Section 11

to
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to turn every voice into a trum- pet, and make heaven and earth ring with praifes and hallelujahs to God, that Jefus Chrift is the Savi- our of all the world, and of every man of every nation, kindred, and language. Therefore faith St. John, They Jung anew Jong, faying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the Jeals thereof ; for thou waft jlain, and haft redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Rev. v. 9. And again, After this, I be - held, fays he, and lo, a great multi- tude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds, and people, and tongues, food before the throne, and before the Lamb, cloathed with white robes, and with palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, faying, Salvation to our God which Jitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Rev. vii. 9, 10.
Every
201
The Love of God.
Every Heathen, Jew, and Christian, is forced to know and feel, whether he will or no, that God has a certain Jeer el power with- in him, which is watching every opportunity of faying fomethingto him, either of himfelf, the vanity of the world, or the guilt and con- fequences of fin. This is that in- ftindi of goodnefs, attrattion of God, or witnefs of himfelf in every man, which without arguments and reafonings rifes up in the foul, and would be doing fome good to it, if not quenched and refilled by the noife and hurry either of pleafures or bufinefs.
Therefore, my dear friend, know the place of your religion, turn in- wards, liften to the voice of grace, the inftintt of God that fpeaks and moves within you : let your heart pray to God, to bring forth his own divine nature in you. Your heart
wants
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wants nothing but God, and nothing but your heart can receive him. This is the only place and feat of religion, and of all communication between God and you.
This free gift of God to all men, has that natural fitnefs for the re- ceiving of Chrift, as the eye has for receiving the light ; it wants him. it defi reshim, it is for him, it re- joices in him, as the eye wants, defires, and rejoices in the light. And of this, does our Saviour plainly (peak, when he fays, He that is of God heareth God’ s word, and again, My Jheephearmy voice.
The whole of natural religion confifts in a man’s following this voice of nature, and atting con- formable to it ; in acknowledging the finfulnefs of his ftate, and in imploring and relying upon the divine mercy to be delivered from it ; tho’ it is not known by what name to
call
The Love of God. 203
call that deliverance, or what kind of Saviour is wanted to effect it. But he that thus ac- cording to the diredfcion of his na- tural ftate lives before God, in penitence, and in faith in his mercy, is fure of having the benefit of all the mercy of God, though he does not know the method, or the means, by which the mercy of God will fave him.-— Had a man no fenfe of lhame for his fins, he would be in the very ftate of the beafts ; had he no faith and hope in the mercy of God, he would be in the ftate of the devils.
Therefore that internal fentiment of heart , that irftmdl of goodnefs, is the prefervalion of his nature, and the faving him from being like to the beafts and fallen fpirits. And all revealed religion, is to improve this true religion of nature in its two ejfential parts , penitence for fin,
and
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and faith and trail in the mercy of God. For all revealed religion, intends nothing, but to give us more reafons for penitence, faith and truft in the mercy of God.
And this inftin6l of good, or true religion of nature, is the very preparation of the heart for the re- ception of the gofpel. For fo much as there is of this penitence and faith living in the foul, fo much it has of eyes to fee, of ears to hear, and of a heart to underhand all the truths of divine revelation. The humility and penitence of the gof- I pel, the mercies of God in and11 through Jefus Chrift, are as agree- 1 able to a man in this hate of heart, as food and water to the hungry 1 and thirfty foul. And when he 1 finds the gofpel, he finds the pearl, 1 for which he gladly fells all that he a hath. Therefore there is the fame 1 agreement, and the fame difference 1
between
the Love of God. 205
between the true religion of nature, and the religion of the gofpel, that there is between the breaking of the day, and the rifing of the fun to its meridian height ; — and as the light of the day-break, and the light of the noon- day, are both the fame light, and from the fame pro- ducer of light; fo the light of the religion of nature, and the light of the gofpel, are the fame light, and from the fame producer of light in the mind.
Don’t therefore, my dear friend, deceive yourfelf, nor let any one elfe deceive you. The matter is of infinite confequence that you have before you. You come into the world but once, and have but one trial, but the effe&s of it are to laft for ever. The time of difputing and fpeculating is fhort ; it can laft no longer than whilft the fun of this world can refrefh your flefh S and
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and blood, and fo keep the foul from knowing its own depth, or what has been growing in it. But when this is over, then you mull know and feel what it is to have a nature as deep , and Jlrong , and large as eternity.
Jf you have lived upon the amulements of reafon and (pecula- tion, your life has been worfe than a dream, and your foul will at the end of fuch a life, be left to itfelf in its own darknefs, hunger, thirjl , and anxiety, to be for ever devoured by its own fire.
But if you have watched over that injtinU of goodnefs which God planted in your foul, and have exercifed yourfelf in that penitence for your fins, and humble faith in the mercy of God, that the gofpel propofes to you ; then when your body falls off from you, you will feel and know what a kingdom of
God
the Love of God. 207
God lay hid in your foul, you will fee that you have a life and ftrength like that of eternity, and the ful- nefs of God himfelf will be your everlafting enjoyment.
You are now your own carver, and muft be that which you (hall have made of yourfelf. If the depth of your heart has not in this life’s time its proper cure, if it has not fomething done to it, which your reafon can no more do, than it can create the light, your heart will become your hell. And if you let the light of the gofpel fhine in- to it, and revive the good feed of life in it, then it will become the feat and habitation of your heaven.
But it may be, you will fay, you would believe the gofpel if you could, but that its evidence can- not have that effeB; upon your mind. — As the gofpel is much de- fended and oppofed by learned S 2 men,
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men, its evidence is fo perplexed, that your mind cannot come at any certainty of what you ought to believe concerning the truth of it.
I will therefore propofe the fhorteft, and the furelt of all me- thods.— Now I defire you to know no books, nor to be well read in any controverfy but in that which paffes within you, in order to know the gofpel to be the greateft of all truths, and the infallible voice of i God fpeaking the way of falva- tion to you.
The gofpel is built on thefe two i pillars, firft, That you are a fallen : fecondly, That you are a redeemed creature. Now every man's own foul, fpeaks thefe two great truths to him. You feel, and know that you area finner, that you have the diforders of the beafts, and the de- pravity of evil fpirits within you.
Is
the Love of God. 20$
Is not this faying to you, by the frame and voice of your nature, that you are a fallen creature, and not in that ftate in which a good being muft have created you ? For I ap- peal to yourfelf, in your own de- gree of goodnefs, if you could create your own children, whether you would not create them in a bet- ter Hate, and with lefs evil, both of the bead and the devil in them ; than that in which you was born yourfelf.
Therefore, only fuppofing God to have your degree of goodnefs, he could not have created the firlt man, from whom your nature is derived in the ftate that you are ; and therefore fuppofing him only to be good, you have a fufficient proof ; but fuppofing him to be infinitely good, or goodnefs itfelf, you have an infallible aemonftra- tion written in the frame of your S 3 nature
210 A Difcourfe on nature, that you are a fallen crea- ture, or not in that (late in which God created you.
Again, do you want any learn- ing or books, to fhew you, that every man, as well as yourfelf, af- fefts to appear virtuous, to have good qualities, and is alhamed of every bealtly and diabolical difor- der; and would feem to have vir- tues and goodnefs, that he has not, becaufe of an innate love that he has for them ; and from a fenfe of their being proper for him ? And is not this faying again’ with the fame fulnefs of certainty, that you are a redeemed creature, that there is in you an inward Redeem- er, a light of the mind, a feed of goodnefs, an infiintl to virtue, given you by God, though without reve- lation you don’t know when nor how ? And do you not hereby plainly fee, that you (land nearer
to
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the Love of God.
to the truth of the Chrihian religi- on, than you do to any thing elfe ? It is the book of yourfelf, it talks of nothing out of you, it fpeaks but that which is faid within you, and therefore you have a fufficient help to underhand it. What can the gofpel fay to you of the fall 'of man, and of your redemption, that is not at the fame time faid to you, by the hate of your own foul ?
A finful creature, cannot come from God in its finful hate. And on the other hand, if you was not redeemed, how could you feel an inclination to goodnefs, and a de- fire of appearing virtuous ? For what elfe is this defire, but a cer- tain inward principle that has be- gun your redemption, and is trying to carry it Qn ? Now the Chrihian religion tells you only this great truth, that you are fatten and re-
deemed,
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deemed, that is, that you have a mixture of evil, and good in you. That from the beginning of the world, it has been God's gracious defire and defign in and by Jefus Chrift, to render your redemption effe&ual, that is, to make the good that is in you perfectly overcome all your evil. Complain therefore no more of want of evidence ; you are the gofpel’s evidence, it is preached in your own bofom. And this great and glorious truth, that I have declared: this free gift of God to all men, by a feed of life, which all men receive from Chrift, is the true and folid mean- ing of that which is called prevent - ing grace, and which, when rightly fpoken of, is faid to be common to all men. It is grace, becaufe it is God’s free gift, we could not lay hold of it by any power of our own, nor had any right to claim it. It
is
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is preventing grace , becaufe it pre- vents or goes before, and is not given us for any thing that we have done. And therefore it has its plain diftinftion from God's affifting grace. — St. Paul fays, God hath chofen us in Chnjl Jefus, before the foundation of the world. Now from this eternal, forefeeing good- nefs of God towards mankind, it is, that a fpark of the firft divine life, called a feed of the woman, the ingrafted word, a kingdom of God, a pearl of great price, a treafure hid in a feld, was fore-ordained to be treafured up ; — which through the divine love, (my dear reader) is fecurely treafured up, as a pearl hidden in thy own field ; which, if it be not thy own fault, fhall furely revive into its firft glory, through Chrift, who is, and ever fhall be, the Resurrection, and
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the Life. — This divine feed, ox fret gift of God is the general, and pre- venting grace of all men, that ena- bles them fo to a6t, as to obtain God’s aff f ting grace, in the renewal of their hearts and minds ; and it is a glorious and undeniable truth, that there is no partiality in God, but that all men, have a general call, and a general capacity to obtain their falva'ion. — God has but one defign towards all mankind: Christi- ans, Jews, and Heathens, are all equally the defire of his heart, — his wifdom crieth, Jhe pulteth forth her voice, not here or there, but every where, in all the ftreets of all the
parts of the world. O my God,
juft and good, how great is thy love and mercy to mankind, that heaven is thus every where open, and Christ thus the common Saviour of all ! O fweet
power
The Love of God. 215
power of the bruifer of the ferpent, born in every fon of man, that ftirs and works in every man, and gives every man a power, to find his happinefs in God! O holy Jesus, heavenly light, that lightejl every man that/ com- eth into the world , that redeemeft every foul that follows thy light, which is always within him ! O holy Trinity, immenfe ocean of divine love in which all mankind live, and move, and have their being ! None are feparated from thee, none live out of thy love, but all are embraced in the arms of thy mercy, ail are partakers of thy divine life, the operation of thy holy fpirit, as foon as their heart is turned to thee ! O plain, and eafy, and fimple way of falvation, wanting no fubtilties of art or fcience, no borrowed
learning,
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learning, no refinements of rea- fon, but all done by the fimple natural motion of every heart, that truly longs after God!
FINIS.
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