miserie but not to this end onely to terrifie thee but that by terrifying it may make thee runne a-pace from miserie to felicitie Wherefore take courage and come with mee profitably to behold the countenance of miserie which as heretofore hath beene mentioned presents it selfe in a double aspect the miserie of corruption and the miserie of punishment inflicted on this corruption To discouer thy corruption thou shalt finde a strict and seuere Law the Counter-pane whereof is placed in thine owne heart and when thou comparest thy actions with this Law thou canst not choose but say thou art a Creature falne from the dutie of thy Creation for ill doe thy actions become him whom the Creator hath appointed to bee his seruant and the Lord of the World Now if thy deedes bee so vnrighteous in the sight of thy Maker how must not that highest Lord be displeased exceedingly with these lower Lords when hee seeth his perfection and Iustice crossed and contraryed with their imperfection iniustice when hee seeth his Creatures hyred by so many inestimable benefits only to doe him the seruice of Righteousnesse which is a thing of it selfe to bee loued to renounce their allegeance yea to rebell against their Creator with a course of opposition and to loue wickednesse more then a bountifull God commanding Righteousnesse Surely the wrath of the Almightie must needes smoke against such Traytors and rebellious Runnagates And if the Lyon rore how shall not the Beasts of the Forrests bee afraid Hence therefore the miserie of our corruption leades vs to the consideration of the miserie of punishment And that there is such a connexion betweene sinne punishment reason experience Gods owne Word do teach vs. Reason tells vs that hee who hath brought this great frame to an vnitie consisting of disagreeing parts by proportiō weight and measure is himselfe a God of Wisedome Order and Proportion And if he bee such hee must needes expect that Creatures of Reason Vnderstanding should also obserue Order Iustice and Righteousnesse For to say the truth as by this harmonie the Word was founded so by the same is it still preserued But if these Creatures which haue in them a power of resembling pleasing their Maker crosse him with a crosse of contrarie actions it must needes be expected that the Lord being crossed by his seruants in disobedience must also crosse them in punishment and being mightily inraged hee will returne the malice of their owne works on their owne heads Now wee know as the person is so is his wrath and as the wrath is so is the punishment An infinite person an infinite Wrath and an infinite punishment The very instincts of decayed Nature haue inspired the acknowledgement hereof into the terrifyed hearts of guiltie selfe-accusing Heathens who not knowing God but by the knowledge of nature yet because of their wicked liues vpon the hearing of thunder and tempests haue feared and shunned the furie of an Omnipotent Iustice. But now I shall little need to tell thee what experience hath already taught thee For I doubt not but to most that consider the life of Man it hath appeared that the mayne course of humane life is a connexion or succession of vnrighteousnesse and wretchednesse Man liueth as out of the sight of his Maker and Man liueth as out of the cherishing and fostering of his Maker being generally thrust out vnto a warre against brambles and bryers against the barrennesse and staruednesse of a cursed earth which he must resist and ouer-come with the sweat of his browes Yea each man eateth other men though not with the teeth of the body yet with the iawes of a fraudulent ouer-reaching and violent soule And yet there are further miseries wayting vpon Mischiefe for besides visible and palpable examples of sudden iustice executed and sent from heauen vpon diuers eminent and outragious crimes wee see in generall that this sinfull life at the best is but wise vanitie pleasant vanitie or glorious vanitie and at the worst vexation of spirit vexation of body losse of goods and losse of friends Yea Man is but a piece of reasonable miserie He hath reason to fore-see miserie and so to take it to his hart when reason cannot preuent it reason to fore-see death but not to auoid it For as sure as wickednesse is present so sure shal death be present for death and sinne wee see daily are in euery Man vnseparable Now the combining of sin and miserie in this bodily life for this life concernes the body most the soule least and so doth the misery of this life points our expectation to another life euen that there shall bee a pursuit of punishment after sinne in that life which is most proper to the soule that then the bodily miseries of this life shall bee seconded with spirituall torments But if we leaue these darker characters of reason and experience and come to diuine Reuelations there wee may reade running the fall and miserie of Man And these before are described out of the same holy Writings but here again they must be considered by the Learner of the doctrine of happinesse that by the full search and tenting of his miserie his miserie may be cured Briefly therefore to speake what hath beene spoken hee shall finde in Gods Word that wickednesse and sinne is the transgression of the Law that the Law being transgressed and offended is the ministerie of death That this death is both of soule and body in an eternall darkenesse absence from God who is Light yea in an eternall suffering of the fire of the wrath of God For Gods wrath is a Worme a Fire euer feeding on the tormented soules and bodies of disobedient wicked and sinfull men And now when thou hast found thy selfe a sinner and findest also the terror wrath of God against sinners I know thou canst not chuse but thinke thy selfe awhile the child of death and thy estate fearefull Thou wilt cry Wo is mee a man of sorrow and Wretched man that I am and call thy body a body of death But as I told thee before this terror is but thy way and not thy wayes end It is but thy entrance into happinesse yea it is thy aduancement vnto happinesse For the burthen of thy miserie will moue thee to seeke for one to ease and refresh thee The bitternes of thy wretchednesse will make thee more comfortably to rellish the sweetnesse of a Sauiour and the fearefulnesse of the Valley of death will make thee more stedfastly to list vp thy eies to the Hil of God from whence commeth thy saluation And surely this fruit of Humilitie doth God expect before he will exalt Hee will haue vs confesse our miserie to be fearefull and desperate in it selfe he will haue vs to feele it to bee a burthen intolerable we must tell him in wordes and deedes that we are weary and ouer-heauy laden and then is it for his glorie to helpe
Fountayne of goodnesse the Way to felicitie yea Felicitie it self The Manhood vnited to the Godhead is the Dore of happinesse and the Godhead vnited to the Manhood is Happinesse it selfe The life which in Paradise might haue beene receiued from the Tree of Life is now to bee receiued from that Manhood which is the Bread of Life And hee in whom is the Sabbath will now leade vs vnto the Sabbath which is in himselfe CHAP. IIII. The particular fitnesse of Mans restoring How it freeth him from miserie and in all points possesseth him of happinesse IT hath appeared how Man exchanged that which was his true felicitie but seemed not to be so for that which seemed to bee true felicitie but was indeed true misery Now let vs see againe how he can exchange his miserie for felicitie or rather how God doth it for him For God-in-Man our blessed Restorer hath done all things that may bee required for exchanging wretchednesse into blessednes and whatsoeuer God hath done is most fit yea necessarie for such an exchange To find the perfectnesse of our restauration in some measure let vs consider the miserie which we haue gotten and the excellence and happinesse which wee haue lost In our miserie we may with chiefest sorrow behold a roote of sinne an issue of corruption which being vgly it selfe begets also many sins vgly like it selfe and so altogether they prouoke the wrath and detestation of a pure GOD whereon attend all plagues temporall and eternal Man is the slaue of Wickednesse and Wickednes is the slaue of Iustice Wickednesse commands Man to offend Iustice commands Wickednesse to bee punished Here is the foundation of diseases famines pestilence heart-breaking cares and sorrowes the temporall death of the body and the thousand times more fearefull eternall death both of body and soule For Man being become a Nurserie of wickednesse wickednesse becomes the fuell of wretchednesse And as all these reall and positiue distresses afflict most miserable Man so hath he certayne priuations and absences of that excellence and happinesse wherein and whereunto he was created Hee hath lost the abilitie of doing the dutie of his Creation he hath lost the end and glorie of that duetie For hee hath lost obedience to God and he hath lost the Crowne of that obedience eternal fruition of God his soueraigne felicitie And now when the sore of mankinde was growne to this vastnesse that the whole world could not fit it with an equall plaister GOD who onely made Nature and can onely restore parts of Nature which are cut off and destroyed by his owne right hand and holy arme got himselfe the victorie ouer our miserie God doth put himselfe into the recouerie of mankind and if God be on our side Who can bee against vs for hee that will be against vs must needs be a Creature and therefore inferiour to him who made all things God being vnited to Man hath in himself an infinite store-house of blessednesse infinitely exceeding our miserie and whatsoeuer hee will blesse shall be blessed This blessednesse God imparts vnto Man either by turning bitternesse into sweetnesse euill into good or by taking away the bitter euill and putting the good sweetnes in the stead thereof And first toward the perfecting of this cure God in our Sauiour strikes at the roote of our miserie Sinne is the foundation of miserie our being against God who is holinesse sets God who is also happinesse against vs and after this we neede not to looke for any farther cause of wretchednes Neither is it a sufficient cure to heale vs of our old guilt of sinnes past because we still incurre a new by running into new sinnes because sin by lust hath dominion ouer vs. Therefore the chaines of this slauery vnto sinne must bee broken a sunder as well as the guilt of former sinnes purged Man being cleared from obligation vnto punishment must also be freed from obedience and obligation vnto that which obligeth vnto punishment This therefore our Sauiour vndertaketh and by a most precious Death and Passion satisfies the Iustice of GOD offended with our sinnes and after in a glorious Resurrection ray seth himselfe to a new life free from sinne which tooke away his former life and this free life by the spirit of libertie hee bestoweth on his members thereby discharging them from the slauerie of sinne and consequently of death the effect of sinne And that the Iustice of God might not yet complaine that though the breaches of the Law were satisfied yet the obedience vnto the Law was not fulfilled which was a yoke imposed on mankind by the Iustice of God in the Creation Therefore hee who freeth vs from the guilt of sinne and from the slauerie of sinne performeth also for vs a righteousnesse perfect without sinne that so the Law might clayme nothing of Man which by Man was not acquitted And this Righteousnesse as hee performed through his whole life so in that one action of his Passion he fulfilled a whole and intire Righteousnesse euen the length and breadth of the Law while for the loue of God and Man which is the substance of the Law he laid downe his life euen for the glory of God and the felicitie of Man Neither let the large communicablenes of this his absolute satisfying and bounding of the Law and Iustice of God be questioned much lesse censured by Mans foolish knowledge of good and euill for he who made this satisfaction is equiualent yea infinitely preualent to all mankinde his person is of more dignitie then all our persons and as an ordinarie King is more worth then a thousand of his subiects so this King of Kings is more worth then all the thousands of vs his Creatures And as his Person by reason of the Deitie is of such excellence so are also his actions euen of greater worth then if mankind had ioyned in the performance of them For according to the worth of the person is the worth of the action Now the person of Christ must surmount all creatures in dignitie for the worth of all Creatures floweth from the worth of Christ and the worth that giues worth must needes bee more then the worth giuen But if it be confessed that there is in Christ a sufficient worthinesse but there remaines a doubt how this may bee giuen to another It is answered that vnion makes a communitie the things of persons vnited are common to both by being one If a King marry the daughter of a meane person yet by the vnion of marriage his royaltie is cōmunicated to her by which though before a begger shee must of force become a Queene And now Man being freed from the burden of the Law and from the sinne and sinfulnesse which did sting vs by the Law the punishments which did before attend vpon sinne eyther altogether fall away or cease to be punishments Eternall death is a thing that cannot be made good no more then Darknesse can bee made Light
while it is Darknesse and therefore from the iustified sanctified is that wholly taken away But sorrow sicknesse temporall death and al other outward euils may cease to be euils yea they may bee turned into benefits and indeede are so by the excellence of him that dwelt in vs. But yet our Restorer ceaseth not in a meere deliuerie of vs from positiue euils but he goes farther in his bountie restoreth to vs a certaine abilitie of performing our dutie right of beholding our Creator yea a stabilitiein both which is more then formerly was giuen to Man As he freeth vs from Death so he giueth vs life as hee freeth vs from being disobedient to God so hee giueth vs an obediēce pleasing to God as he payeth for our defacing of Gods Image so he restoreth againe to vs the Image it selfe and finally as he taketh from vs the wrath and terrors of God so hee giues vs the pleasures and happinesse which are in the presence of God for euermore And all these benefits doth our Sauiour giue by one instrument or conueyance and by one action The meanes by which he bestowes and imparts his benefits is his Spirit and the action is Regeneration The Spirit of God is the breath and vertue of the Highest which cōmunicates life power to those whom hee vnites to himselfe euen as the Tree sends sappe into the graffe which it striueth to adopt after a sort and knit vnto it selfe By this Spirit is the vnitie and communitie betweene Christ and his members really performed forby this Spirit Christ liueth in his members and CHRISTS members liue in him Christ partaketh their miseries and takes them on himselfe and Christs members partake his Excellence and all the benefits of his being a Sauiour This Vnion is the knot of blessednesse it is the very graffing into the Tree of Life that which our first Parents lost both by eating and not eating hereby is recouered giuen to vs for by this Vnion we are one with God and GOD is one with vs which is the bond of perfection the action in which the Spirit of God entreth vniting is Regeneration or a new-making by which Man of sinfull and corrupt is made holy according to the Image of his Maker and from a slaue of sinne he is made an obedient sonne of God And now as wee beheld Man before in his miserie let vs behold Man restored to felicitie What euill can wee finde that is not taken away at least from being euill What good can we thinke of that is not supplyed in a greater degree then our thoughts can comprehend And if this bee not the true remedie of our miserie and our true exaltation to happinesse we are all lost for the world can shew vs no better After a supply of obedience to the Law and Iustice of God there is also a Sacrificé and satisfaction for the disobedience against the Law The greatest miserie of eternall death is vtterly taken away The euils of life are turned from punishments into exercises of the Spirit dwelling in vs or into chastisements of the corruption yet remayning with vs so are they benefits and no longer euils For the Spirit which is our life groweth by exercise as bodily strength doth by bodily labour and the sadnesse of the heart many times chasteneth profitably the remayning corruption of the flesh as frost doth the weedes As for corporall death which is commonly feared as the greatest euill it is turned into the greatest benefit For it is a dore both to goe out of this life of wretchednesse and to goe into a life of happines whereof the one is darkesome full of Serpents and hanted with spirits and the other glorious in light full of shining Angels and glorified Saints in Eternall blessednes As a dore in a partition betweene two roomes so is death between two liues it no sooner lets vs out of the one but it lets vs into the other so that we doe not so much goe out of life as go into Life for that onely deserues the name of life which is full of happinesse and that in perpetuitie and not that which is filled with miseries and whose speciall commendation is breuitie Therefore let it be farre from vs from henceforth to call that euil which deliuereth vs from miserie into felicitie Moreouer whereas we were in a continuall slauerie vnto corruption euen to that false knowledge of good and euill by which also we were obedient slaues vnto the Deuill the master and teacher of this knowledge Now that authoritie and command of corrupt and fleshly wisedome is broken downe foolishnesse sinne and the Serpent haue no longer dominion ouer vs neither are we at the direction of Lust to know and to doe onely what it teacheth and approueth Euils being thus altered and taken away from Man wee may also behold Man placed in his dutie which first and still is his way to happinesse Accordingly one and the same Spirit breatheth holinesse breatheth life and in the same seede whereby the Image of God isrenewed the life of God is communicated and by one new birth we are sons that is cōformable to God and Heires of God Thus are we most blessedly changed our miseries are cast behind our backs wee are placed in the path of dutie and therein we walke on to happinesse which stands as a marke before vs and here let vs settle our foot let vs fasten our steps in this path chalked out by the Spirit for the Spirit will both defend vs in this way and at last bring vs to the wayes end which is eternall felicitie In this path of the Spirit is perpetuall safetie and protection the Serpent cannot bite vs and if he doe bite his venom is turned into a medicine so that hee doth rather heale then poison For the Spirit is more good then any thing is euill it will sanctifie and blesse whatsoeuer befalleth vs and the malice of euils inflicted on vs is cured and made wholesome by the soueraign Spirit which dwelleth in vs. But perchance it will bee asked Why these seeming euils be not wholly taken away as well as altered it being better to the iudgement of Man that there were nothing bitter then that there should be a bitternesse though recompensed with sweetnesse Againe it may be asked why the remnant of corruption is so grent in Man that it leadeth Man captiue often to do that which he would not and the power of the Spirit is in so small a degree that hee cannot doe that which hee would To these and the like questions if the will of the Restorer were brought for an answere it might stand for an answere sufficient For it being Gods meere mercy to restore vs who can require him to shew vndeserued mercy in any other māner or degree then himselfe shall please But yet wee haue other reasons giuen one is that this place of our present being hauing been ouerthrowne made accursed by the fall of