Man love his Sins any longer that believes and reads that bloody Story of them that is written in the Agony and Passion of the Son of God When we consider that he was delivered for our Offences and that our Sins were the principal Actors of all that woful Tragedy that they were these that betrayed arraigned and condemned him that borrowed the Throats of a barbarous Rabble to cry out Crucify him Crucify him that buffeted and scourged him with the Hands of the rude Soldiers that gored his Sides with the Spear pierced his Temples with the Thorns rent his sacred Hands and Feet with the Nails that fastned him to the Cross how can we believe and consider that our Sins did thus barbarously treat the best Friend we have in the World without being all inflamed with Indignation against them Again how can we reflect upon that dreadful Displeasure God expressed against our Sins in this dismal Example of Sacrificing his own Son for them without being filled with Horror and struck into a trembling Agony at the Thought of them Once more How can we be so desperatly fool-hardy as to go on in our Sins if we believe and consider the Article of the Day of Judgment wherein we must give an Account of whatsoever we have done in the Flesh whether it be good or evil and stand or fall to all Eternity according as we have discharged or neglected this great Condition of our Salvation These are such mighty Arguments as one would think it were impossible for Men firmly to believe and yet not be persuaded by them Thus God in his Mercy and Goodness to us hath furnished the Revelation of his Son with such prevalent Motives that our believing in him almost necessarily draws after it the Performance of the whole condition of our Salvation for upon our believing in Jesus and considering his Proposals we are compassed round about with so many puissant Reasons to submit our selves to his Laws as one would think all the Temptations of the Devil and the World are not able to resist So careful hath God been to secure us from Sin and Misery that knowing the Force of our natural Reason to be so weak to secure us he hath sent us down these fresh Auxiliaries from Heaven by whose Assistance if we do but trust to and imploy them we may easily repulse all the Temptations of Sin and fight our Way through all the Difficulties of our Duty For this is the Victory saith the Apostle by which we overcome the World even our Faith 1 John v. 4 which Words are urged by him as an Instance of the Easiness and Gentleness of our Obedience to the Gospel which is the Condition of our Salvation for v. 3 saith he this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous Well but how doth this appear Why saith he for every one that is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith For who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God v. 5 So that he proves the easiness of the Gospel Commands by this Argument that the keeping them depends upon that Faith by which we believe Jesus to be the Son of God By this means therefore God hath mercifully rendred the Condition of our Salvation easie to us by rendring the Performance of it so necessarily consequent to our believing in Jesus in which how good he hath been to us will evidently appear if we consider 4 thly That to beget this Belief in us he hath given us the most plain and convincing Evidence viz. the Evidence of those miraculous Works wherewith he accompanied the Ministry of our Saviour and his Apostles and sealed and confirmed it to the World which of all Kinds of Evidence is the most apt to convince and persuade the World of the Truth of any divine Revelation for this Kind of Evidence appeals to Mens Senses and is such an Argument as they may see and touch and handle and Men are generally apt to give more Credit to their own Senses than to the clearest Inferences and Deductions of Reason And indeed the Generality of Men are hardly capable of any other Notices of Things but what are immediatly impressed upon them by the Objects of their Sense for they have not Skill enough to compare simple Terms so exactly with one another as to compound them into true Propositions and then to infer from every such Proposition its natural Consequents and Deductions These are Things that require a great deal more Art and Leisure than Mens Educations and Affairs will ordinarily afford them But Miracles are Things that are obvious to Mens Senses and from them to infer a divine Commission in the Person that works them is not only possible but very easie to the most vulgar Understanding For Miracles being the visible Effects of a divine Power cannot be supposed to be wrought by any but Persons that are divinely commissionated and he that shews me an immediate Effect of God's Power gives me that in Token that he came from God So that the Argument of Miracles you see is the most plain and intelligible of all others and as it is so it is the most powerful to convince and persuade Men. For whereas had our Saviour proved his Doctrins in a Way of rational Discourse and Inference he must have proved them all singly and apart by distinct and different Arguments which would have been so tedious that the Vulgar would never have Leisure enough to attend them nor yet Capacity enough to retain them but by this Argument of Miracles he proved them all at once because his Miracles were a Token that the God of Truth did approve his Doctrin and it cannot be supposed that the God of Truth would have so visibly approved of his Doctrin in the Gross had any Part or Proposition of it been false and erroneous Thus God out of his infinite Goodness hath not only revealed his everlasting Gospel to us but hath also taken the most effectual Course to convince and persuade us of the Truth of it He hath set his own Almighty Power at Work to still the Seas and raise the Dead to cure the Blind and Lame and Diseased to change and vary the Course and Order of his Creation and all this for no other Purpose but to persuade Mankind of the Truth of those glad Tidings which he revealed from Heaven to them by his own Son And as he hath given us the best Evidences to convince us of the Truth of his Gospel so he hath taken the most effectual Course to continue and perpetuate it to the World For first he raised up sundry Eye-witnesses who conversed with our Saviour and beheld his Miracles and after they had seen him risen from the Dead and ascended up into Heaven did openly publish and testify them to the World and finally confirmed and ratified
but such was his Goodness towards us that for the Sufferings of the Innocent he hath mercifully acquitted the Punishment due to Offenders and so scourged our Sins upon the Back of our Saviour for though he suffered for us yet we suffered not in him our Persons were not at all damnified by those bitter Agonies which he endured for our Sins so that to a wonder of Mercy they have been so severely punished as 't is fit they should and yet we who were the Authors of them never felt the Smart Blessed God! How merciful hast thou been to thy Creatures that hast thus found out a Way to distinguish the Sin from the Sinner and so to punish the one as to let the other escape For by his gracious Admission Christ hath once suffered for Sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. iii 18. 2 ly Another Instance of God's Love and Goodness to us in this Method of Pardon is his exacting such a Suffering for the Price of our Pardon as is most effectual to secure us from sinning again which is a plain Instance of the mighty Care he hath taken to pardon us in such a way as might be most for our future Security For it would have been no way proper for the wise Governour of the World to grant a general Pardon to Offenders without some sufficient Reason moving him thereunto Now that Repentance which is the best Reason we can offer him is not sufficient I have already shewed you because it is not sufficient to secure his Government in the good Management whereof the Welfare of all his Subjects is involved For his Laws requiring nothing but what is for our good 't is truly our Interest to be kept under a strict Obedience to them so that should he pardon us upon any Reason that is not sufficient to secure his Government and our Obedience it would be a publick Nuisance and Damage to Mankind and consequently the greater the Reason is that moves him to pardon us what is past and the more it enforces our Obedience for the future the greater is the Goodness which he expresses in pardoning us and the more it conduces to our Welfare and Happiness But now upon what higher Motive could he have made a Grant of Pardon to us than upon the most meritorious Sufferings of his own Son for us For since nothing that we could do was a sufficient Reason to move him to promise to us the Forgiveness of our Sins it was requisite that something more should be done for us by some other Person and the greatest Thing that any other Person could do for us to move God to forgive us was to suffer in our Stead because hereby not only a publick Acknowledgement is made of what we have deserved for our Sins but something of the Punishment due to them is paid as a publick Satisfaction to the Law So that if God pardons us upon such a Reason he doth by the same Act express his most tender Mercy to us and his implacable Severity against our Sins for by pardoning us upon the Sufferings of another in our Stead he expresses his hearty Good-Will to us and openly signifies how unwilling he is to ruin us But then by exacting the Sufferings of another in our Stead before he will be induced to grant a Pardon to us he manifests to us how implacably he hates our Sins and how inexorably severe he is against them But then if he pardon us upon this Reason of anothers suffering in our Stead then the greater and more excellent the Person is that suffers for us the greater Reason he hath to forgive us upon it For such as the Person is that suffers such is the Moment and Value of his Suffering because the End of all such vicarious Punishments being only this to give such an Example of the Severity of Governours against Offenders as may be sufficient to vindicate the Honour of the Law and secure the Obedience of the Subject the Value of his Suffering who thus suffers for us must consist in this that it is a more or less exemplary Signification of the Severity of the Lawgiver against our Sins for which he suffers and doubtless it would be a higher Signification of God's Severity against our Sins not to pardon us but upon the Sufferings of an innocent Angel than not to pardon us but upon the Sufferings of an innocent Man What a most exemplary Signification then is this of his Severity against our Sins that he would not pardon us but upon the Sufferings of his own most innocent Son who being the greatest Person in all the Creation did by his suffering in our Stead exhibit the greatest Instance of God's Severity against our Sins that could possibly have been given by any Person whatsoever that was capable of suffering for us So that his suffering in our Stead was apparently the best and highest Reason that could possibly have been given to move God to pardon us and consequently his pardoning us in such a Way and upon such a Reason is a most glorious Instance of his Goodness towards us and of that tender Regard he hath of our Welfare For now in the very Method of his pardoning us what is past he hath taken a most effectual Course to secure our Obedience for the future that very Reason that moved him to pardon us being the greatest Reason that can be urged to terrify us from sinning again For what Consideration is there that can fill us with greater Horror against our Sins than this that the Guilt of them is so great and heinous that the most merciful Father would never have forgiven them had not his own most glorious Son suffered for them in our Stead And indeed had not God thus provided for the securing of our Obedience in the very Method of his Pardon his Grace in pardoning us would have been very insignificant for our Welfare and Happiness being all bound up in our Obedience our Pardon without this could not have secured us from being miserable So that if in the Method of his Pardon he had not so manifested his Severity against our Sins as to discourage us sufficiently from sinning again his very Mercy and Compassion would have proved destructive to us because it would have encouraged us to Sin on and thereby to make our selves miserable For Sin and Misery are so inseparably interwoven that all the Pardon God can give us while we continue in our Sins is not sufficient to prevent our being miserable but such hath been his Goodness towards us such his Care to prevent our Sin and Misery as that in the very Reason that moves him to pardon us for what is past he gives us a most terrible warning not to Sin again For he that can behold such a dreadful Spectacle as the Son of God dying for Sin and yet Sin on is a valiant Sinner indeed and may with the same Courage follow his Lusts
the precious Blood of the Son of God such as our Saviour must die for or our Souls must have suffered for to all Eternity How different therefore are our Thoughts from God's We think it a Matter of Sport and Laughter a Thing to Play and make Merry with but God who knows the inmost Nature of things looks upon it as a Thing of such a black and horrid Nature as that nothing but the Blood of our Souls or the Blood of his Son can make Expiation for O blessed God! Had we but such Thoughts of our Sins as thou hast how should we start and tremble at the Sight of them and with what Horror and Amazement should we reflect upon them Surely if all the Devils in Hell should stand round about us in the most gastly Shapes and Apparitions it would not put us into half that Agony of Fear as would the Sense and Remembrance of our own Guilts and Follies For had we but a Window into Hell to look through and see what unsufferable Torments the damned Ghosts undergo there for those Sins we make so light of how they burn and roar in those Flames of Lust about which we like silly Flies do sport and dally or had we but the Cross always standing before our Eyes with the Son of God hanging on it for those Sins that are our Recreation sighing and groaning out his innocent Soul in Torment and Agonies to expiate those Faults which we commit with so much Greediness and Pleasure surely either of these sad Spectacles would be sufficient to cool our Courage and to make us affraid of ever sinning more Why then should not our Belief of these Things have the same Effect upon us as the Sight and Sense of them must needs be supposed to have O my Soul why should I be so mad as to hug and embrace my Lusts any longer when I believe the Evil of them to be so great as that the merciful Father would never have forgiven them had not his own most blessed Son born their Punishment and freely submitted himself to suffer for them in my Stead yea and which I verily believe he will never Pardon yet unless I heartily repent of and forsake them but notwithstanding all that his Son hath suffered to make Expiation for them will yet pursue and prosecute them with the most direful effects of an endless and omnipotent Vengance 2 ly Hence I infer the Certainty of our perishing for ever if we do not repent of our Sins and forsake them For if God would not have forgiven them upon our Repentance unless an Expiation had been made for them by the Blood of his Son how can we imagin that he will now forgive them whether we repent of them or no When all that could be obtained for us from our offended God by the vocal Blood and Wounds of his own Son whose Language was a thousand Times more effectual for us than all the Retorick of Angels could have been was only this that if yet we would heartily repent and amend we should certainly find Mercy and Favour at his Hands can we be so assured as to hope for any more Is it likely that our obstinate Continuance in wilful Rebellion against him should be a more prevalent Advocate for us than the most eloquent Blood of that innocent Lamb which spoke better Things for us than the Blood of Abel Will he be more indulgent to our Sins than he was to the obedient Sufferings of his own Son whose Blood cryed Mercy Mercy with a Voice more moving and persuasive than the united Prayers of a World of sinful Creatures could have done though they had been washed in Floods of penitent Tears Let us not therefore be so fond as to presume that when the utmost that God would grant us for his own dear Son's sake was to receive us to Mercy upon our unfeigned Repentance he will now for our own sakes pardon us whether we repent or no. And since at the powerful Intreaties of the Blood of Jesus he hath indulged to us as much Mercy as was fit for him to grant and much more than we could ever have hoped for let us not be so immodest as to expect any farther but fix this as an eternal Verity in our own Minds that either our Sins or our Souls must perish and then if after all that he hath done for us we will continue wicked there is no Remedy but we must be miserable for ever 3 dly And lastly Hence also I infer how inexcusable we are if we now perish in our Sins now God hath done such great Things for us and contrived such an excellent Way to pardon us So that now there can be nothing wanting to the Accomplishment of our Pardon but only our own Repentance and Reformation for God and our Saviour have done all that is to be done on their Part our Saviour hath suffered for us and God hath accepted it as an Expiation for our Sins And now the whole Matter sticks at us and there is nothing wanting but only our Repentance and if we will not Repent and thereby intitle our selves to that merciful Pardon which God and our Saviour have prepared for us there is none can be blamed for our Ruin but our selves For when Inquisition shall be made for the Blood of our Souls the only Cause of our Ruin will be found to be this that we were wilfully and obstinately impenitent What then shall we be able to say for our selves when we come to plead for our Lives at the Tribunal of God Shall we plead that our Condition was hopeless and desperate we being bound over for our past Sins to an irrevocable Damnation Alas With what Confidence can we plead this when God had been so merciful as not to exact of our own Persons the Penalty which his Law had denounced against us but graciously admitted another to suffer for us and upon his suffering promised to forgive us if we would heartily repent Or can we pretend that by this gracious Indulgence of his he encouraged us to Sin on and gave us Reason to hope that he who without our Repentance had remitted so much of the Severity of his Laws as to admit another to suffer in our Stead might as easily be induced to remit all whether ever we repented or no Why how could he have more effectualy discouraged us from sining on when he would admit of no less Suffering but what considering the Greatness of the Person who underwent it was as dreadful an Example of his Severity against Sin as if he had damned for ever a whole World of Sinners Or will you urge that you thought it in vain to return since by your former Sins you had for ever forfeited the Favour of God For though there was some Hopes that he might be intreated to pardon or remit your Punishment yet 't was in vain to hope that after so many Provocations he would ever be throughly reconciled again
Johannes Scott S. T. P. PRACTICAL DISCOURSES Concerning OBEDIENCE AND THE Love of God Vol. II. By IOHN SCOTT D. D. late Rector of St. Giles's in the Fields LONDON Printed for W. Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-yard and S. Manship at the Ship near the Royal-Exchange in Cornhill MDCXCVIII To the Right Honorable DANIEL Earl of Nottingham MY LORD I Am very sensible that you are the known Favourer of Men of eminent Worth and Learning I only take this Opportunity of acquainting the World that You were so of the Author of these following Discourses that so you may receive in larger Measures those Tributes which are due to Publick Benefactors the Prayers and Praises of Mankind For they who have or shall be bettered by This great Author's Works are oblig'd in a peculiar Manner to remember that Right Honourable Person who by his Countenance did not only encourage him to be serviceable but did really endeavour to render him more useful to us by procuring for him a little Recess from the Toil and Labours of his weighty Employment Had this succeeded in all Humane Probability he had lived longer and then we should have seen that truly Pious and most sublime Design he intended to pursue and should have been well acquainted with that uncultivated part of Religion The Duties of Piety towards God And perhaps by Them we should have given a guess at the Praises and Hallelujahs of those blest Beings above when they had been managed with that Strength of Eloquence that Fervour of Spirit pois'd and temper'd with such a Judgment as his But he is gone to bear a part in the Heavenly Choir where if he knows what is done here below it will be a pleasing Prospect to my dear departed Friend to see Your Lordship and your Noble Family the Possessors and design'd Heirs of the Honours of both Worlds I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most devoted Servant HUMPHREY ZOUCH 1 JOHN V. 3 For this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous IN the first Verse the Apostle asserts that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ that is so believes as to act suitable to his Belief is born of God he is become a Child of God by partaking of his Nature and stamped with his Likeness and every one that loveth him that begat i. e. God his Heavenly Father loveth him also that is begotten of him hath a true hearty Kindness for all that are God's Children And then in the second Verse by this saith he we know that we love the Children of God and consequently that we are born of God if we love God and keep his Commandments that is if we so love him as to keep his Commandments And indeed if we do not so love him we do not love him at all and consequently we do not love his Children nor are we his Children our selves of which he gives a full Proof in the Text for this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous In which Words you have First an Account of the Love of God what it is This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and Secondly a Motive to engage us to the Practice of it and his Commandments are not grievous I begin with the first of these the Account of this Love of God what it is This is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments By the Love of God here we are not to understand God's Love to us but our Love to God as is plain by this because 't is placed in our keeping his Commandments This is the Love of God that is this is the natural Effect and proper Exercise of the Love of God for it is certain that keeping God's Commandments is not the Affection of Love to him but the Effect of it So that the Meaning of the Words is this this is the most genuine Expression and inseparable Effect of our Love of God that we obey his Laws And hence our Saviour makes this the proper Tryal and Proof of our Love to him If ye love me keep my Commandments John xiv 15 for this he tells us ver 23. is the necessary Consequence of our Love to him If any man love me he will keep my words i. e. this will most certainly be the Effect of his Love to me that he will be obedient to my Will And by this he plainly tells us he will judge of the Sincerity of our Friendship to him John xv 14 Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you From all which it is evident that the most proper and characteristical Expression of our Love to God is our keeping his Commandments And indeed considering that God is our Soveraign Lawgiver there are no Actions by which we can so naturally express our Affection to him as by those of Obedience and Submission to his Laws and therefore we find in Scripture that to love God and obey his Laws and to hate God and disobey them are generally used promiscuously for one another and that for very good reason for here our Love and Hatred of God are not considered as conversant about God as God in which sense perhaps there is no Creature in the World can be said to hate him but as conversant about him as Lord and Governour of the World as he gives Laws to Mankind whereby he commands them what to do and forbids them what to avoid And in this Sense to love God is to love him as Governing and Commanding and as such we can no otherwise express our Love to him but by keeping his Commandments But for the farther clearing of this I shall in Prosecution of the Argument do these two Things I. Shew you that wheresoever the Love of God is it will most certainly prove a Principle of Obedience to him II. That the Love of God is in it self the most perfect and effectual Principle of Obedience 1. That wheresoever the Love of God is it will most certainly prove a Principle of Obedience to him And this I doubt not will evidently appear if we consider that all the natural Expressions of our Love as it is terminated upon God do of their own accord finally resolve themselves into Obedience to his Will For Love wheresoever it is hearty and sincere always expresses it self in such Symptoms as these 1. In industriously endeavouring to resemble the Beloved 2. In conforming the Will Designs and Intentions to the Will and Designs and Intentions of the Beloved 3. In a solicitous Care of avoiding those Things which may any ways displease or distaste the Beloved 4. In a chearful Readiness to undergo any thing be it never so hard or difficult for the sake of the Beloved All which Expressions of our Love when it is terminated upon God do most naturally run into Obedience to his Will 1. If we love God our Love will
they must be very narrow and stingy in their Religion for they will be sure to do no more than just what is necessary to quiet their Fears and calm their Consciences and because they do not like what they do but are meerly forced upon it by the Terror and Anguish of their own Minds therefore if they can they will find some Way to pacify their Consciences without doing it or at least with doing as little as may be or with doing that only which they like best and is most agreeable to their vitiated Tempers Thus Persons of sour and morose Natures when they are acted meerly by the Terrors of their Consciences commonly betake themselves to some little affected Singularities and Severities in Religion they will put on some distinguishing Garb and tip their Tongues with some peculiar Phrases and screw their Faces into a most devout and mortified Figure they will condemn themselves to a State of Silence and retire from all the Pleasures and most innocent Festivities of Conversation they will frown all good Humour out of their Houses and will not endure so much as a Smile in their Families especially on the Lord's-Day and take a world of Care and Pains to moap their Children into unsociable Statues and to train them up in the Religion of pensive Looks and solemn Faces and ejaculated Eyes for this is such a Reformation as is suitable to their sour and surly Natures and therefore with this they will seek to bribe their Consciences to connive at all their black and devilish Inclinations Thus also it is usual for Slanderers and Backbiters contentious and censorious Persons when they are under an Agony of Conscience to list themselves into some Sect or Party where under a Pretence of being the only People of God they may consecrate their most unhallowed Passions and rail and backbite with Zeal and Devotion where they may spit all their Venom in spiritual Gossiping and freely employ the Talent of their Ill-nature in damning and censuring those they dissent from for this is such a Conversion as best agrees with their cankerous Inclinations so that if they can but cheat their Conscience with it that and their beloved Lust will be very well reconciled Thus also the covetous and griping Oppressor when he cannot otherwise still the Cries of his Conscience will betake himself to some of the cheaper Exercises of Religion he will fast and pray hear Sermons and receive Sacraments because all these Things he can do without intrenching upon his Vice he can say his Prayers for nothing and save Money by keeping a Fast and eat and drink at the Sacrament gratis all this is so cheap a Religion that it costs him nothing to maintain it and so his covetous Mind hath no Reason to grudge at it so that if his Conscience will be but satisfied with this his Lust and that may shake hands and be Friends And to name no more thus when the intemperate and lascivious Person is dogg'd by the Fears of his guilty Mind it is usual for him to sigh and mourn and make woful Confessions of his Sins and when he hath done so to endeavour to persuade himself that this is true Repentance which if he can do he may sin on securely provided he doth but perpetually keep himself in this Circle of repenting and sinning and sinning and repenting but if he cannot so cheat himself he will next fly to the Sanctuary of a partial Reformation and disband the Vices he can best spare that so he may keep his more beloved ones in Pay hoping that by a Sacrifice of some few of his Sins he may make an Atonement for all the rest Thus when Men are only acted by their Fears they will find some way or other to contract their Religion into so narrow a Compass that it shall be sure not to intrench too far upon the Liberties of their Lusts. For he that doth a Thing out of Fear is averse to the doing it and that Aversation will so stint and limit him that he will contrive all Ways to do as little as he can and still the less he is forced to do the better he will be pleas'd But Love is that great Soul that acts and animates the whole Body of Religion and equally diffuses its Influence through every Part and Member of it for the Will of the Beloved is the Law of the Lover and every Thing pleases him that is pleasing to him whom he loves So that if we love God we shall do what he commands because it is his Will and Pleasure and that Reason extends equally to all as well as to any Instances of Obedience and therefore if the Motive of our Obedience be this that it is God's Will and Pleasure we must necessarily obey him so far as we understand in every Thing that is so For if we love God there will be such a Consent and Harmony between his Will and ours that we shall be best pleased with what pleases him and being so our Obedience will be no longer limited by any particular Likes or Dislikes of our own which will then all vail and prostrate themselves to God's sovereign Pleasure and so there will be nothing but that to set Limits and Bounds to our Obedience So that then we shall be so far from contriving how to escape doing his Will that we shall be ready to court all Opportunities of pleasing him and be so passionately desirous of doing what we think is grateful to him that we shall not only perform what he requires by explicite Command but be ready to comply with the most secret Notices and Intimations of his Pleasure and to do whatsoever we think will please him when it is performed whether it be commanded or no. 2. Love renders our Obedience spritely and vigorous For it is certain there is no Passion in humane Nature so active and vigorous as that of Love for in this all the other Passions are seated as in their common Root and Principle and like so many Streams though they run several Ways and in different Chanels yet do they all issue out of one common Spring and that is Love For the Love of our selves is the Parent of all our Passions 't is that which makes us hate what is contrary to us and desire and hope for whatsoever is pleasant and agreeable And when we love any particular Object and our Wills are pleasingly affected with the Beauty of it if it be a Thing that is possible for us to enjoy that excites in us a Desire of Enjoyment if together with the Possibility there be a Probability of enjoying it that excites Hope and Expectation but if there be not that excites Fear and this Hope and Fear being exalted to their highest Degree turn into Confidence and Desperation If any Difficulty oppose it self to our Enjoyment that excites Choler and Courage and Boldness and if we surmount those Difficulties that hindred our Enjoyment that excites Joy and
love what he loves and hate what he hates these are much more certain Indications of our Love to him than the most ravishing Effects of sensitive Passion For though our Hearts were melted into a Transport and Fondness to him yet so long as our Hearts and our Practices are incomplyant to his Will and Laws he will look upon us and deal with us as Hypocrites and Enemies and esteem all our sensitive Fondnesses towards him but as the base Flatteries of Judas who kissed him and then betrayed him 3 ly Hence I infer what the great Reason is why God doth so strictly enjoyn us to love him For there is no Command whatsoever so often repeated in Scripture as this of loving God Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul What doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to love him O love the Lord all ye his Saints Take heed therefore to your selves that ye love the Lord your God These and a world of other reiterated Injunctions of Love do we meet with in the Sacred Pages But how comes this to pass Doth God need our Love that he so importunately calls for it Or doth it contribute any thing to his Happiness to see himself beloved by all this great World of Beings which he hath made and which he hath endued with the Capacity of loving him No no though doubtless the best Thing we can give him is our Love yet he is too happy in himself to need any thing of ours For he is a bottomless Fountain of Happiness circumscribing all those Blisses that he can need or desire within the boundless Circle of his own Being Or doth he court our Love meerly that he may glory in the Number of his Lovers and pride himself in those infinite Flames that concenter in him No nor this neither for he is so infinitely glorious in himself that no Act of ours can either add to or substract from his Glory which amidst all the Hallelujahs of Angels and Saints and all the Blasphemies of Men and Devils shines with the same unvaried Splendour and Brightness and is neither diminished by our Hatred nor improved by our Love Well then if neither of these be the Reason what is it 'T is true the Thing is infinitely reasonable in it self That he who is so lovely in himself should be beloved and that all our Affections should be united in him who is the Fountain of all our Beings and Well-Beings And God who is the Author of our reasonable Faculties cannot but desire that we should act reasonably and love that best which best deserves to be beloved But is there not some particular End for which God doth so earnestly crave and exact our Love Yes doubtless there is and such as is every way worthy of him that hath proposed it For it cannot be supposed that a Being infinitely wise should ever act without End or Aim but God being infinitely happy cannot be supposed to propose any End for his own Advantage because that would imply that he wants or desires some Good that he hath not and consequently that he is not happy But then he being infinitely good as well as happy we cannot imagin what other End he should have of his Actions but only to do good to his Creatures and promote their Happiness and consequently the End and Reason for which he doth so importunately demand our Love is not to add any Thing to himself but to do good to us for our goodness extendeth not to God as the Psalmist tells us xvi 2 And though the Love of God be a very great Perfection to our Natures yet Job tells us that it is no gain at all to God that we make our ways perfect Job xxii 3 But though it is none to God yet it is an infinite Gain to our selves and that is the End and Reason for which he requires it For as I have already shew'd you of all the Principles of our Obedience to God Love is the most pregnant and fruitful Now God requires us to obey him for our own Good he having enjoyned us nothing but what tends to the Perfection and Happiness of our Natures and he requires us to love him that so we may the more intirely and perfectly obey him and thereby more speedily arrive to that Happiness for which his infinite Goodness hath designed us So that all the profit both of our Love and Obedience accrues to our selves 't is we only that reap the Fruit of our own Virtues we only that are exalted by those Homages that we render to our Maker for he is as happy without our Love as he is with it and all those united Flames of Angels and Saints that meet and concenter in him add not one spark to the infinite Element of his Happiness which were not infinite could it admit of Increase But the Lovers themselves are glorified by their Love and because they are so God requires and exacts it For our Love being the great Soul of our Obedience and our Obedience the necessary Means of our Happiness the Profit of both must necessarily redound to our selves and 't is we only that must be inriched and glorified by them For this Reason therefore God requires our Love that it may be a living Principle to Obedience and that being so it might accelerate our Happiness for he whose Love of God is but arrived to the Degree of a reigning Principle of Obedience so as that his Obedience proceeds more from his Love than from any other Passion doth already border on the heavenly State and is within the Confines of Perfection For as for the Inhabitants of Heaven they are all acted by pure Love which makes their Obedience pure and perfect They see God face to face and by their Sight are all inflamed with Love to him and by their Love are winged with everlasting Vigour and Readiness to serve him and all their Aversations to his Heavenly Will being swallowed up in perfect Love they not only obey without Murmuring but with infinite Ravishment and Pleasure and never feel themselves more in Heaven than while they are serving praising and adoring him This is the happy State of those heavenly Lovers and to this we are approaching with full Speed while we obey from a Principle of Love For Love will carry us on with Wind and Tide from one Degree of Perfection to another and whilst poor slavish Souls that are acted mainly by their Fears are faign to tug at the Oar and yet creep on but slowly and by insensible Degrees we shall run forwards with Ease and Speed and get more ground at one stroak than they can in twenty For in one good Action performed out of Love there is more Virtue and Goodness than in a hundred of those whereunto we are dragged by our own Fears and Terrors because as the Degrees of Evil so the Degrees of Good in all Actions are to be measured by the Degrees
Beasts to raise us up by Degrees to an equal Height with Angels to fill and thereby inlarge the narrow Capacities of our Natures till by filling they are widened almost to Infinity and yet still to supply them with new Degrees of Happiness proportionable to their vast enlargements is a Work that highly deserves to be the eternal Exercise of Omnipotence it self Since therefore the End of Power to act is Action and every Thing naturally inclines to its End and consequently the greater the Power of any Being is the greater is its Inclination to Activity and since the doing of Good to others is a much greater Exercise of Power than the doing of Mischief it hence necessarily follows that God being Omnipotent must thereby be infinitely inclined to do Good and that because doing Good is infinitely the largest Sphere of Activity So that if when 't is equally possible and easie for him to do Good as not he should chuse not to do it he would chuse directly contrary to the necessary Inclination of an Omnipotent Being which is to do that which is the greatest Exercise of Power 2 ly God is infinitely Wise and therefore he is Good For the greatest Wisdom consists in proposing the worthiest Ends and chusing the properest Means to obtain them Wherefore if doing Good to others be the worthiest End that God can propose to himself it will necessarily follow that by the Infinity of his Wisdom he is inclined to do Good For as his Power inclines him to act so his Wisdom inclines him to act for the worthiest End but doing Good to others is evidently the worthiest End that God can be supposed to aim at for it cannot be imagined that he can design any further Good to himself any new Addition to the vast Treasure of his Happiness which is so infinitely full that it can admit of no Increase So that whatsoever he doth besides the enjoying of himself he cannot be supposed to do for any Self-end because he hath all that Good already within himself that he can possibly either desire or aim at So that all those Actions of God which are terminated without himself must have either no End at all which cannot be supposed of the Actions of an All-wise Agent or else they must have for their End either the Happiness or the Misery of others but to make the Misery of others their End is by no Means consistent with his infinite Wisdom For to make pure abstracted Evil the End of Action is so far from being infinitely wise that 't is impossible because the very Notion of an End necessarily includes Good in it either real or apparent but God can reap no Good from the Misery of others because he is infinitely happy already and to be sure others can reap no Good from that which God intends to be their Misery that that therefore should be God's End which is no End which hath nothing of the Nature of an End in it implies a plain Contradiction So that to say that the End of God's Actions is the Misery of others is all one as to say he acts for no End at all and how an infinitely wise Agent can be said to act at Rovers to do Things without any Level or Aim I cannot apprehend But supposing it were possible that pure Evil might be an End yet it is as evident as the Sun that it cannot be the End of infinite Wisdom for infinite Wisdom necessarily inclines to do that which is wisest but if it were in it self indifferent to the Almighty whether he did Good or Evil to others yet his infinite Wisdom would incline him to do Good because in the doing of Good there is much more Wisdom exercised than in the doing of Evil. For what great Skill doth it require in an Almighty Agent to make others miserable If it hath a mind to turn them out of Being 't is but withdrawing that Almighty Arm that upholds them and they will presently sink into Nothing of their own Accord but what great Wisdom is there in it thus to unravel his own Workmanship to weave a Penelope's Web and to do and undo eternally And if he hath a Mind to make them miserable and continue them so it is but suspending his own Almighty Influence and refusing to concur to their Happiness and they will soon be as miserable as Misery can make them I confess to invent an acute Torture requires some Skill but yet we plainly see that a very little Wit joyned with a great deal of Malice and Cruelty is sufficient to make an exquisite Tormentor since even Men of very ordinary Understanding have invented as sharp Torments as Men are able to bear So that for God to do Evil requires very little Contrivance and consequently is so far from being an Exercise worthy of his infinite Wisdom that not only a finite but a very shallow Understanding armed with sufficient Power and Malice can invent and inflict as exquisite Tortures as is possible for any Being to bear But to the perfecting of Beings and rendring them happy especially of free and rational Beings there is required a long series of rare and admirable Contrivance for to the effecting of this noble End there are so many Impediments to be removed so many concurrent Means to be employed such an incomparable Skill required in the Choice of such as are most fit and effectual and methodizing them into such a regular Connexion with and Dependence upon one another as that they may all successively second and promote each other that even the Wisdom of God how infinite so ever it be may here find Scope and Matter enough to employ and exercise it self for ever And I dare appeal to any reasonable Man whether in that Method of saving Souls which God hath revealed to us in his Gospel though yet we cannot see all because we are not able to discern the admirable Connexion it hath with the whole series of divine Providence there be not infinitely more Wisdom and rare Contrivance than an Omnipotent Being need to imploy in effecting the greatest Mischief imaginable whether in the contriving of Laws so suitable to and perfective of our Nature and in the composing such unanswerable Reasons and Motives to press and engage us to the Observance of them and in all that admirable Series of Providences by which he seconds and forces those Reasons he hath not exercised incomparably more Wisdom than he could have done in effecting the greatest Evil in Nature As for Example suppose he should have designed to kindle some mighty unquenchable Flame in some dark and dismal Recess of the World with a Resolution to hurl all reasonable Beings into it without any Respect or Consideration this doubtless would have been as great a Mischief as can well be imagined but what Contrivance doth it ask for an Almighty Being to accomplish such a direful End Could not he have roasted a little World of Worms and tortured a Company of Beings
as to obey it So that wheresoever Faith is mentioned singly as the Condition of the Gospel-Covenant it is apparent it must be understood in the largest Sense as comprehending that Obedience which is the Effect and Consequence of it So 1 Joh. v. 1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God that is whosevever so believes the Truth of this Proposition as to practise upon it and govern his Life and Actions according to the Tenour and Direction of it is truly a Child of God For he who believes Christ to be the Messias but continues obstinately disobedient to his Laws is so far from being truly and really a Child of God that he thereby becomes ten Times more a Child of the Devil for saith the Apostle If I have all Faith and have not Charity I am nothing and Gal. v. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love and if so then Faith it self is nothing abstracted from this blessed Effect of it i. e. working by love For in Gal. vi 15 he tells us that Circumcision is nothing but the new Creature by which new Creature he means an obedient Temper and Disposition of Mind as he plainly tells us 1 Cor. vii 19 Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God So that by these different Variations of expression it is apparent that by Faith as significant in the Account of Christ he always means a working Faith the Effect of which is the new Creature or keeping the Commandments of God And so I have done with the first Thing proposed which was to shew you what is included in this Condition whosoever believeth in him which you see is not to be confined to a bare and naked Belief of him but must be extended further even to that whole Course of Obedience which is the natural Effect of such a Belief So that whosoever believes in him is as much as if he had said Whosoever so believes in him as sincerely and universally to obey him 2. I proceed now to the next Thing which was to shew you how good God hath been to us in making the Condition which he hath imposed upon us so gentle and merciful and this will appear if we consider these five Things 1. That he hath put nothing into this Condition but what is in its own Nature exceeding good for us 2. That he hath most mercifully proportioned the Whole to the present State and Circumstances of our Nature 3. That he hath rendred the Whole almost necessarily consequent to our believing in Jesus Christ. 4. That to beget that Belief in us he hath given us the most plain and convincing Evidence 5. That to render this Belief operative he hath engaged himself to assist actuate and inliven it by his ow immediate Concurrence 1. That God hath put nothing into this Condition but what is in its own Nature exceeding good for us For there is no Precept in all the Gospel but what contains either some effectual Means or apparent Instance of what is morally and eternally Good and whatsoever is morally good is naturally so For the moral Goodness of Things consists in the Fitness and Reasonableness of them and that which is the moral Good or Duty of Men consists in doing that which is eternally fit and reasonable for them considering the Frame and Circumstances of their Natures and the different Relations wherein they are placed in the World But now for Men to do what is eternally fit and reasonable is naturally good for and beneficial to themselves because by so doing they perfect and advance their Natures and accomplish their own Satisfaction and Happiness For our Reason being that proper Character of our Natures that distinguishes us from all sublunary Beings and sets us in a Form of Being above them the Perfection of our Nature must necessarily consist in being perfectly reasonable in having our Vnderstandings informed with the Principles of right Reason and our Wills and Affections regulated by them and when once we are released from the Slaveries of Sense and Passion and all our Powers are so perfectly subdued to this superior Principle of Reason as to do every Thing that it commands and nothing that it forbids and we chuse and refuse and love and hate and hope and fear and delight according as right Reason directs and dictates then and not till then we are come to the full Stature of perfect Men in Christ Jesus Now all the Duty of the Gospel being a reasonable Service as the Apostle calls it Rom. xii 1 the End and Tendency of it must be to habituate us to live according to the Laws of right Reason which is all one as to advance us to the Perfection of reasonable Beings and being once arrived at this we shall find unspeakable Satisfaction from within our selves and feel a Heaven of Joys springing up within our own Bosoms For when once our disjointed Powers are set in Order and all our Faculties reduced to their natural Subordination our Nature will be in perfect Rest and Ease being freed from that unnatural Violence and Oppression under which it now groans and cured of all those Spasms and Convulsions of Mind which are the inseparable Effects of its Lapse and Degeneracy And all the Motions of our Wills and Affections being regulated by the eternal Reason of our Minds with what delightful Relishes and sweet Gusts of Pleasure shall we taste and review our own Actions they being always such as our best and purest Reason doth approve of with a full and ungainsaying Judgment So that God's Commands you see being all of them most reasonable must necessarily tend to the Perfection and Happiness of our Nature besides that they generally promote even our sensitive Happiness our Pleasure and Profit and Reputation in this World Now what a most endearing Instance is this of God's Goodness towards us that he should make our Benefit the Measure of our Duty and oblige us to nothing but what is for our good that he should so far concern himself in our Happiness as to impose it upon us under the Penalty of his severest displeasure and to inforce his Laws with such inviting and such dreadful Sanctions only to secure us from running away from our own Mercies So that to be a Christian is in Effect nothing else but only to be obliged to be kind to our selves and bound in Conscience to be happy Good God that thou shouldst be so infinitely Zealous of our Welfare as to make the Means of it the only Matter of thy Laws and to promise such vast Rewards and denounce such dreadful Punishments against us for no other Reason but only to affright and allure us out of Misery into Happiness That thou shouldst hate our Sins so implacably only because they are our irreconcilable Enemies and be so infinitely pleased with our Obedience only because it leads to our
a Description of an endless State of Misery as Words can express for how is it possible that Annihilation should signify either a Fire that never goes out or a Worm that never dies So also 2 Thess. 1.9 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord meaning the wicked Persecuters at Christ's coming to Judgment Now that by that everlasting Destruction he means a State of endless Suffering and Torment is evident if we consider the Description which our Saviour gives of that Punishment to which the Wicked shall be sentenced at the last Day Go ye cursed saith he into everlasting Fire Matth. 25.41 And lest we should fancy that 't is the Fire only that is eternal but not the Punishment v. 46. of that Chap. And these saith he shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the Righteous into Life eternal And that they do actually exist in this Fire and continue in the Torment of it is evident by those Actions that are therein attributed to them such as weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth Matth. 13.42 50 which Actions are plain Indications not only of their subsisting in this everlasting Fire but of the extream Horror and Anguish they shall therein endure And as this Fire is said to be everlasting so the Everlastingness of it is described so as to exclude all Limits and prescind from all Determinations For Fire must be extinguished e're it can cease to burn and therefore that which cannot be extinguished can never end but such is that Fire whereunto the Wicked are condemned at the Day of Judgment so Matth. 3.12 whose fan is in his hand but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable Fire And that the Sufferers shall be no more extinguished than the Fire that burns them is evident from Rev. 14.11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever And they have no rest day nor night And how can the smoke of this Fire be said to be the smoke of their torment ascending up for ever and ever unless they exist in it for ever and ever especially considering what follows immediately after they have no rest day nor night Which Expression is the same with that by which the same Author signifies the eternal Happiness of good Men so Rev. 4.8 They rest not day and night saying holy holy holy and Rev. 7.15 The are before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple And if Day and Night here when applied to the State of Heaven denotes the continued blisful Employment of happy Souls there forever then for the same Reason when 't is applied to the State of Hell it must denote the continued Miseries of the Damned there forever Well then if the Fire of Hell be everlasting yea if it be so absolutely everlasting as that it is unquenchable and if those that are cast into it shall be tormented for ever and ever all which the Scripture doth directly teach then it necessarily follows that the Wicked must subsist in their Miseries for ever and be co-eternal with the Flames that torment them The Reason therefore why that future Punishment to which our Sins do consign and oblige us is called by the Name of Destruction Perdition and Death is not because it puts a final Period either to our Being or Subsistence as some fondly Dream but because it forever separates and disjoyns us from God who is the better and the nobler Life of Man and from all those sweet Perceptions of Comfort and Pleasure of which Life is the Principle And there is no Language Phrases or Expressions can be supposed to patronize a contrary Opinion since the same Scriptures which say that the Wicked shall be destroyed and perish and die say also that they shall be tormented with never-dying Pains as they plainly and frequently do This I have the longer insisted upon because it is a very dangerous Thing for Men to be deceived in this Matter not to know the worst of the Consequents of their own Follies but to expect an easier and a shorter Hell than ever they are like to find And so I have done with the first Thing proposed viz. what is here meant by perishing and proved to you at large that hereby is meant living miserably forever 2 dly I proceed now to the next Thing proposed viz. how we came to be concerned in and obliged to this dreadful Penalty To which I answer that originally we were hereunto obliged by the Law of our Nature for Man being naturally an immortal Creature must necessarily be forever liable to the natural Effects of his own Actions and therefore since Misery is the natural Effect of sinful Actions if we continue Sinners forever we must necessarily continue miserable forever And if God should have inflicted no other Miseries upon wicked Souls when they are separated from their Bodies than what are necessarily consequent to their own Wickedness these would be an Hell of insufferable Torment to them So that from the very Immortality of our Natures we are capable of everlasting Perseverance in Sin and from our everlasting Perseverance in Sin we are fatally damned to evelasting Misery And as by the Law of our Natures we are thus bound over to eternal Punishment so are we also by the positive Sentence and Determination of God who hath not only obliged us to obey him under the Penalty of enduring forever the Miseries that are naturally appendent to our Sins but hath added thereunto all those positive Torments which the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and the Horrors of outer Darkness do imply For so in his Word he hath plainly declared to us that if after he hath tryed us to the utmost we will not be reclaimed but are so desperate as to proceed in our Wickedness maugre all the Arts and Methods he can use to reduce us he will at last shut us up in a State of endless and irreversible Torment And this is no more than what he might very justly and rightfully do for he being the Supream Law-giver of the World hath an immutable Right to enforce his Laws with such Penalties as are sufficient to secure them from being violated by his Subjects for otherwise he would be defective in his Power of Legislation for how could he have sufficient Power to make Laws if he had not Right to enforce them with sufficient Penalties But we that are his Subjects being so apt to offend and so extreamly liable to Temptations thereunto no less Penalty could be sufficient to secure our Obedience than that which is eternal for which Reason he hath enforced his Laws with the Threatning of it And if God thought no less than the Threatning of eternal Punishment necessary to deter Men from their Sins what less than the Execution of that Threat can be sufficient to render them Examples of his Severity against it For Threats without Execution are but mere Scare-crows and it is highly unreasonable for us
to be afraid of any Threat which we have Reason to conclude shall never be executed upon us Wherefore since the Sovereign Lord and Governour of the World hath in himself an unalienable Right to enforce his own Laws by what Penalties he pleases and since to enforce them in the highest Degree he hath established them under the Penalty of eternal Torment it is no less reasonable for him to execute this Penalty than it was to threaten and denounce it otherwise his Threats will be altogether insignificant For the End of legal Threats is to terrify the Subject from Disobedience but since we are assured that God will do nothing but what is just and reasonable why should we be terrified at any Threats of his which he cannot as reasonably inflict as denounce against us Nor is it any Blemish to the divine Goodness that he hath threatned such an heavy Punishment against those that transgress his Laws for since he hath injoyned us nothing but what is for our good and tends to our Happiness and since the End of his Threats is to oblige us to observe his Injunctions it hence necessarily follows that the more terrible his Threatnings are the more he obliges us by them to pursue our own Happiness And certainly for God to lay his Creatures under the strongest Obligations to be happy is so far from being a Blemish to his Goodness that it is a most glorious Expression of it and if we will be so obstinate as to incur that direful Penalty under which he hath obliged us to be happy it is but just and reasonable that he should inflict it upon us and make us feel forever the rueful Effects of our own Folly and Madness Wherefore since we had all broken his Laws and wilfully rendered our selves guilty before him we thereby became most justly obnoxious to this most dreadful Penalty of perishing forever And thus you see by what Right we were concerned in and obliged to this Penalty 3 dly I now proceed to the third and Last Thing proposed which is to shew you the unspeakble Goodness that God hath expressed to us in that Way and Method which he hath prescribed to release us from this Obligation of perishing forever For the Way and Method prescribed by him is this to send his own most blessed Son to suffer in our Stead that so we repenting of our Sins and forsaking them might upon the Account of his Sufferings be released from this Obligation to eternal Punishment And hence Christ is said to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. ix 26 that is to make Expiation for it even as the Jewish High Priest did by those Sacrifices which he offered And accordingly Col. i. 14 it is said that in him we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of Sins that is upon Condition we heartily and sincerely repent of them For if we walk in the light saith the Apostle as he is in the light that is if we forsake our Sins and become pure as he is pure and holy as he is holy we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all Sin This therefore being the Way and Method which God hath prescribed to release us from the Obligation to eternal Punishment what an unspeakable Love and Goodness he hath herein expressed to us will evidently appear by the Consideration of these four Things 1. His admitting of another to suffer in our Stead 2. His exacting such a Suffering for the Price of our Pardon as was most effectual to secure us from sinning again 3. His consenting that his own Son should submit to this Suffering 4. His chusing to grant Pardon to us upon his Suffering as a Sacrifice for our Sins 1. One very great Instance of God's Love and Goodness to us in this Method of Pardon is his admitting of another to suffer in our Stead Had he been pleased he might have exacted the Punishment of the Criminals and made the Offenders smart forever in their own Persons yea and this he might have justly done notwithstanding the best Reason they could render him to the contrary For the best Reason a Sinner can render why he should not be punished is his hearty Repentance for next to being perfectly innocent the best Thing we can do is to reform when we have done amiss but yet this doth not at all diminish the Guilt and Demerit of our past Transgressions For Repentance doth not at all alter the Nature of the Act nor make it less evil nor less deserving of Punishment and therefore since the Act it self obliges us to Punishment our Repentance of it doth no way cancel the Obligation 'T is true God might if he had pleased have pardoned us upon our Repentance without any other Reason or Motive but it is certain that Repentance is not a sufficient Reason to move him to declare a Promise of Pardon to a sinful World it being no way consistent with the Safety either of divine or humane Governments so far to encourage Offenders as to indemnify them universally by a publick and standing Declaration merely upon their future Repentance and Amendment because by such a Declaration they must let loose the Reigns to all manner of Licentiousness For if Subjects are now so prone to transgress when they have so much Reason to expect a severe Punishment for it how much more prone would they be were their Governours so easie as to assure them beforehand that the Punishment due to their Crimes should be immediately remitted upon their unfeigned Repentance Wherefore since our Repentance is no sufficient Reason to oblige God to pardon us and much less to move him to make a Promise of Pardon to us and since this is the best Reason that we can offer in our Behalf to move him thereunto it hence necessarily follows that if he had pleased when once we had broken his Laws he might have justly executed upon us that eternal Punishment which he had threatned notwithstanding all we could have done to move him to the contrary But such is his inexpressible Goodness towards us that to put himself into a Capacity of pardoning penitent Sinners with Safety to his Government and of making a publick Grant of Pardon and Indemnity to them thereby to encourage them to repent he hath graciously admited another Person to suffer in our Stead that so neither their Persons might be ruined nor yet their Sins be unpunished and that he might sufficiently express to them his Severity against their Sins without exposing them to the eternal Smart of it For though the Suffering of this Person as I shall shew you by and by was a sufficient Reason to move God to forgive us upon our unfeigned Repentance yet it was no such Reason as did necessarily oblige him thereunto for if he had pleased he might have righteously exacted our Punishment at our own Hands and made us forever rue for our own Folly and Madness
thly 'T is an affecting Delight and Complacency in God by which I distinguish it from a mere Liking and naked Approbation For God is a Being so infinitely amiable and benevolent that 't is impossible almost for any reasonable Creature to know him and not like and approve of him But though in all Approbation there is some Degree of Complacency yet there is no Doubt but a Man may approve of what he doth not Love and there is no Doubt but there are many Men that do approve of God as the most glorious and excellent of Beings and the most worthy of Love and Veneration who yet have not one Spark of real Love towards him For thus St. Paul we find when he was a Jew in Religion approved of the Law as holy and just and good Rom. vii 12 and that in this Approbation of his there was some Degree of Complacency and Delight for saith he I delight in the Law of God according to the inward Man Vers. 22. but all this while he was very far from having any real Love and Affection for it for in the next Verse he tells us that he had a Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind that is he had an inward Repugnancy and Aversation against this excellent Law which his Reason did approve of as holy and just and good and no Degree of true Love could consist with such an Aversation And there is no doubt but most Men who have right Conceptions of God do in their Mind and Reason as much approve of and delight in the Perfection of his Nature as St. Paul did in the Perfection of his Law and yet their Wills are as repugnant and averse to the Holiness and Purity of the one as St. Pauls then was to the Justice and Goodness of the other Wherefore to constitute us true Lovers of God it is necessary that our Approbation of and Delight and Complacency in him should be such as doth powerfully affect our Wills and reconcile them to the Nature of God For whilst our Wills are averse to that immaculate Purity and Goodness which is so inseparable to his Nature it is impossible we should heartily love him and though in our Minds we may approve of him as a most glorious and excellent Being yet in our Hearts we shall still retain a secret Antipathy against him And I doubt not but the Devils themselves do so far approve of God as to acknowledge him altogether amiable and lovely for if they do not I am sure they are very shallow Spectators but yet we see this Approbation of theirs accompanied with an inveterate Rancour and Enmity against him And till our Wills are so affected by our Reason as to consent and eccho to its Approbations to take Complacency in that divine Purity which our Reason acknowledges to be the Crown and Ornament of God whilst we reverence him in our Minds we hate and despise him in our Affections So that he only is a Lover of God whose Will is reconciled to true Goodness 5 thly And lastly This Love must be terminated on the proper Goodness and Perfections of God and hereby I distinguish it from that Love which we too commonly terminate upon a God of our own making For it is very ordinary with Men to set up Idols and false Representations of God in their Minds and then fall down and worship them And it is no great Wonder if they are extreamly fond of these Idol-Divinities of their own making since commonly they are nothing else but the Pictures and Images of themselves Thou thoughtst saith God to those profligate Persons that I was such a one as thy self Psal. l. 21 Men have always been prone to cast all their Ideas of God in the Mould of their own Tempers and to fashion the Divinity whom they Worship according to the Model of their own Inclinations Thus Men of ungovernable and imperious Tempers are apt to represent God in their own Likeness a Being that governs himself and others by a meer blind omnipotent Self-will that wills Things merely because he wills them and is no way concerned to regulate his own Motions by any antecedent Rules of Justice Wisdom or Goodness So also Men of wrathful and revengeful Tempers are apt to look upon God as a froward furious and implacable Being that is to be pleased or displeased with Trifles that frowns or smiles as the Humour takes him that when the froward Fit is upon him Breaths nothing but Revenge and Fury and whose Love and Hatred is fickle and mutable and never constant to the same Reasons And to name no more thus Men of fond and indulgent Natures are apt to represent God to themselves as one that dotes invincibly on those who have once the Luck to be his Favourites and in Christ at least will hug their very Deformities and connive at their greatest Treasons and Rebellions And since these false Representations that Men make of God are nothing but the Reflections of their own Images in loving him they only love themselves and 't is no wonder that they are more devoutly affected towards such an imaginary Divinity than towards the true God himself clothed with his own Attributes and circled about with his own Rays of unstained and immaculate Glory since the former is nothing but their own Shadow which Narcissus-like they gaze upon and fall in love with But whatsoever Love we may bestow upon these false Representations it is not terminated upon God but on the Spectres and Images of our Fancies which have nothing of God about them but the Name Wherefore to constitute our Love truly divine it is necessary that it should respect God as he is in himself and not as he seems to be in these disfigured Idols of our own Fancies We must blot out of our Minds all these false Conceptions which like the Aethiopian Idols are nothing but our own Resemblance and portrait him in all those fair Ideas wherein he hath represented himself unto us and when we have righted him in our own Opinions and formed such Notions of him as are agreeable to his native Perfections then we must love him for what we see in him even for the Mercy and Goodness the Righteousness and Purity of his Nature For unless we love these his moral Perfections which are indeed the only Objects of Love in him all our kind Pretences are base Flatteries and in stead of him we only Love a Mock-God of our own making And thus I have shewed you at large wherein the Essence of this heavenly Virtue our Love of God consists But because Things are better understood by their essential Characters and Properties than by their naked Essences and we may much more easily discern whether we truly love God or no by the former than by the latter 2. I proceed in the next Place to shew you what are the essential Properties and Characters of our Love of God And these are to be fetched from
much in discovering his Loveliness as in affecting our Hearts with the Sense of it and in raising our gross and carnal Affections to a Love proportionate to those Discoveries and 't is this that creates us so much Toil and Labour in the Progress of our Obedience to the Law of Perfection but when once we are arrived into the blessed Regions of Immortality our Affection being perfectly subdued to the Reason of our Minds and dreined and clarified from all its gross and carnal Love will as naturally flame out more and more towards God upon every new Discovery of his Beauty as Fire doth when more combustible Fuel is layd upon it and so without any Toil or Difficulty the more we know the more we shall Love and so more and more for ever If therefore we would know what Measures of Love to God we are obliged to by this Law of Perfection the Answer is easy viz. that to all Eternity we are bound to love him as much as we are able and always to love him more and more as our Ability increases And this I take to be the Sense of that comprehensive Law of our Saviour Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength Mar. 12.30 that is thou shalt imploy thy Faculties thy Mind thy Will and thy Affections to the utmost of thy Strength and Power in loving delighting and taking Complacency in the Goodness Beauty and Perfections of God But 2 ly What Degree of Love to God is required by the Law of Sincerity which is the Law by which we must stand or fall for ever So that the Sense of the Enquiry is this what Degree of Love to God is necessary to put us into a State of Salvation the indispensable Condition of our Salvation being nothing else but our Obedience to this Law of Sincerity Now as to this particular of our Love of God there are two Things which this Law exacts of us First it requires the Being and Existence of this heavenly Virtue in us that is it requires not only that we should not hate God or be indifferent between Love and Hatred in our Affection to him but that we should really cordially and sincerely love him And hence those eternal Glories and Beatitudes in which our Salvation doth consist are said to be prepared by God for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 which is a plain Evidence that it is one of the Conditions or Qualifications upon which our Salvation doth depend and consequently an indispensable Duty of the Law of Sincerity and St. James expresly tells us that the Lord hath promised the Crown of Life to them that love him Ja. 1.12 And therefore since that Law of Sincerity contains the Condition of that Promise it hence necessarily follows that our Love to God is a Part of it since that Promise is made to those that love him Nay so necessary a Part of that Law is this excellent Virtue that the Apostle tells us without this the most vertuous Actions whatsoever are insignificant Cyphers in the Account of God for though saith he I bestow all my Goods to feed the Poor and though I give my Body to be Burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13.3 where it is plain he takes Charity in the largest Sense for our Love to God and one another He therefore that doth not really love God who is not heartily touched and affected with the Sense of his Goodness and Perfections stands condemned by the Law of Sincerity and without Repentance and Amendment shall have no Part or Portion in the Kingdom of God But then Secondly This Law of Sincerity requires such a Degree of Love to God as doth together with the other Motives of Christianity effectually render us obedient to his Will For as I have shewed you the Scripture every where makes our keeping his Commandments the most essential Property of our Love of him for if a man love me saith our Saviour he will keep my Words Joh. 14.23 And whoso keepeth his Word saith St. John that is his Commandments in him is the love of God perfected that is in him it is real and cordial and sincere 1 Joh. 2.5 When therefore our Love to God hath that Power over us as together with the other Motives of Christianity to restrain us from the wilful Omission of any known Duty or Commission of any known Sin it is then perfected to that Degree which the Law of Sincerity exacts But before we dismiss this Argument it will be necessary to give a more particular Account of it 1. Therefore this Law of Sincerity requires that some Degree of true Love to God should be intermingled with the other Parts of our Obedience to him because this as I have shewn you is one great and essential Part of that Obedience which it requires and therefore if out of mere Fear of God we should obey him in all other Instances yet so long as we are defective in this our Obedience will be lame and partial and want a great Part of that Intireness which the Law of Sincerity exacts For since it requires us to love God under the same Penalty of eternal Death that it requires all its other Duties we can no more be saved by it without this Virtue than without Justice Temperance and Chastity yea considering how necessary this is both to quicken our Obedience here and qualify us for Happiness hereafter we may much better spare any Virtue of Religion than this of the Love of God This therefore is indispensably necessary according to the Tenor of the Law of Sincerity that there should be some Degree of true Love to God intermingled with the other Parts of our Obedience 2 ly This Law of Sincerity exacts of us only such a Degree of Love to God as in Conjunction with the other Motives of Christianity is actually sufficient to enforce our Obedience It doth not require us to love God in that heroic Degree as not to need any other Motive to engage us to obey his Will for if it did no Man could be in a good State till he were able to obey God purely for his own Sake without any Respect either to those glorious Advantages he promises or those endless Torments he denounces which requires such an ardent Degree of Love to him as I doubt few good Men arrive to in this Life I know 't is usually said by those that handle this Argument that to love God above all Things is the Degree of Love to which the Law of Sincerity obliges us but either this must be a Mistake or no Man can be good till he is so perfect a Lover of God as not to need any other Motive but that of his own Love to oblige him to Obedience For Men need no Motives to persuade them to chuse what they love best and therefore if Men loved God above all they
Righteousness that rectifies all their Disorders and reduces them to their native and most genuine Temper No reasonable Nature is well and in Health so long as it acts unreasonably and unrighteously it 's Pulse beats disorderly while it beats either faster or slower than Right Reason prescribes while it acts either on this side or beyond the Medium in the Defect or Excess of Virtue and whilst 't is thus sick and distempered 't is impossible it should be happy But now by acting righteously it revives and grows well again it throws off those unreasonable and consequently unnatural Inclinations that clogg'd and obstructed all its regular Motions and by Degrees recovers to the native Temper and Complection of a rational Nature and when once it hath perfectly discharged it self of all those unreasonable and unrighteous Humours that disordered it it will then live in perfect Health and Ease and all its languishing Faculties be restored to their natural Vigour and Activity And then secondly as Righteousness recovers us from all the Distempers of our Nature so it imploys and exercises our Faculties about such Objects as are most grateful and suitable to them For Truth and true Goodness are the only Objects that can gratify a reasonable Nature acting reasonably and about these doth Righteousness naturally dispose our Faculties to imploy and exercise themselves it disposes our Vnderstandings to contemplate upon and our Wills to embrace and chuse that God who is the Fountain of all Truth and Goodness For every Thing loves its own like and what it loves it is inclined to think on So that when we are righteous as God is we shall naturally love him because he is like us and then our Love to him will still incline our Thoughts to the Contemplation of his Beauty and Glories and so the more righteous we grow the more we shall love him and the more we love him the more our Understandings will be enclined to meditate upon him and so more and more till we arrive at that City of Vision where we shall see him Face to Face and be eternally ravished with the Love and Contemplation of him Thus Righteousness you see is the Spring and Cause of our Happiness and being so he must needs love it who above all things desires and sollicits our Welfare For he being perfectly happy from himself cannot need our Misery to augment his Happiness and therefore cannot desire it but on the contrary he must desire our Happiness out of that infinite Complacency and Delight which he takes in his own it being impossible that he whose Delight and Love is always founded on the same Motives should delight in contrary Objects in different Subjects in Happiness in himself and Misery in his Creatures And if he desire our Happiness as most certainly he doth how can he forbear to love and take Complacency in that which contributes so much to it Thus you see upon what Reasons and Principles it is that God is so firm a Lover of Righteousness 2. I now proceed in the Second Place to shew you what Indications he hath given the World of his steady Affection and Good-will to Righteousness Now these though they are many and almost infinite may be reduced to Two general Heads 1 st The natural Indications 2 dly The Supernatural ones Of both which I shall endeavour to give you some brief Account 1. God hath given us Sundry natural Indications of his Love of Righteousness all which I shall reduce to these Four Heads 1. He hath imprinted a Law upon our Natures which approves of righteous Actions and condemns their contraries 2. He hath endued our Minds with a grateful Sense of righteous Actions and a natural Horror of their contraries 3. He hath coupled good Effects to all righteous Actions and bad ones to their contraries 4. He hath implanted in us natural Abodings of the future Reward of righteous Actions and the future Punishment of their contraries 1 st One Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his imprinting a Law upon our Natures which approves all righteous Actions and disapproves their contraries and this Law is that natural Reason which is either connate with our Understanding or doth immediately result from the righteous Use and Exercise of it For such is the Frame of our Understandings that whensoever we impartially reason about Things we are forced to distinguish between Good and Evil and without offering infinite Violence to our Faculties we can never persuade our selves that to blaspheme God or to reverence him to lie or speak Truth to honour our Parents or to scorn or despitefully use them are indifferent Things for as soon as we open the Eye of our Reason we immediately discern such an essential Difference between them as forces us to condemn the One and approve the Other And hence we see that as for the great Strokes of Unrighteousness they have as much the universal Judgment of our Reason against them as any false Conclusion in the Mathematicks whereas the Goodness of their contrary Virtues is as universally Acknowledged by us as the Truth of any first Principle of Philosophy God therefore having created us with such a Faculty as doth so necessarily pass such a contrary Judgment upon righteous and unrighteous Actions we must either say that he hath made us judge falsely or else acknowledge this Judgment to be his as well as the Faculty that made it and if it be then 't is a sufficient Indication of his Love of Righteousness that he hath so framed our Faculties that without apparent Violence they cannot but approve of it For whatsoever our Faculties do naturally Speak they are made to speak from the Author of Nature they only speak what he hath Dictated to them and so what they say he says who hath put his Word into their Mouths and hath made them speak it Our Faculties therefore being God's Oracles whatsoever they freely and naturally pronounce is as much his Words as any outward Revelation Since therefore they so unanimously pronounce their Approbation of Righteousness it is as plain a Signification of God's Love and Approbation of it as if he himself should immediately pronounce it by a Voice from Heaven 2 ly Another Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his enduing our Minds with a grateful Sense of righteous Actions and a natural Horror of their Contraries We find that antecedently to all our Reasoning and Discourse there is something in our Natures to which Virtue is a grateful Thing and its Contraries very nauseous and loathsome for thus before we are capable of Reasoning our selves into any Pleasure or Displeasure our Nature is rejoyced at a kind or a just Action either in our selves or others before we can speak or are capable of being allured by Hope or awed by Correction We are sensibly pleased when we see we have pleasured those that have obliged us and as sensibly grieved when we are conscious of having Grieved and Offended them We love to