their nakednesse and filthinesse which is in it self as menstruous and unclean as any thing It is now the very propension and naturall inclination of our hearts to stand upright in our selves Faith bowes a souls back and take on Christs righteousnesse but presumption lifts up a soul upon its own bottom How can ye believe that seek honour one of another The engagement of the soul to its own credit or estimation the engagement of self-self-love and self-honour do lift up a soul that it cannot submit to Gods righteousnesse to righteousnesse in another And therefore many do dream and think that they have eternall life who shal awake in the end and find that it was but a dream or night-fancy Now from all this I would enforce this duty upon your consciences to search the Scriptures if you think to have eternall life search them if you would know Christ whom to know is eternal life then again search them for these are they that testifie of him Searching imports diligence much diligence it s a serious work it s not a common seeking of an easie and common thing but it s a search and scrutiny for some hidden thing or some special thing It s not bare reading of the Scriptures that will answer this duty except it be diligent and daily reading and it s not that alone except the Spirit within meditate on them and by meditation accomplish a diligent search There is some hidden secret that you must search for that is inclosed within the covering of words and sentences there is a mystery of wisdome that you must apply your hearts to search out Eccles. 7. 5. Jesus Christ is the Treasure that is hid in this field O precious treasure of eternall life Now then souls search into the fields of the Scriptures Pro. 2. 4. for him as for hid treasure It is not only truth you must seek and buy and not sell it but it is life you would search Here is an object that may not only take up your understandings but satisfie your hearts Think not you have found all when you have found the truth there and learned it no except you have found life there you have found nothing you have missed the treasure If you would profite by the Scriptures you must bring both your understandings your affections to them and depart not till they both return full If you bring your understanding to seek the truth you may find truth but not truly you may find it but you are not found of it you may lead truth captive and unclose it in a prison of your mind and encompasse it about with a guard of corrupt affections that it shal have no issue no out going to the rest of your soul and wayes and no influence on them you may know the truth but you are not known of it and brought in captivity to the obedience of it The Treasure that is hide in the Scriptures are Jesus Christ whose intire and perfect Name is Way Truth and Life He is a living truth and true Life Therefore Christ is the adaequat object of the soul commensurable to all its faculties He has Truth in him to satisfie the mind and he has Life and Goodness in him to satiate the heart therefore if thou wouldst find Jesus Christ bring thy whole soul to seek him as Paul expresseth it He is true and faithfull and worthy of all acceptation then bring thy judgement to find the light of truth and thy affections to imbrace the life of goodnesse that is in him Now as much as ye find of him so much have ye profited in the Scriptures If you find commands there that you cannot obey search again and you may find strength under that command digg a little deeper you shal find Jesus the end of an impossible command when you have found him you have found life and strength to obey you have found a prepitiation and sacrifice for trantgressing not obeying If you find curses in it search again you shal find Jesus Christ under that made a curse for us you shal find him the end of the curse for righteousnesse to every one that believes When you know all the Letter of the Scripture yet you must search into the Spirit of it that it may be imprinted into your spirits all you know does you no good but as it s received in love unlesse your souls become a living Epistle the Word without be written on the heart you have found nothing As for you that cannot read the Scriptures if it be possible take that pains to learn to read them O if you knew what they contain whom they bear witnesse of you would have little quietnesse till you could read at least his love-epistle to sinners And if you cannot learn be not discouraged but if your desires within be servent your endeavours to hear it read by others will be more earnest But it is not so much the reading of much of it that profiteth as the pondering of these things in our hearts and digesting them by frequent meditation till they become the food of the Soul This was Davids way and by this he grew to the stature of a tall well-bodied Christian. Eph. 2. 20. And builded upon the foundation of the Apostles c. BElievers are the Temple of the living God in which he dwels and walks 2 Cor. 6. 16. Every one of them is a little Sanctuary and Temple to His Majesty Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts in your hearts though he be the high lofty one that inhabits eternity yet he is pleased to come down to this poor Cottage of a creatures heart and dwell in it Is not this as great a humbling and condescending for the Father to come down off his Throne of Glory to the poor base foot-stool of the creatures soul as for the Son to come down in the state of a servant and become in the form of sinfull flesh But then he is a Temple and Sanctuary to them and he shal be to you a Sanctuary Isa. 8. A place of refuge a secret hiding-place Now as every one is a little separated retired Temple so they all conjoyned make up one Temple one visible body in which he dwels Therefore Paul calls them living stones built up into a spiritual house to God 1 Pet. 2. 5 All these little Temples make up one house Temple fitly joyned together in which God shews manifest signs of his presence and working unto this the Apostle in this place alludes The Communion Union of Christians with God is of such a nature that all the relations and points of conjunction in the creatures are taken to resemble it hold it out to us We are Citizens saith he Domesticks houshold men so dwel in his house and then we are his House beside Now ye know there are two principal things in a House the Foundation and the Corner-stone the one supports the building the
himself thus and sought out to himself such sad inventions Eccles. 7. 29. and having destroyed himself Hos. 13. 9. What think ye Should any pity him If he had fallen in such a pit of miserie ignorantly and unwillingly he had been an object of compassion but having cast himself headlong into it who should have pity on him Or who should go aside to ask how he doth or bemoan him Ier. 15. 5. But behold the Lord pities man as a Father doth his Children Psal. 103. His compassions fail not He comes by such a loathsome and contemptible object and casts his skirts over it and saith Live Ezek. 16. And maketh it a time of love I say no flesh could have expected any more of God than to make man happy and holy to promise him life in well-doing But to repair that happinesse after it's wilfully lost and to give life to evil doers sinners O how far was it from Adams expectation when he fled from God Here then is the wonder that when men Angels were in expectation of the revelation of his wrath from heaveÌ„ against their wickednesse the execution of the curse man was concluded under that even then God is pursuing man pursues him with love and opens up to him his very heart and bowels of love in Jesus Christ Behold then the second revelation manifestation of God in a way of grace pure grace of mercy pity toward lost sinners The kindnesse of God hath appeared not by Works but according to his abundant mercy shewed in Christ Iesus Tit. 3. 4. 5. So then we have this purpose of Gods love unfolded to us in the Scriptures and this is the substance of them both Old and New Testament or the end of them Rom. 10. 4. Christ is the end of the Law to all sinners concluded under sin and a curse by it our Lord Jesus the good Ebedmelech comes and casts down a cord to us draws us up out of the pit of sin and misery he comes to this prison and opens the doors to let captives free so then we have holden out to us a Redeemer as a repairer of our breaches God in Christ reconciling the world O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy Help found Hos. 13. 9. He finds to himself a ransome to satisfie his justice Job 33. 24. He finds a propitiation to take away sin a sacrifice to pacifie and appease his wrath he finds one of our Brethren but his own Son in whom he is well pleased And then holds out all this to sinners that they may be satisfied in their own consciences as he is in his own mind God hath satisfied himself in Christ you have not that to do he is not now to be reconciled to us for he was never really at odds though he covered his countenance with frowns threats since the Fal hath appeared in fire and hunders and whirlwind which are terrible yet his heart had alwayes love in it to such persons and therefore he is come near in Christ about reconciling us to himself Here is the business then to have our souls reconciled to him to take away the enmity within us and as he is satisfied with his Son so to satisfie our selves with him be as wel pleased in his Redemption and purchase as 〈◊〉 â—…er is and then you believe indeed in him Now if this were accomplished what have wee more to do but to love him and to live to him when you have found in the Scripture and believed with the heart what Man once was and what he now is what God once appeared and what hee now manifests himself in the Gospel ye have no more to do but to search in the same Scriptures what ye henceforth ought to be Ye who find your estate recovered in Christ ask what manner of persons we ought to be And the Scripture shal also give you that form of sound words which may not only teach you to believe in him but to love him and obey his coÌ„mands The Law that before condemned you is now by Christ put in your hands to guide you and conduct you in the way teacheth you to live henceforth to his glory The grace of God that hath appeared to all men Tit. 2. 12. teacheth us that denying ungodlinesse and worldlie lusts we should live godly and righteously and soberly in this present world Here is the summe of the rule of your practise and conversation piety towards God equity towards men and sobriety towards our selves self-denyal and world-denyall and lust-denyal to give up with the world and our own lusts henceforth to have no more to do with them to resign them not for a time not in part but wholly and for ever in affection and by parts in practice and endeavour and then to resign and give up our selves to him to live to him and live in him Thus we have given you a summe of the Doctrine of the Scriptures of that which is to be believed and that which is to be done as our duty Now we shall speak a word of these two Cardinall Graces which are the compend of all Graces as the objects of them are the Abridgement of the Scriptures Faith Love these sound words can profite us nothing unlesse wee hold them fast with Faith and Love Faith is like the Fountain-grace streams come out of it that cleanseth the Conscience from the guilt of sin and purifieth the heart from the filth of sin because it is that which cometh to the Fountain opened up in the house of David draweth water out of these Wells of Salvation If you consider the fall and ruine of Mankind you will find infidelity unbelief the fountain of it as wel as the seal of it Unbelief of the Law of God of his promises and threatning This was first called in Question and when once called in Question it is half denied Hath God said so that you shal die It s not far off you shall not surely die Here then was the very beginning of mans ruine he did not retain in his knowledge and believe with his heart the truth and faithfulnesse and holinesse of God which unbelief was conjoyned intermingled with much pride you shal be as Gods he began to live out of God in himself not remembring that his life was a stream of that Divine Fountain that being cut off from it would dry up Now therefore our Lord Jesus Christ an expert Saviour and very learned and compleat for this work he brings man up out of this pit of misery by that same way he fell into it he fell down by unbelief and he brings him up out of it by faith This is the cord that is cast down to the poor Soul in the Dungeon or rather his Faith is the dead grip of the cord of Divine Promises which are sent unto the captive prisoners and by vertue thereof he is drawn out into the light
as the misapprehension of the thing it self for as long as they mistake it in its own nature no sign no mark can satisfie in it You take Faith to be a perswasion of Gods love that calms and quiets the mind Now such a perswasion needs no sign to know it by it is manifest by its own presence as light by its own brightnesse It were a foolish question to ask any How they knew that they were perswaded of anothers affection The very perswasion it self maketh it self more certain to the soul then any token So then while you question whether you have Faith or not and in the mean time take Faith to be nothing else but such a perswasion it is in vain to bring any marks or signs to convince you that you have Faith for if such a perswasion assurance were in you it would be more powerfull to assure your hearts of it self than any thing else and while you are doubting of it it is more manifest that you have it not than any signs or marks can be able to make it appear that you have it If any would labour to convince a blind man that he saw the light and give him signs tokēs of the lights shining the blind man could not believe him for it is more certain to himself that he sees not than any evidence can make the contrary probable You are still wishing and seeking such a Faith as puts all out of question Now when Ministers bring any marks to prove you have true Faith it cannot satisfie or settle you because your very questioning proves that ye have not that which ye question if you had such a perswasion you would not question it So then as long as you are in that mistake concerning the nature of Faith all the signs of the word cannot settle you But I say if once you understood the true nature of Faith it would be more clear in it self unto you than readily marks and signs could make it especially in the time of temptation If you would know then what it is indeed Consider what the Word of God holds out concerning himself or us the solid belief of that in the heart hath something in the nature of saving Faith in it The Lord gives a testimony concerning Man That he is born in sin that he is dead in sin and all his imaginations are only evil continually Now I say to receive this truth into the soul upon Gods Testimony in a point of Faith the Lord in his Word concludes all under sin and wrath ◅o then for a soul to conclude it self also under sin and wrath is a point of Faith Faith is the souls testimony to Gods truth the Word is Gods Testimony Now then if a soul receive this testimony within whether it be Law or Gospel it 's an act of Faith if a soul condemn it self judge it self that is a setting to our seal that God is true who speaks in his Law so it s a believing in God I say more To believe with the heart that we cannot believe is a great point of found belief because it 's a sealing of that Word of God The heart is desperatly wicked and of our selves we can do nothing Now I am perswaded if such souls knew this they would put an end to their many contentions and wranglings about this point and would rather blesse God that hath opened their eyes to see themselves then contend with him for that they have no Faith It is light only that discovers darknesse and Faith only that descerns unbelief Its life and health only that feels pain sicknesse for if all were alike nothing could be found as in dead bodies Now I say to such souls as believe in God the Law-giver believe also in Christ the Redeemer and what is that It is not to know that I have Interest in him No that must come after it is the Spirits sealing after believing which puts it self out of question when it comes and so if you had it you needed not many signs to know it by at least you would not doubt of it more than he that sees the light can question it But I say to believe in Christ is simply this I whatsoever I be ungodly wretched polluted desperate am willing to have Jesus Christ for my Saviour I have no other help or hope if it be not in him it is I say to lean the weight of thy soul on this foundation stone laid in Zion to embrace the promises of the Gospel albeit generall as worthy of all acceptation wait upon the performance of them It is no other thing but to make Christ welcome to say even so Lord Jesus I am content in my soul that thou be my Saviour to be found in thee not having my own righteousnesse I am well pleased to cast away my own as dung find my self on other not an ungodly man Now it is certain that ◅any souls that are still questioning whether they have Faith yet do find this in their souls but because they know not that it is Faith which they find they go about to seek that which is not Faith and where it is not to be found and so disquiet themselves in vain and hinder fruitfulnesse Now the Faith of a Christian is no fancy it 's no light vain imagination of the brain but it dwells in the heart with the heart man believes and it dwels with love Faith and love we need not be curious to distinguish them it is certain that love is in it from it it s in the very bosome of it because faith is a soul embracing of Christ it 's a choosing of him for its portion and then upon the review of this goodly portion and from consideration what he is and hath done for us the soul loves him still more is impatient of so much distance from him We find them conjoyned in Scripture but they are one in the heart O that we studied to have these joyntly engraven on the heart as they are joyned in the word so our heart should be a living Epistle Faith and Love are two words but one thing under different notions they are the out-goings of the soul to Christ for life the breathings of the soul after him for more of him when it hath once tasted how good he is Faith is not a speculation or a wandring thought of Truth it 's the truth not captivated into the mind but dwelling in the heart getting possession of the whole man you know a man and his will are one not so a man and his mind for he may conceive the truth of many things he loves not but what ever a man loves that and he in a manner becomes one with another Love is unitive it 's the most excellent union of distant things The will commands the whole man and hath the office of applying of all the faculties of their proper works Illa imperat aliae exsequuntur
make our abode with him Ioh. 14. 23. Here now is an evidence that he likes it for he must needs like that place he chooses to dwell in he who hath such a glorious Mansion and Palace above he must needs love that soul dearly that he will prefer it to his high and holy place Now I know it will be the secret question and complaint of some souls How shal I get love to God I cannot love him my heart is so desperatly wicked I cannot say as Peter Lord thou knowest that I love thee I shal not insist upon the discovery of your love unto you by marks and signs only I say if thou indeed from thy heart desires to love him art grieved that there is not this love in thy soul to him which becomes so love-worthy a Saviour then thou indeed lovest him for he that loveth the love of God loveth God himself And wherefore aâ—…t thou sad for want of that love but because thou lovest him in some measure and withall finds him beyond all that thou canst think and love But I say that which most concerns thee is to love still more and that thou wouldest be more earnest to love him then to know that thou loves him Now I know no more effectuall way to encrease love to Jesus Christ then to believe his love Christ Jesus is the Author and Finisher both of Faith and Love and we love him because he first loved us Therefore the right discovery of Jesus Christ what he is and what he hath done for sinners is that which will of all things most prevail to engage the soul unto him But as long as ye suspend you Faith upon the being or encrease of your Love and obedience as the manner of too many is you take even such a course as he that will not plant the Tree till he see the fruit of it which is contrary to common sense reason Since this then is the sum of true Religion to believe in Christ and to love him and so live to him we shal wind up all that is spoken into that exhortation of the Apostles Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard You have this Doctrine of Faith and Love delivered unto you which may be able to save your souls Then I beseech you hold them fast salvation is in them they are sound words and wholesom words words of life spirit life as Christ speaks as well as words of truth But how will you hold them fast that have them not at all that know them not though you hear them You who are ignorant of the Gospel and hear nothing but a sound of words in stead of sound wholesome words how can you hold them fast Can a man hold the wind in the hollow of his hand or keep in a sound within it You know no more but a sound a wind that passeth by your ear without observing either truth or life in it But then again you who understand these sound words and have a form of knowledge of the Letter of the Law what will that avail you You cannot hold it fast except you have it within you and it is within you indeed when it is in your heart when the form of it is engraven upon the very soul in love Now thogh you understand the sound of these words the sound of truth in them yet you receive not the living Image of them which is Faith and Love Can you paint a sound Can you form it or engrave it on any thing Nay but these sound words are more substantial solid they must be engraven on the heart else you will never hold them they may bee easily plucked out of the mouth and hand by temptation unlesse they be enclosed and laid up in the secret of the heart as Mary laid them The truth must hold thee fast or thou canst not hold it fast it must captivate thee and bind thee with the Golden chains of affection which only is true freedom or certainly thou wilt let it go Nay you must not only have the truth received by love into your heart but as the Apostle speaks you must also hold fast the form of sound words Scripture words are sound words the Scriptures method of teaching is sound and wholesome There may be unsound words used in expressing true matter and if a man shal give liberty to his own luxuriant Imagination to expatiat in notions and expressions either to catch the ear of the Vulgar or to appear some new discoverer of light and Gospel-mysteries he may as readily fall into error and darknesse as into truth and light Some men do busk up old truths Scripture-truths into some new dresse of language and notions and then give them out for new discoveries new lights but in so doing they often hazard the loosing of the truth it self We should beware and take heed of strange words that have the least appearance of evil such as Christed Godded let us think it enough to be wise according to the Scripturs and suspect all that as vain empty unsound that tends not to the increase of faith in Christ and love and obedience unto him As ordinarily the Dialect of those called Antinomians is giving and no granting that they had no unsound mind yet I am sure they use unsound word to expresse sound matter the cloaths should be shaped to the person Truth is plain and simple let words of truth also be full of simplicity I say no more but leave that upon you that you hold fast even the very words of the Scriptures and be not bewitched by the vain pretentions of Spirit all Spirit pure and spiritual service and such like to the casting off of the word of truth as Letter as Flesh and such is the high attainment of some in these daies an high attainment indeed and a mighty progresse in the way to destruction the very last discovery of that Antichrist and Man of sin Oh make much of the Scripture for you shal neither read nor hear the like of it in the world Other books may have sound matter but there is still something in manner or words unsound no man can speak to you truth in such plainnesse and simplicity in such soundnesse also But here is both sound matter and sound words the truth holden out truly health and salvation holden out in as wholsome a manner as is possible Matter manner are both divine Exod. 3. 13 14. When they shal say unto me What is his Name What shal I say And God said I AM THAT I AM. WE are now about this question What God is But who can answer it Or if answered who can understand it It should astonish us in the very entry to think that we are about to speak and to hear of his Majesty Whom eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entered into the heart of any creature to consider what he is Think ye blind
that God As his authority should imprint reverence so his goodnesse thus manifested should engrave confidence And thus the life of man vvas not only a life of obedience but a life of pleasure and delight not only a holy but a happy life yea happy in holinesse Now as it was Pauls great businesse in preaching to ride marches between the covenant of grace and the covenant of works to take men off that old broken ship to this sure plank of grace that is offered by Jesus Christ to drowning souls So it would be our great work to shew unto you the nature of this Covenant and the terms thereof that you may henceforth find and know that salvation to be now impossible by the Law which so many seek in it We have no errand to speak of the first Adam but the better to lead you to the second Our life was once in the first but he lost himself and us both but the second by losing himself saves both We have nothing to do to speak of the first Covenant but that we may lead you or pursue you rather to the second established upon better tearms and better promises The tearms of this covenant are Do this and live perfect obedience without one jot of failing or falling an intire and universall accomplishment of the whole will of God that is the duty required of Man there is no latitude left in the bargain to admit endeavours in stead of performance or desire in stead of duty there is no place for Repentance here if a Man fall in one point he falls from the whole promise by the tenour of this bargain there is no hope of recovery If you would have the duty in a word It s a love of God with all our heart and soul our Neighbour as our self that testified verified in all duties offices of obedience to God love to men without the least mixture of sin infirmity Now the promise on Gods part is indeed larger then that Duty not only because undeserved but even in the matter of it it 's so abundant Life eternal life continuance in a happy estate There is a threatning added In what day thou eatest thou shalt die that is thou shalt become a mortall and miserable creature subject to misery here and hereafter which is more pressingly set down in that Word Cursed is he that abides not in all things written in the law to do them It is very peremptory that men dream not of escaping wrath when they break but in one suppose they did abide in all the rest Cursed is every man from the highest to the lowest the Lord Almighty is engaged against him his countenance his Power is against him to destroy him make him miserable whoever doth fail but in one jot of the commands he shall not only fall from that blessed condition freely promised but lose all that he already possessed fall from that image of God dominion over the creatures and incur in stead of that possessed and expected happinesse misery here on soul body in pains sicknesses troubles griefs c. And Eternal misery on both without measure hereafter Eternall destruction from the presence of the Lord the glory of his power Now This Law is not of Faith saith the Apostle This opens up the nature of the bargain and the opposition between the present Covenant that which is made with lost sinners in a Mediator This Covenant is called of Works Do this and live To him that worketh is the promise made though freely too It is grace that once a reward should be promised to obedience but having once resolved to give it herein justice appears in an equall and uniform distribution of the reward according to Works So that where there is an equality of works there shall be an equality of reward and no difference put between persons equall Which is the very freedome of the Covenant of grace that it passes overall such considerations and deals equally in mercy with unequall sinners unequally it may be with them that are equall in nature You may ask was not Adam to believe in God did not the Law require faith I answer Christ distinguishes a twofold faith You believe in God believe also in me No question he was called to believe in God the Creator of the VVorld and that in a three-fold consideration First to depend on God the self-beeing and fountain-good his own goodnesse was but a fluxe and emanation from that Sun of righteousnesse so was to be perpetuated by constant abiding in his sight the interposition of mans self between him and God did soon bring on this eternal night of darknesse Nature might have taught him to live in him in whom he had life beeing and motion and to forget look over his own perfections as evanishing shadows But this quickly extinguished his life when he began to to live in himself Next he was obliged to believe in Gods word both threatning and promise to have these constantly in his view And certainly if he had kept in his serious consideration the inestimable blessing of life promised and the fearful curse of death threatned if he had not been induced first to doubt and then to deny the truth and reality of these he had not attempted such a desperate rebellion against the Lord. Then thirdly he was to believe and perswade himself of the Lords fatherly love and that the Lord was well pleased with his obedience and this faith would certainly beget much peace quietnesse in his mind and also constrain him to love him and live to him who loved him and gave him life and happinesse out of love yet this holds true that the Apostle saith the law is not of faith to wit in a Mediator and Redeemer it was a bond of immediate friendship there needed none to mediate between God and man there needed no reconciler where there was no ods nor distance But the Gospell is of Faith in a Mediator it s the souls plighting its hope upon Jesus Christ in its desperate necessity so supposes man sinfull and miserable in himself and in his own sense too and so putting over his weight burden upon one whom God hath made mighty to save The Law is not of Faith but of perfect works a watch-word brought in of purpose to bring men off their hankering after a broken and desperate Covenant It admits no repentance it speaks of no pardon it declares no Cautioner or Redeemer there is nothing to be expected according to the tenor of that Covenant but wrath from Heaven either personall obedience in all or personall punishment for ever that is the very tearms of it it knows no other thing Either bring compleat righteousnesse and holinesse to the promise of life or expect nothing but death This may be a sad meditation to us to stand and look back to our former estate compare it with that into which we
by believing you do indeed honour him and he that honoureth the Son honoureth the Father Ioh. 5. 23. Here is a compendious way to glorifie God receive salvation of him freely righteousnesse and eternall life and this sets to a seal of Gods truth and grace and mercy and who so counts the Son worthy to be a Saviour to them and sets to their seal of approbation to him whom God the Father hath sent and sealed he also honours the Father and then he that honoureth the Father hath it not for nothing For them that honour me I will honour 1 Sam. 2. 30. saith the Lord And he that serves me him will my Father honour Joh. 12. 26. As the believing soul cares for no other and respects no other but God so he respects no other but such a soul I will dwel in the humble and look unto the contrite there is mutual respects and honours God is the delight of such a soul and such a soul is Gods delight that soul sets God on a high place in a throne in its heart and God sets that soul in a heavenly place with Christ Eph. 2. 6. yea he comes down to sit with us and dwell in us off his throne of Majesty Isa. 66. 1 2. 15 57 Psal. 73. 24. to the end Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel c. Whom have I in heaven but Thee c. It is good for me to draw near to God 1 John 1. 3. These things declare we to you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. And John 17. 21 22 23. That they all may be one as we are one I in them and they in me that they may be perfect in one c. IT is a matter of great consolation that Gods glory and our happinesse are linked together so that whosoever sets his glory before them singly to aim at they take the most compendious and certain way to true blessednesse His glory is the ultimat end of man and should be our great and last scope But our happinesse which consists in the enjoyment of God is subordinate to this yet inseparable from it The end of our Creation is communion and fellowship with God therefore man was made with an immortal soul capable of it and this is the greatest dignity and eminency of man above the creatures He hath not only impressed from Gods finger in his first moulding some characters resembling God in righteousnesse and holinesse but is created with a capacity of receiving more of God by communion with him Other creatures have already all they will have all theycan have of conformity to him but man is made liker than all and is fitted and fashioned to aspire to more liknesse and conformity so that his soul may shine more and more to the perfect day There was an Union made already in his first moulding and communion was to grow as a fragrant and sweet fruit out of this blessed root Union and similitude is the ground of fellowship communion That union was gracious that communion would have been glorious for grace is the seed of glory There was a twofold Union between Adam and God an Union of state and an Union of nature He was like God and he was Gods friend All the creatures had some liknesse to God some engravings of his power and goodnesse and wisdome but man is said to be made according to Gods Image Let us make man like unto us Other creatures had similitudinem vestigii but man had similitudinem faciei Holinesse and righteousnesse is Gods face the very excellency and glory of all his Attributes and the Lord stamps the image of these upon Man Other Attributes are but like his back-parts he leaves the resemblance of his footsteps upon other creatures What can be so beautifull as the Image of God upon the soul Creatures the nearer they are to God the more pure and excellent We see in the Fabrick of the World bodies the higher they are the more pure and cleanly the more beautiful Now then What was man that was made a little lower than the Angels In the Hebrew a little lower than God tantum non Deus Seeing man is set next to God his glory and beauty certainly surpasses the glory of the Sun and Heavens Things contiguous and next other are like other The water is liker air than the earth therefore it is next the air The air is liker Heaven than water therefore it is next to it Omne contiguum spirituali est spirituale Angels and men next God are spirits as he is a Spirit Now similitude is the ground of friendship Pares paribus congregantur similitude necessitudinis vinculum It is that which conciliats affection among men so it is here by proportion God sees that all is very good and man the best of his works and he loves him and makes him his friend for his own Image which he beholds in him At length from these two roots this pleasant fragrant fruit of Communion with and enjoyment of God grows up this is the entertainment of friends to delight in one another and to enjoy one another Amicorum omnia communia Love makes all common it opens the treasure of Gods fulnesse and makes a vent of divine bounty towards man and it opens the heart of man and makes it large as the sand of the sea to receive of God Our receiving of his fulnesse is all the entertainment we can give him O what blessednesse is this for a soul to live in him and it lives in him when it loves him Anima est ubi amat non ubi animat and to taste of his sweetnesse and be satisfied with him this makes perfect onnenesse and perfect onnenesse with God who is the fountain of life and in whose favour is life is perfect blessednesse But we must stand a little here and consider our misery that hath fallen from such an excellency how are we come down from Heaven wonderfully Sin hath interposed between God and man and this dissolves the union and hinders the communion An enemy is come between two friends and puts them at odds and Oh! an eternall odds sin hath sown this discord and alineated our hearts from God Mans glory consisted in the irradiation of the soul from Gods shining countenance this made him light Gods face shined on him But sin interposing hath eclipsed that light and brought on an eternall night of darknesse over the soul And thus we are spoiled of the Image of God as when the earth comes betwixt the Sun and Moon Now then there can no beams of divine savour and love break through directly towards us because of the cloud of our sins that separates between God and us and because of the partition-wall of Ordinances and the hand-writing which was against us Gods holy Law and severe Justice Col. 3. 14. Then What shal we do How shal we
but a name they have some outward priviledges of Baptism and hearing the Word and it may be have a form of knowledge and a form of worship but in the mean time they are not baptized in heart they are in all their conversation even conformed to the Heathen world they hate personall reformation and think it too precise and needlesse Now I say such are many of you yet ye would not take it well to have it questioned whether ye shal be partakers of Eternall life you think you are wronged when that is called in question Oh that it were beyond all question indeed But know assuredlie That you are but Christians in the Letter in the Flesh and not in the Spirit Many of you have not so much as a form of knowledge have not so much as the Letter of Religion You have heard some names in the preaching often repeated as Christ and God and Faith and Heaven and Hell you know no more of these but the name you consider not and meditate not on them And those who know the truth of the Word yet the Word abideth not nor dwelleth in you you have it in your mouth you have it in your minde or understanding but it is not received in love it doth not dwell in the heart Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly Col. 3. 16. you have it imprisoned in your minds and shut up into a corner where it is useless can do no more but witnesse against you and scarce that as the Gentils incarcerated and detained the truth of God written by nature within them in unrighteousnesse Rom. 1. 18. So do many of you detain the knowledge of his word in unrighteousness it hath no place in the heart gets no libertie and freedom to walk through the affections and so to order the conversation of men And therefore the most part of men do but fancie to themselves an interest and right to eternall life you think it and do but think it it is but a strong imagination that hath no strength from the grounds of it no stabilitie from any evidence or promise but meerly from it self or it is but a light and vain conjecture that hath no strength in it because there is no question or doubts admitted which many try the strength of it But then I suppose that a man could attain some answerable walking that he had not onlie a form of knowledge but some reality of practice some inward heat of affection zeal for God and godlinesse yet there is one thing that wants and if it be wanting will spoil all And it is this which Christ reproves in the Jews You will not come to me to have life The Scri-Scriptures testifie of me but you receive not their testimonie Suppose a man had as much equitie and justice towards men piety towards God sobriety towards himself as can be found among the best of men let him be a diligent reader of the Scriptures let him love them meditate on them day and night yet if he do not come out of himself and leave all his own righteousnesse as dung behind him that he may be found in Jesus Christ he hath no life he cannot have any right to life eternall You may think this a strange assertion that if a man had the righteousnesse holinesse of an Angel yet he could not be saved without denying all that and fleeing to Christ as an ungodly man And you may think it as strange a supposell that any person that reads the Scriptures and walks righteously and hath a zeal towards God yet are such as will not come to Christ and will not hear him whom the Father hath sent But the first is the very substance of the Gospell There is no other Name by which men may be saved but by Iesus Christ Acts 4. 12. Life eternall is all within him All the treasures of grace and wisdom and knowledge are seated in him Col. 1. 19. and 2 3. All the light of life and salvation is imbodied in this Sun of Righteousnesse since the Eclipse of mans felicitie in the Garden Adam was a living soul but he lost his own life and killed his Posterity Christ Jesus the second common man in the world is a quickning Spirit he hath not only life in himself but he gives it more abundantly and therefore you have it so often repeated in Iohn who was the Disciple most acquainted with Christ In him was life and the life was the light of men 1. 4. And he is the bread of life that gives life to the World Joh. 6. 33. and 35. He is the resurrection and the life 11. 25. and The way the truth and life 14. 6. The Scriptures do not contain eternall life but in as far as they lead to him who is life and whom to know and imbrace is eternall life And therefore saith he These are they which testifie of me Men lived immediatlie in God when he was in innocencie he had life in himself from God but then he began to live in himself without dependance on God the fountain of life and this himself being interposed between God and his life it evanished even as a Beam by the interveening of any grosse body between it and the Sun Now mans light and life being thus eclipsed and cut off the Lord is pleased to let all fulnesse dwell in his Son Jesus Christ and The fulnesse of the God-head dwels in him bodily Col. 2. 9. that since there was no accesse immediatly to God for life a flamming fire and sword of Divine Justice compassing and guarding the tree of Life left man should touch it there might be accesse to God in a Mediator like unto us that we might come to him and might have life from God by the intervention of Jesus Christ. Look then what is in the holy Scriptures and you shal find it but a letter of death and ministration of condemnation while it is separated from him Christ is the very life and spirit of the Scriptures by whose vertue they quicken our souls if you consider the perfect Rule of Righteousnesse in the Law you cannot find life there because you cannot be conformed unto it the holiest man offends in every thing and that holy Law being violated in any thing will send thee to hell with a curse Cursed is he that abideth not in every thing If you look upon the promise of life Do this and live What comfort can you find in it except you could find doing in your selves And can any man living find such exact obedience as the Law requires There is a mistake among many They conceive that the Lord cannot be well pleased with them if they do what they can but be not deceived the law of God requires perfect doing it will not compound with thee and came down in its tearms not one jot of the rigour of it will be remitted If you cannot do all that is commanded all you do
will not satisfie that promise therefore thou must be turned over from the promise of life to the curse and there thou shalt find thy name written Therefore it is absolutely necessary that Jesus Christ be made under the Law and give obedience in all things even to the death of the Crosse and so be made a curse for us and sin for us even he who knew no sin and thus in him you find the law fulfilled Justice satisfied and God pleased in him you find the promise of life indeed established in a better surer way than was first propounded you find life by his death you find life in his dying for you And again consider the Ceremonial Law What were all those Sacrifices and Ceremonies Did God delight in them Could he savour their incense and sweet smels and eat the fat of Lambs and be pacified No he detastes and abhorres such imaginations because that people did stay in the Letter and went no further then the Ceremony he declares that it was as great abomination to him as the offering up of a Dog while they were separated from Jesus Christ in whom his soul rested and was pacified they were not expiatious but provocatious they were not propitiations for sin but abominations in themselves But take these as the shadows of such a living substance take them as remembrances of him who was to come and behold Jesus Christ lying in these swadling cloaths of Ceremonies untill the fulnesse of time should come that he might be manifested in the flesh and so you shal find eternall life in those dead beasts in those dumb Ceremonies If you consider this Lamb of God slain in all these Sacrifices from the beginning of the world then you present a sweet smelling savour to God then you offer the true propitiation for the sins of the world then he will delight more in that sacrifice than all other personall obedience But what if I should say that the Gospel it self is a killing Letter ministration of death being severed from Christ I should say nothing amisse but what Paul speaketh that his Gospel was a savour of death to many take the most powerfull Preaching the most sweet discourse the most plain Writings of the free grace salvation in the Gospel take all the preachings of Jesus Christ himself and his Apostles you shal not find life in them unlesse ye be led by the Spirit of Christ unto himself who is the resurrection and the life It will no more save you than the Covenant of works unlesse that word abide and dwell in your hearts to make you believe in him and imbrace him with your souls whom God hath sent suppose you heard all and heard it gladly and learned it and could discourse well upon it and teach others yet if you be not driven out of your selves out of your own righteousnesse as well as sin and persued to this City of refuge Jesus Christ you have not eternal life Your knowledge of the truth of the Gospel and your obedience to Gods Law will certainly kill you and as certainly as your ignorance and disobedience unlesse you have imbraced in your soul that good thing Jesus Christ contained in these truths who is the Diamond of that Golden Ring of the Scriptures and unlesse your souls imbrace these promises as soul-saving as containing the chief good and worthy of all acceptation as well as your mind receive these as true and faithfull sayings 1 Tim. 1. 15. Thus ye see Christ Jesus is either the subject of all in the Scriptures or the end of it all he is the very proper subject of the Gospel Paul knew nothing but Christ crucified in his preaching and he is the very proper end and scope of the law for righteousness Rom. 10. 3. All the preaching of a covenant of works all the curses and threatnings of the Bible all the rigidexactions of obedience all come to this one great design not that we may set about such a walking to please God or do something to pacifie him but that we being concluded under sin and wrath on the one hand and an impossibility to save our selves on the other hand Gal. 3. 22. Rom 5. 20 21. may be pursued into Jesus Christ for righteousness life who is both able to save us and ready to welcome us Therefore the Gospel opens the door of salvation in Christ the Law is behind us with fire and sword and destruction pursuing us and all for this end that sinners may come to him and have life Thus the Law is made a Pedagogue of the soul to lead to Christ Christ is behind us cursing condemning threatning us and he is before us with stretched-out arms ready to receive us blesse us and save us inviting promising exhorting to come and have life Christ is on mount Sinai delivering the Law with thunders Act. 7. 38. and he is on mount Sion in the calm voice he is both upon the mountain of cursings and blessings and on both doing the part of a Mediator Gal. 3. 19 20. It is love that is in his heart which made him first cover his Countenance with frowns and threats and it is love that again displayes it self in his smilling countenance Thus souls are inclosed with love pursuing and love receiving And thus the Law which seems most contrary to the Gospel testifies of Christ it gives him this testimony that except salvation be in him it is no where else The Law sayes it is not in me seek it not in obedience I can do nothing but destroy you if you abide under my jurisdiction The Ceremonies and Sacrifices say if you can behold the end of this Ministery if a Vail be not on your hearts as it was on Moses face 2 Cor. 3 13 14 you may see where it is it s not in your obedience but in the death sufferings of the Son of God whom we represent Then the Gospel takes all these Coverings and Vails away and gives a plain and open testimony of him There is no Name under heaven to be saved but by Christ's The Old Testament speak by figures and signs as dumb men do but the New speaks in plain words and with open face Now I say for all this that there is no salvation but in him yet many souls not only those who live in their grosse sins and have no form of godlinesse but even the better sort of people that have some knowledge and civility and a kind of zeal for God yet they do not come to him that they may have life Rom. 10. 1 2 3. they do not submit to the righteousness of God Here is the march that divides the wayes of Heaven and Hell coming to Jesus Christ and forsaking our selves the confidence of these souls is chiefly or only in that little knowledge or zeal or profession they have they do not as really abhore themselves for their own righteousnesse as for their unrighteousnesse they make that the covering of
therefore when once Divine truth gets entry into the heart of a man and becomes one with his will and affection it will quickly command the whole man to practise and execute and then he that receiveth the truth in Love is found a walker in the truth Many persons captivate truth in their understandings as the Gentiles did they held or detained it in unrighteousnesse but because it hath no liberty to descend into the heart possesse that Garrison it cannot command the man But O it's better to be truths captive then to captive truth saith the Apostle ye obeyed from the heart the truth to which ye were delivered Rom. 6. O a blessed captivity to be delivered over to truth that is indeed freedome for truth makes free Ioh. 8. And it makes free where it is in freedome give it freedome to command thee and it shal indeed deliver thee from all strange Lords and thou shalt obey it from the heart when it is indeed in the heart When the truth of God whether promises or threatnings or commands are impressed into the heart you shal find the expressions of them in the conversation Faith is not an empty assent to the truth but a receiving of it in love when the truth is received in love then it begins to work by love Faith works by love saith Paul Gal. 5. 6. That now is the proper nature of its operation which expresses its own nature Obedience proceeding from love to God flowes from Faith in God and that shews the true and living nature of that Faith If the soul within receive the seal and impression of the truth of God it will render the image of that same truth in all its actions Love is put for all obedience it s made the very summe and compend of the Law and fulfilling of it for the truth is it s the most effectual and constraining principle of obedience and withall the most sweet pleasant The love of Christ constrains us to live to him not henceforth to our selves 2 Cor. 5. 15. As I said a man and his will is one if you ingage it you bind all if you gain it it will bring all with it As it is the most ready way to gain any party to engage their head whom they follow and upon whom they depend let a mans love be once gained to Christ the whole train of the souls faculty of the outward senses and operations will follow upon it It was an excellent and pertinent question that Christ asked Peter when he was going away if Peter had considered Christs purpose in it he would not have been so hasty and displeased Peter lovest thou me then feed my sheep If a man love Christ he will certainly study to please him and though he should do never so much in obedience it s no pleasure except it be done out of love O this and more of this in the heart would make Ministers feed well and teach well and would make people obey well If ye love me keep my commands Love devouts and consecrats all that is in a man to the pleasure of him whom he loves therefore it fashions and conforms one even against nature to anothers humor and affection it constrains not to live to our selves but to him its joy delight is in him and therefore all is given up resigned to him Now as it is certain that if you love much you will do much so it is certain that little is accepted for much that proceeds from love therefore our poor maimed and halting obedience is called the fulfilling of the law he is well pleased with it because love is ill pleased withit love thinks nothing too much all too little and therefore his love thinks any thing froÌ„ us much since love would give more he accepts that which is given the lovers mite cast into the Treasure is more then ten times so much outward obedience from another man He meets love with love if the souls desire be towards the love of his name if love offer thogh a farthing his love receiving it counts it a Crown love offering a present of duty finds many imperfections in it and covers any good that is in it seems not to regard it and then beholds it as a recompence his love receiving the present from us covers a multitude of infirmities that are in it And thus what in the desire and endeavour of love on our part and what in the acceptation of what is done on his part love is the fulfilling of the Law It s an usuall proverb all things are as they are taken Love is the â—…ulfilling of the Law because our loving Father takes â—…t so he takes as much delight in the poor childrens willingnesse as in the more aged's strength the offer â—…nd endeavour of the one pleaseth him as well as the â—…erformance of the other The love of God is the fulfilling of the Law for it 〈◊〉 a living Law it is the Law written on the heart it is â—…e Law of a spirit of life within Quis legem detamen â—…bus major lexamor sibi ipsi est You almost need not prescribe any rules or let over the head of love the authority and pain of a command for it is a greater Law to it self it hath within its own bosome as deep an engagement and obligation to any thing that may please God as you can put upon it for it is in it self the very engagement and bond of the soul to him This it is indeed which will do him service and that is the service which he likes it is that only serves him constantly and pleasantly and constantly it cannot serve him which doth it not pleasantly for it is delight only that makes it constant Violent motions may be swift but not durable they last not long fear and terrour is a kind of externall impulse that may drive a soul swiftly to some duty but because that is not one with the soul it cannot endure long it s not good company to the soul. But Love making a duty pleasant becomes one with the soul it incorporates with it and becomes like its nature to it that though it should not move so swiftly yet it moves more constantly And what is love but the very motion of the soul to God! and so till it have attained that to be in him it can find no place of rest Now this is only the service that he is pleased with which comes from love because he sees his own image in it for love in us it s nothing else but the impression and stamp that Gods love to us makes on the heart it 's the very reflection of that sweet warm beam so then when his love reflects back unto himself carrying our heart and duty with it he knoweth his own superscription he loves his own Image in such a duty He that loveth me and continueth in my love I will love him and I and my Father will come and
and creating goodnesse but we must have some desire to cleave to him and some confidence to trust in him Now this is to know him When we think on his unchangeablenesse let us consider our own vanity whose glory and perfection is like a summer flower or like a vapour ascending for a little time whose best estate is altogether vanity Our purposes are soon broken off and made of none effect our resolutions change This is a Character of Mortality we are not alwayes alike Non sibi constare nec ubique semper sibi parem eundemque esse To be now one thing and then another thing is a property of sinfull wretched man therefore let us cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils and not trust in Princes who shal die far lesse in our selves who are lesse then the least of men But let us put our trust in God who changes not and we shal not be consumed our waters shal not fail we shall never be ashamed of any hope we have in him There is nothing else you trust in but undoubtedly it shal prove your shame and confusion in sum whatever you shal hear or know ofGod know that iâ—… is vain empty unlesse it descend down into the heart to fashion it to his fear and love and extend unto the outward man to conform it to obedience you are but vain in your imaginations and your foolish hearts are darkned while when you know God you glorifie him not as God If that be not the fruit end of knowleâ—…ge that knowledge shal be worse to thee than ignâ—…rance for both it brings on judicial hardning here and will be thy solemn accuser and witnesse against thee hereafter Rom. 1. 21 24. The knowledge of Jesus Christ truly so called is neither barren nor unfruitfull for out of its root sap springs out humility self-abasing confidence in God patience in tribula ions meeknesse in provocations temperance sobriety in lawful things c. 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 8. Exod. 24 5 6 7 8. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious c. THere is nothing can separate between God a people but iniquity and yet he is very loath to separate even for that he makes many shews of departing that so we may hold him fast and indeed he is not difficult to be holden He threatens often to remove his presence from a person or Nation he threatens that he may not indeed remove but that they may intreat him to stay he is not hard to be entreated Who is a God like unto him slow to anger and of great mercy he is long of being provoked and not long provoked for it is like the anger of a Parents love Love takes on anger as the last remedy if it prevail it is as glad to put it off as it was unwilling to take it on You may see a lively picture of this in Gods dealing with Moses this people in the preceeding Chapter He had long endured this rebellious and obstinate people had often threatned to cut them off yet as it were loath to do it repenting of it he suâ—…ers himself to be entreated for them but all in vain to them they corrupted their way still more And in the 32. Chap. falls in grosse Idolatry the great trespasse that he had given them so solemn warniâ—…g of often whereupon great wrath is conceived And the Lord Chap. 33. 1. threatens to depart from them Go your way saith he to Canaan but I will not go with you take your venture of any judgements the people of the Lands cruelty Here is a sad farewell to Israel who would think he could be detained after all that Who would think that he could be entreated And yet he is not entreated he is not requested before he give some ground of it and before he fiâ—…st condescends Go saith he and put off thy ornaments from thee that I may know what to do unto thee Will he then accept a repenting people and is there yet hope of mercy Should he that is going away shew us the way to keep him still And he that flees from us will he strengthen us to pursue follow after him This is not after the manner of men it is true whose compassion fails when their passion ariseth but this is the manner method of grace or of him who waits to be gracious He flees so as he would have a follower yea while he seems to go away he draws the soul that it may run after him hence is that word Psal. 63. 8. My soul follows hard after thee thy righe hand upholds me Well the people mourns and puts off their ornaments in sign of humiliation abasement but all this deth not pacifie and quench the flame that was kindled Moses takes the Tabernacle out of the Camp the place of judgement where God spake with the people and the cloud the sign of Gods presence removes In a word The signs of Gods loving kind presence departs from them to signifie that they were divorced from God and in a manner the Lord by Moses excommunicates all the People and Rulers both and draws away these holy things from the contagion of a prophane people But yet all is not gone he goes far off but not out of sight that you may alwayes follow him if you follow he will stand still he is never without the reach of crying though we do not perceive him Now in this sad case you may have a tryal who is godly Every one that seeks the Lord will separate from the unholy Congregation follow the Tabernacle And this affects the whole people much that they all worship in the tent-doors Now in the mean time God admits Moses to speak with him though he will not speak to the people yet he will speak with their Mediator a typicall Mediator to shew us that God is well pleased in Christ so all Christs intercessions and requests for us will get a hearing when they are come once in talking the businesse is taken up for he is not soon angry never implacably angry slow to anger and keeps it not long Moses falling familiar with God not only obtains his request for the people but becomes more bold in a request for his own satisfaction and confirmation He could not endure to lead that people except God went with him having the promise of his going with them he cannot endure distance with him but aspires to the nearest Communion that may be Oh that it were so with us His request is That the Lord would shew him his glory Had he not seen much of this already And more than any man ever saw when he spake in the Mount with God c. Nay but he would see more for there is alwayes more to be seen there is in a godly soul alwayes more desire to see it the more is seen the more is loved and
crosse thy corruptions and evidence the stamp of God on thy affections the more divine it is And therefore to serve God in these is to serve him in truth Practice hath more of truth in it then a profession When your Fathers executed judgement was not this to know me Duties that have more opposition from our natures against them and lesse sewel or oyl to feed the flame of our self love and corruption have more truth in them and if you should worship God in all other duties and not especially in those you do not worship him in truth Next let us consider the manner of Divine Worship And this is as needfull to true Worship as true matter that it be commanded and done as it is commanded that compleats true worship Now I know no better way or manner to worship God in than so to worship him as our worship may carry the stamp of his Image upon it as it may be a glasse wherein we may behold Gods Nature and Properties For such as himself is such he would be acknowledged to be I would think it were true worship indeed which had engraven on it the Name of the true living God if it did speak out so much of it self That God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him diligently Most part of our service speaks an unknown God carries such an inscription upon it To the unknown God There is so little either reverence or love or fear or knowledge in it as if we did not worship the true God but an Idoll It is said that the fool sayes in his heart that there is no God because his thoughts and affections and actions are so little composed to the fear and likenesse of that God as if he did indeed plainly deny him I fear it may be said thus of our Worship It sayes There is no God it is of such a nature that none could conclude from it that it had any relation to the true God our prayers denie God because there is nothing of God appears in them But this is true worship when it renders back to God his own Image and Name Unde repercussus redditur ipse sibi As it is a poor clean Fountain in which a man may see his shaddow distinctlie but a troubled fountain or myre in which he cannot be hold himself So it is pure worship which receives and reflects the pure Image of God but impure and unclean worship which cannot receive it and retain it I pray you Christians consider this for it is such Worshippers the Father seeks and why seeks he such But because in them he finds himself so to speak His own I mage and superscription is upon them His mercy isengraven on their faith confidence His Majestie power is stamped on their humility and reverence His goodnesse is to be read on the souls rejoicing His Greatnesse and Justice in the souls trembling Thus there ought to be some engravings on the soul answering the Characters of his glorious Name O how little of this is among them that desire to know something of God How little true Worship even among them whom the Father hath sought out to make true Worshippers But alas How are all of us unacquainted with this kind of Worship We stay upon the first principles practices of Religion and go not on to build upon the foundation Sometimes your Worship hath a stamp of Gods holinesse and justice in fear terrour at such a Majesty which makes you to tremble before him But where is the stamp of his mercy grace which should be written in your faith and rejoycing Tremble and fear indeed but rejoyce with trembling because there is mercy with him Sometime their is rejoycing and quietnesse in the soul but that quickly degenerates into carnal confidence makes the soul turn grace into wantonness and esteem of it self above what is right because it is not counterpoised with the sense and apprehension of his holinesse and justice But O to have these joyntly written on the heart in worship fear reverence confidence humility and faith That is a rare thing it is a divine composition and temper of spirit that makes a divine soul For the most part our Worship savours and smels nothing of God neither his power nor his mercy and grace nor his holinesse and justice nor his majesty and glory a secure saint formal way void of reverence of humility of servency and of faith I beseech you let us consider as before the Lord how much pains and time we lose and please none but our selves profit none at all Stir up your selves as in his sight for it is the keeping of our souls continually as in his sight which will stamp our service with his likenesse The fixed and constant meditation of God and his glorious properties this will beget the resemblance between our worship and the God whom we worship and it will imprint his Image upon it then it should please him then it should profit thee and then it should edifie others But more particularly The Worship must have the stamp of Gods spiritual Nature and be conformed to it in some measure else it cannot please him There must be a conformity between God and souls this is the great end of the Gospel to repair that Image of God which was once upon man and make him like God again Now it is the way that Jesus Christ repairs this Image brings about this conformity with God by the souls worshipping of God sutable to his Nature it is the more and more like God and happy in that likenesse Now God is a Spirit therefore saith Christ you must worship him in spirit truth The worship then of Saints must be of a spiritual nature that it may be like the immortal divine Spirit It is such Worshippers the Father seeks he seeks souls to make them like himself and this likenesse and conformity to God is the very foundation of the souls happinesse and eternall refreshment This is a point of great consequence I fear not laid to heart The Worship must be like the Worshipped It is a Spirit must Worship the Eternal Spirit it is not a body that can be the principle and chief Agent in the businesse What Communion can God have with your bodies while your souls are removed far from him more than with beasts All society and fellowship must be between those that are like one another A man can have no comfortable company with Beasts or with Stones and Trees It is men that can converse with men and a Spirit must worship the self-being-spirit Do not mistake this as if under the dayes of the Gospel we were not called to an external and bodily Worship to any service to which our outward man is instrumentall this is one of the deep delusions of this Age into which some men reprobate 〈◊〉 the Faith hath fallen That there should be no externall
that they do also agree in one common Testimony to the Mediator of men yet moreover they are one They not only agree in one but are one God one simple undivided self-being infinite Spirit holden out to us in three Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost to whom be praise and glory Deut. 6. 4. and Ioh. 5. 7. ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God it is profitable for instruction for direction c. There is no refuse in it no simple and plain History but it tends to some edification no profound or deep mysterie but it is profitable for Salvation whatsoever secrets there be in the mysteries of God which is reserved from us though it be given us but to know in part darkly thorow a vail yet as much is given us to know as may make the man of God perfect in every good work as much is given us to know as may build us up to eternall salvation if there were no more use of these deep mysteries of the Holy Trinity c. but to silence all flesh restrain the unlimited spirits of men and keep them within the bounds of Sobriety and Faith It were enough That great secret would teach as much by its silence darknesse as the plainer truths do speak out clearly O that this great mystery did compose our hearts to some reverend awfull apprehension of that God we have to do with did imprint in our soul a more feeling sense of our darknesse and ignorance this were more advantage than all the gain of light or increase of knowledge than can come from the search of curiosity If men would labour to walk in that light they have attained rather than curiously enquire after what they cannot know by enquiry they should sooner attain more true light if men would set about the practice of what they know without doubt they would more readily come to a resolution clearnesse in doubtful things Religion is now turned into questions School-debates Men begin to believe nothing but dispute every thing under a pretence of searching for light and resolution but for the most part while men look after light they darken themselves this is the righteous judgement of the Lord upon the world that doth not receive the truth in love or walk in the light of what they have already attained therefore he gives men up to wander in their search into the dark dungeons of humane wisdome and fancy and to lose what they have already If those things which are without all Controversie as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 3. 16. were indeed made conscience of and imbraced in love and practised it were beyond all controversie that the most part of present controversies would cease But it fals out with many as with the dog that catching at a shadow in the water lost the substance in his teeth so they pursuing after new discoveries in contraverted things and not taking a heart-hold and inward grip of the substantiall truths of the Gospell which are beyond all controversie do even lose what they have Thus Even that which they have not is taken from them because though they have it in judgment yet they have it not surely and solidly in affection that it may be holden So to this present point if we could learn to adore and admire this Holy Holy Holy One If we could in silence and faith sit down and wonder at this mysterie it would be more profitable to us and make way for a clearer manifestation of God than if we should search and enquire into all the Volums that are written upon it thinking by this means to satisfie our reason I think there is more profoundnesse in the sobriety of Faith than in the depths of humane wisdome and learning when the mysterie is such an infinite depth O but mens eloquence and wisedom must be shallow far too shallow either to find it out or unfold it But there is yet both more instruction and consolation to be pressed out of this mysterie and therefore If you cannot reach it in it self O consider what it concerns us how we may be edified by it for this is true Religion Look upon that place of Moses what is the great instruction he draws from this unity of Gods Essence v. 5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Since God is one then have no God but one and that the true and living God and this is the very first command of God which flowes as it were immediatly from his absolute Onenesse and perfection of Beeing There is no man but he must have some God that is something whereupon he placeth his affection most every man hath some one thing he loves and respects beyond all other things some Lord and Master that commands him therefore saith Christ No man can serve two Masters before a man will want God to love and serve he will make them and then worship them yea he will make himself his belly his back his honour pleasure a God and sacrifice all his affections and desires and endeavours to these The naturall subordination of man to God the relation he hath as a Creature to a Creator is the first fundamentall relation beyond all respects to himself or other fellow-creatures This is the proto-naturall Obligation upon the Creature therefore it should have returned in a direct line to his Majesty all its affections and endeavours But mans Fall from God hath made a wretched throw crâ—…ok in the soul that it cannot look any more after him but bows downward towards creatures below or bends inwardly towards it self so since the Fall man hath turned his heart from the true God set it upon vanity upon lying vanities upon base dead Idols which can neither help him nor hurt him your hearts are gone a whoring from God O that ye would believe it none of you will deny but ye have broken all the Commands yet such is the brutish ignorance stupidity of the most part that you will not confesse that when it comes to particulars and especially if you should be challenged for loving other things more than God or having other Gods besides the true God you will instantly deny it that with an asseveration aversation God forbid that I have another God Alas this shews that what you confesse in the generall is not believed in the heart but only is like the parting of children whom you may learn to say any thing I beseech you consider that what you give your time pains thoughts and affections to that is your God you must give God all your heart and so retain nothing of your own will if God be your God but do ye not know that your care and grief and desire and love vents another way towards base things You know that you have a will of your own which goeth quite contrary to his holy vvill in all things therefore Sathan hath bewitched
you your hearts deceive you when they perswade you that you have had no other God but the true God Christianity raises the soul again and advances it by degrees to this love of God from which it had fallen the soul returns to its first husband from vvhom it vvent awhooring now the stamp of God is so upon it that it is changed into his Image and glory having tasted how good this one self-sufficient-good is it gladly easily divorces from all other Lovers it renounces formall lusts of ignorance and now begins to live in another Love transplants the soul into God and in him it lives and vvith him it vvalks It 's true this is done gradually there is much of the heart yet unbroken to this sweet and easie yoke of love much of the corrupt nature untamed unreclaimed yet so much is gained by the first conversion of the soul to God that all is given up to him in affection and desire he hath the chief place in the soul the disposition of the Spirit hath some stamp and impression of his Onenesse singularity My beloved is one Though a Christian is not wholly rid of strange Lords yet the tye of subjection to them is broken they may often intrude by violence upon him but he is in an hostile posture of affection and endeavour against them I beseech you since the Lord is one and there is none beside him O let this be engraven on your hearts that your inward affections and outward actions may expresse that one Lord to be your God and none other beside him It is a great shame and reproach to Christians that they do not carry the stamp of the first Principle of Religion upon their walking the condition conversation of many declares how little account they make of the true God vvhy do ye enslave your souls to your lusts the service of the flesh if ye believe in this one God Why do ye all things to please your selves if this one Lord be your God As for you the Israel of God who are called by Jesus Christ to partake with the Common-Wealth of Israel in the Covenant of promises hear I beseech you this and let your souls incline to it and receive it Your God is one Lord have then no other Lords over your souls and consciences not your selves not others But in the next place let us consider to what purpose John leads such three witnesses that we may draw some consolation from it The thing testified and witnessed unto is the ground-work of all a Christians hope and consolation that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and Saviour of the World one able to save to the utmost all that put their trust in him so that every soul that finds it self lost and not able to subsist nor abide the judgement of God may repose their confidence in him and lay the weight of their eternal well-fare upon his death sufferings with assurance to find rest and peace in him to their souls He is such a one as faith may triumph in him over the world all things beâ—…de A Beleever may triumph in his victory and in the faith of his victory over hell and death and the grave many overcome personally for this is our victory over the world even our faith vers 4. And how could a soul conquer by Faith if he in whom it believes were not declared to be the Son of God with power there is nothing so mean weakly as Faith in it self it s a poor despicable thing of it self and that it sees and that it acknowledges yea faith is a very act of its self denyall it s a renouncing of all help without and within it self save only that which is laid on Christ Jesus therefore it were the most unsuitable mean of prevailing and the most insufficient weapon for gaining the victory if the object of it were not the strong God the Lord Almighty from whom it derives and borrows all its power vertue either to pacifie the conscience or to expiate sin or to overcome the world Oh! consider Christians where the foundation of your hope is scituated it is in the divine power of our Saviour if he who declared so much love good-will to sinners by becoming so low suffering so much have also all power in Heaven and Earth if he be not only man near us to make for us boldnesse of accesse but God near God to prevail effectually with God then certainly he is asure foundation laid in Sion elect and precious he is an unm oveable Rock of ages whosoever trusts their soul to him shal not be ashamed I am sure that many of you considers not this that Christ Jesus who was in due time born of the Virgin Mary died for sinners is the eternall Son of God equall to his Father in all glory and power O how would this make the Gospel agreat mystery to souls the Redemption of souls a precious and wonderfull work if it were considered Would not souls stand at this Anchor immoveable in tentation if their faith were pitched on this sure foundation and their hope cast upon this solid ground O know your Redeemer is strong and mighty and none can pluck you out of his hand and himself will cast none out that comes If the multitude of you believed this you would not make so little account of the Gospel that comes to you make so little of your sins which behoved to be taken away by the blood of God could be expiated by no other propitiation you would not think it so easie to satisfie God with some words of custome and some publick services of forme as you do you would not for all the World deal with God alone without this Mediator and being convinced of sin if you believed this solidely that he in whom forgivennesse of sin and salvation is preached is the same Lord God of whom you hear in the Old Testament who gave out the Law and inspired the Prophets the only begotten of the Father in a way infinitly removed from all created capacities you could not but find the Father well satisfied in him find a sufficient ransome in his death doings to pacifie God to settle your consciences But as the thing testified is a matter of great consolation so the witnesse testifying to this foundamentall of our Religion may be a ground of great encouragement to discouraged souls It is ordinary that the apprehensions of Christians takes up Jesus Christ as very lovely and more loving than any of the Persons of the God-head either the Father or the Holy Ghost there are some thoughts of estrangednesse and distance of the Father as if the Son did really reconcile and gain him to love us who before hated us and upon this mistake the soul is filled with continual jealousies and suspicions of the love of God but observe I beseech you the Father the Son
able to perform it O! how much is in this one word Upright Not only sincerity and integrity in the soul but perfection of all the degrees and parts no part of holiness wanting and no measure of these parts no mixture of darkness or ignorance no mixture of indisposition or unwillingness godliness vvas â—…weet and not laborious the love of God possessing the heart did conform all vvithin and vvithout to the vvill of God and O how beautiful vvas that conformity and that love of God! the fountain-being did send forth as a stream love and good-will to all things as they did partake of Gods Image and so holiness towards God did beget righteousness towards men and made men to partake of one anothers happiness This is a survey of him in his integrity as God â—…de him but there follows a sad but a sad and vvoâ—…l exception but they have sought out many inventions We cannot look upon that glorious estate vvhereinto mâ—…n was made but straightway we must turn our eyes upon thâ—… misery into which he hath plunged himself and be the more affected with it that it was once otherwise It is misery in a high degree to have been once happy this â—…ost of all agredges our misery and may encrease the sense of it that such Man once was and such we might have been if we had not destroyed our selves Who can look upon these ruins and refrain â—…ouring It 's said that those who saw the glory of the first Temple weâ—…t when they beheld the second because it was not answerable to it in magniâ—…ence and glory So I say it might occasion much â—…ness grief even to the children of God in whom that Image is in part repaired and that by a second Creation to think how much more happy and blessed Man once was who had grace and holiness without sin But certainly it should and must be at first before this Image be restored the bitter lamentation of a soul to look upon it self wholly ruinous and defaced in the view of that glorious stately fabrick which once was made How lamentable a sight is it to behold the first Temple demolished or the first Creation defaced and the second not yet begun in many souls the foundation-stone yet not laid It was a sad and dolâ—…ul invention which Satan inspired at first into mans heart to go about to find out another happiness to seek how to be wise as God an invention thaâ—… did proceed from hell how to know evil experimentally and practically by doing it that invention hath invented and found out all the sin and misery under which the world groans It is a poor invention to devise misery and torment to the creature this was the height of solly and madness for a happy creature to invent how to make it self miserable and all others Indeed he intended another thing to be more happy but pride and ambition got a deserved fall the result of all is sin and misery And now from this first devillish invention the heart of man is possessed with a multitude of vain imaginations Man is now become vain in his imaginations and his foolish heart is darkned that divine wisdom he was endowed withall is eclipsed for it was a ray of Gods countenance and now he is left wholly in the dark without a guide without a director or leader he is turned out of the path of holiness and so of happiness a night of gross darkness blindness is come on the way is full of pits and snares the end of it is at best eternal misery and there is no lamp no light to shine in it to show him either the misery that he is posting unto or the happinesse that he is flying from There is nothing within him sufficient to direct his way to blessednesse and nothing willing nor able to follow such a direction And thus Man is left to the invention and counsel of his own desperately wicked and dâ—…ful heart and that is above all plagues to be given up to a reprobate mind He is now left to such a tutor and guideâ—… and it is full of inventions indeed But they are all in vain that is all of them unsufficient for this great purpose all of them cannot make one hair that is black white much lesâ—… redeem the soul but besides they are destructive they pretend to deliver but they destroy a desperate wicked heart imagineth evil continually evil against God and evil to our own souls and a deceitful heart â—…mooths over the evil and presents it under another notion and so under pretence of a friend it 's the greatest enemy a man hath a bosome enemy Al mens inventions thoughts cogitations projects and endeavors what do they tend to but to the satisfaction of their lusts either the lusts of the mind as Ambition Pride Avarice Passion Revenge and such like or the lusts of the body as pleasure to the ears and to the eyes and to the flesh Man was made with an upright soul with a dominion over that brutish part more like Angels But now all his invention run upon that base and beastly part how to adorn it how to beautifie it how to satisfie it and for this his soul must be a drudge and slave And if men rise up to any thoughts of a higher life yet what is it for but to magnifie and exalt the flesh to seek an Excellency within which is lost and so to satisfie the pride and self-self-love of the heart If any man comes this length 〈◊〉 to apprehend some misery yet how vain are his inventions about the remedy of it not knowing how desperate the disease is men seek help in themselves think by industry and care art to raise themselves up in some measure please God by some expiations or sacrifices of their own works Now this tends to no other purpose but to satisfie the lust of mans pride and so it increases that which was mans first malady and keeps them from the true Physician In a word all mens inventions are to hasten misery on him or to blindfold himself till it come on all his invention cannot reach a delivery from this misery Let us therefore consider this which Solomon hath found out and if we carefully consider it and accurately ponder it in relation to our own souls theÌ„ have we also â—…ound it with him Consider I say what man once was and what you are now and bewaile your misery and the fountain of it our departure from the fountain of life and blessednesse know what you are not only weak but wicked whose art and power lyes only in wickednesse skilful and able only to make your self miserable and let this consideration make you cast away all your confidence in your selves and carry you forth to a Redeemer who hath â—…ound a ransome who hath found out an excellent invention to cure all our distempers and desperate diseases The counsel of the holy Trinity that met about