made good by him nay though they should not be freely willing to be made good yet if they do but wait upon him in the use of the means he hath appointed he will work their wills to be good tell them Christ came for that end and purpose to work a cure upon the whole Man even to take away all sin and also all the degress of it yea he will take the strongest enmity that is in the Souls of Men against himself and his wayes from them and work the hearts of his worst enemies to love him and cause those that love sin best to hate it if they do but wait at wisdoms gate and suffer the reproofs and instructions of Christ to enter into their Souls and when you have pressed their Souls with the knowledg of his goodness and see them walk on stubbornly in the way of their own hearts then say to them O my Child Servant Neighbour Friend this path thou walkest in leadeth directly to Hell it is impossible for thee in a course of wilful disobedience to be saved The Lord is Jehovah and gives Being to his Word he cannot lye nor repent Heaven and earth shall pass away but his righteousness and truth endures for ever the word is gone forth of his mouth and can never be altered he is the same forever therefore hearken to his voice or else thou must perish for ever and if you thus instruct your Children and Servants in the knowledg of God you shall by this means bring them to Eternal life or if they miss thereof they shall be altogether left without excuse it is a most excellent service that you will do their poor Souls to direct them thus in the straight way to glory for being thus instructed they cannot well miss of it if they should it would be their grievous sin It is true they may make themselves ten times more the children of Hell than they were before but that is only their own fault if after they have received the knowledg of the truth they shall wilfully turn from it this I confess is a sin of a very dangerous nature and will marvelously aggravate the sin and condemnation of such persons but let not that discourage you Charity binds you to believe that you shall save their Souls and if you do not do it yet the means hath a proper tendency in it to bring about that end and the fault will lye upon themselves only but you have delivered your own Souls and this indeed is the case of all men where the light of the Gospel comes it will prove through their own default the great condemnation of thousands and yet for all that the Gospel is a great mercy and we have great cause to be thankful for it for it hath a blessed tendency to bring us to Salvation if we through our own wickedness do not turn this grace into wantonness I shall leave thus much with you at this time commending what hath been said to the blessing of the most High THE SECOND EXERCISE John 17.3 This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent THese words have been opened the last day and one general conclusion drawn out of them which was this That the knowledge of God and of Christ is the means of eternal life This I hope was cleared to you the last time and in part applied I shall make no repetition but begin where I left and come to the uses that remain Vse 3. And the next use that we are to make of it is this if the knowledg of God be so advantagious toward the atainment of eternal life then I beseech you let us take notice of it and see the necessity of getting the knowledge thereof I wil tell you what great need you have of it Sollomon tels us we cannot be good without it Prov. 19.2 and it is evident that you can have no strength against your corruptions without it it is a most excellent means to help a man against sin yea against those sins he may be most naturally inclined to see Prov. 2.8 to the 17. He keepeth the paths of judgement and preserveth the way of his saints then shall thou understand righteousnesse and judgement and equity yea every good path saith Sollomon Yea but when shal a man have this glorious assistance to walk thus evenly and to know every good path and to be preserved and kept in so even a way it is a blessed condition indeed if a man knew how to attain it why that you shall see in the two next verses When wisdom entereth into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul descretion shall preserve thee understanding shall keep thee Take notice I pray you it is knowledge you see that must be the means to keep a man from all those evils froward dark and crooked wayes spoken of in the 12 13 14 15 verses But it may be you will say I do not find it so hard a thing to fight against all those sins I am not inclined to brawling and bitterness it is a lust of another nature that I am troubled withall wantonness is my sin that I am most apt to fall into espescially when I meet with fit companions if I fall into an harlots company then am I presently snared Now read the 16 verse and you shall see what a bulwork the knowledge of God is against the danger of such a sinfull temptation mark it I pray you to deliver thee saith he from the strange woman even from the stranger which flattereth with her words You see Beloved how strongly a man is fortified against the strongest temptation that is furnished with this precious grace Harlots have tricks to speak with their eyes and this is temptation enough to a man inclined to that sin but when she shall be so impudent as to speak plain english and fall to flatter a man with words now the temptation is much stronger but yet you see this means will keep a man in such a time and this is the reason of it the knowledg of God works that faith in a man and that fear of God and brings the soul into acquaintance and sweet communion together with him so that a man will not grieve the spirit of Christ nor break company with him for all the pleasures in the world and look how it is in this so it will be in any other case whatsoever if there be any corruption that a man finds harder to be mortified then ordinary it will help him against it and without this you must not look to get victory over sin specially those sins or that same one curruption that is more then ordinarily strong for you most know that the Divell can tie a man fast enough with one cord and keep him as fast in prison when there is one door locked upon him as if there were twenty now you cannot expect help out of his paw without the
best abilities that these times do afford but only for these reasons I have now done it First I find some such motions flying abroad both in discourse and in print about this subject which in my judgement savours not well Secondly I do not find able men men of knowledg such as I would be glad to provoke to this work so forward to bring forth light as others to bring forth darkness and if they have it is more than I know Thirdly the matter I have spoken to fell in my way and I thought I might do well and it was my duty to bring forth my Mite in such a time as this wherein I find so many casting vails over the Name of Christ and of the Holy Spirit now therefore I do beseech you seriously to consider of that which hath been said unto you take heed of looking upon our Lord Jesus as a meer Creature lest your Faith fail you in the day of Temptation if the work of Redemption be but considered how great it is what a price must be laid down before this work could be done and that Law which in that condition in which man once stood would have been his life now he cannot expect nothing from it as the case standeth but only death but all the life and pardoning Grace that now cometh to poor man comes only through the Blood of the Lord Jesus now except a man know the worth and all-sufficiency of Christ that he is perfectly able to remove all the Curses which his sins have deserved and also able to procure him all the blessings his soul stands in need of it will be very hard if not altogether impossible to rest upon him in the day of tryal and so likewise when a man shall come to see what a great work it is to change the heart of man to subdue sin and to sanctifie the soul and when he shall see the barrenness of his heart in the graces and fruits of the Spirit of Christ also and withall considers what a degree of perfection all those are brought unto that inherit Eternal life and then minds that the Spirit of God is he that hath undertaken to carry on this hard and to man this impossible work If now he be not established in the knowledg and firm belief of this that the Holy Spirit that carries on this work is the only true God I say except a man beleeve and know this he can have little ground to hope or beleeve that ever it will come to perfection but wherefore should any men be so hardly brought to beleeve this me thinks it is for want of consideration the scriptures you know speaks of the Spirit of God in some places and in other places of the Spirit of Christ should we therefore be so weak as to think that the Father hath one Spirit Christ another but now if we must needs understand that the Spirit of God the Spirit of Christ is but one Spirit wherefore should we not as well believe that God the Spirit of God are all one likewise then Beloved if the Spirit of Christ and the Father be one and God and the Spirit of God one then wherefore should we think that the Godhead of Christ and of the Father are more than one but I shall press this no further but come now to make some Use of it Vse 1. And if it be so that there is one and but one only true God who is the fountain and perfection of all Power Wisdom Truth and goodness who alone made Heaven and Earth the seas and all the Hosts of Creatures that are contained in them and on whose meet grace and love depends the happiness and well-being of all things whatsoever whos 's all seeing eye beholds all the secrets of all hearts and whose Eternal invisible unchangeable Almighty and Omni-present Being fills the whole Creation but is not contained in it who is worthy of all honour service praise and worship from all Creatures for evermore I say if this be so then let this God be our God let us have no other but him alone to be our God I shall not trouble you nor my self with that foolish Generation of men that use to picture him up and to set him forth by such vain Images as their hands can make I hope you are past this absurd and foolish practice but I pray you beware that you set up no. Idols of him in your minds Oh do not suffer any thought or imagination of him to come or to rest within your hearts that is low or carnall take heed that you do not liken him to any thing that ever your eyes have seen but let your thoughts be of him acording unto that glorious discription that his own boly records give of him let high reverence and honour love and holy fear accompany every thought that comes into your minds of his most excellent and glorious Name be sure you chuse him for your chiefest good let him be your only Diadem and the Crown which your hearts have chosen for your chiefest treasure be sure that you do not esteem love nor honour any relation or thing whatsoever as you do this most High and only true God for if you do you commit Idolatry against him who is a jealous God and will not give his glory to another and therefore beware for whatsoever any man doth set up and in heart esteeme love or honour above God or equall with him sets up another God and shall be reckoned amongst Idolaters and such as have committed spiritual whoredom against him when Christ shall come to judg every man according to his works But I shall more particularly come to shew you something of the honour that is due to this only true God in setting some of those duties before you which in especial you owe to him First then give him this honour to yeeld up your hearts unto him to love him above all things whatsoever this use Moses makes of this point Deut. 6.45 hear O Israel saith he the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might Here you see what is due to God even love in the very height of it the whole heart soul might is all little enough for God no creature must come between the heart and God neither wife nor child nor pleasure nor profit for if there be any thing in the world that a man loves better than God or as well as he this is no less a sin than the setting up of another God therefore look to your hearts in these two special cases when the glory of God comes in competition either with a mans beloved relations or his beloved sins if he cannot cast them both away for the honour of his God he is unworthy of him see I pray you what our Lord Jesus saith to this point Luke 14.26 If any man come
Redemption as well as undertook it I say if Christ should have left the work in the midst as his poor Disciples through their ignorance would have had him there could never have been so great a mercy extended neither to them not to any others as the coming of the Holy Spirit and therefore our Lord tells them he must go or else the Comforter will not come now the reason wherefore the Spirit is said to be sent to do so many good Offices for the Saints is not to make us think that he is an inferior Messenger but to let us know that all that joy and comfort peace and sanctification and in a word all that Grace that is extended through the Divine operation of the Holy Spirit it all comes unto us through the blood-shedding of our Lord Jesus Christ and truly my Brethren if you do but consider the work of the Spirit in the hearts of Men me thinks it is enough to convince you or any knowing men in the world that he that doth it must needs be God If a man be but an experienced man and doth but mind the great blindness that is in the mind and the hardness that is in the heart and doth but consider how the soul is in slaved under the power of sin and Sathan living in the love and service of Wickedness being alienated from the life of God being far from the fear and love of him having no delight in his Commandements but being ungodly and graceless dead in trespasses and sins and then on the other hand considers what an Estate the soul must be brought unto before it can be fit for eternal communion with God If a person do but thus mind the greatness of the work the Spirit is to do in taking away the filth and pollution of the heart and cleansing the whole man from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and the renuing of the soul in knowledg and holiness and making it meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Now I say what man that hath Prayed and fasted and watched and used all the means he can and yet finds in what a frame his heart continueth how far from that purity and God-like-ness that one day he hopeth to enjoy but now which way could a man expect it if he that had undertaken the work were not infinite in Power Wisdom and Goodness for my part I look upon this work as the greatest of all those wonderful works that God hath done or hath promised to do and therefore it is not likely that the greatest of all works should be laid upon the shoulders of him that is less than God Again if you look Psalm 139. there you shall find that the Prophet ascribes both Omni-presence and the searching of the heart unto the Holy Spirit which plainly speaks out his being God and Rom. 9 1. you find Paul calling the Holy Ghost to bear witness of the truth of his heart sorrow for his Brethren the Israelites which plainly proves that he is God See two Texts for this 1 King 8.39 For thou even thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men the same words you have in 2 Chron. 6.30 in both which places you see it is the peculiar prerogative of the only true God to know the hearts of the sons of men and I think no man is or at least should be so weak as to think the Apostle would call him to bear witness of the truth of the heart that doth not understand and know the heart I shall name you but one Text more for this and that is Luke 1.35 And the Angel answered and said unto her the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Here you see that the Holy Spirit is called the highest and I think a title beyond this is not given any where nor cannot be given to the only true God but besides the Angel tells Mary that the Holy Ghost shall come upon her and by the power of him she should conceive and therefore this Son of hers should be called the Son of God Now therefore me thinks this should put the business beyond all dispute for if the Holy Spirit be the Father of our Lord Jesus sure he cannot be less than the only true God But it may be you will say unto me How shall all this that I have said be reconciled Can the Father be God and the Son be God and the Holy Spirit be God and yet there be but one only true God Beloved I pray you do not cast away an Opinion because it is old neither do I perswade you to receive it therefore but measure all Opinions both old and new by the measuring line of Truth the Word of God unto which I shall leave you for the tryal of this great mystery of godliness and shall commend two Texts more unto you for the reconciling of what hath been said the one is in 1 Tim. 3.16 Great is the mysterie of godliness God was manifest in the flesh Here me thinks the Apostle shews you how all this is reconcileable God was manifest in the flesh saith he not the Godhead of Christ without the Father and without the Spirit but God saith He was manifested in the flesh that is the God-head as it is written Iohn 10.30 I and my Father are one not only in communion as some may think but also in union and One-ness as it is plain Iohn 14 9 10 11. another Text you have in Col. 2.3 9. In whom speaking of Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg Mark it I pray you if all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg be hid in Christ then are you like to find none of them out of him but all the wisdom of the Father and of the Spirit it will be all found in Christ as it followeth here in verse 9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the God head bodily I know not how you can have more express and plain words all the fulness of the Father and of the Spirit if that be the fulness of the God-head you see dwells in Christ that is it hath such a real union an One-ness with the humane nature of the Lord Jesus that in Act. 20.28 his Blood is there called the Blood of God I shall leave these Texts of Scriptures to your serious consideration and proceed no further at this time but leave the Application till the Afternoon THE FIFTH EXERCISE John 17.3 This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent I Have in the morning from these words as you know opened the Doctrine of the God-head unto you a work which I have not been forward in nor should I have medled with it being a work of an high nature and requireth the
man can never be disappointed by trnsting in him for he is a Rock on whom you may rest with full assurance all those that trust in him shall never be ashamed therefore trust in him at all times and for all things that your souls stand in need of you may go to him for it not only by Prayer but also by dependance whatever your wants be whether you want pardoning or purging mercy or sanctifying grace or outward things in all cases whatsoever trust perfectly and fully upon him without fear for a supply of all your wants for he is the only true God that is to say he is the fulness and perfection of all power wisdom mercy truth and goodness whatsoever and one that can no more disappoint the soul that trusteth in him than he can cease to be God but I beseech you take heed that you trust in no other person nor thing whatsoever but only in him for if you do you commit Idolatry against him therefore set up no other gods to your selves I pray you see what the Prophet saith to this case Jer. 17.5 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord here you may see how this sin is cursed of trusting in man it would make one tremble to fall under the curse of the Holy Spirit what is the matter that procureth this Curse why the sin is trusting in man and that is a very grievous sin for it is a making flesh his arm that is his strength and that is to set up another god as you may see in the words following and whose heart departeth from the Lord mark it I pray you when a man depends upon the Creature for any thing that is proper for God to give this is to ascribe that to the Creature which is due to God and it is a very high degree of sin to depart from the Lord and that in heart and to rest upon the Creature for help instead of God it is plainly to deny him and to honour the Crearure and that in heart with the greatest honour that can be given to the Lord for it is to acknowledg the Creature to have both power and mercy to help in time of need and to deny it to be found in God see Psalm 62.10 11 12. If riches encrease set not your hearts upon them but what if we should wherein lies the sin note it I pray you the sin is great and lies in this that a man saith in his heart there is both power and mercy in Riches to help me and this saith the Prophet only belongeth unto God as it followeth in the next words Now therefore I pray you trust in nothing but in the living God neither for spiritual nor for temporal things Oh I depend neither upon Friends nor Riches no nor yet upon wisdom nor strength nor trade nor any thing in the world that is below the only true God But you will say what is it to trust in these things I would not willingly do it for I know it is a sin I answer when a man promiseth himself comfort from any thing whatsoever he trusteth in it let him say what he will to the contrary as for example when a man thinketh thus in his heart I have a Friend that will not see me want or I have a good Trade or so much Riches or Land therefore it shall go well with me this man trusteth in these things or whosoever promiseth himself Bread to eat or Clothes to put on from any other ground save only this the power mercy and truth of God he having undertaken to provide for him trusteth in that thing whatever it is therefore let Rich men especially remember Pauls charge in 1 Tim. 6.17 and look well to their hearts that they do not trust in their Riches no not for Bread for to morrow but only in the promises of the living and only true God The fourth duty that you owe to this only true God is obedience this use Moses makes of this point Deut. 4.39.40 the Lord saith he s God both in Heaven and in earth there is none else and what follows Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes and his Commandements I pray you observe it his Commandements must be obeyed that is all of them you must obey for if you should obey some of them and leave the rest undone the Lord would never take it well at your hands no Beloved you must give up your selves to walk universally obedient unto all the Commandements He that shall break one of the least of them Mat. 5.19 shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven that is that shall allowedly and wilfully break the least of them God looks to be obeyed in all things whatsoever you know to be a duty although it be never so small or never so contemptible you must yeild obedience to it or whatever you can come to know to be a duty hereafter you must have your hearts in a ready frame to obey when you do come to know or can come to know more or whatever you know or can come to know to be a sin you must avoid and mortifie there must be no bearing with any sin no nor with any corruption if it bring never so much profit or never so much pleasure all must be cast away that is contrary to his most holy will and all this is to be done willingly or else the Lord accepteth it not the Lord looks for the whole heart and therefore if you do dot willingly and in love to God yeild up your selves to live to him in all things he will not account it sincere obedience And as you must take heed you obey no sin so likewise you must obey no Creature but in the Lord therefore if the Magistrate or thy Husband Master or Father Landlord or whosoever commandeth thee to do any thing that is not according to the will of God let this be an everlasting Law to thee in all such cases obey God rather than men but if any that hath authority over thee shall command any thing which is lawful and may be done without scruple of Conscience in all such cases thou art to yeild ready and willing obedience unto them as unto Christ And the last but not the least duty that I shall now press upon you is this Take heed that you learn of no man or men what worship you must give unto God nor after what manner it must be performed but learn all this of the Lord himself get a ground from the Scriptures for all the Doctrines that you receive for truth I say get a ground for them in your own understandings and all the wo ship of God both for matter and manner and all the circumstances thereof see that it be grounded upon the word of truth if you would be sure not to commit Idolatry then take heed of being lead by the judgements of men in any of
the same thing in the words immediately going before but for the Readers fake I shall bring up that in the rear which should have been in the front if I had had the least thought of writing and for the understanding of this word eternal life you are to know that it is called so by reason of that opposition it hath with that state of death and misery in which the ungodly suffer eternall torments that is called death by reason of the woe and sorrow that must for ever be indured and this is called life by reason of that happiness and comfort that shall eternally be enjoyed Observe then that this word eternal life sets forth unto us the blessedness of that eternal glory which the saints shall for ever enjoy hereafter in the presence of the Lord as you have it Acts 3.19 I shall endeavour to set something of that happiness before you and for that end I pray you take notice that eye hath not seen nor eare heard neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive how exceeding glorious that estate is which the Lord hath prepared for those that truly beleeve but although it is impossible to set forth the glory of it as Pauls words do clearly imply 2 Cor. 12.1 2 3 4. yet the Scriptures do speak very much of the glory of it although it may be when a soul shall come to see it he will say the one half was never told him First then consider what David saith of it Psalm 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore You see whither the path of life will lead a man it goeth directly into the presence of God and there is fulness of joy saith the Prophet mark it that is a full word indeed to express the fulness of a mans happiness Oh the blessedness of a man that knows God and Jesus Christ and walks up to that knowledg he shall have fulness of joy First he shall have nothing to hinder his joy but all sickness sorrow griefe and troubles of all kinds shall be removed a man shall have never an ill neighbour there to vex him nor any creature that shall speak a word to grieve him but all his companions shall be holy and spiritual such as will perfectly love God and love him and rejoice in his happiness with perfect joy there be shall never see nor hear either person or thing that shall minister the least discomfort or trouble to him none that will backbite or speak kinder then his heart thinketh will ever be found in that place no divel shall come there to tempt nor snare to turn the heart aside from God but there shall be perfect freedom from all manner of molestation whatsoever and contrarily there shall be the fulness of all joy and peace holiness and love there shall be no want of any comfort no nor of any degree of comfort that the heart of man can possibly desire Peter speakes of a joy unspeakable and full of glory that beleevers meet withal here 1 Pet. 1.8 and Paul calls that fame sealing testimony of the Spirit the earnest of our inheritance Ephos 1.13 14. now if the Lord do give such tastes of the cup of consolation in this life to some poor beleevers as those texts do plainly intimate he doth what then may we think their portion shall be when they shall come home to their inheritance I shall give you an instance in one poor soul that I knew who being in anguish of spirit for some two years together and having sought the Lord with sorrow and tears many a time at last being in the fields in the night weeping and praying it pleased the Lord to manifest his love wonderfully and by his spirit to open the sweet promises of the Gospel and to seal up his love in the promises with that clearness of assurance and exceeding joy that untill that time that soul could never think that heaven it self would have yeelded that fulness of joy and consolation but doubtlesse that soul never yet nor any other that is this day on earth ever tasted more then an earnest penny of the fulness of that glory that shall be injoyed in the life to come Another note in the text observable is this that these pleasures are to be injoyed at the right hand of God which plainly intimates thus much unto us That the Lord will put forth his wisdome mercy and all sufficiency in the glorifying of those persons that shall be accounted worthy of that kindome for so much the right hand signifieth for there you know the strength lieth and there we use to set the persons we highly favour and would put the greatest honour upon that we know how There is one thing more in this text worth noting and that is this word for evermore that is it that exceedingly adds to the fulness of this glory that it is of an everlasting continuance so that as there shall be a freedome from all sin snare temptation trouble or whatsoever might produce complaint or cause any degree of sorrow and likewise an injoyment of all those comforts that the heart of man can possibly wish or desire So also there shall be no fear no nor ground of fear that ever this blessed estate shall change or fade but remain sure and durable to all eternity Oh consider of the worth and glory of this happy condition when the souls company and injoyments shall both be perfect Another text that I would pray you to mind is in 1 Cor. 15.49 the words are these and as we have born the Image of the earthy we shall also bear the Image of the heavenly Indeed if it were not for that which lies in this promise all the rest of a mans injoyments could not be so exceeding comfortable unto him for what would it be to a man to see all his company holy and spiritual full of love joy and peace being free from all the stain and appearance of evil if he himself should be corrupt and remain still burthened with the same degrees of sin and supjectness to transgression as I fear the best of Saints do find themselves inclined and subject to while they are here But this shall be the great happiness of the Saints that after the resurrection they shall be made fully conformable to their heavenly condition and company bearing the Image of Christ as they have born old Adams image that is they shall bear it as truly and as fully being made as like him as ever they were like Adam Now it is evident unto us all how like Adam we have been having all those lusts in our hearts that ever were in his having as little delight in God and desire of heaven and being as barren and destitude of all spiritual grace as he but then we shall be made fully like our Lord Jesus as free from all carnallity errour and
sin as he is and as heavenly minded spiritual and as full of love to God and to holyness as he else alass if a poor soul should go clog'd and fettered into heaven with such a degree of corruption as he carrieth about with him here his condition would be very uncomfortable for if he should come into the presence of a holy God the holy Angels and Saints made perfect and in all this heavenly company should not see one soul but such as are perfect in love and holyness but he himself unlike them corrupt and sinful it could not chuse but break his heart but now this shall be the great consolation of all the saints that as their injoyments society and condition is in all respects holy happy and perfect so also shall their hearts be there shall be no degree of blindness in the understanding at that day but the judgment will be able to see the worth of Christ of grace of holyness and of all that happiness which it doth injoy esteeming of it according to the riches of its worth and glory the affections will be perfectly set upon the love of God and his people and that holy and heavenly condition in which they are shall be perfect satisfaction to them their wils shall be perfectly conformed to the will of God and not the least dreg or stain of sin shall be left in the whole soul No lust shall remain in the eye nor in the eare nor in any of the members in the least degree but the whole man shall be made meet to injoy communion with the Lord and an inheritance among all them that are sanctified and for their bodies the scriptures tels us that they shall be like the Lord Jesus Christs own most glorious body shining as the son in the kingdome of their father Oh consider of the sixeetness of this heavenly estate how full of comfort it is when a poor soul that in this life it may be did never see a good day but hath been tormented with hateful lusts and strange temptations and oppressed with many and great afflictions shall be taken into a condition of freedome from all pain sickness trouble fear temptation sin where he shall hunger no more nor thirst no more where there is no tears nor any person or thing that can for ever offend or greive him And also on the other hand is come to injoy as much peace joy love and comfort and whatsoever the heart can wish or desire in all fulness and is past the fear and danger of loseing these comforts or any degree of them for ever but is sure to injoy them to all eternity how full I say of consolation will such a soul be I pray you let us think of it and make some due improvement of this precious truth Vse 1. And in the first place if it be so that their is such a blessed condition prepared for poor beleevers that is so exceeding excellent and glorious then let your hearts be set upon it and do not suffer the vanities of this present life to steal away the heart from this most glorious and eternal inheritance Beloved it becomes you to be heavenly minded you will get a great deal of advantage by it it will marvellously strengthen you in the way of obedience and of sufferings you have two clear examples set before you by the author to the Heb. 11.24 25 26. there the Spirit of God tels us by what means Moses became so able to forsake the glory of this world and to chuse afflictions among the people of God 't is there manifested to be through the exercise of faith upon that glorious reward that he had respect unto and in Rom. 12 2 there we have an exhortation to follow the example of our Lord to take the same course that he did to hold out in a way of obedience and sufferings and that the author there tels us was by looking unto the joy that was set before him therefore I pray you let us follow these blessed patterns that have gone before us let us tread in their steps if we mean to come to the same place where they now are Beloved if the Lord Jesus himself his servant Moses had need of this cordial to strenthen them to the doing and suffering of what they were to do to meet withal in this life how much more had we need to use the same means therefore let your hearts be set upon this heavenly inheritance and to that end that your affections may be raised to mind and to desire the things that are above I pray you get as clear a sight as possibly you can of the glory of that rich inheritance now although you cannot see this glory with these bodily eyes yet saith can see within the vail and can make absent things present therefore set that to work to consider of the glorious discriptions the Scriptures give of this crown of glory those texts that have been named already will much help you herein and many others I might name Peter tels us that in consideration of the exceeding joy we shall partake of when the glory of Christ shall be revealed there is cause of rejoycing now even when we are under fiery trials and so we see in the case of Paul and Silas Acts 16.24 25. that when one might expect to have found them weeping for sorrow of heart by reason of those bitter afflictions that they then lay under then were they singing for joy of heart by reason of that glorious hope they had by faith a sight of which hope Paul in 2 Cor. 4.17 calls an exceeding and eternal weight of glory I pray you meditate upon these texts and such like as you may find many in the Scriptures that you may have your hearts affected with this heavenly condition and if you would see the glory of this condition and be affected with it then keep the heart and life as clean from all manner of sin as it is passible likewise for sin is of a blinding as well as of a heardening nature and if you let out your hearts unto it it will surely corrupt the soul and hinder and disable it that it cannot rellish those things that are of a heavenly nature therefore take heed of sin and of all the means that lead to it for if once you give up your selves unto any sin it will so blind and alienate the heart from God and from heavenly things that you will not be capable to be wonne by the promises of eternal life neither will you see a beauty in them and as it is with sin so is it likewise with the things of this world if the heart be set upon them they will steal it away from the things that be above therefore take heed that you let not out your hearts too freely to the most lawful pleasures and profits that be for if you do surfeit upon them they will keep out the love and desire of
remissiion of sins and I know I may look to the free grace of God in Christ for grace as well as for glory and also for all other things my soul stands in need of Thus beloved a knowing soul will be able to rest up on the free grace of God in Christ although he see nothing at all but unworthiness in himself I do not say that every one that knows a little can do it but he that knows what may be known with dilligent search and therefore when you see your souls in distress and anguish of spirit and dare not beleeve you may safely conclude that although all that which they say against themselves be never so true and much more yet that is not the cause wherefore they do not beleeve but their ignorance of God is the true cause thereof Now beloved in the next place I shall come to shew you how the knowledge of God will keep men from presumption also and I pray you consider it Where the wisdom and truth of God and his soveraignty is known a person cannot go on in a course of disobedience for he very well knows that God cannot act below himselfe nor contrary to his Nature and Being and that he cannot lie nor alter the word that is gone forth of his mouth but the destruction of him that goes on in his sins wilfully and presumptuously is as unalterable as God himself for he cannot deny himself but he and his Word and all his Decrees are one there is no changing of God Beloved we are apt to mistake the Decrees of God and to take them for some secret things which do not belong to us indeed those decrees that are secret they do not belong to us and therefore let us not meddle with them by no means but his decrees that concern the salvation and damnation of the sons of Adam are revealed in the promises and in the threatnings of the Scriptures and are written for our warning and instruction therefore let us look to it for if we be found in those obstinate and rebellious courses that God hath threatened with destruct on that decree purpose and will of his shall never be altered for the sake of any man no nor for the sakes of all the men in the world now he that knows this dares not neglect his own salvation nor put off repenting and turning to God nor give up himself to work wickedness for he knows the danger thereof So that a knowing person you see is led to the obedience of faith as it were by a straight line that he cannot well go out of his way it is with a man that knows God my beloved as it is with a man that is put in a way that he cannot well go out of if you should say to a man friend keep you in this straight path go not out of it there is an hedge on your right hand all the way to the Town you are going and a River on your left hand now if the man should miss his way every one would wonder because his direction was so good So great an advantage an help hath a man to eternal life that hath the knowledg of God if he go out of the way to it it must be by an act of very great wilfulness Thus I hope I have opened this point plainly to all your understandings I shall now therefore come to the applycation of it Vse 1. And in the first place this Doctrin may serve to condemn and reprove that greivous sin of Ignorance it is lamentable to see the greatest part of men and women a mongst us so utterly void of the knowledg of God O the gracelesness and carelesness of men generally how are they hardened against their own souls I pray you consider the greatness of the sin Beloved it must needs be a great sin first because the Lord hath very plainly manifested himself and his Son in his word beloved those things that concern our salvation most immediately are the most plainly revealed in the Word there be some things hard it is true but these things are not so hard that are spoken of God and of Christ it is plain in the Scriptures that God is a God of Justice Wisdom Power Truth Mercy invisible eternal unchangeable one that knows the heart and the reines and the like and that Jesus Christ hath died for sinners and that we are bound to live to him that died for us and that he came to call sinners to repentance and that those that beleeve and obey the Gospel shall have eternal life these truths are very plain but although they be so yet evident it is that the greatest number among us are ignorant of these things altogether But further this adds to the sin that there is a great deal of means now more then hath been formerly to bring men to knowledge and it is altogether neglected or else hearkened to so carelesly that the Word is preached to the most of men altogether in vaine I am perswaded that if there were never a Word of God written at all nor any other means to know the Lord by left us but only the workes of creation and providence if that these works of his were humbly and wisely considered of they would reveal more of the glory of God then the most part among us do know notwithstanding the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shining a mongst us O therefore consider you that are ignorant of God how inexcusable and horrible your sin is what mean you to let the love of pleasure and profit sin and vanity eat out the love of God yea and of your own souls to O how will you appear before the Lord one day that have slighted the knowledg of him well let us pitty these men and mourn for them if we cannot perswade them to seek after God I am afraid the saints do not with Jeremiah weep in secret for these men nor with David gush out rivers of tears for the sin they live in and the misery that will come upon them O let us pray for them and be so much the more earnest by how much they are less sensible of there misery Vse 2. Secondly If this be so that the knowledg of God hath so gracious a tendency to bring a person to Eternal life then be sure you make your Children and those that are under your charge know the Lord. Beloved I speak to those that know him themselves I say to you make him known to all you can or to all you have an opportunity to speak to let your Children and Servants know what a God of mercy he is yea of free grace that looks to find no holiness nor repentance no nor one good qualification in those he seeks to save But he will work all these in the hearts of those that come unto him although they be never so bad that will not hinder their acceptation with God if so be they be but willing to be
to me and hate not his father and mother wife and children brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple Mark it beloved here you see how far you must exceed in your love to God above the love that you ought to bear to any even the dearest thing in the whole world unto you our Saviour you see gives us to know that when Parents or Children wife or life the which nothing can be dearer comes in competition with Christ we must be so far from loving any of them above the Lord that we must in comparison of the love we bear to him indeed hate them lesse cannot be in the words then this much if so be as if Christ should say freinds when it comes to that that you cannot enjoy the neer and dearest thing that you have in the world upon which your hearts are most set without doing something that will be contrary to my will and glory rather than you should sin against me or dishonour my holy Name you ought to forsake them and cast them away as if you did not love them at all but rather hate them and all this is to be done through that exceeding love that I look you should bear to me beyond what you ought to have for all those things that are most dear unto you and may in a measure be beloved of you Thus it ought to be but I pray you examine how it is whether you do thus love him or no or whether there be not some relation or else which is worse some vanity or sin that hath stolen the greatest part of your affiections from God look to your hearts I beseech you and take heed that you be not found amongst those men that are lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God or in some other such like sin nay suppose it be a child or some other dear relation that thou preferrest before the glory of God take heed thou pay not as dear for this sin as Eli did his sin was this that he preferred the honour of his Sons before the honour of God and therefore must both his Sons fall by the Sword in one day beside what fell both upon himself and upon his house for ever Mark also what Moses saith to Aaron his brother Levit. 19.3 upon the occasion of the death of his two sons this is it that the Lord hath said I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified Which is as much as if Moses should say thy sons have dishonour'd God and therefore for the glorifiying of his own Name he hath out them of and the text saith that Aaron held his place shewing thereby his great respect to the honour of God that if the dearest things he had were taken away if it did but make for the glory of God he had not then one word to say here is a very worthy example I pray you let us follow it and if we see at any time that any thing that is never so dear unto us must be taken away if it make for the honour and glory of God yeeld it up with all willingness and be sure that what ever you give him else give him the heart for with less then that he will not be pleased The next duty that I shall lay before you is the fear of God I pray you consider what a great deal of reason you have to fear this most glorious and only true God and to fear him only for he it is that can do you good or hurt he can do either and none in the World can hinder him if God undertake to be a mans defence all the world cannot hurt him although they put forth their utmost power for the Lord will find out a thousand wayes to deliver a man from the strongest Tyrant in the world likewise if the Lord set himself against a man there is no delivering of him forth of his hand all the power and wisdom in the world cannot do it therefore stand in awe of him and do not let the fear of man cause you to turn out of the way of the Lord it is much better for to make all the men in the world your enemies yea even your dearest Friends and all rather than God But I pray you fear him as God not slavishly but as it becomes Children let the fear and dread of his great Name awe your hearts continually and remember that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but withall consider his love and compassions to sinners his wisdom and faithfulness as well as his righteousness and power that your fear of him may be mixed with love to him and confidence in him that so a child-like reverence and an humble awe may be continually upon your hearts and take heed that the fear of man do not snare you remember what Isaiah saith to this Isai 51 12.13 Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the Son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the earth here you see how the Prophet reasons us out of this sin First he asketh Who he is that fears man intimating that it is some strange Creature some coward or fool one that hath strangely forgot himself and he shews the Reason First the man shall dye that is feared and therefore a foolish thing to fear him that shall neither live to reward him nor to punish him Secondly he shall be made as grass and what wise man would fear so vain a thing as grass a powerless creature that can neither help nor hurt a man Thirdly and that which makes the sin very great is this that while a man fears man he forgets God Now there be three Considerations more in this thirteenth verse that should keep up the fear of God in the heart and should likewise keep down the fear of man First he is our Maker Secondly He stretcheth out the Heavens Thirdly He layeth the foundations of the earth As if the Prophet should say if a man would consider the workmanship of God when he looks to the Heavens or when he looks to the earth and considers the glorious works that God hath done in both or if a man did but look upon himself and consideringly mind how he is made and who is his Maker he would never be so foolish as to suffer the fear of man so to prevail to the eating out of the fear of God out of the heart but would walk alwayes in the fear of him who is alone to be feared and meet to be had in special reverence of all that comes about him But I shall proceed to the third duty and that is dependance upon this only true God Beloved there is no other that you can trust in but in him you may trust safely a
these things neither do you follow the imaginations of your own hearts in these things but labour to get a distinct understanding in your own souls of whatsoever is to be beleeved for Doctrine or for whatsoever is to be practised in matters of worship for if you walk in darkness you will walk uncomfortably but if you walk in the light and knowledg of his will your walking wil both please him and bring much comfort and peace to your own Soul Vse 2. But I shall now speak one word to provoke those wretched man thet live without God in the world to consider of their condition and so conclude I beseech you my dear friends do not live still so estranged from the life of God neither do you go on to abuse his mercy and loving-kindness from day to day as you have done but let the goodness and long-suffering of the Lord lead you to Repentance you have heard what a God of Holiness power wisdom goodness and faithfulness he is yea what an eternal unchangeable invisible infinite Being he is you have heard something both of his Name and of his Works and much more is to be known and may be known of him in the Word of Truth and will you continue so unthankful and ungodly abusing this grace and love of God who hath manifested himself in his holy Word that you might come to the knowledg of him and so to salvation and do not you think it a most grievous sin to live as many of you do as void of the knowledg of him as those that never heard of his written Word it is a most unthankful abuse of his goodness O where would such men be glad to hide themselves at the great Day even under a Rock if they did know how to get under it and as for many of those that cannot chuse but know something of God how unanswerable to that little knowledg that they have do they walk neither loving nor fearing his great Name having no respect at all to his worship nor to any of his Commandements nor trusting in him at all no more than if he had never made them any promises Beloved how evident be these things notwithstanding all that God hath made known of himself unto men yet how little love have they for him and how little zeal for his glory loving pleasure profit yea sin it self better than God fearing the frowns of men more than the displeasure of him and trusting in the promises of their honest Neighbours yea in a little durty wealth or any vanity in the world rather than in the power and truth of God casting his worship and Commandements behind their backs as if they owed him no service now I pray you bethink your selves how you shall appear before the Lord at the great Day and how he will take it at your hands that you should live so prophane a life being alienated from the life of God and rooted and hardened in all wickedness as if you had never known nor heard of the Name of God Oh Repent in time and thankfully imbrace that means of grace which God in the riches of his mercy doth yet afford unto you and so much I shall commend to your consideration and to the blessing of the Almighty THE SIXTH EXERCISE John 17.3 And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent I Shall now come to speak to this third and last general Head in this Text namely the Lords sending of Jesus Christ and for this end and purpose that I may proceed both with brevity and plainness I shall proceed in this order First I shall shew you the excellency of the person of Christ even as he is the Son Secondly I shall clear it unto you by the Scriptures how that Jesus Christ had a Being with the Father in glory before the world was and from thence was sent into the world to take upon him our Nature Thirdly I shall endeavour to set before you the ends of his coming into the world And now for the first of these I pray you take notice that the Scriptures in many places do exalt the Lord Jesus above all other Creatures whatsoever I shall name you some few of them look Hebrews 1. the whole Chapter but especially note two or three passages in the beginning he is there said to be appointed heir of all things and to be the brightness of his Fathers glory and to be made much better then the Angels which word made better must needs have respect to his Creature-nature also he is there said to be him by whom God did make all things and doth uphold them And in the Revelations 3.14 he is called the beginning of the Creation of God and in Col. 1.15 16 17. he is called the first-born of every Creature all things are said to be created by him and for him and he to be before them that by him they all consist So that from these and other like Texts I gather that God did first create the Spirit of Christ filled him with his own glory and then by him brought forth the whole creation I say that Spirit of Christ which afterward took flesh of the Virgin Mary and so became true man was the first and the choicest piece of all the workman-ship of God for you must know that Christ had a created Spirit that was set up and brought forth and brought up with the Lord and was by him before any of his other works had a Being Prov. 8.22 to the 30. and this is he that the Lord possessed in the beginning of his way and is the same that talked with Abraham and that Abraham made intercession to for Sodom Gen. 18. and that brought the children of Israel through the wilderness and is the same that God commandeth them to obey Exod. 23.20 21 22 23. But this I shall say no more to now but come to the second particular and that is to shew you that the Lord Christ was sent from the bosom of the Father into the world for us you will see this plain in many places I wil name you some of them John 3 13. No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man The words are very plain the son of man you see came down from heaven and in the 31. ver He that cometh down from heaven is above all he that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth he that cometh from heaven is above all I pray you mark it Christ is here opposed to all other men in this that they are from the earth but he is from heaven yea as he is the son of man he is from heaven but if he had received his first beginning in the womb of the Virgin as well in respect of his spirit as in respect of his body he could no more have been said to have been sent
bring him into acceptation with God but only through the worthiness of the Lord Jesus Again there is that weakness in poor man that he is no way able to help himself he can neither repent beleeve nor obey no nor get any Grace into his own heart nor mortifie any Corruption nor of himself find out the way by which any of all these great works should be done but for ought that he can do for himself he is in a necessity of perishing for ever there is no help for him but only in Jesus Christ and if the Lord had not in the riches of his free Grace provided such a Mediator as was able to save to the uttermost sinful man had never been recovered and therefore the Father sent him that was fully able both to justifie and to sanctifie to open the blind eyes and to purge the Conscience and in a word to lay the first and the last stone in the building of Salvation and if God would any way shew his love to poor lost fallen man then must he take this course for there was no other way to do it let us now come to make some use of this Point And in the first place let it serve to provoke the very worst and wickedest of sinners to come to Christ for help and deliverance Beloved you have heard what a Saviour he is therefore I beseech you do not stand to dispute your own badness but how bad soever you be cast your selves upon him for help and to that end that this work may be done throughly and as it ought to be done labour in the first place to know the worst of your own hearts there is many a poor Soul that is afraid to think the worst of himself for fear he should see so much badness as should take off his hopes and discourage him for going to Christ for mercy But I pray you learn to be wiser than so search your hearts to the very bottom and how bad soever that thou findest it yet be sure that thou dost not fail to go to Christ for a cure although thou hast been never so bad worse than Manasseh or any wretch that ever thou readest of or ever heardest of if thou findest thy self upon due search to be the veriest Hypocrite or the veriest enemy to God and godliness that is in the whole world yet let it not keep thee from going to Christ but make so much the more hast by how much thou findest thy self the more wicked and although thy sins be never so great and never so many there is no sin but he can pardon yea and he will pardon it if thou come unto him I say again there is no sin nor sinners if they come to Christ but he will surely be gracious unto them He that comes to me will I in no wise cast out saith the Lord John 6.37 therefore go unto him and be assured he will receive you whatever your Souls diseases be sear not to go unto him with them for he cures all that come unto him see what woful diseases Christ was sent to cure Luke 4.18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised Now I pray you let us a little consider of this text he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel and what is the Gospel why the Gospel is free mercy through the blood of Christ pardon regeneration and salvation yea all the happness that comes to a soul by Jesus Christ this is the Gospel and this Christ was anointed to preach and therefore doing it by the spirit it must needs be truth that he preacheth other men may preach lies but so doth not the fountain of truth you may be sure But who is all this mercy to be preached to saith Christ it is to be preached to the poor and who is poor a man is not accounted poor if he have either land or goods or mony and so it is in spiritual things also one altogether destitude of whatsoever might commend him to God one that hath no purity neither in heart nor life no faith no love no knowledg no mortification nor renewing of mind no delight in God nor his word nor having the light of his countenance shining upon the soul now one that hath none of all this spiritual riches he is poor but he that is inriched with any of these spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ is not poor now I hope you see who Christ was anointed with the spirit to teach the Gospel to but see what follows in the next words to heal the broken hearted saith he and who is that why one that hides his head for debt and owes more then he is worth this man we account a broken man So likewise when a man is through the sight of his undone condition afraid of Arrests and executions from God dayly and knows not where to hide his head being in fear and anguish of spirit Christ was sent you see to heal this spiritually broken estate In the next place he came to preach deliverance to the captives and this is a worse degree of evil when a man is the divils prisoner taken and kept in his snare this is a very sad condition indeed when a man can do nothing but as the devil his keeper will give him leave how can his condition be worse except he were in hell and yet if such a man will but hearken to the word of Christ he shall be sure to be delivered yea but my case is worse then all this may some poor soul say for I am not only the divels prisoner but I have given my self up so to his will and suffered him so to blind mine understanding that now if Christ should come and throw open the prison doors yet shall I never find my way out Yea saith Christ in the next words but I came to open the blind eyes also and although the divell have put them quite out yet suffer me to put but some spitle and clay upon them and I will recover them again take but my direction turn at my reproof at left do not despise it and set it at nought and then be sure I will poure out my spirit and that will fully cure thee Yea but the soul may further object and say I have waited on the Ordinances and endeavoured to get out of the snare of the divel and he hath fetcht me back and beaten me sore when I have but asseyed to get from him so that I see the more I strive the worse I am bruised and therefore there is no hope for me yes saith Christ I came to set at liberty such bruised ones and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord as it follows in the next words and although thou hast waited