vs to mingle with our good thoughts euill thoughts And heerein wee must first know what we are by nature and before our conuersion namely wee are bound both hand and foote as it were with the chaines and irons of sinne that wee cannot mooue to any good and so long we are the slaues of Sathan who whips vs with our owne corruption and so hardeneth our hearts through vse and custome of sinne that we are led into the wrath of God before we see it but when the Lord doth strike vs on the sides as he did Peter and open our hearts as he did the heart of Lydia that we doe see the riches of his mercy Act. 12.7.16.14 and doe feele our irons somewhat vnloosed that is our corruption abated whereby we get some liberty to doe that is good though it be not done with that perfection that is required yet let vs assure our selues that our purpose and desire to walke with God and to doe good is accepted of him for he regardeth the heart and dispenseth with the imperfection of the outward man To which purpose Saint Paul saith Phil. 3.13.14 I forget that which is behind and endeuour to that is before and follow hard toward the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ In which obserue three things First we must know our marke at which we must 〈◊〉 that is Christ and vnto the comming of this marke wee must be absolutely resolued Secondly we must not looke behind vs not forbidding vs to look backe vnto our former estate but nothing must hinder vs from going to this worke as whoredome vsury flattery deceit idolatry and such like grosse sinnes Thirdly we must so striue as in the end we may attain this marke which is Christ and so we come thither it skilleth not whether we creepe or goe by steppes and degrees answerable to that 1. Cor. 9.24 So runne that yee obtaine that though wee haue many stops in the flesh yet if our eies bee still vpon God it sufficeth Lastly that we may be abashed at the shaking of sinne and may grow into perfect hatred and detestation of it we see heere the miserable estate of them that are subiect to the prince of the world and are at league with hell that howsoeuer their life is varnished ouer with a little temporall prosperity yet they feede themselues but for their slaughter for being out of Christ and disclaiming holinesse of life their glory shall be their shame and their end is but damnation it being impossible as Salomon saith Prouer. 12.3 for a man to be established by wickednesse If therefore thou seest his barnes full let not thy soule enuy it for in the reuenues of the wicked there is trouble because they tend to sinne and the Lord casteth away his substance If thou seest him tall and proud as the Cedar blesse thou thy selfe in thy humility for the curse of the Lord being in his house though his excellency mount vp to heauen and his head reach vp to the clouds yet shall he perish for euer like his dung his rootes shall be dried vp beneath and aboue his branch shall be cut downe If thou seest him seated and waxing old in his outward happines let it nothing trouble thee for his bones are full of the sinnes of his youth and it shall lie downe with him in the dust at length his eies shall faile and then shall his candle be put out his refuge shall perish and then fearefulnesse shall driue him to his feet If thou seest him eate and drinke and rise vp to play desire not thou to taste of his ioy for his reioicing is short and but a moment and though wickednesse be sweet in his mouth yet God shall draw 〈◊〉 out of his belly yea affliction followeth sinners and feare shall be for the workers of iniquity such a one consumeth like a râ—â—â— thing God shall run vpon him and his arme shall be broken 〈◊〉 shall destroy him as the vine her sower grape and cast him off 〈◊〉 the oliue doth her flower for he that is not planted in Christ his branch cannot be greene but brimstone shall be scattered in 〈◊〉 habitation and his hope shal be indignation and sorrow of miâ—â— ROM chap. 8. vers 2. verse 2 For the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the law of sinne and of death IN this verse the Apostle insisteth to proue that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ which he doth by two arguments First because we are freed from the law and dominion of sinne Secondly because we are freed from the law and domination of death Against these tâ—â—o the conscience opposeth two things First how are we freed from the law and power of sinne since we haue so many vncleane thoughts so many raging affections and so many vile and naughty actions that passe from vs in the course of our liues secondly how are we freed from the law and sting of death since we die daily and suffer so many afflictions and miseries in this life which are the merits and deserts of sinne These two obiections that might skare and trouble â—â—e tender conscience and inward peace of a Christian he answereth to the end of this chapter In this verse to the end of the 〈◊〉 he sheweth how far we are deliuered from the law of sinne 〈◊〉 from the 19. verse to the 17. how far we are freed from the law of death which was the first punishment for sinne as appeaâ—â—th Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die 〈◊〉 death and from the 17. verse to the end of the Chapter he â—â—eweth how far we are freed from the miseries and calamities of 〈◊〉 life Now in this verse as it deuideth it selfe we are to consider two â—â—â—ing First how and by what meanes wee obtaine this freeâ—â—me â—â—â—ly by the spirit of life which is in Christ Secondly â—â—things from which we are freed which be two first from the â—â—â—son of sin secondly from the power of death For the first we must learne to make a difference betweene the spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus and the spirit of life of Christ which is in vs the one being absolute and inherent in Christ the vertue wherof imputed vnto vs brings perefect absolution from the tyranny of sinne and bitternesse of death the other being but poured into vs through the grace of Christs spirit abiding in vs doth but qualifie and temper the heat of sinne and the violence of death which otherwise would rage ouer vs. And therefore if we speake of the spirit of life which is in vs wee may well crie out with Saint Paul Rom. 7.24 O wretched men that we be who shall deliuer vs from the body of this death But if we speake of the spirit of life which is in Christ then may wee boldly say wee are already deliuered from it That this may bee
made more plainâ— Paul Rom. 7.18 said hee knew no good thing dwelling in his flesh and heere he saith he is freed from the law of sinne and of death so as it may be thought these two places and speeches doe not agree The answer is Paul was carnall sold vnder sinne and thereby made a slaue to Sathan euen as a slaue that is sold in the market is to his master but this was onely in respect of the spirit of life which was in himselfe but now he speaketh of the spirit of life which is in Christ and applied vnto him by the vnion betwene Christ and him and so may boldly say hee is now no flesh but all spirit and doth the good he would To make it plainer 1. Ioh. 5.6 it is said that Christ came by bloud and water signifying thereby that as his bloud washeth away the guiltinesse of our sinnes so his water washeth away the filthinesse of our sinnes and that as his bloud doth iustifie vs in heauen so his water doth sanctifie vs heere on earth with which water of his because it answereth to the spirit of life which is in vs we had neede daily to be washed for as the skinne cleaueth fast to the flesh and the flesh to the bones so doth sin to our corrupt nature that we haue need continually to be cleansed by the holy Ghost which is the spirit of life of Christ in vs. And this is that water spoken of Ioh. 3.5 Except a man be borne of water and of the spirit he cannot be saued meaning thereby our regeneration and so Ioh. 13.10 where Christ alluding to them that comming out of Bathes had neede wash their lower parts because the filthinesse descendeth to the feet perswadeth vs thereby to a daily increase in a sanctified course because some corruption will hang at least at our singers end according to that Iob 9.30.31 If I wash my selfe with snow water and make my hands most cleane yet my owne clothes shall make me filthy so as though wee haue the spirit of God in vs yet our best actions are sinfull for as it is said Esa 64.6 our righteousnes is as filthy clouts the originall signifieth such clouts as come from children newly borne or such as Surgians vse to make cleane vlcers or such as beggers finde vpon dung hils to patch their ragged cloakes withall or such as are not once to be named as the Ancient writers of the Iewes doe make mention to whom this was chiefely spoken the Prophet in that place alluding to the manner of purifying in the ceremoniall law For we reade Leuit. 15.19 that vncleane things were separated both from the seruice of God and from the vse of man which being then but ceremoniall both in bodie and soule and thereby vnfit for Gods seruice and is really and morally in vs for we are vile and polluted not worthy the society one of another for feare of infecting each other and yet these are our best actions as Esay speaketh meaning thereby both the greatnesse of the number of them and the greatnesse of the excellency of them for they are all accursed before God I meane in respect of the spirit of Christ which is in vs not that the spirit causeth this vncleanenesse but through the lust sensuality and corruption of our natures euen as faire water from a cleere fountain is made filthy by running thorow vnclean channels the cause wherof is that concupiscence which through the serpents temptation entred into our first parents when they transgressed this being the first sinne that liueth and the last sinne that dieth euen as the heart is in the body of a man and this lust causeth and forceth vs to commit the euil we would not and to omit the good wee would and if it cannot preuaile this way with vs then it will entice vs partly to commit the euill and partly to omit the good by the consent of the heart onely and if it â—â—â—le in this it will cause such a crossing and corrupt thought to come in the way to poison the good we do that though we do it yet it deserueth death because wee are commanded to loue God with all our thoughts which if any one be ranging we doe not This is vrged the more that we may see and acknowledge how far our best actions which are in highest price and estimation with vs and which runne from the cleerest part of the wel-head are from deseruing any thing which we may yet see as in a glasse more plainely Gen. 6.5 where it is said concerning the naturall man that the mould of the desires of the thoughts of a mans heart are euill only euill and euill euery day and for euer 〈◊〉 may bee spoken of the best childe of God leaning out but this word onely For the spirit of Christ which is in vs begetteth some good thoughts and bringeth forth some good fruits that they are not onely euill though in respect of our corruption and that they taste of the vnsauory saltnes of our nature they may be said to be nothing but euill for in the choisest child of God there is the seed of the sin against the holy Ghost of apostasie of all sins but that by the working of the spirit they are so choked and weakened as they are not able to breake foorth hobeit by the remainder of sin abiding in vs all our actions are so infected poisoned as they are lothsome in the sight of God which must teach vs to humble our selues before him to craue pardon euen for our praiers which are polluted with many by-thoughts then wil he as Mal. 3.17 spare vs as a man spareth his sonne that serueth him for the Lord regardeth rather the good affection than the good action the holy fountaine from whence it procedeth rather then the effects of the fountain that it runneth thorow some corrupt veine of this earth and flesh of ours and this is in respect the spirit of life of Christ is in vs. But now if we speake of the spirit of life which is in Christ himselfe then we may boldly say we are all spirit and not flesh that Christ by his satisfaction hath taken away the accusation can come against vs for any sinne and the imperfection can be laide against vs for any action for all we doe is accepted of God in him and we can be charged with nothing for Christ maketh intercession for vs and as Eph. 2.1 God in Christ hath quickned vs that were dead in sinnes and as Heb. 2.9 Christ hath tasted death for all men So as if we speak of the spirit of life which is in Christs person we may well conclude wee are freed from the law of sin and of death Secondly obserue hence that they that will take comfort by the life of Christ must be able to apply the power of his death to the crucifying not onely in generall but euen of euery particular sinne in them as the
of blessednesse For the first vnderstand that in the words If so be and c there is not contained a cause of our being heires of God but a condition set downe by S. Paul 2. Tim. 3.12 All that will liue godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution for we are not to be saued because we are afflicted but we are afflicted therefore we shall be saued Neither are wee heires of God because we are chastifed but we are chastised and corrected because we are not bastards Heb. 12.8 And this is the way sanded out vnto vs whereby we must come to heauen and march like souldiers toward that glorious city namely vnder the standard of affliction and bearing the colours of our victorious captaine Christ This was the lesson that Christ first taught that whosoeuer would bee his scholar should be well whipped hee must goe and walke but vnder a crosse Math. 10 38. wherein marke that that which of it selfe is simply to men a disswasion is with God the principall motiue of the conscience of man Further obserue that euery heire must suffer not that euery one of Gods children must be called to martyrdome or that all must suffer in the same measure but this is it that whosoeuer soundly and substantially professeth the Gospel must make this teckoning with himselfe and so cast his account that if it bee needfull and God may haue glorie by it hee must not feare to lay downe his life and to spend his blood for the truthes sake We see by experience daily that many there be that fight many battels and runne through many skirmishes and yet haue neither scarre nor maime neither yet is he the lesse valiant or in any thing to be esteemed a faint-hearted souldier because his courage and resolution was to aduenture his life and this he taketh as aduantage that he hath tried his manhood and yet receiued as wound howbeit though he haue escaped thus yet was there neuer any souldier but tasted some of the streites and exigents of var if he haue serued there any time as either watching by night marchings by day hunger cold or such like Euen so fareth it with vs in this continuall spirituall warre-fare and combat for if the world cannot persecute vs as Esau meant to haue done to Iacob after his fathers death that is take away our liues Gen. 27.41 Gen. 21.9 yet at the least will it doe as Ismael did to Isaac mocke vs and speake virulently and slaunderously of vs for the Gospels sake which kind of affliction neuer any yet of Gods children no not Christ himselfe could escape And therefore Christ when he marketh them with the coale of vnworthinesse Luk. 14.26 that will not forsake father and all to follow him meaneth that for his sake we must not only cast away vnlawfull things but euen lay aside things lawfull that â—â—ther temptations on the right hand that is prosperitieÌ„ noâ—â—â—â—ptations on the left hand that is aduersity must make vs shrinke as asharmed to beare the crosse of Christ or to maintaine his truth but we must alway keepe the corne so cleare from thistles as we must loue the Gospell for it selfe and not regard our selues in respect of it Further vnderstand that we must be so farre from calling the Lords loue in doubt for nurturing vs in chastisement and for reaning vs from the world by the rod as that by this his vsage of vs wee are to haue an infallible certaintie grounded in our hearts and an heauenly security that wee are heires for it was truely foretold Iohn 17.14 that the world would loue none but his owne and if a man find himselfe free from the hatred of the world he may iustly feare hee hath no interest in heauen When Christ was borne Mat. 2.3 it was foretold the shepheards that they should find the babe in a stable laid in a cratch Luk. 2.12 now if they had found him in a royall palace and the child in a sumptuous cradle they might well haue suspected the Angell had deceiued them and that that child had not beene Christ So if a man were directed by him that knew it that the way hee was to goe were craggy and he should find it smooth hee might well feare hee were out of the way If therefore thinking we are in the way to heauen we finde it easie and delightsome wee may doubt it is not that way the Lord hath chalked out vnto vs for the right way is the straight way through which wee must passe full of thorns that we cannot escape scratching Luk. 13.24 and the way to Canaan is cumbersome ouer hils and mountaines and lieth through the wildernesse where we shall find many wants yet may we not be discouraged but the rather assured that we are going to the promised land To proue the verity and truth of the Gospell there is no other way as Christ teacheth then by offences because it is hated Mat. 18.7 reuiled and maligned for if it were beloued and embraced and entertained of Princes if the world did loue it it could not be the Gospell the Lords owne mouth hath spoken it Since then wee may secure our selues in the truth of the Gospell by the hatred of the world so we being hated and accounted the of scourings of the world for the Gospels sake may assure our selues we are Gods children Now as there is aâ—â—ecise necessity of suffering so this is our comfort and our rest whereon to stay that we are entangled with no other conditions neither is there any other burtheâ— laid vpon vs then was before borne by our head Christ So that as wee desire to be baptized with the same baptisme that he was so must we willingly drinke of his cuppe and partake of his shame if wee will haue part in his glory Of this order of Christ which is imprisonment buffetings and such like was Paul when in a christian courage hee vaunted that he caried about him the markes of the Lord Iesus this liuery did all the Apostles and Disciples of Christ weare Act. 5.11 who presently after his ascension for their open profession of his truth were cast some into prison and some put to one death and some to another Act. 12.2 And shall wee thinke there bee other steppes for vs to tread in and that wee may take our ease in the flesh and yet be quickened in the spirit No for as it is all our desires to goe to heauen so must it bee our affections to goe the same way that Christ went otherwise it were a great disparagement to him if wee be perswaded that the Lord loued his Sonne and so loued him as he would aduance him by the nearer and most proper way nay if God should testifie his loue any other way to vs then he did to Christ as it were a strange loue so should it make vs strangers from Christ for to this place of royalty we must ascend
proportion betweene the head and the members for wee shall bee carried vp into the highest heauens and wee shall stand before the throne viewing the glorious face of God and hauing the fruition of his blessed presence The greatnesse of this glorie howbeâ—â— it needeth rather meditation then explication yet something shall bee spoken of it that the vaile may bee taken from our eies that wee may sound and faddome in some sort the bottome of Christ his â—ole in his glorie which of our selues we cannot doe no more then the Iewes could into the ministery of Moses This place fitteth with that 2. Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment bringeth vnto vs an euerlasting excellent weight of glory Where consider two things first that betweene these afflictions and that glory there is no comparison in the greatnesse it shall be a weight excellently excellent as the word signifieth whereas afflictions are but for a an houre Secondly the glory shall be more durable in respect of eternity whereas the other are but in this life onely For the first consider it in two degrees first the particular ioy euery child and man of God shall haue in his death and dissolution secondly the exceeding glory he shall be filled with when all things shall be perfect and God shall be all in all The first of these hath two parts first it containeth an absolute immunity and freedome from all infirmities of body and soule according as it is said All teares shall be wiped away for the body shall be free from labour care and such like and the soule shall be free from the suggestions of Sathan by couetousnesse and other corruptions wherewith the best and choisest of Gods seruants in this life are wonderfully assaulted Secondly the bodie sleeping in the earth the soule shall be absolutly sanctified from sinne and liue in the fauour of God so as there shall be added vnto vs a present entrance into the Lords ioy which none can comprehend but they that feele it Luk. 23.43 This in the Scripture is called the entrance into the Paradise of the Lord and Paul 2. Cor. 5.8 desireth to remoue out of the body that in his soule he might be with the Lord Iesus who resteth in such a place as hath in it whatsoeuer may moue either admiration or may giue contentation and is described Reuel 21.4 to be destitute of sorrow crying and paine and to haue the foundation of the wals thereof garnished with all manner of precious stones and to be lightned onely with the glory of God needing neither Sunne nor Moone It is also called Abrahams bosome Luk. 16.22 Ioh. 14.2 Reuel 19.9 the presence with the Lambe the gathering of vs into the companie of innumerable Angels and the mansion house of our Father The second degree of this glory is at the restitution of all things which the Apostle heere speaking of verf. 21. calleth the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God This standeth in two parts first in the resurrection of our bodies when they shall be made incorruptible and glorions and shall neede no naturall prouision nor maintenance for they shall shine as the Sunne and the Sunne shall then be seauentimes brighter then it is The second is that God shall be all in all that is the whole God-head shall immediatly raigne and the humanity of Christ shall more manifestly be subiected which is to the greater glory of it that his god head shall be so great for then there shall be no more office of Christ Iesus to procure any more good to his children but the benefit of the former shall continue for euer for then his enemies shall be all put downe and then the Sonne she ll resigne vp his kingdome to his Father that is all enemies being vanquished and that one enemy Death being abolished he shall raigne no more not that God raigneth not now for he raigneth in the person of his Sonne as Mediator but then his office shall end and he shall raigne onely as God For these are but the daies that the Lord Iesus doth woo vs and maketh loue to vs Reu. 19.7 but then shall the marriage be solemnized and for the better setting foorth of this with all magnificence and greatest state all creatures shal be restored that they may serue and attend at the celebrating of this feast Now for the second part that is the comparison of the glorie and afflictions in respect of continuance we see that no affliction lasteth but for the present but this glory is eternall Gods loue toward vs eternall before the world to predestinate vs eternall after the world to glorifie vs that as the first had no beginning so the last shall haue no end So as wee may consider of two eternities though to speake properly there is but one the first before the creation thesecond after the worlds dissolution Now betweene these two there is a certaine time for the world and a thousand yeeres in respect of eternity is but as one day nay as Moses saith Psal 90.4 A thousand yeeres are but as yesterday that is past 2. Pet. 3.8 So as counting the world fiue thousand yeeres it is but as the length of fiue daies past and of these fiue thousand yeeres what are fourescore which is a great age for any man to liue to and a farre greater time then euer any man was afflicted in It is not much more then a moment no way an hower and therefore these afflictions are no way comparable to the eternity of that glory wee shall haue heereafter not so much as a drop of water to the whole Sea or one graine to all the sand And yet we speake now as if a man should neuer but be afflicted euen from his cradle to his death liuing the full age of a man which neuer befell any In Esay 54.8 is shewed what seuenty yeeres be and by the accompt of the spirit of God himselfe they be but as the least minute for the Lord there saith For a moment in mine anger I hid my face from thee but with euerlasting mercy haue I had compassion on thee and this moment was seuenty yeeres for so long were the Iewes in captiuity Iâ—â— 25.12 So as affliction by this reckoning during the whole yeeres and life of man is but a moment and a great part of this moment is past before we can be said to suffer affliction for it is but a confused kind of paine that children sustaine and againe there was neuer any affliction so great but there was some either intermission or remission either the tormenter was wearied or the whip was wasted or they that were tormented died Now if the glory after our induring of these afflictions should last but so many millions of yeeres as there be starres in the heauens there might yet be some more and easier and equall comparison betweene them because at the last this glory should haue an end but it farre
CERTAIN GODLY AND LEARNED Sermons Preached by that worthy seruant of Christ M. Ed. Philips in S. Sauiors in Southwarke Vpon the whole foure first Chapters of Matthew Luc. 11. vers 24.25.26 Rom. 8. the whole 1. Thess 5.19 Tit. 2.11.12 Iames 2. from the 20. to the 26. and 1. Ioh. 3.9.10 And were taken by the pen of H. YELVERTON of Grayes Inne Gentleman So runne that ye may obtaine heare that ye may learne practise that ye may liue for euer LOâ—â—ON Printed by 〈…〉 widow and are to be sold at her sho◠〈…〉 Church yard at the signe of the 〈◊〉 TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL SIR CHRISTOPHER YELVERTON Knight one of the Iudges of the Kings Bench and the Ladie his wife H. Y. wisheth to your present prosperities the addition of many daies in the fruitfull feare of the Lord Iesus c. RIght Worshipfull it is inspired to man by grace to fetch the compasse of this life within the reach of a spanne Psal 39 and it is suggested to him by nature to spin out his web in many daies though it bee with manie dangers Howbeit if the wings of pride did not transport vs to the height of worldlinesse and the weight of opinion did not beguile vs in the taste of happinesse we might discerne in varietie of delights but superfluitie of desires Eccl. 2 in increase of riches but excesse of sorrowes in length of yeeres but strength of cares and in the choisest footing that we take but a changeable fleeting of our estate For if our affections might alwaies feed on Manna we would loath it Num. 1 if our inheritance did stretch to the plaines of Iordan wee would enlarge it and if our preheminence 〈…〉 to heauen yet would we raise vp our heads higher These were the itching humors of Euah lineally descended to vs who thought not Paradise spacious enough for her habitation nor the dainties of Eden sweet enough for her taste nor that presence of God good enough for her companie But where the superscription of Holinesse to the Lord is engrauen on the head and the perswasion of godlinesse to be gaine is engrafted in the heart there the lust of the world and the dust of the world shal be shuffled together as paires and pearles of equall account and continuance For let the glorie of a Christian be neuer so eminent it is not greater then Salomons nor yet Salomons so great as the Lillies let the arme of the wicked be neuer so mightie it is not stronger then Pharaohs and yet Pharaohs inferior to the course of waters let the power of his command be neuer so absolute it is not larger then Nabuchadnezzars yet stifned in pride he was streightned for 7. years within the walks of wild asses yea let the apparell he puts on be neuer so royall the place where he sits neuer so iudiciall the phrase of his speech neuer so plausible and the praise of his voice neuer so popular yet can he not be lifted vp aboue Herod nor Herod by these defended from the wormes Whether then we peruse the steps of the Saints or the state of vnrepentant sinners wee see their liues equally bound vp with the cords of corruption though vnequally matched in the ioy at their separation the one falling away like a flower transplanted to a better soile the other rushing vpon the rocke of Gods wrath either shamefully deiected with the terror of iudgement while they liue or else fearefully entangled with the sense of tormeâ—â— when they die It is not therefore amisse since an enterlude is as it were appointed to be plaied on this earth wee abound couetousnesse creepeth in so closely as it grudgeth the comfort of society if we be scanted impatiency breaketh out so fiercely as it despiseth the law of propertie if we be prouoked wrath roareth out so bitterlie for reuenge as it is no manhood to sheath vp iniuries if we bee pleased flatterie followeth on so shamefully for reward as it is no masterie to obtaine victories if we be weake we blame the worke of nature that we were not made of a firmer mettall if we be strong Iob 6.12 we blaze the art of nature as if wee were steele that could not turne the edge if we be sicke 2. Chr. 16.12 we plant our faith in the Physitian to cure vs yet being sound wee shake off temperance that might preserue vs Iob 32.4 when our leaues bee greene and our wits fresh because wee want the reuerence of the aged we crie that hoary haires might quickly couer vs and being arriued at age the doore of death wee wish that slipper youth might againe beguile vs euer peruerting the times and preuenting the meanes that God hath prefixed and wearying and wasting our selues soonest in possessing that we would enioy longest For though it be the pleasure of the Almightie that wee should cherish this lampe of life yet ought wee not to consume the oyle in prizing our delights at too high a rate Iames 4.3 nor in spending on our lusts in too large a measure And though like warie shipmen wee prouide for this crazie barke which is the bodie Mat. 6.25 yet must wee not permit immoderate care like a mercilesse canker to eate through our bones But the way to ballance our selues euen and not to stray beyond our tether is to captiuate our thoughts thus farre as to recken the world but as a cradle wherein we are rocked till we aspire to some age and growth in Christ our desires but as dreames wherewith we are deluded till we attaine to some taste of Gods loue in Christ this life but as a race wherein we are wearied and perplexed till wee can recouer some sight of Christ and this body but as a prison wherein our soules lie shakled vnder the hope of being blessed in the death of Christ To which affection and perfection wee shall then ascend when being taught by his word which is truth and led by his spirit which is life we can shake off selfe-will that runneth on so fast to destruction and sway downe selfe-loue that swelleth vp so high to presumption and can walke in humilitie as in the sight of God contenting our selues with the portion assigned vs as his gift and with the affliction sent vs as his triall crucifying the flesh as an enemy to the quickning of the soule and trampling on this earth as an insnarer of our feete in vanitie weighing sickenesse but as the fore-runner of sleepe and welcoming death but as the sickle of the Lords haruest beholding the graue as the faithfull treasury of our bodies and looking vp to heauen as the vndoubted Paradise of our soules Now there being but two impediments to this perswasion and tranquillitie of spirit 〈◊〉 9.35 either the corruption that resteth within vs or the sorrowes brought vpon vs while we breath heere the first cleauing and clasping so close about our loynes sinne being like a leprosie that hath couered
name as a thing that Ioseph could not be vnmindefull of And this indeed is the duty and ought not to be the labour of euery trembling Christian to lodge as it were with the booke of God in their bosome and with the Noble-men of Beraea Act. 17.11 to receiue the word with readinesse and to search the Scriptures daily which is the garden of the Lord where runneth the riuer of wisedome to resolue all doubts and where is to be had the oile that softeneth all our afflictions Now in the testimony it selfe heere alleaged consider two things first the person that should beare a virgine secondly the person that should be brought foorth Emmanuell consubstantiall with vs in nature for both these the Prophet beginneth with a word of wonder Behold as of a miracle neuer performed but once If it be asked how it was possible a virgine should conceiue we must beleeue it was so and rest in this nothing to bee impossible with God Mat. 19.26 For as it was possible at the first to make a woman out of a man without the helpe of a woman as wee may see in the first creation Gen. 2.22 so was it possible for him in this new creation to make a man out of a woman without the helpe of a man Which was done to this end because if there should haue beene any corruption of the seed of man in Christ he could not haue sanctified others Concerning the person that should be brought forth it is Emmanuel the same that Iesus and they both imply one thing for he that is Emmanuel is God with vs as Iesus is God sauing vs. Now he is God with vs many waies and albeit in the Arke vnder the law the Lord was alway speaking through the Cherubins insomuch as the very enemies of God the Philistims 1. Sam. 4.7 could say when the Arke came that the God of Israel came and therefore cried woe vnto vs yet is he farre neerer with vs namely in such a spirituall manner as the Prophet speakes heere a God not onely present and fauourable to vs but connaturall to vs and vpon which did depend all the graces of God formerly giuen to his Church Therefore if Moses did say in admiration of the Lords goodnesse Deuter. 4.7 Looke if euer the like came to passe that God from heauen should speake vnto his people and shew his glory so to appeare on earth much more may we breake foorth into the like astonishment to whom God is come so neere as to be of the same nature with vs and to speake vnto vs not in the publication of the killing law but in the manifestation of the quickening Gospell whereby we may receiue comfort in the deepest dangers that gathering our selues vnder his wings and seeking rest and refreshing at his hands he will first giue vs a generall charter of grace for the pardon of out sins And because pardon of our sinne will not saue vs from hell but our iudgement shall be iust vnlesse we yeeld full obedience to the law hee will secondly impute and lay all his obedience and righteousnesse vpon vs so as in him we shall fulfill it And yet because we are still sinners as carying about vs the orignall vncleanenesse we brought with vs Ephes 5.30 the third rest he will giue vs is so to sanctifie vs as we shall be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh not that we are absolutely sanctified in this life but that that which this our Christ brings vs is al-sufficient to saluation And being sure of this we need not to be dismaide for the waters of trouble are but a bath to cleanse and purge vs from those corruptions we gather by walking in this dirty world Further let vs consider heere why it was necessary that he that should be Iesus should also be Emmanuel first it was necessary he should be the Emmanuel that is the strong God for when wee were all enwrapped in sinne and shut vp vnder death then was there neede of remedy And what shall that be Mercy No God is iust and we hauing smitten his Maiesty by our sinne must bee smitten againe by his punishment Shall it then be iustice No for we haue need of mercy Heere so to be mercifull as not to disanull his iustice and so to be iust as not to forget his mercy and to make a way both to appease his wrath that his iustice might be satisfied and yet so to appease it as his mercie might be magnified in forgiuing there must needes come a mediation and if all the world should be offered to God for satisfaction it is nothing for it is his owne the worke of his owne hands If Angels should step in before the Lord it were nothing for they are engaged to him for their creation and being but temporally good they cannot satisfie for an infinite sinne howbeit he that must satisfie must bee infinit to suffer infinite punishment for an infinite sinne committed against an infinite Maiesty therefore he must be God he must be also Emmanuel with vs for how can there bee satisfaction for our apostasie but by humility nor procurement of life but by death Now when God comes to obey hee must needes bee humbled and when he comes to deserue hee must needes serue which God alone cannot doe and when he comes to die he must needes be mortall which God cannot be Therefore hee was man to be himselfe bond God to free others man to become weake and God to vanquish man to become mortall and God to triumph ouer death The situation also of the Ladder spoken of Gen. 28.12 is an euident demonstration of the two natures of this Emmanuel for the word must bee vnderstood of the second person in the Trinity By the foot to satisfie his Fathers wrath as being of our nature that he might stand close to Iacobs loines and to his Church militant and by the top to expresse his diuinity which toucheth the seate and reacheth to the bosome of God that he might in time bring thither his Church triumphant Now euery ladder is a Medium or meane whereby weascend to some place that otherwise we could not reach vnto which this Emmanuel is to vs for wee being euill debters and God a seuere creditor Colos 2.14 Christ is the meane to cancell this debt and to set it on his owne score and we being ignoant clyents and God a skilfull Iudge not able to vnderstand our tale Christ must be our aduocate 1. Ioh. 2.1 to pleade our cause for vs. And as betweene God and vs so betweene the diuell and vs he is a mediator for he casteth fierie darts against vs which we onely driue backe by the shield of faith in Christ Ephes 6.11 Further in the word Emmanuel obserue three things first the truth and verity of the subsistance of both these natures in Christ secondly the reall distinction of them thirdly the personall vnion of them And these three points wisely and
Secondly from hence note the riches of the Lords mercy who to shew the power and vertue that was in this Sauiour begins to draw them and to open their hearts who had run furthest from him and giuen themselues most ouer to the diuell for such were these Wise-men who consulted with Sathan and practised the most detestable art of coniuring and witchcraft which by the iudiciall law of God was death yet at the doores of these men doth his spirit knocke From whence euery man may draw this particular comfort to himselfe that whatsoeuer his former conuersation hath beene though most irreligious towards God and vnrighteous to men yet there may a power bee giuen him from aboue to trauell toward that heauenly Ierusalem the Citie of God where he shall not now see Christ in his basenesse as these Wise-men did but in his absolute and perfect glory For if wee haue but faith to beleeue Gods promises and shall so far proceed in the worke of repentance as being called to the light to walke in the light and not to thinke much of our paines though we go farre to worship Christ but can walke on cheerefully after the example of these Wise-men we shall be sure with them to haue our ioyes more increased at our iourneys end than they were a first Now where they shew they were directed by a starre first vnderstand that the Natiuity of Christ depended not vpon the starre but the starre vpon his Natiuity Secondly we must not thinke that the Wise-men had this power to diuine by the starre that Christ was borne for first the starre was not naturall for it kept not a set course but as we may see in the text it did appeare and not appeare neither could this diuine light speake that such a Messias was borne though it might portend the birth of some great Monarch but this light was purposely created by God in heauen for vers 2. it is called Christ his starre and there was a secret impulsion by Gods spirit in the harts of these men on earth otherwise they would not haue tolde so dangerous a matter to Herod a king so cruell and an enemy to the king of Persia whence they came and though perhaps their Art might tell them somewhat and that they had the prophesie of Balaam the coniurer Num. 24.17 There shall come a starre of Iacob and a scepter shall rise of Israel and though they had the prophesie of Daniel chap. 9.24 of the 70. weekes in which this great king should come yet by all this they gathered it not but by Gods owne opening it vnto them Out of which we learne that when we haue any thing reueled to vs from God or that wee haue a commandement to doe a thing that we cast off all doubts and shake off all feare euen of the greatest tyrants for let Herod be neuer so much perplexed at the name of the true and new-borne King of the Iewes yet must the Wise-men aske the question and not depart from his Court till they be resolued And let Pharaoh be neuer so cruell and Exod. 10.28 threaten Moses if he doe but see him to kill him yet must he runne on in his duty and pronounce the death of the first borne euen the first born that sitteth on the throne of Pharaoh But the more speciall doctrine from hence is that God in wisdome doth so strangely qualifie the basenesse of Christ his birth that howsoeuer hee might seeme to the eies of men a vile abiect as Esay prophesied chap. 53.3 void of outward dignity yet God beautified him alwaies in his greatest vilenesse with some certaine marke of his Diuinity that it might be discerned that he that was in that flesh was more then a man as euen at this time that hee hauing but an oxe stall on earth for his cloth of estate should haue a starre in heauen to set foorth his glorie and that when there was no more thinking of Christ than of the man in the Moone among Herods Courtiers then he prouides that some Magicall practisers should humble themselues before him when the high Priests did despise him Thus did the Lord Luk. 2.8 reueale him first to shepheards the basest of ten thousand but to testifie his maiesty at the same time an host of Angels and a multitude of heauenly souldiers sang glory to him So was he Mat. 4.1.11 led into the wildernesse among wild beasts but the Angels waited on him as his pensioners and ministred to him in his wants So Mat. 17.25.27 he must pay tribute a token of subiection and yet the kings sonne ought to pay none but as this shewed him to be a man and a subiect so he told Peter his thought saying I will pay it but go to the sea and take it out of the fishes mouth so as to shew his diuinity he commanded the sea to pay it Againe he was maintained eleemozinarily hauing no garment but what was giuen him and the good women kept him by their contributions yet to magnifie himselfe againe he oftentimes fed many thousands with a little So Mark. 11.12.13 he comes hungry to the fig-tree wherein appeareth his basenesse but in the same action springeth foorth his maiesty as when he said Neuer fruit grow on thee heereafter and it was presently dried vp So God had appointed he should die and before his death to be whipped Mat. 26.67 to shew his humility but see how he exalted himselfe againe Mark 11.15 he whipped out the exchangers out of the temple and none durst so much as looke or make resistance against him Againe he must be hanged betweene two theeues but Luk. 23.42 he so qualifieth the basenesse and shame of his crosse as he worketh faith in the heart of one of them to call on him as a Sauiour and him he saueth And though at last he died to declare his manhood yet that hee was more then a man was expressed by the breaking of the veile of the Temple and by the strange eclipse of the Moone which was in plenilunio when it was full Moone For the second generall circumstance which is the effect of their inquiry what feare it wrought For the word Feare it signifieth such a troubling of the water as that mud ariseth shewing that this kind of feare seized on Herod and his Court howbeit their feare arose vpon seuerall respects Herod feared because he was somewhat acquainted with the prophesies which foretold that one should come to deliuer his people out of seruitude and he knew that all would worship the Sunne rising rather then the Sunne setting And that he was strangely affraid is noted by this that hee called vnto him the Wise-men and would haue learned of them somewhat whereas if he had beene prouident hee would haue sent some of his Courtiers on the iourney with them in colour of doing them courtesie that so they might haue gone to the very place to haue seene the child and by them the King might haue beene
the babes life verse 21 Then he rose vp and tooke the babe and his mother and came into the land of Israel verse 22 But when he heard that Archilaus did raigne in Iuda in stand of his father Herod he was afraid to goe thither yet after he was warned of God in a dreame he turned aside into the parts of Galiley verse 23 And went and dwelt in a citie called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophets which was that he should be called a Nazarite NOW followeth the returne of Iesus out of Egypt after the cruelty executed by Herod vpon the children and the iudgement of God manifested on Herod striking him with death 〈◊〉 which words there bee foure generall points to be considered first the commandement of the Lord by the message of an Angell vnto Ioseph as the foster-fatheâ— of this babe whereby he is aduertised to returne hauing securitie giuen him that he need not doubt namely that Herod and the rest were dead which sought the life of Christ Secondly the obedience of Ioseph turning neither to the right hand nor to the left but as he staid till hee was called so he staied not when he was called Thirdly in what feare Ioseph stood finding sucâ— troubles in Iudaea and into what perturbation of minde heâ—â— cast when he heard that Archilaus raigned knowing him to be Cockatrice hatched out of a Serpents egge and how the Lâ—sent an Angell to releeue him in this perplexity Fourthly 〈◊〉 Ioseph minding no such matter by his turning into Galile thâ—â— is an ancient Oracle fulfilled that this babe should bee callâ—â— Nazarit Out of the first learne the faithfulnesse of Gods proâ—â—â— that he is a God of his word for in this is his first promâ—â—â— complished as appeareth now by the effect that he wouâ—â— his sonne out of Egypt and that the same Angell that brâ—â—â— the heauy tidings vnto Ioseph of his flight from Bethleâ—â— Egypt the same Angell brings him this glad tidings of 〈◊〉 turne from thence into the land of Israel And thus mâ—â—â— consider of all the promises of God as of his couenanâ— Noah Genes 9.11 that the world shall no more bee droâ—â— his promise to Israel that they shall be his chosen for hoâ— euer the Lord withdrawes his fauour from his saints for aâ—â— yet at the last he will release them and in compassion will 〈◊〉 vpon their afflictions And well may the mountaines fall the course of nature change but Gods promise shall 〈◊〉 faile 1. Thes 5.24 for as Dauid saieth Psalme 32. though their â—â—lations bee many yet the Lord will deliuer them out of And though this pregnant security of returning be not expresly giuen to euery prisoner as it was heere to Ioseph yet all that feare God haue this to comfort them that hee hath giuen his word hee will make them blessed Mat. 5.4 and that as hee hath drawne them to the profession of his name so hee will neuer leaue them till hee haue brought them to the possession of his glory and that whether they die in Egypt vnder the fornace of affliction or come forth of Egypt all shall worke for their saluation And this his wisedome hath not onely disposed of the generall end which is his glory but of the meanes also how hee will bring euery one of vs to his kingdome And though it bee thorow the riuers of waters what skilleth it if wee haue the crowne at last Iob. 5.18 The same hand that woundeth shall bind vp the wound againe and the same hand that smiteth shall heale and the same God that layed vs before in the ashes shall giue vs oile to make our faces cheerfull Psal 104.15 Act. 12.8 by a warrant from heauen discharge Peter of his chains when in the eie of his enemies he stands condemned and make Ioseph returne out of that barbarous nation Egypt wherein God was so much dishonored to exercise himselfe in the seruice of God in Galile And though wee haue no certaine promise of this yet let vs be affected like Dauid who wandring 2. Sam. 15.25 through the mountaines in great diâ—â—â—esse his griefe being increased because hee was banished by his owne sonne and supplanted by the subtilty of Achitophel his â—hiefe counsellor when he saw he could not haue the Arke with â—im bids it should be caried againe into Ierusalem saying If I â—aue found fauour in Gods sight he will bring me thither againe but if hee haue no delight in me let him doe as seemeth best to â—im for either in the time of our trouble we shall be gathered to God in peace Psal 56.13 or else he will let vs see his goodnesse in the light of the liuing Now the cause why it is safe for Ioseph to returne is because Herod is dead where we learne to our comfort that tyrants shal â—ot liue euer and when they perish and fall away then is the Church deliuered and comforted for this death of his was no doubt as cheerefull to Anna and Simeon at Ierusalem as to Ioseph and Mary in Egypt and Rachel that before was brought in weeping ouer the innocent bloud of the poore children as if the graue had felt such barbarous and beastly cruelty may now be thought to breake forth into exceeding ioy that such a rakehell was taken away as Herod was that sought the life of Christ How we ought to bee affected at the fall of the wicked appeareth Psalm 52. where although Doeg had got great authority with Saul so as he boasted in his power trusted in the strength of his malice his tongue being as the sharpe razor alwaies cutting or as the coales of iuniper alwaies raising contention against the Saints yet the Lord shall destroy him and though hee thought to haue built his neast in the heauens yet shall the Lord cast him downe and the righteous saith he shall see it and reioyce the wicked being blind neuer beholding the iudgement of God and they shall laugh not in reuenge but to see God mercy in taking part with the godly And not onely the righteous shall ioy at this but as Iob. 20 26. saith The tongue of the â—â—per shall slay them that is the very wicked shall curse them 〈◊〉 Princes that want religion soone slip into tyranny and wantâ—â—â— conscience to moderate their desires and affection to looke vpon their subiects they will soone resemble Rehoboam 1. Kingâ— 12.10 in making the yoake heauy and correcting them 〈◊〉 Scorpions Further from hence learne that God doth often so disappoint the plots and purposes of cruell tyrants that when they intend to execute others they die first themselues and sometime Haman Ester 7.10 is hanged on his owne gallowes thâ—â— he prepared for Mordecai Herod had thought to haue killâ—â— Christ but he is faine to take the paines to die himselfe If Mâ—ses come any more into Pharaohs sight he shall surely die Exâ—â— 10.28 Well Moses will see his face no more but
giuen vp Rom. 1.24 to serue their owne lusts that profited not by that one light of nature whereby they were constrained to acknowledge a superiour power that made that excellent frame of heauen and earth If the Pharisees were thus sharpely charged and reprooued for not amending their liues at these few sermons of one Iohn Baptist much more may wee feare lest wee be swallowed vp of present destruction that haue had so many sounds of the Lords trumpets and yet haue not retired from our owne waies that after so much dressing and pruning and lopping haue brought foorth nothing but briers that haue deuoured so many full yeares of peace and yeeres of preaching and plentie and yet continue leane and ilfauoured in the course of our liues for now at the time of the Gospel as we see heere beginneth iudgement Secondly learne how faithfully Iohn executed and performed his ministery which stood in two parts as was foretold by Malachy chap. 4. to preach mercie and iudgement both which he performed in this one sermon Heere the Iesuits take occasion to say that we should dehort men from euill for feare of hell and exhort them to doe well in hope of heauen We say with Paul who is our patterne and forerunner that we haue weapons for all those that shall despaire after the obedience of Gods Saints fulfilled but we preach not onely to worke well in hope of heauen for as we are seruants we deserue nothing but as children wee are receiued to an inheritance bought for vs before we were so we striue not that men should keepe themselues from sin onely for feare of hell for the Lord will neuer account of such a soule as will doe nothing but for feare of the whip for hee loueth a free giuer and hateth constrained subiection and it is not the horror of damnation but the commemoration of the Lords mercie shewed toward vs in giuing his owne Sonne to so ignominious a death to ransome vs from that curse wee had incurred This is that containes vs within the bounds of obedience for if the heart bloud of the Lord Iesus will not make thy heart to relent and thy hands to tremble to put them forth to wickednesse then art thou in a desperate case Shall the feare of the gibber or the ghastly shew of death make one that was a traitor and now pardoned and aduanced vnto high place by the meere mercie of his Soueraigne shall this make him afraid to commit treason againe and nothing else nay the grace of his Prince shall rest alwaies before his eies and shall most forcibly perswade him to perseuere in his loialtie For this is the most effectuall of all others to mooue vs in the bowels of the mercies of Christ to keepe our selues cleane and washed because wee are already purified in his bloud and not for feare of falling into the pit againe Thirdly note that if any man will escape and auoide damnation he must of necessitie liue wel for he must be a tree bringing foorth good fruit Where first consider what is good fruit which is implied in the text it cannot bee good except the tree be good as Christ saith If the casting out of a diuell be a good worke why am not I a good man Matt. 12.28 Ioh. 7.21 So as first the person must be accepted before the worke be accepted and no person can please without faith that purifieth the heart and there is no such heart where religion dependeth not vpon the true worship of the law of God and by consequent there is no good faith where the heart is not cleansed by the spirit of God Since then a man must first be good before he can doe good it is impossible that anie man erronious in religion should produce a good worke Externall righteousnesse and the morall vertues of the Papists is a vizard that bleares manie mens eies and wee say that they are honest as well may we say it of them that hanged vp the Lord Iesus thinking he had spoken blasphemie because being but a poore wretch to see to he challenged himselfe to be the Sonne of God and in this doing they thought they had done God an excellent peece of seruice And for Paul before his conuersion who could except against his life nay as he testifieth of himselfe Philip. 3. â— hee walked according to all the ordinances the law prescribed yet after hee was called he accounted all his morall righteousnesse but as the excrement of a dogge And if religion do not distinguish betweene men the heathen shall condemne both vs and them who by the meere instinct of nature liued in the hatred of grosse sinnes and walked soberly without exception and yet are they already damned For first we must be good by grace and being adopted into Christ then we doe good and of all the trees of the forest as Ezec. 15.3 there is none but is better then the vine if it beare not grapes for the oake is good for timber and euerie tree may serue for some good vse but the farments of the vine if it be not clustered is fit for nothing but for the fire The Papists are good as okes to build monasteries and to set vp houses and places of religion but an vnfaithfull and vnfruitfull Protestant and Professor is good for nothing being but a rotten bough or branch of a fruitlesse and barren vine but to be burned So that to iudge a worke to be good it must bee good both quo ad fontem quo ad finem proceeding from an honest heart and driuing to a right end the glory of God to whom I owe honor Further to come to the true knowledge of good fruit let vs know what bad fruit is which is double first sinnes in substance such as are contrarie to the expresse commandement of God as adulterie is absolutely a sinne in Dauid as wel as in any other secondly sinnes by circumstance as giuing of almes Matt. 23.5 onely when the trumpet sounds to be seene of men or to come into the sanctuarie with a purpose to pray and presently to returne to his vomit againe for the Lord abhorreth what himselfe commandeth Esay 66. if it be not doâ—â— with that heart he commandeth The sacrifice of a sheepe is 〈◊〉 his sight as the bloud of a man not that he hateth the action but the hypocrisie in the action which staineth the whole a Hagg. 2.13 if an vncleane person touch the holy flesh the flesh it selfe is vncleane but holie flesh maketh not other flesh holy which was not so before Further obserue where it is said Euery tree that bringeth 〈◊〉 foorth good fruit shall be hewne downe that it is not enough not to doe euill but it is damnable not to do good for he doth not say the tree that brings foorth no fruit but that brings not forth good fruit For it is not enough for Zacheus Luk. 19 after his conuersion to be no poller or robber of
separates for it is the same word of life in it selfe but not to them that eate it not to the elect it is effectually conueied to the reprobate it is truely offered by God but separate by their vnbeleefe Therefore let vs consider the analogy and naturall relation in baptisme the externall thing is water such as is common the thing inward is the very bloud of Christ answered by the signe The application of water to the clensing of the body is answered by the applying of the holy Ghost the effect of water is to purifie from filth so is it of the bloud of Christ to purge from sinne and this two waies by killing and renewing by nortifying and quickning by the dipping in the water is represented the death of Christ and his resurrection signified by pulling out of the water that as we are buried with him in Baptisme so we shall rise with him by his spirit Why but hath Iohn no power but to put on water euery man may doe so and how is it then that 2. Cor. 3.6 Paul saith God hath made vs ministers of the spirit and not of the letter for there he compareth the Law to the Gospell Moses to the Apostles Moses gaue vnto the people the two tables which was onely a commandement externall for he could not change his owne heart nor apply his owne soule to the performance of the law but it was onely as if a man should write to a blind man to bid him reade or to a deafe man to bid him heare And can Paul doe any more to conuert the Corinths No but this is the difference the preaching of the Gospell which is the ministery of the spirit doth not onely require faith but giueth faith to be saued for of it selfe it is as easie to keepe the law as to beleeue Why but Paul saith to Timothy 1. Tim. 4.6 Attend on the worke of preaching to saue thy selfe and others and Paul of himselfe saith I begat you and Mal. 4.6 it was prophesied of this Iohn that he should conuert the hearts of men This is most true when the externall and internall doe ioyne and iumpe together and when they are not compared by opposition but are comprehensiuely taken together then we can bind and loose sinnes and as Leuit 16.16 then the Priest shall make thy soule cleane But as it was said that there was in paradise Genes 3.22 the tree of life not that it had any life in it but that they that should eate of it should liue for euer and so of the tree of knowledge which was so called by the effect it wrought making vs to know what good we lost and what nakednesse we fell into so it is said that we forgiue sinnes Iohn 20.23 because the word of reconciliation is put into our mouthes not that we doe it by any absolute authority but necessarily because our commission extendeth to it by God And so all morall matters vnder the law were but a meere pageant sauing that they sealed to them the inward which was the blood of Christ and where such efficacy was giuen to the sacrifices there the inward thing was attributed to the outward so as we must still hold that all power and sufficiency is of God 2. Cor. 3.5 Further obserue that Iohn of necessitie must giue water or else Christ can giue no bloud and except there be planting and watering nothing can grow So as we must learne to submit our selues to the ministery else can wee not ordinarily expect for any grace at Gods hands for he giues but increase and blessing to his worke-mens labour and though the voice of the Preacher be but a vanishing voice wanting power to affect the conscience and vertue to illuminate the eies for the voice cannot pierce the soule yet wee must humble our selues to Iohns ministery for by this voice doth the Lord giue life and as hee cannot hope for fruit that neuer sowed nor expect for wine that neuer planted no more can hee looke for life that neuer heard for faith commeth by hearing Rom. 10.17 and without faith there is no saluation So as vnlesse we doe embrace this ordinance of God to follow them whom hee hath made his armes to reach forth vnto vs the bread of life we can neuer beleeue and except we desire to be sealed with the great seale of heauen committed vnto them wee shall neuer be saued for as it is said Gen. 17.14 euery soule contemptuously refusing circumcision shall bee cut off and he that despiseth the bread doth betray and crucifie the Lord Iesus as the Iewes did that bad away with him Iohn must be regarded because he puts on water for who is not glad to receiue his pardon by the person of any and why should their feet bee contemptible that bring vs such newes from the mouth of God And if wee dare not in paine of damnation but thinke reuerently of the seales that is of water and bread in the Sacraments how much more must wee reuâ—â—â—ce the doctrine that is of far greater maiesty for the Sacraments are but blankes without the word Further consider heere in Iohns baptizing to amendment of life that as all Sacraments are couenants and in couenants there is alway something agreed on betweene both parties so in Baptisme God promiseth to receiue Christ to redeeme the holy Ghost to sanctifie and on the other side we promise to beleeue this and to repent vs of our transgressions For as Baptisme sealeth vnto vs remission of sinne so also doth it seale as it were from vs amendment of life and to whom soeuer the Lord sealeth this assurance that he will saue him to him also he sealeth regeneration and newnesse of life And as Paul saith Rom. 2.26 if vncircumcision beleeue well it shall bee saued rather then circumcision that is if the outward signe bee separated from the inward and not accompanied with cleannesse of heart and obedience to the commandement hee that wants the outward seale and yet is circumcised in heart is more to bee accounted of then the other Therefore let vs looke and take heed we performe the vow wee made before God and his Angels in our baptisme namely as to beleeue the promises so to repent and reforme our liues for he that will assure himselfe of the benefite of Baptisme must see what power he hath to subdue his corruptions He will baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire That is by the holy Ghost Christ will seale the pardon of their sinnes who hath the same power that fire hath as first to burne vp all trash and stubble secondly to purifie things that are to be purged thirdly to giue light in darkenesse fourthly to quicken things that are benummed and stiffe with cold So as let vs examine our selues whether wee haue felt these effects of this spirit for if he filthinesse and frâ—â—â—dnesse of our nature be burnt vp and consumed if our harts be swept and cleansed from vile and loose
the Tower of Babell should haue beene erected to them and as easie it is to pull God out of his throne as to disgrace vs further then he permits for our saluation is as sure as his owne seate and as stedfast as if our selues had beene in heauen and seene it written with Gods owne singer Yea we shall stand like mount Sion Psal 125.1 and not a feather of a bird much more not the haire of our head nor the hem of our garment shall bee touched or fall without his appointment Wherefore Sathan sinneth against the holy Ghost in labouring to seduce the faithfull whom he knoweth he cannot stirre and when he knoweth wee cannot fall finally since the Angels haue charge ouer vs and cannot but be faithful keepers of that is committed to them And heerein may we embrace the riches of the Lords mercy who when his owne prouidence might be sufficient to secure vs of our safety yet to releeue our infirmity and to support our weaknesse hath giuen vs the gard of heauen to wait vpon vs as if one that were to passe the seas should not onely haue the letters of the Prince for his safe conduct but should be guarded with his royall Nany to assure vs that doing that we doe by the warrant of his word we shall neither be persecuted nor molested but so far as he may haue glory by it and we reape comfort For the third wherein he doth falsifie the text alleaged and this he doth two waies first by wronging the words secondly by wresting the sense for the Psalm 91.11 is He hath giuen his Angels charge to keepe thee in thy waies so as the promise is made with a limitation that hee keepe him in his waies Now from the pinnacle of the temple to fall downe is not the way but hee leaueth out the demonstration of the truth thy waies that is those waies that bee prescribed as from the Temple to come downe by the staires by this meanes dealing fraudulently leauing out the principall Secondly consider the wresting of the sense for where this was spoken that Christ should depend vpon his Fathers prouidence walking in his waies hee laboureth to secure him generally of the same prouidence though he were out of the way heereby to ouerthrow him Now as hee dealt with the head so hee doth with the members for pretending Gods protection hee laboureth to bring men to destruction For predestination hee will tell a man Esau was hated and Iacob beloued before they had done either good or euill Mal. 1.3 that it is not in the willer nor in the runner neither in the affection Phil. 2.13 nor in the action which hee doth onely to make vs rest in the prouidence of Gods predestination without hauing regard to our conuersation whereas heereby we ought the more to bee induced to get as many testimonies as wee can to prooue that this election pertaineth to vs and not to waite till grace should distill by diuine influence or to make the decree of God a meanes of our security to liue as we list as that being elected we cannot perish and being appointed to be damned we cannot auoid it So for Iustification hee will suggest Wee are saued by the bloud of Christ onely and when wee haue done all we are vnprofitable seruants the more we sinne the more grace aboundeth Rom. 6.1 and God hath most glory in pardoning most offences Whereas being elected we worke well not to recompence the goodnesse of God but to shew our thankfulnesse And there is no promise where the commandement is not kept for this is to be performed on our part else God is discharged on his part for being out of our waies the diuell may take vs as vagabonds the protection of the Lord not extending to vs in this course And thus doth Sathan almost labour to peruert all the Scripture that he may finde vs straying out of our Fathers house as to suggest that the Sabbath is made for man therefore hee will labour to make vs worke on this day Mark 2.27 But let vs not giue eare to him for this leadeth out of the way So when it is said He that laboureth not for his house 2. Tim. 5.8 is worse then an infidell if hee abuse any of vs by this to couet after riches away with it for it is said in another place Couetousnesse is the root of all euill and the desire of riches is simply vnlawfull 1. Tim. 6.9 for by this he falleth into many snares It is written againe Thou shalt not tempt c. This is the second generall part namely the repulse of the temptation wherein consider two parts first that Christ answereth againe by Scripture secondly in what sense the place is alleaged For the first we may obserue and see it is no disgrace nor disparagement to the Scripture to proceed from Sathan nor any occasion to make vs leaue our hold for Christ answereth againe and striketh with the same weapon wherewith he was stricken shewing vs that it is lawfull to vse a text well against them that doe abuse a text and if Christs example be our president then wee may alleage Scripture against depraued Scripture For the Bee may gather hony on the same stalke that the spider doth poison And though a swashbuckler kill a man with his weapon yet a souldier may lawfully knit a sword to his side and though there be many piracies committed on the sea yet may the merchants trafficke or though some surfet by gluttony yet may others vse their temperate diet And if the diuell change himselfe into an Angell of light shall therefore the Angels lose their light Or shall Paul therfore deny himselfe to be a preacher of saluation because the Pythonite Act. 16.17 spake it Or because Caiphas by the spirit of the diuell Ioh. 11.50 said one should die for the sinnes of the people must we not therfore beleeue it And though Numb 22. an inchanter wished that his soule might die the death of the righteous yet is it a praier fit to be vsed of all Christians though hee sold his soule for gold For saith hee Numb 24.17 a starre shall come out of Iuda a true speech of a false spirit And heere the diuels owne mouth protesteth that Gods prouidence reacheth ouer his children which we may beleeue with comfort though it proceed from his lying lippes For the second which is the sense of the words heerein Christ doth plainely shew that hee abused the place before alleaged because he inforced the promise contrary to the commandement mandement making it absolute where it was but conditionall that the Lord would protect him if he kept him in his waies and for him to expect the promise if he went astray were meerely to tempt God so as the diuell by concealing that part did poison and adulterate the Scripture Now wee must obserue that God is tempted by man two waies first when we doubt of his power vsing
eat the bread of affliction If Hanani tell Asah 2. Chronic. 16.9 thou hast done foolishly not to rest vpon the Lord to prison with him If Zachariah 2. Chron. 24.20 tell Ioash he shall not prosper if he forsake the Lord and that he doth ill to put downe religion he shall be slaine euen in the court of the Lords house Ieremy must to the dungeon Esay to the saw Iohn Baptist to the axe if they bee so quicke sighted and so hot spirited as they cannot winke at sinne And Reuel 11.3 of two Preachers out of whose mouthes shall proceed fire though in the eies of the Lord they be as Oliues dropping down most comfortable mice yet at last the Beast shall get them and ouercome them they being stronger in the spirit but he in the flesh and he shall kill them and they shall not be buried and the people shall send gifts one to another saying the Prophets are gone now making merry as that they might sinne without controlement and giuing applause to that beastly tyranny was shewed on them Let vs further consider the indignity offered to this man borne a Prophet whose father was stricken dumbe by a miracle the Bridegroomes friend yet was hee not condemned by publike sentence not at the desire of the people but by the request of a harlots daughter executed in a priuate place Could the Sun shine vpon such a King as could breake foorth into this impietys And how could the Lord spare his wrath and not powre it forth that such a famous seruant of his should bee taken away by such an infamous death But howsoeuer wee may after a sort coâ—â— fesie that our bodies are in the Princes power yet this may comfort vs that not the life no nor the haue of a Minister shall perish without the pleasure and permission of God To day to morow and the third day Christ shall preach let the Fox do bis worst Luk. 13.32 when his time is come their malice shall put him to death also Thirdly note Gods prouidence that both Iohn and Christ may not be clapped vp together but God euer will haue some left to carry his message When the three children Dan. 5. were in the fire Daniel was at liberty in the Court and when Dauiel was in the Lions denne the three children were in credit in the Court When Iohn is fallen Christ riseth When Herod Act. 1â— had imbrued his hands in bloud putting Iames to death hee thought to haue done the like to Peter but the Lord sent his Angell to vnshackle him for they must not both goe to the pot together And when the Temple of God by the inuasion of Antichrist is become a slaughter-house of the Saints yet the Lord Râ—â— 11.3 had a number left namely two witnesses at the least one to comfort another for the propagation and publishing of the truth so as we may be assured though the Lions of the field roare and rauin neuer so much it is not possible all the true preachers of the Gospel shal be abolished but as their bloud is pretious in his eies Psal 116.15 so out of their ashes will he raise vp others that shall hold the cup of his indignation euen to the mouthes of Princes Further obserue how the Lord esteemeth the tyranny and cruelty of men in this kind toward his Ministers for Luk. 3.20 it is said that of the euils which Herod had done hee added this aboue all to imprison Iohn so hainous a thing is the persecution of the Gospell in the sight of God and much more of them that are his Embassadors and therefore this is noted 2. Chron. 16 12. to be the captaine sinne of Asah that hee put Hanani in prison so beautifull be they in the opinion of the Almighty for he priseth the death of these Saints at a high rate as may bee seene first in their often redemption from death as Paul escaped Act. 23. when the people had sworne to stay him and Peter was loosed from his chaines when the gouernours had conspired against him Secondly it may bee discerned in the precious reward of it Blessed be they that die in the Lord. and Stephen Act. 7.60 is said but to sleep when he had been stoned of the Iewes his spirit being receiued of the Lord Iesus And thirdly it is manifested in the seuere reuenge of their death the Lord first hauing they stay in the sea still so if we do but nibble at the Gospell we shall continue in the sea of the world still and so shall neuer bee blessed Secondly obserue in the speech of Christ he doth not say I doe make you but I will make you fishers of men that is I will traine you vp to bee competently fit for that worke I call you for Where they are conuinced that place men in the Church before they bee sufficient for hee must haue no hand laid on him till he be qualified saith Paul 1. Tim. 5.22 and hee must be able to bring foorth of his store new and old saith the Gospel Mat. 13.52 and hee must not bee placed in hope hee will proue sufficient for while the grasse groweth the horse starueth and while hee is furnishing himselfe the people perish Saul 1. Sam. 9.16 being but a shepheard was suddenly by Gods spirit qualified for the ciuill gouernment For the Lord neuer commanded any but he enabled him first neither hath he lesse prouided for them that should haue the administration and custody of soules Moses Exod. 4.11 had a tongue made him before he went Esa 6.6 Esay had a coale from the altar before be spake Christ had his grace increased Luk. 2.52 when he began to preach for it is said he grew in wisedome and was corroborated in spirit and when he elected his Apostles he praied to his Father a whole night that he would direct his choice and Iohn 20.22 when he had breathed on them the holy Ghost yet hee charged them to stay at Ierusalem till they had receiued more grace and then Act. 2.3 the holy Ghost came down vpon them in clouen tongues to speake to all nations and fiery that they might be zealous Luk. 24.45 and then they were fit In the old Testament the Priests were first anointed that God might testifie by that oile their inuisible grace and in the new Testament hands were laid on them to signifie that that hand which had called them to this great office would alwaies bee ready to protect them Who would chuse a Captaine that neuer saw the enemy in the face or send him of an embassage that knew not how to deliuer his message And yet is the Lords embassage committed to them that haue no language whereas the shepheards of Gods sheepe must bee watchfull to defend their charge from wolues carefull to bring them home that stray and skilfull to heale them that are wounded Make no yong plant 1. Tim. 3.6 a Minister saith Paul and though Paul himselfe
the euerlasting curse of God for so are we all by nature in which nature of ours he representing vs became vile before his father in respect of vs. But now for the punishment of sinne vpon him that was not imaginarie but true and sensible both in soule and body so extreame as in anguish of spirit he was driuen to crie My God my God why hast thou forsaken me yea the death he endured was in it owne kind accursed as it is written Deut. 21.23 Cursed is euery one that hangeth on the tree yea looke what miseries what wants what dangers he did vndergoe and taste of from his birth to his ascension into heauen the same he suffered and slept in onely for vs which cleareth the iustice of God that a righteous man should smart for vs sinners because we are in him and he in vs which I vrge the more that we may see the great price the sonne of God paied for our redemption to stirre vs vp to a better and deeper consideration of it he being the only shepheard that euer gaue his life for his sheepe the only lambe which being vnspotted in himselfe did euer take vpon him the scabbes and vlcers of the whole flocke the onely man full of sorrowes and experience of infirmities whom the world iudged as plagued smitten of God and humbled yet was it onely for our iniquities that the chastisement of our peace might be vpon him Therfore as Esay 53.11 let him see the trauell of his soule that is the fruit of his labour and the efficacy of his death in the saluation of vs his people For the other profit it is also double as first we are made partakers of his graces secondly of the glorie for his graces And this standeth also with the iustice of God that he being in vs and we in him God must needs with him giue vs all things also Now the graces we taste of by this coniunction are twofold first by imputation which is his satisfaction for our sinnes we being starke bankerupts able to pay nothing and the benefit of his obedience we being rebellious bastards able to fulfill nothing secondly in our selues but drawen and deriued from Christ the fountaine as the change of our affections reforming of our iudgements renuing of our minds mortification a sanctified life and these graces did farre more abound in Christ then euer they did in Adam in his integrity for he was flesh made â—â—t after the image of God wheras this flesh Christ had the God head dwelling in him bodily as Col. 1.18 had in all things the preheminence that we might tast of the fulnes of his graces as far as is fit And for the second much is the glory for his graces namly eternall life of this hee hath also made vs partakers ye as if he had no other errand to heauen he saith Io. 14.32 I go to prepare a place for you in my fathers house Therfore let vs not say in our hearts that is let vs not doubt but assure our selues that as Christ is ascended so shall we and it is no presumption to beleeue that the Lord for his Sonnes sake will saue thee for he hath first giuen thee his word and promise He that beleeueth and repenteth shall be saued so as if thou canst apply repentance to thy selfe thou maiest challenge him on his word and secondly thou hast his oath hee sware to Abraham that his seed through his faith should be blessed and this hath Christ sworne againe A men Amen he that beleeueth is already translated from death to life shewing the certainty of it by the maner of speech as if it were already done and if thou wilt relie vpon neither of the former he hath thirdly left thee a pawne that is his spirit to guide and conduct thee in the right way that though thy selfe connot be in heauen as yet yet thy affections may be in the bosome of Christ and that thy faith in his resurrection may assure thee of thy incorruption and thy comfort in his sitting at the right hand of God may rebound backe vpon thy owne soule in being an vndoubted testimony of thy exaltation and aduancement heereafter for where Christ is there by reason of this coniunction betweene thee and him thou must needs be also Hence ariseth a most comfortable instruction for an afflicted conscience for Sathan will lay a whole scrowle of particular sins before thee charge thee that there be many omitted wherein thou hast offended that corruption is so worne into thy bones and lieth so low at the heart as it cannot be taken forth but must needs rankle to damnation and that thy sinnes are in their number so many and in their weight so heauy as there can be no case nor satisfaction for them Thou must confesse thou art indeed in thy selfe a worme vnworthy to creepe vpon the earth but in Christ as bold and strong as a lion yea if thou canst appropriate the sufferings of Christ to thy selfe in particular as the Gospâ—â— propounds them generally thou maiest answer that by the â—â—rity of his birth the obedience of his life and the bitternesse of his death he hath clensed thee from thy sinne wherein thou wert conceiued made vp the breach of thy rebellion and ransomed thee from the cruelty of that second death whereinto thou wert plunged by thine actuall pollution this thou knowest because thou art one with him and he with thee True indeed sathan will confesse that Christ took our flesh vpon him as himself said in the Gospell that he was come before his time to torment him but yet he will suggest that Christ being but one his satisfaction can be but for one and he will tell thee in this truely that the sinnes of all men are infinite and the wrath of God for them is infinite for which the satisfaction of Christ must bee as infinite which saith he cannot be To which answer that as by the first Adam all men are made sinners so by the second Adam which is Christ all that beleeue are made righteous and as Adam can damne all that shall be damned for all in him did eate of the forbidden fruit so Christ can saue all that shall be saued for all in him are brought againe into the Paradise of God Reu. 2.7 In Rom. 5.14 and 1. Cor. 15.22 Adam is said to be a figure of Christ wherein they agree in this that as Adam gaue as much as he had to his posterity so doth Christ proportionably giue that he hath to those that be his Adam gaue sinne and death Christ giueth life and grace And they disagree in three respects first we receaue sin from Adam by nature but we receaue not the graces of Christ and life eternall by nature but by imputation and by grace only and not by imitation for we cannot imitate Christ in euery thing secondly by Adam came only originall sinne not actuall but Christ hath satisfied for both
obedience therefore now he may take his swinge in sin as Pro. 7.18 the harlot entised the yong man to take his fill of loue But we must know Christ hath not satisfied for vs to liue as we list nor redeemed vs from darknesse to light that we should runne to darknesse againe for a pardon is not giuen to a traitour that he should offend againe neither doth that pardon serue for offences to be committed after but so oft as he offendeth so oft shall he be punished or else he must haue so many pardons so Christ hath satisfied once and that hath taken away the guilt of al that went before but if we 〈◊〉 sume vpon this to sinne againe either we must looke for 〈◊〉 satisfactions which cannot be for there is but one sealed 〈◊〉 blood or else we must suffer so many punishments as wâ—â—â—â—mit sinnes Secondly it will be said since there can be 〈◊〉 satisfaction for sinne therefore we haue now liberty giuen 〈◊〉 sinne It is true indeed that the wrath of God could not â—â—â—ppeased for sinne nor satisfied without the bloud of the Soâ—â—â— of God and this was by him performed that being reconciled to his father we might no more fall at enmity for sin alone makes the separation betweene God and vs but that we might liue according to his will in newnesse of life howbeit there is a satisfaction God requireth at our hands but that is onely obedience in our affections holinesse in our actions humility in our hearts and thankefulnesse in our persons that we may bee as pretions stones in the brest plate of Christ to be represented to his father And therefore let vs abhorre such presumptuous and rechlesse impiety as either to liue as we list or to thinke wee haue time enough to repent before we die for who can tell when the cocke will crow or when death as a thiefe will steale vpon vs nay let vs remember it is said Reuel 22.11 He that is filthy let him be filthy still and in our age wee shall possesse the iniquities of our youth and therefore our life being but a span long the day is short enough by repentance to make our accompts with God euen and easie Thirdly obserue hence that we cannot serue God and riches Christ and Beliall the flesh and the spirit for their walkes and courses are opposite and contrary one to the other as may appeare by the Apostles putting of it negatiuely that we must not walke at all after the flesh Mal. 1.6 for if God be a father he will haue all the honour if a master all the feare neither will he suffer himselfe to be diuided or his worship to bee performed by halfes for this is as Eliah calleth it 1. King 18.21 the halting between two opinions but as before our conuersion the affections of sins doe force vs to bring foorth fruit vnto death so being called the strength of grace must thrust vs forward to bring forth fruits to God and not to our selues and therefore it is said Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reape life euerlasting so as though thou doest that which is lawfull yet if thou doest it more vnto men then vnto God thou sowest to the flesh and shalt receiue damnation but if thou seekest in thy whole life to please God more then men yea to please him though thou displeasest men then shalt thou of the spirit reape saluation for the end why God hath created and saued vs is to glorifie him in this life and were it not he respected and receiued glory by thy life what need he suffer thee to stay heere on earth but haue taken thee presently from the wombe to heauen but he suffereth thee to liue partly that by thy fruitfulnesse to God the corruption that is hid within thee may in part be abolished partly to distinguish between thee and the reprobate at the last daie when thou shalt be blessed and that worthily euen in the iudgement and acknowledgment of the damned for the fruites thou hast brought forth to God So as it standeth vs vpon to haue the eies of our thoughts the bent of actions wholy vpon God to hazerd yea to prefer his glory before the glory and comfort of our owne saluation for if we be not rich in God and good works then are we still dead in sinne then is not Sathan at all cast our of vs then are we so far from needing but to wash our feet Iohn 13.9 as we are wholly polluted hands head and all Howbeit because euerie one will say he brings foorth fruit to God and walketh in the spirit being inwardly greiued for his sinnes and resorting vnto publike praier and preaching which are indeed good steppes to trace a Christian by yet we must know this is not sufficient for the inward sorrow is inuisible and the comming to praier and to the word is deceiuable and communicable euen to hypocrites therefore we must bring forth visible fruit to be seene of men in performing towards them the duties of the second table by loue patience compassion and such like else is it as a light â—id vnder a bushell if it be not sensibly felt of men for their comfort and seene of men for their example that they which are without may be wonne and the rest which are of the same fold with vs may be stirred vp to glorifie God in heauen for the fruitfulnesse of his Saints on earth To which duties we may be the better encouraged because the whole fruit both in the practise of them and in the reward of them shall redound to our selues producing ioy and peace of conscience in this life and the crowne of glory in the life to come Rom. 6.22 Fourthly for thine owne comfort learne to make a difference betweene walking after the flesh and walking through the flesh the one being a following and pursuing of thy sinfull desires with greedinesse and with delight through that rage of corruption which rests within thee the other being a performing of thy duties to God and a walking with him though with weakenesse and infirmity by reason of that remnant of flesh which will be in thee til death so as though the good thou dost be not done so cheerfully so exactly so perfectly as it ought but is mingled with many imperfections that euen in thy own iudgement thou thinkest thine actions euill be not discouraged for albeit thou hast in truth cause to pray to haue not only thy euill actions but euen thy best actions to be forgiuen because they are a little tempered with the flesh yet know that this is the case of all the children of God which are effectually sanctified to haue naturally concupiscence in them which causeth these three things first either it maketh vs alwaies think euill thoughts secondly or else it hindereth vs from good thoughts thirdly or else it maketh
Apostle saith heere he was freed from the law of sinne for Christs body was not onely crucified for our sinnes our sinnes being the very cause of his crucifying but hee was also crucified to sinne that is to crucifie and kill sinne in vs which are his members so that except we finde the spirit of God daily working and striking at the roote of sinne to weaken it and at the branch of sinne to cut it off at the first blossome we cannot conclude he was crucified for sinne because he is not crucified to sinne in vs so as we must measure the life of Christ in himselfe no further to pertaine to vs then we finde the power of sinne abated in vs. And therefore if we walke after the Prince that ruleth in the aire and that worketh in the children of disobedience and haue our conuersation in the lusts of the flesh then hath not the life of Christ freed vs from the law of sinne and then are we in the state of condemnation if God be not rich in mercy to vs heereafter For howsoeuer the Lord is contented so farre to dispence with the rigour of his iustice as to suffer â—â—e Sunne to shine both vpon the iust and vniust yet doth the Soâ—â—e of righteousnesse neuer arise vpon any that is holden with â—â—e cords of his owne sinne making as Salomon saith Prouerbesâ—â— 12.13 a signe with his eies signifying with his feet and instructing with his fingers to haue those leude things which luâ—ke in his heart countenanced and performed both by himselfe and others by his entisement Let vs therefore labour to haue our spirits raised vp from the dead in the body of Christ or through the life of Christ till when we are not freed from the law of death for so long as we remaine naturall men we are dead both in the punishment of sinne and also in the pollution of sinne of the latter we 〈◊〉 in this life as 2. Cor. 5.15 If one be dead for all then were we all dead The other is reserued for the life to come and is called Reue. 20.14 the second death when carnall and fleshly minded men shall be cast into the lake of fire We must know then that vntil the spirit hath raised vs from the dead we are but dead men though we seeme to liue and so long as we are thus dead we are separated from the grace of God that is the grace of God is dead in vs and we are liuing vnto all sinne and so not freed neither from the law of sin nor of death Our spirits then are said to be raised from the dead two waies First when it reuiueth and renueth that which is dead in vs And secondly when it slaieth and mortifieth that which is quicke in vs that which is dead in vs is the grace and fauour of God that which is quicke in vs is sinne as concupiscence lust sensuality and such like so that till this spring-time come that the grace of God be seene to flower and bud forth in vs our estate is no better then that of the damned soules for as they at the last day shall be separated for euer from the presence of God so as long as we remaine carnall and vnsanctified men we are at this day separated from the fauour of God and as the damned in their separation doe liue in torments for euer being dead in the punishment of sinne so are we carnall men inwardly tormented in conscience for being dead in the pollution of sinne that is we commit those sinnes for which the damned are tormented and in some respects the damned are better then carnall men for they can sinne no more though theâ—â—gnash their teeth and sâ—et at the iustice of God whereas the wicked and vniust doe still commit sin adding sin to sinne whereby heaping the more dishonour vpon God they drawe the heauier condemnation vpon themselues Further where the Apostle saith He was freed from the law of sinne we must not vnderstand it as if there was any law or commandement to sinne but as Rom. 7.11 that sinne tooke an occasion by the commandement to deceiue vs and to slay vs there being accompulsary and an vnchangeable necessity in vs to sinne as long as we are holden of the flesh that will we nill we we cannot but sinne we being by sin deceiued fiue waies First by concupiscence and lust as was Euah Secondly through infidelity Thirdly by blindnesse of iudgment Fourthly by particular ignorance And lastly by the malice of the heart and if the hart come once to be little worth as Salomon â—â—â—â—â—eth Pro. 10.20 and as it is in all carnall men then is the â—â—â—â—â—antiall law of God which otherwise in it selfe is holy iust and righteous to such men but a law of sinne that is sinning the more because the law forbiddeth it and a killing letter as 2. Cor. 3.6 First in respect naturall men are but flesh sold vnder sinne Secondly in respect hee reading it readeth his owne damnation and a seducing letter inticing them therefore to sin because they are restrained from sinne yea to them as Rom. 3.20 it is the power of sinne and as Rom. 4.15 it is the law of wrath and as 2. Cor. 3.15 it is as a vaile laid ouer their hearts to blinde them and as 1. Tim. 1.9 it is said not to be giuen to the righteous but to the disobedient and as Peter calleth it Act. 15.10 a yoake which neither they nor their forefathers were able to beare meaning thereby what it is to the carnall man and what it was then made by the Scribes and Pharisees who preferred the law before Christ which being but a schoole-master to bring vs to him was by them made a master aboue him to teach him 〈◊〉 it is no maruell though to such as would liue by the law without the life which is in Christ that it proue to them a law of sinne and of death for by the law shall neuer any bee iustified but through faith in the life of Christ must we attaine saluation ROM chap. 8. vers â— verse 3 For that that was impossible to the law in as much aâ— it was weake because of the flesh God sending his owne sonne in the similitude of sinfull flesh and for sinne condemned sinne in the flesh HEere the Apostle proceedeth to make the matter formerly deliuered more plaine and easie wherin obserue two materiall points First that he taketh away all the power of the law to saue Secondly that this power is giuen onely to Christ who tooke vpon him not the similitude of flesh but of sinfull flesh to condemne sinne in the flesh by whose grace we are only saued without the workes of the law For the first obserue two things first that it is impossible for any to be saued by fulfilling the Law because none can exactly and perfectly doe it secondly from whence this disabilitie proceedeth not from any defects in the law but from our corrupt nature
sinnefull flesh wherein we are to beleeue that Christ is the naturall sonne of God and the sonne of Dauid but not naturall for he was not begotten of man his seed being vncleane but he was conceaued of the holy ghost and so became man like vnto vs sinne excepted therefore it is heere said in the similitude of sinnefull flesh not in sinnefull flesh and in this similitude he was both in the sight of men and of God in the sight of men for all the while he was on earth he was seene to be subiect to the miseries of sinnefull flesh both in his life and death to hunger for he was oft so to pouerty for he had not whereon to lay his head to persecution for he fled and withdrew himselfe from much violence intended against him to griefe for he wept and sighed for the death of Lazarus and the destruction of Hierusalem to slanders for they vpbraided him that he wrought by the power of the diuel to temptations for he was carried by the Spirit into the desert for that purpose to accusation by false witnesses to colour the sentence of death against him to scourgings to scoffings to reuilings to the crosse to death it selfe all which was seene to men by some that grieued at it by most that iested and reioyced at it He was also seene in this similitude by God himselfe for though he was deliuered and tossed as it were from pillar to post from Annas to Caiaphas from Caiaphas to Pilate from Pilate to the Souldiers from the Souldiers to the Citie from the city to the Iudgement seat from thence to the inferiour officers to be beaten with reeds from thence to the gibbet though all cried by the perswasion of the high priests Crucifie him doubling it in the aire with a most damnable echo yet was all this done as Peter saith Act. 2.23 by the determinate counsell of God the heauens hauing decreed that the earth should open as it were to swallow him because he represented our persons more liuelie then Iacob did the person of Efau Gen. 27.21 so as for the time he was heauily crushed with the weight of Gods indignation which appeared by the conflict he had with the wrath of God sweating droppes of blood by the basenesse deiection he felt in himselfe crying out that hee was forsaken an 〈…〉 doth proue he was in the similitude of sinnefull flesh in the sight of his father and that it was necessary it should be so being man to satisfie for man and God to get the conquest of death hell and condemnation For the fourth which is the purpose he was sent for It was to abolish sinne and to condemne sinne in the flesh speaking metaphorically or in a borrowed speech meaning heereby that there was great pleading in heauen before the seat of God betweene Christ and the diuell the seed of the woman and the serpent the diuell challenging of vs to be his first because in our first parents we gaue more faith credit to him then to God for when God had wrapt vp condemnation in the forbidden fruit we thought it to be the hidden treasure of diuine knowledge when he had sweetned his inhibition of this one tree with the free vse and liberty of all the rest as if we should starue for meat our appetite must be enflamed to this aboue the rest and when he had enioyned a law vpon our fingers as not to touch it then doe we through the strength of suggestion prefix our eies on no other marke then to gaze on it thereby to insnare our hands to snatch at it Secondly whereas Adam had his birth and creation in innocency which was but a particular allegation for him yet we that are his posterity haue our beginning from corruption as if in our generation we vowed a course of vncleanenesse and doe performe this vow by plunging the whole man into the lake as it were of impiety and therefore in our liues resembling his likenesse by walking in the workes of darkenesse he impudently would haue faced out the matter as if heauen had beene but the hall of iustice fit for the maiesty of God to sit there and not for vs to abide there longer then while sentence is in giuing But when Christ against this had truly alleaged the eternity of his generation in respect of his God-head the cleannesse of his conception in respect of his man-hood how in this person of ours he was euer sanctified in this flesh of ours had vanquished the fierce temptations of the diuell and how we in our owne persons by the water of the holy ghost are daily washed when by this hard pleading of Christ on our side we were by the sentence of God vnshakled as prisoners vniustly detained and had our absolution written in our foreheads that the damned might see it to their discomfort then the sonne of God hauing by this his trauell oâ—ened the insearchable riches of his fathers mercy toward vs he condemned sinne in this flesh and purged as it were euery veine of the hidden filthinesse lay in it and made vs members of his body So as from hence learne to measure the benefit thou hast by Christ that he is no further sent to thee then he hath destroied sinne in thee for if thou settest vp a seat for profanenesse in thy heart sowing thy fruit to the flesh and liuing to thy selfe then as 2. Cor. 5.15 Christ died not for thee and he was sent to die that by his death thou mightest liue to him beware therefore thou doest not examine thy selfe too slightly in this matter for it was easier for the Lord to create a new heauen and a new earth then to raise thee from the dead and to abolish sinne in thee which kept thee vnder the dominion of death hee hauing no resistance in the one and in the other hauing the rebellion of thy nature to hinder him so as thou must not measure the death of sinne in thee by the auoiding of grosse sinnes which the sunne hates to shine vpon but euen by thy practise and delight in smaller sinnes for if these doe keepe their course in running priuatly through thy life as the bloud doth in runnig secretly through thy veins it keepes out the spirit which should raise thee from the old Adam to the new from rebellion to obedience from darknesse to light from hell to heauen Striue therefore as in thy ignorance to please the flesh so by thy knowledge to content the spirit that as pride pleased the flesh so humblenesse of heart may please the spirit and that for the assurance of Christ to be thine thou maist doe euery thing contrary to that thou didest before after the example of Domitian the Emperour who was answered if hee would gouerne vprightly he must doe contrary to that the gouernours had done before who ruled with crueltie and tyrannie ROM chap. 8. vers 4. verse 4 That that righteousnesse of the law might
speaketh absolutely powerfully A new hart will I giue you I will take away the stony hart For howsoeuer it is meet Adam should haue this free election being made a perfect resemblance of the image of God yet is it not meet for vs in this second creation lest heereby we should make the death of Christ of no effect neither his grace nor spirit for if we had it then should we fall from Christ because of that flesh infirmity that is in vs therfore as the Lord doth begin with vs by his spirit to conuert vs without any thing in vs to further it but altogether to withstand it so doth he proceed with vs by his spirit and end with vs by his spirit that he may be all in all in our weldoing and in the worke of our saluation And yet notwithstanding this we haue neede of exhortations threatnings praier and such like to strengthen and stirre vp our dull and senselesse wils for the inward working of the spirit which frameth our wils to will good doth not abolish the instrumentall causes but we haue need of these meanes first because they are sanctified of the Lord and ordained to make vs lay hold on the spirit secondly because without these the spirit and graces of God would soone perish which counsell is giuen Heb. 3.13 to exhort one another daily lest we be hardened through the deceit of sinne for though God could doe this onely by his spirit yet hee will haue these meanes vsed that we be neither high minded nor idle for since we cannot doe good why should we be proud and since we so hardly keepe good we must not be idle but as Phil. 2.12.13 end and worke forth our saluation with trembling for as one holdeth a great masse of lead or other vnremoueable weight not to remoue it for hee knowes hee cannot but onely to trie his strength so though we cannot nor need not performe the law because Christ hath done it yet must we make it the rule of our obedience and of a sanctified life that heerein we may resemble Christ who alone hath sanctified vs. We are then to consider how Christ hath fulfilled the righteousnesse of this Law and that he hath done two waies partly by abrogating it and partly by establishing it he hath abrogated the law in two things First in the power of separation between man and man which was the law of ceremonies so as what was enmity betweene Iew and Gentile that hath Christ abolished and therefore as it is said Ephes 2.14 Christ is our peace which made of both one and hath broken the stop of the partition wall through his flesh in abrogating the hatred that is the law of coÌ„mandements which standeth in ordinances for to make of two one newe man in himselfe Secondly in the power of malediction betweene God and man whereupon it is said Gal. 5.23 There is no law against vs that is the curse of the law for sinne is not due to vs because Christ hath taken it away and therefore it is said 1. Tim. 1.9 The law is not giuen vnto a righteous man that is against a righteous man there is no law the curse of the law belonging onely to the reprobate and not to the elect howbeit we must not thinke we are so deliuered from the condemnation of it as that wee are freed from the obedience of it Christ therefore hath likewise established the law and this two waies First in the doctrine Secondly in the obedience to the doctrine For the first that not any thing of the doctrine is abrogated but perfectly taught by Christ as appeareth Mat. 5.22 2â— That the least euill thought is damnation That anger in heart is flat murder That he that lusteth but in hart after a woman committeth adultery and Saint Paul saith Rom. 7.7 hee knew not what lust was till he knew the righteousnesse of Christ Againe as was touched before Christ came but for these two ends first to make peace betweene man and man secondly between God and man now the moral law made no enimity betweene Iew and Gentile but the ceremoniall law for that was the wall parted vs and them and that onely is broken downe by the comming of Christ and for the other the curse of the law made all the warre betweene God and vs the rigor of it Christ hath satisfied but the doctrine of the law made none for we yet in the precise keeping of it challenge life Christ hauing fulfilled it in vs and for vs so as Christ giueth vs no new righteousnesse but that wee our selues could not perform yet we claime it as done in our person by the righteousnesse of the law that Christ in our flesh performed for the second he doth also establish it in the obedience to the law and this two waies Fiâ—â—t bâ—â—â—he person of Christ for by his inherent holinesse was fulfilled all the law which is imputed to vs Secondly as by righteousnesse inherent in him so by his spirit of sanctification dwelling in vs hauing the whole man in part changed that we are able to doe what God will and in iudgement to allow in affection to embrace and in action to execute what he commandeth so as if we consider our filthinesse we haue the blood of Christ to bathe in if our nakednesse wee haue the robes of his righteousnesse if our beggery we haue his riches filled with all graces yet must we alwaies ioyne bloud and water faith and works in the person iustified for they are notes of our religion signes of our conuersion seales of our election fruits of our iustification testimonies of a good conscience in their end they are referred to the Lords glory they are causes to stirre vp others to the seruing of the same God they are of the Lord accepted and recompensed in the mercy of the rewarder and not at the merit of the worker for he can accept of none by desert but that which is according to the precise couenant of the law but water is to be stood vpon as a signe that bloud hath gon before and the writing of his law in our hearts by sanctification of life is a proofe that our sinnes are purged in the blod of Christ and pardoned through the mercy of God And in respect of these seuerall operations and workes of Christ in aboliâ—â—â—â— the law in the curse and establishing the law in the obedienâ—◠〈◊〉 it we that are elect are said to be dead to the law Rom. 7.4 and also liuing to the law wee are dead to the law in three respects First to the condemnation of it because being iustified by Christ we cannot be condemned by the law for the wrath of God is taken away through the imputation of his righteousnesse Secondly to the constraint of the law for it doth not constraine vs which are Gods elect as it doth the reprobate because Christ by the worke of his spirit doth bend our wils to
the time we may faile of his promotion there being but one particular flower of that kind in the whole garden of God besides he had no such meanes of faith offered him till he was vpon the gallowes wheras we haue had and doe still enioy great store both for our present vse and for to lay vp against a dearth heereafter againe by this our deferring and shufling off the time of saluation we sinne three waies against God against the saints of God and against our owne soules against God because we dally with him and abuse his patience putting that day far off which may come at the least to thee in an instant if the Lord withdrawe thy breath but a while from thee against the Saints of God because thou depriuest them of that company comfort and profit thou mightest haue each of other for heerein standeth the communion of Saints in a fellow-feeling one of anothers miseries comforting them in their griefes strengthening them in their infirmities supplying them in their wantes and encouraging them in the faith and power of grace which they haue receiued lastly against themselues in thus hazarding their soules for it is not enough to say Lord haue mercy on thee when thou art on thy death bed when rather sense of thy paine then feeling of thy sinne doth driue thee to that extremity but thou must seeke for mercy before thou art thrust into those straites else may thy conscience then flie in thy face and the remembrance of thy former negligence stop thy mouth as a iust reuenge for thy sinne of delay which was before committed Againe heere all lithernesse and lazinesse is remoued from them that are ready to finde excuse for not walking so cheerefully boldly and constantly in the right way as they should for assure thy selfe there is no crosse can fall vpon thee of that force as to crosse the working of Gods spirit in thee if thou thy selfe be not a meanes to quench it for if thou wilt hide thy talent it is true it can turne thee to no aduantage and if thou doest not stirre vp the graces in thee and varnish them as it were with a continuall vse of them no maruell though they decay and thou too for the kingdome of heauen is taken onely by the violent that striue and sweat and labour euen as he that is famished doth for meat so that if thou entertaine the spirit with diligence in praier in hearing in meditation and such like holy duties it will awake thee from thy sleep and remoue all impediments that may either turne backe thine eies from beholding thine anointed Christ Iesus or with draw thy heart from buying that hidden treasure that is sealed vp for thee in the booke of the promises of God Lastly obserue the maner of the Apostles speech beginning with the negatiue We must not walke after the flesh as a matter of greatest weight before hee commeth to the affirmatiue to walke after the spirit for where there is the absence of good there must needs be euil but where there is the absence of euill it followeth not that there is good therefore we must not onely not doe euill but we must doe good as Dauid saith Cease from euill and doe good so as the flesh must first be shaken off before we can shape our actions or affections after the spirit and to this purpose Esay saith cap. 1.16.17 Cease to doe euill learne to doe well and Paul Rom. 13.12 Cast away the workes of darkenesse and put on the armour of light and Ephe. 4.22.23 Cast off the old man which is corrupt and be renued in the spirit of your minde and as Tit. 2.12 we must not onely deny vngodlinesse but we must liue religiously and 1. Pet. 4.1 There must be in vs a signe not onely of Christs suffering but also of his resurrection to liue not after the lusts of men but after the will of God and as Rom. 7.4 Wee must not onely bee diuorced from our first husband the flesh but we must be married to our second husband which is the spirit so as for thesound cure of our corruption the rotten flesh must first be pared away that the right plaister may bee applied and when thou art healed thou must sinne no more lest a worse thing come vnto thee but as hauing the sore running on thee the Lord dispensed with thy vntowardnesse for that time so now hauing the wound stopt and thine eies opened by a second laying of Christs hands vpon thee thou must performe such actions of life onely as are deriued from the spirit of God working in thee The vsurer therefore must not onely leaue his vsury but he must lend freely the oppressor must not onely cease from grinding the faces of the poore but hee must releeue them liberally the proud man must not onely forget to wrinkle his face by looking austerely but with meekenesse and humility he must embrace his brethren the profane man must not onely forsake his iesting and scoffing at religion but hee must set himselfe in the same ranke to be railed at for the name of Christ knowing that by this meanes as 1. Pet. 4.14 The spirit on his part is glorified And this may serue to stop their mouthes that thinke him an honest man that doth no harme whereas the not doing hurt is but as a tingling and pricking in the flesh after a great benumnednesse but it must be the action of good that must shew the life of Christ to bee in thee else maiest thou as well thinke it a causelesse curse vpon the figge-tree that hauing but leaues wherewith she did no harme was yet dried vp because she bare no fruit ROM chap. 8. vers 5.6 verse 5 For they that are after the flesh sauour the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit verse 6 For the wisedome of the flesh is death but the wisdome of the spirit is life and peace HEnce the Apostle proceedeth to proue who those bee who are ingrafted into Christ and who are not but continue in the wrath of God and this hee doth by following the opposition first made between the flesh and the spirit shewing in these verses what the seuerall natures and dispositions of them both are And secondly what are their seuerall ends they that are after the flesh thinke nothing sauoury but what comes from the flesh but their fruit and end is death that is damnation but they that are guided by the spirit taste nothing but what is spirituall and the fruit and end of them tendeth to a double comfort for their soules first bringing peace of conscience which is a continual feast in this life secondly eternal felicity in the life to come so as in summe his meaning is to shew that as many as are not in Christ shall be damned and as many as build vpon Christ shall be saued Then we must first know what is meant by flesh and what is
meant by spirit for the first what is meant by flesh Christ tels vs Iohn 3.5 in his answer to Nicodemus saying That except a man be borne againe of water and of the spirit he cannot see heauen meaning thereby that before a man be regenerate he is nothing but flesh soule and body and all for that is borne of flesh is flesh and a cleane thing cannot be drawen out of corruption so Paul 1. Cor. 15.50 saith that flesh and blood cannot inherit heauen not meaning thereby that flesh wherein we are inclosed for the very substance of it shall see God but the old man the corruption of nature which is our mother wit and wil howbeit what this flesh is is more amply set downe Gen. 6.5 where it is said in the originall that all the very mould of the deuising thoughts of a mans heart are not inclined to euill but simply euill and not euill but onely euill and not onely euill but euill in all things and not onely euill in all things but euill in all things euery day and Saint Paul Rom. 3.10 maketh a full description of a fleshly man shewing what euery one is by nature There is none righteous no not one the reason is because there is none that seeketh God and for not seeking him they are all become apostats and by this their apostasie are become vnprofitable and being thus of no value their throate is an open sepulchre and being thus enlarged like hell they vse them either to deceit in that poison is vnder their lips or else their mouth is full of cursing and bitternesse which are two contrarie sinnes their feete are swift to shed bloud and destruction and calamitie are in all their waies and the way of peace they haue not knowen and last of all they haue not the feare of God before their eies which is the true cause of that cursed brood and chaine of sinnes that hang together Now for the second what is meant by Spirit and that is a diuine heauenly inuisible and supernaturall working of the holy Ghost in the hearts of Gods children in begetting them anew into the glorious image of Christ by changing into another quality and condition all the powers of their soules and affections of the heart which is done by faith in the outward man and by peace of conscience in the inner man by reason whereof the elect are saied euen in this prison of theirs to bee spirituall From hence obserue first that the world is diuided but into two kinds of people fleshly and spirituall for there is no meane betweene them howsoeuer the enemies of God are distracted into seuerall and sundry factions some denying the power of godlinesse through porfanenesse some diuiding the power of it through opinion of merit some thinking there is no God at all and some imagining he sits idle in heauen without hauing any sterne to guide and direct the frame of the earth yet doe they all erre alike in their hearts and being all out of the way they shall finde the same reward of their worldly wisdome and their end to bee damnation now these two sorts and conditions of men are easily discerned for by their fruits you shall know them the one sauoring the flesh pots of Aegyt the other the sweetnesse of the land of Canaan the one being taken vp and possessed by the pleasures of the flesh the other striuing and laboring in the workes of the spirit the one hauing sinne as it were alwaies vnder his nose sauoring nothing else the other hauing the spirit euer in his eie to diuert his feet from the snares and pleasures of concupiscence for by this word after which is in the text is signified in the original tongue to be guided and conducted and led by the flesh which sheweth our great infidelity in not beleeuing what the holy Ghost sets downe giuing it heere in precise commandement that we should not be directed by the flesh and binding this commandement in the breach of it with a peremptory curse of damnation for being guided by it and yet as if God could not make his word good or that we could wrastle our selues from his wrath our taste our smell and all our senses are busied onely in the workes of the flesh as if we would cast away our selues willingly whereas euen in naturall reason wee should abhor it for who would be conducted by such a one as cuts the throats of al he guideth or who is he that trauelling toward the desert will picke out such a guide as should lead him to be deuoured of wild beasts or who that hath his iourney by sea will make choice of such a Pilot as hath cast away as many as he conducted or who would entertaine a knowen theefe and a waster to be the steward of his house or who would take such a husband to be the guid of her youth as spends and wasts himselfe in licentiousnesse or what Prince will admit him to bee his cheefe counsellor that is a knowen traitor to his person or such a one to be captaine ouer souldiers as is a knowen and proclaimed rebell There is none so simple nor so profane but will dislike and detest the choice of any such guides and leaders and yet he that taketh his flesh to be his captaine his arme his guide a knowen and vnreconciliable enemy to the soule shall by the conduct of his owne corruption not onely lose his body but his soule also for if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the pit of perdition Therefore let the world loue her owne and the flesh pamper it selfe let Cain build him a citie Gen. 4.17 to hide him from the presence of the Lord let Esau follow his hunting Gen. 26.30 to satisfie his pleasure in the death of venison let Nimrod Gen. 11.4 build him a tower to get him a name vpon the earth let the rich man Luk. 12.17 heape vp his fruits till his barnes will hold no more let Diues Luk. 16 19.20 be costly in his apparrell and delicate in his fare euery day yet obserue thou but their ends and thou wilt not ioyne hands with them for Cain was branded of the Lord as a castaway Nimrod confounded for his pride Esau reiected for his profanenes the rich man snatched suddainly from his substance and Diues throwne downe to hell where he lies panting and criing for a drop of water and cannot haue it Againe in that it is said they sauour the things of the flesh obserue that all that is in a naturall and carnall man and commeth from him is but flesh that is sinne yea and the most excellent parts that are in him that is his wisdome deserueth death and is but as a worme in the shell to consume him for he wanting the spirit which is the life of the soule as the foule is the life of the body his soule his body his minde his will and his vnderstanding are but members as Paul
courts of God then a thousand in the kings palace and if this spirit was in him in the time of the law then ought there to bee a double spirit in vs that liue in this golden time of the Gospell But I would it might not be said of vs that the children of this world are wiser in their generation then the children of light for they lie stretching themselues vpon their beds straining their wits how to please the flesh with choice and variety of delightfull sinnes whereas wee through the smoke of that corruption that flieth vp to our eies are so blinded as wee thinke our selues incumbred with the comlinesse of the spirit straitning the times wherein the graces of God should be blowen vp and cherished in vs and giuing too large an allowance to the portion we share out for the flesh therefore if we will be spirituall men indeed we must lay vp the word of God in our hearts binding it as a signe vpon our hands wearing it as a frontlet before our eies and writing it vpon the posts of our houses that it may be as a master to instruct vs and as a line to direct vs that as neere as we can our thoughts may be hedged in that they range not after the concupiscence of the flesh our affections restrained that they rise not against the worke of the spirit our actions so squared as they may be fit timber for the building of such Temples wherein the Lord shall dwell by his spirit Lastly obserue the fruits the wisdome of the spirit bringeth which be two peace and life euen the two speciall benefits that the carnall man seeketh for yet misseth of for the flesh neuer giueth peace but is continually perplexed eating and being neuer satisfied flying and chacing themselues when none pursueth them neither can it bring foorth life the wicked being euer groping as in the darke so as we see what worldly men most seeke for that they are most destitute of for we all agree in the end of our desire that we would be blessed but in the substance wherein true blessednesse consisteth there is great difference The Philosophers speaking of happines were distracted into two hundred eighty eight opinions euery one intending some thing and yet resoluing nothing some pointing to the right hand some to the left some to the vally some to the plaine and yet all of them out of the way yea and the inlightened Christian that hath a true contemplation of right happinesse doth notwithstanding by the halting of his conscience confute that in practise which hee in heart alloweth confessing it to be ascribed to the spirit and yet seeketh it in the flesh placing it in heauen and yet looking for it in hell whereas it is better goe to heauen a begger then to hell an Emperour and as Mat. 8. better goe to heauen lame then to hell sound and yet such is our spirituall blindnesse that we had rather put it on the hazard of our soules then to lose any present comfort in the body But how canst thou thinke to finde hony in a waspes nest or to make a good garment of a spiders webbe or to receaue holesome food of a cockatrice egge or to perswade thy selfe of peace and life in following the flesh which the Lord hath cursed The onely happinesse of a Christian resteth in his wisedome in the spirit for by this he hath peace about him and peace aboue him though iudgement smiteth on euery side yet it spareth him for his conscience being vpright hee hath euer his pardon in his hand to plead though he be compassed with all the crosses in the world yet hauing the first peace in the forgiuenesse of his sinnes he is assured of his last peace also that is his lasting peace in life eternall That king was miserable that vnder his cloath of estate had a sword hanging ouer his head by a little threed and in this suspensed felicity he was so perplexed that he wished to be out of his rich misery much more may they wish it that haue the sword of the Lords vengeance shaking ouer them for studying onely the wisedome of the flesh which is so far from peace as it would hide it selfe vnder the hils and so farre short of life as it is the vndoubted messenger of a most desperate death But these be onely fruits of such a tree as the feare of God hath made wisely old betimes being planted by the spirit and growing vp in the spirit shewing by their conuersation vpon what stocke they are grafted and by what sap they are nourished tasting nothing but the true seruice of God wherby they are able to stand before him with a cleere conscience which is walled about in euery corner with the peace and fauour of God and reserued in his due time for the perfection of glory in the life to come ROM chap. 8. vers 7. verse 7 Because the wisedome of the flesh is enimity against God for it is not subiect to the law of God neither indeed can be THe drift of the Apostle in this verse as in the former is to shew that our sanctification is the onely security we haue of our saluation for to them that are in Christ there is life and peace and this our vnion with him is discerned by our walking in his spirit and this shall wee know when the things wee doe sauour of the spirit and this sauour is seene by performing the fruits of the spirit in the course of a godly life And that this is so he hath proued by opposing two contraries as namely by the godly life of a spirituall man and the godles life of a carnall man Now heere he sheweth a reason why the wisedome of the flesh is damnation because it is enimity against God So this verse standeth on two parts First he sheweth what the wisedome of the flesh is at plaine hatred with God Secondly patience that coles of fire may be heaped vpon their heads and whether these three meete together in any one man or any of them alone possesse him the wisdome of the flesh euer rebelleth against the wisdome of God and this I speake not of the folly of man but of the very best actions that flesh and blood can doe for the very best wisdome of the flesh was that of Peters toward Christ Master pitty thy selfe Mat. 16.22.22 and yet for this he was called Sathan so that to consult with flesh and blood is but to take aduice how to damne our selues for if we be at enmity with God it must needes follow wee are at friendship with the diuell Now for the second part which is the reason of this enimitie betweene God and the flesh obserue that if we will know how to please God it is taught vs in his law for if we would yeeld our selues subiect to it it being giuen and pronounced at first by the mouth of God written with his singer and sent by his Angell deliuered
which we no sooner feele but being warned by this spirit we gather our feete the more close together to stand fast Since then this spirit of God hath set vp his rest in our soules let vs as liuely stones in this spirituall building cleanse polish our selues from all corruptions that it may take delight to continue with vs for if he come to suruey thy heart to see what roome thou hast for him and he finde euery chamber there full of some sinne and seeth that as fast as he emptieth it with one hand thou fillest it vp with another reâ—sting the power of him as if he came to torment thee he will take his flight from thee and thy sinnes shall breake out as the plague-sore vpon thee to thy vtter confusion but if thou submit thy selfe to his worke suffering him to mine and vndermine euery veine in thy body and to cleanse euery corner in thy soule and being emptied of thy corruption wilt labour in sanctification to keepe thy selfe cleane so beating downe thy fleshly thoughts and carnall desires as they shall not so much as sleepe with thee and if they chance to creepe into thy bed thou wilt spurne them out as a chaste louer wil a harlot then shal the spirit take vp thy body as his house and thou entertaining him he will keepe out all thine enemies that may disturbe thy peace with Christ Lastly where he saith But he that hath not the spirit of Christ is not his obserue that by an argument drawne from a naturall man he prooueth that as many as haue the spirit of Christ are sure of their saluation for as a naturall man who hath not the spirit is not Christs so long as hee remaineth a naturall man so consequentlie it followeth that they that haue the spirit are Christs and being his it were an absurd thing if they should not be saued for the conscience being pacified that God will accept vs in Christ we are not now perplexiuely to doubt of our saluation or how to auoid damnation for if we should doubt of our ROM chap. 8. vers 10. Vers 10 And if Christ be in you the bodie is dead because of sinne but the spirit is life for righteousnesse sake IN this verse the Apostle maketh the preuenâ—â—â—â— of a doubt which might haue risen out of the former doctrine for hee hauing before prooued that the spirit of God the spirit of Christ and Christ himselfe are in vs that are elect wee might make question of the trueth of this seeing we haue a large remnant of sinne and of the corruption of nature abiding in vs To this the Apostle answereth in this verse and those that follow First granting that so long as wee carrie about vs this bodie so long shall we carrie about vs sinne in our bodie part whereof is alreadie mortified in this life the rest can not be but by mortalitie But then in the second place that wee might not be too much deiected with this clogge of sinne we draw after vs he would haue vs with this occasion we haue to humble vs to ioyne withall the consideration of the spirit of Christ which is in vs to raise vs vp againe assuring vs that if our faith by her visible fruites can appeare in our liues that though we haue a portion of sinne which can not die but by death yet we haue the spirit of God the spirit of Christ and Christ himselfe-dwelling in vs the fruite whereof is euerlasting life in glorie obtained by the righteousnesse of Christ for vs applying himselfe in the latter part of the verse to comfort the weakenesse and to cheere vp the faint hearts of the faithfull labouring to relieue them with some spirituall consolation that notwithstanding they cannot shake off the sluggishnesse of the flesh but are taken as it were with a palsey halfe dead on the one side being compassed about with many infirmities in this life and hauing many grudgings and resistances of this earthly lumpe which is the bodie against the worke of our sanctification yet for all this the faithfull and elect may know and be assured that they are not trained foorth to fight and haue the foile nor that they are called to any doubtfull combate but to such a field where our hands shall be held vp if wee faint Exod. 17.12 as were the hands of Moses and where wee shall preuaile not onely against the Amalekites as did Ioshua which are enemies without vs but euen against the hidden enemies of our heart the rebellion of the flesh and the corrupâ—â—â—â— of nature which is contained in these words But the spirit is life so as the verse standeth on two parts First hee granteth part of the obiection namely that sinne cannot fully be shaken off Secondly to the full satisfaction of our consciences he answereth the other part of the obiection namely that notwithstanding this remainder of sinne in vs we need not be perplexed or doubt of our saluation Heere first wee are to consider of the three speciall kindes and phrases of speech the Apostle vseth in the former verses and in this concerning the spirit of God which is in vs the spirit of Christ which is in vs and Christ himselfe which is in vs. Whereby we are taught to beleeue that the whole Godhead and Trinitie dwelleth in euery Christian Howbeit concerning the spirit of God wee must know we cannot attaine vnto it but by the spirit of Christ for as the waters that boile in the earth cannot be conueied vnto vs but by wels and pipes by which we receiue of the fountaine it selfe so the spirit of God is the fountaine of life but a Well too deepe and the place too high for vs to reach to hee dwelling in a place vnaccessible and not to be approched vnto and for this cause the spirit of Christ is the well-spring and pipe which passeth this life to vs and by this we are made partakers of that life in glory so that in this respect the spirit of God is said to bee in vs and also the spirit of Christ which spirit could not be conueied vnto to vs but by the flesh of Christ God and man to reconcile vs to his Father and yet all this is but one God and one spirit as 1. Ioh. 5.7 which prooueth these two things first that Christ is God secondly that the holie Ghost proceedeth both from God and Christ because they both are but one and the selfe-same spirit is but one And in that Christ is also said to be in vs it is but the same in effect that the spirit of Christ is in vs yet are wee verily to beleeue that verie Christ is really in vs indeed yet inuisiblie and this must bee vnderstood supernaturally and therefore they that hold they are onely partakers of the graces and benefits of Christ but not of Christ himselfe cannot beleeue that Christ shall saue them for Christs benefits are so inseparablie vnited to his person as
if we haue his inuisible spirit wee haue himselfe and may equally assure our selues of both and that wee are flesh of his flesh expressed in the Scripture as hath beene before declared by naturall proportions and supernaturall as first by the coniunction of the head and the members of a mans bodie secondly by the vine and the branches thirdly by the husband and wife fourthly by meates and drinkes that as they being eaten really doe nourish the bodie so wee eating the flesh and drinking the bloud of Christ spiritually he nourisheth and feedeth our soules to life eternall This vnion is also set downe vnto vs supernaturally Iohn 14.20 Yee shall know I am in the Father and you in mee and I in you howbeit wee are not in the same measure in Christ and hee in vs as he is in the Father but according to that proportion of faith which is in vs and in that abundance that shall make vs blessed for euer Againe learne hence that wee are not to looke for any perfection in this life but so long as wee beare about vs this masse and lumpe of flesh which is the bodie there will remaine certaine reliques of corruption which can not be extinguished but by death nor wholly remooued but by mortalitie and this is the case of Gods best children Paul speaking of himselfe as in the part vnregenerate and as but in part spirituall Romans 7.14 said he was sold vnder sinne and carnall meaning thereby that so much as he had of the spirit so much was the image of God restored in him and so much he delighted in the law of God but so much as was wanting of the spirit so much was wanting of Gods image and so much he rebelled against the law of God and serued the law of sinne And Peter that chosen vessell of God Iohn 13.10 by the wisedome and instruction of Christ himselfe hath neede of water to wash his feete and 1. Iohn 5.8 Christ came not onely by bloud but also by water that by daily regeneration we may purge and cleanse our selues And to this may be referred that speech of Christ Iohn 13.33 Whither I goe yee cannot yet come which prooueth wee haue still some corruption that maketh vs yet vnfit for the kingdome of heauen vntill wee haue washed our feete cleaner and mortified our selues better for wee know yet but in part But then it may be said since wee haue these imperfections how shall we be knowen from the reprobate Verie well for there is great difference betweene our imperfections and their sinnes our scarres and their vlcers our limping and their halting downe right for as 1. Iohn 3.9 Hee that is borne of God sinneth not that is as the world sinneth the one sinning of ignorance the other of knowledge one of infirmitie the other of presumption the one with griefe the other with greedinesse one through weakenesse the other through obstinacie and malice the one striking and checking his heart for the euill thought it produced the other feeding and encouraging his heart not to staie at the thought till it breake foorth into the hands yea God doth bring vs vp that are his children thus imperfectly for two ends for first hee will not suffer vs to haue our perfection heere for feare wee lose it as Adam did secondly hee doth exercise vs with these imperfections to humble vs lest wee should waxe proud and so care not for him and this is his great mercie that hee doth trie vs with infirmities but not destroy vs vex vs but not vâ—nquish vs giuing vs power in the end through the sufficiencie of his grace to ouercome them Now for the second part which is his satisfaction giuen to the faithfull that they must not so sinke vnder the burden of their infirmitie as to mistrust their saluation obserue when it is said the spirit is life we must vnderstand no naturall life but such a life as Paul speaketh of Ephes 4.18 where hee saith the Gentiles that walked in the vanitie of their mindes were strangers from the life of God that life whereby God dwelleth in vs and to be strangers from this life is to be strangers from holinesse of life for God and an vncleane conuersation cannot companie together And this life of the spirit is that whereby as Peter saith 2. Peter 1.4 wee are made partakers of the diuine nature not really but by renouation hauing obtained this mercie to bee borne a new of immortall seed by the word of God For as the soule infused into the bodie quickeneth a massie peece of flesh which had no motion before so the soule to make it a liuely and good soule must haue a soule powred into it that is the spirit of God and if this spirit be absent we are as dead from holy motions as the bodie naturall is from outward actions by the priuatiâ—â— of the soule So as wee learne hence that a man may liue â—â—fe in the flesh and yet be dead in respect of the life of God which ought to mooue vs to worke out our sanctification in feare knowing that if wee be all flesh wee shall neuer see the face of God Now as to liue a naturall life there must bee a generation according to the flesh so if wee will attaine to this life in the spirit we must be brought to a second birth not to bee turned into our mothers wombes againe as Nicodemus thought Iohn 3.4 but as Christ saith wee must be borne of the will of his Father that is of the seed of the holy Ghost Heere it followeth as a man naturally borne hath his life maintained by being nourished with meat and drinke so when we be borne againe of the seed of the spirit we must be maintained and fed by the flesh and bloud of Christ spiritually and as we are borne of the holie Ghost by the word so wee must be nourished by the holie Ghost in the word or else we shall neuer be saued In the desire therefore of our saluation we ought to thirst and part after the riuers of life which doe plentifully flow in the booke of God Againe as men in this naturall life haue their degrees to proceed in which doe neuer change as that first they bee children then after grow to a more vnderstanding age which was euen true of Christ in this flesh who Luk. 2.52 is said to haue increased in wisdome and in stature euen so we must know that our spirituall birth is not perfect at the first day but it hath as it were a childhood and wee are babes to be fed with milke as S. Peter saith 1. Pet. 2.2 and then afterward we grow from faith to faith and from one degree of grace to another yet heerein they differ that in our spirituall life in this world we cannot come to any perfection sinne hangeth so fast about our heeles but in our naturall life we attaine to a fulnesse and ripenesse of strength And in this also they differ that
the Saints of God beloued of the Lord hauing our long robes in signe of statelinesse as Senators palmes in our hands in signe of victorie as conquerours Reu. 7.9 for we in Christ haue ouer come Satan Further wee must obserue and know though this spirit of life dwell in vs yet so long as wee are inclosed in this earthly tabernacle and haue the corruption of nature clasping about the soule as Ivie to the Oke Ioh. 13.8 we cannot be free from infirmities and sinnes nor washed so cleane but that some filth will cleaue to our hands or our feet Yet there is great difference betweene the slips and sins of him that hath and of him that hath not the spirit of God as great difference as there is betweene him that is drenched and plunged ouer head and eares in a puddle and him that hath onely fouled his foote according to the speech of Christ to Peter Ioh. 13.10 He that is washed needed not saue onely to wash his feete as if he should haue said Peter thy head and thy hands are cleane onely thy feet need washing 〈◊〉 that is alwaies in this life some inferior affection is vncleane and there will be a litle boiling against the working of the spirit but the principall purpose of our hearts shall be to please God and to loath the world For the children of God are as poisoned vessels washed by the holie Ghost 2. Cor. 10. â—â— wherein notwithstanding there rests some taste and tang of their former filthinesse but the wicked are as vessels full of the poison of the diuell wherein the spirit of God neuer set footing Againe sinne in the regenerate hath a wound and is like the Sun faintly appearing through some thicke cloud but in the wicked it hath it full stroke Againe the wicked are so chained that they cannot stirre one foote to heauen and being cast from God they so little care for it as they wil with Cain Gen. 4.17 fall a building of cities and hauing lost the harmonie of a good conscience they will get some Iubal or other Genes 4.21 to plaie on the organs to make them merry but the godly though they be loosed from the chaines of the diuel yet while they soiourne heere they must draw some irons after them Againe the wicked from their birth haue turned their backs to God and their face to the diuell but the godly though they be hindred in their course and staied in their profession of godlinesse and of sanctification by some infirmities inseparable from the flesh yet doe they striue in their running to recouer their fall and wrastle for a prize that shall neuer fade And yet no doubt there is a contradiction in the wicked euen in finning as it is said Gen. 4.7 sinne lieth at the dore of Caine that is the blood of his brother Abel should torment his conscience Howbeit this combat and contradiction is but betweene his conscience that condemneth his sinne and his heart that loueth it but in them there is neuer any strife betweene affections and affections whereas the godly haue this fight betweene affections and affections as the flesh desireth to doe such a thing but the spirit that dwelleth in the flesh doth alwaies abhorre it and striueth against it So as if God hath sealed thee vp to saluation and hath giuen thee the stone of absolution and pardon for thy sinnes though thou art now discouraged at that remnant of sinne that rests in thee and fearest lest God should frowne at thee and turne his face from thee for thy weake seruice of him yet lift vp thy head thou shall bee sure heereafter through the power of this spirit to cast downe that great Goliah 2. Cor. 3.18 and thou shalt haue the full fruition of that hope thou yet doest apprehend and see as in a glasse Eph. 1.14 and if thou hast receiued but the earnest penny of the spirit in this life thou shalt be sure to receiue thy full wages and hire in the life to come Neither need we be dismaied that we limpe like Iacob 2. Cor. 5.5 2. Cor. 12.8 Genes 32.25 and be imperfect in this life for if we had not infirmities we would bee as proud as the diuell whereas now they make vs to expresse our thankefulnesse to God that hee so mercifully restraineth them and so fatherly passeth by them they serue to multiply our grones in the spirit to God Phil. 1.23 Rom. 7.24 Heb. 13.3 that we might be deliuered from this body of death and bondage of sinne yea they stirre vs vp to the loue of others to sorrow for the afflictions of Ioseph and of our brethren whereas if wee our selues were not infirme and weake we would neuer be touched with compassion Vers 11. But if the spirit of him that raised vp Iesus from the dead dwell in you hee that raised vp Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you Howsoeuer wee haue aduantage and comfort by the former doctrine that by the extinguishment of this light which wee haue heere beneath and by the separation of our bodies from our soules sin must die and cannot otherwise be mortified than by mortalitie yet in this verse the Apostle stirreth vs vp to greater ioy and to the top of all Christian comfort shewing that the time shall come when our vile bodies shall bee made like to the glorious bodie of Christ Iesus The verse standeth on two parts first of the raising vp of Iesus Christ secondly of the raising vp of our bodies to bee made conformable to Christ our head First obserue the maner of the Apostle his speech If the spirit c. consider wisely this speech propounded by Paul as it were conditionally which doth not argue any suspended doubt fulnesse of the matter or make it any whit subject to exception but carieth with it a peremptorie necessitie that it is so the Apostle taking that for granted which cannot be denied without falling into grosse absurdities For if he should haue doubted whether Christ had beene risen againe then in vaine had he gone about to prooue that we should rise againe and therefore by this maner of phrase the Apostle cals not the matter in question as a doubt but doth boldly assume it to all Christians that Christ is risen And this is the common course of the Scripture and of the Ministers of God in all times vsually to say If there be a day of iudgement 2. Pet. 3.11 and if it be so that this booke of Gods word shall be wâ—â—â—â—â—â—â— our hearts then is there a fearefull reckoning to bee exâ—â—â—â— for which they do not as doubting of these things but taking them as granted of all men they be so certaine without contradiction So the Apostle before in this chapter vers 9. If the spirit be in you speaking to the elect for all that is spoken in this chapter belongeth onely to them that
bee called sanctified but saith he the spirit is in you for if they should deny that they runne into this that they must needs be reprobates and wrapped vp in condemnation Secondly obserue in the raising vp of Christ two parts first that he was raised vp secondly by what power he was raised vp namely by the spirit of his Father That Christ was raised vp the Apostle doth not demonstrate it but assumeth it for if Christ were not risen then all Pauls reasons 1. Cor. 15. to proue our resurrection may easily be eluded for that is the first argument hee there vseth to prooue a resurrection because Christ is risen and all his arguments there following are linked to that and depend on that reasoning from absurdities if Christ be not risen our preaching is in vaine and your faith is in vaine for Christ crucified and his resurrection is the summe of the Gospell and the end of our faith But the matter is by what power Christ was raised vp As he was flesh it profited nothing to raise vp it selfe for 1. Pet. 3.18 it is said he was put to death according to the flesh that is according to his humane nature and was quickned in the spirit which the Apostle there sheweth to be by that spirit wherein he preached in Noahs time And Rom. 1.3 the Apostle speaking of Christ saith he was of the seed of Dauid according to the flesh but declared to be the sonne of God by the resurrection from the dead which sheweth that it was the power of God that raised him vp He that raised vp Christ c. Heere consider three parts first what shall be raised vp our bodies secondly by what power they shall rise by the same power by which Christ was raised vp thirdly after what maner the same spirit that quickned Christ is now communicated to vs and by Christs righteousnesse we are made righteous and so are become fit temples for his spirit to inhabite in vs. The Scripture proposeth two arguments to prooue the resurrection first the conformitie of the bodie with the head that as Christ our head is risen so wee his bodie shall rise againe The secondly is the consideration of Gods omnipotency and out saith in his power that is to beleeue that he can doe all things and therefore can raise vp our putrified bodies The first reason holdeth both waies if Christ be raised vp then shall we be raised vp Christ is not risen therefore we shall not rise We are raised vp therefore Christ is raised vp we are not raised vp therefore Christ is not risen And this doth minister vnto vs great comfort and may euen astonish our hearts with ioie for it is impossible that we who are the body can be drowned as long as Christ our head is aboue the water So then since our head Christ is lifted vp aboue all gulfes hath tasted of all sorrowes and hath ouercome all dangers we need not to feare that we shall be stifled or swallowed vp of the wanes of torments and afflictions though we seeme neuer so much cast downe in the outward man for let the wild beasts of the forrest roare neuer so fiercely or let the raine fall and the waues beat and the windes blow neuer so strongly Mat. 7.27 yet shall their mouthes bee shut that they shall not hurt vs and our house is built vpon a rocke that cannot mooue for our Redeemer liueth and our head is safe and we at the last when he hath sufficiently exercised his graces in vs by the triall of our faith and the experience of our loue of him Ioh. 19.25 shall through him ouercome all troubles and sorrowes For the second reason to proue the resurrection which is the consideration of Gods omnipotency the Apostle Philipp 3.21 ioyneth the raising vp of our bodies to the consideration of that power whereby God is able to subdue all things This also is euident Ezech. 37.5 where the Lord by his power giueth life to a companie of dead bones And Christ Ioh. 5.25 saith his Gospell was able to raise vp dead soules that is such as be dead in profanenesse but by the power of his word shall be reuiued and quickned in the spirit which is the first resurrection and vers 28. The day shall come saith he when yee shall find that to bee true in the second resurrection to your damnation which yee will not now beleeue in the first resurrection â—â—â—our saluation when by the very voice of God the dead shall be raised vp Among many places to proue the resurrection of the bodie that is most excellent Mat. 22.32 vpon the demand of the Sadduces whose wife shee that had had seuen husbands should be in the resurrection I am saith he the God of Abraham c. I am not the God of the dead but of the liuing No place at the first sight may seeme to carry lesse proofe of the matter Christ then had in hand but being dulie weighed it is most substantiall to prooue it It may be said True it is thou art the God of Abraham that is of so much of Abraham as now liueth so as thou art the God of Abrahams soule but it is conuinced out of the place it selfe that thou art not the God of the dead and therefore thou art not the God of Abrahams body for his body is dead But note he doth not say hee is the God of part of Abraham but hee is the God of Abrahams person which person of his standeth vpon soule and body Secondly some say this place prooueth the immortality of the soule onely Nay it is certaine if the body be not immortall the soule cannot be immortall for if Abraham liueth in any part now hee must at the last liue in all and if immortality were onely giuen to one part then all the reasons of Paul 1. Cor. 15. to proue the resurrection of the body might be easily euaded For the Apostle there vers 18. to prooue the resurrection of the bodie saith Vnlesse Christ be risen and we rise we that are a sleepe 〈◊〉 Christ are perished But it may be obiected Nay there may bee an immortality if the blessed soules doe liue and therefore they cannot bee said to be perished And vers 19. If our hope saith Paul bee in this life onely we are of all the most miserable Nay it may be said we are happy in the life to come in the soule so vers 29. hee proueth the resurrection of the body from our baptisme Yea but it may bee said That is not so Paul for though our bodies rise not yet baptisme may profit vs in the spirit and though thy bodie Paul doe not rise yet thou hast not fought with beasts at Ephesus in vaine for thou shalt bee crowned with glorie in thy soule for that thou hast sustained these combats And thus if we stand onely vpon the immortalitie of the soule all Pauls arguments in that place may be soone reiected It is
true that the soules are now blessed as it is in the Reuel 7.9 where the Saints are said to haue their white robes in token â—â—nnocency long in signe of statelinesse and palmes in their hands in signe of victory but it is as true that the soule is not happy sauing in the constant expectation of the last day when it shall bee ioined to the body and it hath not now that fulnesse of happinesse it then shall haue For it standeth with the law of retribution in God that as he receiued most glorie from them both when they were vnited so should he returne them most ioie and fulnesse of glory when by his power they are brought together againe And euen so fareth it now with the reprobate that are departed who feele onely torment in their soules at this time but when their bodies shall bee raked out of the dust then shall their paines be increased So as this is the doctrine we must hold that the soules of the Saints are blessed ante resurrectionem before the resurrection but fine resurrectione without the resurrection they are not blessed Rom. 14.9 God is said to be the Lord of the dead and Mat. 22.32 Christ saith he is not the God of the dead In which places there is no contrariety for Christ meaneth that he is not the God of the dead according to the supposition of the Sadduces for no man is a King without subiects nor a Captaine without souldiers nor God the God of Abraham vnlesse Abraham be but hee is the God of the dead because they by him shall be raised vp Now followeth the first part what shall be raised vp namely this verie body which we now carrie about vs shall bee raised vp Which is prooued first from the proportion and resemblance with the head for the same body of Christ that was buried was raised vp which is signified vnto vs by himselfe Luk. 24.39 who to remooue all doubts of the truth of his resurrection out of his disciples mindes said Behold my hands and my feet and Iohn 20.25 it is said that Thomas put his finger into Iesus side after his resurrection And so much did Christ foreteâ—â—â—â—re his death Ioh. 2.19 Destroy this temple meaning his body and I will build the same not another vp againe Secondly it is prooued from the proportion of Gods iustice toward the elect and the reprobate also for it standeth with his iustice that those lippes which in this life offred vp the calues of thanksgiuing vnto him that that body that hath beene baptized into Christs death that mouth that hath feed vpon Christ by faith that that bodie which hath beene exercised vnder the crosse and sanctified through afflictions which hath testified to the blood the profession of his trueth it standeth I say with the iustice of God that that bodie and no other should bee raised vp to glory And Paul noteth foorth so much in himselfe a member 1. Cor. 15.53 when he saith This mortall shall put on immortalitie as if saith a learned Father he had taken it vp in his hands to haue expressed his meaning Againe the proportion of Gods iustice toward the reprobate is that that knee that hath bowed to the Masse shall also bow to the diuell in hell torment and that that body which hath embrewed it selfe with the blood of Gods saints that hath rent as it were the Lord in peeces by their blasphemy and that haue shut vp their compassion from the poore that that body should bee punished eternally in hell fire and euen denied so much as a drop of cold water to coole their tongues Luk. 16.24 For what iustice were it in God to frame them new bodies and so to punish them in that flesh wherin they neuer sinned Nay it were meere iniustice to punish them in any other parts than those wherein they haue offended Now this bodie of the faithfull that shall be raised vp shall haue three speciall graces giuen vnto it which it had not before to shew the riches of Gods mercy toward them as first it shall be immortall and shall neuer putrifie secondly 〈◊〉 shall be maintained by no naturall power and thirdly it shall haue glory Answerable to these in another kinde shall the bodies of the reprobate be for first they shall wish they might rot but cannot secondly they were happie if they might pine away but the worme shall be continually gnawing yet neuer satisfied nor they weakned Mark 9.48 thirdly they shall haue horror and shame and howling and gnashing of teeth continually For the second point which is by what power our bodies are raised vp namely by the same spirit that Christ was raised vp Now then it may be asked how the reprobate shall rise for they partake not of this spirit nor haue any part in this resurrection It is true that the power of Christ as a Sauiour and the fruite and benefite of his death are inseparable from the elect and belong onely to them The reprobate therefore shall bee raised vp by the same power by which they were at first created and as at the first they were made by the power of God in his Sonne the Father consulting with his wisdome which is Christ euen so shall they bee raised vp againe by the power of God in his Sonne not as a redeemer but by the absolute power of Iesus Christ their Iudge Gen 3.23 And as when Adam fell he was not onely depriued of the tree of life but of all the other fruites of the garden and in the losse of that lost all the rest and was driuen out by violence and kept out by the sword from any more fight of God in Paradise euen so the reprobate deserue not onely to bee secluded from the possession of heauenly glory where growes that life that euer flourisheth but euen vtterly to be extinguished and abolished for they are but vsurpers vpon the Lords heritage and euen the aire which they breath in shall be their damnation for they deserue not so much as their being Yet such is the great bounty of God that he raineth as well vpon the vniust as vpon the iust yea and oftentimes obscureth his goodnesse toward his Saints and hideth as it were his face from them when the wicked flourish as tâ—â— Palme-tree and abound in all earthly prosperity but yet this is our comfort that they passe away as a shaft in the aire and as a ship on the sea so is their place no more seene and indeede they shall finde it were better for them they were not whereas the godly know that in 〈◊〉 earth they haue no abiding citie but that their treasure is in â—â—â—uen where their hearts alwaies be and their bodies heereafâ—â—â— shall be Because that his spirit dwelleth in you This is the third part was noted out vnto vs namely how this power of the spirit is in this life communicated vnto vs. Wherein obserâ—e that whosoeuer is regenerate is made partaker
God can haue no roome to dwell in such a soule Further from the Metaphor or borrowed speech dwelleth note that there is a residence of the holy Ghost in all those that be his so as it must not be a so iourning of the Lord with vs to come like a stranger for a night or for a meale and away againe but he must be a houshold guest to go in and out with vs so that we must know it is not euery pang of conscience or fit of prayer or hanging downe our heads for a day whereby we are sometime perplexed and wringed with sorrow that is the dwelling of the spirit in vs no more then was that fit of Balaam Numb 23.10 when he praied that his soule might die the death of the righteous and that his last end might be like his Neither is this spirit knowen to bee in thee by doing many good things for Herod Mark. 6.20 did many things at the perswasion of Iohn Baptist yet was he a most cruell incestuous bloudy tyâ—ant nor yet by leauing many euill things vndone for the very Heathen had many morall vertues which made them decline from many viâ—â—â— â—ut by this shalt thou know that thou hast this spirit if aâ—â—◠〈◊〉 â—â—osseth and repugneth thy affections if thy affections â—â—e â—â—t against it but that in the meditation and purpose of sin thou please thy selfe and take part with thy affections against God to fulfill it as Balaam did when by the proffer of riches Num. 24.13 he would faine haue cursed where the Lord had blessed it is certaine this spirit of God abideth not there but the diuell Lastly obserue since there is no hope of the resurrection but so farre as wee are sealed in this life to that glory wee shall haue heereafter by the earnest of Gods spirit giuen vnto vs we may truly say of the wicked whom the Son neuer kissed Psal 2.12 that when they die they go to the damned for he that hath not his part of this spirit in this life vnlesse the Apostle be a liar which were blasphemy to thinke that man shall neuer haue the glorie of the life to come And therefore such as do scorne and scoffe at the seruants of God as Ishmael did at Isaac Gen. 21.9 calling them Men of the spirit they do commit most sacrilegious scurrilitie and in this state wherein they stand they are as surely the diuels as the diuell is not Gods yea in this they do with their owne mouths pronounce and subscribe to their owne damnation for the Apostle saith we must haue this spirit else it is impossible to bee saued Heere it may be said Since there is only ioy and peace in the spirit how is it that the wicked runne on in the course of their life prosperously and in the end of their daies go away quietly whereas the godly walke through many snares and are in their life scratched as it were with many thornes and in their death oft times are much troubled and depart in great agonies True it is the wicked may perhaps die quietly and to the sight of man comfortably hauing as Iob speaketh no bands in their death Iob. 21.13 Psal 73.4 but looke thou iudge him no more by his death than by his birth for many women haue had more easie trauell of a reprobate than an elected child of God especially the cause of their quiet being because hypocrisie hath put their consciences to silence heere that they may soone after roare out in hell and there is such a crust growen vpon their hearts 1. Tim. 42. that they rot and fester within and feele it not whereas in the elect the 〈…〉 is kept alwaies open and wee cannot feele the least bâ—◠〈…〉 Lords displeasure but we are anguished neither can wee 〈◊〉 that we euer feare enough which tender heart of a Christiâ—â— is like the Adamant to draw the oile of comfort into his soule and to hasten and quicken the life of the spirit in him Let vs all therfore earnestly pray for this spirit hauing obtained it let vs cherish and welcome it so as it may take delight in vs for wee all know it must one day come to this In manas tuas Domine commendo spiritum meum Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit and it is now at this In manas tuas homo commendo spiritum meum Into thy hands O man I commit my spirit And therefore as we will haue the Lord gratious to our spirits at the latter day so let vs well vse and entertaine his spirit in this acceptable time which vouchsafeth to dwell with vs. ROM chap. 8. vers 12. verse 12 Therefore we are debters not to the flesh to liue after the flesh VPon that which went before the Apostle inferreth a most vehement exhortation to this effect that seeing Christ hath saued them and freed them not onely from the condemnation of sinne but also from the power of sinne therfore the Lord doth indent with them and in them with vs all not to merit saluation but because saluation is already merited for vs to be engaged and obliged to the Lord and that since he hath taken the hand writing away from Sathan Coloss 2.14 and hath cancelled it in Christ that therfore we should be debters not to the flesh but to the spirit Hâ—â—reupon obserue that the greatest argument to perâ—◠〈◊〉 rather to inforce vs to good workes is taken from 〈…〉 of our redemption as appeareth by Saint Paul who 〈◊〉 â—â—â—t argument Rom. 12.1 I beseech you by the mercies of God that you giue vp your bodies a liuing Sacrifice vnto the Lord that since the Lord hath beene so mercifull vnto you as not to looke vpon your nakednesse but as you are cloathed in Christ you would therefore returne vnto him conformitie of obedience in sacrificing your selues vnto him After the same manner doth Saint â—eter perswade 1. Pet. 2.11 I beseech you as stangers and pilgrimes abstaine from fleshly lusts As if hee should say Since you are now a chosen generation and a people set at liberty by the death of Christ and by this meanes made Citizens of heauen walke according to the lawes of that heauenlie citie Heere are they condemned that say If by doing good works we can deserue nothing what heart can we haue to doe them And since we are bought already why should the Lord be twife fatisfied Whereto we answer that though we can deserue nothing Luk. 17.10 yet by this meanes we shew our thankfulnesse in doing as much as we can and though in all things we are vnprofitable seruants yet must wee bee thankfull for that which Christ hath done for vs. And since Christ hath fully satisfied for vs it is not further required that wee keepe the law to satisfie it but to testifie our obedience and thankes that wee are made partakers of such grace and haue receiued so great a pardon And so by this our working we
by the Masse that most execrable idoll and say it is sworne out of the country Can a man thinke himselfe rich that is indebted to all the world and hath nothing wherewithall to pay them And can such men that bee very beasts and without sense before God esteeme themselues vertuous and religious because they are onely highly praised of men They see not their owne estate because they haue not examined themselues according to the former rule When a man hath swept his chamber he thinkes all is cleane but when the Sunne commeth it sheweth many a mote hee could not before spie out so if the spirit would once shine into these mens consciences they should see not onely motes but most deformed and enormous sinnes in their hearts And how friuolous is it to stand vpon mans witnesse without religion which pierceth and looketh into the soule For otherwise he that thinketh himselfe in best health carieth his deaths wound in his bosome The basest gold is better then the purest led and the greatest imperfections of Gods children better then the highest vertues of the wicked and neuer shall they bee exalted that haue not before beene humbled The law is a hammer not onely to bruise the conscience but to breake it into powder which if it be not done wee shall neuer haue the spirit of adoption to seize vpon vs. The law commands but giueth no power to obey and is as if we should say to a beggar Buy such a mannor when he hath neuer a penny to helpe himselfe nor yet we giue him any money to do it euen so purchase heauen with thy works saith the law and yet knowes we are spoiled of all abilitie and doth not enable vs to doe such workes all one as if we should say to one hold vp the heauens with thy finger and yet giue him no strength to do it or as if we should say to the blind see it is comfortable and to the deafe heare it is profitable and yet giue them no meanes whereby they should doe these So the law is but a dead letter and hath but a dolefull and dreadfull sound vntill the spirit come and arme vs with power and abilitie to performe what the law requireth Lastly where it is said Luk. 15.21 Ye haue not receiued the spirit of bondage againe obserue that all that are conuerted and with the lost sonne are come home againe haue beene once brought to a terrour and fright of conscience which hath beene after a diuers measure for the Lord keepes some longer in the schoole of the law then he doth others according as hee findeth their hearts and dispositions inclinable to stoope and to be humbled or else for example sake as seemeth best to the Lord. But yet euery one of Gods chidren must come to this that is Act. 2.37 being moued and pricked in conscience to say and crie out What shal I doe to be saued I see my debt where shall I get surety I perceiue my nakednesse where shall I be couered I am fallen how shall I be recouered And being touched in their hearts if they fall not into that exclamation then as it is said of Ely his sonnes 1. Sam. 2.25 they obeyed not because the Lord would slay them so for these men to be baked in their sinnes and to see their destruction and not to shunne it and by this meanes to despaire finally is the iust iudgement of God that he may be auenged of their great hypocrisie for mercy offered and refused or set light by doubleth the punishment Euen as in this nation by the blessed preaching of the Gospell Sathan is cast out in the generall profession of the Land if now he labour to creepe in againe by hypocrisie and make vs thinke religion to rest in shewes and consist in ceremonies growing more leane and ilfauoured after we haue deuoured so many yeeres of store and plentie in preaching the word we doe erre in our hearts and do arme our enemie against vs who at his reentrance will bring seuen spirits worse then he did before Luk. 11.25 and will so fortifie his habitation with hypocrisie and other great and monstrous sinnes as there shall be more profannesse in this nation then euer there was before But ye haue receiued the spirit of adoption In this the Apostle proueth that we are the Sonnes of God because we are so adopted in the euerlasting grace of his blessed Sonne And to proue we haue this spirit he doth it by the contrary thus we are deliuered from the spirit of feare and redeemed into such a Christian liberty as we now loue God not for feare but feare him for his loue In this there are two parts to be considered first what this spirit of adoption is secondly the inseparable effect that followeth it namely an assured confidence to come boldly before the Lord euen as children before their parents to craue pardon for our sinnes For the first this spirit is the holy Ghost assuring vs by the word of grace that is the Gospell that the Lord hath auowed vs for his children in that one and best beloued Sonne of his Christ Iesus so that no extremities of this life nor sorrowes of death nor sinne it selfe shall be able to ouer whelme vs. Therefore it is said in the Scriptures that the holy Ghost setteth a seale vpon the heart of his elect Ephes 1.13 and writeth a deed in their consciences which is but a draught of that originall deed which is in heauen in the booke of the Lords gouernment And this is sealed vnto vs by the finger of the spirit to free it from the forgery of Sathan and by this euidence we make our title to the kingdome of heauen â— Cor. 5.5 Also it is called an earnest penie because as in contracts by giuing a penie in earnest the partie is obliged and bound to pay the rest so this being as it were the first fruites of the spirit the Lord doth assure vs that as verily as we haue receiued thus much in hand in this vale of misery so this shall bee a pawne and pledge vnto vs that he will giue vs the rest in the fuâ—â—eâ—â—◠〈◊〉 is glory vnder which assurance we rest and lie down in hope with ioy vnspeakeable And as the first fruits in the law made the whole crop holy so this sparke of the Lords grace being kindled and set on fire in vs doth embolden vs to an expectation of the full enioying of our whole Lord Christ Iesus This testimony oft times is very weake especially when Sathan doth sift and winnow vs as he did Peter Luk. 17.5 so as we had need to pray with the disciples Lord encrease our faith Yet as a prisoner in a darke dungeon seeing but the Sunne at a little grate doth know and beleeue that the Sunne shineth vpon the whole earth so though we be shackled and imprisoned in this flesh as in a dungeon that we are not able to
behold the Sun-shine of the Lord in full measure which is the Sunne of light and of life yet we haue such a glimpse as wee cannot bee perswaded but it shineth vpon our soules And as the child in the mothers womb stirring neuer so weakly yet euen by that feeble motion she is assured that it hath life so the least light of the Sunne of righteousnesse is most sweet comfortable vnto vs. Which doctrine as it ministreth and bringeth consolation to a weake soule so must it be as a sharpe spur vnto vs that this righteousnesse may be encreased and that this spirit of God may delight to dwell in vs that we being grounded and growing daily in a perswasion of Gods loue towards vs it may enforce vs to loue him more and more and the strength and perfection of this loue may and ought to make vs resist and shunne all contrary means whereby our encrease and growth in faith may bee hindered And because this spirit of the Lords adoption is inward and can not be perceiued that many be deluded by Sathans subtilty and forgerie foisting and thrusting in another deed than euer God gaue vs especially working vpon the weake heart of man which being fraught and full of selfe-loue is easily perswaded of any good to it selfe therefore we must learne how to discerne whether it be the true euidence of Gods spirit or no which we haue within vs. And for that the Apostle here setteth down one effect and fruit of this spirit for all that is that there is a confidence of any good conscience to come boldly before the Lord as a child before his father to preferre our suites vnto him and to offer vp our praiers vpon the golden altar Reuel 8.3 that is the mediation of Christ by whose meanes and through whose obedience and suffering they shall sauour before the Lord as a sweet incense and the Lord shall put into them daily a new incense by the spirit assuring vs more and more of his louing fauor◠and we shall not hide our selues and run away when we are called Gen. 3.8 as Adam did but being disburdened of that which doth presse vs downe from the presence of God we shall come cheerefully before him and ioy our selues in that the Lord will looke so pleasingly vpon vs Other effects of this spirit and yet arising from the former are these If the spirit worke in vs the same affection towards God that nature doth produce in children toward their parents as first to loue God secondly to feare him thirdly to reuerence him fourthly to be obedient to him fiftly to be thankfull to him all which vertues be in good children who do alwaies acknowledge all they haue to proceed from their father as the speciall instrument from God and if we haue beare these affections to God our father as to loue him for his mercies to feare him for his loue to reuerence him for his goodnesse to obey him for his greatnes and to be thankfull to him for his kindnesse then may we assure our selues that we haue the spirit of adoption sealed vp in vs for our saluation In that we crie Abba Father learne that no obstinate or resolute sinner persisting deliberately in his sinne and his heart deliting in it can once open his mouth to pray nor neuer did pray The like whereof may be said of the hypocrite for though they may falsely perswade themselues that offering vp a few words in forme of a praier it is sufficient to purge the vncleannesse of their liues and that impudently and in presumption they may call God Father when their harts be impure and vncleane yet Iohn 8.44 Christ calleth them the children of their father the diuell And though Sathan may perswade an obstinate and wilfull sinner as he did Houah Gen. 3.4.5 that doing such an euill and wicked thing they shall not hang in hell alwaies threatening where God promiseth and promising where God threatneth vntill he take them in the lurch at the time of their death and then he ouerreckneth them yet it is certaine he cannot pray vnlesse he haue this spirit and this spirit none hath if they delight and sauour of sin so as though they cry Peace peace to their owne conscience and seruing the diuell will neuerthelesse vaunt themselues to bee the sonnes of God it is the Lords iustice that permitteth Sathan so to blinde them that they cannot see their sickenesse to the death for 1. Iohn 3.8 it is said He that committeth sinne is of the diuell Can the poison of Aspes and the sacrifice of praier proceed both from the same tongue No. Grapes cannot grow of thornes nor figs of thistles and Esay 66.3.5 the Lord saith that he that offereth sacrifice without trembling that is without reformation of life it is as if he killed a man which is most vnsauory to the Lord. So as lawfull things and things commanded be an abomination to the Lord when the soule and conscience is not answerable to the action and to the outward profession Howbeit things simply forbidden are sinnes both in the regenerate and vnregenerate and the prayers of these men that thus can lie on their beds and imagine mischiefe and yet can open their lippes by way of conference and speech with God are no better then those of the rebels in the North who when they had published all their mischiefe which tended to the ouerthrow of our dread Soueraigne yet ended and concluded their proclamation with God saue Queene Elizabeth Now concerning hypocrites that they cannot pray but by imitation of Christians as Parots looke vpon the rule of Dauid Psal 66.18 If I regard saith he wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not heare me that is if I delight in sin my praiers shall not come neare him so as make what shew thou wilt if thy heart be not vpright it auaileth not For as it is said Iohn 9.31 God heareth no sinners that is no malicious and deliberate sinners which intend and compasse mischiefe in their inward parts howsoeuer in hypocrisie they dissemble it And it is certaine it is as impossible to pray without this spirit as to vnderstand without a soule Further obserue how this spirit begets in vs such peace of conscience that makes vs confident in crauing our wants at Gods hand as from the spirit of adoption cōmeth faith so from faith issueth and streameth inuocation and calling vpon God by praier This faith grounded vpō the loue of God in Christ doth assure vs that whatsoeuer is good in heauen or in earth God wil bestow it vpon vs then steppeth in praier and according as the soule is burdned either with a desire to be deliuered from danger or with an affection to haue some wants supplied or to declare and expresse our thankefulnesse it doth take the present occasion and for sloweth no time to enter into the sanctuarie of Gods presence and there to lift vp our weak hands and to send
recouered the vse of all the creatures wee lost in Adams fall so as wee haue interest in them all how euer the Lord in wisedome hath seuered and distinguished them in a property yea we haue such interest in them as the world should not stand not the Sunne shine but for the elects sake And all the wicked in the last day shall answer for euery crumme of bread that they haue eaten for they doe but vsurpe vpon the Lords creatures in as much as being excluded from the tree of life they are thereby excluded from all things that should maintaine life and though now the Lord permit them to abound in these earthly treasures yet they shall haue double torment for their single ioy for they are neuer in their owne house but when they are in hell as it was said of Iudas Mat. 27. 5. Act. 1.25 when he hanged himselfe that he went to his owne place The second priuiledge wee haue is this that being heires with Christ these is nothing but shall be made by God to further our saluation euen as Saint Paul being rauished as it were with the constant hope of this inheritance in the conclusion of this chapter giuing the challenge in this spirituall conflict to see if there be any thing can bee able to separate him from the loue of God for we are Lords of all the creatures sauing of Angels and our fellow heire Christ Iesus is head of Angels and they â—â—e but ministers for our good As for the wicked they shall be as well able to saue themselues without God as to hurt vs hauing God and the worst they can do is but to send vs to God And as for Sathan his darts hee casteth at vs they are turned aside in the armour of Christ and the floods he casteth foorth to deuoure vs shall neuer come neare vs Reu. 12.15 2. Cor. 12.8 and his buffettings are preseruatiues against presumption as Paul witnesseth of himselfe If wee suffer with him This is a transition or passing ouer of the Apostle to perswade vs to affliction for wee would haue the head crowned with thornes and the members clad with veluer but it may not be so for there must bee a conformity and resemblance with the head and the members Now this is the second reason the Apostle vseth to make vs sure of this heauenly â—â—keritance namely that wee must first be afflicted The cause why this is brought in is this Paul vers 1. had giuen the greatest comfort to a Christian that could be when he said There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus Now there are two things that make the very elect to demurre and stay vpon this whether there be any condemnation to them or no first the apprehension of their many sinfull infirmities as if they should say Is it possible the life of God should be in mee that I should be shapen after Gods image that Christ should bee my sanctification and yet that I should be subiect to so many grieuous infirmities To this the Apostle answereth True it is there bee in them many things graciously qualified by the prefence of the Lords spirit yet during this our seafare and pilgrimage in this life there must bee a combat and a strife betweene the deceit of sinne and the strength of grace howbeit by patience and perseuerance we shall ouercome not some part of the world but euen the whole world and our owne concupiscence 1. Ioh. 5.4 which is stronger then death not but that there shall be left some fragments and reliques of corruption in vs for Paul heere doth not say There is no matter of condemnation left within vs but that vncleannesse is so washed away in Christ and we are so sanctified by his spirit as there remaineth for vs no condemnation God being satisfied in his Sonne Sath an being vanquished and the powers of our sinful flesh being tamed and subdued The seâ—◠〈◊〉 thing that maketh vs to doubt whether condemnation 〈◊〉 not due to vs is the apprehension of our many afflictions wherewith we are tossed and encumbred in this life as when wee shall consider that we are made blessed by Christs curse and healed by his stripes then we breake foorth into this And is it possible that I am one of these and yet am so miserably intreated in this life Hath Christ â—â—â—â—e through the sorrowes and agonies of this life Hath he booke in sunder the bands of death and all to make me way to that glorie wherein he now sitteth and shall lâ—et be so burdened and so sore oppressed with anguish of spirit and griese of bodie This cogitation and thought worketh and ingendreth a feare in the weake soule lest God should be angry and much displeased with them because he feedeth them with the water of sorrow and bread of affliction and maketh them as the spirit speaketh passe through fire and water that is through many miseries diuers in kind and extreme in measure But thus the holy Ghost to proue the first verse of this chapter true sheweth this to be the high and beaten way to heauen and that there is no way but that which Christ hath gone before vs for somewhat for godlinesse we must be persecured Ioh. 5.17 Heb. 12.6 and being chastised of the Lord it is certaine we are no bastards So as the bearing of this crosse must and ought to be another seale to assure vs of the inheritance which we shall haue and not to be dismaied though it goe hard with vs in this life for we must thinke it no disgrace nor disparagement to be of the honour of the same order our elder brother Christ was of that is appointed and set foorth daily for the slaughter laid open to the viperous tongs of many glorious and proud Pharisees but as Christ had his crosse as it were his ladder to lift him and carry him vp aboue the heauens as the Greeke translation is so must we looke by the same rounds to ascend to the same place Out of this therfore ariseth to all the godly double comfort first that we shall be no otherwise vsed of the Lord then Christ his naturall sonne was vpon whom the very sea of his fierce wrath did fall secondly that as we haue Christ a fellow and companion in our sufferings so Christ hath vs companions and partakers of his glorie If we suffer with him Heere are two things to be considered first the precise necessity and as it were a fatall kind of destiny whereunto God hath made all those subiect that shall be saued namely that they must taste of the cup of affliction and drink of the dregs therof expresly set downe in these words We are heires if we suffer The second is the double fruite and benefit we reape by this affliction first that Christ hath tasted more deepely of tribulation then we shall secondly that in recompeâ—â—ce of our sufferings we shall heereafter bee partners with him in â—â—â—â—state
when hee said Mine eies gush out teares because men dishonour thee O Lord and in another place he protesteth that he doth hate them with a perfect hatred that loue not the Lord and againe that no notorious and incorrigible sinner should dwell with him Now fiftly as wee must hate Gods enemies so must we loue his friends as 1. Ioh. 3.14 it is said We are translated from death to life because we loue the brethren Mat. 25.34 and Christ setteth downe a plentifull reward for a cup of cold water giuen to a distressed brother Now who these brethren bee Christ setteth downe to be such as do the will of his father so as it is not the affinitie in the flesh but the bond of the spirit that must vnite vs. And on the other side we must hate none in respect of his creation but in respect he peruerteth the vse of his creation for they beare the image of God which is louely but they deface and scratch it out to their owne damnation So as wee must hate not virum sed vitium the wickednesse of the man and not the wicked as he is a man Sixtly our loue of God must draw vs into the field for defence of his Maiestie for by this shall the master know his seruant loueth him if hee cannot digest to heare him euill spoken of yea by this shall it be knowne whether our way be to Canaan or no if we aske where it lieth in the wildernesse and if our bloud rise to heare Ierusalem euill spoken of and to heare the Lord who is the keeper of that citie reuiled and blasphemed Such were the spirits of Eliakim Shebnah and Ioan 2. King 18.37 that they rent their clothes when they heard Rabshakeh raile vpon the liuing God and Ezechiah when he heard it was grieued at it and spread himselfe before the Lord to call for a holy reuenge of that furie And so must euery true harted Christian esteeme the name and credit of God farre more tender then his owne and learne of Moses to be milde in ouerlooking an iniurie done to our selues Num. 12.3 Exod. 32.19 but to be iealous and zealous in recompencing seuen fold to them that teare in peeces the glorious name of the Lord Iesus Now we of that hath gone before must inferre the contrarie that is as all things worke for saluation to them that loue God so all things worke for damnation to them that hate him All which may be drawne and reduced into these two things first those that concerne this life secondly those that concerne the life to come and these may bee reduced into these foure First the graces of Gods spirit so much as they receiue of it is onely to make them vnexcusable for they shall surely perish though they be in the blade neere to ripenesse the reason is because when the holy Ghost hath giuen them as it were a purge to worke vpon them setting before them good and euill they not as weake stomached but as curst hearted doe cast it vp againe like beastly dogges Secondly the doctrine of saluation which hath this singular vertue to bruise and mollifie the flintie heart onely hardeneth theirs and maketh them rage like the dragon for Christ Iesus is but a rocke of offence vnto them preaching is but foolishnesse and the word a fauour of death vnto them and in the Sacraments they doe but crucifie Christ againe Thirdly the benefites of this life doe make them drunke that they can not see their miserie for in their fulnesse they doe neigh like horses and in their hearts they say there is no God they eate and drinke and rise vp to play making their life but as a May-game Fourthly the miseries of this life though therewith they bee sometime mollified as Esau was when be lost the blessing yet this is but like the iron put into the fire and so softned for a time but being taken out is made by that more hard then before Now for the reason why afflictions turne to the best to such as loue God it is because by his eternall purpose they are called to be saued so as the cause why God ordained some to the inheritance of his glorie was onely his purpose and pleasure that it should be so for Christ as Mediator is not the first cause of saluation For the Scripture saith So God loued the world Ioh. 3.16 that he gaue his Sonne whereby is euident and apparent that hee first loued it before he gaue his Sonne for first Gods purpose was to saue some this in time he executeth by creating man and woman in such estate as they might fall by their owne will hee nothing inforcing it nor compelling them thereunto Now when they were fallen then was there need of a reconciliation and now God bethinkes him of a Mediator so as in the order of causes the attonement which is in Christ must be after the fall for the foresight of the good or euill in a man is no cause for God either to saue or to damne any so as no man can determine the cause why God loued Iacob and hated Esau to be because of the goodnesse of the one and the wickednesse of the other and yet it is true that Esau was damned because hee was euill but why he was appointed to damnation rather then Iacob no cause can bee giuen but the Lords eternall and inuiolable purpose For otherwise Paul would neuer haue cried out Rom. 9.20 against the reason of man that he should not pleade with God who hath the power to forme the vessell after what fashion he pleaseth for if the foresight of good or euill had been the cause it had beene easily sounded and the Apostle would soone haue set it downe Hereupon we must gather an argument that saluation is meerely of mercie for whatsoeuer is the cause of the cause is the cause of the thing caused as the Sunne is the cause of the fruitfulnesse of the earth and God is the cause of the Sunne therefore God is the cause of the fruitfulnesse of the earth so through the righteousnesse of Christ we are all saued but Christ is made righteous meerely of the Lord therefore of the Lord we are all saued But this is to be vnderstood of God as of the first cause not as of the neerest cause So that to conclude this point euery man may giue a reason of his saluation namely because he is beloued in Christ but why hee was apappointed to be beloued in Christ no man is able to assigne or set downe a reason but wee must all bow in humilitie and resort onely to the purpose of God heere spoken of by the Apostle ROM chap. 8. vers 29. verse 29 For those which he knew before he also predestinate to bee made like to the image of his Sonne that he might be the first borne among many brethren THe Apostle heere proceedeth to proue that all things euen afflictions worke for the best to
their right hand whom they meane to make their equals as Gen. 41.40 Ioseph was set at the right hand of Pharaoh being made ruler ouer all Egypt and 1. King 2.19 Salosom set Bathsheba his mother on the right hand so is it said by Dauid in the Psalmes the Queene fitteth on the right hand of the King So as the meaning is Psal 45. â— that Christ Iesus hath receiued from God the copartnership of soueraigne authority ouer all natures whatsoeuer and as he is man being also the Sonne of â—â—d and our elder brother is aduanced ouer all and hath received a name aboue all so as now the Father ruleth nothing but 〈◊〉 the person of his Sonne Secondly vnderstand that this sitting at Gods right hand though it was due to his humane nature and flesh from the moment of his conception and vniting the flesh to his diuine nature yet it is properly assigned to him after his resurrection or rather after his ascension For hauing in the forme of a seruant performed all obedience then did the Father crowne his obedience with this excellent glory and then was this soueraignty bestowed on him Which must teach vs much more patiently to wait vpon the Lord and not to expect our reward before we set forth or while we be running but when our race is finished and that wee haue borne the heat of the day and haue fought a good fight in the Lord. Thirdly for this his sitting that is the receiuing of his absolute authority though Christ as God neuer receiued it being equall to God much lesse after his ascension yet after his ascension he was in some sort aduanced in his diuine nature for as the Scripture saith The Sonne of God descended meaning thereby abased himselfe Rom. 10.7 and his glorie did not so fully appeare being hidden in the cloud of his infirme flesh yet as the Apostle saith by his rising and ascending was he mightily declared to be the sonne of God and by that was more manifested to be so Rom. 1.4 then he was vpon the earth This also he sheweth himselfe Iob. 17.24 when he praied to be glorified with the same glory he had with his Father from the beginnig not that it should then be bestowed vpon him but then miraculoussy declared to haue had it from eternitie Howbeit this his sitting heere spoken of is properly meant to be exalted in his flesh because this authority is giuen him as Mediator And in this respect Christ may bee said to be greater then himselfe and lesse then himselfe because his flesh is beneath his diuinity and his Godhead farre aboue his humanity And by this power giuen him he is glorified in the Godhead in the manifestation of it in the flesh by abolishing all his infirmities and replenishing his flesh with all maner of graces Colos 2.8 as it is said lâ—â— him dwelt the fulnesse of the Godhead Concerning the second point namely what fruits come tâ—â— vs by this his sitting at Gods right hand they are principally three first we learne by this that he doth inrich his Church generally and euery member particularly with so many graces 〈◊〉 the holy Ghost as shall be necessary to the glory of the head the edification of the whole body and the saluation of euery particular member according as it is set downe Eph. 5.26.27 that this Church might be without spot or wrinkle and without blame Secondly by this his presence with God he doth defend and protect his Church from all enemies whatsoeuer so as the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it And this is our comfort that since all power is giuen him he that hath felt our infirmities hath the tempering of the cup of our afflictions which we may boldlie drinke of and not refuse it no more then he did the bitter cup his Father gaue to him and assure our selues that no tyrants hand can touch vs further then he permits him which shall neuer be aboue our strength for Christ hath power enough to performe it and God hath will enough to doe it And since while he was in his humanity on earth the diuell could not enter into a heard of swine without his licence and permission Math. 8.32 and that as it is said in the Reu. 5.3 he doth so seale the doore as none can enter in vnles he open it what shall we thinke he will doe now being in his glory and at his Fathers elbow And while he was in the flesh being able by the word of his mouth to stay the raging of the sea Mat. 8.26 much more now can he and will he represse the rage and fury of our persecutors when it please him Thirdly he shall sit at the right hand of the father vntill all his children be fully glorified and his enemies destroied which are of two sorts first such as are to be abolished as death secondly or such as perfectly are to be vanquished and yet perpetually to be tormented as the diuel and the damned spirits for to them shall it be a day of horror and of howling Now for the fourth which is his intercession or his making request for vs consider two things first what is meant in that he is said to make petition for vs secondly what benefits redound and arise to vs by these his requests for vs. For the first that he is said to pray for vs it is the exaltation and aduancement of Christ Iesus in the office of his eternall priest-hood whereof there were two parts the one to expiate or offer sacrifice for sinne the other to pray for the people Now Christ was such a Priest as the power of his sacrifice continueth for euer and no more sacrifice is to be offered vp as it is said Heb. 10.12 this man meaning Christ after he had once offered one sacrifice for sinne sitteth for euer at the right hand of God Howbeit the second duty of his Priest-hood which is to pray for vs remaineth still but after an other maner not as he did vpon the earth when he prostrated himselfe to the ground and lifted vp his eies to heauen with trembling of heart and anguish of minde offering vp praiers as Heb. 5.7 with strong cries and teares vnto God being himselfe then but as a seruant to his Father but he exerciseth this office now not by any submission of gesture but by representing and setting before the eyes of his Father his sacrifice fresh and bleeding which turneth his Fathers countenance from our indignities and misdeeds to looke vpon himselfe as Heb. 9.24 He is entred into heauen to appeare now in the sight of God for vs standing there to be beholden For the second namely what benefits we haue by this his intercession and they are three first by this he fulfilleth all the types and figures of the law that heereby he might fully declare vnto vs that he is the euerlasting Priest prefigured by them that were vnder the law as Heb. 10.19 hee is said
then conquerers two waies first in respect of our selues secondly in respect of others We are conquerers in respect of our selues three waies first in the afflictions that goe before death secondly in the very suffering of death thirdly that sometimes there comes a speciall deliuerance and the wicked are made a ransome for the godly Prou. 21 1â— The first of these appeareth in that wee chuse to suffer rather then to admit any ill condition in seruing God as rather then the three children would stoupe to the worship of the beast they embraced the fire Daniel 3.22.23 And though through the sharpnesse of the trouble oftentimes the outward man trembleth and decaieth yet are wee strengthened and renewed in our soules and consciences that wee are not carefull to answer the greatest tyrant vpon the earth that that God whom wee serue is able and will deliuer vs from the sting and poison of any torment yea though sometimes the Lord strangely handleth them that suffer for the Gospel so as their soule is troubled and cannot apprehend any comfort but euen feele the iustice of God vpon them for their sinnes and in the instant of their dissolution they seeme to be void of inward heauenly power to strengthen them and do find a heauy vnaptnesse and vnapt heauinesse to sustaine the triall and that though they haue poured foorth their soule with teares vnto the Lord yet they cannot finde that resolution in any comfort to take the cup but as it is held to their mouths yet at the last being for the cause of Christ they may be sure he will send his spirit to quicken them and dispatch such a comforter from heauen as they shall find euen in the flames such alacritie and delight as if they had rather receiued a pardon from death then any power to bee thrust on to death for the Lord will comfort the abiect bring light out of darknesse and as 2. Cor. 4.11 make the life of Iesus manifest in our flesh by our being deliuered vp to death for his sake For the second that we are more then conquerers in death we haue many examples in the booke of Martyrs and elsewhere how some haue protested they haue sate in the flame as easilie as in a downe bed some haue lifted vp their hands when they were halfe consumed verifying this speech in Esay 43.2 Neither shall the waters drowne thee nor the fire burne thee nor the flame kindle vpon thee meaning thereby that the Lord shall make the most bitter drinke pleasant to them whom he hath called by his name Thirdly wee are more then conquerers in our owne person by the Lords sending of some strange deliuerance and by seeing our enemies consumed in our stead and this is two-fold either extraordinarily immediate or extraordinarily mediate The first appeareth Act. 5.19 Peter cast into prison had the dore opened by the Lords messenger was brought forth in despite of his enemies the same Peter was whipt and being Act. 12.6 a sheepe appointed to the slaughter lying fast bound between two souldiers the prison doores being watched the Angel of God smote him on the side and his chames fell off he was brought through the first and second watch and the praiers of the church did disappoint the purpose of the tyrant whose hands were not yet washed from the blood of Iames whom he had killed with the sword So vehement also were the praiers of Paul and Silas Act. 16.25 that an earthquake shaked the foundation of the prison and loosed the bands of all the prisoners and the Lord put it into the hearts of authority to send Paul foorth in peace and when hee would not standing vpon the law of the Romanes Act. 22.25 that no man should be scourged before he was condemned his enemies were glad to intreate him to goe Of which examples wee must make this vse that if the Lord saw it good for his glory he could doe as much now for nither is his power abated nor his loue diminished Exod. 16.15 Deut. 8.3 For in that he fed the Israelites with Manna he shewed that he can make a man liue without bread in that he blessed the small quantity of meale which the widow of Sarepta had he sheweth that our life standeth not in abundance 1. Kin. 17.16 and he that made the three children dance in the fierie fornace Dan. 3.22 when they that put them in were killed with the heat of the ouens mouth he can and will cheare vs and make glad our hearts in the vale of death For it is he that strengtheneth Dauid to ouerthrow Goliah and his power shall support vs to ouer come death 1. Sam. 17.45 Now for the deliuerance which is extraordinary mediate wee haue example in Saul Act. 9.25 who by the Disciples was put thorow the wall and let downe by a rope in a basket when the Iewes watched the gates to kill him Wee haue likewise our owne Prince Queene Elizabeth on whom many waters did beat and ouer whose head many flouds haue runne and when euen in her sisters time she was as a lambe to be led foorth to the shambles it pleased the Lord to snatch her out of the mouthes of the mighty and to set her seate farre aboue their reach and then were they sory they had cur downe the branches and suffered the stocke to stand Secondly we are more then conquerors in these afflictions in respect of other and that two waies either in the conuersion of others in seeing the Lords power in the midst of our perplecities or else in the confirmation of others they being emboldened by the Lords hand on vs to assure themselues he will not leaue them destitute in the like extremitie Examples of the first wee haue Act. 4.32 and 5.14 how in the heat of the disciples afflictions and when it was counted little better then insurrection to flocke to sermons the people sold their possessions to buy a good conscience and to know the fruit of Christ his death and how the number of them that beleeued grew more and more and how out of the blood of that constant Martyr Stephen there sprung vp daily fresh and new Christians Examples of the latter wee may see in the testimony of Paul who said his bonds were famous in the Court of the Emperor Phillip 1.13 and by that others were taught to preach more boldly and 2. Tim. 2.10 I suffer as an euill doer euen vnto bonds but the word of God is not bound therefore I suffer for the elects sake meaning thereby that his example of captiuity and patience did sundry waies confirme the Church in the hope of a better life For this is the property of the Gospell to grow highest where it is troden downe and to spring fastest where it is killed For when Ahab and Iezabel thought they had not left a Prophet of the Lord but had destroyed all but Eliah and him had they sought for as with
to her wallowing in the ruire Some will say True it is the spirit may bee quenched in 〈◊〉 hypocrite but neuer in the elect as 1. Iohn 3.9 Hee that is borne of God sinneth not And whom God loued once hee loueth alwaies This is true but then looke that thou stand vpon good and sound euidence when Sathan troubles thee for thou knowest how the burning lampes went out how the seed in the blade came to nothing and it is certaine that a man illuminate may sinne against the holy Ghost and therefore see that thou hast good title and groundest vpon good interest when thou shalt bee vexed with temptations For Rom. 8.13 if wee liue after the flesh wee shall die and as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sonnes of God and who hath this spirit looke 1. Iohn 3.14 We are translated from death to life because we loue the brethren for hee that hath a soule must needes breath and he that hath the spirit must needs fulfill the fruits of the spirit Secondly albeit the elect haue receiued an euerlasting spirit whereof the Lord can neuer repent and which can neuer vtterly be quenched yet let vs feare and tremble for in the elect it may so bee obscured and ouerwhelmed that some of the graces of Gods spirit nay most of the graces yea the chiefest of the most nay all almost of Gods graces may in them be quenched as Dauid praieth Psal 51. Lord create in me a new spirit and yet he had it in him for in the same place he saith Lord take not thy spirit from me So as this exhortation not to quench the â—â—â—rit hath a double fruit in the hypocrite to make him vnexcusable in the elect to make them more circumspect and carefull in their conuersation for we must not be secure in as much as albeit the spirit of God in those that be his cannot bee absolutely quenched and wholly put out yet there may bee a great abatement of the spirit as not to be recouered without great touch and terror of conscience For first while a man feeles the presence of this spirit there is giuen him such ioy and with that a singular peace in the inward man and such securitie of his saluation that he feeles the loue of God spiritually to do him as much good as his meat and vpon this assurance he doth as it were behold the heauens open for the Lord to embrace him liuing or dying and he knoweth himselfe to be sealed vp in the blood of Christ vnto eternall life Now if this spirit be gone absenteth it selfe in spirituall operation together with this is our former ioy abated and the foundation of our hope begins to be shaken and being weake of our selues we are surprised with many feares and suspecting our selues to bee cast from the feare of God and our sinnes arising and flying vp like smoake in our eies we almost are brought to the case of Cain Gen. 4.12 to thinke that whosoeuer meeteth vs will slay vs. Secondly as vpon the enioying presence of the Lords spirit there springs an vnspeakable ioy and comfort in our hearts and we find that the Lords loue breedeth in vs an heauenly assurance of eternall peace and filleth our hearts with a mutuall and reciprocall loue of God our loue streaming and flowing from the well head of the Lords loue then it followeth that the lesse we feele the Lords loue toward vs the lesse we loue him againe and then we droope and languish in our selues our praiers be faint our meditations cold and when we should watch we with the Disciples fall asleepe and we feeling not the life of the spirit Mat. 26.43 we are greatly abated in our loue of holy and Christian exercises and we then only keepe a generall course in our profession and performe euery good thing as it were tedious vnto vs like Eutychus Act. 20.9.10 who came to heere Pauls sermon but was ouercome with sleepe Thirdly when the spirit is abated by the diminishing of the Lords loue towards vs and the withdrawing of our loue from him then because we haue grieued the spirit the Lord suffereth vs to fall into fearefull and presumptuous sinne as hee did suffer Dauid to fall into the sinne of whoredome with Bathsheba aggrauated with the murder of Vriah wherein hee lay frozen by Satans subtilty nine monthes at the least before he confessed it to God for it appeareth 2. Sam. 11.27 that the child was borne before Nathan the Prophet came to him and howsoeuer no doubt he could no more escape the pricke of conscience then he could stay the panting of his heart yet before that time not a word to God of any serious humiliation for his adultery So as neuer any of Gods children sinned more grieuously then he Mat. 26.70 except Peter who was not so much kindled at the fire of the high Priest as he was cold in his soule for first he lied in that he said hee knew not Christ secondly burst foorth into swearing and thirdly gaue himselfe to the diuell if it were he that was with Christ which the Lord most iustly suffered to befall him as a great chastisement since he neglected the louing forewarning of his master and though hee was neuer so much elect yet would the spirit neuer comfort him till he had with drawne himselfe to bewaile his sinne bitteâ—â— All which is liuely expressed Cant. 3.1 In my bed by night saith the church I sought him that my soule loued I sought hâ—â—â—â—â—t I found him not I went and rose and walked about the citie and by the streeâ—s and by open places I sought him but found him not thereby to declare that when the Lord once withdraweth his face from vs how hardly we shall win his fauour againe Fourthly when the Lord hath suffered vs to fall thus farre as we shall euen seeme to be swallowed vp of hell already though in the end he will restore thee yet first he will suffer thee to beare the shame of thy sinne in this life Gen. 9.23 1. Sam. 15.14 as Noah for his drunkennesse to be a scorne to his owne children and Dauid for his adultery to bee thrust out of his kingdome by his owne sonne which was such a griefe to him as all the ioy of his sonnes life did not so much comfort him as the sorrow of his death did wound him he mourning for Absolon 2. Sam. 19.33 as if he had doubted of his saluation But happy is hee that hath the thornes in his sides in this life and that is afflicted heere for though the Lord will neeuer take his louing kindnes from thee yet he will scourge thee not for any satisfaction of his iustice for Christ hath paied all but onely for a chastisement Lastly besides all this when the spirit is gone and abated it shall be such a terror to thy conscience such smart and vexation to thy whole minde as thou wert better bee almost
mire by this token that the Gospell hath saued thee from hell For the second benefit it was singular fauour to be freed from the former misery but the Lord together with that hath aduanced and raised vs to speciall dignity that of the bond-slaues of the diuell we are made heires not of this world onely but of the world to come fellow heires with the Lord Iesus to be beloued with the same loue and to tast of the same glorie Iohn 17.22 so as wee may say with Ioseph Thus and thus bountifull hath the Lord beene vnto mee how can I then commit such wickednesse against the maiesty and in the presence of so good a God Hence learne since the Gospell exhorteth vs by this sauing argument to reformation of life whensoeuer we are assaulted inwardly by our owne lusts by the instrument which is the diuels to vse the benefit of this saluation to stay vs from that sinne we are tempted to let it be it were to wantonnesse then let euery of vs argue thus with himselfe And what shall I vse the members of Christ bought with such a price as the blood of the Sonne of God and shall I make them the members of an harlot 1. Cor. 6.15 shall I thus requit the Lords kindnesse and so lightly esteeme the riches of his mercy Why now hee doth not command to performe the law and so be saued but because I am already saued he doth beseech me to amend my life and shall I set no more by all his benefites bestowed both vpon my soule for instruction and vpon my body for health and comelinesse shall I not remember the manifold temptations he hath freed me from and the multitude of his compassions extended towards me shall I make no more reckning of his fauour that hath bestowed on me so many graces and pardoned so many sinnes Far bee it from me that aduisedly and deliberatly I should so despite the Lord as to grieue his spirit and dishonor that God that hath giuen me Christ out of his owne bosome and with Christ all things else and through him saluation Now for the instruction and first for the things we are to forbeare the first is vngodlinesse that is not onely the superstition of the heathen and palpable Atheisme but all carelesse seruing of God when men regard nothing lesse then the purity of a good conscience in the seruice of God and when they little respect the true worship of God but onely make a shew and a semblance to serue him so as the word vngodlinesse doth signisie all dispising of him openly or seruing of him negligently Now all vngodlinesse prophannesse and urreligiousnesse doth touch first the exercises God hath appointed to testifie our sincerity secondly it toucheth God himselfe For the first when wee come to heare the word or to pray if we doe not perswade our selues that hee that despiseth the teacher despiseth God as wee may see Luk. 16.29 by the answer of Abraham to the rich man They haue Moses and the Prophets let them heare them And further if we doe not beleeue that what so is preached out of the Bible shall as fully be executed as if it were now performed as we may see Reuel 22.19 this is open vngodlinesse and for this diminution of the truth of Gods word his part shall be taken out of the booke of life for a man must iudge of vngodlinesse by the effects of vngodliness as to say a mans good meaning is good beleefe for then was Vzziah vniustly punished and smitten with the Leprosie for burning incense vnto the Lord 2. Chron. 26.19 for his intention was good but his action was accursed because it was not for the King to deale in the Priests office So when we heare men say It were no matter if there were no more going to Sermons since there is no more following of them these and the like are speeches of open vngodlinesse for did euer any man grow colder for sitting by the fire or leaner for eating of bread The second thing to be eschued is worldly lusts which be two fold first to lust after vnlawfull things which be either the fleshly desires of a carnall man in himselfe or which may hurt our neighbour either in name goods or body Secondly when we lust after worldly lawfull things vnlawfully and immoderatly both which are set downe in three generall points by Saint Iohn 1. Ioh. 2.16 first the lust of the flesh that is that the flesh would liue at ease as we may see by she reasoning of the rich man with himselfe Luk. 12.19 after great store gotten Now soule saith he liue at ease eate drinke and take thy pastime Secondly the lust of the eye to liue wantonly and to haue an adulterous eye as Euah had that could not see the fruit but shee must eate it Genes 3.6 and as Achan had Ioshua 7.21 that could not see the Babylonish garment but hee must haue it and as Shechem had that could not see Dinah but hee must rauish her Thirdly the pride of life that is the desire of honour and thirsting for preferments in this life for it is impossible for that soule that is surfeited with these things to carrie any true loue toward God or any burning zeale toward his truth And these bee they that wrought so forcibly with our first mother in yeelding to the first temptation that euer was in our flesh for first the apple seemed faire to the eye Gen. 3.6 secondlie it was good for meate thirdlie it was good for knowledge which implied pride of life shee thinking thereby to bee as wise as God These three the Gospell denieth vs of when we sauour so of them as our greatest care is to enioy them and wee affect them more then the righteousnesse of Gods kingdome And as the Gospell teacheth vs to forbeare these things so also doth our Baptisme for who so is dipped in the water which representeth the blood of Christ hee is thereby instructed to denie himselfe and to hate the workes of the diuell this being a Sacrament which not onely sealeth to vs remission of sinnes in the blood of Christ but also sanctification by the spirit of Christ which consisteth in mortifying the old man and quickening the new The first standing on these two first death secondly buriall that as wee beleeue Christ to bee dead to obtaine pardon for all our sinnes so we beleeue that hee by his obedience obtained the spirit of God to mortifie all our corruptions and when hee went into the graue our old man was buried with him that we might bee raised vp with him to newnesse of life and this is set downe 1. Peter 1.2 where he saith We must suffer in the flesh that is die in corruption and in sinne daily euen as Christ did in his bodie And he that doth not crucifie his affections performeth not his vow in Baptisme nor cannot chalenge any part in Christ his death for he is said to
and prostrateth it selfe before God in Christ vpon confession that the soule is Satans due and deserueth to bee bound hand and foote and to bee cast into prison as vnable to pay the debt it intreateth that this obligation may bee taken from Satan it wrastleth with death and damnation and terror of conscience Coloss 2.14 and craueth a pardon bringing nothing but the very heart blood of Christ And euen as the very looking vpon the Serpent healed them in the wildernesse Num. 21.9 and nothing else could appease the tempest Ionâ—h 1.15 but the very casting of Ionah into the sea and the sinnes of the people Leuit. 16.22 were laid onely vpon the Goate so faith in this petition of forgiuenesse brings nothing but commeth emptie and laieth all vpon the shoulders of Christ But now betweene men and men on earth faith worketh by loue so as if we bring nothing to men but faith it is certaine wee neuer brought faith from God for since thy heart is not discernable and the spirit and piety of the heart is vnsearchable in respect of men and good to God wee cannot doe our faith vpon earth must be as busie before men in workes as it is before God in the blood of Christ And as Martha and Mary Luk. 10.39 dwelled in one house one onely to heare Christ the other working and labouring to entertaine Christ euen so our faith with Mary must onely kneele at Gods feet to heare that comfortable voice of the pardon and absolution of our sinnes in the blood of Christ but our faith on earth must labour with Martha by loue and good works to entertaine and helpe our brethren Besides wee must consider that things may worke together but not together in the same worke Euen as Christ in the worke of mediation must haue two natures a diuine humanity and an humane diuinity and we say not that Christ as God onely nor as man onely is Mediator but by these two concurring together and as wee saie that Christ is not Mediator without flesh and as truely we saie that hee raised not vp his flesh by his humanitie but suffered in the flesh and was raised vp by the power of his diuinitie onely and that his diuinitie died not but his flesh onely and in this they worked seuerally in the flesh to be ouercome of death and in the spirit onely to ouercome death yet these two in the worke of our saluation doe worke together Euen so faith worketh with loue in bringing foorth sanctification and a holy life but in the verie apprehending of Christ his bloud this power to iustifie is of faith onely Like as the roote of it selfe giues life but the roote with the branches bring foorth fruite And as the fire maketh warme by heate and light and yet the heate of the fire warmeth alone but light is inseparable from it so no faith can worke well without workes but yet there are none iustified by the power of workes but by faith onely Now where it it said Faith wrought with his workes and through the workes the faith made perfect obserue that this is meant onely of a declaration to men for we are perfectly iustified in the sight of God by the bloud of Christ And though the hand be leprous yet it can receiue sound meate so though our faith be imperfect yet our iustification is perfect For there is but one pardon in heauen through that one death and passion of Christ and before a man be perfectly iustified he cannot do a good worke for we must first be in Christ before wee haue faith and must haue faith before wee can worke for these are fruits of faith And as a Toade is not therefore a Toade because it poisons but therefore poisons because it is a Toade nor a Serpent is not therefore a Serpent because it stings but stings because it is a Serpent so we are not ingrafted into Christ because we are good but being ingrafted into Christ wee are made good Lastly obserue in the wordes that wee are not iustified because wee worke but because wee shall be saued therefore wee worke Zaccheus Luke 19.8 had not saluation because hee restored foure-fold and gaue halfe his goods to the poore but because the Lord was come into his house and had taken possession of his heart therefore hee wrought these works of faith Neither was the poore man in the Gospell healed because he should sinne no more Iohn 5.14 but Christ faith Thou art healed therefore in signe of thankfulnesse for thy health looke to thy life that thou sinne no more for heauen shall not be giuen to workes but to workers and promise of eternall life is made to the workes of the iust as they are iustified Gal. 3.11.12 and they are iustified onely in Christ for in euery worke there is imperfection not but that the spirit could worke perfectly but that euery thing is receiued according to the measure of that that doth receiue it and wee in this life are able onely to receiue the first fruites and not the fulnesse of the spirit for the spirit is like the Sea that is able to fill any vessell but no vessell is able to containe it Now in the 23. verse two parts are to be considered first the purpose of the Apostle in alledging this Scripture secondly the sense of the matter deliuered For the first if Saint Iames cited this place to proue that Abraham was imputed righteous in the sight of God by this work of sacrificing his sonne hee must needes haue wrested this Scripture which were blasphemy to say being written by the singer of God for Abraham had this imputation of righteousnesse through his beleefe giuen him and pronounced by God himselfe Genes 15.6 before either Ismael or Isaak were borne so as then the meaning of the Apostle in alledging this scripture is onely to shew that that testimony which God gaue Abraham of the excellency of his faith was declared and approued to bee true by the performance and execution of this speciall worke Now for the second point concerning the sense of the place cited namely that Abraham beleeued God and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse here we see that it is agreeable to the scripture that the obedience of the sonne which stood in two parts first in fulfilling the law secondly in satisfying for our sins is onely inherent in the sonne and was in him euen from the moment of his conception to the moment of his ascension and that wee haue onely his obedience allowed vnto vs and through the imputation thereof we are made iust not that it abideth in our selues for we are no better then Abraham but we haue it by imputation as Abraham had And this is a doctrine of great comfort and necessitie to be beleeued that wee haue it by imputation and not of our selues for now wee are sure it shall neuer faile vs nor wee shall neuer lose it as Adam at first lost
his innocencie wherein he was created and therefore now since the Lord recouered vs being lost he hath more care of vs then to trust vs with the cariage of our owne righteousnesse and therfore hath committed it to him whose loue faileth vs not and of whose abundance euery of vs are filled Now this the Iesuites doe greatly scorne and call it a new no righteousnesse if we be not iust in our owne persons and they say that God cannot be iust if he make a man iust through the righteousnesse of another and not in himselfe Take heed say they of the glosse of the Caluinists who hold that our righteousnesse is a thing onely inherent in Christ which is a fantastical imputatiue new no righteousnesse whereby we conceiue that to be in vs which cannot bee found in vs and they say the Iesuites count it more to Gods honor to take him to be iust that is not so then for God to make him iust through his grace that was wicked Further the Iesuites say that God at first iustifieth meerely by grace but after so qualifieth a man as after his conuersion he hath righteousnesse inherent in him and so not imputed and this is mans righteousnesse because it is in man but Gods righteousnesse because it commeth from God To this we answer and agree that God iustifieth the wicked but it is blasphemie to say that hee iustifieth the wicked continuing wicked and we hold that wee are made iust through the obedienceof Christ communicated to vs and as Christ for vs was made sinne who of himselfe had no sin so we in Christ are made righteous being of our selues vniust And wheras they say that God after a mans conuersion doth qualifie him with some habituall matter whereby he is in himselfe iust before God we say that he iustifieth no man but after his calling when he giueth him the spirit of regeneration whereby he is chaunged in his affections and reformed in his life which is as water where bloud hath gone before by bloud to cleare him from the guiltinesse and by water to cleanse him from the filthinesse of his sinne so as we say he is not wicked after his calling 1. Ioh. 5.6 but God then maketh him partaker of the first fruites of the spirit witnesse his conuersation and by this effect he is declared to be iustified in the bloud of Christ Yea but say the Iesuites your opinion cannot be sound since righteousnesse giueth a denomination that such a man is righteous before God and it is such a qualitie as a man cannot be said to be iust in the iustice of another no more then to liue by another mans health Now this is true of formall qualities but not of iudiciall imputation for as a payment made by another dischargeth the obligation and maketh the principall partie no debter so the iustice of God being satisfied in the death of Christ wee are freed from that penaltie we had incurred and acquitted of that debt we did owe which we should haue paied had not Christ done it Hereupon the righteousnesse of Christ is called a garment which we haue not by birth but as a thing that commeth from without so as the righteousnesse of Christ confisting in the couering of our nakednesse as a garment prooueth that that whereby we are imputed righteous is not a thing abiding in vs but a thing laied vpon vs in the loue of Christ Yea but say the Iesuites what iustice is this in God to accompt a man righteous in anothers righteousnesse or to account him a sinner that had no sinne True it is it is another mans righteousnes if we speake of the inherencie but yet our righteousnesse and not his onely as he is our person our Christ and our Sauiour Ioh. 17.23 and it is ours since wee haue him whose it is and this maintaineth Gods iustice to punish Christ in our person and to iustifie vs in his in respect that he is in vs and we in him and so doth he neither punish the innocent nor iustifie the wicked And for this cause it is said that we are flesh of his flesh Ephes 5.30 and bone of his bone which must not be vnderstood of any incarnation grosse naturall coalition and mixture of his flesh and ours for then the reprobate should haue this righteousnesse aswell as the elect But as it is said in mariage man and wife are but one flesh not meaning thereby any coniunction of natures but still they remaine seuerall but onely because by couenant and promise they are to separate their bodies one for another so is it to be vnderstood not that we with Christ are conioyned in substance but yet more nearely conioyned then any naturall or artificiall vnion and more truely but yet spiritually then the husband is to the wife the members to the body the branch to the tree or the meat to the body that it nourisheth which must alwaies bee taken mystically And in this respect when wee know that Christ is truely ours that God giueth life and this life is in the Sonne and this Sonne is in vs it followeth that wee are not saued by his righteousnesse but by our owne his person being made one person with vs not really in substance but spiritually and yet not subiect to fantasie onely for wee are indeed in Christ and not partakers of his spirit onely but of his flesh also according to that of Christ Iohn 6.50 Vnlesse ye eat my flesh and drinke my bloud yee haue no life in you not that wee eat the verie flesh of Christ with our mouth but leauing the grossenesse of substance we do truly feed on him by faith spiritually and we are made not onely partakers of his benefites but of Christ himselfe as it is said He that hath the Sonne hath life not the benefits of his life but life it selfe so as we are ingrafted not into Christ his death but into Christ himselfe and Christ dwelleth in vs as himselfe speaketh Iohn 6.56 And wee are made not one soule with Christ in desire nor called spirituall because we are ioyned to him in spirit for wee are ioyned to him in bodie allso yet is it called spirituall because it is wrought by the power of the holy Ghost by faith in this life and in the life to come by the very aspect and beholding of God and the irradiation of the blessed Trinity And although we are not able to conceiue and vnderstand this it is no maruell for it is a great mystery a mystery of all mysteries surpassing the excellency of an Angels conceipt only adore it and beleeue it and labour not to compasse it by the weaknesse of thine vnderstanding which shall neuer be truly vnderstood till we see God face to face Heere may be demanded how Abraham could bee one flesh with Christ seeing that he died long before Christ was borne Notwithstanding this be so yet Abraham and all the rest of the Fathers through their
he must sauour of death which cannot be proued by this The wisedome of the flesh is enmitie to God but he that is borne of God cannot be Gods enemy on the other side hee that walketh in the wisedome of the flesh obeieth not the law of God and by consequent saith the Apostle cannot but sinne Whereupon it followeth that they that liue after the inclination of the heart of man cannot please God and so cannot bee saued now hee that is in Christ cannot but please God because he cannot but performe his will Another reason that being a true Christian a man cannot but amend his life is taken out of Rom. 6.5 Whosoeuer is made partaker of Christ is made partaker of the death of Christ then is he dead to sinne proued thus Christ by his death deserued not onely remission of our sinnes but also to haue the holy Ghost in those that bee his to mortifie their sinne and this spirit cannot bee idle but worketh and his worke is to dâ—â—troy oâ—â—â—nemie that is sinne Lastly it is proued thus Whosoeuer is in Christ hath the spirit of Christ he that hath this spirit liueth in the spirit for the life of the spirituall man is the Lord Iesus euen as the life of the bodie is the soule and hee that hath a soule must needs breath and walking Galat. 5.24 in the spirit hee cannot fulfill the lustes of the flesh for the flesh and the spirit bee contrary And vers 24. it is said They that are Christs haue crucified the flesh with the affections thereof and who these bee appeareth 1. Peter 4.2 such as suffer in the flesh and these be they that cease from sinne Now then for thee to say thou art flesh and blood is not a shelter pleadable when thou art reprehended for sinne for he that is a good Christian cannot but forbeare it and if thou art all flesh and blood then hast thou not the spirit of God which is proued 1. Corinth 6.16 Do you not know how he that coupleth himselfe with a harlot is one flesh with her and hee that is one flesh with a harlot cannot bee one spirit with Christ Iesus Euen so for wrath toward thy brother thou saiest thou canst not loue him Consider that if the Lord should iudge thee out of thine owne mouth thou couldest not bee saued Thou wilt say the iniury is so great as no man can put it vp but hee that is more then a man can doe it and if thou beest all man Christ Iesus will neuer put vp thy name among the Saints Looke 1. Ioh. 5.3 Hee that is borne againe counteth all the commandements of God light so as if thou be of God it is an easie matter to forgiue the brother If he repent not of the wrong done vnto thee leaue the vengeance to God Rom. 12.20 and heape thou coles of fire on his head and if he do repent and seeke reconcilement it is the easier to forget it and flesh and blood doth pity the case of the suppliant For the third point which is the way how to assure our selues to be the sons of God wee must learne that there is no so certaine a marke to discerne a man to be of God as holinesse of life not but that Gods children may fall most grieuously and blemish their profession most foully but that if Sathan happe to blindfold them that they goe astray yet with the lost sonne they will returne with double sorrow and vnfold to their shame their owne sinne Example wâ—â—ere â—f wee haue in Dauid who though he was ingaged to the Lord by his many benefites that tooke him from the sheepe-hooke and gâ—â—e him a Scepter that by his protection had made him escape the snares of his enemies and by his mercy had freed him from many tribulations yet did he fall into great vncleannesse euen the sinne of adulterie 2. Sam. 11.4.5.6.7 which by the law of God deserued depriuation of this humane life When he had done this hee glauered and flattered with the womans husband and bad him goe home to refresh himselfe with his wife seeking thereby to father the bastard on him When this succeeded not he thought to make him drunke that he might thereby bee more irritable to lust and so to haue gone to his wife And though Vriah answered hee could not doe it because the Arke of the Lord was in the field which had not Dauid beene desperatly sicke in his soule how could he haue beene so forgetfull of the Lord as to haue dealt so with him that was no Iew but a conuert to religion heereby to make the name of the Lord euill spoken of Yet when this preuailed not hee went further and vnto adultery hee added murther that hee might make his sinne knowen and his vnholy life to appeare both to God and man and carry as the greefe of it in his heart so the shame of it in his fore-head And in this hee wrought worse then Iesabel for hee made Vriah the instrument and messenger of the letters for his owne execution yea hee sent them to Ioab who had himselfe beene a murtherer which might harden his heart in that sinne seeing Dauid that was the King not onely a fauourer but the cause of such bloody actions And after what manner should this be done namely that hee should fall by the sword of the vncircumcised a most ignominious and shamefull and grieuous death for so Christian a Gentleman and that hee should so murder him as to colour the grieuousnesse of his fault not hee alone but many other should die innocent and that hee should continue senslesse in this sinnefull course by the space of a yeere yet when it pleased God to cure his disease of hypocrisie and to cleare his eyes that hee saw not his sinne but his chaine of sinnes beâ—â—â—â—â—im then he calleth himselfe not a man of blood but of bloâ—â—â— â—nd then â—is conscience is open to grieue for it and then with his teares he washeth away his vncleannesse and wallâ—â—â—â—â—s a man cleansed and purged from his filthinesse So as if aâ—y bee a whoore let her remember the teares of Mary Mâ—gâ—alene if a persecuter of the Saints let him repent with Paâ—â— Luk. 7.38 Gal. 1.15 Mat. 26.75 if a murtherer let him soundly confesse his sinne with Dauid and if he be Apostasied weepe with Peter for these be the workes of righteousnesse whereby they are knowen to be of God And seeing others deliuered from the pit wee must learne as Dauid saith Psal 56.3 to feare and to trust so as wee must alwaies feare to fall into the sinne before being fallen we can trust to bee deliuered for this is one part of the righteousnesse of Gods children to tremble at the sight of sinne and then shall wee neuer swallow it without remorse Secondly from hence learne that a man may know in what state another man is If I see thee a despiser of religion a profaner of the Sabbath a butcher to the poore and an vncleane liuer what shall I beleeue thee to be but the child of the diuell for this may I know by thy fruites Why but loue biddeth you hope the best 1. Cor. 13.7 and beleeue the best True it is loue biddeth me beleeue all things but not a sow to bee cleane wallowing in the mire or a dogge not to bee filthy that is regorging vp his stomacke Mar. 6.44 or that grapes can grow vpon brambles or that mercy can bee found in the heart of an vsurer or that thornes may bee touched and will not pricke For as loue bids mee not to determine too soone so not to bee abused too late and God bids me looke vpon the tree to iudge of the fruite I may say thou art in the state of damnation for by thy snarling I know thee to bee a dogge Mat. 7.6 and I see thy heart through thy hands but whether thou shalt be finally damned I leaue thee there for the Lord may haue mercy on thee vpon thy repentance I may come to the tree and say heere is no fruite or here is small fruit or heere is bad fruit but I cannot say Neuer fruit grow on thee heereafter as Christ did Mark. 11.13 And it is not the commers to Sermons but the doers of Sermons