That as God is not ashamed to call them children truly this language may well astonish us God the Father is not ashamed to call his People poor despicable worms as they are he is not ashamed to call them children and to be called their God and Father So our Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call them Brethren but is free to say This is my Brother and this is my Sister as you know what 's exprest in the Gospel when they came and told him Thy Mother and thy Brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee Why saith he Who are they you understand my Brethren according to the flesh O but I 'll tell you who are my Brethren and whom I will never be ashamed to own for Brethren and Sisters He that heareth my Word and receives my Doctrine and comports with my Counsels and attends me in the way of the Gospel That 's my Brother that 's my Mother and that 's my Sister I will never be ashamed of that Kindred He is not ashamed to call them brethren saying I will declare my Name unto my brethren in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee This refers unto Psal. 22. and it 's a quotation out of that O wonder of Grace and Mercy That there should be such a conjunction I will not be ashamed to call them Brethren I will declare thy Name to my Brethren I will tell them what a Father they have I know thee well thou art my Father and my God and I will tell them and declare thy Name to them and make it known to them what a Father I have and have had from all Eternity and I will tell them what a Father they shall find thee to be to them And this I will tell to them and sing praise to thee in the Church O this will be the joy of my heart that I have a company of poor Brethren Christ was not prided in this to be the only begotten of the Father indeed he gloried in this to be the only begotten as second Person O but it was his joy to think that he should have a company of people that should come into the state of Brotherhood with him O he joys in this and shed his blood to purchase them and when he comes once to have them given to him he will say to them Friends you are my Brethren flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone we have one blood and I will declare my Fathers Name to you and it shall be my joy so to do in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee O a wonder of Mercy and Grace that ever it should be thus done to poor sinners O how will this advance the comfort of a Believers Adoption when we shall come to consider that by vertue of this Adoption he comes to be in a Relation to God as to a Father so to Christ as to a Brother A Brother and what Brother that so you may come to understand the blessing of this Priviledge and if it may be that we may every one of us that have any hope towards God take shame to our selves that we should be so spirited and should not come to look more into Gospel-priviledges the priviledge of Justification and of Adoption that we should not search into them and have our hearts more affected with them Now I say that you may come to be the more affected with this and to know how the comfort is advanc'd to us consider what a Brother Christ is A Brother not such a Brother as he in the Gospel Luk. 15. when his younger Brother had plaid the Prodigal and had spent his estate upon lend persons in a course of riotous living he comes home and humbles himself to his Father and confesseth Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son He comes home and the Father entertains him and falls upon his neck and kisseth him and kills the fatted Calf and provides the best robe for him and calls his Friends together Let us rejoyce and make merry This my Son was dead and is alive he was lost and is found and they began to be merry The elder Brother he comes out of the field and hears the musick and these rejoycings and he begins to take it in indignation and his spirit begins to boyl within him and he begins to grumble at it O Father saith he I am thy elder Son and I have carried it thus and thus to thee and thou never didst thus to me Here was a Brother but a Brother of somewhat an unbrotherly spirit towards his repenting and returning Brother Is Christ such a Brother An elder Brother but a Brother of a sweeter spirit than this When a poor younger Brother comes home and confesseth his miscarriages to his Father the Father entertains him and there 's joy in heaven under such a returning soul. Well doth the elder Brother come and pout and take on and discover a spirit of discontent no it 's the joy of Christ's heart O Brother welcom Brother well dear Brother I rejoyce in you I you shall have your elder Brothers garments to put on A Brother how a Brother Truly such a Brother as Ioseph was to his Brethren A Brother a Shepherd the Stone the Shepherd of Israel who being himself as it was with Ioseph he being advanc'd to honour in Pharaoh's Court he entertains his Brethren and speaks kindly to them at length after some reservation of himself his bowels melt over them and entertains them and uses them kindly and bestows largely upon them and rejoyces in them And so it is with Jesus our elder Brother our Ioseph he is glad to have his Brethren about him and his heart melts over them And if so be that Christ's poor Brethren should argue the case as Ioseph's Brethren did and say It may be our Brother now living in honour and prosperity and glory it may be he will remember all the unkindness that we shewed him we sold our Brother Ioseph for a slave and he now being in place and power will be avenged on us Oh what said Ioseph to his Brethren No no my Brethren my honour is for your advantage I shall not remember the wrongs and injuries that you have done me but I look up to the hand of my God that sent me into Egypt before you to preserve seed alive So it is with Jesus and much more if his poor Brethren should begin to have misgivings of heart concerning him and think thus O our elder Brother he is now in glory and honour and at the Fathers right hand and will he not remember all the unkindness we have done him how we have wounded him and how unworthy we have carryed it towards him will he not keep all this in remembrance No nothing of this shall be remembred against his Brethren but in the midst of the Church will I sing praise to thee
which a well-grown Faith will inable to and such a degree of Faith our duty is to endeavour after that we may be able to say with the Spouse even so come Lord Jesus come quickly And thus I have spoken to you concerning Faith when the Apostle calls upon us to grow in Grace I have prest the duty with respect to this particular Grace of Faith and this know as I said in the beginning of the discourse That truly the growth of other Graces doth very much depend upon the growth of Faith and the reason why we are so low and poor in other Graces it is because our Faith is not better improved and raised up to a higher pitch But yet I would speak something concerning two or three other Graces and so endeavour to fasten this charge of the Apostle upon you Your duty is if you have Grace to grow in Grace do but think of it seriously and study to answer the duty of the Text Grow in Grace Grow in Faith I and know that it is your duty to grow in Love In Love to God in Love to Christ in Love to the Truth in Love to the Saints in Love with Heaven this is that that you should set your hearts unto Have you any thing of the Love of God in you If you know that it 's your duty to improve in that Love as you are taught of God to Love so you are taught of God to increase and abound in Love If there be a spark of Love in you to God you should labour to bless God for that but labour withal that that spark may be blown up into a flame Are you able to say with Peter if the question should be put to you as it was to him Simon Son of Jâ—…nah Lovest thou me You should be thinking with your selves if Christ should put such a question to you such a one Thomas John Brother Sister dost thou love me that you may be able to say without check of conscience Yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee It were very good for every one of us to be putting this question to our own hearts O my soul dost thou love God indeed art thou able to make a bold profession of thy love to God Doth not thy conscience tell thee that thou lyest when thou sayest thou lovest him and his Christ and his Spirit and his waies Dost thou indeed love him If we can say with boldness and without check and controul of conscience Lord thou knowest that I love thee Then I would say this to thee Dost thou love him O labour to love him more and more to love him with a more intire love with a more intensive love Love him with such a love that whatsoever duties he requires of thee thou mayest cheerfully apply to them O Lord I love thee and I so love thee that I think nothing too much to do for thee so love thee as that I think nothing too much to suffer for thee If thou call me to duty O Lord I love thee so dearly that I stick at nothing of duty O Lord I love thee with such an intire and an intensive love that I think nothing too much to suffer for thee such a love we should press to and improve to such a flame that we may be able to say all this is come upon us as the Church speaks in Ps. 44. yet have we not departed from thee noâ—… have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant this is the Love a flaming Love to God to Christ to the Truth to waies of Holyness such a Love as no waters may be able to quench And then thirdly Grow in Grace in what Grace O Christians if so be that you have any Fear of God in you look to it that that fear be a growing Fear I speak now of a holy fear a child-like fear a fear of Reverence a fear that is consistent with love The Fear of God it is a Grace which you should endeavour to grow in that it may be said of you that you Fear God I you fear God above many It 's an excellent testimony that 's given concerning one in the book of Neh. The testimony is given of him that he feared God and he feared God above many Now such a fear that we may go beyond others in their fear others have a fear of God to such or such a degree I but the fear in such a one is far passing the fear of others Such a fear of God we should endeavour to come to that when a temptation comes upon us and it comes with the greatest advantages consider of it and we have the fairest opportunities to commit the sin that we are tempted to such a fear we should endeavour to be possest withal that we may break the force and power of the temptation that it may not in the least fasten upon us Such a fear there was in Ioseph when the temptation was upon him só strong and comes upon him with so much advantage the fear of God was so strong upon his heart that he was inabled to bid defiance to the temptation and to quit himself in an honourable manner Such a Fear of God so improved and grown up to such a degree that when there are difficult duties before us to perform and such duties as we shall be in danger by performing of them to fall into deep and dreadful sufferings Such a Fear as let the danger be what it will that I may expose my self to in case I perform the duty yet the Fear of God is so strong upon my heart as that notwithstanding all the danger the duty shall be done This was the case of Obadiah there was a duty incumbent upon him and which he had opportunity to perform concerning the Prophets of the Lord He takes 100 of them and gets them into a Cave and there he feeds them by 50 in a Cave this was a very difficult and a dangerous duty it was as much as his life amounted to in case that Iezabel should have come to the knowledge of it I but notwithstanding the difficulty and the danger such was the fear of God in him that he was inabled to the performance of this duty and therefore he could speak boldly to Eliah in 1 Kin. 18. I thy Servant fear the Lord and that with such a fear thot when Iezabel slew the Prophets of the Lord I hid 100 of them by 50 in a Cave Such a fear we should labour to be possest withal as that when we are apt to be insnared and inslaved by the fear of men the fear of God may break the force of that fear Solomon tell us In the fear of man there is a snare and how apt are people to be ensnared by it I but now if the Fear of God were but well improved it would break the snare and swallow up the fear of man In the fear of man there is a snare But in the fear of the Lord there
them as you can use as strict discipline upon your lusts and corruptions as you can O 't is this that doth do us a great deal of mischief and doth very much prejudice the soul that there is not a more through repenting and breaking off our corruptions and lusts Amnon's lustful love to his Sister Thamar it made him look lean from day to day I allude to it O saith he to him why do'st thou being the Kings Son look lean from day to day O saith he I love my Sister Thamar Why are Christians that are the Kings Sons and Daughters lean from day to day O! there 's something amiss something lyes within some lust and corruption that is not fully subdued This is that that causeth leanness in their faces And then thirdly have not you been directed to this That you would take heed of entertaining conceits of your own perfection that you would take heed of swelling thoughts of what you have already attained so as to fancy to your selves a perfection Keep your hearts in this apprehension as Paul doth I have not yet attained I am not yet perfect I am not so good as I should be and I am not so good as I am resolved to be and thereupon you will by Grace come to this resolve as Paul did I have not yet attain'd I am not yet perfect why then I will forget what is behind and I will reach to that which is before Your duty is to take knowledge of whatsoever Grace you have already received I but so take notice of it to be thankful as that you do not rest in it and say it is enough and I will look after no more But so bless God for what is already bestowed upon you that you still be pressing on for a larger supply and that you may come to be more and more improved in the Grace that is begun Fourthly I would add this in order to your growth that you may do according to your duty you and I that we may grow in Grace Will you but seriously propound this to your selves make it your business and resolve upon it that you will do your utmost to grow in Grace and to be every day better and better Natural growth that comes on whether we mind it or no. The child that 's conceived in the womb it minds not its growth when it s born and in its infancy it minds not its growth I but yet there is a growth and nature carries it on I but it is not so in Grace Growth in Grace must be minded and it must be attained and we must propound it to our selves that we may grow And truly I am perswaded if so be that Christians would but go to work like rational creatures like men that understood themselves in a religiously rational way if so be that they would but go to work as those that do with religious reason weigh and consider that this is their duty to grow and propound it and make it their design and resolve upon it to make a business of it that they may grow in Grace I am very consident of it that there would be better growth You know whether this be propounded by you that you may be better in your Faith and Love and Holyness that you may have more of God and of Christ more of the Kingdom of God more of the power of the Gospel be more in expressing these things Your Consciences can tell you whether you propound these things to your selves whether you can say Truly I am not so good as I would be I would be better and by the Grace of God I will be better I will endeavour to better my condition and to express more of the in-dwelling of Christ in me Undoubtedly if you would but resolve to make it a business it would be better with you than it is 5. If you desire to grow in Grace do but study what Grace is and if you have it what it is in you why is it not a lovely thing Do you know what Grace is a dramn of it is worth a 10000 Worlds O a little Faith a little Love a little of the Grace of God it is more precious than all the pâ—…arls and jewels in the whole World there 's nothing comparable to it Now if you have a little of this precious commodity why should not your hearts be set to this that you may have more of it And truly this would be a good conducement to the raising up of your hearts to an endeavour this way why this Grace is a precious thing a little I have gotten of it and it is so precious that I will not be contented with this little but I will labour to have as much of it as I can more love O more love never never never too much of that Sixthly If you would grow in Grace look to your union with Christ He is the head and you are the members if you are Beleevers Now the body grows by influence from the head Truly our growth it springs up from union with Christ If you abide in me and my words abide in you then it shall be well if so be that you hold the head 'T is an excellent expression you have in 2 Collos. the Apostle useth that expression of holding the head by vertue of which holding the head there comes to be an increasing with all the increase of God When thou art well skilled in this mysterie of holding the head in a dependance upon Christ drawing every day from the Lord Jesus not contenting himself with what he hath received but is still drawing and sucking from Christ the breasts of Christ. He is in the proper way of proficiency and improvement in Grace These are not empty notions no they are the things of the spirit of God the spirit of Wisdom doth suggest them to you and therefore let them be accordingly regarded and heeded by you Seventhly your duty is to grow and to grow in Grace In order to that I will tell you what will be a a good conducement labour to make it sure that you have Grace in the truth of it and be very much in that inquiry into your selves so as that you may be clear in this that you have the true Grace of God in you that it is the true Grace of God wherein you stand This is a good conducement to proficiency and growth in Grace when you come to know that there is a work begun For mark you if so be that a man be about a building and do question whether the foundation be well laid yea or no truly he can never go on so clearly and so dexterously in the carrying on of the building But if so be that he be well perswaded sufficiently satisfied concerning this that the foundation is well laid this will strengthen his hands for to go on in the work If so be that a man be upon a journey and question whether he be in the right