the Lord What Promises more inviting and encouraging than those he hath given us which are exceeding great and precious Where if any one can let him tell us where we shall see Sin so clearly and fully in its deformity and ugliness in order to a real and thorow aversation from it or Religion Godliness and a Conversation order'd aright more in it's loveliness and enamouring beauty in order to our setting our Hearts upon it than we do or at least may see it in the Gospel When all is said and done that can be it is the Grace of God Tit. 2.14 The Doctrine the Gospel of Grace which bringeth Salvation and hath appeared to all men Jews and Gentiles men of all sorts and ranks it is that yea it is that which teacheth us and all thâ—t sit under it to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Oh therefore that this precious and everlasting Gospel of God our Saviour may be the main object of Ministers study and the Principal Theme upon which they insist in their several Congregations therein imitating the great Apostle of the Gentiles who told the Corinthians He determined to know nothing among them but Jesus Christ and him crucified But this is not all Ministers ought not only to preach Christ but likewise to live him What good are those pretended Ministers like to do in whatever Place Countrey or Nation they are to be found who are scandalous and prophane Grant that some of them preach well I would fain know whether that be enough either to save themselves or those that hear them What such men seem to build up by their Doctrine they pull down by their Practice Let any rational man judge whether they are like to convince and perswade others who do lead self-contradicting lives How can they prevail with others to be sober who will sit and quaffe and be drunk themselves With what face can they perswade others to possess their vessels in Sanctification and Honour who are unclean and filthy themselves In short how are they like to lead others in the way everlasting who do themselves turn aside to crooked paths with the workers of Iniquity Oh that therefore care might be taken by all those who are invested with Power and have the oversight of such things as these that those and none but those may be set as spiritual Guides and Leaders over the several Flocks and Congregations in the Land as may without blushing say to their hearers Walk so as ye have us for an Example and be ye Followers of us even as we are of Christ Tenthly and Lastly In order to the effectual Suppression of prophaneness I would and do heartily commend to all those that are in Authority over us diligent yea and utmost care for the strict observation of the first day of the Week which is in Rev. 1.10 Called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords Day and ought to be kept as the Christian Sabbath to the end of time A day sanctified and set apart for the solemn publick and private worship of God both in Churches Families and Retirements and for a sweet close and intimate Communion with him while we are deliver'd and taken off from those secular affairs that upon the other days of the Week do necessarily engage us and cannot but divert us A day not to be spent in any thing no not any the most minute part of it but the duties of Religion and works of Godliness except those works of Necessity and Mercy which God out of his Goodness and Pity to man doth allow for he will have Mercy rather than Sacrifice so that when Acts of Mercy are of absolute Necessity Sacrifice shall give place to it This is a day which God hath seen fit to usher in with a Memento in the fourth Commandment Remember that thou keep Holy the Sabbath day As if the Lord should have said I know your frailty that you have slippery and treacherous memories and possibly may yea certainly will forget some nay many other things in which you are concerned but let this be fastened as a nail in a sure place be sure to think of this to be mindful of this I charge and command you to remember it Remember the Sabbath day before it comes so as to rejoice in the thoughts of it to long for it and to prepare for it that upon the day of Praise you may have on your Garments of Praise Souls in a right frame and remember to sanctifie and keep it Holy when it is come We find the Sabbath was given unto Israel for a sign between God and them So you have it in Ezek. 20.12 I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifie them By this they were distinguished from all other Nations These were a plain and evident proof that they were the Lords People and that Jehovah was their God This did loudly proclaim Gods choosing and calling them out from the rest of the World and gracious setting them apart for himself as his peculiar Portion and Inheritance And indeed where there is no care of sanctifying the Sabbath by Nations Families or Persons it is a plain case it amounts to a demonstration that they are unsanctified Nations Families and Persons It is an evident sign of a people estranged and alienated from the Life of God of a wicked people that savour not the things of God but only those things that be of men of a People that have not the fear of God before their Eyes that are not carried out in desires of honouring him and lifting up his Name or of enjoying Communion with him in the World To prophane Sabbaths is a very great and notorious piece of prophaneness Sins willfully and out of choice committed upon a Sabbath are Sins in grain Scarlet and Crimson-sins To mind worldly Affairs to sit brooding upon worldly Thoughts to follow the Trades and Callings of the World to open Shops and buy and sell upon a Sabbath-day are God-provoking Sins acts of prophaneness These are lawful upon other days in which God hath given you leave nay more he hath made it your Duty to labour and do all that you have to do of this Nature but they are very sinful upon the Sabbath Let me propound Nehemiah to the Consideration of Magistrates and Inferiour Officers and his care and activity in this point as an example richly worth their Imitation Take the account of him as it is drawn up by himself in Neh. 13.15 c. He saw some treading Wine-presses upon the Sabbath-day and bringing in Sheaves and lading Asses as also Wine Grapes and Figs all manner of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem upon the Sabbath-day the men of Tyre also dwelt there who brought Fish and all manner of wares and sold on the Sabbath to the Children of Judah and in Jerusalem This was exceeding evil
common assistances of Gods Spirit they sometimes had being wholly withdrawn from them and it 1. Partly as a punishment for their former wilful impenitency It is one of the most dreadful Judgments God ever executes upon any on this side Hell when he punishes one sin with another one hardness with another which yet sometimes he doth Prov. 81.11 12. Israel would none of me c. so I gave them up c. 2. As a terror to others and a warning too that they that hear it may fear and not dare to live impenitently lest they should die impenitently God not being bound to give them the Grace he denies to others who perhaps were not greater Sinners than themselves Obj. The great encouragement Men have to embolden them in sin and yet to hope for repentance at last is the instance of this poor Thief which they stretch beyond the intention of the Holy Ghost in leaving it upon Record when they use it as a means to strengthen their presumption which was designed only to prevent despair The Thief on the Cross repented at last saith a Sinner and why may not I Answ Why should not the example of the other Thief 's impenitency affright them and drive them to repentance as well as the example of the good Thief encourage them to sin It is but setting one against the other and if they argue God gave repentance to one and therefore may give it them Why may they not as well argue God denied it to one and therefore may deny it to them too 2. It is but a single instance against thousands on the other side And though one instance is sufficient to evert the generality of a Rule and therefore we cannot certainly conclude from Gods not giving repentance to thousands at the hour of Death that he will give it to none because we have the example of this Thief to the contrary yet with what reason can men expect that God should give that to them which he gave to one rather than that he should deny that to them which he hath denied to thousands If general Rules are to be drawn from particulars it is much more rational to ground them on a multitude of particulars than on any single one The most therefore any Men can infer from this example is only that it is not impossible but God may give them repentance 3. Some things seem to be singular in the case of this Thief which are not to be found in the case of others who therefore cannot reasonably argue from it 1. He was one so far as we can judge that had never formerly rejected Christ never saw him before his Sufferings never heard his Doctrin never was a Witness of his Miracles which might convince him of the truth of it He was one that had otherwise employed himself than in attending on Christs Ministry and might more likely have been found robbing on the Road than worshiping in the Temple or breaking up Houses than hearing of Sermons and therefore though he had sin enough in him for which God might have denied him Repentance and nothing in him which might move the Lord to give it him yet it is very probable this was the first of his being brought to the knowledge of a Saviour and so he was not guilty of the great Gospel-sin of Unbelief and refusing the offer of Christ and Salvation by him which doth so often provoke the Lord to leave men to themselves and deny them his Grace If it be said the same was the case of the other Thief I grant it But God being a Sovereign Agent and his gifts most free he might make use of his Prerogative in dispensing them and so grant repentance to the one and deny it to the other admit their circumstances were every way the same And why then may he not deny repentance to those now that are in some respect worse than either in that they have so many times resisted his Spirit stood out against his Calls and slighted the offers of his Grace made to them and where is the Sinner that lives under the means without repentance but as he hath daily repeated calls from God so he daily rejects them and thereby abundantly justifies the Lords refusing him that Grace at the last which he did before not only never seriously seek but wilfully reject I should have more charitable thoughts and better hopes of the veriest Varlets upon earth that were never called till the last hour than of those that are otherwise guilty of much less sin but have abused and resisted greater Grace 2. The instance of this Thief seems particularly designed by God for the honour of his suffering Son God would have a Witness even upon the Cross one to adore him when so many despised him He would have his Sons Death honoured by his giving Life to a poor Wretch even at the point of Death and make him known to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins Acts 5.31 by his giving both to such a Sinner and at such a time 3. Another end may be to render them that Crucified Christ inexcusable when this Malefactor made so honourable a confession of him to expose and shame the unbelief and hardness of the Rulers and Pharisees by the faith and repentance of a most flagitious Offender and therewithal confirm the Word of Christ spoken formerly to them that the Publicans and Harlots entred into the Kingdom of Heaven before them Matth. 21.31 6. Suppose God do give them repentance at the last yet they may have very little it may be no comfort in it I. They may be ready to question the sincerity of it and then they can have little comfort in it Admit their condition be safe yet comfortable it cannot be so long as the truth of their repentance from which their comfort should proceed is so uncertain and questionable To say nothing of their ignorance of the nature of repentance and the methods of the Spirit in working it having never found the like in themselves before nor been acquainted with what others have felt many things there are which sometimes may make them call what they find in themselves in question 1. The experience they have already had of the deceitfulness of their own hearts and perhaps of others in the like condition It may be they have known others upon a sick bed look as like Penitents as they now do who yet upon their recovery from their Diseases have relapsed into sin and by returning to their former Lusts have confuted their Profession and evidenc'd their repentance to have been unsound and hypocritical And this may make them fear lest things may be no better with themselves and their repentings no more real than their Neighbours Or it may be they themselves formerly when under a Sentence of Death have had strong convictions of sin been filled with horror of Conscience and dismal apprehensions of approaching damnation It may be they
Contempt is abominable Man can better bear to have his Power or Authority or Wisdom contemned than his Goodness Ingratitude is justly reputed among the worst of Vices and the Contempt of Goodness is the highest act of ingratitude And the higher the Goodness is that is Contemned the higher still is the Ingratitude and the more provoking 3. An higher Contempt of God's Threatnings God's Threatnings under the Law were for the most part of Temporal Evils but now under the Gospel the Threats rise higher and are more dreadful It is the damnation of Hell everlasting Fire utter darkness where there is weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power c. And great Men cannot well bear to have their Anger slighted and their Threats despised or derided But though the Lion roar and God's Threats are denounced and his Wrath revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness of Men more than ever before yet the impenitent Sinner trembles not but goes on in his sin and saith he shall have Peace and so casts Contempt upon the severest Threatnings of God 4. This Impenitency is a disappointing God in his End It is a frustrating of his great design which is to recover lost Man to himself by Jesus Christ And Man is not recovered and brought back to God but by true repentance And it is his great End in sending his Gospel to a People to bring them to Repentance And this End of God is now made void when sinners repent not Men are sometimes grieved and sometimes angried when they are disappointed in their End so is God said to be He complains often of this in the Scriptures when he is disappointed in the End of his Corrections he complains Jer. 2.30 In vain have I smitten your Children they received no Correction And in the End of his shewing favour Isai 1.2 I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me And complains of his Vineyard disappointing the End of his care and cost about it When I looked for Grapes it brought forth wild Grapes Isai 5.4 Our Saviour is said to rejoyce when Sinners were brought to repentance he now enjoy'd the End of his Coming Luke 10.21 But then at another time he grieved because of the hardness of mens hearts Mark 3.5 And there is still joy in Heaven when sinners repent And Christ's faithful Ministers rejoyce also when sinners repent for they now attain their End which they com◠upon and will give up their account with joy concerning such as they will do with grief concerning others Whereupon the Apostle as a Co-worker with God Heb. 13.17 beseecheth the Corinthians that they receive not the grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6.1 That neither God nor himself may be disappointed in the end of their work being Co-workers And Grace is bestow'd in vain when it brings not Sinners to repentance and when men accept not of the reconciliation mention'd in the foregoing Chapter which Grace hath provided for them It was a sad complaint of the Prophet when he saith I have laboured in vain Isai 49.4 Much more for an Apostle and a Minister of the New Testament thus to complain And much more for Christ to complain thus as sometimes he did And most of all for God himself to complain as he doth in the case of Sinners impenitency So that Impenitency under the Gospel must needs be very sinful 5. This Impenitency hath much folly in it as well as sin For men to run themselves into the destruction which they might avoid and refuse the offers of God's mercy and grace in the Gospel is not this folly He is call'd a fool that hath a price in his hand and hath not an heart to use it Prov. 17.16 And the Virgins in the Parable that lost their Season of entring in with the Bridegroom are styled foolish Virgins Matth. 25. And are not Sinners that continue in their sin and impenitency under the Gospel thus foolish For they have set before them the fairest price and the richest seasons The Prodigal in the Parable when he came home to his Father is said to come to himself Luke 1◠So when a Sinner repents and comes home to God he now comes to himself as if his former life was folly and madness 6. Impenitency under the Gospel shews greater Wilfulness in sin As it argues great folly in the Mind so perverseness in the Will And the more there is of the Will in sin the more sinful it is As the Schoolmen say Bonitas malitia moralis sunt potissimùm in voluntate Paul could say it was not he that sinn'd when he did sin because his Will was against it Rom. 7.20 The Evil that I would not that I do And this God chiefly looks at in Actions both good and evil There seems to be more wilfulness in Impenitency under the Gospel than ever before The more Light and Knowledge men sin against the more Will there is in sin And the fairer offers are made to men of Heaven and Salvation the more wilful is the refusal And this is the case of Sinners under the Gospel They do not repent and they will not repent they do not hear and they will not hear they do not leave their sin and they will not leave it 7. Lastly Impenitency under the Gospel is attended with the greatest resistance of the Spirit Greater than in former time There is more of the Spirit goes along with the Gospel-ministration than with any before it And there cannot be a disobedience to the Gospel without resisting that Spirit that goes along with it Upon some the Spirit prevails and brings them to repentance and in others he is resisted And some resist to that degree that they are said to offer despight to the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 And the sin that is accounted unpardonable is committed against the Holy Ghost and it 's Thought cannot be committed but under the Gospel whereby Sinners are brought by a sinful to a judicial Impenitency Heb. 6.6 So that by this time you may see the great sinfulness of Impenitency under the Gospel beyond what was or could be in Sodom whereby mens damnation will be more intolerable Now I come to the last Particular to shew wherein the greater intolerableness will consist 1. Such will suffer greater Torments from their own Consciences The worm of Conscience will gnaw them with greater pain The reflections of it upon the sinner will be with greater force and fury By how much Men have sinn'd against greater Light and Mercy by so much the remembrance of this will be the more afflictive It was some aggravation of Dives his Torments in Hell the remembrance of former good things enjoy'd Much more will the remembrance of a day of Salvation lost and of the refusal or neglect of Gospel-grace and mercy be afflictive to sinners in a state of Damnation The Light they have sinn'd
tells us may be gained to Christ by his Wife thus a Servant that does his Service as to the Lord may convert his Master Oh! up and be doing your labour shall not be in vain No 1 Cor. 15.58 but great shall be your Reward in Heaven When you shall be taken up to shine as the Stars in the Firmament for ever and ever Dan. 12.3 Matth. 25.11 But if you shall neglect or refuse my Soul shall mourn in secret for you as knowing that the crying Lord Lord will not avail you nor any confident Profession of Christs Name stand you in any stead When the Deluge came how many perishing Wretches ran to the Ark and laid hold on it cryed earnestly for to be admitted into it but in vain Fac quod dicis fides est You know whom the Ark represented even this Christ in whom alone is Salvation Oh get into him by a true and living Faith and that to day whilest it is called to day 2 Pet. 2.1 least swift destruction come upon you 2 Cor. 5.11 May we all so know and consider the terrors of the Lord that we may be perswaded Quest What is that fulness of God every true Christian ought to pray and strive to be filled with SERMON VI. Ephes III. 19. And to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge that you might be filled with all the Fulness of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THESE words are a considerable part of that excellent Prayer put up to God by the Apostle for his beloved Ephesians from vers 16. to the end And indeed Prayer was his tryed Engine by which he always could bring down supplies of Grace from the God of all Grace for his own and the Souls of others In this Branch of it you will easily observe he prays for Grace the End and Grace the Mean to reach that End 1. He Prays for Grace the End That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God This being the utmost of the Souls Perfection ought to be the height of its Ambition beyond this we cannot reach and therefore in the attainment of this we must rest 2. He Prays for Grace the Mean to compass that End viz. To know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge As we grow up into a greater Measure of the knowledge of the Love of Christ to us we shall enjoy more of the fulness of God in us But here we meet in each of these parts of the Text with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a seeming contradiction in the Terms To know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge What is that but to know what is unknowable And to be filled with all the fulness of God What is that but to comprehend what is incomprehensible The narrow vessel of our Heart can no more contain the boundless and bottomless Ocean of the Divine fulness than our weak intellectual Eye can drink in the glorious Light of that knowledge And yet there are many such expressions in the Holy Scripture Thus Moses Hebr. 11.27 saw him that was invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He saw him by the Eye of Faith in the glass of a Revelation whom he could not see by the Eye of Reason in the glass of Creation And thus we are instructed in the Gospel how to approach that God who is unapproachable 1 Tim. 6.16 To approach that God by Jesus Christ according to the Terms of the New Covenant to whom considered absolutely in himself we could never approach Let us therefore first clear and remove the obscurity of the Phrases that we may more comfortably handle the Divine matter contained in them Always taking along with us this useful caution That we run not away with a swelling metaphor and from thence form in our minds rude undigested Notions of Spiritual things nor fancy we see Miracles when we should content our selves with Marvels 1. The former of these seeming repugnances is To know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge If this love of Christ passeth knowledge why do we pray why should we strive to know it If it be our duty to pray that we may know it how is it supposed to pass knowledge Must we endeavour to reach that which is above all heights To fathom that which is an Abyss and has no bottom Or to take the Dimensions of that which is unmeasurable To remove this difficulty there have been many expedients found out 1. I. Some carry the sense thus To know the Love of Christ which passeth or surpasseth the knowledge of all other things There is an excellency an usefulness in the knowledge of Christs Love which is not to be found in the knowledgc of any thing else A man may know to his own pride to the Admiration of others he may have the knowledge of all Tongues and Languages may understand all Arts and Sciences may dive deep into the secrets of Nature may be profound in Worldly Policies may have the Theory of all Religions true and false and yet when he comes to cast up his Accounts shall find himself never the better never the holier indeed never the wiser never the nearer satisfaction till he can reach this blessed knowledge of the Love of Christ Only the excellency of the knowledge of the Love of Christ consists herein 1. It must be a knowledge of Christs Love by way of Appropriation to know with the Apostle Gal. 2.20 That he loved me and gave himself for me 2. By way of efficacious Operation Rev. 1.5 That he loved us and washt us from our sins in his own blood 3. By way of Reflection that his Love has kindled a mutual Love in our Souls to him 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us 4. By way of practical Subjection when his Love subdues our Hearts to himself and constrains us to new obedience 2 Cor. 5.14 The Love of Christ constrains us it restrains us from sinning against him and engages us to obey him To know that we may know and make knowledge the end of it self is nothing but vain curiosity To know that we may be known is nothing but vainglorious arrogancy To know that we may make others know is indeed an edifying charity but to know that we may be transformed into the image and likeness of what we know of the Love of Christ this is the true the excellent the transcendent way of knowledge And this was that knowledge of Christ and of his Love which the Apostle set such a price upon 1 Cor. 2.2 when he determined not to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified That he might there see the Love of Christ streaming out of his heart at his wounds in his blood and there see Divine Justice satisfied the Law fulfilled and thence feel his Conscience purified and pacified and his Soul engaged and quicken'd to walk in all new obedience This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The transcendent
6.12 Ye are not straitned in me but ye are straitned in your own Bowels Our hearts are narrow towards Spiritual and Heavenly things because they are so enlarg'd towards earthly and visible things when the heart is enlarged as Hell and death that cannot be satisfied Hab. 2.5 For these perishing things no wonder if there be little room for the Graces of the Spirit This is therefore our great concern to pray that God would enlarge our desires that he may satisfie and fill them 4. We ought to pray and strive That all the Powers and Faculties of the whole man may be filled according to their measures There is much room in our Souls that is not furnish'd much waste ground there that is not cultivated and improved to its utmost We might have more light in the Understanding more tractableness in the Will more heat in our Love and a sharper edge set upon our Zeal And we have warrant to pray for this measure of the fulness of God 1 Thess 5.23 Now the God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 5. Every gracious Soul ought to pray and strive for such a measure of Grace that he may be qualified for any Duty and Service that God shall call him to and engage him in The Hebrew word which we render Consecration or separation to an Office is Filling the hand Exod. 29.9 Consecrate ye Aaron and his Sons in the Hebrew Fill the hand of Aaron and his Sons Where God employs the hand he will fill the hand we have ground to believe that he will send us about no Errand but he will bear our Charges where-ever he gives a Commission he will bestow a competent qualification when we go about his Work we may expect his presence and assistance in the Work And Moses seems to stand upon these terms with God Exod. 33.15 If thy presence go not with me carry us not up hence As therefore there is great variety of Duties in our Christian Calling we may in Faith expect and from that believing expectation pray that we may be furnish'd with a suitable variety of Grace for the discharge of them 6. Every true Christian ought to pray strive for such a measure of Grace as may enable him to bear patiently chearfully and creditably those afflictions and sufferings which either God's good pleasure shall lay upon us or for his Names sake we may draw upon our selves We ought to pray that either he will lay no more upon us than our present strength can bear or if he encreases our trials he will encrease our Faith There 's no danger of excess in our Prayers when we confine them to the limits of his gracious promises Now here we have encouragement from his Word 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it 7. Every true Christian ought to pray and strive for such a measure of Grace as may bring the Soul to a settlement and stability that he be not soon shaken by the cross and adverse evils that he shall meet with in this Life And the Apostle Peter has gone before us in this Prayer 1 Pet. 5.10 The God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you And herein especially let us keep an eye upon these particulars § 1. Pray that God would so stablish you in the truth that ye may not be blown away with every wind of Doctrin A sorry trivial Error many times oversets and puzzles a weak Understanding Now 't is our great Interest to pray and strive that we may reach such a clear distinct coherent Light into the Doctrin of the Gospel that every small piece of Sophistry may not perplex and stagger our Belief of it So the Apostle Paul Eph. 4.14 would have Believers be no more Children tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive § 2. Pray also that God would so stablish you in the truth of the promises that your Faith may not be shaken with every wind of Providence We are apt to have our hearts tossed by contrary Dispensations So upon a rumour Isa 7.2 The heart of Asa was moved and the heart of his people as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind It argues great weakness of Faith that we cannot maintain an equality of mind under various Providences the only remedy of which evil is to pray that God would encrease and strengthen our Faith that we may be so firmly built upon the unmoveable rock that we may not be afraid of evil tidings having our hearts fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 112.7 And this was the glory of Job's Faith Job 13.15 That tho' God should slay him yet would he trust in him § 3. Let us pray and strive that God would so settle and stablish us in Love to himself that no blast of Afflictions from his hand may cool the fire of Divine Love in our hearts We want exceedingly the Faith that God carries on a design of Love under all his various and seemingly contrary dealings with us he can love and correct why then cannot we love a correcting God Whether he wounds or heals his love is the same and why not ours Can we not love God upon the security of Faith that he will do us good as well as upon the experience that he has done us good § 4. Pray we and strive that God would so settle and stablish us in our inward peace that no wind of temptation may overthrow it 'T is a slender and ill-made peace which every assault of the Tempter dissolves The Psalmist stood upon a firmer bottom when the terrifying Onsets from without made him fly more confidently to his God Psal 56.3 What time I am afraid I will put my trust in thee And we have Gods own promise to answer our Faith Isa 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee because he trusteth in thee And thus I have return'd some Answer to the second Branch of the Question What is the measure of the fulness of God with which every true Christian ought to pray and strive to be filled There will still remain an enquiry How we may reach to such a measure of the Divine fulness as has been described To which tho' the limits of this discourse will not allow a full and just Answer yet the importance of the Question will oblige me to point at some few things upon which your own Meditations may find matter of enlargement 1. And first it is necessary that we be convinced that we are very far short
standing principle of actual repentance and whereby it is both enabled and disposed to it Now this repentance being a grace of Gods Spirit and yet inherent in Man as to the habit and exercised by him as to its acts or which is the same being Gods work and yet Mans duty we are to consider what is Gods part in it and what is Mans. First Gods work is 1. To infuse the grace or principle repentance in the habit which constantly is ascribed to God in Scripture Acts 11.18 Granred repentance 2 Tim. 2.23 If God will give them repentance 2. To actuate and enliven that Principle when infused as he doth other Graces Phil. 2.13 not meerly in a moral way by suggesting such Reasons and Arguments as may excite and move the Will to the exercise of Repentance but by the powerful and efficacious Influence of his Grace drawing out the habit into that exercise or causing the Soul to act suitably to this Divine Principle infused into it Secondly Mans Duty is 1. To seek and labour after Repentance in the use of all means by which God is wont to work it in the hearts of Men such as diligent attendance on the Word Repentance no less than Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10.17 and what external means of Grace are appointed in it Intention of the Mind in that attendance on the means Mens applying the Truths delivered to themselves comparing their Cases with it examining themselves by it considering their ways c. which are but the actings of their reasonable Faculties and as much in their power as other moral Actions are and need not the Supernatural Influence of Divine Grace but only those common assistances God affords to Man in the ordinary actions of a rational Life and in a word these are but such kind of workings as shew them to be Men not to be Saints Isa 46.8 To these means in the use of which God is wont to work repentance I refer Prayer for it which though by an unregenerate Person it cannot be performed graciously and unto acceptance yet we may say it may be thus far performed successfully as that those Prayers may be heard and answered in relation to the Grace they seek and in the Elect of God they are heard tho' not with respect to the Persons which being graceless faithless cannot be accepted of God yet with respect to his own thoughts of Love towards them and his eternal purpose of conferring that Grace upon them 2. To excite and stir up in himself the Grace of Repentance when God hath wrought it in him for the putting forth Acts agreeable to the Principle he hath received and to which by that Principle he is both empowred and inclined unto the production of which Acts he is no more to question the concurrence of God's Special Grace than his common concurrence to the ordinary actings of his Reason and Will it being God's usual method to work with his Creatures according to their Natures and those Principles of Acting he hath put into them Though God quickens Grace as well as works it yet Man is to use those means for the quickning it in himself which God hath appointed and with which he is wont to work 2. The reasons of this Concession or which prove that a Death-bed Repentance may be sincere 1. It appears by the the instance of this Thief that a late Repentance and as late as one upon a Dying Bed hath been sincere and therefore the like may be again He did truly repent and therefore it is possible others may And that his Repentance was sincere we have sufficient Proof not only from Christs gracious acceptation of it manifested by the peremptory promise he gave him of admitting him into his Kingdom To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise But by the other Graces we here find him exercising in concurrence with his repentance I. Faith which is the Principle of Evangelical Repentance and which never fails to work it where it is it self sincere He owns Christ as a King when he mentions his Kingdom and prays him to remember him when he comes into it This likewise implies his belief of and confidence in the Grace and Love as well as Power of Christ when he commits his departing Soul into his hands expecting his Salvation from him And indeed his Faith was not only sincere but strong and vigorous God had put as much of the Spirit of Faith into a poor Novice in Religion at the very first as he doth into many an old Disciple at the last It is a good argument of a strong Faith when it bears up against great discouragements as we see in Abraham's Faith Rom. 4.19 20. and that of the Woman of Canaan Matth. 15. from v. 22. to 28. Two great discouragements the Thief had which yet could not hinder his Faith 1. The heinousness of his Sins aggravated by long impenitence and perseverance in them to the last hour in a manner of his Life Well might he fear that God was so provoked by the continual rebellion of his wicked Life as totally to reject him now at his Death 2. The low and despicable condition he saw Christ in condemned as well as himself and hanging upon a Cross as well as himself slighted and mocked at by so many he might look on as better and wiser than himself no less than the Governours of the Church v. 33. The Rulers derided him This might have made him think there was little hope of help from him What was there in a crucify'd dying Man that to an eye of reason could make him look like a Saviour Meer Nature would as soon have looked for Life in Death it self nay Heaven in Hell as eternal Salvation in one who not only had formerly been so mean but now seemed so miserable II. Several other Graces we find in him as the fruits at least the concomitants of his Repentance 1. A free ingenuous and open confession of his Sins in the face of the World and thereby giving glory to God v. 41. We indeed justly c. Nor can it be said that his Confession was extorted from him by the Torments he suffer'd when we see his Companion impenitent under the like 2. He owns the Justice that had brought him to that end We receive the due reward of our deeds He neither murmurs against God nor quarrels with Men. 3. He sharply taxeth the impiety and profaneness of his fellow Thief in reviling Christ as well as his still continuing obstinate and impenitent v. 40. Dost not thou fear God c. and hereby he shews his indignation against Sin when he so heinously resents it not only in himself but in another Like David he beholds a transgressor and is grieved Ps 119.158 4. He doth what he can to bring his Companion to repentance Dost not thou fear God The Reproof implies an Exhortation as well as Instruction Now the communicativeness of Grace is a good argument of the sincerity of it
Had he had none himself he would not have been so much concerned for the others want of it 5. He makes a publick profession of his faith in Christ and owns him to the very teeth of his Enemies and that too when Peter had denied him the other Disciples forsaken him and those that had rallied after their rout and were now come to be the Spectators of the most doleful Object had ever been presented before their eyes were so far from making any such publick confession of him that their Faith was ready to expire with him ch 24.21 II. Repentance being Gods gift and God being a Sovereign Agent he may give it where and when he pleaseth as to whom he will to one and not to another so at what time he will to one sooner to another later He may give it to one early in the morning of his days to another late and when his Sun is Setting And if the great Master of the Vineyard shall call some into it not only at the sixth or ninth hour but even at the last minute of the eleventh hour what is that to any who shall call him to an account for it 3. God being not only a Sovereign Agent but an Almighty one can by his Power and that in an instant remove all hindrances on the Creatures part and whatever might obstruct his work and so with one turn of an Omnipotent hand bring about the heart of the most obdurate Sinner work repentance in the most unlikely Subject and where there is most within to make head against him and resist his Grace suppose the most obstinate and rooted habits of sin Grace is an infused and supernatural habit and the power that works it a supernatural and creating Power and we are not to confine God in his working Grace to those methods whereby men acquire natural or moral habits In these I grant there may need time to unlearn and extirpate those vitious habits they have so long been contracting and to acquire new ones by a long series of and accustoming themselves to better actions Custom in Men may be strong and like another Nature and they may not be able presently to overcome it nor on the sudden to bring themselves to a readiness and easiness in doing those things which tho their reason approves yet their boysterous appetites strengthned too by custom hurry them against But let the habit of sin be never so deeply radicated in the Soul and the Heart of Man never so averse to holy actions yet God can soon make a change soon remove the sinful disposition and enable and encline the Soul to what it was most averse and impotent He can even in a moment overcome that love of sin and hatred of holiness which is either natural to a Man or contracted by him and both abate lessen weaken the power of sin in the Soul whereby it was wont to resist the workings of his Spirit and restrain and suspend any actual resistance it might make Let the mind of a Man be as dark as darkness it self yet he that caused light to shine out of darkness can enlighten that mind when he pleases 2 Cor. 4.6 Let the Soul be never so dead in sin and destitute of all Spiritual Life yet he that quickens the dead and calls things that are not as tho they were Rom. 4.17 can quicken it and breathe the Breath of Spiritual Life into it and whatever there be in the Soul to oppose him in his working yet the same power can at once quell the opposition and produce the Grace 4. God having infused the habit can as easily enliven it and draw it out into act in those that are capable of exercising grace wrought in them as I suppose dying sinners to be at least when they are capable of exercising their rational faculties For there is less to make opposition against God than in the former case the prevailing power of sin being broken and something in the Soul to take Gods part in the work viz. grace now begun and some habitual promptness and disposedness of the heart to spiritual good and compliance with the will of God It doth not require more power to awaken a vital principle tho dormant than to infuse it where there was none before 5. It may be for Gods honour sometimes to give Repentance to dying sinners the honour of his Sovereignty and free Grace in shewing that he hath mercy on whom he will Rom. 3.18 and that the deepest guilt even of an old hardned sinner cannot hinder the outgoings of his grace and mercy and the honour of his power when it prevails over the most setled habits of corruption Should God work only upon lesser sinners and who are not so confirmed in evil Man might be apt to think that he could not do it and that Mens lusts might be too hard for his power and so reflect on his Omnipotence or to think he could not find in his heart to do it and so reflect upon his Mercy II. By way of Position or Assertion It is a very dangerous thing to run the hazard of a death-bed Repentance or defer Repentance till the approach of death that is to neglect the doing a Mans own part in order to the obtaining this grace as was above premised viz. the seeking it of God and using all those means by which he ordinarily works it The danger of this neglect may appear by the following considerations 1. That no Man knows the time of his death any more than the manner of it or means by which it shall be brought about Our breath is in Gods hands Dan. 5.23 No Man hath a lease of his earthly Tabernacle but is Tenant at will to his great Landlord Who knows when he shall die or how Whether a natural death or a violent one To how many thousand unforeseen accidents are Men subject Not only Swords and Axes may dispatch them but God can commission Insects and Vermin to be the executioners of his justice upon them Hatto Archbishop of Mentz A great Prelate may be eaten up of Mice and a potent Prince devoured by Worms Acts 12.23 And who doth not carry the principles of his own dissolution perpetually within him Death lies in ambush in every vain in every member and none know when it may assault them It doth not always warn before it strikes If some Diseases are Cronical others are Acute and less lingring and some are as quick as lightning kill in an instant Men may be well in one moment and dead in the next God shoots his arrows at them they are suddenly wounded Psal 64.7 How many are taken away not only in the midst of their days but in the midst of their sins The lusting Israelites with the flesh between their teeth Numb 11.33 Julian if Historians speak truth with blasphemy in his mouth and how many frequently with the Wine in their heads In such cases what place what time for repentance for seeking it
for using means to attain it when they have not room for so much as a thought of it 2. Suppose Men have time and warning given them Death knocks at the door before it enters and besieges them before it storms them they lie by the brink of the grave before they fall into it yet they may want the Means of grace by which God ordinarily works when he brings Men to Repentance Publick Ordinances in such a case they cannot have and private ones they may not have They may have none with them that have the tongue of the Learned to speak a word in season to them Isa 50.4 they may lack oyl but have none that can tell them where they may buy it None that understand the nature of Repentance none that can instruct them in it or direct them how they may attain it Friends may be as carnal and ignorant and unacquainted with the things of God as themselves and so may Ministers be sometimes They may seek a vision of the Prophet but the Law may perish from the Priest and counsel from the Ancient Ezek. 7.26 True indeed God can work repentâ—nce in Man or any grace without means by his immediate power or by some extraordinary means but he never promiseth to do it and therefore it is a bold presuming and tempting of him to expect he should What if God once stopt a sinner in the midst of his carrear when not only running away from the means of Salvation but bidding defiance to them and converted him in a miraculous way by a glorious light shining about him and the immediate voice of Christ to him Acts 9. shall others hope for the like Live in sin all their days and look for conversion by miracle at last 3. If they have means when they come to die yet they may not have an heart to use them First By reason of bodily weakness failing of natural Spirits racking and tormenting pains which often afflict Men in such a casâ— These may blunt and dull Mens minds or distract them and draw away the intention of them from other things and hold them only to the consideration of their present anguish How unfit are Men for serious minding even of their Worldly affairs when under bodily indispositions and how much more than unfit for Spiritual work When the Soul is wholly taken up with helping the body with which it sympathizes to bear its present burden it is ill at leasure to think of any thing else The Israelites harkned not to Moses tho sent of God to deliver them for anguish of Spirit and cruel bondage Exod. 6.9 and is it any wonder if a Man groaning under a distemper scarce able to bear his pain or think of any thing but his pain be in an ill case to look into his Heart consider his ways listen to the best counsil joyn with the best prayers c. If Gods children that have grace in their Hearts yet in time of sickness may through present weakness find much indisposedness in themselves to the actings of grace so that they are fain to bring forth their old store and comfort themselves with their former experiences rather than with the present frame of their Hearts what wonder is it if they that are altogether graceless be alike indisposed to seek for grace Secondly By reason of contracted hardness Men are naturally backward to good but much more when habituated to evil for the more inclined they are to evil the more averse they are to good and the more accustomed they are to sin the more inclined they are to it The practice of sin hardens the Heart and strengthens the sinning disposition and still the longer Men continue in sin the stronger such dispositions grow Hence the Apostles advice to the Hebrews chap. 3.13 Exhort one another while it is called to day lest your Hearts be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin implying that that would follow upon their continuance in sin We see even in natural things that Mens being accustomed to one sort of actions unfits them for another When Men have lived in the practice of sin all their days and their natural disposition to sin is hightned into an habit it is not strange if they be much more averse to the contrary good Jer. 13.23 How can you that are accustomed to evil learn to do well If one gross sin in a believer may so debilitate and enfeeble those gracious dispositions that were before in him as to unfit him for and deaden him to spiritual duties to what a superlative hardness may a thousand and a thousand repeated acts of wilful sin bring the Heart of a carnal Man and to what not only aversness to any good but confirmedness against all 4. They cannot work repentance in themselves not make the means effectual for the enlightning of their minds the changing softning spiritualizing their Hearts or working a vital principle in them If they say they can either they must assume to themselves a Creating power a power of making themselves new Creatures or creating this grace in their own Hearts there being nothing of it in them by nature and antecedently to their making such a change Or they must say that there is some seed of grace in them beforehand some root or stock which being watered and cultivated by outward means diligence and industry may be made fruitful so that the working repentance in them is not the infusing a new principle into them but a correcting of the old one Conversion not the giving or creating in them a new nature but only a freeing the old one from its former impediments and setting it at liberty to its proper actions But this is 1. Contrary to the whole current of Scripture which affirms Mans will since the fall of Adam to be void of all saving good and impotent to it till renewed by grace John 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing Rom. 5.6 When we were without strength 2 Cor. 3.5 We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves And prone to evil Job 15.16 Man drinks iniquity like water Prov. 2.14 Rejoyceth to do evil Rom. 6.17 He is a servant of sin Gen. 6.5 All the imaginations of his Heart are only evil continually Eph. 2.1 He is dead in trespasses and sins This is broadly to charge a lie upon the God of truth 2. To deprive God of the glory of one of his chiefest works the new Creation in which he is said to put forth the same power which he did in creating the World at first 2 Cor. 4.6 and in raising up Christ from the dead Eph. 1.19 20. compared with chap. 2.1 They are said to be born of the Spirit John 3.5 And not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of Man but of God John 1.15 Whereas they that assert the contrary take Gods work out of his hands and grudge him the honour of it 3. To go contrary to the common
to be willing to part with your sins till you are parting with your lives nor begin your work till your time is ending and in a word to begin then only to serve God when you can serve your selves your Friends nay your Lusts no longer 2. The sooner you set about the work the more easie you will find it You will have fewer Sins to repent of and mourn over and turn from less guilt to terrifie and dishearten you less stupor in your Consciences less hardness in your Hearts less strength of sin to be wrestled with The Dominion of sin will not be so confirmed with a long tract of time nor the cords of your iniquity hold you so fast Tho it be true that how soon soever you begin and set about the work you cannot of your selves effect it God's Grace must do that yet the sooner you begin the less sin there will be in you to resist his Grace and the more hope that God will afford you Grace to overcome that resistance which is made And tho Grace can subdue and conquer the most strong old overgrown Lusts yet still you will be more ready to hope it will do it when you have not the guilt of a long impenitent Life and refusing former calls to encourage your unbelief and check your hopes and sink your hearts 3. You may expect more comfort in it for the more able you will be to discern its sincerity as having less cause to doubt of it To turn to God when you have something to deny for him some time to spend in his Service and which might have been spent in the service of sin looks much more like true repentance than to turn to him when you are immediately to appear before him The less force and fear there is in your repentance the more like it is to be kindly and evangelical when tears flow and are not squeezed you are rather drawn than driven and your Obedience is freely yielded rather than extorted But the further ye apprehend your selves from Death and Judgment the less there usually is to force your repentance and so the less to make it suspicious and hinder your enjoying the comfort of it And so the sooner you repent the more time you will have to prove its sincerity by its fruits and the more fruit you bring forth meet for repentance Matth. 3.8 the better satisfy'd ye will be as to the truth of it and have the more comfort in it When you cannot so well judge of it by looking to it immediately in the principle you may be better able to judge of it by its actings as tho the root of a Tree be hid under ground yet good fruit will shew it to be good 4. Consider what you lose by putting repentance off to the last beside the comfort of your death as was above intimated ye lose no less than all the comfort of your Lives the comfort of all the good you might have done all the Grace you might have acted all the glory you might have brought to God A Christians greatest comfort is the comfort of faith and holiness the comfort of walking with God and communion with him in Duties and Ordinances the comfort of exercising his Graces and reflecting upon his Graces of seeing his priviledges his interest in the promises his title to his inheritance c. so that where no Grace is there no true comfort can be and where repentance is not there no other Grace can be no Faith for that is always the cause of Evangelical repentance and no holiness for that always supposeth Repentance as the beginning of it There can be no walking in the narrow way if there be not first an entring in at the strait Gate Wisdoms ways are ways of pleasantness Prov. 3.17 but they only experience that pleasantness that walk in that way and walk in it you cannot if you do not enter into it and that must be by repentance which is your very first stepping into it Think then what comforts the Saints enjoy in their Lives what it is that makes them chearful in their Duties couragious against their enemies strong against temptations patient in sufferings what it is makes them go on singing in the ways of the Lord Psal 138.1 and glorying in tribulations Rom. 5.3 and remember that all this comfort you lose by being so late e're you come into the way wherein alone it is to be found 5. Think what others beside your selves lose by your thus deferring your repentance Every Saint is a publick Good the World is the better for him But while you go on in sin and never think of repenting till the last who is the better for you nay who are not losers by you Angels in Heaven lose the joy they might have had in your Conversion Ministers lose the comfort of being instrumental in it your Families lose the Instruction they might have had of you your Neighbours the provocation they might have had to holiness by your example the wicked lose the convictions they might have been brought under by the power of holiness appearing in your conversation Saints the comfort and refreshment they might have had by your Society Discourse Experience and all generally what good they might have got by your Prayers and that which is more than all doth not God lose the glory you might have given him had that time that life and strength been spent in his Service which you have spent upon your Lusts I need not tell you over again what you hazard even your never repenting at all your being forsaken of God given up to the Devil and your Lusts and so having your hearts hardned your minds blinded your Consciences seared and your Souls in conclusion damned If it be not so no thanks to your selves If God be merciful to you and no body in this World knows whether he will or not yet you do your part to bereave your selves of that mercy and plunge your selves into the Abyss of eternal misery Obj. If you say you are fully resolved to repent of your sins when you come to die and then ask pardon for them Answ Do but seriously consider 1. The Vanity and Folly of such resolutions What is more uncertain more fickle more variable than man's mind you resolve upon this to day and are you sure you shall not break that resolution to morrow Do you know what will be your minds two or three days hence if not how can you know twenty or thirty years before-hand are you sure you shall never meet with any accident any temptation that may change your mind And if you do know your mind what it will certainly be when you are dying yet do you know what God's mind will be then whether he will give you repentance when you set about it and give you a pardon when you seek it If you do know it I pray how came you by that knowledge When did God tell you so and where In what text
what was spoken upon a very different account James iii. 5. Behold how great a matter a little spark kindled For by various steps the Conversion of Naaman was at last accomplished and considering his Character and Interest we may probably conjecture that his Example and Counsel might prevail with others also to turn from Idols and to serve the living and true God We cannot well pass by this strange and remarkable Instance without staying so long as to observe 1. That this little Girl appears to have been seasoned with the knowledge of the True God and to have been acted in what she said by a principle of Faith This she shewed by her confidence That God would work a miracle by his own Prophet and Servant Elisha for it was He whom she intended as the sequel discovers Samaria was then like Athens a City wholly given to Idolatry therein had Ahab built an Altar and an House for Baal and he had four hundred and fifty Priests to attend his Worship The Inhabitants may well be supposed to have been generally of the Court-Religion only some few resorted to Elisha and they it 's likely in a more private way We read of the good Woman of Shunem 2 King iv 22 23. that was one of his Disciples and this Girl seems to have been of that way Happy are those young ones upon whom the Fear of God makes early impressions 2. God opened the way to Naamans Conversion by a little Maid The weaker the Means the more is Gods Power glorified 3. A few good words dropt occasionally may operate very successfully especially when they are suitable and seasonable Prov. xxv 11. Let private Christians mind this 4. A poor little Maid carried into captivity opened the way to the Conversion of one of the greatest Personages in the Countrey It is very lamentable to hear so frequently of Men and Women Boys and Girls carried away captives by Turks and Tartars But who can tell whether God may not in his own good time by some or other of them convey the knowledge of Christ to some perishing Souls This may suffice touching the Example produced out of the Old Testament The Example out of the New Testament shall be of those who were driven out of Jerusalem in the persecution that followed the Martyrdom of Stephen of whom ye may read Acts viii 4. Therefore they who were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Word in the strange countries whither providence led them and a wonderful blessing went along with them as ye may see Acts xi 19 20 21. Now they who were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice Which when they were come to Antioch spake unto the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus And the hand of the Lord was with them And a great multitude believed and turned unto the Lord. These were private Christians for any thing that appears to the contrary And what they did was no more than every private Christian Regularly may and in duty ought to do if the Criticism of the late learned Annotator be allowed who saith That tho 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do Materially signifie the same thing Yet perhaps they differ in the manner For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a work that lies in common any Christian may publish the glad tidings of the Gospel and give a Relation of our Lord Jesus Christ his Doctrine Miracles Sufferings Resurrection c. Which was permitted to be done by Women themselves But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to proclaim the Gospel as Heraulds appointed and authorized thereunto by Jesus Christ This is proper to the Ministers of the Gospel and belongs to their Office Upon this I shall leave one Remark only That it were greatly to be wished that all such as for their adherence to the Gospel are by persecution driven from their Habitations and Countries were persons of the same Spirit with those who were scattered abroad from Jerusalem such as bring the Grace and word of God with them whithersoever they come so would they prove great Blessings to all that receive them This may suffice to have been spoken of the New-Testament instance To the examples taken out of the Holy Scriptures I shall subjoin two also out of Ecclesiastical History The one is related by Ruffinus who gives this account of the Conversion of the Kingdom of the Iberians to the Faith There was saith he a certain poor woman who had been taken Captive and lived among them She was at first taken notice of for her Sobriety and Modesty and then for her spending so much â—ime in Prayer These raised a great admiration of her in the minds of the Barbarians At last they brought to her a sick child which upon her prayers was restored to health This spread her fame abroad so that the Queen of the Country was brought to her and by her prayers recovered Whereupon the King and Kingdom were won over to Christ and the King sent to Constantine the Great for some to instruct them farther in the Christian Religion Ruffin Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 10. The holy Conversation and the ardent Devotions of private Christians are excellent means to recommend the Gospel and to represent it as most amiable and desireable The other is of Frumentius Aedesius These being Christians were left young in one of the Kingdoms of the Inner India and were after some time for their excellent parts and unspotted life honoured and employed by the Queen of the Country during the Minority of her Son In process of time some Roman Merchants came to traffick among them Then Frumentius understanding that there were some Christians among them invited them to reside with him and provided a place for them where they might offer up their prayers to God after the Christian manner and himself having obtained leave of the Queen went to Athanasius in Alexandria requesting him to send some Bishop to that Kingdom to promote the farther entertainment of the Gospel among them to which they were well inclined and disposed for the reception of it Athanasius ordained Frumentius himself who returned and by Gods blessing met with wonderful Success Ruffin Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 9. Socrat. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 15. Sozomen l. 2. c. 23. If providence shall bring these lines to the view of Christian Travellers Merchants and Mariners who come among the poor Heathen let the examples laid before them excite and encourage them to use their endeavours to bring them to the knowledge of Christ and the entertainment of the Gospel Thus much touching the case of those private Christians who occasionally or providentially may come to or be brought to those places where the Gospel is not entertained as yet 3. Such private Christians as live in a more setled way among the Indians and other Heathen Nations and were placed in the third rank or order come to have their case to be considered How they
up in manifold and mighty clusters What can we mention or fix our thoughts upon that may not kindle and increase this flame of Love and its Eruptions in Good Works The things which we might pertinently and copiously insist upon might be reduced to these Heads 1. The Objects of this Central Grace or Principle 1. Things in Heaven as God Christ the Spirit Angels the Spirits of Just Men there made perfect the glorious Furniture Laws and Orders the Visions Services Ministrations and Fruitions of that State all the Perfections Prerogatives and Employments of that blessed World above with all the accomplishments and accommodations which relate immediately thereto and all the Satisfactions and Advantages that result therefrom 2. Things from Heaven God manifest in the flesh i Tim. iii. 16. the Spirit Works and Word of God the great Provisions and Engagements of Divine Providence for us all that we are or have or meet with express of God's merciful regards to us and his compassionate concernedness for our universal welfare 3. Things for Heaven The Spirit of Grace the Word of Grace all the Ministers and means of Grace with all the Discipline and Encouragements which Providence sensibly affords us the Good and Evil things of time as ordered by God to fit us for and help us to the Glory which we look for The very Sons of men themselves considered in the relations which they bear to God and their expressiveness of his indearing Name and all those marks and notices which they bear and give us in the frame capacity and management of humane Nature of God's incomprehensible Wisdom Power Goodness c. O who can think hereon and yet be unprovoked to Love and to Good Works when as God is so eminently and endearingly discernible in all for God by all this courts our love And should I speak of the Sons of God and Heirs of Glory that Divine Workmanship which is in them and upon them the Impressions Reflections and Refractions of the Divine Nature and Life their capacity of growing up to all the fulness of God and to be eternally the beautiful and delightsome Temple of the Holy Ghost all their relations to the Holy Trinity with all their obligations to him their interest in him their business with him and for him and all their imitations and resemblances of him in their actual and possible motions and advances towards him and their Great Expectations from him Should I insist upon their membership with all the duties and advantages and pleasures which arise there from and pertinently illustrate and apply as I could easily and quickly do what doth so copiously occur in Eph. iv 4. 6. as the Central articles and holding bonds of Union and Endearments would you and I consider all these things and all the loveliness that would then be communicable or observable could our love want its provocation 2. The formal nature of this love 't is fit to be a provocation to itself i Joh. iv 16-21 7-12 This is the beauty health strength pleasure safety and renown of humane nature love is the aim and scope Knowledge the end of faith the Spirit of hope the life of practice and devotion and the bond of perfectness and the true transformation of the Soul into the image of its God No pleasing thoughts of God Christ Heaven or heavenly things no chearful motions towards eternity no foretasts of the highest bliss no warrantable claims thereto nor confident expectations of unseen realities No true and lasting bonds of friendliness in service and affections without this Spirit and state of love this only faces God in his own beautiful and delightful image this only turns the notions of divinity into substantial realities and so exalts the man above the pageantries of meer formal outside service and devotions and the truth is all that we say and do for God or with him and all our expectations from him are but the tricks and forgeries of deceitful and deceived fools and the most provoking Prophanation of the tremendous holy name of God and an abuse of holy things 3. The services which love must do and the fruits it must produce to God to Christ unto the Spirit unto our selves and others God himself must be reverenced addrest unto served and entertained like himself and walked with in all required and fit imitations of himself And all these cannot be without just valuings of and complacency in his eminent perfections near relations and the admirable constitutions and administrations of his Kingdom Christ must be duly thought on heartily entertained gratefully acknowledged and cheerfully obeyed submitted and improved unto the great and gracious purposes of his appearances performances and Kingdom and minded most delightfully in all the Grandeurs of his Grace and Throne the Holy Spirit must possess his Temple to his full Satisfaction and have the pure incense of his graces in their fragrant liberal and continual ascents Praying in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. And be feasted with the growthful and constant productions of his graces both in their blossoms and full fruits and we must be continually sowing to him if we hope to reap eternal life of him in Gal. vi 8. We must possess our selves in God and for him in our full devotedness and resignations of our entire selves to him pleasing our selves in this that we are not by far so much and so delightfully our own as his and that we cannot love our selves so well as when we find God infinitely dearer to us than we are to our selves And as for others much must we chearfully do and bear and be to bring poor Renegadoes back again to God to testify our great respects unto and pleasure in the grace of God in our fellow Christians to accommodate our selves to their edification concerns and to make our best advantage of every thing discernible in them Helping our selves and them in spirit speech and practice And can these things be brought to pass or our selves reconciled suited to all our Christian duties and interests without provoked love And for the solemnities transactions and results of the approaching day what is that day to those who have no love or very great declensions of it For all that come with Christ from Heaven come in the flames of love to God to godliness and Godly Ones and a Cold Heart will no way be endured there And as to fellow Christians the Duties and Counsels of the Text consideration adhering to the Assembling of our selves together mutual exhortations in the encouraging and quickning Prospect of this day can these things be without love III. The management of these provoking things And here let us follow the method of the Text it self Where we have these Topicks to insist upon 1. Persons must be considered each other and our selves 2. We are not to desert the Assemblings of our selves together as the manner of some is 3. We must exhort each other And so what one proposes the other must Consider