and perfect working and the issue will bee increase of beleevers let faith have her perfect working and the issue will bee increase of love and let love have her perfect working and the whole world will be so refined that God will be all in all for hee that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God in whom ever fare you well and bee cheerefull THE POVVER OF LOVE Tit. 2. 11 12. The grace or love of God that bringeth salvation unto all men hath appeared teaching us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously godly in this present world IT is evident though it be little regarded or considered the more is the pity that in naturall things all things whatsoever that are necessary for the use of mankinde the use of them is to be understood easily with out study or difficulty every Capacity is capable thereof and not only so but they are all likewise ready at hand or easily to be had a blessing that God hath afforded to every man insomuch that there is no part of the habitable world but yeeldes sufficient of usefull things for a comfortable and pleasant sustentation of the inhabitants as experience testifieth in all places and Saint Paul witnessed that God left himselfe not without witnesse in that he did good gave them raine from heaven and fruitfull seasons feeding their hearts with foode and gladnesse by all which it plainely appeares that God ever intendeth unto man a pleasant and comfortable life you know it is said that God made man righteous but he sought out many inventions that is he made him naturally a rationall creature judging rightly of all things and desiring only what was necessary and so being exempt from all labour and care of obtaining things superfluous he passed his dayes with aboundance of delight and contentment until he sought out unto himselfe many inventions inventions of superfiuous subtilities and artificiall things which have beene multiplied with the ages of the world every age still producing new so now in these latter times we see nothing but mens inventions in esteeme and the newer the more precious if I should instance in particulars I should or might be endlesse as in diet your selves know to your costs for it costs you not only your monyes but your healths and length of dayes that this fruitfull nation sufficeth not to furnish scarce the meanest meale you make but something must be had to please the luxurious palate from forraine and farre countryes and ever the farther the better and the dearer the more acceptable you know likewise the excessive provision that is made for entertainments and set meetings where all grosse meates you know my meaning must be banished and nothing admitted but what is rare and fine and full of invention in the dresses sauces and manner of service where all the senses must be pleased to the heighth of all possible conceipt If I should reckon up your new inventions for buildings and furniture for your houses and the common costlinesse of your apparell and should set before you the manifold vexations perplexities distractions cares and inconveniences that accrew unto you by these your vaine and ridiculous follies I might be endlesse therein also and lose my labour for there is no hope that I should prevaile for a reformation of these things when your daily experience scourges you continually therunto in one kind or other and all in vaine yet I shall take leave to tell you that in these things you walke not as becommeth the gospell of Christ but are carnall and walke as men as vaine fantasticall inconsiderate men such as very heathen and meere naturall men would be a shamed of their experience that a life according to nature to be content with little with what was ever ready and easy to be had was the most pleasant life and exempt from all vexations was instruction sufficient unto many of them to frame themselves thereunto and to abandon all kindes of superfluities without retaining the least thereby obtained a freedome to apply themselves to the consideration and practise of wisedome and vertue It is a wonderfull thing to my understanding that men should call themselves Christians and professe to be religious and to be diligent readers of Scripture and hearers of Sermons and yet content themselves to bee indeed in many things carnall and to walke as did the most indiscreete and inconsiderate Gentiles Doth the Scripture teach no more then nature teacheth though it doe infinitely yet your practise compared with wise considerate naturall men declares it doth not how extreamely then thinke you doe you cause the name of God to be blasphemed Doe you thinke it is sufficient that you are not drunkards nor adulterers nor usurers nor contentious persons nor covetous beloved if you will truely deserve the name of Christians it is not sufficient but you are to abandon all superfluities all poring after vaine superfluous things and thereby to exempt your selves from all unnecessary cares that choake the Word and bee at liberty to consider and to apply your selves freely to the continuall contemplation of the infinite love of God evidently and plainely set forth unto you in his blessed word as in the words that I have read un-you for as it is in naturall things so holds it in spirituall God hath dealt abundantly well with us there being nothing that is necessary either for the enlightning of our understandings or the peace of our mindes but what hee hath plainely declared and manifestly set forth in his Word so plainely that the meanest capacity is fully capable of a right understanding thereof and need not to doubt but that he is so I will not say that God is not more good unto us then we are hurtfull to our selves for his goodnesse is more availeable to our welfare then our evill can be to our misery but wee are as evill to our selves in all things as we can be possible and that not onely in naturall things but likewise in spirituall and divine things too for therein also we have our inventions the plaine and evident places of Scripture manifestly declaring our peace and reconciliation with God is become nauseous to us they make salvation too easie to be understood and tender it upon too easie tearmes and too generall this Manna that comes to us without our labour industry study and watching is two fulsome something that hath bones in it must bee found out and will become more acceptable every child or babe in Christs Schoole can understand these We are full growne men in Christ wee have spent our time in long and painefull studies and have full knowledge in all Arts and sciences there is no place of Scripture too hard for us shew us the mysteries we cannot reveale the Parables that wee cannot clearely open the Prophesies that wee cannot interpret a word or Syllable that wee cannot fitly apply or the most palpable seeming contradiction that we cannot reconcile nay it is to
be doubted wee have seene the vaine humour of man puft so high and the world so fill'd and pestered with works and labours of this vaine nature lest there are some such daring undertakers that like as Alexander the great is said to have wept that there were no more worlds to conquer so these Champions are grieved that there are nâ— harder places for their braines to worke upon or which is more to bee lamented one would fearâ— they are much troubled that the most necessary truths are so easie to be understood for that when they treate upon some very plaine place of Scripture even so plaine as thiâ— which I have read unto you yet in handling thereof they make it difficult and darken the cleare meaning thereof with their forced and artificiall glosses but as I wish there were no such dealers in divinâ— things so have I in my selfe resolved to avoid these extreame evills for as in naturall things I am fully assured there is nothing of necessary use but what is easily understood and even ready at hand so also doth my experience tell me that we have no bettering of our understandings or quieting of our mindes the end for which God hath vouchsafed his word from any places of Scripture that hath any obscurity in them but from such as are clearely exempt from all difficulty You know God frequently complaines by his Prophets saying My people will not consider they will not understand and when I consider that your owne experience schooles you not sufficiently against your dotage upon the vaine superfluities of this world wherein you know your selves to be carnall and to walke as men heaping unto your selves vexation upon vexation I doe wonder that it doth not stagger the Ministers of God in their publishing of things divine to a people so qualified so extreamely inconsiderate indeed it would make one to suspect the doctrine that you continually heare that it were not powerfull nor from heaven but weake and fitted to your corrupt humours and customes since after so long time it hath not subdued your worldly mindednesse Sure I am and I must have leave to tell you that there is utterly a fault amongst you nay those expressions are too soft you have almost nothing but faults amongst you and you will not consider which you must doe and seriously too or you will never reduce your selves into such a condition as will be really sutable to the blessed name of Christians Beloved I have seriously considered it and it is not your case alone but it is the universall disease I know not any that is not infected therewith nor to whom it may not be said Physitian heale thy selfe the milke we have suckt and the common ayre hath beene totally corrupted our first instructions and all after discourses have beene indulgent flatterers to our darling superfluities and therefore he that undertakes the cure must bee sure to bee provided of a fit and powerfull medicine and to be diligent and faithfull in his undertaking it is a taske that I have proposed unto my selfe and though I should meete with the greatest discouragements as the world is like enough to furnish his utmost forces to preserve his Kingdome yet considering whose service I have undertaken and whose works it is I shall not despaire of successe I am not ignorant that this worke hath often-times beene attempted and persisted in but with little fruit through the universall mistake that men are sooner perswaded from their vanities through pressures of the law and affrighting terrors of wrath and hell then by the cordes of love which yet I abundantly preferre as you may perceive by this text which I have chosen for when all is done It is the love of God bringing salvation that teacheth us to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world I must entreate your most carnest attention as being full of hope that I shall doe you much more good then you conceive for I must tell you I cannot cure you of your earthly mindednesse of your dotage upon superfluities till I have first showne you your peace and reconciliation with God and have wrought in you through the power of Gods word peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost You are then seriously to consider what is said and understanding will succeed The love of God I know is often spoken of a theame that hath begotten abundance of bookes and discourses yet none in no comparison like the Scriptures most if not all discourses that ever I have read or heard doe in some sense or other or in in some measure injure and wrong those blessed discourses therof The love and favour of God saith David is better then life it selfe What man in the whole world doth not gladly heare the joyfull tydings of the love of God But it is good that every man rightly understand and mistake not himselfe in this so blessed and delightfull Subject I shall lay downe therfore some infallible principles which concerne the same And I shall tell you nothing but what your selves know and that is that God doth most vehemently hate all manner of sinnes and that it is impossible for him to doe otherwise as being directly opposite to his most righteous nature and to that righteous nature wherein at first man was created for in the likenesse of God created he him and whilst you consider this I shall advise you not to flatter your selves as the Pharisee did saying Lord I thanke thee I am not as other men extortioners unjust adulterers drunkards covetous proude or licentious can you say you have noe sinne if you should the word of God would contradict you which testifieth that he that saith he hath no sinne is a liar and the truth is not in him and if sinne be in every one necessarily it followes where sinne is there is Gods hatred nor doeth it any whit excuse or exempt those from the hatred of God that can say their sinnes are fewe in number and of very meane condition compared to others whosoever you are that are thus indulgent to your selves you doe but deceive your selves for Gods hatred his wrath and anger is so exact against all and every sinne and so odious it is in his sight than he denounceth saying Cursed is every one that continueth not to doe all that is written in the booke of the law So as every mouth must be stopped and all the world stand guilty before God and though the sense and deepe apprehension of this woefull condition doe worke in you the deepest of sorrow though you should spend your dayes in weeping and your nights in woefull lamentation though you should repent your selves in dust and ashes and cover your selves with sackcloathes though you should fast yourselves into palenesse and hang downe your heads alwayes though you should give all your goods to the poore nay though you should offer up the fruit of your bodies for
dare to dye but to confirme thy timerous heart verse 8. God commendeth his love towards us in that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for us v. 9. much more being then justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him v. 10. for if when we were enemies we were reconciled by the death of his Sonne much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life so as now thou hast cause to joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom thou hast received the atonement and to take from thee all staggering in the 18. v. he confirmes thee saying As by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life and in â—he 20. vers because he knew thy pronenesse to make questions still about the Law he tels thee the Law entred that sinne might abound but withall assures thee that where sinne abounded grace or love did much more abound that as sinne had reigned unto death even so grace or love might reign through righteousnesse unto eternall life through Christ our Lord. Beloved God by the power of his Word hath begotten so ful assurance of these things in me as that thereby he hath made me an able Minister of the New Testament not of the Letter or the Law but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit that is the Gospel giveth life Nor doe I see any cause why any of you here present should so much as doubt your salvation I am a Minister of reconciliation and am thereby bound to tell you for woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel as in the 2 Cor. 5. 19. that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the Word of reconcilation Now then we are Ambassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you to be reconciled unto God for he hath made him to be sinne for us that knew no sinne that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him so as however we may vainely conceive to our owne prejudice God considers us not as we see our selves full of sinne full of iniquity but as we should consider our selves agreeable to all these passages of his blessed Word fully and perfectly washed from all our sinnes by the bloud of his Son which every one of us doe beleeve though we doe not consider and then with unspeakable joy we shall see that we are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne that we are justified freely by his grace that for our lost righteousnesse of the Law we are made the righteousnesse of God In him having peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost by whose word these blessed truths are declared unto us Are these things so indeed doth God accept me a poore miserable sinner as righteous in his sight and freed from sinne from all sinne Heare still the Word of God he hath borne our sinnes in his body on the tree and it is the bloud of Christ that cleanseth thee from all sinne he by his one oblation once offered hath made a full perfect and sufficient satisfaction and sacrifice for the sinnes of the whole world and if we sinne we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes and not for ours onely but for the sinnes of the whole world This worke of your redemption and reconciliation with God was perfected when Christ died and nothing shall be able to separate you from his love then purchased neither infidelity nor impenitencie nor unthankfulnesse nor sinne nor any thing whatsoever can make void his purchase no though with the Jewes you should deny the Lord that bought you so powerful was his bloud-shed ding and of so full value for discharging of all our debts past present and to come so infinite is his goodnesse so free is his love and so abundantly happy is our condition though many of us have beene too too ignorant thereof and for want of this knowledge many of us have walked very uncomfortably spending our time in fasting weeping and mourning in praying reading and hearing and in performance of other duties as you call them and all to get Christ our feare distracts our judgements that wee consider not what the Scripture sets forth unto us if we did wee should see aparently that it sets forth salvation wrought and perfected for ever to whom doth it manifest the same to sinners to the ungodly to all the world a worke perfected depending on no condition no performance at all What would people have to give peace to their mindes you doe wrong your selves through nice distinctions the word of God is given to declare these truths and that he is our peace the word of God you doe beleeve and so cannot but be comforted the onely end for which it is preserved unto you that you might reade and know and understand your blessed condition for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God and you are to looke for no other testimony nor are you to doubt your selves for though your present comfort depends upon your beleeving this word yet the worke of Christ depends not on your beleeving and though you should not beleeve yet hee is faithfull and cannot deny himselfe to be your redeemer your peace-maker your Saviour Men are not pleased except salvation be proved to be very difficult to bee obtained it must still depend either on our beleeving or doing or repenting or selfe-deniall or Sabbath-keeping or something or other or else man is not pleased too easie good God! that free love should be suspected that because it is easie to be had we should put it farre from us why God knew full well thou wert dead he considered that thou wert but dust suppose he had required any thing of thee without which thou shouldst have no part in Christ what a sad case hadst thou beene in goe thy wayes and with chearefulnesse possesse his infinite love and declare unto thy brethren what the Lord hath done for al our souls tel them that the love of God bringing salvation hath appeared teaching us to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And I shall desire to know of all that heare me this day whereof some may happily be addicted to the corruptions of this world for our times though we call them times of light yet do abound with gluttony drunkennesse and whoredome usury pride oppression and all kinde of wickednesse such as is not to be named amongst Christians what shall I say to these things it will be in vaine for me to reprove you for them for men never reforme their vices till first their judgements be well informed and then they kindly reforme themselves I shall onely demand