Superstitious as the greatest Formalist Whiles we are Subjects of Christs Kingdom here below we must attend the Ordinances of the lower State of this Kingdom and divine Institutions are parts of this Kingdom which tho it be not in word so as to exclude the Power yet it lies in power as inclusive of a Christian Profession and external Ordinances The next improvement I shall make of the Text is by way of Exhortation wherein I shall regard the Kingdom of God as the power thereof lies in Graces and acts expressive of a divine Life and the governing Authority of God in the Soul. This includes the two other particulars for these are the effects of the Power of the Gospel these answer the spiritual Rules and Demands of the Gospel and because of these the Subjects of Christs Kingdom are not Hypocrites but truly regenerate and practical Christians 1. Be throughly convinced that the Kingdom of God is in these Graces and vital Acts and can consist in nothing lower I have given you undoubted Proof of this if you will believe the Gospel beyond your own Fancy or Satans suggestions And whether you will enlarge your judgment to Gods decision or no the time is near when this great King will judge the secrets of your hearts and lives by this very Gospel Rule It 's undoing to most Professors of Christianity that they fondly persuade themselves the Demands of God are not so high and exact as truly they be it 's true indeed he makes not legal Perfection to be the Condition of a Right to Life but yet he enjoyns a spiritual Life and Faith extensively taken in order to our Interest in Christ and to Salvation on his account Methinks you can hardly in a serious Frame conceive how any thing below real Grace and vital Acts should serve your turn Consider the glorious Nature of God and can meer external Performances be suitable to him either to injoin or accept Would Christ have died to raise dead Sinners to no more Conformity to God than an unholy Heart and hypocritical Actings amount to Are the design of the Gospel and the attested Influences of the Spirit answer'd by a dead Soul or formal Duty Judge you whether an ungodly stupid graceless Professor of Christianity can either here or in Eternity serve the purposes for which God erects this Kingdom among Men What delight can his holy Nature take in such What Service or Glory can he and his Christ have by such Yea what satisfaction can such Men have in God or Heaven These and the like Considerations may well awaken you to juster apprehensions of this matter and convince you that the Kingdom of God must lie in this Power And if it be needful to add more consider wherein can the Kingdom of Satan and Dominion of Sin consist but in the want of these gracious Qualities neglect of those Acts and the prevalency of what is opposite to them Set therefore this Standard before the Eye of thy Soul as that which thou must examine thy self by and be conformable to if thou desirest to belong to this Kingdom of the Redeemer Labor industriously for and rest not contented till you have attained this Power of Religion I do in the Name of your Redeemer press you to get the Graces and perform those Acts which argue a spiritual Life and the restauration of Gods Image and Authority in your Souls Be Christians in Truth as well as in Name let no external Performance or Profession content you see that your Wills be subjected to God that your Lives be regulated by his Laws and all your religious Acts inspired with a divine Power This is the principal matter we are to treat of with you and what you are chiefly concerned to attend to To accomplish this it is that you are entrusted with the Means of Grace and yet spared after so long provoking Obstinacy which is more aggravated by your treacherous Pretensions That I may enforce this Exhortation I shall desire you to apply to your selves these few Motives You pretend and engage to no less than this Power of Religion by your Christianity What you despise in others and neglect in your selves even this you pretend to and have solemnly Promised Do not you profess to be the Subjects of Christ Have not you renounced the World the Flesh and the Devil and Covenanted to fight under Christs Banner And ought you not to be and do all this truly Renounce all these Rivals with Christ and he must then Reign in Power Can you think that the Covenant you have sealed so oft at the Lords Table engageth you to no more than external Profession When you stipulated with Father Son and Spirit was no more intended than that you would pay them a slight bodily Worship Sure you profess as much sincere Subjection as the strictest in professing your selves Christians and are not you Hypocrites then whiles your Souls are unregenerate and your Lives not governed by the Laws of Christ Oh! tremble to think that you profess to know and yet in works deny him Your Hearts breath Rebellion against God whiles you seem Loyal to him What agreeableness to thy Name do a covetous intemperate carnal irreligious Spirit and Life bear Renounce the Name or else be and do what that Name is designed for How sad will the thoughts of thy State be when thou findest thy self branded by the Heart-searching God as one that hath a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof The word we render Form is Mó 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d. they have the visage or appearance of true Piety thou wilt be found a Virgin without Oyl at the Feast without a Wedding Garment the Son that said to his Father I will work in the Vineyard but failest to do so Surely what induceth thee to profess to be a devout Christian should encline thee to be so 2. Any thing short of this Power of Religion will avail you nothing but greatly damage you You are Enemies in Gods account whatever you perform and he will treat you as such when the time of Retribution cometh How wilt thou Oh rebellious Christian endure that Sentence Bring these my enemies that would not that I should Reign over them and slay them before me What a loss wilt thou sustain when thy Gold becomes Dross when thy Knowledge Duties yea all thy Religion is vain Oh that so much should be attained in vain and done to no purpose You will find that if your Graces be not sincere they will not save yea and if they partake not of this Power they are but guilded Vices Your feigned Faith is but Unbelief your pretended Love is Enmity your partial Obedience is Rebellion and will God reward nay must not God severely punish unbelieving irreconcileable rebellious Professors of Christianity and give you a Portion with the most prophane Nay your Guilt is aggravated and your Woes will be the greater
by the Law of Works The great Doctrins of Regeneration Repentance Faith in Christ love of God and sincere Obedience as explained by the Gospel Standard are the things to be urged as conditions of Salvation should we mistake these Terms of Life or neglect to persuade your Compliance therewith other things would be vain and leave you dead in your sins What profit is it that you learn and do all things else if you submit not to the Terms of the Gospel For this is the lowest Rule of Gods judgment by which the salvation of any sinner is possible He will judge the secrets of all men by the Gospel The manner also of a Ministers preaching of these Truths is considerable We should publish these in the greatest Evidence and in a way most probable to be attended with the influence of the Spirit Much of that divine Power which persuades you is exerted in fitting the Preacher to plead with you Ministers of the Gospel are therefore to avoid the enticeing words of mans wisdom and must preach in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power We must represent things in the greatest plainness urge Gospel Arguments with the fullest Evidence and Importunity approving our selves to every mans Conscience to the utmost for their Conviction and Persuasion It 's not invaluable to you that the Minister in all his work is under the power of what he preacheth and doth all in a humble dependance on the blessing and power of the Holy Ghost This Ministry answers the Gospel description this hath a tendency and fitness to subdue Souls to Christ this is that the Lord Jesus who ordinarily works according to the aptitude of means doth usually bless Such a Ministry is a sign that God intends the enlargement of his Kingdom and according to what appears of it among us we may expect proportionable Effects The Lord bring the vain Minds of Hearers to approve this sort of Preaching and convince us Ministers of all levity and mistakes in our Ministration 2. What you have heard of the nature of Grace and Loyal Actings towards Christ may sharply reprove all such who seem by Principle to place Religion in any thing short of this Power It 's needful they lock up the Scriptures those Royal Statutes of Christ who dare place Christianity in external Rites tho the Heart and Life be unsanctified It s Disloyalty to Christ to exchange his Institutions for human Inventions Yea it 's Disloyalty to exclude internal Worship for external and define Graces and spiritual Acts by no more than a dead Image of them How must they debase Religion who commend Pomp for spiritual Devotion and make carnal Observances serve instead of Gospel Faith and Love Surely they little regard the Authority and Constitutions of Christ who account Attrition to be Repentance and represent Pilgrimages Confession Penance and blind Obedience to the Church c. too like an Atonement for the absence of the essential Terms of Life What can more expresly contradict Mens pleasing God by meer external Acts or Profession than my Text doth But alas the Doctrin of Opus operatum is too natural to a dead sinner to be confined within the Walls where first avowed All are too apt to throw off Duties as a Penance and think the eternal Spirit is satisfied with bodily Homage Many judge that Ordinances edify them as a meer Charm without any due exercise of Soul in them A mistake in this essential Point is the reason also why many jear at the Graces of God promise Life to a just and civil demeanour and scoff at Holiness as Preciseness The like Effects of a carnal Spirit is Mens esteeming Regeneration to be no more than external Baptism when that is but a visible Representation of the nature of it and a Seal and Instrument of investitute in Gospel Blessing on supposition that we are inwardly Regenerated What a gross conceit is it that Conversion is but a turning from a gross Infidels State by a bare external Profession of Christianity tho the mind be still unrenewed and the Heart unimpressed by a divine Principle From these Sentiments Men ridicule all Pretences to those things which the Scriptures expresly declare concerning every Believer as praying in the Spirit Communion with God Union to Christ Spiritual Joy c. tho the things are intelligible by any that are judicious and experienced by such as have any converse by Faith with God and spiritual Things It 's pity that a prophane Spirit should arraign the Matters peculiar to a Life so far above its self especially when God hath told us A natural man cannot know the things of God because they are spiritually discerned But whilst they must be foolishness to them Wisdom will be justified by its Children as better Advocates and fitter Judges Nevertheless the Devil attains a destructive End by these Notions for his Dominion is supported and poor sinners are secure in a State of Rebellion against Christ whiles they flatter themselves as Subjects to him because they do a few trifles which neither Satan nor their Lusts forbid and Custom Interest or natural Conscience persuade to How will any Soul among you who stands guilty of this Charge dare to look the Blessed Redeemer in the Face What terror will surprize you when you are accused by him as disloyal in your very Principles and asserters of that for Religion whereby Gods Sovereignty over the Heart is excluded and all real actings of Grace unprovided for You have reproached that which God lays the greatest Stress on which his Kingdom chiefly consists in and his Saints most value themselves by Before I proceed to the Exhortations I design it 's needfull to insert two Cautions that may obviate our abuse of this Subject 1 Caution Do not deny this Power of Religion concerning any Person or Party without manifest Grounds Charity binds you to think all are truly Religious that profess to be so unless their Defects or Works palpably blast their Pretences or their Profession be nullified by a direct contradiction As the power of Religion should not be sacrificed to a Ceremony so lesser Faults do not warrant us to accuse men as wanting the power of Godliness Whatever is consistent with the habitual subjection of a Soul to Christ cannot justifie our excluding that Soul out of Christs Kingdom We may say yea must affirm of Men differing from us in many things The same Christ is their Lord and ours Peace and Love are essentials in Christs Kingdom and shall we challenge our own interest by being censorious or enviously narrow the Dominion of our Blessed Redeemer 2 Caution Despise not the external Institutions of Christ under pretence of this Power the Power and Spirit of Christ concur with his Ordinances and the life and vigor of our Graces are exerted in those Ordinances and nourished by them That Spirit is a delusion which puts Men above divine Appointments and the Guilty are as truly
What profit will you reap by Orthodox Principles while you are Hypocrites in Heart Church-Membership will expose to the forest rebukes for if the Children of the Kingdom perish they are cast into outer darkness At last pity your selves Why should you be at any pains if you will not do enough to bring you to Heaven Can any thing this side Glory be the Reward you intend by being Religious Why then will you not be so Religious as to obtain that Glory Oh! mock God no longer delude thy own Soul no more thou art almost a Christian be altogether so or the Convictions and Helps that have almost persuaded thee will aggravate thy ruin when thou fallest into Hell from a pitch so much higher than the Atheist and Pagan 3. Very plausible Appearances of Religion may be without this Power Men may appear sincere to others yea to themselves and yet be Hypocrites There is a very probable Form without the Power of Godliness Every living Grace hath its dead Image thy Heart may be hard when Groans abound thou may'st cry loud and oft to God and thy Soul never pray thy Affections may be on Earth when thy Eyes are lifted up to Heaven So inward is the Life of Grace and so deceitful are our Hearts that we can say of the seemingly greatest Christians but as Peter did of Silvanus a faithful Brother as I suppose For the Supposition may regard that as well as the uncertainty of his being Peters Messenger Yea we are so subject to deceive our selves that we have need to pray with David Lord search me and try me Alass How many with Alexander may have great Zeal and want Integrity Promise much and perform the contrary You will be found Virgins with Lamps and yet want Oyl seem lively Saints and be dead Sinners We may with bleeding Hearts consider that very many have been not far from Grace and yet never attained it because some one Lust opposed it or some one Idol prevented it It 's a great thing to be truly Religious The best natural Temper the most splendid Acts the exactest Profession are not infallible Evidences of a Mans being truly Pious but are separable from saving Grace You have need therefore of the strictest care and jealousie in dealing with your Hearts Oh! look to it that your Religion hath in it the undoubted Characters of a spiritual Life and of Gods Kingdom being set up in you in its very Power The hardest task is to arrive at this Power of Godliness to get Carnal-self dethroned and the Government of Christ chearfully submitted to This Kingdom in its Duties and Priviledges hath been long preached to you now God is importunate that you exclude not your selves from the Rewards of it by Rebelling against the Laws and Terms of it Were you acquainted with the Nature of Christs Kingdom it would soon be desirable The King is our rightful Lord and not an Usurper He hath the tenderness of a Father is infinitely Wise and Good He admits all his Subjects to the State of Children yea the Dignity of Kings All the Laws of it refer to our Good and tend to our Perfection and whatever is required of us he is present to assist us in yea ready to forgive all Weaknesses consistent with sincere Endeavors And can you refuse this easie Yoak of Christ from day to day Will you refuse this that you may continue Slaves to the Devils and Servants to your Lusts Oh! that even now you were made willing and able to submit to Christ and inspired with that Divine Nature which agrees to this State that is even the heavenly Kingdom begun Oh! perish not in your Misconceits and wilful Disobedience after all these Pleadings 3. Improve in the Power of Religion if you have attained to any degree of it There are remains of Weakness and Disloyalty in the best of us and so there 's place for our utmost Endeavors to become more suited to this happy State in our Temper and Behaviour How much are we short of our Fellow Subjects in Light Strength and Love We are come to mount Zion the City of the living God to an innumerable Company of Angels to the Church of the First Born and the Souls of just Men made perfect We serve the same Lord we partake of the same Nature are admitted to the same Relation and we expect the same Glory which our King doth design us to as well as them And must not these things cause a Blush in us that we are so remiss in our Improvements Can they fail to awaken our Souls to proceed from strength to strength Therefore let Mortification be your work while any Lusts remain Be more Spiritual in every Duty more Renewed in your Minds and let all your Works be more perfect What should be so much your concern as that the Laws of Christ have a more absolute Authority in you that Gods Image impress the whole Man and your Souls be more enlarged and listed up in all the ways of this Kingdom Rest not till you find Christ Rules alone and that you entirely live to Christ under the very constraints of Love to Him. How happy will you be when the very Peace of God rules in your Hearts yea so rule as that it restrains all that may interrupt it and command to all that can express and maintain it When this is your Frame your Delights will be more refined you will now live much nigher to God your exceeding Joy and have an abundant Entrance to his Pallace above when a few Days are over Resolve then that you will still grow up into Christ till nothing inspires you but his Life and nothing be done by you but what is Loyalty to Him. 4. Visibly express the sincerity of your Subjection to God and the Efficacy of his Grace in your Souls This is incumbent on all Christians but I shall apply my self more especially to you that are Magistrates and the occasion of this Assembly You do profess your selves real Subjects to Christ evidence then that real Christians are more fitted to serve their Generation than other Men. Let Christ Govern by all your Power and his Interests be advanced by you to the utmost of your Talents Convince the World that nothing can allure or affright you from exact Obedience to Christs Laws and Fidelity to his Concerns Christs Eye is on your Hearts and Behaviour in your present Circumstances The Eyes of many of very different sorts are on you yea the credit of Religion is concerned in your Behaviour And it 's but a few Days when you must with awakened Spirits review your present Actings it may be under afflictive Dispensations when thrust off your present Stage But certainly when you come to die and appear before the Tribunal of the Lord your Judge Therefore create not bitter Reflections by selfish Aims sinful Neglects or unbecoming Deviations A tormenting Conscience in that Day will not be
full they drew to shore and gathered the good into Vessels bnt cast the bad away You see that Hypocrites and Sincere Believers are of the Kingdom but Hypocrites belong to it as they wear the visage of the Sincere and therefore the name of Subjects belongs to them only equivocally Whereas in the most proper sense it is confined to men heartily devoted to Christ. He is eminently King of Saints even of such who have unfeignedly subscribed his Covenant Psal. 50. 5. All such are esteemed by him for his People and they yea only they can say concerning God The Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King he will save us I can hardly forbear to bewail the dangerous condition of many men professing Christianity Crowds will be found Rebels in heart dead as to a Spiritual Life whilst they have a name to live and obeying their Lusts when they bow the Knee to Jesus Having finished this Account of the Kingdom of God I proceed to explain how it is not in Word but in Power And with the Explication I will insert the proof of the Doctrine That the Kingdom of God in the three forementioned Instances is not in Word but in Power Whatever mens Conceits be of this Kingdom it will be found to consist not in Weak Appearances but in effectual Realities It attaineth the ends of the Constitution it is expressive of a Divine and Supernatural Virtue and is not a dead Image and carnal Matter 1. The Gospel of Christ our Redeemer is effectual by the Spirit to recover fallen Men and to govern and improve them unto eternal Life This is not an empty Sound it consists not in low or weak Matters but is Life and Power Every command is enstamped with the Authority of the Lord of Heaven and Earth and is not the faint advice of poor Mortals Men disobey them at their utmost peril Hebr. 12. 25. Life and Death is annexed to them by a Soveraign who is able and resolved to execute his Royal Sanction They have a Virtue in them to dispose us to Obedience and are holy spiritual and perfect The Matters revealed by the Gospel are not vain Conceits but glorious Realities they are beyond the Light of Nature to conceive they shine in a Light fit to illuminate the darkned minds of Sinners and when they are apprehended they must inspire with the highest Resentments and make lasting Impressions on the Soul. The Promises are not doubtful Words but great and sure they contain all that 's good they are founded on the Veracity of God who cannot lye and on the Virtue of Christs Undertakings and Death which cannot be disappointed Yea they are mighty to dispence the Grace contained therein to needy Souls and are the effectual Instrument to invest men in all the blessings of the Covenant when the Condition is performed by them The Sacraments and all Institutions of Christ as to Worship or Discipline are powerful to improve our Graces mortifie our Lusts maintain our Converses with God and dispence Joy and Comfort through the Operation of God by them The Arguments urged by the Gospel are fit to move and have all in them necessary to an Instrument of moral Government The Presence of God is promised and the Efficacy of all these means argue the Spirit 's operation by them they are the Vehicle of the Holy Ghost and therefore when we are profitable to the Souls of Men our Gospel cometh to them not in Word only but in Power and in the Holy Ghost This Gospel is called The Arm of God revealed the Scepter of his Kingdom and Rod of his Strength This affords those Weapons which are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds and bringing every thought to the obedience of Christ. God hath appointed it to raise dead Souls and subdue rebellious Sinners to his Government In the Institutions of the Gospel God meets us and blesseth us he communicateth Light and Strength whereby the weak Christian is enabled to persevere What Trophies of its Power are in Heaven and Earth How many great Sinners hath it changed Every Age and Place where it cometh yield a Testimony of its Energy restraining some turning others from Idols to serve the Living God from a carnal Life to a spiritual This hath made the Ambitious and Covetous to Postpone all to the concerns of an invisible World and sacrifice their former Idols to the Profession of Truth How many weak Christians hath it strengthned to do and suffer unexpected things What Joy hath it infused into sadned Hearts On these accounts the Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth 2. The Graces and Actings which qualify the Subjects of Christ are so spiritual real and sublime as to argue a Divine life and the Dominion of God in the Soul. What this Kingdom requireth and effecteth are not bare Pretences weak Attempts sleight Attainments or external Performances these are too mean for God to injoin or accept He doth not paint a dead Carkass but raise it to Life he createth a new Heart wherein his Laws are prevalent Dispositions and communicateth a nature too Divine to derive its birth from a lower Original than Regeneration by the Spirit John 3. 3. Hence all real Christians are said to be born of God and partakers of the divine Nature Our crying Lord Lord and all external Alterations signify little in this new Man which after God is created in Wisdom and true Holiness I will hint at some particulars which have the chief place in this Kingdom and you 'l see that none of them is in Word but in Power Faith is not a faint assent to the Truths of the Gospel but such a realizing of invisible Objects reliance on Christ and consent to Him the Redeemer as purifieth the Heart worketh by Love and derives from Christ fit supports in the way of truth and holiness to eternal Life Gospel Repentance is not a bare sorrow for Sin but a true hatred and forsaking of Sin on Gospel-motives Our love to God is not in a few kind or sleighty thoughts of God but a prevalent esteem of God and delight in him as the supreme Good and this expressing it self in sincere Obedience to his strictest Laws and Zeal for his Interests when most despised If a man love me saith Christ he will keep my words If we love any thing as him it 's a hating of him by the Rules of this Kingdom The Worship which Christ insisteth on and disposeth all his Subjects for is in Spirit and in Truth it 's no sleight performance nor by humane Inventions Prayer must be a fervent pouring out of the Soul to God and not lip-labour Hearing the Word is of no esteem with him unless the heart be obedient to the word Jam. 1. 25. Baptism is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience toward
God. That is Baptism lieth in the Souls true Correspondence to and Performance of our Baptismal Profession and Vows and not a meer sprinkling of water in an external act of the Minister Receiving the Lords Supper is not the bare partaking of the Consecrated Elements but Communion with our Crucified Christ by Faith and Love under the quicknings of the Spirit Joh. 5. 53 63. We see that God chiefly regardeth the inward Worship of the Soul and not bodily performances The same power extends to every thing wherein Religion is concerned if this Kingdom of Grace obtaineth in the Soul Gods Authority is set above our wills humours and lusts Satan is dethroned Sin hath not Dominion over us Rom. 6. 6 14. Spiritual things are relished above sensitive good we are brought to live to God and not to carnal self and there is an impartial respect to all Gods Commandments Psal. 18. 22. To finish this particular this Kingdom consists of Holy Inclinations in the Heart and implies a degree of strength to act those Inclinations Here are not faint Velleities and uneffectual Desires or Complaints but a Spirit of Power of Love and a sound Mind whereby Temptations are in a good measure resisted and Holy Actions performed This is the Model of the Kingdom this his Gospel Injoineth this his Grace Effecteth and any thing below it would not improve a Sinner to the Holiness our Redeemer designed reconciled Sinners to God's Kingdom never hath place where any of these Essentials are wanting or where there is only some dead form of them 3. Believers who are the Subjects of Gods Kingdom are not meer Professors of Christianity but truly Regenerate and Practical Christians They are of another spirit than what they once were or the rest of the World continue yet to be their extraction is higher being born not of the will of the flesh or of the will of man but of the will of God They have far different apprehensions of Spiritual objects than a carnal mind is capable of these practically know the great things of God in a Spiritual evidence being taught by him as the truth is in Jesus They are a people made willing in the day of God's power Then a mighty Arm subdued their obstinacy without violence silenced their prejudices and made them obedient by agreeable inclinations to the Law and powerful convictions of God's Authority and Goodness Their Religion is not in empty speculations As every truth tends to practice so they feel the power of Truth The objective Glory of Christ transformeth them into the same Glory in their measure They walk with God whom the world knows not they live above what Sinners dote on to please and honour God is their governing-aim To keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and men is their exercise and working out their Salvation is their chief business while as Pilgrims here they are waiting for the expected Inheritance These live the life of Christ are acted by his Spirit which dwells in them by an abiding Relation and are appointed for his glorious purposes They are not Hypocritical pretenders tho censured as Cheats by such men whose Corruptions represent all better pretences as Hypocrisie How much do the Conceptions Designs Experience Attainments and Actings of these men exceed the rest of mankind There is more Piety in many of their common Actions than in the Religious Performances of others these are they whom the Apostle describes as a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people fit and designed to shew forth the praises of him who called them out of darkness into his marvellous light Can any of you doubt these express Characters of all sincere Christians Of these and only these Christs Kingdom doth consist There are such persons in the World or God hath no Kingdom in it Such as are wholly otherwise in their Temper and Actings are Rebels and Aliens in Gods esteem and declared incapable of Eternal Glory Perhaps some of you may Prophanely Scoff at this account as if it were impossible to be thus Sincere and Spiritual or it were needless to be thus Pious Just Temperate or Heavenly-minded but be it known to you that you will shortly be convinced your selves ought to be such men and passionately wish all this could have been truly said of you I have designedly given the Character of the Subjects of this Kingdom in Scripture-Expressions lest any should esteem it a Fancy which they owe not that regard to as to judge of themselves by it But I hope you cannot shut your eye against the Testimony of God nor put any Gloss on those Scriptures which can prevent your suspecting your own Condition Must not you think now how few are Members of this Kingdom How unlike am I to these Subjects of Christ when I never found any of these things nor proposed them to my self as things necessary to be attained by me What a change must there be in my Heart and Life before such a wretch can be meet to be partaker of the Inheritance with the Saints in Light as every real Christian is It remaineth that I apply more particularly such things as you have heard of the Nature and Power of this Kingdom 1. What you have heard of the Gospel may direct us in our judgment of a Gospel Ministry We Ministers are appointed by Christ to persuade Sinners both to yield subjection to God Redeemer and then to walk in all due Loyalty towards Him all our Administrations must be managed by those Laws which respect our Office otherwise we affront the Lord Jesus in whose Name we act and become useless to Men for whose good we are designed The matter of our Preaching ought to be the Gospel even the Kingdom of God and the things which concern our Lord Jesus Christ the manner ought to be such as most conduceth to render it effectual to those Ends for which it is published Ministers are to do their utmost that this Gospel may come not in Word only but in Power and that all may be brought to a compliance with it Therefore we ought not to make State Affairs human Conceits or dictates of Men the matter of our Preaching the Rules of the Covenant of Works nor the Law of Nature as under a respect to that Covenant are not to be urged by us tho the Law of Nature as a rule of our Actions is still of force in this Kingdom of God Redeemer and so must be insisted on The great things we ought to persuade are the things God hath made the terms of Life to redeemed Man. The methods of Reconciliation must be intended for God now dealeth with Men not only as his rational Creatures but as fallen Sinners under new Overtures for Life Sinners must be directed by us to Christ as He on whose Shoulders this New Government is and in whom there is Grace Strength and Pardon which our Apostacy made impossible