you resemble God your Father Jesus Christ his eldest son is the very picture of him as we are wont to say the express of his fathers person They are so like in all respects that he that knoweth one of them cannot but know the other too The resemblance is so perfect and so absolute in all respects that in seeing one of them you see the other And hence said Christ to Philip John 14 19. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also And truly we that are the younger sons of God though we be not so like him yet we are very much like him And therefore we are said to be renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created us Col. 3.10 And the new man is said to be renewed after God in holiness Ephes 4.24 And are you thus conformed to God do you bear his Image so that every one that sees you and observes you may judge who is your father Are you holy as God is and are you mercifull as God is and are you perfect in desire and endeavour as your Father that is in Heaven is perfect do you love your enemies do you bless them that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you that you may shew your selves to be the children of your Father who makes his Sun to shine his rain to fall upon the evil and the good Mat. 5.44 are you freely merciful lending and doing good to those where there is nothing to be hoped for but unkindness for your good will that you may make it to appear you are the children of the highest who is kind to the unthankfull and unkinde Luk. 6.35 These are good evidences of your interest in the Father-hood of God But if you be prophane and vicious and cruel and unmerciful as the greater number are I may say to such as you are as once our Saviour to the wicked Jews You are of your Father the Devil and his works you do If God be your Father as you bear your Fathers Image see you have your Fathers Spirit The Spirit of the Father is that which the Apostle calls the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 So that if we be Sons we have this Spirit poured out upon us But you will say that every one almost pretendeth to the Spirit and it is evident that many are deceived in this particular How shall we know infallibly whether the spirit which we think we have be the spirit of the Father yea or no Why my beloved the Spirit of the Father iâ— an active Spirit where it is it leadeth men even where it will it carries them and guides them in its own way And as many as are led by this Spirit they are Sons of God Rom. 8.14 Well then thus far we are clear if we be the Sons of God as we have his spirit so we are led by his Spirit we walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The flesh calls and the spirit calls This is the way walk in it The flesh would have us follow it the spirit would have us follow it And the event is this if we be the Sons of God we leave the flesh and go after Gods Spirit We walk not after c. So then if you would know whether you be the Sons of God examine whether you be guided by his spirit yea or no And this may be discovered by the course you take and by the path in which you walk Gods Spirit guides and leads you always in the way of God which is prescribed and chalked out before you in the word of God And this is clearly and expresly taught us in that alledgement of the Covenant mentioned Exod. 36.27 I will put my Spirit upon you saith the Lord to his people And what shall this Spirit do it shall cause you to walk in my Statutes and to keep my Commandments and do them It shall not give you new directions it shall not shew you new ways and new paths other then those which are beaten out in Scripture but it shall cause you to walk in my Statutes If then you err and wander from the ways of Gods Statutes and walk on in your own ways as the Apostle speaketh of the Gentiles the way of your own hearts which of your selves you choose and follow your ways of drunkenness uncleanness prophanation of Gods holy day c. if you walk in the way of Cain a way of cruelty and malice and run greedily after the error of Balaam for a reward as Jude speaks ver 11. A way of covetousness and unlawfull gain you are not guided by the Spirit of the Father but by the spirit of the wicked one which ruleth in the children of disobedience But if you keep the ways of God the ways of truth and love and holiness and peace the way that is so evilly spoken of by lewd prophane and vitious men And are no sooner swerved from it in the least degree but you are crying to the Lord with Moses Lord shew us thy way with David I am gone astray Lord seek thy servant enquiring of your brethren to direct you and striving to get in again you are guided by the spirit of your father and may be confident that you are the sons of God If God be your Father and you be his children you are a company of singular and choice people As you are like your Father and consequently like your brethren too so you are unlike other men you dwell alone and are not like to other people And as the sons of Kings and Nobles differ from the sons of other men they have another kinde of garb and habit and behaviour Even so the Sons of God the King of Kings do manifestly differ from the children of the world The Lord hath singled them and drawn them out and put them in another way so that they are men of wonder in the world their ways are of another fashion And this declareth them to be the children of the High God he owns them only upon this condition as you may see 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Come out saith God and be ye separate and I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord God almighty Now my beloved are you thus come out and separated from the world which lies in wickedness as the Apostle speaks have you left your old haunts your old courses your old Companions and Associates with whom you ran out formerly to the same excess of riot are you accounted gazing stocks and wonders to the world because you are so different from them in all your ways And can you say in the uprightness of your hearts that this your singular and holy walking is not in shew and in hypocrisie but in sincerity and truth you may assure your selves you are the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty But if you walk according to the course and fashion of the world if
is the Gospel the Ministry of life 2 Cor. 3.7 in opposition to the Law which is the Ministry of death and condemnation And which way doth the Gospel work life but by instilling knowledge into men by making them to understand that which they never knew before that they are naturally dead in trespasses and sins that they are in a state of death and condemnation that there is life enough in Jesus Christ that he is ready to dispense and give it out to all that come to him for it And so convincing them that it is necessary for them to go to him that they may have Life Till they come to know this there is no life of Grace in them And it is by Gospel-Teaching that this life is infused into them It will appear unto you that the life of Grace is begun in holy Knowledge if you consider with what part the Lord begins when he puts this Life into us He begins not with the members he begins not with the will but he begins with the mind and understanding by Illuminating that and by endewing that with saving knowledge And therefore we are said to be transformed or to be changed from the state or life of nature to the state or life of Grace by the renewing of the mind Rom. 12.2 No doubt the will and members are renewed too for the change is universal But there the work begins my Brethren in the mind and understanding we are renewed first in the spirit of the mind Eph. 4.23 and from that it goes on to the inferiour faculties and to the outward conversation And consequently it begins in knowledge of which the mind is capable which is the proper object of it And therefore saith our Saviour sanctifie them with thy Truth Renew them make them holy work the life of Grace in them by revealing Truth to them It is apparent that the life of Grace begins in Knowledge because all other grace is brought into the soul by it and therefore this must be the first Grace The first I mean in order and in course of nature not of time As long as there is no knowledge there is no grace at all and so no Life in such a person But when knowledge once comes in I speak of sanctified Knowledge it brings all saving Grace with it This is the prime work of Grace and the Foundation of the rest The New man is renewed in Knowledge Col. 3.10 why so it is in Faith and Love and other graces But it is first renewed in knowledge there is the rise the original of all And even as in the first the old Creation the Lord began with natural Light Gen 1.3 so in the second or the New Creation he begins with spiritual Light with super-natural and saving Knowledge and gives us other graces by this means To which effect is the Apostles prayer 2 Pet. 1.2 3. Grace be multiplyed upon you through the knowledge of God and after more expresly to our purpose As he hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him So that we have this Life the life of holiness and grace through knowledge without it we have no Grace but with it all Grace It is the seed from whence all other graces grow it is the means by which they are begotten in the soul Holy Knowledge will bring forth heavenly Affections and desires If a man know God and know Christ his will shall close with him and his affections shall be carried out to him it will effectually restrain a man from sin and reform the Conversation They shall not hurt neither destroy in all my holy Mountain saith the Lord Isa 11.9 And why so for the earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord. If you have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus why then you will put off the old man It will draw a man to practice and obedience if it be sound and saving Knowledge as holy David intimates in that request of his Psalm 119.34 Give me understanding saith he And what then why I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart So that you see all holiness and Grace is brought into the soul by Knowledge and therefore certainly the life of Grace begins in it Use 1 Now is it so that life Eternal or the life of Grace which is Eternal is begun in holy Knowledge This then may serve to teach us in the first place how to value Knowledge and what account and estimate to put upon it Why truly as we value life yea everlasting Life so we ought to value Knowledge at the very same rate For this is life Eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent We all of us do make a very great account even of our temporary Lives which yet when all is done must perish and decay and come ro nothing we are ready to Redeem them if there be no other way with the loss of all things else Though yet even then when all is done we know we can enjoy them but a few years and are not certain to enjoy them one hour How is it then that we despise and undervalue holy Knowledge in which Eternal life consists which if we can attain we have Eternal life abiding in us a life which is above the power of death and dissolution Alas how miserably is it slighted by the greater part of men yea by the greater part of Christians Christians I mean in name and in profession Though it be offered them they will not take it but say in effect to God Depart from us for we will not have the knowledge of thy wayes When light is tendered them they even shut their eyes against it that they may not see So that it may be said of such as God complains of some in Israel their eyes have they closed lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and be converted and be healed And the Apostle Peters charge must needs fall home upon them they are wilfully ignorant They enjoy the means of Knowledge but they will not wait upon them they take no care at all to profit by them They need not to ascend up into heaven to bring Christ down from above nor to descend into the deep to bring up Christ again from the dead as the Apostle speaks Rom. 10.6 that they may be acquainted with him the word is nigh them as it is added there in that place The Word that manifesteth and revealeth God and Christ is nigh to them They need not to go far to hear it and to hear of God in it But many will not spend an hour they will not step without their doors to meet with God and to be acquainted with him as if the Knowledge of the Lord were worth nothing as if it were of no value Ah my Beloved do you know what it is that you despise and
themselves by nature so much as a receptivity or an immediate passive capability of saving knowledge For there is somewhat in them superfluous and there is somewhat in them defective somewhat too much and somewhat too little 1. In every unbeliever there is somewhat that repells divine knowledge and that keeps out the beams of truth And that is carnal reasoning and carnal wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.7 The wondrous perspicuity and sharpness of conceit that is in any man that is but flesh is so far from helping him to know God that it doth but hinder him And the ground is evident for such a person leanes to his own wisdom he doth not yield himself up to be taught of God but weighs those things that are divine and supernatural in the ballance of his reason As far as that will reach he is content to go And where that faileth him as infinitely short it falls there he desists and what he is unable to perceive by this is foolishness to him as 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of God for they are foolishness unto him They are not so indeed and in themselves they are but so to him He is too wise to take in such foolish things and therefore the Apostle saith not many wise 1 Cor. 1.16 and tells us plainly that if we ever mean to attain to saving knowledge we must be renewed in the spirit of our mind Eph. 1.24 that is in the highest purest and the most refined part of it As spirits are the quintessence of things that are most abstract from dross and that have least of earth in them Even these must be renewed or saving knowledge will not be received 2. In every unbeliever and unsanctified person as there is something redundant that repells divine knowledge so there is something wanting to receive it and that is the spirit of God Saving truths are often called the things of the spirit as 1 Cor. 2.14 Now my beloved the things of our own spirits carnal natural and worldly things our own spirits will take in but the things of Gods spirit Gods spirit only will take in Though they be brought home to our doors if Gods spirit be not there to take them in if he be not at home to entertain them and receive them it is all to no purpose And this is the case of the natural man he hath not the spirit of God and therefore he receiveth not the things of the spirit because he hath no principle within him that is agreeable and suitable unto them And this is that which the Apostle aims at when he saith we speak wisdom to them that are perfect 1 Cor. 2.6 That is to them that have all the parts of a spiritual man whereof the spirit is the principal the doctrine which we teach is accounted wisdom But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the animal man the souly man the man that hath a soul indeed but no spirit I mean none of Gods spirit he perceives not these things nor can he know them And why so because they are spiritually discerned And he poor man hath not the spirit to discern them by And therefore though he hear the words of God and Christ he never knows the mind of God or Christ as it is added in the end of that Chapter I shall add but one reason more unbelievers and unsanctified persons know not God because as they are of themselves unable in the respects which have been mentioned so they are unwilling also to know God They will not understand Psal 82.5 They are wilfully ignorant as 2 Pet. 3.5 God comes and shews himself to them and they say to God Depart from us for we will not the knowledge of thy wayes Light is offered and they shut their eyes against it So that it may be said of such Their eyes have they closed lest they should see with their eyes They need not to ascend up into heaven to bring God down from thence that they may see him No the word that manifesteth and revealeth God is nigh to them Rom. 10.6 They need not to go far to hear it and to hear of God in it But many will not step out of their doors to meet with God and to be acquainted with him If any light break in upon them by which they have a glimpse of God they even thrust it out again They do as the Gentiles did Rom. 1.19 they liked not to retain God in their knowledge They had him there but they liked not to retain him they had no mind to keep him there feign they would put him out again the apprehension of a God called upon them for love and duty and obedience and was a curb and a restraint from many evils and therefore they were weary of such thoughts as those and sought to chase them from their minds To say the truth they did not like them and therefore would be rid of them And thus it is with many Christians These are the reasons why unbelieving and unsanctified persons know not God Vse 1 Now to descend to application In the first place here we see the misery of unbelieving and unsanctified persons For all that know not God are in an infinitely sad condition They are exposed to his fiercest wrath and most direfull indignation The ignorant of God as you may see Jer 10.28 are made the object of a fearfull imprecation yea the ignorant of God among the Heathen who are deprived of the means though not of all yet at the least of any saving knowledge of him and yet the Prophet prayes Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that have not known thee And what then will become of the ignorant of God among Christans If ignorance of God yea though it be invincible expose men to the vengeance of the Lord and damn them everlastingly because the knowledge of him is required necessitate medii to salvation what will it do if it be wilfull and affected If Jeremy desire the Lord to pour his fury on the heathen who yet have not so much as the outward means of knowledge What rivers and what floods of indignation think you will be poured out on them who have the means and will not learn nor be instructed by them what will they do when the day of judgement comes when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven c. rendring vengeance to them that know not God as 2 Thes 1.4.8 I beseech you think upon it and lay it seriously to heart you that have long enjoyed the means and yet know very little of the nature or the will of God Or if you know with a notional discoursive knowledge you know him not with an affective and effective knowledge You glorifie him not as God you do not walk according to your knowledge of him And so your knowledge is as good as no knowledge You may and many do delude themselves with this conceit that though they dye in this