the first was there is no power of hell can dissolve it He suffered once to bring us once unto God never to depart again as he suffered once for all so we are brought once for all We may be sensibly nearer at one time than another but yet we can never be separate nor cut off being once knit by Christ as the bond of our Union Neither Principalities nor Powers c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God because it holds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Being put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit The true life of a Christian is to eye Christ every step of his life both as his rule and as his strength looking to him as his pattern both in doing and suffering and drawing power from him for going through both for the look of Faith doth that fetches life from Jesus to enable it for all being without him able for nothing Therefore the Apostle doth still set this before his Brethren and here having mentioned his suffering in general the condition and end of it he specifies the particular kind of it that which was the utmost put to death in the flesh and then adds this issue out of it Quickned by the Spirit The strongest engagement and the strongest encouragement he our head crowned with Thorns and shall the body look for Garlands We redeemed from hell and Condemnation by him and can any such refuse any Service he calls them to they that are washt in the Lambs blood will follow him wheresoever he goes and following him through they shall find their Journeys end overpay all the troubles and sufferings of the way These are they said he to Iohn which came out of great tribulation tribulation and great tribulation yet they came out of it and glorious too arrayed in long white robes The scarlet Strumpet as follows in that Book died her Garments red in the blood of the Saints But this is their happiness that their Garments are washt white in the blood of the Lamb. Once take away sin and all suffering is light now that is done by this his once suffering for sin they that are in him shall hear no more of that as condemning them binding them over to suffer that wrath that is due to sin Now this puts an invincible strength into the Soul for all other things how hard soever Put to death This tâ—e utmost point and that which Men are most startled at to die and a violent death put to death and yet he hath led in this way who is the Captain of our Salvation In the flesh Under this second his humane Nature and Divine Nature and power are differenced Put to death in the flesh a very fit expression not only as is usual taking the flesh for the whole Manhood but because death is most properly spoken of that very person or his flesh the whole Man suffers death a dissolution or taking a pieces and the Soul suffers a separation or dislodging but death or the privation of life and sense particularly to the flesh or body but the Spirit here opposed to the flesh or body is certainly of a higher Nature and Power than is the Humane Soul which cannot of it self return and reinhabit and quicken the body Put to Death His death was both voluntary and violent that same power that restored his life could have kept it exempted from death but the design was for death he therefore took our flesh to put it off thus and offered it up as a Sacrifice which to be acceptable must of necessity be free and voluntary and in that sense he is said to have died even by that same Spirit that here in opposition to death is said to quicken him Heb. 9. 14. Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot unto God They accounted it an ill boding sign when the Sacrifices came constrainedly to the Altar and drew back and on the contrary were glad in the hopes of success when they came chearfully-forward but never Sacrifice came so willingly all the way and from the first step knew whether he was going Yet because no other Sacrifice would serve he was most content Sacrifices and burnt Offerings thou didst not desire Then said I loe I come c. Was not only a willing Sacrifice as Isaac bound peaceably and laid on the Altar but his own Sacrificer the Beasts if they came willingly yet offered not themselves but he offered up himself and thus not only by a willingness far above all those Sacrifices of Bullocks and Goats but by the eternal Spirit offered up himself Therefore he says in this regard I lay down my life for my sheep it is not pull'd from me but I lay it down and so it is often exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he died and yet this suites with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put to death yea it was also expedient to be thus that his death should be violent and so the more penal carry the more clear expression of a punishment and such a violent death as had both ignominy and a Curse tyed to it and this inflicted in a judicial way though as from the hands of Men most unjustly that he should stand and be Judged and Condemned to Death as a guilty Person carrying in that the Persons of so many that should otherwise have fallen under Condemnation as indeed guilty he was numbred with transgressors as the Prophet hath it bearing the sins of many Thus then there was in his Death external violence joyned with internal willingness But what is there to be found but Complications of Wonders in our Lord Jesus O! high inconceivable mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh nothing in this World so strange and sweet as that conjuncture God Man humanitas Dei what a strong Foundation of Friendship and Union betwixt the Persons of Man and God that their natures met in so close embraces in one Person And then look on and see so poor and despised an outward condition through his life yet having hid under it the Majesty of God all the brightness of the Fathers Glory And this the top of all that he was put to Death in the flesh the Lord of life dying the Lord of Glory cloathed with shame But it quickly appeared what kind of Person it was that died by this he was put to Death indeed in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit Quickned He was indeed too great a morsel for the Grave to digest for all its vast craving mouth and devouring appetite crying give give yet forced to give him up again as the fish that Prophet who in that was the figure of him the Chains of that Prison are strong but he was too strong a Prisoner to be held by them as our Apostle hath it in his Sermon that it was not possible that he should be kept by them They thought all was sure when they had rolled to the Stone and
the strength of his God Psal. 18. Men's resolutions fall to nothing and as a Prisoner that offers to escape and does not is bound faster thus usually it is with Men in their self purposes of forsaking sin they leave out Christ in the work and so remain in their Captivity yea it grows upon them and while we press them to free themselves and shew not Christ to them we put them upon an impossiblity but a look to him makes it feisable and easie Faith in him and that love to him which faith begets breaks through and surmounts all it s the powerful love of Christ that kills the love of sin and kindles the love of holiness in the Soul makes it a willing sharer in his death and so a happy partaker of his life for that always follows and must of necessity as here is added He that hath suffered in the flâ—sh hath ceased from sin is crucified and dead to it but he looses nothing yea it is his great gain the loss of that deadly life of the flesh for a new spiritual life a life indeed living unto God that is the end why he so dies that he may thus live That he no longer should live c. and yet live far better live to the will of God He that is one with Christ by believing he is one throughout in Death and Life as Christ rose so he that is dead to sin with him through the power of his Death rises to that new life with him through the power of his Resurrection And those two are our Sanctification which whosoever do partake of Christ and are found in him do certainly draw from him Thus are they joyned Rom. 6. 11. Likewise reekon you your selves dead indeed to sin but alive to God and both through Christ Iesus our Lord. All they that do really come to Jesus Christ as they come to him as their Saviour to be cloathed with him and made righteous by him they come likewise to him as their Sanctifier to be made new and holy by him to die and live with him to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes through the hardest sufferings and Death it self and this spiritual suffering and dying with him is the universal way of all his followers They are all Martyrs thus in the cruciâ—ying of sinful flesh and so dying for him and with him and they may well go cheerfully through though it bear the unpleasant name of Death yet as the other Death is which makes it so little terrible yea often appears so much desirable to them so is this the way to a far more excellent and happy life so that they may pass through it gladly both for the company and end of it it s with Christ they go into his death as unto life in his life Though a Believer might be free upon these terms he would not no sure could he be content with that easie life of sin instead of the Divine Life of Christ no he will do thus and not accept of deliverance that he may obtain as the Apostle speaks of the Martyrs a better resurrection Think on it again you to whom your sins are dear still and this life sweet you are yet far from Christ and his life The Apostle with intent to press this more home expresses more at large the nature of the oppoâ—te estates and lives that he speaks of so sets before his Christian Brethren 1. The Dignity of that new life 2. By a particular reflex upon the former life presses the change The former life he calls a living to the lusts of Men this new spiritual life to the will of God The lusts of Men. Such as are common to the corrupt Nature of Man such as every Man may find in himself and perceive in others The Apostle in the third verse more particularly for further clearness specifies these kind of Men that were most notorious in these lusts and those kind of lusts that are most notorious in Men. Writing to the dispersed Jews he calls sinful lusts the will of the Gentiles as having least controul of contrary light in them and yet the Jews walked in the same though they had the Law as a light and rule for the avoiding of them and implies that these lusts were unbeseeming even their former condition as Jews but much more unsuitable to them as now Christians Some of the grossest of these Lusts he names meaning all the rest all the ways of sin and representing their vileness the more lively not as some take it when they hear of such hainous sins that lessen the evil of more civil nature by the Comparison as if freedom from these were a blameless condition and a change of it needless No the Holy Ghost means it just contrary That we may judge of all sin and of our sinful nature by our estimate of these sins that are most disâ—â—rnable and abominable all sin though not equal in degree yet is of one nature and originally springing from one root arising from the same unholy nature of Man and contrary to the same holy nature and will of God So then 1. These that walk in these high ways of impiety and yet will have the name of Christians they are the shame of Christians and the profest enemies of Jesus Christ and of all others most hateful to him that seem to have taken on his name for no other end but to shame and disgrace it but he shall vindicate himself and the blot shall rest upon these impudent persons that dare hold up their faces in the Church of God as parts of it and are indeed nothing but the dishonour of it spots and blots that dare own to Worship God as his people and remain unclean riotous and prophane persons How suits thy sitting here before the Lord and thy sitting with vile ungodly Company on the Alâ—-Bench How agrees the Word sounds it well there goes a drunken Christian unclean basely covetous earthly minded Christian and the naming of these is not besides the text but the very words of it for the Apostle warrants us to take it under the name of Idolatry and in that name he reckons it to be mortified by a Christian. Col. 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncâ—eâ—nness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetoâ—sness which is Idolatry 2. But yet men that are some way exempted from the blot of these foul impieties may still remain slaves to sin alive to it and dead to God living to the Lusts of Men and not to the Will of God pleasing others and themselves displeasing him And the smoothest best bred and most moralized Natural is in this base thraldom And the more miserable that he dreams of liberty in the midst of his chains thinks himself gay by looking on those that wallow in gross prophaneness takes measure of himself by the most crooked lives of ungodly men about him and so thinks himself very streight but lays not the streight
the particular resemblance of it with the rule of Christianity Baptism the like figure c. In them 1. The end of Baptism 2. The proper vertue or efficacy of it for that end A resemblance in both these to Noah's preservation in the flood Save us This is the great common end of all the Ordinances of God that one high mark they all aim at And the great and common mistake of them is that they are not so understood and used We come and fit a while and if we can keep awake give the Word the hearing but how few of us receiâ—e it as the ingraâ—ted Word that is able to save our Souls were it thus taken what sweetness would be found in it that most as hear and read it are strangers to How precious would these lines be if we lookâ—â— on them thus saw them meeting and concentring in Salvation as their end Thus likewise the Sacraments considered indeed as Seals of this Inheritance annexed to the great Charter of it Seals of Salvation this would powerfully beget a sit appetite for the Lord's Supper when we are invited to it and would beget a due esteem of Baptism would teach you more frequent and fruitful thoughts of your own and more pious considerations of it when you require it for your Children A natural eye looks upon Bread and Wine and Water and the outward difference of their use there that they are set apart and differenced as is evident by external circumstances from their common use but the main of the difference where their excellency lies it sees not as the eye of faith above that espies Salvation under them and Oh! what another thing are they to it than to a formal user of them We aspire to know the hidden rich things of God that are wrapt up in his Ordinances We stick in the shell and superfice of them and seek no further that makes them unbeautiful and unsavoury to us and that use of them turns into an empty custome Be more earnest with him that hath appointed them and made this their end to save us that he would clear up the eye of our Souls to see them thus under this relation and see how they â—uit to this their end and tend to it and seriously 〈◊〉 Salvation in them from his own hand and we shall find it Save us So that this Salvation of Noah and his Family from the Deluge and all outward deliverances and Salvations but dark shadows of this let them not be spoke of these reprivalls and prolongings of this present liâ—e to the deliverance of the Soul from death the Second death the stretching of a moment to the concernment of Eternity How would any of you welcome a full and sure protection from common dangers if such were to be had that you should be ascertained of safety from Sword and Pestilence that what ever others suffered about you you and your Family should be free And they that have escaped a near danger of this kind resting there as if no more were to be feared whereas this common favour may be shew'd to these that are far off from God and what though you be not only thus far safe but I say if you were secured for afterwards which none of you absolutely are yet when you are put out of danger of Sword and plague still death remains and sin and wrath may be remaining with it and shall it not be all one to dye under these in a time of publick peace and welfare as if it were now Yeâ— something more unhappy by the increase of the heap of sin and wrath guiltiness augmented by life prolong'd and more grievous to be pulled away from the World in the middle of peacable enjoyment and Everlasting darkness to succeed to that short Sun-shine of thy day of ease happiness of a short date and misery for ever What availed it wicked Cham to outlive the flood to Inherit a Curse after it to be kept undrown'd in the waters to see himself and his posterity blasted with his Fathers Curse Think seriously what will be the end of all thy temporary safety and preservation if thou share not in this Salvation and find not thy self sealed and marked for it to flatter thy self with a dream of happiness and walk in the light of a few sparkles that will soon dye out and then lie down in sorrow a sad bed that the most have to go to after they have wearied themselves all the day all their life being in a chase of Vanity The next thing is the power and vertue of this means for its end That it hath a Power is clear in that it is so expresly said it doth save us which kind of power is as clear in the way of it here exprest not by a natural force of the Element though adapted and sacramentally used it only can wash away the silth of the Body its Physical Efficacy or power reaches no further but it is in the hand of the Spirit of God as other Sacraments and as the Word it self is to purifie the Conscience and convey Grace and Salvation to the Soul by the reference it hath to and union with that which it represents It saves by answer of a good Conscience unto God and it affords that by the Resurrection of Iesus from the dead Thus then we have a true Accompt of the Power of this and so of other Sacraments and a discovery of the error of two extreams 1. Of those that ascribe too much to them as if they wrought by a Natural inherent Vertue and carried Grace in them inseparably 2. Of those that ascribe too little to them making them only signs and badges of our Profession signs they are but more than signs meerly representing they are means exhibiting and seals confirming Grace to the Faithful But the working of Faith and the conveying of Christ into the Soul to be received by Faith is not a thing put into them to do of themselves but still in the Supream hand that appointed them and he indeed both causes the Souls of his own to receive these his Seals with faith and makes them effectually to confirm that Faith which receives them so They are then in a word neither empty signs to them that believe nor effectual Causes of Grace to them that believe not The mistake on both sides arises from the inconsideration of the relative Nature of these Seals and that kind of Union that is betwixt them and the Grace they represent which is real though not Natural or Physical as they speak So that though they do not save all that partake of them yet they do really and effectually save Believers for whose Salvation they are means as the other external Ordinances of God do Though they have not that Power which is peculiar to the Author of them yet a Power they have such as befits their Nature and by reason of which they are truely said to Sanctifie and Justifie and so to
not through fire and water yea through death it self yea were it through many deaths to go after him 2. Consider as its due so it is made easie by that his suffering for us our burden that pressed us to hell taken off is not all as nothing that is left to suffer or do our Chains that bounds us over to eternal Death being knock'd off shall we not walk shall we not run in his ways Oh! think what that Burden and Yoke was he hath eased us of how heavy how unsufferable it was and then we shall think what he so truly says that all he lays on is sweet his yoke easie and his burden light Oh! the happy change rescued from the vilest slavery and called to conformity and Fellowship with the Son of God 2. The Nature of this Conformity to shew the nearness of it is exprest in the very same terms as in the pattern it is not a remote resemblance but the same thing even suffering in the flesh But that we may take it right what suffering is here meant it is plainly this ceasing from sin so suffering in the flesh here is not the enduring of afflictions which is a part of a Christians Conformity with his head Christ Rom. 8. But this is a more inward and spiritual suffering it is the suffering and the dying of our Corruption the taking away the life of sin by the death of Christ and that death of his sinless flesh works in the Believer the death of sinful flesh that is the Corruption of his Nature which is so usually in Scripture called flesh Sin makes Man base drowns him in flesh and the lusts of it makes the very Soul become gross and earthly turns it as it were to flesh so the Apostle calls the very Mind that is unrenewed a carnal mind Rom. 8. And what doth the mind of a Natural Man hunt after and run out into from one day and year to another is it not on things of this base World and the concernment of his flesh What would he have but be accommodated to eat and drink and dress and live at ease he minds earthly things savours and relishes them and cares for them examin the most of your pains and time and your strongest desires and most serious thoughts if they go not this way to raise your selves and yours in your Worldly condition yea the highest projects of the greatest natural Spirits are but earth still in respect of things truly spiritual all their State Designs go not beyond this poor life that perishes in the flesh and is daily perishing even while we are busiest upholding it and providing for it present things and this lodge of clay this flesh and its interest take up most of our time and pains the most yea all till that change be wrought the Apostle speaks of till Christ be put on Rom. 13. put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and then the other will easily follow that follows in the Words make no provision for the flesh to fullfil it in the lusts thereof Once in Christ and then your necessary general care for this natural life will be regulated and moderated by the Spirit And for all unlawful and enormous desires of the flesh you shall be rid of providing for these instead of all provision for the life of the flesh in that sense there is another guest and another life for you now to wait on and furnish for in them that are in Christ that flesh is dead they are frâ—ed from its drudgery he that hath suffered in the flesh hath rested from sin Ceased from sin â—e is at rest from it a Godly Death as thâ—y that die in the Lord rest from their labours he that hath suffered in the flesh and is dead to it dies indeed in the Lord rests from the base turmoil of sin it is no longer his Master As our sin was the cause of Christs death his death is the death of sin in us and that not simply as he bear a moral pattern of it but the real working cause of it hath an effectual influence on the Soul kills it to sin I am crucified with Christ says S. Paul Faith so looks on the death of Christ that it takes the impression of it sets it on the heart kills it unto sin Christ and the Believer do not only become one in law so as his death stands for theirs but are in nature so as his death for sin causes theirs to it Rom. 6. 3. This suffering in the flesh being unto death and such a death Crucifying hath indeed pain in it but what then it must be so like his and the believer like him in willingly enduring it all the pain of his suffering in the flesh his love to us digested and went through it so all the pain to our nature in severing and pulling us from our beloved sins and our dying to them if his love be planted in our hearts that will sweeten it and make us delight in it love desires nothing more than likeness and shares willingly in all with the party loved and above all love this Divine Love is purest and highest and works strongliest that way takes pleasure in that pain and is a voluntary death as Plato calls love it is strong as death makes the strongest body fâ—ll to the ground so doth the love of Christ make the activest and liveliest sinner dead to his sin And as death fevers a Man from his dearest and most familiar friends thus doth the love of Christ and his death flowing from it fever the heart from its most beloved sins I beseech you seek to have your hearts set against sin to hate it to wound it and be dying daily to it Be not satisfy'd unless ye feel an abatement of it and a life within you disdain that base service and being bought at so high a rate think your selves too good to be slaves to any base lust you are called to a more excellent and more honourable service And of this suffering in the flesh we may safely say what the Apostle speaks of the sufferings with and for Christ that the partakers of these sufferings are co-heirs of glory with Christ if we suffer thus with him we shall also be glorified with him if we die with him we shall live with him for ever 3. The actual improvement of this Conformity Arm your selves with the same Mind or thoughts of this Mortification Death taken Naturally in its proper sense being an intire privation of life admits not of degrees but this figurative death this Mortification of the flesh in a Christian is gradual in so far as he is renewed and is animated and acted by the Spirit of Christ he is throughly mortified for this death and that new life joyned with it and here added ver 2. go together and grow together but because he is not totally renewed and there is in him of that corruption still that is here called flesh therefore is
main subject and scope in the foregoing Discourse that death was before called a suffering in the flesh which is in effect the same and therefore though the words may be drawn another way yet its strange that Interpreters have been so far wide of this their genuine and agreeable sense and almost all of them taken in some other intendment To be judged in the flesh In the present sense is to die to sin or that sin die in us and it s thus exprest 1. Suitably tably to the nature of it it is to the flesh a violent death and it is according to a Sentence judicially put against it that guilty and miserable life of sin is in the Gospel adjudged to death there that arrest and sentence is clear and full Rom. 6. 6 c. 8. 13. That sin must die that the Soul may live it must be crucified in us and we to it that we may partake of the Life of Christ and Happiness in him And this is called to be judged in the flesh to have this sentence executed 2. The thing is the rather spoke here under the term of being judged in counter-ballance of that Judgment mentioned immediately before v. 5. The last Judgment of quick and dead wherein they that would not be thus judged but mockt and despised those that were shall fall under a far more terrible Judgment and the sentence of a heavy death indeed everlasting death though they think they shall escape and enjoy liberty in living in sin And that to be judged according to men is I conceive added to signifie the connaturalness of the life of sin to man 's now corrupt nature That men do judge it a death indeed to be severed and pulled from their sins and that a cruel death and the Sentence of it in the Gospel a heavy Sentence a hard Saying to a carnal Heart that he must give up with all his sinful delights must die indeed in self-denial must be separated from himself which is to die if he will be joyned with Christ and live in him Thus men judge that they are judged to a painful death by the Sentence of the Gospel although it is that they may truely and happily live yet they understand it not so They see the death the parting with sin and all its pleasures but the life they see not nor can any know it till partaking of it it is known to him in whom it is it is hid with Christ in God And therefore the opposition here is very fiâ—ly thus represented that the death is according to men in the flesh but the life is according to God in the Spirit As the Christian is adjudged to this death in the flesh by the Gospel so he is lookt on and accounted by carnal men as dead for that he enjoyes not with them what they esteem their life and think they could not live without it one that cannot carrouse and swear with prophane Men is a silly dead Creature good for nothing and he that can bear wrongs and love him that injured him is a poor spiritless fool hath no mettal nor life in him in the World's account thus is he judged according to men in the flesh he is as a dead man but lives according to God in the Spirit dead to men and alive to God as ver 2. Now if this life be in thee it will act all life is in motion and is called an act but most of all active is this most excellent and as I may call it most lively life it will be moving towards God often seeking to him making still towards him as its principle and fountain holy and affectionate thoughts of him sometimes on one of his sweet attributes sometimes on another as the Bee amongst the Flowers And as it will thus act within so outwardly laying hold on all occasions yea seeking out ways and opportunities to be serviceable to thy Lord employing all for him commending and extolling his goodness doing and suffering chearfully for him laying out the strength of desires and parts and means in thy station to gain him Glory If thou be alone then not alone but with him seeking to know more of him and be made more like him if in company then casting about how to bring his name in esteem and to draw others to a love of Religion and Holiness by Speeches as it may be â—it and most by the true behaviour of thy carriage Tender over the Souls of others to do them good to thy utmost thinking each day an hour lost when thou art not busie for the honour and advantage of him to whom thou now livest thinking in the Morning now what may I do this day for my God How may I most please and glorifie him and use my strength and wit and my whole self as not mine but his and then in the evening reflecting O Lord have I seconded these thoughts in reality what glory hath he had by me this day whither went my thoughts and endeavours what busied them most have I been much with God have I adorned the Gospel in my converse with others And if finding any thing done this way to bless and acknowledge him the spring and worker of it If any step aside were it but to an appearance of evil or if any fit season of good hath escapt thee unprofitably to check thy self and to be grieved for thy sloth and coldness and see if more love would not beget more diligence Try it by sympathy and antipathy which follows the nature of things as we see in some Plants and Creatures that cannot grow cannot agree together and others that do favour and benefit mutually If thy Soul hath an aversion and reluctancy against holiness this is an evidence of this new Nature and Life Thy heart rises against wicked ways and speeches oaths and cursings and rotten communication yea thou canst not endure unworthy discourses wherein most spend their time findest no relish in the unsavory societies of such as know not God canst not sit with vain persons but findest a delight in those that have the image of God upon them such as partake of that Divine Life and carry the evidences of it in their carriage David did not disdain the fellowship of the Saints and that was no disparagement to him he implies in the name he gives them Psal. 16. The excellent ones the Magnifick or Noble and that word is taken from one that signifies a robe or noble Garment so he thought them Nobles and Kings as well as he and had robes royal and therefore Companions of Kings A spiritual eye looks on spiritual dignity and esteems and loves them that are born of God how low soever be their natural birth and breeding The Sons of God have of his Spirit in them and are born to the same inheritance where all shall have enough and they are tending homewards by the conduct of the same Spirit that is in them so that there must be amongst them a
he still asks what you mean by this those things answer not me do ye think I can find Comâ—â—â—â— in them so long as my sin is unpardon'd and there is a 〈◊〉 of Eternal Death standing above my head I feel even an impress of somewhat of that hot Indignation some flashes of it flying and lighting upon the face of my Soul and how can I take pleasure in these things you speak of And though I should be sensless and feel nothing of this all my life yet how soon shall I have done with it and the delights that reach no further and then to have Everlasting burnings Eternity of wrath to enter to how can I be satisfyed with that estate All you offer a Man in this posture is as if ye should set dainty fair and bring musick with it to a Man lying almost pressed to death under great weights and ye bid him eat and be merry but lift not off his pressure you do but mock the Man and add to his misery On the other side he that hath got but a view of his Christ and reads his own pardon in Christs sufferings he can rejoyce in this in the midst of all other sufferings and look on death without apprehension yea with gladness the sting is out Christ hath made all pleasant to him by this one thing that he suffered once for sins Christ hath perfum'd the Cross and the Grave and made all sweet The pardoned Man finds himself light skips and leaps and through Christ strengthning him he can encounter with any trouble If you think to shut in his Spirit within outward sufferings it is now as Sampson in his strength able to carry away the Gates on his back that you would shut one withal yea can submit patiently to the Lords hands in any correction Thou hast forgiven my sin therefore deal with me as thou wilt all is well 1. Learn to consider more deeply and esteem more highly of Christ and his suffering to silence our grumbling at our petty light crosses for so they are in comparison of his will not the great odds of his perfect Innoâ—ency and oâ— his nature and measure of his sufferings will not the sense of that Redemption of our Souls from death by his death will none of these nor all of them argue us into more thankfulness and love to him and patience in our tryals Why will we then be called Christians it is impossible to be fretful and malecontent with the Lord 's dealing with us in any kind till first we have forgot how he dealt with his dearest Son for our sakes But these things are not weigh'd by the most we hear and speak of them but our hearts receive not the impressions of them therefore we repine against our Lord and Father and drown a hundred great blessings in any little touch of trouble that befalls us 2. Seek surer interest in Christ and his suffering than the most either have attained or are aspiring to otherwise all that is here suffered will not ease or comfort thee any thing in any kind of suffering no though thou suffer for a good cause even for his cause still this will be an extraneous foraign thing to thee to tell thee of his sufferings will work no otherwise with thee than some other common story And as in the day of peace thou regardest it no more so in the day of thy trouble thou shalt receive no more comfort from it Other things you esteemed shall have no comfort to speak to you though you persue them with words as Solomon says of the poor Man's friends yet they shall be wanting to you And then you would sure find how happy it were to have this to turn you to that the Lord Jesus suffered for sins and for yours and therefore hath made it a light and comfortable business to you to undergo momentary passing sufferings Days of tryal will come do you not see they are on us already Be perswaded to turn your eyes and desires more towards Christ. This is the thing we would still press the support and happiness of your Souls lyes on it But you will not believe it Oh! that ye knew the comforts and sweetness of Christ. Oh that one would speak that knew more of them were you once but entered into this knowledge of him and the virtue of his sufferings you would account all your days but lost wherein you have not known him and in all times your hearts would find no refreshment like to the remembrance of his love Having somewhat considered these sufferings as the Apostles Argument for his present purpose Now to take nearer notice of the particulars by which he illustrates them as the main point of our Faith and Comfort Of them here two things 1. Their Cause 2. Their Kind Their Cause both their meriting cause and their final cause 1. What in us procured these sufferings unto Christ. 2. What those his suffering procured unto us Our guiltiness brought suffering upon him and his suffering brings us unto God 1. The evil of sin hath the evil of punishment inseparably ty'd to it We have a natural obligation of obedience unto God and he justly urges it so that where the command of his Law is broke the Curse of it presently followeth And though it was simply in the Power of the supream Lawgiver to have dispensed the infliction yet having in his Wisdom purposed to be known a just God in that way following forth the tenor of his Law of necessity there must be a suffering for sin Thus the Angels that kept not their Station falling from it fell into a Dungeon where they are under chains of darkness reserved to the Iudgement of the Great day and Man fell under the sentence of Death But in this is the difference betwixt Man and them they were not of one as parent or common root of the rest but each one fell or stood for himself alone so a part of them only perisht but Man fell altogether so that not one of all the Race could escape condemnation unless some other way of satisfaction be found out And here it is Christ suffered for sins the just for the unjust Father says he I have glorified thee on Earth In this Plot indeed do all the Divine Attributes shine in their full infinite Mercy and immense Justice and Power and Wisdom Looking on Christ as ordained for that purpose I have found a Ransom says the Father one fit to redeem Man a Kinsman one of that very same Stock the Son of Man one able to redeem Man by satisfying me and fullfilling all I lay upon him my Son my only begotten Son in whom my Soul delights And he is willing undertakes all says loe I come c. We are agreed upon the way of this Redemption yea upon the Persons to be redeemed it is not a roving blind Bargain a price paid for we know not to whom Hear his own words Thou hast given the Son
says the Son to the Father power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him and after all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them For the sins of those he suffered standing in their room and what he did and suffered according to the Law of that Covenant as done and suffer'd by them All the sins of all the Elect were made up into an huge bundle and bound upon his Shoulders so the Prophet speaks in their name surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows And the Lord laid or made to meet on him the iniquity of us all where he spoke of many ways of sin every one to his own way he binds up all in the word of iniquity as all one sin as if it were that one transgression of the first Adam that brought on the Curse of his Seed born by the second Adam to take it away from all that are his Seed that are in him as their Root He the great high Priest appearing before God with the Names of the Elect upon his Shoulders and in his Heart bearing them and all their burdens and offering for them not any other Sacrifice but himself charging all their Sin on himself as the Priest did the Sins of the People on the Head of the Sacrifice He by the eternal Spirit says the Apostle offered up himself without spot unto God spotless and sinless and so only fit to take away our sin being a satisfactory oblation for it He suffered in him was our ransome and thus it was paid in the Man Christ was the Deity and so his blood was as the Apostle calls it the Blood of God and being pierced it came forth and was told down as the rich price of our Redemption not silver nor gold nor corruptible things as our Apostle hath it before but the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish Obs. 1. Shall any Man offer to bear the Name of a Christian that pleases himself in the way of Sin can delight and sport himself with it when he considers this that Christ suffered for sin do not think it you that still account sin sweet which he found so bitter and light which was so heavy to him and made his Soul heavy to the death you are yet far off from him if you were in him and one with him there would be some harmony of your hearts with his and some sympathy with thâ—se sufferings as endured by your Lord your Head and for you They that with a right view see him as pierced by their sins that sight pierces them and makes them mourn brings forth tears beholding the gushing forth of his blood This makes the real Christian an avowed enemy to sin shall I ever be Friends with it says he that killed my Lord no but I will ever kill it and do it by applying his death The true Penitent is sworn to be the death of sin may be surprized by it but no possibility of reconcilement betwixt them Thou that livest kindly and familiarly with sin either openly declarest thy self for it or hast a secret love for it where canst thou reap any comfort not from these sufferings to thee continuing in that Posture It is all one as if Christ had not suffer'd for sins yea worse than if no such thing had been that there is salvation and terms of mercy unto thee and yet perishes That there is Balm in Gilead and yet thou art not healed And if thou hast not comfort from Jesus crucified I know not whence thou canst have any that will hold out look about thee tell me what thou seest either in thy Possession or in thy hopes that thou esteemest most off and layest thy confidence on it or to deal more liberally with thee see what estate thou wouldest chuse for thy wish stretch thy fancy to devise an earthly happiness these times are full of unquietness but give thee a time of the calmest peace not an air of trouble stirring put thee where thou wilt far off from fear of Sword and Pestilence and encompass thee with Children Friends and Possessions and Honours and Comfort and Health to enjoy all those yet one thing thou must admit in the midst of all these within a while thou must die and having no real portion in Christ but a deluding dream of it thou sinkest through possibly that death into another death far more terrible of all thou enjoyest nothing goes along with thee but unpardoned sin and that delivers thee up to endless sorrow Oh! that you were wise and would consider your latter end do not still gaze about you upon trifles but yet be intreated to take notice of your Saviour and receive him that he may be yours fasten your Belief and your Love on him give him all your Heart that stuck not to give himself an offering for your sins 2. To you that have fled into him for Refuge if sensible of the Churches distress be upheld with this thought that he that suffered for it will not suffer it to be undone all the rage of enemies yea the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it he may for a time suffer them to be brought low for the â—ins of his People and other wise Reasons but he will not utterly forsake them though there is much chaff yet he hath a precious number in these Kingdoms that he shed his blood for many God hath called and yet is to call he will not lose any of his flock that he hath bought so dear Acts. 20. And for their sake he will at one time repair our breaches and establish his Throne in these Kingdoms 2. For your selves what can affright you while this is in your Eye let others tremble at the Apprehension of Sword or Pestilence but sure you have for them and all other hazards a most satisfying answer in this My Christ hath suffered for sin I am not to fear that and that set aside I know the worst is but death I am wrong truly that is the best to be dissolv'd and to be with Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more better This were a happy Estate indeed but what shall they think that have no assurance those that doubt that Christ is their's and that he suffered for their sins I know no way but believe on him and then you shall know that he is yours from this is the grand mistake of many they would first know that Christ is theirs and they would believe which cannot be before he becomes ours by believing It is that gives title and propriety to him he is set before Sinners as a Saviour that hath suffered for sin that they look to him and be saved that they lay over their Souls on him and then they may be assured he suffer'd for them Say then what is it that scares thâ—e from Christ this thou seest is a poor groundless exception for he is set
fruitful 2. By this Spirit it s said here he preacht not only did he so in the Days of his abode on Earth but in all times both before and after never left his Church altogether destitute of saving light which he dispenced himself and conveyed by the hands of his Servants therefore it s said he preacht that this be no excuse for times after he is ascended into Heaven no nor for times before he descended to the Earth in humane flesh though he preached not then nor does now in his flesh yet by his Spirit he then preacht and still doth so according to what was chief in him he was still present with his Church and preaching in it and is so to the end of the World This his infinite Spirit being every where yet 't is said here by it he went and preached signifying the remarkable clearness of his Administration that way as when he appears eminently in any work of his own or taking notice of our works God is said to come down so to those Cities Gen. 11. Let us go down So Exod. 3. 8. Thus here so clearly did he admonish them by Noah coming as it were himself on purpose to declare his Mind to them And this word I conceive is the rather used to shew what equality there is in this He came indeed visibly and dwelt amongst Men when he became flesh yet before that he visited by his Spirit he went by that and preached And so in after times himself being ascended and not having come visibly in his flesh to all but to the Jews only yet in the preaching of the Apostles to the Gentiles as the great Apostle says of him in this expression Eph. 2. 17. He came and preached to you which were asar off and this he continues to do in the ministry of his word and therefore says he he that despiseth you despiseth me c. Were this considered it could not but procure far more respect to the word and more acceptance of it Would you think that in his word Christ speaks by his eternal Spirit yea he comes and preaches addresses himself particularly to you in it could you slight him thus and turn him off with daily refusals or delays at least Think it is too long you have so unworthily used so great a Lord that brings unto you so great Salvation that came once in so wonderful a way to work that Salvation for us in his flesh and is still coming to offer it unto us by his Spirit does himself preach to us tells us what he undertook on our behalf and how he hath performed all and now nothing rests but that we receive him and believe on him and all is ours But alas from the most the return is that we have here disobedience Sometimes disobedient Two things in the hearers by which they are charactared their present condition in the time the Apostle was speaking of them and this by-past disposition when the Spirit of Christ was preaching to them this latter went first in time and was the cause of the other Therefore of it first If you look to their visible subordinate Preacher a holy Man and an able and diligent Preacher of righteousness both in his Doctrine and in the tract of his life which is the powerfullest preaching it seems strange that he prevailed so little But much more if we look higher this hight as the Apostle points to us to look to that Almighty Spirit of Christ that preacht to them and yet they were disobedient The word is they were not perswaded and it signifies both unbelief and disobedience and that very fitly unbelief being in it self the grand disobedience the mind not yielding to Divine Truth and so the spring of all disobedience in affection and action And this root of bitterness this unbelief is deep â—aâ—â—ened in our natural hearts and without a change in them a taking them to pieces they cannot be good it is as a Tree firm rooted cannot be pluckt up without loosening the ground round about it and this accursed root brings forth fruit unto death because the Word is not believed the threats of the Law and promises of the Gospel therefore Men cleave unto their sins and speak peace unto themselves while they are under the Curse It may seâ—m very strange that the Gospel is so fruitless amongst us yea that neither word nor rod both preaching aloud to us the Doctrine of Humiliation and Repentance yet perswades any Man to return or so much to turn inward and question himself to say what have I done But thus it will be till the Spirit be poured from on high to open and soften hearts It is to be desired as much wanting in the Ministery of the Word but were it there that would not serve unless it were by a concurrent work within the Heart meeting the Word and making the impressions of it there for here we find the Spirit went and preacht and yet the Spirits of the Hearers still unbelieving and disobedient it s a combined work of this Spirit in the Preacher and Hearers that makes it successful otherwise it is but shouting in a dead man's ear there must be something within as one said in a like case To the Spirits in Prison That 's now their Posture and because he speaks of them as in that Posture he calls them Spirits for it s their Spirits that are in that Prison As likewise calls them Spirits that the Spirit of Christ preacht to because it is indeed that that the preaching of the Word aims at it hath to do with the Spirits of Men is not content to be at their ear with a sound but works on their Minds and Spirits some way either to believe and receive or to be hardened and sealed up to Judgement by it which is for Rebels If disobedience follow on the preaching of that word the prison follows on that disobedâ—ence and that Word which they would not be bound by to obedience binds them over to that Prison whence they shall never escape nor be released for ever Take notice of it and know that you are warned you will not receive Salvation offering pressing it self upon you You are every day in that way of disobedience hastening to this perpetual Imprisonment Consider you now sit and hear this Word so did these that are here spoken of they had their time on Earth and much patience used towards them and though not to be swept away by a flood of Waters yet daily carried on by the flood of â—imes 90 Psal. and mortality And how soon you shall be on the other side set into Eternity you know not I beseech you be yet wise hearken to the offers yet made you for in his name I yet once again make a tender of Jesus Christ and Salvation in him to all that will let go their sins to lay hold on him Oh! do not destroy your selves you are in Prison he proclaims you Liberty Christ is still following
Faith in that his Glory and then think thy self too good to serve any base lust look down on Sin and the World with a holy disdain being united to him who is so exalted and so glorious And let not thy mind creep here engage not thy Heart to any thing that Time and this Earth can afford Oh! why are we so little there where there is such a spring of delightful and high thoughts for us If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where he sits what mean you are ye such as will let go you interest in this once crucified and now glorified Jesus if not why are ye not more like it why does it not possess your hearts more ought it not to be thus should not our hearts be where our Treasure where our blessed Head is Oh! how unreasonable how unfriendly is it how much may we be ashamed to have room for earnest thoughts or desires or delights about any thing beside him Were this by these that have right in it much wrought upon the heart would there be found in them any ingagement to the poor things that are passing away would death be a terrible word yea would it not be one of the sweetest most rejoycing thoughts to solace and ease the heart under all pressures to look forward to that day of Liberty This inâ—ectious Disease may keep possession all the Winter and grow hot with the year again do not flatter your selves anâ— think its past you have yet remembring strokes to keep it in your eye But however shall we abide still herâ—â— or is there any thing duly weighed why we should desire it well if ye would be untied beforehand and so feel it less this is the only way look up to him who draws up all hearts that do indeed behold him then I say thy heart shall be removed beforehand and the rest is easie and sweet when that 's done all is gained And consider how he desires the compleating of our union Shall it be his begging and earnest desire and shall it not be ours too that where he is there we may be also with patient submission yet striving by desires and suits looking out for our release from this Body of Sin and death The End of the Third Chapter 1 Ep. St. Peter Chap. IV. Ver. 1. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin THE main of a Christians duty lies in these two patience in suffering and avoidance of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they have a natural influence each into the other altho affliction simply doth not yet affliction sweetly and humbly carried doth purifie and disingage the heart from sin weans it from the world and the common wayes of it And again holy and exact walking keeps the Soul in a sound healthful temper and so enables it to patient suffering to bear things more easily as a strong body endures fatigue heat and cold and hardship with ease a small part whereof would surcharge a sickly constitution The conscience of Sin and careless unholy courses do wonderfully weaken a Soul and distemper it so that it is not able to endure much every little thing disturbs it Therefore the Apostle hath reason as to insist on these two points so much in this Epistle so to interweave so often the one with the other pressing jointly throughout the chearful bearing of all kind of afflictions and the careful forbearing all kind of Sin and out of the one discourse slides into the other so here And as the things agree in their nature so in their great Pattern and Principle jesus Christ and the Apostle still draws both from thence that of Patience ch 3. ver 18. that of Holiness here Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us c. The chief study of a Christian and the very thing that makes him to be a Christian is conformity with Christ. This is the Sum of Religion said that wise Heathen to be like him whom thou worshippest But the example being in it self too sublime is brought down to our view in Christ the brightness of God veil'd and veil'd in our own flesh that we may look on it The inaccessible Light of the Deity is so attempered in the humanity of Christ that we may read our Lesson by it in him and may direct our walk by it and that truly is our only way nothing but wandring and perishing in all other wayes darkness and misery out of him but he that follows me says he shall not walk in darkness And therefore is he set before us in the Gospel in so clear und lively colours that we may make this our whole endeavour to be like him Consider here 1. The high ingagement to this conformity 2. The nature of it 3. The actual improvement of it The ingagement lies in this that he suffered for us Of this before only in reference to this had he come down as some have mis-imagined it only to set us this perfect way of obedience and give us an example of it in our own nature this had been very much that the Son of God would descend to teach wretched man and the great King to descend into man and dwell in a Tabernacle of Clay to set up a School in it for such ignorant accursed creatures and did in his own person act the hardest lessons both in doing and suffering to lead us in both But the matter goes yet higher than this Oh! how much higher hath he suffered not simply as our rule but as our Surety and in our stead He suffered for us in the flesh We the more obliged to make his suffering our example because it was to us more than an example it was our ransom This makes the conformity reasonable in a double respect 1. It is due that we follow him who led thus as the Captain of our Salvation that we follow in suffering and in doing seeing both were so for us its strange how some Armies have addicted themselves to their head to be at his call night and day in Summer and Winter to refuse no travel or endurance of hardship for him and all only to pleasure him and serve his inclination and ambition as Caesar's trained bands especially the eldest of them a wonder what they endured in countermarches and tracing from one Country to another But besides that our Lord and Leader is so great and excellent and so well deserves following for his own worth this lays upon us an obligation beyond all conceiving that he first suffered for us that he endured such hatred of Men and such wrath of God the Father and went through death so vile a death to procure our life what can be too bitter to endure or too sweet to forsake to follow him Were this duly considered would we cleave to our lusts or to our ease would we
this great task to be gaining further upon it and overcoming and mortifying it every Day and to this tend the frequent Exhortations of this Nature Mortifie your members that are on the earth So Rom. 6. Likewise reekon your selves dead to sin and let it not reign in your mortal bodies Thus here Arm your selves with the same Mind or with this very thought Consider and apply that suffering of Christ in the flesh to the end that you with him suffering in the flesh may cease from sin Think it ought to be thus and seek that it may be thus with you Arm your selves There is still fighting and sin will be molesting you though wounded to death yet will it struggle for life and seek to wound its enemy will assault the graces that are in you Do not think if it be once struck and you have a hit near to the heart by the Sword of the Spirit that therefore it will stir no more No so long as you live in the flesh in these bowels there will be remainders of the life of this flesh your natural corruption Therefore ye must be Armed against it Sin will not give you rest so long as there is a drop of blood in its vein one spark of life in it and that will be so long as you have life here This old Man is stout and will fight himself to death and at the weakest it will rouze up it felt and act its dying Spirits as Men will do sometimes more eagerly then when they were not so weak nor so near death This the Children of God often find to their grief that corruptions which they thought had been cold dead stir and rise up again and set upon them A â—assion or Lust that after some great stroke lay along while as dead stirred not and therefore they thought to have heard no more of it though it shall never recoverfully again to be lively as before yet will revive in such a measure as to molest and possibly to foyl them yet again Therefore is it continually necessary that they live in Arms and put them not off to their dying day till they put off the body and be altogether free of the flesh you may take the Lord's promise for victory in the â—nd that shall not fail but do not promise your self ease in the way for that will not hold if at somtimes you be at under give not all for lost he hath often won the Day that hath been foiled and wounded in the fight but likwise take not all for won so as to have no more conflict when sometimes you have the better as in particular battels be not desperate when you loose nor secure when you gain them when it is worst with you do not throw away your Arms nor lay them away when you are at best Now the way to be armed is this the same mind how would my Lord Christ carry himself in this case and what was his business in all places and Companies was it not to do the will and advance the glory of his Father If I be injured and reviled consider how would he do in this would he repay one injury with another one reproach with another reproach No being reviled he reviled not again Well through his strength this shall be my way too Thus ought it to be with the Christian framing all his ways and words and very thoughts upon that model the mind of Christ and to study in all things to walk even as he walked 1. Studying it much as the reason and rule of Mortification 2. Drawing from it as the real Cause and Spring of mortification The pious Contemplation of his Death will most powerfully kill the love of sin in the Soul and kindle an ardent hatred of it The Believer looking on his Jesus crucified for him and wounded for his transgressions and taking in deep thoughts of his spotless Innocency that deserved no such thing and of his matchless love that yet endured it all for him then will he think shall I be a friend to that which was his deadly enemy shall sin be sweet to me that was so bitter to him and that for my sake shall I ever have a favourable thought or lend it a good look that shed my Lord's blood shall I live in that for which he died and died to kill it in me Oh! let it not be To the end it may not be let such really apply that Death to work this on the Soul for this is always to be added and is the main indeed by holding and fastning that Death close to the Soul effectually to kill the effects of sin in it to stiâ—â—e and crush them dead by pressing that death on the heart looking on it not only as a most compleat model but as having a most effectual vertue for this effect and desiring him intreating our Lord himself who communicates himself and the vertue of his death to the Believer that he would powerfully cause it to flow to us and let us feel the vertue of it It s then the only thriving and growing life to be much in the lively Contemplation and Application of Jesus Christ to be continually studying him and conversing with him and drawing from him receiving of his fullness grace for grace Wouldest thou have much power against sin and much increase of holiness let thine eye be much on Christ set thine heart on him let it dwell in him and be still with him When sin is like to prevail in any kind go to him tell him of the insurrection of his enemies and thy inability to resist and desire him to suppress them and to help thee against them that they may gain nothing by their stirring but some new wound If thy heart begin to be taken with and move towards sin lay it before him the beams of his love shall eat out that fire of these sinful lusts Wouldest thou have thy Pride and Passions and love of the World and self love kill'd go suit for the vertue of his death and that shall do it seek his Spirit the Spirit of Meekness and Humility and Divine Love Look on him and he shall draw thy heart heavenwards and unite it to himself and make it like himself And is not that the thing thou desirest Verses 2 3. Ver. 2. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God 3. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine revellings banquetings and abominable idolatries THE Chains of sin are so strong and so fastened on our Nature that there is in us no power to break them off till a mightier and stronger Spirit than our own come into us The Spirit of Christ dropt inâ—o the Soul makes it able to break through an host and leap over a Wall as David speaks of himself furnisht with
further This is indeed a a great vanity and a great misery to lose that labour and gain nothing by it which duly used would be of all others most advantageous and gainful and yet all meetings are full of this Now when you come this is not simply to hear a discourse and relish or dislike it in hearing But a matter of life and death of eternal death and eternal life and the spiritual life begot and nourisht by the word is the beginning of that eternal life Follows To them that are dead By which I conceive he intends such as had heard and believed the Gospel when it came to them and now were dead And this I think he doth to strengthen these brethren to whom he writes to commend the Gospel to this intent and not to think the condition and end of it hard As our Saviour mollifies the matter of outward sufferings thus so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you And the Apostle afterwards in this Chapter uses the same reason in that same subject so here that they might not judge the point of mortification he presses so grievous as naturally Men will do he tells them it is the constant end of the Gospel and they that have been saved by it went that same way he points out to them They that are dead before you died this way that I press on you before they died and the Gospel was preached to them for that very end Men pass away and others succeed but the Gospel is still the same hath the same tenour and substance and the same ends As Solomon speaks of the Heaven's and Earth that remain the same while one Generation passes and another cometh the Gospel surpasses both in its stability as our Saviour testifies they shall pass away but not one Iot of this Word And indeed they wear and wax old as the Apostle teaches us but the Gospel is from one Age to another of most unalterable integrity hath still the same vigour and powerful influence as at the first They that formerly received the Gospel it was upon these terms therefore think them not hard and they are now dead all the difficulty of that work of dying to sin is now over with them if they had not died to their sins by the Gospel they had died in them after a while and so died eternally it is therefore a wise prevention to have sin judged and put to death in us before we die if we die in them and with them we and our sin perish together if we will not part but if it die first before us then we live for ever And what think you of thy carnal will and all the delights of sin What is the longest term of its life uncertain it is but most certainly very short thou and these pleasures must be severed and parted within a little time however thou must dye and then they dye and you never meet again Now were it not the wisest course to part a little sooner with them and let them dye before thee that thou mayest inherit eternal life and eternal delights in it pleasures for evermore It s the only bargain and let us delay it no longer This is our season of enjoying the sweetness of the Gospel others heard it before us in our rooms that now we fill and now they are removed and remove we must shortly and leave this same room to others to speak and hear in It is high time we were considering what we do here to what end we speak and hear and to lay hold on that Salvation that is held forth unto us and that we lay hold on it let go our hold of sin and those perishing things that we hold so firm and cleave so fast to do they that are dead who heard and obeyed the Gospel now repent their repentance and mortifying the flesh or do they not think ten thousand times more pains were it for many Ages all to little for a moment of that which now they enjoy and shall enjoy to eternity And they that are dead who heard the Gospel and slighted it if such a thing might be what would they give for one of these opportunities that now we daily have and daily lose and have no fruit nor esteem of them You have lately seen many of you and you that shifted the sight have heard of numbers cut off in a little time whole families swept away by the late stroke of God's hand many of which did think no other but that they might have still been with you here in this place and exercise at this time and many years after this and yet who hath laid to heart the lengthning out of their day and considered it more as an opportunity of that higher and happier life than as a little protracting of this wretched life which is hastening to an end Oh! therefore be intreated to day while it is day not to harden your hearts though the Pestilence doth not now affright you so yet that standing mortality and the decay of these earthen lodges tells us that shortly we shall cease to preach and hear this Gospel Did we consider it would excite us to more earnest search after our evidences of that eternal life that is set before us in the Gospel and we would seek it in the characters of that spiritual life which is the beginning of it within us and is wroâ—ght by the Gospel in all the heirs of Salvation Think therefore wisely of these things 1. What 's the proper end of the Gospel 2. Of the approaching end of thy days and let thy certainty of this drive thee to seek more certainty of the other that thou maist partake of it and then this again will make the thoughts of the other sweet to thee that visage of death that is so terrible to unchanged sinners shall be amiable to thine eye having found a Liâ—e in the Gospel as happy and lasting as this is miserable and vanishing and seeing the perfection of that life on the other side of death will long for the passage Be more serious in this matter of daily hearing the Gospel why it is sent to thee and what it brings and think it is too long I have flighted its Message and many that have done so are cut off and shall hear it no more I have it once more inviting me and it may be this may be the last to me and in these thoughts ere you come bow your knee to the Father of Spirits that this one thing may be granted you that your Souls may find at length the lively and mighty power of his Spirit upon yours in the hearing of this Gospel that you may be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the Spirit Thus is the particular nature of that end exprest and without the noise of various senses intends I conceive no other but the dying to the World and sin and living unto God which is the Apostle's
than all fires kindled against it The love of Christ conquers and triumphs in the hardest sufferings of life and in death it self And this hath been the means of kindling it in other hearts that were strangers to it when they beheld the victorious patience of the Saints who conquer'd dying as their head did that wearied their tormenters and triumpht over their cruelty by a constancy far above it Thus these fiery trials made the lustre of faith appear most as gold shines brightest in the furnace and if any dross is mixt with it its refined and purged from it by these trials and so it remains by the fire purer than before And both these are in the resemblance here intended that the fire of sufferings is the advantage of Believers both trying the excellency of faith giving evidence of it what it is purifying it from earth and drossie mixtures and making it more excellently what it is raising it to a higher pitch of refinedness and worth In these fires as faith is tryed the word on which faith relies is tried and is found all gold most precious no refuse in it the truth and sweeetness of the promises much confirmed in the Christians heart upon his experiment of them in his sufferings his God as good as his word being with him when he goes through the fire preserving him that he loses nothing except dross which is a gainful loss leaves of his corruption behind him Oh! how much worth is it and how doth it endear the heart to God to have found him sensibly present in the times of trouble him refreshing the Soul with dews of spiritual comfort in the midst of the flames of fiery trial One special advantage of these fires is the purging of a Christians heart from the love of the World and present things its true at best it is base and despicable in respect of the high estate and hopes of a Believer yet still there is somewhat within him that would bend him downwards and draw him to too much complacency in outward things if they were much to his mind too kind usage might sometimes make him forget himself and think himself at home at least so much as not to entertain those longings after home and that ardent progress homewards that became him It is good for us certainly to find hardship and enmities and contempts here and to find them frequent that we may not think them strange but our selves strangers and think it were strange for us to be otherwise entertained This keeps the affections more clear and disingaged sets it upward Thus the Lord makes the World displeasing to his own that they may turn in to him and seek all their consolations in himself Oh! unspeakable advantage 2. The composure of a Christian in reference to sufferings is prescrib'd in these two following Resolving and Rejoycing 1. Resolving for them reckoning so think it not strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Rejoycing in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be glad in as much c. Be not strangers in it Which yet naturally we would be are willing to hear of peace and ease and would gladly believe what we extreamly desire It is a thing of prime concern to take at first a right notion of Christianity which many do not and so either fall off quickly or walk on slowly and heavily do not reckon right the charges take not the duties of doing and suffering but think to perform some duties if they may with ease and have no other foresight do not consider that self denial that fighting against a Mans self and vehemently with the World these trials fiery trials which a Christian must encounter with As they observe of other points Popery in this is very compliant with nature which is a very bad sign in religion we would be content it were true that the true Church of Christ had rather Prosperity and Pomp for her badge than the Cross much ease and riches and few or no crosses except they were painted and guilded crosses such as that Church hath chosen instead of real ones Most Men would give religion a fair countenance if it gave them fair weather and they that do indeed acknowledge Christ the Son of God as St. Peter did Matt. 16. Yet are naturally as unwilling as he was to hear the hard news of suffering and if their advice might have place would readily be of his mind Be it far from thee Lord. His good confession was not but this kind advice was from flesh and blood and from an evil Spirit as the sharp answer tells get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me You know what kind of Messiah the Jews generally dreamt of and therefore took scandal at the meanness and sufferings of Christ expecting an earthly King of him and an outward flourishing State and the Disciples themselves after they had been long with him were still in that same dream when they were contesting about imaginary places yea they were scarce well out of it even after his suffering and death all the noise and trouble of that had not well awakt them Luk. 24. we trusted it had been he which should have restored Israel And after all that we have read and heard of antient times and of Jesus Christ himself his sufferings in the flesh and of his Apostles and his Saints from one Age to another yet still we have our inclinations to this of driving troubles far off from our thoughts till they come upon our backs and fancying nothing but rest and ease till we be shaken rudely out of it How have we of late flatter'd our selves many of us one year after another upon slight appearances Oh! now it will be peace and behold still trouble hath increased and these thoughts proved the lying visions of our own hearts while the Lord hath not spoken it And thus of late have we thought it at hand And taken ways of our own to hasten it that I fear will prove fools hast as you say You that know the Lord seek him earnestly for the averting of further troubles and combustions which if you look aright you will find threaten us as much as ever And withal seek hearts prepar'd and fixed for days of trial fiery trial yea though we did obtain some breathing of our outward peace yet shall not the followers of Christ want their trials from the hatred of the ungodly World if it persecuted me says he it will also persecute you Acquaint therefore your thoughts and hearts with sufferings that when they come thou and they not being strangers may agree and comply the better Do not afflict your selves with vain fears before hand of troubles to come and so make uncertain evils a certain vexation by advance But thus fore think the hardest things you may readily be put to for the name and cause of Christ and labour for a holy stability of mind for encountering it if it should come upon you things certainly fall the lighter
hapned unto you 13. But rejoyce in as much as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy THis fighting liâ—e when we consider it aright sure we need not be desired not to love it but have need to be strengthned with patience to go through and to fight on with courage and assurance of victory still combating in a higher strength than our own against sin within and troubles without This is the great Scope of this Epistle and the Apostle often interchanges his advices and comforts in reference to these two Against sin he instructs us in the beginning of this Chapter and here again against suffering and both in a like way and us to be armed armed with the same mind that was in Christ against trouble here after the same manner in the mortifying of sin we suffer with him as there he teaches verse 1. of this Chapter in the encountring of aâ—â—liction we suffer with him as here we have it and so the same mind in the same sufferings will bring us to the same issue Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you c. But rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed ye likewise may be glad with exceeding joy The words to the end of the chapter contain grounds of encouragement and consolation for the Children of God in sufferings especially in suffering for God These two verses have these two things 1. The cloâ—s conjuncture of sufferings with the estate of a Christian. 2. The due composure of a Christian towards suffering 1. It s no new and therefore no strange thing that sufferings hot sufferings fiery ones be the Companions of Religion besides the common miseries of humane life there is an accession of troubles and hatreds for that holiness of life to which the Children of God are called It was the Lot of the Church from her wicked Neighbours and in the Church the lot of the most holy and peculiar Servants of God from the prophane multitude Woe 's me my Mother says Ieremy thou hast born me a Man of contentions And of all the Prophets says not our Saviour handling this same argument in his Sermon So persecuted they the prophets that were before you and after tells them what they might look for Behold says he I send you forth as sheep in the midst of Wolves And generally no following of Christ but with his badge and burden somthing to be left our selves left whosoever will be my disciple let him deny himself and what to take take up his Cross and follow me And doth not the Apostle give his Schollars this universal lesson as an infallible truth all that will live Godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution and look in the close of that roll of Believers conquering in suffering what a cluster of sufferings and torture you have Heb. 11. ver 36 37. c. Thus in the Primitive times the tryal and fiery tryal even literally so continued long these wicked Emperours hating the very innocency of Christians and the people though they knew their blameless carriage yet when any evil came would pick this quarrel and still cry Christianos ad Leones Now this if we look to inferiour causes is not strange the malignant ungodly World hating holiness the light yea the very shadow of it and the more the Children of God walk like their Father and their home the more unlike must they of necessity become to the World about them and therefore become the very mark of all their enmities and malice And thus indeed the Godly though the Sons of peace are the improper causes the occasion of much noise and disturbance in the World as their Lord the Prince of peace avows it openly of himself in that sense I came not to send peace but a sword to set a Man at variance with his Father and the Daughter against the Mother c. If a Son in a Family begin to enquire after God and withdraw from their prophane or dead way Oh! what a clamour rises presently Oh! my Son or Daughter or Wife is become a plain fool c. And then all done that may be to quel and vex them and make their life grievous to them The exact holy walking of a Christian condemns really the World about him shews the disorder and foulness of their prophane ways and the Life of Religion set beside dead formality discovers it to be but a carcase and lifeless appearance and for this neither grosly wicked civil nor formal persons can well digest it There is in the life of a Christian a convincing light that shews the deformity of the works of darkness and a piercing heat that scorches the ungodly which stirs and troubles their consciences and this they cannot endure and hence rises in them a contrary fire of wicked hatred and hence the trials the fiery trials of the godly If they could get those precise persons removed out of their way think they then they might have more room and live at more liberty as 't is Revel 11. 10. a carousing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a dance there about the dead bodies of the two witnesses the people and nations rejoyced and made merry and send gifts one to another because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth And from the same hearth I mean the same wickedness of heart in the World are the fires of persecution kindled against the Saints in the World and the bonefires of joy when they are rid of them And as this is an infernal fire of enmity against God t is blown by that Spirit whose Element it is Satan stirs up and blows the coal and raises the hatred of the ungodly against Christians But while he and they in whom he powerfully works are thus working for their vile ends in the persecutions of the Saints he that soveraignly orders all is working in the same his wise and gracious ends and attains them and makes the malice of his enemies serve his ends and undo their own It is true that by the heat of persecution many are fear'd from embracing it such as love themselves and their preâ—ent ease and others that seem'd to have embrac't it are driven to let it go and fall from it but yet all well computed Religion is still upon the gaining hand those that reject it or revolt from it are such as have no true Knowledge of it nor share in it nor in that happiness in which it ends but they that are indeed united to Jesus Christ do cleave the closer to him and seek to have their hearts more fastened because of these trials that they are or likely may be put to And in their victorious patience appears the invincible power of Religion where it hath once gained the heart that it cannot be beaten nor burnt out it self is a fire more mighty