the most dismal Place into a Paradise and to create a Heaven in the darkest Dungeon of Hell yet such hath been the Goodness of God that he hath prepared a Place proportionably glorious to that blessed State which according to the Sciripture Account is the highest Heaven or the upper and purer Tracts of the Aether For so our Saviour tells the penitent Thief to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. xxiii 43 and where this Paradise is St. Paul informs us 2 Cor. xii for Vers. 2. he tells us of his being caught up to the third Heaven which in the 4th Vers. he calls Paradise where he heard unspeakable Words Now that by the Third Heaven he means the uppermost viz. that Heaven of Heavens which is the Throne of God's most glorious Residence where Jesus sits at his right Hand among the holy Miriads of Angels and glorious Spirits is evident from this because according to the Jewish Philosophy to which he here alludes Heaven was divided into three Regions viz. the Cloud-bearing Star-bearing and Angel-bearing Region the last of which they called the Third Heaven in which they placed the Throne of the Divine Majesty And that by Paradise he means the same Place is as evident because by this Name the Jews in whose Language he speaks were wont to call it the Third Heaven or Angel-bearing Region And hence Rab. Menachem on Leviticus tells us it is apparent that the Reward of our Obedience is not to be enjoyed in this Life Verum post dissolutionem Justus adipiscitur Regnum quod dicitur Paradisus fruiturque conspectu divino i. e. but after Death the Just shall obtain that Kingdom which is called Paradise and there enjoy the beatifical Vision And 't is very usual for them to express the Blessings of the future Life by enjoying the Delights of Paradise and therefore is this heavenly Region of Angels called by the Name of Paradise in Allusion to the earthly Paradise of Eden denoting to us that as that was the Garden of this lower World which of all other Places did most abound with Pleasures and Delights so this is the Paradise of the whole Creation the most fruitful and delightful Region within all this boundless Space of the World Nor indeed can it be imagined to be otherwise it being the Imperial Court which the great Monarch of the World hath chosen for his special Residence and which he hath prepared to receive and lodge the glorified humane Nature of his own eternal Son and to entertain his Friends and Favourites for ever For if these Out-Rooms of the World are so royal and magnificent how infinitely splendid must we needs imagin the Presence-Chamber of the great King to be the Glory of whose Presence will render it more lightsome and illustrious than the united Beams of ten thousand Suns And therefore though the Scripture hath nowhere given us an exact Description of this glorious Place because indeed no humane Language can describe it yet since God hath chosen it for the everlasting Theater of Bliss and Happiness we may reasonably conclude that he hath most exquisitely furnished it with all Accomodations requisite for a most happy and blisful Life and that the House is every way suitable to the Entertainment Whensoever therefore a pure and vertuous Soul gets free from this Cage of Flesh away it flies under the Conduct and Protection of Angels through the Air and Aether beyond the Firmament of Stars and never stops till it is arrived to those blessed Abodes where God and Jesus Saints and Angels dwell where being come with what unspeakable Delight will it contemplate that Scene of Things When all of a suddain it shall see it self surrounded with an infinite Splendor and Brightness so that which way soever it casts its Eyes it is entertained with new Objects of Wonder and Delight then shall it say as the Queen of Sheba did of Solomon's Court alas How faint and dim how short and imperfect were all humane Conceits and Descriptions of this blessed Place For though I have heard great and mighty Things of it yet now I find that not one Half of its real Glory and Magnificence hath ever been reported to me 6 thly And lastly Everlasting Life includes the endless Duration of this most blessed and happy State Thus Joh. vi 27 he calls his Doctrine the meat which endureth unto everlasting Life which the Son of Man shall give unto you and Vers. 40. he tells them that this was the will of his Father that every one that believeth on him might have everlasting Life and Vers. 47. Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting Life and Vers. 51 54 58. he promises them that upon their believing in him they should live for ever But because Everlasting Life and For ever doth in Scripture sometimes signify a long but not an endless Duration therefore he hath taken Care to express this Article in such Words as must necessarily denote an endless Duration of Bliss for he not only tells them Chap. vi 50 that they who believed his Doctrine should not die but that whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never die Joh. xi 26 yea and not only so but that they should never see death Joh. viii 51 that is should never come within Ken or Prospect of it Nay and Luk. xx 36 he tells them neither can they die any more for they are equal to the Angels If then our future Life be so everlasting as that it neither can nor shall be terminated by Death it must necessarily be a Life without End whose Duration is parallel to Eternity Now what a mighty Addition must this needs make to the Joys of the Blessed to consider that they are such as shall never expire when the Soul shall reflect upon her happy State and think thus with her self O blessed for ever be a good God! I am as happy now as ever my Heart can hold every Part of me is so thronged with Joy that I have no room for any more and that which compleats and crowns them all is that they shall be renewed to all Eternity and Millions of Millions of Ages hence be as far from a period as they were the first moment wherein I enjoyed them For our Lives and our Happiness shall be co-eternal to one another our God shall live for ever and we shall live for ever to enjoy him and in the Enjoyment of such an infinite Good we need not doubt to find Variety enough still to renew our Joys and to keep them fresh and flourishing for ever For as we shall always know God so we shall always know him more and more and every new Beauty that infinite Object discovers to us will kindle a new Flame of Love and that a new Rapture of Joy and that a new Desire of knowing and discovering more and so for ever round again there will be knowing and loving and rejoycing more and more to all
so as to receive you into Grace and Favour But when by sending his own Son to die for us he had given us so plain a Proof of the Sincerity of his Affection towards us with what face can we suspect his Kindness For is it likely that he who was so good as to give his Son for us whilst we were in Impenitence should be so implacable as to deny his Love to us upon our Repentance and Amendment Was it not a much higher Act of Love to give his Son for Sinners than to receive poor prostrate Penitents into Favour He then who was so free to do the former we might well imagin would be much more free to do the latter Or lastly Dare we plead for our selves that considering the Anxiousness and Jealousy of guilty Minds God had not given us such Security of his Readiness to pardon and be reconciled to us as was requisite to dispel all those Fears and Doubts by which we were discouraged from Repentance and Amendment But how weak and groundless this Plea is will soon appear to all the World when it shall be considered what an effectual Course God took to obviate all our Doubts and Fears by pardoning us in our own Method namely upon the Motive of a Sacrifice and Intercession of a Mediator especially of such a Sacrifice and Mediator as his own Son For let him be never so severe and stern yet 't is impossible he should be inexorable to the vocal Blood and importunate Intercessions of that dear Person whom he loves above all the World And now when God had so contrived the Method of his pardoning us as to take from us all Occasion either of presuming upon his Mercy whilst we continue impenitent when he hath taken such an effectual Course to raise both our Hopes and Fears which are the Springs of our Action to their highest Pitch and Capacity and given us the greatest Certainty that the Nature of the Thing will bear that he will punish us for ever if we Sin on and pardon and receive us into Favour if now at last we will repent and return what can we say for our selves if in Despite of all this we will run from Mercy whilst its Arms are open to embrace us and leap into Hell with our Eyes open and we see it gaping ready to devour us JOHN III. 16 But have everlasting Life I Am now upon the last Branch of the Text which is to shew you the great Goodness of God to us in promising to us such a vast Reward upon our performing such an easie Condition as our believing in Jesus Christ in which Reward there is first the privative Part of it or the Misery it rescues us from that whosoever believeth in him should not perish Secondly the positive or the Happiness it instates us in but have everlasting Life In the management of which I shall do these two Things 1. Shew you why this Reward is termed Everlasting Life 2. How unspeakably good God hath been to us in proposing to us such a vast Reward 1. Why this Reward is stiled by the Name of Everlasting Life For it is very usual with Scripture to express all the Blessings it promises to Men by the Name of Life for thus by Life the Old Testament very frequently expresses those temporal Blessings which are therein promised and proposed So Deut. xxx 15 See I have set before thee this day Life and Good and Death and Evil in which he plainly refers to those temporal Blessings and Curses which he had proposed to and denounced against them Chap. xxviii for so v. 19 of this Chapter he explains himself I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing Therefore chuse Life that both Thou and thy Seed may live So Levit. xviii 5 Ye shall keep my Statutes and my Judgments Which if a Man do he shall live in them that is he shall enjoy all those temporal Blessings which I have therein promised For so Ezek. xx 21 their living in them is opposed to his pouring out temporal Judgments upon them And hence the Statutes of the Mosaic Law are called the statutes of Life in which whosoever walks shall surely Live and not Die Ezek. xxxiii 15 And as these temporal Blessings promised in the Old Testament are commonly expressed by Life so those eternal Blessings promised in the New Testament are very frequently expressed by Life also So Mat. xviii 8 It is better for thee to enter into Life halt or maimed rather than having two Hands or two Feet to be cast into everlasting Fire So also Mat. xix 17 If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments And Joh. iii. 36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life And he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him And because the Blessings which the Gospel proposes are not temporal but eternal therefore that Life by which they are expressed is stiled eternal everlasting and immortal For so 2 Tim. i. 10 We find Life and Immortality joyned together and Rom. vi 22 Ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life and Vers. 23. The gift of God is eternal Life Now that it is not called eternal Life merely as it is a State of endless Being and Existence is evident because Being and Existence are indifferent Things abstracted from all sense of Happiness and Misery but eternal Life is proposed to us as a Thing that is infinitely desirable in self as being the Crown and Reward of all our Obedience for which Reason it is called the crown of Life Jam. i. 12 And therefore the Reason why the everlasting Blessings of the Gospel are expressed by Life are First Because of the inestimable Worth and Value of Life Secondly Because Life is the Root of all our Sense of Pleasure and Happiness Thirdly Because it is the Principle of all our Activity 1. The everlasting Blessings of the Gospel are called Life because Life is the most inestimably precious of all the Blessings we enjoy For without Life there is nothing can be a real Blessing to us nothing that we can tast relish or enjoy And this the Devil knew well enough when he pronounced so confidently Skin for Skin yea all that a Man hath will he give for his Life Job ii 4 Now it is usual with Scripture to describe the Blessings of the future State by Things that are of the greatest Value among Men by Riches and Treasure by a Crown and a Kingdom by a Paradise or a Garden of Pleasure but as if all these were too faint and dim to represent the true Value of that blessed State it is stiled Life also which is much more valuable than either yea than all those Things together And hence the Apostle calls it a more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. iv 17 2. It is called Life
Table with an infinite variety not only of Necessaries but of Delicacies to treat and entertain all his sensitive Creation Who can suspect his Goodness when the Heavens and all the Elements do so loudly proclaim it by their being so contrived and ordered by his Wisdom as to do the utmost Good they are able to those Things that have any Capacity of Happiness 2 ly Another Instance of his doing good in this great Work of his Creation is his giving actual Existence to such innumerable Kinds of Being that are capable of Happiness Were we but able to survey the whole Scale of Beings from the lowest of sensitive to the highest of rational we should doubtless find in it such an innumerable Company of Rounds as all our Arithmetick could never be able to compute For we see that even this Earth which is but a very little Spot of the World contains in it such a prodigious Army of distinct Kinds of sensitive Beings as all the Histories of Animals were never able to muster and could we but reckon down from Man to the lowest Mite of animated Matter that the Earth and Sea contains we should find that even here there are so many Kinds of Beings as are capable at least of some Degrees of Happiness as would give us Cause enough to admire and adore the infinite Fecundity of the divine Goodness And is it likely that this Earth which is but the Sink of the World should be the only inhabitable Part of it That since the Almighty hath so well stocked this little Inclosure he should for ever leave desolate of Inhabitants all those immense Tracts of pure Aether in which the Planets and Fixed Stars do swim That when he hath so thronged this dark Cellar with living Creatures he should make no Use at all of those vast and glorious Rooms but let them stand empty for ever as if he had erected them only for Pomp and Shew without any Design to people them with such noble Inhabitants as they are capable to receive Well then let us but suppose as we may very fairly do that the other Parts of the World are stock'd with living Creatures but in the same proportion with this and then what an innumerable Drove of distinct kinds of Bings will the Whole consist of And indeed considering what infinite Degrees of Being are within the Sphere of God's Omnipotence and how suitable it is to his Goodness in his Productions to reach the utmost Limits of Possibility it seems no way unreasonable to believe that he hath given actual Existence to all possible Kinds of Beings that are capable of Life and Happiness and can without any Prejudice either to themselves or Neighbours be contained within the Compass and immensity of the World and consequently that he hath not only filled with living Creatures the Earth and Air and Sea but if it be possible all the Capacities of an immense and infinite Space But whether this be so or no it is an abundant Evidence of the Goodness of God that he hath created such innumerable Kinds of living Creatures the meanest of which are capable of some Degree of Happiness For unless we will assert one of the greatest Absurdities in our modern Philosophy That all sensitive Animals are nothing but meer Machins and consequently have no Sense or Perception in them we must allow them all even to the smallest Insect a Capacity of some Degree of Happiness For whatsoever hath Sense is sensible of Pleasure and whatsoever is sensible of Pleasure is capable of Happiness and he that made so many Beings capable of Happiness to be sure never intended that their Capacities should be in vain Behold then the vast Design and Project of the divine Goodness that would let nothing lie buried in the Abyss of Non-entity whose Idea included but a Possibility of being happy and hath given actual Existence unto all kinds of Beings even the most inconsiderable Animals for which it was better to be than not to be that at least hath raised up an innumerable Company of Beings into a Capacity of being happy and made such ample Provision to supply their Natures with all the Degrees of Happiness that they are capable of For 3 dly Another Instance of his doing good in this great Work of Creation is his furnishing all these Beings with sufficient Means and Abilities to obtain the utmost Happiness that they are capable of For I have already shewn you that God hath so made and ordered the inanimate World that it administers sufficient Matter of Happiness unto all sensitive Beings that the Heavens and the Elements by the Ordination of God do all conspire together to contribute to our Happiness to warm and refresh us to feed and cloath us and to render our Lives not only supportable but pleasant and delightful And of this vast Contribution every Animal even the most minute hath its Share so that now they can want nothing that is necessary to their Happiness but only an Ability to use and apply the liberal Provisions that God hath made for them and this he hath also most graciously furnished them with For in all Brute Creatures God hath implanted a natural Instinct by which they are strongly inclined to that which is good for them and as strongly averse to what is hurtful and injurious so that by their very Natures he hath impelled them to make Use of those Provisions which he hath made for their Happiness and he hath also furnished them with a natural Sagacity to provide against Want and with fitting Instruments of Sense to relish and enjoy the several Pleasures which he hath prepared to entertain them All which he hath done to that vast Advantage that 't is impossible for humane Wisdom to say how any one Kind of Animals could have been more exactly framed for the enjoyment of such a Happiness as is proper to its Nature But then for us Men that are capable of much more than a meer sensitive Happiness he hath not only prepared such a Happiness as is proportionable to our Capacities but hath also implanted in our Natures a full Ability to obtain it For as for our sensitive Happiness there is sufficient Provision made for it in the common Store-house of Nature and by the Industry and the good Use of our Reason we may ordinarily secure our selves if we please from the Want of whatsoever is necessary thereunto for a very little of these sensitive Enjoyments is enough to make a wise Man happy and we want no bodily Organs or Sensories to relish any of those Pleasures of which our sensitive Happiness is composed And then for our supreme Happiness as we are reasonable Beings God by giving us Reason and Vnderstanding and Freedom of Choice hath furnished us with sufficient Ability to obtain it For our Happiness as we are reasonable Creatures consists in the most perfect Exercise of our noblest Faculties viz. our Vnderstanding and our Will and there is no Object in
miserable Condition they being there exposed to Hunger and Cold and perpetual Slavery So that if a Man should judge of the whole Empire by this Part of it he would conclude that Emperor to be a most savage Tyrant and his Country to be the most miserable Place in the World whereas in Reality all the other Parts of that Empire are rendred more happy by the Miseries of this Place which serve to strike an Aw into all the other Subjects of it and to restrain them within the Bounds of their Loyalty and Duty And so unless we had as full a Prospect of the whole Dominion of Gods Providence as we have of this little Spot of it we ought not to censure his Government of the Whole by the little Inconveniencies that occur in his Government of a Part for in such a vast Dominion as God's is there may be a thousand good Reasons that we know not of why some Parts of it should be more unhappy than others and if in some particulars he incommodes this Part for the publick Commodity of the Whole we are so far from having any Reason to complain that we ought in all Justice to praise and adore his Goodness for it It is enough for us that we understand so much of Gods Nature as we do and have such apparent Instances of his Goodness in the Works of his Creation and Providence and therefore if we in this little Part of Gods Empire suffer some small Inconveniencies we ought to bless and adore his Goodness for those greater Goods we enjoy and to rest satisfied with this that our particular Inconveniencies may for all we know be great Conveniencies to the Publick 5 thly That many other Things seem evil to us in the Course of Gods Providence because we judge of them by their present sensible Effects and are not able to comprehend the universal Drift and Connexion and Dependence of them For as I have already shewn you in the former Discourse on this Argument there is a continued Juncture and Dependence from first to last between all the Actions and Contrivances of divine Providence and every one hath a Relation to every one from the Beginning to the End of all that mighty Chain of Causes whereof it consists So that 't is impossible to judge rightly of one Part of Providence separately from the rest because we see not the Relation it hath either to what went before or to what is to follow after and though singly considered it may be hurtful yet in Conjunction with all the rest it may be exceedingly advantagious He that looks only on the first Links of that curious Chain of Providence in the History of Joseph will be apt to entertain a very bad Opinion of the Whole first he is thrown into a desolate Pit then sold a Slave then falsely accused then cast into Prison Lord what a tragical Prologue is here But then take all those Things in Conjunction with what follows and you shall presently see that Scene clear up and all those sad Preparations ending in a joyful Conclusion And if we consider that most glorious Part that ever Gods Providence acted on the Stage of the World viz. the History of our blessed Saviour how dark and gloomy doth the former Part of it look if we view it separately from the Antecedents and Consequents of it Surely if any Thing would justify our hard Censures of God's Providence it would be the beholding of such a rare and excellent Person exposed to so many Miseries and Calamities to see him cast forth to the wide World as a helpless Prey to the Rage of his Enemies to behold him hanging upon the Cross deserted of his Friends mock'd and tormented by his barbarous Murderers and in the most bitter Agonies breathing out his white and innocent Soul O good Lord What a dismal Prospect of thy Providence is here But stay a little let us but see the glorious Light that in Conclusion broke out of this dismal Darkness first he is raised from the Dead then he ascends up to Heaven where at the right Hand of his Father he reigns an eternal King in full Power and Authority to give Gifts unto Men and bestow those immortal Rewards on them which he purchased for them with his Blood So that though singly and apart the first Scenes of this great Providence were very dismal and affrighting yet considered altogether how beautiful and harmonious doth it appear So true is that of the Preacher Eccles. 3.11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time Also he hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end And therefore because we are not able to see from the Beginning to the End of God's Providence it is an unreasonable Thing for us to censure the Whole because of some seeming Inconveniencies that we see in those Parts of it that lie before us Let us stay but till the winding up of the Bottom till all is finished and Present it one intire Piece to our View and then we shall have leave to censure if we can find any Reason for it 6 thly And lastly many other Things seem evil to us in the Course of God's Providence which are not so merely because we understand very little of the other World It seems to us a mighty Evil in Providence that so great a Part of the World is left in Darkness and Ignorance and in so great a Measure deprived of the vast Advantages of true Religion but how do we know how God will dispose of them in the other World what Abatements he will make them and by what Measures he will judge them whether he will not allow them some farther Time of Tryal and so make good to them there whatsoever hath been wanting to them here But whatsoever he doth or will do this we may be sure of that he will damn none but those that are first self-condemned but those that knowingly and willingly miscarry and if so then he will exact of them but in Proportion to their Abilities and will not require Brick where he hath given no Straw But which way soever he deals with them to be sure first or last he will not be wanting in any Degrees of Kindness to them that are fit either for a wise Sovereign to grant or a reasonable Subject to demand and if he will do so as undoubtedly he will how unreasonably do we complain of his Providence towards us And though in this Life we see many good Men reduced to a very calamitous Condition yet how do we know how necessary this may be to the securing of their Happiness in the World to come For since our main State and Interest is in that other World there is no doubt but the Providence of God over us doth chiefly Respect that and if so how unreasonably do we censure it upon the Score of the present Evils it exposes us
to when we know so little of the future State to which all its Transactions do chiefly relate Wherefore let us forbear a while till we come into the other World and understand the whole Design and Contrivance and then we shall see that all will be right and well yea and infinitely better than ever we could imagin But for us to censure now when we know so little of our future State which is the main and ultimate Scope of Providence is just as if a Man should pass his Judgment on a Picture when he sees nothing of it but some few rude Lines and very imperfect Strokes Let us have but the Patience to suspend our Judgment a while till God hath finished the whole Draught and given it all its natural Colours and Proportions and then I am sure we shall see Cause enough forever to admire his Skill and adore his Wisdom and Goodness And thus you see by apparent Instances how good God is in his Providence towards us and how unreasonable it is for us to censure his Goodness notwithstanding all those seeming Evils that happen in the World And now what remains but that with all Humility and Chearfulness we resign up our selves into the Hands of our most merciful Father concluding as most certainly we may that whatsoever he doth with us or howsoever he disposes of us it will be all for our good in the later End if it be not through our own Default For where can we be safer than in the Hands of an Omnipotent and Omniscient Goodness a Goodness that knows what is best for us and wills what it knows to be so and doth whatsoever it wills Surely in such Hands our Condition is a thousand times better and safer than if we had full Power to effect our own Wishes and all the Events that concern us were in our own Disposal And if God should shake us off from all Dependence on him and resign up the whole Conduct of our Affairs into our own Hands if he should say to us since you mislike of my Conduct I will no more intermedle with you or any thing that concerns you take your selves into your own Disposal and manage all your Concernments as you please If I say he should do thus with us we should be left in a most forlorn and deplorable Condition and unless we were wholly abandoned of our own Reason as well as Gods Providence we should on our bended Knees resign up all into his Hands again and beseech him for his Pity and his Mercy sake to do any Thing with us that will consist with his Goodness to scourge and chasten us for our Frowardness as much and as long as his own fatherly Bowels will endure it rather then give us up to our own Conduct or leave our Affairs in the Disposal of our own blind and precipitant Wills For so long as God is so powerfully and so wisely good as he is it is the Interest of every Creature in Heaven and Earth to be at his Disposal and to take up that self-resigning Prayer of our Saviour Father not our Wills but thy Will be done For since God wills our good as much or more than our selves it must doubtless be our Interest that his Will should take place whensoever it stands in Competition with ours because he doth not only wish well to us as much as we do to our selves but he knows what is best for us a great deal better than we Wherefore let us learn in all Conditions to repose our Minds in the good Providence of God and to satisfy our selves in its Managment and Disposal of us for whatsoever Condition it may bring us into whilst we are wandring through this Vale of Tears this is most certainly and eternally true that God is good and doth good JOHN III. 16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life THE Three first Topicks from whence I undertook to prove the Goodness of God I have already handled on another Text and shewed 1 st from his Nature 2 ly from his Creation and 3 dly from his Providence That he is infinitely good I proceed now to the 4 th and last viz. from Principles of Revelation the main of which is comprehended in the Text God so loved the World c. It is indeed a most glorious Instance of the Goodness of God that when he had imprinted his Laws upon our Nature in such legible Characters and given them such apparent Sanctions in the Nature of Things having made such a sensible Distinction between Moral Good and Evil by those natural good and evil Consequents which he hath inseparably intailed on them And when Mankind by their wilful Wickedness and Inadvertency had almost obliterated the Law of their Nature and extinguished their natural Sense of Good and Evil and immersed themselves in the most barbarous Impieties and Immoralities Notwithstanding all this that he had done for us and we against our selves he should still be so kind and compassionate as to put forth a new Edition of his Laws and reveal his Will anew to us in such an extraordinary manner that when he had implanted a Light in our Natures that was sufficient to have directed us into the several Paths of our Duty and we by our own Neglect and Abuse of it had almost extinguished this Candle of the Lord in us and consequently involved our selves in Midnight Darkness and Ignorance he should then be so compassionate as to hang out a Light from Heaven to us to rectify our Wanderings and guid our Feet in the Paths we should walk in was such a glorious Expression of his Goodness as for ever deserves our most thankful Acknowledgments But then that he should not only reveal to us what he had before imprinted on our Nature and we had most unworthily rased out and obliterated but also discover so much more to us than ever we did or could have known by the Light of our Nature that he should not only repeat his former Kindness to us which we had so shamefully abused but make such stupendous Additions to it as he hath done in the Revelation of his Gospel that manger all those Impieties and Provocations by which for so many Ages we had excited his Patience he should not only so love us as to restore to us the Light which we had almost extinguished but to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish c. is such an amazing Instance of Goodness as can hardly be reflected on without an Extasy of Admiration In which Words you have God's revealed Love and Goodness to the World measured by a two-fold Standard 1. By the Greatness of the Gift which he hath bestowed upon the World God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son 2. The blessed End for which he did bestow him that whosoever believeth in him
Obedience to Superiors and Contempt of the World of Patience and Courage and Meekness and Resignation to the Will of God that so by his Example we might be excited to the Exercise of all those passive Virtues which are not only most glorious but most difficult to human Nature and that by beholding how mean and yet how good he was we might all become more ambitious of being good than great in the World Now what an amazing Instance of God's Goodness is this that meerly for our sakes and to promote our Happiness he should depress his own Son into such a miserable Condition that he who was in the Form of God who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God should by the Appointment of his own Father to whom he was so infinitely dear make himself of no Reputation take on him the Form of a Servant become a Man of sorrows and acquaint himself with Griefs and all this to put himself into a better Capacity of doing good to the World Good God! When I consider with my self that once there was a Time when thou didst send thy blessed Son from Heaven to assume my Nature that therein he dwelt upon this Earth and conversed with such poor Mortals as my self that he suffered himself to be despised and persecuted and by thy own Appointment wandred about like a poor Wretch naked and destitute of all those Comforts which I abundantly enjoy and all this that he might the more effectually do good to a World of ill-natured Sinners methinks this wonderous Prodigy of Love not only puzles my Conceit but outreaches my Wonder and Admiration And though it be a Love that exceeds my largest Thoughts such as I have infinite Cause to rejoyce in but could never have had the Impudence to expect yet while I stand gazing on it methinks I am like one that is looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height fills me with a trembling Horror and even oversets my Reason 6 thly And lastly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears also in this that he gave his only begotten Son to be a Sacrifice for the Sins of miserable Sinners and this is plainly implied in that Expression he gave his only begotten Son For in the two Verses foregoing the Text our Saviour foretells his own Death for as Moses saith he lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal Life and then it immediately follows for God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that is he gave him to be lifted up upon the Cross even as the Serpent was lifted up by Moses in the Wilderness that so by his precious Death and Sacrifice he might make an Atonement for the Sins of the World And accordingly he is said to be delivered up for our offences Rom. iv 25 even as the Sacrifice was delivered up at the Door of the Tabernacle to propitiate God for the Sins of the Offerer For to compleat the propitiatory Sacrifices under the Law three Things were requisite first the offering of it at the Door of the Tabernacle the slaying of it and the presenting of its Blood either within the Holy of Holies or elsewhere all which were found in the Sacrifice of our blessed Saviour First he offered himself to God as a willing Victim for the Sins of the World Hence Joh. xvii 19 for this cause saith he do I sanctify my self that is offer up my self as a Sacrifice to thee for so in Levit. xxii 2 3. and sundry other places to hallow or sanctify any Thing to the Lord denotes the offering it to him in Sacrifice And accordingly we find that that Prayer by which Christ consecrated himself to the Lord Joh. xvii was much like that by which the High Priest did consecrate his Victims before the Altar on the great day of Expiation for as he before he slew the Sacrifice did first commend himself and his own Family then the Family of Aaron and the whole Congregation to the Lord so our Saviour in this excellent Prayer whereby he sanctified himself to his Father a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World first commended himself to him then his Apostles then all those who should afterwards believe in his Name which having done he went forth presently to the Place where he was apprehended and carried to Judgment and condemned to Death Then as a propitiatory Sacrifice he was slain for our sins for so St. Peter tells us Ephes. ii 24 he bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that is that natural Evil of a most shameful and painful Death was inflicted on him for our Sins that so he might make an Expiation for them and free us from the Guilt and Punishment that was due to them Hence in that Prophecy of him Isa. liii we often meet with such Expressions as these surely he hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows he was Wounded for our Transgressions he was Bruised for our Iniquities The chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we are Healed The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all For the transgression of my people was he stricken Thou shalt make his Soul an offering for Sin and he shall bear their Iniquities He was numbered with the Transgressors and he bare the sin of Many and made intercession for the Transgressors All which Expressions do plainly imply that what he suffered he suffered for our Sins as a Sacrifice substituted in the Room of us who were the Offenders that so he might make Expiation for us and obtain our Pardon from his Father And accordingly in the New Testament he is said to be made a Curse for us to be our Ransom and Propitiation to redeem and reconcile us and obtain the Remission of our Sins by his Blood to die for us and for our Sins and to be our Propitiation all which Expressions being applyed to the Sacrifices of Atonement under the Law and from them derived upon our Saviour do plainly denote him to be a Sacrifice of Atonement for the Sins of the World And then lastly there is the presenting of his Blood for us in Heaven and in the Virtue thereof his interceeding for us with his Father And hence the Blood of Christ as it is now presented in Heaven is called the blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel Heb. xii 24 In which he plainly alludes to the High Priest's sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Christs presenting his Blood for us in Heaven as you may see Heb. ix 7 compared with the 11th and 12th Verses Verse 7th he tells us that the High Priest entered not into the Holy of Holies without blood But then Verse 12th it is said that Christ with his own blood entred in once into the holy
more Sons to bestow upon us he being the only begotten of his Father Heaven and Earth are not able to furnish him with such another Gift to bestow upon us and if he should lay a Tax upon all his Creation to raise one great Contribution to the Happiness of Mankind and exact the utmost of every Creature that it is able to Contribute it would all fall infinitely short of what he hath done for us in this inestimable Gift of his own Son So that if this prove ineffectual it is beyond the Power of an omnipotent Bounty to relieve us For though God can do all Things that can be well and wisely done and do not imply a Contradiction yet this can be no Relief at all to us who reject his Son and refuse to be made happy in the gracious Method which he hath prescribed to us For after this mighty Gift of his own Son to save us according to the Method of his Gospel there remains nothing more to be done for us but either to save us whether we will or no or else to make us happy in our Sins and save us notwithstanding our Continuance in them the former of which can neither be well nor wisely done because by saving us against our Wills he must deal with us in such a Way as is repugnant to that Law of Liberty that is implanted in our Natures and use us not as Free but as Necessary Agents And if considering all things it was best and wisest that he should make us free Agents then it can neither be well nor wise to govern us as necessary ones since by so doing he must alter the Course of our Nature and consequently swerve and decline from what is best and wisest which would be to do Violence to the Perfection of his own Nature And then as for the latter he cannot do it because it implies a Contradiction For to make Men happy in their Sins is to make them happy in their Miseries Misery being as inseparable from Sin as Heat is from Fire and as intimately related to it as the Son is to the Father and consequently he may as possibly make a Father without a Son as a Sinner without Misery When therefore God hath done all for us that can possibly be done and we by our own Obstinacy have rendred all ineffectual we are beyond the Power of Remedy and must necessarily perish in our Sins And when we have no other Hope to depend on but this that the All-wise God will undo his own Workmanship and unravel our Nature by governing us contrary to the most wise Constitution of it or that the All-powerful God will effect Impossibilities and do that for us which is not an Object of Power how deplorable and desperate must our Condition be Wherefore as you would not run your selves beyond the Reach of all Mercy and excommunicate your own Souls from all Hope of Salvation be now at last persuaded to comply with Christ's Coming which was to reduce you from the Error of your Ways and to bring you to a serious Repentance JOHN III. 16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life IN these Words you have the Love of God measured by a twofold Standard first by the Greatness of the Gift which he hath bestowed upon the World God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son Secondly by the blessed End for which he did bestow him that whosoever believeth in him should not perish c. The first of these I have already gone through and now I shall proceed to the Second viz. The blessed End for which he gave his only begotten Son That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life In which Words you have also two very great Instances of God's infinite Love and good Will to Mankind the First is his imposing upon us such a gentle and easie and merciful Condition That whosoever believeth in him Secondly His proposing such a vast Reward to us upon our performing of this Condition I begin with the first viz. His imposing upon us such a gentle and easie and merciful Condition That whosoever believeth in him should not perish In the Management of which I shall do these two Things 1. Shew you what it is that is included in this Condition whosoever believeth in him 2. How good God hath been to us in making the Condition which he hath imposed upon us so gentle and merciful 1. What is it that is included in this Condition To which I answer in general that believing in Christ doth not only denote a naked Assent to the Truth of this Proposition That he is the Son of Cod and the Messenger of Gods Mind and Will to the World and the Saviour of Mankind but that it also includes whatsoever is naturally consequent thereunto For thus it is very ordinary with the Scripture to express the natural Effects and Consequents of things by their Causes and Principles This is the love of God saith the Apostle that we keep his Commandments 1 Jo. v. 3 whereas in strictness of Speaking our keeping his Commandments is only the Effect or Consequence of our loving him So Prov. viii 13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil whereas indeed this is only the Effect or Consequence of the Fear of the Lord. Thus by knowing and hearing and remembring of God the Scripture usually expresses the consequent Effects of them Thus Act. xxii 14 The God of our Fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his Will that is that thou mayst not only know it but by thy Knowledge mayst be suitably affected with it for it was not to a bare contemplative Knowledge of it that St. Paul was chosen and then it follows and see that Just one and shouldst hear the voice of his Mouth that is that hearing the Voice of his Mouth thou shouldst thereby be induced to obey it for he was not meerly to hear Christ speaking to him out of the Heavens but that hearing him he might submit to his Will and become his Apostle to the World Many other Places I might easily give you where the natural Effects and Consequents are in Scripture expressed by their Causes and Principles And thus also Faith or Believing whensoever it is used in Scripture to signify the Condition of the Gospel-Covenant always imploies its natural Effects and Consequents that is sincere and universal Obedience to those Rules of Holy Living which the Gospel prescribes for this is the most natural Effect of our believing in Jesus Christ. And hence it is called the obedience of Faith Rom. xvi 26 that is the Obedience which springs from Faith as from its Cause and Principle And accordingly Rom. x. 16 you find that to believe and to obey the Gospel signifies one and the same Thing But they have not all obeyed the Gospel saith he for Esaias saith Lord who hath believed our report that is who hath believed it so
as to obey it So that wheresoever Faith is mentioned singly as the Condition of the Gospel-Covenant it is apparent it must be understood in the largest Sense as comprehending that Obedience which is the Effect and Consequence of it So 1 Joh. v. 1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God that is whosevever so believes the Truth of this Proposition as to practise upon it and govern his Life and Actions according to the Tenour and Direction of it is truly a Child of God For he who believes Christ to be the Messias but continues obstinately disobedient to his Laws is so far from being truly and really a Child of God that he thereby becomes ten Times more a Child of the Devil for saith the Apostle If I have all Faith and have not Charity I am nothing and Gal. v. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love and if so then Faith it self is nothing abstracted from this blessed Effect of it i. e. working by love For in Gal. vi 15 he tells us that Circumcision is nothing but the new Creature by which new Creature he means an obedient Temper and Disposition of Mind as he plainly tells us 1 Cor. vii 19 Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God So that by these different Variations of expression it is apparent that by Faith as significant in the Account of Christ he always means a working Faith the Effect of which is the new Creature or keeping the Commandments of God And so I have done with the first Thing proposed which was to shew you what is included in this Condition whosoever believeth in him which you see is not to be confined to a bare and naked Belief of him but must be extended further even to that whole Course of Obedience which is the natural Effect of such a Belief So that whosoever believes in him is as much as if he had said Whosoever so believes in him as sincerely and universally to obey him 2. I proceed now to the next Thing which was to shew you how good God hath been to us in making the Condition which he hath imposed upon us so gentle and merciful and this will appear if we consider these five Things 1. That he hath put nothing into this Condition but what is in its own Nature exceeding good for us 2. That he hath most mercifully proportioned the Whole to the present State and Circumstances of our Nature 3. That he hath rendred the Whole almost necessarily consequent to our believing in Jesus Christ. 4. That to beget that Belief in us he hath given us the most plain and convincing Evidence 5. That to render this Belief operative he hath engaged himself to assist actuate and inliven it by his ow immediate Concurrence 1. That God hath put nothing into this Condition but what is in its own Nature exceeding good for us For there is no Precept in all the Gospel but what contains either some effectual Means or apparent Instance of what is morally and eternally Good and whatsoever is morally good is naturally so For the moral Goodness of Things consists in the Fitness and Reasonableness of them and that which is the moral Good or Duty of Men consists in doing that which is eternally fit and reasonable for them considering the Frame and Circumstances of their Natures and the different Relations wherein they are placed in the World But now for Men to do what is eternally fit and reasonable is naturally good for and beneficial to themselves because by so doing they perfect and advance their Natures and accomplish their own Satisfaction and Happiness For our Reason being that proper Character of our Natures that distinguishes us from all sublunary Beings and sets us in a Form of Being above them the Perfection of our Nature must necessarily consist in being perfectly reasonable in having our Vnderstandings informed with the Principles of right Reason and our Wills and Affections regulated by them and when once we are released from the Slaveries of Sense and Passion and all our Powers are so perfectly subdued to this superior Principle of Reason as to do every Thing that it commands and nothing that it forbids and we chuse and refuse and love and hate and hope and fear and delight according as right Reason directs and dictates then and not till then we are come to the full Stature of perfect Men in Christ Jesus Now all the Duty of the Gospel being a reasonable Service as the Apostle calls it Rom. xii 1 the End and Tendency of it must be to habituate us to live according to the Laws of right Reason which is all one as to advance us to the Perfection of reasonable Beings and being once arrived at this we shall find unspeakable Satisfaction from within our selves and feel a Heaven of Joys springing up within our own Bosoms For when once our disjointed Powers are set in Order and all our Faculties reduced to their natural Subordination our Nature will be in perfect Rest and Ease being freed from that unnatural Violence and Oppression under which it now groans and cured of all those Spasms and Convulsions of Mind which are the inseparable Effects of its Lapse and Degeneracy And all the Motions of our Wills and Affections being regulated by the eternal Reason of our Minds with what delightful Relishes and sweet Gusts of Pleasure shall we taste and review our own Actions they being always such as our best and purest Reason doth approve of with a full and ungainsaying Judgment So that God's Commands you see being all of them most reasonable must necessarily tend to the Perfection and Happiness of our Nature besides that they generally promote even our sensitive Happiness our Pleasure and Profit and Reputation in this World Now what a most endearing Instance is this of God's Goodness towards us that he should make our Benefit the Measure of our Duty and oblige us to nothing but what is for our good that he should so far concern himself in our Happiness as to impose it upon us under the Penalty of his severest displeasure and to inforce his Laws with such inviting and such dreadful Sanctions only to secure us from running away from our own Mercies So that to be a Christian is in Effect nothing else but only to be obliged to be kind to our selves and bound in Conscience to be happy Good God that thou shouldst be so infinitely Zealous of our Welfare as to make the Means of it the only Matter of thy Laws and to promise such vast Rewards and denounce such dreadful Punishments against us for no other Reason but only to affright and allure us out of Misery into Happiness That thou shouldst hate our Sins so implacably only because they are our irreconcilable Enemies and be so infinitely pleased with our Obedience only because it leads to our
their Testimony by laying down their Lives for it which was as high a Confirmation as could possibly have been given of the Truth of it But lest after all the World should suspect them God also furnished them with the Gift of Miracles and continued that Gift as an Heirlome to their Successors for Three Hundred Years together that so as the Testimony of the first Eye-witnesses was confirmed not only by their Martyrdoms but by their Miracles also so it might still be handed down from them through the successive Generations in the same infallible manner till it was spread over all the World and needed no farther Martyrdoms or Miracles to confirm it O blessed God! What care hast thou taken first to provide and then to secure the Evidences of our holy Religion that all Generations might have sufficient Motives of Credibility and that Mankind might still have abundant Reason to believe in thy Son to the End of the World when they shall see him come down from Heaven to Judgment How easie therefore hath God rendred the Condition of our Salvation to us when he hath not only rendred the Performance of it so necessarily consequent to our believing in Jesus but also to beget this Belief in us hath given us such abundant Evidence How can we sufficiently admire and adore his Goodness that hath been so infinitely solicitous to secure our Happiness and hath so contrived Things that we cannot heartily believe his Gospel and not be persuaded by it to comply with the Terms of our Salvation nor yet impartially consider the Evidence of his Gospel and not heartily believe it And yet as if all this were not enough 5 thly And lastly to render this Belief operative and effectual he hath engaged himself to assist actuate and enliven it by his own immediate Concurrence Provided we use our own honest Endeavour he hath assured us again and again that he will give his Holy Spirit to every one that asks that he will work in us to will and to do if we will but take care to work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling and that to him that hath i. e. makes an honest Improvement of that Strength that he hath it shall be given and he shall have more abundantly So that though one would have thought he had done sufficiently for us before in giving us such abundant Evidence to beget in us an hearty Belief of his Gospel and such prevalent Motives to persuade us to submit to it and comply with his gracious Proposals yet such was his Goodness to us such his importunate Care of our Welfare that he could not stop here nor think that yet he had done enough for us till by an irrepealable Promise he had obliged himself to us to co-operate with us and by the immediate Influences of his Grace to bless and succeed our honest Endeavours So that we can no sooner attempt our own Restauration no sooner set our selves in the way to our Happiness but the good God is immediately present with us exciting our Fath fixing our Consideration animating and encouraging our poor Endeavours and supplying us with all manner of Grace and Assistance that our State and Necessities require Nay and many and many a Time while we are Sleeping on in our wretched sinful Security he comes in Pity to visit us and ever and anon suggests good Thoughts to our Minds to rouse and awake us out of those fatal Slumbers to enliven our Faith and call up our Consideration nay and oftentimes he doth so urge and second and repeat those Thoughts to us that by being so haunted with their Importunities we are forced to fix our Minds on them whether we will or no. And though we like ungrateful Wretches do many times stifle his good Motions and turn a deaf Ear to his Calls and gracious Invitations to Happiness yet doth he not presently give over but whilst we are running away from him we hear a Voice behind us calling after us to return and though we still run on yet still he follows us with his Importunities through the whole Course of our sinful Life till either he hath brought us back or we have run our selves past all Hope of Recovery These are Things I dare say that every Man in the World one Time or other hath had sensible Experience of And is not this a strange Condescention of Goodness to see the God of Heaven and Earth thus courting and wooing a Company of impotent Rebels to lay down their Arms and accept his Grace and his everlasting Preferments And though they reject his Motions and stop their Ears to those still Whispers of his that secretly invade their Souls yet to consider how he still solicits and importunes them as if he would take no Denyal and were resolved not to let them alone till he had persuaded them to be happy O good God! what prodigious Stories of Love are these What strange amazing Condescentions to thy wretched undeserving Creatures And now after all this what can the Lord our God do more for us that is consistent either with his own Wisdom or with the Freedom of our Natures He hath done all that can be done to draw us to Heaven and if that will not do it is by no Means fit that he should drag us thither since it would be a most mean unreasonable Condescention in him to force us to be happy when we are unwilling to accept it and to prostitute the Reward of Piety and Virtue to those that scorn and reject it And now to conclude this Argument from hence I infer how monstrously ungrateful those Persons are who complain of the Difficulty and Burthensomeness of this gentle and merciful Condition of our Salvation When in so many Instances it is apparent how merciful God hath been in imposing such a Condition upon us In the Name of God what would you have Sirs would you have Heaven drop into your Mouths while you lie still and do nothing Or can you think it is fit that so vast a Reward should be prostituted to the lazy Wishes of such Drones and Sluggards as do not think it worth the labouring for That those golden Fruits should hang down from Heaven to us on an overladen Bow to be cropt by every idle Wanton Hand that will stretch forth it self to take and eat it Surely no reasonable Creature can be so senseless as to entertain such a wild and fond Conceit Well then would you have God admit of such a Condition of Salvation as includes in it a Licence to enjoy your Lusts and gives you Liberty to be as wicked as you please But alas if God should be so fond of your Salvation as to offer Violence to his own Nature and Government by yielding to your Sins and granting you a free Dispensation to enjoy them yet it is impossible in the Nature of the Thing because your Salvation will not consist with it For to be saved from Misery whilst we
are let alone to enjoy our Sins is a Contradiction and so not the Object of any Power no not of Omnipotence it self For Sin it self is the greatest Misery that human Nature is liable to 't is this that convulses all its Faculties that racks and stretches them out of Joint and distorts them into an unnatural Figure and Position 't is this that makes us our own Reverse transposes our Head with our Feet and makes our Reason truckle to our Sense our intellectual Faculties that were made to govern to serve those brutish Passions and Appetites which Nature designed to be their Vassals which is such a barbarous Violence to the very Frame and Constitution of our Nature as will whensoever we recover out of our lethargick Stupidity be as sensibly dolorous to our Souls as Racks or Wheels or Catasta's to our Bodies So that for God to save us from Misery whilst he suffers us to continue in our Sins is altogether as impossible as it is to save us from burning whilst he suffers us to continue weltring in the Flames of Fire and to make us well in Sickness or easie in Diseases are not more repugnant to the Nature of Things than 't is to make us happy in our Sins and yet this is the only Matter we complain of that God will not allow us a free Dispensation to be wicked in that which is the Condition of our Salvation O blessed God! How is it possible thou shouldst ever please such froward peevish and ungrateful Creatures who will never be satisfied unless thou performest Impossibilities and makest Contradictions to be true for their sakes For shame therefore let us no longer complain that the Condition of our Salvation is too hard and rigorous but since God hath been pleased to condescend so low to us as to indulge us whatsoever is consistent with our Salvation let us admire and adore his Goodness and with our Souls inflamed with Love and Gratitude to him chearfully undertake what he hath so mercifully enjoyned us JOHN III. 16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life I Am now upon the latter Part of this Text that whosoever believeth in him c. In which there are two great Instances of God's Goodness to us First his imposing upon us such a gentle and merciful Condition that whosoever believeth in him Secondly his proposing to us so vast a Reward upon the Performance of it should not perish but have everlasting Life The first of these I have handled already and now I proceed to the second viz. the vast Reward he hath proposed to us upon the Performance of this merciful Condition And in this you have First the negative Part of it that whosoever believeth in him might not perish Secondly the positive One but have everlasting Life I. I begin with the first of these that whosoever believeth in him might not perish In prosecution of which Argument I shall do these three Things 1. Shew you what is meant by perishing here 2. By what Right we were concerned in and obliged to it 3. What unspeakable Goodness God hath discovered to us in freeing and absolving us from this Obligation 1. What is meant by perishing here or not perishing That whosoever believeth in him should not perish that is that whosoever believes in him might be pardoned or absolved from the obligation of perishing for ever to which his Sins have rendred him justly liable For that by this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should not perish or be destroyed is not meant the Annihilation or Destruction of our Beings as the Socinians and some others imagin is evident by its being opposed to everlasting Life which as I shall shew you hereafter doth not denote our mere Continuance in Life and Being for ever but our Continuance in a most blissful and happy Life for ever and consequently the Destruction that is here opposed to it must not denote our eternal Discontinuance to be and live but our living most wretchedly and miserably for ever And indeed wheresoever Death or Destruction is spoken of in Opposition to eternal Life this is apparently the Sense of it So Rom. vi 23 The wages of Sin is death but the Gift of God is eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now that by Death here is understood a State of endless Misery and Suffering in Opposition to that State of endless Happiness which eternal Life implies is evident because he cannot mean the first Death which consists in the Separation of the Soul from the Body for though this were originally the Wages of Sin yet in it self it is not so now but the necessary Condition of our Nature for whether we Sin or no we must undergo it being obliged to it by the irreversible Decree of our Maker But the Death here spoken of is the Effect of our own personal Sin without which we are not liable to it as you may plainly see v. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things i. e. those Sins whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things or Sins is Death Wherefore since it cannot be meant of the first it must be meant of the second Death which St. John makes mention of Rev. 2.11 He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death And what that is the same Author tells you Rev. 20.14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire This is the second Death that is this Lake of Fire or the Torments and Miseries which condemned Sinners endure in it is the second Death for so he explains himself v. 10. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are and shall be tormented Day and Night for ever and ever And this is that Death which is opposed to the immortal Rewards of the Blessed as you may see Rev. 21.7 8. He that overcometh shall inherit all things that is all those immortal Recompences which God has prepared for virtuous Souls But the fearful and unbelieving c. shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstrone Which is the second Death And as Death when opposed to eternal Life denotes a State of endless and continued Misery so doth Destruction also So Mat. 7.13 14. Broad is the way that leadeth to Destruction Narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life By the later of which it is granted on all hands he means Life eternal and that by Destruction he means a State of endless Misery is evident from Matth. 10.28 but fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell which according to St. John's Exposition Rev. 20.10 is to torment them Day and Night for ever and ever And this destroying in Hell our Saviour elsewhere expresses by casting into Hell into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched which is as plain
are now liable by Reason of their Vnion with the Body and having in a great Measure conquered their Wills while they were in the Body and subdued them to the Will of God they shall immediately commense into an high Degree of Perfection For being freed from the Incumbrances of Flesh and Blood from the Importunities of their bodily Passions and Appetites and the Temptations of Sensuality that do now continually sollicit them they shall no longer be liable to those Irregularities of Affection that do here disturb the Tranquility of their Minds and their Actions and Affections being always regulated by their Reason their Consciences shall be no longer bestormed with those Terrors and Affrightments which nothing but the Sense of Guilt can suggest to them but enjoy a perpetual Calm and Serenity And being thus freed from all Evils and Disquietudes both from within and without they shall be at perfect Ease and for ever enjoy a most undisturbed Repose O blessed Day when I shall take my Leave of Sin and Misery for ever and go to those calm and blisful Regions whence Sighs and Tears and Sorrows and Pains are banished for ever more 2. Everlasting Life includes a most intimate Enjoyment of God For God being a rational Good is capable of being enjoyed by rational Beings no otherwise than by Knowledge and by Love and by Resemblance all which Ways he hath promised that we shall enjoy him when once we are arrived into that blisful State For as for the Knowledge of him St. Paul tells us that whereas now we see through a Glass darkly we shall then see him Face to Face And whereas now we know in part then we shall know even as also we are known 1 Cor. xiii 12 and St. John tells us that we shall see him as he is 1 John iii. 2 Which expressions must needs import such a Knowledge of him as is unspeakably more distinct and clear than any we enjoy in this present State For then the Eyes of our Minds shall be so invigorated that we shall be able to gaze on the Sun without dazling to contemplate the pure and immaculate Glory of the Divinity without being confounded with its Brightness and our Understandings shall be so exalted that shall we see more at every single View than we do now in Volumes of Discourse and the most tedious Trains of Inference and Deduction And enjoying a most perfect Repose both from within and without we shall have nothing to disturb or divert our greedy Contemplations which having such an immense Horizon of Truth and Glory round about them shall still discover farther and farther and so entertain themselves with everlasting Wonder and Delight For what an infinite Pleasure will that all-glorious Object afford to our raised Minds which then shall no longer labour under the tedious Difficulties of Discourse but like transparent Windows shall have nothing to do but only to receive the Light which freely offers it self unto them and shines for ever round about them when every new Discovery of God and of those bottomless Secrets and Mysteries of his Nature shall enlarge our Capacities to discover more and still new Discoveries shall freely offer themselves as fast as our Minds are enlarged to receive them This doubtless will be a Recreation to our Minds infinitely transcending all that we can conceive or imagin of it especially considering that all our Knowledge shall terminate in Love that sweet and grateful Passion that sooths and ravishes the Hearts and dissolves it into Joy and Pleasure For God being infinitely good and amicable the more we know him the more Cause and Reason we have to love him When therefore we are arrived to that Degree of Knowledge which the beatifical Vision implies we shall find our Hearts inflamed with such a vehement Love to him as will issue into an unspeakable Delight and Satisfaction and even overwhelm us with Extasies of Joy and Complacency for if those divine Illapses those more immediate Touches and Sensations of God which Good Men do sometimes experience in this Life do so affect and ravish them that they are even forced into Triumphs and Exultations how will they be wrapt and transported in that State of Vision when they shall see him so immediately and love him so vehemently and their Souls shall be nothing else but entire Globes of Light and Love all irradiated and inflamed with the immediate Effluvia's of the Fountain of Truth and Goodness But alas As these Joys are too big for mortal Language to express so are they too strong for frail Mortality to bear and if we but for one Day or Hour should see God and love him as those glorified Spirits do we should questionless die with an Extasy of Pleasure and our glad Hearts being tickled with such insupportable Joys by endeavouring to enlarge themselves to make Room for them all would quickly stretch into a Rupture But then as our Knowledge of God shall terminate in the Love of him so both together shall terminate in our Resemblance of his Perfections for having so immediate a Prospect of his Beauties and being so infinitely enamoured with them with what inexpressible Vigour must we imitate and transcribe them And our Imitation being invigorated with such a clear Knowledge and such a vehement Love cannot fail of producing the described Resemblance so that the more we know God the more we shall love him and the more we know and love the more we shall imitate and resemble him So that then both our inward Motions and outward Actions will be all most pure and perfect Imitations of God which will produce such an exact Agreement between his Original and our Copy that whilst we interchangably turn our Eyes to God and our selves and compare Beauty with Beauty it will fill our Minds with unspeakable Content to see how the Image answers to the Prototype what a sweet Harmony and Agreement there is between his Nature and our own For if from our Love of God there must necessarily result to us such ineffable Joy and Complacency what a ravishing Delight will it afford us to see the Signatures of those adorable Beauties for which we love him stampt and impressed upon our own Natures when the Glory that shines about and inflames us shall shine into us and become our own and those amiable Ideas of him which are impressed upon our Understanding shall stamp our Wills and Affections with their own Resemblance For so the Apostle tells us it shall be 1 John iii. 2 For when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Lord how must our Souls be enlarged and widened to be able to contain all those mighty Joys that must necessarily spring from our Fruition of thee And to what a Degree of Happiness shall we be advanced when we shall be entertained with all the delights that the Enjoyment of an infinite Good can afford us and have Hearts great enough to contain them all
without being overcharged with their Weight and Number 3 dly Everlasting Life includes a most endearing Fruition of our glorified Saviour And certainly this is none of the smallest Ingredients of that blisful State that we shall ever be with our blessed Lord as the Apostle expresses it 1 Thes. iv 17 For herein it is evident the same Apostle placed one great Advantage of his future State for so he tells us he had a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Phil. i. 23 And indeed 't is impossible but it must be a vast Addition to the Happiness of all vertuous and grateful Souls to see this blessed Friend and Benefactor who came down from the Bosom of his Father and for their Sake exposed himself to a miserable Life and shameful Death to see him sitting at his Father's right Hand crowned with Majesty and Honour surrounded with the whole Choir of Angels and Saints like a Sun in the midst of a Circle of Stars How must it needs rejoyce the Hearts of all the Lovers and Followers of this blessed Lamb to see such a happy Change of his Circumstances To see him that was formerly despised and spit on and so unworthily treated by an ill-natured World adored and worshiped praised and admired by all the Court of Heaven and celebrated with the Songs of Cherubins and Seraphims of Arch-angels and Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect to behold him that hung upon the Cross and poured out his Blood there in Groans and Agonies meerly to make miserable Sinners happy advanced to the highest Pitch of Splendor and Dignity and made Head and Prince of all the Hierarchy of Heaven Verily methinks though I were excluded from that happy Place and had only the Priviledge to look in and see my blessed Lord and Saviour it would be a most heavenly Consolation to me to behold the Glory and Honour and Happiness with which he is surrounded though I were sure never to partake of it and the Communion I should have in the Joys of my Master the sweet Sympathy in all his Pleasures would be a Heaven at second Hand to me and I should feel my self unspeakably happy in being a Spectator of his Felicity and Advancement But Oh! When that dear and blessed Person shall not only permit me to see his Glory but introduce me into it when his blessed Mouth shall bid me Welcome and pronounce my Euge bone Serve well done Good and Profitable Servant enter into thy Masters Joy when I shall not only see his beloved Face but be admitted into his sweet Conversation and dwell in his Arms and Embraces for ever when I shall hear him record the wondrous Adventures of his Love through how many woful Stages he past to rescue me from endless Misery how will my Heart spring with Joy and burn with Love and my Mouth overflow with Praises and Thanksgivings O blessed Jesu How happy will the Day be when I who am loaded with so many vast Obligations to love thee shall be introduced into thy Presence to see thy Glories and Sympathize in thy Joys as thou didst in my Miseries to thank and praise thee Face to Face for all those Wonders of Love with which thou hast obliged me and to bear a Part in that heavenly Song Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing who hast redeemed us to God by thy blood our of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation Rev. v. 9 12. 4 thly Everlasting Life includes a most delightful Conversation and Society with Angels and glorified Spirits For when we come to the City of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem the Apostle tells us what our Society will be viz. an innumerable company of Angels the general Assembly and Church of the first-born God the judge of all the Spirits of just Men made perfect and Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant Heb. xii 22 23 24. Lord what glorious Society is here Society in which there is nothing intermingled but what is Heavenly and Divine it being altogether composed of the best and wisest and noblest Beings in the World For as for the blessed Saints and Angels they are all most perfectly refined from all that Folly and Peevishness Disguize and Dissimulation which is the Bane of humane Conversation their Understandings are exceeding large and comprehensive and their Charity and Goodness is full as extensive as their Knowledge And in such a Conjunction of Wisdom with Goodness what an excellent Society must there needs be produced For as their great Goodness must needs render their Conversation most free and amiable so must their great Knowledge and Wisdom render it no less profitable and delightful and as the latter must needs instruct them in all the wise Arts of Endearment so the former must needs oblige them to use and improve them to the utmost O how heavenly therefore must their Conversation needs be whilst 't is thus managed by pure Wisdom and most perfect Love whilst the most glorious Knowledge is the Scope and the most ardent Friendship the Law of all their Converse Who would not be willing to leave a foolish froward and ill-natured World for the blessed Society of those wise Friends and perfect Lovers And what greater Happiness can we desire than to spend an Eternity in such sweet Conversation Where we shall hear the deep Philosophy of Heaven freely communicated in the wise and amicable Discourses of Angels and glorified Spirits who mutually impart the Treasures of each others Knowledge without any Reserve or Affectation of Mystery and freely philosophize without wrangling Disputes or peevish Contentions for Victory where Wisdom is the Entertainment and Love and mutual Endearments the Welcome where there is Harmony without Discord Communication without Disputes and everlasting Discourse without Wrangling O happy Day When I shall depart from this impertinent and unsociable World and all my good old Friends that are gone to Heaven before me shall meet me on the Shores of Eternity and congratulate my Arrival to that blessed Society Where I shall freely converse with the Patriarchs and Prophets the Apostles and Martyrs and be most intimately acquainted with all those brave and generous Souls who have recommended themselves to the World by their glorious Examples where Angels and Arch-angels shall be my familiar Friends and all those illustrious Courtiers of the great King of Heaven shall own me for their Brother and bid me welcome to their Masters Joy and none will disdain my Company though never so much above me in Glory and Perfection but from the highest to the lowest will all receive and entertain me with the tenderest Indearments of heavenly Lovers 5 thly Everlasting Life includes also the infinite Glory and Delightfulness of the Place wherein all these Felicities are to be enjoyed For though the very State of the Blessed be sufficiently glorious to transform
could we but stand a while in the Mid-way between Heaven and Earth and at one Prospect see the Glories of both how faint and dim would all the Splendors of this World appear to us in Comparison with those above How would they sneak and disappear in the Presence of that eternal Brightness and be forced to shroud their vanquished Glories as Stars do when the Sun appears And whilst we interchangably turned our Eyes from one to t'other with what Shame and Confusion should we reflect upon the wretched groveling Temper of our own Minds what poor mean-spirited Creatures we are to satisfy our selves with the impertinent Trifles of this World when we have all the Joys of an everlasting Heaven before us and may if we please after a few Moments Obedience be admitted into them and enjoy them for evermore Ah! foolish Creatures that we are thus to prefer a far Countrey where we live on nothing but Husks before an everlasting Festivity that is celebrated in our Father's House where the meanest Creature hath Bread enough and to spare To chuse Nebuchadnezzar's Fate and leave Crowns and Scepters and live among the salvage Herds of the Wilderness Could the blessed Saints above divert so much from their more happy Employments as to look down a little from their Thrones of Glory and see how busy poor Mortals are in scrambling for this wretched Pelf which within a few Moments they must leave for ever how they jostle and rencounter defeat defraud and undermine one another what a most ridiculous Spectacle would it appear to them with what Scorn would they look on it or rather with what Pity to see a Company of heaven-born Souls capable of and designed for the same Glory and Happiness with themselves groveling like Swine in Dirt and Mire one priding it self in a gay Suit a nother hugging a Bag of glistering Earth a third stewing and dissolving it self in Luxury and Voluptuousness and all imployed at that poor and mean and miserable Rate as might justly make these blessed Spirits ashamed to own their Kindred and Alliance To tell you truly and seriously my Thoughts I cannot imagine but if when we are thus extravagantly concerned about the pitiful Trifles of this World the blessed Spirits do see and converse with us it is a much more ludicrous and ridiculous Sight in their Eyes to see us thus sillily concerned and imployed than it would be in us to see a Company of Boys with mighty Zeal and Concern wrangling and crying striving and scrambling for a Bag of Cherry-stones Wherefore in the Name of God Sirs let us not expose our selves any longer to the just Derision of all the World by our excessive Dotage upon the trifling Vanities of this Life but let us seriously consider that we are all concerned in Matters of much higher Importance even in the unspeakable Felicity of an everlasting Life 3 dly Hence I infer how unreasonable it is for good Men to be afraid of Dying since just on t'other side the Grave you see there is a State of endless Bliss and Happiness prepared to receive and entertain them so that to them Death is but a dark Entry out of a Wilderness of Sorrow into a Paradise of eternal Pleasure And therefore if it be an unreasonable Thing for sick Men to dread their Recovery for Slaves to tremble at their Jubilee or for Prisoners to quake at the News of a Goal-delivery how much more unreasonable is it for good Men to be afraid of Death which is but a momentary Passage from Sickness Labour and Confinement to eternal Health and Rest and Liberty For God's sake consider Sirs what is there in this World that you have Reason to be fond of what in the other that you need be afraid of Suppose that now your Souls were on the Wing mounting upwards to the celestial Abodes and that at some convenient Stand between Heaven and Earth from whence you might take a Prospect of both you were now making a Pause to survey and compare them with one another that having viewed over all the Glories above and tasted the beatifical Joys and heard the ravishing Melodies of Angels you were now looking down again with your Minds filled with these glorious Ideas upon this miserable World and that all in a View you beheld the vast Numbers of Men and Women that at this Time are fainting for Want of Bread of young Men that are hewn down by the Sword of War of Orphans that are weeping over their Fathers Graves of Mariners that are shrieking in a Storm because their Keel dashes against a Rock or bulges under them of People that are groaning upon Sick-Beds or racked with Agonies of Conscience that are weeping with Want mad with Oppression or desperate by too quick a Sense of a constant Infelicity Would you not do you think upon such a Review of both States be infinitely glad that you are gone from hence that you are out of the Noise and Participation of so many Evils and Calamities Would not the sight of the Glories above and the Miseries beneath you make you a Thousand Times more fearful of returning hither than ever you were of going hence Yes doubtless it would Why then should not our Sense of the Misery here and our Belief of the Happiness there produce the same Effect in us make us willing to remove our Quarters and exchange this Wilderness for that Canaan 'T is true indeed the Passage from one to t'other is commonly very painful and grievous but what of that In other Cases we are willing enough to endure a present Pain in order to a future Ease and if a few mortal Pangs will work a perfect Cure on me and recover me into everlasting Bliss and Life methinks the Hope of this blessed Effect should be sufficient to sweeten and indear that Agony and render it easy and desirable But alass To die is to leave all our Acquaintance to bid adieu to our dearest Friends and Relations to pass into an unknown State to converse with Strangers whose Laws and Customs we are not acquainted with why now all that looks sad in this is a very great mistake for I verily hope that I have more Friends and Acquaintance and Relatives in Heaven than I shall leave behind me here on Earth and if so I do but go from worse Friends to better for one Friend there is worth a Thousand here in Respect of all those endearing Accomplishments that render a Friend a Jewel But if I die a good Man I shall carry into Eternity with me the Genius and Temper of a glorified Spirit and that will recommend me to the Society of Heaven and render the Spirits of those just Men whose Names I never heard of as dear Friends to me in an Instant as if they had been my ancient Cronies and Acquaintance But why should I grieve at parting with my Friends below when I shall go to the best Friend I have in all the World to God my
Father to Jesus my Redeemer and to the Holy Ghost my constant Comforter and Assistant And what though the State and the Laws and Customs of it be in a great Measure unknown to me Yet what I know is infinitely desirable from whence I may reasonably infer that what I know not is so too and if I have but the Temper of Heaven I am sure I shall easily comply with the heavenly Laws and Customs of it So that in the whole I cannont imagine why any good Man that seriously believes the Doctrine of a blessed Immortality and hath a just well-grounded Hope of being made Partaker of it at the Expiration of this mortal Life should be so loath to leave this wretched World and expire into that blessed Eternity I do not deny but the Circumstances of our Affairs in this Life are many times such as may justly excuse even a good Mans Willingness to die some great Opportunities of doing Good may present themselves and invite him to stay a little longer or his having begun his Repentance late or not having made a competent Provision for his Family may for a Time justify his Unwillingness to depart and render it both excusable and reasonable But unless it be in these excepted Cases methinks I can hardly reconcile our Hopes of Happiness with our Fear of Death For when I am verily persuaded that Death is only a narrow Stream running between Time and Eternity and I see my God and my Saviour with Crowns of Glory in their Hands beckoning to me from the farther Shoar and calling to me to come over and receive those happy Recompences of my Industry and Labour that I like a naked timorous Boy should stand shivering on this Bank of Time as if I were afraid to dip my Foot in that cold Stream of Fate which as soon as I am in I am past and in the Twinkling of an Eye will land me on eternal Bliss is such an extravagant Inconsistency as if I did not feel it in me I should never believe I could be guilty of 4 thly And lastly Hence I infer what a vast deal of Reason we have to be diligent and industrious in Religion since God hath proposed such a vast Reward to us to encourage and animate our Industry How can we account any Work hard of which Heaven is the Wages How can we faint in our Christian Race when we see the Crown of Glory hanging over the Goal Methinks this should be enough to infuse Life and Spirit into the most crest-fallen Souls to make Cripples run and to convert the most sneaking Coward into a bold and magnanimous Hero For how much Pains do we ordinarily take upon far less Hopes in Hope of a little transitory Wealth which we know we shall enjoy but a few years and then part with for ever we thrust our selves into a perpetual Croud and Tumult of Business where with vast Concern and Thoughtfulness with eager and passionate Prosecutions with endless Brauls and Contentions with jostling and rencountring one another we toil and weary our selves and make our Lives a constant Drudgery And shall we flag when Heaven is the Object of our Prosecutions who are so active in the Pursuit of Trifles Whensoever therefore we find our Endeavours in Religion begin to jade and droop let us lift up our Eyes to the Crown of Glory and if we are capable of being moved by Objects of the greatest Value that must infuse new Vigour into us and make us all Life and Spirit and Wing For what though my Way lies up the Hill and leads me along through Thorns and Precipices so that I am fain to sweat at every Step and every Ascent is a Toil to me Yet when I am up I am sure to be entertained with such pleasant Gales and glorious Prospects as will fully recompence all my Toil in climbing thither There with an over-joyed Heart I shall sit down and bless my Labours Blessed be you my bitter Agonies and sharp Conflicts my importunate Prayers and well-spent Tears for now I am fully repaid for you all and do reap ten thousand Times more Joys from you than ever I endured Pains For what are the Pains of a Moment to the Pleasures of an Eternity Wherefore hold out my Faith and Patience yet a little longer and your Work will soon be at an end and after a few laborious Week-days you shall keep an everlasting Sabbath What though my Voyage lie through a stormy Sea yet 't is to the Indies of Happiness and a few Leagues farther lies the blessed Port where I shall be crowned as soon as I am landed Go on therefore O my Soul with thy utmost Courage and Alacrity for let the Winds bluster and the Waves swell never so much yet thou canst not miscarry unless thou wilt Thou art not like other Passengers left to the Mercy of Wind and Weather but thy Fate is in thy own Hands and if thou wilt but have thy Fruit unto Holiness thy End shall be everlasting Life 1 Epist. JOHN IV. 19 We love him because he first loved us I Have shewed you in the former Discourses how indispensably necessary it is that we should love God in Order to our being truly religious and proved to you at large that of all Principles of Religion whatsoever this is the most operative and effectual And then to excite this heavenly Affection in you I have shewn you that the Goodness of God is the principal Motive that engages our Love to him And now that I may more largely explain the Nature and Measures of this Love as it is our Duty and engage you to it by this grand Motive of the divine Goodness I have made choice of this Text We love him because he first loved us The Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may as well be rendered subjunctively to signify what we ought to do as indicatively for what we already do and indeed it seems more suitable to the Context to render it we should or ought to love him than we love him For in the former Verses the Apostle earnestly presses Christians to love one another upon the Consideration of God's great love to them and then considering how naturally their Love to one another would follow upon their mutual Love to God he concludes that the most effectual Course to oblige them to love one another was to excite them to the Love of God upon the Consideration of his great Love to them For saith he Vers. 20. If a Man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar because Light it self is not more inseparable to the Sun than Brotherly-Love is to the Love of God So that unless we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we should love him as we shall evacuate the Necessity of the Apostles Counsel so we shall disturb the Order and Method of his Argument For if we render it Indicatively We love him it will thence necessarily follow that we shall also
the Nature of Love in general the Properties whereof when it is determined on a Person are chiefly these four 1. Benevolence to the Person beloved 2. Desire of enjoying him 3. Imitation of his Perfections 4. Conformity to his Will 1. Benevolence is an essential Property of our Love of God by which I do not mean wishing of any additional Good or Happiness to God which yet he wants for that is Extravagance to wish that a Being who is infinitely happy should be more happy than he is since his Happiness would not be infinite if it could admit of Addition or Increase By our Benevolence to God therefore I only mean our hearty Desire that he may be pleased by our selves and others that all his Creation may conspire to serve and glorify him in that Method which he hath prescribed and that his Will may be done upon Earth as it is in Heaven And this must necessarily be the hearty Wish of every sincere Lover of God and when he sees himself defeated of his Wish by the wicked Lives and Manners of Men when he considers how God is offended every Day how his Authority is affronted his Laws trampled on his Name vilified and blasphemed by bold and insolent Sinners he cannot forbear grieving at it to see him his Soul loves loaded with so many Indignities and Dishonours For thus did David that great Lover of God Rivers of tears run down mine Eyes because Men keep not thy Law Psal. cxix 136 So that what the brave Portia said to her dear Brutus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that can every Lover of God say Lord Thou knowest that I sympathize in all thy Pleasures and Displeasures when thou art pleased I rejoyce and when thou art offended I am grieved 2 ly Another Property of divine Love is an earnest Desire of enjoying God For so when we love a Friend we desire to enjoy as much of him as we are able that is we would fain be more intimately acquainted with him we would love him more and be more beloved by him and resemble him in all those amiable Qualities for which we love and admire him And thus if we have chosen God for our Friend we shall still be breathing after a more intimate Fruition of him our Thoughts will be often imployed in the Contemplation of his Beauty and Glory and our Minds will be perpetually longing after a clearer Knowledge of and more intimate Acquaintance with him We shall never think we love him sufficiently and never think we can do enough to endear our selves to his Favour but shall always feel in our selves both Want of Love to him and Want of Desert to be beloved by him We shall incessantly covet more and more to resemble him in those adorable Perfections for which we love him that so if it were possible he might have the same Reason to love us as we have to love him We shall earnestly hunger and thirst after Righteousness and vehemently wish that all those amiable Characters of Purity and Justice Mercy and Goodness for which we do admire and love him were more fairly imprinted on our own Natures that so by partaking of these Perfections we may grow more and more god-like till we are arrived to a most perfect Resemblance and Conformity of Natures with him Thus to enjoy God must needs be the Desire of every true and hearty Lover of him And indeed this is the only Enjoyment we are capable of for we cannot enjoy God's Essence because we cannot possess it it being neither communicated nor communicable and therefore all that our Enjoyment of him can include is to know and love and be beloved by him and to resemble him in those charming Beauties of Purity and Goodness which render him so infinitely lovely and it is essential to every faithful Lover of him thus to desire to enjoy him 3 ly Imitation of his Perfections is another essential Property of Love to him and this is necessarily consequent to the former for if we love God it is either for the good he doth us or for the Beauty and Loveliness of his Nature If we love him for the good he doth us we must needs be sensible that it is a lovely Thing to do good and this must strangely incline us to imitate him in doing all the good we are able If we love him for the Beauty and Excellency of his Nature we cannot but desire to be like him because whatsoever we esteem lovely in another we desire to partake of out of love to our selves and if we desire to partake of what is lovely in another that must needs engage us to imitate him since we have no other Way to partake of anothers Excellencies but only by a constant Imitation of them So that 't is impossible we should love God for the Beauty and Perfection of his Nature and not hearily desire to partake of it and 't is impossible we should heartily desire to partake of it and not endeavour to transcribe it by a constant and vigorous Imitation So that whatsoever good Reason we love God for it must necessarily terminate in our Imitation of those amiable Actions or Perfections for which we love him and therefor any Man to pretend to love God while he acts contrary to the Reasons for which he loves him is plainly to contradict himself and baffle his own Pretensions For to say that I love God for doing good or for being just holy and benevolent while I take no Care to do good my self but take Pleasure in Impurity Injustice or Vncharitableness is to say that I love him for those Things which I plainly declare I do not love If therefore we heartily love God as we pretend to do it will be visible in our Imitation of him for unless we endeavour to be pure as he is pure and holy as he is holy and just and merciful as he is just and merciful all our Pretensions of Love to him are Cheats and fulsom Hypocrisy 4 thly and lastly Complyance with the Will of God is another essential Character and Property of our Love to him For if we sincerely love a Person we must needs desire to please him that so thereby we may endear our selves to him and if we really desire to please him to be sure we shall readily comply with his Will in whatsoever is just and reasonable And hence the Scripture makes our Obedience to the Will of God essential to our Love of him For this saith St. John is the love of God that we keep his Commandments 1 Joh. v. 3 and this is love that we walk after his Commandments 2 Epist. vi If ye love me saith our Saviour keep my Commandments Joh. xiv 15 that is give me this Token that ye love me for without this I can never believe that you have any real Kindness for me whatsoever Pretensions you may make for so Vers. 23. he adds If any Man love me he will keep my Commandments intimating that
prevalent Repugnancy and Antipathy to the divine Nature Wherefore if ever we would be sincere and hearty Lovers of God we must resolve to betake our selves to the constant Practice of all those eternal Laws of Goodness that are founded in his blessed Nature which if we do and persist in our Resolution we shall find the Practice of them will by Degrees render them first tollerable then easie then delightful then natural to us And when once the Laws of God's Nature are thus transcribed and copyed into ours when our Hearts and his stand bent the same Way and are for the main alike inclined and disposed then we are prepared for divine Love made proper and convenient Fuel to receive that heavenly Flame For as when God sees himself in us his Goodness Purity and Holiness stampt and impressed upon our Natures he is inclined by his own Self-love to be pleased with and take Complacency in us so when we come to see our selves in God to see all that in him for which we value our selves and to see it all in the utmost Perfection in him which is yet so imperfect in our selves our own Self-love will endear him to us and wing our Souls with an active vigorous Love to him Wherefore if we would love God let us live in the Practice of all god-like Virtues till by accustoming our selves thereunto we have conquered our own Repugnancies and Antipathies to his blessed Nature and then our Hearts will stand open to his Love and we shall feel it enter into us and insinuate it self into our Wills and Affections like a sprightful and active Flame till it hath all inflamed them with Love and converted them into its own Substance 5 thly And lastly If we would acquire this heavenly Virtue to all the foregoing Directions we must add constant and earnest Prayer to God For when we have done all it is most certain that without the Assistance of this Grace we cannot love him but if we do all and then implore and Supplicate his Assistance we have as much Assurance of it as the Promise of Truth it self can give us If therefore we have a hearty Mind to love him we shall both do our own Part towards it and earnestly implore him to do his For so when we petition for our daily Bread we do not say our Prayers and then sit down with our Hands in our Bosoms expecting that Bread should drop from Heaven into our Mouths but we presently betake our selves to some honest Imployment and therein diligently endeavour to obtain what we pray for And the same Course we shall take if we desire to love God with the same Sincerity as we desire Food We shall pray and endeavour and endeavour and pray we should be diligent in doing what is in our Power and be importunate with God to do what is only in his And certainly did we but know the Worth of this heavenly Virtue this Soul and Queen of all other Graces we should count no Prayers no Tears no Endeavours too much to purchase and obtain it Did we but consider how useful and delightful it is how at once it entices and inlivens Men what a powerful Byass it claps upon their Hearts to incline them to their Duty and with what Joy and Chearfulness it carries them through the greatest Difficulties and turns their Toils into Recreations how it clears and smooths their Countenance revives and elevates their Hearts Did Men I say but consider this they would give neither themselves nor Heaven Rest till they felt their cold and slugish Souls inspired and animated with it Wherefore to all our Endeavours after it let us joyn our earnest Prayers to God that he would kindle our stupid Hearts and touch our cold Affections with an outstretched Ray from himself that he would conquer our Repugnance to him and represent his Love and Beauty to our Souls in such affecting and attractive Forms as may not fail to captivate our Hearts and subdue our obstinate Wills that have so long held out against all the Storms and Batteries of his endearing Goodness And if we thus pray and thus endeavour and persevere in both we shall at length most certainly feel this heavenly Grace springing up within us and growing on to Maturity by insensible Degrees till at last it hath gotten an entire Possession of our Souls and subdued all our Powers and Affections to it's sweet and blessed Empire And then we shall feel our selves acted in Religion by a new Soul and carried on through all its weary Stages with an unspeakable Life and Vigour then all our Duty will be naturalized to us and we shall do God's Will upon Earth with almost the same Chearfulness and Alacrity as it is done by our blessed Brethren in Heaven Which God of his infinite Mercy grant To whom be Honour c. PSALM xi 7 For the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness BY Righteousness here some Expositors understand the Righteousness of Punishment because in the foregoing Verse it is said upon the wicked he shall rain snares Fire and Brimstone c. and then it follows why he shall do it for the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness But considering the whole I rather believe that by Righteousness here is meant Righteousness of Life and Manners For it seems more probable that the Text is a Reason of the two former Verses than of that immediately foregoing but the whole that is asserted is this the Lord tryeth the Righteous but the wicked and him that loveth Violence his Soul hateth Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares c. As if he should have said there is a vast Difference between Gods dealing with the Righteous and the Wicked for though sometimes he afflicts the Righteous yet 't is only to prove and try them and to render their Virtue more exemplary and illustrious but as for the Wicked when he rains down Punishments on them it is out of a just Hatred and Indignation against them And the Reason why he is thus differently affected towards these different Persons is because of the different Affection he bears towards their contrary Qualifications he loves the Righteousness of the Righteous and that makes him chasten them in love and for kind and merciful Ends and Purposes but he hates the Wickedness of the Wicked and that makes him proceed against them with so much Wrath and Severity So that by Righteousness here he means that Goodness and Virtue which is inherent in righteous Persons is evident from what follows the righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright that is he looks upon them with a most gracious and benevolent Aspect which latter Words being only a fuller Exemplification of the former plainly shew that by the Righteousness mentioned in them is meant the Righteousness of righteous Persons and consequently that it doth not signify the Righteousness of Punishment but the Righteousness of Manners By which we are not to understand that single Virtue
should not perish but have everlasting life I. I begin with the first of these viz. the Greatness of the Gift by which the Greatness of his Love to us is measured God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave him that is he delivered him up from out of his own Bosom and everlasting Embraces for so Eph. v. 2 it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave himself for us or delivered up himself for us for so we render the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was delivered for our offences Rom. iv 25 Now what a stupendous Expression of God's Love this was will appear by considering these six Things which are all of them expressed or implied in the Text 1. That he gave him up who was not only the greatest but the dearest Person to him in the whole World 2. That he gave him up for Sinners 3. That he gave him up for a whole World of Sinners 4. That he gave him up to become a Man for Sinners 5. That he gave him up to be a miserable Man for Sinners 6. That he gave him to be a Sacrifice for the Sins of Sinners that so he might not only with more Effect but with more Security to us interceed for our Pardon 1. The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears in this that he gave up for our sakes not only the greatest but the dearest Person to him in the whole World for as the Text tells you it was his only begotten Son Which Phrase doubtless imports a much higher signification than his being begotten in the Virgins Womb by the Overshadowing of the Holy Ghost For though it cannot be denied but in Scripture he is called the Son of God sometimes upon the Account of this his divine Generation in the Virgins Womb and sometimes upon the Score of his being ordained by God to the Messiaship sometimes because he was raised by God from the Dead and sometimes because he was installed by him into his Mediatorial Kingdom Yet upon neither of these Accounts can he be properly called the only begotten Son for upon the three last Accounts sundry others have been as properly begotten by God as our Saviour some having been installed by him into great and eminent Offices others raised from the Dead others truly ordained by him his Messiah's or anointed Ones so that upon neither of these Accounts can he be stiled the only begotten Son others having been thus begotten as well as himself And as for the first his being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Virgins Womb this was not sufficient neither to intitle him the only begotten because though it was indeed a miraculous Production yet was it not so much above the Production of the first Man as to place him in that singular Eminence For the forming of Adam out of the Substance of the Earth was altogether as miraculous a Production as the forming of Christ out of the substance of the Woman and therefore since Adam is called the Son of God Luk. 3.38 because God immediately formed him of the substance of the Earth he had thereby as good a Right to the Title of God's only begotten Son as Christ himself had because God immediately formed him of the substance of a Woman Wherefore his peculiar Right above all others to this glorious Title of God's only begotten Son must necessarily be founded upon some higher Reason than this that is upon some such Reason as is wholly peculiar to himself For if he be really and truly God's only begotten Son all other Persons whatsoever must necessarily be excluded from that Claim and consequently he must be so begotten of God as no other Person is or ever was And to be so begotten of God is to be begotten by him by a proper and natural Generation which is nothing else but a vital Production of another in the same Nature with him from whom it is produced even as a Man begets a Man and every Animal begets another of the same Kind and Nature with it self And thus to be begotten of God is to be begotten into the same divine Nature with himself to derive or communicate from him the infinitely perfect Nature and Essence of a God And in this Sense only our blessed Saviour is the only begotten Son of the Father as being generated by him from all Eternity into the same Nature and communicating from him his own infinite Essence and Perfections in which sense he is truly the only begotten Son because in this Sense and in this only none is or was or ever shall be begotten of the Father but himself When therefore it is said that he gave his only begotten Son the Meaning is this he gave up that infinitely great and dear Son of his that is his natural Image and Resemblance that only Son to whom from all Eternity he hath communicated his own most perfect Essence and Nature If then it was so great an Instance of Abraham's Faith and ardent Love of God at his Command to offer up his only Son Isaac a Son who though how hopeful soever yet who fell infinitely shorter of the Perfection of our Saviour than the Light of the Glow-worm doth of the Light of the Sun what an astonishing Miracle of Love was it in the great Father of the World to give up his only begotten Son a Son whom he had begotten in his own divine Nature and to whom he had communicated all the infinite Perfections of his own Being a Son who was the most perfect Image of himself who was infinitely powerful and wise and good and differed from him in nothing but only in being his Son who had the Fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him and whom being infinitely perfect as himself he loved as infinitely as his own Person and consequently could as easily have given up himself for us as he did that dearly Beloved in whom his Soul was so well pleased Who but a God of infinite Love and immeasurable Inclination to do good to his Creatures would have given them such an inestimable Jewel out of his Bosom a Jewel wherein all the Brightness of the Divinity did sparkle and which upon that Account was as dear and precious to him as his own Life And hence we find the Apostle valuing the Greatness of God's Love to us by the Greatness and Dearness of the Person whom he gave up for our sakes in this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him 1 Joh. iv 9 And indeed without this Consideration of his being the only begotten Son of God by eternal Generation and Communion of Nature with him God's Love in giving him up for us would not be comparably so considerable as it is For if according to the Doctrin of the Socinians he should only have caused a Man to be born for us after another manner than