and to an auftere, felf-denying, defpifed life here, doth evidence and convince that there is the Strength and Wisdom of God that is engaged in this wonderful, yet most positively predicted conqueft of the world. 2. The work of the Spirit of God preparing and predifpofing the heart to the receiving of the Gofpel of the Kingdom; convincing the heart of that fin and that death which hath overfpread the whole race of mankind; and of the truth, and efficacy, and fufficiency, of that redemption which came by Christ, and is published in that Word; ftriving and contending with, and mastering and over-ruling the oppofition of the will against it; calming, and quieting, and rectifying the diftempers, and diforders, and mifplacings of our affections; oppofing and fubduing the lufts of our fenfual appetite; enlightening, and quickening, and cleanfing the confcience, and bringing it about to take part with God, and the actings of this fpirit upon our fouls; mingling the Word of the Gofpel, conveyed into the heart, with a fecret and powerful energy, whereby it becomes a feed of life in the heart, growing unto eternal life. And thus, as at firft, the motion of the spirit of God upon the face of the waters, and the powerful word of command, produced the feveral creatures, fo by the like motion of the spirit upon the heart, and the powerful call of the Word of Chrift by the publication of the Gofpel, is wrought the fecond creation of the new creature. Awake thou that 'fleepest, stand up from the Dead, and Christ shall give thee life .' And these two great inftruments produce in the heart two active or operative principles, which, after they are produced, are not only an effect of the work of God, but also become inftrumental for the increase of it, viz. Faith and Love: Faith, whereby we receive this meffage of Salvation, and entertain it, and rest upon it; and Love, whereby out of the apprehension of this great Love of God to us, we love him again, Ephes. v. 14. we we love him because he loved us first. And this love of God engageth the foul to a fincere obedience to the Will of God. The mifery from which we are redeemed is fo great, the price by which we are redeemed fo invaluable, the Glory and Bleffednefs to which we are redeemed fo full; and all thefe appearing fo to the foul by Faith, that the foul can think nothing too much to return to that God that hath fo freely done fo much for it. Thus Faith worketh by love. And this is that kingdom of God that is within us, the fubjection of the whole foul to the fceptre and rule of Chrift. If he command purity of life, forfaking of all things, denying ourselves, crucifying our lufts, laying down our lives, the foul is tutored to that fubjection unto the will of Chrift, that it cheerfully obeys him in this, and whatever he commands. This is that Kingdom of God 2, confifting in Righteousness, a full conformity of the foul to the Will of God, the only and abfolute Rule of Righteoufnefs; Peace upon the fense and belief of reconciliation with God through him that is our peace; and joy in the Holy Ghoft upon the ap prehenfion of the protection and love of Chrift our King, and that Glory which he hath most assuredly prepared for all his fubjects. 3. We have the degrees of the manifeftation of this Kingdom here and hereafter: the Kingdom of Grace, and the Kingdom of Glory; both making but one Kingdom of God under different degrees of manifestation. God by his Word and Spirit cafts into the foul a feed of life, like that grain of muftard-feed whereunto the kingdom of heaven is refembled. And this feed of life abideth in the heart; and there it quickens, and fashions, and moulds the heart to the image of God: it oppofeth and ftruggleth against lufts and temptations, which labour to ftifle and to kill this feed of life; and, like the leaven that was hid in the three measures of meal, it doth, by degrees, affimilate the Luke xvii. 20. 2 Rom. xiv. 17. Matth. xiii. 33. Matth. xiii. 1 John iii. 9. whole inward man to this living principle, and conforms the life unto it. Now, though this principle of life is thus operative, yet, in respect of the outward view, it is a hidden life. The external appearance of this life is referved till Chrift, who is our life, fhall appear; and then fhall that hidden life be revealed. Behold, now we are the fons of God; but it doth 'not yet appear what we fhall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we fhall be like him 2.' By this feed of grace fown in our hearts, we become the fons of God; and of this fonfhip we have a fecret evidence in our own fouls; but there fhall be a fuller manifestation of it, when Chrift, who is our life, fhail appear. So then, the Kingdom of Grace and of Glory are the fame Kingdom, but under a different manifeftation that, a concealed Kingdom, a feed in the ground; this, the Manifestation of that Kingdom, a feed in the tree. To conclude. When thou prayeft, thy kingdom come, let thy foul enlarge itfelf in thefe or the like defires: O Lord, I know thou art King of Heaven and Earth; and the leaft of all thy creatures, in their moft feemingly cafual and inconfiderable events and motions, are under thy moft certain and powerful Providence. Yet fuch is our blindness, and fo myfterious are the ways of thy Providence, that fometimes we are at a lofs, and defire with thy Prophet 3, to expoftulate with thee touching thy judgments. If • it stand with thy Glory and Will, I befeech thee let all the events and occurrences of the world appear to be under thy administration and government; that 6 all may fee thy Wifdom, and thy Power, and thy Juftice, and thy Goodnefs, in all the paffages of it; and that all men may be convinced that thou, the moft High, ruleft in the Kingdom of Men; and that all thy works are truth, and thy ways are judgment, ' and those that walk in pride thou art able to abase 4: that they may all acknowledge he is a God that 1 Coloss. iii. 4. 2 1 John iii. 2. Jer. xii. 1. . Dan. iv. 32, 37. judgeth in the earth: and because thou haft a more 'peculiar Kingdom, even thofe that thou haft given unto thy Son, let that Kingdom of thine come; do 'thou fend out thy Spirit and thy Word into the 'World, and fubdue the hearts of all people to the belief and obedience of the Gofpel of Chrift, that all the Kingdoms of the World may be the Kingdom of God and of Chrift. Bring in the Jews, and the fulness of the Gentiles, that there may be one 'fold and one fhepherd; and let thy Son ride on victorioufly, conquering and to conquer; and preserve 'thy flock from the mifchiefs that are from without, oppreffion and perfecution; and from those that are from within, divifions and herefies. Let them walk 6 as becomes the fubjects of the Prince of Peace, Purity, and Truth, in Unity, Holinefs, and Truth, that they may appear to be the people of thy Holinefs. Rule every member thereof by thy Grace; preferve them from their enemies within them, lufts and defections; from their enemies without them, the incurfions of Satan. Make hafte to fulfil the number of thine Elect; and when thy Kingdom of Grace is confummate, then let thy Kingdom of Glory come, the day of the manifeftation of thy righteous judgment, when the fubjects of thy Kingdom fhall be delivered from all Death and Sorrow, and fhall inherit that Kingdom which thou haft prepared for and from all Eternity. And keep all our hearts looking for, and haftening unto thy coming, paffing our time here in all holy conversation and Godlinels 2, that fo, when ' our Lord cometh, he may find us fo doing; and then come, Lord Jefus, come quickly.' Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven. Though the Will of God be one indivisible act, yet in regard of the manifellation of it to us, it comes under a double apprehenfion: 1. The Will of his Counfel. 2. The Will of his Commands. This is that which A Psalm iviii. 11. 2 Pet. iii. 11. 2 K 4 2 he he wills to be done by his creature; the other is that he wills fhall be done upon his creature. 1. The Will of bis Counfel, whereby he hath from all eternity appointed and ordered moft wifely, and infallibly, and irrefiftibly, all the acts and events of all his creatures; fo that thofe things that feem to us most natural or most freely to remove, are fubfervient in all their actings to this moft free and eternal counsel of his; and all thofe occurrences which feem to us moft inconfiderable or contingent, are pre-ordained by the fame moft infallible Counfel, and make the inftruments of bringing about the greatest concernments in the world: I will work it, and who fhall let it? The Lord of hofts hath fworn, faying, Surely as I have thought, fo fhall it come to pafs; and as I have purpofed, it fhall ftand 2;' For the Lord of hofts hath purposed, and who fhall difannul it? And his hand is ftretched out, and who fhall turn it back 8?' I am 'God, and there is none like me; declaring the end " from the beginning, and from ancient times the things * that are not yet done, faying, My counfel fhall fand, and I will do all my pleasure 4. Infomuch that thofe various and unftable, and free motions of the will and mind of man, which feem to come under no rule nor government but of himfelf, are moft exactly ordered to the bringing to pafs the purposes of God: There are many devices in the heart of man, nevertheless "the counfel of the Lord that fhall ftand 5.' 'Man's go'ings are of the Lord, how can a man then understand his own way 6?' O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himfelf, it is not in a man that walketh to direct his fteps 7.' And herein we may obferve the moft deep and unfearchable wifdom, power, and purity of God, that while man worketh freely, yet therein God worketh thereby powerfully; and while man worketh finfully, yet God worketh thereby purely and justly. The freedom of the will of man is not Isa. xliii. 14. Isa. xiv. 24. 3 Isa. xiv. 27. Prov. xix. 21. Prov. xv, 24, Isa. xlvi. 9, 10. 1 Jer. x. 23. controlled |