Page images
PDF
EPUB

heritage, the promises are your portion, Christ. is your's, all is your's; for he that doth these things shall never be moved, Ps. xv. 5.

A NECESSARY CASE ON 1 Thess. iv. 1.

Quest. WHAT may, and must a Christian be, and do, that he may please God?

Ans. To your pleasing of God, something. is necessary as to your persons or estates, and something as to your performances and acts..

First, As to your persons or estates, it is necessary in general, that you be in a state of reconciliation with God. If you would walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, you must, first, be friends with him, for how can two walk together except they be agreed ?Get the controversy taken up between God and thee, and then thou shalt, with Levi, walk with God in peace. Labour to get the breach made up, to have the enmity slain, to have divine displeasure removed: till thy pardon be obtained, and thy peace made, nothing thou canst do will please God: he will be angry with thy person, and angry with thy prayers. What a tart message is that to impenitent sinners? Mal. i. 10. God cannot. take pleasure in their persons. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts; nor in any of their performances, neither will F accept an offering at your hand: he professeth that his soul had no delight in them, and tells them, that they are unto him as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure, Jer. xxii. 28."Tis the modest expression of that vessel into

which nature empties itself. Come in, then, and touch the golden sceptre, yield to mercy, kiss the Son, resign to Christ: accept of the peace tendered you in the word of reconciliation, and then God will be friends. More particularly, that you may be in a state of reconciliation, and so in a capacity of pleasing God, you must follow these directions.

1. Put off every sin. It is your iniquity that separateth between you and your God; this is the make-bate. If thou wouldst have God pleased, turn every sin out of doors, pluck it out, cast it from thee if thou regard iniquity in thine heart, God will not hear thee, nor regard thee, Ps. lxvi. 18. If thon art of them that have pleasure in unrighteousness, the Lord hath no pleasure in thee. He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, evil shall not dwell with him: the foolish shall not stand in his sight: he hateth all the workers of iniquity. See that thou abandon every sin that thou knowest, spare not one Agag, not a right-eye, not an Herodias; for then God will not spare thee: give the darling of thy bosom a bill of divorce, say to all thy idols, Get thee hence. God will not look to that man, that looks pleasantly upon any sin the jealous God will not endure to see thee hankering on the harlot's lips, cmbracing any sin with delight. He will not bear it, to see thee smile upon any sin. He holds thee for a traitor to his crown, if thou willingly harbour his enemy. Though thou be very diligent in God's service, and present him with multitudes of sacrifices, and many

prayers, he will be pleased with nothing, but hides his face, and stops his ears, whilst thou keepest thine iniquities in thine hands, Isa. i. 11, 15. God will not amicably treat with them that will not put away the evil of their doings. O look into thine hands, look into thy heart, look into thy house, into thy shop, thy trade, thy calling! see if there be not some way of wiekeduess that thou art found in. Thou canst not have peace with God, nor he pleasure in thee, till this be removed; put off, therefore, the old man with his deeds. 2. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, Rom. xiii. 14.

(1.) The red robe of his righteousness for justification. The Lord will never give thee a good look, nor a good word, but in Christ; he is a revenging, a consuming fire out of Christ; but get on his robes, and he will be well pleased. Enoch had this testimony, that he pleased God: but Christ had much more, that God was well pleased with sinners, in and for him. Away with these rags, and with these fig-leaves. How can the righteous soul of God but abhor you, whilst in the menstruous clothes of your own righteousness? Dare not to come to God, but with Christ in your arms. Approach him not but in the garments of your elder brother, lest you carry away the curse. Joshua's filthy garments must be put off, aud Christ's raiment put on or else there is no standing before the bright and burning eyes of infinite holiness. Put on the Lord Jesus in believing; that is, accept of him in all his offices, with

all his inconveniences, and deliver up thyself to him, and this will entitle thee to his merits and righteousness; without this nothing will avail. If thy head were waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears, if thou shouldst wear thy tongue to the roots with praying, if thou shouldst weep an ocean, and wash thyself in thine own brine; all could not get out one spot; nothing can be accepted whilst thou art out of Christ; and therefore, in the first. place, apply thyself to him; God will accept of no gift but off his altar.

(2.) The white robe of his grace for sanctification, Rev. vi. 11. Thou that art in the flesh, that is, unrenewed, unsanctified, canst not please God, Rom. viii. 8. Never think to make up the matter, by a little mending and reforming particular acts: man, thy heart must be renewed, thy state must be clean altered, or God cannot be pleased, Matt. vii. 17, 18. The tree must be made good, the fountain must be healed, or else the stream will be salt, and the fruit sour. If Christ be once formed in thee, that is, his image in his grace (likeness is the ground of love; similitude and suitableness of nature, is the load-stone of affection.) God cannot but love his own likeness: Wouldst thou have his fayour? Wouldst thou be his delight? Then conform to his pleasure, study to be like him, purify thyself as he is pure. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness; he desireth truth in the inward parts, and takes infinite complacency in the graces of his people. These are the spikenard and saffron, the spices, the beds

[ocr errors]

of lilies; the sweet ointment that Christ is so taken up with these are the cinnamon, and the trees of frankincense; the calamus, and camphire, the myrrh, and the aloes; the chains of the neck, and the precious pearls, that he is so ravished withal, and doth so superlatively commend, Cant. iv. 4. This is the raiment of needle-work, and gold of Ophir, wherein the queen is presented to her royal husband, Ps. xlv. 9, 14. Therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, Col. iii, 12, 13, put ye on bowels of merey, kindness; put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, filthy communication, and put on the new man, ver. 9, 10. Particularly, let me commend to you some special graces which God doth manifest himself to be wonderfully pleased withal; as ever you would please God, get on these.

1. Be clothed with humility, 1 Pet. v. 5. This is a garment which must be put on, or else you cannot be accepted or saved, Matt. xviii. 3. Here is the dress that you must come to God in: he must be served in humility of mind, Acts xx. 19, you must humble yourselves to walk with him, Micah vi. 8.Humility is a plain, but yet a comely garment this grace doth eminently honor God; and therefore God doth put a peculiar honor upon, and manifest a most special delight in this of all the men in the world, this is the man that God will look unto; even he that is pure, and of a contrite spirit, that trembleth at his word, Isa. lxvi. 2, though he be the high and lofty One, who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy: from whence the trem

« PreviousContinue »