Devil and Apostate spirits are perpetually active and busie in promoting the Concernments of the Kingdome of Darkness And therefore doubtless He whom God hath made the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls can never be so regardless of his Office nor so careless of his Flock and tender Lambs committed to his charge as to suffer those cruel Wolves to prey upon them at pleasure and to have no pity at all for them nor to extend his watchful Providence over them whom once he vouchsafed to redeem with his own precious bloud No certainly he that waded through so many difficulties and agonies for us in the daies of his Flesh he that bore our griefs and carried our sorrows he that was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities that sweat drops of bloud in the Garden and was nailed to the Cross for us in Golgotha He cannot so easily forget those whom he hath so dearly bought nor suffer all that power which God hath invested him with for the good of his Church to lie by him idle and unimployed But to the end that there might not be the least ground of Suspicion or Distrust left in the minds of men concerning this particular Christ after his Ascension into Heaven thought good to give us a sensible demonstration both of his Kingly Power and of his watchful Care and Providence over his Church that he would not leave them orphans and destitute of all assistence by sending down his Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in a visible and miraculous manner upon his Disciples Acts 2. 32. This Jesus hath God raised up of which we are all Witnesses Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the Promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear And verily if there had been no news heard of our Lord and Saviour Christ after he ascended above the Clouds out of his Disciples sight no real and visible Demonstration of his Existence Power and Providence over his Church the distrustful hearts of men would have been too prone to suspect that the pretence of an invisible Kingdome at God's right hand above had been no better then a mere Dream an aiery and phantastick Notion and they would have been too ready to have called in question the truth of all his other Miracles his Resurrection and Ascension witnessed onely by his own Disciples and to have surmised those several Apparitions of his that we reade of after his Death had been nothing else but Spectres or Phantasms like the vulgarly-believed Apparitions of the Ghosts of men in Aiery bodies But the sensible and miraculous Pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples after his Ascension into Heaven was a palpable Confirmation of all Christ's other Miracles of the Validity of his Meritorious Death and Passion of the Truth of his Resurrection and Ascension and gives most comfortable assurance to all Believers to the World's end that though his Bodily presence be withdrawn from them yet he hath not left his Church utterly forlorn and destitute of all assistence but that his Spirit the Holy Comforter continueth to be present amongst them as his Vicegerent and to assist them for all the holy purposes of the Gospel to the World's end Now the principal Effects of Christ's holy Spirit which are to be hoped for and expected by every true Believer and private Christian are comprised by the Apostle under Three Heads here in the Text as consisting in a Threefold Victory over a Threefold Enemy The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. A Victory over Sin as that which is the Cause of Death 2. A Victory over the Law as that which aggravates the Guilt and exasperates the Power of Sin 3. Lastly A Victory over Death the Fruit and Consequent of Sin FIRST therefore There is a Victory over Sin to be obtained in and through Christ. Some there are that will acknowledge no other Victory over Sin but an External one that whereby it was conquered for us by Christ upon the Cross sixteen hundred years since where he spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it Col. 2. 15. and where he redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. And doubtless this was one great end of Christ's coming into the world to make a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of mankind Not onely that he might thereby put a period to those continually-repeated and ineffectual Sacrifices of brute Beasts and the Offering of the bloud of Bulls and Goats that could not take away Sin nor propitiate the Divine Majesty but also that he might at once give a sensible Demonstration both of God's high Displeasure against Sin and of his Placableness and Reconcilableness to Sinners returning to Obedience and therefore to that end that the Despair of Pardon might not hinder any from Repentance and Amendment of Life promulgate free Pardon and Remission of Sins through his Bloud to all that should repent and believe the Gospel But it is a very unsound and unwholsome Interpretation of this Salutary Undertaking of Christ's in the Gospel as if the ultimate End and Design of it were to procure Remission of Sin and Exemption from Punishment onely to some particular persons still continuing under the Power of Sin and to save them at last in their Sins also that is with a mere outward and carnal Salvation it being a thing utterly impossible that those Undefiled Rewards of the Heavenly Kingdome should be received and enjoyed by men in their Unregenerate and unrenewed Nature For what is this else but to make Christ the grand Patron of the Kingdome of Darkness and to suppose God to be such a Being as may be bribed and corrupted by Sacrifice and Intercession to a partial Connivence and fond Indulgence of men in their Sins to all Eternity Or else to insinuate that there is no other Evil at all in Sin but onely in respect of that outward Punishment consequent upon it which is to destroy the Nature and Reality of Sin and to make it nothing but a mere Name or Phancy as if Good and Evil Just and Unjust as some Philosophers dreamed were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely had no Reality in Nature but depended onely upon Arbitrary Laws enforced by Outward Punishments or mere Opinion and so were onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Democritus expressed it mere Factitious things or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fictitious and Imaginary Either of which opinions if they were true then indeed Remission of Sin and Exemption from Punishment would quite take away all the Evil of Sin But if Sin be not a mere Name or Phancy but that which hath a Real and
them to be without us being nothing but the Vital Energies of our own Spirits In a word God would have Man to be a Living Temple for himself to dwell in and his Faculties Instruments to be used and employed by him which need not be thought impossible if that be true that Philosophy tells us that there is Cognatio quaedam a certain near Kindred and Alliance between the Soul and God Lastly we must observe though this inward Victory over Sin be no otherwise to be effected then by the Spirit of Christ through Faith and by a Divine Operation in us so that in a certain sense we may be said to be Passive thereunto yet notwithstanding we must not dream any such thing as if our Active Cooperation and Concurrence were not also necessarily required thereunto For as there is a Spirit of God in Nature which produceth Vegetables and Minerals which humane Art and Industry could never be able to effect namely that Spiritus intus alens which the Poet speaks of which yet notwithstanding doth not work Absolutely Unconditionately and Omnipotently but requireth certain Preparations Conditions and Dispositions in the Matter which it works upon For unless the Husbandman plow the Ground and sow the Seed the Spirit of God in Nature will not give any increase In like manner the Scripture tells us that the Divine Spirit of Grace doth not work Absolutely Unconditionately and Irresistibly in the Souls of men but requireth certain Preparations Conditions and Cooperations in us forasmuch as it may both be quenched and stirred up or excited in us And indeed unless we plow up the Fallow-ground of our hearts and sow to our selves in Righteousness as the Prophet speaks by our earnest endeavours we cannot expect that the Divine Spirit of Grace will showr down that Heavenly increase upon us Wherefore if we would attain to a Victory over Sin by the Spirit of Christ we must endeavour to fight a good Fight and run a good Race and to enter in at the streight gate that so overcoming we may receive the Crown of Life And thus much shall suffice to have spoken at this time concerning the First Particular The Victory over Sin I Shall now proceed to speak something briefly to the Two other Victories that remain which are attainable also by Christ over the Law and Death And the Law may be considered two manner of waies First as an outward Covenant of Works that pronounceth Death and Condemnation to all that do not yield absolute and entire Obedience to whatever is therein commanded and which imposed also with the same Severity a multitude of outward Ceremonial Observations which had no intrinsecal Goodness at all in them but kept men in a state of Bondage and Servility Now the Law in this sense as it is an outward Letter and Covenant of Works is already conquered externally for us by Christ's Death upon the Cross Galat. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree That the Blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith And he hath thereby freed us also from our Obligation to those Commandments that were not Good having broken down the Middle-wall of Partition that was betwixt Jew and Gentile abolishing in his Flesh the Enmity even the Law of Commandments Ephes. 2. 14 15. And blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and taking it out of the way nailing it to his Cross Coloss. 2. 14. Secondly The Law is sometimes also considered in Scripture as an inward state of Minde wrought by the Law and Truth of God whether written outwardly in the Letter of the Scripture or inwardly in the Conscience prevailing onely so farre as to beget a Conviction of mens Duty and of the Wrath of God against Sin but not inabling them with inward strength and power to doe what is commanded willingly out of a Love of it It is such a State when men are onely Passive to God's Law and unwillingly subject to it as an Enemy for fear of Wrath and Vengeance And this must needs be a state of miserable Bondage and Servility Distraction and Perplexity of minde when men are at once strongly convinced of the Wrath of God against Sin and yet under the power of their Lusts haling and dragging of them to the commission of it It is that state as I conceive which S. Paul describes Rom. 7. after this manner The Law is Spiritual but I am Carnal sold under Sin for that which I doe I allow not for what I would that doe I not but what I hate that doe I. And again I see another Law in my Members warring against my Minde and bringing me into Captivity under the Law of Sin O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Now from the Law in this sense that is from the Bondage and Servility of the Legal state we are not delivered nor made Conquerors by what Christ did outwardly upon the Cross as some imagine as if he had there purchas'd for us an Indulgence to sin without controll but by the inward working of his Holy Spirit freeing us from the Power and Bondage of Sin and unbewitching us from the Love of it Wherefore there is a double Freedome from this Legal state to be taken notice of a True a False Freedome which I cannot better explain then by using the Apostle's own Similitude in the beginning of the 7. Chap. Know ye not Brethren that the Law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth or rather as long as It that is the Law liveth For the Woman which hath an Husband is bound by the Law to her Husband so long as he liveth but if her Husband be dead she is loosed from the Law of the Husband So then if while her Husband liveth she be married to another man she shall be called an adulteress but if her Husband be dead she is free from that Law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man Where the Law is compared to an Husband and one that is under the Law or in a Legal state to a Woman that hath an Husband And as there are two waies by which a Woman may be freed from her Husband The one if she break loose from him whilst he yet liveth contrary to the Laws of Wedlock and marry to another man which is an undue and unlawful Freedome for then she is justly styled an Adulteress Another if she stay till her Husband be dead and then being free from the Law of her Husband does lawfully marry to another man In like manner there are two waies by which men may be freed from the Law as it is an inward state of Bondage and Servility The first is when
men do illegally and unlawfully break loose from the Law which is their Husband whilst he is yet alive and ought to have Dominion over them and marry themselves to another Husband which Husband 's name is Carnal Liberty or Licentiousness too often miscalled in these latter Times by the name of Christian Liberty and such as these may well be styled in the Scripture-language Adulterers and Adulteresses But there is another Freedome from the Law which is a due and just Freedome when we do not make our selves free before the time violently breaking loose from it but when we stay till the Law which is our Husband is dead and the Compulsory power of it taken away by the Mortification of our Lusts and Affections and so marry another Husband which is Christ or the Spirit of Righteousness Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Wherefore there are Three general states of Men in order to God and Religion that may be here taken notice of The First is of those that are alive to Sin and dead to the Law This the Apostle speaks of Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once These are those whose Consciences are not yet considerably awakened to any Sense of their Duty nor to the Discrimination of Good and Evil but sin freely without any check or controll without any disquieting Remorse of Conscience The Second is when men are at once alive both to the Law and Sin to the Conviction of the one and the Power and Love of the other both these strugling together within the Bowels of the Soul checking and controlling one another This is a broken confounded and shatter'd state and these in the Apostles language are said to be Slain by the Law I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died And the Commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death For Sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived me and by it Slew me Here is no Peace Rest nor Comfort to be had in this state mens Souls being distracted and divided by an intestine and civil Warr between the Law of the Minde and the Law of the Members conflicting with one another Wherefore the Third state is when men are dead both to the Law and Sin and alive unto God and Righteousness the Law of the Spirit of Life freeing them from the Law of Sin and Death In the First of these Three states which is the most wretched and deplorable of all we are Sin 's Free-men that is free to commit Sin without check or controll In the Second we are Bondmen to God and Righteousness and serve God out of a Principle of Fear and according to an outward Rule onely Children of Hagar the Bond-maid and of the Letter In the Third we are God's Free-men and Sons and serve him in the Newness of the Spirit out of a Love to God and Righteousness Children of the New Testament and of Sarah the Free-woman Wherefore here are Two Mistakes or Errors to be taken notice of that defeat and disappoint the Design of Christ in giving us Victory over the Law The first is of those that we have already mentioned that seek to themselves a Freedome from the Bondage of the Law otherwise then by Christ and the Spirit of Righteousness namely in a way of Carnal Liberty and Licentiousness whereby instead of being Bond-men to God and Righteousness they become perfect Free-men to Sin and Wickedness which is the most deplorable Thraldome in the World Wherefore these men instead of going forward from the Second state unto higher Perfection wheel back again unto the First just as if the Children of Israel after they had been brought out of Egypt and travelled awhile in the Desert of Arabia where the Law was given instead of entring into Canaan should have wheeled back into Egypt and then enjoying the Garlick and Onions and Flesh-pots thereof should persuade themselves that this was indeed the true Land of Promise that floweth with Milk and Honey And there is very great danger lest when men have been tired out by wandring a long time in the dry and barren Wilderness of the Law where they cannot enjoy the Pleasure of Sin as formerly and yet have not arrived to the relish and love of Righteousness by reason of their Impatience they should at last make more haste then good speed being seduced by some false shews of Freedome that are very tempting to such weary Travellers and promise much comfort and refreshment to them inviting them to sit down under their shadow Such as are a Self-chosen Holiness Ceremonial Righteousness Opinionative Zeal The Tree of Knowledge mistaken for the Tree of Life High-flown Enthusiasm and Seraphicism Epicurizing Philosophy Antinomian Liberty under the pretence of Free Grace and a Gospel-Spirit The Second Mistake that is here to be heeded is of those that would by all means persuade themselves that there is no higher State of Christian Perfection to be aimed at or hoped for in this Life then this Legal State That the Good they would doe they doe not the Evil they would not doe that they doe That the Law of Sin in their Members still leads them Captive from the Law of their Minds having no other Ground at all for this but a novel Interpretation of one Paragraph in the Epistle to the Romans contrary to other express Places of Scripture and the Sense of all ancient Interpreters and yet with so much zeal as if it were a principal part of the Gospel-Faith to believe this which is indeed arrant Infidelity and as if it were no less then Presumption or Impiety to expect a Living Law written upon our Hearts But this is nothing else but instead of seeking Liberty out of the Bondage of the Law to fall in love with our Bonds and Fetters and plainly to deny the Victory over the Law by Christ and to affirm that the Gospel is but the Ministration of a dead and killing Letter not of the Spirit that quickneth and maketh alive I Come now in the Third and last place to the Victory over Death expressed by the Resurrection of the Body to Life and Immortality which as it was meritoriously procured for us by Christ's dying upon the Cross his Resurrection afterward being an assured pledge of the same to us so it will be really effected at last by the same Spirit of Christ that gives us Victory over Sin here Rom. 8. 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you As if he should have said If the Spirit of Christ dwell in you regenerating and renewing your Souls the very same Spirit hereafter shall also immortalize your very Bodies Avicen the Mahumetan Philosopher in his Almahad hath a conceit That the
and Living Faith that worketh by Love which is the very Essence of the New Creature or Regenerate Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be imputed or accounted for Righteousness under the Gospel-dispensation where God will not proceed according to Legal Rigour and Severity with his fallen Creatures but according to that Equity and ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Philosopher tells us is the Truest Justice But our onely design is to caution against that Antinomian Error which is too often insinuated under the Notion of Imputed Righteousness as if there were no necessity of Inherent Righteousness and a Real Victory over Sin in order to Salvation but that an Imputed or Imaginary one might serve the turn Which Error springing up very early amongst the Gnostick-Christians S. John gives a seasonable Antidote against it 1 John 3. 7. Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous and in Chap. 2. v. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a Liar and the Truth is not in him To which purpose is that also in his first Chap. v. 5. This is the Message which we have heard of him and declare to you That God is Light and in him is no Darkness at all If we say that we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and doe not the Truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have Fellowship one with another and the Bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Wherefore the same Apostle in that Epistle tells us of overcoming the Wicked one Chap. 2. 14. and of overcoming the World by our Faith in Christ Chap. 5. 4. And in the Apocalyps he propoundeth from Christ himself divers remarkable Promises to him that overcometh That he shall eat of the Tree of life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God c. 2. v. 7. That he shall not be hurt of the Second Death v. II. That he shall have the hidden Manna and a white Stone with a new Name written in it which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it v. 17. That he will give him the morning Star v. 28. That he shall be clothed in white Raiment and his name shall not be blotted out of the Book of Life c. 3. v. 5. That he shall be a Pillar in the Temple of God v. 12. and That he shall sit with Christ in his Throne as he overcame and sate down with his Father in his Throne v. 21. The Condition of all which Promises being Overcoming we may well conclude from thence that there is a Real and not an Imaginary Victory onely to be obtained over the Power of Sin as well as the Guilt of it Nay it is true and very observable that those Places which are usually quoted as the Foundation of an Imputed Righteousness in some other sense then what we have before mentioned are indeed no otherwise to be understood then of a Real Inward Righteousness that is wrought or infused by the Spirit of Christ. As that principal one Philip. 3. v. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord that I may win him and be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Where Christ whom the Apostle desires to win and to be found in and the Righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ and the Righteousness which is of God through Faith are no External Imputed Righteousness but the Real Inward Righteousness of the New Creature wrought by the Spirit of Christ through Faith which is opposed here to our own Righteousness and the Righteousness which is of the Law that is the Righteousness of outward Works done by our own Natural power according to the Letter of the Law in our Unregenerate state for so the following words explain the meaning That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable unto his Death If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the dead And this same Inward and Real Righteousness is often elsewhere called Christ and the New man that is said to be In us and which we are exhorted to Put on not by Conceit or Imagination onely but by real Conformity to his Nature and Participation of his Spirit And whereas the Magnifiers of Free Grace in an Antinomian sense and the Decriers of Inherent Righteousness commonly conceive that the Free Grace of God consists in nothing but either in the Pardon of Sin and Exemption from Punishment or the Imputation of an External Holiness and accounting men Just freely without any Condition but onely the mere Believing of this that they are so accounted and that Faith is no otherwise considered in the Gospel then in order to the Believing of this Imputation and that our own Works when they are comparatively undervalued to Grace and Faith are to be taken for all Inherent Righteousness and Holiness even the New Creature it self That all these are Errors as it might be abundantly proved from sundry other places of Scripture so it may sufficiently appear from that one Ephes. 2. v. 4 c. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together That in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of Works left any man should boast For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works For when we are here said to be saved by Grace it is plain that the Apostle means by Saved inwardly Quickned and Sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Grotius well here is Purgari à Vittis which inward Sanctification is here attributed to God's Free Grace and denied to our selves and to Works the meaning whereof is that it is not effected by our own Works whether of outward Morality or Legal Ceremonies done by our Natural power in the Unregenerate state but by the quickning and enlivening Spirit of Christ inwardly creating us a-new And lastly Faith is plainly made the Instrument of this inward Sanctification that is not wrought by our own Works but the Grace and Spirit of Christ. Whence we may well conclude That the true Object of the Christian Faith is not onely the Bloud of Christ shed upon the Cross for the Remission of Sin but also the renewing Spirit of Christ for the inward conquering and mortifying of it and the Quickning or Raising of us to an Heavenly Life And I dare be bold