of those Laws and Statutes and Testimonies which were given them they should be acknowledged to be a wise and an understanding People Why Truly they were of high accomplishment as touching their wisdom and understanding and judgment and that upon the account of those Revelations that God did make to them O but how much higher will the advance be of a People in wisdom and understanding and judgment that are well instructed in and acquainted with the Mysteries of Christ and the things that are to be known concerning him Consider now What was the teaching of the Old Testament to the teaching that was to be had under the New Testament the Gospel-teaching when the time came that the Mysterie which had been kept secret from Ages and Generations should be broken open and laid out to the full of it Oh what an advantage was there then for a People to come to good judgment and understanding No Knowledge in all the World I say contributes so much to the purpose of making Men and Women wise and judicious as doth the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. By this Knowledge well improved for I speak of that I speak of the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ considered as well improved when there is a considerable growth and increase in it I speak of this Knowledge in the improvement and increase in it as the most pretious Knowledge most beneficial to such a purpose for to accomplish men and women for being a judicious understanding People of discerning spirits Consider First of all By the means of this Knowledge we shall be the better able to make a judgment of ourselves our persons and conditions and states Alas beloved What woful mistakes are we apt to run upon concerning our conditions God-ward How many are there that think themselves to be something when they are nothing at all judge themselves to be of a right Gospel-spirit when they are nothing so at all How many are there that account themselves to be right in point of Religion and Godliness well accomplisht and that they are such as will pass in account with God for good and sound and upright men right in the Mysterie of the Gospel whom God will reject and protest against and profess of them that he hath no pleasure in them Then on the other hand There are many poor souls that pass a very sad judgment upon themselves and are apt to give themselves for stark naught that they are not to be accounted of with God that have deserved rather to be rejected of him when yet for all that they are in his account no other than noble Vines a holy a right seed as the Prophet Jeremiah useth the expression Now the reason of these mistakes in point of Judgment concerning our selves and Estates it must needs arise eâ—…pecially either from the total want or from a great deficiency in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For mark you You must know that we are never so well able to judge of the Writing as when we are well knowing of the Copy after which the Writing is to be drawn We can never so well make a Judgment of the fashion of a thing unless we know the due pattern after which it is to be cast they that see the Copy will be the better able to judge of the Writing that is to be drawn after the Copy they that understand the state of the Mold will be the better able to judge of the Vessel whether it be right cast and fashioned sutable to the Mold Now consider thus Our Lord Jesus Christ he is the Copy after which a Believer a Christian is to be drawn up He is the Mold into which a Christian is to be fashioned The Apostle tells us in Rom. 8. That those whom God hath predestinated he hath predestinated to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren Thus it is it is the great design of God concerning all his People that he will own that they be conformed and fashioned according to Christ And such as is the constitution of Christ such must be the constitution of a Christian Now when we come to know and to know to good purpose the things that concern Christ when we come to be made able to answer the Mysteries of the Gospel concerning Christ what a Christ he is of what a make and constitution Pray consider well The more we know of this Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the better able shall we be to make a Judgment of our selves and to escape those dangerous mistakes concerning our condition and state which we are apt to run upon when we come to know and to know to some good degree what Christ is what he is for his Nature and Disposition and Qualifications and Constitution and that he is not made after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless Life That he is constituted a Priest after such a manner and so a Prophet a King When we come to know this to some purpose the Constitution of Christ what make he is of how God hath ordered him who is the Pattern and the Copy after which a Christian is to be drawn up the more we understand and know of this the better able shall we be to make a Judgment of our selves and states when we come to compare our selves with our Saviour Jesus Christ when we can find that as in the Print there is letter for letter there is Grace for Grace there is stamp for stamp Impression for Impression when we can find this when we come to know the original Copy and then come to compare our selves with the Copy the Writing that is drawn up in our own hearts when we come to understand what Constitution Christ is of and understand that to some purpose and then come to consider how it is vvith our selves then shall vve be the better able to make a Judgment of our condition and state and to say I knovv that my heart is right I knovv that my state is good I am able to avouch it I can give a Judgment of my self upon this account because I find the conformity to Christ my Head I see there is an ansvvering to the Copy and that I am dravvn up according to the Pattern O Brethren consider vvell of this We are said to be made Kings and Priests unto God our Father Why novv Kings and Priests vve are such as Christ vvho vvas a King and a Priest not after the Lavv as I said before of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless Life when we come to find the power of an endless Life in us a sutableness unto Christ when it 's otherwise it is but a pretence As it may be said according to that in Rev. 2. They say they are Iews and are not they are of the Synagogue of Satan and so will many be found
charge We have no conscience of sin though we make conscience of sinning yet we have no conscience to charge against us O this would be our fruit of the well advanced and improved knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. These things Brethren would be considered of by us and to close up this part of the Discourse I have only this to say That if so be that any of us do think in our consciences that we deserve to come under this lash of reproof and that this Complaint may be justly taken up against us That we have not so minded as we ought the knowledge of Christ and have not set our endeavours as we should that we may come to grow in this knowledge Then to close up all for I would willingly give a dispatch to this part of the Text I would only speak a few words in a way of Exhortation and I would thus perswade in the Name of the Lord That as it is the duty of the Text so it may be the matter of your practice for to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And here you must consider that this knowledge as also the Grace that God gives so the knowledge that you may have and are to have of Christ it comes not in all at once Shall I express my self thus if it may not be too low for the Argument The Lord in managing of his Trade with his People he doth not deal by whole-sale but rather by retale he doth parcel out and give by parcels dispences by parcels now a little and then a little now a little Grace then a little more now a little light and then a little further improvement The Sun it gives not out its full light at once so Christ and therefore it is that there is a growth in Grace and a growth in Knowledge and in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus So then reckon upon it we are but in the way and so we know but in part and prophesie but in part and we are not comprehensaries we come not to the full of that which is to be known press on and after and increase in the Knowledge of Christ. I need no other Arguments than vvhat have been already presented to you in the Doctrinal part It is the most excellent Knovvledge It is the most beneficial Knovvledge in all respects according to vvhat hath been accounted to you Novv there are but these three things vvhich I shall dispatch in fevv vvords First I vvould have you to consider vvhat knovvledge of the Lord Jesus Christ it is that you are to grovv in not a notional knovvledge not so much in that so as you should rest in a bare notional knovvledge and a form of knovvledge but you must knovv this That the Knovvledge of our Lord Jesus vvhich you are to endeavour a grovvth in it is a spiritual Knowledge an inward spiritual Knowledge a heart Knowledge it is not a knowledge of Christ after the flesh no not in that sense which the Apostle may mean in the second of the Corinthians We have known Christ after the flesh that is they knew him and they knew him so as to see him with their bodily eyes 't is not this Knowledge of Christ though if you have this spiritual Knowledge you will in due time have this knowledge and sight of him but now we know Christ no more so as he saith there Though we have known Christ after the flesh as he was known to the Disciples when he was here in the state of humiliation and conversant in the World We have known Christ after the flesh but henceforth know we him so no more Nor is it any carnal Knowledge but to increase in the Knowledge of Christ according to the Mysterie which is Christ in you the hope of Glory You should labour to increase in the Knowledge of him which answers his Constitution who was made a Priest Prophet and King not after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life as in Heb. 7. You are to endeavour increase in the Knowledge of Christ which is a confiding knowledge and a conforming Knovvledge such a knovvledge of him as is a fiducial knovvledge such a knovvledge as that by knovving him to come to be more and more inabled to rest and rely upon him that you can say I knovv so much of the Lord Jesus that I can sit dovvn and look no further I have enough I have the desire of my heart here I can boldly trust here I can fix and stay vvithout any misgivings I know this foundation is strong enough to bear up the whole weight of my soul. And then you are to indeavour to grow in that Knowledge which is a conforming knowledge that knowledge by which you come to be molded into a conformity to the Lord Jesus so as what you know of his Wisdom and Meekness and Patience and Humility and Heavenly mindedness you know him in these things so as that you come to grow up into conformity to him This is the Knowledge or else your light will be darkness and your knowledge will be found to be ignorance And then I press upon you that you would endeavour to grow in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now what especially of the Knowledge of Christ would you have us to grow in I 'll only mention two things briefly First That you would labour to grow more and more in the Knowledge of the infinite fulness and sufficiency and power of our Lord Jesus Christ that you may know what a powerful Christ he is what an able Christ he is how able to do exceeding abundantly above all you ask or think I reremember it was the blessing of Judah that his hand should be sufficient for him Deut. 33. Christ is the head of Judah he is the Lord of Judah's Tribe and to be sure this blessing rests upon his head his hand shall be sufficient for him to remove Mountains to break gates of brass to cut in sunder bars of iron he is able to do all that concerns his Church and every Saint that belongs to him and that the Father hath given him he is present to go through his work and he will not leave any part nor parcel of it undone O this is pretious knowledge which we should endeavour to advance in that we may come to be more full in the apprehensions of the fulness of sufficiency of the power of our Lord Jesus that whatsoever work lyes upon his hand to perform he will be found all-sufficient to accomplish and bring to pass he is sufficient to present all that the Father hath given him without spot and blame before the presence of his Glory with exceeding joy and though there be the power of Devils and World and Corruption that may labour for to wrest a soul out of the hands of Christ why saith he None shall be ever able to pluck them out of my hands And then
did the woman of Canaan discover when notwithstanding all the discouragements that she had from the Lord Jesus one and another concerning the cause she was then in management of yet notwithstanding she sticks to him O when Christ told her he was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and it was not meet to take the childrens bread and cast it to dogs and she might reckon upon her self as a dog why I am come for the benefit of the lost sheep of the house of Israel and thou art a Canaanite and what hast thou to do to make application to me Yet notwithstanding she sticks to him and holds her own and is resolved she will not give over till she hath a blessing Now mark the testimony that Christ gives of her O woman great is thy Faith Now here 's a pattern for us that nothing of discouragement should beat us off but that we might bear up with a holy confidence and wherefore are these things written but that we might write after these Copies But we stick in principles and rest in lower measures and it 's a shame we are not more in advances that we do not answer Scripture-testimonies nor answer Scripture-patterns and examples I might instance to you in the Thessalonian-Church a Scripture that formerly I spent much time about O saith he we are bound to thank God for you Brethren for your Faith it grows exceedingly it is an over-grown Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus now should it be with us But then there is a fourth thing which will take up more time than all the rest We should endeavour such a growth in Faith and that in a practical way as that we may not only answer the degrees of Faith nor the testimonies of Faith and the examples and presidents of Faith but fourthly that we may have such a Faith of such a growth as that we might produce the acts and the effects of it And here sundry particulars there are Such a Faith we should have and of such a growth our Faith should be that we may come to have clear sights and apprehensions of God to say he is an Invisible God and who can behold him and an Infinite Majesty and at an infinite distance and who can injoy him Who why a man of a well-improved Faith may live as if he were in heaven The Saints of God that have had their Faith well improved have given proof of it and have been able to give a justification of it I tell you this that Faith is capable of such an improvement as that he may live in heaven while he is upon earth and be in daily converses with God see him behold him and talk with him as a man would talk with his friend Faith may come to this as 't is said of Moses he saw him that was invisible Enoch by his Faith could walk with God every day as a man with his friend And so a Believer may walk with God and converse with God even in the management of his worldly affairs he may run up to heaven and speak with God and Jesus Christ and have a holy familiarity with God and have sweet thoughts of God O comfortable thoughts the meditation of God! O sweet unto him as the Prophet speaks in the 104 Psal. my meditations of him shall be sweet He is a terrible God I but I can meditate terror The Faith of a Beleever duly improved and being of a light growth it will make him able to meditate terror and to think of the terrible things of God the terrible acts of God the terribleness of Gods Majesty Indeed there is a terribleness in Gods Majesty I but the Faith of a Beleever being duly improved and of a due growth it will be able to meditate terror as the Prophet hath the expression in Isa. 39. and so to injoy sweet communion with God in every daies course it is as if there were no distance but heaven and earth were in a very contiguity and they were just neer close together there is as it were but a wall between heaven and earth O he can be as a man would be with his next neighbour that knock at the wall and your neighbour hears you and you can talk together day and night And so the Faith of a Beleever is capable of such a growth as he may come to enjoy God and sweet communion with God And so of Christ when we make him not only the object of our desires but the object of our claim he is my Jesus and as much mine as any mans in the World We should not only breath out after Christ but that we may bear up with a holy confidence and make a bold claim of interest in him and say I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine I bear upon it I challenge an interest in him and I will dispute the case with any that shall come in in a way of opposition to me He loved sinners He loved the World He loveth me He gave himself for sinners He hath given himself for me He is as much my Christ as any mans in the World This is the well-grown Faith SERM. IV. LOok to your growth in Faith that you be not weak in it and let it appear this way See to it that you have such a Faith so improved of such a growth that you may be able at once to appeal from the Law as a ridged exacter and yet to apply to the Law as a gracious wise and holy director When Faith comes to be planted in the soul it is not therefore planted that the heart should upon the coming in of Faith turn head against the Law No not against the Law Indeed it was never in the heart of God that Beleevers that are brought off from the Law as a covenant of works and are dead to it by the body of Christ should have their hearts set against it that they should rise up in opposition to it and be possest with prejudices against it No God forbid it should be so I speak of the Law considered as a covenant of works True it is the Faith of a Beleever carries him from the Law so as not to rest upon it so as not to seek righteousness by it but yet withal while it doth make an appeal from the Law as a ridged exactor and was made before Grace appeared to tremble and quake at the consideration of it as a fiery Law while he looks upon it as a most severe and ridged exctor and quits it appeals from it yet the Faith of a Beleever duly improved will own the same Law as it is a wise righteous and holy director And that Law and Covenant which out of the hand of Faith was and would have been a stinging Serpent as the â—…od of â—…ses when it was out of his hand a stinging â—…pent and such as would make a man to flye from the presence of in regard of its stinging power
to be so that do not correspond to Christ and do not answer Christ as the Pattern This is that therefore that we are to know and consider That it is necessary that Believers and Saints should be well acquainted with the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ because by that Knowledge we are to regulate our Judgments concerning our own persons And so the Church as in Rev. 2. before-mentioned And so again The like is to be said concerning Doctrines and concerning Worships concerning the Doctrines that are held forth and concerning the Worships that are performed Why Brethren there are many Doctrines preach'd in the World that are no better than chaff to the Wheat and no other than dross to the Gold What is the chaff to the wheat as the Prophet Ieremiah speaks And what is the dross to the Gold Now how should we judge but by the help of the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ The more we improve in that Knowledge the better able shall we be to make a Judgment of Doctrines And so likewise of Worships Such Worships as shall have acceptance vvith God Why they must be Worships that are according to Christ and the more vve improve in the Knovvledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the more able shall vve be to make a Judgment of these things O! Christ he is a spiritual Christ Though we have known him saith the Apostle after the flesh yet henceforth know we him so no more He was made after the power of an endless Life and not after the Law of a carnal Commandment and his Worship is drawn up not after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless Life sutable to himself O consider of this and take heed of carnal hearts and of carnal Services that hold no correspondency with our Lord Jesus Christ so that upon this account you may see and stand convinc'd of it That it concerns us very much to endeavour a growth and increase in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ because by the means of that Knowledge we are inabled to make a Judgment of Churches and their Constitutions we are inabled to make a Judgment of Doctrines and of Worships which are to be performed 〈◊〉 Yet further The Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is a Knowledge that Christians and Believers should endeavour a growth in and that as with respect unto their Judgments that they may come to be well accomplisht and to become a judicious People So likewise 2ly In regard of their Conscience Conscience truly it is a great word and I wish that the interpretation of it were better known The interpretation of Conscience I tell you Brethren That every man and woman hath a Conscience within them and this Conscience is either his cordial Friend or it will be his dreadful Enemy it will either be a Friend or a Fury either his best Friend on earth or his greatest Enemy on earth Conscience will be a Friend if it be right but God is a greater Friend Conscience will be an Enemy I but God is a greater Enemy If our heart condemn us faith the Apostle God is greater than our heart and he knows all things But on earth there is not a greater Friend nor is there a greater Enemy than a man's Conscience I tell you this That your Consciences when you come to know them and to be acquainted with them and when they come to be awakened and set on work your Consciences will either create a Heaven within you or else they will create a Hell within you Truly Conscience will do thus It will either make your life to be a Heaven or else it will make it to be a Hell I 'le give you two Instances and I think that more remarkable Instances cannot be given To instance in Paul and Iudas There was never man I think in the World that was able to speak more from experience concerning his Conscience and how it befriended him than Paul was never man better studied in Conscience never man more befriended by Conscience and he knew the benefit of it and was exceedingly rejoyced in it And there was never man that was more terrified by his Conscience I think than Iudas was and no man more able to speak to the terror of his Conscience than he was Paul makes his boast of his Conscience This is our rejoycing The testimony of our Conscience And Men and brethren I have lived in all good Conscience And still upon every occasion My Conscience bears me witness O this Conscience of Paul it sung within his bosom like a bird of Paradise O this good Conscience of Paul notwithstanding all the troubles and persecutions he meets with his Conscience befriends him and doth keep him up in heart and he is cheered with it under all the troubles and disquietments that he meets with in this World Thus it was with him as to his Conscience And as for Iudas his Conscience was a Fury within him when he came to be awakened and had the guilt of blood upon him O how Conscience rages it creates a Hell within him and he is in Hell before he comes there as many are and will be when God comes to awake their Consciences Now thus it was with Iudas and he was so hurried and agaster'd and amazed and afrighted that he was a Magor-missabib a terror to himself Thus it was with Iudas and that by reason of his awakened Conscience labouring under the guilt of his iniquities and impieties that he had committed Well this is Conscience the best friend on Earth or the greatest and dreadfullest enemy on Earth A man had better have all the World against him than have his Conscience against him and if all the World be against a man yet if his Conscience be for him if his Conscience will befriend him it will inable him to bear up with comfort notwithstanding I but now consider that it is by the well-improvement of the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ it is by the well-improvement of that knowledge and by endeavouring an advance and a growth and increase in that this is the thing that I drive at it is by this means and upon this account that the Conscience comes to be set to rights and is inabled to do the part of a dear and cordial Friend which it will never do upon other tearms I 'll tell you what your Consciences will never do the part of a friend to you to any purpose but rather storm against you and make you to become as Magor-missabibs terrors to your selves unless you be well instructed in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Men and women may daub with their Consciences and sooth up themselves and lay their Conscience upon a pillow when it 's sick and distemper'd and ill at ease and would be breaking out men may take this and that course to still their Conscience for