above others When Christ himself had spoken the fore-cited words it s said in the next Verses 28 29. that All they in the Synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the City and led him to the brow of the hill whereon their City was built that they might cast him down headlong This was the entertainment of Christ himself when he did but declare how few it is that God will save and for whole sakes he specially sends his Messengers And must we incur all this for magnifying you and will you dishonour your selves Is all our study and labour for you and our lives for you and all things for you and will not you be wholly and to the utmost of your strength for God Are you cull'd out of all the World for Salvation and will you not answer this admirable differencing Grace by an admirable difference from those that must perish and by an admirable excellency in meekness humility self-denial and heavenliness above other men 6. Moreover you know more and have a greater experience to assist you than others have and therefore you should excel them accordingly Others have but heard of the odiousness of sin but you have seen and felt it Others have heard of Gods displeasure but you have tasted it to the breaking or bruising of your hearts You have been warned at the very quick as if Christ had spoken to your very flesh and Bones Go thy way sin no more left a worse thing come unto thee And as Ezra said Chap. 9.13 After all that is come upon us should we again break thy Commandements wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us So if after all your spiritual experiences after so many tasts of the bitterness of sin and groans and prayers and cryes against it you shall yet live as like to the wicked as you dare and be familiar with that which hath cost you so dear how do you think that God must take this at your hands You have tasted of the sweetness of the Love of Christ and wondered at the unspeakable Riches of his Grace You have tasted the sweetness of the hopes of Glory and of the powers of the World to come You have perceived the necessity and excellency of holiness by inward experience And if after all this you will draggle on the earth and live below your own experiences contenting your selves with an Infancy of Love and Life and fruitfulness how much do you then transgress against the Rules of Reason and of Equity 7. Moreover All the World expecteth much more from you than from any others God expecteth more from you for he hath given you more and meaneth to do more for you Must you be in the eternal Joyes of Heaven when all your unsanctified Neighbours are in torments and yet will you not more endeavour to excel them Is it not unreasonable to expect to be set eternally at so vast a distance from the ungodly world even as far as Heaven is from Hell and yet to be content to differ here but a little from them in Holiness The Lord knows that poor forsaken impenitent sinners will do no better but rage and be confident till they are past remedy He looks for no better from them than to neglect him and slight his Son and Word and Wayes and to go on in Worldliness and fleshly living to be filthy still and careless and presumptuous and self-conceited still But it 's higher matters that he expects from you and good reason he hath done more for you and prepared you for better things The Ministers of Christ do look for little better from many of their poor ignorant ungodly Neighbours but even to rub out their dayes in security and self-deceit and to be barren after all their labours if not to hate us for seeking to have saved them But it 's you that their eyes are most upon and you that their hearts are most upon Their comfort and the fruit of their lives lyes much in your hands saith Paul 1 Thess. 3.7 8 9. Brethren we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your Faith For now we live if you stand fast in the Lord For what thanks can we render to God again for you for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God Night and day Praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your Faith You see here that your Pastors lives are in your hands If you stand fast they live For the end of life is more then life and your Salvation is the end of our lives If the impenitent world reproach us and abuse and persecute us we suffer it joyfully as long as our work goeth on with you But when you are at a stand When you are barren and scandalous and passionate and dishonour your Profession and put us in fears left we have bestowed all our labour on you in vain this breaks our hearts above any worldly cross whatsoever O when the people that we should rejoyce and glory in shall prove unruly self-conceited peevish proud every one running his own way falling into divisions contentions or scandals this is the killing of the comforts of your Ministers When the ungodly shall hit us in the teeth with your scandals or divisions and say These are the godly people that you boasted of see now what is become of them this is the smoak to our eyes and the gall and Vinegar that 's given us by the Adversary and though still we know that our reward is with the Lord yet can we not choose but be wounded for your sakes and for the sake of the Cause and Name of God Yea the World it self expecteth more from you than others When men talk of great matters and profess as every Christian doth to look for the greatest matters of eternity and to live for no lower things than everlasting fellowship with God and Angels no wonder then if the World do look for extraordinary matters from you If you tell them of reaching Heaven they will look to see you wing'd like Angels and not to creep on earth like worms If you say that you are more than men they look you should shew it by doing more than men can do even by denying your selves and forgiving injuries and loving your enemies and blessing those that curse you and contemning this World and having your conversation in Heaven O Sirs believe it it is not small or common things that will satisfy the expectations of God or men of Ministers or of the World themselves concerning you 8. Yea moreover God himself doth make his boast of you and call out the World to observe your excellency he sets you up as the light of the World to be beheld by others He calls you in his Word his peculiar treasure above all people Exod. 19.5 Deut. 14.3 Psal. 135. â— a peculiar People purified and zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He called you a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a
peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light ye are as lively stones built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 9. You are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.23 and are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light God hath delivered you from the power of darkness and translated you into the Kingdom of his dear Son in whom you have redemption through his bloud the remission of sins Col. 1.12 13 14. The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ Rom. 8.16 17. All things shall work together for your good He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Vers. 28.32 Nothing but the illuminated Soul can discern the riches of the glory of Gods inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the work of his mighty power Eph. 1.18 19. When we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ. He hath brough us nigh that were far off so that by one spirit we have access to the Father by Christ and are now no more strangers and forreigners but fellow Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. 2.5 6 7 13 17 18 19. We are members of the body of Christ we are come to Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Heb. 12.22 23 24. Brethren shall the Lord speak all this and more than this in the Scripture of your Glory and will you not prove your selves glorious and study to make good this precious word Doth he say The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour Prov. 12.26 and will you not study to shew your selves more excellent indeed Shall all these high things be spoken of you and will you live so far below them all What a hainous wrong is this to God He sticks not in boasting of you to call you his jewells Mal. 3.17 and tells the world he will make them one day discern the difference between the Righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not verse 18. He tells the World that his coming in Judgment will be to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in them that believe 2 Thess. 1.10 It 's openly Professed by the Apostle John We know that we are of God and the whole World lyeth in wickedâ—â—â—â— 1 John 5.19 He challengeth any to condemn you or lay any thing to your charge professing that it is he that justifieth you casting the Saints into admiration by his love What shall we say to these things if God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 He challengeth Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine or Nakedness Peril or Sword to separate you if they can from the Love of God He challengeth Death and Life Angels Principalities and Powers things present and things to come height and depth or any other Creature to separate you if they are able from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.35 37 38 39. Shall the Lord of Heaven thus make his boast of you to all the World and will you not make good his boasting Yea I must tell you he will see that it be made good to a word and if you be not careful of it your selves and it be not made good in you then you are not the people that God thus boasteth of He tells the greatest Persecutors to their faces that the meek the humble little ones of his Flock have their Angels beholding the face of God in Heaven Matth. 18.10 and that at the great and dreadful day of Judgment they shall be set at his right hand as his Sheep with a Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom when others are set at his left hand as Goats with a Go ye cursed into everlasting Fire Matth. 25. He tells the world that he that receiveth a Converted man that is become as a little Child receiveth Christ himself and that whoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in him it were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Matth. 18.3 4 5 6. Mark 9.42 Luke 17.2 O Sirs must God be thus wonderfully tender of you and will you not now be very tender of his interest and your duty Shall he thus difference you from all the rest of the world and will you not study to declare the difference The ungodly even gnash the teeth at Ministers and Scriptures and Christ himself for making such a difference between them and you and will you not let them see that it is not without cause I intreat you I require you in the Name of God see that you answer these high commendations and shew us that God hath not boasted of you beyond your worth 9. Consider this as the highest Motive of all God doth not only magnify you and boast of you but also he hath made you the living Images of his blessed self his Son Jesus Christ his Spirit and his holy Word and so he hath exposed himself his Son his Spirit and his Word to be censured by the World according to your lives The express Image of the Fathers person is the Son Heb. 1.3 The Son is declared to the World by the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost hath endited the Holy Scriptures which therefore bear the Image of Father Son and Holy Ghost This holy Word both Law and Promise is written on your hearts and put into your inner parts by the sâ—me spirit 2 Cor. 3.3 Heb. 8.13 and 10.16 So that as God hath imprinted his holy nature in the Scripture so hath he made this word the Seal to imprint again his Image on your hearts And you know that common eyes can better discern the Image in the Wax than on the Seal Though I know that the hardness of the Wax or somthing lying between or the imperfect application may cause an imperfection in the Image on the
and the evil one Mark him in his prayers and you shall find that he is above other men taken up in earnest petitions for the Conversion of the Heathen and Infidel world and the undeceiving of Mahometans Jews and Hereticks and the clearing of the Church from those Papal tyrannies and sopperies and corruptions which make Christianity hateful or contemptible in the eyes of the Heathen and Mahometan world and hinder their Conversion No man so much lamenteth the Pride and Covetousness and Laziness and Unfaithfulness of the Pastors of the Church because of the doleful consequents to the Gospel and the souls of men and yet with all possible honor to the sacred office which they thus prophane No man so heartily lamenteth the contentions and divisions among Christians and the doleful destruction of charity thereby It grieveth him to see how much selfishness pride and malice prevaileth with them that should shine as lights in a benighted world and how obstinate and uncurable they seem to be against the plainest means and humblest motions for the Churches edification and peace Psal. 120.6 7. 122.6 Phil. 2.1 2 3 4. Psal. 119.136 Zeph. 3.18 Ezek. 9.4 Psal. 69.9 Joh. 2.17 He envieth not Kings and Great men their dominions wealth or pleasure nor is he at all ambitious to participate in their tremendous exaltation But the thing that his heart is set upon is that the Kingdoms of the World may all become the Kingdoms of the Lord Rev. 11.15 and that the Gospel may every where have free course and be glorified and the Preachers of it be encouraged or at least delivered from unreasonable wicked men 2 Thes. 3.1 2. Little careth he who is uppermost or conquereth in the world or who goeth away with the preferments or riches of the earth supposing that he fail not of his duty to his Rulers so that it may go well with the affairs of the Gospel and souls be but helped in the way to Heaven Let God be honoured and souls converted and edified and he is satisfied This is it that maketh the Times good in his account He thinketh not as the proud and carnal Church of Rome that the Times are best when the Clergy is richest and greatest in the world and overtop Princes and claim the secular power and live in worldly pomp and pleasures But when holiness most aboundeth and the members of Christ are likest to their Head and when multitudes of sincere believers are daily added to the Church and when the Mercy and Holiness of God shine forth in the Numbers and Purity of his Saints It is no Riches or Honour that can be heaped upon himself or any others that make the Times seem good to him if Knowledge and Godliness are discountenanced and hindered and the way to Heaven is made more difficult if Atheism infidelity ungodliness pride and malignity do prevail and truth and sincerity are driven into the dark and when he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey Isa. 59.15 When the godly man ceaseth and the faithful fail from among the children of men when every man speaketh vanity to his neighbour and the poor are oppressed and the needy sigh and the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted Psal. 12.1 2 5 8. The Times are Good when the Men are good and Evil when the Men are evil be they never so great or prosperous As Nehemiah when he was Cup bearer to the King himself yet wept and mourned for the desolations of Jerusalem Neh. 1.3 4. 2.2 3. Whoever prospereth the Times are ill when there is a famine of the Word of the Lord and when the chief of the Priests and people do transgress and mock Gods messengers and despise his words and misuse his Prophets 2 Chron. 36.14 16. Amos 8.11 12. When the Apostles are charged to speak no more in the name of Christ Act. 4.18 5.40 It is a text enough to make one tremble to think into what a desperate condition the Jews were carryed by a partial selfish zeal 1 Thes. 2.15 16. who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and have persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sin alway for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost When the interest of themselves and their own Nation and Priesthood did so far blind and pervert them that they durst persecute the Preachers of the Gospel and forbid them to speak to the people that they may be saved it was a sign that wrath was come upon them to the uttermost A Christian indeed had rather be without Jereboams Kingdom than make Israel to sin make the basest of the people Priests and stretch out his hand against the Prophet of the Lord 1 King 12.30 31. 13.4 He had rather labour with his hands as Paul and live in poverty and rags so that the Gospel may be powerfully and plentifully preached and holiness abound than to live in all the prosperity of the world with the hinderance of mens salvation He had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God than be a Lord in the Kingdom of Satan He cannot rise by the ruines of the Church nor feed upon those morsels that are the price of the blood of souls 2. And the weakest Christian is in all this of the same mind saving that private and selfish interest is not so fully overcome nor so easily and resolutely denyed Luk. 14.26 33. 3. But here the Hypocrite sheweth the falseness of his heart His own interest is it that chooseth his Religion and that he may not torment himself by being wicked in the open light he maketh himself believe that whatsoever is most for his own interest is most pleasing unto God and most for the good of souls and the interest of the Gospel so that the carnal Romish Clergie can perswade their Consciences that all the darkness and superstitions of their Kingdom and all their Opposition of the light of the Gospel of Christ do make for the honour of God and the good of souls because they uphold their tyrannie wealth and pomp and pleasure Or if they cannot perswade their Consciences to believe so gross a lye let Church and Souls speed how they will they will favour nothing that favoureth not their interest and ends And the interest of the flesh and spirit of the world and Christ are so repugnant that commonly such worldlings take the serious practice of Godliness for the most hateful thing and the serious practicers of it for the most unsufferable persons Act. 7.57 21.36 22.22 24.5 6. Joh. 19.15 The enmity of interests with the enmity of nature between the Womans and the Serpent seed will maintain that warfare to the end of the world in which the Prince of the powers of darkness shall seem to prevail as he did against our Crucified Lord but he