say upon found grounds the Lord is my Portion Psal 16.5 Like the Tree that Moses cast into the Waters of Marah Exod. 15.23 It makes those bitter Waters sweet and puts more Joy in my Heart than in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased Psal 4.6 But if it please him together with the Light of his Countenance to give me a competency of Externals to feed me with Food convenient for me with Agar Prov. 30.8 though with David Psal 23. my Cup runs not over yet if the Lord be the Portion of my Cup Psal 16.5 O Lord shouldest thou deny me all things even necessary for my present subsistence yet I have Portion enough in thy Favour and the Light of thy Countenance for which I owe thee more than all the thankfulness and strength of my Soul and such a Portion as would bear up my Heart in the midst of all my Exigences When thy Son bore our Nature in the Flesh though the sence of thy Love supported him yet he wanted things of convenience he became poor that we might be rich But if it shall please God to add the Blessings of his left hand to the Blessings of his right hand as rather than deny me the latter I beseech thee give me not the former If he shall bless me in the Fruit of my Body and my Ground and command a Blessing upon my Store-houses and all that I set my hand unto Deut. 28.4 8. I will learn to serve the Lord my God with joyfulness and gladness of Heart for the abundance of all things Deut. 28.47 to contemplate and bless that good hand of God that giveth me power to get Wealth Deut. 8.18 To look with more comfort and delight upon that Hand that gives than in the very Blessing that is given to set a watch over that evil and deceitful Heart of mine that is able to turn my Blessing into my Snare to beware lest when all that I have is multiplied my Heart be lifted up and I forget the Lord my God Deut. 8.13 14. To beware lest when my Riches increase I set my Heart upon them Psal 62.10 and trust in uncertain Riches 1 Tim. 6.17 To remember that I am but a Fiduciary a Steward of them they are not given me to look upon but to use them as one that must give an account of them to watch over my self that I use them soberly with moderation and as in his presence that I turn not the Grace and Bounty of God into Excess or Wantonness to look upon all the Goodness Comfort and Use of them as flowing from the Blessing and Commission that God sends along with them Eccles 2.24 That a man should make his soul enjoy good in his labour this also is from the hand of God To beware that the multiplication of Blessings do not rob my Creator of one grain of that Love Service and Dependance that I owe unto him to carry a loose affection towards them for it is infallibly true that where the Heart is truly set upon God and makes him his Portion it enables a Man equally to bear all Conditions because the object of his Soul is immutable and invaluable though his external Condition alter an accession of Externals may carry up such a Soul in a more sensible apprehension of the Goodness of him whom the Soul loves it cannot steal away one jot of that Love which it owes to the giver the Creature it self is of too low a value to diminish the Love to the Creator a Heart that is rightly principled cannot find any good in the Creature but what he will derive from and carry to the object of his Love. 3. The Pride of Life There are two great Cardinal Truths whereof if the Mind be soundly convinced it puts a Man in a right frame and temper of Spirit in the whole course of his Life 1. That there is an essential universal Subjection due from all Creatures to the Will and Power of God This is the ground of all true Obedience and all true Humility which is nothing else but a putting of the Mind into a Posture and frame answerable to that Position wherein by Nature it is framed a conformity of the Mind to the Truth and Station wherein it is set 2. That all Goodness Beauty and Perfection is originally in God and nothing of Good Beauty or Perfection is in any thing but derivatively from him according to that measure that he is freely pleased to communicate This keeps the Heart in a continual Love of him Dependance upon him and Thankfulness unto him From the Ignorance of those is the ground of all the Pride in the World which is nothing else but a false placing of the Mind in such a Condition or Station or the opinion of such a Station wherein in truth he is not and so it disorders the Mind it makes a Man that is essentially subordinate to God and depending upon him to place himself above God and to be independent upon him And though this false opinion cannot alter his condition in truth for he that hath said My Will shall stand cannot be removed by the pride or resistance of Man yet as to the Man himself it puts him out of his place and in the room of God And therefore above all other distempers of the Soul this is the most hateful to God for as the proud Man resisteth God and labours to get into his place so God resisteth him 1 Pet. 5.5 Prov. 3.24 And this Ignorance or not full subscription to these two Truths will appear to be the foundation of all the Pride in Men. 1. From the Ignorance of the former of the subjection we owe to God proceeds that Pride that manifests it self in Rebellion and Disobedience against God. God challengeth the subjection of our Wills to his as justly he may and Man will have his own Will take place Jer. 42.14 No but we will go into the â—and of Egypt Luke 19.14 We will not have this Man to rule over us And as among Men Pride is the Mother of Contention because it puts a Man out of that place wherein he is and he doth consequently put himself in the place of another and thence come Contentions so from this Pride of Men putting themselves into the place of God comes the contention between God and man He that hath said he will not give his Glory to another will not give his Place to his Creature but resisteth the proud And from this ignorance of that subjection we owe to God proceeds that Haughtiness and Arrogance which we find in the Spirits of Men Exod. 5.2 Who is the Lord that I should let the people go Job 21.15 What is the Almighty that we should serve him Dan. 3.15 Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands This Ignorance was that which bred that haughty speech in Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.30 Is not this great Babylon c. Till God by his immediate hand
Vultures have not seen the great God alone gave Man his End and appointed the way to that End we had once the knowledge of both but have lost it and we must owe the discovery of it to the Author of it And to Man he said Behold the Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Vnderstanding Job 18.28 6. It doth discover the whole Duty of Man to his Maker to himself and to others far beyond all other Books or Documents in the World. Man by his Sin hath lost the greatest part of his Light and Perfection his own discoveries of his Duty are lame and imperfect and till the God that first planted these Principles of Knowledge and Conformity to his Will give us a new Copy of them we shall never clearly attain unto them in our knowledge or practice There are these Eminencies touching Moral Precepts which this Book of God hath above all other Books in the World. 1. No other Book in the World doth discover the true ground of the Obligation unto Moral Precepts The Moral Philosopher perswades me to Temperance to Justice but what Obligation lies upon me for it If he tells me That it is his own Authority my Answer is He hath none over me more than I have over him If he tells me the Law under which I live binds me to it I shall enquire what binds me to observe those Laws but Power which if I can avoid by the like power or secrecy I am not bound or my own Consent which I am as well Master of as I was before I consented If he tells me the Law of Nature binds me I am still unsatisfied who gave that Law or when or to whom and there the Philosopher is to seek as well of my Conviction as of my Obedience But this Book shews what that Law is from whence the Obligation of Obedience to it ariseth even from that most Just and Uncontroulable Authority that God hath over his Creature 2. No other Book or Learning in the World perswades the observance of those Laws it injoyns with the like convincing and satisfying grounds of Reason that this doth The highest ground that ever Moral Philosopher could fetch to perswade to submit to Moral Precepts were but one of these viz. The Reputation and general esteem of Men which dies with me and while it lives is nothing else but a Fancie and contains no Reality or the Cohortion of the Laws which if I can avoid with secrecy or force I escape the strength of the Perswasion or that Congruity that sound Moral Precepts hold with Prudence and the permanent enjoyment of good here for it is a most certain Truth as appears before That the due observation of the Rules of right Reason hath a most clear connexion with Happiness in this Life and that the violation of these Precepts of Nature do necessarily introduce a loss of temporal Felicity These are the highest Motives of Obedience to these humane Documents But let us look upon the Motives that the very same Precepts are enforced with in this Book of God we shall find them of a higher Constitution we are there shewn they are commanded by that God to whom we owe our Being and therefore may justly challenge our Obedience as his Tribute by that God from whom we daily receive our Preservation and Mercies and therefore may justly expert the return of our Love and Thankfulness in the Observance of his Will by that God that hath annexed a Sanction to the breach of his Law which he both can and will inflict this may startle our Fear by that God that hath propounded and promised a Reward to our Obedience both in this Life and a future which he will certainly confer this doth quicken our Hope These and the like grounds and motives of Obedience fall upon the most active Affections with the most powerful and rational Perswasion and are able to conquer more difficulties in the Obedience of these very Precepts that are materially the same than all those faint and thin Perswasions that the wisest of Men could ever teach The great God that knows the frame of the Soul of Man hath not only given rational Laws to lead him to his great End and rational Means to draw out his Obedience by appointing Rewards or Punishments of his Obedience or Disobedience but also by the same Wisdom of his planted in him Affections which might be proper to receive the impressions of those Rewards and Punishments and by this Word of his conveys those Notions into his Heart which stick upon those active Affections of Love Hope and Fear in the most exact full and adequate manner This is therefore none else but the Finger of God. And this is not only evinced by the Threatnings and Promises in this Book but by the Historical part of it applying the Truths of both wherein we may see unriddled most of the varieties of Events that fall upon a People or Person especially knowing God which without this Light seem to be confused and meerly contingent Israel sins Israel is punished she repents and is delivered We are shewn by the very Historical passages of the Old Testament that when we are punished we eat but the fruit of our own ways 3. As the Eminence of the Scripture above other Learning and consequently its Original is discovered in the two former so in this that it doth distinctly and clearly evidence and set forth those Moral Precepts which are confusedly and imperfectly only delivered by the best of humane Writers especially in the Worship of God All agree God is to be worshipped but when they come to shew how then they are to seek for indeed as it is folly for any one to think that there can be any Worship of God acceptable but what is agreeable to his Will so it is vain to think that this Will of his could be discovered by any but himself And from the want of this grew Idolatries and other Vanities in Worship 4 The original of the Scriptures is discovered in this that it doth contain in it Precepts of a higher Constitution and therefore of a higher Pedegree than the best of all humane Learning ever did arrive unto such as are the Cleansing of the Heart and Thoughts from all Sin That the Formality of Sin consists in the Will even before it expresseth it self in Act That the outward Conformity of the Act to Vertue without the internal Conformity of the Will and Mind is but Hypocrisie and the seeming vertuous Action is at least dead and not of value if not sin That a Vertuous Action done out of any other End than in Obedience and Love to God that enjoyns it is not an Action rightly Principled nor acceptable to God The right directing of our Passions and Affections that nothing is worthy of our intense Love but God that nothing deserves our Hate but Sin and therefore teacheth us in the former to despise the World in the
Corruption and the concurrence of the Prince of the Air it becomes our Misleader being filled with Errors and mistakings or our Tormentor being filled with horror and desperation and it is the great work of God in our renovation to restore the Conscience to his primitive office and place by taking away the guilt of sin which kept the Conscience in a continual storm Heb. 10.2.22 and by purging the Conscience from the pollutions and corruptions of sin Heb. 9.14 purging the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God. 3 In the Will there is irregularity upon a double ground 1. By reason of that Corruption that is in the Understanding for the prosecution or aversation of the Will are much qualified and ruled according to the Light that is in the Understanding and if that Light be Darkness and Error then there must necessarily follow a miscarriage in the Will. 2. By reason of that Captivity that is in the Will unto the Law of Sin and of the Flesh God gave unto Man a righteous Law which was to be the Law and Rule of his Mind and Will and while it was conformable to this it was conformable to the Will of God and so beautiful and regular But in stead thereof there is a Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8.2 Rom. 7.21 and this Law subdues the Law of the Mind and brings the Soul into captivity to the Law of Sin Rom. 7.23 And the Will being thus captivated is made carnal and filled with enmity against God and that Law which he once planted in us to be the Rule of our Will so that it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8.7 nay the Will is so much mastered and possessed by this Old Man and his Law that when it meets with the Law of God coming into the Soul it takes occasion thereby to work in the Soul all manner of Concupiscence Rom. 7.6 out of malice and policy to make that Law which comes to rescue the Soul more odious to the Soul and the Soul to it as Conquerours use to introduce Laws Customs and Languages of their own the more to estrange the conquered from any memory of their former duty or freedoms And when Christ comes into the Soul he rescues the Will from this Captivity and from the Dominion of Sin though not from the Inherence and Residence of it and doth by degrees waste and diminish that very inherence of sin Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have Dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace and plants and supports another Law in us even the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ which maketh us free from the Law of Sin and of Death Rom. 8.2 4. In the Affections The great and master Affection of our Soul is our Love and all other Affections are derived from it and in order to it Our Hatred of any thing is because it is contrary and destructive to what we love our Fear of any thing is because it would rob us of what we love our Grief for any thing is because it hath deprived us of what we love And according to the measure of our Love is the measure of our other Affections an intense Love unto any thing makes our Hatred of its contrary equally intense and so for the other Affections In our original Creation our Love was rightly placed upon God the only deserver of our Love and our Love was rightly qualified it was a most intense Love The Law and Command of God Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy might was but the Copy of that Law that was written in our Nature And our Love thus rightly placed and rightly qualified did tutor all the rest of our Passions and Affections both in their objects and degrees It taught us to hate Sin and that with a perfect hatred because contrary to the Mind of that God whom we did perfectly love and it taught us to hate nothing else but Sin because nothing but that had a contrariety unto God. But when we fell our Love lost its object and all the Affections thereby became misplaced and disordered And though we lost the object of this Affection yet we lost not the Affection it self our Love therefore having lost his guide wanders after something else and takes up our selves and makes that the object of our Love. But as our Love is misplaced in respect of its object so it mistakes in its pursuit of that object no Man can truly love himself that doth not truly love God because the true effect of Love is to do all the Good it can to the thing it loves Now the chiefest Good to our selves is only our Conformity unto God's Will and consequently our Love to him wherein consists our Happiness But it is no marvel that having forsaken the true object of our Love and chosen our selves to be that object we are likewise mistaken in the seeking of our own Good Rom. 1.26 Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator For this cause God gave them up to vile affections Now every man that terminates his Love upon himself serves and worships himself And now that order which God planted being broken it is no wonder that all confusion and disorder falls among our Affections And now our Love being misplaced all the rest of our Affections are likewise misplaced and out of order Now the right frame of our Love and consequently the corruption of it consists in three things 1. In the ultimate Object of our Love it ought to be settled upon God and upon him only 2. In the Order of our Love it ought to be set upon God and upon him first and all other things may be loved but yet in him and after him 3. In the Degree of our Love our chiefest and most intense Love must be set upon God and upon him only And these are most rational and natural Conclusions as appears before Now the Old Man in our Affections consists in the absence and deprivation of this Order that God hath set 1. The deprivation of the first when either we love not God at all or which is all one when we make him not the Ultimate Object of our Love but love him meerly in reference to our selves the consequence whereof is that if God be not in all things subservient to those things we conceive most conducible to our own good we disobey him we murmure against him we blaspheme him we hate him If the basest Lust Pleasure Content come in competition with his Command it shall conquer it because we have made our selves our Ultimate and Chief End and therefore shall certainly prefer any thing that we think most conducible to this End. And certainly he that makes himself his Ultimate End and the chief object of his Love cannot chuse but fail in
let thy words be few seasonable considerate true 4. Set a Watch upon thine Appetite it is of it self natural and consequently good but the distemper of our Nature hath put it out of its place and consequently out of its bounds Suspect thy Appetite and keep it under with Rules of Moderation put a Knife to thy Throat Prov. 23.2 look not upon the Wine when it gives its colour in the Cup Prov. 23.31 love not sleep Prov 20.13 and with Rules of Seasonableness the wise Man tells us every thing is beautiful in its time Eccles 3.11 because it is then in that order which God hath appointed for it the same Action that may be but tolerable and indifferent in one time may be necessary in another and sinful in another Isaiah 22.12 13. In that day did the Lord call for weeping and mourning and behold slaving of oxen surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die 2 Sam. 11.11 The Ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents c. shall I then go down to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife Regulate thy Reason by the Word and Counsel of God and discipline thy Appetite with thy Reason observe its motions and check them Rather deny it a lawful than countenance it in but a disputable Liberty CHAP. XX. Of Watchfulnes over our Affections and Passions of Love Anger and Fear 5. SET a Watch upon thine Affections and Passions Thy Affections are by thy natural corruption become inordinate Affections they are easily misplaced and more easily over-acted Take heed to thy Love according to the order or disorder of this Affection are all thy other Affections tempered See therefore that it be rightly placed Dispence thy Love in measures proportionable to the worth of the Object Nothing can challenge thy intensest Love but the intensest Good and that God that requires thy Heart is a jealous God let not out the whole Current of thy Affections upon any thing below him Lawful Pleasures natural Relations Conveniences in the World a Man 's own self may be Objects of a moderate and subordinate Love But when they take up the whole compass of our Love our Love becomes our Sin Matth. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me 1 John 2.15 If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 2 Tim. 3.2 4. lovers of themselves and lovers of Pleasures ranked amongst the worst of Men. When the Affection of thy Soul is moving after any thing before thou give it leave examine the Object whether worthy of any measure of thy Love and if so yet let it not go without a farther debate Consider the measure of Good that is in the Object and weigh out its proportion of Love answerable to the measure of its Good But rest not there neither remember it is but a subordinate a derivative Good as well as a measurable Good bestow not that measure of thy Love upon it absolutely but subordinately catechise thy Love with this Question Whether if thy Creator requires thee to hate that Object to forgo it to forsake it thou canst be better content to call home thy Affection than to let it rest where it is By this time and by this means thy Love will be under a discipline and a rule and the Precipitancy of this Affection beyond its due Proportion allayed and moderated And remember always it is the impotency of our Condition and the great cause of the disorders in our Souls and Lives that we are contented to give our Affections leave upon the first apprehension to pursue their Objects without debate lest we should interrupt the expectation of Contentment by a clear discovery of the unworthiness and vanity of the Object and the ill consequences of immoderation in the pursuit thus we are contented to deceive our selves with the Felicity of false Expectation rather than by pre-consideration to avoid a real Inconvenience or Disappointment Take heed to thine Anger Be angry but sin not Ephes 4.26 keep it not too long nor act it too far lest it prove Hatred Revenge Oppression Order thy Anger so that it may be rather an act of thy Judgment than of thy Perturbation If thou art provoked by an Injury before thou give a Commission to this Passion propose to thy self the Question which God asked Jonah Jonah 4.9 Dost thou well to he angry weigh well the Cause and remember thou art partial to thy self and apt to construe that for a just Provocation which it may be was none or deserved Suspect thy Judgment of Partiality put thy self in the others Condition before thou judgest remember that he that doth thee the Injury is but God's Instrument 2 Sam. 16 10. Because the Lord hath said unto him Curse David who then shall say Wherefore hast thou done so It may be his Injury is God's Justice and then thy Anger against the Instrument is Rebellion or at best it may be his Experiment of thy Patience and then thy Anger is Disobedience Remember the just occasions of Anger thou hast given to thy Creator and yet his Patience to thee and shouldest thou not have compassion on thy fellow servant Matth. 18.33 Remember thy Redeemer that bought thee with the Sacrifice of his Soul hath given thee another Precept Matth. 5.44 Love your Enemies and another Example who when he was reviled reviled not again and canst thou deny the denial of Passion for his sake Remember thy gentleness will more advantage thee than thy anger it may be he will be conquered with thy Patience and revenge thy Quarrel against himself with his Repentance but if not there is a God of Vengeance can and will do it Rom. 12.19 When a Man takes up the Office of his Judge he injures both the Judge and Party and in stead of doing himself right he makes himself guilty Again if thou doest well to be angry dost thou well to be angry so much or so long The Wise Man tells us That Anger resteth in the bosom of Fools Set a Watch therefore over thy Anger let it be just and moderate and let not the Sun go down on thy wrath Ephes 4.26 Set a Watch upon thy Fear There is nothing deserves thy fear of Reverence but thy Creator nâ— thy fear of Aversion but thy Sin If thy Peace he made with him thou art above the Fear of any thing below him objects of Terror shall not come near thee the Beasts of the Field shall be at peace with thee or if they are not they shall not hurt thee The terriblest things in the World are therefore terrible because they end in Death the King of Terrors And when thy Peace is made with thy Lord thou hast a double Security against them 1. Because they are in the hands of his Power and Wisdom and they cannot exceed their Commission that he gives them he can if it please him dissipate whole Armies of
Terrors by the least word of his Power 2. But if their Commission extend to thy very Life yet the Son of God hath taken away that sting that terror that is in Death hath by his own Death sanctified Death unto thee and made it a door unto a better Life so that Death though in it self terrible and bitter yet this Tree being himself cast into this bitter Water Exod. 15.25 hath sweetned them and as he hath taken away the Venome of it by destroying that Serpent that had the power of it Heb. 2.14 so he hath made it though not for it self yet in respect of him that stands on the other side of this Gulf with Immortality and Glory in his hand desirable Phil. 1.23 Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better It is true thou art pursued with an Army of Egyptians of Sins and of Miseries and when thou comest to the Shore thou seest a raging and a bloody Sea But remember thou hast an Angel even the Angel of the Covenant that hath gone before and yet goes with thee and turns this Sea into a Passage of Ease and Safety and though of either side the Waves may affright thy Sense they shall not hurt thee and remember that though thy Passage may be difficult and troublesome yet thou hast not as once the Israelites a Wilderness behind it but a Canaan Therefore in all Objects or Occurrences of Terror first look inward and see how the case stands between thy God and thy Conscience indeed if there remain a Guilt unwashed by the Blood of Christ a secret sin entertained and not repented of thou hast cause to fear because thy Lord is angry But if thou keep thy daily Watch upon thy Soul and thy Life if thou find the presence of thy Saviour in thy Soul and thy Heart though of it self a sinful Heart yet cleansed and delivered from the power of any evil way an honest Heart acted by the love of God in Christ thou mayest then look above them and having thine Eye fixed upon the Lord of Events walk quietly and untroubled through the midst of those dangers that do incompass thee It is true that in the great Concussions of the World God expects a suitable affection even from the most innocent Heart an affection of Reverence and awe of his Presence and working Jeremiah 10.7 Who would not fear thee O king of nations But the fear of an honest Heart is the fear of Reverence not of Consternation a Fear mingled with Love a Fear mingled with Faith and confidence a Fear mingled with Praise and Glorifying God a Fear terminated in the great Lord that works not in the Instrument not in the immediate Object of Terror a Fear mingled with Comfort not over-run with distraction When therefore thou meetest with Objects of Fear first learn to distinguish their kinds some there are that come as it were from the immediate hand of God such are Famine Pestilence Wars Fires Inundations Earthquakes and the like entertain them with Reverence to the great and Just and Powerful hand of God not slightly or saucily or presumptuously yet without consternation or distraction of Mind carry up thy Soul above the Objects to the Hand that guides them make him thy Dependance and his Will the measure of thine own under them use all warrantable means with Dependance upon his Power and Submission to his Will to avoid them The wise Man seeth the Plague and hideth himself Prov. 22.3 Prov. 27.12 If thou escape the danger bless the God that hath preserved thee if thou fall in them yet still bless the God that hath not left thee and value ten thousand Deaths with his Presence and Light upon thy Soul above the most sublimated Life without it Again there are some Objects of Fear which though they are guided and mastered by the hand of God yet they are immediately the works of Men and so less terrible such are wrought by the power oppression cruelty and malice of Men these may and ought to be entertained with more resolution and confidence That one Example may serve for all when the power and injustice of Man shall meet with an unarmed and weak innocence Dan. 3.16 O Nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand O king But if not be it known unto thee O king we will not serve thy Gods As if they should have said It is true thou art a King and where the word of a King is there is Power and to magnifie thy self and thy Glory in the face of thy Kingdom thou hast taken up this publick Resolution of the Dedication of thine Idol and this thy Purpose is stablished by a Decree a Mischief framed by a Law and this Decree armed with Death and a cruel and terrible Death we know we cross thy proud and impious Will impatient of the seeming neglect of thy Power by three poor despised Hebrews in the midst of thy Glory and People we see fury and rage enough in thy countenance to devour us before the Furnace be hot we see thy Courtiers adding fewel to thy rage and thy Instruments greedily catching after the least Warrant from thee for our Execution and we are compassed with Flesh and Blood which cannot but shrink at the preapprehension of this inevitable and terrible dissolution yet for all this know that we have learned to tutor our Fear not to fear a Man that shall die and the Son of Man that shall be made as Grass Isa 51.11 we have learned that the fear of Man bringeth a snare but he that trusteth in the Lord shall be safe Prov. 29.25 And therefore we are not much perplexed what Answer to return to these thy Commands and Threats we serve that God in whose hand thou art as the Ax or the Saw in his hand that shaketh it in whose hand thy Breath is and he can command away thy Breath and then what becomes of thy Word that Lord in whose hand thy Heart is and he can turn it as the River of Water and can set thy Command against thy Decree that God in whose hands are the issues of death and who can arm an inconsiderable Occurrence to divert and frustrate thy Purpose in whose hands are all the Powers of Heaven and Earth and can correct and controll that Fire which thou intendest for the execution of thy Fury And this is the God whom we serve and hath made a Covenant with us to preserve us in the Fire and we are no less confident of his Love and of his Truth than of his Wisdom and Power to deliver us he hath taught us that he is a present help in trouble Psal 46.1 that if we call upon him in the day of trouble he will deliver us Psal 50.15 Psalm 91.15 that in the Fire he will be with us and
me not keepeth not my Sayings Now our Love to God ariseth upon two Grounds 1. From a Sense of the Perfection and Beauty and Purity and Excellency that is in him and in this respect our Love to him cannot chuse but move the Heart to desire to be like unto him as far forth as is or can be communicable to our Nature and Condition for whatsoever I love in another that is communicable unto me I cannot chuse but desire to be in my self 1 Pet. 2. Be ye holy for I am holy and this Love of that Goodness that is in God doth bring the Heart nearer to him for Love is a Motion unto Union and as we come nearer to that Purity of his it doth in some measure assimilate the Soul unto himself because his Goodness and Brightness is an assimilating active communicative Goodness and from this nearness to him doth grow much of our Holiness here and all our Happiness hereafter 1 John 3.2 We shall bâ— like him for we shall see him as he is 2 Cor. 3.18 But we with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory Our Love to God works in the Soul a desire of Union with him and likeness to him which is a kind of Union and that approximation to him doth derive from him an impression of his own Nature and likeness unto him 2. The ground of our Love to God is the Sense of that Love that he hath shewen to us 1 John. 4.19 We love him because he loved us first and this is a Love of Gratitude or Thankfulness arising from the full Sense of the undeserved and wonderful Love of God to his unworthy Creature revealed and dispensed in Jesus Christ and this cannot chuse but put the Soul into such kind of thoughts and purposes as these O Lord at first I received my Being from thee and when I had forfeited my Being and my Blessedness to thee thou wast patient towards me and didst not take that forfeiture which thou justly mightest thou wast merciful to me and didst pitty and forgive me and when I was in my Blood thou saidst unto me Live thou was bountiful unto and didst not only pardon me but restore me to that Blessedness which I unthankfully lost and thus thou didst without my seeking even when I was Senseless and knew not my own Misery when I was obstinate and would not have it and this thou didst not by an ordinary means but thy Love did send the Son of thy love to become my Sacrifice and my Righteousness and canst thou require any thing of me that can bear any proportion to so great Love If thou shouldest call for that Being again which thou hast thus freely given me I should but return unto thee that which is thine own But after all this what dost thou require of me but to do justly and love Mercy to walk humbly with my God Such a Service wherein consists my own Happiness and Perfection a conformity unto thy Beauty and Purity If the Service that thou shouldest have enjoyned me had been a Service mingled with my own Dishonour Shame Misery Ruin thy Love to me had deserved and commanded this from me how much more when all thou requirest from my Leprous Soul is but Wash and be clean I will bless thy Name for that Love which thou shewest to me in my Redemption from so great a Death and I will bless thy Name that thou art pleased to injoyn thy Creature such a Service wherein consists his Beauty and Perfection a reasonable Service and that thou art pleased to accept that as a Tribute unto thee which inricheth thy Creature by paying it even our Conformity to thy most Righteous and Holy Will and I will endeavour in the whole Course of my Life in the whole frame and temper of my Soul to express my Thankfulness to thee in the watchful universal diligent and sincere Conformity unto that will of thine and blessed be thy Name that hast given thy poor Creature an opportunity of expressing his Sense of thy Love in so reasonable a Service 2. Fear of God likewise cleanseth the Heart Psal 19.9 The fear of God is clean Prov. 8.13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil Prov. 16.16 By the fear of the Lord Men depart from evil And this was Joseph's fence against Temptations of all kinds Gen. 39.9 How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against the Lord and his highest security to his Brethren of keeping his Promise Gen 42.18 This do and live for I fear God. Now this fear of God is wrought upon the precedent Act of Faith in a double Relation 1. As it presents God unto the Soul in his Purity Majesty Power Justice and Presence even in the innermost and darkest Chambers of our Hearts And this Consideration becomes even the exactest Christian always to have about him for all the strongest ingagements even upon every Affection are too little God knows to fence and ward the Soul against the Corruptions within it and the Temptations without it And this Consideration will most opportunely bespeak the Soul in this manner Consider what thou art doing thou art now going about to purpose or do that which thy Creator forbids thee and thou art in the Presence of that God before whom all things are naked and manifest Heb. 4.13 whose eyes are upon all the ways of Man and he seeth all his goings Job 32.21 and his eyes are therefore upon his ways that he may give every Man according to his works Job 32.18 Consider thou art in his Presence that is a consuming Fire and a jealous God Deut. 4.24 A great God and a mighty and terrible that regardeth not Persons nor taketh rewards Deut. 10.27 That hath said that When any Man heareth the words of this Curse and shall bless himself in his Heart saying I shall have Peace though I walk in the immagination of my Heart the Lord will not spare him but his jealousie shall smoak against that man Deut. 29.19 20. That hath Justice and Wisdom and Truth and Power enough to fulfil and execute the most exquisite seasonable and unavoidable Vengeance upon any contemner of his Will and this is the God whom thou a Creature that art nothing in his hands art about to offend Consider this thou that forgettest God lest he tear thee in pieces and there be none to deliver thee But 2. Fear is a Fruit of Love and though we are not to neglect the former yet we must be sure to entertain this perfect Love casts out fear a fear of punishment but not a fear of sin a fear of a Malefactor not the fear of a Child And upon this Consideration this affection upon any Temptation thus bespeaks the Soul Consider what thou art now setting about It is that thy Lord thy Redeemer forbids thee he that hath died for thee to rescue thee from thy vain Conversation how
that belongs to another thy heavenly Father knoweth thou hast need of all these things he is thy Father and therefore is willing to furnish thee with what shall be convenient for thee and he is thy Heavenly Father that wants not Power to do it he can supply thee in the ordinary way of his Providence and if there be need he can do it by the extraordinary work of his Power he can command Water out of a dry Rock as to the Israelites or out of a dry Bone as to Samson he can give thee Bread from Heaven he can feed Elijah by a Raven and can extend the Widows Barrel of Meal and Cruise of Oyl as large as the time and exigence of her Necessity Save thy self therefore the trouble of an unnecessary Care but commit thy way unto the Lord Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass Thy Care may rob thy self of thy quietness and may rob thy God of his due but it is thy Dependance only upon him that can with ease and contentedness supply thy wants Diligence and Industry in that lawful Employment wherein his Providence hath placed thee is thy Duty and therefore observe it but Sollicitousness and Anxiousness is thy Sin and therefore avoid it Learn to obey him in what he commands and learn to wait upon him in what he promises 2. In our Love Set not thy Heart upon thy Wealth Psal 62.10 nor make it thy Treasure for if thou dost it will be master of thy Heart for where thy Treasure is there will thy Heart be Matth. 6.21 and if thy Heart be full of thy Wealth there will be no room for thy God Matth. 6.24 Ye cannot serve God and Mammon and If any Man love the world the Love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 If the World have thy Love it will command thy Service and controll whatsoever opposeth that Command and break through all those Fences which seem to bridle or hedge in the pursuit of that World which thou so lovest Hath God set apart a time for his own Service thy love of the World will rob him of his own time Amos 8.5 When shall the new moon be gone that we may sell corn and the sabbath that we may set forth wheat and in the day of his fast thou wilt exalt all thy labours Isa 58.3 Doth he require a portion of our Goods for his Service thou wilt be ready to rob God of his Portion Mal. 3.8 or deceive him in it and sacrifice to the Lord a corrupt thing Malach 1.14 Hath he set apart a peculiar place for his Worship thou wilt be ready with Jeroboam to set up Calves in Dan and Bethel 1 Kings 12.26 to secure thy self in the enjoyment of thy temporol Advantage Hath he imprinted his own Superscription and Image upon Man with a strict prohibition of the violation of that Image Gen. 9.6 Yet if thou become one that is greedy of Gain it will prompt thee to take away the Life of the Owner that thou mayest be his Successor Prov. 1.19 Job 31.39 It will make thee grind the faces of the Poor sell them for a pair of old Shoes set Justice to sale sell thy Master with Judas for a small inconsiderable Gain And thus the Love of the World is the root of all evil for as all the Good in Man is the Conformity to the Will of God so whatsoever interrupts this Conformity must needs be an original of Evil and this is done by the Love of the World which makes a Man reject this Conformity when it is inconsistent with that imperious Love of the World. 3. In our Confidence And this is always a concomitant of our Love to them and our Care for them for these grow out of a mistaken over-valuation of them and as that carries on our care for them and love of them so in the fruition of them upon this mistaken Estimate grows a Confidence in them Psal 49.6 They trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches Prov. 18.11 the rich man's wealth is his strong city and as an high wall in his own conceit And this was the ground of the rich Man's solacing himself in the Gospel Thou hast enough laid up for many years eat drink and be merry And from hence it is likewise that Covetousness is Idolatry for that is in truth thy God upon which thou most trustest if in a time of Prosperity thy Confidence is high and built upon thy Power or thy Wealth or thy carnal Confederacies and if in the dissipation of these thy Soul dies within thee and thy Hope is like the giving up of the Ghost it is plain the World is thy God for thy Confidence doth rise and fall and live and die with it Therefore take heed of laying the weight of thy Confidence upon the World Psal 62. Trust not in oppression c. Power belongeth only to God. Prov. 11.14 Riches profit nothing in the day of wrath 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches If God give thee Wealth and Riches look upon them as his Blessing and look upon that good and usefulness that is in them as that which comes not from themselves but from the Blessing of God and which he can when he please withdraw from them and then they will be so far from being a ground of Confidence as that they will be thy snare and occasion of thy ruine and not a foundation of thy strength Look upon them as things that cannot benefit thee in themselves whiles thou hast them unless he makes them instrumental and as things which will not abide with thee when he calls for thee or for them for Riches make themselves wings and flee away Prov. 23.5 If thou lean upon them they are a Reed and sink under thy Confidence and a broken Reed that will hurt thee in thy Dependance upon them They will disappoint thy Confidence in them and thy Confidence in them will pierce thee Jer. 2.3 The Lord hath rejected these thy confidences and thou shalt not prosper in them 3. Vnseasonableness 1. In thy Order of seeking of them seek them not in the first place but seek first that one thing which is necessary It is not necessary for thee to be rich but it is necessary for thee to be saved Lâ—t that which is of thy greatest Concernment be the subject of thy first Endeavour Matth. 6.33 Seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall he added unto you Thou hast but a short time here and upon the improvement of that little span of time depends thine everlasting condition of Happiness or Misery And if thou imploy the first-fruits of thy Life in the gain of this World which will certainly die with thee if not before thee who can tell if thou shalt have time enough left for the great
Of the Supream End of Man. Page 61 CHAP. V. Of the Means of attaining the Supream End of Man. Page 80 CHAP. VI. Of the Credibility of the Sacred Scriptures Page 99 The CONTENTS of the CHAPTERS OF THE SECOND PART CHAP. I. OF the Existence and Attributes of God. Page 117 CHAP. II. Of the Acts and Works of God and 1. Of his Eternal Counsel Page 123 CHAP. III. Of the Execution of the Eternal Counsel of God in his Works of Creation and Providence Page 145 CHAP. IV. Of the Providence of God in special concerning Man in order to his supream End. Page 150 CHAP. V. Of the Restitution of Man by Christ Page 169 CHAP. VI. Predictions and Types of Christ Page 176 CHAP. VII Of the Efficacy of the Satisfaction of Christ and the Congruity of it to right Reason Page 195 CHAP. VIII Of the great Work of our Redemption What it is How effected and for whom Page 201 CHAP. IX Of the Means which God hath appointed to make this Sacrifice of Christ effectual viz. Vnion with Christ and how the same is wrought on God's part Page 231 CHAP. X. How our Vnion with Christ is wrought on Man's part viz. By Faith Hope and Love. Page 243 CHAP. XI Why or by what reason the act of Faith worketh our Vnion with Christ and so our Justification in the sight of God. Page 262 CHAP. XII The Effects of our Vnion with Christ Page 268 CHAP. XIII Concerning the putting off the Old Man and 1. What it is Page 276 CHAP. XIV How the Old Man is to be put off and 1. by Repentance Page 288 CHAP. XV. Of Mortification and the Means thereof and 1. Of Meditation Page 295 CHAP. XVI Meditation of the Vnreasonableness of the Dominion of Lust Page 302 CHAP. XVII Of Prayer Page 324 CHAP. XVIII Of Watchfulness and first in respect of God. Page 328 CHAP. XIX Of Watchfulness in respect of our Selves our Senses Words and Appetite Page 332 CHAP. XX. Of Watchfulness over our Affections and Passions of Love Anger and Fear Page 335 CHAP. XXI Of Watchfulness over our Hope Confidence and Joy. Page 343 CHAP. XXII Of Watchfulness over our Grief 1. In reference to God for Sin 2. In reference to Externals Page 353 CHAP. XXIII Of Watchfulness over our Will Conscience and Spirit Page 364 CHAP. XXIV Of the new Life or Sanctification and the necessity of it Page 379 CHAP. XXV Of the Means of Sanctification and 1. On God's part his Word and his Spirit Page 386 CHAP. XXVI Of the Means of Sanctification 2. On Man's part viz. Faith Love Fear Hope Page 392 CHAP. XXVII Of the Extent and Degrees of Sanctification Page 403 CHAP. XXVIII Of the Parts of Sanctification and 1. In reference to our Selves Sobriety Page 413 CHAP. XXIX Of Sanctification in reference to our Neighbour viz. Righteousness the Habit and Rule of it Page 435 CHAP. XXX Of the general Precepts of Righteousness given by Christ and 1. Loving our Neighbour as our self Page 447 CHAP. XXXI Of the second general Precept of Righteousness Doing as we would be done unto A Brief Astract of the Christian Religion Page 461 Considerations Seasonable at all Times for the Cleansing of the Heart and Life Page 475 A SUMMARY Of what is contain'd in this DISCOURSE OF THE Knowledge of GOD and of our Selves PART I. By the Light of NATURE Chap. I. Of the Attributes of God I. OF Knowledge what it is and how wrought Page 1 2 II. That there is a First Being and Cause of all things Page 4 What may thence be deduced concerning it Page 7 viz. 1. His Eternity Page 8 1. Without Beginning ibid. 2. Without Succession ib. 3. Without End. Page 9 2. His Immensity which includes His. 1. Exemption from Circumscription Page 10 2. Omnipresence ib. 3. Exemption from Succession or division of Parts Page 11 3. His Indivisibility in Opposition to 1. Divisibility ibid. 2. Multiplicity ib. 4. Simplicity Page 12 5. Perfection Page 13 Whence it followeth That he is 1. A most pure Act. Page 14 2. A substantial Act. ibid. 3. Ens vivens Page 15 4. An Intellectual Being Omniscient ib. 5. Ens Liberrimum Page 16 6. Ens summe Bonum ib. Whence arise these Conclusions 1. That he is perfectly happy Page 17 2. The supream End of all things Page 18 7. Most just Page 21 9. Immutable Page 24 Chap. II. His Acts Immanent and Emanant Page 25 1. Creation Page 27 28 2. Providence disposing all things to their several Ends. Page 31 In respect of 1. Himself Page 32 2. The things produced viz. ib. 1. Natural Page 33 2. Contingent Page 35 3. Voluntary Page 36 Ch. III. Of Man considerable in 1. What he hath in common with other inferiour Beings Page 40 2. His Eminence above them in his Soul 1. It s Substance which is 1. Immaterial Page 40 2. Immortal Page 41 2. Its Faculties Page 44 Page 1. The Vnderstanding which hath Page 1. A threefold Power 1. A Receptive or Passive Page 45 2. Retentive ib. 3. Active or discussive Page 46 Page 2. Several Acts and Habits as 1. Knowledge Page 46 2. Wisdom Page 48 3. Conscience Page 51 Page 2. The Will its motion in respect of 1. The Object Page 56 2. Principles Page 58 The immediate Cause of Man's miscarriage Page 1. His Vnderstanding Page 2. His Will. Chap. IV. The Supream End of Man I. What viz. a Good commensurate to the Soul and therefore 1. Immaterial Page 63 2. Immortal Page 64 3. Distinct from the Soul it self Page 65 4. A true and real Good. Page 66 5. An infinite and Vniversal Good. ibid. And therefore nothing but God himself Page 67 II. And how that may be that God can be the adequate Object of Man's Felicity Page 68 Chap. V. The Means to attain it 1. What naturally they were ib. 2. Whether still the same Page 84 1. The Defects in 1. His Vnderstanding ib. 2. His Will. Page 89 2. The Consequents Page 92 3. What now for his Restitution Page 93 1. Not any thing in Man or the Creature ib. 2. But by God 96. revealed in The Holy Scriptures 98. their Châ—p VI. 1. Credibility Page 99 2. Contents v. Part 2. OF THE Knowledge of God and of our Selves PART II. By the Sacred Scriptures Pag. 117. THE Contents of the Holy Scriptures concerning I. God 1. His Existence Page 117 2. His Nature and Attributes Page 118 3. Manner of Subsistence Page 122 4. Acts and Works Page 123 II. His Counsel which is 1. Eternal Page 123 2. Immutable Page 125 3. Free. Page 126 4. Wise ibid. Which is eminent in 1. Predetermining the means Page 127 2. So as they move according to their own Nature whether 1. Necessary Page 129 2. Voluntary Page 131 3. Contingent Page 133 3. Independent upon one another ib. 5. Irresistible Page 135 6. Vniversal ib. Two Difficulties How the Predetermination 1. Of the Acts of voluntary Agents can consist with the Liberty of
an actual exercise of right Reason they have in all successions of times and places taken up those Laws of Nature which we call the Moral Law or the most parts of them 2. Touching the-Obligation of these Laws it was twofold 1. From the Injunction and Command of God who had an Universal Infinite and Unlimited Power over his Creature and might most justly require his Obedience And into this Power of God together with his actual Command or Prohibition is all the Obligation of all Laws whether Natural or Positive and of all inferiour Laws Compacts or Agreements to be resolved And without the due consideration of this Mankind is loose Though the natural Congruity of the Moral Law to the Nature of Man might be the means of its Publication it is the Command of God that is and ever was the cause of its Obligation 2. From the Compact and Stipulation of Man. God put into Man's hands a stock both of Blessedness and Liberty and though he might have commanded his Creature and it had bound eternally yet to add the greater engagement upon him he enters into Contract with him concerning his Obedience Hence it is called the Covenant of Works And in all ensuing times when it pleased God to reinforce the Law of Nature or Obedience he doth it by way of Compact or Covenant as well as Command to add another Obligation as well of Contract as Duty And from this grew the Universality of the Guilt that was contracted by Disobedience Adam covenanted for him and his Posterity Rom. 5.19 As the Obedience of Christ is effectual for his Seed by way of Contract and Stipulation with God the Father so was the Disobedience of Adam binding upon his Seed partly by reason of his Contract and Stipulation and so they are made there parallel Sed de hoc infra 3. The Sanction of the Law given to Adam The Violation of any Law given by him that hath Power contracts Guilt that is Obligation to Punishment the measure of this Punishment is that Sanction which God did put upon the Violation of this Law Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die Herein are four Particulars 1. The Offence eating the forbidden Fruit 2. The Punishment Death 3. The Time of the inflicting of it in the day 4. The Extent of it thou shalt die c. Touching the first The thing specially prohibited was eating the forbidden Fruit but that which was in the Mind of God to enjoyn was Obedience to his Command and although this particular was by God made the Experiment of Man's Obedience yet questionless the same Injunction and under the same Penalty was given to Men touching those other Moral Dictates which were received Exod. 20. which lost not their Obligation by the Fall of Man no more than if he had continued in his Integrity Gen. 4.7 If thou dost not well Sin lieth at the door and Verse 14. Cain acknowledgeth Death to be the consequent of that Guilt which he contracted by his Murder Every one that findeth me shall slay me The like of Lamech Verse 23. For the Formality of any Sin as hath been before observed consisteth in the disobedience of the Will to the Command of God By one Mans disobedience sin entred into the World. And as the object of Mans obedience was whatsoever God had injoyned so the disobedience to any one Command had contracted the like Guilt and were under the like Penalty as this though this being purely a positive Command wherein only the Obedience or Disobedience of Man could be seen was that which is here mentioned because that wherein he offended 2. Thou shalt die God made not Death saith the wise Man Wisd 1.14 but Death entred into the world by sin Rom. 5.12 It imports three things 1. A loss or loosning of that strictness of Union which was between the Body and Soul or temporal immortality This is the Argument that the Apostle makes that from the time of Adam's transgression till Moses sin was in the World because Death reigned all that while and in the place before mentioned till sin the Kingdom of Death was not upon the Earth This immortality was not essential to the Nature of man but was freely super-added to it by the Divine Will upon those terms of Obedience and he that gave it might with all imaginable Justice give it upon what terms he pleaseth and he doth it upon terms of Obedience Obedience to himself which but even now gave Man his Being and might justly exact the utmost of his Being Obedience to a Law most possible easie and quadrate to the Powers and Aids given to man Obedience ingaged by a world of Blessedness attending it and an inevitable loss ensuing the breach of it This was his Vegetable loss 2. A loss of that Happiness which accompanied this immortal Being in respect of his Senses viz. an uninterrupted stream of Pleasure and Contentment and instead thereof Shame Gen. 3.7 Pain and Slavery Verse 26. Sorrow Verse 17. anxious and painful Labour Verse 19. a Curse upon the Earth Verse 17. A loss of Eden Verse 23. 3. The withdrawing and stopping of that stream of Light and Love that passed between God and the Soul of man which filled his reasonable faculties brimful of Happiness and Contentment and instead thereof in the understanding darkness distractedness a continued motion to know and yet for want of Light not knowing what to pursue and therefore pursuing trifles and follies In the Will loss of the Good that it before injoyed yet a craving Appetite after somewhat but it knows not what and to satisfie this unsatiable desire takeâ— in whatsoever the Suggestions of the World Flesh and the Devil offers fills it self with Vanity and then with Vexation In the Affections especially our Love it hath lost what did take up the whole Vigour and Comprehension of it and what it loved it injoyed but now raves and boils like the Sea after Follies and changeable and unsatisfying pursuits The Conscience that Chamber of the Soul wherein the beams of the Light and Favour of the Creator and of the Love and Duty of the Creature met as it were in the point or angle of reflection and carried those comfortable Messages of Sincerity and Obedience of the Soul to God and delight and acceptance from God to the Soul is now become the Chamber of Death and like the Spleen to the Body the receptacle of the Melancholy and sad Convictions of a guilty and ungrateful Soul and of an injured and revenging God and pre-apprehensions of farther Misery But if in the midst of Millions of Miseries he could see his Creator inviting him to dependance and recumbance upon him the Miseries were nothing they are born by his strength upon whom he leans But when the Lord of Heaven shall give him a trembling Heart and failing of Eyes and Sorrow of mind as in that most lively Expression he threatens the Jews Deut. 28.65 66 c. and when he
of the Law and Gospel Gal. 3.24 Circumcision typical of that of the Heart Rom. 2.29 Their state in Egypt Typical The Passover a most effectual Type of Christ 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ the true Passover and therefore the Sacrifice of Christ and of the Passover went together Matth. 26. Eaten whole Exod. 12. Not a bone of him to be broken eaten with bitter Herbs typifying Repentance the Blood sprinkled secures from the wrath of God with Hyssop a cleansing Herb Psal 51. Purge me with hyssop a Feast as well as a Sacrifice John 6.55 The Manna a Type of Christ who was that Bread of God that came down from Heaven John 6.33 The hidden Manna Revel 2.17 The Cloud and Red Sea a Type of Baptism into Christ 1 Cor. 10.1 The Jews in Egypt like the state of the unconverted World hence the World called Spiritual Egypt In their Passage out they are entertained with a Sacramental Initiation they are militant in the Wilderness of the World triumphant in Canaan the rest the water out of the Rock a Type of Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 That Rock was Christ But principally the Levitical Law was a shadow of the good things to come in Christ Heb. 8.5 Who was the End of the Law. And as the Judicial Law among the Jews did not only contain Precepts in themselves naturally good but also Typical and Sacramental Observations of that inward Sanctification and frame of Mind that God required so the Levitical Law did not only contain Precepts of that internal habitude of Love Fear and Obedience unto God admirably delivered through the whole Book of Deuteronomy but also divers Types and Figures which had a double use 1. Of evidencing the full Obedience to those Positive Commands of God because commanded by him 2. Figures of Christ to come and of that frame and constitution of Men and things in relation to him as we may observe in divers Particulars 1. The Covenant between God and Israel the Stipulation on God's part Exod. 19.5 If ye will obey my voice and keep my Covenant ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people and ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and an Holy Nation Exod. 34.10 Behold I make a Covenant Before all thy people I will do marvels c. The Stipulation on the Peoples part Exod. 19.8.24.7 All that the Lord hath spoken we will do This is that Covenant which the Lord made with the People in Horeb Deut. 5.2 And the tenor of this Covenant renewed and explained viz. Blessing to Obedience and Curses to Disobedience Deut. 29.10 c. Ye stand this day before the Lord your God that thou shouldest enter into Covenant with â—he Lord thy God and into his oath c. Accordingly in Christ a new Covenant made Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.10 A New Covenant I will put my Laws into their hearts I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People 2. As that Covenant was mutual consisted in somewhat promised by God somewhat undertaken by the People Obedience to the Law that God gave them so the Covenant here is reciprocal In the Gospel of God there is a double Covenant 1. A Covenant between God the Father and God the Son that the Son should take upon him Flesh and satisfie for the sins of the Elect Psal 40.6 Heb. 10.9 A body hast thou prepared me lo I come to do thy will O God on God's part a Covenant that those which should be so redeemed should be given over to Christ and united unto him in the nearest relation that is possible John 17. They whom thou hast given me Verse 21. That they may be one in us But of this more infra 2. A Covenant between God the Father in Christ with Man and this is likewise reciprocal On God's part to give Remission of Sins and Eternal Life in Christ to as many as lay hold of this Covenant John 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that every one that believeth on me should have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day Ibid. 47. He that believeth on me hath everlasting life John 7.37 John 12.44 John 3.36 Rom. 3.28 Heb. 8.10 And because he must make him a People that may entertain the Covenant before he can have a reciprocal from them God gives a heart to believe to those that are his that so they may enter into Covenant with God John 6.29 This is the work of God that ye believe Verse 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me Verse 65. No man can come unto me except it be given of my Father Ephes 2.8 This is the putting of the Law in their Hearts Heb. 8.10 And this part of God's Covenant is made rather for us than with us even with and in Christ in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 For these Promises are Eternal Promises an Eternal Covenant given to Christ for the Elect even before they had a Being or could possibly receive them On the part of the People of Christ there is likewise a Covenant too he hath given us Commandments of Obedience John 13 1â— Love one to another Ibid. Verse 34. If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14.15.21.23 Love to Christ Perseverance John 15.9 10. Bringing forth Fruit Ibid. 16. Doing Righteousness 1 John 2.29 Purifying our selves 1 John 3.3 7.9.10 Crucifying Affections and Lusts Galat. 5.24 Zealous of Good Works Tit. 2.14.3.18 Thus God out of his free Love appoints us to Eternal Life in Christ freely gives Christ to be the purchace of it freely promiseth Life for us in him through Faith freely gives us Faith to come to him which when it is wrought our Covenant again with God is but to return a fruit of his own Grace True Faith in Christ cannot be without a sense of this Love of God nor that without a return of Love to him again nor that without a Care to walk according to his Will for if ye love me ye will keep my Commandments And yet he is pleased to accept and reward the work of his own free Grace as the return of us poor and weak Men. 3. This Covenant was ordained in the hands of a Mediator Gal. 3.19 Moses alone came near the Lord and told the People all the words of the Lord and the People answered with one Voice All the words which the Lord hath said will we do Exod. 24.3 The Second Covenant ordained likewise in the hands of a Mediator even Christ Heb. 12.24 Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant 4. The first Covenant Sealed with Blood Exod. 24.8 Moses took the blood and sprinkled on the people and said Behold the blood of the Covenant thus likewise Christ sealed the second Covenant with his Blood Heb. 9.14 And therefore called the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10.29 The Blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 And the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet.
even seeming Disappointments and Frustrations of the Love of God to Man and the glory of God in him improved to the higher manifestation both of his Love and Glory This is the Lord 's doing and let it ever be marvellous in our Eyes 4. The Congruity of it even to that nature that is in Man. The great God could have over-ruled his Creature to his own Will by his own Power but he rather chuseth to bring him up unto him by such means as are congruous to the nature of his Creature and let in a supernatural Light and Life by natural means and instruments The Son of God takes upon him Flesh and in his Flesh reveals the way and means of Life 1 John 1.1 That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon c. In this Flesh he evidenceth his Love to Mankind suffers dies for them As the Discovery of the Truth by him was most proportionable to our manner of Understanding so was that Love which he shewed to us most winning upon our Wills In this is the love of God made manifest that when we were enemies Christ died for us Greater love than this sheweth no Man. Thus he winneth us with the cords of Love and maketh us willing in the day of his Power especially when this Light and Love is carried home to the Heart with the strength of his own powerful Spirit Man is a compounded Creature of Senses Passions and Spirit and though his Excellence consist in the latter and to the higher Perfection he attains the more spiritual he is yet as he owes even the service of his more inferiour Faculties to his Lord so they were not uselesly placed in him even in reference to his supreme End there is the Excess usually Man is inordinate in the former especially his Senses and that is much evidenced by the proneness of Man to Idolatry and sensual Worship Exod. 32.1 Make us gods that may go before us this Malady the Wise God that knows our frame doth not only cure with severe Comminations and Prohibitions but diverts it he gave the Jews outward Sacrifices and Observations he hath given us Christians his Image in his Son to divert us from Idolatry his Love and Compassion revealed even in our own flesh to take up our Affections and yet by these leads us up to a higher pitch John 6.63 Even by sensual Objects and Expressions he leads up to spiritual It is the Spirit that quickens the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life And this is most evident in the whole Life of Christ for though he still winds up his Auditors to the high and spiritual conceptions yet he is contented to use those motives that work upon the Senses and Passions Miracles Tears Parables Importunities Signs diversity of Tongues Visions of Angels sensual Convictions to Thomas John 20.27 Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and to all his Disciples Luke 24.39 Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self Thus although the Power of God could have wrought his Work in his by an immediate hand he rather chuseth such Means as may bear Congruity with the humane and reasonable Nature of his reasonable Creatures CHAP. VIII Of the great Work of our Redemption What it is How effected and for whom NOW we come to consider the great Work it self of our Redemption by Christ 1. What it is 2. How effected 3. For whom 4. How applyed 5. The Effects wrought by it 1. For the first Man by his Sin incurred a Guilt which bound him over 1. To a necessity of losing the Favour and Presence of God which was to be attained and kept only by Obedience 2. To a necessity of undergoing the wrath of God as the just reward of his Disobedience That Redemption that we now consider must supply both these 1. There must be a deliverance from that Wrath which was justly sentenced upon Man for his Disobedience And because it is impossible that the Punishment could be removed unless the Guilt were likewise removed some course must be taken to remove that Guilt And because the Guilt of any one Offence doth everlastingly disable that person that hath contracted it to avoid or expiate it and puts it wholly and everlastingly in the power of that Person that is offended to be judge of his own Satisfaction for if it were imaginable that an offender could for the future as far out act his Duty as in his Offence he came short of it it is not conceptible to be satisfactory without the acceptation of him that is offended hence it is that unless our offended Creator to whom we owe our Obedience to the utmost extent of our Beings accept a Satisfaction for our Guilt it is not possible nor imaginable that the Guilt of any one Sin can receive any Expiation It is true he might have released it of his absolute Power without any Satisfaction but that he would not do as is before shewen then that he accepted any Satisfaction it is a wonder of Mercy but that he should propound it himself and such a Satisfaction as Christ and to accept it it is a Wonder of Wonders And for this reason the foundation of our Redemption is ever attributed to the Love of God 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses to them The very foundation of Man's Redemption from his Guilt and Punishment by Christ was the Love of God in sending and accepting his Son's Satisfaction 2. But if we had only a Remission of our Guilt though that might have removed our Punishment it had not cured our Loss therefore to set Man right there must not only be the removal of the Wrath of God which made us miserable but his Favour and Reconciliation without which we could not be happy And because though our Debt were paid yet we could never come to the Favour and Acceptance of God unless his Image the Rule which he planted in Man to attain Happiness were again restored to Man and because that is impossible for us to do we by our Sin contracted Blindness as well as Guilt and Weakness as well as Blindness and therefore as we must up to our Creator for Acceptation of Satisfaction for our Guilt so we must to him to provide our Righteousness Though we had found Christ Sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 and Christ a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 before we could be delivered from our Curse so had we found that we had been still short of our Happiness unless we had also found him as well our Righteousness as our Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30
and Happiness to them that believe on Christ the Soul resteth and trusteth in the Truth and Power of God in Christ for it 2. In that the Faith of both had a termination in Christ though theirs more indistinctly and confusedly in respect that the same was not so clearly revealed unto them In that Promise to Abraham In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed wherein the Gospel was preached to Abraham Galat. 3.8 Abraham did see Christ and rejoyced John 8.56 And so for the rest of those ancient Fathers Rom. 10.4 They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ Now the Effects of Faith are of two kinds 1. In reference to God our Justification God having of his free Goodness exhibited the Righteousness of Christ and his Satisfaction to be theirs that shall truly know it and rest upon it Rom. Chap. 3 4 5 c. Galat. 2.16 2. In reference to us Peace with God Rom. 5.1 In him that is our Peace-maker Humility because the Righteousness whereby we are justified is none of ours Rom. 3.27 Where then is boasting worketh by Love Galat. 5.6 2. Hope is but modally or objectively distinguished from Faith for the same spiritual Life which is wrought in the Soul and brings Light with it when it looks upon Christ with Dependance and Recumbency is called Faith when it looks upon the fulfilling of these Promises yet unfulfilled with Expectation and Assurance is called Hope They are but the actings of the same spiritual Life with diversity only 〈◊〉 to the diversity of Objects Hence they are many times taken for the same thing Heb. 11. 〈◊〉 the substance of things hoped for Ephes 4.4 One Hâ—pe of your calling Galat. 5.5 We through the Spirit wait for the Hope of righteousness by Faith Rom. 8.24 We are saved by Hope 1 Pet. 1.4 Begotten again unto a lively Hope And the Fruit of this Hope must of necessity be Joy Reâ—â—ycing in Hope Rom. 12.12 And such a Joy as at once takes off the vexation sorrow and anxiety that the greatest Affliction in this world can afford and likewise the fixing of the Soul with over much Delight upon any thing that it here enjoys because it looks beyond both upon a Recompence of Reward that allays the bitterness of the greatest Affliction 2 Cor. 4.17 18. Heb. 11. and allays the Delight of the greatest temporal Enjoyment Heb. 11.26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Purifies the Heart John 3.3 He that hath this hope purgeth himself even as he is pure that is winds up his Heart to such a Condition as is suitable to his Expectation 3. Love This is that first and great Commandment Deut. 6.5 Matth. 22.37 And therefore is the fulfilling of the whole Law Galat. 5.14 Rom. 13.8 Because it puts the only true and active Principle in the Heart which carries him to all true Obedience It is the highest Grace 1 Cor. 13.13 And that wherein consisâ—ed the Perfection of Humane and Angelical Nature because it was not only his Duty but his Happiness It was his Duty because the chiefest Good deserved his chiefest Love even out of a Principle of Nature and his Happiness because in this regular motion of the Creature to his Creator God was pleased to exibit himself to his Creature and according to the measure of his Love was the measure of his Fruition And in the Restitution of his Creature God is pleased to restore this quality to the Soul Gal. 5.22 The first fruit of the Spirit is Love 2 Tim. 1.7 The Spirit of Love 1 Tim. 1.14 with Faith and Love 2 Thes 2.10 receiving the Love of the Truth Ephes 4.15 speaking the truth in Love Jude 21. keep your selves in the Love of God now this Love is wrought by a double means 1. By the Knowledge of God as he is the Best and Universal Good and therefore it is impossible that there can be the true Knowledge of God but there must be the true Love of God 1 John 4.8 He that loveth not knoweth not God And this is an Act grounded upon a rational Judgment which even by the very Law and Rule of Nature teacheth us to value and esteem that most which is the greatest Good. 2. By the Knowledge of the Love of God to us The absolute Goodness of God deserves our Love but the communication of his Goodness to his Creature commands it The former doth most immediately work upon our Judgment and so is a love of Apprehension the latter upon our Wills and so is a love of Affection and yet both upon right Reason for as the Law of Nature teacheth us to love the Chiefest Good so the same Law of Nature teacheth us to love those most that do us most Good and consequently love us most Now when God by his Spirit sheds abroad his Love into the Heart and we once come to know the Love of Christ passing Knowledge Ephes 3.19 The Soul even out of a natural ingenuity being rescued by the Spirit of God from that malignity that sin and corruption had wrought in it cannot chuse but return to God again that hath done so much for so undeserving a Creature And therefore this was the great Wisdom and Goodness of God in sending Christ in the Flesh to die for us when we were Enemies and in revealing that Goodness of his therein that in a way proportionable to the conception and operation of our Souls we might understand the greatness of his Love to us 1 John 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God Ephes 2.4 But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead c. God commandeth his love to us c. All which being brought to a Soul that hath life in him must needs work Love to God again 1 John 4.19 We love him becâ—use he loved us first As it is the Love of God that gives us Power to love him for it is the first cause of our Happiness and consequently of our Love to God wherein consists our Happiness so it is the immediate cause of our Love to him When the Soul is convinced of so much Love from so great a God to so poor a Creature in very Ingenuity and Gratitude it cannot chuse but return an humble and hearty Love to his Creator again Methinks the Soul in the contemplation of the Goodness and Love of God might bespeak it self to this effect So immense and infinite is the Goodness and Beauty of thy God that were thy Being possible to be independent upon him he would deserve the most boundless and infinite motion of thy Love unto him But here is yet farther infinitude added to an infinitude he gave thee thy Being from nothing which was an infinite act of his Goodness and Power unto thee and doth and may justly challenge the highest tribute of Love
and Glory that thy Being can return unto him But had he given thee a simple Being thy Debt had not been so great so have the most unaccomplisht Creatures But thy Being was dressed with an Intellectual Nature and that Nature furnished with Fruition of Happiness filling the uttermost extent of its Capacity and that Happiness guarded with such a Law as was suitable to that Nature full of Beauty and Order in the obedience whereof thou didst at once perform thy Duty and improve thy Felicity But thou rejectedst all this and becamest a Rebel to thy God and a ruine to thy self and thou hast improved thy ruine and rebellion by a voluntary rejection of thy Duty and thy Happiness until this hour And what canst thou expect but a just return of an infinite Vengeance from an omnipotent injured Creator for so ungrateful a breach of an infinite Obligation But consider what thy Lord hath done for thee for all this and stay thy self and wonder Thy Lord proclaims Return thou backsliding Soul and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you Jer. 12. Hadst thou offended thine Equal for thy offended Equal to have solicited thy Reconciliation had deserved Acceptation and Love But for the infinite God to whom thou owest an infinite Duty and hast violated it who is able to annihilate thee and can receive no advantage by thy return to solicit it with an offer of a Reprieve nay of a Pardon But here 's not all our Deliverance from the Wrath of God is wonder enough Let me now be as one of my Father's hired Servants No there is more yet 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love he is content to accept of us as Sons But what must the Price be of so great a Change or who shall give it Thy Lord whom thou hast thus injured hath paid the Price of thy Redemption and such a Price as Heaven and Earth may wonder at the mention of it The Son of God lays down his Life for his Rebels Pardon and Assumption into a Partnership with him in his own Kingdom But thou art not for all this at the End of thy Debt this Price is rendred to thee upon easie terms Believe and live and this Life accompanied with infinite Advantages even Communion with this Creator But yet like the murmuring Israelite thou wilt die with the Manna between thy Teeth unless God who hath given thee such a Price of thy Redemption enable thee to receive him He sends his Spirit into thy Heart with Light and Life to strive with thy unbelieving Heart and to subdue it and to cleanse thy filthy and polluted Heart to bring Redemption into thy Heart and to solicite perswade importune thy Heart to receive him for thy own Good. What remains then but that thou shouldest ever admire that Love that hath done all this for thee that thou shouldest in all humility and humble reverence return love to thy Lord and magnifie his condescension that he is pleased to accept the Love of his poor Creature that thou study not to grieve the Spirit of that God that hath taken this pains and care with thee for thy good not to crucifie again that Christ that hath died for thee that thou labour to find out what is the Will of thy Lord and to obey it and to walk in love as Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us Ephes 5.2 Now according to the measure of the true Knowledge of God and of his Love in Christ is the measure of our Love to him and as that Knowledge is the immediate cause of its production so it must of necessity be the measure of its Degree And although both the knowledge of his Absolute Goodness which excites the love of Desire and the knowledge of his Benefactoriness to us which increaseth the love of Gratitude or Benevolence are mingled in every Soul that truly loves God yet according to the different degrees of the discoveries of either to the Soul so are the different manners of their working upon the Soul. The knowledge of the Perfection and Absolute Goodness of God is more suitable to an Angelical Nature and therefore produceth an high Angelical and Intellectual Love for this Love begins with the Judgment But because our Nature as it now stands as it arrives seldom to such a Knowledge so seldom to such a Love and that Love which comes into the Heart meerly upon such Contemplations is weak mingled with Servile Fear unactive because the Knowledge like the Sun in a Cloud shines dim and the Heat proves waterish and weak But the knowledge of the Goodness of God to us as it draws the Goodness of God nearer to us in Sense so it strikes more our Affections which God hath placed in us for this End. And this was the motive of Love and consequently of Obedience both under the Law and under the Gospel though the Expressions of that Love under the Law had more in them of Sense and under the Gospel more of Spirit Deut. 30.20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and obey his voice and cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days c. Luk. 7.47 Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Christ argues from the measure of her Love to the measure of God's Goodness to her and her Sense of it And here we have the true Principle of all true Obedience to God The bare External act of any thing commanded by God unless it move from a Heart or Principle conformable to the Will of God is no Obedience for all External actions taking them divided from the Will they are all of one kind and nature The very same act proceeding from a Soul differently principled may be an act of Obedience viz. when proceeding from an obedient loving Heart an act of compulsion when proceeding from a bare servile Heart a bruitish act when it proceeds from a Soul not moved with any Consideration and an act of malignity against God when done out of a malicious cunning design Some even preached the Gospel for Envy Phil. 1.16 So then as the Knowledge of the Goodness and Love of God to us is the immediate cause of the return of our Love to God so this love of the Soul unto God is the true and immediate Principle of all true Obedience unto God Now these are the genuine and natural Effects of Love to God 1. It makes a Man to make God and his Honour and Glory the highest and supream End of all his actions And this must needs be so in Reason For as the great End of all the works of God are his own Honour so where there is true Love to God it cannot chuse but make the Soul value that most which God most values As he must needs be convinced in his Judgment that that which God makes his End must needs be the chief End of the Creatures actions so where this Affection is it
image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 We put on the new Man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Colos 3.10 And we were predestinate to be conformable to his image Rom. 8.29 5. This Love of God breeds in us an undervaluing of all things in comparison of him And this is a natural effect of Love for according to the measure of our Love is the measure of the Estimate of the things loved If God be the choicest and chiefest Object of our Love it will like Moses his Rod devour and confound the rest especially when they come in competition with it If we have disorderly Passions and Affections and Lusts This Love of God will mortifie them for Christ is our Life Mortifie therefore your earthly members c. Colos 3.4 5. It will crucifie the flesh with the Affections and Lusts Galat. 5.24 I will pull out a right Eye and cut off a right Hand if it offend Matth. 5.24 I will teach a Man to hate his Mother Wife Children Brothers Sisters yea his own Life when it comes in competition with his Saviour Luk. 14.26 To esteem his outward Privileges Learning Reputation c. and all things but loss and dung for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Philip. 3.8 nay the best of our Obedience Prayers Righteousness It makes this humble Confession O Lord I owe unto thee the strength of my Soul and when I have paid it I am but an unprofitable Servant Thy Goodness to me is none of thy debt to thy Creature but my most exquisite and perfect Obedience is due to thee And behold I have brought before thee these Services what there is in them worth the accepting is thy own the work of thine own Spirit the purchace of thine own Blood the rest alas is mine and is an Object rather for thy Mercy to pardon than thy Justice to accept 6. It works true Sorrow for any sin committed for as it cannot chuse but be sensible as of any injury committed to the God he loves so most especially of such an injury as is done by himself 7. The Love of God is the only true Principle of all Obedience Faith works by Love Ephes 5.6 And Christ died not only to redeem us from our Iniquities but to purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 And we are created in Christ unto good Works Ephes 2.10 And this is the will of God your Father eve◠your sanctification 1 Thes 4.3 And it is as impossible that where the true Love of God is these can be wanting as it is for the Sun to be without his Light. The Love of Christ is a constraining Love 2 Cor. 5.14 And he died for all that they that live should not from henceforth live to themselves but to him that died for them and rose again Our Obedience to Christ is the true Experiment of our Love to him John 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandments 1 John 2.3 So our Love is the only true Principle of our Obedience Deuteronom 6.4 and 10.12 And now O Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God and to walk in his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul. The Love of God cannot be without his Fear and Obedience Now the Qualifications arising from this Love will be 1. A Sincere Obedience because it proceeds from a Principle within for the Obedience is formed in the Heart before it is formed in the Action Love cannot be dissembled because its residence is in the Soul the action that proceeds from Love must needs be therefore sincere 2. A Perpetual Obedience because the Principle within is perpetual and increasing for the more a Man loves God the more God is pleased to discover his Goodness to him and consequently his Love increaseth and consequently his Obedience 3. Vniversal Obedience for it is the same Principle within that looks universally upon all The Obedience is upon this ground It is the Will and the Command of him whom I love that ingageth my Obedience and wheresoever I find that impression there is my ground If the thing commanded be more unsuitable to my Constitution Occasions Exigencies yet it hath the Impression of my Lord upon it I will by his strength and Grace obey it If I love him his Will and not my own must be the measure of my Obedience And this is the reason why the breach of one Command of God knowingly is the breach of all because if my Obedience to the rest had been rightly principled upon the Love of God the same Love would have ingaged me to the obedience of this my Obedience therefore to the rest is not Obedience but a Pretence or Shew Some Commandments of God do include in them a greater suitableness to the Rational Nature of Man than others such are the Laws of Nature the Decalogue some are such Commands as seem only to be Experiments of our Obedience such were the Ceremonial Commands the Command to Abraham to sacrifice his Son to the Young Man to sell all he had But where this true Principle of the Love of God is there will follow Obedience to both though the more hard the Command the greater measure of Love to God is required to a full performance of it It teaches Obedience where the thing commanded is of it self full of Beauty as all Moral Commands are because but the Abstract of his Image and it teacheth to obey where the Command seems to carry nothing in it but asperity and unusefulness for it hath made the Will of God the measure of its own Will. Now concerning the Subject of our Obedience how far it extends and what the Rule of it is vide infra CHAP. XI Why or by what reason the act of Faith worketh our Vnion with Christ and so our Justification in the sight of God. HITHERTO we have seen those motions of God to his Creature and the motion of the Creature unto God again and both these must needs end in Union and this Union can be no otherwise than in the Son in whom the Divine and Humane Nature were united in one Person in whom the distance and difference between God and Man were filled up and reconciled And by virtue of our Union with him as our sins are made as it were his in point of Imputation and Satisfaction so we have all that communicable 〈◊〉 that was in Christ his Righteousness Phil. 3.9 the Righteousness which is of God by Faith his Life Galat. 2 2◠his Death Galat. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ his Spirit Rom. 8.9 his Resurrection 〈◊〉 2.6 hath raised us up together and made us sit 〈…〉 him in heavenly places Colos 2.12 Buried 〈…〉 Baptism wherein also ye are risen with him through the Faith of the operation of God of his Sonship
precious Ointment Eccles 7.1 with a merry Heart which doth good like a Medicine Prov. 17.22 with Honour and Promotion Wealth Wisdom Success in thy Labours and these ought to be entertained with rejoycing and comfort the wise Man tells us it is the Portion that God giveth thee in them Eccles 3.13 22. Eccles 5.18 Eccles 9.9 and it is thy duty enjoyned thee by God Deut. 28.27 Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things therefore c. But take heed to thy Heart it will soon abuse and exceed his Commission 1. Look to the Manner of thy Joy or Mirth that it be not light or vain thy Mirth may prove mad Eccles 2.2 the Laughter of a Fool Eccles 7.6 a Mirth that will end in Heaviness Prov. 14.13 2. Look to the Measure of it First weigh the Good that thou enjoyest and then weigh out a Proportion of Joy answerable to the value of that Good lay not out the whole stock of thy Joy for that which deserves but a small part of it We are commonly mistaken in the value we put upon the things we expect or enjoy and that makes us mis-spend our selves upon them Be sure nothing below the fruition of thy Creator can deserve the whole stock of thy Delight and if thou dispensest it otherwise thou robbest thy God and deceivest thy self There are three Considerations and Cautions that are often to be used to moderate our Delight in Externals 1. To consider the true value of them they are but limited Good and not large enough for thy Soul limited in measure limited in duration the Good that is in them is that Congruity that God hath put in them and that only a limited good and can deserve but a limited Delight 2. To mingle those sad Considerations of Mortality and an Account with the Fruition of any Externals This doth allay the exorbitancy of the Heart and keeps the Soul from surfeiting upon any outward Good this is the going to the house of Mourning commended by the wise Man Eccles 7.2 that sad remembrance which he gives to the young man in the midst of his jollity Eccl. 11.9 But know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment there is a severe Eye that beholdeth all thy deportment in the fruition of those things I lend thee that will have a sad account for thy carriage in the use of them 3. To contemplate often the Goodness of God his Mercy his Bounty to find the Presence and Love of God in thy Love the sound hope of eternal Life This will take up the whole compass of thy delight and rejoycing wherein thou canst not exceed so that thou wilt not have Joy enough or at least not too much for any thing below him Luke 10.20 In this rejoyce not but rather rejoyce because your names are written in heaven When this Sun shines in the Heart those little Stars of outward Comfort which at no time have but a derivative Light will not appear And this thy Faith is the Victory that overcometh the World the delights of the World as well as the terrours of the World It will keep Comforts and thy Delight in them in their due place and subordination and count them but dung and loss that thou mayest win Christ Phil. 3.8 If the Lord shall lift up the light of his countenance upon thee it will put more gladness in thy Heart than when their or thine own Corn and Wine increased Psal 4.7 When thy Peace is made with God thy Conscience sprinkled by the Blood of Christ the Spirit the Comforter witnessing with thy own Spirit Rom. 8.16 thy Heart sincere towards God 2 Cor. 1.12 this will cause an abiding Joy 2 Thes 5.16 John 16.12 a full Joy 1 John 1.4 a victorious Joy that like Moses's Serpent devours the false Joys and conquers the temporal Sorrows of this Life Acts 5.41 James 1.2 1 Pet. 4.13 a Joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 3. And as to the manner and measure of thy Delight so look to the Ground the formal Reason of thy Delight see that thy delight or rejoycing fix not in those external Comforts singly for then thy Delight will be sensual immoderate and vain the very same that an irrational Creature takes in them viz. a complacency in the fruition of that which is convenient and suitable to his Sense But look upon thy Blessings and delight in them as thou seest the Bounty the Goodness the Hand the Promise the Truth of God in them This will not only moderate but spiritualize thy delight in them thy delight in them will not only be Comfortable to thy self but Acceptable to God thy delight in thy Blessings is then mingled with Thankfulness with Humility with Sobriety with Faith with Watchfulness it is thy Duty and it is thy Safety The rich Man in the Gospel Luk. 12.19 Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry and this was his sin The Israelite offering his first Fruits to God Deut. 26.11 is commanded to rejoyce in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee this was his Duty the rejoycing the same here was the odds the former terminated and laid out his Joy in the thing as the suitable Good to his Nature and Condition the latter looked upon it and rejoyced in it as a Gift of God learn therefore to find God in the Creature and that will heal the Creature and make it useful and safe thou mayest then delight in them safely because thou wilt then do it warrantably CHAP. XXII Of Watchfulness over our Grief 1. In reference to God for Sin 2. In reference to Externals TAKE heed to thy Grief Love as is before noted is the great Cardinal Affection or Motion of the Soul and the other Affections are but Love diversified according to the site or position of the Object Love in the expectation of its Object is Hope in the doubt or danger of it Fear in the enjoyment of it Joy in the absence of it Grief or Sorrow The Object therefore of thy Love is the subject of thy Grief and the measure of thy Love to it is the measure of thy Grief for it First therefore see that thy intensest Grief be relative to him that ought to be the Object of thy intensest Love. Now our Love to God is under a double Consideration 1. Absolutely as he is the chiefest perfect absolute Good. And under this Consideration our Love ends in him we love him for his own sake And this is an Angelical Love and a pure sublime Love and the Fruit of this Love is an endeavour of Conformity to his Nature and to his Will. 2. Relatively as he is the Chiefest Good to us And this creates in us a double Love to him 1. A Love of Gratitude a return of Love to him because we receive Love from him 1 John
its Author is infinite and boundless by all the Justice that can be 2. Faith doth find in that Word a farther ingagement of Conformity and Obedience if a farther may be in that it finds the immense overflowing Love of God to Man It is that Love that did at first furnish him with those Excellencies of his Nature with that greater excellency his image and Superscription It is that Love that upholds his temporal Being and blesseth it It is that love that when he was lost sent a Sacrifice and a Righteousness for him whereby he is not only pardoned from his Guilt and Curse but restored to Glory and immortality And this it doth truly and really believe and is thereby convinced that there is a greater obligation than that of his Nature to live conformable to the Will and Mind of so unspeakable a Benefactor 3. Faith doth find in this Word of God his Mind and Will and believes it to be that very Rule the conformity whereunto is well pleasing and acceptable to God. Mic. 6.8 and what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God It looks upon every Admonition Exhortation Reprehension and Direction as the very immediate Message of God unto the Soul and entertains it with the same awe and reverence as if it were audibly delivered in Thunder and trembles at it and therefore it receives it in the power and Life of it and in the uttermost compass and extent of it it will not take this part as most consonant to thy Temper Condition Designs Constitution or Ends and reject another part where it crosseth them because it is equally the Will and Command of the great God and so received 4. Faith finds in this Word the Rectitude Justice and Regularity of the Will of God concerning Man they are not only just as proceeding from him to whom his Creature owes an infinite Obedience as was the Command to Adam for forbearing the forbidden Fruit or to Abraham to sacrifice his Son but Faith finds in these Commands a natural Justice and Reasonableness and Perfection and concludes with David Psal 19. That his Statutes are right and his Commands pure such as include in themselves a natural and absolute Beauty and such as confer upon the Creature a Perfection and Happiness such as are exactly conformable to thy Nature were thy Nature conformable to it self for as the Rule or Law that God hath given to every Creature is that wherein consists its Beauty Preservation and Perfection according to the degree wherein it is placed and therefore every Creature labours according to its own Nature to continue in that Rule and when it misseth it it contracts Deformity and Corruption so the Divine Law or Command of God given to Man is that wherein consists his Perfection as being a Rule most exactly conformable to the reasonable Nature of Man sin hath deformed and blinded us that we cannot now see that Perfection and Excellency that is in our Conformity to his Will and hath perverted and corrupted us that as we are in this corrupted condition we cannot desire it but when God is pleased to anoint our eyes with the Eye-salve of Faith and presents this Glass this image of his mind in his Word unto that Eve Faith again discerns and discerning cannot chuse but desire that Beauty Perfection and Rectitude which is there discovered in the Commands of God and the conformity of the Soul to the â—ame 5. Faith doth find in that Word and finding it doth most assuredly believe the Presence of the Glorious and infinite God in every place even in the darkest and most remote Corners and Chambers of the Heart searching weighing and discerning the Spirit every thought of the Heart every word of the Tongue every action of the Life and measuring them exactly with the Rule that he hath given and this keeps the Heart in a continual awe of the Presence of God purgeth out all Hypocrisie sets a continual Watch upon the whole Man lays a Bridle upon the very thoughts and brings them into subjection to this Rule because that clear and pure and severe eye of the Great and Infinite God searcheth the most retired thoughts of the Heart and observes what conformity they hold with his most Just and Reasonable Command 6. Faith finds in this Word of God and doth more really and practically believe that that great God which hath given us his Will and is a witness to the Obedience and Disobedience of it hath most certainly annexed an everlasting Curse to the Disobedience of it so it hath most certainly annexed an everlasting Glory to the Obedience thereunto not as the merit of it but as the free and bountiful gift of his Goodness and Mercy in Jesus Christ And it finds and believes the Truth and Faithfulness and Glory and Power of the Infinite God there engaged for the performance of it and therefore it binds the Heart to the Obedience of this Will of God and Conformity unto it which is our Sanctification Thus the word mingled with Faith cleanseth and sanctifieth and perfecteth and purifieth the Heart and Life And as thus in Man God useth this instrument on Mans part to sanctifie his Creature and make him conformable to himself so Secondarily upon this Act of Faith upon the Word of God as its Object the Heart is likewise cleansed by Fear Hope and Love by way of emanation from this Act of Faith. Love Fear and Hope are those several Motions or Affections of the Soul that arise from the same Act of Faith only as Faith is diversified according to those different Objects apprehended by Faith or according to the different Notions Relations or Actions of the same Object as for instance God apprehended in his Goodness Love and Bounty moves our Love towards him as apprehended in his Glory Majesty Power and Justice excites Fear as apprehended in his Faithfulness Truth and Promises begets Hope and each of these Affections thus directed do habituate and dispose the Soul and Life to a religious frame and Constitution which is our Sanctification as will appear in these particulars 1. The Love of God this is that true Principle of all true Obedience where it is not the Obedience is a dead and unacceptable Obedience for God that is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and Truth will be obeyed likewise in Spirit and Truth and the outward Conformity without this is but a dead Obedience and Hypocrisie and where it is it will work a Conformity of the Heart and Life to the mind of God upon which it is pitched and therefore it is called the First and Great Commandment Matth. 22.51 the fulfilling of the Law because when it is once wrought in the Heart whatsoever it can discover to be agreeable to the Will of him that she loves it will most sincerely and intirely obey John 14.15.24 If ye love me keep my Commandments he that loveth
nearer to thee that I may live more by Faith than Sense and to make me more exact and watchful than before Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word In the midst of thy Glory Honour Wealth Preferment Provocations from Men Injuries and Scorns it will keep thee from swelling looking big upon thy inferiours or those that have Dependance upon thee or use of thee It will take thee off from Vain-Glory Revenge Envy Disdain and such like Distempers all which proceed from a mis-understanding of a Mans self It will make thee and keep thee meek gentle affable easie to be intreated long-suffering pittiful all which are the Fruits of the Spirit wrought in the heart by this Sobriety or right judgment of our selves Galat. 5.22 which our Saviour commended to all his Disciples Matth. 18.1 by the condition of a little Child wherein Pride is not grown up though it be there in the Seed for all these Distempers rise from an opinion of greater worth merit or excellence in a Mans self than in another which a sober Man that hath a right judgment of himself finds quite otherwise And from this Sobriety arising upon a right judgment concerning our selves will arise a Behaviour Carriages and Speech answerable it will be sutable to our Nature and the Station Condition and occasion in or about which we are not arrogant giddy haughty light vain but humble setled grave constant 2. Sobriety in reference to our sensual Appetite and those Passions or Motions which arise in reference to it As the first part of Religion consists in the Conformity and Subjection of our Reason to the Will and Truth of God so the second part of it consists in the Conformity of our sensual Appetite to Reason thus rectified Now the sensual Appetite is divided in respect of her Objects and her motion towards them into the Concupiscible which is the Motion of the sensual Nature to those things which tend to the Preservation of it self and kind by Desire or the Irascible which is the aversion from or Motion of the sensual Nature against those things that are prejudicial or so apprehended The Concupiscible Appetite is that Motion of Nature which tends to its own own Preservation or to the Preservation of its kind or those things that are in order to both viz. Wealth and Power The First of these is the desire of Eating and Drinking the Excess whereof is Luxury The Second is the desire of Propagation of the kind the Excess whereof is Lust or Wantonness The Third is the desire of those Supplies which conduce to the supplying of both viz. desire of Wealth the excess whereof is Covetousness and the desire of Power to defend our selves the Excess whereof is Ambition and these I likewise place in the sensual Appetite because they are in order to the immediate Objects thereof and we find them though not in so exact a degree even in Beasts Concerning these somewhat hath formerly passed therefore in general touching the two former we say 1. That these natural inclinations or desires are in themselves good and such as were planted in our Nature by the holy God and such as are conducible to good ends viz. the Preservation and support of our Nature and Kind and the Motions of our Nature are such as proceed from that Commission which God gave to the Creature Gen. 1.28 Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and Gen. 2.17 Of every tree of the Garden thou mayst freely eâ—t both which Commissions were again renewed and enlarged Gen. 9.13 2. That we are not allowed only the use of those inclinations of our Nature for Necessity but also for Delight so as the Prescriptions hereaftermentioned be observed Deut. 12.15 Thou mayst kill and eat flesh in all thy Gates whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after according to the blessing of the Lord thy God Deut. 28.47 Because thou servedst not God with joyfulness and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things c. Prov. 5.18 Rejoyce with the Wife of thy youth 3. The sin or obliquity that happens in these inclinations of our Nature or the use of them is when they become inordinate Affections viz. out of that due Order or Position that God hath placed them in us 1. When either the Motion of these Appetites or the exercise of them is without a due Subordination to Reason which God hath placed in a superior Authority in Man above this Appetite In bruit Beasts their sensitive Appetite is their highest faculty and it knows no other Moderator than that very Appetite that God hath placed in them but in Man he hath placed a higher Nature and therefore the actings of the sensitive Appetite without this Subordination to this higher Nature is in truth in Man unnatural and contrary to the Order and Course of Nature This concerns us as we are Men. 2. When either this Motion or the Actings of it are contrary to the Mind and Will of God for this ought to be the guide of our Reason as that ought to be the guide of our Appetite And this concerns us as we are Men enlightned with the Knowledge and quickned with the Love of God. Now for want of these the sins or obliquities that happen in our sensitive Appetites are when they are acted either inconsiderately immoderately or unseasonably 1. Inconsiderately when in the use of the Creatures in reference to those inclinations of the sensitive Appetite we consider not the End for which we have them nor use them in order to that End to eat because we will eat and not because we would be sustained or consider not the Hand from which we receive them that we may use them thankfully nor the Presence of Almighty God who observes all our carriage in the use of his Blessings that so we may use them soberly and reverently 2. Immoderately There is required of us a double Moderation in the use of this Faculty 1. Moderation of our Affection to the Object 2. Moderation in the use of the Object of our Appetite The want of the former robs God of that Affection or measure of Love which we owe to him When any thing is loved beyond the proportion or measure due to it it must needs invade the Love a Man ows to God and so places that Object in the place of God. Thus Covetousness becomes Idolatry Ephes 5.5 Gluttony becomes Idolatry Whose God is their Belly For that which hath the mastery of our Love hath the command of the whole Man and if my Love to the Objects of my sensual Appetite want that due subordination to the Love I owe to God or exceed that due proportion that I owe to them when any service I owe to God or any office I owe to Man comes in competition with the satisfaction of my sensual Appetite I shall neglect the Duty I owe to God or Man. The want of the latter is when we use them in such a
Greatness which without it would in a little time swell into a stark Ambition or Covetousness The Evangelist tells us thar All that is in the world is the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life that is those Lusts that are in us fasten upon their suitable objects in the World and upon them they live and grow strong and are thereby the better enabled to fight against our Souls and God shews as much Mercy when he takes away their food and starves them by an affliction as when he pardons them Therefore learn by thy affliction the Mind of God in this also and bless him as well for an affliction that prevents thee from sin as for one that leads thee to repentance 6. It may be God hath some extraordinary work to do for thee or by thee prepares thee by those afflictions with humility that thou mayst be a fit Instrument for his Glory or a fit Vessel for his Bounty A sudden access of Greatness or Wealth or Power or Eminence is apt to make thy Nature swell and look big and deny God Prov. 30.9 therefore he prepares thee with the sense of his hand to shew how he can when he pleaseth handle thee with the experience of the benefit of Dependance upon him with a condition that may teach thee to waâ—k humbly with him otherwise thou wilt not be able to bear and to manage that condition he intends to put thee in with moderation with his fear with an eye unto him and to his Glory Thus he prepared David for the Crown Job for Wealth the People of Israel for Canaan that they might receive and use it with Thankfulness as from his hand with Sobriety and Faithfulness as in his presence 7. Howsoever it is of most certain and universal use to take off thy Love from this World to present it to thee as it is to take thee off from setting up Tabernacles and thy Rest here and to carry thy thoughts and thy desires to thy home and to thy Country and to make the remembrance of it frequent and sweet and that upon which thou reckonest to make thy passage through death easie and comfortable when thou shalt consider such thoughts as these I am in a body full of pains and weaknesses and diseases so that I have much ado to keep up my Cottage to be comfortable or useful to me but am busied every day to underprop it and repair it that it fall not and when I have done my best yet Old Age will come and that will be an irreparable decay and my anxious life will most surely be attended with a certain death I live in a World full of labour at the best to provide necessaries for my support in a World full of troubles dangers and calumnies If my outward contentments increase yet my cares and my fears increase with them But my condition is not such but with the Psalmist I have cause to say Psal 73.14 All the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning and like Noah's Dove I can find here no rest for the soal of my foot My walk here is like a pilgrimage and my path is not plain and easie but narrow and deep and troublesom on either hand of me I pass through the scorns and injuries and vexations of the men of this World who if I want will not relieve me and if I have any thing they are ready to tear it from me and my way which of it self is thus troublesom is accompanied with Storms and Stumbling-blocks and fiery Assaults raised by the Prince of this World and if I take up a lodging by the way it is neither a pleasing nor a safe lodging my dangers and difficulties are greater in my Inn than they are in my Journey To what purpose go I about to set up my rest or to build Tabernacles here The time I can stay will be but short and my short stay in such a World as this cannot be pleasing nor comfortable and this is not my home but I see it at a distance I find it as it were in Landskips Revel 21. the Tabernacle of God where he shall wipe away all tears from mine eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain and then these my light afflictions which are here but for a moment shall be rewarded with an eternal weight of Glory In the confidence and strength of this expectation I will hold on my troublesom Journey with chearfulness and look upon this World as the place of my pilgrimage not of my rest and the unpleasingness of my pilgrimage shall heighten if it be possible the expectation as well as the fruition of my home and the more unwelcome the World is to me and I to it the more shall my heart undervalue and disesteem it and send forth my desires the more earnestly for my Journey 's end teach me to welcome death and to desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all 3. Sometimes external troubles are in themselves an express token of the Love of God and they carry with them comfort and delight namely when it is a Persecution for Righteousness sake and in those both the Precepts of Christ and the Pattern of his Disciples command us up to rejoycing Mat. 5.10 11 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad Jam. 1.1 2. Count it all joy Acts 5.41 Rejoycing that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for his Name Coloss 1.24 Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh 4. The fourth Consideration is of the Mercy of God and therein 1. his Patience and forbearing Mercy whiles we are in our sins 2. his Clemency and forgiving Mercy upon our Repentance 3. his Bounty and rewarding Mercy in the whole course of our lives and hopes 1. The Patience Long-suffering and Forbearance of God from our infancy God leads us as once he did Ephraim Hos 11.3 teaching us to go and taking us by the arm but we know it not and bears with the frowardness and peevishness and stubborness and wantonness of our youth and when we come to our riper age he plants us with the choicest Vine with the instruction of his Word and Providence and now he doth as justly he may expect Grapes and we bring forth no Grapes or wild ones Isa 5.2 4. and now how just were it for him to pull up the hedge of it and command the Clouds that they rain no rain upon it or to lay upon it that sad Curse Matt. 2â— 19 Never fruit grow on thee more But he doth not thus but expects a second and a third and a fourth year Luke 13.8 and uses all means to mend this unfruitful and unprofitable Plant useth line upon line and precept upon precept and if his Word nor the secret whispers of his Grace will not do
must needs drive to that End for if it should in any thing go beside that End or not aim at it there is so much want of Love My Love to a Creature may consist with a crossing of the End of that Creature out of my very love to it because the Creature which I love may drive to an End which is not for his own good but this is impossible in case of my Love to God for whatsoever most tends to his Glory is most conformable to his Will and whatsoever is conformable to his Will is most infallibly conformable to the soundest and best Wisdom 2. It makes the Heart Conformable unto the Will of God for he that loves God truly makes his Will the measure of his own and it is impossible to think that a Creature should love God truly and yet cross the Will of him whom he thus loves The Perfection of all Creatures even inanimate consists in their Conformity to the Will and Law of their Creator stampt upon them in their Creation and when they turn aside from this they contract Disorder and Deformity much more in case of a rational Creature who is endued with Faculties susceptive and executive of the Will of God in a higher measure And the Fruits of this Conformity to the Will of God are 1. A chearful Submission to the actings of the Will of God upon us with Patience and Contentedness for it is his Will whose Will I have made the measure of mine and though I shall not cease to make my humble application to him for the removing of his Hand of what kind soever yet I have learned of my Saviour to conclude Not my will but thy will be done 2. A solicitous inquiry what this Will of God is for the same Love that teacheth me to make his Will mine teacheth me likewise to make inquiry after this Will by my Prayers by my Studies and Inquiries c. 3. A strict walking according to that Will in all things and at all times 3. This Love of God works an awful Conversation and Heart before him And this is that Fear of God which the wise Man tells us is the great duty of Man Eccles 12.13 Now the Fear of God may arise upon some of these Considerations 1. Out of the meer Sense of a Guilt incurred and the Power and Wrath of God against the guilty Creature Such was the fear of Adam before God had revealed the Cure of his Guilt Gen. 2.10 I heard thy voice in the garden and was afraid and this fear drives the Heart from God and therefore he hid himself and therefore this Fear in the perfection of it is not consistent with the Love of God though so much of imperfection as our love unto God hath so much even of this Fear may be in the Soul Rom. 8.15 We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear 1 John. 4.18 He that feareth is not made perfect in Love. 2. Out of the mere sense of the Majesty and Glory and Power of God and the subordination and subjection and distance of the Creature And such a Fear as this as it may consist so it ought to be joined unto our Love of God. And although there were in us an impossibility to sin as in Angelical Natures or blessed Souls yet this Awfulness and Reverence to his Majesty will be and must be in us for all the Attributions of God must be received with answerable Affections in his Creature and one hinders not the other And this awe of the Majesty of God in the Heart expresseth it self in suitable Deportments and Expressions without Abraham that was the Friend of God yet forgets not his distance in his Prayer Gen. 18.27 Behold now I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord which am but dust and ashes Exod. 34.6 When God passed by Moses he proclaimed his Majesty and Glory as well as his Mercy and Goodness The Lord The Lord God Merciful c. And it found a suitable affection of reverence in Moses he bowed his Head towards the Earth and worshipped Even when we rejoyce in him it must be with Trembling Psal 2.11 And this is a great part of the Business of the Old Testament to acquaint revolting Man with the Majesty of God and to fence out those irreverent and unbecoming thoughts that the degenerate Sons of Men had of the infinite God Isa 40. per totum Vers 18. To whom then will ye liken God And as the Angels in awful reverence to his Majesty are said to cover their Faces Isa 6.2 so the twenty four Elders that sat about the Throne cast down their Crowns before the Throne â—ev 4.10 3. Out of a sense of his Goodness mingled with the consideration of his Greatness which doth at once improve the value of his Mercy that it should come from so great a Majesty and improve that Fear of his Greatness by mixing with an humble Love the Love of a Child to a Father And this is most seen in the care of avoiding any thing which may displease God 1 Pet. 1.17 Passing the sojourning here in fear This is that that makes them watchful and jealous of themselves lest any thing unbeseeming so great an Engagement should pass from them This Caution against Sin riseth from the Love of God under both the notions before expressed 1. As our Love is terminated in him as the Chiefest Good and so we avoid sin out of fear of that loss which we may have by it This it is true is not without a mixture of Love to our selves yet allowable to be a ground of our Care. 2. As our Love returns to him by way of Benevolence Where Love is to an Equal it creates an awe of giving distaste How much more when to the infinite God and yet that so far condescends in his Love to us 4. This Love of God breeds an endeavour of Likeness to him The genuine effect of Love is Union and Similitude to the thing loved hath a degree of Union in it Now because no Eye can see God and live neither can there be that proportion between us and him that we should frame our selves unto his Image immediately he hath given us three Copies of himself to take out viz. 1. In his Works in his Patience in his Goodness in his Mercy 2. In his Word he hath transcribed for us a Copy of his Holiness 1 Pet. 1.16 Be ye holy for your heavenly Father is holy 3. In his Son. God in the Creation printed his Image upon Man and Man by his sin broke it and defaced it as Moses did the two Tables of Stone God gives a new Image of himself to Man He hath given his Son into the World who is the Image of the invisible God Colos 1.15 2 Cor. 4.4 And while we look on him with Faith and Love we put him on Rom. 13.14 We grow up to the measure of his stature Ephes 4.13 We are changed into the same
unseemly a return is this for so much Love and Goodness as thou hast received how canst thou come in thy Prayers in thy Hopes in thy Dependance to that God whom against the bonds of ordinary Gratitude thou art now offending how canst thou ever expect to have the light and favour of his Countenance whom contrary to all thy engagements of Duty and Covenant thou art now about to injure canst thou profess thou lovest him whom thou darest to abuse to disobey even to his Face 3. Hope the Word of God hath promised in Christ Glory and immortality and the sight of himself to those that are pure in Heart Matth. 5.8 This truth contained in these Promises is received and entertained in the Heart by Faith and as the Motion of the Heart towards an absent but a possible and expected Good is Hope so it is here it is the Motion of the Soul arising upon Faith as it presents the truth of that Blessedness which wâ— do not yet but shall enjoy and this Motion of the Soul purifieth the Heart 1 John 3.3 He that haâ— this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure and bring the Heart and Life to Obedience Psal 119.1 6. I have hoped in thy Salvation and done thy Commanâ—ments Our love of God makes our Obedience sincere our fear of him makes our obedience awful and reverent our hope in him makes our obedience chearful Rom. 15.13 Patient Rom. 8.25 Constant Heb. 3.6 and Active Phil. 3.15 Pressing oâ— to the price of the high calling of God in Christ This was that that made Moses rather chuse Afflictions than the Pleasure of sin for a Season for he had an eye to the recompence of reward Heb. 11.26 which carried our Redeemer with choice and Victory through the Cross and shame for the joy that was set before him Heb. 12.2 Now this affection thus fixed and acted purifieth the Heart and Life upon these Considerations 1. It presents a Man with an expectation of an everlasting blesâ—d Station in the Presence of the most holy God and this works an endeavour of a present Conformity of his Mind and Life to that condition which it eâ—pects to enjoy everlastingly hereafter No Man 〈◊〉 hope for that which he desires not for the presâ— to enjoy he that hopes for an eternal Life in Holinâ— will thrust himself into as much of it as he câ— while he lives here and will consider how unbâ—coming any sin is of him who lives in a câ—tinued hope of enjoying a condition free from 〈◊〉 2. Hope doth link the Soul to the thing it hoâ— for which is of so great worth Glory and 〈◊〉 â—pectation that it carries the Soul through all â—ficulties to the attaining of it it makes 〈◊〉 which is future in Fruition present in appreâ—sion and thereby masters all those evils of Sense that actually come in the way and thus it lifteth up the Soul above all the present inconveniencies that may accompany or interrupt her way to Glory Thy Creator hath chalked thee out a way to walk in and it is true it is a narrow way and thou art cloathed with flesh and blood which cannot inherit the Kingdom of God the way will be grievous and troublesome unto it thou must deny thy self cut off thy right hand pluck out thy right eye thou must learn to unlove nay to hate those things wherein thy corrupted Nature most delights and take up thy Cross and follow thy Saviour and thy way is not only narrow and unpleasant to thy Nature but thou shalt find it it may be strawed with Afflictions with Temptations with Scorns with Poverty Wants Persecutions nay with the loss of Life it self and yet on thou must go and must not draw back for then thy Labour is all lost But here is that which will bear thee up through all the difficulties though thou art laden with the burden of thy own Flesh and Corruptions and art ready to slip upon every Temptation yet thou art not alone but thy Saviour stands by thee to bear thy burden to take thee by the hand to lift thee up from thy falls to support thee with his Grace which he hath promised shall be sufficient for thee to accept thy endeavours and to pitty and pardon and recover thy relapses Though thou dost loose and irrecoverably let go many Contentments Pleasures and external advantages yet thou seest with thee in the Promise and before thee in thy hope that which will abundantly recompence all thy losses even Pleasures at his right hand for ever Though thy journey be troublesome yet it is not long thy home thy Fathers house is in thine eye where thou mayst see thy Saviour preparing a place for thee and a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory which will sweeten thy light Afflictions which are but for a moment 2 Cor. 4.17 CHAP. XXVII Of the Extent and Degrees of Sanctification 3. WE come to consider the Extent or Degrees of it what it is or should and may be in this Life We find in the Book of God mention of perfect Men and Men of perfect Hearts Noah Gen. 6.9 Abraham Gen. 17.1 Job 1.8 David 1 Kings 9.4 14.8 Asa 1 Kings 15.14 and yet those several Men had their several Sins and Faults recorded in the same Book We find Psal 37.37 a perfect Man and yet Eccles 7.20 not a just Man that doth good and sinneth not Paul Ephes 4.12 13. tells us of a growing up to a perfect Man to the Measure of the stature of Christ and yet the same Paul Rom. 7.14 complains of himself to be carnal sold under sin The same S. John that 1 John 3.9 saith That he that is born of God sinneth not tells us 1 John 1.8 that if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 2 Cor. 13.11 Finally brethren be perfect We are therefore to consider wherein this Perfection of our Sanctification consisteth not and wherein it consisteth The Perfection required of us and which we may and must attain is an Evangelical Perfection which though it be not perfect yet is accepted of God in Christ 1. Sincerity and Integrity of Heart Jerem. 24.7 They shall return to me with their whole heart The Sanctification required of us is not only a Sanctification of our external Actions those are but the fruits of Sanctification of the Man for as any act is therefore 〈◊〉 because it is but the production of that sin which is â—st in the Heart so is any action therefore holy because it proceeds from a holy and a sanctified motion of the Heart otherwise it is but Hypocrisie This Intâ—y of Heart was Noah's David's â—sa's Perfection it was Enoch's walking with God. When a Man 〈◊〉 with an humble confidence bring his Service his Words and Actions in the presence of God clearly with such a Confession as this O Lord I know that my Heart is deceitful above all who can know it and I know that I