still cleave to sin and love sin better than him that suffered for it But you whose hearts the Lord hath deeply humbled in the sense of sin come to this depth of consolation and try it that you may have experience of the sweetness and â—iches of it study this point throughly and you will find it answer all and quiet your consciences Apply this bearing of sin by the Lord Jesus for you for it is publish'd and made known to you for this purpose this is the genuine and true use of it as of the Brazen Serpent not â—emptily to gaze on the Fabrick of it but to cure those that look'd on it when all that can be said is said against you ' its true may you say but it is satisfied for he on whom I rest made it his and did bear it for me The person of Christ of more worth than all Men yea than all the creatures and therefore his life a full ransome for the greatest offender And for outward troubles and sufferings which were the occasion of this Doctrine in this place they are all made exceeding light by the removal of this great pressure Let the Lord lay on me what he will seeing he hath taken off my sin and laid that on his own Son in my stead I may suffer many things but he hath bâ—rn that for me which alone was able to make me miserable And you that have this perswasion how will your hearts be taken up with his love Who thus lov'd you as to give himself for you and by interposing himself to bear off from you the stroke of everlasting death and that encountered all the wrath due to us and went through with that great work by reason of his unspeakable love Let him never go forth from my heart who for my sake refus'd to go down from the cross That we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousnesse The Lord doth nothing in vain hath not made the least of his work to no purpose in wisdom hath he made them all sayes the Psalmist and that is not only in regard of their excellent frame and Order but of their end which is a chief Point of Wisdom so then to the right knowledge of this great work put into the hands of Jesus Christ it is of special concern to understand what is this end This is the thing thâ—t his wisdom and love aim'd at in that great undertaking and therefore will be our truest wisdom and the truest evidence of our reflex Love to intend the same thing that in this the same mind may be in us that was in Christ Iesus in his suffering for us and for this very end is it express'd In this there are 3. Things 1st What this death and life is 2. The intendment of it in the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. 3. The effecting of it by them Whatsoever this is sure 't is no small change that bears the Name of the great and last natural change that we are subject to a death and then another kind of life succeeding to it and in this the greatest part are mistaken that they take any light alteration in themselves for true conversion There be a World deluded with superficial Moral changes in their Life some rectifying of their outward actions and course of Life and somewhat too in the temper and habitude of their mind far from reaching the bottom of Natures wickedness and laying the axe to the root of the Tree 't is such a work as Men can make a shift withal by themselves but the Renovation that the Spirit of God worketh is like himself so deep and through a work that it is justly called by the Name of the most substantial works and productions a new birth and more than that a new Creation and here a Death and a kind of life following it This death to sin supposes a former living in it and to it and while a Man is so he is said indeed to be dead in sin and yet withal this is true that he lives in sin as the Apostle joynes the expressions speaking of Widowes she that lives in pleasures is dead while she liveth So Eph. 2. dead in trespasses and sins and he addes wherein ye walked which imports a life such an one as it is and more expresly Verse 3. We had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh Now thus to live in sin is call'd to be dead in it because in that condition Man is indeed dead in respect of that Divine Life of the Soul that happy being which it should have in Union with God for which it was made and without which it had better not be at all For that Life as it is different from its natural being and a kind of Life above it so it is contrary to that corrupt being and life it hath in sin and therefore to live in sin is to be dead in it being a deprivement of that Divine being that Life of the Soul in God in comparison whereof not only the base life it hath in sin but the very natural life it hath in the Body and the Body by it is not worthy the Name of Life You see the Body when the threed of its union with the Soul is cut becomes not only straightway a motionless lump but within a little time a putrified noysome Carcase and thus the Soul by sin is cut off from God who is its life as is the Soul of the Body it hath not only no moving faculty in good but fills full of rotteness and vileness as the word is Psal. 14. they are gone aside and become filthy The Soul by turning away from God turns filthy yet as a Man thus Spiritually dead lives naturally so because he acts and spends that Natural life in the wayes of sin he is said to live in sin yea there is somewhat more in that expression than the mere passing of his life in that way for in stead of that happy life his Soul should have in God he pleases himself in the miserable life of sin that which is his death as if it were the proper life of his Soul that natural propension he hath to sin and the continual delight he takes in it as in his Element and living to it as if that were the very end of his being In that estate his Body nor his mind stirreth not without sin setting aside his manifest breaches of the Law those actions that are evidently and totally sinful his natural actions his eating and drinking his religious actions his Praying and hearing and Preaching are sin at the bottom and generally his heart is no other but a forge of sin every imagination every fiction of things framed there is only evil continually or every day and all the day long 't is his very trade and Life Now in opposition to this life of Sin living in it and to it a Christian is said to dy to sin to be cut off or separated from it In
our miserable natural estate there is as close an union betwixt us and sin as betwixt our Souls and Bodies it lives in us and we in it and the longer we live in that condition the more the union growes and the harder it is to dissolve it and it is as old as the union of Soul and Body begun with it so that nothing but that death here spoke of can part them And this death in this relative sense is mutual in the work of conversion sin dyes and the soul dyes to sin and these two are really one and the same the spirit of God kills both at one blow Sin in the Soul and the soul to sin as the Apostle sayes of the World both are kill'd the one to the other And there are in it chiefly these two things that make the difference 1. The Solidness And 2. The universallity of this change under this notion of Death Many things may ly in a Man's way betwixt him and the acting of divers sins which possibly he affects most some restraints outward or inward may be upon him the authority of others or the fear of shame or punishment or the check of an enlightned conscience and though by reason of these he commit not the sin he would yet he lives in it because he loves it because he would commit it as we say the soul lives not so much where it animats as where it Loves And generally that kind of Metaphorical life by which a Man is said to live in any thing hath its principal Seat in the affection that 's the immediate link of the union in such a life and the untying and death consists chiefly in the disengagement of the heart breaking off the affection from it Ye that love the Lord hate evil An unrenewed mind may have some temporary dislikes even of its beloved sins in cold blood but it returnes to like them within a while A Man may not only have times of cessation from his wonted way of sinning but by reason of the Society wherein he is and withdrawing of occasions to sin and divers other causes his very desire after it may seem to him to be abated and yet he not dead to sin but only asleep to it and therefore when a temptation back'd with opportunity and other inducing circumstances comes and joggs him he awakes and arises and followes it A Man may for a while distaste some meat that he loves possibly upon a surfet but he regains quickly his likeing of it Every quarrel with sin and fit of dislike of it is not this hatred Upon the lively representing the deformity of his sin to his mind Certainly a Natural Man may fall out with it but these are but as the litle jarres of Husband and Wife that are far from dissolving the Marriage 't is not a fixed hatred such as amongst the Jews inferr'd a divorce if thou hate her put her away and that is to die to it as by a Legal Divorce the Husband and Wife are civilly dead one to another in regard of the ty and use of Marriage Again some Mens Education and Custome and morall principles may free them from the grossest kind of Sins yea a Man's temper may be averse from them but they are alive to their own kind of sins such as possibly are not so deform'd in the common account Coveteousness or Pride or hardness of heart and either a hatred or disdain of the wayes of Holiness that are too strict for them and exceed their size Beside for the good of humane Society and for the Interest of his own Church and People God restrains many Natural Men from the height of wickedness and gives them moral Vertues There be very many and very common sins that more refined Natures it may be are scarce tempted to but as in their Diet and Apparel and other things in their Natural Life they have the same kind of being with other Persons though more neat and pleasant so in this living to sin They live the same life with other ungodly Men though in a litle more deicate way They consider not that the Devils are not in themselves subject to nor capable of many of those sins that are accounted grossest amonst Men and yet are greater Rebels and Enemies to God than Men are But to be dead to sin goes deeper and extends further than all these Namely a most inward alienation of heart from sin and most universal from all sin an antipathy to the most beloved sin Not only he must forbear sin but hate it I hate vain thoughts and not only hate some but all I hate every false way A stroke at the heart does it which is the certainest and quickest Death of any wound For in this dying to sin all the whole Man of necessity dyes to it the mind dyes to the Device and study of Sin that vein and invention becomes dead the hand dies to the acting of it the ear to the delightful hearing of things profane and sinful the Tongue to the Worlds dialect of Oaths and rotten-speaking and calumny and evil speaking this is the commonest piece of the Tongues life in sin the very natural heat of sin that acts and vents most that way the Eye dead to that intemperate look that Solomon speaks of eyeing the Wine when it is red and well colour'd in the cup. Prov. 23. That is is taken with looking on the glittering skin of that Serpent till it bite and sting as there he addes Dead to that unchaste look that sets fire in the heart to which Iob blind folded and deaded his eyes by an express compact and agreement with them I have made a Covenant with mine eyes The Eye of a Godly Man is not on the false sparkling of the Worlds Pomp and Honour and Wealth 't is dead to them quite dazled with a greater beauty the grass look's fine in the morning when 't is set with those liquid Pearles the drops of dew that shine upon it but if you can look but a little while on the body of the Sun and then look down again the Eye is as it were dead sees not that faint shining on the earth that it thought so gay before and as the Eye is blinded and dies to it so within a few hours it quite evanishes and dyes it self Men think it strange that the Godly are not of their Dyet that their Appetite is not stirr'd with the delights of dainties they know not that such as be Christians indeed are dead to those things and the best dishes that are set before a dead Man give him not a stomach The Godly Mans throat is cut to those meats as Solomon advises in another subject But why may not you be a litle more sociable to follow the fashion of the World and and take a share with your Neighbours may some say without so precise and narrow examining every thing 'T is true sayes the Christian that the time was I advis'd as litle with
us from it Filthiness needs sprinkling Guiltiness such as deserves death needs sprinkling of Blood and the death it deserves being Everlasting death The Blood must be the Blood of Christ. The Eternal Lord of life dying to free us from the sentence of death The Soul as the body hath its life its health its purity and the contrary of these its Death Diseases Deformities and Impurity which belong to it as to their first Subiect and to the body by participation The Soul and Body of all mankind is stained by the Pollution of sin The impure Leprosie of the Soul is not a spot outwardly but wholly inward hence as the corporal Leprosie was purified by the sprinkling of blood so is this Then by reflecting we see how all this that the Apostle St. Peter expresseth is necessary to Justification 1. Christ the Mediator betwixt God and man is God and man 2. A Mediator not only interceeding but also satisfying Eph. 2.16 3. This satisfaction doth not reconcile us unless it be applyed Therefore there is not only mention of blood but the sprinkling of it the spirit by faith sprinkleth the soul as with hysop wherewith the sprinkling was made this is it of which the Prophet speaks Isai. 52.15 So shall he sprinkle many Nations And which the Apostle to the Hebrewes prefers above all Legal sprinklings Chap. 9.12 13 14. both as to its duration and as to the excellency of its effects Men are not easily convinced and perswaded of the deep stain of sin and that no other Laâ—er can fetch it out but the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Some that have moral Resolutions of amendment dislike at least gross sins and purpose to avoid them and 't is to them cleanness enough to reform in those things but they consider not what becomes of the guiltiness they have contracted already and how that shall be purged how their natural pollution shall be taken away be not deceived in this 't is not an evaâ—ishing sigh or a light word or a wish of God forgive me no nor the highest current of Repentance nor that which is the truest evidence of Repentance Amendment 'T is none of these that purifies in the sight of God and expiats wrath they are all imperfect and stained themselves cannot stand and answer for themselves much less be of value to counterpoise their former guilt of sin the very tears of the purest Repentance unless they be sprinkled with this Blood are impure all our washings without this are but washings of the Blackmore it is labour in vain Ier. 2.22 Iob. 9.30 31. There is none truly purged by the Blood of Christ that do not endeavour purity of heart and Conversation but yet it is the Blood of Christ by which they are all fair and there is no spot in them here 't is said Elect to obedience but because that obedience is not perfect there must be sprinkling of the Blood too There is nothing in Religion further out of natures reach and out of its likeing and believing then the doctrine of Redemption by a Saviour and a Crucified Saviour by Christ and by his blood first shed on the Cross in his suffering and then sprinkled on the soul by his Spirit 'T is easier to make men sensible of the necessity of Repentance and amendment of life though that is very difficult then of this purging by the sprinkling of this precious Blood Did we see how needful Christ is to us we would esteem and love him more 'T is not by the hearing of Christ and of his blood in the Doctrine of the Gospel 't is not by the sprinkling of water even that water that is the sign of this blood without the blood it self and the sprinkling of it Many are present where it is sprinkled and yet have no portion in it Look to this that this blood be sprinkled on your souls that the destroying Angel may pass by you There is a Generation not some few but a generation deceived in this they are their own Deceivers pure in their own eyes Prov. 30.12 How earnestly doth David pray wash me Purge me with hysop Though bathed in tears Psa. 6.6 that satisfied not wash thou me This is the honourable condition of the Saints That they are purified and consecrated unto God by this sprinkling yea have on loâ—g while Robes washt in the Blood of the Lamb There is mention indeed of great Tribulation but there is a double comfort Joyned with it 1. They come out of it that tribulation hath an end And 2 They pass from that to glory for they have on the Robe of Candidates long white Robes washt in the blood of the Lamb washt white in blood as for this blood 't is nothing but purity and spotlesness being stained with no sin and besides hath that vertue to take away the stain of sin where 't is sprinkled My Wellbeloved is white and ruddy saith the Spouse thus in his death ruddy by bloodshed white by Innocence and purity of that blood Shall they then that are purged by this blood return to live among the Swine and tumble with them in the pudle what gross injury is this to themselves and to that Blood by which they were cleansed They that are chosen to this sprinkling are likewise chosen to Obedience this blood purifieth the heart yea This blood purgeth our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Vnto Obedience 'T is easily understood to whom when obedience to God is expressed by the simple absolute name of Obedience it teacheth us that to him alone belongs Absolute and Unlimited Obedience all obedience by all creatures And 't is the shame and misery of man that he hath departed from this Obedience that we are become Sons of disobedience But Grace renewing the hearts of believers changeth their natures and so their names and makes them Children of obedience As afterwards in this Chapter This Obedience consists as in the receiving Christ as our Redeemer so also at the same time as our Lord or King an intire rendring up of the whole man to his obedience This Obedience then of the only begotten Jesus Christ may well be understood not as his Actively as Beza but Objectivly as 2 Cor. 10.5 I think here 't is contain'd yea chiefly understood To signifie that Obedience which the Aposte to the Romans calls the Obedience of faith by which the Doctrine of Christ is received and so Christ himself which uniteth the believing soul to Christ he sprinkles it with his blood to the remission of sin and is the root and spring of all future obedience in the Christian life By Obedience Sanctification is here intimated it signifies then both habitual and active obedience Renovation of heart and conformity to the Divine will the mind is illuminated by the Holy Ghost to know and believe the divine will yea this Faith is the great and chief part of Obedience Rom. 1.8 the truth of the Doctrine
word is a Lamp unto my feet says David and a Light unto my paths not onely comfortable as Light is to the eyes but withall directive as a Lamp to his feet Thus here the Apostle doth not onely furnish consolation against distress but Exhorts and directs his Brethen in the way of Holiness without which the apprehension and feeling of those comforts cannot subsist This is no other but a clearer and fuller expression and further pressing of that sobriety and spiritualness of mind and life that he joyntly exhorted unto with that of perfect hope ver 13. as in separably connext with it if you would enjoy this Hope be not conform to the lust of your former ignorance but be holy There is no doctrine in the world either so pleasant or so pure as that of Christianity 'T is matchless both in sweetness and holiness The Faith and Hope of a Christa in have in them an abiding precious balm of comfort but this is never to be so lavish'd away as to be poured into the puddle of an impure Conscience No that were to lose it unworthily As many as have this hope purify themselves even as he is pure 1. Ioh. 3 3. Here they are commanded to be holy as he is holy Acts. 15. Faith first purifies the heart Empties it of the love of sin and then fills it with the Consolation of Christ and hope of Glory 'T is a foolish misgrounded fear and such as argues inexperience of the nature and workings of divine Grace to imagine that the assured hope of salvation will beget unholiness and presumptuous boldness in sin and therefore that the doctrine of that assurance is a doctrine of Licentiousness Our Apostle we see is not so sharp sighted as these men think themseves he apprehends no such matter but indeed supposes the contrary as unquestionable he takes not assured hope and holiness as Enemies but joynes them as nearest friends hope perfectly and be holy They are mutually strengthened and increas'd each by the other the more assurance of salvation the more holiness the more delight in it and study of it as the onely way to that End and as labour is then most pleasant when we are made surest it shall not be lost nothing doth make the soul so nimble and actitve in obedience as this oyle of gladness this assured hope of glory Again the more holiness is in the soul the clearer always is tâ—is assurance as we see the face of the heavens best when there are fewest clouds· The greatest affliction doth not damp this hope so much as the smallest sin yea it may be the more lively and sensible to the soul by affliction but by sin it always suffers loss as the Experience of all Christians does certainly teach them The Apostle exhorts to Obedience and enforceth it by a most persuasive Reason His exhortation is 1. Negative not fashioning your selves 2. Positive Be ye holy That which he would remove and separate them from is Lusts This is in Scripture the usuall name of all the irregular and sinfull desires of the heart both the polluted habits of them and their corrupt streams both as they are within and outwardly vent themselves in the Lives of Men. The Apostle St. Iohn 1 Ioh. 2 17. calls it the Lust of the world and Verse 15. love of the world And then Verse 16. Branches it into those three that are indeed the base Anti-trinity that the world worships the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of Life The soul of Man unconverted is no other but a den of impure Lusts wherein dwells pride Uncleanness Avarice Malice c just as Babylon is described Revelation 18.2 or as Isa. 13.21 Were a Man's eyes opened he would as much abhorre to remaine with himself in that condition as to dwell in a house full of Snakes and Serpents as S. Austin says and the first part of conversion is once to rid the soul of these noysome Inhabitants for there is none at all found naturally vacant and frâ—e from them thus the Apostle here expresses it of the believers he wrote to that these lusts were theirs before in their Ignorance There is a truth in it that all sin arises from some kind of Ignorance or at least from present Inadvertâ—nce and Inconsideration turning away the mind from the light which therefore for the time is as if it were not and is all one with Ignorance in the â—ffect and therefore the works of sin are all called works of darkness for were the true visage of sin seen at a full light undress'd and unpainted it were impossiable while it so appear'd that any one soul could be in love with it but would rather flye it as hideous and abominable but because the soul unrenewed is all darkness therefore it is all lust and love of sin no order in it because no light as at the first in the world confusion and darkness went together and darkness was upon the face of the deep 't is so in the soul the more Ignorance the more abundance of Lusts. That light that frees the soul and rescues it from the very kingdome of darkness must be somewhat beyond that which nature can attaine to all the light of Philosophy naturall and morall is not sufficient yea the very knowledge of the Law sever'd from Christ serves not so to enlighten and renew the soul as to free it from the darkness or Ignorance here spoke of for our Apostle writes to Jews that knew the Law and were instructed in it before their conversion yet he calls those times wherein Christ was unknown to them the times of their Ignorance though the stars shine never so bright and the moon with them in its full yet they do not all together make it day still 't is night till the sun appear Therefore the Hebrew doctors upon that word of Solomons Vanity of vanities all is vanity say vana etiam Lex doneâ— venerit Messias Therefore of him Zacharias sayes that the day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace A naturall Man may attaine to very much acquir'd knowledge of the doctine of Christ and may discourse excellently of it and yet still his soul be in the chains of darkness fast lockt up under the Ignorance here mention'd and so still of a carnal mind in subjection to these lusts of Ignorance The saving light of faith is a beam of the sun of Righteousness himself that he sends into the soul by which he makes it discern his incomparable beauties and by that sight alienates it from all those lusts and desires that do then appear to be what indeed they are vileness and filthiness it self makes the soul wonder at it self how it could love such base trash so long and so fully resolves it now on the choyce of Jesus Christ the cheif
know this Stone is laid but see whether you are built on it by faith The multitude of imaginary believers ly round about it but they are never the better nor the surer for that no more than stones that ly loose in heaps near unto a foundation but are not joyned to 't there is no benefit to us by Christ without union with him No comfort in his riches without interest in them and title to them by that union then is the soul right when it can say He is altogether lovely and as the spouse there He is mine my welbeloved And this union is the spring of all Spiritual consolations and faith by which we are thus united is a divine work he that laid this foundation in Sion with his own hand works likewise with the same hand faith in the heart by which it is knit to this corner stone ' its not so easy a thing as we imagine to believe Eph. 1.19 Many that think they believe are amongst the others quite contrary that the Prophet there speaks of hardened in sin and carnally secure which he calls to be in covenant with hell and death walking in sin and yet promising themselves impunity 4. There is the firmness of this building Namely He that believeth on him shall not be Confounded This firmness is answerable to the nature of the foundation Not only the whole frame but every stone of it abideth sure 'T is a simple mistake to judge the perswasion of perseverance to be self-presumption they that have it are far from building it on themselves but their foundation is that which makes them sure because it doth not only remain firm it self but indissolubly supports all that are once built on it In the Prophet whence this is cited 't is shall not make hast but the sense is one they that are disappointed and ashamed in their hopes run to and fro and seek after some new recourse This they shall not need to do that come to Christ. The believing soul makes hast to Christ but it never finds cause to hasten from him and though the comfort it expects and longs for be for a time deferr'd yet it gives not over knowing that in due time it shall rejoyce and shall not have cause to blush and think shame of its confidence in him David expresseth this distrust by making haste Psal. 31.22 and 116.11 I was too hasty when I said so Hopes frustrated especially where they have been rais'd high and continued long do reproach Men with folly and so shame them And thus do all earthly hopes serve us when we lean much upon them We find these things usually that have promis'd us most content pay us with vexation not only prove broken reeds deceiving our trust but hurtful running their broken spinters into our hand that lean'd on them This sure Foundation is laid for us that our souls may be establish'd on it and be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed Such times may come as will shake all other supports but this holds out against all Psal. 46.2 Though the earth be removed yet will not we fear Though the frame of the World were cracking about a Mans ears he may hear it unaffrighted that is built on this Foundation Why then do we chuse to build upon the sand Believe it wheresoever we lay our confidence and affection besides Christ it shall once repent us and ashame us either hapily in time while we may change them for him and have recourse to him or miserably when 't is too late Remember that we must die and must appear before the Judgment Sent of God and that the things we dote on here have neither Power to stay us here nor have we power to take them along with us nor if we could would they at all profit us there and therefore when we look back upon them all at parting we shall wonder what fools we were to make so poor a Choyce and then in that great day wherein all faces shall gather blackness and be fill'd with confusion that have neglected to make Christ their stay when he was offer'd them then it shall appear how happy they are that have trusted in him they shall not be confounded but shall lift up their faces and be acquitted in him In their present estate they may be founded and exercis'd but they shall not be confounded nor ashamed a double negation in the Original by no means they shall in all be more than Conquerours through him that hath loved them Behold The last thing Obs. is in that first word importing this work to be great and remarkable and caullng the eyes to behold it The Lord is marvellous in the least of his works but in this he hath manifested more of his wisdom and power and let out more of his love to Mankind than in all the rest but we are foolish and childishly gaze about us upon trifles and let this great work pass unregarded scarce afford it half an Eye Turn your wandring Eyes this way Look upon this precious Stone and behold him not in mere speculation but so behold him as to lay hold on him For we see he is therefore here set forth that we may believe on him and so not be confounded that we may attain this blessed union that cannot be dissolv'd all other unions are dissoluble A Man may be pluckt from his dwelling House and Lands or they from him though he have never so good title to them may be removed from his dearest friends the Husband from the Wife if not by other accidents in their lifetime yet sure by death the great dissolver of all those unions and of that straitest of the Soul with the Body but it can do nothing against this union but perfects it for I am perswaded sayes St. Paul that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principallities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to sâ—perate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. There is a twofold mistake concerning faith 1st They that are altogether void of it abusing and flattering themselves in a vain opinion that they have it and on the other side they that have it mis-judging their own Condition and so prejudging themselves of much comfort and sweetness that they might find in their believing The former is the worse and yet the far commoner evil and as one sayes of Wisdom 't is true of Faith Many would seek after it and attain it if they did not falsly imagine that they have attained it already There is nothing more contrary to the lively nature of Faith than for the soul not to be at all busied with the thoughts of its own Spiritual condition and yet this very character of unbelief passes with a great many for believing they doubt not that is indeed they consider not what they are their minds are not all in these things are not
a Natural Man so little understands that is the cause of all that Spiritual Light of Grace that a Believer does enjoy No right knowledge of God to Man once fallen from it but in his Son no comfort in beholding God but through him Nothing but just anger and wrath to be seen in Gods lookes but through him in whom he is well pleased The Gospel shews us the Light of the knowledge of God 2 Cor. 4.6 but 't is in the face of Iesus Christ therefore the Kingdom of light oppos'd to that of Darkness Col. 1. is called the Kingdom of his dear Son or the Son of his Love There is a Spirit of Light and Knowledge flowes from Jesus Christ into the Souls of Believers that acquaints them with the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God which cannot otherwise be known And this Spirit of Knowledge is withal a Spirit of Holiness for Purity and Holiness is likewise signified by this Light he remov'd that huge dark body of sin that was betwixt us and the Father and eclips'd him from us the light of his countenance sanctifieth by truth 't is a light that hath heat with it and hath influence upon the affections warmes them towards God and divine things this darkness here is indeed the shadow of death and so they that are without Christ till he visit them are said to sit in darkness and in the shadow of death So this Light is Life Ioh. 1.4 Doth enlighten and enliven begâ—ts new actions and motions in the Soul the right notion that he hath of things as they are work upon him and stir him accordingly discovers a man to himself and lets him see his own Natural filthiness and makes him loath himself and fly from himself run out of himself And the excellency he sees in God and his Son Jesus Christ by this new Light enflames his heart with their Love takes him up with estimation of the Lord Jesus and makes the World and all things in it that he esteemed before base and mean in his eyes Then from this Light arises Spiritual Joy and Comfort so Light signifies frequently as in that of the Psalmist the latter clause expounds the former Light is sowen for the Righteous and joy for the upright in heart As this Kingdom of Gods dear Son that is this Kingdom of Light hath righteousness in it so it hath Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 'T is a false prejudice the World hath taken up against Religion that 't is a sowr Melancholly thing There is no truly Lightsome and Comfortable life but it All others have what they will they live in darkness and is not that truly sad and comforâ—less Would you think it a pleasant life though you had fine Cloathes and good Dieâ— but never see the Sun and were still kept in a Dungeon with them thus are they that live in Worldly Honour and Plenty but still without God they are in continual darkness with all their injoyments It is true the light of Believers is not here perfect and therefore their joy is not perfect neither sometimes over clouded but the comfort is this that it is an everlasting light it shall never go out in darkness as is said in Iob of the light of the Wicked â—nd it shall within a while be perfected There is a bright morning without a Cloud that shall arise The Saints have not only Light to lead them in their journey but much purer Light at home an Inheritance in Light Colos. 1. The Land where their Inheritance lyeth is full of Light and their Inheritance it self is light For the Vision of God for ever is that Inheritance that City hath no need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of the Lord doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof As we said that increated Light is the happiness of the Soul the beginnings of it are our begun happiness they are beams of it sent from above to lead us to the Fountain and fulness of it With thee sayes David is the Fountain of Life and in thy Light shall we see light There are two things spoken of this Light to commend it His Marvellous Light that it is after a peculiar manner Gods and then that is is Marvellous All light is from him the light of sense and that of reason therefore he is called the Father of Lights but this Light of Grace is after a peculiar manner his being a light above the reach of Nature infus'd into the Soul in a supernatural way The light of the Elect World where God specially and graciously recides Natural Men may know very much in natural things and it may be in supernatural things after a natural manner They may be full of School-Divinity and able to discourse of God and his Son Christ and the Mystery of Redemption c. and yet want this peculiar light by which Christ is known to Believers they may speak of him but 't is in the dark they see him not and therefore they love him not the light they have is as the light of some things that shine only in the night a cold Glow-worm-light that hath no heat with it at all Whereas a Soul that hath some of His Light Gods peculiar Light communicated to it sees Jesus Christ and loves and delights in Him and walks with Him A little of this light is worth a great deal yea more worth than all that other common speculative and discoursing knowledge that the greatest Doctors can attain unto 't is of a more excellent kind and original 't is from Heaven and ye know that one beam of the Sun is more worth than the light of ten thousand Torches together 't is a pure undecaying Heavenly light whereas the other is gross and earthly be it never so great and lasts but a while Let us not therefore think it Incredible that a poor unletter'd Christian may know more of God in the best kind of knowledge than any the wisest and Learnedest natural Man can do for the one knowes God only by Mans Light the other knowes him by his own light and that 's the only right knowledge as the Sun cannot be seen but by its own light so neither can God be savingly known but by his own revealing Now this Light being so peculiarly Gods no marvel if it be Marvellous the common light of the world is so though because of its commoness we think not so The Lord is Marvellous is Wisdom in Power in all his works of Creation and Providence But above all in the workings of his Grace This Light is unknown to the World and so Marvellous in the rareness of beholding it that there be but a few that partake of it And to them that see it is Marvellous because in it they see so many excellent things that they knew not before As if a Man were born and brought up till he came to years of understanding in a Dungeon where
whole Epistle Here he is representing to them the great fruit of that Love that happy and high Estate to which they are called in Christ that the chusing of Christ and Believers is as one act and they as one entire Object of it one glorious Temple He the Foundation and head corner Stone and they the Edifice one honourable Fraternity He the King of Kings and great high Priest and they likewise through him made Kings and Priests unto God the Father a Royal Priesthood c. He the Light of the World and they through him Children of Light Now that this their Dignity which shines so bright in its own innate worth may yet appear the more he sets it off by a double opposition 1. Of the misery under which others are 2 dly That Misery under which they themselves were before their calling And this being set on both sides is as a dark shadowing round about their happiness here describ'd setting off the lustre of it Their former misery express'd in the former Verse by Darkness is here more fully and plainly set before their view in these words They are borrowed from the Prophet Hosea 2.23 Where as is usual with the Prophets he is raised up by the Spirit of God from the temporal troubles and deliverances of the Israelites to consider and foretel that great restorement wrought by Jesus Christ purchasing a New People to himself made up both of Jews and Gentiles that believe and therefore the Prophecy is fit and applicable to both so that the debate is altogether needless whether it concerns the Jews or Gentiles For in its Spiritual sense as relating to the Kingdom of Christ it foretels the making up to the Gentiles that were not before the People of God and of the Jews likewise that by their Apostacies and the Captivities and Dispersions come upon them as just punishments of those Apostacies were degraded from the outward Dignities they had as the People of God and withal were Spiritually miserable and Captives by Nature and so in both respects laid equal with the Gentiles and stood in need of this Restiâ—ution as they St. Paul â—iseth it concerning the calling of the Gentiles Rom. 9. And â—ere St. Peter Writing as is most Probable particularly to the Dispersâ—d Jews applies it to them as being in the very reference it bears to the Jews truly fulfill'd in those alone that were Believers Faith making them a part of the true Israel of God to which the Promises do peculiarly belong as the Apostle St. Paul argue at large Rom. 9. Their former Misery and so their present Happiness we have here under a double expression they were not a People destitute of mercy not the People of God sayes the Prophet Not a People sayes our Apostle being not Gods People so base and miserable as not worthy the Name of a People at all as 't is taken Deut. 32.21 There is a kind of being a life that the Soul hath by a peculiar union with God and therefore in that sense the Soul without God is dead as the Body is without the Soul Eph. 2.1 Yea as the Body seperated from the Soul is not only a liveless lump but putrifies and becomes noysome and abominable thus the Soul seperated from God is subject to a more loathsome and vile putrefaction Psal. 14.3 So that Men that are yet Unbelievers are Not as the Hebrewes express'd death multitudes of them are not a People but a heap of filthy Carcases Again take our Natural Misery in the notion of a Captivity which was the judgement threatned against the Jews to make them not a People therefore their Captivity is often spoke of as a Death by the Prophets and their reduction as their resurrection Ezek. 37. And as a Captive People is civilly dead as they speak so are Souls captive to Sin and the and the Prince of darknes Spiritually dead wanting happiness and well being which if it never attain it had better for it self not be at all Nothing but disorder and confusion in the Soul without God the affections hurrying it tumultuously Thus Captive sinners are not are dead they both want that happy being that flowes from God to the Souls that are united to himself and consequently must want that Society and union one with another which results from the former from the same union that Believers have with God and the same being in Him which makes them truly worthy to be called a People and particularly the People of God His People are the only People in the World worthy to be call'd a People the rest are but refuse and dross although in the Worlds esteem that judges by its own rules and favour of it self the People of God be as no body no People a company of silly creatures yea we are made sayes the great Apostle as the filth of the World and the offscouring of all things yet in his account who hath chosen them who alone knowes the true value of things His People are the only People and all the rest of the World as nothing in his eyes He Dignifies and beautifies them and loves in them that Beauty which He hath given them But under that term is not only compriz'd that new being of Believers in each one of them apart but that tie and union that is amongst them as one People being incorporated together and living under the same Government and Laws without which a People are but as the Beasts of the Field or the Fishes of the Sea and the Creeping things that have no ruler over them as the Prophet Habak speaks That regular living in Society and Union in Laws and Polity makes many Men to be One People but the civil Union of Men in States and Kingdoms is nothing comparable to the Mysterious Union of the People of God with him and one with another That Commonwealth hath a firmer Union then all others Believers are knit together in Christ as their Head not merely a Civil or Political Head ruling them but as a Natural Head enlivening them giving them all one Life Men in other Societies though well ordered yet are but as a Multitude of trees regularly planted indeed but each upon his own Root But the Faithful are all Branches of one Root their Vnion is so Mysterious that it is resembled to the very union of Christ with his Father as indeed the product of it Ioh. 17. People of God I will say to them thou art my People and they shall say thou art my God Hos. 2.23 That Mutual Interest and possession is the very foundation of all our Comfort He is the first Chuser He first sayes My People calls them so and makes them to be so and then they say My God therefore a Relation that shall hold and shall not break because it is founded upon His choyce who changes not The tenor of an external Covenant with a People as the Jewes particularly found is such as may be broken by Mans unfaithfulness
hath no other purpose in his being and living but only to honour his Lord that 's to live to righteousness he doth not make a by-work of it a study for his spare houres no 't is his main busines his all In this law doth he meditate day and night This life as the other is in the heart and from thence diffuses to the whole Man he loves righteousness and receiveth the truth as the Apostle speaks in the love of it A natural Man may do many things that for their shell and outside are righteous But he lives not to righteousness because his heart is not possess'd and rul'd with the love of it but this life makes the godly Man delight to walk uprightly and to speak of righteousness his Language and wayes carry the resemblance of his heart Psa. 37. Ver. 30.31 I know 't is easiest to act that part of Religion that is in the Tongue but the Christian ought not for that to be Spiritually dumb Because some Birds are taught to speak Men do not for that give it over and leave off to speak the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his Tongue talketh of judgement and his feet strive to keep pace with his Tongue which gives evidence of its unfainedness None of his steps shall slide or he shall not stagger in his steps but that which is betwixt these is the common Spring the Law of God is in his heart of both and from thence as Salomon sayes are the issues of his life that Law in his heart is the principle of this living to righteousness 2 The Second thing here is the design or Intendment of this death and life in the sufferings and death of Christ he bare sin and died for it that we might dye to it Out of some conviction of the consequence of Sin many have a confus'd desire to be justified to have sin pardon'd and look no further think not on the importance and necessity of sanctification the nature whereof is express'd by this dying to sin and living to righteousness But here we see that sanctification is necessary as inseparably connexed with justification not only as its companion but as its end which in some kind raises it above the other that it was the thing which God ey'd and intended in taking away the guiltiness of sin that we might be renew'd and sanctified If we compare them in point of time either backward holiness was alwayes necessary unto happiness But satisfying for sin and the pardon of it was made necessary by sin or if we look forward the estate we are appointed to and for which we are delivered from wrath is an estate of perfect holiness When we reflect upon that great work of Redemption we see it aim'd at there Redeem'd to be holy Eph. 5.25 26. Tit. 2.14 And go yet higher to the very Spring the decree of Election And then it s said Chosen before that we should be Holy and in end it shall Suit the designe Nothing shall enter into the new Ierusalem that is defiled or unholy Nothing but all purity there not a spot of sinfull pollution not a wrinkle of the Old Man for this end was that great work undertaken by the Son of God that he might frame out of polluted Mankind a new holy generation to his Father that might compasse his throne in the Life of glory and give him pure praises and behold his face in that eternity Now for this end it was needfull according to the all-wise purpose of the Father that the guiltiness of sin and sentence of Death should be once removed and thus the burden of that lay upon Christs shoulders on the Crosse and that done it is further necessary that Souls so deliver'd be likewise purg'd and renew'd for they are design'd to perfection of holiness in end and it must begin here Yet is it not possible to perswade Men of this that Christ had this in his eye and purpose when he was lift up upon the crosse and look'd upon the whole company of those his Father had given him to save that he would redeem them to be a number of holy Persons We would be redeem'd who is there would not but he would have his redeemed ones holy and they that are not true to this his end but crosse and oppose him in it may hear of redemption long and often But litle to their comfort Are you resolv'd still to abuse and delude your selves Well whither you will believe it or no this is once more told you there is unspeakable comfort in the death of Chirst but it belongs only to those that are dead to sin and alive to righteousness This Circle shuâ—s out the impenitent world there it closes and cannot be broke through but all that are penitent are by their effectual caling lifted in to it translated from that accurs'd condition wherein they were So then if you will live in your sins you may but then resolve withal to bear them your selves for Christ in his bearing of sin meant of none but such as in due time are thus dead and thus alive with him 3. But then in the Third place Christs Sufferings and death effects all this 1. As the exemplary cause the lively contemplation of Christ crucified is the most powerful of all thoughts to separate the heart and sin But 2. besides this working as a Moral cause as that example Christ is the effective natural cause of this death and life For he is one with the Believer and there is a real influence of his death and life into their Souls This Mysterious Union of Christ and the believer is that whereon both their Justification and Sanctification and the whole frame of their Salvation and Happiness depends and in this particular the Apostle still insists on it speaking of Christ and Believers as one in his Death and Resurrection crucified with him dead with him buried with him and risen with him Rom. 6. Being arisen he applies his death to those he dyed for and by it kills the life of sin in them and so is aveng'd on it for its being the cause of his death according to that of the Psalm raise me up that I may requite them He infuses and then actuates and stirres up that faith and love in them by which they are united to him and these work powerfuly in this 3. Faith look's so stedfastly on its suffering Saviour that as they say intellectus fit illud quod intelligit it makes the Soul like him assimilates and conformes it to his Death as the Apostle speaks That which some fable of some of their Saints of receiving the impression of the wounds of Christ in their body is true in a Spiritual sense of the Soul of every one that is indeed a Saint and a believer it takes the very print of his Death by beholding him and dyes to sin and then takes that of his rising again and lives to righteousness as it applies it to justify so
to Mortify drawes vertue from it Thus sayd one Christ aim'd at this in all those Sufferings that with so much love he went through and shall I disappoint him and not serve his end 4. That other powerfull grace of Love is joynt in this work with faith for Love desires nothing more than likeness and conformity though it be a painfull resemblance so much the better and fitter to testify love therefore 't will have the Soul dye with him that dy'd for it and the very same kind of death I am crucified with Christ sayes the great Apostle The Love of Christ in the Soul takes the very Nails that fastned him to the Crosse and crucifies the Soul to the World and to Sin Love is strong as Death particularly in this the strongest and liveliest Body when Death siezes it must yield and so becomes motionless that was so vigorous before And the Soul that is most active and unwearied in Sin when this Love siezes it it is kill'd to Sin and as Death seperates a Man from his dearest Friends and Society this Love breaks all the tyes and friendship with Sin Generally as Plato hath it Love takes away ones living in them selves and transfers into the party loved but the divine Love of Christ doth it in the truest and highest manner By whose stripes ye were healed The misery of fallen Man and the mercy of his deliverance are both of them such a deep as no one expression yea no variety added one to another can reach their bottom Here we have divers very significative ones 1. The guiltiness of sin as an intollerable burden pressing the Soul and sinking it and that transfer'd and layed on a stronger Back He bare Then 2. The same wretchedness under the same notion of a strange disease by all other means incurable healed by his stripe's And 3. again represented by the forlorn condition of a Sheep wandring and our Salvation to be found only in the love and wisdom of our great Shepherd And all these are borrow'd from that sweet and clear prophecy Isa. 53. The polluted nature of Man is no other but a bundle of desperate diseases he is spiritually dead as the Scriptures often teach Now this contradicts not nor at all Lessen's the matter But only because this misery justly called death is in a Subject animated with a natural life therefore so it may bear the Name and sense of sickness or wound and therefore 't is gross misprision they are as much out in their Argument as in their conclusion that would extract out of these expressions any evidence of remains of Spiritual life or good in our corrupted Nature But they are not worthy the contest tho vain heads think to argue themselves into life and are seeking that life by Logick in Miserable Nature that they should seek by faith in Jesus Christ Namely in these his stripes by which we are healed It were a large task to name our Spiritual Maladies how much more severally to unfold their Natures such a multitude of corrupt false Principles in the mind that as Gangrens do spread themselves through the Soul and defile the whole Man and total gross blindness and unbelief in Spiritual things and that stone of the heart hardness and impenitency Lethargies of senslesness and security and then for there be such complications of Spiritual diseases in us as in Naturals are altogether impossible such burning fevers of inordinate affections desires of lust and Malice and envy such racking and tormenting cares of Covetousness and feeding on Earth and Ashes as the Prophet speaks in another case according to the deprav'd appetite that accompanies some Diseases Such tumours of Pride and self-conceit that break forth as filthy botches in Mens words and carriage one with another And in a word what a wonderful disorder must needs be in the Natural Soul by the frequent interchanges and fight of contrary passions within it and to these from without how many deadly wounds we receive from the tentations of Satan and the World We receive them and by the weapons they furnish us we willingly wound our selves as the Apostle sayes of them who will be rich they fall into divers snares and noysome lusts and pierce them selves through with many sorrowes Did we see it no Infirmery nor Hospital ever so full of loathsome and miserable Spectacles as Spiritually our wretched Nature is in any one of us apart How much more when multitudes of us are met together But our evils are hid from us and we perish miserably in a Dream of happiness That makes up and compleats our wretchedness that we feel it not with our other diseases And this makes it worse still This was the Churches disease Rev. 3. Thou sayest I am rich and knowest not that thou art Poor c. We are usually full of complaints of triffling griefs that are of small moment and think not on nor feel not our Dangerous Maladies as he who shewed a Physician his fore finger but the Physician told him he had more need to think on the cure of a dangerous Impostume within him which he perceiv'd by looking to him though himself did not feel it In dangerous Maladies or wounds there be these evils a tendency to death and with that the apprehension of the terrour and fear of it and the present distemper of the Body by them and this is in sin 1. There is the guiltiness of sin binding over the Soul to death the most frightful eternal Death 2. The terrour of conscience in the apprehension of that death or wrath that is the consequent and end of sin 3. The raging and prevailing power of sin which is the ill habitude and distemper of the soul But these stripes and that blood that issued from them are a sound cure applied unto the soul they take away the guiltiness of sin and death deserved and free us from our engagement to those everlasting scourgings and lashes of the wrath of God and likewise they are the only cure of those present terrours and pangs of Conscience arising from the sense of that wrath and sentence of death upon the Soul Our Iniquities that met on his back laid open to the rod which in it self was free those hands that never wrought iniquity and those feet that never declined from the way of righteousness yet for our workes and wandrings were pierced and that Tongue dropping with Vinegar and Gall on the Cross that never spoke a guileful nor sinful word The Blood of those stripes are that Balm issuing from that tree of Life so pierced that can only give ease to the Conscience and heal the wounds of it and they deliver from the power of sin working by their influence and loathing of sin that was the cause of them they cleanse out the vitious humours of our corrupt nature by opening up that issue of Repentance they shall look on him and mourn over him whom they have pierced Now to the end it may
tribulation sayes St. Paul and here our Apostle insists on that to verifie the subsistance of this Joy in the midst of the greatest afflictions 4. Spiritual Grief that seems most opposite to this Spiritual Joy prejudgeth it not for there is a secret delight and sweetness in the tears of Repentance a Balm in them that refreshes the Soul and even their saddest kind of mourning viz. The dark times of Desertion hath this in it that is some way sweet that those mournings after their Beloved who absents himselfe is a mark of their Love to him and a true Evidence of it and then all these spiritual sorrowes of what nature soever are turn'd into Spiritual Joy that 's the proper End of them they have a natural tendency that way 5. But the Natural Man still doubts of this Joy we speak of because he sees and hears so little of it from them that profess to have it and seem to have best right to it If we consider the wretchedness of this Life and especially the abundance of Sin that 's in the World what wonder though this their Joy retire much inward and appear litle abroad where all things are so contrary to it and so few that are capable of it to whom 't were pertinent to vent it Again we see here 't is Vnspeakable it were a poor thing if he that hath it could tell it all out And when the Soul hath most of it then it remains most within it self and is so inwardly taken up with it that possibly it can then least of all express it 'T is with Joyes as they say of Cares and Griefs Leves Loquuntur ingentes stupent The deepest waters run stillest true Joy is a sollid grave thing dwells more in the heart then the Countenance whereas on the Contrary base and false Joyes are but superficial skin-deep as we say they are all in the face Think not that it is with the godly as the Prophet sayes of the wicked that there is no peace to them and the LXX Reads it no Ioy. Certainly 't is true There is no true Joy to the wicked they may revel and make a noise but they Rejoyce not the Laughter of the fool is as the crackling of thornes under the pot a great noise but little heat and soon at an End There is no continuing Feast but that of a good Conscience Wickedness and real Joy cannot dwell together as the very Moralist Seneca hath it often and at large but he that can say the Righteousness of Jesus Christ is Mine and in him the favour of God and the hope of Eternal Happiness hath such a light as can shine in the darkest Dungeon yea in the dark valley of the shadow of death it selfe Say not thou if I betake my self to the way of Godliness I must bid farewel to gladness never a merry day more no on the contrary never a truly Joyful day till then yea no dayes at all but night to the soul till it entertain Jesus Christ and his kingdom which consists in those Righteousness Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost Thou dost not sacrifice Isaac which signifies Laughter as St. Bern. but a Ram. Not thy Joy but filthy sinful delights that end in Sorrow Oh seek to know in your Experience what those Joyes mean for all describing and commending it to you will not make you understand it but taste and see that the Lord is good you cannot see and know it but by tasting it and having tasted that goodness all those poor Joyes you thought sweet before will then be bitter and distasteful to you And you that have Christ yours by Believing know your happiness and Rejoyce and Glory in it Whatsoever is your outward Condition Rejoyce alwayes and again I say Rejoyce for Light is sowâ— to the Righteous and Ioy for the upright in heart Verses 10 11 12. 10. Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched dilligently who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you 11. Searching what or what maner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when he testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow 12. Vnto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did Minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have Preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things the Angels desire to look into IT is the Ignorance or at least the Inconsiderance of Divine things that makes Earthly things whether good or evil appear great in our Eyes Therefore the Apostles great aime is by representing the Certainty and Excellency of the Belief and Hope of Christians to his afflicted Brethren to strenthen their minds against all discouragements and oppositions That they may account nothing too hard to doe or suffer for so high a Cause and so happy an End 'T is the low and mean thoughts and the shallow perswassion we have of things that are spiritual that is the Cause of all our Remisseness and Coldness in them The doctrine of Salvation he mention'd in the former verse at the End of our Christian Faith is illustrated in these words from its Antiquity Dignity and infallible truth 'T is no more Invention for the Prophets enquir'd after it and foretold it in former ages from the beginning Thus the prejudice of novelty is removed that usually meets the most ancient truth in its new discoveries Again 't is no mean thing that such Men as were of unquestion'd Eminency in Wisdom and Holiness did so much study and search after and having found out were careful not only to publish it in their own times but to record it to posterity and this not by the private motion of their own spirits but by the Acting and Guidance of the Spirit of God which sets likewise the truth of their Testimony above all doubtfulness and uncertainty But taking those three Verses entirely together we have in them those three things testifying how Excellent the Doctrine of the Gospel is 1. We have the Principal Author of it 2. The matter of it 3. The worth of those that are exercis'd about it viz. The best of Men the Prophets and Apostles in administring it and the best of all the Creatures the Angels in admiring it The first Author is the absolutely first the Spirit of God in the prophets Ver. 11. in the Apostles Ver. 12. but Ver. 11. The spirit of Christ there is the same spirit that He sent down on his Disciples after his Ascending to Glory and which spoke in his Prophets before his Descending to the Earth It is the spirit of Christ proceeding joyntly from him with the Father as he is the son of God and dwelling most richly and fully in him as the son of Man The Holy Ghost is in himself Holiness and the Source and worker of Holiness and Author of this holy doctrine that breaths
vain conversation What fruit had ye sayes the Apostle in those things whereof ye are now asham'd Either count that shame that at the best growes out of them their fruit or confess they have none therefore they are called the unfruitful works of darkness Let the Voluptuous Person say it out upon his death-bed what pleasure or profit doth then abide with him of all his former sinful delights Let him tell if there remain any thing of them all but that that he would gladly not have to remain the sting of an accusing Conscience which is as lasting as the delight of sin was short and evanishing Let the covetous and ambitious declare freely even those of them that have prospered most in their pursuit of Riches and Honour what ease all their Possessions or titles do then help them to whether their pains are the less because their Chests are full or their Houses stately or multitude of friends and servants waiting on them with Hat and Knee and if all these things cannot ease the body how much less can they quiet the mind And therefore is it not true that all pains in these things and the uneven wayes into which they sometimes stept aside to serve those ends and generally that all the wayes of sin wherein they have wearied themselves were vain Rollings and tossings up and down not tending to acertain Haven of peace and happiness 't is a lamentable thing to be deluded all a Life time with a false dream Isa. 2.8 You that are going on in the common Road of sin although many and possibly your own Parents have trod it before you and the greatest part of these you now know are in it with you and keep you Company in it yet be perswaded to stop a little and ask your selves what it is you seek or expect in the end of it would it not grieve any labouring Man to work hard all the day and have no wages to look for at night 't is a greater loss to wear out our wholâ— life and in the evening of our dayes find nothing but anguish and vexation Let us then think this that so much of our life as is spent in the wayes of sin is all lost fruitless and vain Conversation And in so far as the Apostle saye here You are redeemed from this Conversation this Imports it a â—ervile slavish Condition as the other word expresses it to live fruitless And this is the Madness of a sinner that he fancies Liberty in that which is the basest thraldome as those poor frentique Persons that are lying ragged and bound in Chaines yet Imagine that they are Kings that their Irons are Chaines of gold their rags Robes and their filthy Lodge a Pallace As 't is misery to be liable to the sentence of death so 't is slavery to be subject to the dominion of sin and he that is delivered from the one is likewise set free from the other There is one Redemption from both He that is redeem'd from destruction by the blood of Christ is likewise redeem'd from that vain and unholy Conversation that leadâ— to it So Tit. 2.14 Our Redeemer was anointed for this purpose not to free the Captives from the sentence of death and yet leave them still in Prison but to proclaim liberty to them and the opening of the Prison to those that are bound Isa. 61.1 You easily perswade your selves that Christ hath died for you and Redeem'd you from Hell but you Consider not that if it be so he hath likewise Redeem'd you from your vain Conversation and both set you free from the service of sinâ— Certainly while you find not that you can have no assurance of the other if the Chaines of sin continue still upon you for any thing you can know these Chaines do bind you over to the other Chaines of darkness the Apostle speaks of Let us not delude our selves if we find the love of sin and of the World work stronger in our hearts than the love of Christ we are not as yet partakers of his Redemption But if we have indeed laid hold upon him as our Redeemer then are we Redeem'd from the service of sin not only from the grossest Profaness but even from all kind of fruitless and vain Conversation And therefore ought to stand fast in that Liberty and not entangle our selves again to any of our former vanities Not redeemed with Corruptible things From the high price of our Redemption the Apostle doth mainly inforce our Esteem of it and the preservation of that liberty so dearly bought and the avoiding all that unholiness and vain conversation from which we are freed by that Redemption 1. He expresseth it negatively not with corruptible things Oh foolish we that hunt them as if they were Incorruptible and Everlasting treasures no not the best of them these that are in highest account with Men not with Silver and Gold these are not of any value at all towards the Ransom of Souls they cannot buy off the death of the Body nor cannot purchase the continuance of temperal life much less can they reach to the worth of Spiritual and Eternal life The precious soul could not be redeem'd but by blood and by no blood but that of this spotless Lamb Jesus Christ who is God equal with the Father And therefore his Blood is called the blood of God Act. 20. So that the Apostle may well call it here precious exceeding the whole World and all things in it in value Therefore frustrate not the sufferings of Christ if he shed his blood to Redeem you from sin be not false to his End As of a Lamb without blemish He is that great and everlasting Sacrifice that gave value and vertue to all the Sacrifices under the Law their blood was of no worth to the purging away of sin but by Relation to his blood and the Laws concerning the choyce of the Pascall Lamb or other Lambs for Sacrifice were but obscure and imperfect shadowes of his purity and perfections who is the undefiled Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World A Lamb in meekness and silence he opened not his mouth Isa. 53.7 And in purity here without spot or blemish My well beloved sayes the Spouse is white and ruddy white in spotless Innocency and red in suffering a bloody death For as much as ye know 'T is that must make all this effectual the right Knowledge and due Consideration of it Ye do know it already but I would have you know it better more deeply and practically turn it often over be more in the study and meditation of it there is work enough in it still for the discerningest mind itâ— a mystery so deep that you shall never reach the bottom of it and withall so useful that you shall find alwayes new profit by it Our folly is we gape after new things and yet are in effect Ignorant of the things we think we know best that learned Apostle that knew
so much and spake so many tongues yet I determined sayes he to know nothing among you save Iesus Christ and him Crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 And again he expresses this as the top of his Ambition that I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death That Conformity is this only knowledge He that hath his lusts unmortified and a heart unweaned from the World though he know all the history of the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ and can discourse well of them yet indeed he knows them not If you would increase much in holiness and be strong against the Tentations of sin this is the only art of it view much and so seek to know much of the death of Jesus Christ Consider often at how high a raâ—e we were redeem'd from sin and provide this answer for all the enticements of sin and the world except you can offer my soul something beyond that price that was given for it on the cross I cannot hearken to you Far be it from me will a Christian say that considers this Redemption that ever I should prefer a base lust or any thing in this World or it all to him that gave himselfe to death for me and payed my Ransom with his blood his matchless love hath freed me from the miserable Captivity of sin and hath for ever fastened me to the sweet yoke of his Obedience Let him alone to dwell and rule within me and let him never go forth from my heart who for my sake refus'd to come down from the Cross. Verse 20. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you OF all those Considerations and there are many that may move Men to Obedience there is none that persuades both more sweetly and strongly then the sense of Gods goodness and mercy towards Men and amongst all the Evidences of that there is none like the sending and giving of his Son for Mans redemption therefore the Apostle having mentioned that insists further in it and in these words expresses the performance and the Application of it 1. The purpose or Decree foreknown but 't is well rendred fore ordained for this knowing is Decreeing and there is little either solid truth or profit in the distinguishing them We say usually that where there is little wisdom there is much chance and comparitively amongst Men some are far more foresighted and of further Reach then others yet the wisest and most provident Men both wanting skill to designe all things aâ—ight and power to act as they contrive meet with many unexpected Casualties and often Disappointments in their undertakings but with God where both wisdom and power are infinite there can be neither any Chance nor Resistance from without nor any Imperfection at all in the contrivance of things neither himself can give that cause to add or abate or alter any thing in the frame of his purposes The modell of the whole world and of all the course of time was with him one and the same from all Etenity and whatsoever is brought to pass is exactly answerable to that pattern for with him there is no change nor shaddow of turning Iam. 1.17 There is nothing dark to the father of lights he sets at one view through all things and all ages from the beginning of time to the end of it yea from Eternity to Eternity And this Inccomprehensible wisdom is too wonderfull for us we do but childishly stammer when we offer to speak of it It is no wonder that Men beat their own braines and knock their heads one against another in the contest of their opinions to little purpose in their severall Mouldings of Gods Decree Is not this to cut and square Gods thoughts to ours and Examine his Soveraign purposes by the low principles of Humane wisdom how much more learned then all such knowledge is the Apostles Ignorance when he crys out O the depth of the Riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11.33 Why then should any man dâ—bate what place in the series of Gods decree is to be assign'd to this purpose of sending his son in the flesh Let us rather seeing it is manifest that it was for the Redemption of lost Mankind admire that same Love of God to mankind that appears in that purpose of our recovery by the word made flesh that before Man had made himself miserable yea before either he or the world was made this thought of boundless love was in the bosome of God to send his son forth from thence to bring fallen Man out of misery and restore him to happiness and to do this not onely by taking on his nature but the curse to shift it off from us that were sunk under it and to bear it himself and by bearing it to take it away he laid on him the iniquity of us all And to this he was appointed says the Apostle Heb. 3 2. Before the foundation of the world This we understand by Faith that the world was framed by the word of God Although the Learned probably think it evincible by humane Reason yet some of those that have gloried most in that and are reputed generally masters of Reason have not seen it by that light therefore that we may have a divine belief of it we must learn it from the word of God and be persuaded of its truth by the spirit of God that the whole world and all things in it were drawn out of Nothing by his almighty power that is the onely Eternal and Increated being and therefore the fountain and source of being to all things Foundation In this word is clâ—ar the Resemblance of the world to a building and such a building it is as doth evidence the greatness of him that fram'd it so spacious Rich and comely so firm a foundation and rais'd to so high and stately a roofe and set it with variety of stars as with Jewels therefore call'd as some conceive it Psa. 8. the work of his fingers to express the curious artifice that appears in them Though Naturalists can give the reason of the earth's stability from its heaviness which stayes it necessarily in the lowest part of the world yet that abates nothing our admiring the wisdom and power of God in laying its foundation so and establishing it for it is his will that is the first cause of that its nature and hath appointed that to be the property of its heaviness to fix it there and therefore Iob alledeges this amongst the wonderfull works of God and evidences of his power that he hangeth the earth upon nothing Before there was Time or place or any Creature God the blessed Trinity was in himselfe and as the Prophet speaks inhabiting Eternity compleatly happy in himself but intending to manifest and communicate his goodness he
that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed THat which is deepest in the heart is readily most in the mouth That which abounds within runs over most by the Tongue or Pen when Men light upon the speaking of that Subject that possesses the affection they can hardly be taken off or drawn from it again Thus the Apostles in their writings when they make mention any way of Christ suffering for us they love to dwell on it as that which they take most delight to speak of Such delicacy and sweetness is in it to a Spiritual taste that they like to keep it in their mouth and are never out of their theam when they insist on Jesus Christ though they have but nam'd him by occasion of some other Doctrine for he is the great subject of all they have to say Thus here the Apostle had spoke of Christ in the foregoing words very fitly to this present Subject setting him before Christian Servants and all suffering Christians as their compleat example both in point of much suffering and of perfect Innocency and Patience in suffering And express'd their engagement to study and follow that example yet he cannot leave it so but having said that all those his sufferings wherein he was so exemplary were for us as a chief consideration for which we should study to be like him he returns to that again and enlarges himself in it in words partly the same partly very near those of that Evangelist among the Prophets Esay Chap. 53. And it suits very well with his main scope to press this point as giving both very much strength and sweetness to the Exhortation as being most reasonable that we willingly conform to him in suffering that had never been an Example of suffering nor subject at all to sufferings nor capable of them but for us and most comfortable in the light sufferings of this Moment to consider that he hath freed us from the sufferings of Eternity by suffering himself in our stead in the fulness of time That Jesus Christ is in doing and suffering our Supream and Matchless Example and that he came to be so is a truth but that he is nothing further and came for no other end is you see a high point of falshood for how should Man be enabled to learn and follow that example of obedience unless there were more in Christ and what would become of that great reckoning of disobedience that Man stands guilty of No these are too narrow he came to bear our sins on his own Body on the tree and for this purpose had a Body fitted for him and given him to bear this burden to do this as the will of his Father to stand for us in stead of all Offerings and Sacrifices and by that will sayes the Apostle we are Sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all This was his business not only to rectifie sinful Mankind by his example but to redeem him by his Blood he was a teacher come from God As a Prophet he teaches us the way of Life and as the best and greatest of Prophets is perfectly like his Doctrine and his actions that in all Teachers is the livelyest part of Doctrine his carriage in Life and death is our great Pattern and instruction But what is said of his forerunner is more eminently true of Christ he is a Prophet and more then a Prophet a Priest satisfying justice for us and a King conquering sin and death for us an Example in deed but more than an Example our Sacrifice and our Life and all in all 't is our Duty to walk as he walked to make him the pattern of our steps 1 Ioh. 2.6 But our comfort and salvation lyeth in this that he is the propitiation for our sins Verse 2. So in the first Chapter of that Epistle Verse 7. We are to walk in the Light as he is in the Light For all our walking we have need of that which followes that bears the great weight the Blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin and so still that glory which he possesseth in his own Person is the pledge of ours he is there for Vs. he lives to make intercession for us sayes the Apostle and I go to prepare a place for you sayes he himself We have in the words these two great points and in the same order as the words ly 1. The nature and quality of the sufferings of Jesus Christ And 2. The end of them In the expression of his suffering we are to consider 1. The commutation of the Persons he himself for us 2. The work undertaken and performed he bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1. The Act or sentence of the Law against the breach of it standing in force and Divine justice expecting satisfaction death was the necessary and inseperable consequent of sin If you say the Supream Majesty of God being accountable to none might have forgiven all without satisfaction We are not to contest that nor foolishly to offer to sound the bottomless deep of his absolute prerogative Christ implies in his Prayer that it was impossible that he could escape that cup But the impossibility is resolv'd into his Fathers will as the cause of it But this we may clearly see following the tract of the holy Scriptures our only safe way that this way wherein our salvation is contriv'd is most excellent and suitable to the greatness and goodness of God so full of wonders of wisdom and love that the Angels as our Apostle tells us before cannot forbear looking on it and admiring it for all their exact knowledge yet they still find it infinitly beyond their knowledge still in astonishment and admiration of what they see and still in search looking in to see more Those Cherubims still haveing their eyes fixed on this Mercy Seat Justice might indeed have siez'd on rebellious Man and laid the pronounc'd punishment on him mercy might have freely acquit him and pardon'd all But can we name any place where mercy and justice as relating to condemned Man could have met and shined joyntly in full aspect save only in Jesus Christ in whom indeed Mercy and truth met and righteousness and peace kissed each other Yea in whose Person the Parties concern'd that were at so great a distance met so near as nearer can not be imagin'd And not only was this the only way for the consistence of these two Justice and Mercy but take each of them severally and they could not have been in so full lustre as in this Gods just hatred of sin did out of doubt appear more in punishing his own only begotten Son for it than if the whole race of Mankind had suffer'd for it Eternally Again it raises the notion of Mercy to the highest that sin is not only forgiven us but for this end God's own coeâ—ernal Son is given to us and for us Consider
Conscience as others but sought my selfe and pleasd my self as they do and look't no further but that was when I was alive to those wayes but now truly I am dead to them and can you look for activity and conversation from a dead Man the pleasures of sin wherein I liv'd is still the same but I am not the same Are you such a Snake and a Fool sayes the Natural Man as to bear affronts and swallow them and say nothing Can you suffer to be abus'd so by such and such a wrong Indeed sayes the Christian again I could once have resented an injury as you or another and had somewhat of that you call high-heartedness when I was alive after your fashion but now that humour is not only something cool'd but 't is kill'd in me 't is cold dead as ye say and a greater Spirit I think than my own hath taught me another Lesson hath made me both deaf and dumb that way and hath given me a new vent and another language and another Party to speak to in such occasions see for this Psal. 38.12 13 14 15. They that seek my hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long What doth he in this cafe But I as a deaf man heard not and I was as a dumb Man that openeth not his mouth And why for in thee O Lord do I hope And for this deadness that you despise I have seen him that dyed for me who when he was reviled reviled not again This is the true Character of a Christian dead to sin but alas Where is this Christian to be found and yet thus is every one that truly partakes of Christ he is dead to sin really Hypocrites have a Historical kind of Death like this as Players in Tragedies Those Players have loose bags of Blood that receive the wound so the Hypocrite in some externals and it may be in that which is as near him as any outward thing his Purse he may suffer some Bloodshed of that for Christ but this death to sin is not a sounding fit that one may recover out of again the Apostle Rom. 6. addes that he is buried But this is an unpleasant Subject to talk thus of Death and Burial the very Name of Death in the softest sense it can have makes a sowr melancholly discourse It is so indeed if you take it alone if there were not for the life that 's lost a far better immediately following but so 't is here Living unto righteousness succeeds dying to sin That which makes natural death so affrightful the King of terrours as Iob calls it is mainly this faint belief and assurance of the Resurrection and glory to come And without this all mens moral resolves and discourses are too weak Cordialls against this fear they may set a good face on 't and speak big and so cover the fear they cannot cure but certainly they are a litle ridiculous that would perswade Men to be content to dy by reasoning from the necessity and unavoydableness of it which taken alone rather may beget a desperate discontent than a quiet compliance the very weakness of that Argument is that it is too strong Durum telum That of Company is phantastick it may please the imagination but satisfies not the judgement Nor are the miseries of life though somewhat Properer a full perswasive for Death the oldest decrepitest most diseased persons yet naturally fall not out with life but could have a mind to it still and the very truth is this the worst cottage any dwells in they are loath to go out till they know of a better And the reason why that which is so hideous to others was so sweet to Martyrs Heb. 11.35 And other godly Men that have heartily embrac'd death and welcom'd it though in very Terrible shapes was because they had firm assurance of Immortality beyond it the ugly Deaths head when the light of glory shines through the holes of it is comely and lovely To look upon death as Eternitie's birth day is that which makes it not only tolerable but aimiable Hic dies postremus aeterni natolis est Is the word I admire most of any Heathen Thus here the strongest inducement to this Death is the true notice and contemplation of this Life unto which it sets us over 't is most necessary to represent this for a natural Man hath as great an aversion every whit from this figurative Death this dying to sin as from natural Death and there is the more necessity of perswading him to this because his consent is necessary to 't no Man dies this Death to sin unwillingly although no Man is naturally wiling to it much of this death consists in a Man's consenting thus to dye And this is not only a lawful but a laudible yea a necessary self murder Mortify therefore your members which are upon the Earth Sayes the Apostle Col. 3.5 Now no sinner will be content to dy to sin if that were all but if it be passing to a more excellent Life then he gaineth and it were a folly not to seek this Death It was a strange power of Plato's discourse of the Souls Immortality that moved a young Man upon reading it to throw himself into the Sea that he might leap through it to that Immortality But truely were this Life of God this Life to righteousness and the excellency and delight of it known it would gain many minds to this death that steps into 't 1 There is a necessity of a new being to be the principle of new acting and motion as the Apostle sayes while ye served sin ye were free from righteousness so 't is while ye were alive to sin ye were dead to righteousness But there is a new breath of life from Heaven breathed on the Soul Then lives the Soul indeed when it is one with God and sees Light in his Light hath a Spiritual knowledge of him and therefore Soveraignely loves him and delights in his will and that is indeed to live unto righeousness which in a comprehensive sense takes in all the frame of a Christian life and all the duties of it towards God and towards Men. By this new Nature the very Natural motion of the soul so taken is obedience to God and walking in the paths of righteousness it can no more live in the habitude and wayes of sin than a Man can live under water Sin is not the Christians Element 't is too gross for his renew'd Soul as the water is for his body He may fall into 't but he cannot breath in it cannot take delight and continue to live in it but his delight is in the Law of the Lord that 's the walk that his Soul refreshes it self in he loves it entirely and loves it most where it most crosses the remainders of corruption that are in him he bends the strength of his Soul to please God aimes all at that it takes up his thoughts early and late
put upon him and by giving him up to be crucified and then cast into the grave and a stone to be roll'd upon this Stone which they had so rejected that it might appear no more and so thought themselves sure But even from thence did he arise and became the head of the corner The disciples themselves spake you know very doubtfully of their former hopes We believ'd this had been he that would have delivered Israel but he corrected their mistake first by his word shewing them the true method of that great work Ought not Christ to suffer first these things And so enter into glory and then really by making himself known to them risen from the dead When he was from these rejected and lay lowest then was he nearest his exaltation as Ioseph in the prison was nearest his preferment And thus is it with the Church of Christ when 't is brought to the lowest desperatest condition then is deliverance at hand it prospers and gains in the event by all the practices of Men against it And as this corner stone was fitted to be so by the very rejection even so is it with the whole bulidâ—ng it rises the higher the more Men seek to demolish it 3. Their unhappiness that believe not is express'd in the other word He is to them a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence because they will not be saved by him they shall stumble and fall and be broken to pieces on him as it is in Esay and in the Evangelists But how is this is he that came to save become a destroyer of Men he whose name is salvation proves he destruction to any Not he in himself his primary and proper use is the former to be a foundation for souls to build and rest upon but they that in stead of building upon him will stumble and fall on him what wonder being so firm a stone though they be broken by their fall thus we see the mischief of unbelief that as other sins disable the Law it disables the very Gospel to save us and turns life it self into death to us And this is the misery not of a few but of many in Israel many that hear of Christ by the preaching of the Gospel shall lament that ever they heard that sound and shall wish to have liv'd and dyed without it finding so great an accession to their misery by the neglect of so great salvation They are said to stumble at the word because the things that are therein testified concerning Christ they labour not to understand and prize aright but either altogether slight them and account them foolishness or misconceive them and prevert them The Jews stumbled at the meaness of Christ's birth and life and the ignominy of his death not judging of him according to the Scriptures and we in another way think we have some kind of belief that he is the Savior of the world yet not making the Scripture the rule of our thoughts concerning him many of us undo our selves and stumble and break our necks upon this Rock mistaking Christ and the way of believing looking on him as a Saviour at large and judging that enough not endeavouring to make him ours and to embrace him upon the termes of that New-Covenant whereof he is Mediator Whereunto also they were appointed This the Apostle addes for the further satisfaction of Believers in this point how 't is that so many reject Christ and stumble at him Telling them plainly that the secret purpose of God is accomplish'd in this having determin'd to glorify his justice on impenitent sinners as he shews his rich mercy in them that believe Here it were easier to lead you into a deep than to lead you forth again I will rather stand on the shoar and silently admire it than enter into it This is certain that the thoughts of God are all no less just in themselves than deep and unsoundable by us His justice appears clear in that Mans destruction is alwayes the fruit of his own sin But to give causes of Gods decrees without himself is neither agreeable with the primitive being of the nature of God nor with the doctrine of the Scriptures this is sure that God is not bound to give us further account of these things and we are bound not to ask it Let these two words as S. Austin sayes answer all What art thou O man And O the depth Our only sure way to know that our names are not in that black line and to be perswaded that he hath chosen us to be saved by his Son is this to find that we have chosen him and are built on him by faith which is the fruit of his love that first chuseth us And that we may read in our esteem of him He is precious or your honour The difference is small you account him your glory and your gain he is not only precious to you but preciousness it self He is the thing that you make acount of your Jewel that if you keep though you be robb'd of all besides you know your selves rich enough To you that Believe Faith is absolutely necessary to make this due Estimat of Christ. 1. The most excellent things while their worth is undiscern'd and unkown affect us not Now faith is the proper seeing faculty of the soul in relation to Christ that inward light must be infus'd from above to make Christ visible to us without it though he is beautiful yet we are blind and therefore cannot love him for that beauty but by faith we are inabled to see him that is fairer than the Children of Men yea to see in him the glory of the only begotten Son of God and then it is not possible but to account him precious to bestow the entire affection of our hearts upon him And if any say to the Soul what is thy beloved more than another it willingly layes hold on the question and is glad of an opportunity to extoll him 2. Faith as it is that which discernes Christ so it alone appropriates him makes him our own And these are the two reasons of esteeming and affecting any thing it s own worth and our interest in it and faith begets this esteem of Christ by both 1. It discovers to us his excellencies that we could not see before 2. It makes him ours gives us possession of whole Christ all that he hath and is As it is faith that commends Christ so much and describes his comeliness in that song and withal that word is the voyce of faith that expresses propriety My Wellbeloved is mine and I am his and these together make him most precious to the soul having once possession of him then it looks upon all his sufferings as endur'd particularly for it and the benefit of them all as belonging to it self sure it will say can it chuse but account him precious that suffer'd shame that he might not be ashamed and suffered death that he might not die that
took that bitter cup of the father's wrath and drunk it out that he might be free from it Think not that you believe if your hearts be not taken up with Christ if his love do not possesse your soul so that nothing is precious to you in respect of him if you cannot despise and trample upon all advantages that either you have or would have for Christ and count them with the great Apostle loss and dung in comparison of him And if you do esteem him labour for increase of Faith that you may esteem him more for as Faith growes so will he still be more precious to you And if you would have it grow turn that Spiritual Eye frequently to him that 's the proper object of it for even they that are Believers may possibly abate of their love and esteem of Christ by suffering Faith to ly dead within them and not using it in beholding and applying of Christ And the World or some particular vanities may insensibly creep in and get into the heart and cost them much paines ere they can be thrust out again but when they are daily reviewing those excellencies that are in Christ which first perswaded their hearts to love him and discovering still more and more of them his Love will certainly grow and will chase away those follies that the World dotes upon as unworthy to be taken notice of Verse 9. But ye are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that ye should shew forth the Praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light IT is matter of very much both consolation and instruction to Christians to know their own Estate what they are as they are Christians This Epistle is much and often upon this point for both those ends both that the reflecting on their dignities in Christ may uphold them with comfort under suffering for him and may lead them in doing and walking as becomes such a condition Here it hath been represented to us by a building a Spiritual Temple and by a Priesthood conform to it The former is confirm'd and illustrated by testimonies of Scripture in the preceeding Verses In this the latter in these words tho 't is not expressly cited yet 't is clear that the Apostle here hath reference to Exod. 19.5 6. where this dignity of Priesthood together with the other titles here express'd is ascrib'd to all the chosen People of God 'T is there a promise made to the Nation of the Jewes but under the condition of obedience and therefore is most fitly here apply'd by the Apostle to the believing Jews to whom particularly he writes 'T is true that the external Priesthood of the Law is abolish'd by the coming of this great high Priest Jesus Christ being the body of all those shaddowes But this promis'd Dignity of Spiritual Priesthood is so far from being nulled by Christ that it is altogether dependant on him and therefore fails in those that reject Christ although they be of that Nation to which this Promise was made But it holds good in all of all Nations that believe and particularly sayes the Apostle 't is verified in you You that are believing Jewes by receiving Christ you receive withal this dignity As the Legal Priesthood was remov'd by Christs fulfilling all that it prefigur'd so he was rejected by them that were at his coming in possession of that Office as the standing of that their Priesthood was inconsistent with the revealing of Jesus Christ so they that were then in it being ungodly Men their carnal minds had a kind of antipathy against him though they pretended themselves builders of the Church and by their calling ought to have been so yet they threw away the foundation stone that God had chosen and design'd and in rejecting it manifest that they themselves are rejected of God but on the contrary You that have laid your soules on Christ by believing have this your chusing him as a certain evidence that God hath chosen you to be his peculiar People yea to be so dignified as to be a Kingly Priesthood through Christ. We have here 1. To Consider the estate of Christians in the words that here describe it 2. The opposition of it to the state of Unbelievers 3. The end of it A chosen Generation Psal. 24. The Psalmist there speaks first of Gods universal Soveraignty then of his peculiar choyce The earth is the Lords But there is a select company appointed for this holy Mountain describ'd and then clos'd thus This is the generation of them that seek him Thus Deut. 10.14 15. So Exod. 19.5 Whence this is taken for all the Earth is mine and that Nation which is a figure of the Elect of all Nations Gods peculiar beyond all others in the World As Men that have great variety of Possessions yet have usually their special delight in some one beyond all the rest and chuse to recide most in it and bestow most expence on it to make it pleasant Thus doth the Lord of the whole earth chuse out to himself from the rest of the World a number that are a chosen generation Chusing here is the work of effectual calling or severing of Believers from the rest for it signifies a difference in their present estate as the other words joyned with it But this election is altogether conform to that of Gods Eternal Decree and is no other but the execution or performance of it Gods framing of this his building just according to the Idea of it which was in his mind and purpose before all time The drawing forth and investing of such into this Christian this Kingly Priesthood whose names were expresly written up for it in the Book of life Generation This imports them to be of one race or stock as the Israelites who were by outward calling the chosen of God were all the seed of Abraham according to the flesh So they that believe in the Lord Jesus are Children of the Promise and all of them by their new birth one People or Generation they are of one Nation belonging to the same blessed Land of Promise all Citizens of the new Ierusalem yea all Children of the same family whereof Jesus Christ the root of Iesse is the stock who is the great King and the great high Priest and thus they are a Royal Priesthood there is no devolving of his Royalty or Priesthood on any other as it is in himself for his proper dignity is Supreme and incommunicable and there is no succession in his Order he lives for ever and is Priest for ever Psal. 110.4 and King for ever too Psal. 45.6 but they that are descended from him do derive from him by that new original this double dignity in that way that they are capable of it to be likewise Kings and Priests as he is both They are of the Seed-Royal and of the holy seed of the Priesthood in as much as they partake of a new