A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

(1.)There is the History of Salvation, what God hath done on his part; there all things are ready, there you here of the Love of God, that he hath given his only ⟨p. 16⟩Son, and of the free Election of those whom he means to save in Christ. There you hear of the Person of the Mediator, his Mission and sending into the World; his Incarnation, his Unction, or anointing to his Office; his Abasement, his Obedience, his Death, his Burial, his Satisfaction for Sin, his Purchase of Life; and then his Exaltation, with all the Fruits and Effects of it, to wit, his Intercession at the Right-hand of God, his Effusion and pouring out of the Spirit to be his Deputy here on Earth: and there you read of his Collection and manner of gathering of a Church by the Institutions of the Word and Sacraments: There we hear of the Humiliation of Christ, by which Salvation was purchased; and of his Exaltation, whereby the Graces that accompany Salvation are distributed and dispensed; and how Christ by his Spirit applies this Salvation.

(2.) There is the Counsel of Salvation, what Man must do on his part, that he may partake of the Righteousness and Spirit of Christ, according to the good pleasure of God, which Christ purchased by virtue of his Humiliation, and dispenseth and distributeth by virtue of his Exaltation. I call all this the Counsel of God, because thus it is called in Scripture, Luke 7.30. The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the Counsel of God against themselves. If you will be saved, here is God's Counsel, thus you must do. It is dangerous for a sick Man to alter the Physician's Method and Receipt, to be tampering, to be taking out and putting in; so it is very dangerous to alter the Counsel of God which he hath set down, how we may be brought to Salvation. Do not, as the young Man that came to Christ, and said, Matth. 19.16. Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life? and yet when Christ puts him to the trial, it's said he went away sad. So a natural Man, his Heart is raised up to hearken after Salvation, but he goes away sorrowful, when he cannot win Heaven in his own way, to enjoy Christ and the World, Christ and carnal Liberty, and Christ and his carnal Pleasures; therefore you must not only look to the History of Salvation, what God hath done, but to the Counsel of Salvation, what you must do. And Peter sums it up, and gives an Abridgement of the Gospel,