without it self in any of the motions of his love whatever So that thence the spirit evidenceth to the soul that it were a denying of the glory of the God-head to conceive that God should look out of himself for any argument any motive any incentive that should either excite or incline the divine will to any motions of love whatever to wards any creature II. The spirit evidenceth the absolute will of the Father alone to be the first principle and also the only cause of admission of souls into union and communion with the Lord Jesus So that both the purpose of God to accept souls into union and also the execution of that his purpose do depend only upon the Lords bare will and good pleasure According to that in Eph. 1.5 6 compared with ver 9. III. The spirit evidenceth the Lord Christs willingness to accept of souls into union to be only done through the Commission that he received from the good pleasure of his Fathers will concerning such souls According to that in John 6.37 38. When he saith he would reject no one soul in no wise under no consideration whatever he gives this reason for I came down from Heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me There is a fifth beam of light that the spirit causeth to shine forth from the Gospel and that is Fifth beam of divine light The admirable and incomprehensible fulness of all perfection of love and mercy that is comprehended in this tender of union with the Lord Christ to every particular Soul that will accept it Notwithstanding those former beams of divine light there is a two fold necessity for the Spirit to cause this beam of divine light also to sparkle before the souls eyes I. That there may be a fulness of sufficiency to produce acts of Faith in a soul by way of fulness of confidence and assurance And in this regard there is a necessity of the spirits casting this beam of light also before the souls eyes to open the incomprehensible perfection of all kind of love that the soul soul can imagine he should have the least necessity of II. To excite and quicken the affections to more enlarged operations or workings Though there hath been a former apprehension of the infinite perfection of love in the tender of the union yet there is no answerable working of affection towards the union unless there be that very actual Vision Now when the operation of the affections towards the union tendered are but small then the souls assurance of its acting of Faith by way of fulness of confidence of its union with Christ is but in a small degree Therefore it is in this respect that the spirit doth manifest the absolute compleat incomprehensible perfection of love that is included in the tender of union And this the spirit doth in divers particulars 1. The spirit reveals the Lords tender of passing over himself and all that is in himself wholly unto souls through this union with Christ For the evidencing this the spirit only brings to remembrance the sum of all the promises according to the Lords own abstract and Compendium that he hath made of them And that is this That God hath said he will be the souls God in Christ Here are two particulars included under this one depth First The spirit manifests that the highest interest that is possible to make a soul capable of in the infinite perfection of God himself is offered to be passed over to the soul in the tender of union Secondly The spirit manifests that the Lord offers in this tender of union to interest the soul in himself with such an interest as should be most sutable for the fullest communication of himself to the soul that it shall be as proper and peculiar for God to love the soul as it should be proper to the nature of God to be loving himself 2. The spirit reveals that the Lord hath laid the highest obligation upon himself to be the souls own in all that he is in his passing over himself unto the soul through that union with Christ This the spirit manifests by bringing to remembrance the Lords asseverations and protestations and highest oath that he adds unto that his word that declares him to pass over himself unto souls through their union with Christ Hebr. 6.13 3. The spirit reveals the Lords establishing the transactions of himself and all that is in himself over to the soul through its union with Christ upon his own will alone on purpose that there might be a fulness of all love contained in him Three particular ends the spirit may bring to the Souls remembrance for the clearing of this First That there might be no possibility of an alteration of that perfect love of his to a soul through union with Christ by any Power or Possibility of the soul The Holy Ghost affirms Rom. 11.9 The Lords Election of love to be meerly established upon his own will for that end that the Election might stand being not of Works but of Grace That is that it might be certain being unchangable So as the souls wickedness and wretchedness rising to what height soever yet it might not be able to make an alteration in that perfect love So Rom. 9.16 Secondly That there might be a fulness of love and to make a constant immutable ground for his peoples faith to rest upon him for the perfection of of his love towards them This the spirit may reveal to the soul from that in Hebr. 6.17 18. The Lord is said to add the confirmation of his Oath that there might be two immutable grounds in which it was impossible for God to Lie Thirdly That his people might have a sufficient satisfactory consolation from that fulness of his love in all necessities upon all occasions and at all times That by two immutable things they might have strong consolation 4. The spirit reveals the Lords undertaking to effect in and for the soul the whole transaction of himself over unto the soul through his union with Christ by the Almighty Power of his own love alone Eph. 2.5 The whole work of Salvation is attributed to nothing but love The Spirit reveals this two ways First The spirit reveals that the Lord hath engaged himself by promise to effect the transaction of himself over unto the soul by the Almighty Power of his love Isaiah 41.10 11. Secondly The spirit remembers the soul of the necessity that the Lord hath imposed upon Jesus Christ to effect it John 10.16 5. The spirit reveals that the Lord hath undertaken the sutable tempering and disposing of the soul for all sutable walking in union with the Lord Jesus that is tendered This the spirit may and doth evidence from that in Jer. 31.33 Where the Lord reveals it to be the very Covenant This shall be my Covenant or this shall be the love that I will promise This is part of Gods love to souls
the property of the Divine nature to communicate all its perfections so far as they can be communicable and also seeing every Soul embracing Gospel-discoveries is the proper object to which that perfection of the Lords mercy and compassion is to be communicated thence the Spirit may cause the Soul to conclude that the Lord stands engaged by the inseparable property of his Divine nature to make every such Soul accepting Gospel discoveries to be the object of the highest mercy and compassion Now from hence the Spirit may give the Soul full security of the fulfilling the Gospel discoveries into his bosom whatever objections it is possible for the wisdom of Hell and the corrupt Heart to make against it All the objections that are possible to be imagined by the extract and quintessence of all Wisdom that is enmity against God say no more but this concerning the Soul that it is a miserable lost undone Soul If the Soul objects the superlative height of his own wickedness if Iâ— object the long continuance in its wickedness if it object the wretched contempt of mercy and love tendered if it object the want of holiness the want of every good disposition imaginable if it object the most cursed crookedness and enmity of Heart against the blessed tenders of love and begin to draw these conclusions from these premises therefore surely Gospel discoveries cannot be fulfilled into my bosom if I should rely upon the Lord for the fulfilling of them yet the Soul in all these objections says but this one thing I am a poor miserable despicable wretch in the depth of misery Now then the Spirit may manifest to the Soul that in its accepting those Gospel discoveries it shall be the proper object of all mercy and compassions So that God shall be engaged by the inseparable property of his own nature to let out his transcendent bowels of mercy and compassion in their freedom of working towards the Soul so as to fill it with the fulness of mercy and compassion And thence the Spirit may convince the Soul that either he must conclude that his finite misery exceeds the infiniteness of the Lords mercies and compassions or else the Soul must conclude that notwithstanding all objections that can be imagined yet in his accepting the Gospel discoveries they shall infallibly be fulfilled to the utmost into his bosom 3. Hereby the Spirit may manifest the Lord to be engaged by all his sweetest contentments his most pleasing delight that he naturally takes in beholding the workings of his own perfections towards poor imperfect creatures to supply every want that can possibly be imagined to be in any Soul As it is the property of the Lords nature to be dispensing of his fulness to empty ones so it is the Lords infinite delight to behold those streams of his fulness running down in a sutable way into their Souls Now the Spirit may manifest the Lord to be engaged by that his own contentment that he naturally takes in beholding his own perfections communicated unto others to communicate all sutable succour relief help and comfort to every such Soul as shall embrace those Gospel discoveries 5. A fifth engagement the Lord hath laid upon himself to fulfill Gospel discoveries is That every particular Soul that shall and will embrace Gospel discoveries is the peculiar chosen object of the Lords highest most unspeakable everlasting delight and contentment Thence it is that the Word reveals that the Lord taketh such infinite pleasure in his own as in Psal 147.11 The Lord taketh pleasure in those that fear him in those that hope in his mercy I pray observe it in this is comprehended every Soul that doth in the lowest degree embrace Gospel discoveries This manifests that the Soul that doth in the most trembling timerous way but reach out a feeble Hand of hope to lay hold upon that rich mercy tendered in the Lord Jesus to it is the object of the Lords pleasure and contentment even those Souls that are far from drawing any conclusion only they cast out the anchor of hope and venture their lost perishing Souls upon the rock of mercy that is discovered in the Lord Jesus 1. The Spirit may reveal them to be the object of the highest most superlative everlasting delight and contentment that is the object of the highest delight that God takes in any object out of himself The same superlative delight that the Father takes in Jesus Christ as Mediator he takes in the Soul united to him 2. Every such Soul is destinated to be the object wherein the Lord would as it were concenter together in one all the blessed motions of his own delight and contentment Jesus Christ mystically considered that is considered with his Body of holy Angels and Souls of those that were lost sinners united to him is the very center wherein all the lines of the Lords delight and contentment meet perfectly together in one Now every Soul embracing Gospel discoveries being taken into the perfect unity of the mystical Body becomes through its union into the mystical Body as it were a part of the center wherein all the lines of the delight of God meet together There are four kinds of the Lords delight that every such Soul that embraceth Gospel discoveries is the chosen object of 1. Every such Soul is the chosen object of all the highest everlasting delight of God that he takes in the letting out his love in its perfection towards any thing without himself The Lords most natural peculiar delight is in love because his Essence and being is love Now every such Soul is the chosen object of the highest perfection of love considered as one of that mystical Body Hence it is said Zeph. 3.17 He will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love that is to say he will take satisfaction and contentment to his own Soul in loving of thee for indeed delight is nothing else but love in rest as desire is love in motion 2. Every such Soul so considered is the object of all the most superlative delight of God that he takes in the actual communication of his goodness It is so natural for God who is goodness it self to be communicating his goodness to others that his Soul is filled with pleasure and contentment in the letting forth of his goodness 3. Every such Soul embracing Gospel discoveries is the object of all the delights and contentments that the Lord takes in himself in the contemplation of the transcendent glory of his own supereminent excellency Now there are no other objects than that mystical Body of Christ that are the objects of any of the delights of God that he takes from the contemplation of his own superlative glory seeing his own excellencies that he contemplateth upon are no other then he communicateth to that mystical Body So that all the delight pleasure and contentment that the Lord can receive from the pretious views of the brightness of his own glory
or precious habit of love to Jesus Christ in the soul is an effect of the Covenant of Grace it self Now that the Covenant should be made to that which is the proper effect of the Covenant of Grace it self no man can conceive And that demonstration is sufficient to clear all other promises of this nature So if you examine the promise made to fear Psal 34.7 8. The Angels of the Lord pitch their tents about them that fear him It is taken for a promise but it is only the priviledge of the Saints So likewise look to all the promises of obedience Deut. 5.10 The Lord reserves mercy for a thousand generations of them that love him and keep his commandments There is a large promise that seems to be made to obedience But no soul understanding the absolute decree of God from eternity can conceive the obedience of any soul should be the motive that should move God to shew mercy to the soul or body or that God should bind himself to his own people yielding obedience to him to become a debtor to their posterity in respect of their obedience for then the mercies their posterity should enjoy should owe their immediate being and the glory of their being to their immediate ancestors and not to God as the immediate cause of the being of their mercies Therefore these are only declarations of the priviledges of the people of God and all these promises are only manifestations of his goodness to them for the manifestation of the riches of his Grace for refreshing their spirits and for the causing them to be precious in the esteem of others 3. If those promises that seeem to be made to qualities in the soul as unto conditions be not thus then they are only descriptions of the persons of those that God doth interest in the glorious priviledges of Christ by the special peculiar Graces that God communicates to them Or else 4. They are discoveries of the means through which God doth convey those priviledges of Christ and of the Covenant of Grace unto persons Of this nature is that promise which seems to be made to a condition Isa 57.17 Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit This that seems to be a promise made to a soul indued by the Spirit of God with the Grace of Humility it is but either a description of those persons whom the Lord doth interest in his own special favour out of the riches of his own Grace alone Or else it is a precious Cordial given to a poor drooping Spirit as considered in an estate of penury and poverty as one contrite and ready to give up himself Of this nature are all those promises made to believing and repenting He that believeth and repenteth shall be saved The promise of salvation is not made unto faith as a special grace of God in the soul nor to the person indued with that grace But the thing it self properly is no promise but rather a description of the means through which the Lord makes his people partakers of the special priviledg he conveys through Christ and of the persons he communicates them to by their qualities 5. Those words of God that seem to be promises made unto conditions if none of the four former things contain them then they are descriptions given by the Holy Ghost of the way the Lord requires and inables his people to walk in while he communicates of his own free mercy to them Of this nature is that place so mistaken Ezek 36.27 28 29 30 which is the greatest place conceived to be of weight to prove promises to be made to conditions saith the Lord I will do these and these things for you I will bring you into your Land and make you dwell quietly and safely in your Land and I will save you from your Vncleanness c. But v. 37. Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them Generally the soul conceives here is the promise and the condition of the promise The promise to be the multitude of Mercies And the condition to be the seeking of the face of God But the meaning of the Holy Ghost is nothing else but to describe the way the Lord requires his people to walk in whilst they are in expectation to receive those precious mercies freely promised by God for them Likewise that in 1 Kings 8 47 48. Solomon prays for his people If they bethink themselves in the Land whither they were carried Captives and repent and make Supplication c. Now saith the Soul here is both the promise and the condition of the promise The condition is seeking Gods face humbling themselves for their Sins turning to God with all their hearts And then there is the promise that God will deliver them but they must observe these conditions else God binds not himself to give deliverance Now the true meaning of the Holy Ghost is only this Solomon in praying here at the dedication of his Temple the Typical House of God beseecheth the Lord that the prayers of all his people made towards that Temple that is towards Jesus Christ typified by that Temple and according to the will of God that they might be all acceptable to God Therefore observe Solomon in praying doth only describe the frame of spirit in Gods people when they come to pray which is an humble frame a turning frame from their Sins Neither doth God make the promises in either of both those places to depend upon any of these duties named not so much as prayer it self Therefore for the clearing these Texts I pray consider these things which may be useful for us for the right understanding the Covenant of grace and the nature of it I. That the duties here required by God from his people are the way wherein it is his will his people should walk in receiving mercies They are not precedent in order of time before the Lords intituling the soul to the whole Covenant of grace and every promise contained in it no nor so much as in order of nature That is that it must be presupposed that the soul have performed such and such duties before it can be presupposed the Lord to have interested the soul in every promise of the Covenant of grace And that will appear in these two things First that the act of the Lords will alone before and without any act of the will of man concurring doth fully intitle the soul to every promise of the Covenant of grace Otherwise it should be conceived that there should be some good will in man towards God before there be any good will in God towards man And so some act of good will from man to God should not flow from the acts of Gods good will to the soul Secondly in regard the
and the same essence and so the same essential glory with himself should take upon him that frail vile despicable nature of Man 2. In regard the Father deprived himself for a season of his highest delight his most infinite contentment for the effecting those Gospel mercies The Fathers delight is in Communion and the higher degree of Communion the higher is the delight of God Therefore it is said Prov. 8.31 That he delights in the habitable parts of the Earth and with the Sons of Men that is because there are Creatures capable of Communion with God there are empty Vessels that he may be pouring out of his transcendent fulness into Now God deprived himself of his own highest delight in withdrawing the communications of himself from that his dearly beloved Son that he was forced to complain My God my God why hast thou forsaken me 3. It cost the Father the very death yea the accursed death of the most dearly beloved of his Soul the Lord Jesus He delivered him up to death for us saith the Apostle Yea it cost the Father the suffering the execution of his full wrath and indignation upon the dearly beloved of his Soul Secondly It must be opened that the Father was at the highest cost and charge in effecting that mercy for Souls that shall embrace the Lord Christ tendered on purpose to make it the surer to Souls apprehensions to give them the fuller security of all that the Gospel discovers This will appear in three things I. In regard there was no absolute necessity in respect of God himself to effect that which the Gospel discovers for Souls embracing Christ in that way at such high cost and charge to himself That will appear in two things 1. In regard there was a fulness of power in the Lords mercy to give absolute pardon unto sinners irrespectively to satisfaction The Lord being the high Soveraign of Heaven and Earth whose sole incommunicable property is that his will is the original of all Law the original of the being of all goodness he hath an absolute power in his own mercy to have given an absolute pardon to every transgression committed against his own Law The Lords Will being the only rule that he walks by and that Will of his being altogether independent hath a power within it self to have given an absolute pardon to every transgression against his Will 2. In regard the Lord in the effecting of the love and mercy that the Gospel discovers to Souls did not proceed according to the exactest rule of Justice Do not mistake me I mean not according to the height and rigor of Justice as Justice which of necessity must have been had the Lord been bound to his Justice to proceed that way That appears in two things First The highest exact rule of Justice admits of no surety in capital Crimes It requires the individual person to be the sufferer of the evil threatned for the breach of the Law that was the transgressor of the Law The voice of exact Justice was only in this wise The Soul that sinneth shall die without any admission of any Surety Now it is apparent that the Lord himself in the bringing about or effecting the Love and Mercy that the Gospel discovers unto Souls he propounds this way to admit of a Surety Those that were the offenders of Justice were not sufferers under Justice but another steps in and bears the stroke of Justice that in regard of his own personal transgression was not guilty of the breach of the Law or of the Offence against Justice Secondly Were it possible for exact Justice to admit a Surety yet not possible for exact Justice to find out a Surety working still as Justice Justice never looks further than the Transgressor himself to exact Justice upon unless it be to lay the merit and desert of the transgressor in some degree upon all that have dependance upon him Never came a thought into Justice as Justice of remitting the least degree of punishment of the Transgressor yet you see in the way that he proceeds he casts about in his own thoughts to find out one sufficient to bear all the burden of wrath and indignation that is due to Transgressors themselves The Lord in his design of glorifying his Justice in effecting Love and Mercy for Souls discovered in the Gospel he proceeds only according to Love it self yea according to nothing else but Love in respect of Souls it being an act of simple absolute pure Love to impute the transgression of the poor guilty Spirit to the spotless Lamb the Lord Jesus as if he had been to have pardoned those Transgressors and to have delivered them clearly from Sin without the imputation of those Transgressions to another Therefore observe the whole Work of Salvation though contrived by the infinite Wisdom of God that Mercy and Justice might meet together and kiss each other it is attributed to Love alone Eph. 2.5 By Grace or Love ye are saved So Tit. 3.4 5. Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us Still the whole Work is attributed to the Fathers Love 2. There was no absolute necessity of Gods being at that cost and charge to procure Love and Mercy for Souls that would embrace him in respect of the Souls themselves that were to be partakers of it That will appear in two things 1. In regard Souls partaking of that Love and Mercy that the Gospel discovers were not the Objects of that Love and Mercy primarily by that cost and charge that the Lord was at in the Death of Christ to effect that Love and Mercy If you observe the whole Current of the Scripture it runs thus God so loved the World that he gave Christ To us a Child is born to us a Son is given So that Christ being a Gift of Love unto the Soul it could not be that they should be made objects of Love primarily by that Gift that is originally in the first place Christ was therefore given because they were first beloved not they beloved because Christ given seeing the Love of God was fixed upon all its peculiar objects that ever it should be fixed upon in that Gift and then Christ himself came forth as a Gift of that fixed Love it could not be that they should be primarily made objects of Love by the Lords effecting that Love and Mercy for them through his great Cost of giving the dearly beloved of his Soul for them 2. Those Souls that shall embrace Christ tendered in the Gospel were the Objects of that Gospel-Love and Mercy discovered in order of nature before the Lords intention to effect that Gospel-Love and Mercy for them by that his own cost in giving his own Son The Lord Christ is discovered as the Means by which God brings about the conveyance of his Love unto his beloved ones and the End is discovered in the Gospel to be the Glory of his own Love
be rendred thus forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and in purifying he will not purifie or in absolving will not absolve not mentioning either wicked ones or guilty ones or any person whatever For indeed it seems to be a kind of contradiction should the words run thus The Lord forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and will by no means clear the guilty therefore I shall hold to the words as they may be most nearly rendred that is forgiving sin and cleansing from sin he will not cleanse visiting the Iniquitie of the Fathers upon the Children And then if you observe this title of the Lords Honour is only thus much That he is the Lord forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and upon whom he will visiting the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children including thus much that the Lord doth and will exercise his Mercy his Grace his long-suffering and his abundant goodness unto Souls only upon the motions of his own will upon no other ground but because he will and to no other persons upon no other respect but only to those whom himself freely will And then that includes the last Beam of the Gospel-light after all the other formerly discovered which indeed is the very Mystery of the Gospel it self and that is that all those Gospel-dispensations are only to those persons whom the Lord will and upon no other ground but the Lords Will though they be so tendered to every loveless Soul in general that will embrace him So that thus now you see the first thing cleared That all Gospel-discoveries are at least virtually included in the Lords own Name Secondly It must be cleared That the Soul may behold by believing the Credit and Honour of this blessed Name of God engaged for his security and for the fuller assurance of the Soul of all that the Gospel discovers to it This may be opened two wayes 1. In general 2. More particularly discovering the particular security the Soul may have against all fears and scruples that is possible for the Soul to apprehend in its security First In general it appears That the Soul may behold the Credit of the Lords Name engaged for his security and assurance in regard there is nothing that the Gospel discovers unto Souls but the same is included in the blessed Name of God Two things follow from hence 1. The Soul may be assured that there is an impossibility of the Lords changing that his ever blessed Name The Word is gone out of the mouth of God that that 's his Name for ever and that is his Memorial to all Generations Thence the Soul may assure it self that though Heaven and Earth pass away and melt like wax yet not one Title of what the Gospel discovers can possibly fall to the ground seeing it is impossible that the highest Majesty of Heaven and Earth can change 2. From thence the Soul may conclude That thete is a Necessity for the blessed God to deny himself and to trample under his feet his dearest Glory if the least Title of whatever the Gospel reveals should fail seeing all is included in his Name for ever Secondly The Soul may behold through believing the Credit of the Lords Name to be engaged for his security of what the Gospel discovers in particular against all fears and scruples 1. The Credit and Honour of the Lords Name is engaged That there can be no depth of misery so deep as relief and succour should not be in Christ for the poor perishing sinking Soul That 's the very first Title of the Lords Honour that concurs to make up his Name He is merciful that is he hath bowels of mercy for Souls in the depth of the greatest misery Thence the Soul may conclude that the honour of that blessed Title of the Lords Name must fail that Link in the Golden Chain must be cut asunder should the most unspeakable depth of misery that ever Soul was plunged in be a case hopeless or helpless 2. The Credit and Honour of the Lords ever blessed Mame is engaged that there may be a free receiving of the most loveless Soul into love and favour that hath nothing but what is abominable to the blessed pure eyes of God within him You see the second Title of his Honour is The Lord Gracious that is receiving into favour freely undeserving wretches undesired wretches without respect to any thing in them So that when the poor scrupulous Soul shall begin to fear that there is not ground enough in the Gospel of Jesus Christ for him to roll himself into that blessed open bosom of the Lords love in Christ with a confidence of the willingness of the Lord to accept his loveless Soul into favour then he may behold the Credit and Honour of his Name to be engaged for the Souls security to assure it that the most forlorn Soul that is nothing else but Sin that can do nothing else but sin may be freely admitted into that bosom of his love to be an object of all favour and all kindness whatsoever 3. The Credit and Honour of the Lords blessed Name is engaged for the bearing with the most crooked Soul in his crookedness for a season and his waiting to receive the most crooked Soul into favour and love The Name of the Lord you see is Long-suffering that is he that bears long before he executes any wrath Hence the Credit of the Lords Name is engaged to secure Souls of what the Gospel reveals in three particulars 1. To secure the Sinner of acceptance into favour that hath most desperately and rebelliously for a long time neglected Grace and Mercy 2. Hence the Credit of the Lords Name is engaged for the continuance of his Favour towards the most crooked perverse heart notwithstanding his crookedness So that the Gospel reveals an impossibility for Sin or all the Powers of Hell to force the Soul from the blessed bosom of the Lords love in Christ where it hath once taken up its rest 4. The Credit of the Lords Name is engaged to secure the empty Soul of all fulness of Grace and Mercy that is sutable to his necessity to be contained in the bosom of God in Christ for the Soul embracing him The Gospel saith Eph. 3.8 there is unsearchable riches in Christ and the Lord calls his Name Abundant in goodness what is the difference between these two Riches is nothing but goodness or good things considered as they are in abundance and you see the Lords Name is called Abundant in goodness So that here the Credit of the Lords Name is engaged to secure the Soul against all that can possibly be objected in regard of his own emptiness poverty and nothingness So that 1. In case the Soul fears it hath no strength to yield obedience to what the Lord commands and thereupon begins to fear that all the Gospel discovers to him shall be made of no effect presently through believing the Soul may behold not only that the Gospel hath
them 1. Thereby God is engaged by his dearest love to his own delight and contentment in the ministration of all his holy things here below to make the person of every Soul that shall accept Gospel-discoveries to be compleatly acceptable and well pleasing in his own eyes The delight of the Lord in every act of his own Worship hath its primary dependence upon the delight that the Lord takes in the Worshippers as in Mal. 1.10 Saith the Lord to them I have no pleasure in you neither will I accept an offering at your hand Their persons were not amiable in Gods eyes and therefore their offering could not be acceptable And so it is said The Lord had respect to Abel and to his Offering It was through the respect the Lord had to Abel's person that he had any respect to his Offering So that now seeing the Lord hath predestinated every such Soul accepting Gospel-discoveries to be a Priest to minister to himself in all his holy things should not the Lord make the person of every such Soul compleatly acceptable in his own eyes he must rob himself of all his Contentment and delight he should take in all his holy things here below 2. Hereby the Lord is engaged by his tender care of preserving his holy things from pollution to purifie cleanse and sanctifie the most unclean polluted Soul that shall accept those Gospel-discoveries Every approach to God with an uncircumcised heart was accounted by God a pollution of his own Sanctuary Ezek. 44.7 And likewise the Lord accounts every approach to himself by an unregenerate and unsanctified heart now in Gopel-times to be a pollution of any Ordinance whatever that the soul maketh his approach to God in This the Lord typically signified to his Church in its minority in the manner of the consecrating the Priests to himself that were to offer those Legal Sacrifices Lev. 1.6 When Moses consecrated Aaron and his Sons he washed them which signified the cleansing of them from pollutions the Lord intending to reveal this that they were only sanctified cleansed purified hearts who were sutable to offer any Spiritual Sacrifice that should be acceptable in his eyes Neither must you conceive this to be a bare revelation to Souls of what their hearts ought to be in their approach to God but it is also a revelation what the Lord intended they should be through his mighty power working in their hearts Now hence the Spirit may give the Soul full security concerning the fulfilling Gospel-discoveries to it in its embracing and accepting them 1. When the heart is staggering and wavering in regard of the want of all holy enlivened heavenly dispositions in his Spirit and finding uncleanness and filthiness The Spirit may here reveal the Lord to be engaged that in case the polluted unclean heart of his shall accept Gospel-Discoveries it shall be sanctified cleansed purified 2. When the strength and tyrannizing power of any cursed Lust is causing the Soul to question whether love and mercy revealed for loveless sinners that will accept it should be made out to his Soul in his embracing it The Spirit may here discover the Lord as well to be engaged in the Souls reliance upon him to make him the Object of that love and mercy to cleanse his Soul from that cursed pollution to deliver it from under the tyranny of such a hellish disposition as well as to be engaged to make out love and mercy to the Soul in any other kind whatever 4. A Fourth Engagement the Lord hath laid upon himself for the fulfilling Gospel-discoveries is this That every Soul accepting those Gospel-discoveries is the peculiar chosen Vessel of the Lords most superlative mercies and compassions This you may see in Rom. 9.23 That he might make known the riches of his Glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto Glory You may observe that every called Soul that is every Soul answering those sweet Soul-melting invitations of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus is here affirmed to be a Vessel of mercy prepared by God himself from eternity for that very end Now from hence the Spirit may give abundant security to the questioning scrupulous Soul of the infallible fulfilling of all the Gospel-discoveries to every Soul that shall embrace them 1. Herein the Spirit may manifest the Lord to be engaged by his intire and infinite love to his own glory and mercy to redeem and deliver every Soul that is plunged into the most bottomless depth of sin and misery if he will and shall accept those pretious Gospel-discoveries to it So that the Lord through his own admirable contrivance of his design of love towards loveless forlorn sinners hath so interested himself in the perfecting of that pretious design that he stands engaged as strongly and powerfully to give perfect redemption and deliverance to lost sinners that shall embrace Gospel-discoveries as he stands engaged to maintain and support the honour of those his glorious Attributes of his own mercy and compassion Now there are three things wherein the honour of the Lords mercy consists First In the free workings of it towards the most miserable objects that are the most unworthy of any pitty and compassion that can be imagined Secondly In the transcendency of its operations or motions Thirdly In the infinite Almighty power of its workings towards such unworthy objects of it That 's thus it hath such an Almighty power in it not only to succour and relieve those perishing undone ones in their misery but also to confer the highest degree of all happiness upon them Now the honour of the Lords mercy and compassion consisting in this hence the Lord stands engaged by his dearest love to that honour of this his mercy to give perfect redemption to the Soul that is plunged in the most unfathomed depth of sin and misery if the Soul shall and will embrace those Gospel-discoveries 2. Hence the Spirit may manifest the Lord to be engaged by the inseperable properties of his Divine nature to communicate a fulness of all mercy and compassion to every Soul accepting those Gospel-discoveries The Essential property of the Divine nature is to be issuing forth the bottomless depths of perfection that are included in it into the bosom of poor needy empty penurious ones It is as natural to the Divine nature to be communicating of its own perfections as it is natural for the Sun to send forth its own pretious raies And then this being the very nature of the Essence and being of any good by how much the higher the goodness of any thing is by so much the more strongly is it inclined and disposed to the communicating of himself So that goodness it self in its perfection being in the Divine nature thence it is that it is the inseparable property of the Divine nature to be communicating all its perfections so far as they are communicable Now thence the Spirit may cause the Soul to conclude that seeing it is