Grace The Beatifical Vision i. e. To see God in the same Immediateness and Clearness and Perfection as the Glorious Saints see him in Heaven is reserved for the Life to come as God said to Moses Thou canst not see my Face and Live our State of Mortality is not capable of it The way and manner of Gods shewing himself to the Faithful in this state of Mortality is as Cant. 2.9 He looketh forth at the Windows shewing himself through the Lattice That is all the usual and ordinary means of Grace above-mentioned we see here but darkly as in a Glass for we walk by Faith and not by Sight i. e. Such a clear sight as we shall have in the Future State The Prophetical Vision even of Moses or any others did not amount to the Beatifical Vision but was presented by some Mediums sometimes External and sometimes Internal to their outward and inward Senses The which Communications of the Spirit being generally received in the use of the Word and Sacraments and other Holy Duties as Wine or any other Cordial is received into the Mouth by some Vessel yet the Vessel goes not into the Stomach to nourish the Body but the Wine or Cordial so it is the Life and Vertue that is conveyed by the outward Word and Sacraments that Nourisheth and Feedeth Refresheth and Strengtheneth the Soul and is like the Bread and Water that the Prophet Elijah received by the Angel in the strength whereof he was to go Forty Days The like inward Comfort and Strength the Reverend Hearers of the Word and Worthy i. e. duly Qualified Receivers of the Lords Supper do experience which will abide with them for many days and for ever I do therefore recommend to you the Diligent and Frequent Use of all the means of Grace with earnest Prayer to Almighty God for his Grace and help of his Spirit to make them effectual Hear the Word with Reverence receive it with Meekness and Love Meditate upon it and after ye have heard it in Publick recollect and call it to remembrance in Private And ye that are Masters of Families call your Children and Servants to account what they remember of it that it may be more deeply engrafted and rooted in all your Hearts and bring forth fruit in you And thus going on and walking in a continual course of Holy Duties and Holy Living we shall go from Strength to Strength until we appear before God in Zion viz. the Heavenly Zion above where God is to be seen Face to Face And may we all feel the Love of Christ more and more to Constrain us to Love him and Live to him who Died for us until we come to be with him where he is to behold his Glory and have a full Enjoyment of him Which God grant for Christs sake Amen THE END Advertisement THIS is to give Notice That a Printed Sheet call'd Mr. George Keith ' s Account of a National Church c. Humbly Presented to the Bishop of London Published by Tacy Sowle the Quaker Printer which she hath delivered to the Hawkers as one of them told me to cry about the Streets is a Quaker-Cheat Writ and Publish'd altogether without my Consent or Knowledge and the whole containing some unsound imperfect and lame Quotations out of my former Books wrot by me when I was among them and in these and some other things Deceived by them is long since Retracted and Disowned by me in a Book publish'd called George Keith's Retractations The which being Retracted by me doth no more affect me but them who have Published them against me to Defame me for my Retracting them However this their Cheat and Abuse hath this Service That thereby they declare in the face of the Nation that they are still chargeable with these Errors and that Uncharitableness which I thank God I have Retracted And it is an evidence that their Cause and Case is bad when they have no better Weapons wherewith to fight against me but the Errors which I have Retracted and which they still hold with many more and much greater whereof I never was guilty and which I have proved them guilty of in my Fourth Narative Printed this present Year 1700 in above Two Hundred and Fifty Quotations faithfully Collected out of their Approv'd Authors to which they have given no Reply nor are ever like to give to any purpose nor to divers others I have Publish'd against them What Blindness and Hardness of Heart and Obstinacy hath befallen them who instead of Retracting their own Errors or seeking to clear themselves thereof seek to Defame and Abuse me for my Retracting mine But the Abuse and Shame they cast out against me falls upon themselves G. K.
loved us that he gave his only Begotten for us the Word to be made Flesh and God manifest in the flesh and how Christ so loved us that he gave himself for us who as he was the Father's Gift was also his own Gift to us he gave himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity Before this Love and the great effects of it upon our blessed Lord were made known to us we felt not that influence of it upon our Hearts to move us to live to him but while we were ignorant of those things we lived to our selves and to the World Life and Immortality was to be brought to the Light of our Knowledge the Kindness and Love of God our Saviour was first to appear to us and come to our knowledge before we could be gained upon to Love him and to Live to him who Died for us and Rose again But the next thing that is to be Enquired and Resolved is How this great Mystery of Christ's Death and his great Love that moved him to lay down his Life for us is made known to us This Question I shall Answer in the following Particulars First Christ's Death and Love wherewith he so Loved us that he died for us is made known to us by the Doctrine of the Gospel more especially as it is Preach'd to us and also as we Read or hear it Read to us out of the Holy Scriptures Life and Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel 2. Tim. 1.10 The Mystery which was hid in God before the World began came to be gradually reveal'd after Adam's fall first more obscurely and implicitly but afterwards more clearly and explicitly by the Scriptures of the Old Testament Rom. 16.26 And Lastly most clearly and explicitly by the whole Scriptures both of the Old and New Testaments all which are given by Divine Inspiration and are able to make us Wise unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 16. Both consisting in excellent Harmony and the New Testament being both a Fulfilling and Exposition of the Old Testament The great design of the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament is to set forth the great Love of God to Men in giving his Son for their Salvation and also the great Love of Christ who gave himself for the same The way and manner how it is accomplished how this Love is the Love of the whole Trinity and how each Person is concerned in the work of our Salvation jointly and severally and of the Duty that Men owe to God for that great Love and to Christ considered not as God only but as God Incarnate i. e. as both God and Man having two Natures as above mentioned but one Person one intire Jesus Christ our Saviour This commends to us the Holy Scriptures Incomparably above all Writings of Men above all Writings and Books of the greatest Natural and Moral Philosophers whether Greeks or Romans or of whatever other Nations whatever true things they Taught or Writ either from true Reason or common Illumination assisting and strengthening their Reason that might be and were useful to Mankind yet they fell short of the discovery of this great Mystery That Christ so loved us that he Died for us and that he Died for us that we might not Live to our selves but to him who died for us Nothing but special Revelation such as he gave to his holy Prophets from time to time from the of the World in the gradual discoveries of it and which are Recorded in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament could have given us this knowledge and for this cause it is that we ought highly to value the Holy Scriptures as a special Treasure of greater worth incomparably than all the Gold and Silver and Wealth and Riches of the whole World Secondly The same is made known to us by the Holy Spirit 's internal Illumination and Inspiration perswading us of the truth of the Holy Scriptures and of thhis great Mystery That Christ so Loved us that he Died for us that is so fully Recorded in the Scriptures and also opening our Understandings to understand it and give us to see the great Riches Glory and Beauty of the wonderful Love Wisdom Power and Holiness and other the Glorious Attributes of God in the way of our Salvation in all the various steps of it God hath so appointed it that by his Words as Outwardly delivered by the Holy Prophets by Christ when he came in the Flesh and by his Holy Evangelists and Apostles which are now on Record in the writings of the holy Scriptures and by his Holy Spirit Inwardly Enlightening and Inspiring us we should be both Taught and Helped to Believe and Understand Savingly the great Mystery of our Salvation according to Isaiah 59.21 The words which God gave unto Christ Christ hath given them to the Apostles and Evangelists and they have faithfully Recorded them and by these Records of the Holy Scripture they are given to us while we daily hear them in Preaching and Reading John 17.8 20. And for this cause it is that St. Paul calls the Gospel The Power of God to Salvation to every one that Believes For that the Power of the Spirit of God accompanies the Doctrine of the Gospel to whomsoever it is Preached to enable such who hear it both to Believe and Understand it Faith is thereby offered unto them and the Holy Spirit accompanying the Doctrine offers his help to All who hear it tho All do not receive it yet many do and shall Christ stands at the door of your Hearts and knocks as he said to them of Laodicea If any Man will hear my Voice and open unto me I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me This calling and knocking of Christ at the door of your Hearts is both Outwardly by the Gospel as outwardly Preach'd or Read and Inwardly by his Spirit The Word Outwardly delivered is as the Hammer but the Spirit Inwardly accompanying is the Hand that moves it If any should bring the strongest Arguments to prove the Scriptures to be True and of Divine Authority suppose they should be as Demonstrative as any Theorem in a natural Science yet all this could produce no more than an Humane Assent or Faith without the Spirit work together with the Word and Doctrine Inwardly to seal to the Truth of the Scripture and work a Divine Faith in us of the Truth of them For true Saving Faith is the gift and work of Gods Spirit and Power It is by the Spirit 's working together with the written Word Preach'd or Read that we know the things that are freely given us of God If any Object What need of both If we are Taught by the Word and Doctrine Outwardly as delivered in the Holy Scriptures what need we to be Taught by the Spirit Inwardly Or if we be Taught by the Spirit Inwardly what need we be Taught by the Word and
Doctrine Outwardly Is not the Inward Teaching of the Spirit or Light within sufficient without any other thing So some do Argue To this I Answer It is one thing what God could or can do it 's far another thing what he is pleased to do He could Teach us all without the written Word as well as he Taught the Apostles before the Word was committed to Writing but he hath not seen meet so to do he hath a regard to our Weakness A School-master that is able can Teach his Schollars without Books but they cannot so well Learn without Books therefore he Teacheth them with and by Books to condescend to their weak Capacity When God Almighty spake from Heaven by an Audible Voice to the People of Israel they were so affraid that they prayed that God would not Speak to them viz. immediately they were not able to bear it but that God would speak to Moses and by Moses to them which was granted Many who pretend to the same Inspirations in Prophecy that the Apostles had should God Inspire them as he did them in that Extraordinary and Miraculous way and manner as he did the Prophets of old they should find they could not be able to bear it Such Miraculous Extraordinary Inspirations that God gave to the Prophets would be like new Wine in their old Bottles that would burst and break them asunder What God hath joyned together we ought not to put asunder he hath so ordered it most Wisely and Graciously that the Spirit of God as the principal Agent should Teach us and work all Saving Knowledge and Faith in us by the Written Word Preached or Read as his Instrument Thirdly The Death of Christ and his Love in Dying for us is made known to us by the Holy Spirit his Inspiring and Imprinting into our Hearts a sense of his Love He sheds abroad his Love into our Hearts by the Holy Spirit that he has given us according to Rom. 5.5 Christ in his Prayer to his Father St. John 17.26 Prayed in behalf of all that should Believe in him to the end of the World even for us as well as for them who were then with him That the Love wherewith thou hast Loved me may be in them and I in them It ought greatly to affect our Hearts to consider and think that he had us in his Heart and Thoughts at that very time when he prayed this Prayer to his Father and he still hath us in his thoughts who ever Lives to make Intercession for us that the Love wherewith the Father hath Loved us may be in us and he in us Not that the Love wherewith the Father Loved the Son could be strictly and properly speaking contained in us or comprehended by us for that being an infinite Love how could or can it be contained in us who are poor finite Creatures or comprehended by us How can a Finite thing contain that which is Infinite But the Holy Spirit which is called in Scripture The Spirit of Love worketh some Inward sense and impression of the Love of God and Christ in the Soul whereby the Soul that has this Inward sense and impression may know it Fourthly The Love of Christ is made known to us and hath its Influence upon us by his Infusing and Inspiring into our Hearts and Souls If we be true Believers a vigorous and active Principle of Love and Charity that becomes in us a Principle of a Holy and Vertuous Life mightily inclining us to Love both God and Christ and also to Love our Neighbours and all Men even our very Enemies after the example of our Saviours Love And we being acted by that Principle of Love we are thereby enabled with great freedom and readiness with great joy and chearfulness to perform our respective Duties both to God and Man This Principle of Charity Infused or Inspir'd into the Soul is all one with that which is called The Grace of God in the Soul the Grace of Sanctification that includes all the Vertues in it and tho' the Operations be various and manifold yet they all proceed from one Root Seed and Principle This Principle of God's Grace some do not distinguish it from the Holy Ghost but hold it to be one and the same therewith but this is a great Error and dangerous The Holy Ghost is one and the same God with the Father and with the Son the Grace of God and the God of Grace are distinct as the Effect and the Efficient the Gift and the Giver Grace is weaker or stronger greater or lesser hath its several measures therefore it cannot be God himself which is an Infinite Being and hath neither Parts nor Passions to whom nothing can be added and from whom nothing can be diminished This Principle of Love that is in Believers inclining them to Love God and Christ it is so to speak the reflection shadow or image of the Love of God and of Christ towards us As when we look into a Looking-Glass the Glass reflects the image or shadow of the Face back again upon the Beholder the which image hath a likeness to the Original but is as far short of it as a shadow is to the Body or Substance whose shadow it is Or like the Echo which is nothing but the reflection of the Voice or Word of the Speaker Therefore it is that St. John said We Love him because he hath Loved us our Love to him being the reflection of his Love to us and as it were the Daughter and his Love to us as the Mother But to the end that his Love may work this powerful constraint upon us it must not only be known by us but after it is known we must by the help of the Holy Spirit which is given to us frequently Meditate upon it and upon the Death of Christ which his Love constrained him to undergo for us that by frequent Meditation thereof we may have it fixed in our Hearts and become as a burning Fire in us according to that in Psal 39.4 My Heart was hot within me while I was Musing i. e. Meditating the Fire Burned This is also clear from the words in the Text The Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge God Almighty is pleased to work upon our Hearts by his Gospel Outwardly and by his Spirit Inwardly as we are Reasonable Creatures enabling us to form a sound and firm Judgment of things both of Causes and Effects and to view and consider the excellent Order and Harmony of them that the Wisdom of God hath appointed Had God only infused a Spiritual and Supernatural Principle of Grace into our Hearts mightily inclining us to Love and Obey him without affording us certain Arguments and Reasons Convincing and Perswading our Reasonable Understandings why we should so do on that supposition our Love and Obedience had not been such a rational and free Love and Obedience suiting our rational Nature and Faculties as now it is he having given us
most excellent Arguments and Reasons why we should so do the greatest of which are taken from these words which are contained in the Text Because God so Loved us that he gave his Son for us unto Death and Christ so Loved us that he gave himself to Die for us therefore we ought to Love him and Serve him and Live to him who Died for us and Rose again and also to God the Father through him and with him Christ's Dying for us is such an Argument why we should be wholly his and wholly Love him and Live to him That it is our Duty so to do not only in point of Gratitude but in point of Justice and this both St. Paul and St. Peter did argue with them to whom they writ 1 Cor. 6.20 For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's And v. 19. Ye are not your own And 1 Pet. 1.18 For as much as ye know ye were not Redeemed with Corruptible things as Silver and Gold from your vain Conversation received by Tradition from your Fathers but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without Blemish and without Spot And 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being Dead to Sin should Live unto Righteousness by whose Strength ye are Healed The Love and Bounty of God in our Creation and Preservation and all the Blessings of this Life are arguments very convincing and perswading why we should Serve and Glorifie God and the consideration of his Glorious Greatness and Power in his Creating all things and Upholding them and of his most Wise and Just and Powerful Providence in the Government of the World obvious and apparent to the Eyes of all Mankind ought greatly to move all Men to Fear and Reverence him as well as to Love and Serve him to their utmost ability and knowledge But the Light of the Gospel wherewith God has been pleased to enlighten us Christians not only furnisheth to us all these Arguments taken from the Power Wisdom Goodness and Justice of God and other his Glorious Attributes that are clearly to be seen by his works of Creation and Providence obvious to Heathens both more clearly and abundantly out of the Holy Scriptures but with greater Arguments than these taken from the great work of our Redemption by Christ's Dying for us c. It moveth us to Love and Fear God and Live to him and to Christ who Died for us and is both his own and the Fathers Gift unto us most freely given for our Eternal Salvation But that the Argument taken from the Death of Christ may be the more effectual to perswade us to Live to him who Died for us let us Consider the excellent way of the Apostles Arguing here in the Text which he doth from the Extent of it Because said he we thus judge that if one Died for all then were all Dead There are some that say Christ Died not for all but for some to wit such only as shall be Converted from the beginning of the World to the end of it and by his Dying for all they say must be meant Genera Singulorum but not Singula Generum i. e. all kinds of Men Jews and Greeks Scythians and Barbarians Noble and Ignoble Bond and Free but not all individuals of Men. But this cannot be the meaning here otherwise the Apostles Argument would not be Convincing Because Christ Died for All therefore All were Dead The word All in the Proposition must have the same Signification with the word All in the Conclusion which is deduced from the Proposition otherwise St. Paul's Argument would not be Logical and sufficient Now the word All in the Conclusion signifies all Individuals of Mankind All are Dead in Adam Death both Spiritual and Temporal is come upon all Adam's Posterity by his Sin and Fall which the Apostle here proves from this That Christ Died for All for if All had not been Dead in Sin and Transgression as well as subject to Bodily Death Christ had not Died for All for it was not needful that he should Die for them who were not Dead It is a good Rule in Divinity That the words of Scripture ought to be understood in their proper and full Signification and Extent except some necessary Reason can be given to the contrary which cannot be given in this case But divers strong Reasons can be given why they should be understood as above mentioned By Christ's Dying for All an offer is made unto All to whom the Gospel is Preached to receive that high Dignity and Priviledge to which they are called and without this Universal Offer to All who have the Gospel Preach'd unto them a ground of Doubt would be laid whether this Love extends to us if it doth not extend to All as it is said in the 17th Article of the Church of England We must receive Gods Promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture But to teach that Christ Died not for All is I think some hinderance for us to receive Gods Promises in such wise as they be generally set forth in Holy Scripture It is true all have not Salvation by Christs Death even to whom it is Preached but who have it not it is their own fault Nor are the Benefits of Christs Death equally extended to All. And tho' I believe according to the Holy Scripture That there is a Predestination to Life yet I no where find in Scripture that God by any absolute Decree hath made Salvation impossible to any part of Mankind for such an absolute Decree were utterly inconsistent with Christs Dying for all Men. The Decrees of God some are Absolute and some are Conditional I mean Conditional not Subjectively but Objectively i. e. Not that there are two Wills or Decrees in God the latter depending upon the former Conditionally but by one and the same Eternal Act of Gods Will and Purpose he hath Decreed such an order of Causes and Effects and of some things to follow after others Conditionally that will or will not come to pass as the Conditions do or do not goe before as Plowing and Sowing before Reaping Repentance and Faith before Remission of Sins and Eternal Salvation Thus having shown That the Death of Christ as having Died for All will be the more effectual to work upon us by the Grace of God to move us to Live to him who Died for us That we believe he Died for all and Consequently for us and that in Love to all Let me a little yet further set forth his Love to us that it may have its Influence upon us Greater Love hath no man than this said Christ that a man lay down his Life for his Friends John 15.13 But God commended his Love to us in giving his Son to Die for us who were Enemies Rom. 5.8 9 10. If you ask How
were we Enemies when Christ Died seeing we were not Born many Years after that Christ Died I Answer We were Enemies as in the Loins of our Forefathers Not only up to them who were then Living but up to our Forefather Adam as the Scripture testifieth That in Adam all are Dead and by the offence of One Condemnation is come upon All. The Love of Christ towards Men exceedeth all Examples as David said of Jonathan's Love It exceeded the Love of Women It may be said of Christs Love to us Men Sinners and Enemies it exceedeth all Examples either in Scripture or elsewhere as of that Grecian Zaleucus King of the Locretians who both to answer the Justice of the Law and shew his Love to his Son parted with one of his Eyes that his Son might not lose both his Eyes which was the Penalty that the Law required for his Sons Crime of committing Adultry As also that Example of Codrus King of Athens who being told by the Oracle That if he was Kill'd by the Peloponesians who had Besieg'd Athens with a mihgty Army the Athenians should Overcome and that by his Death they should Live Whereupon he put off his Royal Apparel and put on the Habit of a Common Souldier and rushed into the Battel where it was hottest and was Kill'd after which according to the Oracle the Athenians had the Victory and the Enemy was Routed This he did out of Love to his Subjects as what the other did was out of Love to his Son but what our Blessed Lord Did and Suffered was out of Love to his Enemies who being in the form of a God and counted it no Robbery to be Equal to God but made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant c. He did not properly speaking denude himself of his Glory that being impossible being Essential to him as God but he hid it within the Vail of his Flesh and gave up himself most willingly and freely to Suffer for us such was his Love to us that constrained him thus to Die for us and therefore his Love ought to constrain us to Live not to our selves henceforth after that his Love in Dying for us is made known to us but to him who Died and Rose again In the next place I intend as Briefly as I can to shew you First What it is not to Live to our Selves And Secondly What it is to Live to him who Died for us and Rose again according to the words of the Text which I shall deliver in the following Particulars 1. Not to Live to our selves is not to Live to any Beastly Lusts of Uncleanness or Sensuality 2. Not to gratifie our Outward and Bodily Senses in things that are materially Lawful so as to make that gratification the end of our Living which makes Men no better than some more tame and innocent sort of Beasts and yet how many do so As if they liv'd only to gratifie their outward Senses as their Sight in pleasing it with Visible Objects as fine Houses Orchards and Gardens their Hearing with delightful Musick their Taste with delicious Meats and Drinks their Smelling with odoriferous Perfumes and Smells their Feeling with Soft Raiment and soft Beds of Down which are commonly the Entertainment of some that are Rich in this World as if they were born and did live in the World only to gratifie the Sensual Life 3. Not to make the highest gratifications of our Reasons in the highest Knowledge of Natural things our End and Felicity 4. Not to make our highest Knowledge even in Spiritual Things and Mysteries our Objective Happiness and Felicity for that is to put our Knowledge in the Place of God himself and his Gifts in the room and place of the Giver which ought not to be for it is a sort of Spiritual Idolatry Our formal Happiness doth indeed partly consist in the knowledge of God begun here and perfected hereafter and in the fruition of him by Love and Joy but we must not make either of them the Object of our Happiness but God alone in and through and together with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit our supreme and highest Good 5. Not to make our own Will and Pleasure our End and Aim but wholly to submit our Wills to the Will of God in all things and wholly to trust in him Secondly To Live to him who Died for us is 1. To Live a Life of Love to God and Christ and from that Love to Serve and Obey him in all his Commandments with all sincere Resolutions and Endeavours to keep and observe them all our days by our continual endeavouring to attain more and more to a Conformity to him imitating his Vertues and Perfections daily more and more like a Schollar that every day Writing after his Copy Writeth better and better tho' still he comes not up to the perfection of his Copy 2. To Live to God and Christ is to live a life of Communion and Fellowship with God and Christ and in a true and real Enjoyment of them as St. John said The Life was manifested and we have seen it and declared it unto you which Life is Christ both God and Man that ye may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and the Son The which Fellowship and Enjoyment is actually begun here and tobe perfected hereafter in the World to come The Fellowship that the Faithful have with God and Christ here in the Mortal Body and the Enjoyment they have of God and Christ tho' it is not either in that immediate or clear and perfect manner as it shall be in the World to come yet it is a true and real Fellowship and Communion with God and Christ and also with the Holy Spirit and a real Divine Enjoyment affording an incomparable inward joy sweetness and satisfaction to such who really have it Nor ought the False and Counterfeit Pretences of too many who boast they have it and yet their Vile Errors and Unchristian Practices sufficiently prove they have it not make any to disbelieve such a thing that is so great a Blessing and Priviledge to the Faithful The which Divine Enjoyment and Communion with God and Christ and the Holy Spirit is by an Inhabitation of the Holy and Blessed Trinity in the Faithful as God hath Promised I will Dwell in them and Walk in them And by real inward operations and communications of Grace Vertue and quickening and refreshing Influences generally given and imparted to the Faithful in the frequent and diligent use of the ordinary means of Salvation as the Word and Sacraments Meditation Prayer and in the daily and continual course of our Obedience to all Gods Commands by these means as by Conduits and Pipes the Living Waters i. e. Life and Vertue flow into the Souls of the Faithful from Christ and from God in Christ in whom the Fulness dwells and of whose Fulness we all receive and Grace for