waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our body The meaning is there is no man knows what that glory is that is to be revealed nor no man what it is to look for it and expect it The word in the Original is as one saith as a woman looks for deliverance when her pains are on her Oh! she would fain be delivered or as a man in Prison that looks for his Friend out of a window he puts out his head and looks but he cannot get out though he fain would Such an earnest hope and expectation and desire there is in the Saints that walk according to the Spirit to see Jesus Christ come and to enjoy that glory that is to be revealed There are many more expressions there that are the fruits of it as the spirit of supplication ver 26. and there is also a triumphing over all our spiritual enemies ver 31. What shall we say 〈…〉 God be with us who can be against us c And then there is an absolute dependance upon God for all things He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things And then there is also a patient suffering of all afflictions saith the Apostle ver 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed And then there is lastly an absolute eternal union with Jesus Christ in respect of his love I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor any thing shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. These are the expressions of the fruits of the Spirit of God in the Soul when men walk according to the Spirit when they walk according to grace Take a man that walks according to the flesh or according to the law you shall finde none of these kinde of things in his soul So much concerning that Use Vse 3. In the next place as this Doctrine is a Touchstone whereby you may try and judge of mens persons so hereby also you may try your services and actions I say this is a rule whereby you may come to know what your services are what worth is in them For as they onely are Saints who walk according to the Spirit let the world judge how they will and those that walk carnally according to the flesh according to the law are not Saints so I say those actions or services of ours that proceed from the spirit of God they are only pleasing to God and those that proceed from the flesh from Old Adam they are not pleasing to him Now I say by this we may try our services and actions as well as our persons for there is the same reason for both in all my actions all that I expect from them is that they be pleasing to God that is the end of all that we do for they cannot justifie us that is done already or if it be not they cannot do it but all is to be pleasing to God Now then the main Rule by which I am to judge of my actions it is this not to judge of them according as they are plausible to men or according as they have affection or enlargement in them as we call it but we are to judge of our actions chiefly if not principally by the principle that they flow from if it be the weakest and meanest action if it be the least sigh or prayer if it proceed from the New Adam the Lord Jesus it is sweet and pleasing to God it is an acceptable sacrifice But if it be the most glorious thing in the world if it proceed from Old Adam not only from sinful Adam but from naturall Adam as he is called the naturall man 1 Cor. 15. I say that that riseth from natural wisdome and invention and understanding and memory c it is but flesh and whatsoever is born of flesh is flesh and as we say Pepper is Pepper that is it is dear so flesh is flesh that is it is a filthy abominable thing to God as it is in this Chapter They that walk according to the flesh cannot please God So that that is born of the flesh that service that ariseth from the flesh that is done from the flesh cannot please God Quest But you will say Cannot the actions that proceed from the principles of natural Adam be pleasing to God Every man knows that of corrupt Adam cannot but cannot that of natural Adam As a man may pray meerly by a naturall wit and bravely to please man and to please himself and he may Preach by a natural wit and do other Exercises and do them finely cannot they be pleasing to God Answ No this is a certain rule that there is nothing that comes from flesh from a principle of Old Adam whether it be naturally good or evil there is nothing whether from pure Adam or from corrupt Adam that is pleasing to God The reason is this Because as it is Gen. 3. 5. that when Adam sinned against God you know his punishment was that he should die he was not to eat or touch the forbidden fruit lest he should die Now when Adam eat of that fruit you know the Curse came upon him and in reference to this you shall finde those phrases in this Epistle Whosoever walks according to the flesh shall die whosoever walks as Old Adam is in the state of the old Curse He shall die and O miserable man who shall deliver me from this body of death He calls it a body of death alluding to the main Curse of Old Adam which was that he should die Now when the Lord said that Adam should die for sin conceive not that the meaning is onely that he should die personally that his person now should be subject to the wrath of God to damnation of soul and body for ever in Hell that is not the onely meaning of it it is true he fell under that but the meaning is this also that whole Adam Adam as thou art a publick person thou shalt die that whereas I made and appointed thee to be the Spring and Foundation of all Mankinde and every man in the world is to have thy Image on him and I have filled thee with righteousness and wisdome and good things that may tend much to thy happiness and thy posterity that thou mayest derive a principle to them to be like thee in good and to be pleasing to me But when Adam sinned now saith God thou shalt die I made thee a happy Creature and put abundance of excellencies in thee for thy self and thy posterity as a publick person but now thou hast sinned and extinguished all that good Now I will blast them all thy wisdome and thy righteousness thy soul and thy body thy very being Adam shall die Thy person as thou art a private man and as
or sword Nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through Christ that loved us Indeed tribulation and hunger and famine they are sad things but these are the least troubles of a Christian these outward miseries Over these we are more then Conquerors saith Paul I can tie my right hand at my back and with my left hand beat all these back I can beat them with a finger Nay I say more Neither death nor life that is more nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. See there how he dares all the Enemies to come upon the Stage and tramples them under feet As in Malachi it is said that in the time of the Gospel they shall tread their enemies as ashes under their feet So there is a place also in 1 Cor. 15. Death is swallowed up in victory As if he had said You that have received Jesus Christ I will tell you news Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory He jeers the grave and death and triumphs over them O death where is thy sting thou thoughtest to overcome me but where is thy sting The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. He doth not say which will give us victory when we are dead and then we shall be perfect in Heaven it is true then we shall be more perfect but he saith which hath given us victory for the present I have already over come Hell and Death and the Devil for all hangs on the law the law is Gods Writ and the Devil is Gods Sergeant that executes that Writ and Hell is the Prison Therefore if the law be satisfied if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled Death and Hell and the Devil have nothing to do with me So in Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and was raised for our justification And then it follows Chap. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God See where the Apostle layes justification And we glory in tribulation knowing that it worketh patience c. We rejoice in tribulation and affliction Why because we are justified by Christs death and resurrection O what kinde of spirits should we have How full of joy and comfort should we be in the greatest tribulation How should we tread all this world under our feet the evils of this world and the comforts of the world How should we insult and triumph over the Devil and over Death and Hell for all their power as I said is from the law and if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled then all our enemies are subdued and all is clear Heaven is open and God is mine and the favour of God is to me For know this that there is no natural inbred hatred in God to his creature there is nothing that keeps the creature from the full enjoyment of God but the law not being satisfied God made a law and we made the breach of it and there falls out the distance between the Creatures and God whether Men or Devils Now then if I can say though I be a sinful man yet Jesus Christ hath fulfilled the law the law hath a full righteousness to a farthing then I know I am one with God he is wholly for me and I for him and all the enemies of my Salvation are conquered Now if the Lord would open your eyes to understand the hope of your calling the glorious condition you are brought into you would not walk so weakly and poorly and sadly and dejectedly that every thing should cast you down but you would go on and trample all the world under your feet we should be above men and Devils and the world and every thing if we did but understand to what a glorious estate God hath called us in this world through Jesus Christ Therefore a man reflecting upon his justification as he may look upon himself and account himself something so he may account Death and Hell and all subdued and he may account that the law cannot demand a farthing of him That whereas the breach of the law kept us from communion with God that being taken away we are as righteous as if we had never fallen O glorious condition There Paul Eph. 1. he prayes that they might know the riches and hope of their calling that is that they might understand what this glorious calling is that God hath called us to That is a second Lesson we should learn hence First seeing the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us we should learn how to build our Justification aright how to lay the foundation of it And secondly we should endeavour to get our spirits raised like people that are freed from the law Vse 3. Thirdly and there I shall end for this time being freely and fully justified by the grace of Jesus Christ this should follow to any one that understands it that therefore we should study and learn to conform our selves in our hearts and lives out of love to the will of God There comes in holiness and there it comes in amain and never before all before is nothing but bungling but then it comes rightly We should I say conform our selves to the Example and to the Rule of Jesus Christ in his Gospel And that you may understand that you must know that every man in this world hath a rule to walk by And there are but three great Rules and all men do and must conform to one of these three for there is no man that doth an action but it is in reference to a Rule 1. Now you have one Rule in 1 Pet. 1. 14. As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the lusts of your former ignorance which shews that once they did conform themselves they did fashion themselves unto their lusts but saith he now God hath justified you you must not conform your selves to your lusts Most of mankinde make their lusts their rule which the Prophet calls in Scripture to do that which is right in their own eyes to do what is their minde what they like in their own minde and as that worthy Dr. Preston saith they think when they are in their beds what place they shall go to and where they shall spend their time and when they are up they do that which is right in their own eyes what they have a lust to when they have a lust to be drunk they will be drunk when they have a lust to be filthy they will be filthy when they have a lust to be idle or a lust to be malicious against their neighbours they will be so So that the stirrings of their lusts are their rule and their whole life
upon the second we have proved it and opened the Point and have made some use of it First that from hence we may learn where our justification lieth and whereon it is built not upon any thing in us or done by us but only upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ Secondly hence all that are Saints all that believe in Jesus Christ should labour to see the glorious condition they are in by Christ Thirdly we should learn being justified freely and fully by the grace of Jesus Christ to conform our selves in our hearts and lives to the Example of Jesus Christ and to his Rules in the Gospel Vse 4. I shall adde but one word more from this Lesson that is that seeing the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them that believe you may hence see that none are further from Antinomianism then those that are true believers those that are godly Saints You have a great stir concerning Antinomians what they should be it is one that is against the law that is the signification of the Greek word Now the question is Who is most against the law of God I do not deny but there are some and they may be called Antinomians though we should not miscall people yet they deserve it But now a Saint that is in Christ he is not an Antinomian he is not against the law because he hath satisfied the law Every man must pay the law and they that would fulfill the law with their own righteousness they do the law wrong they that do most here and they that suffer most in Hell they can never satisfie the law But a Christian hath satisfied the law because he hath given it a perfect righteousness Now if a man should owe Ten thousand pounds and he had but Fifty shillings a year coming in and it may be one year he payes ten shillings another year he payes a Noble and another year three pence yet he payes as well as he can But now suppose there come a Surety and he payes the whole Ten thousand pound and he saith to the Creditor You shall be paid no more by three pences but you shall receive the whole sum what do you think is not that better So there are none that satisfie the law so roundly and fulfil it so perfectly as he that relinquisheth all that is in him and layes hold on Jesus Christ and in him payes God to a farthing Therefore when Paul is proving strongly that we are justified by Christ and not by the law saith he We take not away the law but we establish the law This is a better way of fulfilling the law then any other All the damned men in Hell and all the Pharisees on Earth cannot satisfie the law so well as one poor sinner that believes in Jesus Christ And so for matter of practice a man that believes in Jesus Christ he walks more strictly then any Pharisee can for he looks not only what is lawful but what is convenient he walks by a more sublime excellent rule A Pharisee looks only what is lawful and what is not lawful but a Christian he looks what is exact and expedient Take any man that knows what it is to be justified by Christ and that man goes a thousand-fold further then another for a man that would be saved by his own fulfilling of the law if he cannot come up to the law he will bring the law down to him As a man that hath a heavy burthen if it be too heavy for him he will cast off some of it so when a man goes about to keep the law and findes it too heavy for him he will throw away some and cut out a part and make a carnal gross law and endeavour to keep that Now a man that is justified by Christ he knows that the law must be satisfied and so he takes it in the purest spirituality and goes to Christ Jesus and he hath satisfied all So much briefly for the second Lesson Now I shall enter a little upon the third as far as the Lord shall give strength and time Those that believe and have this great Priviledge which is the foundation of all others to have the law perfectly fulfilled for them in Christ they are here described to be such as walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit So in the third place take this Doctrine or Lesson Doct. 3. That they and they onely that walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit are partakers of this Priviledge to have the benefit of the righteousness of Christ to fulfill the law of God for them I say they and they onely have it for it excludes all other The Scripture doth not onely set it down positively as it saith Go baptize all nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost therefore we may conclude thence that we may baptize those that are disciples but from that place to gather this Doctrine That they and they onely are to be baptized cannot be right but here I say it is they and they onely Why so because we see after those that walk according to the flesh shall die the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled for them for then they should never die nor be damned they that walk after the Spirit and they onely have this Priviledge Now the main business that I shall endeavour at this time will be onely to open to you these two words What iâ— is to walk And what is meant by flesh and what by Spirit For if we understand what it is to walk according to the flesh we shall easily understand what it is to walk according to the Spirit Concerning the former word to walk I shall say but little because you understand it To walk is a general word in this place it is of a great extent and comprehends a mans whole course and way and practice A man who goes or converseth whose course and way is according to the flesh whatsoever that flesh is as we shall see afterwards such a man walks Therefore it is oft set down in Scripture by several expressions They that are after the law and they of the concision c. Put what words you will so they be general enough they whose thoughts and words and courses are that way they are they that are said to walk There are three words in the Original for walking and of those three the word here is of the largest extent To walk according to the flesh what is the meaning of that I shall be a little larger in opening of this I will not trouble you with the various acceptations of the word flesh You know there is a literal sense of it and by a Synecdoche it is put for the whole person Soul and Body and there is a Metonymicall acceptatoin of flesh I will give them a heart of flesh it is called flesh for softness and there is a Metaphorical
he grounds his Saintship and his justification upon his holiness Now Beloved this is it that I would desire the Lord to bring you and me to to know that I am a just man onely by the righteousness that is in Christ that the law is perfectly fulfilled for me by Jesus Christ and not partly by him and partly by me but onely and perfectly by him and I am called just but onely as or because I am united to him that hath gotten a perfect righteousness for me Then let me build my Justification upon that onely and not upon what I am not upon my temper or upon my graces or my gifts or the like take heed of that but let it be built wholly upon Jesus Christ his death and resurrection He was delivered for our offences and rose again for our justification Let us build upon that that we may come to this temper once to have our justification in a stock clearly in Jesus Christs hands that when we do good we may not imagine that we are a jot the more justified or when we fall or fail in good we may not conceive that we are a jot less justified then before that though one day we have our hearts inlarged to do good and to do more good in one day then it may be we did in a moneth before yet this goes not to the stock of my justification I am not one jot the more justified and sometimes God leaves the flesh and the remnants of sin that foil us and I will mourn for it and be humbled for it as a transgression against my father but I am not a jot more unjustified then I was before in the sight of God in regard of the Covenant of works that Christ hath fulfilled So thus I would have you do as your Merchants and Tradesmen in your City you have a certain Stock that you lock it may be in an iron Chest and that stock is the quick as you call it and you have besides so many pounds or so many hundreds that you turn and wind about through all the year as you have occasion but from the stock the quick you will not lay any thing out of that you will not touch that but lay out in expences and winde and turn the rest Just so I would have it with you that seeing justification is onely built on Christ and I have the word of faith to certifie me of it and the Spirit of faith to shew it me within I would not have my good or evil to be an ingredient into that but leave that as a stock clearly in the hands of Jesus Christ Or as we see a maid or woman that spins she holds one hand steady and turns about the wheel with the other so our justification we should hold it steady for it is not built at all upon any thing that is in us but let us turn and winde the rest that is Sanctification we must strive against sin and mourn for it but leave justification wholly to Christ for it is not built on me but is onely by the death and resurrection of Christ Therefore as Christ saith Luk. 18. when we have done all the good we can say we are unprofitable servants I have not gotten one farthing to day nor in all my life to help to fulfill the law of God or to help to my justification that is onely in the hands of Christ that is my quick my cash my stock and when thou failest and seest lusts and pride and wantonness arise in thee say this hath no influence to hinder my justification it is no ingredient into that that is built upon another thing it is wholly in Christ and his righteousness he hath fulfilled the law and I am just by marriage and by union with him Therefore I will go and take my sins and mourn for them desire God to cleanse me from them but I must hold the quick still hold justification untouched and unshaken and unmoveable in the hands of Jesus Christ I shall leave the inlargement of this and other things till the Afternoon SERMON II. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THere are three Lessons that we should learn from these words The first is implied That the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled Or Every man is bound to fulfill the law of God That we have already done with Secondly That the Law of God is perfectly fulfilled in all true Believers Thirdly That true Believers are they who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We made some entrance upon the second That the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in all true believers I spake a little of this and shall adde something further to what I said if God will The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in every true believer Not personally as I told you for there is no Saint no not Abraham himself that can say the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in me that is personally that I have walked so the law is satisfied by my walking But the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us not personally but in us by reason that Christ and we are one and he is made righteousness to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made of God to us wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption then whatsoever Christ is or hath it is ours Therefore saith the Apostle The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us He doth not say it is fulfilled in Christ though that be true but he takes the boldness to say it is fulfilled in us by virtue of our union with Jesus Christ So in every true Saint or believer the righteousness of the law through Christ is perfectly fulfilled The weakest Saint if he be a true Saint he hath perfectly fulfilled the law of God he hath perfectly satisfied every demand that the law can make he hath perfectly paid every peny-worth of debt that he oweth to the law the weakest Saint it may be a poor Saint that men can see nothing but corruption in all the day and all the week and all the year long almost yet that man if he be a true Saint though he be weak hath perfectly in Christ kept the law of God and is a just man and the law of God cannot come upon him nor the Sergeant the Devil to arrest him for one peny or farthing because he can say as Paul saith here The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us Therefore that is the reason as I told you that Paul saith I am dead to the law that is I am as free from the law as a man that is dead when a man is dead the law goes no further on him So it is said we are delivered from the law and freed from the law and that is the reason also that the Apostle three times in one Chapter puts our salvation upon the righteousness
Lessons that the Lord did teach us from these words The first is implied in the beginning of the Verse That every man is bound to get him a righteousness to fulfill the law of God And Secondly That all those that rightly believe in Christ have in them a righteousness perfectly to fulfull it And Thirdly That those that thus believe and have this great priviledge for it is the foundation of all others they are known or described by this They walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit The two former I have finished I entred upon the third the last day I opened it at large and proved it to you and came to make one Use of it Vse 1. That from hence we may learn how to judge of persons how to judge of those that are Saints and those that are not Saints not according to some kinde of holiness they may come up to but according to the principles they walk by either as they walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit For I told you there be divers Professors among us that it may be are eminent in the eye of the world before men yet when all comes to all their fasting and praying and preaching and repeating c. will be found to be nothing in the world but a walking according to the flesh that is according to the refined well educated principles of Old Adam But I shall go on a little further Vse 2. Therefore in the next place the Question will be How shall I know whether I walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit How shall I know whether I be one of those that walk according to the Spirit I will onely give you a few Expressions of it I will not say signs for it may be you could not all bear that word and these expressions are most of them laid down in this Chapter and hereabout whereby you may have a guess of it whether you be the men that walk according to the Spirit or no. First you shall finde in Rom. 6. that those that are under grace or that walk according to the Spirit sin is destroyed in them they are dead to sin and alive to righteousness And there are many expressions of the same thing in divers phrases as in ver 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin If thou be a man that walkest according to the Spirit thou canst say the body of sin is destroyed and thou dost not serve sin Then it is said in ver 11. that those that are under grace they are dead indeed to sin and alive to God that is another expression And in ver 12. Sin shall not reign in their mortal bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof And in ver 13. Yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness And in ver 14. Sin shall not have dominion over them So there are divers expressions of one and the same thing Now from all for I cannot open them particularly how much is held forth in each of these expressions but to help thee to see a little the state of thy Soul I would gather these three things from all these expressions there is I say meant by them these three things The first thing is this That those that walk according to grace and according to the Spirit sin is dead in them that is they are dead in respect of the guilt of sin they do see and understand in some measure that Jesus Christ by his death hath abolished and destroyed and done away all their sins in respect of the guilt of them they are not under the law in that respect They see that there is a full righteousness in Jesus Christ that hath satisfied the law and so their sins are done away that they shall never condemn them This is one thing Now a man that walks according to the flesh he sees not that neither can see it for these things are spiritual Now take a man that walks according to the flesh that is according to the most refined principles of Old Adam and he alway carries guilt upon his Conscience he will alway be as a man that is rolling of a Snow-ball the more he goes on in his service the more guilt and horrour But a man that walks according to the Spirit let him be weak or strong he sees this in some measure and probably for the most part that his sins are done away and that there is no condemnation to him because he is in Christ and believes in him therefore as it is Rom. 5. 7. He that is dead is freed from sin or justified from sin That is one thing Secondly in all these phrases this is held forth to us as I understand that a believer being planted into Christ for so he looks upon himself and ingrafted and united to Christ in respect of the power of sin he accounts it as dead that is when he sees any sin stirring in him he considers I am one with Christ I am planted with him in his death and resurrection and this sin was condemned when Christ was condemned and as sure as Christ did die this sin must die therefore he looks upon all his sins and lusts as things that are gasping for life as things that are ready to die and that will surely die as surely as Christ did die Another man that walks according to the law when he sees sin in him and findes lusts to rise in his soul he saith as David in another case Surely I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul Surely I shall prove an Hypocrite one time or other this sin will break my neck and so he is discouraged and his heart is hardened But a man that is under grace that walks according to the Gospel let sin be never so strong and prevalent he looks on it as a condemned thing he can triumph over it when it is strongest and can say I know thou must be laid in the grave with Jesus Christ he reckons himself dead to sin That is another thing Thirdly and lastly from all these expressions here in Rom. 6. we gather this That surely all those that are under grace or that walk according to the Spirit in some eminent way are more holy and more freed from sin then once they were and then all those are that walk under the law in some eminent way I say they are more holy though I do not say there is no sin in them for then we should lie as John saith but certainly there is a power in their souls against sin that is exceedingly transcendent in respect of the best moral men in respect of the exactest men in the world that walk according to the law what else is the meaning of all this Ye are dead to sin and Sin shall not reign and have dominion over you and you shall not yield your members as
comes into the minde and as the Philosopher said ye know in naturall things a man can reason when he is not troubled so it is in the spiritual 7. Another way is by Sanctification by the Spirit he is the Spirit of Sanctification it makes the soul holy it takes away lust and sin from the soul This I finde in Mat. 6. 22 23. I would open that place but cannot therefore pray consider saith Christ The light of the body is the eye if therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light He doth oppose singleness unto evil if thine eye be single that is if thy eye be purged from all guile that there is no sin there not when a man hath one eye to God and the other to sin to the world but if thy eye be evil that is sinful then thy whole body is full of darkness Therefore blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God 8. Well lastly there is another way there are divers more but I will name but one more and that is The Spirit of God doth teach the Saints thus to reason by exercising that is helpeth them to exercise and improve that light that they have There is a little light natural light and there is a kinde of spiritual light that an hypocrite hath but the Spirit of God doth not help him to improve that light and therefore that light dieth he blows not up the fire you know men come to reason by reasoning and exercise of reason makes men rational I mean makes them know how to reason Now hypocrites do not thus as you may see Rom. 1. there they knew God and because they glorified him not as God they became vain in their imaginations or in their reasonings as it is in the Original God gave them up to a reprobate minde because they glorified not God Vse Beloved I have three or foure uses but I feare I shall not reach them all I am overloath to tire you and my self Therefore I will conclude with one word and that is this That from hence from this that hath been said you may see what is the Fountain of all goodness and of all evil in the soul 1. Of all good as I have at large lookt upon it but can but touch Take any good and you shall see it is carried on by spiritual reasoning as take Faith Abraham reasoned He that gave him a Son at a hundred years old could raise him up again Take your Consolation it comes out by spiritual reasoning take Paul and Silas they were in prison and ready to be brought out the next day to die now one would think they were mad there to sing but they did it upon spiritual reasons for they accounted themselves blessed to suffer for Christ and if they die they shall then be with Christ for hating of evil you shall see whence is it as pulling out the right eye or cutting off the right hand that is one would think a most unreasonable thing but Christ giveth a reason for it It is better to go into Heaven it is better to enter into life halt or maimed rather then having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire So a Saint can reason spiritually and thus he loves the Saints and hates sin and denieth himselfe and performeth every dutie he so reasoneth that it is the blessed will of God he should do it 2. And so for evill whence comes sin from vanity of the minde whence comes persecution they think they do God good service there is reason it is a good thing to suppress these Schismaticks say some and to have Conformity and be all of one minde and to banish them and let them all go whence is this it is either from corrupt or natural reason And so when men hear the Word of God and forget it they like it well as a man doth that sees his face in a glass but they go away and forget it and whence is it why James tells you Deceive not your selves Deceiving your selves the word in the Original is by false reasonings A man hears the Word and thinks surely I am in this evil condition and I am out of the way and I must look after Christ and the like but afterwards comes natural reason saying these are but new denies and what is become of our fathers and the like Beloved all good is carried into the soul upon the wings of spiritual reason and all evil upon natural and corrupt reason and therefore I conclude all beseeching you that you would study and endeavour to get up your souls and your conversations accordingly to be swayed and carried on by a spiritual minde by spiritual reasoning for here we speak of your Consciences not of your lives so much as of your hearts and mindes And that you may so do take the Motive which follows in the Text which I did purpose had God given me strength and time to open but take it in the gross For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Be perswaded to go home and pray the Lord to create this in you yea and enlighten you For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Two things I have here to say To be carnally minded is death you must expound it by the other that oposeth it its contrary to life and peace it is death and trouble and the other is life and peace Death and trouble if thou wilt be a carnal man and go on so there is nothing in all thy course but death and trouble that is there is death at the end of it Remember that the end of thy Journey is death Remember as the Apostle saith Phil. 3. They minde earthly things and I write weeping that their end is destruction It is a fine thing to be carried all our life long from one carnal thing to another and provide for my Honour and Wealth and Preferment and the like and do this and that good action upon carnal reasons and with a carnal eye but God hath put a sad end to it it is Death And now the other it is Life eternal life though it be rough for me every day to dispute with my carnal heart and not onely carry on good but deny my self in good upon spiritual reason this is a warfare but the end is life and it is peace too This is a hard work you will say and therefore we will take the easiest and smallest work Beloved I say there is more ease and sweetness and contentedness in going on in the wayes of God spiritually upon spiritual reasons an hundred-fold then in the other for the other will be rough and God hath cast it so God hath put a Curse upon all Old Adam he curseth it with death and therefore he must die that walks carnally and that is the reason all your natural thoughts and actions are so bitter God hath cursed them they must die and now all the wayes of Holiness have enough to induce thee to endeavour to walk holily as one saith The gleanings of the Saints are better then the harvest of the wicked men if there were no Hell nor Heaven hereafter but onely the wicked to have the pleasures of sin here and the Saints to have the Consolations of the Spirit dwelling in them it is more an hundred-fold the one is nothing but crackling of thorns under a pot and the end is smoke and stink and the other is sweet here and in the end blessed eternally if it were not suppose though the way to Heaven be bitter here yet it is sweet in the end and the way of the world sweet here and bitter in the end yet you should choose Holiness as a Philosopher said If a man were to take a bitter and sweet thing which were he best to take first saith he to take the sowre or the evil first and the sweet for the hope of the good to come will sweeten the present evil but when a man hath the good first the fear of the evil to come will marre all but therefore seeing there is a reward in the way in Holiness as well as in the end for Holiness it should move us to labour after Holiness FINIS