in the spirit Now the freedome the Lord Christ hath made for the soules of believers from this law of Creation under the Covenant of workes It is double Namely from the condemning power the ruling or reigning power of the law in the conscience Of the first of these there is the least scruple and not being so fully within that I desire to hold to I shall wave it and keep only to the latter Namely how Christ hath freed the. Believer in his conscience from the ruling or reigning power of the law of creation in the letter only For light in this consider the 4th verse of Rom. 8. and so forward taking in the latter part of the 3. verse it wil appeare to be the designe of God in sending Christ in the the flesh that Christ in the Spirit might rule in the soules and spirits of his people God sending his Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh that the righteousnesse of the law might be fulfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit That is to walke after the rule which is not the flesh but the Spirit and so goes on to shew the difference betweenâ— flesh and spirite making it all along a part of our redemption in Christ to live in the Spirit making the Spirit our light and our life our rule and our strength In Rom. 8.14 There the Apostle speaks plainly and makes it a demonstration of our sonne ship to be ruled by the Spirit For as many as are ledde by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God Hee speakes in verse 16. following of the seale of the Spirit But here he speaks distinctly of the ruling power of the Spirit that hath power of a man to lead the man as it pleaseth and that is the terme here sonnes of God led by the Spirit of God that this Spirit is sufficient to rule the consciences of believers wee may plainly see in Rom. 6.14 Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace I know not what can be more plaine then this here is a promise sinne shall not have dominion over us And the reason given is that part of the redemption of Christ to the soule of a believer from the ruling power of the law to the ruling power of the spirit of grace Marke the inference therefore sinne shall not have dominion over you because sinne shall not find you under the ruling power of the law in your conscience which affords no stâ—ength against it but sinne shall finde you under the law of the spirit of grace which is in Christ the law of life to the soule and death to sinne therefore sinne and death shall be swallowed up of victory in you by the spirit of Christ as it was for you in the death of Christ Sinne hath its repulse in the soule from the change of the law that rules the law of sinne and death turned into the law of spirit and life I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me saith the Apostle I am not delivered from the dominion of sinne because I have the light of the law of creation to discover sinâ— but I am under the law of the spirit of life and grace not only to discover but to destroy sinne Sin hath not dominion because that which opposes it is Christ not I. Thus I have endeavoured to let you understand that light God hath given mse in this part of the redemption of his blood for his Sonne to deliver us from the ruling power of any law in our consciences but the law of love in the spirit of life But that I may be rightly understood I desire you to remember a clause that I laid down in the beginning where I endeavored to open these verses the clause is this That the Believer in the blood and spirit of Christ hath a perfect freedome from the law so farre as it is freedome to be delivered I laid it so downe that I might have here roome to distinguish betweene the ruling power of the law and the matter and substance of the law In the first sense the ruling power of the Law I doe really believe from what hath beene delivered already and some further reasons that I shall discover That the conscience of a believer is by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made free from the law of sinne and death But for the second part the matter or substance of the law which I take to be the whole revealed will of God and is in its utmost power and purity written in the heart of every believer Not only the whole revealed will of God in his word made flesh and dwelling among us but made Spirit and dwelling in us Thus to give you a little light I shall be more full in what followes give me leave to adde some further reasons to prove the former thing As first If the law in the letter be the rule in the conscience of a Believer then Moses not Christ must be the King for sayes the Text Moses was faithfull in his house as a servant but Christ as the sonne Moses may rule till Christ comes but as Christ had none to help him in the work of redemption no more will he in the work of ruling Secondly If Moses be to rule where Christ hath redeemed where is the making good of Gods Covenant to write his law in our hearts what benefit in the promise of the comforter that spirit of truth to lead into all truth Thirdly If the law rule and Moses be King the strength must be in our selves to obey for neither Moses nor the law in the letter can give any strength If either could Christ hath dyed in vaine and if strength be in our selves then Gods designe in sending Christ is lost which is to justifie his people freely by his grace so as there may be no roome for flesh to boast in not the law of works but the law of faith to be pleaded as appears in that third chapter to the Romans Lastly If the Law be to rule in the spirits of Gods people then obedience to that law must quiet satisfie the hearts of Gods people Now as the Apostle in Gal. 3.2 This only would I learne of you Received yee the Spirit by the workes of the law or by the hearing of faith So say I and appeale to the consciences and experience of every Saint that tasts the joyes of life in God received it you by the the workes of the Law or in the seale and workings of the spirit of life in which you are freed from the law of sinne and death So I shall come to that second part the matter and substance of the law Under this comprehend the whole revealed will of God in his word but to distinguish betweene that part of Gods word more distinctly known by the ten commandements from any other part of the revealed will
of God in his word but to the eye of a believer beholding God and every part of his revealed will in Christ all is alike In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God That was spoken of Christ now the Believer alwayes beholding God in Christ which is his originall word and the Scripture only Christ written out in the Spirit doth behold God in his originall and in his written word in every part of it one so that every part is of like beauty and pretiousnesse to the soule of a believer Having opened my selfe thus farre I shall doe it farther and declare that to have any hope left to live as sinfull nature pleases casting the revealed word of God behind their backs and under a notion of redemption to deny the Redeemer to talk of free-grace and to trample grace under foote to deny the Lord that bought them in walking as doe others that know not Christ This is so far from entring into my thoughts from that freedome I have pleaded for all this time that if I should name this and call it darknesse I should call it Aegyptian darkenesse so farre from freedome that it is bondage beyond expression The second of the Ephesians sets it out best in these termes The power of the Prince of the Aire ruling in the children of disobedience But that freedome I plead for is the power of the Lord of glory ruling by his Spirit in his children of light and life My aime is not to take away that holy just and good law of God out of the conscience of a believer but as God doth with his people in the new Covenant and in Christ the mediator of it establish them in a better covenant Heb. 8. upon better promises so would I only hold out the matter of the law taken out of the hand of Moses which was but a servant and established in the heart of Christ which is the Son and by the Son in the spirit of light and life written in the heart and conversation of every believing soule And lesse then this I thinke is not in the covenant of the Almighty when he convenants to put his law in our inward parts and to write it in our hearts For my authority in this I shall say as the Apostle Paul in the 3d of Rom. the last vers when in the greatest part of the chapter he hath pleaded this very cause that I doe he concludes in these words Doe we then make void the law through faith God forbid Yea we establish the law So that it is cleare the law of life that makes us free from the law of sin and death which is Christ living by his Spirit in the conscience is not to make void but to establish upon better promises from a law of death to be a law of life Thus much in generall But more particularly I lay downe this as my light that the law is now in the Spirit in the Gospel for a believer to walk by the law is made Gospel as Christ is made flesh the Gospel is both a perfect law of life and righteousnesse of grace and truth why should we separate that which God hath in his free-grace joyned together namely Law and Gospel in one under the government that is given to the childe Jesus Nor is the holinesse or sanctification that God lookes for in his believing Saints such as is falsehood by the law or outward command but by the preaching of faith by which the spirit is given which renewes and sanctifies a Believer and makes him the very law of Commandements in himselfe and his heart the very two Tables of Moses And though the law be a beame of Christ in substance and matter yet we are not to live by the light of one beame now when the Son of righteousnesse is risen himselfe that was a fitter light for those who lived in the regions of the shadow of death it is with the law now or light of righteousnesse as it was with the light in the creation when that which was scattered was gathered into one body of light So Christ now being revealed holinesse and righteousnesse as well as grace and love is revealed in him and and gathered up in him The word is now flesh and dwels amongst us and we behold his glory as the glory of the only begotten sonne full of truth as well as grace is in substance by the Spirit set downe 2 Cor. 3.16 17 18. verses There is the vaile taken away in turning to the Lord. There is Christ held forth to be the Spirit and the spirit of liberty to his people but observe the fruits of this liberty it is from sinne not to sinne but we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord or of the Lord the spirit so it is in the margine Thus is Christ that Sunne to us which warmes us in the very shining upon us the Believer works walks and lives under the Gospel as beholding his perfect redemption wrought in Christ and so brings forth the power of this redemption and salvation through the spirit of Adoption freely working to the praise of his free-grace and freely obeying from the life of this redemption doing every thing in love because of his love shed abroad in our hearts and neither taking in judgements hell or damnation nay not heaven or glory to force on the worke or quicken the duty but doing all from the spirit of life in Christ Jesus except when corruption or temptation hindereth the freenesse and spiritualnesse in the duty A Spirit at this pitch is Christ and his beloved both met in his garden of spices and by feeding on the honey in the honey-combe Christ fils the soule with himselfe and delights himselfe in that fulnesse that is himselfe So the soule in communion with Christ in the Spirit sees it selfe compleat in Christ so joyes in its Masters joy alwayes satisfying it selfe in that love that is Christ himselfe and is able to trumpet out its glory to the world My beloved is mine and I am his This is Christ and his office branches setting about God alwayes feeding on the banquet of love and fitting under the benner of love God beholding every elect soule in Christ the soule beholds God in Christ and Christ beholds himselfe and all his in God and this vision in one spirit swallowes up all into one God beholds every elect soule as Christ Christ beholds every branch in him as of him beholding us in that glory we shall have with him when he appeares in his fulnesse of glory and the believing soule in the Spirit beholding its justification sanctification and redemption and Christ one in eternall love the soule is in this light transformed into this love that is God himselfe so sees nothing of God but what is all God such a soule knowes no divided Christ
as our compleatnesse and Satan the accuser of the brethren cast ouâ— he was made a curse and did bare it and overcame it for us and in it satisfied the holy Law and the just God for us if the remainders of the old Adam strugles and conscience joyne with it to accuse us Christ answers you are not complear in your owne duries but in me I am perfect you can finde no spot nor wrinkle in me and in my perfection lies your compleatnesse So that every believing Saint eyeing his oneness with Christ may triumph as Paul in Rom. 8. latter end Who shall condemne Or what shall separate and conclude as he doth Nothing shall be able to doe it for I am compleat in Christ From all this there runneth great consolation to the children of God Wee have here had a view of that perfection and compleatnesse that God in his free-grace hath given unto us and that the eyes of this pure God will behold us in it to all eternity which is the fulnesse of the God-head dwelling bodily in Christ and we in him he compleat as God we compleate in him justice can lay no more to our charge then to Christ for our compleatnesse of justification is in Christ the wrath of God can as soone rise on Christ as on us for hee is our compleat discharge from wrath having borne the curse for us sinne can no more separate us from God then Christ from God for Christ is our compleat attonement our sinnes being taken from us and laid on Christ Death can no more separate us from God then it hath done Christ he bore all the sting of death for us death is to Saints but a dissolution in the flesh that wee might come home and possesse to eternity that compleatnesse with him What can the soul desire for comfort that lyes not in this Christ is full for us and wee compleat in him If God and Christ be enough for thy soule then satisfie it here here is Gods compleatnesse yea that compleatnesse which is God made our compleatnesse what can our soules judge will be the end of this love Truly it will be love without end that love which hath made us compleate in Christ that love will make us compleate with Christ not only glorious Heires but Heires in glory not only decked as the Kings daughter but lying for ever in the bosome of Christ as his Spouse not only to have visious of the Kingdome but possession of the Kingdome mortality putting on immortality will not be all but there shall be added to it a crown of glory It doth not yet appeare sayes the Tâ—xâ— what wee shall be but when be appeares we shall appeare like him It will be enough surely to be as Christ is Oh then here let our soules ceter no reaching soul can reach after more then is in Christ he is compleat enough to answer all desires to quiet all spirits to fill all hearts to cloath all naked soules hee is bread and bread enough Let us begge a mature steady eye of faith alwayes to behold Christ the fulnesse of the God-head bodily for us and we compleate in him then may we in life and death lift up our heads with joy unspeakable and full of glory in believing Thus to live will be Christ and to dye will be gaine The soule will quietly waite till God loose the body and rejoyce to be dissolved knowing it shall be with Christ the droppings of Heaven will stay the soule quiet here knowing that the compleatnesse and fulnesse of glory that God and Christ is in shall swâ—llow it up to all eternity And thus it is and shall be to be compleat in Christ CHAP. VIII Free-grace in God justifieth and redeemeth through Christ Romans 3. vers 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus THe holy Chost doth confirm and explaine that pofitive truth he layes downe in this verse by some verses going before and after as from the 20. to the 28. In the verse before he tels us all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and therefore stand in need to be justified And in vers 20. he tels us that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God Had the holy Ghost stopped here it had been an addition of misery to a fallen man and the sad cries in the soule of man would have been like those evill spirits to our Saviour that hee was come to torment them before their time But Gods designe is love and the holy Ghost is to proclaime it so that all which goes before is but like the Ministery of John to prepare the way for Christ to breake the clouds that the Sunne of Righteousnesse may appear and that Saints may see by an eye of faith that they are no loosers in that the menstruous ragges of their owne duties should not be a justifying righteousnesse to them in the pure eyes of God but that full justification is given of the free-grace of God through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ In the words is a birth the wombe that gives it forth when it had conceived it and the Midwife from whose hands and sides we receive it and all these infinitly holy and glorious the birth is Justification to a soule that hath sinned and come short of the glory of God the wombe that conceives and brings forth this glorious birth it is the Free-Grace of God and the Midwife from whose hands and sides we receive this is a Christ crucified One observation from these three which is this That all the glorious life of an elect soule delivered from the state of a fallen sinner and made a redeemed Saint is from eternity and to eternity wholely conceived and given forth in and from the wombe of the free-grace of God This is demonstrable under these two heads First in considering a soule under a state of nature Secondly under a state of Grace Or if you will in the first and the second Adam in both which I thinke the exceeding glory of that great wombe the eternall iove and free-grace of God will appeare in taking lost creatures out of the first Adam to make them glorious Saints in the Lord Christ that second Adam I know no other light nor rule but the word and spirit to make out any thing of God to any soule therfore first search the word what light it gives us to discerne our state by nature or the naturall condition of fallen men and women To take this in the beginning of holy writ let us turne to Gen. 3.6 7 8 9 10. Here we finde the fall of our first Parents in which we all fell and the effects of this fall in them They fel by difobeying God in eating the forbidden fruit but then obferve the effects of this fall when they knew their nakednesse the only reliefe they sought was aprones of fig-leaves or as it is
answer to those Jewes which thought themselves not to be under bondage because they were Abrahams seede in the flesh our Saviour tels them this externall interest did not make them free-men For sayes hee notwithstanding this you are under sinne Vers 34. Who ever commits sinne is the servant of sinne and your fleshly interest in Abraham doth not acquit you from the bonds and servitude of sinne but if the Sonne have made you free then are you free indeed As if Christ had said Abraham could not beare your sins and the wrath of God due to them for you and therefore you are in bondage still but what the Son bears he makes them perfectly free from for whom he beares it Christ came to save those that were lost And he tels us when he gave up the ghost upon the Crosse that the worke was finished And in John 17.4 I have glorified thee on earth Joh. 17.4 I have finished the worke thou gavest mee to doe Christ tels his Father that he had lost no glory in sending him upon the worke of Redemption for says he I have finished that worke thou gavest me to doe which was to worke out a perfect Redemption for his people Isa 61.1 To give liberty to the captive and to open the prison doores Isa 61.1 If this bee a truth as doubtlesse it is that what-ever Christ hath borne for a believer that a believer is fully redeemed from then it will be worthy a Saints best serious consideration in searching the Scriptures and in the Spirit giving eare to heare and heart to consider what they say Christ hath borne for us First I finde by that 2 Cor. 5.21 that Christ hath born sinne for us For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sinne that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him The text speaks in the abstract He was made sinne for us There cannot be a fuller expression there is the act God making Christ to be sinne for us or taking all sinne off from us and laying it upon him as was typified under the law in the Scape-goate which went into the Land of Forgetfulnesse Now the issue and effect of this act followeth in the Text That we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him This expression is as full as the former the holy Ghost expresseth the sinner for whom Christ was made sinne to be as fully acquitted from sinne as Christ is made sinne Marke the words made the righteousnesse of God in him so perfectly righteous that God ownes the soule as one with himselfe righteous as being one with Christ who is the righteousnesse of God Now the soule that is thus righteous must needs be acquitted from all finne the righteousnesse of God and the condemnation for sinne is as light and darknesse which cannot be together in one soule If Christ once come into a soule and tels that soul by his Spirit that he hath borne all its sins and so makes the soule to believe in the free grace of God and to rest upon Christ as his righteousnesse that soule is as fully in the fight of God acquitted from sin as Christ was by God made sinne for it This soule stands before God compleate in Christ not having spot nor wrinckle in it All that can be said is said in this That soule for whom Christ was made sin is thereby made the righteousnesse of God in him So that Christ having borne the sinne the soule never more beares that in his owne person before God but doth alwayes stand both before the throne of justice the throne of grace as fully cloath'd with Christ his righteousnesse as Christ upon the Crosse was with his sinne Isa 53.6 The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all Iniquity is one with sin here now then read this truth with an eye and heart of faith that what Christ hath borne for us we are fully delivered from and then will the glory of free grace be lifted up and our soules made to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory in believing Secondly Christ hath fulfilled the Law and borne the curse of it for his people Gal. 4.4 5. Christ was made under the law to redeeme his people from all that in the law which was weight and burthen from the curse of the law Gal. 3.13 From the reigning and condemning power of it he hath satisfied and keeps the law fully for us In Gal. 4.5 6. there Christ hath redeemed us to the liberty of sons the spirit of adoption reigning in our consciences and conversations above the letter of the law so that in Rom. 8.2 3 4. There the Apostle tells us That by vertue of the law of the spirit of life in his union with Christ Jesus hee had freedome from the law of sin and death That law of commandement by which sinne revived and the soule dyed he was delivered from by the spirit of life in Christ Jesus For sayes he what the law could not enable the soule to doe because of the weakenesse of the flesh that did God by sending his Sonne in the flesh and for sinne condemned sinne in the flesh that is condemned our sinnes and satisfied his law and justice for them all in the death of Christ So that now the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled by Christ for us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit The law was fulfilled and had its accomplishment in Christ that is the law in the letter and the soule now through union with Christ is taken up to live in the law of the spirit of life that is the spirit of God lives in the soule and is a law and a life to it not only teaching but leading the soule into all truth it is the law of the spirit and so the law of life it is the law of love and so the law of life Nay it is God himselfe displaying his love and reigning by his Spirit in the souls and consciences of his people and so it is the law of the spirit of life and all this to the soules of his people in Christ Jesus Gal. 5.18 But if yee be led by the Spirit yee are not under the law A soul which lives not and acts not upon Christ in the Spirit so farre as as he doth not he is under the law of sinne and death in all hee doth but it is a certaine deliverance from the law of the flesh in our conversations and the law of the letter in our consciences is to be ledde by the spirit of Christ and to walke in that spirit Ephes 5.8 9. For yee were sometimes darknesse Ephes 5.8 9. but now are yee light in the Lord walke as children of the light For the fruits of the Spirit is in all goodnesse c. They were never without the letter yet sometimes darke saith the Text but the light of the Lord in which the redeemed of Christ should walke
David had great glimmerings of this glory when he called upon his soule to blesse the Lord Psalm 103. Blesse the Lord O my soule and all that is within mee blesse his holy Name And so all the Psalme through Hee had discerned God in the glory of his love and he could doe nothing but blesse and praise God because he loved God When a soule once tasts God in his love it can relish no love besides Gods love If this soule have any blessing and praise in its heart and lips he layes them all upon God David spends severall Psalmes upon this subject of blessing and praising God about the 103d Psalm and so forward now the ground of all this is he was in love with God Wee know by the temper of our owne hearts how apt man is to praise that hee loveth love takes delight to spend it selfe in setting forth that it loves So doth David here he summons up all the strength of his soul to set forth the beauty and the glorious excellency of that God whom he loved love it makes the strongest of all motions it will not only say much for God but it will doe and suffer much for God and truely me-thinkes Gods love may justly chalenge love from his people in all the properties of it for God hath put forth his love to his people in all its properties as it is the full and free love of God Secondly O love Christ that hath redeemed us out of the hands of all our enemies that wee might serve him without feare hee that hath taken away all ground of feare may justly command all love Though Christ hath not left feare to bring soules to serve him yet love hath such a commission from the hands of Christ If you love mee keepe my Commandements the love of Christ constrained him to dye for us Oh how should that love constraine us to live to him there is nothing but God and Christ worthy of our love and if they have all our affections our actions will soone follow My people saith God is a willing people in the day of my power that is when his love over-powers the heart it soone commands all the actions That soule which loves Christ makes no dispute who shall command it Love is cords to draw and legges to carry the soule to all the revealed will of Christ It is Christs way to deliver his people from all their enemies and to leade them by his owne love And truly these are speaking arguments to Saints to love Christ And indeed these Gospel-truths afford much consolation to all the people of God why should wee not now be alwayes looking upon the originall love of God and Christ the rocke of Ages who is the great gift of his love and so rejoyce for ever Though selfe be nothing yet Christ is all though the Law condemne us yet Christ made under the Law saves and acquits us Now we may looke upon sinne and all our enemies drowned in the red Sea of Christs blood and lying upon the shoare of his flesh dead for an eye of faith to behold Now wee may see death swallowed up of victory and triumph with the Apostle in Rom. 8. latter end What shall separate 1 Cor. 1.31 'T is the word of truth Hee that glorieth should glory in the Lord. We may now glory in all God his justice as wel as his grace There is nothing in God but what a believing soule may glory in it may through Christ come with as much rejoycing to Gods barre of Justice as to his Throne of grace for Christ is our compleatnesse at both Hee presents the soule to God as that soule which God gave to him and for whom hee hath given himsele John 17.10.6.23 and so presents the soule perfect in himselfe If Christ be enough Saints have enough to rejoyce in If his blood satisfie Gods Justice to the full as doubtlesse it doth God is well pleased when he sees the travaile of his soule Isa 53.10 then it should quiet our consciences If Christs righteousnesse be perfect in Gods eye it should be so in ours and we should rest and rejoyce in it If Christ be the way to his and our Fathers bosome of love we should blesse that love which made him our surer way and seeke no other way but Christ If Christ be Gods way to convey all his loving kindnesse and glory to our poore soules surely then wee should rest in Gods wisdome and rejoyce in his love This is eternall love it had no beginning with time nor can it have any time to end it is what God is the same yesterday to day and for ever No soule can out-live his love or dye that is in his love therefore there is a foundation to that exhortation in Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alway and againe I say rejoyce The end of Christs bearing our sorrowes was that we might be made partakers of his joy he therefore tooke our flesh our sinnes and was made under the Law and the curse of the law for us that we might be taken up into the fulnesse of God and himselfe to all eternity to be heirs of God and joynt-heires with Christ Ephes 2.6 7. And hath raised us up together with Christ and made us to sit together in beavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come hee might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Christ Jesus Mark it therefore hath he made us one with Christ that to all eternity we might be filled with the exceeding riches of his grace and kindnesse to us that is that he might fill us with himselfe Oh what a glorious life is a Saints when by faith he eyes his interest in God and Christ he may then rejoyce indeed A perishing world can neither give to nor take from this more exceeding and eternall weight of glory All our dying dayes are in this life and shall soone have an end In heaven it will be alwayes day there is nor can be neither night nor death where God Christ is Heaven is that home where every one is an heir and every heir in full possession God is all to all with all and in all to all Eternity CHAP. III. Gods children have his Spirit to walke and worke in Rom. 8.14 15 16. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God For yee have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but yee have received the spirit of adoption whereby wee crie Abba Father The Spirit it selfe bearing witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God IN this whole Chapter we find the Apostle full of assurance of the love of God in Christ to him that hee is above all condemnation as he is one with Christ and from hence he is full of joy and holy boasting and as full of exhortation to holy walking with God in the Spirit And I conceive these
and Christ is in the Spirit now to enjoy God in his originall love with Christ in all hee is as the fruits of this love this is our life and this can only be in the Spirit Oh then it concerns us to plead our interest as children for the spirit of Adoption as it is in Rom. 8.14 15 16. It is the breathings of the Spirit which makes dead bones to live Ordinances and soules will be both dead without Christ in the Spirit it is expedient to goe sayes Christ to send the comforter and it is as needfull that he give the Spirit without it we can never have fellowship with the Father nor the Sonne in whom only our joy our life and our glory will be full In this Spirit only can wee live upon Christ as hee is the bread of life and our bread of life CHAP. VI. Christs reigne by his Spirit is the Saints liberty from bondage Gal. 4.5 6. To redeeme them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sonnes And because yee are sonnes God hath sent forth the spirit of his Sonne into your hearts crying Abba-Father THE Apostle Paul in almost this whole Epistle makes it his businesse and designe to discover to Saints their liberty in Christ and as it appeares by the Apostles writing to them in the foregoing chapter and in this These Saints to which he did more particularly write lay under legall principles and moved with legal spirits now for a remedy of this to them and all Saints after them in these two verses the Apostle holds forth Christ under a double capacity namely Justification and Sanctification to the Believer And in both a perfect freedome from the law so far as it is freedome to be delivered from it The first of these two verses holds out Christ justifying of his people in the redemption of his blood from what ever the law could accuse them of or charge upon them The latter verse holds forth the fruits of this redemption or indeede a part of this redemption it selfe Namely this That because we are sonnes God hath sent forth the spirit of his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father Either of these two parts are worthy a Saints study and admiring for ever I shall lay the foundation of what shall follow in this Point Namely that it is part of the Redemption of the bloud of Christ to a believer that no law should command or rule in the conscience or spirit of a believer but the Law of love the spirit of Adoption is here given forth to that very end that in it the soule may keep its communion close with God and Christ and be alwayes able to cry Abba Father In the proofe of this we must consider the first and second Adam as wee were in the first Adam we lay under a law of Creation and a Covenant of workes as creatures to obey our Creator and in obeying to have life doe and live but transgresse and die In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death But in the second Adam the Lord Christ the Covenant we are under is not of workes but of grace the law is not in the letter but in the spirit not written in Tables of stone but in the hearts of his people by his Spirit as appeares clearely where the Covenant of Free-Grace is recorded as in Jer. 31.33 34. and in Heb. 8.10 In both places God doth not only covenant to be our God reconciled to us not imputing sin and iniquity to his people any more but also to put his Law in our inward parts and to write it in our hearts so that this way he will teach and rule in the hearts of his people under that covenant of which Christ is the Mediator God is a Spirit and when he promiseth to write his law in our hearts wee must understand him thus the workings of his spirit in the hearts of his people Letter shall be turned into spirit Christ shall be a King as well as a Saviour and as a spirituall King so his law and his government spirituall that the Lord Christ and his Father may appeare one in this great engagement of teaching and ruling in the hearts of his people by the Spirit let us looke into Christs promise Joh. 14.15 16 17.26 Jo. 16.13 14. Here the Lord Christ promiseth to performe that Office of his intercession to God for us that he would make good his owne covenant and give his spirit to comfort lead and guâ—de the soules of his people Now the making good of Gods covenant and the efficacy of Christs intercession for this spirit to rule in the hearts of his people every soule in its owne particular can best cleare up the faithfulnesse of God and Christ But the Apostle Paul in the power of the spirit sets it out at large in Rom. 8.2 3 4 5.9 10 11.14 15.26 27. Observe the exprestious of the holy Ghost in the second verse For the law of the â—pirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 〈…〉 is mention of a double law and as distinct each from other as life and death the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death I looke on these two as that which depends on the two Covenants that of Workes and that of Grace or as it is else-where expressed the Law of the first and second husband which is the first and second Adam Now whilst the first Adam is alive in the conscience the conscience is kept under his law which is thus the law of sin and death as it makes known sin and the wages of sin which is death but sin saith the Text is not imputed where there is no law Rom. 5.13 and in Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death And then in Rom. 7. beginning the Apostle saith this law hath dominion over the conscience so long as the first husband lives From these places I judge I am not mistaken in the interpreting the law of sin and death but that the holy Ghost clearly meanes that law of Creation doe and live or the bare Letter of command in the conscience Only let us consider what is meant by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which I understand thus That through that union the soule of a believer hath with Christ it is made spirituall Christ in his Kingly Office in throned in the conscience and the the soule resting in the bosome of Christ as a dutifull Spouse in the bosome of her beloved husband and his law is the law of the spirit of life that law which is life it selfe and turnes letter into spirit One thing more I would explaine my self in that is how I understand the holy Ghost in this freedome that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made to a believer from the law of sin and death by the spirit of life I understand Christ
or parted God every tittle of revealed truth which is Christ written out by the Spirit it is all God and Christ in one and this Spirit that reveales Christ to the world in the word and to the believer in his soule this Spirit is God too that so all within the soule is God all about the soule is God and all comes from the soule is God and this is the freedome the believer in his conscience hath from the law in the letter it is not destroyed but established It is taken out of the hand of Moses the servant and put into the hand of Christ the Sonne it is not made void but fulfilled for us and in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Now behold the Law in its glory changed from law to Gospel from letter to spirit from Moses to Christ from death to life from an angry God to a loving Father as it is Gospel so it is Spirit 't is Christ yea it is God himselfe On the glory of that Law which is God not only declaring the mind will of God but in the spirit of love filling the soule with strength to obey from whence we find Christ in the Gospel calling upon those that love him to keepe his Commandements God Christ and the Spirit being in the Law it becomes the law of life when the law had in it but a naked demonstration what a Creator might justly require of a fallen creature but gave no strength it is held forth under the termes of the law of sinne and death by which it had not that glory to invite a poore soule to looke on it because the soule could see nothing but its death in it but as Christ being made under the law to redeem them that were under the law hath satisfied his and our Father fully in it for us so hee hath turned this law into his law of love into Gospel into Spirit into himselfe and his Father Now this law hath that beauty which allures and takes every beleeving soule nature turned into grace it is now meate and drinke to a believer to doe the will of God in the Spirit First This will let us truly to understand who they be that be Antinomians Those that deny the Law if I may judge I should say it is those that would keepe it in the hand of the servant out of the Sonne what can be a greater denying of it then to keepe it in the Letter out of the Spirit to rob it of that glory which is God and Christ in the Spirit What soule dare put it selfe under the Law out of Christ when in so doing it makes it selfe a debter to the whole law And as the Apostle in Gal. 3.10 11. sayes So many as are under the workes of the law are under the curse of the law and under that law which can never justifie before God Now to keepe the law in such a state as this is will make every soule shun it not daring to come under it as seeing nothing but death in it Sathan is the soules greatest enemy in darkning it with legall principles that it sees not Christ so are those the greatest enemies to the holy just and good law of God that would pul that nature of Christ in his Spirit from it and leave it still the law of the letter in the hand of Moses when God and Christ hath made it Gospel-law the law of love in the Spirit The law may here complain as the Spouse did of those watch-men that rent her vaile those that rend Christ from the law rend the beautifull vaile the glory of the law from it These holds forth the law dead like Lazarus in the grave stinking and those that follow it weeping Or as Pharoah to the children of Isael doubling the tale of bricks and giving no straw what glory is there in this But those that hold out the Law in the Spirit holds it not only forth as a law that lives but a law that gives life so farre from requiring the tale of bricke to be doubled and give no straw that in every duty it brings Christ in whence we are able to doe all things This makes it plainely appeare who they be which deny the law and may justly be distinguished by the name of Antinomians Againe this exhorts Saints that seeing it is part of the redemption of the blood of Christ That no law but the law of love the spirit of life in Christ should rule or reigne in the conscience of a believer To take the counsell of the Apostle in Gal. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled againe with the yoake of bondage God hath not given nor Saints received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but the pirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father This is the life of our lives to live in the spirit It is the great promise of the Gospel to give the Spirit This would I know when doth the soule feast but when God spreads tables of love and in the Spirit bids us eate my beloved eate abundantly and be satisfied Nature teaches the outward man to stand for liberty oh then what should grace doe how should this stirre us up to stand for that liberty which is our life loose this and loose all your spirituall life in a moment doe but once looke on the law out of Christ and it will be with us as those in 2 Cor. 3.15 But even to this day when Moses is read the vaile is upon their hearts This vaile will be a vaile of darknesse that the soule shall not see Christ in propriety in any of his offices benefits or merits If any or all these be deare oh then stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christ bath made us free This is that freedome the Sonne hath made which is freedome indeed But if the Sonne make us not free then are we bond men to eternity If thy heart be hard looke on him whom you have piereed and then shall it be evangelically melted If sinne sting thy conscience looke on him that is is lifted up which the brazen Serpent typified this is our freedome and Christs prerogative the governement is on his shoulders he is that King and his Spirit that Law which is only to reigne in the conscience of his people Why should not our soules count deare of that which is so deare to Christ and all his people This is that glory Christ will not give to another therefore this is that glory wee should only give to Christ Oh then admire and extoll for ever this glory of the riches of the free-grace of God in Christ that hath freely given this state of grace this glorious state to us that were by nature the children of wrath as well as others It doth not yet appear what we shall be so that more glory shall be then is yet revealed but our soules must confesse that
for us we are free from all wrath and condemnation And thus are we freed and delivered from a first part of the state of nature the wrath of God Christ satisfies God justifies as the Apostle expresseth it in Rom. 8. latter end Who shall condemn sayes he Christ hath dyed and is risen and God justifies So that there he makes a challenge Who shall condemne He saw this his compleatnesse in Christ and glories in it The second thing in a state of nature is vassalage to Sathan to which in opposition I proposed our sanctification by Christ as a second part of our compleatnesse in him For proofe of this take that known place where the holy Ghost sayes Christ is made unto us wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption where Christ is made by God our satisfaction he is filled for us and we filled of his fulnesse as that oyntment which fell from Aarons head down to the skirts of his garment so doth the spirit of God descend from Christ to us dwelling plentifully in us and so becomes our sanctification As in that 14th of John's Gospel The Spirit shall lead into all truth not only discover truth but lead into truth So the 6th and 7th verses of Coloss 2. rooted built up and walking in Christ The Apostle in another place acknowledging his owne insufficiency to any good worke yet sayes he through Christ that strengthens me I can doe all things Coloss 1.10 11. There is fruitfulness in every good work as we are strengthned according to the mighty power of Christ Christ the Vine and we the branches a Saint bears fruit as he is in Christ Without me you can doe nothing sayes Christ A Saint hath life to live up to the will of God only as hee lyes in the bosome of Christ and suckes life from him as being one with Christ so as the branches doe from the Vine Col. 3.3 A dead man cannot walk no more can any man out of Christ walke in the wayes of God but the Saints life is hid with Christ in God and therefore sayes the Apostle It is not I that live but Christ in mee I might abundantly enlarge in this but I forbeare for I well know that the Spirit of God in our soules is more then ten thousand witnesses besides Thus is Christ the Saints compleatnesse in point of sanctification the which I hold out in opposition to that vassalage that a natural man lyes in under Sathan The third thing that makes up the naturall mans bondage is be is dead in sins and trespasses To which I hold forth as our compleatnesse in Christ the Saints life and that a life of glory to prove this looke into Col. 3.4 there is Christ held out plainly as our life saith the Text at his appearing we shall appeare with him in glory There is life in Christ and glory in Christ Christ our life and his glory our glory which agrees with that of our Saviour because I live you shall live also and where I am you shall be As if the Lord had said my beloved Saints you are as safe as I am our lives and our glory bound up in one I laid downe my life to take up yours and now I have laid up your life as sure as my owne both in my father and your fathers bosome I in the Father and you in me My love my faire one my undefiled you are where I am this truth sealed on Pauls spirit by the spirit of Christ made him triumph in this glorious inheritance and trample upon all glory below it 2 Cor. 5.1 He knew his interest in an eternall house a building of God in heaven and in another place the same Apostle Hence forth is laid up for me a more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Rom. 8.30 There is all these three branches proved and this glory in the end of all but it selfe without end etarnall glory This point needeth no more proofe it is so cleare a truth both in word and spirit proving this I conceive the other is proved also That as a Saint is in Christ so he stands compleate before God I shall now give you some reasons of that which is gone before First were there any compleatnesse for a believing soule but in Christ and not a full compleatnes for a believing soul in Christ then God could not be a just God which is blasphemy to imagine for God having made Christ to beare our sins and wounded him that we might be healed this being the decree of God if there were any redemption but in Christ God could not be just to Christ And Secondly if in his bloud there were not a full Râ—demption God could not be just either to Christ that suffered or us for whome he suffered I come to doe thy will O Father saith Christ Now Christ having performed every tittle of his Fathers will God in justice must make all redemption to come through him and to be to us a compleate redemption A Third Reason If it were not thus then grace were not free-grace nor full grace If there be any compleatnesse out of Christ then it must be our own than grace is not free-grace and if that we have in Christ be not compleat and doth not make us compleat before God then Grace is not full now truly a hard thought of God in either of these must run against the whole current of the word of God and the experience of the Saints In the Spirit Saints may improve these truths by way of direction if God by his Spirit shew us our owne naturall deformity O then flie to Gods owne treasury for perfection and compleatnesse Namely to Christ In whom is all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily and to this very end that Saints might be compleat in him it is Satan's light that leads us to our duties for compleatnesse for the Holy Chost leaves it upon record that compleatnesse is only in Christ and surely if that lead the soule it shall be led to Christ for compleatnesse Did we believe this Scripture we must needes believe in Gods compleatnesse namely Jesus Christ The Apostle deâ—â—res to know nothing but Christ and him crucified for he saw compleatnesse in him never to want compleatnesse in the eyes of God is to goe to him in that compleatnesse that is God Namely Christ for he is our compleatnesse as the fulnesse of the God-head is in him Secondly having pirched on Christ for our compleatnesse let us beleeve strongly be established fully in him not doubting in the least for our compleatnesse is a compleat God God makes us compleat in himselfe God must be displeased with his owne peâ—â—â—â—tion if with a Saint in Christ for a Saints perfection is Christ and Christ is the sulnesse of the God-head If we summon in Satan Law Divine justice Conscience remainder of the old Adam within us and what ever can be thought on yet here is a full answer to all Christ is ascended into Heaven
a lust that burnes up others to maintain it self and builds upon those ashes it must either have the knee or the life of all that stand before it he that will not bow must breake when a proud man is supream in power For this is the improvement of his power to keep others under that he may keep himselfe up the proud man is so malicious that hee would have none happy but himselfe and threfore makes the proprieties of other men a sacrifice to this his lust and so pleaseth himselfe for a few moments like those that have the crackling of thornes under a pot for their joy but the Apostles question Who maketh thee to differ and what hast thou that thou didst not receive will bee as hard to the proud man in this practice as in the former for he that onely differs by what he receives wil but ill justifie his trampling upon another that hath not received so much as himself When God that gives the talents makes enquiry after the improvement of them and findes it to be onely so he wil not give the testimony nor the trust of Well done good and faithfull servant to such a soule God makes it his glory to lift up his people to make them heirs of himselfe joynt heires with Christ in glory Therefore the proud man that keeps others under that hee may keep up himselfe hath not his precept principle practice nor example from God and therefore hath no reason to expect that in his way of pride God should either own him or prosper him but that God in lifting up of his own glory should trample the proud man under his feet as he doth others for the keeping up of himself Thirdly a Proud man he scornes and slights such as are below him because he is above them he scorns slights them in their counsels in their kindnesses and in their requests A proud man scorns that hee which hath lesse power and greatnesse then himselfe should advise him and from hence slights the counsell and if the poore man serve the proud man with kindnesse he takes it as duty so slights the love and scornes the man and his service And if he make request to him nay though it be for justice if he doe not admire him he must keep off and know his distance and he shall be heard at leasure hee is not of magnitude enough for his consideration hee is above low persons and things in his thoughts he cannot look upon any thing below him with any other eye then an eye of scorn as the proud Pharisee upon the poore Publican This practice in proud men women doth better discover it selfe then any pen can doe it but to such I shall also give the Apostles two questions Who maketh thee to differ and what hast thou that thou didst not receive And when they shall be answered I beleeve both the principle and this practice of pride will be rooted out of the heart when the soule is made to confesse that God makes it to differ and it hath received all its excellencies from God it will then scorne none below it selfe but by such an object consider from what God hath raised it and admire that power and goodnesse which hath bestowed excellencies upon it pitying not scorning any below it selfe Fourthly A proud man when he hath any power will soon be imposing beyond the just limits of his power A proud manis in nothing more discovered then by his impositions it is the pride of his heart puts his power upon imposing else sayes that heart my power will not be known Now when pride sets power on work it carries it quickly beyond its bounds pride is a swelling lust very hard to be bound but where it is chiefe in the heart and gives rule to the power which it in the hand that hand and heart soon forgets it bounds We have an example of this in the decree of Darius the King Daniel 6. his pride though his power had nobounds because he was King therefore he makes a decree according to the advice of his wicked Councell which was sutable to his own proud heart That whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or Man for thirty dayes save of himselfe should be cast into the Lyons Den. The ground of this decree was to make a snare for Daniel whom they confesse in the fourth verse to bee faithfull to the Kingdome and that they had no hopes though they sought to destroy him but they knew he was as faithfull to his God as to the Kingdome so that if a decree were made against his worshiping of God that would reach him I shall forbeare to open this Scripture in this place because it is not so proper to the thing in hand though I beleeve the doing of it would open the hearts and practices of many men in our dayes but onely make use of it thus farre to prove that pride in men of power makes them to impose beyond their power to set themselves above God and make decrees against God in stead of defending the praise-worthy to make lawes against that which is praise-worthy because God hath set or suffered them to be in the throne amongst men they put forth their power into the throne of God namely the conscience of his people that power which pride sets to work stickes at no decrees if men that would lay snares for the people of God to destoy them come and desire this power to make lawes and decrees how Gods people shall worship him or that they shall not worship him at all these decrees shall soon have their hand and seale The Devill doth make power by pride fit and ready to oppose any thing of God and to impose any thing upon the people of God it is the property of pride to seeke the ruine of such at beare the image of the humble God Now if nothing can bee laid to their charge of unfaithfulnesse to the place or people where they live then a decree concerning the worshipping of their God must be made to reach them though such as make it goe beyond their power that shall not be stuck at where pride guides the hand pride seekes power to make that its servant that which pride wils the power it hath shal work power in the hand serves pride in the heart and therefore keeps not within its bounds because it is the servant of pride But to this also the Apostles questions are very proper Who makes thee to differ And what hast thou that thou hast not received Is thy power thy own or must thou account for it When the Lord calls his servants to give an account of their Talents dost thou differ in this that thou hast more power then others tell me Who made thee to differ Is thy power originally in thy selfe or didst thou receive it from God Thou wilt not say thou art thy own originall because thy perishing condition will disprove thee well then God