that so many do abide in themselves and trusting to their own good purposes resolutions endeavoâ—…s do think to pacifie God and help themselves out of their misery But O look again and look in upon your selves in the glass of the Word and there is no doubt but you vvill straightway be filled vvith confusion of face and be altogether spoiled of good confidence and hope as you call it you vvill find your self plunged in a pit of misery and all strength gone and none on the right hand or the left to help you and then and not till then vvill the second Adams hand stretched out for our help be seasonable That vvhich next follows is that vvhich is the companion of sin inseparably Death hath past upon all and that by sin Adams one disobedience opened a port for all sin to enter upon mankind and sin cannot enter vvithout this companion Death Sin goes before and Death follows on the back of it and these suite one another as the vvork and the vvages as the tree and the fruit they have a sibness one to another sowing to corruption reaps an answerable harvest to vvit corruption Sowing to the vvind and reaping the vvhirlewind how suitable are they That men may know how evil and bitter a thing sin is he makes this the fruit of it In his first Law and sanction given out to men he joyns them inseparably sin and death sin and vvrath sin and a curse By Death is not only meant bodily death which is the separation of the soul from the body but first the spiritual death of the soul consisting in a separation of the soul from Gods blessed enlightning enlivening and comforting countenance Mans true life wherein he differs from beasts consists in the right aspect of God upon his soul in his walking with God and keeping communion with him all things besides this are but common and base and this was cut off his comfort his joy and peace in God extinct God became terrible to his conscience and therefore man did flee and was araid when he heard his voice in the garden Sin being interposed between God and the soul cut off all the influence of heaven Hence arises darkness oâ—… mind hardness of heart delusions vile affections horror of conscience Look what difference is between a living creature and a dead carcase so much is between Adams soul upright living in God and Adams soul separated from God by sin Then upon the outward man the curse redounds the body becoms mortal which had been incorruptible it 's now like a besiedged City now some outward sorts are gained by diseases now by pains and torments the outward wals of the body are at length overcome and when life hath fled into a Castle within the City the heart that is at last all besiedged so straitly and stormed so violently that it must render unto death upon any terms The body of man is even a seminary of a world of diseases and grievances that if men could look upon it aright they might see the sentence of death every day performed Then how many evils in estate in friends and relations in imployments which being considered by Heathens hath made them praise the dead more then the living but him not yet born most of all because the present life is nothing else but a valley of misery and tears a sea of troubles where one wave continually prevents another and comes on like Iobs messengers before he speak out his woâ—…ul tydings another comes with such like or worse But that which is the sum and accomplishment of Gods curse and mans misery is that death to come eternal death not death simply but an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power An infinite loss because the loss of such a glorious life in the enjoyment of Gods presence and an infinite hurt and torment beside and both eternal Now this is that we would lay before you you are under such an heavy sentence from the womb a 〈◊〉 of the Almighty adjudging you for Adams guilt and your own to all the misery in this world and the next to all the treasures of wrath that are heaped up against the day of wrath and strange it is how vve can live in peace and not be troubled in mind vvho have so great and formidable a party Be perswaded O be perswaded that there shal not one â—…ot of this be removed it must be fulfilled in you or your Cautioneâ—… and vvhy then is a Savior offered a City of refuge opened and secure sinners vvill not flee into it But as for as many as have the inward dreadful apprehension of this vvrath to come and knows not vvhat to do know that to you is Jesus Christ preached the second Adam a quickning Spirit and in that consideration better then the first not only a living soul himself but a Spirit to quicken you vvho are dead in sins one that hath undertaken for you and vvill hold you fast Adam vvho should have kept us lost himself Christ in a manner lost himself to save us And as by Adams disobedience all this sin misery hath abounded on man know that the second Adam his obedience and righteousness is of greater vertue and efficacy to save and in stead of sin to restore righteousness and in stead of death to give life therefore you may come to him and you shal be more surely kept then beâ—…ore 1. Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came in the world to save sinners OF all Doctrines that ever vvere published to men this contained here is the choisest as you see the very preface prefixed to it import And truly as it is the most excellent in it self it could not but be sweet unto us if we had received into the heart the belief of our own wretchedness misery I do not know a more soveraign cordial for a fainting soul then this faithful saying That Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And therfore we are most willing to dwel on this â—…ubject and to inculcate it often upon you That without him ye are undone and lost and in him you may be saved I profess all other subjects howsoever they might be more pleasing to some hearers are unpleasant and unsavory to me This is that we would once learn and ever be learning to know him that came to save us and come to him We labored to show unto you the state of sin and misery that Adams first transgression hath subjected all mankind unto which if it were really and truly apprehended I do not think but it would make this saying welcome to our souls Man being plunged into such a deep pit of misery sin and death having over-flowed the whole world and this being seen and acknowledged by a sinner certainly the next question in order of nature is this Hath God left all to perish in this
as the misapprehension of the thing it self for as long as they mistake it in its own nature no sign no mark can satisfie in it You take Faith to be a perswasion of Gods love that calms and quiets the mind Now such a perswasion needs no sign to know it by it is manifest by its own presence as light by its own brightnesse It were a foolish question to ask any How they knew that they were perswaded of anothers affection The very perswasion it self maketh it self more certain to the soul then any token So then while you question whether you have Faith or not and in the mean time take Faith to be nothing else but such a perswasion it is in vain to bring any marks or signs to convince you that you have Faith for if such a perswasion assurance were in you it would be more powerfull to assure your hearts of it self than any thing else and while you are doubting of it it is more manifest that you have it not than any signs or marks can be able to make it appear that you have it If any would labour to convince a blind man that he saw the light and give him signs tokēs of the lights shining the blind man could not believe him for it is more certain to himself that he sees not than any evidence can make the contrary probable You are still wishing and seeking such a Faith as puts all out of question Now when Ministers bring any marks to prove you have true Faith it cannot satisfie or settle you because your very questioning proves that ye have not that which ye question if you had such a perswasion you would not question it So then as long as you are in that mistake concerning the nature of Faith all the signs of the word cannot settle you But I say if once you understood the true nature of Faith it would be more clear in it self unto you than readily marks and signs could make it especially in the time of temptation If you would know then what it is indeed Consider what the Word of God holds out concerning himself or us the solid belief of that in the heart hath something in the nature of saving Faith in it The Lord gives a testimony concerning Man That he is born in sin that he is dead in sin and all his imaginations are only evil continually Now I say to receive this truth into the soul upon Gods Testimony in a point of Faith the Lord in his Word concludes all under sin and wrath ◅o then for a soul to conclude it self also under sin and wrath is a point of Faith Faith is the souls testimony to Gods truth the Word is Gods Testimony Now then if a soul receive this testimony within whether it be Law or Gospel it 's an act of Faith if a soul condemn it self judge it self that is a setting to our seal that God is true who speaks in his Law so it s a believing in God I say more To believe with the heart that we cannot believe is a great point of found belief because it 's a sealing of that Word of God The heart is desperatly wicked and of our selves we can do nothing Now I am perswaded if such souls knew this they would put an end to their many contentions and wranglings about this point and would rather blesse God that hath opened their eyes to see themselves then contend with him for that they have no Faith It is light only that discovers darknesse and Faith only that descerns unbelief Its life and health only that feels pain sicknesse for if all were alike nothing could be found as in dead bodies Now I say to such souls as believe in God the Law-giver believe also in Christ the Redeemer and what is that It is not to know that I have Interest in him No that must come after it is the Spirits sealing after believing which puts it self out of question when it comes and so if you had it you needed not many signs to know it by at least you would not doubt of it more than he that sees the light can question it But I say to believe in Christ is simply this I whatsoever I be ungodly wretched polluted desperate am willing to have Jesus Christ for my Saviour I have no other help or hope if it be not in him it is I say to lean the weight of thy soul on this foundation stone laid in Zion to embrace the promises of the Gospel albeit generall as worthy of all acceptation wait upon the performance of them It is no other thing but to make Christ welcome to say even so Lord Jesus I am content in my soul that thou be my Saviour to be found in thee not having my own righteousnesse I am well pleased to cast away my own as dung find my self on other not an ungodly man Now it is certain that ◅any souls that are still questioning whether they have Faith yet do find this in their souls but because they know not that it is Faith which they find they go about to seek that which is not Faith and where it is not to be found and so disquiet themselves in vain and hinder fruitfulnesse Now the Faith of a Christian is no fancy it 's no light vain imagination of the brain but it dwells in the heart with the heart man believes and it dwels with love Faith and love we need not be curious to distinguish them it is certain that love is in it from it it s in the very bosome of it because faith is a soul embracing of Christ it 's a choosing of him for its portion and then upon the review of this goodly portion and from consideration what he is and hath done for us the soul loves him still more is impatient of so much distance from him We find them conjoyned in Scripture but they are one in the heart O that we studied to have these joyntly engraven on the heart as they are joyned in the word so our heart should be a living Epistle Faith and Love are two words but one thing under different notions they are the out-goings of the soul to Christ for life the breathings of the soul after him for more of him when it hath once tasted how good he is Faith is not a speculation or a wandring thought of Truth it 's the truth not captivated into the mind but dwelling in the heart getting possession of the whole man you know a man and his will are one not so a man and his mind for he may conceive the truth of many things he loves not but what ever a man loves that and he in a manner becomes one with another Love is unitive it 's the most excellent union of distant things The will commands the whole man and hath the office of applying of all the faculties of their proper works Illa imperat aliae exsequuntur
mercy make thee not fear and tremble before him and do not separate thee from thy sins if remission of sins be not the strongest perswasion to thy soul of the removing of sin certaiuly thou dost in vain presume upon his mercy Now consider what influence all this glorious Proclamation had on Moses it stirs up in him reverence and affection reverence to such a glorious Majesty great desire to have him amongst them and to be more one with him If thy soul rightly discover God it cannot but abase thee he made bade haste to bow down and worship O Gods Majesty is a surprising and astonishing thing it would bow thy soul in the dust if it were represented to thee labour to keep the right and intire representation of God in thy sight his whole Name Strong Mercifull Iust Great and Holy I say keep both in thy view for half representations are dangerous either to beget presumption and security when thou looks on mercy alone or despair when thou looks on Justice and power alone Let thy soul consider all joyntly that it may receive amixed impression of all this is the holy composition and temper of a Believer Rejoice with trembling love with fear let all thy discoveries of him aime at more union communion with him who is â—…ch a self-sufficient al-sufficient and eternal Beeing Joh. 4. 24. God is a Spirit and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth WE have here something of the Nature of God pointed out to us somthing of our duty towards him God is a spirit that is his Nature and man must worship him that is his duty that in spirit in truth that is the right manner of the duty if these three were right pondered till they sink in to the bottome of our spirits they would make us indeed Christians not in the Letter but in the Spirit That is presupposed to all Christian worship walking to know what God is it s indeed the Primo cognitum of Christianity the first Principle of true Religion the very root out of which springs grows up walking sutably with worshipping answerably of a known God I fear much of our Religion be like the Athenians They builded an Altar to an unknown God and like the Samaritanes Who worshipped they know not what Such a Worship I know not what it is when the God worshipped is not known The two parents of true Religion are the knowledge of God and of our selves this indeed is the beginning of the fear of God which the wise Preacher cals the beginning of wisdom And these two as they beget true Religion so they cannot truly be one without the other It is not many notions and speculations about the Divine nature it is not high strained conceptions of God that comprises the true knowledg of him many think they know something when they can speak of these mysteries in some singular way and in some tearms removed from common understandings which neither themselves nor others know what they mean thus they are presumptuous self-conceited knowing nothing as they ought to know there is a knowledge that puffes up there is a knowledge that casts down a a knowledge in many that doth buâ—… swell them not grow them It s but a rumor full of wind a vain and empty and fâ—…othy knowledge that is neither good for edifying others nor saving a manâ—… self a knowledge that a man knows and reflects upon so as to ascend upon the height of it and measure himself by the degrees of it this is not the true knowledge of God which knows not it self looks not back upon it self but straight towards God his holinesse and glory our basenesse misery and therefore it constrains the soul to be ashamed of it self in such a glorious presence and to make haste to worship as Moses Iob Isaiah did This definition of God if we did truly understand it we could not but worship him in another manner God is a spirit Many ignorant people form in their own mind some liknesse and Image of God who is invisible you know how ye fancy to your selves some bodily shape when you conceive of him you think he is some Reverend and Majestick Person sitting on a Throne in Heaven But I beseech you correct your mistakes of him there is outward idolatry and there is inward there is idolatry in action when men paint or ingrave some similitude of God there is Idolatry in imagination when the fancy and apprehension runs upon some Image or likenesse of God The first is among Papists but I fear the latter be too common among us it is indeed all one to form such 〈◊〉 similitude in our mind and to ingrave or paint it without so that the God whom many of us worship is not the living and true God but a painted or graven Idol When God appeared most visible to the world â—…s at the giving out of the Law yet no man did see any liknesse at all he did not come under the percepâ—…ion of the most subtile sense he could not be perceived but by the retired understanding going aside â—…om all things visible therefore you do but fancy â—…n idol to your selves in stead of God when you apâ—…rehend him under the likenesse of any visible or senâ—…ble thing so what ever love or fear or reverence â—…ou have it is all but mispent superstition the love â—…nd fear of an idol 1. I know then that God is a Spirit and therefor he is like none of all these things you see or hear or smel or taste or touch The heavens are glorious indeed the light is full of glory but he is not like that If all your senses should make an inquiry and search for him throughout the world you should not find him though he be near hand every one of us yet your eyes and ears all your senses might travel the length of the earth and breadth of the sea and should not find him even as you might search all the corners of heaven ere ye could hear or see an Angel if you saw a man asunder and resolve him in atomes of dust yet you could not perceive a soul within him why Because these are spirits and so without the reach of your senses II. If God be a Spirit then he is invisible dwels in light inaccessible which no man hath seen or can see then ouâ—… poor narrow minds thaâ—… are drowned as it were and immersed into bodies of clay in this state of mortality receives all knowledge of the senses cannot frame any suitable notion of his spiritual and abstracted nature We cannot conceive what our own soul is but by some sensible operation flowing from it and the height that our knowledge of that noble part of our selves amounts to is but this dark confused conception that the soul is some inward principle of life and sense and reason
this God is near hand every one of us Who of us think of a Divine Majesty nearer us than our very souls and consciences in whom we live and move and have our being How is it we move think not with wonder of that first Mover in whom we move How is it we live persevere in being do not always cōsider this fountain-being in whom we live and have our being O the Atheism of many souls prosessing God! We do speak walk eat and drink go about all our businesses as if we were self-being independent of any never thinking of that all-present quickning Spirit that acts us moves us speaks in us makes us to walk and eat and drink as the barbarous people who see hear speak reason and never once reflect upon the principle of all these to discern a soul within This is bruitish in this Man who was made of a straight countenance to look upward to God to know himself and his Maker till he might be differenced from all creatures below is degenerated and become like the beasts that perish Who of us believes this al-present God We imagine that he is shut up in heaven and takes no such notice of affairs below but certainly he is not so far from us though he shew more of his glory above yet he is as present and observant below V. If he be a Spirit then as he is incomprehensible and immense in being so also there is no comprehension of his knowledge The nearer any creature come to the nature of a Spirit the more knowing and understanding it is life is the most excellent being and understanding is the most excellent life Materia est imers mertua the nearer any thing is to the earthly matter as it hath lesse action so lesse life and feeling Man is nearer an Angel then beasts and therefore he hath a knowing and understanding Spirit in him There is a spirit in man and the more or lesse this spirit of man is abstracted from sensual and material things it lives the more excellent and pure life and is as it were more or lesse deliverd from the chains of the body These souls that have never risen above retired from sensible things O how narrow are they how captivated within the prison of the flesh But when the Lord Jesus comes to set free he delivers a soul from this bondage he makes these chains fall off leads the soul apart to converse with God himself and to meditate on things not seen sin wrath hell and heaven the further it goes from it self the more abstracted it is from the consideration of present things the more it lives a life like Angels And therefore when the soul is separated from the body it is then perfectly free and hath the largest extent of knowledge A mans soul must be almost like Pauls whether out of the body or in the body I know not if he would understand aright spiritual things Now then this infinite spirit is an al-knowing spirit al-seeing spirit as well as al-present There is no searching of his understanding Isa. 40. 28. and Psal. 147. 5. Who hath directed this spirit or being his counsellour hath taught him Rom. 11. 34. Isa. 40. 1◅ He calls the Generations from the beginning and known to him are all his works from the beginning O that you would alwayes set this God before you or rather set your selves alwayes in his presence in whose sight you are alwayes How would it compose our hearts to reverence fear in all our actions if we did indeed believe that the Judge of all the World is an eye-witnesse to our most retired and secret thoughts and doings If any man were as privy to thy thoughts as thy own spirit and conscience thou wouldst blush and be ashamed before him If every one of us could open a window into one anothers spirits I think this assembly should dismisse as quickly as that of Christs when he bade them that were without sin cast a stone at the Woman we could not look one upon another O then Why are we so little apprehensive of the al-searching eye of God who can even declare to us our thought before it be How much Atheism is rooted in the heart of the most holy We do not alwayes meditate with David Psal. 139. on that al-searching and al-knowing spirit who knows our down-sitting up-rising understands our thoughts a far off and who is acquainted with all our wayes O How would we ponder our path and examine our words and consider our thoughts before hand if we set our selves in the view of such a Spirit that is within us and without us before us and behind us He may spare sinners as long as he pleases for there is no escaping from him you cannot go out of his dominions nay you cannot run out of his presence Psal. 7. 8. 9. He can reach you when he pleases therefore he may delay as long as he pleases Joh. 4. 24. GOD is a Spirit c. THere are two common notions engraved on the hearts of all men by nature That God is and that he must be worshipped and these two live and die together they are clear or blotted together According as the apprehension of God is clear distinct and more deeply engraven on the soul so is this notion of mans duty of worshipping God clear imprinted on the soul and when ever the actions of men do prove that the conception of the worship of God is obliterate or worn out when ever their transgressions do witnesse that a man hath not a live◅y ◅otion of this duty of Gods worship that doth al◅o prove that the very notion of a God-head is worn out and cancelled in the soul For How could souls conceive of God as he is indeed but they must needs with Moses Exod. 34 make haste to pray and worship It is the principle of the very Law of Nature which shall make the whole world inexcusable because that when they knew God they gloriesied him not as God A Father must have honour and a Master must have fear and God who is the common Parent absolute Master of all must have worship in which reverence and fear mixed with rejoycing and affection predomines it is supposed and put beyond all question that it must be He that worships him c. It s not simply said God is a Spirit must be worshipped no for none can doubt of it If God be then certainly Worship is due to him for who is so worshipfull And because it is so beyond all question therefore woe to the irreligious world that never puts it in practice O What excuse can you have who have not so much as a form of Godlinesse Do you not know that its beyond all Controversie that God must be worshipped Why then do you deny it in your practice which all men must confesse in their conscience Is not he God
Ordinances but that Christians are now called to worship all Spirit pure Spirit c. This is one of the Spirits spiritual Doctrines that call themselves so which ye must not receive for it is neither spirit of God nor of Christ that teacheth this nor the spirit of God the Creator because he hath made the whole man body and soul and so must be worshipped of the whole man He hath created man in such a capacity as he may offer up external actions in a reasonable manner with the inward affections as the Lord hath created him so he should serve him every member every part in its own capacity the soul to preceed and the body to follow the soul to be the chief worshipper and the body its servant imployed in the worship True worship hath a body and a soul as well as a true man and as the soul separated is not a compleat man so neither is the soul separated a compleat worshipper without the body the external Ordinances of God is the body the inward soul-affection is the Spirit which being joyned together makes compleat worship Neither is it the Spirit of Christ which teacheth this because our Lord Jesus hath taught us to offer up our bodies and spirits both in a reasonable service Rom. 12. 1 2. The sacrifice of the bodily performance offered up by the spiritual affection and renewed mind is a living sacrifice holy acceptable and reasonable That spirit which dwelt in Christ above measure did not think it too base to vent it self in the way of externall Ordinances He was indeed above all above the Law yet did willingly come under them to teach us who have so much need and want to come under them He prayed much he preached he did sing and read to teach us how to worship and how much need we have of Prayer and Preaching This was not the Spirit Christ promised to his Disciples and Apostles which spirit did breath most lively in the use of the external Ordinances all their dayes and this is not the spirit which was at the hour in which Christ spoke The hour is come and now is ver 23. in which the true worship of God shal not be in the external and Jewish Ceremonies and rites void of all life and inward sense of Piety but the true worship of God shal be made up of a soul and body of spirit and truth of the external appointed Ordinances according to the word of truth and the spirit of truth and of the spirit and inward soul-affection and sincerity which shal quicken and actuate that external performance There were no such worshippers then as had no use of Ordinances Christ was not such his Disciples were not such therefore it is a new Gospel which if an Angel should bring from heaven ye ought not to receive it As it is certain then that both soul and body must be imployed in this businesse so it is sure that the soul spirit must be the first mover and chiefest agent in it because it is a spiritual businesse and hath relation to the fountain-spirit which hath the most perfect opposition to all false appearances and externall shews that part of man that commeth nearest God must draw near in worshipping of God if that be removed far away there is no real communion with God man judges according to the outward appearance and can reach no further than the outward man but God is an all-searching spirit who tryeth the heart and rins and therefore he will passe another judgement upon your worship then men can do because he observes all the secret wandrings and escapes of the heart out of his sight he misses the soul when you present attentive ears or eloquent tongues there is no dallying with his Majesty painting will not deceive him his very Nature is contrary to Hypocrisie dissimulation and what is it but dissimulation when you present your selves to Religious exercises as his people but within are nothing like it nothing awaking nothing present O consider my beloved what a one you have to do with It is not men but the Father of Spirits who will not be pleased with what pleases men of your own flesh but must have a spirit to serve him Alas what are we doing with such empty names and shews in Religion Busied in the outside of worship only as if we had none to do with but men who have eyes of flesh all that we do in this kind is lost labour and will never be reckoned up in the account of true worship I am sure you know and may reflect upon your selves that you make Religion but a matter of outward fashion and externall custome you have never almost taken to heart in earnest you may frequent the Ordinances you may have a form of godlinesse consisting in some outward performances priviledges and O! how void and destitute of all Spirit and Life and Power not to speak of the removall of affection and the imploying of the marrow of your soul upon base lusts and creatures or the scattering of your desires abroad amongst them for that is too palpable but even your very thoughts mindâ—… are removed from this busines you have nothing present but an ear or eye your minds is about other businesse your desires your fears your joyes and delights your affections never did run in the channel of religious exercises all your passion is vented in other things but here you are blockish stupid without any sensible apprehension of God his mercy or Justice or wrath or of your own misery and want You sorrow in other things but none here none for sin you joy for other things but none here you cannot rejoyce at the Gospel Prayer is a burthen not a delight if your spiriâ—…s were chiefly imployed in Religious duties Religion would be almost your Element your pleasure and Recreation but now it is wearisome to the flesh because the Spirit taketh not the chief weight upon it Oh be not deceived God is not mocked you do but mock your selves with external showes while you are satisfied with them I beseech you look inwardly and be not satisfied with the outward appearance but ask at thy Soul where it is and how it is Retire within and bring up thy spirit to this work I am sure you may observe that any thing goes more smoothly and sweetly with you then the Worship of God because your mind is more upon any thing else I fear the most part of us who endeavour to some measure to seek God have too much drosse of outward formality much scumof filthy hypocrisie and guile O pray that the present furnace may purge away this scum It is the great ground of Gods present controversie with Scotland but alas the Bellows are like to burn we not be purged our scum goes not from us we satisfie our selves with some outward exercises of Religion custome undoes us all it was never more
creature that are among the rest of the creatures meet all in man as their Center for this purpose that he may return with them all to the glorious Fountain from whence they issued thus we stand next God and in the middle between God and other creatures This I say was the condition of our creation we had our being immediatly from God as the beginning of all and we were to have our happiness and well-being by returning immediatly to God as the end of all But sin coming in between God and us hath displaced us so that we cannot now stand next God without the intervention of a Mediator we cannot stand between God and the creatures to offer up their praise to him but there is one Mediator between God and man that offers up both mans praises and the creatures songs which meet in man Now seeing God hath made all things for himself and especially man for his own glory that he may shew forth in him the glory and excellency of his power goodness holiness justice and mercy It is not only most reasonable that man should do all things that he doth to the glory of God but it is even the beauty and perfection of a man the greatest accession that can be to his being to glorifie God by that being We are not our own therefore we ought not to live to our selves but to God whose we are But you may ask what is it to glorifie God Doth our goodness extend to him Or is it an advantage to the Almighty that we are righteous No indeed and herein is the vast difference between Gods glorifying of us and sanctifying of us and our glorifying and sanctifying of him God calls things that are not and makes them to be but we can do no more but call things that are and that far below what they are Gods glorifying is creative ours only declarative He makes us such we do no more but declare Him to be such this then is the proper work that man is created for to be a witness of Gods glory to give testimony to the appearances and out-breakings of it in the wayes of power and justice and mercy and truth Other creatures are called to glorifie God but it is rather a Proclamation to dull and senseless men and a provocation of them to their duty As Christ said to the Pharisees If these children hold their peace the stones would cry out So may the Lord turn himself from stupid and senseless men to the stones and woods and seas and sun and moon and exhort them to mans duty the more to provoke and stirre up our dulness and to make us consider that it is a greater wonder that man whom God hath made so glorious can so little express Gods glory then if stupid and senseless creatures should break out in singing and praising of his Majesty The creatures are the books wherein the lines of the song of Gods praises are written and man is made a creature capable to read them and to tune that long They are appointed to bring in Brick to our hand and God has fashioned us for this imployment to make such a building of it We are the mouth of the creation but ere God want praises when our mouth is dumb and our ears deaf God will open the mouths of ashes of Babes and Sucklings and in them perfyte praises Psal. 8. 1. 2 Epictetus said well Si Luscinia essem canerem ut Luscinia cum autem homo sim quod agam Laudebo Deum nec unquam cessabo Is I were a Lark I would sing as a Lark but seeing I am a man what should I do but praise God without ceasing It is as proper to us to praise God as for a bird to chaunt All beasts have their own sounds and voices peculiar to their own nature this is the naturall sound of a man Now as you would think it monstruous to hear a melodious bird croping as a Raven so it is no less monstruous and degenerate to hear the most part of the discourses of men savouring nothing of God If we had known that innocent estate of man O how would we think he had fallen from heaven We would imagine that we were thrust down from heaven where we heard the melodious songs of Angels into hell to hear the howlings of damned spirits This then is that we are bound unto by the bond of our Creation this is our proper office and station God once set us into when he assigned every creature it s own use and exercise this was our portion and O the noblest of all because nearest the Kings own person to acknowledge in our hearts inwardly and to express in our words and actions outwardly what a one he is according as he hath revealed himself in his word and works It 's great honour to a creature to have the meanest imployment in the Court of this great King But O what is it to be set over all the Kings house and over all his Kingdom But then what is that in respect of this to be next to the King to wait on his own person so to speak therefore the godly man is described as a waiting maid or servant Psal. 123 2. Well then without more discourse upon it without multiplying of it into particular branches to glorifie God is in our souls to conceive of him and meditate on his Name till they receive the impression and stamp of all the letters of his glorious Name and then to express this in our words and actions in commending of him and obeying of him Our soul should be as wax to express the Seal of his glorious Attributes of justice power goodness holiness and mercy and as the Water that receives the beams of the Sun reflects them back again so should our spirits receive the sweet warming beams of his love and glorious excellency and then reflect them towards his Majesty with the desires and affections of our souls All our thoughts of him all our affections towards him should have the stamp of singularity such as may declare there is none like him none besides him our love our meditation our acknowledgement should have this character on their front There is none beside thee Thou art and none else And then a soul should by the cords of affection to him and admiration of him be bound to serve him Creation puts on the obligation to glorifie him in our body and spirits which are his but affection only puts that to exercise All other bonds leaves our natures at liberty but this constrains 2 Cor. 5. 13. it binds on all bonds it tyes on us all divine obligations Then a soul will glorifie God when love so unites it to God and makes it one spirit with him that his glory becomes its honour and becomes the principle of all our inward affections and outward actions It is not alwayes possible to have an expresse particular thought of God and his glory in every action and
a little time the advantage of all the Books of the world shal be gone The statutes and Laws of Kings and Parliaments can reach no further then some temporall reward or punishment their highest pain is the killing of this body their highest reward is some evanishing and sading honour or perishing richest But he sheweth his word and judgements to us and hath not dealt so with every nation Psal. 147. 19. 20. And no nation under the whole heaven hath such Laws and Ordinances eternall life and eternall death is wrapt up in them these are rewards and punishments suitable to the Majesty and Magnificence of the eternall Law-giver Consider I beseech you what is folded up here the Scriptures shew the path of life life is of all beings most excellent and comes nearest the blessed being of God When we say life we understand a blessed life that only deserves the name Now this we have lost in Adam death is past upon all men but that death is not the worst it s but a consequence of a soul death the immortall soul whose life consisteth in Communion with God peace with him is seperated from him by sin and so killed when it s cut off from the fountain of life what life can it have any more than a beam that is cut off by the intervention of a dark body from the sun Now then what a blessed Doctrine must it be that brings to light life and immortality especially when we have so much miserably lost it and involved our souls into an eternall death Life is precious in it self but much more precious to one condemned to die to be caught out of the paws of the Lyon to be brought back from the Gibbet O how will that commend the favour of a little more time in the World But then if we knew what an eternall misery we are involved into and stand under a sentence binding us over to such an inconceivable and insupportable punishment as is the curse wrath of God O how precious an esteem would souls have of the Scriptures how would they be sweet unto their soul because they shew unto us a way of escaping that pit of misery and a way of attaining eternall blessednesse as satisfying and glorious as the misery would have been vexing and tormenting O that ye would once lay these in the ballance together this present life and eternall life Know ye not that your souls are created for eternity that they will eternally survive all these present things Now how do ye imagine they shal live after this life your thoughts and projects and designs are confined within the poor narrow bounds of your time when you die in that day your thoughts shal perish all your imaginations and purposes providences shal have an end then they reach no further then that time if you should wholly perish too it were not so much matter but for all your purposes and projects to come to an end when you are but beginning to live and enter eternity that is lamentable indeed Therefore I say consider what ye are doing weigh these in a ballance eternal life the present life if there were no more difference but the continuence of the one shortnesse of the other that this worlds standing is but as one day one moment to eternity that ought to preponderate in your souls do we not here flee away as a shadow upon the mountains are we not as a vapour that ascends and for a litle time appears a solid body and then presently vanisheth Do we not come all into the stage of the world as for an hour to act our part and be gone now then what is this to endless eternity When you have contained as long as since the World began you are no nearer the end of it ought not that estate then to be most in your eyes how to lay up a foundation for the time to come But then compare the misery and vexation of this life with the glory and felicity of this eternall life what are our dayes but few and full of trouble Or if you will take the most blessed estate you have seen or heard of in this world of Kings and rich men and help all the defects of it by your imaginations Suppose unto your selves the highth and pith of Glory and abundance and power that is attainable on earth and when your fancy hath busked up such a felicitie compare it with eternall life O how will that vanish out of your imaginations if so be you know any thing of the life to come you wil even think that an odious comparison you will think all that earthly felicitie but light as vanity every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Eernall life will weigh down eternally 2 Cor. 4. 17. 18. O but it hath an exceeding weight in it self one moment of it one hours possession and taste of it but then what shal the endlesse endurance of it add to its weight Now there are many that presume they have a right to eternall life as the Jews did you think saith he that you have it you think well that you think its only to be found in the Scriptures but you vainlie think that you have found it in them And there is this reason of it because you will not come to me that you may have life vers 40. If you did understand the true meaning of the Scriptures and did not rest on the outward Letter and Ordinances you would receive the testimonie that the Scriptures give of me But now you hear not me the Fathers substantiall Word therefore you have not his Word abiding in you vers 38. There was nothing more generall among that people than a vain carnall confidence and presumption of being Gods people having interest in the promise of life eternall as it is this day in the visible Church There is a multitude that are Christians onlie in the Letter not in the Spirit that would never admit any question concerning this great matter of having eternall life and so by not questioning it they come to think they have it and by degrees their conjectures and thoughts about this ariseth to the stabilitie of some faigned strong perswasion of it In the Old Testament the Lord strikes at the roots of their perswasions by discovering unto them how vain a thing it was and how abominable before him to have an externall profession of being his people and to glory in external Ordinances and Priviledges yet to neglect altogether the purging of their hearts consciences from lusts and Idollisâ—…s to make no conscience of walking righteously towards men Their profession was contradicted by their practice Will ye steal murther and commit adultery and yet come and stand in my house Jer. 7. 8. 9. doth not that say as much as if I had given you liberty to do all these abominations Even so it is this day the most part have no more of Christianitie
their nakednesse and filthinesse which is in it self as menstruous and unclean as any thing It is now the very propension and naturall inclination of our hearts to stand upright in our selves Faith bowes a souls back and take on Christs righteousnesse but presumption lifts up a soul upon its own bottom How can ye believe that seek honour one of another The engagement of the soul to its own credit or estimation the engagement of self-love and self-honour do lift up a soul that it cannot submit to Gods righteousnesse to righteousnesse in another And therefore many do dream and think that they have eternall life who shal awake in the end and find that it was but a dream or night-fancy Now from all this I would enforce this duty upon your consciences to search the Scriptures if you think to have eternall life search them if you would know Christ whom to know is eternal life then again search them for these are they that testifie of him Searching imports diligence much diligence it s a serious work it s not a common seeking of an easie and common thing but it s a search and scrutiny for some hidden thing or some special thing It s not bare reading of the Scriptures that will answer this duty except it be diligent and daily reading and it s not that alone except the Spirit within meditate on them and by meditation accomplish a diligent search There is some hidden secret that you must search for that is inclosed within the covering of words and sentences there is a mystery of wisdome that you must apply your hearts to search out Eccles. 7. 5. Jesus Christ is the Treasure that is hid in this field O precious treasure of eternall life Now then souls search into the fields of the Scriptures Pro. 2. 4. for him as for hid treasure It is not only truth you must seek and buy and not sell it but it is life you would search Here is an object that may not only take up your understandings but satisfie your hearts Think not you have found all when you have found the truth there and learned it no except you have found life there you have found nothing you have missed the treasure If you would profite by the Scriptures you must bring both your understandings your affections to them and depart not till they both return full If you bring your understanding to seek the truth you may find truth but not truly you may find it but you are not found of it you may lead truth captive and unclose it in a prison of your mind and encompasse it about with a guard of corrupt affections that it shal have no issue no out going to the rest of your soul and wayes and no influence on them you may know the truth but you are not known of it and brought in captivity to the obedience of it The Treasure that is hide in the Scriptures are Jesus Christ whose intire and perfect Name is Way Truth and Life He is a living truth and true Life Therefore Christ is the adaequat object of the soul commensurable to all its faculties He has Truth in him to satisfie the mind and he has Life and Goodness in him to satiate the heart therefore if thou wouldst find Jesus Christ bring thy whole soul to seek him as Paul expresseth it He is true and faithfull and worthy of all acceptation then bring thy judgement to find the light of truth and thy affections to imbrace the life of goodnesse that is in him Now as much as ye find of him so much have ye profited in the Scriptures If you find commands there that you cannot obey search again and you may find strength under that command digg a little deeper you shal find Jesus the end of an impossible command when you have found him you have found life and strength to obey you have found a prepitiation and sacrifice for trantgressing not obeying If you find curses in it search again you shal find Jesus Christ under that made a curse for us you shal find him the end of the curse for righteousnesse to every one that believes When you know all the Letter of the Scripture yet you must search into the Spirit of it that it may be imprinted into your spirits all you know does you no good but as it s received in love unlesse your souls become a living Epistle the Word without be written on the heart you have found nothing As for you that cannot read the Scriptures if it be possible take that pains to learn to read them O if you knew what they contain whom they bear witnesse of you would have little quietnesse till you could read at least his love-epistle to sinners And if you cannot learn be not discouraged but if your desires within be servent your endeavours to hear it read by others will be more earnest But it is not so much the reading of much of it that profiteth as the pondering of these things in our hearts and digesting them by frequent meditation till they become the food of the Soul This was Davids way and by this he grew to the stature of a tall well-bodied Christian. Eph. 2. 20. And builded upon the foundation of the Apostles c. BElievers are the Temple of the living God in which he dwels and walks 2 Cor. 6. 16. Every one of them is a little Sanctuary and Temple to His Majesty Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts in your hearts though he be the high lofty one that inhabits eternity yet he is pleased to come down to this poor Cottage of a creatures heart and dwell in it Is not this as great a humbling and condescending for the Father to come down off his Throne of Glory to the poor base foot-stool of the creatures soul as for the Son to come down in the state of a servant and become in the form of sinfull flesh But then he is a Temple and Sanctuary to them and he shal be to you a Sanctuary Isa. 8. A place of refuge a secret hiding-place Now as every one is a little separated retired Temple so they all conjoyned make up one Temple one visible body in which he dwels Therefore Paul calls them living stones built up into a spiritual house to God 1 Pet. 2. 5 All these little Temples make up one house Temple fitly joyned together in which God shews manifest signs of his presence and working unto this the Apostle in this place alludes The Communion Union of Christians with God is of such a nature that all the relations and points of conjunction in the creatures are taken to resemble it hold it out to us We are Citizens saith he Domesticks houshold men so dwel in his house and then we are his House beside Now ye know there are two principal things in a House the Foundation and the Corner-stone the one supports the building the
desired tasting of it only begets a kindly appetite after it the more tasted still the fresher and more recent But yet it is above both desire and fruition thou cannot see my face c. All our knowledge of God all our attainments of experience of him do reach but to some dark confused apprehension of what he is the clearest and nearest sight of God in the world is as if a man were not known but by his back which is a great point of estrangement It 's said in the heaven we shall see him face to face and fully as he is because then the soul is made capable of it Two things in us here puts us in an incapacity of nearnesse with God Infirmity and Iniquity Infirmity in us cannot behold his glory it 's of so weak eies that the brightnesse of the Sun would strike it blind and Iniquity in us he cannot behold it because he is of pure eyes that can look on no unclean thing it 's the only thing in the Creation that Gods holinesse hath antipathy at and therefore he is stil about the destroying of the body of sin in us about the purging of all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit and till the soul be thus purged of all sin by the operation of the Holy Ghost it cannot be a Temple for an immediate vision of him an immediate exhibition of God to us Sin is the wall of partition and the thick cloud that eclipses his glory from us it is the opposite Hemesphere of darknesse contrary to light according to the accesse or recesse of Gods presence it is more or lesse dark the more sin reigns in thee the lesse of God is in thee and the more sin be subdued the readier nearer is Gods presence but let us comfort our selves That one day shal put off both Infirmity and Iniquity mortality shal put on immortality and corruption be cloathed with incorruption we shal leave the rags of mortall weaknesse in the grave and our menstruous cloaths of sin behind us then shal the weak eyes of flesh be made like Eagles eyes to behold the Sun and then shal the soul be cloathed with holinesse as with a Garment which God shal delight to look upon because he sees his own Image in that glasse We come to the Lords satisfying of Moses desire and proclaiming his Name before him it is himself only can tell you what he is it is not Ministers preaching or other discourse can proclaim that Name to you we may indeed speak over those words unto you but it is the Lord that must write that Name upon your heart he only can discover his glory to your spirit There is a spirit of life which cannot be inclosed in Letters and Syllables or transmitted through your ears into your hearts but he himself must create it inwardly and stir up the outward sense feeling of that Name of those Attributes Faith indeed comes by hearing and our knowledge in this life is thorow a glasse darkly thorow ordinances and senses but there must be an inward teaching and speaking to your souls to make that effectuall the anointing teacheth you all things 1 Ioh. 2. 27. Alas its the separation of that from the word that makes it so unprofitable if the spirit of God were inwardly writing what the word is teaching then should our souls be living Epistles that ye might read Gods Name on them O be much in imploying of depending on him that teacheth to profit who only can declare unto your souls what he is These names expresse his Essence or Being his Properties what he is in himself what he is to us in himself he is Jehovah or a self-being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we heard in the 3. Chap. I am that I am and EL a strong God or Almighty God which two hold out to us the absolute incomprehensible perfection of God eminently and infinitely enclosing within himself all perfections of the creatures the unchangeable and mutable being of God who was and is is to come without succession without variation or shadow of turning and then the Almighty power of God by which without difficulty by the inclination and beck of his will pleasure he can make or unmake all create or annihilate to whom nothing is impossible which three if they were pondered by us till our souls received the stamp of them they would certainly be powerfull to abstract and draw our hearts from the vain changeable and empty shadow of the creature gather our scattered affections that are parted among them because of their unsufficiency that all might unite in one and joyn with this self-sufficient and eternal God I say if a soul did indeed believe and consider how All sufficient he is how insufficient all things else are would it not cleave to him and draw near to him Psal. 73. ult It is the very torment and vexation of the soul to be thus racked distracted divided about many things therefore many because there is none of them can supply all our wants our wants are infinit our desires insatiable the good that is in any thing is limited bounded it can serve one but for one use and another for another use and when all are together they can but supply some wants but they leave much of the soul empty But often these outward things crosses one another and cannot consist together and hence ariseth much strife and debate in a soul his need requireth both and both will not agree But O that you could see this one universall good One for all and above all your souls would choose him certainly your souls would trust in him ye would say Ashur soal not save us we will not ride on horses Creatures shal not satisfie us we will seek our happinesse in thee and no where else since we have tasted this new wine away with the old the new is better I beseech you make God your friend for he is a great one whether he be a friend or an enemy he hath two properties that make him either most comfortable or most terrible according as he is at peace or war with souls Eternity and Omnipotency You were once all enemies to him O consider what a Party you have an Almighty Party and unchangeable Party if you will make peace with him and that in Christ then know he is the best friend in the world because he is unchangeable and Almighty if he be thy friend he will do all for thee he can do and thou hast need of But many friends willing to do yet have not ability but he hath power to do what he will and pleases Many friends are changeable their affections dry up of themselves die and therefore even Princes friendship is but a vain confidence for they shal die then their thoughts of favour perish with them but he abides the same for all Generations there is no end of his
how then is it possible for us to conceive aright of the divine nature as it is in it self but only in a daâ—…k generall way we guesse at his Majesty by the glorious emanations of his power wisdome the rayes thereof which he displayes abroad in all the works of his hands and from all these concurring testimonies evidences of his Majesty we gather this confused notion of him that he is the fountain-self-independent being the originall of all these things and more absolute in the world then the soul is in the body the true Anima mundi the very life and the light of men the soul that quickens moves forms all this visible world that makes all things visible and himself invisible Therefore it is that the Lord speaks to us in the Scripture of himself according to our capacities of his face his right hand arm his Throne his Scepâ—…er his back parts his anger his fury his repentance his grief and sorrow none of which are properly in his spiritual immortall unchangeable nature but because our dulnesse anâ—… slownesse in such in apprehending things spiritual it being almost without the spâ—…e comprehension of the soul while in the body which is almost addicted unto the senses of the body Therefore the Lord accommodates himâ—… unto our termes and notions balbutit nobiscum he like a 〈◊〉 father stammers wiâ—…h the stammerinâ—… chilâ—…ren speakes to them in their own dialect but withall would have us conceive he is not really such a one but infinitely removed in his own being fâ—…om all these imperfections So when you hear of these teâ—…ms in Scripture O beware ye conceive God to be such a one as your selves but in these expressions not beseeming his Majesty because below him learn your own ignorance of his glorious Majesty your dulnesse and incapacity to be such as the Holy One must come down as it were in some bodily appearance ere you can understand any thing of him III. If God be a Spiâ—…it then he is most perfect most powerfull all imperfection all infirmity and weaknesse in the creature is founded in the grosse material part of it you see the more matter and bodily substance be in any thing it is the more lumpish heavy and void of all action it is the more spiritual pure and refined part of the creation that hath most activity in it and is the principle of all motions and actions You see a little flye hath more action in it than a great mountain because there are spirits in it which move it The bottom of the world contains the dregs of the Creation as it were a masse lump of heavy earth but the higher and more distant bodies be from that the more pure and subtile they are and the more pure subtile they be the more action vertue and efficacy they have the earth stands like a dead lump but the sea moves the air being thinner and purer than both moves more easily and swiftly but go up higher and still the motion is swifter and the vertue and influence is the more powerfull What is a dead body when the soul and spirit is out of it It hath no more vertue nor efficacy than so much clay although by the presence of the spirit of it it was active agill swift strong nimble so much then as any thing hath of spirit in it so much the more perfect and powerfull it is Then I beseech you consider what a one the God of the spirits of all flesh must be the very fountain-spirit the self-being spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the soul of a man or the spirit of a horse hath so much vertue to stirre up a lump of earth and to quicken it to many diverse operations even though that soul spirit did not nay could not make that piece of earth they dwel in then what must his power and vertue be that made all those things Who gave power and vertue even to the spirits of all flesh their horses saith God are flesh and not spirit Isa. 30. Because in comparison of his Majesty the very spirits in them are but like a dead lump of flesh If he should draw in his breath as it were they would have no more vertue to save the Israelites noâ—… so many lumps of flesh or clay for he is the spirit of all spirits that quickens actuates and moves them in their severall operations influencies Anima mundi anima animarum mundi an Angel hath more power than all men united in one body Satan is called the Prince of the air God of this world for he hath more efficacy and vertue to commove the air and raise tempests then all the swarmes of multiplied mankind though gathered into any army if the Lord did not restrain and limit his power he were able to destroy whole Nations at once An Angel killed many thousands of Senacheribs Army in one night what would many Angels do then if the Lord pleased to apply them to that work O what is man that he should magnifie himself or glory in strength or skill Beasts are stronger than men but mans weaker strength being strengthned with more skil proves stronger than they but in respect of Angels he hath neither strength nor wisdome IV. If God be a Spirit then he is not circumscribed by any place and if an infinit spirit then he is every where no place can include him and no body can exclude him He is within all things yet not included nor bounded within them he is without all things yet not excluded from them intra omnia non tamen inclusus in illis extra omnia nec tamen exclusus ab all is You know every body hath its own bounds limits circumscribed to it shoots out all other bodily things out of the same space so that before the least body want some space it will put all the universe in motion make every thing about it to change its place and possesse another but a Spirit can passe thorow all of them and never desturb them A Legion may be in one man have room enough If there were a well of Brasse or Tower having no Open neither above or beneath no body could enter but by breaking thorow and making a breach into it but an Angel or Spirit could storm it without a breach and pierce thorow it without any division of it How much more doth the Maker of all Spirits fill all in all the thicknesse of the earth doth not keep him out nor the largenesse of the heavens contain him How then do we circumscribe and limit him within the bounds of a publick house or the heavens O how narrow thoughts have we of his immense greatnesse Who without division or multiplication of himself fills all the corners of the world whose indivisible unity is equivalent to an infinite extension and divisibility How often I pray you do you reflect upon
joyntly to God it is certainly a great slight of that deceitful destroyer the Devill to possesse your minds with an opinion of Religion in such vain bablings that he may with-draw both your ears your hearts from the publick worship of God for when every one is busied with his own prayers you cannot at all joyn in the publick service of God which is offered up in your name The like I may say of stupid forms of prayer tying your selves to a plat-form written in a book or to some certain words gotten by the heart who hath commanded this Sure not the Lord who hath promised his spirit to teach them to pray and help their infirmities who know not how nor what to pray it is a device of your own invented by Satan to quench the spirit it of supplication which should be the very naturall breathing of a christian But there are some so grossely ignorant of what prayer is that they make use of the ten commands Beleef as a Prayer so void are they of the knowledge and spirit of God that they cannot discern betwixt Gods commands to themselves their own requests to God betwixt his speaking to men and their speaking to him between their professing of him before men and praying and confessing to him all this is but forged imaginary worship worship falsly so called which the Father seeks not and receives not But what if I should say that the most part of your worship even that which is commanded of God as Prayer Hearing Reading c hath no truth in it I should say nothing amiss for though you doe those things that are commanded yet not as Commanded without any respect to divine appointment only because you have received them as traditions from your fathers and because you are taught so by the precepts of men and are accustomed so to do therefore the stamp of Gods will and pleasure is not engraven on them but of your own will or of the will of men Let me pose your Consciences many of you what difference is there between your praying your plowing between your hearing and your harrowing between your reading of the Scriptures and your reaping in the Harvest between your Religious Service and your common ordinary actions I say what difference is in the rise of these You do many civill things out of custome or because of the Precepts of men is there any other principle at the bottom of your religious performances Do you at all consider these are divine appointments these have a stamp of his authority on them and from the Conscience of such an immediat command of God and the desire to please him and obey him do you go about these I fear many cannot say it O I am sure all cannot thogh it may be all will say it therefore your religious worship can come in no other account than will-worship or man-worship it hath not the stamp of truth on it an express conformity to the truth of God as his truth But we must presse out this a little more Truth is opposed to a ceremony shadow The ceremonies of old were shadows or the external body of Religion in which the soul and spirit of godlinesse should have been enclosed but the Lord did alwaies urge more earnestly the substance and truth then the ceremony the weightier matters of the Law Piety equity and sobriety than these lighter external Ceremonies he sets an higher account upon mercy then sacrifice upon obedience then Ceremonies but this people turned just contrary they summed up all their Religion in some ceremonial performance and separated those things God had so nearly conjoyned they would be devout men in offering sacrifices in their washings in their rites and yet made no conscience of heart and Soul-piety toward God upright just dealing with men Therefore the Lord so often quarrels them rejects all their service as being adevice and invention of their own which never entred in his heart Isa. 1. from 10. to 16. Ier. 7. throughout Isa. 66. to 6. Isa 28. Now if you will examine it impartially it is even just so with us there are some externall things in Religion which in comparison with the weightier things of faith and obedience are but ceremonial in these you place the most part if not all your Religion and think your selves good Christians if you be baptized and hear the Word and partake of the Lords table and such like though in the mean time you be not given to secret prayer reading and do not inwardly judge and examine your selves that you may flee unto a Mediator thogh your conversation be unjust and scandalous among men I say unto such souls as the Lord to the Jews Who hath required this at your hands who commanded you to hear the VVord to be baptized to wait on publick Ordinances Away with all this it is abomination to his Majesty though it please you never so well the more it displeases him If you say why commands he us to hear c. I say the Lord never commanded these external Ordinances for the sum of true Religion that was not the great thing which was in his heart that he had most pleasure unto but the weightier matters of the Law piety equity sobriety a holy and godly conversation adorning the Gospell What hath the Lord required of thee but this O man To do justly and walk humbly with thy God So then thou dost not worship him in Truth but in shadow the Truth is holinesse and righteousnesse that externall profession is but a Ceremony while you separate these external Ordinances from these weighty duties of piety justice that they are but as dead body without a soul. If the Lord required truth of old much more now when he hath abolished the multitude of Ceremonies that the great things of his Law may be more seen and loved If you would then be true worshippers look the whole mind of God especially the chief pleasure of Gods mind that which he most delights into and by any means do not separate what God hath conjoyned do not divide righteousness towards men from a profession of holiness to God else it is but a falshood a counterfeit coyn do not please your selves so much in externall Church priviledges without a holy and godly conversation adorning the Gospel but let the chief study endeavour delight of your souls be about that which God most delights into let the substantials of Religion have the first place in the soul Pray more in secret that he will be the life of your souls you ought indeed to attend publick ordinances but above all take heed to your conversation walking at home and in secret prayer in your Family is a more substantiall worship then to sit hear prayer in publick and prayer in secret is more substantiall then that The more retired and immediate a duty be the more weighty it is the more it
crosse thy corruptions and evidence the stamp of God on thy affections the more divine it is And therefore to serve God in these is to serve him in truth Practice hath more of truth in it then a profession When your Fathers executed judgement was not this to know me Duties that have more opposition from our natures against them and lesse sewel or oyl to feed the flame of our self love and corruption have more truth in them and if you should worship God in all other duties and not especially in those you do not worship him in truth Next let us consider the manner of Divine Worship And this is as needfull to true Worship as true matter that it be commanded and done as it is commanded that compleats true worship Now I know no better way or manner to worship God in than so to worship him as our worship may carry the stamp of his Image upon it as it may be a glasse wherein we may behold Gods Nature and Properties For such as himself is such he would be acknowledged to be I would think it were true worship indeed which had engraven on it the Name of the true living God if it did speak out so much of it self That God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him diligently Most part of our service speaks an unknown God carries such an inscription upon it To the unknown God There is so little either reverence or love or fear or knowledge in it as if we did not worship the true God but an Idoll It is said that the fool sayes in his heart that there is no God because his thoughts and affections and actions are so little composed to the fear and likenesse of that God as if he did indeed plainly deny him I fear it may be said thus of our Worship It sayes There is no God it is of such a nature that none could conclude from it that it had any relation to the true God our prayers denie God because there is nothing of God appears in them But this is true worship when it renders back to God his own Image and Name Unde repercussus redditur ipse sibi As it is a poor clean Fountain in which a man may see his shaddow distinctlie but a troubled fountain or myre in which he cannot be hold himself So it is pure worship which receives and reflects the pure Image of God but impure and unclean worship which cannot receive it and retain it I pray you Christians consider this for it is such Worshippers the Father seeks and why seeks he such But because in them he finds himself so to speak His own I mage and superscription is upon them His mercy isengraven on their faith confidence His Majestie power is stamped on their humility and reverence His goodnesse is to be read on the souls rejoicing His Greatnesse and Justice in the souls trembling Thus there ought to be some engravings on the soul answering the Characters of his glorious Name O how little of this is among them that desire to know something of God How little true Worship even among them whom the Father hath sought out to make true Worshippers But alas How are all of us unacquainted with this kind of Worship We stay upon the first principles practices of Religion and go not on to build upon the foundation Sometimes your Worship hath a stamp of Gods holinesse and justice in fear terrour at such a Majesty which makes you to tremble before him But where is the stamp of his mercy grace which should be written in your faith and rejoycing Tremble and fear indeed but rejoyce with trembling because there is mercy with him Sometime their is rejoycing and quietnesse in the soul but that quickly degenerates into carnal confidence makes the soul turn grace into wantonness and esteem of it self above what is right because it is not counterpoised with the sense and apprehension of his holinesse and justice But O to have these joyntly written on the heart in worship fear reverence confidence humility and faith That is a rare thing it is a divine composition and temper of spirit that makes a divine soul For the most part our Worship savours and smels nothing of God neither his power nor his mercy and grace nor his holinesse and justice nor his majesty and glory a secure saint formal way void of reverence of humility of servency and of faith I beseech you let us consider as before the Lord how much pains and time we lose and please none but our selves profit none at all Stir up your selves as in his sight for it is the keeping of our souls continually as in his sight which will stamp our service with his likenesse The fixed and constant meditation of God and his glorious properties this will beget the resemblance between our worship and the God whom we worship and it will imprint his Image upon it then it should please him then it should profit thee and then it should edifie others But more particularly The Worship must have the stamp of Gods spiritual Nature and be conformed to it in some measure else it cannot please him There must be a conformity between God and souls this is the great end of the Gospel to repair that Image of God which was once upon man and make him like God again Now it is the way that Jesus Christ repairs this Image brings about this conformity with God by the souls worshipping of God sutable to his Nature it is the more and more like God and happy in that likenesse Now God is a Spirit therefore saith Christ you must worship him in spirit truth The worship then of Saints must be of a spiritual nature that it may be like the immortal divine Spirit It is such Worshippers the Father seeks he seeks souls to make them like himself and this likenesse and conformity to God is the very foundation of the souls happinesse and eternall refreshment This is a point of great consequence I fear not laid to heart The Worship must be like the Worshipped It is a Spirit must Worship the Eternal Spirit it is not a body that can be the principle and chief Agent in the businesse What Communion can God have with your bodies while your souls are removed far from him more than with beasts All society and fellowship must be between those that are like one another A man can have no comfortable company with Beasts or with Stones and Trees It is men that can converse with men and a Spirit must worship the self-being-spirit Do not mistake this as if under the dayes of the Gospel we were not called to an external and bodily Worship to any service to which our outward man is instrumentall this is one of the deep delusions of this Age into which some men reprobate 〈◊〉 the Faith hath fallen That there should be no externall
certainly the greatest fault of Christians grounds of many more that ye do not look to God but to creatures in any thing befalls you therefore there are so frequent risings of spirits against his yoke frequent spurnings against it as Ephraim unaccustomed with the yoke so do ye this is it only makes it heavy and troublesome if there were no more reason for it but your own gain it is the only way to peace quietnesse Durum sed levius fit patientiá quicquid corrigere est nes as your impatience cannot help you but hurt you it is the very yoke of your yoke but quiet and silent stooping makes it easie in it self and brings in more help beside even Divine help Learn this I beseech you to get your wills abandoned and your spirits subdued to God both in the point of duty and dispensation If duties commanded crosse thy spirit as certainly the reality and exercise of Godlinesse must be unpleasant to any nature know what thou art called to to quit thy own will to him to give up thy self to his pleasure singly without so much respect to thy own pleasure or gain learn to obey him simply because he coÌ„mands though no profit redound to thee by this means thou shalt in due time have more sweet peace and real gain though thou intended it not And in case any dispensation crosse thy mind let not thy mind rise up against it do not fall out with providence but commit thy way wholly to him and let him do what he pleaseth in that be thou minding thy duty be not anxious in that but be diligent in this and thou shalt be the only gainer by it besides the honour redounds to him Then I would exhort you from this ground to trust in him seeing he alone is the absolute Soveraign Lord of all things seeing he hath past a determination upon all things and accordingly they must be and seeing none can turn him from his way O then Christians learn to commit your selves to him in all things both for this life and the life to come why are ye so vain and foolish as to depend hang upon poor vain depending Creatures Why do ye not forsake your selves Why do ye not forsake all other things as empty shadows Are not all created powers habits gifts graces strength riches c. like the idols in comparison of him who can neither do good neither can they do ill Cursed is he that trusts in man Jer. 17. 15 16. there needs no other curse than the very disappointment you shal meet withall Consider 〈◊〉 beseech you that our God can do all things what ever â—…e pleaseth in Heaven and Earth and that none can obstruct his pleasure blest is that soul for whom the counsel of his wil is ingaged it is ingaged for all that trust in him he can accomplish his good pleasure in thy behalf either without or against means all impediments thorns set in his way he can burn them up you who are heirs of the promises O know your priviledge what his soul desireth He doth even that what he hath seriously promised to you he desires If you ask who are heirs of the Promises I would answer simply these and these only who do own them and challenge them and claim to them for their life and salvation these who seek the Inheritance only by the Promise and whose soul desires them and imbraces them O if you would observe how unlike ye are to God ye change often ye turn often out of the way but that were not so ill if ye did not imagine him to be like your selves and it is unbelief which makes him like to your selves when your frame and tender disposition changes when presence and accesse to God is removed that is wrong it speaks out a mortall creature indeed but if it be so O do no more wrong do not by your suspicions and jealousies and questionings of him imagine that he is like unto you and changed also that is a double wrong and dishonour to his Majesty Hath he not said I am God and changes not He is in one mind who can turn him How comes it then that ye doubt of his love as oft as ye change When ye are in a good temper ye think he loves you when it is not so ye cannot believe but he is angry and hates you is not this to speak quite contrary to the Word that he is a God that changes that he is not in one mind but now in one and then in another as oft as the unconstant wind of a souls self-pleasing humour turns about Here is your rest and confidence if you will be established not within your selves not upon marks and signs within you which ebbe and flow as the Sea and change as the Moon but upon his unchangeable Nature and faithfull promises This we desire to hold out to you all as one ground for all you would every one have some particular ground in your own disposition and condition thinks it general doctrine only which layeth it noâ—… home so but believe it I know no ground of realsoul-establishment but general truths and pinciples common to you all and our businesse is not to lay any other foundation or moe foundations according to your different conditions but to lay this one foundation Christ and God unchangeable to exhort every one of you to make that general Foundation your own in particular by leaning to it building upon it claiming to it all other are sandy and ruinous Let us now in this sad time presse consolation from this the Lords hand is in all this it 's immediate in every dispensation and its only carnal-mindednesse that cannot see him stretching out his hand to every man with his own portion of affliction Know this one thing that God is in one mind for all these many wayes judgements he is in one mind to gather the Saints to build up the Church the body of Christ this is his end all other businesses is in the by subservient to this therefore he will change it as he pleases but his great purpose of good to his people all the World cannot hinder Let us then establish our souls in this consideration all is clear above albeit cloudy below All is calm in Heaven albeit tempestuous here upon Earth There is no confusion no disorder in his mind though we think the world out of course and that all things reel about with confusion hee hath one mind in it who can turn him And that mind is good to them that trust in him And therefor who can turn away our good Let men consult and imagine what they please let them passe votes decrees what to do with his people yet it is all to no purpose for there is a Counsel above an older Counsel which must stand and take place in all generations If mens conclusions be not according to the Counsell
creature but it had some ingravings of God upon it some curious draughts and lineaments of his Power Wisdome and goodnesse upon it and therefore the Heavens are said to shew forth his glory c. But whatever they have it is but the lower part of that image some dark shaddows and resemblances of him but that which is the last of his works he maketh it according to his own image tanquam ab ultima manu he therein gives out himself to be read and seen of all men as in a glasse other creatures are made as it were according to the similitude of his footstep ad similitudinem vestigii but man ad similitudinem faciei according to the likenesse of his face in our image after our likenesse It is true there is one only Jesus Christ his Son who is the brightnesse of his glory and the express substantiall image of his person who resembleth him perfectly and throughly in all properties so that he is alter idem another-self both in nature properties operations so like him that he is one with him so that it is rather an onenesse than a likenesse but man he created according to his own Image and gave him to have some likenesse to himself likenesse I say not samenesse or onenesse That is high indeed to be like God The notion and expression of it imports some strange thing how could man be like God who is infinite incomprehensible whose glory is not communicable to another It is true indeed in these incommunicable properties he hath not only no equal but none to liken him in these he is to be adored admired as infinitely transcending all created perfections conceptions but yet in others he has been pleased to hold forth himself to be imitated and followed and that this might be done he first stamps them upon man in his first moulding of him if ye would know what these are particularly the Apostle expresses them Col. 3. 10. in knowledge in rightousnesse and holinesse Eph. 4. 24. This is the Image of him who created him which the Creator stamped on man that he might seek him and set him apart for himself to keep communion with him and to bless him There is a spirit given to man with a capacity to know and to will And here is a draught and lineament of Gods face which is not engraven on any sensitive creature It is one of the most noble and excelâ—…ent operations of life in which a man is most above beasts to reflect upon himself his Creator There â—…re naturall instincts given to other things naturall â—…ropensions to those things that are convenient to â—…heir own nature but none of them have so much â—…s a capacity to know what they are or what they â—…ave they cannot frame a notion of him who â—…ave them a beeing but are only proportionate â—…o the discerning of some sensible things and can â—…each no further He hath limited the eye within coâ—…ours and light he hath set a bound to the care that 〈◊〉 cannot act without sounds and so every sense he â—…ath assigned his own proper stanse in which it moves â—…ut he teaches man knowledge and he enlarges the â—…hear of his understanding beyond visible or sensible â—…hings to things invisible to spirits this capacity â—…e hath put in the soul to know all things and it self â—…mong the rest the eye discerns light but sees not it â—…lf but he gives a Spirit to man to know himself and â—…is God and then there is a willing power in the soul by which it diffuses it self towards any thing that is conceived as good the understanding directing and the will-commanding according to its direction and then the whole faculties and senses obeying such commands which makes up an excellent draught of the image of God There was a sweet proportion and harmony in Adam all was in due place and subordination the motions of immortall man did begin within the lamp of reason did shine give light unto it till that went before here was no stirring no chusing or refusing when reason which was one sparkle of the divine nature or a ray of Gods light reflected into the soul of man when once that did appear to the discerning of good evil this power was in the soul to apply the whole man accordingly to chose the good and refuse the evil it had not been a lively resemblance of God to have a power of knowing and willing simply unlesse these had been beautified and adorned with supernaturall and divine graces of spiritual light and holinesse righteousnesse these make up the lively colour and compleat the image of God upon the soul. There was a Divine Light which did shine in upon the understanding ever till sin interposed Eclipsed it and from the light of Gods countenance did the sweet heat warmnesse of holinesse uprightnesse in the affections proceed so that there was nothing but purity and cleannesse in the soul no darknesse of ignorance no muddinesse of carnall affections but the soul pure and transparent to receive the refreshing and enlightning rayes of Gods glorious countenance and this was the very face and beauty of the soul it is that only that is the beauty and excellency of the creature conformity to God this was throughout in understanding and affections the understanding conformed to his understanding discerning between good and evil and conformed it behoved to be for it was ouâ—… a ray of that Sun a stream of that fountain of wisdom and a light derived from that primitive light of Gods understanding and then the will did sympathize as much with his will approving and chusing what he approved refusing that which he hated I dem velle atque idem nolle ea demum firma est amicitia that was the conjunction and it is more strict than any â—…ye among men there was not two wills they were as it were one the love of God reflecting into the soul did as it were carry the soul back again unto him that was the conforming principle which fashioned the whole man without and within â—…o his likenesse to his obedience Thus man was â—…ormed for communion with God this likenesse behoved to be or they could no joyn as friends But now this calls us to a sad meditation to think â—…om whence we have fallen and so how great our fall â—…s to fall from such a blessed estate that must be great misery Sathan hath spoyled us of our rich treasure â—…hat glorious image of holinesse And hath drawn â—…pon our souls the very visage of hell the lineaments â—…f his hellish countenance but the most part of men 〈◊〉 stupid insensible of any thing as beasts that are felâ—…d with their fall that can neither find pain nor rise 〈◊〉 we could but return and consider what are all those â—…d and woefull consequences of sin in the world what 〈◊〉 strange distemper it hath put in the Creation What
able to perform it O! how much is in this one word Upright Not only sincerity and integrity in the soul but perfection of all the degrees and parts no part of holiness wanting and no measure of these parts no mixture of darkness or ignorance no mixture of indisposition or unwillingness godliness vvas â—…weet and not laborious the love of God possessing the heart did conform all vvithin and vvithout to the vvill of God and O how beautiful vvas that conformity and that love of God! the fountain-being did send forth as a stream love and good-will to all things as they did partake of Gods Image and so holiness towards God did beget righteousness towards men and made men to partake of one anothers happiness This is a survey of him in his integrity as God â—…de him but there follows a sad but a sad and vvoâ—…l exception but they have sought out many inventions We cannot look upon that glorious estate vvhereinto mâ—…n was made but straightway we must turn our eyes upon thâ—… misery into which he hath plunged himself and be the more affected with it that it was once otherwise It is misery in a high degree to have been once happy this â—…ost of all agredges our misery and may encrease the sense of it that such Man once was and such we might have been if we had not destroyed our selves Who can look upon these ruins and refrain â—…ouring It 's said that those who saw the glory of the first Temple weâ—…t when they beheld the second because it was not answerable to it in magniâ—…ence and glory So I say it might occasion much â—…ness grief even to the children of God in whom that Image is in part repaired and that by a second Creation to think how much more happy and blessed Man once was who had grace and holiness without sin But certainly it should and must be at first before this Image be restored the bitter lamentation of a soul to look upon it self wholly ruinous and defaced in the view of that glorious stately fabrick which once was made How lamentable a sight is it to behold the first Temple demolished or the first Creation defaced and the second not yet begun in many souls the foundation-stone yet not laid It was a sad and dolâ—…ul invention which Satan inspired at first into mans heart to go about to find out another happiness to seek how to be wise as God an invention thaâ—… did proceed from hell how to know evil experimentally and practically by doing it that invention hath invented and found out all the sin and misery under which the world groans It is a poor invention to devise misery and torment to the creature this was the height of solly and madness for a happy creature to invent how to make it self miserable and all others Indeed he intended another thing to be more happy but pride and ambition got a deserved fall the result of all is sin and misery And now from this first devillish invention the heart of man is possessed with a multitude of vain imaginations Man is now become vain in his imaginations and his foolish heart is darkned that divine wisdom he was endowed withall is eclipsed for it was a ray of Gods countenance and now he is left wholly in the dark without a guide without a director or leader he is turned out of the path of holiness and so of happiness a night of gross darkness blindness is come on the way is full of pits and snares the end of it is at best eternal misery and there is no lamp no light to shine in it to show him either the misery that he is posting unto or the happinesse that he is flying from There is nothing within him sufficient to direct his way to blessednesse and nothing willing nor able to follow such a direction And thus Man is left to the invention and counsel of his own desperately wicked and dâ—…ful heart and that is above all plagues to be given up to a reprobate mind He is now left to such a tutor and guideâ—… and it is full of inventions indeed But they are all in vain that is all of them unsufficient for this great purpose all of them cannot make one hair that is black white much lesâ—… redeem the soul but besides they are destructive they pretend to deliver but they destroy a desperate wicked heart imagineth evil continually evil against God and evil to our own souls and a deceitful heart â—…mooths over the evil and presents it under another notion and so under pretence of a friend it 's the greatest enemy a man hath a bosome enemy Al mens inventions thoughts cogitations projects and endeavors what do they tend to but to the satisfaction of their lusts either the lusts of the mind as Ambition Pride Avarice Passion Revenge and such like or the lusts of the body as pleasure to the ears and to the eyes and to the flesh Man was made with an upright soul with a dominion over that brutish part more like Angels But now all his invention run upon that base and beastly part how to adorn it how to beautifie it how to satisfie it and for this his soul must be a drudge and slave And if men rise up to any thoughts of a higher life yet what is it for but to magnifie and exalt the flesh to seek an Excellency within which is lost and so to satisfie the pride and self-love of the heart If any man comes this length 〈◊〉 to apprehend some misery yet how vain are his inventions about the remedy of it not knowing how desperate the disease is men seek help in themselves think by industry and care art to raise themselves up in some measure please God by some expiations or sacrifices of their own works Now this tends to no other purpose but to satisfie the lust of mans pride and so it increases that which was mans first malady and keeps them from the true Physician In a word all mens inventions are to hasten misery on him or to blindfold himself till it come on all his invention cannot reach a delivery from this misery Let us therefore consider this which Solomon hath found out and if we carefully consider it and accurately ponder it in relation to our own souls theÌ„ have we also â—…ound it with him Consider I say what man once was and what you are now and bewaile your misery and the fountain of it our departure from the fountain of life and blessednesse know what you are not only weak but wicked whose art and power lyes only in wickednesse skilful and able only to make your self miserable and let this consideration make you cast away all your confidence in your selves and carry you forth to a Redeemer who hath â—…ound a ransome who hath found out an excellent invention to cure all our distempers and desperate diseases The counsel of the holy Trinity that met about
THE COMMON PRINCIPILES OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Clearly proved and singularly improved Or a Practical CATECHISM wherein some of the most concerning-foundations of our Faith are solidely laid down And that Doctrine which is according to Godliness sweetly yet pungently pressed home and most satisfyingly handled By that worthy and faithfull Servant of Iesus Christ Mr. Hew Binning late Minister of the Gospel at Goven The 5. Impression carefully corrected amended 1 Tim. 4. 6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good Minister of Jesus Christ nourished up in the Word of faith and of good Doctrine whereunto thou hast attained Heb. 5. 12. For when for the time ye ought to be Teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Joh. 17. 3. And this is life eternall that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Printed by R. S. Printer to the Town of Glasgow 1666. TO THE READER Christian Reader THe holie and learned Author of this little Book having out-run his years hastned to a maturity before the ordinary season in so much that ripe Summer Fruit was found with him by the first of the Spring for before he had lived twenty five years compleat he had got to be Philologus Philosophus Theologus eximius whereof he gave sutable proofs by his labors having first professed in Philosophy three years with high approbation in the Universitie of Glasgow and thence was translated to the Ministrie of the Gospel in a Congregation adjacent where he laboured in he work of the Gospel near four years leaving an epistle of commendation upon the hearts of his Hearers But as few burning and shining lights have been of long continuance here so he after he had served his own generation by the wil of God and many had rejoiced in his light for a season was quicklie transported to the land of Promise in the 26th year of his age He lived deservedly esteemed beloved and died much lamented by all descerning Christians who knew him And indeed the loss which the Churches of Christ in these parts sustained in his death wâ—…â—…he greater upon a double account First that he was a person fitted with dexteritie to vindicate School divinitie and Practical Theology from the superfluity of vain and fruitless perplexing questions wherewith latter times have corrupted both and 〈◊〉 it upon his spirit in all his way to reduce that native Gospel-simplicitis which in most parts of the world where literature is in esteem and where the Gospel is preached is almost exiled from the School and from the Pulpit a specimen whereof the judicious Reader may find in this little Treatis Besides â—…e was a person of eminent moderation and sobrietie of spirit a rare grace in this generation whose heart was much drawn forth in the study of healing wayes and condeseensions of love among Brethren one who longed for the recovering of the Humanity of Christianity which hath been well near lost in the bitter divisions of these times and the animosities which have followed therupon That which gave the rise to the publishing of this part of his manuscripts was partly the longing of many who knew him after some fruit of his labours for the use of the Church and partly the exceeding great usefulness of the Treatise wherein I am bold to say that some fundamentals of the Christian Religion great Mysteries of Faith are handled with the greatest Gospel-simplicity most dexterious plainness are brought down to the meanest capacitie and vulgar understanding with abundant evidence of a great height and reach of usefull knowledge in the Author Who had he lived to have perfected the explication of the grounds of Religion in this manner as he intended in his opening the Catechisme unto his particular Congregation he had been upon this single account famous in the Churches of Christ But now by this imperfect opus post humum thou are left to judge ex ungue leonem The Authors Method was his peculiar gift who being no stranger to the Rules of Art knew well how to make his method subserve the matter which he handled for though he tell not alwayes that his discourse hath so many parts thou mayst not think it wants method it being maximum artis celare artem that the same spirit which enabled him to conceive communicate to others these sweet mysteries of Salvation may help thee with profite to read and peruse them is the desire of him who is Thine in the service of the Gospel PATRICK GILLESPIE THE CONTENTS SERMON I. Rom. 11. 36. Of him and through him c. 1 Cor. 10 31. Of the chief End of Man THe Fundamentals of Religion necessary to be pondered and imprinted into the soul. Page 1. Our chief end first to be considered p. 2 God is independent and self-sufficient but the most perfect of the Creatures are from another as their first cause and for another as their last end p. 3 Self-seeking in Creatures monsterous p. 4 What self-seeking in God is ibid. Man is in a peculiar way for God p. 5 Sin hath exautorated Man ibid. What it is to glorifie God and how Gods glorifying of us and our glorifying of him differs p. 6 7 How proper it is for man to praise God p. 8 Whether we can alwayes have an express particular thought of God and his glory in every action p. 9 Man is come short of all he was created for ibid. Glorifying of God the end of Mans second Creation p. 10 We are to consider for what purpose we were made p. 11 Believing the most compendious way of glorifying God ib. p. 12. SERMON II. Psal. 73. 24 25. c. 1 Joh. 1. 3. Joh. 17. 21 22. Union and Communion with God the principall end and great design of the Gospel GODS glory and mans happiness inseparably linked together p. 13 Mans dignity above the rest of the creatures p. 14 A twofold Union betwixt God and Adam whence communion with him flowed p. 14 15 The Fall hath broken off Communion with him by dissolving the Union p. 16 Christ the repairer of the breach betwixt God and man p. 17 18. There is neither full seeing of God nor full enjoying of him here p. 19 The Union of a believing soul with God is a great depth p. 20 Love an uniting and transforming thing ibid. Christ's Union with the Father is the foundation of our Union with God and among ourselves not simply that Union of Essence between the Father and the Son but the Union of God with Christ as Mediator p. 21 How should an Union and Communion with God draw forth our souls in desires after such a blessedness p. 22 The enjoyment of God the scope and design which few drive ibid. He who ingages
not his whole soul to God cannot truly ingage any part of it to him p. 23. SERMON III. 2 Tim. 3. 16. Of the Scriptures THat which most men seek is not true happiness p. 24 The principles of reason and light of nature are become so dark that they cannot direct us in the path-way to everlasting blessedness p. 25 The authority of the Scriptures divine p. 26 How the Apostles and Prophets knew that they spake truth and how men may be perswaded that the Scriptures are the Word of God ibid. The simplicity and plainness of the Scripture p. 27 The Spirit of God must open a mans eyes before he understand the Scriptures p. 28 The Utility of the Scriptures p. 29 The Scriptures a Doctrine of Eternal life p. 30 The sharpness of the Scripture mingled with sweetness p. 31 Some cannot hear the word of reproof others prefer their own vain imaginations to the Word of God p. 32 33 SERMON IV. Joh. 5. 39. Eph. 2. 20. Of the Scriptures THe Lamp of the Word without and the light of the Spirit within necessary for directing us in the way to eternal life p. 34 Why the multitude find no sweetnes in the Scriptures p. 35 How eternal life is to be found in the Scripture p. 36 It may commend the Scriptures to us that Eternal life is to be found in them p. 37 We are to lay this present perishing life in the ballance with eternal life and compare both the happiness and miseries of this life with eternal blessedness p. 38 Many groundlessely fancy that they have a right to everlasting life p. 39 Most of the Hearers of the Gospel have either to knowledge at all or nothing but knowledge p. 40 Life Eternal is no where to be found out but of Jesus Christ. p. 41 42 Some foolishly think that if they do all they can then God ought to be pleased p 43 Christ the only pacificatory sacrifice p. 44 Christ is either the subject or end of all that is in the Scriptures p. 45 The march which divides between heaven and hell is coming to Christ. p. 45 46 The necessity of searching the Scriptures and what search it must be p. 47 The Rule whereby to measure our profiting in the Scriptures p. 48 49 SERMON V. Eph. 2. 20. Of the Scriptures BElievers the Temple of the living God p. 50 Christ in the Scriptures a sure foundation to build upon all other foundations sandy and unsure p. 51 How firm and stable a foundation the Word of the Lord is p. 52 A Promise layes an obligation on the Promiser which a command doth not on the commander p. 53 All the Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ. ibid The chief point of Obedience is faith and what that is p 54 Christ is the Corner-stone as well as the foundation which should strongly perswade Christians to an union in Affection p. 55 What kind of foundation Christ is ibid. Some prefer their own imaginations to the Word of the Lord under the dark notion of new light p. 56 Many have nothing but the word of man for the foundation of their Faith p. 57. SERMON VI. 2 Tim. 1 13. Of the Scriptures ALL Religion may be reduced to these two what we are to believe and what we ough to do p. 58 God manifests himself differently to Man according to his different state p. 59 60 The marvellousness of mercy in saving of lost sinners p. 61 62 What manner of Persons Believers ought to be p. 63 64 â—…belief ruined man at first p. 65 A twofold mistake of the nature of Faith ibid. What course a soul is to take who questions its interest p. 66 67 The mistake of the nature of Faith leads many well-meaning persons into labyrinth p. 68 What Faith is p 69 What a soul ought to do that is sentenced by the law ibid. The faith of a Christian no fancy p. 70 71 Love is unitive and operative ibid. Love is put for all obedience and how it is the fulfilling of the. p. 72 God is pleased with no service that proceeds not from love and why p. 73 74 How to attain to the distinct knowledge of our love to God and the way to increase it p. 75 Who cannot hold fast the truth p. 76 When man lost his holiness he could not retain his happiness ibid. The necessity of holding fast the form of sound words and of forbearing strange words p. 77 SERMON VII and VIII Exod. 3. 13 14. Of the Name of God IT is impossible to declare what God is p. 78 How we may know that there is a God ibid. Naturall men are Atheists p. 79 God's Name a mystery that cannot be conceived or expressed p. 80 81 82 83. This name I AM THAT I AM imports his unsearchableness p. 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 His absolutness and soveraignity p. 94 His unchangeableness and Eternity p. 95 96 97 How impossible it is for a mortall creature to find out God to perfection yet so much may be known of him as is sufficient to teach us our duty and maâ—… us happy in obedience p. 98 99 The saving knowledge of God a self-emptying and self-abasing thing p. 100 101 Why God hath called himself by so many names ibid. SERMON IX Exod. 24. 5 6 7. What God is to us GOD is loath to depart even when he is provoked to go away p. 102 103 114 Infirmity and iniquity puts us into an incapacity of nearness with God p. 105 106 It is God himself who only can teach a soul to know what he is p. 107 One who considers how al-sufficient God is how empty and insufficient all other things are must needs cleave to him p. 108 God vents himself towards the creatures either in a way of Justice or Mercy p. 109 There is a Tribunall of Justice and a Throne of Mercy erected in the word so that every sentenced sinner may appeal from the Bar of Justice to Christ Jesus sitting on the Throne of Mercy p. 110 111. The Name of the Lord rightly considered is sufficient to answer all possible objections that a sinner can make against coming to Christ and what those objections are p. 112 113 114 115 116 117 Many souls suck delusion and destruction out of the sweet and saving Promises of life which are held forth in the Gospel p. 118 119. SERMON X. Joh. 4. 24. What God is THe knowledge of what God is presupposed to all true worship Christian walking p. 120 How mishapen apprehensions we have of God p. 121 That God is a spirit shews us that he is not like any visible thing p. 122 That he is invisible dwels in light inaccessible ib. That he is most perfect most powerful p. 123 124 That he cannot be circumscribed by any place p. 125 And there is no comprehension of his knowledge p. 126 127 It were of excellent use and advantage for us to be all the day in the faith of Gods infinite