beleeve Here you may see plainly not only that preaching saves mens souls but also what preaching it is that does it I pray you note it wel you may see the cure that is necessary for salvation by the disease that hinders it it is very evident the worlds disease that hinders their salvation is this they know not God therefore it must be such preaching as makes God known to the soul that must bring it to beleeving and so to salvation I shall name you but one text more and that is in the 2 Thes 1.7 8. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God Take notice I pray you that one of the two great sins which Christ will come to punish with everlasting flames at the great day is ignorance of God Now therefore it must be removed and the knowledg of God in the stead thereof must possess the Souls of all those that shall inherit eternall life I shall give you the reason of this truth and so hasten to the application Now the reason is most evident if you look Heb. 11.6 For without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must beleeve he is Here you see faith in God is of absolute necessity to the pleasing of him But no man in the world can beleeve further then he hath ground to know the truth of that he beleeveth as it is written Rom. 10.14 How shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard The answer must be they cannot for so much the question intends So that without hearing or some means to know the Lord it is impossible to come to beleeving I shall now come to open this point unto you and to shew you in what particulars the knowledg of God and of Christ is of such use and help to you in point of beleeving and so of salvation First then my beloved a person that knows God in his Son is thereby kept from desparation and sees in God a ground of boldnesse and incouragement to cast it self upon his free grace which one ignorant of God cannot do But he that knows his name will trust in him Psal 9.10 how low soever a mans condition is though he be never so unworthy a sinner and sees not the least ground of hope in himself it doth not discourage him nor keep him from beleeving but he sees that in God and in Christ that not only gives him boldness but such a ground of boldness and incouragement that he clearly sees that if he come in good earnest now he shall not be cast off although he have formerly been never so wicked and the ground of this confidence is the name of God You know that in a very great number of places the Lord hath manifested himself a God of mercy and love yea a sin-for-giving God and a gracious God but I shal name you but one text for this Exod. 34.6 the Lord there proclaims his own name by which he will be known for ever Jehova strong mercifull and gracious c. and you must know that God is not one thing his name another neither is he one and his mind intentions and decrees or desires another but he is unchangeably eternally the same for ever Now I pray you consider it grace and mercy being not qualities in God but in him it is nature and it is his essence and unchangeable Being and therefore he doth not nor cannot want mercy for the most ungodly yea the veriest hypocrite and enemy he hath in the whole world and the reason wherefore any soul misseth of mercy is not through any want of mercy in God no nor for want of mercy to that soul in particular that misseth of it but because it will not stand with the glory of his other attributes in some cases to shew mercy for you must know that God can do nothing unworthy of his own glorious Name and Being and therefore such persons as will not come to Christ and that chuse darkness rather than light and turn the grace of God into wantonness and do this wilfully and obstinately it doth not stand with the wisdom justice and Soveraignty of God to give eternall life to these persons but if persons do not wilfully refuse there own mercies there is that grace in God which will and doth extend it self wheresoever it can without dishonour to his justice and prudence Now where a person knows this and that which may be known of God and of Christ that is revealed in the word and ought to be known I say such a one cannot but see sufficient ground to come to God and to depend upon him for mercy Nay further there is no objection whatsoever can be raised by the devill against a sinners coming to Christ but he that knows what may be known of God and of Christ will have wherewithall to answer it for if the Devill come and say it is true as great sinners as thou hast been have been pardoned and so might est thou too if that were all but alass thou art an impentient and an unconverted wretch hardened in thy sins there is no hope for thee Yes sayes the soul but there is and good hope too through grace for God is a God of grace and faithfullness and hath not only promised eternall life to gracious souls but he hath also promised grace to ungracious ones as in Prov. 1.22 23. there converting grace is promised to scornners if they will yet hearken to God and many more like promises there be But it may be the Devill will further object and say it is true indeed God is gracious to invite unconverted sinners to seek him and hath promised them mercy as in Isa 59.6 7. but alass thy case is worse then so for thou hast no mind to seek him but art for ever lost a very slave to sin and the very captive of the Devill taken by him at his will yea saith the soul that knows God and Christ Satan thou canst not well say worse of me then I do deserve yet is there good ground for me to go to God for mercy and to trust in him also for he hath sent his Son to seek and to save those that be lost And although I cannot yet bring my heart to seek him as I should yet Christ is faithfull and will do the work he hath undertaken and seek such lost ones as I am and although I am a slave and a captive to the Devil Yet I know Christ came to set at liberty such captives yea and I know that whatsoever my sins have been or whatever my lusts are for strength my souls diseases cannot be too great for Christ to cure all the ends of the earth and I although I be the worst in the company may look to him and be saved saved from sin as well as from wrath and he workes repentance as well as gives
knowledge of God for if you would have grace and strength to mortifie sin you must go to Christ for it and if you go to him it must be by faith and if that be gotten it must be by the knowledg of God Secondly you will never get such a faith as will stand you in any stead or do you any good in the day of temptation without it for it must be the knowledge of the nature of God that is a God of love and of Free-grace and one that can abound in pardoning and that he sent Jesus Christ to save sinners till a man knows that Christ is a Saviour that he layes both the first and the last stone thereof and that a man cannot be one hairs breadth better then he is by nature till the Spirit of Christ hath mended him and that the first work that a man can do acceptably is to come to Christ for a cure both for his heart and life I say till a man knows this he can never be established in beleeving you shall see the reason of it presently a man that wants this knowledge he gathers such grounds to build his confidence upon that are swept away in the day of temptation it is with his faith just as it is with a house that is built upon the sands where the tide comes when the wind and the tide comes strong away goes the ground and the house together even so is it with an ignorant mans faith for this is one of his best incouragments to beleeve when he considers that his former sinfull prophane life is the road way to hell then he endeavours to leave those courses and falls to prayer and to reading and hearing and this he takes to be such a change that now he thinks he is a child of God and that all the promses belong unto him but then when his old lusts appear again and take hold on him then he falls to utter dispair and concludes that he was but an hypocrite at the best and that there is no hope for him and one day he thinks it is a duty to beleeve and another day he thinks there is no ground for him so to do and thus the poot soul is unstable and tossed like a ship in a tempest one while mounted up to heaven and another while thrown down into the deep and melted a way with trouble But now the soul that knows God and did see in him a ground to beleeve at the first without any works of righteousness done before-hand and that knew Jesus Christ came to save from sin and to give repentance as well as eternall life and did at the first cast himself upon him not as a saint but as a sinner this man if he should fall as low as he was before yet he will see at least the same ground to beleeve us he did see at the first I speak not this to incourage any any to renew there sins I hope you wil not make so bad a use of it but if any should yet is the doctrin of grace a truth that must be preached though some should wrest it to their own destruction Thirdly the knowledge of God will carry a man through the worst of troubles if he should come into Jobs case that his wife should be strange and his children and estate swept away and his godly friends turned his enemies yet would he be able to say with him though he kill me yet I will and I can trust in him for I know my Redeemer liveth Thus when a man can say with Paul I know whom I have beleeved by being able to see the power wisdom truth and goodness of God it will be such a rock for him to set his feet upon that will keep him from sinking in the worst of times Fourthly a man that knows God will serve him with that delight that another man cannot do an ignorant man may be convinced that it is a duty to hear and to pray and the like but he hath no comfort in these ordinances but yet he uses them because he dares do no otherwise but a man that knows God sees such a beauty in God that he goes to seek him with much delight he knows they be means appointed of God to bring him into neerer communion with him and to give him a more glorious sight of God and therefore it is a work well peasing to him and he goes about it with as much content as men use to go to their recreations but the other goes to the same work as one goes to a trade that he is set to against his will he does it untowardly and unwillingly and will get from it if he can and so wil the man from duties that knows not God if he can but find a way to escape the rebukes of his own conscience Now therefore I pray you make it your first greatest work to get the knowledg of God with all diligence seek for it for the prise thereof is greater then silver choice gold or rubies therefore search for it more then for hidden treasures There is two means that I will direct you to make use of for the getting of this knowledge The first is the consideration of the works of God if a man do but humbly and wisely observe his great works they will shew forth much of his glory if you look to the heavens and consider what a great distance they are spread above the earth and compassing it round about and see those glorious creatures the Sun Moon and Stars roul about to serve poor worms and lumps of clay how plainly will they teach you that the creator of them is a God of infinite goodness for before ever he did create either them or the men for whose sakes they were created the Lord did perfectly understand all the wickedness that would in time be commited by every one of them and yet it did not hinder him in this great worke but he hath done it and continues to uphold it notwithstanding all that unworthiness that is found among the children of men and if you look to the Earth and the Seas and see them hang in a round lump in the midst of the heavens cleaving together and the waters not over-flowing the earth this great work will tell you that the Creator thereof is infinite in power wisdom and goodness and if you consider how the Earth and the Seas are stored with variety of Creatures with severall hosts of creatures and yet not a man nor a beast nor a fish nor a fowl no worm nor any creature more nor less but God takes care every day how they shall be fed the wild beasts of the wilderness that no man takes care of have there meat and there drink every day from the hand of God Oh how do these gracious acts of his every day preach the glory of his great name to all considering men that will but set themselves to mind the great wisdom patience power truth
best abilities that these times do afford but only for these reasons I have now done it First I find some such motions flying abroad both in discourse and in print about this subject which in my judgement savours not well Secondly I do not find able men men of knowledg such as I would be glad to provoke to this work so forward to bring forth light as others to bring forth darkness and if they have it is more than I know Thirdly the matter I have spoken to fell in my way and I thought I might do well and it was my duty to bring forth my Mite in such a time as this wherein I find so many casting vails over the Name of Christ and of the Holy Spirit now therefore I do beseech you seriously to consider of that which hath been said unto you take heed of looking upon our Lord Jesus as a meer Creature lest your Faith fail you in the day of Temptation if the work of Redemption be but considered how great it is what a price must be laid down before this work could be done and that Law which in that condition in which man once stood would have been his life now he cannot expect nothing from it as the case standeth but only death but all the life and pardoning Grace that now cometh to poor man comes only through the Blood of the Lord Jesus now except a man know the worth and all-sufficiency of Christ that he is perfectly able to remove all the Curses which his sins have deserved and also able to procure him all the blessings his soul stands in need of it will be very hard if not altogether impossible to rest upon him in the day of tryal and so likewise when a man shall come to see what a great work it is to change the heart of man to subdue sin and to sanctifie the soul and when he shall see the barrenness of his heart in the graces and fruits of the Spirit of Christ also and withall considers what a degree of perfection all those are brought unto that inherit Eternal life and then minds that the Spirit of God is he that hath undertaken to carry on this hard and to man this impossible work If now he be not established in the knowledg and firm belief of this that the Holy Spirit that carries on this work is the only true God I say except a man beleeve and know this he can have little ground to hope or beleeve that ever it will come to perfection but wherefore should any men be so hardly brought to beleeve this me thinks it is for want of consideration the scriptures you know speaks of the Spirit of God in some places and in other places of the Spirit of Christ should we therefore be so weak as to think that the Father hath one Spirit Christ another but now if we must needs understand that the Spirit of God the Spirit of Christ is but one Spirit wherefore should we not as well believe that God the Spirit of God are all one likewise then Beloved if the Spirit of Christ and the Father be one and God and the Spirit of God one then wherefore should we think that the Godhead of Christ and of the Father are more than one but I shall press this no further but come now to make some Use of it Vse 1. And if it be so that there is one and but one only true God who is the fountain and perfection of all Power Wisdom Truth and goodness who alone made Heaven and Earth the seas and all the Hosts of Creatures that are contained in them and on whose meet grace and love depends the happiness and well-being of all things whatsoever whos 's all seeing eye beholds all the secrets of all hearts and whose Eternal invisible unchangeable Almighty and Omni-present Being fills the whole Creation but is not contained in it who is worthy of all honour service praise and worship from all Creatures for evermore I say if this be so then let this God be our God let us have no other but him alone to be our God I shall not trouble you nor my self with that foolish Generation of men that use to picture him up and to set him forth by such vain Images as their hands can make I hope you are past this absurd and foolish practice but I pray you beware that you set up no. Idols of him in your minds Oh do not suffer any thought or imagination of him to come or to rest within your hearts that is low or carnall take heed that you do not liken him to any thing that ever your eyes have seen but let your thoughts be of him acording unto that glorious discription that his own boly records give of him let high reverence and honour love and holy fear accompany every thought that comes into your minds of his most excellent and glorious Name be sure you chuse him for your chiefest good let him be your only Diadem and the Crown which your hearts have chosen for your chiefest treasure be sure that you do not esteem love nor honour any relation or thing whatsoever as you do this most High and only true God for if you do you commit Idolatry against him who is a jealous God and will not give his glory to another and therefore beware for whatsoever any man doth set up and in heart esteeme love or honour above God or equall with him sets up another God and shall be reckoned amongst Idolaters and such as have committed spiritual whoredom against him when Christ shall come to judg every man according to his works But I shall more particularly come to shew you something of the honour that is due to this only true God in setting some of those duties before you which in especial you owe to him First then give him this honour to yeeld up your hearts unto him to love him above all things whatsoever this use Moses makes of this point Deut. 6.45 hear O Israel saith he the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might Here you see what is due to God even love in the very height of it the whole heart soul might is all little enough for God no creature must come between the heart and God neither wife nor child nor pleasure nor profit for if there be any thing in the world that a man loves better than God or as well as he this is no less a sin than the setting up of another God therefore look to your hearts in these two special cases when the glory of God comes in competition either with a mans beloved relations or his beloved sins if he cannot cast them both away for the honour of his God he is unworthy of him see I pray you what our Lord Jesus saith to this point Luke 14.26 If any man come