better and higher Good. You will shortly have nothing left you but himself you will be pluckt away from your Houses and Lands and Friends and all your outward comforts and now in what a case are you if you can take no pleasure or satisfaction in God! You are therefore to yield up your self to him in full union as with your most grateful and delectable Good with this sense possessing your Soul Whom have I in Heaven but thee or whom on Earth can I desire besides thee And thus you are to look upon God in your yielding your selves to him You are to yield your selves to his Claim as your rightful Owner To his Instruction as your undeceiving Teacher To his Government as your Gracious Sovereign Ruler And To the enjoyment of him as your best and most satisfying Good. Or your self-communicating Benefactor But it also concerns you to have distinct and right thoughts of the state of your case and how things are between him and the Sons of men that you may duly apply your selves to him in so great a transaction The Gospel under which you live tells you he treats with men in and by a Mediator his own Son who came down into this wretched World of ours in great compassion to our miseries and took our Nature was here on Earth among us an incarnate God. God manifested in the flesh Because we were partakers of flesh and blood he took part with us likewise of the same and in that Nature of ours died for us to make way that we might yield our selves to God and be accepted No man now comes to the Father but by him He must be acknowledged with great reverence and a most profound homage must be rendered to him He that denieth the Son hath not the Father And it being his pleasure to treat with us by his Son and the case requiring that we apply our selves to him we are to take notice of him according to those capacities wherein Scripture represents him to us And it represents him agreeably to those same notions according to which we have shewn we are to consider God the Father in this matter so as that Christ being the Mediator between him and us when we yield our selves to him ultimately and finally under the notions that have been mention'd we are first to yield our selves to his Son Christ Jesus our Redeemer under the like notions For 1. Being to yield our selves to God as our Owner we must know the Father hath given all things into the hands of the Son John 13. 3. and that He is Lord of all Acts 10. 36. which in the first sense signifies him to be by the Father's constitution the Owner of all things even as he is the Redeemer For he therefore died and rose again that he might be Lord of dead and living i. e. of both Worlds agreeably to what he himself speaks immediately upon his resurrection from the dead All power is given to me both in Heaven and Earth Matth. 28. 18. 2. And for those other notions of God under which we have shewn we are to yield our selves to him as our Teacher Ruler and Benefactor they correspond to that threefold Office of Christ of which you cannot but have heard much viz. of Prophet King and Priest so that we are to commit our selves to him when we yield our selves to God as a Teacher come forth from God and who reveals him to us whom no man hath seen at any time As one that must reign over us and over the greatest on Earth Luke 19. 14. and 27. Psal. 2. 6 7 8 9 10. and by whom we are to be reconcil'd to God and restor'd to the enjoyment of him Rom. 5. 11. And because our blind minds and perverse hearts need light and grace from above to direct and encline us hereto therefore hath the Spirit of the Father and the Son a great work to do in us to this purpose Whereupon we are to yield our selves to that blessed Spirit also as our enlightner and sanctifier which our being directed to walk in the Spirit Gal. 5. 25. and our being told that they that have not the Spirit of Christ are none of his Rom. 8. 9. and that as many as are the Sons of God are led by his Spirit v. 14. do plainly shew You see then we are to yield our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost which also our having those great names nam'd upon us in our Baptism as we before told you doth import And how necessary all this is you will see if 2. We consider how we are to look upon our selves in this transaction i. e. 1. We are to consider our selves as God's creatures being as you have heard to consider him as our Creator and so we must reckon we owe our selves to him and do but yield him what we owe and what was his before For how can you but be his who of his meer pleasure hath rais'd you out of nothing 2. We must remember we have been apostate creatures such as had faln and revolted from him and so our yielding our selves to him is a giving our selves back to him having injuriously withdrawn and with-held our selves from him before And because the injury was so great as we could never make any recompence for therefore it was necessary such a Mediator should be appointed between God and us for whose sake only we can expect to be accepted when we yield our selves So great a Majesty was not to be approacht by offending creatures without so great a Days-man and Peace-maker 3. We must consider our selves as impure and every way unfit for the Divine Presence Service and Converse and who did therefore need the power of the Holy Ghost to be put forth upon us to make us fit and that therefore our case required we should put our selves into such hands for that purpose 4. We are to consider our selves as under the Gospel as sinners invited and call'd back to God as such whose case is not desperate or who need to abandon our selves to ruine tho' we have greatly offended as if there were no hope We are to consider our selves with distinction from the condition of other faln creatures The Angels that fell and kept not their first station have no Gospel sent to them to invite them back and persuade them again to yield themselves to God you have Into what a transport should this thought put you how should it mollifie you oh what a yielding temper and disposition of spirit should it work in you towards this gracious call and just challenge which the great God now gives you and makes unto you Thus far then you see how you are to consider God and your selves in this your yielding your selves to him You are now next to consider 2. What your yielding your selves to God according to such considerations must include or be accompanied with For it is not reasonable to think you have no more to
anon In the mean time set this ever blessed glorious God the Father Son and Holy Ghost before your eyes as to whom thus in himself consider'd you are now to yield your selves 2. You must conceive of him according to the relations which he bears towards you partly before your yielding your selves to him and partly in and upon your doing it That is 1. Before you do any such thing you must conceive of him as 1. Your Creator the Author of your Beings of whom and through whom and to whom all things are He that made you demands you for himself You are required to yield your selves to him that gave you breath 2. As the continual Sustainer of your Being and who renews your life unto you every moment in whom you live and move and have your Being continually so that if he should withdraw his supports you immediately drop into nothing But these are things common to you with all other creatures and signifie therefore his antecedent right in you before you have yielded your selves upon which you ought to do it and cannot without great injustice to him decline doing it There are other considerations also you ought to entertain concerning him in this your yielding your selves to him viz. of some things which are partly and in some sense before it and which it supposes but which partly also and in a more especial sense would follow and be inferr'd by it Principally this fourfold consideration you should have of him in your yielding your selves to him viz. as your Owner your Teacher your Ruler and your Benefactor and all these with the addition of Supream it being impossible he should have a Superior or that there should be any one above him in any of these And he is in some sense all these to you before you can have yielded your selves as may in great part be collected from what hath been already said But when you yield your selves to him he will be all these to you in a far higher nobler and more excellent sense and you are to yield your selves to him as such or that in your so doing he may actually become such to you 1. As your Owner The God whose you are as the Apostle speaks Act. 27. 23. and whom as it there follows and is naturally consequent you are to serve You were his by a former right as all things being made by him are But you are to yield your selves to him that you may be more peculiarly his in a sense more excellent in it self and more comfortable to you as Exod. 19. 5. If you will obey you shall be to me a peculiar treasure above all people for all the Earth is mine Of such as fear him the great God says They shall be mine in the day when I make up my Jewels Mal. 3. 17. Your yielding your selves adds nothing to his right in you you therein only recognize and acknowledge the right he had in you before but it adds to you a capacity and qualification both by the tenour of his Gospel-Covenant and in the nature of the thing for such nobler uses as otherwise you cannot serve for As the more contemptible lumber about a man's house may be as truly his as the most precious things but neither doth he intend nor can such meaner things admit to be the ornaments either of his Person or his House The great God intends his devoted peculiar People to be to him a Crown and royal Diadem Isa. 62. 3. when he puts away the wicked of the Earth like dross Psal. 119. v. 119. In a great house there are not only Vessels of Silver and Gold but also of Wood and of Earth 2 Tim. 2. 20. But 't is only the purged and sanctified soul which is also a self-devoted one that shall be the Vessel unto honour being made meet for the Master's use and prepared to every good work v. 21. Persons and things acquire a sacredness by being devoted to God. Persons especially that can and do devote themselves are highly ennobled by it he hereupon besides their relative holiness really more and more sanctifies and frames them for his own more immediate service and communion Of such a People he tells us that he hath formed them for himself and they shall praise him and to them he saith intending it manifestly in the more eminent sense Thou art mine Isa. 43. 1 7 21. Such may with a modest and humble but with a just confidence freely say I am thine save me Psal. 119. 94. In yielding your selves consider therefore first that he is your Owner by an unquestionable former right and let that effectually move you to do it with all your hearts For will you not give him his own When you account duty to your Prince obliges you to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's will you not give God the things that are God's And will you not know him for your Owner The Oxe knows his Owner Isa. 1. 3. Or will it satisfie you to be in no other kind his than brutes and Devils are that either through an incapacity of Nature cannot acknowledge him or through a malignity of Nature will not O yield your selves with humble desire and expectation that he will vouchsafe otherwise to own you 2. As your Teacher so indeed he also is to all men tho' they never yield themselves to him He that teaches man knowledge shall not he know Psal. 94. 10. There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding Yea and inferiour creatures as they all owe their Natures and peculiar Instincts to him may be said to have him for their Teacher too But will it content you to be so only taught by him There is another sort of Teaching which if you yield your selves to him as your great Instructor he will vouchsafe unto you The things you know not and which it is necessary you should know he will teach you i. e. such things as are of real necessity to your true and final welfare not which only serve to please your fancy or gratifie your curiosity For his Teaching respects an appointed certain end suitable to his Wisdom and Mercy and to the calamity and danger of your state The Teaching requisite for perishing sinners was what they might do to be saved And when we have cast about in our own thoughts never so much we have no way to take but to yield our selves to God who will then be our most undeceiving Guide To whom it belongs to save us at last to him only it can belong to lead us in the way to that blessed end Many anxious Enquiries and fervent Disputes there have been how one may be infallibly assur'd of the way to be sav'd They are to be excus'd who think it not fit but upon very plain grounds to venture so great a concernment or to run so great a hazard in a meer Complement to any man or party of men Confident expressions as
expect by yielding your selves to God as your Teacher As it cannot agree with the absolute perfection of his Nature to be himself deceiv'd in any thing it can you may be sure as little agree with it to deceive you or let you mistake your way in the things wherein he hath encourag'd and induc'd you to commit and entrust your selves to his conduct and guidance Will he let a soul wander and be lost that hath entirely given up it self to be led and taught by him His Word hath at once exprest to you his Nature and his Good-will towards you in this case Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach sinners in the way Psal. 25. 8. But what sinners the next words tell you the meek self-resigned ones humble teachable learners he will guide in Judgment or with Judgment as that particle admits to be read he will guide them judiciously and surely so that your hearts need not misgive or suspect or doubt to follow The meek will he teach his way v. 9. Who would not wish and be glad to have such a Teacher You shall know how express is his Word if you follow on to know the Lord for his going forth is prepared as the morning Hos. 6. 3. You do not need to devise in the morning how to create your own Light 't is prepar'd and ready for you the Sun was made before you were and it keeps its course and so constantly will God's own Light shine to you without your contrivance or care for any thing but to seek receive it and be guided by it Know your advantage in having such a Teacher 1. He will teach you inwardly even your very hearts and so as his Instructions shall reach the center the inmost of your spirits God that made light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts c. 2 Cor. 4. 6. And when that holy good man had been solacing himself with highest pleasure in considering this that God was his portion so contentful and satisfying a one that he cannot forbear saying The lines are fall'n to me in pleasant places and I have a goodly heritage Psal. 16. 5 6. He presently adds I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel q. d. I should never else have thought of such a thing it had never come into my mind to think of chusing God for my portion I should have done like the rest of the vain World have followâ—d shadows all my days My reins also instruct me in the night season He will so teach you as to make you teach your selves put an abiding word into you that shall talk with you when you sit in your houses and walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up and whereby you shall be enabled to commune with your own hearts upon your beds while others sleep and revolve or roll over in your minds dictates of life You will not need to say Who shall ascend into Heaven to bring down Christ from above Or Who shall descend into the deep to bring Christ again from the dead For the Word will be nigh thee not in thy mouth only but in thine heart c. You will have in you an ingrafted Word and the Law of your God will be in your heart so as none of your steps shall slide This is our Lord 's own interpretation of divers words of the Prophets that in the days of the more general diffusion of holy vital light which was to be after his own appearance in the World They shall be all taught of God John 6. 45. i. e. so as to have their hearts inclin'd towards himself and drawn to him as the reference of these words to those of the foregoing verse shews Wherein 2. Lies your further advantage That by him you shall be taught effectually Other Teaching as it doth but reach the ear or only at the most beget some faint notions in the mind that you are little the better for his shall produce rea fruit He is the Lord your God who teaches you to profit and who by gentle and unforcible but by most prevailing insinuations shall slide in upon your spirits win them by light and love and allure them to a compliance with what shall be in the end safe and happy for your selves He will instruct you tho' not with a violent yet with a strong hand so as not to lose his kind design Others teach you and leave you what they found you convinc't perhaps but not chang'd unable to resist any ill inclination or your disinclination to that which was good Power will accompany his Teaching a conquering power that will secretly constrain and captivate your hearts and how pleasant a Victory will that be to your selves O the peace and joy you will find springing up within you when once you feel your selves overcome The most that a man can say to you is what the Prophet Samuel once said so great and so good a man God forbid I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way He could only shew that way and pray that God would do the rest which implies God only can so teach it you as to make you walk in it I am not persuading you to slight humane Teaching you will need it and 't is among the gifts which your glorious Redeemer being ascended on high hath given to men viz. Pastors and Teachers But understand their Teaching to be only subordinate and Ministerial Without or against God you are to call no man Master or Teacher upon Earth And thus far their Teaching is to be regarded as it agrees 1. With what God doth inwardly teach you by that common light which shines in every man 's own bosom that with a sincere mind attends to it and which is too little attended to There are Truths too commonly held in unrighteousness seated generally in the Minds and Consciences of men by which tho' they have not another Law they are a Law to themselves and for the stifling and resisting whereof the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against them And from such Truths they might infer others and where God affords external helps come to discern a sure ground whereupon to understand that what is contained besides in the frame of Christian Doctrine is true being enabled to judge of the evidences that prove the whole Revelation thereof to be from God and nothing being in it self more evident than that what he hath revealed is true And withal God is graciously pleased to shine into Minds that with upright aims set themselves to enquire out and understand his Mind and so farther light comes to be superadded to that which is common Now take heed how you neglect what a man teaches you agreeably to that inward light which is already one way or other in your own Minds and Consciences Hither in some part