address your selves in your Devotions to him serve him and walk before him trust him and depend upon him all that you are and have design and do let it be suited to and worthy of that Glorious and fearful Name the Lord Your God whose eminent and perfect Name you love so well Hebr. xii 28. i Thess ii 10-12 Rom. xii 1 2. Mat. v. 16. Joh. xv 8. i Pet. iv 11. away with such mean Things and Actions such flat Devotions and such tantum non offensive Conversations and such lean and stingy Offerings to God or actings for him as must put Charity upon the Rack to observers of you for to conclude or think you love him Mal. i. 13 14. ii Pet. iii. 11. i Cor. xv 58. nothing below that cluster in Phil. iv 8. and that in Tit. ii 10-14 can escape its Mene Tekel in this balance of the Sanctuary rich in Good Works i Tim. vi 18. and rich towards God Luk. xii 21. and fruitful in every good work Col. i. 10. actings continually towards God and for him facing the Eyes and Consciences of all Observers with such illustrious and large Characters and Signatures of this Divine Principle of Love as to convince even the most critical Observers of you and to extort Confessions from them that none could act and live as you do did they not love God dearly and most entirely and constantly live to him and upon him as their all i Pet. ii 12. and iv 16 Hebr. xi 13-16 for I take not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here to import what may be barely Good but something generous and fit to strike the Beholders Eye and Conscience with some astonishing Convictions that what you do for God looks too majestically great to come from any ordinary Principle yea from any thing below your God enthroned in your best affections Love is the very Soul of Godliness the very Heart of the new Man a Principle so impetuous and charming as that it scorns where it is Regent to be confined to or signalized by any thing mean or base Such objects and concerns in its most intimate and close embraces and in its stated prospect and yet act sparingly sordidly or sneakingly for God! Love burns and blushes at the thought And Heaven it self ere long will irritate exert and shew the Purity and generous Vigours of this Grace in such a stated and inviolable series of great and generous actions so full of God and every way so fully for him and so worthy of him as that the life of God in glory shall evidence the force and excellence of that spring and principle whence it proceeds and yet even here even in this its Infant and Imperfect State it groans and labours to have God's Will done on Earth as it is in Heaven Well in a word such must your Actions and your Conversations be as that whatever you are conversant about or with the temper of your Spirits and the fervours and vigours of your love to God his Image Interest Son Spirit Gospel and all that do profess and own respects hereto every step you take and every thing you do ought to be great and exemplary and impregnated with what may speak the greatness largeness chearfulness and energies of your enflamed exalted and invigorated Souls through love to God Christ Souls and Christianity O to be exemplary in all Conversation to live each other into awakened Considerations of Spiritual concerns to dart forth all those glorious rays of Christian Wisdom of which we are told in Jam. iii. 17 18. to make men feel as well as see the force and flames of Christian Love to charm Exasperated Passions down by all the sweetnesses of true Wisdom Patience Meekness Gentleness and every way endearing Conversation with them to have the Law of Kindness always in your Mouths the notices of true Friendliness in your Looks the gifts and proofs of generous Charity in your Hands in constant readiness to minister to the Necessities of the Saints as God shall prosper your Endeavours in your lawful and regularly managed Occupations and Employments to have your Dealings and Commerces each with other accurately and severely just and yet sufficiently securing the credit and concerns of Christianity And in a word to be blameless and harmless as the Sons of God without rebuke shining as lights and holding forth the Word of Life to Universal Satisfaction and Advantage wherever groundless prejudice and partiality do not prevail and govern and to fill up every relation step and station with the fruits of Goodness Righteousness and truth these are the good and generous Works of Love whereto we are to be provoked For thus we do not love in word and tongue but indeed and truth i Joh. iii. 28. 4. The Intenseness of the principle and vigor of the practice called here as the designed effect of the prescribed means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Provocation the warmth and vigour wherewith Love and Good Works are as it were to be inspired Zealously affected in a good thing Gal. iv 18. zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. the Motive so effectually Cogent as to fix and fortifie the Principle and the Principle so powerful as to go thorow with its great enterprize and concern Principles are the Springs of Action and Love importeth intimacy it is a Principle rooted in the heart and it lays its beloved objects deep therein warmth it is essential to it and where it is perfect or considerably grown it is serious and fervent It is a commanding thing and affects Regency over all the Actions Faculties and Passions it is peremptory in its Precepts fixt in the Purposes and Concerns which it espouses it is powerful in its Influences pressing in its Claims diffusive of it self through all that is performed by us Impatient of Resistances Denials or Delays and moved to Jealousies Indignation and vigorous Contentions when any Injury Affront or Rape is threatned attempted or pursued that any way is prejudicial to its object and its concerns therewith it claims and pleads it urges and provokes to diligence and to all eager prosecutions of what it aims at and endears unto it self and it entirely reconciles the whole Man to all the cost and difficulties of its Divine pursuits 'T is never well but in its motions towards its actings for its conversation with and its reposes in its Pearl of Price and hence its actions are invigorated it gives no faint blows in its holy War it runs not in its Race it deals not triflingly in its Merchandize for God and Heaven it is all mettle fortitude patience action desire and delight in every thing relating to its grand Affair and Scope and it makes all its actions and performances to bear their Testimony to its own fortitude and fervours and this is the Paroxysm of Love and Good Works 2. The things provoking hereto And here behold a Troop as it was said of Gad Gen. xxx 11. How do inducements and incentments spring
Custom that when two fell at Contention their Leaders would appoint them a meeting before Sun-set and cause them to embrace one another But we have many to push us on and few to moderate us in our Contentions We tear one another in pieces and if any interpose he is stigmatiz'd for a Neuter or else meets with the Parter's portion to wit blows on both sides he finds Livie's Observation but too true that Media via neque amicos parit nec inimicos tollit Hear Holy Augustine in the like Case to Hierome and Ruffinus who were in Contention Woe is me that I cannot find you nearer together how am I moved how do I grieve what fear am I in I would fall down at your feet I would weep and begg each for himself each for the other yea for others sakes especially the weak that look upon you to their great hazard Combating as it were upon a Theater But where hath this Holy Man left his healing spirit I am sure this would become those in each Function and turn to their honour and comfort both here and hereafter 4. Our Common Enemy is ready to devour us The Holy Ghost observes that when Abraham said unto Lot Let there be no strife I pray thee between me and thee for we be brethren that the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land Gen. 13.7 8. that if the Relation of Brethren would not sway his Kinsman yet the reproach and the danger that might fall upon them both from the Canaanite and the Perizzite might check any further breach between them We have the Canaanites both within the Land and without that are ready to make one morsel of us and who after we have condemned one another for Superstition and Schism will truss us all up for Heresie without the infinite Mercy of God Now even Antipathies are laid aside in common dangers as it is probable that all the Creatures though of contrary dispositions agreed in the Ark And yet we cannot in this our common peril agree with our own Countrey-men Luther tells of two Goats that meeting upon a narrow Plank over a deep River whereby they could neither turn back nor pass by the one of them lyes down that the other going over him they might both escape the danger If meer Nature can teach these poor Creatures to yield so far to one another to prevent the Ruine of both furely Reason and especialy God's Grace being superadded should teach each different Party in common dangers to strive which should submit to other in what possibly they can to preserve the whole It is evident that we all have a watchful and an unmerciful Enemy who as they have long abetted our Divisions so they build their greatest hopes upon the continuance of them and although they may carry fairer to one side than to another yet even such must only expect to be used by them as Vlysses was by Polyphemus to be devoured last What unaccountable folly then is it for us with Archimedes to be taken up with drawing unnecessary lines and figures while in the mean time the City is taken and the Romans come and take away both our place and Nation Vse 4. Let us all then be intreated conjured and perswaded to forbear biting and devouring one another If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels and mercies be ye like minded having the same love be of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife and vain-glory Philip. 2.1 2 3. Leave off this bruitish Behaviour towards one another To which end Consider 1. The Greatness and baseness of the Sin 2. The Certainty and sadness of the Danger that attends it 3. The best Method to Cure the Sin and prevent the Danger For the first the Greatness and baseness of the Sin 1. You break the great Command of God's Law which is Love For next to the Love of God is the Love of our Neighbour and they are so conjoyn'd that the one cannot exist without the other For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen 1 Joh. 4.20 When therefore you think you are zealous for God by this kind of managery you are breaking his Laws Yea you break the Royal Law which Commands you to Love your Neighbour as your selves Jam. 2.8 and no other Devotion Preciseness or Charity will answer for this Defect as it follws ver 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point referring to this very fault he is guilty of all 2. You trample upon the great Precept of the Gospel which is Love 1 Joh. 3.23 And this is his Commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment See here Commandment in the beginning of the Verse and Commandment again in the end of it and then it 's joyn'd and goes hand in hand with Faith in Jesus Christ so that you may as safely be without the one as without the other And again 1 Joh. 4.21 And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also Now what Love can there be in the Heart when there is nothing but reproach contempt and rage in the Tongue in the Pen and in the Carriage It is certain That out of the abundance of the Heart the Tongue speaks and the Lungs must needs be corrupt within when such purulent matter is expectorated Say not that your Love to the Truth or to the Publick Good must regulate your behaviour to particular Persons For neither the Truth nor the Publick good do need your uncharitable words or behaviour Our Blessed Saviour had great Truths to declare and great Errors to oppose yet He did not strive nor cry neither did any man hear his Voice in the streets Mat. 12.19 And as Lactantius argued with the Heathens Vel Ethnici Christianos sapientes judicant vel stultos tamen non vel sapientes imitantur vel stultis parcunt So either your Opposites are either wise or foolish If wise you should comply with them respect and reverence them if foolish you should forbear and pity them But whatsoever they are you ought intirely to love them 3. These Contentions do bring great dishonour to Jesus Christ. He is the Prince of Peace the true King of Salem the great Promoter of Peace and the great pattern of it When he came into the World Peace was sung when he departed out of the World Peace was bequeathed Now this quarrelsome temper in his Servants doth grievously reflect upon him For he saith John 17.20 21. Neither pray I for these alone but for them that shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one That the world may believe that thou hast sent me As if he had said Their dissentions and quarrels will tempt men
nor value them Sayes the other These men are all either blinded with preferment or hunting after it their Parts are either utterly abus'd or quite blasted Thus the Ball of Contention is toss'd from one to another by the hands of Pride and Scorn Whereas Humility makes a Man think meanly of himself moderately of his own Notions and Apprehensions highly of those that deserve it and respectfully of all It was this which taught excellent Bishop Ridley when he was in Prison thus to accost honest Bishop Hooper However in some by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity I grant hath a little jarr'd yet now c. More comfort to them if they had been on these terms in the time of their Liberty and Prosperity Humility is a great step to Unity Ephes 4.2 I beseech you that ye walk with all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Pray behold how these Graces are here link't together lowliness meekness unity and peace The humble man will not indure that his Reputation shall outweigh the Peace of the Church and therefore is more willing that Truth should be victorious than Himself Hee 'l go two miles for one to meet his Adversary in an honest way of Accommodation and when he cannot make his Judgment to bend yet his Heart shall stoop to you with all sincerity This Vertue made Aristippus come to Eschines when they were at fewd with this greeting Eschines Shall we be friends And this dictated his answer Yes Sir with all my heart But remember saith Aristippus That I being elder than you do make the first motion Yea said the other and therefore I conclude you to be the worthier man for I began the strife and you began the peace Let us all then be cloathed with Humility assume not in regard of your Learning Wit or Parts consider you are but Sharers in our Common Benefactor neither let your Riches or Dignities make you to speak or write otherwise than you would do without them and this will go a great way to prevent our biting and devouring one another 5. Apply your selves to the Practice of Real Piety By this I mean that we should imploy our chief care to procure and increase a lively Faith to exercise daily Repentance to strengthen our Hope to inflame our Love to God and to our Neighbour to grow in Humility Zeal Patience and Self-denyal To be diligent in Watchfulness over our Thoughts Words and Wayes in Mortification of our sinfull Passions and Affections in the Examination of our Spiritual Estate in Meditation in secret and fervent Prayer and in universal and steady Obedience In these things do run the vital spirits of Religion And whoso is seriously imployed in these will have but little time and less mind for unnecessary Contentions These will keep that heat about the Heart which evaporating degenerates into airy and fiery exhalations and leaves the Soul as cold as Ice to any holy desires It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein Hebr. 13.9 It is manifest what a sad decay of these hath followed our multiplied quarrels and how hard it is to be fervent in Spirit and withall to be fiery in Controversies He that walks with God and whose Conversation is in Heaven will be quickly weary of windy disputes with men and will be apt to conclude with one of the Ancients Lassus sum dum cum sermone atque invidia cum hostibus cum nostris pugno Which hath occasioned divers great Divines the more earnestly to long for Heaven that they might be out of the noise of endless and perverse disputations The serious Practice of Godliness hath the Promise of Divine Direction in all material points The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Psal 25.14 If any man will do his Will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God John 7.17 And likewise he that lives in the Spirit and walks in the Spirit dares not bite or devour his Neighbour Let not us saith the Apostle that so walk be desirous of vain-glory provoking one another envying one another Gal. 5.25 26. 6. Follow after Charity Knowedge puffeth up but Charity edifieth This is the healing Grace and if this be not applyed to our bleeding wounds they will never be cured This suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up Pray read on and mark all these passages Charity doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil Rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth Beareth all things tolerable believeth all things credible hopeth all things possible indureth all things and as it follows indureth after all things 1 Corinth 13. That whole Chapter most fit to be read and often studied by all that love peace Charitas dicit aliorum bona certa meliora certa mala minora bona dubia certa dubia mala nulla An excellent Conclusion of Charity That it reckons the good parts qualities or actions that are certainly in others to be rather better than they are indeed and the ills to be less than they are indeed the doubtfull good things in them to be certain and the doubtfull evil to be none And how far would this Temper and Practice go to the promoting of Unity and Concord And how directly contrary do most of them proceed that make the greatest noise in our irreligious quarrels Not only putting the most invidious fence upon one anothers words and actions but also the most uncharitable judgment upon their persons upon their Spiritual and Eternal Estate We must know that as Faith unites us to the Head so Love unites us to all the Members and as we can have no Faith nor Hope without Charity so as any Man increaseth in Faith so he is inlarged in his Charity The more true Piety any man hath doubtless the more Charity still that man hath We that did hate one another saith Jâ—stin Martyr of the Christians do now live most friendly and familiarly together and pray for our Enemies If we must err one way as who is infallible it is safer for you to err by too much mildness than by overmuch rigour for Almighty God though he be Wise and Just yet he is most emphatically called Love 1 John 4.8 Beloved let us love one another for Love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love And for you to reply That you do heartily love those that are every way Orthodox that is that agree with you in Opinion is nothing thank-worthy do not even the Publicans the same That may be nothing but Self-love but your Religion
here the feast is reserved for hereafter wrath to come and life to come are unconceivable and therefore unexpressible we can neither order our Speech by reason of our inward darkness nor of that ineffable Light thoughts fail us words fail us we are lost in the thoughts of future blessedness as well as in those of our former misery What therefore we cannot perfectly understand let us silently and reverently Admire and Adore What a prodigious height did Man fall from when he fell from his God What a desperate Abyss of misery did he fall into when he fell into sin And therefore what a stupendious height is that which Love shall raise him to in Glory All we can do is to put no bounds to our Love to Christ The true measure of our Love to Christ should be to Love him without measure and the true degree of our Love to a Redeemer is to Love him in the highest Degree But alas Where is our Love to Christ How weakly do we express our Love to him who has given us the fullest clearest demonstrations of his to us beyond all expressions His was stronger then death ours ready to die the water-floods coulds not quench his a few drops extinguish ours he shed blood for us with more freedom than we a few tears over him and his bleeding almost dying interest in the World he loved sinners better than we can love Saints he died for us with more flame of zeal than we can live to and for him Let us be ashamed that we can find a love so vehement for our perishing comforts nay for our killing corruptions and yet have so indifferent affections for a Saviour How shall we be able to Love our enemies for his sake when we can neither Love him with an intense Love for his sake nor our own Let us mourn therefore bitterly that the Love of Christ should be unconceivable and invisible and that our Love to him should be so too upon such different accounts his for the greatness of it ours for its smallness II. Prop. There is a sufficiency of the Love of Christ to us that may be known The Love of Christ to sinners may be considered either in the cause or as in the effects in the Spring and Fountain or in the streams that flow from thence into Souls Love as it was in the heart of Christ is unmeasurable the Spring the original cause and reason of it was his own unaccountable Love and can only be measured by the Love of the Father to his Son which is equally unmeasurable John 15.9 As the Father has loved me so I have loved you But Christs Love in the effects that it has been pleas'd to produce in and upon our Souls may be understood and in some good measure apprehended If we cannot fix our eyes immediately upon the body of the Sun in its meridian glory yet we may comfortably refresh our selves with its beams and feel the healing warmth of the Sun of righteousness arising and shining upon our Souls If we cannot measure Christs Love when it dealt with God in making his Soul an offering for sin nor what that Love was wherewith he loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2.20 yet we may know that Love wherewith he loved us and washt us from our sins Rev. 1.5 The Love of Satisfaction passes knowledge the Love of Sanctification may be known As that poor Man John 9.15 tho' he could not give a Philosophical account to the Scribes and Pharisees how Clay and Spittle should contribute to the opening his Eyes yet could say This one thing I know that whereas I was born blind I now see So may a renewed Soul say Tho' I know not from what unmeasurable Fountain this Grace and Mercy did proceed tho' I am ignorant of the manner of its working yet this one thing I can say Whereas I was a lover of sin I now hate it and whereas I have been a despiser of Christ I now prize and love him as the chiefest of Ten thousand I can say That that vanity that corruption which sometime had a mighty power over me is now subdued and conquered More particularly 1. Altho' we cannot perfectly know the Love of Christ yet may we know so much of it as may raise our desires to know more As he that meets with a Vein of precious Metal tho' it be small yet it gives him hopes of meeting with more and those hopes encourage his labours to dig deeper and search further so that little we can attain of the knowledge of Christs Love in our wayfaring state makes the Soul labour and strive and hope and pray that it may come to fuller knowledge of that love in its own Country As that sight which Moses had of God encouraged him to pray Exod. 33.18 I beseech thee shew me thy glory So that view we have of Christ in a glass darkly serves to engage our endeavours and sharpen our desires to see him face to face in glory As we gain upon the knowledge of Christ so we grow and as it were encroach upon him still if God will condescend and come down to visit the Soul the Soul will make an argument from thence that he would take it up to himself A taste of Christs Love whets the Spiritual appetite after a feast 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire ye the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious 2. However our knowledge of Christs Love is imperfect yet we may know so much as may shame us that we have loved him no better we know the Love of Christ carried him out to suffer most dreadful things upon our account and may hence reflect upon our selves with great shame that our love has been so weak as not to carry us out to suffer for his Name he endured the cross we are terrified at the sight of it The argument is very strong 1 John 3.16 Thus if Christ laid down his life for us we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren But how weakly does it work upon us How little a matter can this love constrain us to lay down for their sakes And it s a most concluding argument Col. 3.13 that we should forbear and forgive one another if any man have a quarrel against any as Christ forgave us but alas how little does this instance of the Love of Christ prevail upon us That Love which prevail'd with him to forgive us Talents will not does not prevail with us to forgive our brethren a few Pence Matth. 18.27 28. The Love of Christ was a conquering a triumphant Love it bore down what-ever stood in its way It grapled with the displeasure of God with the malice of Devils the fury of unreasonable Men and with the unkindness of his Friends it broke through all Discouragements and trampled upon all Oppositions the waters could not quench it the floods could not drown
controule the strongest temptations to sin against God A wicked believer is more guilty than a wicked infidel How could we conceive it possible were it not visible in their actions that Men who have judicative faculties to compare and distinguish things and accordingly be moved with desires or fears should with ardent affections pursue despicable vanities and neglect substantial happiness and be fearful of the shadows of dangers and intrepid in the midst of the truest dangers He is a desperate gamester that will venture a Crown at a throw against some petty advantage yet this is really done by sinners who hazard the loss of Heaven for this World they hang by slender strings a little breath that expires every moment over bottomless perdition and are insensible without any palpitation of Heart any sign of fear How strong is the delusion and concupiscence of the carnally minded The lusts of the flesh bribe and corrupt their understandings or diverts them from serious consideration of their ways and the issues of them From hence it is they are presently entangled and vanquisht by sensual temptations they are cozened by the colours of good and evil and Satan easily accomplishes his most pernicious and envious design to make Men miserable as himself How just is the reproach of Wisdom How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and fools hate knowledge The light of reason and revelation shines upon them they have not the excuse of ignorance but the righteous and heavy condemnation of those who love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil 'T is no mean degree of guilt to extenuate sin and make an apology for sinners The wisest of Men tells us Fools make a mock of sin they count it a fond niceness a silly preciseness to be fearful of offending God They boast of their deceitful arts and insinuations whereby they represent sin as a light matter to corrupt others But 't is infinitely better to be defective in the subtilty of the Serpent than in the innocence of the Dove A meer natural who is only capable of sensitive actions and is distinguisht from a Brute by his shape is not such a forlorn sot as the sinful fool What the Prophet Jeremy speaks of one who gets riches unjustly that he shall leave them and in the end die a fool will be verified of the wilful obstinate sinner in the end he shall by the terrible conviction of his own mind be found guilty of the most woful folly and how many have acknowledged in their last hours when usually Men speak with the most feeling and least affectation how have they in words of the Psalmist arraigned themselves So foolish have we been and like beasts before thee 2. From hence we may be instructed of the wonderful patience of God who bears with a World of sinners that are obnoxious to his justice and under his power every day If we consider the number and aggravations of Mens sins how many have out-told the hairs of their Heads in actual transgressions how mighty and manifest their sins are that the Deity and Providence are questioned for the suspending of vengeance and yet that God notwithstanding all their enormous injuries and violent provocations is patient towards sinners it cannot but fill us with admiration His Mercy like the cheerful light of the Sun visits us every Morning with its benign influences his Justice like Thunder rarely strikes the Wicked He affords not only the supports of life but many comforts and refreshments to the unthankful and rebellious 'T is not from any defect in his Power that they are not consum'd but from the abundance of his Mercy He made the World without any strain of his Power and can as easily destroy it he has an innumerable company of Angels attending his Commands and every Angel is an Army in strength one of them destroyed a hundred and fourscore and five thousand in a Night he can use the most despicable and weakest Creatures Frogs and Lice and Flies as instruments of vengeance to subdue the proudest Pharoah the most obstinate Rebels He sees sin where-ever it is and hates it where-ever he sees it yet his Patience endures thâ—â— crying sins and his long sufferance expects their repentance The Lord is not slack as some Men count slackness but he is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance He spares sinners with such indulgence in order to their Salvation 'T is deservedly one of his Royal Titles the God of Patience Our fierce Spirits are apt to take fire and revenge for every injury real or suppos'd but the great God who is infinitely sensible of all the indignities offer'd to his Majesty defers his anger and loads them with his benefits every day What is more astonishing than the riches of his Goodness unless it be the perverse abuse of it by sinners to harden themselves in their impieties But altho his Clemency delays the punishment the sacredness and constancy of his Justice will not forget it when patience has had its perfect work Justice shall have a solemn triumph in the final destruction of impenitent unreformed sinners 3. The Consideration of the Evil of Sin so great in it self and pernicious to us hightens our Obligations to the Divine Mercy in saving us from our sins and an everlasting Hell the just Punishment of them Our Loss was unvaluable our Misery extream and without infinite Mercy we had been under an unremediable necessity of Sinning and Suffering for ever God saw us in this wretched and desperate State and his eye affected his heart in his pity he redeemed and restored us This is the clearest Testimony of pure Goodness for God did not want external Glory who is infinitely Happy in his own Perfections he could when Man revolted from his Duty have created a new World of Innocent Creatures for infinite Power is not spent nor lessened by finite Productions but his undeserved and undesired Mercy appeared in our Salvation The way of accomplishing it renâ—ers Mercy more Illustrious for to glorifie his Justice and preserve the Honour of his Holiness unblemish'd he laid upon his Son the Iniquity of us all This was Love that passeth all Understanding Our Saviour speaks of it with admiration God so loved the world and hated Sin that he gave his only begotten Son to dye for it that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life And how dear are our Engagements to Jesus Christ The Judge would not release the Guilty without a Ransom nor the Surety without Satisfaction and the Son of God most compassionately and willingly gave his precious Blood to obtain our Deliverance If his Perfections were not most aimable and ravishing yet that he died for us should infinitely endear him to us To those who believe he is precious to those who have felt their undone Condition and that by his Merits and Mediation are restored to the
apprehension of the approaching day Now seeing the Text is Hortatory Directive and Encouraging hereto and hath as such been treated on accordingly I will wave all further application and only give you the Directions and Prescriptions for the curing of a luke-warm temper 1. Love-quenching and abating principles Interests and Practices are to be exploded and avoided If once you entertain hard thoughts of God as if he were morose and captious a barren Wilderness or Land of darkness and only careful to ruine and distress his creatures upon the meer accounts of Soveraignty and the Prerogative of Dominion tho a poor penitent lye prostrate at his feet for mercy in tears and shame and self abhorrence or in a readiness to do so were there but any hopes of merciful acceptance If you shall represent him to your selves as if he were so tenacious of revengeful purposes and of advantages put into his hands for the full executions of such deserved revenges through former crimes provoking thereunto Alas how can you think upon him or address your selves to him with hope and pleasure We find grace represented to us as Gods Image in his creatures we find that holiness in creatures makes them the sweetest of all persons in their dispositions and deportments and readiest to be charitable and abundant in benign and alluring and obliging remissions constructions and dispensations Such are most backward to make rigid interpretations and constructions of mens miscarriages and neglects when they arise from rather infirmity than malignity and from ignorance and surprize than from contrivance or perverse resolution They hate above all men every thing that savours of stinginess and of a sordid Spirit and they like not to retain revengeful purposes to ruin or disturb those criminals who seriously and pathetically implore their pardon and beg admission to their now much valued favour And doth grace make such persons better than their maker and is that Gods Image in them which hath nothing in God correspondent herewith Or can we think that the Image can exceed its Grand Exemplar Such black and dismal thoughts of God can never kindle love in us to him Did I not know and think that God is love how could I seek to him in hope and love him For my part I verily believe God sent his Son into the world to convince us of his love and goodness and to invite us to himself under the power of this alluring principle of Truth That God loves us dearly and that he will reject no sinner whose heart is touched with such love to him as makes it restless and uneasie in it self till it obtain his pardon image fellowship and presence See Heb. xi 6. And as for Jesus Christ the liveliest Image and the truest and most glorious Mirrour of the Invisible God that ever any Eye beheld or can behold How sweet indulgent humble gracious and endearing was he unto all and how ready to receive all that come to God through him O! do not then mistake his grace design or temper Love cannot live and do its work where Christ is not duly represented in his lovely Excellencies And yet on the other hand represent not God below himself as fond in his respects partial in his dealings slack and easie in his proceedings apt to favour us tho' neglected by us as one ready to indulge us in our sins and to connive and wink at our miscarriages or one that we may trifle with and fondly think that we can at any time procure his favour and extinguish or evade his anger and displeasure by some trifling applications to him or flattering Elogies of his name upon the knee or a copious verbose declaiming against our sins and selves in our stated or occasional addressings of our selves to him when pangs of Death horrours of Conscience or the tasts and expectations of his Wrath make us uneasie to our selves as if by complements and petty observances of God in lower matters we could turn and toss a ductile nature into any aspect shape or posture that may serve our private turns and please our arrogant and presumptuous humours and court God to strip himself of all the glories of his Name and Throne and prostitute his Interest and Honour Laws and Majesty unto the fond conceits of fools and sinners for this is blasphemy and presumption to the height both fit and sure to be punisht by the Judge Could God be Love or lovely in the eyes of sober and discerning men were he thus facile so as to be infuenced by the conceits and humours of sinners in their dotages He that would not signifie one thought of mercy to our revolted Parents before he had represented himself most awful in his Judiciary Process and that so guarded both his Laws and Throne with awful Majesty and Sanctions and that exacted so severe a satisfaction from his Son he surely neither will nor can debase himself and tempt his creatures by unfit relaxations of his Laws and Courses to think him despicable even by such unfit deportments of himself towards them That fool which takes Gods mercies and indulgencies to be at his commands so as to sin and pray and that makes such easie pardons and redresses the continual encouragements of sinful practices and hopes that fool I say again that is of this perswasion and deportment is no way likely to be cured of his luke-warm temper Deut. xxix 19 20. For so easie pardons and redresses would evidently and effectually mortifie the Spirit and defeat the glorious designs of Divine Government amongst men See Heb. xii 25-28 29. x. 26-31 Rom. ii 6-10 Gal. vi 7-9 i Sam. ii 2 3-29 30 ii Chron. xv 2. And if you take your Christianity to be a state of drudgery and disconsolateness if you degenerate into worldliness luxury or voluptuousness as in John ii 15-17 James iv 4. If you grow so tender of your selves as to be swayed more by what affects the outward than the inward man If you give way to partiality to jealousies heats and ferments to a censorious jealous and detracting Spirit or to the Spirit of domination and division or if you form your principles interests and actions according to the measures and concerns of this vain transient world and of the animal life This malady will prove incurable 2. Heart-warming objects are to be contemplated Such as the glories of Gods name The Grandeurs of his Majesty and Throne the Accuracies of his Government in all its Constitutions and administrations The Stores and Treasures of his Goodness with all their provident and yet generous distributions unto all his creatures the riches of his grace in his kindness to us by Jesus Christ the exhibition of his Son and all the amiable excellencies and endearing aspects and addresses made to us by him the life that is in Christ the grace and promises that are given us by him so great and precious all the fellowship and intimacies that we are hereby called and admitted to Gospel Treasures
Devotions By all which it is evident that as there have been different Opinions and Practices among all sorts of Religions in the World so the Church of God hath been subject to the same Malady And as it was from the beginning so it is now and so will it be 'till the World have an end until the Church of God be presented to Jesus Christ without spot or wrinkle or any such thing And the Causes hereof are evident 1. Our general Imperfection in this Life As the best men are imperperfect in their Holiness so are they in their Knowledge there will be Defects in our Vnderstanding as well as in our Will Some are Babes in Knowledge others are strong Men some have need of Milk being unskilful in the Word of righteousness others are of fuller Age and have their senses exercis'd to discern both good and evil Heb. 5.12 13 14. Foolish men are ready to burthen the Scriptures in Vulgar Tongues with the Differences that are found in Religion but therein they blaspheme the Holy Ghost for the Word of God is a clear Light the Cause of Mistakes is the weakness and blindness of our Eye-sight whereby we cannot all with equal clearness see into the meaning of it by reason of this our Imperfection So that it is scarce possible to prevent all Diversity of Opinions in Religion unless every pious Man had a Promise of Infallibility annexed to his Piety 2. Mens Education contributes much hereunto It is manifest how strong an Influence this hath upon all Peoples Understandings The Principles which then they imbibe be they right or wrong they generally live and dye with Few will be at the pains to examine them and few have a mind to alter them So that it is much to be doubted that if it had been the fate of many of our professed Christians to have been born and bred under the Turk or Mâ—guâ— they had both quietly and resolutely proceeded in their Religion And proportionably to be bred under Parents Masters or Tutors of a different Opinion or Practice in the true Religion must needs greatly byass such Persons towards the same and every one not having the very same Education there follows a kind of necessity of some difference in Religion 3. Mens Capacities are different Some have a greater sagacity to penetrate into things than others some have a clearer Judgment to weigh and determine of things than others some have more solid Learning by far than others and these doubtless will attain to an higher Form and Class than others can Others have neither such natural Abilities nor Time to read and think of matters so as to improve and advance their minds to the pitch of others And there are not a few who as they are duller in Apprehension so they are commonly hotter in Affection and Resolution And it is scarce possible to reduce these Persons that are so unequal in their Capacity to an Identity of Opinion And then out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth will be apt to speak and so there will follow some Difference in the matters of Religion 4. Mens natural Tempers are different some more airy and Mercurial some more stiff and Melancholy and those Complexions do strongly and insensibly incline People to those Sentiments that are most suitable and proper to such Temperaments which being diverse yea almost contrary must of necessity when they are applied to matters of Religion breed variety of Apprehensions And the same Holy Spirit which inspired the sacred Pen-men of the Scriptures and yet therein adapts himself as is manifest to their Natural Genius cannot be expected in his Ordinary Illuminations to thwart and stifle the natural temper of all Mankind neither are those Notions which do grow upon mens Natural Constitution easily any other way altered And 5. Mens Interests are different the best of Men have something of the Old Adam in them And though the sincere Christian must and will strive against any such Temptation yet according to the strength of unmortified Corruption Men will be prone to be for this Opinion Practice or Party and against that Opinion Practice or Party that falls in or out with their Worldly Interest Not that any good Man doth wittingly calculate his Profession for his baser ends but yet they may secretly byass him especially in more minute and dubious matters belonging to Religion It is a great Question what Way or Party many Men would chuse if their present Profession were quite stript of all carnal and worldly Advantages and Considerations and that they were left to square out their Religion only with the Bible Now from these and many other Causes it sadly follows for the consequence is a matter to be bewailed there will be Differences among the People of God in Points of Religion especially in minuter matters which are but darkly describ'd and more darkly apprehended by the Sons of Men. In short that there is no more hope of perfect Unity on Earth than there is of perfect Holiness 'T is to be endeavoured but not fully attained 'till we arrive in Heaven Then we shall come in the Vnity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God when we are grown perfect men according to the measure of the sâ—â—ture of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4.11 Propos 2. These Differences may and should be managed with Charity Not but that Vnity should by all good men be first endeavoured and to that end they should all impartially seek for Truth on which side soever it lies and this every humble diligent man shall find The Spirit of God which is promised unto his Church and which every true Believer shall have for asking will guide all such into all necessary saving Truth and all other Vnity save in the Truth is but Conspiracy Accursed is that Charity saith Luther which is preserved by the Shipwrack of Faith or Truth to which all things must give place both Charity yea on Apostle yea an Angel from Heaven If the one must be dispensed withal it is Peace and not Truth Better to have Truth without publick Peace than Peace without saving Truth So Dr. Gauden We must not sail for the Commodity of Peace beyond the Line of Truth we must break the Peace in Truths quarrel so another Learned man But this is to be understood of necessary and essential Truths in which Case that Man little consults the Will and Honour of God who will expose the Truth to obtain as saith Nazianzen the repute of an easie mildness Speciosum quidem nomen est pacis pulchra opinio Vnitatis sed quis dubitat eam solam Ecclesiae pacem esse qua Christi est saith Hilary But when as after all such endeavours have been used as are within the reach of a Mans Parts and Calling â—â—ill Differences do remain in smaller matters these ought to be managed with all Charity that is with true Love a Love of Honour and respect to those that
scandalous discords among the Jews exposed Jerusalem at length to that dreadful desolation by Titus Vespatian And for this Island it hath been still accounted like some great Animal that can only be ruin'd by it's own strength The Contentions of the Britans made the Romans Conquerours Et cum singuli pugnant omnes victi Afterwards the Saxons came in upon the Divisions of the Natives and the Contentions of the Saxons prepar'd the way for the Normans And for Religious differences it 's known how Julian the Apostate cherished those between the Catholicks and the Donatists saying That no savage Beasts were so cruel against one another as the Christians so that he expected thereby to ruine them all It is notorious what famous and numerous Churches were once in Africk but by the Contentions of the Manichees then of the Donatists they are now extinguished The Contentions among the Protestants in King Edward the Sixth's Reign ended in the Persecution by Queen Mary and if ever the Romans ruine us again it will be procured by our Contentions among our selves It is but reasonable to leave those Children in the dark who will be still fighting about the Candle and it will be just with God to force them to agree in Red that are still bickering about Black and White The one party may think to extirpate the other but both are like to rue it and they that have been complices in guilt must look to be companions in the punishment By all which you may see whither these uncharitable Contentions do usually tend and where they are like to end And 3. There is too much Reason for it 1. Ex parte Rei These Dissentions have a natural tendency to promote our destruction nothing can more properly bring it to effect For 1. They weaken that Confidence that is necessary for the preservation of a People Jealousie is the great bane of Families Churches and Nations but a mutual confidence establishes them How can those that bite and devour one another confide in one another And if the Parts be thus ill-affected how crazy must the whole Body be When we can see little or nothing amiss in a Person or in an Action and yet do suspect that there is something concealed even this creates a distrust and weakens the welfare of the whole much more when suspicions are boiled up into actual dissention it must needs expose such a Church and Nation to the utmost peril For then men presently put the worst construction upon each other and upon all their words and actions You know every thing hath two handles we should take every thing by the charitable handle and if it be capable of a fair and friendly sence so we should receive it for so we desire in all Cases to be understood we would not be alway interpreted in the worst sence and why then should we deal so with others Charity thinketh no evil It 's true it behoves Men in Office and Trust to be watchfull and to stand much upon their guard for the prevention of publick dangers but with private persons to put ill interpretations upon one anothers words or carriage argues ill Nature and baseness of Spirit and this humour greatly weakens that confidence which is necessary to the happiness of any people 2. They destroy that Love which is the Cement of all Societies As they proceed from a defect of Love so they quite ruine the remainders of it Now this love unites and so strengthens but when mens Hearts are once divided from each other what care I what becomes of them I hate That made that Scythian Scilurus when he was on his Death-bed to cause a bundle of Javelins to be brought and laid before his eighty Sons who being commanded to break the whole bundle could not possibly do it but when they were untied they easily broke them one after another teaching them thereby to cleave to one another and that their Division would be their Destruction Hereupon it is worth our notice that the Apostle when he musters up the works of the Flesh in this Chapter vers 20. Nine kinds of them are contrary to this Love to wit Hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders And when the Fruits of the Spirit are reckon'd vers 22. behold how many of them are a-kin to this Love which I am speaking of The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness meekness As if the carnal man were composed only of Flame and the spiritual man made up of Benignity But such unkind Contentions like rust or canker do consume this love and so each part looking only to it self there is none that take care of the whole and so as by Concord small things increase so by Discord great things wast to nothing 3. They prepare for the most desperate Actions For when there is a dislike settled within and that mens spirits are exasperated by provoking words and actions there wants nothing but opportunity to produce the most violent effects The Text seems to give warning hereof by saying Take heed that ye be not consumed one of another as if he should say Whomsoever you thus bite and provoke may possibly be tempted to revenge it and so you will fall foul upon one another your common Enemies may well think and say Let them alone they 'l tear one another in pieces c. Behold the sparks of Civil War and what else but ruine can follow such premises We undertake hereby to be our own Executioners and spare our Enemies the pains of destroying us From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not from hence even of your lusts that war in your members And hereupon that following advice is given Speak not evil one of another brethren He that speaketh evil of his brother and judgeth his brother speaketh evil of the Law and judgeth the Law Jam. 4.1.11 And it hath been observed that Religious Fewds the more is the pity are generally the most fierce and violent whether because the best things being corrupted prove the worst or that mistaken Conscience and misguided Zeal do hurry men to the greatest excesses and that people think that they can never be too earnest and vigorous in their actings for God John 16.2 The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service How dangerous must those Bigotts and those Zealots be to one another that believe they serve God best when they hate and mischief one another worst No persecution from without can be so fatal to the Church of God as the strugglings in her Womb As no storms or tempests do rend and tear the Earth so much as the convulsions that are within it And as their Uncharitable Contentions do thus Ex parte Rei procure So 2. They do Ex parte Dei deserve Destruction and therefore they do plainly prepare for it 1. They do provoke the Wrath of God God is Love he is the God of Peace
and then these must evidently offend and cross his Blessed Nature The more patient quiet and mild men are the liker are they to God and the more uncharitable and implacable the liker to the Devil the Accuser of the Brethren When our dear Saviour who came on purpose to reconcile God and Man and men to men The Anthem which was sung by Angels was Glory to God in the highest on Earth peace and good-will unto men These Contentions do ring these Bells backward and chase away that peace and good-will back to Heaven again When Joseph was so kind to his guilty Brethren as to be reconciled to them he sent them back again with this charge Genes 45.24 See that ye fall not out by the way q. d. See I am reconciled to you all quarrel not among your selves a most kind and equal advice In like manner our Blessed Saviour when he had obtained Remission for us commanded all his Disciples to have salt in themselves and to have peace one with aaother he renews no Commandment but that of loving one another And the Holy Ghost in the Apostles doth still inculcate this Lesson above all others to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace to be like minded to have the same Love to do nothing through strife or vain-glory to avoid the provoking one another Now how inexcusable doth this leave all fiery and contentious spirits And how justly may they be handled without any Mercy that handle their brethren without any Charity And certainly as the Lord commands a blessing upon Brethren that dwell together in unity Psal 133. so it is a manifest token of his wrath when a spirit of dissention is sent upon People when Manasseh is set against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manassâ—h and they together against Judah then it follows for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Isa 9.21 And look as the Husbandman deals with his way-ward Cattel when they cannot agree in the Field he pounds them up and makes them quiet in the Fold so may our Just and Holy God make all those that cannot unite in the Church to agree at the Stake As Meletius and Peter Bishop of Alexandria who fell into such debate when they were in Prison for the same Cause that they refused to hold communion together till they both at length agreed in Red. And so two other learned men were at such discord in the Mines whither they were condemn'd for Christianity that they made up a Wall between their Works to keep them asunder till at last they met at the fatal Pile 2. They consume the Power and Life of Godliness God's grace never thrives in an unquiet Spirit The Jews say that Jehovah lives in Salem which signifies Peace but he cannot live in Babel which signifies Confusion That Zeal that Time those Studies which should be employed in the increasing of saving Knowledge Faith Hope and Holiness they are all consum'd in these uncharitable Contentions Instead of making our own Calling and Election sure we are busie to reprobrate our Brethren and to render their Calling ineffectual Instead of considering one another to provoke to Love and good Works these engage us to consider all the defects and faults of others and to provoke them to Anger and to every evil Work This is fasting for strife and debate these imbitter our Prayers and hinder our access to God when we cannot lift up unto him holy hands without wrath nor without doubting yea they 'll tempt us to restrain Prayer before God or to do as Mr. Latimer tells of some that would not say the Lord's-Prayer at all lest they should be thereby obliged to forgive others and therefore in the stead thereof went to our Ladies Psalter How can such approach the Holy Table that will make no agreement with their Adversaries that will not forgive that desire not to be forgiven In short where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Jam. 3.16 17 18. It will be Objected here That it is our Duty where we have Right and Truth on our side to contend earnestly So they were exhorted Jude 3. to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints To be cool or lukewarm is to betray and sell the Truth and this Neutrality becomes no man in the Cause of Truth To this I Answer 1. We must consider the Nature and Consequence of Truth that is that it be a great or necessary Truth For though no Truth must be deny'd yet many Truths may be forborn If every Man should be oblig'd to vent and propagate at all times every thing which he holds to be true no place or conversation would be quiet It was a Truth that a Believer might eat all things yet the Apostle did not think it necessary to urge or insist upon it nor that it would quit the cost of a doubtful disputation Rom. 14.12 2. In asserting any Truth a Man may be earnest and yet charitable he may think well of his Opposites and yet think ill of their Opinions he may oppose an error with a spirit of meekness with soft words and hard arguments An excellent direction there is for this 2 Tim. 2.23 24 25. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes And the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves This is far from aggravating mens mistakes spinning out odious consequences from them concluding that all of another perswasion do militate against their own Consciences that worldly interest or vain Humour swayes them that they are ignorant Sotts or superstitious Time-servers and the like these kind of strivings are not for any Servant of the Lord. When Michael had the worst of all adversaries to dispute with he durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said The Lord rebuke thee Jude 9. And if a little railing might not be mixt in a Dispute with the Devil himself how dare any man use it against any one of the same Nature Nation and Religion with himself Most piously therefore was it resolved by divers eminent German Divines who met at Marpurg to discuss the point of the Real Presence that though they could not accord therein yet that they would preserve the bond of Charity inviolable among them Yea but you Object That our Opposites are violent and if we be gentle we shall but incourage them Shall they be hot in the wrong and we lukewarm in the right How can we handle charitably such uncharitable persons Unto this I Answer We may be resolute and yet charitable for one Grace never crosses another As the greatest Courage is still accompanied with the
in vain and he will not hold thee guiltless for thy Prayers will be turned into sin unto thee Psal 109.12 And yet Pray thou must or thou runnest into a greater Iniquity by neglecting to acknowledge thy dependence upon God thou wilt at least border upon Atheism Oh what a miserable Dilemma does thy wickedness betray thee unto If thou hadst a design to dishonour God thou couldst not more effectually execute it than by saying That thou art his Servant or Child and by sin to disparage him thy Father or Lord and Master As he must needs provoke any great and noble Person who in the Livery of his Servant or Garb of his Child acts filthiness and abominations And as for laying hold on Christ and shrouding of thy self amongst his Retinue calling him thy Husband or professing him to be thy Head what a Monster pardon the expression I tremble to mention it wouldst make him As if he were a Dagon whose head was like a Man but his lower parts like stinking Fish The truth is the pretensions of such unto Salvation would make Scripture a Lye and Christ the Minister of unrighteousness Gal. 2.17 ult which God forbid Dost thou think it will serve thy turn well enough if thou canst but with Stephen say at last Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Unless thy Spirit be sanctified and sins washed away in his Blood thou wilt now soon hear him say unto thee Depart thou Cursed into everlasting fire Men Brethren and Fathers hear our Apology If we be taxed because we maintain free Grace and Free Justification that we make a way for free sinning and free living and doing what we please and yet geting thus into Heaven at last and that we may be assured of it in the mean while we justly abomnate such Inferences and think they can least of all be inferr'd from such premises May we all agree to stand up for God and to oppose sin to our outmost which is the last and only Use that remains and the best and suitablest to the Text that can be made It is foretold concerning the times of the Gospel Exhortation To Depart from Iniquity Hos 3.5 That in the latter dayes they should fear the Lord and his goodness Oh that these words might be now fulfilled That men would fear to abuse the Goodness of God which is design'd to lead them to Repentance Rom. 2.4 The richest and sweetest Wines they say make the sharpest Vinegar I am sure sweetest Promises when neglected or abused issue in the severest Torments Wo to thee Chorazin wo to thee Bethsaida why is so sad a wo denounc'd beyond that on Tyâ—e and Sidon Mat. 11.21.23 And Capernaum too is threatned with a more terrible destruction than that of Sodom and Gomorrah because those miserable ones perished without having had the Means of Salvation declared in the Gospel amongst them these refused to come to be saved though invited by Christ himself The hotter the Sun-beams are the more they harden the Clay that will not be softned by it If you keep your Sins now you do despite unto the Spirit of Grace that in the Gospel Heb. 10.29 invites perswades and offers to enable you to forsake them You trample under foot the precious Blood of the Son of God which should wash you from all your Impurities you count it as a common thing and let it be spilt in vain as water on the ground One brings in Satan upbraiding our Saviour with the fewness of his Followers and true Disciples he Satan did never any good for Man he is Mans Enemy on all accounts and yet upon the offer of any foolish Toy Profit or Pleasure he is obeyed and men yield themselves up to his service tho so hard and tyrannical a Master Our Blessed Lord became Man liv'd meanly dyed miserably that he might gain Obedience to such just Precepts and Commandments that are for our good and yet hath so very few that will serve and obey him Jerem. 2.12 Rom. 14.9 1 Cor. 15.27 Eph. 1.22 Psal 66.7 Be astonished O ye Heavens Therefore Christ dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord of the living and of the dead All things are put under his feet and by his Power he ruleth over all whether they will or no But Christ died and fuffered that he might obtain a willing People Psal 110.3 such as out of choice and love would obey him And do any of you pretend to be bought with a Price even with the precious Blood of the Son of God 1 Cor. 6.20.7.23 then you ought to glorifie him with those Bodies and Spirits which are his 'T is now Sacriledge indeed to rob God and he will bring thee into Judgment and indite thee ay and condemn thee too without serious and timely Repentance for it And Oh how hot is that Hell which is especially prepar'd for Hypocrites and Unbelievers Thy Obligation is as strict and as you heard stricter too under the Gospel than it was to any under the Law and yet the Transgressors of the Law deserv'd then to perish without mercy Heb. 10.28 and how shall we escape One difference there is indeed betwixt the Law and the Gospel The Law required the full tale of Brick but afforded no Straw It required Obedience but the Law as such afforded no means to perform it The Means how thou mayest be enabled to do the Will of God and to depart from Iniquity is manifested in the Gospel here thou art shewn a fulness in Christ Colos 1.19 out of which thou mayest have Grace for Grace Thou art invited to come thou art assured to be welcome bring never so many empty Vessels thou mayest fill them freely 't is in vain to say Thou canst not Isa 55.1 but thou wilt not be holy Did any now in a sense of their weakness and inability beg Strength and Power from him to do his Will and walk in his Commandments there would be Joy in Heaven for such a Petition Luke 15.7 10. so readily would it be heard and granted You have heard that every one that calls himself a Christian does it therefore because he pretends to be married to Jesus Christ but in good earnest to use the words of Rebecka's Friends Wilt thou go with this Man Wilt thou go with Christ and be a Follower of him Say and do it Gen. 24.58 and God speed thee well I cannot wish thee more Joy than thou wilt find And Oh what Advantages would this bring would Christians be what they profess and would seem to be were the Precepts of Christ obeyed and his Life copyed out by them this would mend the World indeed Pagans and Mahometans Papists and Jews would not be able to stand out against the power of Godliness when it once appear in the lives of Men Not only Ministers may Convert 1. Pet. 3.1 but even Women too thus the Husband the Apostle
and duration and so could not give us a just measure of the demerits of sin 3. If we consider the sufferings of Christ they will prove that the evil of sin is unmeasurable they were such as could not be expressed and therefore the Ancient Christians used in their Prayers to beg of Christ that he would deliver them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by thy unknown torments Lord deliver us And hence we may infer that the Love of Christ must needs be unmeasurable because he delivered us from unmeasurable wrath by unconceivable torments 2. The Love of Christ to sinners is unmeasurable for these Reasons 1. Reas We have no scale in nature in which we can weigh no line in created things by which we can measure it § 1. If we examine the love of Relations we find them all limited and bounded and they ought to be so The love of a Father to a child is an intense love the love of a Father to an undutiful child a rebellious child may stretch the line somewhat farther yet this will fall vastly short of the Love of Christ to sinners The highest instance of this love that I remember was that of David to his rebellious Son Absalom expressed 2 Sam. 18.33 O Absalom my son my son would God I had died for thee O Absalom my Son my Son Here is Paternal love strained up to the highest pitch imaginable That a King should desire to die for a Rebellious Subject that a Father should be willing to die for the most disingenuous and rebellious of Sons This was great but yet we find this love extended but to a natural death he would have been unwilling to have died a Cursed death to have been made a Curse for him to have been made sin for him And yet the torrent of this impetuous love soon dryed up it was founded in passion rather than judgment and perhaps in cool blood he would have been unwilling to have died that such a wretch might live I question much whether David durst deliberately advisedly and premeditately have laid down his life to save that of a vitious debauched Son yet such was the Love of Christ who laid down his life for sinners the greatest of sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 And laid it down voluntarily when none could take it away John 10.18 and not only died against the persuasions of his friends to save his life Mark 8.32 but against that bitter malice of his Enemies which always sparkled and at last flamed out in the most cruel bloody implacable fury that ever was in the World nay against the just displeasure of God as a Judge all which he had a clear prospect into and yet gave this great pregnant proof of his unconquerable Love that he not only poured out his Soul in tears Luke 19.41 his Soul in prayers Luke 23.34 Father forgive them but his Soul in sacrifice too unto the death Isa 53.12 But if the love of a Father to his Son will not measure this Love of Christ perhaps the love of a Mother to her Son may And this is indeed naturally the more soft and passionate Sex and of this love the case is put Isa 49.15 Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb The case is put exceeding strong A Child a sucking Child that hangs upon the breast and is always crying for pity in its natural dialect the Son of the Womb that 's more than the Child of the breast she can hardly forget that at any rate which she brought forth at such a dear rate yet the circumstances may be such that this tender Mother may forsake and forget nay kill and destroy too this innocent Child such exigences they have been in that Nature has prov'd unnatural or Nature in one instance has overcome Nature in another A Mothers hunger has caus'd her to forget her pity to the Child of her Womb Lam. 4.10 The hands of the pitiful Women have sodden their own children to forsake to forget to kill to cook and at last to eat is certainly the greatest stemming of the current and stream of natural affection that we can conceive of but Christ's Love will not suffer him to forget to forsake he has oftens forgotten himself to remember them he has forgotten his own food that he might provide for their Souls John 4.34 he has forgotten his own approaching death that he might provide for their life 1 Cor. 11.23 The same night in which he was betrayed he took bread c. And yet perhaps the love of the Husband to his Wife may come up to this example of Love Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it Here 's an argument indeed to enforce that conjugal Love and here 's a president for conjugal Love to look upon but that As is not a note of equality but of some general similitude for the Husband gives himself to his Wife but will not is not bound to die for his Wife he cannot be persuaded to have her sins charg'd upon his Soul How short are all the Loves the Affections of Relations to give us a pattern and example of the Love of Christ But possibly we may find a love in Nature more strong than any of these And that if any where must be amongst some of those great instances of Love which have been amongst friends It is indeed said 1 Sam. 18.1 3. That Jonathan loved David as his own Soul and in Deut. 13.6 The friend is said to be as a Mans own Soul But yet when we come to examine these expressions they fade away and signifie nothing but the life where is the friend that will make his Soul an offering for sin Isa 53.10 However this is the highest flight that ever humane love took to lay down life for a friend but Christ has put this quite out of countenance John 15.13 Greater love has no man than that he lay down his life for his friend but a far greater Love than this had Christ that he laid down his life for enemies Christ laid down a better life for them that were worse And this is proposed to our consideration as that which has out-done all the love in the World Rom. 5.7 8. Scarcely for a righteous Man will one die No I think it s out of question that none will for who would be so friendly to him that walks by the rules of strict justice that will do no wrong yet shews no mercy but peradventure for a good Man some would even dare to die If there be an instance found in the World of any that has laid down his life for another it must be for a good Man one that is a publick blessing to the age wherein he lives some one may throw away his private life which is not very useful for so generous a Person that is a Common good to his Country but if such an instance be found which
in its essential Malignity which implies no less than that God was neither wise nor good in making his Law and that he is not just and powerful to vindicate it And when tempted to any pleasant Sin to consider the due Aggravations of it as Joseph did which will controle the Efficacy of the Temptation I shall only add that when a Man has mortified the lusts of the flesh he has overcom the main part of the infernal Army that Wars against the Soul Sensual objects do powerfully and pleasantly insinuate into carnal Men and the affections are very unwillingly restrain'd from them To undertake the cure of those whose Disease is their pleasure is almost a vain attempt for they do not judge it an evil to be regarded and will not accept distastful remedies 3. Fly all tempting occasions of sin Joseph would not be alone with his Mistriss There is no vertue so confirmed and in that degree of eminence but if one be frequently ingaged in vicious Society 't is in danger of being eclipst and controul'd by the opposite vice If the Ermins will associate with the Swine they must lie in the mire if the Sheep with Wolves they must learn to bite and devour if Doves with Vultures they must learn to live on the prey Our surest guard is to keep at a distance from all engaging snares He that from carelessness or confidence ventures into temptations makes himself an easie prey to the tempter And let us dayly pray for the Divine Assistance to keep us from the evil of the World without which all our resolutions will be as ineffectual as ropes of sand to bind us to our duty 5. The consideration of the evil of sin is a powerful motive to our solemn and speedy Repentance The remembrance of our original and actual sins will convince us that we are born for repentance There are innumerable silent sins that are unobserved and do not Alarm the Conscience and altho a true Saint will neither hide any sin nor suffer sin to hide it self in his brest yet the most holy Men in the World have great reason with the Psalmist to say with melting affections who can understand his errors O clense me from my secret sins discover them to me by the light of the Word and cover them in the blood of the Redeemer There are sins of infirmity and dayly incursion from which none can be perfectly freed in this mortal state these should excite our watchfulness and be lamented with true tears There are crying sins of a crimson guilt which are to be confest with heart-breaking sorrow confounding shame and implacable antipathy against them and to be forsaken for ever Of these some are of a deep die in their nature and some from the circumstances in committing them some are of a heynous nature and more directly and expresly renounce our duty and more immediately obstruct our Communion with God As a mud-wall intercepts the light of the Sun from shining upon us 2. Some derive a greater guilt from the circumstances in the commission Such are 1. Sins against knowledge for according to the ingrediency of the will in sin the guilt arises Now when Conscience interposes between the carnal Heart and the temptation and represents the evil of sin and deters from compliance and yet Men will venture to break the Divine Law this exceedingly aggravates the offence for such sins are committed with a fuller consent atd are justly called rebellion against the light And the clearer the light is the more it will increase the disconsolate fearful darkness in Hell 2. Sins committed against the Love as well as the Law of God are exceedingly aggravated To pervert the benefits we receive from God to his dishonour to turn them into occasions of sin which were designed to endear obedience to us to sin licentiously and securely in hopes of an easie pardon at last is intensive of our guilt in a high degree This is to poison the antidote and make it deadly There is a Sacrifice to reconcile offended Justice but if Men obstinately continue in sin and abuse the Grace of the Gospel there is no Sacrifice to appease exasperated Mercy 3. Sins committed against solemn promises and engagements to forsake them have a deeper die for perfidiousness is joyn'd with this disobedience The Divine Law strictly binds us to our duty antecedently to our consent but when we promise to obey it we increase our obligations and by sinning break double chains In short any habitual allowed sin induces a heavy guilt for it argues a deeper root and foundation of sin in the Heart a stronger inclination to it from whence the repeated acts proceed which are new provocations to the pure Eyes of God Accordingly in repenting reflections our sorrow should be most afflicting our humiliation deeper our self-condemnation most severe for those sins which have been most dishonourable to God and defiling to us Not that we can make any satisfaction for our sins tho we should fill the Air with our sighs and Heaven with our tears but it becomes us to have our sorrows inlarged in some proportion to our unworthiness And this mournful disposition prepares us for the grace of God The Law does not allow repentance but exacts entire obedience 't is the privilege of the Gospel that repenting sinners are assur'd of forgiveness without this qualification 't is inconsistent with the Majesty Purity and Justice of God to extend pardoning Mercy to Sinners for they will never value nor humbly and ardently seek for Mercy till they feel the woful effects of sin in their Conscience only the stung Israelite would look to the brazen Serpent and this is requisite to prevent our relapsing into sin for the dominion of sin being founded in the love of pleasure the proper means to extinguish it is by a bitter repentance the Heart is first broken for sin and then from it To Conclude Let us renew our repentance every-day let not the wounds of our Spirits putrifie let not the Sun go down upon Gods wrath let us always renew the applications of Christs blood that alone can cleanse us from Sin The Case or Question which comes to be spoken unto this morning is Quest How may Private Christians be most helpful to promote the entertainment of the Gospel SERMON XII Colossians IV. 5. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without YE have heard the Question And as I conceive a due attendance unto the words read may lead us far toward the Resolution of it And for that reason was this Text chosen I design not therefore to frame a set Discourse upon it but only to lay it as a ground-work to support that which I have to offer toward the Answering of the Question propounded We have before us then a serious Exhortation Walk in wisdom toward them that are without And therein we may observe 1. The Persons to whom the Apostle doth direct it And they are private Christians This is apparent
sublime nervous Epistle whether St. Luke or Barnabas or Clement or Apollos or the Apostle Paul as I most think I here dispute not is evidently walking in the searches of the great Excellency of Christianity as it was brought unto us by and took its denomination from and serves the purposes and speaks the Eminence Unction and Prerogatives and Designs of Christ the Son of God And this discourse he here directeth to the Hebrews by whom we may understand those Christian Jews that were in Syria Judea and principally at Jerusalem for those that were dispersed through the Provinces of the Roman Empire were commonly called Greeks And those indeed who were Converted to the Christian Faith were terribly persecuted by the Jews their Brethren and assaulted by Seducers to work them back again to their deserted Judaism and much ado they had to stand their ground Whereupon this Author mindful of what his Lord had said in Mat. xxiv 9-13 attempts to shew the Eminencies of their State and that Judaism was every way transcended by Christianity The Author of it was a greater and better Person than Moses Aaron or Melchizedeck The Doctrines were more mysterious and sublime The Laws more spiritual and most accurately suited to the compleating and perpetuating of the Divine Life and Nature in them and to the advancing them unto all Conformities to God imitations of him and intimacies with him The Promises were more glorious rich and full and all the Constitutions Furniture Services Ministry and Advantages of the Gospel Polity and Temple carried more glorious signatures of God upon them and were more eminently attested patronized and succeeded by God than ever Judaism was or than it could pretend unto Why therefore should it be deserted or coldly owned or improved negligently or defectively This Author having therefore gained his point and throughly proved the dignity of the Christian state and calling beyond all possibility of grounded Cavils or competition He next proceeds to shew these Hebrews the genuine and just improvement of what he had demonstrated Heb. x. 19-39 xi xii xiii 1-19 The Casuistical consideration of the Text best serves the stated purpose of this hour And that I may be evidently pertinent clear succinct and profitable let me now lay the Case and Text together and consider them in their relative aspects each toward the other 1. Luke-warmness is the remissness or defectiveness of heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a middle thing betwixt cold and heat When there is not heat enough in subjecto capaci to serve the purposes that such a thing under such circumstances should subserve Now God and Christ expect a fervent Spirit burning and flaming Love and in the Text Love is here represented as needing Provocation Heart-warmth is nothing else but love suiting and accommodating it self to worthy objects according to their apprehended dignity usefulness or concerns Love is the endearing to our selves of apprehended Excellence or Goodness and our letting out our selves or the issuings forth of our pleased wills in correspondent motions towards reposes in obsequiousness to and engagements for what we admire and affect for worth or excellence discerned makes us accommodate our selves unto the pleasure and concerns thereof according to its nature place and posture towards us and our affairs therewith When therefore this Affection Principle or Grace or Passion if Love may properly be called so is grown too weak to fix the will and to influence the life so as to please its God and turns indifferent and unconcerned and variable as the winds and weather change this languor of the Heart and Will and its easiness and proneness to be drawn off from God and things Divine we call Luke-warmness which is nothing else indeed but the sluggishness and dulness of the heart and will to such a degree as that it is not duly affected with nor startled at nor concerned intimately about what is truly excellent and of great consequence and importance to us And hence our Author phrases it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Love may and ought to be smart and keen heating and urging all the powers of the Soul to excite all their vigours and to perform all their Functions with strength and pleasure Consider well Cant. viii 6 7. ii Cor. v. 14. i Thess ii 8. Heart unaffectedness unconcernedness and inactivity let Souls and their concerns God's interest and the Matters of Christ's Kingdom go and be as they will Phil. ii 20 21. This is the malady to be cured 2. It is not so much a single instance of luke-warmness as a temper that the case speaks of Nor doth the Text intend an intermittent Feaver in the heart 't is not a transient Paroxysm by fits and starts for hearts to burn but 't is a stated frame that must be changed and fixt The Malady is a luke-warm temper a frame and constitution of the inward man too weakly bent and byassed towards God and heavenly things to make them statedly its predominant ambition business and delight Act. xi 23. ii Cor. v. 9. A frame of Soul that sits too loose towards God to do to bear to be to hope to wait much for him in the stormy and dark day 3. It is the effectual cure hereof that the case aims at and in this Paroxysm of Love and of Good Works the cure consists Hence Labour of love Heb. vi 10. i Thess i. 3. Love abounding more and more in knowledge and in all judgment that ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the Glory and Praise of God Phil. i. 9. 11. when Love is fervent fixt and genuinely fruitful then is this luke-warm temper cured indeed Hence zealous of good works See Tit. ii 11. 14. 4. How this Cure of such a temper may be effectually wrought is the next thing to be enquired into and the great import of the case before us and a great cluster of apt and pertinent Expedients doth the Text here entertain us with Such as 1. Determining and designing to enterprize the thing here called Provocation to love and to good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · This is the great concern to be espoused and the great scope of our intentions resolutions and endeavours Love and good works are the great Cure of this Distemper to which we must direct our thoughts words deeds provokingly Col iv 5 6 Such a Distemper must not be ordinarily expected to be cured by accident nor are their Labours likely to be prosperous who do not cordially design this Cure 2 The mutual Considerations of Persons Consider one another to a Provocation So the Greek We must take into serious deep and frequent thoughts the quality capacity spirits courses and concerns of one another and see wherein they are defective or exemplary and proficient in these things as
Pain or Ease Light or Darkness Sweetness or Bitterness c. are as one hours experience of your own will do Men that are born blind have not by all the advantages of reading to them or discoursing with them such clear discerning of light as a little opening of their own Eyes will help them to Beauty and Melody are and must be seen and heard before they can be duly understood but as far as I am able I shall adventure to describe it thus Love is the Pleasure of the Heart or Will in the discerned and valued excellency of its object So as delightfully to make it accommodate it self unto the Nature Pleasure and concerns thereof Or it is the endearment of apprehended excellence so as to sweeten all our contemplations and esteem thereof our motions towards it our reposes in it our sufferings and adventures for it and our reposes and abode therein Here we may briefly note these things 1. When its Object doth evidently transcend our reach and pitch in excellence then the formal Act of Love is a delightful Admiration of Perfection Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness cast us upon the heighths and depths of wonder and astonishment and entertain us with the highest satisfactions in our severest and most awful Contemplations thereof these ravishing views or thoughts of the incomprehensible source and abyss of Perfection which is Essential Goodness and the very heighth thereof for what is Goodness but the heighth of Excellency affect us with the most reverend sence thereof 2. Where excellency appears as capable of being shadowed forth by imitations and resemblances and challenges our Conformities thereunto the formal act of Love is a pleased attempering of it self unto its much valued and endeared object joyfully loving and endeavouring a correspondency and agreement with all the communicable excellencies and allurements of such a valuable and admired pattern and exemplar thus love is an ambitious imitation of admired worth pleasing it self in all it 's gradual approaches to it's Object in it's attainments of what most resembles him whose mirrours we so much long and please our selves to be Thus our Christian love our Love to God and unto Christ his Image in it's nature it's operations and attainments is but the impress of Divine Perfections upon our selves with all the solaces which arise in and from our thus transformed selves 3. When excellency appears upon the Theater shewing it's lustre in exquisite performances and Productions bearing the Signatures of that Name whose works they are as the Invisible things of God are known by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. i. 20. Then the formal Act of Love is Pleasure in our notices and observations of the eminencies of the cause appearing in the effects thereof and in our delightful searches thereinto 4. When excellency appears upon the Throne of Government the formal Act of Love is our delightful acquiescence and satisfaction in and our chearful comporting with all the Laws and Interests of such Government Thus I delight to do thy will O God Psal xl 8. And this is love that we keep his Commandments i Joh. v. 3. And this is my meat to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work Joh. iv 34. Authority owned Laws obeyed disposals rested in and all with chearfulness And then 5. When Goodness appears communicative designing and dispensing kindnesses directed and designed to the benefit and welfare of the Recipients of it's Communications The formal Act of Love in the thus befriended Persons is their thankful acceptances chearful acknowledgements and faithful improvement of what they thus receive in the service according to the Pleasure and Order and to the praise of him that gives them and as these favours are of several sorts and sizes Such as our beings and their receptiveness of Divine kindnesses and the kindness shewed us to make us good to do us good and to capacitate us to do good to others and to receive further good from God according to our different capacities stations relations opportunities and advantages conditions and other circumstances so hath our Love it 's diversified actings expressions and effects according to it 's various objects considered in their own proper Excellencies their several Relations to us their postures towards us and their concerns with us and ours with them which I here cannot mention much less enlarge upon even as they and we are related and concerned with the essential source of all communicative Excellence or Goodness and therefore I leave it to the deeper thoughts and further searches of better Heads and Hearts than mine 6. When Excellence espouses evidently some great Interests and Designs such as the recovery of lost Souls the reparation of declined Holiness the shaming and abandoning of all Sin the utter extirpation of Satans Interest and Kingdom the erecting of his Gospel House and Kingdom the Exaltation of his Son and the Edification of his Children in Christian Knowledge Holiness and Comfort and in all things fit to make them acceptable to himself and approved of men and to make them regular and easie in themselves When God designs and prosecutes the spreading of the Gospel the Sanctification of his Name in and before the eyes of all and the compleating the Divine Life and Nature in his own What then can be the formal Act of Love hereto in us but the endearment and espousal of these things to us as matters of the highest consequence and importance to the World the Church and us and as things more valuable and delightful to us in our contemplations and pursuits thereof than all our personal Interests and Pleasures in this World 7. When Excellence communicates it self discernibly to others then Love rejoyces in this Gift and Grace to them 8. When Excellence appears communicable to others and that through one another as appointed means and instruments for this end then Love is so far thankful and it covets enterprizes designs and prosecutes the thing and so it grieves or joyfully Triumphs as it discerns the matter to succeed or to be defeated or delayed and it forms and cherishes and exerts it Sympathies accordingly 9. When Excellence is rivall'd confronted and opposed then Love turns Jealous and Enraged and puts on fortitude and resolution to stand by it's darling Object and concerns in all the Agonies of Contention for them which they need and notwithstanding all the hazards cost and difficulties which attend them And 10. It accounts and uses all as Friends or Enemies as they appear against or for it's Object 3. The Genuine Practice and Productions of this love Here they are called Good Works a correspondent practice with this Divine and Active and diffusive Principle All Instances and Effects of this delightful conversation with God and man according to the Rules and Principles of Christianity must savour of illustrate and subserve this Principle and Grace Thus Love God and keep his Commandments think and speak of him
up in manifold and mighty clusters What can we mention or fix our thoughts upon that may not kindle and increase this flame of Love and its Eruptions in Good Works The things which we might pertinently and copiously insist upon might be reduced to these Heads 1. The Objects of this Central Grace or Principle 1. Things in Heaven as God Christ the Spirit Angels the Spirits of Just Men there made perfect the glorious Furniture Laws and Orders the Visions Services Ministrations and Fruitions of that State all the Perfections Prerogatives and Employments of that blessed World above with all the accomplishments and accommodations which relate immediately thereto and all the Satisfactions and Advantages that result therefrom 2. Things from Heaven God manifest in the flesh i Tim. iii. 16. the Spirit Works and Word of God the great Provisions and Engagements of Divine Providence for us all that we are or have or meet with express of God's merciful regards to us and his compassionate concernedness for our universal welfare 3. Things for Heaven The Spirit of Grace the Word of Grace all the Ministers and means of Grace with all the Discipline and Encouragements which Providence sensibly affords us the Good and Evil things of time as ordered by God to fit us for and help us to the Glory which we look for The very Sons of men themselves considered in the relations which they bear to God and their expressiveness of his indearing Name and all those marks and notices which they bear and give us in the frame capacity and management of humane Nature of God's incomprehensible Wisdom Power Goodness c. O who can think hereon and yet be unprovoked to Love and to Good Works when as God is so eminently and endearingly discernible in all for God by all this courts our love And should I speak of the Sons of God and Heirs of Glory that Divine Workmanship which is in them and upon them the Impressions Reflections and Refractions of the Divine Nature and Life their capacity of growing up to all the fulness of God and to be eternally the beautiful and delightsome Temple of the Holy Ghost all their relations to the Holy Trinity with all their obligations to him their interest in him their business with him and for him and all their imitations and resemblances of him in their actual and possible motions and advances towards him and their Great Expectations from him Should I insist upon their membership with all the duties and advantages and pleasures which arise there from and pertinently illustrate and apply as I could easily and quickly do what doth so copiously occur in Eph. iv 4. 6. as the Central articles and holding bonds of Union and Endearments would you and I consider all these things and all the loveliness that would then be communicable or observable could our love want its provocation 2. The formal nature of this love 't is fit to be a provocation to itself i Joh. iv 16-21 7-12 This is the beauty health strength pleasure safety and renown of humane nature love is the aim and scope Knowledge the end of faith the Spirit of hope the life of practice and devotion and the bond of perfectness and the true transformation of the Soul into the image of its God No pleasing thoughts of God Christ Heaven or heavenly things no chearful motions towards eternity no foretasts of the highest bliss no warrantable claims thereto nor confident expectations of unseen realities No true and lasting bonds of friendliness in service and affections without this Spirit and state of love this only faces God in his own beautiful and delightful image this only turns the notions of divinity into substantial realities and so exalts the man above the pageantries of meer formal outside service and devotions and the truth is all that we say and do for God or with him and all our expectations from him are but the tricks and forgeries of deceitful and deceived fools and the most provoking Prophanation of the tremendous holy name of God and an abuse of holy things 3. The services which love must do and the fruits it must produce to God to Christ unto the Spirit unto our selves and others God himself must be reverenced addrest unto served and entertained like himself and walked with in all required and fit imitations of himself And all these cannot be without just valuings of and complacency in his eminent perfections near relations and the admirable constitutions and administrations of his Kingdom Christ must be duly thought on heartily entertained gratefully acknowledged and cheerfully obeyed submitted and improved unto the great and gracious purposes of his appearances performances and Kingdom and minded most delightfully in all the Grandeurs of his Grace and Throne the Holy Spirit must possess his Temple to his full Satisfaction and have the pure incense of his graces in their fragrant liberal and continual ascents Praying in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. And be feasted with the growthful and constant productions of his graces both in their blossoms and full fruits and we must be continually sowing to him if we hope to reap eternal life of him in Gal. vi 8. We must possess our selves in God and for him in our full devotedness and resignations of our entire selves to him pleasing our selves in this that we are not by far so much and so delightfully our own as his and that we cannot love our selves so well as when we find God infinitely dearer to us than we are to our selves And as for others much must we chearfully do and bear and be to bring poor Renegadoes back again to God to testify our great respects unto and pleasure in the grace of God in our fellow Christians to accommodate our selves to their edification concerns and to make our best advantage of every thing discernible in them Helping our selves and them in spirit speech and practice And can these things be brought to pass or our selves reconciled suited to all our Christian duties and interests without provoked love And for the solemnities transactions and results of the approaching day what is that day to those who have no love or very great declensions of it For all that come with Christ from Heaven come in the flames of love to God to godliness and Godly Ones and a Cold Heart will no way be endured there And as to fellow Christians the Duties and Counsels of the Text consideration adhering to the Assembling of our selves together mutual exhortations in the encouraging and quickning Prospect of this day can these things be without love III. The management of these provoking things And here let us follow the method of the Text it self Where we have these Topicks to insist upon 1. Persons must be considered each other and our selves 2. We are not to desert the Assemblings of our selves together as the manner of some is 3. We must exhort each other And so what one proposes the other must Consider
be exerted thence That thoughtless Idle Souls should be luke-warm is no such wonder or strange thing The contrary would be stranger even to a miracle And being thus awakened and prepared your selves drive all things home upon each other and plead the cause of every Duty Truth and Motive throughly in free and frequent conversation each with other Mal. iii. 16. Luke xxiv 32. i Thes v. 11-15 Rom. xv 13-16 Col. iii. 16. ii Thes iv 18. Christian conference well managed makes and speaks warm hearts and leads and helps to better lives Men that rarely transiently or triflingly think upon or talk about the things of God must needs be cold within and when such pray that God should warm them can they expect returns to prayer when neither hearts nor pains are after them And here How many heart warning Topicks of discourse and edifying conference might I now entertain you with but let the text speak for it self and though it here offer but one yet is that one impregnated with many 1. It is the day 2. 'T is an approaching day and 3. They saw it thus approaching 4. The sight ought because so fit to quicken them to growthful care and diligence in this heart-warning course and work Whence 4. Preserve and practically answer and improve a quick deep constant sence of the approaching day i Thes v. 1-11 ii Pet. iii. 1. 14. and Jude 20 21. Col. iii. 2-5 Luke xxi 34-36 xii 35-40 Perhaps the Reader will not lose his time and labour in perusing and pausing upon these cited Texts Nor find them impertinent nor inexpedient as to the case in hand See also ii Pet. i. 5-13 How copiously and closly might all these passages be insisted on did not the Press stay for me and the stated confines of a short discourse restrain me and the fruits and labours of abler heads and better pens and hearts urge me severely because deservedly to give place thereto Well Sirs Consider the Approaching day and represent it to your thoughtful and concerned selves in all its Grandeurs and Solemnities of Process and Results and try then if it do not warm your hearts and urge you pungently and severely to Good works As to the persons here most Immediately concerned these Christian Hebrews There was a day of reckoning with their malignant Enemies by Providential Controversies and Rebukes which also was a day of great Redemption and Establishment to the persecuted faithful Christians There was to be a day of great Conversion and divine Attestations to the Christian Faith and to its Proselytes and what was more congenial herewith than this endeavoured provocation to love and to good works And they that are provoked hereto are also fittest for a day of tryal But I shall here consider it as the great day of Christs appearance and his Kingdom ii Tim. iv 1.8 i 18. That day of God of Christ of Judgment and Perdition of Vngodly Men. That day of Revelation of God and Christ in their Majestick glory that day of searches sentence and full execution and adjustments in all the accuracies of governing wisdom holiness and grace Who can contemplate this and yet be Cold and Barren Then in the glorious splendours solemnities and proceedings of that day shall it be evident who and whose Son Christ is What cost and care he hath been at to bring men to this warm and active course and temper and what an estimate he and his Father set hereon by what they then dispense and testify by way of recompence of reward thereto Christ in his threefold glory Luke ix 26. God sending him forth and appearing in him by him and for him as his own dear Son the Son of such a King i Tim. vi 3-16 Father and Son making so vast a difference amongst the Sons of men by everlasting punishments and rewards as they are differently found as to Christian love and practice Rom. ii 6-10 ii Cor. v. 9-11 Mat. xxv 34-46 And all that vast Assembly and Convention applauding Gods proceedings and joyfully Congratulating the great endeavours and rewards of our provoked and Successful love Are not these warming thoughts Secondly The Case And of this I have given you this textual resolution You have seen 1. The Seat of this distemper of a Luke-warm Frame or Temper that it is in the heart or will 2. The formal nature of it 'T is a defect or chilness of practical love and zeal to and for God and their concerns with us and ours with them The things which claim and merit the highest place in and that should engage and exercise our best affections and most active zeal are 1. Gods glory in the Church and World 2. The life and growth and the vivid Exercises Profession and Effects of Godliness in our selves Tit. ii 11. 14. Rom. xiv 17 19. Jude 20 21. ii Pet. i. 3. 11. For we must begin at home and set our all in order there 3. The Power Peace and Progress of the Gospel in the World Phil. i. 3. 11. ii 19.21 That it may have its free course and be glorified 4. The Harmony and Prosperity of the Church of Christ wherever this Gospel is accepted and profest 5. The Case and Circumstances of particular professours as they variously are and are evidently considerable as to their Growth Tryals Duties Dangers Decays Wants or Weaknesses c. 6. And the Sons of men as Strangers Enemies Persecutors or any ways Endeavouring to supplant the Gospel interest or to obstruct it or discourage it And these it considered as reducible or incorrigible Now heartlessness Neutrality or Sluggishness of our affectionate concernedness about these things is what we call Luke-warmness 3. The Cure hereof doth formally consist in our Enflamed love Exercised and Exprest unto the life by constant activity congenial with this principle The practical accommodating of all the regency vigours of this principle of love to the concerns of Christian godliness and of those that are concerned therewith pursuant to the growth and prosperousness thereof When we so value these concerns have such Sympathizing with and such genuine adherence to resolutions and activity for and satisfaction in the prosperousness of the things of God and Christ and Souls and Christian Churches as that nothing can stand before us nor be regarded or dreaded by us that rivals or opposes them then are we indeed effectually cured Here our thoughts naturally fix and work here our hearts cleave and flame and hereunto our vigors time interest and treasures are most entirely and cheerfully devoted Where is there then the least remainder of a Luke-warm Temper When we are wrought up to this Frame and pitch 4. The way and means of working this great cure are 1. Persons considered 2. Assemblies attended on 3. What there and thence and otherwise is or may be derived improved by Mutual Exhortation 4. And all this under the powerful influences of and in fit and full proportion to a quick and constant apprehensiveness and