his Love He hath readify forgiven the sins which I thought would have made my soul the fuel of Hell He hath entertained me with joy with musick and a feast when I better deserved to have been among the Dogs without his doors He hath embraced me in his sustaining consolatory arms when he might have spurned my guilty soul to Hell and said Depart from me thou worker of iniquity I know thee not O little did I think that he could ever have forgotten the vanity and villany of my youth yea so easily have forgotten my most aggravated sins When I had sinned against light when I had resisted conscience when I had frequently and wilfully injured Love I thought he would never have forgotten it But the greatness of his Love and Mercy and the blood and intercession of his Son hath cancelled all O how many mercies have I tasted since I thought I had sinned away all mercies How patiently hath he born with me since I thought he would never have put up more And yet besides my sins and the withdrawings of my own heart there hath been nothing to interrupt our converse Though he be God and I a worm yet that would not have kept me out Though he be in Heaven yet he is near to succour me on Earth in all that I call upon him for Though he have the Praise of Angels he disdaineth not my tears and groans Though he have the perfect Love of perfect soulâ— he knoweth the little spark in my breast and despiseth not my weak and languid Love Though I injure and dishonour him by Loving him no more though I oft forget him and have been out of the way when he he hath come or called me though I have disobediently turned away mine ears and unkindly refused the entertainments of his Love and unfaithfully plaid with those whose company he forbad me he hath not divorced me nor turned me out of doors O wonderful that Heaven will be familiar with Earth and God with man the Highest with a worm and the most Holy with an unconstant sinner Man refuseth me when God will entertaine me Man that is no wiser or better than my self Those that I never wronged or deserved ill of reject me with reproach And God whom I have unspeakably injured doth invite me and intreat me and condescendeth to me as if he were beholden to me to be saved Men that I have deserved well of do abhorre me And God that I have deserved Hell of doth accept me The best of them are bryars and as a thorny hedge and he is Love and Rest and Joy And yet I can be more welcome to him though I have offended him than I can to them whom I have obliged I have freer leave to cast my self into my Fathers arms than to tumble in those bryars or wallow in the dirt I upbraid my self with my sins but he doth not upbraid me with them I condemn my self for them but he condemns me not He forgiveth me sooner than I can forgive my self I have peace with him before I can have peace of conscience O therefore my soul draw near to him that is so willing of thy company That frowneth thee not away unless it be when thou hast fallen into the dirt that thou mayest wash thee from thy filthiness and be fitter for his converse Draw near to him that will not wrong thee by believing misreports of enemies or laying to thy charge the things thou knewest not but will forgive the wrongs thou hast done to him and justifie thee from the sins that conscience layeth to thy charge Come to him that by his Word and Spirit his Ministers and Mercies calleth thee to come and hath promised that those that come to him he will in no wise shut out O walk with him that will bear thee up and lead thee as by the right hand Psal. 73. 23. and carry his Infants when they cannot go O speak to him that teacheth thee to speak and understandeth and accepts thy stammering and helpeth thine infirmities when thou knowest not what to pray for as thou oughtest and giveth thee groans when thou hast not words and knoweth the meaning of his spirit in thy groans that cannot be contained in the Heaven of Heavens and yet hath respect to the contrite soul that trembleth at his word and feareth his displeasure that pittieth the tears and despiseth not the sighing of a broken heart nor the desires of the sorrowful O walk with him that is never weary of the converse of an upright soul that is never angry with thee but for flying from him or for drawing back or being too strange and refusing the kindness and felicity of his presence The day is coming when the proudest of the sons of men would be glad of a good look from him that thou hast leave to walk with Even they that would not look on thee and they that injured and abused thee and they that inferiours could have no access to O how glad would they be then of a smile or a word of hope and mercy from thy Father Draw near then to him on whom the whole Creation doth depend whose favour at last the proudest and the worst would purchase with the loudest cryes when all their pomp and pleasure is gone and can purchase nothing O walk with him that is Love it self and think him not unwilling or unlovely and let not the deceiver by hideous misrepresentations drive thee from him when thou hast felt a while the storms abroad methinks thou shouldest say How goâ—d how safe how sweet is it to draw near to God! 1. With whom should I so desirously converse as with him whom I must Live with for ever If I take pleasure in my house or land or country my walks my books or friends themselves as clothed with flesh I must possess this pleasure but a little while Henceforth know we no man after the flesh Had we known Christ himself after the flesh we must know him so no more for ever Though his Glorified spiritual Body we shall know Do you converse with Father or Mother with Wives or Children with Pastors and Teachers Though you may converse with these as Glorified Saints when you come to Christ yet in these Relations that they stand in to you now you shall converse with them but a little while For the Time is short It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it or as though they used it not for the fashion of this world doth pass away 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. Why then should I so much regard a converse of so short continuance why should I be so familiar in my Inne and so in love wiâ—h that familiarity as to grieve when I must but think of
or life to them We should know what is Gods prerogative and that we should keep entirely for him A subordinate esteem and love and desire the Creature may have as it revealeth God to us or leadeth to him or helpeth us in his work But it should not have the least of his part in our esteem or love or desire This is the Chastity the Purity the Integrity of the soul. It is the mixture impurity corruption and consusion of our souls when any thing is taken in with God See therefore Christian that in thy heart thou have no God but ONE and that he have all thy heart and soul and strength as far as thou canst attain it And because there will be still in imperfect souls some sinful mixture of the Creatures interest with Gods let it be the work of thy life to be watching against it and casting it out and cleansing thy heart of it as thou wouldst do thy food if it fall into the dirt For whatever is added to God in thy Affections doth make no better an increase there then the adding of earth unto thy gold or of dung unto thy meat or of corrupted humours and sickness to thy body Mixture will make no better work It may be thy Rejoycing if thou have the testimony of a good conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity and not in fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God thou hast had thy conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1. 12. It is the state of Hypocrisie when One God is openly professed and worshipped and yet the creature lyeth deepest and nearest to the heart 2. The Invisibility of God also must have its due effects upon us And 1. It must warn us that we picture not God to our eye sight or in our fancies in any bodily shape Saith the Prophet Isa. 40. 18. To whom will you liken God or what likeness will ye compare unto him so 25. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of his Father he hath declared him Joh. 1. 18. and therefore we must conceive of him but as he is declared Joh. 6. 46. Not that any man hath seen the Father save he which is of God he hath seen the Father If you ask me How then you should conceive of God if not in any Bodily shape I answer Get all these Attributes and Relations of God to make their proper Impress upon thy soul as now I am teaching you and then you will have the true Conceiving of God This Question therefore is to be answered at the end of this Discourse when you have seen all the Attributes of God together and heard what impression they must make upon you 2. This must teach us to think most highly of the things that are Invisible and meanlier of these visible things Let it be the property of a Beast and not of a man to know nothing but what he seeth or hath seen Let it be the mark of the bruitish Insidels and not of Christians to doubt of the invisible things because they are invisible or to think that things visible are more excellent or sure As the senses are more ignoble then the Intellect a beast having as perfect senses as a man and yet no reasonable understanding so the objects of sense must proportionably be below the Objects of the understanding as such The grossest and most palpable objects are the basest It is the subtle part that 's called the Spirits which being drawn out of plants or other vegetables is most powerful and excellent and valued when the earthly dregs are cast away as little worth It is that subtle part in our blood that 's called the Spirits that hath more of the virtue of life and doth more of the works then the feculent gross and earthly part The aire and wind have as true a Being as the Earth and a more excellent nature though it be more gross and they invisible The Body is not so excellent as the invisible soul. Invisible things are as real as visible and as suitable to our more noble invisible part as visible things to our fleshly baser part 3. The invisibility of God must teach us to Live a life of Faith and to get above a sensual life And it must teach us to value the faith of the Saints as knowing its excellency and necessity Invisible objects have the most perfect excellent Reality and therefore Faith hath the preheminence above sense Natural Reason can live upon things not seen if they have been seen or can be known by natural evidence subjects obey a Prince that they see not and fear a punishment which they see not and the nature of man is afraid of the Devils though we see them not But Faith liveth upon such invisible things as mortal eye did never see nor natural ordinary evidence demonstrate but are revealed only by the Word of God though about many of its invisible objects Faith hath the consent of Reason for its encouragement Value not sight and sense too much Think not all to be meer uncertainties and notions that are not the objects of sense We should not have heard that God is a spirit if Corporal substances had not a baser kind of Being then Spirits Intellection is a more noble operation then sense If there be any thing properly called sense in Heaven it will be as far below the pure Intellective Intuition of the Lord as the glorified Body will be below the glorified soul. But what that difference will be we cannot now understand Fix not your minds on sensible things Remember that your God your home your portion are unseen And therefore live in hearty Affections to them and serious prosecution of them as if you saw them Pray as if you saw God and Heaven and Hell Hear as if you saw him that sends his Messenger to speak to you Resist all the Temptations to lust and sensuality and every sin as you would do if you saw God stand by Love him and Fear him and Trust him and Serve him as you would do if you beheld him Faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. Believing must be to you in stead of seeing and make you as serious about things unseen as sensual men are about things sensible In every thing that you see remember it is he that is unseen that appeareth in them He lighteth you by the sun he warmeth you by the fire he beareth you by the earth See him in all these by the eye of Faith 3. The Immortality Incorruptibility and Immutability of God must 1. Teach the soul to rise up from these Mortal Corruptible Mutable things and to fix upon that God who is the immortal incorruptible portion of his Saints 2. It must comfort and encourage all Believers in the consideration of their felicity and support them under the failings of all mortal corruptible things Our Parents and Children and Friends are mortal They are ours to day
to be here and the covetous man among his gains and the sensual man among his recreations and merâ—y companions It is good to be here the Christian that can get nigh to God or have any prospect of his Love in his ordinances concludeth that of all places upon earth It is good to be here and that a day in his Courts is better then a thousand Psal. 84. 10. But O to depart and be with Christ is far better Phil. 1. 23. With Infinite goodness we shall find no evil no emptiness or defect when we perfectly enjoy the perfect Good what more can be added but for ever to enjoy it O therefore think on this Christians when death is dreadful to you and you would fain stay here as being afraid to come before the Lord or loth to leave the things which you here posfess shall Goodness it self be distrusted by you or seem no more desirable to you Are you afraid of Goodness even of your Father of your Happiness it self Are you better here then you shall be with God Are your houses or lands or friends or pleasures or any thing better then Infinite Goodness meditate on this blessed Attribute of God till you distast the world till you are angry with your withdrawing murmuring flesh till you are ashamed of your unwillingness to be with God and till you can calmly look in the face of death and contentedly hear the message that is posting towards you that you must presently come away to God Your Natural birth day brought you into a Better place then the womb and your gracious Birth day brought you into a far Better state then your former sinful miserable captivity And will not your Glorious birth day put you into a better habitation then this world O know and choose and seek and live to the Infinite Good and then it may be your greatest joy when you are called to him CHAP. X. 9. HAving spoken of these three great Attributes of God I must needs speak of those three great Relations of God to man and of these three works in which they are founded which have flowed from these Attributes This one God in three Persons hath Created man and all things which before were not hath Redeemed man when he was lost by sin and sanctifieth those that shall be saved by Redemption Though the external works of the Trinity are undivided yet not indistinct as to the order of working and a special interest that each person hath in each of these works The Father Son and Holy Ghost did create the world and they also did Redeem us and do Sanctifie us But so as that Creation is in a special sort ascribed to the Father Redemption to the Son and Sanctification to the Holy Spirit Not only because of the order of operation agreeable to the order of subsisting for then the Father would be as properly said to be incarnate or to die for us or mediate as the Son to create us which is not to be said For he created the world by his Word or Son and Spirit Joh. 1. 3. Psal. 33. 6. and he Redeemed it by his Son and Sanctifieth it by his Spirit But Scripture assureth us that the Son alone was incarnate for us and dyed and Rose again and not the Father or the Spirit and so that the humane nature is peculiarly united to the second person in glory and so that each person hath a peculiar interest in these several works the Reason of which is much above our reach The first of these Relations of God to man which we are to consider of is that he is our Creator It is he that giveth Being to us and all things and that giveth us all our faculties or Powers Under this for brevity we shall speak of him also as he is our Preserver because preservation is but a kind of continued Creation or a continuance of the Beings which God hath caused God then is the first efficient cause of all the creatures from the greatest to the least Gen. 1. And easily did he make them for he spake but the word and they were created They are the Products of his Power Wisdome and Goodness Psal. 33. 6. Joh. 1. 3. Psal. 148. 5. He commanded and they were created He still produceth all things that in the course of nature are brought forth Psal. 104. 30. Thou sendest forth thy spirit they are created thou renewest the face of the earth And from hence these following impressions must be made upon the considering soul. 1. If All things be from God as the Creater and Preserver then we must be deeply possessed with this truth that All things are for God as their ultimate end For he that is the Beginning and first cause of all things must needs be the End of all His Will produced them and the Pleasure of his Will is the End for which he did produce them Isa. 43. 7. I have created him for my glory Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil I think the Chaldee Paraphrase the Syriack and Arabick give us the true meaning of this who concordantly translate it The wicked is kept for the day of evil as Job hath it 21. 30. The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath And 2 Pet. 2. 9. To reserve the unjust to the day of judgement to be punished God made not the wicked as wicked or to be wicked but he that gave them their Being and continueth it will not be a loser by his Creation or preservation but will have the glory of his Justice by them in the day of wrath or evil for which he keeps them and till which he beareth with them because they would not obediently give him the glory of his Holiness and mercy So it is said of Christ Col. 16 17. For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible all things were created By him and For him If they are By him they must needs be For him So Rev. 4. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created This Pleasure of Gods will is the End of all things and therefore it is certain that he will see that all things shall accomplish that end and his will shall be pleased Rom. 11. 36. we have all in few words For of him and through him and to him are all things and to whom be glory for ever Amen Of him as the first efficient that giveth them their Beings and Through him as the Preserver disposer and conducter of them to their end and To him as the Ultimate end If you say But how is the pleasure of Gods will attained from the wicked that break his Laws and displease his will I answer Understand but how his will is
Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier So that Infants themselves must be Sanctified or be none of the Church of Christ which consisteth of Baptized Sanctified persons Except a man be born again even of the Spirit as well as water he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Joh. 3. 3 5 6. and therefore the fleshly birth producing not a Spiritual creature will not save without the Spiritual birth The words are most plain not only against them that deny Original sin but against them that misunderstanding the nature of Redemption do think that all Infants are meerly by the price paid put into a state of Salvation and have the pardon of their Original sin in common attending their natural Birth But these men should consider 1. That this text and constant experience tell us that the new Birth doth not thus commonly to all accompany the natural birth and yet without the new birth none can be saved nor without Holiness any see God 2. That Pardon of sin is no mans upon the bare suffering of Jesus Christ but must be theirs by some Covenant or Promise conveying to them a Right to the benefits of his suffering And therefore no man can be said to be pardoned or saved without great arrogancy in the affirmer that hath not from God a promise of such mercy But no man can shew any Promise that giveth Remission of Original sin to all Infants Produce it or presume not to affirm it lest you fall under the heavy doom of those that add to his holy Word The Promise is to the faithful and their seed The rest are not the children of the promise but are under the commination of the violated Law which indeed is dispensable and therefore we cannot say that God will pardon none of them but withal we cannot say that he will unless he had told us so All the world are in a necessity of a Sanctifier and therefore most certainly even since Christs death they are naturally corrupted 2. And as our Belief in the Holy Ghost as Sanctifier engageth us to acknowledge our Original sin and misery so doth it engage us to magnifie his renewing work of grace and be convinced of the necessity of it and to confess the insufficiency of corrupted nature to its own renovation As no man must dishonour the work of our Creator and therefore our faculties of Reason and natural Freewill are not to be denyed or reproached so must we be as careful that we dishonour not the works of our Redeemer or Sanctifier and therefore the viciousness and ill disposedness of these faculties and the thraldom of our wills to their own misinclinations and to concupiscence must be confessed and the need of Grace to work the cure It is not ingenuous for us when God made it so admirable a part of his work in the world to Redeem us and save us from our sin and misery that we should hide or deny our diseases and make our selves believe that we have but little need of the Physician and so that the cure is no great matter and consequently deserveth no great praise I know the Church is troubled by men of dark yet self-conceited minds that in these points are running all into extreams One side denying the Sapiential method and the other the Omnipotential way of God in our recovery One plainly casting our sin and misery principally on God and the other as plainly robbing the Redeemer and holy Spirit of the honour of our recovery But it is the latter that my subject leadeth me now to speak to I beseech you take heed of any conceit that would draw you to extenuate the honour of our Sanctifier Dare you contend against the Holy Ghost for the integrity of your natures or the honour of your cure surely he that hath felt the power of this renewing grace and found how little of it was from himself nay how much he was an enemy to it will be less inclined to extenuate the praise of grace then unexperienced men will be Because the case is very weighty give me leave by way of Question to propound these considerations to you Quest. 1. Why is it think you that all must be Baptized into the Name of the Son and Holy Ghost as well as of the Father Doth it not imply that all have need of a Sanctifier and must be engaged to that end in Covenant with the Sanctifier I suppose you know that it is not to a bare Profession of our belief of the Trinity of persons that we are baptized It is our Covenant entrance into our happy Relation to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost that is then celebrated And therefore as Infants and all must be thus engaged to the Sanctifier so all must acknowledge their necessity of this mercy and the excellency of it It is essential to our Christianity that we value it desire it and receive it And therefore an error inconsistent with it proveth us indeed no Christians Mat. 28. 19. Quest. 2. Why is it think you that the Holy Ghost and this renewing work are so much magnified in the Scripture Is not the glory of it answerable to those high expressions undoubtedly it is I have already told you elsewhere of the Elogies of this work It is that by which Christ dwelleth in them and they are made a habitation of God by the spirit Eph. 3. 17. and 2. 22. They are made by it the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. It is the Divine Power which is no other then Omnipotency that giveth us all things pertaining unto Life and Godliness 2 Pet. 1. 3. Think not I beseech you any lower of this work then is consistent with these expressions It is the opening of the blind eyes of our understanding and turning us from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and bringing us into his marvellous light Act. 26. 18. Eph. 1. 18. 1 Pet. 2. 9. It is an inward teaching of us by God Joh. 6. 45. 1 Thes. 4. 9. an effectual teaching and anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. and a writing the Laws in our hearts and putting them in our inward parts Heb. 8. 10 11. I purposely forbear any exposition of these texts lest I seem to distort them and because I would only lay the naked Word of God before your own impartial considerations It is Gods work by the Spirit and not our own as ours that is here so much magnified And can all this signifie no more but a common bare proposal of truth and good to the intellect and will even such as ignorant and wicked men have Doth God do as much to illuminate teach and sanctifie them that never are illuminated or taught and sanctified as them that are This work of the Holy Ghost is called a quickning or making men that were dead alive Eph. 2. 1 2. Rom. 6. 11 13. It
and therefore it is here that we have the loudest call and best assistance to make a large return of Love And where there is the most of this Love between God and man there is most Communion and most of Heaven that can be had on Earth But it much concerneth the members of Christ that they deprive not themselves of this Communion with God in this Holy Sacrament through their miscarriage which is too frequently done by one of these extreams Either by rushing upon holy things with a presumptuous careless common frame of heart as if they knew not that they go to feast with Christ and discerned not his body or else by an excess of fear drawing back and questioning the good will of God and thinking diminutively of his love and mercy By this means Satan depriveth many of the comfortable part of their communion with God both in this Sacrament and in other waies of grace and maketh them avoid him as an enemy and be loth to come into his special presence and even to be afraid to think of him to pray to him or to have any holy converse with him When the just belief and observation of his Love would stablish them and revive their souls with joy and give them experience of the sweet delights which are opened to them in the Gospel and which believers finde in the Love of God and the foretast of the everlasting pleasures 4. In holy faithful servent Prayer a Christian hath very much of his converse with God For Prayer is our approach to God and calling to mind his presence and his attributes and exercising all his graces in a holy motion towards him and an exciting all the powers of our souls to seek him attend him reverently to worship him It is our treating with him about the most important businesses in all the world a beâ—ging of the greatest mercies and a deprecating his most grievous judgments and all this with the nearest familiarity that man in flesh can have with God In prayer the Spirit of God is working up our hearts unto him with desires exprest in sighs and groans It is a work of God as well as of man He bloweth the fire though it be our hearts that burn and boil In Prayer we lay hold on Jesus Christ and plead his merits and intercession with the Father He taketh us as it wereby the hand and leadeth us unto God and hideth our sins and procureth our acceptance and presenteth us amiable to his Father having justified and sanctified us and cleansed us from those pollutions which rendered us loathsome and abominable To speak to God in serious prayer is a work so high and of so great moment that it calleth off our minds from all things else and giveth no creature room or leave to look into the soul or once to be observed The mind is so taken up with God and employed with him that creatures are forgotten and we take no notice of them unless when through the diversions of the flesh our prayers are interrupted and corrupted and so far degenerate and are no prayer so far I say as we thus turn away from God So that the soul that is most and best at Prayer is most and best at walking with God and hath most communion with him in the Spirit And to withdraw from Prayer is to withdraw from God And to be unwilling to pray is to be unwilling to draw near to God Meditation or Contemplation is a duty in which God is much enjoyed But Prayer hath Meditation in it and much more All that is upon the mind in Meditation is upon the mind in Prayer and that with great advantage as being presented before God and pleaded with him and so animated by the apprehensions of his observing presence and actuated by the desires and pleadings of the soul. When we are commanded to Pray it includeth a command to Repent and Believe and Fear the Lord and Desire his Grace For Faith and Repentance and Fear and Desire are altogether in action in a serious prayer And as it were naturally each one takes his place and there is a holy order in the acting of these graces in a Christians prayers and a harmony which he doth seldome himself observe He that in Meditation knoweth not how to be regular and methodical when he is studiously contriving and endeavouring it yet in Prayer before he is aware hath Repentance and Faith and Fear and Desire and every grace fall in its proper place and order and contribute its part to the performance of the work The new nature of a Christian is more immediately and vigorously operative in Prayer than in many other duties And therefore every Infant in the family of God can pray with groaning desires and ordered graces if not with well-ordered words When Paul began to live to Christ he began aright to pray Behold he prayeth saith God to Ananias Act. 9. 11. And because they are Sons God sends the Spirit of his Son into the hearts of his Elect even the Spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. as children naturally cry to their Parents for relief And Nature is more regular in its works than Art or humane contrivance is Necessity teacheth many a beggar to pray better for relief to men than many learned men that feel not their necessities can pray to God The Spirit of God is a better Methodist than we are And though I know that we are bound to use our utmost care and skill for the orderly actuating of each holy affection in our Prayers and not pretend the sufficiency of the Spirit for the patronage of our negligence or sloth for the Spirit makes use of our understandings for the actuating of our wills and affections yet withall it cannot be denied but that it was upon a special reason that the Spirit that is promised to Believers is called a Spirit of Grace and Supplication Zech. 12. 10. And that it is given us to help our infirmities even the infirmities of our understanding when we know not what to pray for as we ought Rom. 8. 26. And that the Spirit it self is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered It is not the Spirit without that is here meant such intercession is nowhere ascribed to that How then is the Prayer of the Spirit within us distinguished from our Prayer Not as different effects of different causes as different prayers by these different parties But as the same prayer proceeding from different causes having a special force for quality and degree as from one cause the Spirit which it hath not from the other cause from our selves except as received from the Spirit The Spirit is as a New Nature or fixed inclination in the Saints For their very self-love and will to good is sanctified in them which works so readily though voluntarily as that it is in a sort by the way of Nature though not excluding Reason and
powerfully illuminate Many among men have pretended to Infallibility that never could justifie their pretensions but have confuted them by their own mistakes and crimes But none can deny the Infallibility of God He never yet was deceived or did deceive He erreth not nor teacheth errour Nicodemus knew Christ was to believed when he knew that he was a Teacher come from God Joh. 3. 2. Christ knew that the Jews themselves durst not deny the truths of John's Doctrine if he could but convince them that it was from Heaven and not of men It is impossible for God to lye It is the Devil that was a Lyar from the beginning and is yet the Father of lyes No wonder if they believe lyes that follow such a Teacher And those that follow the flesh and the world do follow the Devil They that will believe what their fleshly interest and lusts perswade them to believe do believe what the Devil perswadeth them to believe For he perswadeth them by these and for these What marvel then if there be found men in the world that can believe that Holiness is Hypocrisie or a needless thing that those are the worst men that are most careful to please God that the world is more worthy of their care and labour than their salvation is that the pleasures of sin for a season are more desirable than the everlasting happiness of the Saints that cards and dice and mirth and lust and wealth and honour are matters more delectable than Prayer and meditating on the Word of God and loving him and obeying him and waiting in the hopes of life eternal that gluttons and drunkards and whoremongers and covetous persons may enter into the Kingdom of God c. What wonder if a thousand such damnable lyes are believed by the Disciples of the Father of lyes what wonder if there are so many Saint-haters and God-haters in the world as to fill the earth with persecutions and cruelties or make a scorn of that which God most highly valueth and all this under pretences of Order or Unity or Justice or something that is good and therefore fit to palliate their sin Is there any thing so false or foul or wicked that Satan will not teach his followers Is he grown modest or moderate or holy or just Is he reconciled to Christ to Scripture to Godliness or to the Godly Or is his Kingdom of darkness at an end and hath he lost the earth Or are men therefore none of the servants of the Devil because they were baptized as Simon Magus was and call and think themselves the servants of Christ As if still it were not the art by which he gets and keeps Disciples to suffer them to wear the livery of Christ and to use his name that he may thus keep possession of them in peace who else would be frighted from him and fly to Christ He will give them leave to study Arts and Sciences and to understand things excellent of inferiour use so be it they will be deceived by him in the matters of God and their salvation He can allow them to be learned Lawyers excellent Physicians Philosophers Politicians to be skilful Artists so be it they will follow him in sin to their damnation and will overlook the Truth that should set them free Joh. 8. 32. Yea he will permit them when there 's no remedy to study the holy Scriptures if he may but be the expounder and applyer of it Yea he will permit them notionally to understand it if they will not learn by it to be converted to be holy and to be saved He can suffer them to be eminent Divines so they will not be serious Christians Thus is the world by the grand Deceiver hurried in darkness to perdition being taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. But the Sanctified are all illuminated by the Holy Ghost by whom their eyes are so effectually opened that they are turned from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. The Father of Glory hath given them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ that the eyes of their understanding being enlightned they may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the Glory of his inheritance in the Saints Eph. 1. 17 18. Certainly that illumination of the Holy Ghost which is so often mentioned in Scripture as given to all true believers is not a fansie nor an insignificant name And if it signifie any thing it signifieth somewhat that is much above the teaching of man All that walk with God are taught of God! And can man teach like God God hath accesse unto the heart and there he doth transcribe his Laws and put them into our inward parts And they that walk with him have not only his Word to read but his Spirit to help them to understand it and being with him in his family yea he dwelleth in them and they in him he is ready at hand to resolve their doubts when he gave them his fear he gave them the beginning of wisdom Psal. 111. 10. He causeth them to incline their ear to wisdom Prov. 2. 2 6. and to apply their hearts unto it Psal. 90. 12. and maketh them to know it in the hidden parts Psal. 51. 6. It is his Law that they have determined to make their rule They live as under his authority They are more observant of his Will and Government than of any Laws or Government of man And as they obey man in and for the Lord so they do it in subordination to him and therefore not against him and his Laws which being the standard of Justice and the Rule of Rulers and of subjects both they are in the safest way of unerring wisdom who walk with God according to that Rule and refuse to turn aside though commanded by man or enticed by Satan the world or flesh 5. He that walketh with God is the most considerate person and therefore hath great advantage to be wise The frequent and serious thoughts of God do awaken all the powers of the soul so that drowsiness doth not hinder the understanding and so occasion its deceit There is scarce a more common and powerful cause of mens folly and delusion and perdition in all the world than that sleepiness and stupidity which hindereth Reason from the vigorous performance of its office In this sensless case though a man both know and consider of the same Truths which in their nature are most powerful to cleanse and govern and save his soul yet sluggishness doth enervate them He knoweth them as if he knew them not and considereth them as if he never thought of them They work little more upon him then if he believed them not or had never heard of them even as a dream of the greatest matters moveth not the sleeper from his pillow In this senslesse state the Devil can do almost any thing with a sinner He can
wanteth more of God than he enjoyeth and his enjoying graces Love and Joy are yet imperfect But when he hath attained his nearest approach to God he will have fulness of Delight in fulness of fruition O Christians Do I need to tell you that after all the tryals you have made in the world you have never found any state of life that was worthy your desires nor that gave you any true content but only this living upon God If you have not found such comfort here as others have done yet at least you have seen it afar off within your reach As men that in the Indies in the discovery of Plantations expect Gold Mines when they find those golden sands that promise it You have found a life which is certainly desirable and leadeth to joy in the midst of sorrow And it is no small joy to have a certain promise and prospect of everlasting joy It is therefore more excusable in those that never tasted any better than the pleasures of the flesh to neglect this sweeter Heavenly life than it is in you that have been convinced by your own experience that there is no life to be compared with it 4. YOur Walking with God is the necessary prosecution of your Choice and Hopes of life eternal It is your necessary preparation to your enjoying him in Heaven And have you fixed on those Hopes with so great reason and deliberation and will you now draw back and be slack in the prosecution of them Have you gone so far in the way to Heaven and do you now begin to look behind you as if you were about to change your mind Paul setteth you a better example Phil. 3. 8 9 10 11 12 13. Yea doubtless I account all things but loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect But I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus He compareth himself to a runner in a race that till be apprehend the price or mark doth still make forward with all his might and will not so much as mind or look at any thing behind him that would turn him back or stop him in his course The world and the flesh are the things behind us We turned our backs upon them at our conversion when we turned to God It is these that would now call back our thoughts and corrupt our affections when we should run on and reach forward to the heavenly price It is God and Heaven and the remaining duties of a holy life that are the things before us And shall we now look back what we that are running and striving for a Crown of endless glory we that if we lose it do lose our souls and hopes for ever we that have loitered in the morning of our lives and lost so much precious time as we have done we that have gone so far in our way and held out through so many difficulties and assaults Shall we now grow weary of walking with God and begin to look to the things behind us Did he not tell us at the first that Father and Mother and house and land and life and all things must be forsaken for Christ if we will be his Disciples These are the things behind us which we turned our back on when we consented to the Covenant and are they now grown better or is God grown worse that we turn our hearts from him to them when we first begun our Christian race it was upon supposition that it was for that immortal Crown which all the world is not to be compared to And have we not still the same consideration before us to move us to hold on till we attain it Hold on Christians it is for Heaven Is there not enough in that word to drive back all the cares and pleasures that importune your minds to forget your God Is there not enough in that word to quicken you up in your greatest dulness and to call you home when you are wandring from God and to make you again fall out with all that would reduce you or divert you and call it Vanity and Vexation of spirit Methinks the fore-thought of that life and work which you hope to have with God for ever should make you earnestly desire to have as much of the like on earth as is here to be attained If it will he your Heaven and Happiness then it must needs be desirable now It is not beseeming a man that saith he is seeking for perfect communion with God in Heaven and that above all things as every Christian doth to live in a daily neglect or forgetfulness of God on earth Delightfully to draw near him and exercise all our faculties upon him or for him sometime in prayer and contemplation on himself and alwaies in works of obedience to him this is the life that beseemeth those that profess to seek eternal life O therefore let us make it our daily work to keep our God and Glory in our eye and to spur on our dull affections and in the diligent attendance and following the Captain of our salvation to prosecute our expected End 5. LAstly consider that God doth purposely provide you hard entertainment in the world and cause every creature to deny you the pleasure and satisfaction which you desire that so you may have none to walk with but himself with any heart-setling comfort and content If you see not enough in him to allure you to himself you shall feel enough in the world to drive you to him If his Love and Goodness will not serve alone to make him your pleasure and hold you to him in the best and most excellent way of Love at least the storms and troubles that are abroad shall shew you a Necessity of keeping close to God and the Love of your selves shall help you to do that which was not done by the attraction of his Love alone If you will put him to it to send out his command to every creature to cross and vex you and disappoint all your expectations from it that so he may force you to remember your Father and your home deny not then but it is long of your selves that you were not saved in an easier way Would you wish God to make that condition pleasant to you which he seeth you take too much pleasure in already or seek and desire it at least When as it is the pleasantness of the