needless yea and all calls to believe in him and acting of faith toward him which so pulls up all the Gospel by the roots and abrogates the Grace of God that it may by no means be endured And therefore it may in no wise be understood of an approving owning and as some are pleased to speak a tantamount justifying love from eternity but only as we said of a love of pity and well-willing in which God beholding its wretchedness by reason of its sins against him and his curse against it did mercifully devise and find out a way to help it and where through any of it might if not obstinately chusing their own ruine be actually saved and brought â—o happiness Such a love as this may be in a Father toward an ungracious childe who hath provoked him to cast him into prison where he yet remains in his crooked conditions and in danger there to perish he may out of pity use means to set him free and reclaim him to a beter demeanour of himself while yet he cannot like of his present either demeanour or concondition or own and delight in him as such And as David loved Absalom greatly even while he was in open arms and rebellion against him so as that he was not willing he should perish or be slain therein yea so as he could have found in his heart to have died for him so he might have lived and come to good when as yet he could not own approve or delight in him or like to have his company in that his condition Such a love God loves sinners and ungodly men with while yet they be such But 2. By the love of God is sometime meant and signified his owning approving tenderly affecting delightfully favouring or embracing a person or party loved as when it is said The Father loveth the Son and gave all things to him John 3.36 and again Therefore my Father loveth me because I lay down my life that I may take it again John 10.17 that is he owns approves and delights in the Son as in Matth. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased and as Mat. 12.18 Behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved in whom my Soul is well-pleased or as Isaiah hath it Isa 42.1 in whom my soul delighteth He so loved loveth Christ not only as his eternal word as brought forth before the mountains and hills rejoycing always before him and his dayly delight as Pro. 8.29.30 but also as man of the seed of Abraham and David after the flesh and â—s because he was obedient to him did his will and kept his Commandement in laying down his life a ransome for us and taking it again as John 15.9 10. with 10.17 18. that he hath in all cases stood by him upheld and helped him owned and approved his doings and performances accepted him into his presence given him honour and glory and taken up his delight and well-pleasedness in him for ever After that manner loved he not the world he owned it not nor approves its works nor takes it into his favour acceptance because it and its works are all evil But with such a love God and Christ loved his Disciples as in John 15.9 10. As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you so that after such a sort with such an owning accepting approving love continue ye in my love and John 16.27 The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God Surely God loved them before they loved Christ but that was with a pitying well-willing love desiring their good and affording that to them that might conduce to their good both as to the making them good and bringing them to be capable subjects of his special goodness while they were yet of the world he loved them as he loved the world and with such a manner of loving them and so gave Christ for them and to them as an object fit to be believed in by them that they might believe in him and be saved out of the condition of the world in which he found them and in which they lay before their believing in him but now there he speaks of an higher and other manner of love or streaming forth his love upon them as persons in Christ loving him and believing him to be the Son of God sent forth into the world by him Such a likement of them as a result of the greatnes of his love to Christ as not only on the accomptâ— of Christ's intercession praying for them I say not says Christ that I wil pray for you but in approvement of their faith in and love to Christ out of his respect upon that account to them he would hear and help them yea as our Saviour himself says in his prayer for them in the next Chapt. John 17.23 the Father loved them even as he loved Christ for so are the words That the world may know that thou hast sent me and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me Loved them not the world for he did not love the world as he loved Christ though he so loved it as to give Christ for it to be the Saviour of it but by them its evident he means the Disciples and believers on Christ who are said to be loved as Christ not in immediateness heighth of testimony and fulness as Christ but in respect of the account upon which he loves them Not as Adam or as branches only of him and so with a love issuing out of his love to him as he may be said to have loved the world that is to have pityed them and desired their good as his Creatures but as Christ as branches of him the true Vine and with a love centered upon him reflecting from his love to him and with respect to him as loved for his obedience to him in laying down his life and taking it up again and so as he loved Christ even with a love answerable to or after such a manner as his loving him that is reckoning them in and after him approving owning taking pleasure in them c. 2. Now the hearty believers on Christ and retainers of his Truth and walkers therein may be truly said to be in the love of God in both these senses significations or manners of the acting of the love of God that is 1. In the love of pity and well wishing and that both 1. As they were in Adam not only standing and as there owned and approved as his innocent Creatures for of his loving men there we have nothing here to say the object of his so loving men as such being long since ceased in Adam's sinning but as fallen and yet pittied of God and not left destitute of his care of him to help and rescue him for so they were parts and members of the World or of that lump of mankind fallen in him whom he sent his Son for and
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus 3. To rejoyce in God and give thanks and praise unto him continually for his great love favour to us may they not well joy that are in so good a plight as to have so great a Friend so mighty a Father and Saviour as God is That have such a fountain to supply them with living water â— such a Castle and Fortress to defend them Yea upon this account it is that it is said Let them that love thy Name be joyful in thee for thou Lord wilt bless the Righteous with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield Psal 5.11 12. and that exhortation of the Apostle is to the same purpose Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce and so for thanksgiving they are put together Psal 97.11 Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness And so in 1 Thess 5.16 17 18. Rejoyce evermore pray without ceasing in all things give thanks for so is the will of God concerning you in Christ Jesus Joy in his love and bless him for it 4. To moderation in griefs fears cares and to contentation with what God gives us here and submission to what he lays upon us I put them together for brevity sake his love to us might perswade us also thereto For as Elkanah said to Hanna too eagerly desiring desiring after and too sadly bearing the want of Children Am not I better to thee than ten Sons 1 Sam. 1.8 So may God say to his servants and people Am not I better to you than all those things that you are so careful and sollicitous about so mournful after or covetous for Should they be covetous for the world that have God to inrich them Is not God a portion sufficient to content and satisfie our Souls Should we be covetous of the honors riches pleasures injoyments of the world if we have God at hand to give us better things than the world can and who loving us will not withhold from us any thing that is good for us in the world or delay us of any thing that he hath promised to us and is needful for us beyond the due season wherein it may be best for us to this purpose are those sayings Let your moderation be known to all men the Lord is at hand In nothing be careful c. Philip. 4.5.6 And Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things either for maintenance or protection as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say The Lord is on my side I will not fear what man can do unto me Hebr. 13 5 6. As also the contrary to these sayings be reprovable hence as upon this ground David reproves checks his distrustful immoderately sorrowing thoughts Psal 42.5 Why art thou so cast down O my Soul and why art thou so disquieted within me hope still in God c. So our Saviour upon like ground checks the fears and distrusts of his Disciples about food and rayment Mat. 6.25 26 28 30 32. Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or drink or for your body what ye shall put on Consider the fowls are ye not much better than they Consider the Lillies c. If God so cloath the grass will he not much more cloath you being your Heavenly Father O ye of little faith c. 5. To obedience to God for his love and favour to them and to a chearful yielding up themselves to serve him with all their Talents and abilities received from him as persons that owe themselves and utmost service to him so Rom. 12.1 I beseech you Brethren by the mercies of God in which namely he hath given his Son for you called you to his Son and justifies and owns you in his Son as the former Chapters had shewed Offer up your body a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service See the like Rom. 6.11 12 c. and 1 Cor. 6.18 19 20. Your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which ye have of God and ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore Glorifie God with your bodies and with your Spirits which are God's peculiarly owned and possessed by him as also in order to their retaining and abiding in the love of God and Christ towards them as in John 15.9.10 As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue ye in my love If ye keep my Commandments ye shall continue in my love as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and continue in his love which is another thing it instructs too namely 6. To abide in Christ and so keep our selves in the love of God both in the views and injoyments of it seeing his love is so precious inriching and every way advantageous to the Soul seeing it is the portion of the believers in and cleavers to Christ it is folly to turn away from believing in and obeying Christ to forfeit God's love and favour and a point of greatest wisdome to abide in Christ that we may abide also in the love of God yea and as that was one great engine and trick of the Devil and his messengers for drawing men out of Christ or from the simplicity of him into some corruptions from the faith preached and urged by the true Apostles to insinuate to them that they were not in a justified estate with God not owned loved and approved of him by their believing in Christ but that to obtain that they must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses or receive some Traditions and Commandments of men worshipping of Angels or the like So it was the great motive and argument used by the true Apostles with them for preserving them in Christ and perswading them to abide in him namely that in him they were compleat were justified loved known and accepted of God and had everlasting life and that out of him or in departing adulterously from him in joyning some other ground of hope and trust in him they deprived themselves thereof as in Col. 2.2 3 8 9 10. Gal. 3.7 9 29. with 4.6 7 8 9 11 30. and 5.2 3 4. John 2.24 and 5.11.12 13. In Christ are bid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge this I say least any man should beguile you with inticing words And Let no man spoil you with Philosophy vain deceit for in Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily and in him ye are compleat They they that are of the faith are blessed with faithful Abraham They that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ and are the Sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ and so heirs according to promise known of God c. But turning aside to the Law to be or seek to be justified thereby they are abolished from Christ and fallen from Grace that is
in a safe state the Sons of God and sure in respect of their state of eternal life Sure that cannot be in vain the main desired end of which is obtained and accomplished And that was the main desire of the Apostles for those they preacht to that they might obtain eternal life through Jesus Christ of which if they that are once in the favour of God can never possibly fail they must have been sure in the issue whatever for a time might be acted by them or come upon them Object But it might be said How can the love of God wherewith he loves the Believer then be said to be such as wherewith he loves Christ seeing he loves him certainly with an unchangeable eternal or everlasting love even as in the nature of man but this love toward Believers may cease to be toward them Answ To this I say God in Christ never fails or ceases to love him that believes on him with an owning approving love and so as to stand by and help him but when any turns out from the faith he ceaseth to be a Believer and if God should still love him in that sense then he should not love a Believer but a Runnagade and Apostate from the Faith Let men then keep the Faith and cleave to Christ and they shall be sure to find Gods love cleaving to them The difference then between Gods loving Christ and loving the Believer is nothing except as to priority and degree which Christ is certainly alwayes preferred in because in all things he hath the preheminence but there may be difference between Christ and other Believers as to their abiding the subjects of Gods love personally considered that is there may be difference in their abiding in the Truth Christ was loved of the Father alwayes and ever shall be because he alwayes abode in the Truth and did the Fathers will verily had not Christ done so as man could he or should he have disobeyed his Fathers will and not laid down his life at his appointing the Father would not nor could so have loved him for Therefâ—â—e doth my Father love me saith he because I lay down my life that I should take it up again John 10.17 which implyes that his Father had not so loved him if he had not so done for that cannot in any good sense be said to be done because of another thing which had been equally done without that other thing alledged as its cause Let the Believer then abide in his faith in Christ as Christ abode in his obedience to his Fatâ—er and he shall abide as everlastingly in the love of the Father as Christ doth There is no difference in the Fathers love if there be none in the Believers faith and obedience from Christs as to its point of continuance To this purpose is that of our Saviour himself John 15.9 10. As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue ye in my love If ye keep my Commandements ye shall continue in my love as I have kept my Fathers Commandements and continue in his love Where Christs continuing in his Fathers love is made the consequent of his keeping his Fathers Commandements and upon those terms also he assures his Disciples of a continuance in his love which is also undivided from his Fathers love the Father loving whomsoever the Son loves and è contra therefore in 1 John 2.24 they are joyntly mentioned Let that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you and then ye shall continue in the Father and in the Son that is in the love and favour of them both so also 2 John 9. And this truth here implyed and supposed viz. That the Believer may possibly not keep himself in the love of God or possibly may go or turn out of it so as to the depriving himself thereof may be looked upon both as one reason or ground of the Apostles exhorting them to keep themselves therein and as one motive to incite and provoke the Believer to care and diligence thereabout so as to make it his business of greatest concernment or importance were there no possibility to fail or deprive himself thereof it were altogether needless for any to exhort him to keep himself therein or for him to regard such an exhortation or do any thing with an eye to such a business for what wise man will be sollicitous to avoid what he judges impossible to happen This then is a fundamental suppose all couched in all such cautions and exhortations that those that are in the love of God at present may possibly if they keep not themselves therein fall out of it that is to say true and right Believers there being no others in the love of God in the sense of it before spoken to and opened may if not watchful loose Gods favour towards them It were a senseless thing to think the Apostles would counsel or perswade any to keep themselves in the love of God that were never in it nor are at the present in it and as senseless it is to think that they writ to them to keep themselves in the love of God who they supposed cannot fall out of it only because some others fall out of it that weâ—e never in truth in it as they that hold the contrary Assertion are often out upon it to say while they seek to evade the force of these Scripture intimations But again this saying implyes Point 2. That there is or may be great danger of and in turning out from the love of God I say danger of and in turning out â— That there is not only possibility of turning out from the love of God but also great danger of it that such a thing may be It is not only possible but many do attempt and seek to reduce that possibility into act in the Believers many that are potent and subtle in their attempts so that unless Believers do use diligence and vigilance in standing upon their guard and using the means of their preservation which God hath propounded to them they may be soon turned aside And then 2. There is great danger in turning aside the danger that a person incurrs in turning aside is wondrous great or the evils and mischiefs that attend upon a mans so doing are very grievous Something we may note as to either of these they being both of them intimately here signified For 1. Though there were a possibility of loosing the love and favour of God yet if there were no great danger of it no great likelihood by any means there would be the less need of admonishing of it or of taking heed to such admonitions when afforded As it is possible for a man to poyson himself or to cast himself down a steep place it is possible for any sober man so to do yet there is no great danger ordinarily of it and therefore no great need to give serious cautions ordinarily to such men against it But when there are
Judas falling from Heaven and becoming a Devil and as befel Ananias and Sapphira in part John 13.30 Act. 5.3 and as is threatned in 2 Thes 2.9 10 11 12. That God will send strong delusions to them that obey not the truth and they are said not to obey it that abide not in the obedience of it Gal. 3.1 and 5.10 but have pleasure in unrighteousness that so they might all be damned The wrath of God being very sore and hot against the abusers of his Grace in Christ that withhold it in unrighteousness as Rom. 1.18 and therefore there is 4. Danger of not entring into God's rest or coming into his righteousness and so into eternal life or the Kingdome of God into which no unclean thing can enter 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Eph. 5.3 4 5. thence those warnings to take heed lest we fail of the Grace of God or of the rest that yet remains for his people after the same example of unbelief as befel the Israelites that sinned in the wilderness Heb 4.1.11 Yea in a word 5. Danger of utter perdition and destruction from the presence of God and from the injoyment of his Glory and so of being cast out into everlasting misery and torment with the Devil and his angels for so much is implied by the Apostle in saying we are not of those that draw back to perdition but of those that believe c. where it is implied that perdition and destruction is the dangerous consequence of mens drawing back from God Oh unspeakable and unconceiveable misery and danger And this consideration in both branches of it affords a second and third motive to quicken up the believer to diligence in taking heed to the Grace of God and the instructions thereof and so to keep himself in the love of God seeing there is not only possibility but some danger of falling from it if he be careless therein by reason of his many enemies his own inability to deliver himself from them and Gods severity against the abusers of his goodness and neglectors of his Son and his salvation And great danger yea unspeakable misery in falling therefrom answerable to the greatness of the love abused and Grace slighted Great need to give great diligence to avoid such dangers yea to do it with all our might earnestness To incourage in and unto which here is also further signified Point 3. That there is no necessity that a Believer must fail of or fall out from the love of God He may through the Grace of God preserve himself and be preserved therein as well as at first brought thereunto This is evident in that the Apostle exhorts them to keep themselves in the love of God Sure as he would not exhort them to a work that could not be undone or to endeavour for that that they must necessarily inevitably have so much less would he exhort them to a thing impossible the love of God therefore may be kept or continued in as also our Saviour both implies in so often exhorting Believers to continue in his words and to abide in him and let his words abide in them John 8.32 and 15.4 5 6 7 and more plainly asserts that his sheep hear his voice and he knows that is approves and owns them and they follow him and he gives unto them eternal liâ—e and they shall never perish John â—0 27 28 29. and again As my Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue ye in my love If ye keep my Commandments ye shall continue in my love as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and continue in his love Joh. 15 9 10. as to the same purpose is that in 1 John 2.24 25. Let that therefore which you have heard from the beginning abide in you If that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you ye shall continue in the Father and in the Son and this is the promise that he hath promised even Eternal life So Caleb and Joshuah kept in the favour of God all the way through the wilderness and entred into the land of Canaan So Paul fought the good fight of faith kept the faith to the finishing of his course 2 Tim. 4.8 And many other good men have through faith and patience inherited the promises Heb. 6.12 have lived and died in the faith and so in the love and favour of God and are at rest with Christ and God otherwise men should be never the better but the worse rather for believing and coming to partake of the Grace of God For better never to know it at all than to fall from it after the sweetness of it is once known and tasted The sin being then the greater and the misery incurred more dreadful and unbearable as in 2 Pet. 2 20 21 22. But now this possibility of being kept in the love of God is not from any strength wisdom or faithfulness in man as of himself no more than his being brought into the love of God was by his own fleshly wisdom or strength but both the one and the other are by and of the Grace of God It s true in both senses both of saving at the first from the state of sin and death into the state of life and righteousness by being brought into Christ and of saving in continuance in the love of God and being preserved from falling back again By Grace ye are saved Ephes 2.5 and ye are saved by Grace through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God verse 8. For in us though Believers that is in our flesh there dwells no good thing nor have we sufficiency in our selves as of our selves to think any thing Rom. 7.18 2 Cor. 3.5 We have before noted the inability in man even in Believers as men and so in and of themselves yea or in their inherent graces received to stand and maintain themselves against the power of their enemies but only in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 2.1 In the Lord and in the power of his might in the whole armour of God as Ephes 6.10 11 12. But such might power and sufficiency there is in the Grace of God afforded in and by Jesus Christ such fulness in Christ himself and in God in him and such a presence and power of God and his holy Spirit in and with his Doctrine and Gospel and such Armour of Righteousness given the Believer in him as that there through he may be kept in the love and favour of God maugre all the power malice and subtlety of the enemy and notwithstanding that great weakness and inability to keep himself or to vanquish the enemy that is in him self Thus the Apostle Paul confesses that he was not only furnished for and strengthned in his labours I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the Grace of God that was with me and by the Grace of God I am that I am and his Grace that was bestowed upon me
give light to all that come into the house In a word he doth nothing he gives nothing to us in vain but for use and service And to what better use or of greater concernment can we imploy what he gives us than to keep our selves and one another in the love of God seeing therein lies our welfare and happiness and out of that nothing but wo and misery can befal us It is true that it is his work to keep us safe but in our hearing and following him and his Counsels and so in keeping to him as it 's the Castle and strong hold that keeps the man that flies to it but it is in his keeping within it and not departing out of it because of any assaults made against it or flatteries of the enemy that would intice him out of it Yea it is the goodness strength and every way commodiousness of the strong hold considered by him that is in it that arms him also against those fears or inticements from without that endeavour to make him leave it Even so it is only Christ abid in by men that every way secures the Soul against all assaults it from men or Devils and it is the diligent consideration of Christ as the great Saviour and means yea Author of safety and happiness provided for us of God and the infinite excellencies and preciousness of him as delivered up for our offences and raised again for our justification and glorified at Gods right hand as Lord and Christ that being considered by us prevails with the Soul to abide in him whence to that purpose the Apostles every where make it their business to set forth the fulness and faithfulness of Christ the infinite abiding vertues of his Sacrifice with God and for men his wonderful mercy and compassionateness the fulness and compleatness oâ— the righteousness and the abundance of the Redemption in him the infiniteness of his power and wisdome c. to move and perswade believers to abide him and not listen to the enemy or wander out of him after any other way name thing or person in whole or in part from him Col. 2.1 ver 3.4 8 9.10 Gal. 3 7 9 13 14 26 27 28 29 as also to that purpose they exhort us to consider him and the excellencies in him as Heb. 3.1 and 12.2 Consider the Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession Jesus Christ who was faithful in all things to him that appointed him as Moses also was and consider him who endured such contradictions of sinners least ye be weary and faint in your mindes So Heb. 4.14 15 16. and 10 14 15 19 20 21 35 36 37 c. the want of which or slothfulness in it lays open the Soul to the power of Sathans temptations and false Teachers seducements It is his work to keep us then but in his way to be sought for and waited for by us which being our work though that also in his power and strength we may well be exhorted to keep our selves that the wicked one touch us not According to that in Prov. 4.6 Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee love her and she shall keep thee Wisdome will keep us in our cleaving to her and depending upon her to keep us she will preserve us in our loving her and observing her instructions to which also her goodness and the goodness of her instructions will allure us if considered by us and if proved and tryed by us in our listning to and obeying her Counsels It s his work in our looking to and obeying him it s our work in the strength and helpfulness afforded to us by him and in his keeping us He keeps those that trust in him as a hen that defends from the Kite the Chickens running under her wings but as there if the chickens straggle and come not not when she clocks they may be catched up and devoured so unless we come and stay under the wings in the Doctrine and obedience of Christ or at his clock or call return again to him from our strayings from him we may be devoured by the adversary of our Salvation Vse All which things being duly considered by us may both confute and admonish us of divers vain evil and false conceptions that betray mens Souls into the snares of death and may awaken and provoke us to diligence in taking heed to our standings and taking to us and making use of the whole armour of God to resist our Adversaries as 1. It reprehends and shews the falshood of that conception that if a man be once in the love and Grace of God he must of necessity abide so always no possibility of his falling therefrom Once a Son and alway so no sin can un-son him that is once a Son of God whomsoever God loves once he loves for ever and the like for which they usually quote that in John 13.1 which is but That Christ having so loved his own that were in the world loved them to the end that is he loved his Disciples to the end of the time of his being in the world with them He loved that is took all occasions to testifie also his love and accordingly even till his death testified it in his words and works to them yet so as he bids them abide in him and continue in his love Take heed least any deceive them as implying that for all this his great love toward them they were not out of all possibility of being deceived or departing from him if they should be careless as conceiting such a thing impossible they might be circumvented and not continue in his love Yea he tells Peter that except he wash him he should have no part in him John 13.8 and sure all his exhorting them to keep his Commandments and abide in him c. imply at least a possibility of their doing otherwise â— no need to have been so earnest to exhort them to such things Again we have seen before what the Apostle said to and of the Galathians whom he asserts to have been Sons and known of God what fear he had of them what warnings he gives them and what he supposes might yea and affirms would befal them if they went on to follow after the false Apostles who had begun to seduce them Indeed all the Scriptures do shew sufficiently the certain attainment of eternal life by those that are careful to wait upon God and look diligently to him by Jesus Christ for his supplying keeping and saving of them that wait upon him and keep his way that hear Christs voice and follow him and do not presume to turn away from him or sit loose from his instructions by which they may and should be kept close to him but though the just do live by faith yet if he draw back the Soul of God shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.39 2. Again such conceptions and sayings as import that God works so altogether and irresistibly in the believer as that he
Believers of the Grace of God love God for his love believed by them so in 1 John 4.19 We love God because he first loved us First loved us namely in sending his Son into the world while we were sinners and ungodly for that 's it in which he not onely hath commended but still and always commendeth his love to us Rom. 5.8 not onely to be our Teacher but also to be the propitiation for our sins that we might live through him Vers 9 10 14. This love rightly perceived and heartily received turns the heart to love God 1. So as letting go or rejecting all other Gods or Objects of trust and worship for the sake of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ beloved also as the Son of God and our Saviour to chuse him for its God and to say of him He is my rock my fortress my God in him will I trust Psal 91.2 2. So as for the sake of Christ and God in him to count all things loss and dung where this love is indeed hearty and strong for there be degrees of loving God yea to forsake father mother lands life all things for the knowledge and enjoyment of him panting and longing after fellowship with him Phil. 3.7.8 9. Luke 14.26.33 Psal 42.1 2. 27.4 Yea 3. So as though with the loss of all things where this love is vehement to desire and endeavour the promoting of his glory yielding up its power and members thereto 1 Cor. 10.33 Phil. 1.20 Act. 20.24 4. So as it loves observes and keeps his words and sayings and doth his commands John 14.21 23. 1 John 5.3 5. So as it loves and waits for his salvation willingly tarrying for it Psal 40.19 6. Yea and so as it loves his name and his people delights and cleaves to them Isa 56.6 1 John 3.23 5.1 By which tryal may be made how we have received and believed the Grace of God whether in vain or not examining and proving our selves whether we be in the faith and Christ by his Spirit and its efficacies be in us or not 2 Cor. 13.5 that being the way by which the rightness and effectualness of our receit of the Grace of God or its ineffectualness may be discerned as these Scriptures signifie 1 John 1.6 7. 2.3 4 5.6 9 10 11 29. 3.7 8 10 14 19 20 21 c. that where it 's otherwise we might not question the reality of Gods love of compassion and well-willing to us but believing that give the more earnest heed to the things heard in the Gospel so as to receive them more heartily turn at his reproofs therein and yield up to the power therein working that we may be renewed thereby lest we be rejected of him Heb. 2.1 6.7 8. and where we find his Grace effectual in any measure we may be more encouraged to mind it still that we may both be preserved therein and be perfected thereby and this the rather because as is here implied too Note 2. Such as are in the love of God in this sense also may possibly not abide therein but be corrupted from it if not careful to preserve themselves in it yea there is danger hereof especially in evil times That this is so may be evidenced partly 1. In what is said to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus viz. That he had left his first love Rev. 2.4 and of the Angel of the Church of Sardis viz. That he was dead and what remained in him was ready to dye whereas he had more rightly received and heard Rev. 3.1 2 3. and to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea viz. That he was lukewarm and neither hot nor cold Vers 15. implying nothing as if he had never been otherwise nay surely his boasting rather was an effect of his reflecting upon himself and what he had found there so as to grow secure and careless there through as judging he had got such a stock of Grace as could never be spent and come to nothing as Israel so kind in her youth as to follow God in a Wilderness being enriched by him fell off from her affection to him so as to have no love at all for him saying We are Lords we will come no more at thee Jer. 2.23.31 Partly also and more fully 2. In what our Saviour saith Matth. 24.12 Because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold yea so as to miss of salvation as the next Verse implies wherein he addes But in opposition to those former he that continues to the end as implying that the others had love but continued not to the end in it shall be saved implying that those others should not and yet saying their love should wax cold he implies it was sometime hot And therefore there is need of the exercise here commended by the Apostle Jude for keeping our hearts in a warm temper towards God But here it may be objected Object That the Apostle John saith He that is born of God sinneth not because his seed abideth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God how then can a lover of God fall therefrom Answ To this because not spoken to in the Treatise I shall say the more And so 1. That by born of God is either meant one framed to the mind of God through the knowledge of and acquaintance with him so as he is made in a high degree like him a spiritual one as opposed to the carnal and babes in Christ 1 Cor. 2.14 with 3 12. the perfect 1 Cor. 2.7 as distinguished from such as are yet short one that discerns all things rightly God and Christ and his excellencies so as highly to love and fear him emptiness and vanity in all things else so as not to be taken with them imperfection and mutableness in himself so as he durst not trust himself from him or out of his way one into whose heart wisdom is so entred as that knowledge is become most pleasant to his soul and the feaâ— of the Lord most prevalent so as discretion preserves him and understanding keeps him Prov. 2.10 11 12. in such fear of God and love to him that he cannot sin because he cannot find in his heart or be perswaded to neglect Christ and his counsels and ways or be withdrawn from them And no doubt but in following on to know the Lord and abiding in Christ he will so teach us of all things write his Law and put his love into our hearts subdue and mortifie our corrupt affections and passions and make us so wise as it will be quite contrary to our natures our new natures to sin willingly against him however strongly provoked or tempted thereto as in Joseph that said How can I do such wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 Yea and we attain such height and strength of love to him as that many waters cannot quench it nor the floods drown it Cant. 8.6 7. and as to be perswaded on good
it is never to have known the way of truth than after the knowledge of it to turn away again from the holy Commandement 2 Pet. 2.21 Their root is rottenness and their blossom goeth up as dust because they have cast away the Law and Doctrine of the Lord of Hosts and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel Isai 5.24 Though they may profess that they know God yet in deed they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobates bunglers at the best and void of judgment Tit. 1.16 Now as there is such difference between them so it is the part and practice of Christs Apostles and Servants to separate and put difference between them in their ministration as Jude here doth To say to the Righteous It shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings and to pronounce wo to the wicked for he shall in going on to be so surely dye the reward of his hands shall be given him Isai 3.10 11. and so to separate the precious from the vile incouraging confirming and strengthening the one in the Lord and so in the way of righteousness and reproving discouraging and fighting against the other in the way of his wickedness that he might be filled with shame and either be turned from his wicked way or be weakened and confounded however in it that he may not be able to do hurt to others and hinder them in the way of righteousness and salvation Jerem. 15.19 But as I said before I shall not inlarge further upon these things but proceed to consider the Councel and Exhortation here given for the direction and preservation of Believers But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith c. In speaking to and considering of which I shall God willing observe the order above propounded first speak to the main thing directly exhorted to and then to the means and manner thereto and thereof prescribed as God shall afford his assistance and help to me And so I shall consider 1. The matter mainly or directly exhorted to and see what it implyes and signifies unto us that is Keep your selves in the love of God In which is signified Obser 3 4. 1. That unfeigned Believers in Christ are in the love of God 2. That it greatly behooves them and it is required of them that they keep themselves therein Indeed those words In the love of God may be so construed as to signifie either the way in which we are directed to keep our selves namely from the error of the wicked and the dangers and woes attending it and then the sense might be Keep your selves from those persons and evils forementioned by taking heed to the love of God or else which I judge the righter as to the intent of the Apostle here the way state or condition in which the Believers at that present were this I say I judge the righter for the other sense representing those words in the love of God as if they signified in minding the love of God or the like is included in the words Building up your selves on your most holy faith as we may see in considering that phrase and therefore I conceive the Apostle would not speak the same thing twice in the same breath as it were besides that his sentence should be somewhat defective in omitting the word minding or the like whereas in the other sense all things are plain And the former Observation from these words evidently appears to be implyed namely That unfeigned Believers are in the love of God Obser 3. where we shall mind 1. What is meant by the love of God here and then 2. Shew that and how the Believer is in it 1. By the love of God is sometime meant and signified his loving merciful pitiful and compassionate affection in which he willeth and desireth the good of the party loved and doth that that he sees needful and conducible thereto yet so as not in the mean while liking or approving or taking into fellowship with himself the party loved because of the unfitness and incapacity in the present condition for it A Love of pity commiseration and well-willing but not of owning and delight and so it is said John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life which is only meant of such a pitying and well-willing love not of owning and approving love For it is not said That God so loved the world as that he approved its state and way or owned it to be his peculiar people his portion and the heirs of his Kingdom or admitted it into fellowship with himself No the world being there plainly persons not as yet believing in him or in his Son but in such a condition as needed his Sons being given to do that for it and receive that power and fiâ—ness thereupon to help it as might render him an object to be believed in by it were in such a sinful wretched ungodly State as in which it was liable to perish in its wickedness or sinfulness and therefore God could not as in that state in which he is yet said so to love it as to give his Son approve of it or admit it into his presence to the injoyment of fellowship with him and life therein And that is evident for could God as then and in that state have delighted in owned and approved of it and so admitted it into fellowship with himself and had God accordingly so have loved it as so to do then was it in no danger of perishing much less in no such danger as that it needed the coming forth and death and sacrifice of Christ to save it therefrom unless we could imagine that God sent Christ only to preserve the world in his owning approving love and not to procure that it might be so loved or have a way to be brought into it which is contrary to the Scripture which both tell us that the world was in a state of enmity to God and therefore not in an approved state and that Christ was sent forth for its reconciling to him 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself c. and every where implies a need for his doing so that it or any man in it might come into such a state by him as that it might be owned and accepted which needed not if it was accepted before For if it was owned of God and approved notwithstanding the sin of Adam that sinfulness which thereby entred upon it defiled it then why might it not stil have been always accepted and approved whatever it might sin in by the power or virtue of that its corrupted state that its sinning notwithstanding for if the root hindred it not of God's favour to it why should any fruit springing from that root and so Christ's coming had or should have been in vain or
devour yet God who loves us is stronger than he and none can pluck the sheep or followers of Christ out of his hand Yea Christ our Shepherd is the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah and he hath spoiled Principallities and Powers and triumphed over them openly in his Cross He is stronger to defend us than Sathan to devour us and he was manifested on purpose to destroy his cursed works 1 Pet. 5.8 John 10.29 30. Col. 2.14.15 1 John 3.8 hold we fast by him and Sathan cannot harm us however much he malice us Christ both can and will surely defend and save us from his rage and malice Doth the world frown upon us hate reproach threaten and abuse us Be of good courage saith our Lord I have overcome the world and stronger is he that is in or amongst us than he that is in the world John 16.33.1 John 4.4 5. Nor can any hardship that may here befal us tribulation or distres persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword cause God and Christ to cease to love us Rom. 8.35 He is a sheild and sure defence against all these enemies His truth abides that in us shall be shield and Buckler to us so that what is therein Earth or Hell that may discourage or affright us Psal 91.3 He is such a place of defence to every one that uprightly cleaveth to him that nothing can pierce through him to annoy or harm him as in Isa 33 6â— He shall dwel on high so high as none can overtop him to storm him his place of defence shall be the munition of Rocks so that no undermining him or blowing him up oh but perhaps we may be starved or famished out for wants No not so for it follows bread shall be given him his waters shall not fail Ah but perhaps such a strong Castle and well victualled may be so close and scant of air or other delightful accommodations as to force a man to yeild to get breath or air No it follows that there is both pleasant sight fair prospects to delight for v. 17. thine eyes shall behold the King in his beauty and thou shalt see the Land that is very far off So then neither need we fear evil will befal us to harm us oâ— that good will be wanting to us to supply and satisfie us For if the Lord be our Shepheard how can we want any good thing He is a Sun sheild and will give Grace glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly with him Psal 84.11 and 23.1 He will supply our inward wants Give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luk 11.13 to lead them into his truth fill them with hope and peace and comfort them in all their troubles and afflictions teach them also to pray and therein and otherwise help their infirmities subdue their corruptions and sanctifie them throughout in Body Soul and Spirit c. John 16.13 Rom. 8.26 27. and 15.13 1 Thess 5.23 24. And he will supply all our outward wants so far as is good and needful for us Seeking first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness all those things shall be added to us The Lyons shall lack and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord are sure to want no good thing Matth. 6.33 Psal 34.9 10. He giveth food to them that fear him he will ever be mindful of his Covenant Psal 111.5 And he will every way do what is good for us till he have fitted us for and bring us to the eternal inheritance So that here we have everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace 2 Thes 2.16 2. It 's useful also by way of instruction and exhortation to diverse duties that this great grace and love of God towards us doth challenge of us and afford good ground for as 1. To love him again that hath so loved us and yet so loves us as Psal 31.23 Oh Love the Lord ye his Saintsâ— for he preserveth the faithful those that believe in him and are constant in cleaving to and serving him It is but a meet return to him love for love that we love him because he loved us first 1 John 4.19 to delight our selves in him whose delight is in his people and accepts us in his Beloved One and will give unto us in so doing the desire or satisfaction of our Souls Psal 37.4 we cannot set our loves and affections upon either a more deserving or a more lovely object None there is to whom we are so much ingaged or hath so much in it to content satisfie and save us we may be sure not to loose our loves by loving him for he is not only infinitely before hand with us but also keeps mercy and Covenant for ever to them that love him and keep his Commandments we may loose our loves in loving any thing else besides him but not in loving him 2. To hope and trust in him for seeing he loves us so who is so strong and mighty to save us a Great King above all Gods in whose hands are all the corners of the Earth and the strength of the hills is his also The Sea is his and so all troubles and afflictions and he hath made it and his hands have prepared the dry land a stable port and safe haven of refuge we may be confident that he will not suffer any harm to befal us if we stay upon him and his Grace to save us yea though he may correct and nurture us yet he will take care of us to support and save us Oh trust in him then at all times ye people especially ye his people and inheritance pour out your hearts to him he is a refuge for us Psal 62.8 Yea trust in him at all times for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Isa 26.4 especially too seeing in his great love he hath made great and precious promises to us both for this life the life that is to come hath confirmed them in the blood of the Lord Jesus his only begotten Son and appointed him to be the Mediator of them for us to take away the sin and unworthiness that might hinder us of them and to obtain a dispensation of them to us Surely we have in Christ great ground and cause of hopeing and trusting in God seeing God did therefore raise him from the dead and give him glory that our faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 and seeing through him his favour doth compass about the righteous as a shield from what might harm them Psalm 5.12 as it is also a Sun to give light and all refreshing influences to us even Grace and Glory and all good things to those that walk uprightly with him Psal 84.11 whence also that Counsel Philip. 4.6 7. In nothing be careful but in all things make known your requests to God by prayer and supplications with thanksgiving and the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall guard
leaves nothing upon the Believer to do in order to his preservation in his love and favour to which they alledge that in Phil. 2.12 13. That it is God that worketh in you to will and to doe of good pleasure Where the Apostle asserts that not as an evidence or argument to prove that there is nothing therefore left for the believer to doe in which he may possibly fail and to which he needs to be exhorted but as the reason and ground wherefore the believer should be careful to work out his own Salvation with fear and trembling for which there would be no room or ground if God wrought all things in the belieliever yea and his working out too irresistibly nor any need for to have exhorted them if they could not chuse but so work upon the account of God's working in them But the Apostle plainly implies that because its God that works in and through the Grace revealed to and received by the believer of good pleasure so as not bound or obliged so to work but only of his mercy and good will therefore it behooves believers to yield up themselves to and in his operations to will and do and so to work out what he is working in them and not to resist and quench his operations least so they should provoke him who is a free agent and works only of good will to be offended with them and withdraw his operations and good Spirit by which he is operating and working in them from them and then they can do nothing toward their salvation but be in danger to goe back to destruction As also the argument used ver 16. to inforce that instruction upon them seems clearly to imply in that he says That I may rejoyce in the day of Jesus Christ that I have not run in vain nor laboured in vain for to what purpose should he mention such a thing with respect to them if there had been no possibility of their failing of the Grace and happiness to which he laboured to bring them instrumentally or if there was nothing to be done by them that might conduce to their obtaining the end of his running and labouring amongst them at least that could possibly be neglected and left undone by them so as therethrough to indanger their failing thereof and so a disappointment of the Apostles desire and hope concerning them The whole Scripture as it were suspending the tenour of the continuance of believers in Gods love and favour upon their keeping his Commandments and exhorting therefore to diligence in observing and keeping them shews the vanity of such apprehensions and that there is something required on mans part to his being preserved in the Grace of God Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee love her and she shall keep thee Prov. 4.6 If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will pray the Father c. And be that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved that is continue to be loved of my Father and I will love him continue to loue him as John 15.10 and I will manifest mine own self to him John 14.21 23. Keep your selves in the love of God 3. Again it reproves and discovers the evil and naughtiness of those high and presumptuous thoughts which are the issue and fruit of the two former mentioned Deut. 29.18 19. wherein men having believed and being pronounced righteous and so being under the sentence of life as Ezek. 33.13 thereupon presume to commit iniquity and say in their hearts that though they do so and add drunkenness to their thirst satisfie their vain and sinful desires and lust never so greedily yet they are safe enough they cannot miscarry but shall have peace and favour with God still or if they may provoke God to some displeasure against them so as to chastise them yet that shall be the worst that shall or may befal them These thoughts also contrary to what is foreshewed and to many serious threats in the Scriptures as that the Lord will not spare such an one but then his wrath and his jealousie shall smoke against him and the Lord shall blot his name from under Heaven Deut. 29.20 and that he who when God hath said unto him as righteous thou shalt surely live shall thereupon trust to his own righteousness and commit iniquity shall surely die Ezek. 33.13 and therefore even believers are admonished not to be high minded but fear Rom. 11.20 21 22. 2. It also serves to exhort and provoke believers to watchfulness care and diligence in taking heed to the Grace of God and cleaving thereto and quitting themselves as men that they may continue and abide in that state of love and favor to which they are freely chosen of God in Christ making their calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and election thereto firm and sure as 2 Pet. 1.10 to that purpose adding to or in their faith vertue or courage for God and his truth and against Sathan sin and all that stands cross to their well-doing and in vertue knowledge to direct and guide all their zeal and courage aright and in knowledge temperance sobriety in thoughts of themselves not aspiring to pry into things above their reach or that they have not seen in the testimony of God as also temperance in use of the mercies of God in the things of this life and of their liberties thereto to which their knowledge makes way least by undue use of their liberties offend other ◠and in their temperance patience both to continue therein denying themselves and abstaining from fleshly lusts and also in induring whatsoever sufferings and adversities may befal them in their way and in patience Godliness an acknowledgement of God and his power and goodness and a depending on him and looking to him in all things and making him the Alpha and Omega of their lives and actions receiving all from him and living in all things to him by Jesus Christ and in godliness Brotherly kindness an hearty intire love of the Brethren being kind and courteous and of one minde with them loving as Brethren and Heirs together of the same Grace and inheritance and in Brotherly kindness charity a free and gracious affection and love to men not for any goodness in them rendring them worthy of love as in Brotherly kindness but because of Gods free and gracious love and affection both to us and them so loving others even all men as we are loved of God as men seeking to win by love those that are without and to doe them good even as he hath done to us though unworthy of love from him If we doe those things we shall never fall if we goe on thus adding Grace to Grace Growing in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To such like purposes both our Lord himself and his Servants have given manifold exhortations and Counsels As to watch and pray
the good of others Is not easily provoked against another or to leave off pursuing his good and benefit Thinks not or surmises not evil Nay if it discern evil it is willing to pass it by and not impute it to the withdrawing his good offices of love from his neighbour Rejoyceth not in iniquity harm evil or deceit ' but rejoyceth in the truth and therefore also endeavours the prosperity and spreading thereof that the mouth of iniquity might be stopped Beareth all things all burthens put upon it Believeth all things that God hath discovered and that he hath any ground to believe concerning the good of others Hope 's all things that may further their good and endures all things that it meets with for exercise of its patience 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6 7 this will lead us to deny our selves and our own things to do others good and so to use our liberties in things indifferent as may tend to the good and profit of others and forbear the use of it where it might prejudice them as S. Paul who would not eat flesh or drink wine till the world stood or do any thing whereby the Brother should be offended if he knew such things would offend him weaken him in or stumble him from the truth 1 Cor. 8.13 with Rom. 14.21 this will lead men to doe all things for edification and nothing for destruction to any this therefore is a most useful way of edifying and building up one another in the most holy faith 4. And in a word the walking as becomes the Gospel of Christ and so the shewing forth his vertues in our conversations in an innocent abstinence from all ungodlines fleshly worldly lusts walking soberly righteously and godlily in this present World and in a patient bearing and suffering and so overcoming with goodness all the injuries and abuses done to us especially for the Gospels sake for that also tends exceedingly to the furtherance of the Gospel and the confirming and strengthning one another in the belief and confession thereof Philip. 1.12 13 14 20 27. After such a sort are we to build up our selves and one another on our most Holy Faith Now such a building up our selves thereon tends to keep us in the love of God because 1. They that build up themselves thereon keep or abide thereon and are not waved or turned aside from that precious foundation to which the love special respect care and approbation of God are as it were intailed Christ is the first prime and immediate object of Gods delightful love so that a man being and abiding in him doth in through and by vertue of him abide also in his love Now a building up our selves on that foundation is a firming us more in and fastning us more upon him who is that foundation whereon his love is inseparably placed The foundation of God Jesus Christ as held forth in the Apostles Doctrine for other foundations can no man lay is a firm and sure foundation and standeth sure having this Seal or confirmation the Lord knoweth them that are his It is known of God as his and therefore cared for owned and loved by him and all that are his the foundations or Christs are therefore also known owned and accepted of God If Christs then Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise c. Gal. 3.29 2. The building up our selves on that foundation the most holy faith is the way to keep our selves untouched of the adversaries of it and 3. To do Gods Commandments using our gifts talents to those ends intents to which God hath given us them and as he hath given us Commandments and in this way he hath promised his presence and blessing with us and favour towards us If we have Christs Commandments and keep them as we doe in thus doing then are we lovers of Christ and God will love us and Christ will love us manifest his own self to us John 14.21 if we keep his Commandments we shall continue in his love John 15.10 If we do these things adde in our faith vertue c so edifie and build up our selves on our most holy faith we shall never fall for so an abundant entrance shall be administred to us into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.5 10 11. It is the idle Soul shall suffer hunger the barren and fruitless branch that the husband-man takes away not the diligent and fruitful in good works Joh 15.2 This therefore is the way for us to keep our selves in the love of God Not to be careless and secure and say in our hearts we cannot miscarry our standing depends not on our working and diligence and therefore we will do nothing but give up our selves to minde and walk after the flesh and do our own pleasures for we are sure of eternal life nothing can deprive us Christ will keep it for us and give it to us what ever we do having closed with him and believed on him no sin of ours can un son us nor no carelesness or neglect of ours provoke God to neglect us Take we heed of such abusive reasonings and actings and exercise we our selves to Godliness to build up our selves on our most holy faith for through slothfulness negligence tâ—e house may else drop through so will God be with us love us own and delight in us to dwell with and amongst us But then add we still the second way or means of keeping our selves in the love of God which is also to be practised all along together with the former and not after we have done with that for that is never to be done with while here but always to be practised and so is this second too namely 2. Praying in the Holy Ghost Where we have to consider 1. The exercise it self that is praying 2. The way or manner of it that is in the Holy Ghost In speaking unto which let us inquire into and consider 1. What it is to pray 2. What it is to pray in the Holy Ghost 3. What is implied in the exhorting Believers so to pray 4. How that conduces to the keeping themselves in the love of God 1. And first To pray is more than to say or read or frame a prayer for that may be as to the two former an exercise of the tongue and lips in which the heart may be altogether unexercised yea and it may be other mens desires or needs that we say or read over and not our own And as to the last expression the framing of a prayer it may be but an exercise of the brain parts not of the heart and Spirit of a man yea the Stage-Players have done all this in derision of prayer sometime whereas to pray is To exercise the heart in minding uttering or pouring out unto God through Jesus Christ its needs and desires or the needs of and its desires for others let us view the particulars
is to be shewed them that it might be as a powerful Argument to beget faith and affection to God and Christ in them and to make them that duly consider it willing to come and which if rejected leaves them without excuse and aggravates their sin and makes evident the equity of their condemnation with a witness Indeed in Promises and Threatnings which alwaies respect the future there is an If or condition understood where not expressed often as appears 1 Sam. 2.30 Jer. 18.7 8. Jonas 3.4 but not in declarations in matters done Now I say this love and salvation so generally expressed is not that to be sought to be obtained or that we may be under it we being all preventingly under it and too many content themselves with being under the enjoyments of its streams in having the patience and bounty of God exercised toward them and in hearing that God hath loved them while sinners and Christ hath died for them sitting down content with this or some more common gifts vouchsafed in or through such means as upon the account thereof are afforded not minding that though those things be true without condition and so ought to be proposed yet they were not done without an end which ought to be pursued Though it s not said Christ died for all if they will live to him yet it s said He died for all that they who live might live to him Though it s not right to say God is patient towards men and doth them good if they repent as if not otherwise yet it s right to say that he is patient towards them and do 〈◊〉 them good that they might repent It 's not handsome to say The Gospel is sent to men if they will believe yet it is to say It is sent to men that they might believe and in believing be justified sanctified washed renewed and be made new creatures having on them the Wedding garment without which they may not partake of the feast nor be the Subjects of Gods choice love in which true bliss and happiness are to be enjoyed nor be made partakers of the special salvation in which Christ is the especial Saviour of them that believe the Author of Eternal salvation unto which things as to our being the Subjects enjoying them there is an If or condition And therefore that these ends of what Christ hath done and doth might be obtained by us it 's needful both that the Gospel be declared clearly and plainly to men by those who are thereto called and that where declared men set their hearts to it to mind it that they might in another sort or sense find this general love and salvation that is to say as to the knowledge belief and efficacy of it upon them it being as is shewed in the Treatise the way by which men are and may be begotten and brought to Repentance Faith and the New Birth and â—o become the objects of the special love aâ— salvation The Word in the Gospel is the seed of Regeneration 1 Pet. 1.23 25. The Gospel of Christ even the preaching of the Cross that Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose again according to the Scriptures is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 1.22.24 15.1 2 3. the preaching that Christ died for all and to what end and that God was in Christ reconciling the world and is the Word of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.14 15 19. The Grace of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saving to all men teacheth that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly That Teacher is to be attended to and that teaching learned and they are greatly faulty that slight or darken it or overly hear it or rest in a notion of it without being brought under the special love by it Though yet neither is this all that men should attend to in hearing and receiving it to be made in Christ by it and so objects of special love All the business is not done and over in that it 's needful also to abide and go on therein for we have adversaries will endeavour to pull us back or pervert us from it Pharaoh who hindred Israels going out of Egypt endeavoured when gone to fetch them back again So deals Satan and as all that were brought into the way to Canaan attained not to Canaan because some turned back in their hearts and some such as had believed and sung his praises afterward through unbelief perished So there is a danger here too And therefore as Moses his work was not all over when he had brought them over the Red Sea and led them to Mount Sinai so neither was the Apostles when by their Ministry and Gods blessing thereon they had brought any to Christ and so to Mount Sion now they were jealous with a godly jealousie for such as they had espoused to Christ lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve any of them might be corrupted from the simplicity in him 2 Cor. 11.23 Least by any means they might be moved and the Tempter should tempt them and render their labour frustrate 1 Thess 3.5 Therefore they wrote Epistles to them wherein they instructed reproved warned them provoked them to watchfulness and stedfastness in the faith So run that they might obtain so to hold fast and abide in Christ as not to lose their reward nor fail of the Grace of God directing them how to behave themselves so as to be preserved in Christ unto eternal life And that 's the main scope and drift of the Treatise here presented that being in the special love of God thou mayest be kept in it But I am sensible that some things might have been spoken to that I over looked in it for some perhaps by the love of God spoken of in the Text understand not that love whereof he is the Subject and we the Object Gods love to and of us but that whereof we are the Subjects and God the Object our love to and of God And indeed upon consideration I had thought of inserting some things in that sense also Not because I think I have taken it amiss but because I think that also might not have been unprofitably spoken to as one sense of the phrase though the matter comes much what to the same for the lover of God is the choicely beloved of God as it is said I love namely with an approving delightful love them that love me Prov. 8.17 Psal 147.11 and my Father hath loved you because ye have loved me John 16.27 they are the called according to his purpose and all things work together for their good Rom. 8.28 to them God hath promised the Crown of life and a glorious Kingdom James 1.12 2.5 Onely to supply that defect I shall here briefly note that in those words Keep your selves in the love of God so taken there is signified Note 1. That the real and hearty
grounds with the Apostle that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God even from loving God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.37 38. but then all right Believers and Lovers of God are not so spiritual as appears 1 Cor. 1.12 with 3.1 2. nor have attained such wisdom and knowledge of him Thence the Apostle saith not I am perswaded nothing shall be able to separate you as speaking to the Romans as in Vers 13. If ye walk after the flesh ye shall dye but us as speaking of himself and the other Apostles and such as they in perfectness and growth 2. Or else by born of God rather may be meant the same with the abider in Christ as in Vers 6. He that abideth in him sinneth not and so Chap. 2 29. He that doth righteousness that constantly and perseveringly doth it is born of God and 1 John 5.1 He that believeth that is goeth on believing perseveringly for words of the present tense it s observed usually or often imply continuance that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and so its like that in Psal 119.23 They that keep his testimonies and seek him with the whole heart they do no iniquity c. 3. Or He that is born of God that is that is led by the Spirit of God as Rom. 8.14 he sins not nor can sin namely as while so led no such fruit can be of him in opposition to Gnosticks or others that impute their sinnings to Gods Spirit say they are tempted or led of God to it 4. And then the word Cannot is taken in a compound sense as when it 's said An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit nor good tree bad fruit Mat. 7 18. that is abiding such but a bad tree may be made a good tree and a bad man a good and a good tree a right noble Vine may degenerate into a strange plant Jer. 2.21 and so a good man into a bad a lover of God to leave his love of him and that by entertaining 1. The love of the world For if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him and of that even Fathers and young men such as had overcome the wicked one it seems needs to be admonished also 1 John 2.12 13 14 15 16. as the Apostles themselves were by Christ Matth. 6.24 Luke 21.34 35 36. 2. Corrupt Doctrines such as lead to high-mindedness pride carelesnes or corrupt any ways from the Faith and Gospel Therefore the Apostle warns the Fathers and young men also of the Antichrists 1 John 2.18.26 2 John 8. as Christ did also his Apostles Matth. 24.45.23.24 25. Principles of Atheism Infidelity rejecting the Scriptures and the Hope and Judgement to come Thence the Apostle Peter warning of the Mockers in the last days that would say Where is the promise of his coming bids the Believers take heed lest being led away with their error they should fall from their own stedfastness 2 Pet. 3.4 5 17. By such means men may be withdrawn from their love of God Or 3. By thinking themselves to have abtained and so growing remiss So men heated with their labour and thinking they have wrought enough sitting down may grow cold or catch cold and He that deals with a slack hand becomes poor Prov. 10.4 Or 4. Through the same conceit withdrawing from the Assemblies and Societies of Brethren Thence the Apostle opposes these to those that separate themselves Jud. 19. and forsaking the Assemblies is opposed to holding fast the profession and ushers in wilful sinning Heb. 10.23 25 26. for how can one be hot alone Eccl. 4.11 Need therefore of this Exhortation now especially when Atheism and evil principles so abound And we may be encouraged to take the Apostles Exhortation because he further implies that Note 3. Believers may in a diligent minding the Grace of God and using the means appointed of him through his promised presence and assistance keep themselves in a warm temper in the love of God So our Saviour implies in Matth. 24.13 in that having said The love of many shall wax cold he addes but he that continues to the end shall be saved Men may continue warm in their love then to the end and why not A man in a good way may easily keep himself in it though he meet with Cheats or Robbers if having good directions a skilful faithful guide using strong perswasions to follow him and his directions and a strong Guard to secure him from violences he will but adhere to and follow them and nothing but amazing wilfulness Jer. 2.12 13. may endanger him being brought into the love of God The same that brought us into it will keep us in it namely the love and grace of God in Christ if minded kept in view and obeyed by us whereto we have good directions in his Word and Doctrine and the Holy Spirit of Wisdom is given from Christ to be our Guide and Director therein And taking heed thereto and making use of those Gifts and Ordinances appointed by him to that purpose God and Christ will guard and secure us from Satan and his instruments Thence it s said Forsake not wisdom and she will preserve thee love her and she will keep thee Prov. 4.6 and He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son to secure him from miscarrying 2 John 9. 1 John 2.24 25. The same exercise or perpetuated fire that will warm a man when cold will easily preserve a man in his heat when heated by it if not forsaken and both the Word and Love of God are compared to fire and hot burning coals Jer. 23.29 Cant. 8.6 7. Keep we but to them and they will keep us warm and as for exercise to keep us warm It s further implied Note 4. That it 's a good and useful exercise that we are here directed to viz. To edifie our selves on our most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost For 1. Therein we are put upon minding Gods and Christs love to us that being the great matter held forth in the Faith whence it 's called The Gospel of the Grace of God Acts 20.24 and that minded will nourish as well as beget love and warmth thereof in us toward him 2. Thence we shall gather strength against our enemies and what would prejudice us against God and cool our love to him for a little to adde to what is somewhat too barely mentioned p. 177. l. 25 26 27. there through we may grow in wisdom for he that cleaves more firmly to Christ the Wisdom of God shall receive more of the Spirit of Wisdom from him and He that walks with wise men shall be wise Prov. 13.20 for in the mystery of Christ held forth by and among them amd in Christ himself are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.3 and the wise man is strong and the man of understanding encreaseth strength Prov. 24. â— for wisdom
who stood in need of his Sons coming and saving of them In that love as we noted in one sense all men are till any of them slighting it and rebelling against God as exercising his love to them are therefore blotted out of the Book of Life and reprobated and reckoned after Satan as incorporated into him that is all men as fallen were and are till then the objects of that love God would not that any man should perish but that all might come to repentance and be saved 2 Pet. 3.9 He would that all men be saved and come to the knowledge or acknowledgment of the truth for there is one God and one Mediator of God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all a testimony in due time 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. Such Grace or Good will was in the heart of God toward the whole World or every one that there through Christ was sent forth for them and tasted death for every one Heb. 2.9 by which bearing upon himself the sin of the World therein he took it away John 1.29 obtained such a release of that judgment that was upon all for one offence to condemnation that there is justification to life and righteousness in him for all Rom. 3.22 and 5.18 He being risen again a Conquerour over sin and death for our justification and being as a reward and recompence of his services and sufferings taken up to the right hand of God He is by him made Lord and Christ Phil. 2.10 11. Acts 2.36 Lord of all both of the dead and living Acts 10.36 Rom. 14 9. And anointed and filled with the Holy Ghost and power that he might be the light to lighten the Gentiles and Gods salvation to the ends of the earth Isai 61.1 and 42.1 7 8. and 49.8 9. The great Prophet and Teacher of the Truth of God to men the Great High Priest who having offered up himself an acceptable Sacrifice to God is in the vertues thereof the Mediator of God and men the propitiation for the sins of the whole World 1 John 2.1 2. 1 Tim. 2.5 So as that mercy and goodness patience and forbearance is by him extended from God to the whole World in the day of his grace and patience to lead them to repentance Rom. 2.4 5. Psal 145.8 9 10. and there is in and through him a way of access for any of them to God and of acceptance with God in their repenting and coming to God by him Heb. 7.25 and 10.19 20. John 14.6 and 3.16 17. Who is also the Great King over all the Earth who are given him for his inheritance and possession Psal 47.7 Jer. 10.7 Psal 2.8 And in the exercise of these his glorious Offices He is the Saviour of all men and especially of them that believe and through him God his Father is so also 1 Tim. 4.10 All things are ready in him for men even a feast of fat things for all people Mat. 22 4. Isai 25.6 And both he and the Father in him is ready to entertain thereto all that come to him in the strength and vertue of his grace and gracious call preventing them which is therefore also extended to them generally by God and Christ in his works about them or words to them with his Spirit there through working to convince reprove and move them to seek after and turn to him Isai 55.1 2 3 6 7 8. and 45.22 Prov. 1.20 21 22 23 24. Psal 50.1 2. Prov. 8.1 5. and 9.1 6. John 6.37 Such love hath God to all generally and to those that believe he testified the same to draw them to believe and come to him they also being before their believing Children that is fit for and worthy of wrath even as others Ephes 2.3 Tit. 3.3 4 5. Yea and now that they believe having nor wholly put off the fruits of the sin of the first Adam but being as men still defiled with sin dwelling in them and mortallity and death upon them as such they are objects still of that love of pitty to mankind and stand in need of the exercise of it to their salvation they are not by believing passed out of that love much less blotted out but are yet continued in it though also advanced higher and so not only as all other men the objects of that love but also 2. As brought unto Christ they are in a further sense in that love too so as other men are not that is to say they are in the understanding belief and knowledge of that love of God to man that is they in some measure understand believe know it yea have it in their hearts so as they are also begotten to God and Christ thereby are born of it and have the foundation ground or beginning of their faith and hope in God in it for it is in the discovery and perception of that love of God to man that the heart is overcome and framed to trust in God and brought out of it self and out of its former false confidences into Christ not the sight of special love to it self above others but the sight and knowledge of Gods love to the World Therefore when our Saviour had preached to Nicodemus the necessity of regeneration to the entring into the Kingdom of God or seeing and injoying it he did not afterward for effecting that regeneration in him tell him of some peculiar electing love of God towards him in particular but of Gods love to the World in general John 3.3 5 15 16. Even as it was not the lifting up the Brazen-Serpent in some special fashion for this or that particular person of the Israelites stung with the fiery Serpents and their beholding it as in some such special fashion lifted up for them by vertue whereof this or that person of them was healed but by its being lifted up for all of them in general this or that man beholding it as so lifted up as a common Medicine for their healing received healing by it and perished not And as Moses lifted up that Serpent in the wilderness the only common Medicine for all that were stung so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life So the Apostle Paul saith Tit. 3.3 4. that it was the effect and product of the love and pity of God our Saviour towards man and not as towards themselves only or in some special manner that they were pull'd out of the state of the world saved While any man knows or takes heed to and minds the Name fame or Doctrine of God that sets him forth in his greatness power love mercy faithfulness c he will trust in him That Name known and minded though it be but one and the same in it self for and to all men as considered alike will beget and frame the hearts of such as know it to trust in him It is the sight understanding or perception of the General
love of and goodness of God to all even to sinners and enemies that overcomes any whiles sinners and enemies to turn to God trust and hope in him and in his mercy for their salvation The sight and perception of the goodness of God to believers as such may make a man to wish himself to be such and more diligently to listen to what may make him such that he may partake of that choice goodness and it is very useful also to be propounded in the hearing of others as our Saviour did propound the blessed state of his Disciples to them in the hearing of the multitude Matth. 5.1 2. with Luk 6.20 21 but it is the sight knowledge or perception of God's graciousness to sinners in his being upon the account of Christ and his sacrifice and mediation ready and willing to accept any poor sinner turning to him forgiving his sins and not retaining his trespasses against him to barr him out from his favour that draws and perswades a sinner and ungodly one to turn unto him and hope and believe in him yea and it is the flesh of Christ given for the life of the world that the believer also feeds on Now all men are not in this sense in the General love goodness and gratiousness of God they do not see perceive and believe it much less are their hearts taken with it and living in it sucking in vertue and power from it to trust in God and to renew them into his image and unto his obedience But the believers are in this sense in it too in the words and Doctrine of Christ John 8.31 32. feeding upon it even upon the flesh of Christ given for the life of the world John 6.51 Christ given to be the ransome for all and there-through the Saviour of the world is the root spring and foundation of their hope and faith towards God and then 2. They are also there-through in the special love of God The love wherewith he loves Christ comes upon them and they are in it included in it and inclosed with it because through the discovery of Christ and the Grace of God in him for all men they are brought into Christ Being baptized into him they have put him on as Gal. 3.26 27. and are lookt upon of God as in him as his Branches John 15.1 4 5 his Members Ephes 5.30 and so they are reckoned after him according to their new-Birth of and into him 2 Cor. 5.16 17 Being in Christ they are no more known after the flesh After what they were in Adam and derived from him to be disowned of God by reason thereof but they are new Creatures old things are passed away and all things are become new they are now in another a new State and condition from what other men are in out of Christ that from what themselves were in before they were in Christ or believed in him they were amongst others in the state and fellowship of the world Branches of the same Wild-Olive as it were with them ungodly sinners children of wrath such as deserved wrath and were obnoxious to it as well as the rest but now through the blood of Christ and by faith in him they are made partakers of Christ the second Adam the root of righteousness the plant of renown the Son of God and his dearly beloved One and so they are 1. Justified acquitted from all their former sins and trespasses none of them remain upon them as imputed to them there is not only righteousness in Christ for them as for all Rom. 3.22 but it is also come upon them so as they are in it By Christ all that believe are justified acquitted and set free from the charge and imputation of all things wherefrom they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.38 39. even from such sins as the Law of Moses provided or allowed no Sacrifices for as Murther Adultery c. what ever they were before they are now justified sanctified washed or made clean therefrom in the sight of God in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. and they are now reputed and reckoned righteous in Christ and so stiled and spoken of by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures 2. They are now also owned and accepted of God into a nearer relation and station to him they are now in Christ become his not only his in a common sense as all the earth are but his in a more special and peculiar sense not only his because his Creatures in Adam and so he their Soveraign Lord to rule over and dispose of them as he pleases but also his because his new Creatures Created as his workmanship in Christ Jesus unto good works which he hath ordained for them to walk in his people his Subjects his purchased ones not only as generally ransomed from under the power and tyrannous jurisdiction of Sathan and Sentence of curse to be under Christs Lordship and dispose as all are but also as through his love therein testified and made known they are purchased and procured to a voluntary subjection of themselves to his Government to own him for their Lord and themselves to be his Subjects and and Servants and so are translated out of the Kingdom and jurisdiction of Sathan and the power of darkness as to their living therein and obeying thereofi nto the Kingdome and gracious Government of his Dear Son Exod. 19.5 6. Eph. 2.10 1 Pet. 2 9. Col. 1.11 12 13. Yea they are made of his family and houshold in the choice sense Fellow Citizens with the Saints of the Heavenly Jerusalem the City of God c. 3. Yea God so loves these that he adopts them to himself for Sons being in Christ his Son and made members of him whereas before were they others Servants servants of sin and heirs of death To them that received him he that is Christ gave this liberty freedome or dignity to become the Sons of God even to them that believe in his Name being begotten and born thereto not of bloods or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man but of God whose work it is to bring a man to and make him in Christ by and through the word of truth declared to men and listened to by them John 1.12 13. Jam. 1.18 thence that also ye are all the Sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ for as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.26 27. It is a fruit and consequent of mens being in Christ a priviledge resulting from Christ the Son of God by nature and generation that any obtain this Grace and favour to be reputed and owned of God as his Children and therefore also it is common to all believers that are truly such without difference or respect of persons it is nothing that the carnal parentage or natural blood or birth of better or worse parents or that the desires
of the flesh to be honoured of God or will of this or that man hath any thing to do in or makes any difference in All that are in Christ being born thereto and therein of God and reckoned after Christ in whom they are as Gal. 3.28 29. with John 1 13. signifies and then from and as a consequent to this 4. God so loves them as to give them the Spirit of the Son both his Spirit to open the knowledge of Christ his Son to them and the disposition liberty boldness towards and affection to and affiance in him in some measure The same Spirit that dwelt in and yet dwells in Christ and led him as man in the dayes of his flesh to have confidence in and boldness towards his Father and so to go to him upon all occasions as to his Father he gives also to the believer in him to let him know Gods Fatherly love to and care of him upon the account of Christ and to lead him in hope and confidence to depend on and call upon him as also to guide instruct comfort strengthen and help him on all occasions To this purpose is that in Gal. 4.5 6. Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father and so many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God and the Spirit it self helps our infirmities c. Rom. 8.15 16 26 27. and this he gives both as a pledge of his love and acceptance and as an earnest of the Inheritance Ephes 1.13 14. 2 Cor. 1.22 5. Yea and as he gives them the priviledge of Sons and the Spirit of his Son so also the respect of Sons so as that as he heard and helped Christ his only begotten Son in the dayes of his flesh in all that he called upon him for and took care of him to provide for and protect him so doth he also to those that believe in his Son The eyes of the Lord are open upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cryes and his face is set against the wicked that hate and oppress them 1 Peter 3.12 13. He is nigh unto his people in all that they call upon him for as our Saviour also promises John 15.7 Abide in me and let my words abide in you and ask what ye will it shall be given you and that as a testimony of his great love to them in which he imbraceth them in Christ his beloved one in whom they are accepted Ephes 1.16 See also John 14.13 14. Psal 145.17 18 19. as our Saviour testifies John 16.27 saying In that day ye shall ask the Father in my Name namely when they had received the promise of the holy Spirit to be a Spirit of grace and supplication in them and I do not say that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God Yea 6. In his love he teacheth them by his holy Spirit and leads them into all truth as is good and needful for them John 14.17 26. Prov. 1.23 teacheth them how to walk and how to pray guides and leads them in the way that they should go makes known his words shews them his mind the Mysteries of his Kingdom c. So Psal 25 8 9 12 14. Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach sinners the way the meek will he guide in judgment the meek will he teach his way i. e. those that being convinced of their own poverty and emptiness do meekly receive his words The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant And Matth. 13.11 To you sayes Christ to his Disciples it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God and I have called you not Servants but Friends for all things that I have heard of my Father have I made known to you He takes care of them that they may not wander out of the way of life and righteousness yea he shews them those delights and pleasures of his wayes and gives them a glimpse too of the glory of the end of it even of the glory of his Kingdom so as that they are thereby made to love his way and walk in it comfortably and with great delight Prov. 3.17 Psal 119 32 165. 7. In love also he nurtures them as his Children giving them chastisement as he sees needful and good for them not leaving them to their own counsels wayes and wills as he doth those that coutemn his counsels and submit not to him He is faithfully reproving and warning them and timely châ—stening them with his afflictions that he might teach them his Law and they might keep his Statutes Psal 94 12. and 119 67 71. as a Father that loves his Child and therefore spares not his Rod Prov. 13.24 for he knows that a Child left to himself comes to misery and shame nor yet doth he in afflicting smite them as he smites these that smite them and are his and their enemies but as a Father chastens the Son in whom he delighteth Prov. 3.11 12 Isai 27.7 8. that is he doth it in measure and judgment not in fury so as he sees they may bear and as may be for their profit Isai 27.8 9. Heb. 12.10 He is faithful and will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able but with the temptation or tryal will give an issue that they may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10 12. For he pities them as a Father pities his Child knowing their mold and temper and that they are but dust and therefore doth not deal with them after their sins nor reward them according to their iniquities but punisheth them less than they deserve is slow to wrath toward them and abundant in goodness and truth and doth not chide them alwayes nor retain his anger for ever Psal 103.9 10 11 12 13. yea and with his chastisements affords his supports and consolations to refresh their hearts Psal 94.18 19 yea and turns again and hath compassion according to the multitude of his tender mercies Lam. 3.32 Yea 8. He takes pleasure in them in them that fear him and in them that hope in his mercy Psal â—47 11 The Lord takes pleasure in his people Psal 49.4 It 's his design and delight to make them happy and to beautifie them with his Salvation to make them as a Crown of Glory and as a royal Diadem in his hand therefore he calls them Hepâ—zibah that is my delight or pleasure is in her owning them together in Christ as his royal Spouse and Consort as Isai 54 5. with 62 2 3 4. it rejoyceth his heart to see them thrive and prosper for he hath pleasure in the prosperity of his Servants Psal 35.27 Yea and though they have their failings weaknesses and spots that might render them unlovely yet having given Christ to
God But now in this Observation that follows fairly from the words as the main thing here directly exhorted to by the Apostle there are divers things implied that we shall take distinct notice of as to say 1. That possibly believers may go out of or from the love of God they may not abide in it Yea 2. That there is no necessity that he must do so he may keep himself therein and then 3. There is great danger if care be not taken of and in turning out of it or from it 4. That it is expected from him and in some sense lies upon him as his work to keep themselves and each believer his Brother therein 1. Point 1. That such as do believe may possibly go out from the love of God This will on every hand be granted concerning such as are fained false-hearted believers counterfeit Christians and hypocrites if it might be granted as it may not that such are in the love of God in that choice sense of the word Love here understood and meant but indeed such as and while such are not nor can be in his love He cannot own justifie and approve of such and therefore to say such may fall from it is to speak absurdly and inconsistently with the Truth They were not such that the Apostle here wrote to but such as were sanctified of God the Father preserved in Jesus Christ and called and therefore were wholly of another stamp from those hypocrites false pretenders and Deceivers of whom and of whose ways they were warned and admonished and from all such as men commonly say may fall from the Grace of God which they must be in before they can fall from These were beloved of God and his Apostles and yet to such he writes to keep themselves in the love of God which would have been a needless labour for him to have taken in hand a needless exhortation to be given them if they could not but be in it could not turn aside from it or go out of it It is to be understood then of true and right believers such as God doth own and approve that such may possibly go out of or fâ—ll 〈◊〉 favour of God And that this is true also of such as his anger or wrath is or may be opposed to his love and favour that they may so demean themselves as instead of his approving them and their ways he may reprove and fault them and instead of smiling upon them he may frown upon them and chide them yea be very much displeased with smite them it will easily be granted too seeing many instances thereof are found in the Scriptures As that God was angry with Moses Aaron and Miriam David and Solomon and other holy men so as that he inflicted great punishments upon them as appears in these Scriptures Numb 120 12â— and 27 14. Deut. 1.37 and 3.26 2 Sam. 11.27 and 12.1 9 10. Psal 32.3 4 and 38.3 4. 1 King 11.9 c. Moses and Aaron amongst his Priests and Samuel amongst those that called upon his Name they called upon the Lord and he answered them He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar they kept his Testimonies and the Ordinances he gave them Thou answeredst them O Lord our God thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest Vengeance on their inventions Psal 99.7.8 Yea how often doth the Scripture tell us of God's wrath and anger against his people even his Zion and Israel as Psal 80.4 Oh Lord how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people thou feedest them with the bread of tears and givest them tears to drink in great measure c. and Psal 85.5 Wilt thou draw out thine anger for ever or be angry to all generations So Lam. 3.1 I am the man that have seen affliction by the rod of his anger c. Yea the Fathers in the Wilderness whom God highly favoured and brought in love and mercy out of Egpyt were highly priviledged by him yet how did they provoke him to displeasure by their unbelief and murmurings so as they most of them were destroyed in his judgments and their carkases fell in the wilderness and they are propounded as admonitions and warnings to us even to such as were justified sanctified and washed from their sins in the Name of the Lord Jesus Yea the Apostle Paul himself looked upon their falls and the disfavour that they procured to themselves as warnings to him See 1 Cor. 9.16 24 25 26 27. with chap. 10.1 2 3 4 5. and 6.11 and from the consideration of what befel them he lays down this general caution Wherefore he that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall c. 10.12 And if it were only possible for believers in this sense to go or fall out of God's love into his wrath and anger considering the dreadfulness of his wrath and the sad consequents thereof upon the objects of it that might be a sufficient motive to move us to take heed to our selves that we sin not against him but keep our selves in his love and favour considering also on the other side how sweet and advantageous his Love is But that seems not to be all that believers may possibly fall into out of the love of God Nay indeed love in a high sense may consist with anger so far at least as still to own and acknowledge for his the person with whom he is angry yea and his in near relation too though there be not an approving of the way and action that causeth the anger As a man may be angry and greatly displeased with his Son or wife whom yet he doth not disinherit or cut off So God is angry with his Children and people often yet he owns for his Children and people So Psal 78.59 60 61 62. When God heard this the the unfaithfulness and Idolatry of his people he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel so that be forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh the Tent which he placed amongst men and delivered his strength into Captivity that is the Ark and his Glory into the enemies hands He gave his people over also unto the sword and was wroth with his inheritance c. they were still his people though given over to the sword and his inheritance though he was wroth with them There is somthing worse than all this yet implied as possible namely an utter rejection disowning if men be not careful to keep themselves in his love as is implied in Ezek. 33 13. When I say to a righteous man thou shalt surely live note by the way that God doth not say so to any seemingly outwardly righteous man onely that is not so indeed he promises not life to the hypocrite or meer moral man but only to those that are righteous in and through Christ if he that righteous man trust to his own righteousness to his being righteous and commit iniquity all his righteousness shall not be remembred but for his iniquity which
them either from Satan as an enemy suggesting fears to them even from their Fathers righteously judging them or on other accounts or from the world persecuting them the assured hope of Gods salvation or the salvation of God Gods sure protection and defence of them here and his bringing or delivering them out in his due time as set before them by way of promise in the Gospel and so an object and matter of hope to be looked for by them And then They have 6. The Sword of the Spirit the Word of God as a two-edged Weapon fit and forcible to do them service both by way of defence to themselves and by way of offence to their enemies so as that thereby they may both be preserved from the lyes of Satan and his Instruments and from all his lying and wicked suggestions and they may beat them away and drive them from them yea and cause the enemies of Christ and of their faith by their powerful convincements thereof to fall before them so Christ kept himself from the wicked one that he touched him not by any of his temptations Matth. 4. and so both he and his Servants have confounded their Adversaries and convinced and converted many of them And then lastly They have free access to God through Jesus Christ by Prayer and supplication to make known their needs and requests to him either for supplyes and help to themselves and one another or for rebuking taking off or weakening their Adversaries and Exercises And they have through Christ the Spirit of grace and supplication to instruct and help them to pray and direct their desires and petitions for them and Christ himself with God as their Mediator High-Priest and Advocate to make their Prayers acceptable to God and this is a marvellous powerful and effectual Weapon being filled with Faith to obtain any thing from Heaven needful for their defence and safety and to batter down the Forts and Strengths of their Adversaries by pulling down judgments from Heaven upon them This is as the Christians Bullets of Ordnance that he storms Heaven by as it were and takes it by force and that being shot up towards Heaven from a fervent faithful heart falls down again upon the wicked Adversaries and doth great execution and slaughter upon them so we may see how the Prayers of the Saints being offered up by the Angel who had many sweet odours to make them acceptable Revel 8.3 4 5. procured fire to be cast upon the earth with voyces thundrings lightnings and a great earthquake whereby the judgments of God upon the Adversaries were implyed and signified Now all these things being considered it will evidently appear that it is very possible for the Believer to be kept in the love of God nay that it is certain he shall be so if he be not greatly neglective of the means of his safety and preservation so many and so effectual for that purpose yea indeed a man might marvail these things for the Believers defence being well weighed how it should possibly be that he should fail of the Grace of God fall out of his love and favour and perish from his presence by any means but that we have seen the possibility and danger too thereof before asserted which also may further as to the reason of it be made manifest in the next consideration wherein it is further noted as implyed that he being so strongly and well fortified and furnished for his safe keeping in the love of God Point 4. It is expected from him and in some sense lyes upon him as his work to keep himself and each Believer to keep his Brother therein Though as he did not bring himself into Christ and so into the love and favour of God by his wisdom will power or goodness but he was called into him and made in him of God so neither is it his work in his own power wisdom and strength to keep himself there or defend himself from what would intice him or force him out Yet as it was his act in and by the Grace of God in Christ to believe and come to Christ and so into the love and favour of God So it is his act also subordinately in and by the same Grace to keep himself in Christ and so in the love of God whence our Saviour so often requires it of his Disciples Abide in me and let my words abide in you continue ye in my love Joh. 15.4.9 Hold fast what thou hast let no man take away thy Crown Rev. 3.11 with which agrees many passages of the Apostles to stand fast quit themselves like men let that they have received abide abide in Christ and the like as also that assertion in 1 John 5.18 He that is born of God keepeth himself that the wicked one toucheth him not In which keeping a mans self in the love of God is signified as to the act of it 1. That the Believer be and abide in that state and way he is already in through the Grace of God not departing voluntarily leaving or going out therefrom keep himself well while he is well being content with Christ confident and well assured of his well doing and happiness in so continuing to that purpose are those phrases of abiding continuing not departing or withdrawing from the living God as in John 8.32 and 15.4 5 6 7. Col. 1.23 1 John 2.24 28. Heb. 3.12 and 10.35 38 39. as implying that no man heartily believing in Christ can miscarry but through a voluntary neglect of or departure from him It is no violence done to him can force him but by his own consent The case of a Believer as we shewed before is like the condition of a man that though very weak and unable of himself to resist or stand against the power of his enemies yet hath a strong Castle or Tower in which he is so strongly fortified and so every way unattachable by either storming undermining or starving of him that there is certain safety for him in abiding in it and no possibility for his enemies catching of him unless he voluntarily go out of it Such is the Believers condition being in Christ and God nothing can come upon him to harm him none can pluck or take him by force out of it unless he willingly sin and depart from God and Christ after the knowledge of the Truth received against which departing and drawing back from and forsaking God and so their own mercies the Spirit of God therefore by his Servants is diligently provoking and exhorting them as Take heed Brethren least there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God and let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised Cast not away your confidence c Heb. 3.12 and 10.23 35. 2. That because Satan by himself and Instruments is crafty subtle and vigilant to intice allure and tempt Believers to make a voluntary
to the Saints preached by the holy Apostles and Prophets and witnessed to by the holy Spirit and so by the holy God who bare witness to the Preachers of it both with Signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost Heb. 24. is a holy pure clean Word The Word of the Lord as the Gospel of Jesus Ghrist as preached by the Apostles is often called as in Acts 6 2 7. and 8.25 and 12.24 and 13.5 7 12 44 46 49. is pure as Silver seven times tryed in the fire Psal 12.6 No dross or mixture in it it is not yea and nay but yea yea or yea and Amen as in 2 Cor. 1.18 19. As God is true our word toward you was not yea and nay for the Son of God Jesus Christ who was preached among you by us was not yea and nay but in him was yea for all the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us The Apostles did speak in simplicity and sincerity what they had heard and received from God and Christ and did not as the false Apostles sophisticate and corrupt the Word of God as the Apostle also saith 2 Cor. 2.17 But as in sincerity and as of God they spake in Christ in the sight of God Even as Jesus Christ himself the matter and subject of their word the faith or foundation of faith the object to be closed with and rested or built upon is the holy One the holy One of Israel and so is frequently stiled as Acts 3.14 Ye denyed the holy One and the just So 1 John 2.20 Ye have an Vnction from the holy One and ye know all things And Heb. 7.26 He is holy harmless undefiled c. a spotless one a Lamb without blemish his nature and life and death and sacrifice and person altogether blameless sinless and undefiled even so the Doctrine of the Apostles concerning him was pure and clean too like to pure water No soil or mud in it Yea and 2. It was and is set apart separated and devoted to God and for his glory to be the foundation ground and way of our believing and so becoming an holy habitation and people for God Jesus Christ the main matter and subject treated of in the Gospel is in that sense holy to God chosen by him separated and set apart for him to be his salvation to the ends of the earth the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world his righteous Servant in whose hand his pleasure shall prosper his Elect in whom his Soul delighteth who hath sanctified himself and given up himself to him to do his will in all things to be his Prophet to declare his mind and bring forth judgment to the Gentiles and light to the people to be his High-Priest as it is said The Lord hath sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest to me for ever after the order of Melchisedeck Psal 110 3 4. to make atonement for the sins of the people offer up their gifts and sacrifices and make intercession for all that come to God by him Heb. 2.17 and 5.1 and 7.25 and bless them in his Name Heb. 7.6 7. His King whom he hath set upon his holy hill of Sion Psal 2.6 7. being wholly holy unto God to do his pleasure in his presence for men and from him to and with men Rom. 6.10 his Foundation namely that he hath lay in Sion to be the foundation and corner-stone of his holy building an habitation for his Holiness and glory by vertue of whom it is that the whole building becomes an holy House to God and an habitation separated unto him to dwell in by his Spirit as Ephes 2.20 21. And so the Doctrine or Faith concerning him is holy separated and set apart for Gods use for drawing men into the knowledg and faith of Christ and so to himself by and through him and therefore it is called The power of God to salvation to every one that believes Rom. 1.16 The Medium that he made choice of for saving those that believe it and so through it believe in him 1 Cor. 1.21 so that in this respect too it is holy As also 3. In respect of the effect and fruit of it it makes holy those that receive it and are united with it and built upon it So Jesus Christ the main matter and subject of it the foundation properly laid in it and by it for men to believe in and be built on is not only holy in himself sinless and set apart for God but also is made of God holiness to us the cause of holiness to us He in and by vertue of whom we are holy to God 1 Cor. 1.30 He being the holy Temple and habitation of God makes us so too in being united with him He being the holy foundation makes all the building holy And so the Doctrine of the Apostles preached and published concerning him and received and held fast by these Believers was holy in respect of the effect and fruit of it in Believers who are said to be sanctified by the faith in Christ Jesus Acts 26.28 Sanctified or made holy through Gods Word which is the Truth John 17.17 and to be made clean through the Word spoken to them John 15.3 Sanctified and washed by the washing of water the Love Grace and Knowledge of God held forth in the Word that they might be presented a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it might be holy and without blame or blemish Ephes 5.26 27. as also the holiness of the new man is therefore in Ephes 4.22 called according to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The holiness of truth because the effect or product of the Truth believed by men To this purpose are those sayings of David in Psal 119.9 11. Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his wayes By taking heed thereto according to thy Word And again I have hid thy Word in my heart that I might not sin against thee c. Yea 4. It is called the holy Faith to signifie the great care that God hath of it its acceptableness to him and his respect to and care of it as in that sense in Jer. 2.3 Israel was said to be holiness to the Lord being his people his peculiar portion he had an especial care over them to defend them so as that all that devoured them offended evil came or shall come upon them So is Christ holiness to the Lord very dear and delightful to him and therefore especially cared for and defended by him as in Psal 89.21 With him his right hand is established and his arm strengthens him so as the enemy shall not exact upon him nor the son of wickedness afflict him he will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him Yea therefore they that believe not in him shall be condemned and perish and they shall be destroyed that will