The common principiles of Christian religion clearly proved and singularly improved, or, A practical catechism wherein some of the most concerning-foundations of our faith are solidely laid down, and that doctrine, which is according to godliness, sweetly, yet pungently pressed home and most satisfyingly handled / by that worthy and faithful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Hew Binning ...

Psal. 73. 24. to the end.

Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, &c. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? &c. It is good for me to draw near to God,

1 John 1. 3.

These things declare we to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Iesus Christ.

And John 17. 21, 22, 23.

That they all may be one as we are one; I in them, and they in me, that they may be perfect in one, &c.

IT is a matter of great consolation, that Gods glory and our happinesse are linked together; so that whosoever sets his glory before them singly to aim at, they take the most compendious and certain way to true blessednesse. His glory is the ultimat end of man, and should be our great and last scope: But our hap∣pinesse,

which consists in the enjoyment of God, is subordinate to this, yet inseparable from it. The end of our Creation is communion and fellowship with God, therefore man was made with an immortal soul capable of it: and this is the greatest dignity and emi∣nency of man above the creatures. He hath not only impressed from Gods finger, in his first moulding, some characters resembling God in righteousnesse and holinesse; but is created with a capacity of receiving more of God, by communion with him. Other crea∣tures have already all they will have, all theycan have of conformity to him; but man is made liker than all and is fitted and fashioned to aspire to more liknesse and conformity, so that his soul may shine more and more to the perfect day.

There was an Union made already in his first moul∣ding, and communion was to grow as a fragrant and sweet fruit out of this blessed root. Union and simili∣tude is the ground of fellowship & communion. That union was gracious, that communion would have been glorious; for grace is the seed of glory. There was a twofold Union between Adam and God, an Union of state, and an Union of nature: He was like God, and he was Gods friend. All the creatures had some lik∣nesse to God, some engravings of his power, and good∣nesse, and wisdome: but man is said to be made accor∣ding to Gods Image, Let us make man like unto us. O∣ther creatures had similitudinem vestigii, but man had similitudinem faciei. Holinesse and righteousnesse is Gods face, the very excellency and glory of all his At∣tributes, and the Lord stamps the image of these upon Man. Other Attributes are but like his back-parts, & he leaves the resemblance of his footsteps upon other creatures. What can be so beautifull as the Image of God upon the soul? Creatures, the nearer they are to God, the more pure and excellent. We see in the

Fabrick of the World, bodies the higher they are, the more pure and cleanly, the more beautiful. Now then, What was man that was made a little lower than the Angels? In the Hebrew, a little lower than God, tan∣tum non Deus. Seeing man is set next to God, his glo∣ry and beauty, certainly surpasses the glory of the Sun and Heavens. Things contiguous and next other are like other: The water is liker air than the earth, therefore it is next the air: The air is liker Heaven than water, therefore it is next to it. Omne contiguum spirituali, est spirituale. Angels and men next God, are spirits as he is a Spirit. Now similitude is the ground of friendship. Pares paribus congregantur, similitude necessitudinis vinculum. It is that which conciliats af∣fection among men; so it is here by proportion. God sees that all is very good, and man the best of his works; and he loves him, and makes him his friend, for his own Image which he beholds in him.

At length from these two roots this pleasant & fra∣grant fruit of Communion with, and enjoyment of God, grows up: this is the entertainment of friends, to delight in one another, and to enjoy one another, Amicorum omnia communia Love makes all com∣mon, it opens the treasure of Gods fulnesse, and makes a vent of divine bounty towards man, and it o∣pens the heart of man, and makes it large as the sand of the sea to receive of God. Our receiving of his ful∣nesse, is all the entertainment we can give him. O what blessednesse is this, for a soul to live in him, and it lives in him when it loves him, Anima est ubi amat, non ubi animat, and to taste of his sweetnesse, and be satisfied with him, this makes perfect onnenesse: and perfect onnenesse with God (who is the fountain of life, and in whose favour is life) is perfect bles∣sednesse.

But we must stand a little here, and consider our

misery, that hath fallen from such an excellency; how are we come down from Heaven wonderfully? Sin hath interposed between God and man, and this dis∣solves the union, and hinders the communion: An enemy is come between two friends and puts them at odds, and Oh! an eternall odds; sin hath sown this discord, and alineated our hearts from God. Mans glo∣ry consisted in the irradiation of the soul from Gods shining countenance, this made him light, Gods face shined on him. But sin interposing, hath eclipsed that light, and brought on an eternall night of darknesse o∣ver the soul: And thus we are spoiled of the Image of God, as when the earth comes betwixt the Sun and Moon. Now then, there can no beams of divine sa∣vour and love break through directly towards us, be∣cause of the cloud of our sins, that separates between God and us, and because of the partition-wall of Or∣dinances, and the hand-writing which was against us, Gods holy Law, and severe Justice, Col. 3. 14.

Then, What shal we do? How shal we see his face in ioy? Certainly it had been altogether impos∣sible, if our Lord Jesus Christ had not come, who is the light and life of men: the Father shines on him, and the beams of his love reflects upon us, from the Sun: The love of God, and his favourable counte∣nance, that cannot meet with us in a direct and imme∣diate beam, they fall on us in this blessed compasse, by the intervention of a Mediator. We are rebels, stan∣ing at distance with God, Christ comes between a Me∣diator, and Peace-maker to reconcile us to God: God is in Christ, reconciling the World. God first makes an union of Natures with Christ, and so he comes near to us, down to us, who could not come up to him; and then he sends out the Word of Reconciliation, the Gospel, the tenor wherof is this, 1 Ioh. 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may

have fellowship with the Father and his Son. It is a voice of peace, and invitation to the fellowship of God: Be∣hold then, the happinesse of man is th•…•…very end and purpose of the Gospel. Christ is the repairer of the breaches, the second Adam aspired to quicken what Adam killed: He hath slain the emnity, and cancel∣led the hand-writing that was against us, and so made peace by the blood of his crosse; and then having re∣moved all that out of the way, he comes and calls us unto the fellowship which we were ordained unto frō our Creation. We who are rebels, are called to be friends; I call you not servants, but friends. It is a wōder that the creature should be called a friend of God: but, O great wonder, that the rebell should be called a friend; and yet that is not all, we are called to a nea∣rer union, to be Sons of God; this is our priviledge, Ioh. 1. 12. This is a great part of our fellowship with the Father and his Son, we are the Fathers children, and the Sons brethren, acd if children then heirs, and heirs of God, and if brethren, then co-heirs with Christ, Rom. 8. 17.

Thus the Union is begun again in Christ, but as long as sin dwels in our mortall bodies, it is not per∣fect, there is alwayes some separation, and some enmi∣ty in our hearts, & so there is neither ful seeing of God (for we know but in part, and we see darkly) nor full enjoying of God; for we are saved by hope, & we live by faith, and not by fight. But this is begun which is the seed of eternall communion, we are here partakers of the Divine Nature. Now then it must aspire unto a more perfect union with God whose Image it is: And therefore the Soul of a Believer is here still in motion towards God as his element. There is here an union in affection, but not compleated in fruition, affectu non effectu, the soul pants after God, Whom have I in heaven or earth but thee? My •…•…esh and my heart

faileth, a believing soul looksupon God as its only por∣tion, accounts nothing misery but to be separated from him, & nothing blessednesse, but to be one with him: this is the Load-stone of the affections, and desires the Center which they move towards, and in which they will rest: It is true indeed, that oftentimes our hearts & our flesh faileth us, & we become ignorant and bru∣tish: our affections cleave to the earth, and tentations with their violence turn our souls towards another end than God, as there is nothing more easily moved and turned wrong, then the needle that is touched with the Adamant, yet it settles not in such a posture, it recovers it self and rests never till it look towards the North, and then it is fixed: even so tentations and the corruptions and infirmities of our hearts desturb our spirits easily, and wind them about from the Lord towards any other thing: but yet we are continuing with him, and he keeps us with his right hand, and therefore though we may be moved, yet we shal not be greatly commoved, we may fall but we shal rise a∣gain: he is the strength of our heart, and therefore he will turn our heart about again, and fix it upon its own portion: Our Union here consists more in his hold∣ing of us by his power, then our taking hold of him by faith: Power and good-will encamps about both faith and the soul, we are kept by his power through faith, 1 Pet. 1. And thus he will guide the soul, and still be drawing it nearer to him; from it self, & from sin, and from the world, till he receive us into Glory, and untill we be one as with the Father and the Son, he in us and we in him, that we may be made perfect in one, as it is in the words read.

This is strange, a greater unity and fuller enjoy∣ment, a more perfect fellowship, then ever Adam in his innocency would have been capable of, what soul ca conceive it? What tongue expresse it? None cann

for it's that which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into Mans heart to concive. We must suspend the knowledge of it, till we have experience of it. Let us now believe it, and then we shal find it. There is a mutual inhabitation which is wonerfull: Persons that dwel one with another have much society and fellowship, but to dwel one in another is a strange thing, I in them, and they in me; and therefore God is often said to dwel in us, and we to dwel in him. But that which makes it of all most wonderful, and incom∣prehensible, is that glorious unity and communion between the Father and the Son, which it is made an Embleme of, As thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. Can you conceive that unity of the Trinity? Can you imagine that reci∣procall inhabitation, that mutuall communion be∣tween the Father and the Son? No, it hath not en∣tered into the heart to conceive it. Only thus much we know, that it is most perfect, it is most glorious, & so much we may apprehend of this unity of the Saints with God. O, love is an uniting and transforming thing. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. He dwelleth in us by love, this makes him work in us, and shine upon us: love hath drawn him down from his seat of Majesty, to vi∣site poor Cottages of sinners, Isa. 66. 1, 2. & 15, 47. And it is that love of God reflecting upon our souls, that carries the soul upward to him, to live in him, and walk with him: O how doth it constrain a soul to live to him, and draw it from it self, 2 Cor. 5. 15. Then the more unity with God, the more separation from our selves, & the world; the nearer God the farther from our selves, & the farther from ourselves the more hap∣py, and the more unity with God, the more unity among our selves, among the brethren of our family: Because we are not fully one with our Father, there∣fore

there are many differences between us & the bre∣thren, because we are not one perfectly in him, there∣fore we are not one as he and the Father is one. But when he shal be in us, and we in him, as the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, then shal we be one among our selves, then shal we meet in the u∣nity of the faith, into a perfect man, into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, Eph. 4. 13. Christ is the uniting Principle, while the Saints are not whol∣ly one, uni tertio, they cannot be perfectly one inter se among themselves. Consider this, I beseech you; Christs union with the Father, is the foundation of our union to God, and our union among our selves; this is comfortable, the ground of it is laid already. Now it is not simply the unity of the Father and the Son in essence that is here meant, for what shadow & resemblance can be in the world, of such an incompre∣hensible mystery? But it is certainly the Union and Communion of God with Christ Jesus as Mediator, as the head of the Church, which is his Body. There∣fore, seeing the Father is so wonderfully well pleased and one with Christ, his wel-beloved Son & Messen∣ger of the Covenant, & chief party contracting in our name, he is by vertue of this, one with us, who are his seed and members. And therefore, the members should grow up in the head, Christ, from whom the whole body makes increase according to the effectuall working of the spirit in it, Eph 5. 15▪ 16. Now if the union between the Father and Christ our Head can∣not be dissolved, and cannot be barran and unfruitfull, then certainly the spirit of the Father, which is given to Christ beyond measure, must effectually work in every member, till it bring them to the unity of the Faith, and to the measure of the perfect man which is the fulnesse of Christ. So then every believing soul is one with the Father as Christ is one, because he is the

Head and they his members, & the day is coming that all the members shal be perfectly united to the Head, Christ, & grow up to the perfect man, which is the sta∣ture of Christs fulnesse, and then shal we all be made perfect in one; we shal be one as he is one, because he and we are one perfect man, Head and Members.

Now to what purpose is all this spoken? I fear it doth not stirre up in our souls a desire after such a blessed life; whose heart would not be moved at the sound of such words? Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son, we are made perfect, he in us, and we in him: Certainly that soul is void of the Life of God, that doth not find some sparkle of holy ambition kin∣dled within, after such glorious and blessed condition. But these things sevour not, and taste not to the most part; the naturall man knows them not, for they are spiritually discerned. How lamentable is it, that Christ is come to restore us to our lost blessednesse, and yet no man almost considers it or layes it to heart: O how miserably, twice miserable is that Soul, that doth not draw near to God in Christ, when God hath come so near to us in Christ? that goes a whoring after the lust of the eyes, and flesh, and after the imaginations of their own heart, and will not be guided by Christ the way and life to glory? Thou shalt destroy them, O Lord, Psal. 73. 27. All men are far off from God, from the womb: Behold we may have accesse to God in Christ: woe to them that are yet far off, and will not draw near, they shal all perish. I exhort you to consi∣der what you are doing. The most part of you are go∣ing away from God, you were born far off, and you will yet go further; know what you will meet with in that way, Destruction.

Ye have never yet asked in earnest, for what pur∣pose you came into the World: What wonder you wander and walk at randome, seing you have not pro∣posed

to your selves any certain scope and aime? It is great folly. You would not be so foolish in any petty businesse: But O how foolish men are in the main businesse. The light of the body is the eye, if that be not light, the whole body is full of darknesse. If your inten∣tion be once right established all your course will be orderly, but if you be dark and blind in this point, & have not considered it, you cannot walk in the light, your whole way is darknesse: The right consideration of the great End would shine unto you, and direct your way; but, while you have not proposed this end unto your self, the enjoyment of God, you must spend your time, either in doing nothing to that pur∣pose, or doing contrary to it. All your other lawfull businesse, your callings and occupations are but in the by, they are not the end, nor the way, but you make them only your businesse, they are altogether imper∣tinent to this end. And the rest of your walking in lust and ignorance, is not only impertinent, but in∣consistant with it, and contrary to it. If you think that you have this before your eyes, to enjoy God, I pray you look upon the way you choose: Is your drunken∣nesse, your swearing, your uncleannesse, your con∣tentions and railings, and such works of the flesh; are those the way to enjoy God? Shal not these separate between God and you? Is your eating, and drinking sleeping as beasts, and labouring in your callings, are these all the means you use to enjoy God? Be not de∣ceived, you who draw not near God by Prayer often in secret, and by faith in his Son Christ, as lost mise∣rable sinners to be saved, and reconciled by him, you have no fellowship with him, and you shal not enjoy him afterward. You whose hearts are given to your covetousnesse, who have many lovers and idols be∣sides him, you cannot say, Whom have I besides thee in the earth? No, you have many other things beside

God. You can have nothing of God, except you make him all to you, unlesse you have him alone. My unde∣filed is one, Cant. 6. 9. He must be alone, for his glory he will not give to another: If you divide your affections, and pretend to give him part; & your lusts other part, you may be doing, but he will not divide his glory so, he will give no part of it to any other thing. But as for those souls that come to him and see their misery without him, O know how good it is! Its not only good, but best; yea only good, it is bonum, & it is optimum; yea, it is unicum, there is none good, save one, even God, and there is nothing good for us but this one, to be near God, and so near, that we may be one, one spirit with the Lord, for he that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit: Rejoice in your portion, and long for the possession of it. Let all your meditations, and affections, and conversion proclaim this, Whom have I in heaven but thee, and none in the earth beside thee. And certainly he shal guide you to the end, and receive you into glory, then you shal rest from your labours, because you shal dwell in him, and enjoy that which you longed and laboured for. Let the con∣sideration of our end unite the hearts of Christians here. O what an absurd thing is it, that those who shal lodge together at night & be made perfect in one should not only go contrary wayes but have contrary minds and affections.