Verse 8th The word is nigh thee even in thy Mouth and in thy Heart It 's in the Mouth to know it and speak of it it 's in the Heart as written there by the Spirit that we may do the duty it requireth of us with ease and sweetness 'T is in thy Mouth to Confess and in thy Heart to Believe and Practise VVhen the New Covenant is spoken of as opposite to the Covenant made with them when they came out of Egypt it is said sometimes to be put into the Mouth and sometimes in the Heart The words are Isa. 59.21 As for me This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit that is upon thee and my VVords which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy seed nor out of the Mouth of thy seed's seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Meaning thereby That his Spirit and Word shall continue with them as a Church to direct them in all necessary things This for the Mouth Now for the Heart see another Promise Jer. 31.33 And this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their Hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my People Well then The Excellency of the Gospel-dispensation is set forth by Two things 1. It 's more easie to be known and understood and carried in the Memory for the Word is nigh thee even in thy Mouth The drift of Moses his Speech tendeth to shew that they should have a New Covenant the Tenour of which was known and easie to be expressed by all those who were acquainted with it 2. It 's more easie to be practised 'T is not in our Mouths onely but in our Hearts which are inclined by the Holy Spirit to obey it so that the New Creature may undertake the duty it requireth of us by the assistance of God and do it sincerely though not exactly Secondly The sense of what it saith 't is explained and exemplified 1. Explained Verse 8. This is the word which we preach namely the Doctrine of Repentance and Remission of sins by Jesus Christ. 2. Exemplified Verse 9th That if thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Confession with the Mouth there answers to the Word is in thy Mouth believe with thine heart that implieth Faith And Christ's being raised from the Dead is instanced in rather than any other Article of Faith because that proveth all the rest and is the great evidence of the truth of Christianity Doctrine That the way of acceptance with God or obtaining Salvation is so clearly stated in the Gospel that we need not be in doubtful suspence or seek out another Religion wherein to find it or other satisfaction than God hath given us in his Word The sense of this Point I shall give you in these Propositions First That it is the weightiest matter in the VVorld to know how to be accepted with God as to pardon and life Man being a guilty Creature needeth pardon and the Soul dying not with the Body we desire to know the way of life or what shall become of us when this frail life is at an end Certain it is that we are haunted with guilty fears for we are through the fear of death all our life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 There are some troubles of Mind in all of us about our acceptance with God not always felt indeed but soon awakened Trembling Souls who know what God is and what themselves are and are conscious to former guilt and present unworthiness cannot easily settle in a confidence of God's Mercy to them especially when they come to die The fear of death raised our trouble before but when death cometh indeed these stings are increased 1 Cor. 15.56 The Sting of Death is sin and these stings of Conscience are justified by the highest reason which is the Law of God not occasioned by our melancholy conceits only It 's an Amazing consideration to us to think of entering into an unknown World and to stand before the righteous bar of an impartial Judge That it is very hard to undergo death with a steady confidence and to incourage our fearful and doubtful Minds to lanch out into Eternity common experience verifieth I pray consider Christians that our present condition is a state of darkness and fear and these fears are caused by sin and justified by the Law of God and revived by death and the thoughts of the other World And therefore there is not a weightier business than to establish our fearful and doubtful Minds in Peace that we may comfortably wait for the Mercy of God unto Eternal Life Secondly That is the best Religion which doth most provide for this Peace and Rest of Soul So that if a man were at liberty to choose and were consulting what Religion he should choose this Consideration must guide him where he can find true Peace and Rest for his Anxious Soul So the Prophet directeth them Ier. 6.16 Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your Souls And by this Argument Christ inviteth us to himself Mat. 11.28 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoak upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls And the Apostle commendeth the Gospel upon this account Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Iesus It is easie to lull Conscience asleep for a while either 1. By Carnal Pleasures Prov. 9.17 Stolen Waters are sweet and Bread eaten in secret is pleasant For a while they seem so but the vertue of that Opium is soon spent Or 2. By a false Religion but within a while we shall soon find that is so far from being our cure that it is a great part of our disease no false Religion is consistent with right Thoughts of God Therefore the Woman of Samaria assoon as she began to have an awakened Conscience enquires after the true Religion Iohn 4.20 Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and ye say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship An awakened Conscience will be careful to lay the ground-work of Religion sure A false way of Religion always breedeth scruples and is accompanied with no sound Peace Or 3. In the superficial observances of a true Religion Mat. 19.20 All these things have I kept from my Youth up what lack I yet A false Righteousness will not give true quietness to the Conscience there is something lacking and the Soul sits uneasie Therefore nothing but coming under the Power of the
they subsist after Life and have a Being is their firm Perswasion And therefore are wont to assign to the dead part of the goods which they possessed And Acosta telleth us that in Peru they are wont to kill some of their Slaves to attend the dead in the World to come Thus in a manner all Nations have received this Tradition from hand to hand from their Ancestors and the nearer to the first Original of Mankind the more clear and pressing hath been the conceit hereof Lapse of time which decayeth all things hath not been able to deface it out of the Minds of Men who though they have been gradually depraved and degenerated according to the distance by which they have been removed from their first Originals yet they could never blot out the sense of an Estate after this Life An universal Tradition is some Argument when there can be no solid and indubitable Reasons brought to convince it of falsity Now such is this spread throughout the Universe and with extream forwardness received of all Nations and hath born up against all the encounters of Time and constantly maintained it self in the midst of so many Revolutions of Humane Affairs by which many other things were lost 2. All men have believed that there is a God and very few doubted but that He is a Rewarder of Virtue and Punisher of Vice Now neither the one nor the other is fully accomplished in this World even in the Judgment of those who have no great Knowledge of the Nature of Sin nor what Punishment is competent thereunto Therefore there must be some state after this Life in which this retributive Justice of punishing the Bad and rewarding the Good shall be manifested For here Providence seemeth to be darkned and the World is offended with the Calamities of the Good and Prosperity of the Wicked 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ Iesus we are of all men most miserable 3. If there be an end of man when he dieth Why is man afraid of Torments after Death Heb. 2.15 Deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to bondage Men fear Deaâ—h not as a natural Evil as it terminateth our present Comforts but as a Penal Evil as it is an Entrance to unknown Sorrows 1 Cor. 15.56 The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law What 's the Reason of these stings of Conscience which are never so sensible and quick as when they approach near Death or behold themselves in some imminent danger What are these but presaging fears which anticipate miseries after this life If there were an utter end of men these troubles should in Reason then vanish But this is the Time when these Alarums are redoubled and those Tempests increase their Violence 2. The Light of Christâ—anity doth much more discover it That 's properly a Doctrine of things unseen That telleth us of a Prison where are the Spirits of Wicked men 1 Pet. 3.19 Of a Palace or Mansions in our Fathers House where are the Spirits of Just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 On the one hand it telleth us of a Worm that never dieth of a Fire that shall never be quenched Mark 9.44 On the other side of Joys that are at the right hand of God for evermore Psal. 16.11 That Christ died to free us from the wrath to come 1 Thess. â— 10 And purchased Heaven for us 1 Thess. 5.10 And is gone to Heaven to seise upon it in our Name Iohn 14.2 3. Having first left a sure Promise of Eternal Life to all that believe in him 1 Iohn 2.25 Which â—romise was outwardly confirmed by divers Miracles accompanying them that went abroad to make this offer in his Name Heb. 2.3 4. Inwarâ—ly in the Hearts of his People by giving them the first fruits of this Everlasting Estate in their Union with himself Col. 1.27 And the Joys of his Spirit which are therefore said to be full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 These are Truths interweaved throughout the whole Body of Christianity Now discourse but with your selves 1. Parâ—ly concerning the thing it self Partly 2. Concerning the certainty of your Hope 1. Concerning the certainty of the thing it self Is the whole Scripture false The Gospel a Fable Are all the Oracles of the Prophets the Doctrine of Christ his Miracles Resurrection Ascension but a Dream Were they all deceived that followed Christ upon these Hopes That took such pains in subduing the Flesh And hazarding their Interests freely upon the Hopes of another World Are the wisest sort of men the World ever saw Fools All the Ordinances of Christ a customary Superstition Is Grace a Fancy The Joys of the Spirit Delusions or phantastical Impressions These rejoicings and foretasts of the Children of God a meer Deceit and Imposture Surely it cannot be that all this Solemnity should be used to establish a vain Conceit 2. Excite and work up your own Faith and Hope Is there not a state of Blessedness reserved for me in the Heavens Invisible and Glorious things which I am bound to seek after Thou hast not Possession but thou hast the Grant the Deed of Gift sealed thou hast the Conveyance to shew Gods own Word and Promise to assure thee Yea 't is not nudum pactum God hath given thee the Earnest of a greater summ 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath also sealed us and given the Earnest of the Spirit in our Hearts What should I do then but look for it long for it and earnestly seek after it Use II. Is for Reproof 1. To the Incredulous and Unbelieving to whom all Invisible Things seem a Fancy Scoffing Atheists they will not believe there is an Heaven or an Hell till they see them In the face of the Visible Church there may be such and in the latter times there shall be many such 2 Pet. 3.4 But in Hell there are none such because then matters of Faith are matters of feeling and to their bitter cost they find the Truth of what they doubted of To these I shall say God hath always tried his People and distinguished them from others by respect to things not seen Heb. 11.7 By Faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his House by the which he condemned the World and became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith By this he condemned the World at his costly Industry and care to frame an Ark but whilest he provided for his safety they perished in their Sins Must every thing be seen before we fear it or hope for it Why then do men provide for time to come so long before hand Why for Old-Age in Youth Why for Winter in Summer As the Industry of the Ant is recommended for our Imitation Prov. 6.6 7 8. Go to the Ant thou Sluggard consider her ways and be wise Which having no Guide Overseer or Ruler provideth her Meat in
the Creation and upon the Seventh Day he Rested So Christ will not come down till he had finished the Work of Redemption on the Sixth Day and on the Seventh he Rested in the Grave and Rose early in the Morning on the First Day of the Week to shew the Truth of his Satisfaction And the Holy-Ghost his Work is perfect all the time of his Life he continueth increasing our Graces but in the everlasting Sabbatism when Sin shall be no more his Work is brought to an end And then he shall present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy Iude 24. But what were the Reasons why Christ would not give over till all was perfected 1. Love to his Father Iohn 18.11 The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Christ loved the Father with unspeakable Love and was in like manner beloved by him Therefore when this Cup was put into his hands by his Father he would drink it off to the very bottom 2. Love to the Church Eph. 5.25 26. Even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word c. And Rev. 1.5 6. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood The Church was given for a Spouse to Christ but we were polluted and defiled with Sin he would not only cleanse it but make it a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 5.27 Christ loved the Church and therefore it was not grievous to him to wash it with his Blood Because Iacob loved Rachel he served seven Years for her in Heats and Frosts by Night and Day and they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her Gen. 29.20 So the Son of God loved the Church and therefore endured all these Indignities and grievous Passions 3. He had respect to that eminent Glory set before him Heb. 12.2 Looking to Iesus the author and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is now sate down at the right hand of the throne of God Though the Way was rough the Prize was excellent and so he run through all the Pain and Shame and attained the eternal Crown of Glory He endured cruel Pains in his Body and bitter Sorrows in his Soul such as never any Man did suffer never any Angel could have born as he did so dear did it cost our Saviour to make a Propitiation for our Sins That which in all this did strengthen and encourage him was the Joy set before him namely that happy and glorious Estate which followed upon his Sufferings so that his Burden was made the lighter and his Sorrows much abated Oh let us think of this 'T is not a lessening his Love to us for he needed not to put himself into this condition Herein he was our Example to teach us how to sweeten the Cross and as our Mediator he is gone to Heaven to prepare a Place for us Iohn 14.2 3. I go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and take you to my self that where I am there ye may be also 2. Let it raise in us a Confidence of the Benefits purchased For Christ expresseth himself as a Conqueror and in a kind of Triumph over the Devil and all the Enemies of our Salvation The Wrath of God is appeased Rom. 5.9 Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him The Law is satisfied Gal. 4.4 5. God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Satan is vanquished Iohn 12.31 Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out Guilt is removed Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Sin is subdued Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Death is unstinged 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. Oh Death where is thy sting Oh Grave where is thy victory 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 Iesus Christ. The Curse is removed Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Surely where Christ beginneth he will make an end We cannot have too high Thoughts of the Blood of Christ Heb. 9.13 14. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh How much more shall the â—lood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your consciences from dead works to serve the living God Let us stand still now and behold the Salvation of God and Eccho to Christ's Cry It is finished it is finished What can the Law crave more than the Blood of the Son of God What will make us perfect as appertaining to the Conscience if this will not Being justified by his Blood we shall be saved from Wrath through him Christ hath so far obtained Pardon and Acceptance for us that he hath made an end of Sin for all that are willing to accept of his Grace upon God's Terms 3. Let it quicken us to Perseverance in our Duty notwithstanding Sufferings till all be ended that when we come to die we may be able to say Iohn 17.4 I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work thou gavest me to do 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness If Christ out of Love to us would finish the Work of our Redemption What shall separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8.39 4. It teacheth us how to comfort our selves in Death It finisheth all our Labours and Sorrows as Christ sheweth when he was about to give up the Ghost Isa. 57.2 He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds Believers have a Joy set before them as well as Christ. The Wicked cannot say It is finished their Evils are then begun 5. Let us believe Things to come The Event sheweth that all these Things were true which the Prophets had so long before foretold The Holy-Ghost cannot be deceived nor can God lie We are certain that Things yet to come shall be fulfilled as well as these which are past Those who lived before Christ's time had not such an Experiment of God's Truth as we have We have seen the Coming of Christ let us so fix our Minds on future Things as to draw them
begging to his own Creature and deals with us as importunately as if the Benefit were his own thus doth he pray us to be reconciled And then God threatens eternal Death to stir us up to take hold of eternal Life he tells us of a Pit without a Bottom and a Worm that never dies Sometimes he seeketh to work upon our Hope and sometimes upon our Fear he not only tells us of the loss of Happiness which is very grievous to an ingenuous Spirit Heb. 12.14 Follow Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord But he tells us of those eternal Torments that are without End and Ease of a Worm than never dies and of a Fire that shall never be quenched O whose Heart doth not tremble at the mention of these things Then on the other side we have Promises as great as Heart can wish for and more 2 Pet. 1.4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises It hath not entred into the Heart of Man to conceive of these things Who ever hired a Man to be happy or a thirsty Man to drink or a hungry Man to eat Salvation is so acceptable and the heavenly and blessed Hope so glorious that we should purchase it at any rate but God taketh all Methods to awaken Man Thus the Gospel may well be said to be a powerful Instrument of our Salvation because it hath a powerful Tendency that way 2. Because it hath the Promise of the Spirit 's Assistance Rom. 1.16 the Gospel is said to be the Power of God unto Salvation not only because it is a powerful Instrument which God hath appropriated to this Work but this is the Honour God puts upon the Gospel that he will join and associate the Operation of his Spirit with no other Doctrine but this And therefore the Apostle saith Gal. 3.2 Received you the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith How come you to receive the Spirit either by endeavouring to get Acceptance with God according to the Terms of the Law or by the Doctrine of the Gospel The Assistance of the Spirit is joined with no other Doctrine This is the Authentick Proof of the Excellency of that Doctrine that God hath reserved the Power of his Grace to go along with it he will not associate and join his Spirit with any other Doctrine The Law as it is contra-distinguish'd from the Gospel it is called the Ministration of Condemnation 2 Cor. 3.9 and the Ministration of Death to fallen Man ver 7. It is the Office of the Law to condemn a Man not to save him Not as if preaching of the Law did make us guilty but shews us to be guilty to him that is guilty of Death it puts the Guilt before their Eyes that knowing it and feeling it he may be terrified and despair in himself and beg for Deliverance To this end the Apostle gives us an account of his own Experience Rom. 7.9 I was alive without the Law once that is I thought I was alive and did not know my self or feel my self guilty of Death I thought my self to be in as good a condition towards God as any Man but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died then I counted my self to be lost and utterly undone A Sinner before the Law comes is like a Beggar that dreams he is a King and that he wallows in Ease and Plenty but when he awakes his Soul is empty and he feeleth his Poverty and his hungry Belly and his Rags confute all his Dreams and false Surmises So we thought our selves to be alive in a good condition towards God but when the Law comes then we see our selves to be dead and lost Therefore the Law as it is opposed to the Gospel is not the Means of Salvation so it is only the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8.2 For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Object You will say these seem to be hard Expressions to call it the Law of Sin and Death but you must understand it aright To Man fallen the Law only convinceth of Sin and bindeth over to Death it is nothing but a killing Letter but the Gospel accompanied by the Power of the Spirit bringeth Life Again Psal. 19.7 it is said there The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul therefore it seems the Law may also be a word of Salvation to the Creature I answer By the Law there is not meant only that part of the Word which we call the Covenant of Works but there it is put for the whole Word for the whole Doctrine of the Covenant of Life and Salvation as Psal. 1.2 His Delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night And if you take it in that stricter sense then it converteth the Soul but by accident as it is joined with the Gospel which is the Ministry of Life and Righteousness but in it self it is the Law of Sin and Death Look as a thing taken simply would be Poison and deadly in self yet mix'd with other wholsome Medicines it is of great use is an excellent Physical Ingredient So the Law is of great use as joined with the Gospel to awaken and startle the Sinner to shew him his Duty to convince him of Sin and Judgment but it is the Gospel properly that pulls in the Heart Vse To press you to regard the Gospel more as you would Salvation it self for it bringeth Salvation By way of Motive and Encouragement 1. Consider the greatness of the Salvation Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation It is not a slight matter in the Gospel God doth not treat with you about Trifles your eternal Life lies upon it we preach to you a Doctrine that tends to Salvation That so the Argument may be more operative consider what is Salvation Salvation implieth a Deliverance from Danger and Distress and a preservation in a condition of Safety Sometimes he is called a Saviour qui quod semel factum est conservat ne pereat that keepeth a thing in a condition of Safety tho it were never lost In this sense God is said to save Man and Beast Psal. 36.6 O Lord thou preservest Man and Beast As he doth preserve them from Decay and Ruin so he is the Saviour of all Men 1 Tim. 4.10 There is not a Creature but may call God Saviour But this Salvation I speak of is a Salvation proper but to a few Creatures not a general Preservation or Act of Providence here is not only Safety but Glory it is a translation to a place of Happiness Again he is said to save that delivers out of Danger and Destruction as the Shepherd that snatcheth the Lamb out of the Teeth of the Lion saveth him and in common speech we call him a Saviour that delivers from Evil. But mark this
Salvation is not only privative but positive Christ doth not only deliver us from Evil from Sin from the Wrath of God the Accusations of the Law and eternal Death but positively he gives us Grace and Righteousness and everlasting Life he is not only a Saviour to defend us but a Saviour to bless us a Sun and Shield Psal. 84.11 not only a Shield to keep from Danger but a Sun who is the Fountain and Cause of Vegitation and Life it is not Preservation meerly but Preferment If Christ had only delivered us from Wrath to come and been a Saviour privatively it had been more than we could expect or if he had procured some place where we might have been unacquainted with Pain or Trouble yet then he had been a Saviour but here is not only a Ransom and Deliverance but an Inheritance an Exaltation Heaven and everlasting Glory are included in this Salvation Instead of Horror and Howlings here are everlasting Joys and we shall ever be with God praising his Grace in the midst of all his Saints The Blessing is so excellent that we cannot neglect it without great danger Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation For what can we expect but that God's Mercy and Patience abused should be turned into Wrath and Fury and we cannot despise it without a great deal of Sin and Profaneness Heb. 12.16 Lest there be any profane Person as Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his Birthright The Birthright was a Pledg of the Blessing and a right of Priesthood and Ministration before the Lord depended upon it This was Esau's by Birth and he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a profane Man for parting with it at so low a rate and thinking so meanly of spiritual Priviledges O but what Profaneness is this to despise the great Salvation that will cause us ever to be before the Lord and minister in his Presence We count him a profane Man that is guilty of Murder Theft Adultery Perjury because those Sins bring publick Shame and Contempt and because these Sins are most destructive to human Society But he is a profane Man indeed that despiseth the Gospel because it offereth such an excellent Salvation that is Profaneness to slight God's best Provision to scorn his Bowels and when the Lord hath made the Bait an Allurement so strong to gain Man's Heart yet to turn his back upon it 2. Consider the Compleatness of the Saviour Jesus Christ is so by Merit and by Efficacy and Power and so every way fitted to do us good He doth something for us and something in us Look as in the Gospel there is the History of Salvation and there Christ doth all he is a Saviour by Merit and there is the Counsel of Salvation and there he is a Saviour by Power he helps us to do the Duty on our part We have the Merit of his Humiliation and the Power of his Exaltation for us he prevails by the Merit of his Death and in us by the Efficacy of his Spirit When Christ was to save us there were several Hinderances one on God's part and another on ours there was Hinderance put in by God's Justice and a Hinderance by our Unbelief Justice requires Merit and Unbelief Power Christ was a Saviour both ways Again there are different Enemies to our Salvation which were of several Qualities God and the Law and Sin and Death and Satan and the World Now God and the Law are to be considered in a distinct rank from Sin and Death from Satan and the World God was an Enemy that could not be overcome therefore must be reconciled The Law was an Enemy that was not to be disanulled and destroyed but to be satisfied the Precepts of it were not to be relaxed or repealed but fulfilled the Curses of it were not to fall to the ground some must be made a Curse that the Authority of it might be kept up Now Jesus Christ he is made a Curse for us and by his Merit he satisfies the Law and the Justice of God Then among the other Enemies look to Satan he is not only a Tempter but an Accuser as he is a Tempter so Christ is to overcome him by his Power as he is an Accuser so Christ is to overcome him by his Merit Certainly so far as Satan is an Enemy so far must Christ be a Saviour that the Plaister may be as broad as the Sore and therefore against the Accusations of Satan he interposeth as our Advocate by representing his Merit and by bringing his Blood unto the Mercy-Seat Once again consider that our Comfort may be full Christ saves us by Merit and by Power By his Obedience and Merit he gives us jus ad rem a Right and Title to Salvation but by his Efficacy and Power he gives us Possession jus in re he was first to buy our Peace our Comfort our Grace our Glory of God and then to see that we be possessed of it and therefore we are said to be reconciled by his Death and saved by his Life He died that we might rely on his Merit and Ransom and Blood which was a Price to reconcile us to God and he lives that we might wait for his Power and so be saved by his Life 3. Consider As the Greatness of the Salvation and the Compleatness of the Saviour so the Excellency of the Gospel how it manifests and sets out this Saviour not in Shadows and Types but with clear and express Explication God bestowed many Benefits upon the Old Church which were great Enforcements to Godliness but not so powerful and effectual because they were but Shadows of Salvation Things that grow in the Shade come not to such Perfection as Things that grow in the Sun In the Old Testament they had many Blessings but they were Typical Ones and lasted but for a while they had many Saviours that delivered them from the House of Bondage led them through the Red Sea and through the Desart into Canaan delivered them from their Enemies destroyed the Nations round about them But now these were Shadows of good Things to come the New Testament shews what is the meaning of all these that we are delivered from the Devil and led into Heaven and brought to the possession of Eternal Life by Jesus Christ. The Old Testament speaketh of calling Abraham out of Ur of the Caldees and separating his Seed as a People to God we can speak of Election that we may obtain the Adoption of Sons The Old Testament speaks of multiplying the Seed of the Iews as the Sand of the Sea The New Testament speaks of the multitude of Converts a great Number which none can number The Old Testament speaks of the bringing out of Egypt the New of bringing Sinners out of the Power of Darkness The Old Testament mentions the Red Sea the New the Grace of Baptism or Red Sea of Christ's Blood The Old Testament speaks of God's
inclining the Heart to obey out of the sense of God's Love and encouraging us by Faith drawing Strength from Christ and looking to God for our Acceptance from him Some Works of the Unregenerate are materially good but it is not the Matter maketh the Work good but the Principle The Works of unregenerate Men are done by God's Enemies out of the strength of a corrupt Will for carnal Ends without any Conscience of God's Will or Respect to his Glory But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are giftless Gifts But now these done by Persons in a gracious State are as good Fruit growing on a good Tree Grace teacheth he speaketh not of the external Direction of the Gospel but the internal working of Grace in the Heart it worketh by Faith Love and Obedience Obedience owneth the Obligation Love inclineth to discharge the Duty and Faith looketh up to God for Help and Acceptance that we may do it in Christ and for Christ's sake to God's Glory There is a free loving Subjection of the whole Man inward and outward to the whole Will of God with a Desire to please him 2. That Grace and Corruption draw several Inferences and Conclusions from the same Premisses A Bee gathereth Hony from whence a Spider sucketh Poison Corrupt Nature is out in Conclusions Prov. 26.9 As a Thorn goeth up into the Hand of a Drunkard so is a Parable in the Mouth of Fools Let us do Evil that Grace may abound says a corrupt Heart Let us deny Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts says a gracious Person God doth all says a corrupt Heart therefore we need but lie upon the Bed of Ease and expect his Help No says a gracious Soul Phil. 2.12 13. Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good Pleasure The Epicure says the time is short Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die 1 Cor. 15.32 The Apostle argues otherwise 1 Cor. 7.29 Brethren I say unto you the time is short it remaineth that they that have Wives be as tho they had none c. So 2 Sam. 7.2 Then the King said unto Nathan the Prophet See now I dwell in an House of Cedar but the Ark of God dwelleth within Curtains compared with Hag. 1.2 This People say The time is not come the time that the Lord's House should be built Eli said 1 Sam. 3.18 It is of the Lord let him do what seemeth him good The King of Israel said 2 King 6.33 Behold this Evil is of the Lord why should I wait for the Lord any longer We are apt to stumble in God's plainest Ways Carnal Logick is one of our greatest Corruptions 3. That it is the greatest Wrong one can do to Grace to slacken any part of our Duty for Grace's sake Jude 4. Vngodly Men turning the Grace of our God into Lasciviousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they hale it besides its purpose There is no such Teacher of Holiness as Grace it teacheth and giveth a Heart to learn They know not what Grace meaneth that grow wanton vain and sensual to make Grace Sin 's Lacky is a vile Abuse Rom. 6.15 What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace God forbid You are under Grace therefore yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the Dead and your Members as Instruments of Righteousness unto God ver 13. As Fulvius said to his Son when he slew him I begot thee not for Cataline but for thy Country God justified us not that we might live to Satan but to himself Vse 2. Of Trial. Whether we are made Partakers of the Grace of God in the Gospel Have we these Teachings and Arguings Many can endure to hear that Grace bringeth Salvation but that it teacheth us to deny Ungodliness there they flinch Men would have us offer Salvation and preach Promises but when we press Duty they cry out this is a hard saying The Cities of Refuge under the Law were all Cities of the Levites and Schools of Instruction to note that whoever taketh Sanctuary at Grace meeteth Instruction it is no benefit to thee else In the general doth it perswade you to make a willing Resignation of your selves to God Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the Mercies of God that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service Every time you think of Mercy do ye find some Constraint in this kind More particularly 1. Doth it press you to deny Lusts Ezra 9.13 14. Seeing thou hast given us such Deliverance as this should we again break thy Commandments Doth it recoil upon you Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great Wickedness and sin against God Is this your Kindness to your Friend 2. Doth it press you to good 1 John 5.3 This is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous When God maketh a motion by his Word or the Counsels of his Spirit Well! I cannot deny it what a small Service is this I owe to God as Iacob served seven Years for Rachel and they seemed unto him but a few days for the Love he had to her Gen. 29.20 And Shechem underwent the pain of Circumcision for Dinah's sake Obs. 2. Grace teacheth us both to depart from Evil and also to do Good Psal. 34.15 Depart from Evil and do good Isa. 1.16 17. Cease to do Evil learn to do Well We must do both because God hates Evil and delights in Good we must hate what God hates and love what God loves That is true Friendship eadem velle nolle to will and nill the same thing I durst not sin God hates it I durst not omit this Duty God loves it Again our Obedience must carry a proportion with the Divine Mercy Now God's Mercy is not only privative but positive God not only spares and delivers us from Hell but saves and brings us to Heaven The Lord God is a Sun and Shield Psal. 84.11 Not only a Shield to keep us from Danger but a Sun to afford us Comfort and Blessing Therefore it is fit our Obedience should be both privative and positive not only cease to do Evil but learn to do Well as the description of a Godly Man runs Psal. 1.1 2. Blessed is the Man that walketh not in the Counsel of the Vngodly nor standeth in the Way of Sinners nor sitteth in the Seat of the Scornful But that is not enough but his delight is in the Law of the Lord. Again we must have Communion with Christ in all his Acts in his Death and in his Resurrection and therefore we must not only mortify Sin but be quickned to Holiness of Conversation He that hath Communion with Christ in one Act hath Communion with him in all and therefore if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the
the part of Physician not of a Judg he burneth us cutteth us puts us to pain but not to do us hurt not to satisfy Vengeance but to better our Hearts Hic ure hic seca Domine modo parcas in aeternum Our Afflictions are troublesome to the Flesh as Punishments are we cannot expect full Security or total Exemption from them Again they come not by chance Affliction doth not spring out of the Dust but they come by special Dispensation as Punishments also they do not come by chance Sin is for the most part the occasion of them God chasteneth them because they have sinned as we quench a Brand plucked out of the Burning or he warneth them that they may not sin again The Chastisements of the Godly serve for Examples as well as the Punishments of the Wicked But they are not properly Judicial Acts to satisfy the Law as a Judg taketh no notice of the Repentance of the Delinquent but of his Fault They are Acts of Love and a part of God's Family-Discipline Brambles are not pruned but Vines Heb. 12.6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Bastards are leftto live more at large Again they are for the exercise of Grace not for the destruction of our Persons A Judg doth not punish Offenders because he loveth them but because the Law requireth it If Corrections were Punishments wicked Men should have the greatest share Heb. 12.10 He chasteneth us for our Profit that we might be Partakers of his Holiness A Judg looketh to the Good of the Common-wealth to keep Authority and the Majesty of Government not the Benefit of the Malefactor 1 Cor. 11.32 When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World The Godly are punished here that they may not be condemned hereafter The Scripture every-where maketh it a part of our Blessedness Iames 1.12 Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation Phil. 1.29 Vnto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are Dispensations of Love Answ. 2. For Death This was the primary Effect of Sin yet it remaineth Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die But the Curse of the Law is become a Blessing of the Gospel Death is ours 1 Cor. 3.22 Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the World or Life or Death c. all are yours Adam might have lived here happily for ever but Christ hath provided a better place for us there is a deep Gulf which cannot be passed but by Death our present Earthly Nature is not fit for that happy State 1 Cor. 15.50 Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit Incorruption If Christ could have contented himself with giving us an Earthly Paradise Death had not been necessary That State in the Garden was an innocent and happy but an Earthly State These Bodies of ours that need Meat and Sleep would have sufficed for the Earthly Garden but we expect a greater Benefit and therefore we must be contented with the Way and Passage Sense and Reason telleth us that these Bodies which we now carry up and down are not fit for that State we must lay what we received from Adam in the Grave that when it is purged and renewed we may be like to Christ. The Grain liveth not except it die the Shed and old House is pulled down that God may raise a more glorious Structure If all Believers should be wrap'd up into Heaven and changed Miracles would be multiplied without need It is no Punishment to lose our Corruption and Mortality 3. The next Proposition is this That the fairest part of this Redemption is hereafter then our Happiness in Christ is perfect Luke 21.28 When these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the Day of Redemption Then we are past Gun-shot and out of Harm's way We are fully redeemed from the Guilt of Sin when there is no Monument of God's Displeasure left We must be like our Head in all Conditions We are not fully freed from the Relicks of Sin till the Resurrection that we may have new Matter to glorify God when we come to Heaven Old Adam is not quite abolished till God be all in all Secondly He hath delivered us from the Power of Sin He paid the Price on the Cross therefore it is said Rom. 6.6 Our Old Man is crucified with him that the Body of Sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve Sin When Christ lay a dying Sin lay a dying and bled with him on the Cross then was Grace purchased and therefore Faith should look upon Sin as dead and actually crucified it is done in the Mystery And then he ascended and poured out the Spirit now to accomplish this Work God is satisfied and Christ's Work lieth now with Satan and our own Hearts 1. For Satan He is dispossessed and cast out at Conversion Luk. 11.21 22. When a strong Man armed keepeth his Palace his Goods are in Safety But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and divideth his Spoils Then Christ taketh away the Prey The Devil may trouble us but he is but a Tyrant cast out he can no more reign And by preserving Grace he keepeth possession Christ will not lose Ground when once he hath got Footing Rom. 16.20 The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly As Ioshua called unto his Companions chap. 10.24 Come near put your Feet upon the Necks of these Kings 2. As for our own Hearts He breaketh the Yoke and sets the Will at Liberty and maketh us free for God Rom. 6.17 But God be thanked ye were the Servants of Sin but ye have obeyed from the Heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered to you It was a willing Bondage but now we are made a willing People then our Consent was voluntary now our Resignation is so too There are indeed some Relicks of Corruption and Opposition left there are inward Monuments of the Fall as well as outward as there are some grudgings of a Disease after a Cure but in Heaven all is perfect and even now there is not a willing Subjection but a Resistance made to Sin Vse 1. To exhort us to Thankfulness to our Redeemer Remember your former Bondage it is a woful Captivity to be under Sin Those that are under Sin are under the Curse of the Law and the Tyranny of the Devil we could have no boldness with God as a Father nor look him in the Face the Law is against us God is the Judg Satan the Jaylor our own Consciences an under-Keeper Our Fears of Death
I would Gal. 5.17 Go to Christ for help he was sent for this purpose to redeem you from Iniquity and dissolve the Devil's Work 1 John 3.8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil It is his Office to purge the Church to set us at Liberty to destroy Satan's Power to free us from our Passions and Corruptions therefore go complain to him of the strength of your Sins for he will help you Vse 4. Comfort in our Conflicts You are sure of a final Victory before you enter into the Combate e're long we shall be out of the reach of Temptation and the Spirit shall be all in all Vse 5. Examination 1. Art thou sensible of thy natural Bondage so as to grieve under it As the Apostle Rom. 7.23 24. I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death If it be not thus with thee Redemption by Christ will never be precious there is sighing and weariness they lay their sad Estate to Heart as the Church hung their Harps upon the Willows it is the Grief of their Souls that their Lusts held them in Captivity The Children of God complain more of the Relicks of Sin than wicked Men do of the full Power of it 2. Hast thou any Freedom Sense of Bondage is a good Preparative but it is not enough All Christ's Subjects are Kings they rule over their own Lusts though not freed from them altogether they strive against them and keep them under And there is not only a freedom from Ill but a freedom to Good Psal. 110.3 Thy People shall be willing in the Day of thy Power They do not serve God by Constraint but are free to Good and serve God with a great chearfulness as before they served their Lusts. Rom. 7.22 I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man They consult with the Word of God which was before their Bondage and Terror they have an Ability and Strength to do that which is Good there is a new Life in them yet so as they are still excited by the Spirit Vse 6. It informeth us what is true Liberty not to live at large John 8.36 If the Son therefore shall make you free you shall be free indeed Not to have Power and Sovereignty over others not to exercise Command and Authority over others but to subdue our Lusts not to be left to our selves to do what we please that is the greatest Bondage Rom. 6.20 VVhen ye were the Servants of Sin ye were free from Righteousness but to do the Will of God 1 John 3.5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our Sins and in him is no Sin He died to take away Sin and to make us like himself that the World might know that he was a pure and holy Saviour SERMON XXI TITUS II. 14 And purifying unto himself a peculiar People c. IN this latter Branch I observed Christ's Act and then his Aim His Act he gave himself His Aim and Intention And here is the privative part of Deliverance To redeem us from all Iniquity This I have finished I come to the Positive part And purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good VVorks He never communicates his Blessings where he doth not bestow his Grace He did not only free us from Hell but from Sin It is well for the Godly that Christ came to take away the proud and carnal Heart to take away Corruption and Iniquity which is their greatest Eye-sore But this is not all there is a positive Blessing Christ did not only come to deliver us from Sin but communicate Grace That he might purify to himself a peculiar People Two Points I shall open to you I. That whomsoever Christ maketh his People he first purifieth them or by purifying them maketh them his People II. Those that are purified are reckoned his Treasure or peculiar People Doct. I. That whomsoever Christ maketh his People he first purifieth them or by purifying maketh them his People Here I shall shew you 1 st The Necessity 2 dly The Manner of it First The Necessity of this Purification 1. In regard of God Father Son and Holy Ghost Every Person in the God-head in the dispensation of Grace hath a distinct personal Operation Election is ascribed to the Father Redemption to the Son and effectual Application to the Holy Ghost Now every one of these Operations respects Holiness Election Ephes. 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World that we might be holy and without blame before him in Love Redemption Ephes. 5.25 26. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word Sanctification 2 Thess. 2.13 God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth It is for the Honour of every Person that their Intention may not be frustrate and chiefly upon this ground because by this means they would justify and honour their personal Operation to the World Those that are chosen by the Father must be of a choice Spirit Christ will not be the Head of an ulcerous Body he will not be like Nebuchadnezzar's Image whose Head was of fine Gold his Breast and his Arms of Silver his Belly and his Thighs of Brass his Legs of Iron his Feet part of Iron and part of Clay Dan. 2.32 33. A beautiful Head upon a Negro's Body is monstrous We are Vessels formed and set apart for the Master's use Those that are under his forming come new out of the Forge Unclean Vessels can never be used to any good purpose unless they be washed and sweetned They are to be looked upon as God's Choice Christ's Purchase and the Spirit 's Charge Or if you will have it in other Relations they are God's Children Christ's Members and the Spirit 's Temples God's Children must resemble their Father Christ's Members must be like their Head and the Holy Ghost will not dwell in a defiled Temple 2. With respect to themselves and their relation to one another they must be purified 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing that ye have purified your selves in obeying the Truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned Love of the Brethren see that ye love one another with a pure Heart fervently The Purification of our own Souls maketh us to love Purity in others for Similitude is the ground of Delight and Complacency No Man can delight in the Purity of others unless he be in some measure purified himself Holy Men are only fit for this Communion and Society others go in the way of Cain Jude v. 11. Who was of that wicked one and slew his Brother And wherefore slew he him because his own
the Law that I might live unto God Sometimes Repentance is described by one term called Repentance from dead works Heb. 6.1 where by dead works are meant Sins which render us liable to Death And often by the other called a Turning or Returning to God Zach. 1.3 Turn ye unto me saith the Lord. Acts 26.18 To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God From him we fell to him we return and so it includeth an acknowledgment of our Sins with grief of Heart and a resolution to forsake them that we may live unto God both of which if they be hearty and sincere will be evidenced by newness of Life Rom. 6.4 or doing works meet for Repentance Acts 26.20 That they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance The sum of what he preached was reduced to three Heads the two first by way of Foundation the third by way of Superstructure The two first imply an Internal Change the third the Outward discovery of it By Repentance is meant there a bethinking our selves or considering our ways after we have gone wrong with a broken hearted sense and acknowledgment of the misery into which we have plunged our selves by Sin By turning to God our seeking happiness in God by Christ and giving up our selves to him to do his Will And by works meet for repentance a suitable and thankful Life All practical Divinity may be reduced to these three Heads a sense of our misery by Nature a flying to God by Christ for a Remedy and the Life of Love and Praise which becometh Christs reconciled and redeemed ones This is Repentance Secondly What the Gospel doth to Promote it 1. It requireth it indispensibly of all grown Persons In the Text he commandeth all men every where to repent And our Lord telleth us that the great end of his Commission was to call Sinners to Repentance Mat. 9.13 I am not come to call the Righteous but Sinners to repentance The Gospel findeth us not innocent but in a lapsed estate under the power of Sin intangled in the Love of the World and the snares of the Devil and obnoxious to the Wrath of God Now Christ came to recover us from the Devil the World and the Flesh unto God that we may love him again and be happy in his Love So that they quite mistake the Nature of our recovery who dream of a meer exemption from Wrath without an healing our Natures or restoring and putting poor Creatures in joynt again which were disordered by the Fall or that we can live in the Love of God before we are changed both in Heart and Life No Christ took another course to call us not only to Pardon and Eternal Glory but to Repentance or strictly to enjoyn this Duty upon us that by his Grace we might recover a disposition of Heart which in some measure might incline and enable us to love please and obey God and that under pain of his displeasure we might break off our Sins and live unto God For he came not to give liberty to any to live in Sin 2. By its Promises for it offereth Pardon and Life to the Penitent Believer and to them only None can enjoy the Priviledges of the New Covenant but those that are willing to return to the Duty which they owe to the Creator This is Gospel Luke 24.47 That repentance and remission of Sins should be preached in his Name compared with Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned God and Christ are agreed that Salvation should be dispensed upon these terms and no other We are not within the reach of the Blessing and Comfort of the Promise till we repent 3. By its Ordinances or the Sacraments and Seals of the Covenant As Baptism which serves for this use Mat. 3.11 I baptize you with water unto repentance And Acts 2.38 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the remission of Sins This is the initial Ordinance which is our first covenanting with God and therein we bind our selves to forsake all known Sin and to live unto God And from that time forward we must reckon our selves as under such a Vow Bond Debt and Obligation Rom. 6.11 Reckon your selves also to be dead indeed unto Sin but alive unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord. What! doth our Mortification or Vivification depend on our esteem or conceit Will that kill Sin or quicken Holiness The meaning is Count your selves obliged to dye to Sin and to persevere in Holiness by your Baptismal Vow and Covenant In the Lord's Supper one great Benefit offered and sealed to us is the remission of Sins Mat. 26.28 For this is my Blood of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of Sins that is supposing we make Conscience of our Baptismal Vow and renew our resolutions against Sin lest we grow cold and remiss in them Thirdly How convenient and Necessary this is for our recovery to God 1. For the Honour of God Surely Christ communicateth the effects of his Grace in a way becoming the Wisdom of God as well as his Justice Now as the Justice of God required that his Wrath should be appeased so his Wisdom required that Man should be converted and turned to God because God in dispensing Pardon will still preserve the Honour of his Law and Government As he doth it in the Impetration so in the Application As to the Impetration that was not without Satisfaction so to the Application that is not without Repentance or a consent to live according to the Will of God Now this would fall to the ground if we should be pardoned without Submission without Confession of past Sin or resolution of future Obedience For till then we neither know our true misery nor are we willing to come out of it For they that securely continue in their Sins they despise both the Curse of the Law and the Grace of the Gospel 2. The Duty of the Creature is secured when we are so solemnly bound to future Obedience Our first hearty consent to live in the Love and Service of our Creator with a detestation of our former ways is made in a solemn Covenant manner called therefore the Bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant So Numb 30.2 If a man vow a vow unto the Lord and swear an Oath to bind his Soul with a bond he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth And besides it is made in our anguish when we drink of the bitter waters and feel the smart of Sin Acts 9.6 And he trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do And so the fittest time to induce an hatred of Sin and also love to God and Holiness as having then the sweetest and freshest sense of his
only mentioned 3. Why seeing it is plain that the Six Commandments of the Second Table are alluded unto Defraud not is put for the last Commandment Thou shalt not Covet for of the Method wherein they are recited we need not move any doubt for Christ beginneth with the Negatives and the Affirmative Precept is put last as a thing not accurately to be stood upon 1 Question Why Christ referrs him to the Commandments The Reason of the Doubt is this Because the fallen Creature can never be Justified or Saved by his own Works Rom. 3.20 Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no Flesh be justified in his sight Tit. 3.5 Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy Calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and Grace Eph. 2.8 9. For by Grace ye are saved thrô Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast The Scripture doth always run in this Strain yea Christ himself puts Salvation upon another Score upon Believing in him Iohn 3.16 For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life Why then doth Christ referr him to the Commandment I answer Christ speaketh not this as if any Man could be Saved and Justified by the Works of the Law It was far from our Saviours meaning to foment such an Error but the scope of his Speech is to shew that it is in vain to enquire for the Way to Heaven while men trust to their own Righteousness And therefore good Works and Obedience to the Law are proposed to convince him of his Impotency to humble him in the sense of his Guilt to drive him out of himself and to draw him to seek Salvation by a better Covenant or if not to leave him without Excuse That this was Christ's aim to shew him his Sin and miserable Condition and disability to be justified by the Law will appear by these following Considerations 1. It was necessary this Man should be treated in this way for the many Errors wherewith he was tainted required it As 1. To draw him again to the Service of God from those Traditions and humane Observances in which the Pharisees placed most of their Religion and Piety and therefore Christ mentions not the Traditions of the Elders but the Commandments of God 2. To draw him from the Law Ceremonial which was to be abolished to the Law Moral He mentioneth not the Ceremonial Law which the Iews strictly observed but Moral Duties 3. To beat down his Presumption whereby he believed that the Law was easie for him to accomplish such as seek Justification and Eternal Life by Works must be taught that to keep the whole Law in all Points without the least Sin is the only Way to Heaven by Works which Way to every Man now polluted by Sin is impossible There was no better Course to humble a Pharisee than by referring him to his own Covenant rightly understood to let him see the Perfection and Spiritual Sence of it and so to bring him to a Knowledge of Sin that he might learn to seek God's Favour by the Mediator who is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 That is to say The end of giving the Law by Moses was that Men might thereby be brought to the Knowledge of their Sins and so be necessitated to fly for Refuge to Christ and his Righteousness who hath perfectly fulfilled the Law for us If any Man think that this consisted not with the Simplicity of Christ's Instruction especially when such a serious Question was proposed to him What shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life And that it may seem to countenance their Error who sought Righteousness by the Law to referr such to the Commandments I answer 1. Christ used the same Method that God did in giving the Law upon Mount Sinai Why did God give it then but to break a stiff-necked People trusting to their own strength by this exact Yoke of Duty which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear That seeing their manifold Guilt in which all are inevitably involved by the violation of the Law they might be burdened and condemned in themselves and so fly to the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World as he was represented to them in the Sacrifice and burnt-offering That this was God's End in giving the Law see Rom. 5.20 21. Moreover the Law entred that the Offence might abound but where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound That as Sin hath reigned unto Death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Iesus Christ our Lord. And Gal. 3.19 Wherefore then serveth the Law it was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made Suitably here Christ having to do with a Man that was puffed up with an Opinion of his own Righteousness and Strength as if he had already discharged the whole Duty of the Law and was ready and able to do whatsoever should be further required of him in order to Eternal Life to humble him Christ referreth him to the Commandments and so layeth a ground work of convincing him of base Idolatry in loving Riches more than God and Eternal Life So that his End was not to foster and increase his Presumption but by urging the Law which he professed to stand to to convince him of his own baseness and the necessity of seeking another Righteousness 2. Practical Conviction is best and Men never see their unworthiness so much as when they are held to their own Covenant and we are so far to condescend to the humours of Men as to convince them and condemn them in their own way As Festus told Paul Acts 25.12 Hast thou appealed unto Caesar unto Caesar shalt thou go As a presumptuous Sick Man that is strongly conceited he is able to leave his Bed and walk up and down the best way to confute him is by tryal Or a Phrenetick Person or a Man that is distempered with melancholly Fancies wise Physicians indulge the Humour a little that by dealing with them in their own way they may afterwards the better dispossess them of their vain Conceits If men will go to Heaven by Doing let them know what Doing is required Gal. 4.21 Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law do ye not hear the Law If men will betake themselves to stand to or fall by the Sentence of the Law or Covenant of Works let them see how it will succeed with them 3. It was a Truth Christ spake If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments but we must consider his Intention Thô Mens trusting in their own Works is displeasing to God
himself with a spurious Covenant of Works of his own making which is the main Lett and Hinderance to keep him from Christ and Salvation There is a two-fold Covenant of Works one genuine and true and of God's own Institution another Apocryphal and feigned a Bastard-Covenant of Works and of Mans Invention namely that which a Creature unable to perform the Duty of the Law or to get from under the Curse thereof frameth out of his own Brain as by doing something in order to our acceptation with God thô not doing all that is required and to make recompence for the defects in the weighty things by abounding in Externals There is a Covenant Man makes of himself by a short Exposition of the Law that he may have a large Opinion of his own Righteousness It is not for the Interest of their Quiet and Peace that the Ell should be longer than the Cloath therefore because they know they are not able to stand by the true genuine Covenant of God's making they make a Covenant of their own that so a blameless Conformity to the outward Letter of the Law may make a recompence for their other Defects abounding in humane Inventions and Observances of vain Riâ—es as if this would make them acceptable with God This is the great thing which keeps him off from submitting to the Gospel-way of Faith and Repentance and humbling himself before the Lord. 2 Reason It must needs be a powerful Instrument to prepare Men for Christ because this Covenant shuts up a Sinner without any hope of Relief unless Christ and Grace open the Door to him There are three places of Scripture which speak fully to this purpose Rom. 3.19 That every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lyable to his Process and Wrath nothing to say for themselves no Plea to make by the first Covenant Rom. 11.32 speaking of the Iews he saith For God hath concluded them all in Vnbelief By this Covenant they are as it were shut up in Prison but no way to escape unless Grace and Mercy open the Door So Gal. 3.22 The Scripture that is the Law-Covenant hath concluded all under Sin that the promise by Faith of Iesus Christ might be given to them that believe This Covenant accusing convincing and condemning all Mankind for Sin it doth as it were shut them up under the fearful Curse as a Malefactor is shut up in Prison So that a Man is forced to lay aside all confidence of any Righteousness in himself and fly for Refuge to the Promises and to the Righteousness of Christ. Let us see how this Covenant shuts Men up and inevitably concludes them Lost and Undone If this could be powerfully and throughly done the Work of Conversion would not be at such a stand Thô all men be in such a Cursed Condition yet it is a matter of no small difficulty to convince Men of it or to affect their Hearts sensibly with it Therefore if there were any way to shut them up without all Hope where there is not the least Wicket or Door open for escape from deserved Wrath then the Work would powerfully go on and they would be necessitated to fly to Christ. Let us see then how this Law shuts Men up because the Duty of it is Impossible and the Penalty Intollerable 1. The Duty is Impossible So full and exact is that Righteousness that is required by the Law-Covenant in order to Life that it is impossible for the fallen Creature ever to perform it Rom. 8.3 What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh. The Law promiseth no good to Sinners but only to the Innocent it reveals no way of taking away Sin past but only of punishing Sin no way for Man once a Sinner ever to recover himself therefore it is become weak that is impossible through our Flesh the weakness of the Flesh will not permit it to be fulfilled in that exactness which is required of us if it could be exactly fulfilled for the future yet there would be no hopes of Life because of Sins past Therefore to hope our good Meanings good Intentions and Endeavours should help us is to no purpose A Man must from the first moment of Life to the last minute thereof be perfectly exact with God Now Man that could not keep himself in Innocency it cannot be thought that he can recover himself when Lost. 2. The Penalty is Intollerable Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them The Law is a mouth that speaketh terrible things it curseth a Man in his Person Comforts Basket Store in all things that he hath all the Miseries of this Life are included in this Curse Lam. 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sins Death it self is part of it it is the wages of Sin Rom. 6.23 and the pains of Hell Mark 25.41 Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire When the Law shall take a Sinner by the Throat and say Pay me what thou owest Alas what can a poor Creature do to avoid the Curse or overcome it Every one of us in Thought Word and Deed have broken the Law of God now wherewith shall we appease his Wrath We have nothing to give God or that he will accept at our hands we cannot hide or withdraw our selves from the presence of the Lord for we must all appear before the Iudgment Seat of Christ We cannot abide this Curse for who can dwell with devouring Burnings O what shall we do then to escape this horrible Curse There is no way but by flying from the Sentence of the Law to the Throne of Grace for Mercy and Pardon There is no other Hope left us for they that do not betake themselves to the Covenant of Grace must stand or fall by the Sentence of the Law So that this is the most powerful Engine to awaken Mens Consciences and prepare them for Christ. Therefore for good Reason Christ sends this Confident Young man to the Law Thou knowest the Commandments 3 Reason There is none passeth into the New Covenant till he be driven by the Old and therefore certainly this is the Way to prepare a Man for Christ to have some sense and feeling of it in our own Heart and we see we are cursed and Undone Creatures and so lye at God's feet with Brokenness of Heart Rom. 8.15 Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father There is a Spirit that goes along with every Covenant the Spirit of Bondage begets fear in all that are under the first Covenant and the Spirit of Adoption begets Hope in all that are under the second Covenant Gal. 2.19 I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God Before we can
eminent of all the Stock appeareth by the Dignity of his Person God made Flesh Iohn 1.14 The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us Or God manifested in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 As also by his miraculous Conception Luke 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God So Mat. 1.23 A Virgin shall be with Child and shall bring forth a Son and they shall call his Name Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us He that was God-Man in one Person and thus wonderfully conceived without a Male or Company of Man might well be looked upon as the Seed of the Woman here spoken of Now if you ask what necessity there was that the Conqueror should be the Seed of the Woman because the Flesh of Christ is the Bread of Life and the Food of our Faith I shall a little insist upon the Conveniency and Agreeableness of it 1. That thereby he might be made under the Law which was given to the whole Nature of Man Gal. 4.4 God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law He that came to repair our lost Condition needed to subject himself to the Precepts of God's Law that by Obedience he might recover what by Disobedience was lost and might be to us a Fountain and Pattern of Holiness in our Nature And therefore Christ in our Nature truly subjected himself and conformed himself to the Law of God that general and moral Law which all Men are obliged unto He performed the Duties of the first Table Luke 2.49 Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's Business He took all Occasions to glorify God And the Duties of the second Table as to his natural and reputed Parents Luke 2.51 He went down with them and was subject to them 2. That he might in the same Nature suffer the Penalty and Curse of the Law as well as fulfil the Duty of it and so make Satisfaction for our Sins which as God he could not do He was made Sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 and was made a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 Phil. 2.8 He became obedient to Death even the Death of the Cross. There was a Curse denounced against those who yielded not personal Obedience and he came in the Sinners room to undergo it that the Justice of God might be eminently demonstrated the Law-giver vindicated and the Breach that was made in the Frame of Government repaired and God manifested to be holy and an hater of Sin and yet the Sinner saved from Destruction 3. That in the same Nature which was foiled he might conquer Satan As a Tempter he conquered him hand to hand in a personal Conflict repelling his Temptations Mat. 4. As a Tormentor and one that had the Power of Death so he conquered him by his Death on the Cross Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch as the Children are Partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil Christ would stoop to the greatest Indignities to free us from this Enemy and to put Mankind again into a Condition of Safety and Happiness that he having conquered they might also conquer 4. That he might take Compassion of our Infirmities having experimented them in his own Person Therefore he assumed humane Nature that he might have assurance of this Heb. 2.17 18. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining â—nto God to make Reconciliation for the Sins of the People For in that he himself haâ—h suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted We have now Assurance that he will pity us more than one who is a Stranger to our Blood He hath had trial of our Nature and our Miseries and Temptations and will be more sensible of the Heart of a tempted Man and will mind and attend upon our Business as his own 5. That he might take possession of Heaven for us in our Nature Iohn 14.2 3. I go to prepare a Place for you and if I go and prepare a Place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there ye may be also The Devil comes to depress our Nature and Christ came to exalt it he endeavoured to make us lose Paradise and Christ gave us Heaven Man fallen is strangely haunted with Doubts about the other World Now he that came to save us and heal us did himself in our Nature rise from the Dead that he might give us a visible Demonstration of the Life to come which he had promised to us that we might more regard the Offer He himself hath seized upon it that the rest of the Seed may be possessed of it and hath carried our Nature thither that in time our Persons may be translated 6. That after he had been a Sacrifice for Sin and conquered Death by his Resurrection he might also triumph over the Devil and lead Captivity captive and give Gifts to Men in the very Act of his Ascension into Heaven Eph. 4.8 Wherefore he saith When he ascended on high he led Captivity captive and gave Gifts unto Men. Having foiled his Enemies on the Cross it is fit he should triumph over them to assure the World of his Conquest and give such a Measure of his Gifts and Graces to his Church as might help them to scatter the Ranks of the Battel His Victory is shewn to be compleat as to the Head and as to the rest of the Seed of the Woman who are all willing to enter into Confederacy with him he hath left Ordinances and an Almighty Spirit that they may get to Heaven after him II. That Christ is at Enmity with Satan and hath entred into the Conflict with him 1 st We must state the Enmity between Christ and his Confederates and Satan and his Instruments For it is said in the beginning of the Verse I will put Enmity between thy Seed and her Seed which is principally to be understood of the Lord Christ and of his Confederates in the second place against Satan in the first place and his Instruments on the other side There is a double Enmity which Christ hath against Satan and so he undertakes the War against him as contrary to his Nature and Office 1. There is a perfect Enmity between the Nature of Christ and the Nature of the Devil The Nature of Satan is sinful murderous and destructive for it is said he was a Liar and Murderer from the beginning John 8.44 And 1 Iohn 3.8 He that committeth Sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil Again ver 12. Not as Cain
this makes Death to be dreadful and terrible to the Soul and keeps the Soul in Bondage Heb. 2.15 Through fear of death they were all their life-time subject to bondage But certainly it shall be at the day of Judgment then we shall see the folly of it Conscience shall then be extended and enlarged and the Sinner shall remember the wickedness of his past life You will then find the Devil that is now a Tempter will prove an Accuser Oh what kind of Apprehensions will you have when the Devil shall come forth and plead Lord Adjudge this Person to me I never dyed for him I never shed my Blood for him I could promise him no Heaven and Glory yet he easily hearkened to my Temptations Tuus esse noluit per gratiam sit meus per culpam ostende tales tuos munerarios O Christe He would not be thine for all the Grace and Kindness thou didst show him and all the Rewards thou didst propound and promise to him Then all disguises will be laid aside A little consideration and search and Prayer for Conviction for the present would help us to the same apprehensions If Conscience should be now extended as it will be then we should soon be weary of our Lives At least do not rest in your own Valuation and Account for then the Secrets of all Hearts shall be opened 3. The less Sin appeareth many times it is the greater Sins are not to be measured by the smalness of the matter of them but by the offence done to God The first Sin to a vulgar and common apprehension was but the eating of an Apple it seemed a small matter if we did not consider the offence against God It is an aggravation mentioned by the Prophet Amos 2.6 They sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes that is upon so small an occasion or for such a contemptible matter they would oppress the poor The lesser the occasion and temptation is the greater the Impudence the Imprudence and the Unkindness the greater the Impudence that they will dare God to his face for a trifle the greater is the Imprudence that we will hazard our Souls for a mean thing the greater is the unkindness that we will stand with God for a little Sins that are accounted small in the matter of them have been overtaken with the sad Revenges of God he that denyed a crum could not receive a drop of Water to cool his Tongue The contempt of God is the greater when we break with God for a small matter and transgress his Commandments upon every light occasion In short sin is in no case small but only in regard of Gods Mercy and Christs Merits 4. None are exempted from bewailing the evil of Sin Though the Children of God shall never feel it nor have the dregs of God's displeasure wrung out to them for it yet they must bewail the evil that there is in Sin The Death and Merit of Christ doth not change the Nature of Sin nor put less evil into it why should we look upon it with a different eye after Conversion than we did before Sin is still damning in its own Merit and Nature and it is still the violation of an Holy Righteous Law and an affront to the Holy God and an inconvenience to the precious Soul Sin is the same as it was before though the Person be not the same Nay the Children of God are not altogether exempted from the effects of Sin neither it is a Disease though not a Death and who would not groan under the heat of a burning feavour though he be assured of Life God hath still a bridle upon you to keep the Soul in awe And though the godly can never loose their right in the Covenant that doth remain yet they may loose the fruition of it and this is enough to make a Child of God mourn Notwithstanding all the Priviledges of Grace you may be branded though not executed and though the Lord hath made them Vessels of Mercy yet he doth not use and employ them as Vessels of Honour but they are set aside as useless Vessels Sin will still be inconvenient it will bring disgrace to Religion and discomfort to your Souls and furnish the Triumphs of Hell and make Satan rejoyce and Eclipse the Light of Gods Countenance and who can brook the loss of Gods Favour and of intimate Communion with him without sadness and bemoaning his case I may ask you that question Iob 15.11 Are the consolations of God small with thee Do you make so little reckoning of those rich Comforts of the Holy Ghost Though you cannot be damned for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 yet your Pilgrimage may be made very uncomfortable and he that prizeth Communion with God would not loose the Comfort of it for the least moment Besides if there were no inconvenience yet Love is motive enough to a gracious Person Where is your Love Christians You sin against Mercy the warm beams of Mercy should melt the heart Ezek. 36.31 Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for all your abominations As long as there is Love in the Heart you can never want an Argument to represent the odiousness of Sin Put the matter in a Temporal Case it would be ill reasoning for an Heir to say I know my Father will not disinherit me therefore I do not care how I offend him Where is your Love to God if you do not hate Sin Psam 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil Though your Right in the Covenant be safe yet you should still have the evil of your own doings in remembrance 5. Many speak much of the Evil of Sin in Prayers and Confessions yet loath it never the more yea the less What should be the Reason of it All their thoughts are spent in empty Declamations and forms of Satyr or Anger and these do not subdue Affections Or else it may be we only paint Sin in our Fancies and that worketh no more than a Picture or Image which doth not allure and draw Love so much as a Living Beauty it only pleases and tickles a little Things foul in their Nature are pleasant in their Picture and Description What more dreadful than War And yet what more pleasant than in a strain of Poetry or Rhetorick or in a lively Picture to describe the fury and heat of Battle What more uglâ— than a Toad And yet a Toad painted to the life pleaseth So when we meerly paint Sin by the help of the Imagination or Fancy it moves only the lighter part of the Soul It is good to be rational in our Considerations and where there is the less Art it leaveth the deeper stroak upon the Heart Imagination and Fancy is a great Instrument in the work of Mediation but still it must be
Persons were swept away at once The next news of Sin is in the instance of Sodom and there Sin was of such an evil influence that it made God to rain Hell out of Heaven as one expresses it Gehennam misit e coelo Gen. 19.24 Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven Dominus a Domino the Lord Christ from the Lord Jehovah Jesus Christ himself will become the Executioner upon such a Wicked People Go from Sodom to Sion and further trace the Story of Sin Who can read the Lamentations without lamentation or run over the story of Ierusalems sorrows with dry Eyes There was not such a People under Heaven both for Mercies and Judgments the dearly beloved of his Soul given up to a sad ruine Lam. 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sins What is the reason of all this but Sin Will you go further and see the Effects of Sin upon the Son of God himself who was the Son of his Love the man Gods fellow as he is called Zech. 13.7 his Associate they solaced themselves mutually in each other Prov. 8.30 There was I by him as one brought up with him I was dayly his delight rejoycing alwaies before him See what Sin did to him that was but imputed to him Look into the Garden see him in his Agonies go to Golgotha see Christ hanging on the Cross if you would know Sin Gold and Silver would not ransom us nothing would serve but the Blood of Christ Oh come and wonder The boundless Sea of the God-head was stopped by the bank of Sin For a Candle to be put out is no such matter but for the Sun to be quenched and darkned this is dreadful So for a poor Creature to be forsaken is nothing but when the Son of God shall complain that he cannot actually enjoy the Comfort of the God-head when the Sun of Righteousness shall complain of an Eclipse and of a suspension of Consolation this is dreadful Though the Humane Nature recoyled out of a just abhorrency of the Sufferings he was to endure and he came to his Father Matth. 26.39 Oh my Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me And again ver 42. and again ver 44 saying the same words yet Divine Justice would not bate him one farthing what then would have become of us if Jesus Christ had not catched the blow Then survey common Experience If all the Charnels in the World were emptied upon one heap and all the Bones of all that ever dyed were laid together you might say all these were slain by Sin Whenever you see Sin you may entertain it as Elisha did Hazael Thou art the Murderer All Diseases Pestilences Wars Famines Tumults Earthquakes these are but the births of Sin it hath laid Houses desolate wasted Kingdoms destroyed Cities Sin may say Zephan 3.6.7 I have cut off the nations their Towers are desolate I have made their streets wast that none passeth by their Cities are destroyed so that there is no man there is none inhabitant I said surely thou wilt fear me that which we â—eel we may fear But we may come nearer home Do but consider the Effects of it within your selves in the Terrors of Conscience What a sorry Creature is Man when God arms his own thoughts against him and sets home one Sin upon his Conscience He longs for Death rather than Life Heman who was a Child of God complains Psal. 88.16 17 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me thy terrors have cut me off They came round about me dayly like water they compassed me about together What a sad thing is this that a Man should be Magor Missabib fear round about that his own Thoughts should be his Hell and wherever he goes he carries his Hell with him when he lies down in his Bed Hell lyes down with him when he walks out into the Field or Garden Hell walks with him when he goes about his Business Hell goes with him Sin is its own Executioner however it smiles in the first address yet afterwards it scourgeth the Soul with horror and despair Consider the horrors in Death There is a Natural abhorrency from Death as an Evil to our Life and Being but that which increaseth Horrour is Sin 1 Cor. 15.56 The sting of death is sin Oh what agonies will it raise in our Souls when we come to dye if we dye in our Sins Though we were immortal yet Sin is so great an Evil that it were not to be committed but when we are to dye and give an account how doth it fill the Soul with horror and diffidence and shame and anger Some wicked Men indeed dye stupid and careless at least doubtful and some may be fool-hardy like a Man that fetcheth a leap in the dark over a bottomless gulph he doth not know where his feet may light A Wicked Man is like a Tree that grows on the Bank of a River he is on the Borders of Hell and when he dyes he falls into it When they come to dye Sin will be accusing Conscience witnessing the Law condemning Satan insulting Heaven will be shut up against them and Hell inlarging her mouth Oh how will the Body curse the Soul for an ill guide and the Soul curse the Body as a wicked Instrument It is a sad parting when these two loving Friends Body and Soul part with Curses and can never expect to meet again but in Torment A Godly Man when he dyes takes a fair leave of his Body and saies farewel flesh He goes down to the Grave with the Covenant of Grace in his hand my flesh shall rest in Hope but a wicked Man dreadeth it that ever his Body and Soul must be united again they part with an expectation never to meet but in flames But all this is nothing to the Everlasting Estate that follows after it consider either the Loss or the Pain both will represent the Evil of Sin Consider the loss by sinning thou losest God and Heaven and Glory for a trifle for a little dreggy pleasure thou thrustest away Eternal Joyes thou dost as it were say I care not for Heaven so I may have carnal satisfaction as of Esau it is said Gen. 25.34 Thus Esau despised his birth-right it is not worth a Mess of Pottage With what sad Reflections wilt thou declaim against Sin when thou shalt see the Holy ones of God stand at the right hand of Christ and thou art halled to thy own place How will thy Heart turn upon thee for thy own folly then As one dreamt that his heart was boyling for his Sins in a Kettle of Scalding Lead and it cryed out to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is I that have been the cause of this Were it not for Sin I might have had a place in Abrahams Bosom but now I am going to Everlasting Torment then you will know what Sin is
written in the books according to their works These Books are the Book of Conscience and the Book of Gods Remembrance The Remembrance of our Actions shall be forced upon us Conscience is Gods Register and keepeth a Diary and sets down every thing This Book though it be in the Sinners keeping cannot be razed what Conscience writeth is written to Eternity unless it be blotted out by Repentance and a serious application of the Blood of Christ. Well then consider a sleepy Conscience will not alwaies sleep if we suffer it not to awaken here it will awaken in Hell where there is no Remedy for the present it sleepeth in many in regard of motion check or smiting but not in regard of Notice and Observation This secret spy is privy to more than it speaketh of it is laid up as matter for the Worm that never dyeth to feed upon 8. If the stings of an evil Conscience be not alwayes felt yet they are soon awakened by serious Thoughts of Death and Judgment to come and then forced upon us There is a fire smothering in our bosoms and it is soon blown up into a flame Sometimes by the word Acts 22.25 And as he reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgment to come Felix trembled Belshazars edge was taken oft in the midst of his carowsing Dan. 5.6 Then the kings countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loyns were loosed and his knees smote one against another Sometimes by some great Troubles Isa. 59.12 For our transgressions are multiplyed before thee and our sins testifie against us For our transgressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them Therefore we roar like beasts and mourn like doves ver 11. In a Tempest that which is at the bottom cometh a top Or by Death whatever silence there be in Conscience before yet Death usually reviveth these fears 1 Cor. 15.56 The sting of death is sin Men are wise and more serious as they are entring on the Confines of Eternity near things affect us the baits of the Flesh have then lost their allurement the Devil that was before a Tempter will then be a Tormentor things overlooked before are then seriously considered then the stings of Sin work most sensibly and in a lively manner and the deluded Sinner begins to see what he would not take notice of before 9. If Conscience do not speak to you you must speak to it and call upon it to do its Office Call your selves to an account for the Expence of your Time and Employment Psalm 4.4 Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still Psalm 77.6 I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search Take a time to parley with your selves and consider how matters stand between you and God When the Clock striketh not it is a sign the Plummets are down and we must wind them up again Every day we must do something as Iob sacrificed for his Sons day by day Iob 1.5 It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts And God himself reviewed every dayes work and saw that it was good Gen. 1.4 10 12 c. So should we review every dayes work and cast up the account at the foot of every page Short reckonings prevent mistakes Pythagoras taught his Scholars that they should never give way to sleep till they had posed themselves with these Questions Quid feci c. What have I done What good have I omitted Wherein have I transgressed Conscience What hast thou to say to me And Seneca telleth of his Friend Sextius that before he would betake himself to rest he would ask his Soul Quod hodie malum tuum sanasti cui vitio obstitisti qua parte meliores What evil hast thou got rid off to day What Sin hast thou resisted Wherein art thou better than thou wert before And he saith of himself Quotidie apud me causam dico toâ—um diem mecum scrutor dicta facta mea remetior that he scanned all his Actions and Speeches in the day Shall Heathens be more serious and shall Christians who are acquainted with Eternity never take time to set Conscience awork Oh let us be ashamed of our slightness and negligence 10. We can never have a sound Conscience till we be sincere with God in a constant uniform course of Self-denying-Obedience 1 Iohn 3.19 Hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him and this is described in the Text by keeping a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men So 2 Kings 20.3 I beseech thee O Lord remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight And this not in an Act or two but in a Mans whole Course Psalm 106.3 Blessed are they that keep judgment and he that doth righteousness at all times Not by starts and good moods only but constantly and at all times And our Obedience must be self-denying as well as constant and uniforme that Religion is worth nothing that costs nothing 2 Sam. 24.24 I will not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing When we value Gods Interest above our own and we can deny our selves upon the hopes of Glory then is our sincerity most evidenced But if we embrace only the safe cheap and easie part of Religion and cannot deny our Ease Profit and Honour we do not set up Christs Religion but a Christianity of our own making Matth. 16.24 Then said Iesus unto his disciples if any one will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me 11. If we would have Conscience to do its Office there must be great heed and watchfulness for it is corrupt as well as other Faculties and from a Judge it may become an Advocate excusing the partialities of our Obedience To evidence this more fully with respect to Conscience Men may be considered three wayes as acting without Conscience or according to Conscience or against Conscience 1. A Man may act without all Conscience so a Man may do either good or evil 1. Good as those that act rashly inconsiderately or customarily As when Men pray give Almes go to Church Conscience did not send them thither but Custom inducement of Friends perswasions of Parents or the like These do that which is good but they do it not well Luke 8.18 Take heed how you hear Conscience doth not put them upon it To this first sort may be reckoned those that intended to do evil but by accident do that which is good as Iosephs Brethren Gen. 50.20 But as for you ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good And those that performe the Duties of Christianity so far as the interest of the flesh will give them leave for the flesh it self will command you to
thee pray to God for us that he take away the fiery serpents In Adversity Men will own the faithful Servants of God against whom they have murmured when all is well Moses forgetteth the injury and prayeth to God for them and God though he doth not take away the Serpents yet he provideth a Remedy unlikely in appearance a Brazen Serpent to cure the bites of Living Serpents but Divine Institution conveyeth a Blessing The word of Command is that they should look upon the brazen serpent and the word of Promise is that they should be healed Numb 21.8 Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that every one when he is bitten that looketh upon it shall live This is in short the History Secondly The Mistery or Typical use of the Brazen Serpent The chief things represented in it are Sin Christ and Faith the deadliness of Sin the manner of our deliverance by Christ and the Nature of Faith 1. Israelites deadly Sin and Misery occasioned the setting up of the Brazen Serpent so the occasion of Christs sending into the World was Mans Sin and Misery we being all bitten by the old Serpent and so liable to the Curse The Devil is called the old serpent Rev. 12.9 And in the appearance of a Serpent he deceived our first Parents Therefore we read that the serpent beguiled Eve 2 Cor. 11.3 Humane Nature was then stung to Death by Sathan and the Venome dispersed its self throughout the whole Race of Mankind Among the Israelites there were but a few stung here all there their Bodies here the Soul there Temporal Death followed here Eternal In the Sting of these fiery Serpents two things representeth our Misery by Sin 1. It is painful 2. Deadly 1. This Sting is painful The bitings did presently cause pains and an intolerable thirst and burning which was very grievous to them so the sting of Sin is painful not alwaies felt but soon awakened In Spiritual things we are more stupid and are not so sensible of the Maladies of the Soul as they were of the pains of the Body We are subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 Though we do not alwaies feel actual horrour There is a fire smothering in our Bosoms though it be not blown up into a Flame One of our Spiritual Diseases is a Lethargy and it is a great part of our Misery not to know our Misery If Conscience were not lulled asleep we would be more sensible Surely Sathans bites are more painful than those of these Serpents his Darts are called fiery darts Eph. 6.16 His Darts are dipt in the gall of Asps and Vipers Boiling Lusts will in time awaken raging Fears and Despair O what horrour and torment will Sin procure to us if it be not speedily cured Sin is an Evil and a Mischief whether we feel it yea or no but we shall soon feel it an Evil as the stung Israelites felt the biting of the Serpents Sin in the Life will make Hell in the Conscience it seemeth a sweet draught while we are taking it down but there is rank poison at the bottom A wounded Spirit findeth it now Prov. 18.14 A wounded spirit who can bear Horrour and anguish of Conscience is insupportable ask any Man whose Heart is well awakened and he will tell you that the sense of the guilt of Sin is more bitter to the Soul than the gall of Asps no terrour comparable to the terror and sting of an accusing Conscience Gods terrors are compared to a Fire that drinketh up the Blood and Spirits Iob 6.4 The arrows of the almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me No poison more burning than Sin in an awakened Conscience it may lie asleep till you come to dye in Sin stupid and benummed Creatures But then the sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.56 Death is made terrible by those sad horrors and apprehensions which Sin raiseth in us 2. This Sting is deadly As the biting of the Fiery Serpents could not be cured but was present Death till God found out a Remedy so this sting of Sin is deadly Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye dying thou die Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death Death Temporal Eternal Thou art a dead Man lost for ever if thou art not cured Those who were not solicitous about their Cure are a figure of the impenitent who obstinately continue in their Sins though they bring destruction upon them Not only Death Temporal which consists in the separation of the Soul from the Body but Death Spiritual which consists in an estrangement from God as Author of the Life of Grace yea Death Eternal which consists in a separation both of Body and Soul from the presence of God for evermore and is a perpetual living to deadly pain and torment This Second Death is set forth by two solemn Notions the worm that never dyeth and the fire that shall never be quenched Mark 9.44 By which is meant the Sting of Conscience and the Wrath of God Prov. 8.36 All they that hate me love death 2. Christ is set forth by the Brazen Serpent Here I shall shew you 1. The Resemblances 2. The Superexcellency of Christ above this and all the Shadows and Types of him 1. The Resemblance between Christ and the Brazen Serpent 1. The Brazen Serpent was a Remedy of Gods own prescribing out of his great Mercy So is this Remedy for lost Sinners the meer Fruit of Gods Love Iohn 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son the causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Occasion or outward moving Cause was our Misery the causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inward impulsive Cause was his own love and pity to lapsed Mankind God found out the Remedy we neither plotted it nor asked it he saw the world of Mankind was perishing and involved in Eternal Ruine and because there was no Intercessor therefore his own Arm wrought out Salvation Herein the Antitype differeth from the Type The stung Israelites having Death in their bosoms go to Moses Moses goeth to God for he saw there could be no help elsewhere then God said Make thee a brazen serpent The motion came from them first but here it is quite otherwise God is the offended Party yet he maketh the first motion 1 Iohn 4.19 We love him because he loved us first There God found out the Remedy but here his meer love began the whole business and did set at work all the Causes that did concur to our Salvation we neither minded our Danger nor asked our Remedy 2. The conveniency of this Type to set out the low Estate and Humiliation of Christ. The form of a Serpent was chosen to shew
swallowed up of this Joy shall we be no more affected with it now We that shall so shortly be so full of joy shall we be empty now Shall not we rejoyce who have now a Title to Heaven and shall in a little time be in the full and perpetual possession of it III. The many Reasons which shew we should have a greater inclination to this Blessed Work than usually we have and be oftner in it 1. Because God hath done so much to raise it in us All the Persons of the God-head concur and contribute their Influence in that way of operation which is proper to each to give us grounds of joy 1. The Father giveth himself to us and his favour as our felicity and portion Gods Love is the bosom and bottom cause of all our Happiness which sets all other causes at work and when we have the sure effects of it can any thing so bitter befal us that will not be sweetned by the Love of God Or so evil that this shall not be ground of Comfort to us Psalm 4.6 7. There are many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased Carnal Men must have something good to sense but Godly Men take their full delight in God This doth them good to the Heart it is not like a little Dew that wets the Surface but like a soaking Showre that goeth to the Root And more enough to draw us off from the World enough to swallow up all our infelicities yea to encounter the Thoughts of Death Hell and Judgment to come 2. The Son is also matter of rejoycing to us as our Redeemer and Saviour You are to consider what the Lord Jesus hath done to deliver you from Sin and the bitter Curse of the Law and the Fears of Death and the Flames of Hell The Eternal Son of God came to heal our wounds Isa. 53.5 By his stripes we are healed To make our peace with the Father by the Blood of his Cross Col. 1.20 To vanquish our Spiritual Enemies and triumph over them Col. 2.14 15. to be the ransom of our Souls 1 Tim. 2.6 The Captain of our Salvation Heb. 2.10 the Head of his Church Eph. 1.22 The Treasury and Storeâ—ouâ—e of all our Comforts Iohn 1.16 and in short he hath recovered us to God and hath given us an Interest in the Comforts of his Gospel and the Promises thereof which are in him Yea and in him Amen and is not this matter of joy and rich comfort The whole Covenant breed strong consolation in the hearts of Gods People Heb. 6.18 And David saith Psalm 119.111 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart It doth our hearts good when we take these things for our Happiness Abraham rejoyced in the fore-thought or fore-sight of Christs day Iohn 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad And should not we rejoyce that live under the clearest dispensation of it The benefits of our Redemption by Christ should be so esteemed that no Affliction should be grievous The Kingdom of Christ is every where represented as a Kingdom of Joy and Comfort Rom. 14.17 The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost And if we be real Members of it we should see more cause of rejoycing in Christ Jesus 3. The Holy Ghost concurreth in his way of Operation as a Sanctifier Guide and Comforter As a Sanctifier he layeth the foundation for Comfort for it is the spirit of Delusion that comforts us in our sins that by imaginary Comforts he may keep you from those that are real solid and everlasting But the true Spirit is a Sanctifier and therefore a Comforter he first poureth in the Oyl of Grace and then the Oil of gladness Comfort and Joy follow Holiness as Heat doth the Fire And then as a Guide either in his restraining Notions as he mortifieth Sin or in his inviting motions as he exciteth and quickneth to Holiness These are helps to our Comfort cannot a Man live merrily without Sin And do you think a Life of Holiness irreconcileable with a life of rejoycing no such matter it is the ready way to joy especially to joy Spiritual But chiefly as a Comforter he is purposely given us to keep in this Holy Fire and maintain a constant delight in God in our Souls And therefore it is called Joy in the Holy Ghost where God himself taketh upon him the Office of a Comforter surely there will be comfort Life will quicken light will illuminate and the comforting Spirit will comfort in that season and degree God seeth fit and we are capable to receive Now he comforteth partly as sealing partly as giving earnest 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath also sealed us and given us the earnest of the spirit in our hearts As sealing us by stamping the impress and image of God upon us which is the mark of his Children the sure Evidence of his Love and the Pledge of our Happiness And as giving us the earnest of a Blessed Estate to come that Life is begun which there shall be perfected Now consider all this when God himself will be our Portion our Saviour our Comforter should not all this cause us to rejoyce in God what-ever our Condition be in the World 2. All the Graces tend to this Faith Hope and Love 1. Faith That is a dependance upon God for something future that lyeth out of sight Now these invisible and future Objects are so great and glorious that they support and comfort the heart how afflicted soever our present Condition be 1 Pet. 1.8 In whom believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Rom. 15.13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost In both these places Faith implyeth a firm belief of and dependance upon Christ as an All-sufficient Saviour by whom alone God will give us Eternal Life This Faith will breed a perpetual rejoycing in the Soul if it be firm strong and operative 2. Hope breedeth this Joy also Rom. 12.12 Rejoycing in hope and Rom. 5.2 We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Though we be pressed with Miseries for the present yet there is a better Estate to come the excellency and certainty of which causeth us to rejoyce and giveth us a foretast of it Joy is chiefly for Injoyment but there is a partial Injoyment by hope which is not only a desirous expectation but delightful for tast or praeoccupation of the thing hoped for 3. Love to God also causeth us to rejoyce in him For it sheweth it self in a complacency and well-pleasedness of Mind in God as our chief good Psalm 16.5
willing to return to their Obedience to God expecting their help and discharge from Gods Grace in Christ. It is opposed to such as are Righteous in their own Eyes Such as do in some measure feel their Sins are humbled for them desirous to be freed from them lost Sinners broken-hearted and grieved and wounded for their transgressions These are respected in Christs Commission Isa. 61.1 2. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tydings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening the prison doors to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Here is Christs calling to his Ministry and the exercise of his prophetical Office described Sent to preach the spiritual deliverance from sin and Sathan But to whom To such as are humbled and thoroughly touched with a lively sense of their Sin for which purpose God maketh use of legal sorrow to awaken Sinners and prepare them before Conversion II. That Christ recovereth us out of this lapsed Estate by Calling There is a two-fold Calling of Christ by which he calleth Men 1. Outward 2. Inward 1. Outwardly By the Ministry of the Word by which he inviteth Men to come out of their Sins offering Grace and Salvation in the outward means Thus Iohn preached Repentance Mat. 3.20 Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand When the Kingdom of Grace was about to be set up by the Gospel the great Duty called for was Repentance For the Gospel findeth Men involved in an evil way like mad Men out of their Wits and they must return to their Wits again if they would be capable of it Now they must change their course if they will receive benefit by it Thus Iohn preached and Jesus Christ came with the same form of proclamation Mark 1.15 The kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe the gospel The great business to which he called was to be willing to own the benefit offered by Christ and to return to the Duty which they owed to their Creator So his Apostles when sent abroad by him spake to Men in the same note Acts 2.38 Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins And Acts 3.19 Repent that your sins may be blotted out They offered Pardon and Life upon these termes 2. Inwardly By the effectual working of the Blessed Spirit inclining and moving their hearts to obey that outward Calling in forsaking their Sins and turning to the Lord by true Repentance We have need of a Saviour to help us to Repentance as well as to help us to pardon And God hath exalted him to such an end Acts 3.26 God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins He by the Gospel giveth leave to repent Acts 11.18 And when they heard these things they held their peace and glorified God saying That then God also to the Gentiles granted repentance to life Which is a great Mercy The Law doth not say I will not the Death of a Sinner but that he turn and live but the Lord saith do and live sin and dye This favour was not vouchsafed to Angels Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He took not hold of Angels That he giveth us space to repent as well as leave that by his Providence he may do and doth to many that perish Revel 2.21 I gave her space to repent and she repented not God is not quick and severe upon every Miscarriage He might have cut us off betimes as we crush Serpents in the Egg and destroy venomous Creatures when they are young But this is not all he giveth Grace to repent yea Repentance its self whereby Mans Heart is changed This is by his Spirit 2 Tim. 2.25 If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth The Evangelical Call carries its own blessing with it III. The Means of Application or the Duty on Mans part is Repentance For to that he calleth them here Here let me shew you these four things 1. What Repentance is 2. The kinds of it 3. That this is the way of our Recovery 4. The suitableness of this qualification to the Grace of the New Covenant I. What Repentance is It is turning of the whole heart from Sin and Sathan to serve God in newness of Life Or a turning from Sin because God hath forbidden it to that which is good because God hath commanded it There are in it as in every action two tearms a quo and ad quem We turn from something and we turn to something 1. The terminus a quo we turn from something From Sin Acts 8.22 Repent of thy wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from thy wickedness and from dead works Heb. 6.1 from Sathan Sathan is sometimes made the terme because the Sinner falleth to his share Acts 26.18 To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Sathan to God 2. The terminus ad quem is to God Acts 20.21 To the truth 2 Tim. 2.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth To holiness and newness of Life Rom. 6.4 To life Acts 11.18 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life 2. The kinds of it There is a general Repentance which consists in the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh Col. 2.11 When a Man renounceth all sin and devoteth himself to God And there is a particular repentance for any provoking Sin Acts 8.22 Repent and pray that if it be possible the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee Again There is a Repentance at our first Conversion which is our passing from Death to Life or our entrance by the strait gate Matth. 7.14 And there is a Repentance afterwards which belongeth to our walking in the narrow way For after Conversion we need it still and not in our Natural Estate only 'T is not only necessary for a Sinner yet unregenerate yet unreconciled to God without which he cannot expect any peace with God or benefit by the New Covenant but also for a Believer till his full and final Recovery This Repentance after Conversion is either occasional or constant 1. Occasional After any offence given or breach between us and God Repentance is necessary to obtain pardon of Sins after Justification as well as before it God saith to the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2.5 Repent and do thy first works So verse 19. Whom I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent Where Repentance is put for a necessary means of removing Gods rebuke and quarrel from them whom he loveth The promise is made
judged by this Law the holiest and the humblest the most penitent and believing Soul and the Soul that most loveth God cannot abide the Tryal and were it not for this promise and its Fellows what could we look for but Eternal Ruine 2. As to the Sanction the Law saith The Soul that sinneth shall die Ezek. 18.4 Now this being the Sentence of God delivered in a Righteous Law how shall we escape it Surely it cannot fall to the Ground Unless some Provision be made it will eternally take place This should the more affect us because it is often verified in the course of God's Providence Rom. 1.18 For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness Heb. 2.2 For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward Now when others are punished and we are spared surely we ought to be affected with his Severity towards them but towards us Goodness 3. Our incapacity of appearing before God by reason of the multitude of our Sins There are none of God's Children but have a great and vast Debt upon them and if God should call them to an account and should not spare not one of them could stand or appear in Court Psal. 130.3 4. If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared There is not a Man to be found who hath not some fault and failing which would render him uncapable of God's favour If he should proceed in just severity against us who could stand Not who among the Wicked but who among the Regenerate or the People of God So many are the Frailties and slips of their Lives And Psal. 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified It is impossible for such a frail sinful imperfect Creature as Man is to appear before God's exact Tribunal with any comfort and hope But he will not charge them on us with Severity but spare us with Mercy 4. The sense which Conscience hath of these Sins 1. Consider it in its old natural Bondage somewhat of which yet remaineth while Sin remaineth so Conscience accuseth of the Sins that are committed Rom. 2.15 Which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another And fears the Death threatned Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the Iudgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of Death Now can it be appeased unless the Lord spare or set up some way of Grace which alloweth pardon for our failings And if the Lord spare it should be as welcome to us as a Pardon to a Condemned Man 2. Consider it as it is inlightned and renewed by the Holy Spirit It is true it doth not produce such a fear of Wrath as before but a greater apprehension of the Evil of Sin because of the increase of light and love both which intender the Heart As their light and love increase so doth their trouble about sin Rom. 7.9 For I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed and verse 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death They are ashamed of that folly and filthiness and unkindness that is in Sin and are grieved for the relicks of Corruption Ezek. 16.6 And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live So Rom. 6.21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death Therefore if God will spare and not impute their trespasses to them they are more apprehensive of this mercy than possibly others can be None fee so many Sins and none see such hainousness in Sin and are more deeply affected with it In a clear Glass of Water the least Mote is espied They have a greater dread of God's Holiness a more sincere respect to his Law a greater reverence for the sentence of it a more firm belief of his threatnings a more earnest desire to please him and so a a greater grief for offending him Therefore if he will pardon and pass by their infirmities they are the more apprehensive of the privilege III. The grounds and reasons of this indulgence or sparing which God useth towards them 1. God's merciful nature which inclineth him to pass by the infirmities of his Saints This appeareth by the description of God given to Moses when the Lord proclaimed his name Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Since this is the description which God giveth of himself therefore it deserveth to be weighed by us The first notion is Merciful whereby God's Nature inclineth him to succour those that are in Misery by reason of Sin The next is Gracious which implieth his self-inclination to do good to his Creatures without any precedent obligation on their parts The third is Long Suffering or slowness to Anger he is not hasty to revenge the wrongs done him by the Creature He often pitieth wicked Men so far as to prevent the Temporal punishment and spareth them long when he might destroy them The Last is Abundant in goodness and truth that is expressing his kindness and bounteous nature many ways not at one time and in one sort only but upon all occasions and in all ways wherein we stand in need of his help and therefore will deal tenderly with his people Micah 7.8 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy If we had a due sense of the nature of God we should have much relief against the Evil Merit of Sin and a greater hope that he will deal in a Fatherly manner with us He had told them of great things God would do for them now in the apprehension of the sensible Sinner it is Sin chiefly which standeth in the way of their Mercies Therefore God will pardon Sin in his people in such a wonderful way as shall exceed all their thoughts He will not call them to a strict account for them and though he beginneth to reckon with them yet he will spare them and moderate his Anger and be reconciled to them It shall not go on to Eternal Wrath nor over long Temporal Evils and all because of the pleasure which he taketh in shewing acts of Mercy rather than acts of Vengeance 2. The satisfaction of Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his
ever we think of it When this Lamb of God was killing the Creatures were all in amazement the Earth trembled the Rocks rent the Sun was eclipsed Oh how great is the stupidity and dullness of our Hearts that we can no more seriously think of it Heb. 3.1 Wherefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the Apostle and High-priest of our Profession Iesus Christ. Serious Meditation is like the Concoction of Meat in the Stomach 2. Behold him with Application Iob 5.27 Hear it and know thou it for thy good Rom. 8.31 What shall we then say to these things Excite thine own Heart surely this was for my Sins if I have an Heart to receive Christ and make use of him for this End and Purpose Gal. 2.20 Who loved me and gave himself for me And 1 Pet. 1.20 Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you 3. Behold him with an Eye of Faith Isa. 45.22 Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Iesus Zech. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced Faith gets such a clear sight of things as if we had been by when he suffered and paid this Ransom 4. Behold him with an Eye of Repentance and brokeness of Heart Zech. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born It was thy Sins that pierced him therefore behold him and mourn 5. Behold him with an Eye of Thankfulness as the great Instance of God's Love who would by so costly a Remedy procure our Pardon and Happiness 1 Iohn 4.9 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the prâ—pitiation for our sins 6. Behold your Suffering and Crucified Saviour with an Eye of Love so as to love him the more O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Love is Crucified Ignatius quò vilior eò charior The more vile and humble he was the more dear he should be to you Let it perswade us to a real Love to allow him a Dominion and Lordship in our Hearts that is real Love to obey God Rom. 5.8 God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us This Love must beget Love 1 Use. To press you to behold the Lamb of God behold him as a Sacrifice for Sin whose Blood applied doth quiet the Conscience and turn away the Curse These Words present the more glorious Spectacle and Object not to your Sight but to your Faith not to your Senses but to your most serious and intimate Consideration The Object is Christ Crucified the only true propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin the chief Point of Christian Knowledge and the most powerful Means of the Creatures Good Oh behold him look not at Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper but at the Lamb of God 2 Use. To press you to take and eat Christ and receive him out of God's hands by Faith He is the Lamb of God God designed him for this Work when Man had no way to help himself 1 Pet. 1.20 Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world God tendreth him to you now Take and Eat God the Party offended hath authorized Christ to be a Mediator say then Lord thou hast appointed thy Son and sent him into the World to be a Ransom for our Souls he is now offered to me Lord I come to eat his Flesh and drink his Blood We must eat him so as to feel the Virtue of both changing our Hearts and comforting our Consciences changing our Hearts other Food is changed into our Substance this changeth us 2 Cor. 5.17 He that is in Christ is a new Creature Comforting our Consciences Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Is God unwilling to give Christ Or is Christ unable to do his Work A Second Sermon on JOHN i. 29 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the World Doctrine 2. THE great Work of Christ the Lamb of God is to take away the Sins of the World 1. What is meant by the World 2. In what manner Christ taketh away the Sins of the World 3. That this is the great End Work and Scope of Christ's coming into the World I. What is meant by the World Why is there such a capacious and comprehensive Word used Since it is clear that all the World have not benefit by Christ for many of them die in their Sins Answ. 1. To shew the difference between the Lamb of God and the Sacrifices of the Law the old Sacrifices were only offered for the People of Israel but Christ's Death hath a larger Extent to People of all places Iews and Gentiles 1 Iohn 2.2 And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world And in all Ages from the beginning of the World to the end Rev. 13.8 He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world The Lamb of God is of an universal and perpetual Use. 2. To shew the sufficiency of this Mediatorial Sacrifice it is of such a full and overflowing Merit that it becometh a Foundation for a tendry of Grace to every Creature Here is a Ground-work and Foundation laid for the truth of this Proposition Mark 16.16 That whosoever believeth shall be saved So that here is a great Invitation and Incouragement for every oppressed Soul if Christ taketh away the Sins of the World put in for a share thou art a Member of the World Paul creepeth in at the back Door of the Promise 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief Christ would not have Sinners exclude themselves but attend upon him for this Benefit Therefore he would have his Grace set forth in the most comprehensive Terms that all that find themselves Sinners may stir up themselves to find benefit by him 3. Those Elect ones who have actual Benefit by this Sacrifice may be called The World partly because of their Number take them all together and they are many and therefore called World Rev. 7.9 I beheld a great multitude which no man could number c. And partly in regard of God's Estimation though they are few they are as good as all the World to him And partly because they will one day be set apart from the rest of Mankind and make a peculiar World of themselves II. In what manner doth Christ take away the Sins
Heb. 2.15 Who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to Bondage At Death these Fears are more active and pungent 1 Cor. 15.56 The Sting of Death is Sin and surprize the guilty Soul with greater Horror and Distraction then they are summoned to their great Account If the Soul were mortal why should Men be afraid of Torments after Death They anticipate the Miseries of the Life to come not as it puts a Period unto their natural Comforts but as it is an Entrance into everlasting Miseries 4. The Scripture directs to this Argument the Justice of God for the Comfort of the Faithful 2 Thess. 1.5 Which is a manifest Token of the righteous Iudgment of God The Sufferings of the Faithful are a Demonstration of a future Estate there is a God If there be not a first and Fountain-Being how did we come to be for nothing can make it self Or how did the World fall into this Order This God is just for all Perfections are in the first Being If we deny him to be just we deny him to be God and the Governour of the World Rom. 3.5 6. Is God unrighteous who taketh Vengeance God forbid for then how shall God judg the World Now it is agreeable to the Justice of his Government that it should be well with them that do well and ill with them that do evil or that he should make a difference by Rewards and Punishments between the Wicked and Obedient It seemeth uncomely when it is otherwise Prov. 26.1 As Snow in Summer and as Rain in Harvest so Honour is not seemly for a Fool. When the Wicked are exalted Men look on it as an uncouth thing Now this Reward and Punishment is not fully dispensed in this World even in the Judgment of them that have no great knowledg of the heinous Nature of Sin and the Judgment competent thereunto Yea rather the best are exercised with Poverty Disgrace Scorn and all manner of Troubles their Persons molested their Names cast out as odious when the Wicked live in Pomp and Ease and oppress them at their pleasure Therefore since God's Justice doth not make such a difference here there is another Life wherein he will do it otherwise we must deny all Providence and that God doth not concern himself in humane Affairs and that a Man may break his Laws oppress his People and no great Harm will come of it Zeph. 1.12 The Lord will not do Good neither will he do Evil. And God would seem indifferent to Good and Evil yea rather partial to the Evil and to favour the Wicked more than the Righteous which is Blasphemy and a diminution of God's Goodness and Holiness Psal. 11.6 7. Vpon the Wicked he shall rain Snares Fire and Brimstone and an horrible Tempest this shall be the Portion of their Cup. But the righteous Lord loveth Righteousness and his Countenance doth behold the Vpright Obedience would be Man's Loss and Ruin and so God would be the worst Master 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this Life only we have hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable They that forsake the sinful Pleasures of this Life hazard all their natural Interests row against the Stream of Flesh and Blood would be ill provided for by their Religion Therefore there is another Life wherein God will reward his People Secondly I shall urge other Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul 1 st The Capacity of the Soul argueth the Immortality of it Now it is capable 1. Of Civil Arts. 2. Of owning the distinction between Good and Evil. 3. Of knowing Immortality and Matters of everlasting Consequence 4. Of knowing God and his Attributes 5. Of the Divine Nature which consists in the Knowledg and Love of God 6. Of a sweet familiar Communion with him Let us see how all these Capacities will prove the Matter in hand 1. The being capable of Civil Arts will prove the Soul's spiritual Substance far excelling the Beasts in Dignity for it is capable of all kind of Learning and witty Inventions as Grammar and the knowledg of Tongues and Rhetorick to form and polish our Speech Logick to refine our Reason Ethicks to order our Manners Medicine to cure the Distempers of our Bodies by Physicks or by natural Philosophy it knoweth all kind of Things all Ranks of Beings from God and Angels to the smallest Worm yea it acquireth such Skill as to make use of all Creatures for its own benefit James 3.7 For every kind of Beasts and of Birds and of Serpents and things in the Sea is tamed and hath been tamed of Mankind The Power and Skill of Man is large and reacheth through the whole Creation by one Means or other Man mastereth them Now what doth this signify but that Man hath a Soul different from the Souls of the Beasts Iob 35.11 He teacheth us more than the Beasts of the Field and maketh us wiser than the Fowls of Heaven And that will contribute much to the matter in hand Solomon puts the Question Eccles. 3.21 Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the Spirit of a Beast that goeth downward to the Earth Mark there he asserts that the Spirit of the Man goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast goeth downward there is an Ascent ascribed to the one and a Descent to the other upward implieth Heaven and heavenly things downward the Earth and earthly things The humane Soul ascendeth to God the universal Judg of all the World whose Throne is in Heaven but the Soul of the Beasts taketh its Lot among all earthly things which are at length resolved into Earth Water and Air. In the Creation God is said to breath into Man the Spirit of Life not so of the Beast So in the Dissolution the one returneth to God the other leaveth off to exist and when they die they are no more 2. It is capable of owning the Distinction between moral Good and Evil. He that doth not acknowledg it is unworthy the Name of Man for to love or hate God is not indifferent nor to kill a Neighbour or hunt an Hare in the Woods to use lawful Matrimony or for a Man to pollute himself either with promiscuous or incestuous Imbraces Now if our Souls differed not from the Soul of a Beast they could have no such Apprehension or Conception The Beasts know Pain and Pleasure but they have no Knowledg of Vertue and Vice as is sensible to every one that considereth them but Man hath Rom. 2.14 15. For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the VVork of the Law written in their Hearts Well then Man hath a Life beyond this a further End of his Actions than a Beast which is to approve himself to God to whom he must give an Account whether he hath done Good or Evil. For a Conscience supposeth a Law and a Law
enough and to spare There is Grace enough in God If we perish it is not for want of Mercy but for want of Faith Why should we then put away this Grace that is revealed to us yea offered to us If it were to be procured by any thing in us we might despair Take heed of slighting the Grace of God it is God's Treasure so far as you lessen Grace you make God a poor God Mark that Expression Ephes. 2.4 God who is rich in Mercy God is Lord of all things but he counts nothing to be his Treasure but his Goodness and Mercy He doth not say rich in Power thô he is able to do beyond what we can ask or think nor rich in Justice thô he be Righteous in all his Ways and Just in all his Works nor doth he say rich in Creatures thô his are the Cattel of a thousand Hills but rich in Mercy Therefore take heed of straitning Mercy for so far you lessen God's Wealth and Treasure 3. Grace is wronged by intercepting the Glory of Grace It is the greatest Sacriledg that can be to rob God of his Glory especially the Glory of his Grace Above all things in the World God's Glory is the most dear to him he cannot endure to have a Partner especially is the Glory of his Grace dear to him it is the whole aim of all his Dispensations to glorify Grace Ephes. 1.6 To the praise of the Glory of his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved You rob God of his chiefest Honour when you take the Crown of Glory that is due to Grace and put it upon your own Head As for instance When you think he accepts you rather than others for some Worth or good Qualities that he seeth in you more than in others Alas in the Light of the Gospel such Thoughts are not expressed but they lurk secretly in the Heart Deut. 9.4 Speak not thou in thy Heart saying For my Righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this Land A Man's Heart is very prone to these Thoughts God seeth that I would bring him more Glory than another it is for my Righteousness Grace is wronged also when you are puffed up with any thing you have done for God as if it were done by your own Power and Strength A Christian in this Case should learn the Policy of Ioab when he was in a fair way of taking Rabbah he sent for David to take the Honour of winning it 2 Sam. 12.28 Now therefore gather the rest of the People together and encamp against the City and take it lest I take it and it be called after my Name So when we have done any thing for the Glory of God let us send for God to take the Honour Thus the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.10 I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the Grace of God which was with me If there be any Excellency still throw the Crown at Grace's Feet The industrious Servant said Luke 19.16 Thy Pound hath gained ten Pounds not my Industry but thy Pound 4. Grace is wronged by turning it into Wantonness It is a heavy Charge and a black Note is set on them Iude 4. Vngodly Men turning the Grace of God into Lasciviousness When Men sin freely that God may pardon freely when they presume upon Grace as if that should bear all and use it as a Dung-Cart to carry away all their Filth or like riotous Children who have a rich Father therefore spend freely their Father's Estate shall pay for all It is a mighty wrong to Grace when we make it pliable to such a vile purpose You dishonour God and disparage Grace when you would make it to father the Bastards of your own Carnal Hearts You are vile and sinful and you are so under the Encouragements of Grace and the rather because of the abundance of Grace and like the Spider suck Poison out of the Flower and turn it into the Nourishment of your Lust or as the Salt Sea turns the sweet Rivers and Dews of Heaven and all that falls into it into Salt-Water so Carnal Hearts do assimulate all that they meet with and turn it into Fuel for their Lusts. Men would fain sin securely and cum Privilegio with Licence from Heaven and therefore they take Liberty even from the Grace of God This is a vile abuse a quite contrary way the Grace of God teacheth us to deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and not to be more secure and careless because they have so much Grace But they hale it and wrest it from its natural End and Purpose and sin freely because God pardons freely Grace giveth no such liberty to sin This is done grievously by the Antinomians who say Grace gives them Freedom from the Moral Law It is true Grace makes us free but to Duty not to Sin There is a sad Expression Rom. 6.20 When ye were the Servants of Sin ye were free from Righteousness it is a Description of the Carnal State Duty hath no awe upon his Heart when Men think themselves free from the Law rather than Sin and when they expect Comfort thô they walk in the Way of their own Heart they have abused Grace and taken hold of the Devil's Covenant and not of God's There is never any Creature freed from the Law God never made a Creature to be absolutely sui juris at his own disposal The Angels themselves thô they have many Immunities and Priviledges above us as being exempted from Troubles Diseases and Death and from the Clog of Flesh which we carry about us yet they are not exempted from Duty or from a Law They do his Commandments and hearken to the Voice of his Word Psal. 103.20 Earthly Kings may free some of their Subjects from their Homage as Saul made a Proclamation He that doth thus and thus his Father's House shall be free in Israel 1 Sam. 17.25 But God never made any Creature to be absolutely freed from a Law But if a Man be right in Doctrine thô he hold the Obligation of the Moral Law on a Believer yet he may be an Antinomian in practice and abuse and wrong Grace as thus If a Man slacken any part of his Duty for Grace's sake or le ts loose the Reins of vile Affections with more freedom and saith God will not be so rigorous he wrongeth Grace If Men be not so watchful and so strict if Men grow more careless secure and negligent if they be not so constant in Duty if they lessen ought of their Humiliation for Sin or strictness and watchfulness in their Conversation they are as a Spider that sucks Poison out of Grace A Man hath never the more carnal Liberty for being acquainted with the Gospel This is the great thing which puts us upon Duty and Watchfulness and melts the Heart for Sin and awes it and disposeth it to Obedience 5. Grace is wronged by slighting it after a Taste as Carnal Professors do
the Heart for Duties of Religion SERMON VIII TITUS II. 12 We might live soberly c. II d Branch Sobriety in Meats and Drinks IF you ask which is worst Excess in Meat or Drink Gluttony or Drunkenness I answer Drukenness is more odious and doth more sensibly deprive a Man of the use of Reason and put him upon Actions unseemly and is the cause of more Diseases and Disorders in the Body but then Gluttony is very dangerous partly because it is not of such a great Disreputation among Men as Drunkenness and Shame is one of the Restraints of Sin partly because it insensibly creeps upon us as Austin complained Ebrietas longe à me est crapula autem nonnunquam surrepit servo tuo Lord I abhor Drunkenness but Gluttony creeps unawares upon me If it be required again which Sin is worst he that is immoderate in the use of Pleasure or he that is immoderate in Worldly Cares I answer gross Intemperance brings more Dishonour to God and Worldly Cares more spiritual Disadvantage to our Souls A Worldling doth not dishonour God openly so much as a Drunkard but then he is more uncapable of Conviction and of heavenly things and by distracting his Heart with Cares he shrewdly endangereth his Salvation As for Drunkards and Sensualists their Face declareth their Shame and their Crime is written in their Foreheads and so they have less of Defence against the Stroaks of the Word Therefore our Saviour saith Mat. 21.31 That the Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you These things premised I come to speak of Sobriety in the use of Meats and Drinks I join them both together because Grace is exercised in the Restraint of both Christians as we are your Remembrancers to God so we must be God's Remembrancers to you and every part of Conversation falls under some Rule of Religion The Apostle saith 1 Pet. 1.15 As he that hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of Conversation in every Point and every Affair of Life and therefore eating and drinking being one part of human Conversation it is necessary to give you some Directions It is very familiar with Men to miscarry by Appetite more familiar with Man than with Beasts There is no Beast but Swine will over-eat themselves they know their stint and measure But Lord how far is Man fallen Nature is not only blind in point of Worship but weak in point of Appetite The Relicks of Inordinacy are in the Regenerate The holiest Men had need of Caution as Christ saith to his Disciples Take heed and beware that your Hearts be not over-charged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness Luke 21.34 And the Apostle bids Timothy to flee youthful Lusts to be chaste and pure as he was 2 Tim. 2.22 Flee also youthful Lusts but follow after Righteousness Faith Charity Peace with them that call on the Lord with a pure Heart Yea those that are wisest and most accomplish'd many times are swallowed up in this Gulf. Who would have thought that Adam and Eve endowed with the Image of God should have miscarried by Appetite by eating or that Solomon who had such large Gifts and Knowledg from the Cedar to the Hyssop should miscarry by Women and that Persons of excellent Abilities are many times of a riotous Conversation Certainly we are weakest where we think our selves strong When the upper part of the Soul is sufficiently fortified with Counsel and Knowledg the Devil dare not assault us in point of Error but then he draws us away by Appetite and the Baits of the Flesh and therefore we had need speak of Sobriety in Meats and Drinks Now Sobriety becomes all Persons especially Magistrates Ministers Women and Youth Magistrates and Ministers because of the Dignity of their Office Women because of the Imbecility of their Sex and Youth because of the slipperiness of their Age. 1. For Magistrates Prov. 31.4 5. It is not for Kings O Lemuel it is not for Kings to drink Wine nor for Princes strong Drink Give strong Drink to him that is ready to perish It is an Allusion to the Custom among the Iews if a Man were condemned to die it was their Courtesy to give him spiced Wine to attenuate and thin the Blood that it might sooner pass out of the Body and to inebriate the Senses that he might be less sensible of his Paâ—n Now it is not for Kings to drink Wine not for the Judg but for the condemned Person So Eccles. 10.16 17. Wo unto thee O Land when thy Princes eat in the Morning Blessed art thou O Land when thy Princes eat in due season for Strength and not for Drunkenness Magistrates cannot be good or bad alone when they are given to sensual Delights â—t is more odious in them for it unfits and diverts them from publick Business when they spend their time in Excess they are totally indisposed for Counsel and wise Debates and weighty Affairs therefore the Carthaginians forbad Wine to Magistrates during the time of their Magistracy And by Solon's Law a drunken Prince was to be slain 2. For Ministers their Work lies with God therefore they had need live in constant Sobriety Under Pain of Death neither Aaron nor his Sons the Priests were to drink Wine or strong Drink when they went into the Tabernacle of the Congregation Levit. 10.9 Do not drink Wine nor strong Drink thou nor thy Sons with thee when ye go into the Tabernacle of the Congregation lest ye die It shall be a Statute for ever throughout your Generations It is probable Nadab and Abihu their Miscarriage in offering strange Fire was occasioned by Fumes of strong Drink for presently God makes that Law for Aaron and his Sons So the Apostle 1 Tim. 3.3 A Bishop must be sober not given to Wine because of the Excellency of his Ministration which requires Meditation and Freedom of Contemplation which is hindred by the Fumes of Wine and strong Drink 3. For Women because of the Weakness and Modesty of their Sex In some Nations it was Death for Women to be intemperate because by this means they make Shipwrack of that Modesty which is the Ornament of that feeble Sex and therefore Excess in them is more filthy and shameful 4. For Youth they need chiefly to be press'd to this Sobriety because of the Slipperiness of their Age their Judgments are weak and green and their Affections are violent Nature is strong in them and Satan is diligent to seduce them he prizeth young Affections and they are but newly come to the Use of their Reason from living the Life of Sense and the natural Heat of the Stomach that is found in Youth is a great Provocation Though all need to be fortified yet especially these But what is this Sobriety that is required I answer You may know it by the Sin that is contrary to it and we sin against Sobriety when we offend by Quantity Quality and in the manner of Usage 1. There
of the Mouth of the Lion and this is called presenting his Spouse to God Ephes. 5.27 That he might present it to himself a glorious Church Christ hath shed his Blood and washed her clean and decked her with all the Jewels of the Covenant and then he shall present her to God and the Form of Surrender you have Heb. 2.13 Behold I and the Children God hath given me Behold here I am and all thou hast given me there is not one wanting O what a glorious Sight will this be to see the great Shepherd of the Sheep leading his Flock into their everlasting Folds and all the Elect following Christ with their Crowns of Glory upon their Heads singing to the Praise of the Lamb O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory c. To see them with Harps in their Hands triumphing thus in the Salvation of God all Enemies gone and the Church lodged in everlasting Habitations Besides consider the Acclamation and Applause of the Angels O how should we strive to be one of this Number 3. The next Consequent is the burning of the World that 's described at large 2 Pet. 3.10 11 12. how that Fire shall come out from God and burn and devour all things and melt the very Firmament Certainly that Fire is to be taken literally for it is opposed to Water the first Water by which the World was destroyed Now by this Fire I conceive the World shall not be consumed but renewed and purged because in the everlasting State God will have all things new he will not only have the Bodies and Souls of the Saints new but will have new Heavens and new Earth for it is a deliverance from the Bondage of Corruption Rom. 8.21 If the World shall be no more the Habitation of the Saints yet God will renew the World that it may be a continual Monument of his Power Now this burning of the World some place it in Preparation before the Day of Judgment but I conceive it is a Consequent for it seemeth to be an Instrument of Vengeance on the Wicked I will not say with the Schoolmen the feculent and drossy part of this Fire is reserved for the Torment of the Wicked in Hell but in general it shall be the Instrument of God's Vengeance upon them so much is asserted 2 Pet. 3.7 The Heavens and Earth that now are by the same Word are kept in store and reserved unto Fire against the Day of Iudgment and the Perdition of ungodly Men. There are some that say this Fire shall begin the Day of Judgment Et causam dicent in flammis the Wicked shall plead their Cause in Flames but this were to execute before the Sentence Sodom's Fire was dreadful but nothing to this Burning It was a dreadful Sight when God rained Hell out of Heaven and the poor tormented Creatures ran screeching and yelling to and fro because of those Flakes of Fire and Brimstone but this Fire shall come out of the Throne of the Lord Dan. 7.10 A fiery Stream issued and came out from before him to consume his Adversaries and to remain in Hell with them for evermore which will be much more dreadful God hath Diluvium Ignis as well as Aquae a Deluge of Fire as well as of Water As one saith very wittily As at the first he drowned the World propter ardorem libidinis because of the Heat of Lust so in the end he will kindle a Fire to burn the World propter teporem charitatis because of the Coldness of Love The Object of your Adulteries will be burnt God will have nothing impure in the everlasting State the World shall be purged with Fire Thus you have seen how the Appearance of Christ will be glorious II. Why the Appearance of Christ will be so glorious 1. To recompense his own Abasement His first Coming was in Humility he came riding upon the Fole of an Ass but now on the Clouds they are as it were his Royal Chariot Then he came with Fishermen a few Apostles to be his Messengers but now he comes with Angels Then he came in the form of a Servant to be judged now he comes as the Son of God to be the Judg of all the World When the Day of Judgment is spoken of Christ is called the Son of Man Mat. 25.31 When the Son of Man shall come in his Glory and all his holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the Throne of his Glory Mat. 26.64 Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right Hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven And Dan. 7.13 Behold one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds of Heaven and came to the Antient of Days and they brought him near before him Why so He that was the Son of Man that came in such a mean Condition at first shall then be glorious and so it taketh off the Scandal of his present Estate He that appeared in so low a Condition that was betrayed crucified spat upon pierced dead buried then shall be crowned with Glory and Honour When he came to teach us Righteousness he comes as the Son of Man but when he comes to reward Righteousness then he comes as the Son of God 2. That he might shew himself to be fully discharged of Sin The Glory bestowed upon his Humane Nature by God the Father noteth his plenary Absolution as our Surety We hear that he is taken up into Glory that God hath acquitted him that he was taken from Prison and from Iudgment Isa. 53.8 but then we shall see it with our Eyes when the Father sends him from Heaven with Power and great Glory At the first Christ came like a Man charged with Sin in the Garb of a Sinner therefore it is said Rom. 8.3 God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh. But then Heb. 9.28 He shall appear the second time without Sin The first time the World looked upon him as one that was forsaken stricken and smitten of God but then he comes as one that is honoured of God his second Coming shall make it evident that he is discharged of the Debt which he took upon himself The Apostle doth not say Those that look for him shall be without Sin but he shall be without Sin The discharge of our Surety is enough it is a sign the Debt is paid 3. He comes in great Glory that he may be as a Pledg and Pattern and Cause of our Glory Christ's Coming is still suted to his Work There is his first Coming and that is in Humility for we fell by Pride he came to redeem us therefore he comes humbly and lowly in the form of a Servant as one that came to suffer not to ruffle it in the World and tread upon the Necks of Kings Then there is his spiritual coming into the Heart to sanctify it this coming is invisible it is with great Power but hidden But when he comes to
cause them to see their Misery and Impotency by the Law To Evidence this I will shew 1. What is the Covenant of Works 2. I will prove that all Men by Nature are under this Covenant 3. This is that Covenant which Natural Conscience sticks to 4. This Covenant rightly understood is the most ready way to convince a Iusticiary or to prepare Men for Christ. First What is the Covenant of Works I Answer It is the Covenant made with Adam in Innocency in which life was promised under the Condition of perfect Obedience to be performed by a man by his own Natural strength The Parties contracting in this Covenant are God on the one side and Man Created in the Perfection of Nature on the other side God and Adam with all his Posterity And the terms of this Covenant are perfect and unsinning Obedience and this perfect Obedience to be performed by us by our own strength Gal. 3.12 The Law is not of Faith but the man that doth them shall live in them That is the Law Covenant only promiseth Life to him that observeth what the Law prescribes and so hath perfect inherent Righteousness of his own it offers Life upon no easier terms than constant universal perfect Obedience Now the Sanction and Confirmation of this Covenant is by a terrible Curse explained by the Apostle Gal. 3.10 As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them The Law pronounceth a Curse upon every Man who fulfills it not in every Tittle and every jot of it and who continues not so to do from the first minute of his Life to the hour of his Death which fallen Man can never do And therefore as long as he is under this Covenant he remains under God's Curse and Wrath. If he omit any thing that is required or commit any thing that is forbidden so that thô he should but once Sin he is under the Curse Secondly I shall prove that all Men by Nature are under this Covenant till they be reconciled to God by Christ. This Covenant concerns all Adam's Children untill they have a new Claim in the Second Adam for God contracted with Adam as a publick Person representing all his Posterity and so it concerns not him only but all his Heirs Take them in their Infancy they are under this Covenant therefore they are said to be by Nature Children of wrath as well as others Eph 2.3 All Men are under the deserved Curse of the Law by reason of Sin Or take them in their grown Estate Iohn 3.18 He that believeth not is condemned already because he believeth not in the Name of the only begotten Son of God that is because he is not freed from the Covenant of Works and the Curse of the Law by the Son of God Every Unbeliever is condemned already by the Sentence of the Law which they lye still under before they lay hold upon Christ the only Remedy for their deliverance The Sentence of the Law stands in force till you get it repeal'd by Christ. And some men will find that this Covenant is in force against them at the Day of Judgment â—or then there will be proceedings against them according to it All the World are judged according to one of these two Covenants Iames 2.12 13. Some shall be judged according to the law of liberty others shall have Iudgment without mercy Impotency doth not free any of Adam's Sons from this Covenant because this Impotency was contracted by our own Sin and doth not make void God's right as a Creditor doth not lose his Right by the Debtors Inability to pay him If a Man bind himself and his 〈◊〉 to pay such a summ of Money and he will vainly spend his Patrimony and so render himself unable to pay it he and his Heirs are still liable to a Process as long as the Debt remaineth unpaid or unremitted We and all ours are bound to perfect Obedience for the future and to make satisfaction for Sin past which we that are poor Creatures sold under Sin are never able to do Therefore this Covenant doth absolutely put us into such a State as that there is no Remedy for us but by flying to Jesus Christ. Thirdly This Covenant is that which Natural Conscience worketh on and seemeth most so to do so that when we urge Men with this Covenant we do but beat them with their own Weapons When the Covenant of Works was made with Adam all Mankind were then in his Loyns it was made with him in their Name and therefore Men by Nature do still retain a deep Impression of this Covenant as appeareth in that as soon as Conscience is awakened it judgeth Men according to this Covenant As Rom. 1.32 The Apostle speaks of the Heathens Who knowing the Iudgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of Death The benummed Consciences of Heathens when they came to themselves they were afraid of Judgment according to the tenor of this Covenant And the same is seen in the endeavour of a Natural Conscience to do something that may make a shew of Good Works and a tolerable plea by this Covenant as in that Pharisees Plea Luke 18.11 12. I am not as other men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers or even as this Publican Christ speaks it of those that trusted in their own Righteousness the Pharisee brings a little Trash a few inconsiderable things I fast twice a week I give tithes of all that I possess and this is his Righteousness Again That Natural Conscience works towards this Covenant seems plain by the strange Affectation of the Righteousness of Works which is in all Mens Hearts and unwillingness to hear of any other Rom. 10.3 They being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God A Man would fain have a Personal inherent Righteousness in himself he is loth to be beholden to any other He would patch up any Righteousness of his own and is prone to trust in it a proud Creature will not submit Nay even the Regenerate God's own Children thô they are well instructed in the Righteousness of Faith and sufficiently see the Impossibility of a Righteousness of Works thô they have been under brokenness of Heart yet they are ever lingring after this Covenant with a Natural Desire of it and to rest in their own Duties And that was the Reason of that Expression of Luther Every one of us hath a Pope in his own Belly something that pleads there for the Merit of Works Fourthly This is the most ready way to convince a Iusticiary and to prepare Men for Christ by a sight and sence of their own Sin and Misery and Impotency by this Covenant and this for several Reasons 1 Reason Because every Man is apt to flatter
is that which the Apostle calleth the Power of Death and the Terrors which follow upon it Heb. 2.14 15. That through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to Bondage The Devil hath no Power as a Judg to condemn Sinners He is not Dominus Mortis the Lord of Death but Minister Mortis the Minister of Death For being condemned of God the poor Sinner is put into his Hand that he may either terrify or stupify him and so more and more involve him in the Curse of God's broken Law and also he may hasten his Death and everlasting Destruction 2. Satan hath a Tyrannical Usurped Power So the Devils are called Rulers of the Darkness of this VVorld Ephes. 6.12 the blind idolatrous superstitious World And Satan is called the Prince of this VVorld John 14.30 And the God of this World 2 Cor. 4.4 God made him an Executioner but we make him a Prince a Ruler and a God Now Christ as a Priest disannulleth his legal Power by his Death and the Merit of his Sacrifice And Christ as the true King and Head both of Men and Angels pulls down Satan as an Usurper delivers the poor captive Souls out of his Power And as a Prophet he discovereth his Cheats and Delusions 2. His Works There is a twofold Work of Satan the Work of the Devil without us or the Work of the Devil within us 1. The Work of the Devil without us is a false Religion or those Idolatries and Superstitions by which Satan's Reign and Empire is upheld in the World This is destroyed by the Doctrine of the Gospel accompanied with the all-powerful Spirit of God And therefore when the Gospel was first preach'd by Christ's Messengers the Devil fell from that great and unlimited Power which he had before in the World Luke 10.18 I beheld Satan as Lightning fall from Heaven 'T is an Allusion to his first Fall as Lightning flasheth and vanisheth and never recollecteth it self again So Iohn 12.31 Now shall the Prince of this VVorld be cast out When Christ did first set upon the Redemption of Mankind the Apostles went abroad to beat the Devil and hunt him out of his Territories and they did it with great Effect Therefore this is made one Argument by which the Spirit doth convince us of the Truth of the Gospel John 16.11 He shall convince the VVorld of Iudgment because the Prince of this VVorld is judged The silencing of his Oracles the suppressing of his Superstitions the destroying of the Kingdom of Wickedness and Darkness was an apparent Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel The old Religion by which the Devil's Kingdom was supported every-where went to wrack no more the same Temples the same Rites the same Gods all was made to stoop and bow before God as worshipped in Christ. 2. There is the Work of the Devil within us This concerneth the recovering particular Persons out of the Snare of the Devil who were taken captive by him at his Will and Pleasure Here we must distinguish between the Purchase and Application The Purchase was made when Christ died Col. 2.15 Having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a Shew of them openly triumphing over them in it that is on his Cross. Christ's Death was Satan's Overthrow then was the deadly Blow given to his Power and Kingdom This was the Price given for our Ransom and the great means of disannulling all that Power Satan had before The Application is begun in our Conversion for then we are said to be turned from Satan unto God Acts 26.18 To open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Then we are rescued out of the Devil's Clutches and adopted into God's Family that being made Children we may have a Child's Portion III. That in this Conflict his Heel was wounded bitten or bruised by the Serpent 1. Certain it is that Christ was bruised in the Enterprize Which sheweth how much we should value our Salvation since it costs so dear as the precious Blood of the Son of God incarnate 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold c. but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot He thought not his whole Humiliation from first to last too much for the overthrowing of the Devil's Kingdom nor any Price too dear to redeem poor captive Souls 2. But how was he bruised by the Serpent Certainly on the one hand Christ's Sufferings were the Effects of Man's Sin and God's Hatred against Sin and his governing Justice for it is said Isa. 53.10 It pleased the Father to bruise him Unless it had pleased the Lord to bruise him Satan could never have bruised him On the other side they were also the Effects of the Malice and Rage of the Devil and his Instruments who was now with the Sword's-point and closing Stroke with Christ and doing the worst he could against him In his whole Life he indured many outward Troubles from Satan's Instruments for all his Life long he was a Man of Sorrows wounded and bruised by Satan and his Instruments Iohn 8.44 Ye are of your Father the Devil and the Lusts of your Father ye will do he was a Murderer from the beginning and abode not in the Truth because there is no Truth in him But the closing Stroke was at last then did the Serpent most eminently bruise his Heel When Iudas contrived the Plot it is said the Devil entred into him Luke 22.3 Then entred Satan into Judas Iscariot being one of the Twelve When the High Priest's Servants come to take him he telleth them Luke 22.53 This is your Hour and the Power of Darkness The Power of Darkness at length did prevail so far as to cause his shameful Death This was their Day 3. It was only his Heel that was bruised It could go no further for tho his bodily Life was taken away yet his Head and Mediatory Power was not touched Acts 2.36 This same Iesus whom ye have crucified God hath made both Lord and Christ. Again his bodily Life was taken away but for a while God would not leave his Soul in the Grave Psal. 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see Corruption The Counsel and Purpose of God concerning Man's Redemption had then been wholly frustrated For if Christ be not risen your Faith is vain ye are yet in your Sins 1 Cor. 15.17 Once more tho Christ was bruised yet he was not conquered When the Jews and Roman Souldiers were spoiling him and parting his Garments then was he spoiling Principalities and Powers And when Satan and his Instruments were triumphing over the Son of God then was he triumphing over all the Devils in Hell for by Death he
my Soul and forget not all his Benefits who pardoneth all thy Iniquities and healeth all thy Diseases Psal. 103.1 2 3. 3. Our own personal Victory over Satan's Temptations In part now We renew that Covenant now wherein we ingaged to fight against Satan 1 Iohn 2.14 I have written unto you young Men because ye are strong and the VVord of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one Fully hereafter Rom. 16.20 The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your Feet shortly The God of Peace as pacified in Christ. Now this is matter of Thanksgiving 1 Cor. 15.57 Thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. That Christ will take us along with him in his Triumphant Chariot and help our weak Faith and faint Hope and that we may conquer the Tempter and Accuser IV. Tho Christ's Heel was bruised in the Conflict yet it endeth in Satan's final Overthrow For his Head was crushed which noteth the subversion of his Power and Kingdom To explain this we must consider First What is the Power of Satan Secondly How far Satan was destroyed by Christ. First What is the Power of Satan It lieth in Sin And Christ destroyed him as he made an end of Sin and brought in everlasting Righteousness and made Reconciliation for Iniquities Dan. 9.24 Namely as he reconciled Man to God and restored God's Image and Life eternal In short the Power of Satan may be considered either as to single Persons or his Interest in the corrupt World or the sinful Race of Apostate Adam who in their degenerate Estate make up a Confederacy or Party that may be called the Kingdom of the Devil 1 st As to single and individual Persons All his Power over them is by reason of Sin which was introduced by his Subtilty and Malice There are three things in Sin the Power the Guilt the Being Whilst any of these remain Satan hath some Power and all these Christ came to dissolve but by several Means and at several Times 1. The Devil's Power lieth in the Corruption of our Natures for Men continuing in the Apostacy from God are of Satan's Party Eph. 2.1 2 3. And you hath be quickned who were dead in Trespasses and Sins wherein in time past ye walked according to the Course of this World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience Among whom also we all had our Conversation in Times past in the Lusts of our Flesh fulfilling the Desires of the Flesh and of the Mind This was the Power that Satan had over us to rule us and govern us by the Lusts of the Flesh. This was our daily Walk and Trade without any Remorse for it or any desire to change our Condition And we are the more confirmed in it by the general and corrupt Example of those among whom we live Now whilst we follow these sinful Motions and Suggestions Satan is our Prince and God the corrupt Nature maketh us readily to entertain his Motions and we are taken captive by him at his Will and Pleasure 2 Tim. 2.26 Now how doth Christ take away this Power I answer By converting Grace which is not only a turning from Sin to God but from Satan to God Acts 26.18 To open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to God Whereby the Reign of Sin is broken for as long as Sin reigneth Satan is in peaceable Possession Luke 11.21 When a strong Man armed keepeth his Palace his Goods are in peace And the Devil who hath â—ost his Seat in Heaven hath still a Throne in the Hearts of Men and lords it over them as his Slaves Now the Reign of Sin is broken when Christ puts an Enmity into your Hearts against it I will put Enmity between thy Seed and her Seed For Sin dieth as your Love to it dieth and is mortified and subdued as your Enmity increaseth Well then they that are converted to God are possessed with a Spirit of Enmity to Satan and his Ways such as they had not before whilst they remained in the degenerate Estate Therefore 't is said Ezek. 36.26 A new Heart will I also give to you and a new Spirit will I put within you such as none else have till the Redeemer work upon them 1 Cor. 2.12 We have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God The Spirit which possesseth the Generality of Men is the worldly Spirit that inclineth to earthly and sensual Satisfactions but this Spirit maketh them look after the great things promised by Christ and the great things required by Christ In short a Spirit quite opposite to the Satanical Spirit The Satanical Spirit is contrary to God and Man To God Col. 1.21 And you that were sometimes alienated and Enemies in your Mind by wicked Works yet now hath he reconciled To Man James 4.5 The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to Envy But this Spirit begetteth in us Love to God and Man that we may seek his Glory and the Good of others Now till this Spirit be planted in us we have not changed Parties and Masters The Being of Sin is found in all but the Reign only in the Unconverted Therefore the Reign of Sin must be broken by the dwelling of this Spirit in us Sin will put strongly for the Throne again but you must pray earnestly Psal. 119.133 Order my Steps in thy Word and let not any Iniquity have Dominion over me And watch constantly as ever mindful of your Baptismal Vow and Covenant Rom. 6.11 Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto Sin but alive unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord. And then you will find Christ overcoming more and more the Satanical Spirit and inlarging you into the Liberty of God's Children 2. The Guilt of Sin which is an Obligation to Punishment and ariseth from the Sentence of Condemnation pronounced by the Law against Sinners Our Misery ariseth first from the Violation of the Precept of the Law and then from the Sanction and Penalty threatned And so also therein lieth Satan's Power as we are obnoxious to the Wrath of God for therein he is the Minister and Executioner of Death as God maketh use of all his Creatures according to their Inclination And so this wrathful revengeful Creature is the Instrument of his Wrath he hath an advantage against us by the Law of God the Precepts whereof we have broken and so incurred the Penalty and so Satan cometh on as one that hath the Power of Death Those obstinate and careless Souls who refuse the Government of the Lord's Grace and Spirit are put into his Hands as when the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul an evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him 1 Sam. 16.14 He doth or may terrify and afright the Consciences of Men with the dreadful Expectations of Death and the Consequences of
that he came in such mean Estate as if he were a Worme and no Man Psalm 22.6 I am a worme and no man a reproach of men and despised of the people So also Isa. 53.3 He was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not As a vile and abominable Creature both despised and rejected scarce deemed worthy the Name of a Man or to have any Converse or Communion with them It is the leavings off of Men as we would say the very list and fag-end of Mankind so low and mean that the Nature of Man can hardly descend lower Mark 9.12 The son of man must suffer many things and be set at nought it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made nought worth or nothing Once more the Serpent of all the Beasts of the Field was the Creature which was cursed by God Gen. 3.14 Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life Yet by this form would he represent Christ to the Antient Church God chose this to be a Type of Christ which we would have thought a dishonour and disparagement to him Yea this Serpent that was now set up was made of Brass not of Gold to shew that Christ would not appear in Glorious Estate and Majesty but in the meanest and most abject form of any Creature All together will help us to meditate upon the great abasement of the Son of God Quanto vilior tanto clarior nobis esse debet The more he humbled himself the higher estimation should we have of our crucified Lord. Never was any Child of God before Christ under so much misery as Christ himself was his own Heaven his own Father his own God-head hid their Face and Consolation from him Gods Wrath pressed the weight of punishment with the full power of Justice both upon his Soul and Body those for whom he dyed despised him he himself being emptied of all things that make Men respected in the World and depressed lower than ever any Man was as a Worme to be trod upon He was made the matter of common talk and reproach in all Mens Mouths condemned by the ruling part of the World and set at nought by the basest of the People derided and scorned in his most Holy behaviour his bitter Sufferings made a matter of sport and laughter Malice feeding its self with Pleasure upon his Pain and Misery and expressing its self with the basest signs of mockage which disdain could devise flouting at his saving Doctrine and insulting over him as if he had been neither the Son of God nor an honest Man And all this was counted little enough for satisfaction of Justice exacting of him the due punishment of our Sins We tenderly resent contempt and cannot endure to be despised and thrust down when the Sun of Righteousness went back so many degrees in the Dyal of Honour 3. The Brasen Serpent had the Shape and Figure of the Serpent but not the Sting and the Poison Figuram habuit non naturam it had the Figure not the Nature of a Serpent Let us pause upon this a little God would cure the Bite of a Serpent by a Serpent a Serpent stung and a Serpent healed God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Rom. 8.3 That is by Jesus Christ in our Nature who was made a Sin-Offering and therefore called Sin there The Parties to be cured were Men therefore the son of man must be lifted up that Title is given him here in the Text Christ was debased by this Title by being called the son of man but yet the Sons of Men are dignified by it he came in the likeness of sinful flesh As the Brazen Serpent was in all things like the True Serpent but without any hurtful quality so Christ in all points was like us but without sin Heb. 4.15 He came in the likeness of sinful flesh yet was holy harmless and separate from Sinners 4. The precise place where the Brazen Serpent was lifted up Moses doth not tell us in the Story where this Matter is recorded but it may be collected from other places Moses telleth us that the Israelites going from thence pitched their Tents in Oboth Numb 21.10 from whence it follows that the place was Punon for from Punon they came to Oboth Numb 33.42 43. Now this Punon was a place belonging to Idumaea very famous for Mines of Brass or Copper as is commonly known in Ancient Writings the Brass being called from thence the metal of Punon Eusebius in the Eighth Book of his Ecclesiastical History tells us That Sylvanus and thirty nine more were beheaded for the Faiths sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 near the Mines of Brass in Punon and Eutychius speaketh of divers Christians condemned to work in these Mines So also doth Epiphanius and Theodores So that the Brass out of which the Serpent was made was taken out of the very place in which they were bitten it was the Brass of Punon not without a Mistery That Body which Christ assumed was not brought from elsewhere but born there and formed there where he was manifested in the Flesh for the Salvation of the World and where the Mischief was there was the Remedy at hand 5. The similitude chiefly holdeth in this that as the Brazen Serpent was lifted up upon the Perch or Pole so was Christ lifted up on the Cross 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree The Serpent first stung us by the Fruit of a Tree and Christ saved us by suffering upon a Tree David had foretold that his hands and his feet should be pierced Psalm 22.16 They pierced my hands and my feet And the Curse of the Law was to be born 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 Gal. 3.13 The Apostle obviates an Objection if the Law do curse all Men how are any freed from the Curse of the Law Even by Jesus Christ who took upon him the Curse due to us while he was obedient to Death even the Death of the Cross for that kind of Death was pronounced to be accursed Deut. 21.23 He that is hanged is accursed of God He came as a Surety in the Sinners Name and would take our burden upon himself and therefore chose a Death of all others most cruel and painful and contemptible ordained for the wickedest and vilest Wretches thereby to assure us of a full ransom and satisfaction to Divine Justice for our wrongs and to imprint upon our Minds the horrors of our Sins Well then here is the Spectacle offered to our Faith Jesus Christ
off from Earthly He bowed his Head and gave up the Ghost I come to the later part of the Text. Some read it that first he Died and then bowed the Head there being no Spirit left to support it but Christ first bowed the Head and then died he did as it were becken to Death to come and do its Office He yielded up the Ghost his Soul was truly separated from his Body The form of Resignation we have Luke 23.46 Father into thy hands I commit my spirit Wicked Men because they die against their Wills their Souls are said to be taken away Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee Job 27.8 For what is the hope of the Hypocrite thò he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul But Christ yieldeth it up and for a Godly Man to give up the Ghost noteth his Faith Submission and Willingness to depart out of the Body As the Prophet saith of Christ Isa. 53.12 He hath poured out his Soul unto death Death did not surprize him Doctr When all things were finished Christ freely and willingly gave up the Ghost His Life was not taken away but resigned there was much of Violence but no Coaction The Term Giving up the Ghost doth not imply the bare Death of Christ but that he died willingly and freely Nihil in hoc Christo est nisi profusa liberalitas misericordiae remissionis peccatorum I can see nothing in this Christ but a prodigality of Love and Mercy He had freely emptied his Veins in the Garden every Pore became an Eye and wept Blood for your sakes and now he cometh to pour out his Soul Reasons why Christ was so willing to die 1. Out of Obedience to his Father The Divine Decrees had laid a necessity upon him and where the Father saith Must Christ saith I will Matth. 26.54 55. Thinkest thou not that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give me more than twelve Legions of Angels which was the just number of a Roman Army But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be Christ willingly took this Necessity upon him it was but Necessitas ex Hypothesi had it not been for his Eternal Consent it would never have been said Thus it must be Luke 22.37 This that is written must be accomplished Luke 24.46 Thus it is written and thus it behoveth Christ to suffer It was a Necessity of his own making he was not compelled to Accept of the Conditions from God nor forced by the Violence of Man â—o yield up his Life Iohn 10.18 No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again This commandment have I received of my father 2. Out of Love to us The Jews crucified him but Love made him die we had else perished for ever The Law laid it upon us but Love made Christ take it upon himself Isa. 53.4 Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our Sorrows Justice demanded it of us but Christ said I will be responsible exact it of me Mat. 20.28 Even as the son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many He took Life to lay it down at the demand of Justice Justice said I must have a Ransom Christ said Take it of me let these go Iob 33.24 Then he is gracious unto them and saith Deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransom The Father received it and Christ payed it As the Angel said to Abraham Gen. 22.12 Lay not thine hand upon the lad neither do thou any thing unto him Justice would have reached forth a deadly stroke to us but Christ catched the blow 3. This would finish his Labours Death was Christ's last Enemy of his Person as well as of his Kingdom He had been harassed and worn out with Sorrows the Grave was a place of Rest it was finished as to him Isa. 57.2 He â—â—all enter into peace they shall rest in their beds Death was the end of Christ's Journey and all his Labours in the Flesh. The Grave was a dark dismal place till Christ went into it ever since it is but a Chamber of Rest and Christ keepeth the Key of it Isa. 26.20 Enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment 4. This furthered his Triumph and made it every way more compleat By dying Christ carried the War into his Enemies Land and foiled Death in its own Territory and made Death it self Mortal by lying in the Grave The Cross and the Grave were the means of Christ's Triumph by these the Devil thought to foil him and by these he triumphed He conquered Satan and Sin when they seemed to have most power upon him like angry Bees they stung him and disarmed themselves Heb. 2.14 That through death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil Col. 2.15 And having spoiled principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the Cross Eph. 2.16 Having slain the enmity thereby that is by his Cross formerly spoken of When he was slain himself then he slew Death and the Law Christ's crucifying was his Exaltation and Preferment It is twice expressed by lifting up Iohn 3.14 So shall the son of man be lifted up John 12.32 33. I if I be lifted up will draw all men after me This he said signifying what death he should die The Grave was consecrated and sanctified by Christ's lying there Duo in cruce affixi intelliguntur saith Origen Christus visibiliter sponte suâ— ad tempus Diabolus invisibiliter invitus in perpetuum There were two crucified at once Christ visibly of his own accord for a time only the Devil invisibly against his will for ever Christ received a slight hurt in his Heel but he bruised Satan's Head 5. He was hastening to his own Glory Heb. 12.2 For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God He was thinking of his Welcom to Heaven Oh what sweet Embraces there would be between the Father and him Psal. 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool Dan. 7.13 14. I saw in the night-visions and behold one like the son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed How the Angels should usher him into Glory
away The Party displeased and provoked is God and the Party defiled is the immortal Soul of Man which being subject to the Power of God and bound by his Laws upon Disobedience is conscious to it self of the Merit of Death and Punishment and debarred from all Communion with God And it cannot have any sound Peace till it knows that God is satisfied and that it shall be admitted again into terms of Grace and Favour with him That Sin hath made us filthy and loathsom to God that we cannot please him nor be accepted with him the Word doth not only assert it Psal. 14.2 3. The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth good no not one Job 15.14 What is Man that he should be clean and he that is born of a Woman that he should be righteous Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one But Conscience is in part sensible of it so that a Sinner hath a secret Dread and Shiness of God especially upon the commission of actual Sins 1 Iohn 3.20 21. For if our Heart condemn us God is greater than our Heart and knoweth all things Beloved if our Heart condemn us not then have we Confidence towards God I know generally Man looketh to the Foulness and Cleanness of the body but is insensible of the Stain of the Soul Yet we cannot always exempt no not the worst from a secret Sense of this However our Misery and Happiness dependeth upon God's Judgment not our own If in the Eye of God all of us are polluted and unclean lying in our Blood defiled with the Guilt of Sin already committed and the filthy Vileness of Sin yet in-dwelling This is evident we were miserable enough till God found out a Remedy And this Misery is the deeper because Man loveth what God loatheth as the Swine loveth wallowing in the Mire and therefore it is a Creature loathsom to us We count Sin a Bravery when it is the greatest Impurity a Filthiness deeply ingrained in our Natures and therefore not easily washed away both as to the Guilt as also to the Stain and â—lot 2. This being our Misery Christ came to wash us and with no other Laver than his own Blood as a Priest offering himself a Sacrifice for our Sins The Remedy for so great a Mischief must have a noble and excellent Cause That Blood was necessary appeareth by the Types of the Law for the typical Expiation was made by the Blood of Bulls and Goats offered in Sacrifice And that no Blood but the Blood of Jesus Christ would serve the turn is evident if you consider the Party displeased and provoked who was God the Party defiled the immortal Spirit of Man and the heinous Nature of the Offence which was a Breach of his righteous and eternal Law Therefore it is said 1 Iohn 1.7 The Blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Heb. 1.3 He by himself purged our Sins And Heb. 9.13 14. If the Blood of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God There is Virtue and Efficacy enough in the Blood of Christ partly from the Institution of God and its own manifold Worth and Value as being the Blood of God partly by the way and manner in which it was offered by an Act done in our Nature of the greatest Obedience and Self-denial that ever was or can be and so God is fully repaired in point of Honour 3. This Sacrifice thus offered was accepted of God in the Behalf of sinful Man as a full Price and Merit to procure for us both Justification and Sanctification We needed both being polluted both with the Guilt and Stain of Sin Both are a Trouble to a sensible Conscience or an awakened Sinner who is in the next Capacity to receive this Sacrifice 1 Iohn 1.9 If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Vnrighteousness As a Man that hath broken his Leg is not only troubled with the Pain but would have it set right again Both are implied in this Washing and both are effectually accomplished by virtue of his bloody Death and Sacrifice 1 Cor. 6.11 And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of our God And Christ hath obtained both by virtue of his bloody Death and Sacrifice for our Pardon and Restitution to God's Grace and Favour Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ As also the Gift of the Spirit to sanctify and renew us to the Image of God Tit. 3.5 6. Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour 4. Besides the Impetration of this Benefit we must consider the Application The Sacrifice had Power to purge us and wash us from our Sins as soon as it was offered and accepted of God The procuring of the Power is the Impetration which was antecedent to actual Pardon and Sanctification Therefore it is said When he had by himself purged our Sins he sat down at the right Hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 Then he interposed the Merit then was the first Grant made or Liberty given But then for the Application It is applied when we submit to those terms that are agreed upon between our Redeemer and God as our supream Judg and Lawgiver As when this Sacrifice is believed and depended on and pleaded in an humble and broken-hearted manner and improved to Thankfulness and Resolutions to return to the Obedience of our Creator then is Sin actually pardoned and our Hearts cleansed He did not pardon nor cleanse nor sanctify as soon as this Blood was shed upon the Cross until it be effectually applied to the filthy Soul by a lively Faith Acts 15.9 Purifying their Hearts by Faith and a serious and broken-hearted Repentance 1 Iohn 1.9 If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins We must bewail our Sins depend upon the Sacrifice of Christ sue out the Virtue of it by Prayer Psal. 51.2 VVash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin Extinguish the Love of Sin by godly Sorrow and all holy means and mortify the Flesh by the Help of the Spirit Rom. 8.13 If ye through the Spirit mortify the Deeds of the Body c.
likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.5 We shall be dead to Sin and alive to God The same Divine Power that kills the Old Man quickens the New Again I might argue from the Word which is our Rule for there we have not only Restraints but Precepts therefore we must not only escape from Sin but delight in Communion with God We must eschew what God forbids and practise what God commands Vse Let it press us not to rest in abstaining from Sin meerly Many are not vicious but they are not sanctified they have no feeling of the Power of the new Life The Pharisees Religion ran upon Negatives Luke 18.11 God I thank thee I am not as other Men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers or even as this Publican To enforce this consider both are contrary to the new Nature it hates Evil and loves Good Where there is Regeneration there is a putting on and a putting off Ephes. 4.22 23 24. That ye put off concerning the former Conversation the Old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts. And be renewed in the Spirit of your Mind And that ye put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness The new Nature makes Conscience of abstaining from Sin and obeying God's Precepts And both are serviceable to the Work of Grace Grace is obstructed by Sins of Omission and Commission for Sins increase as well as unfitness for Duty The Motions of the Spirit are quenched and Lusts grow prevalent in the Soul and both are odious to God A barren Tree cumbers the Ground and is rooted up as well as the poisonous Herb. Obs. 3. We must first begin with renouncing Evil that 's the first thing Grace teacheth Since the Fall the Method is Analytical to unravel and undo that which hath been done in the Soul So it is said of Christ 1 Iohn 3.8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil Sin is the first Occupant in the Soul and claimeth Possession six thousand Years ago it thrust out Grace which was the right owner therefore first there must be a Writ of Ejectment sealed against Sin that Grace may take the Throne Dagon must down e're the Ark be set up It cannot be otherwise it must not be otherwise there must be mortifying and subduing of Sin by Acts of Humiliation and Godly Sorrow before there will be Experience of Grace 1. It cannot be otherwise for the Devil hath a right in us as long as we remain in Sin therefore there must be a rescue from his Power Col. 1.13 Who hath delivered us from the Power of Darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son Christ and Satan cannot reign in the same Heart nor God and the hâ—â— World Ioseph was taken out of Prison and then preferr'd to Pharaoh This is â—he Method Luke 1.73 That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the Hands of our Enemies might serve him without fear in Holiness and Righteousness before him all the Days of our lives Deliverance hath the precedence first the Thorns must be rooted out and then the Corn is sowed 2. It must not be otherwise God will have nothing to do with us till we have renounced Sin A plausible Life is but a counterfeit Varnish like gilding over a rotten Post or a moral Integrity till Sin be renounced The Prodigal left his Husks and then returned to his Father This is the Method at our first Conversion indeed afterwards there is some difference when once Grace is once planted in the Heart it hath the advantage of Corruption and worketh first Thus it is said of Iob Chap. 1.1 That Man was perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed Evil. First fearing God then eschewing Evil. Grace having taken possession and being seated in the Heart it works first Like a Man possessed and seated in his House he seeketh to expel his Enemy So at first way is made for the Operation of Grace and then all the Work afterwards is the destruction of Sin Obs. 4. It is not enough to renounce one Sin but we must renounce all For when the Apostle speaks of denying Ungodliness he intends all Ungodliness Compare this with 1 Pet. 2.1 Wherefore laying aside all Malice and all Guile and Hypocrisies and Iam. 1.21 Wherefore lay apart all Filthiness and superfluity of Naughtiness All Sins must be renounced little Sins and great Sins Great Sins as Adultery Drunkenness and the like are manifest Gal. 5.19 that is Nature doth abhor them they stink and smell rank in Nature's Nostrils even to a natural Conscience Then for little Sins Matth. 5.19 Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and teach Men so to do shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven It is spoken of Ministers principally whoever shall give licence by the Gospel to the least Sin either break it himself or teach Men so to do shall have no place no room among Gospel-Ministers No Sin can be little that is committed against the great God Sins are not to be measured by the smallness of the Occasion or by the suddenness of the Act but by the Offence done to God to an Infinite Majesty The less the Sin the greater many times it is It argues much Malice to break with God upon every slight Occasion there is more unkindness in it and the more contempt of God and it argues the greater depravation of Nature As a little Weight will make a Stone move downward because of its natural Inclination so it is a sign we have an inclination that way when a small Matter can draw us from God Again secret Sins must be eschewed as well as Publick Isa. 55.7 Let the Wicked forsake his Way and the unrighteous Man his Thoughts the Thought as well as the Way is to be forsaken By Way is meant his outward course of Life by his Thoughts is meant the hidden workings of his Spirit Nothing more transient and sudden than the Thought therefore as we must not do Evil before Men so we must not think Evil before God God seeth the Thought as well as Man the Actions and infinitely more The Thoughts are visible to him and these fall under a Law as well as our Actions Again Sins of Temper to which we are more incident as well as other Sins to which we have less inclination they must be mortified Psal. 18.23 I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine Iniquity That Sin which we call ours should be most watched against and most hated above all others As a Man should be afraid of the Meat of which he hath once surfeited so the Sin that hath once prevailed over us we should be more cautious against It is nothing for a sordid Spirit to be less proud or a proud Man to be less covetous or a covetous Man to be less sensual or a sensual Man to be less
account of what we have done and received in the Body And therefore it is best while we are in the way to make our Peace with God and to break off our Sins by Repentance Otherwise what Quiet can we have in our selves or how can we keep our selves when we are serious from trembling at Wrath to come We may smother Conscience and baffle all Convictions for the present but Christians you and I must be judged Now when God riseth up to the Judgment what shall we answer him Iob 31.14 What then shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him That must be thought on before-hand If we have no Answer which will satisfy now much less then 2. From the manner or strictness of that Day 's Account he will judg the World in Righteousness Eccles. 12.14 God shall bring every Work into Iudgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Hypocrisy shall be disclosed Sincerity shall be rewarded nothing shall be hidden from God's Search no Person shall be exempted no Work either open or secret but God will bring it into Judgment His infinite Wisdom knoweth all and his infinite Justice will give due Recompence to all The Businesses of all Nations and Persons shall be openly examined What then is our Duty but to exercise our selves both in Faith and Repentance that our Judg may be our Saviour and it may go well with us when this Search is made 3. Chiefly from the Person sufficiently attested by the Miracles of his Life and Resurrection from Death God hath determined and ordained the Person by whom the whole World shall be judged And from thence we may judg of the Rule it is by his Doctrine and by our receiving or not receiving Christ. Surely it is our Interest to be in with him who will cite us before his Tribunal To accept his Person as our Lord and Saviour Iohn 1.12 To as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God To believe and entertain his Doctrine as the Message of God Iohn 5.24 He that heareth my Word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death to Life To imitate his Example 1 Iohn 4.17 Herein is our Love made perfect that we may have Boldness in the Day of Iudgment because as he is so are we in this World To trust in his Merit Psal. 2.12 Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his Wrath is kindled but a little Blessed are all they that put their Trust in him To love him and live to him 1 Cor. 16.22 If any Man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha If he say Come ye Blessed or Go ye Cursed we must abide by it to all Eternity Wo to them that neglect his Offers contemn his Ways oppose his Interest oppress his Servants But blessed are they whose Redeemer is their Judg he who shed his Blood for them must pass the Sentence on them and one that is Flesh of our Flesh and Bone of our Bone is the final Judg between us and God Will he be harsh to his sincere Disciples But to say all in a word Surely this Consideration should do the Work effectually because his Gospel and Covenant is nothing else but a free Promise of Pardon upon Condition of Repentance Luke 24.47 That Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations And to this end the Apostles were to preach that Christ is Judg Acts 10.42 43. He hath commanded us to preach unto the People and to testify that it is he who was ordained of God to be the Iudg of Quick and Dead To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of Sins Nothing sheweth the necessity of Remission of Sins so much as the Judgment and the necessity of Repentance to Remission so much as the Judg who in his Covenant hath made this Condition Nothing doth befriend the great Discovery of the Gospel which is free Pardon of Sin by Christ upon Repentance so much as the sound Belief of this Truth that Christ is Judg. Doct. That the great Purpose and Drift of the Gospel where it is sent and preached is to invite Men to Repentance This appeareth abundantly by the Scripture that Repentance is one of the first and chief Lessons which the Gospel teacheth When the Gospel-Kingdom was to be erected or set up Iohn the Baptist crieth Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 3.2 So when Jesus himself began to preach his Note is the same Mat. 4.17 He began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand His Doctrine and the Doctrine of the Baptist is all one in substance and necessarily it must be so The Gospel findeth Men under the Tyranny of Sathan and offereth to bring them into the Kingdom of God So when he sent abroad his Disciples first to the Iews Matth. 10. and afterwards to the World Luk. 24.47 That Repentance and remission of Sins should be preached in his Name The Disciples were faithful to their Commission Acts 2.38 Peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the remission of Sins But to give you some Reasons of it I shall 1. Enquire what is Repentance 2. What the Gospel doth to promote it 3. How convenient and necessary this is for all those that are willing to come out of the Apostacy of Mankind and to return to their Obedience to God First What is Repentance Sometimes it is taken largely for our whole Conversion to God through the Faith of Christ as in the Text He commandeth all men to repent that is to turn from their Sins and believe the Gospel 2 Tim. 2.25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth Where the owning of the Christian Faith is called Repentance Sometimes strictly as opposed to or rather distinguished from Faith as Acts 20.21 Testifying both to the Iews and also to the Greeks Repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Iesus Christ. Where Repentance is said to be towards God as the End as Faith is conversant about Christ as the Means And there it signifieth a return to the Love and Obedience of our Creator which was our Primitive Duty before the Fall as Faith implyeth all the Duties that belong to our recovery by Christ. In short in the strict sense there is not only a Sorrow for what is past which is a beginning and help to the other part for 2 Cor. 7.10 Godly sorrow working repentance unto Salvation not to be repented of but also a full purpose of Heart to live unto God Gal. 2.19 I through the Law am dead to
deceived that embraced the Christian Religion that took such Pains in subduing the Flesh so freely hazarded their Interests and Life it self on the Promises of Christ and the Hopes of another World Are the wisest Men the World ever saw Fools and the Ordinances of Christ a customary Superstition and these Rejoicings and Foretastes of the Children of God a meer Deceit and Imposture Surely it cannot be Therefore this is true that the Soul dieth not with the Body but is in that Estate into which God disposeth it II. By the Light of Reason First I shall urge such Arguments as the Scripture directeth us to 1. From the Nature of the Soul it is a Spirit and such a Principle of Life as hath Light in it John 1.4 In him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men. The Soul of Man differeth from the Soul of a Beast for that hath only Life and Sense in it but this hath Light and therefore was designed to more noble and glorious Ends than merely to quicken and enliven the Body The Soul of the Beasts is mortal because it is created only to serve the Body and knoweth nothing desireth nothing delighteth in nothing but what belongeth to the Pleasure and Welfare of the Body But now the Soul of Man apprehendeth things past present and to come is capable of Tongues Arts and Sciences and things abstract from bodily Sense it can discourse about God Angels and all kind of spiritual Beings about Eternity and Immortality and propound and debate Questions and Doubts concerning the World to come The Beasts look only to their Food and the Propagation of their Kind they know nothing and can conceive nothing of Man's Affairs But now Man's Soul is not only capable of being enobled and improved by Moral Vertues and such things as fit us for Humane Society but is capable also of Conformity to God by being made holy and upright and of Communion with him in holy Duties and Acts of Grace 1 John 1.3 And truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. The Beasts desire not the Company of Men as we do of God and of the blessed Spirits In short there is a greater Affinity between the Souls of Men and Angels than between the Souls of Beasts and Men Psal. 8.9 Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels Well then can it be imagined the Souls of Men furnished with such Capacities of Understanding are nothing but a little Puff of Air that is dissipated in dying or a little vital Heat that is extinguished with the Corporeal Matter or only the Vigour of the Blood That Soul that can so much soar aloft above the Interests and Concernments of the Body and take such a marvellous Delight and Contentment in spiritual things as the view of all manner of Truths must that follow the State of the Body Shall that Creature that cometh so near the Angels die like the Beasts or rather become like the Angels of God that always behold his Face Yea that Creature that draweth so near to God in the Majesty of his Person and the Abilities of his Mind that was created after God's own Image and for the Worship and Service and Enjoyment of God shall he die as the Beasts that perish It cannot be imagined 2. The Scripture mentions Words that imply its Independance upon the Body or that it doth not so wholly depend on the Body that it cannot subsist and act without it they go several ways as in the Text. 3 John â— 2. I wish above all things that thou maist prosper and be in Health as thy Soul prospeâ—eth 2 Cor. 4.16 For which cause we faint not but though our outward Man perish yet the inward Man is renewed Day by Day And Experience teacheth the Truth of these things that the Body and Soul seem sometimes to have no Communion with one another so different are their Functions and Offices You shall often see Men decrepit in all the Members of the Body who yet have the Motions of their Minds as strong and as nimble as when in perfect Health and when they are upon the Borders of Death without Vigour and Pulse their Understandings are more sublime than before and their Thoughts more refined It is true the Indispositions of the Body clog the Soul in things that are to be acted by the Body but in what the Soul acteth apart in the midst of Aches and Pains their Strength of Mind is entire and their Comforts never more raised than in bodily Weakness Therefore it lives and acts apart from the Body 3. The Scripture directs us to this Argument that this is the general Perswasion of all Mankind that there is a Life after Death and it instanceth in that that is most sensible and of every Day 's Experience our Desires and Fears 1. Desires The Soul hath a natural desire of Immortality which if it should not enjoy that Desire were in vain but God doth nothing in vain The Apostle intimateth this how Men feel about for something eternal and infinite Acts 17.27 That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him Every Man would be happy and eternally happy for otherwise he would be tormented with a fear of losing that which he counteth his Happiness See Psal. 4.6 Who will shew us any Good Lord lift thou up the Light of thy Countenance upon us Mat. 13.45 â—6 The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Merchant-man seeking goodly Pearls who when he had found one Pearl of great price he went and sold all that he had and bought it John 6.34 Lord evermore give us this Bread Numb 23.10 Let me die the Death of the Righteous Other Creatures besides Man are satisfied with what they have here but the Soul of Man is satisfied with nothing but the eternal Injoyment of what is good an immortal Estate an infinite Good Every one that loveth himself would be happy and if he could everlastingly happy The Saints and those that are taught of God pitch upon the right Way Psal. 17.15 As for me I will behold thy Face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy Likeness But this is the universal Inclination of all Mankind Whence cometh this Desire to be so universal if there be nothing to satisfy it Every natural Appetite was given us for some Purpose and have things designed for their Satisfaction and therefore there is that Immortality we all seek after not in our Bodies they must return to their Earth not in Fancy that is a Sâ—adow this is like the Pleasure which those take that want Children in playing with little Dogs it lieth in the Soul in the eternal Injoyment of God 2. Fears which presage and foretel such an Estate to our great Disquiet Conscience fears a Judgment after this Life Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the Iudgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of Death And a State of Misery to come
these little ones a Cup of cold Water only in the Name of a Disciple he shall in no wise lose his Reward The Smalness and Meanness of the Benefit Help and Refreshing done to any in Christ's Name shall not make it lose its Estimation and Recompence This though hardly credited by the unbelieving World is very true Verily I say unto you and he shall in no wise c. they are emphatical Expressions But now the more eminent Services which are carried on with Hazard and Difficulty and very considerable Self-denial surely they shall not fail of their Recompence Whatever we lose for Christ we shall receive again with infinite Advantage Mark 10.29 30. And Iesus answered and said Verily I say unto you there is no Man that hath left House or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my sake and the Gospel's but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time Houses and Brethren and Sisters and Mothers and Children and Lands with Persecution and in the World to come eternal Life He shall in this Life in the midst of his Persecutions and the time of his Trials and Troubles have an hundred-fold not in kind an hundred Wives and Mothers as Iulian and Nero scoffed at the Christians but in Value in Peace of Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost and the Satisfaction of having discharged his Duty But God will not rest there in the World to come he shall have eternal Life Now then the Argument groweth upon our Hands If self-denying Obedience would be not only Man's Loss but utter Ruin and he be made miserable by his Duty without any Recompence God would not only be not the best but the worst Master and they that suffer the Loss of Life and all things by the Cruelty of their Persecutors would be utter Losers by their Faithfulness and Obedience to God which is contrary to the Experience of all Mankind and all that natural Light and Sense of Religion that is in Mens Hearts Surely Christ would never proselyte us to a Religion that is our undoing nor shall any of his People be Losers by him or they that venture the most for him be in the worst Condition and therefore there must be another Life wherein he will fulfil the Good he hath promised and execute the Evil threatned 2. From the Nature State and Condition of Man 1. He is God's Subject not left at Liberty to break or keep God's Laws at his own Pleasure which he would seem to be if no harm would come to it yea present Good and Profit For we see here the Wicked live a Life of Pomp and Ease and often have their Will upon the Godly and oppress them at their Pleasure their Wickedness is their Advantage Now this is not only a great Discouragement to the Gracious and Heavenly-minded but would quite destroy all Obedience if there were not Assurance of a better Estate Therefore God expresses himself as particularly ingaged to punish such as flatter themselves with Hopes of Impunity though they go on in their Wickedness Deut. 29.19 20. And it came to pass when he heareth the Words of this Curse that he bless himself in his Heart saying I shall have Peace though I walk in the Imagination of mine Heart to add Drunkenness to Thirst. The Lord will not spare him but then the Anger of the Lord and his Iealousy shall smoke against that Man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven They that add the moist to the dry and the dry to the moist So Zeph. 1.12 And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with Candles and punish the Men that are setled upon their Lees that say in their Heart The Lord will not do Good neither will he do Evil. And on the other side he considereth the Case of the Faithful that they have an opposite Principle against their Duty within their Hearts which must be always curbed and suppressed and they meet with many Temptations from the Oppositions and Reproaches of those that like not that sort of Life which they addict and apply themselves unto and therefore if they have not sufficient Motives to keep them in the Love of God and Obedience to the End how shall they bear up against all these Blasts of Persecution when all the World is against them They need both their Cordials and their Solaces from another and better World Therefore God assureth them that their Fidelity and Obedience shall not be lost that they are blessed already and shall be perfectly blessed hereafter Jam. 1.12 Blessed is the Man that indureth Temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him 1 Pet. 4.13 But rejoice in as much as ye are Partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed you may be glad also with exceeding Ioy. That is that these Sufferings are sure Pledges of the Glory that shall insue Their Joy is suspended while the Glory of Christ is under a Vail but when he is manifested to the World they shall be manifested to be the Children of God Alas otherwise what would become of the best Servants God hath in the World when they are hooted at by the Clamours of the wicked Rabble and pursued with sharp Laws and exposed to great Difficulties and Hardships if they had no Life to live but this The bare Sense of our Duty would not support us in this State of Imperfection if there were not a great Recompence of Reward set before us So that the Perswasion of another Life is necessary to secure our Duty 2. Man is bound to be upright and sincere in God's Service or to get such a Constitution of Soul as to resolve to adhere to God whatever Temptations he hath to the contrary Our Lord describeth the good Ground to be that good and honest Heart which having received the Word keeps it and brings forth Fruit with Patience Luke 8.15 This was a Principle not denied by many Heathens who esteemed the love of Honesty and Goodness better than this mortal Life with all its Appurtenances and thought that a Man was never sincere nor throughly honest till he did abhor the Practice of any Villany and Impiety more than Death and those things which were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolutely good a Man ought to love them more than Life and lose Life rather than omit their Practice Now such Principles whether they saw it yea or no do necessarily conclude and infer a Life after this much better than this is and an Estate of Torment much worse than Death to those that have lived and died dishonestly For every thing that hath a Being doth by an indispensible Law of Nature desire the continuance of its Being but most of all its Well-being or the bettering of
its present Estate Therefore every Man if there be not a Life after Death is bound to seek the Preservation and Continuance of this Life above all things in the World besides and to do that no Device would be dishonest or Practice amiss But all they that have ever heard of the Name of Vertue abhor this Principle as base and odious That a Man should make what shift he can though never so base and wicked to maintain and save his Life no Means used to this end are to be accounted foul for nothing is so ill as Death nothing so good as Life But if this would destroy all Honesty and Vertue then certainly we have Hopes and Fears of another Life If you will say No Vertue is a sufficient Recompence to it self at what rate soever it be purchased and maintained yet what is there to countervail all the Losses and Grievances it exposeth us unto such as the loss of Life and Limbs Vertue is a sufficient Reward to it self Spe non Re in Hope not in the Thing it self but so far as 't is the only way to everlasting Communion with God who is our exceeding great Reward or so far as the assured Hope of a better Life after Death is inseparably connexed to the constant Practice of Godliness in this Life And to do Good merely for Goodness sake without any Eye or Respect to the Reward is a Strain of Devotion contrary to that Doctrine which is taught us by Christ and his Apostles 3. With respect to Man's Comfort and Solace in his Troubles which ariseth from reflecting on our future Reward when all things go across to us here Comfort one another with these Words saith the Apostle 1 Thess. 4.18 Now what Words were those The Belief of a blessed Resurrection of those that died in or for the Lord that is by occasion of the Faith of Christ he thought that Consideration sufficient to yield Matter of Comfort or Support to them These are Consolations proper to Christians because they are sure as depending upon Christ's Word and they are congruous and sutable because their Hearts are set upon these things not upon a vain World but a blessed and glorious Estate that Christ hath offered and himself is entred into and when we get thither our Affections will be satisfied Desires granted and Hopes fulfilled So that still the Apostle's Reasoning is strong If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable For our Consolations which are fetched from the other World are our proper Consolations 4. With respect to the Credit and Esteem of God's Servants in the World It is neither for the Glory of God nor the Safety of his People that the most eminent Vertue and Goodness should lie under perpetual Infamy God's Servants do not only suffer hard things but their Names are cast forth as evil Now this is not for the Honour of God because it reflects upon him when the Children of Wisdom are represented as Sons of Folly in checking their Lusts venturing their Interests and renouncing their All for their Fidelity to Christ as if they did foolishly in running into such Inconveniences when they might spare themselves and sleep in a whole Skin Now it is a great Dishonour to God that his wisest and most faithful Servants should be accounted Fools and an humorous odd sort of Men that needlesly trouble themselves and others This hardneth the World in Sin and would quench and destroy all Zeal for God if there were not a time coming when the Wisdom of the World shall be seen to be the greatest Folly and that there are no such Fools as those that imploy their greatest Abilities in attaining present Pleasure Profit and Preferment but those are the wisest Adventurers who have sold all to promote the Glory of God and gain Christ who look not upon things as they appear now to the sensual and deluded World but as they will be found at the last Day when all things shall be seen in their own proper Colours Neither is it for the Safety of the Saints who though they seek nothing but the Publick Good are traduced as the Troublers of Israel and their Way condemned as factious Singularity Therefore it is a great Satisfaction that we have hopes that things shall be reviewed and that which is good be restored to its publick Honour and the Godly who prize a good Name above all earthly Interests shall have their Faith found to Praise and Honour and Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 That the Trial of your Faith being much more precious than of Gold that perisheth though it be tried with Fire might be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the Appearing of Iesus Christ. Vse 1. It sheweth us how much it concerneth us to be assured of the future Estate It is the Life of our Religion it bindeth our Duty upon us by the strictest Tie and doth also establish our true and proper Comfort If we may have hope of better things from Christ in another World not only in our Calamities but by our Calamities we should not have such dark and doubtful Thoughts about Eternal Blessedness but live more in the clear Foresight of it by Faith and the Foretaste of it by Hope especially should this support us in two Cases in sharp Afflictions and in Death 1. In sharp Afflictions We are apt to take scandal and offence at the Sufferings that befal us for Righteousness sake but consider not only the Promises of Christ but that our very Persecution is an Argument of our final Deliverance The opposition of ungodly and unrighteous Adversaries is to them an evident Token of Perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God Phil. 1.28 That they are wretched and obdurate People and run on to their own Destruction but that you are sincere and penitent Believers who are not drawn away from your Fidelity to Christ by any Terrors whatsoever It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only an Argument to confirm the Hopes of the Gospel but a Mark and Token of your Sincerity it confirmeth your Right Well then though our Afflictions be smart and grievous let us comfort our selves with these Hopes You are not to look to present things but future not to what is applauded in the World but what Opinion Christ will have of them at the last not to what you feel now but what you shall enjoy hereafter Though all things appear with Pomp and Glory on the World's side and Terror to the Saints yet this Scene is soon withdrawn and present Time is quickly past like a Dream or piece of Phantastry and then there is an utter Inversion of things Shame is on the Wickeds side and Honour put upon the Saints and the Shame and Glory are both eternal and when they enter into everlasting Torments we enter into our Master's Joy and the Children of God that are derided and vilified in the World are then approved and justified