short and does never fill or satisfie such our Desires Which is the Second Natural Step to bring us to God 4. This Remark then being left by the way let our Fourth Proposition be this That the more we know or believe that other Persons or Things will answer to and satisfie the Desires of our self-Self-love the greater Value we put upon them and the greater Value we put upon them the more we love them The Truth of which Proposition is as certain as it is certain that we desire to gratifie our Self-love And it is as certain that we desire to gratifie our Self-love as it is certain that we have such a Thing in us as Self-love For because our Self-love consists in a Desire of our own Gratification and because a Desire of our own Gratification contains in it a Love of those Persons or Things from which we expect to receive such Gratification I say for these Reasons to suppose that we shall not love such Things or Persons in proportion to that Gratification which we expect to receive from them is to suppose us to contradict those very Desires which yet at the same time we do professedly entertain We shall therefore take our present Proposition for good and true and that is That we must needs love all Persons and Things according as we think or know that they will answer to or gratifie the Desires of our Self-love 5. The natural and immediate Effect of our Love of any Person or Thing is a Desire of possessing or enjoying the Person or Thing so loved For our Desire of any Person or Thing includes in it our present Want of such Thing or Person Now if such our Want were not at home that is in our selves we need not seek abroad or out of our selves for a Supply of it And because the Want which in the present Case we feel in our selves is fixed and immovable and so cannot stir abroad therefore that that must supply such Want must be brought home to it Our Supply then must be caused by the Union of that Thing or Person to our selves which is to supply such Want And when that Thing or Person is united to our selves then and not before we may be said to possess or enjoy such Thing or Person I do believe that the Truth of this Proposition may be doubted because we may be satisfied with the Assurance of our Friend's Kindness tho' we do not enjoy his Company And something very like it may be said of the Satisfaction that we take in several Things tho' at a distance from us But when it is considered that tho' we do not enjoy the Company of our absent Friend yet for all that we do at that very time enjoy his Friendship and that tho' his Person be absent from us yet that the Assurance of his Friendship is present with us and lodged in our Breasts we may then begin to be satisfied that so far forth as our Desires are gratified or our Want supplied so far forth that which does so gratifie or supply them is present with us which is an assured Satisfaction of our Friend's Love and Kindness to us But then we must take notice that if our Desires do extend themselves farther as suppose if our Love of him engages us to desire the Presence of his Person as earnestly as the Assurance of his Friendship then in such a Case as our Desires and our Want are more than barely the Desire and Want of his Friendship and Kindness so such our greater Desire and Want cannot be supplied but by the Presence and Enjoyment of his Person and Company And therefore strictly speaking our Desire of his Company proceeds from our Love of his Person but our Desire of his Friendship proceeds from our Love of such Friendship which is a Thing and not a Person But then it must be granted that no Man can love another but that according to the Degree of such his Love he must desire his Company too and that the want of his Company would be attended with an Affliction proportionate to the Degrees of his Love if the Absence of his Person were not in some measure compensated by the Assurance of his Friendship which is present And what is thus true of Persons is so also of Things For we therefore desire any Thing because we love it and because we want it And then the only way to supply such Want and to gratifie such our Love is by bringing such Thing home into our own Possession that is within the reach of our Enjoyment For an hungry Man may as soon fill his Belly with the Meat that remains in the Market while he tarries at home as any Man's Love of any Thing or Person can be gratified while that Person or Thing is out of the reach of his Possession or Enjoyment For as it is absurd to imagine that any Man can love any Person or Thing without any Desire to possess or enjoy them so it is equally absurd to think that he can possess or enjoy them while they are at a distance from him These Five Propositions I have laid down as previous and introductory to the making out the Truth which we now pursue and that is That the Happiness of our Eternal Life will consist in that Pleasure and Satisfaction which we shall take in our Love and Enjoyment of God and in his Love of us For it is obvious because natural for us to conceive that all possible Happiness be that Happiness what it will must come from something that is grateful to our Inclinations that is from something which we love and therefore also from something which if we want it we do also desire That what we so want and desire cannot make us happy till we possess and enjoy it because till then our Desires are not fulfilled That our Make and Frame is such that we feel in our selves that we do want That that must make us happy and that therefore if we will obtain it we must seek for it abroad and out of our selves And lastly That our Self-love does and that too necessarily engage us to seek after such Thing I say these are natural and easie Truths and as we shall perceive presently such as will lead us into the Discovery of what at present we do only enquire after viz. The Nature of our Eternal Happiness or Wherein our Eternal Happiness shall consist And that we may from Enquiry advance to Discovery I would offer it to Consideration in the first place 1. That when our Souls and Bodies shall be refined by the Resurrection and Glorification of the last and by the compleat Holiness of the first that then we shall have such a true Sense of the great and supereminent Value of Holiness that we shall upon that Account love that above and beyond all Things besides For then we shall perceive and know that God therefore makes us holy that so he may make us happy That our
pulled upon himself by his Enmity towards his Deliverer And this is the Case of sinful Man with Relation to his Saviour For our Sins had not only deserved but had also provoked the Plagues of Justice they were Acts of Hostility against God and carried in them Malice as well as Ingratitude And in such a Case Reason and Justice will teach us to expect that abused Omnipotence should vindicate it self with Severity of Vengeance But the Condescension and Mercy of our Saviour has taught us otherwise and may easily convince us that the Hostilities of impotent Creatures do not always extinguish the Love of him that made them that he pities the Peevishness and even Wilfulness of his Children and that he so considers their Weaknesses and Imperfections that in commiseration to their feeble Condition he lets his Pity take place of his Severity and is so far from dealing with them according to their Deserts that he interposes for their Rescue for their Rescue from the Folly and from the Vengeance of Sin and even stoops to the Lowness of their Condition as Creatures that he may save them from the Misery of their Condition as Sinners And because in doing so he does many ways make the Wonder of his Love and Condescension appear still greater and greater therefore it will be our Duty more and more to magnifie him for such his Condescension and for such his Love 4. We ought to praise God our Saviour as that for our Redemption he was pleased to condescend to our Condition by being clothed with our Flesh so also in that by being so clothed he passed the faln Angels and took not their Nature upon him It is a Remark made by the Author to the Hebrews that he took not on him the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham I know well enough that it is objected That the Original imports that he took not hold of the Angels but he took hold of the Seed of Abraham and it is confessed that the Greek will admit and approve such an Interpretation and which is more the Interpretation is close and proper so far as concerns the Language but then it is not full so far as concerns the Context For when we are told before that he took part of the Flesh and Blood whereof his Children were made and when we are told immediately after the Words that in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful High-Priest we may easily allow that he took on him the Nature of such his Children and of such his Brethren But that by the by to assert and make good the Propriety and Validity of our English Translation against the Adversaries of the Incarnation But more directly to our purpose Since the Son of God the Saviour of Mankind was pleased to interpose for the Redemption of faln Man but did not do so for the Redemption of faln Angels it must be confessed that the lost and forlorn Condition of the one when compared to the restored Condition of the other must needs afford a weighty Argument of Praise and Thanksgiving to Man when he finds his own Safety and Welfare preferred by the Saviour to that of Angels and has not only a Possibility but also the comfortable Hopes and if it be not his own Fault an Assurance of that Salvation of which they must for ever despair Now Natural Reason might perhaps incline us to think that the Rescue of the faln Angels by a Saviour might therefore have been a more honourable Purchase because the Angels are a more noble Creature and the Dignity of such a Creature might seem to countenance the preference of such a Purchase But in these Things our Reason is short-sighted and we may easily judge amiss because we judge in the Dark Thus much however to our present purpose we are sure of and that is that it is a greater Condescension to stoop to the Relief of an inferiour Creature and that where there is such a Condescension there that Creature is obliged to the greater Gratitude And this is confessedly our Case and therefore such Gratitude is undoubtedly our Duty Let us therefore with Heart and Voice rejoice in this miraculous Salvation of our God the Salvation which old Simeon saw and embraced before his Death the Salvation which St. John the Beloved Disciple tells us was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our Hands have handled of the Word of Life That is in a few Words The Word of Life the Son of God the Saviour of the World by his Incarnation made manifest to our Senses and by the same Incarnation qualified to be our Sacrifice our High-Priest our Redeemer To him therefore be Glory and Praise in all Churches of the Saints Amen But that we may learn to praise him aright both for the Greatness and Condescension of his Mercy too let us take these few and following Rules to guide us in our Practice of such Praises For a verbal Thanksgiving is too poor an Offering for so superlative a Blessing and to praise God who searches the Heart with our Lips when we do not do it with our Hearts is in deed and truth to mock him That we may not therefore increase our Sins when we pretend to perform our Duty we may do well to guide our Gratitude in the Case by these following Directions And 1. Did our God condescend to take upon him our Flesh that he might by his Instructions by his Example by his Life and by his Death purchase to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works and so from a sinful and degenerous Condition exalt us to a State of Holiness and by consequence of Happiness Then we ought to meet our God in such his gracious Design and by lifting our Hearts towards Heaven and so by setting them upon Heavenly Things to endeavour to be holy as he is holy It is a noble Ambition and complies with the Counsel and Design of his Incarnation For it will engage our Souls in higher Flights of Duty and render us fit Inhabitants of that Place where Holiness is both the greatest Happiness and the greatest Ornament For tho' some of God's Attributes are so peculiar to himself that they are utterly incommunicable to any of his Creatures such are his Omnipotence his Omniscience and the like yet there are others which he has not only proposed to our Imitation but which also he has commanded us to imitate and such are his Love his Mercy his Justice in one Word his Holiness And therefore he does require us to be holy because he is holy And it would be no hard matter to make it out that his Holiness is his prime and leading Attribute such as guides and conducts all the rest And therefore tho' he be Omnipotent yet for all that he cannot do any thing that is unjust because he is holy
whosoever suffered Martyrdom for his Saviour's and Religions sake was certainly thereupon crowned with Glory and with them to be a Martyr and to be crowned were equivalent Expressions for they meant the same Thing whether they made use of the one or of the other So confident were they of the Truth of their Saviour's Promise in the Nineteenth of St. Matthew ver 29. Every one that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my Names sake shall receive an hundred-fold and shall inherit everlasting Life and of that in the Tenth Chapter of the same Evangelist ver 39. He that loseth his Life for my sake shall find it By which we may understand that God does so far allow our self-Self-love the Work of his own Hand that where for his sake we are willing to lay it aside in lesser Matters there he has in requital for our so doing obliged himself to provide for the gratification of it in greater Matters Now tho' it be confessed that there is a Thing too frequently and too kindly entertained among Mankind which wears the Name of Self-love and which is not only commonly accounted but which also really is in it self Criminal Yet if we narrowly look into such Crime we shall find that it is not therefore a Crime because it is Self-love but because it excludes our Love of others It is indeed kind to it self as all Self-love and that too in the Nature of the Thing must needs be but then it is kind to very few or none besides And therefore the Viciousness of it consists not so much in doing what it does as in not doing what it ought to do That is the Self-love so far as it is only Self-love is innocent But it then becomes a Sin when it advances to Uncharitableness For every Man is allowed perhaps in a degree required to love himself but no Man is allowed no not upon the Pretence of such his Love to hate another Nay he may love himself best but by so doing he must not shut out all others from any Share in his Love nor where his Circumstances and Condition measured by the Standard of Common Humanity or Christian Charity will allow him so to do must he shut out others from the Proofs and Evidences that he allows them such a Share So that as we are satisfied by our own Sense of the Thing and that is as great a Satisfaction as we are capable of in any Case whatsoever that we love our selves best so by what has been said it may now appear that we do not transgress any Duty of Morality or Religion by our so doing 2. Our next Proposition must be That as we love our selves best so our Love of any Person or Thing besides is directed by and to our Self-love For we therefore love any Thing because it does or at least because we think it may conduce to our own Welfare and Happiness For all Love has in it a Mixture of Desire and then as the Love of our selves is accompanied with a Desire of our own Welfare so because we love our selves best all our other Desires must for that Reason be in a subordination to that And therefore tho' our Love to other Men may engage us to do very great and considerable Kindnesses to such Men yet for all that we should not do so did we not by so doing gratifie our selves For tho' it is confessed that because our Kindnesses to them proceeded from our Love to them that therefore we design to please and gratifie them by our Kindnesses yet it is full as true that if their Pleasure and Gratification were not pleasant and grateful to our selves we should leave those Kindnesses undone by which we designed such their Pleasure and Gratification And as it is thus notorious that our Love to other Persons is finally resolved into the Love of our selves so it is as if not more notorious that our Love of Things is so For Things have no Sense of our Kindness to them and therefore our Kindness to them were it for their sakes would be irrational and absurd for there could no Account be given of it in Reason or Nature But because we our selves are capable of receiving a Benefit from Things by our having a Sense of such Benefit and because we are capable of apprehending such our Benefit before we do obtain them as well as when we do possess and enjoy them therefore we may from thence be satisfied that our Love and therefore also our Desire of them does spring from such our Apprehension of our own Benefit and we may be sure that the Desire of such our own Benefit does come from our Self-love So that now we may be as well convinced that our Love to other Persons or to Things does proceed from our Self-love under this Head as under the last we might that we love our selves best 3. Let our Third Proposition then be this That we find in our selves and that too by our own Sense I may say Feeling of the Thing such a Want of that that will satisfie the Desires of our Self-love that we are constrained by such our Self-love that is we are constrained by Nature for self-Self-love as we have seen is natural I say we are constrained by Nature to seek for a Supply for such our Want from abroad that is we are constrained to seek for it out of our selves This might be abundantly proved from the great Variety of these our Wants which can only be relieved by a Foreign Supply and those too Wants not only of our Bodies but of our Minds without our obtaining of which we do account our selves in a degree miserable at least not so happy as to gratifie our Self-love But the Thing being Natural and our Conviction of its Truth being so too it needs not And therefore I would have it here remarked that my chief Aim in laying down this Proposition is to adjust the Coherence and by consequence the Proof of my main Design which is to shew wherein our Grand and Eternal Happiness does consist But yet because it may in some measure conduce to such our Design we shall before we quit this Proposition leave this Remark upon it That it is not unlikely if it be not certain that God in our very Formation has so ordered our natural Frame and Constitution that as the Desires of our Self-love cannot be answered nor supplied by our Self-sufficiency so that such our Desires should carry our Thoughts abroad to seek such Supply elsewhere Which is if I may so speak the first Step to which we are obliged by Nature in order to our seeking after God And in the next place That God has made all Things in this World within the compass of our possible Purchase so inadequate to the Desires of our Self-love that when we do actually obtain such Things our highest and most exalted Enjoyment of them does still fall
Happiness begins when our Holiness does and that it is then perfected when our Holiness is so That Holiness is the Perfection of God's Nature and of our own That where Holiness is in its most exalted Excellence and Perfection it is the same Thing with Wisdom and Truth with Omniscience and Omnipotence and that it is the true and only Fountain of all real and rational Happiness And then that which is the Fountain of all Happiness and by consequence of our own Happiness must when once it appears so to us be the Object of our greatest Love as sure as it is that we do love our selves best 2. Where we find such Holiness which we shall be better acquainted with by our Glorification and compleat Sanctification in its greatest and most exalted Perfection and Excellence there our Love of such Holiness must in Nature and Reason and our Reason will then be exactly refined and discerning I say that where we find Holiness in its greatest and most exalted Perfection and Excellence there our greatest and most intense Love of Holiness will be lodged For when we come to love Holiness for its own Excellence and Perfection then we shall be sure to love that Holiness most which has the greatest and most exalted Excellence and Perfection 3. This our greatest and most intense Love of the greatest and most perfect Holiness will as we may rationally conceive be still augmented and increased when we apprehend it as lodged in an Intelligent Being For our Love and that too in Nature to such a Being is caeteris paribus greater than our Love of Things because such a Being is if I may so speak more congenerous and cognate to us than Things are and we find the Harmony and Sympathy to be in Nature always greater there where there is the nearest Cognation The further Use which we make of this Proposition besides that already laid down is to unite our Love of God and our Love of Holiness together and so to exhibit them under one View as indeed in God they are but one and the same Thing And therefore in what follows we must alter our Phrase and what hitherto we have called our Love of Holiness must hereafter be styled our Love of God 4. Our Love of our most Holy God will still receive a considerable Addition of Increase when we shall come to know that his Holiness is not only most perfect and exalted but that it is also accompanied with all other Excellencies and Perfections and that too in the highest and most perfect Degree For tho' God be One with his Holiness and all other his Attributes yet it may be doubted at least whether the Capacities even of glorified Creatures shall ever be so enlarged as to apprehend his Beauties and Excellencies any otherwise than by distinct and separate Conceptions Nay it may be more than doubted whether those their Conceptions shall be adequate to those his to them several Beauties and Excellencies which shall be the Objects of such their Conceptions For it is hard to conceive that the glorified Capacities of Creatures shall be made Infinite by their Glorification and unless they be so we are sure that the most Seraphick Conceptions must needs fall short of the Dignity of their Object And we know that it is sufficient for any Creature to have its Creature-capacities when most enlarged and refined filled and satiated by Happiness For no Creature is capable of and no Creature can desire more than a full and compleat Happiness And that Happiness is most certainly full and compleat which is as much as he can contain 5. The Increase of our Love to our most Holy God will still grow greater by our Assurance that he loves us again For it is a Truth in Nature That as Love slighted or refused does by that Means grow cold and so in time languishes and expires so if it be kindly received and answered by Love again it therefore grows the warmer because then its Hopes begin to turn into Happiness And as Love for Love between Mankind carries in it Gratitude and Requital so the Love of God for the Love of Man carries in it Recompence and Reward And in both Cases it increases the Happiness and Delight And then certainly it must be Infinite Happiness to be blessed with the Love of him who is Infinitely Happy in himself and the undoubted Author and Fountain of all possible Happiness to all others For all Love wishes well to the Party beloved at least and where its Power answers to its Wishes does well too And then when once we are in possession of God's Love we are therefore secure of our own Happiness because we are secure that all possible Happiness is within the Reach of his Power And indeed to suppose the glorified Saints love of God and by consequence their Holiness to be perfect and to suppose their Happiness not to be so would be in effect to suppose the Creature in its Love to God to outdo God in his Love to the Creature No! Perfect Holiness where-ever it is is a Ray of his leading and most beloved Attribute And we can in Reason no more conceive that God will not love such an Holiness than we can conceive that he does not love himself And then we may be sure that the Happiness of the Creature will in the final Issue and of that only we speak at present bear a Proportion to its Holiness 6. The Increase of our Love to God will still grow greater and greater when we come to find as most certainly we shall so find it that his Love of us will engage him to unite us more intimately to himself The Union of the glorified Saints with God is it must be confessed a great Mystery for so that must needs be which neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard nor can it enter into Man's Heart to conceive and which therefore he can much less express with his Tongue But yet that such a Thing there will be we may be satisfied by those Discoveries that Revelation has afforded us of it in the general For it is most certain by such Discoveries that we shall at least so enjoy God as we do our Friend we shall appear in his Presence in that Presence where there is fulness of Joy and at his Right-hand where there are Pleasures for evermore It is true indeed that the Nature and infinite Variety of all sorts of Unions and among the rest undoubtedly of those which God has reserved for future Accomplishments and for future Discovery are laid out of the Reach of all mortal Understandings And therefore we shall rest our selves satisfied with what is certain or at least with what by the help of Revelation we may easily believe to be so That the Union of the Blessed with God in Heaven will be such as shall be sufficient for the mutual Communications of each others Love of the Love of the Creature in Duties and Praises offered up to God
that very Question which they alone have made a Question viz. Whether Jesus Christ died for the Sins of Men I say they would alter it into another Question neither fit to be disputed nor possible to be determined by short-sighted Men viz. What God can do and what God cannot do Whereas it is sufficient for us to take Things as we find them and if we find that Things in the present Case are so ordered by God and that he tells us that they are so as that sinful Man shall not obtain Redemption but only by the Merits and Death of Jesus Christ their Saviour I say if God tells us and that too by repeated Declarations that Things in the present Case are so ordered we ought to acquiesce in such his Declarations and not employ our Vanity or Curiosity for it can in no sober Sense be call'd our Reason in enquiring Whether much less in determining that they might or might not have been better ordered But of this more hereafter At present therefore and in the first place we shall take the Matter of Fact to be just as the Scriptures have in most plain and express Words told us it is That Jesus Christ died for our Sins that he died to save Sinners c. And then by comparing this Matter of Fact with other the Methods of the Divine Proceedings in the like Cases see if it will not afford us a very plausible Argument of the Truth laid down That there is not Salvation in any other Now if we carry our Observation through any other the Transactions of the Divine Love and Mercy that do design to entitle Men to the same Salvation we shall find that God does never make use of extraordinary Means where the ordinary are sufficient And therefore when the Lord himself appeared to Saul in his Journey to Damascus we find that the Design and Effect of that Vision was to refer him to Ananias for Instructions in his Duty And so when the Angel appeared to Cornelius the Business of his Message was only to direct him to Peter that so Peter might by the ordinary Means of Grace direct him into the Way of Salvation And when Men have Moses and the Prophets it will therefore concern them in Duty and Interest to hear them because in such Case God will not convince them by raising one from the Dead In short as it is not the Method of the Divine Proceedings so neither is it of Wisdom it self to let the Measure of the Means exceed in their Proportion to the designed End And in any Case whatsoever where less Cost or Labour is sufficient there common Prudence will by no means allow and much less approve our Drudgery or Profuseness Now to bring what we have said to our present purpose Since our Saviour for the Establishment of the Gospel-Covenant did actually take upon him Our Flesh and in that Flesh suffer it will afford us no slight Argument that That Covenant could not have been established upon more easie Conditions because our common Reason does assure us that all Excess of Performance in the Case would have been Superfluity And our Religion and Modesty does forbid us to fasten any such Imputation upon the Divine Counsels and Actions And here we may well put Abraham's Question Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right And when by the purpose of his Mercy he determined to rescue faln Man from Sin and Misery shall he reject the Son of his Bosom and expose him to all sorts of Misery in this World and to Violence and Barbarity in his Departure out of it when the Ransom might have been made at a cheaper Rate Certainly the Love of God is not so narrow and stinted but that he both could and would have extended it to his lost Creatures and yet at the same time not have removed it from his only and beloved Son if Justice and Wisdom had allowed him so to do But then because he himself tells us that he did otherwise and because we know that what he tells us must be true as well as that what he does is just and holy therefore the Conclusion that fairly offers it self is That nothing less than the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God could in Wisdom and Justice have brought about the designed Redemption To which we shall in short add That it is one of the certain Characters of the True God that he brings his Purposes to pass by the best wisest and most proper Means And now having thus opened our Way to our main Design by these few Reflexions on the Matter of Fact as it is laid down most expresly in the Scriptures We shall in what follows go on to consider the Merits of the Cause and that we shall do by examining Whether or no Mankind had not brought themselves into so forlorn a Condition by their Sin that there does not appear in Justice any probable or indeed any possible Way for their Salvation but only by the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God And that there did not will I presume appear when we have considered and confirmed the following Propositions whereof the First is That Misery and Death or in one word that Vengeance is as the Just so also the Necessary Wages of Sin And here before we begin to prevent as much as possible all Objections that may be started against what we shall deliver we must desire the Reader to take notice that we do at present only make it our Business to measure the Equity of the Punishment of Sin by the exact and rigorous Laws of Justice That is we do as we must if we will do right conceive Things in that State in which they had stood had the Son of God never been designed for the Saviour of the World For because our Business at present is to enquire what would have become of sinful Man if the Son of God had not interposed for his Rescue therefore we stand obliged at present to take other Measures in accounting for the Proceedings of the Divine Justice than what our Experience acquaints us with in this World For while we live here we come within the Compass and so enjoy the Benefit of that Relaxation of the Law which was the Purchase of our Saviour's Merits and therefore we cannot truly pass a Judgment upon the exact Proceedings of the Divine Justice from the Contemplations of those Proceedings of Justice which we see in this World and which upon that account come within the compass of that Relaxation To know therefore whether the Incarnation Life and Death of our Saviour were necessary for Man's Redemption we must enquire what had become of sinful Man if the Son of God had not become his Saviour And if upon that Enquiry it shall appear that Vengeance without any Remedy had been his Portion then it will also appear at least a probable Conclusion for we shall adventure no farther because we are utter Strangers to the
unsearchable Depths of the Divine Wisdom That Mankind had brought themselves into so forlorn a Condition by their Sin that there does not appear to us any possible or just Way for their Redemption but only by the Incarnation Life and Death of their Revealed Saviour the Son of God This Caution then being laid down and well observed the First Proposition viz. That Punishment or Vengeance is the Just and Necessary Wages of Sin will appear more easie and rational And for asserting the Truth of it we lay it down in the 1. First place That God is in his own Nature Holy This does necessarily fall in with our very Notion of a God because it is a Contradiction to our very Conceptions of a Deity to suppose any Wickedness or Turpitude in him 2. We lay it down secondly That God loves himself This will easily be allowed for more Reasons than one both because the Notion is Natural and Universal that all Living Things do so as also because God cannot but be supposed to be the most Noble and Adequate as well as Natural Object if I may so speak of his own Love Nay some Men have streined this Point so far as to tell us that the great and infinite Complacency that God takes in himself and in his own Perfections would never have allowed him to condescend to his Work of Creation and by that Means to have allowed any of his Love and Good-will to low mean and inferiour Creatures as the best of Creatures are if compared to him if the Son who is the Word of God had not interposed upon that Occasion and so they make him a Mediator of Creation as well as of Redemption But laying that aside at present as being nothing to our purpose it may suffice for our Design that whatever Love God bears to his Creatures it cannot be supposed but that he not only loves but that he does also chiefly and in the first place love himself These Two Things then being laid down That God loves himself and That he is in his Nature Holy the Inference that we shall make before we proceed any farther must be That he cannot otherwise chuse but hate and abhor whatsoever is contrary to such his Nature And because all Sin and Wickedness is so that therefore he cannot chuse but hate and abhor all Sin and Wickedness And hence it is that the Scripture acquaints us that the carnal mind is enmity with God that is all Sin and Wickedness is so For we may as rationally conceive that a Man who entertains and makes much of Sin does love God as we may that God who in his Nature is Holy can love Sin which is directly contrary to such his Holiness This Inference then from the Two former Propositions being thus in short laid down and made good we go on and add in the 3. Third place That the Life and Happiness of all God's Creatures is only the Effect of the Divine Good-will and Pleasure For undoubtedly it was he that made us and not we our-selves And taking it for granted at present that he did so I would in the next place enquire Whether we did deserve such our Beings or not If it be answered That we did not then we have what we desire and that is that the great and first Blessing that ever God bestowed upon us was by him freely bestowed without any possible Merit in us and therefore that it was the free Effect of his Good-will and Pleasure But if any Man shall be so silly as to think that he could deserve his Being of God then to make good such his Conceit it will be expected and that too for ever for the Expectation will never be answered that he should make it out that Nothing may have Something of Merit in it and that what as yet is not may have wherewithal to lay an Obligation upon Omnipotence And as our Being was the free Effect of the Divine Good-will and Pleasure so also are all those Blessings which do attend it For with our Beings he did also bestow upon us all those Faculties which should entertain any other Thing whatsoever And as he made our Faculties so did he all Things else which can possibly gratifie those Faculties And that there is any Harmony or Agreement between those Faculties and their Objects is undoubtedly owing to him who was the original Contriver and Author of both And therefore in the 4. Fourth place I would offer it to Consideration That it is only the Exercise of God's Good-will towards us that does indeed and truth make way for the Exercise of his Justice upon us Because we could never have undergone the Severity of the last if we had never been made Partakers of the Bounty of the first And therefore when God does punish us for our Sins by his Justice that Punishment does nothing else but only strip us of something which we had before received from his Mercy And this upon a serious Consideration will appear to be true whether the Punishment inflicted do deprive us of our Ease Peace Safety or even of Life itself For what have we that we did not receive since in him we live and move and have our Being 5. Fifthly I would offer it to Consideration Whether when God takes any Thing from us which upon the account of his Good-will and Pleasure he had bestowed upon us I say Whether in such a Case the true and just Reason why he does so is not because we by our Sins have turned such his Good-will towards us into his Displeasure against us For if what he bestowed was the Effect of his Good-will and if as God made us holy and upright at first he cannot but continue the same Good-will towards us so long as we continue as he made us Then we may be assured that so long as he continues such his Good-will towards us so long he will continue the Effects of such his Good-will too And if we were not assured of this then it might be all one as to us whether God were well-pleased with us and loved us or not For if the Loss of such good Things which are the Essects of God's Good-will to us may while we continue holy and innocent be once made consistent with such his Good-will then farewel to all Distinction as to the Justice of Rewards and Punishments For in such a Case it may be the same thing whether we please God or displease him because we may lose the Effects of his Favour that is according to the Tenor of the last Head we may be punished as well for our Innocence as for our Wickedness or at the very best we may be punished for Nothing No! no! As God's Displeasure is contrary to his Good-will and Favour so the Essects and Consequences of that Displeasure must be contrary to the Effects and Consequences of such his Good-will and Favour too This is the Voice of Nature and this the Voice of Justice and therefore
such Praise and Thanksgiving as we ought In our Prosecution of the First of which Things I would desire all Christians seriously to consider that they ought the more heartily and devoutly to praise God our Saviour that he was pleased to take upon him our Flesh in order to our Redemption because our Condition by reason of our Sins was so desperate and forlorn that neither our own Repentance nor our own Punishment no nor the Punishment or Interposition of the Angels could ever have redeemed us from that Curse which we by such our Sins had brought upon our selves For as for our selves it is most certain that we are less able to return to our Innocence after we have sinned than we were to retain our Innocence before we had lost it For every Sin as our sad Experience may easily inform us weakens our Ability to resist Sin and it is far more easie to preserve our Innocence than to restore it And then when our Ability is made weaker and our Business is become greater we may easily judge that such our Business is very likely to go undone For which Reason as well as for several others formerly mentioned we may be sure that when we had once brought our selves into a sinful and for that Reason into a miserable Condition we had by the same Means put it out of our Power to redeem our selves from such Sin and from such Misery And it is as certain that no Man ever was or will beâ— able so to do as it is certain that all Men are Mortal For Death is the Wages of Sin And as the Experiment has passed the Test that Mankind cannot save it self from its Sin so it has as good as done so that neither can the Angels save it For if they could then they would in Nature first have done such a Kindness for themselves But the Condition of the faln Angels discovered to us by Revelation assures us that there is no Possibility for them to do such a Kindness for themselves and then Reason will tell us that neither can they do it for Man Herein then was the Love of our Saviour manifested and mightily inhanced that he was pleased to step in for our Rescue when we can discover no other Way for our Escape And if there be not Salvation in any other then we may be sure that our greatest Praise and Acknowledgments are due to him who alone could bring us Salvation and who alone has brought it and so has not refused us that Mercy which he alone was qualified to bestow 2. We ought to magnifie and praise our Saviour not only because he was pleased to undertake our Redemption when he alone could make good such an Undertaking but that also to make such his Undertaking good he was pleased to take upon him our Nature and to come down to us in that Nature The Condescension of the Mercy ought to magnifie his Praise in our Mouths and in our Hearts too and with Astonishment and an humble Adoration we may well cry out with the Psalmist Lord what is Man that thou art thus mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou so regardest him We know well enough that God does every day stoop to the Relief of our Necessities His Eye goes through the World and all Things are under his Inspection and Care and he who feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him and cloaths the very Grass of the Field with Ornament and Beauty does also provide for the Support and Welfare of him who is made after his own Image But then this is the Care of his ordinary Providence And because the Providence is ordinary therefore also it is too generally neglected by us anâ— the Familiarity of it does bring it into Contempt But when he engages himself to freâ— us from a greater Mischief than Famine 〈◊〉 Nakedness that is from our Sins then aâ— the Mercy is greater so also is the Method bâ— which he brings it to us more wonderful anâ— astonishing For in this last Case he doeâ— not only stoop to our Wants but to our Coâ—dition also And he who would not execuâ—â— his Judgments upon Sodom till he came dowâ— to see whether the Cry of their Sins were sâ— or no would neither bestow his greatest Blessing without a personal Visit He broughâ— the Salvation which he designed to bestow and then appeared in the greatest Humility when he was about to display the Glory oâ— his most endearing Attribute For his Conâ—descension then to take upon him the Form of a Servant when he designed to become a Saviour nay therefore to do the First beâ— cause he designed to be the Last was Mercy mixed with Sweetness and when he put onâ— our Condition in order to the conveying such his Mercy to us we stand bound in Gratitude to acknowledge the Condescension as well as the Mercy We receive the Favours of great Personages especially if they do them to us in Person and not by Proxie with Deference and Respect And tho' it may perhaps be but a Smile or a gracious Nod yet because even such little Things bring along with them the Tokens of a condescending Kindness they are therefore entertained with a joyful Welcome as well as with an humble Acknowledgment If therefore we would but behave our selves in proportion to our condescending God as we do to our condescending Fellow-Creatures we ought in reason to receive his Visit to us that brings Salvation with it not only with humble Acknowledgments but with humble Adorations too And when we find that he does not disdain to take care in his own Person if I may so speak of our Happiness and Salvation we should be officiously ambitious of setting forth his Honour and Praise for such his Condescension and for such his Care 3. We ought to praise our God not only that he condescended to be united to our Nature and so to take upon him our Condition in order to our Redemption but his Praise ought still to be so much the more magnified that he stooped to Sinners as well as Creatures and that the grand Design of his Condescension was the Saving of his Enemies We stand at an infinite Distance from him as we are his Creatures but we stand in an infinite Opposition to him as we are Sinners In the First Case we are capable of his Bounty but in the Last we forfeit his Mercy and had he obliged us to stand the Award of our own Deserts Vengeance had been as our miserable so our just Portion Now our Natural Sense tells us that a Favour to an Enemy is at least a double Favour It requites Good for Evil and does a Man a Benefit even against his own Endeavours Now he who has so much Bowels of Mercy as to relieve his Enemy as he has a very noble Temper so he deserves a very noble Character But still this Character must run higher if he shall rescue his Enemy from that Mischief which he had
of the Love of God in the Effusions of such Joy and Delight such agreeable Transports and Ecstasies as shall fill the utmost Capacities of his Chosen ones and shall therefore exceed their Hopes and Wishes because their first Knowledge of such their Happiness can only come from their Experience of it and that Experience alone will fully answer to and gratifie their Self-love 7. Lastly The Love of the glorified Saints to God will be still further augmented and indeed receive its full Complement and Perfection by their Assurance that all that Happiness of which they stand possessed at present shall be eternal For a Fear of a Failure for the future may dash the Relish of the highest Enjoyment for the present and our Satisfaction in the Possession of any Good Thing be it what it will must needs be abated if it be accompanied with a Doubt of its Continuance But Happiness with Security must needs be compleat and perfect Nay it must be so much the more compleat and perfect because tho the Continuance of Happiness be future yet the Assurance of such Continuance is present and by such Assurance we do in some Degree compendiously and at the same time enjoy both our present and our future Happiness Now the Blessed in Glory may therefore be secure of the Eternity of their Happiness because God's Love stands immutably engaged to their Holiness forasmuch as such their Holiness is indefectible and eternal For where that is eternal his Love most certainly is so too To conclude in a few Words Our Love of our selves makes us desire to be happy But it must be our Love of something else that must make us so For if the Love of our selves could of it self make us happy then it could not for that Reason engage us to desire to be so And nothing can conduce to our Happiness much less can any thing compleat it but what is entertained by our Love When therefore we fix our Love upon that which will answer the Desires of our Self-love we may then be sure that we love that which may make us happy and when we come to possess and enjoy that which we so love we may be sure that we shall be happy and if our Enjoyment of it be securely eternal we may then be farther assured that we shall be always so And that our perfect Love of God and our Enjoyment of his Love and Favour will bring all these things to pass we hope our foregoing Discourse has made good 1. Now if the Happiness of our future State in Glory shall come from our Love of God and his Love of us then this should teach us to have a care that we do not make our selves unfit for the Happiness of Heaven by our Uncharitableness whilst we live here upon Earth For the Love of God will hardly be perfected in that Man who does not love his Neighbour For He who loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how shall he love God whom he hath not seen And he who does not love God here how shall his Love to him be perfected hereafter For that that is not can never be made perfect And he whose Love to God shall never be made perfect how shall he be ever made happy For there can be no Happineâ—s no not in Heaven it self without our perfect Love of God It is remarkable that our Saviour when he taught his Disciples to pray tho' he taught them to pray for several Things yet annexes a Condition to that Petition alone by which they were to bâ—g Forgiveness of their Sins and afterwards gives them a Reason for his so doing because if they forgive not Men their Trespasses neither will their Father who is in Heaven forgive them their Trespasses By which we may understand that as we shall not be admitted into Heaven unless we be made like to God and as we shall not be admitted into Heaven unless God does forgive us our Sins so neither shall we be admitted into Heaven unless we be in this like to God that we do forgive their Sins to others In one Word the malicious ill-natur'd and uncharitable Man is one of the worst Companions in the World For he is very apt to do it always and for the most part actually does make all People uneasie where he comes and from thence we may be satisfied that he is very unlikely to come in for a Share of that Happiness which consists in Love And for that Reason we may be satisfied also that till he lays aside his Uncharitableness it will be impossible that he should be made Partaker of the Happiness of the Blessed 2. If our eternal Happiness must come from our ardent and eternal Love of God and Holiness then we should have a care that we do not place our Religion and by consequence our Hopes of eternal Happiness in such Things which have no real Holiness in them For it is a very great Mistake which yet perhaps runs thro all Sorts of Christians to think that such Things that are not good and holy will for ever make them happy For too many People do place not only their Religion but their Zeal for it too in such little and in themselves insignificant Observances and Practices which may be done or may be let alone and yet all the while they themselves be never the more either religious or holy For what Holiness for Instance can the Confession of the Sinner or the Absolution of the Priest confer upon that Man who has no other Design in his Confession but that he may go on to sin upon a new Score and so continue his Sin with a better Relish and with the less Reluctance Or What Holiness can the strict Observance of the Sabbath beget in that Man who therefore only obliges himself to a greater Severity upon that Day that he may by that Means compound with his Conscience for his fraudulent Dealings or his profligate and vicious Life all the rest of the Week Or How can any Man be the more holy because he lists himself under this or that Party or Sect when all the while he takes no care to do what God commands or to avoid what God forbids No! no! Holiness is a real Thing tho' it be not the Object of our Senses And this Thing only lodges in that Heart which by an humble Obedience conforms it self to God's Will and which by hearkning to his Voice is conformed to his Likeness And if any Man thinks to become Holy by any other Means he does but deceive his own Soul and by a fond and foolish Imagination exclude himself from that Happiness which shall only be bestowed upon those who shall be made like to him who is most happy that is who shall be holy as he is holy All they then who would make themselves happy must take care that they make themselves holy They must I say do so and they must be pleased that they have so done For he only
loves God who delights in Holiness and he only shall be happy who loves God 3. Since it has appeared that our most consummate Happiness does come from our perfect Love of Holiness and since perfect and unmixed Happiness is most certainly our Aim we do from thence conclude That Holiness ought in Prudence to be our Practice For as it is a Short-sightedness and at least a Degree of Folly not to seek our Happiness there where it may be found so not to seek it there where we are truly because rationally informed that it may be found is Madness For that Man may well be taxed of Frenzie who will not take that Way to Happiness to which he is directed by such Advice which is inculcated by the joint Suggestions of Revelation and Reason that is by the ordinary and extraordinary Light that God holds out to direct him in such Way Now to set home this Exhortation by convincing Men that the true and rational Way to their Happiness is by Holiness besides all that has hitherto been offered I would propose to their serious Consideration these Things following 1. That that Religion which has been confirmed by Prophecies from the Foundation of the World before it was revealed and which when and after it was revealed was confirmed by Multitudes of other Miracles and by the Resurrection of him from the Dead who did reveal it must as certainly have God for its Author as it is certain that such Miracles and such Predictions could only come from God 2. The Christian Religion and no other Religion either truly or falsely so called is the Religion which has this Character and therefore has God for its Author 3. That Religion which has God for its Author must needs be a true Religion 4. That Religion which has God for its Author must needs be an holy Religion 5. Since it is one of the greatest Businesses of Religion to instruct Men how to serve God the true Religion must even because it is true instruct Men how to serve God truly 6. He who truly serves God who is most holy must do so by living holily 7. He who lives holily pleases God For he complies with the Instructions of that Religion of which God is the Author 8. He who pleases God by complying with the Instructions of that Religion of which God is the Author shall not fall short of the End that God intended in his Institution of Religion Now it is most certain that God instituted Religion for the Sake and Benefit of Man and it as certain that God wills the Happiness of Man And therefore it is rational to infer That God instituted Religion to direct Man in the true Way to Happiness and that Way we have seen is Holiness 1. From all which I would infer First that which is to my present Design That the only Way for us to obtain Happiness is by our Practice of Holiness And what is not indeed so direct to my purpose but yet of good use 2. That the best and surest Way of guiding our Enquiries after the True Religion will be to keep our Eye all the while we are so employed stedfaitly fixed upon Holiness For we can much better tell what is good and honest than we can tell what is true Our Knowledge of the first therefore may prove a very good Guide to us in our Search after the last To which I would add 3. That to talk of Truth and Certainty and much more of Infallibility in Religion when the Determinations and Resolutions of such Certainty or Infallibility are mischievous or pernicious to the real Happiness of Mankind or any other ways wicked is Nonsense and Banter and is in deed and truth an Imposition upon Mens Understandings in order to damnifie the honest and real Interests and true Happiness of Mankind But to return to our Design That Men may be the more heartily engaged to believe what has been said and to practise what they shall so believe I shall still go on to press the present Exhortation more home by advising them to try the Experiment whether the Doctrine now delivered which is That our Happiness must come from our Practice and Love of Holiness be true or no. The Proposal is fair and reasonable and there is no Man who has not one way or other made a great many Experiments in the Case For our constant Desire of Happiness will always be putting us upon such Experiments And I dare be bold to say before we proceed any farther that if any Man's Trial has succeeded his Success does fall in with my Proposal and back the present Exhortation Now because our Happiness cannot as we have seen so much as be supposed to be lodged abroad but if it be our Happiness it must for that Reason be lodged within us at home and in our own possession therefore to engage Men to entertain our present Exhortation the more heartily and by confequence to make the Trial of the proposed Experiment the more willingly I would desire them by a serious Reflection to consider whether all Wickedness does not constantly bring Misery along with it into that Breast where it self is entertained For if we suppose a Man to be wicked we must at the same time for the most part for there is but one excepted Case suppose that he knows that he is so And when that is once supposed such a Supposition will acquaint us with these following Truths That he will have one Thought employed upon God's Law which commands his Duty and another Thought upon his own Actions which transgress that Law and a third Thought which shall by comparing the one with the other discover the Disagreement nay the Contrariety that is between the Law and such his Actions Now here are already Thoughts disagreeing and fighting with each other and by that Means a Civil War raised in his Breast the Effects of which in all Cases are sure to be not only mischievous but calamitous Let us then see a little farther and let us suppose what will yet be more than supposed for it will be certain But I say let us suppose that when by one Thought the Man has discovered the Contrariety between his own Actions and the Directive Part of the Law that thereupon he bestows another Thought upon the Vindictive Part of the Law and such a Chain of Thoughts is very natural and that by another Thought he applies such Vindictive Part of the Law that is the Threat of the Law to his own Actions and by consequence to his own dear Self And when this is once done then we may begin to be satissied that Multitudes of other Thoughts will presently rise in his Breast and those too filled with Doubt and Fear and Shame and Grief and all those other troublesom vexatious and tormenting Passions which are the natural Effects that follow upon the Contemplation of our own Guilt Now when all these boysterous and vexatious Thoughts do oppose themselves against
use of at that Time by the most celebrated Laws but also in Consideration of our Saviour's Purchase I say when we find Things so and that too in the Book of God wrote professedly on this Subject does it become us to think that the Holy Ghost the Indicter of these Things did only word himself at random Or ought we not rather to think that in so doing he had a Regard to those Legal Ways of Conveyances which were established by Man's Reason and Sense of Justice in those Laws which were then most current in the World We cannot I am sure we cannot rationally think so For why are we told that we are bought with a Price Why are we told that our Saviour purchased us with his Blood Why are we told that we are redeemed not with corruptible Things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ but that our Redemption and Salvation did as to the Justice and Equity of it answer to those Legal Ways of transferring of Rights from Man to Man For our Redemption was purchased by our Saviour so it is expresly worded and by him therefore conveyed and made over to us because otherwise it could in no Sense be called our Redemption Indeed a Purchase does in the very import of the Word imply the Acquisition of a Thing in a Legal way and by so doing does in the Nature of the Thing imply also a Legal Power of making over such Thing to another For he can only legally sell or otherwise give or convey who has a Legal Right in the Thing sold given or conveyed And he can only legally purchase who pays a Legal Price When therefore the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures does so word the Manner of God's bestowing and our receiving Salvation in and by our Saviour as to do it in such Terms which were at that time Terms of the most celebrated Law next to his own that ever yet was or perhaps ever will be in the World and when he does so frequently and almost constantly it would become us to believe and think that he designed and that too even by his manner of expressing the Thing to insinuate to us that the Salvation he all along speaks of was bestowed in a way of Conveyance at that time familiar among Mankind in such a way as was established both by their own Laws and by their own Practice in such a way that their best Reason granted to them by himself had set on foot And that upon this Account his way of doing it so as is by him expressed and that too all along in that very Book where he affords us the Discoveries of it is just equitable and legal I do but run over these Things and in a manner glance at them because I rather design to give an Hint to others more able so to do than to pursue them my self For if a Man well-studied in the Civil Law a Law that will weigh with Mankind so long as good and sound Reason has a free Passage in the World But I say would such a Man so throughly acquaint himself with the New-Covenant the Covenant of Grace in Jesus Christ as to be able exactly to compare it with that Law which is the Business of his Profession I do not at all question but that such a Comparison judiciously managed would go a great way in removing those Doubts which have been started by People of all Parties concerning Man's Redemption And because several Learned Men I know are very well versed in both those Laws I do the rather hope that God will put it into the Heart of some of them to bless the World with such a Christian and beneficial Piece of Learning But this by the by In the mean time from what has been said in short we may learn thus much That the Salvation of Man is the Purchase of the Son of God that the Benefit at least of such Purchase is by the Purchaser made over to Man that in Consideration of that Intimate Union that is between him and Man by his taking upon him the same Flesh and Blood with Man and by affording to Man the Communications of his Spirit a Way is opened as for the more congruous and equitable Way of such Conveyanee on the one Side so on the other Side for the more congruous and equitable Way of Man's entring upon the Possession of such Purchase and that when the whole Thing is strictly sifted and examined it will be found to be agreeable to the just and equitable Rules of Law as well as to the express and plain Revelations of the Gospel But I desist Only I would offer an Inference or two that may relate to our Practice before I do so 1. And first If God spared not his own Son when he had put himself into the Place of Sinners we may from thence conclude that neither will he spare us when we our selves are Sinners and that too by our own default For besides that he was and was so proclaimed by God himself his only Son in whom he was well pleased I say besides that the Generosity Charity and Candor of such an Undertaking as our Saviour's was by which he shewed more Tenderness to others than to himself may be thought to be a very considerable Motive even to Justice it self so far as is possible to remit to him a great deal of that Rigour and Severity which Sin does deserve And then if notwithstanding such his Undertaking yet he was fain to pay the uttermost Farthing that is to die how can we hope to escape if we the Original and therefore also the Principal Sinners come under the Severity of so exact a Justice We may be sure that the Portion of Vengeance allotted to us in such a Case will not be less severe For if God so treated his Beloved because interposing Son how do we think he will treat avowed and professed Rebels Or as our Saviour himself speaks in the like Case If these things are done in the green Tree what shall be done in the dry 2. And as this Consideration may serve us for Caution so the next that is the second may serve us for Consolation And I shall give it in the Words of the Apostle in the Eighth to the Romans ver 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all Things For his delivering up his Son for our sakes to become Man to lead an hard and uncomfortable Life and to die a miserable and scandalous Death that both by his Life and Death he might work out our Salvation is such an exalted Evidence of God's Love to us that Imagination it self can hardly conceive that any thing can extinguish it but our Ingratitude for it And our Natural Reason and Common Sense may easily instruct us that he whosoever he be that is ready and willing and that too even to Performance to do us the
greatest Kindness will not for that very Reason refuse us in a less It concerns us therefore as we would not reject the Kindness already offered and as we would not exclude our selves from all future Love and Kindness to make good our Gratitude by receiving our Saviour and that Salvation which he brings along with him with a due Acknowledgment and Respect and to make good such our Respect and such our Acknowledgment by receiving him upon any but more especially upon his own Terms Let us therefore cast away our Sins that we may receive him Let us by loving each other practice our selves to love and receive him Let us receive him by receiving the Pledges of his Love exhibited to us in the Sacrament of his most Blessed Body and Blood And let us not think that Christ crucified will profit us any thing if we do not so receive him as he requires and therefore also so receive him as we ought For he does in effect refuse the Gift who refuses the Instrument of Conveyance by which such Gift is to be signed and made over to him And it is irrational and imprudent to expect the Love of him the Pledges of whose Love we do reject Let us cast off therefore every evil Work every Sin that does beset us and gird up the Loins of our Mind as the Scripture speaks and do the Work of Christians in all Cases whatsoever that so at last we may receive the blessed Wages of such Work through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour CHAP. XII That besides the Saviour's Righteousness imputed God will after their Resurrection endow Believers with a perfect inherent and eternal Holiness How the Saviour did fit and prepare Men for such an Holiness BY what has been hitherto discoursed we have seen 1. That God in a Saviour has made Provision for the Expiation of Man's Sin in order to save him from the Vengeance of the Law the just Wages of such Sin 2. We have seen that he has not barely provided for Man's Escape from the Vengeance of the Law by the Merits of his Saviour's Death but that he has also provided for his positive and future Happiness by the Merit of his Saviour's Obedience 3. But yet in what is now to follow we shall find that his Mercy has not stopped here because in the third place he will in and through our Saviour endow Man with a perfect and inherent Holiness By which I mean such an holy Angelical and withal durable Frame of Spirit that shall for ever secure him from all possible Sin and shall for ever engage him in a vigorous and chearful Discharge of all holy Duties and in so doing shall both accompany and secure his Happiness to all Eternity For tho' it be confessed that Believers do by the Communications and Assistances of the Spirit arrive to a Degree of such an Holiness in this Life yet it must be confessed also that it is but an imperfect Degree For it is not vigorous nor uniform nor constant but irresolute and weak and therefore has its frequent Intermissions and Failings But as we shall see more fully in what is to follow the Holiness of the Saints in Glory is like their Happiness firm lasting and immutable and therefore will be found to be a Gift of God in Christ that does vastly if not infinitely exceed the most refined Holiness of the very best Man in this Vale of Sin and Misery It shall be the Business then of our present Undertaking to make it good that besides that Title which Believers in another World shall have to their Saviour's Righteousness in order to their future Happiness that they themselves shall be endowed with a perfect inherent and indefectible Holiness in order to the secure Eternity of such their Happiness Now to put this Matter into a clear Light that so we may be the more rationally satisfied in all that is to follow we lay it down First That God by his Almighty Power having made the World and all particular Beings in it has by virtue of such his Creation an undoubted Right and Title to the Dominion over all Things so by him created And that therefore all his Creatures ought to be in Subjection to him and to act according to the Determinations of his Will And it is hardly to be doubted but that all those Creatures which by the Boundaries of their Creation are devoid of Understanding and Free-will do constantly act according to those Impresses and Powers that God in their Formation has stamped upon them in a regular Subordination to such his Will And the Scriptures do give us not only frequent Hints but also express Declarations that so they do Now as God created those lower Creatures so did he the higher and those which are endowed with more noble Faculties And because among such Creatures upon whom he has bestowed an Understanding to enable them to know his Will and with a Will to enable them to chuse Obedience to such his Will we are not acquainted with any other but Angels and Men and because our Design is only concerned about them and chiefly about the latter therefore directly to our present Purpose we take notice That some of the Angels first and by their Instigation the first Man and because all Men ever since do derive from him in a Lineal Propagation therefore also all Mankind by transgressing God's Will made known to them in his Laws have revolted from their Allegiance to him and have by so doing in effect renounced and disclaimed that their Subjection to his Dominion which was if I may so speak his natural and essential Right For Wickedness is a professed and avowed Renunciation of that Subjection which Rational Creatures owe to their Holy and Rightful Lord and King even the God that made them And for that Reason it is an Encroachment upon his Anthority for it does lessen and contract the Extent of his Kingdom For because a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of his Kingdom and because all those Laws by which its Administration is executed are in themselves Holy Just and Good it is upon that Account very obvious to conceive that Wickedness so far as it goes does defeat such Administration and overturn such Laws and by so doing does diminish the Authority and encroach upon the Jurisdiction and Dominion of the Rightful and Supreme Lord. Now from what has been thus spoken in short we may easily understand that the faln Angels having first revolted themselves and by their Sin withdrawn their Allegiance and Subjection to their most Holy and Supreme Lord did what other Rebels after their Example and perhaps by their Instigation have done to weak and short-sighted People by false Colours and taking Delusions invite Mankind into the same Revolt and Rebellion with themselves and by so doing draw away a Part of God's Kingdom and Dominion and in opposition to his Holiness that is in opposition to God himself set up a Kingdom of