it self and his excellencies as therein discovered for the believing in or on the Lord is an effect of the believing God and therefore that phrase or saying Abraham believed in the Lord. Gen. 15.6 Is by the Apostle rendred Abraham believed God Rom. 4.3 As implying that then God is heartily believed in his Testimony when he whom he testifies of is believed in as also that the believing in the Lord is an evidence and product of believing God 2. Here is mentioned also the several causes of this perswasion and so by consequent of that perception and believing on Christ that follows upon it As 1. The principal and first cause the Author and begetter of this faith belief or perswasion and of all that follows upon it is God himself testifying of Christ As it is said Ye are saved by grace through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 And this is the work of God both that which he requires of us and that which he works in us That ye believe on him whom he hath sent Joh. 6.29 Yea and our Saviour further testifies it to be the work wrought of God in saying No man can come to me except the Father that hath sent me draw him v. 44. And No man can come to me except it be given to him of my Father Ver. 65. Of him descendeth and cometh down every good and perfect giving And therefore both this perswasion and all therethrough effected But he works mediately and so here is 2. The subordinate and mediate cause of this perswasion and believing on Gods part which is the same that is also the object believed even the Word and Testimony of God the very clearness excellency and evidence of which as manifested of God to the heart perswades the heart to embrace and credit it As by the light of the sun a man sees the sun so the goodness and truth of Gods Testimony is seen by its own brightness and that draws in the heart to receive it By his word God wrought at first in making the world and by his word he works in making new creatures And that this is that by which he works in the heart and perswades it to believe on Christ our Saviour himself testifieth in saying John 6.45 They shall all be taught of God every one therefore that hears and learns of the Father comes to me Thence also his word the Testimony he beareth of Christ the Gospel is called the word of faith Rom. 10.8 But yet this produceth not this believing without some act of man which is and may be called 3. The subordinate cause or means on mans part that without which this believing is not effected and that is expressed to be a serious listening to that word Whence that in Isa 55.3 Hear and your souls shall live And in Rom. 10.17 Faith is of hearing and hearing is of the word of God They that stop their ear lest they should hear deprive themselves of the efficacy of God and his word even of the Spirit of God breathing and working in the word and are justly left of God to their perverseness and unbelief Matth. 13 14 15. I add the word serious to signifie that it is not a careless formal hearing but a diligent attentive hearing Such as our Saviour signifies in that double expression Every one that heareth and learneth so heareth as also to learn of the Father comes to me Such a hearing as includes that which Moses called on the people to do when he said Set your hearts to all these words Deut. 32.46 Or as that in Heb. 2.1 A giving earnest heed to the things spoken in the Gospel And this leads to the next viz. 3. The proper subject of this perswasion belief and so also of the perception and all that follows upon it and that is the heart as it is said With the heart man believes to righteousness Rom. 10.10 And indeed when men set their hearts to attend to Gods words and to consider them God will perswade their hearts and the heart perswaded and believing is there-through both framed to do righteousness in believing on Christ and also is accepted and justified of God therein and the man accounted of God righteous And in both these senses the words may be understood that with the heart man believes unto righteousness Many there are that profess and say they believe and are perswaded of the truth of Gods word and yet they are far from believing on Christ as their lives make manifest in many of them because they believe not with the heart their hearts are not set to or ingaged in the matter They may learn so much of the form of Knowledge in subserviency to some other designs as of getting a livelihood honour and respect with men ease from troubles of mind c. as that they may draw nigh with their mouths and honour him with their lips and yet their hearts be removed far from him going after their covetousness or what they mainly design Isa 29.13 Ezek. 33.31 And these attain not to righteousness They neither render to God and Christ that which is right just and meet viz. that honour fear faith trust and affection that he is worthy of Nor are they therefore justified and accepted of God as righteous persons But when men so receive Gods Testimony as to believe on Christ their minds wills and affections are all ingaged therein and through the presence and operation of the Spirit of God which is always ready to help and save and to that purpose to effect what he requires and is needful to their Salvation in them that attend to him and as he is preventing them by his grace yield up themselves to him they are strengthened and framed to all the acts and exercises both conducing to and contained in this believing on Christ the Son of Man Which are also in this description expressed both 4. The acts productive of and the acts contained in the believing on Christ 1. The acts productive of it are 1. An heart-perswasion or belief of the truth of God or of the word that he speaks and testifies concerning Christ as of him we have largely shewed that he testifieth This is properly the believing God and the believing Christ and the believing his Prophets and Servants in their testimony as speaking forth the word of God and of Christ and they that so do are in the way to prosper 2 Chron. 20.20 This is that by which the faith or belief of the Patriarchs is expressed Heb. 11.13 They see the promises afar off and were perswaded of them And they whose hearts are perswaded of God to believe his testimony as God will perswade Japheth or the perswasible as some render Gen. 9.27 those that meekly hear and attend Psal 25.8 James 1.18 19 21. in them also is certainly effected 2. A heart-perception of the Excellencies of Christ Eor as God in his Doctrine beareth witness to his Son the Son
requisite that the doer thereof obtain for us and give to us the Spirit of Life and power from God to quicken and enliven us to hope in and love God and there-through to be Holy to God and preserve in that holy state against all Oppositions and Enemies yea and to raise the dead and possess them of the everlasting Kingdom and the fulness of God and of Divine joys and satisfactions therein which be works of Omnipotency agreeable only to Divine Nature and Majesty 2. For his being called forth to and suffering death for us the necessity thereof we have seen before in order to our salvation We must have perished in the first Death and Judgment had not he endured it and given himself the ransom for us much less could he have offered up himself a spotless Sacrifice through the Eternal Spirit to make a purgation of our sins and obtain Eternal Redemption for the taking away the following sins committed by us against the Grace and Mercy of God exercised towards us and extended to us in our several persons and making reconciliation for us nor could there have been an improvement of his Sacrifice by making intercession or mediation for preparing us for and bringing us to Eternal Life Indeed there could have been no sins of that nature last mentioned and therefore nothing to save from them nor any Oblation or Offering of him self had he not suffered for his offering himself supposes a suffering first Heb. 9.24 25 26. And therefore without this that would have found no place nor any thing that follows thereupon unto Eternal Life for which no Roome had we perished in and never been raised from the first death 3. And without his Resurrection neither had the Redemption from the first Judgment been perfected that Death had not been Abolished or Evacuated and he that had the power of it destroyed nor the Resurrection from it obtained Much less could he have received in the Nature of man any power or authority to meditate with God and work in and with men in order to the preserving the Sinners from perishing or for the obtaining and giving to any or bringing them to Eternal Life These being the works of a living not of a dead Person 4. Nor could he have appeared for us as the great High Priest in the presence of God for us in the Holy of Holies upon the Mercy Seat and Cherubims of Glory set down on the Throne of Majesty on the right of God unless he had been Exalted with Gods Right Hand being raised again And without that he could not have sent forth the Holy Ghost and given Gifts to men for making him known nor meditated with God for men that their Sins might be forgiven their Consciences purged their Hearts purified and so they prepared and fited for and brought by him through the Resurrection of the Dead and by his just Doom and Award as the great Judge of all unto Eternal life Yea in a word seeing it is his being every way perfected through his sufferings and so being made the Author of eternal Salvation to all that obey him that renders him a meet Object to be believed on and affords sufficient ground thereto That which was needful to render him an Object to be believed on must needs be understood also to have been needful or necessary to his preserving from perishing and giving eternal life to any For if he be able to preserve from perishing and to give Eternal life without these things then would he also without these things be an Object meet to be for them believed on And so what was said on the former Branch proves the truth of this also CHAP. XVIII Another Conclusion proving the necessity of his being Lifted up by way of Demonstration to men by God and men both unto mens-believing on him and abiding in that believing Conclusion 2 THe lifting up of the Son of Man by way of Declaration of his Worth and Excellency and Commendation of him to men rendring him Glorious and an Object worthy and fit to be believed on for Life and Salvation is Necessary to the begetting and furthering distinct and explicite Faith or belief on him in order to their attainment of Salvation and Eternal life by him This I shall speak to in two Branches either of which is also evident and manifest Branch 1. Necessary it is for mens believing that he be so lifted up by way of Demonstration for necessary it is for mens believing on him that they know him and understand good ground and reason for believing on him For Faith or Believing is not only an Act of the Heart and will closing with an Object coming to seeking help of and relying and trusting upon it for that help but also of the understanding Such an Act of the Will aforesaid as proceeds and springs from the Understanding Discerning and Perceiving good reason and ground for what it doth therein as may be seen in what was Noted in the Acts and things included or contained in believing on him and as may be seen in what both the Prophet David saith in saying They that know thy Name will trust in thee Psal 9.10 And in what our Lord Jesus Christ saith in John 6.44 45. That no man can come to him namely to seek and help and Salvation in and from him believe in him and depend on him for it except the Father that sent him draw him And that that drawing is by the Fathers teaching so as that Whosoever hears and learns of him comes to Christ For Hearing and Learning of him pertains to the right informing of the understanding in the things Taught as also in that it s said Faith cometh by hearing and hearing is of the Word of God Rom. 10.17 Only here it is to be minded that we speak of Explicite Faith or Actual Believing and not of an Implicite Believing or of Gods gracious Imputation of Faith to Children or the like â—â—cepting them in their not Acting against as if believing on him For certain it is that the actual Faith that is by hearing is such as proceeds from an information of the Understanding and so an apprehension of some good cause or reason to Believe the thing informed of and in or upon the Object commended to us in such Information Clear it is that no man believeth on any thing or Person for any help or good to be received there-from unless he apprehend there is Ability and Probability of finding help or good from it Now no man can come to or believe to find such great effects as preservation from Destruction Misery and Wrath deserved by our sins and threatned of God to us because of them and a being raised up from Death and Grave to eternal Life and Happiness from an ordinary man that nothing differs from another but is in the same state of Sin and Death and of the same Infirmity and Impotency with others Nor from an ordinary Prophet or good man that
it again When the People some of them said that it Thundred others that an Angel spake to him John 12.28 29. But these things were known to few 2. In his speaking and working by him such things as never any spake or did for the words that he spake he spake not from himself as man alone but of or from the Father who dwelt in him and he it was that did the Works John 14.10 Whence he saith to Philip Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me or else believe me for the works sake ver 11. With Chap. 15.24 7.46 And that God did magnifie him in this and lift him up among men The Apostle Peter testifies Act. 2.22 Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God by Miracles Wonders and Signes which God did by him c. As also 3. By his raising him from the dead glorifying him and maintaining his cause and name against all oppositions and gathering in a Church to him and upholding it in the midst of Persecutions c. Of which things I shall not inlarge 2. Of God the Word or Son also even by himself or his Divine Being or Deity exerting and putting forth it self and so glorifying him as the Son of Man And so it behoved him and he did it Both 1. In Work As in his working glorious Miracles Thus it s said upon his turning Water into Wine at that Marriage in Cana of Galilee This beginning of Miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory But more fully in his rising from the dead and ascending into Heaven and giving gifts from thence unto men as some Apostles some Prophets c. Whence he saith No man takes my life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again This Commandement have I received of my Father John 10.18 For as it is said that he was raised again from the dead by his Father and his glory So also it is said that he rose again in and by the power of his divine Spirit And that he died rose and revived that he might be Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lord it over the quick and dead Rom. 14.9 And he rose again the Third day according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15.3 4. Being put to death in the flesh but quickned in the Spirit 1. Pet. 3.18 And so that he Ascended and went up on high and gave gifts unto men Psal 68.18 Eph. 4.8.9 2. In his Word Preaching forth himself and his own excellencies As he saith I am one that bear witness of my self and my Father that sent me he beareth witness of me Though he said If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true As implying that of himself as man only he bare not witness of himself if as Man only he had so done his Witness might have been slighted But he as the Word though made flesh witnessed of himself as in his works so in his word too and his witness as witnessing so was true For he knew whence he came and whither he went John 5.31 8.14 18. And so he declared himself in the Man-hood as the Son of man or the Word made Flesh to be the Son of God to be in Heaven and come from Heaven and to know the things of Heaven John 3.11 12 13 16. And so when he said here he must be lifted up we may understand him to say in such intimations and declarations of his excellencies as those were So he testified of himself that he is the Light of the World John 8.12 12.46 The bread of Life the bread that came down from heaven The living bread His Flesh meat indeed and his Blood drink indeed Necessary to be fed upon to the obtaining everlasting life And such as 〈◊〉 gives everlasting life to all that feed thereupon John 6.35 48 50 51 55 56. c. That he knows the Father and is known of the Father John 7.29 10.15 That he gives the water of Life which whoso drinks it shall be in him a spring of living waters springing up unto eternal life And causing Rivers of living waters to flow out of his belly or inward man as being the Baptizer with and giver of the holy Ghost John 4.14 7.37 38 39. Act. 1.5 With John 15.26 That he is The good Shepherd The door of the sheep knowing his sheep and giving to them in their following him Eternal Life John 10.3 9 11 15 28 29. That he is the Resurrection and the Life So as that He that believeth on him though dead he shall live he that liveth and believeth on him shall not dye for ever John 11.25 26. That he is The way the truth and the life John 14.6 The true vine John 15.1 4. And many the like But chiefly he is and was lifted up And that I might have referred the two former to the testimonies of the Father and Word as being brought to us and our cognizance by him 3. By the holy Spirit whose business it is to witness of Christ taking his things and shewing them and so glorifying him John 15.27 16.14 And so it is prophetically said of him That when the Enemy shall come in like a stood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him which Standard or Ensigne is Christ of the Seed of David of the Root of Jesse Isa 11.1 10 11. And put him to flight Isa 59.19 And he was to lift him up and hath and doth diversly as 1. By fore-testifying glorious things of him As that he as the Seed of the Woman and so as the Son of Man should bruise the head of the Serpent Overthrow his plot against us and our well-fare and take away his acquired power and jurisdiction over us and open the way for us into Paradise and so to God again Gen. 3.15 That he as the Seed of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob and so as the Son of Man should be the blessing of or bringer forth of blessing to all the Nations or families of the Earth Gen. 22.18 26.4 28.14 With Gal. 3.8 That he as proceeding out of the Tribe of Judah should be the Shiloh the peaceable one or peace-maker Vnto whom should be the gathering of the People Gen. 49.10 That he should be the Prophet raised up from among the People and so as the Son of Man whom all the People should hear in all things that he should say unto them Deut. 18.15 18. That he should be as the Seed of David and so as the Son of Man the Great King and Governour upon whose shoulders the Government should be The Wonderful the Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace Of the increase of whose Government and Peace there should be no end upon the Throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order and to establish it with justice and with judgment
know not hath ordered gifts to men for a distinct and plain preaching him in a way seeming to the world more foolish for their Salvation And in this foolishness even the plain ungarnished way of preaching He is I say to be so held up or set forth as men may have opportunity or advantage to see him as given in the flesh to the world to be their Saviour according to Gospel-revelation with perswasions also to men to mind and look to him as the great and onely one in whom there is certain healing for them and as one who being neglected by them or not looked to to the end they cannot be healed cannot be forgiven and saved from their sins and Gods wrath and judgements though he be the same in himself seen or not seen looked to or not looked to believed in or not believed in Yet he is not the same to us that is he gives not forth his virtues otherwise then as lifted up he is looked to and believed on by men as to persons that are in capacity as being of years or otherwise of discretion as such onely in a sense agreeable to Scripture speaking may more properly be said to be come into so as to be of the world nor can he be otherwise or further then as lifted up to them beheld by them Isa 45.22 Mark 16.15 16. Heb. 2.1 3. 3. As Moses lifted up the Serpent Not to the end that God might take occasion to punish them the more for their necessitated or wilful neglects of it or as a thing intended of God to that end but for this gracious end That when a Serpent had bitten any man however often or seldom deeply or sleightly he might look to the Brazen Serpent and live Though in case any man out of pride or scornfulness or other principles neglected it he might be worthily left to dye of his wounds and was without excuse if he then perished Even so the Son of Man is and must be of men lifted up not to the end that men might harm themselves by him and be left without excuse if either through defect on Gods part of effectual Grace to enable them they cannot as some erroneously hold or through wilfulness on their part in neglecting the grace and power given them they will not look to and believe in him and so perish But to those gracious ends that they might when through the deceits of Sin and the Devil they fall into sin and misery look up to him and be healed by him Not perish but have eternal life both believe and live Though if when he is lifted up to those gracious ends any man neglect to use the power and liberty given him of God to look to him and in the help of his grace in such looking to him met with to believe in him or having begun to believe withdraw again and so through unbelief perish he is the cause of his own destruction and is and will be without excuse in Gods presence when he comes to judge him Isa 5.3 4. Hosea 13.9 Matth. 22.12 Rom. 3.4 19. Now that Gods ends in ordering Christ to be lifted up and so in lifting him up are so gracious and not as some represent them to be a snare to them otherwise then in case they wilfully reject him when lifted up to those gracious ends that such a thing shall be the event as is implied Isa 8.14 1 Pet. 2.8 that they might perish I say that Gods gracious ends in it are directly that men might believe on him and that whosoever so do might not perish but have eternal life both the next words and the two following Verses shew The next words are That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life And the next Verses confirm that saying For God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Mark that Negative Not to condemn the world and then the Affirmative But that the world through him might be saved Such the gracious end of God being acted by love in it to the world though the event is like the event that might be to the people from the Serpent lifted up if any were so foolish for their bodies as many in the world are for their souls namely He that believes is not condemned he obtains the gracious end of God even as there it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man when he looked to the brazen Serpent he lived Numb 21.9 But he that believeth not is condemned now or already because he hath not believed on the Name of the onely begotten Son of God Not because it was Gods end in giving Christ that any man should refuse him and be condemned but because he neglected Gods gracious end which was that through him he might be saved John 3.16 17 18. as follows Verse 19. This is the condemnation the reason of the unbelievers being condemned that light is come into the world but men loved darkness rather then light But this I might add as 5. The last agreement viz. As to the event It came to pass there upon Moses lifting up that Serpent that if a Serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the Serpent of brass he lived As implying that not till then had it its effect to revive or cure and so not at all if never looked to or if before perfect recovery it was turned from that may possibly be implied too but if any looked to and beheld it he lived No matter from what part of the Camp whether East or West or whether he stood so near it as to behold its express form or at such a distance as he had but a confused sight of it whether his wounds were more or fewer deeper or sleightier c. when he looked he lived Even so here when any man seeth and believeth on Christ lifted up of God and in the Gospel not till then or otherwise but then he is justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the Law of Moses Whatever or wherever he is or whether his sight be more distinct or more dim and confused so be it his sight be hearty he lives with God or in his sight and living and believing he shall not dye for ever Acts 13.39 Gal. 3.7 9 26 29. John 1.12 13. Acts 10.34 43. John 11.25 26. But I onely mention this and proceed now to CHAP. IX The fourth and last Point The end of the Son of Mans being lifted up viz. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life Six Observations drawn from hence The first of which concerning mens danger of perishing opened Point 4 THe end why or whereto the Son of Man must be so lifted up as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness is
said He that abideth in him sinneth not He that sinneth wandreth from the way hath neither seen him nor known him 1 Joh. 3.6 Thus the believing on him preserves from perishing from the way whereas they that believe not are apt to perish So 1. Either by running out of the Doctrine and way of truth into false Doctrines and Heresies of Damnation being with specious pretences and appearances presented to them as through want of stable rootedness in Christ and dependance on him the Galatians were in the way to have done and as God oft hath left them to do who believed not the truth but have had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. Either fear of men or desire of their favour or will to be rich or the appearing probability of falshood cause those that believe not in Christ to erre from the faith into by-ways of Judgment 1. Tim. 6.10 2. Or else by running into ways of worldiness uncleanness covetousness discontents and unrighteous practices as the Israelites into lusting after evil things Idolatries Fornication and as Demas that forsook Paul having loved this present World 2 Tim. 4 10. And of both these ways of perishing out of the way the Apostle John warnes the believers in 1 John 2.15 16 17 18 19 c. First of perishing from the way by loving the world or the things of the world the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh or the pride of life ver 15.16 And then of the Deceivers 〈◊〉 and Antichrists when he saith ver 18. Little Children it is the last times and as ye have heard that Antichrist should come even now there are many Antichrists c. Of whom also he warnes 2 Joh. 8. Look to your selves that we loose not the things that we have wrought And as a preservative against both prescribes the faith of Christ or the believing on him 1 Joh. 2.24 25 28. Let that therefore which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you if that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you ye also shall continue in the Father and in the Son namely so as neither by the love of the world nor by the Antichrists to be drawn out from them and this is the promise which he hath promised eternal life And in 1 John 5.13 These things have I written to you that believe that ye may know that ye have everlasting life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God 2. There is also a perishing in the end and that 's a sad perishing indeed its sad to perish from the way for that also leads to perishing in the end and will end in it unless rich and marvellous grace and mercy prevent but yet by mercy it may be prevented the lost may be found again as is implied and signified in the parables of the lost Sheep and the lost Groat and the lost child found Luk. 15. The last of which though he lay and perisht with hunger yet came to himself again and being made sensible of it and remembring his Fathers house arose and returned to it So as it 's said of him This my Son was dead but is alive again was lost but is found Namely he was perisht out of the way to happiness but is now brought back into it and found in it again But they that perish in the end are lost for ever as it is said of Amalek His latter end is that he shall perish forever Num. 24.20 There is indeed a perishing in the end in a sence which may be of less mischief yea for mercy Viz. When men perish in the end of their designs and undertakings for that may be in order to their being led to Repentance of such a perishing diverse passages may be understood in which the holy Ghost led his people to pray against their enemies as Let the wicked perish at the presence of God Psal 68.2 Let them be put to shame and perish Psal 83.17 And diverse the like which may possibly be taken in such a charitable as well as in some cases in a harsher sense but to perish in a proper sense as to mens persons in the end is horrible and inconceivably miserable Whether it be 1. At the end of their lives so as their hopes become as the giving up of the Ghost and when they part with their breath their hopes utterly fail them and they go from this life to the dreadful prison to be there reserved against the day of Wrath and then to be brought forth to a worser state of misery and destruction As it is said The Hypocrites hope shall perish whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be as a Spiders web Job 8.13 14. As it was with the rich man who fâ—red deliciously every day but at his death was carried into Hell there to be tormented till Death and Hell give up their Dead to be judged at the great day as it is said Rev. 20.13 14. Luk. 16.21 26. Or whether it be at the end of the World at the great Judgment when Christ shall sit upon his Throne or Tribunal seat and pass that dreadful Sentence upon the unbelieving Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Whereupon they shall go into everlasting punishment and perish with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his Power Mat. 25.41 46. 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. To either of which those sentences of the Psalmes about the wickeds perishing may be also applied especially those perishings from their hopes and designes here not awakning them to timely Repentance Indeed it may seem that some that shall perish in that great end of the World the Day of the Lord may not be quite perished from all hope till then by that saying of our Saviour That many shall say at that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonderful works to whom he shall say Depart from me c. As if they should plead at that day with some hope of finding mercy but plain it is that they who believe not on Christ but live and dye in their unbelief shall dye in their sins John 8.24 Their sins unpardoned and fast bound upon them and they bound over to suffer the punishment of them and that in the final Judgment in Soul and Body reunited The fearful and unbelieving shall be cast into the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second Death An horrible end decreed to the workers of iniquity and such as cannot be expressed and therefore the Apostle Peter saith What shall their end be that obey not the Gospel As implying it to be unutterably miserable 1 Pet. 4.17 But in none of these senses shall the believer on the Son of Man perish Neither in that which is his hope and design as a believer which is the glorifying of God
forgetful hearer but a doer of the work shall be blessed in his doing Iam. 1.26 But that continuing therein minds me of another sort reproveable Namely Fourthly Those who having begun to look to him continue not till in beholding his Glory with open face as in a Glass they be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord but look off from him again going away from this glorious Glass of the Gospel in which the beautiful Face of Christ and its Comliness and Glory for Escape and for Delight is represented and so forgetting what manner of men they are And so what need they have of being healed and changed yea and what manner of one he is too and so are not healed and changed as they need Whether it be that 1. They turn with Demas to embrace the present World and looking upon the Beauty and Comeliness and pleasing Form of their Injoyments Fellowships Friendships Riches Pleasures play therein the Adulterers and Adulteresses from Christ and provoking his displeasure and judgment against themselves they leave off to believe on and follow him James 4.4.7 1 John 2.15 16 17. Or 2. With the Galatians and others they turn to beggarly Rudiments thinking to make themselves perfect in the flesh after they have begun in the Spirit looking upon the fair shews which the delude dones make in the the flesh and how great in flesh and fleshly Gloryings and Rejoycings of their Zeal Devotions Orders or Attainments others are with whose false Ways they are taken and by which they are corrupted from the simplicity in Christ Like the Adulterous Woman Aholah and Aholibah complained of in Ezek. 23. who were snared and committed Adultery with the Egyptians Assyrians and Chaldeans because of their greatness of Flesh brave appearance in their Attire and lusty Looks their flesh like the flesh of Asses and their issue like the issue of Horses vers 14 15 20. And like Jerusalem who committed Whoredom with the Egyptians great of flesh when they saw them Ezek 16.26 Gal. 3.2 3. and 6.12 Or 3. As Jerusalem of old in EZek. 16.16 17 18 Looking upon themselves and their own Beauty and Comeliness received from Christ they grow proud and high-minded and slight Christ and the lowness of the Doctrine of the Cross and so of the Gospel and say they are Lords themselves Owners Possessors Self-sufficient as full as Christ is as good and able to live as He or however able to live without exercise of Faith in and dependance on him from which therefore they cease and live upon their own Receits Conceits and imagined Perfection And truely these are in a sad and dangerous state puffed up Lucifer-like in themselves and may easily fall or rather are already fallen into the fault and condemnation of the Devil and prove the greatest mischief to others to seduce and draw them away from the Simplicity in Christ to behold and dote on them and to affect a likeness to them in like conceits of Self-sufficiency in themselves and independency on Christ-crucified for Life and Salvation Even as the evil Spirits or the Serpent fallen into and by Pride made it his design and business to Tempt and Draw man after him by the like aspiring pride to effect equality with God and so into the same fault and condemnation with himself All these are here by this Doctrine of the Exaltation of Christ crucified the Son of man Lifted up Reproved and we may be all warned that we be not led away with their errour to fall with them from our own stedfastness even from Christ Jesus and the Grace in him and Doctrine of him wherein our stedfastness lieth 2 Pet. 3 17. But that we attend to grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of him even Christ Jesus to whom be Glory both now and for ever Amen Verse 18. And truly they that rightly view and discern how little Christ is Lifted up by men even by those also who pretend to befriend him and to be his Disciples and Worshippers or that are called Christians after his Name yea his Servants and Ministers and how great defects there are in their Lifting him up who think to lift up and exalt him and how few there are that look to him or continue so to do for healing may be filled with grief and sorrow of heart both for that God and his Grand Design and great grace is so much under-valued and abrogated Christ to whom we are so much directed of God and ingaged for the infinite fulness of grace and of God in him so slighted disregarded and abused His visage so marred more then any mans and his forme more then the Sons of men as is said Isa 52.14 And so many men for want of knowledge of and looking to him perishing the cause equity and inevitableness of whose destruction may be seen also in this Decree and appointment of the Father that the Son of man must be lifted up that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have everlasting life as we shall in the next place take a little further view of CHAP. XXVIII Of the Cause and Reason Equitableness and Inevitableness of Mens destruction who shall be thereto adjudged of Christ and yet the Consolation that this Doctrine affords to Christ and his Members Use 7 HEre is also I say a Demonstration of the Reason and Cause Justness and Equitableness Certainty and Inavoidableness of Mens destruction who shall be thereto adjudged by Christ For 1. As to the reason and cause of it it appears hence to be as originally and firstly their sin against God provoking his wrath and anger against themselves in their personal sinnings against his Law and Doctrine or declared will as the original and first cause of the dying of the People in the Wilderness to whom allusion is here made was their being stung and bitten by the Serpents but against those first and original causes of destruction there is a remedy prepared of God in Christ and tendred in the Gospel and the declarations of God and his goodness leading to repentance in and through Christ as there was a Remedy in the brazen Serpent for the People there But as there the stung People then perished because they refused if any of them did so to look to that Serpent So the cause and reason here of Mens perishing is their refusing to look to Christ and to God in and through Christ and so to the grace in him for help and healing or their refusing to be healed thereby through looking off from him to other things This is now the great reason of Mens perishing the condemnation that Light is come into the World and men love darkness rather than light refusing the remedy because they love their diseases or love not the smart the remedy will put them to in order to the curing them of their diseases because their deeds be evil for every one that doth evil that goeth on and