from him in all that have him Life is first in God So often the great Evangelical Dr. Sibs Expos on the 4 c. 2 Ep. to the Corinth So in the Excellency of the Gospel above the Law p. 418. c. then in Christ Mediator and then in us who believe All our Mercies Blessings Comforts of all kinds and degrees from Election to Glorification are first in Christ and from him to us Therefore in having him you have all as in a Fountain as large as an Ocean running in a full stream to Eternity O what a thing is this life It is everlasting life begun in Faith in Christ and Regeneration running up hill a marvellous cross and hard passage against mighty and unwearied opposition of Satan and the VVorld and our indwelling Corruption labouring to choak it at the very mouth of it in our Sanctification till it run into the vastness of immeasurable Eternity Mark what it is called It is Life it is a life of Sentence as the Reverend Dr. Sibs often calls it or Absolution from the Sentence of the Law and Death It is a life of Grace from Christ by his Spirit kindled in a dead Nature and this is the Spring of Heavenly Glory The least Beam of the light and life of Grace has more Glory in it than all the VVorld on this side Heaven can shew It is for the Excellency of it called The life of God Ephes 4.18 And the life of Jesus 2 Cor. 4.10 11. For we which live are alway delivered unto unto Death for Jesus sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal Flesh Nature teacheth Men to prize life above all things therefore life whether of Sense or Reason is the best thing in Nature's Orb But for the life of Grace and Glory Grace teacheth Faith which is called a wise Grace by that named Divine teacheth a gracious Man who is the best of Men to lose his life for Grace and eternal life For we which live are always delevered unto Death for Jesus sake c. And will not this move you to have Christ the Son and life with him VVhat do you stick at Do you know that if you have the Son he must have you and that you must forsake your Sins and all the World at his Call And will you stick at these things O what an Act of Grace Mercy Pity and love is it in Christ to receive and have you If Christ have you not the Devil will and your Enemies shall and will have you What should I speak of Sin and the pleasures of Sin and all the Vanities under the Sun Will you stick at these And not part with them at the first word that you may have Christ and Life I will only say to you if every Hair of your Head were a life of Pleasure Wit Mirth Diversion Riches and Honour you should part with them all for this life of Grace and Glory Christ paid more for your Redemption for life than all the lives in the whole World are worth If you will not forsake Sin your loathsom Disease for life and spiritual Health If you will not deny your selves in your Vanities for Christ and the hopes of Glory how many drops of Blood would you have shed for your own Redemption if such a price had been set upon your own Souls Now Christ and Life are offered you for having how cruel and merciless are you to your precious Souls that will not have them And O! how happy for ever shall you be if you have life and that more abundant more abundant in duration and confluence of all things to make you fully and for ever happy Hearken again That which is to be had is life eternal it is the life of life who can describe it This life is but a Vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away James 4.14 It fleeth as it were a shadow Job 14.2 The natural life is sustained by corruptible earthly matter The spiritual life is a noble Heaven-born life but encumbred with a mixture of much evil while upon Earth A life rooted in Christ or it could not continue a life of continual Contention and Warfare much clouded and distracted with vain Thoughts Doubts Fears Unbelief Cares for the body for the Morrow and things of this life It hath its good days and times foresights and foretastes of Heaven in Communion with God and Christ by the Spirit in Ordinances it hath its Victories Peace Increase Comforts and Supports by the way But when Time is run out into Eternity and the new Man grown into a perfect Man then life will appear to be life indeed That life is a life all of Grace and Holiness without one dark or vain thought or indwelling Sin A life like God's in conformity to him a life of Vision perfect Union and Communion A life free from any thing that shall cause Trouble and Repentance A life without Care for what we shall eat or wherewith we shall be clothed Immortality and Glory shall be our Clothing and the living God that is a full infinite Fountain shall be our life A life full of God Goodness Holiness Light Peace Joy and satisfaction for ever It is happy now to walk with God and to be under Grace O what will it be to be for ever with the Lord When Adam took his Death by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil he would have made his way to the Tree of Life but that he was kept off by a Flaming Sword But all that have Christ shall live upon him as upon a Tree of life which will yield all manner of Fruit and satisfie every blessed one with blessedness Have Christ and you shall have eternal life immediately upon your believing in Christ your Head Your Soul shall enter into eternal life upon your Dissolution and Body as well as Soul shall have eternal life at the Resurrection Q. But some may desire to know How they may come at this Eternal Life A. The Text is your Direction for that Have the Son and you have Life Q. But how shall I come to have the Son 1. A. The original and first Cause of our having the Son and so the first way by which we have him is by God's gracious Act of giving us his Son As he gave him for us to be a Saviour so he gives him to every Soul prepared by Grace and that is the Work of the Holy Ghost and so we have him The Spirit of Grace gives to every one that hath Christ understanding to know him and a heart to receive him and when we receive him Whatsoever is wrought in Man it is by the Spirit all comes from the Father as the Fountain and through the Son as Mediator but whatsoever is wrought it is by the Holy Ghost in us Excel Dr. Sibs as before p. 579. Grace is in the Father as a Fountain in Christ as Treasurer in the Spirit as
lost cursed state of Guilt Uncleanness Bondage and utter Inability to come to Life of your self 2. Have you seen the necessity of a Mediator to make your Peace and to bring you to a reconciled God 3. Have you been and are you still satisfied with Christ And Christ alone His Death Merits Resurrection and Intercession alone not joyning Antichrist as a Head bringing him to Christ and sodering him to you with soft Wax or binding him to you with a Rope of Sand nor adding Saints Merits and Intercessions to his Nor any other devised Supplements and Means of your Peace and Salvation 4. Have you with hearty self-abasement been and are you still a great Admirer of the way of your recovery by Jesus Christ And stand amazed at the Grace Wisdom Righteousness and Love of God in Christ 5. Have you come naked wounded poor and humbled to Jesus Christ upon his Offer and Invitation and taken him understandingly advisedly deliberately heartily and resolvedly through his Grace and Assistance without whom you can do nothing casting away whatever offends him out of his place and House namely your Heart And do you still know that you are dead without him And do you love him and observe him and the longer you are acquainted with him the more and better 2. What Use do you make of the Son Do you reckon him your Life Do you draw your Spiritual Life from him And do you alledg him Rom. 8.34 and plead him for your Discharge against all Accusations and trust him for your Salvation in his own way and your way of Adherence and Obedience 2. Positively All that have him are united to him that 's the immediate Work of the principal efficient Cause the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost or the Spirit who makes Application of Redemption and brings Christ and his Members to be one and the immediate Work and Office of Faith given of God and excited by the Spirit like the opening of a blind Eye to behold an admirable lovely Object or quickning a dead Palsie Hand to receive a Pardon 2. Every one who is united to him and made one is regenerate and born of God 1 John 5.1 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature 3. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit And this having of the Spirit is made a Sign of the mutual Union between Christ and the true Believer 1 Joh. 3.24 And he that keepeth his Commandments of Believing on the Name of his Son Christ and mutual Love to the Brethren vers 23. dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us But how may the true Spirit be known By his Light Life Operations and Fruits As the Soul of Man is known to be a rational Soul by its Operations so is the Spirit of Christ known to be in Believers by his Operation and Effects Take your Aim and Direction in this from one effect of the Spirits uniting us to Christ and dwelling in us and that is Life He that hath the Son and the Spirit of the Son hath Life in him whereby he lives a New Life to God through Jesus Christ Where this Life is it is known by a spiritual sense and motion from Christ and back again unto him 2. By Hunger and Thirst by an Appetite to Spiritual Food As a new born Babe desires the sincere milk of the word 1 Pet. 2.2 3. By Growth and Strength As new born Babes grow and gather strength till they come to be Men by using proper means of nourishment as Milk and stronger meat by abiding in Christ and living by Faith drawing Supplies of Grace by holy Desires and Prayers with all perseverance 4. By Nauseating and loathing refusing resisting and casting out Contraries to it and using Preservatives These things being drawn up for your Service in this little room I return to my Exhortation to persuade you to have Christ to have him for Life for your Necessity is so great that you do not need him for less than your Life and that you would make haste and have him while he is near Isa 55.1 2. Or else you may seek him when you shall not find him John 8.21 And when you have him adhere to him have him and cleave to him for still the same reason continueth it is for your Life What will stir you if the Words of the Text will not Consider the unconceivableness of the loss and what is the consequent of it The greatness of the loss and deprivation and the nearness of it are implied in these Words Hath not Life Oh! Wo Wo to that Soul His state is infinitely worse than his who hath not the Light of the Day to look on nor Eyes to see it Worse than his who hath not a Friend in the whole World not a Rag to his Back not a Farthing in his Purse not a Morsel to eat not as much as a fading Gourd to hide his Head under not the use of a Limb not Skin upon his Back no not a Grave to rest in If every Unbelievers loss were as great as Job's was it were nothing to this Hath not Life It amounts to as much as the loss of God of Heaven and all that is therein The loss of Earth and the present Life is the least part of it This loss cannot be reckoned in the Ages of of the World it is a loss under which there is no support or relief to bear it Miserable Sinners can contribute nothing but Miseries and Sorrows to one another Nor will God himself ever repair it to any of them They who will not have the Son for their Saviour and Redeemer would refuse yea despise all other means and ways of their recovery and readmission to happiness They who do not assent to this wonderful way of God nor consent to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace now revealed would dissent from any other ways if there were any other reserved in the Will of God They who cannot forsake nor give up their Sins which a Disgrace a Shame a Burden a Perversion a Confusion of Nature which every Sinner hath cause to be sick of and in continual pain till he be delivered of it would never accept of Grace and Mercy upon condition of being Holy and pleasing God They who will not have the Son for their Saviour would not have God for their God and Father There being no way left to recover their forfeited Life they are lost for ever who lose it Q. But may not a man who hath not the Son at present have him and Life by him hereafter A. Yes if he have him while it is to day when God waiteth that he may be gracious But if he die before he comes to and receiveth Christ he dies in his Sin and is out of all hopes of Life Oh! who would for any business or any Pretence whatsoever delay the having of the
Murder to the last as I said before We opened to her the ways whereby she might participate in the Guilt but still she denied all saving that she stood at a distance when her Husband 's Brother-in-law stabb'd the Man and when he had done the Fact he told her Husband in their Cant that he had kill'd the Man and threw away the Knife The next time I came I found her very much humbled in Spirit bewailing that she had been a very great Sinner and with many Tears and loud Cries for sin she seemed glad that she should go out of a sinful World in which she desired to live no longer What said Mr. D that you may sin no more Yes yes that I may sin no more against a merciful God The World said she was a sinful World And how are you reconciled to the manner of your Death said I Said she I could bear it I can suffer it tho all the Friends I have in the World look'd on I judg'd this to be a considerable degree of Humiliation remembring how high she was before While Mr. D. was preparing to preach I was preparing them for it and did explain and enlarge upon some things which I was afraid they understood not she apprehended me and her Knowledge grew I remember I told her That she should not think the way to obtain Pardon was to diminish her Sin in Number Nature and Aggravation and that Pardon extended even unto Blood to all penitent Believers that the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth from all Sin and therefore besought her to acknowledge her sin of Blood-guiltiness She received my Words with meekness and sense but persisted as before At Prayer and Sermon she behaved her self with Attention and Reverence and we hope it was not in vain she promised to observe our Direction in our absence Her Demeanour at my Sermon was very attentive and with Signs of inward Affection After we had done Mr. D. desired them to remember what was preach'd and to retire and that we would come again to them that night When we thought it most convenient we repaired to them there were several others in the Room well employed but she was at Prayers at her Bed-side Her Heart was so full that she could not refrain from speaking out the Language of her own Heart with good words and matter Flames of Fervency and then with Silence When she rose up she thanked us for our Pains and said She blessed God now she understood how it was and must be with her She understood her Case and found her self willing to die and tho she had been a great Sinner she hoped she should find Mercy She now knew the way she told us she was not afraid to see her Coffin which was brought into the Room She desired to live no longer to sin in a sinful World Next Morning we came betimes and adjusted several matters of Reckonings as Offences that nothing might be a stop in her way She reproved some and counselled others She reproved an old Man for flouting at me when I was wont to visit There comes or there goes your Soul-saver which we took not well but she spake well While we were busie with the poor Fellow she the Room filling fell on her Knees to secret Prayer and continued a good space taking no notice of any thing that might interrupt her When the Officer came to unlock her Irons she wept bitterly and roar'd sorrowing and rejoycing at her end I applied my self as pertinently as I could to that occasion upon which she was very quiet and well composed After a preparatory Preface concerning Prayer as the last Exercise of the Thief upon the Cross one of us praid in the Prison I told her I would attend her to the place and bad her if any Doubt or Fear should arise that she should let me know it She went along weeping praying confessing and counselling one that held her by the Arm. When once I turned from her to speak to the Fellow she turned quick and said O Sir do not leave me When she came in sight of the Tree she burst out into more Tears and said O yonder is the place yonder is the place but I am to suffer nothing for my Sins in comparison of what my Saviour suffered for me for my Sins and was much upon that till we came to the place of her End There one of us pray'd and she went up the Ladder without Fear or Boldness spake little she desired them all to reverence and hearken to the Ministers of God confessed she had been a great sinner and being ask'd about the Murder she denied it as before she prayed a little while and went off to Eternity The Fellow had disobediently ran away from his Master and Father who knew not what was become of him He gave himself to Thieving and other Sins maintained by his Theft He was arraigned the foregoing Assizes and burnt in the Hand before my Lord Chief Justice Pollixfen who shewed by his Countenance and Carriage an unwillingness to condemn him to die but that he feared there was no hope of his amendment that would not carry his Warning in his Hand so lately given him We found him grosly ignorant in the three Forms of Religion the Lords Prayer Ten Commandments and Creed he could not repeat them without help He was ripe in Sin but slow to take in what was good He had the same pains taken with him which the other had if not more for he stood in need of more His Face was covered with shame exceedingly dejected and he was penitent something he spake of Pardon of Sin Repentance and Mercy but understood nothing of Jesus Christ as Mediator and Salvation by him or Faith in him We instructed him in those things and had some weak Hopes concerning him but we had cause to fear all would be lost the morning of his Dying Day Then we instructed him in the knowledge of Christ the Mercy and Grace of God in the Nature of Repentance Confession of Sin that his Repentance and Confession might be full that God might be glorified and others might be warned and called from the Evil of their ways We pressed him to detect his Complices and acknowledge the Injuries he had done and to ask Pardon who could not restore or compensate Mr. D. told him he was at Coventry when he and others had broken into several Houses when they were going towards Ireland Here all the signs of Ingenuity and Goodness fell flat and went in again An horrid sullen paleness and dulness of Spirit seized him We told him his Detection would be no accusation of any we should make no ill use of what he told us to endanger any Man's Life but if it lay in our Power to warn them and call them from the way of Death to Life and break the Knot and Combination We applied our selves to him with Mercy and Judgment we told him of the