rise up in opposition to the Kingdom of Christ to the spiritual Worship of Christ to a holy reformation and to do all that ever they can to hinder that God and Christ may not be worshipped in the beauties of holiness This is to cry up To him be shame instead of saying To him be glory both now and for ever No but to him be shame and to all his People and let them be the reproach and scorn of the World 2ly And so to close up If so be that we will approve our selves to be acted by a Gospel spirit consider how it must appear it must appear by holy apprecations and votings up of Glory to Christ and to say To him be glory the Father gives him Glory the Father reckons Glory to him the Spirit gives Glory to him The Spirit shall glorifie me he shall take of mine and shew it unto you The Angels give him Glory Worthy is the Lamb that was slain The twenty four Elders and the four Beasts make apprecations of Glory an innumerable number thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand they say Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to have Glory Now if you be men and women of a Gospel spirit let it appear by having your hearts set to this to give Glory to Christ wish him Glory in having the Government in your own hearts O to thee be Glory sweet Saviour the Glory of thy Kingdom in my own soul wish him that Glory the Glory of his Kingdom inlarged in the World of having that performed which is foretold the Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever wish him that Glory make an apprecation vote it up to him shew the spirit of the Gospel by having your hearts most strongly devoted to have Christ exalted in all his offices Priestly Prophetical and Kingly office that he may come to be the glory of the World that he may sway the Scepter according to what is promised This is the great thing that Christians should be set upon I speak not this as if I would cry down Civil Magistrates but that Government which is belonging to Christ and according to what he is anointed of the Father to according to what is purposed to him it is that we are to wish to him all that honour and Glory that the Father hath designed him this is that we should wish to him and say as the Apostle here To him be glory now and for ever And this is that which we are to do not in word and tongue as the Apostle saith O my little children let us not love in word and tongue only but in deed and truth So I say to you my Friends Let it not be in word and tongue only but in heart and reality O let your lips speak it let your lives speak it To him be glory so live so walk and carry your selves as that you may give a real proof and demonstration of it that your hearts may be devoted to have Christ honoured and exalted in the World I 'll conclude all with an itteration of this Doxologie and if ever tantologie though it is no tautologie but if ever there were any place for tautologie here were the properest place for it to be used but it is none I have a pattern for what I shall now perform from the holy Spirit of God in Psal. 136. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Mark you how many verses you have in that Psalm 26. verses and so many times you have this itteration For his mercy endureth for ever Will you call this tautologie why then the Spirit is guilty of tautologie twenty six times you find it there O give thanks unto the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever he did thus and thus for his mercy endureth for ever he slew great Kings for his mercy endureth for ever he slew famous Kings for his mercy endureth for ever and he remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever Here 's my pattern and let me a little follow it and I have done and charge me with tautologie if you can Thus I say then take up the language of the Text which I would do not using the words without the Spirit And thus I say Jesus is the Son of God Now to him be glory for ever Amen Jesus the Saviour of the world To him be glory now and for ever Amen Our Lord Jesus came into the word to seek and to save that which was lost To him be glory now and for ever Amen Jesus who was full of grace and truth Now to him be glory for ever Amen Our Lord Jesus that went about while he was here in the world doing good preaching the Gospel healing all manner of sicknesses and diseases and delivering them that were oppressed of the Devil To him be glory now and for ever Amen Our Lord Jesus who took upon him to satisfie even by death and suffering the Justice of his Father to fulfil the Law and to expiate sin and to purge the Conscience and to deliver from damnation those that were obnoxious to it Now unto him be glory both now and for ever Amen Jesus he is risen again and he is ascended up on high he is set down at the right hand of the Father and there he appears to make intercession for his People Now to him be glory now and for ever Amen This Jesus he improves at the Fathers right hand all the interest that he hath for the good of his People he communicates the Knowledge of the Mysterie of the Will of God and he makes Revelations unto his Church and People of those things that do concern it unto the end of the World and thus he is beneficial to his poor People here on earth he takss care of his Churches and hath a tender respect of all his interest Now unto him be glory both now and for ever Amen This Jesus is now in Heaven in Glory and he longs after the injoyment of all his redeemed ones and he hath undertaken to keep them while they are in the World and to lose not one of them but he will bring them to the enjoyment of himself and he will have them to see and to share in that Glory which he is now possessed of now he is in Heaven O what cause have we to say To him be 〈◊〉 both now and for ever Amen This Jesus who died and rose again and lives at God's right hand and as I said improves all his interest for his People O to this Lord Jesus Christ Be glory both now and for ever Amen And so I have done FINIS ERRATA PAge 39 line 25 for hearing read being p. 41 l. 8 for sayes r. sees p. 49 l. 7 f. contiguity r. contiguity p. 50 l. 31 f. Kod r. Rod p. 52 l. 8 f. can r. cannot p. 56 l. 15 f. trust r. faith p. 62 l. 25 f. firedness r. fixedness p. 65 l. 15 f. less r. let p. 74 l. 30 f. said r. sav'd p. 84 l. 3 f. that r. their l. 18 f. proposition r. opposition p. 90 l. 4 f. and r. as p. 109 l. 27 dele Christ at the beginning of the line p. 112 l. 5 dele the day of p. 116 l. 18 f. seâ—… r. get p. 127 l. 19 20. dele that I might be so discours'd of as p. 130 l. 8 f. faithful r. faithless p. 132 l. 13 f. eradicated r. eradiated p. 152 l. 31 f. in r. l p. 158 l. 16 f. which r. with p. 174 l. 17 f. that 's r. there 's p. 195 l. 23 f. fidelial r. fiducial p 197 l. 3 f. in r. it p. 209 l. 27 f. established r. chastised p. 228 l. 12 f. for r. from p. 234 l. 123 r. things p. 239 l. 28 f. perfect r. present p. 244 l. 27 f. such r. sure p. 250 l. 32 r. no p. 257 l. 30 f. born r. brother p. 28â—… l. 16 f. denoted r. devoted p. 292 l. 32 f. affective r. afflictive
a ghess and at random those that will approve themselves in their holy Profession must see to it that their conversations be well ordered it is he that orders his conversation aright that shall see the salvation of God and much care and diligence is to be used to this purpose that the conversation may be ordered in a due manner that so we may come to have the comfort and joy and peace at last They that walk according to rule Scripture rule and Scripture example they are the persons upon whom there shall be peace and mercy as the Apostle speaks in Gal. 6. It is not for men and women professing Godliness to live as I have sometimes said by rote but to live and walk by rule and by warrantable example And 2ly I offer this to be considered that Jesus Christ is the most absolute pattern for a Christian to conform unto and to take example by him And this duty is incumbent upon all that will approve themselves in Godliness to set their hearts upon this that they may be conformed unto Christ Believers and Saints are predestinated to have a conformity unto the Lord Jesus And the Apostle tells us 1 Ioh. 2. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as Christ walked It is a very weighty Scripture and doth very much concern us to be well studied in He that saith he abideth in Christ or that professeth himself for to belong to Christ and to have a union with Christ an interest in Christ he ought to walk even as he also walked Now consider how strongly it follow upon the premises That therefore it concerns all that will approve themselves in their Conversation to endeavour to be well acquainted with the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ to endeavour an advance in that Knowledge to be as well instructed in the Knowledge of Christ as they can Why Why because it is he who is the Copy after which we are to write the pattern to which we are to conform and how it is likely that any man should answer the Copy write congruously to the Copy which he hath little or no sight and knowledge of work in any sutableness to the pattern which he is in great part a stranger to This then is the business that we should mind and consider of in order to a well regulated Conversation that there be a pursuance in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ and particularly that we know the manner of his Conversationâ—… If so be that we would walk as Christ walked it 's necessary we should know how Christ walked what steps he trod in and the paths wherein he walked And this I shall give you some account of as touching the life and conversation of Christ here upon earth In the general consider thus First of all you are to know and believe That Jesus Christ was in the World though the World knew him not as the Apostle speaks in Ioh. 1. He was in the world The world indeed would not know not take knowledge of him but this is that we are to acknowledge and believe that Jesus Christ was in the World and that he lived and conversed here among the sons of men and he lived such a life as was most exemplary and so continues to be and he hath everlastingly broken the force of such an argument and plea as poor carnal wretches are apt to make in their own behalfs when their vitious corrupt carnal profane lives are tax'd and they themselves are censured for them Men are apt to plead How is it possible that we should live otherwise in the world a wretched world a world that lyes in wickedness There are so many corrupt principles and corrupt examples how can it be that we can live in such a world and live as we ought Why this Plea is fully broken it was broken upon the account of the lives and conversations of other godly ones that have lived from the beginning of the world The world was stark nought in Enoch's dayes in Noah's dayes yet for all that they walk'd with God and they ordered a conversation to the honour of God and approved themselves in the course of their walking The world was very bad in Eliah's time and so in the times of others yet for all that they carried themselves very gratiously in an evil world But this example of our Lord Jesus Christ is that that breaks the force of such an Argument why he was in the world and yet he lived most exactly and congruously to the whole life of God and he hath taught us by his example That it is not so much the place as the principle that we are to mind the principle and the constitution If so be that a person be of a good constitution and well principled he will live well enough in any place A godly person will be godly in heaven among Saints and Angels a godly person that is truly so he will be godly on earth if he be there among profane persons And I think I may say that if it could be that a godly man were in Hell he would shew his godliness there I am bold to speak it that if a child of God were in Hell he would love God there and he would pray there I remember and sometimes upon occasion have spoken to that purpose That Ionah when he was in his own apprehension cast off of God and in the belly of Hell as one in the very belly and bowels of Hell yet there he falls a praying Out of the belly of hell cryed I. A wicked man if he could be in heaven and be there with his own principles he would be a wicked man there and surely for Hell a godly man would be a godly man there Hell changes no natures nor indeed doth heaven upon the matter Heaven doth not change nature Heaven it self considered as a place of glory would not change the nature of a wicked man the change must be made here on earth Thus now having propounded this as a general That our Lord Jesus Christ he did live and converse in the world but what account is there to be given of his life what is there belonging to a well improved Knowledge in the Life and Conversation of Christ To give you a brief account of this First of all in the general The Life and Conversation of Christ it was a Scripture conversation The Lord Jesus who is now in heaven he liv'd in the world he liv'd first and last a Scripture life and this I speak to the confutation of the faces of all such as are apt to slight the Scriptures and make light of them that Jesus Christ while he converst in the world his whole life and conversation was a very Scriptural conversation it was nothing else but a fulfilling of Scripture O Beloved consider of this as a material and momentous thing That the whole life and conversation of Christ was a Scriptural conversation How often do
you read this passage Thus and thus Christ did thus and thus it was ordered out concerning him that it might be fulfilled which was written in the Scriptures You read this now over and over we have it in Scriptures thus and thus it was done that it might be fulfilled which was written in the Scriptures so that the life of Christ it was a fulfilling of Scripture There was never a Scripture in all the Bible which Christ could not with boldness look upon and did not most fully correspond with I tell you it is a serious matter for to consider of I give a touch upon it now I may have occasion by and by to speak something to such a purpose It were very good for us to consider whether we are able to look the Scriptures in the face such a Text such or such a Scripture precept such or such a Scripture example and not blush and be ashamed I remember and so may you when the Book of the Law was found and brought to Iosiah and he heard it read his heart melts within him and he is very deeply passionate and he mourns and humbles his soul before God to think of the incongruity that was between the Book and the carriages and conversations of the People So Brethren and Beloved consider but this put it to your Consciences Is there not many a Text iâ—… Scripture which you are not able to look in the face not able to behold with any boldness You have not the boldness to look such or such a Text in the face As now your Adulterer can he look this Text in the face Whoremongers and adulterers God will iudge the Covetous man can he look that Text in the face which saith The Covetous man he is an idolater he shall never inherit the Kingdom of God Let your conversations be without covetousness Can he look this Text in the face The Hypocrite the formal Professor that pleaseth himself in a form of Godlyness and is an enemy to the power of Godlyness can he look that Text in the face 2. Tim. 3. 5. In the last daies perilous times shall come and having a form of Godlyness but denying the power of it from such turn aside The sensual licentious person can he look this Text in the Face If you live after the flesh you shall dye but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live and a thousand more of this kind I might instance in O Friends it is a serious matter that I am now speaking about whether we can look the Scriptures in the face without regret of spirit check and controul of Conscience Jesus Christ who is the most absolute pattern he could do so His whole life was a Scripture-life a fulfilling of Scripture there was never a Text in all the Bible but he had the boldness to look it in the face This is that that is to be known concerning the Life of Jesus Christ. Secondly and more particularly it belongs to the knowledge of Christ to know this That it was a blameless and in-offensive life It 's requir'd of Beleevers that they carry it as the Sons of God blameless and harmless without rebuke O such was exactly the life of Christ a harmless blameless inoffensive life He never gave offence to any in all his life and he was very carefull of doing it He would rather be abridged of his liberty and priviledge than he would give offence as in the case of the Tribute Simon of whom do the Kings of the Earth take Tribute of your own children or strangers Of Strangers saith Peter why then I am free from the Tribute I but lest we should offend them go thy waies and take such a course that there may be a payment of the Tribute Give no offence He never did give just offence much offence was taken at him but no offence was given by him This was the Life of Christ 2 Tim. 2. last He offended no man gave no just occasion of offence to one or other neither to Jew or to Gentile 3. The Life of Christ it was a convincing Life His Life carried Life in it as the Apostle saith in the first of John The light was the life of men O Jesus Christ's life was a light of life It was a life that held forth light in it convincing the World of sin and righteousness What is said of Noah and his Conversation he condemned the World by building of the Ark Heb. 11. It may most truly be said of our Lord Jesus He convinc'd the World and condemned it by his gracious and holy Conversation 4. Consider The Life and Conversation of Christ was a conflicting and combating Conversation Conflicting not with corruption within that he had none of he had no principles of sin in him The Apostle speaks of himself I find a Law in my members rebelling against the Law of my mind leading me Captive There was no such conflict in Christ nothing of sin in him the Prince of the World had no interest in him so that he was free of that conflict But he had men and devils to conflict with O how much was he in colluctation and strugling and wrestling and striving with Principalities and Powers and with the men of the World Jerusalem cryed out O Lord Thou hast made me a man of Contention truly so was Christ I am not come to send peace but a sword Contention yet notwithstanding the most peaceable person that ever was in the World A man of Contention but how came it to be so because his Doctrine and Conversation was so cross and contrary to a wicked and sinful Generation Christ's life was a conflicting life with men and devils 5. The life of Christ and his Conversation it was a fruitful and a profitable life O what blessed benefit and profit did and doth come over unto Beleevers by the Life and Conversation of Christ. I cannot insist upon these particulars only give you a hint of them 6. The Life and Conversation of Christ it was a holy nay a heavenly Life It 's said of Enoch that he walk'd with God more true of Christ The Apostle saith Their Conversation was in Heaven much more the Conversation of Christ a heavenly Conversation He liv'd and conversed with God from day to day 7. The Life and Conversation of Christ it was a painful and laborious life a life of labour and hard travel never was time so well husbanded so well spent as the time that Christ had to spend in the World not one minute of it runs out to waste he went about continually doing good preaching from place to place spending himself in the behalf and for the behoof and benefit of poor souls a laborious life was the life of Christ. 8. The Life of Christ it was a praying life O how much was he in prayer and supplication unto God He spends a whole night in prayer when he could not get to that service in