undoing then vvhen indignation and vvrath is pursuing it O that you vvould ponder vvhat you lose by it both the sweetnesse and advantage of godlinesse beside the dishonour of God You take a formall neglegent and secure vvay as the most easie vvay and the most pleasing to your flesh and I am perswaded you find it the most difficult vvay because you vvant all the pleasant sweet refreshment soul-delights you might have in God by a serious and diligent minding of Religion The pleasure and sweetnesse of God tasted and found vvill make diligence and pains more easie then slothfulnes can be to the slothfull this oyls the wheels and makes them run swiftly formality makes them drive heavily thus you live alwayes in a complaining humor fighing and going backward because you have some stirring principles or conscience vvithin vvhich bears vvitnesse against you and your formall sluggish disposition on the other hand refuseth to awake and work you are perplexed and tormented between the two when thy spirit and affections goes one way thy body another then thy conscience drives on the Spirit and thy affections draw back it must needs be an unpleasant businesse Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. 1 Joh. 5. 7. There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one GReat is the mystery of Godlinesse 1 Tim. 3. 16. Religion and true Godlinesse is a bundle of excellent mysteries of things hid from the world yea from the wise men of the world 1 Cor. 2. and not only so but secrets in their own nature the distinct know ledge whereof is not given to Saints in this estate of distance and absence from the Lord There is almost nothing in Divinity but it is a mystery in it self how common soever it be in the apprehensions of men for it is mens overly and common and slander apprehensions of thē which makes them look so commonly upon them there is a depth in them but you will not know it till you search it sound it the more you sound you shal find it the more profound But there are some mysteries smal and some great there is a difference amongst them all are not of one statu◅e of one measure The mystery of Christs Incarnation and D◅ath and Resurrection is one of the great mysteries of Religion God manifested in the flesh yet I conceive there is a greater mystery than it and of all mysteries in nature or divinity I know none to this the Holy Trinity and it must needs be greatest of all and without controversie greatest because it is the beginning and end of all fons finis omnium all mysteries have their rise here and all of them return hither This is furthest removed from the understandings of men what God himself is for himself is infinitly above any manifestation of himself God is greater than God manifested in the flesh though in that respect he be too great for us to conceive There is a naturall desire in all men to know and if any thing be secret and wonderfull the desire is more inflamed after the knowledge of it the very difficulty or impossibility of attaining it in stead of restraining the curiosity of mans spirit doth rather incense it Nitimur in vetitum is the fruit the sad fruit we plucked and eat from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil If the Lord reveal any thing plainly in his Word to men that it despised and set at naught because it is plain whereas the most plain truths which are beyond all controversie are the most necessary and most profitable for our eternal salvation but if there be any secret mystery in the Scriptures which the Lord hath only pointed out more obscurely to us reserving the distinct and clear understanding of it to himself Deut. 29. 26. that is the Apple which our cursed natures will long for and catch after though there be never so much choice of excellent saving fruit in the Paradise of the Scriptures besides If the Ark be covered to keep men from looking into it that doth rather provoke the curious spirit of man to prye into it 1 Sam. 6. 19. If the Lord shew his wonderfull glory in the Mount charge his people not to come near left the glorious presence of God kill them he must put rayles about it to keep them back or else they will be medling such is the unbridled licence of our minds and the perverse dispositions of our natures that where God familiarly invites us to come what he earnestly presseth us to search and know that we despise as trivial and common and what he compasseth about with a divine darkness of inaccessible light and hath removed far from the apprehensions of all living that we will needs search into and wander into those forbidden compasses with daring boldnesse I conceive this holy and profound mysterie is one of those secrets which belongs to God to know for who knowes the Father but the Son or the Son but the Father or who knoweth the mind of God but the Spirit Yet the foolish minds of men will not be satisfied with the believing ignorance of such a mysterie but will needs enquire into those depths that they may find satisfaction for their reason but as it hapeneth with men who will boldly stare upon the Sun their eyes are dazled and darkned with its brightnesse or those that enter into a Labyrinth which they can find no way to come out but they further go into it the more perplexed it is and the more intricate even so it befalls many unsober and presumptuous spirits who not being satisfied with the simple truth of God clearly asserting that this is endeavour to examine it according to reason and to solve all the objections of carnal wit and reason which is often enmity to God not by the silence of the Scriptures but by answers framed according to the severall capacities of men I say all this is but daring to behold the infinite glorie of God with eies of flesh which makes them darkned in mind and vanishing in their Expressions while they seek to behold the inaccessible light while they enter into an endlesse Labyrinth of difficulties out of which the threed of reason and disputation can never extricat them or lead them forth But the Lord has shewed us a more excellent way though it be more despicable to men man did fal from his blessednes by this curious and wretched aime at some higher happinesse and more wisdom The Lord hath chosen another way to raise him up again by faith rather thā knowledge by believing rather than disputing therefore the great command of the Gospell is this to receive with a ready and willing mind whatsoever the Lord saith to us whatsoever it may appear to sense reason to dispute no more to search no more into the secret of Divine mysteries as if by
Ordinances but that Christians are now called to worship all Spirit pure Spirit c. This is one of the Spirits spiritual Doctrines that call themselves so which ye must not receive for it is neither spirit of God nor of Christ that teacheth this nor the spirit of God the Creator because he hath made the whole man body and soul and so must be worshipped of the whole man He hath created man in such a capacity as he may offer up external actions in a reasonable manner with the inward affections as the Lord hath created him so he should serve him every member every part in its own capacity the soul to preceed and the body to follow the soul to be the chief worshipper and the body its servant imployed in the worship True worship hath a body and a soul as well as a true man and as the soul separated is not a compleat man so neither is the soul separated a compleat worshipper without the body the external Ordinances of God is the body the inward soul-soul-affection is the Spirit which being joyned together makes compleat worship Neither is it the Spirit of Christ which teacheth this because our Lord Jesus hath taught us to offer up our bodies and spirits both in a reasonable service Rom. 12. 1 2. The sacrifice of the bodily performance offered up by the spiritual affection and renewed mind is a living sacrifice holy acceptable and reasonable That spirit which dwelt in Christ above measure did not think it too base to vent it self in the way of externall Ordinances He was indeed above all above the Law yet did willingly come under them to teach us who have so much need and want to come under them He prayed much he preached he did sing and read to teach us how to worship and how much need we have of Prayer and Preaching This was not the Spirit Christ promised to his Disciples and Apostles which spirit did breath most lively in the use of the external Ordinances all their dayes and this is not the spirit which was at the hour in which Christ spoke The hour is come and now is ver 23. in which the true worship of God shal not be in the external and Jewish Ceremonies and rites void of all life and inward sense of Piety but the true worship of God shal be made up of a soul and body of spirit and truth of the external appointed Ordinances according to the word of truth and the spirit of truth and of the spirit and inward soul-soul-affection and sincerity which shal quicken and actuate that external performance There were no such worshippers then as had no use of Ordinances Christ was not such his Disciples were not such therefore it is a new Gospel which if an Angel should bring from heaven ye ought not to receive it As it is certain then that both soul and body must be imployed in this businesse so it is sure that the soul spirit must be the first mover and chiefest agent in it because it is a spiritual businesse and hath relation to the fountain-spirit which hath the most perfect opposition to all false appearances and externall shews that part of man that commeth nearest God must draw near in worshipping of God if that be removed far away there is no real communion with God man judges according to the outward appearance and can reach no further than the outward man but God is an all-searching spirit who tryeth the heart and rins and therefore he will passe another judgement upon your worship then men can do because he observes all the secret wandrings and escapes of the heart out of his sight he misses the soul when you present attentive ears or eloquent tongues there is no dallying with his Majesty painting will not deceive him his very Nature is contrary to Hypocrisie dissimulation and what is it but dissimulation when you present your selves to Religious exercises as his people but within are nothing like it nothing awaking nothing present O consider my beloved what a one you have to do with It is not men but the Father of Spirits who will not be pleased with what pleases men of your own flesh but must have a spirit to serve him Alas what are we doing with such empty names and shews in Religion Busied in the outside of worship only as if we had none to do with but men who have eyes of flesh all that we do in this kind is lost labour and will never be reckoned up in the account of true worship I am sure you know and may reflect upon your selves that you make Religion but a matter of outward fashion and externall custome you have never almost taken to heart in earnest you may frequent the Ordinances you may have a form of godlinesse consisting in some outward performances priviledges and O! how void and destitute of all Spirit and Life and Power not to speak of the removall of affection and the imploying of the marrow of your soul upon base lusts and creatures or the scattering of your desires abroad amongst them for that is too palpable but even your very thoughts mindâ—… are removed from this busines you have nothing present but an ear or eye your minds is about other businesse your desires your fears your joyes and delights your affections never did run in the channel of religious exercises all your passion is vented in other things but here you are blockish stupid without any sensible apprehension of God his mercy or Justice or wrath or of your own misery and want You sorrow in other things but none here none for sin you joy for other things but none here you cannot rejoyce at the Gospel Prayer is a burthen not a delight if your spiriâ—…s were chiefly imployed in Religious duties Religion would be almost your Element your pleasure and Recreation but now it is wearisome to the flesh because the Spirit taketh not the chief weight upon it Oh be not deceived God is not mocked you do but mock your selves with external showes while you are satisfied with them I beseech you look inwardly and be not satisfied with the outward appearance but ask at thy Soul where it is and how it is Retire within and bring up thy spirit to this work I am sure you may observe that any thing goes more smoothly and sweetly with you then the Worship of God because your mind is more upon any thing else I fear the most part of us who endeavour to some measure to seek God have too much drosse of outward formality much scumof filthy hypocrisie and guile O pray that the present furnace may purge away this scum It is the great ground of Gods present controversie with Scotland but alas the Bellows are like to burn we not be purged our scum goes not from us we satisfie our selves with some outward exercises of Religion custome undoes us all it was never more
is the stupid security of men that are only awakened by some new and unusual passages of Gods works beyond that straight Line of Nature Then fourthly look upon the power of God in making all of nothing which is expressed here in Heb. 11. There is no Artificer but he must have matter or his Art will fail him and he can do nothing The Mason must have timber and stones laid to his hand or he cannot build a house the Gold-smith must have gold or silver ere he can make a Cup or a Ring take the most curious quick inventer of them all they must have some matter to work upon or their knowledge is no bettter than ignorance all that they can do is to give some shape or form or to fashion that in some new model which had a beeing before so that what ever men have done in the world their work are all made up of these things which appear and Art skill to form fashion that excellently which before was in another mould and fashion but he needs not sit idle for want of materials and therefore in the beginning he made Heaven and Earth not as they now are but he made first the matter and substance of this Universe but it was as yet a rude and confused Chaos or Masse all in one lump without difference but then his Majesty shews his Wisdom and Art his excellent invention in the following dayes of the creation in ordering and beautifying forming the world as it is and that his power might be the more known For how easie is it for him to do all this There needs no more for it but a word let it be it is He spake and it was done He commanded and it stood fast Not a word pronounced and audibly composed of Letters and Syllables mistake it not so but a word inwardly formed as it were in his infinite Spirit even the inclination and beck of his will suffices for his great works Ye see what labour and pains we have in our businesse how we toil sweat about it what wrestlings strivings in all things we do but behold what a great work is done without any pain and travel It is a laborious thing to travell through a parcel of this earth which is yet but as the point of the Universe It is troublesome to lift or carry a little piece of stone or clay it s a toil even to look upward and number the stars of Heaven but it was no toil no difficult thing to his Majesty to stretch out these Heavens in such an infinite compasse for as large as the Circumference of them is yet it is as easie to him to compasse them as it is to us to span a finger-length or two It is no difficulty to him to take up hills and mountains as the dust of the ballance in his hand weigh them in scales Hath he not chain'd the vast huge Masse of the wighty earth and Sea in the midst of the empty place without a supporter without foundations or pillars He hangeth it on nothing What is it I pray you that supports the Clouds who is it that binds up their waters in such a way that the clouds are not rent under them even though there be more abundance of water in them than is in all the Rivers waters round about us Iob. 26. 7 8. Who is it that restrains sets bounds to the Sea that the waters thereof thogh they roar yet do not overflow the land But this Almighty Jehovah whose Decree commandement is the very compasse the bulwark over which they cannot flow all this he doth with more facility than men can speak If there were a creature that could do all things by speaking that were a strange power but yet that creature might be wearied with speaking much but he speaks and it is done his word is a creating word of power which makes things that are not to be and there is no wearying of him besides for he is Almighty and cannot saint but why then did he take six dayes for his work might he not with one word of his power have commanded this world to issue out of his omnipotent vertue thus perfect as it is What needed all this compasse Why took he six dayes who in a moment could have done it all with as much facility Indeed herein the Lord would have us to adore his wisdome as well as his power he proceeds from more imperfect things to more perfect from a confused Chaos to a beautifull World from motion to rest to teach man to walk through this wildernesse and valley of Tears this shapelesse World into a more beautiful habitation through the tossings of time into an everlasting Sabbath of rest whether their works shal follow them they shal rest from their labours He would teach us to take a stedfast look of his work and that wee should be busied all the dayes of our pilgrimage and sojourning in the consideration of the glorious characters of God upon the work of his hands wee see that it is but passing looks and glances of Gods glory we take in the creatures but the Lord would have us to make it our work and businesse all the week throgh as it was his to make them He would in this teach us his loving care of men who would not create Man till he had made for him so glorious an house replenished with all good things It had been a darksome irksome life to have lived in the first Chaos without light but he hath stretched over him the Heavens as his Tent and set lights in them to distinguish times and seasons and ordained the VVaters their proper bounds and peculiar Channels and then maketh the Earth to bring forth all manner of fruits when all is thus disposed then he câ—…eats man To this God the Maker of Heaven and Earth be glory and praise Heb. 11. 3. Heb. 1. 14. Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister c. THere is nothing more generally known than this that God at the beginning made the heaven and the earth and all the hosts of them the upper or the celestiall the lower or sublunary World but yet there is nothing so little believed or laid to heart By faith we understand that the Worlds were made It is one of the first Articles of the Creed indeed Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth but I fear that Creed is not written in the Tables of flesh that is the heart There is a twofold mistake among men about the point of believing some and the commoner sort do think it is no other than simply to know such a thing and not to question it to hear it not to contradict it or object against it Therefore they do flatter themselves in their own eyes and do account themselves to have faith in God because they can say over all the Articles of their belief they
knowledge and omniscience p. 128. SERMON XI Joh. 4. 26. The true knowledge that God is and that he is to be worshipped goes together HOw inexcusable they are who profess to believe a Diety do not worship him p. 129 It is the souls honour and happiness to worship God p. 130 It 's all one not to worship God at all and not to worship him as he hath commanded p. 131 What will-worship and what true worship is p. 132 The most part of worship though commanded hath no truth in it p. 133 Truth in worship is opposed to Ceremony p. 134 Many place all their Religion in externalls p. 135 Men ought to be most taken up with that in Religion upon which God layes most weight and wherein he is most delighted p. 136 It compleats our worship when the thing commanded is performed according as it is commanded p. 137 What is the right manner in worshipping God p. 138 The best litle acquainted with spiritual worship p. 139 True worship must have the stamp of Gods spiritual nature engraven on it p. 140 External worship necessary under the Gospel p. 141 The soul and spirit must be the first mover and chief agent in spiritual worship p. 142 The greatest part of our Religion is bodily exercise ibid. What makes Religion burdensome and unpleasant to us p. 143 Formality in worship the greatest controversie against the land ibid. SERMON XII Deut. 6. 4. 1 Joh. 5. 7. Of the Unity of Gods essence and the Trinity of Persons GOdliness and Mystery p. 144 There is an unlawfull curiosity in men to know those things that are kept secret p. 145 We are to believe the mystery of the Trinity though we know not how it is p. 146 The light of reason may convince men that there is but one God p. 147 Why Christ is called the Word p. 148 149 Of the three Witnesses upon earth p. 150 SERMON XIII Deut. 6. 4. Joh. 5. 7. Of the Unity of the God-head and Trinity of Persons THe whole Word of God profitable ibid. The unsearchableness of this mystery of the Trinity ought to compose our hearts to a reverend apprehension of Gods divine Majesty p. 151 Since there is but one God we ought to have no other besides him p. 152 153 We have much and strong consolation both from the thing witnessed and from the Witnesses that bear testimony p. 154 155 Faiths victory is from the object of it the Lord God Almighty p. 156 Few consider that Jesus Christ the Saviour is the Eternall Son of God and the sad consequences thereof p. 157 We are ready so far to mis-conceive of God as if the Father and the holy Ghost were not so well minded to the Salvation of sinners as Jesus Christ. p. 158 The mystery of the Trinity affords us this plain instruction how me ought to worship God p. 159 SERMON XIV Eccles. 1. 11. Job 23. 13. Of the Decrees of God GODS absolute self-sufficient perfection admits of no accession of blessedness from the things which he hath made p. 160 The Eternal purpose and Decree of God it it most wise p. 161 It is most absolute and free having no cause without himself p 162 It is the first rise of all things past present to come p. 163 It reaches to every particular being and act so that nothing falls out by chance p. 164 165 The purpose of God is one and unchangeable p. 166 167 How we are to understand those Scriptures which speak of his repenting p. 168 169 Whatever God hath purposed from Eternity that he executes in time p. 170 Gods commands do not so much signifie what he intends to effectuate as what is our duty ibid. How comfortable it is for a Christian to consider that whatsoever falls out is according to an Eternall Counsel p. 171 The Counsel of God irresistible p. 172 The consideration of Gods Eternal Counsel should teach us that sweet Lesson of submission wherein we are so much wanting and so unwilling to learn p. 173 Want of submission makes a mans yoke heavy and his bands strong p. 174 From the absolute Dominion of God over all things we are to learn confidence in him in all things and for all things p. 175 176 Who are heirs of the promise p. 177 It is a well-spring and fountain of consolation to the people of God that he is in one mind p. 178 SERMON XV. Eph. 1. 11. Rom. 9. 22 23. Of Predestination PRedestination a Mystery not to be curiously or boldly enquired into p. 179 For the right up-taking of Predestination we must know that there is not a plurality of purposes in God but one intire purpose concerning all things p. 180 As also that it is not the creature or any thing in the creature which is first in his mind but himself and his own glory p. 181 How men miscarry in conceiving of the purposes of God while they subject the most High to the Rules of Carnall Reason where of the Arminian fore-knowledge and how it derogates both from the Soveraignty of God and the wisdome of God ib. p. 182 Some make that first in his intention which is last in execution p. 183 184 185 186 187 Gods saving the vessels of mercy by a Redeemer is not simply to manifest the glory of his goodness but of his gracious and mercifull goodness p. 188 189 190 SERMON XVI Rom. 9. 22. Eccles. 11. Of Predestination HOw to silence all the secret surmises and mutinies of the heart concerning Predestination p. 191 192 How great wickedness it is to enquire into a cause of his will ibid. Men speak wickedly for God in the matter of Predestination p. 193 194 195 The Objections of Carnall Reason against Predestination tending to accuse God and justifie men answered p. 196 197 198 199 SERMON XVII Heb. 11. 3. Of Creation GOD is the Creator of all things these things which he hath made prove him to be God p. 200 201 When this visible world was made p. 202 The wickedness of mens curiosity in enquiring what God was doing before he made the world why he was so long in applying himself to this work ibid. p. 203 The Lord in the beginning of the world declares more manifestly his Eternity his Self-sufficiency and his Liberty p. 204 205 God made all things very good to declare his goodness and wisdome p. 106 The course of nature is one continued wonder ibid. The power of God doth eminently appear in making all things of nothing and how easie it was for him to do so p. 207 Why the Lord took six dayes to perfect the work of Creation p. 208 SERMON XVIII Heb. 11. 3. Heb. 11. 4. Of Creation IT is not believed or laid to heart that God made the Heaven and the Earth p. 209 210 The faith of Gods making the world is of singular use to a Christian through his whole course p. 211 212 213 SERMON XIX Gen. 1. 26. 27. Of the Creation of Man
creature that are among the rest of the creatures meet all in man as their Center for this purpose that he may return with them all to the glorious Fountain from whence they issued thus we stand next God and in the middle between God and other creatures This I say was the condition of our creation we had our being immediatly from God as the beginning of all and we were to have our happiness and well-being by returning immediatly to God as the end of all But sin coming in between God and us hath displaced us so that we cannot now stand next God without the intervention of a Mediator we cannot stand between God and the creatures to offer up their praise to him but there is one Mediator between God and man that offers up both mans praises and the creatures songs which meet in man Now seeing God hath made all things for himself and especially man for his own glory that he may shew forth in him the glory and excellency of his power goodness holiness justice and mercy It is not only most reasonable that man should do all things that he doth to the glory of God but it is even the beauty and perfection of a man the greatest accession that can be to his being to glorifie God by that being We are not our own therefore we ought not to live to our selves but to God whose we are But you may ask what is it to glorifie God Doth our goodness extend to him Or is it an advantage to the Almighty that we are righteous No indeed and herein is the vast difference between Gods glorifying of us and sanctifying of us and our glorifying and sanctifying of him God calls things that are not and makes them to be but we can do no more but call things that are and that far below what they are Gods glorifying is creative ours only declarative He makes us such we do no more but declare Him to be such this then is the proper work that man is created for to be a witness of Gods glory to give testimony to the appearances and out-breakings of it in the wayes of power and justice and mercy and truth Other creatures are called to glorifie God but it is rather a Proclamation to dull and senseless men and a provocation of them to their duty As Christ said to the Pharisees If these children hold their peace the stones would cry out So may the Lord turn himself from stupid and senseless men to the stones and woods and seas and sun and moon and exhort them to mans duty the more to provoke and stirre up our dulness and to make us consider that it is a greater wonder that man whom God hath made so glorious can so little express Gods glory then if stupid and senseless creatures should break out in singing and praising of his Majesty The creatures are the books wherein the lines of the song of Gods praises are written and man is made a creature capable to read them and to tune that long They are appointed to bring in Brick to our hand and God has fashioned us for this imployment to make such a building of it We are the mouth of the creation but ere God want praises when our mouth is dumb and our ears deaf God will open the mouths of ashes of Babes and Sucklings and in them perfyte praises Psal. 8. 1. 2 Epictetus said well Si Luscinia essem canerem ut Luscinia cum autem homo sim quod agam Laudebo Deum nec unquam cessabo Is I were a Lark I would sing as a Lark but seeing I am a man what should I do but praise God without ceasing It is as proper to us to praise God as for a bird to chaunt All beasts have their own sounds and voices peculiar to their own nature this is the naturall sound of a man Now as you would think it monstruous to hear a melodious bird croping as a Raven so it is no less monstruous and degenerate to hear the most part of the discourses of men savouring nothing of God If we had known that innocent estate of man O how would we think he had fallen from heaven We would imagine that we were thrust down from heaven where we heard the melodious songs of Angels into hell to hear the howlings of damned spirits This then is that we are bound unto by the bond of our Creation this is our proper office and station God once set us into when he assigned every creature it s own use and exercise this was our portion and O the noblest of all because nearest the Kings own person to acknowledge in our hearts inwardly and to express in our words and actions outwardly what a one he is according as he hath revealed himself in his word and works It 's great honour to a creature to have the meanest imployment in the Court of this great King But O what is it to be set over all the Kings house and over all his Kingdom But then what is that in respect of this to be next to the King to wait on his own person so to speak therefore the godly man is described as a waiting maid or servant Psal. 123 2. Well then without more discourse upon it without multiplying of it into particular branches to glorifie God is in our souls to conceive of him and meditate on his Name till they receive the impression and stamp of all the letters of his glorious Name and then to express this in our words and actions in commending of him and obeying of him Our soul should be as wax to express the Seal of his glorious Attributes of justice power goodness holiness and mercy and as the Water that receives the beams of the Sun reflects them back again so should our spirits receive the sweet warming beams of his love and glorious excellency and then reflect them towards his Majesty with the desires and affections of our souls All our thoughts of him all our affections towards him should have the stamp of singularity such as may declare there is none like him none besides him our love our meditation our acknowledgement should have this character on their front There is none beside thee Thou art and none else And then a soul should by the cords of affection to him and admiration of him be bound to serve him Creation puts on the obligation to glorifie him in our body and spirits which are his but affection only puts that to exercise All other bonds leaves our natures at liberty but this constrains 2 Cor. 5. 13. it binds on all bonds it tyes on us all divine obligations Then a soul will glorifie God when love so unites it to God and makes it one spirit with him that his glory becomes its honour and becomes the principle of all our inward affections and outward actions It is not alwayes possible to have an expresse particular thought of God and his glory in every action and
meditation but for the most part it ought to be so And if souls were accustomed to meditation on God it would become their very nature altera natura pleasant and delightsome However if there be not alwayes an express intention of Gods glory yet there ought to be kept alwayes such a disposition and temper of spirit as it may be construed to proceed from the intention of Gods glory and then it remains in the seed and fruit if not in it self Now when we are speaking of the great end and purpose of our Creation we call to mind our lamentabel and tragicall Fall from that blessed station we were constitute into All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 23. His being in the world was for that glory and he is come short of that glory O strange short-comming short of all that he was ordained for What is he now meet for For what purpose is that chief of the works of God now The salt if it lose its saltness is meet for nothing for wherewithall shal it be seasoned Mark 9. 50. Even so when man is rendered unfit for his proper end he is meet for nothing but to be cast out and trod upon he is like a withered branch that must be cast into the fire Ioh. 15. 6. Some things if they fail in one use they are good for another but the best things are not so Corruptio optimi pessima As the Lord speaks to the house of Israel shal wood be taken off the vine tree for my work even so the inhabitants of Ierusalem Ezech. 15. 2 3 4 5. If it yeeld not Wine it 's good for nothing so if man do not glorifie God if he fall from that he is meet for nothing but to be cast into the fire of hell and burnt for ever he is for no use in the Creation but to the fuell to the fire of the Lords indignation But behold the goodnesse of the Lord and his kindnesse and love hath appeared towards men not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us through Iesus Christ Tit. 3. 4 5. Our Lord Jesus by whom all thing were created and for whom would not let this excellent workmanship perish so therefore he goes about the work of Redemption a second Creation more laborious and also more glorious than the first that so he might glorifie his Father and our Father Thus the breach is made up thus the unsavory salt is seasoned thus the withered branch is quickned again for that same fruit of praises and glorifying of God This is the end of his second Creation as it was of the first we are his workmanship created to good works in Christ Iesus Eph. 2. 10. This is the work of God to believe in him to set to our seal and to give our testimony to all his Attributes Ioh. 6. 29. and 3. 33. We are bought with a price and therefore we ought to glorifie him with our souls and bodies he made us with a word and that bound us but now he has made us again and paid a price for us and so we are twice bound not to be our own but his 1 Cor. 6. ult And so to glorifie him in our bodies and spirits I beseech you gather your spirits call them home about the businesse We once came short of our end Gods glory and our happinesse but know that it is attainable again we lost both but both are found in Christ Awake then and stir up your spirits else it shal be double condemnation when we have the offer of being restored to our former blessed condition to love our present misery better Once establish this point within your souls and therefore ask why came I hither To what purpose am I come into the world If you do not ask it what will you answer when he asks you at your appearance before his Tribunall I beseech you what will many of you say in that day when the Master returns and takes an account of your dispensation You are sent into the world only for this businesse to serve the Lord Now what will many of you answer If you speak the truth as then you must do it you cannot lie then you must say Lord I spent my time in serving my own lusts I was taken up with other businesses and had no leisure I was occupyed in my calling c. even as if an Embassadour of a King should return him his account of his negotiation I was busie at Cards and Dice I spent my mony and did wear my cloaths Though you think your plowing and borrowing and trafficking and reaping very necessary yet certainly these are but as trifles and toyes to the main businesse O what dreadfull account will souls make they come here for no purpose but to serve their bodies and senses to be slaves to all the creatures which were once put under mans feet Now man is under the feet of all and he has put himself so If you were of these creatures then you might be for them you seek them as if you were created for them and not they for you and you seek your selves as if you were of your selves and had not your descent of God Know my beloved that you were not made for that purpose nor yet redeemed either to serve your selves or other creatures but that other creatures might serve you and ye serve God Luk. 1. 74 75. And this is really the best way to serve our selves and to save our selves to serve God Self-seeking is self-destroying self-denying is soul-saving He that seeketh to save his life shal lose it and he that loseth his life shal find it and he that denies himself and follows me is my disciple Will ye once sit down in good earnest about this businesse It is lamentable to be yet to begin to learn to live when ye must die ye will be out of the world almost ere you bethink your self Why came I into the world Quidam tunc vivere incipiunt cum definendum est imò quidam ante vivere defiêrunt quam inciperent this is of all most lamentable many souls end their life before they begin to live For what is our life but a living death while we do not live to God and while we live not in relation to the great end of our life and being the glory of God It were better saith Christ that such had never been born You who are created again in Jesus Christ it most of all concerns you to ask Why am I made and why am I redeemed And to what purpose It is certainly that you may glorifie your heavenly Father Mat. 5. 16. Psal. 58. 13. And you shal glorifie him if you bring forth much fruit continue in his love Ioh. 15. 8. And this you are chosen and ordained unto ver 16. And therefore abide in him that you may bring forth fruit ver 4. And if you abide in him
a little time the advantage of all the Books of the world shal be gone The statutes and Laws of Kings and Parliaments can reach no further then some temporall reward or punishment their highest pain is the killing of this body their highest reward is some evanishing and sading honour or perishing richest But he sheweth his word and judgements to us and hath not dealt so with every nation Psal. 147. 19. 20. And no nation under the whole heaven hath such Laws and Ordinances eternall life and eternall death is wrapt up in them these are rewards and punishments suitable to the Majesty and Magnificence of the eternall Law-giver Consider I beseech you what is folded up here the Scriptures shew the path of life life is of all beings most excellent and comes nearest the blessed being of God When we say life we understand a blessed life that only deserves the name Now this we have lost in Adam death is past upon all men but that death is not the worst it s but a consequence of a soul death the immortall soul whose life consisteth in Communion with God peace with him is seperated from him by sin and so killed when it s cut off from the fountain of life what life can it have any more than a beam that is cut off by the intervention of a dark body from the sun Now then what a blessed Doctrine must it be that brings to light life and immortality especially when we have so much miserably lost it and involved our souls into an eternall death Life is precious in it self but much more precious to one condemned to die to be caught out of the paws of the Lyon to be brought back from the Gibbet O how will that commend the favour of a little more time in the World But then if we knew what an eternall misery we are involved into and stand under a sentence binding us over to such an inconceivable and insupportable punishment as is the curse wrath of God O how precious an esteem would souls have of the Scriptures how would they be sweet unto their soul because they shew unto us a way of escaping that pit of misery and a way of attaining eternall blessednesse as satisfying and glorious as the misery would have been vexing and tormenting O that ye would once lay these in the ballance together this present life and eternall life Know ye not that your souls are created for eternity that they will eternally survive all these present things Now how do ye imagine they shal live after this life your thoughts and projects and designs are confined within the poor narrow bounds of your time when you die in that day your thoughts shal perish all your imaginations and purposes providences shal have an end then they reach no further then that time if you should wholly perish too it were not so much matter but for all your purposes and projects to come to an end when you are but beginning to live and enter eternity that is lamentable indeed Therefore I say consider what ye are doing weigh these in a ballance eternal life the present life if there were no more difference but the continuence of the one shortnesse of the other that this worlds standing is but as one day one moment to eternity that ought to preponderate in your souls do we not here flee away as a shadow upon the mountains are we not as a vapour that ascends and for a litle time appears a solid body and then presently vanisheth Do we not come all into the stage of the world as for an hour to act our part and be gone now then what is this to endless eternity When you have contained as long as since the World began you are no nearer the end of it ought not that estate then to be most in your eyes how to lay up a foundation for the time to come But then compare the misery and vexation of this life with the glory and felicity of this eternall life what are our dayes but few and full of trouble Or if you will take the most blessed estate you have seen or heard of in this world of Kings and rich men and help all the defects of it by your imaginations Suppose unto your selves the highth and pith of Glory and abundance and power that is attainable on earth and when your fancy hath busked up such a felicitie compare it with eternall life O how will that vanish out of your imaginations if so be you know any thing of the life to come you wil even think that an odious comparison you will think all that earthly felicitie but light as vanity every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Eernall life will weigh down eternally 2 Cor. 4. 17. 18. O but it hath an exceeding weight in it self one moment of it one hours possession and taste of it but then what shal the endlesse endurance of it add to its weight Now there are many that presume they have a right to eternall life as the Jews did you think saith he that you have it you think well that you think its only to be found in the Scriptures but you vainlie think that you have found it in them And there is this reason of it because you will not come to me that you may have life vers 40. If you did understand the true meaning of the Scriptures and did not rest on the outward Letter and Ordinances you would receive the testimonie that the Scriptures give of me But now you hear not me the Fathers substantiall Word therefore you have not his Word abiding in you vers 38. There was nothing more generall among that people than a vain carnall confidence and presumption of being Gods people having interest in the promise of life eternall as it is this day in the visible Church There is a multitude that are Christians onlie in the Letter not in the Spirit that would never admit any question concerning this great matter of having eternall life and so by not questioning it they come to think they have it and by degrees their conjectures and thoughts about this ariseth to the stabilitie of some faigned strong perswasion of it In the Old Testament the Lord strikes at the roots of their perswasions by discovering unto them how vain a thing it was and how abominable before him to have an externall profession of being his people and to glory in external Ordinances and Priviledges yet to neglect altogether the purging of their hearts consciences from lusts and Idollisâ—…s to make no conscience of walking righteously towards men Their profession was contradicted by their practice Will ye steal murther and commit adultery and yet come and stand in my house Jer. 7. 8. 9. doth not that say as much as if I had given you liberty to do all these abominations Even so it is this day the most part have no more of Christianitie
therefore when once Divine truth gets entry into the heart of a man and becomes one with his will and affection it will quickly command the whole man to practise and execute and then he that receiveth the truth in Love is found a walker in the truth Many persons captivate truth in their understandings as the Gentiles did they held or detained it in unrighteousnesse but because it hath no liberty to descend into the heart possesse that Garrison it cannot command the man But O it's better to be truths captive then to captive truth saith the Apostle ye obeyed from the heart the truth to which ye were delivered Rom. 6. O a blessed captivity to be delivered over to truth that is indeed freedome for truth makes free Ioh. 8. And it makes free where it is in freedome give it freedome to command thee and it shal indeed deliver thee from all strange Lords and thou shalt obey it from the heart when it is indeed in the heart When the truth of God whether promises or threatnings or commands are impressed into the heart you shal find the expressions of them in the conversation Faith is not an empty assent to the truth but a receiving of it in love when the truth is received in love then it begins to work by love Faith works by love saith Paul Gal. 5. 6. That now is the proper nature of its operation which expresses its own nature Obedience proceeding from love to God flowes from Faith in God and that shews the true and living nature of that Faith If the soul within receive the seal and impression of the truth of God it will render the image of that same truth in all its actions Love is put for all obedience it s made the very summe and compend of the Law and fulfilling of it for the truth is it s the most effectual and constraining principle of obedience and withall the most sweet pleasant The love of Christ constrains us to live to him not henceforth to our selves 2 Cor. 5. 15. As I said a man and his will is one if you ingage it you bind all if you gain it it will bring all with it As it is the most ready way to gain any party to engage their head whom they follow and upon whom they depend let a mans love be once gained to Christ the whole train of the souls faculty of the outward senses and operations will follow upon it It was an excellent and pertinent question that Christ asked Peter when he was going away if Peter had considered Christs purpose in it he would not have been so hasty and displeased Peter lovest thou me then feed my sheep If a man love Christ he will certainly study to please him and though he should do never so much in obedience it s no pleasure except it be done out of love O this and more of this in the heart would make Ministers feed well and teach well and would make people obey well If ye love me keep my commands Love devouts and consecrats all that is in a man to the pleasure of him whom he loves therefore it fashions and conforms one even against nature to anothers humor and affection it constrains not to live to our selves but to him its joy delight is in him and therefore all is given up resigned to him Now as it is certain that if you love much you will do much so it is certain that little is accepted for much that proceeds from love therefore our poor maimed and halting obedience is called the fulfilling of the law he is well pleased with it because love is ill pleased withit love thinks nothing too much all too little and therefore his love thinks any thing froÌ„ us much since love would give more he accepts that which is given the lovers mite cast into the Treasure is more then ten times so much outward obedience from another man He meets love with love if the souls desire be towards the love of his name if love offer thogh a farthing his love receiving it counts it a Crown love offering a present of duty finds many imperfections in it and covers any good that is in it seems not to regard it and then beholds it as a recompence his love receiving the present from us covers a multitude of infirmities that are in it And thus what in the desire and endeavour of love on our part and what in the acceptation of what is done on his part love is the fulfilling of the Law It s an usuall proverb all things are as they are taken Love is the â—…ulfilling of the Law because our loving Father takes â—…t so he takes as much delight in the poor childrens willingnesse as in the more aged's strength the offer â—…nd endeavour of the one pleaseth him as well as the â—…erformance of the other The love of God is the fulfilling of the Law for it 〈◊〉 a living Law it is the Law written on the heart it is â—…e Law of a spirit of life within Quis legem detamen â—…bus major lexamor sibi ipsi est You almost need not prescribe any rules or let over the head of love the authority and pain of a command for it is a greater Law to it self it hath within its own bosome as deep an engagement and obligation to any thing that may please God as you can put upon it for it is in it self the very engagement and bond of the soul to him This it is indeed which will do him service and that is the service which he likes it is that only serves him constantly and pleasantly and constantly it cannot serve him which doth it not pleasantly for it is delight only that makes it constant Violent motions may be swift but not durable they last not long fear and terrour is a kind of externall impulse that may drive a soul swiftly to some duty but because that is not one with the soul it cannot endure long it s not good company to the soul. But Love making a duty pleasant becomes one with the soul it incorporates with it and becomes like its nature to it that though it should not move so swiftly yet it moves more constantly And what is love but the very motion of the soul to God! and so till it have attained that to be in him it can find no place of rest Now this is only the service that he is pleased with which comes from love because he sees his own image in it for love in us it s nothing else but the impression and stamp that Gods love to us makes on the heart it 's the very reflection of that sweet warm beam so then when his love reflects back unto himself carrying our heart and duty with it he knoweth his own superscription he loves his own Image in such a duty He that loveth me and continueth in my love I will love him and I and my Father will come and
this God is near hand every one of us Who of us think of a Divine Majesty nearer us than our very souls and consciences in whom we live and move and have our being How is it we move think not with wonder of that first Mover in whom we move How is it we live persevere in being do not always cōsider this fountain-being in whom we live and have our being O the Atheism of many souls prosessing God! We do speak walk eat and drink go about all our businesses as if we were self-being independent of any never thinking of that all-present quickning Spirit that acts us moves us speaks in us makes us to walk and eat and drink as the barbarous people who see hear speak reason and never once reflect upon the principle of all these to discern a soul within This is bruitish in this Man who was made of a straight countenance to look upward to God to know himself and his Maker till he might be differenced from all creatures below is degenerated and become like the beasts that perish Who of us believes this al-present God We imagine that he is shut up in heaven and takes no such notice of affairs below but certainly he is not so far from us though he shew more of his glory above yet he is as present and observant below V. If he be a Spirit then as he is incomprehensible and immense in being so also there is no comprehension of his knowledge The nearer any creature come to the nature of a Spirit the more knowing and understanding it is life is the most excellent being and understanding is the most excellent life Materia est imers mertua the nearer any thing is to the earthly matter as it hath lesse action so lesse life and feeling Man is nearer an Angel then beasts and therefore he hath a knowing and understanding Spirit in him There is a spirit in man and the more or lesse this spirit of man is abstracted from sensual and material things it lives the more excellent and pure life and is as it were more or lesse deliverd from the chains of the body These souls that have never risen above retired from sensible things O how narrow are they how captivated within the prison of the flesh But when the Lord Jesus comes to set free he delivers a soul from this bondage he makes these chains fall off leads the soul apart to converse with God himself and to meditate on things not seen sin wrath hell and heaven the further it goes from it self the more abstracted it is from the consideration of present things the more it lives a life like Angels And therefore when the soul is separated from the body it is then perfectly free and hath the largest extent of knowledge A mans soul must be almost like Pauls whether out of the body or in the body I know not if he would understand aright spiritual things Now then this infinite spirit is an al-knowing spirit al-seeing spirit as well as al-present There is no searching of his understanding Isa. 40. 28. and Psal. 147. 5. Who hath directed this spirit or being his counsellour hath taught him Rom. 11. 34. Isa. 40. 1◅ He calls the Generations from the beginning and known to him are all his works from the beginning O that you would alwayes set this God before you or rather set your selves alwayes in his presence in whose sight you are alwayes How would it compose our hearts to reverence fear in all our actions if we did indeed believe that the Judge of all the World is an eye-witnesse to our most retired and secret thoughts and doings If any man were as privy to thy thoughts as thy own spirit and conscience thou wouldst blush and be ashamed before him If every one of us could open a window into one anothers spirits I think this assembly should dismisse as quickly as that of Christs when he bade them that were without sin cast a stone at the Woman we could not look one upon another O then Why are we so little apprehensive of the al-searching eye of God who can even declare to us our thought before it be How much Atheism is rooted in the heart of the most holy We do not alwayes meditate with David Psal. 139. on that al-searching and al-knowing spirit who knows our down-sitting up-rising understands our thoughts a far off and who is acquainted with all our wayes O How would we ponder our path and examine our words and consider our thoughts before hand if we set our selves in the view of such a Spirit that is within us and without us before us and behind us He may spare sinners as long as he pleases for there is no escaping from him you cannot go out of his dominions nay you cannot run out of his presence Psal. 7. 8. 9. He can reach you when he pleases therefore he may delay as long as he pleases Joh. 4. 24. GOD is a Spirit c. THere are two common notions engraved on the hearts of all men by nature That God is and that he must be worshipped and these two live and die together they are clear or blotted together According as the apprehension of God is clear distinct and more deeply engraven on the soul so is this notion of mans duty of worshipping God clear imprinted on the soul and when ever the actions of men do prove that the conception of the worship of God is obliterate or worn out when ever their transgressions do witnesse that a man hath not a live◅y ◅otion of this duty of Gods worship that doth al◅o prove that the very notion of a God-head is worn out and cancelled in the soul For How could souls conceive of God as he is indeed but they must needs with Moses Exod. 34 make haste to pray and worship It is the principle of the very Law of Nature which shall make the whole world inexcusable because that when they knew God they gloriesied him not as God A Father must have honour and a Master must have fear and God who is the common Parent absolute Master of all must have worship in which reverence and fear mixed with rejoycing and affection predomines it is supposed and put beyond all question that it must be He that worships him c. It s not simply said God is a Spirit must be worshipped no for none can doubt of it If God be then certainly Worship is due to him for who is so worshipfull And because it is so beyond all question therefore woe to the irreligious world that never puts it in practice O What excuse can you have who have not so much as a form of Godlinesse Do you not know that its beyond all Controversie that God must be worshipped Why then do you deny it in your practice which all men must confesse in their conscience Is not he God
the Lord a living and self-being Spirit Then must he not have Worshippers Beasts are not created for it it is you O sons of men whom he made for his own praise and it is not more suteable to your nature than it is honourable and glorious This is the great dignity and excellency you are priviledged with beyond the brute beasts to have spirits within you capable of knowing and acknowledging the God of your spirits Why then do you both rob and spoil God of his glory and cast away your own excellency Why do you love to trample on your ornaments and wallow in the puddle like beasts void of Religion but so much worse then beasts that you ought to be better were created for a more noble design O base spirited wretches who hang down your souls to this earth and follow the dictates of your own sense and lust have not so much as an externall form of worshipping God How farre are you come short of the noble design of your Creation the high end of your Immortall souls If you will not worship God know he will have Worshippers certainly he will not want it because he hath designed so many souls to stand before him and worship him and that number will not fail He might indeed have wanted worshippers For what advantage is it to him But in this he declares his love and respect to man that he will not want honour and service from him it is rather to put honour upon him and to make him blessed and happy than for any gain can amount to himself by it for this is indeed the true honour and happinesse of man not to be worshipped and served of other fellow-creatures but to worship and serve the Creator This is the highest advancement of a soul to lye low before him and to obey him have our service accepted of his Majesty I beseech you strive about this noble service Since he must have Worshippers O say within your souls I must be one if he had but one I could not be content if I were not that one since the Father is seeking Worshippers ver 23. O let him find thee Offer thy self to him saying Lord here am I Should he seek you who can have no advantage from you Should he go about so earnest a search for true VVorshipers who can have no profite by them And why do ye not seek him since since to you all the gain profite redounds Shall be seek you to make you happy and why do ye not seek him and happinesse in him It is your own service I may truly say and not his so much for in serving him thou dost rather serve thy self for all the benefit redounds to thy self thogh thou must not intend such an end to serve him for thy self but for thy names sake else thou shalt neither honour him nor advantage thy self I pray you let him not seek in vain for in these afflictions he is seeking Worshippers and if he find you you are found saved indeed Do not then forsake your own mercy to run from him who follows you with Salvation As none can be ignorant that God is and must be worshipped so it is unknown to the world in what manner he must be worshipped the most part of men have some form in worshipping God please themselves in it so well that they think God well-pleased with it but few there are who know indeed what it is to worship him in a manner acceptable to his Majestie Now you know it is all one not to worship him at all as not to worship him in that way he likes to be worshipped Therefore the most part of men are but self-worshippers because they please none but themselves in it it is not the worship his soul hath chosen but their own invention for you must take this as an undeniable ground that God must be worshipped according to his own will and pleasure not according to you◅ humour or invention therefore his soul abhorres will-worship devised by men out of ignorant zeal or superstition though there might seem much devotion in it much affection to God as in the Israelits sacrificing their childrē whatmore seem ing self-denyal And yet what more real self-idolatry God owns not such a service for it is not service obedience to his will and pleasure but to mens own will and humour therefore a man must not look for a reward but from himself Now it is not only will-worship when the matter and substance of the worship is not commanded of God but also when a commanded worship is not discharged in the appointed manner Therefore O how few true worshippers will the Father find True worship must have Truth for the substance and spirit for the manner of it else it is not such a worship as the father seeks will be pleased with divine worship must have truth in it that is plain but what was that truth it must be conformed to the rule pattern of worship which is Gods will pleasure revealed in the word of truth true worship is the very practise of the word of truth it caries the Image and superscription and command upon it which is a necessary ingredient in it and constituent of it Therefore if thy service have the Image of thy own will stamped on it it is not divine worship but will-worship Thus all humane ceremonies and ordinances enjoyned for service of God carry the inscription not of God but of man who is the author and original of them so are but adulterated and false Coyn that will not passe current with God I fear there be many rites and vain customes among ignorant people in which they place some Religion which have no ground in the word of God but are only old wives fables and traditions How many things of that nature are used upon a religious account in which God hath placed no Religion Many have a superstitious conceit of the publick place of worship as if there were more holinesse in it than in any other house so they think their Prayers in the Church are more acceptable then in their Chamber But Christ refutes that superstitious opinion of places so consequently of dayes meats and all such externall things The Jews had a great opinion of their temple the Samaritans of their mountain as if these places had sanctified their services But saith our Lord vers 21. The hour cometh when yee shall neither worship in this mountain c. but it s any where acceptable if so be ye worship in spirit and truth Many of you account it Religion to pray mutter words of your own in the time of publick prayer but who hath required this at your hand If you would pray your selves go apart shut the door behind thee saith Christ private prayer should be in private and secret But when publick prayer is your hearts should close with the petitions and offer them up
crosse thy corruptions and evidence the stamp of God on thy affections the more divine it is And therefore to serve God in these is to serve him in truth Practice hath more of truth in it then a profession When your Fathers executed judgement was not this to know me Duties that have more opposition from our natures against them and lesse sewel or oyl to feed the flame of our self love and corruption have more truth in them and if you should worship God in all other duties and not especially in those you do not worship him in truth Next let us consider the manner of Divine Worship And this is as needfull to true Worship as true matter that it be commanded and done as it is commanded that compleats true worship Now I know no better way or manner to worship God in than so to worship him as our worship may carry the stamp of his Image upon it as it may be a glasse wherein we may behold Gods Nature and Properties For such as himself is such he would be acknowledged to be I would think it were true worship indeed which had engraven on it the Name of the true living God if it did speak out so much of it self That God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him diligently Most part of our service speaks an unknown God carries such an inscription upon it To the unknown God There is so little either reverence or love or fear or knowledge in it as if we did not worship the true God but an Idoll It is said that the fool sayes in his heart that there is no God because his thoughts and affections and actions are so little composed to the fear and likenesse of that God as if he did indeed plainly deny him I fear it may be said thus of our Worship It sayes There is no God it is of such a nature that none could conclude from it that it had any relation to the true God our prayers denie God because there is nothing of God appears in them But this is true worship when it renders back to God his own Image and Name Unde repercussus redditur ipse sibi As it is a poor clean Fountain in which a man may see his shaddow distinctlie but a troubled fountain or myre in which he cannot be hold himself So it is pure worship which receives and reflects the pure Image of God but impure and unclean worship which cannot receive it and retain it I pray you Christians consider this for it is such Worshippers the Father seeks and why seeks he such But because in them he finds himself so to speak His own I mage and superscription is upon them His mercy isengraven on their faith confidence His Majestie power is stamped on their humility and reverence His goodnesse is to be read on the souls rejoicing His Greatnesse and Justice in the souls trembling Thus there ought to be some engravings on the soul answering the Characters of his glorious Name O how little of this is among them that desire to know something of God How little true Worship even among them whom the Father hath sought out to make true Worshippers But alas How are all of us unacquainted with this kind of Worship We stay upon the first principles practices of Religion and go not on to build upon the foundation Sometimes your Worship hath a stamp of Gods holinesse and justice in fear terrour at such a Majesty which makes you to tremble before him But where is the stamp of his mercy grace which should be written in your faith and rejoycing Tremble and fear indeed but rejoyce with trembling because there is mercy with him Sometime their is rejoycing and quietnesse in the soul but that quickly degenerates into carnal confidence makes the soul turn grace into wantonness and esteem of it self above what is right because it is not counterpoised with the sense and apprehension of his holinesse and justice But O to have these joyntly written on the heart in worship fear reverence confidence humility and faith That is a rare thing it is a divine composition and temper of spirit that makes a divine soul For the most part our Worship savours and smels nothing of God neither his power nor his mercy and grace nor his holinesse and justice nor his majesty and glory a secure saint formal way void of reverence of humility of servency and of faith I beseech you let us consider as before the Lord how much pains and time we lose and please none but our selves profit none at all Stir up your selves as in his sight for it is the keeping of our souls continually as in his sight which will stamp our service with his likenesse The fixed and constant meditation of God and his glorious properties this will beget the resemblance between our worship and the God whom we worship and it will imprint his Image upon it then it should please him then it should profit thee and then it should edifie others But more particularly The Worship must have the stamp of Gods spiritual Nature and be conformed to it in some measure else it cannot please him There must be a conformity between God and souls this is the great end of the Gospel to repair that Image of God which was once upon man and make him like God again Now it is the way that Jesus Christ repairs this Image brings about this conformity with God by the souls worshipping of God sutable to his Nature it is the more and more like God and happy in that likenesse Now God is a Spirit therefore saith Christ you must worship him in spirit truth The worship then of Saints must be of a spiritual nature that it may be like the immortal divine Spirit It is such Worshippers the Father seeks he seeks souls to make them like himself and this likenesse and conformity to God is the very foundation of the souls happinesse and eternall refreshment This is a point of great consequence I fear not laid to heart The Worship must be like the Worshipped It is a Spirit must Worship the Eternal Spirit it is not a body that can be the principle and chief Agent in the businesse What Communion can God have with your bodies while your souls are removed far from him more than with beasts All society and fellowship must be between those that are like one another A man can have no comfortable company with Beasts or with Stones and Trees It is men that can converse with men and a Spirit must worship the self-being-spirit Do not mistake this as if under the dayes of the Gospel we were not called to an external and bodily Worship to any service to which our outward man is instrumentall this is one of the deep delusions of this Age into which some men reprobate 〈◊〉 the Faith hath fallen That there should be no externall
that they do also agree in one common Testimony to the Mediator of men yet moreover they are one They not only agree in one but are one God one simple undivided self-being infinite Spirit holden out to us in three Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost to whom be praise and glory Deut. 6. 4. and Ioh. 5. 7. ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God it is profitable for instruction for direction c. There is no refuse in it no simple and plain History but it tends to some edification no profound or deep mysterie but it is profitable for Salvation whatsoever secrets there be in the mysteries of God which is reserved from us though it be given us but to know in part darkly thorow a vail yet as much is given us to know as may make the man of God perfect in every good work as much is given us to know as may build us up to eternall salvation if there were no more use of these deep mysteries of the Holy Trinity c. but to silence all flesh restrain the unlimited spirits of men and keep them within the bounds of Sobriety and Faith It were enough That great secret would teach as much by its silence darknesse as the plainer truths do speak out clearly O that this great mystery did compose our hearts to some reverend awfull apprehension of that God we have to do with did imprint in our soul a more feeling sense of our darknesse and ignorance this were more advantage than all the gain of light or increase of knowledge than can come from the search of curiosity If men would labour to walk in that light they have attained rather than curiously enquire after what they cannot know by enquiry they should sooner attain more true light if men would set about the practice of what they know without doubt they would more readily come to a resolution clearnesse in doubtful things Religion is now turned into questions School-debates Men begin to believe nothing but dispute every thing under a pretence of searching for light and resolution but for the most part while men look after light they darken themselves this is the righteous judgement of the Lord upon the world that doth not receive the truth in love or walk in the light of what they have already attained therefore he gives men up to wander in their search into the dark dungeons of humane wisdome and fancy and to lose what they have already If those things which are without all Controversie as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 3. 16. were indeed made conscience of and imbraced in love and practised it were beyond all controversie that the most part of present controversies would cease But it fals out with many as with the dog that catching at a shadow in the water lost the substance in his teeth so they pursuing after new discoveries in contraverted things and not taking a heart-hold and inward grip of the substantiall truths of the Gospell which are beyond all controversie do even lose what they have Thus Even that which they have not is taken from them because though they have it in judgment yet they have it not surely and solidly in affection that it may be holden So to this present point if we could learn to adore and admire this Holy Holy Holy One If we could in silence and faith sit down and wonder at this mysterie it would be more profitable to us and make way for a clearer manifestation of God than if we should search and enquire into all the Volums that are written upon it thinking by this means to satisfie our reason I think there is more profoundnesse in the sobriety of Faith than in the depths of humane wisdome and learning when the mysterie is such an infinite depth O but mens eloquence and wisedom must be shallow far too shallow either to find it out or unfold it But there is yet both more instruction and consolation to be pressed out of this mysterie and therefore If you cannot reach it in it self O consider what it concerns us how we may be edified by it for this is true Religion Look upon that place of Moses what is the great instruction he draws from this unity of Gods Essence v. 5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Since God is one then have no God but one and that the true and living God and this is the very first command of God which flowes as it were immediatly from his absolute Onenesse and perfection of Beeing There is no man but he must have some God that is something whereupon he placeth his affection most every man hath some one thing he loves and respects beyond all other things some Lord and Master that commands him therefore saith Christ No man can serve two Masters before a man will want God to love and serve he will make them and then worship them yea he will make himself his belly his back his honour pleasure a God and sacrifice all his affections and desires and endeavours to these The naturall subordination of man to God the relation he hath as a Creature to a Creator is the first fundamentall relation beyond all respects to himself or other fellow-creatures This is the proto-naturall Obligation upon the Creature therefore it should have returned in a direct line to his Majesty all its affections and endeavours But mans Fall from God hath made a wretched throw crâ—…ok in the soul that it cannot look any more after him but bows downward towards creatures below or bends inwardly towards it self so since the Fall man hath turned his heart from the true God set it upon vanity upon lying vanities upon base dead Idols which can neither help him nor hurt him your hearts are gone a whoring from God O that ye would believe it none of you will deny but ye have broken all the Commands yet such is the brutish ignorance stupidity of the most part that you will not confesse that when it comes to particulars and especially if you should be challenged for loving other things more than God or having other Gods besides the true God you will instantly deny it that with an asseveration aversation God forbid that I have another God Alas this shews that what you confesse in the generall is not believed in the heart but only is like the parting of children whom you may learn to say any thing I beseech you consider that what you give your time pains thoughts and affections to that is your God you must give God all your heart and so retain nothing of your own will if God be your God but do ye not know that your care and grief and desire and love vents another way towards base things You know that you have a will of your own which goeth quite contrary to his holy vvill in all things therefore Sathan hath bewitched
you your hearts deceive you when they perswade you that you have had no other God but the true God Christianity raises the soul again and advances it by degrees to this love of God from which it had fallen the soul returns to its first husband from vvhom it vvent awhooring now the stamp of God is so upon it that it is changed into his Image and glory having tasted how good this one self-sufficient-good is it gladly easily divorces from all other Lovers it renounces formall lusts of ignorance and now begins to live in another Love transplants the soul into God and in him it lives and vvith him it vvalks It 's true this is done gradually there is much of the heart yet unbroken to this sweet and easie yoke of love much of the corrupt nature untamed unreclaimed yet so much is gained by the first conversion of the soul to God that all is given up to him in affection and desire he hath the chief place in the soul the disposition of the Spirit hath some stamp and impression of his Onenesse singularity My beloved is one Though a Christian is not wholly rid of strange Lords yet the tye of subjection to them is broken they may often intrude by violence upon him but he is in an hostile posture of affection and endeavour against them I beseech you since the Lord is one and there is none beside him O let this be engraven on your hearts that your inward affections and outward actions may expresse that one Lord to be your God and none other beside him It is a great shame and reproach to Christians that they do not carry the stamp of the first Principle of Religion upon their walking the condition conversation of many declares how little account they make of the true God vvhy do ye enslave your souls to your lusts the service of the flesh if ye believe in this one God Why do ye all things to please your selves if this one Lord be your God As for you the Israel of God who are called by Jesus Christ to partake with the Common-Wealth of Israel in the Covenant of promises hear I beseech you this and let your souls incline to it and receive it Your God is one Lord have then no other Lords over your souls and consciences not your selves not others But in the next place let us consider to what purpose John leads such three witnesses that we may draw some consolation from it The thing testified and witnessed unto is the ground-work of all a Christians hope and consolation that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and Saviour of the World one able to save to the utmost all that put their trust in him so that every soul that finds it self lost and not able to subsist nor abide the judgement of God may repose their confidence in him and lay the weight of their eternal well-fare upon his death sufferings with assurance to find rest and peace in him to their souls He is such a one as faith may triumph in him over the world all things beâ—…de A Beleever may triumph in his victory and in the faith of his victory over hell and death and the grave many overcome personally for this is our victory over the world even our faith vers 4. And how could a soul conquer by Faith if he in whom it believes were not declared to be the Son of God with power there is nothing so mean weakly as Faith in it self it s a poor despicable thing of it self and that it sees and that it acknowledges yea faith is a very act of its self denyall it s a renouncing of all help without and within it self save only that which is laid on Christ Jesus therefore it were the most unsuitable mean of prevailing and the most insufficient weapon for gaining the victory if the object of it were not the strong God the Lord Almighty from whom it derives and borrows all its power vertue either to pacifie the conscience or to expiate sin or to overcome the world Oh! consider Christians where the foundation of your hope is scituated it is in the divine power of our Saviour if he who declared so much love good-will to sinners by becoming so low suffering so much have also all power in Heaven and Earth if he be not only man near us to make for us boldnesse of accesse but God near God to prevail effectually with God then certainly he is asure foundation laid in Sion elect and precious he is an unm oveable Rock of ages whosoever trusts their soul to him shal not be ashamed I am sure that many of you considers not this that Christ Jesus who was in due time born of the Virgin Mary died for sinners is the eternall Son of God equall to his Father in all glory and power O how would this make the Gospel agreat mystery to souls the Redemption of souls a precious and wonderfull work if it were considered Would not souls stand at this Anchor immoveable in tentation if their faith were pitched on this sure foundation and their hope cast upon this solid ground O know your Redeemer is strong and mighty and none can pluck you out of his hand and himself will cast none out that comes If the multitude of you believed this you would not make so little account of the Gospel that comes to you make so little of your sins which behoved to be taken away by the blood of God could be expiated by no other propitiation you would not think it so easie to satisfie God with some words of custome and some publick services of forme as you do you would not for all the World deal with God alone without this Mediator and being convinced of sin if you believed this solidely that he in whom forgivennesse of sin and salvation is preached is the same Lord God of whom you hear in the Old Testament who gave out the Law and inspired the Prophets the only begotten of the Father in a way infinitly removed from all created capacities you could not but find the Father well satisfied in him find a sufficient ransome in his death doings to pacifie God to settle your consciences But as the thing testified is a matter of great consolation so the witnesse testifying to this foundamentall of our Religion may be a ground of great encouragement to discouraged souls It is ordinary that the apprehensions of Christians takes up Jesus Christ as very lovely and more loving than any of the Persons of the God-head either the Father or the Holy Ghost there are some thoughts of estrangednesse and distance of the Father as if the Son did really reconcile and gain him to love us who before hated us and upon this mistake the soul is filled with continual jealousies and suspicions of the love of God but observe I beseech you the Father the Son
will not wait on their concurrence You see now strange things done you wonder at them how we are brought down from our excellency how our land is laid desolat by strangers how many instrumeÌ„ts of the Lords work are laid aside how he lifts up a rod of indignation against us and is like to overturn even the foundations of our land All these were not in our mind before but they were in his mind from eternity and therefore he is now working it Believe then that there is not a circumstance of all business not one joynt or jot of it but is even as it was framed and carved out of old his present works are according to an ancient pattern vvhich he carries in his mind all the measures and degrees of your affliction all the ounces and grain-weights of your cup vvere all weighed in the scales of his Eternall Counsell the instruments the time the manner all that is in it If he change instruments that was in his mind if he change dispensations that was in his mind also And seeing you know by the Scriptures that a blessed end is appointed for the godly that all things work for their good that all is subservient to the Churches welfare seeing I say you know his purpose is such as the Scriptures speaks then believe his performance shal be exact accordingly nothing dificient no joynt no sinew in all his vvork of providence no line in all his book volume of the creature but it was written in that ancient book of his eternal counsel first fashioned in that Ps. 39. 16. Then lastly his will is irresistible his Counsell shal stand who can turn him from his purpose and who can hinder him from performance therefore he attains his end in the highest and most superlative degree of certainty and infallibility Himself will not change his own purpose for why should he do it if he change to the better then it reflects on his wisdom if he change to the worse it reflects both on his wisdom and godlinesse certainly he can see no cause why he should change it But as himself cannot change so none can hinder his performance for what power think you shal it be that may attempt that Is it the power of men of strong men of high men of any men No sure for their breath is in their nostrils they have no power but as he breaths in them if he keep in his breath as it were they perish all nations are as nothing before him and what power hath nothing Is it Devils may do it No for they cannot though they would he chains them he limits them Is it good Angels They are powerfull indeed but they neither can nor will resist his will Let 〈◊〉 be the whole University of the Creation suppose all their scattered force and vertue conjoyned in one yet it is all but finite it amounts to no more if you would eternally adde unto it But all victory resistance of this kind must be by a superior power or at least by an equal therefore we may conclude that there iâ—… no impediment or let that can be put in his way nothing can obstruct his purpose if all the world shoulâ—… conspire as one man to obstruct the performance oâ—… any of his promises and purposes they do but rage iâ—… vain like dogs barking at the Moon they shal be sâ—… far from attaining their purpose that his Majesty shaâ—… disabuse them so to speak to his own purpose hâ—… shal apply them quite contrary to their own mind tâ—… work out the counsel of his mind Here is the absolute King only worth the name of a King Lord whom all things in Heaven and Earth obeyes at the first nodd and beckning to them Hills Seas Mountains Rivers Sun Moon Clouds Men Beasts Angels and Devils all of them are acted moved and inclined according to his pleasure all of them are about his work indeed as the result of all in the end shal make it appear are servants at his command going where he bids go and comming where he bids come led by an invisible hand though in the mean time they knew it not but thinks they are about their own businesse applauds themselves for a time in it ducunt volentem fata notentem trahunt Godly men who knows his Will and loves it are led by it willingly for they yeeld themselves up to his disposall but wicked men who have contrary Wills of their own they can gain no more by resisting but to be drawn along with it Now to what purpose is all this spoken of Gods Decrees and purposes which he hath called a secret belonging to himself If his works judgements be a great depth and unsearchable sure his decrees are far more unsearchable For it is the secret and hidden purpose of God which is the very depth of his way judgement But to what purpose is it all I say Not to enquire curiously into the particulars of them but to profit by them The Scripture holds out to us the unchangeablenesse freedom extent holinesse and wisdom of them for our advantage and if this advantage be not reaped we know them in vain Not to burden your memory with many particulars we should labour to draw forth both instruction and consolation out of them Instruction I say in two things especially to submit with reverence respect to his Majesty in all his works and wayes to trust in him who knows all his workss will not change his mind There is nothing wherein I know Christians more deficent than in this point of submission which I take to be one of the chiefest sweetest though hardest duties of a Christian. It is hardly to be found among men a through complyance of the soul to what his soul desires a real subjection of our spirits to his good will and pleasure There is nothing so much blessed in Scripture as waiting on him as yeelding to him to be disposed upon Blessed are all they that wait on him Pride is the greatest opposite and he opposes himself most to that for it is in it self most derogatory to the highnesse and Majesty of God which is his very glory Therefore submission is most acceptable to him when the soul yeelds it self and its will to him he condescends far more to it he cannot be an enemy to such a soul submission to his Majesties pleasure is the very bowing down of the soul willingly to any thing he doth or commands what ever yoke he puts on of duty or suffering to take it on willingly without answering again which is the great sin condemned in servants to put the mouth in the dust to keep silence because he doth it I was dumb with silence I opened not my mouth because thou didst it their is submission indeed silence of mind mouth a restraint put upon the spirit to think nothing grudgingly of him for any thing he doth It is
certainly the greatest fault of Christians grounds of many more that ye do not look to God but to creatures in any thing befalls you therefore there are so frequent risings of spirits against his yoke frequent spurnings against it as Ephraim unaccustomed with the yoke so do ye this is it only makes it heavy and troublesome if there were no more reason for it but your own gain it is the only way to peace quietnesse Durum sed levius fit patientiá quicquid corrigere est nes as your impatience cannot help you but hurt you it is the very yoke of your yoke but quiet and silent stooping makes it easie in it self and brings in more help beside even Divine help Learn this I beseech you to get your wills abandoned and your spirits subdued to God both in the point of duty and dispensation If duties commanded crosse thy spirit as certainly the reality and exercise of Godlinesse must be unpleasant to any nature know what thou art called to to quit thy own will to him to give up thy self to his pleasure singly without so much respect to thy own pleasure or gain learn to obey him simply because he coÌ„mands though no profit redound to thee by this means thou shalt in due time have more sweet peace and real gain though thou intended it not And in case any dispensation crosse thy mind let not thy mind rise up against it do not fall out with providence but commit thy way wholly to him and let him do what he pleaseth in that be thou minding thy duty be not anxious in that but be diligent in this and thou shalt be the only gainer by it besides the honour redounds to him Then I would exhort you from this ground to trust in him seeing he alone is the absolute Soveraign Lord of all things seeing he hath past a determination upon all things and accordingly they must be and seeing none can turn him from his way O then Christians learn to commit your selves to him in all things both for this life and the life to come why are ye so vain and foolish as to depend hang upon poor vain depending Creatures Why do ye not forsake your selves Why do ye not forsake all other things as empty shadows Are not all created powers habits gifts graces strength riches c. like the idols in comparison of him who can neither do good neither can they do ill Cursed is he that trusts in man Jer. 17. 15 16. there needs no other curse than the very disappointment you shal meet withall Consider 〈◊〉 beseech you that our God can do all things what ever â—…e pleaseth in Heaven and Earth and that none can obstruct his pleasure blest is that soul for whom the counsel of his wil is ingaged it is ingaged for all that trust in him he can accomplish his good pleasure in thy behalf either without or against means all impediments thorns set in his way he can burn them up you who are heirs of the promises O know your priviledge what his soul desireth He doth even that what he hath seriously promised to you he desires If you ask who are heirs of the Promises I would answer simply these and these only who do own them and challenge them and claim to them for their life and salvation these who seek the Inheritance only by the Promise and whose soul desires them and imbraces them O if you would observe how unlike ye are to God ye change often ye turn often out of the way but that were not so ill if ye did not imagine him to be like your selves and it is unbelief which makes him like to your selves when your frame and tender disposition changes when presence and accesse to God is removed that is wrong it speaks out a mortall creature indeed but if it be so O do no more wrong do not by your suspicions and jealousies and questionings of him imagine that he is like unto you and changed also that is a double wrong and dishonour to his Majesty Hath he not said I am God and changes not He is in one mind who can turn him How comes it then that ye doubt of his love as oft as ye change When ye are in a good temper ye think he loves you when it is not so ye cannot believe but he is angry and hates you is not this to speak quite contrary to the Word that he is a God that changes that he is not in one mind but now in one and then in another as oft as the unconstant wind of a souls self-pleasing humour turns about Here is your rest and confidence if you will be established not within your selves not upon marks and signs within you which ebbe and flow as the Sea and change as the Moon but upon his unchangeable Nature and faithfull promises This we desire to hold out to you all as one ground for all you would every one have some particular ground in your own disposition and condition thinks it general doctrine only which layeth it noâ—… home so but believe it I know no ground of realsoul-establishment but general truths and pinciples common to you all and our businesse is not to lay any other foundation or moe foundations according to your different conditions but to lay this one foundation Christ and God unchangeable to exhort every one of you to make that general Foundation your own in particular by leaning to it building upon it claiming to it all other are sandy and ruinous Let us now in this sad time presse consolation from this the Lords hand is in all this it 's immediate in every dispensation and its only carnal-mindednesse that cannot see him stretching out his hand to every man with his own portion of affliction Know this one thing that God is in one mind for all these many wayes judgements he is in one mind to gather the Saints to build up the Church the body of Christ this is his end all other businesses is in the by subservient to this therefore he will change it as he pleases but his great purpose of good to his people all the World cannot hinder Let us then establish our souls in this consideration all is clear above albeit cloudy below All is calm in Heaven albeit tempestuous here upon Earth There is no confusion no disorder in his mind though we think the world out of course and that all things reel about with confusion hee hath one mind in it who can turn him And that mind is good to them that trust in him And therefor who can turn away our good Let men consult and imagine what they please let them passe votes decrees what to do with his people yet it is all to no purpose for there is a Counsel above an older Counsel which must stand and take place in all generations If mens conclusions be not according to the Counsell