concerning than this can it move you Your Righteousness is Jesus Christ His Righteousness is the true and only that satisfieth for Iniquity and meriteth Mercy The great Apostle protests against Trust in any beside Though after his Conversion he was a sort of incarnate Angel he dared to plead no other Righteousness at God's Tribunal Knowing all other Garments to have both Defects and Defilement he declareth the Righteousness of God's Son to be the Robe of his Salvation Phil. 3.7 8 9. Natural Conscience as soon as it 's awake cries out What shall I do to be saved But as soon as its Eyes are touched with the Eye-salve of the Gospel it sees that It can never be saved by what it will ever be able to do When we have done all we are unprofitable Servants Your Strength is the Holy Ghost We have no more Justifying Righteousness than we receive from Christ nor any more sanctifying Righteousness than we receive from the Holy Ghost The Spirit helpeth our Infirmities Look over the Gospel you will find him entituled to all To all Grates as the Worker of them to all Duties as the Assister in them He it is that works all Good in us and by whom we are acted when we do what is Good The Body is not more dead and unactive without the Soul than the best Soul is without the Holy Spirit Without him we can do nothing No Man can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit Your Steps thro Christ and by the Holy Ghost to God's Acquaintance are these e.gr. Painful Sense of your want of it for Blessed are they that mourn Longing desire after it for Blessed are they that hunger and thirst Humble Acknowledgment of your Weakness and disability to raise your selves to it for Blessed are the poor in Spirit Like acknowledgment of your being unworthy that God should raise you up for we are Ungodly as well as without Strength and less than the least of God's Mercies Faith of God's Power and Readiness in his Gospel-way to raise you up to it for He that cometh to God must believe that he is and is a Rewarder of them that seek him Faith of his Willingness with his Acquaintance freely to give you all things for so is his Promise No good Thing will he withhold from the Upright Lastly Humble Boldness in the Faith aforesaid to trust and serve Him for so is the Divine Prescription Let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace When you are come boldly thither you must lay down the Body before you can get higher For it is so high that the next Step is Glory saith one of Note in the Church These things Bind on your Fingers write on the Table of your Hearts Praying incessantly that by the Holy Spirit 's strengthning Power you may ever take these Steps and through Christ's meritory Righteousness be accepted in them For this keep you praying with all Prayer Exh. 6 Sanctify a Fast some Time set apart and go Vow unto the Lord to be his solemnly give your selves unto him present your selves living Sacrifices With what solemnity is the Nuptial Bond entred every where in the World With what Solemnity is a Coronation-Oath taken Yet what is the Pleasure of the one or the Honour of the other to that of the Covenant of Grace The Covenant by which our Maker becomes our Husband And we are made Princes How congruous is it that the Day of our entring it should be kept with greatest Solemnity and signalized as a Day never to be forgotten That every one joined to God therein should all Days of his Life most joyfully commemorate it saying This is the Day whereon I renewed my Baptismal Covenant Was married to my God was crowned with the Honour of his near Acquaintance and enriched with all Peace and Good Thanks be to God on every Remembrance That this Renewal of our Baptismal Vow is needful and the Repetition of it upon all proper Occasions none can question The Examples that commend it and the Reasons that enforce it are well known I say but this God though no Debtor at all to us pleaseth by Promises of Free Grace in effect to become one Men love to have their Favours free are impatient of being fettered by Promises unto their Alms-fokls and do reserve to themselves a Power of revoking their Charity at Pleasure But God is Love and such that tho all his Blessings be Gifts he condescends to be engaged for the conferring of them and allows them in a Sense to have the Quality of Debts In short tho his Word is established in Heaven and with Him is no shadow of turning yet his Mercy is secured by Covenant and his Covenant secured by Oath Even the highest Oath by his Life and by his Holiness What then Shall we who are Debtors the deepest we whose Gifts unto Him all are Debts and ten thousand times less than our Debts We whose Hearts are false and need be fix'd and fastned sluggish also and need to be quickned shall we think much to be bound in Vows Or shall we dare to trust our Treacherous Spirits without them What Bands and Cords can be too many for us Surely it stands us upon by these Vows as so many Girdles of Truth to bind on us the whole Armour of God if breaking off our old Agreement with Hell we would enter and maintain Acquaintance with God! And thus doth every Penitent who attends the Overture made by his Redeemer Let him take hold of my Strength that he may make Peace with me and he shall make Peace with me Isa 27.5 Exh. 7 Pay your Vows prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect Will of God be not content to keep you from presumptuous Sins unless the Words of your Mouth and the Meditations of your Heart be acceptable in the sight of God! Vows turn to a sad Account unless being bound you do thus Obey Taking heed of Gnats as well as of Camels of Moats as well as of Beams Ambitious to please to well-please yea and to best-please God Your Minds proving what doth do so by studying it out your Wills by embracing it and your active Powers by practising it Practising it to the best of your Light and to the utmost of your Strength with all your Mind and with all your Soul For as fair as the Tree of Knowledg is to look on the Tree of Life is the best to feed on And if practical Holiness be not the Life of our Religion our Judg will abominate our Heads of Gold upon Feet of Clay Follow you therefore the Apostle's Rule too hot for Hypocrites to hold Whatsoever things are True are Honest are Just are Pure are Lovely are of good Report if there be any Vertue i. e. any more vertuous than others if there be any Praise i. e. more praise-worthy than others Think on these things these things do It is true and a most comforting Truth that in our weak and tempted State God
Sin Original Sin first brake it and Actual Sin encreaseth the Breach This it doth Judicially for as it deserves God makes it to be it s own Punishment He Forsakes such as Forsake him and punisheth Strangeness with Estrangement Withholding those his Communications without which Acquaintance dies Saying of them who Perversely will not that Penally they shall not be Acquainted with him Likewise Naturally it doth it for what is Sinning but a kind of going out from the Presence of the Lord A turning away of the Simple a Departing from the Living God a saying to God Depart from us As oft as we Sin we act the part of corrupt Nature and thereby an Vnregenerate Man makes himself more a Child of Wrath than he was by Nature And a Regenerate one brings himself back in some Degree to what he was by Nature even a stranger unto God Indeed there are Degrees of Sinning the lowest is that of Infirmity the highest is sinning Wilfully and with pure Delight From this latter every Regenerate Man is freed but from the former no one is Now in the Language of the Gospel he liveth without Sin who liveth without wilful Sin and doth not Fall into Gross Sin Who so-acts-up to his Light and Grace received that though he hath his daily Infirmities yet he is bright and clean from scandalous Sins Which be they that do principally create a distance and separate between God and his Servants In short One Sin destroys much good And the exclamation is as just in this case as in any Behold how great a Matter a little fire kindleth Posit 6 Acquaintance with God is Entred by Repentance and Faith These though they are not the Causes of God's exalting us unto his Acquaintance they are necessary Qualifications in all whom He will exalt unto it Repentance includes Heart-breaking Sorrow for Sin and sincere Resolution to forsake it Necessary this is by virtue of the Divine Command and by the Condecency and fitness which it is of both unto God and unto our selves Vnto God for neither would it become his Wisdom to make us a second time his Friends without our Grief and Shame for having made our selves his Enemies nor could it consist with his Holiness to Forgive and Advance us while so Sinful and Senseless Vnto our selves also for if Unrelenting and Unreformed what so much as Inclination is in us to Acquaintance with God Prodigals never list to return to their Father till their Hearts are broken for Running away from him Again Faith in our Redeemer is no less Commanded or less Congruous A Faith seated in Mind and Heart and receiving Christ in all parts of his Office which are inseparably connexed Unto this Grace Justification is specially attributed and it 's certain that none but the Justified are Acquainted with God Eminently this Grace contains the Seed of Evangelical Obedience And is that which Crucifies our Lusts Overcomes the World Quenches the Darts of the Devil and Works by the Love of God Without which what Acquaintance with God The God who is of purer Eyes than to behold Evil and consequently Without this Faith is not to be pleased To be pleased with us or to be pleased and served by us Briefly then the Impenitent and the Unbelieving are Swine to whom the Pearl of God's Acquaintance neither is or can be vouchsafed He that Repents not must Perish He that Believeth not the Wrath of God abideth on him Posit 7 Acquaintance with God is preserved by the Vse of his Ordinances and the Exercise of our Graces Ordinances or God's ordained Means must be used Without these we are not Brought into his Acquaintance nor Kept in it It is an Acquaintance which in this Life is but Imperfect and not as in Heaven Immediate The holy Word is the Seed of which it is Begot and the Food by which it is Maintained Wherefore as all the Ordinances are propounded by God with a Promise and a Threat so they are followed by the Friends of God with Hope and with Fear Experience of Benefit by them edgeth their Appetites unto them O God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsteth my Flesh longeth to see thy Power and thy Glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Psal 61.1 2. Necessity also compels them the Hunger of their Souls like that of Bodies maketh them to break thro Stone Walls to get unto Ordinances For they feel Decays and much lacking unto all their Graces and much ground lost in many of their Combates between Flesh and Spirit And they know that there is no Help without Watching at God's Gates waiting at the Posts of his Doors and it 's there they must find Life and Favour of the Lord Prov. 8.34 35. Besides there is in them a Nature and an Instinct which without such Argument carries them unto Ordinances As it carrieth new-born Children to the Dugs and Chickens as soon as they are out of the Shell to the shrowd of the Hen's Wing A Native inbred Desire carries the one and the other 1 Pet. 2.2 As New-born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may Grow i. e. Let internal Appetite draw you Babes are not urged to the Breast with Syllogisms In short the same thing that maketh Fishes to keep in the Waters that breed them maketh the Friends of God to keep to the Ordinances which convert them And to prefer a Threshold in them before a Throne without them It deserves our best Consideration as plain a Truth as it is that in the Ordinances we speak of in Reading Hearing the Word Celebrating the Lords Supper Meditation Prayer and holy Conference God draweth near unto Us and We draw near unto God God draweth near unto us the Ordinances are called the very Face of God Gen. 4.16 Cain went out from the presence of the Lord that is he forsook the Ordinances of his Worship The Ordinances wherein his Promise is to COME unto us Ex. 20.24 to MEET with us and COMMVNE with us Ex. 25.22 Though God be every where Present and fills Heaven and Earth with his Presence it is said of old that his Glory filled the Temple the Place of his Worship signifying his particular special Presence of Love and Grace and Influence upon Souls to be in his Ordinances These therefore are the great King's Presence-Chambers Again We draw near unto God in Ordinances also Our Worshipping in them is named our Coming and Appearing before God Psal 42.2 Worshippers are stiled a People NEAR unto Him and Men Idolatrous or Profane are said to be FAR from Him It 's true the Worst of Men are at no Local distance from God nor is it a Local nearness that we affirm God's Servants to enjoy in Ordinances but a Spiritual one He is not Far from any one of us in Him we Live Move and have our Being He is Over all by his Power Through all the World by his Providence In all his Saints by his Spirit The Spirit by
whom they are Brought and Kept nigh Him and are excited with frequence to Draw most near to Him in his Ordinances Which as Jacob's Ladder have their Top in Heaven though their Foot on Earth And whereon as God descends to us we do Ascend to God The Lord is nigh to all that Call upon Him Howbeit without the Exercise of Graces vain is the Use of Ordinances Such Use is very Profaness and no Mean but the Bane of Acquaintance with God For what is such Worship but Lies and Deceit Hos 11. ult Think we that we can Come to God a Spirit upon Bodily Feet Or that there is any beneficial Approach to Him but with the Heart Or with any thing of the Heart but the Holy Vertues of it Briefly thus in every Ordinance we must set forward Repentance It is unto his Mourners that in Ordinances God cometh down with Comforts Isa 57.15 We must act Faith what we Feel our selves to Want we must Believe God able and willing to Give To wit for the sake of Christ who hath paid for it on Earth and pleads for it in Heaven The Scripture bids him not think to Receive any thing who in Ordinances asketh without Faith and Wavering Jam. 1.6 7. We must act Hope this is the Waiting Grace It is an Expectation that is Certain because built on the Rock of Divine Promises and Quickning both Desire and Action because of its Objects attractive excellency and Quieting also till God's time of bestowing it doth come because Hope is it self a very Foretaste of its Object 's sweetness And there is a Rejoicing in Hope as well as in Possession No wonder therefore that there is a Patience of Hope without the Exercise whereof in an Ordinance our Hearts be either Frozen and Negligent or Furious and Impatient When we Hope for God's Salvation then we do his Commandments Psal 119.166 We must also put forth Love for this is the Uniting Grace By its Desire we run to an Object by its Delight we rest in it Desire the first act of Love is as Thirst Delight which is its other Act is Satisfaction An Ordinance without these is as a Feast where there 's no Appetite or Eating But what saith our Saviour If a Man Love me he shall be Beloved of my Father and I will Love him and will Manifest my self unto him We will Come unto him and make our Abode with him Joh. 14.21 23. We must likewise express Humility because of our Natural distance from God which is never to be reduced and our Moral distance which is but in part removed Who can measure the Distance between Infinite and Finite Between a God and a Creature Or the Distance that is between Perfect Holiness and little beside Guilt and Filth Between Him in whose sight Angels are not clean and Creatures that proclaim themselves to be Sinks of Sin and to need no less than a Fountain of Grace The Man unto whom God will look in any Ordinance is the Poor and Contrite in Spirit that trembleth at his Word Isa 66.2 Then only we Worship when our Souls bow down and our Spirits Kneel before God our Maker Thus is Acquaintance with God maintained By his Communications unto us and our Exercising Graces and Performing Duties toward Him A blessed Reciprocation wherein He descending to us in a way of Bounty we ascend up unto him in a way of Duty Happy is the People that is in such a Case Happy is the People whose God is the Lord Wherefore lastly Posit 8 Acquaintance with God is Interrupted and broken by these particulars These into which we easily Fall and under which we must deeply Suffer as oft as we do so Namely 1. Presumptuous Sins Sins commited not by the Error of the Vnderstanding and named Sins of Ignorance or Incogitancy nor by the rashness and precipitance of the Affections and named Sins of Infirmity but committed by the rebellious Will which notwithstanding the Dictate of the Mind offered to it is swayed by the Lust of brutish Affection and rushes into the abominable thing that God hates These bear the name of Presumptuous Sins And such is their Malignity that they alienate God from the Soul and the Soul from God They are said to Separate Isa 59.2 And know we not their Effect upon the Man of God's own Heart His own words do argue that they made him fear himself to be a Cast-a-way Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me Psal 51.11 In short where wilful Sins do not die no Acquaintance with God can Live It must lay us in a Swoon till their Mortification 2. Rejected Duties Known Duties declined as to Frequence or as to Fervence in them As slow as the Lord is unto Wrath he will bear no such Slights of his Love For what a Contempt is weariness of the Supream King's Service and Benefactor 's Acquaintance What a Blasphemy is it in practice to say We are Lords and will come no more unto thee Jer. 2.31 What a sensless Iniquity is it as well as a Contumelious For never could any answer to God's Query VVhat have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee Mic. 6.3 If we have full Stomachs and loath God's Honeycombs we shall not go long without feeling his Rods and Scorpions The Vials of his Anger shall be poured out and the wonted Aids and Comforts of his grieved Spirit be suspended It 's more than probable that till we stir up our selves and fill our Life with Duties and our Duties with Graces we shall find our selves emptied of our Hopes of Heaven and filled with the Fears of Hell My seldom-praying hath made me so often-despairing saith one My long Fasts from Duty have taken away all my Appetite unto it And what saith another For my sake let all Christians beware of Coldness in Ordinances it hath been the Death of my Hopes and giveth me a Life of nothing but Fears It is said of some Sovereign Potions that if taken cold their Virtue is Malignant they rather kill than heal I am much more certain that the Ordinances which being attended with Zeal lift up toward Heaven when Lukewarmness obtains they do throw us clean contrary As many as desire a flourishing Acquaintance with him let them seek the Lord continually and with all their Heart and their Soul Knowing that all drawing back tends to its Perdition Lastly 3. Pursued Vanities By Vanities I intend this World's Idols Sensual Pleasures which are but Swines Delights Riches of Gold that is but Dust and of Pearl which is no more than the Sea's Froth Honour and Praise of Men which is but their unseen Conceit and their favourable Breath Of these the condemned Pursuit is such as is Absolute and Vltimate neither Submissive nor Moderate When we prosecute them as resolved any manner of way to gain them Making them our highest Ambition Impatient of their being withheld from us by the undoubted Proprietor And
word Nothing slayeth Sinners or woundeth Saints more than Sloth In sacred Things he who is not doing is undoing whoever is not busy is not holy And of them who are so every slothful Servant is more a Thief than a Servant The slothful in Business is Brother to the slothful out of it God's Acquaintance is both entred and exercised by Diligence Memorable is the Royal Psalmist's word Thou hast commanded us to keep thy Precepts diligently Exh. 2 Think strain your Minds in the Thoughts Commune with your Hearts frequently and seriously concerning the Excellency and Necessity of God's Acquaintance Being come to Thinking beware of mispending your Thoughts by whose waste not a few Souls are lost The Number being great who mind little of Religion more than the Husks The Formalities which swallow up many Mens Care are in Reality no more And in fiery Contentions about them the most do seem rather to disgorge their Malice than to discharge their Conscience For what Conscience can dream either that any Way of Religion can please God without Acquaintance with Him Or that Difference in those Notions and Practices which consist with his Acquaintance is not very tolerable without Strife and Variance Wherefore shake this Viper off from your Hands away with the Serpent and take Fish away with the Stone and take Bread Look to the End of the Commandment which is Charity out of a pure Heart and a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned Mind you the Soul and Body of Religion be less intent upon the Garb and Dress Be a thousand times more careful to excel in Acquaintance with God which all do agree to be Saving-Religion than to promote this or that Opinion about which Men of unquestionable Integrity cannot agree whether it be from Heaven or of Men Of these Things put your selves in remembrance You were created to be acquainted with your Creator Your Conscience his Envoy in your Hearts tells you this Your Minds were given you to know Him and your Wills and Affections to Chuse and Love Him The Son of God was sent to die for you and his Spirit is sent down from Heaven to live in you that ye might be acquainted with God! And if you refuse to be so you vex God the Holy Ghost and put God the Son to open shame The Helps vouchsafed in the Gospel for God's Acquaintance are incomparably greater than those afforded under the Law So that if you improve not your Advantages you receive greater Damnation than Old-Testament Sinners Your Sin is aggravated and your Sentence will be so God's Acquaintance is great Gain and all the World without it is Vanity and Vexation If you enjoy not God the most despicable Insect enjoys as much as you and if you do enjoy Him the highest Cherub enjoys no more than you In God's Acquaintance there is great Reward even upon Earth where there is least of it If acquainted with Him you can have no Wants but he will supply them no Losses but he will repair them no Combats but he will be Second yea Principal in them and make the Victory as sure as the Fight In short Without God's Acquaintance no Sin will die in you and no Divine Grace will live Without this Acquaintance Enmity to God will be bewrayed or if buried buried alive Heavenly Vertue and Love of God will not be seen in you or if it be it will be seen to be but painted not engraved He must be a Man of such Thought that is ever acquainted with God With such Thought his Heart must stir him up and his Spirit must make him willing Exod. 35.21 Exh. 3 Resolve purpose let a Vote pass in your Souls and deliberately Design to get and encrease Acquaintance with God Resolution is the only generous Issue of Thought Which hath never been rightly fixed upon our Objects or into our Hearts when it is barren and bears it not Determine now therefore and fully engage to pursue Acquaintance with God Always to consult is as bad as never to consult at all For what is Consultation without Action And what can be either acted before it 's attempted or be attempted before it be resolved In vain I speak and in vain you hear any further if this Resolution be not first settled If your Wills remain still in suspence and you halt between two between God's Friendship and the World's it were more expedient that I should sit down and weep over you than preach on and direct you to what you intend not The Ark of God and the Idol of Philisthia could not stand upon the same Altar Neither can a Choice of God's Acquaintance and the World's consist in the same Heart Heaven and Earth be not such Equals as that they should compound and agree to take equal Shares in our Affections So that if any thing be done to purpose to this Effect must be your Language What have I to do any more with Idols I do renounce them with full purpose applying my self to seek God's Acquaintance I am on and off no longer now but fixed I see the Necessity and cease from the Impertinence of pleading Difficulty Let it cost me right Hand and right Eye they shall go if need be I will not give over seeking this Acquaintance though I die No Man comes into God's Acquaintance and Favour till he is made thus willing in the Day of his Power Exh. 4 Hope the best if your spiritual Hands hang down and Knees be feeble yet lift them up Hope even against Hope that as much as you have provoked Him to Vengeance God will now bring you to his Acquaintance That now he has given you to Will he will also strengthen you to Do all that is necessary Humble you much with the afflictive Thoughts of your long Enmity unto Him But join not with the Tempter against your self and your so gracious Father Do not tell your selves that you shall never see any Good come of your good Purposes That they are in vain and 't is not likely that the Majesty so Holy should ever be propitiated to you or you be made sutable or acceptable to Him But that as when He was willing you would not be reconciled so now that you are willing he will not incline to Friendship Give him not so insolently the Lie with your Mouth or Hearts and abhor the thought of his being unreconcilably angred or your being unalterably wicked Tell your selves the truth He is not implacable by the Oblation of his Son nor are you unreformable by the Power of his Spirit A Spirit which he hath promised to give unto them that ask as you are now resolved to do and that without ceasing No Man came ever into God's Acquaintance without this Hope and Confidence that There is Forgiveness with him Exh. 5 Seek as for Silver search as for hid Treasure for the sound Knowledg of your Righteousness your Strength and your Steps Hope is a Spring of Motion and unto nothing more