Angels have the least part in the redemption of a sinner We are the redeemed and the saved and we are they that must be glorified and shall we have no ears to hear no hearts to attend to no desires to imbrace the Word of Salvation Oh what a shame is it that we that have so much interest in mercie should have so great a neglect of mercy What then remaineth but this that we all provoke one another to the performance of this dutie here required of us that we stop our ears to all carnall counsell to all delusions of Satan that we hearken to the Lord onely as our Master resolving to attend to no advice to follow no directions to obey no commands but what he shall give us Oh but will some say what is this which you teach us May not a man hear his carnall friends may we not follow the advice that they give us If we slight their counsell we may be undome their anger may be such against us that wee shall not be able to bear it To this Objection I will reply in a word Will carnall friends be troubled and offended because their words are neglected and will not the Lord Jesus Christ thinke you be horribly displeased when his commands are despised Assure your selves my brethren either you must hear the Lord Christ now as a Saviour or you shall hear him hereafter as a Judge either hear him now so as to obey and doe what he requires or if you refuse to hear his counsel expect to hear an horrible sentence thundred against you when he shall sit as Judge at the last day when all your carnall counsellours shall not be able to acquit you You that are wives and pretend that you must please your husbands by submitting to their commands and desires you that are husbands and alledge that you must give satisfaction to your wives you that are Apprentices and plead that if you observe not your masters wills but walk according to the rule of Gods word you shall be thwarted by your masters and driven to some great inconvenience You that stand upon the humoring of your friends and acquaintance consider it well Will the perswasions and counsels and desires and commands of a Father or friend or husband or master stand you in stead at the day of judgement Will this be a satisfactorie answer at that day my husband intreated me my friends counselled me my master commanded me No my brethren as you are brethren in iniquitie and causes of sin one to another so you shall perish both together Therefore knowing the terror of the Lord let that scare you more then the anger and displeasure of all the friends in the world But the truth is you will answer again they are they that we receive all from and should we goe contrary to them and neglect their advice we must resolve to be poor and base and mean all our daies What a silly imagination is this Put case these carnall friends bear some kinds of respect unto thee and promise thee fair and seem able to doe thee good Can they doe thee good unlesse the Lord Christ blesse what they doe Is not he able to draw their hearts from thee or to move them towards thee Cannot he blesse the means and cannot he curse them also Thinke of this my brethren Whether is better for a man to be inriched or glorified To hear an earthly parent that happily may give him an earthly patrimonie or an heavenly father that assuredly will receive him to mercie in the end of this life Thinke of these things and withall know that the means and helps and supports that we desire are not properly in the power of friends and acquaintance but it is God that boweth the hearts and inlargeth the spirits of men whether friends or no to doe us good I have known many a carnall man that having wicked friends hath been inforced to bestow most upon those whose life and practise he most opposed and hated At leastwise beleeve for a truth what the Lord saith by the Prophet Isa 55.3 Encline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live That is enough me thinks to put to silence all such Objections as these What ever carnall friends shall perswade you to nothing shall doe you so much good as the hearing and obeying the voice of Christ But it may be some will reply and say Alas I have present need of such and such therefore I must either hear them counselling or else they will not hear me intreating Oh my brethren thinke of this Hath a man or shall a man have need of a friend and shall he not also have need of the Lord Jesus Christ Must a friend be obeyed because wee have need of him and shall not the Lord Jesus Christ be much more observed because we have much more need of him Hast thou need of a father or master to bestow some favour upon thee and hast thou not need also of a Saviour that may deliver thee from sin here and from everlasting damnation hereafter Know it know it that howsoever now you may neglect the counsell and advice of the Lord Jesus Christ and thinke that you have no need of him because happily for the present your friends smile upon you yet the time will come when you shall find you have more need of Christ then of all the world When a man lieth upon the bed of death and his eies begin to grow dim and his breath short and his pulse weak and he ready to goe the way of all flesh Oh what good can friends doe him then all of them together can neither restore health nor preserve life in that hour He that now would be our Saviour hereafter will be our Judge and will passe sentence upon us one way or other either of salvation or damnation Shall we not stand in need then of his mercy and saving health when that day cometh The soul will then wish for a dram of mercy more then for a whole world Ask a man my brethren when he is going the way of all flesh what then he most desireth and what he would have at that time especially Oh will he say mercy mercy Oh that the Lord would accept my person and pardon my sins and graciously look upon me in the face of Christ This is all that the poor soul then craveth But if you neglect now to hear the voice of Christ how can you expect that ever he will hear you in that day It is just it is just my brethren that you should then have the same sentence that was past upon the foolish Virgins Matth. 25.12 They came and knocked hard and spake loud Lord Lord open unto us Away saith Christ I know you not I know you not You would not hear me in the time of your pilgrimage upon the earth when I sent all my servants the Prophets rising early and sending them therefore now I will not
as they are under age are put to Tutors and Governours and doe not enjoy so noble a manner of conversation as they enjoy after they come to Age so the Lord served the Church while the Church was in infancie till the coming of Christ she was under the Schoolmaster of the Law of Shadowes and Types and of those Shadows and Types whereby she was nurtured and fitted up in a meaner and lower manner then shee is now being of age But now since the comming of Christ the Church is come of Age and therefore now God doth reveal himself in a more excellent manner than before Why should God thus while his Church was under age keep it under Tutors and Governours The reason was this That he might prepare the Church to receive the Doctrine of Christ and the Gospel for the nature of man is so exceeding opposite to the doctrine of Christ and the Gospel that if it had not been long framed by the tutoring of many hundred yeers by the Law it had never been convinced of the necessitie of salvation by Christ and the Gospel All these things you have laid down to us in Gal. 3. from Verse 19. to the 5th Verse of the fourth Chapter wherin the Apostle openeth these things to us at large Thus briefly you have seen this Point also opened to us That all the favour and priviledges that the people of God enjoy it is all by grace that is by Christ and by his Gospel I will onely make a Use or two of this point in a few words and so passe it over First this Doctrine serveth to check their unthankfulness that doe enjoy the Gospel and are not abundant in thanksgiving to God for it Whatsoever thou hast whatsoever boldness toward God whatever access into his presence whatever hope of pardon whatever victorie over corruption whatever change of nature whatsoever thou hast that bringeth thee or furthereth thee in grace and favour with God all is by Christ and the Gospel Whence is it then that thou art so unmindfull of Christ and so unthankfull for Christ and the Gospel There are three unthankfulnesses and unmindfulnesses which the Scripture marks The first is that of the chief Butlers forgetting the kindness of Joseph The other is that of the King of Egypts forgetting also the kindness of Joseph And the last is that of Joash his forgetting the kindness of Jehojada the high Priest These are branded for their unmindfulness of the great favours they had received But all these put together are not so deeply to be charged with the guilt of unthankfulness and unmindfulness as we are that live under the Gospel and enjoy such great favours by Christ and the Gospel and yet are no more thankfull for them than we are The other Use shall be for an Exhortation to provoke you above all things to prize Christ and the Gospel as you prize life libertie pardon of sin favour of God salvation of souls so prize Christ and the Gospel for by them you have all these Even our outward priviledges my brethren come by the Gospel the Gospel of peace hath brought a great deal of peace to this Land temporall honour prosperitie renown and plenty hath come to us by the Gospel But those things that above all are prize-worthy are the favour of God the peace of conscience the victorie over corruptions c. These things they are all brought to us by Christ and the Gospel Therefore let us prize these above our lives or liberties Great cause have we of this age to fear that Christ and his Gospel are departing from us we cannot but see that there are those things among us that usually cause Christ to depart we have a great deal of intemperancie a world of prophanesse and impietie c. These things are usually fore-runners of Christs going away and carrying his Gospel from a Nation Let us therefore more fear the losse of these then the losse of our own lives We may lose our lives and yet keep the favour of God we may lose our lives and yet injoy all the Priviledges of the people of God but if Christ and the Gospel be taken away so many of us as have not made a sure part for our selves in Christ and in the Gospel we lose all favour with God and all the priviledges of the new Covenant Therefore let us bestir our selves within the bounds of our callings to the uttermost of our abilities both by praying and every way that God hath appointed more then for our lives to preserve among us Christ and the Gospel Thus much briefly for those generall Observations that lay in our way which I could not well passe over without a short touch I come now to the particular words themselves You are not under the Law but under Grace The Doctrine to passe by other things that the words particularly afford us it is thus much That All they that are in Christ they are not under the Law but under Grace Saith the Apostle You are not under the Law but under Grace who are they In the beginning of this Chapter the third Verse Know you not saith he that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death These are the persons of whom the Apostle speaks You are not under the Law but under Grace You that are baptized into Christ you that are joyned unto Christ you that are one with Christ you are not under the Law but under grace The Doctrine you see is the very expresse words of the Text and it is so clear and evident that I suppose I shall not need to spend time to prove it For the opening of it I will first shew you what is meant by the Law what is meant by being under the Law and then what is meant by grace and by being under grace and so make some brief Uses and conclude First What is meant by the Law By the Law is meant that same perfect rule of obedience which God hath prescribed man by the works thereof to attain life everlasting This Law is that of which Moses was the Mediator when it was delivered to man after his fall therefore it is called the Law of Moses This Law is that which is called the old Covenant because it was made with us before the fall with Adam in Paradise This Law is that which is called the Covenant of works because it promiseth salvation onely on the condition of works This is meant by the Law What is meant by being under the Law I answer by being under the Law is meant a full subjection to the Law in all its properties and in all its qualities Now there are four properties of the Law two of them are direct and two of them are accidentall and occasioned to the Law by our sins There are two properties of the Law that are direct The first is this that it accepteth of nothing but perfect obedience it pardoneth no failings no imperfections This
the wrath of God due for the breaking of the Law To doe both these the Lord Christ hath given himself and if Christ have certainly done it what need men come after to add any thing to it The Church of Rome hath a Doctrine of Satisfaction and it telleth us That men must satisfie in this life and after this life All this is needlesse and derogatorie to Jesus Christ as if men should come after and adde any thing to what he hath done as if the redemption of Christ were not perfect as if Christs giving of himself were not enough to redeem us from all iniquitie Learn this therefore that so you may abhor that Doctrine and here is the first instruction The Second is to teach us the great bondage and slavery that iniquitie holdeth them in that are under it for if so be that Christ gave himself to fetch beleevers out of iniquitie then certainly it is a miserable thing to be under iniquitie It were a silly thing that Christ should be at so much cost as to give himself to free beleevers from iniquitie if it were not a miserable thing for beleevers to be under iniquitie the very Phrase teacheth us that it is a bondage to be under sin he gave himself to redeem us from iniquitie therefore to bee under iniquitie is a bondage for redemption supposeth a slaverie Oh it is a bondage indeed and a slaverie worse then that of the Turks or Moors For first the slaverie of the Turk is but of the bodie but the slaverie to sin is of the bodie and soul both The slaverie to the Turk is but to men the slaverie to sin is a slaverie to the Devill The slaverie to the Turk is but for a while at the longest but for a mans life but the slaverie to sin is for ever Again the slaverie to the Turk a man may be redeemed from it by some ordinary price by a certain sum of Gold and Silver but the slaverie to sin a man can never be freed out of that but by the precious bloud of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 Yee were not redeemed from your vain conversation redemption from sins slaverie is not attainable by silver and gold and corruptible things but by the precious bloud of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot Blood must be shed before freedome from the slaverie from sin can be attained and the bloud of one that is innocent and the blood of one that is the Son of God Oh what a slaverie is this our of which nothing can redeem but blood innocent blood even the blood of the Son of God Certainly either it is an infinite miserie to be under sins slaverie or Christ was very foolish to give such an infinite price to redeem us from it For what is it for Christ to give himself but for Christ to give an infinite price For is not Christ God whom the Angels worship who made the world Christ gave himself to redeem people therefore it is an infinite miserie under which they are or he had been infinitely unwise to give so great a price Learn then That Christ gave himself to redeem from sin therefore sin is an infinite bondage and slaverie give no reft therefore to your souls till you come out of it Thirdly and lastly Hath Christ given himself for this end Oh then let all that are beleevers know that is their duty to love the Lord Jesus Christ Now I shall speak to all of you for there is none of you but say you are beleevers there is none of you but think that Christ gave himself for you Is there any of you here present that doe not think Christ gave himself for you If you did not thinke so you would despair presently If you doe thinke so see your dutie hath Christ given himself to ransome you oh then what a love do you owe to Christ Consider but these particulars in Christs giving of himself for your ransome First he hath given a great price he hath given himself for our ransome it is the most costly ransome that ever friend gave to ransome a friend Many men have given money but Christ hath given himself to redeem you Secondly It is a perfect ransome he hath redeemed you from all iniquitie Thirdly It is a perpetuall ransome he hath for ever redeemed you Fourthly It is an undeserved ransome What did you deserve when Christ gave himself to ransome you from sin you were enemies to Christ you hated him you persecuted him you rejected him There is no nation in the world so bitter an enemie to our nation as you were to Christ when he gave himself to ransome you On then behold a costly ransome a perfect ransome a perpetuall ransome an underserved ransome What doth this deserve but wonderfull love at your hands If there were a man that were to lie in prison all his life long for debt and one should come to him that he never knew of whom hee never deserved any kindnesse if this man should set him free how would he love that man and truly there were great cause that he should Suppose a man were a slave to the Turk and there for ought he knew he was to spend all his dayes in that drudgerie and a man comes and payes an exceeding great ransome even as much every farthing as is desired would that man that is thus redeemed thinke it too much to be a servant to him that set him free No surely I remember what the men of Israel said once to Gideon Judg. 8.22 Rule thou over us both thou and thy son and thy sons son for thou hast delivered us out of the hand of Midian Because he had delivered them they give their Crown and Scepter to him and to his posteritie for divers generations and Gideon deserved it These persons shall rise up in judgement against you that will not love the Lord Jesus Christ Never did any Creditor never did any redeemer that ransomed a slave from drudgerie never did this Gide on doe half so much for them as Christ hath done for you They did not give themselves Christ hath given himself and that to redeem you from iniquitie therefore as the work is of infinite worth so your love should be abundant Oh love Christ therefore above all above your sins above the world above your friends above your liberties above your goods above your lives for he hath loved you above his life he hath given himself to redeem you from all iniquitie let it be said of you as the Apostle speaks of those beleevers in 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom though yee see not yet yee love though you see not Jesus Christ yet love him for he hath done these things for you But how shall you be assured that you are in the number of them for whom Christ gave himself to redeem from all iniquitie If you finde your souls to love the Lord Christ above all things but on the other side if
because through the merit of Christ and the mercie of God it is transitorie to all beleevers 4. Lastly it is called a bodie because as our bodies are made up of many Integrals and consist of several members by which they act and exercise severall functions so also originall corruption is one thing consisting of many particular sins as so many integrall parts or severall members whereby it putteth forth it self in severall operations For these and such like reasons Originall corruption is called a bodie Thus you see what is here meant by bodie And now it is more easie to understand what is meant by the Spirit The Spirit is life because of righteousnesse For if by the body be meant originall corruption then by the Spirit must be meant originall righteousnesse that which is elsewhere in the Scripture called the divine nature or the seed of God or grace or holiness or the like Originall holiness or righteousness is that which I take it is here meant by the Spirit It is so called John 3.6 That which is born of the spirit is spirit and so in many other places Now this same habit of holiness is called the Spirit 1. To shew the excellency of it That as a Spirit is an excellent thing far above all bodily substances so is holiness the excellentest of Gods creatures for grace is also a creature as other things 2. To shew the durableness of it though sin shall die in the Saints and be utterly destroyed yet grace shall never be destroyed stroyed nor cease in the Saints of God 3. It is called the Spirit in regard of the Objects of it for the Objects of this grace are spirituall things 4. In regard of the Author of it It is the holy Spirit of God that begets and works it in people therefore as the child beareth the name of the Father so doth this of the Spirit Thus you see what is meant by sin namely the transgression of Gods Law either in omission or commission What by righteousness The observation of Gods Law in the duties of the first and second Table What by the bodie Originall corruption What by the spirit the habit of holiness or originall righteousnesse Now then the whole amounteth to this That if so bee the Lord Christ be in people then there is a death of sin in them and a life of righteousnesse Thus much is meant by the words let them be taken any way which way soever Expositors can carry them this must be the sence of them and therefore we need not spend further time in the Exposition but will fall directly upon the Doctrine which is this In whomsoever Christ is there is a death of sin and a life of righteousnesse The Point is very evident and expresse in the Text being the main matter scope and drift thereof as well as in other places of Scripture For the proving of it not to trouble you with many other Scriptures you may consider these things First The ends and the offices of Christ which the Apostle Paul expresseth Tit. 2.14 Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquitie and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works The main end of Christ is the redemption of a people from all iniquitie which implieth not onely the removal of the guilt of sin but the destroying of the bodie of sin Therefore 1 Joh. 3.8 it is said That for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devill Not onely the guilt of sin but the power and dominion of sin is the work of the Devill now therefore for this purpose saith the Text the Son of God was manifested that he might free us from the guilt yea and from the dominion and life and power of sin There is one end Another end of Christs giving himself was To purifie us therefore he must put sin to death in us for to purifie is nothing else but to purge out corruption as the fire doth work the drosse out that is in the gold Again To purifie us that we might be a peculiar people zealous of good works Where there is a zealousnesse of good works there must be a life of righteousnesse So that by that place you plainly see that the end of Christ is the putting of sin to death and bringing in the life of righteousnesse Moreover Christ was to be the second Adam and he is so called 1 Cor. 15.45 And to speak the truth the first Adam was a Type of Christ as it is Rom. 5.14 Who is the Figure or Type of him that was to come For not onely the Ceremonies amongst the Jewes were Types of Christ but even Adam in his fall in his undoing the world in his overthrowing of mankind was a Type and Figure of Christ also Onely other Types did figure out Christ by way of similitude but Adam by way of dissimilitude and contrarietie For look what Adam did the contrary to that Christ is to doe Now Adam did cause to all in whom he was as the Parent is in the child a death of righteousnesse and a life of sin Therefore the contrary the Lord Jesus Christ must work in all those in whom he is a death of sin and a life of righteousnesse Secondly this Point is also plain from the consideration of those respects in which Christ is said to be in people Those are as you heard before First in regard of his Spirit Secondly in regard of his Vertue influence and sap that is in them Now where ever these are there must be a death of sin and a life of righteousnesse For the former even as fire doth purge away drosse and rust so the holy Ghost works out corruption and puts sin to death where ever he cometh and as light expelleth darkness even so doth he expell unrighteousnesse and sin because he is the holy Spirit Again for the vertue and life of Christ you know it was the life of righteousnesse therefore whereever this is there must be a life of righteousnesse in that man Last of all the truth of this will appear from the consideration of that communion with Christ and conformitie to him that all those must have which are in Christ and Christ in them Wherein they must have a communion with and a conformitie to Christ Saint Paul sheweth Rom. 6. from the third verse to the twelfth In the third Verse he layeth down that Union by Faith which all justified persons have with the Lord Jesus and from this he inferreth a communion with him and a conformitie unto him But in what In his death and in his resurrection If we have been planted together saith he v. 5. in the likenesse of his death mark not in the same death but in the likeness thereof wee shall bee also in the likeness of his resurrection Where the Apostle declareth that like as there was in Christ a bodily death and a bodily resurrection so there is in
dutie of all people to look to signs and to try themselves by them And if there were nothing more but this that is in the Text me thinks it is an unanswerable Argument to confute them that crie out against Signs and Evidences of the truth of grace Doth not the Apostle Paul as plain as any man in the world can put them upon the tryall of themselves by Signs telling them that if they have such and such things in them they are in a good estate and if they have not that they are in a dangerous and damnable condition Therefore I say put it not off but make conscience to practise this duty to view your souls in this and the like looking-glasses Especially considering that which our Saviour Christ hath laid down for a certain truth That there are many called but few chosen There were four sorts of grounds upon which the seed of Gods word was cast and but one of those four proved good There were six hundred thousand of the people of Israel that came out of Egypt and went toward Canaan and yet but two of them that went into Canaan There were twelve Tribes which the Lord had caused to make them cleave to himself as a girdle to a mans loins and yet there were ten of those Tribes at one clap that were all cast off from being the people of God and but two of twelve that did remain You know how that the Apostle Paul telleth us in Rom 9.27 Though the number of the Children of Israel be as the sand of the sea a remnant shall be saved The Lord will put up righteousness in a short sum I say considering these things that there are so many of those that doe profess and hope to be saved shall miscarry how much doth it concern us all to try our selves When as our Saviour Christ had told his twelve Discriples that one of the twelve should betray him every one began to put himself upon the examination and asked their master whether it were he Were they so carefull every one to try himself when Christ told them that one of the twelve should betray him and shall not we be carefull to try our selves when as the Scripture telleth us that scarce one of twelve shall be saved and that eleven of twelve Professors are like to perish and miscarry Oh the heart of man is exceeding deceitfull hypocrisie is very strong and exceeding cunning hardly is a man able to finde out the state of his own spirit when he tryeth it with all his dilgence But above all my brethren let me presse you to this duty to try and examine your selves considering the times we live in These are the times wherein the Lord putteth people upon the tryall trying times even times like the times of the Fullers purging his cloth and the Goldsmiths refining his mettall And there are more trying times like to come Have we not wofull experience of divers falling away some falling scandalously perhaps being the Saints of God Davids and Lots and Noahs and Peters for so it is possible that some that are the children of God may yet notwithstanding fall into scandalous and offensive sins through their want of watchfulness and fear and carefulness But a great many doe fall and fall scandalously yea many give all cause of fear that there never was the soundness and truth of grace in them they went out from us because they were not of us Now I say considering that there are those that doe fall such as take upon them the profession of religion and are eminent in the waies of Christ and in the Gospel and yet fall and fall desperately and damnably Doth it not concern us all to fear and upon fearing to try our selves When the Apostle discoursed of the fall of the Jewes how they were broken and cast off What use did he teach the Gentiles to make of this Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall So say I are these such times that many fall away then such of us as doe stand let us also take heed that we doe not fall How shall we take heed of falling Oh let us look to our selves that we are sound the ordinary cause of falling away is rottenness and unsoundness when people in hypocrisie take up the profession of Religion Therefore let us not make that use of the falls of holy men as the people of the world doe if there be any that falls into any scandalous sin and manifests himself to be naught at the heart what use doth the world make of it To flie upon God and upon religion and upon all professors of pietie and upon the Ministers and Preachers of the word Oh say they this is their Religion they are all but hypocrites this will be the end of them all These kind of Uses doth the world make of the falls of upright men whereas alas there is nothing lesse use to be made of them than this If so be that people were not desperately malicious against God and all goodness and that they were not shamefully ignorant they would never make this Use of the falls and scandalls of these men For first of all how can it blemish God or Religion or good men because some that seemed to be good and were not good doe discover their rottenness and unsoundness by their falls What kind of blemish was it to the holy Apostles and to the beleevers in the Primitive Church that some that were amongst them did goe out from them What kind of blemish was it to the twelve Apostles that one whom Christ kept familiar company with and was conversant with the Apostles as brethren did prove a hypocrite Was Judas his desperate fall a sign that the Religion and Preaching of Christ were naught and the other Disciples hypocrites None dare say so and if it were not then why should it now be a sign They that doe fall away they doe therefore fall away because they are not religious and not because they are religious They therefore fall away because they did not observe the rules of that religion they profest and not because they profest it And as it argueth thus an ignorance in people so further if so be that the world were acquainted with the Gospel and works of God they would know that the Lord hath decreed from all eternitie that in all ages of the Church some that have been eminent in profession should fall away There must be offences and scandalls given the Lord Jesus Christ himself layeth down the rule Matth. 18.7 It must needs be that offences come The Lord hath foretold it and hath ever made it good in all ages and times of the Church that there shall be offences and scandalls and that for good ends First to the making of them that are true hearted to be more fearfull and watchfull and more diligently to try their own estates and to fear lest they fall and by this kind of painfull and
to make thee able to doe them Yes where is the fault then what is the reason thou doest not doe them but that thou walkest in so many transgressions where is the fault what canst thou say for thy self Is not God able or is not God faithfull Yes God can doe it and God hath promised to doe it Surely then the fault lieth onely in thy self Consider it seriously and you shall finde one of these two things to be the cause of all the sins you live in that are the people of God Either this that you are not willing to bee made whole you are not willing to be rid of your sins or else this that you are not able to beleeve the truth of what God hath said One of these two is the cause of all the sins of Gods people First thou art not willing it may be to be made whole thou art not willing to obey Gods Commandements Truth God hath commanded thee a great many things but thou art not willing to doe them and because thou art not willing therefore God doth not make thee able For my brethren this is a sure rule God never makes any able to obey but they that first of all by God are made willing to obey In Joh. 5. When our Saviour could cure that impotent man that lay at the pool of Bethesda he first asked him this question vers 6. Wilt thou be made whole If so bee he had not been willing Christ would not have healed him Why did Christ ask him the Question To stir up in him a desire of being made whole for God never giveth till we desire Therefore look well and it may be thou shalt find thou art not willing to obey Gods commands thou art not willing to subdue every lust a lust that is suteable to thy constitution a lust that is very sweet to thee through long custome a lust that is dear unto thee by reason of the pleasure or profit that it brings in it may be thou art not willing to obey God in subduing this lust But even as it was with Jacob when he commeth to let Benjamin goe into Egypt he striveth against himself he would let him go and he would not necessitie constrained him that he should go but yet his affection made him unwilling he should go This kinde of strugling there is in Gods people when they look upon the command they know they must obey but yet considering the dearness and sweetness of their sin they are loth to obey And this is the reason God doth not help thee in matter of obedience to his commands because thy heart is false and thou art not willing to it Oh what a shame is this when God requireth no more but thy will not to let him have thy will for thee still to be unwilling to obey when Christ died for this end that thou shouldst obey But if so be thou canst cleer thy self in this Point and canst say thou ant willing to be made whole look into thy self once more and happily thou shalt find that thou art not able to beleeve that God will make thee whole When the father of the possessed child in Mark 9. brought his son to Christ to be cured Lord saith he v. 22. If thou canst doe any thing have compassion on us and help us If thou canst doe it saith Christ If thou canst beleeve all things are possible to him that beleeveth So I say to such of you as are willing to obey Gods commands in all things are you able to beleeve this Doctrine that I have this day preached That God will make you able upon your endeavours to doe all he commandeth if you could be beleeve this all obedience were possible But here is thy fault if it be not in the former thou canst not beleeve God will give thee strength over every lust a lust that is strong in thee by constitution is strong in thee by custome by education a lust that hath so great a rooting in thee that hath so often foiled thee that God will help thee against such a lust Because thou canst not beleeve here is the cause thou canst not obey Gods commands What a shame is this for thee not to beleeve the God of truth not to bee able to take his word when his word is confirmed by his promise when his promise is seconded with his Oath when his Oath is also accompanied with so many seals as thou hast had renewed every time thou hast received the Sacrament of the Supper and yet notwithstanding thou art not able to believe what a shame is this Thus you see how that the sins of Gods people are altogether unexcusable unpardonable they are not mercie there shall bee but yet notwithstanding they are unexcusable All your disobediences whatsoever they are notwithstanding all the frailty of your nature they are without all excuse For the ground of your disobedience is either because you are not willing to obey or else because you are not able to beleeve the truth of what God hath said Therefore learn I beseech you to be ashamed of your selves and of those guilts and disobediences that lie upon you there is great sault in your selves for though you have no power in your selves God having promised to make you able you should have been able if you were not guiltie either in want of a will to be cured or in want of abilitie to beleeve what God hath said Here is the Second Use Again the third use of this point is to teach us what is the onely and ready way to be able to obey Gods Commandements This is a thing which all that are truly godly desire much to know and this point teacheth us The onely way to be able to obey Gods Commandements is to beleeve It ariseth thus God hath promised to make his people able to doe all that he commandeth if God hath promised it then they have no power but from God it were but a slight thing for God to promise that which they could doe of themselves God having therefore promised it it plainly appeareth they have no power of themselves to doe it and God having promised to doe it they must have this power to doe it by laying hold upon the promise and that is by beleeving So that the onely way to attaine to any obedience is by faith to lay hold upon the promise of God In a word all strength to obey commeth by promise the promise is made ours by beleeving there is no way therefore to obey but by beleeving Hence it is that in 1 John 5. 4. Faith is called our victory whereby we overcome the world by the world is meant all sinne faith is our victory that is the instrument of our victory as a sword is called the souldiers victorie because it is the means whereby he gets the victorie Faith is the means whereby we come to have victorie over the world Hence is that also in john 6. 29. They had asked
our Saviour Christ this Question What shall we doe to work the works of God How shall we bee able to doe it saith Christ This is the work of God that you beleeve on him whom he hath sent There is no way to come to work Gods work to obey Gods commands but to beleeve in the promise of God whereby he hath ingaged himself to make thee able to doe whatsoever he commandeth Oh then you that would fain better your obedience in these times wherein Gods judgements be abroad when God so much expects we should grow better for I perswade my self there is never a child of God but is much desirous to be more obedient now than ever now in these evill times and I should much suspect that soul yet to bee under the power of Sathan and sin that by the judgements of God that are abroad is not provoked to a resolution and endeavour to better obedience Now I say to such of you as desire to grow better in obedience learn the way Observe what the Text saith Neh. 8. 10. Be not sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength Would you have strength to obey Gods Commandements better then ever Here is the way doe not give way to sadness and dumpishness and discouragements Godly sorrow is to be admitted and is a great help of bettering your obedience but such a sorrow as doth afflict your souls and keep them under discouragements this is not to be admitted strength of obedience lyeth not in this slavish fear but it is the joy of the Lord that is your strength Get the joy of the Lord by beleeving that God will make you able to obey whatsoever he biddeth and that will make you able to obey Here therefore is the way search out the promises wherein God hath ingaged himself to help you in any duty you would perform When you have found out that promise labour to rest upon that promise labour to believe that as God hath promised to make thee able to doe it so he will make thee able to doe it in the use of means And I say unto thee According to thy faith it shall be unto thee Here then is the third Use God hath graciously undertaken to enable his children to doe all he biddeth them to doe therefore the onely way to doe what is commanded is to get faith to rest upon the promises wherein the Lord hath engaged himself to help us to doe what he hath commanded First of all finde out what is the will of God that thou shouldst doe Secondly work thy heart to a willingness and desire to doe it Thirdly Bring thy self to trust upon God in the use of his means for abilitie to doe it and then in the next place thou shalt be able to doe it in such a measure as God will accept The fourth and last Use of this Doctrine is for a singular incouragement and consolation to all that are Gods children Thou that art one of Christs here is thy comfort Whatsoever God in his word biddeth thee to doe hee by his promise hath undertaken to make thee able to perform Truth it is the things that God hath commanded thee to doe they are wonderfull hard even impossible to flesh and blood but yet notwithstanding to thee easie and possible because God hath undertaken to give thee strength to doe them So that thou hast great cause to be incouraged considering the power of God the power of God is with thee it is bound to be thine by his promise and if God be able thou shalt obey whatsoever he hath commanded thee so thou wilt beleeve this promise and use the means Indeed I grant many of Gods children are not enabled to do what God hath commanded but the reason is as I shewed before either because they are not willing and that is horrible baseness or else they are not able to beleeve this Doctrine and that is horrible insidelitie But if thou couldst but beleeve all that God hath said thou shouldst be enabled to doe whatsoever God requireth of thee to doe in an Evangelicall manner Thus the Lord Christ incourageth and comforteth his Disciples in Mat. 19. 24. I say unto you saith he that it is easier for a Cammell to go through the eye of a needle then for a Rich man to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Here was a Doctrine that stumbled the very Disciples themselves for when they heard it the Text saith They were exceedingly amazed saying who then can be saved Surely it is impossible for any to be saved if this be true that the man whose heart cleaves to any of these temporall things cannot be saved for that is the meaning of the words though Christ instanceth in a rich man onely yet it is true of a voluptuous man and of all those that have their hearts cleave to any thing in the world if this be true it is impossible for any man to be saved for it is impossible for any man but to have his heart cleave to something in this world either friends or honours or riches or pleasures How doth Christ comfort them against this impossibility In verse 26. saith he With men this is impossible but with God all things are possible as if he should say It is true I grant that it is impossible for any man to be saved if you look to the power of man because it is unpossible for a man not to idolize some outward thing but yet notwithstanding with God it is possible God can make a man live in the world and yet have his affections divorced from all things in the world and God will make you doe this because he hath promised to you being his children that whatsoever he biddeth you doe you shall be enabled to doe in such a measure as he will accept Therefore as Christ comforted his Disciples so let us comfort our own soules what God hath commanded he will make us able to doe therefore let us up and be doing and beleeve the promises and we shall prevail to an Evangelicall obedience Thus much for this first Doctrine that the Lord doth deale thus graciously with his children that whatsoever he biddeth them to doe he will enable them to doe it he commanderh them that sinne should not reign in their mortall body and here he promiseth that sinne shall not have dominion over them Having observed this from the coherence of the words let us now come to the words themselves sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under grace You have here first a promise Secondly the ground and reason of the promise First of all a promise in the former part of the words sinne shall not have dominion over you Secondly the ground of the promise in the latter part of the words for you are not under the Law but under Grace Let me briefly open the words unto you and I will begin with the first sinne shall not have
go further and you shall see more then these cut off from being the sons of Abraham And surely if Abraham should come down from heaven he might complain that there were very few of his sons to be found upon the earth In the next place therefore take a taste of the civilized professors such as are not as other men no common swearers no profaners of the Sabbath no drunkards and the like These men thinke that they go neer indeed to the steps of Abraham yet give me leave to scan these a little I pray and to try them Abraham you know did not stick with God when hee called him but was content to be under the command of God and to yeeld to him in every thing Take now one that hath not the power of godliness in his heart he keepeth it may be his fingers from filching and stealing abstains from the grosse acts of sin and from open profanenesse but what strength of grace is there in his soul What mortification shall you finde of his secret lusts What subduing of sin within Alas aske him what ruleth him at whose command he is at whose call he cometh I appeal to the souls and consciences of all such men The command of God calleth and covetousness calleth which of these is followed The Lord saith to the worldling come out of thy counting-house and goe to prayer come and hear my word the Lord calls to the Gentleman forsake thy pleasures and thy sports and humble thy selfe in sackcloth and ashes and the Lord calleth for these things the times call for them who is obeyed Whose commands doe you stoop unto Is there any command disobeyed but Gods If a man presume on any it is on the Lord Profits pleasures worldly business must be attended whether the Lord be pleased or no or whether the duties he requireth be performed or no. You that are Gentlemen and Tradesmen I appeal to your souls whether the Lord and his cause is not the loser this way Doth not Prayer pay for it Doth not the Word pay for it Are not the Ordinances alwaies losers when any thing of your own cometh in competition Is it not evident then that you are not under the command of the word How doe you tremble at the wrath and threatnings of a mortall man and yet when you hear the Lord thunder judgements out of his Word who is humbled When he calls for fasting and weeping and mourning who regards it Abraham my brethren did not thus these were none of his steps no no he went a hundred mile off of this course The Lord no sooner said to him Forsake thy countrie and thy kindred and thy fathers house but he forsook all neither friend nor father prevailed to detain him from obedience but he stooped willingly to Gods command Look again to the fifth note and step of Abrahams faith and trie your selves a little by that Are you content to run any hazard for the cause of God To spare nothing from him As Abraham withheld not Isaac from God when he required him so are you contented likewise to with hold no not the dearest thing you have when God calls for it If the Lord put you to the tryall to undergoe trouble losse of goods imprisonment banishment are you content to stoop to these things to give way and to break through all impediments Judge your selves If it be so it is well But let your consciences speak nay let your lives and conversations speak Doe they not shew the contrary Doth not the very name of danger the sight of it a afar off the voice of some great man dash all your forwardnesse out of countenance Nay if an Isaac come and complain that those and those things must be provided for and cry out Alas if you take this course what will become of wife and children and family all must to ruine you presently give over your profession Did Abraham doe thus No he did not so and I beseech you thinke of it if you were the children of Abraham you would not you could not you durst not doe so There are yet a third sort that come short of being the sons of Abraham and they are the close-hearted Hypocrites These are a generation that are of a more refined kinde then the last but howsoever they carry the matter very covertly yea and are exceeding cunning yet the truth will make them known Many an hypocrite may come thus far to be content to part with any thing and outwardly to suffer for the cause of God to part with divers pleasures and lusts and to perform many holy services But here is the difference between Abraham and these men Abraham forsook his goods and all but your close-hearted Hypocrites have alwaies some God or other that they doe homage to their ease or their wealth or some secret lust something or other they have set up as an I doll within them and so long as they may have and injoy that they will part with any thing else But thou must know that if thou be one of Abrahams children thou must come away from thy gods thy god of pride of self-love of vain-glory and leave worshipping of these and be content to be governed alone by God and his truth This shall suffice for the first Use I cannot proceed further in the pressing thereof because I would shut up all with the time The second Use is a word of instruction and it shall be but a word or two That it all the Saints of God must walk in the same way of life and salvation that Abraham did then there is no by-way to bring a man to happinesse Look what way Abraham went you must goe there is no more wayes the same course that he took must be a coppy for you to follow a rule as it were for you to square your whole conversation by There is no way but one to come to life and happinesse I speak it the rather to dash that idle devise of many carnall men that think the Lord hath a new invention to bring them to life and that they need not to goe the ordinary way but God hath made a shorter cut for them Great men and Gentlemen think God will spare them what must they be humbled and fast and pray that is for poor men and mean men their places and estates will not suffer it therefore surely God hath given a dispensation to them And the poor men they think it is for Gentlemen that have more leasure and time alas they live by their labour and they must take paines for what they have and the refore they cannot doe what is required But be not deceived if there be any way besides that which Abraham went then will I deny my selfe but the case is clear the Lord faith it the Word faith it the same way the same footsteps that Abraham took we must take if ever we will come where Abraham is You must not baulk in this kind whoever you
truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse Their heart being resolved which way to walk it is just I say with the Lord to give them up to blindnesse of minde to dulnesse of spirit to ignorance and error that they may be hurried on in the waies of destruction for ever It is Gods own word 2 Thes 2.10 Because men received not the truth the whole truth of God in the love thereof Mâ—â—y are loth to have some points to be true as that a man â—hould exactly observe the Sabbath it is just with God to give such up to a profane spirit to deny the Sabbath Others are loth to have this true that they must pray duly every morning and evening in their family it is just with God to give such up to a sottish and stupified course that they can be contended to goe to bed like beasts The like I may say of many other duties The Lord calleth for fasting and prayer and would have his people humble themselves and seek his face now because the duty is tedious and happily the world crosseth it therefore many will fall out with the Ordinance reject it have nothing to doe with it they will have their ease and their quiet their hearts are grown fat and if any thing crosse their corruptions they will not hear with that eare It is fearfull what the Lord speaks against these Rom. 1. 28. and my heart trembleth to think of the hideous curâ—e of God against such courses and his severe indignation against such persons It is said there that because the Heathen delighted not to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to doe those things which are not convenient Mark As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge as who should say Must my mind be inlightned must I be convinced and perswaded that I must lay aside my self and be content in uprightnesse of heart to imbrace every truth of God though it be with the losse of ease and credit and estate yea and of life it self must I doe this well I doe not like it I will not beleeve it all the world shall never perswade me to it And why Because you have taken a sleepy pillow before-hand you have been resolved to keep those things that these truths crosse It is just with God when men doe not love and like to retain the truth he affordeth them to give them up to a reprobate mind that is to a mind void of judgement not knowing the truth not approving the Word And you shall see these men in all their courses and opinions vanishy Why Because the Lord hath given them up to a reprobate mind a mind not able to observe what he revealeth and a heart not willing to entertain what he discovereth to be good Gather up these things This is the last and most speciall argument why the hearts of most men are estranged from God and his truth because they harbour many lusts in their soules and cleave close to some or other corruptions It is a passage worthy observation that is recorded Jer 43. The people that were left behind in the land when the King of Babylon had carried the rest away captive were resolved to goe down into Aegypt but they would first goe to the Prophet and take his advise and he must goe to the Lord and whatsoever the Lord should declare to them by the Prophet that they would doe be it good or be it evill Here was a very fair pretence But their hearts were fully resolved betore to goe down into Aegypt and therefore when the Prophet brought them the answer of God that they should not goe but that they should remain in the Land Thou speakest fatsly say they unto him the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say Goe not into Aegypt to sojourn there but Baruch the sonne of Neriah setteth thee on against us So they obeyed not the voyce of the Lord to dwell in the sand of Judah As if they should have said we had thought thou wouldest have perswaded us that it was lawfull for us to goe down into Aegypt and if thou hadst done so we would have hearkened to thee but because what thou sayest is not as we would have it because it doth not fit us nor stand with that course we are resolved to take we will not yeeld to it whether it be truth that thou speakest or no. I wish this were not so amongst many of us I doe not say carnall and profane ones the world is full of those and their spirits are too too manifest but I say I wish it were not a fault even amongst many that in some measure love and fear the Lord. We are grown sick of our peace and we must have our quiet and ease and contentment therefore though we should appear to be sincere before God in all things and zealous for the cause of the Lord of Hosts we will shuffle in divers practises rather then be disturbed and troubled in that course that we have set to our selves Now I say gather up these and I think the point is clear If it be so that men are blind in their mindes and cannot know the Word if so be they are carelesse and doe not attend to the Word nay if so be they be setled in their sinnes and corruptions from which they will not part it is no wonder that though they have means yet they are not savingly informed in the truth of God answerably to those meanes which are bestowed upon them Let me adde now but one thing for the full clearing of the Doctrine You will say we see the quite contrary For it is cleare and evident that there are many that live in the bosome of the Church that have a great measure of understanding yet are not such as God hath wrought upon effectually yea the Devill himselfe hath knowledge enough and many a man that is nought and carnall hath an abundant measure of understanding happily much more then some godly and holy men can attain to To answer this in two or three words It is true I confesse there is many a cursed hypocrite that hath a great measure of knowledge and yet in very deed hath no true understanding at all For the knowledge whereby such men are inlightned differs much from that information and understanding which the Saints of God have For look as there is wild thime and garden thime both of the same name and both growing after the same manner yet very different in their nature and qualities so it is with knowledge there is a gracious and a sanctifying knowledge garden knowledge as I may say and there is a wild and a common knowledge I will open it a little in two or three words If you goe no further but consider the understanding of both barely you shall cleerly perceive a main difference between a Saint of God and an Hypocrite 1. An Hypocrite and a carnall man like