eternal life and hinder you from walking in the path that leades unto it and so deprive you of it as unavoidably as sin it self can do it and as you are to avoid these evils on the one hand so on the other it will be meet to wait on the Lord Jesus for the sweet tastes of his love the which when you have once experience of you wil by that earnest penny know something of the riches worth of eternal life now for that end I beseech you wait attentively for the Lord in the use of al his Ordinances for there he wil be found in them in the assemblies of his people you may expect to find him because it is his walk but take notice I pray you that a negligent formal overtly use of them I do not call for but be sure you make it your business to look for him and to injoy communion with him and to tast and see as David saith Psalm 348. how good the Lord is if you look for him with that intention and desire as the Church did Cant. 5.8 you will be sure to find him he will not long hide himself from such a soul but among all other duties I could wish that you would watch to meet with him alone and there open your hearts to him freely and tell him the very worst you know by your selves and that with an intent and an indeavour to shame and humble your selves before him and be you assured that he will exalt you in due time let him know what you would have and be sure to follow him dayly consider what counsel he gives you himself Mat. 7 7 8 9 10 11. Luke 11. from the 5. to 14. the 18. the 8 first verses and if you follow this counsel you may be sure that the Lord will graciously open his heart unto you at last and give you such a taste of the water of life that will set your souls a longing for your fill thereof and that wil make you both do and suffer for Christ with much chearfulness and willingness Vse 2. The second use is this if it be so that there is so rich a portion attainable as eternal life then be sure to take a speedy course for the getting a clear assurance of your own interest in that happy injoyment do not trifle your time away any longer but set upon the work without delay and to that end that you may make sure work observe the counsel of the Apostle Peter in his second Epistle 1.5 to the 12 you shall find two things minded by Peter in this text in order to the getting of a full assurance The first of these is to lay the foundation of Christianity in true beleeving that is clear in these words Add to your faith vertue implying that faith must needs be there for it is impossible to ad vertue to it else Now therefore in the first place although you be never so impenitent and wicked yet rest upon the grace of God in Christ yea if you think also that you have attained some vertue patience or love or other fruits of the Spirit yet do not as Saints but as sinnets rest upon the blood of Christ remember I pray you that neither works done nor grace received is to be rested on for Justification but we are justified in and through beleeving and resting upon the blood of Christ who freely justifieth men as they are sinners ungodly ones and therefore note it well neither their repentance nor love but faith is imputed for righteousness look Rom. 4. And by faith are we become the sons of God Galat. 3.26 I do not say but there are some promises made to the saints as they are saints such as are in Psal 34.10.17 19 many other like there be and with these the godly may comfort themselves and none but those that are saints can claim an interest in them yet notwithstanding that translating act as I may so call it in and through which a man is made of a child of wrath a child of light I say again that thing or means that maketh him a Son of God that was none before is this act of beleeving and resting on the blood of Christ as a man considereth himself a sinner and ungodly without the least degree of worth in himself and as a beleever resteth on the blood of Christ for justification so likewise he expecteth from the free grace of God in and through the same blood sanctification glory outward things and in a word all things appertaining to life and godlyness for true faith desireth and resteth upon the Lord for the accomplishment of all the promises that he hath made as well as for any of them The second means that Peter directs us to use for the getting assurance of eternal life is to add to our faith vertue knowledg temperance patience godliness brotherly kindness and charity under which heads are concluded all the graces and fruits of the Spirit of Christ these saith he you must add to your faith these you must abound in and as it is in the 3 chap. and last verse grow in and then if you grow in grace and persevere in well-doing and abound therein more and more you shall saith he never fall but have an abundant enterance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour ver 10 11. As if he should say by this means you shall be able to keep and injoy a clear and constant assurance of eternall life and this is to be done by giving dilligence ver 10. I pray you observe it my brethren dilligence must be used it is not a lazy formal profession and an overly careless performance of duties that will either give or keep assurance of salvation a man must be ready to open to the spirit when he knocketh and to hearken to his motions and take heed of rebelling against him and labour to avoid all those unworthy courses that tend to grieve and to quench the spirit and if you thus do you may be assured the spirit will not fail to do his office but he will give unto and maintain in the soul assurance of eternal life and that will be a most sweet injoyment the man that hath it may want friends riches health and outward contentments but he cannot want comfort joy and peace his soul shall be full of consolation however the world goes with him or against him and he shall be able in the worst of times to say that both life and death shall be to him advantage Vse 3. And in the last place this may serve to reprove the folly of all those that spend all their time and strength in the pursuit of the things of this present life with the neglect of the life that is eternal and therefore well might Solomon term wicked men fools for indeed their courses are madness and folly and indeed there is no folly to be compared to this of running after the trifles and empty
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
bring him into acceptation with God but only through the worthiness of the Lord Jesus Again there is that weakness in poor man that he is no way able to help himself he can neither repent beleeve nor obey no nor get any Grace into his own heart nor mortifie any Corruption nor of himself find out the way by which any of all these great works should be done but for ought that he can do for himself he is in a necessity of perishing for ever there is no help for him but only in Jesus Christ and if the Lord had not in the riches of his free Grace provided such a Mediator as was able to save to the uttermost sinful man had never been recovered and therefore the Father sent him that was fully able both to justifie and to sanctifie to open the blind eyes and to purge the Conscience and in a word to lay the first and the last stone in the building of Salvation and if God would any way shew his love to poor lost fallen man then must he take this course for there was no other way to do it let us now come to make some use of this Point And in the first place let it serve to provoke the very worst and wickedest of sinners to come to Christ for help and deliverance Beloved you have heard what a Saviour he is therefore I beseech you do not stand to dispute your own badness but how bad soever you be cast your selves upon him for help and to that end that this work may be done throughly and as it ought to be done labour in the first place to know the worst of your own hearts there is many a poor Soul that is afraid to think the worst of himself for fear he should see so much badness as should take off his hopes and discourage him for going to Christ for mercy But I pray you learn to be wiser than so search your hearts to the very bottom and how bad soever that thou findest it yet be sure that thou dost not fail to go to Christ for a cure although thou hast been never so bad worse than Manasseh or any wretch that ever thou readest of or ever heardest of if thou findest thy self upon due search to be the veriest Hypocrite or the veriest enemy to God and godliness that is in the whole world yet let it not keep thee from going to Christ but make so much the more hast by how much thou findest thy self the more wicked and although thy sins be never so great and never so many there is no sin but he can pardon yea and he will pardon it if thou come unto him I say again there is no sin nor sinners if they come to Christ but he will surely be gracious unto them He that comes to me will I in no wise cast out saith the Lord John 6.37 therefore go unto him and be assured he will receive you whatever your Souls diseases be sear not to go unto him with them for he cures all that come unto him see what woful diseases Christ was sent to cure Luke 4.18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised Now I pray you let us a little consider of this text he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel and what is the Gospel why the Gospel is free mercy through the blood of Christ pardon regeneration and salvation yea all the happness that comes to a soul by Jesus Christ this is the Gospel and this Christ was anointed to preach and therefore doing it by the spirit it must needs be truth that he preacheth other men may preach lies but so doth not the fountain of truth you may be sure But who is all this mercy to be preached to saith Christ it is to be preached to the poor and who is poor a man is not accounted poor if he have either land or goods or mony and so it is in spiritual things also one altogether destitude of whatsoever might commend him to God one that hath no purity neither in heart nor life no faith no love no knowledg no mortification nor renewing of mind no delight in God nor his word nor having the light of his countenance shining upon the soul now one that hath none of all this spiritual riches he is poor but he that is inriched with any of these spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ is not poor now I hope you see who Christ was anointed with the spirit to teach the Gospel to but see what follows in the next words to heal the broken hearted saith he and who is that why one that hides his head for debt and owes more then he is worth this man we account a broken man So likewise when a man is through the sight of his undone condition afraid of Arrests and executions from God dayly and knows not where to hide his head being in fear and anguish of spirit Christ was sent you see to heal this spiritually broken estate In the next place he came to preach deliverance to the captives and this is a worse degree of evil when a man is the divils prisoner taken and kept in his snare this is a very sad condition indeed when a man can do nothing but as the devil his keeper will give him leave how can his condition be worse except he were in hell and yet if such a man will but hearken to the word of Christ he shall be sure to be delivered yea but my case is worse then all this may some poor soul say for I am not only the divels prisoner but I have given my self up so to his will and suffered him so to blind mine understanding that now if Christ should come and throw open the prison doors yet shall I never find my way out Yea saith Christ in the next words but I came to open the blind eyes also and although the divell have put them quite out yet suffer me to put but some spitle and clay upon them and I will recover them again take but my direction turn at my reproof at left do not despise it and set it at nought and then be sure I will poure out my spirit and that will fully cure thee Yea but the soul may further object and say I have waited on the Ordinances and endeavoured to get out of the snare of the divel and he hath fetcht me back and beaten me sore when I have but asseyed to get from him so that I see the more I strive the worse I am bruised and therefore there is no hope for me yes saith Christ I came to set at liberty such bruised ones and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord as it follows in the next words and although thou hast waited