1 to whofe hands providence fhall caft them, that will be glory indeed, and an occafion of glorifying God to all eternity. It is not the defign of this epiftle to compliment, but to benefit you; not to blazon your excellencies, but Chrift's; not to acquaint the world how much you have endeared me to yourself, but to increafe and ftrengthen the endearments betwixt Chrift and you, upon your part. I might indeed (this being a proper place for it) pay you my acknowledgments for your great kindneffes to me and mine; of which, I affure you, I have, and ever fhall have, deep refentments: but you and 1 are theatre enough to one another, and can fatisfy ourselves with the inclofed comforts and delights of our mutual love and friendship: But let me tell you, the whole world is not a theatre large enough to fhew the glory of Christ upon, or unfold the one half of the unfearchable riches that ly hid in him. These things will be far better understood, and spoken of in heaven, by the noon-day divinity, in which the immediately illuminated affembly do there preach his praises, than by fuch a stammering tongue, and fcribling pen as mine, which doth but marr them. Alas! I write his praifes but by moon-light; I cannot praise him fo much as by halves. Indeed, no tongue but his own (as Nazianzen faid of Bafil) is fufficient to undertake that talk. What fhall I fay of Chrift? The excelling glory of that object dazzles all apprehenfion, fwallows up all expreffion. When we have borrowed metaphors from every creature that hath any excellency or lovely property in it, till we have stript the whole creation bare of all its ornaments, and cloathed Chrift with all that glory; when we have even worn out our tongues, in afcribing praises to him, alas! we have done nothing, when all is done. Yet, wo is me! how do I every day behold reasonable fouls most unreasonably difaffected to my lovely Lord Jefus! denying love to one, who is able to compel love from the ftonieft heart! yea, tho' they can never make fo much of their love (would they fet it to fale) as Chrift bids for it. 'Tis horrid and amazing to fee how the minds of many are captivated and ensnared by every filly trifle; and how others can indifferently turn them with a kind of fpontaneity to this object, or to that (as their fancy ftrikes) among the whole univerfe of beings, and fcarce ever reluctate, recoil, or naufeate, till they be perfuaded to Chrift; and then 'tis as eafy to melt the obdurate rocks into fweet fyrup, as their hearts into divine. How do the great men of the world ambitiously court the honours and pleafures of it? The merchants of the earth trade, and strive for the dear bought treafures of it; whilft the price of Chrift (alas! ever too-low) falls every day lower and lower upon the exchange of this world! I fpeak it as a fad truth, if there were no quicker a trade (as dead as they lay it is) for the perishing treasures of the earth, than there is for Chrift this day in England, the exchange would quickly be shut up, and all the trading companies diffolved. Dear Sir, Christ is the peerless pearl hid in the field, Mat. xiii. 46. Will you be that wife merchant, that refolves to win and compass that treasure, whatever it shall cost you? Ah fir, Chrift is a commodity that can never be bought too dear. My dear kinfman, my flesh, and my blood; my foul thirsteth for your falvation, and the falvation of your family. Shall you and I refolve with good Joshua, that whatever others do, "we and our families will ferve the Lord;" that we will walk as the redeemed of his blood, fhewing forth his virtues and praises in the world? that as God hath made us one in name, and one in affection, so we may be one in Chrift; that it may be faid of us, as it was of Austin and Alippious long ago, that they were fanguine Chrifti conglutinati, glued together by the blood of Christ. For my own part, I have given in my name to him long fince; wo to me, if I have not given in my heart also: for, fhould I deceive myself in fo deep a point as that, how would my profeffion as a Chriftian, my calling as a minifter, yea, these very fermons now in your hands, rise in judgment to condemn me? which God forbid. * And doubtlefs, fir, your eyes have feen both the vanity of all creatures, and the neceffity and infinite worth of Chrift. You cannot forget what a vanity the world appeared to you, when in the year 1668, you were fummoned by the messengers of death (as you and all that were about you then apprehended) to shoot the gulf of vaft eternity; when a malignant fever and pleurify (whereof your phy *Dr. Thomson's Αιματίοσις 1.91. fician hath given an account to the world) did shake the whole frame of the tabernacle wherein your foul thro' mercy yet dwells; and long may it dwell there, for the fervice 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 faw how it fhrunk away from you; nor will you ever forget the awful apprehenfions of eternity that then feized your spirit, or the value you then had for Chrift; which things, I hope, ftill do, and ever will remain with you. And for you, dear coufin, as it becomes a daughter of Sa rah, let your foul be adorned with the excellencies of Christ, and beauties of holinefs. A king from heaven makes fuit for your love if he efpouse your foul now, he will fetch it home to himself at death in his chariot of falvation; and great fhall be your joy, when the marriage of the Lamb is come. Look often upon Chrift in this glafs; he is fairer than the children of men. View him believingly, and you cannot but like and love him. "For (as one well Ep. S. R. "faith) love, when it feeth, cannot but cast out "its spirit and ftrength upon amiable objects and things loveworthy. And what fairer things than Christ! O fair fun, "and fair moon, and fair ftars, and fair flowers, and fair "rofes, and fair lilies, and faircreatures! but, O ten thou"fand, thousand times fairer Lord Jefus! Alas, I wronged "him in making the comparison this way. O black fun and moon; but Ofair Lord Jefus! O black flowers, and black "lilies and rofes; but O' fair, fair, ever tair Lord Jefus! O "all fair things, black, deformed, and without beauty, when ye are fet befide the fairest Lord Jesus! O black heavens, "but O fair Chrift! O black angels, but O furpaffingly fair "Lord Jefus." 66 I hope you both are agreed with Chrift, according to the articles of peace propounded to you in the gofpel; and that you are every day driving on falvation work, betwixt him and you, in your family, 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 ufeful to your fouls, to affift them either in obtaining, or in clearing their intereft in him, my heart fhall rejoice, even mine; for 'none under heaven can be more willing, tho' many are more able, to help you thither, than is From my ftudy in Dartmouth, Your affectionate and obliged kinfman and fervant, JOHN FLAVEL. To the Chriftian Readers, efpecially thofe in the Town and Corporation of Dartmouth, and Parts adjacent, who have either befriended, or attended theje Lectures. Honoured and worthy Friends, KNOWLEDGE is man's excellency above the beasts that perish, Pfal. xxxii. 9. the knowledge of Chrift is the Chriftian's excellency above the Heathen, 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. Practical and faving knowledge of Chrift is the fincere Chriftian's excellency above the felf-cozening hypocrite, Heb. vi. 4, 6. but methodical and well-digefted knowledge of Chrift is the ftrong Chriftian's excellency above the weak, Heb. v. 12, 13, 14. A faving, tho' an immethodical knowledge of Chrift, will bring us to heaven, John xvii. 2. but a regular and methodical, as well as faving knowledge of him, will bring heaven into us, Col. ii. 2, 3. For fuch is the excellency thereof, even above all other knowledge of Chrift, that it renders the understanding judicious, the memory tenacious, and the heart highly and fixedly joyous. How it ferves to confirm and perfect the understanding, is excellently discovered by a worthy divine of our own, in these words; A young ungrounded Chriftian, when he Mr. Baxter's difeeth all the fundamental truths, and feeth rections to the congood evidence and reafons of them, perhaps verted for their es may be yet ignorant of the right order and ftablishment.p. 96. place of every truth. It is a rare thing to have young profeffors to understand the neceffary truths methodically; and this is a very great defect: For a great part of the usefulness and excellency of particular truths confifteth in the refpect they have to one another. This therefore will be a very confiderable part of your confirmation, and growth in your understandings, to fee the body of the Christian doctrine, as it were, at one view, as the feveral parts of it are united in one perfect frame; and to know what afpect one point hath upon another, and which are their due places. There is a great difference betwixt the fight of the feveral parts of a clock or watch, as they are dif jointed and scattered abroad, and the feeing of them conjoined, and in ufe and motion. To fee here a pin, and there a wheel, and not know how to fet them all together, nor ever fee them in their due places, will give but little fatisfaction: It is the frame and defign of holy doctrine that must be known, and every part should be difcerned as it hath its particular ufe to that defign, 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 underfood. And every fingle truth alfo will be much better perceived by him that feeth its place and order, than by any other: For one truth exceedingly illuflrates and leads in another into the understanding--Study therefore to grow in the more methodi. cal knowledge of the fame truths which you have received; and tho' you are not yet ripe enough to difcern the whole body of theology in due method, yet fee fo much as you have attained to know, in the right order, and placing of every part. As in anatomy, it is hard for the wifeft phyfician to difcern the courfe of every branch of the veins and arteries; but yet they may easily difcern the place and order of the principal parts, and greater veffels, (and furely in the body of religion there runs not a branch of greater or more neceffary 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 Chriftian hath the knowledge of all the effentials, and may know the orders and places of them all. And as it ferves to render the mind more judicious, fo it causes the memory to be more tenacious, and rententive of truths. The chain of truth is easily held in the memory, when one truth links in another; but the loofing of a link endangers the fcatter ing of the whole chain. We use to fay, order is the mother of memory; Fam fure it is a fingular friend to it: hence it is obferved, thofe that write of the art of memory, lay to great a stress upon place and number. The memory would not fo foon be overchar ged with a multitude of truths, if that multitude were but orderly difpofed. 'Tis the incoherence and confufion of truths, rather than their number, that distracts. Let but the understanding receive them regularly, and the memory will retain them with much more facility. A bad memory is a common com. plaint among Chriftians: All the benefit that many of you have in hearing, is from the prefent influence of truths upon your hearts; there is but little that sticks by you, to make a fecond and third impreffion upon them. I know it may be faid of fome of you, that if your affections were not better than your memo、 ries, you would need a very large charity to pafs for Chriftians. I confefs 'tis better to have a well ordered heart, than a methodical head; but surely both are better than either. And for you that have conftantly attended thefe exercifes, and followed us through the whole feries and deduction of thefe truths, from |