of the Church of Sardis Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Rev. 3. 1. The cordial death if I may so call it or the death of the heart is that which happeneth upon the sense or apprehension of some extream danger or distresse when discreet Abigail had told her husband Nabal of the danger he was in by reason of his churlish behaviour towards Davids young men The Text saith That his heart died within him and he became as a stone 1 Sam. 25. 37. And Pharaoh in the plague of locusts desired Moses and Aaron to intreat the Lord that he might take away that death onely Exod. 10. 17. The natural death consisteth in the dissolution of nature or the separation between the body and the Soul It is said That when Rachels Soul departed she died Gen. 35. 18. And when the widow of Zarephaths son was dead Elijah cried unto the Lord and said O Lord my God I pray thee let this Childes Soul come into him again And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the Soul of the Childe came into him again and he revived 1 King 17. 21 22. The last is eternal death consisting in those eternal torments which the damned shall be cast into upon that peremptory sentence Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25. 41. In these four sorts or degrees of death are comprehended all the discomforts mischiefs and miseries that mankinde can suffer or suspect whether they be spiritual temporal or eternal And now I shall prove that every one of them is the reward or punishment of sin First the spiritual death is the reward of sin Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankfull but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became fools And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and to four-footed beasts and creeping things Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleannesse through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies between themselves Rom. 1. 21 22 23 24. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections c. verse 26. Secondly the cordial death or the death of affliction trouble and distresse that is also the reward or the punishment of sin We grope for the wall like the blinde and we grope as if we had no eyes we stumble at noon day as in the night we are in desolate places as dead men We roar all like bears and mourn sore like doves we look for judgement but there is none for salvation but it is far off from us For our transgressions are multiplied before thee and our sins testifie against us for our transgressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them Isa 59. 10 11 12. Thirdly the natural death that is also the wages of sin And unto Adam God said Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying thou shalt not eat of it cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thg life Thorns and Thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the Herb of the field In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread untill thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. 17 18 19. And lastly eternal death is the punishment of sin And it shall come to passe that from one new Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me for their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh Isa 66. 23 24. Thus we see that sin hath laid us open to every degree of death and destruction And verily the penalty annexed unto the breach of the Covenant of works that original rebellion importeth no otherwise In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2. 17. Dying thou shalt die saith the original Thou shalt die every kinde of death And now if it be demanded how it may be said that we are redeemed from these miseries distresses and calamities by this Covenant of Grace I answer that Almighty God hath redeemed us from them by taking away the onely cause of them which we find here to be sin And that for and through the merits and mediation the sufferings and satisfaction of Jesus Christ his onely begotten Son whom he gave us and for us in this Covenant Provided alwayes that we receive him by faith according to the condition of this Covenant And here we may do well to take notice That the evil of sin is three-fold That is to say The guilt of sin The punishment of sin And the power of sin And it is necessary that all these be removed before we can certainly be said to be redeemed For where the guilt remaineth the punishment is not to be avoided and whilest the power continueth neither shall the guilt be forgotten nor the punishment forgiven You know that whosoever transgresseth the Law and is found guilty thereof he must suffer punishment according to the nature of his offence And whosoever committeth sinne transgresseth the Law For sin is the transgression of the Law 1 John 3. 4. Now where is that Soul that dares stand upon her own justification and plead Not guilty to the whole Law of God Or whether our own hearts condemne us or not God is greater then our hearts and knoweth all things 1 John 3. 20. It is in vain for us to dissemble or conceal our iniquities For all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do Heb. 4. 13. Verily the Lord sees our sins before we commit them I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherâ—usly saith he and wast called a transgressour from the womb Isa 48. 8. And he that transgresseth the Law in the least particular he is cursed For it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them Gal. 3. 10. And being cursed he can expect no better then to be condemned unto eternal torments For the Son of Man sitting upon the throne of his glory shall say unto them Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Math. 25. 41. But being possessed of the Lord Jesus Chriâ—t by an effectual faith according to the tenour of this Covenant of Grace we are redeemed both from the Curse For Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal.
otherwise grace is no more grace saith Saint Paul Rom. 11. 6. It is the nature of grace to be free we are justified freely by his grace saith the same Apostle Rom. 3. 24. If we shall look upon Gods words and works we shall finde that it is the will of God to give us his onely begotten Son Christ Jesus together with all his benefits and blessings altogether freely without cost without desert without assistance and without seeking First without our cost or charge Thou hast not brought me the small cattel of thy burnt-offerings neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices I have not caused thee to serve with an offering nor wearied thee with Incense Thou hast bought me no sweet Cane with money neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins saith the Lord Isa 43. 23 24 25. Now this obliteration or remission of sins is part of Christs purchase and we cannot receive the one without the other No Christ no forgivenesse of sins In him we have redemption through his bloud even the forgivenesse of sins saith St. Paul Eph. 1. 7. Neither did Christ himself set his own graces to sale when he stood cried saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow Rivers of living water But this he spake of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive John 7. 37 38. 39. Secondly God giveth his Son with all his benefits c. without our desert We our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another But after that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour saith St. Paul Tit. 3. 3. 4 5 6. And to the Ephesians God who is rich in mercie for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by grace ye are saved And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. 4. 5 6 7. All this he did for us when we were dead in sins And alas what can sinfull dead men deserve Thirdly he vouchsafeth us his Son Jesus Christ with all his graces and blessings without our assistance For if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousnesse shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life Rom. 5. 17 18. And if freely and meerly by one then without our Assistance Fourthly and lastly God gives us Christ without our seeking When we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid our faces as it were from him he was despised and we esteemed him not saith the Prophet Isa 53. 2 3. The lost sheep sought not the Shepheard but the Shepheard sought his lost sheep Luke 15. 4. c. I am found of him that sought me not saith the Lord our Redeemer Isa 65. 1. Thus you see that it is the nature of grace to give altoger freely And therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace Rom. 4. 16. For to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt Rom. 4. 4. By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. 8. And this I conceive to be a second and a solid reason why God requireth nothing but Faith Because whatsoever had been required with or besides Faith it would have been destructive to the very nature of this Covenant of Grace THe fifth branch growing in this Paradise this Eden of the Covenant of Grace is the prevention freedom from destruction should not perish should not be destroyed I conceive it will not be denied by any sound Christian but that Adams transgression against the Covenant of works did draw an universal guilt and punishment over the face of the whole earth Insomuch that every man woman proceeding from Adam after a natural generation is become guilty of his sin and by that means liable to his penalty First we are all polluted by his sinne Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one saith Job Job 14. 4. Behold saith David I was shapen in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me Psal 51. 5. And St. Paul tells us That the children of God by grace were the children of wrath by nature Eph. 2. 3. And it is onely sin that subjecteth us to Gods wrath Col. 3. 5 6. And secondly as Adams corrupted nature hath ingaged us in his damnable sin so hath his sin likewise exposed us to his deadly punishment For as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned or in whom all have sinned saith St. Paul Rom. 5. 12. Thus we see that the contagion or the infection of Adams sin and likewise the certainty of his punishment are both become universal And therefore this Hereditary corruptition hath put us into a perishing condition although we had no sin of our own to answer for But then if we shall consider all our sins both original and actual our sins of omission and our sins of commission together with their several circumstances and aggravations Who can forbear to cry out with Saint Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7. 24. The body of this death or the power of this death And verily we shall perceive the power of this death to be far more dangerous then ordinarily it is conceived to be If we shall consider it according to the several sorts or degrees of death Which we finde to be four viz. The spiritual death the cordial death the natural death and the eternal death The spiritual death is that whereby we are said to be dead in sin Eph. 2. 1. And therefore St. Paul tells us The widow that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth 1 Tim. 5. 6. And thus the Spirit to the Angel
3. 13. And from the penalty thereupon depending For he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed Isa 53. 5. And moreover of guilty sinners we are become justified Saints For we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Rom. 3. 23 24 25. In which words we finde the moving or procuring cause of our justification to be the free grace of God the meritorious cause to be Christ the Son the efficient cause to be God the Father the instrumental cause to be Faith in Christ and the final cause to be the glory of God The glory of his righteousnesse for the Remission of sins That he might be just in being the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus verse 26. For as it is just with God to punish the sins of a Reprobate that dieth in his iniquity So it is as just with him to pardon the sins of a believer for which Christ died And as the true believer is delivered from the guilt and punishment of sin by the merit of Christ So is he also preserved from the power of sin by the Spirit of Christ And this he doth By redeeming us from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. By purging our consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. By crucifying our old man the body of sin Rom. 6. 6. By freeing us from the Law the strength of sin 1 Cor. 15. 56 57. By delivering us through grace from the dominion of sin Rom. 6. 14. By strengthening us with might in the inner man Eph. 3. 16. And by making us partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Who will not then conclude with S. Paul In all these things we are more then conquerers through him that loved us Rom. 8. 37. And thus you see that our Lord Jesus Christ by justifying us through his merit hath freed us from the condemning guilt punishment of sin And by sanctifying us through his Spirit he hath delivered and fortified us from and against the prevailing power and insinuation of sin And 〈◊〉 this means he hath redeemed us from 〈◊〉 and destruction being the just reward and recompence of sin And all this meerly and absolutely upon the account of this eternal Covenant of grace For God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life But have everlasting life THis is the blessed Inheritance conferred and confirmed by this Covenant according to this Copy Everlasting life or eternal salvation This is the glorious expectation and inheritance of the Children of God Blessed the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 1. 3 4 5. If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men 〈◊〉 â—iserable saith St. Paul 1. Cor. 15. 19. 〈◊〉 are troubled on every side saith he yet not â—â—stressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed Alwayes bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body 2 Cor. 4. 8 9 10. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory verse 16. 17 18. Truely it is this Assurance that supports and supplies the militant Members of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout their whole warfare It removeth all difficulties sweetneth all discomforts and relieveth all distresses Verily it elevateth the Soul beyond all expectation I take pleasure in infirmities in reproches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 10. Good Paul were these thy pleasant recreations Truely it is not to be denied but that they are very profitable exercises For when I am weak saith he then am I strong When I am weak in the flesh then am I strong in the faith For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are nâ—t worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. What will not a true believer do or suffer in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Tit. 1. 2. But forasmuch as there must be a temporal life before there can be an eternal life Therefore as I have formerly set forth unto you the several sorts or degrees of death So I shall here endeavour â—o shew you the several sorts or degrees of life which I conceive to be likewise four That is to say The natural life The spiritual life The peacefull life and the eternal or everlasting life And secondly I shall apply my self to prove that every one of them as a Member or passage of or to this everlasting life is part or parcel of that eternal inheritance whereunto the Son of God hath intituled us by vertue of this Covenant The first I say is the natural life or the life of Nature That which we say we receive from our Parents And it consisteth in the union of the body and the Soul or of the flesh and spirit according to the vulgar sense But in the Scripture sense that is properly called the natural life wherein a man followeth Nature for his chief or onely guide And of such a one St. Paul sayes That the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. Now this natural life in either of these senses may be said to be the issue of the first birth or of the fleshly generation For that which is born of the flesh is flesh saith our Lord Joh. 3. 6. And they that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh saith St. Paul Rom. 8. 5. Verily whosoever liveth meerly this natural life or this life of Nature onely it were better for him that he had never lived at all that he had never been born For we are all by nature the children of wrath According to that of St. Paul Eph. 2. 3. Neverthelesse though accidentally by reason of the corruption of Nature this natural life tendeth
these Covenanters do injoy in this eternal life we finde it shadowed out unto us under the notion of Abrahams bosome Luke 16. 22. as being the secure and safe receptacle for all the seed of Abraham according to the faith Of Paradise Luke 23. 43. Of a Kingdom Math. 25. 34. Of a Crown of righteousnesse 2 Tim. 4. 8. Of an exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. With other the like alluring expressions For the manner how the faithfull are to enjoy this everlasting life St. John telleth us that They are before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them They shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes Rev. 7. 15. 16 17. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb saying Great and marvsllous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Rev. 15. 3. But to set forth the truth and perfection either of the matter or manner of those glorious infinite and unconceiveable injoyments by these or any other expressions visions or revelations were to shew you the brightness of the Sun by the light of a Candle For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. And now I am to prove that every one of these several sorts or degrees of life is part of Christs purchase conferred upon us for and through his merits and mediation and that in and by this Covenant of Grace And for the more clear manifestation hereof I desire you still to consider that whatsoever Christ hath done or suffered for and on the behalf of mankinde the same he did and suffered before the world began not onely intentionally according to our understanding but effectually and actually according to the tenor of Gods will and the satisfaction of his justice He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. And thus the Prophet Isaiah He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities c. Isa 53. 5. You know though a man hath a bad or a bankrupt debitour yet if he hath a good sufficient surety he will not be hasty to exact the penalty upon the poor principal in regard that he is well assured of full satisfaction from the surety and haply upon that security he keeps the bond unsued for divers years after the forfeiture even till his own occasions call upon him Christ is our surety in this Covenant And Christ his promise stands for present pay his free ingagement for full satisfaction He gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time saith St. Paul 1 Tim. 2. 6. Not presently but even at such a time as God determined and agreed upon And next I desire you to call to minde what Moses that man of God hath delivered concerning the Creation How God in creating the light the firmament the waters the earth and those other Creatures necessary and convenient for mans use and sustentation He onely said let it be so and it was so But coming in conclusion to make man he calls his privy Councel Son and Spirit and sayes Let us make man in our own image after our likenesse and let him have dominion over the fish of the Sea and over the fowle of the aire and over the Cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth Gen. 1. 26. As if he had said this is our great vicegerent this is he for whose sake and for whose posterity we have created this great universe And on whose behalf we did conclude that Covenant of Grace to take effect at the instant of his fall That so both he and all his seed may know it is not of themselves whereby they stand but meerly of our goodnesse and our grace which apprehended by a lively faith their faith will work obedience by love Therefore let us make man in our own image c. In the first Chapter of Genesis verse 27. Man is created in the 28. verse he is blessed in the 29. verse he receives his Commission In the second Chapter at the 16. and 17. verses he receives his charge The Covenant of works In the third Chapter at the sixth verse he forfeits his recognisance In the ninth verse God gives him summons And in the fifteenth verse he shews him his Saviour The seed of the woman Neverthelesse least man should grow too idle too insolent or too old in his iniquity In the 19th verse of the same third Chapter God shews him his Task his Original and his End In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return unto the ground there is his task For out of it wast thou taken there is his original For dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return there is his end But you will say If there were such a precontract such a Covenant of Grace formerly provided as you speak of why did not Christ thereby deliver Adam and his posterity from this tedious task this sense of their base extraction and this subjection to a sad return I answer that in the first place we may conceive that our Creatour thought it necessary to leave us in perpetual imployment thereby to keep us still in action we have a proverb that idlenesse is the mother of all evil But without doubt idlenesse is the Devils best opportunity It is like that the Serpent found Eve gazing as Shechem found Dina gadding otherwise the one had not been so soon deceived nor the other so easily defiled Secondly he was pleased to continue us under the sense of our contemptible original to keep us from presumption pride Had Adam formerly considered the simple stuffe whereof he was created haply the haughty desire of being like his Master had not made him Gods enemy Behold saith Abraham I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes Gen. 18. 27. There is his humility And he was called the friend of God James 2. 23. And thirdly he left us subject unto death even by that means to better our condition Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours Rev. 14. 13. And likewise that in the interim in the time of this natural life he might keep our Souls in action as well as our bodies whilest we walk by faith and not by sight According to that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 7. But where is then the benefit you will say of this eternal Covenant