jO Of the I(nowledg of {jod the Father. ~a conjunllion, through God's Ordination, as it is, as if they were one, both B 0 ° K [. as unto what concerns the good of each other, as Ephef 5· 28. He that foveth ~ his Wife, /oveth himfelf And allo in what concerns the common Good of the Family, of the Children, CN. and they· mutually rejoice in all thole alike. Oh, but Chrifl: our Husband, and we, are one Spirit. Even the Saints among themfelves, fo f.1r as gracious, are laid to be of one Heart, and of one Soul, &c. Acts 4· 32. A11d the multit11de of them that believed, wereof tme fleart, and of one Soul: Neither faid any of them, that ought of the Thi12gs he poffejfed Wa< his own, but they f. ad all Things common. And they were to rejoice and fuffer in one ano. thers Happinefs and Mifery ; I Cor. I 2. 26• .And whether one Member jitjfer; all the Members ji1jfer with it : Or one Member be honoured, ·all the Memb'ers rejoice with it. For, as verf I 2. The Body is one, and hath many Memben ; and ail the Members of that one Body, being many, are one Body; fa alfo is Chrift. Thus is Chrifl in his Body among themfelves; how much more is it thus between Chrifl: the Head, and each Member. I may well fay, Even Jo is Chrift, of the one part and the other, much more Chrifl: and they are but one, and have but one Interefl: in common ; for Chrifl: is the Foundation of that among Saints. Now whll doth the virtue of fuch an Onenefs of lnterdl: tend unto, but that we lhould rejoice in all the Good, Happinefs, and Blelfednefs that is in God, or that Chrifl: enjoys? And that this is the Power of true Love, and ofour being one Spirit with Chrifl:, that Speech evidently fhcws, 'John 14. 28. Ye have heard how I foid unto )'Oil, I go away, and con;e t~gai111mto )Oil: If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, becaufe I faid, I go unto my 'Father; for my Ft~ther ts greater than I And who therefore is {o able to make me happy? And therefore that you are fo cafl: down, and that the joy for my Happinefs and Adv,mccment, {wallows not up your Sorrow, is, becaufe you love your G:lves inorJinatdy. But !till the Power of Grace lies therein you may fee, and the foundation of all, is One– nets of lnterefl:. Look therefore, as Chrifl:'s lnterefl was one with his Father's, {o feek his Glory, and to delight in it: John 7· 18. He th<~t JPeak.§th of himfelf, feck.§th hk own Glory; but he that fee~eth his Glory that font him, the fame is tme, and 110 Vnrighteoufoefs k in biot: So it is of Grace in a Chrifl:ian, when wound up to what the heighth of it tcndeth unto. And therefore, as Gdd delighteth in his own Glory for it {elf, fo may a gracious Heart be brought to do. It is in his Grace whereby to do it: and as God's Blelfednefs lies in his enjoying him– felf, and his own Glory ; {o the heighth of ours lhould be to apprehend that he is fo glorious in himfclf, and accordingly to rejoice in it. Reafon 3· You will allow that Grace may be wound up in fome Spirits, to as high fl:rains for God and his Glory, (take the forts or kinds of the one and the other) as Sin and Selflove are in fame fort of Sinners, againfl: God and his Glory. I do not fay in the fame degree, ( becaufe fuch as I lhall infl:ance in, are wholly wicked, and full of all Evil, as the Devils are, and no Man's Grace ls full for the meafure ofit) but for the kind;· and there is no kind ofWickednefs, but is in the genius and difpofition of it, equalled by the Grace in Come Saints that love God. Now, Self.love in them that fin againfl: the Holy Ghofl:, and in the Devil doth rife up direClly and immediately fo high, as to oppofe and fly m the Face of ~11 the Glory that 1s m God, or that in any way he enjoy•, grudgmg at tt, hatmg tt, blafphemmg 1t 1mmed1ately, as tt 1s in it felf, as it is in us, and in him; this is the Devil's fin, and alfo of fame Men, put into the De· vil's fl:ate and condition. Now then~ I C.ty,and argue from this; That the Came contrary difpofition may be, and 1s dnven forth m Grace, ever to love the Glory of God immediately, as it is his, and becaufe it is his, and to rejoice therein, more than in its own Blelfednefs ; and to have an amplitude of Heart this way, fo as to delight in all the Glory God hath, or any fort of way accrues to him. Yea, and I add this, that there is reafon it fhould rather fall out on Grace'• part, that Grace in a Saint lhould, rather of the two, be fupported, to be elevated unto this high pitch, ~athcrthan the Wickcdnefs in Men or Ue.vils unto the contrary: In that Grace IS a PrtncJple capable of lovmg God for h1mfelf, as the chiefefl: Good, but no Creature
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