Grand Direct. v. Let it be your chiefest study to attain to a true, orderly, and practical knowledge of God, in his several attributes and relations; and to find a due impression from each of them upon your hearts, and a distinct, effectual improvement of them in your lives."

Because I have written of this point more fully in another treatise," Of the Knowledge of God, and Converse with Him," I shall but briefly touch upon it here, as not willing to repeat that which there is delivered: Only, let me briefly mind you of these few things: 1. That the true knowledge of God is the sum of godliness, and the end of all our other knowledge, and of all that we have or do as Christians. As Christ is a teacher that came from God, so he came to call and lead us unto God; or else he had not come as a Saviour. It is from God that we fell by sin, and to God that we must be restored by grace. To save us, is to restore us to our perfection, and our happiness; and that is to restore us unto Godb.

2. That the true knowledge of God, is powerful and effectual upon the heart and life: and every attribute and relation of God, is so to be known, as to make its proper impress on us and the measure of this saving knowledge, is not to be judged of, by extensiveness, or number of truths concerning God which we know, so much as by the clearness, and intensivenesss, and the measure of its holy effects upon the heart.

3. This is it that denominateth both ourselves, and all

h Laertius in Zenone, saith, Dicunt Stoici Deum esse animal immortale, rationale, perfectum ac beatum, à malo omni remotissimum, providentia sua mundum et quæ sunt in mundo administrans omnia: non tamen inesse illi humanæ formæ linéamenta. Cæterum esse opificem immensi hujus operis, sicut et patrem omnium.Eumque multis appellari nominibus juxta proprietates suas.-Quosdam item esse dæmones dicunt quibus insit hominum miseratio, inspectores rerum humanarum; heroas quoque solutas corporibus, sapientum animas.- -Bonos aiunt esse divinos, quod in seipsis quasi habeant Deum. Malum vero impium et sine Deo esse, quod. duplici ratione accipitur, sive quod Deo contrarius dicatur, sive quod aspernetur Deum : id tamen malis omnibus non convenire. Pios autem et religiosos esse sapientes, peritos divini juris omnes. Pietatem esse scientiam divini cultus. Diis item eos sacrificia facturos, castosque futuros. Quippe ea quæ in Deos admittuntur peccata detestari, Diisque charos ac gratos fore quo sancti justique in rebus divinis sint.*

* Vide Diog. Laert. lib. vii. sect. 147, &c. Mr. Baxter's citations from Laertius, tend to convey too favourable an opinion of the principles of the Stoics, if they are taken thus detached from their context. The reader should peruse the whole of the seventh book. (T. C.):

our duties HOLY: when God's image is thus imprinted on us; and we are like him by the new birth, as children to their father; and by his knowledge, both our hearts and lives are made divine; being disposed unto God, devoted to him and employed for him; he being our life, and light, and love.

4. This is the sum of the covenant of God with man, "I will be thy God, and thou shalt be my people." And the other parts of the covenant, "that Christ be our Saviour, and the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier," are both subservient unto this; there being now no coming unto God, but as reconciled in Christ our Mediator, and by the teaching and drawing of the Holy Ghost. To be our God, is to be to us an absolute Owner, a most righteous Governor, and a most bountiful Benefactor or Father; as having created us, redeemed and regenerated us; and this according to his most blessed nature, properties, and perfections.

5. It is not only a loose and inconstant effect of your particular thoughts of God, that is the necessary impress of his attributes (as to fear him, when you remember his greatness and justice): but it must be a habit or holy nature in you, every attribute having made its stated image upon you; and that habit or image being in you, a constant principle of holy, spiritual operations. A habit of reverence, belief, trust, love, &c. should be, as it were, your nature.

6. Not that the knowledge of God in his perfections, should provoke us. to desire his properties and perfections: for to have such an aspiring desire to be gods, were the greatest pride and wickedness. But only we must desire, (1.) To be as like God, in all his communicable excellencies, as is agreeable to our created state and capacity. (2.) And to have as near and full communion with him, as we can attain to and enjoy.

7. The will of God, and his goodness, and holiness, are more nearly propounded to us, to be the rule of our conformity, than his power, and his knowledge. Therefore his law is most immediately the expression of his will; and our duty and goodness lie in our conformity to his law: being holy as he is holy.

Because I may not stand on the particulars, I shall give you a brief, imperfect scheme of that of God, which you must thus know.

See these practically opened and improved, in the First Part of my "Divine Life." The more full Explication of the Attributes fit for the more capacious, is reserved for another

Tractate.

16. A

For the right improvement of the knowledge of all these attributes of God, I must refer you to the forementioned treatise. The acts which you are to exercise upon God, are these: 1. The clearest knowledge you can attain to1: 2. The firmest belief: 3. The highest estimation: 4. The greatest admiration: 5. The heartiest and sweetest complacency or love: 6. The strongest desire: 7. A filial awfulness, reverence, and fear: 8. The boldest, quieting trust and confidence in him: 9. The most fixed waiting, dependance, hope, and expectation: 10. The most absolute self-resignation to him: 11. The fullest and quietest submission to his disposals: 12. The humblest and most absolute subjection to his governing authority and will, and the exactest obedience to his laws. 13. The boldest courage and fortitude in his cause, and owning him before the world in the greatest sufferings. 14. The greatest thankfulness for his mercies. 15. The most faithful improvement of his talents, and use of his means, and performance of our trust. reverent and holy use of his name and word: with a reverence of his secrets; forbearing to intrude or meddle with them. 17. A wise and cautious observance of his providences, public and private; neither neglecting them, nor mis-interpreting them; neither running before them, nor striving discontentedly against them. 18. A discerning, loving, and honouring his image in his children, notwithstanding their infirmities and faults; without any friendship to their faults, or over-magnifying, or imitating them in any evil. 19. A reverent, serious, spiritual adoration, and worshipping, in public and private, with soul and body, in the. use of all his holy ordinances; but especially in the joyful celebration of his praise, for all his perfections and his mercies. 20. The highest delight, and fullest content and comfort in God, that we can attain: especially a delight in knowing him, and obeying and pleasing him, worshipping and praising him, loving him, and being beloved of him, through Jesus Christ; and in the hopes of the perfecting of

iDe diis ita ut sunt loquere. Bias in Laert. Leg. Pauli Scaligeri Theses de Archetypo Mundo, Ep. Cath. I. 14. God never wrought miracle to convince Atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. Lord Bacon, Essay 16. Nec vero Deos ipse, qui intelligitur a nobis, alio modo intelligi potest, nisi mens soluta quædam et libera, segregata ab omni concretione mortali, omniaque sentiens et movens, ipsaque prædita motu sempiterno. Cic. Tusc. I. 66.

all these, in our everlasting fruition of him in heavenly glory, All these are the acts of piety towards God; which I lay together for your easier observation and memory: but some of them must be more fully opened, and insisted on.

Grand Direct. v. Remember that God is your Lord, or Owner; and see that you make an absolute resignation of yourselves, and all that you have, to him as his own; and use yourselves and all accordingly: trust him with his own, and rest in his disposals.'

Of this, I have already spoken in my "Sermon of Christ's Dominion," and in my "Directions for a sound Conversion:" and therefore must but touch it here. It is easy, notionally to know and say that God is our Owner, and we are not our own: but if the habitual, practical knowledge of it, were as easy, or as common, the happy effects of it would be the sanctification and reformation of the world. I shall first tell you, what this duty is, and how it is to be performed; and then, what fruits and benefits it will produce, and what should move us to it.

I. The duty lieth in these acts: 1. That you consider the ground of God's propriety in you; (1.) In making you of nothing, and preserving you. (2.) In redeeming you by purchase. (3.) In regenerating you, and renewing you for himself. The first is the ground of his common natural propriety, in you and all things. The second is the ground of his common, gracious propriety in you and all men, as purchased by Christ, Rom. xiv. 9. John xiii. 3. The third is the ground of his special, gracious propriety in you, and all his sanctified, peculiar people. Understand and acknowledge what a plenary dominion God hath over you, and how absolutely and wholly you are his. 2. Let it exceedingly please you, to think that you are wholly his: it being much better for you, as to your safety, honour, and happiness, than to be your own, or any's else. 3. As God requireth it in his covenant of grace, that he have his right, by your consent, and not by constraint; so you must thankfully accept the motion, and with hearty and full consent of will, resign yourselves to him, as his own, even as his creatures, his ransomed ones, and his regenerate children, by a covenant never to be violated. 4. You must carefully watch against the claim and reserves of carnal selfishness;