crucified to us and we unto the world that is as well the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life which containes all that is in the world all which the faithful soul counts but dross and dung for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus whom as the Spouse in the Canticles she esteemes fairer than ten thousand And esteemes sin the most ugly vile eformed and abominable thing in the world pulling off its mask and vizard whereby it deceives the men of the world as it is said Rom. 7.10 Sin deceived me and thereby slew me The understanding thus inlightened ingageth all it can against sin as its enemy and sometimes by vigilancy it prevailes against all assaults of temptations whereby sin is quite excluded from entring and sometimes by flying the occasions of sin as Joseph fled from his Mistress and by the Spirit assistance we mortify the flesh God and Christ susporting Sometimes by prayer faith prevailes against the tempter the soul fearing its own weakness seeks for help of him who is able to succour and hath succoured it The last refuge which faith hath is repentance early and hearty sorrow for the sin committed as Peter when he had denied his Lord and Master immediately he went forth and wept bitterly By these means faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked The light of nature teacheth that the soul is borne to more noble things than to wait upon the pleasure of the senses But the supernatural life which the Apostle lived when he said I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Shews another inabling principle of life in the regenerate proceeding from that union which is betwixt Christ and his members because Christ and they are one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.10 Therefore he saith Not I because he is not the same man he was before that man is Crucified with Christ and buried with him he hath derived a new life from Christ as he expresseth I laboured more abundantly than all yet not I but Christ Christ is the spring of it the matter of it and end of it Consider the end of your conversation Jesus Christ and if Christ live in us we shall do think and speak as he did As all other graces of Gods children are sometimes weaker than they are at other times so is faith But thâ— decay of this grace is the cause of decay of many others and sometime the decay of others may cause a decay of this the Psal 51. Entituled a Psalme of David when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba the Title and the Psalme it self shew what sins and what punishments he lay under and because his sins were the cause of the loss of Gods Spirit or of the danger of it and of the loss of the joy of his salvation viz. His assurance he confesseth his sins first and prays for pardon through the multitude of Gods tender mercys then prays for washing healing cleansing and renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me It followes Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and support me with thy free Spirit This implieth that before he had it but now he had lost it and was deprived of it which was the cause of so great grief to him that he expresseth it to be the breaking of his bones Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce And the like doth every penitent broken soul feel in himself when he fears the loss of Gods holy Spirit and feels himself deprived of the joy of his salvation and this joy when it is restored is so great that it will make the broken bones rejoyce he apprehended the greatness of the joy now in the loss of it Psal I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart God deprives us of it for our sins that we may be the more careful to preserve it and fearful by sin to loose it or hazard it and to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling for though Gods lays not upon his children all that they deserve yet they shall not go unpunished Judgment shall begin at the house of God Jer. 22.24 Though Coniah the Son of Jehojakim King of Juda were the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence Now for as much as the motions workings of the holy Spirit in the faithful people of God by inlightning them in the understanding of heavenly truths bringing to mind and applying the word of God to their comfort inabling them to converse and walk with God in holy Meditation contemplation prayer and thanksgiving making melody in their hearts to the Lord delighting them and rejoycing them in the want of all things as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth chap. 3. Though the Fig Tree should not blossom nor fruits be in the vines c. And making them to abound with inward joy when their afflictions do most abound slighting and contemning alike both worldly joy and sorrow for the joy which they have in the Lord these are the study imployment and business of a regenerate person wherein he desires to be alwaies exercised because he cannot find satisfaction nor delight in any thing else hence he may be more truly and properly said to live by faith and by the Spirit than to live the life natural as St. Paul argues he did when he saith I am crucified with Christ yet I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who hath loved me and given himself for me Therefore they are as it were out of their lives and void of all injoyment and comfort when they want the comforts and assistance of the Holy Spirit as Holy David did greatly resent the absence of it and fear lest it should be taken from him and that he should be cast away so do most of Gods people Isa 49.14 Sion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Though God had graven her in the palms of his hands When God hides his face and withdraws himself they are cast down as Psal I said in my prosperity I should never be cast down but thou hidest thy face and I was troubled This withdrawing of God was the very bitterest of our Saviours sufferings If this should be our condition let us not be weary of well doing but wait on the Lord for God hath said Isa 49. That he that waits on the Lord shall be like an Eagle And consider that Christ Jesus suffered the like and therefore hath a fellow feeling of our suffering that he might succour us who are tempted But if Christ doth not succour us our heart cannot indure our hands cannot be strong in the days that God shall thus deal with us as it is Ezek. 22. v. 14. But he hath bid us to call upon him
present or afterwards doth speak against can that be gainful to a man that loseth his souls eternal salvation If the ship be drowned in the ocean all that is in it is drowned What gain can that be that is so short that in the next moment we must say it was and is not and for that we have lost eternal happiness Or had I lived the daies of Methusalem and all my daies had been daies of pleasure and this were my last day what would remain of profit of it all or what joy or satisfaction or comfort to beare me up against the fear of death would not a little tidings of death and Judgment confound me in the midst of my pomp and jovialty as it did Nebuchadnezzer Do not the wickedest when they sin think to repent of it and would they so if it were there gaine and commodity or if I should get by sin would not that gaine be loss should I not throw away riches gotten by unjustice upon my unfeigned repentance did not Judas throw away his 30 pieces what man in all the world either that repented or that repented not ever gained by sin What gained Adam or Cain the old world Jerusalem Sodom Sampson Lot David or Peter but besides that it costs the penitent sinner what hath it cost Christ therefore as thou hast made us reasonable men O Lord let us make choice of that that will make us happy thy favour and let us not sell it and all our happiness as it were for a mess of pottage If sinners think nothing too dear for sin let me think nothing too dear for Heaven When sinners cast away their souls for a lust and yet say that we lose our labour for Heaven how incompetent Judges are they but of holiness what fruit have we not what is it not profitable for either in this life or that which is to come it confers all that sin would strip us of That I may fear to sin Let me consider that our God is a consuming fire though he be ours so that we are his people yet our priviledges must not exempt us from this fear for thou hast commanded us to abstain from sin for this cause and all thy people Whoever sinned found thee a consuming fire to punish them as did David When he cried out My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments The Lords judgments were grievious upon him murther and rape committed in his house his Son drave him from his Throne so Eli felt this also when his Sons were vile and he lightly reproved them and Job when he felt one spark of this fire cryed out My soul chuseth strangling rather than life Therefore let all thy people consider the terrour of the Lord and remember that thou art a consuming fire and let them walk in the fear of the Lord and the comforts of the Holy Ghost And as they call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works so let them pass the time of their so journing here in fear remembring that our blessed Saviour could not escape this fire when he undertook the work of satisfaction for sinners but cryed out under it My God my God why hast thou forsaken men And in respect of our proneness to sin against God let us keep our selves with this as with a bridle and curb and to keep up our vigilancy for religious duties working out our salvation with fear and trembling considering what it is to fall into the hands of the Lord Knowing that it is not a sinful servile fear which is to fear the smart more than the offending of God for this hath an enmity joyned with it for whom we fear with servile fear we hate but this filial fear proceeds from love and the tender sense of God's displeasure against sin And though we could say with the Apostle Paul that we know we have a house in Heaven yet was he still keeping under his body for fear of sinning For the Righteous shall be recompenced on earth and where shall the ungodly and sinner appear To these the Lord shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them that know not God and to them that obey not the Gospel He will wound the head of his enemies He that believeth not shall be damned His wrath shall be poured out like fire The indignation of the Lord shall consume his adversaries The damned spirits and fallen Angels are under this fire But thou hast given thy Son Christ to be a Saviour to save thy people from it O Lord save us through our dear Saviour's merits from this worm that never dies and fire that never goes out and let thy people fear not those who can hurt the body only but those who can hurt both soul and body and cast both into Hell fire Lord thou hast pronounced them cursed who do thy work negligently yet how negligent am I in all religious duties and my heart goes sometimes after covetousness and sometimes after vanities O give me thy grace that I may serve thee with a perfect heart That I may seek thee with my whole heart Let me not think to divide my heart to God and Mammon because it is thine all and thou wilt have all or none because thou madest it and Christ hath bought it Let me not be weary of these duties but be willing to labour in them and wear out my body in them and strive with zeal wrestling with the Lord for a blessing since I have experience that thou art a God hearing prayer and hast not stopped thine ear to mine O Lord God I am not holy but thou hast promised we shall be all holy and required that we should be holy as thou art holy how infinitely short doth the best of men come of this pattern The Apostle Paul confesses he was carnal sold under sin and that he had not attained but pressed forward that he might attain Lord give us with him to see our sinfulness that we may in like manner as he was be stirred up to strive after holiness and fulfil thy promise That we shall all be holy Lord inlighten my understanding that I may see what a shameful thing sin is that the very brute beasts do not so brutishly as sinners For the Oxe and Ass who know their owners reprove them who refuse to acknowledge thee to be their Lord and all others do more rationally without any reason than man who hath understanding yet casts off all understanding and is not ashamed of sin For it is a shame to speak of the things that are done of them yet are they not ashamed when they commit them O let me consider how naked a sinner renders himself to the view of the world and when God himself shall put him to shame as it is written As thou hast put the Son of God to open shame so God shall put thee to shame And when it shall be their everlasting
renewing some holy duties which have been omitted or else by some judgment befallen to others we are warned and stirred up to do our first workes and to quicken the holy graces which are dying as by the return of the Sun in the spring-time the several Plants of the earth seem to revive and send forth their leaves and fruits again The causes of this deadness of faith holiness charity hope and other graces are various but may be found out and in some persons a wilful sin committed and unrepented of is the cause in some sloth in holy duties in others worldlyness in others pride some too much relying upon their own strength and opinion of the grace they have gotten already not endeavouring after a fuller measure every true Christian feels in himself some times these swoonings away of his graces and diligently endeavours to get more quickning by prayer to God for it and the use of Gods word and ordinances reflecting upon the first motives that excited and allured him to the pursuit of those dying graces and all such other motives as have since confirmed him in the liking of them and the rewards that he hath obtained from God for the service he hath done him and the hope of the eternal recompences The absolute necessity of it enforceth his awakned affections reflecting upon those texts which so absolutely press the necessity of it as Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh ye shall live And v. 29. Whom he did foreknow them he also did predestinate to be comfortable to the image of his Son and in the Canticles ch The Spouse is said to be all fair That holiness is attainable is proved First because it is the main end of Christs passion and he cannot be frustrate of his ends Luke 1.74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives 2d Because he hath redeemed us unto himself that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works That we should no more serve sin nor live the remainder of our days after the flesh But that we should be conformed to the image of him that made us For whom he foreknew he did predestinate that they should be conformed to the image of his Son Therefore our old man is dead and we are borne again of water and the Spirit whoso hath the hope of Heaven purifieth himself as God is pure the man after Gods own heart testifieth that he had an eye to all Gods commandments and Zachary and Elizabeth walked unblamably And that this is the end of our blessed Saviour in our redemption is made out by that which was the Type of the Isralites deliverance out of the Egyptian bondage Psal 105.42 And he brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with gladness and gave them the lands of the heathen and they took the labours of the people in possession 44. That they might keep his statutes and observe his laws But expresly Luke 17.1 That we might serve him without fear in holiness c. The whole design and scope of all the Scripture is our holiness and the restoring the image of God in us all the precepts command this and the promises encourage and invite us to this and the promises of grace are for making us thus the threats and cursings drive us to it the rewards and punishments tend only to shew us that God will be sanctified in us and that every transgression shall receive a due recompence of reward all the history of the Scripture proves it by examples of Gods wrath and vengeance upon the wicked and deliverances wrought wonderfully for them that feared and sought God with an upright hart Under one of these heads might be quoted every text in the Scripture The History of the Creation of the World which sheweth forth Gods infinite power and goodness working so great benefits for the use of mankind sheweth us our dependance on him and the duty we owe to him for our being and well being The fall of men and Angels shews our frailty without Gods supportation and the miserable condition that attends sin Gods dealings with the two Sons of Adam one he accepted for his sincerity in his worship the other he rejected because his heart was not upright the deluge that swept away all save only Noah the Preacher of righteonsness the rest that were ungodly were drowned the reason alledged because they had corrupted their waies And Noah only God had espied upright wherefore was Sodom and Gomorra destroied and Lot saved wherefore did God bless Abraham and all the nations of the earth in him wherefore was profane Esau deprived of the blessing and Jacob preferred before him what caused Sampson to lose his eyes wherefore were the murmuring Israeltes destroied in the Wilderness for what cause did the Philistians hold them in bondage why was the Kingdom taken from Saul and given to his neighbour that was more rightious than he how did God deal by him when he had sinned in the matter of Vriah and for numbring the people his successors that were good Kings how were they blessed the bad how did God deal with them in judgment when Israel sinned their enimies oppressed them when they returned and sought the Lord he saved them and delivered them when the sins of the Amalakites were grown to the hight he destroyed them and planted the Israelites in their Country and when the measure of their sins were full he distroyed them and brought upon them all the curses threatned against sinners All the Prophets were sent of no other errand but to press them to forsake sin and turn unto God all the evil they foretold was conditionally unless they would repent and forsake their sin The promise of the Messiah was to bring salvation unto his people he was to deliver them from all their iniquities to purify to himself a peculiar people that might offer a pure offering to bring into the right way such as went astray to bring the disobedient to the wisdom of the just his preching proveth the truth of these prophesies for Matth. 4.17 Jesus began to preach and say Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand And Matth. 5. The promises of giving the Holy Spirit to them that ask it And of writing his lawes in their inward parts of making them a willing people that all shall know God c. What other end have they but to make us holy John the Baptist the fore-runner of Christ taught repentance and good works he practised the same in abstinence humility and piety Our Blessed Lord and Saviours Doctrine was the perfection of holiness teaching charity to our enemies to sell all to buy this Pearl of exceeding value and in Matth. 5.22 Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in