and understanding loves it self and God who knows himselfe to be the Best Good cannot but love himself Best and therefore 't is said the Lord made Prov. 16. 4. All things for himselfe 1. The Creation of all things is the Birth of his love to himselfe which he made as mirrours to reflect his own Excellencies when he made those Beauteous Paires of Heaven and Earth he did it to glorifie himself being the Glasses to behold his own wisdome and all mighty Power 2. And when God destroyed the old world 't was out of love to himselfe for therein he glorified himselfe in those waters he saw the Image of his Justice They were the looking Glasse of That Attribute and therefore God is said To laugh at and Rejoyce in the destruction of a Sinner because he is pleased with the Oeconomy of his own Laws and the Excellent proportions He makes of his Judgements to their sins Thus when he destroyed Pharaoh he did it out of a supream love to himselfe and his own great Name And in very deed for this cause I raised Exod. 9. 16. thee up for to shew in thee my Power and that my Name may be declared throughout all the Earth Sinner Take heed and put a stop to thy Race in sin if thou goest on a little further it may be God cannot spare thee for his Names sake He must punish for the Honour of his Name he cannot but love himselfe and therefore cannot but punish Sinners out of Respect unto his Name He is Engaged to punish because he is Engaged to himselfe 3. So he Acts all his works of mercy chiefly out of love to himselfe He loves his people but he loves them for the love he bâ—ars to himselfe and delivers them for the love he bears to his own name His Name being put upon them They in themselves are not worth his deliverances and when their sins plead against their deliverance his own name intercedes for them But I had pity for my holy Ezek. 36. 21. 22 23. Name which the House of Israel had prophaned among the Heathen whither they went c. that is You are worthy no pity yet I will have pity for my holy Name That he might free his Name from Base aspersions and Imputations Secondly God hath love which flows out of him upon the creature I say God hath love for himselfe and he hath love to bestow upon the creature too for the Creature is the Work of his hands 'T is naturall to all men to love their own works and what they have curionsly form'd to spend many a pleasing fight upon it An Artist when he hath made an Excellent and comely piece is in love with it because it is the Elaborate product of his own conception and hath stampt the Image of his Rich Idaea and fancy on it and thus the Scripture brings in God viewing and feasting his eye with a delightfull Complacency upon all his works that he had made and God saw every thing that he had made and Gen. 1. 31. behold it was very good He looks and loves he loves and looks upon every thing that he had made not onely man but Every thing that he had made He looks upon man and loves his morall goodnesse that he had carved in him he looks upon every thing and loves the naturall goodnesse he had stampt upon them Gods Love two-fold This large love of God comprehends all the Creatures in it not 1. Common onely the Rationall but the Inanimate Creatures in the Bosome of it I say his love whereby he will'd their being and still preserves their being and whatever Prints and Characters of himselfe they have takes pleasure in them as an Artist doth in his Rare Composures But there is a Speciall love of God 2. Speciall his choyce love which Elevates and lifts some persons up to a supernaturall state in Jesus Christ this is that love we are speaking of God beholding the lump of fallen man as a vast Dunghill or Heap of Dirt saw no difference of Persons in it but all Equally loathsome and filthy how could it be otherwise for one piece of dung is not sweeter than another one dram of dirt is not cleaner than another I say God casting his Eye upon that Noysome and unsavoury Mixon his wise and good Pleasure thinks meet to have benign thoughts towards some he takes these up into his Divine purpose and in time takes them out of their sordid state with Curious artifice he refines them from their filth and sets up a Fragrant work of Grace in them he writes them his Sons and Daughters and gives them an Estate of Eternall Glory and all in Jesus Christ This is his speciall Love which we must distinguish into his love of Good will and his love of Complacency There is observ'd a difference between these First His love of good will precedes Amor Benevolentiae the work of Grace and goes before it This love finds us Sinners and makes us Saints This love of God is not founded upon Reasons in the Object with this love he loved us first before we being Justified by his Grace could love him This love finds nothing in us for which he ought to love us This love gives us Grace as the Apostle saith God for his great love wherewith he loved Eph. 2. 4 5. us even when we were dead hath quickned us together with Christ This love can have ro Cause but it selfe Secondly This love is free Nullis meritis nisi bonitate amantis excitatus not stirr'd up by any objective Goodnesse in us but onely the self-moving Goodnesse of him that loved us it sees no loadstone in us to draw it out nay it finds sin and sordidnesse upon us and yet he loves us He loves us without Necessity without Attractive and without Engagement nay let me say if there were any motive in us why he loved us it was because we were miserable and Vnworthy his love But the truth is nothing did encline and dispose his heart to us but his own will Of his own will begat James 1. 18. he us and the same will that begat us passed by others Gods love to himselfe is Naturall and Necessary But his love to his Creatures is not he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy It is a free love and a free mercy He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy O! wonder at God all ye his Saints and beloved ones in his mercy to you let it cast you into an high Trance of holy admiration Thirdly This Love of God The love of his good will is equall to all his Saints in many Respects 1. In respect of the act of his will as the Schoolmen say God Equally wills Good to all his Saints though he doth not will Equall Good to all his Saints He doth not more will Good to one than to another though he wills more good to some than to
upon Naked Persons but upon Persons Cloathed and deckt with Grace The object of Gods love of Complacency is not Bonum Physicum Entitatirum The Entitative Good or Being of the Creature but Bonum ethicum morale The morall Being or Gracious Goodnesse of the creature Thus as there is in men more or lesse which pleaseth God according to the degrees and Fruits of Grace in them so he loves them more or lesse with his love of Friendship and Complacency First This love of God follows the work of Grace in the Creature They must have Grace stampt upon them before he can take Complacency or delight in them Such as are upright in their Prov. 11. 20. way are his delight In Respect of his love of Good will 't is said We love him because he first loved us 1 John 4. 19. In respect of his love of delight 't is said He that loveth me shall be John 14. 21. loved of my Father In respect of his love of Good will 't is said God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever John 3. 16. believes in him shall not perish but have Everlasting life In respect of his love of Complacency 't is said The Father himselfe loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed John 16. 27. that I came out from God His love of good will is his preventing Amor praeveniens love whereby he loved us before we desired it His love of friendship is his Amor Consequens consequent love which follows not onely his former love to us but also our love to him and therefore saith Christ He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him as the Father and the Son by their first love provoke ours so by their second love they reward ours Gods love of good will makes men love God by his love of good will he makes them righteous with his love of Complacency he loves them being righteous in respect of the love of his Good will they are the effects of his love in respect of his love of Complacency they are the objects of his love If any man saith Christ love me he shall be loved of my Father But How can any man by nature love Christ or love God Therefore I say Gods love of good will facit homines Dei amantes makes men lovers of him His love of good will is the fountain and spring of our love to him it begets our love to him as the image of his love to us To Love God is the gift of God our active love whereby we love him and our passive love whereby we are beloved of him are both the gifts of God and the gifts of his free and first love Yet there is a love of God whereby he loves us not till we love him He cannot love thee with delight till thou art Lovely Gods love of good will makes the object his love of Friendship doth presuppose the object he cannot love thee as his Friend till thou art his Friend There is no Friendship without mutuall love he cannot love thee as his child till thou art his child he doth not love thee as thy Husband till thou art his Spouse I say he cannot love as an Husband till he is thy Husband and he is not thy Husband till thou take him to be thy Husband But doth not Gods love begin to me Doth not he love sinners first and make suit to them as a lover before they love him yes with the love of Good will He bears good will to thee and therefore he breaks his mind to thee in the Gnspell and wooes thee it may be long before thou lovest him but he doth not love thee with the love of Espousalls till the Nuptiall day till thou canst find in thy heart to have him and the marriage-knot be tyed up and thou take him for thine Husband He cannot love thee with this Relationlove till thou come under this Relation-bond Secondly This love of God his Love of Complacency is a necessary love His love of Good will is free his love of Complacency is necessary ah dear God! he loves us freely that he may love us necessarily As 't was free to God at first to make man but if he would make him he must of necessity make him Righteous and love him so made so when man was fallen 't was free to God whether he would shew him any good will or no whether he would repaire his Image again in him or no but if it be his Pleasure to Restore him he cannot but love his own design if it be his pleasure to set up a new Creation he cannot but love his new Creation His love of Good will is as I may say his Rectorall love his love of Friendship is his Foederall love his love of Good will is his love of Dominion whereby he loves whom and where he pleases to love his love of Friendship is his love of Communion whereby he is engaged by Covenant to love his Friends to love those that love him Thirdly This love of God his love of Complacency admits varieties of weather and looks with severall faces upon his Saints It hath its Spring and its Fall it hath its summer and hath its winter it riseth as our obedience riseth and falls as our obedience falleth it grows hot and cold according to the vicissitude of his peoples tempers as they are hot or cold in their affections according to his love of Complacency and Friendship he is said sometimes to smile and sometimes to frown upon us as long as David walkt close with God his love did shine upon him but when David sinned in the matter of Vriah his love of Complacency did retire and draw in its beams from him In respect of this love God is said to forsake and desert his Children his Desertion of them is the departure of this his love in some degree from them as the Phylosophers say There is a lux and lumen light inherent in the Sun and light fluent from the Sun that is ever Perfect and Permanent but this may suffer changes and be obscured so Gods love of Friendship our sins may lessen it and our recoveries make it rise brighter on us Look then to your walkings Lastly This love of God his love of Complacency and Friendship is unequall to his Saints its higher to some it s lower to others its more to some and lesser to others according to the measure and proportion of their Graces Some are Greatly Beloved and some are Not so Greatly Beloved with this love as the Sun shines hotter upon some Climates than it doth upon others and the water overflows some Pastures more than others The Sweeter Rose a Saint is the more deliciously God wears him in his Bosome He doth Enlarge his graces in them and then Enlarge his heart towards them To conclude John the Evangelist was One whom
others There are no degrees in his will though there are degrees in the things willed 2. So Election doth equally passe upon them all and not upon one more than another God cannot be said to chuse one more than another of them whom he hath Chosen and therefore they are called under one word the Election The Election hath obtained Roâ— 11. 17. it because they are all equally Elected 3. In respect of the common benefits of salvation by Jesus Christ they are all Equally favoured and accepted 1. They are all Equally Redeemed by Jesus Christ The Lord Christ did die Equally for all those his Father gave him none can say he intended me in his death more than another neither did One of us Cost him more than Another 2. In Gods Gracious act of vocation or calling them to Jesus Christ they are Equally looked upon 3. They are Equall in Justification it may be one is more justified than another Extensively but not Intensively that is one hath more Sins forgiven than another but Intensively as our Justification consists in Gods gracious Repute or acceptation of us as just and righteous so they are all Equall Again in respect of the Applicaion of Christs Righteousnesse so there is a graduall difference Some receive it with a stronger faith than others and apply it according to their necessity and indigence therefore we may say some partake of it more than oothers yet because Justification is an act of God pardoning believers whom he pardons he pardons equally though all that are pardoned are not equall sinners Again in respect of Righteousnesse imputed all believers are equally just for as they are justified they stand just before God in the most perfect Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ and by it the weak Christian is justified as well as the strong upon this account the faith of the Saints though unequall in degrees is yet said to be Alike or Equally precious The 2 Pet. 1. 1. merit of Christ is Equally imputed to all that believe And the Reward of his merit in respect of of substance which is Eternall life is equally given to all that believe 4. Their adoption is equall They are all equally the Sons of God God is not more Father to one than to another they have an equall Right to the Inheritance 5. Again all the Promises of the Covenant of Grace that concern the Essentialls of Salvation are equall to them all and are fulfilled in one believer as well as another to give an instance the Promise of perseverance is to every Saint as well as to any as the least Star is as firmly six't in its Orb as the glorious Sun and there is no more danger of the falling of the one than of the other so the weakest Saints are as sure to be kept in the sphaere of Perseverance unto salvation as the Saints of the first magnitude 't is not strength of Grace but Gods love and constant influence that preservs the strongest Saints and the same attends the weakest Thus far his Love of Good will is Equall Yet let me add my thoughts in respect of some special Flowers in the Garland of salvation this love of God His love of Good will is not Equall to all the Saints God gives higher Measures of Grace to some than he doth to others and what are the Graces of his Spirit but the Golden Signalls of his love 't is a Rule in the Schools To love another is to will Good to another and Si amare sit bona velle alteri cum majora bona velle sit magis amare if to will Good to another be to love them then to will greater Good is greater love and therefore saith Zanchius we must hold this proposition where there are Greater and more gifts of God there God is said to love more because the gifts of God are the love-tokens of his benevolence or Good will And as God gives different degrees of Grace so he gives different degrees of Glory he Crowns his greater Graces with greater Glory For as all that believe in Christ are Equally justified but not all Equally Endued with Grace so all believers shall be Equally saved but not all Equally Glorified but of this in its right place afterwards Fourthly This love of God His love of Good will is always uniform and like it selfe it hath no risings nor fallings it knows no Ebbings and flowings this immanent love is a permanent love incapable of any Intension or Remission Augmentation and Diminution or any Alteration it is always at full tide The sins of the Saints weaken not this love it loves them always at the same Rate when he casts them down this love bears them up when his anger doth condense and thicken like a Cloud upon them this love His love of Good will sits in the upper region of serenity looking with the same aspect of kindnesse still upon them when he banisheth them from his presence this love goeth with them and keeps them company when his corrective justice gives them up to sin to humble them this love sanctifies their sins and Falls to them it turns their sins to their greater Good it refines them by their pollutions it makes their Poyson a Sanative Cure to them In a word in all Gods desertions of his Saints this love of Good-will forsakes them not in respect of this love they are never deserted Secondly But of this speciall Amor Amicitiae seu Complacenciae love of God to his People there is another fragrant Sprig which is called his Love of Complacency or his Love of Friendship whereby he takes pleasure in them as sutable to him is pleased with something in them that is pleasing to him Thus he cannot take pleasure no not in his vessells of Election not as yet sanctified because they have nothing in them as yet pleasing to him It is one thing for God to wish or will the Creature well another thing for the Creature to please and delight his will God wills Nothing but what is Pleasing to him yet you must not gather thence that wicked men are therefore Pleasing to God because God them well For Bene Velle Bene Facere To will Sinners well and to doe Sinners Good is in truth a thing Pleasing to God because 't is agreeable to his mercy and yet sinners are not therefore Pleasing to him By his love of Complacency he considers something in men that doth Please him In this sence ' Paul saith Without Faith 't is Heb. 11. 6. Rom. 8. 8. impossible to Please God or be Pleasing to him and they that are in the flesh cannot Please God God by his love of Good will doth good to creatures miserable lost and no way lovely This is amor collationis His love whereby he confers beauties on them which afterwards render him amiable in his Eye and capable to please him Gods love of Good will falls upon Naked Persons Gods love of Complacency falls not
are Exceptions from the generall rule and surely Extraordinary favours doe not flow from ordinary love The Apostle saith that ' T is Appointed unto men once to die but Enoch must not die he must not go the common rode of man kind the Text saith He was translated that he should not see death he soared up to Heaven as if Adam had been taken out of Paradise before he sinned upon the wing of immortality so Elijah must receive an unparalel'd Honour die like other men he must not but God sends for him in state he Rides in his Glittering Coach drawn by Angells to the Gates of Glory Surely these were Gods Greatly beloved Sixthly God would have us love those Saints most to whom he hath given most Grace and when we love those more that are Gracious we are the more like to God Seventhly God for ought I know though some learned Heads speak the contrary gives some Saints more Glory in Heaven than he gives to others Their objective beatitude will be Beatitudo 1. Objectiva one and the same which is God himselfe One God among them all Their Receptive Beatitude that is their Participation of God will 2. Formalis as the Schoolmen speak be Equall and the same too in the Essentialls of it the Beatificall vision shall be communicated to them all they shall all have the fruition and possession of God but they shall not all drink the same measures Or if you will more Plainly thus Life eternall in the substance of it is one and the same equally given to all that are saved as by Christs Righteousnesse we are Equally justified so by his merits we are equally saved and equally made partakers of the Inheritance but in the Degrees of Glory so it is unequally distributed to some more to some lesse Different degrees of glory answering the Different degrees of grace bestowed upon his Saints in this life and proportioned to the different degrees of labor and service they have gone through for him and this is that which Ambrose saith God gives to all that are saved aequalem mercedem vitae non gloriae an equall reward of life not of glory 1. And this appears by that Expression in 1 Cor. 3. 8. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are One and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour a different reward according to their different labour he speaks of the Faithfull Servants of Jesus Christ he names himselfe and Apollo in particular himselfe as Planting and Apollo as Watering and each of them shall receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their proper reward accâ—rding to their proper labour 2. Again in 2 Cor. 9. 6. Paul tells us He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Here is a sparing reward to a sparing liberality and a bounteous reward to a bounteous liberality The Harvest answers the measure of seed he that soweth but little shall reap but little and he that soweth much shall reap more and this Harvest Paul in another place refers to the life to come Gal. 6. 6 7 8. The present time is the time of sowing the future time is the time of reaping the Harvest is the End of the Mat. 13. 39. World 3. In 1 Cor. 3. 11 15. There are Teachers that build Gold Silver Precious stones upon the Foundation and there are other Teachers that build wood hay and stubble upon the Foundation The work or Doctrine of the One will abide the fire saith the Apostle v. 14. and he shall receive a Reward but those Teachers that lay wood hay stubble upon the Foundation yet if their Errours be not damnable they shall be saved saith the Text yet their work shall be burnt and they shall suffer losse that is they shall be deprived of much of that reward they should have had and which the other shall have who build gold silver and precious stones upon the foundation Jesus Christ 4. Lastly I would fain understand that Text in Luke 16. 22. where 't is said that Lazarus was carried up by the Angells into Abrahams bosome The Expression is taken from the custome of the Jewes at their Feasts as John at supper lay in Christs bosome Therefore Abraham sits above Lazarus at the Royall Feast of Glory Abraham hath a Diguiority there beyond Lazarus I must now give you the Reasons Reas 1. And first they that have more Grace are more like him than others They bear his Image in a Greater Print Parents though they love all their Children well yet they love them most that resemble them most the Parent loves that Child most that hath most of the Parent In it as God is the Father so he is the Idaea of the Saints God is the Idaea of the Saints and the Saints are his Reflections I conceive therefore that God cannot but love them most that have most of himself in them He doth by an holy Necessity of nature love them most that have most Grace For God is holy not by will but by Nature His will is not antecedent to his holinesse 't is naturall to him to hate sin and 't is naturall to him to love Grace and therefore to love more grace with more love Reas 2. Some of the Saints love God more than others doe as some Herbes are hot in the fourth degree and otherâ— hot but in the second or third degree such are the graduall inequalities of love in the severall Saints of God some are Warme in love others are Hot in love to him All love him unfaignedly some love him Flamingly All are serious in love but some are scorcht with love to him as David My zeale saith he hath consumed me because mine enemies have forgotten thy Psal 119. 139. word His love to God was so Extream Hot that it did even Exhaust and dry up his Moysture My zeale hath consumed me Holy affections are able to work upon the body no lesse than naturall affections Tell him that I am sick of love Now Love is the curious and quaint Grace of the Soule The Queen Grace of the Soule that transports God himselfe as it were into amorous Passions when God doth but hear once that a soule is fallen in love with him his heart is wounded presently and bleeds Enamoured streams of desire after her I love them that Prov. 8. 17. love me Love delights and dwells with love and they that love most in them God dwells most they have most of his company and are Ravished most with the Heaven of his presence Reas 3. Some of the Sains seek Gods Glory with most ardent and Hyperbolicall strains of zeale above others the Rest of the Saints cannot come near them In Rom. 9. 3. There saith Paul I could wish that my selfe were accursed from Christ for my Brethren my Kinsmen according to the Flesh Pauls deep Desire of Gods Glory drowns the desire of his own Felicity This Text doth crucifie
the most learned Interpreters they know not how to understand it I shall onely take up a word of Chrysostome concerning it he saith We are so far from Pauls love that therefore we cannot understand his saying we reach not Pauls meaning because we have not his Affection and Origen saith What wonder seeing the Lord was made a Curse for his servants that his servant would become accursed for his brethren Now surely those that so highly prize Gods glory above others are beloved above others And now we are arrived at the Application Vse 1. Oh! what shall I say to sinners or what will sinners say to this Poynt I tremble when I think of them yet I can tell you what they will say their judgement is at least their report and language is that God loves them as well as the best Poor soules how are ye mistaken for First Sinners are in the dark and therefore cannot see who are their Friends or who are their Foes They cannot see whether God loves them or God hates them and because they passe safely they think that all are Friends God is their Friend and Christ is their Friend they think that Gods naked Patience is his love and that Gods meer long-suffering is his dear love they cannot distinguish they are in the Dark A man cannot read letters or manuscripts in the dark now sinners are in the dark how then can you read Gods speciall love to you Gods speciall love is written in a small print in a Spirituall Character you cannot read the prints of Spirituall love with a carnall Eye you think God loves you because you thrive in the world you think he loves you because he doth not smite you Alas alas you are in the dark For oh what a difference is there between the wrath of God and the wrath of man for men punish when they are Angry but God forbears to punish when he is angry God is more displeased when he dissembleth a fault than when he doth presently punish There is no Greater punishment than not to be punished nor yet a sharper Scourge than not to be scourged Sirs God is very Angry when he defers punishment unto Hell Secondly Again Sinners Anticipate It is the boldnesse and presumption of sinners to take unto themselves divine Priviledges before they should They say God loves us though they go on in their sins whereas they cannot know that God loves them till they come out of their sins they deceive themselves by Anticipation Oh! saith a sinner Christ dyed for me though he be not yet converted whereas he cannot possibly know that Christ dyed for him till he be converted Thus he rests in his Condition and damns his soule because he Anticipates Gods love he takes it for his own before his time Thirdly Love assimilates the object divine Love begets after its own likenesse whom God loves he stamps his image and qualities upon them As many as Rev 3. 19. I love I rebuke and chasten why so to refine them from their drosse and make them more splendid and bright like himselfe Yee Eph. 5. 8. were darknesse but now ye are light 1 John 1. 5. in the Lord why so because God is light and therefore he takes away the contrariety that they may be like to him It is the Nature of Agents to make their passives like themselves Iron is a dark and opacous body but put it into the fire and the fire will make Iron shine like it selfe Sinner God doth so if God love thee he 'll Gild thee with his own Rays upon thee and make thee shine like himselfe The coldest water fire makes it warm like its selfe God acts thus where he loves he makes the worst sinner in the world like himselfe Amicitia pares aut recipit aut facit Fourthly Again Gods love runs paralell with his word his love is of the same dimensions with his word whom his word condemns his love doth not acquit whom his word Excludes his love will not admit if his word make thee not a passe to Heaven his love will give thee no allowance Now sinner the word is against thee Be not deceived saith the word Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdome of God Sinners let me then turn this Use into Exhortation Doth God love his Saints Sinner let this principle make thee long to be a Saint First Mourn over all that time wherein thou hast lived out of the Beams of Gods love Thou hast lived in a Cold Climate all this while some of you are warm with wealth and warm with riches but you have lived all this while out of Gods blessing in the warm Sun I say Though you have lived all this while in the warm Sun yet you have lived all this while out of Gods Blessing Doe ye think God can love you in your drunkennesse or love you in your oaths and in your impurities is it possible that God who is light should take pleasure in works of darknesse No no East and West are inconsistent Antipathies will not incorporate as soon may light and darknesse be Espous'd together and midnight be married to the noon day as God Embrace a wicked soule in the Nuptiall bed of love Away away then from under the dark side of this prodigious Cloud Vita non est nisi iis quibus lux est God is life to none but them to whom he is light 'T is likenesse that breeds liking he cannot like you till he sees his likenesse on you God and sinners are opposite God is Good Sin is Evill God and Sin Good and Evill are Summa Opposita the Great and Grand Opponents of the world God is the chiefest good Sin is the chiefest Evill now that opposits may be made friends there must be a change somewhere either on Gods part or on our part God cannot change with him there is no variablenesse nor shadow of change God will not change there is no reason he should he is holinesse and goodnes it self his perfection stands in an indivisible point he must not alter a whit and therefore sinners you must be changed or you must be damned of necessity there must be a change and the change must be on our part as we see in an Instrument those strings that are out of tune are brought to them that are in so it is we that must change and alter and not God Go then and mourn over all that time wherein you have lived out of the Beams of Gods love Secondly Let this make you long to be Saints if you would be the Saints of God you should be the friends of God if you would un love your sins God would love you too You that are Great sinners come and be Great Saints and you also shall be Greatly Beloved There are two things that would make you Saints 1. Believe the Transcendent Glories and Ravishing Joyes to come 2. Make no question but they may be yours First Believe
groweth taller by far than the other so though thou art now but a child in grace to a greater Saint yet thou mayst be taller in grace one day than he is and then Gods love will be higher to thee than to him Fourthly Some Saints Excell in one grace and some in another Though some Saints over-match thee in this or that grace yet it may be thou dost out-bid them in some other graces Thus doe some reconcile those two Scriptures in 2 Kings 18. 5. there 't is said of Hezekiah that after him there was none like him among all the Kings of Judah and in 2 Kings 23. 25. there 't is said of Josiah that like unto him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart It is said of Hezekiah that after him there was no King like him yet 't is said of Josiah that before him there was no King like him How can truth stand in both these When 't is said of Hezekiah that after him there was no King like him 't is to be understood of some particular Grace especially wherein he Excelled that is his trusting in the Lord as 't is said He trusted in the Lord so that after him there was none like him they explain it thus He brake in pieces the Brazen serpent that Moses had made and in this and other acts of Reformation he met with strong opposition his Princes and great ones some of them did not like what he did and 't is probable they discourage him and tell him if you doe those things if you change these things if you change these ancient customes you will bring a world of trouble upon your selfe and the Kingdome you will make your people mutiny the Brazen serpent which you go about to stamp to powder it was of God yet saith he I care not for all you say I will doe my duty and trust God with the Issue Thus of all the Kings that were after him there was none like him in trusting in the Lord. And as for Josiah of all the Kings that were before him there was none like him in another particular his zeale for the Lord. Thus some Saints Excell in one Grace and some in another Fisthly If thou canst not attain Greatnesse in Grace yet be sure to have uprightnesse in Grace An upright Saint loves God by himselfe abstracted from the world It is to be doubted that many of us love not God abstracted from the comforts liberties and enjoyments we have with him many of us I fear would count our profission our punishment were we to suffer reproach and poverty for our profession as one that loves a woman in her fine cloaths and apparell that sets her out so doe many love God whilst he is dressed up in Rich Roabs of liberality and bounty to them these set him out to their carnall Eye but an upright Saint loves God abstracted from the world when he is disrobed of all Gifts and Bounties to them And this leads me now into the Discourse of this great man and great Saint whose Funeralls we at this time Celebrate He was a Great Man by birth he was a Great Saint by Grace and therefore Greatly beloved I shall not speak the Greatnesse and Antiquity of his Honourable Family although these shining Adjuncts set him out in brightnesse and splendour to the Eye of the world yet because they make not a man Greatly beloved in the Eye of God I shall rather speak of those Titles of Honour that are not written in Dust those things that did Greaten his Greatnesse I know he had his Humanities for we are all but men till we are Glorisied Saints and then our infirmi Parts This Country lay under a Vaile of darknesse till he began to shine He set his first choyce upon that Transcendent Holy man Mr. Peacock in Oxford but God took him to Heaven which prevented his coming to Brampton Then Providence led him to the knowledge of that now-blessed servant of God Mr. Peirson whose Exemplary Graces and Ministery shed a rich Influence abroad the Country And as God removed godly Ministers by Death he continued still a succession of them to you not onely Brampton-Brian but Ye also of Wigmore and Ye of Leyntwardine owe your very souls to Sir Robert Harley who maintained your Ministers upon his own cost that they might seed you with the Gospell of Jesus Christ 3. He was the Pillar of Religion among Us How would he countenance Godlinesse his Greatnesse Professing Christ brought Profession into Credit and cast a lustre on it Profession began to grow and spread it selfe under his shade 4. His Planting of godly Ministers and then Backing them with his Authority made Religion famous in this little corner of the world Oh! what comfortable Times had we through Gods mercy before the wars how did our Publick meetings shine with his Exemplary Presence in the midst of them 5. He would feed heartily upon the Ordinances He came with hunger to them and did afterward digest them into reall Nutriment How would his heart melt under the word and dissolve into liquid Tears I have seen him thaw and distill as the weeping Trees under the winter-Sun beams 6. He did deal much in Prayer He would Embark no undertaking till he had fought God he would frait his Vessell hoyse up the mast and spread the sailes he would not neglect the means yet he would by Prayer beg the winds and wait the Gales of Providence to set his ship a going 7. His house was an house of Prayer 't was the Center where the Saints met to seek God 8. He was noble in his liberality to the Saints in their wants Their Necessity was his Opportunity 9. He was spirited with a keen hatred of sin and prophannesse He would not I may say he could not brook it in any under his Roof he would often say He cared not for the service of one that feared not God 10. He was a friend to Gods friends They that did love God had his love Gods people were his darlings they had the Cream of his affections if any poor Christian were Crush'd by malice or wrong whither would they fly but to Sir Robert Harley 11. Againe if at any time he had been Angry he would quickly desire to be Reconciled saying We must take heed least the Devill come between 12. He loved his Children most tenderly I think no man in the world carried more of a Fathers dearnesse in him than he did yet he would never bear with any Evill in any of his Children he would often say to them I desire nothing of you but your love and that you keep from Sin 13. The soule of his Religion was sincerity he knew no End but to serve God and to be saved I shall in this place bring in a notable speech of his about a year and halfe since when a most Eminent Minister of the Land came to visit him and ask't him what