shall ye be my Disciples Let us not I beseech you judge of our knowing Christ by our ungrounded Perswasions that Christ from all Eternity hath loved us and given himself particularly for Us without the Conformity of our lives to Christs Commandments without the reall partaking of the Image of Christ in our hearts The great Mysterie of the Gospel it doth not lie onely in Christ without us though we must know also what he hath done for us but the very Pith and Kernel of it consists in Christ inwardly formed in our hearts Nothing is truly Ours but what lives in our Spirits Salvation it self cannot save us as long as it is onely without us no more then Health can cure us and make us sound when it is not within us but somewhere at distance from us no more then Arts and Sciences whilst they lie onely in Books and Papers without us can make us learned The Gospel though it be a Sovereigne and Medicinall thing in it self yet the mere knowing and believing of the history of it will do us no good we can receive no vertue from it till it be inwardly digested concocted into our souls till it be made Ours and become a living thing in our hearts The Gospel if it be onely without us cannot save us no more then that Physitians Bill could cure the ignorant Patient of his disease who when it was commended to him took the Paper onely and put it up in his pocket but never drunk the Potion that was prescribed in it All that Christ did for us in the flesh when he was here upon earth From his lying in a Manger when he was born in Bethlehem to his bleeding upon the Crosse on Golgotha it will not save us from our sinnes unlesse Christ by his Spirit dwell in us It will not avail us to believe that he was born of a Virgin unlesse the power of the most High overshadow our hearts and beget him there likewise It will not profit us to believe that he died upon the Crosse for us unlesse we be baptized into his death by the Mortification of all our lusts unlesse the old man of sinne be crucified in our hearts Christ indeed hath made an Expiation for our sinnes upon his Crosse and the Bloud of Christ is the onely sovereign Balsame to free us from the guilt of them but yet besides the sprinkling of the bloud of Christ upon us we must be made partakers also of his spirit Christ came into the World as well to redeem us from the power and bondage of our sinnes as to free us from the guilt of them You know saith S. Iohn that he was manifested to take away our sinnes whosoever therefore abideth in him sinneth not whosoever sinneth hath not seen nor known him Loe the end of Christs coming into the World Loe a designe worthy of God manifested in the flesh Christ did not take all those paines to lay aside his Robes of Glory and come down hither into the World to enter into a Virgins wombe to be born in our humane shape and be laid a poore crying infant in a Manger having no form nor comlinesse at all upon him to take upon him the Form of a servant to undergo a reprochfull and ignominious life and at last to be abandoned to a shamefull death a death upon the Crosse I say he did not do all this merely to bring in a Notion into the World without producing any reall and substantiall effect at all without the changing mending and reforming of the World so that men should still be as wicked as they were before and as much under the power of the Prince of Darknesse onely they should not be thought so they should still remain as full of all the filthy sores of sinne corruption as before onely they should be accounted whole Shall God come down from heaven pitch a Tabernacle amongst men Shall he undertake such a huge Designe and make so great a noise of doing something which when it is all summed up shall not at last amount to a Reality Surely Christ did not undergo all this to so little purpose he would not take all this paines for us that he might be able at last to put into our hands nothing but a Blanck He was with child he was in pain and travel and hath he brought forth nothing but wind hath he been delivered of the Eastwind Is that great designe that was so long carried in the Wombe of Eternity now proved abortive or else nothing but a mere windy birth No surely The end of the Gospel is Life and Perfection 't is a Divine nature 't is a Godlike frame and disposition of spirit 't is to make us partakers of the Image of God in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse without which Salvation it self were but a Notion Christ came indeed into the World to make an Expiation and Atonement for our sinnes but the end of this was that we might eschew sinne that we might forsake all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts The Gospel declares pardon of sinne to those that are heavy laden with it and willing to be disburdened to this end that it might quicken and enliven us to new obedience Whereas otherwise the Guilt of sinne might have detained us in horrour and despair and so have kept us still more strongly under the Power of it in sad and dismall apprehensions of Gods wrath provoked against us and inevitably falling on us But Christ hath now appeared like a Day-starre with most cheerfull beames nay he is the Sun of Righteousnesse himself which hath risen upon the World with his healing wings with his exhilarating light that he might chase away all those black despairing thoughts from us But Christ did not rise that we should play and sport and wantonize with his light but that we should do the works of the day in it that we should walk {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Apostle speaketh not in our Night-clothes of sinfull Deformity but clad all over with the comely Garments of Light The Gospel is not big with child of a Phancie of a mere Conceit of righteousnesse without us hanging at distance over us whilst our hearts within are nothing but Cages of unclean birds and like Houses continually haunted with Devils nay the very Rendezvouz of those Fiends of Darknesse Holinesse is the best thing that God himself can bestow upon us either in this World or the World to come True Evangelicall Holinesse that is Christ formed in the hearts of believers is the very Cream and Quintessence of the Gospel And were our hearts sound within were there not many thick and dark fumes that did arise from thence and cloud our understandings we could not easily conceive the substance of Heaven it self to be any thing else but Holinesse freed from those encumbrances that did ever clog it and accloy it here neither should we wish for any other Heaven besides this But many of
us are like those Children whose Stomacks are so vitiated by some disease that they think Ashes Coal Mudwall or any such trash to be more pleasant then the most wholesome food such sickly and distempered Appetites have we about these spirituall things that hanker after I know not what vain shews of happinesse whilst in the mean time we neglect that which is the onely true food of our souls that is able solidly to nourish them up to everlasting life Grace is Holinesse Militant Holinesse encumbred with many enemies and difficulties which it still fights against and manfully quits it self of and Glory is nothing else but Holinesse Triumphant Holinesse with a Palme of Victorie in her hand and a Crown upon her head Deus ipse cum omni suâa bonitate quatenus extra me est non facit me beatum sed quatenus in me est God himself cannot make me happy if he be onely without me and unlesse he give in a participation of himself and his own likenesse into my soul Happinesse is nothing but the releasing and unfettering of our souls from all these narrow sâ—ant and particular good things and the espousing of them to the Highest and most Universall Good which is not this or that particular good but goodnesse it self and this is the same thing that we call Holinesse Which because we our selves are so little acquainted with being for the most part ever courting a mere Shadow of it therefore we have such low abject and beggerly conceits thereof whereas it is in it self the most noble heroicall and generous thing in the World For I mean by Holinesse nothing else but God stamped printed upon the Soul And we may please our selves with what conceits we will but so long as we are void of this we do but dream of heaven and I know not what fond Paradise we do but blow up and down an airy Bubble of our own Phancies which riseth out of the froth of our vain hearts we do but court a painted Heaven and woo happinesse in a Picture whilst in the mean time a true and reall Hell will suck in our souls into it and soon make us sensible of a solid woe and substantiall misery Divine wisdome hath so ordered the frame of the whole Universe as that every thing should have a certain proper Place that should be a Receptacle for it Hell is the Sinke of all sinne and wickednesse The strong Magick of Nature pulls and draws every thing continually to that place which is suitable to it and to which it doth belong so all these heavy bodies presse downwards towards the Centre of our earth being drawn in by it In like manner Hell wheresoever it is will by strong Sympathy pull in all sinne and Magnetically draw it to it self as true Holinesse is alwayes breathing upwards and fluttering towards Heaven striving to embosome it self with God and it will at last undoubtedly be conjoyned with him no dismall shades of darknesse can possibly stop it in its course or beat it back {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nay we do but deceive our selves with names Hell is nothing but the Orbe of Sinne and Wickednesse or else that Hemisphear of Darknesse in which all Evil moves and Heaven is the opposite Hemisphear of Light or else if you please the Bright Orbe of Truth Holinesse and Goodnesse and we do actually in this life instate our selves in the possession of one or other of them Take Sinne and Disobedience out of Hell and it will presently clear up into Light Tranquillity Serenity and shine out into a Heaven Every true Saint carrieth his Heaven about with him in his own heart and Hell that is without him can have no power over him He might safely wade through Hell it self and like the Three children passe through the midst of that fiery Furnace and yet not at all be scorched with the flames of it he might walk through the Valley of the shadow of death and yet fear no evil Sinne is the onely thing in the World that is contrary to God God is Light and that is Darknesse God is Beauty and that is Uglinesse and Deformity All sinne is direct Rebellion against God and with what Notions soever we may sugar it and sweeten it yet God can never smile upon it he will never make a truce with it God declares open warre against sinne and bids defiance to it for it is a professed enemy to Gods own Life and Being God which is infinite Goodnesse cannot but hate sinne which is purely Evil And though sinne be in it self but a poore impotent and crazy thing nothing but Straitnesse Poverty and Non-entity so that of it self it is the most wretched and miserable thing in the world and needeth no further punishment besides it self yet Divine Vengeance beats it off still further and further from God and wheresoever it is will be sure to scourge it and lash it continually God and Sinne can never agree together That I may therefore come yet nearer to our selves This is the Message that I have now to declare unto you That God is Light and in him is no darknesse at all if we say that we have Fellowship with him and walke in Darknesse we lie and do not the truth Christ and the Gospel are light and there is no darknesse at all in them if you say that you know Christ and his Gospel yet keep not Christs Commandments but dearly hug your private darling corruptions you are liars and the truth is not in you you have no acquaintance with the God of Light nor the Gospel of Light If any of you say that you know Christ and have an interest in him and yet as I fear too many do still nourish Ambition Pride Vainglory within your brests harbour Malice Revengfulnesse cruell Hatred to your neighbours in your hearts eagerly scramble after this worldly Pelfe and make the strength of your parts and endeavours serve that blind Mammon the God of this World If you wallow and tumble in the filthy puddle of flleshly Pleasures or if you aime onely at your selves in your lives and make your Self the Compasse by which you sail and the Starre by which you steer your Course looking at nothing higher and more noble then your selves deceive not your selves you have neither seen Christ nor known him you are deeply incorporated if I may so speak with the Spirit of this World and have no true Sympathy with God and Christ no fellowship at all with them And I beseech you let us consider Be there not many of us that pretend much to Christ that are plainly in our lives as Proud Ambitious Vainglorious as any others Be there not many of us that are as much under the power of unruly Passions as Cruell Revengefull Malicious Censorious as others that have our minds as deeply engaged in the World as much envassalled to Riches Gain Profit those great admired Deities of the
are as busily employed in the promoting of that which they love best that which is dearest to God whom they serve the Life and Nature of God There is joy in heaven at the conversion of one sinner Heaven takes notice of it there is a Quire of Angels that sweetly sings the Epithalamium of a Soul divorced from Sinne and Satan and espoused unto Christ What therefore the Wiseman speaks concerning Wisdome I shall apply to Holinesse Take fast hold of Holinesse let her not go keep her for she is thy Life Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life of Death too Let nothing be esteemed of greater consequence and concernment to thee then what thou doest and actest how thou livest Nothing without us can make us either happy or miserable nothing can either defile us or hurt us but what goeth out from us what Springeth and Bubbleth up out of our own hearts We have dreadfull apprehensions of the Flames of Hell without us we tremble and are afraid when we hear of Fire and Brimstone whil'st in the mean time we securely nourish within our own hearts a true and living Hell Et caeco carpimur igni the dark fire of our Lusts consumeth our bowels within and miserably scorcheth our souls and we are not troubled at it We do not perceive how Hell steales upon us whilest we live here And as for Heaven we onely gaze abroad expecting that it should come in to us from without but never look for the beginnings of it to arise within in our own hearts But lest there should yet happely remain any prejudice against that which I have all this while heartily commended to you True Holinesse and the Keeping of Christs commandment as if it were a Legall and Servile thing that would subject us to a State of Bondage I must here needs adde a Word or two either for the Prevention or Removall of it I do not therefore mean by Holinesse the mere performance of outward Duties of Religion coldly acted over as a task not our habituall Prayings Hearings Fastings multiplied one upon another though these be all good as subservient to an higher end but I mean an inward Soul and Principle of Divine Life that spiriteth all these that enliveneth and quickeneth the dead carkasse of all our outward Performances whatsoever I do not here urge the deâ—d Law of outward Works which indeed if it be alone subjects us to a State of Bondage but the inward Law of the Gospel the Law of the Spirit of Life then which nothing can be more free and ingenuous for it doth not act us by Principles without us but is an inward Sâ—lf-moving Principle living in our Hearts I do not urge the Law written upon Tables of stone without us though there is still a good use of that too but the Law of Holinesse written within upon the Fleshly Tables of our hearts The first though it work us into some outward Conformity to Gods Commandments and so hath a good effect upon the World yet we are all this while but like dead Instruments of Musick that found sweetly and harmoniously when they are onely struck and played upon from without by the Musicians Hand who hath the Theory and Law of Musick living within himself But the Second the living Law of the Gospel the Law of the Spirit of Life within us is as if the Soul of Musick should incorporate itself with the Instrument and live in the Strings and make them of their own accord without any touch or impulse from without daunce up and down and warble out their Harmonies They that are acted onely by an outward Law are but like Neurospasts or those little Puppets that skip nimbly up and down and seem to be full of quick and sprightly motion whereas they are all the while moved artificially by certain Wiers and Strings from without and not by any Principle of Motion from themselves within or else like Clocks and Watches that go pretty regularly for a while but are moved by Weights and Plummets or some other Artificiall Springs that must be ever now and then wound up or else they cease But they that are acted by the new Law of the Gospel by the Law of the Spirit they have an inward principle of life in them that from the Centre of it self puts forth it self freely and constantly into all obedience to the will of Christ This New Law of the Gospel it is a kind of Musicall Soul informing the dead Organ of our Hearts that makes them of their own accord delight to act harmoniously according to the Rule of Gods word The Law that I speak of it is a Law of Love which is the most powerfull Law in the World and yet it freeth us in a manner from all Law without us because it maketh us become a Law unto our selves The more it prevaileth in us the more it eateth up and devoureth all other Laws without us just as Aarons Living Rod did swallow up those Rods of the Magicians that were made onely to counterfeit a little Life Quis Legem det amantibus Major lex Amor est sibi Love is at once a Freedome from all Law a State of purest Liberty and yet a Law too of the most constraining and indispensable Necessity The worst Law in the World is the Law of Sinne which is in our members which keeps us in a condition of most absolute Slavery when we are wholly under the Tyrannicall commands of our lusts this is a cruell Pharaoh indeed that sets his hard task-masters over us and maketh us wretchedly drudge in Mire and Clay The Law of the Letter without us sets us in a condition of a little more Liberty by restraining of us from many outward Acts of Sinne but yet it doth not disenthrall us from the power of sinne in our hearts But the Law of the Spirit of life the Gospel-Law of Love it puts us into a condition of most pure and perfect Liberty and whosoever really entertaines this Law he hath thrust out Hagar quite he hath cast out the Bondwoman and her Children from henceforth Sarah the Free woman shall live forever with him and she shall be to him a Mother of many children her seed shall be as the sand of the seashoar for number and as the starres of heaven Here is Evangelicall liberty here is Gospel-freedome when the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made us free from the Law of sinne and death when we have a liberty from sinne and not a liberty to sinne for our dear Lord and Master hath told us that Whosoever committeth sinne he is the servant of it He that lies under the power and vassallage of his base lusts and yet talks of Gospel-freedome he is but like a poore condemned Prisoner that in his sleep dreams of being set at liberty and of walking up and down wheresoever he pleaseth whilst his Legs are all the while lock't