the blessing of the Gospel Hath Christ taken thee into his care and service and wilt thou not be guided by his rules but what are the rules of Christ in respect of God that we should not only serve him but serve him form a Principle of love it is not enough that we bring our bodies to God in every duty but that we also bring our hearts unto him this is that which our Saviour expects He tells us God is a Spirit John 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth bodily service profiteth nothing Alas men maybe much in out â—â—de duties and services and yet at last be rejected with scorn to their great grief unless they be serious That heed that what you do you do not against Christs Rules that you do not refuse his directions and Councels those that are acquainted with those rules there lies a special obligation upon them to observe them hath Christ taken the care of you himself and will you not live up to this kindness this is not to answer your ingagements Again I might shew you the great priviledges which all the true Members of Christ do partake of he hath sent his Spirit to be their guide his Spirit of Truth to lead them into all Truth the Spirit to enlighten the Soul to purge refine and sanctifie the Soul to excite assist strengthen and preserve the weak beginnings of Grace to guide and conduct the Soul into farther improvements and to witness to the comforts of God and will you contradict these Principles of Divine Grace God hath sent his Spirit to guide you that is to keep you from mistakes to prevent your miscarriage and will you yet go on in iniquity The great design of God in sending his Son and of his Son in sending his Spirit Was not only to redeem his People from hell and wrath but from sin and Satan and to make them a peculiar people to himself zealous of good works now what ingratitude is this to cross these designs of mercy Alas God cannot be the better for us I speak now to such as think that they do in sincerity name the Name of Christ so as to depart from iniquity for be sure of this that there is no possibility of reconciling two such contrary enemies as Christ and sin for he came into the world on this very errand to destroy the works of the Devil and this is your work to oppose the Devil and sin 2. The special obligations that they have laid upon themselves by their Covenants and Promises they that do aright name the Name of Christ have solemnly devoted themselves to Christ not only in their baptismal Vows but in reiterated Covenants now will you revoke them is this sutable to those engagements to break your word with God and to have your own promises to witness against you you that have owned his yoke as easie and submitted to his ways as desirable and made profession of these will you contradict all in your lives and conversations truly this is too ordinary in the world St. Paul Titus 1.16 doth very much lament some who in their words profess the Name of Christ but in their works deny him Verbal Professions are easie but practical Professions those that God looks for he is the bese Christian not that can talk most but live best and keep himself most unspotted from the pollutions of the world now remember the Vows that you made with God and consider the engagements that lie upon you from thence to have a tendder regard of Gods glory every iniquityis a contempt of God it is a rejecting of God from ruling over us it is a disparagement to his Gospel as if we thought we could spend our time better than in hi service as if we could live to better purpose than in minding those duties that he requires of us David was of another mind Psal 73. last It is good for me to draw neer to God Psal 84. A day in thy Courts is better than a thousand But what a reproach do you cast upon God and his wayes in that you see and fancie something in sin that you think worthy the making God you enemy for though you part with God and lose his favour yet you think there is something in sin that will recompense that loss every sinner doth so that allows himself in any sin Truly though God is gratious to us in affording us the liberty of approaching his presence yet while we allow our selves in any sin all our duties are but lost labour and to very little purpose and we can expect no other answer from God than we have in Psal 50. What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Name in thy mouth What was the matter Seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my word behind thy back While men allow themselves in any sin all their duties are to no purpose Consider how much more God hath shewed of kindness to you than others and consider how many engagements are upon you beyond what are upon others certainly form both these God cannot but have higher expectations from you than any and will you thus requite the Lord or will you say as the people of Israel did when they were brought out of Egypt and met with streights and difficulties in the Wilderness Would to God we had died in Egypt was there not graves enough there So while you live under the temptations and snares of an evil world will you look on on these things as lovely and deservint to be fond of them Christ came to redeem you from them and you have accepted of that redemption and you have bound your selves by your Oathes and Seals and how sad will it be if those Seals do witness to your Condemnation both on Christs part and on your own part Christ will say one day These are the persons whom I have proffered Salvation to and they did seem to accept of it and to close wit it but they have cast off all and for saken all those designs of mercy that I had to their Souls and what can they now look for but wrath and destruction And so I have gone over the Doctrinal part of the Observation The first Use may be to awaken and startle Professors that though they do name the Name of Christ yet there is so much of iniquity allowed of and connived at by them we can never own Christ till we fall off from sin and Satan While we close with a contrary party we cannot approve our selves faithful to him there are but two parties in all the world Christ and the Devil now shall we pretend to Christ and wear his Colours and take his Livery upon us and call our selves his Subjects and yet allow our selves in the service of sin and Satan Let our Profession be never so high yet if we do so this is one word to unsay all and to contradict all again This I
Counsel that Gamaliel gave the Jewish Councel who were met together to take councel against Peter and the Apostles to take some speedy course for the ruining of their Persons and the obstructing of their Doctrine Acts 5.38 Refrain from these men and let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God you cannot overthrow it Now this is an Argument that this Gospel is of God that it hath had so many enemies and opposers and yet it hath been preserved prospers got ground of its enemies How have all Dagons fallen before this Art Great is Truth and it shall prevail 3. That poor Creatures should be so enabled and supported as to bear Testimony to the truth of it as to part with their estates liberties and lives and all dear to them and that with so much courage and chearfulness and that by such means the Gospel should thrive which have been used to suppress it I grant that men under their mistakes may be very consident and bold even to the suffering of death for them but they have wanted rhose heights of comforts and those raptures of joy which the suffering people of God have met with in their sufferings which cannot be paralled in any kind of History The second branch of the Doctrine is this That it is the Doctrine of God our Saviour Every thing of the Gospel enters in and levels at this as its design mans Salvation I shall mention three things to clear this 1. There is nothing that discovers sin to be so odious and abominable so hateful to God so destructive to us and so dangerous a thing to us as the Gospel its odiousness appears by its hatefulness to God and by the price which our Saviour paid when hetook upon him his peoples sins it cost him his blood and those agonies and pains that cannot be expressed how great they were now the glass of the Law presents sin very dangerous but the glass of the Gospel much more dangerous There are these three things to be considered concerning Jesus Christ 1. He had no sins of his own to suffer for but for his peoples by way of imputation 2. The taking the sins of his people upon himself in a subserviencie to the gracious design of Gods decree 3. Those sins were so heavy upon him that they caused him to suffer those agonies and pains which none but himself could endure Now this speaks sin to be exceeding sinful exceeding odious to God and dangerous to us when Justice it self could not any other ways be satisfied but by his sufferings This speaks sin to a thing hateful abominable and dangerous it renders sin odious there is nothing but sin that can undo us therefore God tells his antient people O Israel thou hast destreyed thy self that which others could never have done that which I would not have done even that thou hast done against thy self by thy sins The Gospel propounds the only remedy against sin it represents sin odious and it represents Jesus Christ every way sufficient to deliver us from sin He shall save his people from their sins The Gospel is therefore a Message of glad Tydings because it tells us how sin may be pardoned all the Rules of humane Invention could never reach this great truth how sin may may be pardoned and Justice satisfied and how infinite wrath may be appeased 3. It appears to be the Doctrine of our Saviour because it takes off all those discouragements that might keep us at a distance from Christ and the making use of those Rules that the Gospel preseribes us for the obtaining of salvation There are two great discouragements that lie upon all awakened sinners The one is the sense of their own unworthiness Object Alas says the poor Soul I that am such an unworthy Creature that have carried it so towards God who can I expect mercy Sol. Now the Gospel discovers free Grace to the full and though we have nothing to make any amends for the wrongs that we have done to Divine Justice yet Christ hath done enough on our behalf Obect 2. But we are poor weak impotent Creatures Repentance and Faith is our duty but they are beyond our strength and power to perform Sol. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior to give Repentance and remission of sins Acts 5.31 he tells us how we may come to believe and repent Applicat 1. By way of Information if the Gospel be the Doctrine of God and the Doctrine of God our Saviour Then certainly it deserves our whole man It is said of some kinde of studies that they deserve our whole concernment about them it is certain that this Doctrine doth deserve our utmost diligence in searching into the Mysteries thereof How do many break their sleep and beat their brains and disquiet their rest and emacerate their bodies and all to purchase a little knowledge in the things of Nature Oh! what paines does it become us to take in searching into the Scriptures and in being acquainted with the Gospel of Christ Nay it deserves not only our utmost endeavours in point of diligence in inquiring into it but our most enlarged affections in embracing it This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation it is worthy of all acceptation the heartiest and utmost welcome that we are able to give it Again it deserves our most thankful improvement in making sutable returns for such a mercy in having a conversation as becomes the Gospel of Christ Phil. 1.27 Only let your conversation be as it becomes the Gospel 2. By way of reproof to several hearers of the Gospel As they that do not hear as the Doctrine of God our Saviour as if it was not a Message of such glad tidings It reproves all careless hearers that come and spend a little time in attending upon the Gospel preacht but never after regard the truths that are preacht to have them fixt upon their hearts and to bring forth fruits in their lives It reproves all nice hearers that are dainty and curious that cannot be satisfied with wholesome food unless it be neatly drest up to them It reproves all Critical hearers that come to hear the Gospel and not to be judged by it but to judge of the Ministers parts and gifts It reproves all slothful hearers that come and give attendance on the Gospel but carry away little impression by it upon their Souls and that do not make it their business so to do In a word it reproves all hypocritical hearers and this takes in all those that come and give the Gospel a hearing but that is all they do We are to hear to live And your Souls shall live The third Vse Exhortation Oh! labour to be setled in this great Truth That the Gospel is the Doctrine of God and of God our Saviour The Gospel hath every thing in it that may Command awe
and reverence from us on the one hand and love and obedience on the other It is the Doctrine of God and therefore it requires awe and reverence and it is the Doctrine of God our Saviour and therefore requires our love and chearful acceptance Oh! was this truth but throughly believed what strange wonders might the Gospel do in the Conversations of men How would it Conquer all prejudice against it How would it destroy all those false foundations that men build their hopes upon and make way for Christ to take hold of their hearts therefore labour to be fixt in the belief of this great Truth that the Gospel is the Word of God the Doctrine of God our Savior Doctr. 4. That this Doctrine of God our Saviour is a Priviledge so ominent that it both deserves and requires the utmost diligence of them that live under it to adorn it according to the capacity wherein they are Three things are to be spoken to in the opening of this Doctrine 1. That it is a priviledge very eminent to enjoy and be acquainted with this Doctrine of God our Saviour 2. That it is the duty of all that live under this Doctrine to adorn it to beautifie it to render it amiable and lovely to do what they can to gain it credit and reputation 3. Though there be difference in Persons some of a higher and some of a meaner capacity yet it concerns all to do what they can to adorn this Doctrine of God our Saviour 1. That it is an eminent privilledge to enjoy this Doctrine of God our Saviour it is meationed as the great Priviledge of the Jews Rom. 3. 2. Vnto them were committed the Oracles of God This single Priviledge the Apostle magnifies to the heigth this was the favour wherein God commended his love to them above others Psal 147.20 He bath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them It is called the Grace that is the favour of God So in the Verse next the Text For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men that is this Doctrine of Grace or the Grace of God hath appeared in vouchfafeing this Gospel and so Jude 3 verse Christians are commanded to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints the word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was once out of the favour of God vouchsafed and committed to the Saints And that it is so eminent a Priviledge to live under this Doctrine of God our Saviour I shall prove by three Arguments 1. From the grand matters wherein this Doctrine doth instruct us 2. From the grand oppositions that all the enemies of Gods people have made against this Doctrine whereby they have laboured to deprive the Church of God of so great a mercie 3. From the singular Providence of God in ordering things so that the Church should not be destitute of this Doctrine to the end of the world from so many ages past since the publication of it and we our selves may be witnesses of it 1. It is an eminent priviledge because of the grand matters this Gospel instructs us it it is called the Doctrine of Salvation and the Doctrine of Godliness it is a Doctrine that teacheth us how we may be good and how we may do good and how we may enjoy for ever all that we call good Now these three things are of a vast comprehension and in all these it is infinitely transcending all the instructions of the most wise Moralists and the capacity of all humane accomplishments However the Philosophers in their time and others in after tlmes have by their endeavours gained renown to their names by this attempt yet how short have their Aphorismes come of the Gospel and what defects are there in their Rules in comparison of this Doctrine of God our Saviour Though in some things they have hit the right yet that light that was in them is as far different from the light of the Doctrine of God our Saviour as the light of a rush Candle differs from the Sun at noon day Now what ever was spoken of any of those matters contained in the Gospel by them obscurely this Doctrine of God our Saviour speaks our fully and clearly I shall shew in eight or nine instances thereof those great Principles wherein the design of this Doctrine of God our Saviour is to establish poor Creatures 1. That every mans truest self is his Soul This is a principle often inculcated in this Doctrine most men take their lusts for themselves and therefore our Saviour when he would shew the necessity of self-denial he calls to the plucking out of right eyes and to the cutting off our our right hands These are our very selves the limbs and members of us Our lusts are as the whole body of corruption is compared in the Scripture to the whole man for it is called the old man as a man consists of several members so by reason of the corruption of our Nature every lust is called our Member every part of man being corrupted Ephes 4.21 Put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts So the work of Mortification is commanded in the Members Col. 3.5 it branches forth this old man in its several members as fornication uncleanness covetousness Idolatry and the like Sinners are apt to account their lusts themselves their pride and ambition c. and if they be toucht in any of these sins it is as a dagger to their very hearts Again others account their natural selves themselves though not their corrupt members thus did that rich person Luke 12.19 he speaks to his Soul saying Soul thou hast goods laid up for many years c. he thought these to be proper food for his Soul for himself That which any man makes his chief Idol or that which is the reigning lust in any particular person that sin is predominate in any person that he is apt to account himself and is very tender and nice of and is not willing that it should be prejudiced or hurt But it is the common Language of the Scripture to speak of the Soul as the man as if it ws the person The Soul being the principal part of man it is srequently put for the whole man Gen. 14.21 The King of Sodom said give me the Persons and when Abraham â—â—conmted those five Kings and rescued Lot that was taken by them in the Hebrew it is Giveme the Souls Souls is taken there for 〈◊〉 s Genes 17.14 That Soul shall be 〈◊〉 rom his people even those that should deipâ—sâ—â—r neglect Circumcision which was then an instâ—â—tion of God in force the Soul that is the â—â—â—en Gen. 36.6 And Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all the persons of his house in the Margin it is read and all the Souls of his house and so it is in the Hebrew Gen.
thou up the light of thy countenanc upon us Some seek after good but they fix it in Corn and Wine and the blessings of this life but says David Let me have but th light of thy countenance thou wilt put more joy gladness into my Soul than in the time when their corn and wine encreaseth So Psa 73.25 26. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon the Earth that I desire besides thee and it is no less than three times repeated in Psal 96. Cause thy face toshine upon us and we shall be saved ver 3.7.19 All the strength of Nature and common gists cannot bring the Soul to the fountain of all good and so the substance of all good it is only the Doctrine of God our Saviour that can do this The great design of this Doctrine is to lay man and all Creaturess low and only to advance God and Jesus Christ and those upon whom this Doctrine doth powerfully prevail it conquers all perverse reasonings and unbelieving thoughts in them in so much that their Souls are brought to say with David in Psal 16.6.7 The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places How fully was this holy man contented in this not but that there are other things desirable in their places for this Doctrine doth not teach us to be stocks and stones but it doth not permit us to sit down with other enjoyments nor to take up our rest in them nor doth it permit us to be cast down when we are stript of other enjoyments but it turns the bent and byas of the Soul as I may so speak towards God Psal 63.8 My Soul followeth hard after God and it knows how to make up all its losses in God though all be gone though thou art such a poor person as that thou canst not call any thing thine own yet if thou canst call God thine own thou canst make up all in him as David 1 Sam. 30.6 when all was gone yet he encouraged himself in the Lord his God This is the second Principle that true happiuess is no where to be had but in God it cannot be had in Creatures no not in the confluence of Creature comforts As Job speaks concerning all Creatures The heigth saith it is not in me the depth saith it is not in me so we may say of all Creature enjoyments though there is something of this nature that doth shew the vanity of all things here upon the earth yet this truth is more clearly manifested and strongly inculcated by this Doctrine of God than by any thing in nature I sall shew some things wherein Nature may be satisfied from the common Principles of Reason that the happiness of the Soul cannot consist in any thing but in the enjoyment of God 1. The first Principle from Nature is this Nothing can make us happy which a man may be without and yet be happy this excludes all things almost in the world a man may be happy without riches therefore riches cannot make him happy a man may be happy without greatness in the World without the esteem of men without worldly prosperity without a thousand things whcih have nothing else to advance them in our esteem but onely our own fancies These are not bread Isaiah 55.2 Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread these things below cannot profit nor relieve in the time of greatest need 2. Nothing that a man may be cloyed and glutted with can make him happy nothing that is disquieting or troublesome to the Soul can be its happiness there is nothing of all these outward things but there may be a surfetting with them and a superfluity of these things may be as burdensome as to want a sufficiencie for our support a may as well have too much of outward things as too little for his comfort The Prayer of wise Agar was good he prayed against too much as well as too little Prov. 30.6 there may be as much as may distracrt our thoughts with cares and to make us slaves and drudges to them and to deprive us of the comfort of what we have It was Augustus complaint in his high concition being the second Roman Emperor That he could never be at leasure for himself because of his businesses and so I may speak of knowledge Knowledge of all things is most pleasant and rational to a Creature yet Solomon ranks this among the pieces of vanity Eccles 1.18 In much wisdom there is much grief and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow So for pleasures and all kinds of wordly enjoyments whatsoever they cannot be pleasant to us should they be perpetuated but we should need some intermission to sweeten them to us 3. That which cannot satisfie all the desires of man cannot make him happy and therefore nothing below God can make him happy Man is a necessitous Creature and nothing here below can supply his necessities it must be a good adequate to all our necessities that can do it and this only can be God 4. Nothing that is unsutable to the Soul can be the happiness of it Now the Soul is a spiriual being therefore nothing but spiritual comforts enjoyments and refreshments are sutable to the Soul for men to place their comforts in outward things is to forget themselves to have Souls 5. Nothing that is disproportionable to the Soul in point of duration can be the happiness of the Soul The Soul is immortal and nothing that is mortal can be its happiness Deliver me from the men of this world wicked men are stiled the men of this world they have their good things here and they have all they are like to have and therefore David made it his request to God that he might be delivered from from them that is as to their condition O Lord deliver me from the men of this world who have their portion in this life Now though these Principles be agreeable to Nature and many of the Heathen have gone very far in owning and acknowledging of them yet this Doctrine of God our Saviour is transcendent in these very truths themselves because it doth improve heighten and advance these natural Principles it makes them both more clear and powerful and convincing it helps the Soul to a more inward sensation of these things and perceive that there is nothing that can relish with it or content it or quiet it besides God himself 2. It directs us how we that are afar of from God may be brought nigh to God how we that are enemies by Nature not only by evil works evil hearts by evil frames and dispositions may become friends God and we are at a distance Can two walk together and not be a greed Now this Doctrine of God our Saviour thews us how all the difference between God and us may be taken up by Jesus Christ this is the great design of the Doctrine of God to reveal this to us Mat. 1.21 His Name
ingratitude to that God who so highly deserves from every one of us So foolish was I and ignorant said David I was as a bruit beast and St. Paul I was a persecutor and blasphemer and injurious This and that though God had forgiven them their sins yet they would not forgive themselves nor forget their offences against God 5. We should walk humbly with God Mica 6.8 you have there a short abridgment of mans duty when the Hypocrite was so large in his proffers as thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyle no saith God He hath shewed the O man what is good in his own eyes to do Justice to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God This is a great and comprehensive duty to walk in a sense of our own weakness and in a dependance on God to look to him for direction to duty and for strength in duty that we may not be mistaken for want of direction nor miscarry for want of assistances 6. Lastly We must keep our selves in the love of God This is the great Rule which St. Jude propounds Epist Jude 21. vers Keep your selves in the love of God If you would do any thing in Religion to purpose if either you would persevere with constancy or make any considerable progress in adorning the Doctrine of God our Saviour you must keep your selves in the love of God Aplic 1. By way of Reproof if it be so that the great acknowledgment that God expects for this eminent Mercy the Gospel is that they should adorn it Then this reproves all that sort of Professors that are a disgrace and reproach to this Doctrine they profess it but they reproach it by their vicious carriages Consider how many there be that go under the name of Christians but yet are a dishonour to Christianity Salvian in his Book de Ecclesia often brings in the Heathen reproaching the Christians for their unsutable conversation to their Profession thereby giving occasion to the Heathen to blaspheme Says he Holy things would certainly be done by holy Persons did their Teachers instruct them aright and you may judge of him that is worshipped by them that do worship him How can he be a good Master whose Disciples are so bad It is observed at this day that the Idolatrous practice of the Papists in worshipping Images and Statues is a great stumbling block to the Jews and the chief impediment of their Conversion to Christianity the Jews of old time were very much addicted to the sin of Idolatry but it is observed that after once they went into Captivity and were sensible that it was for that sin that God had so long cast them off they were a most averse people to the sin of Idolatry ever since I might mention many Jewish Writers that mention this as the great stumbling-block to their Conversion and so here how many that are strangers to Jesus Christ are kept off from embracing this Doctrine of Christ from the intemperance and immorality of them that profess this Doctrine Christians who have but a dimmer light have scorned to do those things that many Professors have been guilty of in the face of the Sun this is a reproach to this Doctrine of God our Saviour There are five sorts of persons that I shall briefly speak of by way of reproof 1. Those worldly Professors who lay about them for these earthly things as if they believed nothing at all of what they profess concerning God Heaven and their Souls as if they expected no other happiness but what brute Beasts and Swine are capable of as if they were acted by an Epicurean spirit as if they minded what is present and totally flighted what is future Come say they let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die What a great reproach is this to the Doctrine of God our Saviour especially those that are moral amongst the Heathen this teacheth us that our Souls are our truest good but how many are there that live in a contradiction to this truth their chiefest endeavour is to gratifie their senses to make provision for that part of theirs that is common with them to brute beasts I mean their bodies This Doctrine teacheth us that in our selves we are miserable and in Creatures our wants can never be relieved and that our happiness-consists alone in God and that the light of his countenance is more than Corn Wine and Oyl and all that this world can afford that in God alone we have all and if we have not an interest in him we have nothing but emptiness in the midst of fulness and poor in the midst of riches and miserable in the midst of all our flourishing happiness in outward things this this Doctrine teacheth us but worldly Professors cannot credit these truths this Doctrine teacheth us to make Heaven our designe and Glory our aim while we look not at the things that are seen but the things which are not seen to those things that are invisible to an eye of sense and to live by faith now these Professors that make the world their Idol live in a perfect contradiction to all these great truths that this Doctrine propounds as the Rule by which we should walk through the whole course of our lives God bids us make Heaven our designe but worldly men make the world their designe God bids us look after future happiness and corrupt nature bids us mind our present ease and safety and advantages this is the way in which all the people of God have reached Heaven in ages past 2 Cor. 4.2 last verses So that this reproves all worldly Professors who are a reproach to those Principles that teach us to live by faith Now a worldly heart lives by sense he cannot trust God farther than he can see him if these outward confidences are secured then all is wel with him but if he be in worldly straits he can live no more by faith than what he hath in wordly supplies 2. This reproves all slothful and sluggish Professors indeed slothfulness is an unlovely thing in all persons slothful persons are the very burdens of the earth that they tread upon a Heathen called slothfulness The rust of the Soul but slothfulness in Christians of all persons is most culpable to be slothful in the service of so good a Master to be sluggish in so encouraging a work is most highly to be blamed in those that profess themselves Christians You that have such a gracious Lord to serve you that have all the encouragements that Servants can have O be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Heb. 6.12 and Rom. 12. Not slothful in business but fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. If there be any warmth or heat of our hearts and affections certainly it should be the things of God Are other things desirable how much more are these Can other things be refreshing to us how much more are these and in
may be heretical in their lives as well as in their Opinions to these the Apostle gives advice here in the Text that he should charge every one that names the Name of Christ to depart from iniquity How many are there that rest satisfied with a form of Godliness but deny the power of it these are the persons whom St. Paul gives Timothy advice here that he should labour to redeem from those formalities in which they rested that they should not think it enough to name the Name of Christ but they should express their sincerity therein by departing from iniquity In the words you have these two particulars 1. The persons to whom this advice is given that is to such as name the Name of Christ I shall shew you how it is used briefly in the Scripture There is a naming of the Name of Christ by profession they that own the Truths and Principles of Religion they that profess the Doctrines which our Saviour hath revealed in the Gospel Micha 4.5 it is spoken there of two sorts of persons of those that worship false gods and of those that worship the true God For all the people every one will walk in the Name of his God that is they own those Rules and acknowledge those Principles and we will walk in the Name of the Lord our God for ever This is a naming of Christ by way of profession 2. There is a naming of Christ in all the duties of Religion as in our Prayers Whatever you ask in my Name of the Father he will give it in our duties all must be offered up in his Name God hath given him a Name above every Name above all things in heaven and earth that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow that is in prayer Now in the former sense the naming the Name of Christ by profession is to be taken in opposition to Heathens who name the Name of other gods Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the families that call not upon thy Name Psal 79.6 3. There is a naming the Name of Christ in our Vows and Covenants and thus in our Baptism we vow to become his and hence it is that we are said to baptized in the Name of Christ which doth not only imply a desire to partake of those priviledges which Christ hath purchased but an obligation which we lay upon our selves to own him as our Lord and to submit to all his Commands and to be guided by his Will and Laws Acts 19.5 They were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus 4. There is a naming the Name of Christ in our expectations and hopes when we build all our confidence upon him alone The desires of our Souls are to thee and to the Remembrance of thy Name We look for no other mercy but what the Lord gives and no other help but what he vouchsafes these are the persons to whom St. Paul gives this advice Secondly Here is the advice and counsel it self Let all such persons depart from iniquity the Word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be an Apostate from sin and Satan When Luther was challenged by the Jesuites for being an Apostate because he had renounced his old Principles says he I confess I am but it is from the Devil Such an Apostacie is no reproach to a person nay such is of absolute necessity for we are all by nature servants to sin and in subjection to Satan Now let him depart from iniquity depart from the practice of it and from the love of it and as much as he can from any inclination to it you can never reconcile the profession of Christ and the practice of sin together that is the meaning of the Apostle doest thou name the Name of Christ and go on in sin Your lives are a contradiction to your profession Let every one that names c. depart from iniquity But then observe the extent here let every one not only those that so name the Name of Christ as having the Doctrine of Christ committed especially to them to communicate to other thus we read of naming the Name of Christ they taught in his Name but it is meant of all that profess the Name of Christ let every one in any way though he be but in a way of outward profession only let him make it his designe to depart from inquity The Observation is this Doct. There are special obligations upon all to depart from iniquity who name the Name of Christ I shall spak to these two heads in opening the Doctrinal part 1. That here are great ingagements upon all men to depart from iniquity this I shall prove from these Arguments 1. The first may from the nature of sin what is sin but our disease our burden and that which endangers our utter ruine should men be in love with poyson Should men hug that viper that will sting them to death the right knowledge of sin doth sufficiently evidence this now what is sin It is a transgression of Gods Law it is a trampling upon Gods Authority it is a refusing him to rule over us it is a making God our enemy it is a daring of him in the open field Do you provoke the Lord to anger are you stronger than he dare you enter the lists with the great God you will pity those distracted persons that labour for their own ruine and would hasten their own death by some kind of violence or other this is the practice of every sinner 2. In respect of God that obligation that lies upon all sorts of persons to have more reverend and high thoughts of God then to slight his Laws we are all his Creatures we owe our very beings to him it is God that made us we are his Creatures and the workmanship of his hands God may very well expect those beings which he hath given us should be imployed for him Shall a man plant a Vineyard and not eat of the fruit thereof If God hath made us men and bestowed natural endowments upon us and hath put us into a capacity for his service may not God reasonably expect that he should receive the fruit of all his charges and pains upon his account it was that God was so 〈…〉 with his antient people for all the 〈…〉 he had shewed to them says he When I looked for grapes behold they brought forth with grapes I have made you capable of my service will you imploy your selves in the service of other Masters your beings you have received from me is it not reasonable they should be imployed to his Glory since they have been received from his bounty Again in respect of Gods continuance and preservation of our beings this is from him Alas should not God support us every moment we should sink into our first nothing Heb. 1. Vpholding all things by things by the Word of his power it was God that first breathed life into us