared for the Saints But secondly I answer that certain I am that God is Demonstrated to his Angels in the Redeemer yea in the Church it self which is the Subject of his Grace and that they are both Affected and Imployed about us accordingly He that spoiled Principalities and Powers and openly triumphed over them and by death overcame him that had the power of death Col. 2. 15. Heb. 2. 14. And had so much to do against the evill Angels as Enemies no doubt is joyfully observed by the good Angels And he that is set so far above Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion and every name that is named in this world or that which is to come Ephes. 1. 21. And is gone in to Heaven and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him 1 Pet. 3. 22. no doubt is honoured and admired by Angels And indeed it is expresly said Let all the Angels of God worship him
and most full and free Salvatition And on his Conditions must we have his Benefits or we shall never have them 7. Lastly Understand and Note that the Means which Christ hath resolved on for Teaching and Ruling us ordinarily are his Word his Ministers and his Spirit all must be submitted to together where they may be had and none of them laid by by separation His Word is the Grammar or Book as it were that we must learn His Ministers must teach us this Book And his Spirit who in the Apostles and Prophets indited and sealed it must inwardly teach us by powerfull Illumination The Word is Gods Laws the Ministers are his Embassadours or Heraulds to proclaime them and command obedience in his Name and his Spirit must open mens hearts to entertain them The Word is Gods Seed the Ministers are the Husbandmen or Servants that sow it and the Spirit must give the increase without which our planting and watering will do nothing He therefore that takes Christ for his Master and King must resolve to be taught and ruled by his established means even by his Word and Ministers and Spirit conjunct For he that refuseth and despiseth these doth refuse and despise Christ and consequently the Father that sent him Luke 10. 16. 1 Thes. 4. 8. For it was never the meaning of Christ when he became the Teacher and King of the Church to stay on Earth and personally and visiby to teach them himself but these three are his means which all must submit to that will be his Subjects and Disciples And he that despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 13. He that will not have the Word Ministry and Spirit teach him will not have Christ teach him and he that refuseth to be ruled by these three shall be destroyed as a Rebel against Christ himself Luke 19. 27. Still it is supposed that Ministers must Teach and Rule according to this Word And the Society in which Christ will Teach and govern us is his Church As members therefore of the Vniversal Church and in Communion with his Particular Church where we live and have opportunity we must wait on Christ for his Teaching and Benefits For this is his Schoole where his Disciples must diligently attend and learn Lay all this together and this is the summe The Object of Justifying Saving Faith is One only undivided Christ one in Person but of two Natures God and Man in Office the Mediator between God and man who hath already done the work of Sanctification and Merit and is authorized further to bestow the Benefits By the Gospel Grant he hath given himself as Head and Husband Teacher King and Saviour to all that will entirely and heartily accept him and with himself he giveth Justification by the Promise Sanctification by the Word Ministry and Spirit and final Absolution and Everlasting Life If ever then you will have Christ and Life you must accept him in all these Essentials of his Person and Office and that to the Ends which his Redemption was intended for you must be willing to be Sanctified by him as well as to be Justified You must at once unfeignedly become his Disciples his Subjects his Members if you would become his saved ones You wust consent that as your Teacher and your Lord he shall Teach and Rule your heart and life by his Word Ministers and Spirit in Communion with his Church No barre or exception must be put in nor reservation made against any one of these parts of his Office If you yield not to those parts of his Saving work that tend but to the compleative growth you sinne and deprive your selves of the Benefit but if you yield not to those that must make you truly Sanctified and Justified men you cannot be saved The Essentials of Christ's Person and Office do costitute him the Christ and if he be not received in all those Essentials he is not received as Christ. And thus I have given you the summe of the Gospel and the description of Faith and true Christianity in this Direction for a right closing with the Lord Jesus Christ. And experience of most that I discourse with perswades me to think this Direction of great necessity and to intreat you throughly to peruse and consider it I find abundance of ignorant people that talk much of Christ but know very little of him that can scarce tell us whether he be God or man or which Person in the Trinity he is nor to what End he was incarnate and died noâ— what Relation he stands in to us or what use he is of or what he now is or what he is engaged to do for us But if we ask them about their hopes of Salvation they almost overlook the Redemption by Christ and tell us of nothing but Gods Mercies and their own good meanings and endeavours And I am afraid too many Professors of Piety do look almost all at the Natural part of Religion and the mending of their own hearts and lives and I would this were better done while they forget the supernatutural part and little are affected with the infinite Love of God in Christ. I desire such to consider these things 1. You overlook the summe of your Religion which is Christ Crucified besides whom Paul desired to know nothing 2. You overlook the fountain of your own life and the author of your supplies and you strive in vaine for Sanctification or Justification if you seek them not from a Crucified Christ. 3. You leave undon the principal part of your work and live like moral Heathens while you have the name of Christians Your daily work is to study God in the face of his Sonne and to labour with all Saints to comprehend the height and bredth and length and depth and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledg Eph. 3. 18. 19. All your Graces should be daily quickned and set awork by the life of Faith in the contemplation of the Redeemer and his blessed work This is the weight that must set all the wheels agoing You do God no Service that he can accept if you serve him not in this Gospel-work of loving trusting and admiring and praysing him in the Redeemer and for his Redemption 4. And so you rob God of the principal part of his Glory which you are to give him which is for this most glorious work of our Redemption I pray you read over again the Ends of this work which I laid down in the beginning of this Direction 5. Moreover you rob your selves of your principal comfort which must all come in by living upon Christ. 6. And you harden the Antiâ—omians and Libertines and tempt men to their extreams that runne from us as Legalists and as men that Savour not the Doctrine of free Grace and are not of a Gospel-Spirit and conversation I would our great neglect of Christ had not been a snare to these mistaken Soulâ— and a stumbling block in their way O Sirs if