himself thus and sought out to himself such sad inventions Eccles. 7. 29. and having destroyed himself Hos. 13. 9. What think ye Should any pity him If he had fallen in such a pit of miserie ignorantly and unwillingly he had been an object of compassion but having cast himself headlong into it who should have pity on him Or who should go aside to ask how he doth or bemoan him Ier. 15. 5. But behold the Lord pities man as a Father doth his Children Psal. 103. His compassions fail not He comes by such a loathsome and contemptible object and casts his skirts over it and saith Live Ezek. 16. And maketh it a time of love I say no flesh could have expected any more of God than to make man happy and holy to promise him life in well-doing But to repair that happinesse after it's wilfully lost and to give life to evil doers sinners O how far was it from Adams expectation when he fled from God Here then is the wonder that when men Angels were in expectation of the revelation of his wrath from heaveÌ„ against their wickednesse the execution of the curse man was concluded under that even then God is pursuing man pursues him with love and opens up to him his very heart and bowels of love in Jesus Christ Behold then the second revelation manifestation of God in a way of grace pure grace of mercy pity toward lost sinners The kindnesse of God hath appeared not by Works but according to his abundant mercy shewed in Christ Iesus Tit. 3. 4. 5. So then we have this purpose of Gods love unfolded to us in the Scriptures and this is the substance of them both Old and New Testament or the end of them Rom. 10. 4. Christ is the end of the Law to all sinners concluded under sin and a curse by it our Lord Jesus the good Ebedmelech comes and casts down a cord to us draws us up out of the pit of sin and misery he comes to this prison and opens the doors to let captives free so then we have holden out to us a Redeemer as a repairer of our breaches God in Christ reconciling the world O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy Help found Hos. 13. 9. He finds to himself a ransome to satisfie his justice Job 33. 24. He finds a propitiation to take away sin a sacrifice to pacifie and appease his wrath he finds one of our Brethren but his own Son in whom he is well pleased And then holds out all this to sinners that they may be satisfied in their own consciences as he is in his own mind God hath satisfied himself in Christ you have not that to do he is not now to be reconciled to us for he was never really at odds though he covered his countenance with frowns threats since the Fal hath appeared in fire and hunders and whirlwind which are terrible yet his heart had alwayes love in it to such persons and therefore he is come near in Christ about reconciling us to himself Here is the business then to have our souls reconciled to him to take away the enmity within us and as he is satisfied with his Son so to satisfie our selves with him be as wel pleased in his Redemption and purchase as 〈◊〉 â—…er is and then you believe indeed in him Now if this were accomplished what have wee more to do but to love him and to live to him when you have found in the Scripture and believed with the heart what Man once was and what he now is what God once appeared and what hee now manifests himself in the Gospel ye have no more to do but to search in the same Scriptures what ye henceforth ought to be Ye who find your estate recovered in Christ ask what manner of persons we ought to be And the Scripture shal also give you that form of sound words which may not only teach you to believe in him but to love him and obey his coÌ„mands The Law that before condemned you is now by Christ put in your hands to guide you and conduct you in the way teacheth you to live henceforth to his glory The grace of God that hath appeared to all men Tit. 2. 12. teacheth us that denying ungodlinesse and worldlie lusts we should live godly and righteously and soberly in this present world Here is the summe of the rule of your practise and conversation piety towards God equity towards men and sobriety towards our selves self-denyal and world-denyall and lust-denyal to give up with the world and our own lusts henceforth to have no more to do with them to resign them not for a time not in part but wholly and for ever in affection and by parts in practice and endeavour and then to resign and give up our selves to him to live to him and live in him Thus we have given you a summe of the Doctrine of the Scriptures of that which is to be believed and that which is to be done as our duty Now we shall speak a word of these two Cardinall Graces which are the compend of all Graces as the objects of them are the Abridgement of the Scriptures Faith Love these sound words can profite us nothing unlesse wee hold them fast with Faith and Love Faith is like the Fountain-grace streams come out of it that cleanseth the Conscience from the guilt of sin and purifieth the heart from the filth of sin because it is that which cometh to the Fountain opened up in the house of David draweth water out of these Wells of Salvation If you consider the fall and ruine of Mankind you will find infidelity unbelief the fountain of it as wel as the seal of it Unbelief of the Law of God of his promises and threatning This was first called in Question and when once called in Question it is half denied Hath God said so that you shal die It s not far off you shall not surely die Here then was the very beginning of mans ruine he did not retain in his knowledge and believe with his heart the truth and faithfulnesse and holinesse of God which unbelief was conjoyned intermingled with much pride you shal be as Gods he began to live out of God in himself not remembring that his life was a stream of that Divine Fountain that being cut off from it would dry up Now therefore our Lord Jesus Christ an expert Saviour and very learned and compleat for this work he brings man up out of this pit of misery by that same way he fell into it he fell down by unbelief and he brings him up out of it by faith This is the cord that is cast down to the poor Soul in the Dungeon or rather his Faith is the dead grip of the cord of Divine Promises which are sent unto the captive prisoners and by vertue thereof he is drawn out into the light
meditation but for the most part it ought to be so And if souls were accustomed to meditation on God it would become their very nature altera natura pleasant and delightsome However if there be not alwayes an express intention of Gods glory yet there ought to be kept alwayes such a disposition and temper of spirit as it may be construed to proceed from the intention of Gods glory and then it remains in the seed and fruit if not in it self Now when we are speaking of the great end and purpose of our Creation we call to mind our lamentabel and tragicall Fall from that blessed station we were constitute into All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 23. His being in the world was for that glory and he is come short of that glory O strange short-comming short of all that he was ordained for What is he now meet for For what purpose is that chief of the works of God now The salt if it lose its saltness is meet for nothing for wherewithall shal it be seasoned Mark 9. 50. Even so when man is rendered unfit for his proper end he is meet for nothing but to be cast out and trod upon he is like a withered branch that must be cast into the fire Ioh. 15. 6. Some things if they fail in one use they are good for another but the best things are not so Corruptio optimi pessima As the Lord speaks to the house of Israel shal wood be taken off the vine tree for my work even so the inhabitants of Ierusalem Ezech. 15. 2 3 4 5. If it yeeld not Wine it 's good for nothing so if man do not glorifie God if he fall from that he is meet for nothing but to be cast into the fire of hell and burnt for ever he is for no use in the Creation but to the fuell to the fire of the Lords indignation But behold the goodnesse of the Lord and his kindnesse and love hath appeared towards men not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us through Iesus Christ Tit. 3. 4 5. Our Lord Jesus by whom all thing were created and for whom would not let this excellent workmanship perish so therefore he goes about the work of Redemption a second Creation more laborious and also more glorious than the first that so he might glorifie his Father and our Father Thus the breach is made up thus the unsavory salt is seasoned thus the withered branch is quickned again for that same fruit of praises and glorifying of God This is the end of his second Creation as it was of the first we are his workmanship created to good works in Christ Iesus Eph. 2. 10. This is the work of God to believe in him to set to our seal and to give our testimony to all his Attributes Ioh. 6. 29. and 3. 33. We are bought with a price and therefore we ought to glorifie him with our souls and bodies he made us with a word and that bound us but now he has made us again and paid a price for us and so we are twice bound not to be our own but his 1 Cor. 6. ult And so to glorifie him in our bodies and spirits I beseech you gather your spirits call them home about the businesse We once came short of our end Gods glory and our happinesse but know that it is attainable again we lost both but both are found in Christ Awake then and stir up your spirits else it shal be double condemnation when we have the offer of being restored to our former blessed condition to love our present misery better Once establish this point within your souls and therefore ask why came I hither To what purpose am I come into the world If you do not ask it what will you answer when he asks you at your appearance before his Tribunall I beseech you what will many of you say in that day when the Master returns and takes an account of your dispensation You are sent into the world only for this businesse to serve the Lord Now what will many of you answer If you speak the truth as then you must do it you cannot lie then you must say Lord I spent my time in serving my own lusts I was taken up with other businesses and had no leisure I was occupyed in my calling c. even as if an Embassadour of a King should return him his account of his negotiation I was busie at Cards and Dice I spent my mony and did wear my cloaths Though you think your plowing and borrowing and trafficking and reaping very necessary yet certainly these are but as trifles and toyes to the main businesse O what dreadfull account will souls make they come here for no purpose but to serve their bodies and senses to be slaves to all the creatures which were once put under mans feet Now man is under the feet of all and he has put himself so If you were of these creatures then you might be for them you seek them as if you were created for them and not they for you and you seek your selves as if you were of your selves and had not your descent of God Know my beloved that you were not made for that purpose nor yet redeemed either to serve your selves or other creatures but that other creatures might serve you and ye serve God Luk. 1. 74 75. And this is really the best way to serve our selves and to save our selves to serve God Self-seeking is self-destroying self-denying is soul-saving He that seeketh to save his life shal lose it and he that loseth his life shal find it and he that denies himself and follows me is my disciple Will ye once sit down in good earnest about this businesse It is lamentable to be yet to begin to learn to live when ye must die ye will be out of the world almost ere you bethink your self Why came I into the world Quidam tunc vivere incipiunt cum definendum est imò quidam ante vivere defiêrunt quam inciperent this is of all most lamentable many souls end their life before they begin to live For what is our life but a living death while we do not live to God and while we live not in relation to the great end of our life and being the glory of God It were better saith Christ that such had never been born You who are created again in Jesus Christ it most of all concerns you to ask Why am I made and why am I redeemed And to what purpose It is certainly that you may glorifie your heavenly Father Mat. 5. 16. Psal. 58. 13. And you shal glorifie him if you bring forth much fruit continue in his love Ioh. 15. 8. And this you are chosen and ordained unto ver 16. And therefore abide in him that you may bring forth fruit ver 4. And if you abide in him
see his face in ioy Certainly it had been altogether impossible if our Lord Jesus Christ had not come who is the light and life of men the Father shines on him and the beams of his love reflects upon us from the Sun The love of God and his favourable countenance that cannot meet with us in a direct and immediate beam they fall on us in this blessed compasse by the intervention of a Mediator We are rebels staning at distance with God Christ comes between a Mediator and Peace-maker to reconcile us to God God is in Christ reconciling the World God first makes an union of Natures with Christ and so he comes near to us down to us who could not come up to him and then he sends out the Word of Reconciliation the Gospel the tenor wherof is this 1 Ioh. 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye may have fellowship with the Father and his Son It is a voice of peace and invitation to the fellowship of God Behold then the happinesse of man is th◅very end and purpose of the Gospel Christ is the repairer of the breaches the second Adam aspired to quicken what Adam killed He hath slain the emnity and cancelled the hand-writing that was against us and so made peace by the blood of his crosse and then having removed all that out of the way he comes and calls us unto the fellowship which we were ordained unto frō our Creation We who are rebels are called to be friends I call you not servants but friends It is a wōder that the creature should be called a friend of God but O great wonder that the rebell should be called a friend and yet that is not all we are called to a nearer union to be Sons of God this is our priviledge Ioh. 1. 12. This is a great part of our fellowship with the Father and his Son we are the Fathers children and the Sons brethren acd if children then heirs and heirs of God and if brethren then co-heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 17. Thus the Union is begun again in Christ but as long as sin dwels in our mortall bodies it is not perfect there is alwayes some separation and some enmity in our hearts so there is neither ful seeing of God for we know but in part and we see darkly nor full enjoying of God for we are saved by hope we live by faith and not by fight But this is begun which is the seed of eternall communion we are here partakers of the Divine Nature Now then it must aspire unto a more perfect union with God whose Image it is And therefore the Soul of a Believer is here still in motion towards God as his element There is here an union in affection but not compleated in fruition affectu non effectu the soul pants after God Whom have I in heaven or earth but thee My ◅esh and my heart faileth a believing soul looksupon God as its only portion accounts nothing misery but to be separated from him nothing blessednesse but to be one with him this is the Load-stone of the affections and desires the Center which they move towards and in which they will rest It is true indeed that oftentimes our hearts our flesh faileth us we become ignorant and brutish our affections cleave to the earth and tentations with their violence turn our souls towards another end than God as there is nothing more easily moved and turned wrong then the needle that is touched with the Adamant yet it settles not in such a posture it recovers it self and rests never till it look towards the North and then it is fixed even so tentations and the corruptions and infirmities of our hearts desturb our spirits easily and wind them about from the Lord towards any other thing but yet we are continuing with him and he keeps us with his right hand and therefore though we may be moved yet we shal not be greatly commoved we may fall but we shal rise again he is the strength of our heart and therefore he will turn our heart about again and fix it upon its own portion Our Union here consists more in his holding of us by his power then our taking hold of him by faith Power and good-will encamps about both faith and the soul we are kept by his power through faith 1 Pet. 1. And thus he will guide the soul and still be drawing it nearer to him from it self from sin and from the world till he receive us into Glory and untill we be one as with the Father and the Son he in us and we in him that we may be made perfect in one as it is in the words read This is strange a greater unity and fuller enjoyment a more perfect fellowship then ever Adam in his innocency would have been capable of what soul ca conceive it What tongue expresse it None cann for it's that which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor entered into Mans heart to concive We must suspend the knowledge of it till we have experience of it Let us now believe it and then we shal find it There is a mutual inhabitation which is wonerfull Persons that dwel one with another have much society and fellowship but to dwel one in another is a strange thing I in them and they in me and therefore God is often said to dwel in us and we to dwel in him But that which makes it of all most wonderful and incomprehensible is that glorious unity and communion between the Father and the Son which it is made an Embleme of As thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Can you conceive that unity of the Trinity Can you imagine that reciprocall inhabitation that mutuall communion between the Father and the Son No it hath not entered into the heart to conceive it Only thus much we know that it is most perfect it is most glorious so much we may apprehend of this unity of the Saints with God O love is an uniting and transforming thing God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him He dwelleth in us by love this makes him work in us and shine upon us love hath drawn him down from his seat of Majesty to visite poor Cottages of sinners Isa. 66. 1 2. 15 47. And it is that love of God reflecting upon our souls that carries the soul upward to him to live in him and walk with him O how doth it constrain a soul to live to him and draw it from it self 2 Cor. 5. 15. Then the more unity with God the more separation from our selves the world the nearer God the farther from our selves the farther from ourselves the more happy and the more unity with God the more unity among our selves among the brethren of our family Because we are not fully one with our Father
a little time the advantage of all the Books of the world shal be gone The statutes and Laws of Kings and Parliaments can reach no further then some temporall reward or punishment their highest pain is the killing of this body their highest reward is some evanishing and sading honour or perishing richest But he sheweth his word and judgements to us and hath not dealt so with every nation Psal. 147. 19. 20. And no nation under the whole heaven hath such Laws and Ordinances eternall life and eternall death is wrapt up in them these are rewards and punishments suitable to the Majesty and Magnificence of the eternall Law-giver Consider I beseech you what is folded up here the Scriptures shew the path of life life is of all beings most excellent and comes nearest the blessed being of God When we say life we understand a blessed life that only deserves the name Now this we have lost in Adam death is past upon all men but that death is not the worst it s but a consequence of a soul death the immortall soul whose life consisteth in Communion with God peace with him is seperated from him by sin and so killed when it s cut off from the fountain of life what life can it have any more than a beam that is cut off by the intervention of a dark body from the sun Now then what a blessed Doctrine must it be that brings to light life and immortality especially when we have so much miserably lost it and involved our souls into an eternall death Life is precious in it self but much more precious to one condemned to die to be caught out of the paws of the Lyon to be brought back from the Gibbet O how will that commend the favour of a little more time in the World But then if we knew what an eternall misery we are involved into and stand under a sentence binding us over to such an inconceivable and insupportable punishment as is the curse wrath of God O how precious an esteem would souls have of the Scriptures how would they be sweet unto their soul because they shew unto us a way of escaping that pit of misery and a way of attaining eternall blessednesse as satisfying and glorious as the misery would have been vexing and tormenting O that ye would once lay these in the ballance together this present life and eternall life Know ye not that your souls are created for eternity that they will eternally survive all these present things Now how do ye imagine they shal live after this life your thoughts and projects and designs are confined within the poor narrow bounds of your time when you die in that day your thoughts shal perish all your imaginations and purposes providences shal have an end then they reach no further then that time if you should wholly perish too it were not so much matter but for all your purposes and projects to come to an end when you are but beginning to live and enter eternity that is lamentable indeed Therefore I say consider what ye are doing weigh these in a ballance eternal life the present life if there were no more difference but the continuence of the one shortnesse of the other that this worlds standing is but as one day one moment to eternity that ought to preponderate in your souls do we not here flee away as a shadow upon the mountains are we not as a vapour that ascends and for a litle time appears a solid body and then presently vanisheth Do we not come all into the stage of the world as for an hour to act our part and be gone now then what is this to endless eternity When you have contained as long as since the World began you are no nearer the end of it ought not that estate then to be most in your eyes how to lay up a foundation for the time to come But then compare the misery and vexation of this life with the glory and felicity of this eternall life what are our dayes but few and full of trouble Or if you will take the most blessed estate you have seen or heard of in this world of Kings and rich men and help all the defects of it by your imaginations Suppose unto your selves the highth and pith of Glory and abundance and power that is attainable on earth and when your fancy hath busked up such a felicitie compare it with eternall life O how will that vanish out of your imaginations if so be you know any thing of the life to come you wil even think that an odious comparison you will think all that earthly felicitie but light as vanity every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Eernall life will weigh down eternally 2 Cor. 4. 17. 18. O but it hath an exceeding weight in it self one moment of it one hours possession and taste of it but then what shal the endlesse endurance of it add to its weight Now there are many that presume they have a right to eternall life as the Jews did you think saith he that you have it you think well that you think its only to be found in the Scriptures but you vainlie think that you have found it in them And there is this reason of it because you will not come to me that you may have life vers 40. If you did understand the true meaning of the Scriptures and did not rest on the outward Letter and Ordinances you would receive the testimonie that the Scriptures give of me But now you hear not me the Fathers substantiall Word therefore you have not his Word abiding in you vers 38. There was nothing more generall among that people than a vain carnall confidence and presumption of being Gods people having interest in the promise of life eternall as it is this day in the visible Church There is a multitude that are Christians onlie in the Letter not in the Spirit that would never admit any question concerning this great matter of having eternall life and so by not questioning it they come to think they have it and by degrees their conjectures and thoughts about this ariseth to the stabilitie of some faigned strong perswasion of it In the Old Testament the Lord strikes at the roots of their perswasions by discovering unto them how vain a thing it was and how abominable before him to have an externall profession of being his people and to glory in external Ordinances and Priviledges yet to neglect altogether the purging of their hearts consciences from lusts and Idollisâ—…s to make no conscience of walking righteously towards men Their profession was contradicted by their practice Will ye steal murther and commit adultery and yet come and stand in my house Jer. 7. 8. 9. doth not that say as much as if I had given you liberty to do all these abominations Even so it is this day the most part have no more of Christianitie
degrees of perfection and excellency while we are only comparing them among themselves but let once the glorious brightnesse of God shine upon the soul and in that light all these lights shal be obscured all their differences unobserved an Angel a Man a Man and a Worm differ much in glory and perfection of beeing But O in his presence there is no such reckoning upon this account all things are alike God infinitly distant from all and so not more or lesse Infinitnesse is not capable of such terms of comparison This is the reason why Christ sayes There is none good but one even God Why because in respect of his goodness nothing deserves that name lesser light in view of the greater is a darkness as less good in comparison of a greater appears evil How much more then shal created light and created goodnesse lose that name and notion in the presence of that uncreated light self-sufficient goodnesse And therefore it is that the Lord calls himself after this manner I am as if nothing else were I will not say saith he that I am the highest the best and most glorious that is that supposeth other things to have some being and some glory that is worthy the accounting of But I am there is none else I am alone I lift up my hand to Heaven swear I live for ever There is nothing else can say I am I live there is none else for there is nothing hath it of it self Can any boast of that which they have borrowed and is not their own As if the bird that had stolen from other birds its fair feathers should come forth and contend with them about beauty would not they presently every one pluck out their own leave her naked to be an object of mockery to all Even so since our breath and being is in our nostrils and that depends upon his Majesties breathing upon us if he should but keep in his breath as it were we should vanish into nothing he looketh upon man as he is not Iob 7. 8. That is a strange look that looks man not only out of countenance but out of life and being he looks him into the first nothing and then can he say I live I am no he must alwayes say of himself in respect of God as Paul of himself in respect of Christ I live yet not I but Christ in me I am yet not I but God in me I live I am yet not I but in God in whom I live and have my being So that there is no other thing beside God can say I am because all things are borrowed drops of this self-sufficient fountain sparkles of this primitive light Let any thing interveen between the stream and the fountain and it is cut off and dried up let any thing be interposed between the Sun and the Beam and it evanishes Therefore this fountain being this original light this self being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato calleth him deserves only the name of being other things that we call after that name are nearer nothing than God and so in regard of his Majesty may more fitly be called nothing than something you see then how profound a mystery of Gods absolute self-sufficient perfection is infolded in these three Letters I am or in these four Iehovah If you ask what is God there is nothing occures better then this I am or he that is if I should say he is the Almighty the only wise the most perfect the most glorious it is all contained in that word I am that I am nempe hoc est ci esse haec omnia esse For that is to be indeed to be all those perfections simply absolutly and as it were solely If I say all that and should reckon out all the Scripture-Epithets I add nothing If I say no more I deminish nothing As this holds out Gods absolute perfection so we told you that it imports his eternity and unchangeablenesse you know Pilats speech what I have written I have written wherein he meant that he would not change it it should stand so So this properly belongs to Gods eternity before the mountains were brought forth from everlasting to everlasting he is God Psalm 90. 2. Now this is properly to be this only deserves the name of being which never was nothing never shal be nothing which may alwayes say I am you know it is so with nothing else but God The Heavens and Earth with the things therein could not say 6000. years ago I am Adam could once have said I am but now he cannot say it for that self being fountain-being hath said to him Return to dust so it is with all the generations past where are they now They were but they are not And we then were not now are for we are come in their place but within a little time who of us can say I am No we flee away are like a dream as when one awaketh we are like a tale that is told that makes a present noise and it is past within few years this generation will passe none will make mention of us our place will not know us no more than we do now remember those who have been before Christ said of Iohn He was a burning and shining light he was saith he but now he is not but Christ may alwayes say I am the light and life of men Man is but look a little backward and he was not you shal find his original and step a little foreward and he shal not be you shal find his end but God is Alpha and Omega the beginning the end but oh who can retire so far backward as to apprehend a beginning or go such a start forward as to conceive an end in such a being as is the beginning end of all things but without all beginning and end Whose understanding would it not confound There is no way here but to flee into Pauls Sanctuary O the heighth and breadth and depth We cannot imagine a being but we must first conceive it nothing in some instant receiving its being and therefore canst thou by searching find out God Therefore what his being is hath not entered into the heart of man to consider If a man would live out the space but of two generations he would be a worlds wonder but if any had their dayes prolonged as the Patriarchs before the flood they would be called ancient indeed but then the heavens and earth are far more ancient we may go backward the space of near 6000. years in our own minds and yet be as far from his beginning as we were when we are come to the beginning of all things a mans imagination may yet extend to self-further suppose to it self as many thousands of years before the beginning of time as all the Angels and men of all nations generations from the beginning if they had been imployed in no
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