are we during the present state We know but in part and we are sanctified but in part and there being such a mixture in the principâ—â—â— of operation every action is mixt It is notable that there is no commendable act in Scripture recorded but there is some mixture of corruption in it even in the most Heroical exercises and discoveries of Faith Moses beleeveth and therefore smiteth the rock but he smiteth twice Sarah beleeveth the promise but giveth her maid to Abraham Rebâ—â—â—â— was told that the elder should serve the younger and beleeveth it but yet she sets Iacob awork to get the blessing by a wile Rahab saveth the Spies but maketh a lye c. Thus is our wine mingled with water our honey with wax and our silver with tin All the tryal is that the better part prevaileth and that we are still growing and halting on to perfection as the morning Sun doth to high noon Prov. 4. 18. 2. For actual Sanctification which standeth in a conformity to Gods Will when the heart is changed so as the life thoughts words actions all are sanctified there is a spirit of holiness working within and breathing without in sanctified discourse and holy exercises all the actions savour of grace Now our actions are sanctified and savour of grace when they are performed upon new Principles and new Ends. 1. New Principles Duty swayeth the conscience and love inclineth the heart 1 Tim. 1. 5. The end of the Commandment is charity out of a pure heart and good conscience and faith unfeigned No act is gracious and an act of pure obedience unless it have these qualifications It is not the matter that maketh the work good but the principles all that we do must come from a principle of faith love and obedience obedience respects the Command love the kindness and merit of the Lawgiver and faith his bounty and reward the first swayeth the Conscience the second inclineth the heart and the third giveth encouragement This is to do duties with a Gospel frame of spirit obedience takes notice of the Laws of God love of the kindness of God and faith of the rewards of God and so obedience sheweth us the matter of the duty and faith the encouragement so that what ever is done as an act of the new nature or sanctified estate it is an act of obedience out of gratitude upon the encouragement of our glorious hopes and advantages in Christ As if it be asked Why do I do it God hath commanded it Why with such strength of affection and earnestness God hath deserved it because of his love and bounty in Christ Conscience is sensible of the obligation and love and hope sweetens the duty There is a natural conscience of good and evil which is known by legal ayms and carnal motives what is done out of natural conscience is not done out of obedience and thankefulness but out of bondage and with a servile frame of spirit like fruits that are ripened by art and force not naturally nor kindly 2. New Ends here indeed the discovery is most sensible Principles are more hidden and discovered mostly by ends Now the only end must be Gods glory All that is done in the spiritual life be it an act of piety justice temperance or charity it must be done with this aym that God may be glorified by our obedience to his Will I owe this duty to God and I must do it for Gods sake be it a duty of worship or in your civil relation and traffique as if I pray the last end of prayer must be Gods glory whither I seek grace and pardon or the conveniences and supports of the present life Grace still sublimateth the intention of the creature therefore carnal men are taxed for praying out of self-interests Hosea 7. 14. They have not cryed unto me when they howled upon their beds they assemble themselves for corn and wine and oyl It is but a brutish cry when men seek only their own commodity and welfare as beasts will howl when they are sensible of any smart and injury dogs or any brute beasts may do the same there is no act of grace in it So in charity many men make it a kind of bargain and traffique they do it to be seen of men Mat. 6. 2. to gratifie their worldly interests not to please God or honour God for their credit and repute to be well thought of and there Christ saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is they have that which they look for for other things they give God a discharge and acquitance Briefly the aims of men not regenerate or sanctified are either carnal or natural or legal 1. Carnal when men make a market of Religion their worship righteousness and charity is set to sale and by a vile submission made to stoop to their own private interests as the Pharisees made long prayers to devour widows houses that is to beget a fame and repute of honesty that they might be entrusted with the management of their estates So some may pray to shew parts preach out of envy and to rival others in esteem Phil. 1. 15. Often is this vile scorn put upon God that his worship is made a cover and pretence to unclean intents which is as if a cup of gold made for a King to drink of should be filled with excrements or as if we did set up another god beside him for that which we make our utmost end we make it our God as false Teachers are said to make their belly their God Phil. 3. 19. because all that they did was for belly chear to flow in abundance of wealth and worldly pleasures by this means setting up the belly and the concernments of the belly in Gods stead 2. There are natural ends It is grace as I said that sublimateth the intention of the creature A carnal man can go no higher then Self as water cannot ascend beyond its spring Now all natural men are not hypocrites to put on a pretence of strictness out of design the Apostle saith They do by nature the things contained in the Law Rom. 2. 14. that is upon the impulses of natural conscience they avoyd such sins as Nature discovereth upon such arguments and reasons as Nature suggesteth If they worship it is to satisfie their own consciences if they be strict and temperate it is not out of reasons of obedience but because the matter of carnal pleasure is gross and burdensom and hindereth the free contemplation of the mind or because these pleasures emasculate and quench their natural bravery and so hinder their reputation in the world if they be just it is to maintain commerce between man and man if they be kind in their relations it is for their own peace and quiet nothing is done as in and to the Lord as the Apostle enjoyneth Ephes 5. God is neither at the beginning nor at the end of any of these actions the love of God is not
with them Christ is called the Prince of Peace Isai 9. 6. but 't is to those that submit to his Government to his Subjects he saith Take my yoke upon you and ye shall find rest Mat. 11. 29. We are not in a capacity to receive this Blessing till we take an oath of allegiance to Christ and continue in obedience to him 2. The next Note is delight in communion with God Job 22. Acquaint thy self with him and be at peace A man that is at peace with God will be often in his company Bondage and servile awe keepeth us out of Gods presence We cannot come to him because we cannot come in peace A man never delighteth in duties of commerce with God when either he hath a false peace or no peace Duties disturb a false peace and when we are raw and sour we are unfit for work When a Peace is concluded between Nations that were before at War Trading is revived so will it be between God and you commerce will be revived and you will be trading into Heaven that you may bring avvay rich treasures of grace and comfort It presseth us to make peace vvith God by Christ We speak to tvvo sorts the careless and the distressed 1. To the careless Consider you are born enemies to God They that loved him from their cradle upvvard never loved him You must make peace vvith God for you cannot maintain war against him Are you stronger then he What vvill you arm lusts against Angels And do you knovv the terror of his wrath one spark of it is enough to drink up all your blood and spirits Job 6. 4. The present life is but a vapor soon gone If God be angry he can arm the least creature to kill you The vvhole Creation taketh part vvith God Adrian vvas strangled with a Gnat. But death vvill not end your sorrovvs none can punish their enemies as God can he can ruine your body and soul for ever and for ever Hovv vvill you screech and howl like Dragons But your torments are vvithout end and vvithout ease Be vvise then and do not sleep vvhen your damnation sleepeth not novv is the time to make your peace vvith God Ah that you knew in this your day the things that belong to your peace Luk. 19. 41. Peace must be had novv or else it can never be had hereafter the day of patience vvill not alvvays last therefore let us get into the Ark before the Flood cometh T is a dreadful thing to be under the Wrath of God and you knovv not hovv soon it vvill light our care should be to be found of him in peace 2 Pet. 3. 14. Christ is novv a Saviour then a Judg You vvill yell and howl for mercy vvhen 't is too late 2. I am to speak to distressed Consciences Lift up your heads God offereth you peace he sent Angels from Heaven to proclaim it Luke 2. 14. The ground of the offer is good-will and the end of the offer is only his own glory God hath no other reasons to move him to it but his own good-will and no other aim then to glorifie his grace see Ephes 1. 6. and therefore take hold of his Covenant of Peace as 't is called Isai 54. 10. He is content we shall have peace upon these terms and peace assured us by Covenant Certainly 't is not a duty to doubt nor a thing acceptable to God that we should always be upon terms of perplexity and keep Conscience raw with a sense of wrath and sin Wherefore did Christ bear the chastisement of our Peace God is more pleased with a chearful confidence then a servile spirit full of bondage and fear 'T is Caution If Peace be a priviledg of the Gospel let us take care that we settle upon a right Peace lest we mistake a Judgment for a Blessing 'T is the greatest Judgment that can be to be given up to our own secure presumptions and to be lulled asleep with a false peace When the pulse doth not beat the body is in a dangerous estate so when Conscience is benummed and suiteth not 't is very sad The Grounds of a false and carnal Peace are 1. Ignorance of our condition Many go hoodwink'd to Hell a little light breaking in would trouble all Rom. 7. 9. Sluttish corners are not seen in the dark Things are naught that cannot brook a tryal So you may know that 't is very bad with men when they will not come to the light John 3. 20. or cannot endure to be alone lest Conscience should return up it self and they be forced to look inward their confidence is supported by meer ignorance 2. Sensuality Some mens lives are nothing else but a diversion from one pleasure to another that they may put off that which they cannot put away there is bondage in their Consciences and they are loth to take notice of it Amos 6. 3. They drink wine in bowls and put far away the evil day This is to quench the spirit without a metaphor All their pleasures are but stoln waters and bread eaten in secret frisks of mirth when they can get Conscience asleep Caâ—ns heart was a trouble to him therefore he falleth a building of Cities Saul to cure the evil spirit ran to his Musick and so usually men choak Conscience either with business or pleasures 3. From formality and slightness in the spiritual life First Either they do not seriously perform duty that will make men see what carnal unsavory sapless spirits they have He that never stirreth doth not feel the lameness of his joynts Formal duties make men the more secure as the Pharisee thought himself in a good case because c. Luke 18. 11. but spiritual duties search us to the purpose as new wine doth old bottles Or else secondly They do not exasperate their lusts and seriously resist sin Tumult is made by opposition When a man yeildeth to Satan no wonder that Satan lets him alone Luke 11. 21. The goods are in peace because the Devils possession is not disturbed he rageth most when his Kingdom is tottering Rev. 12. 12. Please the worst natures and they will not trouble you There is no tempest where wind and tyde go together You let Satan alone and he lets you alone this is a peace that will end in trouble I now come to speak of the third thing prayed for and that is Love which being taken here not for Gods love to us but our love to God may be thus defined 'T is a gracious and holy affection which the Soul upon the apprehension of Gods love in Christ returneth back to God again by his own grace The Grounds and Causes of it are two the one worketh by way of argument and swasion the other by way of efficacy and power 1. It ariseth from the sense and apprehensions of Gods love in Christ Love is like a Diamond that is not wrought upon but by its own dust
1 John 4. 19. We love him because he loved us first Love is like an eccho it returneth what it receiveth 't is a reflex a reverberation or a casting back of Gods beam and flame upon himself The cold wall sendeth back no reflex of heat till the Sun shine upon it and warm it first so neither do we love God till the Soul be first filled with a sense of his Love And as rays in their relection are more faint and cold so our love to God is much weaker then Gods love to us Valdesso saith God loveth the lowest Saint more then the highest Angel loveth God Once more The more direct the stroke and beam is upon the wall or any other solid body the stronger always is the reflection so the more sense we have of the love of God the stronger is our love to him 2. The next Cause of Love is the grace of God there is not only an apprehension of Love but the force of the Spirit goeth along with it Our thoughts our discourses upon the love of God to us in Christ nay our sense and feeling of it is not enough to beget this grace in us Love is a pure flame that must be kindled from above as the Vestal fire by a Sun-beam 1 John 4. 7. Love is of God that is of a celestial or heavenly original There is in the Soul naturally an hatred of God and a proneness to mingle with present comforts which can only be cured by the Spirit of grace Our naked apprehensions will not break the force of natural enmity and 't is God that must circumcise and pare away the foreskin of the heart before we can love him Deut. 30. 6. There is a natural proneness to dote upon the creature and hate the Creator Base creatures neglect God and pollute themselves with one another and there is no help for it till the heart be over-powered by grace Thus for the Causes of Love The Object of Love is God himself not meerly as considered in himself for so he is terrible to the creature but as God in Christ for so he will be known and respected by us in the Gospel and so we have the highest engagement to love him not only upon the respects of Nature as our Creator but of Grace as our God and Father in Christ Now God is the supream Object of Love and other things are loved for Gods sake because of that of God which we find in them as his Word which is the Copy of his Holiness his engraven Image as the Coyn beareth the image of the Prince so 't is said Psal 119. 47. I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved And then his Saints which are his living Image as children resemble their father so 't is said Psal 16. 3. To the Saints and to the excellent of the Earth in whom is my delight And then other men because of his Command 1 Pet. 1. 5. Add to brotherly-kindness love So his creatures because in them we enjoy God the effects of his Bounty But chiefly his Ordinances as they exhibit more of God then the creatures can So that Love respects God and other things for Gods sake Again In the Description I take notice of the essence or formal nature of it and call it the return of a gracious and holy affection to God Love is carryed out to its Object two ways by desire and delight Our necessity and need of God is the ground of desire and our propriety and interest is the ground of delight Desires are the feet of love by which it runneth after its Object and delight is the rest and contentment of the Soul in the enjoyment of it Because of our imperfect fruition in this life Love bewrayeth it self by desires mostly or pursuing after God See Psal 63. 8. My heart followeth hard after thee It noteth those sallies and earnest egressions of Soul after the Lord that we may have more communion and fellowship with him In short the radical if I may so speak and principal disposition of Love is a desire of Vnion for all other effects of love flow from it This is that makes the Soul to prize the Ordinances because God is to be enjoyed there and these are means of communion with him Psal 26. 8. I have loved the place where thine honour dwelleth This maketh sin terrible because it separateth from God Isai 59. 2. This maketh Heaven amiable the fairest part of our portion in Heaven is a closer and nearer communion with Christ Phil. 1. 23. This maketh the day of Judgment sweet for then we shall meet with our Beloved in the ayr 2 Tim. 4. 18. In short this maketh the Soul to take such contentment in thinking of God and speaking of God 't is the feast of the Soul My meditation of him shall be sweet Psal 104. 34. Their Souls cannot have a greater solace then to think what a God they have in Christ Having in some manner described the Love of God let me use some Arguments to press you to it First God hath commanded it The sum of the Law is Love When the Scribe came to Christ Mat. 22. 36. Master which is the great Commandment in the Law Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy might Mark this is the first and great Commandment to love God 'T is not a sour Command but sweet and profitable God might have burdened us with other manner of Precepts considering his absolute right to offer our children in sacrifice to mangle our flesh with whips and scourges but these are cruelties proper to the Devils worship The Lord is a gentle Master and only desireth the love of his servants we have cause to thank him for such a gracious Precept If he should require us not to love him this were Hell it self that is the Hell of Hell that they which are there do not love God 'T is our priviledg as much as our duty God loveth all his creatures but hath commanded none to love him again but man and Angels so that it is the great priviledg of the Saints to love God It had been a great favour if God had given us leave to love him as it would be a great favour if a King should give leave to one of his meanest Subjects to have the key of his privy Chamber to come to him and visit him and be familiar with him when he pleaseth how would this be talked of in the world yet this is not so wonderful since the King and the Peasant are both men in their natural being they are equal though in their civil distinction and condition of life there be a difference But what a favour is this that he who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords doth not only permit his creature made by his own hands to come to him and love him and deal with him when
he pleaseth but hath expresly commanded it nay this is the great Commandment Certainly God is very desirous of our love when he layeth such an obligation upon us Was there ever such a Master that made this to be his servants chiefest duty that they should love him Again I observe in Gods Command that the Precept runneth thus Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might The Lord would not lose one grain of the creatures love Surely he valued it when he is so sollicitous about it If we should see a wise man careful to preserve the reliques of what we counted a neglected weed it would make us think there were somewhat in it We lavish away our love upon trifles and God prizeth every grain of it you see he speaketh as if he would not lose one dust of love all thy soul all thy heart and all thy might When he biddeth us love our neighbor he sets limits to it Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self but when he biddeth us love God he requireth all the heart The only measure is to love him without measure The next place that I shall take notice of where the Precept is recorded is Deut. 10. 12. And now Israel what doth the Lord require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God and to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord with all thy heart and with all thy soul God doth not require of us things without the sphere of duty that we should go into the depths of the Sea toss mountains in the ayr pluck the stars from Heaven c. these things lie out of the power of man He doth not require of us barbarous austerities to offer our first-born to lance our selves to mangle our flesh with whips and scourges He doth not require of us absolutely such things which some men can and ought to perform not such a measure of alms what then would become of the poor not such a degree of wisdom and learning what then would become of the simple and unlearned But O Israel what hath the Lord required of thee but that thou shouldst love the Lord thy God A duty to be performed by poor and rich learned and unlearned what ever their estate and condition be they may all love God There are many in Heaven that never were in a condition to give but to receive that were never learned and skilled in sciences but none that never loved God Secondly God hath deserved love Let us a little take notice of Gods love to us He beginneth and loveth us that we may love him again 1 John 4. 19. If God should hate us we were bound to love him because of his excellency and because of our duty and obligation as we are creatures how much more when God hath loved us and bestowed so many benefits upon us Love is an affection which God will have repayed in kind When he chideth us he doth not expect that we should chide him again when he judgeth us we must not judg him again in these things the creature is not to retaliate 'T is true we do it too often but still to our â—oss and blame But now when he loveth us he willeth us to love him again he loveth us for no other cause but that he may be loved Love must be payd in kind As water is cast into a Pump when the springs lie low to bring up more water so God sheddeth abroad his love into our hearts that our love may rise up to him again by way of gratitude and recompence Now in the Love of God we may take notice of the 1. Properties and of it 2. Effects of it First For the Properties of Gods Love consider 1. The Ancientness of it Psal 103. 17. From everlasting to everlasting c. With reverence we may speak ever since God was God he was our God You may track his Love from one Eternity to another Before the world was he loved us and when the world is no more he loveth us still His Love began in eternal purposes of Grace and it endeth in our eternal possession of Glory 'T is not a thing of yesterday he is our ancient Friend He loved us not only before we were lovely but before we were at all We adjourn and put off our love of God to old age and thrust it into a narrow corner When we have wasted and spent our strength in the world we dream of a devout retirement But the Lord thinketh he could never love us early enough From everlasting to everlasting c. We receive the fruits and effects of Love in time but all cometh out of Gods ancient and eternal Love this grace was provided for us before we were born Yea look upon Gods Love in time how merciful was God to us before we could shew the least sign of thankefulness to him He loved us a long time before ever we had a thought of him In infancy we could not so much as know that he loved us When we came to years of discretion we knew how to offend him before we knew how to love and serve him How many are there of whom it may be said God is not in all their thoughts and yet all this while God hath thoughts of peace and blessing towards them 2. Consider the Freeness of Gods Love The value of all benefits ariseth from the necessity of him that receiveth and the good-will of him that giveth God wanted not us our love is no benefit to him but we wanted him we are undone without him yet he hath more delight in pardoning then we in salvation and he is more ready to give then we to ask He often calleth upon us to call upon him as if he were afraid we would not ask or not enough or not soon enough or not often enough A man would think that our wants should be importunate enough to put us upon requests and that we needed not enforcements to prayer yet you see God doth not only prevent the request but make the prayer and stirreth us up to utter it But we are not only needy creatures but guilty creatures and that God should love us When we were in our blood and filthiness 't was a time of loves Ezek. 16. 7. This is the great Miracle of divine Love that a time of loathing is a time of loves And we will wonder at it more if we consider the active and endless hatred of his Holiness against sin and therefore why not against sinners The holiness of his Nature and Essence sets him against them and natural antipathies and aversations can never be reconciled as a Man can never be brought to delight in a Toad or a Lamb in a Wolf And consider again his infinite Wisdom We may love that which is not lovely because we are often blinded by inordinate affection but now Gods Love is not blind
and overcome with the vehemency of any passion as mans is this maketh the wonder there is no blindness and passion in him that loveth and yet the thing that is loved is vile and uncomely 3. The frequency of the expressions of his Love It would weary the arm of an Angel to write down Gods repeated Acts of Grace Rom. 5. 17. The free gift is of many offences unto Justification We carry loads of experiences with us to Heaven Gods Book of Remembrance is written within and without This will be our wonder and amazement at the last day to see such huge sums cancelled with Christs blood Every day pardoning mercy is put in Our past lives are but a constant experience of our sinning and Gods pardoning We are weary of every thing but sin we are never weary of that because 't is natural to us The very refreshments of life by continuance grow burdensom Meat drink musick sleep the chiefest pleasures vvithin a vvhile need to be refreshed vvith other pleasures Man is a restless creature and loveth shift and change But now vve are never weary of sin we have it from the womb and we keep it to the grave and yet all this while we subsist upon God we subsist upon him every moment We have life and breath and hourly maintenance from him whom we thus grieve and offend Dependance should beget observance but in us 't is otherwise As a dunghill sendeth out vapors to obscure the Sun that shineth upon it so do we dishonour the God of our mercies and grieve him day by day How long hath God been multiplying pardons and yet Free-grace is not tyred and grown weary 4. Consider the variety of the expressions of his Love We have all kind of mercies we eat mercy we wear mercy we are encompassed with mercy as with a shield The Apostle saith 2 Pet. 1. 3. He hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness that is as I would interpret all things that are necessary to life natural to life spiritual to maintain grace here and to bring us to glory hereafter He that hath an interest in Christ his portion is not straitened he hath a right to all things and a possession of as much as Providence judgeth needful therein we must not be our own carvers A man of mortified affections thinketh he hath provision enough if he hath things necessary to life and godliness and will you not love God for all this Certainly we do not want obligations but we want affections Look as too much wood puts out the fire and causeth smoak so the multitude and dayly experience of Gods mercies lesseneth the esteem of them We have but too many mercies and that maketh us unkind and neglectful of God What shall I tell you of Sabbaths Ordinances food rayment If a man would be but his own remembrancer and now and then come to an account with God he would cry out Oh the multitude of thy thoughts to us-ward how great is the sum of them Psal 139. Or if a man would but keep a journal of his own life what a vast volume would his private experiences make how would he find mercy and himself still growing up together Shall I shew you a little what a multitude of mercies there are I will not speak of the higher and choycer mercies such as concern the soul but of such as concern the body What a deal of provision is there for the comfort and welfare of the body I instance in these mercies partly because they are so common that they are scarce noted partly because carnal men prize the body most they prefer it above the Soul now the Lord would leave them without excuse they that love the body shall not want arguments to urge them to love God since he hath bestowed so much of his love and care upon the body to gratifie all the senses not only for necessity but delight There is light for the eye the poorest man hath glorious lamps to light him to his labours For the taste such variety of refreshments of a different sap and savour For the smell delicious infusions into the ayr from flowers and gums and aromatick plants For the ears musick from birds and men and all this to make our pilgrimage comfortable and our hearts better How many creatures hath the Lord given us to help to bear burdens how many things for meat and medicine If man had not been created last after the World was setled and furnished vve should have seen the vvant of many things vvhich vve novv enjoy and do not value First God provided our house and then furnished our table and vvhen all vvas ready then man is brought in as the Lord of all We are not affected vvith these mercies Hovv can vve sin against God that can look no where but vve see arguments and reasons to love him As Christ said Many good works have I done amongst you for which of these do you stone me So may the Lord plead I have done many things for you you cannot open your eyes but you see love you cannot vvalk abroad but you smell love and hear love c. for vvhich of those do you grieve me and deal so despightfully vvith me Let me now come to the Effects of Gods Love I shall only instance in those three great Effects Creation Preservation and Redemption Certainly that must needs be a great benefit out of which there flies not only sparks but brands and so that Love which can produce such fruits and effects must needs be exceeding great 1. Creation This deserveth love from the creature The fruit of the Vineyard belongeth to him that planted it and whom should we love but him that gave us the power to love All that thou hast all that thou canst see that thou canst touch is his gift and the work of his hands He gave thee the essence not of a tree a bird a beast but of a man capable of reason fit for happiness God made other creatures by a word of Command and man by Councel 't was not Be thou but Let us make man to shew that the whole Trinity assisted and joyned in consultation He made other creatures for his glory but not for his love and service God is glorified in them passively as they give us occasion to glorifie God the creatures are the harp but man maketh the musick All thy works praise thee and thy Saints bless thee Psal 145. 10. How many steps may a Christian ascend in his praise and thanksgiving We might have been stones without sense beasts and without reason born infidels and without faith We might have continued sinners and without grace all these are so many steps of mercy But Creation is that we are now to speak of and truly it deserveth a remembrance especially in youth when the effects of Gods creating bounty are most fresh in our sense and feeling We are always to remember our
should come out from his Fathers bosom and dye for us Therefore herein is love that is this is the highest expression of Gods Love to the creature not only that ever was but can be For in love only God acteth to the uttermost he never shewed so much of his Power and Wisdom but he can shew more of his Wrath but he can shew more but he hath no greater thing to give then himself then his Christ At what a dear rate hath the Lord bought our hearts He needed not he might have made nobler creatures then the present race of men and dealt with us as he did with the sinning Angels he would not enter into treaty with them but the execution was as quick as the sin so the Lord might utterly have cast us off and made a new race of men to glorifie his Grace leaving Adam to propagate the World to glorifie his Justice Or at least he might have redeemed us in another way for I suppose 't is a free dispensation opus liberi consilij But God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son He took this way that we might love Christ as well as beleeve in him God might have redeemed us so much in another way but he could not oblige us so much in another way He would not only satisfie his Justice but shew his Love 'T was the Lords design by his Love to deserve ours and so for ever to shame the creature if they should not now love him Oh think much of this glorious Instance the love of God in giving Christ and the love of Christ in giving himself When the Sea wrought and was tempestuous and Jonah saw the storm he said Cast me into the Sea and it shall be calm to you but the storm was raised for his own sake Now Christ when he saw the misery of mankind he said Let it come on me We raised the storm but Christ would be cast in to allay it If a Prince passing by an execution should take the Malefactors chains and suffer in his stead this would be a wonderful instance indeed Why Christ hath born our sorrows and carryed our griefs Isai 53. 4. the very same griefs that we should have suffered so far as his holy Person was capable of them his desertion was equivalent to our loss his agonies to our curse and punishment of sense and all this very willingly for the sake of sinners 'T is notable he doth with like indignation rebuke Peter disswading him from sufferings as he doth the Devil tempting him to Idolatry Get thee behind me Satan compare Mat. 16. 22. with Mat. 4. 10. He is well pleased with all his sorrows and sufferings so he may gain the Church and espouse her to himself in a firm League and Covenant Isai 53. 11. He shall see the travel of his Soul and be satisfied as if he said Welcome agonies welcome death welcome curse so poor Souls be saved As Jacob counted the days of his labour nothing so he might obtain Rachel and yet there is a vast difference between the love of Christ and the love of Jacob Rachel was lovely but we are vile and unworthy creatures and Christs love is infinite even beyond his sufferings and the outward expressions of it as the windows of the Temple were more large and open within then without Well then every one of Christs wounds is a mouth open to plead for love He made himself so vile that he might be more dear and precious to us Certainly if Love brought Christ out of Heaven to the Cross to the grave should it not carry us to Heaven to God to Christ who hath been thus gracious to us Thus God hath deserved our love The third and next Argument is God hath desired it What doth the Lord see in our hearts that he should desire them If a Prince should not only make love to a vile and abject creature but seek all means to gain her affection you would count her very froward and unthankeful to give him the denyal Christ doth not only oblige us but woo us If man were such as he should be he would not need enforcements because of the multitude of his obligations and if the Lord did deal with us as we deserve he would slight us and scorn us rather then woo us He doth not want lovers there are Angels enough in Heaven whose wills and affections cleave to him perfectly yea God doth not need the love of any creature all this wooing is for our sakes Wherein can frail men be beneficial to God What increase of happiness hath he if all men should love him 'T is his happiness to love himself and he would have us to share in this happiness therefore he threateneth and promiseth and beseecheth As one that would gladly open a door tryeth key after key till he hath tryed every key in the bunch so doth God try one method after another to work upon mans heart He threateneth eternal torments if we do not love him 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha The form of speech implyeth the most dreadful curse that may be 'T is not arbitrary whether you will love him or no you are either to love him or to perish eternally Among men if love doth not come kindly we neglect it that which is forced is nothing worth yet the Lord is so earnest after the love of the creature that he would have it by any means He promiseth We have not only mercies in hand but mercies in hope not only obligations but promises 'T is our duty to love God if there were no Heaven our obligations might suffice yet what great things hath God provided for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. If a man should sell his love he cannot have a better Chapman then God who is most rich and most liberal If an earthly Potentate should promise to them that love him half his Kingdom he would find lovers enough God hath promised glory the Kingdom of Heaven and shall we not take him at his word The Lord will give a gift for a gift because he hath given us to love him therefore he will give us Heaven as the reward of love Who ever heard that an hungry man was hired to eat and rewarded for tasting dainty food or a thirsty man for drinking The Love of God is so excellent a priviledg that we should endure all torments to obtain it and yet God hath promised a reward yea he is pleased to bargain with us as if he were our equal and we were altogether free before the Contract Again He beseecheth We are cold and backward therefore he useth intreaty upon intreaty as if he were impatient of a denyal Out of what rock was man hewn God himself cometh a wooing and we have the face to give him a repulse and what doth he woo for but our hearts which are his already
by every kind of right and title Prov. 23. 26. My son give me thy heart God is pleased to call that a gift which is indeed a debt Though the heart be due yet God will put this honour upon the creatures to receive it from them in the way of a gift 'T is but equity to give to God the things that are Gods Look upon the heart see if any could make it but God himself Whose image and superscription doth it bear Wilt thou refuse to surrender up to God his right God hath made it bought it and yet he beggeth it VVhen thou hast been as earnest with God and asked any thing regularly of him did he deny thee 'T is no benefit to him he desireth the heart of the creature not that he may be happy but that he may be liberal he would have thy heart that he may make it bette How easily do we give up our affections to any thing but God who hath the best title to them If the World or Satan knocketh we open presently We are as wax to Satan and as stone to God exorable and easie to be intreated by any carnal motion as some hard stones cannot be wrought upon but by their own dust so men are facile only to their corruptions to their own lusts not to the motions of Gods Spirit Fourthly The nature of Love sheweth that 't is fit for nothing but God He hath given us this faculty and disposition that we may close with himself He that looketh upon an ax will say 't was made to cut and he that looketh on love will say 't was made for God What is the genius and disposition of Love Love is nothing but an earnest bent and strong motion of the Soul to what is good for us Every man hath an inclination in his nature to what he conceiveth to be good Psal 4. 9. and grace doth only direct and set it right All the difference between Nature and Grace is in fixing the chiefest good and the utmost end One great blessing of the Covenant is a new heart that is a new and right placing of our affections Well then God is summum bonum the chiefest Good even Nature cannot be satisfied without him but Grace findeth all contentment in him If there be any good in the creatures 't is originally in him He is the Fountain of living waters where comforts are sweetest and freest The heart hunteth after good among the creatures which is but an image and ray of that perfection which is in God and who would leave the substance to follow the shadow and prize the picture to the disdain of the person whom it represents 'T were easie to prove that God is the only proper eternal alsufficient Good of the Soul and if the heart were not perverted and byassed with carnal desires to other objects it would directly move to God as all things do to their center I say were it not for sin we should no more need be pressed to love God then to love our selves There need no great motives to press us to love our selves Nature is prone enough of its own accord and if Nature had remained in that purity wherein it was created it would move to God of its own accord as all things move to their center and there they rest Now God is the Center of the Soul The Souls good is not honours pleasures profits the Soul is a spirit and must have a spiritual good 't is immortal and it must have an eternal good By experience we find that our affections are never in their due posture but are like members out of joynt or the arms when they hang backward when they are not fixed upon God therefore there is a restlessness and dissatisfaction in the Soul We grope and feel about for happiness and cannot find it like Noahs Dove we hover up and down and find no place whereon the sole of our foot should rest Well then if God be the only alsufficient Good of the Soul why do not we love him more If he be the Center of the Soul why do not we move directly thither 'T is a shame that a stone should be carried with greater force to its center then we to God by its natural course it falleth downward and breaketh all things in the way yea though it self be broken in pieces But alas how little do we break through impediments to go to God 'T were a miracle to see a stone stoped in the ayr by a feather But now every vain thing keepeth us off and intercepts our affections sin hath given us another center and after grace received we hang too much that way Again As love is for Good so 't is for one Object like a Pyramide it ends in a point affection is weakened by dispersion as a River by being turned into many channels In conjugal love where friendship is to the heighth there is but one that can share in it that 's the Law of Nature Mal. 2. 15. Did he not make one yet he had the residue of spirit the meaning is that God made but one man for one woman though he had spirit enough to make more 't was not out of defect of power but wise choice that their affections to one another might be the stronger which otherwise would be weakened as they are in the brutes scattered promiscuously to several objects so the true object of love is one God he is loved for himself and other things for his sake Once more The force and vehemency of love sheweth that it was made for God Love is the vigorous bent of the Soul and full of heights and excesses which if diverted to other objects would make us guilty of Idolatry we should place them in the room of God Still we find that men are besorted with what they love as Sampson was led about like a child by Daâ—ilah all conveniences of life pleasures profits are contemned for the enjoyment of the thing beloved Now these are heights proper to the Divinity to the infinite Majesty of God To whom else is this vehemency and this self-denyal due If we lavish it upon the creatures we make gods of them and therefore covetousness is called Idolatry Ephes 5. 3. and the Sensualist is said to make his belly his god Phil. 3. 19. There is such an excess such a doating in love that if we be not careful in fixing it before we are aware we run into practical Idolatrie and practical Atheism There is an Atheism in the heart as well as in the judgment Atheism in the judgment is when we are not convinced of the Being of God In the heart when our affections are not set in God this is more incurable because the dogmatical Atheist may be convinced by reason but the practical Atheist can only be reformed by grace Thus the Nature of Love sheweth it Fifthly The Nature of the Saints sheweth it the new nature hath new affections it
bewrayeth it self by the new heart as well as by the renewed mind Rom. 12. 2. There are not only new thoughts but new desires and new delights desires after God and a delight in God as the fountain of Holiness When we come to God at first we love him out of spiritual interest for ease and comfort and the benefit we gain by him Christ alloweth it Come to me and I will give you ease Mat. 11. 28. When fire is first kindled there is as much sinâ—ke as flame but afterwards it burneth brighter and brighter by degrees A fountain as soon as digged runneth muddy at first but afterwards the stream groweth more pure and clear So doth the love of the Saints at first 't is but a love of interest but by acquaintance we love him out of a principle of the new nature for his Holiness and Excellency because that which is in us in part is in God by way of eminency and perfection Certainly likeness must needs beget love and the Saints being conformed to God delight in him so that then their love floweth not so much from profit and interest as grace yea at length out of a vehement complacency of the new nature they love holiness above happiness or spiritual interest and Hell is not so bad as sin in their account there cannot be a worse Hell to them then unkindness to God or grieving his Spirit and Heaven is amiable for Gods sake because he is loved there and enjoyed there there are none of Gods enemies in Heaven and there they shall serve him and cleave to him without weariness and wandering Well then There is such a disposition in the Saints to love God which anseth not only from hope because of the great benefit which we expect from him nor only from gratitude or the sense of his love already shewed but from an inclination of the now nature and that sympathy and likeness that is between us because we hate what he hateth and love what he loveth and because God is the original Fountain and Samplar of Holiness Well then Saints mind your work Do you indeed love God Christ puts Peter to the question thrice John 21. A deceitful heart is apt to abuse you Ask again and again Do I indeed love God Evidences are these 1. If you love God he will be loved al ne those that do not give all to God give nothing he will have the whole heart If there were another God we might have some excuse for our reservations but since there is but one God he must have all for he doth not love inmates When the Harbengers take up an house for a Prince they turn out all none must remain there that there may be room for his greatness So all must avoyd that God may have the sole possession of our hearts The Devil that hath no right to any thing would have a part for by that means he knoweth the whole will fall to him Conscience will not let him have all and therefore he would have a part to keep possession as Pharaoh stood hulking with Moses and Aaron if not the Israelites then their little ones if not their little ones then their heards if not their heards then their flocks but Moses telleth him there was not an hoof to be left So Satan if he cannot have the outward man yet he would have the heart if there be not room enough in the heart for every lust then he craveth indulgence in some things that are less odious and distastful if Conscience will not allow drunkenness yet a little worldliness is pleaded for as no great matter But the love of God cannot be in that heart where the world reigneÌ„th Dagon and the Ark could not abide in the same Temple neither can the heart be divided between God and Mammon All men must have some Religion to mask their pleasures and carnal practises that they may be favorable to their lusts and interests with less remorse and usually they order the matter so that Christ shall have their Consciences and the world their hearts and affections But alas they do not consider that God is jealous of a Rival when he cometh into the heart he will have the room empty 'T is true we may love other things in subordination to God but not in competition with God that is when we love God and other things for Gods sake in God and for God When a Commander hath taken a strong Castle and placed a Garison in it he suffereth none to enter but those of his own side keeping the gate shut to his enemies So we must open the heart to none but God and those that are of Gods party and side keeping the gate shut to others We may love the creatures as they are of Gods side as they draw our hearts more to God or engage us to be more cheerful in service or give us greater advantages of doing good Of what party are they Bring nothing into thy heart and allow nothing there that is contrary to God When Sarah saw Ishmael scoffing at Isaac she thrust him out of doors So when riches and honour and the love of the world upbraid you with your love to God as if you were a fool to stand so nicely upon terms of Conscience c. when they incroach and allow Christ no room but in the Conscience 't is time to thrust them out of doors that the Lord alone may have the preheminence in our Souls 2. This love must be demonstrated by solid Effects such as are 1. An hatred of sin Psal 97. 10. Ye that lâ—ve the Lord hate an evil With love to the chiefest good there will be an hatred of the chiefest evil Friends have common loves as I said and common aversations Upon every carnal motion doth thy heart recoyl upon thee and say How can I do this wick dness and sin against God Gen. 39. 9. or else Is this thy kindness to thy friend or after such a deliverance as this c. Ezra 9. 13. Love to God will be interposing and crossing every carnal motion 2. By a delight in obedience 1 John 5. 3. This is love that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous Nothing is diffcult and tedious to him that hath any affection to his work As the Prophet cured the bitterness of the wilde goards by casting in meal so mingle but a little love with your work and the bitterness is gone Sechem yeildeth to be circumcised for Dinah's sake because he loved her and Jacob endured his seven years service for Rachels sake so will love make us obey God chearfully in things contrary to our natural inclination Love and labour are often coupled in Scripture and those that left their first works had lost their first love Rev. 2. 4 5. 3. Delight in Gods presence and grief for his absence or an holy sensibleness both of his accesses and recesses to and from
humble for want of growth for the first Longing for food see 1 Pet. 2. 2. life hath a nutritive appetite joyned with it when that is strong 't is a sign the soul is healthy it will grow as we say of children that take the dug kindly they will thrive and do well enough For the second humble for want of growth see Mark 9. 24. help my unbeliefe 't is a sign you mind the work and are sensible of spirituall defects which is a great advantage Tenthly Growth is the speciall fruit of the divine grace God giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3. 6. Plants thrive better by the deaw of Heaven then when they are watered by hand Grace that is necessary to every action is much more necessary to every degree in the Text the Apostle doth not exhort but pray mercy peace and love be multiplied our endeavours are necessary As ploughing and digging are necessary but the Blessing cometh from above These are the observations let us now apply all First let us be earnest with God for this increase he hath the riches of Glory Eph. 3. 16. which we cannot exhaust You honour God when you go for more you want more and he can give more when men are contented with a little 't is a sign either of hardness of heart they are not sensible of their wants or of unbelief as if God had no higher and better things to give us It sheweth us how far they are from being Christians that care not for the least degree of Grace that do not spend a thought that way these are farre from the Kingdome of God Secondly That are faln back and have lost the savouriness of their spirits and their delight in communion with God time was when they could not let a day pass without a duty nor a duty pass without some sensible experience of God but now can spend whole dayes and weeks and never give God a visite time was when there could not a carnall motion arise but they were up in arms against it but now their hearts swarm with vain thoughts and they can swallow gross sins without remorse improvident mispence of time was once a great burden but they have lost their tenderness and can spend a Sabbath unprofitably and find no regrete their vain thoughts were wont to trouble them but now not their carnall practices duty was once sweet but now their greatest bondage certainly the candle of the Lord doth not shine upon them as it did in the moneths that are past Thirdly Those that are at a stay had need look to themselves stinted trees cumber the ground and they that go on in a dead powerless course do hurt rather then good luke-warm profession is but the picture of Religion and painted things do not grow but keep at the same pitch If a man were a Christian in good earnest could he be contented with the present weakness of his faith imperfection of his knowledge with this creeping cold way of obedience VERSE III. Beloved when I gave all diligence to write to you of the common salvation it was needfull for me to write to you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints THe Apostle having dispatched the salutation maketh way for the matter of the Epistle this Verse is the Preface to the whole wherein he proposeth two things 1. The occasion of his writing 2. The matter and drift of it 1. The occasion of writing this Epistle which was double 1. His earnestness in promoting their good Beloved when I gave diligence to write to you of the common salvation 2. The urgencie of the present necessitie It was needfull for me to write unto you and exhort you In assigning his earnestness and zeal for their good you may take notice of three things which I shall explain in their order 1. A compellation of their persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beloved a tearm usuall in the Apostles writings the same word is used 1 Pet. 2. 11. and there translated Dearly beloved it noteth not onely that affection which by the law of nature we owe to one another Rom. 13. 8. nor that love which by the law of bounty and kindness we are bound to render to them that love us Matth. 5. 46. but that singular love which we owe to them that are with us in Christ which is alwayes expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture and we sometimes translate it Charity often Love the Rhemists alwayes Charity whose tenderness in this point as one observeth is not altogether to be disallowed lest it be confounded with common and impure love expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and charity being a Church Word is wholly free from such indifferency and equivocation So here instead of beloved they render my dearest which fitly noteth the tenderness and bowels that are in Christian affection From this compellation observe That Christians should be to each other as beloved such dearness and entireness of affection should pass between them that they may entitle one another to their bowels and choiser respects Reasons are these 1. None can have better grounds to love another they are members of the same body 1 Cor. 12. Brothers born of the same womb living in the same family have defaced all the feelings of Nature and been divided in interest and affection but surely no such Schism can happen in the same body who would use an arm to cut off a leg or an hand to scratch out his eyes members care for one another Now this is the relation which Christ hath left us he hath not only called us into a family but into a body Col. 3. 15 See the same pressed together with many other uniting considerations Eph. 4. 4. 5. 6. verses There is one Body one Spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Let us a little go over that place The first engagement is one Body they are Wennes and monstrous excrescencies not members that suck all the nourishment to themselves Again one member lacking or out of joynt is a pain and deformity to the whole The next engagement is one Spirit which in all other relations can onlie be had in fancy and imagination friends speak as if they lived by one common soul but here 't is so really all Believers have the same Spirit I say in other relations even in the nearest every one is acted by his own soul but here by one Spirit we are Baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. What should divide us when we have the same Spirit We have not all the same measures and that occasioneth some difference as the Soul sheweth it's self in some members more than in other though it acteth all but the Spirit is the same The next consideration is one Hope Shall not
the same earth contain those that expect to live in the same heaven Luther and Zuinglius Cranmer and Hooper Ridley and Saunders shall all accord for ever in heaven and certainly 't is through the reliques of the flesh that they cannot accord here In other relations there may be divisions because they have different hopes and it may be hopes that intrench and encroach upon the good of each other but here you have one heaven and one hope 't is all for you there may be a difference in the degree of glory but none to provoke pride or feed envy How will bitter and keen Spirits look upon each other when they meet in glory It followeth one Lord We are in the same family how will you look God in the face if you fall a smiting your fellow-servants Matth. 24. 45. Then one Faith There may be different apprehensions and every one may abound in his own sense in circumstances but the Faith is the same they agree in the same essentials and substantials of Religion The Enemies of the Church though divided in interests and opinions yet because they agree in one common hatred of the Saints can hold together Gebal and Ammon and Amalee and the men of Tyre did all conspire against Israel Psa 83. Like Sampsons Foxes though their faces looked several wayes yet were tyed to one another by their tails and ran together to burn up the Corn-fields and shall not the people of God agree who all profess one and the same Faith The next consideration is one Baptism that is one badg of profession 't was a cause of difference among Jacobs Sons that one had a Coat of divers colours a special badg of affection Consider you are all brought in by the Baptism of Water and the use of ordinary means none have a special and privilegiate Call from heaven above the rest of their Brethren Lastly it followeth one God and Father of all You all worship the same God there is nothing divides more than different objects of Worship When one scorneth what another adorâ—eth 't is extreamly provoking 't was the Plea used to Joseph Gen. 50. Pardon the trespass of the servants of thy Fathers God Thus you see that we have beâ—ter grounds of love then others have 2. None can have higher motives as the love of Christ Eph. 5. 2. walk in love as Christ hath also loved us the Pagan world was never acquainted with such a motive Now none are affected and melted with the love of Christ but those that have an interest in it therefore Christ expecteth more love from Christians than from others Matth. 4. 46. If ye love them that love you what reward shall ye have do not even the Publicans the same The Publicans were accounted the most vile and unworthy men in that Age but a Publican would love those of his own party therefore a Christian that is acquainted with Christs love to strangers to Enemies should mannage his affections with more excellency and pureness the world is not acquainted with the love of Christ and therefore only loveth its own but we are acquainted with it and therefore should love others See John 13. 34. See that ye love one another as I have loved you Jesus Christ came from heaven not only to repair and preserve the notions of the Godhead by the greatness of his sufferings but to propound to us a more exact pattern of charity and to elevate duty between man and man 3. None have a greater charge Christ calleth it his New Commandement John 13. 34. A new Commandement give I unto you that ye love one another How new since 't was as old as the Moral Law or Law of Nature I answer 't is called nâ—w because excellent as a new Song c. or rather because solemnly and specially renewed by him and commended to their care as new things and new Laws are much esteemed and prized or enforced by a new reason and example his own death So 1 John 3. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Commandement that we should believe in him whom he hath sent and love one another as he gave Commandment 'T is made equal with Faith all the Scriptures aim at Faith and Love 't was Christs dying charge the great charge which he left at his death John 15. 17. These things I command you that ye love one another Speeches of dying men are received with most veneration and reverence especially the charge of dying friends the Brethren of Joseph fearing lest he should remember the injuries formerly done to him they use this place Thy father did coÌ„mand us before he died saying c. Gen. 50. 16. Let us fulfill the will of the dead When Christ took leave of his Disciples he left this as his last charge think of it when thou art bent to quarrel or to neglect others Shall I slight his last Commandement his dying charge 'T is made the Character of Christs Disciples Hereby shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another 't is as much as your Discipleship c. It serveth to press you to this amity and love why should those that are to meet in the same heaven be of such an estranged heart to each other certainly it cometh from evil In two cases Gods people can agree well enough in glory and in misery in a Prison as Ridley and Hooper did and in heaven as all do in heaven where there is no sin and in a Prison where lusts lye low and are under restraint Oh then labour for love and meekness to which end take a few directions 1. Honour the least of Christs where ever you find it if any should despise others for their meanness it would be more proper to God to do so than for any other because they are most distant from his perfection but he will not despise smoaking Flax Mat. 11. You do not know what a spark of glory and of the Divine Nature may lye hid under Smoak and a covert of darkness Christ loved the young man that had but some accomplishments of nature in him Mark 1021. Jesus loved him much more should you when you find any weak appearances of Christ though they do not come up to your measures 2. Let not difference in opinion divide you 't were to be wished that Believers were of one heart and of one way that they all thought and spake the same thing yet if they differ cherish them for what of God is in them in a great Organ the Pipes are of a different size which maketh the harmony and melody the sweeter Whereunto we have attained let us walk by the same rule and mind the same thing Phil. 3. 16. Many men love to impropriate Religion as if there were nothing of God to be found but in their own sphere 't is natural to a man to do so we would be singular and ingross all repute of pirty Orâ—hodoxy and right
thoughts 2. If we doe not delight in communion with him we doe not honour him as the chiefest good Friends love to be often in one anothers company and certainly 't is good to draw nigh to God to preserve an acquaintance between him and us he hath appointed his Ordinances the Word and Prayer which are as it were a Dialogue and interchangeable discourse between God and the Creature in the Word he speaketh to us and in Prayer we speak unto him he conveigheth his mind in the Word and we ask his grace in Prayer in Prayer we make the request and in the Word we have Gods Answer Well then when men neglect publick or private Prayer or opportunities of hearing they are guilty of ungodlyness so far they break off communion with God especially if they neglect Prayer which is a duty to be done at all times a sweet diversion which the soul enjoyeth with God in private a duty which answereth to the daily sacrifice therefore the neglect of Prayer is made to be a branch of Atheism Psal 14. 3 4 verses When men are loth to come into Gods presence out of a love to ease and carnal pleasures and care not if God and they grow strange or seldom hear from one another 't is a great evill our comfort and peace dependeth much upon frequent accesse to God so when family worship when that 's neglected God is not honoured as the chiefest goâ—d the heathens are described to be the families that call not on Gods Name Jer. 10. 25. In many places from one end of the week to the other there is no Prayer and Worship in the Family and so the house which should be a Church is made a Stye not a swine about their houses but is attended morning and evening and yet they can finde no time for the solemn invocation of the Name of God what are they better than Heathens 3. If we doe not fear to offend him God will be served with every affection Love is of use in the spiritual life and so is fear 2 Cor. 7. 1. Perfecting holinesse in the fear of God Love sweetneth duties and Fear maketh us watchful against sin Love is the doing Grace and Fear is the conserving Grace We have cause to walk in Gods wayes because we are alwaies under his eye Love is necessary that we may keep God alwaies in our hearts and Fear that we may keep him alwaies in our eye both of them are of great use but Fear we now speak of which is the true internal root of all obedience and worship Eccl. 12. 13. when there is such a setled disposition of heart as that we dare not grieve him nor affront him to his face as Ahasuerus said Will he force the Queen before my face God is much honoured but now when we are secure and careless and forget God and can sin freely in thought and fouly in act without remorse 't is ungodlinesse Fear is a Grace of continual use we cannot be alwaies praising God worshiping God and employed in acts of special communion with him yet we must be alwaies fearing God be thou in the fear of God all the day long Prov. 23. 17. and elswhere Blessed is he that feareth alwaies Prov. 28. 14. A man hath done with his devotion in the morning but he hath done with God we should think of him and remember that his eye is upon us all the day long we must rise in the fear of God walk in the fear of God trade eat drink in the fear of God Some Graces are as the Lungs never out of use and exercise More especially must fear be active when temptations and corruptions arise we must argue as Joseph Gen. 39. 9. 4. If we doe not care to please him An ungodly man thinketh of nothing lesse than pleasing God he neither careth to know his waies nor to walk in them they are willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 3. 5. They doe not search that they may not practice and so erre not in mind but heart We desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Job 21. 14. They have not a minde to know that which they have not a mind to doe as those that would sleep shut the Curtains to keep out the light A godly man is alwaies approving what is the will of God Rom. 12. 2. Ephes 5. 10. 17. he practiseth what he knoweth and is still searching that he may know more as willing alwaies to be more usefull for God What have I to doe more Thirdly God will be acknowledged as the supream Truth and Authority and then if we are not moved with Promises Threats Counsels as with the words of the great God if we doe not yeeld him reverence in his worship and subject our hearts and lives to his Laws 't is ungodlinesse 1. We must receive the counsels of his Word with all regard and reverence for that is to receive it as the Word of God 2 Thes 2. 10. Heathens received the Oracles of their Gods and were much moved we can drowsily hear of the great things of salvation of heaven and the death of Christ and the Covenant of Grace c. and are not moved no more moved than with a Fable or Dream If a man should make another an offer of a thousand pound for a trifle and he should accept it you would not say 't was because he prized the trifle more that 's improbable but because he did not beleeve the offer So when God offereth heaven upon such terms as he doth we do not honour him as the eternal truth but count him a lyar 1 Joh. 5. 10. or else we would not neglect the offer 2. We must yeeld him reverence in his worship God is said Psal 68. to be terrible in the holy places he is not only terrible in the high places of the field where he executeth his dreadfull judgements nor in the depths of the Sea where the wonders of the Lord are seen but terrible in the holy places where his Ordinances are dispensed because there his holynesse which is the astonishing Attribute is most seen and remembred We doe not come to him as the supream Majesty when we doe not come with awful apprehensions God is dreadfull there where he is most comfortable Deuâ— 28. 58. That thou mayst fear this glorious and fearful Name the Lord thy God To have God for our God is the ground of all our comfort and hope and yet 't is a glorious and fear ful Name In Mal. 1. 14. the Lord urgeth two arguments why we should worship him with reverence one is I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts the other is My name is dreadful among the heathen implying in the first that careless and rude addresses to him are a kind of a lessening his Majesty they doe not come to him as a great King and doe as much as in them lyeth go about to perswade the world that he is not the God that he is
it away because he could not find the name of Christ there 't is the description of a godly man His delight is in the Law of God and in his Law doth he exercise himself day and night Psal 1. 2. There are the chast delights of a child of God not in Play-books and idle Sonnets How many sacrilegious hours do most spend in these trifles Good Books should not keep us from the Scriptures Water is sweetest in the Fountain Luther professeth that he could wish all his books forgotten and utterly laid aside rather then that they should keep men from reading the Scriptures themselves Christians study the Word more that you may have Promises Doctrines Examples ready and more familiar with you to be ignorant in a knowing age is an argument of much negligence Heb. 5. 14. Now Religion is made every one's Discourse Will you alone be a stranger in Israel As the many helps â—all upon us to study the Word more so the many Errors which are abroad all errour cometh from unskilfulness in the Scriptures Matth. 22. 29. Ye err not knowing the Scriptures in the dark a man may soon lose his way To cure this mischief let me press you 1. To read the Scriptures in your Families seâ— up this Ordinance among other parts of Worship there 't is a Family Exercise that your children may be trained up in them 2 Tim. 3. 15. 'T is a good Closet exercise for your own private instruction none of you is in too high a Form the Prophets searched them diligently 1 Pet. 11. 12. 2. Read them with profit so as you may understand them and apply the Doctrines and Examples you meet with there Ask thy soul Vndâ—rstandest thou what thou readest Acts 8. 30 or as Paul Rom 8. 31. What shall we say to these things The Scriptures are not to be read for delight but for spiritual profit and use 3. In cases of difficulty use all holy means pray to God the Spirit is the best Interpreter Pray before Pray after as you do for food if God answer not at first cry â—or knowledge liâ—t up thy voice for understanding Call in the helps which God hath given many private helps of Commentaries but above all despise not Prophesying Consult with the Officers and Guides of the Church Ephes 4. 14. Mal. 2. 7. 2. Observe again That those Truths which we understand already they had need be pressed again and revived upon us See 1 John 2. 21. Our Knowledge is but weak the eye of the mind is opened by degrees our Memories are weak and commands must be repeated to a forgetful Servant our Affections are slow not easily wrought up to the love of good things When the Wedge will not enter with one blow we follow it home with blow upon blow Well then we say 1. Repetitions are lawful for you 't is a sure thing Phil. 3. 1. Christ in the Gospels and Paul in the Epistles do often repeat the same passages Till you be affected with them we must inculcate necessary Principles again and again God speaketh once yea twice when men regard it not Job 33. 14. Consider men are dull to conceive slow of heart to believe The way to pierce the hard stone is by often dropping apt to forget heavenly Truths Leaky Vessels must be filled again Heb. 2. 1. We must repeat to make shame more stirring Peter was troubled when Christ said the third time Lovest thou me John 21. 17. Let this which hath been said prevent censure look upon it as a providence when the same Truth or Sermon is presented again Surely I have not meditated enough of this truth I am not enough affected with it therefore the Lord hath again brought it to my thoughts or there is some new temptation that I shall meet with that I may find the need of this old Truth c. 2. That it is a spiritual disease a Surfet of Manna when men must still be fed with new things no truths are too plain for our mouths or too stale for your ears the itch of novelty puts men upon ungrounded subtleties and that maketh way for errour or hardness of heart though you hear nothing but what you are acquainted with be content they were carnal people that complained they had nothing but the old Burden Jer. 23. 33 34. Take heed of the Athenian itch many times it argueth guilt we cannot endure to have an old sore rubbed again as Peter was troubled when Christ spake to him the third time as I noted before that his Apostacie should once more be revived 3. It may justifie two duties of great use Meditation and Repetition in our Families Meditation for 't is good to remember Truths that we do already know Once hath God spoken and twice have I heard it Psal 62. 11. we should go over and over it again in our thoughts first we learn and then we meditate Sâ—udy findeth out a truth and Meditation improveth it as first the meat is taken in and then the digestion is afterward Conscience preacheth over the Sermon again to the heart while the thing is new it doth more exercise study then meditation but when we have once learned it then our thoughts should work upon it for meditation is the improvement of a known truth 2. Repetition in our Families let them hear it again and again the third blow may make the nail go If people were humble and sober they would have new and fresh thoughts every time a truth is revived upon them at first hearing many are lost through the wandring and distraction of our thoughts things which upon the review may be brought to hand again at least youth and children must have line upon line as when they learn to write the same letters and the same Copie are written over again and again till the figure of them be formed in their fancies I have done with the Preface I come now to the first instance produced How that the Lord having saved the people out of the Land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that believed not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the term is of an honourable use in this place the people for the peculiar people of God the holy and elect Nation that had the Law and the Covenants of Promise this people after they were delivered and that by so great and solemn a deliverance as that out of the Land of Aegypt were afterwards destroyed so that 't is ill standing upon priviledges Though many of them to whom the Apostle wrote had renounced Gentilism and were as it were come out of Aegypt and made God's people by visible profession yet after all this they might be destroyed in case of disproportionable practise or disobedience to God in that profession Of Israel's destruction see Num. 14. 37. 1 Cor. 10. 10. Libertine Christians shall fare as bad as obstinate Jews that 's the drift of his Argument From this clause observe That after great mercies there do usually follow
Angels are for ever and ever now ad custodium â—o keep them and hold them in their lost estate hereafter ad poenam they are continued upon them as a part of their final punishment when much of the liberty which now they have shall be abridged From hence observe these practical Inferences 1. That sins are as it were bonds and chains a wicked man is in bondage here and hereafter now in snares and then in chains here taken captive by Sathan in his snares 2 Tim. 2. 26. and hereafter bound up with him in chains Sin it selfe is a bondage and Hell a prison were there nothing in sin but the presonâ— slavery 't is enough to disswade us but alas this is not all there are not only snares but chains in the fall of the Angels how many notions are there offered to us to discover the evil of sin they left their beginning and lost their habitation and then chains of darkness he that hath a mind to be a beast or a divel let him be a sinner If you mean to quench your reason to eclipse the glory of your Creation to disturb the quiet of your spirits and instead of calmenesse and serenity of conscience to bring in horror and confusion if you mean to enthral and captivaâ—e your soules to every base affection and to be at the command of every corrupt desire then go on freely as you do in sinning against God but alas the present thraldome is nothing to what is future all the sins that you commit will be as so many Chains binding you over to an eternal and just damnation The good Angels are at liberty to serve God when the evil Angels are shut up in the prison of their own obstinacy and wickedness remember this when you are convinced of a sin which you cannot leave and fear lest it prove a chaine of everlasting darknesse Secondly those chains bonds can never be broken by us the Angels cannot break them themselves and Christ will not for their day of grace is past every ones chains would be eternal if Christ did not loose them and open the prison door to poor Captives Isa 61. 1. this is our advantage above the Angels that an year of liberty is proclaimed to us and an opening of the prison to them that are bound Christ himselfe was bound with our chains the Prophet saith Isa 53. 8. he was taken from prison and from judgement he was in prison that we might go freeâ— If the â—edge had given us up to the Officer and the Officer had cast us into prâ—soâ— how long would it have been â—re we had payed the ulmost farthing Luk. 12. 58. others that reject the mercy offered in Christ can never wrest themselves out of the hands of justice but do for ever remain under the power and wrath of the living God Hebr. 10. 30. Thirdly The Divel is in chains a cruel spirit but under bonds his power is lesse then his will and malice he is wrathful that we may not be secure he is chained that we may not despair he hath no power but what is given him from above and when God putteth any of his servants into Sathans hands he keepeth Sathan in his own hands if you be in Sathans hands for your exercise remember Sathan is in Gods hands for your comfort and safety He had not power over the herd of Swine without leave Matth. 8. 31. suffer me c. so Luk. 22. 31. he could not sift Peter till he had a commission Sathan hath desired c. Ioh. 1. 12 Job 2. 7. Sathan could not so much as touch Jobs estate or skin till leave obtained nay he could not deceive Ahab a wicked man till God said Go 1 King 22. 21 22. he is but Gods executioner he sent his evil Angels among them Psal 78. 49. God gave commission for the plagues of Egypt and then the evil Angels had power to execute them the godly need not fear Sathan as a disobedient Angel he is cast into the chains of Gods justice and power and as head of the Kingdome of darknesse his power is more restrained by the death of Christ John 12. 29. Fourthly Observe how weak the Creatures are when God marcheth in judgement against them guilt of conscience is one of the fallen Angels chains if God will but arm our own thoughts against us he needeth not bring forces from without there is enough in that to sink us into Hell The Law needeth not bring Brimstone from Heaven to burn sinners nor open the mouth of the great deep to drown them nor shatter the frame of nature about our heads alas we cannot bear up under the burden of our own consciences or the weight of our own grief when he layeth his finger upon the conscience who can bear it The Angels excel in strength and yet the impressions of honour laid upon them are too hard for them to grapple with all Prov. 18. 14. a wounded spirit who can bear as if he had said I challenge all the world to bring me a man that is able to deal with his own conscience when God armeth it against him Fifthly That spiritual judgements of all others are most secure to have sin punished with obstinacy and hardnesse in sinning This is nothing but to have the Divels chains layed upon us a sad intimation that we are given up to chains of darknesse frogs and lice and hailstones were but soft judgements to Pharaoh's hard heart unlesse God should send us quick into Hell there cannot an heavier judgement befal us nay certainly it were better to be given up to Hell torments if there could be any expectation of deliverance then to be given up to a spirit of sinning for there is no end of that say then Lord what ever judgement thou bringest upon me bring not thy heavy judgement of an hard heart 't is better by far that you should live miserably then sin freely without remorse But what sins bring on this spiritual judgement I answer 1. an unthankful abuse of Gods gifts The Divels had a glorious and excellent nature but they were not thankful observe it when you will you will find it true that no man was ever punished with hardness of heart but some former merciful dispensation was abused the Heathens were not thankful for the light of nature and therefore God gave them up to vile affections Rom. 1. 22 24. Others received not the love of a truth and therefore God gave them up to believe a lye that they might be damned 2 Thess 2. 11 12. the very sin against the Holy Ghost is so called because 't is a despighting grace received or a divellish opposing of the grace and supernatural work of the spirit by which the mind is convinced of the truth 2. Sinning against the light that was Sathans sin who was full of light and sinned in the very face of God and 't is his sin still malice having onely put out the light of
7. I will not be so bold with the Schoolmen as to say that the faeculent and drossie parts of this fire are reserved for the torment of the wicked in Hell for ever but in the general we may safely say that 't is an instrument of Gods vengeance on them Well now that day which hath such an end and cloze must needs be a great day Sodoms fire was dreadful but nothing to this burning that was of one particular place but this of the whole world that was a preparative warning but this the last expression of his wrath against the ungodly world Many give divers witty reasons for this burning a taste may not be unwelcom under the Law the vessel that held the sin-offering was to be purged with fire so the world where sin hath been committed The object of our Adulteries is burnt and defaced that we may know the anger of the Lords jealousie the old world was destroyed by Water propter ardorem libidimis because of the heat of lust and the present world burnt with fire propter temporem charitatis because of the coldness of love in the latter dayes But of such kinde of allusions more then enough You see then by all this that the day of judgement is a great day let us now apply it If it be a great day let us regard it more seriously for all things should be regarded according to their weight This is the greatest day that ever we shall see and therefore we shall be more affected with this day then with any thing else we have slight thoughts of things to come and therefore they do not work with us can we expect such a day and not spend a thought upon it Oh Christians look for it more long for it more provide for it more 1. Look for it Phil. 3. 21. Titus 2. 13. Every time you look up to the clouds remember you have a Saviour that in time will come from thence and call the world to an account faith should alwayes stand ready to meet him as if he were upon his way as Rebecca spied Isaac afar off so doth faith which is the evidence of things not seen Look within the curtain of the Heavens and spy out Christ as preparing for his comming If he tarrieth longer then we expect he is not stack 2 Pet. 3. 9. But we are hasty he wants no affection to us his delights were with the sons of men before they were created Prov. 8. 31. And certainly now he is so deeply interested in uâ— as having bought us with his blood he desireth to enjoy what he hath purchased 't is not want of love keepeth â—im away nor want of truth God is punctual in his promises even to a day Exod. 12. 41. even the selse same day c. If all things were ready he would come presently therefore wait and look still they were not deceived that expected his first comming in the flesh 't was said a Virgin shall conceive was it not done that God would bring his Son out of Egypt was it not done that he should ride to Jerusalem upon the foal of an Asse and was it not done Surely the God that hath been faithful all along hitherto will not fail at last 2. Long for it The faithful love his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 8. This is the great day which they long to see that they may meet with their beloved and see him in all his Glory and Royalty They have heard much of Christ and tasted much of Christ and they love him much but yet they have not seen him they know him by hearsay and by spiritual experience but never saw his person whom having not seen you love c. They have seen his picture crucified before your eyes Gal. 3. 1. beholding at in a glass the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. therefore they cannot be satisfied till this day cometh abouâ— Oh when shall it once be the spirit in the Bride saith come Rev. 22 17. Nature saith not come but tarry still if it might go by voices whether Christ should come yea or no carnal man would never give their voice this way The language of corrupt Nature is depart Job 22. 14. Carnal Men are of the Divels mind art thou come to torment us before our time Matth. 8. they cannot endure to hear of it but come Oh come saith Grace this day we have cause to long for not only upon Christs account but our own 't is the day of our perfection as well as Christs royalty now every thing tendeth to its perfect state so doth a Christian then there is perfect holiness and perfect freedom we never find Christ a Saviour to the uttermost till then to the glorified spirits he is but a Saviour in part some fruit of sin is continued upon the body but then body and soul are united and perfectly glorified to enjoy God in Heaven Christ then cometh to make an end of what he had begun he first came to redeem our souls and then our bodies from corruption the body is a captive in the grave when the soul is set at liberty 't is held under the power of death till that day the Butler was not afraid to go before Pharaoh because Joseph told him he should be set at liberty lift up your heads 't is a day of redemption Luk. 17. 28. Christ cometh to loosen the bands and shackles of death to think and speak of that day with horror doth ill become him that looketh for such great priviledges 3. Provide for that day 'T is called the great and noteable day of the Lord Acts 2. 20. it should be the whole employment of our lives to prepare for it but how shall we provide for that day I answer by making peace with God in and by Jesus Christ When Jacob heard that Esau was comming with a great power and force he sendeth to make peace with him we hear of a great day comming when the Lord shall descend from Heaven with a shout and all his holy Angels with him 1. Let us compromise all differences between us and him we are advised so to do Luke 14. 32. While he is yet a great way off he sendeth an Embassage and desireâ—h conditions of peace We need not send to the Lord God maketh the offer to us let us lay down the weapons of our defiance and accept of the terms proposed 2. If you would provide for this day clear up your union with Jesus Christ he is the Judge and there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. Will the head contemn his own members If we abide in him we shall be able to look him in the face we shall have boldness in that day 1 Joh. 2. 28 then though it be a great day it will not be a terrible day to us 3. Frequent Communion with him at the Throne of Grace When familiar friends meet together after long absence what a sweet interview is
the Oak till it sucketh out its heart Gods Messengers carry it more openly and with a single plainness see 2 Cor. 1. 12. creepers and fawning parasites do but draw a suspicion upon themselves surely Gods cause is able to stand upon its own legges and needeth not the support of so base an Artifice But is it not lawful to use some prudence in this kind and to insinnuate with great men for the advantage of a good cause I Answer To be over solicitous in this kind argueth distrust of Gods providence and draweth suspicion upon the way which we would need maintain that matter is not very cumbustible where men blow so hard what favour commeth in the faiâ— way of Gods providence we may accept All men seek the Rulers face but every mans judgment is of the Lord and what may be gotten by honest open and lawful means as by humble addresses and the magnetick virtue of truth its self and the holiness of them that maintain it may be sought after thus the Apostles dealt with the Rulers and great ones to gain their respect to Christianity that they might with less prejudice insinnuate the truth to the people Acts 18. 8. and Acts 19. 31. Some of the chief of Asia were friends to Paul but now when this respect is to be gotten by clamular and dishonest arts and cannot be kept without flattering them in their sins or complyance with their lusts and carnal designs and men stretch their consciences and make it their business to humour those that they may advance them and trample upon all that may be called right and honesty to accomplish their ends and magnify those whom they would have scorned if their station had not been so high This is to have mens persons in admiration for advantage 4. Vsually men of a false way in Religion admire those of their own party above others of known worth and integrity this is one part of the sense all of their own way they accounted Gnosticks that is knowing persons as if others how much soever owned by God as having the stamp and impress of gifts and graces upon them were not to be compared with them this is the genius of all Sectaries illiâ— ipsum esse est promereri saith Tertullian 't is religion enough to be one of them Verse 17. But Beloved remember ye the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ HAving described these Seducers he exhorteth those to whom he wrote to beware of them aliedging the warning of the Apostles to shew that not only Enoch who might be supposed to speak of the wicked men of his own time but the Apostles who expresly spake of the present age foretold that scoffers and sons of Belial should arise in the Church There is nothing difficult in this Verse only a doubt is to be discussed doth not this passage yeild an Argument against the Authority of this Epistle he speaketh of Apostles and of of words spoken before by them as if he were of an inferiour orbe and writing long after their publication of the word I Answer no. 1. Peter maketh mention of the Epistles of Paul yet it doth not weaken his Authority 2 Pet. 3 15 16. 2. In the place exactly parallel to this 2 Pet. 3. 2 3. that Apostle citeth other writings yet avoweth his Apostolical Authority Be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy Prophets and the commandment of us the Apostles of Jesus Christ 3. This term before spoken of only sheweth that he wrote late when either the Apostles were dead or their writings were common in the Church But why doth he quote the words of the Apostles neither urging his own Authority nor including himself as Peter doth I Answer partly out of modesty to point at the place whence he had taken these thingâ— and to shew that he was not ashamed to use and alledge the writings of his fellow Apostles 2. To declare their mutual consent In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established 3. His own Authority is implyed in vouching theirs and before expressed when he calleth himself The Brother of James Notes from this Verse are these From that Beloved which compellation is used to note his affection in this writing the like is used by Peter 2 Pet. 3. 1. Beloved I thought meet c. When we declaim against errours we should do it out of love and a tender respect to the good of souls In all conquests we had need watch our own hearts people suspect us to act out of peevishness and sininister affections to serve a sect and party and our ingagement to be faction not zeal therefore be the more careful that the flame be pure incense must not be kindled with strange fire nor zealous ingagements arise from a carnal impulse Again we may be earnest against errour when corrupt men are gotten into esteem but 't is in love to you if we express our selves with some warmth and affection 't is for God and your souls are concerned 't is observable John the Disciple of love is most earnest against deceivers bid them not good speed saith he 2 Ep. John 7. 10. and every where in his Epistles My little children beleeve not every spirit c. there are many Anti. Christs men that lye and have not the truth 't is sad your Ministers should be looked upon as enemies because they love you and warm you But you will say 't is out of perverseness to serve their faction and to cast an odium upon parties opposite to themselves I Answer Charity thinketh no evil we should not interpret the worst those that storm at a warning give a shrewd presumption of their own guilt usually persons that object thus are such as would have us tamely to suffer the honour and interest of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ to be trampled under foot but 't is our hearts desire that tender consciences may know that 't is not the shame of others but their good which we aim at From that Remember Seasonable remembrance of truths is a great help and relief to the soul John 2. 22. When he was risen from the dead the Desciples remembred c. in events 't is good to remember Prophesies they confirm the soul and support it against the present distress and temptation both sins and discomforts arise from forgetfulness mostly and want of actual remembrance Have ye forgotten Heb. 12. 5. but now when the spirit is ready with the remedy as the flesh is with the temptations 't is a mighty support in the debates between the carnal and spiritual part seasonable thoughts carry it I do not say bare thoughts do it unless God be in them there may be gracious dissallowing thoughts and yet the flesh go away with the victory for all that but this is the way by which the spirit of God worketh by fresh and seasonable thoughts he poyseth the heart and inclineth it to
17 18 19. Well then this life is never exempted from care either to get grace or to keep it we need to be watchful and diligent to the very last man is a changeable creature and Sathan is restless either he continueth the old suite or altereth the course of temptations 't is his subtilety in that he doth not always play the same game a man may stand one brunt and fail in another Joab turned after Adonijah though not after Absolon 1 Kings 2. 28. every new condition bringeth new snares Ephraim is a cake not turned Hosea 7. 8. A man may be well baked of one side and yet quite dough of another the children of God prosperous differ from the children of God afflicted Phil. 4. 12. we had need to learn how to walk up hill and down hill that we may keep with God upon all grounds again corruptions may be disguised a man may withstand open enemies and yet fail by the insinuations of those that have a shew of goodness the young Prophet withstood the King stoutly but yet was perverted by the insinuations of the old Prophet 1 Kings 13. 4. with nineteenth verse Meletius a Sufferer under Pagans but went over to the Arrians Again where there seemeth to be least danger there is most cause of fear Lot that was chast in Sodom miscarried in the mountains where there were none but his own family Conscience that is now tender may be strangely deaded and layed by for a time Who would have thought that he whose heart smote him for cutting off the lap of Sauls garment should afterward fall into uncleanness and blood and lye asleep in it for a long time Confidence is sure to be dismounted Peter is a sad instance he told his Master if all men deny thee yet not I and he meant as he spoke he ventureth on a band of men with a rusty blade followeth Christ into the high Priests Hall who more secure than Peter but all this confidence failed though it met but with a weak tryal the soft words of a Damsels question such feathers are we when the bâ—ast of a temptation is let loose upon us Upon all these considerations now let us make it our care to keep what graces we have gotten which will never be done without watchfulness and diligence to quicken you further to it 1. Unless you keep it all is in vain if so be it be in vain Gal. 3. 4. 't is in vain as to the final reward 't is not in vain as to the increase of punishment you will lose all your cost you have been at for Christ Ezek 18. 24. John 2. â—p 8. your watchings strivings prayings sufferings come to nothing the Nazarite was to begin all anew if the dayes of his separation were defiled Numb 6. 12. nay 't is not in vain as to punishment 2 Pet. 2. 20. 21 22. 2. To lose any degrees of grace is a great loss 't is the most precious gift 2 Pet. 1. 1. conduceth to the highest ends eternal happiness fitteth us for communion with God all the world cannot repair this loss or purchase a supply for us we are to be accountable for degrees as well as for the grace it self they that had five talents reckoned for five a Factor that giveth an account only for a part of the estate received is not accounted faithful we may not be intrusted with so much again a man that hath faln may recover his peace and joy but in a lower degree a Prodigal that hath once broken is not trusted with a like stock again a man after a great disease may never come to the same degree and pitch of health so Christians may not recover that largeness of Spirit after their foul falls and fulness of inward strength and comfort 3. Those that have made profession of Love to God and yet afterwards break with him bring an ill report upon the Lord as if he were an ill Master I am perswaded that the Divel in policy lets many men alone for a while to make a strict profession and seem to be full of zeal and holiness that they may afterwards do Religion a mischief whilest they act for God though they do some things excellently Sathan never troubleth them he is at truce with them till they have gotten a name for the profession of Godliness and strictness of conversation and when once they have gotten a name their fall will be more scandalous more ignominious to themselves and disgraceful to Religion verily this is a common experience we see many forward hot and carried out with great impulsions of zeal and all this while Sathan lets them alone he knoweth how mutable men are and how soon they begin to tire in the ways of God therefore lets them alone till they have run themselves out of breath that afterward by a more notable defection they may shame themselves and harden others If Judas will be a Disciple he lets him alone if Simon Magus will be baptized and Nicholas bear Office in the Church he lets them alone he knoweth the best are mutable that many take up their Religion out of interest that men are soon weary of their own scrupulousness and rigid observances that they first make Conscience of all things and then of nothing and therefore he lets them go on without any notable defect or failing to fly some youthful lusts to renounce some interests till they have gotten credit enough to discredit Religion see 2 Tim. 2. 18. Oh Christians if you are not moved with respect to God yet for your own cause after a blaze will you go one in a stench an house begun and not finished is an habitation for screech Owls but on the contrary what an honour is it to hold out to the last to be like MNason an old Disciple 4. The worst is past we have but a few years service more and we shall be happy for ever Your salvation is neerer then it was when you first beleeved Rom. 13. 11. a little more and you will land safe at the expected Haven if we have a rough passage 't is a short one What will you not watch with me one hour saith Christ to his Apostles the longest life is no more in comparison of eternity Enoch lived longer then most men do he lived 365. years Gen. 5. 22. but all that while he walked with God and is it so tedious to us co tell ouer a few summers and winters before we come to Heaven The next Point is more particular and express That of all graces Love needeth keeping Why 1. Because of all graces 't is most decaying Mat. 24. 12. Rev. 2. 4. Flame is soon spent graces that act most strongly require most influence as being most subject to abatemenâ— we sooner loose our affections then any thing else 2. Because love is a grace that we can ill spare 'tis the spring and rise of all duties to God Man 1. To God love is the first
affection corrupted and renewed the Schoolmen dispute whether there be any thing a man doth that had not its first rise from love 't is love maketh us angry and 't is love maketh us hate and love maketh us grieve much more is it love that maketh us hope and desire and delight so 't is gracious love that sets us a mourning for sin puts us upon hatred of evil delighting in God and in his Laws see 2 Cor. 4 14. 1 Ioh. 5. 3. Gal. 5. 6. faith worketh by love faith receiveth grace and love exerciseth it if we would do any thing in the resistance of sin in keeping the Commandments we cannot spare our love 2. As to man love is a grace that will make us industrious for the good of others and therefore we read of the labour of love 1 Thes 1 3. 't is gluten animarum the glue of the souls the cement and soder of the Church the jointing that runneth throughout all the living and squared stones Col 3. 14. by this souls are mingled and all mutual offices done cheerfully want of love to the Saints is the cause of Apostacy for the less we love them the more we associate to the wicked and then zeaâ— is damnifiâ—d and abated Well then watch the more earnestly against the decays and abatements of love leaving our first love is a disease not only incident to Hypocriâ—es but sometimes to Gods own children Christians go backward in the heat and light of their graces ten degrees either through the badness of the times Mat. 24. 12. or through a cursed â—aâ—iâ—ty that is apt to creep upon us affâ—ctions are deadned to things to which we are acâ—ustomed the Israelites cryed out nothing but this Manna our desires are not so fresh and lively after long acquaintance Sometimes it cometh from negligâ—nce or a sluggish carelesness we do not take pains to keep graces alive nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up the gift that is in us 2 Tim. 1. 6. as the Prieâ—â—s in the Temple were to keep in the holy fire so are we by prayers and meditation and constant woâ—k to keep our love alâ—ve but when these exercises are neglected it decreaseth Sometimes it falleth out through freeness in sinning neglect is like not blowing up the coals sinning is like pouring on waters a very quenching of the sâ—irit 1 Thes 5. 13. Again through secure dalliance with the pleasures of sin or cumbring the soul with the cares of the world when the heart runneth out too much upon the creature God is neglected Thus it may fall out But now the decay of love is seen in two things 1. The remission of the degrees of love 2. The intermission of the acts of love 1. A remission of the degrees when the heart groweth cold listless and loose when there is not such a strong tendency and bent of soul towards God as formerly not such a sense of unkindness such an awful respect to God a care to please him and desire to enjoy him nor such complacency and delight in the thoughts of God but now every loss or abatement of degree doth not mount to a leaving of our first love there are certain ravishments and transports of soul which we feel upon the first evidence of our being reconciled to God or are stirred up upon ther special occasions these are accidental overflowings which may come and go we cannot always bear up under them new things strangely affect us love is afterward more settled and dâ—ffused in the channels of obedience and therefore no wonder if it do not run with so full aâ—ydâ— and current this remission of degrees then must be understood with respect to these constant dispositions of love as care to please fear to offend desire of and delight in God when these fail as to any degree love is a chilling or growing cold 2. An intermission of the acts and exercise of love when God is forgâ—tten duty neglected sin unmoâ—tified no caâ—e of or frequency in private communiâ—n with God no sweet thoughts of him Psal 63. 6. Psal 104. 34. where we love there will be musing on the object beloved there will be familiarity and intimateness of converse there is not a day can pass but love will find some errand and occasion to confer with God either to implore his help or ask his counsel but now when men can pass over whole days and weeks and never give God a visit such strangeness argueth little love Again when there is no care of glorifying God no ploâ—tings and contrivings how we may be most useful for him when we do not mourn over sin as we were wont to do are not so sensible of offences have not these meltings of heart are not so careful to avoid all occasions of offending God are not so watchful so zealous as we were wont to be do not rise up in arms against temptations and carnal thoughts love is decayed certainly when the sense of our obligations to Christ is warm upon the heart sin doth not scape so freely love will not endure it to live and act in the â—ear Tit. 2 11. 12. Gen. 39 9. but now as this is worn off the heart is not watched the tongue is not bridled speeches are idle yea rotten and prophane wrath and envy tyrannize over the Soul all runneth to riot in the poor neglected heart yea further Gods publick worship is performed perfunctorily and in a careless stupid manner sin confessed without remorse and sense of the wrong done to God prayer made for spiritual blessings without desire of obtaining wrath deprecated without any fear of the danger intercession for others without any sympathy or brotherly Love thanks given without any esteem of the benefits or affection to God in the remembrance of them conference of holy things is either none at all or very slight and careless hearing without attention reading without a desire of profit singing without any delight or melody of heart All this is but the just account of an heart declining in the love of God Now as you love your own Souls beware of this great evil to this end 1. Be rooted and grounded in love Eph. 3. 17. Do not content your selves with flashes and good moods and meltings at a Sermon but get solid grace and thorow experiences glances and suddain affections will come to nothing Matth. 13. 4. 5. with 20. 21. A tree that hath taken root is in less danger of withering 2. Increase and grow in love 1 Thessa 4. 10. Nothing conduceth to a decay more than contentment with what we have received every day you should love sin less self less world less but Christ more and more 3. Observe the first declinings for these are cause of all the rest evil is best stopped in the beginning if when we first began to grow careless we had taken heed then it would never have come to this an heavy body moving downward vires aâ—quirit â—undo it gathers strength by
running and still moveth faster and faster look then to your first breaking off from God and remitting your watch and spiritual fervour 't is easier to crush the egg than to kill the serpent He that keepeth an house in constant repair prevents the ruine and fall of it stop every hole and chinck before the mischief spread further 4. Plead with thy heart the highest degree of love doth not answer the dignity of Christ nor the duty that we owe to him he is to be loved with all the Soul and all the heart and all the might 't is a disgrace to him to give him less surely he looketh to be much loved again who hath loved us so intirely and translated us out of darkness into marvelous light 5. In case of decay take the advice which the holy Ghost hath given you Rev. 2. 5. where three things are required 1. Consideration 2. Humiliation 3. Reformation 1. Consideration Remember whence thou art fallen ponder the case in examination we compare our selves and the Law together but in this recollection our selves and our selves together sadly consider then what a difference there is between thee and thy self recall former experiences and say as Job 29. 2. 3. Oh that I were as in moneths past in the dayes when God preserved me when his candle shined on my head or as the Churce Hosea 2. 7. It was better with me than now in our serious sequestration and retirements we should have such thoughts as these are I was wont to spend some time every day with God I remember when 't was a delight to me to think of him now I have no heart to pray or meditate no relish of communion with his blessed majesty 't was the joy of my Soul to be at an Ordinance the returns of the Sabbath were welcome to me but now what a weariness is it time was when I had sweet experiences and the graces of Gods Spirit were more lively in me but now all is dead and inefficacious time was when a vain thought was burdensome unto me but now I can away with sinful actions time was when the mispence of ordinary time was a grief unto my Soul now I can spend the Sabbath unprofitably and never be troubled c. Thus should you consider your estate 2. Humiliation intimated in the word repent 't is not enough to know your selves faln many are convinced of their collapsed and decayed estate but do not judg themselves for it in Gods presence go bewail it to God smite upon the thigh praying for pardon that 's the notion of the word repent here 't is not enough to repent of gross whoredom theft drunkenness we must repent also of the decayes of love the blind world thinketh we are to repent of nothing but what is publikely odious In friendship coldness is taken for a great injury go arraign thy self before God for growing cold in his Love and Service 3. Reformation do thy first works we must not spend the time in idle complaints many are sensible that do not repent some may repent that do not reform you must not be quiet till you recover your former station Christ puts Peter upon a trebble profession because of his trebble denyal John 21. 17. The next note is from the coupling of these two the love of God and looking for the mercy of Christ unto eternal life Thence observe That love to God will put us upon looking for Christs second coming when this mercy is to be dispensed to us See the like connection elsewhere 2 Thes 3 5. the Lord direct your hearts to the Love of God and the patient waiting for Christ. Two reasons may be given of it 1. Love allayeth fear 1 John 4. 17. 18. of whom should a Christian be afraid at that day of the Divel he is held in chains of darkness and judged by the Saints together with Christ of Christ Shall the members be afraid of their head the ransomed of their Redeemer the beloved of of their Saviour Oh but then he cometh as a Judg but 't is to plead their cause to right their wrongs to revenge their enemies to reward their services if he be then your Judg he hath ever been your Advocate hitherto and surely he that hath interceded for you will not condâ—mn you 2. Love quickeneth desire 2. Pet. 3. 12 Looking for and hastening the coming of the Lord. see Cant. 8 14. Rev. 22. 20 An Harlot would have her husband deferre his coming but a chast spouse thinketh he can never come soon enough they that go an whoring after the world neither dâ—sire Christs coming nor love his appearing but the Spirit of the Bride saith come they that love God look for it Phil. 3. 20. long for it 2 Tim 4. 8. they love his appearing corrupt nature saith depart Job 22. 14. but grace saith come the children of God would fain see him of whom they have heard so often and so much and of whose sweetness they have tasted they know him by hear-say and by spiritual experience but they would fain see his person This now informeth us what a difference there is between a child of God and wicked men they wish this day would never come and would be glad in their hearts to hear such news the thought of Christs coming is their burden and torment they have the spirit of the Divel in them art thou come to torment us before our time Matth. 8. 31. They cannot endure to hear or think of it if it might go by voices whether Christ should come or no would they give their voice this way and say Come Lord Jesus yea come quickly If Thiefs and Malefactors should have the liberty to chuse whither the Assizes should be kept or no would they ever fix it and look for and long for the time of its approach No no but a child of God is waiting and looking for this happy time But now here is an Objection are Christians alwayes in this frame What shall we say then to those weak ones that tremble at the thought of it for want of the assurance of Gods Love and the best Saints that do not alwayes feel such an actual inclination and strength of desire I answer the meanest Saint hath some inclination this way can a man desire that Christ should come into his heart and not come to Judgment Since comfort and reward is more naturally embraced than duty the first work of grace is to raise us up to this hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. but yet sometimes there may be a drowsiness and indisposition and then their lamps may not be kept burning Luc. 12. 35 36. The wise Virgins stept as well as the foolish Matth. 25. oftentimes they find themselves indisposed for his coming by careless carriage remission of their watch and scattering their Love to the Creature yea much of their old bâ—ndage may remain through the imperfection of their Love for his perfect love casteth out fear A wife
desireth her husbands coming home but it may be all things are not ready and in so good order as they should be all Christians desire the coming of Christ but sometimes they are not so exact and watchful and therefore their affections are not so lively Here is a note of tryal whether we love God or Christ how do we stand affected towards his appearing the world cannot satisfie Christians they look beyond it in things to come we are apt to feign and because we have not a sufficient sense of them we think we have an affection to them when we have them not if there be looking there will be preparing when you expect a great estate for your children you breed them accordingly or rather thus a man that expecteth the comming of a King to his house will make all things ready surely you look for no body when you are not fitting and preparing your selves what have you done against this great day do you judge your selves 1 Cor. 11. 31. do you get into Christ Rom 8. 1. that you may be interested in Christs Righteousness against you come to undergo Christs judgement what purging of heart and life 2 Pet. 3. 11. art thou in such a case wherein thou wouldst be found of Christ To exhort those that love God to look earnestly for the comming of Christ to this end 1. Consider our relations to him he is our Master we are his servants and good servants will wait for their Masters comming Mat. 24. 45. here we have our meals but then our wages 't is but present maintenance which we have now but behold I come and my reward is with me Christ will not come empty handed Again he is our Husband we his Spouse the Bride saith come Rev. 22. 17. we are now but contracted to Christ then is the day of solemn Espousals The Judge is the wicked mens enemy but your Redeemer 2. Consider the priviledges we shall then enjoy the day of Christs coming is 1. A day of manifestation Rom 8 19. all is now hidden Christ is hidden the Saints are hidden their life is hidden Col. 3. 3. their glory is hidden 1 John 3. 2. but then Christ shall appear and we shall appear with him in glory as Moses told the Rebels Numb 16. To morrow the Lord will shew who are his Christ as the natural son shall then appear in all his Royalty and Glory as the great God and Saviour of the world so shall the Saints put on their best robes in winter the tree appeareth not what it is the sap and life is hidden in the root but when summer cometh all is discovered 2. 'T is a day of perfection every thing tendeth to its perfect estate the little seed that is sown in the ground breaketh through the clods that it may be in flower and perfection so a Christian is working through that he may come to an estate of perfect holiness and perfect freedom here we are very weak yea even to glorified spirits he is but a Saviour in part there is some fruit of sin continued upon the body but then body and soul are united and perfectly glorified to praise God in Heaven Christ cometh to make an end of what he hath begun he came first to redeem our souls from sin but then our bodies from corruption then all priviledges are perfect regeneration Mat. 19. 27. when Heaven's new earth new bodies new souls new that 's a regeneration indeed so adoption we are sons but handled as servants looking for the adoption Rom. 8. 23. so justification our pardon shall be proclaimed at the market cross published before all the world Acts 3. 19. so for Redemption Luk. 21. 28. the body is a captive when the soul is set at liberty the body is held under death till that day 3. 'T is a day of Congregation or gathering together the Saints are now scattered they live in divers Countreys and in divers ages but then all meet in one Assembly and Congregation Psal 1. 6. but of these things more largely verse 16. on these words the great day From that looking for the mercy c. Observe That looking earnestly for eteanal life is a good means of perseverance for to that end is it urged by the Apostle here I shall enquire 1. What this looking is 2. What influence it hath upon our perseverance 1. What this looking is it implyeth patience but chiefly hope 1. Patience in waiting Gods leisure in the midst of present difficulties Heb. 10. 36. Luke 8. 15. 1 Thes 1. 3. Rom. 8. 25. 2. Hope now because there is a blind hope and a good hope a bastard hope and a genuine hope good hope through grace saith the Apostle 2 Thes 2. 16. Let me tell you that this looking or expectation is not that blind hope that is found in men ignorant and presumptuous that regard not what they do presumption is a child of darkness the fruit of ignorance and inconsideration when men are once serious they find it an hard matter to fix an advised hope on things to come for guilty nature is more inclinable to fear than to hope this blind hope will certainly fail us 't is compared to a Spiders web Job 8. 12 13. The Spider spinneth a web out of his own bowels which is swept away as soon as the besom cometh so do carnal men conceive a few rash and ungrounded hopes but when death cometh or a little trouble of Conscience these vain conceits are swept away this hope which I press you to is a serious act arising from grace aiming at its own perfection again this looking is not some glances upon Heaven such as are sound in worldly and sensual persons who now and then have their lucida intervalla their good moods and sober thoughts as Balaam Numb 23. 10. a taste they may have Heb. 6. 4. a smatch of the sweetness of Heaven and spiritual comforts the most wretched worldlings have their wishes and suddain rapâ—s of Soul but alas these suddain motions are noâ— operative they come but seldom and leave no warmth upon the Soul as fruit is not ripened that â—ath but a gâ—aâ—ce of the Sun and a suddain light rather blindeth a man than sheweth him the way So these suddain indeliberate thoughts vanish and leave men never the better again 't is not a loose hope or a probable conjecture this hath no efficacy upon the Soul men that are under an anxious doubtful posture of Spirit will be very uneven in their walkings James 1. 8. when men are discouraged in a race they begin to slacken their pace to which the Apostle alludeth when he saith I run not as once that is uncertain 1 Cor. 9 26. but when they begin sensibly to get ground they hold on their course the more chearfully Thus negatively I have shewed you what 't is not but now positively t is an earnest well grounded expectation of blessedness to come it bewrayeth it self 1. by frequent and
increaseth our love to God Luc. 7. 47. and putteth us upon the study of holiness 4. At the last day all is fully accomplished 1 Col. 22. Well then let us wait upon God with incouragement and press on to perfection upon these hopes surely we shall be faultless Christ would never have given us earnest if he meant not to stand to his bargain The next clause is before the presence of his glory note thence that Christs presence at the day of Judgment will be exceeding glorious for he will then appear not only as the Son of man but as the Son of God Matth. 16 27. he will then appear not only as the Saviour but as the Judg of the world both for the terror of the wicked 2 Thess 1. 8. and as a pattern of that glory which shall be put upon the godly Col. 3. 4. and Phil. 3. 21. Well then let us not despise Christ now he lieth hid under the vail of the Gospel but with comfort let us expect his coming for when he is glorious we shall share with him and appear also in glory And let us not think shame of his service what ever disireputation the world shall put upon it The last particle in the words is that with exceeding joy from thence note The day of Christ to the godly is a joyful day when others howl you shall triumph when others are dejected and call upon the Mountains to cover them Rev. 6. 16. you shall lift up the head for your redemption draweth nigh Luc. 21. 28. Christ will be glad to see you whom he hath carried in his heart from all eternity for whose sake he came into the world and dyed and for whom he went back again into Heaven that he might negotiate with God in your behalf and whom he now cometh to receive unto himself that you may be for ever there where he is and surely you that have received Christ into your hearts and loved him though unseen and served him though with the loss and hazard of all will be glad to see him in all his glory and royalty especially when you shall hear him calling upon you Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the Kingdom prepared for you Oh that we could act over this joy aforehand faith is a bird that can sing in winter before Christ came in the flesh the Patriarchs got a sight of him by the Eagle-eye of faith and rejoyced at the thought of it John 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Oh surely our hearts should be warmed with the thought of that blessed day when we shall be able to say Yonder even there is our great Lord Verse 25. To the only wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty dominion and power now and ever Amen THe Apostle in this verse goeth on with that doxology which he had begun in the former here you may take notice of the description of the person to whom the praise is given he is discribed 1. By his excellency the only wise God 2. By our interest and the benefit we receive by him and our Saviour 2. The ascription of praise Be glory c. there is 1. what is ascribed glory majesty dominion and power 2. The duration how long he would have this ascribed now and ever 3. Manner in what fashion 't is ascribed in the particle Amen with which all is sealed and closed up this particle implieth 1. Our confidence that it shall be so 2. our hearty affection that it might be so love saith let it be and faith it shall be for faith is a prophetick grace in prayer it answereth its self But let us go over these particulars more fully and distinctly from the description of the person to the only wise God our Saviour that Christ is God we proved before on verse 4. see pag. 222. and 230 231 232 233 234 and that Christ is a Saviour and how on the same verse pag. 227 228 229 I shall only now observe 1. That God is wise 2. That God is only wise 3. That Jesus Christ as Mediator hath a right to this attribute I begin with the first That wisdom is ascribed to God Gods wisdom is a distinct notion from his knowledge he doth not only know all things but hath ordered and disposed them with much counsel the wisdom of God is asserted in the word Job 9. 4. and Job 12 13 and proved there by what he hath bestowed upon man he that teacheth man knowledg shall not he know Psal 94. 10. what ever man hath from God God hath it in himself in a more eminent degree and 't is also evidenced by the works of God as in the works of creation providence and the methods of his graces 1. Much of his wisdom is seen in creation there his wisdom is discovered in the excellent order of all his works their mutual correspondence and fitness for the several ends and services for which they were appointed the order of the world sheweth the wisdom of God the order of placing the creatures see Pro. 3. 19 20. the Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth by understanding hath he established the Heavens by his knowledg the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew the earth is set lowermost as the foundation of all the rest the Sea pent up within its channels the air above them both and the Heavens higher than all the Stars and Planets placed in the Firmament and the fishes in the Sea the order of making God proceeding from things imperfect to perfect first the rude mass then the Heavens and the vast earth and glorious creatures but without life then the herbs and plants that have life but not sense and motion then the brute creatures that have sense and motion but not reason then man with a reasonable Soul after his own image in this order you may observe first the dwelling place is appointed then the food then the creature that feedeth upon it the beasts upon the herbs and man upon the beasts The Queen of Sheba was astonished at Solomons wisdom when she perceived the well ordering of his family certainly if we did observe the order of nature we would stand wondering more at the wisdom of God Next observe the correspondence that is between all the parts of the world compared sometimes to a building wherefore God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an artificial Builder Heb. 11. 10. In this great house every part conspireth to the beauty service and deceâ—cy of the whole the roof is Heaven and therefore the Spheres are called chambers and stories in the Heavens Amos 9. 6. The foundation is earth Job 38. 5 6. The Stars and glorious Luminaries are the windows the Sea the water course c. Sometimes 't is compared to the frame and structure of mans body Heb. 11. 3. The worlds were framed 't is in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
So 1 Tim. 5. 8. If any provide not for his own house he hath denyed the Faith that is done an act incompatible with the Christian Faith of which he maketh profession which is Interpretative a denying the Faith For the more clear opening of this consider these Propositions 1. An empty profession of Christ is not enough Now Christ is every where received 't is easie to profess his Name To be a Christian in â—eart and Conscience was far more easie to them in the Primitive times then be so in Name and Profession the Powers of the world being against that way whereas the difficulty on our part lyeth on being Christians in heart 't is no disgrace now to be a Christiaâ— outwardly that opposition and scorn which was then cast upon Christianity would now be cast upon Judaism or Turcism or Paganism The winds blow out of another corner and that which was their discouragement may be our Motive to wit The Countenance of Civil Powers all advantages lie this way If in Christ's time they followed him for the loaves now they may much more Quandoquidem panis Christi jam pinguis factus est saith Gilbert tractatur in Conciliis disceptatur in Judiciis diâ—putatur in Scholis Cantatur in Ecclesiis quaestuosa res est nomen Christi The world is well altered since the first flight of Christianity abroad the Kings and Princes and Wise men of the World were then against it every where was it hooted at as a novel and improbable Doctrine but since by long prescription of time it hath gotten esteem in the world and is made the publike profession of Nations and Kings and Princes have brought their glory into the Church now Christ is handled in Councils disputed of in the Schools and preached of in the Assemblies so that the general profession of Christianity is a matter of no thanks 'T is easie to be good where there nothing to draw us to the contrary and therefore when Christ cometh to judgement Paganism and loose profession of Christianity shal fare alike for loose Christians are but Pagans under a Christians name see Jer. 9. 25 26. The days shall come that I will punish all them that are uncircumcised with them that are circumcised Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab for these Nations are uncircumcised in flesh and the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart 'T is no advantage to bear Gods mark in our Bodies and to hove no fruit of it in our Souls This is but to cloath our selves with the leaves of the Vine without partaking the sap What difference is there between those who in a loose Christian profession are addicted to Luxury wantonness quarrelling prodigious lusts and the Votaries or Worshippers of Mars Venus Bacchus and Priapus Only the one appear in their own colours and shew what they are and the other though they are as low and brutish in their practises pretend to an higher Name even to the sacred and excellent name of Christians Alas your Circumcision shall be reckoned Vncircumcision when you have not the fruit of it 2. Profession of Christianity without answerable practise maketh us in worse case than an Heathen that is ignorant of Christ and salvation by him see 1 Tim. 5. 8. He is worse then an Infidel Poor Pagans are not so well enlightned instructed and acquainted with such rich and glorious mercy with the great things of Eternity with the assistances of God the Spirit they have not such Rules as we have nor such Advantages as we have nor such Obligations as we have nor such Encouragements as we have If a man on Horseback cometh slower then a man on Foot we blame him the more because he had more help So are Carnal Christians in worse case then the Heathen because God may justly expect more from them To be brought up in a Princes Court and to be still of rude and servile conditions is worse in them then in those that follow the Plough all days of their lives So to be trained up in the Courts of Christ and to come short of the Heathens in Morality and strictness of conversation 't will be worse taken of us then of those that never heard of Christ The more we profess the Truth the more we condemn ourselves in our evil practises and therefore must needs be worse then Heathens for we practise that by voluntary choise and perverse inclination which they practise by education they know little better So that the more excellent the Religion is which we profess the more vile and base is our disobedience for our profession will be a sore witness against us that we knew better and had encouragements to do better we justifie the Heathen but we condemn ourselves as Israel justified Sodom Ezech. 16. 5â— but by her profession so much the more disproved her own carriage see vers 63. time will come when you will wish you had never known the way of righteousness and as Job cursed the day of his Birth so will you the memory of that day wherein you were added to the Church 3. Profession accompanied with some rash and fond affection to Christ is not enough to acquit us from denying him Many in an heat and humour will be ready to die for their God and yet deny him ordinarily in their lives as a quarrelling Ruffian will stand up for the honour of his Father who yet by his debauched courses is the very grief of his heart it may be he wisheth his death to enjoy the Inheritance yet if any other should speak a disgraceful word of him he is up in Arms presently and ready to fight with him So some â—â—â— pretend much affection to their Religion and are ready to â—â— him that shall question it or to venture their own lives in the quarrel and yet none do this Religion so great a despite and dishonour as they do themselves by their ungodly conversations The Apostle supposeth that some may give their Bodies to be burned that have not Charity 1 Cor. 13. 1. for all this ado is not for their Religion but their humour If their Religion were rightly understood they would not endure it because it altogether disproveth such practises as they delight in and all that they do is no more then they would do for an Idol if they were born there where Idols are worshipped The Blasphemies of a Pagan or an open Enemy to Religion do not touch Christ so near in point of honour as the scandalous Behaviour of a Christian when Pagans declaim against him 't is but the malice of an enemy Dogs will bark 't is their kind but your disobedience to his Laws and unsuitable carriages doth far more dishonour and represent him as an ulcerous Christ to the world because you pretend so much affection to him and can live in such a fashion you would be taken for his greatest friends and so in effect you make the world believe
that he doth approve your Doings 4. Christ may be denyed though there be a stricter Profession of his Name and some faint love and relish of his sweetness Besides the loose National Profession of Christianity which God in a wise Providence ordaineth for the greater safety and preservation of his Church there may be a strict personal profession taken up from inward conviction and some tast and feeling and yet Christ may be denyed for all this as some that had tasted the good Word turned aside to the world and so are said to crucifie him rather then to profess him Heb. 6. 4 5 6. The Apostle intendeth some Hebrews that did mix Moses with Christ and Judaism to save their goods So elsewhere he speaketh of some that had a form of godliness but denyed the power thereof 2 Tim. 3. 5. By the Form meaning the strictest garb of Religion then in fashion this is to deny Christ when we deny the Virtue and Power of that Religion which he hath established and will not suffer it to enter upon our hearts 5. The means to discover false Profession is to observe how we take it up and how we carry it on whether we embrace it upon undue grounds or match it with unconsonant practises 1. We embrace it upon undue grounds if we take it up meerly upon Tradition without a â—ight of that distinct worth and excellency which is in our Religion for then our Religion is but an happy mistake the stumbling of blind zeal upon a good object and all the difference between you and Pagans is but the advantage of your Birth and Education standing upon an higher ground doth not make a man taller then another of the same growth and stature that standeth lower their stature is the same though their standing be not the same So you are no better then Pagans only you have the advantage of being born within the pale and in such a Country where the Christian Religion is professed You do according to the Trade of Israel and live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the fashion of your Country will carry it and as Beasts follow the Track so you take up that Religion which is entayled upon you 2. If we match it with unsutable practises These may be known if we do consider what is most excellent in the Christian Religion Elsewhere I have shewed that the glory of the Christian Religion lyeth in three things In excellency of Rewards and purity of Precepts and sureness of Principles of Trust â— In the Fulness of the Reward which is the eternal enjoyment of God in Christ therefore they that do not make it their first and chief care to seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Matth. 6. 33. that are like Swine in preferring the will of carnal pleasures before communion with God or in the Scripture expression Love pleasures more then God or prefers the profers of the world before everlasting happiness they whose lives are full of Epicurism Atheism Worldlyness 't is not a pin to those whether they be Pagans or Christians for acting thus heathenishly thus brutishly they do but polute that Sacred and Worthy Name 2. The perfection of the Percepts which require a full conformity of the whole man to the Will of God More particularly Christian precepts are remarkable for Purity and Charity for Purity and therefore revellings and banquettings and chambering are made to be customs of the Gentiles 1 Pet. 4. 3. things abhorrent from the Christian Religion they that are yokeless and live according to the swinge of their own lusts or else that only fashion the outward man make no conscience of thoughts lusts c. they do not live as Christians for Charity nothing is more pressed then giving 't was Christs maximé It is better to give then to receive Acts 20. 35. and also forgiving one great strain of his Sermon is Love to enemies Matth. 5. 43 44 45 46 47 48. Christ when he brought from heaven the discovery of such a strange love from God to man would settle a wonderful love on earth between man and man 3. For sureness of Principles of Trust the whole Scripture aimeth at this to settle a trust in God and therefore it discovereth so much of Gods mercy of his particular providence of the contrivance of salvation in and by Christ so that to be without hope is to be like a gentile for they are described to be men without hope 1 Thes 4. 13. and carking and distrustful care is made the sin of the Gentiles Matth 6. 31 32. this kind of solicitude is for them that know not God or deny his providence over particular things Well then Take heed of denying Christ 't is an heavie sin it cost Peter bitter sorrow Matth. 26. 75. Will you deny Christ that bought you 2 Pet. 2. 2. Now they deny Christ whose hopes and comforts are only in this world Christ is not their God but their Belly Phil. 3. 19. Libertines are not Disciples of Christ but Votaries of Priapus Merciless and revengeful men do condâ—mn that Religion which they do profess in short they do not only deny Christ that question his Natures or make void his Offices but they that despise his Laws when they do not walk answerably or walk contrary VERSE 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance though ye once knew this how that the Lord having saved the People out of the Land of Aegypt afterwards destroyed them that believed not WE have done with the Preâ—ace I come now to the examples by which the Apostle proveth the danger of defection from the Faith the first is taken from the murmuring Israelites The second from the Apostate Angel the third from the beâ—stly Sodomites Tâ—at you may see how apposite and apt for the Apostle's purpose these instances are I shall first insist upon some general Observations First Observe That Gods ancient Judgements were ordained to be our warnings and examples The Bible is nothing but a Book of Presidents wherein the Lord would give the world a Document or Copie of his Providence All these things are hapned to them for examples 1 Cor. 10. 11. When we blow off the dust from these old experiences we may read much of the counsel of God in them their destruction should be our caution His Justice is the same that ever it was and his Power is the same his vigour is not abated with yeers God is but one Gal. 3. 20. that is always the same without change and variation as ready to take vengeance of the Transgressors of the Law as of old for that 's the point there discussed So 2 Tim. 2. 13. He abideth â—aithful he cannot deny himself In all the changes of the World God is not changed but is where he was at first Surely we should tremble more when we consider the examples of those that have felt his Justice for God keepeth a proportion in all his dispensations If he were strict and