other Men are and then have delivered him for our sake there would have been no such great Expression of his Love in this Way of redeeming us more than what must have appeared should he have chosen to redeem us any other Way To have redeemed us indeed by what Means soever would have been a most glorious Expression of his Love and good Will to us but since the Scripture hath raised the Consideration of God's Love higher from the Dignity of the Person whom he sent to redeem us by how much higher the Dignity of this Person is by so much greater is the Estimation of his Love But if the Dignity of Christ's Person as the only begotten Son of God consisted meerly in being a Man born into the World in such an extraordinary Manner this would have made such an inconsiderable Addition to his Love in redeeming us that he would have much more agrandized his Kindness to us to have offered up an Angel of Heaven for us though of the most inferior Order than to have thus delivered up his only begotten Son But to offer up his natural Son to whom he had communicated his Nature his Son who was God co-eternal and co-essential with himself was a more transcendent Expression of his Love to us than if he had unpeopled Heaven for our sakes and delivered up to us the whole Quire of Angels Archangels and Seraphims 2 ly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears in this also that he gave up his only begotten Son for us when we were Sinners And this is implied in that Expression God so loved the World that is the World as it then was a base depraved and degenerate World for of this very World whom God thus loved the Apostle gives this extream bad Character the whole World lieth in Wickedness 1 Joh. v. 19 And St. Paul distributing the whole World into Jews and Gentiles pronounces universally concerning them that they were all under Sin Rom. iii. 9 So that in giving up his Son for such a World as this he must necessarily give him for Sinners And certainly should we measure God's Goodness by our own this Consideration is enough to render his giving his only begotten Son for us a most incredible Expression of it that when by our Sins we had provoked him beyond the Sufferance of any Patience but his own when in Despight of all those innumerable Mercies wherewith from Time to Time he had sought to oblige us and mauger all those Stupendous Judgments with which from one Generation to another he had endeavoured to curb and restrain us when he had used so many effectual Arts to reclaim and amend us and we by our own Obstinacy had bafled and defeated them all and in stead of mending grew worse and worse under all his powerful Applications one would have thought that now at last in stead of trying any further Experiments on us he might have been sufficiently provoked to give us up as Physitians do their Patients when they are past all Hope of Recovery and so let us alone to perish in our own Obstinacy And doubtless if after all these Provocations we had known that he had intended to send his Son into the World our own Guilt and Consciousness would have made us conclude that the Design of his sending him was only to ruin and destroy us to extirpate the whole Race of us from the Face of the Earth that so his Creation might be no longer scandalized with the Remembrance of such a Generation of Monsters But now that after so many repeated Affronts and Rebellions and in the midst of so many loud-crying Guilts that perpetually rang in his Ears he should still persevere to love us in such a transcendent Degree as to part with what is nearest and dearest to him for our sakes even his only begotten Son out of his Bosom is such an astonishing Expression of his Goodness to us as we can never sufficiently magnify and admire Had Mankind been as innocent as they are guilty before God had their Virtues been as great and as numerous as their Crimes were yet to send his great Son down from Heaven to visit them had been such an Instance of condescending Goodness in him as would have justly merited our everlasting Praise and Remembrance but to send him down to Sinners to such a Race of obstinate and incorrigible Sinners and that not to destroy but to save them to obtain for and tender to them a Kingdom of immortal Pleasures and use all possible Means safely to conduct them thither Lord what a Miracle of Love is this And hence the Apostle estimates this prodigious Instance of the Love of God by the Vndeservingness of those upon whom it was exercised but God says he commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us Rom. v. 8 3 dly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears in this also that he gave up his only begotten Son for the whole World of Sinners he did not confine and limit this great Design of his Goodness by granting a monopoly of it to a few particular Favourites but settled it as a publick Charter upon the whole Corporation of Mankind for he so loved the World says the Text that he gave his only begotten Son that is for the benefit of the World For how could his giving of his Son have been an Expression of his Love to the World if he had not given him for the publick Benefit of the World Had his Design been to restrain his Gift to a few particular Persons whom he had designed to rescue from the general Shipwrack the Text must have run thus God so loved some particular Persons in the World that he gave up his only begotten Son For to make that an Instance of his Love to all which he designed only for the Benefit of a few is to pretend a Love to the greatest Part of Men which he never intended them for that by the World here he means the whole World he himself assures us 1 Joh. ii 2 And he is the Propitiation for our Sins And not for ours only but also for the Sins of the whole World And what he means by the whole World he tells us in the same Epistle 1 Joh. v. The whole World lieth in Wickedness So that this whole World that lies in Wickedness is that whole World for whose Sins Christ is a Propitiation and that whole World for whose Sins Christ is a Propitiation is the World whom God so loved as to give his only begotten Son for But the Apostle yet more expresly tells us that the head of every Man is Christ 1 Cor. xi 3 And if so then every Man is a Part of Christ's Body and if so then every Man hath a Communion in the Benefits of his Blood for Ephes. v. 23 he is said to be the Saviour of the Body and more expresly yet Heb. ii 9 it is said
place having obtained eternal Redemption for us And in Virtue of this Blood which he poured out as a Sacrifice of our Sins upon the Cross he now pleads our Cause at the right Hand of his Father and ever lives to make Intercession for us So that you see the Death of Christ had in it all the necessary Ingredients of a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the World and having so what a prodigious Instance is it of the Love of God to us that rather than destroy us he would give up his own Son to be a Sacrifice for us I do not deny but if he had pleased he might have pardoned and saved us without any Sacrifice at all but he knew very well that if he should do so it would be much worse for us He knew that if he should pardon our Sins without giving us some great Instance of his implacable Hatred of them we should be too prone to presume upon his Lenity and thereupon to return again to our old Vomit and Uncleanness and therefore though it would have been more for the Ease and Interest of his blessed Son to have pardoned us without any Sacrifice at all yet such was his Love to us that because he foresaw that this Way of pardoning would prove fatal and dangerous to us he was resolved that he would not do it without being moved thereunto by the greatest Sacrifice the World could afford him and that no less a Propitiation should appease his Wrath against Offenders than the Blood of his own Son that so by beholding his Severity against our Sins in this unvaluable Sacrifice of the Blood of his Son we might be sufficiently terrified from returning again to them by the very same Reason that moved him to pardon them that we might not think light of that which God would not forgive without such a vast Consideration but might tremble to think of repeating those Sins the Price of whose Pardon was the dearest Blood of the Son of God Hence is that of the Apostle Rom. iii. 25 26. whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness that is his righteous Severity against Sin for the remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just that is sufficiently severe against the Sins of Men so as to warn them from returning and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus So that now he hath reduced Things to an excellent Temper having so provided that neither himself nor we might be damnified that we might not suffer by our doing again what we have done and that he might not suffer by our doing still the same that he might be what he is a pure and a holy Saviour and that we might be what we ought dutiful and obedient Subjects Now what an amazing Instance of God's Love is this that he should so far consult the good of his Creatures as to Sacrifice his own Son to their Benefit and Safety How inexpressibly must he needs love us that for our sakes could behold his most dearly beloved Son hanging on the Cross covered with Wounds and Blood forsaken by his Friends despised and spit on by his Barbarous Enemies that could hear him complain in the Bitterness of his Soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And yet suffer him to continue under that unsufferable Agony till he had given up his white and innocent Soul an unspotted Sacrifice for the Sins of the World Yea that notwithstanding the infinite Love that he bore him and the piteous Moans that his Torments forced from him was so far from relieving him that for our sakes he inflicted upon him the utmost Misery that human Nature could bear that so having an experimental Sense of the most grievous Suffering that Mankind is liable to and being touched with the utmost Feeling of our Infirmities and in all Points tempted like unto us he might carry a more tender Commiseration for us to Heaven and know the better how to pity us in all our Griefs and Extremities For in all things it behoved him saith the Apostle to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest Heb. ii 17 Hear O Heavens and give Ear O Earth and let all the Creation attend with Astonishment to this stupendous Story of Love which so far exceeds all the heroick Kindnesses that ever any Romance of Friendship thought of that no less Evidence than that of Miracles could have ever rendred it credible Well then might the Apostle say herein is love not that we loved God for after such vast Obligations this is no great Wonder but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our Sins 1 Joh. iv 10 And thus you see what an unspeakable Instance of the Love of God his giving his only begotten Son is I shall now conclude this Argument with a few practical Inferences from the whole 1. From hence I infer what monstrous Ingratitude it would be in us to deny any Thing to God that he demands at our Hands who hath been so liberal to us as to give up his only begotten Son for our sakes O blessed God! If it were possible for us to do or suffer for thee a thousand Times more than at present we are able what a poor Return were this for the Gift of thy Son that unspeakable Expression of thy Goodness And can we deny thee any Thing after such an Instance of Love especially when thy Demands are so gentle and reasonable When he requires nothing of us but what is for our good and the Requital he demands for all his Love to us is only that we should love our selves and express this Love in doing those Duties which he therefore enjoyns because they tend to our Happiness and avoiding those Sins which he therefore forbids because he knows they will be our Bane and Poyson Can any of my Lusts be as dear to me as the only begotten Son was to the Father of all things And yet he parted with him out of Love to me and shall not I part with these for the Love of him How can we pretend to any Thing that is modest or ingenuous tender or apprehensive in humane Nature when nothing will oblige us no not this astonishing Love of God in sending his Son from Heaven to live and die Miserably for our sakes Lord What do thy holy Angels think of us How do thy blessed Saints resent our Unkindness towards thee Yea how justly do the Devils themselves reproach and upbraid our Baseness who bad as they are were never so much Devils yet as to make an ungrateful Return of such a vast Obligation 2 ly From hence I infer how desperate our Condition will be if we defeat the End of this Gift of the Son of God and render it ineffectual to us For God hath no
should not perish but have everlasting life I. I begin with the first of these viz. the Greatness of the Gift by which the Greatness of his Love to us is measured God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave him that is he delivered him up from out of his own Bosom and everlasting Embraces for so Eph. v. 2 it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave himself for us or delivered up himself for us for so we render the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was delivered for our offences Rom. iv 25 Now what a stupendous Expression of God's Love this was will appear by considering these six Things which are all of them expressed or implied in the Text 1. That he gave him up who was not only the greatest but the dearest Person to him in the whole World 2. That he gave him up for Sinners 3. That he gave him up for a whole World of Sinners 4. That he gave him up to become a Man for Sinners 5. That he gave him up to be a miserable Man for Sinners 6. That he gave him to be a Sacrifice for the Sins of Sinners that so he might not only with more Effect but with more Security to us interceed for our Pardon 1. The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears in this that he gave up for our sakes not only the greatest but the dearest Person to him in the whole World for as the Text tells you it was his only begotten Son Which Phrase doubtless imports a much higher signification than his being begotten in the Virgins Womb by the Overshadowing of the Holy Ghost For though it cannot be denied but in Scripture he is called the Son of God sometimes upon the Account of this his divine Generation in the Virgins Womb and sometimes upon the Score of his being ordained by God to the Messiaship sometimes because he was raised by God from the Dead and sometimes because he was installed by him into his Mediatorial Kingdom Yet upon neither of these Accounts can he be properly called the only begotten Son for upon the three last Accounts sundry others have been as properly begotten by God as our Saviour some having been installed by him into great and eminent Offices others raised from the Dead others truly ordained by him his Messiah's or anointed Ones so that upon neither of these Accounts can he be stiled the only begotten Son others having been thus begotten as well as himself And as for the first his being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Virgins Womb this was not sufficient neither to intitle him the only begotten because though it was indeed a miraculous Production yet was it not so much above the Production of the first Man as to place him in that singular Eminence For the forming of Adam out of the Substance of the Earth was altogether as miraculous a Production as the forming of Christ out of the substance of the Woman and therefore since Adam is called the Son of God Luk. 3.38 because God immediately formed him of the substance of the Earth he had thereby as good a Right to the Title of God's only begotten Son as Christ himself had because God immediately formed him of the substance of a Woman Wherefore his peculiar Right above all others to this glorious Title of God's only begotten Son must necessarily be founded upon some higher Reason than this that is upon some such Reason as is wholly peculiar to himself For if he be really and truly God's only begotten Son all other Persons whatsoever must necessarily be excluded from that Claim and consequently he must be so begotten of God as no other Person is or ever was And to be so begotten of God is to be begotten by him by a proper and natural Generation which is nothing else but a vital Production of another in the same Nature with him from whom it is produced even as a Man begets a Man and every Animal begets another of the same Kind and Nature with it self And thus to be begotten of God is to be begotten into the same divine Nature with himself to derive or communicate from him the infinitely perfect Nature and Essence of a God And in this Sense only our blessed Saviour is the only begotten Son of the Father as being generated by him from all Eternity into the same Nature and communicating from him his own infinite Essence and Perfections in which sense he is truly the only begotten Son because in this Sense and in this only none is or was or ever shall be begotten of the Father but himself When therefore it is said that he gave his only begotten Son the Meaning is this he gave up that infinitely great and dear Son of his that is his natural Image and Resemblance that only Son to whom from all Eternity he hath communicated his own most perfect Essence and Nature If then it was so great an Instance of Abraham's Faith and ardent Love of God at his Command to offer up his only Son Isaac a Son who though how hopeful soever yet who fell infinitely shorter of the Perfection of our Saviour than the Light of the Glow-worm doth of the Light of the Sun what an astonishing Miracle of Love was it in the great Father of the World to give up his only begotten Son a Son whom he had begotten in his own divine Nature and to whom he had communicated all the infinite Perfections of his own Being a Son who was the most perfect Image of himself who was infinitely powerful and wise and good and differed from him in nothing but only in being his Son who had the Fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him and whom being infinitely perfect as himself he loved as infinitely as his own Person and consequently could as easily have given up himself for us as he did that dearly Beloved in whom his Soul was so well pleased Who but a God of infinite Love and immeasurable Inclination to do good to his Creatures would have given them such an inestimable Jewel out of his Bosom a Jewel wherein all the Brightness of the Divinity did sparkle and which upon that Account was as dear and precious to him as his own Life And hence we find the Apostle valuing the Greatness of God's Love to us by the Greatness and Dearness of the Person whom he gave up for our sakes in this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him 1 Joh. iv 9 And indeed without this Consideration of his being the only begotten Son of God by eternal Generation and Communion of Nature with him God's Love in giving him up for us would not be comparably so considerable as it is For if according to the Doctrin of the Socinians he should only have caused a Man to be born for us after another manner than
that could either promote or compleat thy Happiness but is so importunately concerned for thee as to beseech and intreat thee not to reject his Favours And canst thou be cold and insensible in the midst of so many prevailing Endearments Suppose that thy Fellow-creature had done for thee but a thousandth Part of what thy God hath done and thou hadst repayed his Kindness with nothing but Affronts and Indignities wouldst thou not call thy self a thousand ungrateful Wretches and acknowledge thy self infinitely unworthy of his Favours And is it less criminal to be ungrateful to God than to thy Fellow-creature Suppose thou hadst a Friend that began to love thee as soon as thou wast born and had persisted to love thee notwithstanding thou hadst offered him a thousand Provocations to the contrary that had done thee all the good he was able and constantly repaid thy Injuries with Favours Would not thy Conscience fly in thy Face and all that is humane in thee upbraid thy monstrous Baseness And hath not thy God obliged thee infinitely more than the best Friend in the World How then canst thou excuse thy Coldness and Indifference to him Consider O my Soul the Eyes of all the spiritual World are upon thee Angels and Saints are looking down from their Thrones of Glory to see how thou wilt acquit thy self under all these mighty Obligations which if any mortal Friend had laid them upon thee and thou shouldst have so ill requited him all the World would have hissed at thee for a Monster of Ingratitude And is it less infamous to be an ungrateful Wretch towards God than towards a mortal Friend With what Confidence then wilt thou lift up thy head among those blessed Spirits who have been Spectators of thy Actions who have seen thy foul Ingratitude towards thy best Friend and must therefore brand thee for an inglorious Wretch abandoned of the common Sense and Modesty of humane Nature And if after you have pressed you Souls with all this mighty Weight of Love you should be still to learn to re-re-love the blessed Author of it I know no other Expedient but to send you to the Brutes to be their Scholars to call for your Spaniels and bid them teach you and by their kind Returns of your Favours instruct your cold ungrateful Hearts to make proportionate Returns of Love to your dearest Lord and Master Thus let us frequently argue with our selves and repeat these Considerations upon our Minds and certainly if we have any Sense of Obligations they cannot fail of warming and affecting our Hearts 3 dly Let us endeavour so much as in us lies to moderate our Affections to the World Love not the World saith St. John neither the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 Epist. ii 15 that is if we inordinately love and dote upon the World if we suffer its Pleasures Profits and Honours to creep into to hamper and inveagle our Affections into an excessive Delight and Complacency in them that will so forestal and prepossess us that we shall find no Room for the Love of God in our Souls Our Hearts will be so soaked and moistened with sensual Desires and Complacencies that the pure Flame of divine Love will never be able to take hold of or kindle upon them For whilst we immoderately dote upon the World that will so ingross our Thoughts so perpetually importune our Desires that no Friend from Heaven will ever be able to come at us no good Thought or Consideration that comes to court and woo our Souls for God will ever find Admittance to them or if now and then they obtrude upon us and force themselves into our Minds the World will be so buisy about us that we shall not be long at Leasure to attend to them but whilst they are addressing to us and importuning our Affections we shall feel a thousand Rival Thoughts swarming and buzzing about us and this will be holding that pulling the other clasping it self about us and wooing us not to leave and forsake them And though between these Competitors for our Love our Hearts may now and then be a little wavering and irresolute yet our fond Partiality to the World will so vehemently incline and biass us that we shall soon reject those divine Thoughts that would so fain court us to a contrary Affection Wherefore if ever we would acquire this noble and heavenly Virtue of divine Love we must endeavour as much as in us lies to wean and withdraw our selves from the World to rescue our selves from under it's Tyranny and Dominion into our own Power that so we may be able to dispose of our Time our Thoughts and Hearts as shall seem to us most fit and reasonable For till we have recovered our Hearts from the World into our own Disposal how can we resign them to God Before we can give him our selves we must be in our own Power which no Man can be so long as he is inthralled to the World Wherefore if we would become hearty Lovers of God we must labour so much as in us lies to get such a Sovereignty over our earthly Desires and Affections as that whensoever we are minded to retire from the World and converse with God we may be able to keep them off at such a Distance as that they may not be able to intrude upon us to mingle themselves with our Contemplations and divert our Eyes from the endearing Prospect of his infinite Love and Loveliness And then our Thoughts will stay and dwell upon this ravishing Theme like Bees upon a sweet Flower and never rise till they have extracted thence the Honey of Canaan the delicious Sweets of heavenly Love and Complacency then we shall muse on till the Fire burns and never take off our Eyes from God till we have gazed our selves into Captivity to his Love and Beauty 4 thly If we would attain to the Love of God we must endeavour by the constant Practice of what is agreeable to his Nature to reconcile our Minds and Tempers to it For whilst our Minds are averse to the Perfections of his Nature to the Justice Purity and Goodness of it the most powerful Motives of his Love and Benevolence will never be able to beget in us an hearty Complacencey in him We may admire his Love to us and be sometimes moved by the consideration of it into mighty Transports of sensitive Passion but 't is impossible we should ever attain to a fix'd and permanent Delight in him till we are reconciled to his Nature For all true and constant Love is founded in a Likeness of Natures and therefore till we are in some Measure god-like till we are pure as he is pure just as he is just good and merciful as he is good and merciful we have not as yet so much as laid the Foundation of divine Love nay we are so far from that that we are under a
to the just Reproaches of his own Mind No certainly should he any ways swerve in his own Choices Affections or Actions from the eternal Reason of his own Mind he would be so far from being pleased with himself that he would be his own eternal Torment and that infinite Reason which he himself cannot deceive or impose on would so Expose and Shame him that whensoever he reviewed himself he would be sure to appear a most gastly Spectacle in his own Eyes That therefore which renders him so infinitely happy in himself is not so much the Power he hath to defend himself from foreign Hurts and Injuries as the exact Agreement of all his Motions and Actions with the all-comprehending Reason of his own Mind He always sees what is best and what he so sees he always chuses and affects and this makes him perfectly satisfied with himself and fills him with infinite Joy and Complacency When ever he surveys himself in the glorious Mirror of his own Mind he discerns nothing in himself but what is infinitely lovely and amiable nothing but what exactly corresponds with the fairest Idea of his own infinite Reason every Thing in him is as it should be every Motion and every Action so perfectly good and exactly reasonable that his own all-seeing Eye can discern no possible Degree of Perfection wanting in them and this makes him infinitely pleased with himself infinitely joyed and contented in the Prospect of his own Beauty and Glory So that God's Holiness and Righteousness or which is the same Thing the exact Agreement of his Choices and Actions with the infallible Reason of his own Mind being the Principle and eternal Spring of his Happiness it is no Wonder if he loves it wheresoever he finds it for how should he forbear being pleased and delighted with it when he hath such a continued Experiment of the blessed Effects of it in his own Bosom when he feels himself made happy by it and hath every Moment a fresh Relish of the Joys and Pleasures which result from it Can he be so insensible of his own Happiness as not to be enamoured with the blessed Cause of it Or can the Tree be indifferent to him when the Fruit of it is so infinitely grateful No certainly it is impossible but that the eternal Sense he hath in himself of the Joy the Pleasure the Bliss of being holy should infinitely endear Holiness to him and engage his Soul in an everlasting Love of it 3 dly God loves Righteousness as it is an Improvement and Exaltation of his Creatures into his own Likeness and Resemblance Every Being that loves it self naturally affects so far as it is able to derive it self to beget its own Image and propagate its own Likeness and Resemblance which is an immediate Consequence of that Principle of self-Self-love that is in us which inclines us to encrease and multiply our selves and diffuse and spread our own Tempers and Natures And no Wonder then that God who is the best of Beings and whose Love to himself is as infinite as his own Beauties and Perfections should affect to derive and communicate himself to beget and propagate his own most amiable Image in his Creatures The infinite Love which he bears to himself cannot but engage him to like and approve his own Likeness and what he likes he must needs be inclined to produce where it is not and to love where it is But now Righteousness being that moral Attribute which comprises all those Perfections of his Nature wherein the Beauty and Glory of it consists is the only Accomplishment that can render a Creature like him in that which renders him so infinitely lovely in his own Eyes As for Omnipotence Omniscence Eternity and Omnipresence they are amiable only as they are crowned with infinite Righteousness and Goodness and abstracted from these they have nothing of Form or Comeliness in them That therefore which moulds us into a Resemblance of God and renders us like him in that which is the Beauty of all his other Attributes is Righteousness and therefore this he must love if he love himself because t is his own Image As for Power and Knowledge and length of Duration though we should partake of them with him to the highest Degree that is possible for Creatures yet we may be infinitely unlike him for so the Devils are who yet are liberally endowed with these natural Perfections of the Divinity but the more they imploy their Power and Knowledge to unrighteous Purposes the more ungodlike they are for being powerful and knowing and then only are Knowledge and Power god-like Perfections when Righteousness and Goodness is their Scope and Rule for without these they are only the Perfections of Devils but good and righteous Devils are Contradictions in Terms Since therefore 't is Righteousness only that can stamp us god-like Creatures God must needs love it out of that natural Inclination which he and all other Beings have to propagate his own Likeness For without Righteousness no Creature can resemble him and therefore if he love to be resembled as he must needs do because he loves himself he must love that which gives the Resemblance and this and this only is Righteousness and true Goodness 4 thly And lastly God loves Righteousness as it is the Spring or Cause from whence the highest Happiness of his Creatures is derived For he loves Beings more or less according to their intrinsick Worth and Value and doubtless of all Orders of Beings there are none so valuable as the rational and therefore if he love these most he cannot but be desirous of their Happiness and if he be he cannot but love that which is the Spring and Cause of it and this is universal Righteousness For the Foundation of our Happiness must necessarily be laid in the Perfection of our Natures and our Natures being rational the Perfection of them must consist in a perfect Complyance of all their Powers and Faculties with the eternal Rules of Reason which is all one with universal Righteousness For doubtless the highest Perfection of reasonable Faculties is to act most reasonably and then they act most reasonably when they govern themselves by the unchangable Laws of Righteousness Righteousness therefore being our Perfection as we are reasonable Beings must necessarily be the Spring and Principle of our Happiness and 't is as impossible for us to be happy without it as 't is to be well in Sickness or at Ease under Pain For to the Happiness of every Nature that is capable of being happy two Things are requisite First that there be no disorder within it self that its Parts and Faculties be not distempered nor their Vigour and Activity lessened and abated Secondly that all it's Faculties be imployed and exercised about such Objects as are most grateful and suitable to their Natures upon both which Accounts Righteousness is most necessary to the Happiness of every reasonable Nature For in the first Place 't is
should be such as did clearly argue and evince his righteous Severity for otherwise it would have no Force in it to prevent our Presumption And what Motive of Pardon could better evince his Severity than the Suffering of some other in our Room especially the Suffering of his own Son the greatest and dearest Person in the whole Creation For not to be moved to grant a publick Pardon to us upon our hearty Repentance unless this blessed Person would engage to die for us whose infinite Greatness gave such an inestimable Value to his Sufferings as rendred them adequate to what we had deserved to suffer was as great an Argument of his inflexible Severity against Sin as if he should have destroyed at one Blow the whole World of Sinners So that as he hath expressed an infinite Mercy to us in admitting his own Son to die for us so in refusing to pardon us upon any less Motive than his precious Death he hath expressed an infinite Hatred to our Sins and so that very Death which moved God to pardon us moves us to stand in Awe of his Severity the Death of the Son of God upon which we are pardoned being the most terrible Instance that ever was of the Desert of our Sin and God's Displeasure against it Thus our blessed Lord hath not only given us the greatest Encouragement by procuring our Pardon to return from our Iniquities but by procuring it in such a formidable way he hath given us the most dreadful Warning of God's Severity against them So that now we cannot think upon the Reason for which our past Offences are forgiven without being vehemently moved to future Obedience And thus the main Design you see both of Christs Life and Death was to recal us from Sin to the Practice of Righteousness And hence he is said to have given himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works Tit. ii 14 And then he arose again from the Dead to confirm that righteous Doctrine which he had revealed to the World and visibly ascended into Heaven to give us an ocular Demonstration of the heavenly Rewards of Righteousness and there he now sits at the right Hand of God to assure us that if we persevere in Righteousness we shall be continually befriended in the Court of Heaven through his all-powerful Intercession and hath assured us that at the End of the World he will come to Judgment and faithfully distribute those Rewards and Punishments which here he promised and threatned to righteous and unrighteous Persons Thus the main Drift you see of all these great Transactions of our Saviour was to advance the Interest of Righteousness and true Goodness What a mighty Evidence therefore is this of God's great Love of Righteousness that he should send his own most blessed Son upon its Errand to transact such mighty Things on its Behalf For by sending Christ into the World and exposing him to Misery for Righteousness Sake he did in Effect declare that he valued the Interest of Righteousness more than the present Happiness and Enjoyment of his most dearly beloved and only begotten Son and we may most certainly conclude that had not Righteousness been infinitely dear to him he would never have authorized his dearest Son to take such infinite Pains to promote it 4 thly Another supernatural Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his promising such vast Rewards to us upon it and denouncing such fearful Punishments against us if we despise and neglect it For besides all those temporal Rewards he hath proposed to us if we seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof he hath erected a Heaven of immortal Joys and Felicities to crown and entertan it a Heaven that contains in it all the Beatitudes that humane Nature is capable of all that Truth that the most capacious Mind can comprehend and all that Good that the vastest Affections can either crave or contain In a word a Heaven whose Blisses are all as large as our immense Desires and all as lasting as our immortal Beings For 't is a Heaven which consists in an eternal Fruition of the Fountain of infinite Truth and Goodness whose everflowing Streams are abundantly sufficient to quench the Thirst and make glad the Heart of every Being that understands and loves How much therefore God loves Righteousness you may easily guess by these vast Preparations he hath made to entertain it For he built Heaven on purpose to lodge righteous Souls and that they may see he thinks nothing too dear for them he is himself their Feast there as well as their Entertainer He feeds them with his own Perfections and they live for ever as happily as their Hearts can wish upon the Sight and Love and Imitation of his Beauties So vehemently is his Heart set upon Righteousness that he will have every righteous Soul dwell with him and live upon him and partake of all those heavenly Joys in which his own Beatitude consists But as for Vnrighteousness how much his Soul abhors it is evident by those dire Punishments he hath denounced against it by those dark and dismal Abodes which he hath condemned unrighteous Souls to to languish out a woful Eternity to burn in Flames there that never consume and be gnawn with Worms which never devour them to be scared and haunted with Devils without and Furies within and perpetually worried Day and Night without any Ease or Intermission with all the Horrors Griefs and Vexations that an everlasting Hell imports O thou merciful Father of Beings How couldst thou have found in thy Heart to condemn thy Creatures to so wretched a State had not their unrighteous Practices been infinitely odious in thine Eyes No certainly the good God would never have made Hell for a Trifle for the sake of any Thing that his Nature could have endured or dispensed with nor would he ever have cast any unrighteous Creature into it were it not for the implacable Abhorrence he hath to all Unrighteousness And therefore since he hath not only made Hell but warns us of and threatens us with it we may be sure he infinitely abominates that for which he made and threatens it and consequently that he is infinitely concerned for the Cause and Interest of Righteousness 5 thly And lastly Another supernatural Indicaton of God's Love of Righteousness is his granting his blessed Spirit to us to excite us to and assist us in our Endeavours after Righteousness First he sent his Son to propagate Righteousness by his Ministry his Life and Death and upon his Return to Heaven he sent his Spirit to supply his Room and carry on that dear Design of which his Son had already laid the Foundation For in Christ's personal Absence his Spirit acts in his Stead and was sent down from the Father by Virtue of his Intercession to be his Vicegerent in the World to promote and inlarge his heavenly Kingdom to conquer our
of Will that are in them and doubtless in those good Actions that have Love for their Principle there is much more of Will than in those that proceed from Fear and Terror and consequently our Nature being perfected by good Actions and more or less perfected by them the more or less of Goodness they have in them must needs be much more perfected by the good Actions of Love than by those of Fear Whilst therefore we are acted in Religion by the Love of God our Souls are upon the Wing to Perfection and in a swift Tendency to the heavenly State we are already in the Neighbourhood of glorified Saints and Angels and if we continue our Course shall soon be fit for their Society and Converse This therefore is the great End and Reason why God doth so importunately claim our Love because this of all others is the most perfective Principle of our Natures and consequently the most conducive to our Happiness 4 ly And lastly from hence I infer of what vast Importance it is to us in Religion to love God For you plainly see that Love is not only a Principle of Obedience but that of all others it is the most efficacious and operative that it doth not only engage us to keep God's Commandments but that it enables us to keep them most universally and vigorously and chearfully and constantly So that what the Apostle saith of brotherly Love is more universally true of the Love of God that it is the keeping of the whole Law Rom. xiii 10 that is causally and virtually it is For so Love is that universal Cause which within its fruitful Womb contains all the Particulars of our Obedience and is naturally productive of them all So that virtually it is all Religion it is Godliness and Temperance and Charity and Humility and Righteousness and Patience being the common Cause and Parent of them all For Love hath an universal Respect to the Will of the Beloved it doth not chuse what is easie and refuse what is hard but likes what God likes and disapproves of what he hates his Will being the great Reason of all its Choices and Refusals And whatsoever things in particular are distastful and difficult to us by its powerful Oratory it renders pleasant and easie For he that serves God out of Love serves him with Delight and he that serves him with Delight hath no Clog to incumber him none of those Aversations and Antipathies to his Service that do so load and depress unwilling Minds he doth not row against the Current of Nature but acts with the full Inclination of his Mind and so feels little or nothing of Drudgery in his Religion and being carried on with a full Tide of Delight he goes easily and chearfully down with the Stream Of such vast Importance is the Love of God to our Religion that it not only produces it but renders it easie and pleasant so that without some Degree of this our Religion can have neither Being nor Well-being and it is as possible for us to live without a Soul and to be nourished without Food as it is for our Religion to be and to thrive without the Love of God Wherefore if ever we would be Religious indeed if ever we would connaturalize Religion to our Souls so as to render it easie and delightsome to us let us endeavour to kindle this heavenly Fire within us and certainly if we heartily endeavour it we cannot faâ—â— of success For there are so many mighty Reasons to engage us to the Love of God so many invincible Attractions in his Nature and in his Love towards us as cannot but affect us if we seriously ponder and consider them For how can I reflect upon that amiable Nature of his in which there is an harmonious Concurrence of all Beauties and Perfections where Wisdom and Goodness Justice and Mercy and every lovely Thing that can claim or deserve a rational Affection are contempered together in their utmost Degrees of Perfection How I say can I steadily reflect upon such a Nature as this without being charmed and captivated with the Love of it How can I think of that stupendous Love which he hath expressed towards me in giving me my Being and all the Blessings I enjoy in preparing a Heaven of immortal Joys for me and sending his Son from thence to conduct me thither without being all inflamed with Love to him Wherefore let us seriously set our selves to the Contemplation of God of the Loveliness of his Nature and of his infinite Kindness to us and all his Creation Let us repeat the Thoughts of these Things upon our Minds and never give over pressing our selves with those infinite Reasons we have to love him till we feel the heavenly Fire begin to kindle within our Breasts and then let us never give over feeding and blowing it with these divine Considerations till it rise up into a triumphant Flame And then we shall feel our selves animated with a new Soul and inspired with so much Life and Activity in Religion as that from our Experience we shall be able to subscribe to the Truth of the Text This is the Love of God this the most natural Expression and inseparable Effect of it That we keep his Commandments 1 JOHN V. 3 And his Commandments are not grievous I Proceed now to the next Part of the Text viz. the Motive by which this obedient Love of God is enforced and his Commandments are not grievous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are not heavy or burthensome they have no such Weight or Difficulty in them as ought in reason to discourage us from keeping them For in these Words the Apostle seems to anticipate an Objection alas if this be the Love of God to keep his Commandments what Man is able to love him for if his Commandments are not absolutely impossible yet are they at least so extremely difficult that scarce any Man can have the Courage to undertake the Performance of them This saith our Apostle is a mighty Mistake or a wretched Pretence for Mens Sloth and Idleness for verily and truly the Commands of God have no such Difficulty in them but are in themselves very gentle and easie to be born And with this Assertion our blessed Saviour doth most perfectly accord Mat. xi 30 My yoke is easie and my burthen is light And the Prophet David makes it not only easie but delightful Psal. xix 8 The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart the Commandments of the Lord are pure enlightning the eyes And then in the 10 th Verse he tells us that they are more to be desired than gold yea than much fine gold and sweeter than honey or the honey-comb So far they are from being Toils and Burthens that in Reality they are Pleasures and Recreations But farther to demonstrate this Truth to you That God's Commands are not burthensome and difficult I shall do these two things I. Shew you that they are facile
to when we know so little of the future State to which all its Transactions do chiefly relate Wherefore let us forbear a while till we come into the other World and understand the whole Design and Contrivance and then we shall see that all will be right and well yea and infinitely better than ever we could imagin But for us to censure now when we know so little of our future State which is the main and ultimate Scope of Providence is just as if a Man should pass his Judgment on a Picture when he sees nothing of it but some few rude Lines and very imperfect Strokes Let us have but the Patience to suspend our Judgment a while till God hath finished the whole Draught and given it all its natural Colours and Proportions and then I am sure we shall see Cause enough forever to admire his Skill and adore his Wisdom and Goodness And thus you see by apparent Instances how good God is in his Providence towards us and how unreasonable it is for us to censure his Goodness notwithstanding all those seeming Evils that happen in the World And now what remains but that with all Humility and Chearfulness we resign up our selves into the Hands of our most merciful Father concluding as most certainly we may that whatsoever he doth with us or howsoever he disposes of us it will be all for our good in the later End if it be not through our own Default For where can we be safer than in the Hands of an Omnipotent and Omniscient Goodness a Goodness that knows what is best for us and wills what it knows to be so and doth whatsoever it wills Surely in such Hands our Condition is a thousand times better and safer than if we had full Power to effect our own Wishes and all the Events that concern us were in our own Disposal And if God should shake us off from all Dependence on him and resign up the whole Conduct of our Affairs into our own Hands if he should say to us since you mislike of my Conduct I will no more intermedle with you or any thing that concerns you take your selves into your own Disposal and manage all your Concernments as you please If I say he should do thus with us we should be left in a most forlorn and deplorable Condition and unless we were wholly abandoned of our own Reason as well as Gods Providence we should on our bended Knees resign up all into his Hands again and beseech him for his Pity and his Mercy sake to do any Thing with us that will consist with his Goodness to scourge and chasten us for our Frowardness as much and as long as his own fatherly Bowels will endure it rather then give us up to our own Conduct or leave our Affairs in the Disposal of our own blind and precipitant Wills For so long as God is so powerfully and so wisely good as he is it is the Interest of every Creature in Heaven and Earth to be at his Disposal and to take up that self-resigning Prayer of our Saviour Father not our Wills but thy Will be done For since God wills our good as much or more than our selves it must doubtless be our Interest that his Will should take place whensoever it stands in Competition with ours because he doth not only wish well to us as much as we do to our selves but he knows what is best for us a great deal better than we Wherefore let us learn in all Conditions to repose our Minds in the good Providence of God and to satisfy our selves in its Managment and Disposal of us for whatsoever Condition it may bring us into whilst we are wandring through this Vale of Tears this is most certainly and eternally true that God is good and doth good JOHN III. 16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life THE Three first Topicks from whence I undertook to prove the Goodness of God I have already handled on another Text and shewed 1 st from his Nature 2 ly from his Creation and 3 dly from his Providence That he is infinitely good I proceed now to the 4 th and last viz. from Principles of Revelation the main of which is comprehended in the Text God so loved the World c. It is indeed a most glorious Instance of the Goodness of God that when he had imprinted his Laws upon our Nature in such legible Characters and given them such apparent Sanctions in the Nature of Things having made such a sensible Distinction between Moral Good and Evil by those natural good and evil Consequents which he hath inseparably intailed on them And when Mankind by their wilful Wickedness and Inadvertency had almost obliterated the Law of their Nature and extinguished their natural Sense of Good and Evil and immersed themselves in the most barbarous Impieties and Immoralities Notwithstanding all this that he had done for us and we against our selves he should still be so kind and compassionate as to put forth a new Edition of his Laws and reveal his Will anew to us in such an extraordinary manner that when he had implanted a Light in our Natures that was sufficient to have directed us into the several Paths of our Duty and we by our own Neglect and Abuse of it had almost extinguished this Candle of the Lord in us and consequently involved our selves in Midnight Darkness and Ignorance he should then be so compassionate as to hang out a Light from Heaven to us to rectify our Wanderings and guid our Feet in the Paths we should walk in was such a glorious Expression of his Goodness as for ever deserves our most thankful Acknowledgments But then that he should not only reveal to us what he had before imprinted on our Nature and we had most unworthily rased out and obliterated but also discover so much more to us than ever we did or could have known by the Light of our Nature that he should not only repeat his former Kindness to us which we had so shamefully abused but make such stupendous Additions to it as he hath done in the Revelation of his Gospel that manger all those Impieties and Provocations by which for so many Ages we had excited his Patience he should not only so love us as to restore to us the Light which we had almost extinguished but to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish c. is such an amazing Instance of Goodness as can hardly be reflected on without an Extasy of Admiration In which Words you have God's revealed Love and Goodness to the World measured by a two-fold Standard 1. By the Greatness of the Gift which he hath bestowed upon the World God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son 2. The blessed End for which he did bestow him that whosoever believeth in him
that by the grace of God he tasted death for every Man So that the Scripture hath as emphatically declared the universal Extent of this great Gift of God's Love as it was possible for it to do in any human Words and methinks 't is strange that any Men should presume to restrain it when they have no other Defence for so doing but only an odd Distinction that makes the whole World to signify the smallest Part of it the Body of Christ to import a few particular Atoms of it and every Man to denote one Man of Ten Thousand Behold then the immense Goodness of God that hath not only given up his Son for Sinners but for a whole World of Sinners and excluded none but those who exclude themselves from the Benefits of this mighty Donation That hath planted this heavenly Tree of Life in the midst of a sick and sinful World and hath not confined or inclosed it for the Use of a few selected Patients but laid it open for all Comers that whosoever would might take of its Fruit and eat and live for ever O good God! How vast is thy Love that hath thus impartially diffused it self over such a wide World of Sinners that in this stupendous Gift of thy Son had so kind a Respect to every Individual and made no Exception of any how sinful and unworthy soever that will but comply with the merciful Terms and Conditions of it 4 thly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears also in this that he hath given up his only begotten Son to become a Man for Sinners For whatsoever he was upon God's giving him up he was what God gave him up to be and therefore since upon God's giving him up he became a Man it necessarily follows that he gave him up to become so And indeed since God had such a merciful Design as to send his Son into the World to reform and save it it was highly convenient for us though not for him that he should come to us in our own Natures not only that he might consecrate human Nature that had been so miserably desecrated and prophaned but also that he might endear himself to us by the great Honour he did us in assuming our Natures and that having our Passions and being in our Circumstances he might by his own Practice give us an Example how to govern the one and how to behave our selves in the other Had he come down from the Heavens inrobed with Splendor and Light and preached his Gospel to us in the midst of a Choir of Angels from some bright Throne in the Clouds this indeed would have been more convenient for him as being more suitable to the natural Dignity and Majesty of his Person But the All-merciful Father in the Disposal of his Son consulted not so much his Convenience as ours he knew well enough that should he have sent his Son to us in such an illustrious Equipage his Appearance amongst us would have been more apt to astonish than to instruct us and to have fixed our Thoughts in a profound Admiration of his Glory than to have directed our Steps in the Paths of Virtue and true Happiness and that it would be much more for our Interest that he should conduct us by his Example than amaze us by his Appearance and therefore that he might do so he sent him to us in our own Natures that so going before us as a Man he might shew us by his Example what became Men to do and direct us by the Print of his own Footsteps Since therefore he assumed our Nature purely for our sakes what a stupendous Instance of God's Goodness was this that for the sake of a World of miserable Sinners he should be content that his own most dear and most glorious Son should condescend to become a Man and to empty himself into our Nature that he who by the Divinity of his Nature was exalted more above that of the highest Angel than that is above the lowest Animal should personally unite himself to a Handful of Dust and marry his Divinity to the Infirmities of our Nature that he whose Throne was in the Heavens and before whose sacred Feet the whole Choir of heavenly Angels lie prostrate should abase himself so low as to come down among Mortals and associate himself with Companions so unworthy of him O good God! When thou hast condescended so low what is there thou wilt not condescend to to do good to thy Creatures But this is not all you shall see him stoop lower yet For 5 thly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears also in this that he gave up his only begotten Son to become a miserable Man for Sinners It would have been some Abatement to his mighty Condescention if when he sent him down among us in our Nature he had made him supream visible Monarch of the World if he had crowned him with all the Splendors of an earthly Condition if he had ushered him into the World in a triumphal Chariot with all the Kings of the Earth either prostrate before him or chained at his Chariot-Wheels This though a vast Condescention in the eternal Son yet would not have been so low as it was to be born of a poor Mother to be educated as a Carpenters Son to be exposed to Want and Penury to the Contempt of every sordid Wretch and the perpetual Persecutions of a borish and ill-natured Rable and yet this was the wretched State to which God humbled his own dear Son for our sakes For the Design of his Humiliation being to raise us the most merciful Father consulted not so much what was for his Ease as what was for our Benefit for he knew well enough that should he have introduced him into the World in earthly Pomp and Magnificence it would not have been so well for us that we were too Ambitious already of the Vanities of this World and that that had been the great Snare that had intangled and ruined us and that therefore it was necessary when his Son came among us he should take us off from our over-eager Pursuit of them disgrace and expose them to us by his own voluntary Refusal of them that by seeing him trample on them when they lay all at his Feet we might learn to despise them and be at length convinced what foolish Bargains we make when we sell our Innocence and our Happiness for such insignificant Trifles He thought it much more necessary for us that his Son should exercise his Virtue than display his Greatness among us and therefore he placed him in such Circumstances of human Life wherein by his own Example he might copy out to us the noblest Pattern of holy living For of all States that of Affliction affords the largest Sphere to exercise human Virtue in and therefore in this State out of his good Will to us he placed his own Son that herein he might set us a Patten of
more Sons to bestow upon us he being the only begotten of his Father Heaven and Earth are not able to furnish him with such another Gift to bestow upon us and if he should lay a Tax upon all his Creation to raise one great Contribution to the Happiness of Mankind and exact the utmost of every Creature that it is able to Contribute it would all fall infinitely short of what he hath done for us in this inestimable Gift of his own Son So that if this prove ineffectual it is beyond the Power of an omnipotent Bounty to relieve us For though God can do all Things that can be well and wisely done and do not imply a Contradiction yet this can be no Relief at all to us who reject his Son and refuse to be made happy in the gracious Method which he hath prescribed to us For after this mighty Gift of his own Son to save us according to the Method of his Gospel there remains nothing more to be done for us but either to save us whether we will or no or else to make us happy in our Sins and save us notwithstanding our Continuance in them the former of which can neither be well nor wisely done because by saving us against our Wills he must deal with us in such a Way as is repugnant to that Law of Liberty that is implanted in our Natures and use us not as Free but as Necessary Agents And if considering all things it was best and wisest that he should make us free Agents then it can neither be well nor wise to govern us as necessary ones since by so doing he must alter the Course of our Nature and consequently swerve and decline from what is best and wisest which would be to do Violence to the Perfection of his own Nature And then as for the latter he cannot do it because it implies a Contradiction For to make Men happy in their Sins is to make them happy in their Miseries Misery being as inseparable from Sin as Heat is from Fire and as intimately related to it as the Son is to the Father and consequently he may as possibly make a Father without a Son as a Sinner without Misery When therefore God hath done all for us that can possibly be done and we by our own Obstinacy have rendred all ineffectual we are beyond the Power of Remedy and must necessarily perish in our Sins And when we have no other Hope to depend on but this that the All-wise God will undo his own Workmanship and unravel our Nature by governing us contrary to the most wise Constitution of it or that the All-powerful God will effect Impossibilities and do that for us which is not an Object of Power how deplorable and desperate must our Condition be Wherefore as you would not run your selves beyond the Reach of all Mercy and excommunicate your own Souls from all Hope of Salvation be now at last persuaded to comply with Christ's Coming which was to reduce you from the Error of your Ways and to bring you to a serious Repentance JOHN III. 16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life IN these Words you have the Love of God measured by a twofold Standard first by the Greatness of the Gift which he hath bestowed upon the World God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son Secondly by the blessed End for which he did bestow him that whosoever believeth in him should not perish c. The first of these I have already gone through and now I shall proceed to the Second viz. The blessed End for which he gave his only begotten Son That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life In which Words you have also two very great Instances of God's infinite Love and good Will to Mankind the First is his imposing upon us such a gentle and easie and merciful Condition That whosoever believeth in him Secondly His proposing such a vast Reward to us upon our performing of this Condition I begin with the first viz. His imposing upon us such a gentle and easie and merciful Condition That whosoever believeth in him should not perish In the Management of which I shall do these two Things 1. Shew you what it is that is included in this Condition whosoever believeth in him 2. How good God hath been to us in making the Condition which he hath imposed upon us so gentle and merciful 1. What is it that is included in this Condition To which I answer in general that believing in Christ doth not only denote a naked Assent to the Truth of this Proposition That he is the Son of Cod and the Messenger of Gods Mind and Will to the World and the Saviour of Mankind but that it also includes whatsoever is naturally consequent thereunto For thus it is very ordinary with the Scripture to express the natural Effects and Consequents of things by their Causes and Principles This is the love of God saith the Apostle that we keep his Commandments 1 Jo. v. 3 whereas in strictness of Speaking our keeping his Commandments is only the Effect or Consequence of our loving him So Prov. viii 13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil whereas indeed this is only the Effect or Consequence of the Fear of the Lord. Thus by knowing and hearing and remembring of God the Scripture usually expresses the consequent Effects of them Thus Act. xxii 14 The God of our Fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his Will that is that thou mayst not only know it but by thy Knowledge mayst be suitably affected with it for it was not to a bare contemplative Knowledge of it that St. Paul was chosen and then it follows and see that Just one and shouldst hear the voice of his Mouth that is that hearing the Voice of his Mouth thou shouldst thereby be induced to obey it for he was not meerly to hear Christ speaking to him out of the Heavens but that hearing him he might submit to his Will and become his Apostle to the World Many other Places I might easily give you where the natural Effects and Consequents are in Scripture expressed by their Causes and Principles And thus also Faith or Believing whensoever it is used in Scripture to signify the Condition of the Gospel-Covenant always imploies its natural Effects and Consequents that is sincere and universal Obedience to those Rules of Holy Living which the Gospel prescribes for this is the most natural Effect of our believing in Jesus Christ. And hence it is called the obedience of Faith Rom. xvi 26 that is the Obedience which springs from Faith as from its Cause and Principle And accordingly Rom. x. 16 you find that to believe and to obey the Gospel signifies one and the same Thing But they have not all obeyed the Gospel saith he for Esaias saith Lord who hath believed our report that is who hath believed it so
Eternity For so immense will our Happiness be that we shall need as well as desire an Eternity to enjoy it fully and after millions of Ages are spent in the Enjoyment of it we shall still renew our Fruition with the same fresh enravishing Pleasures as when we first possessed and enjoyed it for as new Pleasures will still present themselves unto us so when we have enjoyed them never so long we shall still be at an infinite Distance from any End of our Enjoyment So that our Happiness consisting of an infinite Variety of Pleasures extended to an infinite Duration we shall neither be cloyed with the Repetition of it nor tormented with the Fear of losing it And now you see how vast and immense the Reward of our obediential Belief of our Saviour is I need not tell you that 't is a plain and apparent Instance of God's great Love and good Will to the World For 't is indeed such a transcendent Instance as may justly astonish the whole Creation and put both Heaven and Earth into an Extasy to see the benevolent Father of the World project such mighty Entertainments for such undeserving Children and prepare such a Heaven of boundless and endless Pleasure to treat such a Company of wretched sinful Worms O thou infinite Love and Goodness How can we sufficiently admire and praise thee that from such a Depth of Sin and Misery hast projected to raise us to such an Height of Glory and Felicity But this will yet more evidently appear if from the absolute Consideration of this Reward we descend to the comparative which was 2. The second thing we proposed to discourse of viz. to shew how vast this Reward is in Respect of the Condition or Consideration upon which it is promised and proposed And this I shall endeavour to make appear to you in these seven Particulars 1. The Condition is due but the Reward is free and arbitrary 2. The Condition is no ways advantageous to God but the Reward is infinitely advantageous to us 3. The Condition is small and easie to be performed but the Reward is immense and boundless 4. In performing the Condition God operates more than we but in receiving the Reward we only are concerned 5. The Condition is momentary and temporal but the Reward is eternal 6. In the performance of the Condition there are great Intermixtures of Pleasure with our Labour but in the Reward there is not the least Intermixture of Misery with Happiness 7. The Condition admits of Intermissions of Labour but in the Reward there are no Intermissions of Happiness 1. The Condition is due but the Reward is free and arbitrary For God being our Creator we ow all our Powers of Action to him and from this absolute Propriety that he hath in our Powers he derives an immutable Right to all the possible Service we can render him so that whilst he enjoyns us nothing but what is possible he only requires what is his Due and what we cannot withold without a most injust Invasion of his Right and Property For he being the Supreme Proprietor of all our Powers and Faculties must needs have an eternal Right to imploy and exercise them as he pleases because by so doing he only uses his own Goods to his own Ends and Purposes which every Proprietor hath an unquestionable Right to do so that to substract our Powers from his Use and Service is to embezzle our Masters Goods and commit dow right Theft and Robbery Wherefore since in the Condition of our Salvation he hath required nothing of us but what is possible for us to do this he might have demanded as a just Debt without offering us any Reward for the Payment of it but that he should give us a Heaven only for giving him his Due and bestow upon us for paying what we owed him infinitely more than the whole Debt amounts to is an Expression of Love beyond all Comparison When he might have justly sent us into this Theater to act what Part soever he pleased have endeared our Duty to us by nothing but its appendent Delights and when we had done remanded us back into our Primitive Non-entity yet that he should recompense the bare Discharge of that Duty we own him with the Reward of such an immortal Bliss is such a stupendous Height of Goodness as not only puzzles our Conceit but out-reaches our Wonder and Admiration 2 dly The Condition is no ways advantageous to God but the Reward is infinitely advantageous to us for he is so infinitely happy in the Enjoyment of himself and his own Perfections that all the Services of Men and Angels can make no Addition to his Felicity which depends wholly upon the infinite Goodness and Perfection of his own Nature and is not derived either in whole or in Part from the Tributes or Free-will Offerings of his Creatures For can a Man be profitable unto God as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that we are righteous Or is it gain to him that we make our ways perfect Job xxii 2 3 No certainly when he had nothing but himself to contemplate and love his Happiness was the same as it is now among all the Praises and Services which he receives from the World of Angels and of Men and if they should revolt from him or relapse into Non-Entity again he would still remain the same most happy Being that now he is and ever was For all true Happiness being founded in Perfection it it is impossible that any Being that is infinitely perfect in himself should become either more or less happy by any Thing that happens from without him So that as to the Happiness of God it is the same Thing whether we obey or disobey him so that whatsoever Condition he imposes on us our Performance of it is but just like bringing Wax to a dying Father which he requires not to inrich himself but only to seal away Fortunes to his Children And that he imposes this Condition on us rather than another is not because it is most advantageous to him but because it is most conducive to our Welfare and Happiness So free and uninterested is his Love and Goodness to us that upon Considerations no ways advantageous to himself he promises infinite Advantages to us for 't is we reap all the Profit as well of the Condition as of the Reward appendent to it and he promises us Heaven upon Terms that carry Heaven in the Performance of them For first the Condition perfects our Natures and then the Reward beatifies them for there is nothing in the Condition of the Christian Covenant but what our own Self-love rightly directed would oblige us to nothing but what tends to our good and is highly conducive to our Perfection and Happiness So that whatsoever Advantages accrue either from the Condition or the Reward annexed to it they all redound to our selves So infinitely bountiful is our
but many a Message of Love he hath sent us transcribed from his very Heart He sent his Son from Heaven to us and clothed him in our Natures that therein we might be capable of conversing freely with him and all his Errand was to deliver a Message of Love to the World and to court and importune them to listen to and comply with it And when he returned again to his Father he instituted an Order of Men to supply his Room and in his Stead to woo the World to be happy For we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us We pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.20 So that you are set upon the Throne and not only Men but God himself lies prostrate before your Foot-stool beseeching you to lay down your Arms and to be reconciled to your best Friend that never did you the least Injury unless that be one that he hath loved you better by a Thousand Degrees than ever you loved your selves And can we be such barbarous Wretches as not to listen to him when he thus humbles himself before us and even comes upon his Knees to us for Reconciliation How justly may the whole Creation be astonished to see the great Majesty of Heaven condescend so low as to beseech and entreat a Company of rude disdainful Rebels whom he could every Moment frown into Nothing to accept of his Love and at last comply with Terms of Friendship Who would ever imagine but that sad Experience evinces the contrary that among reasonable Beings there should be found such Monsters of Ingratitude as to persist in Enmity to God after he hath thus humbled himself and made so many lowly Addresses only to court and woo us to be happy And thus you see how many puissant Motives to Love are comprehended in these few Words because he first loved us which are such as nothing can ever be able to resist but a Heart that is steeled with Impudence and Ingratitude So that if after all these Obligations which God hath laid upon us we do not at last surrender up our Hearts unto him our Baseness and Ingratitude is such as nothing but our eternal Ruine will be able to expiate For when with all the Endearments of his Loving kindness he finds he cannnot prevail on us to love him the very Consideration how much he hath obliged us and what unworthy Requitals we have made him will but incense him the more against us till it hath converted his Kindness into implacable Fury and when once the Heats of wronged Love take Fire and kindle into Wrath it will be a quenchless Flame and everlasting Burning Wherefore in the Name of God Sirs let us endeavour to affect our Souls with the Sense of this dear Love to warm our Affections at this heavenly Fire till it hath insinuated it self into them and converted them into its own Substance And that we may be succesful herein let us take with us these following Directions 1. Let us season our Minds with good Opinions of God For since 't is his Goodness that is the most immediate Object of our Love to him whatsoever Opinions do reflect upon that or any way tend to cloud and disgrace it must necessarily Damp our Affection towards him Whilst therefore we look upon God as a mere arbitrary Being as one that conducts all his Actions by a blind Omnipotent Self-will and governs the World and dispenses Rewards and Punishments to his Creatures according to a certain fatal Decree which he made without Foresight or Consideration as one that exacts Impossibilities of his Subjects commands the Lame to run the Blind to see and without ever enabling them thereunto is resolved to damn them forever for Non-performance Whilst I say we look upon God through such false Opticks as these they must needs represent him exceeding unlovely in our Eyes For though I doubt not but there are many Men that love God heartily notwithstanding they have entertained these sower and gastly Notions of him yet I must seriously profess had I such black Opinions of him I should never be able heartily to love him though I were sure to be damned for ever for neglecting it Wherefore if we would kindle in our Souls the Love of God let us take Care as much as in us lies to purge our Thoughts of all ill Opinions of him and to represent him fairly to our Minds what he truly is and what the Scripture represents him to be viz. a most bountiful Benefactor unto all his Creation and an universal Lover of the Souls of Men one that heartily desires our Welfare and is always ready to contribute to us whatsoever is necessary thereunto Let us firmly persuade our selves that he desires not our Ruine but would have all Men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth that when he finally destroys any particular Offender it is in great Mercy to the Publick that he loves not Punishment for its own Sake and never inflicts it but for some gracious and merciful End These are such Thoughts of God as are truly worthy of him and infinitely apt to endear him to all considering Minds 2 ly Let us frequently consider and revolve in our Minds the numerous Reasons and Engagements that we have to love him For all Virtue whatsoever begins in Consideration and it being a rational Accomplishment cannot be otherwise acquired but only by Reason and Discourse that is by considering the Reasons and pressing our selves with the Arguments upon which it is founded And thus we must do in the Case before us if ever we would attain to a hearty Love of God we must be often entertaining our Thoughts with the Consideration of those great Obligations he hath laid upon us to love him how deeply we are engaged by all the Ties of Gratitude and Ingenuity to repay him in his own Coin and to return him Love for Love Nor will it be sufficient to affect our Hearts with the Sense of those Obligations now and then to reflect a few slight and transient Thoughts on them but with holy David we must muse on till the Fire Kindles we must fix and stay our Thoughts upon the Consideration of God's endearing Love to us urge and press them again and again till we have wrought and chafed them into our Souls and a heavenly Warmth diffuses from them and enflames our Hearts with a divine Affection Wherefore let us frequently revolve such Thoughts as these in our Minds O my Soul How infinitely art thou obliged to love thy God who hath been such a tender Friend and liberal Benefactor to thee who loved thee before ever thou wast capable of thinking a Thought of Love towards him yea and when thou didst most justly deserve to be excommunicated from his Favour for ever and who had no other Aim in loving thee but to do thee good and make thee happy and thought nothing too good for thee
Truth as there have in attesting Lies and Falshoods Why should so many have been struck dumb or dead in the Act of Perjury and not one that we ever heard of suffer the like Calamity in witnessing the Truth In a word why should so many bad Men have suffered such Calamities as were plain Retaliations in Kind of their cruel and unjust Actions as Adonibezeck for instance did in the cutting off his Thumbs and great Toes whilst so few if any for doing Justice upon others have by any such casual and irregular Providence been exposed to the Evils they inflicted Since therefore in every Age of the World there have happened such Goods to righteous Men as have the plainest Characters of divine Rewards upon them and such Evils to the Wicked as do evidently bespeak themselves intended for divine Punishments God hath hereby sufficiently declared his Love of the one and his Hatred of the other For by their Rewards and Punishments all Lawgivers do declare their Love and Hatred of the Facts they are annexed to and therefore to be sure if the Supreme Law giver had not loved Righteousness and hated the contrary he would never have so eminently rewarded the one and punished the other as he hath apparently done 2 dly Another Supernatural Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his making so many Revelations to the World for the promoting of Righteousness and discountenancing of Sin That God hath made sundry Revelations to the World is evident in Fact because there are sundry Revelations which have been sufficiently demonstrated by those miraculous Effects of the divine Power which have accompanied the Ministration of them such are those contained in the five Books of Moses and the Prophets which have been almost amply confirmed both by the Miracles which were wrought by the inspired Authors of them and by the exact Accomplishments of the several Predictions contained in them and such is also that last and best Revelation contained in the New Testament which both by the Types and Predictions contained in the Law and the Prophets and by the infinite Miracles wrought by Jesus and his Followers who were the immediate Ministers of it together with its own inherent Goodness is so effectually demonstrated divine that no Man who weighs the Proof of it can suspect it unless he be infinitely prejudiced against it Now if you consult these several divine Revelations you will plainly perceive that the main Drift and Design of them is to promote Righteousness and suppress whatsoever is contrary to it that the several Revelations made to Abraham and his Children were all but one repeated Covenant of Righteousness that the Law of Moses consisted partly of ceremonious Rights which were either intended for divine Hieroglyphicks to instruct the dull and stupid Jews in the Principles of inward Purity and Goodness or else for Types and sacred Figures of the holy Mysteries of the Gospel partly of Precepts of moral Righteousness together with some few prudential ones that were suitable to the Genius and Polity of that People and partly of such Promises and Threats as were most apt to oblige them to the Practice of those righteous Precepts As for the Prophets the Substance of their Revelations was either Reprehensions of Sin together with severe Denunciations against it or Invitations to Righteousness together with gracious Promises of Rewards to follow it or Predictions of the Messias and that everlasting Righteousness which should be introduced by him And then as for the Gospel all the Duties of it consist either in Instances or Means of Righteousness and all the Doctrines of it are nothing else but powerful Arguments and Motives to persuade us to the Practice of those Duties Thus Righteousness you see is the main Center to which all true Revelation tends the Mark at which the righteous Lord hath continually levelled and directed it What a plain Demonstration therefore is this of the unfeigned Love and Respect he bears it that he did not think it sufficient to imprint a Law of Righteousness upon our Natures and stamp upon our Beings so many Indications of his Love to it but seeing us swerve and deviate from it hath from time to time by so many loud and reiterated Voices from Heaven invited and called us back again so that if he be cordial and sincere in what he says as it would be absurd and impious to suspect the contrary we cannot doubt but he heartily loves that which by so many immediate Revelations he hath so earnestly importuned us to embrace 3 dly Another supernatural Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his sending his own Son into the World to transact such mighty Things for the Encouragement of it and persuading Men to it For to advance Righteousness was the main Design of all those mighty Things which the Son of God did and suffered in this World the Design of all that holy and innocent Life which he led was to propose to our Imitation a perfect Example of Righteousness that so treading our Way before us we might have not only the Line of his Precepts but also the Print of his Foot-steps to direct us and that by beholding so fair a Draught of Righteousness drawn so exquisitely to the Life and in every Part so exactly answering to the sweetest and most amiable Ideas of it we might be both invited and instructed to copy and imitate it in our Actions For what he saith of that illustrious Act of Charity and Humility his washing his Disciples Feet is truly applicable to the whole Course of his Actions For I have given you an Example that you should do as I have done unto you Joh. xiii 15 And as his Life was an Example of Righteousness so his Death was a most urgent Motive to it for hereby he made Expiation for our Sins and obtained an Act of Pardon and Indemnity for every Rebel that would lay down his Arms and return to his Duty and Allegiance and by obtaining this he hath given us infinite Encouragement to return since if we do so we have most ample Assurance that we shall be received into Grace and Favour And though I cannot deny but if God had pleased he might have granted such an Act of Pardon to us without the Consideration of Christ's Death and Sacrifice yet I am sure if he had it could never have been such an effectual Motive as it was to oblige us to Righteousness for the future For should he have granted us Pardon merely upon our Repentance without any other Motive or Consideration he would have discovered so much seeming Easiness and Indulgence in such a Procedure as would have very much imboldened such disingenuous Creatures as we to presume upon his Lenity and turn his Grace into Wantonness And if to prevent our presuming upon his Lenity it was necessary that he should have some other Motive to pardon us besides that of our Repentance then it was no less necessary that this other Motive
the same without the least Addition or Substraction And yet when Things were in this Posture when he had no Self-interest to serve upon us no Motive but his own Benignity to endear him to us then did he begin to love us and to express the Earnings of his Heart and Bowels towards us And now how can we think of this and not be affected with it How can we any longer avoid being captivated with the Thoughts of such a generous Kindness Consider O my Soul thy God gains nothing by all his Love to thee but thou gainest infinitely by thy Love to him by loving him thou glorifiest thy self and crownest thy own Desires with Happiness But he is not one jot the better for loving nor would he have been one jot the worse if he had never loved thee at all and yet out of pure generous Goodness he loves thee a thousand times more than thou lovest thy self or art ever able to love him and canst thou be such a wretched Thing so lost to all that is ingenuous and modest as not to return him Love for Love 5 thly He began to love us to such a Degree as to think nothing too dear or too good for us Considering how little we deserve his Love how much we have deserved his Hatred and how uncapable we are to make him any valuable Requital it is sufficient Matter of Wonder that ever he could prevail with himself to love us in the least Degree but that in the midst of so many Reasons to the contrary he should not only begin to love but to be so liberal of his Kindness to us is Matter of just Astonishment It was a mighty Kindness in him to create us what we are and make such a plentiful Provision for our comfortable Subsistence here for wheresoever we direct our Eyes whether we reflect them inwards upon our selves we behold his Goodness to occupy and penetrate the Root and Center of our Beings and discern the lively Characters of his Love in the incomparable Frame and Structure of our Natures or whether we extend them abroad towards the things about us we may perceive our selves like Fortunate Islands surrounded with an Ocean of Blessings containing whatsoever is necessary for our Sustenance convenient for our Use and pleasant for our Enjoyment And is it not wondrous Love in him to make such liberal Provisions for such undeserving Guests But this is the smallest Part of his Kindness for he hath inspired us with immortal Minds and Stamp'd them with the most fair Impresses of his own Divinity viz. a Knowledge of Truth and a Love of Goodness and a forward Capacity of the highest Perfection and purest Happiness and to fill and gratify these our noble Faculties and Capacities he hath prepared for us a Heaven of immortal Joys and furnished it with all the Delights that this our Heaven-born Mind is capable of and lest we should fall short of it he hath sent his blessed Son from Heaven to reveal it to us and shew us the Way thither to die for our Sins and obtain and ratify the Promise of our Pardon thereby to encourage us to return to our Duty and Allegiance without which we are incapable of ever enjoying that beatifical State And lest all this should not be sufficient he is always present with us to promote our Happiness present by his Providence to reclaim by his Angels to sollicit us and by his Holy Spirit to excite and co-operate with our Endeavours So extreamly careful is he not to be defeated of his kind Intentions to make us everlastingly happy O Blessed God! To what a Degree must thou love us who thinkest none of these Things too dear and good for us That dost not think thy Son too good to redeem us thy Spirit to Sanctify thy everlasting Heaven to Crown and Reward us And now can our Hearts hold when we think of this Can we be cold and indifferent in the midst of such a vigorous Flame Good God! What are we made of What senseless stony stupid Souls do we carry about us that can be Love-proof against so many Charms and Endearments that can listen to so many Wonders of Love with such unconcerned such unaffected Minds Methinks if we had but the common Sense and Ingenuity of Men in us it would be impossible for us in the midst of so much Love not to be melted into a reciprocal Kindness 6 thly And lastly He so began to love us as to condescend by all the Arts of Importunity to court us to accept of his Love That notwithstanding all our Unworthiness he should begin to love us and that to so strange a Degree is a most amazing Instance of the infinite Benevolence of his Nature but that he should condescend to address himself to us to court and woo us as he doth to accept of his Love and to be as happy as he would have us is enough to astonish the most insensible Soul and even to dissolve a Heart of Rock into Love For thus the Scripture in the most pathetick Strains describes the Addresses of this great Lover of Souls borrowing Metaphors to express his Love to us from all that is kind and loving in the Creation even from the most melting Passions in Mankind from the Relentings of Fathers and Yearnings of Mothers Bowels towards their dearest Off-spring It paints him in all the charming Postures of an imploring beseeching and importunate Lover wooing and intreating us to be happy even with Tears of Pity in his Eyes with Charms of Love in his Mouth and Tenders of Mercy in his Hands And when with all the Rhetorick of his Love he can't prevail with us to live it represents him weeping at our Funerals and like a tender-hearted Judge pronouncing our Sentence with the Tears in his Eyes By which Metaphorical Descriptions he represents to us his infinite Concern for our Happiness how much his Heart is set upon it and how hardly he can bear a Defeat in his kind and merciful Intentions towards us For what but an infinite Love could ever have made the King of Heaven and Earth to stoop so low to his rebellious Subjects as to beseech them to lay down their Weapons of Hostility with which they can injure none but themselves and to listen to his Terms of Mercy and accept of his Crowns and everlasting Preferments One would have thought it had been enough for him barely to have told us how he loved us how willing he was to Pardon and Advance us and that this had been enough for ever to recommend him to the dearest Affections of his Creatures but that he should moreover condescend to supplicate our Acceptance to beseech us not to spurn his Love and frustrate its Designs of Mercy to us Lord how can we think of this without being all inflamed with Love to thee 'T is true he doth not come in Person to us because we are not able to bear the immediate Approaches of his Glory