A discourse of Christian religion, in sundry points preached at the merchants lecture in Broadstreet / by Thomas Cole ...

CHAP. VIII.

The APPLICATION.

IF God manifest in the Flesh, be your God, as you say he is, then consider how you carry it towards God; whether you have glorified him as God. Our carriage towards God, should be answera∣ble to the apprehensions of our Faith con∣cerning him: If I be a Father, where is my honour? if a master, where is my fear? Mal. 1. 6. We should give unto God the things that are God's; to withhold from him what is due unto his Name, is to rob him of his Glory; some who profess they know God, in works denybim, Tit. 1. 16. decla∣ring to all the World, that the fear of God is not before their eyes. I am pleading the Cause of God this day, and would lead you all into a due respect towards that God, whom you call your God; What your God, and not Governed by him, not Relye upon him; not Consult with him, How can this be? Either you mi∣stake the Notion of a God, or else you will

fully act against your own light; The wicked contemn God, Psal. 10. 13. and say, Who is Lord over us. I hope there are none in this Assembly so Atheistically in∣clined; if any such be here, their own Consciences will confute them ere long.

I shall apply my self to you, who own God in Christ for your God; and I this day appeal to God in every one of your Consciences, Whether you have and do carry it towards him, according to what you profess to know of him? Who among us is not guilty in this matter? O! that the sense of our former neglects, may quicken us up to a more diligent observance of his Holy will, and to pay that just re∣verence that is due unto his Name. Pray consider what use do you make of your God, your own God, Psal. 67. 6. We should make use of our own things, we should never boast of a Propriety in that, which is not useful and beneficial to us; then tell me, What dost thou expect from thy God? And what think you does your God expect from you? When Paul was brought to the knowledge of God in Christ, the first Word he said after his Con∣version, was, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? I am devoted to thy service while I live: so Thomas, My God, and my Lord; we never own God for our God, till we

are savingly enlightned, then we turn a∣bout towards him, then we fall down and Worship him, and have an awful sense of God abiding in us ever after; then we follow him crying, Abba, Father; then my God and my Father in every Prayer we make: You may know a Child of God by his daily Crying, Abba, Father; the rea∣son why many restrain Prayer, don't call upon God from one end of the Week to the other, is, because they do'nt own him to be their God: 'Tis impossible to own him, and not to pray to him continually upon all occasions; he is a strange Christian who stands in no need of God every day; and if so, Why don't you go to him upon your knees every day and beg his help? Not to do this, is to live without God in the World.

I appeal to your Consciences concerning your God; you know, he is a jealous God, he can't endure to behold iniquity; he is a consuming fire to unbelieving impenitent Sinners; he will prove so to them at last, and since your God is such a God, How dare you put forth your hand to the least Iniquity? What trembling should seize upon you, when you sin against such a God? I beseech you go home and think seriously of your God: Either you have a God, or you have none; if you acknow∣ledge none, then profess your selves to be

Atheists, and let us never see your faces more in the Assemblies of God's People; if you own a God for your God, subject your selves to him, and be willing to be ruled by him.

We can't look God in the face, and say our Father, if we know him not to be ours.

God offers himself to many who reject him, Israel would none of me, Psal. 81. 10, 11, 12.

Let us have a care of this, lest God make us to know to our sorrow, what it is to be forsaken by him. Christ for a time was under desertion, and he knew how to cary himself under it, better than we do. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. Christ did, and so may we plead our Inte∣rest in God as our God, and yet be forsa∣ken by him for a time; my God, my God, says a deserted Soul; hadst thou never been mine, the hiding of thy face had not been so terrible; but to lose the sight of my God, with whom I enjoy'd such sweet communion heretofore; this goes to my heart, as a Sword passing through it. Few under desertion are able to say as Christ did, my God, my God; we are apt to think he has cast us off, and that we hear him say, lo ruhamah, I will no more have Mercy; lo ammi, Ye are not my people, and I will not

be your God, Hos. 1. 6, 9. We think every Hand-writing of any bitter thing against us, is a Bill of Divorce, and that God will be our God no more; when he frowns upon us, we start back farther than he would have us.

If we don't fear him, whom we call our God, we have no God who is proper∣ly ours, whom we own as such in our Consciences. No, no! Such are without God; their Belly is their God, their Riches, Power, Parts, Places, are their God; they think they can do any thing for them∣selves in this World; never seriously think∣ing of the immortality of their Souls, of a future State; if they may enjoy the plea∣sures of Sin that are but for a season, they don't consider how short that season is, nor what comes after; they'd Eat, and Drink, and be Merry, though to morrow they may dye; and what care they? the things of another World are Mysteries to them, they won't trouble their heads about them: This is the true real State of Thou∣sands and Ten thousands in the World. Could we see into their Hearts, we should find it just so, and no otherwise; let their out∣ward profession be what it will, their in∣ward thoughts are as you have heard, let them deny it if they can; I am sure, if they will tell themselves what they think, they

must acknowledge all this to be so, and no otherwise.

If God be not your God, then he is none of yours, i. e. he is against you; you'll shortly feel the weight of his Almighty hand pressing you sore, and giving you an irrecoverable stroke; 'tis a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. If God be for us, Who can be against us? But if God be against us, Who can be for us, to secure us from his Vengeance? None can deliver out of his hand; if God be not your God, you are under the power of the Devil, he is your God, Act. 26. 18. Col. 1. 13.

I don't ask what your Opinions are, some difference may be among us there; but I ask, Who is your God? I hope we are all agreed in this; To us there is but one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ: If so, if God in Christ be indeed your God, then his word must be the rule of all your acti∣ons both Civil and Religious: how care∣ful should you be to keep his Word, to do according to the revealed will of your own God? you can't answer the contrary to your Consciences. 'Tis a reasonable motion to put you upon worshipping your own God. Deut. 10. 20, 21. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by

his name. He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee great things. I have not chosen your God for you, you your selves have chosen him, as Josh. 24. 22, 23, 24. Ye are witnesses against your selves; that ye have chosen the Lord to serve him, &c. vide. You say, he is your God, then I say you ought to Fear and Obey him: For all people will walk every one in the name of his God; and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God, for ever and ever, Micah 4. 5. All your Godliness lies in the respect you shew to your God.

If you shall still ask, How shall we know that God is our God?

Ans. God comes himself and tells us so; not only in his Word, but by some parti∣cular Manifestation of himself to our Souls, according to the Word, John 14. 21. God does act over the grace of such a promise, gives us undeniable experience of it in our own Souls, that he has made good such a promise to us: Here is more than a bare promise; here is the Spirit of promise sealing the truth of it to our souls: The Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Promise, not only because he himself is the great Pro∣mise of the Father, but because he is the best Interpreter of all the promises; gives us light into them all, searches the deep

things of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, 1 Cor. 2. 10, 11, 12. We take that that lies uppermost in a promise; but we don't dig deep enough to discover the hid treasures that are there; in the light of the Spirit we may look down to the bottom of a promise, and see all that is contained in it, gathering up the unsearchable riches of Christ. The Spirit makes us to understand our interest in God, bearing witness to our Adoption, and shedding abroad the Love of God in our Hearts; so that we are full of a sense of God's love: In the midst of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul, Psal. 94. 19. q. d. When I could think of nothing to revive my drooping Soul, thy comforts did it presently. Let us wait for this particular manifestation of God to us, till he know us by name, as Joh. 10. 3. Exod. 33. 12. I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight. What an accent did Christ put upon the word Mary, when he spoke to her! She knew his Voice presently, and turned her self, saying, Rabboni, Master, Joh. 20. 16. He first calls her Woman, v. 15. as if he knew not whom she was; and 'tis plain she knew not who he was, though many words passed between them; but when he called her by her Name Mary, he secretly

told her his Name Jesus: She did not own him for her Lord and Master till then.

Though all Believers have not always a full sense and assurance that God is their God; yet they always cleave to him as their God; they look towards him, long for clearer evidences of his Love, desire no∣thing more than that God would be their God: Sometimes Grace spends all its strength in desires after more Grace, so that what we have is hardly discernable by us; we pray for more grace, as if we had none at all, though the manner of our praying argues the contrary: Where there is but little Water in the Bucket, we some∣times pour it all into the Pump to fetch up more; as he that hath, receives more; so he that hath, desires more, and that makes him forget what he hath, Phil. 3. 13. Our longing after clearer views of God in Christ may seem to obscure, at least to take us off from the consideration of the present sight we have of him.

The Majesty of God out of Christ, is too high for Mortal men to approach unto; therefore consider your Immanuel, God ma∣nifest in the Flesh: Pray for a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, Eph. 1. 17. 'Tis granted to some, but not to others, Mat. 1••. 27. Mat. 13. 11.

'tis a signal effect of the Covenant of Grace, Heb. 8. 11. made to know that God is our God; to know, or rather to be known of him, Gal. 4. 9. There is a mutual under∣standing between God and the Saints, of the interest they have one in another. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine, Joh. 10. 14.