Words to Give to the Young Man Knowledge and Discretion, Treatise
WORDS To give to the Young Man Knowledge and Diſcretion.
THERE are three Principles in Philoſophy own'd by ſome, (viz. Matter, Form, and Privation) and ſo there are three principal and prime Truths in Divinity to be inquired into, and known by all that expect Salvation, viz.
1. Their Miſery by Nature.
2. Their Recovery out of it.
3. Their Duty when Recovered.
1. What they are out of Chriſt.
2. What they are by him.
3. What they muſt do, or how they muſt walk, when in Col. 1. 27.him.
All which when believed and underſtood, may be as the three Deut. 4. 41. & 19. 23.Cities of Refuge, for the guilty Poſterity of Adam to flee unto as the three Sons of Noah (after Gen. 9. 18, 19.the Flood) the Seminary of a new World; or (as the three ſtretches of the Prophet Elijah or 1 King. 17. 21, 22.the Widow of Zarephaths dear Son) a means to put Life into them, who by Nature are as truly dead Spiritually, as that Child was Naturally.
1. Knowledge of Miſery.
Senſe of ſin, and Miſery by i… alone, will do no good, nor any thing without it, for the foundation of Happineſs is laid in it… The knowledge of a Diſeaſe make… way to a Cure, and ſenſe of Miſery is the firſt ſtep to Mercy; we uſually ſay, it is moſt miſerable to have been happy, but in this it is the happineſs of ſinners to know their miſery, and their greateſt miſery if they do not.
2. Knowledge of the way, or means of recovery out of Miſery.
None but Sinners need Mercy, and none but ſenſible ſinners will ſeek for it, but yet they cannot ſeek it aright, unleſs they know the way to it, no more than they can find it, unleſs they ſeek it; the Diſeaſed Woman in the Goſpel Mat. 9. 20, 21, 22.was ſenſible of her Bloody Iſſue before ſhe came to Chriſt, and came to him before ſhe was healed by him; it was not barely the apprehenſion of her Diſeaſe, but the apprehenſion of her Diſeaſe, and of Chriſt (her Phyſician) that cured her: None ſo fit to ſeek for Mercy as humbled ſinners, and none but ſuch will; but yet unleſs they do, they cannot have it.
3. Knowledge of Duty, when redeemed from Miſery.
Converſion is a change from one contrary to another, not from one ſin to another (that is Hypocriſie) but from … contrary one to another; from the privation to the habit, from Darkneſs to Light, and from Death to Life; this new ſtate calls for a new life, and all that are brought into ſuch a ſtate, muſt live ſutably to it; they muſt not be always 1 Theſ. 2. 12. Eph. 5. 8. 1. Pet. 2. 9.ſinners becauſe they were ſometimes ſo, for once is above any Indulgence granted.