sinnes he quickned us but they are put in in the translation because they must be understood to make the full sence In the words consider these things First of all heere the Apostle puts them in mind of their former condition And then he sets downe in particular what it was They were dead in trespasses and sins Then he tells them wherein they were dead what was the cause of their death and the element wherein they were dead in trespasses and sins Lastly not in one trespasse and in one sin but in trespasses and sins And then to speake a little of quickning to take it out of the 5. verse You hath he quickned There is the benefit with the condition That which Jaime at is especially to shew our estate by nature and how we are raised out of that I shall touch the points briefly as I have propounded them Saint Paul here first minds them of their former condition you were dead in trespasses and sinnes For contraries give lustre one to another and it magnifies grace mervailously to consider the opposite condition Hee that never knew the height and bredth and depth of his naturall corruption will never be able to conceive the height and breadth and depth of Gods infinite love in Iesus Christ. Saint Paul had deepe thoughts of both as ever man had therefore he could never enter into the argument of abasing man and extolling the love of God in Christ that he could satisfie himselfe but his spirit carries him from one thing to another till he set it out to the full And every one of us should be skilfull in this double mystery the mystery of the corruption of nature that is unsearchable there is corruption in the heart that none knows but God only and we must plow with his heifer that carries a light into the hidden parts of the soule and discovers corruption there is a mystery of that as well as of the Gospell of our deliverance out of that cursed estate from the guilt and thraldome of it I doe but touch it onely to shew the scope of the Apostle Now besides the consideration of it for this end to magnifie the grace of God and to understand what our former estate was the better there are many other ends As to stirre up our thankefullnesse when we consider from what we are delivered to glorifie God the more There is no soule so enlarged to glorifie God as that soule that hath large thoughts of its estate by nature and that estate by nature made worse by custome our second ill nature and bondage voluntary considering Gods mercy in delivering and freeing us from all sinnes and trespasses this will make us thankefull indeed And it is a spring of love to God when we consider what great sinnes we have forgiven usâ— it will make us humble all the daies of our lives and pitifull to others but this may be handled fitter from another portion of Scripture To come therefore to the words Who were dead in trespasses and sins Their condition is they were dead the specification of their death in sinnes and trespasses and not in one but in sinnes and trespasses Here I might digresse and tell you a discourse of life and death at large every man knowes by experience what they are In a word death is a privation of life What is life and whence ariseth it Not to speake of the life of God God is life and Christ is life but of lâ—fe in us It ariseth from the soule first there is a soule and then a life from the union with that soule and then there is a secret kindled motion and operation outward wheresoever life is Life in man I say springâ— from the soule The soule hâ—th a double life a life in it selfe and a life it communicates to the body The life in it selfe it liveth when it is out of the body it hath an essentiall life of its owne but the life of the body is derived from its union with the soule and from that union comes lively motion and operation The spirituall life of the soule is by the Spirit of Christ when our soule hath union with the quickning Spirit of Christ and by Christs Spirit is joyned to Christ and by Christ to God who is life it selfe and the first fountaine of all life then we have a spirituall life The Spirit is the soule of our soules and this spiritual soule this Spirit in us is not idle wherever life is there is motion and operation inward and outward suteable and proportionable to the fountaine of life the Spirit of God himselfe So on the contrary it is with death what is death Death is nothing else but a seperation from the cause of life from that from whence life springs The body having a communicated life from the soule when the soule is departed it must needs be dead Now death take it in a spirituall sence it is either the death of law our sentence as we say of a man when he is condemned he is a dead man Or death in regard of disposition and then the execution of that death of sentence in bodily death and in eternall death afterward Now naturally we are dead in all these sences First by the sin of Adam in whose loynes we were we were all damned there was a sentence of death upon all Adams rotten race as we say damnati antequam nati we were damned before we were borne as soone as we had a being in our mothers wombe by reason of our communion with Adam in that first sinne And then there is corruption of nature as a punishment of that first sinne that is a death as we shall see afterward a death of al the powers we cannot act and moove according to that life that we had at the first we cannot thinke we cannot will we cannot affect we cannot doe any thing that savours of spirituall life Hereupon comes a death of sentence upon us being damned both in Adams loynes and in originall sinne and likewise adding actuall sinnes of our owne if we had no actuall sinne it were enough for the sentence of death to passe upon us but this aggravates the sentence We are dead in law as well as in disposition This death in law is called guilt a binding over to eternall death it breeds horrour and terrours in the soule for the present which are the flashes of Hell-fire and expectation of worse even of the second death for the time to come which is an eternall seperation from God for ever an eternall lying under the wrath and curse of God in body and soule after they are united at the resurrection because wee would sinne eternally if we did live eternally here and no satisfaction being made for man after death there must be an eternall sentence and punishment upon him a terrible condition if we were not afraid of the first death we should be afraid of the
second death that followes wee are all dead in trespasses and sins Now what is the reason of it why we are dead First of all the ground of it is by sin we are seperated from the fountaine of life therfore we are all dead Secondly by sinne we lost that first originall righteousnesse which was comproduced with Adams soule when Adams soule was infused it was cloathed with all graces with originall righteousnesse the stampe of God was on his soule it was connaturall to that estate and condition to have that excellent gratious disposition that he had Now because we all lost that primative Image and glory of our soules we are dead We are dead likewise not onely in regard of the time past but for the time to come No man by nature hath fellowship with the second Adam till he be grafted into him by Faith which is a meere supernaturall thing In these regards every man naturally is dead Nay sinne it selfe it is not onely a cause of death of temporall death as it is a curse and so of eternall death of that bitter sentence and adjudging of us to both that we feele in terrours of conscience and expect after But sinne it selfe is an intrinsicall death Why Because it is nothing but a seperation of the soule from the chiefe good which is God and a cleaving to some creature For there is no sin but it carries the soule to the changeable creature in delight and affection to its pride and vanity one thing or other Sinne is a turning from God to the creature and that very turning of the soule is death every sinfull soule is dead In these and the like considerations you may conceave we are all dead And you hath hee quickned who were dead c. Let us consider a little what a condition this is to be dead in trespasses and sinnes Not to speake of the danger of the death of sentence when a man by the state of nature lies under the wrath of God that hanges over his head and is ready to crush him every moment But to speake of that death that seizeth upon our dispositions wee are dead by nature And what doth death worke upon the body unactivenesse stiffnesse so when the Spirit of God is severed from the soule it is cold and unactive and stiffe Therefore those that finde no life to that that is good no nor no power nor strength it is a signe that they have not yet felt the power of the quickning Spirit when they heare coldly and receive the Sacrament coldly as if it were a dead piece of worke and businesse when they doe anything that is spiritually good coldly and forced not from an inward principle of love to God that might heate and warme their hearts but they goe about it as a thing that must be done and thinke to satisfie God with an outward dead action Againe death makes the body unlovely Abraham would buy a piece of ground that hee might bury his dead out of his sight hee could not indure the sight of his owne beloved wife when shee was dead Death takes away the beauty and the honour that God hath put upon the body so that it is not honourable to those that behold it after death The Image of God stamped upon the soule of man by the Spirit it is the glory of a man after sin it is an unlovely soule We are all deprived of the glory of God as S. Paul saith And not onely so but there is a loathsomenesse contrary to that honour that was in it before Though all art and skill be used that may be to set out a dead body with flowers or whatsoever you will to please the fancy of the living yet it is but a dead body and the stench will be above all other sweete smells So let any naturall man be as witty and as learned and as great and as rich as you will or as he can be set out with all these ornaments and flowers yet hee is but a carrion a loathsome creature to God if his soule be seperated from God and inwardly cleave to the creature If he have not a new heart he is abhominable and loathsome to God and to all that have the Spirit of God A dead soule is abhominable to all Gods sences the Scripture thus familiarly condescends unto us hee will not behold him hee lookes upon the proud afarre off And hee smells no savour from their performances the very sacrifice of the wicked is abhominable he lookes upon them as wee doe upon a dunghill as a loathsome thing The prayers of the wicked are an abhomination to God he turnes away his face from them hee cannot indure them And for his eares hee will not heare the prayers of the wicked And for feeling he is wearied with their sinnes as a cart is with sheaves Nay he is wearied with their very good actions as it is Isa. 1.8 Whatsoever wicked men performe it is abhominable to God hee cannot behold them hee cannot indure them hee is burdened with their sinnes and those also that have the Spirit of God in them as farre as they see the foulenesse of their sins they loath them But herein a wicked man agrees with a dead body a dead body is not loathsome to its selfe So take a carnall man hee pranks up himselfe hee thinkes himselfe a jolly man especially when hee is set out in his flowers those things that hee beggs of the creatures he sees not his loathsomenesse hee thinkes himselfe a brave man in the world in the place he lives in and hee hath base conceits of others of God and all things of God Dead men are not loathsome to themselves because they want sences As in a prison the noisome savour is not offensive to them because they are all acquainted with it it hath ceazed upon and possessed their sences So wicked men they smell no ill savour and sent one from another because they are all dead persons one dead man is not loathsome to another as a company of prisoners they are not offended with the noysomenesse of one another Againe we sever dead persons from the rest so indeed a dead soule as he is severed from God so ae jure he should be severed from the company of others there should be a seperation and as soone as the life of grace is begun there will be a seperation betweene the living and the dead Let the dead follow the dead and bury the dead saith our Saviour in the Gospell Where bodily death is it deprives of all sences there is no use of any either of the eye or tongue c. it makes them speechlesse So he that is spiritually a dead man he can speake nothing that is savoury and good of spirituall things if he doth he is out of his element if he speak of good things he speakes with the spirit of another man if he speake of the writings of
of his when he rose againe in his resurrection the acquittance from our sinnes was sealed thereby we know that the debt is paid because he rose againe let us see an acquittance of all in the resurrection And if we thinke of the glory that God hath reserved for us thinke of it in Christ see Christ glorious first and we in him See Christ at the right hand of God and wee in him carry Christ along with us in our contemplations We are quickned with Christ Christ takes away all the deaths J spake of before Christ by his resurrection tooke away the death of sentence he rose againe for our justification so that now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. So againe in regard of that deadly disposition that is in us Christ quickens us in regard of that by infusing grace by his Spirit for Christ is an universall principle of all life Now Christ by his death pacifying his Father obteined the Spirit and by that Spirit which he infuseth as a principle of life he more and more quickens our nature and makes it better and better till it be perfect in Heaven As Adam was a principle of death and the more we live in the state of nature the worse we are til we come to hel So when we are in Christ the Spirit sanctifies us more and more till he have brought us to perfection And as we are quickned from the death of sentence and of disposâ—tion so we are quickned in regard of that hope of glory that we have For now in Christ we are in Heaven already and though there come bodily death betweene yet notwithstanding that is but a fitting us for glory the body is but fitted and molded in the grave for glory This very consideration will quicken a man in death my head is in Heaven above water therefore the body shall not bee long under water And Faith makes that that is to come present and affects the soule comfortably Christ is in Heaven already and J am there in Christ and J shall be there as verily as he is there I am there de jure de facto I shall be there in these considerations Christ quickens us Therefore saith St. Peter Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath begotten us againe through the resurrection of Christ from the dead to a lively hope of an inheritance immortall c. We are begotten againe to this inheritance by the resurrection of Christ who is risen againe to quicken himselfe and all his The consideration of this should affect us as it did Saint Peter to blesse God Now all this quickning power ariseth from our union with Christ we must have a beeing in Christ before we can have comfort by death with him or by rising with him Our union with Christ springs from faith faith is cherished by the Sacrament the Word and Sacrament beget faith faith unites us to Christ union with Christ makes us partake of his death and the benefits of it and of his resurrection and ascention to glory therefore the more we attend upon this ordinance of the Word and the seale of the Word the Sacrament the more our faith is increased for God invites us to communion and fellowship with Christ and all his benefits and favours and the more wee find faith assured of Christ the more union and fellowship wee have with Christ and the more wee seele that the more Christ is a quickning Spirit quickning us with the life of grace here and the hope of Glory afterward Therefore let us comfortably attend upon the ordinance of God sanctified for this purpose to strengthen this our union with Christ. FINIS THE FRVITFVLL LABOVR FOR Eternall Foode In two Sermons By the late Reverend and Learned Divine RICHARD SIDS Doctor in Divinity Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at Grayes-Inne ESAY 55.2 Why doe you spend money for that which is not Bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Hearken diligently unto mee and eate yee that which is good and let your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse JOHN 6.55 For my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drink indeed LONDON Printed by G.M. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford 1639. THE FRVITFVLL LABOVR FOR Eternall Food IOHN 6.27 Labour not for the meate that perisheth but for the meate that indureth to everlasting life which the Sonne of man shall give you for him hath God the Father Sealed OUr blessed Saviour was mighty in word and deed witnesse what he did what he taught and both in this Chapter What he did hee fed many with a few loaves he came over the water without any helpe What he taught witnesse from this part of the Chapter to the end The words are part of an Answer of our blessed Saviour to his hypocriticall followers that followed him for the Loaves and not for any confirmation of their faith by his miracles for upon occasion of those two miracles mentioned in the former part of the Chapter they followed him and perceiving that hee was miraculously come over the water they began to aske him Rabbi how camest thou heere Our Saviour perceives that they meant to complement with him he sees with what hearts they came after him therefore as most befitting the Exigence of their state because they were hypocrites he answers not to their question but to their persons Verily verily yee seeke mee not because of the miracles but because yee eate of the loaves and were filled Labour not for the meate that perisheth c. The Verses together containe a Conviction and an Injunction or direction A Conviction and that is serious and loving Serious Verily verily I say unto you you seeke mee not because of the miracles but because yee eate of the loaves c. Hee convinceth them of their fault of their hypocrisie of their wicked and carnall aimes in holy businesse they come flattering of Christ but as hee was too holy to flatter so he was too wise to be flattered hee deales therefore directly with them thoroughly convinceth them of their hypocrisie and corrupt aimes in following after him We are all naturally prone to these carnall ends in holy actions we must take heed with what mindes with what hearts we come before God whose eyes are brighter then the Sun who regards not so much what we doe as with what mindes we doe it As his conviction is Serious so it is Loving for with the conviction or reproofe followes the injunction or direction Labour not for the meate that perisheth In the Injunction there are two things First he shewes them what they should not follow he takes them off from labouring after the meate that perisheth And then secondly hee instructs them in what they should follow what they should seeke after But labour for the meate that indureth to everlasting life c. There are Arguments in both In the first there is an Argument disswasive and
Leprosie or some other contagious disease those that were tainted of them were separated from the Congregation seven daies or some set time So it is with sin especially the sins of this people they had sinned grievously and were severed from their land not seven daies but seventy yeares the leprosie and filthinesse of their sins and lives was such Indeed sinne especially the sinne of nature it is a leprosie contagious pestilentiall and as a leprosie it spreads over all the parts and powers of body and soule Take a man that is not changed he hath a leprous eye full of adulterie hee hath a leprous uncircumcised â—are aske him how he judgeth of discourses and Sermons hee relisheth nothing but that which is frothy and vaine plaine substantiall solid discourses either in hearing or reading will not downe with him hee hath a leprous judgement his eyes and eares and tongue are defiled and corrupt he is vile and abhominable in his speeches he is uncircumcised in all all are uncleane all his powers are defiled by nature All the washings in the Law did signifie this the corruption and defilement of our natures which needs another washing which they tipified a washing by the blood and Spirit of Christ. Christ came by water and blood both in Justification and Sanctification There is a Fountaine opened for Iudah and Ierusalem to wash in All those washings shewed a defilement spirituall that needed a spirituall washing This sinne is a leprous contagious sinne therefore by nature we may all crie as the Leper uncleane uncleane the best of us may take up that complaint as farre as we are not renewed A leprous man defiled the things that he touched so it is with sinne till it be forgiven we defile every thing A proud man especially when he is set out in his bravery he thinkes himselfe a jolly man a brave creature alas he is a filthy creature not onely in himselfe but in every thing he puts his hand unto he taints and defiles every thing even civill actions hee sinnes in eating and drinking not that they in the substance of them are sinnes but he staines every thing for he forgets God in them he forgets himselfe exceedingly and he returnes not thankes to God so in morall civill actions much more in religious he defiles himselfe in every thing he is defiled to all things and all things are defiled to him this is our state by nature We are all as an uncleane thing This should enforce a necessity of cleansing our selves in the blood of Christ that is in the death of Christ who hath satisfied the justice of God Our natures are so foule in regard of the guilt and staine that the blood of God-man that is the satisfactory death of God-man was necessary to breed reconciliation and attonement betweene God and us And the blood of Christ which by the eternall Spirit offered himselfe must purge our consciences c. our consciences will not otherwise be pacified and cleansed in regard of guilt but will clamour and crie still much lesse will God be appeased neither God nor conscience will be pacified but by the blood of him who by the eternall Spirit offered up himselfe and then it will in regard of the guilt and staine then God and conscience will both be appeased Therefore in Zach. 13. There is a Fountaine opened for Iuda and Ierusalem to wash in And The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sinne Blood is of a defiling nature but the blood of Christ cleanseth because it is a satisfactory blood he died and was a sacrifice as a publique person for us all Then againe considering that we are all defiled besides this cleansing from the guilt of sinne let us get our natures cleansed by the Spirit of Christ more and more wee are all defiled And take heed of those that are defiled take heede of sinners who would willingly lie with a leprous person yet notwithstanding for matter of marriage and intimate society there is a little conscience made men converse with leprous company they joyne in the most intimate society with those that are leprous in their judgements The life of nature we know and are carefull to avoid what may impaire it but it is a signe we have not the life of grace begun in us because we doe not valew it if we had we would be more carefull to preserve it and to take heeed of contagious company Who would goe to the Pest-house or to one that hath Lord have mercy upon us on the doore none but a mad man he might doe soe and surely those that joyne with swearers and drunkards and filthy persons and goe to filthy places and houses as many doe the more shame for them they think they have no soules nor no account to make 〈◊〉 goe to these places and infect themselves It is a signe they have no life of grace all companies are alike to them Is this strength of grace No they have no life of grace they have nothing to loose for if they had the life of grace they would preserve it better Sinne is a filthy thing more filthy then the leprosie nay then the plague it selfe for the plague or leprosie makes but the bodie loathsome but the sinne that we cherish and are loath to heare of makes the soule loathsome The one makes unfit for the company of men but the other sinne and corruption and lusts unfit us for the Kingdome of God for Heaven for life or death therefore it is worse The leprosie of the body makes a man not a whit odious to God but the leprosie of the soule makes us hatefull to him We may have more intimate communion with God in the plague then out of the plague because God supplies the want of outward comforts but in sinne we can have no comfortable communion and society with God therefore this plague of the soule is many waies worse then the pestilence But we want faith God hath not opened our eyes to see that that we shall see and know ere long and it is happie if wee consider it in time To conclude this point concerning the corruption of nature take Davids course Psal. 51. when sinnefull actions come from us or unsavourie words or beastly thoughts or unchast and noysome desires that grieve the Spirit of God let us go to the Fountaine alas my nature is leprous as farre as it is not purged I was conceived in sinne my mother brought mee forth in iniquity The more we take occasion every day to see and observe the corruption of our nature the lesse it is and we cannot better take occasion then upon every actuall sinne to run to the fountaine the filthy puddle from whence all comes and be more humbled for that then for particular sinnes It is a mistake in men they are ashamed of an action of injustice c but they should goe to their nature and thinke I
that hath not learned the first lesson in the Gospel to deny himselfe he is a wretched slave to the Devill in his best part and power his lusts imprison his will and affections his wit that should devise how hee should be happy for for eternitie it is onely a drudge to his base lusts There are a company of men that are the shame and blemish of the Gospel that set their wits a worke onely how to devise to satisfie their base lusts and then the issue and conclusion of all this is eternall misery and in the meane time the expectation of misery in terrours of conscience This is the estate of every man till he be translated by the Spirit of God to a better condition in Christ that he spends out his time in a base and miserable thraldome worse then the thraldome of the Israelites in Egypt or in Babylon And it is so much the more fearefull because men are insensible of it like Bedlams that make nothing of their chaines that laugh in their chaines A franticke man when he is bound in chaines he laughs when they that are about him weepe at his misery so you have men frolicking in sin they will sweare at liberty and besot themselves at liberty and corrupt their consciences even for base trifles they thinke they are in no bondage they doe all wondrous chearefully and well when as indeed the more chearefully and readily any man performes the base service of sinne the more he is in bondage Freedome is opposite to bondage notwithstanding such is the nature of sinne that the more freely we doe it the more we are bound because the more freedome we have the more we are intangled wee runne into guilt upon guilt till after guilt comes execution an eternall separation from the presence of God and an adjudging to eternall torments for ever So that it is a false judgement that the world hath they thinke great men happy men why They doe as they list I they may doe so and oft times they take the liberty to doe so they will be under no Lawes they are so farre from obeying the Law of God that they are loath to be hampred with the Lawes of the State or with any Lawes but they will be above all A miserable condition why the more will a man hath in evill the more miserable for the more freely and with lesse opposition hee tangleth himselfe let his place be never so great the deeper he sinks in rebellion and the deeper hee sinks into guilt upon guilt which will all come to a reckoning at the houre of death and day of Judgement So the men that we admire and envie most out of simplenesse and want of judgement they are the most miserable creatures in the world if they be out of Christ and have not grace for they have nature let loose in them without restraint and nature being under the captivitie of sinne becomes out of measure sinfull in such The lesse a man is curbed either from Lawes above him or the Law within him to check him the more wretched man he is for the deeper hee goes in rebellion and sinne the deeper his torment shall be afterward Great persons have a great priviledge what is that they shall be greatly tormented that is all the priviledge that I know if they be naught Those that shake off all bonds any earthly priviledge and prerogative is so farre from exempting them from misery that it makes them more miserable for unlesse they have grace to use those things that might be an advantage to better things they sinke deeper and deeper into sinne and so into terrours of conscience first or last and by consequence to damnation Oh it is a fearefull condition to be the greatest Monarch in the world and not to be in Christ and under the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ they are the objects of pitty above all kinde of men to truely judicious soules that know out of Gods truth and by the light of the Spirit what is to be judged of the state of men You see then what kind of misery it is that naturall men are under being under the Law of sinne To declare it a little further for men will hardly thinke it is such a bondage to be under sinne Therefore I beseech you doe but consider how sinne tyrannizeth where it gets strength see it in some instances The covetous worldly man that is under the Law of that lust he hath the law of other lusts but that is predominant see how it tyrannizeth it takes away his rest the use of Gods blessings the good things he hath given him to enjoy it makes him in thrall to the creature Wee see it in carnall pleasure Amnon when he lusted after his sister Thamar it tooke away his rest And how doth this base affection tyrannize in some men it makes them forget their bodies so that they overthrow their health and hasten death temporall it hurts the naturall man it makes them forget their credit it makes them forget their soules it makes them stinke by living in that carnall noysome sinne The judicious Heathen were sensible of it by the strength of naturall judgment yet sinne where it is in any strength uncurbed it so tyrannizeth that it makes men forget both health and life and credite and estate in this world that they come to nothing What should I speake of forgetting life eternall and damnation they have no faith to beleeve that but such is the tyrannie of sinne that it makes them forget things sensible that by experience after they see how dearely they have bought their base pleasures with the losse of credite and health and comfort with the losse of the estate that God hath trusted them withall in this world Take a man that is under the base Law of ambition a proud person see how it tyrannizeth over him it makes him forget blood and kinred all the bonds of nature he will kill his brethren to make his way as you know in our owne Stories such Tyrants if there were not Stories enow in this kind daily experience shewes it Where the Law of ambition and pride raignes it makes the heart wherein this Tyrant sets up his Throne to forget all bonds whatsoever of nature and justice You know whose speech it was If the Law must be violated it must be for a Kingdome but men will doe it for farre lesse we see what men will doe for a base place to command others in this world when they are conscious of their owne ill courses and commanding corruptions and all to give way to the base affection of ambition A touch is enough of these things for experience witnesseth and goes along with me All men that are not in Christ they have some predominant sinne either some base sinne or some more refined sinne and lust that keepes them from Christ and salvation and this tyrannizeth over them And this
is the nature of this Tyrant sinne it hath such possession of a man till he be got out of it and be in Christ that it takes away the sight of it selfe it hinders the knowledge of it selfe it puts out a mans eyes For that whereby a man should judge of corruption it is corrupt it selfe The wisedome of a man is death it is enmitie to God The wit that he hath that should discerne of his base courses it tangles him more and more to his owne lusts so that wit and wisedome the highest part of the soule it is imprisoned by base affections and that power that should discerne corruption it is set on worke to satisfie corruption What is the wit of a man that is not in Christ occupied about all his life time it is nothing but a drudge and a slave to devise meanes to satisfie his base lusts Take a worldly man hee is exceeding witty to contrive wordly plots and businesse though he be a dunce and a sot in matters that are spirituall in his owne tract and course hee hath a shrewd wit why because his lusts to the world they whet his wit So we see the best thing in man now is inthralled to sinne his very wisedome it selfe therefore it is enmity to God Every man hath some Herodias some sinne or other that hee is in bondage to till he be in Christ. He cannot in a like measure be given and inthralled to all sinnes it is unnecessary because one sinne serveth another many sinnes serve one great one Corruption doth not runne in all streames in one equality but it runnes amaine one way unchecked and uncontrolled and unmortified in all men that are not in Christ and subdues the soule to it selfe that it can devise and plot for nothing but to satisfie that base lust This is the state of man by nature But some will say it is not our state and condition wee are baptized and receive the Sacrament and heare Sermons and read good bookes and therefore we are not under sinne But saith the Apostle His servants ye are to whom ye obey you may know the state of your service and subjection by the course of your life And as Christ saith to the Iewes Iohn 8. they bragged that they were free alas proud people they were neither free for soule nor state for they were under the Romanes They thought they were free because they were Abrahams children were they not in captivity to the Egyptians and under the Babylonians and in present captivity under the Romanes yet they forget themselves out of pride If the Sonne make you free ye are free indeed but because they were in a sinfull course they were slaves of sinne So it is no matter what priviledges men are under that they receive the Sacrament and are baptized and live in the Church c. His servants yeare whom yee obey If there be prevayling lusts that sit up their throne and tyrannize in our hearts and set our wits on worke to devise how to satisfie them more then to please God it is no matter what priviledges we have it is no matter whose livery we weare but whom we serve We may weare Gods Livery that shall be pulled over our heads afterwards and we be uncased that it shall appeare that we are the Devils servants under the profession of Christ. There is no man that is not in Christ that denies his corrupt nature any thing if revenge bid him take revenge he will if he can if he doe not it is no thankes to him but to the Lawes If any sinne rise in the heart all the parts of the body and powers of the soule are ready weapons to this tyrant to keepe a man in slavery As if anger and wrath keepe a man in bondage you shall have it in his countenance his hand will be ready to execute it his feet will be ready to carry him to revenge If it be a proud heart that a man is kept under you shall have it in his lookes and expressions outward If it be the base affection of lust you shall have adultery in the eye an unchast and uncircumcised eare and filthy rotten language Men you see upon all occasions are ready to execute the commands of these tyrannicall lusts in some kinde or other Therefore never talke of thy freedome when lusts are raised up within thee either ascending from thine owne corruption or cast in by Satan and so joyning with thy heart presently thy tongue will speake wickedly and thine eyes and lookes and countenance shew that there is a naughty heart within and the whole man is ready to execute it further then a man is curbed by Law or respect to his reputation or the like which is no thankes to him Yet a man cannot act the part of a civill man so well but the corruption of his vile heart will betray it selfe in his lookes or language one time or other this tyrant will breake forth Therefore let us looke to our hearts and courses for if we be not in Christ we are under the Law of sin And of Death We are not onely under the law of sinne but also of death Now there is a death in this world the separation of the soule from the body but that is not so much meant here for when we are in Christ we are not free from this death But there a is worse death which is a separation of the soule from the favour and love of God and from the sanctifying and comforting Spirit of God when the Spirit of God doth not comfort and sanctifie the soule it is a death For as the soule is the life of the body the body hath but a communicated life from the union it hath with the soule The soule hath a life of its owne when it is out of the body but the body hath its life from the soule so it is with the soule when there is an estrangement of the soule from the Spirit of God Christ sanctifying and comforting and chearing it then there is a death of the soule the soule can no more act any thing that is savingly and holily good then the body can be without the soule And as the body without the soule is a noysome odious carcasse offensive in the eyes of its dearest friends so the soule without the Spirit of Christ quickening and seasoning it and putting a comelinesse and beautie upon it it is odious All the cloathes and flowers you put upon a dead body cannot make it but a stinking carkasse so all the morall vertues and all the honours in this world put upon a man out of Christ it makes him not a spirituall living soule he is but a loathsome carrion a dead carkasse in the sight of God and of all that have the Spirit of God for hee is under death he is starke and stiffe unable to stirre or moove to any duty whatsoever he hath no sense
nor motion Though such men live a common naturall civill life and walke up and downe yet they are dead men to God and to a better life The world is full of dead men that are dead while they are alive as S. Paul speakes of the Widow that lives in pleasures A fearefull estate if we had Spirituall eyes to see it and thinke of it But then after the death of the soule in this world there is another degree of spirituall death which is when the soule leaves the body then the soule dies for then it goes to hell it is severed for ever from the comfortable and gracious presence of God and likewise it wants the comforts it had in this world And the third degree of it is when body and soule shall be joyned together then there is an eternall separation of both from the presence of God and an adjudging of them to eternall torments in hell This is the state of all men that are not in Christ they are dead in soule while they live dead after the separation of the soule and body and after to be adjudged to eternall damnation world without end Life is a sweet thing and wee know death it is terrible when we would set out our hatefulnesse to any thing wee use to say I hate it as death doe wee love life and doe we hate death we should labour then to be out of that condition that we are all in by nature wherein we are under sinne and death in regard of spirituall life I meane for for civill life and government and policy men may have life and vigour enough that are hypocrites but I speake of a better life an eternall life that is not subject to death Now marke the joyning of both these together we are under sinne and death by nature where a man is under sinne he is under death for as the Apostle saith Rom. 5. Sinne entred into the world and by sinne death They were neither of both Gods creatures neither sinne nor death but sinne entred into the world by Satan and death by sinne Oh ye shall not die saith Satan he was a lyar alway from the beginning so now he saith to men you shall not die you may doe this and doe well enough but he is a lyar and a murtherer when he solicites to sinne he is a murtherer Let us take heed of solicitations to sinne from our owne nature or from Satan marke how God hath linked sinne and death The wages of sinne is death When we are tempted to sinne we thinke I shall have this credit or profite or contentment or preferment and advancement in the world I but that that you get by sinne it is not so great as you looke for when you have it if you get it at all but afterwards comes death the beginnings of eternall death terrours of conscience universally follow if a man be himselfe if he be not besotted The more a man is a man and enjoyes the liberty of his judgement to judge of things the more he sees the misery that is due after sinne with a fearefull expectation of worse things to come Sinne and death are an adamantine chaine and linke that none can sever who shall separate that which God in his Justice hath put together If sinne goe before death will follow if the conception goe before the birth will follow after if the smoake goe before the fire will follow There is not a more constant order in nature then this in Gods appointment first sinne and then death and damnation after Therefore when wee are tempted to sinne let us reason with our selves there is death in the pot let us discerne death in it it will follow And if a man after repent of it it will be more sharp repentance and grievous then the sinne was pleasant that a man shall have little joy of his sinne if he doe repent if he doe not repent what a fearefull estate is a man in after he hath sinned Sinne and death goe together no humane power can sever them for take the greatest Monarch in the world when he hath sinned conscience is above him as great as hee is for conscience is next under God it awes and terrifies him and keepes his sleepe from him as we see of late in our bloody neighbour Country after that great Massacre he could not sleepe without Musicke and the like All that they have and enjoy in the world all their greatnesse it will not satisfie and stop the mouth of conscience but when they sinne they feele the wrath of God arresting and they aâ—e as iâ— were shut up in prison under the terrours of an accusing conscience till they come to eternall imprisoment in the chaine of hell and damnation This is the estate of the greatest man in the world that is not in Christ. They are not so happy as we thinke they are they are imprisoned in their owne hearts though they walke at never so much liberty abroad and doe what they list for sinne and death goes together and before eternall death comes the expectation and terrours of it seize on them for the present So that whatsoever our first birth be though it be noble and great yet by it we are bond-slaves under sinne and death unlesse our second birth our new birth make amends for flâ—â—e for the basenesse of our first birth This prerogative our spirituall noblenesse is such an estate wherein wee are not borne but are borne againe to it to an inheritance immortall c. But by nature wee are all bond men though wee be be borne never so nobly Therefore let us never bragge of our birth as the Jewes did that they were the children of Abraham No saith Christ you are of your father the Devill Let none stand upon the Gentrie and Nobility of their birth unlesse they be taken out of the condition they are in by nature to be in a better condition in Christ for we see all men naturally are under the law of sinne and death These things are slighted because wee enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season men thinke to be inthralled to sinne it is pleasant thraldome they are golden fetters for I shall have the pleasures of sin all my life time c. and for death I will set a Romane spirit against death Saith a Romane what is it such a matter to die It is nothing to die they set a good face on the matter And this is the conceite of many men till they come to it but alas to be inthralled to death it is another matter for behind death there is a gulphe A man may breake the hedgewell enough with a strong resolution to die it is nothing to die if there were an end But there is a gulphe there is damnation and destruction behind there is eternall torment behind to be adjudged from the presence of God for ever to be separated from all good and all comfort
consider how the Law of the Spirit of life is in Christ what it doth in him and then how it is derivatively in us First of all we must know this for a ground whatsoever is done to us is done to Christ first and whatsoever wee have Christ hath it first Therefore life is first in Christ and then in us Resurrection first in Christ and then in us Sonne-ship first in Christ and then in us Justification from our sins first in Christ he is freed from our sinnes and then in us Ascension first in Christ and then in us Glory in heaven first in Christ and then in us We have nothing in us but it is derived from Christ therefore this being layd as a ground we must consider how the Spirit of life works in Christ what it doth in Christ and then what it doth as it is in us for whatsoever Christ hath it is not onely for himselfe but for us What doth it in Christ The Spirit of life in Christ first of all it did quicken and sanctifie his humane nature that nature that Christ pleased to take upon him it stopped sinne it made a stop of originall sinne in sanctifying that blessed masse out of which his body was made for the foundation of his obedience actuall that it was so holy it was hence that his nature was purified by the Holy-Ghost in the wombe of the Virgin the foundation that his death and sufferings was satisfactory and acceptable it was that his holy nature was sanctified by the Spirit of God So the first worke of the Spirit of life in the Sonne of God it was to sanctifie and quicken that blessed masse that he tooke upon him And the Spirit of life that quickned and sanctified our nature in Christ did likewise ennoble our nature for even as a base woman is ennobled when she is taken in marriage with a great man shee hath his dignity accounted hers so our nature by the Spirit being sanctified is knit into the union of person with Christ that our nature and the second Person make one Christ so our nature by the Spirit is ennobled by this union And also inriched it with all grace that our nature is capable of for the nature of Christ had this double prerogative above ours First of all that blessed masse of flesh it was knit to be one person with God and then that nature was inriched and ennobled with all graces above ours And this the Spirit of life did to Christ himselfe to his humane nature that he tooke upon him that hee might be a publicke Person For God the second Person tooke not upon him any mans particular person of Peter or Paul or Iohn for then there should have beene distinct persons one person should have dyed and another rise but hee tooke our nature into his Person so that the same Person that did dye was God though he dyed in our nature that he might be a publicke Person So we must consider Christ sanctifying our nature that he might sit and sanctifie all our persons But did the Spirit of life doe nothing else but sanctifie and inrich the humane nature of Christ with grace Yes for the Spirit of life in Christ did sanctifie him for his Sacrifice as he saith Iohn 17. in that blessed prayer I sanctifie my selfe for them it prepared him for his death and made him a fit Sacrifice When he entred upon his calling he had more of the Spirit the Spirit of life as it were was increased For it is no heresie to thinke that the gifts of Christ for the manifestation of them were increased For in every state he was in hee was perfect and when he set upon his Office and was baptised hee was fuller of the Holy-Ghost as it were there was a fuller manifestation then before when he did not set upon his Office openly In his death what did the Spirit of life then It supported him in his very death for there was an union of the Spirit when there was a separation of his soule and body there was not a separation of the union That which gave dignity and strength and value and worth to his death it was the Spirit though there was a suspending of the comfort a while yet there was no separation of the union but I speake no more of that being not especially meant here But especially in his Resurrection which we are now to thinke of by reason of the day and it is not amisse to take all occasions especially then the Spirit of life that had sanctified Christ and quickened him and inriched his nature and supported him and done all that Spirit of life quickened the dead body of Christ And he was mightily declared to be the Sonne of God by the Spirit of sanctification Rom. 1.4 by his Resurrection from the dead The Spirit of life raised him from the dead and put an end to all that misery that he had undergone before for our sakes For untill his resurrection there was as it were some conflict with some enemies of Christ either with Satan or the world or with death it selfe he lay under death three dayes untill Christs body was raised our enemies were not overcome Gods wrath was not fully satisfied it was not declared to be satisfied at least for he being our surety till he came out of the grave we could not know that our sinnes were satisfied for But now when the Spirit of life in Christ comes and quickens that body of his in the grave and so doth justifie us as it is Ro. 4. He dyed for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification that is by the Spirit of life in Christ quickning his dead body hee declared that we are fully discharged from our sinnes because he was fully discharged from our sinnes being our surety hee shewed by his Resurrection that he was fully discharged from all that he tooke upon him When a man comes out of prison that is a surety his very comming out of prison shewes that he hath a full discharge of all the debt hee undertooke to pay so the Spirit of life raising Christs body the third day manifestly declared that the debt he tooke on him was fully discharged and so as he dyed for sinne to satisfie Gods Justice for them so hee rose againe for our justification to shew that hee had a full discharge for all Now since the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath quickned his body the soule may make a bold demand to God as it is in 1 Pet. 8. It may make that demand Rom. 8. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is Christ that dyed nay rather that is risen againe and ascended into heaven and makes intercession for us Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods people it is God that justifieth who shall condemne our sinnes Christ hath taken our sinnes upon him and satisfied divine
that it may be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh For before wee come to heaven Christ must not onely be bone of our bone c. that is in his Incarnation but wee must be bone of his bone c. that is wee must have natures like Christ not onely flesh and blood for so a reprobate hath flesh and blood as Christ hath but wee must have his Spirit altering and changing our nature that instead of a proud disobedient rebellious nature now it must be a holy and humble and meeke nature together with humane frailty for that we carry about with us then the Spirit of life derived from Christ makes us bone of his bone For indeed in his humane nature being bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh hee made us bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh he became man that we might partake of the divine nature being partakers of the divine Spirit So that now the Spirit of life in Christ when we are knit to him is a Spirit of sanctification altering our natures and working in our hearts a disposition like Christs that wee judge as Christ judgeth and chuse as Christ chuseth and ayme at Gods glory as Christ did For there is the same mind in us that was in Christ Philip. 2. In our proportion growing still more and more to conformity with Christ till we be in heaven till Christ be all in all 1 Cor. 15. When he will change our nature to be holy as his owne Besides this liberty from sinne and death in this life there is a glorious liberty and freedome thaâ— we have by the Spirit of Christ when we are dead for then the Spirit of life that raised Christs dead body will raise our bodies and that Spirit of Christ that raiseth his body and raiseth our soules in this world from sinne to beleeve in him will raise our dead bodies The same vertue and power that workes in Christ workes in his members this is called The glorious libertie of the Sonnes of God Then wee shall be freed indeed not onely from the law of sinne but from sinne it selfe and not onely from the law of death but death it selfe and wee shall live forever with the Lord. Christ then shall be all in all by his Spirit Christ will never leave us till hee have brought us to that glorious freedome wee are freed already from sinne and death he hath set us in heavenly places together with himselfe now In faith we are there already but then wee shall be indeed Thus you see how we come to have the law of the Spirit of life in Christ to free us from the law of sinne and death and all the passages of it You see here that there is law against law The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ against the law of sinne and death I beseech you consider that God hath appointed law to countermand law the Spirit of Christ to overcome sinne in us not onely in justification but in sanctification oh let us therefore comfortably thinke there is a Law above this Law I have now cold dead base affections but if I have the Spirit of Christ he can quicken and enliven me hee will not onely pardon my sinne but by the Law of his Spirit direct guid and command me a contrary way to my lusts And this is an Art of spirituall prudence in heavenly things whensoever wee are beset with dangers to set â—reater then that against it The Devill is an Angell but we have a guard of Angels about us The Devill is a Serpent but we have a braâ—en Serpent that cures all the stings of that Serpent We have Principalities and Powers against but we have greater Principalities and Poâ—ers for us The Law of life against the law of sinne and death We have a law of our lusts tyrannizing over us and enthralling us it is true but then there is a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus to overcome and subdue that law of our lusts if so be that wee use the prerogatives wee have if we use faith and goe to God and Christ in whom are all the treasures of grace Hee is the treasury of the Church of his fulnesse we receive grace for grace Are we troubled with any corruptions goe to the Spirit of liberty in Christ and desire him to set us at liberty from the bondage and thraldome of our corruptions And remember what Christ hath done for us and where hee is now in heaven let us raiâ—e our thoughts that wee may see our selves in heaven already that wee may be ashamed to defile our bodies and soules with the base drudgery of sinne and Satan that are sanctified in part in this world and shall be glorified in heaven Certainely faith would raise our soules so we betray our selves when being once in the state of grace we are inâ—hralled basely to any sinne For sinne shall not have dominion over you because you are under grace saith the Apostle Being under grace if wee doe 〈◊〉 use our reasoning and use faith and exercise the grace we have given us wee cannot be in thrall to corruptions Wee shall have remainders to trouble us put not to 〈◊〉 and reigne and domineere For sinne 〈◊〉 beares â—way but when wee betray our selves and either beleeve not what Christ hath done for us or else exercise not our faith A Christian is never overtaken basely but when hee neglects his priviledges and prerogatives and doth not stirre up the grace of God in him Learne this then when we are troubled with any thing set Law against Law set the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ against all oppositions whatsoever and let the temptation â—â—e where it will let it lie in justificatiâ—â— as when wee are tempted by Satan to despaire for sinnes for great sinnes oh but then consider the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath freed me from the law of sinne and of death Christ was made sinne to free me â—rom sinne Consider that Christ was God-man hee satisfied divine Justice the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sinne though they be as red as crimson Thus set Christ against our sinnes in justification when the guilt of them â—â—oubles our soules And so likewise when wee are set on by base lusts set against them the power of Christ in sanctification What 〈◊〉 I now a member of Christ one that professeth my selfe to be an heire of heaven there is a Spirit of life in Christ my head there is a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ that is there is a commanding power in his Spirit and that Spirit of his is not onely in the head but in the members If I goe to him for grace I may have grace answerable to the grace that is in him grace that will strengthen me with his power be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Ephes. 6.
and in Christ I can doe all things by his Spirit though in my selfe I can doe nothing And so in deadnesse and desolation of Spirit when the soule is cast downe with discomfort let us thinke with our selves the Spirit of life in Christ is a quickening Spirit if I can beleeve in Christ he hath freed me from the guilt of sinne and hee hath by his Spirit given me some little inlargement from the dominion of my corruptions why should I be cast downe I am an heire of heaven ere long Satan shall be trodden under my feet ere long I shall be free from the spirituall combate and conflict with sinne that I am now encountred with therefore I will comfort my selfe I will not be cast downe overmuch In the houre of death let us make use of this freedome of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus from the law of sinne and death When the time comes that there must be a separation of soule and body oh let us thinke with our selves Now I must dye yet Christ hath dyed and I must dye in conformity to my head and here is my comfort the Law of the Spirit of life hath freed me from the law of death it hath freed me from spirituall and eternall death So that now through Christ death is become friendly to me death now is not the death of me but death will be the death of my misery the death of my sinnes it will be the death of my corruptions death now will be the death of all that before troubled me but death will be my birth day in regard of happinesse Better is the day of death then the day of birth When a man comes into this life he comes into misery but when he dies hee goes out of misery and comes to happinesse so that indeed wee never live till we dye wee never live eternally and happily till then for then wee are freed from all misery and sinne Blessed are they that dye in the Lord they rest from their labours they rest from the labours of toyle and misery they rest from the labours of sinne from all labours whatsoever Blessed are they that dye in the Lord and of all times then blessed more blessed then before they rest from their labours and then begins their happinesse that shall never end So you see what comfort a Christians soule sprinkled with the blood of Christ may have if it goe to God in Christ and begge of Christ to be set at liberty from all enemies to serve God in holines and righteousnesse I speake too meanely when I say the Law of the Spirit of life hath fâ—â—ed us from 〈◊〉 and death this is not all the Spirit of life not onely frees us from ill but advanceth us to the contrary good in every thing wherein this freedome is For we are not onely called out of misery but to a Kingdome wee are not onely freed from sinne but intitled to heaven in justification and in sanctification we are not onely freed from corruption but inabled by the holy Spirit of liberty to run the wayes of Gods Commandements and make them voluntary to serve God chearefully zealous of good workes wee are not onely freed from the command and condemnation of sinne and â—he rigour of the Law but we have contrary dispositions ready and willing and voluntary dispositions wrought by the Spirit of Christ to every thing thâ—â—â—s good And so wee are not onely free from death and misery for so things without life are they suffer no misery but wee are partakers of everlasting life and glory the liberty of glory Gods benefits are compleat that is not onely priuative freeing us from ill but positive implying all good because God will shew himselfe a God he will doe good things as a God fully For the Law of the Spirit of life not onely frees us from the law of sinne and of death but writes the Law of God in our hearts he not onely frees us from the law of death but advance us to everlasting life to the glorious life we have in heaven to live for ever with the Lord oâ— happy condition of a Christian if wee could know our happinesse Let us often meditate deepely of Christ and of our selves in him let us see all our ill in him and all our good in him see death overcome and sinne overcome by his death hee being made a curse for us see the Law overcome hee being made under the Law for us when the wrath of God vexeth and terrifieth us see it upon him Hee sweat water and blood in the Garden It made him crie out My God my God why â—ast thou forsaken me See all that may trouble us in him as our Surety And all the good wee hope for see it in Christ first whatsoever he hath in his naturall body it is for his mysticall body for hee gave his naturall body for his mysticall God in the world to humble us exerciseth us with troubles and calamiâ—ies as he did Christ wee must be conformable to our heâ—d but consider the poyson and sting of all ills wee need to feaâ—e is swallowed up and taken away by Christ. And as I said let us see all our good in him wee are sonnes in him raysed 〈◊〉 him blessed in him set in heavenly places with him and shall be follow-heires and Kings with him for wee are his members his Spouse the wife shall enjoy the same condition as the husband whatsoever hee hath she shall have What a comfortable estate is this I we can feare no ill nor want no good whatsoever hee hath it is for us hee was borne for us hee dyed for us hee is gone to heaven for us for us and our good hee did and suffered all these things We cannot exercise our thoughts too much in these meditations The Lords Supper is a Sacrament of union and communion hence it hath its name and by receiving the Sacrament our Communion and union with Christ is strengthned What a comfort then is it to thinke if I have fellowship with Christ it is sealed by the Sacrament when I take the Bread and Wine at the same time I have communion with the Body and Blood of Christ shed for my sinnes and as Christ himselfe was freed from my sinnes imputed to him and by his Resurrection declared that hee was freed so surely shall I be freed from my sinnes So that this Communion taking the Bread and Wine it seales to us our Communion and fellowship with Christ and thereupon our freedome from sinne and from the Law and sets us in a blessed and happy estate Wee should labour therefore by all meanes to strengthen our union and Communion with Christ and amongst the rest reverently and carefully attend upon this blessed Ordinance of God for the body of Christ broken doth quicken us because it is the body of the Sonne of God My flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drinke indeed and hee
David in his Generation served the Counsell or Will of God Now to make a perfect discourse of it wee will speak something of his end He fell a sleep and was gathered to his Fathers and saw Corruption HE fell asleep that is he died for sleep in Scripture it is a middle phrase appliable to good and bad for wicked men in Scripture are said to sleep and good men are said to sleep Only the difference is as the persons are for the sleep of wicked men it is like the sleep of a male factor before his execution that is oft-times tripped in his sleep or like the sleep of a man in sicknesse or in a mad fit his sleep doth but concoct the malignant humour and after he wakes he rageth three times more than he did before So the sleep the death of a carnall wicked man it is but a preparation to his execution it is but the sleep of a distempered man that wakes with more horrour and terrour and rage than ever before indeed properly the death only of the godly is a sleep But to observe something first briefly in generall We see here is a time of dying as well as 〈◊〉 a time of living There is a time to serve God in living and there is a time to yeeld our soules to him as well as a time to serve God in doing the actions and functions of this life Which should teach us this not to fix our thoughts too much on life As there is a time for all things to the living so there is a time to cease to live and therfore to use the world with moderation as though wee used it not knowing that the fashion of the world passeth away It should teach us to serve God as well in living as in dying And it should teach us to do all the good wee can while wee have time David served God while hee lived and hee served God in dying because his death was in obedience but as I said before after death properly there is no service of God but a receiving of wages therefore let us serve God while we live while we have time because there is a time when night will come the night of sicknesse and of death and then no man can work if he would never so faine He fell asleep Why did he not die before hee served God a great while hee did not die when he was first a good man God will have his Children serve out their Generation They must serve out their time As soone as ever we beleeve we have right to heaven but God will have us beare the burthen of the day awhile to bring others to heavn with us to go before others in the example of a godly life to gaine as many as we can To trie the truth of our graces before wee come to heaven whether they be true or no that they may be true tried graces And he will have us perfect before we come to so holy a place hee will have us grow in grac as Ahasueros his wife 's were to bee perfumed and prepared before they came to him It is a holy place that wee hope for a holy condition therfore he will have us by little and little be fitted by the spirit of God Many such reasons there be why God in heavenly wisdome will have us go on here a time before wee come to heaven though as soone as we beleeve we are in the state of salvation as Christ said to Zacheus This day is salvation come to thine house Therefore let us not repine that God will have us live Indeed as soone as a Christian hath faith he hath life in patience and death in desire for hee is impatient to want his crowne oh but here is the time of service and when he considers the eternity of the reward hee shall have after he will bee glad to serve God and he will be ashamed that he can do it no more When hee knowes hee shall have an eternall weight of glory for a little service then hee will deny his lusts and pleasures to serve God in the place hee lives in whether hee be Magistrate or Minister whatsoever to undergo the burden of a little service Againe in that it is said here Then he fell asleep not before till he had served the counsell of God God hath alotted a man a time He hath set him a glasse that must be runne he hath given him a part to act and hee cannot be taken away till that be done hee can never fall asleep till hee have served the counsell of God As it is said in the Gospell concerning our Saviour Christ his houre was not yet come They have laid wait for him but his houre was not come so there may be many snares laid for the children of God by Sathan and his instruments but till their houre bee come all the Divells in hell nor all the Divells instruments on earth cannot shorten a mans life one minute of an houre for hee shall fall asleep when he hath served the counsell of God when he hath done all that God will have him to do Therefore it is ground of resolution let us go on in our places and callings undantedly and wisely too not to tempt God to rush into dangers but I meane without base feare and distrust for wee must serve God to day and to morrow and then wee shall be sanctified Wee must serve God the appointed time that hee will have us to live here and then wee shall fall asleep and not before no creature hath power over the life of man to shorten his dayes The next thing wee will observe from the nature of sleep is that The death of the godly is a sleep in respect of refreshing Sleep doth refresh and repaire and as it were recreate and make a man anew Sleep and rest it is the blessed ordinance of God it is an excellent thing to repaire man so after death nature shall be repaired better we shall rise fresher as it is Psal. 17. ult when I arise I shall bee satisfied with thine image wee shall rise refreshed better than wee lay downe So that as we go to bed then to sleep to cut off all cares so when wee rest in death all cares and feares and terrours all annoyances are cut off Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord they rest from their labours insinuating that there is no rest before for to a man that knowes that this world is a work-house and his life a service to God hee thinkes of no rest till he be in his grave so death it is a sleep in regard of that rest Wee rest from the labour of sinne wee rest from the wearisome labour of the body from the labour of afflictions and oppressions from the molestations of other men among whom we live every way this life is tedious and
death rest Againe it is in this respect a sleep because a man goes to bed with assured hope of rising againe and therefore he goes quietly though it be a state of darknesse for the time all the senses are bound up yet hee knowes that in Gods ordinarie providence hee shall rise againe therefore men not only quietly but cheerefully go to bed So there is greater ground to know that wee shall rise againe out of our graves than that we should rise out of our beds for many mens beds have been their graves in some sort I meane they have died in their beds but for the resurrection we have the word of Almighty God that is a God of his word that we shall rise againe and we have it in the pledge of our Saviours resurrection there is no doubt of that Therefore when wee die if wee have faith wee should make no more of death than men doe to goe to bed hoping undoubtedly of an assured and joyfull resurrection The want of faith in that kind makes us backward to this you see in what respect death is said to be a sleep To speak only of those references and relations that are most pertinent between sleep and death David fell asleep and very willingly for he had lived a painefull life he served God both as a private man as a Sheepheard as a King Eccles. 5.12 To a labouring man sleepe is sweet so to a man that hath served God carefully in his calling and kept a good conscience death is very sweete Wee see children that have been playing all day they are loath to goe to bed but to a man that hath wrought all day sleepe is sweete as wise Salomon saith to a labouring man Would we then have death as a sweet rest to us let us doe as David did that is bee painefull and laborious in our particular place and in our generall calling let us be faithfull in them to keep a good conscience and set all in order as much as wee can while we live to leave no seeds of debate when we are gone Some men die carelesly this way in disposing the good things that God hath given them they lay a foundation of perpetuall jarring afterward and so their death is skarsly a sleepe and rest they cannot but bee disquieted when they thinke how they leave things because they were not wise before hand David setled Salomon in his Throne and set all things right before hee died and that made him die not only in rest but in honour in 1 Chron. 29.28 David died in a good old age full of riches and honour And let us labour to get assurance of a change for the betteâ— David his flesh rested in hope because hee beleeved in Christ that Christs body should see no corruption Psal. 16. So if wee would have death sweete as a sleepe let us labour to get assurance by faith in Christ and so our flesh may rest in hope that as Christ raised his owne flesh so he will raise ours Good Simeon when he had seene Christ once Lord now let thy servant depart in peace c. so after we have gotten a sight of Christ to be our Christ our Saviour and Redeemer and have interest in him Lord now let thy servant depart in peace So much for the tearme sleepe It is added besides that Hee was gathered to his Fathers HEâ— was gathered to his Fathers both in regard of his body and in regard of his soule for his body went to the house of the dead the grave and his soule went to his fathers to heaven As I said before of sleepe so of this it is a phrase of Scripture that must bee understood as the persons are When a man dies his body goes to the place or house of all men the house of darknesse the grave but for his soule that goes as the man is to his fathers to hell if hee bee naught to the soules of just and perfect men as the Apostle speakes if he have lived a gracious and a good life and so it must be understood here bâ—cause hee speaks of a blessed man He was 〈◊〉 to his Fathers he meanes not to his immediate fathers but all beleeving men before him that were the children of Abraham his soule went to them his body to the first Mother the Earth out of which it was taken So the Generall is nothing but this that When we die wee are put to our fathers Therefore this should moderatâ— our feare of death and our griefe for the departure of others Why wee are not lost when we die the soule and body is taken asunder it is taken in pieces but both remaine still the bodie goes to the earth from whence it was taken and the soule goes to God that gave it And for our comfort we goe to those that we knew before many of them to our fathers not to strangers Especially in respect of our soules wee goe to our fathers to our next fore-fathers and to our old fathers to Abraham Isaac to Iacob to David to blessed Saint Paul and Peter and all the blessed men that died in the faith And when we are dead wee goe to those that are more perfect than those that wee leave behind us This should moderate our griefe oh I leave my friends behind me my father and mother and childrenâ— it is to goe to better to greater and those that love thee better Thou goest to greater for they are in their pitch they have attained their end they are in heaven and to better they are refined from those corruptions that men here are subject unto and then their love is perfect likewise therefore going to our fathers and not to strangers to those that are better and greater and love us more perfectly why should wee thinke much to die they will bee readie to entertaine us oh the welcome that soules find in heaven and at the day of the Resurrection the sweete imbracings when all the blessed soules that have beene from Adam to the last man shall meete together seeing therefore wee goe to our fathers it should rather make us chearefull Here whom do we live with take them at the best our friends men subject to jealousies and weaknesses our jealousie makes us suspect them and their weaknesses makes us thinke the meaner of them so our love is not perfect nor our graces are not perfect therefore we cannot have perfect love and contentment while we are here But in heaven there shall be no jealousie nor feare nor imperfection which is the ground of jealousie we shall perfectly love them because they shall be perfectly good and they shall perfectly love us because we shall be perfectly good and one shall stand admiring the graces of God in another and that will maintain a perpetuity of love therefore it is want of faith that makes us unwilling to yeeld our soules unto God at the point
of death It is a going to our fathers But then wee must take heed what fathers wee imitate here take heed who are our patterns while we live for if wee do not imitate them here wee cannot live with them in heaven when wee are dead Therefore it is a very necessary item in Heb. 13.7 Look to them that rule over you that speak the word whose faith follow Considering the end of their labour Let us look before what kind of men those have beene that wee desire to live with in heaven and mark the end of their conversation for such as we delight in and frame our carriage to here such we shall live with hereafter We must not think to live with Nero and die with Paul to live Epicures and die Christians to live dissembling and falsly in our places and to die comfortably and to go to the blessed soules at the houre of death and at the resurrection No God will gather our soules with wicked men if wee fashion our carriage to wicked men such as wee delight in and live with and set as patterns before us with such we shall live for ever hereafter Hee was gathered to his fathers One signe of a man that shall be gathered to beleeving fathers to his good fore-fathers besides imitation is this to delight in the congregations of just men here A man may know he shall go to the congregation of perfect soules in heaven if he delight in the congregations of Gods Saints here for surely he that hath a confidence to bee in the proper heaven heaven that is so blessed he will have a care while he lives as much as he can to be and delight in the heaven upon earth Now the chiefe heaven upon earth is the Church of God Oh how amiable is thy dwelling place oh Lord where many soules meet together to joyne in speaking to God and in hearing God speak to them Those therefore that delight not in the congregations that delight not in the service of God what hope have they to bee gathered to the congregation of the faithfull when they are gone so much for that he was gathered to his fathers And he saw Corruption IT is an Hebraisme for he felt Corruption he had experience of Corruption All other senses are attributed to sight that being the principall of all the senses they have their terme from it because sight is the most excellent the most capacious and quick sense therefore I say the actions of all the other senses are attributed to it as wee say see how he speaks and so here he saw Corruption that is he had experience of it because sight is a convincing sense He could not properly see when he was dead but the meaning is he had experience of Corruption the truth is this in a word that The best and greatest men in the world when they are gone they are subject to corruption David was a King and a Prophet a man after Gods owne heart yet this could not keepe Davids body from Corruption The reason is wee are but dead men here this is not the life that Christ hath purchased for us wee are going to death our naturall life is but Cursus ad mortem a continuall going to death We are alive now but alasse our life is nothing but a continuall dying every day cuts off a part of our life It is a statute that all must die And it is our perfection to die we cannot otherwise see God enjoy our Crown Death indeed is nothing but misery but when we die we go to live The best must see Corruption Therefore this should bee an argument to support the soule when we think of the rottennesse in the grave and of that place and time of horrour when wee shall bee no more here upon earth It is no otherwise with us than it hath beene with the best in the world they all saw Corruption in their time Again considering we have but corruptible bodies here bodies that must see corruption let us take care for the better part He is a mad man that having two houses one free-hold the other a rotten tenement ready to fall about his eares that shall take delight in that and neglect his owne inheritance which is a goodly thing it is for want of wit and it is as much want of grace when we having a double life the life of grace that ends in glory the life of the soule the life of God as Saint Paul saith and then the life of the body which is communicated from the soule to the body which is corruptible our bodies are but tabernacles of clay whose foundation is in the dust for us to take care of this vile body as the Apostle calls it Phil. 3. Who shall change our vile body and make it like to his glorious body according to his mighty power to take care of this vile body and to neglect our precious soules It is the care of most such is the carnall breeding of men and they follow those that bred them in this brutishnesse as if they had no soules as if there were no life after this their care is what they shall eat and what they shall drink and put on what to commend themselves by in the outward man to the view of others all their care is for their outward man Alas what is it but a corruptible vile body it is but the case of the soule they forget the Iewell and look all to the Casket which is a base body take it at the best while we are here And take heed we be not ensnared with the bodies of others This is the corruption of men to gaze in this kind You see wise Salomon and others were much troubled with temptations in this kind Consider that body that thou dotest on now and which is made by the Divell a snare to thee what will it bee ere-long so noysome that thou wilt not indure the presence of it it is but a flower and it is fading fresh in the morning and dead at night All flesh is but grasse it is a corruptible body If thou wilt needs love bee acquainted with such as have excellent spirits that shall live eternally Oh there is an object of love indeed that is the true love and acquaintance that is spirituall Many things may be lovely in the outward person but see that there be a heavenly spirit that is mounting up that savours of good things a spirit that hath life begunne in it that shall be for ever happy in heaven unlesse there bee this there cannot bee a fit ground for the love of any wise man To end all you see here a short story of a good life and a blessed death let us make this blessed man of God exemplary to us in both Let our whole life be nothing but a service of God and let us consider the generation wherein wee are to take
and do all the good we can in our time And then consider what death will be when we come to die it will be a sweet sâ—eep to us and our resurrection will bee a refreshing our flesh shall rest in hope as David saith We shall be gathered to our fathers wee shall see Corruption indeed but mark what David saith Psal. 16. my flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see Corruption Then this is the upshot of all though we see Corruption when we are dead yet with the â—y of faith wee see a rising againe from Corruption We see death but as a pot to refine us in even as it is with silver when there is much corruption and heterogeniall matter mingled with it the fire refines it but it is not lost so the grave refines the body and fits it for a glorious resurrection The flesh rests in hope all the while though the body see Corruption because our head saw no Corruption if the head be above water what if the body be downe our head saw no Corruption that is Christ for he rose out of the grave before his body putrified for his body had a subsistence and was gloriously united to the second person in Trinity and being united to the Lord of life it saw no Cortrption For that did not lie upon Christ as our Saviour to bee corrupt but to die to bee made a curse for us and then especially I say by reason of the neare union of it to the God of life Well then what is Davids argument of comfort in Psal. 16. My flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not suffer thine holy one to see Corruption Because Christ rose from the grave himselfe the holy one of God our flesh may rest in hope though we see Corruption because the same divine power that raised christ our head out of the grave that his body saw no Corruption will raise our bodies to bee like our glorious bodie Our blessed Saviour that overcame death in his owne person by his power he will overcome death for all his mysticall body that is his Church it shall be perfect in heaven soule and body together as hee himselfe is glorious now in heaven That wee may say with David notwithstanding our bodies see Corruption as his did yet our flesh shall rest in hope because Gods holy one saw no Corruption FINIS The Table Part Page A Abasement ABasement of Christ the greatest 1 10. Abasement of Christ whence it was 1 11. Fruit of Christs Abasement 1 13. Adam Our estate in Christ better then in Adam 1 43. Affections Affections not taken away by religion 1 249. Afflictions Benefit of Afflictions 1 279. Against How farre the enemies of Gods children are Against them 2 74. In what respect none are Against Gods children 2 75. Alone A Christian is never Alone 2 78. Angels Angels the cause of their fall 2 202. Annointed Three sorts of persons Annointed 1 34. Appetite How to get Appetite to feed on Christ 1 183. Application Application wrought by the Spirit 2 43. Faith the grace of Application Ibid. Approach Comfort in our Approach to God 1 27. Ascention The Spirit given more abundantly since Christs Ascention 1 53. Authority Authority of Christ from his Father 1 202. B Behold The word Bâ—â—â—ld how used 1 5. Blame Blame to bee laid upon our selves in judgements 1 316. Bodies Bodies of others not to be doted on 2 229 Bondage Freedome in sin a Bondage 2 17. Bride The Church of God a Bride 2 101. Why the Church is called a Bride 2 106. C Care Ground of Care in our carriage 1 82. Ceremonies Bondage of Ceremonies in the Law 1 263. Chaines Sin as Chaines 2 7. Choise Chosen Christ Chosen of God how 1 19. We should rest in Gods Choise 1 20. Christ. Christ not to be neglected 1 21. How to know wee are in Christ 1 30. All that is good is first in Christ and then in us 1 40. To take heed of refusing Christ 1 210. The greatnesse of the sin to refuse Christ 1 212. Comfort for such as receive Christ 1 213. See Chosen servant delight Adam Christians Difference betweene Christians and others 1 238. 2 205. Disposition of true Christians 1 246. Church Three degrees of men in the Church 1 156. Cleansed To labour to be Cleansed by the blood of Christ 1 296 Comfort Comfort from the ground of Gods love 1 25. Comforts when to bee stored up 1 131. Ground of Comfort for weake Christians 1 228. Comming There must be a second Comming of Christ 2 107. The Church desires Christs Comming 2 108. The Church in Heaven desires Christs Comming 2 113. Christians not alway fitted alike for Christs Comming 2 118. Directions how to desire Christs Comming 2 119 Communion See Saints Common See Service Condition Why we should consider our former Condition 1 140. Why God suffers different Conditions of men 2 137. Conflict Gods children exercised with Conflicts 2 132. How to recover out of Conflict 2.134 Confession Confession of sin necessary 1.288 Good men in their Confessions rank themselves with others 1 289. Conscience Conscience after long sinning hardly comforted 1 94 Conjunction Foure Conjunctions wonderfull 1 10 Consideration Hinderances of Consideration 1 103. Contentment Ground of Contentment 2 84. Contraries Contraries agree in a Christian 1 302. Conviction Ground of Conviction 1 127. Conviction of judgement the ground of practise 2 148. Foure things in Conviction 2 149. Conviction to be laboured for 2 151. Conviction wrought by the Holy Ghost 2 155. Correct God Corrects his children sharply 2 169. Counsell The will of God called Counsell why 2 187. Corruption The best men subject to Corruption why 2 227. Ground of support against Corruption 2 218 Courage Ground of Christian Courage 2 81. Course Every man hath his Course 1 107. God judgeth men according to their Course 1 108 Gods children have a contrarie Course to the world 2 137. Creator God to be served as a Creator 2 187. Crâ—â—â—ion See Redemption Creature God shames mens pride by other Crâ—atures 1 115 D Danger What to doe in times of Danger 1 129. Death Dead Men naturally Dead 1 141. Death what Ibid. Death spirituall wherein it is 1 142. Sin it selfe a Death 1 144. Signes of spirituall Death 1 145. Difference in naturall and spirituall Death 1 152. The best have remainders of Death 1 155. Every man under the law of Death 2 25. How we are under the law of Death 2 27. Sin and Death go together 2 28. â—reedome from sin and Death what 2 49. Difference in the Death of godly and wicked 2 216. See Sinne. Defect Three maine Defects in man 1 34. Defiled The best actions of the best men Defiled 1 299 Delay Repentance not to be Delaied 1 91. Danger of Delaying 1 92. Delight Delight in Christ the ground of it 1 28. Desirâ— See Comming Dying There is a time of Dying as
was a Type of Christs sacrifice Now that Christs sacrifice was so acceptable to God there is a direct place for it in Ephes. 5. Walke in love as Christ hath loved us and hath given himselfe an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smell And indeed how many sweet savours were there in the sacrifice of Christ offered on the Crosse was there not the sweet savour of obedience he was obedient to the death of the Crosse there was the sweet savour of patience and of love to mankind therefore God delighted in him as God as Man as Mediator God-Man in his doings in his sufferings every way Doth God delight thus in Christ in his person or considered mystically I answer both God loves and delights in Christ mysticall that is in Christ and his members in whole Christ This is my Beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased not onely with whom alone by himselfe but in whom in him as God in him in body and soule in him as head of the Church in him mystically in all that are under him any kind of way God delights in him and all his Is it possible that hee should delight in the head and refuse the members That he should love the husband and mislike the Spouse O no with the same love that God loves Christ he loves all his he delights in Christ and all his with the same delight there is some difference in the degree That Christ in all things may have the preheminence but it is the same love therefore our Saviour sets it downe excellently in his owne prayer he desires that the same love wherewith his Father loved him may be in them that are his that they may feele the love wherewith his Father loves him for hee loves him and his members him and his Spouse with all one love This is our comfort and our confidence that God accepts us because hee accepts his Beloved and when he shall cease to love Christ he shall cease to love the members of Christ they and Christ make one mysticall Christ. This is our comfort in dejection for sinne wee are so and so indeed but Christ is the chosen servant of God In whom he delighteth and delights in us in him it is no matter what we are in our selves but what we are in Christ when we are once in him and continue in him God loves us with that inseperable love wherewith hee loves his owne Sonne therefore Saint Paul triumphs Rom. 8. What shall seperate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus This love it is founded in Christ therefore neither things present nor things to come as he goes on there gloriously shall bee able to seperate us you see what a wondrous confidence and comfort wee have hence if we labour to be in Christ that then God loves and delights in us because he loves and delights in Christ Jesus And here is a wondrous comfort that God must needs love our salvation and redemption when he loves Christ because hee powred out his soule to death to save us doth not God delight that wee should bee saved and our sinnes should bee forgiven when hee loves Christ because hee abased himselfe for that purpose What a prop and foundation of comfort is this when the Divell shall present God to us in a terrible hideous manner as an avenging God and consuming fire c. indeed out of Christ he is so let us present to our selves thoughts of God as the Scripture sets foorth God to us and as God setâ— forth himself not only in that sweet relation as a Father to Christ buâ— our father I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God having both one God and love and care There is none of us all but the Divell will have a saying to us either in the time of our life in some terrible temptation especially when any outward abasement comes or at the houre of death and all the cordials wee have gathered out of the Word will then be little enough to support the drooping soule especially in the houre of temptation Oh Beloved what a wondrous stay and satisfaction to a distressed conscience doth this yeeld that Christ in all that hee hath wrought for us is Gods chosen servant whom he loves and delights in and delights in him for this very worke that hee abased himselfe and gave himselfe for us that hee wrought Gods worke because he wrought reconciliation for us If we can believe in Christ wee see heere what ground of comfort wee have that God loves and delights in us as he doth in his owne Son And what a comfort is it now in our daily approach to God to minister boldnesse to us in all our suites that we goe to God in the name of one that he loves in whom his soule delights that we have a friend in Court a friend in Heaven for us that is at the right hand of God and interposeth himselfe there for us in all our suites that makes us acceptable that perfumes our prayers and makes them acceptable his intercession is still by vertue of his service dying for us he interceeds by vertue of his redemption if God love him for the worke of redemption he loves him for his intercession therefore God must needs regard the prayers made by him by vertue of his dying for us when he loves him for dying for us Bee sure therfore in al our suites to God to take along our elder Brother take our beloved Brother take Benjamin with us offer al to God in him our persons to be accepted in him our prayers our hearing our works and al that we do and we shal be sure to speed For he is one in whom the soule of God delights There must be this passage and repassage as God looks upon us lovely in him and delights in us as wee are members of him all Gods love and the fruits of it come to us as we are in Christ and are one with him then in our passage to God againe we must returne all and doe all to God in Christ be sure not to goe to a naked God for so he is a consuming fire but goe to him in the mediation of him whom he loves and in whom his soule delighteth And shall God love him and delight in him and shall not our soule delight in Christ This therefore should stirre up our affections to Christ to be faithfull in our conjugall affection as the Spouse of Christ to say My Beloved is mine and I am my Beloveds Christ calls his Church My Love and my Dove Doth Christ delight in us and God delight in Christ and shall not we delight in Christ that delights in us and in whom God delights In the 1. Cor. 16. ult the Apostle is bold to pronounce a bitter curse Anathema Maranatha upon him that loves not the Lord Christ Jesus a most bitter curse when Christ shall become a
but they either resist them or quench them and wrong and grieve the Spirit as Saint Paul saith Greive not the Spirit of God whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption Ephes. 5. Men speake or doe somewhat that grieves the Spirit of God in them their conscience being enlightned by the Spirit tels them that they have done that which is naught yet notwithstanding for this or that advantage to please this or that company they will speake or doe that which is ill and then the Spirit that was given in some measure before is grieved at this carnall and sinnefull liberty Therefore if yee would be guided by the Spirit of Christ take heed of all these and of such like courses Another meanes whereby we may come to obtaine the Spirit is Prayer to bee guided by the Spirit of Christ next to Christ himselfe our Saviour is the most excellent thing in the world therefore it is worth the begging and getting Luke 11.13 How much more shall your heavenly Father give his holy Spirit to them that aske him Insinuating that wee can aske nothing greater then the Spirit A man that hath a sanctified judgement next the forgivenesse of his sins through Christ hee begs nothing more then the Spirit to witnesse the favour of God in Christ and to fit him for other favours especially to fit us for the world to come God can give nothing greater nor we can beg nothing greater if wee have sanctified judgements then the Spirit of God therefore let us have a high esteeme of the holy Spirit of the motions of it and out of an high esteeme in our hearts beg of God the guidance of the Spirit that he would leade us by his Spirit and subdue our corruptions that wee may not bee lead by our owne lusts and so consequently by Satan that leads us by our owne lusts in the way that leads to perdition So much for that I will put my Spirit c. And he shall shew judgement to the Gentiles After Christ was fully furnished as he was furnished with the Spirit of God and with a commission from Heaven from Father Sonne and Holy Ghost having this high commission and gifts for it by the Spirit he fals upon his office presently we are never fit for any thing till wee have the Spirit and when we have the Spirit it is active and vigorous and working He shall shew judgement to the Gentiles What is meant by judgement here By judgement is meant lawes hee shall declare his lawes his truth and together with declaring the truth of the Gospell which is his Evangelicall law hee shall declare it in the soule and bow the neck of the inward man to the obedience of this his judgement Christ then by himselfe and his Apostles and Ministers shall declare his truth which is the scepter of his governement to the Gentiles and not onely declare it as Princes doe their lawes by Proclamations and Statutes c. but hee shall declare it to the heart by his Spirit Now in the hebrew language ordinarily wise governement is called judgement hee shall declare judgement that is his manner of governement he shall declare it by his Spirit and cause our Spirits to submit to it And indeed grace is called judgement in the phrase of Scripture the grace of sanctification because it is agreeable to judgement to Gods law it is agreeable to it and wrought by it in the soule and it is the best judgement for grace whereby the soule is subject to the judgement and law and rule of God it must needs be the best judgement because it is agreeable to Gods judgement grace judgeth aright of things and subdues all things the affections and inward man to it selfe But why is the word of God called judgement It is called so frequently in the Psalmes and in other places of Scripture because the truth of God shewes what God doth judge Judgement is originally in God who is the first truth and the first good the first truth judgeth best of truthes what is light and what is darkenesse what is truth and what is error what is good and what is ill what is safe and what is dangerous all will grant that God is the first light and the firâ—t truth therefore hee doth originally judge of the difference of things for even as in the creation he put an eternall difference betweene light and darkenesse and severed things that were in the confuseâ— Chaos and established an orderly world that Heaven should be above and earth below that one thing should be above another and all in judgement So in the governing of man-kinde he shewes his judgement by his word and that word shewes how God judgeth of things Lawes shew judgement what is to be done and what is not to be done The Gospell shewes Gods judgement what he will have us beleeve and hope for and how wee must carry our selves in way of thankefullnesses if we doe this then the Gospell the word of God judgeth what shall become of us wee shall be saved if we doe the contrary the word againe judgeth what our state shall be wee shall be damned so it is called judgement because it judgeth what is good and what is ill and because it determineth what shall become of us if we obey or disobey Hereupon it is that the word of God is a glasse wherein we may see our owne condition infallibly what will become of us the Word of God judgeth thus he that lives in such and such sinnes shall come to this end God will inflict these and these judgements upon him Iudgement in the first place is you shall doe this and this because it is good Iudgement in the second place is because you have not done this this shall befall you so the Evangelicall judgement of the Gospell is this He that repents and beleeves shall not perish but have everlasting life but he that armes and furnisheth his heart to rebellion he shall perish in his sinnes He that believeth not is condemned allready the wrath of God hangs over his head So from this that Gods truth is called judgement we may know how to judge of our selves even as God judgeth in his Word wee may see our owne faces and conditions there hee that is a man of death may see it in the Word and he that is appointed for happinesse may there see his condition Againe not onely the Word of God the Gospell which is out of us in the booke of God is called judgement but the worke of God in the soule Sanctification is called judgement hence we may observe what is the most judicious course in the world the most judicious frame of soule when it is framed to the judgement and truth of God being the first truth When a man is sanctified and set in a holy frame it is from a sanctified judgement the flesh is subject to the Spirit heere is all in a gratious
order the baser part doth not rule the higher but the higher part of the soule a sanctified judgement rules all because the whole is in right judgement therefore sanctification is called judgement and other courses though they be never so fashionable are but madnesse and folly and disorder in the censure of the Scripture nothing is judgement and true wisedome but sanctification and obedience flowing from sanctification Therefore saith Moses in Deuteronomie Then shall you be knowne to bee a wise people when you obey the Lawes that I have given you onely that shewes a wise judicious man to be obedient to Gods truth by the Spirit sanctifying him Without the truth of God and the Spirit in us framing our soules answerable to the truth we are out of all good order For then the affections that should bee ruled rule us then the body and the lusts of the body rule the soule and the Divell rules by both what a shamefull disorder is this when a man shall be ruled by the Divell and his owne lusts that he should treade under feete and trample upon and this is the state of all that have not this judgement in them that have not the word of God written in their hearts bowing and bending them by the Spirit of God to spirituall obedience to proove this J will name but one place among many Titus 3. â— hee shewes the state of all men that are not brought into subjection by this judgement by the Word and Spirit of truth We our selves saith he were sometimes foolish and disobedient till this judgement is set up in us wee are foolish in our understandings and disobedient in our wills and affections deceived and misled by the Divell and our owne lusts for that followes upon folly those that are foolish and disobedient are deceived and led away to eternall destruction There is a way that seemes good in a mans owne eyes but the issues of it are death saith Salomon this is the state of all men that are not led with the judgement of Gods truth and Spirit sanctifying and framing their soules to obedience they are foolish and disobedient and deceived and so it will proove with them in the end Serving diverse lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hating one another Now when God by his blessed Truth and Spirit sets up his rule in the heart it brings all into captivity as Saint Paul saith it brings all the inner man into subjection The Word of God is the weapon of God these judgements are mighty in operation together with the Spirit to beate downe all strong holds and to set up another judgement there it brings all into captivity to the truth and command of God and to the motions of the Spirit the Word and Spirit beate downe all the strong holds that are raised up in the heart by Satan and our corruptions so wee see here what is meant by this phrase Hee shall declare judgement to the Gentiles It is a militant word therefore J have stood somewhat the longer in unfolding of it Now this is wrought by the preaching of the Gospell Hee shall declare judgement to the Gentiles all grace comes by declaring The Gospell is the power of God to salvation Let but the Gospell which is Gods judgement how men shall be saved and how they shall walke in obedience by way of thankefullnesse to God be declared and all that belong to God shall come in and yeeld homage to it and bee brought in subjection The Divell in the Antichristian state knowes this well enough therefore he labours to hinder the declaration of judgement by all meanes he will not have Gods judgements but mens traditions declared he knowes the declaring of Gods judgements will breed an alteration quickly in mens dispositions For when hee saith Hee shall declare judgement to the Gentiles he meanes the consequent as well as the thing he shall so declare judgement that they shall yeeld spirituall obedience and come in and be saved Let the Divell doe his worst let all seducers of soules doe their worst if they would but give way to the preaching of the Gospell let but judgement be declared let Gods arme be stretched forth in delivering the truth hee would soone gaine soules out of the captivity and bondage of Satan they know it well enough therfore by all the wayes they can they stop the preaching of the Gospell and disgrace and hinder it and set up mens traditions instead of the Gospell but I will not inlarge my selfe farther upon these wordes but goe on to the next Hee shall not strive nor cry neither shall any man heare his voice in the streetes These wordes set downe the mild and sweete and amiable manner of Christs carriage upon earth here in his first comming to worke the great worke of our redemption he did not carry the matter in an outward glorious manner in pompe but he would have his miracles concealed oft times and himselfe hidden his God-head was hid under the vaile of his Manhood he could not have wrought our salvation else if the divell and the world had knowne Christ to be as he was they would never have made those attempts against him therefore considering he had such a dispensation to work our salvation as a King Priest and Prophet he would not cry and contend and strive hee would not come with any great noise Now here is an opposition to the giving of the law and likewise to the comming and carriage of civill Princes You know when the Law was given all the mount was on fire and the earth thereabout quaked and trembled and the people fled they could not indure to heare the voice of God speaking in the mount there was such a terrible smoake and fire they were all affraid thus came Moses now did Christ come as Moses was the Gospell delivered by Christ as the law was in terrors and feares Oh no Christ came not in such a terrible manner in thunder and lightning but the Gospell it came sweetly A Dove a mild creature lit upon the head of Christ when he was Baptised to shew his mild manner of carriage and he came with blessing in his mouth in his first Sermon of all Blessed are the poore in spirit blessed are they that mourne blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse The Law came with curses Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the law to doe them Christ came in another manner the Gospell was delivered in a mild sweete manner Christ as an Ambassador came sweetly to intreat and beseech there is a crying indeed but it is a crying out of love and intreaty not a shouting in a terrible manner as was at the giving of the law no nor as at the comming of other civill Princes into a citie with shouting and noise of trumpets with pompe and state and great attendants Christ came not into the world to execute his kingdome and
minde of it besides the threatning of dangers by enemies abroad if we will not watch now and stand upon our guard when will we Let us be watchfull to doe all the good we can to bee fruitfull to be good stewards to have large hearts The time may come that we may be stripped of all and we know not how soone having but a little time let us doe good in it study all opportunities in these times roufe up our sluggish soules Feare it is awaking affection Iaakob when his brother Esau was ready to ceaze on him he could not sleepe that night We know not how soone the hand and arrow of God may strike us besides other judgements let us shake off Security and doe every thing we doe sincerely to God We may come to God to make our account we know not how soone let us doe every thing as in his presence and to him in our particular callings let us bee conscionable and carefull and fruitfull let us doe all in our places to God and not to the world or to our owne particular gaine but doe it as those that must give account ere long to God Now God threatneth us to come and give our account who can be secure he shall have life for a weeke or for one day Wee cannot our times are in Gods hands we came into the world in his time and we must goe out in his time but now we have lesse cause to hope for long life This is to make a right use of the judgement of God to be watchfull in this kind And withall let us be good husbands now in the interim betweene the threatning and the execution of the judgement let us store up comforts from the promises of God and store up the comforts of a good life we shall have more comfort of the meanes we have bestowed wisely then of that we shall leave behinde us Thus if we doe come what will we are prepared Many holy and heavenly men have beene visited with pestilentiall sickenesse Hezekias was a King and his was a pestilentiall sickenesse and many holy Divines of late and other Christians have beene swept away by the sickenesse Iunius and other rare men of excellent use in the Church Therefore let us labour to get into the favour of God make use of our renewing our covenant for the time to come that is one end of fasting now to renew our covenants to remake them for the time to come and then come what will and welcome life or death for there is a blessing hid in the most loathsome sickenesse and death If wee come to Heaven it is no matter by what way Though the body be sowen in dishonour we may die of a noysome disease that we cannot have our friends neare us yet the body shall rise againe in honour What matter saith Saint Paul If by any meanes I may come to the resurrection of the dead by faire death or foule death it is no matter And if so bee that God make not good his promise of particular protection of our bodies from contagion c. it is no matter wee have a generall promise that he will be our God he is the God of Abraham the God of the dead as well as of the living He is a God that is everlasting in the Covenant of grace in life and death and for ever if wee bee entered into the covenant of grace it holds for ever And when all other promises faile and all things in the world faile sticke to the maine promise of forgivenesse of sinnes and life everlasting When all things in the world will faile wee must leave them shoâ—tly wealth and whatsoever what a comfort is in that grand promise that God will forgive us our sinnes and give us life everlasting for Christ Therefore when all things else are gone let us wrap our selves in the gracious promises of Christ and then wee shall live and dye with comfort FINIS THE DEAD-MAN OR THE STATE OF EVERY Man by nature In one Sermon By the late Reverend and Learned Divine RICHARD SIBS Doctor in Divinity Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at GRAYES INNE JOHN 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you the houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voice of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live LONDON Printed by G.M. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford MDCXXXIX THE DEAD-MAN EPHES. 2.1 And you hath â—ee quickned who were dead in trespasses and sinnes THE matter of this excellent Epistle is partly doctrinall and partly exhortatory as it was S. Paules course in all his Epistles to lay the foundation of practise in doctrine The heart must be mooved but the braine must be instructed first there is a simpathy betweene those two parts as in nature so in grace The doctrinall part of the Epistle sets out the riches of Christ chiefly in the first Chapter in regard of the spring of them Gods eternall election Then in this Chapter by way of comparison by comparing the state of grace to the state of nature You hath hee quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins The dependance of this Verse I take it to be from the 19. Verse of the first Chapter The Apostle there prayes that the Ephesians might have the eye of their understandings opened and enlightned that they might know among other things what the exceeding great power of God is towards us that beleeve According to the working of his mighty power that he wrought in Christ when hee raised him from the dead that they might have experience of that mighty power that raised Christ from the dead Now here in this Chapter he saith They were raised together with Christ and set together with him in heavenly places His reason is in this manner Those that are raised up and quickned with Christ to sit in heavenly places with him have experience of a mighty power But you are raised up and quickned with Christ to sit in heavenly places with him therefore you have experience of a mighty power that raised Christ for those that are raised and quickned with Christ have experience of that power that Christ had when he was raised up The second thing that he intends especially in this Chapter is to shew that being raised with Christ they are brought nearer to God both Iewes and Gentiles that of themselves were farre off Now he shewes that they were raised and quickned with Christ and brought neare to God in Christ that they might magnifie the free grace of God in Christ all is by grace and thereupon to be stirred up to a suteable comfortable and gracious life To come to the words And you hath he quickned c. They are an application of the former comfortable truths to them you hath he quickned c. These words hath he quickned are not in the originall in this place they are after in verse 5. When we were dead in
other men it is with the spirit of the writer He cannot speake to God in praise or to others in experience of the worke of grace because he hath a dead soule Put him to his owne arguments to talke of vanity to sweare or to talke of the times you shall have him in his theame but to talke of God and divine things unlesse it be to sweare by them and to scorne good things he cannot he is speechlesse there it is not his theame And as he is speechlesse so he hath no spirituall eyes to see God in his works There is nothing that we see with our bodily eyes but our soules should have an eye to see somewhat of God in it his mercy and goodnesse and power c. And so he hath no relish to taste of God in his creatures and mercies when a man tasts of the creatures he should have a spirituall taste of God and of the mercy in him Oh how sweet is God! A wicked man hath no taste of God And he cannot heare what the Spirit saith in the Word he heares the voice of man but not of the Spirit when the trumpet of the Word sounds never so loud in his eares These things ought not to be overmuch pressed much curiosity must not be used in them but because the Holy Ghost raiseth the proportion from these things some thing must be said of them As there is no sence nor mooving to outward things so no outward thing can moove a dead body offer him colours to the eye food to the taste or any thing to the feeling nothing mooves him So a dead soule as it cannot moove to good so it is mooved with nothing that that affects a child of God and makes him tremble and quake it affects not a carnall man at all And as in bodily death the longer it is dead the more noysome and offensive it is every day more then other So sinne it makes the soule more loathsome and noysome daily till they have filled up the measure of their sinnes till the earth can beare them no longer We say of a dead body it is heavy so dead soules I am sure they are heavy heavy to God and to Christ that dyed for sinne and heavy in themselves they sinke to earthly things in their affections and thereby they sinke lower and lower to Hell and never leave sinking till they be there As the life of grace is like the Sunne when it riseth it growes still till it come to full perfection till it come to the life of glory So on the contrary this death is a death that is more and more increased in the loathsomenesse and noysomenesse of it every way so that the longer a carnall man lives the more guilt hee contracts A child of a hundred yeares old as the Prophet saith the longer he lives the more vengeance is stored for him he treasures vengeance up against the day of vengeance and it is a curse for a man in his naturall estate to live long for he growes more and more abhominable every way These things helpe to understand the Scripture and therefore so far we may well thinke of them If this be so I beseech you let us learne to know what we are by nature not to make our selves in our owne conceits better then indeed wee are We judge of our selves as we are to civill things A man that hath naturall parts that can discourse and understand the mysteries of law and of the state we value men by these Alas poore soule thou mayest be dead for all this what are all these abilities for Are they not for the spirituall life What is this to the life of grace They onely blow thee up with pride and set thee further off and make thee uncapable of grace If thou talke of learning the Divell is a better scholler then any man he knowes matters of state and other things better then thou doest and yet he is a Divell for all that therefore never stand upon these things But there is a company that are more to blame then these one would thinke that these have something to be proud off that they might set themselves against God and goodnes but there is a generation that have little in them that yet think themselves the only men in loose licentious life despising all caring for none think it the only life to live as they list to goe where they list in what companies they list to have bounds of their owne these think themselves the onely men when indeed they are no body they are dead loathsome creatures it is the mercy of God that the ground doth not sinke underthem and yet they carry themselves as if they only were alive Againe if we be all dead by nature and there ought to be a separation of the living from the dead let us take heed in our amity and society that we converse not with naturall men too much that have not spirituall goodnesse in them that we converse not with them with delight and complacency It is a tyrannicall thing to knit dead and living bodies together and he was accounted a tyrant that did so surely in choosing our society conjugall or friendly any intimate society to joyne living and dead soules together we are tyrants to our owne soules Wee wrong our soules to joyne with dead persons who would converse with dead courses and corps The very creatures startle at the sight of a dead body nature startles at that that is dead If wee had the life of grace further then the necessity of civill conversation and the hope of bettering them forceth it upon us wee would have no society with those that we see are in the state of nature What issues from them but stench eyes full of adultery nothing that is pleasing can come from them nothing can come from all their sences but rottennesse and stench what comfort can a man that loves his owne soule and hath any desire to be saved have by intimate converse with such persons let them have never so good parts they hurt more one way then they doe good another you see wee are all dead by nature and what this death is But you will say there is a difference betweene naturall death and spirituall death for in naturall bodily death there is no mooving but in this spirituall death of the soule men have sences and motion c. Jt is true thus farre they differ though a man be spiritually dead yet notwithstanding he hath feete to carry him to the house of God he hath eares to heare the Word of God he hath abilities of nature upon which grace is founded God workes grace upon nature Now a man living in the Church of God that is a grace when a man hath grace to live within the compasse of the meanes he can by common grace without any inward change of nature come and heare the Word of
God and when he is there he may yeeld an eare to listen and he hath common discourse and understanding to know what is said and upon what ground he can offer himselfe to the worke of the Spirit he can come to the poole though he be not thrust in this day or that day when God stirrs the waters this by common grace any man living in the Church may doe Therefore though we be all dead even the best of us by nature yet let us use the parts of nature that we have that God hath given us to offer our selves to the gracions and blessed meanes wherein the Spirit of God may worke Let us come to heare the Word of God Iohn 5.25 The time is come and now is that the dead shall heare the voice of God where the voice of God is in the Ministery and so they shall live As in the latter day the noyse of the trumpet shall raise the dead bodies So the trumpet of the Word of God sounding in the eares of men together with the Spirit shall raise the dead soules out of the grave of sin Therefore J beseech you as you would be raised up out of this death heare the noyse of Gods trumpet come within the compasse of the meanes As God is the God of life and Christ calls himselfe the life and the Spirit the Spirit of life So the Word is the Word of life because together with the Word God conveyes spirituall life The Word of God in the Ordinance is an operative working Word As it was in the creation God said Let there bee light and there was light So in the Ministery it exhorts and stirres up to duty and there is a cloathing of the ministeriall word with an almighty power it is a working word As when Christ spake to Lazarus when hee stanke in his grave he said Lazarus come foorth it was an operative working word there went an almighty power to raise Lazarus Therefore though we finde our selves dead and have no worke of grace yet let us present our selves more and more to the Ordinance of God God will be mighty in his own Ordinance the blessed time may come let us waite when the waters are stirred and take heede that we despise not the counsell of God which is to bring man to spirituall life this way And object not I am dead and rotten in sin many yeares I am an old man You know many were raised in the Gospell some that had beene dead few daies Lazarus was rotten and stanke It shewes us that though a man be dead and rotten in sinne yet he may be raised first or last the blessed time may come therefore waite never pretend long custome and long living in sinne All things are in obedience to God though they have a resistance in themselves yet God can take away that resistance and bring all to obey him All things in the world though they be never so opposite to Gods grace they are in obedience to his command Therefore though there be nothing but actuall present resistance in the soule to that that is good and a slavery to the bondage of sin yet attend meekly upon the Ordinance God can make of Lions Lambs he can take away that actual resistance As Christ when he was raised the stone that lay upon the grave was remooved So when God will quicken a man he will remoove the stone of long custome that is upon him though he have beene dead so many yeares yet God can rowle away the stone and bid him rise up Therefore let none despaire God is more mercifull to save those that belong to him then Sathan can be malicious to hinder any way The best of us all though we be not wholly dead yet there are some relicks of spirituall death hanging upon us there be corruptions which in themselves are noysome Therefore let all attend upon the meanes that the Spirit of God by little and little may worke out the remainders of death the remainders of darknesse in our understandings and of rebellion in our wills and affections For there bee usually three degrees of persons in the Church of God Some open rotten persons that are as graves open sepulchres that their stincke comes foorth and they are prophane ones There are some that have a forme of godlinesse that are meerely ghosts that act things outwardly but they have not a spirit of their owne they have an evill spirit and yet doe good workes they walke up and downe and doe things with no spirit of their owne The second are more tollerable then the first in humane society because the other stinke and smell to common society common swearers and prophane persons that stinke to any except it be to themselves But the godly have this death in part the life of sentence is perfect the life of justification but spirituall life in us is by little and little wrought in the meanes the Spirit of life joynes with the Word of life and quickens us daily more and more A word of these words And you hath he quickned Suteable to the occasion This being our estate let us know how much we are beholding to God who hath quickned us God quickens us with Christ and in Christ. It is a comfortable consideration In that God hath quickned Christ and raised him from the grave it shewes that his Fathers wrath is pacified or else he would not have quickned him he gave him to death and quickned him againe therefore we may know that he hath paid the price for us And he quickens us with Christ and in Christ whatsoever we have that is good it is in Christ first That Christ in all things might have the preheminence Christ first rose and ascended and sits in Heaven and then we rise and ascend and sit in heavenly places with Christ Therefore as St. Peter saith well in 1. Peter 1.20 God hath raised Christ that our faith might bee in God If Christ had not beene raised up our Faith and Hope could not have beene in God that he would raise us up we are quickned and raised in Christ all is in Christ first and then in us The ground of this is that Christ was a publike person in all that he did in his death therefore we are crucified and buried with him in his resurrection and ascention therefore we are quickned with him and sit in heavenly places with him He is the second Adam And if the first Adam could convey death to so many thousands so many thousand yeeres after and if the world should continue millions of yeares he would convey death to all shall not Christ the second Adam convey life to all that are in him So thinke of all things both comfortable and uncomfortable in Christ first when we thinke of sinne thinke of it in him our Surety and when we thinke of freedome from death and damnation thinke of his death when wee thinke of our resurrection thinke
to direct us heere as I shall discover better to you when I come to speake of the duty injoyned which is that I especially aime at But before I come to inforce the act or duty which our Saviour heere exhorts unto I must unfold the object of that act what is meant heere by the meate that endures to everlasting life The meate that endures to everlasting life is our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus as he is contained and wrapped up in the meanes of salvation with all the blessed liberties priviledges and prerogatives graces and comforts that we have by him and in him for our blessed Saviour never goes alone hee is never imbraced naked but with him goes his graces comforts prerogatives and liberties wee have him not now as we shall see him face to face hereafter in Heaven but he is to be considered as wrapped up in the Word and Sacraments so is Christ the foode that lasts to everlasting life and in this latitude we must take it or else wee mistake and straiten the Holy Ghost But why is our blessed Saviour so considered and the comforts and prerogatives and good things we have by him termed food In divers respects To instance in a few but first you must know that as the soule hath a life as well as the body so it hath a taste as well as the body and as God least the body should pine away hath planted in it an appetite which is the bodies longing after that which refresheth it for if it were not for appetite if it were not for hunger and thirst who would care for meate and drinke so God hath planted in the soule least it should pine away a spirituall appetite an earnest longing and desiring after that which is the most necessary good of the soule for the soule hath that which the body hath taste and smell c. though in a more sublime and divine sense but as really and truly as we shall see afterwards Now our blessed Saviour is this spirituall food of the soule He is the bread of life that came downe from Heaven He is the true Manna He is the true Tree of life in Paradice in the Church of God the true Paradice He is the true Shewbread He is the true Lambe of God He considered with all the blessed prerogatives and priviledges and comforts we have by him is called meate or food for divers respects First whatsoever sweetnesse or comfort or strength there is in meate it is for the comfort and strength and good of the body so whatsoever is comfortable and cherishing in Christ as indeed all comfort and cherishing is in him it is for our good to us He is given for us Hee was borne to us a Childe is borne to us a Sonne is given all is for us for us men for us sinners there is nothing in his natures in his state and condition both of abasement and exaltation nothing in his Offices but it is all for our good Consider him in his humane nature and joyne with his nature his abasement that hee was man that he tooke upon him our nature that he was abased in it that he humbled himselfe to death even to the death of the Crosse to bee a sacrifice for our sinnes how doth the soule feed on this on the wonderfull love of God in giving Christ to be incarnate and then to die for us how doth the soule feed upon the death of Christ because by that Gods wrath is appeased and he reconciled where the dead body is there the Eagles resort so doth the soule prey and feed upon the dead body of Christ Christ crucified is the speciall food of the soule Consider him in his Exaltation in his glorious Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven how doth the soule feed upon that Christ our Surety is risen againe therfore our debt is discharged the justice of God is satisfied to the full so for his Ascension when the soule is basely minded on earthly things it ascends to Christ who is taken up to Heaven for us so his sitting at the right hand of God the soule feedes on that because he sits there till hee have triumphed over all his enemies till he have trod them all under foot Consider him in his Offices In ignorance the soule feeds on him as a Prophet to instruct it in the sense of wrath and anger the soule feeds on him as a Priest to make peace and reconciliation in want of righteousnesse the soule feeds on his righteousnesse he is our righteousnesse In the sense of corruption the soule feeds on him as a King that by his Spirit will ere long worke out all corruption that as hee will tread downe all our enemies without so he will tread downe all corruption within he will never leave the soule till he have made it a glorious house fit for himselfe So the prerogatives wee have by him the soule feeds on them feeds on his Redemption that by his Redemption wee are freed from our enemies and all that hate us and all that we feared that wee are set at liberty from the Law from sinne and from death and notwithstanding all the debasements of this world wee are the sons of God and heires of Heaven In a word whatsoever is in Christ is for our good Hee is all mine his Life is mine his Death is mine his Resurrection is mine his Ascension is mine all is mine he is expended and laid open for my good that 's the first Againe as in the bodily life there is a stomack a power to worke out of the meate that which is for strength and nourishment so in the soule there is faith the spirituall mouth and stomack of the soule to worke and draw out of Christ whatsoever is for the comfort and nourishment of it as there is comfort in Christ so the Spirit of God gives a man a hand a mouth as it were gives a man faith to worke out of Christ somewhat for comfort what were food if there were not a stomack to digest it to make it a mans owne so what were Christ if wee had not faith to lay hold on him Againe thirdly as our life is nourished and maintained with that which is dead with dead things so the chiefe dish that maintaineth and nourisheth the life of the soule as I said before is Christ crucified God forbid saith the Apostle that I should rejoyce in any thing but in Christ crucified when the soule of a poore sinner is pursued with accusations from Satan and his owne conscience when they take part with God against him whether runs it to the city of refuge it runs to Christ to Christ crucified thither the soule flies being pursued with the guilt of sinne to the hornes of the Altar as Ioab did when hee was pursued but with better successe for hee was pulled from thence but the soule that flies to Christ crucified to the death of Christ to Christ abased to his satisfying the wrath of
God by his death and making of us friends with God there it holds there it lives and there it will continue for ever this keepes the soule alive And then againe as in meate before it can nourish us there must be an union an assimulation a turning of it into us so Christ except hee be made one with us by faith unlesse there bee an union betweene him and us hee can never nourish and comfort us savingly Againe as wee oft eate and after we have received food once yet we eate againe every day because there is a decay of strength and there are still new businesses new occasions that require new strength and therefore there is need of a continuall repairing of our strength by food Even so there is a perpetuall exigence a continuall need that the soule hath to feed upon Christ upon the promises of Christ and the prerogatives by Christ because every day we have fresh impediments fâ—esh assaults and therefore we have need to fetch fresh supplies and refreshment from Christ to have meate from Christ every day to live on Christ not onely at the first but continually that as our corruptions and temptations and infirmities returne every day so every day to feed on Christ for the repairing of our spirituall strength especially wee are to make daily use of the death of Christ for howsoever the death of Christ be transient in respect of the act of it as one of the Antients saith yet the fruit of it remaines for our daily comfort and refreshment his bloud runs every day in the Church afresh like a fountaine alwaies powred out for Iuda and Ierusalem to wash in it alwaies runs that is in regard of Gods imputation in regard of the fruit that comes to the soule and therefore we should make daily use of it for the comfort and strength of our soules upon all occasions Wee have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and hee is the propitiation for our sinnes he is now an Intercessour in Heaven hee continually applies the fruit of his death now by his intercession in Heaven Againe as after meate received and eaten there is strength and comfort gotten for the affaires of this life so likewise after the soule hath digested and relished Christ and the benefits and prerogatives that come by him after we have made the heavenly truths of Christ our owne the soule is strengthened to holy duties it is fit to doe it is fit to suffer it is fit to resist temptations it is fit to performe all the services of Christianity In these and divers other respects Christ is the blessed meate heere mentioned not himself alone but considered with all the blessed good things which we have by him for Christ as I said before is never alone if wee have him we are sonnes in him we are heires in him we are free in him we are redeemed in him wee are Kings in him Priests in him Prophets in him we are all in him we have with him all the good things that he hath for as we have not them without him so we have not him without them those that have the field have the pearle in the field and they that have the pearle in the field have the field they that have Christ have Christ cloathed with all his blessed prerogatives and priviledges and comforts But wherein lieth the difference betweene this meate this foode of the soule and other meate In these things First of all Christ as he is from Heaven so all the graces and comforts that we have by him are all from Heaven and they carry us to Heaven all the other things are earthly Secondly all earthly food doth not give but maintaine life where it is but Christ hee is such a food as gives life he is as well life as food I am the life Againe thirdly the nourishment wee have from this outward food we turne to our selves but Christ this spirituall meate turnes us into himselfe transformes us into his owne likenesse for Christ offered to us in the Gospell being digested by Faith doth by his Spirit change us every way into his owne likenesse Lastly all other meats are consumed in the spending and there will a time come when wee shall not be able to relish any worldly thing our mouth will be out of taste with these outward things But Christ the food of the soule is never consumed but growes more and more and when wee can relish no other wee may relish this food that indures to everlasting life it alwaies satisfies the soule all earthly things are as salt water that increase the appetite but satisfie not onely Christ and grace and the comforts we have by him satisfie and that everlastingly they are as a spring that never dyes As he himselfe in his owne person endures to everlasting life so all that we have by him is everlasting grace is everlasting grace ends in glory Christ alwayes satisfies though not wholy here because there must be a continuall recourse to him yet hee will satisfie hereafter Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse for they shall be satisfied Thus you see what is meant by the food that endures to everlasting life and the reason of the resemblance and the difference that is betweene this and other meate Here are arguments enough then to enforce us to a labouring after this meate that endures to everlasting life that is so agreeable to the best part of us that is able to make us happy to labour by Faith to get them to bee our owne Now the labour required is especially to get a stomacke to this meate God requires nothing of us when we come to his delicacies but that we bring a good stomacke with us J will therfore speake a little of that what wee must doe to get an appetite to this spirituall meate A good stomacke we know is procured by sharpe things the Paschall Lamb was to be eaten with sowre hearbs if we would have an appetite after Christ labour daily to consider what a cursed estate we are in without Christ God hath left the Law as for other purposes so for this that we should feed upon the threatnings of it that it should drive us to Christ A legall faith is the way to evangelicall Labour therefore thorowly to bee convinced of the need thou standest in of Christ and then I need not bid thee to labour for the food that endures to everlasting life that will sharpen thy appetite after it And beg of God illumination to see the ill that is in thee and the ill that belongs to thee God hath left infirmities and corruptions in us on purpose for this end and likewise we have tentations without us we carry not onely a Hell within us which if God should not keepe in would carry us to despaire but there is a hell without us the tentations of Satan the accusations of the Law the anger and wrath of God thus we
goods I give to the poore c. when grace is planted in the soule when the soule hath tasted once of better things there will be a meane and base esteeme of earthly things the more the soule feeds on heavenly things the lesse respect it hath to temporall things The soule is a finite Essence and it cannot spend it selfe on all things the more it runs into severalls the more shallow it is to others as in a streame when it is cut into many channels it runs weakely in the severall whereas it runs strongly in the maine so it is with the soule when it is scattered as the poore Israelites were about the land of Aegypt to gather straw to gather these perishing earthly things it is weake to heavenly things it hath little strength to those but when the course of it is wholy bent to those there are but weake or no desires running to these earthly things when once the soule of a Christian hath had a true taste and relish of the things of Heaven it lookes with a despising eye upon whatsoever is heere below when once it hath tasted of Christ then especially it growes out of relish with poyson then away with Popery away with false doctrine away with hypocrisie and formality in religion Againe secondly wee may know that wee have tasted Christ and fed on him and on the good things that are by him when wee are strengthened by our feeding when wee are strengthened to duties strengthened against tentations and against corruptions Thou saist thou beleevest on Christ and hast made him thine own what comfort and strength feelest thou by Christ art thou able to encounter a tentation art thou able to resist a lust art thou able to performe holy services If there be no strength in thee but every tentation turnes thee over and thou yeeldest to every base lust where is Christ canst thou beleeve Christ to be thy King and yet suffer thy lusts to beare sway in thee canst thou beleeve that Christ is a Priest that died forthy sinnes and yet cherishest and lovest sinne canst thou beleeve that Christ is in Heaven and that thou art in heavenly places with Christ and yet hast no minde of heavenly things but art carried away with every earthly thing No thou hast not yet tasted how good and gracious the Lord is thou hast not yet relished the heavenly Manna the soule that feeds on Christ is strengthened from spirituall reasons and supernaturall grounds and divine principles drawne from Christ to duty so that it is enabled even with a holy violence to doe any thing for Christs sake for the soule reasons thus Christ gave himselfe to death for mee I will therefore if need be give my selfe to death for him Christ thought nothing too deare for mee I will thinke nothing too deare for him this pride this vanity that I am tempted to these were the speares that were the death of my Saviour thus the soule fetches reasons from the death of Christ to strengthen it against temptations to strengthen it to duty and so for the matter of comfort after meate hath beene received wee are refreshed if the soule be sweetly refreshed with the comforts that are to be had in Christ and in the Word of Christ it is a signe wee have tasted Christ those that have trembling and discouraging hearts and soules that cannot rest nor receive comfort it is a signe they have not rightly tasted Christ Come unto mee saith Christ all yee that are weary and heavie laden and yee shall finde rest to your soules in Christ there is rest out of Christ there is no rest and so likewise those that have corruptions bearing sway in them it is a signe they have not so much as touched Christ for if they had but touched Christ hee would stop the issue of their corruptions the poore woman in the Gospell as soon as she had touched Christ her bloudy issue was stayed so upon the least touch of Christ by faith there will be an abating of corruption Thirdly in the bodily life we know after a good meale the desire and appetite is satisfied so the soule that tastes of Christ it hath sweet satisfaction and contentment O the sweet satisfaction that a Christian soule hath above a Heathen A Christian that hath Christ need not goe out of him for any thing it hath fullnesse and satisfaction in him in all estates both in life and in death dost thou finde Christ and the priviledges and prerogatives we have by him dost thou finde the Word of Christ and the promises of the Word fully and sufficiently satisfie thee then it argues that thou hast fed on Christ for Christ being received by faith into the soule gives it fullnesse and contentment Lastly to name no more as men if they have the grace of God in their hearts will give thankes for their bodily food so it is an evidence that we have fed on Christ when our hearts and tongues are enlarged to praise God for Christ for the comforts and contentment and satisfaction that we finde in him and in religion therefore Saint Paul begins his Epistle to the Ephesians with Blessed bee God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly place in Christ. And Saâ—nt Peter being led by the same blessed Spirit his heart being full his mouth is full of thankes Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath begotten us againe to an inheritance immortall that fadeth not away reserved for you in the heavens for you that are reserved by faith to salvation so undoubtedly the soule that tasts the sweet comforts of Religion in Christ will be much in sweet inlargements of heart in thanksgiving it cannot be otherwaise it is an universall reason the more beleeving a soule is the more thankefull a soul is where there is no praise there is no faith Thus you see how we may try whether we have tasted and relished whether wee have fed upon the food that endures to everlasting life or no. Taste is the most necessary sense of all saith a wise searcher of the mysteries of Nature our life is maintained by taste Every creature sees not every creature heares not but every creature hath taste you may judge of your selves by your taste and relish and if once you have tasted and relished Christ all the world cannot perswade you to fall from him if all should say there were no sweetnesse in Religion that it were better to be a worldling c. you would defie it you would never beleeve it there is no disputing against what a man tasts if all men should say sugar were sharpe if J once tasted it I would say otherwise Labour for the meate that endures to everlasting life The Arguments enforcing this act upon the object to labour for Christ are that he is food and food that endures and food that endures to everlasting life Let me from these
under Gods hand to bee sonnes you are sonnes by Creation already offer thy selfe to be of his family for the time to come and God will give a sweet report to thy soule Stand not out at the staves end Thou art our Father Lord. If you have a purpose to live in firme the Divell is your father and not God you are of your father the Divell but if wee bee willing to submit wee may say Doubtlesse thou art our Father We are the clay thou art the potter Heere is a resignation of themselves to God in this tearme thou art the potter we are the clay Indeed we are but earthen vessells the best of us in regard of the bodily life we have and we are at the liberty of God to dispose of as he pleaseth So before he comes to put forth this prayer to God he useth this resignation of themselves into the hand of God we are as clay in thy hands Lord dispose of us as thou wilt Let us remember this when we come to pray to God use all meanes of abasement that can be lay aside all tearmes other then abasing tearmes wee are the clay and as Iob saith I abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes So the Saints have done in all times I am not worthy to bee called thy sonne and I am lesse then the least of thy mercies Let us lay aside proud and lofty tearmes and cast downe our crownes at the foot of Christ as the Saints in Revel 4. cast downe all our excellencies let us have no thought of outward excellencies of beautie or strength or riches or high dignity when we come to God wee must come with low thoughts to the high God can the creature be too low in his presence And then come with resignation wee are the clay thou art the potter doe with us as thou wilt if thou dash us in peeces as a potters vessell thou maist doe it that is the way to escape That is well committed that is committed into Gods hand some men shift by their wits and will not trust God with their health and strength they bee double minded as Saint Iames saith they will have two strings to their bow if lawfull meanes will not serve unlawfull shall No but wee must commit our selves to God as to a faithfull Creator and then see what hee will doe then it stands with his honour hee will looke to the lowlie I am the clay thou art the potter heere I am doe as thou wilt as David saith it is a blessed estate thus to resigne our selves into Gods hands If the Divell and Reprobates could bee brought to this they should never come there where they are in terrours of conscience Let us labour to practise this dutie Lord I commit to thy hands my body and soule I cast my selfe into thy bosome doe with mee as thou wilt Some that have stood out at the staves end with temptations many yeares have gotten comfort by this resignation VVe are the clay thou art the potter thou maist mold and break us as thou wilt The way now to escape the plague is not alltogether to use tricks of wit and policie though lawfull meanes must be used but labour to get into Christ and resigne our selves into Gods hand absolutely and say thus VVe are the clay c. Lord thou maist dash us if thou wilt as thou dost now many hundreds weekely thou maist dash us in that fashion if thou wilt Only we may have a desire that God would make our lives and health pretious to him that we may serve him as if we were now in Heaven and that we may have grace to make good use of all But if God have determined and decreed to take us away let us resigne our selves into his hands It is no matter though the body bee sowne in dishonour they shall be raised in honour wee are the clay he is the potter let him do what he will with our carkasses and bodies so he be mercifull to our soules These vessells of clay when they are turned to earth they shall be renewed of better stuffe like the glorious body of Christ then our soules and bodies shall be glorious by him that took a peece of flesh and clay for us O the humility of Christ we wonder that the soule should animate a peece of clay so excellent a thing as the soule is much more may we wonder that the Sonne of God should take a piece of flesh and clay upon him to take our nature of base earth to make us eternally glorious as himselfe Let it comfort us though God dash our clay in pieces as a Potter yet Christ that tooke our clay to the unity of his Person our nature being ingrafted into him hee will make our bodies eternall and everlasting as his owne glorious body Let us resigne our selves into Gods hands as the Church here Thou art the Potter and we are the clay and then wee shall never miscarry FINIS THE SPIRITVALL IUBILE In two Sermons By The late learned and reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Mr. of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at GRAYES-INNE JOHN 8.36 If the Sonne therefore shall make you free yee shall be free indeed GAL 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free LONDON Printed by E. P. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford and are to be sold at the South entrance of the Royall Exchange and in Queens head Alley in Pater-Noster-Row at the gilt Bible 1638. THE SPIRITVALL IVBILE ROM 8.2 For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of sinne and of death THERE be foure things especially that trouble the peace of a Christian and indeed of any man in this world The first is sinne with the guilt of it binding them over to the wrath of God and the expectation of miserie a heavie bondage The second is besides the guilt of sinne the remainders of corruption with the conflict that accompanies them while we live in this world and that conflict must needes be tedious The third is the miseries of this life that accompanie alway both the guilt and remainders of sinne in this world we are condemned to a great deale of trouble here and this doth much exercise and perplex Gods children And then the shutting up of all death and damnation the thought of these things doth much disquiet and disturbe the peace of a Christians soule Now in this Epistle we have comfort against all these First for the guilt of sinne that binds us over to eternall judgement and the wrath of God we are freed by the obedience of Christ the second Adam as is excellently she well in the fifth Chapter And for the remainders of corruption that we conflict with in this world we are assisted against that by the Spirit of Christ for as by the obedience of Christ we are freed from the guilt so by the Spirit
of Christ we are helped and assisted against the remainders of our corruptions For the third the miseries of this life we have victori◠in Christ In him we are more they conquerours as you have it in this Chapter They can doe us no harme Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus We have 〈◊〉 singular comforts in this Chapter against all the troubles than can be fall us and this is one that triumphs over all All things shall worke for the best to them that love God What should I speake of hurt from any thing that befalls us when all shall worke for the best by the over-ruling of him that commands all Vers. 28 And for death it selfe Neither life nor death shall be able to separate us from the love of God And for damnation which accompanies death It is God that justifieth who shall condemne There is opposite comforts in Gods Booke nay in this Epistle and in this Chapter against all that may any way trouble our peace There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus saith the Apostle and then he goes on after to shew how by the helpe of the Spirit all things worke for the best c. In this very Verse likewise you have this comfort set downe of our freedome by Christ from any thing that may hurt us For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of sinne and of death The words are dependant as we see in the particle for For the Law of the Spirit of Life c. They depend upon the first Verse thus as a reason why how ever there be sinne in Gods children yet there is no damnation to them There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus he prooves it thus Those that are free from the Law of sinne and of death which brings in condemnation those undoubtedly are free from damnation but those that are in Christ Jesus they are freed from the Law of sinne and of death therefore there is no condemnation to such But how shall we know that we are in Christ Jesus Those that have the Spirit and are led by the Spirit of Christ they are in Christ The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death So I say the words are especially a reason of the former There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus because by the Spirit of Christ they are freed from the Law of sinne and of death and by consequent they are freed from damnation for what brings in damnation but sinne In the words then there is an opposition there is Law against Law The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ and the Law of sinne and of death Now where there are contrarie Lawes if there be contrarie Lords as there must be New Lords will have new Lawes especially if they be Lords by conquest they will alter the very fundamentall Lawes that were before as you know the old Conquerours have done in this Kingdome Here is Law against Law and Lord against Lord Christ against sinne and death Here is a Lord by conquest over all other Lords and Lawes therefore here must needes be an alteration of Lawes upon it the very fundamentall Lawes must be altered But to come more particularly to the words For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death The words are much vexed by Expositors I will rather speake my owne judgement of them and reconcile them then dash one mans judgement against another for that tends not to edification The Law of the Spirit of life c. The meaning of the words is plaine if we compare it with other Scriptures The Law It is nothing but a commanding power for so the word written the Law in the Apostles meaning is but a power forcing and commanding So the Law of the Spirit of life is the commanding and forcing power of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus and so the Law of sinne it is either the tyrannicall command and forcing power of sinne or else the condemning for sinne afterwards as we shall see hereafter for we shall unfold the words better in the particulars First then here we have set downe what estate we are in by nature we are under the Law of sinne and of death And then here is our freedome and deliverance from that we are made free from the Law of sinne and of death And then the Author of it Christ Jesus The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death In the words and those that goe a little before there are these three maine fundamentall points of Religion The miserie and bondage of man The deliverance of man And his dutie Here you have his miserie he is under sinne and death Here is his deliverance he is free from this by Christ. And for his dutie you have it in the last Verse of the former Chapter speaking of his deliverance Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the bodie of this death then it followes Thankes be to God through Iesus Christ our Lord Thankfulnesse is due not verball thankfulnesse onely Indeed the whole life of a Christian after his deliverance is a reall thanksgiving but that is not in my Text. To speake therefore of our estate by nature and of our deliverance our estate is that we are under the Law of sinne and death We are under the Law of sinne We are under sinne what sinne We are under a three-fold sinne We are under the first sinne of our first father for as Levi payd Tythes in Abraham to Melchisedech so we all sinned in the Loynes of Adam our first Parent and the guilt of that first sinne lyes upon us Secondly there is another sinne that is derived and springs from that first sinne which is the deprivation of the Image of God the pravation of our nature we call it originall sinne whereby we are stripped of that good we had in our first creation and have the contrarie image the image of Satan stamped upon us so we are under the first sinne the guilt of it and we are under the sinne of nature which we call originall sinne because it is derived to us even from our birth and first originall we had in Adam And then we are under actuall sinnes which are so many bonds to tie us fast under sinne We are dead by nature but we are dead and rotten by actuall sinnes we super adde to the guilt of our sinne by our dayly conversation We are blind by nature but we are blinded indeed much more by our custome of life Every sinne doth as it were tie us faster to damnation and keepes us faster under the bondage of sinne Every new sinne takes away
may be devillish secret bitter darke enemies to that Though they may have strong heads for the good of the State yet it is not from any intrinsecall good in themselves but God useth them and makes them doe that For the Devill would have all naught he is an enemie to the very Swine therefore much more to the good of a State Therefore there are many politike civill Vertues as we fee in Achitophel and Iudas which no question is more then the Devill would have he would not have civill men so good he would not have them doe that they doe for the common good oft times yet the Devill will be sure to be at one end of the good they doe to taint them that their aime shall not be good it shall not be to the glory of God it shall not be in reference to salvation And so as the good is temporall they have a reward sutable to their desire they care for no more for they beleeve not Heaven but in a generall notion It may be there is such things it may be not therefore the good they doe is some little pettie obedience and what doe they desire To be well esteemed and respected to be venerable and to have honourable opinions in the hearts of men that men may stoupe in their conceits to them as men of respect This they deserve indeed and this they have God gives them that they would have But as Christ tells the Pharises who did excellent good things but it was to be seene of men he tells them they had their reward they had all they looked for for they were Atheists they looked not for Heaven So a man may say of all men that are out of the state of grace though they doe more then the Devill would have them and for diverse degrees of that they doe they are not subject to the Devill yet he taints their actions one way or other in the end he joynes himselfe in the action first or last he hath a hand in all their actions So that notwithstanding there be many good things yet this hinders not a whit but that they may be under the power of the Devill for it is but in reference to civill Government and State which is but for a time The fashion of this world passeth away here will be no Magistrates to governe nor no people to be governed ere long I speake it because many men are readie to propound such and such to imitate them in their courses and to say I will be no more religious then he when perhaps all may be but formalitie and common graces for this world God will honour some so much to be instruments for common good here but what is that to eternall salvation He may be a slave to his lusts and an enemie to the power of grace for all that Therefore unlesse we see men wrought upon thorowly to be of the mind of Christ to have the Spirit of Christ to judge of things as Christ judgeth to judge the service of God and doing his will to be the best things and to goe about doing good and that with reference and obedience to God all is nothing else A man may be under the bondage of his corruptions and so by them to Satan Againe when we are under our lusts and sinnes it is about earthly things we are in slaverie to that which is worse then our selves Sinne is the vilest thing in the world and the things whereabout sinne is occupied are the profits and pleasures and trifles of this world meane pettie things it is a base slaverie to consider whom we serve And to consider what it is that is in bondage the immortall soule of man that had the image of God stamped upon it and in the soule of man the most excellent part the will that is most free yet being under sinne it is most bound Our will was given us to cleave to God and the best things to make choise of the best things and to cleave to them undivided in life and death and for ever and so by cleaving to things better then our selves to advance our selves to a higher condition For when the soule of man that is under better things that is under God and Christ and doth cleave to God and Christ in his affections and to the things of a better life these be things bettering a mans condition even raysing the soule from its owne present estate to a glorious condition For we are as we affect our wills and our affections doe transforme us therefore wicked men are called the World because they love it and holy men are called heavenly because they are carryed in their affections and wills to heavenly things Our affections and wills doe denominate us they give us the name nay that is too little they doe give us the realitie the state When God so alters and changes our dispositions that out of a sanctified judgement wee make a right choyse of things and then cleave to them in our wills and affections constantly this raiseth our nature to be higher then it selfe Hee that cleaveth to the Lord is one Spirit as the Apostle saith Indeed our affections tranâ—forme us anew As it is with the fire it transformes cold and grosse bodies to be all fierie so God and heavenly things worke upon our hearts they transforme us to be like themselves Now for this inward soule of man which is so excellent a thing fitted by God to cleave to better things for communion with himselfe and everlasting happinesse for this to be a drudge to base pleasures and profits to the windie empty things of this world to vaine titles such like empty things and to place its happinesse in these things it is a pittifull degeneration that so excellent a thing as the immortall soule of man that shall never die should joyne with those things that shall make him miserable that it shall be better for a man that he had never beene as it is said of Iudas It had beene better for that man that he had never beene borne In the next place consider that that followes this thraldome and basenesse to our lusts there is a double fruite of it The one is uncertaine I meane for our yeelding to our base affections what get we The pleasures of sinne for a season a little pleasure or profit perhaps not that neither but if we have it it is a fading commodity that goes away quickly when they are gotten what are they vanity they promise more before we get them then they performe when we have them But then there is another wages that God in justice hath appointed for it that is damnation The wages of sinne is death it cries for wages When we are under sinne we can looke for nothing but death and therefore he joyns them together here the law of sin and of death an expectation of eternall misery This a man hath that is wedded to himselfe
and to have societie with the Devill and his Angels in hell and that forever and for ever Thou maist perhaps make â—light of the service of sinne because thou hast the present baits to delight thee but thou shouldst regard death Thou maist neglect death but then regard eternall death This word Eternall it is a heavy word Eternall separation from all good and eternall communion with the Devill and his Angels and for the wrath of God to seize on thy soule eternally world without end me thinkes men should not set light by that Therefore considering that this is our estate by nature we are all slaves to sinne and death let us labour to get out of this cursed estate by all meanes which is by The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus Now I come to speake of our freedome The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and death This is good news indeed to heare of freedome good newes to the Israelites to heare of freedome out of Egypt and for the Jewes to heare of Cyrus Proclamation for their freedome out of Babylon Freedome out of bondage is a sweet message Here we have such a message of spirituall freedome from other manner of enemies then those were The yeare of Jubile it was a comfortable yeare to servants that were kept in and were much vexed with their bondage when the yeare of Jubile came they were all freed therefore there was great expectation of the yeare of Jubile Here we have a spirituall Jubile a manumission and freedome from the bondage we are in by nature The Spirit of life in Christ makes us free from the Law of sinne and death There is life in Christ opposite to death in us there is a Spirit of life in Christ and a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ opposite to the law of sinne and of death in us So that this is our happinesse while we live here oh it is the blessednesse of men to make use of it while they have time and space and grace to repent and to cleave to Christ that whatsoever ill we are under by nature we may have full supply in Christ for all the breaches that came by the first Adam There came the wrath of God the corruption of our nature terrours of conscience death and damnation all these followed the sinne and breach of the first Adam all these are made up in the second He hath freed us from all the ill wee received from the first Adam and that we have added our selves for we make our selves worse then we come from Adam by our voluntary and daily transgressions but wee are freed from all by the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus How comes this freedome There can no freedome be without satisfaction to divine Justice For why are we under sinne God gives us up to sinne why are we under death God gives us up to death Why are we under Satans government he is Gods executioner Gods serjeant he gives us up to him here because we offend him Why are we under damnation and wrath because God is offended All our slavery comes originally from God however it be sinfull in regard of Satan that keepes us yet the power whereby he keepes us is good for he doth it from God His will is alwayes naught but his power is alwayes lawfull therefore the power whereby the Devill keepes us if wee looke up to God under whom the power is it is a lawfull power for God hath a hand in giving us up to finne it is a judiciall giving up and then by lusts and â—inne to Satan and death and damnation So if we speake of freedome wee must not begin with the executioner the wrath of God must be satisfied God must be one with us so as his Justice must have contentment Satisfaction must be with the glory of his Justice as well as of his Mercie his Attributes must have full content one must not be destroyed to satisfie another hee must so be mercifull in freeing us as that content must be given to his Justice that it complaine not of any losse Now reconciliation alway supposeth satisfaction it is founded upon it And satisfaction for sinne it must be in that nature that hath sinned now man of himselfe could not satisfie divine Justice being a finite person therefore God the second Person became man that in our nature hee might satisfie Gods wrath for us and so free us by giving payment to his divine Justice The death of Christ God-man is the price of our liberty and freedome But why doth the Apostle speake here of a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ which frees us but here is no mention of satisfaction by death Oh but death is the foundation of all as we shall see afterwards To unfold the point therefore because it is a speciall point and the words need unfolding Here it is said there is life in Christ. A Spirit of life in Christ. and a Law of a Spirit of life in Christ. There is life in Christ not onely as God for so indeed he is life God his life is himselfe for life is the being of a thing and the actions and moving and vigour and operations of a thing answerable to that being So the life of God is his being As I live saith the Lord that is as I am God I will not the death of a sinner Now Christ hath life in him as God as the Father hath but that is not especially here meant There is life in Christ as God-man as Mediator Now this life is that life which is originally from the God-head indeed it is but the God-heads quickening and giving life to the man-hood in Christ the Spirit quickning and sanctifying the man-hood And we have no comfort by the life of God as it is in Gods life alone severed for alas what communion have wee with God without a Mediator but our comfort is this that God who is the fountaine of life he became man and having satisfied Gods Justice he conveyes life to us he is our head hee hath life in himselfe as God to impart spirituall life to all his members so there is life in Christ as Mediator And there is a Spirit of life that life it is a working life for spirit is an emphaticall word spirit added to a thing increased the thing Againe he saith the Law of the Spirit of life Law is a commanding thing to shew that the life in Christ it is a commanding life it countermands all opposite lives whatsoever of sinne and death and this Law is a countermand to all other Lawes the Law of the Spirit of life frees us from all other Lawes So here is life the Spirit of life and the Law of the Spirit of life all words of strong signification But for the cleare understanding of this sweet and comfortable point First
Justice for them and by the Spirit of life hath quickned that dead body of his that was surety for us himselfe we may well say Who shall lay any thing to our charge he that is our surety is dead dead nay risen againe nay ascended and sits at the right hand of God Therefore now the conscience of any Christian may make that interrogation and bold demand there it may stand out any that dares to oppose the peace of his conscience now that he may say who is it it is God-man that dyed it is Christ that dyed in our nature and hath raised that nature of ours againe and is at the right hand of God who shall lay any thing to our charge The Spirit of life in Christ quickning him hath quickned us together with him so that now we may boldly demand we are freed from our sinnes because our surety is free from all All this was for our good what Christ did it was not for himselfe but for us and in his birth and life and death and resurrection we must consider him as a publicke person and so goe along with all that hee did as a publicke person Whatsoever may be terrible to us we must looke upon it first in Christ. If we looke upon the corruption and defilement in our nature looke upon the pure nature of Christ his nature was sanctified in his birth and he is a publicke person therefore this is for me and though I be defiled in my owne nature and carry the remainders of corruption about me yet the Spirit of life in Christ sanctified his nature and there is more sanctity in him then there can be sinne in me When we looke upon our sinnes let us not so much looke upon them in our consciences as in our surety Christ. When wee looke upon death looke not upon it in our selves in its owne visage but as it is in Christ undergone and conquered for the power of the Spirit of life in Christ overcame death in himselfe first and for us and will overcome in us in time When the wrath of God is on our consciences looke not upon it as it is in our selves but as undergone by Christ and as Christ by the Spirit of life now in him is raised up not from death alone but from all terrours My God my God why hast thou forsaken me See Christ by the Spirit of life quickened from all not onely bare naturall death but from all enemies thou needest to feare from the Law it is nayled to his Crosse hee now triumphs over it and from sinne hee was a Sacrifice for it and from the wrath of God he hath satisfied it or else he had not come out of his grave So whatsoever is terrible look on it in Christ first see a full discharge of all that may affright thy conscience and trouble thy peace any way See him in his death dying for every man that will beleeve Consider him in his resurrection as a publicke person not rising himselfe alone but for all us therefore is 1 Pet. 1. There is an excellent place Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath begotten us againe to a lively hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ to an inheritance immortall undefiled c. and so goe along with him to his Ascension and see our selves sitting with him in heavenly places as Saint Paul speakes oh this is a sweet meditation of Christ to see our selves in him in all the passages of his birth and life and death and resurrection and ascension to glory in heaven for all that he did was as a publicke person as the second Adam But now before the Spirit of life in Christ come to free me I and Christ must be one there must be an union betweene me and Christ I must be a member of Christ mysticall For as Christ quickened his owne body every joynt when it was dead because it was his body so he quickens his mysticall body every member of it but I must be a member first I must not be my selfe severed from Christ. Therefore the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ the first thing it doth next to impetration and obtaining of happinesse it workes application for these two goe together impetration and application Christ by his death obtained all good and by his resurrection hee declared it but there must be an application to me Now this Spirit of life which is in Christ which quickened him and raised him up and all for my good must apply this to me The grace of application it is faith therefore this must be wrought in the next place How doth the Law of the Spirit of life free me because first it freed Christ therefore me but that is not enough except there be application Therefore the Law of the Spirit of life workes faith in me to knit me to Christ to make me beleeve that all that hee hath done is mine and the same power that raised Christ from the dead workes the power of faith and application For wee must not thinke that it is an easie thing for a carnall man to beleeve to goe out of himselfe that it is salvation enough to have salvation by the obedience of another man No both in the Ephesians and Colossians in divers places it is S. Pauls phrase that the same power that raised Christ from the dead must raise our hearts and worke faith in them For as the good things that faith layes hold on are wondrous good things even above admiration almost that poore flesh and blood a piece of earth should be an heire of heaven a member of Christ that it should be above Angels in dignity as the things are superexcellent things even above admiration in a manner so the grace that beleeves these things it is a strange and excellent and admirable grace that is faith Therefore faith must be wrought by the Law of the Spirit of Christ by the ministery of the Gospell This is the grace of application when a man goes out of himselfe when he sees himselfe first in bondage to his corruptions to Satan and to death and then sees the excellent way that God hath wrought in Christ to bring him out of that cursed estate then hee hath by the Spirit of life faith wrought in him And indeed the same power and Spirit that quickened Christ from the dead must quicken our hearts to beleeve in Christ. It is a miracle to bring the heart of man to beleeve Wee thinke it an easie matter to beleeve indeed it is an easie matter to presume to have a conceite but for the soule in the time of temptation and in the houre of death for the guilty soule to goe out of it selfe and cast it selfe upon the mercy of God who is justly offended and to beleeve that the obedience of Christ is mine as verily as if I had obeyed my selfe here must be a strong
calls his body broken the bread of life Why because it was the body of the Sonne of God who is life Iob 6. All life comes from God Now Christ taking our nature upon him his death is a quickning death and by reason of the union with the divine nature now it is the body of God broken and the blood of God shed for us there is our comfort and hee was declared to be so by his Resurrection that declared that he was God and that hee was freed from our sinnes Powerfull must that Saviour needs be that was so strong in his very death when his very body was broken and his blood let out then hee did worke the foundation of all comfort for then hee satisfied the wrath of God Christ was strongest when hee was weakest The Resurrection was but a declaration of the worth of that hee had done Now in the Sacrament wee have Communion with Christ dying especially as his body is broken and his blood shed for that is the foundation of all comfort by his Resurrection And because the Spirit of life was in Christ and did quicken his body while hee was alive and was a Spirit of life even when hee dyed and gave worth and excellency to his death therefore when wee take the Communion wee ought not to meditate meerely of the death of Christ as his blood was shed and his body broken but of the death of such a person as had the Spirit of life in him as was God and man and so set the excellency of his person against all temptations whatsoever Set the excellency of Christ so abased his body broken and his blood shed against all temptations if it be the greatest the wrath of God upon the conscience yet when conscience thinkes this God the party offended gave his owne Sonne to be Incarnate and the Spirit of life in him did quicken mans nature and in that nature did die for satisfaction now God will be satisfied by the death of such a Surety as his owne Sonne so that the excellency of the Person having the Seale of God upon him For him hath God the Father sealed doth wondrously satisfie conscience in all temptations whatsoever What need a man feare death and damnation and the miseries of this life and Satan what are all if God be appeased and reconciled in Christ then a man hath comfort and may thinke of all other enemies as conquered enemies Now we cannot thinke of the death of Christ who was a quickening Spirit but wee must thinke of the death of an excellent person that gave worth to his death to be a satisfactory death for us Therefore let us receive the Communion with comfort that as verily as Christ is mine so his quickening Spirit is communicated to me and whatsoever he hath is mine If I have the field I have the Pearle in it his obedience his victory over death his Sonship is mine his sitting in heaven is for me he sits there to rule me while I am on earth and to take me up to himselfe when I am dead all is for me when wee have Communion with Christ wee have communion with all Therefore the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus when I am one with him it quickens mâ— and frees me from the law of sinne and death FINIS SAINT PAULS CHALLENGE In one Sermon By The late learned and reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Mr of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at GRAYES-INNE PSAL. 27.3 Though an Host should encampe against me my heart shall not feare though warre should rise against me In this will I be confident LONDON Printed by E. P. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford 1638. SAINT PAVLS CHALLENGE ROM 8.30 What shall wee then say to these things If God be for us who can be against us THE words are a glorious conclusion and triumph of faith the conclusion upon all the former particulars in the Chapter and the foundation of all the comforts that follow after to the end of the Chapter They are as the center of the Chapter all the beames of heavenly comfort in this divine Chapter they meete as it were in one in this short clause What shall we say then to these things c. In the words briefly there is first a question What shall we say to these things And then a triumph If God be with us who can be against us It is a question answered with another question What shall wee say to these things He answers it with another question If God be with us who can be against us What shall we say to these things To these things before mentioned If wâ—e be in Christ there is no condemnation to us if wee be led by the Spirit if we be heires of heaven and fellow heires with Christ if we suffer with him if we have the spirit of prayer to helpe our infirmities in the worst conditions if all creatures groane with us and if all worke for our good if God from all eternity hath written our names in heaven by election and separated us from the rest of the world in vocation and hath sanctified and justified us and will after glorifie us what shall wee say to these things The heart of man is full of doubtings and misgiving full of thoughts According to the multitude of my thoughts thy comforts refreshed my soule a multitude of thoughts and a multitude of comforts there is comfort after comfort because there are thoughts after thoughts and surmises after surmises There is no wast comfort set down in this Chapter and when he hath set down all he comes and concludes in a triumphant manner What shall wee say to these things He propounds the quaere to himselfe he catechiseth his own heart and others if these things be so what can be sayd against them Surely the unbeleeving doubting darke rebellious heart of man hath many things to say against divine truths for though divine truths be lighter then the Sunne and there is no greater evidence of any thing in the world yet they find no place in the unbeleeving heart Let God say what he will the doubting heart is ready to gain-say it but these truths are so pregnant and cleare that it is a wonder that any thing should be said against them What shall we say to thâ—se things Againe he meanes what comfort can you have more what can you desire more what can be said more what use will you make of all that hath beene said what will you sucke out of it If all this be true that hath beene spoken before that a Christian is so elevated above the common condition if God love him from everlasting in election and to everlasting in glorification if in the middle time all shall worke for the best what comfort can the heart of man desire more and what use can you make of this for courage and for comfort for the time to come these things are implyed in this
2 67. R Reason Different conclusion of Gods Word and carnall Reason 2 135 Redemption Gods love greater in Redemption then in Creation 1 12 26. Reflect Man can Reflect upon his actions 1 100. Repentance Late Repentance seldome true 1 92. Benefit of lively Repentance 1 95. See Sinne. Reproach Reproach not to be regarded 1 â—45 Resolution Ground of Resolution 2 219. Riches To carrie our selves answerable to our Riches 1 48. Rule Properties of a Rule appliable to Gods Word 2 190. Rule how to bee applied in particular actions 2 194. See Word S Salvation Christ as man chosen to Salvation 1 19. Saints To delight in the communion of Saints 2 225. Sanctuarie Benefit of entring Gods Sanctuary 2 135. Satan When we are under Satan 2 10. Scripture How to understand the Scripture 2 164. Sealing Seâ—ling of Christ what 1 201. What use to make of Christs Sealing 1 204. How to know Christ is Sealâ—d for our good 1 205 209. Sealing threefold 1 206. Sealing of thâ— Spirit what 1 207. Servant Service Christ a Servant how 1 7. Comfort that Christ was a Servant 1 17. To offer Christ in our Service to God 1 20. Danger of deferring Gods Service 2 184. God the object of our Service 2 186. Service what 2 188 203. Common actions a Service of God how 2 â—12 Qualification of our Service of God 2 214. See Life Shaken Gods children Shaken why 2 141. Secret Secret will of God no rule 2 190. Security Security a forerunner of judgement 1 119. Sight Sin takes away the Sight of it selfe 2 21. Sinne. The hurt we have by Sin 1 90. Particular Sins foreshewing judgements 1 121. Naturally we are under Sin 2 5. Sin threefold Ibid. Justice of God to give men up to Sin 2 8. Misery to be under Sin 2 9. Fruit of thraldome to Sin 2 16 Men not given up to all Sinne alike 2 22. Wee should see death in our Sins 2 28. See Generality Death Leprosie Iudgement Sleepe The death of the godly a Sleepe 2 220. Society Society with carnall men to be avoided 1 151. Soule The Soule chiefly to bee cared for 2 228. Spirit How to know wee have the Spirit 1 30. Degrees of receiving the Spirit 1 32. The Spirit put on Christ how 1 33. Spirit given and received by Christ how 1 38. Three things wee receive by the Spirit 1 42. How Christ gives the Spirit 1 55. Spirit in Christ how 2 36. Meanes to get the Spirit 2 123. See Ascention Gospell Stirre See Hold. Strength God the Strength of a Christian 2 79. Successe Succession Christians indeavours Successefull 1 255. There is a Succession of men 2 172. Sufferings Service of God in our sufferings 2 209 214. Supply Our Supply whence it is 1 46. T Table Service of God in obeying the second Table 2 205 207. Tast. Tast a most necessary sence 1 193. Temptation Comfort in Temptation 2 53. Thankefull See Popery Thraldome See Sin Time Times Time when especially to bee improved 1 129. Why to make use of Time 2 173. How our Times both miserable and happie 2 177. To serve God our whole Time 2 183. Gods children must serve their Time 2 218. Every mans Time allotted by God 2 219. Tirannie Tirannie of sin 2 19. V Vaine-glory Vaine-glory why to bee avoided 1 72. Valew Ground whence to Valew Christians 1 30. By what God Valews his children 2 167. Violence Violent Violence offered the Kingdome of Heaven how 1 233. Christians disposition Violent how 1 235. Ground of this Violence â— 236 To judge our estate by our Violence 1 â—41 Violence after outward things 1 242. Violent onely take Heaven 1 251. Freedome of grace inforceth Violence 1 253. Holy Violence hopefull 1 254 Pretious things require Violence 1 259. Exhortation to holy Violence 1 61. Gospell in Luthers time imbraced with Violence why 1 265. How to get holy Violence 1 271. See Wisedome Vnderstandings How to use our Vnderstandings 1.102 Vnfruitfullnesse Vnfruitfullnesse a forerunner of judgement 1 126 Vs. All good in Christ before in Vs 1 40. How the Spirit takes from Christ and gives to Vs 1 41. How the Spirit is put on Christ for Vs 1 50. What Christ did was for Vs 2 41. W Washings Washings in the Law what they signified 1 295. Watchfullnesse Watchfullnesse when requisite 1 130. Will. Will of Christ to give himselfe 1 119. Will of God knowne and not done aggravates sin 2 201. Will-worship Will-worship why forbidden 2 189. Winde Wicked men blowne away as with a Winde 1 317. VVisedome What violence may stand with VVisedome 1 244. VVisedome in man corrupted 2 21. VVisedome justified by whom 2 140. VVord Spirit given in the Ministery of the VVord 1 55. Written VVord the rule of our service 2 189. VVorld Businesse of the VVorld hinders consideration 1 104. VVorldly things to be neglected why 1 171. Christians rule of life not from the VVorld 2 138. Ill courses of the VVorld settle Gods children 2 139. VVorship Prayer put for all Gods VVorship 1 304. FINIS 1 Tim. 3.15 2 Tim. 1.14 Scope of the words Christ promised in the old testament 1 To stablish faith in other promises 2 To comfort them against their owne unworthinesse 2 Cor. 1.19 The word Behold used 1 To shew Christ as present 2 To take their mindes off from their miseries 3 To raise their mindes from earthly things Christ a servant 1 By Condition 2 By Office In respect oâ— God 1 Pet. 3.18 In respect of us Gods love to us 1 In the person thus abased Phil. 2. 4. Conjunctions wonderfull Christs abasemeâ—t tâ—e greaâ—est 2 Whence Christ was so abased Gods love in Redemption greâ—ter then in Creation 3 The fruit of Christs abaâ—ement Matter of wondâ—rment in the worke of Redemption Christ a servant by way of excellencie Vse Seeing Christ was a servant wee should bee humble Vse 2. Comfort that Christ became a servant Christ chosen of God Christ chosen to his office Christ as maâ— chosen to salvation To reâ—t in Gods choice To offer Christ to God in our services Take heed of neglecting Christ. Christ beloved of God 1 As God 2 As Man 3 As Mediator 4 In regard of the execution of his office Quest. Answ. God loves Christ mysticall Comâ—ort Gods love to us grounded on Christ. God loves the worke of our redeâ—ption Comfort in our daily approach to God To stirre us up to deligâ—t in Christ. On what 〈◊〉 to valâ—w Chrâ—stians We may know we are in 〈◊〉 1 I we have his Spirit How to know we have the Spirit Degrees of Christs receiving the Spirit What is meant by putting the Spirit on Christ Three sorts of persons annointed Three maine defects in man Supplied in Christ. In what order Câ—riâ—t performes his offices Chriests priâ—stly office the principall Object Answ. How Christ both gives and receives the Spirit All 〈◊〉 in Christ then 〈◊〉 How the Spirit takes of Christ and gives to us Three things
of Gods word and carnall reason To look to the end of Gods providence Psal. 37. The sight of faith â—rawes us neere to God Why God suffers different conditions of men Gods children have a contrary course to the world Similie A Christians rule of life not from the world Phil. 3. Corrupt courses of the world settle Gods children Psalme 119. Vse Of trâ—all Doct. Wisdome justified of her children Gods câ—ildâ—en shaken why Similie Vse To go 〈◊〉 God 〈…〉 3 How God is neare us How wee are neare to God 1 In our understanding 2 In our minds 3 In our wills 4 In the affections Love Desire Ioâ— Faith Doct. Conâ—iction of the judgement the ground of prâ—ctâ—se 4. Things in conviction Vse To labour for conviction Prophanesse whence it is Tâ—e holy Ghost â—â—â—meth Iohn 16. The holy Ghost convinceth in the use of meanes Application to the Sacrament How to understand the Scriptures Gods children leave a good name Savoury language of Scripture By what God values his children Why the matter of Vriah so objected to David Rev. 2. God corrects his sharply for their sinnes The time Matth. 1. Generation whâ—â— it is Obser. Thâ—re is a succession of men Vse 1. To make use of our short time Vse 2. To make sure an eâ—â—rnall Generation To get into Christ by faith Psal. 90. Obser. Every man hath his particular generation Vse To observe in what Generation we live 1 To blesse God if they be good In what respect tâ—ese times are Miserable Simile 2 Happie August Vse 2. To be bettered by the good in the generation Sinnes under means greater Vse 3. Not to be tainted with the sinnes of our generation Psal. 12. Rom. 12. Vse 4. To set our selves against the sinnes of our generation Divers sinnes in divers ages Vse 5. To labour to make the Generation wee live in good Gal. 6. 3 Wee must serve God our whole time We must serve God in our life time Danger of deferring Gods service Doct. God the object of our service Psal. 16. God as Creator to be served Will of God Counsell why Service what Will worship why forbidden Gods written word the rule of our service Heb. 1. Properties of a Rule appliable to the word of God 1 Open manifest Secret Will of God no rule why 2 Infallible The Grand lie in the Church of Rome 3 In extent 4 Authenticall 5 Inflexible How to apply the rule in particular actions Outward helps 1 The Ministery 2 Communion with good people 3 Lawes of men 4 Example of good people 2 Inward helpes 1 The Spirit of God Isa. 30. Isa. 9.7 Luke 11. 2 Particular grace Prudence 3 Conscience 4 Experience 3 The Act he sâ—rved God Rom. 12. To know Gods will and not doe it aggravates our damnation Cause of the fall of Angels To serve whaâ— Rom. 6. Service of God 1 Inward 3 Service in obeying the second Table Difference between a formall man and a Christian Collos. 3. Ephes. 6. Ephes. 6. Application to David â—e served God 1 In the inward man Psal. 18. Psal 4. 2 Outward Psal. 1. 3 For the second table Psal. 101. As a King 1 Chron. 17. In suffering 1 Sam. 30.6 2 Sam. 15.25 Psâ—l 39. Vse To imitate David Lactantius Similie Luke 1. Quest. Answ. How common actions may be a service of God To serve God in our suâ—ferings David served God 1 Vniversall 2 Vniforme 3 Chearfull 4 Sincere Signes of cincerity 1 To practise scorned duties 2 To appeale to God 3 Comforâ— Difference in the death of godly and wicked Simiâ—e Obser. A time of dying as well as living Vse Not to thinke much of long life Obser. Gods children must serve their time 1 To gaine others 2 To trie our graces 3 To perfect us Vse Not to repine that God will â—ave us live Obser. God hath aloâ—ted a man a time Vse Ground of resolution Obser. The death of the godly refresheth as sleep Psal. 17. ult 1 Cessation from lâ—bour 2 Hope of rising 3 After â—abour Eccles. 5.12 Vse To be painâ—â—ll 2 Set all in order 1 Chron. 29.28 3 Get faitâ— in Christ. Pâ—al 16. Fathers who meant Obser. When wâ— dâ—e we are put to our fathers Take heed whom we imitate Heb. 13.7 To delâ—gt in the communion of Saints Obser. The best and greatest subject to corruption Reas. 1. Wee are dead men here 2 We cannot bee crowned else Vse To support us against corruption 2 To take most care for the soule Philip. 3. 3 Not to be ensnared with the bodies of others To imitate David in life and death Psal. 16. Psal. 16.