was true Man Joh. 1.14 Mat. 1.16 Luke 1.31 which may satisfie us that He was in a Condition and Fitness for that part of His Work which did consist in His Suffering in our stead and on our behalf and that He hath a most tender and compassionate concern for us whose Nature He did assume Heb. 2.14 Heb. 4.15 2dly Those Propositions which acquaint us with the occasion of His undertaking this Office and being commissioned to it As that by the Fall of our first Parents sin entred into the World That we are all fallen short of the Glory of God And that we are by Nature the Children of Wrath Rom. 3.23 Rom. 5.12 Eph. 2.3 which may convince us more throughly of our great need of such a Saviour make us have more low and humble thoughts of our selves and inspire us with most admiring and elevated gratitude and thankfulness to and for Him 3dly Those Propositions which instruct us that the sending of this Saviour did proceed and spring purely from the Free Grace Mercy and Love of God God so loved the World that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life c. John 3.16 17. 1 John 4.9 Eph. 2.4 to the 9th This is proper to engage our Admiration and Love Here is room for our exerting them in their fullest strength and force 4thly Those Propositions which teach us in what ways and by what steps He did and doth execute and will finally accomplish the Work and Office He Vndertook As 1. By Revealing the Father and making His Will known to the World John 1.18 Heb. 1.1 2. John 15.15 Whereby we are furnished with the most useful pertinent necessary and profitable Instructions do know where we are to employ our Searches and Enquiries to the best purpose And what we may without fluctuation doubt or wavering and with the greatest confidence entertain and depend upon for their Truth 2dly By fulfilling all Righteousness and leading the most Innocent unblemish'd exact and holy Life Mat. 3.15 1 Pet. 2.21 Acts 10.38 Thus He has set us an Example in His own Life Hath visibly commended and discovered the amiableness of what He Commands and Enjoyns And hath shewn us in the most convincing and obliging way how we ought to demean and behave our selves And hereby we perceive that He was admirably fitted for another part of what pertained to Him in His Estate of Humiliation viz. making Himself a Sacrifice for our sins Heb. 7.26 c. 3dly By suffering very many hardships innumerable reproaches and indignities enduring the Wrath of God and actually dying in open view as a Malefactor on the Cross offering up himself a Sacrifice to satisfie Divine Justice for the sins of the World and giving his Soul a Ransom for Sinners Acts 2.23 and 36. Heb. 9.26 1 Pet. 3.18 1 Tim. 2.6 which discovers the most execrable nature of Sin how extreamly loathsom and hateful it is to God and therefore should be so to us This manifests the Condescention and Love of Christ to us in the most affecting manner that can be imagined And is the most potent Argument to kindle and excite the truest Love in our Souls to Him and calls for our exerting Love to Him in its most powerful actings 2 Cor. 5.14.15 4thly By rising again from the dead the third day 1 Cor. 15.4 Rom. 1.4 Rom. 4.25 Hereby the Prophecies which were before concerning Him and His own Predictions were most exactly verified and fulfilled This gives a most certain undeniable demonstration that His Sacrificing of Himself and his Death were accepted of God and are prevalent for all the purposes for which they were intended T' is strengthens our Faith and Hope in 〈◊〉 And assures us of the certainty of our Resurrection at the end of the World 1 Pet. 1.21 Rom. 8.11 5thly By Ascending up into Heaven in the sight of His Disciples after He had given full proof of the truth of His Resurrection and commissioned them to Preach His Gospel to all the World That there He may in His exalted Estate perform what further pertains unto Him as the Saviour of Sinners Mark 16.19 This assures us of the efficacy and prevalence of His Intercession and the solid ground we have to depend upon Him for whatsoever He hath warranted us to ask in His Name and expect from Him Heb. 7.14 15. John 14.1 2 3. 6thly By sending and giving forth the Holy Spirit for the purposes and ends for which He hath promised Him viz. for the making of His Word and Ordinances effectual for the Conversion of Sinners and the Edification and Comfort of true Believers John 14.16 17 and 26. And here by the way we may take notice that He hath taught how we are to conceive of the Holy Spirit certifying that He is God Acts 5.3 4. 2 Cor. 3.16 17. Now when a true Christian understands that Christ Jesus hath given this account of the Holy Spirit He is as much obliged to believe it as He is to believe that Jesus is the Christ and when he understands that Christ hath taught that the Father Himself and the Holy Ghost are God that He saith such things of them and requires such Homage and Worship to be paid unto them as are peculiar unto God and certifies that these Three are One Matth. 28.19 1 John 5.7 He is obliged to assent unto and believe this Truth as well as any thing else that Christ hath taught It is as hard for me to reconcile a Persons denying or not believing this when he knows that Christ Jesus hath taught it with his being a sincere Christian or having unreservedly resigned himself up to Jesus Christ as any Man can pretend it is to him to tell how these three can be God and yet there be but one God I believe that the Father Son and Holy Spirit are God because I find that Christ Jesus hath taught so And if any Man can pretend he hath ground to believe this Article to be false or to with-hold his assent when he knows that Jesus Christ hath taught it he cannot with colour pretend he has just reason to believe that Jesus is the Messias nor to believe any one point upon his Authority For if we question the Truth of any thing we know He taught we have the like reason to question the Truth of every thing He taught He that is upon such Terms can hardly deserve to be accounted a true Christian He must be extraordinarily soft and favourable to himself if he can persuade himself that is one If I were not fully persuaded that Christ Jesus understood the Divine Nature and knew how to speak of it better than any meer Man I should not take him to be my Lord and Saviour It may be some will say they do believe what Christ Jesus hath taught but they cannot believe the Doctrine of the Trinity as it is taught in certain Creeds which are but of Humane Composure
To such I would say if you really know and heartily believe all that Christ hath taught concerning this matter it is as much as I can desire and as much as you ought to believe concerning it But tho' other words are now ordinarily used in teaching of this Doctrine than are used about it in the Holy Scriptures yet the Doctrine is but the same which Christ taught The other Words and Terms which are now used do not add any thing to his Doctrine they were not originally intended to make the Doctrine more perfect than Christ delivered it The Doctrine continued as it was taught in the Holy Scriptures till some presumptuous not to say malicious Persons assumed to themselves to affix such a sinister Interpretation and Construction to the Words of Christ as did exceedingly alter His Doctrine very much depreciating Christ Himself and the Holy Spirit degrading Christ into a meer Man though He Himself taught that He was God and teaching that the Holy Spirit was but the Power or Virtue of God and not God When this Method was used to corrupt the Faith of Christ sincere Christians found it expedient to make use of other Words which have been successively retained But they used not these words with a design to teach more than Christ had taught only to deliver what He had taught with a denial of that corrupt Sense false Teachers had stampt upon His Words So that the Doctrine of the Trinity as it is ordinarily taught amongst us is no other than that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are God as Christ hath taught they are and that we do reject that Sense and Construction which Men of their own Heads and without any Authority have affixed to Christ's Doctrine It is but the Doctrine Christ hath taught with an opposition to and denial of that Addition of Words and Diminution of Sense which other People had introduced touching that which Christ had taught To say that this Doctrine is contrary to Reason is in effect to deny that Jesus is the Messias or Christ Can the Fountain of Light and Reason teach any thing that is contrary to Reason Does not the Messias He that was commissioned to teach Men the Mind of God know what is consonant to Reason better than we do It is not to be expected that People should in good earnest believe this Doctrine till they are fully persuaded that Jesus is the Christ and when they heartily believe that there can be no ground to deny their assent to this or any other Doctrine they know he hath taught We have this notice by Supernatural Revelation that the Father is God and that the Son is God and that the Holy Ghost is God which we could not know by the meer Light of Nature Now if those who say this Doctrine is against and contrary to Reason do mean no more than that they find Christ hath revealed it but they cannot understand any more concerning it than what He hath revealed they are in the right but they would do well to express their meaning by decent and proper Terms which may signifie the Sense they have of their own and Humane weakness and not throw Unworthy and Blasphemous Aspersions on a most certain Divine Truth and Doctrine He that heartily believes that Jesus is the Christ and takes Him unfeignedly for his Lord and Saviour will believe whatsoever he knows Christ hath taught and will be contented to wait to know more than He hath taught concerning any Article till He shall be pleased to make a further discovery of it Our knowing that the Holy Spirit who is promised is God affords us great encouragement to depend upon Him for and to expect from Him Aids and Assistances suitable to our occasions and such Influences as will render our dutiful labours and endeavours prosperous and successful 7thly By coming at the end of the World in unconceivable Glory at which time He will raise the dead judge the World and render to every one according to his Works Acts 10.42 Acts 17.32 2 Cor. 5.10 This if any thing should keep us in a continual holy Awe of Him and have a very powerful and good Influence upon our Conduct at all times if we have any care for or regard to our indisputably greatest Interests And therefore true Christians should concern themselves very much to understand as particularly as they can and make a good use of what Christ hath taught relating to what I shall hint unto you in the next place 5thly Those Propositions which acquaint us with the Evil Acts and Vicious Inclinations and Lusts He requires us to abstain from and mortifie and the moral Duties He commands us to perform as also in what manner it is His pleasure we should do them These are either general or particular Those that are general oblige us to renounce all corrupt affections and abstain from every Wickedness and Sin and to exercise our selves in all the Duties we owe to God our Neighbours and our selves without descending to mention particular instances but engaging us to employ our enquiries about them that we obtain as distinct a knowledge of them as we can such are Tit. 2.11 12. 2 Cor. 7.1 Those which are particular do name certain Vices Evil Acts and Lusts we must carefully shun and avoid and subdue certain Graces Virtues and good Acts we must employ ourselves in These may be reduced to three Heads viz. Those which concern all Christians in common Those which belong to them according to the several Relations they stand in unto others And those which pertain to them according to the various Estates and Conditions the Providence of God doth place them in We should endeavour to be as distinctly acquainted with these as we can that our Conduct may be Regular Orderly and Exact and may beautifie and adorn our Profession These make up the greatest part of that Revelation Jesus Christ hath made of the Will of God unto the World These are dispersed through the whole Body of those Sacred Records which contain the Discoveries He hath made of the Father's Mind so that we cannot attend to any page of the same but we shall be sure to meet with some of them Amongst all the things that Christ Jesus hath taught these are the least disputed but with profoundest Grief be it spoken none are more neglected and more contradicted in the Practices and Lives of the Many 6thly Those Propositions which relate what Privileges do pertain to them who do know Christ Jesus aright which acquaint us what Benefits Advantages and inestimable Blessings such Persons do partake of at present and may further expect with good assurance both in this Life and the next As that they partake of the Holy Spirit and are made his Temples 1 Cor. 6.19 Rom. 8.9 Have all their Sins Pardoned are Justified and admitted into the new Covenant are Sanctified and made partakers of the Divine Nature Eph. 1.7 1 Cor. 6.11 2 Pet. 1.3 4. Rom. 3.24
God not because of their intrinsick worth but only for the merit of Christ who hath procured the Law of Grace and is the mediator of the new Covenant Our best Works cannot merit Salvation that is the purchase of Christ's Blood We are justified and saved by Faith and that is the Gift of God so that we have nothing to boast of tho very much for which we are to be thankful Our good Works are an evidence of the truth of our Faith and that our knowledge of Christ is of the right kind And such is the Grace of God through Christ that the more we abound in them the greater shall our Reward be not because of their Merit but because of his gracious Promise assigning degrees of Glory in proportion to our abounding in new Obedience We do not derive Power from Christ to merit any thing for our selves but we receive from Him Power to perform such Obedience as shall for his sake be accepted and rewarded Upon our performing such Obedience we shall receive freely the Blessings He hath merited and which for his sake are made over to us in the Covenant of Grace Our Works of Righteousness and Goodness do not make us Righteous and Good but they prove and discover us to be so i. e. that we are endu'd with a divine Principle have our Natures changed and do know Christ Jesus aright as vital acts do not make a living Creature but they prove that the Creature which performs them hath a principle of Life from which those acts do flow 4thly Another excellency of this knowledge is that it puts a check to vain Curiosity to a search after empty and less necessary Speculations and delivers us from all carnal and groundless Confidence and engages us to a commendable Diligence by determining our enquiries after such things as are most certain and true in themselves and will be most useful and profitable unto us by advancing us both in intellectual and moral Accomplishments and Perfections For it obliges us to employ our honest and best endeavours to understand and make a right use of what Jesus Christ hath taught and revealed which are matters of such excellency that all other things are of little account with those who understand the use and importance of these as the Apostle plainly testified when he said he accounted all things but loss c. Which brings me to consider Fourthly What account he who knows Christ Jesus aright doth make of all other things The Sence a sincere Christian hath of the excellency of this knowledge discovers it self in the great alteration it makes in his Opinion and Judgment of all other things from what they were before He doth set now a just estimate upon all worldly Enjoyments and outward Privileges relating to Religion and external performances in Religion according to their several Natures Places and Ranks to their use and ends He does not absolutely condemn them as evil in themselves or as altogether useless to any good purposes for should he do so he would be faulty He owns them to be the good Gifts of God that a very good use may be made of them is thankful to God for them if he enjoys them and praiseth God for bestowing them on others He acknowledges they have a beauty and excellency considered in their proper place and season But then he esteems them as the Apostle did as altogether useless to the business here spoken of viz. to be the matter of our Confidence yea extreamly hurtful when depended on for Justification To be but loss yea dung when compar'd with and set in opposition to this knowledge of Christ Jesus which hath an excellency in it unspeakably greater than all other things have and which alone can avail and profit us to Justification and Salvation That divine Light which discovers Christ Jesus to a Person as the Person commissioned by God to be the Saviour of Sinners and effectually causeth him from a sence of his own Sin and Guilt to yield up himself entirely to Him to be saved by Him in his own way doth discover all other things to him in such a true and disparaging manner that he plainly perceives they cannot bear any proportion with Christ and therefore he accounts them to be loss as to the business of Justification If I do not esteem Christ Jesus worthy enough to be the sole object of my dependance I do not know him aright And if I set up any thing in the World as that I will trust to and depend on for Justification more 〈◊〉 Christ or equally with Him I acknowledge a greater or an equal virtue and efficacy in that with what I pretend to believe is in Christ for this purpose Or if I depend on any thing together with Christ tho' in an inferiour degree I do not take him to be the only and all sufficient Saviour of Sinners and so have not that knowledge of Christ Jesus here spoken of Indeed there are other things we may depend on and make the ground of our Perswasion and Confidence that we are Justified and shall be Saved as those which are sure certain and never-failing Evidences of our Interest in Christ as our Saviour and that we do know Him aright But there is not any thing but Christ and his Righteousness we may trust to and depend on for Justification and Salvation i. e. as that for the sake of which we shall be Justified and Saved From what hath been discoursed we may take notice First That Persons may have great Measures of speculative Knowledge concerning Christ Jesus and what he hath taught and not be True Christians The Apostle indeed doth tell us that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God which is the same with his being a True Christian 1 John 5.1 but it is evident beyond all doubt by his following discourse that he doth not speak of a bare speculative Knowledge but of such a Knowledge and Faith as I have been giving an account of Such a Knowledge or Belief that Jesus is the Christ that is the Person God hath commissioned to be the Saviour of Sinners as doth effectually cause a Person to resign up himself entirely to Him doth constitute him a True Christian Whatever Knowledge or Faith People may have which falls short of this will not profit them to Justification nor have a due effect and influence on their Lives The most pompous Pretences will not prevail for our acceptance with Christ where this is wanting Mat. 7.22 23. Therefore Secondly We ought to make a thorough and impartial search concerning our selves whether we be true Christians Whether we are so fully perswaded that Jesus is the Christ that we do sincerely yield up our selves without any reservation to follow his Conduct It is not enough that we call our selves Christians and pretend to own him for our Lord as Mat. 7.22 23. discovers But we must justifie the Truth of our owning him to be our Lord
by employing our selves heartily to understand what He hath taught and to believe and make such use of what we attain to know He hath taught as we shall perceive he intends and appoints For Thirdly Tho' a right knowledge of this one point that Jesus is the Christ doth constitute and make a Person a Christian yet there are many points Jesus Christ hath taught and revealed which every sincere Christian is indispensibly obliged to endeavour to understand and make a due use of When a Person becomes a True Christian he doth resign himself as you have been told entirely unto Christ Jesus as his Lord and obligeth himself without any reservation to use his serious honest and sincere endeavours to know what he hath revealed and to assent unto and make such use of what he shall attain to know he hath revealed as the nature or particular intendment thereof so far as he shall know the same doth direct He doth not capitulate and compound with Christ that he will assent unto and make such use as he orders of just such a number of Articles but will be excus'd from concerning himself to extend his knowledge or practice any further It is out of my Reach and I am perswaded it is out of the reach of any Man or Body of Men to assign a precise number of Articles which are necessary to be explicitly known and believed by all sincere Christians and beyond which no Christian is obliged to endeavour to proceed in his Faith and Obedience Peoples Capacities Opportunities and Advantages are very various and different Many things may be necessary for some Christians to believe which are not necessary to be believed by others because some do attain to the knowledge of them and a great many more may never attain to the knowledge of them and this not because of any faulty omission or neglect to use their honest endeavours to understand what Christ hath made known to the World but from something else which will not be reckoned to them for a fault I think a certain number of Articles cannot be fixed on besides this that Jesus is the Christ which we may peremptorily determine must of necessity be explicitely known and believed or no Person can be saved For the belief of the other Doctrines Christ hath taught doth not constitute or make a Person a True Christian Perhaps some may be now ready to say that 's well for then we are safe tho' we be Ignorant and continue Ignorant of all the Doctrines Christ hath taught besides this that Jesus is the Christ or if we should come to know them we are safe tho' we refuse to believe them and make that use of them Christ appoints for we do believe most firmly that Jesus is the Christ and so we are True Christians and therefore safe and need not trouble our selves about knowing or believing any thing more Nay now you are out most dangerously and wretchedly out Believe as much as you can besides this Article your belief will not make you a True Christian It is the right knowledge or belief of this Article that Jesus is the Christ that makes a Person a True Christian But the believing of this doth not exclude your believing of other Articles or discharge you from any obligation to believe other points or make your believing of other matters needless But it brings you under an indispensable obligation to endeavour to know and believe more Tho' the belief of other points is not necessary to constitute a Person a True Christian yet other things are necessary to be believed by him that is a True Christian The true Christian is obliged to use his best endeavours to know what Christ hath revealed and to assent unto and make a right use of what he attains to know Christ hath revealed And if you do not do thus you do not approve your selves True Christians you do not acquit your selves as true Christians ought and must acquit themselves If you either neglect to enquire after and to use your honest endeavours to know what Christ hath revealed or refuse to assent to and make a good use of what you know he hath revealed you have just reason to conclude you are not True Christians and do not know Christ Jesus aright whatever you affirm in your words There are many things Christ hath taught and revealed so plainly so clearly so distinctly you cannot but know some of them if you seriously endeavour to know what He hath revealed and what you know he hath revealed you must assent to and make use of if you do rightly know and believe Him to be the only Saviour of Sinners If it be now ask'd what are those particular Points or Articles Christ hath revealed which are necessary for Christians to endeavour to know and which being known to be revealed by Him they must indispensably assent to and make use of I answer that what Christ hath revealed is propounded to us in certain words which make distinct Sentences and Propositions and being thus considered they are objects of assent and matters of Faith tho' when we consider tho nature of the Truths thus propounded and their special Intendment they may be conveniently reduced to particular Heads to which particular Denominations may be assign'd Some of these I will name together with some particular Propositions Christ hath taught which properly belong to these Heads As 1st Those Propositions which describe his Person and instruct us who he was whom God did send and commission to be the Saviour of Sinners As that He is God the Son of God the only begotten of the Father God over all blessed for ever John 1. 1. Rom. 9.5 The Son of God and the Messias are often used in the New Testament as Reciprocal Terms not as if the strict Idea the term Messias doth stand for were the same the Son of God doth stand for but because He who is the Son of God is the Messias and He who is the Messias is the Son of God both these Propositions I believe because I find that Christ Jesus and his Apostles by his order did reach them I do not think that He was the Son of God because He was the Messias as the Socinians assert nor yet that He was the Messias because He was the Son of God as some affirm in opposition to the former but that the Son of God was the Messias because the Father did not think fit to commission any but his own Son to be the Saviour of Sinners When a true Christian understands that Christ Jesus hath taught that He is God He must assent unto it and endeavour to use it for the nourishing strengthening and confirming of his Faith in Him To assure him that He is all-sufficient to fulfil the Work He hath undertaken and to which He is commissioned And to direct and justifie his paying Divine Honour and Worship to Him So also that He was made Flesh did assume our whole Nature and