any be induced to it, and to publick Worfhip in their Families, yet all the Day over is but a flat Contradiction to that: What earthly Mindedness? What Unholinefs of Affection? What Impurity of Converfation? What one Luft is fubdued? What one Sin mortified? Who inGreaseth more in Knowledge of the Truth, or in Love of God? Is it not Midnight with moft Part of you? O the Darkness of the Ignorance of your Minds, by which you know not that Religion you profefs, more than Turks who do prefecute it And what are the Ways ye walk into? Are they not fuch Ways, as will not come to the Light, and hate the Light, because it reproves them? John iii. 19, 20. and xi. 9, 10. Are they not fuch, in which Men stumble, though they feem to walk easily and plainly into them? Yet, O that everlasting Stumble that is at the End of them! when you shall fall out of one Darkness of Sin and Delusion, into an utter Extreme, eternal Darkness of "Destruction and Damnation. O that fear-Lord, as ye defire to be admitted to that ful Dungeon, and Pit of Darknefs you poft into! Therefore, if you love your own Souls, be warned. I befeech you be warned to flee from that utter Darknefs, be awaked out of your deceiving Dreams, and deluding felf-flattering Imaginations, and Chrift fball give you Light. The Discovery of that grofs Darkness you walked into, in which you did not fee whither you went; I fay, the clear difcerning of what it is, and whether it leads, is the firft Opening of that Light, the firft Vifit of that Morning-Star, that brings Salvation. tradiction in the Bofom of it, and that will never bottom any true Happinefs. It is a Lie acted by the Hand, the Foot, and all the Members: A Lie against the holy Truth and Word of God, and the very Reproach of the Name of Chrift; a Lie against your selvês, and your own Profeffions, a Soul-murdering Lie, as well as a Chrift-denying Lie: And this Lie (as a holy Man faith) hath filled Houfes, Cities, Families, Countries; it hath even overfpread the whole Nation, and filled all with Darkness, Horror, Confufion, Trouble and Anguish; once being a holy Nation by Profeffion of a Covenant with God, and our open, manifeft, univerfal Retraction of that, by an unholy, ungodly and wicked Converfation: This hath brought the Sword against a hypocritical Nation, and this will bring that far greater, incomparably more intolerable Day of Wrath upon the Chil dren of Difobedience. Therefore let me exhort all of you, in the Name of the If ye will not be convinced of that infinite Danger you are in, yet ye are not the further from it. He that walketh in Darkness lieth, &c. His ftrong Confidence and Perfwasion hath a Lie, a Con eternally bleffed Society, within the haly City, and not to be excluded among thefe, who commit Abomination, and make a Lie, that ye would henceforth impofe this Neceffity upon your felves, or know that it is laid upon you by God, to labour to know the Will and Truth of God, that you may fee that Light that fhines in the Gofpel; and not only to receive it in your Minds, but in your Hearts by Love, that fo you may endeayour in all Sincerity, the doing of that Truth, the conscionable practising of what you know. And this, as it is a great Point of Conformity to the Light, fo it will make you capable of more Light from God; for he delights to fhew his Liberality, where he hath any Acceptance. Be not fatisfied, O! be not fatisfied with know. knowing these Truths, and difcourfing upon them; but make them further your own, by impreffing them deeply in your Hearts, and expreffing them plainly in your Ways. This is pure Religion and undefiled, James i. 27. And is not this to know me, faith the Lord? Jer. xxii. 16. Practice is real Knowledge, be cause it is living Knowledge; it is the very Life and Soul of Chriftianity, when there needs no more but the Intimation of his Will to carry the whole Man: This is that we should all aspire unto, and not fatisfie our felves in our poor Attainments below this. SERMON XIV. 1 John i. 7. But if we walk in the Light, as he is in the Light, we have Fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jefus Chrift his Son cleanfeth us from all Sin. AR RT is the Imitation of Nature, and true Religion is a divine Art, that confifts in the Imitation of God bimfelf, the Author of Nature. Therefore it is a more high and tranfcendent Thing, of a fublimer Nature, than all the Arts and Sciences among Men; thofe reach but to fome Refemblance of the Wisdom of God, expreffed in his Works; but this afpires to an Imitation of himself in Holinefs, which is the Glory of his Name, and fo to a Fellowship with himself. Therefore there is nothing hath fo high a Pattern, or fublime an End; God bimSelf, who is infinitely above all, is the Pattern, and Society with God is the End of it: And so it cannot choice, but where Religion makes a folid Impreffion on a Soul; it must exceedingly raife and advance it to the moft heroick and noble Refolutions that it is capable ef, in refpect of which Elevation of the Soul after God, the higheft Projects, the greateft Afpirings, and the moft elevating Defigns of Men, are nothing but. low, bafe and wretched, having nothing of true Greatness of Mind in them, but running in an earthly and fordid Channel, infinitely below the poorest Soul, that is lifted up to God. Since we have then fo high a Pattern as God, because he is infinitely removed from us in his own Nature, we have him expreffed to us under the Name and Notion of Light, which makes all Things manifeft. Not only as dwelling in inacceffible Light; that is, in his own incomprehenfible, ineffable Effence, even before this Light was created; for he is in the Light, and was in the Light, when there was no Sun to give Light, because he was in himself invironed (fo to fpeak) with the infinite Light and Splendor of his own Understanding, and Beauty Beauty of his own Holiness, and fo dwelling in an all Fulness,and Self-sufficiency of Bleffedness. Not only is he thus in the Light, but he is a Light to poor Sin ners, the moft communicative Being, that ceafeth not continually to fend forth Streamings of that Light and Life, into dark and dead Souls; and therefore he is not only Light in himself, but a Sun of Righteoufnefs, moft beneficial in his Influences, most impartial and free in his Illumination; and fo he is often called, my Light, and my Salvation, our Light, a Light to me, Pfal. xxvii. 1. Micab vii. 8. Ifa. xlii. 6, 7. Now, it is this Emif. fion of Light from him, that first drives away that grofs Darkness that is over Souls, for till then, in the Darkness ail was hid and covered, nothing feen, neither our felves, nor God, neither the Temper of our Hearts, nor the Courfe of our Ways, nor the End they lead to But it is the breaking in of a Beam of that Sun of Righteousness, that maketh any fuch Discovery; as Motes are not feen till the Sun fhine, though the Houfe be full of them. In Darkness there is nothing but Confufion and Disorder; and Light only makes that Disorder visible to the Soul, to the affecting of the Heart. Now, when once the Soul hath received that Light, there is a Defire kindled in the Heart after more of it; as when the Eye hath once perceived the Sweetness and Pleasantnefs of the Light, it opens it felf, and expofeth it felf to a fuller Reception of more: And fo the Soul that is once thus happily prevented by the firft Salutation and Vifit of that DaySpring from on high, while he was fit ting in Darkness, and in the Shadow of Death, Luke i. 78, 79. afterward, follows after that Light, and defires nothing more; than to be inbofomed with it: That tender preventing Mercy fo draws the Heart after it, that it can never be at perfect Reft, till the Night be wholly fpent, and all the Shadows of it removed, and the Sun clearly up above the Horizon, and that is the Day of that clear Vision of God's Face. But in the mean Time, this is the great Ambition and Endeavour of fuch an One, to walk in that Light, and this is the very Entertainment of that Fellowship with God; he is already in the Light, that is to fay, he is tranflated from a State of Darkness to Light, and indued with the living and faving Knowledge of God in Jefus Chrift, this is his State; he is in the Light, one "enlightned from above, haying his Eyes opened to discover the Mystery of the Iniquity of his own Heart, and to fee far off, to that bottomless Pit of Mifery, which his Way would lead him to; one who hath by this divine Illuftration difcovered eternal Things, and Jeen Things not feen; and withal gotten fome Knowledge of Salvation by the Remiffion of Sins. Now, fuch an One, being thus in the Light; his Duty is, and his infinite Dignity befides, to walk in that Light, that is, to lead all his Life under that eternal Light of God, which fhines in the Word, and to bring it all forth in his View; to make our whole Courfe a progreffive Motion towards Heaven, wherein that glorious Light fhines moft gloriously. It is almost all one with that of Paul's, to bave our Converfation in Heaven; for, to walk in the Light, it is a Kind of Elevation of our Actions, a railing them up to Heaven, to that pure Light; for af ter that, and toward that, is the Soul's Defign. Now to express to you in what it confifts, I defire not to branch it forth in many many Particulars, which rather diftraft out from the retired Access to God, with the Mind, than affect the Heart; only a Luftre upon his Carriage, that may you may know, it confifts especially in beautify the Gofpel; and (as one faith to the inward Retirements of the Soul well) with the Tables of the Law in to God, and the outward fhining of that both his Hands, written in his Practice, Light, in our Converfation to others. the Light of the Law fhining in his Life; Thefe are the chief Parts of it, borrow and truly this is the Chriftian's diurnal ing from his Light, and then lending and Motion in his lower Sphere, wherein he imparting it to others, by a holy Con- carries about that Light that is derived verfation. Truly, we muft needs con- from the bigber Light; in all his Conceive, That the most lively and unmixt verfe with Men, it shines from him to the partaking of the Light of God, and the glorifying of him that is the Father of Tweeteft Society with him, is in the fe- Lights, walking righteously and fobercret Withdrawings of the Soul from the ly, without Offence, doing Good to all, World, and repofes upon God, thofe lit- especially the Children of Light; extentle Intervals, and, as it were, ftoln Hours ding Offices, of Love and Benevolence of Fellowship with God, that are taken to every one; forbearing and forgiving from the Multitude and Throng of our Offences, not partaking with other Mens Bufinefs; these are the fittest Opportu Sins. And finally, declaring in Word nities of the transforming the Soul into and Deed, That we have Communion his Similitude, and of purifying it as be with the Fountain of pure Light, and is pure, of filling it with divine Light one Day expect to be tranflated out of and Love; for then the Heart Iyes, as it this lower Orb, where we are fo far were, perpendicularly under his Beams, diftant from him, and fixed in the higheft and is opened before him, to give Ad- of all; where we may have the imme miffion and Entry to this faving, tranf diate, full, uninterrupted, and clearest Afforming Light; and it is the Shining of pect of his Countenance, which fhall then God's Countenance then upon the Soul, make the Defcription that is here given that draws it moft towards Conformity of God communicable to us, that, as be with him, and leaves an Impreffion of is Light, and in him is no Darknes, Light and Love upon the Soul. Oh, fo we being fully and perfectly shined uthat you were more acquainted with this, pon by him, may be Light likewife, with-. this Aprication, fo to speak, that is, Sun out any Mixture of Darkness, as here it ning your felves, and warming in the is not. eis Sun, the expofing and opening of your Hearts frequently in Secret, before this Sun of Righteoufnefs. Now this, if you were acquaint with it, would make your Light fo to fbine before Men, as your beavenly Father may be glorified, Mat. v. 16. and that is the walking in that Light of God. This makes a Chrifti an to come forth, as Mofes from the Mount, with his Face shining; he comes Now, my Beloved in the Lord, this is that we are called unto, to walk thus in the Light, in the Light of Obedience and Sanctification; and that is the great Thing ye would learn to afpire unto, rather than to enjoy the Light of Confolation: Indeed I conceive, that which maketh many of us walk in Darkness, as is fpoken in Ifa. 1. 10. that is, without Comfort, Peace and Joy, and without clear.. if forth thy Righteousness as the Light, we would not fubftract and withdraw our felves from under the Light, because it is presently over-clouded. Then, moreover you would know, that all this While that your Intereft in Chrift lyes dark, and under Cloud, you would then be moft in the Application of that Blood to your Souls, most in trusting and stay clear difcerning our Intereft in God, is, because we walk in another Darkness, that is, of Sin and Distance from God: The one Darkness is introductive of the other; nay, they cannot be long with out other, the dark Cloud of bold finning, and careless uncircumfpect walk Ing, that cannot but ecclipfe the Light of Confolation, and fill the Soul with fome Horror, Anguish and Confufion. There-ing upon the Name of God, and his abfore, if ye would walk in the Light of Joy and Comfort, O take heed nothing be interpofed between God and your Souls: You muft likewife walk in the Light of his Law, which is, as a Lamp to the Feet; and this Light, as the Ray, begets that Light of Comfort, as the Splendor, which is the fecond Light of the Sun. I know it is a difconfolate and fad Condition, to walk without the Light of the Knowledge of our Intereft in God; .but I would earnestly recommend unto you two Things to fupport you, and help you in that; one is, that you do not give over the chief Point of this Society with God, that is, walking in the Light of his Law and Commandments, but that you do the more seriously address to the one, that you want the other. Certainly, it ought to be no Hinderance of your Obedience, and patient continuing in Obedience, that you know, not your own Intereft, and that his Countenance shines not fo upon you; you know that sweet Refolution, I will wait upon the Lord, who hides bis Face, &c: Ifa. viii. 17. Mic. vii. 7. and his own Command, Ifa, 1. 10. Hof. xii. 6. Ye that walk in fuch a Darkness, nevertheless, ftay upon God. Truly there could be no greater Evidence of thy Interest than this, to give patient Attendance upon him in the Ways of Obedience, till he fhine forth; this would in due Time bring folute Promifes: Suppofe thou do not as yet know that he is thine, yet doft thou not know that he is made thine, by believing in him? And therefore, while it is inevident that it is already, thou ought fo much the more to labour, that what is not, may be. Now, if thou canst not apply him to thy Soul, as thine own Poffeffion; yet thou mayeft, and fo much the more oughteft to apply thy Soul to him, and refign and offer thy felf to him, as willing to be his Poffeffion, to be his, and no more thine own. In a Word, when thine own experimental Feeling of the Work of God's Spirit fails within thee; then fo much the more infist, and dwell upon the Meditation and Belief of the general Promiles, which are the proper Object of Faith, and not of Senfe : As our own Intereft is the proper Object of Senfe, and not of Faith; therefore: the Defect in the one, needs not refound upon the other, To fum up all in one Word, if thou thinkeft that thou haft not yet believed in Chrift, and hath no In tereft in him; I will not difpute with thee, to perfwade thee that thou art miftaken, for all this Debate would be in the Dark, because thou art in Darkness: But one Thing I would fay unto thee, labour to do that which thou would do, which thou inuft do, if fuch a Cafe were granted; fuppofe it were fo, that thou had no Intereft in him, what would thou da |