For my own part, I have given in my name to him long since ; wo to me, if I have not given in my heart also; for, should I de- ceive myself in so deep a point as that, how would my profession as a Christian, my calling as a minister, yea, these very sermons now in your hands, rise in judgment to condemn me? which God forbid.
And doubtless, Sir, your eyes have seen both the vanity of all creatures, and the necessity and infinite worth of Christ. You cannot forget what a vanity the world appeared to you, when in the year 1668, you were summoned by the messengers of death (as you and all that were about you then apprehended) to shoot the gulph of vast eternity; when a malignant * D Thomson'* fever and pleurisy (whereof your * physician , hath given an account to the world) did r
shake the whole frame of the tabernacle wherein your soul through mercy yet dwells; and long may it dwell there, for the service and praise of your great Deliverer. I hope you have not, nor ever will forget how vain the world appeared to your eye, when you looked back (as it were over your shoulder) and saw how it shrunk away from you ; nor will you ever forget the awful appre- hensions of eternity that then seized your spirit, or the value you then had for Christ ; which things; I hope, still do, and ever will remain Avith you.
And for you, dear cousin, as it becomes a daughter of Sarah, let your soul be adorned with the excellencies of Christ, and beau- ties of holiness. A king from heaven makes suit for your love ; if he espouse your soul now, he will fetch it home to himself at death in his chariot of salvation ; and great shall be your joy, when the marriage of the Lamb is come. Look often upon Christ in this glass ; he is fairer than the children of men. View him believingly, and you cannot but like and love him. " For (as p ST? " one well saith) love, when it seeth, cannot but cast "' " out its spirit and strength upon amiable objects and things love- " worthy. And what fairer things than Christ ! O fair sun, and u fair moon, and fair stars, and fair flowers, and fair roses, and u fair lilies, and fair creatures ! but, O ten thousand, thousand <; times fairer Lord Jesus ! Alas, I wronged him in making the " comparison this way. 0 black sun and moon ; but 0 fair Lord
xx THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
" Jesus ! 0 black flowers, and black lilies and roses ; but O fair, " fair, ever fair Lord Jesus ! O all fair things, black, deformed, " and without beauty, when ye are set beside the fairest Lord " Jesus ! O black heaven, but O fair Christ ! O black angels, but " O surpassingly fair Lord Jesus."
I hope you both are agreed with Christ, according to the articles of peace propounded to you in the gospel ; and that you are every day driving on salvation work, betwixt him and you, in your fa- mily, and in your closets.
And now, my dear, friends, if these discoveries of Christ, which I humbly offer to your hands, may be any way useful to your souls, to assist them either in obtaining, or in clearing their in- terest in him, my heart shall rejoice, even mine; for none under heaven can be more willing, though many are more able, to help you thither, than is
YOUR AFFECTIONATE AND OBLIGED,
Trom my Study at Dartmouth, KINSMAN AND SERVANT,
TO THE CHRISTIAN READERS,
Especially those in the Town and Corporation o/Dartmouth, and I Parts adjacent, who have either befriended, or attended these Lectures.
HONOURED AND WORTHY FRIENDS,
1VNOWLEDGE is man's excellency above the beasts that pe- rish, Psal. xxxii. 9. the knowledge of Christ is the Christian's excellency above the Heathen, 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. Practical and saving knowledge of Christ is the sincere Christian's excellency above the self-cozening hypocrite, Heb. vi. 4, 6. but methodical and well-digested knowledge of Christ is the strong Christian's ex- cellency above the weak, Heb. v. 12, 13, 14. A saving, though sn immethodical knowledge of Christ, will bring us to heaven, John xvii. 2. but a regular and methodical, as well as a saving know- ledge of him, will bring heaven into us, Col. ii. 2, 3.
For such is the excellency thereof, even above all other know- ledge of Christ, that it renders the understanding judicious, the memory tenacious, and the heart highly and fixedly joyous. How it serves to confirm and perfect the understanding, is excellently discovered by a worthy divine of our own, in these words :
A young ungrounded Christian, when he ^ t> ■> seeth all the fundamental truths, and seeth fr- Baxter s direc- good evidence and reasons of them, perhaps tl°nJ '? ™™™rt- may be yet ignorant of the right order and edf°r their establish- place of every truth. It is a rare thing to have ment> P* ""• young professors to understand the necessary truths methodically ; and this is a very great defect : for a great part of the usefulness and excellency of particular truths consisteth in the respect they have to one another. This therefore will be a very considerable part of your confirmation, and growth in your understandings, to see the body of the Christian doctrine, as it were, at one view, as the se- veral parts of it are united in one perfect frame ; and to know what aspect one point hath upon another, and which are their due places. There is a great difference betwixt the sight of the several parts of a clock or watch, as they are disjointed and scattered abroad, and the seeing of them conjointed, and in use and motion. To see here a pin and there a wheel, and not know how to set them all together, nor ever see them in their due places, will give but little satisfaction. It is the frame and design of holy doctrine that must be known, and every part should be discerned as it hath its particu- lar use to that design, and as it is connected with the other parts.
By this means only can the true nature of Theology, together with the harmony and perfection of truth, be clearly understood,
0£ THE EPISTLE TO THE READER*
And every single truth also will be much better perceived by him that seeth its place and order, than by any other : for one truth exceedingly illustrates and leads another into the understanding. —Study therefore to grow in the more methodical knowledge of the same truths which you have received ; and though you are not yet ripe enough to discern the whole body of theology in due me- thod, yet see so much as you have attained to know, in the right order and placing of every part* As in anatomy, it is hard for the wisest physician to discern the course of every branch of the veins and arteries ; but yet they may easily discern the place and order of the principal parts, and greater vessels, (and surely in the body of religion there are no branches of greater or more neces- sary truth than these) so it is in divinity, where no man hath a perfect view of the whole, till he comes to the state of perfection with God ; but every true Christian hath the knowledge of all the essentials, and may know the orders and places of them all.