humane reason or wisdome without the love of God being in us how could it prove whether wee did love GOD or no if wee could finde out the fallacy of that deceit without love 2. In the 2d of Thessal 2. 10 11. God will send strong delusions that those which love not the truth be they never so learned shall not be able to know it for if so be it were said they should professe lyes it might be that they knew the truth though they professed the contrary but it is said they beleeved lyes Our saviour gives this reason why hee would manifest himselfe to his Disciples and not to the world viz. because the world did not love him John 14. 22 23. For none will unbosome himselfe unto an Enemy nor mayst thou think to master God by thy Learning and know him whether he will or no for God must manifest himselfe or else thou canst never know him and he will not manifest himselfe to thee except thou love him though thou beest never so learned or great a Politician Mat. 11. 25. For you must understand it is not a speculative knowledge but a knowledge of acquaintance So in that sense is that saying of our Saviour verified Matth. 7. 23. And this knowledge of God is not got by study but by prayer and meditation by an inward strict communion with God and the friends of God the Saints but especially with Christ the Son of God for he is the expresse image of God the Father c. Can we be acquainted with a man whether he will or no nor can we be throughly acquainted with a wise holy man that is we cannot know his wisdome and holinesse without much observing and pondering his words and actions nor can we much observe and be acquainted with any with whom wee do not dwell and have private Conference Thou mayst know God to discourse of him and to write learned tracts yet if thou art not acquainted with God at the last day God will not know thee Therefore be much with God and to that purpose I have one humble and earnest request to you though I need not be very earnest to obtaine so small one it is that you would spend an hour every day in prayer meditation and searching out the inward spirituall corruptions of your owne heart and an impartiall examining what interest you have in Christ and such like spirituall exercises do not you say How can you prove that we are bound to spend one hour every day For 1. Suppose God when you goe to prayers should answer you so How can you prove that I am bound to give you such a mercy Thou mayst cause God to carry himselfe as froward by this froward answer for it is said With the froward he will shew frowardnesse 2. How wilt thou spend eternity in the admirings adoreings and praysings of God if an hour spent so is now so irksome to thee how shall it then be thine Heaven if it be now thine hell 3. Is it a friendly answer If a friend should come to desire a courtesie of you do you so answer him how can you prove that I am bound to do it 4. Consider This is the question of a slave to ask What must I do but the question of a friend and a child is What may I doe to please my Father or my friend 5. Keepe this answer untill the World or the Flesh come unto thee give this answer to those thine enemies and not to thy God 6. Dost thou stand out Shall the great and holy God be ready and willing to meet thee and have communion with thee as often and as long as thou pleasest and shalt thou refuse It should be his part one would think to be hard to be intreatted not thine Shall he account it his riches to bestow mercies on thee and thou account it thy trouble to receive them 7. Do but doe that which thou art bound to do viz. Love God with all thy soul with all thy minde and with all thy strength and then thou wilt ask not Why so much but Why no more And indeed when once thou hast found the sweetnesse and profit thouthy self wilt not onely continue but increase these holy duties and that is the reason why I propose no more time because I suppose this being spiritually spent more will follow of it self David wisheth us to taste and see how gracious the Lord is not because he would not have us feed on him but because if wee once taste how good he is hee supposeth it needless to wish us to feed on him 8. if thy friend comes to visit thee thou wilt afford him an hour with thanks he comes in his own name but I come unto thee in my fathers desiring thee to afford God as much if thou deniest that saying of our Saviour belongs unto thee John 5. 43. I am come in my Fathers name and ye receive me not if another come in his owne name him ye will receive To conclude I desire to speak one word more as to humane Learning which I account of singular use for the understandiug of the word of God and have doted on it as much as any and love it still as much as I dare for I account the love of it dangerous the use of it very advantageous and could I set down how far I have gone in it with the same spirit that Saint Paul doth set down Phil. 3. his excellencies in leg all priviledges and righteousnesse I would but I account it safer for me to be thought wholly ignorant then to venture priding my self of that small knowledge I have yet thus much I conceive of humane Learning that besides the incertainty of it there are many inconveniences incident to it 1. Our thoughts are wholly taken up with it when wee are studying of it which are not necessarily so in other employments for one may buy and sell and yet have our mindes often upon GOD even in the very midst of those employments 2. Men generally judge of the truths and wayes of Gods Worship according to that way of Learning wherein they excell Those who excell in the Fathers and Church Histories are subject to admit of the Truths and Wayes of GOD's Worship because they are attested and warranted by them Those who most excell in Phylosophy and Schoole Divinity they make Reason the touchstone to try even Gospell truths by yet I doe much esteem of these Egyptian Jewells so wee make not an Idoll of them and fall downe and worship them 3. And lastly I finde it as hard a thing to deny humane Learning as to get it Moses is much to be admired who being brought up in all the Learning of the Egyptians yet preached so plainely as you may see in Deuteronomy and Paul who preached so very plaine that his adversaries objected it against him Consider what is said and the Lord give you understanding in all things Your Servant in the Lord THOMAS WHITE A
rule that such a thing is right because men generally speak against it certainly our desires and endeavours to please men is one of the greatest snares in the world for generally we live so that we enslave our selves and lose not only our Christian but our naturall liberty for men but indeed if it was no more but our outward liberty it was nothing but we wound our consciences and offend our God which is worth more then a thousand Heavens Cautions 1. Caut. First Take heed of the perfunctory performance of holy duties for many mischiefs come by them First They puffe up not edifie if thou powrest out thy soule before God in prayer feelingly spiritually and faithfully thou never departest without some spirituall profit but if thou dost it carnally and formally thy prayers are but wind and they puffe thee up for thy carnall heart would plead these carnall performances to thy conscience and make thee beleeve because thou hast many pieces of this counterfeit coyne that thou art rich and wantest nothing though thou art poor and blind and naked and miserable for thy duties have not the right stamp having neither the image nor superscription of God upon them being neither performed for the glory of God nor by the Spirit of God nor in the name of Christ and between carnall and spirituall duties this is the difference that we usually pride our selves in the one and are humble by the other Secondly Which followes upon the former we shall grow weary in time of performing carnal duties for needs must we be weary of these things from which we get no profit nor strength when duties are dry brests unto us it is no marvel if we are weary of drawing them by spirituall duties we get strength and such prayers do enable us to pray more but carnall prayers tire us Thirdly Consider the same time is spent in the one as in the other whether thou hearest or prayest with zeal and attention or without it takes up the same time in the Publick Congregatition though not the same profit Fourthly Consider that you spoyle both by mixing the thoughts of worldly businesse with spirituall duties for thy outward performance of the duty keeps thy thoughts of businesse from coming to maturity and the thoughts of worldly things keep thy prayers from doing thee any good so that they spoil one another I mean of those wandering thoughts that we let lie in our duties for those that are resisted and removed and mourned for do somwhat hinder but not putrifie the duty for as the Wise man saith That dead flyes cause the oyntment of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour if one takes out a fly as soon as it is come into it so much of the oyntment that sticks about the fly is lost but the rest remains sweet and pure as it was before so wandering thoughts spoyle something of our prayers though they be resisted and removed they make a little hole in our prayer by taking up that time which should have beene fill'd up with better thoughts but if they continue they eat up the fat of those sacrifices and make the sweet odours of our prayers noisome But to conclude this Caution if we were but in any measure sensible of the Majesty of him to whom and the necessity of those things for which we pray to instance in that duty for they are our life and of the necessity of having them from God we need no other motives to deterre us from perfunctory performances 2. Caut. Secondly Take heed of worldly company for whosoever delights in that will find that he never comes out of it but worse then he comes into it for when one goes into such a company among whom there is nothing spoken of God of Christ or of the Spirit of the Word of God and of spirituall experiences where there is no spirituall duty performed except one be exceeding carefull to sequester ones mind from their discourses and keepe a stricct communion with God in the secrets of our hearts our graces if they were strong would grow weak and our corruptions though they were weak would grow strong and that spirituall advantage which you have got by many prayers you will find will be lost in a little time spent in such company except their discourses be as dry brests unto you and as Meshech and Kedar were unto David they must either be a grief or sin unto them except in some cases as in case of businesse thy particular calling or charity if thou comest as a Physician either of their bodies or of their souls then thou not only mayst but oughtest to come unto them in such cases our Saviour did frequently eat with Publicans and sinners not out of any love he had to their worldly conversation but to their conversion and this must be taken as a rule He that knows not how to be alone knows not how to be in company with profit 3 Caut. Thirdly Take heed of idleness for as the Wise man says Seest thou one wise in his own eyes there is more hope of a foole then of him For to make such a man wise there are two things to be done First You must bring him to that that he may know himself to be ignorant and then you must teach him wisdom wheras he that is ignorant and knows himself to be so needs only the last so he that is in any honest employment Satan hath two works to do to make him sin First He must get him to leave off what he is doing and then perswade him to the evill that he tempts him to as a bowle that is running must be first stopped before it can be made to run the contrary way whereas the bowle that â—ies still may without stopping be cast what way one pleases a bird that is flying one can hardly take any aime at as one may at that which sits stil so Satan cannot levell his temptations so at a busie as at an idle man but I shall not prosecute this common place of idlenesse but my main designe is to give you caution against spirituall idlenesse for that which is not taken notice enough of that is not avoidied nor mourned for enough is that we think that we are not idle if we are busied in worldly imployments if we are selling of wares in our shops or riding of a journey or busied in some such imployment of our particular calling The man thresheth and plowes all day and thinks that he is free from idlenesse but we should know that if our thoughts are not imployed upon spirituall things when they may it is the worst idleness of all and very few worldly businesses there are that stand in need of the continuall intentions of our thoughts upon them for it is rather our love of the world that fixeth our thoughts upon worldly matters while we are imployed about them then because they might not be done without halfe that intention of mind doubtlesse there
are many disseminata vacua in all imployments of the world which might and ought to be filled up with spirituall thoughts and as it is with Bees though they gather honey from a flower they leave it as fragrant and as fresh as they found it so we gathering and mixing spirituall thoughts with and from our worldly businesse we hinder it not at all for as a vessel that is full of sand will hold almost as much water as if there were no sand in it so when we are full of imployments we may hold a thousand holy thoughts and as a ship can hardly be so fild with chests or other lading but there will be so many corners unfild up wherein Diamonds of such great value might be put in that they would be more worth then all the lading of the Ship so those thoughts of God and spirituall things which we might have in the midst of our other employments may be of farre greater value then they Fourthly Take heed of perfunctory and careless resisting of temptations but what thou dost in that particular as in spirituall things do it with all thy might for to think and weakly to resolve against sin will not hinder but aggravate thine offence and it is one of the Divels policies to let a man alone to thinke of severall Motives and make some faint resolutions against any sin when hee sees that hee hath him fast enough for he knows that the more Motives and Resolutions wee sin against the more wee are hardened and GOD is provoked And as it is with a Town that is besieged they will willingly let so many of their enemies in as they know they are able to master so Satan when hee sees that the Motives and Resolutions that enter into the soul are too weak hee willingly suffers them to enter for perfunctory performance of duties and feeble resisting of temptations are equally dangerous if the later be not the worst by the former we get no spirituall good and by the later we overcome no spirituall evill 5. Caut. Take heed of making others sin either by scandall or being a temptation to them by example or provocation it is a good way when one hath to deal with a passionate man not onely to prepare our selves for the Combate by prayer and resolutions and keeping a strong guard upon our hearts that we may not be overcome with passion howsoever he shall use us either in word or in deed but to take special care and to use all means to keep him from passion for there is a wretched joy that our hearts are subject to take in the sins of others thinking them to be a foil to our innocency to have others very passionate when we are very meek there is a secret delight that the heart is prone to take but it proceeds from a desperate pride in us who desire to have our excellencies made manifest though with the dishonour of God and damnation of our brother but there is a great deal of hel in it and charity rejoyceth not in ill 1 Cor. 13. 6. Caut. Take heed of studying high speculative points whatsoever for when our thoughts are exceedingly intent in finding out truths all the fire is in the top of the chimney and none is left upon the hearth generally high speculations leave the heart cold without devotion for generally there is a great deal of curiosity and pride in such studies for commonly we desire to be accounted knowing men in searching into whys and how 's of Gods works and truths as why God made the tree of knowledg of good and evill and how there can be three persons and but one God therefore in all reading joyn prayer whether it be in the reading of humane or divine things and take speciall care that the love of God go not out nor grow cold in you That which I have heard of one is a good practice that whatsoever book he was reading every leafe that he turned over he would look what was become of his heart and of God and would not begin till he had sent up some prayers to the Lord for direction Advises 1. Adv. First Concerning writing many wayes thou art to employ that for thy advantage First Write down all those spiritual passages out of Sermons books discourses wherin thou hast found most relish and spirituall profit Secondly Keep a Register of all the mercies that God hath bestowed upon thee whether it be temporall or spiritual but especially thy spirituall experiences and his manifestations of his love if ever the terrors of the Almighty was upon thee the wayes of Gods providence in supporting thee and how and when and in what manner he delivered thee And so for the discoveries of his love and concerning the mercies God hath bestowed upon thee how and whether and when he answers your prayers as also all the speciall ways of Gods providence to other spirituall persons in temporalls or spirituals and when thou findest thy heart dull and cold in love or weak in faith these experiences of Gods goodnesse to thy selfe and others will be an excellent means to enflame and strengthen thee Lastly Keepe a Diurnall of thy life in respect of the spirituall passages of every day set downe whether thou didst awake with God or whether the world had the first fruits of thy thoughts and how thou didst performe spirituall duties whether with relish fervency or delights or otherwise mark and set down when thy heart made any default intermitting its communion with God and all the severall sins that thou canst take notice of that thou hast committed that day and what mercies thou hast received and when there is any mercy that thou prayest for some marke should be set untill thou hast an answer of that prayer from God and that day the Lord gives thee that answer make a reference from that day to the day of praying for that mercy 2. Adv. Secondly Choose some spirituall friend one or more to whom thou mayst wholly unbosome thy self in all spiritual matters but a great deal of caution need to be had in this particular he need to be one of a 1000 that thou choosest thus thou needest have a grâ—at deal of Experince of his spirituall wisedome humility and experience of the ways of God for be he never so learned though he understand all mysteries and all knowledge though he hath never such excellent gifts of edification yet if he be not an experienced Christian thou wilt little benefit either by his society or counsell for when he speaks of spirituall and experimentall truths and the discourses of such truths are the very life of the communion of Saints I say that his discourses concerning such matters be he never so learned if he be not experienced in them will be without life or relish he will seldom speak of such things but when he does it it will be with so much heaviness that thou mayst cleerly perceive he doth speak but by rote
can Christ say or do more then he hath done suppose Christ from Heaven should bid thee write downe what expressions soever thou wouldest or couldest invent and bid thee call all the Saints in the whole world and all the Angels in heaven and bid you consult together and write down the highest fullest cleerest and largest expressions of love and he wil set his hand and seal to them would that satisfie surely God and Christ have done more for the Holy Ghost comes not short of the expressions of love of whatsoever the Angels in heaven could invent thou hast his hand and seale to them in his Word thou wouldest be a looser if thou shouldest make another draught of love for Christ to set his hand to and take that in stead of the expressions of love which he hath already ratified and confirmed by his Word his Oath his Seal that thou mighest have strong consolation Suppose that thou shouldest search the whole world to find out the fondest lovingest and tenderest parent in the world and when thou hast found her thou shouldest observe with what love care and bowels of affection she carried her selfe towards her little Infant how shee breaks her sleep and even her very heart when her child is sick and never complains of her pains and costs and never thinks she can do or suffer enough for the little Infant now if thou shalt say within thy self O that I was sure that God loved me as much as this woman loves her child well would that satisfie then be satisfied God loves thee more Isa. 49. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child that shee would not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee the Lord doth not say can women but a woman any woman find out that woman which thou supposest is the most unlikely to forget her child yet God is more unlikely to forget thee nay it is more possible that all the women of the world should forget their children then God for though the question be put in the singular number Can a woman yet the answer is in the plurall not she may but they may they all may Further again Suppose thou wert at the solemnizing of a marriage of the lovingest couple in the whole world and shouldest observe with how much joy and love the Bridegroom carried himselfe toward the Bride even in the midst and height of all his nuptiall solemnities wouldst thou not be satisfied if thou didst know that God did not only love thee with that tender love of compassion with which the lovingest mother in the world loves her Infant but with that love of complacencie which the Bridegroom beareth to and with which he rejoyceth over his Bride whose love was equall to their espousals then be satisfied for God doth so Isa. 62. 5. And as a Bridegroome rejoyceth over his Bride so shall thy God rejoyce over thee Nay surely I may say that the holiest Saint in the whole world when by the clearest discoveries of Gods love unto him his heart is most enflamed nay further that the highest Angell in Heaven doth not love God so much as God loves the poorest and meanest Saint in the whole world for God so loved the world it is such a sic that there is no sicut for it not that of the Angels unto him nothing can expresse it to the ful save onely the greatness of the gift which hee out of his love gave to and for his pleople even the Lord Jesus Christ To conclude Do but consider what Christ hath done and if thou art fully satisfied of that thou canst have no cause to have the least doubt of his willingnesse to do whatsoever more is to be done for thee for that which is to be done is nothing in comparison of that which he hath already done for those that are his First Nothing in respect of excellency for the Apostle brings that in He will much more give us all things also for God to give thee Christ is much more then to give thee Heaven as to give thee Heaven is much more then to give thee all temporall blessings Mat. 6. 33. If one that ought thee 10000 pounds should have payed thee nine thousand nine hundered ninety nine thou wouldest no whit doubt but he will pay thee the residue especially if it stood upon the forfeiture of his credit how much more shalt thou assure thy self of Gods doing for thee whatsoever is behind since he hath already done so much Secondly The great matter of difficulty is over indeed it cost Christ dear and God the Father dear to redeem thee God spared not his own Son Christ spared not his bloud nor his life he suffered hunger cold and nakednesse and reproach the painfull and shamefull death of the Cross to redeem thee but he lives for ever to make intercession for thee he needs not rise off from his throne nor put off his robes of glory to carry on the remainder of thy work of salvation he sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for thee The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool Thirdly The great matter of wonder is over also That a great and mighty Monarch should marry a poor wretched and diseased woman is a thing of great wonder but it s not so great a wonder that having married her should make her partakers of all the glory and riches of his Kingdome nay indeed it was a wonder if he should not That Christ who is the Lord of glory should marry a poor sinful soul is a wonder but having married thee that he should sanctifie thee that he should present thee glorious without spot or blemish or any such thing is no wonder nay it was a wonder if he should still suffer thee to go in rags and never adorn thee with the Jewels of his grace and set upon thy head the Crown of glory Therefore comfort thy self with these truths Now to him that hath done so much and much more be glory and honour for ever Amen FINIS
not prevailing he entreats her after that sends his Letters full of love and importunity sends Embassadors after Embassadors and lest those should fail sends her many gifts very rich and magnificent and thus he continues week month year after year yet she utterly refuses but after her rejecting and slighting all these wayes of love from the Emperour her husband there comes a base slave from whose company her husband had especially forewarn'd her because she had formerly committed folly with him and dishonoured both her self and the Emperour this adulterer and traytor speaks but half a word to her to go and she presently without delay and with joy goes when she perceives it would please the slave What do you think now do you think the Emperor wil be pleased with her coming upon those terms this is the case of all men that are no more then morally vertuous God perswades us to be just and to defraud no man he entreats us sends the Embassadors the Ministers unto us giveth us mercy upon mercy sends us his Word his Epistles from Heaven line upon line to perswade us to do justice or to be temperate not we for his sake we will do nothing The world comes the world which is a slave to Satan for he is a Prince and Ruler of the darkness of this world the world with which we have committed so often spirituall whoredom and against which God hath so often and seriously forewarned us now only upon a supposition that we should please the world if we are just or temperate we wil be intemperately temperate if I may so say even to macerate our bodies with fasting for a good look of the world we do indeed in being temperate or just do that which God commands but far are we from pleasing him considering the grounds from which we do it for can he be pleas'd that we should do more for a good look of the world then we would for all the wayes of love that he took with us nay indeed never to do any one action for his sake nay but before his face at the same time when we refuse all his entreaties c. to do it at the first word of the world therefore morall vertues considering the ground upon which they were done are sinnes before God therefore let us learn not to be vertuous as Philosophers were vertuous but holy as God is holy Secondly The perfections of God are infinite so must ours as farre as it is possible for creatures to attain our desires of holinesse must be without limits we must not set bounds to our holinesse saying Hitherto shalt thou go and no further but we must alwayes hunger and thirst after righteousnesse Thirdly God hath all perfections or rather is all perfections so we must adde to our faith vertue to vertue knowledg to knowledge temperance c. We must receive from Christ grace for grace as a child receives from his father limb for limb part for part the same parts that the fathers body hath the childs hath also the same for number figure and position though neither for strength nor bignesse and as God is the act of all possible absolute perfections either in degree or in kinde so we should endeavour to have those perfections that a creature of that kind is capable of Fourthly As the perfections of God are both inseparable from God and from themselves so should ours be also our wisdom must be holy our holinesse innocent our wisdom zealous and our zeal wise for we must not conceive that some of Gods actions are holy others wise but all are all his wisdom is holy just good his justice holy good and wise and every attribute is as inseparably united to all the rest of his attributes as any of them are to his Essence as if there were an hundred Suns shining at once in the firmament one could not say that one of these Sunnes shined in this part of the ayre and another in that but the light of every one of them would be in every point of the ayre nor could you possible take away the light of one of the Suns and leave the rest unless you could take away the Sun it self so it is in Gods perfection but thy glorious Name is exalted above all knowledge above all blessing and above all praise Many men will be zealous but without knowledg others will be wise but without zeal and so their wisedomes come to be no better then carnal sensuall and divelish the former zeal was that zeal of the Jews Rom. 10. 2. The other wisedome was the wisedome of Pilate both of them crucified Christ Lastly For I do not intend to be large in these parallels but make haste to presse the great point of Christian perfection we must be perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect notwithstanding all hinderances or provocations to the contrary though God by his wisdome governs and orders all things not a spire of grasse or blade of wheat grows but by him 1. Cor. 15. 38. Not a sparrow falls on the ground nor an hair from our head but by his providence not a lilly is cloathed in the field nor a fowle of the ayre is fed but by him yet notwithstanding such an innumerable number of creatures are both in respect of their essence and operations nay even in respect of the smallest circumstances of either are acted governed and ordered continually by his providence yet he doth no lesse know love and enjoy himselfe then he did from all eternity before there was any creature for his providence to watch over so should we do we should not have our thoughts lesse fixed on God or our love lesse fervent our communion with God should be neither remitted nor intermitted by the imployments in the world Mothers that have their little children to look to should be like the Angels which alwayes behold the face of our Father which is in heaven Mat. 18. 11. But I come as I promised to the great businesse of this Treatise viz. The pressing of Christian perfection which is almost forgotten and nothing left of it but the forme of godlinesse and I shall referre the whole discourfe to these three heads First Severall Considerations Secondly Severall Cautions Thirdly Severall Advises Considerations 1. Consid. Let us consider what the word of God speaks in this matter 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drinke or whatsoever ye do doe all to the glory of God do we live up to the meaning of these words let us consider a little of it and see the meaning of the words First We are to glorifie God in all our actions that is wee ought in the secret of our hearts to admire and adore him to have high thoughts of him and sweet thoughts of him and to expresse it fully we ought to honour him as God Romans 1. Which he blames the Gentiles for not doing That knowing him as God did not honour him as God to
honour him but as we would honor the holiest man in the world nay the highest Angel in Heaven is nothing and as great derogation to his glory as to give his glory to them for to give the honour due unto God to a creature and to give that that is due unto a creature unto God are equally vitious butlet us deal freely and openly with our own souls Do we do so much as that which if we did no more we were guilty of that great sin of the Heathens which the Apostle in the forenamed place doth condemne do we honour God as much as we do honour an Angel or an holy man let us but ask our own consciences and they wil tell us Would we do that in the presence of either of them as we do in the presence of God nay of a child that is come to that understanding to distinguish between good and evill Secondly By these words we are enjoyned that our words actions gestures and all our carriages should be such as may be sutable and fit to raise up those high thoughts of God in others as we our selves have for instance in prayer we ought not only our selves to admire and adore our good and glorious God but so to lift him up and hold forth his excellencies by our very expressions pronounciations and gestures that they may be such as not only may be sutable to our inward admirings of him but fit to beget the same thoughts in all that hearus our loves should be like a flame that takes hold of all that comes near it Thirdly We should as much as in us lies do all our actions and speak all our words with an actuall intention by them to edifie others to cause them to glorifie the Lord Now how far we come short of this we may even be confounded with shame to speak of it The second place that sets down Christian perfection is Phil. 3. 20. We should have our conversation in Heaven we should think with our selves how we should live when we come thither or how those live that are there or one would live that should come from thence to live on earth again how feelingly would they speak of God how fervently would they praise him how would their songs of praise be all flames of love how are they continually taken up with thoughts of admiration of the excellencies of God of the love of God let us not dally with our selves or God but consider with our selves whether we live in any measure sutable to such a life But to proceed let us consider another place Eph. 3. 19. To say of such an one that he is a godly man the holy Spirit of God is in him that he is ful of the Holy Ghost that he is filled with all the fulness of God if one went upon such relations and expressions to see him of whom they were spoken doubtlesse one should come with great expectations to meet with one that was wholly taken up with thoughts of God and if one spake any thing to him of God doubtless one would expect that he should speak wonderful things of God with so much admiration such zeal such love with such feelings that his very word would be able to enflame our hearts with love of God but if when one came to see such an one he should entertain one with vain and idle jests with discourses of the world and spend the whole day generally in recreations and somtime when he hath nothing else to do go and spend half an hour in reading or in praying and when he comes from those duties Iron wil be red hot if it be put into the fire for any time speak as savourly and with as much delight of the vanities of the world as if he had spent his time not in prayer but in admiring and gazing upon the beauty of the creature and if one should speak to him somthing of God he should answer one overly would ye not think in your own souls is this that holy man you spoke of is he that man that was full of God But to proceed a little further 2 Cor. 3. 18 the Apostle says of himself and of Christians in his days that they were transformed into the Image of God that is lived the life of God such a life as Christ lived when he was here on earth nay the grace of God in them was in such an high degree that it might be rather called glory then grace they lived as if they were of the Church triumphant in respect of holinesse though of the Church militant in respect of afflictions their grace was of such an high degree that it was more like glory as was said before then grace yet they did not content themselves with that neither but made a progresse from glory to glory Dear Brethren are our Saviours words but winde and can we imagine that the lives of those that take upon them the names of Christians are any whit sutable to these expressions many times have I thought of that saying of Erasmus That since men could not bring the world to Christianity they have brought Christianity to the world and those expressions and precepts that have been too strict to give us liberty to follow the vanities of the world we have found out vain distinctions and expositions of the places to make them signifie no more then we do and to quiet our consciences that they being deceived and laid a sleep we might not be troubled with their clamours Our Saviour says That for every idle word we must give an account at the last day Mat. 12. 36. The words are so plain that it wil ask one a great deal of labour to find out such an exposition as might not be a continuall accuser of us in all companies in all discourses our Saviours example is the best exposition of this precept we do not read in all the Scripture one word that he spake but was some way or other to edification and yet how loose are wee in our discourses as if there were no such place of Scripture in the whole Bible as these words surely our time would be better spent in praying to God for strength against our corruptions then in studying to finde out excuses and intricate expositions of plaine places to justifie them But you will say that it is true these are excellent things if one could live so it were a blessed life but alas who can doe it I answer First If thou sayst thou canst not live thus I ask thee how dost thou know didst thou ever try what might be done in this case didst thou ever make it thy businesse It may be thou hast had some perfunctory and carelesse desires some cold prayers and faint endeavours but didst thou ever set thy self to it didst thou ever spend as much time so many thoughts with as much earnestnesse to get acquaintance with God as men in the world doe in their trades to get a little
from him grace for grace John 1. 16. Now if we consider the vast emptinesse and spirituall wants of the people of God we must needs conclude that he must be an Ocean of excellency that must continually supply them Secondly For I shall be very brief setting down rather heads of Meditation then Sermon-wise to dilate upon them Consider the dignity of his sufferings for they did satisfie the Justice of God and that could not be satisfied without somthing of infinite value nor could it have been done by him save only by reason of the dignity of his person Thirdly Consider how he suffered though the pains he suffered were exceeding great yet was it without any abatement at all of his love of and confidence in God for while he satisfied the Justice of God by his passive obedience in suffering the penalty of the Law he also satisfied and fulfilled the righteousness of the Law by his active obedience which was a wonder full thing that in the midst of all his agony and all his Fathers anger while he was laying upon him the punishment of the iniquity of us all and spared him not that even then there should be no abatement at all of his confidence in and love of his Father but that he should love him and trust in him as much as at any other time for had there been any abatement and had he not loved God then with all his soul with all his might and with all his strength and the same may be said of his trusting in God his sufferings could never have satisfied for sinne but themselves had stood in need of forgivenesse Fourthly Consider that saying of our Saviour John 14. 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father the speech of Philip is as if he should say Wee indeed see a great deal of holinesse and wisdom in thy words and actions but would we could see the Father surely there would be a world of holinesse and wisdom in his words and actions if he would have lived amongst men as thou Lord hast done surely then it had sufficed Now our Saviours answer is as if he should say to Philip If the Father himselfe had taken humane nature and lived amongst men he would not have spoke one word more or otherwise nor done one action more or otherwise then I have done he would not nay could not have spoke or done more wisely then I have done So he that hath seen me hath seen my Father Fifthly Consider that those who have had the greatest and highest revelations of divine things have alwayes had the highest esteem of and have most magnified Christ Saint Paul rapt into the third heaven and saw and heard things there which was neither possible nor lawfull to be uttered yet no man speaks higher things of Christ then he he desires to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified accounts all other knowledg but drosse and dogs meat such knowledge as dogs and swine reprobates may have nay one step further the very Angels in heaven though they have the beatificall vision yet notwithstanding they desire to look into the great mysteries of the Gospel 1 Pet. 1. 12. Therefore never think that thou hast attained to any measure of Christian knowledge before thou seest an excellency in Christ and an heighth and depth in the mysteries of the Gospel which if thou shalt not do say within thy self it is so evident that nothing is more in the word of God that Christ is the end of all the ceremoniall Laws and all the Prophesies of the old Testament that all the Prophets nay all the Angels give witness and the Apostle cleerly says that there is no controversie of this matter of the greatnesse of Gospel mysteries and therefore that I do not admire them it certainly proceeds from my ignorance of them for if it proceeded from knowledge without doubt the Apostles that had more knowledg then I and the Angels which had more knowledg then the Apostles would never have desired to have known more of them And after thou hast wrought this upon thy heart and art fully convinced of the truth of it that there is no knowledg not onely not so profitable but not so sweet nor so excellent as this then humbly beseech the Lord that he would shew unto thee teaching thee by his Spirit the deep things of God and that he would not only do it to informe and enlighten thy understanding in but to inamour thy will of the beauties of the mysteries of Christ we stand doating and gazing upon hamane knowledge which is but like a poor glow-worme compared to the Sun of righteousnesse but alas poor thing it hath neither light nor heat compared to the truths of the Gospel and we must look upon Christ as the only author and finisher of our faith and justifier of our persons though we do all that hath been mentioned yet we must not so much as make our doings or not doings the least ingredient in our justification and as Solomon speaks concerning our wisdom so we must do in the matter of holinesse Leane not to thine own wisdome saith Solomon not onely not rely upon it but lean on it we must not partly trust in our own wisdom and partly in the wisdom of God but we must wholly rely upon his wisdom so we must not partly rely upon Christs merits and partly upon our own but wholly on Christ those sins which we do not commit we are not innocent of and those holy duties that we do perform we are not innocent in therefore neither can we escape hell nor attain heaven by any thing that wee do or not do and the reason why wee either avoyd sin or perform holy duties or frequent ordinances is not because thereby we shall be justified but that thereby wee may glorifie God and Christ and because therein wee have communion with Christ and are made more conformable unto him and made more capable of more of Christ When we go to some stately Palace where we have appointed to meet some deer friend whom wee love with our whole soul though we have never so much entertainment there when we come yet if wee neither see nor enjoy the company of our so exceedingly loved and desired friend wee rather weep then rejoyce notwithstanding the feasts and buildings which wee taste and see Prayer hearing the Word the Lords Supper are stately Ordinances and rich Feasts yet if we meet not Christ there they are but dry brests and barren wildernesses to a soul that loves Christ Secondly Now the main thing that hinders a poor soul from coming unto Christ is that it is not cleerly satisfied of Christs love and willingnesse to receive her to this point therefore by the blessing of God I shall speak more largely and as cleerly as the Lord shall inable me this therefore may be said to that point Art thou not satisfied of the love and willingnesse of Christ to receive thee What