are as busily employed in the promoting of that which they love best that which is dearest to God whom they serve the Life and Nature of God There is joy in heaven at the conversion of one sinner Heaven takes notice of it there is a Quire of Angels that sweetly sings the Epithalamium of a Soul divorced from Sinne and Satan and espoused unto Christ What therefore the Wiseman speaks concerning Wisdome I shall apply to Holinesse Take fast hold of Holinesse let her not go keep her for she is thy Life Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life of Death too Let nothing be esteemed of greater consequence and concernment to thee then what thou doest and actest how thou livest Nothing without us can make us either happy or miserable nothing can either defile us or hurt us but what goeth out from us what Springeth and Bubbleth up out of our own hearts We have dreadfull apprehensions of the Flames of Hell without us we tremble and are afraid when we hear of Fire and Brimstone whil'st in the mean time we securely nourish within our own hearts a true and living Hell Et caeco carpimur igni the dark fire of our Lusts consumeth our bowels within and miserably scorcheth our souls and we are not troubled at it We do not perceive how Hell steales upon us whilest we live here And as for Heaven we onely gaze abroad expecting that it should come in to us from without but never look for the beginnings of it to arise within in our own hearts But lest there should yet happely remain any prejudice against that which I have all this while heartily commended to you True Holinesse and the Keeping of Christs commandment as if it were a Legall and Servile thing that would subject us to a State of Bondage I must here needs adde a Word or two either for the Prevention or Removall of it I do not therefore mean by Holinesse the mere performance of outward Duties of Religion coldly acted over as a task not our habituall Prayings Hearings Fastings multiplied one upon another though these be all good as subservient to an higher end but I mean an inward Soul and Principle of Divine Life that spiriteth all these that enliveneth and quickeneth the dead carkasse of all our outward Performances whatsoever I do not here urge the deâ—d Law of outward Works which indeed if it be alone subjects us to a State of Bondage but the inward Law of the Gospel the Law of the Spirit of Life then which nothing can be more free and ingenuous for it doth not act us by Principles without us but is an inward Sâ—lf-moving Principle living in our Hearts I do not urge the Law written upon Tables of stone without us though there is still a good use of that too but the Law of Holinesse written within upon the Fleshly Tables of our hearts The first though it work us into some outward Conformity to Gods Commandments and so hath a good effect upon the World yet we are all this while but like dead Instruments of Musick that found sweetly and harmoniously when they are onely struck and played upon from without by the Musicians Hand who hath the Theory and Law of Musick living within himself But the Second the living Law of the Gospel the Law of the Spirit of Life within us is as if the Soul of Musick should incorporate itself with the Instrument and live in the Strings and make them of their own accord without any touch or impulse from without daunce up and down and warble out their Harmonies They that are acted onely by an outward Law are but like Neurospasts or those little Puppets that skip nimbly up and down and seem to be full of quick and sprightly motion whereas they are all the while moved artificially by certain Wiers and Strings from without and not by any Principle of Motion from themselves within or else like Clocks and Watches that go pretty regularly for a while but are moved by Weights and Plummets or some other Artificiall Springs that must be ever now and then wound up or else they cease But they that are acted by the new Law of the Gospel by the Law of the Spirit they have an inward principle of life in them that from the Centre of it self puts forth it self freely and constantly into all obedience to the will of Christ This New Law of the Gospel it is a kind of Musicall Soul informing the dead Organ of our Hearts that makes them of their own accord delight to act harmoniously according to the Rule of Gods word The Law that I speak of it is a Law of Love which is the most powerfull Law in the World and yet it freeth us in a manner from all Law without us because it maketh us become a Law unto our selves The more it prevaileth in us the more it eateth up and devoureth all other Laws without us just as Aarons Living Rod did swallow up those Rods of the Magicians that were made onely to counterfeit a little Life Quis Legem det amantibus Major lex Amor est sibi Love is at once a Freedome from all Law a State of purest Liberty and yet a Law too of the most constraining and indispensable Necessity The worst Law in the World is the Law of Sinne which is in our members which keeps us in a condition of most absolute Slavery when we are wholly under the Tyrannicall commands of our lusts this is a cruell Pharaoh indeed that sets his hard task-masters over us and maketh us wretchedly drudge in Mire and Clay The Law of the Letter without us sets us in a condition of a little more Liberty by restraining of us from many outward Acts of Sinne but yet it doth not disenthrall us from the power of sinne in our hearts But the Law of the Spirit of life the Gospel-Law of Love it puts us into a condition of most pure and perfect Liberty and whosoever really entertaines this Law he hath thrust out Hagar quite he hath cast out the Bondwoman and her Children from henceforth Sarah the Free woman shall live forever with him and she shall be to him a Mother of many children her seed shall be as the sand of the seashoar for number and as the starres of heaven Here is Evangelicall liberty here is Gospel-freedome when the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made us free from the Law of sinne and death when we have a liberty from sinne and not a liberty to sinne for our dear Lord and Master hath told us that Whosoever committeth sinne he is the servant of it He that lies under the power and vassallage of his base lusts and yet talks of Gospel-freedome he is but like a poore condemned Prisoner that in his sleep dreams of being set at liberty and of walking up and down wheresoever he pleaseth whilst his Legs are all the while lock't
nor be all this while impassionated with so sad a spectacle Surely we cannot think he hath such an adamantine breast such a flinty nature as this is What then must we say that though indeed he be willing yet he is not able to rescue his crucified and tormented Sonne now bleeding upon the crosse to take him down from thence and save him Then must Sinne be more powerfull then God that weak crasie and sickly thing more strong then the Rock of ages and the Devil the Prince of Darknesse more mighty then the God of Light No surely there is a weaknesse and impotency in all Evil a masculine strength and vigour in all Goodnesse and therefore doubtlesse the Highest Good the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Philosophers call it is the strongest thing in the World Nil potentius Summo Bono Gods Power displaied in the World is nothing but his Goodnesse strongly reaching all things from heighth to depth from the highest Heaven to the lowest Hell and irresistibly imparting it self to every thing according to those severall degrees in which it is capable of it Have the Fiends of Darknesse then those poore forlorn spirits that are fettered and locked up in the Chaines of their own wickednesse any strength to withstand the force of infinite Goodnesse which is infinite Power or do they not rather skulk in holes of darknesse and flie like Bats and Owls before the approching beams of this Sun of Righteousnesse Is God powerfull to kill and to destroy to damne and to torment and is he not powerfull to save Nay it is the sweetest Flower in all the Garland of his Attributes it is the richest Diamond in his Crown of Glory that he is Mighty to save and this is farre more magnificent for him then to be stiled Mighty to destroy For that except it be in the way of Justice speaks no Power at all but mere Impotency for the Root of all Power is Goodnesse Or must we say lastly that God indeed is able to rescue us out of the Power of sinne Satan when we sigh grone towards him but yet sometimes to exercise his absolute Authority his uncontrollable Dominion he delights rather in plunging wretched souls down into infernall Night everlasting Darknesse What shall we then make the God of the whole World Nothing but a cruell and dreadfull Erynnis with curled fiery Snakes about his head and Firebrands in his hands thus governing the World Surely this will make us either secretly to think that there is no God at all in the World if he must needs be such or else to wish heartily there were none But doubtlesse God will at last confute all these our Misapprehensions of him he will unmask our Hypocriticall pretences and clearly cast the shame of all our sinfull Deficiencies upon our selves and vindicate his own Glory from receiving the least stain or blemish by them In the mean time let us know that the Gospel now requireth far more of us then ever the Law did for it requireth a New Creature a Divine Nature Christ formed in us but yet withall it bestoweth a quickening Spirit an enlivening Power to inable us to expresse that which is required of us Whosoever therefore truly knows Christ the same also keepeth Christs Commandments But he that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments he is a liar and the truth is not in him I Have now done with the First part of my Discourse concerning those Observations which arise naturally from the Words and offer themselves to us I shall in the next place proceed to make some generall Application of them all together NOw therefore I beseech you Let us consider whether or no we know Christ indeed Not by our acquaintance with Systems and Modells of Divinity not by our skill in Books and Papers but by our keeping of Christs Commandments All the Books and writings which we converse with they can but represent spirituall Objects to our understandings which yet we can never see in their own true Figure Colour and Proportion untill we have a Divine light within to irradiate and shine upon them Though there be never such excellent truths concerning Christ and his Gospel set down in words and letters yet they will be but unknown Characters to us untill we have a Living-spirit within us that can decypher them untill the same Spirit by secret Whispers in our hearts do comment upon them which did at first endite them There be many that understand the Greek and Hebrew of the Scripture the Originall Languages in which the Text was written that never understood the Language of the spirit There is a Caro and a Spiritus a Flesh and a Spirit a Bodie and a Soul in all the writings of the Scriptures it is but the Flesh and Body of Divine Truths that is printed upon Paper which many Moths of Books and Libraries do onely feed upon many Walking Scheletons of knowledge that bury and entombe Truths in the Living Sepulchres of their souls do onely converse with such as never did any thing else but pick at the mere Bark and Rind of Truths and crack the Shels of them But there is a Soul and Spirit of divine Truths that could never yet be congealed into Inke that could never be blotted upon Paper which by a secret traduction and conveiance passeth from one Soul unto another being able to dwell and lodge no where but in a Spirituall being in a Living thing because it self is nothing but Life and Spirit Neither can it where indeed it is expresse it self sufficiently in Words and Sounds but it will best declare and speak it self in Actions as the old manner of writing among the Egyptians was not by Words but Things The Life of divine Truths is better expressed in Actions then in Words because Actions are more Living things then words Words are nothing but the dead Resemblances and Pictures of those Truths which live and breath in Actions and the Kingdome of God as the Apostle speaketh consisteth not in Word but in Life and Power {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith the Morall Philosopher {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sheep do not come and bring their Fodder to their Shepheard and shew him how much they eat but inwardly concocting and digesting it they make it appear by the Fleece which they wear upon their backs and by the Milke which they give And let not us Christians affect onely to talk and dispute of Christ and so measure our knowledge of him by our words but let us shew {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} our knowledge concocted into our lives and actions and then let us really manifest that we are Christs Sheep indeed that we are his Disciples by that Fleece of Holiness which we wear and by the Fruits that we dayly yield in our lives and conversations for herein saith Christ is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit so
shall ye be my Disciples Let us not I beseech you judge of our knowing Christ by our ungrounded Perswasions that Christ from all Eternity hath loved us and given himself particularly for Us without the Conformity of our lives to Christs Commandments without the reall partaking of the Image of Christ in our hearts The great Mysterie of the Gospel it doth not lie onely in Christ without us though we must know also what he hath done for us but the very Pith and Kernel of it consists in Christ inwardly formed in our hearts Nothing is truly Ours but what lives in our Spirits Salvation it self cannot save us as long as it is onely without us no more then Health can cure us and make us sound when it is not within us but somewhere at distance from us no more then Arts and Sciences whilst they lie onely in Books and Papers without us can make us learned The Gospel though it be a Sovereigne and Medicinall thing in it self yet the mere knowing and believing of the history of it will do us no good we can receive no vertue from it till it be inwardly digested concocted into our souls till it be made Ours and become a living thing in our hearts The Gospel if it be onely without us cannot save us no more then that Physitians Bill could cure the ignorant Patient of his disease who when it was commended to him took the Paper onely and put it up in his pocket but never drunk the Potion that was prescribed in it All that Christ did for us in the flesh when he was here upon earth From his lying in a Manger when he was born in Bethlehem to his bleeding upon the Crosse on Golgotha it will not save us from our sinnes unlesse Christ by his Spirit dwell in us It will not avail us to believe that he was born of a Virgin unlesse the power of the most High overshadow our hearts and beget him there likewise It will not profit us to believe that he died upon the Crosse for us unlesse we be baptized into his death by the Mortification of all our lusts unlesse the old man of sinne be crucified in our hearts Christ indeed hath made an Expiation for our sinnes upon his Crosse and the Bloud of Christ is the onely sovereign Balsame to free us from the guilt of them but yet besides the sprinkling of the bloud of Christ upon us we must be made partakers also of his spirit Christ came into the World as well to redeem us from the power and bondage of our sinnes as to free us from the guilt of them You know saith S. Iohn that he was manifested to take away our sinnes whosoever therefore abideth in him sinneth not whosoever sinneth hath not seen nor known him Loe the end of Christs coming into the World Loe a designe worthy of God manifested in the flesh Christ did not take all those paines to lay aside his Robes of Glory and come down hither into the World to enter into a Virgins wombe to be born in our humane shape and be laid a poore crying infant in a Manger having no form nor comlinesse at all upon him to take upon him the Form of a servant to undergo a reprochfull and ignominious life and at last to be abandoned to a shamefull death a death upon the Crosse I say he did not do all this merely to bring in a Notion into the World without producing any reall and substantiall effect at all without the changing mending and reforming of the World so that men should still be as wicked as they were before and as much under the power of the Prince of Darknesse onely they should not be thought so they should still remain as full of all the filthy sores of sinne corruption as before onely they should be accounted whole Shall God come down from heaven pitch a Tabernacle amongst men Shall he undertake such a huge Designe and make so great a noise of doing something which when it is all summed up shall not at last amount to a Reality Surely Christ did not undergo all this to so little purpose he would not take all this paines for us that he might be able at last to put into our hands nothing but a Blanck He was with child he was in pain and travel and hath he brought forth nothing but wind hath he been delivered of the Eastwind Is that great designe that was so long carried in the Wombe of Eternity now proved abortive or else nothing but a mere windy birth No surely The end of the Gospel is Life and Perfection 't is a Divine nature 't is a Godlike frame and disposition of spirit 't is to make us partakers of the Image of God in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse without which Salvation it self were but a Notion Christ came indeed into the World to make an Expiation and Atonement for our sinnes but the end of this was that we might eschew sinne that we might forsake all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts The Gospel declares pardon of sinne to those that are heavy laden with it and willing to be disburdened to this end that it might quicken and enliven us to new obedience Whereas otherwise the Guilt of sinne might have detained us in horrour and despair and so have kept us still more strongly under the Power of it in sad and dismall apprehensions of Gods wrath provoked against us and inevitably falling on us But Christ hath now appeared like a Day-starre with most cheerfull beames nay he is the Sun of Righteousnesse himself which hath risen upon the World with his healing wings with his exhilarating light that he might chase away all those black despairing thoughts from us But Christ did not rise that we should play and sport and wantonize with his light but that we should do the works of the day in it that we should walk {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Apostle speaketh not in our Night-clothes of sinfull Deformity but clad all over with the comely Garments of Light The Gospel is not big with child of a Phancie of a mere Conceit of righteousnesse without us hanging at distance over us whilst our hearts within are nothing but Cages of unclean birds and like Houses continually haunted with Devils nay the very Rendezvouz of those Fiends of Darknesse Holinesse is the best thing that God himself can bestow upon us either in this World or the World to come True Evangelicall Holinesse that is Christ formed in the hearts of believers is the very Cream and Quintessence of the Gospel And were our hearts sound within were there not many thick and dark fumes that did arise from thence and cloud our understandings we could not easily conceive the substance of Heaven it self to be any thing else but Holinesse freed from those encumbrances that did ever clog it and accloy it here neither should we wish for any other Heaven besides this But many of
Power of Sinne in our hearts as preserve us from the wrath to come Let us go out against these uncircumcised Philistines I mean our Lusts not with Shield or Spear not in any confidence of our own strength but in the name of the Lord of Hosts and we shall prevail we shall overcome our Lusts for greater is he that is in us then he that is in them The Eternall God is our refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms He shall thrust out these enemies from before us and he shall say Destroy them We shall enter the true Canaan the good Land of Promise that floweth with milk and honey the Land of Truth and Holinesse Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand let your loines be girt about with truth have on the brestplate of righteousnesse and let your feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace Above all take the shield of faith whereby you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God And lastly be sure of this That ye be strong onely in the Lord and in the power of his might There be some that dishearten us in this spirituall warfare and would make us let our weapons fall out of our hands by working in us a despair of Victory There be some evil Spies that weaken the hands and the hearts of the children of Israel and bring an ill report upon that land that we are to conquer telling of nothing but strange Gyants the sonnes of Anak there that we shall never be able to overcome The Amalekites say they dwell in the South the Hittites Iebusites Amorites in the Mountains and the Canaanites by the Sea-coast huge armies of tall invincible Lusts we shall never be able to go against this people we shall never be able to prevail against our Corruptions Hearken not unto them I beseech you but hear what Caleb and Ioshuah say Let us go up at once and possesse it for we are able to overcome them not by our own strength but by the power of the Lord of Hosts There are indeed Sonnes of Anak there there are mighty Gyantlike Lusts that we are to graple with nay there are Principalities and Powers too that we are to oppose but the great Michael the Captain of the Lords Host is with us he commands in chief for us and we need not be dismayed Understand therefore this day That the Lord thy God is he which goeth before thee as a consuming fire he shall destroy these enemies and bring them down before thy face If thou wilt be faithfull to him and put thy trust in him as the fire consumeth the stubble and as the flame burneth up the chaff so will he destroy thy Lusts in thee their root shall be rottennesse and their blossome shall go up as dust But let us take heed that we be not discouraged and before we begin to fight despair of Victorie but to believe and hope well in the power of our God and his strength will be half a Conquest Let us not think Holinesse in the hearts of men here in the World is a forlorn forsaken and outcast thing from God that he hath no regard of Holinesse where-ever it is though never so small if it be but hearty and sincere it can no more be cut off and discontinued from God then a Sun-beam here upon Earth can be broken off from its entercourse with the Sun and be left alone amidst the mire anddirt of this World The Sun may as well discard its own Rayes and banish them from it self into some Region of darknesse far remote from it where they shall have no dependence at all upon it as God can forsake and abandon Holinesse in the World and leave it a poore Orphane thing that shall have no influence at all from him to preserve and keep it Holinesse is something of God where-ever it is it is an Efflux from him that alwayes hangs upon him and lives in him as the Sun-beams though they guild this lower World and spread their golden wings over us yet they are not so much here where they shine as in the Sun from whence they flow God cannot draw a Curtain betwixt himself and Holinesse which is nothing but the Splendor and Shining of himself He cannot hide his face from it he cannot desert it in the World He that is once born of God shall overcome the World and the Prince of this World too by the Power of God in him Holinesse is no solitary neglected thing it hath stronger Confederacies greater Alliances then Sinne and Wickednesse It is in league with God and the whole Universe the whole Creation smiles upon it there is something of God in it and therefore it must needs be a victorious and triumphant thing Wickednesse is a weak cowardly and guilty thing a fearfull and trembling Shadow It is the Child of Ignorance and Darknesse it is afraid of Light and cannot possibly withstand the power of it nor endure the sight of its glittering Armour It is allianced to none but wretched forlorn and apostate Spirits that do what they can to support their own weak and tottering Kingdome of Darknesse but are onely strong in Weaknesse and Impotency The whole Politie and Commonwealth of Devils is not so powerfull as one Child of Light one Babe in Christ they are not all able to quench the least smoking flax to exstinguish one spark of Grace Darknesse is not able to make resistance against Light but ever as it comes flies before it But if wickednesse invite the Society of Devils to it as we learn by the sad experience of these present times in many examples of those that were possessed with Malice Revengfulnesse and Lust so that those cursed Fiends do most readily apply themselves to it and offer their service to feed it and encourage it because it is their own Life and Nature their own kingdome of Darknesse which they strive to enlarge and to spread the Dominions of shall we then think that Holinesse which is so nearly allied unto God hath no good Genius at all in the World to attend upon it to help it and encourage it Shall not the Kingdome of Light be as true to its own Interest and as vigilant for the enlarging of it self as the Kingdome of Darknesse Holinesse is never alone in the World but God is alwayes with it and his loving Spirit doth ever associate and joyn it self to it He that sent it into the World is with it as Christ speaketh of himself the Father hath not left me alone because I do alwayes those things that please him Holinesse is the Life of God which he cannot but feed and maintain wheresoever it is and as the Devils are alwayes active to encourage evil so we cannot imagine but that the heavenly Host of blessed Angels above
A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of COMMONS At WESTMINSTER March 31. 1647. By R. CUDWORTH B. D. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} CAMBRIDGE Printed by Roger Daniel Printer to the UNIVERSITIE 1647. To THE HONOURABLE House of COMMONS THe Scope of this Sermon which not long since exercised your Patience Worthy Senatours was not to contend for this or that Opinion but onely to perswade men to the Life of Christ as the Pith and Kernel of all Religion Without Which I may boldly say all the severall Forms of Religion in the World though we please our selves never so much in them are but so many severall Dreams And those many Opinions about Religion that are every where so eagerly contended for on all sides where This doth not lie at the Bottome are but so many Shadows fighting with one another so that I may well say of the true Christian that is indeed possessed of the Life of Christianity in opposition to all those that are but lightly tinctured with the Opinions of it in the language of the Poet {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Wherefore I could not think any thing else either more Necessary for Christians in generall or more Seasonable at this time then to stirre them up to the reall Establishment of the Righteousnesse of God in their hearts and that Participation of the Divine Nature which the Apostle speaketh of That so they might not content themselves with mere Phancies and Conceits of Christ without the Spirit of Christ really dwelling in them and Christ himself inwardly formed in their hearts Nor satisfie themselves with the mere holding of right and Orthodox Opinions as they conceive whilest they are utterly devoid within of that Divine Life which Christ came to kindle in mens Souls and therefore are so apt to spend all their zeal upon a violent obtruding of their own Opinions and Apprehensions upon others which cannot give entertainment to them which besides its repugnancy to the Doctrine and Example of Christ himself is like to be the Bellows that will blow a perpetuall Fire of Discord and Contention in Christian Commonwealths whilest in the mean time these hungry and starved Opinions devoure all the Life and Substance of Religion as the Lean Kine in Pharaohs Dream did eat up the Fat Nor lastly Please themselves onely in the violent Opposing of other mens Superstitions according to the Genious of the present times without substituting in the room of them an inward Principle of Spirit and Life in their own Souls for I fear many of us that pull down Idols in Churches may set them up in our Hearts and whilest we quarrel with Painted Glasse make no scruple at all of entertaining many soul Lusts in our Souls and committing continuall Idolatry with them This in generall was the Designe of this following Discourse which you were pleased Noble Senatours not onely to expresse your good Acceptance of but also to give a Reall Signification of your great undeserved Favour to the Authour of it Who therefore cannot but as the least Expression of his Thankfulnesse humbly devote it to you presenting where again to your Eye in the same Form in which it was delivered to your Eare Desirous of nothing more then that it might be some way usefull to You to kindle in you the Life and Heat of that which is endeavoured here to be described upon Paper that you may expresse it both in your private Conservations and likewise in all your Publick Emploiments for the Common-wealth That you may by your kindly Influence effectually encourage all Goodnesse and by vertue of your Power and Authority to use the Phrase of Solomon scatter away all evil with your eye as the Sun by his Beams scattereth the Mists and Vapours That from you Judgement may runne down like Waters and Righteousnesse like a mighty Stream to refresh this whole Land that thirsteth after them Which whilest You distribute them plentifully to others will bestow both Strength and Honour to Your selves For Iustice and Righteousnesse are the Establishment of every Throne of all Civil Power and Authority and if these should once forsake it though there be Lions to support it it could not stand long These together with a good Peace well setled in a Common-wealth are all the outward Felicity we can expect till that happy Time come which the Prophet foretelleth and is therefore more then a Platonicall Idea When the Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little Child lead them When the sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Aspe and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den When they shall not hurt nor destroy in all Gods holy Mountaine for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea I have but one Word more if You please to give me leave That after your Care for the Advancement of Religion and the Publick Good of the Common-wealth You would think it worthy of You to promote Ingenuous Learning and cast a Favourable Influence upon it I mean not that onely which furnisheth the Pulpit which you seem to be very regardfull of but that which is more remote from such Popular use in the severall kinds of it which yet are all of them both very subservient to Religion and usefull to the Common-wealth There is indeed a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Philosopher tells us a Bastardly kind of Literature and a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Apostle instructeth us a knowledge falsely so called which deserve not to be pleaded for But the Noble and Generous Improvement of our Understanding Faculty in the true Contemplation of the Wisdome Goodnesse and other Attributes of God in this great Fabrick of the Universe cannot easily be dismanaged without a Blemish cast upon the Maker of it Doubtlesse we may as well enjoy that which God hath communicated of himself to the Creatures by this Larger faculty of our Understandings as by those narrow and low faculties of our Senses and yet no body counts it to be unlawfull to hear a Lesson plaied upon the Lute or to smell at a Rose And these raised Improvements of our Naturall understandings may be as well subservient and subordinate to a Divine Light in our Minds as the Naturall use of these outward Creatures here below to the Life of God in our Hearts Nay all true knowledge doth of it self naturally tend to God who is the Fountain of it and would ever be raising of our souls up upon its wings Thither did not we {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} detain it and hold it down in unrighteousnesse â—â— the Apostle speaketh All Philosophy to a Wise man to a truly sanctified Mind as he in Plutarch speaketh is but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Matter for
were to incorporate it in them Some Philosophers have determined that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} vertue cannot be taught by any certain rules or precepts Men and books may propound some directions to us that may set us in such a way of life and practice as in which we shall at last find it within our selves and be experimentally acquainted with it but they cannot teach it us like a Mechanick Art or Trade No surely there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth this understanding But we shall not meet with this spirit anywhere but in the way of Obedience the knowledge of Christ and the keeping of his Commandments must alwayes go together and be mutuall causes of one another Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him I Come now unto these words themselves which are so pregnant that I shall not need to force out any thing at all from them I shall therefore onely take notice of some few observations which drop from them of their own accord and then conclude with some Application of them to our selves First then If this be the right way and methode of discovering our knowledge of Christ by our keeping of his Commandments Then we may safely draw conclusions concerning our state and condition from the conformity of our lives to the will of Christ Would we know whether we know Christ aright let us consider whether the life of Christ be in us Qui non habet vitam Christi Christum non habet He that hath not the life of Christ in him he hath nothing but the name nothing but a phansie of Christ he hath not the substance of him He that builds his house upon this foundation not an airy notion of Christ swimming in his brain but Christ really dwelling and living in his heart as our Saviour himself witnesseth he buildeth his house upon a Rock and when the flouds come and the winds blow and the rain descends and beats upon it it shall stand impregnably But he that builds all his comfort upon an ungrounded perswasion that God from all eternity hath loved him and absolutely decreed him to life and happinesse and seeketh not for God really dwelling in his soul he builds his house upon a Quicksand and it shall suddenly sink and be swallowed up his hope shall be cut off his trust shall be a spiders web he shall lean upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure We are no where commanded to pry into these secrets but the wholesome counsell and advise given us is this to make our calling and election sure We have no warrant in Scripture to peep into these hidden Rolls and Volumes of Eternity and to make it our first thing that we do when we come to Christ to spell out our names in the starres and to perswade our selves that we are certainly elected to everlasting happinesse before we see the image of God in righteousnesse and true holinesse shaped in our hearts Gods everlasting decree is too dazeling and bright an object for us at first to set our eye upon it is far easier and safer for us to look upon the raies of his goodnesse and holinesse as they are reflected in our own hearts and there to read the mild and gentle Characters of Gods love to us in our love to him and our hearty compliance with his heavenly will as it is safer for us if we would see the Sunne to look upon it here below in a pale of water then to cast up our daring eyes upon the body of the Sun it self which is too radiant and scorching for us The best assurance that any one can have of his interest in God is doubtlesse the conformity of his soul to him Those divine purposes whatsoever they be are altogether unsearchable and unknowable by us they lie wrapt up in everlasting darknesse and covered in a deep Abysse who is able to fathom the bottome of them Let us not therefore make this out first attempt towards God and Religion to perswade our selves strongly of these everlasting Decrees for if at our first flight we aime so high we shall happily but scorch our wings and be struck back with lightning as those Giants of old were that would needs attempt to invade and assault heaven And it is indeed a most Giganticall Essay to thruft our selves so boldly into the lap of heaven it is the pranck of a Nimrod of a mighty Hunter thus rudely to deal with God and to force heaven and happinesse before his face whether he will or no The way to obtain a good assurance indeed of our title to heaven is not to clamber up to it by a ladder of our own ungrounded perswasions but to dig as low as hell by humility and self-denyall in our own hearts and though this may seem to be the furthest way about yet it is indeed the neerest and safest way to it We must {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Greek Epigramme speaks ascend downward descend upward if we would indeed come to heaven or get any true perswasion of our title to it The most gallant and triumphant confidence of a Christian riseth safely and surely upon this low foundation that lies deep under ground and there stands firmely and stedfastly When our heart is once tuned in to a conformity with the word of God when we feel our will perfectly to concurre with his will we shal then presently perceive a Spirit of adoption within our selves teaching us to cry Abba Father We shall not then care for peeping into those hidden Records of Eternity to see whether our names be written there in golden characters no we shall find a copy of Gods thoughts concerning us written in our own breasts There we may read the characters of his favour to us there we may feel an inward sense of his love to us flowing out of our hearty and unfained love to him And we shall be more undoubtedly perswaded of it then if any of those winged Watchmen above that are privie to heavens secrets should come tel us that they saw our names enrolled in those volumes of eternity Whereas on the contrary though we strive to perswade our selves never so confidently that God from all eternity hath loved us and elected us to life and happinesse if we do yet in the mean time entertain any iniquity within our hearts and willingly close with any lust do what we can we shall find many a cold qualme ever now and then seizing upon us at approching dangers and when death it self shall grimly look us in the face we shall feel our hearts even to die within us and our spirits quite
mens false imaginations who know not all this while that they look upon themselves instead of God and make an Idol of themselves which they vvorship and adore for him being so full of themselves that vvhatsoever they see round about them even God himself they colour vvith their ovvn Tincture like him that Aristotle speaks of that vvheresoever he vvent and vvhatsoever he looked upon he savv still his ovvn face as in a glasse represented to him And therefore it is no vvonder if men seem naturally more devoutly affected tovvard such an Imaginary God as we have now described then to the True Reall God clothed with his own proper Attributes since it is nothing but an Image of themselves which Narcissus-like they fall in love with no wonder if they kisse and dandle such a Baby-god as this which like little children they have dressed up out of the clouts of their own fond Phancies according to their own liknesse of purpose that they might play and sport with it But God will ever dwell in spotlesse light howsoever we paint him and disfigure him here below he will still be circled about with his own raies of unstained and immaculate glory And though the Gospel be not God as he is in his own Brightnesse but God Vailed and Masked to us God in a state of Humiliation and Condescent as the Sun in a Rainbow yet it is nothing else but a clear and unspotted Mirrour of Divine Holinesse Goodnesse Purity in which Attributes lies the very Life and Essence of God himself The Gospel is nothing else but God descending into the World in Our Form and conversing with us in our likenesse that he might allure and draw us up to God and make us partakers of his Divine Form {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Athanasius speaks {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God was therefore incarnated and made man that he might Deifie us that is as S. Peter expresseth it make us partakers of the Divine nature Now I say the very proper Character and Essentiall Tincture of God himself is nothing else but Goodnesse Nay I may be bold to adde That God is therefore God because he is the highest and most perfect Good and Good is not therefore Good because God out of an arbitrary will of his would have it so Whatsoever God doth in the World he doth it as it is suitable to the highest Goodnesse the first Idea and fairest Copy of which is his own Essence Vertue and Holinesse in creatures as Plato well discourseth in his Euthyphro are not therefore Good because God loveth them and will have them be accounted such but rather God therefore loveth them because they are in themselves simply good Some of our own Authors go a little further yet and tell us that God doth not fondly love himself because he is himself but therefore he loveth himself because he is the highest and most absolute Goodnesse so that if there could be any thing in the world better then God God would love that better then himself but because he is Essentially the most perfect Good therefore he cannot but love his own goodnesse infinitely above all other things And it is another mistake which sometimes we have of God by shaping him out according to the Model of our selves when we make him nothing but a blind dark impetuous Self will running through the world such as we our selves are furiously acted with that have not the Ballast of absolute goodnesse to poize and settle us That I may therefore come nearer to the thing in hand God who is absolute goodnesse cannot love any of his Creatures take pleasure in them without bestowing a communication of his Goodnesse and Likenesse upon them God cannot make a Gospel to promise men Life Happinesse hereafter without being regenerated made partakers of his holinesse As soon may Heaven and Hell be reconciled together and lovingly shake hands with one another as God can be fondly indulgent to any sinne in whomsoever it be As soon may Light and Darknesse be espoused together and Mid-night be married to the Noon-day as God can be joyned in a league of friendship to any wicked Soul The great Designe of God in the Gospel is to clear up this Mist of Sin and Corruption which we are here surrounded vvith and to bring up his creatures out of the shadow of death to the Region of Light above the Land of Truth and Holinesse The great Mystery of the Gospel is to establish a God-like frame and disposition of spirit which consists in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse in the hearts of men And Christ who is the great and mighty Saviour he came on purpose into the World not onely to save us from Fire and Brimstone but also to save us from our Sins Christ hath therefore made an Expiation of our sins by his death upon the Crosse that we being thus delivered out of the hands of these our greatest enemies might serve God without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life This grace of God that bringeth salvation hath therefore appeared to all men in the Gospel that it might teach us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and that we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works These things I write unto you saith our Apostle a little before my text that you sinne not therein expressing the end of the whole Gospel which is not onely to cover sinne by spreading the Purple Robe of Christs death and sufferings over it whilst it still remaineth in us with all its filth and noisomnesse unremoved but also to convey a powerfull and mighty Spirit of holinesse to cleanse us and free us from it And this is a greater grace of Gods to us then the former which still go both together in the Gospel besides the free remission and pardon of sinne in the bloud of Christ the delivering of us from the power of sinne by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in our hearts Christ came not into the world onely to cast a Mantle over us and hide all our filthy sores from Gods avenging eye with his merits and righteousnesse but he came likewise to be a Chirurgeon and Physitian of souls to free us from the filth and corruption of them which is more grievous and burdensome more noysome to a true Christian then the guilt of sinne it self Should a poore wretched and diseased creature that is full of sores and ulcers be covered all over with Purple or clothed with Scarlet he would take but little contentment in it whilest his sores and wounds remain upon him and he had much rather be raied in rags so he might obtain but soundnesse and health within The
us are like those Children whose Stomacks are so vitiated by some disease that they think Ashes Coal Mudwall or any such trash to be more pleasant then the most wholesome food such sickly and distempered Appetites have we about these spirituall things that hanker after I know not what vain shews of happinesse whilst in the mean time we neglect that which is the onely true food of our souls that is able solidly to nourish them up to everlasting life Grace is Holinesse Militant Holinesse encumbred with many enemies and difficulties which it still fights against and manfully quits it self of and Glory is nothing else but Holinesse Triumphant Holinesse with a Palme of Victorie in her hand and a Crown upon her head Deus ipse cum omni suâa bonitate quatenus extra me est non facit me beatum sed quatenus in me est God himself cannot make me happy if he be onely without me and unlesse he give in a participation of himself and his own likenesse into my soul Happinesse is nothing but the releasing and unfettering of our souls from all these narrow sâ—ant and particular good things and the espousing of them to the Highest and most Universall Good which is not this or that particular good but goodnesse it self and this is the same thing that we call Holinesse Which because we our selves are so little acquainted with being for the most part ever courting a mere Shadow of it therefore we have such low abject and beggerly conceits thereof whereas it is in it self the most noble heroicall and generous thing in the World For I mean by Holinesse nothing else but God stamped printed upon the Soul And we may please our selves with what conceits we will but so long as we are void of this we do but dream of heaven and I know not what fond Paradise we do but blow up and down an airy Bubble of our own Phancies which riseth out of the froth of our vain hearts we do but court a painted Heaven and woo happinesse in a Picture whilst in the mean time a true and reall Hell will suck in our souls into it and soon make us sensible of a solid woe and substantiall misery Divine wisdome hath so ordered the frame of the whole Universe as that every thing should have a certain proper Place that should be a Receptacle for it Hell is the Sinke of all sinne and wickednesse The strong Magick of Nature pulls and draws every thing continually to that place which is suitable to it and to which it doth belong so all these heavy bodies presse downwards towards the Centre of our earth being drawn in by it In like manner Hell wheresoever it is will by strong Sympathy pull in all sinne and Magnetically draw it to it self as true Holinesse is alwayes breathing upwards and fluttering towards Heaven striving to embosome it self with God and it will at last undoubtedly be conjoyned with him no dismall shades of darknesse can possibly stop it in its course or beat it back {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nay we do but deceive our selves with names Hell is nothing but the Orbe of Sinne and Wickednesse or else that Hemisphear of Darknesse in which all Evil moves and Heaven is the opposite Hemisphear of Light or else if you please the Bright Orbe of Truth Holinesse and Goodnesse and we do actually in this life instate our selves in the possession of one or other of them Take Sinne and Disobedience out of Hell and it will presently clear up into Light Tranquillity Serenity and shine out into a Heaven Every true Saint carrieth his Heaven about with him in his own heart and Hell that is without him can have no power over him He might safely wade through Hell it self and like the Three children passe through the midst of that fiery Furnace and yet not at all be scorched with the flames of it he might walk through the Valley of the shadow of death and yet fear no evil Sinne is the onely thing in the World that is contrary to God God is Light and that is Darknesse God is Beauty and that is Uglinesse and Deformity All sinne is direct Rebellion against God and with what Notions soever we may sugar it and sweeten it yet God can never smile upon it he will never make a truce with it God declares open warre against sinne and bids defiance to it for it is a professed enemy to Gods own Life and Being God which is infinite Goodnesse cannot but hate sinne which is purely Evil And though sinne be in it self but a poore impotent and crazy thing nothing but Straitnesse Poverty and Non-entity so that of it self it is the most wretched and miserable thing in the world and needeth no further punishment besides it self yet Divine Vengeance beats it off still further and further from God and wheresoever it is will be sure to scourge it and lash it continually God and Sinne can never agree together That I may therefore come yet nearer to our selves This is the Message that I have now to declare unto you That God is Light and in him is no darknesse at all if we say that we have Fellowship with him and walke in Darknesse we lie and do not the truth Christ and the Gospel are light and there is no darknesse at all in them if you say that you know Christ and his Gospel yet keep not Christs Commandments but dearly hug your private darling corruptions you are liars and the truth is not in you you have no acquaintance with the God of Light nor the Gospel of Light If any of you say that you know Christ and have an interest in him and yet as I fear too many do still nourish Ambition Pride Vainglory within your brests harbour Malice Revengfulnesse cruell Hatred to your neighbours in your hearts eagerly scramble after this worldly Pelfe and make the strength of your parts and endeavours serve that blind Mammon the God of this World If you wallow and tumble in the filthy puddle of flleshly Pleasures or if you aime onely at your selves in your lives and make your Self the Compasse by which you sail and the Starre by which you steer your Course looking at nothing higher and more noble then your selves deceive not your selves you have neither seen Christ nor known him you are deeply incorporated if I may so speak with the Spirit of this World and have no true Sympathy with God and Christ no fellowship at all with them And I beseech you let us consider Be there not many of us that pretend much to Christ that are plainly in our lives as Proud Ambitious Vainglorious as any others Be there not many of us that are as much under the power of unruly Passions as Cruell Revengefull Malicious Censorious as others that have our minds as deeply engaged in the World as much envassalled to Riches Gain Profit those great admired Deities of the