instruments to sin Shall we turn all this into speculation No certainly there is some eminent reall holiness and power against sin that they had not before therefore saith he What pleasure had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed those sins that you committed before you are now ashamed of them And let me look a little upon my own soul or appeal to you Take any man or woman that understands what it is to be under the law what it is to walk according to the Covenant of works and according to the flesh and what covenants and resolutions and promises and fastings he had and let him look upon himself what he is now since he hath known a little of Christ and hath known that he is a justified person and that he is dead to the law and the like I appeal to you whether you do not feel a strange power in your souls killing and subduing sin that you never imagined before or almost hoped to have There are some Saints that I know that when they came to know a little of Jesus Christ they have found a power to subdue their sins that they did not hope for in their other condition they were so strong it is an eminent power A poor Saint that sees another tugging and striving and wrastling and bustling with his corruptions he knows that there is a sweet power in his soul that pulls down the highest and proudest imaginations As a godly man saith There is as much difference between a man thaâ— walks after the flesh according to the law and he that walks according to the Spirit as between a man that is in a great Lyter or in a great Boat that is fast upon the Sand and there are it may be a dozen or twenty men tugging and striving to get it off and yet it sticks and another man that is in a Boat upon the water and needs onely to hoist sail and sit down and it is gone he goes with wind and tide So a man that walks according to grace he can go as a childe and speak loving and plain words to his Father and get power over his sins that all the howling and roaring and crying of another a whole year together cannot do It is so and all you that know what grace is know it That is one thing therefore consider this if thou walk according to the Spirit thou art dead to sin that is in respect of the condemnation and guilt of it thou hearest that Christ hath fulfilled the law and that sin is done away And secondly in respect of the power of it thou canst look upon it as a dying gasping thing that must die and thou canst tread on it through the death of Christ Thirdly thou findest no lust so strong in thy soul but thou canst ordinarily bring it down thou canst bring it to the obedience of Jesus Christ another man may throw his cap at his sins and be wishing and woulding all the year long but there are strong lusts in his soul that will not out Therefore saith the Apostle when you walked according to the law the motions of sin brought forth fruit unto death inevitably it will be so Then further you shall find the fruits of walking according to the Spirit I will but name them to you and wish you to consider of them You have many set down in this 8th to the Romans When a man walks according to the Spirit you shall see this is one fruit of it A Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father That is one fruit of it as soon as a man comes to walk according to the Spirit he hath not a spirit of bondage any more What is that It is nothing but this a temper of soul like a slave just as you may conceive of a man that is taken Prisoner in Turkie what temper he is of he is glad of a Crust of bread and he fears whipping and beating and it may be killing such is the temper of a mans soul in a spirit of bondage when one is in such a temper that he is alwayes in fear of being whipped and scourged and he hath hard thoughts of God and he fears that he shall prove an hypocrite and the like Now saith the Apostle we have not that spirit but we have the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father that is there is a sweet temper such as is in a loving childe to his dear Father there is a boldness a love and delight and rejoycing and a sweetness c. This is one fruit of it therefore as far as thou art under horrour and moping and howling and crying thou comest short of walking according to the Spirit for thy soul would be alway full of sweetness in the greatest affliction if there were a Spirit of Adoption and under the worst sins thou doest commit though there would be sorrow yet thou wouldest be full of sweetness and joy That is one thing Again another fruit and consequent of it is that the Spirit of God bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God If thou wilt be led by the Spirit and walk after the Spirit the Spirit of God will witness with thy spirit that thou art the childe of God What is that the meaning of it is this as I understand the Spirit of God will raise up my spirit to be able to see and know that I am the childe of God for the spirit of a man knows the natural things of a man and no more but the Spirit of God witnesseth with my spirit that I am the childe of God that is he raiseth up my spirit whereby I may see and know that I am the childe of God that as before by my own spirit I was able to know whether I were poor or rich whether I were sick or well whether I were beloved or hated so now my spirit is raised up by the Spirit of God I am able to reflect upon my self spiritually and look upon my self as beloved and chosen and holy and called and justified and this is a spiritual way Thirdly here is another expression of it and that is an earnest hope or expectation of the glory that is to be revealed I finde and observe little of that to be in Professors and I have oft marvelled at it and the reason is Because they have not the Spirit of Adoption and walk not fully according to the Spirit therefore they are not filled with those expectations and those earnest desires that the Saints were ordinarily in the Primitive times Saith the Apostle in this Chapter The creature groaneth and desires to be delivered and not onely they but we our selves which have the first-fruits of the Spirit we groan within our selves
other is to be pleased with one that was an Enemy before one that was against me that is now received to favour So I have told you briefly some Scriptures to shew you that the flesh is taken in this sense Now the main Reason of it why I believe this to be the chief meaning of it is because that I see clearly that this is the chief drift and scope of this Epistle and if I may speak without disparagement there is nothing more methodically laid down and this is spoken to bring them from the way of works to the way of faith But I hasten Why doth the holy Ghost call walking after the Covenant of Works and after the law walking after the flesh and the other walking after the Spirit The Reason is Because there is so great affinity and nearness between walking legally and walking sinfully that they are promiscuously in Scripture taken one for another For let a man walk and endeavour and do his best according to the Law and not by the Gospel he shall be sure to walk sinfully and carnally there is no help for it If he be under the law sin will have dominion over him and if he go after the flesh the motions of the flesh will bring forth fruit unto death Sin and the law are as it were of so near a kin that the law makes sin more sinful and the more a man strives to keep the law the more he sins The Apostle brought it so near that people were ready to speak non-sense that the law was sin He prevents the objection Is the law sin O no faith he sin is the transgression of the law So that a man that walks according to the law and not according to the way of the Gospel in spight of his heart he shall walk according to the flesh that is according to the lusts of nature he can never walk holily let him do what he can A second Reason why it is called flesh is in allusion to the two Sons of Abraham as we see in Gal. 4. 21. The Apostle there speaking of these two Covenants he saith Abraham had two sons the one by a bond-maid the other by a free woman but he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the free woman was by promise which things are an allegory or a comparison for these are the two Covenants the one from mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage which is Agar for this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all He is proving that the old Covenant was to be done away Agar was to be thrown out with her children He proves that those two Sons of Abraham Ishmael and Isaac were types of the two Covenants that God made with mankinde the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace Now the Covenant of Works he compares to Ishmael that was born after the flesh as other children were Abraham went in to Hagar and she conceived and bare a childe as other women but Isaac was not born after the flesh all fleshly wayes could not produce Isaac he was a childe of Promise and the Spirit of God breathing in the promise and working mightily in Abraham and Sarah Isaac was produced This is an Allegory there is a great Mysterie that you think not of when you reade of Ishmael and Isaac By Ishmael is meant the Covenant of Works and the principles of it and the practitioners of it and they walk according to the flesh as Ishmael did and by Isaac is meant the Covenant of Grace and those that go that way are children of the promise as Isaac was So God hath set this Comparison and I conceive the Apostle alludes to it and calls it a walking according to the flesh As if he had said Thou shalt never have this righteousness by walking in the way of thy father Ishmael by Mount Sinai in Arabia by walking in the law to turn away the wrath of God but if thou wilt get this righteousness thou must walk according to the Spirit thou must get the Spirit and be a childe of promise The third and last Reason that I shall give why it is called walking according to the Flesh is because of weakness for flesh is put for weakness as the Scripture saith They are Flesh and not Spirit that is they are poor weak things so those that walk in that way in the way of the law they are weak creatures there is nothing but wishing and woulding and covenanting and promising and protesting and vexing and fretting but there is no strength Now one Saint that is truly planted in Christ and the Gospel hath truly taken place in his heart he hath more strength then five hundred of the other Saith Paul I can do all things I can want and I can abound I can go to prison freely I can rejoyce with them that rejoyce and mourn with them that mourn Because the same Spirit that dwells in Christ and works effectually the same Spirit dwells in us and works in us Therefore that is the meaning of it They that walk after the flesh that is they that go after the law they are weak they tug and are never the nearer Heaven and if they should live a thousand years they would be no better but wishers and woulders and say I have a good desire to do as the Preacher saith but I have no power Vse Let me conclude with one word of Use from all this that hath been said which I hope you will consider of From this Doctrine thus opened you may hence see the saying of our Lord Jesus Christ verified and made good that few shall enter into the kingdome of Heaven Doubtless Paul did not look on sinners and Saints as we do we account every Professor let his principles be what they will either from the first or second Adam if he begin to leave sin and to perform duties we account him a good man But when the Lord comes to judge he will look further and examine us and will I fear finde abundance that shall never enter into the kingdome of Heaven even of those that follow good old Adam I mean there are abundance of Professors that have left corrupt Adam in his grossness and follow good old Adam that is a sprig from that they will abstain from sins and they will perform duties and they will do no wrong and all is but old Adam still Therefore you that are Professors look to your selves for the Lords sake I am mistaken if there be not many hundreds of us that will be found the Sons of Ishmael at the last day many that make a great Profession and many that make a greater Profession then others that are honest spiritual Saints before the world before men for when a man goes to keep the law every light that comes into his
Flesh and old Adam In Luke 19. they are called the things of trouble and the things of the Spirit the things that belong to our peace O that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace In Jer. 2. 8. they are called things that do not profit vain things and the things of the Spirit in Phil. 1. 10. they are called excellent things That ye may be able to know the things that are excellent that is the things of the Spirit of God And to conclude this Phil. 4. 8. speaking of the things of the Spirit saith he Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report these things do These are the things of the Spirit of God Then impure things dishonest things dishonourable things unjust things unlovely things these are things of the flesh Thus much in general according to the description of the things of the Flesh in Scripture But now in particular I will sum up the things of the Flesh or of old Adam one or other of which fleshly men do wholly minde to these three Heads 1. The first is to establish their own righteousness by the law to procure to themselves justification by their works This is the Master-piece of old Adam for I told you that man is more prone to this then to sin though he be prone to that also and old Adam works stronger towards his righteousness such as it is in a forbidden way then to sin Therefore it is said Rom. 10. 3. They being ignorant of Gods righteousness went about to establish their own righteousness He speaks there of the Jews The word in the Original is they went to make it stand just as a tottered house that every blast is ready to throw down and it must be underpropped on this side and on that side to keep it up so every fleshly man in the world this is half his work to make the Babel of his own righteousness to stand he is alway piecing and patching and doing some good work he is wishing and woulding or in some fashion or other to make up a good estate against the latter day Therefore that was the question Acts 2. and Luke 3. and it is the grand question of all mankinde What shall we do to be saved and we see when they came to Christ it was alway with this Master what shall I do to be saved As if he had said I know it must be by doing and I am willing to go about it to frame some kinde of righteousness or other Therefore in Joh. 6. say they What shall we do to work the works of eternall life saith Christ This is the work of God to believe he takes them off Now this is one thing whereby you may know what it is to be a fleshly man and to minde fleshly things when people minde and cast projects and wayes to procure righteousness to themselves or justification to their souls any other way then onely by the Lord Jesus Christ Men may be as it were drunk sometimes and minde neither Heaven nor Hell but there is no fleshly carnal man when he is his own man but he thinks there is some good work or other that he must do either giving or lending or building an Alms-house or giving to the poor or somewhat to get him a righteousness But remember thou art a carnal man and all thy minding and all thy thoughts this way are but according to the flesh and those that are after the flesh must die It was the first and the greatest Curse that ever was in the world when God said to old Adam he must die it is a general rule all old Adam must die either thou must get that piece of old Adam that is in thee to die or thou shalt die with it one of the two 2. Then another thing that is called the things of the Flesh it is Carnal Priviledges either men that are fleshly minde their justification out of Christ or else their Carnal Priviledges I told you before that those are called Flesh saith the Apostle If any might I may glory in the flesh What is that I am an Hebrew of the Hebrews c. and so the Jews in Mat. 3. Joh. 8. and 2 Cor. 11. they were apt as to stablish their own righteousness so to glory in their priviledges We are the children of Abraham we were never slaves or servants We have not their priviledges to glory in yet this is a main piece of old Adam a great part of the things of the flesh outward priviledges let them be Church-priviledges or what you will when people rejoyce and minde and contemplate outward priviledges and do not regard the inward power nor what is in and through and by them this is but flesh I fear you will not bear with me you will account me your enemy for telling you the truth but I am perswaded there are many among us that talk of Churches and Government and Ordinances and Priviledges and yet all is but flesh and you cannot well judge of them by their strictness in it for flesh will go as strictly in its way as the Spirit but it is to be feared that divers build of it and glory in it and it is a great part of their Religion I warn you in love to look to it and if those Priviledges were taken away as Christ took away the priviledge of being the children of Abraham from the Jews such people would be poor carnal people Take heed of it and let him that glories glory in the Lord. 3. Thirdly and lastly the things of the flesh for all old Adam is included in these three things that fleshly men minde is to fulfill their lusts which are many to make provision for the flesh Rom. 13. that is to be casting how to feed one lust or other Now if you would know what those lusts are in particular though in a sort it be general you have it in 1 Joh. 2. 16. saith he All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life These are the lusts of the world all the lusts in the world may be reduced it seems to those three heads so I say these are the fleshly things that all carnall people minde all their thoughts throughout the year every one runs either in stablishing their own righteousness or in glorying and contemplating their outward priviledges or in projecting for the fulfilling of some lust or other thus they spend their whole life these are the things of the flesh that carnall men minde Now the other the things of the Spirit that are contrary to these you may comprehend them all in these words that is 1. They are either the things of Faith 2. Or else their Hope and Happiness in Jesus Christ 3. Or else their Obedience to the will of Christ All the
there is in all godliness in every part of it excellent reasons there is the purest sublimest excellentest reason in godliness Beloved I may say and say truly of godliness in a spirituall sence whatever you may say of Logick in a naturall way Logick is the art of rersoning that is the definition of it it is the right of reasoning so godliness is the right art of spirituall reasoning There is not one dram of right spirituall reasoning but in a godly people and there is not one act in godly people but it is carried on upon the purest and sublimest and excellentest reasoning that is it is such a kind of reason that the Apostle calls it demonstration that is the surest reasoning in naturall Logick Now in that you have other kind of reasoning as conjectures and probabilities and other topicks but godly reasoning is demonstration as the Apostle saith And therefore in 2 Thess 3. 2. Wicked men that have not faith they are said to be unreasonable men he is a wicked man that hath not faith let him be never so honest or civill yet in Gods language if he have not faith he is a wicked man Paul prayes that he may be delivered from unreasonable men from absurd men as you have it the margin Now what is it to be absurd you say when a man carries himself illfavouredly that is absurd properly then when a man reasons not rightly it is absurd as to draw wrong conclusions from premises as to say such a Towne is garrisoned by the King therefore London hath the plague this is absurd Now all the actions and doings of wicked men they are absurd there is no more hold of them then of a rope of sand A wicked man may have naturall reason and corrupt reason enough but he is an unreasonable man he hath no spirituall reason And hence it is that godly men spirituall men are so constant in their Spirits and in their wayes indeed they are not absolutely constant because they are godly but in part As you may see in natural things the difference between a man that is at full age and hath reason and a Child that is not come up to reason as the Scripture saith Be not as little children tossed to and fro Now what is the reason that a Child is so inconstant he will love a thing to day and have it to bed with him and to morrow he will cast it in the dirt it is because his actions are carryed by fancie and he hath not reason to rule and sway him Now you know a man doth not do and undo things like a Child See what difference there is in a naturall way between a man at full age and a Child at three or foure yeares old so much and more difference there is between a godly spirituall man and a naturall man and that is the reason that when a godly man hears a natural man discourse say he will do this and that he will go to the Wars and he will take this and that Garrison he smiles at it because he knowes he will not be constant Take men all along in these Wars for some yeares past whether they were Commanders or others you shall see how many brave resolute men both went forth and were here in the Parliament at home and where are they now But now take a godly man either in the Army or elswhere and you cannot say of him he was so because he is so because he hath some reason to carry him along that the other hath not he went for the glory of God and the respect of that continues with him the other went out for a shew for a blast and so are turned about with every wind like a Weather-cock and all this for want of spiritual reason Moreover it appears by this why the Saints that are godly and spiritual are so comfortable even in the worst condition and why other men are so apt to be dejected Take a Saint and put him into any condition and he knows how to rejoyce in the Lord. Take a Paul or a Silas and put them in Prison and let them be to be hanged to morrow and yet they can rejoice and sing they can rejoice in tribulation as well as in prosperity but now men that have not faith that are not spiritual though they laugh loud sometimes when they are in prosperity yet when affliction comes they are down again and this comes from hence not because godly men are mad-men that they can rejoice in Chains as men in Bedlam do but it is from spiritual reasoning When they are in affliction they can reason I am now in much shame and poverty but I know that they are in Christ all shall turn to their good they are Christs and all is for their salvation And thus they will draw from the Scriptures by the help of the Spirit of God such kind of Arguments as will draw them up and fill them with joy even in the worst condition which because the others have not they are up and down though their laughter be louder as Solomon saith yet it is but as the crackling of thorns that end in smoke and smother and ashes Oh the godly are endued with a great deal of spiritual reasoning And hence it was because there is so much reason in godliness that the Doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by a few Fisher-men and contemptible men without any force of Arms without any Sword drawn they have been able to break the great Emperour of the World and to plant Religion over a great part of the world It is true there is no natural reason in it in the world that a hundred or half a hundred should go forth and tell a story of a man that was a Garpenters Son a poor man that was at last hanged upon a Tree by the Jews and buried in a Grave and for a company of poor men that had no Oratory in the world to go and tell people that by this man is salvation and that they must believe in him and that they had no power in themselves to do it and that if they did believe in him they must deny themselves and father and mother and lands and life and then they should have a Reward they knew not where nor whence hereafter in Heaven but nothing in this world which there was no natural Reason to perswade them to and there was no Sword to command them for their Commission was onely to tell men that if they believed they should be saved and if they did not believe they must be damned and yet we see the Gospel hath prevailed in many Kingdoms of the world more or less Now when Mahomet came he comes as a great man and when he was asked How will you prove your Religion to be true He takes a Sword and saith By this Such is the Doctrine of the Turks and Persians but the Doctrine of the Gospel came not so Now you must not
I told you that these they do come immediately from it The third thing was that the reasoning is the chief character of a man as reason in a man considered in a natural way is the most proper way of distinguishing of him from other things because it is most essential to him for you cannot distinguish a man so properly from a horse because he hath two legs and that a horse hath four but by his essence he is a rational creature and therefore I told you a man may know good excellently a man may love good and godliness and a man may do good and suffer for good and yet be an Hypocrite yet be a carnal man Why Because he may do good and love good and suffer for good and all out of carnal reasoning he may love the good because of some fine circumstantial things And therefore I concluded last day with two words of use but I must endeavour to make good my promise Now the last thing is how it comes to pass for I have as in reference to the Doctrine you heard That spiritual men are swayed with spiritual reasons How comes it to pass that they are enabled so to reason and to be so guided by such Reasons Beloved in general certainly it is only by the same spirit of God for I must advance the spirit still not in opposition to the Scriptures mistake me not for the spirit takes of the things of Christ and in the Scriptures sheweth you them but it is the spirits teaching you And therefore it is said they are after the spirit that do minde spiritual things because it is the spirit that doth work them to mind spiritual things ye would never mind spiritual things else All the learning in the World and all the wit in the World will never teach a man to make one sincere Argument to do good or draw him from evil But you will say how doth the Spirit do this Beloved I told you heretofore that I do not approve of those that do endeavour to shew you too particularly and disbiastly how the spirit of God works in the soul as many men have done and many a godly man but they have lost much time and have puzelled the souls of poor people for thou knowest not how a child is formed in the wombe how his eye is made and how his nose is made And how are we able to discover how the Spirit of God works grace in the soul which ordinarily is done that he doth this first and then that and will not do this until he hath done that which hath brought forth a deal of curiosity and needless distinctions troubling the people of God But I will give you some particulars how he doth it The wayes whereby he doth without curiosity not saying he doth this first or that first He doth it by a Creation by spiritual Creation he doth make a Creation in the soul which is called the new man Thou that art there now sitting in a Pew that Creature that old Creature cannot reach the spirit of God It cannot be mended for we have hearts of stone that will not be cobled nor mended but taken out wholly our natures are so naught that they cannot be mended but God comes and by his holy spirit makes a new Creature in the soul As man is said to be a man and hath not his denomination from the grosser part as his Legs or the like but from the more noble part his soul and his minde for where as in one place it is said What will it avail a man to get the World and lose his Soul in another it is lose himself So as my soul is my self So there is an old man not according to outward age but according to the inward Now he makes thee a new Creature not new Legs and Hands but new minde new affections and new powers in thy soul Now most people say that the Lord doth infuse new qualities into ths soul that whereas thou hast an understanding and it is rotten and all is full of bad qualities thou shalt have new qualities thou shalt have an understanding that will minde heavenly things Beloved that is true but I very much doubt whether there be not something more because the Lord calls it a man and we never read in the Scripture where he will work new qualities but a new man we are created a new creature Now that is the way and therefore if ever thou wilt be a spiritual man thou must have the Lord to make thee a new Creature Now the Saints heretofore pray understand me did not look upon things as we do we have had so many false distinctions and subdistinctions we have not the same notions and distinctions they had They alwayes looked upon the inward man or the new Creature Now we look without saith Paul my inward man gaineth dayly If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Beloved that ye may understand this bear with me a little I do finde in the Scripture that a man is made a Saint made spiritual and holy two wayes One is by renewing a man to that which he was in old Adam Secondly by creating things in him that were never there before And we have these two expressions in Scripture Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and created unto good works So that a Saint he is made up unto that condition two wayes either God hath renewed in him those things he had in Adam or else God hath created in him that which was never there before As for instance God revealeth in him sobriety and continuance and the like these things were in Adam and now when a man is made a Saint they are renewed only upon a new foundation And withal the Lord creates something that was never in Adam as for instance he creates faith there that is the faith of the Gospel There was a faith in Adam without doubt but that faith of the Gospel to believe in another to renounce his own righteousness this was not in Adam because it was point-blank contrary to his own condition for he was to have righteousness in himself and to renounce it was contrary to his condition Now God creates such a faith in us And Beloved there is another thing and it may be there are many things more I have had many thoughts of it with submission to the godly and wise I think that Gospel goodness is a piece of the New man which was not in Adam as to do good to Enemies to love them that hate us to give drink to a thirsty Enemy When one is wicked and ungodly and doth deal despightfully with us as Christ saith then to do him good and bless when he curseth and pray for him that injureth us Beloved this is Gospel-goodness I have had many thoughts of it had I time to prove that this Gospel goodness is a piece of the New creature that was not in old Adam There was goodness in