accomplished when Christ at his Baptisme entred upon his office God put his Spirit upon him to set him apart to ordaine him and to qualifie him with abundance of grace for the worke for there are these three things especially meant by putting the Spirit upon him separation or setting apart and ordaining and inriching with the gifts of the Spirit When any one is called to great place there is a setting apart from others and an ordaining to that particular and a qualifying if it be a calling of God he qualifies where he ordaines alwaies But Christ had the Spirit before what doth he meane then when hee saith hee will put the Spirit upon him now I answer he had the Spirit before answerable to that condition he was in now hee received the Spirit answerable to that condition hee was to undertake he was perfect then for that condition now he was to be made perfect for that office he was to set upon he was alway perfect hee had abundance of Spirit for that estate hee was in but now he was to enter upon another condition to preach the Gospell to be a Prophet and after to be a Priest therefore he saith now especially I will put my Spirit upon him Now this putting of the Spirit it is expressed in Isaiah 61. and other places by Annointing There were three sorts of persons that were annointed before Christ Prophets Priests and Kings now Christ was to bee a Prophet a Priest and a King therefore hee was to be annointed with the Spirit to enable him to these three offices I might here take occasion to enlarge my selfe in the offices of Christ but I will onely speake of them as the Text ministreth just occasion There are three maine defects in man since the fall There is ignorance and blindnesse There is rebellion in the will and affections And in regard of his condition by reason of the sinnes of nature and life a subjection to a cursed estate to the wrath of God and eternall damnation Now answerable to these three grand ills whosoever shall bee ordained a Saviour must provide proportionable remedies for these hereupon comes a threefold office in Christ that is ordained to save man to cure this threefold mischiefe and maladie As we are ignorant and blind he is a Prophet to instruct us to convince us of the ill state we are in and then to convince us of the good hee intends us and hath wrought for us to instruct us in all things concerning our everlasting comfort he is such a Prophet as teacheth not onely the outward but the inward man hee openeth the heart he teacheth to doe the things he teacheth men teach what we should doe but they teach not the doing of them he is such a Prophet as teacheth us the very things hee teacheth us to love and to obey c. And answerable to the rebellion and sinfulnesse of our dispositions he is a King to subdue whatsoever is ill in us and likewise to subdue all opposite power without us by little and little hee will trample all enemies under his feete and under our feete too ere long Now as we are cursed by reason of our sinfull condition so hee is a Priest to satisfie the wrath of God for us he was made a curse for us he became a servant that being so hee might die and undergoe the cursed death of the crosse not onely death but a cursed death and so his blood might be an attonement as a Priest So answerable to the three fold ill in us you see here is a threefold office in Christ. Now Christ performes these three offices in this order First of all he is a Prophet when he was baptised the Spirit was put upon him as in Isaiah 61. To preach deliverance to the captives First he preached wherefore he came into the world why God sent him and discovered to the world the state they were in and when he had preached as a Prophet then as a Preist he dyed and offered himselfe a Sacrifice After death his Kingly office was most apparent For then he rose againe as a triumphant King over death and all our enemies and ascended in his triumphant chariot to Heaven and there he sits gloriously as a King in his throne at the right hand of God so that how ever at his Baptisme and before when he was sanctified in his mothers wombe he was both King Priest and Prophet yet in regard of the order of manifestation he manifested himselfe first to be a Prophet secondly a Priest and thirdly to be a King For his Kingly office brake foorth but seldome in the time of his abasement sometimes it did to shew that he was ruler and commander of Earth and Sea and Divels and all he wrought miracles but the glorious manifestation of his kingly office it was after his resurrection Now the fundamentall the chiefe office to which he was annoynted by the Spirit upon which the rest depends it was his Priestly office for wherefore was his teaching but to instruct us what he must doe and suffer for us and what benefit we have by his Sacrifice reconciliation with God and freedome from the wrath of God and right unto life everlasting by his obedience to the cursed death of the crosse And how comes he to be a King to rule over us by his holy Spirit and to have a right unto us But because as a Priest hee dyed for us first He washed us with his blood he purged us with his blood and then he made us Kings and Priests Rev 1. All other benefits came from this he washed our soules in his blood first whatsoever wee have from God is especially from the great worke of Christ as a Priest abasing himselfe and dying for us and thereupon hee comes to bee a Prophet and a King thus we see the order of Christs offices how they come to be fruitfull to us the rest especially by vertue of his priestly office Note this by the way Christs priestly office includes two branches his sacrificing himselfe for us a Priest was to offer Sacrifice and to pray for the people our Saviour Christ did both in the daies of his humiliation in his prayer in Ioh. 17. there as a Priest he commends his sacrifice to God before he died and now he is in Heaven making intercession for us to the end of the world he appeares for us there We see then to what purpose God put the Spirit upon Christ to enable him to be a Prophet a Priest and a King and thereupon to take away those mischiefes and evills that wee were subject and inthralled too so that we have a supply for all that may any way abase us and cast us downe in the all sufficiency that is in Christ Jesus who was annoyntâ—d with the Spirit for this end It may be objected Christ was God himselfe hee had the Spirit and gives the Spirit therefore how could the
Spirit be put upon him I answer Christ is both God and Man Christ as God gives the Spirit to his humane nature so hee communicates his Spirit the Spirit is his Spirit as well as the Fathers the Spirit proceeds from them both Christ as man receives the Spirit God the Father and the Son put the Spirit upon the man-hood of Christ so Christ both gives and receives the Spirit in diverse respects as God hee gives and sends the Spirit the spiration and breathing of the Spirit is from him as well as from the Father but as man he received the Spirit And this is the reason of it next under the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Christ the mediator was to be the spring and originall of all comfort and good therefore Christs nature must not onely be sanctified and ordained by the Spirit but he must receive the Spirit to inrich it for whatsoever is wrought in the creature is by the Spirit whatsoever Christ did as man he did by the Spirit Christs humane nature therefore must be sanctified and have the Spirit put upon it God the Father the first person in Trinity and God the Son the second they worke not immediately but by the Holy Ghost the third person therefore whatsoever is wrought upon the creatâ—re it comes from the Holy Ghost immediately so Christ received the Holy Ghost as sent from the Father and the Son Now as the Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son so he workes from the Father and the Son he sanctifieth and purifieth and doth all from the Father and the Son and knits us to the Father and the Son to the Son first and then to the Father therefore it is said The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ the love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost because all the communion we have with God is by the Holy Ghost all the communion that Christ as man had with God was by the Holy Ghost and all the communion that God hath with us and wee with God is by the Holy Ghost for the Spirit is the bond of union betweene Christ and us and betweene God and us God communicates himselfe to us by his Spirit and we communicate with God by his Spirit God doth all in us by his Spirit and we doe all backe againe to â—od by the Spirit Because Christ as a Head as the second Adam was to be the root of all that are saved as the first Adam was the roote of all that are damned he was therefore to receive the Spirit and to have it put upon him in a more excellent and rich manner for wee must know that all things are first in Christ and then in us God chose him first and then he chose us God singled him out to be the Saviour the second Adam and he cals us in Christ. God justified Christ from our sinnes being our Surety taking our sinnes upon him we are justified because hee by his resurrection quit himselfe from the guilt of our sinnes as having paid the debt Christ is the first fruites of them that rise againe we rise againe because he is risen Christ first ascended we ascend in Christ. Christ is first loved we are loved in the Beloved Christ is first blessed we are blessed with all spirituall blessings in Iesus Chrest So whatsoever is in us we have it at the second hand we have the Spirit in us but he is first in Christ God hath put the Spirit in Christ as the spring as the second Adam as a publike person that should receive the Spirit for us all he is first in all things Christ must have the preheminence he hath the preheminence in all both before time in time and after time in election in whatsoever is done here in this world and in glorification all is first in Christ and then in us he is the elder Brother We must understanding this to give Christ his due honour and respect and to know whence we have all we have Therefore the Spirit is said here first to be put upon Christ. Wee have not the Holy Ghost immediately from God but we have him as sanctifying Christ first and then us and whatsoever the Holy Ghost doth in us he doth the same in Christ first and hee doth it in us because in Christ. Therefore in Iohn 14. Christ saith He shall take of mine whatsoever the Holy Ghost works in us hee takes of Christ first How is that Thus The Holy Ghost comforts us with reasons from Christ he dyed and hath reconciled us to God therefore now God is at peace with thee Here the Holy Ghost takes a ground of comfort from the death of Christ. When the Holy Ghost would raise a man up to holinesse of life he tels him Christ thy Saviour and Head is quickned and is now in Heaven therefore we ought to rise to holinesse of life If the Holy Ghost be to worke either comfort or grace or any thing he not onely doth the same thing that he did first in Christ but hee doth it in us by reasons from Christ by grounds fetched from Christ the Holy Ghost tells our soules that God loves Christ first and he loves us in Christ and that we are those that God gave Christ for that we are those that Christ makes intercession for in Heaven the Holy Ghost witnesseth to us the love of the Father and the Sonne and so hee fetcheth from Christ whatsoever he works And hence the worke of the Holy Ghost is distinguished from illusions and delusions that are nothing but franticke conceits of comfort that are groundlesse The Holy Ghost fetcheth all from Christ in his working and comfort and he makes Christ the patterne of all for whatsoever is in Christ the Holy Ghost which is the Spirit of Christ workes in us as it is in Christ. Therefore in Iohn 1.13 it is said of his fullnesse we receive grace for grace that is grace answerable to his grace There are three things that we receive answerable to Christ by the Spirit We receive grace that is the favour of God answerable to the favour God shewes his Son he loves his Son he is gratiously disposed to him and he loves us So grace habituall wee have grace in us answerable to the grace in Christ wee have love answerable to his love patience answerable to his Patience Obedience and Humility answerable to that in Christ the Spirit workes a conformity to Christ in all things Likewise in the third place the Spirit assures us of the same priviledges that issue from grace Christ is a Son the Spirit tells us wee are sons Christ is an heire the Spirit tells us wee are heires with Christ Christ is the King of Heaven and Earth the Spirit tells us that wee are Kings that his riches are ours thus wee have grace for grace both favour and grace in us and priviledges issuing from grace we have all as they are in Christ. Even
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
the immediate fore-runner of Christ was greater then all that were before him yet he saith the least in the Kingdome of Heaven is greater then be not in grace but in prerogative in regard of the revelation and manifestation of more things For Iohn Baptist died before he saw the death and resurrection and ascention of Christ accomplished before he was glorified Therefore in regard of these prerogatives the least in the Kingdome of Heaven that is in the Church of the New Testament is greater then he It is a rule that the least of the greater is greater then the greatest of the lesse Iohn was greater then the greatest of them that were before him but lesser then the least of those that were after him Then Christ commends Iohn from the efficacie of his Ministery From the daies of Iohn Baptist untill now the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force so you see how the words depend upon the former For the points wee are to consider in them First here you have the state of the Church in the New Testament It is a Kingdome and the Kingdome of Heaven together with the quality of the meanes whereby it comes to be a Kingdome the meanes of grace the Gospell The Gospell and the people that are wrought on by the Gospell in the New Testament they are both called the Kingdome of Heaven Then secondly here is set downe the affection of those people that seeke this Kingdome at that time and so forward to the end of the world the disposition of the persons is they are violent The third is the issue or successe of this eagernesse and violence though the manner be violent yet the successe is good the violent take it by force The fourth is the date or time when it begins and how long it continues it beares date from the preaching of Saint Iohn Baptist to the end of the world untill now that is to the end of the world as it was said till now in the Evangelists time so posterity may say untill now from the first comming of Christ till his second comming while there is a Gospell preached which is the Ministerie of the Spirit the Spirit will bee working and there are such glorious things in the Gospell that there will bee violence offered so while there is a people to bee gathered and a Gospell to be preached to gather them and a Spirit that workes by that Gospell there will be violence in the Church offered to the meanes of salvation First The state of the Church together with the meanes the Gospell preached it is called The Kingdome of Heaven Besides others there are three maine significations of these words The Kingdome of Heaven First the famous leading proper signification is the state and place where God himselfe and his people are most glorious The Kingdome of Heaven all the other significations end in that But secondly because all that shall come into that glorious Kingdome they must bee Kings here first in the state of the kingdome of grace which consists in righteousnesse peace and joy in the Holy Ghost in the graces and comforts of the Spirit therefore the state of grace comes to have the name too of The Kingdome of Heaven And thirdly because grace in this world cannot be attained without an order and meanes and dispensation from God hereupon the dispensation of the meanes whereby we come to have grace is also called The Kingdome The unfolding the mysteries of salvation in the Gospell is called the Kingdome of God As Christ saith The Kingdome of God shall bee taken from you that is the preaching of the Gospell therefore the Gospell is called the Gospell of the Kingdome and the Word of the Kingdome because by this Word wee come to have grace and by grace glory there is no glory without grace and no grace without the Word one makes way for another The preaching of the Gospell doth cause a Church which is the Kingdome of Christ wherein hee rules by the Scepter of his Word by which Word Christ and all his riches and glory and prerogatives are unfolded and thereby grace is wrought and grace leades to glory This connexion and subordination is to bee observed First for the conviction of those who doe not indeed belong to the Kingdome of Heaven every man is ready to talke of the Kingdome of Heaven and the glory there I but there is a subordination of grace and of the meanes of grace how standest thou affected to the meanes of salvation to the Word of the Kingdome the Word of life The Word of reconciliation for it hath the name from all the excellencies to which it brings us to shew that as we valew life a Kingdome reconciliation and all that is good so we must valew this Gospell or else it is a presumptuous confidence if the priviledges of grace and glory belong to us wee must come to them by these steps those that regard not the Gospell and meanes of salvation they have nothing to do with grace nor glory they are hereby convinced of arrogant folly Againe it is a ground to comfort weake Christians that regard the meanes of salvation and yet feare their falling away be of good comfort whosoever thou art God hath knit and linked these together all the power of earth and hell cannot breake one linke of this chaine conscionable attending upon the meanes and grace and glory will go together Therefore hold on attend upon the meanes of salvation and waite with comfort The Gospell of the Kingdome will bring thee to grace and grace though it be but an earnest but a little measure will bring thee to glory Where God hath begun a good worke he will finish it he will second one benefit with another diligent attending on the meanes with grace and grace with glory In Scripture works have their denomination from that they aime at as the Apostle saith Yee have crucified the old man and yee are crucified with Christ because yee are in doing it and ye shall do it perfectly so we are Saints because wee shall be so we are Kings now because we are in part so and we shall be so fully hereafter so grace is called the Kingdome of Heaven because it is the undoubted way to the Kingdome of Heaven and glory God would helpe our faith by the very title for wee are not elected to the beginnings onely of glory but to the perfection as it is excellently set downe Ephes. 1. We are elected to glory by meanes and beginnings therefore undoubtedly we may hope for the accomplishment when we see the beginnings Why is the state of grace and the meanes of grace and glory it selfe called the Kingdome of Heaven Answ. Because they are all of and from Heaven the one is in Heaven the Kingdome of glory and the other the Kingdome of the Word here and truth and grace which
it cannot see it selfe nor see the judgements of God God shâ—nes not the Sunn of righteousnesse shines not on that soule God is the Sunne of the creature he gives life to the creature what will become of the creature when God neither shines outwardly nor inwardly on it As at the day of judgement he shall take away outward comforâ—s there shall be no outward shining and all inward comforts they shall have no hope hee shall altogether hide his face when God the Fountaine of all good shall hide his face altogether from the creature that is Hell The place where God shines not outwardly with comforts nor inwardly nor there shall be no hope of neither but a place of hoâ—rour and despaire that is hell as the hell of this life is when God shines not on our soules Now these holy men they complaine yet they pray Thou hast hid thy face Heere is the conflict of Faith that sees God hide his face and yet will follow God it sees God ready to turne away himselfe and yet it will lay hold of him and have a glaunce of him it will wrastle with him and not let him goe without a blessing So there be degrees of Gods hiding of his face though God seeme to hide his face and to with-draw outward comforts and perhaps in some to with-draw his favour from their hearts inwardly What shall they doe droupe No wrastle with God as Iacob see through the cloud that is betweene God and thy soule breake thorow by faith and with Iob say Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Let us stirre up our selves to lay hold on God when he seemes to turne away his face and imitate good Iacob never give over seeking the face of God How shall we seeke the face of God By prayer for that brings us to the face of God though he seeme to hide his face as Ieremy complaines Ieremy 14. Why art thou as a stranger and yet hee prayes seeke him by prayer Seeke him in his Ordinances heare the Word of God thy face Lord will I seeke God invites you â—o seeke his face now by fasting and humiliation seeke his face in this ordinance here is the blessed Trinity Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Though outwardly God hide his face in some regards yet when he offers outward liberties refuse them not hee offers his face to us now in Christ seeke by prayer and other meanes holy communion with him still and never leave seeking till you have got a glance of him and stir up your selves to lay hold on him that he would shew his loving countenance upon you Those that turne their backs on Gods ordinances and in rebellion to his commandements live in sinnes against conscience can they wonder that he hides his face from them when they turne their backs on him Rebellious persons that will not yeeld meekely to Gods Ordinances and submit to his Commandements doe they wonder that God takes good things from them When we sinne wee turne our backes upon God and our face to the Divell and the world and pleasures when men turne their faces to sinne to pleasures and vanity and their backs on God doe they wonder that he suffers them to melt and pine away Let us doe as the Flowers do the Marigold c. they turne themselves to the Sunne let our soules doe so let us turne our selves to God in meditation and prayers striving and wrastling with him look to him eye him in his Ordinances promises and have communion with him all the waies wee can Let our soules open and shut with him when he hides his face let us droupe as the Flowers doe till the Sunne come againe When the waters fall the Flowers droope and hold downe their heads when the Sunne riseth the next morning up they goe againe as if there had beene never a shower So when wee have not daily comfort of Spirit in peace of conscience let us never rest seeking Gods face in his Ordinances and by Prayer and that will cheare a drooping soule as the Sunne beames doe the flagging flowers Then you may know that Gods face shines upon you in some measure when he gives you meanes and gives you hearts to use those meanes and comfort in your consciences that whether you live or die you are Gods this is a beame of that Sunne-shine on the soule when God vouchsafes joy and comfort A little of this will banish all feares if you have one glimpse of his countenance you shall not need to feare the plague or warre or death if he shine on you one glance will take away all feare Paul when he was in the stocks one beame of Gods counâ—enance made him sing at midnight Let thy countenance shine on us and we shall be safe let what will become of us outwardly If God shine not on us for ouâ—ward favours if he shine on our soules and release them from feares and guilt and speake peace to them and say unto them he is theâ—r salvation and as he saith in the Gospell thy sinnes are forgiven thee all will be well whatsoever become of us Let us seeke the Lord while he may be found hold him before hee goe let him not depart attend upon the meanes never misse good meanes of seeking his face till we have got a sweet answer from Heaven that he is our God Now followes the supplication But now O Lord thou art our Father c. Heere is a prayer which is a kinde of holding God by the relation of a Father this is one way of stirring up our soules to consider the relation of a Father It stirres up bowells when a childe is beaten by his Father O stay Father spare it works upon the bowells There is a world of Rhetorick in this one word Father why Lord thou art my Father shall I bee destroyed let us lay hold on God by this relation that he puts upon himselfe and he will not lay it aside though we be unworthy to be sonnes He doth not say thou art our Father and we are thy sonnes because hee thought they were unworthy as the Prodigall saith I am unworthy to be called thy sonne but instead of saying we are thy sonnes he saith we are the clay thou art the potter Yet he is a Father continually and though in Christ you cannot call him Father yet you may by Creation and initiation being brought up in the Church Goe to him with the incouragements you have and cast your selves upon him There is a bond for you by Creation and there is his command he bids you call him Father hee is a Father by Creation looke not upon this or that sinne but goe to him and call him Father as you may call him say thou art my Father thou hast given mee a being in the Church wrastle with him as you may though as found Christians you cannot call him Father Be weary of your courses are you willing to come
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
sanctified judgement and a mighty power to raise the soule to cast it selfe so upon Gods mercy in Christ. So that besides the obtaining saluation by Christ there must be a grace to apply it and this faith doth Faith is said to doe that that Christ doth because faith layes hold upon Christ what faith doth Christ doth and what Christ doth faith doth therefore it hath the same actions applyed and given to it that Christ hath Faith is said to save us you know it is Christ that saves us but faith layes hold on Christ that saves us faith purgeth the heart and overcomes the world Christ by his Spirit doth all this but because faith wrought by the Spirit is such a grace as layes hold on the power of Christ it goes out of it selfe to Christ therefore what Christ doth faith is said to doe So then the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ not onely freed Christ himselfe by his Resurrection but likewise by the same power whereby hee raysed himselfe he rayseth our hearts to beleeve what hee hath done both in his state of humiliation and exaltation and makes all that Christ did ours The Spirit of life in Christ Iesus working faith in us and by faith other graces doth free us from the Law of sinne and death Christ doth it and faith doth it and grace which issues from faith doth it subordinately Christ doth it by way of merit and by his Spirit working faith in us to lay hold upon whatsoever Christ hath done or suffered as if we had done it our selves so it frees us from the law of sinne and death because it layes hold of the freedome wrought by Christ for us But besides and next to faith there is a Spirit of sanctification by which we are free from the commanding law of sinne and death But to cleare all this consider there is a freedome in this life and in the life to come from sinne and from death A freedome in this life in calling in justification in sanctification and in the life to come a freedome of glory There is a freedome in effectuall calling by the minâ—sterie of the Gospel the Gospel being preached unfolded faith is wrought whereby wee know what Christ hath done for us and wee see a better condition in Christ then we are in by nature seeing by the Spirit of God the cursed estate wee are in we are convinced of sinne in our selves and of the good that is in Christ and hereupon wee are called out of the thraldome wee are in by nature by the Spirit of Christ and the Word of God unfolding what our condition is for man by nature having selfe-love in him and that selfe-love being turned the right way he begins to thinke I doth the Word of God say I am a slave to sinne and damnation the Word of God can judge better then my selfe and then the Spirit of God sets it on with conviction that undoubtedly this is true And together with the cursed kingdome and slavery that I am under there is discovered a better state in Christ for the Gospel tells us what we are in Christ freed from hell and death and heires of heaven oh the happy estate of a Christian to be in Christ The Gospel with the Spirit discovering this a man is called out of the cursed estate he is in by nature to the fellow-ship of Christ by faith which is wrought in this calling so that now he comes to be a member of Christ by faith so that whatsoever Christ hath or is or hath done or suffered it is mine by reason of this union with him by faith which is the grace of union that knits us to Christ and the first grace of application So there is the first degree of liberty and freedome wrought by the Spirit of God together with the Gospel in effectuall calling The second is in justification that faith and beleefe in Christ that was wrought in effectuall calling it frees me from the guilt of my sinnes For when the Gospel in effectuall calling discovers that Christ is such a one and that there is such an estate in Christ and there is faith wrought in me then that faith layes hold upon the obedience of Christ to be mine For Christ in the Gospel offers his obedience to be mine as if I had done it in mine own person whatsoever Christ did or suffered is mine for he is made of God to be Wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption to be all in all the Gospell sets him forth to be so Now faith laying hold of Christ to be made of God all in all obedience righteousnesse c. whatsoever is needfull hereupon this faith justifies me hereupon I come to be free from the guilt of my sinnes because my sinnes were laid upon Christ Christs death was the death of a surety it was as if I had dyed my selfe and more firme thus I come to be free in justification for what my surety hath done I have done Againe there is a freedome in sanctification that is when a man beleeves that Christ is his and that his sufferings are his then the same Spirit that discovers this to be mine it workes a change and alteration in my nature and frees me from the dominion of sinne The obedience of Christ frees me from the condemnation of sinne and the Spirit of sanctification frees me from the dominion of sinne This is the freedome of sanctification which faith layes hold on Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Christ as a head derives to me the holy Spirit to sanctifie my nature and of his fulnesse we receive grace for grace so the Spirit of sanctification in Christ frees me from the dominion of sinne and death It is said here that by Christ we have spirituall liberty and freedome not from sinne and death but from the law of sinne and of death It is one thing to be freed from sinne and death and another thing to be freed from the law of them for wee are not indeed freed from sinne and death but from the law of sinne and death that is from the condemning power of sinne that though sinne be in us yet it doth not condemne us and though we die yet the sting is pulled out death is but a passage to a better life So I say in Justification wee are freed from the condemning power of sinne and in sanctification from the commanding power of sinne When we are knit once to Christ we have the obedience of Christ ours in justification and the holinesse of Christ is derived to us as from the head to the members in sanctification and so we are freed from the law of sin To understand this a little better the same Spirit that sanctified the naturall body the humane nature of Christ wherby he became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh the same Spirit doth sanctifie the mysticall body of Christ
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
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
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
any good God takes notice of it Daviâ— after hâ— had repented of that foule sinne and was sharply corrected for it as indeed he was David was a good man for all that hee served God in his Generation But to give you an item by the way however God passed by the sinne in David and accounted him after his repentance a good man yet he must be sharply corrected for it Let no man therefore presume upon this that God will iudge him by the tenour of his life and therefore hee will commit particular enormities oh no! it cost David deare for besides his heart-smart in his owne particular God made his heart bleed it cost him many a salt tear besides that it was punished in his posteritie God raysed up his own bowels to take armes against him hee made him wish a thousand times that he had not so offended God It is ill trying conclusions with God though God afterwards pardon us and turne all to good yet it shall cost us deare first Though God will bring us to heaven yet if we will venture upon sinnes against conscience and take libertie to offend God he will take sharp courses with us yet it shall not preiudice our salvation you see those sins of David after he had repented was corrected for them they were forgotten and David in regard of the course of his life served God his life was a service of God notwithstanding some particular actions These things may be usefull to the best of us all therefore I observe them in generall from Gods manner of mentioning David here with honour and passing by his infirmities To come more particularly to the words Then David after he had served in his Generation the will of God c. THe words are a short Epitome of the life and death of the blessed man David First I will speak of his life and then of his death In his life there are these two parts First the time in which he lived when this service was done In his Generation And then the manner of his carriage in that time of his generation It was a service of God He served God And this service of God is set down by the obiect of it God By the rule of his worship the will of God Hee served God but how as he had revealed his will to him not at randome God will be served according to his own will And then here is the act he served So here is the proper obiect of worship God in whom all our service is terminate whatsoever we do it must rest in him if we do good works to men it must be for Gods sake we must serve God in it Then here is the proper rule carrying us to that obiect his Will And then it must be a service it must be done in obedience to God David in his Generation served the will or counsell of God as the Word is For his death we shall speak of it after First for the time In his generation Generation in the Scripture signifies a succession of men one after another as you have it in Matth. 1. from such a one to such a one so many generations so many successions You know in the Latine tongue seculum is taken for an age or generation the space of an hundred years though Moses shut up the life of man in a shorter time Succession of one man after another is a generation Generation sometimes in a generall sense is taken for all of one kinde The generation of Noah and the generation of the righteous that is all of that kinde without restraining it to succession But most commonly it is the consideration of men from succession of them having the tearm from the way whereby we enter into the world that is by generation therefore the succession of men from one to another is called Generation Now here Generation implies both the times and the persons The persons of men are a severall generation and the time wherein they live is a generation and both are here included David in his Generation among the age of men and in the time wherin he lived â—erved God The meaning of the place is clear The points considerable here are First of all that there is a generation a succession of men one after another Secondly that every man hath his particular generation Daviâ— had his generation wherin he served the Lord. Thirdly that he served God in his Generation that is the whole time of his Generation yet with this limitation he served God only in his generation while he was here before he came to heaven In heaven there is a kinde of service but it is not by way of work but of reward We must serve God in our generation here If ever we look to reap herafter we must sow now David served God in his generation First of all There is a generation a succession of men Particular men go off the stage but the species the kinde is eternall kinds of things continue forever Man dies noâ— but Paul and Peteâ— and David die there is a succession of particular men It is with men as it is with the waves of the sea one wave goes away and another comes after It is with men as it is with trees for men are compared in Scripture to trees trees of righteousnesse and man take him in his nature is like a tree the Poet could say to that purpose it is with men as with trees some leaves fall off in Autumne and others come in their place the next spring so it is with men they have their severall Generations there is an Autumne a decay and there is a spring of them there is a succession of Generations To teach us this lesson that our time being short here every man hath his generation one Generation goeth away and another commeth as the Scripture saith wee must be laid to our Fathers and otherr must stand up in our place Rise up Iosua for Moses my servant is dead saith the Lord one servant of God dies and another rises There bee many that must act their parts in this world therefore some must go off the stage that others may come on therefore while we have time here let us be sure to do good before we be takeÌ„ away suddenly we know not how soon and there be no more generation Here there will be a succession of generations till wee all meet in heaven then there wil be no succession there shal be no more death but as the Apostle saith we shal be for ever with the Lord. And it should teach us likewise considering that in regard of our being and naturall condition in the world there are severall successions generation after generation that now we are here and presently after no more seen in the world to make sure an eternall generation to be borne anew of the immortall seed that never dies as Saint Peter saith that tends to
immortality there is no death in that birth A Christian as hee is a new creature hath a generation to eternitie hee never dies In regard of our being here there is generation after generation successions of men but when wee are new borne though wee cease to be here we go to heaven He that beleeves in mee saith Christ shall never die Man that is 〈◊〉 of a Woman saith Job hath but a short time to live and that short time is full of misery but man that is borne of the spirit hath an eternall time to live and that a happie life All flesh is grasse in regard of this life we lead which is supported with meat and drink and the comforts of this life all flesh is grasse and the beauty of it as the flower of the grasse but the Word of God indureth for ever and as Saint Iohn saith hee that doth the will of God indureth for ever The word of God indures for ever because it makes us having the spirit of God to indure for ever The world passeth and the lusts of it but he that doth the will of God that is new borne by the word of God and transformed to the obedience of God he abides for ever Would you abide for ever and not passe from alteration to alteration as wicked men they alter and come to nothing and worse than nothing then labor for this estate this is the way to abide for ever this life hath no date of daies no death Labour to plant our selves in Christ by faith that so in him wee may have an eternall estate Thou art our habitation from generation to generation It was a Psalme that was made upon occasion of their falling away in the Wildernesse they dropped away as leaves and few of them came to Canaan Well saith he we fall away here and wither as grasse c. But thou art our God from generation to generarion that is wee have a perpetuall subsistence in thee A Christian when hee is in God by being in Christ hath a perpetuall everlasting subsistence As we are Temples of God so he is our Temple wee dwell in him thou art our habitation c. Who would not labour to bee in such an estate for in this world there is nothing but a succession of Generations Secondly Every man hath a particular generation There is some emphasis in this David in his generation For men drop not into the world at all adventure but every man hath his own time appointed when to come into the world and when to goe out some in one time and some in another Therfore the times wherin they live are foreknown of God he hath set downe when such a man shall be borne in such an age of the world so long he shall live such work hee shall do and when he hath done his worke he shall be taken away hence and another shall come and stand up in his place So every man hath his own generation designed and appointed and ordained by God himselfe from all eternity not only his generation but all the circumstances of it the very place of his abode the time and season and country where he shall live all are set downe It is usefull for this end to observe in what times our lot is fallen to what times God hath reserved us what generation and age we live in to consider of the state of the times Are they good blesse God that hath reserved us to those times We pittie some good men that lived in ill times as our Countrie-men in Queene Maries time and other dark times they were worthy men and it was pitty they lived not in better ages certainly they would have beene excellent men then Therefore we should blesse God for reserving us to better times What makes the times better The discovery of salvation by Iesus Christ the discovery of the meanes of happinesse in another world In what age there is a cleerer discovery where there is most spirit working together with the outward meanes that is a blessed age the spirit of God was not working so much in former times of darknesse and Popery Then there were many that followed the Beast to their eternall destruction though God had mercy on many soules that followed him As it is said in Scripture they followed Absalom in the simplicity of their hearts not knowing whither they went so they followed Popery in the simplicity of their hearts not knowing the danger God had mercy on them yet certainly thousands of them were wrapped up in darknes they were miserable times then Those that know Popery wil say so those that read the story will say so the world was wrapped in wars and miseries in those times It is true our times are not so good as they should be and in many regards they are miserable times and we must not murmure at this dispensation of God if God hath so appointed that our lot shall be to live in hard and ill times I say in some respects these are bad times for the world the older it growes the worse it is As it is in a sinck the further it goes the more soyle it gathers so al the soyle of former times are met in the sinck of later times in that respect this generation is an ill generati◠but if we consider what makes times good the manifestatiō of Christs glorious Gospel that hath shined for a hundred yeere more in our Church the discovery of the means of salvation so cleerly the abundance of the spirit with the meanes making men to apprehend the means enlightning their understandings to make use of them and working their hearts to obedience look in what age these are they are happie times Witnesse our Saviour and he is the best Iudge Happie are the eyes that see the things that yee see and the eares that heare the things that you heare Oh! in former times if they had seene that that wee see and heard that that wee heare they would have accounted themselves happy Oh! those that lived two hundred yeeres ago though they were good men if they had lived to see that that we see and to heare that that we heare living in the glorious lustre and Sun-shine of the Gospell how would it have reioyced them Therefore as we have cause to consider of the ills of the time and generation that wee bee not swayed away with them so we have cause on the other side to blesse God that hath reserved us to these times of knowledge In regard of the ills we may say with Saint Austin Lord to what times are we reserved But in regard of the good things wee may say blessed be God that hath reserved us for these things that he hath cast our time thus that we should be borne in this generation in the blessed time of the Gospell in this second spring of the Gospell We should blesse God for it