Justified and Reconciled to God 7. He hath given Apostles Evangelists Pastors and Teachers to proclaim this Act of Grace to the world commanding them to go into All the world and preach this Gospel to every Creature and promise Salvation to all that by Faith will become his true Disciples Marke 16. 16. Matth. 28. 20 22. So that their commission also for the promulgation is universal 8. Though his servants have most lamentably neglected their duty and have not gone abroad the world to divulge the Gospel according to his Will imagining that this work had been proper to Apostles and though the Nations have sinfully neglected a due enquirie after this blessed Light yet hath he not left himself among them without witness but hath given them some dawnings of the day or some moon-light in the reflections of Evangelical Truth who have not seen the Sunne it self Much Mercy they have had notwithstanding their transgressions and while they served Devils they have been provided for by God in whom they live and move and be doing them good and giving them raine from Heaven and fruitfull seasons filling their hearts with foâ—d and gladness and this to teach them that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not farre from every one of them Acts 14. 17. 17. 27 28. And that which may be known of God is manifest among them for God hath shewed it to them for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse Rom. 1. 19 20. By experience they may find that God dealeth not now in rigor of Justice but on terms of Grace and that sinne is not â—ow unpardonable and they should know that the Goodness of God leadeth them to repentance Rom. 2. 4. 9. As the Gospel conditionally pardoneth all their sinnes and offereth them Everlasting life so it conteineth the clearest Reasons and most effectual motives to perswade them to Accept the offer It affordeth them most excellent precepts and instructions and exhortations and other helps to bring them to a willingness that Salvation may be theirs 10. To which also is added abundance of outward providential helpes to further the working of the Gospel as seasonable afflictions and Mercies of divers sorts 11. And with these is usually concurrent some inward motions and assistance of the Holy Ghost as knocking at the doore where he is not yet let in and entertained 12. And by their presence in the visible Church even the ungodly have many benefits in the Ordinances and instructions and examples of the Saints All these besides a Resurrection are common effects of General Redemption and not appropriated to the Elect. Besides which there are others that the Elect only do receive As 1. God is pleased by effectual Grace to draw them to his Sonne and make the Gospel succesfull to their Conversion insuperably teaching and charging them by his Spirit and causing them to Repent and believe in Christ and to perform the Conditions of his forementioned Promises That Love that brought the Lord on Earth that cloatheth him with flesh that lifted him up upon the Cross doth stream forth in his season into the hearts of his Elect and toucheth them with a changing Power and winneth them to his Father and himself and droppeth into them those Heavenly Principles which will grow up in them to Everlasting Life 2. Hereupon the Soul believing in Christ is United to him as a Member of his Body even of his true Catholik Church and Christ is become the Head the Husband the Lord the Saviour of that Soul in a special sort Christ himself is first given to us in these Relations and from him as our Head his following benefits are conveyed He that hath the Sonne hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life for this Life is in the Sonne 1 Joh. 5. 11 12. He is the Vine and we are the Branches and out of him we can do nothing Joh. 15. 1 2 5. As it was not we that purchased our own Salvation so it is not we but Christ that must have the keeping and dispensing of the purchased benefits For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell and that he should be the Head over all things to his Church that it might by communication become his fulness Col. 1. 19. Eph's 1. 22 23. He is our Treasury and from him we must have our continual supplies For with him the Father will give us all things Rom. 8. 32. And thus Christ will dwell in our hearts by Faith Ephes. 3. 17. And set up the Kingdom of God within us 3. Hereupon we have the pardon of all our sinnes not only as to the temporal punishment nor only as to the bestowing of temporal Mercies or common helps of Creatures and Providences for this is but a winking at the daies of our ignorance Acts 17. 30. in comparison of the pardon which afterward we receive Nor is it only a Conditonal or Offered pardon But it is an Actual Remission of the Eternal and of all the destructive Punishment And thus we are Justified from all that might be charged on us from the Law and accepted and used as just by God There is a kind of forgiveness that was promised to the Sacrificers Lev. 4. 20 26 31 35 5 10 13 16 18 6. 7. Numb 15. 28. But as that was upon Christs account so it extended not to the pardon of the Eternal Punishment to any but true Believers He that was once Crucified is exalted by Gods right-hand a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sinnes Acts 5. 31. Through this man is preached the forgiveness of sinnes and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 38 39. When our eyes are open and we are turned from dakness to light and from the power of Satan unto God we then receive Remissioâ— of our sinnes Acts 26. 18. When we are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of Christ in him we have then Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sinnes Col. 1. 13 14. And blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sinnes are covered to whom the Lord imputeth not sinne Rom. 4. 7. And now who shall condemn us It is God that justifieth us For there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 33 34. 4. With this benefit doth concurre our Reconciliation to God and our Adoption by which we are made his Sonnes and God is pleased to own us as our Father For being one with Christ the Sonne of God we are Sonnes by him For to as many as receive
they will not deliberate upon it till the market be past If they have their land to plow or their â—orn to sow or reap or mow they will not take a twelve months time to pause upon it They can quicky Resolve upon their every-daies business their travails their labours and all their ordinary affaires And yet these same men cannot Resolve in seaven years time and seaven to that whether Heaven or Earth should be more loved and laboured for Or whether a corruptible flesh a wicked fancie a greedy throat should be pleased before the God of Heaven though the pleasing of it cost them the loss of their Salvation Why Sirs a man that is well in his wits would think that these matters should be more out of doubt then the former and speedilier resolved on One would think it should be an easier question whether you should turn to God and a Holy life for the saving of your immortal Souls then whether you should eate or drink or sleep for the preservation of your bodies For I can in many cases bring some reason that should perswade you to forbeare eating or drinking or sleeping for a considerable time but no man breathing can speak a word of reason except mens folly should be called Reason that should perswade you to forbear your Conversion for a minute And if you mistake about these bodily matters the loss may be repaired at least in the world to come but if you die before you are Resolved and firmly Resolved to give up your Soul and body to Christ and live a Holy Heavenly life you are undone body and Soul for ever and all the world can never save you Oh what a strange and horrible thing is it that a man that hath the wit to mannage his affaires as plausibly as any of his neighbours that can overwit others in the matters of the world that can govern Towns and Countries that is learned in his Profession in Law in Physick in Merchandize in Navigation or any the like I say that a man of so deep a reach so plodding and active a wit as this should yet be unresolved yea at 30 or 40 years old be unresolved whether to be Sanctified or unsanctified whether to be Holy and be Saved or to be unholy though God hath professed expresly that such shall not see the face of God Heb. 12. 14. These are our wise men these are too many besides the ignorant country men of our Gentlemen our Worshipfull and Honourable men our great Schollars and men of noble or reverend esteem that yet are unresolved whether to be saved or to be damned Though God hath written a Bible to Resolve them and a thousand books are written to Resolve them and Preachers are studying and preaching to Resolve them and a thousand mercies are cast into the scales that one would think should help to turn them and some sharp afflictions are helping to Resolve them and twenty or fourty years certain experience of the vanity of this world the deceitfullness of riches and honour and pleasure and the unprofitableness of sinne one would think should Resolve them yet after all this they are unresolved whether they should presently let go their sinne and whether God or the flesh should be pleased or displeased If this be the wisdom of these men the Lord bless me and all his chosen from such wisdom 6. Nay consider further of your unreasonable wickedness Are not many of your Judgments Resolved when yet your hearts and wils are unresolved I am confident nay I am certain it is so You are at once both Resolved and unresolved What a confusion and warre do you thus make in your own Souls The Judgment is for one thing and the Will and Affections are for another thing What are you not led by Reason Will you let out your Affections and lead your lives quite contrary to your knowledg Would not most of you give it me as your Judgments under your hands that it 's a thousand times better to cast away your drunkenness your filthiness your worldliness and other known sinnes then to keep them any longer What say you are you not Convinced that it were your wisest course to part with them this very day and hour Undoubtedly many of you are And yet for all this will you not Resolve to do it Are you not perswaded in your Consciences that it 's better to dye in a Holy and Heavenly state then in a loose and careles worldly state And that it were your safest and wisest course to become New men and lead a Holy Heavenly life without delay Dare you deny this Is it not your Judgment And yet will you not do it Are you Resolved that it should be done and must be done and yet will you not Resolve to do it Why what is this but to be condemners of your selves to carry a Judge about with you in your own brests that is still passing sentence against you Happy is he saith the Spirit of God Rom. 14. 22. that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth If your Judgments be Resolved let your Wills Resolve or else you are wilfull adersaries of the light and fight against Reason and unman your selves and sinning wilfully against your Knowledg shall be beaten with many stripes 7. Me thinks also it should somewhat quicken you to Resolve when you consider what a case you had now been in if death had found you unresolved For if you are unresolved you are unsanctified and if not Sanctified you are not pardoned or justified and therefore undoubtedly you had been past all help in endless misery if you had died all this while before you were firmly Rosolved for God O what a dangerous ticklish condition have you stood in all this while What wise man would live an hour in such a case for all the world For feare lest that hour should be his last And yet would you stay longer in it and still are you unresolved 8. Believe it Christ will not own you as his servants nor trust you what ever promises you may make him as long as you are unresolved Who will take a servant that is not resolved to do any service Who will take an unresolved person if he knows it as a wife or friend into his intimate love And indeed you are not truly Christians till you are Resolved to take Christ for better and worse What ever state is short of this is also short of true Sanctification and will fall short of Heaven Christ is Resolved to stick to his servants and he will have no servants that be not resolved to stick to him 9. And indeed if you be unresolved as you are falshearted at the first setting out so it is certain that you wll never go well on nor endure to the end in case of tryall nor can you do the business of a Christian life without Resolution If you will be Christ's Disciples you must reckon upon persecutions You must take up
And therefore you may hence learn in what sort you must seek after it 1. You must not place the chief part of your Religion in it as if it were a life of meer sorrow that we are called to by the Gospel But you must make it a servant to your Faith and Love and Joy in the Holy Ghost and other Graces As the use of the needle is but to make way for the thred and then it is the thred and not the needle that makes the seam So much of our sorrow is but to prepare for Faith and Love and these are they that close the Soul with Christ. It is therefore a sore mistake of some that are very apprehensive of their want of sorrow but little of their want of Faith or Love and that pray and strive to break their hearts or weep for sinne but not much for those higher Graces which it tendeth to One must be done and not the other left undone 2. As tears are the Expressions of the heart so those are the most kindly and sincere which voluntarlly flow from the inward feeling of the evill that we lament If you could weep never so much meerly because you think that tears are in themselves necessary and had not within the hatred of sinne and sense of its vile and killing nature this were not true Humiliation at all And if the Heart be humbled before the Lord it is not the want of tears that will cause him to despise it Some are so backward to weep by Nature that they cannot weep for any outward thing no not for the loss of the dearest friend when yet they would have done ten times more to redeem his life then some that have tears at will Groans are as sure Expressions of sorrow as tears with such as these And the hearty rejecting and detestation of sinne is yet a better Evidence then either But where men have naturally a weeping disposition which they can manifest about Crosses in the world and yet cannot shed a tear for sinne there the Case is the most suspicious 3. The principal Cause why you must strive for deeper sorrow is that you may obtaine the Ends of that sorrow that sinne may be more odious to you and more effectually mortified that self may be taken down and Christ may be valued and desired and exalted and that you may be fitted for a Holy Communion with God for the time to come and saved from Pride and kept in watchfullness 6. From this that was last said you have a Rule by which you may certainly discern what measure of Humiliation it is that must be had It mst go so deep as to undermine our Pride and so far the heart must needs be broken as is necessary to break the heart of sinne and carnal self If this be not done ther 's nothing done though you weep out your eyes You must be brought so low that the blood of Christ and the favour of God may be more precious in your eyes then all the world and in your very hearts prefered before it And then you may be sure that your Humiliation is sincere whether you have teares or none 7. From hence also you may see that you must take heed of ascribing to your own Humiliation any part of the office and honour of Christ Think not that you can satisfie the Justice of the Law or merit any thing of God by the worth of your sorrows though you should weep even tears of blood It is not true Humiliation if it consist not in the sense and acknowledgment of your unworthyness and desert of condemnation and if it do not lead you to look out for pardon and life from Christ as being lost and wholly insufficient for your selves And therefore it would be a plain contradiction if true Humiliation should be taken as Satisfaction or Merit or trusted on instead of Christ. IV. Having thus far opened the Nature and Reasons of true Humiliation I conclude with that advice which I principally here intended Refuse not to be throughly and deeply humbled Be not weary of the humbling workings of the Spirit Grief is an unwelcome guest to Nature but Grace can see Reason to bid it welcome Grace is ingenious and cannot look back on so great unkindness with unwillingness to mourne over it Zech. 12. 10. There is somewhat of God in godly sorrow and therefore the Soul consenteth to it and seeketh for it and calls it in Yea and is grieved that it can grieve no more Not that sorrow as sorrow is desireable but as a necessary Consequent of our grievous sinning and a necessary Antecedent of our further recovery As we may submit to Death it self with a cheerful willingness because it is sanctified to be the passage into Glory how dreadfull soever it be to Nature in it self so much more may we submit to Humiliation and brokenness of heart with a holy willingness because it is sanctified to be the entrance into the state of Grace Consider for your satisfaction of these following things 1. The main brunt of your sorrows will be but in the beginning and when once you are setled in a holy course you will finde more Peace and comfort then ever you could have had in any other way I know if you will be medling with sinne again it will in its measure breed sorrow again But a godly life is a life of Uprightness Conversion is a departing from sinne and consequently a departing from the Cause of sorrows And can you not bear such a sorrow for a little while 2. Consider but whence you are coming Is it not out of a state of wrath And where you have been all this while Was it not in the power of Satan And and what you have been doing all your lives Hath it not been the drudgery of sinne and the offending of your Lord and the destroying of your selves And is it meet is it reasonable is it ingenious for you to come out of such a Case without lamentation that you staid in it so long 3. Consider also that it is Necessary to your own recovery and Salvation Do you think to take so dangerous a surfeit and then to be cured without a Vomit You will endure for the health of your bodies the bitterest pills and loathsomest potions the shortest dyet and the letting out of your blood for you know that your life lieth on it and there is no remedy And should you not endure for the saving of your Souls the bitterest sorrows the keenest rebuks the freest Confessions and the most plentifull tears Sinne will not down at easier rates Self will not be conquered else The heart of it will not be broken till your hearts be broken We know your sorrows Merit nothing and make not God amends for your sinnes nor is it for want of sufficiency in the blood of Christ that we require them But it is part of the fruit of his Blood upon your Souls If his Blood do not
bitter its dangerous it may be my undoing It s none of my meaning that any should needlesly runne into suffering or cross their governours and themselves through a spirit of pride singularity and contradiction But that men should think themselves truly Religious that keep such reserves for their fleshly interest and shew by the very drift of their lives that they are worldlings and never felt what it was to be crucified to the world and deny themselves but are Religious on this supposition only that it may stand with their worldly ends or at least not undo them in the world this is a lamentable hypocritical self-deceit When God hath so plainly said Love not the world nor the things that are in the world If any man love the world the Love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2. 15. Nay that the neighbourhood and all the Country that know them should ring of the worldlyness of some that think themselves good Christians and yet they will not see it themselves What a cheating blinding thing is the world Well Sirs if you will be Christians count what it must cost you And if you will be Heirs of Heaven away with the world Cast it out of your hearts and if your hands must yet trade in it yet trade not for it Use it for God but enjoy it not for it self Take your selves as strangers here and look on the world as a desolate wilderness through which in the Communion of the militant Saints you may safely travail on to Heaven but do not make it your home nor take it for the smallest part of your felicity To be Sanctified without Mortification is a palpable contradiction Be at a point with all things below if you will groundedly hope for the Heavenly Inheritance But I shall purposely forbear to enlarge this any further because I have preached and written a Treatise on this Subject which I desire you to peruse DIRECT VII My next Direction is this If you would be truly Converted be sure that you make an absolute resignation of your selves and all that you have to God This is the very form and life of Sanctification To be Sanctified is to be separated in heart life and profession from all other Masters and Ends to God When the heart that was set upon the world and flesh is separated from them and inclined to God by the power of Love and devoted to him to serve and please him this is indeed a Sanctified Heart And when the life that before was spent in the service of Satan the world and the flesh is now taken off them and spent as to the drift and course of it in the Service of God for the Pleasing and Glorifying of him from the impulse of Love this is indeed a Holy life And herein consisteth the very nature of our Sanctity And when a man doth but profess to renounce the Devill the world and the flesh and to give up his heart and life to God this is a Profession of Holiness God is both on the title of Creation Preservation and Redemption or absolute Lord or Owner and we are not our own but his And therefore we must give to God the things that are Gods and Glorifie him in our Souls and bodies which are his 1 Cor. 6 19 20. As we are his Own so he will have his Own and be served by his Own Do not imagine that you have any title to your selves or propriety in your selves but without any more adoe make a full unreserved absolute resignation of your selves of your understandings and of your wills of your bodies and of your names and of every penny-worth of your estates to God from whom and for whom you have them Think not that you have power to dispose of your selves or of any thing that you have Ask not flesh and blood what life you shall lead or what mind or will you shall be of But ask God to whom you do belong Ask not your carnal selves what you shall do with any of your estates but ask God and then ask Conscience which is the way that God would have me use it in that is which way may I use it to be most serviceable to God And that resolve upon No service that you do to God will prove you Sanctified unless you have heartily and absolutely given up and devoted your selves to him and he that gives up himself must needs give up all that he hath with himself For he cannot keep it for himself ultimately when even himself is given up to God Though you be not bound to give all that you have to the poore nor all to the Church nor to deny your own bodies or families their due supplies yet must it all be given up to God even that which you make use of for your selves and families For as you are given up to God your selves so you must feed your selves as his and cloath your selves and your families as his to fit your selves and them for his Service and not as your own for the satisfying of your flesh Thus it is that all comes to be pure to the pure Sanctified to them that are themselves first Sanctified because when you feed your selfe you do but feed a Servant of God that is Consecrated to him and separated from things common and unclean And even as the Tythes and Offerings that were given for the food and maintenance of the Priests and Levites were called the Lords Portion and Holy to the Lord because they were their portion that were separated to his Altar Even so that which is necessary to fit you for Gods Service while you use it to that very end is Sanctified in your Sanctification and is Holy to God for all his Saints are a Holy Nation a Royal Priesthood to offer up acceptable sacrifice to him And thus whether you eat or drink or what ever you do you must do all to the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. For Of him and Through him and To him are all things and therefore to him must be the Glory for ever Rom. 11. 36. God who is the End of your hearts and lives must be the End of every action of them unless you will step out of the way of Order and Safety and Holiness For every action that is not from God and by God and for God is contrary to the nature of true Sanctification If then you would be Christians indeed be heartily willing that God should have his own Understand what an excellent honour and priveledge and happiness it is to you to be his If his Right to you will not move you let your own necessity and benefit at least move you to give up your selves and all you have to God Bring you hearts to the barre and plead the Cause of God with them and convince them of Gods title to them and how sinfully they have robbed him of his own all this while Have your daies and hours your wealth and interest
been used purposely for God as his own O what abundance be there that in word and confident profession do give up themselves and all to God and yet in the Use of themselves and all do plainly shew that it 's no such matter but they dissembled with God and yet never knew so much by themselves How little do they use for God when they have with seeming devotion resigned all to him If a Lord or Knight or Gentleman of 4000l l or 3000l l a year or 400l l or 300l l a year were to shew the accomts of all his expences how much of all this should you find expended for God when they have acknowledged that all is his One would think by their lives that they look to be saved by robbing God and confessing the robbery by saying that all is Gods while they allow him next to nothing The devoted resigned Sanctified Soul hath the true principle of all obedience and that which will do much to repel all temptations and carry him through the greatest straits and tryals If I am not my own I need not be over solicitous for my self but may expect that he that oweth me should care for me Nor do I need to use any sinfull shifts for my own preservation If I have nothing of my own what need I to sinne for the saving of any thing What need I to venture upon unwarrantable means to preserve either credit or goods or life It is Self and Own that are the root of all sinne the heart of the old man and the seed of Hell Nothing else is pleaded against God and our Salvation If the flesh would have you abuse Gods Creatures you must remember they are not your own If the Devil would entice you to sinne against God either for the Geting or Keeping of any Creature it would easily repel the temptations were you but rightly sensible that nothing is your own For God hath no need that you should sinne to get Riches or Honours for him If you are called to let go your houses or lands or friends or lives or to deliver up you bodies to the flames did you but rightly take them as none of your own how easy would it be You can be content that another man give his goods or life it self to God when ever God requireth it but your own you cannot be content to part with and that because it is your own But if you had rightly resigned all to God and took not your selves or any thing for your own but lookt upon your selves and all as Gods the greatest works of obedience or suffering would be much more easy to you and you would have little difficulty or hindrance in your way Self denial is but Sanctification it self denominated from the wrong End and Principle which we forsake And where self is denied and dead what is there left to draw us from God or stand up against him in any part of our lives So much interest as self hath in you so much the world and the Devil hath in you And nothing is more proper to a miserable Hypocrite then deep Reserves of life or worldly things to themselves while they seem to give up all to God O happy Soul that is wrought to this sincerity by the Spirit of Grace to say unfeinedly O Lord I devote and resign my self wholly unto thee I am not my own nor desire any further to be then to be thine I have nothing that is my own nor desire to have any thing that shall not be thine Happy and truly wise is that man that keeps as constant and faithful a reckoning how he layes out himself and all that he hath for God as a faithfull Steward doth of his receivings and layings out for his Masters use Every penny that is reserved from God is the fuell of sinne and a Sacrifice to the Devil and the flesh and if it be pardoned to the truly penitent by the Sacrifice of Christ that 's no thanks to us that would else have made it the fuel of Hell God is not so careless of us or his Mercies but that he keeps an exact account of all that we have from him and will require an account of our improvement of all Not only requiring his Own againe but his own with advantage Matth. 25 27. Why else did he give us such leisure and ability to improve it I can never forget what a sinfull thought was once in my mind which I will venture to confess because it may possibly be the case of others that so they may beware I hearing of some that used to lay by the tenth part of their yearly comings in for charitable uses I purposed to do so too and thought it a fair proportion But since I have perceived what a vile and wicked thought that was to offer to cut out a scantling for God or give him a limited share of his own or say that so much he shall have and no more Though we cannot say that God must have all in any one kind of service only either only for the Church or only for the poore or only for publike uses yet must we resolve that in one way or other he must have all and the particular proportions to the poore or Church or other uses must be assigned by truly Sanctified prudence considering which way it may be most serviceable to God I must relieve my owne family or kindred if they want but not because they are my own but because God hath commanded me and so hath made it a part of my obedience But if I see where I may do more service to God by relieving a stranger and that God doth more require it I must yet preferre them before all the kindred that I have in the world When the Christian pattern was set us by the Primitive Church Acts 2. and 4. They sold all and laid down the whole price at the Apostles feet which was not distributed to their natural kindred only but to all the poor Christians that had no other relation to them even as every one had need And as it is the loving of our Spiritual Brethren in Christ that is made the sign of our translation from death to life so is it the relieving of Christ in these his Members that is the relieving them because they are his Members that is made the very matter of our Cause in the last Judgment and the ground of the sentence of life or death Matth. 25. I must provide for my own body and you must provide for your children but that is as I said before not as I am my own nor as your children are your own but as I am a Servant of Christ that must be supported in his Service or as your selves and yours are put under your care and duty by God So that I may give it to my self or others when I can truly say I do but use it principally for God and think that the principal Service I can do
the Joyes of Heaven may be stirring and working in the minds of the unsanctified but if they take not up the Heart for Christ the person is not a true Believer As the Gospel must be Believed to be True so Christ that is offered us in the Gospel as Good must be Heartily and Thankfully accepted accordingly And the Glory the Justification Reconciliation with God and other benefits procured by him and offered with him must be valued and desired above all earthly fleshly things If you are convinced that sinne is evill as contrary to God and hurtfull to you and hereupon have some mind to let it go and some wishes that Christ would save you from it and yet still have a Love to it that is greater then your dislike and the bent of your heart is more for it then against it and your habituate desires are rather to keep then to leave it this is not Sanctification nor a saving consent to be saved by Christ. If you have some convictions that Holiness is good as being the Image of God and pleasing to him and necessary to your Salvation and so should have some mind of Holyness on these grounds yet if you have on the other side a greater aversness to it because it would deprive you of the pleasures of your sinne and the Habitual inclination of your will is more against it then for it certainly this will not stand with true Sanctification of Faith in Christ to save you from the power of sinne by his Spirit Thousands deceive themselves by misunderstanding some common passages that are spoken to comfort afflicted Consciences viz. That the least true desires after Grace do prove the Soul to be Gracious This is true if you speak of the least Desires which are Predominant in the Soul when our Desire is more habitually then our unwillingness and we thus preferre Christ before all the world the least of this is an Evidence of Saving Grace But such Desires as are subdued by the contrary Desires and such a will as is accompanyed with a greater unwillingness habitually and such a Faith as is drowned in greater unbelief these are not Evidences of a saving change nor can you justly gather any special comfort from them He that hath more unbelief then Belief is not to be called a Believer but an unbeliever And he that hath more hatred or dislike of God and Holiness then Love to them is not to be called Godly but ungodly nor a Lover of God but a hater of him I am easily perswaded that many of you that are ungodly could be contented that God be Glorified if his Glory do not cross your carnal interest and so you desire Gods Glory even for it self as that which is absolutely Good in it self But if your fleshly interest be so dear to you that you will sacrifice Gods Glory to it and had rather God were dishonoured then your fleshly interest contradicted it is your flesh then that is made your God and your chief End It is not every wish or mind of Christ no not to save you from sinne as sinne that will prove you true Belielievers Nor is it every minding of God or love to him no not as one apprehended by you to be the chiefest Good and desirable for himself as your End that will prove indeed that you savingly love him as long as the contrary mind and will is Habitually predominant in you Such as the very habit and bent of a mans heart is such indeed is the man It s possible for a man even a good man to have two contrary ends and intentions yea ultimate ends as that which is desired for it self and referred to nothing else is called Vltimaâ—e but it is not possible for him to have two principall predominant Ends. So far as we are carnal still we make the pleasing of our flesh our ultimate End For doubtless we do not sinne only by pleasing the flesh as a means to Gods Glory nor only in the mischoosing of other means But yet this is none of our Principal End so far as men are truly Sanctified And because that is called a mans mind or will which is the chiefest and highest in his mind and will therefore we use to denominate men from that only which beareth rule in them And thus we may say with Paul It is not I but sinne that dwelleth in me For a disowned act that proceedeth from us against the bent and habit of our wills and the course of our lives from the remnants of a carnal misguided will is not it that must denominate the person nor is so fully ours as the contrary act And therefore though indeed we sinfully participate of it yet when the question is whether Believing or unbeliefe sinning or obeying be my work it is not Comparatively to be called mine which I am much more against then for So on the other side if the unsanctified have some transient superficial uneffectual acts of Desire or Faith or Love to God which are contrary to the bent and habit of their hearts this is not theirs nor imputable to them so far as hence to give them their Denomination It is not they that do it but the common workings of the Spirit upon them If ever then you would be assured that your are Christians look to the Habitual bent of your hearts and see that you do not only talk of Scripture and slâ—ghtly believe it and speak well of Christ with some good wishes and meanings and purposes but as you love your Souls see that Christ be Received as your dearest Saviour with Thankfullness and greatest Love and as your Soveraign Lord with true subjection and that he have your Superlative estimation and Affections and all things in the world be put under him in your Souls This must be so if you will have the portion of Believers No Faith that is short of this will prove you Christ's Disciples indeed or Heirs of the Promises made to Believers The voice of Christ that calls to you in the Gospel is My sonne give me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. Do what thou wilt in waies of duty and think as highly as thou wilt of thy self thou art no true Believer in Christ's account till thou hast given him thy heart If he have thy tongue if he have thy good opinion nay if thy body were burnt in his Cause if he had not thy Love thy Heart it were as nothing 1 Cor. 13. 3. For thy works and sufferings are so far acceptable through Christ as they are testimonies of this that Christ hath thy heart If he have not thy heart he takes it as if he had nothing And if he have this he takes it as if he had all For this is not only preferred by him before all but also he knows that this commandeth all If Christ have thy Heart the Devil will not have thy tongue and life the Ale-house or a Harlot will not have thy body nor the world will
not have the principal part of thy life If Christ have thy Heart it will be heard much in thy conference it will be seen in thy labours For that which hath a mans Heart will hardly be hid unless he purposely hide it which a Christian neither can nor ought to do It would make a man wonder to hear some wretches that will runne from God as fast as they can and yet face you down that God hath their hearts that have no mind so much as to meditate or talk of Christ or his precious Blood or mysterious Redemption or the glorious Kingdom purchased by him that will be at neither cost nor labour in his Service and yet profess that Christ hath their hearts that will refuse a Holy Heavenly life and perhaps make a scorn of it and maliciously prate against the Sanctified and yet will stand to it that the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier of the Elect hath their hearts No wonder if those hearts are ill managed and in a miserable deceived state that are so unacquainted with themselves Faith entreth at the Understanding but it hath not all its essential parts and is not the Gospel Faith indeed till it have possessed the will The heart of Faith is wanting till Faith hath taken possession of the heart For by Faith Christ dwelleth in the Heart Ephes. 3. 17. And if he dwell not in the heart he dwells not in the Man in a saving sort He had some interest in Judas Simon Magus Ananias and Saphira as to the head and perhaps somewhat more in a superficial sort But Satan entred into the heart of one and filled the heart of another of them with a lie and the heart of the third was not right in the sight of God and therefore he had no part or lot in Christ but was still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity and all because Christ was not heartily entertained Acts 5. 3 8. 22 23. It is in the heart that the word must have its rooting or else it will wither in time of tryal It is seeking with the whole heart that is the evidence of the blessed Psal. 119 2. And it is a feigned turning when men turn not to God with the whole heart Jer. 3. 10. This is Gods promise concerning his Elect I will give them a heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Jer. 24. 7. See then that the heart be unfeignedly delivered up to Christ For if Christ have it not the flesh the world and the Devil will have it Your Hearts must be a dwelling for one of these Masters choose you whether It is the damnation of most professed Christians that they have nothing for Christ but a good opinion or a few good words or outside services or some sleight Religiousness on the by when the flesh and the world go away with their hearts and yet they will not know it nor confess it Christ will not be an underling or servant to your flesh Your Hearts he hath bought and your Hearts he will have or you are none of his If he shall have nothing from you but a name you shall have nothing but the name of his purchased Salvation III. The last part of the Direction yet remains viz. that you must clâ—se with Christ entirely as well as Vnderstandingly and Heartily It is whole Christ that must be received with the whole heart For the understanding of this it must be known both How and Why Christ is offered to us As he came into the world to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. 8 and to seek and save that which was lost Luke 19. 19 And by his Mediation to reconcile us to God and bring us up to Glory so two things were to be done for the accomplishment of this First he was himself to Merit our Salvation and pay the price of our Redemption on the Cross and in his own Person to conquer the world the Devil and death and the grave And then he was by his Intercession in the Heavens to make application of this and bestow the benefits thus purchased by him And because it was he and not we that made the purchase it therefore pleased the Father that the purchased treasure should be put into his hands and not immediately put into ours He is become our Treasury and authorized to be our Head All Power is given him in Heaven and Earth We have so fouly miscarryed already that he will no more trust his honour in our hands as at first he did We shall have nothing of Pardon or Grace or Glory but what we have in and from the Sonne God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Sonne He that hath the Sonne hath Life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not Life 1 Joh. 11. 12. It is not only the Nature and Person of Christ that is to be believed in but it is the Person as impowred to certain ends and clothed with his Office yet we must now entertain Now the Office of Christ being for our Salvation and the Glory of God is suited to these happy ends And our Necessities are principally in these three points 1. We have the Guilt of sinne upon us to be pardoned and the Wrath of God and Curse of the Law and the punishment of sinne to be removed 2. We have the Corruption of our Nature to be healed the power of sinne to be destroyed the Image of God repaired on us and our hearts and lives to be acted and ordered according to the Will of God and to these ends Temptations to be conquered and our Souls directed strengthned and preserved to the end 3. We must be raised from the Grave at the last day we must be Justified in Judgment and possessed of that Glory which is the End of our Faith To this Justification Sanctification and Glorification may the rest be reduced Now the Office of Christ is suited to these Necessities of ours and as we cannot possibly be saved unless all these Necessities be supplied and these works done for us so we cannot possibly have these things done but by Accepting of Christ as Authorized and impowred by his Office and Perfections to do them The Glory that God will have by this work I have before expressed to you at large He will have his Justice Wisdom and Power and Holiness and Mercy to be demonstrated and honoured by Christ. And therefore Christ hath resolved to give out none of his benefits but in such manner and waies as may best attain these highest Ends. These several points therefore I must intreate you here to note distinctly 1. That you must be brought into a special Relation to the Person of Christ as cloathed with his Office before you can lay claim to his Saving Benefits He is the Head and you must become his Members He is