pulls not from him they part with life Ay why not this life is but a death and he is our life for whom we lose it All these do but increase the victories and triumphs of Love and make it more glorious as they tell of her multiplying labours to that Champion they are not only Conquerors but more than Conquerors by multiply'd Victories and they gain in them all both more honour and more strength they are the fitter for new adventures and so more than simple Conquerors We overcome and are sure not to lose former Conquests but to add more and Conquer on to the end which other Conquerors are not sure of oftentimes they out-live their own Successes and Renown and lose on a sudden what they have been gaining a whole life time not so here We are secured in the Author of our Victories 't is through him that hath loved us and he cannot grow less yea shall still grow greater till all his Enemies be made his Footstool Having given the Challenge and finding none to answer and that all the most apparent are in a most Rhetorical Accumulation silenced Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine Nakedness Peril Sword c. He goes on confidently in the triumph and avers his assurance of full and final Victory against all imaginable power of all the Creatures neither Death nor Life nor the fear of the most terrible Death nor the hope or love of the most desirable life And in the height of this Courage and Confidence he supposes impossible Enemies Angels Principalities c. unless you take it of the Angels of Darkness only but if it could be possible that the other should offer at such a thing they would be too weak for it No sense of any present things or apprehensions of things to come not any thing within the vast circle of the World above or below nor any Creature can do it Here Sin is not specify'd because he is speaking of outward oppositions and difficulties expressly and because that is removed by the former challenge Who shall accuse That asserting a free and final acquittance of all sin a pardon of the curse which yet will never encourage any of these to sin that live in the assurance of this love Oh! no and these general words do include it too Nothing present nor to come c. So it is carried clear and is the satisfying comfort of all that Jesus Christ hath drawn after him and united in his love 'T is enough whatsoever they may be separated from the things or persons dearest in this World 't is no matter the Jewel is safe none can take my Christ from me and I safe in him as his purchase none can take me from him And being still in his love and through him in the Fathers love that is sufficient What can I fear What can I want All other hazards signifie nothing how little value are they of And for how little a while am I in danger of them Methinks all should look on a Believer with an emulous eye and wish his estate more than a Kings Alas poor Creatures rich men great men Princes and Kings what vain things are they that you embrace and cleave to whatsoever they be soon must you part can you say of any of them who shall separate us Storms may arise and scatter Ships that Sail fairly together in fair weather thou mayest be removed by publick Commotions and Calamities from thy sweet Dwellings and Societies and Estates c. You may even live to see and seek your parting At last you must part for you must die then farewel Parks and Palaces Gardens and Honours and even Crowns themselves then dearest Friends Children and Wife must be parted with And what hast thou left poor Soul that hast not Christ but that which thou wouldst gladly part with and canst not The condemning guilt of all thy Sins But the Soul that is in Christ when other things are pull'd away he feels little or nothing he cleaves to Christ and these separations pain him not Yea when that great Separatist Death comes that breaks all other unions even that of the Soul and Body yet so far is it from separating the Believers Soul from its Beloved Lord Jesus that on the contrary it carries it into the nearest union with him and fullest enjoyment of him for â—ver SERMON XVIII Isaiah LIX 1 2. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear OUR vain minds are naturally fruitful in nothing more than in mistakes of God for the most part we think not on him and when we do it we fancy him according to our own affections which are wholly perverse and crooked Men commonly judg it a vain thing to spend much pains and time in Worshipping him and if they are convinc'd in this and tied to it by the profession of his Name then they think all Religion is a Shell of external diligences and observances and count it strange if this be not accepted In the former Chapter we find this in the Prophets contest with the people about their Fasting and their opinion of it he cuts up their Sacrifices and lets them see what was within the skin was sound and look'd well but being opened the entrails were found rotten And here he enters into another contest against the Latent Atheism of their hearts who after their manner of seeking God not finding him and not being delivered are ready to think that he either cannot or will not help and rather rest on that gross mistake than enquire into themselves for the true cause of their continuing Calamities they incline rather to think 't is some Indisposition in God to help than what it truly is a want of Reformation in themselves that hinder it It is not likely that they would say thus not speak it out in plain terms no nor possibly not speak it formally and distinctly within not so much as in their thoughts and yet they might have a confus'd dark conceit of this And much of the Atheism of mans heart is of this fashion not formed into resolv'd Propositions but Latent in confus'd Notions of it scarce discernable by himself at least not search'd out and discerned in his own Breast there they are and he sees them not Not written assertions but flying fumes filling the Soul and hindering it to read the Characters of God that are writ upon the Conscience Impenitency of men in any condition and particularly under distress is from the want of clear apprehensions and deep perswasions of God of his Just Anger provok'd by their Sin and of his sweetness and readiness to forgive and embrace a returning Sinner his Soveraign power able to rid them out of the greatest trouble his Ear quick enough to hear the cries yea the least whispering
shouldest be afraid of a Man that shall die and of the Son of Man which shall be made as Grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth c. Consider then that Men have no power of our present Life but by the appointment of God and beside that we have another Life which is infinitely more precious than this a Life spiritual and which is the begining of eternal Life and this is altogether out of their danger Col. 3. 3. Our Life is hid with Christ in God It is hid And wicked Men cannot so much as see it how then should they take it from us seeing it is hid and that not meanly it is hid with Christ in God What then shall become of it read the next verse and read it to your comfort for there is abundance in it if you look right upon it When Christ who is our Life shall appear we likewise shall appear with him in Glory They that are in God being united to him through Christ can never by any power be separated from him it is an indissoluble union death it self that is the great dissolver of all other unions civil and natural is so far from untying this that it consummates it it conveys the Soul into the nearest and fullest enjoyment of God who is its Life where it shall not need to desire that God would command or send his loving kindness as it were at a distance it shall be then at the Spring-head and shall be satisfied with his Love for ever c. SERMON VII PREFACE WHerefore do you spend money for that which is not Bread and your labour for that which satisfies not says the Prophet Isaiah 55. 2. All Men agree in this that they would willingly meet with some satisfying good and yet if you look right upon the projects and labours of the greatest part shall find them flying from it and taking much pains to be miserable And truly considering the darkness that 's upon the Soul of Man 't is no great wonder to see these miss their way and continue wandring that hear not the voice of the Gospel to recal them and and see not its Light to direct them But this is somewhat strange that where true happiness and the true way to it is propounded and set before Men so few should follow it in good earnest If the excellency of that good did not allure them yet one would think that their many disappointments in all other things should drive them home to it How often do we run our selves out of breath after shadows and when we think we have overtaken them and would lay hold on them we find nothing and yet still we love to befool our selves even against our own experience which we say uses to make Fools wiser still we chuse rather to shift from one vanity to another than to return to that Sovereign good that alone can fill the vastest desires of our Souls rather to run from one broken Cistern to another as the Prophet calls them yea and to take pains to hew them out than have recourse to that Fountain of living waters One main thing that makes Men thus rove and wander is that they do not reflect upon their own course nor themselves what 's the main end they aim at and then see whether their way be suitable to that end If they would be happy as who would not then sure things that are empty and uncertain and certainly perishing will not serve the turn And truly as this thought would be seasonable at any time so especially to us in these times wherein besides the common uncertainty of outward things there is an apparent visible hazard that Men's Lives and Fortunes are likely to be put to Will you make advantage and gain of your trouble Thus the looser you find other things tied to you and as it were upon a running knot secure that one thing and your portion in it which is worth all the rest yea far above them all and that alone which can be secured and made certain wanting this what though you had Peace and Health and all imaginable prosperity you would still be miserable being liable to the wrath of God and eternal destruction But if once united to Christ and in him reconciled to God and intitled to Heaven what can fall amiss to you You shall have Joy in the midst of Sorrow and Affliction and Peace in the midst of War yea and Life in Death But think not to attain this assurance while you continue profane and godless not seeking it in the way of Holiness for there alone it is to be found and withal beg it of God by humble prayer Psal. CXIX 136. Rivers of Waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law LOve is the leading passion of the Soul all the rest follow the measure and motion of it as the lower Heavens are said to be wheel'd about with the first We have here a clear instance of it in the Psalmist testifying his love to God by his esteem and love of the Law or Word of God what is each of the several verses of this Psalm but a several breathing and vent of this love either in it self or in the causes or in the effects of it where he sets forth the excellencies and utilities of God's Law there you have the causes of his love his observing and studying it his desire to know it more and observe it better these are the effects of his affection to it The Love it self he often expresseth verses 47 48 113. and verse 140. Thy Word is pure therefore thy Servant loveth it And verse 127. I love thy Commandments above Gold yea above fine Gold But as scarce accounting that love which can be uttered how much it is verse 97. He expresseth it most by intimating that he cannot express it O how I love thy Law Hence are his desires which are love in pursuit so earnest after it Amongst many that is pathetical verse 20. My Soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy Judgements at all times Hence likewise his Joy and Delight which are love in possession verse 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as in all riches And verse 16. I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word We have his hatred of things opposite which is loves antipathy verse 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love And 163 verse I hate and abhor lying but thy Law do I love And in the 139 verse you shall find his zeal which is no other but the fire of Love stirred up or blown into a flame My zeal hath consumed me because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words And to omit the rest in the 158 verse â—is love to the Law shews its sympathy in sorrow for the violation of the Law I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not
is used inâ—â— ver 27. conform to that of Moses Gen. 6. Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart is only evil continually The word indeed signifies the wise thoughts so then take the full latitude of it thus The carnal mind in its best and wisest thoughts is direct enmity against God Carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What meant by the flesh here It is the whole corrupt Nature of man and that we may know by its opposition to the Spirit not to the Spirit or Soul of a man for so it hath no thoughts nor minding these being proper to the Soul but opposed to the Spirit of God Now the Corruption of Nature is called the Flesh not without very good reason not only to signifie the baseness of it the Flesh being the more ignoble and meaner part of a Man but because the greatest part of the sins of mens lives are about sensitive objects and things that concern the Flesh or the Body it lets in temptation of sin to the Soul by the doors of the Senses and it gives the last perfection or accomplishment to sin by external acting of it The very first sin that brought in Death and Misery with it upon Mankind the pleasure of the eye and of the taste were sharers in the guiltiness of it The carnal mind Man in regard of his composure is as it were the tie and band of Heaven and Earth they meet and are married in him A Body he has taken out of the Dust but a Soul breathed from Heaven the Father of Spirits a House of Clay but a Guest of most noble Extraction But the pity is it hath forgot its Original and is so drowned in flesh that it deserves no other but to go under the Name of Flesh. It is become the Slave and Drudge of the Body and as the Israelites in Egypt made perpetually to moyl in Clay What is all your Merchandise your Trades and Manufactures your Tillage and Husbandry but all for the Body in its behalf for Food and Raiment In all these the Mind must be careful and thoughtful and yet properly they reach it not for it self hath no interest in them It is true the necessity of the Body requires much of these things and superfluous custom far more but it is lamentable that men force their Souls to forget it self and its proper business to attend these things only and be busie in them They spend all their time and their choicest pains upon perishing things and which is worse engage their affections to them They mind earthly things whose end is destruction Philip. 3. 19. The same word that 's here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Will you consider seriously that your Souls run the hazard of perishing because you consider not their Spiritual Nature When that earthly Tabernacle of yours shall fall to the ground and e're long it must your Souls must then enter Eternity and though you had as large a share of earthly things as your earthly hearts now would wish they all lose their use in that moment they are not a proper good for the Soul at any time and least at that time If you keep it all your life long busie about the interest and benefit of the flesh the Body how poor will be when thy part having provided nothing at all for it self but the guiltiness of a sinful life which will sink it into that bottomless Pit Be forewarned then for to be carnally minded is death verse 6. precedeing the Text. The carnal mind Now as Sin hath abased and degenerated the Soul of Man making it Carnal so the Son of God by taking on our Nature hath sublimated it again and made it Spiritual The Souls that received him are Spiritualized yea as Sin made the Soul Carnal Grace makes the very Body to become Spiritual making it partaker and co-worker in spiritual things together with the Soul in doing and suffering and participant of the hopes too of an everlasting reward This is the main Christian Character our Apostle gives here that they are spiritually minded and that their actions suit their minds They walk not after the flesh but after the spirit whereas before with the rest of the World they were eager in the pursuit of Honours and Profits and Worldly Pleasures Now the stream of their desires run in another channel they seek after Honour and are very ambitious of it but it is such Honour as the Apostle speaks of in this Epistle Rom. 2. 7. By patient continuance in well doing they seek for glory and honour and immortality Their mind is upon profit and gain but it is with the same Apostle Philip. 3. that they may win Christ and they account all other things loss in comparison And their desires are after pleasure too but not Carnal Pleasures those are both base and of short continuance but the pleasures they aim at are those that are at Gods right hand and for evermore Psal. 16. 11. And that path of life he there speaks of that way of holiness that leads thither is their delight Spiritual Excercises they go to not as their task only but more as their joy and refreshment And this change the Spirit of God works in the Soul making it yea and the body wherein it dwells of Carnal to become Spiritual as the fire to which the Holy Ghost is compared refines Sand and Ashes and makes of them the purest Glass which is so neat and transparent Enmity against God Sin hath not only made us unlike God by defacing his beautiful Image in us not only strangers by making us wander far off from him but enemies nor enemies only but Enmity in the abstract for that is emphatical The carnal mind is Enmity nothing else but Enmity Now this Enmity is described in the latter clause of the Text by an Antipathy so to call it or Not-compliance with the Law of God it is not subject to the Law of God neither can it be to wit while it remains such There is an absolute impossibility in it to suit with the Law of God and consequently with God himself the reason lies in their opposits qualities God is spiritual and holy and so is the law as our Apostle hath it in the preceeding Chapter and the opposition he there makes betwixt his Unregenerate part and the Law is wholly true of the Unregenerate man The law is holy says he ver 12. And ver 14. It is spiritual to which too he opposes but I am carnal sold under sin Where are now those that so vilifie Grace and magnifie Nature Or shall I rather say Nullifie Grace and Deifie Nature Here is the best Elogy the Apostle will bestow upon the best of Natures Enmity against God Nay all the sparkles of Virtue and Moral Goodness in Civil Men and Ancient Heathens is no better besides many other things to be said to the Vertues of those Philosophers as ignorance of Christ by whom alone this enmity is removed I
hath died and that stands for the Believer Whosoever flies to him and lays hold on him for life he cannot die again nor canst thou die for whom he died once or rather is risen that raises the assurance higher and sets it firmer for this evidences that in his death all was payed when he being the Surety and seized on for the Debt and once Deaths Prisoner yet was set free This clears the matter that there is no more to be said and yet further in sign that all is done he is raised to the height of Honour above all Principalities and Powers is set at the right hand of the Father and there he sits and lives to make Intercession to sue out the fulfilling of all for Believers the bringing of them home lives to see all made good that he Died and Covenanted for so now his righteousness is thine that believest any challenge must meet with Christ first and if it seize not on him it cannot light on thee for thou art in him married to him And the same triumph that he speaks Isaiah 50. 8. whence these words are borrowed that is made thine and thou mayest now speak it in him I know not what can cast him down that hath this word to rest upon and to comfort himself in SERMON XVII Rom. VIII 35 c. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or â—amine or nakâ—dness or peril or sword c. IS this he that so lately cry'd out O wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me That now triumphs O happy Man Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Yes t is the same Pained then with the thoughts of that miserable conjunction with a Body of Death and so crying out who will deliver Who will separate me from that now Now he hath found a Deliverer to do that for him to whom he is for ever united and he glories now in his inseparable Union and unalterable Love that none can divide him from yea it is through him that presently after that word of complaint he praises God and now in him he triumphs So vast a difference is there betwixt a Christian taken in himself and in Christ when he views himself in himself then nothing but wretched and wretched a polluted perishing Wretch but then he looks again and sees himself in Christ and there he 's rich and safe and happy he triumphs and he glories in it above all the painted Prosperities and against all the horâ—id Adversities of the World he lives in his Christ content and happy and laughs at all Enemies And he extends his triumph he makes a common good of it to all Believers speaks it in their name who shall separate us and would have them partake of the same confidence and speak in the same stile with him It is vain that men fancy these to be expressions of Revelations or some singularly priviledg'd Assurances then they would not suit their end which is clearly and undoubtedly the encouragement of all the Children of God upon grounds that are peculiar to them from all the rest of the World but common to them all in all Ages and all varieties of condition It is true all of them have not a like clear and firm apprehension of their happy and sure estate and scarce any of them are alike at all times yet they have all and always the same right to this estate and to the comfort of it and when they stand in a right light to view it they do see it so and rejoice in it There be indeed some kind of assurances that are more rare and extraordinary some immediate glances or coâ—uscations of the love of God upon the Soul of a Believer a smile of his Countenance and this doth exceedingly refresh yea ravish the Soul and enables it mightily for Duties and Sufferings These he dispenses arbitrarily and freely where and when he will some weaker Christians sometimes have them while stronger are strangers to them the Lord training them to live more contentedly by Faith till the day of Vision come And that is the other the less exâ—atical but the more constant and fixed kind of assurance the proper assurance of Faith the Soul by believing cleaves unto God in Christ as he offers himself in the Gospel and thence is possest with a sweet and calm perswasion of his love that being the proper work to appropriate him to make Christ and in him Eternal Life ours so 't is the proper result and fruit of that its acting especially when it acts any thing strongly to quiet the Soul in him Then being Justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and from that Peace Joy yea even glorying in Tribulation as there follows And these springing not from an extraordinary sense or view but from the very innate Vertue of Faith working kindly and according to its own Nature Therefore many Christians do prejudice their own Comfort and darken their Spirits by not giving freedom to Faith to act according to its Nature and proper Principles they will not believe till they find some evidence or assurance which is quite to invert the order of the thing and to look for Fruit without settling a Root for it to grow from Would you take Christ upon the absolute word of promise tendring him to you and rest on him so this would ingraft you into life it self for that he is and so those Fruits of the Holy Ghost would bud and flourish in your hearts from that very believing on him would arise this perswasion yea even to a gloriation and an humble boasting in his love who shall accuse who shall condemn who shall separate The undivided Companion and undoubted Helper and Preserver of this confidence of Faith is an active love to Christ a constant study of Holiness and strife against Sin which is the grand enemy of Faith that obstructs the very Vital Spirits of Faith that makes it sickly and heavy in its actings and causes the Palsie in the hand of Faith that it cannot lay so fast hold Therefore this you would be careful of yea know that of necessity it attends Faith and as Faith grows Holiness will grow and Holiness growing will mutually strengthen and establish Faith the Comforts of the Holy Ghost are holy purifying Comforts and the more the Soul is purify'd and made holy the more is it cleared and enlarged to receive much of these Comforts Blessed are the pure heart they shall see God Unholiness is as damps and filthy mists in the Soul it darkens all Hence it is evident in what way Christians may and ought to aspire to this Assurance it is their Portion and in this way they are to aspire to it and shall find it if not presently yet let them wait and go on in this way they shall not miscarry Again it appears that this assurance is no enemy to Holy Diligence nor friend of Carnal
motion Thus heady Zeal often mistakes and flatters it self we find not here a desire of fire to come down from Heaven upon the breakers of the Law but such a grief as would rather bring Water to quench it if it were falling on them Rivers of Waters c. The degree of this sorrow it 's vehement not a light transient dislike but a deep resentment such as causeth not some few sighs or some drops of tears but Rivers It is true The measure and degree of sorrow for Sin whether their own or others are different in divers Persons that are yet true mourners and they are also different in the same Person at divers times not only upon the difference of the cause but even where the cause is equal upon the different influence and working of the Spirit of God Sometimes it pleaseth him to warm and melt the heart more abundantly and so he raises these Rivers in these Eyes to a higher Tide than ordinary Sometimes they remove again but yet this Godly sorrow is always serious and sincere and that 's the other Quality here remarkable in it It is not a Histrionical weeping only in publick for the speech is here directed to God as a more frequent witness of these tears than any other who is always the witness of the sincerity of them even when they cannot be hid from the Eyes of Men for I deny not but they may and should have vent in publick especially at such times as are set a part for solemn Mourning and Humiliation yet even then usually these streams run deepest where they 're stillest and most quietly conveyed but howsoever sure they would not be fewer and less frequent alone than in company for that 's a little subject to suspition Jer. 9. 1. Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people And 13. 17. But if ye will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's flock is carried away captive The Subject of this affection is not the Ungodly themselves that are profest transgressors of this Law they rather make a sport of sin as Solomon speaks they play and make themselves merry with it as the Philistines did with Sampson till it bâ—ing the House down about their ears But the Godly are they that are affected with this sorrow such as are careful observers of the Law themselves and mourn first for their own breaches for these are the only fit mourners for the transgression of others Now to enquire a little into the cause of this Why the breaking of God's Law should cause such sorrow in the Godly as here breaketh forth into abundant of Tears we shall find it very reasonable if we consider 1. The Nature of Sin which is the transgression or breach of the Law as the Apostle defines it 2. The Nature of this Sorrow and these Tears 3. The Nature of the Godly 1. Sin is the greatest Evil in the World yea truly in comparison it alone is worth the Name of Evil and therefore may justly challenge Sorrow and the greatest Sorrow the greatest of Evils it is both formally in that it alone is the defilement and deformity of the Soul and casually being the root from whence all other Evils spring the fruitful Womb that conceives and brings forth all those miseries that either Man feels or hath cause to fear Whence are all those personal Evils incident to Men in their Estates or in their Bodies or Minds outward Turmoils and Diseases and inward Discontents and Death it self in all the kinds of it Are they not all the fruits of that bitter root Whence arise these publick miseries of Nations and Kingdoms but from the Epidemick National Sins of the People as the deserving and procuring cause at God's Hand And withal oftentimes from the ambitious and wicked practices of some particular Men as the working and effecting Causes so that every way if we follow these evils home to their original we shall find it to be Sin or the breaking of God's Law Ungodly men though they meddle not with publick affairs at all yea though they be faithful and honest in meddling with them yet by reason of their Impious Lives are Traytors to their Nation they are truly the Incendiaries of States and Kingdoms And these Mourners though they can do no more are the Loyallest and serviceable Subjects bringing tears to quench the fire of Wrath Rivers of Waters And therefore sorrow and tears are not only most due to sin as the greatest of evils but they 're best bestowed upon it if they can do any thing to its redress because that is both the surest and most compendious way to remedy all the rest sin being the source and spring of them all This is the reason why Jeremiah 9. ver 1. when he would weep for the slain of his people is straightway led from that to bâ—wail the sin of his people ver 2 3 c. And in his Book of Tears and Lamentations he often reduces all these sad evils to Sin as causing them particularly chap. 5. 16. The Crown is fallen from our Head Woe unto us that we have sinned He turns the complaint more to the Sin than to the Affliction Secondly Consider the Nature of these Tears Tears spent for worldly Câ—osses are all lost They run all to waste they are Lachryâ—nae inanes empty fruitless things but tears shed for the breach of God's Law are the means to quench God's Wrath. The Pravers and Tears of some few may avert the punishment of many yea of a whole Land and if not so yet are they not lost the Mourners themselves have always benefit by them as you have it in that known place Ezek. 9. They that mourned for the common Abominations were marked and the common Desolation took not hold on them This mourning for other Mens wickedness both testifies and preserves the Godly man's Innocence I say it preserves it as well as testifies it it keeps them from the Contagion of that bad Air they live in for without this Sin would soon grow familiar It is good for men to keep up and maintain in their Souls a dislike of Sin for when once it ceaseth to be displeasing to a Man it will ere long begin to be pleasing to him If we consider the Nature of the Godly we shall see this mourning suit with it exceedingly both in regard of his relation to God and to man God is his Father and therefore it cannot but grieve him much to see him offended and dishonored Love to God and consequently to his Law and love to Men and desire of their good is the spring of these Rivers A Godly man is tender of Gods Glory and of his Law every stroke that it receives striketh his heart and he hath bowels
should easily confess nor I think can any deny it but that there is in the very ruines of our Nature some Character left of a tendency to God as our chief and only satisfying good which we may call a kind of love and when we hear him spoken of find it flutter and stir and hence men so abhor the imputation of hating God and being enemies Yet this is so smothered under sensuality and flesh that until we be made spiritual nothing appears but practical and as they call it Interpretative Enmity There is one thing stains them enough they were all as that Father speaks Animalia Gloriae They aimed not in their study of Vertue at God's glory but at their own and is not that quarrel enough and matter of enmity Says not he My glory I will not give unto another c. But that is most useful for you to convince you of that too good conceit men have of their natural condition you would take it hardly the most prophane of you all if any should come to you in particular and tell you you are an enemy to God But I answer there is none of you if you believe the Scriptures but will confess that all men are naturally such and therefore except we find in our selves a notable alteration from the condition of Nature we must take with it that we are Enemies yea Enmity to God Of strangers to become acquainted with him yea which is more of enemies to become friends is a greater and more remarkable change than to be incident to a man without any evidence and sign of it I know there is very great variety in the way and manner of Conversion and to some especially if it be in their tender years Grace may be instilled and dropt in as it were insensibly But this I may confidently say that whatsoever be the way of working it there will be a wide and apparent difference betwixt friendship with God and the condition of Nature which is Enmity against him Do not flatter your selves so long as your minds remain Carnal ardent in love to the World and cold in love to God Lovers of pleasures more then of God as the Apostle speaks You are his Enemies for with him there is no neutrality That which they say taxing it as a weakness in the Sex Aut amat aut odit nihil est tertium is in this case necessarily true of all And this is Gods peculiar that he can judge Infallibly of the inside those shadows of friendship men use one with another will not pass with him deceived he cannot be but men may easily and alas too many do deceive themselves in this matter to their own ruin We may learn hence how deep Sin goes in our Nature and consequently that the cure and remedy of it must go as deep That all the parts of our Bodies and powers of our Souls are polluted originally our very mind and conscience as the Apostle speaks for it is immersed in flesh and inslaved to flesh naturally and therefore goes under its name We are become all flesh That is the spring of our mischiefs we have lost our likeness with our Father the Father of Spirits the purest and most Spiritual Spirit till renewed by participation of his Spirit on our Flesh. And it is the Errour not only of Natural Men but somewhat of the Godly too that in Self-reformation they set themselves against actual sin but they lay not the Ax to the root of the Tree this root of bitterness this our inbred and natural enmity against God And till this be done the lopping off of some branches will do no good while the root is in vigour those will grow again and possibly faster than before Bewail every known act of sin as much as you can for the least of them deserves it but withal let the consideration of them lead you into thoughts of this seed of Rebellion the wickedness of our Nature that takes life with us in the Womb and springs and grows up with us and this will humble us exceedingly and raise our Godly sorrow to a higher tide We find David taketh this course Psal. 51. 5. where he is lamenting his particular sin of Adultery and Murder it leads him to the sinfulness of his Nature I was shapen in Iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me or warm me which he mentions not to extenuate and diminish his sin no he is there very far from that strain but adds it as a main aggravation Indeed the power of Original Sin in the Regenerate is laid very low yet not altogether extinct which they find often to their grief and makes them cry out with our Apostle in the former Chapter O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death The Converted are already delivered as he adds from the Dominion of it but not from the Molestation and Trouble of it though it is not a quiet and uncontroulled Master as it was before yet it is in the House still as an unruly Servant or Slave ever vexing and annoying them And this Body of Death they shall have still cause to bewail till Death release them This Leprosie hath taken so deep in the Walls of this House that it cannot perfectly be cleansed till it be taken down and it is this more than any other sorrows or afflictions of life that makes the Godly man not only content to die but desirous longing with our Apostle To be dissolved and be with Christ which is far better As this teaches us the misery of Mans Nature so it sets off and commends exceedingly the riches of Gods Grace Are men naturally his Enemies Why then admire his patience and bounty a little and then we will speak of his Saving-Grace Could not he very easily ease himself of his Adversaries as he says by the Prophet Wants he power in his right hand to find out and cut off all his Enemies Surely no not only he hath power to destroy them all in a moment but the very withdrawing of his hand that upholds their being though they consider it not would make them fall to nothing yet is he pleased not only to spare Transgressours but to give them many outward blessings rain and fruitful seasons as the Apostle speaks Act. 14. And the Earth that is so full of mans Rebellion is yet more full of his Goodness The earth is full of thy goodness It is remarkable that that same reason which is given Gen. 6. 5. of the Justice of God in drowning the World is Chapter 8. 21. rendred as the reason of Gods resolved patience ever since His Grace in finding a way of Reconcilement and not sparing his own Son his only begotten Son to accomplish it nor did he spare himself O matchless Love to lay down his life not for Friends but for Strangers Not only so but Enemies for Unrighteous and Ungodly Persons such as be at enmity against him Rom. 5. 7 8