had sayd doe not mistake me it is a great priviledg to have the law fulfilled for you but it is not by your owne strictness and zeale and though some of you goe further then others yet none of you can attaine the fulfilling of the law that way for all are come short Rom. 3. But it is those that walk after the spirit that is those that seeke it in a way of faith in another not in themselves those that seeke it according to the principles and directions of the Gospell Now because I know this Exposition is harsh to many of you Though I exclude not the other therfore I shall endeavour to shew you three things First I will proove clearly out of the Scriptures That flesh is so understood that this is the meaning Secondly I will give you a reason why that is the cheife meaning Thirdly I shall give you a few Reasons why the Apostle saith that they that walk according to the Covenant of Works walk according to the flesh and they that goe according to the way of faith walk according to the spirit Concerning the First that flesh is often taken 1. prooved by Scriptures clearly in this sence I will give you some places of Scripture Gal. 3. 3. This I would learn of you received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith Are ye so foolish that having begun in the spirit are you now made perfect in the flesh We see in Chap. 1. They are called to the grace of Christ through the Gospell Gospell principles were rightly and savingly practised among them and after there came some among them that perverted them and sayth he are ye so foolish that having begun in the spirit and have had Christ crucyfied among you that now you will be made perfect by the flesh That now you will goe and seeke justification by your owne works and goe about to keep the law c. Another place is in Phillip 3. 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh and then he speakes of the priviledges of an Israelite and if you looke further Vers 7. I count all these loss that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine owne righteousness which is of the law but that which is of the faith of Christ So by flesh he meanes the righteousnesse of the law which he throwes away for the righteousnesse which is of faith Take another place Rom. 10. 5. Compared with Rom. 6. 14. Sayth the Apostle sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace When you were under the law and walked after the flesh sin had dominion over you and you obeyed it Here is a paralell place for sayth the Apostle When you were in the flesh the motions of sin by the law did Work in your Members When you were in the flesh that is when you were under the law then the motions of sin did work But now sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law you are not in the flesh you doe not walk according to the flesh And that I suppose is the meaning of that Scripture 2 Pet. 2. 10. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly and to reserve the wicked to be punished but cheifly those that walk after toe flesh in the lusts of uncleanness Now if you take walking after the flesh for sinfull wayes it would be the same as if he had said there are diverse people that walk wickedly but cheifly they that walk after the flesh for all people naturolly walk after the flesh but these were a peculiar people that the Lord would bring judgements on and they walked according to the flesh Who were they They were most of them Jewes they were Adams Sons that walked in the old Covenant cheifly they that walk according to the flesh that is the meaning of it or else he would not have said according to the flesh for every man naturally walks according to the flesh So in this text Who walke not according to the flesh but according to the spirit and in the 8 Verse of this Chapter They that are in the flesh cannot please God Now I shall open that by another Scripture Heb. 11. 5. Where it is said that Henoch pleased God We read of Henoch Gen. 5. 24. That he Walked with God he walked not according to the flesh now sayth the Apostle without faith it is impossible to please God now he that walks in the flesh cannot please God Why so He that goes not in the way of faith by Jesus Christ he cannot please God By beleiving I please God by walking in the obedience of faith to God I and my works please God Now to please implies one that was offended before all my doing cannot please God but my beleiving presenting to God a perfect righteousnesse by faith pleaseth God and then all my works are accepted There are two words for it in the Originall One signifies to please one that hath been offended another is pleasingnesse with one that hath not offended as my child pleaseth me though he have not offended me but the other is to be pleased with one that was an Enemy before one that was against me that is now received to favour So I have told you breifly some Scriptures to shew you that flesh is taken in this sence Now the maine reason of it why I beleive this It is the scope of this Epistle to be the cheife meaning of it is because that I see clearly that this is the cheife drift and scope of this Epistle and if I may speake without disparagement there is nothing more methodically layd downe and this is spoken to bring them from the way of works to the way of faith But I hasten Why doth the holy Ghost call walking after the Covenant of Works and after the law walking after the flesh and the other walking after the spirit The reason is because there is so great affinity 3. Why walking after the Law is called walking after the flesh and nearness between walking legally and walking sinfully that they are promiscuously in Scripture taken one for another For let a man walk and endeavour and doe his best according to the law and not by the Gospell he shall be sure to walk 1. They are taken one for another in Scripture sinfully and carnally there is no help for it If he be under the law sin will have dominion over him and if he go after the flesh the motions of the flesh will bring forth fruit unto death Sin and the law are as it were of so near a kin that the law makes sin more sinfull and the more a man strives to keep the law the more he sins The Apostle brought it so neare that people were ready to speake non-sence that the law was sin He prevents the objection Is the law sin O no sayth he sin is
to you whether you doe not feele a strange power in your soules killing and subduing sin that you never imagined before or almost hoped to have There are some Saints that I know that when they came to know a little of Jesus Christ they have found a power to subdue their sins that they did not hope for in their other condition they were so strong it is an emynent power A poore Saint that sees another tugging and striveing and wrastling and bustling with his corruptions he knowes that there is a sweet power in his soule that pulls downe the highest and proudest imaginations As a godly man sayth there is as much difference between a man that walks after the flesh according to the law and he that walks according to the spirit as betweene a man that is in a great Lyter or in a great Boat that is fast upon the sand and there are it may be a dozen or twenty men tugging and striving to get it off and yet it sticks and another man that is in a Boat upon the water and needs onely to hoist sayle and sit downe and it is gone he goes with winde and tide So a man that walks according to grace he can go as a child and speake loving and plaine words to his Father and get power over his sins that all the bowling and roaring and crying of another a whole Yeare together cannot doe It is so and all you that know what grace is know it That is one thing therefore consider this if thou walke according to the spirit thou art dead to sin That is in respect of the condemnation and guilt of it thou hearest that Christ hath fulfilled the law and that sin is done away And secondly in respect of the power of it thou canst looke upon it as a dying gasping thing that must die and thou canst tread on it through the death of Christ. Thirdly thou findest no lust so strong in thy soul but thou canst ordinarily bring it downe thou canst bring it to the obedience of Jesus Christ another man may throw his cap at his sins and be wishing and woulding all the year long but there are strong lusts in his soule that will not out Therefore sayth the Apostle when you walked according to the law the motions of sin brought forth fruit unto death inevitably it will be so Then further you shall finde the fruits of walking Fruits of walking according to the spirit according to the spirit I will but name them to you and wish you to consider of them You have many set downe in this Eighth to the Romanes When a man walks according to the spirit you shall see this is one fruit of it a spirit of adoption whereby we crie abba Father As many as A spirit of adoption are led by the spirit of God they are the Sons of God for ye have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but ye have received the spirit of adoption wherby we crie abba Father That is one fruit of it as soone as a man comes to walk according to the spirit he hath not a spirit of bondage any more What is that It is nothing but this a temper of soule like a slave just as you may conceive of a Spirit of bondage what man that is taken Prisoner in Turkie what temper he is of he is glad of a crust of bread and he feares whipping and beating and it may be killing such is the temper of a mans soule in a spirit of bondage when one is in such a temper that he is alway in feare of being whipped and scourged and he hath hard thoughts of God and he feares that he shall proove an hypocrite and the like Now sayth the Apostle we have not that spirit but we have the spirit of adoption whereby we crie abba Father That is there is a sweet temper such as is in a loving Child to his deare Father there is a boldnesse a love and delight and rejoycing and a sweetnesse c. This is one fruit of it therefore as far as thou art under horrour and mopeing and howling and crying thou commest short of walking according to the spirit for thy soule would be alway full of sweetnesse in the greatest affliction if there were a spirit of adoption and under the worst sins thou doest commit though their would be sorrow yet thou wouldest be full of sweetnesse and joy That is one thing Againe another fruit and consequent of it is Raysing up of the spirit that the spirit of God beares witnesse with our spirits that we are the Children of God If thou wilt be lead by the spirit and walk after the spirit the spirit of God will witnesse with thy spirit that thou art the Child of God What is that the meaning of it is this as I understand the spirit of God will rayse up my spirit to be able to see and know that I am the Child of God for the spirit of a man knowes the naturall things of a man and no more But the spirit of God witnesseth with my spirit that I am the Childe of God that is hee rayseth up my spirit whereby I may see and know that I am the Childe of God that as before by my owne spirit I was able to know whether I were poore or rich whether I were sick or well whether I were beloved or hated So now my spirit is raysed by the spirit of God I am able to reflect upon my selfe spiritually and look upon my selfe as beloved and chosen and holy and called and justified and this in a spirituall way Thirdly here is another expression of it and An earnest hope that is an earnest hope or expectation of the glory that is to be revealed I find and observe little of that to be in Professors and I have oft marvailed at it and the reason is because they have not the spirit of adoption and walk not fully according to the spirit therfore they are not filled with those expectations and those earnest desires that the Saints were ordinarily in the primitive times Sayth the Apostle in this Chapter The creature groaneth and desires to be delivered and not only they but we our selves which have the first fruits of the spirit we groane within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodie The meaning is there is no man knowes what that glory is that is to be revealed nor no man what it is to looke for it and expect it The word in the Originall is as one sayth as a woman looks for deliverance when her paines are on her O! she would faine be delivered or as a man in Prison that looks for his freind out of a window he puts out his head and looks but he cannot get out though he faine would Such an earnest hope and expectation and desire there is in the Saints that walke according to the spirit to see Jesus
those things that now you know not nor cannot know Therfore labour to learne that lesson it is one of the greatest Mysteries in the World and that is the reason that carnall people carp at these things What greater Mysterie then for me being a just and righteous man through Christ yet to be so sinfull that I can say there is none more sinfull and yet I am as righteous as Abraham or Paul in respect of the righteousnesse of Christ I have as large a share as Abraham or Paul and yet I am full of sin A Christian knowes this and he knowes how it is so Well that is one lesson consider of it that you may know where to plant your justification upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ The Lord teach it to you and me Secondly if the righteousnesse of the law be Vse 2. Saints should see their condition in Christ glorious fulfilled in all that are beleivers through Jesus Christ Then all you that are Saints all you that beleive in Jesus Christ labour to see the glorious condition that you are in that you may be able to reflect upon your selves not according to what you are out of Christ but what you are considered to be as Members of Jesus Christ as unyted to Jesus Christ Therfore you shall have Paul and it doth me good to see his spirit he never reckons himselfe as in himselfe but as in Jesus Christ I can doe all things I can want and I can abound I can doe this and that and all in Christ So I To look on our selves as unyted to Christ must never conceive of God out of Christ nor of my selfe out of Christ I must never conceive of my selfe and Christ as two but I should indeavour clearly and constantly that whatsoever good there is in Christ it is myne as if it were in myne owne person And so we should have our spirits raysed above the temptations of the World and above the afflictions of the World and above corruptions It is a pittifull thing to see poore Professors Why many Christians have such low Spirits there is not one of many but they are ordinarily below temptations and they lie under burdens and are below their sins Nay there are many professors that are more sad and drooping then carnall people Surely this was not the way of those Saints that we read of in the New Testament they had glorious spirits how doe you think else they could goe to the stocks and to Prisons and from one Compter to another and have their spirits so raysed and yet sometimes they were to die the next morning for ought they knew Your spirits will never be heightened and raysed to live the life of Paul by beholding any thing that is in you personally in your posession but what you are by relation and marriage to Christ Reckon your selves dead with Christ and so conceive I am a just man I was bound once to the law of God a terrible law and there are thousands in hell paying the debt and cannot pay it and yet I have paid every farthing and the law cannot ask me more I have offered a perfect righteousnesse to God and I am now sitting at Gods right hand in Heaven by my unyon with Jesus Christ This is the life of faith that we may be able to The life of faith tryumph over all these things below from our Justification as Paul doth Rom. 8. It is God that Justifieth and who shall condemne Who shall seperate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Shall Tribulation or distresse or Famine or nakednesse or perill or Sword Nay in all these things we are more then Conquerors through Christ that loved us Indeed Tribulation and hunger and Famine they are sad things but these are the least troubles of a Christian these outward miseries Over these we are more then Conquerers sayth Paul I can tie my right hand at my back and with my left hand beat all these back I can beat them with a finger Nay I say more Neyther death nor life that is more nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. See there how he dares all the Enemies to come upon the Stage and tramples them under feet As in Malachy it is said that in the time of the Gospell they shall tread their Enemies as ashes under their feet So there is a place also in 1 Cor. 1â— Death is swallowed up in victorie As if he had sayd you that have received Christ Jesus I will tell you news Death is swallowed up in victorie O death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victorie He feares the grave and death and triumphs over them O death where is thy sting thou thoughtest to overcome me but where is thy sting The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be unto God who hath given us Victorie through Jesus Christ our Lord. He doth not say which will give us Victory when we are dead and then we shall be perfect in Heaven It is true then we shall be more perfect but he saith which hath given us Victorie for the present I have already overcome Hell and death and the Devill for all hangs on the law the law is Gods writ and the Devill is Gods Sergeant that executes that writ and Hell is the Prison Therefore if the law be satisfied if the righteousnesse of the law be fulfilled death and Hell and the Devill have nothing to doe with me So in Rom. 4. ult Who was delivered for our offences and was raysed for our justification And then it followes Chap. 5. 1. Beeing Justified by faith we have peace with God See where the Apostle layes justification And we glory in tribulation knowing that it worketh patience c. We rejoyce in tribulation and affliction Why Because we are Justified by Christs death and Resurection O what kind of spirits should we have How full of joy and comfort should we be in the greatest tribulation How should we tread all this World under our feet the evills of this World and the comforts of the World How should we insult and tryumph over the Devill and over death and Hell for all their power as I sayd is from the law and if the righteousnesse of the law be fulfilled then all our Enemies are subdued and all is cleare Heaven is open and God is mine and the favour of God is to me For know this that there is no naturall imbred What hinders the creature from enjoying God hatred in God to his creature there is nothing that keeps the creature from the full injoyment of God but the law not being satisfied God made a law and we made the breach of it and there falls out the distance betweene
Christ come and to enjoy that glory that is to be revealed There are many more expressions there that are the fruits of it as the spirit of supplication Vers 26. And there is also a triumphing over all our spirituall enemies Vers 31. What shall we say then if God be for us who can be against us c. And then there is an absolute dependance upon God for all things He that spared not his owne Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things And then there is also a patient suffering of all afflictions Sayth the Apostle Vers 18. I neckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed And then there is lastly an absolute eternal union with Christ Jesus in respect of his love I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor any thing shall ever be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our lord these are the expressions of the fruits of the spirit of God in the soule when men walk according to the spirit when they walk according to grace Take a man that walks according to the flesh or according to the law you shall find none of these kind of things in his soule So much concerning that Use In the next place as this Doctrine is a Touchstone Vse 3. Tryall of our actions whereby you may trie and judg of mens persons so hereby also you may trie your services and actions I say this is a rule whereby you may come to know what your services are what worth is in them For as they only are Saints who walk according to the spirit let the World judg how they will and those that walk carnally according to the flesh according to the law are not Saints so I say those actions or services of ours that proceed from the spirit of God they are only pleasing to God and those that proceed from the flesh from Old Adam those are not pleasing to him Now I say by this we may trie our services and actions as well as our persons for there is the same reason for both in all my actions all that I expect from them is that they be pleasing to God that is the end of all that we doe for they cannot justifie us that is done already or if it be not they cannot doe it but all is to be pleasing to God Now then the maine rule by which I am to judg of my actions it is this not to judg of them according as they are plausible to men or according as they have affection or enlargment in them as we call it but we are to judg of our actions cheifly if not principally by the principle that they flow from if it be the weakest and meanest action if it be the least sigh or prayer if it proceed from the new Adam the Lord Jesus it is sweet and pleasing to God it is an acceptable Sacrifice But if it be the most glorious thing in the World if it proceed from old Adam not only from sinfull Adam but from naturall Adam as he is called the naturall man 1. Cor. 15. I say that that riseth from naturall wisdome and invention and understanding and memory c. it is but flesh and Whatsoever is borne of flesh is flesh and as we say Pepper is Pepper that is it is deare so flesh is flesh that is it is a filthy abominable thing to God As it is in this Chapter they that walk according to the flesh cannot please God So that that is borne of the flesh that service that ariseth from the flesh that is done from the flesh cannot please God But you will say cannot the actions that proceed Quest from the principles of naturall Adam be pleasing to God Every man knowes that of corrupt Adam cannot but cannot that of naturall Adam as a man may pray meerly by a naturall wit and bravely to please man and to please himself and he may preach by a naturall wit and doe other Excercises and doe them finely cannot they be pleasing to God No this is a certaine rule that there is nothing Answ Nothing that comes from naturall Adam pleaseth God that comes from flesh from a principle of old Adam whither it be naturally good or evill there is nothing whether from pure Adam or corrupt Adam that is pleasing to God The reason is this because as it is Gen. 3. 5. That when Adam sinned against God you know his punishment was that he should die he was not to eat or touch the forbidden fruit least he should die Now when Adam eat of that fruit you know the curse came upon him And in reference to this you shall find those phrases in this Epistle whosoever walks according to the flesh shall die whosoever walks as old Adam is in the State of the old curse he shall die and O miserable man who shall deliver me from this body of death He calls it a body of death alluding to the maine curse of old Adam which was that he should die Now when the Lord sayd that Adam should Adam to dye as a publick person die for sin conceive not that the meaning is only that he should die personally that his person now should be subject to the wrath of God to damnation of soule and body for ever in Hell that is not the only meaning of it it is true he fell under that but the meaning is this also that whole Adam Adam as thou art a publike person thou shalt die that whereas I made and appoynted thee to be the spring and Foundation of all mankind and every man in the World is to have thy Image on him and I have filled thee with righteousnesse and wisdome and good things that may tend much to thy happinesse and thy posteritie that thou mayest derive a principle to them to be like thee in good and to be pleasing to me But when Adam sinned now sayth God thou shalt die I made thee a happie creature and put abundance of excellencies in thee for thy selfe and thy posterity as a publike person but now thou hast sinned and extinguished all that good Now I will blast them all thy wisdome and thy righteousnesse thy soule and thy body thy very being Adam shall die Thy person as thou art a private man and as thou art a publike man soule and body flesh and bone all that is in the and all that comes from thee shall die this is that great curse that God laid on him a curse of a great extent Therefore I say whatsoever now ariseth from All that springs from old Adam condemned the Sons of Adam that springs from old Adam be it good or evill it is condemned to die it must die it cannot please God As Adam when he had eaten the forbidden fruit the Lord set an Angell with a Sword
it be rough for me every day to dispute with my carnall heart and not only carry on good but deny my selfe in good upon spirituall reason this is a warrefare but the end is life and it is peace too This is a hard worke you will say and therefore we will take the easiest and smallest worke Beloved I say there is more ease and sweetnesse and contentednesse in going on in the wayes of God spiritually upon spirituall reasons an hundred fold than in the other for the other will be rough and God hath cast it so God hath put a curse upon all Old Adam he curseth it with death and therefore he must dye that walks carnally and that is the reason all your naturall thoughts and actions are so bitter God hath cursed them they must dye and now all the wayes of Holinesse have enough to induce thee to endeavour to walke holily as one saith the gleanings of the Saints are better than the harvest of the wicked men if there were no Hell nor Heaven hereafter but only the wicked to have the pleasures of sinne here and the Saints to have the consolations of the Spirit dwelling in them it is more an hundred fold the one is nothing but crackling of Thornes under a Pot and the end is smoake and stinke and the other is sweet here and in the end blessed eternally if it were not suppose though the way to Heaven be bitter here yet it is sweet in the End and the way of the world sweet here and bitter in the end yet you should choose holinesse as a Philosopher said if a man were to take a bitter and sweet thing which were he best to take first saith he to take the sower or the evill first and the sweet for the hope of the good to come will sweeten the present evill but when a man hath the good first the feare of the evill to come will marre al but therefore seeing there is a reward in the way in Holinesse as well as in the end for holinesse it should move us to labour after holinesse THE TABLE A Abraham ABraham juflified how page 231 Absurd Absurd what 369 Act The cheife act of the mind 358 See Reasoning Action Actions carnall denominate men 323 Adam Two things from Adam 252 The best have somwhat of old Adam 270 All from old Adam condemned 28â— Somthing in Saints that was not in Adam 405 See please Adoption Spirit of adoption 280 Affliction Carriage of a humble heart in affliction 124 Ten Instances of the carriage of a humble heart in afflictions 126 See fire All Christ died not for all 107 Saints willing to know all Gods truthes 110 Amiable Sight of God to Saints amiable 16 Another Saints content with the righteousnesse of another 102 Antinomians Antinomians who Apprehensions Sight of God knowne by our apprehensions 31 Apprehensions of God how to trie them 40 See cleare pretious perpetuall Assurance Assurance in the apprehensions of Saints 32 Assurance wanting to ordinary Professors why 106 B Beleivers Beleiving None satisfie the law but Beleivers 249 Spirituall reasoning in Beleiving 363 See righteousnesse Blind Mind of a Carnall man blind 349 Bondage Spirit of bondage what 280 Books three uses of other books besides the Scriptures 311 Borne againe He that will see God must be borne againe 62 To be borne againe what 69 To labour to be borne againe 312 Bribe God such a Lawgiver as cannot be brided 209 C Change A true sight of God changeth men 54 Carnall Men meerly carnall are called flesh 323 See actions Christ Saving sight of God only in Christ 11 A Saint in the worst condition repents not of taking Christ 137 The law fulfilled by Christ 210 Motive to come to Christ 214 Invitation to come to Christ 381 See example father comming meeke lycenciousnesse rule unyon Cleare Apprehensions of God cleare to Saints 31 Coach-man The mind the coach-man of the soule 347 Coare The coare of a naturall mans heart fleshly 335 Commands A proud heart dissobeys Gods commands 117 A proud heart wearie of Gods commands 118 Who offer violence to Gods commands 119 A Saint in affliction neglects not Gods commands 142 Comfort The godly more carefull of benefite then comfort in afflictions 142 why Saints have comfort in the worst condition 371 Comming Upon what ground to long for Christs comming 292 Communion Communion with sinners wherein forbidden 169 Condemne See Adam Condiscend A humble Saint will condiscend to the weake 186 Conscience Conscience purified what 49 Consolation consolations of the spirit 409 Conversation Vnnecessary conversation with sinners forbidden 171 Constant Sight of God in this World not constant 17 Ground of Saints constancy 369 Conviction Conviction of the spirit 409 Correction Wicked men see not God in corrections 96 Corporeall Corporeall sight of God 4 Corrupt corruption Saints pure notwithstanding their corruptions 52 Corruption how discovered 149 Saints called fleshly because of their corruptions 322 Mind corrupted 360 Reasoning corrupted 361 Covenant Saints stick close to the covenant in afflictions 143 Covenant in man to keepe Gods law 208 Ishmael and Isaac types of the Covenants 266 See workes Creation Sight of God in works of creation 4 New creation by the spirit 403 Creature Creatures resemblances of spirituall things 55 Curse Sin a curse in Hell 288 D Darknesse Satans Kingdome darknesse 64 Naturall principles darke 377 Day See son of man Death die Hypocrites why â—oth to die 38 Why godly men die 287 Carnall reasoning brings death 413 See sin works Deliberation Deliberation wherein excluded 215 Deliverance Saints desire somthing more then deliverance 140 Discretion Sadnesse of Christians in Discretion 74 Devill see God Divinity Divinitie mistaken 289 Doing No man can fulfill the law by doing 212 Spirituall reasoning in doing 365 Draw How God drawes mens hearts 92 Dutie In what duties we may converse with sinners 170 Men proud of duties why 290 E Earthly earthlynesse Wicked men live on earthly things 72 Earthlynesse troubleth Christians 294 Things of the flesh things on earth Enjoy see God Envie Prosperity of the wicked not to be envied 73 Escape No escape from Gods law 209 Eve How the DEVILL tempted Eve 302 Evill Fountaine of evill in the soule 412 Example Christs example to be looked on 242 Excercise Excercise of spirituall reasoning by the spirit 410 Extoll see learning F Face Christ the face of God 11 Saints live by seeing Gods face 72 Faculties Naturall faculties corrupted by sin 378 Faith Faith the life of it 237 Justification known by faith 258 Fall Not to fall from the liberty of the Gospell 304 Father The Father shews Christ 13 Christ shews the Father 14 Fellowship Fellowship of Saints whence 59 Ground of fellowship with others 272 Few Few shall be saved 267 Flesh Flesh what meant by it 252 Walking according to the flesh what 255 Why walking after the law is after the flesh 265 Not to use liberty for the flesh 298 VVho mind the things of the flesh
the proud happy yea they that Worke wickednesse are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered Here is the temper of proud spirits and hearts of wicked men they are all for Honour and wealth what profit shall we have by humbling our soules and keeping Gods Ordinances O! these were stout words and stout hearts and spirits to envy the prosperity of other people while they were corrected And in Job 2â— You shall read that Job did almost fall in that poynt also but it was because he was not throughly humbled as in the end he was for then he abhorred himselfe The Fift thing is this that a soul that is truely 5. Humble hearts repent not of receiving Christ humbled in his afflictions as he doth not envie the prosperity of others the while so he doth not repent of his bargaine that he hath made in receiving of Jesus Christ though all his afflictions and miseries it may be fall on him for his sake or the most of them he never repents that he hath been so holy but that he is not more holy A proud heart repents of what it hath done for God O saith a proud heart If I had not heard Puritans and followed their Sermons and gone their wayes and lived in their Conventicles I had not been noted and hated and afflicted It is a proud heart that repents of any jot of good it hath done for God or that repents of his receiving of Christ for any affliction or misery that may befall him it is a signe of a base heart There is a blessed expression Psal 44. 9. Of David and the people of God I have oft thought of the great sufferings of the Saints there spoken of Thou hast cast us off and put us to shame and goest not forth with our Armies Thou makest us to turne back from the Enemy and those that hate us spoyle for themselves Thou hast given us like Sheepe appointed for meat and hast scattered us among the Heathen Thou sellest thy people for nought and doest not increase thy wealth by their price A strange thing thou sellest them and takest no money for them Thou makest us a reproach to our Neighbours a scorne and derision to them that are round about us c. Here is as it were an inventorie of all the troubles of the Church and wherefore doth he speake all this you shall see after For all this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neyther have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant Our heart is not turned back neyther have our steps declined from thy way Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons yet we have not stretched forth our hands to a strange God He reckons up all these troubles and yet sayth he notwithstanding all this though God have brought all these miseries upon us yet We have not been false in the Covenant nor stretched out our hands to a strange God we doe not repent that we have received thee and are married to thee and have chosen thee for our God I remember the practice of a godly Minister many yeares agoe who speaking of the manner how God useth to bring in sinners to Christ though there were a great deale of curiositie in those dayes more if I may speak with reverence to the worthy men that then lived then should have been as if a man should go about to describe the forming of a child in the wombe which it were better leave to God then studie too much how it is framed But I remember his expression sayth he God takes a sinner the first time and shewes him his miserie and shuts him up that he sees no way of deliverance at all and then after a little while he opens a little crevice that he may see deliverance and Salvation but he gives him not the least occasion of hope that he shall have deliverance but in the meane while what doth the sinner He leaves his sins as fast as he can and turnes them off and throwes them away He sees Salvation and he sayth yonder is Salvation but I have no reason to hope to have it but whether I have it or no I will never goe back to sin I am resolved whether Christ will give me pardon and Salvation or not I will not take sin any more I applie it to this when afflictions and miseries come in stormes on a poore soule shower after shower that there is no end the soule sayth I know not how I shall be delivered from these troubles here is death and misery and sicknesse upon me and I know not what the issue will be but be the end what it will by the helpe of God I will not goe back to sin I will not repent that I have received Christ but will keepe close to the Lord. This is the meaning of that phrase Mat. 13. Where Christ saith when the sun is up upon the corne it scorcheth it that is when there is Persecution for every Persecution is an affliction though every affliction be not a Persecution now when the sun of Persecution is up men are offended What is the meaning of that Men repent of their bargaine they begin to be sorrie that ever they were Professors of Religion Therefore the Lord Christ would have a man cast up the cost For when a man enters into Religion it is as if he were to fight a Field there will be losse and trouble and danger there will be tribulation and hot Persecution consider if thou be able to goe through it thou must have the shell as well as the kernell it is a decree of Heaven Therefore consider before hand that thou mayest not repent when troubles come There may be base times worse then yet if worse may be and if when tribulations come thou shalt repent that thou hast gone so farr in Religion and that thou hast been acquainted with the Saints and that thou hast been so oft in their companie thou hast to speake the least and the best of thee an unhumbled heart Sixtly a Saint that hath a humbled heart you 6. He is more carefull to carry himselfe aright then to be delivered may know it by his carriage in afflictions by this he is more carefull by far of his right carriage in it then of deliverance out of it That is alway in a humble heart he studies more how to behave himselfe like a Saint under the rod then how to get away and be delivered from it You may read in Acts 4. There was very hot persecution and great affliction upon the Saints and yet there they are blessing God notwithstanding all their Persecution to see the Scripture fullfilled that which was spoken in Psal 2. The Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers take counsell together against the Lord and against his anoynted they rejoyced to see that fullfilled as if they had said they killed Christ the other day and now they Persecute us Now what would
not beleive in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be accepted of the Saints For Jesus Christs sake pray for me VVhy He was going to Jerusalem to carry money to the poore A man would think that they should be beholding to him that Paul a Preacher would come and bring it himself but I beseech you for Christs sake pray that the Saints may accept of my service O God give Parliament men and great ones that they may be Willing to doe for the Saints and to pray to God for the Saints acceptance It is a great matter for the Saints to accept the service of the Saints The Thirteenth thing to know a humble heart 13. He rejoyceth at the growth of grace in others by in his demeanour to the Saints is this he rejoyceth much that grace grows in others though it doe not in himselfe and he rejoyceth in the good that is done by others though he can doe none himselfe Paul 2 Cor. 4. 13. I rejoyce that ye be honourable though we be beggars A humble heart rejoyceth though he be the least of Saints yet to see such people grow and to have full grace and to thrive accordingly a proud heart will murmur and it is a signe of a cursed heart that doth not rejoyce in the good that is done by another it is a cursed hellish disposition in Numb 11. We read how diverse did Prophesie in the Campe and they come to Moses and desire him to forbid them O say they looke yonder he is turned Preacher now O sayth Moses I would that all Gods people did prophesie Now there are such a generation of men among us that will not indure that any good should be done but by themselves and if a poore man goe out of my Parish to another place for the good of his soul I must envie the man because he would get more good and others that have been trades-men though they be men of parts and breeding in the Army and elsewhere yet if they have not the languages though they teach the people gloriously yet we must crie them downe as Aereticks whereas if God will doe good by using such we should rejoyce if I rejoyce not in the good that is done by another in this Congregation or in the Armie or any where as much as if it were done by my selfe I am a cursed proud man Let us think of that Another thing which I spake of before is that 14. He can love though he be not loved a humble heart he can love though he be not loved As Paul sayth Though the more I love you the lesse â— be loved of you There is none but a humble heart that can love when it is not loved Lastly and so to make an end of this text the 15. He measures not himselfe by himselfe demeanour of a humble heart to the Saints it is seen in this he dares not measure himself by himself nor compare himself with himself You shall find that word 2 Cor 10. 12. VVe dare not make our selves of the number or compare our selves with some that commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise Man naturally is the best judge of himselfe only every man hath abundance of self-love whereby every man thinks in every poynt better of himself then he is and they think themselves the wisest people in the World and that other people have no braines and so measure themselves with themselves Or rather thus I have observed in proud hearted professors to their ruyne unlesse God work a myracle that doe not approove their hearts to God nor to the generality of the Saints but measure themselves by themselves they are good because they think they are good or else they will have two or three fawning flatterers by them that shall commend them though all the VVorld condemne them yet if they approove them and commend them they care not Thereupon I have knowne some that have lost all their reputation with all the Saints excepting only two or three that would call black white and white black You shall have a great man when he hath done an action he will goe to his Chaplaine and say is not this well done and it may be he will flatter him in it We are all subject to this it is not peculiar to one alone We should make use of some friends when we have done an action that should be joynt judges in it and if they entertaine it for good we should account it so or else not for a World and if these condemne us we should hold our selves condemned but beware of setting a few creatures like our selves to be judges but to approve our selves before the Lord and before the Generation of Saints And so you have heard the demeanour of the Saints that they are humble in their carriage towards God and towards sinners and towards Saints And so much for this text Mount Sion OR The Priviledge and Practice OF THE SAINTS By WALTER CRADOCK late Preacher at ALHALLOWS Great in LONDON HEB. 12.22 But yee are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living GOD c. GAL. 4.26 But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all LONDON Printed in the Yeare 1649. SERMON I. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousnesse of the law might be fullfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit THE maine drift of the Apostle in this Epistle is to hold forth justification by faith or by free grace without the works of the law And in Chap. 7. The Apostle doth answer an objection For they might say what then shall we doe with the law if it cannot justifie us There the Apostle tells us that though the law cannot justifie us yet there are many blessed uses both for sinners and Saints to make of the law of which I shall not now speake Now in this 8th Chapter the Apostle drawes this conclusion from what he had said before There is therefore from what I have sayd it is evident that there is no condemnation there is no damnation there is no danger of hell to them which are in Christ Jesus Now he opens who those are he sayth they are those Who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit And he gives a reason of it in Vers 2. why there is no damnation to those people For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and of death Now he amplifies that in Vers 3. For what the law could not doe in that it was weake through the flesh God sending his owne son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh As if he should have sayd thus it comes about that we are now free from the law and that there is no damnation to us because sayth he that God hath sent his son in the
that his Son hath satisfied the law and therefore we are freed Now he doth acknowledge it three wayes First You shall have it Mat. 17. compared with 1. by Gods own testimonie 2 Pet. 1. For Peter is much in it we follow not devised fables but we come to speake of the voyce in the Mount This is my beloved Son As if he had said This is one maine peice of the Gospel we heard a voyce when we were with our Master in the mount saying This is my beloved Son in whom my soule is well pleased That for his person Then a second thing that did shew that he was 2. Christ is out of prison satisfied was by suffering Jesus Christ after he was arrested and in prison for our debt for Christ was in prison for our debt he was arrested and that according to law he was brought into prison and all our suits were clapped on his back all our executions and outlaries were layd on his shoulders and then the Father let him out of prison being our suretie If he had not payd our debt he had not come out of prison but now the Father lets him out that is the Father suffred him to rise from the dead Therefore we finde that our justification is layd more upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ then upon his death as we see in Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and raised againe for our justification that is he did die for our sins and was raised againe for our justification And in Rom. 8. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us That is his dying for us did satisfie the law but that did not justifie us untill we see that he was risen againe and then we see that all the debt was paid because our suretie is gotten out of prison Therefore justification I meane the knowledge of it at least principally ariseth from Christs resurrection Now when I see Christ is risen and is gone abroad he is gone out of the grave and gone to heaven I know that the law is fulfilled and the Father is satisfied and the Sergeant the Devill hath nothing to arrest me for all is satisfied all is cleare Thirdly and lastly I know God the Father is satisfied 3 Christ is gone into heaven for the law it is God the Fathers Writt that he had against us and now we see that all is payd not onely because our suretie is got out of prison for so a man may doe that hath not paid a debt but because when he was out of prison he ascended to his Father and the Father made him sit at the right hand of God in the glory of Majesty on high and he hath given him power and authoritie to rule the world till the day of Judgement Now in that the Father hath given the Son that honour and respect in heaven as to come and sit at his right hand wee may see it was not a breaking of prison but a reall paying of the debt and a fulfilling the law before he could come there This may give a little light how the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us through Jesus Christ Now the use of it I named in the morning I Use 1. To learne the ground of our justification was not able to expresse it neither can I now fully utter it I beseech you consider the more of it The first use we may make of it is this that you should learne from what I have said where your justification doth lie your justification doth not lie or is not built upon any thing that is in you or that is done by you or that you may hope to doe hereafter you are not justified by your own personall good or unjustified by your own personall evills you are not one jote the more just when you have done all the good you can in the world and you are not one jote the lesse just when you have committed all the weaknesses and fallen into all the frailties that a Saint can fall into because your justification is built onely upon Christ and upon what he did and suffered My justification is built upon the death of Christ and his resurrection he hath fulfilled the law and he hath paid the debt and he is out of prison and the Father is satisfied here is my justification and I believing this I am happie Now you shall find that you lay a great part of Men build justification upon something in themselves your justification upon something in your selves therefore when you are enlarged in good you think you are more justified and when you fall into sin you think you are more unjust then you were before and you look strangely upon God Now the Lord hath put it out of our hands Adam should have been justified by that that was in him and that should have been done by him but blessed be God he would not trust us with that good any more but hath put all in the hands of Jesus Christ and there is the whole foundation of our justification Therefore it is not for a Christian to come and say O Sir I feare I am no childe of God I feare I shall prove an hypocrite why so because I finde so much sin and so many lusts in me It is very well that you find and feele sin and that you mourne for and strive against sin but that therefore you should thinke there is a flaw in your justification that you should make any good that is in you a prop to support your justification or any evill in you a thing that might crack your justification this is Popery My justification depends not on this that I am justified the more when I am strong or less justified when I am weak but whether I be weak or strong whether I doe much or little for God whether I give thanks or be humbled seeing Christ is dead and risen againe I am justified that is still intire because it is not built upon me but wholly upon the death and resurrection of Christ In the 4th of the Romans Abraham is laid down Abraham how justified as a patterne of believing Abraham had the word of faith So shall thy seed be and without hope or reason or any thing he believed that is he cast himself on that word so it is said he was justified without works What a strange thing is that for it is impossible that there should be true faith but that all good works should in some measure follow after but if wee speake properly and look to the thing as it is in it self how a man is justified he is justified wholly without works Abraham did many good things he offred his son Isaack
and he relieved his kinsman when he was in misery and did teach his familie and relieved the King of Sodome he did many good works Though these good works did justifie his faith to the world that they knew he was a believer by it and he himselfe did know it by it yet never a one of these were an ingredient into the justification of his person that was by the righteousnesse of God without works Wee must get good works after This is the Good works to be done after we believe rule of the word Charge them that believe to maintain good works that is after they believe charge them to avoy'd the evill and to doe the good and to abound But for the poynt of justification which is the maine thing for your soule and mine to feed on that is built on another foundation upon the grave of Christ and upon the death of Christ Therefore you shall find those speeches of the Apostle Paul when he speaks of this glorious condition he speaks alway of his union with Christ I am crucified with Christ and I am buried with Christ and I am dead but Christ lives in me Learne this lesson that you may come to this Ground of humilitie for if you had learned it spiritually when you had done the most for God if you could doe ten times more then Abraham or Paul and yet Paul preached from Jerusalem to Illyricum yet then thou wouldest say I am an unprofitable servant there is not one graine that I have done that is an ingredient into the death and resurrection of Christ to help to make me a just man or to procure the favour and love of God And when you had done evill and it may be failed in carelesnesse and committed sin O what a glorious thing were it to goe home and fall upon thy knees and say Lord I have sinned grievously but yet I am not one jote the lesse just before thee because my justice and my righteousnesse is not depending upon my sinning or my unsinning upon my holinesse or my unholinesse but upon Jesus Christ Then you would find by experience your hearts The right way to mourn for sinne melt in pieces you would be able to look upon sin in the vastness and unkindness of it against a deare Father then you would see your selves the vilest objects you would not so thinke or speake of any man in the world as of your selves even for the least frailtie For then the love of God as oyle working with iron would press your hearts Then you shall know and not before what it is to be truly humbled and then you shall have power to reforme Then you would be able to say my soule is truly humbled I can mourne for sin till I am weary of weeping Then you will be able though you make not those covenants and resolutions there will be such an impression upon the soule that you cannot choose but mourne and loath your selves and avoyd the occasions of sinne seeing your selves just men in Jesus Christ For when a man sees himself unjust he can never mourne kindly for sin if he see God on Sinai as a Judge there will be but untoward mourning for sin But when a man sees the coast cleare then he can say I have been the greatest sinner in London there is never a childe of God that hath walked more barrenly then I have done and yet through Christ I am as just in Gods sight as any man in London I am Gods childe but I am an unhappie graceless childe then a man can call himselfe foole and be angry with himselfe and weep bitterly Now usually when you mourne for sinne you Men usually think justification is cracked by sin thinke there is a crack in your justification and so many sins as you have committed there are so many flawes in your justification and so many faintings of faith in the favour of God and therefore when you pray to God and are humbled for sin it is your manner and it was mine most of my dayes onely to dawb up the flawes of justification and you pray the Lord to pardon such a sin and now you see God is wrath with you and you are like to be cast off and your hearts begin to be hard and you have sad thoughts of God arising in you and unquiet and horror in your soules and you are far enough from true sorrow all this while It is impossible there should be true sorrow when you keep a coile and confess your sinnes and wrangle it out with God and you will confess your sins to day and think to make God amends to morrow and so as a man stops chincks in a wall wee think to dawb up the flawes and cracks of justification this way Whereas wee should look on justification as a thing entire in the hands of Christ that wee have nothing to doe in but it is in Christ altogether founded on his death and resurrection and all the title that wee have in it is onely by saith As Rom. 10. sheweth The righteousnesse of faith saith on this wise c. The word is nigh thee There is our title and tenure I have nothing to doe for my justification but Christ hath fulfilled the law and he did die and rise and sitteth on the right hand of God and I endeavour to believe it that is to consent that it is so and praise his name and live to him all the dayes of my life O here is the life of Christianitie I have seene people quarrell with themselves Hindrance of reforming our wayes and complaine O I have a hard heart and I desire the preachers to pray for me and when you have fallen into weaknesse you will goe and confess your sins and strive to breake your hearts and mourne for your worldlinesse and your pride and frowardnesse and yet it will not doe but your hearts grow harder then they were before and whereas when you have committed a sin to day you think to goe and reforme to morrow and to turne over a new leafe to morrow you will be worse then to day because you think to make God amends he leaves you to your selves and you grow worse The reason is this because in some sort even to this day you mix sanctification with justification Now I know it I speak what I know could you leave your justification alone in the hands of Jesus Christ and look on it as I said as cash in the cupboord not to be touched and as long as Christ is righteous say I am righteous behold your selves alway as just men and women that in Jesus Christ have fulfilled the law of God and then you will find your hearts inclined to any good thing then would your hearts break and shatter to peices when you have done the least evill against God then you would know what true sorrow and what true repentance is and not before then you would know
us that it may be are emynent in the eye of the World before men yet when all coms to all their fasting and praying and preaching and repeating c. will be found to be nothing in the World but a walking according to the Flesh that is according to the refined well educated principles of old Adam But I shall goe on a little further Therfore in the next place the Question will be how shall I know whether I walk according Use 2. How to know whether we walk according to the spirit to the flesh or according to the spirit How shall I know whether I be one of those that walk according to the spirit I will only give you a few expressions of it I will not say signes for it may be you could not all beare that word and these expressions are most of them layd downe in this Chapter and hereabout whereby you may have a guess of it whether you be men that walk according to the spirit or no. First you shall find in Rom. 6. that those that 1. Such are dead to sin are under grace or that walk according to the spirit sin is destroyed in them they are dead to sin and alive to righteousnesse And there are many expressions of the same thing in diverse phrases As in Vers 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified that the bodie of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin If thou be a man that walkest according to the spirit thou canst say the body of sin is destroyed and thou doest not serve sin Then it is sayd in Vers 11. That those that are under grace they are dead indeed to sin and alive to God that is another expression And in Vers 12. Sin shall not raigne in their Mortall bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof And in Vers 13. Yeild not your members as instruments of unrighteousnesse And in Vers 14. Sin shall not have dominion over them So there are diverse expressions of one and the same thing Now from all for I cannot open them particularly how much is held forth in each of these expressions but to help thee to see a little the State of thy soule I would gather these three things from all these expressions there is I say meant by them these three things The first thing is this that those that walk according 1. Sin is dead in respect of guilt to grace and according to the spirit sin is dead in them That is they are dead in respect of the guilt of sin they doe see and understand in some measure that Jesus Christ by his death hath abolished and destroyed and done away all their sins in respect of the guilt of them they are not under the law in that respect They see that there is a full righteousnesse in Jesus Christ that hath satisfied the law and so their sins are done away that they shall never condemne them This is one thing Now a man that walks according to the flesh he sees not that neyther can see it for these things are spirituall Now take a man that walks according to the flesh that is according to the most refined principles of old Adam and he alway carries guilt upon his Conscience he will alway be as a man that is rouling of a Snow-ball the more he goes on in his Service the more guilt and horrour But a man that walks according to the spirit let him be weake or strong he sees this in some measure and probably for the most part that his sins are done away and that there is no condemnation to him because he is in Christ and beleives in him therfore as it is Rom. 5. 7. He that is dead is freed from sin or justified from sin That is one thing Secondly in all these phrases this is held forth 2. Sin is dead in respect of the power to us as I understand that a beleiver being planted into Christ for so he looks upon himselfe and ingrafted and united to Christ in respect of the power of sin he accounts it as dead that is when he sees any sin stirring in him he considers I am one with Christ I am planted with him in his death and resurrection and this sin was condemned when Christ was condemned and as sure as Christ did die this sin must die therfore he looks upon all his sins and lusts as things that are gasping for life as things that are ready to die and that will surely die as surely as Christ did die Another man that walks according to the law when he sees sin in him and finds lusts to rise in his soul he sayth as David in another case Surely I shall one day fall by the hands of Saul Surely I shall prove an Hypocrite one time or other this sin will break my neck and so he is discouraged and his heart is hardened But a man that is under grace that walks according to the Gospell let sin be never so strong and prevalent he looks on it as a condemned thing he can triumph over it when it is strongest and can say I know thou must be layd in the Grave with Jesus Christ he reckons himselfe dead to sin That is another thing Thirdly and lastly from all these expressions 3. They are more holy then others here in Rom. 6. We gather this that surely all those that are under grace or that walk according to the spirit in some eminent way are more holy and more freed from sin then once they were and then all those are that walk under the law in some eminent way I say they are more holy though I doe not say there is no sin in them for then we should lye as John sayth but certainly there is a power in their soules against sin that is exceedingly transcendent in respect of the best morall men in respect of the exactest men in the World that walk according to the law what else is the meaning of all this Yee are dead to sin and sin shall not reigne and have dominion over you and you shall not yeild your members as instruments to sin Shall we turne all this into speculation No certainly there is some eminent reall holynesse and power against sin that they had not before Therfore saith he VVhat pleasure had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed those sins that you committed before you are now ashamed of them And let me looke a little upon my owne soule or appeale to you take any man or woman that understands what it is to be under the law what it is to walke according to the Covenant of works and according to the flesh and what covenants and resolutions and promises and fastings he had and let him looke upon himselfe what he is now since he hath knowen a little of Christ and hath knowen that he is a justified Person and that he is dead to the law and the like I appeale