Chapter VI
The Uses. See the great love of God, that all that is within him,, all his attri
butes, and all his persons, should concern themselves in our salvation. Since salvation is so great a work, in which the whole Deity is employed, let us not neglect it. Let us think how welcome these three persons will make us at our arrival in heaven.
Use 1. Is it thus that all three persons jointly and severally have their hands thus in man s salvation, have shared it amongst them into so many works, and took them on them, as so many offices, and vouchsafed to bear a title of honour therefrom, as you have heard ? You that love God, see and acknowledge the infinite overflowing love of God therein ; God hath loved us (you see) with all that is within him. Content nor satisfied was he to shew forth all his attributes therein, and those which had not been in the least discovered in the creation, as grace and mercy, &c., but he would have the persons also set a-work, and employed therein, and thereby mani fested to us. Oh let us love God with all that is within us; Bless the Lord, my soul, says the Psalmist,
* and all that is within me bless his
holy name, Ps. ciii. 1. Let all thy faculties come forth, as the stars in their courses, to celebrate his name. If you pray, pray with the spirit, pray with understanding also ; if you sing, sing with the spirit, and sing with the understanding also, as the apostle speaks upon another occasion,
1 Cor. xiv. 15, and let nothing be untuned or unstruck in this concert. God the Father became our God, and ordained to give himself to us from
everlasting in election, and delighted to choose us, as the phrase is, Deut.
x. 15. He gave his Son, and he gave himself both to us, and for us, and both gifts are invaluably infinite ; and because he had no more left, he hath
given his Spirit also, as, 2 Cor. v., ye have it; when man was first made, then only God said, Let us make man ; this was spoken, say some, with a farther eye and foresight than to the creation, this counsel expressed what special care they each should have unto the like piece of workmanship was then afore them, even unto the gospel state. I will choose him to life, saith the Father, but he will fall, and so fall short of what my love designed to him ; but I will redeem him, says the Son, out of that lost estate. But
yet being fallen he will refuse that grace, and the offers of it, and despise it ; therefore I will sanctify him, said the Holy Ghost, and overcome his
unrighteousness, and cause him to accept it. And having this counsel and resolution about him, they still said, however, Let us make him, and thereupon fell to making him, and have since done all this for him.
Use 2. Salvation is a great work, and shall we neglect it ? The three
persons have been employed about it, and that from everlasting ; and will not you work out your own salvation ? It is your own. Do you think to do that in a trice they have been doing from eternity ? or do you think to do it when you will ? Salvation is locked up by a door of faith, as it is
called, Acts xiv. 27, and to that door there are these three keys of these
CHAP. VI. J MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE. 541
three persons, and all must, and do concur in it, when it is effected. And thinkest thou to have these States of heaven to come together at thy beck and at thy call ? Thou mayest sooner think to order the great conjunction of the stars and planets
: Job. xxxviii. 32, Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth ? knowest thou the ordinances of heaven ? or canst thou set the do minion thereof upon the earth ? That is, canst thou order their motion, so as that their conjunctions or meetings should fall out when thou pleasest ? which, when they meet, have special influences upon this lower world. Canst thou set that clock ? And thinkest thou (that canst not move a man s heart on earth) to call the Trinity together when thou pleasest to despatch thy business for thee ? Be sure, therefore, that thou take their time, when thou feelest the Spirit moving thee ; then all those wheels are a-moving, and then take thy season.
Use 3. Think how welcome we shall be when we come to heaven. It is said in the parable, that when men fail, there are friends made with un righteous Mammon, which will then receive you. But here is a higher company and fellowship of friends to us, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the three witnesses in heaven that are and have been, as you see, so great friends to us, and each love us for his work s sake on us, and cost and labour of love bestowed : arti/ex amat opus; so do each of these love their own work in us. Saith the Father, This is the soul which I chose from
everlasting, and set my heart upon so long ago. Saith Christ, This is that man that I represented upon the cross, and the welcome day now comes that I have return of the travail of my soul, the spirit* of my blood. And
I, says the Spirit, have took infinite pains with him to keep him, and to bring him to this. And thus all rejoice and glory in it.
l/se 4. That these three glorious persons thus equally share this work, of so much glory to God in the highest, amongst them, "and one doth not take upon him all, but each bears his part, that each may be honoured as the other ; yea, are jealous of the glory of each other herein as much as of their own. This may teach us, poor narrow creatures, humility and mutual condescension, that no man should do or have the honour of all the work, or strive for it. God hath shared his gifts, made diversities of operations, and worketh as, and in what measure, and by whom, he pleaseth. If there had been contending amongst these persons who should have the glory of
all, or who should be the first or second, this work had stood still, and man had not been saved ; but they willingly share it, according to their order and priority of subsisting, and involve our salvation with their glory. * Qu. fruit
1 ? ED.
ON REPENTANCE,
TWO SEBMONS,