unto two men in severall by diverse wayes of propriety or unto sundry purposes A house belongs wholly to the Landlord for the purpose of profit and revenew and wholly to the tenant for the purpose of use and inhabitation but it seemes in ordinary reason impossible for the same thing to belong wholly to sundry men in regard of al purposes for which it serves But such an ample propriety hath every man to originall sinne that he holds it all and to all purposes for which it serves For though some sinnes there are which cannot by some men bee properly committed properly I say because by way of provocation or occasion or approbation or the like one man may participate in the sinnes which another commits as a King cannot be 〈◊〉 to his superiors in governement because he hath no superiors a lay man cannot commit the sinneâ—… of a Minister an unmarried man the sinnes of a husband c. yet this disability ariseth out of the exigence of personall conditions but no way out of the limitednesse or impotency of originall sinne which in every man serves to all the purposes which can consist with that mans condition and as his condition alters so is it likewise fruitfull unto new sinnes And these are two great aggravations of this sinnefull inheritance That it comes whole unto every man and that every man hath it unto all the purposes for which it serves Thirdly it is to be observ'd that in originall sin as in all other there are two things Deordination or sinfulnes and Guilt or obligation unto punishment And though the former of these be inseparable from nature in this life yet every man that beleeveth and repenteth hath the damnation thereof taken away it shall not prove unto him mortall But now this is the calamitie Though a man have the guilt of this sinne taken of from his person by the benefit of his owne faith and the grace of Christ to him yet still both the deordination and the guilt passeth over unto his posteritie by derivation from him For the former the case is most evident what ever is borne of flesh is flesh no man can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane an evill roote must bring forth evill branches a bitter fountaine corrupt streames leaven will derive sowernesse into the whole masse and the Fathers treason will staine the blood of all his posterity And it is as certaine for the latter that though guilt and punishment may bee remitted to the Father yet from him it may be transmitted to his childe Every parent is the chanell of death to his posterity Totum gonuâ—… 〈◊〉 fecit Adam is damnationis traduceâ—… Adam did diffuse and propagate damnation unto all mankind Neither is 〈◊〉 any wonder or injustice that from a cursed roote should proceed branches fit for nothing but the fire As a Iew that was circumcised brought forth an uncircumcised sonne as cleane crne sowed comes up with chaffe and stubble as the seed of a good Olive brings forth a wilde Olive so is it with the best that are their Graces concurre not to naturall generation and therefore from them is nothing naturally propagated For first the wiping off of Guilt while the fault abides is an Act of Grace and pardon now pardons are ever immediate from speciall favour from direct grant and therefore cannot runne in the bloud nor come to a man in the vertue of his birth or by derivation especially where the pardon runnes not in generall termes but personally by way of priviledge and exemption and that too upon certaine conditions the performance and vertue whereof is intransient and cannot availe any by way of imputation or redundancie Secondly though the personall Guilt be off from the man yet the ground of that Guilt the damnablenesse or liablenesse to be imputed unto punishment is inseparable from sin though sin be not mortall de facto So as to bring damnation to the person justified yet it never ceaseth to be mortall de merito that is to be damnable in it selfe in regard of its owne nature and obliquity though in event and execution the damnable vertue of sinne be prevented by faith which cures it and by repentance which forsakes and cuts it off For wee must observe that To merit damnation belongs to the nature of sinne but to bring forth damnation belongs to the accomplishment and finishing of sinne when it is suffered to grow to its measure never interrupted never prevented God hath patience toward sinners and waiteth for their repentance and doth not presently powre out all his wrath if in this interim men will bee perswaded in the day of their peace to accept of mercy offer'd and to Breake of sinnes before the Epha be full then their sinnes shall not end in Death But if they neglect all Gods mercie and goe on still till there be no remedie then sinne growes to a ripenesse and will undoubtedly bring forth Death Since therefore the nature of sinne passeth to posterity even when the guilt thereof is remitted in the paâ—…ent needs must the guilt thereof passe too till by grace it be done away Fourthly In originall sinne there is a twofold denomination or formalitie It is both a Sinne and a Punishment of sinne For it is an absurd conceite of some men who make it an impossibility for the same thing to be both a sinne and a punishment When a prodigall spends all his mony upon uncleannes is not this mans poverty both his sin and his punishment When a drunkard brings diseases on his body and drownes his reason is not that mans impotencie and sottishnesse both his sin and his punishment Indeed sinne cannot rightly be cald an inflicted punishment for God doth not put it into any man yet it no way implies contradiction but rather abundantly magnifies the justice and wisedome of Almighty God to say that he can order sinne to bee a scourge and punishment to it selfe And so Saint Austen cals it a penall vitiousnesse or corruption So that in the derivation of this â—…in wee have unto us propagated the very wrath of God It is like Aarons rod on our part a branch that buddeth unto iâ—…iquitie and on Gods part a Serpent that stingeth unto Death So that Adam is a twofold cause of this sinne in his posterity A meritorious cause he did deserve it by prevarication as it was a punishment an efficient cause he doth derive it by contagion as it is a sinne And this is the wretchednesse of this sinne that it is not onely a meanes to bring the wrath of God upon us but is also some part and beginning of the wrath of God in us and so is as it were the earnest and first fruits of damnation Not as if it were by God infus'd into our nature for wee have it put into us no other way but by seminall contagion and propagation from Adam but God seeing man throw away and wast
that original righteousnes which he at the first put into him and appointing him to bee the head and fountaine of all mankind not only in nature but in foro-too in regard of legall proceeding with-held from him and his seed that Gift which was freely by him in the Creation bestowed and willfully by Adam in the fall reiâ—…cted and adjudg'd this miserie upon him that hee should passe over to all his posterity the immediate fruit of his first prevarication which was originall sinne contracted by his owne default and as it were issuing out of his willfull disobedience upon him because they all were in him interessed as in their head and father in that first transgression Thus have I at large opened those many great evils which this sinne hath in it that life of concupiscence which the Apostle here speaketh of I cannot say of it as the Romane Epitomizer of his Historie Iâ—… brevit abella totanteius imagiâ—…m amplexâ—… suâ—… that in a small compasse I have comprized the whole Image of old Adam but rather cleane contrary In amplatabull non dimidiam eius imaginem amplexus sum The halfe of this sinne hath not all this while beene described unto you Now therefore to conclude this Argument wherein I have been the larger both because of the necessarinesse of it that we may know whither to rise in our humiliations for sinne and because it is the principall sâ—…ope of the Apostle in the place and serves most abundantly to shew our owne everlasting insufficiency for happinesse in our selves we see by these things which have been discovered in this sin at what defiance we ought to stand with the doctrine of those men first who mince and qualifie and extenuate this sinne as the Papists doe making it the smallest of all sinnes not deserving any more of Gods wrath then onely a want of his beatificall presenâ—…e and that too without any paine or sorrow of minde which might be apt to grow from the apprehension of so great a losse nay not onely denying it after Baptisme to bee a sinne but onely the seed of sinne an evill disease langvor tyranny and impotency of nature but that even in the wicked themselves concupiscence is rather imputed for sinne then is really and formally sinne notwithstanding it be forbidden in the Commandement and upon these presumptions reviling the doctrine of the Reformed Divines for exaggerating this sinne as that which overspreadeth in its beeing all our nature and in its working all our lives Secondly of those who heretofore and even now deny any sinfulnesse either in the privation of the Image of God or in the concupiscence and deordination of our nature It was the doctrine of the Pelagians in the primitive times that mans nature was not corrupted by the fall of Adam that his sinne was not any ground to his posterity either of death or of the merit of death that sinne comes from Adam by imitation not by propagation That Baptisme doth not serve in Infants for remission of sinne but onely for adoption and admission into Heaven that as Christs righteousnesse doth not profit those which beleeve not so Adams sinne doth not prejudice nor injure those that actually sinne not That as a righteous man doth not beget a righteous Childe so neither doth a sinner beget a Childe guilty of sinne That all sinne is voluntary and therefore not naturall That Marriage is Gods ordinance and therefore no instrument of transmitting sinne That concupiscence being the punishment of sinne cannot bee a sinne likewise These and the like Antitheses unto Orthodox Doctrine did the Pelagians of old maintaine And as it is the policy of Satan to keepe alive those heresies which may seeme to have most reliefe from proud and corrupted reason and doe principally tend to keepe men from that due humiliation and through-conviction of sinne which should drive them to Christ and magnifie the riches of Christs Grace to them there are not wanting at this day a broode of sinfull men who notwithstanding the evidence of Scripture and the consent of all Antiquitie doe in this Point concurre with those wicked Heretikes and deny the originall corruption of our nature to bee any sinne at all but to be the work of Gods owne hands in Paradise nay deny further the very imputation of Adams sinne to any of his posterity for sinne And now because in this point they doe expressely contradict not onely the Doctrine of holy Scriptures the foundation of Orthodox Faith the consent of Ancient Doctors and the Rule of the Catholike Church but in no lesse then foure or five particulars doe manifestly oppose the doctrine of the Church of England in this Point most evidently delivered in one article for the Article saith Man is Gone from originall righteousnesse they say Man did not goe away from it but God snatched it away from man the Article saith that by Originall sinne Man is enclined unto evill and calleth it by the name of concupiscence and lust they say that Originall sinne is onely the privation of righteousnes and that concupiscence is a concreated and originall condition of nature the Article saith that the flesh lusteth alwayes contrary to the spirit they say in expresse termes that this is false and that the flesh when it lusteth indeed doth lust against nothing but the spirit and that the Apostle in that place meant onely the Galatians and not all spirituall or regenerate men the Article saith that this lust deserveth Gods wrath and condemnation they say that it doth not deserve the hatred of God and lastly the Article saith that the Apostle doth confesse that concupiscence and lust hath of it selfe the nature of sinne they say that it is not properly either a sinne or a punishment of sinne but onely the condition of nature in all these respects it will be needfull to lay downe the truth of this great Point and to vindicate it from the proud disputes of such bold Innovators And first let us see by what steps and gradations the Adversaries of this so fundamentall a doctrine which as Saint Austin saith is none of those in quibus optimi fidei Catholicae defensores salvâ fidei compage inter se aliquando 〈◊〉 consonant wherein Orthodox Doctors may differ and abound in their owne sense doe proceed to denie the sinfulnesse of that which all Ages of the Church have called Sinne. First they say That the Sinne of Adam is not any way the sinne of his posterity that it is against the nature of sinne against the goodnesse wisedome and truth of God against the rule of Equitie and Iustice that Infants who are Innocent in themselves should bee accounted Nocent iu another therein taking away Baptisme for remission of sinnes from Infants who being not borne with guilt of Adams sinne stand yet in no neede of any purgation Secondly they say that though
Adams sinne may be thus farre said to be unto posterity imputed as that by reason of it they become obnoxious unto Death namely to an eternall dissolution of body and soule without any reunion and an eternall losse of the divine vision without any paine of sense yet that death which to Adam in his person was a punishment is not so to his posteritie but onely the condition of their nature Thirdly they say that that which is called originall sinne is nothing else at all but onely the privation of originall righteousnesse and that concupiscence was 〈◊〉 contracted and brought upon nature by sinne but was originally in our nature suspended indeede by the presence but actuated by the losse of that righteousnesse Fourthly they say That that Privation was not by man contracted but by God inflicted as a punishment upon Adam from whom it comes but onely as a condition of nature unto us that man in his fall and prevarication did not Throw away or actually shake off the Image of God but God pull'd it away from him which if God had not done it would have remained with him notwithstanding the sinne of the first fall Fifthly they say That in as much as the privation of originall righteousnesse was a punishment by God upon Adam justly inflicted and by Adam unto us naturally and unavoidably propagated It is not therefore to be esteem'd any sinne at all neither for it can God justly condemne any man nor is it to be esteem'd a punishment of sinne in us though it were in Adam because in us there is no sinne going before it of which it may bee accounted the punishment as there was in Adam but onely the condition of our present nature Lastly they say that Adam being by God deprived of originall righteousnesse which is the facultie and fountaine of all obedience and being now constituted under the deserved curse all the debt of legall obedience wherein he and his posteritie in him were unto God obliged did immediately cease so that whatsoever outrages should after that have beene by Adam or any of his children committed they would not have beene sinnes or transgressions nor involv'd the Authors of them in the guilt of iust damnation That which unto us reviveth sin is the new covenant because therein is given unto the law new strength to command and unto us new strength to obey both which were evacuated in the fall of Adam Vpon which premises it doth most evidently follow that unlesse God in Christ had made a covenant of grace with us anew no man should ever have beene properly and penally damned but onely Adam and he too with no other then the losse of Gods presence For â—… Hell and torments are not the revenge of Legall but of Evangelicall disobedience not for any actuall sinnes for there would have beene none because the exaction of the Law would have ceased and where there is no Law there is no transgression not for the want of righteousnesse because that was in Adam himselfe but a punishment and in his posteritie neither a sinne nor a punishment but onely a condition of nature not for habituall concupiscence because though it be a disease and an infirmitie yet it is no sinne both because the being of it is connaturall and necessary and the operations of it inevitable and unpreventable for want of that bridle of supernaturall righteousnesse which was appointed to keepe it in Lastly not for Adams sinne imputed because being committed by another mans will it could bee no mans sinne but his that committed it So that now upon these premises we are to invert the Apostles words By one man namely by Adam sinne entered into the world upon all his posterity and death by sinne By one man namely by Christ tanquam per causam sine quâ non sinne returned into the world upon all Adams posteritie and with sinne the worst of all deaths namely hellish torments which without him should not haue beene at all O how are wee bound to prayse God and recount with all honour the memorie of those Worthies who compiled Our Articles which serue as a hedge to keepe out this impious and mortiferous doctrine as Fulgentius cals it from the Church of England and suffers not Pelagius to returne into his owne country There are but three maine arguments that I can meet with to colour this heresie and two of them were the Pelagians of old First that which is naturall and by consequence necessarie and unavoidable cannot be sinne Originall sinne is naturall necessarie and unavoidable therefore it is no sin Secondly that which is not voluntarie cannot be sinfull Originall sinne is not voluntarie therefore not sinfull Thirdly no sinne is immediatly caused by God but originall sinne being the privation of originall righteousnesse is from God immediately who pull'd away Adams righteousnesse from him Therfore it is no sinne For the more distinct understanding the whole truth and answering these supposed strong reasons give me leave to premise these observations by way of Hypothesis First there are Two things in originall sinne The privation of righteousnesse and the corruption of nature for since originall sinne is the roote of actuall and in actuall sinnes there are both the omission of the good which we ought to exercise and positive contumaâ—…ies against the Law of God therefore a vis formatrix something answerable to both these must needs be found in originall sinne This positive corruption for in the other all agree that it is originall sinne is that which the Scripture cals flâ—…sh and members and law and lusts and bodie and Saint Austin vitiousnesse inobedience or inordinatenesse and a morbid affection Consonant whereunto is the Article of our Church affirming that man by originall sinne is farre gone from righteousnesse which is the privation secondly that thereby he is of his owne nature enclined unto evill which is the pravitie or corruption and this is the doctrine of many learned papists Secondly the Law being perfect and spirituall searcheth the most intimate corners of the soule and reduceth under a law the very rootes and principles of all humane operations And therefore in aâ—… much as well being is the ground of well working and that the Tree must be good before the fruite therefore wee conclude that the Law is not onely the Rule of our workes but of our strength not of our life only but of our nature which being at first deliver'd into our hands entire and pure cannot become degenerate without the offence of those who did first betray so great a trust committed unto them Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God Exâ—…ni valdâ—… tuo with all thy might saith the Law it doth not only require us to love but to have mindes furnish'd with all strength to love God so that there may be life and vigoâ—… in our obedience and love of him The Law requires no
in you which was in Christ that is have the same judgement opinions affections compassions as Christ had As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation Secondly in his passive obedience though not in the end or purposes yet in the manner of it Runne with patience saith the Apostle the race which is set before you looking vnto Iesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despised the shame c. If the head be gotten through a strait place all the members will venture after Therefore since Christ hath gone through shame contradiction death to his glory let us not be wearied nor faint or despaire in our mindes The head doth not thinke all its worke ended when it is gotten through it selfe but taketh care and is mindefull of the members that follow Therefore the Apostle cals our sufferings A fulfilling or making up of the sufferings of Christ. The Resolution of all is briefely this We must follow Christ in those things which hee both did and commanded not in those things which he did but not commanded But heere it may be objected Christ was Himselfe voluntarily poore Hee became poore for our sakes and he commanded poverty to the young man goe sell all that thou hast and give it to the poore Is every man to be herein a follower of Christ To this I answere in generall that poverty was not in Christ any act of Morall Obedience noâ—… to the yong man any command of Morall Obedience First for Christs poverty we may conceive that it was a requisite preparatorie act to the worke of redemption and to the magnifying of his spirituall power in the subduing of his enemies and saving of his people when it appeared that thereunto no externall accessions nor contribution of temporall greatnesse did concurre And secondly for the command to the yong man it was meerely personall and indeede not so much intending obedience to the letter of the precept as triall of the sinceritie of the mans former profession and conviction of him touching those misperswasions and selfe-deceits which made him trust in himselfe for righteousnesse like that of God to Abraham to offer up his Sonne which was not intended for death to Isaake but for tryall to Abraham and for manifestation of his faith It may be further objected How can wee bee Holy as Christ is Holy First the thing is impossible and secondly if we could there would be no neede of Christ if we were bound to bee so Holy righteousnesse would come by a Law of workes To this I answere the Law is not nullyfied nor curtall'd by the mercy of Christ we are as fully bound to the obedience of it as Adam was though not upon such bad termes and evill consequences as he under danger of contracting sinne though not under danger of incurring death So much as any justified person comes short of complete and universall obedience to the Law so much hee sinneth as Adam did though God be pleased to pardon that sinne by the merit of Christ. Christ came to deliver from sinne but not to priviledge any man to commit it though hee came to be a curse for sinne yet Hee came not to be a Cloake for sinne Secondly Christ is needefull in two respects First because we cannot come to full and perfect obedience and so His Grace is requisite to pardon and cover our failings Secondly because that which wee doe attaine unto is not of or from our selves and so his spirit is requisite to strengthen us unto his service Thirdly when the Scripture requires us to be Holy and perfect as Christ and God by as we understand not equalitie in the compasse but qualitie in the Truth of our Holynesse As when the Apostle saith That we must love our neighbour as our selves the meaning is not that our love to our neighbour should be mathematically equall to the love of our selves for the Law doth allow of degrees in Love according to the degrees of relation and neerenesse in the thing loved Doe good unto all men specially to those of the houshold of Faith Love to a friend may safely bee greater then to a stranger and to a wife or childe then to a friend yet in all our love to others must be of the selfe same nature as true reall cordiall sincere solid as that to our selves Wee must love our neighbour as wee doe our selves that is unfainedly and without dissimulation Let vs further consider the Grounds of this point touching the Conformitie which is betweene the nature and spirituall life of Christians and of Christ because it is a Doctrine of principall consequence First this was one of the Ends of Christs comming Two purposes He came for A restitution of us to our interest in Salvation and a restoring our originall qualities of Holynesse unto vs. Hee came to sanctifie and cleanse the Church that it should be Holy and without blemish unblameable and unreproveable in his sight To Redeeme and to purifie his people The one is the worke of his Merit which goeth upward to the Satisfaction of his Father the other the worke of his Spirit and Grace which goeth downeward to the Sanctification of his Church In the one He bestoweth his righteousnesse upon us by imputation in the other He fashioneth his â—…mage in us by renovation That man then hath no claime to the payment Christ hath made nor to the inheritance Hee hath purchased who hath not the Life of Christ fashioned in his nature and conversation But if Christ be not onely a Saviour to Redeeme but a Rule to Sanctifie what use or service is left unto the Law I answere that the Law is still a Rule but not a comfortable effectuall delightfull rule without Christ applying and sweetning it unto us The Law onely comes with commands but Christ with strength love willingnesse and life to obey them The Law alone comes like a Schoolemaster with a scourge a curse along with it but when Christ comes with the Law He comes as a Father with precepts to teach and with compassions to spare The Law is a Lion and Christ our Sampson that slew the Lion as long as the Law is alone so long it is alive and comes with terrour and fury upon every Soule it meetes but when Christ hath slaine the Law taken away that which was the strength of it namely the guilt of sinne then there is honie in the Lion sweetnesse in the duties required by the Law It is then an easie yoke and a Law of libertie the Commandements are not then grievous but the heart delighteth in them and loveth them even as the honie and the honie combe Of it selfe it is the cord of a Iudge which bindeth hand and foote and shackleth unto condemnation but by Christ it is made the cord of a man and the band of Love by which He teacheth us to goâ—…
of â—…ther else the Bodie of Christ would be a mangled and a maimed thing and not as Saint Paul calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulnesse of Him that filleth all in all In the Body of Christ there is a supply to every joynt a measure of every part an edification and growth of the whole compacted body from Him who is equally the Head to all Being thus united unto Christ first the Death and Merit of Christ is ours whatsoever Hee really in His humane nature suffered for sinne wee are in moderated Iustice reputed to have suffered with Him The Apostle saith that we were crucified and dead with Christ and that as truely as the hand which steales is punish'd when the backe is beaten and surely if a man were crucified in and with Christ by reason of His mysticall communion with him then he was crucifi'd as Christ for al 〈◊〉 which should otherwise have laine upon him Hee was not in Christ to cleanse some sinnes and out of him to beare others himselfe For the Apostle assures us that the Merit of Christ is unconfined by any sinne The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sinne As Saint Ambrose said to Monica the mother of Austen when with many teares she bewailed her sonnes unconversion Non potest tot lacrymarum filius perire that is that it could not be that the Sonne of so many teares should perish so may I more certainely say to any Soule that is soundly and in truth humbled with the sense of any grievous relapse non potest tot lacrymarum frater perire It cannot bee that the brother of so many teares and so pretious blood which from Christ trickled downe with an unperishable soveraigntie unto the lowest and sinfullest of his bodie should perish for want of compassion in Him who felt the weight of our sufferings or for want of recovery from him who hath the fulnesse of Grace and Spirit Secondly the Life of Christ is ours likewise Christ liveth in me saith the Apostle Now the Life of Christ is free from the power and the reach of death If death could not hold Him when it had Him much lesse can it reach or overtake Him having once escaped Hee died once unto sinne but Hee liveth unto God likewise saith Saint Paul reckon you your selves to be dead unto sinne but alive unto God and that through or in Iesus Christ by whom wee in like manner are made partakers of that Life which Hee by rising againe from the Grave did assume as we were by AdaÌ„ made obnoxious to the same death which heby failing did incurre and contract For Christ is the second Adam and as wee have borne the Image of the earthly in sinne and guilt so must we beare the Image of the Heavenly in Life and righteousnesse and that which in us answereth to tâ—…e Resurrection and Life of Christ which Hee ever liveth is our holynesse and newnesse of life as the Apostle plainely shew's to note that our Renovation likewise ought to be perpetuall and constant not fraile and mutable as when it depended upon the life of the first Adam and not of the second Thirdly the Kingdome of Christ is ours also Now His Kingdome is not perishable but eternall a Kingdome which cannot be shaken or destroyed as the Apostle speakes Heb. 12. 28. Fourthly the Sonneship and by consequence â—…tance of Christ is ours I speake not of His personall Sonneship by eternall generation but of that dignitie and honour which He had as the first borne of every Creature and Heire of all things That Sonneship which Hee had as Hee was borne from the Dead Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee namely in the Resurrection in which respect He is called the first borne and the first begotten of the Dead In this dignitie of Christ of being Heires and a kinde of first borne unto God doe wee in our measure partake for wee are called the Church of the first borne and a kinde of first fruites of His Creatures For though those attributes may be limited to the Iewes in regard of precedencie to the Gentiles yet in regard of the inheritance which was usually and properly to descend to the first borne they may bee applyed to all for of all beleevers the Apostle saith If you are Sonnes then are ye heires Coheires with Christ. We hold in chiefe under his guardianship and protection as his sequele and dependant Now from hence our Saviours argument may bring much comfort and assurance The Sonne abideth in the house for ever and the House of God is His Church not in Heaven onely but on Earth likewise as the Apostle shewes Fifthly Christs victories are ours Hee overcame the World and Temptations and Enemies and Sinnes for us And therefore they shall not bee able to overcome Him in us Hee is able to succour them that are tempted Hee who once overcame them for us will certainely subdue them in us Hee that will overcome the last Enemie will overcome all that are before for if any be left the last is not overcome Lastly we have the benefit of Christs Intercession I have prayed for thee that thy Faith faile not It is spoken of a saving Faith as the learned prove at large And I have shewed before that particular promises in Scripture are universally applyable to any man whose case is paralell to that particular If then Peters 〈◊〉 did not by reason of this prayer of Christ overturne his Salvation or bring a totall deficiencie upon his faith why should any man who is truely and deepely humbled with the sense of relapse or consciousnesse of some sinne not of ordinary guilt or dayly incursion but indeede very hainous and therefore to be repented of with teares of blood yet why should he in this case of sound humiliation stagger in the hope of forgivenesse or mistrust Gods mercie since a greater sinne then Peters in the grosse matter of it can I thinke hardly be committed by any justified man These are the comforts which may secure the Life of Christ in a lapsed but repenting sinner the summe of all is this Since we stand not like Adam upon our owne bottome but are branches of such a Vine as never withers Members of such a Head as never dies sharers in such a Spirit as cleanseth healeth and purifieth the heart partakers of such promises as are sealed with the Oath of God Since we live not by our owne life but by the Life of Christ are not ledde or sealed by our owne spirit but by the Spirit of Christ doe not obtaine mercie by our owne prayers but by the Intercession of Christ stand not reconciled unto God by our owne endevours but by the propitiation wrought by Christ who loved us when wee were enemies and in our blood who is both willing and able to save
on high and hath given gifts unto Men as absent lovers send tokens to each other to attract the affections and call thither the thoughts If Christ would have had our hearts rest on the earth He would have continued with us here but it is his Will that we be where He is and therefore we must make it the maine businesse of our life to move towards him Things of a nature encline to one another even to their prejudice A stone will fall to his center though there be so many rubbes in the way that it is sure to bee broken all to peeces in the motion The same should be a Christians resolution Christ is his Center and Heaven is his Country and therefore thither hee must conclude to goe notwithstanding he must be broken in the way with manifold temptations and afflictions Saint Paul desired if it had been possible to be clothed upon and to have his mortalitie swallowed up of life and to get whole to Heaven But if he may not have it upon so good termes hee will not onely confidently endure but desire to be dissolved and broken in pieces that by any meanes he may come to Christ because that being best of all will be an aboundant recompence for any intercurrent damage It is not a losse but a marriage and honour for a woman to forsake her owne kindred and house to go to a husband neither is it a losse but a preferment for the soule to relinquish for a time the bodie that it may goe to Christ who hath married it unto himselfe for ever And the fellowship of his sufferings This fellowship notes two things First A participation in the benefits of his Sufferings Secondly A Conformity of ours to his First His Sufferings are Ours we were buried and Crucified with him and that againe notes two things First we communicate in the Price of Christs Death covering the guilt of sinne satisfying the wrath of God and being an Expiation and propitiation for us Secondly in the Power of his Death cleansing our Consciences from dead workes mortifying our earthly members crucifying our old man subduing our iniquities and corruptions pulling downe the throne of Satan spoiling him of all his armor and destroying the workes of the Divell And this power worketh first by the propheticall office of Christ Revealing secondly by his Regall office applying and reaching forth the power of his bloud to subdue sinne as it had before triumphed over death and Satan But here the maine point and question will be what this mighty power of the Death of Christ is thus to kill sinne in us and wherein the Causality thereof Consisteth To this I answere that Christs Death is a threefold Cause of the death of sinne in his members First It is Causa meritoria A meritorious Cause For Christs death was so great aprice that it did deserve at Gods hand to have our sinnes subdued All power and Iudgement was given unto him by his father and that power was given him to purchase his Church withall And this was amongst other of the covenants that their sinnes should be Crucified He gave himselfe unto Gods Iustice for his Church and that which by that gift he purchased was the sanctification cleansing of it Now as a price is said to doe that which a man doth by the power which that price purchased so the bloud of Christ is said to cleanse us because the office or power whereby he purifieth us was Conferd upon him Sub intuitu pretij under the condition of suffring For it was necessarie that remission and purification should be by bloud Secondly it is Causa exemplaris The death of Christ was the Exemplar pattern and Idea of our Death to sin He did beare our sinnes in his Body on the tree to shew that as his Body did naturally so sinne did by analogie and legally dye Therefore the Apostle saith that he was made sinne for us to note that not onely our persons were in Gods accompt Crucified with him unto Iustification but that sinne it selfe did hang upon his Crosse with him unto monification and holinesse In which respect Saint Paul saith That he condemned sinne in the flesh because he died as sinne in Abstracto And in this regard of morâ—…ification wee are said to be planted in the likenesse of Christs Death because as when an Ambassador doth solemnize the marriage of his king with a forraine princesse that is truely effected betweene the parties themselves which is transacted by the agent and representative person to that purpose and service authoâ—… so Christ being made sinne for us as the Sacrifice had the sinnes of the people emptied upon him and in that relation Dying sinne it selfe likewise dieth in us And there is a proportion betweene the Death of the Crosse which Christ died and the Dying of sinne in us Christ died as a Servant to note that sinne should not rule but be brought into slaverie and bondage He died a Curse to note that wee should loke upon sinne as an accursed and devoted thing and therefore should not with Achan hide or reserve any He Dranke vinegar on his Crosse to note that wee should make sinne feele the sharpnesse of Gods displeasure aginst it he was fast naild unto the Crosse to note that wee should put sinne out of ease and leave noe lust or Corruption at large but crucifie the whole body thereof Lastly though he did not presently die yet there he did hang till he died to note that wee should never give over subduing sinne while it hath any life or working in us Thus the Death of Christ is the patterne of the death of sinne Thirdly It is Causa Obiectiva an Impelling or moving cause as Obiects are For Obiects have an Attractive Power Achaâ—… saw the wedge of gold and then Coveted it David saw Bathshâ—…ba and then desired her Therefore the apostle mentions Lusts of the Eye which are kindled by the Things of the world As the strength of imagination fixing upon a blackemooâ—…e on the wall made the woman bring forth a blacke child so there is â—… kinde of spirituall Imaginative power in faith to crucifie sinne by looking upon Christ Crucified As the Brasen Serpent did heale those who had been bitten by the fierie serpents 〈◊〉 obiectum fides meerly by being looked upon so Christ Crucified doth heale sin by being looked upon with the eyâ—… of faith Now faith lookes upon Christ crucified and bleeding First as the gift of his fathers love as a token and spectacle of more unsearchable and transcendent mercie then the comprehension of the whole hoast of Angels can reach unto And hereby the heart is ravished with love againe and with a gratefull desire of returning all our time parts powers services unto him who spared not the sonne of his owne love for us Secondly It looketh on him As a sacrifice for Sinne and Expiation thereof to
services 246 In the best there is a partiall impotency 250 What a man should doe when he finds himselfe disabled and deaded in good workes 253 2. It is an estate of extreme enmitie against God and his waies 255 How the spirit by the Commandement doth convince men to be in the state of sinne 258 The spirit by the commandement convinceth men to bee under the guilt of sinne 260 There is a naturall conviction of the guilt of sinne and 260 There is a spirituall and evangelicall conviction of the guilt of sinne 261 What the guilt and Punishments of sinne are 262 ROM 6. 12. Sinne will abide in the time of this mortall life in the most Holie 273 Our death with Christ unto sinne is a strong argument against the raigne of it 275 Difference betweene the regall and tyrannicall power of Sinne. 277 Whether a man belong unto Christ or sinne 279 Sinne hath much strength from it selfe 282 from Satan and the world 285 from us 285 What it is to obey sinne in the lusts thereof 286 Whether sinne may Raigne in a regenerate man 288 How wicked men may be convinc'd that sinne doth raigne in them Two things make up the raigne of sinne 1. In sinne power 290 2. In the sinner a willing and vncontroled subiection 290 Three exceptions against the evidence of the raigne of sinne in the wicked 291 1. There may be a raigne of sinne when it is not discerned 292 Whether small sinnes may raigne 293 Whether secret sinnes may raigne 294 Whether sins of ignorance may raigne 295 Whether naturall concupiscence may raigne 296 Whether sinnes of omission may raigne 296 2. Other causes besides the power of Christs Grace may worke a partiall abstinence from sinne and conformitie in service 1. The power of restraining grace 298 Differences between restraining and renewing Grace 2. Affectation of the credit of godlinesse 302 3. The Power of pious education 304 4. The legall power of the word 305 5. The power of a naturall illightned Conscience 305 6. Selfe love and particular ends 307 7. The antipathy and contradiction of sinnes 309 3. Differences betweene the conflicts of a naturall and spirituall conscience 1. In the Principles of them 310 2. In their seates and stations 313 3. In the manner and qualities of the conflict 314 4. In their effects 316 5. In their ends 317 Why every sinne doth not raigne in every wicked man 317 2. COR. 7. 1. The Apostles reasons against Idolatrous communion 321 The doctrine of the pollution of sinne 322 The best workes of the best men mingled whith pollution 325 The best workes of wicked men full of pollution 237 What the pollution of sinne is 328 The properties of the pollution of sinne 1. It is a deepe pollution 329 2. It is an universall Pollution 330 3. It is a spreading Pollution 330 4. It is a mortall Pollution 332 Why God requireth that of us which he worketh in us 335 How promises tend to the dutie of cleansing ourselves 1. Promises containe the matter of rewards and so presuppose services 337 2. Promises are efficient causes of purification 1. As tokens of Gods love Love the ground of making fidelity of performing Promises 338 2. As the grounds of our hope and expectations 340 3. As obiects of our faith 342 4. As the raies of Christ to whom they lead us 345 5. As exemplars patterns and seeds of puritie 346 3. Many promises are made of purification itselfe 347 Rules directing how to use the Promises 1. Generall Promises are particularly and particulars generally appliable 350 2. Promises are certaine performances secret 352 3. Promises are subordinated and are performed with dependence 357 4. Promises most usefull in extremities 359 5. Experience of God in some promises confirmeth faith in others 360 6. The same temporall blessing may belong to one man onely out of providence to another out of promise 361 7. Gods promises to us must be the ground of our prayers to him 364 ROM 7. 13. The Law is neither sinne nor death 368 The Law was promulgated on Mount Sina by Moses onely with Evangelicall purposes 371 God will doe more for the salvation then for the damnation of men 372 The Law is not given ex primaria intentione to condemne men 385 The Law is not given to iustifie or save men 386 The Law by accident doth irritate and punish or curse sinne 386 The Law by itselfe doth discover and restraine sinne 387 Preaching of the Law necessary 388 Acquaintance with the Law strengthens Humility Faith Comfort Obedience 392 The third Treatise The Life of Christ. 1. IOH. 5. 12. ALL a Christians excellencies are from Christ. 400 1. From Christ wee have our life of righteousnesse 401 Three Offices of Christs mediatorship His Payment of our debt 401 Purchase of our inheritance 401 Intercession 401 Righteousnesse consisteth in remission and adoption 402 By this Life of righteousnesse we are delivered from 1. Sinne. 403 2. Law as a Covenant of righteousnesse Law full of Rigor Curses Bondage 2. From Christ we have our life of holinesse 407 Discoveries of a vitall operation 407 Christ is the Principle of our holinesse 409 Christ is the patterne of holinesse 410 Some workes of Christ imitable others unimitable 410 Holinesse beares conformity to Christs active obedience 412 How we are said to be holy as Christ is holy 413 Holinesse consists in a conformitie unto Christ. Proved from 1. The ends of Christs comming 415 2. The nature of holinesse 416 3. The quality of the mysticall body of Christ. 418 4. The vnction of the Spirit 418 5. The summe of the Scriptures 419 The proportions betweene our holinesse and Christs must be 1. In the seeds and principles 419 2. In the ends Gods glory the Churches good 420 3. In the parts 4. In the manner of it Selfe-deniall 421 Obedience 422 Proficiencie 423 What Christ hath done to the Law for us 423 We must take heed of will-holinesse or being our owne Rule 425 Christs life the Rule of ours 427 3. From Christ wee have our life of glorie 429 The attributes or properties of our Life in Christ 1. It is a hidden life 432 2. It is an abounding life 437 3. It is an abiding life 438 No forrsigne assult is too hard for the life of Christ 439 Arguments to reestablish the heart of a repenting sinner against the terror of some great fall from 1. The strength of Faith 442 2. The love and free grace of God 446 3. Gods Promise and covenant 448 4. The obsignation of the spirit 449 5. The nature and effects of Faith 449 THE VANITIE OF THE CREATVRE AND VEXATION OF THE SPIRIT By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostock 1631. Christian Reader Importunitie of Friends hath over-rul'd me to this Publication and importunitie of businesse crossing me in the putting of these pieces together hath made
momentarie and vanishing First by the Law of their Creation they were made subject to alterations there was an enmitie and reluctancy in their entirest being Secondly this hath been exceedingly improved by the s◅ne of man whose evill being the lord of all Creatures must needs redound to the misery and mortalitie of all his retinue For it was in the greater World as in the administration of a private family the poverty of the Master is felt in the bowels of all the rest his staine and dishonour runnes into all the members of that society As it is in the naturall body some parts may be distempered and ill affected alone others not without contagion on the rest a man may have a dimme eye or a withered arme or a lame foot or an impedite tongue without any danger to the parts adjoyning but a lethargie in the head or an obstruction in the liver or a dyspepsie and indisposition in the stomake diffuseth universall malignity through the body because these are soveraigne and architectonicall parts of man so likewise is it in the great and vast body of the Creation However other Creatures might have kept their evill if any had been in them within their owne bounds yet that evill which man the Lord and head of the whole brought into the world was a spreading and infectious evill which conuey'd poyson into the whole frame of nature and planted the seed of that universall dissolution which shall one day deface with darkenesse and horror the beauty of that glorious frame which wee now admire It is said that when Corah Dathan and Abiram had provoked the Lord by their rebellion against his servants to inflict that fearefull destruction upon them the earth opened her mouth swallowed not only them up but al the houses and men and goods that appertained to them Now in like maner the heaven and earth and al inferior Creatures did at first appertaine to Adam the Lord gave him the free use of them dominion over them when therefore man had committed that notorious rebellion against his maker which was not only to aspire like Corah and his associates to the height and principality of some fellow Creature but even to the absolutenesse wisdome power and independency of God himselfe no marvell if the wrath of God did together with him seize upon his house and all the goods that belongd unto him bringing in that cōfusion and disorder which we even now see doth breake asunder the bonds and ligaments of nature doth unjoynt the confedera◅ies and societies of the dumbe Creatures and turneth the armies of the Almighty into mutinies and commotion which in one word hath so fast manicled the world in the bondag◅ of corruption as that it doth already groane and linger with paine under the sinne of man and the curse of God and will at last breake forth into that universall flame which will melt the very Elements of Nature into their primitive confusion Thus wee see besides the created limitednesse of the creature by which it was utterly unsuteable to the immortall desires of the soule of man the sinne of man hath implanted in them a secret worme and rottennesse which doth set forward their mortalitie and by adding to them confusion enmity disproportion sedition inequalitie all the seeds of corruption hath made them not onely as before they were mortall but which addes one mortalitie to another even momentary and vanishing too When any Creature loseth any of its native and created vigour it is a manifest signe that there is some secret sentence of death gnawing upon it The excellency of the Heavens wee know is their light their beauty their influences upon the lower World and even these hath the sinne of man defaced Wee finde when the Lord pleaseth to reveale his wrath against men for sinne in any terrible manner hee doth it from Heaven There shall be wonders in the Heauen blood and fire and pillars of smoake the Sunne shall be turned into darkenesse and the Moone into blood and the day of the Lord is called a day of darknesse and gloominesse and thicke darknesse How often hath Gods heavy displeasure declared it selfe from Heaven in the confusion of nature in stormes and horrible tempests in thick clouds and darke waters in arrowes of lightning and coales of fire in blacknesse and darkenesse in brimstone on Sodome in a flaming sword over Ierusalem in that fearefull Starre of fire to the Christian World of late yeeres which hath kindled those woful combustions the flames whereof are still so great as that wee our selves if wee looke upon the merits and provocations of our sinnes may have reason to feare that not all the Sea betweene us and our neighbours can bee able to quench till it have scorched and singed us Wee find likewise by plaine experience how languid the seeds of life how faint the vigor either of heavenly influences or of sublunary and inferiour agents are growne when that life of men which was wont to reach to almost a thousand yeeres is esteemed even a miraculous age if it be extended but to the tenth part of that duration We need not examine the inferiour Creatures which we find expressely cursed for the sinne of man with Thornes and Briers the usuall expression of a curse in Scripture If we but open our eyes and looke about us wee shall see what paines Husbandmen take to keepe the earth from giving up the Ghost in opening the veines thereof in applying their Soile and Marle as so many Pills or Salves as so many Cordials and preservatives to keepe it alive in laying it asleepe as it were when it lyeth fallow every second or third yeere that by any meanes they may preserve in it that life which they see plainely approching to its last gaspe Thus you see how besides the originall limitednesse of the Creature there is in a second place a Moth or Canker by the infection of sinne begotten in them which hastens their mortalitie God ordering the second causes so amongst themselves that they exercising enmitie one against another may punish the sinne of man in their contentions as the Lord stirred up the Babylonians against the Egyptians to punish the sinnes of his owne people And therefore wee finde that the times of the Gospell when holinesse was to bee more universall are expressed by such figures as restore perfection and peace to the Creatures The Earth shall be fat and plenteous there shall be upon every high hill Rivers and Streames of water the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne sevenfold as the light of seven dayes And againe the Wolfe shall dwell with the Lambe and the leopard shall lye downe with the kid and a Calfe and a young Lion and a fatling together c. Which places though figuratively to be understood have yet me thinks thus much of the letter in
lawfull endeavours which he hath commanded and allowed The third thing proposed was the consideration of that Vse which we should make of this vexation of the Creature And first the consideration thereof mingled with faith in the heart must needes worke humiliation in the spirit of a man upon the sight of those sinnes which have so much defaced the good Creatures of God Sinne was the first thing that did pester the earth with thornes Gen. 3. 17. 18. and hath fill'd all the Creation with vanitie and bondage Sinne is the ulcer of the soule touch a wound with the softest Lawne and there will smart arise so though the Creatures be never so harmelesse yet as soone as they come to the heart of a man there is so much sinne and corruption there as must needs beget paine to the soule The palate prepossest with a bitter humour findes it owne distemper in the sweetest meate it tastes so the soule having the ground of bitternesse in it selfe finds the same affection in every thing that comes neere it Death it self though it be none of Gods works but the shame and deformitie of the Creature yet without sinne it hath no sting in it 1. Cor. 15. 55. how much lesse sting thinke we have those things which were made for the comforts of mans life if sinne were not the Serpent that did lurke under them all Doest thou then in thy swiftest careere of earthly delights when thou art posting in the wayes of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes feele a curbe privily galling thy conscience a secret dampe seizing upon thy soule and affrighting it with dismall suspicions and trembling pre-occupations of attending judgements see a hand against the wall writing bitter things against thee Dost thou in all thy lawfull Callings finde much sweat of brow much toyle of braine much plunging of thoughts much care of heart in compassing thy just and lawfull intendments Doe not lose the opportunitie of that good which all this may suggest unto thee take advantage to fish in this troubled water Certainely there is some Ionah that hath raysed this storme there is some sinne or other that hath caused all this trouble to thy soule Doe not repine at Gods providence nor quarrell with the dumbe Creatures but let thine indignation reflect upon thine owne heart and as ever thou hopest to have the sweat of thy brow abated or the care of thy heart remitted or the curse of the Creature removed cast thy selfe downe before God throw out thy sinne awake thy Saviour with the cry of thy repentance and all the stormes will be suddenly calmed Certainely the more power any man hath over the corruption of his nature the lesse power hath the sting of any Creature over his heart Though thou hast but a dinner of herbes with a quiet conscience reconciled unto God thou dost therein finde more sweetnesse then in a fatted Oxe with the contentions of a troubled heart When ever therefore we finde this Thorne in the Creature wee should throw our selves downe before God and in some such manner as this bewaile the sinne of our heart which is the roote of that Thorne Lord thou art a God of peace and beauty and what ever comes from thee must needs originally have peace and beauty in it The Earth was a Paradise when thou didst first bestow it upon me but my sinne hath turned it into a Desert and curs'd all the increase thereof with Thornes The honour which thou gavest me was a glorious attribute a sparkle of thine owne fire a beame of thine owne light an impresse of thine owne Image a character of thine owne power but my sinne hath put a Thorne into mine honour my greedinesse when I look upward to get higher and my giddinesse when I looke downeward for feare of falling never leaves my heart without angvish and vexation The pleasure which thou allowest mee to enjoy is full of sweet refreshment but my sinne hath put a Thorne into this likewise my excesse and sensualitie hath so choaked thy Word so stifled all seeds of noblenesse in my minde so like a Canker overgrowne all my pretious time stolne away all opportunities of grace melted and wasted all my strength that now my refreshments are become my diseases The Riches which thou gavest me as they come from thee are soveraigne blessings wherewith I might abundantly have glorified thy Name and served thy Church and supplyed thy Saints and made the eyes that saw mee to blesse mee and the â—…ares that heard me to beare witnesse to me wherewith I might have covered the naked backe and cured the bleeding wounds and filled the hungry bowels and satisfied the fainting desires of mine owne Saviour in his distressed members but my sinne hath put in so many Thornes of pride hardnesse of heart uncompassionatenesse endlesse cares securitie and resolutions of sinne and the like as are ready to pierce me thorow with many sorrowes The Calling wherein thou hast placed me is honest and profitable to men wherein I might spend my time in glorifying thy Name in obedience to thy will in attendance on thy blessings but my sinne hath brought so much ignorance and inapprehension upon my understanding so much weakenesse upon my body so much intricatenesse upon my employments so much rust and sluggishnes upon my faculties so much earthly-mindednesse upon my heart as that I am not able without much discomfort to goe on in my Calling All thy Creatures are of themsâ—…lves full of honour and beauty the beames and gliâ—…pses of thine owne glory but our sinne hath stained the beauty of thine owne handy-worke so that now thy wrath is as well revealed from Heaven as thy glory we now see in them the prints as well of thy terrours as of thy goodnesse And now Lord I doe in humblenesse of heart truly abhorre my selfe and abominate those cursed sinnes which have not onely defiled mine owne nature and person but have spread deformitie and confusion upon all those Creatures in which thine owne wisedome and power had planted so great a beauty and so sweet an order After some such manner as this ought the consideration of the thornynesse of the Creature humble us in the sight of those sinnes which are the rootes thereof Secondly the consideration hereof should make us wise to prevent those cares which the Creatures are so apt to beget in the heart those I meane which are branches of the Vexation of the Creature There is a two fold Care Regular and Irregular Care is then Regular First when it hath a Right end such as is both suteable with and subordinate to our maine end the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse Secondly when the meanes of procuring that end are right for we may not do evill to effect Good Recovery was a lawfull end which Ahaziah did propose but to enquire of Baalzebub was a meanes which did poyson the whole businesse nay Saint Austin is resolute that if it were possible by an
heart upon thine Asses for the desire of Israel is upon thee Why should a Kings heart be set upon Asses so may I say why should Christians hearts be set upon earthly things since they have the desires of all flesh to fix upon I will conclude with one word upon the last particu lar How to use the Creatures as Thornes or as vexing things First Let not the Bramble be King Let not earthly things beare rule over thy affections fire will rise out of them which will consume thy Cedars emasculate all the powers of thy Soule Let Grace sit in the throne and earthly things be subordinate to the wisdome and rule of Gods Spirit in thy heart They are excellent servants but pernicious Masters Secondly Be arm'd when thou touchest or medlest with them Arm'd against the Lusts and against the Temptations that arise from them Get faith to place thy heart upon better promises enter not upon them without prayer unto God that since thou art going amongst snares he would carry thee through with wisedome and faithfulnesse and teach thee how to use them as his blessings and as instruments of his glory Make a covenant with thine heart as Iob with his eyes have a jealousie and suspicion of thine evill heart lest it be surpriz'd and bewitched with finfull affections Thirdly touch them gently doe not hug love dote upon the Creature nor graspe it with adulterous embraces the love of mony is a roote of mischiefe and is enmity against God Fourthly use them for Hedges and fences to relieve the Saints to make friends of unrighteous Mammon to defend the Church of Christ but by no meanes have them In thy field but onely About it mingle it not with thy Corne least it choake and stifle all And lastly vse them as Gedeon for weapons of Iust revenge against the enemies of Gods Church to vindicate his truth and glory and then by being wise and faithfull in a little thou shalt at last be made ruler over much and enter into thy Masters Ioy. FINIS THE SINFVLNES OF SINNE Considered in the State Guilt Power and Pollution thereof By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Societie of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke 1631. THE SINFVLNESSE OF SINNE ROM 7. 9. For I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came Sinne revived and I died WEE have seene in the foriner Treatise that man can finde no Happinesse in the Creature I will in the next place shew That he can find no happinesse in Himselfe It is neither about him nor within him In the Creature nothing but vanitis and vexation in Himselfe nothing but Sinne and Death The Apostle in these words sets forth three things First The state of Sinne Sinne Revived Secondly the Guilt of Sinne I Died or found my selfe to be a condemn'd man in the state of perdition Thirdly the evidence and conviction of both When the Commandement came which words imply a conviction and that from the spirit First a conviction for they inferre a conclusion extremely contradictory to the conclusions in which Saint Paul formerly rested which is the forme of a conviction Saint Pauls former conclusion was I was alive but when the commandement came the conclusion was extremely contrary I Died. Secondly It was a spirituall conviction For Saint Paul was never literally without the Law but the vaâ—…le till this time was before his eyes he is now made to understand the Law in its native sense and compasse the Law is spiritual v. 14. and he is enabled to discerne it spiritually Absurd is the Doctrine of the Socinians some others That unregenerate men by a meere natur all perception without any divine superinâ—…us'd light they are the words of Episcopius and they are wicked wordes may understand the wholâ—… Law even all things requisite unto faith godlines Foolishly confounding and impiously deriding the spirituall and divine sense of holy Scriptures with the grammatical construction Against this we shall need use no other argument then a plaine Syllogisme compounded out of the very words of Scripture Darknesse doth not comprehend light Ioh. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 men are Darkenesse Eph. 5. 8. 4. 17. 18. Act. 26. 18. 2. Pâ—…t 1. 9. yea Held under the power of darkenesse Col. 1. 13. and the word of God is light Psal. 119. 105. 2. Cor. 4. 4. therefore unregenerate men cannot understand the â—…d in that spirituall compasse which it carries There is such an asymmetry and disproportion betweene our understandings and the brightnesse of the word that the Saints themselves have prayed for more spirituall light and vnderstanding to conceive it That knowledge which a man ought to have for there is a knowledge which is not such as it ought to be doth passe knowledge even all the â—…ength of meere naturall reason to attaine unto peculiar to the sheep of Christ. Naturall men have their principles vitiated their faculties bound that they cannot understand spirituall things till God have as it were â—…nplanted a â—…ew understanding in them framed the heart to attend and set it at liberty to see the glory of God with open face Though the vaile doe not keepe out Grammaticall construction yet it blindeth the heart against the spirituall light and beauty of the Word We see even in common sciences where the conclusions are suteable to our owne innate and implanted notions yet he that can distinctly construe and make Grammar of a principle in Euclide may be ignorant of the Mathematicall sense and use of it much more may a man in divine truths bee Spiritually ignorant even where in some respect hee may be said to know For the Scriptures pronounce men ignorant of those things which they see and know In divine doctrine obedience is the Ground of knowledge and Holinesse the best qualification to understand the Scriptures If any mâ—…n will doe the will of God he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God The 〈◊〉 will he teach his way and â—…eale his secret to them that feare him to babes to those that conforme not themselves to this evill world To understand then the words we must note first that there is an opposition between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those two Clauses in the Text Once and When the Commandement came It is the conceite of some that the latter as well as the former is meant of a state of unregeneration and that Saint Paul all this Chapter over speaketh in the person of an unregenerate man not intending at all to shew the fleshlinesse and adherency of corruption to the holiest men but the necessitie of righteousnesse by Christ without the which though a man may when once the Commandement comes and is fully revealed will good hate sinne in sinning doe that which he would not
consent unto and delight in the Law feele a warre in his members mourne and cry out under the sense of his owne wretchednesse yet for all this he is still an unregenerate man an opinion tending directly to the honour of Pelagianisme and advancement of nature which made Saint Austen in that ingenuous and noble worke of hiâ—… retractations to recant it and in all his writings against the Pelagians in which as in other polemicall workes where the vigilancy of an enemy and feare of advantages makes him more circumspect how he speaks his expositions of Scripture are usually more literall and solid then where he allowes himselfe the scope of his owne conceits He still understandes those passages of the complaints of a regenerate man against his inherent concupiscence We are therefore to resolve that the opposition stands thus Once in my state of unregeneration I was without the law that is without the spirituall sense of the Law but when the Lord began to reveale his mercy to me in my conversion then he gave me eye to understand it in its native and proper compasse The Apostle was never quite without the Law being an Hebrew and bred up at thefeet of Gamaliâ—…l therefore the difference betweene being without the Law and the comming of the Law must be onely in modo exhibendi before he had it in the letter but after it came in its owne spirituall shape And there is some emphasis in the word caâ—…e denoting a vital moving penetrative power which the Law had by the spirit of life and which before it had not as it was a Dead letter Secondly wee must note the opposition betweene the two estates of Saint Paul In the first he was Alive and that in two respects A live in his performances able as he conceiv'd to performe the righteousnesse of the law without blaâ—…e Phil. 3. 6. A live in his Presumptions mispersuasions selfe-justifications conceits of righteousnesse and salvation Act. 26. 9. Phil. 3. 7. In the second estate Sinne revived I found that that was but a sopor a benumdnesse which was in my apprehension a death of sinne and I died had experience of the falsenesse and miseries of my presumptions The life of sinne and the life of a sinner are like the ballances of a paire of scoles when one goes up the other must fall downe when sinne lives the man must dye man and sinne are like Mâ—…entius his couples they are never both alive together Many excellent points and of great consequence to the spirits of men would rise out of these words thus unfolded as First that a man may have the Law in the Church wherein he lives in the letter of it and yet bee without the Law in the power and spirit of it by ignorance misconstructions false glosses and perverse wrestings of it as a covetous man may have the possession of monie and yet be without the vse and comforts of it 2. Cor. 3. 6. 2. Pâ—…t 3. 16. Matth. 5. 21. 22. 27. 28. 31. 32. 33. 38. Which should teach us to beware of Ignorance It makes the things which wee have unusefull to us If any man have the Law indeed hee will labour First to have more acquaintance with it and with God by it The more the Saints know of God and his will the neereâ—… communion doe they desire to have with him Wee see this heavenly affection in Iacob Gen. 32. 26. 29. Gen. 49. 18. in Moses Exod. 33. 12. 18. in David Psal 119. 18. 125. in the Spouse Cant. 1. 2. in Manoah Iud. 13. 17. in Paul 2. Cor. 5. 2. Phil. 3. 13. 14. As the Queene of She ba when shee had heard of the glory of Salomon was not content till she came to see it or as Absolom being restor'd from banishment and tasting some of his Fathers love was impatient till he might see his face so the Saints having something of Gods will and mercy revealed to them are very importunate to enjoy more Secondly to be more conformable unto it to Iudge and measure himselfe the oftner by it Psal. 119. 11. The law is utterly in vaine no dignity no benefit nor priviledge to a people by it if it be not obeyed Thirdly to love and praise God for his goodnesse in it Ioh. 14. 21. Secondly ignorance of the true meaning of the Law and resting upon false grounds doth naturally beget these two things First blinde zeale much active and in appearance unblameable devotion As it did here and elsewhere in Saint Paul Phil. 3. 6. Act. 22. 3. in the honourable women Act. 13. 50. in the Pharises Matth. 23. 15. in false brethren Col. 2. 23. in the Iewes that submitted not themselves to the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10. 2. 3. In the papists in their contentions for trash rigorous observation of their owne traditions out-sides and superinducements upon the pretious foundation Secondly strong mis-perswasions and selfe-justifications dependant upon our workes and rigid endeavors for salvation at the last Hos. 12. 8. Esai 48. 1. 2. 58. 2. 7. Amos 5. 18. 21. 25. Mic. 3. 11. 12. Zech. 7. 3. 4. 5. 6. Hos. 8. 2. 3. Luk. 18. 11. 12. unregenerat men are often secure men making principles and premises of their owne to build the conclusions of their Salvation upon But beware of it It is a desperate hazard to put eternity upon an adventure to trust in God upon other termes then himselfe hath proposed to be trusted in to lay claime to mercy without any writings or seales or witnesses or patents or acquittance from sinne to have the evidences of hell and yet the presumptions of heaven to be weary of one sabbath here and yet presume upon the expectation of an eternity which shall be nothing else but sabbath In the Civill Law Testes domestici Houshold witnesses who might in reason be presum'd parties are invalid and uneffectuall Surely in matters of Salvation if a man have no witnesse but his owne spirit misinform'd by wrong rules seduc'd by the subtilties of Satan and the deceite of his owne wicked heart carried away with the course of the world and the common prejudices and presumptions of foolish men they will all faile him when it shall be too late God will measure men by his owne line and righteousnesse by his owne plummet and then shall the Haile sweepe away the refuge of lies and waters over-flow the hiding place of those men that made a covenant with death Secondly beware of proud resolutions selfe love reservations wit distinctions evasions to escape the word these are but the weapons of lust but the exaltations of a fleshly minde but submit to the word receive it with meekenesse be willing to count that sense of scripture truest which most restraineth thy corrupt humors and crosseth the imaginations of thy fleshly reason Our owne weapons must be render'd up before the sword of the spirit which is the word of God will be on our
side Love of lusts and pride of heart can never consist with obedience to the word Nehem. 9. 16. Ier. 13. 17. 43. 2. Thirdly converting and saving knowledge is not of our owne fetching in or gathering but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Doctrine that comes unto us and is brought by that sacred blast of the spirit which bloweth where he lifteth We doe not first come and are then taught but first we are taught and then we Come Ioh. 6. 45. Esai 55. 5. 65. 1. we must take heed of attributing to our selves boasting of our owne sufficiencies congtuities preparations concurrencies contributions unto the word in the saving of us Grace must prevent follow assist us preoperate and cooperate Christ must be All in All the Author and the Finisher of our faith of our selves we can doe nothing but disable our selves resist the spirit and pull downe whatever the word doth build up within us Ever therefore in humility waite at the poole where the spirit stirres Give that honour to Gods ordinances as when hee bids thee doe no great thing but onely wash and be cleane heare and beleeve beleeve and be saved not stoutly to cast his Law behinde thy backe but to humble thy selfe to walke with thy God and to see his name and power in the voyce which cryes unto thee Fourthly though sinne seeme dead to secure civill morall superstitiously zealous men in regard of any present sense or sting yet all that while it is alive in them and will certainely when the booke shall be opened either in the ministry of the word to conversion or in the last judgement to condemnation reviue againe All these points are very naturall to the Text but I should be too long a stranger to the course I intend if I should insist on them I returne therefore to the maine purpose Here is the state of sinne sinne revived the Guilt of sinne I died the Conviction of it by the spirit bringing the spirituall sense of the Commandement and writing it in the heart of a man and so pulling him away from his owne Conclusions The Doctrines then which I shall insist on are these two First the spirit by the Commandement convinceth a man to be in the state of sinne Secondly the spirit by the Commandement convinceth a man to be in the state of death because of sinne To convince a man that he is in the state of sinne is To make a man so to set to his owne seale and serious acknowledgement to this truth That he is a sinner as that withall he shall feele within himselfe the qualitie of that estate and in humility and selfe-abhorrencie conclude against himselfe all the naughtinesse and loathsome influences which are proper to kindle and catch in his nature and person by reason of that estate and so not in expression onely but in experience not in word but in truth not out of feare but out of loathing not out of constraint but most willingly not out of formality but out of humility not according to the generall voyce but out of a serious scrutinie and selfe examination loade and charge himselfe with all the noisomenesse and venome with all the dirt and garbage with all the malignitie and frowardnesse that his nature and person doe abound withall even as the waves of the sea with mire and dirt and thereupon justifie almighty God when he doth charge him with all this yea if he should condemne him for it Now we are to shew two things First that a meere naturall light will never thus farre convince a man Secondly that the spirit by the Commandement doth Some things nature is sufficient to teach God may be felt and found out in some fence by those that ignorantly worship him Nature doth convince men that they are not so good as they should be the Law is written in the hearts of those that know nothing of the letter of it Idlenesse beastiality lying luxury the Cretian poet could condemne in his owne countrey-men Drinking of healths ad plenoscalices by measure and constraint condemn'd by Law of a heathen prince and that in his luxurie Long haire condemn'd by the dictate of nature and right reason and the reason why so many men and whole nations notwithstanding use it is given by Saint Hierome Quia à natura deciderunt sicut multis alijs rebus comprobatur And indeede as Tertullian saith of womens long haire that it is Humilitatis suae sarcina the burden as it were of their Humility so by the warrant of that proportion which Saint Paul allowes 1. Cor. 11. 14. 15. We may call mens long haire Superbiae suae sarcinam nothing but a clogge of pride Saint Austin hath written three whole chapters together against this sinfull custome of nourishing haire which hee saith is expressely against the precept of the Apostle whom to vnderstand otherwise then the very letter sounds is to wrest the manifest words of the Apostle unto a perverse construction But to returne these Remnants of nature in the hearts of men are but like the blazes and glimmerings of a candle in the socket there is much darknes mingled with them Nature cannot throughly convince 1. Because it doth not carry a man to the Roote Adams sinne concupiscence and the corrupted seeds of a fleshly minde reason conscience will c. Meere nature will never Teach a man to feele the waight and curse of a sinne committed aboue five thousand yeeres before himselfe was borne to feele the spirits of sinne running in his bloud and sprouting out of his nature into his life one uncleane thing out of another to mourne for that filthinesse which he contracted in his conception Saint Paul professeth that this could not bee learned without the Law 2. Because it doth not carry a man to the Rule which is the written Law in that mighty widenesse which the Prophet David found in it Nature cannot looke upon so bright a thing but through vailes and glosses of its owne Evill hateth the light neither commeth to the light cannot endure a through scrutinie and ransacking left it should be reproved When a man lookes on the Law through the mist of his owne â—…usts he cannot but wrest and torture it to his owne way Saint Peter gives two reasons of it because such men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Pet. 3. 16. 1. Vnlearned men namely in the mysterie of Godlinesse have not been taught of God what the truth is in Iesus till that time a man will never put off his lusts but defend them and rather make crooked the rule coine distinctions and evasions upon the law it selfe then judge himselfe and give glory to God 2. Fickle unstable men men apt to be tossed up and downe like empty clouds with every blast never rooted nor grounded in the love of the truth unstedfast in the Covenant of God that lay not hold on it
that is requir'd then as that Persian King who could not find out a Law to warrant the particular which hee would have done found out another That hee might doe what hee would so sinne when it hath no reason to alleage yet it hath Selfe-will that is all Lawes in one Gen. 49. 6. 2. Pet. 2. 10. Rom. 7. 23. In one word the strong man is furnished with a whole Armour Secondly sinne is a Husband Rom. 7. 1. 5. and so it hath the power of love which the wise Man saith is as strong as death that will have no deniall when it comes S. Paul tels vs there is a constraining power in love 2. Cor. 5. 14. Who stronger then Sampson and who weaker then a woman yet by love she overcame him whom all the Philistimes were unable to deale with Now as betweene a man and a strumpet so betweene lust and the heart there are first certaine cursed dalliances and treaties by alluring temptations the heart is drawne away from the sight of God and his Law and enticed and then followes the accomplishment of uncleannesse Iam. 1. 14. 15. This in the generall is that life or strength of sinne here spoken of Wee are next to observe that the ground of all this is the Law The sting of Death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law 1. Cor. 15. 56 1. Ioh. ◅ 4. from the Law it is that sinne hath both strength to condemne and to command us or have dominion over us Rom. 6. 14. Now the Law gives life or strength to sin three wayes First by the curse and obligation of it binding the soule with the guilt of sin unto the Iudgement of the great Day Every sinner hath the sentence past upon him already and in part executed He that beleeveth not is condemned already the wrath of God abideth on him All men come into the world with the wrath of God like a talent of lead upon their soule and it may all be pour'd out within one houre upon them there is but a span betweene them and judgement In which interim First the Law stops the mouth of a sinner Shuts him in and holds him fast under the guilt of his sinne Secondly it passeth sentence upon his soule sealing the assurance of condemnation and wrath to come Thirdly it beginneth even to put that sentence in execution with the spirit of bondage and of feare shaking the conscience wounding the spirit and scorching the heart with the pre-apprehensions of Hell making the soule see some portion of that tempest which hangeth over it rising out of that sea of sinne which is in his life and nature as the Prophets servant did the Cloud and so terrifying the soule with a certaine fearefull expectation of Iudgement Thus the Law strengthens sinne by putting into it a condemning power Secondly by the Irritation of the Law Sin tooke occasion saith the Apostle by the Law so by the commandement became exceeding sinnefull Rom. 7. 8. when lust finds it selfe universally restrain'd meets with Death and Hell at every turne can have no subterfuge nor evasion from the rigor and inexorablenesse of the Law then like a River that is stopt it riseth and fomes and rebels against the Law of the minde and fetcheth in all its force and opposition to rescue it selfe from that sword which heweth it in pieces And thus the Law is said to strengthen sinne not perse out of the Intention of the Law but by Accident antiperistasis exciting and provoking that strength which was in sinne before though undiscern'd and lesse operative For as the presence of an enemie doth actuate and call forth that malice which lay habitually in the heart before so the purity of the Law presenting it selfe to concupisence in every one of those fundamentall obliquities wherein it lay before undisturb'd and way laying the lust of the heart that it may have no passage doth provoke that habituall fiercenesse and rebellion which was in it before to lay about on all sides for its owne safety Thirdly by the conviction and manifestation of the Law laying open the widenesse of sinne to the conscience Man naturally is full of pride and selfe-love apt to thinke well of his spirituall estate upon presumptions and principles of his owne and though many professe to expect salvation frō Christ only yet in as much as they will be in Christ no way but their owne that shewes that still they rest in themselves for salvation This is that deceite and Guile of spirit which the scripture mentions which makes the way of a foole right in his owne eyes The Philosopher tells us of a Sea wherein by the hollownesse of the earth under it or some whirling and attractive propertie that sucks the vessell into it ships use to be cast away in the mid'st of a calme even so many mens soules doe gently perish in the mid'st of their owne securities and presumptions As the fish Polypus changeth himselfe into the colour of the Rock and then devoures those that come thither for shelter so doe men shape their mis-perswasions into a forme of Christ and faith in him and destroy themselves How many men rest in pharisaicall generalities plod on in their owne civilities moralities externall Iustice and unblameablenesse account any thing indiscretion and unnecessary strictnes that exceeds their owne modell every man in Hell that is worse then themselves I am not as this Publican and others that are better but in a fooles paradise and all this out of ignorance of the Law This here was the Apostles Case when he lived after the strictest sect of the Pharisies sin was dead he esteemed himself blamelesse but when the Commandement came discoverd its owne spiritualnes the carnalnesse of all his performances remou'd his curtald glosses and presumptuous prejudices opened the inordinatenes of natural concupiscence shewd how the lest atome doth spot the soule the smallest omission qualifie for hel make the conscience see those infinite sparkles and swarmes of lust that rise out of the hart and that God is all eye to see and all fire to consume every unclean thing that the smallest sins that are require the pretiousest of Christs blood to expiate and wash them out then he began to be co◅vinc'd that he was all this while under the Hold of Sinne that his conscience was yet under the paw of the Lyon as the Serpent that was dead in snow was reviu'd at the fire so sinne that seemes dead when it lies hid under the ignorances and misperswasions of a secure heart when either the Word of God which the Prophet calls fire or the last Iudgement shall open it unto the conscience it will undoubtedly revive againe and make a man finde himselfe in the mouth of Death Thus wee see that unto the Law belongs the Conviction of sinne and that in the whole compasse of evill that is in it Three hatefull evils are in
the branches yet the rootes are so fastened to the joynts and intralls of the wall that till the stones be puld all asunder it will not be quite rooted out As that house wherein there was a fretting and spreading Leprosie though it might bee scrap'd round about and much rubbish and corrupt materialls removed yet the Leprosie did not cease till the house with the stones and timber and morter of it was broken downe so originall concupiscence cleaveth so close to our nature that though we may bee much repair'd yet corruption will not leave us till our house be dissolved As long as Corne is in the field it will have refuse and chaffe about it as long as water remaines in the Sea it will retaine it saltnesse till it be defecated and clensed in its passage into the Land and so is it with the Church while it is in the world it will have the body of sinne about it it will bee beset with this Sinne. In the Apostle it is for this reason call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an encompassing sinne a sinne that will not be cast off that doth easily occupate and possesse all our members and faculties a man may as easily shake off the skin from his backe or poure out his bowels out of his body as rid himselfe of this evill inhabitant It is an evill that is ever present with us and dwelling in us But it may be objected Doth not the Apostle say that by being baptized into Christ or planted into the likenesse of his death our old man is crucified the body of sinne is destroyed we are freed from sinne as a woman is from a dead husband we have put off the body of the sinnes of the flesh by the Circumcision made without hands that is by Baptisme and the Spirit Doth not the Apostle Saint Iohn say He that is borne of God that is he that is Regenerate by Water and the Spirit sinneth not neither can sinne To this I answer in generall with the same Apostle If we say wee have no sinne we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us More particularly wee must distingvish both of Death and of sinne There is a twofold Death an Actuall or Naturall Death when the essentiall parts of a living Creature are taken asunder and the whole dissolved and a Virtuall or Legall Death when though the party bee naturally Alive yet hee is Dead in Law and that notes two things First a designation unto a certaine Death at hand and ready to bee executed Secondly a disabilitie unto many purposes which lay before in the mans power as a man condemn'd though hee have his life out of indulgence for a short space yet hee is then set apart and appointed for death and in the very sentence disabled to order or dispose of any thing which was then his owne When a woman is divorced for adultery from her husband though she bee Alive naturally yet Legally and to the purpose of marriage she is Dead to her husband so that though shee should live in the same house yet she should have nothing to doe with his bed or body And thus the Apostle speaketh of sinfull Widowes that they are Dead while they Live 1. Tim. 5. 6. In sin likewise we may consider The guilt of it whereby it makes us accursed and the dominion of it wherewith it bringeth us into bondage in these two principally consists the life and the strength of sinne which it hath from the Law Now by being baptized into Christ wee are delivered from the Law Rom. 6. 14. Gal. 3. 25. First from the covenant of the Law Christ hath put an utter period to the Law quoad officium Iustificandi hee is the end of the Law for righteousnesse Wee are righteous now by Grace and Donation not by nature or operation by the righteousnesse of God not that whereby God is righteous but that which God is pleased to give us and stands in opposition to a mans owne righteousnesse which is by working Secondly from the Rigor of the Law which requires perfect and perpetuall obedience Gal. 3. 10. Though the Gospell command holinesse Matth. 5. 48. and promise it Luk. 1. 74. and worke it in us Tit. 2. 10. 11. yet when the Conscience is summon'd before God to bee justified or condemned to resolve upon what it will stand to for its last triall there is so much mixture of sinne that it dares trust none but Christs owne adequate performance of the Law this is all the salvation the maine charter and priviledge of the church Wee are not therefore rigorously bound either to a full habituall holinesse in our persons which is supplied by the merit of Christ nor to a through actuall obedience in our services which are covered with the Intercession of Christ. Wee are at the best full of weakenesse many remnants of the old Adam hang about us this is all the comfort of a man in Christ that his desires are accepted God regards the sincerity of his heart and will spare his failings even as a man spareth his Sonne that desires to please him but comes short in his endeavours that he will not looke on the iniquitie of his holy things but when he fals will pitty him and take him up and heale him and teach him to goe thus wee are delivered from the rigour of the Law which yet is thus to be understood That though wee bee still bound to all the Law as much as ever under perill of sinne for so much as the best come short of fullfilling all the Law so much they sinne yet not under paine of Death which is the rigour of the Law And therefore Thirdly wee are delivered from the Curse of the Law from the vengeance and wrath of God against sin Christ was made a curse for us Lastly from the Irritation of the Law and all compulsorie and slavish obedience we love by Christ all the principles and grounds of true obedience put into vs. First knowledge of Gods will the spirit of Revelation wisedome and spirituall understanding Secondly will to embrace and love what wee know Thirdly strength in some measure to performe it And by these meanes the Saints serve God without feare with delight willingnesse love liberty power the Law is to them a new Law a Law of liberty a light yoke the Commandements of God are not grievous to them Being thus Dead to the Law we are truly Dead to sinne likewise and sinne to us but not universally Dead in regard of its strength but not in regard of its beeing To apply then the premisses Sin is Dead naturally quoad Reatum in regard of the gvilt of it that is that actuall guilt of sin wherby every man is borne a child of wrath and made obnoxious to vengeance is done quite away in our regeneration and the obligations cancell'd Col. 2. 14. Secondly sinne is Dead Legally
quoad Regnum in regard of the dominion and government of it in regard of the vigorous operation which is in it First sinne is condemn'd Rom. 8. 3. and therein destinated and design'd to death It shall fully bee rooted out Secondly in the meane time it is disabled from a plenarie Rule over the conscience though the Christian be molested and pester'd with it yet he doth not henceforth serve it nor become its instrument to bee subject in every motion thereof as the weapon is to the hand that holds it but Christ and his love beare the sway and hold the Sterne in the heart Rom. 6 6. 〈◊〉 Cor. 5. 14 15. 1. Pet. 4. 1 2. Thirdly the sentence of the Law against sin is already in execution But we are to note that sinne though condemnd to die yet such is the severity of God against it it is adjudg'd to a lingring death a death upon the Crosse and in the faithfull sin is already upon a Crosse fainting struggling dying daily yet so as that it retaines some life still so long as we are here sinne will be as fast to our natures as a nailed man is to the Crosse that beares him Our Thorne will still bee in our flesh our Canaanite in our side our Twinns in our wombe our counterlustings and counterwillings though we be like unto Christ per primitias spiritus yet we are unlike him per Reliquias vetustatis by the remainders of our flesh not to sinne is here onely our Law but in heaven it shal be our Reward All our perfection here is imperfect Sinne hath its deaths blow given it but yet like fierce and implacable beasts it never le ts goe its hold till the last breath Animamque in vulnere ponit never ceaseth to infest us till it cease to bee in us Who can say I have made my heart cleane Cleanse thou be saith holy David from my secret sinnes Though I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not thereby iustified saith the Apostle and the reason is added He that iudgethme is the Lord which Saint Iohn further unfolds God is greater then our hearts and knoweth all things Which places though most dangerously perverted by some late Innovators which teach That a man may bee without secret sinnes that he may make his heart cleane from sinne and that Saint Paul was so doe yet in the experience of the holiest men that are or have been evince this truth that the lusts of the flesh will be and worke in us so long as we carry our mortall bodies about us And this God is pleased to suffer for these and like purposes First to convince and humble us in the experience of our owne vilenesse that wee may be the more to the prayse of the glory of his great grace As once Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria dealt with the Egyptian Idols after the embracement of Christianitie most he destroyed onely one of their Apes and Images he kept entire not as a monument of Idolatry but as a spectacle of sinne and misery that in the sight thereof the people might after learne to abhorre themselves that had liv'd in such abominable Idolatries Secondly to drive us still unto him to cast us alwayes upon the hold and use of our Faith that our prayers may still finde something to aske which hee may give and our repentance something to confesse which he may forgive Thirdly to proportion his mercy to his justice for as the wicked are not presently fully destroyed have not sentence speedily executed against them but are reserv'd unto their Day that they may be destroi'd together as the Psalmist speakes even so the righteous are not here fully saved but are reserv'd unto the great day of Redemption when they also shall be saved together as the Apostle intimates 1. Thess. 4. 17. Fourthly to worke in us a greater hatred of sinne and longing after glory therefore we have yet but the first fruites of the spirit that we should grone and waite for the Adoption and Redemption therfore are we burdened in our earthly tabernacle that we should the more earnestly groane to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven Fiftly to magnifie the power of his Grace in the weakest of his members which notwithstanding that inhabiting Traytor which is ready to let in and entertaine every temptation shall yet make a poore sinfull man stronger in some respect then Adam was himselfe even able to overcome at last the powers of darkenesse and to be sufficient against all Satans buffets Lastly to commend the greatnesse of his mercy and salvation when we shall come to the full fruition of it by comparing it with the review of that sinfull estate in which here we lived when we were at the best without possibility of a totall deliverance Thirdly consider the great Contagion and pestilentiall humour which is in this sinne which doth not onely cleave unseparably to our nature but derives venome upon every action that comes from us For though we doe not say That the good works of the Regenerate are sinnes and so hatefull to God as our adversaries belie and misreport us for that were to reproach the spirit and the grace of Christ by which they are wrought yet this we affirme constantly unto the best worke that is done by the concurrence and contribution of our owne faculties such a vitiousnesse doth adhere such stubble of ours is superinduc'd as that God may justly charge us for defiling the grace he gave and for the evill which we mixe with them may turne away his eyes from his owne gifts in us Sinne in the facultie is poison in the fountaine that sheds infection into every thing that proceeds from it Ignorance and difficultie are two evill properties which from the fountaine doe in some measure diffuse themselves upon all our workes Whensoever thou art going about any good this evill will be present with thee to derive a deadnesse a dampe a dulnesse an indisposednesse upon all thy services an iniquitie upon thy holiest things which thou standest in neede of a priest to beare for thee Exod. 28. 38. and to remove from thee In the Law whatsoever an uncleane person touched was uncleane though it were holy flesh to note the evill quality of sinful nature to staine and blemish every good worke which commeth from it This is that which in thy prayers deads thy zeale fervencie humiliation selfe-abhorrencie thy importunitie faith and close attention this like an evill sauour mingleth with thy sacrifice casteth in impertinent thoughts wrong ends makes thee rest in the worke done and never enquire after the truth of thine owne heart or Gods blessing and successe to thy services This is it that in reading and hearing the Word throwes in so much prejudice blindnesse inadvertency security infidelity misapplication misconstruction wresting and shaping the word to our selves This is that which in thy meditations makes thee roving and unsetled
more love then strength therefore if it did not of us require strength to love but onely suppose it it could require no love neither for the Apostle tels us that by nature we are without strength So that if the meaning of the Law be onely this Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all the strength which thou hast and not this Thou shalt love him with all the strength that I require thee 〈◊〉 have and that I at first gave thee so that the strength and faculty as well as the love and duty may câ—…dere sub prâ—…cepto fall under the command the meaning of the Law would amount but to this Thou shalt not or needest not to love the Lord thy God at all because thou hast no strength so to doe and art not to be blamed for having none Thirdly it is not the being voluntary or involuntâ—… that doth make a thing sinfull or not sinfull but being opposite to the Rule which requires complete strength to serve God withall Now all a mans strength is not in his will the understanding affections and bodie have their strength which failing though the will bee never so prompt yet the worke is not done with that perfection which the Law requires yet withall wee are to note in this point two things First That originall sinne is â—…do voluntarie too because brought in by that will which was originally ours for this is a true rule in divinity Voluntas capitis totius naturae voluntas reputatur that Adams will was the will of all mankind and therfore this sinne being voluntarie in him and hereditarie unto us is esteemed in some sort voluntary unto us too Secondly that a thing may be voluntarie two wayes First efficienter when the will doth positively concurre to the thing which is done Secondly Deficienter when the will is in fault for the thing which is done though it were not done by it selfe For wee must note that all other faculties were at first appointed to be subject to the will were not to move but upon her allowance and conduct and therefore when lust doth prevent the consent and command of the will it is then manifest that the will is wanting to her office for to her it belongs to suppresse all contumacie and to forbid the doing of any illegall thing And in this sense I understand that frequent speech of Saint Austen That sinne is not sin except it be voluntarie that is sinne might altogether be prevented if the will it selfe had its primitive strength and were able to exercise uprightly that office of government and moderation over the whole man which at first it was appointed unto Which thing the same Father divinely hath expressed in his confessions What a monstrous thing is this saith he that the minde should command the body and be obeyed and that it should command it selfe and bee resisted His answer is The will is not a totall will and therefore the command is not a totall command for if the will were so throughlie an enemie to lust as it ought to be it would not be quiet till it had dis-throned it These things being premised wee conclude That as our nature is universally vitiated and defil'd by Adam so that pollution which from him wee derive is not onely the languor of nature the condition and calamitie of mankinde the wombe seed fomenter formative vertue of other sins but is it self truly and properly sin or to speak in the phrase of the Church of England hath of it selfe the nature of sin First where there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transgression there is sin in this sin there is more for there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rebellion and antipathie against the whole Law therefore concupiscence is sin Secondly That which inferres death and makes men naturally children of wrath is sinne but lust and fleshly concupiscence reviving bringeth death and wrath therefore it is sinne Thirdly where there is an excesse of sinne that thing must needs be sinfull but concupiscence by the commandement is exceeding sinfull ergo Fourthly that which is hatefull is evill and sinfull for God made all things beautifull and good and therefore very lovely but concupiscence is hatefull what I hate that I do Fifthly that which quickneth to all mischiefe and indisposeth to all good must needs be sinfull as shee that tempteth and solliciteth to adulterie may justly be esteem'd a harlot but concupiscence tempteth draweth enticeth begetteth conceiveth indisposeth to good and provoketh to evill therefore it is sinne Sixthly that which is hellish and divelish must needs be sinnefull for that is an argument in the Scripture to prove a thing to be exceeding evil but concupiscence is even the Hell of our nature and lusts are divelish Therefore they are sinfull too Nemo se palpet saith Saint Austen desus Satanas est de Deo beatus Let no man sooth or flatter himselfe his happinesse is from God for of himselfe he is altogether diuelish Seventhly that which was with Christ crucified is sinne for hee bore our sinne is his body upon the tree but our flesh and concupiscence was with Christ crucified They that are Christs have crucified the flâ—…sh with the affections and lusts Therefore it is sin Lastly that which is washed away in Baptisme is sinne for Baptisme is for remission of sinnes but concupiscence and the body of sinne is done away in Baptisme Therefore it is sinne And this is the frequent argument of the ancient Doctors against the Pelagians to prove that infants had sinne in their nature because they were baptized unto the remission of sinnes To give some answer then to those pretended reasons To the first wee confesse that nothing can bee toto genere Necessarie and yet sinfull neither is originall sinne in that sort necessary to the nature in it selfe though to the nature in persons proceeding from Adam it be necessarie For Adam had free will and wee in him to have kept that originall righteousnesse in which wee were created and what was to him sinfull was to us likewise because wee all were one in him Wee are then to distingvish of naturall and necessarie for it is either primitive and created or consequent and contracted necessity the former would indeed void sin because God doth never first make things impossible and then command them but the latter growing out of mans owne will originally must not therefore nullifie the Law of God because it disableth the power of man for that were to make man the Lord of the Law To the second three things are to be answer'd First The sinfulnesse of a thing is grounded on its disproportion to the Law of God not to the will of man Now Gods Law sets bounds and moderates the operations of all other powers and parts as well as of the wil. And therfore the Apostle complaines of his sinfull concupiscence even when his wil was in a readines to desire
by better promises and therefore respect none of the wages of Lust consider that God is the Fountaine of life that thou hast more and better of it in him then in the Creatures that when thou wantest the things of this life yet thou hast the promises still and that all the offers of lust are not for comforts but for snares not for the use of life but for the provisions of sin and there is more content in a little received from God then in whole treasures stollen from him and all sinfull gaine is the robbing of God Fourthly for the law of lust setup the law of the spirit of life in thy heart It is a royall Law and a Law of liberty whereas lust is a law of death and bondage and where the spirit comes a man shall be set free from the law of sinne and of death Keepe thy selfe alwayes at home in the presence of Christ under the eye and government of thy husband and that will dash all intruders and adulterers out of countenance Take heed of quenching grieving stifling the Spirit cherish the motions thereof stirre up and kindle the gifts of God in thee labour by them to grow more in grace and to have neerer communion with God the riper the Corne growes the looser will the chaffe be and the more a man growes in grace with the more ease will his corruptions be sever'd and shaken off Fifthly when lust is violent and importunate First be thou importunate and vrgent with God against it too when the Messenger of Satan the Thorne in the flesh did buffet and sticke fast unto S. Paul hee reiterated his prayers unto God against it and proportion'd the vehemency of his requests to the violence and urgency of the enemy that troubled him and he had a comfortable answer My Grace is sufficient for thee sufficient in due time to cure and sufficient at all times to forgive thy weakenesse In the Law if a ravisht woman had cried out shee was esteemed innocent because the pollution was not voluntary but violent And so in the assaults of lust when it useth violence and pursues the soule that is willing to escape and flye from it if a man with-hold the embraces of his owne will and cry out against it if he can say with Saint Paul It is no more I that doe it but sinne that dwelleth in me though in regard that the flesh is something within himselfe he cannot therefore be esteemed altogether innocent yet the Grace of God shall bee sufficient for him Secondly when thou art pursued keepe not Lusts counsell but seeke remedy from some wise and Christian friend by communicating with him and disclosing thy case unto him sinne loves not to bee betrayde or complained on mutuall confession of sinne to those who will pray for a sinner and not deride him or rejoyce against him is a meanes to heale it Thirdly when thou art in a more violent manner then usuall assaulted by sinne Humble thy selfe in some more peculiar manner before God and the more sinne cries for satisfaction denie it and thy selfe the more as Salomon saith of children so may I say of lusts Chastice and subdue thy lusts and regard not their crying Sixthly cut off the materials and provisions for lust weane thy selfe from earthly affections love not the World nor the things of the World desire not anything to consume upon thy lusts pray for those things which are convenient for thee turne thy heart from those things which are most likely to seduce thee possesse thy heart with a more spirituall and abiding treasure hee who lookes stedfastly upon the light of the Sunne will be able to see nothing below when he lookes downe againe and surely the more a man is affected with heaven the lesse will he desire or delight in the world Besides the provisions of sinne are but like full pastures that doe but fatten and prepare for slaughter Balaam was in very good plight before able to ride with his two servants to attend him but greedinesse to rise higher and make provision for his ambitious heart carried him upon a wicked businesse made him give cursed counsell against Israel which at length cost him his owne life Lastly for the instruments of lusts make a covenant with thy members keep a government over them bring them into subjection above all keepe thy heart establish the inward government for nothing can be in the body which is not first in the heart keepe the first mover uniforme and right all other things which have their motions depending there must needs be right too Having thus opened at large the life and state of originall sinne it remaines in the last place to shew how the spirit by the commandement doth convince and discover the life of actuall sinne in omitting so much good in committing so much evill in swarving and deviating from the rule in the manner and measure of all our services And this it doth by making us see that great spiritualnes and perfection that precise universall and constant conformitie which the Law requires in all we doe Cursed is every one that abideth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law to doe them Perfection and perpetuitie of obedience are the two things which the Law requires Suppose we it possible for a man to fulfill every tittle of the Law in the whole compasse of it and that for his whole life together one onely particular and that the smallest and most imperceptible deviation from it being for one onely time excepted yet so rigorous and inexorable is the Law that it seales that man under the wrath and curse of God The heart cannot turne the thoughts cannot rise the affections cannot stirre the will cannot bend but the Law meets with it either as a Rule to measure or as a Iudge to censure it It penetrates the inmost thoughts searcheth the bottome of all our actions hath a widenesse in it which the heart of man cannot endure They were not able to endure saith the Apostle the things which were commanded and Why tempt you God saith Saint ' Peter to those that preached Circumcision and put a yoake upon the brethren which neither we nor our fathers were able to beare Circumcision it selfe they were able to beare but that yoke which came with it namely the Debt of the whole Law was by them and their fathers utterly unsupportable For this very cause was the Law published that sinne might thereby become exceeding sinfull that so Gods grace might bee the more magnified and his Gospell the more accepted Let us in a few words consider some particular aggravations of the life and state of actuall sinne which the spirit by the Word will present unto us First in the least sinne that can bee named there is so much life and venome as not all the concurrent strength of those millions of Angels one of whom was
in one night able to stay so many thousand men had been able to remove More violence and injustice against God in a wandring thought in an idle word in an impertinent and unprofitable action then the worth of the whole Creation though all the Heavens were turned into one Sunne and all the earth into one Paradise were able to expiate Thinke we as meanely and slightly of it as wee will swallow it without feare live in it without sense commit it without remorse yet be we assured that but the guilt of every one of our least sins being upon Christ who felt nor knew in himselfe nothing of the pollution of them did wring out those prodigious drops of sweat did expresse those strong cryes did poure in those wofull ingredients into the Cup which he dranke as made him who had more strength then all the Angels of Heaven to shrinke and draw backe and pray against the worke of his owne mercy and decline the businesse of his owne comming Secondly if the least of my sinnes could doe thus O what a guilt and filthinesse is there then in the greatest sinne which my life hath been defiled withall If my Atomes be Mountaines O what heart is able to comprehend the vastnesse of my mountainous sinnes if there bee so much life in my impertinent thoughts how much rage and fury is there in my rebellious thoughts In my thoughts of gall and bitternesse in my contrived murthers in my speculative adulteries in my impatient murmurings in my ambitious projections in my coverous worldly froward haughty hatefull imaginations in my contempt of God reproching of his Word smothering of his motions quenching of his spirit rebelling against his grace If every vaine word be a flame that can kindle the fire of Hell about mine eares O what vollies of brimstone what mountaines of wrath will be darted upon my wretched soule for tearing the glorious and terrible name of the great God with my cursed oathes my crimson and fiery execrations What will become of stiâ—…king dirty carrion communication of lies and scornes and railings and bitternesse the persecutions adulteries and murthers of the tongue when but the idlenesse and unprofitablenesse of the tongue is not able to endure this consuming fire 3. If one great sin nay one small sin be so full of life as not all the strength nay not all the deaths or annihilations of all the Angels in heaven could have expiated O how shall I stand before an army of sinnes So many which I know of my selfe swarmes of thoughts steames of lusts throngs of sinfull words sands of evill actions every one as heavie and as great as a mountaine able to take up if they were put into bodies all the vast chasmâ—… betweene earth and heaven and fill all the spaces of nature with darkenesse and confusion and how infinite more secret ones are there which I know not by my selfe How many Atomes and streames of dust doth a beame of the Sunne shining into a roome discover which by any other light was before imperceptible How many sinfull secrers are there in my heart which though the light of mine owne conscience cannot discover are yet written in Gods account and sealed amongst his treasures and shall at the day of the revelation of all things bee produc'd and muster'd up against me like so many Lyons and Divels to flye upon me Fourthly if the number of them can thus amaze O what shall the roote of them doe Committed out of ignorance in the midst of light out of knowledge against the evidence of conscience out of presumption and forestalling of pardon abusing and subordinating the mercies of God to the purposes of Satan not knowing that his goodnesse should have led me to repentance out of stubbornnesse against the discipline out of enmitie against the goodnesse out of gall and bitternesse of spirit against the power and purity of Gods holy Law Fifthly not the roote onely but the circumstances too adde much to the life that is in sinne See how notably Saint Austen aggravates his sinne of robbing an Orchard when he was a Boy that which others lesse acquainted with the foulenesse of sinne might be apt enough but to laugh over First it began in the will and the members follow'd I had a minde and therefore I did it Secondly I did not doe it for want of the things but out of the naughtinesse of my heart and my inward enmitie to righteousnesse Thirdly I did it not with any aime at fruition of the fruite but onely of the sinne it was not my palate but my lust which I studied to satisfie Fourthly the apples I stole were very unapt to tempt no rellish no forme in them to catch the eye or allure the hand but the whole temptation and rise of the sinne was from within Fifthly I did it not alone there were a troope of naughty companions with mee and wee did mutually cherish and provoke the itch of each others lust Sixthly it was at a very unseasonable time of night when at least for that day we should have put a period and given a respite unto our lusts Seventhly it was after wee had spent much time before and should now at least have been tired out in pestilent and foolish sports Eighthly wee were immodest in our theft we carried away great loades and burdens of them Ninthly when wee had done we feasted the Hogs with them and our selves â—…ed upon the review and carriage of our owne lewdnesse Lastly the chiefe sport and laughter which wee had was this that we had not only robb'd but deceiv'd the honest â—…en who had never so bad an opinion of us as that wee should doe it and thus another mans losse was our jest And after all this his meditations upon it are excellent with David hee goes to the roote Ecce cor meum Deus meus ecce cor meum O Lord what a nature and heart had I that could commit sinne without any 〈◊〉 without any incentive but from my selfe and againe What shall I returne unto the Lord that I can review these my sinnes and not be afraid of them Lord I will love thee I will prayse thee I will confesse to thy Name it is thy Grace which pardoneth the sinnes which I have committed and it is thy Grace which prevented the sinnes which I have not committed Thou hast saved me from all sinnes those which by mine owne will I have done and those which by thy Grace I have been kept from doing If every man would single out some notable sinnes of his life and in this manner anatomize them and see how many sinnes one sinne containeth even as one flower many leaves and one Pomegranate many kernels it could not but be a notable meanes of humbling us for sinne Sixthly not evill circumstances onely but unproâ—…ble ends adde much to the life of sinne when men spâ—…d mony for that which is not bread and labour for that which satisfieth not when
men change their glory for that which doth not profit forsake the Fountaine and hâ—…w outbroken Cisternes which will hold no water â—…owe nothing but winde and reape nothing but shame and reproach Our Saviour assures us that it is no valuable price to get the whole World by sione and Saint Austen hath assur'd us that the salvation of the World if possible oughtâ—…ot to be procurd by but an officious lie But now how many times doe we sinne even for base and dishonourable endâ—… lie for a farthing sweare for a complement swagger for a fashion flatter for a preferment murder for a revâ—…ge pawne our soules which are more worth then the whole frame of nature for a very trifle Seventhly all this evill hitherto staies at home but the great scandall that comes of sinne addes much to the life of it the perniciousnesse and offence of the example to others Scandall to the weake and that twofold an active scandall to mis-guide them Gal. 2. 14. 1. Cor. 8. 10. or a passive scandall to grieve them Rom. 14. 15. and beget in them jealousies and suspitions against our persons and professions Scandall to the wicked and that twofold also the one giving them occasion to blaspheme that holy Name and profession which we beare 2. Sam. 12. 14. 2. Cor. 6. 3. 4. 1. Pet. 2. 13. The other hardning and encouraging comforting and justifying them by our evill example Ezek. 16. 51 54. Eighthly the evill doth not reach to men onely but the scandall and indignity over-spreads the Gospell a great part of the life of sinne is drawne from the severall respects it hath to Gods will acknowledged When we sâ—…e not onely against the Law of Nature in our hearts but against the written Law nor onely against the truth but against the mercy and Spirit of God too this must be a heavy aggravation O what a hell must it bee to a soule in hell to recount so many Sabbaths God reached fâ—…rth his Word unto me so many Sermons he knock'd at my doore and beseeched me to be reconciled he woâ—…d me in his Word allured me by his promises expected me in much patience enriched me with the liberty of his owne pâ—…etious Oracles reached forth his blood to wash me poured forth his teares over me but against all this I have stopped the â—…are and pulled away the shoulder and hardned the heart and received all this grace in â—…ine and not withstanding all the raine which fell upon me continued barren still God might have cut me off in the wombe and made me there a brand of hell as I was by nature a Childe of wrath he might have brought me forth into the world out of the pale of his visible Church 〈◊〉 into a corrupted Synagogue or into a place full of ignorance atheisme and profanenesse but he hath cast my lot in a beautifull place and given me a goodly heritage and now hee requires nothing of me but to doe justly and worke righteousnesse and walke humbly before God and I requite evill for good to the hurt of mine owne soule Ninthly the manner of committing these sinnesis is full of life too Peradventure they are Kings have a court and regiment in my heart at best they will be Tyrants in mee they have been committed with much strength power service attendance with obstinacy frowardnesse perseverance without such sense sorrow or apprehension as things of so great a guiltinesse did require Lastly in good duties whereas grace should bee ever quick and operative make us conformable to our head walke worthy of our high calling and as becommeth godlinesse as men that have learned and received Christ how much unprofitablenesse unspiritualnesse distractions formality want of rellish failings intermissions deadnesse uncomfortablenesse do shew themselves How much flesh with spirit how much wantonnesse with grace how much of the world with the word how much of the weeke in the Sabbath how much of the bag or barne in the Temple how much superstition with the worship how wuch security with the feare how much vaine-glory in the honour of God in one word How much of my selfe and therefore how much of my sinne in all my services and duties which I performe These and a world the like aggravations serve to lay open the life of actuall sinnes Thus have I at large opened the first of the three things proposed namely that the spirit by opening the Rule doth convince men that they are in the state of sin both originall and actuall The next thing proposed was to shew what kinde of condition or estate the state of sinne is And here are two things principally remarkeable first it is an estate of most extreme impotency and disability unto any good Secondly of most extreme enmity against the holinesse and wayes of God First it is an estate of impotency and Disability to any good Paul in his pharisaicall condition thought himselfe able to live without blame Phil. 3. 6. But when the commandement came he found all his former moralities to have been but dung Our naturall estate is without any strength Rom. 5. 6. so weake that it makes the Law it selfe weake Rom. 8. 3. as unable to doe the workes of a spirituall as a dead man of a naturall life for wee are by nature Dead in sinne Eph. 2. 1. and held under by it Rom. 7. 6. And this is a wofull aggravation of the state of sinne that a man lies in mischiefe 1. Ioh. 5. 19. as a carkasse in rottennesse and dishonour without any power to deliver himselfe He that raised up Lazarus out of his grave must by his owne voyce raise up us from sinne The dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of man and they that heare shall live Ioh. 5. 25. All men are by nature strangers to the life of God Eph. 4. 18. and sorreiners from his household Eph. 2. 19. Able without him to doe Nothing no more then a branch is to beare any fruit when it is cut of from the fellowship of the roote which should quicken it Ioh. 15. 4. 5. In me saith the Apostle that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. 18. a man is as unable to breake through the debt of the Law or his subjection to death and bondage as a beast to shake of his yoke Act. 15. 10. or a dead man his funerall clothes Ioh. 11. 44. In one word so great is this impotencie which is in us by sinne that we are not sufficient to thinke a good thing 2. Cor. 3. 5. not able to understand a good thing nor to comprehend the light when it shines upon us 1. Cor. 2. 14. Ioh. 1. 5. Our tongues unable to speake a good word How can yee being evill speake good things Matth. 12. 34. Our eares unable to heare a good word To whom shall I speake and give warning that they may heare behold their eare is uncircumcised and they cannot hearken Ier. 6. 10. our whole man
strong nor our hearts endure in the day when hee will have to doe with us How can wee choose but send forth an Embassage especially since he is not a great way off as it is in the Parable but standeth before the dore and is nigh at hand and will not carry an embassage of repentance to give up our armour to strip and judge our selves to meete him in the way of his judgements to make our selves vile before him and be humbled under his mighty hand and sue forth conditions of peace to meete him as the Gibeonites did Iosua and resolve rather to be his servants then to stand out against him This is certaine God is comming against his Enemies his attendants Angels and his weapons fire And if his patience and forbearance make him yet keepe a great way off that hee may give us time to make our peace O let the long suffering of God draw us to Repentance least wee treasure up more wrath against our selves Consider the great aggravation of that spirituall Iezabels sinne I gave her space to repent of her fornications and she repented not Consider that the long suffering of God is Salvation and therefore let us make this use of it Labour to bee found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse The last thing in this first point proposed was How the spirit by the Commandement doth thus convince men to be in the state of sinne To this I answere briefly First by quickning and putting an edge upon the Instrumentall cause the sword of the Spirit For the word of it selfe is a dead letter and profiteth nothing it is the spirit that puts life and power into it I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord to declare unto Iacob his transgressions saith the Prophet Mic. 3. 8. As the Spirit is a Spirit of life so hath he given to the Word to be a Word of life quicke and powerfull Phil. 2. 16. Heb. 4. 12. Secondly by writing it in the heart casting the heart into the mould of the Word and transforming the spirit of man into the image of the Word and making it as it were the Epistle of Christ bending and framing the heart to stand in awe of Gods Word for writing his Law and putting his feare into the heart is the same thing with God In which respect amongst others men are said to bee Sealed by the Spirit because that Spirituall Holinesse which is in the Word is fashioned in the hearts of the Saints as the image of the seale is in the waxe As the light of the Sunne doth by reflection from the Moone illighten that part of the earth or from a glasse that part of a roome from which it selfe is absent So though the Church bee here absent from the Lord yet his Spirit by the Word doth illighten and governe it It is not the Moone alone nor the glasse alone nor yet the Sunne without the Moone or the glasse that illightneth those places vpon which it selfe doth not immediately shine but that as the principall by them as the instruments so the Spirit doth not and the Word cannot alone by it selfe convince or convert but the Spirit by the Word as its sword and instrument So then when the Spirit turnes a mans eyes inward to see the truth of the Word written in his owne heart makes him put his Seale unto it frameth the will to search acknowledge and judge the worst of its selfe to subscribe unto the righteousnesse of God in condemning sinne and him for it to take the office of the Word and passe that sentence upon it selfe which the Word doth then doth the Word spiritually Convince of sinne Which should teach us what to look for in the ministry of the word namely that which will Convince us that which puts an edge upon the Word opens the heart makes it burne namely the spirit of Christ for by that only we can be brought unto the righteousnesse of Christ we are not to despise the ordinances in our esteeme when we find them destitute of such humane contributions and attemperations which we haply expected as Naaman did the waters of Iordan for though there bee excellent use of Humane learning when it is sanctified for opening the Word as a baser colour is a good ground for a better yet it is the Word alone which the Spirit worketh by the flesh and fleshly accessions of themselves profit no more nor adde no more reall vertue or lustre to the Word then the weedes in a field do unto the Corne or then the ground colour doth unto the beautie of that which is put upon it We should therefore pray for the Spirit to come along with his Word It is not enough to be at Bethesda this house of mercie and grace unlesse the Angell stirre and the Spirit move upon these waters It is Hee that must incline and put the heart into the Word or else it will remaine as impotent as before But of this point also I have spoken at large upon another scripture Having then thus shewed at large that the Spirit by the Commandment convinceth men to be in the state of sin both Actuall and Originall imputed and inherent what kinde of state that is A state of Impotencie and Enmity How it doth it by quickning the Word and opening the heart Now we are very briefly to open the second point That the Spirit by the Commandment convinceth a man to be under the guilt of sin or in the state of death because of sinne I died for which we must note First that there is a two fold Guilt First Reatus Concupiscentia which is the meritoriousnesse of punishment or liablenesse unto punishment which sinne brings with it and Reatus personae which is the actuall Obligation and obnoxiousnesse of a person vnto punishment because of sinne Now in as much as nature is not able to discover without the Spirit the whole malignity and obliquity that is in sinne therefore it cannot sufficiently convince of the Guilt of sinne which is a Resultancie therefrom and is ever proportionable thereunto In which respect the Iudgements of God are said to be unsearchable Rom. 11 33. And the wicked know not whither they goe 1. Ioh. 2. 11. cannot have any full and proportionable notions of that wrath to come which their sinnes carry them unto Secondly wee may note that there is a Twofold Conviction of this Guilt of sinne A naturall Conviction such as was in Cain Iudas Spira and other despairing men which ariseth from two grounds First the Present sense of Gods wrath in the first fruits thereof upon their consciences which must perforce beare witnesse to Gods â—…ustice therein and this is that which the Apostle calls Torment 1. Ioh. 4. 18. which though it may arise from naturall principles for wee know even heathens have had their Laniatus and Ictus as the Historian speakes their scourges and rendings of Conscience yet is it
much set forward by the Word because therein is made more apparant to the Soule the Glory and the Power of God therefore the Two Prophets are said to Torment the inhabitants of the Earth and the Law is said to make men guilty and to kill to hew smite and destroy those whom it deales with all Secondly such a faith as the Divels have begotten by the Word and assented unto by the secret suggestions of the heart witnessing to it selfe that it hath deserved more then yet it feeles and this begets a fearefull expectation of being devoured surpriseth the heart with horrid tremblings and presumptions of the vengeance to come which the Apostle calls the Spirit of bondage and feare But all this being an Assent perforce extorted for wicked men confesse their sinnes as the Divels confessed Christ more out of Torment then out of Love to God or humiliation under his mighty hand amounts to no more then a Naturall Conviction Secondly there is a Spirituall and Evangelicall Conviction of the Guilt of sinne and the damnation due thereunto arising from the Law written in the heart and tempered with the apprehension of mercie in the new Covenant which begets such a paine under the Guilt of sin as a plaister doth to the impostumation which withall it cures such a Conviction as is a manuduction unto righteousnesse And that is when the Conscience doth not onely perforce feele it selfe dead but hath wrought in it by the Spirit the same affection towards it selfe for sinne which the word hath is willing to charge it selfe and acquit God to endite accuse arraigne testifie condemne it selfe meete the Lord in the way of his Iudgements and cast downe it selfe under his mighty hand That man who can in secret and truth of heart willingly and uncompulsorily thus stand on Gods side against sinne and against himselfe for it giving God the Gloâ—ie of his righteousnesse if he should condemne him and of his uâ—searchable and rich mercie that hee doth offer to forgive him I dare pronounce that man to haue the Spirit of Christ. For no man by nature can willingly and uprightly Owne damnation and charge himselfe with it as his due portion and most just inheritance This can never arise but from a deepe sense and hate of sinne from a most ardent zeale for the Glory and Righteousnesse of God Now then since the Conviction of sinne and of the death and Guilt thereof are not to drive men to despaire or blasphemie but that they may beleeve and lay hold on the righteousnesse of Christ which they are then most likely to doe when sinne is made exceeding sinfull and by consequence death exceeding deadly give mee leave to set forth in two words what this Guilt of sinne is that the necessitie of righteousnesse from Christ may appeare the greater and his mercie therein bee the more glorified Guilt is the Demerit of sinne binding and subjecting the person in whom it is to undergoe all the punishments legally due the reunto This Demerit is founded not only in the Constitution Will and Power of God over his owne Creatures of whom hee may justly require whatsoever obedience hee giveth power to performe but in the nature of his owne Holinesse and Iustice which in sinne is violated and turned from and this Guilt is after a sort Infinite because it springeth out of the aversion from an Infinite Good the violation of an infinite Holynesse and Iustice and the Conversion to the Creatures infinitely if men could live ever to commit adultery with them And as the Consequence and reward of obedience was the favour of God conferring life and blessednesse to the Creature so the wages of sinne which this Guilt assureth a sinner of is the wrath of God which the Scripture calleth Death and the Curse This Guilt being an Obligation unto punishment leadeth us to consider what the nature of that curse and death is unto which it bindeth us over Punishment bearing necessarie relation to a command the trangression whereof is therein recompenced taketh in these considerations First on the part of the Commander a will to which the Actions of the subject must conforme reveal'd and signified under the nature of a Law Secondly a justice which will and thirdly a power which can punish the transgressors of that Law Secondly on the part of the subject commanded there is requir'd first Reason and free-will originally without which there can be no sinne for though man by his brutishnesse and impotency which he doth coÌ„tract cannot make void the commands of God but that they now binde men who have put out their light and lost their libertie yet originally God made no law to binde under paine of sinne but that unto the obedience whereof hee gave reason and free-will Secondly a debt and obligation either by voluntarie subjection as man to man or naturall as the creature to God or both sealed and acknowledged in the covenants betweene God and man whereby man is bound to fulfill that law which it was originally enabled to observe Thirdly a forfeiture guilt and demerit upon the violation of that Law Thirdly and lastly the evill it selfe inflicted wherein we consider first the nature and qualitie of it which is to have a destructive power to oppresse and dis quiet the offender and to violate the integritie of his well being For as sinne is a violation offered by man to the Law so punishment is a violation retorted from the Law to man Secondly the Proportion of it to the offence the greatnesse whereof is manifested in the majestie of God offended and those severall relations of goodnesse patience creation redemption which he hath to man in the quality of the creature offending being the chiefe and lord of all the rest below him in the easinesse of the primitive obedience in the unprofitablenesse of the wayes of sinne and a world of the like aggravations Thirdly the end of it which is not the destruction of the creature whom as a creature God loveth but the satisfaction of justice the declaration of divine displeasure against sinne and the manifestation of the glory of his power and terrour So then Punishment is an evill or pressure of the Creature proceeding from a Law giver just and powerfull inflicted on a reasonable Creature for and proportionable unto the breach of such a Law unto the performance and obedience whereof the Creature was originally enabled wherein is intended the glory of Gods just displeasure and great power against sinne which hee naturally hateth Now these punishments are Temporall Spirituall and Eternall Temporall and those first without a man The vanitie of the Creatures which were at first made full of goodnesse and beautie but doe now mourne and grone under the bondage of our sinnes The wrath of God revealing it selfe from heaven and the curse of God over-growing the earth Secondly within him All the Harbingers and Fore-runners of death sicknesse paine povertie reproach feare and
after all death it selfe For though these things may be where there is no guilt imputed and so properly no punishment inflicted neither the blinde man nor his parents had sinned that he was borne blinde as in the same ship there may bee a malefactor and a Merchant and to the one the voyage is a trafficke to the other a banishment yet to the wicked where they are not sanctified they are truely punishments and fruites of Gods vindicative justice because they have their sting still in them For the sting of death is sinne Secondly Spirituall and those threefold First Purishment of losse separation from the favour and fellowship with God expulsion from Paradise the seat of Gods presence and love Aliens forreiners farre from God Secondly Of sense the immediate strokes of Gods wrath on the soule wounds of Conscience scourges of heart taste of vengeance implanting in the soule tremblings feares amazements distracted thoughts on a cleare view of the demerit of sinne evidences of immortality and presumptions of irreconciliation with God This made Cain a runnagate and Iudas a murtherer of himselfe yea some touches of it made David cry out that his bones were broken and marrow dryed up and his flesh scortched like a potsheard It is able to shake the strongest Cedars and make the mountaines tremble like a leafe The sonne of God himselfe did sweate and shrinke and pray against it and with strong cries decline it though the suffering of so much of it as could consist with the holinesse of his person were the worke of his office and voluntary mercy Thirdly of sinne when God in anger doth forsake the soule and give it over to the frenzie and fury of lust to the rage and revenge of Satan letting men alone to joyne themselves unto idoles and to beleeve lies Now as the operation of the sunne is strongest there where it is not at all seene in the bowels of the earth or as lightning doth often blast and consume the inward parts when there is no sensible operation without so the Iudgements of God doe often lie heaviest there where they are least perceiv'd Hardnesse of heart a spirit of slumber blindnesse of minde a reprobate sense tradition unto Satan giving over unto vile affections recompencing the errors of men with following sinnes are most fearefull and desperate judgements But doe we then make God the Author of sinne God for bid In sinne we may consider the execution and committing of it as it is sinne and this is onely from man for every man is drawne away and enticed by his owne lust and the Ordination of it as it is a Punishment and this may be from God whose hand in the just punishment of sinne by sinne in obstinate contemptuous impenitent sinners may thus farre be observed First Deserendo by forsaking them that is taking away his abused gifts subtracting his despised Graces calling in and making to retire his quenched and grieved spirit removing his candlesticke and silencing his Prophets and giving a bill of divorce that either they may not see nor heare at all or hearing they may not understand and seeing they may not perceive because they did not see nor heare when they might Secondly Permittendo when he hath taken away his own Grace which was abused unto wantonnesse he suffers wicked men to walke in their owne wayes and because they like not to retaine him in their knowledge nor to live by his prescript therefore he leaves them to themselves and their owne will Thirdly Media disponendo ordering objects and proposing meanes not onely to Try but to punish the wickednesse of men and to bring about whatever other fixed purposes of his hee hath resolved for the declaration of his wonderfull wisedome to execute and as it were to fetch out of the sinnes of men as the conspiracie of Pilat Herod and the Iewes which their former wickednesse had justly deserved to have them given over unto was by God order'd to accomplish his determined and unchangeable counsell touching the death of Christ. Excellent is the speech of Holy Austin to this purpose The Lord enclineth the wils of men whither soever pleaseth himselfe whether unto Good out of his mercie or unto evill out of their merit sometimes by his manifest sometimes secret but alwayes by his righteous judgement and this not by his patience onely but by his power Fourthly Perversas voluntates non invitas flectendo sed spontaneas suo impetu faciles ulterius Satanae praecipitandas tradendo By giving over perverse wilfull rebellious sinners to the rage and will of Satan to hurry and enrage them at his pleasure unto further sinfulnesse When Iudas had listued to the Temptation of Satan to betray Christ had set himselfe to watch the most private opportunitie had been warned of it by Christ and that upon a question of the most bold and impudent hypocrisie that was ever made Master Is it I though it is not an improbable conjecture that Iudas at that very time upon the curse that was pronounced might secretly and for that time seriously resolve to give over his plot and upon that resolution to aske the question then at last Christ by a sop did give Satan as it were a further seisin of him and the purpose of Christ was that that which he was to doe hee might doe quickely He was now wholly given up to the will of Satan whose temptation haply before though very welcome in regard of the purchase and project of gaine which was in it had not fully silenc'd nor broken through all those reluctancies of Conscience which were very likely to arise upon the first presentment of so hideous a suggestion but now I say whether out of a sinister Construction of our Saviours words That thou doest doe quickly as if they had been not as indeed they were a giving him over to the greedinesse of his owne lust and to the rage of Satan but rather an allowance of his intention as knowing that hee was able to deliver himselfe out of their hands unto whom he should bee betraide and so his treason should onely make way to Christs miracle and not to his crosse or whether it were out of a secret presumption that notwithstanding Christ had made him know how his conspiracie was not hid from him yet since he was of all the company singled out whom Christ would Carve unto therefore his conspiracie was not so vile but that Christ would redâ—…re in gratiam countenance and respect him after all that and that as by the plot hee had not so lost him but that hee had gain'd him againe so also hee might doe after the execution too Now I say after that soppe and those words without further respect to the strugglings and staggerings of his Conscience hee goes resolvedly about that damned businesse for he was now delivered unto the will of Sathan The like libertie and commission was that which God gaue to
this place dehorteth us Having in the former Chapter set forth the doctrine of Iustification with those many comfortable fruites and effects that flow from it he here passeth over to another head of Christian Doctrine namely Sanctification and Conformitie to the holinesse of Christ the ground wherof he maketh to be our Fellowship with him in his death and Resurrection for Christ carried our sinnes upon the Tree with him and therefore we ought with him to die daily unto sin and to live unto God This is the whole argument of the precedent parts of the Chapter and frequently elsewhere used by the Apostle and others 2. Cor. 5. 14 15. Gal. 2. 20. 3. 27. 5. 24. Ephes. 2. 6. Phil. 3. 10. Col. 2. 12. 13. 26. 3. 1. 4. Heb. 9. 14 1. Pet. 4. 1. 2. Now the words of the Text are as I conceive a Prolepsis or answer to a tacite objection which might be made A weake Christian might thus alledge If our fellowship in the death of Christ doe bring along with it a death of sinne in us then surely I have little to doe with his death For alas sinne is still alive in me and daily bringeth forth the workes of life To this the Apostle answeres Though sinne dwell in you yet let it not raigne in you nor have its wonted hold and power over you Impossible it is while you carry about these tabernacles of flesh these mortall bodies that sinne should not lodge within you yet your care must be to give the kingdome unto Christ to let him have the honour in you which his father hath given him in the Church to Rule in the midst of his enemies those fleshly lusts which fight against him By Mortall bodie we here understand the whole man in this present estate wherein he is obnoxious to death which is an usuall figure to take the part for the whole especially since the body is a weapon and instrument to reduce into act and to execute the will of sinne Before I speake of the power of sinne here are Two points offer themselves from the connexion of the words to those preceding which I will but only name First Sinne will abide for the time of this mortall life in the most regenerate who can say I have made my heart cleane I am free from my sinne David had his secret sinnes which made him pray and Paul his thorne in his flesh which made him cry out against it To the reasons of this point before produc'd wee may adde that God suffers our sinnes to dwell in us first to magnifie the glory of his mercy that notwithstanding he be provoked every day yet he doth still spare us It is said in one place that when God saw that every Imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was continually evill he said I will destroy man whom I have created from off the face of the earth yet afterwards God said I will not againe curse the ground any more for mans sake for the imagination of mans heart is evill from his youth The places seeme at first view to be contradictory to one another But we are thus to reconcile them After there had been a propitiatory offering made by Noah unto God upon an Altar which was the type of Christ it is said that God smelt a sweete savour and resolved I will no more curse the earth not Because but Although the imagination of mans heart be evill from his youth that is though men are so wicked that if I would Iure meo uti take advantage to powre out againe my displeasure upon them I might doe it every day yet I will spare them notwithstanding their lusts continue in them For we are not to understand the place as if it tended to the extenuation of originall sinne as some doe I will take pitty upon them Because of their naturall infirmities but onely as tending to the magnifying of Gods mercy and patience I will take pitty upon them though I might destroy them For so the originall word is elsewhere taken Thou shalt drive out the Cananites Though they have iron chariots c. Secondly to magnifie the Glory of his powerfull patience that being daily provoked yet he hath power to be patient still In ordinary esteeme when an enemie is daily irritated and yet comes not to revenge his quarrell we accompt it impotency and unprovision but in God his patience is his power When the people of Israel murmured upon the report of giants in the land and would have made a Captaine to returne into Egypt and have stoned Ioshua and Caleb so that Gods wrath was ready to breake out upon them and to disinherite them this was the argument that Moses used to mediate for them Let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy Thou hast shewed the Power of thy mercy from Egypt untill now even so pardon them still If we could conceive God to have his owne justice joyned with the impotency and impatiency of man wee could not conceive how the world should all this while have subsisted in the midst of such mighty provocations This is the only reason why he doth not execute the fiercenesse of his wrath and consume men because he is God and not man not subject to the same passions changes impotencies as men are If a house be very weake and ruinous clogg'd with a sore waight of heavy materials which presse it downe too there must be strength in the props that doe hold it up even so that patience of God which upholds these ruinous tabernacles of ours that are pressed downe with such a waight of sinne a waight that lies heavie even upon Gods mercy it selfe must needs have much strength and power in it The second point from the Connexion is That our Death with Christ unto sinne is a strong argument against the raigne and power of sinne in us Else wee make the death of Christ in vaine for in his death hee came with water and bloud not onely with bloud to justifie our persons but with water to wash away our sinnes The Reasons hereof are first Deadnesse argues disability to any such workes as did pertaine to that life unto which a man is dead Such then as is the measure of our death to sinne such is our disability to fulfill the lusts of it Now though sinne be not quite expir'd yet it is with Christ nail'd upon a crosse They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts so that in a regenerate man it is no more able to doe all its owne will then a crucified man is to walke up and downe and to do those businesses which he was wont to delight in He that is borne of God sinneth not neither can sinne because he is borne of God and his seede abideth in him Secondly Deadnesse argues disaffection A condemned man
cares not for the things of this World because he is in Law dead and so reserv'd to an execution and utterly devested of any right in the things hee was wont to delight in the sight or remembrance of them doth but afflict him the more A divorc'd man cares not for the things of his wife because in law she is dead vnto him and hee unto her So should it bee with us and sin because we are dead with Christ therefore we should shew it no affection Thirdly Deadnesse argues liberty unsubjection justification He that is dead is freed from sinne as the woman is from the husband after death And therefore being freed thus from sinne we should not bring our selves into bondage againe but stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath set us free and sinne should appeare in our eyes as it is in it selfe a dead thing full of noisomenesse horrour and hideous qualities We therefore should labour to shew forth the power of the death of Christ in our dying to sinne for this is certaine we have no benefit by his sufferings except we have fellowship in them we have no more fellowship in them then we can give proofe of by our dying dayly to sinne For his blood clenseth from all sinne Let us not by raigning sinne Crucifie Christ againe for he dieth no more In that hee died hee died once unto sinne Death hath no more power ovâ—…r him to shew that sinne must have no more power over us but that being once dead to sinne we should thenceforth live unto him that died for us There is a speech in Tertullian which though proceeding from Novatianisme in him doth yet in a moderated and qualified sense carry the strength of the Apostles argument in it Si possit fornicatio moechia denno admitti poterit Christus denno mori If fornication and adultery may bee againe committed by a man dead to sinne in that raging and complete manner as before if raigning sinne after it hath beene ejected out of the Throne and nail'd to a Crosse can returne to its totall and absolute soveraigntie as before Christ may dye againe for the sinnes of a Iustified and regenerate man are Crucified upon his Crosse and in his body Now I proceede to the maine thing in the Text namely the Regall power of sinne It is an observation of Chrysostome and Theodoret on the Text which though by some rejected as too nice I shall yet make bold to commend for very pertinent and rationall The Apostle did not say say they Let not sinne Tyrannize for that is sius owne worke and not ours as the Apostle sayeth Now then is it no more I that doe it but sinne that dwelleth in me all the service which is done to a tyrant is out of violence and not out of obedience But he sayes Let it not raigne in you for to the raigne of a King the obedience of the Subjects doth as it were Actively concurre whereas the subjects are rather patients then agents in a tyranny So then in a Raigning King there is a more Soveraigne power then in a Tyrant for a Tyrant hath only a Coactive power over the persons but a King hath a sweete power over the wills and affections of his Subiects they freely and heartily love his person and rejoyce in his service which rule though it be not perpetuall in the letter and in civill governements for the unwillingnesse of a people to serve a Prince may not onely arise from his tyrannie but even when he is just and moderate from their owne rebellion yet it is most generall and certaine in the state of sinne which is never a King over rebellious subjects who of themselves reject its yoke and governement For the better discovery then of the power of sinne we must note first that there are but three wayes after which sinne may be in a man First as an usurping Tyrant and seditious commotioner either by surprizall invading or by violence holding under or by projects circumventing a man against his will taking advantage of some present distemper of minde or difficultie of estate as in David of idlenesse in Peter of teare and danger or the like And thus sinne doth often incroach upon the Saints of God and play rhe Tyrant use them like Captives that are sold under the power of sinne It was thus a Tyrant in Saint Paul we reade of him that hee was sold under sinne and wee read of Ahab that hee was sold to sinne but with great difference the one sold himselfe and so became willingly the servant of sinne the other was sold by Alam from which bondage hee could not utterly extricate himselfe though hee were in bondage to sinne as the Creatures are to vanity not willingly but by reason of his act that had subjected him long before Secondly As a stâ—…ve a Gibeonite or Tributarie Cananite as a spoyled mortified crucified dying decaying sinne like the house of Saul growing weaker and weaker and thus sinne is constantly in all the faithfull while they are iâ—… the field the chaste is about them Thirdly As a raging and commanding King having a throne the heart servants the members a counsell the world flesh and Divell a complete armorie of lusts and temptations fortifications of ignorance malice rebellion fleshly reasonings lawes and edicts lastly a strict judicature a wise and powerfull rule over men which the Scriptures call the gates of Hell And of the Power of this King we are to speake In a King there is a Two fold Power A Power to command and a Power to make his commands be obeyed Sinne properly hath no power to command because the kingdome of it is no way subordinated to Gods Kingdome over us but stands up against it And even in just and annointed kings there is no power to command any thing contrary to that Kingdome of Christ to which they are equally with other subject But though sinne have not a just power to command the soule yet it hath that upon which that power where it is is grounded namely a kinde of Title and right over the soule Sinne is a spirituall Death and man by his first fall did incurre a subjection to every thing which may be called Death so that then a man did passe into the possession of sinne whence that phrase spoken of before Thou hast sold thy selfe to worke evill Now Quod venditur transit in potestatem ementis when a thing is sold it passeth into the possession of that to which it is sold. This is the covenant or bargaine betweene a Sinner and Hell Man purchaseth the pleasures and wages of sinne and sinne takes the possession of man possession of his nature in Originall sinne and possession of his life in Actuall sinne The tryall of this title of sinne that wee may discerne whether we are under it or no must be as other Titles are we must first
visible and scandalous blame Secondly the naturall is onely a combate there is no victory followes it sinne is committed with delight and persisted in still but the spirituall diminisheth the power and strength of sinne Thirdly the naturall if it doe overcome yet it doth onely represse or repell sinne for the time like the victory of Saul over Agag it is kept alive hath no hurt done it but the spirituall doth mortifie crucifie subdue sinne Some plaisters skinne but they do not cure give present ease but no abiding remedie against the roote of the disease so some attempts against sinne may onely for the present pacifie but not truely clense the conscience from dead workes Fourthly the naturall makes a man never a whit the stronger against the next assault of Temptation whereas the spirituall begets usually more circumspection prayer faith humiliation growth acquaintance with the depth and mysteries of sinne skill to manage the spirituall armour experience of the truth power and promises of God c. Lastly they differ in their end The naturall is onely to pacifie the clamors of an unquiet conscience which ever takes Gods part and pleads for his service against the sinnes of men The spirituall is with an intent to please and obey God and to magnifie his Grace which is made perfect in our weakenesse Now for a word of the third Case Why every sinne doth not raigne in every wicked man for answere whereunto we must First know that Properly it is originall sinne which raignes and this king is very wise and therefore sends forth into a man members and life as into severall provinces such viceroâ—…es such actuall sinnes as may best keepe the person in peace and encouragement as may least disquiet his estate and provoke rebellion Secondly we are to distinguish betweene the Raigne of sinne actuall and viâ—…tuall or in praeparatione animi for if the state of the king requires it a man will be apt to obey those commands of â—…ust which now haply his heart riseth against as savage and belluine practices as we see in Hazael Thirdly though Originall sinne be equall in All and to all purposes yet Actuall sinne for the most pâ—…t followes the temper of a mans minde bodie place calling abilities estate conversings relations and a world of the like variable particulars Now as a river would of it selfe caeteris paribus goe the neerest way unto the sea but yet according to the qualities and exigencies of the earth through which it passeth or by the arts of men it is crooked and wried into many turnings So Originall siâ—…e would of it selfe carry a man the neerest way to hell through the midst of the most divellish and hideous abominations but yet meeting with severall tempers and conditions in men it rather chooseth in many men the safest then the speediest way carries them in a compasse by a gentler and a blinder path then through such notorious and horrid courses as wherein having hell still in their view they might haply be brought some time or other to start backe and bethinke themselves But lastly and principally the different administration of Gods generall restraining Grace which upon unsearchable and most wise and just reasons he is pleased in severall measures to distribute unto severall men may bee conceived a full reason why some men are not given over to the rage and frenzie of many lusts who yet live in a voluntary and plenary obedience unto many others To conclude By all this which hath beene spoken we should bee exhorted to goe over unto Christ that wee may be translated from the power of Sathan for he only is able to strike through these our kings in the day of his wrath Consider the issue of the raigne of sinne wherein it differs from a true King and sympathizeth with Tyrants for it intendeth mischiefe and misery to those that obey it First sinne raignes unto Death that which is here called the raigne of sinne â—…s before called the raigne of Death and the raigne of sinne unto Death Rom. 5. 17. 21. Rom. 6. 16. Secondly Sinne raigneth unto feare and bondage by reason of the death which it brings Heb. 2. 15. Thirdly Sinne raigneth unto shame even in those who escape both the death and bondage of it Fourthly It raigneth without any fruite hope or benefit What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Rom. 6. 21. Lastly the raigne of sin is but momentary at the length both it selfe and all its subjects shall be subdued The World passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the Will of God abideth for ever 1. Ioh. 2. 17. Of Christs Kingdome there is no end We shall reape if we faint not Our combate is short our victorie is sure our Crowne is safe our triumph is eternall his Grace is All-sufficient here to helpe us and his Glory is All-sufficient hereafter to reward us THE POLLVTION OF SINNE AND VSE OF THE PROMISES 2. COR. 7. 1. Having therefore these Promises dearely beloved Let us clense our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit Perfecting holinesse in the feare of God HAving set forth the State Guilt and Power of Sinne I shall now in the last place for the further opening the exceeding sinfulnesse thereof discover the pollution and filthinesse which therefrom both the flesh and spirit the Body and Soule doe contract The Apostle in the former chapter had exhorted the Corinthians to abstaine from all communion with Idolaters and from all fellowship in their evill courses Severall arguments he useth to enforce his exhortation First from the Inequality of Christians and unbeleevers Bee not yee unequally yoked with unbeleevers v. 14. It hath a relation to the Law of Moses which prohibited to plow with an Oxe and anâ—… Asse or to put into one yoke things disproportionable Secondly from their contrarietse and by consequence uncommunicablenesse to each other there is as everlasting and unreconciliable an hatred betweene Christ and Beâ—…al righteousnesse and unrighteousnesse as betweene light and darknesse ver 14. 15. Thirdly from those pretious and excellent Promises which are made to Christians they are the Temples of God his people and peculiar inheritance hâ—… is their Father and they his Sonnes and daughters ver 16 17 18. And there are many reasons in this one argument drawn from the Promises to inferre the Apostles conclusion First by that unction and consecration whereby they are made Temples unto God they are separated from profane uses designed to Divine and more noble imployments sealed and set apart for God himselfe and therefore they must not be profaned by the uncleane touch of evill society Secondly by being Gods Temples they are lâ—…fted to a new station the eyes of men and Angels are upon them they offend the weake they blemish and deface their Christian reputation they justifie comfort encourage settle the wicked in their sinfull courses by a deepe pollicie of the deceitfull heart of man apt to
and pharisaicall outsides begets much dispensation and allowance in many errours that he may keepe pace and not seeme too austere censorious and ill conceited of the men whom hee walkes with Therefore David would not suffer a wicked man to be in his presence nor any wicked thing to be before his eyes lest it should cleave unto him Take heede saith the Apostle lest any roote of bitternesse springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled Fourthly it spreads not onely upon men but defiles and curses the good Creatures of God about us It puts a leprosie into the stone in the wall and the beame in the house barrennesse into the earth mourning into the Elements consumption into the Beasts and Birds bondage vanitie griefe and at last combustion and dissolution upon the whole frame of nature Fourthly it is a mortall apoysonous pollution the pollution of deadly sores putrifactions I said unto thee in thy blood live yea I said unto thee in thy blood live It notes that that estate wherein they were in their sinnes was so deadly that the cure of them was very difficult it required the repetition of Gods power and mercie If a childe new borne should lie exposed in its blood to the injurie of a cold ayre not have the Navell cut nor the body wrapp'd or wash'd or tended at all how quickly would it be that from the wombe of the mother it would drop into the wombe of the Earth The state of sinne is an estate of nakednesse blood impotencie obnoxiousnesse to all the temptations and snares of Sathan to all the darts of death and hell The ancients compare it to falling into a pit full of dirt and stones a man is not onely polluted but hee is bruized and wounded by it To conclude there is no deformity nor filthines extant which did not rise from sinne It is sin which puts bondage into the Creature which brings discords and deformities upon the face of Nature It is sin which put devilishnesse into Angels of Heaven and hurried them downe from their first habitation It is sin which put a sting into death without which though it kil yet it cannot curse It is sin which puts fire into Hell and supplies unto all eternitie the fuell materials for those unextinguishable slames It is sin which puts hell into the Conscience and armes a man with terrours and amazements against himselfe It is sin which puts rottennes and dishonour into the grave he that died without sin rose up without corruption It is sinne which wrings out those clamors and grones of bruit creatures which wrestle under the curse of Adams fall It is sin which enrageth and maddeth one beast against another and one man against another one nation against another It is sin which brought shame and dishonor upon that nakednesse unto which all the Creatures in Paradise did owe awe and reverence It is sin which turn'd Sodom into a stinking lake and Ierusalem the glory of the Earth into a desolation and haunt for Owles and Bitterns It is sinne which so often staineth Heauen and Earth with the markes of Gods vengeance and which will one day roule up in darkenesse and devoute with fire and reduce to its primitive confusion the whole frame of nature It is sinne which puts horror into the Law makes that which was at first a Law of life and liberty to be a Law of bondage and death full of weaknesse unprofitablenesse hideousnesse and curses It is sinne which puts malignity and venome into the very Gospell making it a savor of Death unto Death that is of another deeper death and sorer condemnation which by trampling upon the blood of Christ wee draw upon our selves unto that death under which wee lay before by the malediction of the Law And lastly which is the highest that can bee spoken of the veâ—…ome of 〈◊〉 It is sinne which in a sort and to speake after the manner of men hath put hatred into God himselfe hath moved the most mercifull gratious and compassionate Creator to hate the things which he made and not to take pittie upon the workes of his hands If God had look'd round about his owne workes hee could have found nothing but Goodnesse in them and theresore nothing but Love in himselfe But when sinne came into the World it made the Lord repent and grieve and hate and destroy his owne workmanship And the consideration hereof should drive us all like Lepers and polluted wretches to that Fountaine in Israell which is opened for sinne and for uncleannesse to buy of him white rayment that wee may be clothed and the shame of our nakednesse may not appeare For which purpose we must first finde out the pollution of sinne in our selves and that is by using the Glasse of the Law which was published of purpose to make sinne appeare exceeding sinfull For as rectum is sui index obliqui so purum is sui index impuri That which is right and pure is the measure and discovery of that which is crooked and impure Now the Law is Right Pure Holy lâ—…st Good Lovely Honourable Cleane and therefore very apt to discover the contrary affections and properties in sinne And having gotten by the Law acquaintance with our selves there is then fit place for the Apostles precept To cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit First the Lord discovered the preposterousnesse of Israels services unto him when they came before him in their uncleannesse and lifted up hands full of blood and then comes the like precepts to the Apostles here wash ye make ye cleane put away the evill of your doings from before mine eyes c. But can an uncleane thing cleanse it selfe Can that which is intrinsecally naturally inherently uncleare purifie it selfe It may pollute any thing which toucheth it but how can it cease from that which belongs to its nature or wipe out that which hath eaten in and is marked in its very substance It is true of our selves wee cannot cleanse our selves It is Christs Office to Sanctifie his Church and it is His comlynesse with which wee are adorned without him we can doe nothing but yet having him we must wash our selves For God worketh not upon men as a carver upon a stone when he would induce the shape and proportions of a man but yet leaves it a stone still and no more but as himselfe did worke upon Earth in Paradise when hee breath'd into it the Soule of man and so made it a Living Creature It is true a naturall man is as dead to grace as a stone is to naturall life and therefore if onely man should worke upon him hee would continue as dead still but hee who of dead Earth made a living man is able of stones to raise up children unto Abraham and the worke of conversion is a worke of vivification Now then being quickned we must walke and worke
or filthinesse which is iâ—… the world through lust so do they serve to ad one grace to anâ—…ther and to make them abound in us till we come to chaâ—…ity which is the bond of perfection as Saint Peter shewes And againe Grow saith he in grace and in thâ—… 〈◊〉 of our Lord 〈◊〉 Christ. The more a 〈◊〉 doth abound in the knowledge of Christ who is the sâ—…mme fountaine â—…le treasurie of all the promises the more will he grow in grace and unto perfection For as some promises are in our hand and perform'd already as Rewards for our service past so others are still before our eyes to call and allure us as the price unto which we pâ—…este Be ye stedfast and unmoveable and abound alwaies in the worke of the Lord saith the Apostle for as much as you know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. Holding fast and going on hath a Crowne attending it The more we proceede in holinesse our salvation is still the Neerer unto us If we lose not the things which wee have wrought we shall receive a full reward THE VSE OF THE LAW ROM 7. 13. Was that then which is good made death unto me God forbid But sinne namely was made death unto me that it might appeare sinne working death in me by that which is good That sinne by the Commandement might become exceeding sinfull HEre we finde the Originall discovery of all that Sinfulnesse of sinne which wee have hitherto insisted upon namely the manifesting and working property which is in the Law of God It will bee therefore very requisite by way of Appendixe to the preceding Treatise and of manuduction to the consequent to unfeld out of these words The uâ—…e of the Law by which we shall more distinctly understand the scope and purpose of the Holy Ghost in loading the spirit of man with tâ—…e vanity of the Creature and in shutting up the conscience under the sinfulnesse of sinne both which have respect unto the Law that as an effect of the cursing and this of the Convincing power thereof and yet in both nothing intended by God but Peace and Mercie The Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter shewes that we are by nature subject to the Law and death which is an unavoidable consequent of the breach thereof even as the wife is to her husband as long as he liveth And that by Christ we are delivered from that subjection who hath shine our former husband and taken him out of the way as the Apostle elsewhere speakes Now because this doctrine of justification by faith in Christ and deliverance from the Law by him was mainely opposed by the Iewes and was indeed that chiefe stumbling blocke which kept them from Christianitie which I take it was the reason why the false brethren under pretence the better to worke on that people to pacifie affections and reconcile parties and ferruminate the Churches together would have mingled the Law with Christ in the purpose of Iustification as the papids now upon other reasons doe Therefore the Apostle who was very zealous for the Salvation of his brethren and kiâ—…sfolke according to the flesh labours to deerâ—… thâ—…s doctrine from two maine objections in this Chapter which it seemes the Iewes did use against it The ground of both is tacitely implied and it is the same generall hypothesis or supposition that all deliverance is from evill and carries necessary relation to some mischiefe which it presupposeth Therefore if that doctrine be true which teacheth deliverance from the Law then it must be granted that the Law is evill for to be unsubjected to that which is good is no deliverance but a wilde and bâ—…utish loosenesse Now evill is but two fold either sinne or death So then if the Law be evill it must be either sinne or death The former objection is made vers 7. What shall wee say then is the Law sinne that we should now heare of a deliverance from it Doth not the Scripture account the Law a priviledge an honour an ornament to a people and from the Iustnesse and Holinesse of the Law conclude the dignity and greatnesse of a nation What nation is so great saith Moses which hath statutes and iudgements so righteous as I set before you this day He shâ—…weth his word unto Iacob his statutes anâ—… iudgements unto Israel He hath not dealt so with every nation saith David I sent unto them Honorabilta Legis saith the Lord the honorable and great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing And is that which Moses and the Prophets esteemed a priviledge and honour become now a yoke and burden Shall wee admit a doctrine which over-throwes the Law and the Prophets To this the Apostle answeres God for bid The Law is not sinne for I had not knowne sinne but by the Law It is true sinne tooke occasion by the Law to become more sinfull vers 8. but this was not occasio data but arrepta no occasion naturally offered by the law but perversly taken by sinne whose venomous property it is to suck poison out of that which is holy So then the Law is not sinne though by accident it enrage sinne For of itselfe it serveth onely to discover and reveale it ver 9. But as the Gospell as well when by mens perversnesse it is a savour of dâ—…ath as when by its owne gratious efficacie it is a savour of life is both wayes a sweete savour So the Law either way when by it selfe it discovereth and when by accident it enrageth sin is still Holy lust and Good ver 11 Vpon this followes the second Objection in the words of the Text. Is that which is good made death unto me If a deliverance presuppose an evill in that from which we are deliver'd and no evill but belongs either to sinne or death then admitting a deliverance from the Law if it be good in respect of holinesse it must needs be evill in the other respect and then that which is good is made death unto me And this casts a more heavie aspersion and dishonour upon God then the former that he should give a Law meerely to kill men and make that which in its nature is good to be mortall in its use and operation Wine strong waters hard meates are of themselves very good to those purposes unto which they are proper yet under pretence of their goodnesse to craâ—…me the stomicke of a sucking infant with them would not be kindnesse but crueltie because they would not in that case comfort or nourish but kill Gold is good of it selfe but to fetter a man with a chaine of gold would be no bounty but a mockery So to conceive God to publish a Law good indeed in it selfe but deadly to the subjects and to order that which is holy in its nature to be harmefull and damnable to the Creature in its use is so odious an aspersion
upon so just and gratious a God as may safely bring into suspicion and disgrace any doctrine which admits of so just an exception Now to this likewise the Apostle answeres God forbid The Law is not given to condemne or clogge men not to bring sinne or death into the world It was not promulgated with any intention to kill or destroy the Creature It is not sin in it selfe It is not death unto us in that sense as we preach it namely as subordinated to Christ and his Gospell Tnough as the rule of righâ—…eousnesse we preach deliverance from it because unto that purpose it is made impotent and invalid by the sinne of man which now it cannot prevent or remove but onely discover and condemne Both these Conclusions that the Law is neither sinne nor death I finde the Apostle before in this Epistle excellently proviâ—…g Vntill the Law sinne was in the world but sinne is not imputed where there is no Law neverthelesse death â—…atgned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression That is as I conceive over those who did not sinâ—…e against so notable and evident Characters of the Law of nature written in their hearts as Adam in Paradise did for sinne had betweene Adam and Moses so obliterated and defaced the impressions of the morall Law that man stood in need of a new edition and publication of it by the hand of Moses That place serves thus to make good the purpose of the Apostle in this Sinne was in the world before the publication of the Law therefore the Law is not sinne But sinne was not imputed where there is no Law men were secure and did flatter themselves in their way were not apt to charge or condemne themselves for sin without a Law to force them unto it And therefore the Law did not come a new to beget sinne but to reveale and discover sinne Death likewise not onely was in the world but raigned even over all men therein before the publication of the Law Therefore the Law is not death neither There was Death enough in the world before the Law there was wickednesse enough to make condemnation raigne over all men therefore neither one nor other are naturall or essentiall consequences of the Law It came not to beget more sinne it came not to multiply and double condemnation there was enough of both in the world before Sinne enough to displease and provoke God death enough to devoure and torment men Therefore if the Law had beene usefull to no other purposes then to enrage sinne and condemne men if Gods wisedome and power had not made it appliable to more wholsome and saving ends he would never have new published it by the hand of Moses Here then the observation which from these words we are to make and it is a point of singular and speciall consequence to understand the use of the Law is this That the Law was revived and promulgated a new on Mount Sina by the ministery of Moses with no other then Evangelicall and mercifull purposes It is said in one place That the Lord hath no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth but it is said in another place That the Lord delighteth in mercie Which notes that God will doe more for the Salvation then he will for the damnation of men He will doe more for the magnifying of his mercy then for the multiplying of his wrath for if that require it he will revive and new publish the Law which to have aggravated the sinnes and so doubled the condemnation of men He would never have done Before I further evidence the truth of this doctrine It will be needefull to remove one Objection which doth at first proposall thereof offer it selfe If God will doe more for his mercie then for his wrath and vengeance why then are not more men saved then condemned If Hell shall bee more fill'd then Heaven is it not more then probable that wrath prevaileth against Grace and that there is more done for furie then there is for favour To wave the solution given by some That God will intentionally and effectually have every man to bee saved but few of that every will have themselves to be saved An explication purposâ—…ly contradicted by Saint Austin and his followers whose most profound and inestimable Iudgement the Orthodoxe Churches have with much admiration and assent followed in these points I rather choose thus to resolve that case It will appeare at the last great day that the saving of a few is a more admirable and glorious worke then the condemning of all the rest The Apostle saith That God shall bee gloryfied in his Saints and admired in those that beleeve For first God sheweth more mercie in saving some when He might have judged all then Iustice in Iudging many when he might have saved none For there is not all the Iustice which there might have beene when any are saved and there is more mercy then was necessary to haue beene when all are not condemned Secondly the Mercie and Grace of God in saving any is absolute and all from within himselfe out of the unsearchable riches of his owne will But the Iustice of God though not as essentiall in him yet as operatiâ—…e towards us is not Absolute but Conditionall and grounded upon the supposition of mans sinne Thirdly his Mercie is unsearchable in the price which procured it Hee himselfe waâ—… to humble and empty himselfe that he might shew mercie His mercie was to be purchased by his owne merit but his Iustice was provoked by the merit of sinne onely Fourthly Glory which is the fruite of Mercie is more excellent in a few then wrath and vengeance is in many as one bagge full of gold may bee more valuable then tenne of silver If a man should suppose that Gods mercy and Iustice being equally infinite and glorious in himselfe should therefore have the same equall proportion observed in the dispensation and revealing of them to the world wee might not therehence conclude that that proportion should be Arithmeticall that mercy should be extended to as many as severitie But rather as in the payment of a summe of mony in two equal portions whereof one is in golâ—… the other in silver though there bee an equalitie in the summes yet not in the pieces by which they are paide so in as much as Glory being the communicating of Gods owne blessed Vision Presence Love and everlasting Societie is farre more honourable and excellent then wrath therefore the dispensation of his Mercie in that amongst a few may bee exactly proportionable to the revelation of his Iustice amongst very many more in the other Suppose wee a Prince upon the just condemnation of a hundred malefactors should professe that as in his owne royall brest mercy and Iustice were equally poised and temper'd so he would observe an equall proportion of them both towards that number of
malefactors suffering his justice to condemne and his mercy to spare just so many as might preserve his Attributes iâ—…aequilibrio that the one might not over-weigh the other Certainely in this case there would be more mercy in saving tenne out of favour then in punishing and condemning all the rest for their Iust demerit Fifthly and lastly let me problematically and by way of 〈◊〉 onely propose this question Why may it not be justly said that there shall bee in Heaven as much Glorie distributed amongst those few which shall be saved as wrath in Hell amongst those many which perish I dare not speake where the Scripture is silent yet this by way of argument may bee said The proportion of wrath is measured by the finite sinnes of men the proportion of Glory from the infinite merits of Christ. There is more excellencie and vertue in the merit of Christ to procure life for his few then vilenesse or demerit in sinne to procure death for many As there may bee as much liquor in tenne great vessels as in a thousand smaller so there may bee as much Glory by the merit of Christ in a few that are saved as wrath from the merit of sinne in multitudes that perish But to returne to that from whence I have digressed Manifest it is that God will doe more for the magnifying of his mercie then â—…or the multiplying of his wrath because to be mercifull he will new publish the Law which for enlarging his judgements hee would not have done but would have left men unto that raigne of sin death which was in the world betweene Adam and Moses Notablâ—… to this purpose is that place which I have before 〈◊〉 touched and shall now 〈◊〉 againe more particularly to unfold with submission of my judgement therein unto the better learned It iâ—… Gal. 3. beginning at the 15. vers Brethren I speak-after the mannâ—…r of men though it be but a mans covenant yet if it bâ—… câ—…firmed no man disâ—…ulleth or addeth thereto The Apostle before mentioned the covenant of Promise and Grace made to Abraham and in him as well to the Gentilâ—…s as to the â—…ewes unto which the consideration of the Lawes insufficiencie to justifie and by consequence to Blesse had led him In these words hee doth by an Allusion unto humane contracts prove the fixednesse and stability of the Covenant of mercy even from the courses of mutable men If one man make a grant and covenant to another doe â—…grosse signe seale take witnesses and deliver it to the oâ—…her for his benefit and behoofâ—… it becomes altogether irreversible and uncancellable by the man which did it If a man make a Testament and then die even amongst weake and mutable men it is counted sacred and impiety it is for any man to adde diminish or alter it But now saith the Apostle God is infinite in wisedome to foresee all inconveniences and evill consequences which would follow upon any covenant of his and so if neede be to prevent the making of it Things future in their execution and issuing out of second causes are yet all present to the intuition of God and so any thing which might after happen to disaâ—…ull or voyde the covenant was pâ—…esent and evident to his Omniscience before and therefore would then have prevented the making of it If then men whose wills are mutable whose wisedomes may miscarry who may repent and be willing to revoke their owne covenants againe doe by their hand seale and delivery disable themselves to disanull their owne act when it is once past much more God who is not like man that hee should repent when hee makes a covenant doth make it sure and stable constant and irreversible especially since it is a Covenant established by an oath as the Apostle elsewhere shewes aâ—…d when God sweares he cannot repent Thus the Apostle prooveth the Covenant of mercy and grace to be Perpetuall from the Immutability and wisedome of him that made iâ—… and if it be perpetuall then all other subsequent acts of God doe referre some way or other unto it It followeth vers 16. Now to Abraham and his seede were the Promises made he saith not and to seedes as of many but as of one and to thy seede which is Christ. Where by One we understand one mystically and in aggregato not personally or individually and by Christ the whole Church consisting of the Head and Members as he is elsewhere taken 1 Cor. 12 12. Now these words doe further ratifie the stabilitie of the Covenant for though a Covenant bee in it selfe never so constant and irreversible yet if all the parties which have interest in or by it should cease the Covenant would of it selfe by consequence expire and grow voyde but here as the covenant is most constant in regard of the wisedome and unvariablenesse of him that made it so it can never expire for want of a â—…eede to whom it is made for as long as Christ hath a Church and Members upon earth so long shall the Promise be of force Vers. 17. And this I say that the Covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law which was foure hundred and thirty yeeres after cannot disanull that it should make the Promise of none effect These words are a Prolepsis or prevention of an objection which might be made A man might thus argue when two lawes are made whereof the one is expresly contradictory to the other the later doth in common presumption abrogate and disanull the former else men should be bound to contraries and so punishments would bee unavoydable But here wee finde that foure hundred and thirty yeeres after the promise to Abraham there was a Law published extremely contrary unto the promise A law without mercy or compassion a law both impossible and inexorable which can neither be obeyed nor endured therefore it should seeme that some cause or other had hapned to make God repent and revoke his former covenant The Apostle retorts this Objection And his meaning I thus apprehend If there bee a covenant made by a Lawgiver in wisedome infinite to foresee before hand and to prevent any inconveniences which might follow upon it any reasons which might fall out to abrogate it A Lawgiver in all his wayes constant and immutable as being by no improvidence disappointments or unexpected emergencies ever put to repent and this covenant made to a man and his seede for ever and that without dependance upon any condition being all of Grace and Promise save onely that Abraham have a seede and Christ a Body Then if it happen that another law be after made which primâ facie and in strict construction doth implie a contradiction to the termes and nature of the former Law for Abrogation notwithstanding whereof there have no other reasons at all de novo intercurr'd then only such as were actually in being when it was made namely the sinnes of the world and yet were not then valid
and therefore hee bringeth them unto these extremities that when their mouth is stopp'd and their guilt made evident they may with the more humilitie and abhorrencie of their former lewdnesse acknowledge the Iustnesse of the Law which would condemne them and the great mercy of the Prince who hath given them liberty to plead his pardon The same is the case betweene God and us First to Abraham he made promise of mercy and blessednesse to all that would pleade interest in it for the remission of their sinnes But men were secure and heedlesse of their estate and though sinne was in them and death raigned over them yet being without a Law to evidence this sinne and death unto their consciences therefore they imputed it not to themselves they would not owne them nor charge themselves with them and by consequence found no necessity of pleading that promise Hereupon the Lord published by Moses a severe and terrible Law so terrible that Moses himselfe did exceedingly feare and quake A Law which fill'd the Ayre with Thunder and the Mount with fire A Law full of blacknesse darknesse and Tempest A Law which they who heard it could not endure but intreated that it might not be spâ—…ken to them any more yet in all this God doth but pursue his first purpose of mercie and take a course to make his Gospell accounted worthy of all acceptation that when by this Law men shall bee roused from their security shut up under the guilt of infinite transgressions affrighted with the fire and tempest the blacknesse and darknesse the darts and curses of this Law against sinne they may then runne from Sina unto Sion even to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and by Faith plead that pardon and remission which in him was promised Thus we see the point in the generall â—…leered That God in the publication of the Law by Moses on mount Sina had none but mercifull and Evangelicall intentions I shall further draw downe the doctrine of the use of the Law into a few conclusions First The Law is not given ex primaria intentione to condemne men There was condemnation enough in the World betweene Adam and Moses before the Law was new published It is true the Law shall prove a condemning and judging Law unto impenitent and unbeleeving sinners But to condemne or judge men by it was no more Gods intention in the publishing of it by the ministery of Moses I speake of condemnation not pronounced but executed then it was his purpose to condemne men by the Gospell which yet de facto will be a savor of death unto death to all that despise it It is said that Christ should be as well for the faâ—… as for the riâ—…ing of many in Israel and that hee should be a stone of stumbling and a rocke of offâ—…nce yet hee faith of himselfe I came not to condemne the World but that the World by me might bee saveâ—… The meaning is the condemnation of the World was no motive noâ—… impulsiue cause of my comming though it were an accidentâ—…ll event conâ—…quent and emergencie thereupon Even so the condemnation which by the Law will be aggravated upon 〈◊〉 sinners the powring forth of more wrath and vengeance then raigned in the World betweene Adam and Moses was no motive in Gods intention to publish the Law by his ministery but onely the furtherance and advancement of the Covenant of Grace Secondly The Law was not published by Moses on mount Sina as it was given to Adam in Paradise to iusti fie or to save men God never appoints any thing to an end to which it is utterly unsurable and improper Now the Law by sinne is become weake and unprofitable to the purpose of righteousnesse or salvation nay it was in that regard Against us as Saint Paul saith and therefore we are delivered from it as a Rule of justification though not as a rule of service and obedience Thirdly The uses of the Law are severall according to divers considerations of it For we may consider it either Per se in it selfe according to the primarie intention thereof in its being and new publication or Per accidens according to those secondary and inferior effects thereof By accident or secondarily The Law doth first irritate enrage exasperate lust by reason of the venomous and malitious quality which is in sinne And this the Law doth not by ingenerating or implanting lust in the heart but by exciting calling out and occasioning that which was there before as a chaine doth not beget any furie in a wolfe nor a bridge infuse any strength into the water nor the presence of an enemie instill or create de novo any malice in a man but onely occasionally reduce unto Act and call forth that rage which though lesse discerned was yet habitually there before Secondly the Law by accident doth punish and curse sinne I say by accident because punishment is in no law the maine intention of the Lawgiver but something added thereunto to backe strengthen and enforce the obedience which is principally intended Neither could the Law have cursed man at all if his disobedience had not thereunto made way which shewes that the curse was not the primary intention of the Law but onely a secondary and subsequent act upon the failing of the principall For I doubt not but the Lord accounteth himselfe more gloryfied by the Active and voluntary services then by the Passive and enforced sufferings of the Creature Herein saith our Saviour is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruite Secondly consider the Law by it selfe and in its primary intention and so there are two principall uses for which it serves First It hath rationem speculi It is as a glasse to manifest and discover sinne and death and thereupon to compell men to fly for sanctuary unto Christ and when they see their miserie to sue out their pardon And this the Law doth first by convincing the Conscience of its owne widenes as the Prophet David speakes I have seene an end of all perfection but thy Law is exceeding broad By revealing the compasse of sinne in proportion to the widenesse and the filthynesse of sin in proportion to the purity of that Holy Law by discovering the depth and foulenesse the deceitfulnesse and desperate mischiefe of the heart by nature and giving some evidences to the soule of that horrid endlesse and insupportable vengeance which is due to sinne We know saith the Apostle that whatsoever things the Law saith it saith to those that are under the Law That every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God Secondly By judging sentencing applying wrath to the Soule in particular For when it hath stopped a mans mouth evidenced his guiltinesse concluded him under sinne it then pronounceth him to bee a cursed and condemned Creature exposed without any strength or possibility to evade or overcome unto all the
but their sins that though our words bring fire and fury with them yet they are still in the hand of a Mediator that the Law is not to breake them unto desperation but vnto humiliation not to drive them unto furie but unto Faith to shew them Hell indeede but withall to keepe them from it if we doe not by these meaneâ—… save their Soules yet we shall stop their mouths that they shall be ashamed to blaspheme the commission by which we speake Secondly The people likewise should learne to rejoyce when the Law is preached as it was published that is when the Conscience is thereby affrighted and made to tremble at the presence of God and to cry unto the Mediator as the people did unto Moses Lâ—…t not God speake any more to us lâ—…st we die Speake thou with us and we will heare For when sinne is onely by the Law discovered and death laid open to cry out against such preaching is a shrewd argument of a minde not willing to bee disquieted in sinne or to be tormented before the time of a soule which would have Christ and yet not leave her former husband which would haue him no other king then the stump of wood was to the frogges in the fable or the moulten Calfe unto Israel in the Wildernesse a quiet idol whom every lust might securely provoke and dance about As the Law may be preached too much when it is preached without the principall which is the Gospell so the Gospell and the mercie therein may bee preached too much or rather indeede too little because it is with lesse successe If wee may call it preaching and not rather perverting of the Gospell when it is preached without the appendant which is the Law This therefore should in the next place teach all of us to studie and delight in the Law of God as that which setteth forth and maketh more glorious and conspicuous the mercy of Christ. Acquaintance with our selves in the Law wâ—…ll First keepe us more loâ—…ly and vile in our owne eyes make us feele our owne pollution and poverty and that will againe make us the more delight in the Law which is so faithfull to render the face of the Conscience and so make a man the more willing and earnest to be cleansed Their heart saith David is as fat as grease but I delight in thy Law The more the Law doth discover our owne leannesse scraggednesse and penurie the more doth the Soule of a Holy man delight in it because Gods mercie is magnified the more who filleth the hungrie and refrâ—…sheth the weary and with whom the fatherlâ—…sse findeth mercie Secondly It will make us more carefull to live by Faith more bold to approach the throne of Grace for mercie to cover and for Grace to cure our sores and nakednesse In matters of life and death impudence and boldnesse is not unseasonable A man will never die for modesty when the Soule is convinc'd by the Law that it is accursed and eternally lost if it doe not speedily pleade Christs satisfaction at the Throne of Grace it is emboldned to runne unto him when it findes an issue of uncleanenesse upon it it will set a price upon the meanest thing about Christ and be glad to touch the hemme of his garment When a Childe hath any strength beautie or lovelynesse in himselfe he will haply depend upon his owne parts and expectations to raise a fortune and preferment for himselfe but when a Childe is full of indigence impotencie crookednesse and deformity if he were not then supported with this hope I have a father aâ—d Parents doe not cast out their Children for their deformities he could not live with comfort or assurance so the sense of our owne pollutions and uncleanenesse taking off all conceits of any lovelynesse in our selves or of any goodnesse in us to attract the affections of God makes us râ—ly onely on his fatherly compassion When our Saviour cald the poore woman of Syrophenicia Dogge a beastly and uncleane Creature yet shee takes not this for a deny all but turnes it into argument The lesse I have by right the more I hope for by mercy even men afford their Dogges enough to keepe them alive and I aske no more When the Angell put the hollow of Iacobs thigh out of joynt yet hee would not let him go the more lame hee was the more reason hee had to hold The Prodigall was not kept away or driven of from his resolution by the feare shame or misery of his present estate for he had one word which was able to make way for him through all this the name of Father He considered I can but be rejected at the last and I am already as low as a rejection can cast me so I shall loose nothing by returning for I therefore returne because I have nothing and though I have done enough to bee for ever shut out of dores yet it may bee the word Father may have rhetoricke enough in it to beg a reconcilement and to procure an admittance amongst my fathers servants Thirdly It will make us give God the Glory of his mercy the more when wee have the deeper acquaintance with our owne miserie And God most of all delighteth in that worke of Faith which when the Soule walketh in darknesse and hath no light yet trusteth in his Name and stayeth upon him Fourthly It will make our comforts and refreshments the sweeter when they come The greater the humiliation the deeper the tranquillitie As fire is hottest in the coldest weather so comfort is sweetest in the greatest extremities shaking settles the peace of the heart the more The spirit is a Comforter as well when he convinceth of sinne as of righteousnesse and judgement because he doth it to make righteousnesse the more acceptable and Iudgement the more beautifull Lastly acquaintance with our owne foulnesse and diseases by the Law will make us more carefull to keepe in Christs company and to walke according unto his Will because he is a Physitian to cure a refiner to purge a Father and a Husband to compassionate our estate The lesse beautie or worth there is in us the more carefully should we studie to please him who loved us for himselfe and married us out of pittie to our deformities not out of delight in our beautie Humilitie keepes the heart tractable and pliant As melted waxe is easily fashioned so an humble spirit is easily fashioned unto Christs Image whereas a stone a bard and stubborne heart must bee hewed and hammered before it will take any shape Pride selfe-confidence and conceitednesse are the pâ—…nciples of disobedience men will hold their wonted courses till they be humbled by the Law They are not humbled saith the Lord unto this day and the consequent hereof is neither have they feared nor walked in my Law If you will not heare that is if you will still disobey the Lords messages my Soule shall weepe in
projects and machinations against his Church but thou onely His heele the vitall parts shall be above thy reach And this Christ did not for himselfe but for us The God of Peace saith the Apostle shall bruize Sathan under your feete Hee shall be under our feete but it is a greater strength then ours which shall keepe him downe The victorie is Gods the benefit and insultation ours If He come as a Serpent with cunning craftinesse to seduce us Christ is a stronger Serpent a Serpent of Brasse and what hurt can a Serpent of flesh doe unto a Serpent of Brasse If as a Lion with rage and fierie assaults Christ is a stronger Lion A Lion of the Tribe of Iudâ—… the victorious Tribe Who shall goe up for us against the Cananites first Iuda shall goe up If hee come as an Angel of light to perswade us to presume and sinne The mercie of Christ begets feare The Love of Christ constraineth us Sathan can but allure to disobedience but Christ can constraine us to live unto him If he come as an Angell of darkenesse to terrifie us with despairing suggestions because wee have sinned If any man sinne wee have an Advocate and who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is Christ that is deade yea rather that is risen againe who also sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for us Thirdly but I have an enemie within me which is the most dangerous of all The World may be if not overcome yet endured and by being endured it will at last bee overcome The Divell may bee driven away for a time though he returne againe but the flesh is an Inhabiting sinne and an encompassing sinne If I breake through it yet it is still within me and if I reject it yet it is still about me Saint Paul who triumphed and insulted over all the rest over the World Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ Shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednes or perill or sword nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us Over Sathan and Hell O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victorie Even hee cryes out against this enemie his owne flesh O wrethed man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of Death Yet even against this unremoveable and unvanquishable corruption the Life of Christ is safe in us upon these grounds First we have his Prayer which helpes to subdue it and to sanctifie our nature Sanctifie them by thy Truth Secondly wee have His Vertue and Power to purge it out and to cure it The Sunne of righteousnesse hath healing in his wings Thirdly wee have His office and sidelitie to appeale unto and where to complaine against our owne flesh He undertooke it as a part of his businesse to purge and clense his people Fourthly we have His Spirit to combate and wrestle with it and so by little and little to crucifie it in us and lastly we have his Merits as Sanctuarie to flie unto to forgive them here and hereafter to expell them Fourthly for all this I am full of doubts and restlesse feares which do continually fight within me and make my spirit languish and sinke and that which may decay may likewise expire and vanish away To this I answer that which inwardly decayeth and sinketh at the foundation is perishable but that which in its operations and quoad nos in regard of sense and present complacencie may seeme to decay doth not yet perish in its substance A Cloude may hide the Sunne from the eye but can never blot it out of his orbe Nay Spirituall griefe is to that light which is sowen in the heart but like harrowing to the Earth it macerates for the time but withall it tends to joy and beautie There is difference betweene the paines of a woman in travell and the paines of a goute or some mortall disease for though that be as extreeme in smart and present irkefomenesse as the other yet it containes in it and it proceedes from a Matter of Ioy And all the wrestlings of the Soule with the enemies of Salvation are but as the paines of a woman in travell when Christ is fashioned when the issue iâ—… victorious and with gaine the soule no more remembreth those afflictioâ—…s which were but for a moment Fifthly and lastly I have fallen into many and great sinnes and if all sinne be of a mortall and venemous operation how can my Life in Christ consist with such heavie provocations and apostacies To this in generall I answer If the sight of thy sinnes make thee looke to Christ If â—…hou canst beleeve all things are possible It is possible for thy greatest apostacies to vanish like a Cloud and to be forgotten Though sinne have weakned the Law that we cannot be saved by that yet it hath not weakned Faith or made that unable to save For the strength of sinne is the Law it hath its condemning vertue from thence Now by Faith we are not under the Law but under Grace When once wee are incorporate into Christs body and made partakers of the new Covenant though we are still under the Laws conduct in regard of its obedience which is made sweete and easie by Grace yet we are not under the laws maledâ—…ction So that though sinne in a Beleever bee a transgression of the Law and doth certainely incurre Gods displeasure yet it doth not de fectâ—… though it doe de merito subject him to wrath and vengeance because every justified man is a person priviledg'd though not from the duties yet from the curses of the Law If the King should gratiously exempt any subject from the Lawes penaltie and yet require of him the Lawes obedience if that man offend he bâ—…ch transgreâ—…sed the Law and provoked the displeasure of the Prince who haply will make him some otheâ—… way to 〈◊〉 it yet his offence doth not nullyfie his priviledge nor voyde the Princes grace which gave him an immunitie from the foâ—…feitures though not from the observance of the Law Adultery amongst the Iewes was punished with Death and Theft onely wtth restitution amongstus Adulterie is not punished with Death and Theft is Now then though a Iew and an Englishman be both bound to the obedience of both these Lawes yet a Iew is not to die for Theft nor an Englishman for Adultery because wee are not under the Iudiciall Lawes of that people nor they under our Lawes Even so those sinnes which to a man under the covenant of workes do dâ—… facto bring Death if he continue alwayes under that covenant doe onely create a Merit of Death in those who are under the Covenant of Grace but doe not actually exclude them from Salvation because without infidelitie no sinne doth peremptorily and quoad eventum
and Christians That which makes us to be in Christ after any kinde of way is Faith And according to the differences of Faith are these differences of being in Christ to bee discerned Saint Iames makes mention of a dead Faith when men are in Christ by some generall acknowledgement by externall profession by a partiall dependence comming to Him only as to a Iesus for roome and shelter to keepe them from the fire not as to a Christ for grace and government in His service not by any particular and willing attraction of those vitall influences those working principles of grace and obedience which are from him shed abroad upon true beleevers And this is the semi-conversion and imperfect renovation of many men whereby they receive from Him onely generall light of truth and common vertues which make them visibly and externally branches in Him But Saint Paul makes mention of a lively operative unfained faith which in true beleevers draweth in the power of Christs death and the vertue of His resurrection unto the mortification of sinne and quickning of Spirit and bringing forth fâ—…uite unto God and this onely is that which is the ground of our life from Him The Life that I live I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God Lastly this Vnion unto Christ is compared unto Marriage Psal. 45. Eph. 5. 32 whereby the Church hath a right and proprietie created to the body name goods table possessions purchases of Christ and doth reciprocally become all His resigning its will wayes desires unto His governement Now for the discovery of this we may consider either the essentials or the consequents of marriage The former hath for the genuâ—… the most generall requisite consent and that must have these differencies and restrictions First it must bee a mutuall consent for though Christ declare His good will when He knocketh at our doores and beseecheth us in the ministry of His Word yet if we keepe our distance reject His tokens of Love and Favour and stop our eares to His invitations there is then no covenant made this is but a wooing and no marriage Secondly it must bee a present consent and in words de prâ—…senti or else it is onely a Promise but no Contract Many men like Balaam would faine die the death of the righteous but live their owne lives would faine belong to Christ at the last and have nothing to doe with Him ever before would have Him out of neede but not at all out of love and therefoâ—… for the present they put Him off Many other suiters they have whom they cannot deferre or denie till at last peradventure Hee grow jealous and wearie departs from them and turnes unto those who will esteeme Him worthy of more acceptation Seeing you put the Word from you faith the Apostle and judge your selves unworthy of Eternall Life Lo wee turne unto the Gentiles Thirdly it must be free and unconstrained for compulsion makes it a ravishment and not a marriage They who must be but one Bodie ought first to agree in the same free and willing resolution Many men when God slayes them will enquire earely after Him when Hee puts them upon a racke will give a forced consent to serve Him when Hee sends His Lions amongst them will send for His Priests to instruct them how to worship Him but this is onely to flatter with their lippes that they may escape the present paine like the howling devotion of some desperate Mariner in a storme not at all out of cordiall and sinceere affection wicked men deale no better with God then the froggs in the fable with the blocke which was throwne in to be their king When He makes a noyse and disturbes their peace when He falls heavie upon them they are sore affrighted and seeme to reverence His Power but if He suffer their streame to bee calme about them and stir not up His wrath they securely dance about Him and re-assume their wonted loosenesse Fourthly it must be without errour for hee that erres cannot consent If a woman take her selfe upon some absence of her husband to be now free from him and conceive him dead and thereupon marry againe if it appeare that the former husband is yet living there was a mistake and error in the person and so a nullity in the contract So if a man mistake himselfe judge himselfe free from his former tie unto sinne and the Law and yet live in obedience to his lusts still and is not cleansed from â—…is filthinesse he cannot give any full consent to Christ who â—…ill have a chaste spouse without adulterers or corrivals Lastly It must be an universall and perpetuall consent for all time and in all states and conditions This is a great difference betweene a wife and a strumpet A wife takes her husband upon all tearmes his burdens as well as his goods his troubles as well as his pleasures whereas a strumpet is onely for hire and lust when the purse is emptied or the body wasted the love is at an end So here He that will have Christ must have Him All for Christ is not divided must entertaine Him to all purposes must follow the Lambe wheresoever He goeth must leave Father Mother Wife Children his owne life for Christ must take as well His Yoake as His Crowne as well His Sufferings as His Salvation as well His Grace as His Mercie as well His Spirit to leade as His Blood to redeeme He that will be his owne Master to doe the workes of his owne will must if hee can bee his owne Saviour too to deliver his soule from the wrath to come The consequents and intendments of marriage are two Convictus Proles First mutuall societie Christ and a Christian must live together have intimate and deare acquaintance with each other the spirit of a Christian must solace it selfe in the armes and embracements in the riches and lovelinesse of Christ in his absence and removes long after Him in His presence and returnes delight in Him and entertaine Him with such pure affections and Heavenly desires as may make him take pleasure in His Beautie Secondly there must be a fruitfulnesse in us we must bring forth unto God Christ will not have a barren Spouse every one that loveth Him keepeth His Commandements Now then in one word to unfold the more distinct qualitie of this our union to Christ wee may consider a threefold unitie Of Persons in one nature of natures in one Person of natures and Persons in one qualitie In the first is one God In the second is one Christ. In the third is one Church Our union unto Christ is the last of these whereby Hee and we are all spiritually united to the making up of one mysticall Body The formall reason or bond of this union is the Spirit of Christ by which as by immortall and abiding seede we are begotten a new unto Christ. For He being the
of holinesse and grace which in Christ wee haue receiued For as sense of sin as a cursed thing which is legall humiliation doth arise from that faith whereby wee beleeve and assent to the truth of God in all his threatnings which is a legall faith so the Abominating of sinne as an uncleane thing and contrary to the image and holinesse of God which is evangelicall repentance doth arise from evangelicall faith whereby we look upon God as most mercifull most holie and therefore most worthie to bee imitated and served Secondly Renovation and that two fold First inward in the constitution of the heart which is by faith purified Secondly outward in the conversation and practice when a man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and as he hath received the Lord Iesus so walketh in him Now in all our obedience wee must observe these three Rules First that binding power which is in the law doth solely depend upon the authority of the Lawgiver who is God Hee that customarilie and without care of obedience or feare of displeasure or antipathy of spirit breaks any one Commandement ventures to violate that authority which by one and the same ordination made the whole law equally binding by consequence is habitually in praeparatione animi a transgressor of the whole Law And therefore Obedience must not bee partiall but vniversall as proceeding from that faith which hath respect equally to all Gods will and lookes upon him as most true and most holy in all his commands Secondly As God so his Law is a spirituall and a perfect Law and therefore requires an inward universality of the subject as well as that other of the Precepts which wee walke by I meane such a spiritual and sincere obedience of the hart as may without any mercenary or reserv'd respects uniformely sway our whole man unto the same way and end Thirdly In every Law all matter Homogeneall and of the same kind with the particular named every sprig seede originall of the Dutie is included as all the branches of a tree belong unto the same stock And by these rules wee are to examine the truth of our obedience Before I draw downe these premises to a particular Assumption and Applycation I must for Caution sake premise that faith may be in the heart either habitually as an actus primus a forme or seede or principle of working or else actually as an actus secundus a particular Operation and that in the former sense it doth but remotely dispose and order the soule to these properties but in the later it doth more visibly and distinctly produce them So then according as the heart is deaded in the exercise of Faith so doe these properties thereof more dimly appeare and more remisly worke Secondly we must note that according as faith hath severall workings so Satan hath severall wayes to assault and weaken it There are two maine workes of Faith Obedience and Comfort to purifie and to pacifie the heart and according unto these so Satan tempts His maine end is to wrong and dishonour God and therefore chiefly hee labours to disable the former vertue of Faith and tempts to sinne against God But when hee cannot proceede so farre hee labours to discomfort and crush the spirits of men when hee prevailes in the former he weakens all the properties of Faith when in the later onely he doth not then weaken all but onely intercept and darken a Christians peace For understanding this point we must note that there are many acts of faith Some direct that looke outward towards Christ others reflexive that looke inward upon themselves The first act of faith is that whereby a man having beene formerly reduced unto extremities and impossibilities within himselfe lookes upon God as Omnipotent and so able to save as mercifull and in Christ reconcileable and so likely to save if he be sought unto Hereupon growes a second act namely a kinde of exclusive resolution to be thinke himselfe of no new wayes to trust no inferiour causes for salvation or righteousnes to sell all to count them all dung not to consult any more with flesh or blood but to prepare the heart to seeke the Lord To resolve as the Lepers in the famine at Samaria not to continue in the state he is in nor yet to returne to the Citie to his wonted haunts and wayes where he shall be sure to perish and from this resolution a man cannot by any discomforts bee removed or made to bethinke himselfe of any other new way but onely that which hee sees is possible and probable and where he knowes if he finde acceptance hee shall have supplyes and life enough and this act may consist with much feare doubt and trembling The Syrians had food and Samaria had none therefore the Lepers resolve to venture abroad Yet this they cannot doe without much doubting and distrust because the Syrians whom they should meete with were their enemies However this resolution over-rul'd them because in their present estate they were sure to perish in the other there was roome for hope and possibilitie of living and that carried them co Esters resolution If we perish we perish such is the Act of Faith in this present case It is well assured that in the case a man is in there is nothing but death to bee expected therefore it makes him resolve to relinquish that It lookes upon God as plenteous in power and mercie and so likely to save and yet it sees him too as arm'd with Iustice against sinne as justly provoked and wearied in his patience and therefore may feare to bee rejected and not saved alive Yet because in the former state there is a certainty to perish in the later a possibility not to perish therefore from hence ariseth a third act a conclusive and positive purpose to trust Christ. I will not onely deny all other wayes but I will resolve to trie this way to set about it to go to him that hath plenty of redemption and Life If I must perish yet He shall reject me I will not reject my selfe I will goe unto Him And this act or resolution of faith is built upon these grounds First because Gods Love and free Grace is the first originall mover in our salvation If God did beginne His worke upon prevision of any thing in and from our selves we should never dare to come vnto Him because wee should never finde any thing in our selves to ground His mercie towards us upon But now the Love of God is so absolute and independant that it doth not only require nothing in us to excite and to cal it out but it is not so much as grounded upon Christ himselfe I speake of His first Love and Grace Christ was not the impulsive cause of Gods first Love to mankinde but was Himselfe the great gift which God sent to men therein to testifie that Hee did freely love them before God so
in the Church of Rome yet I doubt whether they have yet enough to conjure themselves out of that circle which the agitation of these questions doe carry them in But secondly there are sundry lights there is light in the Sunne and there is light in a blazing or falling starre How shall I difference these lights will you say surely I know not otherwise then by the lights themselves undoubtedlie the spirit brings a proper distinctive uncommunicable Majesty and luster into the soule which cannot be by any false spirit counterfeited and this spirit doth open first the eie and then the Word and doth in that discover not as insit as veritatis those markes of truth and certainty there which are as apparant as the light which is without any other medium by it selfe discerned Thus then we see in the general That saving faith is an assent created by the word spirit We must note further that this knowledge is two fold first Generall mentall spâ—…culative and this is simply necessary not as a part of saving faith but as a medium degree passage thereunto For how can men beleeve without a teacher Secondly particular practicall Applicative which carries the soule to Christ and there â—…ixeth it â—…o whom shall wee go thou hast the words of eternall life wee beleeve and are sure that thou art that Christ. I know that my Redeemer liveth That yee being rooted and grounded in Love may be able to comprehend and to know the Love of Christ. I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me By his knowledge shall my righteous servant iustifie many This saving knowledge must bâ—…e commensurate to the object knowne and to the ends for which it is instituted which are Christ to be made ours for righteousnesse and salvation Now Christ is not proposed as an object of bare and naked truth to bee assented unto but as a Soveraigne and saving truth to do good unto men He is proposed as the Desire of all flesh It is the heart which beleeves With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and Christ dwelleth by faith in the heart If thou beleevest with all thine heart thou maist be bapâ—…ized And the hâ—…art doth not onely looke for truth but for goodnesse in the objects which it desireth for an allsufficiencie and adequate ground of full satisfaction to the appetites of the soule such a compasse of goodnesse as upon which the whole man may test and relie and unto the which he may have a personall propriety hold-fast and possession So then in one word faith is a particular assent unto the truth and goodnes of God in Christ his sufferings and resurrection as an allsufficient and open treasurie of righteousnesse and salvation to every one which comes unto them and thereupon a resolution of the heart there to fixe and fasten for those things and to looke no further Now this faith is called knowledge First in regard of the principles of it The word and spirit both which produce faith by a way of conviction and manifestation Secondly in regard of the ground of beleeving which is the knowledge of Gods will revealed for none must dare demand or take any thing from God till hee have revealed his will of giving it He hath said must be the ground of our faith Thirdly in regard of the certainty and undoubtednesse which there is in the assent of faith Abraham was fully perswaded of Gods pow'r and promise now there is a twofold certainty a certainty of the thing beleeved because of the power and promise of him that hath said it and a certainty of the minde beleeving The former is as full and sure to one beleever as to any other as an Almes is as certainly and fully given to one poore man who yet receives it with a shaking and Palsie hand as it is to another that receives it with more strength But the mind of one man may bee more certaine and assured then another or then it selfe at some other time sometimes it may have a certainty of evidence assurance and full perswasion of Gods goodnesse sometimes a certainty onely of Adherence in the midst of the buffets of Satan and some strong temptations whereby it resolveth to cleave unto God in Christ though it walke in darkenesse and have no light Fourthly and lastly in regard of the last Reflexive Act Whereby we know that we know him and beleeve in him And yet both this and all the rest are capable of grow'th as the Apostle here intimates we know heere but in part and therefore our knowledge of Him may still increase The heart may have more plentifull experience of Gods mercie in comfotting guiding defending illightning sanctifying it which the Scripture cals the learning of Christ and thereupon cannot but desire to have more knowledge of Him and Communion with Him especially in those two great benefits His Resurrection and sufferings And the power of His resurrection The Apostles desire in these words is double First that he may finde the workings of that power in his soule which was shewed in the resurrection of Christ from the Dead that is the Power of the Spirit of Holynesse which is the mighty principle of Faith in the heart That Spirit of Holynesse which quickned Christ from the Dead doth by the same glorious power beget Faith and other graces in the Soule It is as great a worke of the Spirit to forme Christ in the heart of a sinner as it was to fashion Him in the wombe of a virgin Secondly that He may feele the resurrection of Christ to have a Power in Him Now Christs resurrection hath a twofold Power upon us or towards us First to apply all His merits unto us to accomplish the worke of His satisfaction to declare his conquest over death and to propose himselfe as an All-sufficient Saviour to the faithfull As the stampe addes no vertue nor matter of reall value to a piece of gould but onely makes that value which before it had actually applyable and currant So the resurrection of Christ though it was no part of the price or satisfaction which Christ made yet it was that which made them all of force to His members Therefore the Apostle saith that Christ was Iustified in Spirit In His Death Hee suffered as a malefactor and did undertake the guilt of our sinnes so farre as it denotes an obligation unto punishment though not a meritoriousnesse of punishment but by that Spirit which raised Him from the Dead Hee was Iustified Himselfe that is He declared to the world that Hee had shaken of all that guilt from Himselfe and as it were left it in His Grave with His Grave clothes For as Christs righteousnesse is compared to a robe of triumph so may our guilt to a garment of Death which Christ in His Resurrection shooke all of to note that Death
had no holdfast at all of Him When Lazarus was raised It is said that Hee came forth bound hand and foote with Grave cloathes to note that Hee came not out as a victor over Death unto which He was to returne againe but when Christ rose Hee left them behinde because death was to have no more power over Him Thus by His resurrection He was declared to have gone through the whole punishment which Hee was to suffer for sinne and being thus justified himselfe that hee was able also to justifie others that beleeved in him This is the reason why the Apostle useth these words to prove the resurrection of Christ I will give you the sure mercies of David for none of Gods mercies had been sure to us if Christ had been held under by death Our faith had been vaine we had been yet in our sinnes But his worke being fully finished the mercy which thereupon depended was made certaine and as the Apostle speakes sure unto all the 〈◊〉 Thus as the Day wherein Redemption is victorious and consummate is cald the day of Redemption so the worke wherein the merits of Christ were declar'd victorious is said to have been for our justification because they were thereby made appliable unto that purpose The second worke of the Power of Christs Resurrection is to overcome all death in vs and restore vs to life againe Therfore he is cald the Lord of the living and the Prince of life to note that his life is operative unto others wee are by his Resurrection secur'd first against the death and Law which wee were held under for euery sinneâ—… is condemn'd already Now when Christ was condemned for sinne hee thereby deliver'd us from the death of the Law which is the curse so that though some of the grave cloathes may not be quite shaken off but that wee may be subject to the workings feares of the Law upon some occasions yet the malediction thereof is for ever removed Secondly we are secured against the death in sinne regenerated quickned renued fashioned by the power of godlinesse which tameth our rebellions subdueth our corruptions and turneth all our affections another way Thirdly against the hold-fast and conquest of death in the grave from whence wee shall bee translated unto glory a specimen and resemblance of this was shewed at the resurrection of Christ when the graves were opened and many dead bodies of the Saints arose and entred into the Citie As a Prince in his inauguration or sosemne state openeth prisons and unlooseth many which there were bound to honour his solemnitie so did Christ do to those Saints at his resurrection and in them gave assurance to all his of their conquest over the last Enemy What a fearefull condition then are all men out of Christ in who shall have no interest in His resurrection Rise indeed they shall but barely by his power as their Iudge not by fellowship with him as the first fruites and first borne of the dead and therefore theirs shall not be properly or at least comfortably a Resurrection no more than a condemn'd persons going from the prison to his execution may be cald an enlargement Pharaohâ—… Butler and Baker went both out of prison but they were not both delivered so the righteous and the wicked shall all appeare before Christ and bee gathered out of their graves but they shall not all bee Children of the Resurrection for that belongs onely to the just The wicked shall be dead everlastingly to all the pleasures and wayes of sin which here they wallowed in As there remaines nothing to a drunkard or adulterer after all his youthfull excesses but crudities rottennesse diseases and the worme of Conscience so the wicked shall carry no worlds nor satisfactions of lust to hell with them their glorie shall not descend after them These things are truths written with a sunne beame in the booke of God First That none out of Christ shall rise unto Glorie Secondly That all who are in him are purged from the Love and power of sinne are made a people willingly obedient unto his scepter and the government of his grace and spirit and have eyes given them to see no beauty but in his kingdome Thirdly Hereupon it is manifest that no uncleane thing shall rise unto glory A prince in the day of his state or any roiall solemnitie wil not admit beggers or base companions into his presence Hee is of purer eyes then to behold much lesse to communicate with uncleane persons None but the pure in heart shal see God Fourthly that every wicked man waxeth worse and worse that hee who is filthy growes more filthy that sinne hardneth the heart and infidelitie hasteneth perdition Whence the conclusion is evident That every impenitent sinner who without any inward hatred purposes of revenge against sinne without godly sorrow forepast and spirituall renovation for after-times allowes himselfe to continue in any course of uncleannesse spends all his time and strength to no other purpose then onely to heape up coales of Iuniper against his owne soule and to gather together a treasure of sins and wrath like an infinite pile of wood to burne himselfe in Again this power of Christs resurrection is a ground of solid and invincible comfort to the faithfull in any pressures or calamities though never so desperate because God hath power and promises to raise them up againe This is a sufficient supportance first Against any either publike or privat afflictions However the Church may seeme to be reduc'd to as low and uncureable an estate as dried bones in a grave or the brands of wood in a fire yet it shall be but like the darknesse of a night after two daies he will revive againe His goings forth in the defence of his Church are prepared as the morning When Iob was upon a dunghill and his reines were consumed within him When Ionah was at the bottome of the Mountaines and the weedes wrapped about his head and the great billowes and waves went over him so that he seemed as cast out of Gods sight When David was in the midst of troubles and Ezekiah in great bitternesse this power of God to raise unto life againe was the onely refuge and comfort they had Secondly against all temptations and discomforts Satans traines and policies come too late after once Christ is risen from the dead for in his resurrection the Church is discharged and set at large Thirdly against Death it selfe because wee shall come out of our graves as gold out of the fire or miners out of their pits laden with gold and glory at the last Lastly wee must from hence learne to seeke those things that are above whither Christ is gone Christs Kingdome is not here and therefore our hearts should not be here Hee is ascended
Gods Iustice and hereby the heart is framed to an humble feare of reproaching voiding nullifying unto it selfe the Death of Christ or by Continuance in sinne of crucifying the Lord Iesus againe It is made more distinctly in the sufferings of Christ to know that infinite guilt and hellish filthinesse which is in sinne which brought so great a punishment upon so great a person And hereupon groweth to a more serious Hatred thereof and carefulnessâ—… against it as being a greater enemie unto his Iesus then Iudas that betraid or the Pharisees that accuâ—…ed or the souldiers that Crucified him as being more sharpe to the soule of Christ then the nailes or speares that pierced his sacred body How shall I dare thinkes the faithfull soule to live in those sinnes by which I may as truely be denominated a betrayer and Crucifier of him that saved mee as Iudas or Pilate were Thirdly It lookes on him as Our Forerunnerinto Glorie whither he Eâ—…tred not but by away of bloud From whence the heart easily concludes if Christ Entred not into his own glory but by suffering how shall I enter into that glory which is none of mine if I shed not the bloud of my lusts and take order to Crucifie all them before I goe So then none can Conclude that Christ died for him who findes not himselfe Set against the life of sinne within him in whom the body of Corruption is not so lesned as that it doth no more â—…ule to wast his conscience or enrage his heart If a man grow worse and worse his heart more hard his Conscience more senselesse his resolutions more desperate his â—…are more dead his courses more carâ—…all and worldly then before certainely the fellowship and vertue of the bloud of Christ hath hitherto done little good to such a man And what a wofull thing is it for a man to live and die in an estate much more miserable then if there never had beene any Iesus given unto men For that man who hath heard of Christ at whose heart he hath knocked unto whose Conscience he hath beene revealed and yet never beleeveth in him unto righteousnesse or sanctification but lives and dies in his filthinesse shall be punished with a farre sorer Condemnation then those of Tyre Sydon or Sodome that knew nothing of him O then let us labour to shew forth the power of Christs Death and that he died not in vaine unto us Though wee cannot yet totally kill yet let us crucifie our corruptions weaken their vigor abate their rage dispossesse them of the throne in our hearts put them unto shame and in as much as Christ hath Suffered for sinne let us cease from sinne and live the rest of our time not to the will of the flesh nor to the lusts of men but to the will of God The second part of our fellowship in sufferings with Christ is the conformitie of ours to His. In all our afflictions he is afflicted and Saint Paul cals His sufferings the filling up of that which is behinde of the afflictions of Christ. Not as if Christs sufferings were imperfect for By one offering Heâ—… hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified But as Christ hath Personall sufferings iâ—… corpore proprio in His humane Body as Mediator which once for ever He finished So He hath generall sufferings in corpâ—…re mystico in His Church as a member with the rest Now of these sufferings of the Church we must note that they have no conformitie with Christs in these two things First not in Officio in the office of Christs sufferings for His were meritorious aâ—…d satisfactorie Ours onely miniâ—…teriall and for edification Secondly not in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the weight and measure of them not so bitter heavie and wofull as Christs were For the sufferings of Christ vpon any other Creature would have crushed him as low as Hell and swallowed him up for ever In other respects there is a conformitie of our sufferings to Christs so that He esteemeth them His. Our sufferings are First such as wee draw upon our selves by our owne folly and even in these afflictions which Christ as the King â—…ver His people inflicâ—…eth upon them yet as their Head and fellow member Hee compassionateth and as it were smarteth with them For Christ is so full of tendernesse and so acquainted with sorrowes that wee may justly conceive Him touched with the feeling of those paines which yet He Himselfe seeth needefull for them Secondly such as are by God imposed for triall and exercise of those graces which himselfe gives and in these we have a twofold Communion and conformitie to Christ First By association Christ giveth us His Spirit to draw in the same yoke with us and to hold us under them by His strength That Spirit of Holynesse by which Christ overcame his sufferings helpeth our infirmities in ours Secondly in the manner of undergoing them with a proportion of that meeknes and patience which Christ shewed in His sufferings Thirdly such as are casâ—… upon us by the injuries of Satan and wicked men And these also beare conformitie unto Christs as in the two former respects so thirdly in the cause of them for it is Christ only whom in his members Satan and â—…he world doe persecute All the enmitie that is betweene them is because of the seede of the woman If Christ were now amongst us in the fashion of a servant and in a low condition as once he was should convince men of their wickednesse as searchingly as once he did Hee would doubtlesse be the most hated man upon the Earth Now that Hee is conceived of as God in glory men deale with him as Ioaâ—… with Abner they kisse and flatter him in the outward profession of His Name and Worship and they stabbe and persecute Him in the hatred of His wayes and members And this is the principall reason why so many stand of from a through embracing of Christ and his wayes because when they are indeede in His body they must goe His way to Heaven which was a way of suffering They that will live godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution and be by wicked men esteemed as signes and wonders to bee spoken against and that not onely amongst pagans and professed enemies to the Truth but even in Israel and amongst those who externally make the same profession But this should comfort us in all our sufferings for Christs sake and for our obedience to His Gospell that wee drinke of our masters owne Cuppe that wee fill up that which is wanting of His afflictions that Christ Himselfe was called a Samaritane a Divell a wine-bâ—…bber entrapped spied snared slaine and Hee who is now our Captaine to leade us will hereafter be our Crowne to reward us wee may safely looke upon Christs issue and know it to bee ours First wee have Christs fellowship in them and if it were possible