the soul from the body James 2. 26. The body without the spirit is dead Spiritual death is the privation of the principle of spiritual life or the want and absence of the quickening spirit of God in the foul the soul is the life of the body and Christ is the life of the soul the absence of the foul is death to the body and the absence or want of Christ is death to the soul. Eternal death is the separation both of body and soul from God which is the misery of the damned Now Christless and unregenerate men are not dead in the first sense they are naturally alive though they are dead while they live Nor are they yet dead in the last sense eternally separated from God by an irrevocable sentence as the damned are but they are dead in the second sense they are spiritually dead whilst they are naturally alive and this spiritual death is the fore-runner of eternal death Now spiritual death is put in scripture in opposition to a two-fold spiritual life Viz. 1. The life of Justification 2. The life of Sanctification Spiritual death in opposition to the life of Justification is nothing else but the guilt of sin bringing us under the sentence of death Spiritual death in opposition to the life of sanctification is the pollution or dominion of sin In both these fen ses unregenerate men are dead men but it is the last which I am properly concerned to speak to in this place and therefore Secondly Let us briefly consider what this spiritual death is which as before was hinted is the absence of the quickening 2. spirit of Christ from the soul of any man That soul is a dead soul into which the spirit of Christ is not infused in the work of regeneration and all its works are dead works as they are called Heb. 9. 14. For look how it is with the damned they live they have sense and motion and an immortality in all these yet because they are eternally separated from God the life which they live deserves not the name of life but is every where in scripture stiled death So the unregenerate they are naturally alive they eat and drink they buy and sell they talk and laugh they rejoyce in the creatures and many of them spend their days in pleasures and then go down to the grave This is the life they live but yet the scripture rather calls it death than life because though they live yet it is without God in the world Eph. 2. 12. Though they live yet it is a life alienated from the life of God Eph. 4. 18. And therefore while they remain naturally alive they are in scripture said to remain in death 1 John 3. 14. and to be dead while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. And there is great reason why a Christless and unregenerate state should be represented in scripture under the notion of death for there is nothing in nature which more aptly represents that miserable state of the soul than natural death doth The dead see and discern nothing and the natural man perceiveth not the things that are of God The dead have no beauty or desirableness in them Bury my dead said Abraham out of my sight neither is there any spiritual loveliness in the unregenerate True it is some of them have sweet natural qualities and moral excellencies which are taking things but these are as so many flowers decking and adorning a dead corpse The dead are Objects of pity and great lamentation men use to mourn for the dead Eccles. 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets But unregenerate and Christless souls are much more the Objects of pity and lamentation How are all the people of God especially those that are naturally related to them concerned to mourn over them and for them as Abraham did for Ishmael Gen. 17. 18. O that Ishmael might live before thee Upon these and many other accounts the state of unregeneracy is represented to us in the notion of death Thirdly And that this is the state of all Christless and unsanctified persons will undeniably appear two ways 3. 1. The causes of spiritual life have not wrought upon them 2. The effects and signs of spiritual life do not appear in them and therefore they are in the state and under the power of spiritual death First The causes of spiritual life have not wrought upon them There are two causes of spiritual life 1. Principal and internal 2. Subordinate and external The principal internal cause of spiritual life is the regenerating spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 2. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death 'T is the spirit as a regenerating spirit that unites us with Christ in whom all spiritual life originally is John 5. 25 26. Verily I say unto you that the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live for as the father hath life in himself so hath he given to the son to have life in himself As all the members of the natural body receive animation sense and motion by their Union with their natural head so all believers the members of Christ receive spiritual life and animation by their Union with Christ their mystical head Eph. 4. 15 16. Except we come to him and be united with him in the way of faith we can have no life in us John 5. 40. Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life Now the spirit of God hath yet exerted no regenerating quickening influences nor begotten any special saving faith in natural unsanctified men whatever he hath done for them in the way of natural or spiritual common gifts yet he hath not quickened them with the life of Christ. And as for the subordinate external means of life viz. the preaching of the Gospel which is the instrument of the spirit in this glorious work and is therefore called the word of life Phil. 2. 16. this word hath not yet been made a regenerating quickening word to their souls Possibly it hath enlightned them and convinced them it hath wrought upon their minds in the way of common illumination and upon their consciences in the way of conviction but not upon their hearts and wills by way of effectual conversion To this day the Lord hath not given them an heart opening it self in the way of faith to receive Jesus Christ. Secondly The effects and signs of spiritual life do not appear in them for First They have no feeling or sense of misery and danger I mean no such sense as throwly awakens them to apply Christ their remedy That spiritual judgment lies upon them Isa. 6. 9 10. And he said go and tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and their ears heavy and
Christ hath made us free and be not again entangled in the yoke of bondage Gal. 5. 1. and again Ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men It 's Christs prerogative to prescribe the rules of his own house he hath given no man dominion over your faith 2 Cor. 1. 24 one man is no rule to another but the word of Christ a rule to all follow not the holiest of men one step farther than they follow Christ 1 Cor. 11. 4. Man is an ambitious creature naturally affecting dominion and dominion over the mind rather than over the body to give law to others feeds pride in himself so far as any man brings the word of Christ to warrant his injunctions so far we are to obey and no farther Christ is your Lord and Lawgiver Inference 6. Lastly Let this encourage and perswade sinners to come to Inference 6. Christ for with him is sweet liberty for poor captives Oh that you did but know what a blessed state Jesus Christ would bring you into Come unto me saith he ye that labour and are heavy laden and what encouragement doth he give to comers but this my yoke is easie and my burthen is light The Devil perswaded you that the ways of obedience and strict godliness are a perfect bondage but if ever God regenerate you you will find his ways ways of pleasantness and all his paths peace you will rejoyce in the way of his Commandments as much as in all riches you will find the worst work Christ puts you about even suffering work sweeter than all the pleasures that ever you found in sin O therefore open your hearts at the call of the Gospel come unto Christ then shall you be free indeed The Nineteenth SERMON Sermon 19. 1 PET. 3. 18. Text. The Saints coming home to God by Reconciliation and Glorification opened and applied For Christ hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God THe scope of the Apostle in this place is to prepare and fortifie Christians for a day of suffering In order to their chearful sustaining whereof he prescribeth two excellent rules of mighty use for all suffering Christians First To get a good Conscience within them vers 16 17. hic murus aheneus esto Secondly To set the example of Christs suffering before them vers 18. for Christ hath once suffered for sinners the sufferings of Christ for us is the great motive engaging Christians to suffer chearfully for him In the words before us we have First The sufficiency and fulness of Christs sufferings intimated in that particle once Christ needs to suffer no more having finished and compleated that whole work at once Secondly The meritorious cause of the sufferings of Christ and that is sin Christ once suffered for sins not his own sins but ours as it follows in the next clause which is the third thing here observable viz. Thirdly The admirable grace and unexampled love of Christ to us sinners the just for the unjust in which words the substitution of Christ in the room and place of sinners the vice-gerence of his death is plainly expressed Christ died not only nostro bono for our good but also nostro loco in our stead Fourthly Here is also the final cause or design and scope of the sufferings of Christ which was to bring us to God Fifthly Here is also the issue of the sufferings of Christ which was the death of Christ in the flesh and the quickning of Christ after death by the Spirit many excellent observations are lodged in the bosom of this Scripture all which I must pass in silence at this time and confine my discourse to the final cause of the sufferings of Christ namely that he might bring us to God where the observation will be plainly and briefly this DOCT. That the end of Christs cursed death and bitter sufferings was Doct. to bring all those for whom he died unto God In the explication and preparation of this point for use two things must be spoken unto viz. 1. What Christs bringing us to God imports 2. What influence the death of Christ hath upon this design of bringing us to God First What Christs bringing us to God imports and certainly 1. there be many great and excellent things carried in this expression more generally it notes our state of reconciliation and our state of glorification by reconciliation we are brought nigh to God Ephes. 2. 13. Ye are made nigh i. e reconciled by the blood of Christ. Heb. 12. 22 23. we are said to come to God the Judge of all By reconciliation we are brought nigh unto God now by glorification we shall be brought home to God hereafter 1 Thes. 4. 17. We shall be ever with the Lord but more particularly this phrase that he might brings us to God imports First That the chief happiness of man consisteth in the 1. enjoyment of God that the creature hath as necessary dependance upon God for happiness as the stream hath upon the fountain or the image in the glass upon the face of him that looks into it Look as the sum of the creatures misery lies in this depart from me separation from God is the principal part of damnation So on the contrary the chief happiness of the creature consisteth in the enjoyment and blessed vision of God 1 John 3. 2. Psal. 17. 15. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Secondly It implies mans revolt and apostasie from God 2. Ephes. 2. 12. But now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometime afar Liâ—…t facult ates non â—…runt per lapsum abolitae determinatio tamen earum ad objecta spiritualia fuit protinus extincta Zeaeâ—… de imagine Dei. off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Those whom Christ bringeth unto God were before afar off from him both in state and condition and in temper and disposition we were lost creatures and had no desire to return to God the Prodigal was said to go into a far Country Luke 15. 30. Thirdly Christs bringing us to God implies our inability to return to God of our selves we must be brought back by Christ or perish for ever in a state of separation from God the lost sheep is made the embleme of the lost sinner 3. Luke 15. 5. The sheep returns not to the fold of it self but the shepheard seeks it finds it and carries it back upon his shoulders and the Apostle plainly tells us Rom. 5. 6. that when we were without strength i. e. any ability to recover help or save our selves in due time Christ died for the ungodly Fourthly Christs bringing us to God evidently implies 4. this that Gods unsatisfied justice was once the great bar betwixt him and man man can have no access to God but by Christ Christ brings us to God by no other way but the way of satisfaction by his blood he hath suffered
yet refuses Christ who comes to him with heavenly light and wisdome he is condemned by the terrible sentence of the Law to eternal wrath and yet rejects Christ who tenders to him compleat and perfect righteousness he is wholly polluted and plunged into original and actual pollutions of nature and practice yet will have none of Christ who would become sanctification to him he is oppressed in soul and body with the deplorable effects and miseries sin hath brought upon him and yet is so in love with his bondage that he will neither accept Christ nor the redemption he brings with him to sinners Oh what monsters what beasts hath sin turned its subjects into you will not come unto me that you may have life Joh. 5. 40. sin hath stabb'd the sinner to the heart the wounds are all mortal eternal death is in his face Christ hath prepared the only plaister that can cure his wounds but he will not suffer him to apply it he acts like one in love with death and that judges it sweet to perish So Christ tells us Prov. 8. 36. all they that hate me love death Not in it self but in Non quod quisque ita insaâ—…iat ut sciens volens diligat mortem quam omnes natura exhorrescimus sed quia ista est fructus spretae sapientiae Dei ut mortem tandem afferat Lavat in loc its causes with which it is inseparably connected they are loth to burn yet willing to sin though sin kindle those everlasting flames So that in two things the unbeliever shews himself worse than bruitish he can't think of damnation the effect of sin without horror and yet cannot think of sin the cause of damnation without pleasure he is loth to perish to all eternity without remedy and yet refuses and declines Christ as if he were an enemy who only can and would deliver him from that eternal perdition How do men act therefore as if they were in love with their own ruin many poor wretches now in the way to Hell what an hard shift do they make to cast themselves away Christ meets them many times in the Ordinances where they studiously shun him many times checks them in their way by convictions which they make an hard shift to overcome and conquer oh how willing are they to accept a cure a benefit aremedy for any thing but their Souls You see then that Sinners cannot should they study all their days to do themselves a mischief take a readier course to undo themselves than by rejecting Christ in his gracious offers Surely the sin of Sodom and Gomorrha is less than this sin mercy it self is exasperated by it and the damnation of such as reject Christ so prepared for them with whatever they need and so seriously and frequently offer'd to them upon the Knee of Gospel intreaty is just inevitable and more intolerable than any in the world beside them It is just for the sinner hath but his own option or choice he is but come to the end which he was often told his way would bring him to It is inevitable for there is no other way to Salvation but that which is rejected and it will be more intolerable than the Damnation of others because neither Heathens nor Devils ever aggravated their sins by such an horrid circumstance as the wilful refusing of such an apt offered and only remedy Infer 4. What a tremendous Symptome of wrath and sad Character of Death appears upon that mans Soul to which no effectual application Infer 4. of Christ can be made by the Gospel Christ with his benefits is frequently tendered to them in the Gospel they have been beseeched once and again upon the Knee of importunity to accept him those entreaties and perswasions have been urged by the greatest arguments The Command of God the love of Christ the inconceiveable happiness or misery which unavoidably follows the accepting or rejecting of those offers and yet nothing will stick all their pleas for infidelity have been over and over confuted their reasons and consciences have stood convinced they have been Speechless as well as Christless not one sound argument is found with them to defend their infidelity they confess in general that such courses as theirs is lead to destruction they will yield them to be happy souls that are in Christ and yet when it comes to the point their own closing with him nothing will stick all arguments all entreaties return to us without success Lord what is the reason of this unaccountable obstinacy in other things it is not so if they be sick they are so far from rejecting a physician that offers himself that they will send and pray and pay him too if they be arrested for debt and any one will be a surety and pay their debts for them words can hardly express the sense they have of such a kindness but though Christ would be both physician and surety and what ever else their needs require they will rather perish to eternity than accept him what may we fear to be the reason of this but because they are not of Christs sheep Joh. 10. 26. the Lord open the eyes of poor sinners to apprehend not only how great a sin but how dreadful a sign this is Infer 5. If Christ with all his benefits be made ours by Gods special application Infer 5. what a day of mercies then is the day of conversion What multitudes of choice blessings visit the converted soul in that day This day saith Christ to Zacheus Luke 19. 9. is Salvation come to this house in this day Christ cometh into the soul and he comes not empty but brings with him all his treasures of wisdom and righteousness sanctification and redemption Troops of mercies yea of the best of mercies come with him It is a day of singular gladness and joy to the heart of Christ when he is Espoused to and received by the believing soul it is as a Coronation day to a King So you read Cant. 3. 11. Go forth O ye daughters of Zion and behold King Solomon with the Crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his Espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart Where under the Type of Solomon in his greatest magnificence and glory when the royal Diadem was set upon his head and the people shouted for joy so that the earth did ring again is shadowed out the joy of Christs heart when poor souls by their high estimation of him and consent to his government do as it were Crown him with glory and honour and make his heart glad Now if the day of our Espousals to Christ be the day of the gladness of his heart and he reckons himself thus honoured and glorified by us what a day of joy and gladness should it be to our hearts and how should we be transported with joy to see a King from heaven with all his treasures of grace and glory bestowing himself
to believers as their head but more particularly from the several benefits they receive from him as such for in wounding Christ by their sins First They wound their head of influence through whom they live and without whom they had still remain'd in the state of sin and death Eph. 4. 16. Shall Christ send life to us and we return that which is as death to him O how absurd how disingenuous is this Secondly They wound their head of government Christ is a guiding as well as a quickening head Col. 1. 18. the is your wisdome he guides you by his counsels to glory but must he be thus requited for all his faithful conduct what do you when you sin against him but rebel against his government refusing to sollow his counsels and obeying in the mean time a deceiver rather than him Thirdly They wound their consulting head who cares provides and projects for the welfare and safety of the body Christians you know your affairs below have not been steered and managed by your own wisdome but that orders have been given from heaven for your security and supply from day to day I know O Lord saith the Prophet that the way of man is not in himself neither is it in him that walks to direct his own steps Jer. 10. 23. It 's true Christ is out of your sight and you see him not but he sees you and orders every thing that concerns you And is this a due requital of all that care he hath taken for you Do ye thus requite the Lord for all his benefits what recompence evil for good O let shame cover you Fourthly and Lastly They wound their head of honour Christ your head is the fountain of honour to you this is your glory that you relate to him as your head you are on this account as before was noted exalted above Angels Now then consider how vile a thing it is to reflect the least dishonour upon him from whom you derive all your glory O consider and bewail it Infer 5. Is there so strict and intimate a relation and Union betwixt Christ and the Saints then surely they can never want what is good for Infer 5. Qui misit filium immisit spiritum promisit vultum quid tandem denegabit their souls or bodies Every one naturally cares and provides for his own especially for his own body yet we can more easily violate the law of nature and be cruel to our own flesh than Christ can be so to his Mystical body I know it 's hard to rest upon and rejoyce in a promise when necessities pinch and we see not from whence relief should arise but oh what sweet satisfaction and comfort might a necessitous believer find in these considerations would he but keep them upon his heart in such a day of straits First Whatever my distresses are for quality number or degree they are all known even to the least circumstance by Christ my head he looks down from heaven upon all my afflictions and understands them more fully than I that feel them Psal. 38. 9. Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee Secondly He not only knows them but feels them as well as knows them we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Heb. 4. 15. in all your afflictions he is afflicted tender Sympathy cannot but flow from such intimate Union therefore in Matth. 25. 35. he saith I was an hungred and I was a thirst and I was naked For indeed his Sympathy and tender compassion gave him as quick a resentment and as tender a sense of their wants as if they had been his own yea Thirdly He not only knows and feels my wants but hath enough in his hand and much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enough to supply them all for all things are delivered to him by the Father Luk 10. 22. all the storehouses in heaven and earth are his Phil. 4. 19. Fourthly He bestows all earthly good things even to superfluity and redundance upon his enemies they have more than heart can wish Psal. 73. 7. he is bountiful to strangers he loads his very enemies with these things and can it be supposed he will in the mean while starve his own and neglect those whom he loves as his own flesh it cannot be Moreover Fifthly hitherto he hath not suffered me to perish in any former straits when and where was it that he forsook me this is not the first plunge of trouble I have been in have I not found him a God at a pinch how oft have I seen him in the Mount of difficulties Sixthly and Lastly I have his promise and engagement that he will never leave me nor forsake me Heb. 13. 5. and Joh. 14. 18. a promise never crackt since the hour it was first made If then the Lord Jesus knows and feels all my wants hath enough and more than enough to supply them if he gives even to redundance unto his enemies hath not hitherto forsaken me and hath promised he never will why then is my soul thus disquieted in me surely there is no cause it should be so Infer 6. If the Saints are so nearly united to Christ as the members to Infer 6. the head O then how great a sin and full of danger is it for any to wrong and persecute the Saints For in so doing they must needs persecute Christ himself Saul Saul saith Christ why persecutest thou me Acts Agesilaus dicâ—…re solitus est se vâ—…hementer admirari eos non haberi in sacrilegorum numero qui laederent eos qui Deo supplicarent vel Deum venerantur quo iâ—…nuit eos non tantum Sacrilegos esse qui deos ipsos aut templorum ornatum spoliarent sed eos maxime qui deorum ministros praecones contumeliis afficiunt Aemyl Prob. 9. 4. The righteous God holds himself obliged to vindicate oppressed innocency though it be in the person of a wicked man how much more when it is in a member of Christ He that toucheth you toucheth the Apple of mine eye Zech. 2. 8. And is it to be imagined that Christ will sit still and suffer his enemies to thrust out the very Apples of his eyes no no He hath ordained his arrrows against the persecutors Psal. 7. 13. O it were better thy hand should wither and thine arm fall from thy shoulder than ever it should be lifted up against Christ in the poorest of his members Believe it Sirs not only your violent actions but your hard speeches are all set down upon your doomes-days book and you shall be brought to an account for them in the great day Jud. 15. Beware what arrows you shoot and be sure of your mark before you shoot them Infer 7. If there be such a Union betwixt Christ and the Saints as hath been described upon what comfortable terms then may believers Infer 7. part with their bodies at Death Christ your
sad protestation doth Jeremy make against his ungrateful people Jer. 18. 20. shall evil saith he be recompenced for good for they have digged a pit for my soul remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them and to turn away thy wrath from them Gods mercy is eminently discovered in the institution and Satans malice is eminently discovered in the opposition of the Ministerial office Satan is a great and jealous Prince and it is no wonder he should raise all the forces he can to oppose Mr. Gâ—…rnals Christian Armor the Ambassadors of Christ When saith one the Gospel comes into his dominions it doth as it were by sound of Trumpet and beat of drum proclaim liberty to all his slaves and vassals if they will quit that Tyrant that hath so long held their souls in bondage and come under the sweet and easy government of Christ and can the Devil endure this think you if Christ send forth Ambassadors no wonder if Satan send forth opposers he certainly owes them a spite that undermine his government in the world Infer 3. Hence it follows that it nearly concerns all Christs Ambassadors Infer 3. to see that they be in a state of reconciliation with God themselves Shall we stand in Christ's stead by office and yet not be in Christ by Union Shall we intreat men to be reconciled to God and yet be at enmity with him our selves O let us take heed lest after we have preached to others we our selves be as cast-awayes 1 Cor. 9. 27. Of all men living we are the most miserable if we be Christless and graceless our Consciences will make more terrible applications of our doctrine to us in hell than ever we made to the vilest of sinners on earth O it 's far easier to study and press a thousand truths upon others than to feel the power of one truth upon our own hearts to teach others facienda quà m faciendo duties to be done than duties by doing them They are sad Dilamma's with which a learned Writer poses Gildas Salv. p. 15 16. such graceless Ministers If Sin be evil why do you live in it If it be not why do you dissuade men from it If it be dangerous how dare you venture on it If it be not why do you tell men so If God 's threatenings be true why don't you fear them If they be false why do you trouble men needlesly with them and put them into such frights without a cause Take heed to your selves lest you should cry down sin and not overcome it lest while you seek to bring it down in others you bow to it and become its slaves your selves it 's easier to chide at sin than to overcome i. That is a smart question Rom. 2. 21. Thou that teachest another teachest thou not thy self A prophane Minister was Converted by reading that Text once but how many have read it as well as he who never trembled at the consideration of it as he did 2. Use for Conviction Is this the method God uses to reconcile men to himself O then examine your selves whether yet the preaching of the 2. Use. Gospel hath reconciled you to God It 's too manifest that many among us are in the state of enmity unto this day we may say with the Prophet Isaiah 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed We offer you peace upon Gospel terms and Articles but our peace returns to us again enemies you were to God and enemies you still continue The Evidence is undeniable for 1. Evidence Many of you were never Convinced to this day of your state 1. Evid of enmity against God and without Conviction of this reconciliation is impossible without repentance there can be no reconciliation and without Conviction there can be no repentance when we repent we lay down our Weapons Isai. 27. 4 5. But how few have been brought to this Alas if a few poor cold heartless ineffectual confessions of sin may pass for a due Conviction and serious repentance then have we been convinced then have we repented but you will find if ever the Lord intend to reconcile you to himself your Convictions and humiliations for sin will be other manner of things this will cost you more than a few cheap words against sin 2 Cor. 7. 11. In that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge 2. Evidence Many of us never treated seriously with the Lord about peace and how then are we reconciled to him What a 2. Evid peace without a treaty Reconciliation without any consideration about it it can never be When was the time and where was the place that you were found in secret upon your knees mourning over the sin of your Nature and the evils of your ways Certainly you must be brought to this you must with a broken heart bewail your sin and misery Friend that stony heart of thine must feel remorse and anguish for sin it will cost thee some sad days and sorrowful nights or ever thou canst have peace with God it will cost thee many a groan many a tear many a hearty cry to heaven if ever the peace be made betwixt God and thee thou must take with thee words and turn to the Lord saying Take away all iniquity and receive me graciously O for one smile one token of love one hint of favour The child of peace is not born without pangs and agonies of Soul 3. Evidence Many of us are not reconciled to the duties of religion and ways of holiness and how then is it possible we should 3. Evid be reconciled to God What reconciled to God and unreconciled to the ways of God By reconciliation we are made nigh in duties of Communion we draw nigh and can we be made nigh to God and have no heart to draw nigh to God it can never be Examine your hearts and say is not the way of strictness a bondage to you had you not rather be at liberty to fullfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind Could you not wish that the Scriptures had not made some things else your sins and other things your duties do you delight in the Law of God after the inner man and esteem his Judgments concerning all things to be right Do you love secret prayer and delight in duties of Communion with God or rather are they not an ungrateful burden and irksome imposition give Conscience leave to speak plain 4. Evidence Many of us are not Enemies to sin and how then are we reconciled to God what friends with God and our Lusts 4. Eivd too it cannot be Psal. 97. 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil the same hour our reconciliation is made with God there is an everlasting breach made with sin this
hold of us no vital act of faith can be exercised till a vital principle be first inspired of both these bonds of Union we must speak distinctly and first of the first Christ quickening us by his Spirit in order to our Union with him of which we have an account in the Scripture before us You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins in which words we find these two things noted Viz. 1. The infusion of a vital principle of grace 2. The total indisposedness of the subject by nature First The infusion of a vital principle of grace you hath he quickened These words hath he quickened are a supplement 1. made to clear the sense of the Apostle which else would have been more obscure by reason of that long Parenthesis betwixt the first and the fifth verses for as the * Illud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 regitur à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 5. est igitur hoc loco hyperbaton synchysis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae est species 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cujus quidem anomaliae causa est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interjectio sententiae prolixioris Piscator Pooles Synop. learned observe this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you is governed of the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath he quickened verse 5. so that here the words are transposed from the plain grammatical order by reason of the interjection of a long sentence therefore with good warrant our Translators have put the verb into this first verse which is repeated verse the fifth and so keeping faithfully to the scope have excellently cleared the Syntax and order of the words Now this verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath he quickened imports the first vital act of the spirit of God â—…or his first enlivening work upon the soul in order to its Union with Jesus Christ for look as the blood of Christ is the fountain of all merit so the Spirit of Christ is the fountain of all spiritual life and until he quicken us i. e. infuse the principle of the divine life into our souls we can put forth no hand or vital act of faith to lay hold upon Jesus Christ. This his quickening work is therefore the first in order of nature to our Union with Christ and fundamental to all other acts of grace done and performed by us from our first closing with Christ throughout the whole course of our obedience and this quickening act is said verse the fifth to be together Ex Christo conjuâ—…cto nobiscum ut capite cum membris profluunt in nos omnia beneficia in quorum numero est vivificatio Rolloc in Loco with Christ either noting as some expound it that it is the effect of the same power by which Christ was raised from the dead according to Eph. 1. 19. or rather to be quickened together with Christ notes that new spiritual life which is infused into our dead souls in the time of our Union with Christ for it is Christ to whom we are conjoyned and united in our regeneration out of whom as a fountain all spiritual benefits flow to us among which this vivification or quickening is one and a most sweet and precious one Zanchy Bodius and many others will have this quickening to comprize both our justification and regeneration and to stand opposed both to infernal and spiritual death and it may well be allowed but it most properly imports our regeneration wherein the Spirit in an ineffable and mysterious way makes the soul to live to God yea to live the life of God which was before dead in trespassis and sins in which words we have Secondly In the next place the total indisposedness of 2. the subjects by nature for as it is well noted by a * Non vocat hic semi mortuos aut aegrotos ac infirmos sed prorsus mortuos omni fa ultatebene cogitandi aut agendi destituti Rolloc in Loc. learned man The Apostle doth not say of these Ephesians that they were half dead or sick and infirm but dead wholly altogether dead destitute of any faculty or ability so much as to think one good thought or perform one good act you were dead in respect of condemnation being under the damning sentence of the Law and you were dead in respect of the privation of spiritual life dead in opposition to Justification and dead in opposition to regeneration and sanctification and the fatal instrument by which their Souls dyed is here shewed them you were dead in or by trespasses and sins this was the Sword that kill'd your souls and cut them off from God Some do curiously distinguish betwixt trespasses and sins as if one pointed at original the other at actual sins but I suppose they are promiscuously used here and serve to express the cause of their ruine or means of their spiritual death and destruction this was their case when Christ came to quicken them dead in sin and being so they could not move themselves towards Union with Christ but as they were moved by the quickening Spirit of God Hence the observation will be this Doct. That those Souls which have Union with Christ are quickened with a Supernatural principle of life by the Spirit of God in order Doct. thereunto The Spirit of God is not only a living Spirit formally considered but he is also the Spirit of life effectively or causally considered and without his breathing or infusing liâ—… into our souls our Union with Christ is impossible It is the observation of learned Camero that there must be Observandum est unionem unitionem inter se disserre unio est rerum actus qui formae rationem habet nempe actus rerum unitarum quâ unitae sunt unitio autem actus significat causâ—… efficientis c. Camero de Eccles p. 222. an Unition before there can be a Union with Christ. Unition is to be conceived efficiently as the work of Gods Spirit joyning the believer to Christ and Union is to be conceived formally the joyning it self of the persons together we close with Christ by faith but that faith being a vital act presupposes a principle of life communicated to us by the Spirit therefore it 's said Joh. 11. 26. whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye the vital act and operation of faith springs from this quickening Spirit so in Rom. 8 1 2. the Apostle having in the first verse opened the blessed estate of them that are in Christ shews us in the second verse how we come to be in him The Spirit of life saith he which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death There is indeed a quickening work of the Spirit which is subsequent to regeneration consisting in his exciting recovering and actuating of his own graces in us and from hence is the liveliness of a Christian and there is a quickening act of the Spirit in our
our righteousness Jer. 23. we dare not set the servant above the master we acknowledge no righteousness but what the obedience and satisfaction of Christ yields us his blood not our faith his satisfaction not our believing it is the matter of our justification before God Secondly We dare not yield this point lest we undermine all the comfort of Christians by bottoming their pardon and peace upon a weak imperfect work of their own Oh how tottering and unstable must their station be that stand upon such a bottom as this what ups and downs are there in our faith what mixtures of unbelief at all times and prevalency of unbelief at some times and is this a foundation to build our justification and hope upon debile fundamentum fallit opus if we lay the stress here we build upon very loose ground and must be at a continual loss both as to safety and comfort Thirdly We dare not wrong the justice and truth of God at that rate as to affirm that he esteems and imputes our poor weak faith for perfect legal righteousness we know that the judgement of God is always according to truth if Ergo quia fides Christum justitiam nostram recipit gratiae dei in Christo omnia tribuit ideo fidei tribuitur justificatio maxime propter Christum non ideo quia nostrum opus est Confess Helv. 〈◊〉 the justice of God requires full payment sure it will not say it 's fully satisfied by any act of ours when all that we can do amounts not to one mite of the vast summ we owe to God So that we deservedly reject this opinion also Thirdly And for the third opinion that it justifies as the Condition of the new Covenant though some of great name and worth among our Protestant Divines seem to go that way yet I cannot see according to this opinion any reason why repentance may not as properly be said to justifie us as faith for it is a condition of the new Covenant as much as faith and if faith justifie as a condition then every other grace that is a condition must justifie as well as faith I acknowledge faith to be a condition of the Covenant but cannot allow that it justifies as a condition And therefore must profess my self best satisfied in the last opinion which speaks it an instrument in our justification it is the hand which receives the righteousness of Christ that justifies us and that gives it its value above all other graces as when we say a Diamond Ring is worth one hundred pounds we mean not the Gold that receives but the stone that is set in it is worth so much faith consider'd as an habit is no more precious than other gracious habits are but consider'd as an instrument to receive Christ and his righteousness so it excels them all and this instrumentality of faith is noted in those phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3. 28. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3. 22. by faith and through faith And thus much of the nature and excellency of saving faith The Seventh SERMON Serm. 7. JOH 1. 12. Text. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name THe Nature and Excellency of saving faith together with its relation to justification as an Instrument in receiving Christ and his righteousness having been discoursed doctrinally already I now come to make application of it according to the nature of this weighty and fruitful point And the Uses I shall make of it will be for our 1. Information 2. Examination 3. Exhortation And. 4. Direction First Use of Information And in the first place this point yields us many and great 1. Use. and useful truths for our Information as Infer 1. Is the receiving of Christ the vital and saving act of faith Infer 1. which gives the soul right to the person and priviledges of Christ Then it follows That the rejecting of Christ by unbelief must needs be the damning and soul-destroying sin which cuts a man off from Christ and all the benefits purchased by his blood If there be life in receiving there must needs be death in rejecting Christ. There is no grace more excellent than faith no sin more execrable and abominable than unbelief faith is the saving grace and unbelief is the damning sin Mark 16. 16. He that believeth not shall be damned See Joh. 3. 18 36. and Joh. 8. 24. And the reason why this sin of unbelief is the damning sin is this because in the justification of a sinner there must be a cooperation of all the Concauses that have a joint influence into that blessed effect As there must be free grace for an impulsive cause The blood of Christ as the meritorious cause so of necessity there must be faith the Instrumental cause to receive and apply what the free grace of God designed and the blood of Christ purchased for us For where there are many social causes or concauses to produce one effect there the effect is not produced till the last cause be in Act. To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remissions of sins Acts 10. 43. Faith in its place is as necessary as the blood of Christ in its place 't is Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. not Christ in the womb nor Christ in the grave nor Christ in heaven except he be also Christ in you Though Christ be come in the flesh though he dyed and rose again from the dead yet if you believe not you must for all that dye in your sins Joh. 8. 24. and what a dreadful thing is this better dye the death of a dog better dye in a ditch than dye in your sins if you dye in your sins you will also rise in your sins and stand at the bar of Christ in your sins you can never receive remission till first you have received Christ. O cursed unbelief which damns the soul dishonours God 1 Joh. 5. 10. sleights Jesus Christ the wisdome of God as if that glorious design of redemption by his blood the triumph and master-piece of divine wisdome were meer foolishness 1 Cor. 1. 23 24. frustrates the great design of the Gospel Gal. 4. 11. and consequently it must be the sin of sins the worst and most dangerous of all sins leaving a man under the guilt of all his other sins Infer 2. If such a receiving of Christ as hath been described be saving and justifying faith Then faith is a work of greater difficulty Infer 2. than most men understand it to be and there are but few sound believers in the world Before Christ can be received the heart must be emptied and opened but most mens hearts are full of self righteousness and vain confidence this was the case of the Jews Rom. 10. 3. being ignorant of Gods righteousness and
the world can do Second Counsel Beware of a false peace which is more dangerous than your trouble for sin can be Many men are afraid of their troubles 2. Counsel but I think they have more cause to fear their peace a great deal There is a twofold peace that ruines most men Peace in sin and peace with sin O how glad are some persons when their troubles are gone but I dare not rejoyce with them It 's like him that rejoyces his Ague is gone though it hath left him in a deep Consumption You are got rid of your troubles but God knows how you have left them your wounds are skinn'd over better they were kept open There 's no wise woman would desire to have her pains and throes cease till the Child be born And surely they have much to answer that help on these delusions healing the hurt of souls slightly by crying peace peace when there is no peace The false peace you beget in them will be a real trouble to your selves in the issue Jer. 6. 14. Third Counsel Let all that are under inward troubles for sin take heed of 3. Counsel drawing desperate conclusions against themselves and the final state of their own souls Though your case be sad 't is not desperate though the night be troublesome and tedious keep on in the way to Christ and light will spring up To mourn for sin is your duty to conclude there is no hope for you in Christ is your sin You have wronged God enough already do'nt add a farther and greater abuse to all the rest by an absolute despair of mercy 'T was your sin formerly to presume beyond any promise 't is your sin now to despair against many commands I would say as the Apostle in another case I would not have you mourn as men that have no hope your condition is sad as it is but yet it 's much better than once it was you were once full of sin and void of sense now you have the sense of sin which is no small mercy you were once quite out of the way and method of mercy now you are in that very path wherein mercy meets the elect of God Keep hope therefore at the bottom of all your troubles Fourth Counsel Observe whether your troubles for sin produce such fruits and effects in your souls as theirs do which end at last in Christ and 4. Counsel everlasting peace First One that is truly burdened with sin will not allow himself to live in the secret practice of sin either your trouble will put an end to your course of sinning or your sinning will put an end to your troubles Consult 2 Cor. 7. 11. Secondly True sorrow for sin will give you very low and vile thoughts of your selves as you were covered with pride before so you will be covered with shame after God hath convinced and humbled you Rom. 6. 21. Thirdly A soul really burdened with sin will never stand in his own justification before God nor extenuate and mince it in his confessions to him Psal. 51. 3 4. Fourthly The burdens of sin will make a man set light by all other burdens of affliction Lam. 3. 22. Mic. 7. 9. The more you feel sin the less you feel affliction Fifthly A soul truly burdened for sin will take no hearty joy or comfort in any outward enjoyment of this world till Christ come and speak peace to the soul Lam. 3. 28. Just so the soul sits alone and keepeth silence merry company is a burden and musick is but howling to him Fifth Counsel Beware of those things that make your troubles longer than they 5. Counsel ought to be There be several errors and mistakes that hold poor souls much longer in their fears and terrors than else they might be And such are First Ignorance of the nature of saving faith and the necessity of it till you come to believe you cannot have peace and while you mistake the nature or apprehend not the necessity of faith you are not like to fall into that path of peace Secondly Labouring to heal the wounds that the Law hath made upon your consciences by a more strict obedience to it for the future in the neglect of Christ and his righteousness Thirdly Inobservance of what God hath already done for you in these preparatory works of the Law in order to your salvation by Jesus Christ. O if you would but compare what you now are with what you lately were it would give some relief but the last and principal thing is this Sixth Counsel Hasten to Christ in the way of faith and you shall find rest and till then all the world cannot give you true rest The sooner 6. Counsel you transact with Christ in the way of faith the sooner you shall be at peace and enter into his rest for those that believe do now enter into rest You may tugg and strive look this way and that but all in vain Christ and peace come together No sooner do you come to him and roll your burden on him receive him as he offers himself but the soul feels it self eased on a suddain being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5. 1. And thus in finishing the first we are brought home to the second Observation Doct. 2. Doct. 2. That Sin-burdened souls are solemnly invited to come to Christ. THIS Point sounds sweetly in the ear of a distressed sinner it is the most joyful voice that ever the soul heard the voice of blessing from Mount Gerezim the ravishing voice from Mount Sion Ye are come to Jesus the Mediator In opening of it I will shew 1. What it is to come to Christ. 2. How Christ invites men to come to him 3. Why his invitation is directed to burdened souls First We will enquire what it is to come to Christ and 1. how many things are involved in it In general To come to Christ is a phrase aequipollent or of the same amount with believing in Christ. It is an expression that carries the nature and necessity of faith in it and is reciprocated with believing John 6. 35. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst Coming to Christ is believing in Christ and believing in Christ is coming to Christ they are Synonyma's and import the self same thing only in this notion of faith there are many rich and excellent things hinted to us which no other word can so aptly convey to our minds as First It hints this to us That the souls of convinced and burdened sinners do not only discern the reality of Christ or that he is but also the necessity of applying Christ and that their eternal life is in their union with him for this is most certain that the object of faith must be determinate and fixed the soul must believe that Christ is or else there can be no emotions of the soul after him all coming
need not a Physician but those that are sick Bid a man that thinks himself sound and whole go to the Physician and he will but laugh at the motion If you offer him the richest composition he will refuse it slight it and it may be spill it upon the ground ay but if the same man did once feel an acute disease and were made to sweat and groan under strong pains if ever he come to know what sick dayes and restless nights are and to apprehend his life to be in eminent hazard then messengers are sent one after another in post-haste to the Physician then he begs him with tears to do what in him lyes for his relief he thankfully takes the bitterest potions and praises the care and skill of his Physician with tears of joy and so the Patients safety and the Physicians honour are both secured So is it in this method of grace The Uses follow Inference 1. Use. If sin-burthened souls are solemnly invited to come to Inference 1. Christ Then it follows that whatever guilt lye upon the Conscience of a poor humbled sinner 't is no presumption but his duty to come to Christ notwithstanding his own apprehended vileness and great unworthiness Let it be carefully observed how happily that universal particle all is inserted in Christs invitation for the encouragement of sinners Come unto me All ye that labour q. d. let no broken-hearted sinner exclude himself whenas he is not by me excluded from mercy my grace is my own I may bestow it where I will and upon whom I will 'T is not I but Satan that impales and incloses my mercy from humbled souls that are made willing to come unto me he calls that your presumption which my invitation makes your Duty But I doubt my case is excepted by Christ himself in Matth. Object 1. 12. 31. where blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is exempted from pardon and I have had many horrid blasphemous thoughts injected into my soul. Art thou a burdened and heavy laden soul If so thy case is not in that or any other Scripture exempted from mercy Sol. for the unpardonable sin is alwayes found in an impenitent heart as that sin finds no pardon with God so neither is it followed with contrition and sorrow in the soul that commits it But if I am not guilty of that sin I am certainly guilty of many Object 2. great and heinous abominations of another kind too great for me to expect mercy for and therefore I dare not go to Christ. The greater your sins have been the more need you have to go to Jesus Christ. Let not a Motive to Christ be made Sol. an Obstacle in your way to him Great sinners are expresly called Isa. 1. 18. great sinners have come to Christ and found mercy 1 Cor. 6. 7. And to conclude it 's an high reproach and dishonour to the blood of Christ and mercy of God which flowes so freely through him to object the greatness of sin to either of them Certainly you have not sinned beyond the extent of mercy or beyond the efficacy of the blood of of Christ but pardon and peace may be had if you will thus come to Christ for it Oh but it 's now too late I have had many thousand calls by the Gospel and refused them many purposes in my heart 3. Obj. to go to Christ and quenched them my time therefore is past and now 't is to no purpose If the time of grace be past and God intends no mercy for thee how comes it to pass thy soul is now filled with trouble Sol. and distress for sin Is this the frame of a mans heart that is past hope Do such signs as these appear in men that are hopeless Beside the time of grace is a secret hid in the breast of God but coming to Christ is a duty plainly revealed in the Text and why will you object a thing that is secret and uncertain against a duty that is so plain and evident Nor do you your selves believe what you object for at the same time that you say your seasons are over it is too late you are notwithstanding found repenting mourning praying and striving to come to Christ. Certainly if you knew it were too late you would not be found labouring in the use of means Go on therefore and the Lord be with you 'T is not presumption but obedience to come when Christ calls as here he doth Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Inference 2. Hence it follows That none have cause to be troubled when God makes the souls of their friends or relations sick with the Inference 2. sense of sin It was the saying as I remember of Hierom to Sabinian Nothing said he makes my heart sadder than that nothing can make thy heart sad 'T is matter of joy to all that rightly understand the matter when God smites the heart of any man with the painful sense of sin of such sickness it may be said This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God Yet how do many carnal relations lament and bewail this as a misery as an undoing to their friends and acquaintance as if then they must be reckon'd lost and never till then that Christ is finding and saving them O if your hearts were spiritual and wise their groans for sin would be as musick in your ears When they go alone to bewail their sin you would go alone also to bless God for such a mercy that ever you should live to such a happy day you would say now is my friend in the blessed pangs of the new birth now is he in the very way of mercy never in so hopeful a condition as now I had rather he should groan now at the feet of Christ than groan hereafter under the wrath of God for ever O Parents beware as you love the souls of your Children that you don't damp and discourage them tempt or threaten them divert or hinder them in such cases as this lest you bring the blood of their souls upon your own heads Inference 3. It also follows from hence That those to whom sin was never Inference 3. any burthen are not yet come to Christ nor have they any interest in him We may as well suppose a Child to be born without any pangs or throes as a soul to be born again and united to Christ without any sense or sorrow for sin I know many have great frights of conscience that never were made duly sensible of the evil of sin many are afraid of burning that never were afraid of sinning Slight and transient troubles some have had but it 's vanisht like an early cloud lickt up like a morning dew Few men are without checks and throbs of conscience at one time or other but instead of going to the Closet they run to the Ale house or Tavern for a cure If their sorrow for sin
the way of faith He is a restless spirit himself and would make us so too it is an excellent note of Minutius Foelix Those desperate Ad Solamen calamitatis suae non definunt per iâ—…i perdere Minut Felix and restless Spirits saith he have no other pleasure but in bringing us to the same misery themselves are in he goeth about as a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour It frets and grates his proud and envious mind to see others find rest when he can find none an effectual Plaister applied to heal our wound when his own must bleed to eternity and he obtains his end fully if he can but keep off souls from Christ look therefore upon all those objections and discouragements raised in your hearts against coming to Christ as so many Artifices and cunning Devices of the Devil to destroy and ruine your souls 'T is true they have a very specious and colourable appearance they are guilded over with pretences of the Justice of God the heinous nature of sin the want of due and befitting qualifications for so holy and pure a God the lapsing of the reason of mercy and an hundred other of like nature but I beseech you lay down this as a sure conclusion and hold it fast that whatever it be that discourages and hinders you from coming to Christ is directly against the interest of your souls and the hand of the Divil is certainly in it Inference 2. Hence also it follows That unbelief is the true reason of all that disquietness and trouble by which the minds of poor sinners are Inference 2. so rackt and tortured If you will not believe you cannot be established till you come to Christ peace cannot come to you Christ and peace are undivided Good souls consider this you have tryed all other ways you have tried duties and no rest comes you have tried reformation restitution and a stricter course of life yet your wounds are still open and fresh bleeding these things I grant are in their places both good and necessary but of themselves without Christ utterly insufficient to give what you expect from them why will you not try the way of faith why will you not carry your burthen to Christ O that you would be perswaded to it how soon would you find what so long you have been seeking in vain how long will you thus oppose your own good how long will you keep your selves upon the rack of Conscience is it easie to go under the throbs and wounds of an accusing and condemning Conscience You know it is not you look for peace but no good comes for a time of healing and behold trouble alas it must and will be so still untill you fall into the way of faith which is the true and only method to obtain rest Inference 3. What cause have we all to admire the goodness of God in providing for us a Christ in whom we may find rest to our Inference 3. souls How hath the Lord filled and furnished Jesus Christ with all that is suitable to a Believers wants Doth the guilt of sin terrifie his Conscience Lo in him is perfect righteousness to remove that guilt so that it shall neither be imputed to his person nor reflected by his Conscience in the way of condemnation as it was before In him also is a Fountain opened for washing and for cleansing the filth of sin from our souls in him is the fulness both of Merit and of Spirit two sweet Springs of Peace to the souls of men well might the Apostle say Christ the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 30. and well might the Church say he is altogether lovely Cant 5. 16. Had not God provided Jesus Christ for us we had never known one hours rest to all eternity Inference 4. How unreasonable and wholly inexcusable in Believers is the sin of backsliding from Christ Have you found rest in him Inference 4. when you could not find it in any other Did he receive and ease your souls when all other persons and things were Physicians of no value and will you after this backslide from him again O what madness is this Will a man leave the Snow of Lebanon which cometh from the Rock of the Field or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken No man that is in his wits would leave the pure cold refreshing streams of a Crystal Fountain to go to a filthy pudled Lake or an empty Cistern as the best enjoyments of this world are in comparison with Jesus Christ. It was Christs melting expostulation with the Disciples Joh. 6. 67 68. when some had forsaken him will ye also go away and it was a very suitable return they made Lord whither away from thee should we go q. d. from thee Lord no no where can we mend our selves Be sure of it when ever you go from Christ ye go from rest to trouble Had Judas rest had Spira rest and do you think you shall have reâ—… no no The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways Prov. 14. 14. you shall have your bellies full of it Cursed be the man that departeth from him he shall be as the Heath in the Desart that seeth not when good cometh and shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness Jer. 17. 5. If fear of sufferings and worldly temptations ever draw you off from Christ you may come to those straights and terrors of Conscience that will make you wish your selves back again with Christ in a Prison with Christ at a Stake Inference 5. Let all that come to Christ learn to improve him to the rest and peace of their own souls in the midst of all the troubles and Inference 5. outward distresses they meet with in the world Surely rest may be found in Christ in any condition he is able to give you peace in the midst of all your troubles here So he tells you in Joh. 16. ult These things have I spoken to you that in me you might have peace in the world you shall have tribulation by peace he means not a deliverance from troubles by taking off affliction from them or taking them away by death from all afflictions but it is something they enjoy from Christ in the very thick of troubles and amidst all their afflictions that quiets and gives them rest so that troubles cannot hurt them certainly Believers you have peace in Christ when there is little in your own hearts and your hearts might be filled with peace too if you would exercise faith upon Christ for that end 't is your own fault if you be without rest in any condition in this world Set your selves to study the fulness of Christ and to clear your interest in him believe what the Scriptures reveal of him and live as you believe and you will quickly find the peace of God filling your hearts and minds Blessed be God for Jesus Christ. The Tenth SERMON
effect of pure grace done for his own name sake Isai. 43. 25. discharging us without any satisfaction at all by us there is much grace in that and providing a surety for us every way able to pay our debt there is more grace in that 'T is the gracious act of God in and through Christ the satisfaction of Christ is the procuring cause of our remission and so God declares himself just in the remission of our sin Rom. 3 25. Gracious is the Lord and righteous Psal. 116. 5. Justice and mercy meet here and embrace each other in whom saith the Text we have remission no other price could purchase this priviledge Micah 6. 6 7. not rivers of Oyl or humane Blood And this gracious act of God discharges the pardoned soul both from guilt and punishment guilt is nothing else but the force and power that is in sin to oblige the sinner to undergo the penalty due to sin Therefore sinners are said to be guilty of Hell-fire Mat. 5. 22. Guilty of eternal judgement Mark 3. 29. to be under the judgement of God Rom. 3. 19. Remission takes away both guilt and punishment together it takes away all guilt Acts 13. 38 39. and all punishment And so much of the first thing to be opened namely what the remission of sin is Secondly Now that this remission of sin is the priviledge of Believers is most apparent for all the causes of remission are in conjunction to procure it for them The love of God which is the impulsive cause of pardon the blood of Christ which is the meritorious cause of pardon and saving faith which is the instrumental cause of pardon do all cooperate for their remission as is plain in the Text. Besides all the promises of pardon are made to them Jer. 31. 34. Micah 7. 18. and Lastly All the signs of pardon are sound in them and in them only that love God Luk. 7. 47. mercisulness to others Mat. 6. 14. a blessed calmness and peace in the Conscience Rom. 5. 1. So that it is a truth beyond controversie that all that are in Christ are in a pardoned state Secondly Next I will shew you that the Pardon of Believers 2. is the purchase of the blood of Christ nothing but the blood of Christ is a price equivalent to the remission of sin for this blood was innocent and untainted blood 1 Pet. 1. 19. the blood of a Lamb without spot This blood was precious blood blood of infinite worth and value the blood of God Acts 20. 28. it was prepared blood for this very purpose Heb. 10. 5. prepared by Gods eternal appointment prepared by Christs miraculous and extraordinary production by the operation of the Spirit prepared by his voluntary sequestration or sanctification of himself to this very use and purpose The blood of Jesus is not only innocent precious and prepared blood but it is also blood actually shed and sacrificed to the justice of God for the expiation of guilt and procurement of our discharge Isai. 53. 5. To conclude the severe justice of God could put in no exception against the blood of Christ 't is unexceptionable blood being as before was noted untainted by sin and dignified above all estimation by the person whose blood it was Justice required no less and could demand no more and this is the price at which our pardons are purchased and without which no sin could be pardoned for without shedding of blood such blood as this there is no remission Heb. 9. 22. Thirdly The last thing to be opened is That God hath 3. manifested the riches of his grace in the remission of our sins so speaks the Apostle Rom. 5. 20. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound And 1 Tim. 1. 14. The grace of our Lord viz. in the pardon of sin was exceeding abundant Which will appear if we bring our thoughts close to the matter in several particulars First From the nature of the mercy which is the richest of all mercies except Christ the purchaser of it no mercy sweeter than a pardon to a condemned sinner No pardon like Gods pardon to a man condemned at his Bar all the goodness of God is made to pass before our eyes in his pardoning acts of grace Exod. 33. 19. Secondly The very riches of grace must needs be in the pardon of sin if we consider the method in which pardons are dispensed which is as the Text speaks through his blood Herein God commends his love to us Rom. 5. 8. he commends it more than if he had pardoned sin without such a sacrifice for then he had only displayed his mercy but not caused Mercy and Justice to meet and triumph together Thirdly The riches of his grace shines forth in the peculiarity of the mercy Remission is no common favour it was never extended to the fallen Angels nor to the far greater part of the children of men but only to a little flock a small remnant of mankind Luke 12. 32. Joh. 17. 9. Fourthly The riches of grace are manifested in remission if we consider the subjects of this priviledge who are not only equally plunged into sin and misery with others by nature Eph. 2. 3. but many of the Lords pardoned ones are actually guilty of deeper-died abominations than many unpardoned ones in the civilized world are defiled with To me saith Paul the greatest of sinners one that was before a blasphemer a persecutor c. yet to me is this grace given I obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1. 15. and such were some of you but ye are justified 1 Cor. 6. 11. Yea God singles out the most base despised poor and contemptible ones among men to be the subjects of this glorious priviledge 1 Cor. 1. 26. You see your calling brethren c. Fifthly More of the riches of grace still appears if we view the latitude and extent of this act of grace Oh how innumerable are our transgressions Who can understand his errors Psal. 19. 12. Yet the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. Small and great sins open and secret sins old and new sins all pardoned without exception O the riches of grace O the unsearchable goodness of God! With the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities Psal. 130. 7 8. Sixthly and lastly The riches of Grace shine forth in the irrevocableness and perpetuity of remission as grace pardons all sins without exception so the pardons it bestows are without revocation The pardoned soul shall never come into condemnation Joh. 5. 24. As far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us Psal. 103. 10. The East and West are the two opposite points of Heaven which can never come together neither shall the pardoned soul and its sins ever meet any more Thou hast cast saith Hezekiah all my sins behind thy back The penitent Believer sets his sins
freedom that is which comes in upon believing Fourthly Open the excellency of this state of spiritual freedom First What those things are from which Believers are 1. not made free in this world we must not think that our spiritual liberty by Christ presently brings us into an absolute liberty in all respects For First Christ doth not free Believers from obedience to the moral Law 'T is true we are no more under it as a Covenant for our justification but we are and must still be under it as a rule for our direction The matter of the moral law is unchangeable as the nature of good and evil is and cannot be abolished except that distinction could be destroyed Mat. 5. 17 18. The precepts of the Law are still urged under the Gospel to enforce duties upon us Eph. 6. 12. 'T is therefore a vain distinction invented by Libertines to say it binds us as Creatures not as Christians or that it binds the unregenerate part but not the regenerate but this is a sure truth that they who are freed from its penalties are still under its precepts though Believers are no more under its curse yet they are still under its conduct the Law sends us to Christ to be justified and Christ sends us to the Law to be regulated Let the heart of every Christian joyn therefore with Davids in that holy wish Psal. 119. 4 5. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently O that my heart were directed to keep thy Statutes 'T is excellent when Christians begin to obey the Law from life which others obey for life because they are justified not that they may be justified When duties are done in the strength and for the honour of Christ which is Evangelical not in our own strength and for our own ends which is servile and legal obedience had Christ freed us from obedience such a liberty had been to our loss Secondly Christ hath not freed Believers in this world from the temptations and assaults of Satan even those that are freed from his dominion are not free from his molestation 'T is said indeed Rom. 16. 20. God shall shortly bruise Satan under your feet but mean time he hath power to bruise and buffet us by his injections 2 Cor. 12. 7. he now bruiseth Christs heel Gen. 3. 15. i. e. bruiseth him in his tempted and afflicted members though he cannot kill them yet he can and doth afflict and fright them by shooting his fiery darts of temptation among them Eph. 6. 16. 'T is true when the Saints are got safe into Heaven they are out of Gun-shot there is perfect freedom from all temptation A Believer may then say O thou enemy temptations are come to a perpetual end I am now arrived there where none of thy fiery darts can reach me but this freedom is not yet Thirdly Christ hath not yet freed Believers in this world from the motions of indwelling sin these are continually acting and infesting the holiest of men Rom. 7. 21 23 24. Corruptions like Canaanites are still left in the Land to be thorns in our eyes and goads in our sides Those that boast most of freedom from the motions of sin have most cause to suspect themselves still under the dominion of sin All Christs freemen are troubled with the same complaint who among them complains not as the Apostle did Rom. 7. 24. Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliever me from the body of this death Fourthly Jesus Christ doth not free Believers in this world from inward troubles and exercises of soul upon the account of sin God may let loose Satan and Conscience too in the way of terrible accusations which may greatly distress the soul of a Believer and wofully eclipse the light of Gods Countenance and break the peace of their souls Job Heman and David were all made free by Christ yet each of them hath left upon record his bitter complaint upon this account Job 7. 19 20. Psal. 88. 14 15 16. Psal. 38. unto vers 11. Fifthly Christ hath not freed Believers in this world from the rods of affliction God in giving us our liberty doth not abridge his own liberty Psal. 89. 32. all the Children of God are made free yet what Son is there whom the Father chastneth not Heb. 12. 8. Exemption from affliction is so far from being the mark of a Freeman that the Apostle there makes it the mark of a slave Bastards not Sons want the discipline and blessing of the Rod to be freed from affliction would be no benefit to Believers who receive so many benefits by affliction Sixthly No Believer is freed by Christ from the stroak of death though they are all freed from the sting of death Rom. 8. 10. The bodies of Believers are under the same Law of mortality with other men Heb. 9. 27. we must come to the Grave as well as others yea we must come to it through the same agonies pangs and dolours that other men do the foot of death treads as heavy upon the bodies of the redeemed as of other men Believers indeed are distinguished by mercy from others but the distinguishing mercy lies not here Thus you see what Believers are not freed from in this world if you shall now say what advantage then hath a Believer or what profit is there in regeneration I Answer Secondly That Believers are freed from many great and 2. sad miseries and evils by Jesus Christ notwithstanding all that hath been said For First All Believers are freed from the rigour and curse of the Law the rigorous yoak of the Law is broken off from their necks and the sweet and easie yoak of Jesus Christ put on Mat. 11. 28. The Law required perfect working under the pain of a curse Gal. 3. 10. accepted of no short endeavours admitted no repentance gave no strength it is not so now proportionable strength is given Phil 4. 13. Sincerity is reckoned perfection Job 1. 1. Transgression brings not under condemnation Rom. 8. 1. O blessed freedom when duty becomes delight and failings hinder not acceptance this is one part of the blessed freedom of believers Secondly All Believers are freed from the guilt of sin it may trouble but it cannot condemn them Rom. 8. 33. The hand writing which was against us is cancelled by Christ nailed to his Cross Colos. 2. 14. When the seal and hand-writing is torn off from the Bond the Debtor is made free thereby Believers are totally freed Acts 13. 39. Justified from all things and finally freed John 5. 24. They shall never come into condemnation O blessed freedom How sweet is it to lie down in our beds yea in our graves when guilt shall neither be our Bed fellow nor Grave fellow Thirdly Christ frees all Believers from the dominion as well as the guilt of sin Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. The law of the spirit of life
needs be satisfied that Christ is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him which is the sixth Lesson Believers are taught of God Lesson 7. Every man that cometh to Christ is taught of God that it can never reap any benefit by the blood of Christ except he have union with the person of Christ 1 Joh. 5. 12. Eph. 4. 16. Time was when men fondly thought nothing was necessary to their salvation but the death of Christ but now the Lord shews them that their union with Christ by faith is as necessary in the place of an applying cause as the death of Christ is in the place of a meritorious cause the purchase of salvation is an act of Christ without us whilst we are yet sinners the application thereof is by a work wrought within us when we are believers Col. 1. 27. In the purchase all the elect are redeemed together by way of price In the application they are actually redeemed man by man by way of power Look as the sin of the first Adam could never hurt us unless he had been our head by way of generation so the righteousness of Christ can never benefit us unless he be our head in the way of regeneration In teaching this Lesson the Lord in mercy unteaches and blots out that dangerous principle by which the greatest part of the Christianized world do perish viz. that the death of Christ is in it self effectual to salvation though a man be never regenerated or united unto him by saving faith Lesson 8. God teaches the soul whom he is bringing to Christ that whatsoever is necessary to be wrought in us or done by us in order to our union with Christ is to be obtained from him in the way of prayer Ezek. 36. 37. And it is observable that the soul no sooner comes under the effectual teachings of God but the spirit of prayer begins to breath in it Acts 9. 8. behold he prayeth those that were taught to pray by men before are now taught of the Lord to pray to pray did I say yea and to pray fervently too as men concerned for their eternal happiness to pray not only with others but to pour out their souls before the Lord in secret for their hearts are as bottles full of new wine which must vent or break Now the soul returns upon its God often in the same day now it can express its burthens and wants in words and groans which the spirit teacheth they pray and will not give over praying till Christ come with compleat salvation Lesson 9. Ninthly All that come to Christ â—…e taught of God to abandon their former wayes and companions in sin as ever they expect to be received unto mercy Isai. 55. 7. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Sins that were profitable and pleasant as the right hand and right eye must now be cut off Companions in sin who were once the delight of their lives must now be cast off Christ saith to the soul concerning these as he said in another case John 18. 8. if therefore ye seek me let these go their way and the soul saith unto Christ as it is Psalm 119. 115. depart from me ye evil doers for I will keep the Commandments of my God and now pleasant sins and companions in sin become the very burthen and shame of a mans soul objects of delight are become objects of pity and compassion no endearments no union of blood no earthly interests whatsoever are found strong enough to hold the soul any longer from Christ nothing but the effectual teachings of God is found sufficient to dissolve such bonds of iniquity as these Lesson 10. Tenthly All that come unto Christ are taught of God that there is such a beauty and excellency in the wayes and people of God as is not to be matcht in the whole world Psal. 16. 3. When the eyes of strangers to Christ begin to be opened and enlightned in his knowledge you may see what a change of judgement is wrought in them with respect to the people of God and towards them especially whom God hath any way made instrumental for the good of their souls Cant. 5. 9. they then called the spouse of Christ the fairest among women the convincing holiness of the Bride then began to enamour and affect them with a desire of nearer conjunction and communion we will seek him with thee with thee that hast so charged us that hast taken so much pains for the good of our souls now and never before the righteous appeareth more excellent than his Neighbour Change of heart is always accompanied with change of judgement with respect to the people of God thus the Jaylor Act. 16. 33. washed the Apostles stripes to whom he had been so cruel before The godly now seem to be the glory of the places where they live and the glory of any place seems to be darkned by their removal As one said of holy Mr. Barrington Methinks the Town is not at home when Mr. Barrington is out of Town they esteem it a choice mercy to be in their company and acquaintance Zech. 8. 23. we will go with you for we have heard that God is with you no people like the people of God now as one said when he heard of two faithful friends utinam tertius essem O that I might make the third Whatever vile or low thoughts they had of the people of God before to be sure now they are the excellent of the earth in whom is all their delight the holiness of the Saints might have some interest in their Consciences before but they never had such an interest in their estimations and affections till this Lesson was taught them by the Father Lesson 11. Eleventhly All that come to Christ are taught of God that whatever difficulties they apprehend in Religion yet they must not upon pain of damnation be discouraged thereby or return back again to sin Luke 9. 62. No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God plowing work is hard work a strong and steady hand is required for it he that plows must keep on and make no balks of the hardest and toughest ground he meets with Religion also is the running of a Race 1 Cor. 9. 24. there is no standing still much less turning back if ever we hope to win the prize The Devil indeed labours every way to discourage and daunt the soul by representing the insuperable difficulties of Religion to it and young beginners are but too apt to be discouraged and fall under despondency but the teachings of the Father are encouraging teachings they are carried on from strength to strength against all the oppositions they meet from without them and the many discouragements they find within them to this conclusion they are brought by the teaching of God we must have Christ we must get a pardon we must strive for salvation let the difficulties troubles and sufferings in
of obedience for we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2. 10. Rom. 7. 4. there is true spiritual opposition to sin 1 Joh. 5. 18. He that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not there is love to the people of God 1 Joh. 4. 7. every one that loveth is born of God there is a conscientious respect to the duties of both Tables for the new creature is created after God in righteousness and true holiness Eph. 4. 24. there is perseverance in the ways of God to the very end and victory over all temptations for whosoever is born of God overcometh the world 1 Joh. 5. 4. It were easie to run over all other particular fruits of our union with Christ and shew you every one of them in the new creature And thus much of the Doctrinal part of this point The Twenty sixth SERMON Sermon 26. 2 COR. 5. 17. Text. Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a New Creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new AFter the explication of the sense of this Scripture we observed DOCT. That Gods creating of a new supernatural work of grace in the soul of any man is that mans sure and infallible evidence of a Doct. saving interest in Jesus Christ. You have heard why the regenerating work of the Spirit is called a new creation in what respect every soul in Christ is renewed what the eximious properties of this new creature are the indispensibleness and necessity thereof hath been also proved and how it evidences our interest in Christ was cleared in the doctrinal part which we now come to improve in the several Uses serving for our 1. Information 2. Conviction 3. Examination 4. Exhortation 5. Consolation 1st Use for Information Is the new Creature the sure and infallible evidence of our Use 1. saving interest in Christ from hence then we are informed Inference 1. How miserable and deplorable an estate all unrenewed souls are in who can lay no claim to Christ during that state and Inference 1. therefore are under an impossibility of salvation O Reader if this be the state of thy soul better had it been for thee not to have been Gods natural workmanship as a man except thou be his spiritual workmanship also as a new man I know the Schoolmen determine otherwise and say that damnation is rather to be chosen than an annihilation a miserable being is better than no being and it is very true with respect to the glory of God whose justice shall triumph for ever in the damnation of the unregenerate but with respect to us 't is much better never to have been his creatures in the way of generation than not to be his new creatures in the way of regeneration So Christ speaks of Judas that Son of perdition Mark 14. 21. Good had it been for that man if he had never been born for what is a being without the comfort of it What is life without the joy and pleasure of life A damned being is a being without comfort no glimps of light shines into that darkness they shall indeed see and understand the felicity light and joy of the Saints in glory but not partake in the least measure of the comfort Lukâ—… 13. 28. They shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God but they themselves shut out such a sight is so far from giving any comfort that it will be the aggravation and increase of torment O 't is better to have no being at all than to have a being only to capacitate a man for misery to desire death while death flies from him Rev. 4. 6. The opinion of the Schoolmen will never pass for sound doctrine among the damned think on it Reader and lay it to thine heart better thou hadst dyed from the womb better the knees had prevented thee and the breasts which thou hast sucked than that thou shouldst live and dye a stranger to the new birth or that thy Mother should bring thee forth only to encrease and fill up the number of the damned Inference 2. And on the contrary we may hence learn what cause regenerate Inference 2. souls have to bless God for the day wherein they were born O what a priviledged state doth the new birth bring men into 'T is possible for the present they understand it not for many Believers are like a great Heir lying in the Cradle that knows not to what an estate and honour he is born Nevertheless on the same day wherein we become new creatures by regeneration we have a firm title and solid claim to all the priviledges of the Sons of God Joh. 1. 12 13. God becomes our Father by a treble title not only the Father of our beings by nature which was all the relation we had to him before but our Father by Adoption and by Regeneration which is a much sweeter and more comfortable relation In that day the Image of God is restored Eph. 4. 24. this is both the health and beauty of the soul. In that day we are begotten again to a lively hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. a hope more worth than ten thousand worlds in the troubles of life and in the straits of death this is a creature which lives for ever and will make thy life happy for ever Some have kept their birth-day as a festival a day of rejoycing but none have more cause to rejoice that ever they were born than those that are new born Inference 3. Learn from hence that the work of grace is wholly supernatural Inference 3. 't is a creation and creation work is above the power of the creature no power but that which gave being to the world can give a being to the new creature almighty power goes forth to give being to the new creature this creature is not born of flesh or of blood nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1. 13. the nature of this new creature speaks its original to be above the power of nature the very notion of a new creation spoils the proud boasts of the great asserters of the power and ability of the will of man When God therefore puts the question who maketh thee to differ and what hast thou that thou hast not received Let thy soul Reader answer it with all humility and thankfulness 't is thou Lord thou only that madest me to differ from another and what I have received I have received from thy free grace Inference 4. If the work of grace be a new creation let not the parents and friends of the unregenerate utterly despair of the conversion of their Inference 4. relations how great soever their present discouragements are if it had been possible for a man to have seen the rude and indigested Chaos before the Spirit of God moved upon it would he not have said can such a beautiful order of beings such a pleasant variety
thy delight as once they were but thy shame and sorrow This is a comfort that thy case is not singular but more or less the same complaints and sorrows are found in all gracious souls through the world and to say all in one word This is the comfort above all comforts that the time is at hand in which all thâ—…se defects infirmities and failings shall be done away 1 Cor. 13. 10. When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away For ever blessed be God for Jesus Christ. And thus I have finished the third general Use of Examination whereby every man is to try his interest in Christ and discern whether ever Christ hath been effectually applied to his soul. That which remains is a Use of Lamentation Wherein the miserable and most wretched state of all those to whom Jesus Christ is not effectually applied will be yet more particularly discovered and bewailed The Thirty first SERMON Sernâ—… EPHES. 5. 14. Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest and rise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Text. Of the state of Spiritual Death and the misery thereof THis Scripture represents unto us the miserable and lamentable state of the unregenerate as being under the power of spiritual death which is the cause and in-let of all other miseries From hence therefore I shall make the first discovery of the woful and wretched state of them that apply not Jesus Christ to their own souls The scope of the Apostle in this Context is to press believers to a circumspect and holy life to walk as children of light This exhortation is laid down in ver 8. and pressed by diverse arguments in the following verses First from the tendency of holy principles unto holy fruits and practices ver 9 10. Secondly from the convincing efficacy of practical godliness upon the consciences of the wicked ver 11 12 13. It awes and convinces their consciences Thirdly from the co incidence of such a conversation with the great design and drift of the scriptures which is to awaken men by regeneration out of that spiritual sleep or rather death which sin hath cast them into And this is the Argument of the Text Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest c. There is some difficulty in the reference of these words Some think it refers to Isa. 26. 19. Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust Others to Isa. 60. 1. Arise shine for thy light is come c. But most probably the words neither refer to this or that particularly but to the drift and scope of the whole Scriptures which were inspired and written upon this great design to awaken and quicken souls out of the state of spiritual death And in them we are to consider these three things more distinctly and particularly 1. The miserable state of the unregenerate they are asleep and dead 2. Their duty which is to awake and stand up from the dead 3. The power enabling them thereunto Christ shall give thee light First The miserable state of the unregenerate represented under the Notions of sleep and death both expressions intending 1. one and the same thing though with some variety of Notion The Christless and unregenerate world is in a deep sleep a spirit of slumber senselesness and security is fallen upon them though they lie exposed immediately to eternal wrath and misery ready to drop into hell every moment Just as a man that is fast asleep in a house on fire and whilst the consuming flames are round about him his fancy is sporting it self in some pleasant dream this is a very lively resemblance of the unregenerate soul. But yet he that sleeps hath the principle of life entire in him though his senses be bound and the actions of life suspended by sleep Lest therefore we should think it is only so with the unregenerate the expression is designedly varied and those that were said to be asleep are positively affirmed to be dead on purpose to inform us that it is not a simple suspension of the acts and exercise but a total privation of the principle of spiritual life which is the misery of the unregenerate Secondly We have here the duty of the unregenerate which is to awake out of sleep and arise from the dead This is their great 2. concernment no duty in the world is of greater necessity and importance to them Strive saith Christ to enter in at the strait gate Luke 13. 24. And the order of these duties is very natural First awake then arise Startling and rousing convictions make way for spiritual life till God awake us by convictions of our misery we will never be perswaded to arise and move towards Christ for remedy and safety Thirdly But you will say if unregenerate men be dead men to what purpose is it to perswade them to arise and stand up 3. The very exhortation supposes some power or ability in the Quamvis verba videntur velle primum excitari surgere deinde illuminari tamen intelligendum est vi lucis Christi excitari eum surgere Roll. in Loc. unregenerate else in vain are they commanded to arise This difficulty is solved in this very Text though the duty be ours yet the power is Gods God commands that in his word which only his grace can perform Christ shall give thee light Popish Commentators would build the power of free will upon this Scripture by a very weak argument drawn from the order wherein these things are here expressed which is but a weak foundation to build upon for it is very usual in Scripture to put the effect before and the cause after as it is here so in Isa. 26. 19. Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust But I will not here intangle my discourse with that controversie that which I aim at is plain in the words viz. DOCT. That all Christless souls are under the power of Spiritual death Doct. they are in the state of the dead Multitudes of testimonies are given in Scripture to this truth Eph. 2. 1 5. You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins Col. 2. 13. And you being dead in your sint and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him with many other places of the same importance But the method in which I shall discourse this point will be this First I will shew you in what sence Christless and unregenerate men are said to be dead Secondly what the state of spiritual death is Thirdly how it appears that all unregenerate men are in this sad state And then apply it First In what sense are Christless and unregenerate men 1. said to be dead men To open this we must know there is a threefold death viz. Death 1. Natural 2. Spiritual 3. Eternal Natural death is nothing else but the privation of the principle of natural life or the separation of
Condemnation with respect to the fault stands opposed to Justification Rom. 5. 16. Condemnation with respect to the punishment stands opposed to Salvation Mar. 16. 16. More particularly First Condemnation is the sentence of God the great and terrible God the omniscient omnipotent supream and impartial Judge at whose bâ—…r the guilty sinner stands 'T is the Law of God that condemns him now He hath one that judgeth him a great and terrible one too 'T is a dreadful thing to be condemned at mans bar But the Courts of humane Judicature how awful and solemn soever they are are but trifles and childrens play to this Court of heaven and conscience wherein the unbeliever is arraigned and condemned Secondly 'T is the sentence of God adjudging the unbeliever to eternal death than which nothing is more terrible What is a prison to hell what is a Scaffold and an Ax to go ye cursed into everlasting fire What is a Gallows and a Halter to everlasting burnings Thirdly Condemnation is the final sentence of God the Supream Judge from whose Bar and Judgment there lies no appeal for the unbeliever but Execution certainly follows Condemnation Luke 19. 27. If man condemn God may justifie and save But if God condemn no man can save or deliver If the law cast a man as a sinner the Gospel may save him as a believer But if the Gospel cast him as an unbeliever a man that finally rejects Jesus Christ whom it offers to him all the world cannot save that man O then what a dreadful word is Condemnation All the evils and miseries of this life are nothing to it put all afflictions calamities sufferings and miseries of this world into one scale and this sentence of God into the other and they will all be lighter than a feather Thirdly In the next place I shall shew you that this punishment viz. Condemnation must unavoidably follow that sin of unbelief So many unbelieving persons as be in the world so many condemned persons there are in the world and this will appear two ways 1. By considering what unbelief excludes a man from 2. By considering what unbelief includes a man under First Let us consider what unbelief excludes a man from and it will be found that it excludes him from all that may help and save him for First it excludes him from the pardon of sin John 8. 24. If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins Now he that dies under the guilt of all his sins must needs die in a state of wrath and condemnation for ever For the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. ult If a man may be saved without a pardon then may the unbeliever hope to be saved Secondly Unbelief excludes a man from all the saving benefits that come by the sacrifice or death of Christ. For if faith be the only instrument that applies and brings home to the soul the benefits of the blood of Christ as unquestionably it is then unbelief must of necessity exclude a man from all those benefits and consequently leave him in the state of death and condemnation Faith is the applying cause the instrument by which we receive the special saving benefit of the blood of Christ Rom. 5. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Eph. 2. 8. By grace are ye saved through faith So then if the unbeliever be acquitted and saved it must be without the benefit of Christs death and sacrifice which is utterly impossible Thirdly Unbelief excludes a man from the saving efficacy and operation of the Gospel by shutting up the heart against it and crossing the main drift and scope of it which is to bring up men to the terms of salvation to perswade them to believe this is its great design the scope of all its commands 1 John 3. 23. Mark 1. 14 15. John 12. 36. 'T is the scope of all its promises they are written to encourage men to believe Joh. 6. 35 37. So then if the unbeliever escape condemnation it must be in a way unknown to us by the Gospel Yea contrary to the established order therein For the unbeliever obeyeth not the great command of the Gospel 1 John 3. 17. Nor is he under any one saving promise of it Gal. 3. 14 22. Fourthly Unbelief excludes a man from Union with Christ faith being the bond of that Union Eph. 3. 17. The unbeliever therefore may as reasonably expect to be saved without Christ as to be saved without faith Thus you see what unbelief excludes a man from Secondly Let us next see what guilt and misery unbelief includes men under and certainly it will be found to be the greatest guilt and misery in the world For First It is a sin which reflects the greatest dishonour upon God 1 John 5. 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record which God gave of his Son Secondly Unbelief makes a man guilty of the vilest contempt of Christ and the whole design of Redemption managed by him All the glorious attributes of God were signally manifested in the work of Redemption by Christ therefore the Apostle calls him the wisdom of God and the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 23 24. But what doth the careless neglect and wilful rejection of Christ speak but the weakness and folly of that design of Redemption by him Thirdly Unbelief includes in it the sorest spiritual judgement that is or can be inflicted in this world upon the soul of man Even spiritual blindness and the fatal darkening of the understanding by Satan 2 Cor. 4. 4. of which more hereafter Fourthly Unbelief includes a man under the curse and shuts him up under all the threatnings that are written in the book of God amongst which that is an express and terrible one Mark 16. 10. He that believeth not shall be damned So that nothing can be more evident than this that condemnation necessarily follows unbelief This sin and that punishment are fastned together with chains of Adamant The Uses follow Inference 1. If this be so then how great a number of persons are visibly Inference 1. in the state of condemnation so many unbelievers so many condemned men and women That 's a sad complaint of the prophet Isa. 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Many there be that talk of faith and many that profess faith but they only talk of and profess it there are but few in the world unto whom the arm of the Lord hath been revealed in the work of faith with power 't is put among the great mysteries and wonders of the world 1 Tim. 3. 16. That Christ is believed on in the world O what a great and terrible day will the day of Christs coming to judgement be when so many Millions of unbelievers shall be brought to
at the Judgement Seat of Christ in the great day and verily in this thing is the love of God perfected 1 John 4. 17. O 't is a priviledge in which the grace mercy and love of God do â—…ine forth as clearly as the sun when it shineth in its full strength And certainly you will find cause to lye at the feet of God astonished and overwhelmed with the sense of this mercy when you shall find your selves freed from the condemnation of God whilst many others as good as you were are still under condemnation Yea your selves freed and many of your Superiors in the world still under the curse 1 Cor. 1. 26. Yea your selves freed and others that sate under the same means of grace and had the same external advantages you had still in chains 2 Cor. 2. 16. O brethren this is a marvellous deliverance look on it which way you will your ransome is paid and not a peny of it by you it cost you nothing to procure your pardon Your pardon is full and not one sin excepted out of it that you ever committed Your are freed and Jesus Christ condemned in your stead to procure your discharge your pardon is sealed in his blood and is irrevocable for ever so that you shall never any more come into condemnation He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life John 5. 24. Let them that are so delivered spend their days on earth in praise and cheerful obedience and when they die let them not shrink away from death nor be afraid to take it by the cold hand it can do them no harm Yea let them close their dying lips with Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. The Thirty third SERMON Sermon 33. JOHN 3. 19. Text. And this is the Condemnation that light is come into the Of the Aggravation of the sin and punishment of unbelief under the light of the Gospel world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil OUt of the fore-going Verse it was fully proved in our last Sermon that all Christless and unregenerate men are no better than dead men being Condemned already Our Saviour proceeds in this Verse to aggravate the misery of those that refuse and despise him yet farther and to let them know that those who remain in unbelief and the state of unregeneracy must expect some greater and sorer wrath than other men not only a simple Condemnation but an aggravated and peculiar Condemnation This is the Condemnation that light is come c. In the words we find these three parts 1. The aggravation of sin by the abuse of Gospel light Light is come c. 2. The aggravation of misery in proportion to that abuse of light this is the condemnation 3. The cause and occasion drawing men into this sin and misery because their deeds were evil First We have here the aggravation of sin by the abuse of Gospel Light Light is come By Light we are to understand 1. the knowledge discovery and manifestation of Christ and Redemption by him in the Gospel He is the Son of righteousness that arises in the Gospel upon the nations Mal. 4. 1. When he came in the flesh then did the day-spring from on high visit us Luke 1. 78. And the light may be said to come two ways either First In the means by which it is conveyed to us or Secondly in the efficacy of it upon our minds when it actually shines into our souls Light may come among a people in the means and yet they actually remain in darkness all the while As it is in nature The sun may be up and a very glorious morning far advanced whilst many thousands are drouzing upon their beds with their curtains drawn about them Light in the means we may call potential Light Light in the mind we may cali actual light It is but seldom that light comes in the means and continues long among men but some light must needs actually shine into their souls also but this actual light is twofold 1. Common and intellectual only to conviction or 2. Special and efficacious light bringing the foul to Christ by real conversion call'd in 1 Cor. 4. 6. Gods shining into the heart Where ever light comes in this last sense it is impossible that such men should prefer darkness before it but it may come in the means yea it may actually shine into the consciences of men by those means and convince them of their sins and yet men may hate it and choose darkness rather than light And this is the sense of this place Light was come in the Gospel dispensation among them yea it hath shined into many of their consciences gauled and reproved them for sin but they hated it and had rather be without such a troublesome inmate In a word by the coming of light we are here to understand a more clear and open manifestation of Christ by the Gospel than ever was made to the world before for we are not to think that there was no light in the world till Christ came and the Gospel was published in the world by the Apostles ministry For Abraham saw Christ's day John 8. 56. and all the faithful before Christ saw the promises i. e. their accomplishment in Christ afar off Heb. 11. 13. for it was with Christ the Son of righteousness as it is with the natural Sun which illuminates the hemisphere before it actually rises or shews its body above the Horizon but when it rises and shews it self the light is much Sol nonduâ—… conspectus illuminat orbem clearer so it was in this case The greater therefore was their sin that rebelled against it and preferred darkness to light this was their sin with its fearful aggravation Secondly In a most just proportion to this sin we have 2. here the aggravated condemnation of them who sinned against such clear Gospel-light This is the condemnation this is the judgement of all judgements the greatest and most intolerable judgement a severer sentence of condemnation than ever did pass against any others that sinned in the times of ignorance and darkness they that live and dye impenitent and unregenerate how few soever the means of salvation have been which they have enjoyed must be condemned yea the Pagan world who have no more but natural light to help them will be condemned by that light but this is the condemnation i. e. such sinning as this is the cause of the greatest condemnation and sorest punishment as it 's called Heb. 10. 19. Thirdly The cause and occasion drawing men into this sin and misery because their deeds were evil i. e. the convincing 3. light of truth put a great deal of vigour and activity into their Consciences which they could not endure The accusations and condemnations of Conscience are very irksome and troublesome things to