searching we could find them out unto perfection but to believe what is spoken till the day break and the shadows flee away and the darknesse of ignorance be wholly dispelled by the rising of the Sun of Righteousnesse We are called then to receive this truth that God is one truly one and there are three in this one the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost This I say you must believe because the wisdom of God faith it though you know not how it is or how it can be though it seem a contradiction in reason a Trinity in Unity yet you must lead your reason captive to the obedience of faith silence it with this one answer The Lord hath said it If thou go on to dispute and to enquire how can these things be Thou art escaped from under the power of Faith and are fled unto the tents of humane wisedom where thou mayest learn artheism but no Religion for the world through wisedom knew not God 1 Cor. 1. And certainly who ever he be that will not quiet his conscience upon the bare word of truth in this particular but will call in for the help of reason and disputation how to understand and maintain it I think he shall be further from the true knowledge of God and satisfaction of mind than before There is no way here but to flee into Pauls Sanctuary Who art thou O man that disputes When ever thou thinks within thy self How may this be how can one be three and three one then withall let this of Pauls sound in thine ears Who art thou O man who disputes Think that thou art man think that he is God Believing ignorance is much better than rash presumptuous knowledge ask not a reason of these things but rather adore and tremble at the mysterie and Majesty of them Christianity is foolishnesse to the world upon this account because it 's an Implicite faith so to speak given to God but there is no fear of being deceived though he lead thee blind by a way thou know not yet he cannot lead thee wrong This holy simplicity in believing every word of God trusting without more trying by disputation is the very Character of Christianity and it will be found only true wisdome for if any will become wise he must be a fool in mens account that he may be wise he must quite his reason to learn true Religion which indeed is a more excellent and divine reason neither is it contrary to it though it be high above it In this place of Moses you have the Unity of God asserted The Lord thy God is one Lord And that is indeed engraven on the very hearts of men by nature That God is One for all may know that the common notion and apprehension of God is that he is a most perfect being the Originall of all things most wise most powerfull infinite in all perfections Now common reason may tell any man that there can bee but one thing most perfect Excellent there can be but one infinite one Almighty one beginning and end of all one first mover one first cause of whom are all things and who is of none Again in this place of Iohn ye have a Testimony of the blessed Trinitie of Persons Father Son and holy Ghost in that holy Unity of Essence The great point which Iohn hath in hand is this fundamentall of our Salvation that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Saviour of the World in whom all our confidence should be placed and upon whom we should lean the weight of our souls this he proves by a twofold testimony one out of Heaven another in the Earth There are three bearing witnesse to this truth in heaven The Father the word that is Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God whom this Apostle calls the word of God or wisdom of God Ioh. 1. 1. and the Holy Ghost The Father witnessed to this truth in an audible voice out of Heaven when Christ was baptized Mat. 3. 17. This is my wel-belovd Son hear him here 's the Fathers Testimony of the Son when he was baptized which was given very solemnly in a great congregation of people and divinely with great glory and Majesty from Heaven as if the heavens had opened upon him and the inaccessible light of God had shined down on him which was confirmed in the transfiguration Mat. 17. 5. VVhere the Lord gave a glorious evidence to the astonishment of the three Disciples how he did account of him how all Saints and Angels must serve him Him hath God the Father sealed saith Iohn Indeed the stamp of divinitie of the divine Image in such an excellent manner upon the man Christ was a Seal set on by God the Father signifying confirming his approbation of his well-beloved Son and of the work he was going about Then the Son himself did give ample Testimony of this this was the subject of his Preaching to the VVorld I am the light and life of men He that beleeveth on mee shall be saved and therefore he may be called the word of God and the wisedom of God Joh. 1. 1. Prov. 8. Because he hath revealed unto us the blessed mysterie of Wisdom concerning our Salvation He is the very expression and Character of the Fathers person and Glory Heb. 1. In his own Person and he hath revealed and expressed his Fathers mind and his own Office so fully to the World that there should be no more doubt of it Out of the mouth of these two witnesses this Word might be established But for superabundance behold a third the Holy Ghost witnessing at his baptisme in his Resurrection after his Ascension the Holy Ghost signifieth his presence and consent to that work in the similitude of a Dove the Holy Ghost testified it in the power that raised him from the dead the Holy Ghost put it beyond all question when he descended upon the Apostles according to Christs promise For the other three witnesses on earth we shal not stay upon it only know that the work of the regeneration of souls by the power of the word and spirit signified by water the justification of guilty souls signified by the blood of Jesus Christ the Testimony of the spirit in our Conscience bearing witnesse to our Spirits is an assured Testimony of this that Jesus Christ in whom we believe is the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth The changing pacifying and comforting of souls in such a wonderfull manner cryes aloud that he in whom the soul believes is the true and living God whom to know is eternal life But mark I pray you the accuracy of the Apostle in the change of the speech these three witnesses on earth saith he agree in one in giving one common testimony to the Son of God and Saviour of Sinners But as for the heavenly witnesses the Father the Word and Holy Ghost how ever they be three after an inconceivable manner
undoing then vvhen indignation and vvrath is pursuing it O that you vvould ponder vvhat you lose by it both the sweetnesse and advantage of godlinesse beside the dishonour of God You take a formall neglegent and secure vvay as the most easie vvay and the most pleasing to your flesh and I am perswaded you find it the most difficult vvay because you vvant all the pleasant sweet refreshment soul-delights you might have in God by a serious and diligent minding of Religion The pleasure and sweetnesse of God tasted and found vvill make diligence and pains more easie then slothfulnes can be to the slothfull this oyls the wheels and makes them run swiftly formality makes them drive heavily thus you live alwayes in a complaining humor fighing and going backward because you have some stirring principles or conscience vvithin vvhich bears vvitnesse against you and your formall sluggish disposition on the other hand refuseth to awake and work you are perplexed and tormented between the two when thy spirit and affections goes one way thy body another then thy conscience drives on the Spirit and thy affections draw back it must needs be an unpleasant businesse Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. 1 Joh. 5. 7. There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one GReat is the mystery of Godlinesse 1 Tim. 3. 16. Religion and true Godlinesse is a bundle of excellent mysteries of things hid from the world yea from the wise men of the world 1 Cor. 2. and not only so but secrets in their own nature the distinct know ledge whereof is not given to Saints in this estate of distance and absence from the Lord There is almost nothing in Divinity but it is a mystery in it self how common soever it be in the apprehensions of men for it is mens overly and common and slander apprehensions of thē which makes them look so commonly upon them there is a depth in them but you will not know it till you search it sound it the more you sound you shal find it the more profound But there are some mysteries smal and some great there is a difference amongst them all are not of one statu◅e of one measure The mystery of Christs Incarnation and D◅ath and Resurrection is one of the great mysteries of Religion God manifested in the flesh yet I conceive there is a greater mystery than it and of all mysteries in nature or divinity I know none to this the Holy Trinity and it must needs be greatest of all and without controversie greatest because it is the beginning and end of all fons finis omnium all mysteries have their rise here and all of them return hither This is furthest removed from the understandings of men what God himself is for himself is infinitly above any manifestation of himself God is greater than God manifested in the flesh though in that respect he be too great for us to conceive There is a naturall desire in all men to know and if any thing be secret and wonderfull the desire is more inflamed after the knowledge of it the very difficulty or impossibility of attaining it in stead of restraining the curiosity of mans spirit doth rather incense it Nitimur in vetitum is the fruit the sad fruit we plucked and eat from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil If the Lord reveal any thing plainly in his Word to men that it despised and set at naught because it is plain whereas the most plain truths which are beyond all controversie are the most necessary and most profitable for our eternal salvation but if there be any secret mystery in the Scriptures which the Lord hath only pointed out more obscurely to us reserving the distinct and clear understanding of it to himself Deut. 29. 26. that is the Apple which our cursed natures will long for and catch after though there be never so much choice of excellent saving fruit in the Paradise of the Scriptures besides If the Ark be covered to keep men from looking into it that doth rather provoke the curious spirit of man to prye into it 1 Sam. 6. 19. If the Lord shew his wonderfull glory in the Mount charge his people not to come near left the glorious presence of God kill them he must put rayles about it to keep them back or else they will be medling such is the unbridled licence of our minds and the perverse dispositions of our natures that where God familiarly invites us to come what he earnestly presseth us to search and know that we despise as trivial and common and what he compasseth about with a divine darkness of inaccessible light and hath removed far from the apprehensions of all living that we will needs search into and wander into those forbidden compasses with daring boldnesse I conceive this holy and profound mysterie is one of those secrets which belongs to God to know for who knowes the Father but the Son or the Son but the Father or who knoweth the mind of God but the Spirit Yet the foolish minds of men will not be satisfied with the believing ignorance of such a mysterie but will needs enquire into those depths that they may find satisfaction for their reason but as it hapeneth with men who will boldly stare upon the Sun their eyes are dazled and darkned with its brightnesse or those that enter into a Labyrinth which they can find no way to come out but they further go into it the more perplexed it is and the more intricate even so it befalls many unsober and presumptuous spirits who not being satisfied with the simple truth of God clearly asserting that this is endeavour to examine it according to reason and to solve all the objections of carnal wit and reason which is often enmity to God not by the silence of the Scriptures but by answers framed according to the severall capacities of men I say all this is but daring to behold the infinite glorie of God with eies of flesh which makes them darkned in mind and vanishing in their Expressions while they seek to behold the inaccessible light while they enter into an endlesse Labyrinth of difficulties out of which the threed of reason and disputation can never extricat them or lead them forth But the Lord has shewed us a more excellent way though it be more despicable to men man did fal from his blessednes by this curious and wretched aime at some higher happinesse and more wisdom The Lord hath chosen another way to raise him up again by faith rather thā knowledge by believing rather than disputing therefore the great command of the Gospell is this to receive with a ready and willing mind whatsoever the Lord saith to us whatsoever it may appear to sense reason to dispute no more to search no more into the secret of Divine mysteries as if by
of them all to which they must be reduced as their spring and fountain All of you may understand that there are many things possible which yet actually will never be The Lords power and Omnipotency is of a further extent then his Decree and Purpose His Power is Naturall and Essential to his Beeing His Decree is of choise and Voluntarie The Father could have sent a Legion of Angels to have delivered his Son the Son could have asked them but neither of them would do it Mat. 26. 53. The Lord could have raised up Children to Abraham out of stones but he would not Matth. 3 His power then comprehends within its reach all possible things which do not in their own nature proper conception imply a contradiction so that infinite worlds of creatures more perfect than this numbers of Angels and men above these creatures in glory surpassing them again are within the compasse of the boundlesse power omnipotency of God But yet for all this it might have fallen out that nothing should actually and really have been unlesse his Majesty had of his own freē will decreed what is or hath been or is to be His will determines his power and as it were puts it in the nearest capacity to act exercise it self Here then we must look for the beginning of all things that are they are conceived in the womb of the Lords everlasting purpose As he speaks Zeph. 2. 2. The Decree is as it were with child of beings Isa. 44. 7. It s God Royal Prerogative to appoint things to come and none can share with him in it From whence is it I pray you that of so many worlds which his power could have framed this one is brought to light Is it not because this one was formed as it were in the belly of his eternall counsel and will From whence is it that so many men are and no more That the Lord Jesus was slain when the power of God might have kept him alive That those men Iudas c. were the doers of it when others might have done it from whence are all those actions good or evill under the Sun which he might have prevented But from his good will and pleasure from his determinate counsell Acts 4. 28. Can you find the Originall of these in the Creature why it is thus and why not otherwise Can you conceive why of all the infinite numbers of possible beings these are and no other And what hath translated that number of creatures which is from the state of pure possibility to futurition or actuall being but the decisive vote of Gods everlasting purpose and counsell Therefore we should alwayes conceive that the creatures and all their actions which have or will have any being in the VVorld have first had a beeing in the womb of Gods eternall Counsel and that his will and pleasure hath past upon all things that are and are not His Counsel has concluded of things that have been or will be that thus they shall be and his Counsell has determined of all other things which are also impossible that they shall never come forth into the light of the world but remain in the dark bowels of Omnipotency that so we may give him the glory of all things that are not and that are at all Then 4. We should consider the extent of his decree Counsell it 's past upon all things it 's Universal reaching every being or action of the Universe This is the strain of the whole Scripture He did not as some dream once create the creatures in a good state put them in capacity henceforth to preserve themselves or exercise their own vertue and power without dependence on him as an Artificer makes an Horologe and orders it in all things that it may do its business without him he is not only a generall originall of action motion as if we would command a River to flow by his appointed channels as if he did only work rule the world by Atturneys Embassadors that is the weaknesse infirmity of earthly Kings that they must substitute Deputies for themselves But this King appoints all immediatly and disposes upon all the particular actions of his Creatures good or evil and so is the Universal absolute Lord of his Creature of its being and doing it were a long work to rehearse what the Scriptures speaks of this kind But O that ye would read them oftner and ponder them better How there is nothing in this World which may seem to fall out by chance to you that you know not how it is come to passe can see no cause nor reason of it but it falls out by the holy will of our blessed Father Be it of greater or lesse moment or be it a hair of thy head fallen or thy head cut off the most casual contingent thing thought it surprised the whole world of men and Angels that they should wonder from whence it did proceed it is no surprisall to him for he not only knew it but appointed it the most certain and necessary thing according to the course of nature it hath no certainty but from his appointment who hath established such a course in the creatures which he can suspend when he pleaseth Be it the sin of men and devils which seems most opposite to his holinesse yet even that cannot appear in the World of beings if it were not in a holy righteous and permissive way first conceived in the womb of his Eternall Counsell and if it were not determined by him for holy and just end Acts 4. 28. The second thing propounded is that his mind counsell is one one and the same yesterday and to day and for ever therefore the Apostles speakes of God That there is no shaddow of change or turning in him James 1. 17. He is not a man that he should lie or the son of man that he should repent Will he say and not do it Numb 23. 19. and shal he decree not execute it Shal he purpose and not perform it I am God and changes not that is his Name Mal. 3. 6. The Counsell of the Lord shal stand the thoughts of his heart to all generations Psal. 33. 11. Men changes their mind oftner then their garments poor vain man even in their best estate is changeablenesse and vicissitude it self altogether vanity And this ariseth partly from the imperfection of his understanding his ignorance because he doth not understand what may fall out there are many things secret hidden which if he discovered he would not be of that judgement and many things fall out which may give ground of another resolution and partly from the weaknesse and perversnesse of his will that cannot be constant in any good thing is not so closely united to it as that no fear nor terrour can separate from it But there is no such imperfection in him neither ignorance nor weaknesse all things
therefore there are many differences between us the brethren because we are not one perfectly in him therefore we are not one as he and the Father is one But when he shal be in us and we in him as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father then shal we be one among our selves then shal we meet in the unity of the faith into a perfect man into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. 13. Christ is the uniting Principle while the Saints are not wholly one uni tertio they cannot be perfectly one inter se among themselves Consider this I beseech you Christs union with the Father is the foundation of our union to God and our union among our selves this is comfortable the ground of it is laid already Now it is not simply the unity of the Father and the Son in essence that is here meant for what shadow resemblance can be in the world of such an incomprehensible mystery But it is certainly the Union and Communion of God with Christ Jesus as Mediator as the head of the Church which is his Body Therefore seeing the Father is so wonderfully well pleased and one with Christ his wel-beloved Son Messenger of the Covenant chief party contracting in our name he is by vertue of this one with us who are his seed and members And therefore the members should grow up in the head Christ from whom the whole body makes increase according to the effectuall working of the spirit in it Eph 5. 15 16. Now if the union between the Father and Christ our Head cannot be dissolved and cannot be barran and unfruitfull then certainly the spirit of the Father which is given to Christ beyond measure must effectually work in every member till it bring them to the unity of the Faith and to the measure of the perfect man which is the fulnesse of Christ. So then every believing soul is one with the Father as Christ is one because he is the Head and they his members the day is coming that all the members shal be perfectly united to the Head Christ grow up to the perfect man which is the stature of Christs fulnesse and then shal we all be made perfect in one we shal be one as he is one because he and we are one perfect man Head and Members Now to what purpose is all this spoken I fear it doth not stirre up in our souls a desire after such a blessed life whose heart would not be moved at the sound of such words Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son we are made perfect he in us and we in him Certainly that soul is void of the Life of God that doth not find some sparkle of holy ambition kindled within after such glorious and blessed condition But these things sevour not and taste not to the most part the naturall man knows them not for they are spiritually discerned How lamentable is it that Christ is come to restore us to our lost blessednesse and yet no man almost considers it or layes it to heart O how miserably twice miserable is that Soul that doth not draw near to God in Christ when God hath come so near to us in Christ that goes a whoring after the lust of the eyes and flesh and after the imaginations of their own heart and will not be guided by Christ the way and life to glory Thou shalt destroy them O Lord Psal. 73. 27. All men are far off from God from the womb Behold we may have accesse to God in Christ woe to them that are yet far off and will not draw near they shal all perish I exhort you to consider what you are doing The most part of you are going away from God you were born far off and you will yet go further know what you will meet with in that way Destruction Ye have never yet asked in earnest for what purpose you came into the World What wonder you wander and walk at randome seing you have not proposed to your selves any certain scope and aime It is great folly You would not be so foolish in any petty businesse But O how foolish men are in the main businesse The light of the body is the eye if that be not light the whole body is full of darknesse If your intention be once right established all your course will be orderly but if you be dark and blind in this point have not considered it you cannot walk in the light your whole way is darknesse The right consideration of the great End would shine unto you and direct your way but while you have not proposed this end unto your self the enjoyment of God you must spend your time either in doing nothing to that purpose or doing contrary to it All your other lawfull businesse your callings and occupations are but in the by they are not the end nor the way but you make them only your businesse they are altogether impertinent to this end And the rest of your walking in lust and ignorance is not only impertinent but inconsistant with it and contrary to it If you think that you have this before your eyes to enjoy God I pray you look upon the way you choose Is your drunkennesse your swearing your uncleannesse your contentions and railings and such works of the flesh are those the way to enjoy God Shal not these separate between God and you Is your eating and drinking sleeping as beasts and labouring in your callings are these all the means you use to enjoy God Be not deceived you who draw not near God by Prayer often in secret and by faith in his Son Christ as lost miserable sinners to be saved and reconciled by him you have no fellowship with him and you shal not enjoy him afterward You whose hearts are given to your covetousnesse who have many lovers and idols besides him you cannot say Whom have I besides thee in the earth No you have many other things beside God You can have nothing of God except you make him all to you unlesse you have him alone My undefiled is one Cant. 6. 9. He must be alone for his glory he will not give to another If you divide your affections and pretend to give him part your lusts other part you may be doing but he will not divide his glory so he will give no part of it to any other thing But as for those souls that come to him and see their misery without him O know how good it is It s not only good but best yea only good it is bonum it is optimum yea it is unicum there is none good save one even God and there is nothing good for us but this one to be near God and so near that we may be one one spirit with the Lord for he that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit Rejoice in your portion and long for the
the Holy Ghost all of them first agreeing in one Testimony the Father declares from heaven that he is abundantly well pleased with his Son not only because he is his Son but even in the undertaking and performing of that work of Redemption of sinners It is therefore his most serious invitation and peremptory command to all to hear him and believe in him Mat. 3. 17. 1 Ioh. 3. 23. Nay if we speak properly our salvation it is not the businesse of Christ alone as we imagine it but the whole God-head is interessed in it deeply so deeply that you cannot say who loves it most or likes it most The Father is the very fountain of it his love is the spring of all God so loved the World that he hath sent his Son Christ hath not purchased that eternal love to us but is rather the gift the free gift of eternal love And therefore as we have the Son delighting among the sons of men Pro. 8. and delighting to be imployed and to do his will Psal 40. So we have the Father delighting to send his Son taking pleasure in instructing him and furnishing him for it Isa. 42. 1. And therefore Christ often professed that he was not often about his own vvork but the Fathers work vvho sent him and that it was not his own will but his Fathers he was fulfilling Therefore he should not look upon the head-spring of our salvation in the Son but rather ascend up to the Father whose love wisdome did frame all this And thus we may be confident to come to the Father in the Son knowing that it was the love of the Father that sent the Son though indeed we must come to him only in the Son in the name of Christ and faith of acceptation through a Mediator not because the Mediator purchaseth his good-will but because his love and good-will only vents in his beloved Son Christ and therefore he will not be known nor worshipped but in him in whom he is near sinners and reconciling the world to himself And then the Holy Ghost concurrs in this Testimony and as the Son had the work of purchasing rights and interests to grace and glory so the great work of applying all these priviledges to Saints and making them actually partakers of the blessings of Christ his death is committed in a special way to the Holy Ghost I will send the Comforter c. So then Father Son Holy Ghost all agree in one that Jesus Christ is a sure refuge for sinners a plank for ship-broken men a firm sure foundation to build everlasting hopes upon there is no party dissenting in all the Gospel the businesse of the Salvation of lost souls is concluded in this holy Counsell of the Trinity with one voice as at first all of them agreed to make man Let us make man So again they agree to make him again to restore him to life in the second Adam Who ever thou be that wouldst flee to God for mercy â—…o it in confidence the Father the Son the holy Ghost are ready to welcome thee all of one mind to shut out none to cast out none But to speak properly it is but one love one will one counsell and purpose in the Father Son and Spirit for these three are one and not only agree in one they are one and what one purposes oâ—… loves all love purpose I would conclude this matter with a word of direction how to worship God which I cannot expresse in fitter terms then these of Nazianzen I cannot think upon one but by and by I am compassed about with the brightnesse of three and 〈◊〉 cannot distinguish three but I am suddenly driven back unto one There is great ignorance mistake of this even amongst the best Christians the grosser sort when they hear of one God only thinks Christ but some eminent man and so direct their prayers to God only excluding the Son and Holy Ghost or when they hear of three Persons the Father the Son Holy Ghost they straight way divide their Worship imagine a Trinity of Gods And I fear those of us who know most use not to worship God as he hath revealed himself Father Son Holy Chost and yet one God our minds are reduced to such a simple unity as we think upon one of them alone or else distrâ—…cted and divided into such a plurality that we worship in a manner three Gods in stead of one It is a great mystery to keep the right middle way Learn I beseech you so to conceive of God so to acknowledg him and pray to him as you may do it in the name of Jesus Christ that all the Persons may have equal honour and all of them one honour that while you consider one God you may adore that sacred blessed Trinity while you worship that holy Trinity you may straight way be reduced to an Unity To this wonderfull and holy One Father Son Holy Ghost be all Praise and Glory Eph. 1. Who worketh all things after the Counsell of his own will Job 23. He is in one mind who can turn him c. HAving spoken something before of God in his Nature and Being and Properties we come in the next place to consider his glorious Majesty as â—…e staâ—…s in some nearer relation to his creatures the works of his hands For we must conceive the first rise of all things in the world to be in this self-being the first conception of them to be in the Womb of God's everlasting purpose and Decree which in due time according to his appointment brings forth the childe of the creature to the light of actual existence and being It is certain that his Majesty might have endured for ever possessed himself without any of these things If he had never resolved to create any thing without himself he had been blessed then as now because of his full and absolute self-sufficient perfection His purposing to make a world his doing of it ads nothing to his inward blessednesse and contentment this glorious and Holy One incloses vvithin in his own being all imaginable perfections in an infinite and transcendent manner that if you remove all created ones you diminish nothing if you add them all you encrease nothing Therefore it was the superabundance of his perfection that he resolved to shew his Glory thus in the world It is the creatures indigence limited condition which maketh it needfull â—…o go without its own compasse for the happinesse of its own being Man cannot be happy in loving himself he is not satisfied with his own intrinsick perfections but he must diffuse himself by his affections desires endeavours as it vvere walk abroad upon these legs to fetch in some supply from the creatures or Creator The creature is constrained out of thus to go out of it self which speakes much indigence and want within it self But it is not
think the Word is true and they never doubted of it But I beseech you consider how greatly you mistake a main matter of weighty concernment If you will search it as before the Lord you will find you have no other belief of these things than children use to have whom you teach to think or say any thing there is no other ground of your not questioning these truths of the Gospel but because you never consider on them and so they passe for current Do not deceive your selves with the heart man believes it is a heart-businesse a soul-matter no light and uselesse opinion or empty expression which you have learned from a child You say you believe in God the Maker of Heaven and Earth and so say children who doubt no more of it than ye and yet in sadnesse they do not retire within their own hearts to think what a one he is they do not remember him in the works of his hands there is no more remembrance of that true God than if no such thing were known So it is among you you would think we wronged you if we said ye believed not that God made the world yet certainly all men have not this faith whereby they understand truly in their heart the Power Wisdome and Goodnesse of God appearing in it that is the gift of God only given to them that shal be saved If I should say that you believe not the most common Principles of Religion you would think it hard yet there is no doubt of it that the most common truths are least believed and the reason is plain because men have learned them by tongue and there is none that question them therefore very few ever in sadnesse and in earnest consider of them You say that God made Heaven Earth but how often do you think on that God And how often do you think on him with admiration Do ye at all wonder at the glory of God when you gaze on his works Is not this volume alwayes observant before your eyes every thing shewing and declaring this glorious Maker yet who is it that taketh more notice of him than if he were not at all such is the generall stupidity of men that they never ponder digest these things in their heart till their soul receive the stamp of the glory greatnesse of the invisible God which shines most brightly in these things that are visible and be in some measure transformed in their minds and conformed to these glorious appearances of him which are engraven in great Characters in all that do at all appear There is another mistake peculiar to some especially the Lords people that they think faith is limited to some few particular and more unknown and hid truths and mysteries of the Gospell Ye think that it is only true believing to imbrace some special Gospell-truths which the multitude of people know nothing of as the tenor of the Covenant of Grace and of Works c. And for other common Principles of Gods making and ruling the World you think that a common thing to believe them But saith the Apostle By faith we understand that the worlds were made it is that same faith spoken of in the end of Chap. 10. by which the just shal live So then here is a point of saving faith to believe with the heart in God the Creator and Father Almighty to take a view of Gods Almighty Power and sufficient Goodnesse and infinite Wisdome shining in the Fabrick of the World that with delight and admiration at such a glorious Fountain-being to rise up to his Majesty by the degrees of his creatures this is the climing and aspiring nature of Faith You see how much those Saints in the Old Testament were in this and certainly they had more excellent and beseeming thoughts of God than we It should make Christians ashamed that both Heathens who had no other Book opened to them but that of Nature did read it more diligently than we And that the Saints of Old who had not such a plain testimony of God as we now have yet did learn more out of the Book of the Creature then we do both out of it and the Scriptures We look on all things with such a carelesse eye and do not observe what may be found of God in them I think verily there are many Christians and Ministers of the Gospel who do not ascend into those high and ravishing thoughts of God in his being and working as would become even meer Naturalists How little can they speak out of his Majesty or think as it becomes his transcendent glory There is little in Sermons or discourses that holds out any singular admiring thoughts of a Deity but in all these we are so common and carelesse as if he were an Idol It is not in vain that it is expressed thus By faith we know that the worlds were made for certainly the firm believing pondering of this one truth would be of great moment and use to a Christian in all his journey You may observe in what stead it is to the Saints in Scripture This raises up a soul to high thoughts and sutable conceptions of his glorious Name so conforms the worship of his Majesty unto his excllency it puts the stamp of Divinity upon it spiritualizes the thoughts and affections so as to put a true difference between the true God and the gods that made not the Heavens the Earth Alace the worship of many Christians speaks out no diviner or higher object than a creature it is so cold so formall and empty so vain wandring there is no more respect testified unto him than we would give to some eminent person You find in the Scripture how the strain of the Saints affections and devotion rises when they take up God in his absolute Supremacy above the creatures look on him as the alone fountain of all that is worth the name of perfection in them A soul in that consideration cannot chuse but assign unto him the most eminent seat in the heart gather those affections which are scattered after the creatures into one channell to pour them out on him who is all in all and hath all that which is lovely in the creatures in an eminent degree Therefore know what you are formed for to shew forth his praise to gather and take up from the creatures all the fruits of his praise and offer them up to his Majesty This was the end of man this is the end of a Christian you are made for this and you were redeemed for this to read upon the volumes of his works word and from thence extract songs of praise to his Majesty As this would be of great moment to the right worshipping of God and to the exercise of true holiness so it is most affectual to the establishing of a soul in the confidence of the promises of God When a soul by faith understands