was true Man Joh. 1.14 Mat. 1.16 Luke 1.31 which may satisfie us that He was in a Condition and Fitness for that part of His Work which did consist in His Suffering in our stead and on our behalf and that He hath a most tender and compassionate concern for us whose Nature He did assume Heb. 2.14 Heb. 4.15 2dly Those Propositions which acquaint us with the occasion of His undertaking this Office and being commissioned to it As that by the Fall of our first Parents sin entred into the World That we are all fallen short of the Glory of God And that we are by Nature the Children of Wrath Rom. 3.23 Rom. 5.12 Eph. 2.3 which may convince us more throughly of our great need of such a Saviour make us have more low and humble thoughts of our selves and inspire us with most admiring and elevated gratitude and thankfulness to and for Him 3dly Those Propositions which instruct us that the sending of this Saviour did proceed and spring purely from the Free Grace Mercy and Love of God God so loved the World that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life c. John 3.16 17. 1 John 4.9 Eph. 2.4 to the 9th This is proper to engage our Admiration and Love Here is room for our exerting them in their fullest strength and force 4thly Those Propositions which teach us in what ways and by what steps He did and doth execute and will finally accomplish the Work and Office He Vndertook As 1. By Revealing the Father and making His Will known to the World John 1.18 Heb. 1.1 2. John 15.15 Whereby we are furnished with the most useful pertinent necessary and profitable Instructions do know where we are to employ our Searches and Enquiries to the best purpose And what we may without fluctuation doubt or wavering and with the greatest confidence entertain and depend upon for their Truth 2dly By fulfilling all Righteousness and leading the most Innocent unblemish'd exact and holy Life Mat. 3.15 1 Pet. 2.21 Acts 10.38 Thus He has set us an Example in His own Life Hath visibly commended and discovered the amiableness of what He Commands and Enjoyns And hath shewn us in the most convincing and obliging way how we ought to demean and behave our selves And hereby we perceive that He was admirably fitted for another part of what pertained to Him in His Estate of Humiliation viz. making Himself a Sacrifice for our sins Heb. 7.26 c. 3dly By suffering very many hardships innumerable reproaches and indignities enduring the Wrath of God and actually dying in open view as a Malefactor on the Cross offering up himself a Sacrifice to satisfie Divine Justice for the sins of the World and giving his Soul a Ransom for Sinners Acts 2.23 and 36. Heb. 9.26 1 Pet. 3.18 1 Tim. 2.6 which discovers the most execrable nature of Sin how extreamly loathsom and hateful it is to God and therefore should be so to us This manifests the Condescention and Love of Christ to us in the most affecting manner that can be imagined And is the most potent Argument to kindle and excite the truest Love in our Souls to Him and calls for our exerting Love to Him in its most powerful actings 2 Cor. 5.14.15 4thly By rising again from the dead the third day 1 Cor. 15.4 Rom. 1.4 Rom. 4.25 Hereby the Prophecies which were before concerning Him and His own Predictions were most exactly verified and fulfilled This gives a most certain undeniable demonstration that His Sacrificing of Himself and his Death were accepted of God and are prevalent for all the purposes for which they were intended T' is strengthens our Faith and Hope in 〈◊〉 And assures us of the certainty of our Resurrection at the end of the World 1 Pet. 1.21 Rom. 8.11 5thly By Ascending up into Heaven in the sight of His Disciples after He had given full proof of the truth of His Resurrection and commissioned them to Preach His Gospel to all the World That there He may in His exalted Estate perform what further pertains unto Him as the Saviour of Sinners Mark 16.19 This assures us of the efficacy and prevalence of His Intercession and the solid ground we have to depend upon Him for whatsoever He hath warranted us to ask in His Name and expect from Him Heb. 7.14 15. John 14.1 2 3. 6thly By sending and giving forth the Holy Spirit for the purposes and ends for which He hath promised Him viz. for the making of His Word and Ordinances effectual for the Conversion of Sinners and the Edification and Comfort of true Believers John 14.16 17 and 26. And here by the way we may take notice that He hath taught how we are to conceive of the Holy Spirit certifying that He is God Acts 5.3 4. 2 Cor. 3.16 17. Now when a true Christian understands that Christ Jesus hath given this account of the Holy Spirit He is as much obliged to believe it as He is to believe that Jesus is the Christ and when he understands that Christ hath taught that the Father Himself and the Holy Ghost are God that He saith such things of them and requires such Homage and Worship to be paid unto them as are peculiar unto God and certifies that these Three are One Matth. 28.19 1 John 5.7 He is obliged to assent unto and believe this Truth as well as any thing else that Christ hath taught It is as hard for me to reconcile a Persons denying or not believing this when he knows that Christ Jesus hath taught it with his being a sincere Christian or having unreservedly resigned himself up to Jesus Christ as any Man can pretend it is to him to tell how these three can be God and yet there be but one God I believe that the Father Son and Holy Spirit are God because I find that Christ Jesus hath taught so And if any Man can pretend he hath ground to believe this Article to be false or to with-hold his assent when he knows that Jesus Christ hath taught it he cannot with colour pretend he has just reason to believe that Jesus is the Messias nor to believe any one point upon his Authority For if we question the Truth of any thing we know He taught we have the like reason to question the Truth of every thing He taught He that is upon such Terms can hardly deserve to be accounted a true Christian He must be extraordinarily soft and favourable to himself if he can persuade himself that is one If I were not fully persuaded that Christ Jesus understood the Divine Nature and knew how to speak of it better than any meer Man I should not take him to be my Lord and Saviour It may be some will say they do believe what Christ Jesus hath taught but they cannot believe the Doctrine of the Trinity as it is taught in certain Creeds which are but of Humane Composure
To such I would say if you really know and heartily believe all that Christ hath taught concerning this matter it is as much as I can desire and as much as you ought to believe concerning it But tho' other words are now ordinarily used in teaching of this Doctrine than are used about it in the Holy Scriptures yet the Doctrine is but the same which Christ taught The other Words and Terms which are now used do not add any thing to his Doctrine they were not originally intended to make the Doctrine more perfect than Christ delivered it The Doctrine continued as it was taught in the Holy Scriptures till some presumptuous not to say malicious Persons assumed to themselves to affix such a sinister Interpretation and Construction to the Words of Christ as did exceedingly alter His Doctrine very much depreciating Christ Himself and the Holy Spirit degrading Christ into a meer Man though He Himself taught that He was God and teaching that the Holy Spirit was but the Power or Virtue of God and not God When this Method was used to corrupt the Faith of Christ sincere Christians found it expedient to make use of other Words which have been successively retained But they used not these words with a design to teach more than Christ had taught only to deliver what He had taught with a denial of that corrupt Sense false Teachers had stampt upon His Words So that the Doctrine of the Trinity as it is ordinarily taught amongst us is no other than that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are God as Christ hath taught they are and that we do reject that Sense and Construction which Men of their own Heads and without any Authority have affixed to Christ's Doctrine It is but the Doctrine Christ hath taught with an opposition to and denial of that Addition of Words and Diminution of Sense which other People had introduced touching that which Christ had taught To say that this Doctrine is contrary to Reason is in effect to deny that Jesus is the Messias or Christ Can the Fountain of Light and Reason teach any thing that is contrary to Reason Does not the Messias He that was commissioned to teach Men the Mind of God know what is consonant to Reason better than we do It is not to be expected that People should in good earnest believe this Doctrine till they are fully persuaded that Jesus is the Christ and when they heartily believe that there can be no ground to deny their assent to this or any other Doctrine they know he hath taught We have this notice by Supernatural Revelation that the Father is God and that the Son is God and that the Holy Ghost is God which we could not know by the meer Light of Nature Now if those who say this Doctrine is against and contrary to Reason do mean no more than that they find Christ hath revealed it but they cannot understand any more concerning it than what He hath revealed they are in the right but they would do well to express their meaning by decent and proper Terms which may signifie the Sense they have of their own and Humane weakness and not throw Unworthy and Blasphemous Aspersions on a most certain Divine Truth and Doctrine He that heartily believes that Jesus is the Christ and takes Him unfeignedly for his Lord and Saviour will believe whatsoever he knows Christ hath taught and will be contented to wait to know more than He hath taught concerning any Article till He shall be pleased to make a further discovery of it Our knowing that the Holy Spirit who is promised is God affords us great encouragement to depend upon Him for and to expect from Him Aids and Assistances suitable to our occasions and such Influences as will render our dutiful labours and endeavours prosperous and successful 7thly By coming at the end of the World in unconceivable Glory at which time He will raise the dead judge the World and render to every one according to his Works Acts 10.42 Acts 17.32 2 Cor. 5.10 This if any thing should keep us in a continual holy Awe of Him and have a very powerful and good Influence upon our Conduct at all times if we have any care for or regard to our indisputably greatest Interests And therefore true Christians should concern themselves very much to understand as particularly as they can and make a good use of what Christ hath taught relating to what I shall hint unto you in the next place 5thly Those Propositions which acquaint us with the Evil Acts and Vicious Inclinations and Lusts He requires us to abstain from and mortifie and the moral Duties He commands us to perform as also in what manner it is His pleasure we should do them These are either general or particular Those that are general oblige us to renounce all corrupt affections and abstain from every Wickedness and Sin and to exercise our selves in all the Duties we owe to God our Neighbours and our selves without descending to mention particular instances but engaging us to employ our enquiries about them that we obtain as distinct a knowledge of them as we can such are Tit. 2.11 12. 2 Cor. 7.1 Those which are particular do name certain Vices Evil Acts and Lusts we must carefully shun and avoid and subdue certain Graces Virtues and good Acts we must employ ourselves in These may be reduced to three Heads viz. Those which concern all Christians in common Those which belong to them according to the several Relations they stand in unto others And those which pertain to them according to the various Estates and Conditions the Providence of God doth place them in We should endeavour to be as distinctly acquainted with these as we can that our Conduct may be Regular Orderly and Exact and may beautifie and adorn our Profession These make up the greatest part of that Revelation Jesus Christ hath made of the Will of God unto the World These are dispersed through the whole Body of those Sacred Records which contain the Discoveries He hath made of the Father's Mind so that we cannot attend to any page of the same but we shall be sure to meet with some of them Amongst all the things that Christ Jesus hath taught these are the least disputed but with profoundest Grief be it spoken none are more neglected and more contradicted in the Practices and Lives of the Many 6thly Those Propositions which relate what Privileges do pertain to them who do know Christ Jesus aright which acquaint us what Benefits Advantages and inestimable Blessings such Persons do partake of at present and may further expect with good assurance both in this Life and the next As that they partake of the Holy Spirit and are made his Temples 1 Cor. 6.19 Rom. 8.9 Have all their Sins Pardoned are Justified and admitted into the new Covenant are Sanctified and made partakers of the Divine Nature Eph. 1.7 1 Cor. 6.11 2 Pet. 1.3 4. Rom. 3.24
1 Cor. 12.3 Tho' the Lord Jesus doth not oblige himself not to give forth the special Influences of his Holy Spirit to any but in and with their serious using their natural Abilities and the common assistances of the Spirit generally afforded in those ways he hath appointed in order to Peoples partaking of his supernatural Aids and Blessings yet he obliges us thus to make use of the means he hath ordained and we have not any reason to expect these supernatural effects any other way When he does extraordinarily and out of his common and Instituted way work on awaken convince and effectually convert Sinners as he did Saul when Travelling on such a wretchedly wicked design towards Damascus he does it not as King and Ruler but as absolute Lord. And when we find our selves so inlightned and powerfully wrought on in the use of Instituted means that we are effectually determined to yield up our selves intirely to Christ as our Lord this effect is from the special influence of the Holy Spirit and must be attributed unto Him Faith is the gift of God tho' ordinarily conferred along with out making use of the natural Powers we are endued with in the ways and methods instituted for this end as reading and hearing the Word Meditation Prayer c. There is no natural connexion between our employing of our natural Abilities and Powers in these ways and this happy effect for God hath not obliged himself to bestow this Blessing by the Rules and Laws he hath established to observe in the ordinary way of his Providence in ordering and governing the World so far as doth concern and relate to Man The connexion between them is purely Gracious by virtue of the Laws and Rules He hath fixed to proceed by in the dispensation of his Grace We may by that concurrence God affords in the way of his ordinary Providence attain to as great a measure of speculative notional discoursive knowledge of what the Gospel doth teach as we can of those matters which are treated of in other Books provided we do proportionably apply our Study to them But when in our using our natural Abilities these ways we are brought to close unfeignedly with Christ and yield up our selves entirely to his Conduct this is owing to a divine Influence vouchsafed beyond the ordinary course of Providence and is from God's proceeding with us according to his Law of Grace Tho' we cannot apprehend in what way the Spirit doth effect and bring about this excellent and happy change in us so as certainly to distinguish what is done by the Spirit from what is done by our natural Abilities cooperating yet we know by the effect that He hath exerted his wonderful Power and to Him must all the Glory be ascribed who is the principal agent in this business 3dly In the singular and inestimable Benefits which do accrue unto us upon our thus knowing of Christ Jesus Of which Benefits I will now name but these two 1. God's justifying of us and owning us to be in the Covenant of Grace By Justification I do mean something more than his Pardoning all our past Sins even a change of our State his acquitting and discharging us from the Law of Works as a Covenant of Life Were all my Sins freely pardoned and I left under the Law of Works this Pardon would not avail me any thing if my Life were at all continued for my very next performances would fall so short of what that Law requires I should immediately be in the same state I was in before my Pardon We are all under the Law of Works till we do so know Christ Jesus as to yield up our selves unreservedly unto his Conduct Indeed we are not now so under the Law of Works as our first Parents were immediately on their Transgression and before that gracious Promise that the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's head was given them for till then they were purely under the Law of Works and had no remedying Law to make use of for their Relief We are naturally still under that Law of Works only we have this advantage that now there is a Law of Pardon or a remedying Law concurrent with it if we will make use of it But till we comply with and accept of that Law i. e. do yield up our selves absolutely to Christ Jesus the other Law stands in full force against us Our so knowing of Christ Jesus as hath been mentioned is our actual consenting to the gracious tender and offer God hath made to all Sinners without excepting any whereby we come to be really in the Covenant of Grace What is ordinarily called the Covenant of Grace is only the Declaration and Testament which Christ hath made of the Grace of God or the Blessings he will bestow on all those who do or shall unfeignedly consent to yield up themselves absolutely to Him It is a Covenant only with those who do thus consent unto it And upon our giving up our selves thus to Christ God owns us to be in Covenant with Him Of this Covenant Christ Jesus is the Mediator to whom it pertains to see that both parts of the Covenant thus consented to be performed We are to do what is assigned to us i. e. we must follow Christ's Conduct in every thing we shall know he hath ordained for us and therefore must use our honest endeavours to understand what he hath taught and upon our doing so we come to be entitled to the Benefits God hath promised which Christ is also to see accomplished and made good unto us When we know Christ Jesus a right we are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son Col. 1.13 2. Power to perform such Obedience as God will graciously accept This knowledge of Christ Jesus which is a special effect of the Holy Spirit is not a dead notion but the Light of Life a divine vital principle which hath an influence on all the Powers of the Soul and Faculties of the whole Man spiriting and directing them all in a good measure in ways suitable to its own Nature and the end for which it is given It possesseth the Soul with a predominant Love to Christ and influences the Person to labour after a Conformity to Him It puts the Person upon considering and enquiring what things He whom he hath taken for his Lord hath revealed what he doth Command and in what manner it behoves him now he hath thus resigned himself to Him to behave himself and it furnishes him with ability to execute the same by deriving fresh supplies of strength from that Holy Spirit who is the Author of this divine vital Principle It disposeth and enclineth him to do those good Works Christ hath commanded him and to use those means Christ hath enjoyned in order to his receiving greater measures of the influences of the Holy Spirit Eph. 2.10 Such a Person 's Good Works and Obedience are accepted with
cured any other way but by committing himself entirely to that Person his knowledge will have this effect on him that he will render himself up entirely to his guidance and management When we are throughly sensible that we are Sinners under the Curse of the Law and justly obnoxious to the most heavy displeasure and wrath of Almighty God and that there is no way for our obtaining Peace with Him Pardon and Salvation but by Jesus Christ then our knowing him to be the only the all-sufficient and a most compassionate and gracious Saviour of Sinners will dispose and influence us to resign up our selves without reservation to his Conduct and to rely and depend on Him to save us in his own way He came to seek and to save those who are lost who are truly sensible of their lost estate All your knowledge will not avail you to Salvation tho' you can Discourse ever so accurately on every point in your Bible till it have this effect on you to make you resign up your selves unfeignedly unto Christ as your Lord. But the Person who is brought to this is Christ's Disciple a true Believer and real Christian tho' as yet he does not know any other Doctrine Christ hath taught but only engages heartily to use his best endeavours to know and understand his Lord's Will and to assent unto and perform the same as he shall attain the knowledge of it and resolvedly applies himself to fulfil and execute that engagement with â—â—ll Industry and Fidelity This is that which constitutes and makes a Person a sincere Christian a real Disciple of Christ and a true Believer And his regular outward signifying and testifying of this gives him a Right to the external Denomination of a Christian c. The true notional knowledge of Christ Jesus is the same for the matter with the spiritual and practical knowledge of Him but this latter makes the Person perceive the usefulness and necessity of Christ Jesus to himself and begets in him suitable Affections to Christ He who thus knows Christ Jesus is sensible that He is the most necessary and useful Good to him and therefore cannot but love him resign up himself entirely to Him trust in Him and labour to understand and know his Will that he may explicitely believe what he hath taught and actually observe and perform what he hath appointed and commanded that thus he may approve his Fidelity and obtain the ends particularly or more especially intended by his Lord in the several instances he shall understand to be taught by Him relating either to Belief or Practice He knows that Christ Jesus is worthy of all his Service and therefore gives up himself unto Him implicitly and without exception to follow his Conduct both as to Faith and Obedience Thus when he finds or understands that Jesus Christ hath taught that He is God and that He commissioned his Apostles to teach so and that they did it very expresly he heartily assents to this Truth and believes that He is God because He hath taught it And his not being able to solve all difficulties that curious and contentious People may start about this matter or to say much or any thing concerning the Mode or way how He is God is no obstacle to his firm and stedfast Belief of it seeing he knows Christ hath declared it no more than his not being able to reconcile some matter of practice he understands Christ hath enjoyned him to his worldly Interest can excuse him from performing it Because his Resignation to Christ was absolute and entire in both respects and he did not Capitulate with Christ to believe nothing but what he should be able to dive to the bottom of and give a rational account of the mode and manner of or to obey him only in such Instances as he should know how to reconcile to his worldly Interest and Convenience What falls short of this practical knowledge of Christ Jesus is not in Scripture account the knowledge of Christ Jesus He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 John 2.4 This is that knowledge of Christ Jesus the excellency whereof is such it obscures and stains the Glory of all things which can come in competition with it So that the true Christian accounts all things but loss as the Apostle expresseth himself for the excellency of it Which shall lead me to consider Thirdly In what the excellency of this knowledge of Christ Jesus doth consist Concerning which I shall mention these particulars 1st In the excellency of its object which is the revelation or discovery God hath made that Jesus Christ is the Person He hath sent and commissioned to be the Saviour of Sinners and in the proportion it hath to the special Intendment of that Revelation viz. that we may resign up our selves intirely to him and thereby be made his Disciples and be interested in Him as our Saviour or more briefly that we may believe in Him and be saved by him or be made true Christians and partake of the Benefits which belong to them It is not the bare knowing that there was such a Person as Jesus Christ in the World no nor that He was the Son of God and assumed our Nature c. but that He was sent appointed and commissioned by God to be the Saviour of Sinners This is the immediate the most proper and strict object of Christian knowledge and saving Faith Had the Son of God meerly of his own accord assumed our Nature performed the most perfect Obedience to the Law and suffered Death for our sakes how great soever the intrinsick value of his Condescention Performances and Sufferings would have been this would not have constituted or made Him the Saviour of Sinners Nor would our knowing and believing all this have availed us to Justification and Salvation That which makes what He did and suffered to be accepted for us and makes Him the Saviour of Sinners was his being appointed and commissioned to be their Saviour And it is our knowing Him to be the Person that God did send and commission for this purpose and knowing it so as to answer the design of this Revelation which doth make us Christians and interest us in Him as our Saviour For I have given them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me John 17.8 2dly In that it is a special effect and fruit of the Holy Spirit of God I will give them an Heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my People and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole Heart Jer. 24.7 Wherefore I give you to understand that no Man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no Man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost
are made the Children of God John 1.12 Gal. 3.26 Rom. 8.14 15. Have the Holy Angels to Minister and do many good Offices to them Heb. 1.14 That all occurences even the most afflicting that shall be ordered forth unto them shall be over-ruled to their best advantage Rom. 8.28 That their Bodies shall at the end of the World be raised Glorious Bodies Phil. 3.21 And that they shall inherit Eternal Life and Happiness in the next World and have their Glorious Recompences advanced in proportion to what they Suffer for the sake of Christ and the improvement they make in their Obedience unto Him at present 2 Thes 1.10 Matth. 25.21 34. These things and every thing else which Christ hath taught of the like Nature are very proper and powerful Arguments to quicken us to and animate us in the work and business He doth assign us whilst we continue in this World and to support and comfort us under all the Calamities and Sufferings that may befal us here 7thly Those Propositions which inform us what Ordinances He hath Instituted and in what manner they are to be observed As Baptism the Ministry of the Word and his Supper Matth. 28.19 20. Eph. 4.11 c. Matth. 26.27 28. 1 Cor. 11.23 c. These are appointed to be used as Pledges and Assurances of the Gracius Respect God hath to those who heartily believe in Christ as Testimonies of our Submission and Love unto our Lord and as means by which we are to receive greater measures of the Graces and Influences of the Holy Spirit Christ Jesus hath taught many Propositions relating to every one of these Heads the knowing and undering of which will contribute much towards our arriving at as clear distinct and full knowledge of these matters as is expedient for us And He hath taught very many Propositions which may be reduced more pertinently to other Heads to which proper Titles may be assigned Yet 4thly Tho' there is not any thing Jesus Christ hath taught but it is most certainly true and hath its proper use there are some things of more common and eminent Importance the knowledge of which hath a most plain direct and immediate tendency to nourish and strengthen our Faith in Him to excite and maintain in us Devout Pious and Divine Affections and to assist and help us in forming our Conversations so that they shall not only be Innocent and without Offence but Exemplary and worthy of imitation And these are the matters a True Christian should in the first place and principally endeavour to be acquainted with tho' he is not absolutely to confine himself to them but must labour to obtain the knowledge of more if he can and to be continually growing in True Faith and Godliness of living Therefore 5thly A good Collection of those Propositions which are of the greatest moment to True Christians to have a good knowledge of and which Christ and his Apostles did most of all insist on and peculiarly commend to Peoples special notice will be of great use to True Christians in order to their attaining a more easie and speedy Information in matters which will be of notable use to them Tho' we may not say to true Believers with reference to any certain number of Articles as God Almighty doth to the Waves of the Sea Thus far shall ye go and no farther nor positively determine that such a number of Articles must of necessity be explicitely understood and believed by every True Christian yet their being provided with such a Collection of Articles well attested by the Holy Scriptures would be very serviceable and yield them much advantage if they have not a distinct notional knowledge of them before they are effectually brought to believe or know in the manner before related that Jesus is the Person God appointed and commissioned to be the only Saviour of Sinners For 6thly This advantage doth accrue to People by their being early instructed in the Doctrines Christ Jesus hath taught and obtaining a true notional knowledge of the main matters delivered in the New Testament that when they come to know Christ Jesus savingly they do immediately believe those Articles in another manner and make a better use of them than they did before And thus they will be excused from a great deal of Pains they must otherwise take to get the knowledge of these points before they can apply themselves to make a farther Progress Besides the notional knowledge of such Articles if attended to with any tolerable Application will conduce very much to Peoples Conviction and dispose them to submit themselves to Jesus as the Christ and resign up themselves entirely to his Conduct 7thly It is so far from being a Blemish and Disadvantage to the Christian Religion that Christ Jesus hath taught so many Articles it is its inestimable excellency It is a singular Benefit for which every good Christian ought to be very thankful Indeed if no Man could be a True Christian till he hath an explicite knowledge and belief of every thing Christ hath taught then none but Men of extraordinary parts and pains could be True Christians if any could be so But the matter is so ordered that nothing is made necessary to constitute a Person a Christian but what the meanest of Mankind is capable of and yet there is no Indulgence to Sloth and Idleness nor excuse for wilful Ignorance in any because there is nothing necessary to make a Person a True Christian but his knowing that Jesus is the Person God hath sent and commissioned to be the only Saviour of Sinners so as to take Him unfeignedly to be his Lord. And this doth indispensably oblige him to use his best endeavours to know and make a right use of what Christ hath Revealed And He hath provided so abundantly for the improving and bettering of our Minds and Practices that how long soever we live we may be growing and increasing in the knowledge of those matters which will exceedingly improve and beautifie our Intellectuals advantage and adorn our Conversations and Lives Therefore let us remember what the Wise Man saith Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get Wisdom and with all thy getting get Vnderstanding Prov. 4.7 Let us labour to understand aright the Doctrine of Christ Jesus and get the knowledge of Him as our Lord and endeavour continually to grow up more and more in the knowledge of Him and of what He hath revealed Then we shall know by Experience that the excellency of this knowledge is such that all that words can express concerning it falls abundantly short of discovering the whole Truth The pleasure that ariseth from the most accurate discourse concerning Christ Jesus is as much short of what a Person perceives in himself upon his knowing Christ Jesus savingly as the satisfaction which springs from the most Philosophical description of Honey is short of that pleasure Jonathan felt in himself when his Eyes were opened and all his faculties revived upon his tasting it The excellency of Food is unexpressibly better perceived by an hungry Person when he finds himself refreshed and strengthened upon his eating and digesting it than by any words that can be used to set forth its Nature and Properties When you come to know Christ Jesus so as to yield up your selves entirely to Him you will be fully of St. Paul's mind and account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord. Books lately Printed for Awnsham and John Churchil TAlent's Chronological Tables fol. Cambden's Britannia fol. Mr. Boyl's General History of the Air 4 0. Machiavil's Works Sir Roger L'Strange's Aesop's Fables fol. Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle continued Mr. Lock of Human Vnderstanding fol. of Education of Money Interest and Trade Tanner's Notitia Monastica Bishop Wilkins of Prayer and Preaching enlarged by Dr. Moor Bishop of Norwich and Dr. Williams Dr. Hody of the Resurrection Sir W. Temple 's Miscellania compleat Dr. Patrick's New Version of the Psalms Gentleman's Religion twelves Le Clarc's Logica twelves Dr. Leighton Arch-Bp of Glascow his Sermons Royal Grammar c. octavo Prince Arthur by Dr. Blackmore fol. Three several Letters for Toleration Bishop Hopkins's 4 Vol. of Sermons and other pieces Selden's Table Talk octavo A Discourse concerning the Love of God twelves Meriton's Guide for Surveyors of High-ways octavo An Abridgement of Mr. Lock 's Esay of Human Vnderstanding by Mr. Wynn octavo