for as he is true Man flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone he will not be strange to us and as he is God he is able to help us Two things I will press you to 1. Consider what a fit object he is for your Faith to close with 2. Own him as your Lord and your God 1. To raise your trust and confidence consider what a fit object he is for your Faith how he is qualified for all his offices of Prophet Priest and King 1. As your Prophet consider how necessary it was that God dwelling in mans nature should set a foot the Gospel Partly because when ever you come seriously to consider this matter this thought will arise in you that this blessed Gospel could not be without repealing the Law of Moses given with such solemnity by God himself and it was not fit it should be abrogated by any but him who was far above Moses to wit by the Son of God himself not any fellow servant equal to Moses The Apostle telleth us that Moses was Faithful in Gods House as a servant but Christ as a Son over his own House Heb. 13.5 6. The servant must give place when the Son and Lord himself cometh but rather take it from what Moses foretold himself Deut. 18.18 19. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and I will put my words into his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I command him and it shall come to pass that he that will not hearken to my word which he shall speak in my name I will require it of â—im Now these words cannot be verified in any other Prophet after Moses untill Christ for that of these Prophets there arose none in Israel like unto Moses Deut. 34.10 They had no authority to be Lawgivers as Moses had but were all bound to the observation of his Law till Christ should come whom Moses calleth a Prophet like unto himself that is a Law-maker exhorting all men to hear and obey him None of the Prophets did take upon them that priviledge they must let that alone till the Messiah should come whose office it is to change the Law given upon Mount Sinai and instead thereof to propagate or promulgate a new Law to begin at Sion Isa. 2.3 The Law shall go forth of Sion and the word of the Lord from Ierusalem And in another place the Isles shall wait for his Law Isa. 42.4 Well now this is a mighty confirmation of our Religion and bindeth both our Faith and Obedience to consider Christs Authority that a greater then Moses is here Partly because it concerneth us to receive the Gospel as an eternal Doctrine that shall never be changed For 't is called an everlasting Covenant and nothing conduceth to that so much as to consider that it is promulgated by the eternal God himself by him in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily Partly because the Gospel if we would profit by it is to be received by all Believers not only as an everlasting Covenant but as certain perfect and saving Now if the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him who gave this Covenant we cannot deny either the certainty or the perfection or the savingness of it for if we receive it from him who is Truth it self we cannot be deceived 'T is certain if he Taught us in person surely all his works are perfect subordinate Ministers may mingle their weaknesses with their doctrine if we have it from a Saviour surely it is a Doctrine that bringeth Salvation 2. Consider what a fit object here is for your Faith as Christ is a Priest so his great business is to reconcile us to God in the body of his flesh through death who once were strangers and enemies Col. 1.21 consider how fit he was for this God and Man were first united in his Person before they were united in one Covenant If you consider the fruits of his Redemption and Reconciliation The evil from whence we were to be delivered the good that was to be procured Christ is every way a commodious Mediator for us as God man If you consider the evil from whence we are delivered he was man that the chastisement of our peace might be put upon his shoulders God that by his stripes we might be healed Isa. 53.5 Or if you consider the good to be procured he doth it as God-man He was a man that as by the disobedience of one many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many might be made righteous God that as sin reigned unto death so Grace might reign through righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 5.19 21. As he is God his merit is full as he is Man we are partakers of the benefit of it 3 Consider how fit an object he is for our Faith as King For as the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily he is the greatest and most glorious person that ever was in the World Infinitely superior above all power that is named in this World or in the World to come The Man who is our Shepherd is fellow to the Lord of Hosts The thought of Immanuel maketh the Prophet startle and brake out into a Triumph when Senacherib break in with his forces like a deluge in the Land of Iudah They fill thy Land O Immanuel Isa. 8.8 Then verse 9 10. Associate your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces take counsel together it shall come to nought speak the word it shall not stand For God is with us Or because of Immanuel Surely Christ is the foundation of the Churches happiness and may afford us comfort in the most calamitous condition we are in his hands under his Pastoral care and protection Ioh. 10.28 I give unto them eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand Neither Man nor Devil can break off totally and finally their union with him In short he that assumed our nature to himself will communicate himself to us All union is in order to communion here is a commodious and a blessed Saviour represented unto you Secondly Own him as your Lord and your God This was the Profession of Thomas's Faith Iohn 2â— 28 My Lord and my God I shall insist on that Scripture In the History there are these remarkables 1. Thomas his absence from an Assembly of the Disciples when Christ had manifested himself to them verse 24. Being absent he not only missed the good news which many brought but also the comfortable sight of Christ and was thereby left in doubts and snares 2. When these things were told him he bewrayes his incredulity v. 25. when they told him he said unto them except I see in his hands the print of his nails and put my finger into the print of the nailes and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe This
this Relation bindeth us unto As obedience and self-denial 1. Obedience to his Laws and the motions of his Spirit His Laws Luke 6.46 Why call you me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say The motions of his Spirit Rom. 8.14 As many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God 2. Self-denial Christ spared not his natural body to promote the good of his mystical Body he exposed his life for our Salvation we should hazzard all for his Glory Nature teaches us to lift up the hands to save the head 4. There must be sutableness and imitation 1 Ioh. 2.6 He that abideth in him ought to walk as he walketh 5. If you be planted into his Mystical body you will make conscience of Love and Tenderness IV. Vse Let us Triumph in this Head depend on him There are two Arguments his Ability and his Sympathy 1. His Ability He can give us Life Strength Health Eph. 3.16 That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man Col. 1.15 Strengthned with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness 2. His Sympathy He is touched with the feeling of our Infirmities Heb. 4.15 We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points â—empted like as we are yet without sin The Head is concerned for the Members SERMON VI. COL 1.18 Who is the beginning the first born from the dead I Come now to consider the first particular Title which is given to Christ There are two other Titles given to Christ the one respects the state of Grace the other the state of Glory And First With respect to the state of Grace he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning that is Origo mundi meliâ—ris the beginning of the new Creature as well as the Old for the same place and dignity which Christ hath in the order of Nature he hath in the order of Grace also Therefore he is called the beginning of the creation of God Rev. 3.14 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not taken there passively as if it were the first thing that was created but actively that he giveth a being and beginuing to all things that are created and by the Creation of God is meant the new Creation So that the Point is Doctrine That Iesus Christ is the Author and beginning of the new Creatiâ—â— I shall briefly explain this and pass to the next branch Christ is the beginning two wayes I. In a way of Order and Dignity II. In a way of Causality 1. In a way of Order As first and chief of the renewed state This is many ways set forth in Scripture Two things I shall take notice of 1. That he is the builder of the Church 2. The Lord and Governour of it 1. As Founder and Builder of the Church Matth. 16.18 Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church Christ challenges it to himself as his own peculiar prerogative to build the Church More fully the Apostle Heb. 3.3 4 5. For this man was â—â—unted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he that builded the house hath more honour than the house for every house is built by some man but he that buildeth all things is God And again Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant but Christ as a Son over his own house The scope of the Apostle is to prove that Christ must have the preheminence above all others that have been imployed in and about Gods House Moses was one of the chief of that sort that had greater familiarity with God than others and intrusted by him in very great and weighty matters yet Christ was not onely equal to Moses but far above him he proveth it by a comparison taken from a Builder and an House and from a Lord of the House and a Servant in the House but Christ is the builder of the House and Moses but a part of the House Christ is the Lord and Moses but the servant therefore Christ is more excellent and worthy of greater honour One of the Noblâ—st works of God is the Church of the First-born none could build frame and constitute this but the Son of God coming down in our flesh and so recovering the lost world into an holy society which might be dedicated to God For the materials of this house are men sinful and guilty neither Men nor Angels could raise them up into an holy Temple to God none but the Eternal word or the Son of God Incarnate â—e that buildeth all things is God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all these things the things treated of he doth not speak of the first creation but the second the restoring of the lapsed World to God 2. The other Honour is that Christ is Lord of the new creation as well as the founder and builder of it for the World to come is put in subjection to him not to the Angels Heb. 2.7 By the World to come is not meant the state of Glory but the state of the Church under the times of the Gospel It is made subject to God the Redeemer it is solely and immediately in his Power and under his Authority and cast into a dependance upon him II. In a way of Causality So he is the beginning either as a Moral or efficient cause 1. As a moral Meritorious cause We are renewed by Gods creating power but through the intervening Mediation of Christ Or Gods creating power is put forth with respect to his Merit The life of Grace is purchased by his death 1 Ioh. 4.9 God sent his onely begotten son into the world that we might live by him Here spiritually hereafter eternally For life is opposite to death incurred by sin We were dead legally as sentenced to death by the Law and spiritually as disabled for the service of our Creator And how by him that he speaketh of verse 10. by his being a propitiation We were in the state of death when the doors of Mercy were first opened to us under the guilt and power of sin but we live when the guilt of sin is pardoned and the power of sin broken but this life we have not without Christs being a propitiation for our sins or doing that which was necessary whereby God without impeachment of honour might shew himself placable and propitious to Mankind 2. As an efficient cause by the efficacy of his Spirit who worketh in us as Members of Christs Mystical Body Wherefore it is said 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new creature And Eph. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works Whatever Grace we have cometh from God through Christ as Mediator and from him we have it by virtue of our union with him It is first applied by the converting
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession The inchoate or begun deliverance is that measure of deliverance which believers enjoy now by Faith which consists of two parts Iustification and Sanctification Sanctification 1. Pet. 1.18 Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works When we are free from the power and weight of sin Iustification so it is in the Text and Eph. 1.7 When sin is freely pardoned and our debt cancelled and we are delivered from evil and wrath to come II. As it is a part so it is a principal part This will appear if you consider the evil we are freed from As 1. The power of the Devil is destroyed All the advantage which he hath against us is as we are sinners guilty sinners before God For we are put into his hands when we have forfeited the protection of our righteous Lord but forgiveness of sins gives us a release from him Acts 26.18 When Christ came to procure it he destroyed the devils Power when we are converted we are interessed in the priviledge 2. The reign of sin is broken for sanctifying Grace is inseparable from pardoning Grace yea I will venture to say that the gift of the sanctifying Spirit is a part of our pardon executed and applyed for a part of the punishment of sin was spiritual death or the loss of Gods Image Col. 2.13 He hath quickned you together with Christ having forgiven all your trespasses When God pardoneth he sanctifieth and createth us anew that we may be fit for his service so that we are renewed by the Spirit as well as recovered out of the sâ—ares of the devil 3. We are eased of tormenting fears in a great measure Man can have no firm peace and comfort in his own soul while sin remaineth upon him our case is dangerous whether we be sensible of it or no because our condition is not to be valued by our sense and feeling but by the sentence of the Law of God which we have broken and violated if there be any difference in the case the more insensible we are the more miserable The generality of men indeed are senseless and careless put far away the evil day from them and so make light work of reconciling themselves to God but are they the more safe for this No if they will dance about the brink of Hell and go merrily to their execution it argues not their safety but their stupidness The thoughts of danger is put off when the thing it self is not put away but if they be serious they cannot be without trouble Rom. 1.32 Knowing the judgement of God they conclude that they that do such things are worthy of death The very light of Nature will revive many unquiet thoughts within them The justice of the supream Governour of the World will still be dreadful to them whose law they have broken and whose wrath they have justly deserved They may lull the soul asleep by the stupifying potion of carnal Delights and while Conscience is asleep please themselves with stoln waters and bread eaten in secret which is soon disturbed by a few serious and sober thoughts of the world to come God is offended and what peace can they have 4. Death is unstinged That 's the usual time when Convictions grow to the height and the stings of an awakened Conscience begin to be felt 1 Cor. 15.28 Then the thoughts of Death and Judgement to come are very terrible to them and men begin to see what it is to bear their own sins and how happy they are who are sure of a pardon 5. The obligation to Eternal punishment ceases Pardon is dissolving and loosing that obligation Now the punishment is exceeding great Hell and damnation are no vain Scare-crows Eternity makes every thing truly great the poena damni an everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of the Lord Matth. 25.41 Go ye cursed Luk. 13.27 Depart ye workers of iniquity When God turned Adam out of Paradise his case was very sad but God took care of him in his Exile made him Coats of skin gave him a day of Patience afterwards promised the seed of the woman who should recover the lapsed estate of mankind intimated hopes of a better Paradise That estate therefore is nothing comparable to this for now man is stripped of all his comforts sent into an endless state of Misery whence there is no hopes of ever changing his condition So for the poena sensus the pain Mark 9.44 Where their worm never dieth and their fire is never quenched The worm is the worm of Conscience reflecting on past folly and disobedience See here a man may run away from the rebukes of Conscience by many shifts sleeping sporting distracting his Mind with a clutter of business but there not a thought free but is always thinking of slighted means abused mercies wasted time the offenses done to a merciful God and the curse wherein they have involved themselves the fire is the wrath of God or these unknown pains that shall be inflicted on body and soul which must needs be great when we fall into the hands of the living God! If a little mitigation a drop to cool your Tongue be thought a great matter oh what a blessedness is it to be freed from so great an evil Perhaps you coldly entertain the offer of a pardon now but then to be freed from wrath to come oh blessed Jesus 1 Thes. 1.10 2. The good depending on it Luk. 1.77 To give us the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins Eternal life dependeth on it for you are not capable of enjoying God till his wrath be appeased As all evil was introduced by sin so all happiness by pardon This is an initial blessing which maketh way for the rest VSE Of Exhortation To perswade you to seek after this benefit All of us once needed it and the best of us till we are wholly freed from sin still need it 1. We all of us once needed it for we are not onely criminal persons liable to condemnation but actually condemned in the sentence of Gods law Ioh. 3.18 He that believeth not is condemned already Now should not a condemned man make means to be pardoned and should not we accept of Gods terms especially when there is but the slender thred of a frail life between us and execution He that securely continues in his sins despiseth both the curse of the Law and the grace of the Gospel Oh consider nothing but a pardon will serve the turn not forbearance on Gods part not forgetfulness on yours 1. Not forbearance of the punishment on Gods part God may be angry with us while he doth not actually strike as the Psalmist saith Psal. 7.11 12 13. God is angry with the wicked every day if he turn not he will whet his sword He hath bent his bow and will make it ready
Grace and then continually supplied by the confirming Grace of the Spirit The influence we have from him as our head is life and likeness 1. Life Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh c. Christ is the beginning of the new life therefore he is called the Prince or Author of Life All life is derived from the head to the body so we derive life from Christ Ioh. 6.57 As I live by the father so he that eateth me shall live by me We derive life from Christ as he from the Father 2. Likeness Gal. 4.19 My little children of whom I travel in birth till Christ be formed in you And 2 Cor. 3.18 It is for the honour of Christ that his Image and superscription should be upon his Members to distinguish them from others In short as to Life he is the Root Ioh. 15.1 2. I am the true vine and c. As to Likeness he is the pattern Rom. 8.29 Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his son that he might be the first-born among many brethren Secondly The Reasons of this 1. It is for the honour of the Son of God that he should be head of the New World In the Kingdom of Christ all things are new There is a new covenant which is the Gospel a new Paradise not that where Adam enjoyed God among the Beasts and Trees of the Garden but where the Blessed injoy God amongst the Angels A new Ministry not the Family of Aaron or Tribe of Levi but the Ministry of Reconciliation whom God hath qualified and fitted to be dispensers of these holy Mysteries New ordinances we serve God not in the oldness of the Letter but the newness of the Spirit new Members or new creatures that are made partakers of the benefits therefore also a new head or a second Adam that must be the beginning of this new Creation and that is the Lord Jesus Christ who is made a quickning spirit to all his members 1 Cor 15.45 The first Adam was made a living soul the second a quickning Spirit Adam communicated natural life to his posterity but from Christ we have the spirit 2. It is suited to our lost estate We were in a state of Apostasie and defection from God averse from all good prone to all evil Now that we might have a new being and life the Son of God came in our Nature to rectifie the disordered creation The scripture representeth man as blind in his Mind perverse in his Will rebellions in his Affections having no sound part left in him to mend the rest therefore we must be changed but by whom who shall make us of unclean to become pure and holy Not one amongst all the bare natural sons of Men Iob 14.4 of carnal to become spiritual We must be new made and new born Ioh. 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit That we may mind the things of the spirit and not of the flesh of worldly to become heavenly he that formeth us for this very thing is God 2 Cor. 5.5 He that is the framer and maker of all things a God of infinite Wisdom Power and Love he frameth and createth us a-new VSES I. To shew us the Necessity of Regeneration II. The Excellency of it I. The Necessity We must have another beginning than we had as bare creatures it is one thing to make us men another to make us Saints or Christians We have Understanding Will Affections and Senses as Men but we have these sanâ—â—â—â—d as Christians The World thinketh Christianity puts strange names upon ordinary things but is it an ordinary thing to row against the stream of flesh and blood and to raise men to those inclinations and affections to which nature is an utter stranger to have a Divine Nature put into us 2 Pet. 1.4 the necessity is more bound upon us if we look upon our selves not onely as Men but Christians for whosoever is in Christ is a New Creature Some are in Christ by external Profession de jure they are bound to be new Creatures that they may not dishonour their Head Others by real internal Union they not onely ought to be but de facto are new creatures because they are made partakers of his Spirit and by that Spirit are renewed and sanctified Little can they make out their recovery to God and interest in Christ who are not sensible of any change wrought in them who have the old thoughts the old discourses the old passions and the old affections and their old conversations still The same deadness to holy things the same proneness to please the flesh the same carelessness to please or honour God and the drift and bent of their lives is as much for the world and as little for God and heaven as before II. The Excellency of Regeneration or renewing Grace What a benefit it is it appeareth in two things 1. That it is the fruit of Reconciling Grace 2 Cor. 5.18 All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Iesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation God gives Grace onely as the God of Peace as pacified by the death of Christ the holy Spirit is the gift of his Love and the fruit of this Peace and Reconciliation which Christ made for us Our Lord Jesus Christ merited this Grace by the value of his sacrifice and bloody sufferings Tit. 3.5 6. 2. It is applyed to us by the Almighty power of his Spirit Christ is first the Ransom for then the fountain of Life to our souls and so the honour of our intire and whole recovery is to be ascribed onely to our Redeemer who as he satisfied the Justice of God for our sins so he also purchased a power to change our hearts and he purchased this power into his own hands not into anothers and therefore doth accomplish it by his Spirit 2 Cor. 3.18 We should often think what a foundation God hath layed for the dispensation of his grace and how he would demonstrate his infinite love in giving us his son to be a propitiation for us and at the same time sheweth forth his infinite power in renewing and changing the heart of man and all to bring us back to him to make us capable of serving and pleasing him I come now to the other Title which respects the life of Glory The first-born from the dead The same appellation almost is given to Christ when he is called Rev. 1.5 The first begotten from the dead The reason of both is because those that arise from the dead are as it were new born and therefore the Resurrection from the dead is called a Regeneration Matth. 19.28 And as to Christ in particular the Grave when he was in it is represented as being under