leaves nothing upon the Believer to do in order to his preservation in his love and favour to which they alledge that in Phil. 2.12 13. That it is God that worketh in you to will and to doe of good pleasure Where the Apostle asserts that not as an evidence or argument to prove that there is nothing therefore left for the believer to doe in which he may possibly fail and to which he needs to be exhorted but as the reason and ground wherefore the believer should be careful to work out his own Salvation with fear and trembling for which there would be no room or ground if God wrought all things in the belieliever yea and his working out too irresistibly nor any need for to have exhorted them if they could not chuse but so work upon the account of God's working in them But the Apostle plainly implies that because its God that works in and through the Grace revealed to and received by the believer of good pleasure so as not bound or obliged so to work but only of his mercy and good will therefore it behooves believers to yield up themselves to and in his operations to will and do and so to work out what he is working in them and not to resist and quench his operations least so they should provoke him who is a free agent and works only of good will to be offended with them and withdraw his operations and good Spirit by which he is operating and working in them from them and then they can do nothing toward their salvation but be in danger to goe back to destruction As also the argument used ver 16. to inforce that instruction upon them seems clearly to imply in that he says That I may rejoyce in the day of Jesus Christ that I have not run in vain nor laboured in vain for to what purpose should he mention such a thing with respect to them if there had been no possibility of their failing of the Grace and happiness to which he laboured to bring them instrumentally or if there was nothing to be done by them that might conduce to their obtaining the end of his running and labouring amongst them at least that could possibly be neglected and left undone by them so as therethrough to indanger their failing thereof and so a disappointment of the Apostles desire and hope concerning them The whole Scripture as it were suspending the tenour of the continuance of believers in Gods love and favour upon their keeping his Commandments and exhorting therefore to diligence in observing and keeping them shews the vanity of such apprehensions and that there is something required on mans part to his being preserved in the Grace of God Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee love her and she shall keep thee Prov. 4.6 If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will pray the Father c. And be that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved that is continue to be loved of my Father and I will love him continue to loue him as John 15.10 and I will manifest mine own self to him John 14.21 23. Keep your selves in the love of God 3. Again it reproves and discovers the evil and naughtiness of those high and presumptuous thoughts which are the issue and fruit of the two former mentioned Deut. 29.18 19. wherein men having believed and being pronounced righteous and so being under the sentence of life as Ezek. 33.13 thereupon presume to commit iniquity and say in their hearts that though they do so and add drunkenness to their thirst satisfie their vain and sinful desires and lust never so greedily yet they are safe enough they cannot miscarry but shall have peace and favour with God still or if they may provoke God to some displeasure against them so as to chastise them yet that shall be the worst that shall or may befal them These thoughts also contrary to what is foreshewed and to many serious threats in the Scriptures as that the Lord will not spare such an one but then his wrath and his jealousie shall smoke against him and the Lord shall blot his name from under Heaven Deut. 29.20 and that he who when God hath said unto him as righteous thou shalt surely live shall thereupon trust to his own righteousness and commit iniquity shall surely die Ezek. 33.13 and therefore even believers are admonished not to be high minded but fear Rom. 11.20 21 22. 2. It also serves to exhort and provoke believers to watchfulness care and diligence in taking heed to the Grace of God and cleaving thereto and quitting themselves as men that they may continue and abide in that state of love and favor to which they are freely chosen of God in Christ making their calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and election thereto firm and sure as 2 Pet. 1.10 to that purpose adding to or in their faith vertue or courage for God and his truth and against Sathan sin and all that stands cross to their well-doing and in vertue knowledge to direct and guide all their zeal and courage aright and in knowledge temperance sobriety in thoughts of themselves not aspiring to pry into things above their reach or that they have not seen in the testimony of God as also temperance in use of the mercies of God in the things of this life and of their liberties thereto to which their knowledge makes way least by undue use of their liberties offend other ◠and in their temperance patience both to continue therein denying themselves and abstaining from fleshly lusts and also in induring whatsoever sufferings and adversities may befal them in their way and in patience Godliness an acknowledgement of God and his power and goodness and a depending on him and looking to him in all things and making him the Alpha and Omega of their lives and actions receiving all from him and living in all things to him by Jesus Christ and in godliness Brotherly kindness an hearty intire love of the Brethren being kind and courteous and of one minde with them loving as Brethren and Heirs together of the same Grace and inheritance and in Brotherly kindness charity a free and gracious affection and love to men not for any goodness in them rendring them worthy of love as in Brotherly kindness but because of Gods free and gracious love and affection both to us and them so loving others even all men as we are loved of God as men seeking to win by love those that are without and to doe them good even as he hath done to us though unworthy of love from him If we doe those things we shall never fall if we goe on thus adding Grace to Grace Growing in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To such like purposes both our Lord himself and his Servants have given manifold exhortations and Counsels As to watch and pray
as an holy Temple or building and therefore ought also to be clean and chast and holy in all things to him as he that hath appointed it for his habitation and dwells therein is holy 2. In that the Believers are the matter to be built upon that most holy Faith it is implyed too that they yet are imperfect and not compleat in themselves or in their conformity to Christ and attainments from Christ their faith is most holy no blemish or imperfection or defect in that but they that are in or upon it are not so they need to be builded up and perfected they may yea it s but meet and right that they should acknowledge their own shortness in holiness or goodness that so they may attend to grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ but they may not fault the faith once delivered to the Saints or accuse it of want or defect or bear that it be faulted added to or altered they are to let that alone as it is in that respect but attend that they themselves may be added to in their believing living righteously godlily and soberly in this present evil world though they be compleat in Christ their Head Root and Foundation Col. 2.10 yet in their attainments of the knowledge of Christ and conformity to him in holiness and happiness they have not yet attained neither are already perfect as the Apostle sayes of himself Philip. 3.14 15. They see but darkly and as in a glass not so as they are seen they know but in part and prophecy but in part that that is perfect in those respects is not yet come but to be waited for by them 1 Cor. 13.9 11. they may yet and ought to add in their faith vertue and in vertue knowledg and in knowledge temperance and in temperance patience and in patience godliness and in godliness brotherly kindness and in brotherly kindness charity 2 Peter 1.5.6 7. It will do us no hurt to acknowledge our own shortness and imperfection in our attainments so we also acknowledge the fulness and perfection of the most holy faith for perfecting us and bringing us to the inheritance yea as it is dangerous for Believers and leads to their destruction to admit an imperfection and defect in the faith for that will lay them open to impostures to corrupt them therefrom so not to acknowledge their own imperfection and defect to say they have no sin or have attained all fulness of knowledge and goodness or with the Church of Laodicea that They are rich and increased with goods and need nothing is very dangerous and destructive to them also laying them open to pride and puffings up in themselves as also to slothfulness covetousness and security and by that means to sail of the Grace of God and to be deluded and carried captive of Satan to their own destruction It implyes further 3. That their perfection in conformity to Christ and attainments by Christ is to be sought for in abiding in their most holy Faith and so by and from it as it signifies the object or foundation of it which is Christ and by and through the the faith as it signifies the Doctrine holding forth Christ They are not to seek further growth and perfection by going away from that to some other doctrine as better fitted for that purpose for then should not this be the most holy faith but that other doctrine should be more holy than this nor should they build up themselves thereon but besides this as quitting and forsaking this that they might be built up or build up themselves on some other thing but here they are to continue holding fast that which they have heard and received And to that purpose it is that the Apostle being about to leave the Elders of Ephesus and the Churches thereabout commits them to God and to the word of his Grace as able to build them up and to give them the inheritance Act. 20 32. and tells the Corinths that they should be saved in keeping in memory what they had received in the Gospel preached by him from the beginning or in the first things of it 1 Cor. 15.1 2 3. and 1.22 23. So the Apostle John too 1 John 2.24 25. for this doctrine is not like that of the Law or first Testament that made nothing perfect but perfection is herein and herethrough to be attained so far as we be capable of attaining it here yea to the inheritance it self also it is onely Christ as herein set forth that doth bring men The Doctrine then or faith once delivered to the Saints is not at any time to be waved or altered by us but suffered to abide and to be abid in by us and on that Believers are to build up themselves who are yet in themselves imperfect stand in need of building It s the foundation laid for them that upholds them and bears them up from sinking all their faith hope stay comfort springs therefrom and stands thereupon but it self stands upon none of them nor is added to or made more holy by them yea they themselves as to their Spirits and spiritual conditions stand upon it are what they are as a Building for God from and by it and in union with it and besides that there is no standing for them or any man nothing to support relieve or comfort them against the accusations of the Law and sin and Sathan nothing else to secure them and keep them from perishing in the wrath to come no other Sacrifice for sins to be found but what this presents nor otherwise than as this presents and therefore no forgiveness justification or salvation but upon and according to this faith and doctrine All the blessing and fulness of God is here dwelling and sure to be met with by those that there seek and wait for him and nothing but lies and emptiness can any finde to uphold them if this be turned from No work or worth no prayers or tears or acts of a man can help him that hath rejected and is besides this foundation all the Building therefore is to be on this but then it s to be inquired 5. How the believer is to be built thereupon and how to build up himself and what that implies to 〈◊〉 we may say 1. The building themselves upon this is the firming themselves in the belief and acknowledgment of this most holy faith a growing more into it and in union with it more to believe it and discern and see into the truth fulness and abundance in it more to love it and adhere to it as having all things of worth and excellencie in it and as thence seeking and expecting them and then 2. The deriving vertue from it strength courage fortitude patience and so the divine vertues in it to an increase and augmentation in all holiness and conformity to Christ and so an ascending up or mounting up more heaven-ward and God◠ward in
and Glory all those that submit to and serve him and everlastingly destroying all their enemies so as they never be able more to oppose or trouble theâ— A merciful High-Priest that can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities and temptations while yet we are under the vexations of Enemies and one that will most faithfully see to us and accomplish all things for and about us that may conduce to our preservation and safety here while under tryals and to our eternal happiness when fully freed from them The considering and minding him and the testimony of God concerning him as also what it it says and testifies of us ouâ— vileness sinfulness helplesness and misery in our-selves and of our welfare and happiness in him as founded in him and what it testifies of the world of sin of righteousness life death c. with all the Heavenly instructions reproofs and consolations of it is one yea the chief way of edifying our selves on our most holy faith while we therein and therethrough draw vertue from Christ as the poor woman by touching his garments to the nourishing and strengthning our Soules to trust in him love him cleave to him and obey him and so to oppose and stand against the assaults of Sathan evils of the world lusts of the flesh or whatsoever might endeavour to allure or affright us from him yea and derive all Heavenly Grace and vertue from him to the inlarging our Souls towards him and fitting them for and filling them with every good thing Therefore the Holy Ghost in the Scripture is so frequent in commending to us and provoking us to the study mindfulness and meditation of the Law and Doctrine of the Lord the Gospel of our salvaâ—â—n pronouncing that man happy and blessed that delights himself therein and gives up himself thereto As also the minding others of it and of the instructions reproofs and consolations of it is the way to edifie them also both by removing the rubbish that hinders their close cleaving to Christ the foundation and more firmly cementing them to and uniting them with Christ through his love and goodness discovered to them and put to their mindes and more firmely joyning them through the same love one to another and furthering their hope in and conformity to God and Christ in which they are edified and built up for him And as furtherance also hereto a further means and way is 2. A diligent and faithful exercise of their spiritual gifts for the helpfulness of each other for the manifestation of the Spirit some useful gift or other in which the Holy Spirit manifests his presence and influence and whereby he fits each member of Christ for the good of the whole Body is given to every one namely of the Members of Christ to profit with 1 Cor. 12.7 that is to do good too and edifie the Church or body of Christ with as to one is given by the Spirit a word of wisdome for directing and counselling what is best in doubtful matters to another a word of knowledge to inform mens minds of the things of God and nature of his Creatures works Providences c. To another faith a gift of believing and trusting in God more eminently or of incouraging to faith and confidence or also of faithfulness in keeping secret things committed to them not divulging the temptations failings and miscarriages of others imparted to them To another the gifts of healings either of the inward wounds and distempers of the Spirit or of bodily diseases by a miraculous way To another the working of Miracles or operations and efficacies of powers or powerful things such as the inflicting diseases deaths or such sad punishments upon men as when the Apostle Peter inflicted death upon Ananias and Saphirah at his word Act. 5 and Paul blindness on Barâ—Jesus the Sorcerer in Act. 13.10 11. as also the casting out Devils or the like To another prophecie either the fore-telling things to come as Agabus did Acts 11.28 or the opening and unfolding Doctrine and speaking out of the Scriptures to exhortation edification and comfort 1 Cor. 14.3 To another the discerning of Spirits the discerning the Doctrines of men though never so craftily counterfaiting the truth or discerning mens tempers and dispositions whereby they are fit to admonish and warn their Brethren of what may harm them or of persons not safe for them to trust To another diversity of Tongues To another a gift of Interpreting Languages Divers gifts from one and the same spirit of Christ distributing to every one according as he pleases but all given for the helpfulness and profit of the Church and therefore also to be to that purpose exercised as the Apostles also instruct and teach as in 1 Pet. 4.10 every one as he hath received the gift so let him minister one towards another as good stewards of the manifold or various Graces of God So in Rom. 12.6 7. Having gifts differing according to the Grace that is given unto us whether prophesie let us prophesie according to the proportion of saith or ministry let us wait on our ministry as Joshuah on his ministring to Moses Exod. 24.13 and John to Paul and Barnabas Act. 13.5 or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortation c. surely in such exercising their spiritual gifts and imploying and improving their Talents they may be useful and helpful for edifying themselves and one another for while they are faithful in doing good with what they have received and are betrusted with God gives his blessing with them and increases them themselves the liberal Soul here shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself and he shall profit and edifie others also as the Apostle exhorting Timothy to take heed to himself and his ministry and to continue in them tells him so should be save himself and them that heard him adde 3. A walking in Charity for knowledge without that puffs up but Charity edifies 1 Cor 8.2 3. that's the most profitable way the Grace or vertue that will lead us to be most useful and edifying to others for that will lead us to be ready at all times to exercise our gifts and improve our Talents for the good of others and to mind their concernments and what may further their happiness and not to look on our own things onely Charity suffers long from others before it will be tired out or suffer him in whom it is to turn away from seeking their good and is kind in the mean time free to do good to others while it suffers great indignities and abuses long from them It envies not others good nor the imparting our gifts to others for their good Doth not vaunt it self nor is puffed up to the grieving and discouraging the neighbour or dispising his meaner condition and worth Doth not behave it self unseemly to offend and stumble the weak Brother and to turn him out from God Seeketh not her own but
him they should not perish but have everlasting life Job 3.16.17 And if he spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 Having when we were enemies reconciled us to himself by the death of his Son how much more shall we be saved by his life Chap. 5.10 2. That Jesus Christ according to the will of God his Father hath actually come forth and been manifested in a body of flesh and dyed for our sins suffering the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being made a curse that he might redeem us from the curse of the Law and from under the obligation too of seeking righteousness by the Law and so of living or dying according as we fulfilled or fell short of that that so we might receive the adoption of children that we might be taken into Gods house and into more near relation to him and be provided for of all things good for us freely by him And he that dyed for us to these ends to take away those evils that hindred and stopt up the passages of all good is risen again as a person that hath done and compleated his work he undertook to do by dying hath paid our debts satisfied for our sins and is therefore acquitted and justified of God and raised up again to prosecute and pursue our good further in the power of God and this that our hope might be in God as in 1 Pet. 1.21 Now seeing that he in Christs death hath removed what might hinder on his part good from us and hath raised up him that had such love to us as to die for us to remove what might hinder our good on our parts to be the Author of good to us the soul sees good ground thence of lively hope and is begotten to a lively hope of a glorious inheritance by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 1.3 wherein it was made manifest that Christ hath abolished the death and obtained life and righteousness for us Especially since 3. That Jesus Christ that dyed for us and rose again is now on the right hand of God Angels and Thrones and Principalities being made subject to him so as he hath supreme power over all things for our good yea and also liveth ever to make request or intercession with God for us even for such as come to God by him And that in the vertues of his most perfect and acceptable Sacrifice that prevails and prospers for whatsoever he asketh As also he shall come again in the power and glory of God to raise and judge all and give eternal life and an everlasting Kingdom to all that obey him 1 Pet. 3.21 Rom 8.34 Heb. 5.9 7.25 Matth. 25.31.36 Heb. 9.28 4. That God of his great mercy and in his goodness hath called the now Believer to the faith of his Son and brought him in some measure to know and believe on him and so hath taken him into his house and family to live upon his Son and his Grace in him Hath delivered him from the power of darkness and translated him into the kingdom of his dear Son Col. 1.12 13. in whom there is the redemption forementioned and such fulness and sufficiency to save him and to perfect what concerns him hath already so loved as to suffer for him while a sinner and enemy as before And faithful is he that hath called to do what yet is needful further to be done for and in us 1 Thess 4.23 24. we being through his death reconciled how much more by his life shall we be saved Rom. 5.10 being brought upon that foundation that is most holy and that is laid strong and sure for the upholding and sanctifying to God all that is built upon it how shall he not for that foundation sake and by it confer upon us his further grace and blessing to prepare and fit us for his inhabiting us and filling us with glory Seeing also 5. That God now by vertue of this foundation or holy faith loves the Believer owning him as his imbraces him as his son and is become a Father to him and if God justifies who is he that shall charge or condemn If God be for us who is he that it against us That is considerable in comparison of him Rom. 8.31 38. To which add 6. That he hath made many gracious and precious promises in Christ to the believer in him abiding on that foundation and building up himself thereon and praying to him in the Holy Ghost yea promises for his administring grace to him for his abiding strengthning and building up as that he will be with them and bless them never leave them nor forsake them that he will be their God and they shall be his people He will be a Father to them and they shall be his sons and daughters yea godlines hath the promise of this life and that that is to come for the performance whereof both Christs Mediation with his Father and the faithfulnes of God are engaged both by his word and oath in which two it is impossible for him to lye in and through Christ are interested and faithful is he that hath promised who also will do it 1 Thess 5.24 Heb. 10.23 And Christ the great Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession is faithful in the performance of his undertaking for us also Hebr. 9.15 and 3.1 2. But besides that hoping 2. This waiting implies further a tarrying for the good hoped for a patient abiding and staying in the way to the enjoyment of what it expects In which also two things are contained 1. That God doth exercise the believer under a want and with a delay of what mercy and good he hath provided for him and promised to him He doth not presently possess the soul of all the good he intends it nor presently perform all that he hath promised Though he gives what ever he sees good and meet for its present case according to that method in which his wisdom hath ordered to lead it yet the great things he hath prepard for it he doth not presently confer The vision the mercy discover'd promis'd in the Gospel is for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie or fail though it tarry wait for it saith Hab. 2.3 because it will surely come viz. at the appointed time beyond which it will not tarry but it s for an appointed time till which it will tarry and not come or be accomplished And this God doth 1. To try and exercise the Believers faith to see and prove whether he doth believe in him or not and to draw his faith out into exercise while it grapples with delays and non appearances to sense and reason that so it will be as is said to it So the word of the Lord tried Joseph while it was not of a good time performed to him yea while it seemed