had no holdfast at all of Him When Lazarus was raised It is said that Hee came forth bound hand and foote with Grave cloathes to note that Hee came not out as a victor over Death unto which He was to returne againe but when Christ rose Hee left them behinde because death was to have no more power over Him Thus by His resurrection He was declared to have gone through the whole punishment which Hee was to suffer for sinne and being thus justified himselfe that hee was able also to justifie others that beleeved in him This is the reason why the Apostle useth these words to prove the resurrection of Christ I will give you the sure mercies of David for none of Gods mercies had been sure to us if Christ had been held under by death Our faith had been vaine we had been yet in our sinnes But his worke being fully finished the mercy which thereupon depended was made certaine and as the Apostle speakes sure unto all the 〈◊〉 Thus as the Day wherein Redemption is victorious and consummate is cald the day of Redemption so the worke wherein the merits of Christ were declar'd victorious is said to have been for our justification because they were thereby made appliable unto that purpose The second worke of the Power of Christs Resurrection is to overcome all death in vs and restore vs to life againe Therfore he is cald the Lord of the living and the Prince of life to note that his life is operative unto others wee are by his Resurrection secur'd first against the death and Law which wee were held under for euery sinneâ—… is condemn'd already Now when Christ was condemned for sinne hee thereby deliver'd us from the death of the Law which is the curse so that though some of the grave cloathes may not be quite shaken off but that wee may be subject to the workings feares of the Law upon some occasions yet the malediction thereof is for ever removed Secondly we are secured against the death in sinne regenerated quickned renued fashioned by the power of godlinesse which tameth our rebellions subdueth our corruptions and turneth all our affections another way Thirdly against the hold-fast and conquest of death in the grave from whence wee shall bee translated unto glory a specimen and resemblance of this was shewed at the resurrection of Christ when the graves were opened and many dead bodies of the Saints arose and entred into the Citie As a Prince in his inauguration or sosemne state openeth prisons and unlooseth many which there were bound to honour his solemnitie so did Christ do to those Saints at his resurrection and in them gave assurance to all his of their conquest over the last Enemy What a fearefull condition then are all men out of Christ in who shall have no interest in His resurrection Rise indeed they shall but barely by his power as their Iudge not by fellowship with him as the first fruites and first borne of the dead and therefore theirs shall not be properly or at least comfortably a Resurrection no more than a condemn'd persons going from the prison to his execution may be cald an enlargement Pharaohâ—… Butler and Baker went both out of prison but they were not both delivered so the righteous and the wicked shall all appeare before Christ and bee gathered out of their graves but they shall not all bee Children of the Resurrection for that belongs onely to the just The wicked shall be dead everlastingly to all the pleasures and wayes of sin which here they wallowed in As there remaines nothing to a drunkard or adulterer after all his youthfull excesses but crudities rottennesse diseases and the worme of Conscience so the wicked shall carry no worlds nor satisfactions of lust to hell with them their glorie shall not descend after them These things are truths written with a sunne beame in the booke of God First That none out of Christ shall rise unto Glorie Secondly That all who are in him are purged from the Love and power of sinne are made a people willingly obedient unto his scepter and the government of his grace and spirit and have eyes given them to see no beauty but in his kingdome Thirdly Hereupon it is manifest that no uncleane thing shall rise unto glory A prince in the day of his state or any roiall solemnitie wil not admit beggers or base companions into his presence Hee is of purer eyes then to behold much lesse to communicate with uncleane persons None but the pure in heart shal see God Fourthly that every wicked man waxeth worse and worse that hee who is filthy growes more filthy that sinne hardneth the heart and infidelitie hasteneth perdition Whence the conclusion is evident That every impenitent sinner who without any inward hatred purposes of revenge against sinne without godly sorrow forepast and spirituall renovation for after-times allowes himselfe to continue in any course of uncleannesse spends all his time and strength to no other purpose then onely to heape up coales of Iuniper against his owne soule and to gather together a treasure of sins and wrath like an infinite pile of wood to burne himselfe in Again this power of Christs resurrection is a ground of solid and invincible comfort to the faithfull in any pressures or calamities though never so desperate because God hath power and promises to raise them up againe This is a sufficient supportance first Against any either publike or privat afflictions However the Church may seeme to be reduc'd to as low and uncureable an estate as dried bones in a grave or the brands of wood in a fire yet it shall be but like the darknesse of a night after two daies he will revive againe His goings forth in the defence of his Church are prepared as the morning When Iob was upon a dunghill and his reines were consumed within him When Ionah was at the bottome of the Mountaines and the weedes wrapped about his head and the great billowes and waves went over him so that he seemed as cast out of Gods sight When David was in the midst of troubles and Ezekiah in great bitternesse this power of God to raise unto life againe was the onely refuge and comfort they had Secondly against all temptations and discomforts Satans traines and policies come too late after once Christ is risen from the dead for in his resurrection the Church is discharged and set at large Thirdly against Death it selfe because wee shall come out of our graves as gold out of the fire or miners out of their pits laden with gold and glory at the last Lastly wee must from hence learne to seeke those things that are above whither Christ is gone Christs Kingdome is not here and therefore our hearts should not be here Hee is ascended
and obediently undertake it Thou hast prepared mee a bodie In the volume of thy booke it is written of me Lo I come to doe thy Will O God Lastly our holynesse must have growth and proficiencie with it grow in grace Let these things be in you and abound as it is said of Christ that He increased in wisedome and favour with God and men and that He learned obedience by the things which Hee suffered If it bee here objected that Christ was ever full and had the Spirit without measure even from the wombe For in as much as his Divine nature was in his infancie as fully united to his humane as ever after therefore the fulnesse of grace which was a consequent thereupon was as much as ever after To this I answere that certaine it is Christ was ever full of Grace and Spirit but that excludes not his growth in them proportionably to the ripenesse and by consequence capacitie of his humane nature Suppose we the Sunne were vegetable and a subject of augmentation though it would be never true to say that it is fuller of light then it was yet it would be true to say that it hath more light now then it had when it was of a lesser capacitie Even so Christ being in all things save sinne like unto us and therefore like us in the degrees and progresses of naturall maturitie though he were ever full of Grace may yet be said to grow in it and to learne because as the capacitie of his nature was enlarged the spring of Grace within him did rise up and proportionably fill it Secondly from this Doctrine of our conformity in Holinesse to the life of Christ we may be instructed touching the vigor of the Law and the consonancie and concurrencie thereof with the Gospell True it is that Christ is the End of the Law and that wee are not under the Law but under Grace Yet it is as true that Christ came not to destroy the Law and that no jot nor tittle thereof shall fall to the ground Wee are not under the Law for Iustification of our persons as Adam nor for satisfaction of Divine Iustice as those that perish but we are under it as a document of obedience and a rule of living It is now published from mount Sion as a Law of libertie and a new Law not as a Law of condemnation and bond age The obedience thereof is not removed but the disobedience thereof is both pardoned and cured Necessarie is the observation of it as as a fruite of Faith not as a condition of Life or Righteousnesse Necessarie necessitate praecepti as a thing commanded the transgressing whereof is an incurring of sinne not necessitate medy as a strict and undispensable meane of Salvation the transgression whereof is a peremptorie obligation unto death Three things Christ hath done to the Law for us First He hath mitigated the rigâ—…r and removed the curse from it as it is a killing letter and ministery of death Secondly Hee hath by his Spirit conferred all the principles of obedience upon us wisdome to contrive will to desire strength to execute love to delight in the services of it The Law onely commands but Christ enables Thirdly Hee hath by his exemplary holinesse chalked out unto us and conducted us in the way of obedience for all our obedience comes from Christ and that either as unto members from his Spirit or as unto Disciples from his Doctrine and Example We see then the necessitie of our being in Christ not onely for righteousnesse but for obedience for we must have Life before we can have Operation If we live in the spirit let us walkâ—… also in the spirit Whereas out of Christ a man is under the whole Law as an insupportable yoke as an impossible and yet inexorable rule as a Covenant of Righteousnesse and condition by which he must be tried by which he must everlastingly stand or fall before the tribunall of Christ when he shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance on those who though convinced of their iusufficiencie to observe the Law have yet disobeyed the Gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ. Thirdly we may hence learne the necessitie of diligent attendance on the holy Scriptures and places where they are explained there is no abiding in Christ but by walking as he walked there is no walking as hee walked but by knowing how he walked and this is onely by the Scriptures in which Hee is yet amongst us walking in the middest of his Church Crucified before our eyes set forth and declared unto us many other signes Iesus did which are not written saith the Apostle but these are written that you might beleeve and that beleeving you might have life Wee know not any of Christs wayes or workes but by the Word and therefore they who give no attendance unto that declare that they regard not the wayes of Christ nor have any care to follow the Lambe wheresoever he goeth Secondly we must from hence bee exhorted to take heede of usurping Christs honour to our selves of being our owne rule or way The Lord is a jealous God and will not suffer any to bee a selfe mover or a God unto himselfe It is one of Gods extreamest judgements to give men over to themselves and leave them to follow their owne rules When hee hath first woâ—…d men by his Spirit and that is resisted enticed them by his mercies and they are abused threatned them with his judgements and they are misattributed to second causes cried unto them by his prophets and they are reviled sent his owne Sonne to perswade them and hee is trampled on and despised when he offers to teach them and they stoppe their eares to leade them and they pull away their shoulder to convert them and they hardned their heart when they set up mounds against the Gospell as it were to non-plus and pose the mercies of God that there may be no remedie left then after all these indâ—…gnities to the Spirit of Grace this is the judgement with which God useth to revenge the quarrrell of his Grace and Covenant to leave them to the hardnesse and impenitencie of their owne hearts to be a rule and way unto themselves My people would not hearken to my voyce and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their owne hearts lust and they walked in their owne counsels Let us therefore take heede of a will-holynesse We are the servants of Christ and our members are to bee the instruments of righteousnesse and servants are to be governed by the will of their masters and members to bee guided by the influence of the head and instruments to bee applyed to all their services by the superiour cause Every thing which Moses did about the Tabernacle was to be done after the patterne which he had seene in the mount and every thing which we doe in these spirituall Tabernacles
we are to doe after the patterne of him who is set before us The services of Israel after their revolt from the house of David when they built Altars and multiplyed sacrifices were as chargeable as specious and in humane discourse every whit as rationall as those at Ierusalem yet wee finde when they would bee wiser then God and prescribe the way wherein they ment to worship him all ended in shame and dishonor Bethel which was Gods house before is turned into Bethaven a house of vanitie Israel hath forgotten his Maker and buildeth Temples saith the Prophet One would thinke that hee who buildes temples had God who was in thē to be worshipped often in his mind but to remember God otherwise then hee hath required to build many temples when hee had appointed but one temple and one altar for all that people to resort unto this was by forgetting Gods Will and Word to forget likewise his service and worship because to serve him otherwise then he requireth is not to worship but to rob and mocke him 1 In Gods service it is a greater sinne to doe that which wee are not to doe then not to doe that which we are commanded This is but a sinne of omission but that a sinne of sacriledge and high contempt in this we charge the law onely with difficultie but in that with folly in this wee discover our weaknes to doe the will but in that we declare our impudence and arrogancie to controle the wisedome of God In this wee acknowledge our owne insufficiencie in that we deny the all-sufficiencie and plenitude of Gods owne Law But what ever opinion men have of their owne wisedomes and contributions in Gods service yet he esteemes them all but as ◅udicrous things as games and playes and acting of mimicall dancings The people sate downe to eate and drinke and rose up to play What ever action therefore you goe about doe it by Rule enquire out of the scriptures whether Christ would have done it or no at least whether he allow it or no. It is true somethings are lawfull and expedient with us which were not suteable unto the person of Christ. Marriage is honourable with all other men but it did not befit his person who came into the world to spirituall purposes onely to beget sonnes and daughters unto God and to be mystically married unto his Church To write bookes is commendable with men because like Abel being dead they may still speake and teach those who never saw them But it would have beene derogatory to the person and unbecomming the office of Christ. For it is his prerogative to bee in the midst of the seven candlestickes to be present to all his members to teach by power and not by ministery to teach by his Spirit and not by his penne to teach the hearts of men and not their eyes or eares He hath no mortalitie distance or absence to be by such meanes supplyed It became him to commit these ministeriall actions to his servants and to reserve to himselfe that great honour of writing his Law in the hearts of his people and making them to be his epistle But yet I say as in these things wee must respect his allowance so in others let us ref◅ect upon his example When thou art tempted to loosenesse and immoderate living aske thy conscience but this question would Christ have d◅unke unto swinishnesse or eaten unto excesse would hee have wasted his pretious time at slewes stages or tavernes or taken delight in sinfull and desperate fellowships Did Christ frequently pray both with his Disciples and alone by himselfe and shall Inever either in my family or in my closet thinke upon God did Christ open his wounds and shall not I open my mouth was not his blood too pretious to redeeme and is my breath too good to instruct his Church was Christ mercifull to his enemies and shall I bee cruell to his members Againe for the manner of Christs obedience did Christ serve God without all selfe-ends meerely in obedience and to glorifie him and shall I make Gods worship subordinate to my aimes and his religion serve turnes shall I doe what I doe without any love or ioy meerely out of slavish feare and compulsion of conscience Thus if we did resolve our services into their true originals and measure them by the Holynesse of Christ and have him ever before our eyes it would be a great meanes of living in comfort and spirituall conformitie to Gods Law And there are amongst diverse others two great encouragements thereunto First while we follow Christ wee are out of all danger his Angels have us in their armes we are under the protection of his promises as every good subject in the kings way is under the kings protection Peter never denyed Christ nor was assaulted by the servants of the high priest till hee gave over following him Secondly the more wee follow Christ the neerer still we come unto him Because Christ is entered into his rest he is now at home hee is not now in motion but he sitteth still at his Fathers right hand and hath no higher nor no further to goe and therefore so long as I hasten and presse forward in his way I must needes be the neerer unto him Your Salvation is neerer saith the Apostle then when you first beleeved But a man will say how shall I doe to follow Christ I answere in one word denie thy selfe and thou dost then follow him get out of thine owne way and thou canst not misse of his The world never rules us but by our owne lusts Sathan never overcomes us but by our owne willes and with our owne weapons when he is resisted hee flyes As Hanibal was wont to say that the onely way to fight against Rome was in Italie so the other enemies of our salvation know that there is no conquering the soule but in its owne waye As soone as any man forsakes his owne way Christ is at hand to lead him into his He will bee wisedome to those that denie their owne reason he will be Redemption to those that despise their owne merits hee will bee sanctification to those that cast of their owne lusts hee will be salvation to those that relinquish their owne ends he will be all things to those that are nothing to themselves Now we have as I may so speake two selfes A selfe of nature and a selfe of sinne and both must be denyed for Christ. This wee must ever cast away as a snare and that wee must be ever ready to lay downe as a sacrifice when he is pleased to set himselfe in competition with it And so much for the Life of Holynesse which wee have in Christ. Lastly he that hath the Sonne hath the Life of glory assured to him For Hee hath made us to sit together with him in Heavenly places and when He appeares we shall bee like him