moment I were bereft of all either by Fire or Depredation how were my mind fitted with humility and patience to submit to a poor strait wanting condition I have now a good Husband Wife Children many Friends that esteem me and are faithful to to me what if God should in a moment deprive me of all these what if my dearest Friends should become my bitterest Enemies how should I bear my self under these changes I have a great Name and Esteem in the World what if in a moment a black cloud of Infamy and Scorn and Reproach were drawn of it and that I should become a scorn and reproach with Job 30.8 among children of fools yea children of base men viler than the earth how were I fitted with humility and evenness of mind to comport with such a condition till it pleaseth God by his Providence and the manifestation of my Innocence if he think sit to scatter this black cloud of Calumny and Reproach or if not yet quietly under it to enjoy the testimony of a good conscience and my own integrity These and the like anticipations of troubled and afflicted conditions would habituate and fit our minds to bear them furnish us with suitable tempers for them render them casie to us when they come and keep our Souls in a due state of moderation and watchfulness before they come As the good Martyr Bilney before his martyrdom by often putting his Finger into the Candle made the Flames which he was after to endure more familiar and tollerable 3. The third Preparative against Affliction and calamitous seasons is to reason our selves off from over-much love and valuation of the World and the best things it affords Philosophy hath made some short essay in this business but the Doctrine of the Gospel hath given us far more noble and effectual topicks and arguments than any Philosophy ever did or can 1. By giving us a plain and clear estimate and valuation of this World and all that seems most valuable in it but this is not all but 2. by shewing us plainly and clearly a more valuable certain and durable estate after death and a way of attaining it with much more ease and contentation than we can attain the most splendid temporals of this World Certain it is that the weight and and stress of afflictions and crosses lyes not so much in the things themselves which we suffer in them or by them as in that overvaluation that we put upon those conveniences which afflictions or crosses deprive us of When news was brought to that noble Roman of the death of his Son it was a great pitch of patience that even that Moral consideration wrought in him Novi me genuisse mortalem though perchance it was not without a mixture of Stoical vain-glory We set too great a value upon our health our wealth our reputation and that makes 〈◊〉 unable to bear with that evenness and contentedness of mind the loss of them by sickness poverty reproach We set too great a rate upon our temporal life here because we set too great a rate upon this World to the enjoyment whereof this life here is accommodated and proportioned and that makes us fear death not only as the ruine of our nature but as that which puts a period to all our comforts Whereas had we but Faith enough to believe the Evangelical truths touching our future happiness it would make us not desire death because we might in the time of this life secure unto our selves that great and one thing necessary and it would make us not to fear death because we see a greater fruition to be enjoyed after it than all the glory of this present World can yield 4. The next Preparative against Afflictions is to keep Piety Innocence and a Good Conscience before it comes As Sin is the sting of death so it is the sting of affliction and that which indeed gives the greatest bitterness and strength unto affliction and the reason is this because it weakens and disables that part in man which must bear and support it This is that which the Wise man observes Proc. 18.14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear which is no more than this It is the mind and spirit of man rightly principled that doth bear and carry a man through those difficulties and afflictions and infirmities under which he is but if that spirit or mind which should carry and bear those evils be hurt or wounded or faint or infirm what is there left in a man to bear that which indeed should be our support Innocence and a Good Conscience keeps the mind and spirit of a man in courage and considence and indeed it hath an influence and suffrage and attestation and support from the God of Heaven to whom a good conscience can with an humble confidence appeal as Hezekiah did under a great affliction Isa 38. and this access to Almighty God doth give new supplies succours and strength to the Soul to bear it up under very great and pressing afflictions But on the other side Sin doth disable the Soul to bear affliction till it be throughly repented of 1. Because it doth in a great measure emasculate and weaken the spirit of a man makes it poor cowardly and unable to bear it self up under the pressure of afflictions 2. It doth in a great measure obstruct the intercourse between God and the Soul and that influence that might and would otherwise be derived to the spirit or mind of a man by the God of the spirits of all flesh Therefore the best preparative against affliction is to have the Soul as clear as may be from the guilt of Sin 1. By an innocent and watchful life in the time of our prosperity before affliction attach us 2. Or at least By a speedy sincere and hearty Repentance for Sin committed and this repentance to be speedy before affliction come For although it is true that many times affliction is the messenger of God to awaken a sinner to repentance and that repentance is accepted by the merciful God yet that repentance is most kindly and easie and renders afflictions less difficult and troublesom which prevents affliction and performs one great end and use of afflictions before it comes He that hath a Soul cleansed by Faith and Repentance from the guilt of Sin before the severity of affliction comes upon him hath but one work to do namely to fit himself with patience to undergo the shock of affliction But he that defers his repentance till driven to it by affliction his work is more difficult because it is double namely to begin his repentance and to bear his affliction And because in many things we offend all and the best have their failings and sins of daily incursion a daily revising and examining of our own failings and renewing of our repentance for our daily faults is of singular use to render afflictions easie because repentance
enemies and unintermitted dangers and difficulties that our light afflictions which are here but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Our afflictions and incoveniences in this world 1. are light in comparison of that exceeding far more exceeding weight of glory 2. As they are but light so being compared with that eternal weight of glory they are but for a moment The longest life we here live is not ordinarily above threescore and ten years and though the more troublesom and uneasie that life is the longer it seems yet compared with the infinite abyss of Eternity it is but a moment yea less than a moment if less can be yet such is the longest stay in this life if compared with Eternity And the gracious God hath presented this greatest and most important truth to us with the greatest evidence and assurance that the most desponding and suspitious Soul can desire 1. He hath given his own Word of Truth to assure us of it 2. He hath given his own Son to seal it unto us by the most powerful and convincing evidence imaginable by his mission from Heaven on purpose to tell us it by his Miracles by attestations from Heaven by the laying down his own Life in witness of it by his Resurrection and Ascention by the miraculous Mission of his Holy Spirit visibly and audibly Again 3. He hath confirmed it to us by the Doctrine and Miracles of his Apostles by their Death and Martyrdom as a Witness of the Truth they taught by the numerous Converts and Primitive Christians and godly Martyrs who all lived and dyed in this Faith and for it who made it their choice rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season declaring plainly that they sought a better City and Countrey that is a heavenly Heb. 11.15 25. and this Countrey and this City they had in their Eye even whiles they lived in this troublesom world And this prospect this hope and expectation rendred this lower world of no great value to them the pleasures thereof they esteemed but low and little and the troubles and uneasiness thereof they did undergo patiently cheerfully and contentedly for they looked beyond them and placed their hopes their treasure their comfort above them And even whiles they were in this life yet they did by their faith and hope anticipate their own happiness and enjoyed by faith even before they actually possessed it by fruition for Faith is the substance of things hoped for Heb. 11. and makes those things present by the firmness of a sound perswasion which are in themselves future and to come And this is that which will have the same effect with us if we live and believe as they did and be but firmly and soundly perswaded of the truth of the Gospel thus admirably confirmed unto us This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Heb. 10.38 The just shall live by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 We live by faith and not by sight and excellent is that passage to this purpose 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal And therefore if we do but seriously believe the truth of the Gospel the truth of the life to come the best external things of this world will seem but of small moment to take up the choicest of our desires or hopes and the worst things this world can inflict will appear too light to provoke us to impatience or discontent He that hath but Heaven and everlasting glory in prospect and a firm expectation will have a mind full of contentation in the midst of the lowest and darkest condition here on Earth Impatience and discontent never can stay long with us if we awake our minds and summon up our faith and hope in that life and happiness to come Sudden passions of impatience and discontent may like clouds arise and trouble us for a while but this faith and this hope rooted in the Heart if stirred up will like the Sun scatter and dispell them and cause the light of patience contentation and comfort to thine through them And as we have this hope of immortality and blessedness set before us so the means and way to attain it is easie and open to all no person is excluded from it that wilfully excludes not himself Isa 51.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat without money and without price Rev. 22.17 Whosoever will let him take of the waters of life freely Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest The way to everlasting happiness and consequently to contentation here is laid open to all It was the great reason why God made mankind to communicate everlasting happiness to them and when they wilfully threw away that happiness it was the end why he sent his Son into the world to restore mankind unto it And as the way is open to all so it is easie to all his yoak is easie and his burthen light The terms of attaining happiness if sincerely endeavoured are easie to be performed by virtue of that grace that God Almighry affords to all men that do not wilfully reject it namely to believe the truth of the Gospel so admirably confirmed and sincerely to endeavour to obey the precepts thereof which are both just and reasonable highly conducing to our contentation in this life and consummating our happiness in the life to come And for our encouragement in this obedience we are sure to have if we desire it the special grace of the Blessed Spirit to assist us and a merciful Father to accept of our sincerity and a gracious Saviour to pardon our failings and deficiencies So that the way to attain contentation in this life and happiness in the life to come as it is plain and certain so it is open and free none is excluded from it but it is free and open to all that are but willing to use this means to attain it And I shall wind up all this long Discourse touching Contentation with this plain and ordinary Instance I have before said that our home our Countrey is Heaven and Everlasting Happiness where there are no sorrows nor fears nor troubles that this World is the place of our travel and pilgrimage and at the best our Inn Now when I am in my journey I meet with several inconveniencies it may be the way is bad and foul the weather tempestuous or stormy
motions and tendencies of our Sensual Appetite This sensual appetite is in it self good placed in us by the God of Nature for excellent ends viz. for the preservation of the individual nature as eating and drinking and those invitations of sense subservient thereunto or for the preservation of the species as the desires of sexes But they then become a sinful part of this inferior world 1. when they become inordinate 2. or excessive 3. or unseasonable or generally 4. when they are not subordinate in their actings to the government of reason enlightened by moral or religious light A Christian hath no such enemies without him as unruly and undisciplined lusts and passions within him and it is a vain thing to think of overcoming the world without us until this world within us be brought into subjection for without the corruptions and lusts within the world and the evil men of the world and the evil one of the world could not hurt us Non vulnus adactis Debetur gladiis percussum est pectore ferrum The wedge of gold was an innocent thing but Achan's covetous heart within gave it strength to do harm We come into the world as into a great shop full of all variety of wares accommodate to our senses lusts and affections and were it not for these those wares would lye long enough upon the hands of the prince of this world before they could get within us or corrupt us 2. The world without us is of three kinds 1. The Natural world which is the work of Almighty God most certainly in it self good and is not evil but accidentally by man's abuse of himself or it It doth contain a general supply of objects answerable to the desires of our vegetable and sensible nature and the exigences and conveniences of it is a great shop full of all sorts of wares answerable .... there is wealth and places and delights for the senses and it becomes an enemy to us by reason only of the disorder and irregularity of those lusts and passions that are within us and by reason of the over-value that we are apt to put upon them they are indeed temptations but they are only passive as the wedge of gold did passively tempt Achan but it was his own lust and covetousness that did him the harm the rock doth not strike the ship but the ship strikes the rock and breaks it self This world as it is not evil in it self so most certainly it is full of goodness and benevolence to us it supplies our wants is accommodate to the exigences and conveniences of our nature furnisheth us with various objects and instances of the divine goodness liberality bounty of his power and majesty and glory of his wisdom providence and government which are so many instructions to teach us to know and admire and magnifie him to walk thankfully dutifully and obediently unto him to teach us resignation contentedness submission and dependence upon him A good heart will be made better by it and if there be evil in it it is such as our own corrupt natures occasions or brings upon it or upon our selves by it and it is a great part of our Christian warfare and discipline to teach us to use it as it ought to be used and to subdue those lusts and corruptions that abuse it and our selves by it Again secondly there is another world without us the malignant and evil world the world of evil Angels and of evil Men Mundus in maligno positus and the great mischiefs of this world are of two kinds viz. 1. Incentives and temptations from it that are apt to bring the rest of mankind into the evil of sin and offence againft God such as are evil examples evil commands evil counsels evil perswasions and sollicitations 2. The troubles and injuries and vexations and persecutions and oppressions and calumnies and reproaches and disgraces that are inflicted by them And the evil that ariseth from these are of two kinds viz. such as they immediately cause which is great uneasiness and griefs and sorrow and again such as consequentially arise from these namely the evil of sin as impatience discontent unquietness of mind murmurings against the Divine Providence doubtings of letting go our confidence in God disturst unbelief and putting forth our hands to iniquity to deliver our selves from these inconveniences either by unlawful or forbidden means by sinful compliances with the sinful world by falling in with them to deliver our selves from their oppressions persecutions or wrongs by raising commotions engaging in parties and infinite more unhappy consequences And thirdly there is a third kind of world which is in a great measure without us namely the accidental or more truly the providential world in relation to man and his condition in this world and is commonly of two kinds viz. prosperous or adverse External or worldly Prosperity consists in an accommodate condition of man in this world as health of body comfort of friends and relations affluence or at least competency of wealth power honour applause good report and the like The dangers that steal upon mankind in this condition are pride haughtiness of mind arrogance vain-glory insolence oppression security contempt of others love of the world fear of death and desires of diversion from the thoughts of it luxury intemperance ambition covetousness neglect and forgetfulness and a low esteem of God the life to come and our duty 2. Adversity as sicknesses and diseases poverty loss of friends and estate publick or private disturbances or calamities and the like And though oftentimes these are occasioned by the evil or malignant world yet many times they seem to come accidentally and are apt to breed impatience discontent unquietness of mind distrust of Providence murmuring envy at the external felicity of others and that common discomposure which we ordinarily find in our selves and others upon like occasions IV. The fourth considerable is what is this Faith which thus overcometh the world which is nothing else but a deep real full sound perswasion of and assent unto those great truths revealed in the Scriptures of God upon the account that they are truly the word and will of the Eternal God who is truth it self and can neither deceive nor be deceived and herein these two matters are considerable 1. What are those divine truths which being really and soundly believed doth enable the victory over the world or the special objects of that victorious faith 2. What is that act of faith or belief of these excellent objects which thus overcometh the world 1. For the former of these although the whole body of divine truths is the adequate object of faith yet there seem to be certain special heads or parts of divine truths that have the greatest influence into this victory over the world I shall mention some of them namely 1. That there is one most Powerfyl Wise Gracious Bountiful Just and All-seeing God the Author of all being that is present in
all places knows our thoughts our wants our sins our desires and is ready to supply us with all things that are good and fit for us beyond all we can ask or think hath incomprehensible Wisdom and irresistible Power to effect what he pleaseth that leaves not any of his works especially mankind without his special care and superintendence over them without whose will or designed permission nothing befalls us 2. That this most Wise and Just and Powerful God hath appointed a law or rule according to which his will is that the children of men should conform themselves and according to the upright endeavours of the children of men to conform thereunto he will most certainly give rewards and according to the wilful transgressions thereof he will inflict punishments and that he is a most strict and infallible observer of all the wayes of the children of men whether of obedience or disobedience thereunto 3. That this law and will of his he hath communicated and revealed unto the children of men in his Holy Word especially by the mission of his Son Jesus Christ who brought into the world a full and complete collection of those holy Laws of God whereunto he would have us conform 4. That he hath given unto mankind in and through Christ Jesus a full manifestation of a future life after this of rewards and punishments and according to that law of his thus manifested by his Son he will by the same Jesus Christ dispense and execute the sentences of rewards and punishments and judge every man according to his works 5. And that the reward of faith and obedience in that other life to come shall be an eternal blessed happy estate of soul and body in the glorious Heavens and in the presence and fruition of the ever Glorious and Eternal God 6. And that the punishment of the rebellious and disobedient unto this will and law of God thus manifested by his Son shall be an eternal separation of soul and body from the presence of God and the conclusion of them under chains of darkness and everlasting torments in hell fire 7. And that the Son of God hath given us the greatest assurance imaginable of the truth of this will of God of this happiness and misery by taking upon him our nature by his miracles by his death and resurrection and ascention into glory and by his mission of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation into his Apostles and Disciples both to instruct the world in his trust and to evidence the truth of their mission from him 8. That Almighty God though full of justice and severity against obstinate and rebellious yet is full of tenderness love and compassion towards all those that sincerely desire to obey his will and to accept of terms of peace and reconciliation with him and is ready upon repentance and amendment to pardon whatsoever is amiss and hath accordingly promised it And that he hath the care and love and tenderness of a father towards us that in our sincere endeavour of obedience to him we shall be sure of his love favour and protection that in all our afflictions and troubles he stands by us and will not leave us that he will most certainly make good every promise that by Christ he hath sent unto us for the life that is present and that which is to come that the Law he hath sent us by Christ to submit unto is an easie and good Law such as will perfect our nature and fit it to be partaker of his glory and that all his thoughts towards us in our faithful endeavour to obey him are thoughts of love favour peace bounty and goodness And of this he hath given the greatest assurance that is possible for mankind to expect or desire even the sending of his Eternal Son into the world to take upon him our nature to acquaint us with his Father's will and love to live a life of want and misery and to dye a death full of shame and horror to rise again to dispatch Messengers into all the world to publish the good will of God to mankind to ascend up into glory and there to make intercession for us poor worms at the right hand of God giving us also hereby assurance of our resurrection and of his coming again to judge the world and to receive his obedient servants into eternal glory These be some of those principal Objects of that Faith that overcometh the World being soundly received believed and digested 2. As touching the act it self it is no other than a sound real and firm belief of those Sacred Truths And therefore it seems that they that perplex the notion of Faith with other intricate and abstruse definitions or descriptions either render it very difficult and scarce intelligible or else take into the definition or description those things that are but the consequents and effects of it He that hath this firm perswasion will most certainly repent of his sins past will most certainly endeavour obedience to the will of God which is thus believed by him to be holy just and good and upon the obedience or disobedience whereof depends his eternal happiness or misery will most certainly depend upon the promises of God for this life and that to come for those are as natural effects of such a firm perswasion as it is for the belief of a danger to put a man upon means to avoid it or for the belief of a benefit to put a man upon means to attain it Some things are of such a nature that the belief or knowledge of them goes no further but it rests in it self as the belief or knowledge of bare speculative truths But some things are of such a nature as being once truly and firmly believed or known carry a man out to action and such are especially the knowledge or belief of such things as are the objects of our fears or of our hopes the belief of such objects do naturally and with a kind of moral necessity carry a man out to action to the avoiding of such fears and the attaining of such hopes And therefore faith and belief in reference thereunto comes often in the Scripture under the names of hope and fear as being the proper effects of it Instances we have of both 2 Cor. 5.10 11. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men 1 Joh. 3.2 3. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man that bath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Therefore we need not be so sollicitous touching the nature of faith what kind of faith it is that must save us certainly if it be a true and real assent of the mind to these great truths of
it which every wise man ought to hear and answer with 〈◊〉 obedience submission and thankfulness And when affliction hath wrought this effect us business is in a great measure ended and for the most part it is thereupon â—â—sed or removed Above all the Temptations that befall good men in Aâ—â—iâ—citons this commonly is that which doth most greatly prevasl and â—â—th them the most hurt namely when 〈◊〉 â—ddigent search they find their Conâ—clences clear from any great offences they 〈…〉 apt to magnifie their own inteâ—â—â— toexpostulate the reasonableness and 〈…〉 the divine dealing with them to 〈◊〉 of hard â—sage from him This 〈…〉 fault 〈◊〉 is too apt to be the 〈◊〉 of â—â—od men though neither equal â—â—â—m in their persecatons or affâ—ffâ—ctions â—uch courise nevertheless is 1. Very unâ—â— and unreasonable for the best of men â—ave sins enough to â—â—stifie the Justice of God in his severest deaâ—ing with them and â—â—â—ptions enough to grow into greater â—â—â—mities which although they perchance see not yet the all-knowing God sees and in mercy and with wisdom prevents by the corrosives and catharticks of affliction infomuch that even that good man when Almighty God opened his ear to discipline saw and acknowledged and therefore abhorred lumself in dust and ashes 2. As it is extremely unjust so it is extremely foolish and vain For as it is not the way to remove the affliction so when God is pleased to remove it in mercy and compassion it makes a man justly ashamed upon his deliverance of that folly and pettishness that he shewed under his affliction against Almighty God who even then had thoughts of mercy and deliverance for him And this very Consideration had been enough to have made Job's deliverance yet full of trouble and shame for his frowardness in his affliction unless the gracious God in a strange condescention of goodness and gentleness had prevented it by giving so great a suffrage unto his integrity and covering the errours and passionate excursions of his affliction as a Father doth the errours and follies of his Child by an indulgent commendation Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right is my servant Job And thus far of the carriage that becomes us to have under affliction and our due improvement of it to the ends for which Almighty God sends it by which Almighty God receives the honour of his sovereignty his justice his goodness his wisdom his truth and man receives the benefit of prevention from sin deliverance out of it improvement of his graces perfecting of his Soul and advancement of his glory through the mercy of God and his blessing upon this bitter cup the cup of affliction I come to the third General Consideration namely that temper and disposition of mind that becomes us to have upon and after deliverance from afflictions 1. Upon our deliverance from afflictions we ought in a special and solemn manner to return our humble and hearty Thanks to Almighty God to acknowledge him to be the Author of it to return unto him our humble and serious praises that he hath been pleased to answer our Prayer and hath given us a plain testimony that he hath a regard to us this is the Tribute that he expects most justly from us As he in a special manner requires our Prayers unto him when we are under affliction so he requires that we should take notice of the Returns of our Prayers and to pay him the tribute of Praise upon our deliverance Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me The truth is when we are under extremities we are easily perswaded to call to God for deliverance the very natural pressure of afflictions drive us to him we know not whither else to fly But as soon as the Rod is gone we are dull and backward in returning glory to God and we are most apt to take notice of the means that immediately went before If we or any of our relations are delivered from sickness we have it presently upon our tongues ends that we had a careful or skilful Physician a strong constitution favourable weather some lucky accident that happened unto us and the like we are apt to do upon other deliverance and rarely or at least not with that sincerity acknowledge the mercy of God and the hand of God to be that which raised us up It is true means are not to be neglected it is a presumption and tempting of God but it is the providence of God that gives us means and the blessing of God that makes them successful that sometimes blesseth poor and weak and unlikely means to produce desired effects sometimes maketh those very things we call accidents that seem to import the very destruction of a man to be the means of his recovery and sometimes brings about the effect without any visible means We are no less to acknowledge his goodness and influence when we seem to be delivered by means than if we were delivered by miracle It is true we are apt to fasten our thoughts and reasons upon means because we see them but if our Eyes could be so opened as the Prophet's servant's were when he saw the Chariots of fire in the Mountain we should see another kind of regiment and government and ordering and disposing of things than now we see Many if not most of those signal deliverances that a Man or a Nation hath are wrought not so much by the efficacy of means as by a secret invisible Hand of Providential government which we see not If therefore thou art delivered from any great distress of any kind in such a manner that thou canst not attribute it to means or possibly above or beyond means the Hand of thy deliverer is more signal and conspicuous glorifie his mercy and goodness And if thou dost obtain thy deliverance by means vet still glorifie his mercy and goodness for it is his providence that sends means his power and goodness that blesseth it to its desired success the efficiency and energy of the principal cause is that which gives efficacy to the means and makes it effectual 2. Endeavour to express thy thankfulness by a sincere and faithful Obedience to the will of that God that hath thus delivered thee A true and hearty thankfulness of mind will not content it self with bare verbal praises and acknowledgements but will study and endeavour to find out and do all that may be well-pleasing and delightful and acceptable to his great Benefactor and wherever the Heart is truly affected with the sense of the favour goodness and love of God and that the deliverance it hath had it hath had from his hand will think nothing too much to be done that may be well pleasing to him Great acclamations and verbal praises and acknowledgements without an honest and sincere endeavour to please and obey him are but a piece of mockery and hypocritical complement and a meer frustration
his creature to blessedness and the vision of his Creator 2. That he so ordered the means of man's Redemption that a greater glory came even by that Redemption that if man had never faln and a greater benefit to mankind For the latter it is apparent that if there had been no Mediator sent the least sin that any of the sons of men had committed had been inexorably fatal to them without any means of pardon And as Adam though in his full liberty and power was misled by temptation so might have he been or any of his posterity though he had stood that shock which now is admirably provided against by the satisfaction of Christ Jesus And as thus it is better with the children of men so the glory of God is wonderfully advanced by it for if man had stood in his innocence God had had only the glory of his justice in rewarding him or if he had faln the glory of his justice in punishing him but there had been no room for that glorious attribute of his Mercy in forgiving without violation to his Purity Truth and Justice that glorious attribute by which he so often proclaimeth himself Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God Merciful Gracious Long-suffering abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and yet that will by no means clear the guilty 3. That he so wonderfully ordered the Redemption of Man that all his Attributes were preserved inviolable His Truth The day thou eatest thou shalt dye his Justice yet his Mercy his Love to his creature yet his Hatred to Sin his Son shall dye to satisfie his Truth and Justice yet the sinner shall live to satisfie his Mercy the sin shall be punished to justifie his Purity yet his creature shall be saved to manifest his Love and Goodness And thus his Wisdom over-ruled Sin the worst of evils to the improvement of his glory and the good of his creature 4. His wisdom is manifested in this that by the redemption of man all those ways of his administration before the coming of Christ do now appear to be excellently ordered to the redemption of man and the making of it the more effectual The giving of a severe and yet most just Law which was impossible for us to fulfil shews us the wretchedness of our condition our inability to fulfil what was just in God to require shews us the necessity of a Saviour drives us to him and makes this City of refuge grateful and acceptable and makes us set a value upon that mercy which so opportunely and mercifully provided a Sacrifice for us in the Blood of Christ and a Righteousness for us in the Merits of Christ and a Mediator for us in the Intercession of Christ And by this means also all those Sacrifices and Ceremonies and Observations enjoyned in the Levitical Law which carried not in themselves a clear reason of their institution are now by the sending of Christ rendred significant 5. The wisdom of God is magnified and advanced in this in fulfilling the Prophecies of the sending the Messias to satisfie for the sins of Mankind against all the oppositions and casualties and contingencies that without an over-ruling wisdom and guidance might have disappointed it And this done in that Perfection that not one circumstance of Time Place Person Concomitants should nor did fail in it and so bearing witness to the infinite Truth Power and Wisdom of God in bringing about his Counsels in their perfection touching this great business of the Redemption of Man which was the very end why he was created and placed upon the earth and managing the villany of men and the craft and malice of Satan to bring about that greatest blessing that was or could be provided for mankind besides and above and against the intention of the Instrument Act. 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain 6. The unsearchable Wisdom of God is manifested in that he provided such a Mediator that was fit for so great a work had all the world consulted that God must suffer it had been impossible and had all the world contrived that any man or all the men in the world should have been a satisfactory Sacrifice for any one Sin it had been deficient Here is then the wonderful Counsel of the most high God the Sacrifice that is appointed shall be so ordered that God and Man shall be conjoyned in one Person that so as Man he might become a Sacrifice for Sin and as God he might give a value to the Sacrifice And this is that great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh 2. The wonderful Love of God to Mankind I. In thinking upon poor sinful creatures to contrive a way for a Pardon for us and rescuing us from that Curse which we had justly deserved 2. Thinking of us for our good when we sought it not thought not of it 3. When we were enemies against God and against his very being 4. Thinking of us not only for a Pardon but to provide for us a state of Glory and Blessedness 5. When that was not to be obtained saving his Truth and Justice without a miraculous Mediator consisting of the divine and humane nature united in one person in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ here was Love and Goodness of the greatest magnitude that ever was or ever shall be heard of and sufficient to conquer our Hearts into admiration and astonishment But yet it rests not here As God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 so the only begotten Son of God was not behind in this wonderful Love No sooner as we may with reverence say was the Counsel of the Father propounded for the sending of his Son but presently the Son saith Lo I come Psal 40.7 Heb. 10.7 And now we will consider upon what terms he must come or else the redemption of mankind must dye for ever I. He must come and empty himself of his Glory of his personal Majesty and take our nature yet without sin he must go through the natural infirmities of infancy and childhood 2. And not only must he undergo this abasement but he must undergo the condition of a mean a low birth born of a poor Virgin in a Stable laid in a Manger under the reputation of a Carpenter's Son 3. And not only thus but as soon as he is born must use the care of his Mother to shift for his life away to Egypt to prevent the jealousie and fury of Herod 4. And when grown up to youth he must undergo the form of a Servant become a poor Carpenter to work for his living without any patrimony or so much as a house to cover him 5. He comes abroad into the World to exercise the Ministry and the Prologue to
his own Tragedy still poor despised of his own Countreymen and of those that were of reputation for Learning and Piety scandalized under the name of an Impostor a Winebibber a friend to Publicans and sinners a worker by the Devil mad and possessed with a Devil These and the like were his entertainments in the World and which is more often put to shift for his life and in sum what the Prophet predicted concerning him fulfilled to the uttermost Isa 53.3 Despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and all this to befall the Eternal Son of God under the vail of our flesh And all this voluntarily undertaken and cheerfully undergone even for the sakes of his Enemies and those very people from whom he received these indignities 3. But all these were but like small velitations and conflicts preparatory to the main Battel We therefore come to the Third Consideration Christ Jesus and him Crucified there is the account of the Text As Christ Jesus is the most worthy subject of all knowledge so Christ Jesus under this consideration as Crucified is that which is the fullest of wonder admiration love And therefore let us now take a survey of Christ Jesus crucified as that is the highest manifestation of his love so it is the eye the life of the Text Christ above all other knowledge and Christ Crucified above all other knowledge of Christ And now a man upon the first view would think this kind of knowledge so much here valued were a strange kind of knowledge and the prelation of this knowledge a strange mistake in the Apostle 1. Crucified Death is the corruption of nature and such a kind of death by crucifixion the worst the vilest of deaths carrying in it the punishment of the lowest condition of men and for the worst of offences and yet that death and such a death should be the ambition of an Apostle's knowledge is wonderful 2. Christ crucified carries in it a seeming excess of incongruity that he that was the Eternal Son of God should take upon him our nature and in that nature annointed and consecrated by the Father full of Innocence Purity Goodness should dye and that by such a death and so unjustly Could this be a subject or matter of knowledge so desireable as to be preferred before all other knowledge which should rather seem to be a matter of so much horrour so much indignation that a man might think it rather fit to be forgotten than to be affected to be known 3. Jesus crucified a Saviour and yet to be crucified it seems to blast the expectation of Salvation when the Captain of it must dye be slain be crucified it carries in it a kind of victory of death and hell over our salvation when the instrument thereof must suffer death and such a death When the Birth of Christ was proclaimed indeed it was matter of joy and worthy the proclamation of Angels Luke 2.12 To you is born this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord and can the death of that Saviour be a thing desireable to be known The Birth of Christ seemed to be the rising Sun that scattered light hope and comfort to all Nations but can the setting of this Sun in so dark a cloud as the Cross be the choicest piece of knowledge of him which seems as it were to strangle and stifle our hopes and puts us as it were upon the expostulation of the dismay'd Disciples Luke 24.21 But we trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel But for all this this knowledge of Christ Jesus crucified will appear to be the most excellent comfortable useful knowledge in the world if we shall consider these Particulars 1. Who it was that suffered 2. What he suffered 3. From whom 4. How he suffered 5. For whom he suffered 6. Why and upon what Motive 7. For what End he suffered 8. What are the fruits and Benefits that accrew by that suffering All these Considerations are wrapt up in this one subject Christ Jesus and him crucified 1. Who it was that thus suffered It was Christ Jesus the Eternal Son of God cloathed in our flesh God and Man united in one Person his manhood giving him a capacity of suffering and his Godhead giving a value to that suffering and each nature united in one person to make a compleat Redeemer the Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 the Prince of Life Acts 3.15 the Light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world Joh. 1.9 as touching his Divine nature God over all blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 and as touching his Humane nature full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1.14 and in both the beloved Son of the Eternal God in whom he proclaimed himself well pleased Math. 3.17 But could no other person be found that might suffer for the sins of Man but the Son of God Or if the business of our Salvation must be transacted by him alone could it not be without suffering and such suffering as this No. As there was no other Name given under Heaven by which we might be saved nor was there any found besides in the compass of the whole World that could expiate for one sin of man but it must be the Arm of the Almighty that must bring Salvation Isa 63.5 So if the Blessed Son of God will undertake the business and become the Captain of our Salvation he must be made perfect by suffering Heb. 2.10 and if he will stand in the stead of man he must bear the wrath of his Father if he will become sin for man though he knew no sin he must become a curse for man And doubtless this great mystery of the person that suffered cannot choose but be a very high and excellent subject of knowledge so full of wonder and astonishment that the Angels gaze into it And as it is a strange and wonderful thing in it self so doubtless it was ordained to high and wonderful ends bearing a suitableness unto the greatness of the instrument This therefore is the first Consideration that advanceth the excellency of this knowledge the person that was Crucified 2. What he suffered Christ Jesus and him crucified though all the course of his life was a continual suffering and the preamble or walk unto his death which was the end of his life yet this was the completing of all the rest and the tyde and waves of his sufferings did still rise higher and higher till it arrived in this and the several steps and ascents unto the Cross though they began from his Birth yet those which were more immediate began with the preparation to the Passover The Council held by the chief Priests and Scribes for the crucifying of our Saviour was sate upon two days before the Passover Matth. 26.2 Mark 14.1 and this was the first step to Mount Calvary And doubtless it was no small addition to our Saviour's Passion that it was hatched in the Council of the chief
for this could neither consist with the purity of his Nature nor innocence nor dignity of his Person nor the hypostatical union of both Natures in him But he suffered as much as was consistent with these considerations and as considering the dignity of his person was equivalent to the sin and demerits of all Mankind 2. That his righteousness imputed to us doth not exempt us from acquiring a righteousness inherent in us this were to disappoint the end of his suffering which was to redeem us from our vain conversation and make us a peculiar people zealous of good works 3. That this purchase of Salvation by Christ for Believers is not to render them idle or secure or presumptuous where there is such a disposition of Soul it is an evident Indication that it is not yet truly united unto Christ by true Faith and Love his Grace is sufficient to preserve us and alwayes ready to do it if we do not wilfully neglect or reject it THE VICTORY OF FAITH Over the WORLD I. JOH V. 4 For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even your faith THese things are herein considerable 1. The Act which is here declared Victory or Overcoming 2. The Person that exerciseth this act or concerning whom this act is affirmed described by this description a person that is born of God 3. The Thing upon which this act of victory is exercised viz. the world 4. The Instrument or Means by which this act is exercised viz. Faith 5. The Method or Order or Formal Reason whereby faith overcometh this world Some few Observations I shall deliver touching all these in the order proposed I. Victory or Overcoming is a subjugation or bringing under an opposing party to the power and will of another and this victory is of two kinds complete and perfect or incomplete and imperfect 1. The notion of a complete victory is when either the opposing party is totally destroyed or at least when despoiled of any possibility of future resistance Thus the Son of God the Captain of our Salvation overcame the World Joh. 16.33 Be of good cheer I have overcome the world and thus when we are delivered from this body of death we shall overcome the world this complete victory will be the portion of the Church and Christian triumphant Again 2. There is a victory but incomplete such as the victory of the children of Israel was over the Canaanites which though they were subdued as to any possibility of a total reacquiring of a superiority or equality of power yet they were not subdued from a possibility of annoying disquieting and rebelling they remained still thorns to vex and disturb though not to subdue their conquerors there was still an over-ballance of power in the victors though not wholly to extirpate them And this is the condition of the Christian militant in this world he keeps the world in subjection and every day gets ground upon it but he cannot expect to obtain a perfect complete and universal conquest of it till he can truly say with our Blessed Lord Joh. 14.30 The prince of this world hath nothing in me Which cannot be till our change comes for till then we carry about with us lusts and passions and corruptions which though with all vigilancy and severity kept under and daily impaired in their power and malignity will hold a correspondence with the world and the prince thereof and be ready to deceive and betray us though never to regain their empire and sovereignty and the reason is significantly given by the same Apostle 1 Joh. 3.9 For his feed abideth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Indeed he may and shall have sin as long as he hath flesh about him 1 Joh. 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us But although we have sin still abiding in us and like the the byass in a Bowl warping us to the world yet that vital seminal principle of the grace of God in Christ always keeps its ground its life and tendency toward heaven and wears out wasts and gradually subdues the contrary tendency of sin and corruption II. The Person exercising this act of victory and conquest he that is Born of God All men by nature may be said in some sense to be born of God the Apostle tells the Athenians Act. 17.28 We are all his off-spring But in this place this heavenly birth is a second a supervenient birth from God and hence it is called Regeneration the New birth birth of the water and the Spirit birth of the Spirit the formation of Christ in the soul and the creature so new born stiled the New creature the New man a partaker of the divine nature born not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but born of the will of God And all these and the like expressions are figurative and seem to carry in them a double analogy first to the first creation of mankind and secondly to the ordinary generation of mankind since their first creation 1. As to the former analogy we know by the Holy Word that the first man was the root of all mankind stamped with the signature of the image of Almighty God principally consisting in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness and stood or fell as the common representative of all mankind This image of God was in a great measure lost and defaced by the fall of man and more every day spoiled by the actual sins and acquired corruptions of his descendants Christ the second Adam had instamped upon him a new inscription of the glorious God came to be a common head root and parent of as many as are united unto him by faith love and imitation and to instamp anew upon them that lost and decayed image of God who thereby put on the New man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.24 and so becoming a New creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Galat. 5.6 renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Coloss 1.10 they receive a new stamp and impression from this great exemplar Christ Jesus the true image of the invisible God 2. The second analogy is to the ordinary generation of mankind wherein as a little but powerful vital principle which we call the Soul forms and moulds the foetus according to the specifical nature of man in all his lineaments and proportions and never gives over its operation till it hath completed that bodily mass into its full complement of parts and afterwards gradually augments and perfects it in his organs and faculties So by a vital principle derived from God through Christ into the soul the same is moulded fashioned formed increased and perfected according to this new principle of life which is usually called Grace Whereby it comes to pass that as the soul is the vital and conforming principle of the body so
God it must be operative according to the nature of the things believed which are in order to working and therefore if it have not that effect it is not faith nor assent if it have it but weakly and imperfectly it is evident that the assent is weak and fluctuating if it have that effect at some times but not at others it is evident that the assent is suspended or intermitted or not actually exercised at these intermissions If a man were really and fully perswaded that if he take such a journey to morrow he should certainly break his leg he would as certainly not go or if he were under a certain perswasion that if he took such a drink he should certainly recover his lost health it were as certain he would drink it and if a man were actually and fully perswaded that if he used such a means he should attain everlasting happiness or if he should commit such a sin he should certainly lose it it were scarce morally possible that a reasonable man in his wits would omit the one or commit the other And to say this is but an historical faith and that the devils have as much they believe and tremble and they do as fully assent to divine truths as any can do yet it avails them not concludes nothing the reason is evident because the salvation to be attained the faith which is the instrument to attain it concerns them not neither are they in a state to be advantaged by it but it is otherwise with men If I should acquaint a stranger that if my Son doth such a thing I will give my Son five pound though the stranger believes it as really true as any thing in the world it puts not him upon the action because as he is not concerned in the reward so he is not concerned in the means but according to the belief that my Son hath it will or will not put him upon the action if he believe me not he will not do it at all if he believe it faintly and doubtingly he will perform the action accordingly but if he believe it truly and fully and set any value upon the reward he will perform it cheerfully for he is concerned in the reward and in the means to attain it Faith therefore is a firm assent to the sacred truths whether the truths relate to things past as that God made the world that Christ the Messiah is come in the flesh c. or to things present as that Almighty God beholds all I do and knows all I think or that he is a reconciled Father unto me in Christ Jesus or things to come which principally excite those two great movers of the Soul Hope and Fear the future life of rewards and punishments V. I come to the fifth thing viz. How Faith overcometh the World which takes in these two Considerations 1. How that is in what degree 2. How that is by what method or means Touching the former of these touching the degree of the victory that faith gives it is a victory but not a victory to utter extermination The Captain of our Salvation indeed overcame the world totally perfectly Joh. 16.33 our victory is not complete nor perfect on this side death but it is such a victory as leaves still an adversary to contest with us though not to subdue and conquer us It is a victory but yet not without a continued warfare 2. Touching the Method whereby our faith overcometh the world I shall say something in general something more particularly with relation to the world under the former acceptations In general therefore the great method whereby faith overcometh the world is by rectifying our judgments and removing those mistakes that are in us concerning the world and our own condition 1. Some things there are in the world which we set an esteem and value and love upon which deserve rather our hatred and detestation As our sins the irregulaâ—â—es of our lusts and passions and those degenerate plants that arise from them as pride ambition revenge intemperance c. these we account our right hands and our right eyes in our state of natural darkness Faith rectifies this mistake of our judgment by shewing us the Law and will of God revealed by Christ whereby we find that these are our diseases distempers and sicknesses repugnant to the will image and command of God that they are our loss and our danger and our ruine and therefore not to be entertained but mortified and crucified 2. Some things there are in the world that we may allow somewhat of our affections unto but we over-value them We reckon wealth and honours and powers the greatest happiness imaginable and therefore intensly desire them sicknesses and afflictions and injuries and losses the greatest misery imaginable and therefore we fear them excessively we are intollerably discontented under them Faith rectifies our mistake herein gives us a just value of these things shews us the Law of God checking and forbidding immoderate affections or passions to be exercised about them assures us that we are as well under the view and observation as under the care and regiment of the great Lord of heaven and earth and therefore expects our great moderation in relation to externals 3. And principally for the most part the children of men esteem this life the uttermost term or limit of their happiness or misery and therefore make it their whole business by all means possible to make their lives here as splendid and glorious as delightful and pleasurable as is possible and use all means whether honest or dishonest fit or unfit to secure themselves in the good they have and to avoid any thing that is grievous or troublesom and if they cannot compass it they sink and despond and murmur and dye under it as the only Hell imaginable or if they have any thoughts of a future estate after death yet they are but languid faint and searce believed in any tollerable degree and suspected rather as the impostures of Politicians or fables of Poets than having any real truth in them Faith rectifies this mistake and assures us there is a judgment to come a state of rewards and punishments of a far higher nature than this world can afford or indeed apprehend that the happiness of that life out-bids all the greatest and most glorious entertainments that this world can afford and will infinitely exceed the greatest losses or crosses that this world can yield And on the other side the punishments of that life will infinitely over-ballance all the pleasures and contentments that this life here can yield and the memory of them will but enhance the rate and degree of those torments and that accordingly as men spend their lives in this short transitory life either in obedience or disobedience unto the divine will accordingly the retribution of everlasting rewards and punishments will be there given This view of the future state presented by faith to the Soul will have
precious must needs be a more noble useful precious Knowledge and accordingly more to be desired There have been doubtless many excellent understandings that have been conversant about an exact disquisition of some particular truths which though as truths they agree in a common value with all others yet in respect of their nature use and value are of no great moment whether known or not As concerning the precise time of this or that passage in such a prophane History the criticism of this or that Latin word and the like which though by accident and by way of concomitance they may be of considerable use when mixed with or relating to some other matter of moment yet in themselves have little value because little use Others have spent their thoughts in acquiring of the knowledge in some special piece of Nature the fabrick of the Eye the progression of generation in an Egg the relation and proportion of Numbers Weights Lines the generation of Metals and these as they have a relative consideration to discover and set forth the wisdom of the great Creator or to publick use have great worth in them but in themselves though they have this excellence of truth in them and consequently in their kind feed and give a delight to the understanding which is a power that is naturally ordained unto and greedy of and delighted in truth though of a low or inferiour constitution yet they are not of that eminence and worth as truths of some other either higher or more useful or durable nature As once our Saviour in relation of things to be done pronounced One thing only necessary Luk. 10.42 so the Apostle among the many things that are to be known fixeth in the same One thing necessary to be known Christ Jesus and him Crucified There are three steps 1. Not to know any thing Not as if all other knowledge were condemned Moses learning was not charged upon him as a sin Paul's secular learning was not condemned but useful to him to be knowing in our calling in the qualities and dispositions of persons in the Laws under which we live in the modest and sober inquiries of Nature and Arts are not only not condemned but commended and useful and such as tend to the setting forth the glory of the God of Wisdom Even the discretion of the Husbandman God owns as his Isa 28.26 for his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him But we must determine to know nothing in comparison of that other knowledge of Christ Jesus as the Apostle counted what things were gain yet to be loss for Christ Phil. 4.7 so we are to esteem that knowledge of other things otherwise excellent useful admirable yet to be but folly and vile in comparison of the knowledge of Christ And this requires 1. A true and right Estimate of the Value of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus above other knowledge and consequently an infinite preferring thereof before all other knowledge in our judgments desire and delight and the preponderation of the knowledge of Christ above other knowledges excells most knowledge in all the ensuing particulars but excells all knowledge in some and those of most concernment 1. In the Certainty of it Most other knowledge are either such as we take in by our Sense and Experience and therein though it is true that the gross part of our knowledge that is nearest to our sense hath somewhat of certainty in it yet when we come to sublimate and collect and infer that knowledge into universal or general conclusions or to make deductions ratiocinations and determinations from them then we fail and hence grew the difference between many Philosophers Again the knowledge that we elicit from sense is but very narrow if it staid there for the forms of things the matter or substance which is the subject of Nature are not easily perceptible by sense we see the colour and the figure and the variations of that but we do from thence only make conjectures concerning the forms â—â—bstances and matter Or they are such as we receive by Tradition whether historical or doctrinal and the former depends upon the credit of the relator which most an end depends upon another's credit and so vanisheth into much incertainty unless the authors be very authentical and eye-witnesses and as to matters doctrinal still that depends upon the opinion of a man it may be deduced upon weak convictions crossed by persons of as great judgments and so breeds uncertainty distraction and dissatisfaction in the knowledge But in the knowledge of Christ we have greater certainty than can be found in any of all these other Knowledges 1. A constant tradition and reception by millions before he came that the Messias was to come and since he came that in truth he is come 2. The Apostles Evangelists and Disciples that were purposely chosen to be witnesses of Christ his Miracles Doctrine Suffering and Resurrection 3. The Miracles he did that are witnessed to us by a greater consent of testimony than any one part of any History of that antiquity 4. The Purity Sanctity and Justness of his Doctrine which was never attained unto in the teaching of the Philosophers nor ever any could in the least measure unpeach or blame 5. The Prophecies stiled most justly by the Apostle a more certain evidence than the very vision of his Transfiguration and a Voice from Heaven 2 Pet. I. 19 and so in truth is a more undeniable argument than any is for it is not capable of any fraud or imposture 6. The wonderful prevailing that the knowledge of Christ had upon the World and this not only de facto but backed with a Prophecy that it should be so 7. The admirable concordance and symmetry that this mystery of Christ makes in the whole method of the proceeding of God in the World as will be casily observable upon the collation of these things together The Creation the Fall the Law the State of the Jews the Immortality of the Soul the Necessity of a Satisfaction for Sin if pardoned the Types and Sacrifices the Prophecies the Rejection of the Jews the Calling of the Gentiles the Progress of the Gospel to the new discovered parts of the World successively as discovered that a due collection being made of all these and other Considerations it will appear that the doctrine of Christ Jesus and him crucified is that which makes the dispenstation of God towards the children of men to be all of a piece and one thing in order to another ther and Christ the Mediator in whom God hath gathered together all things in one Eph. 1.10 made it as one System Body-fabrick 8. Besides the undeniable Prophecies there bears witness to this truth the secret powerful witness of the Spirit of God convincing the Soul of the truth of Christ beyond all the Moral perswasions in the world beyond the conviction of demonstration to believe to rest upon to assert it even unto the loss of
life and all things 2. As in the certainty so in the Plainness and Easiness of the truth The most excellent subjects of other knowledge have long windings before a man can come at them and are of that difficulty and abstruseness that as every brain is not fit to undertake the acquiring of it so much pains labour industry advertency assiduity is required in the best of judgments to attain but a competent measure of it witness the studies of Arithmetick Geometry Natural Philosophy Metaphysicks c. wherein great labour hath been taken to our hands to make the passage more easie and yet still are full of difficulty But in this knowledge it is otherwise as it is a knowledge fitted for a universal use the bringing of mankind to God so it is fitted with a universal fitness and convenience for that use easie plain and familiar The poor receive the Gospel Matth. 11.5 and indeed the plainness of the doctrine was that which made the wise world stumble at it and thence it was that it was hid from the wise and prudent Matth. 11.25 who like Naaman with the Prophet could not be contented to be healed without some great ostentation nor were contented to think any thing could be the wisdom of God and the power of God unless it were somewhat that were abstruse and at least conformable to that wisdom they had and were troubled to think that that wisdom or doctrine that must be of so great a use and end should fall under the capacity of a Fisherman a maker of Tents a Carpenter But thus it pleased God to choose a Doctrine of an easie acquisition 1. That no slesh should glory in his sight 1 Cor. 1.29.2 That the way to Salvation being a common thing propounded to all mankind might be difficult to none Believe and thy sins be forgiven Believe and thou shalt be saved Believe and thou shalt be raised up to Glory Joh. 6. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and Believeth on him may have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day 3. As in the Certainty and Plainness so in the Sublimity and Loftiness of the subject And hence it is that Metaphysicks is reckoned the most noble knowledge because conversant with and about the noblest subject substance considered in abstractâ— from corporeity and particular adherents falling under other Sciences But the subject of this knowledge is of the highest consideration Almighty God the dispensation of his counsel touching man in reference to the everlasting condition of mankind the true measure of just and unjust the pure will of God the Son of God and his miraculous Incarnation Death Resurrection and Ascention the great Covenant between the Eternal God and fallen man made sealed and confirmed in Christ his great transaction with the Father in their Eternal Counsel and since his Ascention in his continual Intercession for man the means of the discharge and satisfaction of the breach of the Law of God the state of the Soul after death in blessedness or misery these and many of these are the subject of that knowledge that is revealed in the knowledge of Christ such as their very matter speaks them to be of a most high nature the great transactions of the counsel and administration of the mighty King of Heaven in his Kingdom over the children of men such as never fell under the discovery or so much as the disquisition of the wisest Philosophers and such as the very Angels of Heaven desire to look down into 1 Pet. 1. and behold with admiration that manfold wisdom of God which is revealed unto us poor worms in Christ Jesus 4. As the matters are wonderful high and sublime so they are of most singular Use to be known There be many pieces of Learning in the World that are conversant about high subjects as that part of Natural Philosophy concerning the Heaven and the Soul the Metaphysicks the abstruser parts of the Mathematicks that are not in order to practice But as it may fall out that the knowledge of the subject is unaccessible in any certainty so if it were never so exactly known it goes no farther and when it 's known there 's an end and no more use of it Whereas many times subjects of an inferiour nature are more useful in their knowledge as practical Mathematicks Mechanicks Moral Philosophy Policy but then they are of an inferiour nature more useful but perchance less noble But here is the priviledge of the knowledge of Christ Jesus that as it is of Eminence and Height so it is of Use and Convenience and that in the highest measure as it is a Pearl for Beauty so it is for Value This knowledge is a kind of Catholicon of universal use and convenience In reference to this life Am I in Want in Contempt in Prison in Banishment in Sickness in Death This knowledge gives me Contentedness Patience Cheerfulness Resignation of my self to his will who hath sealed my Peace with him and Favour from him in the Great Covenant of his Son and I can live upon this though I were ready to starve when I am assured that if it be for my good and the glory of his Name I shall be delivered if not I can be contented so my Jewel the Peace of God and my own Conscience by the Blood of Christ be safe Am I in Wealth Honour Power Greatness Esteem in the world This knowledge teacheth me Humility as knowing from whom I received it Fidelity as knowing to whom I must account for it Watchfulness as knowing the Honour of my Lord is concerned in some measure in my carriage and that the higher my employment is the more obnoxious I am to temptation from without from the that watch for my halting and from within by a deceitful heart And in all it teacheth me not to overvalue it nor to value my self the more by it or for it because the knowledge of Christ Jesus presents me with a continual object of a higher value the price of the high calling of God in Christ it teacheth me to look upon the glory of the World as rust in comparison of the glory that excelleth and the greatest of men as worms in comparison of the great God And as thus in reference to the temporal condition of my life this knowledge of Christ is of singular use and makes a man a better Philosopher than the best of Morals in reference thereunto So it guides me in the management of all Relations 1. To God it presents him unto me in that representation that is right full of Majesty yet full of Love which teacheth me Reverence and yet Access with boldness Love and Obedience 2. To Man Justice giving every man his due for so the knowledge of Christ teacheth me Do as ye would be done by Mercy to forgive Compassion to pity Liberality to relieve Sobriety in the use of creatures and yet Comfort in