other men it is with the spirit of the writer He cannot speake to God in praise or to others in experience of the worke of grace because he hath a dead soule Put him to his owne arguments to talke of vanity to sweare or to talke of the times you shall have him in his theame but to talke of God and divine things unlesse it be to sweare by them and to scorne good things he cannot he is speechlesse there it is not his theame And as he is speechlesse so he hath no spirituall eyes to see God in his works There is nothing that we see with our bodily eyes but our soules should have an eye to see somewhat of God in it his mercy and goodnesse and power c. And so he hath no relish to taste of God in his creatures and mercies when a man tasts of the creatures he should have a spirituall taste of God and of the mercy in him Oh how sweet is God! A wicked man hath no taste of God And he cannot heare what the Spirit saith in the Word he heares the voice of man but not of the Spirit when the trumpet of the Word sounds never so loud in his eares These things ought not to be overmuch pressed much curiosity must not be used in them but because the Holy Ghost raiseth the proportion from these things some thing must be said of them As there is no sence nor mooving to outward things so no outward thing can moove a dead body offer him colours to the eye food to the taste or any thing to the feeling nothing mooves him So a dead soule as it cannot moove to good so it is mooved with nothing that that affects a child of God and makes him tremble and quake it affects not a carnall man at all And as in bodily death the longer it is dead the more noysome and offensive it is every day more then other So sinne it makes the soule more loathsome and noysome daily till they have filled up the measure of their sinnes till the earth can beare them no longer We say of a dead body it is heavy so dead soules I am sure they are heavy heavy to God and to Christ that dyed for sinne and heavy in themselves they sinke to earthly things in their affections and thereby they sinke lower and lower to Hell and never leave sinking till they be there As the life of grace is like the Sunne when it riseth it growes still till it come to full perfection till it come to the life of glory So on the contrary this death is a death that is more and more increased in the loathsomenesse and noysomenesse of it every way so that the longer a carnall man lives the more guilt hee contracts A child of a hundred yeares old as the Prophet saith the longer he lives the more vengeance is stored for him he treasures vengeance up against the day of vengeance and it is a curse for a man in his naturall estate to live long for he growes more and more abhominable every way These things helpe to understand the Scripture and therefore so far we may well thinke of them If this be so I beseech you let us learne to know what we are by nature not to make our selves in our owne conceits better then indeed wee are We judge of our selves as we are to civill things A man that hath naturall parts that can discourse and understand the mysteries of law and of the state we value men by these Alas poore soule thou mayest be dead for all this what are all these abilities for Are they not for the spirituall life What is this to the life of grace They onely blow thee up with pride and set thee further off and make thee uncapable of grace If thou talke of learning the Divell is a better scholler then any man he knowes matters of state and other things better then thou doest and yet he is a Divell for all that therefore never stand upon these things But there is a company that are more to blame then these one would thinke that these have something to be proud off that they might set themselves against God and goodnes but there is a generation that have little in them that yet think themselves the only men in loose licentious life despising all caring for none think it the only life to live as they list to goe where they list in what companies they list to have bounds of their owne these think themselves the onely men when indeed they are no body they are dead loathsome creatures it is the mercy of God that the ground doth not sinke underthem and yet they carry themselves as if they only were alive Againe if we be all dead by nature and there ought to be a separation of the living from the dead let us take heed in our amity and society that we converse not with naturall men too much that have not spirituall goodnesse in them that we converse not with them with delight and complacency It is a tyrannicall thing to knit dead and living bodies together and he was accounted a tyrant that did so surely in choosing our society conjugall or friendly any intimate society to joyne living and dead soules together we are tyrants to our owne soules Wee wrong our soules to joyne with dead persons who would converse with dead courses and corps The very creatures startle at the sight of a dead body nature startles at that that is dead If wee had the life of grace further then the necessity of civill conversation and the hope of bettering them forceth it upon us wee would have no society with those that we see are in the state of nature What issues from them but stench eyes full of adultery nothing that is pleasing can come from them nothing can come from all their sences but rottennesse and stench what comfort can a man that loves his owne soule and hath any desire to be saved have by intimate converse with such persons let them have never so good parts they hurt more one way then they doe good another you see wee are all dead by nature and what this death is But you will say there is a difference betweene naturall death and spirituall death for in naturall bodily death there is no mooving but in this spirituall death of the soule men have sences and motion c. Jt is true thus farre they differ though a man be spiritually dead yet notwithstanding he hath feete to carry him to the house of God he hath eares to heare the Word of God he hath abilities of nature upon which grace is founded God workes grace upon nature Now a man living in the Church of God that is a grace when a man hath grace to live within the compasse of the meanes he can by common grace without any inward change of nature come and heare the Word of
of his when he rose againe in his resurrection the acquittance from our sinnes was sealed thereby we know that the debt is paid because he rose againe let us see an acquittance of all in the resurrection And if we thinke of the glory that God hath reserved for us thinke of it in Christ see Christ glorious first and we in him See Christ at the right hand of God and wee in him carry Christ along with us in our contemplations We are quickned with Christ Christ takes away all the deaths J spake of before Christ by his resurrection tooke away the death of sentence he rose againe for our justification so that now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. So againe in regard of that deadly disposition that is in us Christ quickens us in regard of that by infusing grace by his Spirit for Christ is an universall principle of all life Now Christ by his death pacifying his Father obteined the Spirit and by that Spirit which he infuseth as a principle of life he more and more quickens our nature and makes it better and better till it be perfect in Heaven As Adam was a principle of death and the more we live in the state of nature the worse we are til we come to hel So when we are in Christ the Spirit sanctifies us more and more till he have brought us to perfection And as we are quickned from the death of sentence and of disposâ—tion so we are quickned in regard of that hope of glory that we have For now in Christ we are in Heaven already and though there come bodily death betweene yet notwithstanding that is but a fitting us for glory the body is but fitted and molded in the grave for glory This very consideration will quicken a man in death my head is in Heaven above water therefore the body shall not bee long under water And Faith makes that that is to come present and affects the soule comfortably Christ is in Heaven already and J am there in Christ and J shall be there as verily as he is there I am there de jure de facto I shall be there in these considerations Christ quickens us Therefore saith St. Peter Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath begotten us againe through the resurrection of Christ from the dead to a lively hope of an inheritance immortall c. We are begotten againe to this inheritance by the resurrection of Christ who is risen againe to quicken himselfe and all his The consideration of this should affect us as it did Saint Peter to blesse God Now all this quickning power ariseth from our union with Christ we must have a beeing in Christ before we can have comfort by death with him or by rising with him Our union with Christ springs from faith faith is cherished by the Sacrament the Word and Sacrament beget faith faith unites us to Christ union with Christ makes us partake of his death and the benefits of it and of his resurrection and ascention to glory therefore the more we attend upon this ordinance of the Word and the seale of the Word the Sacrament the more our faith is increased for God invites us to communion and fellowship with Christ and all his benefits and favours and the more wee find faith assured of Christ the more union and fellowship wee have with Christ and the more wee seele that the more Christ is a quickning Spirit quickning us with the life of grace here and the hope of Glory afterward Therefore let us comfortably attend upon the ordinance of God sanctified for this purpose to strengthen this our union with Christ. FINIS THE FRVITFVLL LABOVR FOR Eternall Foode In two Sermons By the late Reverend and Learned Divine RICHARD SIDS Doctor in Divinity Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at Grayes-Inne ESAY 55.2 Why doe you spend money for that which is not Bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Hearken diligently unto mee and eate yee that which is good and let your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse JOHN 6.55 For my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drink indeed LONDON Printed by G.M. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford 1639. THE FRVITFVLL LABOVR FOR Eternall Food IOHN 6.27 Labour not for the meate that perisheth but for the meate that indureth to everlasting life which the Sonne of man shall give you for him hath God the Father Sealed OUr blessed Saviour was mighty in word and deed witnesse what he did what he taught and both in this Chapter What he did hee fed many with a few loaves he came over the water without any helpe What he taught witnesse from this part of the Chapter to the end The words are part of an Answer of our blessed Saviour to his hypocriticall followers that followed him for the Loaves and not for any confirmation of their faith by his miracles for upon occasion of those two miracles mentioned in the former part of the Chapter they followed him and perceiving that hee was miraculously come over the water they began to aske him Rabbi how camest thou heere Our Saviour perceives that they meant to complement with him he sees with what hearts they came after him therefore as most befitting the Exigence of their state because they were hypocrites he answers not to their question but to their persons Verily verily yee seeke mee not because of the miracles but because yee eate of the loaves and were filled Labour not for the meate that perisheth c. The Verses together containe a Conviction and an Injunction or direction A Conviction and that is serious and loving Serious Verily verily I say unto you you seeke mee not because of the miracles but because yee eate of the loaves c. Hee convinceth them of their fault of their hypocrisie of their wicked and carnall aimes in holy businesse they come flattering of Christ but as hee was too holy to flatter so he was too wise to be flattered hee deales therefore directly with them thoroughly convinceth them of their hypocrisie and corrupt aimes in following after him We are all naturally prone to these carnall ends in holy actions we must take heed with what mindes with what hearts we come before God whose eyes are brighter then the Sun who regards not so much what we doe as with what mindes we doe it As his conviction is Serious so it is Loving for with the conviction or reproofe followes the injunction or direction Labour not for the meate that perisheth In the Injunction there are two things First he shewes them what they should not follow he takes them off from labouring after the meate that perisheth And then secondly hee instructs them in what they should follow what they should seeke after But labour for the meate that indureth to everlasting life c. There are Arguments in both In the first there is an Argument disswasive and
was a Type of Christs sacrifice Now that Christs sacrifice was so acceptable to God there is a direct place for it in Ephes. 5. Walke in love as Christ hath loved us and hath given himselfe an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smell And indeed how many sweet savours were there in the sacrifice of Christ offered on the Crosse was there not the sweet savour of obedience he was obedient to the death of the Crosse there was the sweet savour of patience and of love to mankind therefore God delighted in him as God as Man as Mediator God-Man in his doings in his sufferings every way Doth God delight thus in Christ in his person or considered mystically I answer both God loves and delights in Christ mysticall that is in Christ and his members in whole Christ This is my Beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased not onely with whom alone by himselfe but in whom in him as God in him in body and soule in him as head of the Church in him mystically in all that are under him any kind of way God delights in him and all his Is it possible that hee should delight in the head and refuse the members That he should love the husband and mislike the Spouse O no with the same love that God loves Christ he loves all his he delights in Christ and all his with the same delight there is some difference in the degree That Christ in all things may have the preheminence but it is the same love therefore our Saviour sets it downe excellently in his owne prayer he desires that the same love wherewith his Father loved him may be in them that are his that they may feele the love wherewith his Father loves him for hee loves him and his members him and his Spouse with all one love This is our comfort and our confidence that God accepts us because hee accepts his Beloved and when he shall cease to love Christ he shall cease to love the members of Christ they and Christ make one mysticall Christ. This is our comfort in dejection for sinne wee are so and so indeed but Christ is the chosen servant of God In whom he delighteth and delights in us in him it is no matter what we are in our selves but what we are in Christ when we are once in him and continue in him God loves us with that inseperable love wherewith hee loves his owne Sonne therefore Saint Paul triumphs Rom. 8. What shall seperate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus This love it is founded in Christ therefore neither things present nor things to come as he goes on there gloriously shall bee able to seperate us you see what a wondrous confidence and comfort wee have hence if we labour to be in Christ that then God loves and delights in us because he loves and delights in Christ Jesus And here is a wondrous comfort that God must needs love our salvation and redemption when he loves Christ because hee powred out his soule to death to save us doth not God delight that wee should bee saved and our sinnes should bee forgiven when hee loves Christ because hee abased himselfe for that purpose What a prop and foundation of comfort is this when the Divell shall present God to us in a terrible hideous manner as an avenging God and consuming fire c. indeed out of Christ he is so let us present to our selves thoughts of God as the Scripture sets foorth God to us and as God setâ— forth himself not only in that sweet relation as a Father to Christ buâ— our father I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God having both one God and love and care There is none of us all but the Divell will have a saying to us either in the time of our life in some terrible temptation especially when any outward abasement comes or at the houre of death and all the cordials wee have gathered out of the Word will then be little enough to support the drooping soule especially in the houre of temptation Oh Beloved what a wondrous stay and satisfaction to a distressed conscience doth this yeeld that Christ in all that hee hath wrought for us is Gods chosen servant whom he loves and delights in and delights in him for this very worke that hee abased himselfe and gave himselfe for us that hee wrought Gods worke because he wrought reconciliation for us If we can believe in Christ wee see heere what ground of comfort wee have that God loves and delights in us as he doth in his owne Son And what a comfort is it now in our daily approach to God to minister boldnesse to us in all our suites that we goe to God in the name of one that he loves in whom his soule delights that we have a friend in Court a friend in Heaven for us that is at the right hand of God and interposeth himselfe there for us in all our suites that makes us acceptable that perfumes our prayers and makes them acceptable his intercession is still by vertue of his service dying for us he interceeds by vertue of his redemption if God love him for the worke of redemption he loves him for his intercession therefore God must needs regard the prayers made by him by vertue of his dying for us when he loves him for dying for us Bee sure therfore in al our suites to God to take along our elder Brother take our beloved Brother take Benjamin with us offer al to God in him our persons to be accepted in him our prayers our hearing our works and al that we do and we shal be sure to speed For he is one in whom the soule of God delights There must be this passage and repassage as God looks upon us lovely in him and delights in us as wee are members of him all Gods love and the fruits of it come to us as we are in Christ and are one with him then in our passage to God againe we must returne all and doe all to God in Christ be sure not to goe to a naked God for so he is a consuming fire but goe to him in the mediation of him whom he loves and in whom his soule delighteth And shall God love him and delight in him and shall not our soule delight in Christ This therefore should stirre up our affections to Christ to be faithfull in our conjugall affection as the Spouse of Christ to say My Beloved is mine and I am my Beloveds Christ calls his Church My Love and my Dove Doth Christ delight in us and God delight in Christ and shall not we delight in Christ that delights in us and in whom God delights In the 1. Cor. 16. ult the Apostle is bold to pronounce a bitter curse Anathema Maranatha upon him that loves not the Lord Christ Jesus a most bitter curse when Christ shall become a
minde of it besides the threatning of dangers by enemies abroad if we will not watch now and stand upon our guard when will we Let us be watchfull to doe all the good we can to bee fruitfull to be good stewards to have large hearts The time may come that we may be stripped of all and we know not how soone having but a little time let us doe good in it study all opportunities in these times roufe up our sluggish soules Feare it is awaking affection Iaakob when his brother Esau was ready to ceaze on him he could not sleepe that night We know not how soone the hand and arrow of God may strike us besides other judgements let us shake off Security and doe every thing we doe sincerely to God We may come to God to make our account we know not how soone let us doe every thing as in his presence and to him in our particular callings let us bee conscionable and carefull and fruitfull let us doe all in our places to God and not to the world or to our owne particular gaine but doe it as those that must give account ere long to God Now God threatneth us to come and give our account who can be secure he shall have life for a weeke or for one day Wee cannot our times are in Gods hands we came into the world in his time and we must goe out in his time but now we have lesse cause to hope for long life This is to make a right use of the judgement of God to be watchfull in this kind And withall let us be good husbands now in the interim betweene the threatning and the execution of the judgement let us store up comforts from the promises of God and store up the comforts of a good life we shall have more comfort of the meanes we have bestowed wisely then of that we shall leave behinde us Thus if we doe come what will we are prepared Many holy and heavenly men have beene visited with pestilentiall sickenesse Hezekias was a King and his was a pestilentiall sickenesse and many holy Divines of late and other Christians have beene swept away by the sickenesse Iunius and other rare men of excellent use in the Church Therefore let us labour to get into the favour of God make use of our renewing our covenant for the time to come that is one end of fasting now to renew our covenants to remake them for the time to come and then come what will and welcome life or death for there is a blessing hid in the most loathsome sickenesse and death If wee come to Heaven it is no matter by what way Though the body be sowen in dishonour we may die of a noysome disease that we cannot have our friends neare us yet the body shall rise againe in honour What matter saith Saint Paul If by any meanes I may come to the resurrection of the dead by faire death or foule death it is no matter And if so bee that God make not good his promise of particular protection of our bodies from contagion c. it is no matter wee have a generall promise that he will be our God he is the God of Abraham the God of the dead as well as of the living He is a God that is everlasting in the Covenant of grace in life and death and for ever if wee bee entered into the covenant of grace it holds for ever And when all other promises faile and all things in the world faile sticke to the maine promise of forgivenesse of sinnes and life everlasting When all things in the world will faile wee must leave them shoâ—tly wealth and whatsoever what a comfort is in that grand promise that God will forgive us our sinnes and give us life everlasting for Christ Therefore when all things else are gone let us wrap our selves in the gracious promises of Christ and then wee shall live and dye with comfort FINIS THE DEAD-MAN OR THE STATE OF EVERY Man by nature In one Sermon By the late Reverend and Learned Divine RICHARD SIBS Doctor in Divinity Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at GRAYES INNE JOHN 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you the houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voice of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live LONDON Printed by G.M. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford MDCXXXIX THE DEAD-MAN EPHES. 2.1 And you hath â—ee quickned who were dead in trespasses and sinnes THE matter of this excellent Epistle is partly doctrinall and partly exhortatory as it was S. Paules course in all his Epistles to lay the foundation of practise in doctrine The heart must be mooved but the braine must be instructed first there is a simpathy betweene those two parts as in nature so in grace The doctrinall part of the Epistle sets out the riches of Christ chiefly in the first Chapter in regard of the spring of them Gods eternall election Then in this Chapter by way of comparison by comparing the state of grace to the state of nature You hath hee quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins The dependance of this Verse I take it to be from the 19. Verse of the first Chapter The Apostle there prayes that the Ephesians might have the eye of their understandings opened and enlightned that they might know among other things what the exceeding great power of God is towards us that beleeve According to the working of his mighty power that he wrought in Christ when hee raised him from the dead that they might have experience of that mighty power that raised Christ from the dead Now here in this Chapter he saith They were raised together with Christ and set together with him in heavenly places His reason is in this manner Those that are raised up and quickned with Christ to sit in heavenly places with him have experience of a mighty power But you are raised up and quickned with Christ to sit in heavenly places with him therefore you have experience of a mighty power that raised Christ for those that are raised and quickned with Christ have experience of that power that Christ had when he was raised up The second thing that he intends especially in this Chapter is to shew that being raised with Christ they are brought nearer to God both Iewes and Gentiles that of themselves were farre off Now he shewes that they were raised and quickned with Christ and brought neare to God in Christ that they might magnifie the free grace of God in Christ all is by grace and thereupon to be stirred up to a suteable comfortable and gracious life To come to the words And you hath he quickned c. They are an application of the former comfortable truths to them you hath he quickned c. These words hath he quickned are not in the originall in this place they are after in verse 5. When we were dead in
sinnes he quickned us but they are put in in the translation because they must be understood to make the full sence In the words consider these things First of all heere the Apostle puts them in mind of their former condition And then he sets downe in particular what it was They were dead in trespasses and sins Then he tells them wherein they were dead what was the cause of their death and the element wherein they were dead in trespasses and sins Lastly not in one trespasse and in one sin but in trespasses and sins And then to speake a little of quickning to take it out of the 5. verse You hath he quickned There is the benefit with the condition That which Jaime at is especially to shew our estate by nature and how we are raised out of that I shall touch the points briefly as I have propounded them Saint Paul here first minds them of their former condition you were dead in trespasses and sinnes For contraries give lustre one to another and it magnifies grace mervailously to consider the opposite condition Hee that never knew the height and bredth and depth of his naturall corruption will never be able to conceive the height and breadth and depth of Gods infinite love in Iesus Christ. Saint Paul had deepe thoughts of both as ever man had therefore he could never enter into the argument of abasing man and extolling the love of God in Christ that he could satisfie himselfe but his spirit carries him from one thing to another till he set it out to the full And every one of us should be skilfull in this double mystery the mystery of the corruption of nature that is unsearchable there is corruption in the heart that none knows but God only and we must plow with his heifer that carries a light into the hidden parts of the soule and discovers corruption there is a mystery of that as well as of the Gospell of our deliverance out of that cursed estate from the guilt and thraldome of it I doe but touch it onely to shew the scope of the Apostle Now besides the consideration of it for this end to magnifie the grace of God and to understand what our former estate was the better there are many other ends As to stirre up our thankefullnesse when we consider from what we are delivered to glorifie God the more There is no soule so enlarged to glorifie God as that soule that hath large thoughts of its estate by nature and that estate by nature made worse by custome our second ill nature and bondage voluntary considering Gods mercy in delivering and freeing us from all sinnes and trespasses this will make us thankefull indeed And it is a spring of love to God when we consider what great sinnes we have forgiven usâ— it will make us humble all the daies of our lives and pitifull to others but this may be handled fitter from another portion of Scripture To come therefore to the words Who were dead in trespasses and sins Their condition is they were dead the specification of their death in sinnes and trespasses and not in one but in sinnes and trespasses Here I might digresse and tell you a discourse of life and death at large every man knowes by experience what they are In a word death is a privation of life What is life and whence ariseth it Not to speake of the life of God God is life and Christ is life but of lâ—fe in us It ariseth from the soule first there is a soule and then a life from the union with that soule and then there is a secret kindled motion and operation outward wheresoever life is Life in man I say springâ— from the soule The soule hâ—th a double life a life in it selfe and a life it communicates to the body The life in it selfe it liveth when it is out of the body it hath an essentiall life of its owne but the life of the body is derived from its union with the soule and from that union comes lively motion and operation The spirituall life of the soule is by the Spirit of Christ when our soule hath union with the quickning Spirit of Christ and by Christs Spirit is joyned to Christ and by Christ to God who is life it selfe and the first fountaine of all life then we have a spirituall life The Spirit is the soule of our soules and this spiritual soule this Spirit in us is not idle wherever life is there is motion and operation inward and outward suteable and proportionable to the fountaine of life the Spirit of God himselfe So on the contrary it is with death what is death Death is nothing else but a seperation from the cause of life from that from whence life springs The body having a communicated life from the soule when the soule is departed it must needs be dead Now death take it in a spirituall sence it is either the death of law our sentence as we say of a man when he is condemned he is a dead man Or death in regard of disposition and then the execution of that death of sentence in bodily death and in eternall death afterward Now naturally we are dead in all these sences First by the sin of Adam in whose loynes we were we were all damned there was a sentence of death upon all Adams rotten race as we say damnati antequam nati we were damned before we were borne as soone as we had a being in our mothers wombe by reason of our communion with Adam in that first sinne And then there is corruption of nature as a punishment of that first sinne that is a death as we shall see afterward a death of al the powers we cannot act and moove according to that life that we had at the first we cannot thinke we cannot will we cannot affect we cannot doe any thing that savours of spirituall life Hereupon comes a death of sentence upon us being damned both in Adams loynes and in originall sinne and likewise adding actuall sinnes of our owne if we had no actuall sinne it were enough for the sentence of death to passe upon us but this aggravates the sentence We are dead in law as well as in disposition This death in law is called guilt a binding over to eternall death it breeds horrour and terrours in the soule for the present which are the flashes of Hell-fire and expectation of worse even of the second death for the time to come which is an eternall seperation from God for ever an eternall lying under the wrath and curse of God in body and soule after they are united at the resurrection because wee would sinne eternally if we did live eternally here and no satisfaction being made for man after death there must be an eternall sentence and punishment upon him a terrible condition if we were not afraid of the first death we should be afraid of the
second death that followes wee are all dead in trespasses and sins Now what is the reason of it why we are dead First of all the ground of it is by sin we are seperated from the fountaine of life therfore we are all dead Secondly by sinne we lost that first originall righteousnesse which was comproduced with Adams soule when Adams soule was infused it was cloathed with all graces with originall righteousnesse the stampe of God was on his soule it was connaturall to that estate and condition to have that excellent gratious disposition that he had Now because we all lost that primative Image and glory of our soules we are dead We are dead likewise not onely in regard of the time past but for the time to come No man by nature hath fellowship with the second Adam till he be grafted into him by Faith which is a meere supernaturall thing In these regards every man naturally is dead Nay sinne it selfe it is not onely a cause of death of temporall death as it is a curse and so of eternall death of that bitter sentence and adjudging of us to both that we feele in terrours of conscience and expect after But sinne it selfe is an intrinsicall death Why Because it is nothing but a seperation of the soule from the chiefe good which is God and a cleaving to some creature For there is no sin but it carries the soule to the changeable creature in delight and affection to its pride and vanity one thing or other Sinne is a turning from God to the creature and that very turning of the soule is death every sinfull soule is dead In these and the like considerations you may conceave we are all dead And you hath hee quickned who were dead c. Let us consider a little what a condition this is to be dead in trespasses and sinnes Not to speake of the danger of the death of sentence when a man by the state of nature lies under the wrath of God that hanges over his head and is ready to crush him every moment But to speake of that death that seizeth upon our dispositions wee are dead by nature And what doth death worke upon the body unactivenesse stiffnesse so when the Spirit of God is severed from the soule it is cold and unactive and stiffe Therefore those that finde no life to that that is good no nor no power nor strength it is a signe that they have not yet felt the power of the quickning Spirit when they heare coldly and receive the Sacrament coldly as if it were a dead piece of worke and businesse when they doe anything that is spiritually good coldly and forced not from an inward principle of love to God that might heate and warme their hearts but they goe about it as a thing that must be done and thinke to satisfie God with an outward dead action Againe death makes the body unlovely Abraham would buy a piece of ground that hee might bury his dead out of his sight hee could not indure the sight of his owne beloved wife when shee was dead Death takes away the beauty and the honour that God hath put upon the body so that it is not honourable to those that behold it after death The Image of God stamped upon the soule of man by the Spirit it is the glory of a man after sin it is an unlovely soule We are all deprived of the glory of God as S. Paul saith And not onely so but there is a loathsomenesse contrary to that honour that was in it before Though all art and skill be used that may be to set out a dead body with flowers or whatsoever you will to please the fancy of the living yet it is but a dead body and the stench will be above all other sweete smells So let any naturall man be as witty and as learned and as great and as rich as you will or as he can be set out with all these ornaments and flowers yet hee is but a carrion a loathsome creature to God if his soule be seperated from God and inwardly cleave to the creature If he have not a new heart he is abhominable and loathsome to God and to all that have the Spirit of God A dead soule is abhominable to all Gods sences the Scripture thus familiarly condescends unto us hee will not behold him hee lookes upon the proud afarre off And hee smells no savour from their performances the very sacrifice of the wicked is abhominable he lookes upon them as wee doe upon a dunghill as a loathsome thing The prayers of the wicked are an abhomination to God he turnes away his face from them hee cannot indure them And for his eares hee will not heare the prayers of the wicked And for feeling he is wearied with their sinnes as a cart is with sheaves Nay he is wearied with their very good actions as it is Isa. 1.8 Whatsoever wicked men performe it is abhominable to God hee cannot behold them hee cannot indure them hee is burdened with their sinnes and those also that have the Spirit of God in them as farre as they see the foulenesse of their sins they loath them But herein a wicked man agrees with a dead body a dead body is not loathsome to its selfe So take a carnall man hee pranks up himselfe hee thinkes himselfe a jolly man especially when hee is set out in his flowers those things that hee beggs of the creatures he sees not his loathsomenesse hee thinkes himselfe a brave man in the world in the place he lives in and hee hath base conceits of others of God and all things of God Dead men are not loathsome to themselves because they want sences As in a prison the noisome savour is not offensive to them because they are all acquainted with it it hath ceazed upon and possessed their sences So wicked men they smell no ill savour and sent one from another because they are all dead persons one dead man is not loathsome to another as a company of prisoners they are not offended with the noysomenesse of one another Againe we sever dead persons from the rest so indeed a dead soule as he is severed from God so ae jure he should be severed from the company of others there should be a seperation and as soone as the life of grace is begun there will be a seperation betweene the living and the dead Let the dead follow the dead and bury the dead saith our Saviour in the Gospell Where bodily death is it deprives of all sences there is no use of any either of the eye or tongue c. it makes them speechlesse So he that is spiritually a dead man he can speake nothing that is savoury and good of spirituall things if he doth he is out of his element if he speak of good things he speakes with the spirit of another man if he speake of the writings of
God and when he is there he may yeeld an eare to listen and he hath common discourse and understanding to know what is said and upon what ground he can offer himselfe to the worke of the Spirit he can come to the poole though he be not thrust in this day or that day when God stirrs the waters this by common grace any man living in the Church may doe Therefore though we be all dead even the best of us by nature yet let us use the parts of nature that we have that God hath given us to offer our selves to the gracions and blessed meanes wherein the Spirit of God may worke Let us come to heare the Word of God Iohn 5.25 The time is come and now is that the dead shall heare the voice of God where the voice of God is in the Ministery and so they shall live As in the latter day the noyse of the trumpet shall raise the dead bodies So the trumpet of the Word of God sounding in the eares of men together with the Spirit shall raise the dead soules out of the grave of sin Therefore J beseech you as you would be raised up out of this death heare the noyse of Gods trumpet come within the compasse of the meanes As God is the God of life and Christ calls himselfe the life and the Spirit the Spirit of life So the Word is the Word of life because together with the Word God conveyes spirituall life The Word of God in the Ordinance is an operative working Word As it was in the creation God said Let there bee light and there was light So in the Ministery it exhorts and stirres up to duty and there is a cloathing of the ministeriall word with an almighty power it is a working word As when Christ spake to Lazarus when hee stanke in his grave he said Lazarus come foorth it was an operative working word there went an almighty power to raise Lazarus Therefore though we finde our selves dead and have no worke of grace yet let us present our selves more and more to the Ordinance of God God will be mighty in his own Ordinance the blessed time may come let us waite when the waters are stirred and take heede that we despise not the counsell of God which is to bring man to spirituall life this way And object not I am dead and rotten in sin many yeares I am an old man You know many were raised in the Gospell some that had beene dead few daies Lazarus was rotten and stanke It shewes us that though a man be dead and rotten in sinne yet he may be raised first or last the blessed time may come therefore waite never pretend long custome and long living in sinne All things are in obedience to God though they have a resistance in themselves yet God can take away that resistance and bring all to obey him All things in the world though they be never so opposite to Gods grace they are in obedience to his command Therefore though there be nothing but actuall present resistance in the soule to that that is good and a slavery to the bondage of sin yet attend meekly upon the Ordinance God can make of Lions Lambs he can take away that actual resistance As Christ when he was raised the stone that lay upon the grave was remooved So when God will quicken a man he will remoove the stone of long custome that is upon him though he have beene dead so many yeares yet God can rowle away the stone and bid him rise up Therefore let none despaire God is more mercifull to save those that belong to him then Sathan can be malicious to hinder any way The best of us all though we be not wholly dead yet there are some relicks of spirituall death hanging upon us there be corruptions which in themselves are noysome Therefore let all attend upon the meanes that the Spirit of God by little and little may worke out the remainders of death the remainders of darknesse in our understandings and of rebellion in our wills and affections For there bee usually three degrees of persons in the Church of God Some open rotten persons that are as graves open sepulchres that their stincke comes foorth and they are prophane ones There are some that have a forme of godlinesse that are meerely ghosts that act things outwardly but they have not a spirit of their owne they have an evill spirit and yet doe good workes they walke up and downe and doe things with no spirit of their owne The second are more tollerable then the first in humane society because the other stinke and smell to common society common swearers and prophane persons that stinke to any except it be to themselves But the godly have this death in part the life of sentence is perfect the life of justification but spirituall life in us is by little and little wrought in the meanes the Spirit of life joynes with the Word of life and quickens us daily more and more A word of these words And you hath he quickned Suteable to the occasion This being our estate let us know how much we are beholding to God who hath quickned us God quickens us with Christ and in Christ. It is a comfortable consideration In that God hath quickned Christ and raised him from the grave it shewes that his Fathers wrath is pacified or else he would not have quickned him he gave him to death and quickned him againe therefore we may know that he hath paid the price for us And he quickens us with Christ and in Christ whatsoever we have that is good it is in Christ first That Christ in all things might have the preheminence Christ first rose and ascended and sits in Heaven and then we rise and ascend and sit in heavenly places with Christ Therefore as St. Peter saith well in 1. Peter 1.20 God hath raised Christ that our faith might bee in God If Christ had not beene raised up our Faith and Hope could not have beene in God that he would raise us up we are quickned and raised in Christ all is in Christ first and then in us The ground of this is that Christ was a publike person in all that he did in his death therefore we are crucified and buried with him in his resurrection and ascention therefore we are quickned with him and sit in heavenly places with him He is the second Adam And if the first Adam could convey death to so many thousands so many thousand yeeres after and if the world should continue millions of yeares he would convey death to all shall not Christ the second Adam convey life to all that are in him So thinke of all things both comfortable and uncomfortable in Christ first when we thinke of sinne thinke of it in him our Surety and when we thinke of freedome from death and damnation thinke of his death when wee thinke of our resurrection thinke
to direct us heere as I shall discover better to you when I come to speake of the duty injoyned which is that I especially aime at But before I come to inforce the act or duty which our Saviour heere exhorts unto I must unfold the object of that act what is meant heere by the meate that endures to everlasting life The meate that endures to everlasting life is our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus as he is contained and wrapped up in the meanes of salvation with all the blessed liberties priviledges and prerogatives graces and comforts that we have by him and in him for our blessed Saviour never goes alone hee is never imbraced naked but with him goes his graces comforts prerogatives and liberties wee have him not now as we shall see him face to face hereafter in Heaven but he is to be considered as wrapped up in the Word and Sacraments so is Christ the foode that lasts to everlasting life and in this latitude we must take it or else wee mistake and straiten the Holy Ghost But why is our blessed Saviour so considered and the comforts and prerogatives and good things we have by him termed food In divers respects To instance in a few but first you must know that as the soule hath a life as well as the body so it hath a taste as well as the body and as God least the body should pine away hath planted in it an appetite which is the bodies longing after that which refresheth it for if it were not for appetite if it were not for hunger and thirst who would care for meate and drinke so God hath planted in the soule least it should pine away a spirituall appetite an earnest longing and desiring after that which is the most necessary good of the soule for the soule hath that which the body hath taste and smell c. though in a more sublime and divine sense but as really and truly as we shall see afterwards Now our blessed Saviour is this spirituall food of the soule He is the bread of life that came downe from Heaven He is the true Manna He is the true Tree of life in Paradice in the Church of God the true Paradice He is the true Shewbread He is the true Lambe of God He considered with all the blessed prerogatives and priviledges and comforts we have by him is called meate or food for divers respects First whatsoever sweetnesse or comfort or strength there is in meate it is for the comfort and strength and good of the body so whatsoever is comfortable and cherishing in Christ as indeed all comfort and cherishing is in him it is for our good to us He is given for us Hee was borne to us a Childe is borne to us a Sonne is given all is for us for us men for us sinners there is nothing in his natures in his state and condition both of abasement and exaltation nothing in his Offices but it is all for our good Consider him in his humane nature and joyne with his nature his abasement that hee was man that he tooke upon him our nature that he was abased in it that he humbled himselfe to death even to the death of the Crosse to bee a sacrifice for our sinnes how doth the soule feed on this on the wonderfull love of God in giving Christ to be incarnate and then to die for us how doth the soule feed upon the death of Christ because by that Gods wrath is appeased and he reconciled where the dead body is there the Eagles resort so doth the soule prey and feed upon the dead body of Christ Christ crucified is the speciall food of the soule Consider him in his Exaltation in his glorious Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven how doth the soule feed upon that Christ our Surety is risen againe therfore our debt is discharged the justice of God is satisfied to the full so for his Ascension when the soule is basely minded on earthly things it ascends to Christ who is taken up to Heaven for us so his sitting at the right hand of God the soule feedes on that because he sits there till hee have triumphed over all his enemies till he have trod them all under foot Consider him in his Offices In ignorance the soule feeds on him as a Prophet to instruct it in the sense of wrath and anger the soule feeds on him as a Priest to make peace and reconciliation in want of righteousnesse the soule feeds on his righteousnesse he is our righteousnesse In the sense of corruption the soule feeds on him as a King that by his Spirit will ere long worke out all corruption that as hee will tread downe all our enemies without so he will tread downe all corruption within he will never leave the soule till he have made it a glorious house fit for himselfe So the prerogatives wee have by him the soule feeds on them feeds on his Redemption that by his Redemption wee are freed from our enemies and all that hate us and all that we feared that wee are set at liberty from the Law from sinne and from death and notwithstanding all the debasements of this world wee are the sons of God and heires of Heaven In a word whatsoever is in Christ is for our good Hee is all mine his Life is mine his Death is mine his Resurrection is mine his Ascension is mine all is mine he is expended and laid open for my good that 's the first Againe as in the bodily life there is a stomack a power to worke out of the meate that which is for strength and nourishment so in the soule there is faith the spirituall mouth and stomack of the soule to worke and draw out of Christ whatsoever is for the comfort and nourishment of it as there is comfort in Christ so the Spirit of God gives a man a hand a mouth as it were gives a man faith to worke out of Christ somewhat for comfort what were food if there were not a stomack to digest it to make it a mans owne so what were Christ if wee had not faith to lay hold on him Againe thirdly as our life is nourished and maintained with that which is dead with dead things so the chiefe dish that maintaineth and nourisheth the life of the soule as I said before is Christ crucified God forbid saith the Apostle that I should rejoyce in any thing but in Christ crucified when the soule of a poore sinner is pursued with accusations from Satan and his owne conscience when they take part with God against him whether runs it to the city of refuge it runs to Christ to Christ crucified thither the soule flies being pursued with the guilt of sinne to the hornes of the Altar as Ioab did when hee was pursued but with better successe for hee was pulled from thence but the soule that flies to Christ crucified to the death of Christ to Christ abased to his satisfying the wrath of
under Gods hand to bee sonnes you are sonnes by Creation already offer thy selfe to be of his family for the time to come and God will give a sweet report to thy soule Stand not out at the staves end Thou art our Father Lord. If you have a purpose to live in firme the Divell is your father and not God you are of your father the Divell but if wee bee willing to submit wee may say Doubtlesse thou art our Father We are the clay thou art the potter Heere is a resignation of themselves to God in this tearme thou art the potter we are the clay Indeed we are but earthen vessells the best of us in regard of the bodily life we have and we are at the liberty of God to dispose of as he pleaseth So before he comes to put forth this prayer to God he useth this resignation of themselves into the hand of God we are as clay in thy hands Lord dispose of us as thou wilt Let us remember this when we come to pray to God use all meanes of abasement that can be lay aside all tearmes other then abasing tearmes wee are the clay and as Iob saith I abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes So the Saints have done in all times I am not worthy to bee called thy sonne and I am lesse then the least of thy mercies Let us lay aside proud and lofty tearmes and cast downe our crownes at the foot of Christ as the Saints in Revel 4. cast downe all our excellencies let us have no thought of outward excellencies of beautie or strength or riches or high dignity when we come to God wee must come with low thoughts to the high God can the creature be too low in his presence And then come with resignation wee are the clay thou art the potter doe with us as thou wilt if thou dash us in peeces as a potters vessell thou maist doe it that is the way to escape That is well committed that is committed into Gods hand some men shift by their wits and will not trust God with their health and strength they bee double minded as Saint Iames saith they will have two strings to their bow if lawfull meanes will not serve unlawfull shall No but wee must commit our selves to God as to a faithfull Creator and then see what hee will doe then it stands with his honour hee will looke to the lowlie I am the clay thou art the potter heere I am doe as thou wilt as David saith it is a blessed estate thus to resigne our selves into Gods hands If the Divell and Reprobates could bee brought to this they should never come there where they are in terrours of conscience Let us labour to practise this dutie Lord I commit to thy hands my body and soule I cast my selfe into thy bosome doe with mee as thou wilt Some that have stood out at the staves end with temptations many yeares have gotten comfort by this resignation VVe are the clay thou art the potter thou maist mold and break us as thou wilt The way now to escape the plague is not alltogether to use tricks of wit and policie though lawfull meanes must be used but labour to get into Christ and resigne our selves into Gods hand absolutely and say thus VVe are the clay c. Lord thou maist dash us if thou wilt as thou dost now many hundreds weekely thou maist dash us in that fashion if thou wilt Only we may have a desire that God would make our lives and health pretious to him that we may serve him as if we were now in Heaven and that we may have grace to make good use of all But if God have determined and decreed to take us away let us resigne our selves into his hands It is no matter though the body bee sowne in dishonour they shall be raised in honour wee are the clay he is the potter let him do what he will with our carkasses and bodies so he be mercifull to our soules These vessells of clay when they are turned to earth they shall be renewed of better stuffe like the glorious body of Christ then our soules and bodies shall be glorious by him that took a peece of flesh and clay for us O the humility of Christ we wonder that the soule should animate a peece of clay so excellent a thing as the soule is much more may we wonder that the Sonne of God should take a piece of flesh and clay upon him to take our nature of base earth to make us eternally glorious as himselfe Let it comfort us though God dash our clay in pieces as a Potter yet Christ that tooke our clay to the unity of his Person our nature being ingrafted into him hee will make our bodies eternall and everlasting as his owne glorious body Let us resigne our selves into Gods hands as the Church here Thou art the Potter and we are the clay and then wee shall never miscarry FINIS THE SPIRITVALL IUBILE In two Sermons By The late learned and reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Mr. of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at GRAYES-INNE JOHN 8.36 If the Sonne therefore shall make you free yee shall be free indeed GAL 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free LONDON Printed by E. P. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford and are to be sold at the South entrance of the Royall Exchange and in Queens head Alley in Pater-Noster-Row at the gilt Bible 1638. THE SPIRITVALL IVBILE ROM 8.2 For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of sinne and of death THERE be foure things especially that trouble the peace of a Christian and indeed of any man in this world The first is sinne with the guilt of it binding them over to the wrath of God and the expectation of miserie a heavie bondage The second is besides the guilt of sinne the remainders of corruption with the conflict that accompanies them while we live in this world and that conflict must needes be tedious The third is the miseries of this life that accompanie alway both the guilt and remainders of sinne in this world we are condemned to a great deale of trouble here and this doth much exercise and perplex Gods children And then the shutting up of all death and damnation the thought of these things doth much disquiet and disturbe the peace of a Christians soule Now in this Epistle we have comfort against all these First for the guilt of sinne that binds us over to eternall judgement and the wrath of God we are freed by the obedience of Christ the second Adam as is excellently she well in the fifth Chapter And for the remainders of corruption that we conflict with in this world we are assisted against that by the Spirit of Christ for as by the obedience of Christ we are freed from the guilt so by the Spirit
of Christ we are helped and assisted against the remainders of our corruptions For the third the miseries of this life we have victori◠in Christ In him we are more they conquerours as you have it in this Chapter They can doe us no harme Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus We have 〈◊〉 singular comforts in this Chapter against all the troubles than can be fall us and this is one that triumphs over all All things shall worke for the best to them that love God What should I speake of hurt from any thing that befalls us when all shall worke for the best by the over-ruling of him that commands all Vers. 28 And for death it selfe Neither life nor death shall be able to separate us from the love of God And for damnation which accompanies death It is God that justifieth who shall condemne There is opposite comforts in Gods Booke nay in this Epistle and in this Chapter against all that may any way trouble our peace There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus saith the Apostle and then he goes on after to shew how by the helpe of the Spirit all things worke for the best c. In this very Verse likewise you have this comfort set downe of our freedome by Christ from any thing that may hurt us For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of sinne and of death The words are dependant as we see in the particle for For the Law of the Spirit of Life c. They depend upon the first Verse thus as a reason why how ever there be sinne in Gods children yet there is no damnation to them There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus he prooves it thus Those that are free from the Law of sinne and of death which brings in condemnation those undoubtedly are free from damnation but those that are in Christ Jesus they are freed from the Law of sinne and of death therefore there is no condemnation to such But how shall we know that we are in Christ Jesus Those that have the Spirit and are led by the Spirit of Christ they are in Christ The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death So I say the words are especially a reason of the former There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus because by the Spirit of Christ they are freed from the Law of sinne and of death and by consequent they are freed from damnation for what brings in damnation but sinne In the words then there is an opposition there is Law against Law The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ and the Law of sinne and of death Now where there are contrarie Lawes if there be contrarie Lords as there must be New Lords will have new Lawes especially if they be Lords by conquest they will alter the very fundamentall Lawes that were before as you know the old Conquerours have done in this Kingdome Here is Law against Law and Lord against Lord Christ against sinne and death Here is a Lord by conquest over all other Lords and Lawes therefore here must needes be an alteration of Lawes upon it the very fundamentall Lawes must be altered But to come more particularly to the words For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death The words are much vexed by Expositors I will rather speake my owne judgement of them and reconcile them then dash one mans judgement against another for that tends not to edification The Law of the Spirit of life c. The meaning of the words is plaine if we compare it with other Scriptures The Law It is nothing but a commanding power for so the word written the Law in the Apostles meaning is but a power forcing and commanding So the Law of the Spirit of life is the commanding and forcing power of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus and so the Law of sinne it is either the tyrannicall command and forcing power of sinne or else the condemning for sinne afterwards as we shall see hereafter for we shall unfold the words better in the particulars First then here we have set downe what estate we are in by nature we are under the Law of sinne and of death And then here is our freedome and deliverance from that we are made free from the Law of sinne and of death And then the Author of it Christ Jesus The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death In the words and those that goe a little before there are these three maine fundamentall points of Religion The miserie and bondage of man The deliverance of man And his dutie Here you have his miserie he is under sinne and death Here is his deliverance he is free from this by Christ. And for his dutie you have it in the last Verse of the former Chapter speaking of his deliverance Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the bodie of this death then it followes Thankes be to God through Iesus Christ our Lord Thankfulnesse is due not verball thankfulnesse onely Indeed the whole life of a Christian after his deliverance is a reall thanksgiving but that is not in my Text. To speake therefore of our estate by nature and of our deliverance our estate is that we are under the Law of sinne and death We are under the Law of sinne We are under sinne what sinne We are under a three-fold sinne We are under the first sinne of our first father for as Levi payd Tythes in Abraham to Melchisedech so we all sinned in the Loynes of Adam our first Parent and the guilt of that first sinne lyes upon us Secondly there is another sinne that is derived and springs from that first sinne which is the deprivation of the Image of God the pravation of our nature we call it originall sinne whereby we are stripped of that good we had in our first creation and have the contrarie image the image of Satan stamped upon us so we are under the first sinne the guilt of it and we are under the sinne of nature which we call originall sinne because it is derived to us even from our birth and first originall we had in Adam And then we are under actuall sinnes which are so many bonds to tie us fast under sinne We are dead by nature but we are dead and rotten by actuall sinnes we super adde to the guilt of our sinne by our dayly conversation We are blind by nature but we are blinded indeed much more by our custome of life Every sinne doth as it were tie us faster to damnation and keepes us faster under the bondage of sinne Every new sinne takes away
may be devillish secret bitter darke enemies to that Though they may have strong heads for the good of the State yet it is not from any intrinsecall good in themselves but God useth them and makes them doe that For the Devill would have all naught he is an enemie to the very Swine therefore much more to the good of a State Therefore there are many politike civill Vertues as we fee in Achitophel and Iudas which no question is more then the Devill would have he would not have civill men so good he would not have them doe that they doe for the common good oft times yet the Devill will be sure to be at one end of the good they doe to taint them that their aime shall not be good it shall not be to the glory of God it shall not be in reference to salvation And so as the good is temporall they have a reward sutable to their desire they care for no more for they beleeve not Heaven but in a generall notion It may be there is such things it may be not therefore the good they doe is some little pettie obedience and what doe they desire To be well esteemed and respected to be venerable and to have honourable opinions in the hearts of men that men may stoupe in their conceits to them as men of respect This they deserve indeed and this they have God gives them that they would have But as Christ tells the Pharises who did excellent good things but it was to be seene of men he tells them they had their reward they had all they looked for for they were Atheists they looked not for Heaven So a man may say of all men that are out of the state of grace though they doe more then the Devill would have them and for diverse degrees of that they doe they are not subject to the Devill yet he taints their actions one way or other in the end he joynes himselfe in the action first or last he hath a hand in all their actions So that notwithstanding there be many good things yet this hinders not a whit but that they may be under the power of the Devill for it is but in reference to civill Government and State which is but for a time The fashion of this world passeth away here will be no Magistrates to governe nor no people to be governed ere long I speake it because many men are readie to propound such and such to imitate them in their courses and to say I will be no more religious then he when perhaps all may be but formalitie and common graces for this world God will honour some so much to be instruments for common good here but what is that to eternall salvation He may be a slave to his lusts and an enemie to the power of grace for all that Therefore unlesse we see men wrought upon thorowly to be of the mind of Christ to have the Spirit of Christ to judge of things as Christ judgeth to judge the service of God and doing his will to be the best things and to goe about doing good and that with reference and obedience to God all is nothing else A man may be under the bondage of his corruptions and so by them to Satan Againe when we are under our lusts and sinnes it is about earthly things we are in slaverie to that which is worse then our selves Sinne is the vilest thing in the world and the things whereabout sinne is occupied are the profits and pleasures and trifles of this world meane pettie things it is a base slaverie to consider whom we serve And to consider what it is that is in bondage the immortall soule of man that had the image of God stamped upon it and in the soule of man the most excellent part the will that is most free yet being under sinne it is most bound Our will was given us to cleave to God and the best things to make choise of the best things and to cleave to them undivided in life and death and for ever and so by cleaving to things better then our selves to advance our selves to a higher condition For when the soule of man that is under better things that is under God and Christ and doth cleave to God and Christ in his affections and to the things of a better life these be things bettering a mans condition even raysing the soule from its owne present estate to a glorious condition For we are as we affect our wills and our affections doe transforme us therefore wicked men are called the World because they love it and holy men are called heavenly because they are carryed in their affections and wills to heavenly things Our affections and wills doe denominate us they give us the name nay that is too little they doe give us the realitie the state When God so alters and changes our dispositions that out of a sanctified judgement wee make a right choyse of things and then cleave to them in our wills and affections constantly this raiseth our nature to be higher then it selfe Hee that cleaveth to the Lord is one Spirit as the Apostle saith Indeed our affections tranâ—forme us anew As it is with the fire it transformes cold and grosse bodies to be all fierie so God and heavenly things worke upon our hearts they transforme us to be like themselves Now for this inward soule of man which is so excellent a thing fitted by God to cleave to better things for communion with himselfe and everlasting happinesse for this to be a drudge to base pleasures and profits to the windie empty things of this world to vaine titles such like empty things and to place its happinesse in these things it is a pittifull degeneration that so excellent a thing as the immortall soule of man that shall never die should joyne with those things that shall make him miserable that it shall be better for a man that he had never beene as it is said of Iudas It had beene better for that man that he had never beene borne In the next place consider that that followes this thraldome and basenesse to our lusts there is a double fruite of it The one is uncertaine I meane for our yeelding to our base affections what get we The pleasures of sinne for a season a little pleasure or profit perhaps not that neither but if we have it it is a fading commodity that goes away quickly when they are gotten what are they vanity they promise more before we get them then they performe when we have them But then there is another wages that God in justice hath appointed for it that is damnation The wages of sinne is death it cries for wages When we are under sinne we can looke for nothing but death and therefore he joyns them together here the law of sin and of death an expectation of eternall misery This a man hath that is wedded to himselfe
is the nature of this Tyrant sinne it hath such possession of a man till he be got out of it and be in Christ that it takes away the sight of it selfe it hinders the knowledge of it selfe it puts out a mans eyes For that whereby a man should judge of corruption it is corrupt it selfe The wisedome of a man is death it is enmitie to God The wit that he hath that should discerne of his base courses it tangles him more and more to his owne lusts so that wit and wisedome the highest part of the soule it is imprisoned by base affections and that power that should discerne corruption it is set on worke to satisfie corruption What is the wit of a man that is not in Christ occupied about all his life time it is nothing but a drudge and a slave to devise meanes to satisfie his base lusts Take a worldly man hee is exceeding witty to contrive wordly plots and businesse though he be a dunce and a sot in matters that are spirituall in his owne tract and course hee hath a shrewd wit why because his lusts to the world they whet his wit So we see the best thing in man now is inthralled to sinne his very wisedome it selfe therefore it is enmity to God Every man hath some Herodias some sinne or other that hee is in bondage to till he be in Christ. He cannot in a like measure be given and inthralled to all sinnes it is unnecessary because one sinne serveth another many sinnes serve one great one Corruption doth not runne in all streames in one equality but it runnes amaine one way unchecked and uncontrolled and unmortified in all men that are not in Christ and subdues the soule to it selfe that it can devise and plot for nothing but to satisfie that base lust This is the state of man by nature But some will say it is not our state and condition wee are baptized and receive the Sacrament and heare Sermons and read good bookes and therefore we are not under sinne But saith the Apostle His servants ye are to whom ye obey you may know the state of your service and subjection by the course of your life And as Christ saith to the Iewes Iohn 8. they bragged that they were free alas proud people they were neither free for soule nor state for they were under the Romanes They thought they were free because they were Abrahams children were they not in captivity to the Egyptians and under the Babylonians and in present captivity under the Romanes yet they forget themselves out of pride If the Sonne make you free ye are free indeed but because they were in a sinfull course they were slaves of sinne So it is no matter what priviledges men are under that they receive the Sacrament and are baptized and live in the Church c. His servants yeare whom yee obey If there be prevayling lusts that sit up their throne and tyrannize in our hearts and set our wits on worke to devise how to satisfie them more then to please God it is no matter what priviledges we have it is no matter whose livery we weare but whom we serve We may weare Gods Livery that shall be pulled over our heads afterwards and we be uncased that it shall appeare that we are the Devils servants under the profession of Christ. There is no man that is not in Christ that denies his corrupt nature any thing if revenge bid him take revenge he will if he can if he doe not it is no thankes to him but to the Lawes If any sinne rise in the heart all the parts of the body and powers of the soule are ready weapons to this tyrant to keepe a man in slavery As if anger and wrath keepe a man in bondage you shall have it in his countenance his hand will be ready to execute it his feet will be ready to carry him to revenge If it be a proud heart that a man is kept under you shall have it in his lookes and expressions outward If it be the base affection of lust you shall have adultery in the eye an unchast and uncircumcised eare and filthy rotten language Men you see upon all occasions are ready to execute the commands of these tyrannicall lusts in some kinde or other Therefore never talke of thy freedome when lusts are raised up within thee either ascending from thine owne corruption or cast in by Satan and so joyning with thy heart presently thy tongue will speake wickedly and thine eyes and lookes and countenance shew that there is a naughty heart within and the whole man is ready to execute it further then a man is curbed by Law or respect to his reputation or the like which is no thankes to him Yet a man cannot act the part of a civill man so well but the corruption of his vile heart will betray it selfe in his lookes or language one time or other this tyrant will breake forth Therefore let us looke to our hearts and courses for if we be not in Christ we are under the Law of sin And of Death We are not onely under the law of sinne but also of death Now there is a death in this world the separation of the soule from the body but that is not so much meant here for when we are in Christ we are not free from this death But there a is worse death which is a separation of the soule from the favour and love of God and from the sanctifying and comforting Spirit of God when the Spirit of God doth not comfort and sanctifie the soule it is a death For as the soule is the life of the body the body hath but a communicated life from the union it hath with the soule The soule hath a life of its owne when it is out of the body but the body hath its life from the soule so it is with the soule when there is an estrangement of the soule from the Spirit of God Christ sanctifying and comforting and chearing it then there is a death of the soule the soule can no more act any thing that is savingly and holily good then the body can be without the soule And as the body without the soule is a noysome odious carcasse offensive in the eyes of its dearest friends so the soule without the Spirit of Christ quickening and seasoning it and putting a comelinesse and beautie upon it it is odious All the cloathes and flowers you put upon a dead body cannot make it but a stinking carkasse so all the morall vertues and all the honours in this world put upon a man out of Christ it makes him not a spirituall living soule he is but a loathsome carrion a dead carkasse in the sight of God and of all that have the Spirit of God for hee is under death he is starke and stiffe unable to stirre or moove to any duty whatsoever he hath no sense
nor motion Though such men live a common naturall civill life and walke up and downe yet they are dead men to God and to a better life The world is full of dead men that are dead while they are alive as S. Paul speakes of the Widow that lives in pleasures A fearefull estate if we had Spirituall eyes to see it and thinke of it But then after the death of the soule in this world there is another degree of spirituall death which is when the soule leaves the body then the soule dies for then it goes to hell it is severed for ever from the comfortable and gracious presence of God and likewise it wants the comforts it had in this world And the third degree of it is when body and soule shall be joyned together then there is an eternall separation of both from the presence of God and an adjudging of them to eternall torments in hell This is the state of all men that are not in Christ they are dead in soule while they live dead after the separation of the soule and body and after to be adjudged to eternall damnation world without end Life is a sweet thing and wee know death it is terrible when we would set out our hatefulnesse to any thing wee use to say I hate it as death doe wee love life and doe we hate death we should labour then to be out of that condition that we are all in by nature wherein we are under sinne and death in regard of spirituall life I meane for for civill life and government and policy men may have life and vigour enough that are hypocrites but I speake of a better life an eternall life that is not subject to death Now marke the joyning of both these together we are under sinne and death by nature where a man is under sinne he is under death for as the Apostle saith Rom. 5. Sinne entred into the world and by sinne death They were neither of both Gods creatures neither sinne nor death but sinne entred into the world by Satan and death by sinne Oh ye shall not die saith Satan he was a lyar alway from the beginning so now he saith to men you shall not die you may doe this and doe well enough but he is a lyar and a murtherer when he solicites to sinne he is a murtherer Let us take heed of solicitations to sinne from our owne nature or from Satan marke how God hath linked sinne and death The wages of sinne is death When we are tempted to sinne we thinke I shall have this credit or profite or contentment or preferment and advancement in the world I but that that you get by sinne it is not so great as you looke for when you have it if you get it at all but afterwards comes death the beginnings of eternall death terrours of conscience universally follow if a man be himselfe if he be not besotted The more a man is a man and enjoyes the liberty of his judgement to judge of things the more he sees the misery that is due after sinne with a fearefull expectation of worse things to come Sinne and death are an adamantine chaine and linke that none can sever who shall separate that which God in his Justice hath put together If sinne goe before death will follow if the conception goe before the birth will follow after if the smoake goe before the fire will follow There is not a more constant order in nature then this in Gods appointment first sinne and then death and damnation after Therefore when wee are tempted to sinne let us reason with our selves there is death in the pot let us discerne death in it it will follow And if a man after repent of it it will be more sharp repentance and grievous then the sinne was pleasant that a man shall have little joy of his sinne if he doe repent if he doe not repent what a fearefull estate is a man in after he hath sinned Sinne and death goe together no humane power can sever them for take the greatest Monarch in the world when he hath sinned conscience is above him as great as hee is for conscience is next under God it awes and terrifies him and keepes his sleepe from him as we see of late in our bloody neighbour Country after that great Massacre he could not sleepe without Musicke and the like All that they have and enjoy in the world all their greatnesse it will not satisfie and stop the mouth of conscience but when they sinne they feele the wrath of God arresting and they aâ—e as iâ— were shut up in prison under the terrours of an accusing conscience till they come to eternall imprisoment in the chaine of hell and damnation This is the estate of the greatest man in the world that is not in Christ. They are not so happy as we thinke they are they are imprisoned in their owne hearts though they walke at never so much liberty abroad and doe what they list for sinne and death goes together and before eternall death comes the expectation and terrours of it seize on them for the present So that whatsoever our first birth be though it be noble and great yet by it we are bond-slaves under sinne and death unlesse our second birth our new birth make amends for flâ—â—e for the basenesse of our first birth This prerogative our spirituall noblenesse is such an estate wherein wee are not borne but are borne againe to it to an inheritance immortall c. But by nature wee are all bond men though wee be be borne never so nobly Therefore let us never bragge of our birth as the Jewes did that they were the children of Abraham No saith Christ you are of your father the Devill Let none stand upon the Gentrie and Nobility of their birth unlesse they be taken out of the condition they are in by nature to be in a better condition in Christ for we see all men naturally are under the law of sinne and death These things are slighted because wee enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season men thinke to be inthralled to sinne it is pleasant thraldome they are golden fetters for I shall have the pleasures of sin all my life time c. and for death I will set a Romane spirit against death Saith a Romane what is it such a matter to die It is nothing to die they set a good face on the matter And this is the conceite of many men till they come to it but alas to be inthralled to death it is another matter for behind death there is a gulphe A man may breake the hedgewell enough with a strong resolution to die it is nothing to die if there were an end But there is a gulphe there is damnation and destruction behind there is eternall torment behind to be adjudged from the presence of God for ever to be separated from all good and all comfort
and to have societie with the Devill and his Angels in hell and that forever and for ever Thou maist perhaps make â—light of the service of sinne because thou hast the present baits to delight thee but thou shouldst regard death Thou maist neglect death but then regard eternall death This word Eternall it is a heavy word Eternall separation from all good and eternall communion with the Devill and his Angels and for the wrath of God to seize on thy soule eternally world without end me thinkes men should not set light by that Therefore considering that this is our estate by nature we are all slaves to sinne and death let us labour to get out of this cursed estate by all meanes which is by The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus Now I come to speake of our freedome The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and death This is good news indeed to heare of freedome good newes to the Israelites to heare of freedome out of Egypt and for the Jewes to heare of Cyrus Proclamation for their freedome out of Babylon Freedome out of bondage is a sweet message Here we have such a message of spirituall freedome from other manner of enemies then those were The yeare of Jubile it was a comfortable yeare to servants that were kept in and were much vexed with their bondage when the yeare of Jubile came they were all freed therefore there was great expectation of the yeare of Jubile Here we have a spirituall Jubile a manumission and freedome from the bondage we are in by nature The Spirit of life in Christ makes us free from the Law of sinne and death There is life in Christ opposite to death in us there is a Spirit of life in Christ and a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ opposite to the law of sinne and of death in us So that this is our happinesse while we live here oh it is the blessednesse of men to make use of it while they have time and space and grace to repent and to cleave to Christ that whatsoever ill we are under by nature we may have full supply in Christ for all the breaches that came by the first Adam There came the wrath of God the corruption of our nature terrours of conscience death and damnation all these followed the sinne and breach of the first Adam all these are made up in the second He hath freed us from all the ill wee received from the first Adam and that we have added our selves for we make our selves worse then we come from Adam by our voluntary and daily transgressions but wee are freed from all by the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus How comes this freedome There can no freedome be without satisfaction to divine Justice For why are we under sinne God gives us up to sinne why are we under death God gives us up to death Why are we under Satans government he is Gods executioner Gods serjeant he gives us up to him here because we offend him Why are we under damnation and wrath because God is offended All our slavery comes originally from God however it be sinfull in regard of Satan that keepes us yet the power whereby he keepes us is good for he doth it from God His will is alwayes naught but his power is alwayes lawfull therefore the power whereby the Devill keepes us if wee looke up to God under whom the power is it is a lawfull power for God hath a hand in giving us up to finne it is a judiciall giving up and then by lusts and â—inne to Satan and death and damnation So if we speake of freedome wee must not begin with the executioner the wrath of God must be satisfied God must be one with us so as his Justice must have contentment Satisfaction must be with the glory of his Justice as well as of his Mercie his Attributes must have full content one must not be destroyed to satisfie another hee must so be mercifull in freeing us as that content must be given to his Justice that it complaine not of any losse Now reconciliation alway supposeth satisfaction it is founded upon it And satisfaction for sinne it must be in that nature that hath sinned now man of himselfe could not satisfie divine Justice being a finite person therefore God the second Person became man that in our nature hee might satisfie Gods wrath for us and so free us by giving payment to his divine Justice The death of Christ God-man is the price of our liberty and freedome But why doth the Apostle speake here of a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ which frees us but here is no mention of satisfaction by death Oh but death is the foundation of all as we shall see afterwards To unfold the point therefore because it is a speciall point and the words need unfolding Here it is said there is life in Christ. A Spirit of life in Christ. and a Law of a Spirit of life in Christ. There is life in Christ not onely as God for so indeed he is life God his life is himselfe for life is the being of a thing and the actions and moving and vigour and operations of a thing answerable to that being So the life of God is his being As I live saith the Lord that is as I am God I will not the death of a sinner Now Christ hath life in him as God as the Father hath but that is not especially here meant There is life in Christ as God-man as Mediator Now this life is that life which is originally from the God-head indeed it is but the God-heads quickening and giving life to the man-hood in Christ the Spirit quickning and sanctifying the man-hood And we have no comfort by the life of God as it is in Gods life alone severed for alas what communion have wee with God without a Mediator but our comfort is this that God who is the fountaine of life he became man and having satisfied Gods Justice he conveyes life to us he is our head hee hath life in himselfe as God to impart spirituall life to all his members so there is life in Christ as Mediator And there is a Spirit of life that life it is a working life for spirit is an emphaticall word spirit added to a thing increased the thing Againe he saith the Law of the Spirit of life Law is a commanding thing to shew that the life in Christ it is a commanding life it countermands all opposite lives whatsoever of sinne and death and this Law is a countermand to all other Lawes the Law of the Spirit of life frees us from all other Lawes So here is life the Spirit of life and the Law of the Spirit of life all words of strong signification But for the cleare understanding of this sweet and comfortable point First
consider how the Law of the Spirit of life is in Christ what it doth in him and then how it is derivatively in us First of all we must know this for a ground whatsoever is done to us is done to Christ first and whatsoever wee have Christ hath it first Therefore life is first in Christ and then in us Resurrection first in Christ and then in us Sonne-ship first in Christ and then in us Justification from our sins first in Christ he is freed from our sinnes and then in us Ascension first in Christ and then in us Glory in heaven first in Christ and then in us We have nothing in us but it is derived from Christ therefore this being layd as a ground we must consider how the Spirit of life works in Christ what it doth in Christ and then what it doth as it is in us for whatsoever Christ hath it is not onely for himselfe but for us What doth it in Christ The Spirit of life in Christ first of all it did quicken and sanctifie his humane nature that nature that Christ pleased to take upon him it stopped sinne it made a stop of originall sinne in sanctifying that blessed masse out of which his body was made for the foundation of his obedience actuall that it was so holy it was hence that his nature was purified by the Holy-Ghost in the wombe of the Virgin the foundation that his death and sufferings was satisfactory and acceptable it was that his holy nature was sanctified by the Spirit of God So the first worke of the Spirit of life in the Sonne of God it was to sanctifie and quicken that blessed masse that he tooke upon him And the Spirit of life that quickned and sanctified our nature in Christ did likewise ennoble our nature for even as a base woman is ennobled when she is taken in marriage with a great man shee hath his dignity accounted hers so our nature by the Spirit being sanctified is knit into the union of person with Christ that our nature and the second Person make one Christ so our nature by the Spirit is ennobled by this union And also inriched it with all grace that our nature is capable of for the nature of Christ had this double prerogative above ours First of all that blessed masse of flesh it was knit to be one person with God and then that nature was inriched and ennobled with all graces above ours And this the Spirit of life did to Christ himselfe to his humane nature that he tooke upon him that hee might be a publicke Person For God the second Person tooke not upon him any mans particular person of Peter or Paul or Iohn for then there should have beene distinct persons one person should have dyed and another rise but hee tooke our nature into his Person so that the same Person that did dye was God though he dyed in our nature that he might be a publicke Person So we must consider Christ sanctifying our nature that he might sit and sanctifie all our persons But did the Spirit of life doe nothing else but sanctifie and inrich the humane nature of Christ with grace Yes for the Spirit of life in Christ did sanctifie him for his Sacrifice as he saith Iohn 17. in that blessed prayer I sanctifie my selfe for them it prepared him for his death and made him a fit Sacrifice When he entred upon his calling he had more of the Spirit the Spirit of life as it were was increased For it is no heresie to thinke that the gifts of Christ for the manifestation of them were increased For in every state he was in hee was perfect and when he set upon his Office and was baptised hee was fuller of the Holy-Ghost as it were there was a fuller manifestation then before when he did not set upon his Office openly In his death what did the Spirit of life then It supported him in his very death for there was an union of the Spirit when there was a separation of his soule and body there was not a separation of the union That which gave dignity and strength and value and worth to his death it was the Spirit though there was a suspending of the comfort a while yet there was no separation of the union but I speake no more of that being not especially meant here But especially in his Resurrection which we are now to thinke of by reason of the day and it is not amisse to take all occasions especially then the Spirit of life that had sanctified Christ and quickened him and inriched his nature and supported him and done all that Spirit of life quickened the dead body of Christ And he was mightily declared to be the Sonne of God by the Spirit of sanctification Rom. 1.4 by his Resurrection from the dead The Spirit of life raised him from the dead and put an end to all that misery that he had undergone before for our sakes For untill his resurrection there was as it were some conflict with some enemies of Christ either with Satan or the world or with death it selfe he lay under death three dayes untill Christs body was raised our enemies were not overcome Gods wrath was not fully satisfied it was not declared to be satisfied at least for he being our surety till he came out of the grave we could not know that our sinnes were satisfied for But now when the Spirit of life in Christ comes and quickens that body of his in the grave and so doth justifie us as it is Ro. 4. He dyed for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification that is by the Spirit of life in Christ quickning his dead body hee declared that we are fully discharged from our sinnes because he was fully discharged from our sinnes being our surety hee shewed by his Resurrection that he was fully discharged from all that he tooke upon him When a man comes out of prison that is a surety his very comming out of prison shewes that he hath a full discharge of all the debt hee undertooke to pay so the Spirit of life raising Christs body the third day manifestly declared that the debt he tooke on him was fully discharged and so as he dyed for sinne to satisfie Gods Justice for them so hee rose againe for our justification to shew that hee had a full discharge for all Now since the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath quickned his body the soule may make a bold demand to God as it is in 1 Pet. 8. It may make that demand Rom. 8. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is Christ that dyed nay rather that is risen againe and ascended into heaven and makes intercession for us Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods people it is God that justifieth who shall condemne our sinnes Christ hath taken our sinnes upon him and satisfied divine
Justice for them and by the Spirit of life hath quickned that dead body of his that was surety for us himselfe we may well say Who shall lay any thing to our charge he that is our surety is dead dead nay risen againe nay ascended and sits at the right hand of God Therefore now the conscience of any Christian may make that interrogation and bold demand there it may stand out any that dares to oppose the peace of his conscience now that he may say who is it it is God-man that dyed it is Christ that dyed in our nature and hath raised that nature of ours againe and is at the right hand of God who shall lay any thing to our charge The Spirit of life in Christ quickning him hath quickned us together with him so that now we may boldly demand we are freed from our sinnes because our surety is free from all All this was for our good what Christ did it was not for himselfe but for us and in his birth and life and death and resurrection we must consider him as a publicke person and so goe along with all that hee did as a publicke person Whatsoever may be terrible to us we must looke upon it first in Christ. If we looke upon the corruption and defilement in our nature looke upon the pure nature of Christ his nature was sanctified in his birth and he is a publicke person therefore this is for me and though I be defiled in my owne nature and carry the remainders of corruption about me yet the Spirit of life in Christ sanctified his nature and there is more sanctity in him then there can be sinne in me When we looke upon our sinnes let us not so much looke upon them in our consciences as in our surety Christ. When wee looke upon death looke not upon it in our selves in its owne visage but as it is in Christ undergone and conquered for the power of the Spirit of life in Christ overcame death in himselfe first and for us and will overcome in us in time When the wrath of God is on our consciences looke not upon it as it is in our selves but as undergone by Christ and as Christ by the Spirit of life now in him is raised up not from death alone but from all terrours My God my God why hast thou forsaken me See Christ by the Spirit of life quickened from all not onely bare naturall death but from all enemies thou needest to feare from the Law it is nayled to his Crosse hee now triumphs over it and from sinne hee was a Sacrifice for it and from the wrath of God he hath satisfied it or else he had not come out of his grave So whatsoever is terrible look on it in Christ first see a full discharge of all that may affright thy conscience and trouble thy peace any way See him in his death dying for every man that will beleeve Consider him in his resurrection as a publicke person not rising himselfe alone but for all us therefore is 1 Pet. 1. There is an excellent place Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath begotten us againe to a lively hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ to an inheritance immortall undefiled c. and so goe along with him to his Ascension and see our selves sitting with him in heavenly places as Saint Paul speakes oh this is a sweet meditation of Christ to see our selves in him in all the passages of his birth and life and death and resurrection and ascension to glory in heaven for all that he did was as a publicke person as the second Adam But now before the Spirit of life in Christ come to free me I and Christ must be one there must be an union betweene me and Christ I must be a member of Christ mysticall For as Christ quickened his owne body every joynt when it was dead because it was his body so he quickens his mysticall body every member of it but I must be a member first I must not be my selfe severed from Christ. Therefore the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ the first thing it doth next to impetration and obtaining of happinesse it workes application for these two goe together impetration and application Christ by his death obtained all good and by his resurrection hee declared it but there must be an application to me Now this Spirit of life which is in Christ which quickened him and raised him up and all for my good must apply this to me The grace of application it is faith therefore this must be wrought in the next place How doth the Law of the Spirit of life free me because first it freed Christ therefore me but that is not enough except there be application Therefore the Law of the Spirit of life workes faith in me to knit me to Christ to make me beleeve that all that hee hath done is mine and the same power that raised Christ from the dead workes the power of faith and application For wee must not thinke that it is an easie thing for a carnall man to beleeve to goe out of himselfe that it is salvation enough to have salvation by the obedience of another man No both in the Ephesians and Colossians in divers places it is S. Pauls phrase that the same power that raised Christ from the dead must raise our hearts and worke faith in them For as the good things that faith layes hold on are wondrous good things even above admiration almost that poore flesh and blood a piece of earth should be an heire of heaven a member of Christ that it should be above Angels in dignity as the things are superexcellent things even above admiration in a manner so the grace that beleeves these things it is a strange and excellent and admirable grace that is faith Therefore faith must be wrought by the Law of the Spirit of Christ by the ministery of the Gospell This is the grace of application when a man goes out of himselfe when he sees himselfe first in bondage to his corruptions to Satan and to death and then sees the excellent way that God hath wrought in Christ to bring him out of that cursed estate then hee hath by the Spirit of life faith wrought in him And indeed the same power and Spirit that quickened Christ from the dead must quicken our hearts to beleeve in Christ. It is a miracle to bring the heart of man to beleeve Wee thinke it an easie matter to beleeve indeed it is an easie matter to presume to have a conceite but for the soule in the time of temptation and in the houre of death for the guilty soule to goe out of it selfe and cast it selfe upon the mercy of God who is justly offended and to beleeve that the obedience of Christ is mine as verily as if I had obeyed my selfe here must be a strong
sanctified judgement and a mighty power to raise the soule to cast it selfe so upon Gods mercy in Christ. So that besides the obtaining saluation by Christ there must be a grace to apply it and this faith doth Faith is said to doe that that Christ doth because faith layes hold upon Christ what faith doth Christ doth and what Christ doth faith doth therefore it hath the same actions applyed and given to it that Christ hath Faith is said to save us you know it is Christ that saves us but faith layes hold on Christ that saves us faith purgeth the heart and overcomes the world Christ by his Spirit doth all this but because faith wrought by the Spirit is such a grace as layes hold on the power of Christ it goes out of it selfe to Christ therefore what Christ doth faith is said to doe So then the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ not onely freed Christ himselfe by his Resurrection but likewise by the same power whereby hee raysed himselfe he rayseth our hearts to beleeve what hee hath done both in his state of humiliation and exaltation and makes all that Christ did ours The Spirit of life in Christ Iesus working faith in us and by faith other graces doth free us from the Law of sinne and death Christ doth it and faith doth it and grace which issues from faith doth it subordinately Christ doth it by way of merit and by his Spirit working faith in us to lay hold upon whatsoever Christ hath done or suffered as if we had done it our selves so it frees us from the law of sinne and death because it layes hold of the freedome wrought by Christ for us But besides and next to faith there is a Spirit of sanctification by which we are free from the commanding law of sinne and death But to cleare all this consider there is a freedome in this life and in the life to come from sinne and from death A freedome in this life in calling in justification in sanctification and in the life to come a freedome of glory There is a freedome in effectuall calling by the minâ—sterie of the Gospel the Gospel being preached unfolded faith is wrought whereby wee know what Christ hath done for us and wee see a better condition in Christ then we are in by nature seeing by the Spirit of God the cursed estate wee are in we are convinced of sinne in our selves and of the good that is in Christ and hereupon wee are called out of the thraldome wee are in by nature by the Spirit of Christ and the Word of God unfolding what our condition is for man by nature having selfe-love in him and that selfe-love being turned the right way he begins to thinke I doth the Word of God say I am a slave to sinne and damnation the Word of God can judge better then my selfe and then the Spirit of God sets it on with conviction that undoubtedly this is true And together with the cursed kingdome and slavery that I am under there is discovered a better state in Christ for the Gospel tells us what we are in Christ freed from hell and death and heires of heaven oh the happy estate of a Christian to be in Christ The Gospel with the Spirit discovering this a man is called out of the cursed estate he is in by nature to the fellow-ship of Christ by faith which is wrought in this calling so that now he comes to be a member of Christ by faith so that whatsoever Christ hath or is or hath done or suffered it is mine by reason of this union with him by faith which is the grace of union that knits us to Christ and the first grace of application So there is the first degree of liberty and freedome wrought by the Spirit of God together with the Gospel in effectuall calling The second is in justification that faith and beleefe in Christ that was wrought in effectuall calling it frees me from the guilt of my sinnes For when the Gospel in effectuall calling discovers that Christ is such a one and that there is such an estate in Christ and there is faith wrought in me then that faith layes hold upon the obedience of Christ to be mine For Christ in the Gospel offers his obedience to be mine as if I had done it in mine own person whatsoever Christ did or suffered is mine for he is made of God to be Wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption to be all in all the Gospell sets him forth to be so Now faith laying hold of Christ to be made of God all in all obedience righteousnesse c. whatsoever is needfull hereupon this faith justifies me hereupon I come to be free from the guilt of my sinnes because my sinnes were laid upon Christ Christs death was the death of a surety it was as if I had dyed my selfe and more firme thus I come to be free in justification for what my surety hath done I have done Againe there is a freedome in sanctification that is when a man beleeves that Christ is his and that his sufferings are his then the same Spirit that discovers this to be mine it workes a change and alteration in my nature and frees me from the dominion of sinne The obedience of Christ frees me from the condemnation of sinne and the Spirit of sanctification frees me from the dominion of sinne This is the freedome of sanctification which faith layes hold on Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Christ as a head derives to me the holy Spirit to sanctifie my nature and of his fulnesse we receive grace for grace so the Spirit of sanctification in Christ frees me from the dominion of sinne and death It is said here that by Christ we have spirituall liberty and freedome not from sinne and death but from the law of sinne and of death It is one thing to be freed from sinne and death and another thing to be freed from the law of them for wee are not indeed freed from sinne and death but from the law of sinne and death that is from the condemning power of sinne that though sinne be in us yet it doth not condemne us and though we die yet the sting is pulled out death is but a passage to a better life So I say in Justification wee are freed from the condemning power of sinne and in sanctification from the commanding power of sinne When we are knit once to Christ we have the obedience of Christ ours in justification and the holinesse of Christ is derived to us as from the head to the members in sanctification and so we are freed from the law of sin To understand this a little better the same Spirit that sanctified the naturall body the humane nature of Christ wherby he became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh the same Spirit doth sanctifie the mysticall body of Christ
that it may be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh For before wee come to heaven Christ must not onely be bone of our bone c. that is in his Incarnation but wee must be bone of his bone c. that is wee must have natures like Christ not onely flesh and blood for so a reprobate hath flesh and blood as Christ hath but wee must have his Spirit altering and changing our nature that instead of a proud disobedient rebellious nature now it must be a holy and humble and meeke nature together with humane frailty for that we carry about with us then the Spirit of life derived from Christ makes us bone of his bone For indeed in his humane nature being bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh hee made us bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh he became man that we might partake of the divine nature being partakers of the divine Spirit So that now the Spirit of life in Christ when we are knit to him is a Spirit of sanctification altering our natures and working in our hearts a disposition like Christs that wee judge as Christ judgeth and chuse as Christ chuseth and ayme at Gods glory as Christ did For there is the same mind in us that was in Christ Philip. 2. In our proportion growing still more and more to conformity with Christ till we be in heaven till Christ be all in all 1 Cor. 15. When he will change our nature to be holy as his owne Besides this liberty from sinne and death in this life there is a glorious liberty and freedome thaâ— we have by the Spirit of Christ when we are dead for then the Spirit of life that raised Christs dead body will raise our bodies and that Spirit of Christ that raiseth his body and raiseth our soules in this world from sinne to beleeve in him will raise our dead bodies The same vertue and power that workes in Christ workes in his members this is called The glorious libertie of the Sonnes of God Then wee shall be freed indeed not onely from the law of sinne but from sinne it selfe and not onely from the law of death but death it selfe and wee shall live forever with the Lord. Christ then shall be all in all by his Spirit Christ will never leave us till hee have brought us to that glorious freedome wee are freed already from sinne and death he hath set us in heavenly places together with himselfe now In faith we are there already but then wee shall be indeed Thus you see how we come to have the law of the Spirit of life in Christ to free us from the law of sinne and death and all the passages of it You see here that there is law against law The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ against the law of sinne and death I beseech you consider that God hath appointed law to countermand law the Spirit of Christ to overcome sinne in us not onely in justification but in sanctification oh let us therefore comfortably thinke there is a Law above this Law I have now cold dead base affections but if I have the Spirit of Christ he can quicken and enliven me hee will not onely pardon my sinne but by the Law of his Spirit direct guid and command me a contrary way to my lusts And this is an Art of spirituall prudence in heavenly things whensoever wee are beset with dangers to set â—reater then that against it The Devill is an Angell but we have a guard of Angels about us The Devill is a Serpent but we have a braâ—en Serpent that cures all the stings of that Serpent We have Principalities and Powers against but we have greater Principalities and Poâ—ers for us The Law of life against the law of sinne and death We have a law of our lusts tyrannizing over us and enthralling us it is true but then there is a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus to overcome and subdue that law of our lusts if so be that wee use the prerogatives wee have if we use faith and goe to God and Christ in whom are all the treasures of grace Hee is the treasury of the Church of his fulnesse we receive grace for grace Are we troubled with any corruptions goe to the Spirit of liberty in Christ and desire him to set us at liberty from the bondage and thraldome of our corruptions And remember what Christ hath done for us and where hee is now in heaven let us raiâ—e our thoughts that wee may see our selves in heaven already that wee may be ashamed to defile our bodies and soules with the base drudgery of sinne and Satan that are sanctified in part in this world and shall be glorified in heaven Certainely faith would raise our soules so we betray our selves when being once in the state of grace we are inâ—hralled basely to any sinne For sinne shall not have dominion over you because you are under grace saith the Apostle Being under grace if wee doe 〈◊〉 use our reasoning and use faith and exercise the grace we have given us wee cannot be in thrall to corruptions Wee shall have remainders to trouble us put not to 〈◊〉 and reigne and domineere For sinne 〈◊〉 beares â—way but when wee betray our selves and either beleeve not what Christ hath done for us or else exercise not our faith A Christian is never overtaken basely but when hee neglects his priviledges and prerogatives and doth not stirre up the grace of God in him Learne this then when we are troubled with any thing set Law against Law set the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ against all oppositions whatsoever and let the temptation â—â—e where it will let it lie in justificatiâ—â— as when wee are tempted by Satan to despaire for sinnes for great sinnes oh but then consider the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath freed me from the law of sinne and of death Christ was made sinne to free me â—rom sinne Consider that Christ was God-man hee satisfied divine Justice the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sinne though they be as red as crimson Thus set Christ against our sinnes in justification when the guilt of them â—â—oubles our soules And so likewise when wee are set on by base lusts set against them the power of Christ in sanctification What 〈◊〉 I now a member of Christ one that professeth my selfe to be an heire of heaven there is a Spirit of life in Christ my head there is a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ that is there is a commanding power in his Spirit and that Spirit of his is not onely in the head but in the members If I goe to him for grace I may have grace answerable to the grace that is in him grace that will strengthen me with his power be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Ephes. 6.
and in Christ I can doe all things by his Spirit though in my selfe I can doe nothing And so in deadnesse and desolation of Spirit when the soule is cast downe with discomfort let us thinke with our selves the Spirit of life in Christ is a quickening Spirit if I can beleeve in Christ he hath freed me from the guilt of sinne and hee hath by his Spirit given me some little inlargement from the dominion of my corruptions why should I be cast downe I am an heire of heaven ere long Satan shall be trodden under my feet ere long I shall be free from the spirituall combate and conflict with sinne that I am now encountred with therefore I will comfort my selfe I will not be cast downe overmuch In the houre of death let us make use of this freedome of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus from the law of sinne and death When the time comes that there must be a separation of soule and body oh let us thinke with our selves Now I must dye yet Christ hath dyed and I must dye in conformity to my head and here is my comfort the Law of the Spirit of life hath freed me from the law of death it hath freed me from spirituall and eternall death So that now through Christ death is become friendly to me death now is not the death of me but death will be the death of my misery the death of my sinnes it will be the death of my corruptions death now will be the death of all that before troubled me but death will be my birth day in regard of happinesse Better is the day of death then the day of birth When a man comes into this life he comes into misery but when he dies hee goes out of misery and comes to happinesse so that indeed wee never live till we dye wee never live eternally and happily till then for then wee are freed from all misery and sinne Blessed are they that dye in the Lord they rest from their labours they rest from the labours of toyle and misery they rest from the labours of sinne from all labours whatsoever Blessed are they that dye in the Lord and of all times then blessed more blessed then before they rest from their labours and then begins their happinesse that shall never end So you see what comfort a Christians soule sprinkled with the blood of Christ may have if it goe to God in Christ and begge of Christ to be set at liberty from all enemies to serve God in holines and righteousnesse I speake too meanely when I say the Law of the Spirit of life hath fâ—â—ed us from 〈◊〉 and death this is not all the Spirit of life not onely frees us from ill but advanceth us to the contrary good in every thing wherein this freedome is For we are not onely called out of misery but to a Kingdome wee are not onely freed from sinne but intitled to heaven in justification and in sanctification we are not onely freed from corruption but inabled by the holy Spirit of liberty to run the wayes of Gods Commandements and make them voluntary to serve God chearefully zealous of good workes wee are not onely freed from the command and condemnation of sinne and â—he rigour of the Law but we have contrary dispositions ready and willing and voluntary dispositions wrought by the Spirit of Christ to every thing thâ—â—â—s good And so wee are not onely free from death and misery for so things without life are they suffer no misery but wee are partakers of everlasting life and glory the liberty of glory Gods benefits are compleat that is not onely priuative freeing us from ill but positive implying all good because God will shew himselfe a God he will doe good things as a God fully For the Law of the Spirit of life not onely frees us from the law of sinne and of death but writes the Law of God in our hearts he not onely frees us from the law of death but advance us to everlasting life to the glorious life we have in heaven to live for ever with the Lord oâ— happy condition of a Christian if wee could know our happinesse Let us often meditate deepely of Christ and of our selves in him let us see all our ill in him and all our good in him see death overcome and sinne overcome by his death hee being made a curse for us see the Law overcome hee being made under the Law for us when the wrath of God vexeth and terrifieth us see it upon him Hee sweat water and blood in the Garden It made him crie out My God my God why â—ast thou forsaken me See all that may trouble us in him as our Surety And all the good wee hope for see it in Christ first whatsoever he hath in his naturall body it is for his mysticall body for hee gave his naturall body for his mysticall God in the world to humble us exerciseth us with troubles and calamiâ—ies as he did Christ wee must be conformable to our heâ—d but consider the poyson and sting of all ills wee need to feaâ—e is swallowed up and taken away by Christ. And as I said let us see all our good in him wee are sonnes in him raysed 〈◊〉 him blessed in him set in heavenly places with him and shall be follow-heires and Kings with him for wee are his members his Spouse the wife shall enjoy the same condition as the husband whatsoever hee hath she shall have What a comfortable estate is this I we can feare no ill nor want no good whatsoever hee hath it is for us hee was borne for us hee dyed for us hee is gone to heaven for us for us and our good hee did and suffered all these things We cannot exercise our thoughts too much in these meditations The Lords Supper is a Sacrament of union and communion hence it hath its name and by receiving the Sacrament our Communion and union with Christ is strengthned What a comfort then is it to thinke if I have fellowship with Christ it is sealed by the Sacrament when I take the Bread and Wine at the same time I have communion with the Body and Blood of Christ shed for my sinnes and as Christ himselfe was freed from my sinnes imputed to him and by his Resurrection declared that hee was freed so surely shall I be freed from my sinnes So that this Communion taking the Bread and Wine it seales to us our Communion and fellowship with Christ and thereupon our freedome from sinne and from the Law and sets us in a blessed and happy estate Wee should labour therefore by all meanes to strengthen our union and Communion with Christ and amongst the rest reverently and carefully attend upon this blessed Ordinance of God for the body of Christ broken doth quicken us because it is the body of the Sonne of God My flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drinke indeed and hee
of the excellency of spirituall things then spirituall practice will follow And undoubtedly the reason of the prophane conversation of the world it comes from hidden atheisme that men make no better choyce than they do that they draw not neare to God let them say what they will it proceeds from hence I prove it thus when men are convinced of good things they will do good for conviction is the ground of practise and when men do not take good courses it is because they are not convinced of the best things Therefore men that sweare and blaspheme that are carnall bruit persons at that time Atheisme rules in their hearts that they beleeve not these things in the book of God to be true Can the swearer beleeve that God will not hold him guiltlesse that takes his name in vaine that a curse shall follow the swearer and the whoremonger that whoremongers and adulterers God will judge and so the covetous and extortioners they that raise themselves by ill means shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven can men beleeve this and live in the practise of these sinnes if they did beleeve these things indeed as the word of God sets them downe if they did beleeve that sin were so bitter and so soule a thing as the word of God makes it certainly they would not therefore it comes from a hidden Atheisme Indeed there is a bundle of Atheisme and infidelity in the heart of man and we cannot bewaile it too much In the best there are some remainders of it as this holy man so foolish was I and as a beast before thee when he thought of his doubting of Gods providence Therefore considering that the cause of all ill practise is that we are not spiritually convinced of the contrary that sinne is a naughty and bitter thing nor are wee sufficiently convinced of the best things let us labour more and more to be soundly convinced of these things Now nothing will do this but the holy Ghost as yee have it Iohn 16. Christ promiseth to send the Comforter the holy Ghost and he shall convince the world of sinne that is hee shall so set sin before the eyes of mens soules that they shall know there is no salvation but in Christ hee shall convince them of unbeliefe that horrible sinne they shall have it presented so to them that they shall beleeve presently upon it This the holy Ghost must do But the holy Ghost doth it in the use of meanes therefore it must be our wisdome to heare and pray and meditate much that God would vouchsafe his spirit to perswade us to convince our understanding to convince us of all our false reasonings against good things that there may not a vile imagination rise in our hearts contrary to divine principles It is good to draw neare to God therefore it is good to come to the Sacrament which is one way of drawing neare to God Let us be so convinced of it that it is not only a necessary but a comfortable and sweet duty to have communion with God for will we suffer for Christ if wee will not feast with him What shall wee say of those therefore that are so farre from drawing neare to God when they have these opportunities that they turne their backs They cleane thwart this blessed man here he saith It is good for me to draw neare to God nay say they it is good for mee to have nothing to do with God nor Christ no not when he comes to allure mee Now hee is come neare us indeed that wee might come neare him because wee were strangers to God and could not draw neare to him simply considered God became man Emmanuel God with us that he might bring us to God Christ is that Iacobs ladder that knits heaven and earth together Christ God and man knits God and man together this was the end of his incarnation and of his death to make our peace to bring those neare that were strangers nay enemies before and of our part and portion in the benefit of his death we are assured in the Sacrament Therfore let us draw neare to our comfort with chearefulnesse for his goodnesse that we have these opportunities Let us draw neare to God to have our faith strengthned and our commuion with him increased Only let us labour to come with cleane hearts God will be sanctified in all that come neare him Let us know that we have to deale with a holy God and with holy things and therefore cast aside a purpose of living in sinne let us not come with defiled hearts for then though the things be holy in themselves they are defiled to us let us come with a resolution to renew our covenant and come with rejoycing that God stoups so low to use these poore helps that in themselves are weak yet by his blessing they are able greatly to strengthen our Faith FINIS KING DAVIDS EPITAPH OR An Epitome of the life and death of King DAVID In three Sermons By The late learned and reverend Divine RICHARD SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Master of Katherine-Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at Grays-Inne Luke 1.74 75. That we being delivered from our enemies might serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our lives 2 Sam. 14.14 For we must needs die and are as water spilt upon the ground LONDON Printed by E. P for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford KING DAVIDS EPITAPH Acts 13.36 For David after in his owne Generation he had served the Counsell or will of God he fell asleep and was laid to his Fathers and saw corruption THe words are part of a Sermon of blessed Saint Paul wherein he proves out of the old Testament Psal. 16. that David prophesied of Christ and not of himselfe David saw corruption but hee of whom David spake saw no Corruption therefore David was not the Messias He shewes that the things there spoken do no way agree to David but to the Messias who saw no corruption For David after hee had served his owne Generation fell asleep and saw corruption In generall observe this One of the best wayes to understand the Scriptures is to compare the old Testament and the new together That which was spoken and fore-told of Christ in the old Testament and fulfilled in the New that must needs bee true Christ is the true Messias why It was fore-told so of him in the old Testament and accomplished in the new therefore Christ is the true Messias comparing the prophesie and the event together For the old and new Testament make up but this syllogisme He that should be so and so as was prophesied Born of a Virgin that should come at such a time in the later end of Daniels weeks c. he is the true Messias But Christ was such a one hee was borne of a Virgin came at such a time he saw no corruption for hee rose the third day therefore Christ
David in his Generation served the Counsell or Will of God Now to make a perfect discourse of it wee will speak something of his end He fell a sleep and was gathered to his Fathers and saw Corruption HE fell asleep that is he died for sleep in Scripture it is a middle phrase appliable to good and bad for wicked men in Scripture are said to sleep and good men are said to sleep Only the difference is as the persons are for the sleep of wicked men it is like the sleep of a male factor before his execution that is oft-times tripped in his sleep or like the sleep of a man in sicknesse or in a mad fit his sleep doth but concoct the malignant humour and after he wakes he rageth three times more than he did before So the sleep the death of a carnall wicked man it is but a preparation to his execution it is but the sleep of a distempered man that wakes with more horrour and terrour and rage than ever before indeed properly the death only of the godly is a sleep But to observe something first briefly in generall We see here is a time of dying as well as 〈◊〉 a time of living There is a time to serve God in living and there is a time to yeeld our soules to him as well as a time to serve God in doing the actions and functions of this life Which should teach us this not to fix our thoughts too much on life As there is a time for all things to the living so there is a time to cease to live and therfore to use the world with moderation as though wee used it not knowing that the fashion of the world passeth away It should teach us to serve God as well in living as in dying And it should teach us to do all the good wee can while wee have time David served God while hee lived and hee served God in dying because his death was in obedience but as I said before after death properly there is no service of God but a receiving of wages therefore let us serve God while we live while we have time because there is a time when night will come the night of sicknesse and of death and then no man can work if he would never so faine He fell asleep Why did he not die before hee served God a great while hee did not die when he was first a good man God will have his Children serve out their Generation They must serve out their time As soone as ever we beleeve we have right to heaven but God will have us beare the burthen of the day awhile to bring others to heavn with us to go before others in the example of a godly life to gaine as many as we can To trie the truth of our graces before wee come to heaven whether they be true or no that they may be true tried graces And he will have us perfect before we come to so holy a place hee will have us grow in grac as Ahasueros his wife 's were to bee perfumed and prepared before they came to him It is a holy place that wee hope for a holy condition therfore he will have us by little and little be fitted by the spirit of God Many such reasons there be why God in heavenly wisdome will have us go on here a time before wee come to heaven though as soone as we beleeve we are in the state of salvation as Christ said to Zacheus This day is salvation come to thine house Therefore let us not repine that God will have us live Indeed as soone as a Christian hath faith he hath life in patience and death in desire for hee is impatient to want his crowne oh but here is the time of service and when he considers the eternity of the reward hee shall have after he will bee glad to serve God and he will be ashamed that he can do it no more When hee knowes hee shall have an eternall weight of glory for a little service then hee will deny his lusts and pleasures to serve God in the place hee lives in whether hee be Magistrate or Minister whatsoever to undergo the burden of a little service Againe in that it is said here Then he fell asleep not before till he had served the counsell of God God hath alotted a man a time He hath set him a glasse that must be runne he hath given him a part to act and hee cannot be taken away till that be done hee can never fall asleep till hee have served the counsell of God As it is said in the Gospell concerning our Saviour Christ his houre was not yet come They have laid wait for him but his houre was not come so there may be many snares laid for the children of God by Sathan and his instruments but till their houre bee come all the Divells in hell nor all the Divells instruments on earth cannot shorten a mans life one minute of an houre for hee shall fall asleep when he hath served the counsell of God when he hath done all that God will have him to do Therefore it is ground of resolution let us go on in our places and callings undantedly and wisely too not to tempt God to rush into dangers but I meane without base feare and distrust for wee must serve God to day and to morrow and then wee shall be sanctified Wee must serve God the appointed time that hee will have us to live here and then wee shall fall asleep and not before no creature hath power over the life of man to shorten his dayes The next thing wee will observe from the nature of sleep is that The death of the godly is a sleep in respect of refreshing Sleep doth refresh and repaire and as it were recreate and make a man anew Sleep and rest it is the blessed ordinance of God it is an excellent thing to repaire man so after death nature shall be repaired better we shall rise fresher as it is Psal. 17. ult when I arise I shall bee satisfied with thine image wee shall rise refreshed better than wee lay downe So that as we go to bed then to sleep to cut off all cares so when wee rest in death all cares and feares and terrours all annoyances are cut off Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord they rest from their labours insinuating that there is no rest before for to a man that knowes that this world is a work-house and his life a service to God hee thinkes of no rest till he be in his grave so death it is a sleep in regard of that rest Wee rest from the labour of sinne wee rest from the wearisome labour of the body from the labour of afflictions and oppressions from the molestations of other men among whom we live every way this life is tedious and
death rest Againe it is in this respect a sleep because a man goes to bed with assured hope of rising againe and therefore he goes quietly though it be a state of darknesse for the time all the senses are bound up yet hee knowes that in Gods ordinarie providence hee shall rise againe therefore men not only quietly but cheerefully go to bed So there is greater ground to know that wee shall rise againe out of our graves than that we should rise out of our beds for many mens beds have been their graves in some sort I meane they have died in their beds but for the resurrection we have the word of Almighty God that is a God of his word that we shall rise againe and we have it in the pledge of our Saviours resurrection there is no doubt of that Therefore when wee die if wee have faith wee should make no more of death than men doe to goe to bed hoping undoubtedly of an assured and joyfull resurrection The want of faith in that kind makes us backward to this you see in what respect death is said to be a sleep To speak only of those references and relations that are most pertinent between sleep and death David fell asleep and very willingly for he had lived a painefull life he served God both as a private man as a Sheepheard as a King Eccles. 5.12 To a labouring man sleepe is sweet so to a man that hath served God carefully in his calling and kept a good conscience death is very sweete Wee see children that have been playing all day they are loath to goe to bed but to a man that hath wrought all day sleepe is sweete as wise Salomon saith to a labouring man Would we then have death as a sweet rest to us let us doe as David did that is bee painefull and laborious in our particular place and in our generall calling let us be faithfull in them to keep a good conscience and set all in order as much as wee can while we live to leave no seeds of debate when we are gone Some men die carelesly this way in disposing the good things that God hath given them they lay a foundation of perpetuall jarring afterward and so their death is skarsly a sleepe and rest they cannot but bee disquieted when they thinke how they leave things because they were not wise before hand David setled Salomon in his Throne and set all things right before hee died and that made him die not only in rest but in honour in 1 Chron. 29.28 David died in a good old age full of riches and honour And let us labour to get assurance of a change for the betteâ— David his flesh rested in hope because hee beleeved in Christ that Christs body should see no corruption Psal. 16. So if wee would have death sweete as a sleepe let us labour to get assurance by faith in Christ and so our flesh may rest in hope that as Christ raised his owne flesh so he will raise ours Good Simeon when he had seene Christ once Lord now let thy servant depart in peace c. so after we have gotten a sight of Christ to be our Christ our Saviour and Redeemer and have interest in him Lord now let thy servant depart in peace So much for the tearme sleepe It is added besides that Hee was gathered to his Fathers HEâ— was gathered to his Fathers both in regard of his body and in regard of his soule for his body went to the house of the dead the grave and his soule went to his fathers to heaven As I said before of sleepe so of this it is a phrase of Scripture that must bee understood as the persons are When a man dies his body goes to the place or house of all men the house of darknesse the grave but for his soule that goes as the man is to his fathers to hell if hee bee naught to the soules of just and perfect men as the Apostle speakes if he have lived a gracious and a good life and so it must be understood here bâ—cause hee speaks of a blessed man He was 〈◊〉 to his Fathers he meanes not to his immediate fathers but all beleeving men before him that were the children of Abraham his soule went to them his body to the first Mother the Earth out of which it was taken So the Generall is nothing but this that When we die wee are put to our fathers Therefore this should moderatâ— our feare of death and our griefe for the departure of others Why wee are not lost when we die the soule and body is taken asunder it is taken in pieces but both remaine still the bodie goes to the earth from whence it was taken and the soule goes to God that gave it And for our comfort we goe to those that we knew before many of them to our fathers not to strangers Especially in respect of our soules wee goe to our fathers to our next fore-fathers and to our old fathers to Abraham Isaac to Iacob to David to blessed Saint Paul and Peter and all the blessed men that died in the faith And when we are dead wee goe to those that are more perfect than those that wee leave behind us This should moderate our griefe oh I leave my friends behind me my father and mother and childrenâ— it is to goe to better to greater and those that love thee better Thou goest to greater for they are in their pitch they have attained their end they are in heaven and to better they are refined from those corruptions that men here are subject unto and then their love is perfect likewise therefore going to our fathers and not to strangers to those that are better and greater and love us more perfectly why should wee thinke much to die they will bee readie to entertaine us oh the welcome that soules find in heaven and at the day of the Resurrection the sweete imbracings when all the blessed soules that have beene from Adam to the last man shall meete together seeing therefore wee goe to our fathers it should rather make us chearefull Here whom do we live with take them at the best our friends men subject to jealousies and weaknesses our jealousie makes us suspect them and their weaknesses makes us thinke the meaner of them so our love is not perfect nor our graces are not perfect therefore we cannot have perfect love and contentment while we are here But in heaven there shall be no jealousie nor feare nor imperfection which is the ground of jealousie we shall perfectly love them because they shall be perfectly good and they shall perfectly love us because we shall be perfectly good and one shall stand admiring the graces of God in another and that will maintain a perpetuity of love therefore it is want of faith that makes us unwilling to yeeld our soules unto God at the point
we receive by the Spirit Quest. Answ. Whence it is that our state in Christ is better then it was in Adam Vse To see whence our supply is In want of grace Ground of Idolatry To carry ourselves answerable to our riches To make use of Christ in our sailings How to know the Spirit is put on Christ for us The Spirit given more aboundantly sinoe Christs ascention How Christ gives the Spirit 1 In the ministry of the Word Gal. 3.2 2 In obedience 3 Prayer Object Answ. What meant by judgement here The word of God called judgement Sanctification judgement Grace wrought by preaching Christs mild carriage Difference betweene the giving of the law and Gospell To take heed of vaine glory Labour for humility Meaning of the words Parts of the words 1 Gods inquiry To enforce carâ— in our carriage Mat. 12.36 Ground of circumspect walking 2 The evidence Quest. Answ. Wee speake amisse of Gods judgements 1 In regard of God 2 In regard of others 3 In regard of our selves 1 When we â—â—rmure against God 2 Wheâ— we make 〈◊〉 use of his â—uâ—gements Isa 26.9 Vse To talke aright of Gods judgements Doct. When judâ—ements are threatned and we repent not God is offended Simile Conviction a helpe to repentancâ— Ier. 2.19 The hurt wee have by sinne Not to delay repentance Danger of deferring Late repentance seldome true Conscience after long sinning hardly admits comfort Benefits by timely repentance 1 The favour of God 2 Prevention of judgements 3 Turnes all to good Difference betweene godâ—y and others 1 Prayer of impenitent not heard Psal. 66.18 2 Feare in wicked men Doct. Generality is no plea. Man can reflect upon his actions Neglect of selfe judâ—ing cause oâ— misery How to use our understanding Hinderances of consideration 1 Rage of lusts 2 Too much worldly businesse 3 It is a hard thing 4 It presents an unwelcoâ—e spectacle Every man hath his course God judgeth by the course not by a step 1 They are eager 2 Desperate 3 Dangerously 1 Cor. 10 23. Sinne hath defaced the Image of God in man What meant by judgement Whaâ— meant by it here What meant by not knowing God shames the pride of men by the creatures God takes instruction out of the booke of nature into his booke Doct. After long patience God sends judgements Quest. Answ. Iudgements comming may be knowne 1 By comparing the sinnes with the judgement 2 When it hath ceazed on us in part 3 By example oâ— others Mat. 24.38 39. 4 Generall security Want of feare the root of it 5 The generalitie of sinne Particular sins fore-showing judgement 1 Injustice 2 Formality in Religion Persecution Vnfruitfulnesse Decay in our first love What to doe in dangerous times 1 Improove the time 2 Mâ—urne for the â—ins of the land 3 Be watchfull Store up comforts Tâ—e matter of the Epistle Dependance of the words Hee minds them of their former condition Why we should consider our â—ormer condition Man naturaâ—y dead Death what Life what Spirituall life whence Spiritual death 1 In disposition 2 Sentence 3 Execution Sinne it selfe a death Signes of spirituall death 1 Coldnesse 2 Vnlovelinesse 3 Loathsomenes 4 They are seperate from God and Gods people 5 Sencelesnesse Without speech Without sight Without taste Without bearing 6 Immooveable 7 Growes worse To know what we are by nature To avoid intimate society with carnall men Object Answ. Difference in naturall and spirituall death To use the naturall parts God hath given us God can raise old sinners The best men have some remainders of death Three degrees of men in the Church * Easter-day * See the Sermons upon Rom. 8.2 1 Pet. 1. Iohn 3.33 Reve. â—2 Mat. 11 28. Isa. 55.1 1 Cor. 15.58 Heb. 4. Occasion of the words 1 From the excellency of his ministry Luk. 10 23. 2 From the efficacie of his Ministery Doct. 1. The Church the Kingdome of Heaven Threefold signification of the Kingdome of Heaven 1 Heaven 2 State of grace 3 Meanes of grace 1 A ground of conviction 2 Of comfort Quest. Answ. Why grace and the meanes of it are called the Kingdome of Heaven Why the things of the Gospell are slighted Quest. Answ. Iohn 7.39 In a Kingdome there is 1 Freedome 2 Plenty 3 Glory Iohn 8.36 1 Cor. 2.15 Christiaenity a full state 1 Cor 3.21 Phil. 4.13 A state of glory 1 Iohn 4.4 Rom. 2.5 1 In regard of the multitude Luk. 12.1 Mat. 3.5 2 In regard of the affection 3 The persons which were 1 Sinners 2 Poore Luk. 7.12 3 Stranâ—ers Mat. 8.12 Mat. 20.16 Doct. The disposition of Christians eager and violent Ob. Answ. Grounds of this violence 1 Opposition Psal. 110. â— From the flesh Heb. 12.4 From the world From Satan God seemes an enemy Iob. 13.26 2 To difference true Christians from others Heb. 13.13 3 To set a higher price on this Kingdome 4 The excellencie of the things 5 The necessity Luke 13.24 Vse To judge of our estates by our violence Men violent for outward things Pro. 7.22 Heavenly things offer violence to us 2 Cor. 5.20 Ezek. 18.31 What violence may stand with wisedome 1 Cor 3.18 2 Cor. 5.13 Not to heed idle reproaches The dispositioÌ„ of true professors Mat. 12.30 1 King 18.21 Newters hatefull to Christ. Mat. 3.16 Act. 2.3 Exo. 32.19 Mat. â—6 69 70 Religion taketh not away but ordereth the affections The successe of this violence Doct. 1 The violent have promises Mat. 7.7 Rev. 3.19 21. Rev. 2.7 2 They have a victorious spirit 3 God hath set Heaven at this rate 4 The violent onely can prize it Ob. Answ. Freedome of grace inforceth violence Mat. 11.28 Mat. 5.3 6. Mat 11.19 Luke 7.29 30 Holy violence hopefull 1 Hope stirres up diligence 2 To use meanes constantly 3 To waite Christians indeavours successefull Difference betweene the indeavours of a Christian and 1 Enemies of the Gospell Acts 9 5. Psal. 2. Psal. 129.6 c 2 Worldly men Pro. 12.27 3 Sluggish Christians Act 26.28 Pro. 13 4. 1 Pet. 1.9 Pro. 26.26 The preciousnes of the things require violence Ob. Answ. Grace increaseth with opposition Exhortation to holy violence Jam. 4.7 Pro. 8.34 Rom. 14.17 The time when this violence began Quest. Answ. Bondage of Ceremonies in the Law Iohns preaching and living powerfull Mat. 3.2 Why the Gospell in Luthers time was imbraced with violence Why the Gospell now is disesteemed Iohn 5.35 To be thankfull for liberty from Popish thraldome Ioel 2.28 The Spirit effectuall in the Ministery of the Gospell 2 The excellency of Christs Kingdome 3 Hope of obtaining it Iohn 1.29 Why Papist soppose preaching How to get thiâ— holy violence Formes of prayer useâ—ull Division of the words Benefit of afflictions Affliction remooves the fuell of sinne Vse Not to murmure at Gods hand Humiliation necessarie Kindes of humiliation Vse To labour for humiliation Helps to humiliâ—ation 1 Consider our
obedience to the Law 2 To the Gospell 3 Call to mind our especiall sins 4 The uncertainty of life 5 To bee humbled in all the powers of the soule Verball humiliation Necessity of coÌ„fession of sins Confession of sin gives glory to God Holy men in their confessions rank themselve with others The best men guilty of the sins of the times 1 In not sorrowing for them 1 Cor. 5. 2 By Simpathie Vse To labour every one to bee humbled We are all tainted by nature Sin a leprosie Washings in the Law what they signified Sin like a leprosie defiles all Vse To labour to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. Heb. 9 14. By the Spirit of Christ. Vse 2. Take heed of society with sinners Sin worse then the plague In actuall sins to haue recourse to the corruption of nature All the best actions of the best men defiled Object Answ. Though our best actions be defiled yet there is some good in them A double principle in a ChristiaÌ„ CoÌ„traries agree in a Christian In what case to 〈◊〉 and upon our innocenâ—y Prayer put for the whole worship of God Danger of neglecting prayer Prayer layes hold on God Quest. Answ. We must stir up our selves to lay hold of God 1 By considering our danger 2 Meditation of the exceâ—eâ—y â—eceâ—sity of that we beg 3 Importunity with God Outward service alone not accepted 4 To looke for an answer of our prayers The complaint applied to the present times Extraordinarie humiliation required sometimes Men fading as leaves 1 For performances 2 Mortality Men out of Christ blowne away as with a winde A child of God lookes to his sins in all judgements Vse To lay the blame upon our sins Ground of humiliation for sin Nations and kingdomes melt before sin Gods face what The conflict of faith when God hides his face We must seeke Gods face 1 By prayer 2 In his ordinaÌ„ces The consideration that God is our Father should stirre us up to seek to â—iâ— Resignation of our selves in prayer requisite To abase our selves in prayer Foure things that trouble a Christians peace Dependance of the wordsâ— Law what Parts of the Text. Observ. Naturally we are under the Law of sinne Sinne three-â—old 1 Adams sinne 2 Originall sinne 3 Actuall sinnes Prov. 5. Sinnes as chaines Iustice in God to give up men to their sinnes Rom. 1. 2 Thess. The miserie of being under sinne 1 We are under Satan Luke 1. Wicked men acted by the Devill Ephes. 2. 2 Tim. 2. Carnall men better then the Devill would have them 2 To worse thing then our selves 3 So excellent a thing as the soule Simile 4 The fruit of it 1 Vncertaine pleasure 5 Men are insensible of their bondage Freedome in sin is a bondage The false judgement of the world who are happy 6 The tyrannie of sinne Covetousnesse Carnall pleasure Ambition Sin takes away the sight of it selfe Wisedome in man corrupted Men not given up to all sinnes alike Object Answer We are under the law of death 1 Naturall 2 Spirituall 1 In this world 2 At the houre of death 3 At the day of Indgment A man under sin is under death Rom. 5. Sinne and death goe together Vse To see death in sinne Eternitie of misery should deterre from sinne Freedome acceptable We are freed from all ill by Christ. 1 By satisfaction 2 By taking our nature Life in Christ. 1 As God 2 As Mediator All in Christ first The Spirit in Christ. 1 Sanctified his humane nature 2 Ennobled it 3 Enriched it 4 Fitted him for his Sacrifice Iohn 17. 5 Supported him in death 6 In raising him Rom. 1.4 Rom. 4. 1 Pet. 3. What Christ did was for us To see our ill in Christ. To see Christs good for us 1 Pet. 1. The Spirit works application Faith the grace of application How faith is said to doe that that Christ doth Freedome double 1 In this life 2 In effectuall calling 2 In justification 3 In sanctification To be free from the law of sinne and death what Philip. 2. 1 Cor. 15. 2 In the life to come Vse Comfort against rebellion of lusts How to use our prerogatives Comfort in temptations 1 To despaire 2 Temptation by lusts Ephes. 6. 3 Deadnesse of Spirit 4 In the houre of death We are not onely freed from ill but advanced to good Application to the Sacrament Iohn 6. 2 To shew the greatnesse of our priviledges Vse It is good to propound quaere's to our selves God is with his children How God is with them Act. 16. Act. 10 38. Ground of it From Gods free love The comfort on the former ground How farre the enemies of Gods children are against them Why God suffers them to prevaile No man can be against Gods children 1 In respect of Christâ— cause 2 The courage of his children Psal. 129. Vse The state of a Christian impregnable A Christian never alone A Christian though weake in himselfe strong in God Christianity grounded strongly Psal. 118. To lay up principles Ground of Christian courage Cyprian In opposition In our callings Ground of contentment Not to be discouraged for our infirmities Object Answer God sometimes hides himselfe Isay 49. Question Answer Wee may know that God is with us 1 When wee are with him 2 Deâ—ight in Gods presence 3 Taking Gods side 2 Chron. 15. 4 By testimony of conscience Quest. Answer How to have God with us 1 By renewing our Covenants 2 Looke to our cause Psal. 91. Novemb. 5. Psal. 1â—9 Simile Rom. 8.26 The Church â— Bride Can. 5. Vse 1. Comfort by our marriage to Christ. Hosea 2. Vse 2. The Church why called a Bride The deâ—ire of Christs comming There must be a second comming of Christ. Psal. 45. The Church desires the comming of Christ in regard 1 Of scandals 2 Persecutions 3 Oppositions in the Church 4 Weaknesse of Christians 5 Corruption by Satan 5 Christians conflict 6 The necessities of this life 7 The relation betweene Christ and the Church 8 From the nature of love Question Answer The Church in heaven desires Christs comming Vse 1. Tryall of our estate 1 By desiring Christ to come into our hearts now 2 They promote his comming 3 Fitting for it Answer Christians not alway fitted alike for Christs comming Vse Direction to come to desire Christs comming 1 To purge our selves 2 Vnloose our hearts from the world 3 Meditate of our happy condition 4 Labour for the Spirit Meanes to get the Spirit Luke 11. The contents of tâ—e Psalme 1 A coâ—flict 2 A discovery Verse 13. 3 The recovery Verse 17. 4 The Victory Verse 23. The scope of the words Gods children exercised with conflicts Gods children recover 〈◊〉 of conflict Reas. Gods children go not far from him Verse 27. Vse To discerne our estate The way to recover out of conflict to enter into Gods Sanctuary Benefit of entring the Sanctuary Different conclusions
BEAMES OF DIVINE LIGHT Breaking forth from severall places of holy Scripture as they were learnedly opened In XXI Sermons The III. first being the fore-going Sermons to that Treatise called The Bruised-Reed Preached on the precedent words By the late Reverend and Iudicious Divine RICHARD SIBS D.D. Mr. of Katharine Hall in Camb and sometimes Preacher at GRAYES INNE Published according to the Doctor his owne appointment subscribed with his hand to prevent imperfect Coppies ESAY 60 3. The Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightnesse of thy rising PSALM 84.11 For the Lord God is a Sun and shield the Lord will give grace and glory and no good thing will be withhold from them that walke uprightly LONDON Printed by G.M. for N. Bourne at the Royal Exchange and R Harford at the guilt Bible in Queenes-head Alley in Pater Noster-Row MDCXXXIX TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE IOHN LORD ROBERTS Baron of Truro AND TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THE LADY LVCE his pious Consort Grace and Peace from Jesus Christ. Right Honourable and truly Noble IT was not so much the Nobility of your blood as that of Grace given unto you from the divine hand which did so much interest you in the love and esteeme of that worthy Servant of Christ and Author of this worke in whom Vrim and Thummim met whose whole course being a reall and vitall sermon sweetly consonant to the tenour of his teaching made him amiable living and honourable dead in the opinion of as many as well knew him This was the thing I suppose which wrought unto him from you as well as from many others of your Noble Stock and Ranke more then an ordinary esteeme and this is that which maketh me in nothing to doubt but that his labours made publique under your names shall be very welcome unto you the worke is answering unto the man and therefore worthy you and your acceptance onely this is the disadvantage that though these Sermons had his owne toung to preach them yet they want his owne pen to commend them unto your Honours I well know that the expressions of holy truthes from a gratious heart by lively voice doe breed deeper impressions in thirsting and reverent hearers then any publishing of them in dead letters can doe yet this we finde in experience that holy and necessary truths this way comming abroad into the Churches of God doe get the advantage to continue longer and to become a more generall good they may stirre up the affections and set on-wards in the course of holinesse where the comforts are sure and the honours honouring everlasting In these ensuing Sermons you have variety the mother of delight and such notable descriptions of the person offices love and life of Christ that by them you may not only be setled in divine assurances to your further comforts but also directed and incouraged both in your inward and outward conversation to follow the example of Christ the most blessed and unerring example unto all Christians This Champion I beseech you both to follow unto your lives end make it your worke to set up Christ and his Religion both in your hearts and in your houses Acknowledge none but Christ in matter of salvation and none to Christ in point of affection let Christ be Christ with you and then if Christ and if not Christ nothing can be worth any thing he will make you worthy indeed he will proove unto you in life and death a Sun a shield even a full and an answerable good with this Christ I leave you and with you these ensuing Sermons to be read and observed for your spirituall furtherance in the enjoyment of eternall life by Iesus Christ desiring the great God of Heaven and Earth to looke upon both you and yours in much grace and mercie giving unto you all the comfort and crown of Religion here on earth and hereafter in Heaven I rest Your honours to be commanded JOHN SEDOVVICK To the Reader Christian Reader THE Word of God is given us as a most pretious treasure and that not for our selves onely but for our children after us and therefore is called Jsraels Jnheritance Deut. 33.4 Moses commanded us a Law even the Inheritance of the Congregation of Iacob All the wealth in the world is but as dirt and trash in comparison of the Word to the people of God Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of mine heart saith David Psal. 119.111 And therefore as they rejoyce in their owne enjoying of it so they doe what they may to assure it to their children when they are dead that it may be entailed upon them and their posterity after them Yea so they doe also with the knowledge of divine truths which they have found in the Word which is not indeed found out by men all at one time but by degrees as Gold is found in Mines as men come to search farther and farther and to dig deeper and deeper for it It was not they know imparted to them for their owne use onely but for the benefit of others the manifestation of the Spirit is given to profit withall 1 Cor. 12.7 and therefore as it comes to them from Heaven they hand it to others that so it may be continued in the Church the ground and pillar of truth for the good of those that shall live in future times This was I hope the chiefe aime of those that have published these Sermons of that worthy Light of our Church Dr. Sibs And surely we have great cause in this regard thankfully to acknowledge their care and paines who both tooke them so exactly from his mouth as he delivered them and then kept them so charity as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a precious thing committed to their trust and have now published them for the common good of all that will make use of them For by this meanes what was delivered to a few may now build up many to farther degrees of knowledge and grace even all the Land over and they that never saw his face may be made sharers in those his labours which only a few were so happy as to heare Being my selfe one amongst others that have found the advantage hereof I was not so hardly wonne as otherwise I should have beene to commend these Beames of divine Light to the respect of others Diverse truths of greatest consequence are exactly handled in the severall Sermons here presented to you as concerning the misery of our naturall estate and the blâ—sse and happinesse of those that are quickned by Christ concerning the necessity of the Word our spirituall Food the Zealous Violence of the Faithfull impressing after it concerning the divers both joyes and sorrowes complaints and Triumphs of Gods children here when they are blacke though comely Cant. 1.5 and concerning their happinesse in death and glory after it and many other whereof these few are onely a taste The study of the Scriptures
of red well coloured earth to a lump of flesh it is a wondrous conjunction But there is a more supernaturall conjunction of man when all of us sinners as we are are knit to Christ our head and head and members make one Christ here is a wondrous conjunction Saint Paul calls it a mystery Ephes. 5. these conjunctions in us are wonderfull But now to goe higher in Christ there are more wonderfull conjunctions for the greatest and the meanest to joyne together for God and man to come together the Lord of all and a servant and such a servant as should be under a curse for the highest of all to come to the deepest abasement for there was no abasement ever so deepe as Christs was in a double regard First none ever went so low as he for hee suffered the wrath of God and bore upon him the sins of us all none ever was so low And then in another respect his abasement was greatest because hee descended from the highest top of glory and for him to be man to be a servant to be a curse to suffer the wrath of God to be the lowest of all Lord whether dost thou descend here is a wonder in these conjunctions Next to Christs abasement was Adams because he was the most excellent being in the state of innocencie and carrying the image of God and being familiar with God for him presently to come into that fearefull condition it was the greatest abasement because it was from the greatest dignity that made the abasement of Christ so great for Lordship to submit to service for God to be man the blessed God to become a curse heere is matter of wonder indeed In Christ againe there was a conjunction of perfect body perfect soule and perfect God and all make one Christ In the Trinity there is a conjunction of three persons in one nature that is a wondrous conjunction but it belongs not to our present purpose here you see there is matter of wonder in the person that Christ should be a servant There is matter of wonder likewise in that from whence he is a servant whence comes it that Christ is a servant It is from the wondrous love of God and the wondrous love of Christ to be so abased it was wondrous love in God to give him to us to be so abased and the wondrous misery we were in that we could not otherwise be freed from for such was the pride of man that he being man would exalt himselfe to bee like God God became man he became a servant to expiate our pride in Adam so that it is wondrous in the spring of it There was no such love as Christs to become a servant there was no such misery as we were in out of which we were delivered by this abasement of Christ becomming a servant so it is wondrous in that regard springing from the infinite love and mercy of God which is greater in the worke of Redemption and Reconciliation then in the Creation of the world for the distance betweene nothing and something was lesse then the distance betweene sin and happinesse For nothing adds no opposition but to be in a sinfull state there is opposition therefore it was greater love and mercy for God when wee were sinfull and so obnoxious to eternall destruction to make us of sinners not onely men but to make us happie to make us heires of heaven out of a sinfull and cursed estate then to make us of nothing something to make us men in Adam for there God prevailed over nothing but here his mercy triumphed over that which is opposite to God over sinfullnesse and cursednesse To shew that the creature cannot be so low but there is somewhat in God above the misery of the creature his mercy shall triumph over the basest estate where hee will shew mercy therefore there is mercy above all mercy and love above all love in that Christ was a servant Thirdly it is wondrous in regard of the fruit we have by this service of Christ the worke of our Redemption to be translated from the kingdome of Satan to the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God to be brought out of darkenesse into marveilous light it is marveilous matter of wonder the good wee have by this abasement of Christ Behold what love the Father hath shewed us that wee should be called the sonnes of God Now all this comes from Christs being a servant our liberty comes from his service and slavery our life from his death our adoption and sonship and all comes from his abasement therefore it is a matter of wonderment for the great things we have by it O the depth O the depth saith Saint Paul here are all dimensions in this excellent worke that Christ hath wrought by his abasement by his incarnation and taking upon him the forme of a servant and dying for us here is the height and breadth and length and depth of the love of God in Christ O the riches of Gods mercie the Apostles they stand in a wonder and admiration of this and indeed if any thing be to be admired it is Christ that wondrous conjunction the wondrous love that wrought it and the wondrous fruit we have by it It is the basenesse of our nature we can wonder at shallow things there cannot be a foolery but there will be many about it presently and stand admiring every emptie idle thing that the nature of man is carried away with whereas indeed there is nothing worthy of admiration but the wonderfull love of God O how wonderfull are thy workes saith David of the works of Creation Psal. 8. the worke of Creation and of providence whereby God guides the world are wonderfull and the Psalmist cries out of the folly of men that do not regard the worke of the Lord Psal. 107. Fooles regard not this The workes of the Lord are worthy to bee considered they are knowne of all that delight in them Psal. 111. but if these things bee so wonderfull and to bee regarded and delighted in alas what is all the worke of redemption Great is the mysterie of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh c. there are mysteries matters of admiration but carnall men thinke these triviall matters they can heare matters of more rarity and when they speake of these things alas they are too wise to wonder tush they know the Gospell well enough whereas indeed as wee see here they are things that deserve the admiration of Angels and as they deserve it so the Angels prie into these excellent secrets in Jesus Christ. Christ was a servant by office and by condition we must not rest in this base condition for he took upon him the forme of a servant that he might be an excellent servant there is both basenesse and excellencie in the word servant for his humiliation was a degree of his exaltation and a part of his advancement if wee regard his
adds to our comfort that whatsoever Christ did for us he did it as chosen hee is a chosen stone as Saint Peter saith 1. Peter 2.6 A precious corner stone though refused of the builders yet precious in Gods sight Was Christ a chosen servant of God and shall not we take Gods choise Is not Gods choise the best and the wisest Hath God chosen Christ to worke our salvation and shall we choose any other Shall we run to Saints mediation to the Virgin Mary and others for intercession which is a part of Christs office Who chose Mary and Peter and Paul to this worke there is no mention in Scripture of them for this purpose But behold my servant whom I have chosen God in Paradice did choose a wife for Adam so God hath chosen a husband for his Church he hath chosen Christ for us therefore it is intollerable sacrilegious rebellion and impudency to refuse a Saviour and Mediator of Gods choosing and to set up others of our own as if we were wiser to choose for our selves then God is we may content our selves well enough with Gods choise because he is the party offended Besides it is folly to goe out from Christ where there is all fulnesse and content to leave Gods chosen servant and to goe to any other servant to any broken vessell God rests in this servant as Pharoah did in Ioseph the second person in the Kingdome therefore let Gods choise and ours agree And this directs us also in our devotions to God how to carry our selves in our prayers and services to offer Christ to God Behold Lord thy chosen servant that thou hast chosen to bee my Mediator my Saviour my all in all to me he is a Mediator and a Saviour of thine owne choosing thou canst not refuse thy owne choise if thou looke upon me there is nothing but matter of unworthinesse but look upon him whom thou hast chose my head and Saviour Againe if Christ be a chosen servant O let us take heed how we neglect Christ. When God hath chosen him for us shall not we think him worthy to be imbraced and regarded shall we not kisse the Sonne with the kisse of love and faith and subjection he is a Saviour of Gods owne choosing refuse him not What is the reason that men refuse this chosen stone They will not be laid low enough to build upon this corner stone this hidden stone the excellencie of Christ is hidden it appeares not to men men will not be squared to be built upon him stones for a building must be framed and made even and flat men stick out with this and that lust they will not be pared and cut and fitted for Christ if they may have their lusts and wicked lives they will admit of Christ but wee must make choise of him as a stone to build upon him and to bee built on him wee must be made like him we like not this laying low and abasing therefore we refuse this Corner stone though God hath made him the corner of building to all those that have the life of grace here or shall have glory hereafter The Papists admit him to be stone but not the onely stone to build on but they build upon him and Saints upon him and works upon him and traditions but he is the onely corner stone God hath chosen him onely and wee muâ—â— choose him onely that wee may bee framed and laid upon him to make up one building so much for that Behold my servant whom I have chosen My Beloved in whom my soule is well-pleased How doe we know that these words in the Prophet Isaiah are fitly appliable to Christ By the greatest authority that ever was from the beginning of the world by the immediate voice of God the Father from Heaven who applies these words in Isaiah to Christ Mat. 3. in his inauguration when he was baptised This is my Beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased this is that my Sonne that beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beloved Sonne so beloved that my soule delights in him he is capable of my whole love I may powre out my whole love upon him in whom I am well pleased it is the same with that heere in whom my soule delighteth the one expresseth the other How and in what respect is Christ thus beloved of God First as he is God the Sonne of God the engraven Image of his Father so he is primum amabile the first lovely thing that ever was when the Father loves him he loves himselfe in him so he loves him as God as the second person as his owne image and character And as man he loves him for as man he was the most excellent creature in the world he was conceived fashioned and framed in his mothers wombe by the Holy Ghost It is said Heb. 10.5 God gave him a body God the Father by the Holy Ghost fashioned and framed and fitted him with a body therefore God must needs love his owne workmanship Againe there was nothing in him displeasing to God there was no sinne found in his life any way therefore as man he was well-pleasing to God he took the man-hood and ingrafted it into the second person and inriched it there therefore he must needs love the Man-hood of Christ being taken into so neare a union with the God-head As God and man Mediator especially hee loves and delights in him in regard of his office he must needs delight in his owne Ordinance and Decree now he decreed and sealed him to that office therefore he loves and delights in him as a Mediator of his owne appointing and ordaining to be our King and Priest and Prophet Againe hee loved and delighted in him in regard of the execution of his office both in doing and suffering In doing the Evangelist saith hee did all things well when hee healed the sick and raised the dead and cured all diseases whatsoever he did was well done And for his suffering God delighted in him for that as it is in Iohn 10.17 My Father loves me because I lay downe my life and so in Isaiah 53. He shall divide him a portion with the great because hee powred out his soule unto death and in Philip. 2. Because he abased himselfe to the death of the Crosse God gave him a name above all names therefore God loves and delights in him for his suffering and abasement It is said of Noah Gen. 8.21 that he offered a sacrifice after the flood and the Lord smelled a sweet savour of his sacrifice and thereupon hee saith I will not curse the earth againe so God loves and delights in Christ as he offered himselfe a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour wherin God rests he felt such a sweet savour in the sacrifice of Christ he is so delighted in it that he will never destroy mankind hee will never destroy any that beleeve in Christ the sacrifice of Noah
accomplished when Christ at his Baptisme entred upon his office God put his Spirit upon him to set him apart to ordaine him and to qualifie him with abundance of grace for the worke for there are these three things especially meant by putting the Spirit upon him separation or setting apart and ordaining and inriching with the gifts of the Spirit When any one is called to great place there is a setting apart from others and an ordaining to that particular and a qualifying if it be a calling of God he qualifies where he ordaines alwaies But Christ had the Spirit before what doth he meane then when hee saith hee will put the Spirit upon him now I answer he had the Spirit before answerable to that condition he was in now hee received the Spirit answerable to that condition hee was to undertake he was perfect then for that condition now he was to be made perfect for that office he was to set upon he was alway perfect hee had abundance of Spirit for that estate hee was in but now he was to enter upon another condition to preach the Gospell to be a Prophet and after to be a Priest therefore he saith now especially I will put my Spirit upon him Now this putting of the Spirit it is expressed in Isaiah 61. and other places by Annointing There were three sorts of persons that were annointed before Christ Prophets Priests and Kings now Christ was to bee a Prophet a Priest and a King therefore hee was to be annointed with the Spirit to enable him to these three offices I might here take occasion to enlarge my selfe in the offices of Christ but I will onely speake of them as the Text ministreth just occasion There are three maine defects in man since the fall There is ignorance and blindnesse There is rebellion in the will and affections And in regard of his condition by reason of the sinnes of nature and life a subjection to a cursed estate to the wrath of God and eternall damnation Now answerable to these three grand ills whosoever shall bee ordained a Saviour must provide proportionable remedies for these hereupon comes a threefold office in Christ that is ordained to save man to cure this threefold mischiefe and maladie As we are ignorant and blind he is a Prophet to instruct us to convince us of the ill state we are in and then to convince us of the good hee intends us and hath wrought for us to instruct us in all things concerning our everlasting comfort he is such a Prophet as teacheth not onely the outward but the inward man hee openeth the heart he teacheth to doe the things he teacheth men teach what we should doe but they teach not the doing of them he is such a Prophet as teacheth us the very things hee teacheth us to love and to obey c. And answerable to the rebellion and sinfulnesse of our dispositions he is a King to subdue whatsoever is ill in us and likewise to subdue all opposite power without us by little and little hee will trample all enemies under his feete and under our feete too ere long Now as we are cursed by reason of our sinfull condition so hee is a Priest to satisfie the wrath of God for us he was made a curse for us he became a servant that being so hee might die and undergoe the cursed death of the crosse not onely death but a cursed death and so his blood might be an attonement as a Priest So answerable to the three fold ill in us you see here is a threefold office in Christ. Now Christ performes these three offices in this order First of all he is a Prophet when he was baptised the Spirit was put upon him as in Isaiah 61. To preach deliverance to the captives First he preached wherefore he came into the world why God sent him and discovered to the world the state they were in and when he had preached as a Prophet then as a Preist he dyed and offered himselfe a Sacrifice After death his Kingly office was most apparent For then he rose againe as a triumphant King over death and all our enemies and ascended in his triumphant chariot to Heaven and there he sits gloriously as a King in his throne at the right hand of God so that how ever at his Baptisme and before when he was sanctified in his mothers wombe he was both King Priest and Prophet yet in regard of the order of manifestation he manifested himselfe first to be a Prophet secondly a Priest and thirdly to be a King For his Kingly office brake foorth but seldome in the time of his abasement sometimes it did to shew that he was ruler and commander of Earth and Sea and Divels and all he wrought miracles but the glorious manifestation of his kingly office it was after his resurrection Now the fundamentall the chiefe office to which he was annoynted by the Spirit upon which the rest depends it was his Priestly office for wherefore was his teaching but to instruct us what he must doe and suffer for us and what benefit we have by his Sacrifice reconciliation with God and freedome from the wrath of God and right unto life everlasting by his obedience to the cursed death of the crosse And how comes he to be a King to rule over us by his holy Spirit and to have a right unto us But because as a Priest hee dyed for us first He washed us with his blood he purged us with his blood and then he made us Kings and Priests Rev 1. All other benefits came from this he washed our soules in his blood first whatsoever wee have from God is especially from the great worke of Christ as a Priest abasing himselfe and dying for us and thereupon hee comes to bee a Prophet and a King thus we see the order of Christs offices how they come to be fruitfull to us the rest especially by vertue of his priestly office Note this by the way Christs priestly office includes two branches his sacrificing himselfe for us a Priest was to offer Sacrifice and to pray for the people our Saviour Christ did both in the daies of his humiliation in his prayer in Ioh. 17. there as a Priest he commends his sacrifice to God before he died and now he is in Heaven making intercession for us to the end of the world he appeares for us there We see then to what purpose God put the Spirit upon Christ to enable him to be a Prophet a Priest and a King and thereupon to take away those mischiefes and evills that wee were subject and inthralled too so that we have a supply for all that may any way abase us and cast us downe in the all sufficiency that is in Christ Jesus who was annoyntâ—d with the Spirit for this end It may be objected Christ was God himselfe hee had the Spirit and gives the Spirit therefore how could the
no Spirit of Christ at all I will not be large in the point onely I speake this by way of tryall to know whether wee have the Spirit of Christ in us or no if not we have nothing to doe with Christ For Christ saves us not as he is out of us onely Christ was to doe something of himselfe that wee have no share in onely the good of it is ours hee was to redeeme us by his blood to bee a Sacrifice the title to Heaven and salvation was wrought by Christ out of us but there is somewhat that he doth not onely for us but hee works in us by his Spirit that is the fitting of us for that he hath given us title too and the applying of that that he hath done for us Whosoever therefore hath any benefit by Christ he hath the Spirit to apply that to himselfe and to fit and qualifie him to be a member of such a Head and an heire of such a Kingdome whosoever Christ works any thing for he doth also worke in them there is a Spirit of application and that spirit of application if it be true it is a Spirit of sanctification and renovation fitting us every way for our condition Let us not abuse our selves as the world commonly doth concerning Christ they thinke God is mercifull and Christ is a Saviour Jt is true but what hath he wrought in thee by his Spirit hast thou the Spirit of Christ or else thou art none of his Romans 8. Where ever Christ is he goes with his Spirit to teach us to apply what Christ hath done for us and to fit us to bee like him Therefore let those that live in any sinnes against conscience thinke it a diabollicall illusion to thinke God and Christ is mercifull I but where is the worke of the Spirit All the hope thou hast is onely that thou art not in Hell as yet for the time to come but for the present I dare not say thou hast any thing to doe with Christ when there is nothing of the Spirit in thee the Spirit of Christ conformes the Spouse to bee like the husband and the members to be like the Head therefore begg of Christ that hee would annoint himselfe King in our hearts and Prophet and Priest in our hearts to doe that that he did to know his will as a Prophet to rule in us as a King and to stirre up prayers in us as a Priest to doe in some proportion that that he doth though it bee in never so little a measure for wee receive it in measure but Christ beyond measure wee must labour for so much as may manifest to us the truth of our estate in Christ that we are not dead but living branches Now Christ gives and conveyes his Spirit especially and most of all since his ascention and sitting at the right hand of God for after his resurrection he declared his victory over all his enemies and therefore was able to give the Spirit without opposition and upon his resurrection death and hell and the anger of God were overcome and our sinnes were satisfied for now Christ was Head indeed having trod all his enemies under his feete now he was enabled to give the Spirit but upon his ascention into Heaven and his sitting there he was more enabled for even as the Sunne being so high above the Earth doth convey his light and heate and influence upon the inferiour bodies So Christ being so highly advanced is fitter to infuse his Spirit and grace heere below since his exaltation therefore the Church is fuller of grace and grace hath beene more spread and diffused since the ascention of Christ then before and the Evangelist gives it as a reason The Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not ascended intimating that after his ascention there was a more full portion of the Spirit given God being fully appeased by the death of Christ and Christ staying the advantage that was fittest to give the Spirit now God the Father gives the Spirit with the Sonne so in both regards there was a greater fullnesse of the Spirit Therefore the Prophets speaking of the times of Christ especially of his exaltation shew that then they should be filled with the Spirit that the Spirit should be povvred out upon all flesh more aboundantly then before And that is the reason that the Apostles so differed from themselves before and after Christs ascention what a wondrous alteration was there Peter before hee flies even at the voice of a maide and they were full of contention and vaine glory but after we see when the Spirit the Holy Ghost came downe after Christs ascention into Heaven how couragious and valarous they were that they accounted it a matter of glory to suffer any thing and indeed we have more or lesse valour and courage the more of lesse Spirit we have now they having received more abundance of Spirit hereupon they were more couragious and undaunted at one time then another and this abundance of the Spirit comes especially since Christs advancement But how or by what meanes doth Christ give his Spirit to us This Spirit that is so necessary for us it is given by the ministery of the Gospell which is the ministery of the Spirit received ye the Holy Ghost by the workes of the law or by the hearing of faith preached when the love of God in Christ and the benefits by Christ are layed open in the preaching of the Gospell to us God gives his holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ. Now God in Christ would save us by a triumphant and abundant love and mercy and the Spirit of God never goes but where there is a magnifying of the love and mercy of God in Christ therefore the ministery of the Gospell which onely discovers the amity and love of God to man-kinde being now reconciled in Christ it is accompanyed with the Spirit to assure us of our part and portion in those benefits for the Spirit is the fruit of Gods love as well as Christ Christ is the first gift and the Spirit is the second therefore that part of the word that discovers Gods exceeding love to man-kinde leaving Angells when they were fallen in their cursed estate and yet giving his Sonne to become man and a curse for us the discovery of this love and mercy of God and of his Son Christ to us is joyned with the Spirit for by the Spirit we see our cursed estate without the love and mercy of God in Christ and likewise we are convinced of the love of God in Christ and thereupon we love God againe and trust to his mercy and out of love to him performe all chearfull obedience whatsoever we doe else if it be not stirred by the Spirit apprehending the love of God in Christ it is but morallity A man shall never goe to Heaven but by such a disposition and frame and temper of soule as is wrought by the Holy Ghost
perswading the soule first of the love and favour of God in Christ. What are all our performances if they be not out of love to God and how shall we love God except we be perswaded that hee loves us first therefore the Gospell breeds love in us to God and hath the Spirit together with it working a blessed frame of sanctification whereby we are disposed to every good duty Therefore if we would have the Spirit of God let us attend upon the sweete promises of salvation upon the doctrine of Christ for together with the knowledge of these things the Holy Ghost slides and insinuates and infuseth himselfe into our soules Therfore the Ministers of the Gospell should be much in laying open the riches of God in Christ in unfolding Christ all other things will follow as S. Paul in 2 Tit. 12. The grace of God hath shined hath appeared gloriously teaching us to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live holily and soberly in this present world where the grace and love of God is perswaded and shed into the soule all will follow What is the reason that former times were called darke times and so they were the times of Popery a darke age Christ was vailed the Gospell was vailed there was no preaching of salvation by Christ alone people were sent to stocks and stones and to Saints and instead of the word they were sent to legends and such things Christ was obscured thereupon they were darke ages those ages wherein the Spirit of God is most is where Christ is most preached and people are best alway where there is most Spirit and they are most joyfull and comfortable and holy where Christ is truly layd open to the hearts of people the peaching of meere morallity if men be not carefull to open Christ to know how salvation is wrought by Christ and how all good comes by Christ it will never make a man perfectly good and fit him for Heaven it may make a man reforme many abuses like a Phylosopher which hath its reward and respect amongst men but nothing to give comfort at the houre of death and the day of judgement onely that whereby the Spirit is conveyed is the knowledge and preaching of Christ in his state and offices Againe the Spirit of Christ is given in obedience to this Gospell Acts 5.32 Hee gives the Holy Ghost to them that obey him Now there is the obedience of faith and the obedience of life when the soule is wrought to obedience to beleeve and to be directed by God then the Holy Spirit is given in a further measure still the Holy Ghost is given to them that obey to them that doe not resist the Spirit of God for in the Ministery of the Gospell the Spirit is given in some degree to reprobates it is offered it knockes at the hearts of the vilest persons that lives in filthy and false courses of life whose tongues and bodies are all instruments of an unsanctified soule to offend God they have gracious motions offered them but then they doe not obey them therefore the Spirit seizeth not upon them to rule in them they have the Spirit knocking upon them he doth not dwell in them and take up his lodging in them The Spirit is given to them that obey the sweet motions of it Now who is it that heares the blessed word of God the blessed tidings of salvation but he hath sweete motions of the Spirit to be in love with God and the mercy of God and to hate sinne a little for a time then presently upon it corruption joynes and and swels against those motions and they onely rest in the bare motion and never come to any perfection This is the state of reprobates in the Church they have many motions by the Holy Ghost but their hearts are not subdued to obedience not to constant obedience Therefore if wee would have the Spirit of Christ let us labour to subject our selves unto it when we have any good motion by the Ministery of the Word or by conference or by reading of good things as holy things have a savour in them the Spirit breathes in holy exercises Oh give way to the motions of Gods Spirit we shall not have them againe perhaps turne not backe those blessed messengers let us entertaine them let the Spirit dwell and rule in us it is the most blessed lodger that ever we entertained in all our lives If wee let the Spirit guide and rule us it will leade us and governe and support us in life and death and never leave us till it have raised our bodies the Spirit of Christ in us at length will quicken our dead bodies Rom. 8. it will never leave us till it have brought us to Heaven This is the state of those that belong to God that give way to the motions of Gods Spirit to rule and guide them therefore if we would have the Spirit of Christ let us take heed of rebelling against it This is the state of many of us the Lord be mercifull to us and cure us that we doe not onely not receive the motions of the Spirit deepely into us but if they bee such a crosse us in our pleasures and profits though the Word and Spirit joyne together there is a rising of the proud spirit of man against so much of the Spirit and the motions of it and against such parts of the Word as crosseth us this will bee laid heavy to our charge one day that wee would bring the Spirit of God to our corruptions and not bring our hearts to Gods Spirit and hereupon be those phrases in the Scripture of tempting the Spirit Ananias and Saphira tempted the Spirit that is when men will doe that which is naught and try whether God will forgive them and put it off or no how many are there that tempt the Spirit that put it off perhaps I shall have the like motions another time I shall have better occasion when I can gaine no more when I can have my pleasures no more thus men resist the Spirit as Saint Stephen saith that is when the Spirit discovers to them what they should beleeve and what they should doe and they see it crosseth their resolution to be naught heereupon they resist the worke of the Spirit that else would close with their soules and sanctifie them and fit them for Heaven if they would give way to it And there is a quenching of the Spirit that is when men have sweet motions of the Spirit and presently by some ill language or course of life they defile their vessels and quench the sweet motions of the Spirit Let us take heed of all these of tempting of resisting and quenching the Spirit For undoubtedly living in the bosome of the Church we have many heavenly motions especially those that have so much goodnesse in them as to attend upon Gods ordinances they have those motions at those times that they never have after perhaps
and shall not the beasts of the forrest tremble Shall wee heare God roare in his judgements and heare the trumpet blowne and not be affected wee see here how God complaines that when he harkened and heard they spake not aright Let us therefore make conscience of all our words Wee shall if not now yet at the day of judgement give account for every idle word for every cruell word as it is in the prophesie of Enoch cited in the Epistle of Iude But especially let us take heed of our words when wee speake of Gods judgements for it is the not speaking aright of them that is here especially meant I hearkened and heard but they spake not aright So much for the evidence come wee now to the next clause Gods complaint upon this evidence No man repented him of his wickednesse They did not repent of their wickednesse and the fault was generall No man repented the first yeelds this instruction That it is a state much offending God not to repent when his judgements are threatned God will not suffer it long unpunished to be impenitent when his judgements are abroad and threatned much more when they have already ceazed upon our brethren For that is the end of all his judgements to draw us neare to him to draw us out of the world and out of our sinnefull courses when therefore we answer not God must take another course What is the plague and other judgements but so many messengers sent to every one of us to knocke and our answer must be Lord I will repent of my evill waies I will turne from my evill courses and turne to thee If wee give this answer God will take away his judgements or sanctifie them and that is better but when there is no answer the messenger will not be gone God will adde plagues upon plagues till we give our answer till wee repent and turne from our wicked vvaies Novv that vve may doe this vvee must bee convinced thorovvly that the courses vvee live in are unprofitable dangerous hatefull courses and that the contrary state is better For repentance is an after-vvit and man being a reasonable creature will turne from his vvay except hee see great reason vvhy therefore there must be sound conviction that it is a bitter thing to offend God vvee must indeed be convinced by the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God usually takes the benefit of affliction affliction together vvith instruction instruction without affliction will doe little good stripes and the Word must go together else we will not give God the hearing as we should Therfore that we may be soundly convinced of our sins we should desire God especially in the houre of affliction to helpe our soules by his Spirit that wee may bee convinced that our courses are naâ—ght that they are courses dishonourable to God and dangerous to our selves that sinne defiles our soules that it hinders our communion with God which is the sweetest thing in the world that sin puts a sting into all our troubles that sin makes us affraid of that that should bee comfortable to us of death and judgement and Gods presence that sinne grieves the good Spirit of God that would take up his lodging in us that it quencheth the motions of the Spirit that are sent as sweete messengers to us to allure and comfort us that sinne grieves the good Spirit of God in others that it grieves the good Angells that are about us that it gratifies none but the Divell the enemy of our salvation that it defiles and slaines our soules wherein the Image of God should shine that it doth us more harme then all the things in the world besides indeed nothing hurts us but sinne because nothing but sinne seperates us from God that it shuts Heaven and opens Hell and so makes us affraid of death least death should open the gate to let us into Hell in a word that it hinders all good and is the cause of all ill Let us consider of this and worke it on our hearts And consider withall our former courses rip up our lives from our child-hood consider the sinnes of our youth together with our present sins that so we may the better stirre up and awaken our consciences Let us consider whether we are now in a state wherein wee could bee content that God should send his judgements upon us Consider how wee have been scandalous to others how we have drawn others to sinne that the guilt of other mens sinnes will lye upon us it may bee wee have repented but have they Consider the repetition of our sinnes if wee have not committed them againe and againe and other circumstances that may aggravate them Let us labour to worke these things on our hearts and desire the Spirit of God to convince our soules of the foulenesse and dangerousnesse of sinne When we sinne against conscience what doe we but set the Divell in the place of God wee make our selves wiser then God wee leave Gods waies as if wee could finde better and more profitable and more gainefull courses then his sound conviction of this will moove us to repentance And let us be stirred up to repent presently doth not God now warne you Is it not dangerous living one houre in a state that wee would not dye in May not God justly strike us on the sudden Doe but purpose to live in sinne one quarter of an houre may we not be taken away in that quarter Is not repentance the gift of God and are not gifts given according to the good pleasure of the giver Waite therefore for the gales of grace and take them when they are offered Grace is not like the tide that ebbs and flowes that we know when it will come againe when we see it goe No God gives the gales of grace according to his good pleasure therefore take the advantage of the present motions of the blessed Spirit The longer we live in any sinne unrepented off the more our hearts will be hardened the more Satan takes advantage against us the more hardly he is driven out of his old possession the more just it may bee with God to give us up from one sinne to another the understanding will be more darke upon every repetition of sinne and conscience will bee more dulled and deaded Those that are young therefore let them take the advantage of the youth and strength and freshnesse of their yeares to serve God That which is blasted in the bud what fruit may we looke for from it afterward Alas when wee see the younger sort given to blaspheme and sweare to loosenesse and licentiousnesse what old age may we looke for there Againe what welcome shall wee expect when we have sacrificed the best of our strength and the marrow of our yeares to our lusts to bring our old-age to God Can this be any other then selfe-love Such late repentance is seldome sound it
comes I say from selfe-love and not from any change of heart As in the the humility of wretched persons a little before the judge comes though they haue carried themselves as rebels before yet then they will humble themselves not out of any hatred to their courses but out of feare of the judge So it may be now thou art arraigned by Gods judgements thou forsakest thy sinnefull courses not out of the hatred of thy sinnes for if thou couldest thou wouldest sinne eternally and that is the reason sinners are punished eternally Because they would sinne everlastingly but thou seest thou art in danger to be pulled away by Gods judgements It is not out of love to grace it is not from any change of nature that thou desirest to be a new creature that thou admirest grace to be the best state but it is to avoid danger not that thou carest for the face of God to be reconciled to him but to avoid the present judgement And what a staggering will this be to conscience when a man shall deferre his repentance till Gods judgements seaze upon him We see it is false for the most part Because such persons that are then humbled when they recover they are as bad or worse then ever they were Therfore an Ancient saith well He that is good onely under the crosse it never good it comes not from any change that God works but meerely from selfe-love Therefore presently let us repent of those waies that God convinceth our conscience to be evill wayes God may strike us suddenly Those that forget God and care not for him now it may be just with God to make them forget themselves to strike them with frenzy to take away the use of their memories then and when sickenesse comes wee shall have enough to doe to conflict with sicknesse we shall have enough to doe to answer the doubts of conscience Oh it would upbraid then We shall thinke it a hard matter then to have favour from God whose worship we have despised the motions of whose Spirit we have neglected and resisted Conscience after long hardening in sinne will hardly admit of comfort it is a harder matter then it is taken for Therefore even to day presently you that are young now in the daies of your youth now in the spring of your yeares repent you of your sinnes before old-age comes which indeed as Salomon describes it is an ill time to repent in Alas then a man can hardly performe civill duties as we see in Barzillai he complaines that in his old-age he could not take the comfort of the creatures Therefore put not off this duty till then And all both young and old now when the judgements of God are abroad in the world take the advantage returne to God renew your covenants make your peace now now this danger doth warme our hearts a little let us strike the Iron now while it is hot let us take the advantage of the Spirit now avvakening us vvith this danger Our hearts are so false and so dull we have need to take all advantages of withdrawing our selves from our sinful courses And to incourage us to doe it let us consider if we doe this and doe it in time wee shall have the sweetnesse of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts You will say wee shall loose the sweetnesse of sin I but you shall have a most sweet communion with God One day of a repentant sinner that is reconciled to God is more comfortable then a thousand yeares of an other man that is in continuall feare of death and judgement Oh the sweete life of a Christian that hath made his peace with God! he is fit for all conditions for life for death for every thing now by this wee shall have this grace and favour of God the Lord will say unto us by his Spirit I am your salvation And besides you shall have his grace renewing and altering and changing you framing you to a better course of life And he will be so farre from misliking any for their former sinnes that hee will give them cause to love him the more as wee see Luk. 7. Shee loved much because shee had much forgiven her Christ we see upbraided not any of his followers with their former sinnes hee regarded nor what they had beene formerly Zaccheus the extortioner Mary Magdalen Matthew the Publican Peter that denied him wee never heare that he upbraided any of them hee doth not onely vouchsafe mercy to Peter repenting but advanceth him to his former office Apostolicall so sweete a God have we to deale with let this incourage us Againe it is the way to prevent Gods judgements as wee see in Nineveh and others Put case we repent not we cannot goe fafe in the citie nor any where but God may meete with us and strike us with his arrow The onely way to prevent his judgements is to meete him speedily by repentance This is the way not onely to turne away the wrath of God concerning eternall damnation but outward judgements as wee see Ioel. 2 and many other places Then againe should we be stricken if we have made our peace with God if we have repented all shall be welcome all shall be turned to our good wee know the sting is pulled out If the sting of death be pulled out if the malignity and poison of any sicknesse be it the plague or whatsoever be pulled out why should we feare it Jt comes in love and shall be turned to our good and in the meane time God sweetens it Here is a grand difference betweene the children of God and others If the judgement of God light upon a repentant person it comes from favour and love to correct him for his former sinnes it is turned to good and in the meane time it is sweetned with love and mixed with comfort and moderated as it is Isa. 27.7 hath hee afflicted thee as I afflicted others No hee moderates his judgements to his children and not onely moderates them but sweetens them with comfort Jf God doe correct a repentant person hee is no looser by it nay he is a gainer It is good for mee that I have been afflicted Oh the blessed estate of that person that repents and turnes from his evill wayes But if a man doe not repent but live still in sinne what a state is hee in God cares not for his prayers If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not heare my prayers and what a state is a man in when his prayers that should beg for blessings and avoid judgements and procure deliverance are not heard but shall be turned into sinne When God that is a God hearing prayer shall not regard his prayer What a case is this Yet if we regard iniquity in our hearts if we repent not of our sinnes God will not regard our prayers Then besides that there is a noise of feare in the
goods I give to the poore c. when grace is planted in the soule when the soule hath tasted once of better things there will be a meane and base esteeme of earthly things the more the soule feeds on heavenly things the lesse respect it hath to temporall things The soule is a finite Essence and it cannot spend it selfe on all things the more it runs into severalls the more shallow it is to others as in a streame when it is cut into many channels it runs weakely in the severall whereas it runs strongly in the maine so it is with the soule when it is scattered as the poore Israelites were about the land of Aegypt to gather straw to gather these perishing earthly things it is weake to heavenly things it hath little strength to those but when the course of it is wholy bent to those there are but weake or no desires running to these earthly things when once the soule of a Christian hath had a true taste and relish of the things of Heaven it lookes with a despising eye upon whatsoever is heere below when once it hath tasted of Christ then especially it growes out of relish with poyson then away with Popery away with false doctrine away with hypocrisie and formality in religion Againe secondly wee may know that wee have tasted Christ and fed on him and on the good things that are by him when wee are strengthened by our feeding when wee are strengthened to duties strengthened against tentations and against corruptions Thou saist thou beleevest on Christ and hast made him thine own what comfort and strength feelest thou by Christ art thou able to encounter a tentation art thou able to resist a lust art thou able to performe holy services If there be no strength in thee but every tentation turnes thee over and thou yeeldest to every base lust where is Christ canst thou beleeve Christ to be thy King and yet suffer thy lusts to beare sway in thee canst thou beleeve that Christ is a Priest that died forthy sinnes and yet cherishest and lovest sinne canst thou beleeve that Christ is in Heaven and that thou art in heavenly places with Christ and yet hast no minde of heavenly things but art carried away with every earthly thing No thou hast not yet tasted how good and gracious the Lord is thou hast not yet relished the heavenly Manna the soule that feeds on Christ is strengthened from spirituall reasons and supernaturall grounds and divine principles drawne from Christ to duty so that it is enabled even with a holy violence to doe any thing for Christs sake for the soule reasons thus Christ gave himselfe to death for mee I will therefore if need be give my selfe to death for him Christ thought nothing too deare for mee I will thinke nothing too deare for him this pride this vanity that I am tempted to these were the speares that were the death of my Saviour thus the soule fetches reasons from the death of Christ to strengthen it against temptations to strengthen it to duty and so for the matter of comfort after meate hath beene received wee are refreshed if the soule be sweetly refreshed with the comforts that are to be had in Christ and in the Word of Christ it is a signe wee have tasted Christ those that have trembling and discouraging hearts and soules that cannot rest nor receive comfort it is a signe they have not rightly tasted Christ Come unto mee saith Christ all yee that are weary and heavie laden and yee shall finde rest to your soules in Christ there is rest out of Christ there is no rest and so likewise those that have corruptions bearing sway in them it is a signe they have not so much as touched Christ for if they had but touched Christ hee would stop the issue of their corruptions the poore woman in the Gospell as soon as she had touched Christ her bloudy issue was stayed so upon the least touch of Christ by faith there will be an abating of corruption Thirdly in the bodily life we know after a good meale the desire and appetite is satisfied so the soule that tastes of Christ it hath sweet satisfaction and contentment O the sweet satisfaction that a Christian soule hath above a Heathen A Christian that hath Christ need not goe out of him for any thing it hath fullnesse and satisfaction in him in all estates both in life and in death dost thou finde Christ and the priviledges and prerogatives we have by him dost thou finde the Word of Christ and the promises of the Word fully and sufficiently satisfie thee then it argues that thou hast fed on Christ for Christ being received by faith into the soule gives it fullnesse and contentment Lastly to name no more as men if they have the grace of God in their hearts will give thankes for their bodily food so it is an evidence that we have fed on Christ when our hearts and tongues are enlarged to praise God for Christ for the comforts and contentment and satisfaction that we finde in him and in religion therefore Saint Paul begins his Epistle to the Ephesians with Blessed bee God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly place in Christ. And Saâ—nt Peter being led by the same blessed Spirit his heart being full his mouth is full of thankes Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath begotten us againe to an inheritance immortall that fadeth not away reserved for you in the heavens for you that are reserved by faith to salvation so undoubtedly the soule that tasts the sweet comforts of Religion in Christ will be much in sweet inlargements of heart in thanksgiving it cannot be otherwaise it is an universall reason the more beleeving a soule is the more thankefull a soul is where there is no praise there is no faith Thus you see how we may try whether we have tasted and relished whether wee have fed upon the food that endures to everlasting life or no. Taste is the most necessary sense of all saith a wise searcher of the mysteries of Nature our life is maintained by taste Every creature sees not every creature heares not but every creature hath taste you may judge of your selves by your taste and relish and if once you have tasted and relished Christ all the world cannot perswade you to fall from him if all should say there were no sweetnesse in Religion that it were better to be a worldling c. you would defie it you would never beleeve it there is no disputing against what a man tasts if all men should say sugar were sharpe if J once tasted it I would say otherwise Labour for the meate that endures to everlasting life The Arguments enforcing this act upon the object to labour for Christ are that he is food and food that endures and food that endures to everlasting life Let me from these
arguments heere in the text for J will draw no other inforce what I have said before J have shewed you what this labour is and rules how you may know whether you rightly labour for this food or no Now to inforce this act consider first the necessity of that our Saviour here injoynes us too it is food It is a strange thing that persons should perswade themselves that they are Christians and yet goe from day to day without refreshing themselves with Christ and with the meditation of the blessed estate they are in by him both in respect of this world and that which is to come without getting strength from Christ against tentations and against corruptions Christ is foode and the promises and prerogatives we have by him are food wee should labour after it every day feede on it every day If a man should aske a man in his calling why doe you take such paines Morning and Evening rising early and going to bed late Hee would answer it is to get bread it is to get food to maintaine my family So should it bee our answer to any that wonder why wee take such paines for our soules why wee labour so after Christ Oh remember we take paines for life to get and mainetaine life and what is so necessary as life And if life bee so necessary food which preserves it must be necessary we see the Patriarks for food left their country and the poore Aegyptians sold themselves and their cattell and all to get food to keepe life We famish eternally except we feed on Christ except we have so much Faith as makes us one with him except by Faith we digest him and get nourishment and streâ—gth from him it will appeare to be so when it is too late ere long nothing in the world will relish us and then if we have not Christ and the things of another life to relish us what will become of us J beseech you consider what opinion and judgement wee shall have ere long of these earthly things and of the better things of another world at the houre of death our judgements will be convinced that the things of Heaven are the best things and if it bee true that they will bee so then why is it not true that they are so now Labour to have the same judgement now With the necessity our blessed Saviour joyneth the excellency of this food It is foode that endures to everlasting life Christ and the good things we have by him are of equall extent and of equall time with our soules if wee labour for earthly things we labour after that which is of shorter continuance then our soules we may out-live our happinesse and what a miserable state is that But if we labour for the food that endures to everlasting life our happinesse is of the same continuance with our soules and that is onely true happinesse If there were such a Tree upon the Earth now as there was in Paradice a Tree of life that whosoever should taste of the fruit of it should live though but on the Earth here to enjoy his sensuall pleasures Oh what would not men give for a little fruit of that Tree though it were to redeeme a little time and to lengthen out a fading base life on earth but much more to live for ever Here is food that endures to everlasting life to such a life as is heavenly and glorious Now blessed be God that since we are cast out of the first Paradice by sinne that now in our relapsed estate God is so mercifull to us as to provide another manner of Tree of life that in Paradice was but a typicall Tree the true Tree of life is Christ and whosoever feeds on him shall not perish but have everlasting life certainely if we beleeved this it could not be but it would wondrously see us on to labour after this meate because it is not onely food that tends to the preservation of life but to life everlasting to a life that endures as long as our soules And let us know that if wee doe not labour for this meate that brings to this life looke what degree of excellency we have had in the ranke of the creatures the same degree we shall have in misery for as the Angels in the degree of excellency were the most excellent creatures but being fallen they are in the same degree of misery that they were in happinesse and are now the most accursed creatures of all others So man as he is a most excellent creature if he feed on the food that endures to everlasting life so if like Nebuchadnezar he fâ—red as a beast on earthly things and forget his soule and affections which are made to close and feede on Christ and better things he shall have the same degree of misery that he hath in happinesse even next to the Divells the most wretched creature that can be What if a man were clad as Aaron was in all his pontificality in his Priestly robes What if hee should feed deliciously every day as Dives what and if he had the wisedome of Salomon the strength of Samson what and if he had all the kingdomes of the world if he have not the food that endures to everlasting life he should bee stripped of all these ere long it is onely Christ and the good things that are to bee had in him and by him that continue everlastingly This should inforce us to labour after this food in the use of all good meanes and before J leave the point consider the reality the truth of these heavenly things of these things wee have by Christ the second Adam all things else are shadowes The food that nourisheth the body it is not food in comparison of that earthly kingdomes are not kingdomes in respect of that earthly sonneship is not sonneship to that earthly riches they are nothing they are vanity in comparison of that earthly inheritance is no inheritance in comparison of the inheritance we have by Christ all other things are but titles of things they are but empty things there is a reality in Christ a truth in the kingdome of grace Alas what is riches what are pleasures what are honours what is sonneship what are all earthly things in comparison of the soule which is an immortall a spirituall an eternall substance they are but shadowes those things that are of equall extent and continuance with the soule and not onely of equall extent but that raise the soule to have communion with God in Heaven with the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost there is the reality there is the truth if we will have the truth of things I am that bread saith Christ afterward in this Chapter and my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drinke indeed as if other meat and other drinke refreshed not indeed but were onely shadowes of things Labour therefore for this meate and certainely if so be the Spirit of God once convince your judgements that
are by it are from Heaven the truth we have and grace from the truth come from Heaven yea and Christ the Author of all is from Heaven and they all leade to Heaven Which should teach us with what minds to converse in the hearing and reading of these things with heavenly affections And it shewes likewise why worldlings and base people are no more affected with the things of the Gospell because it is the Kingdome of Heaven If it were of the world we should have it sought with eagernesse enough though it were a lesse matter then a Kingdome but it is a Kingdome of Heaven remote from flesh and blood there must be a new Spirit to worke a new sight and a new taste to worke a change in the heart of man and then he shall know the things of the Kingdome of Heaven He must come out of the world that will see this Kingdome as in Reve. 18. Come out of Babylon A man must come out of Antichrists Kingdome to see the basenesse of it he cannot see it in the middest of it so we must come out of the world if we would see the glorious Kingdome of Christ it is a heavenly Kingdome Therefore the greatest potentates of the world must abase themselves there is no greatnesse in the world can helpe them to this heavenly Kingdome But why should the Gospell and the state of the Church in the New Testament bee called the Kingdome of Heaven and receive the date now was it not the Kingdome of Heaven before J answer it is the manner of the Scripture to give titles to things from the glorious manifestation of them things are said to bee when they are gloriously manifested The Mystery of Christ is said to be revealed now in the time of the Gospell it was knowne before to Adam and Abraham and the rest but now there was a more apparent glorious manifestation of it therefore now the manifestation of Christ and the good things by him they are called a Kingdome before it was kept inclosed in the pale of the Iewish Church it was vailed under Types it was hid in promises that were darke and obscure but when Christ came all was taken off and Christ was unvailed It is said in the Gospell The Holy Ghost was not given yet because Iesus was not yet glorified The Holy Ghost was given before but not so fully and plentifully So there was a state of Heaven before men were saved before the comming of Christ But it was not called the Kingdome of Heaven it was not a state of liberty and freedome from the bondage of ceremonies c. And there is reason that there should be violence offred to this state and meanes and grace wrought by it it is a Kingdome it is no great wonder that a Kingdome should suffer violence especially such a Kingdome as the Kingdome of Heaven What is in a Kingdome There is first of all freedome from slavery and danger a Kingdome is an independent state there is none above it he that is a King is free independent and supreame Then againe a Kingdome is a full state there is aboundance and plenty of people and good things in a Kingdome Againe in a Kingdome there is glory and excellency where is it to be had else all the glory and sufficiency and contentment that Earth can afford Now in that the state of the Church by reason of the glorious Gospell is called a Kingdome First it is a free state as indeed the Word doth make us free from former bondage In particular the Gospell of Christ it frees us from Jewish bondage and from all kind of bondage spirituall If the Sonne make you free yee are free indeed A Christian is above all he is over sin and Satan and the Law he is free supreame and independent all are under him A Christian as a Christian he is under none but Christ under no creature The spirituall man judgeth all things yet hee himselfe is judged of no man I speake not of civill differences But as a Christian is a member of Christ and a citizen of the Kingdome of Heaven he hath a kind of independent state his conscience is onely subject to God and Christ but all earthly things he commands they are under him And 2. the staâ—e of a Christian is a full state God is his Christ is his All things are his so much as shall serve to bring him to Heaven that which is truly good is directly his and indirectly all other things are made his by Christ who hath the authority and power and strength of a King to command all things to worke together for his good death and sinne and all that befalls him are thus his And then he hath a spirit of contentment in the want of good and of patience in the suffering of ill that he can doe all things as St. Paul saith through Christ that strengtheneth him What he wants in outward things he can fetch supply from the promises of the Gospell he can fetch supply from Christ and from the state to come and what he wants in other things he hath in grace which is better 3. It is a state likewise of glory and excellency but it is a spirituall glory and therefore it consists together with outward basenesse and meanenesse it is a glorious state to be the Sonne of God to be heires of Heaven heires of all things in Christ by the Spirit of Christ in him he rules over all How glorious is the Spirit of God in a Christian in the time of temptation and affliction when he hath a Spirit ruling in him that is stronger then the world and all oppositions whatsoever The state of a Christian is glorious even in this world in the beginnings of it What then is the glory that is to be revealed on the Sonnes of God in the day of revelation It cannot enter into our thoughts it is above our expression nay it is above our imagination and conceit Thus you see there is great cause why the Kingdome of Heaven should suffer violence When Crownes and Kingdomes are laid open to people with hope of getting them especially such a one as the Kingdome of Heaven is it is no wonder if there be violence offered to get them The next thing is the affection of those that seeke after this Kingdome it is violent The Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence How doth the Kingdome of Heaven the Gospell and meanes of grace suffer violence First because when these good things were revealed by Iohn Baptist and then by Christ and after by the Disciples and Apostles many thronged into the Church which is the gate of the Kingdome of Heaven they all pressed to be of the Church to heare the Word of God They hung as it were upon the word of Christ upon his mouth they pressed so that they trod one upon another and it
of Christianity and who will not If men will goe to Heaven they must be violent they must be at the cost and charges sometimes to venture life it selfe and whatsoever is deare and pretious in the world A man must be so violent that hee must goe thorough all even death it selfe though it be a bloudie death to Christ this discards all luke-warme carnall professors who shake off this violence in all estates of the Church it is almost equally difficult to bee a sound Christian for God requires this violence even in the most peaceable times Now the truth and religion are countenanced by the lawes yet the power of it is by many much opposed Therefore hee now that in spight of reproach in spight of slander will beare the scornes cast upon the Gospell that will goe with Christ without the gate bearing his reproach such a man may be said to be thus violent it is an easie thing to have so much Christianity as will stand with our commodity or with pleasure c. but to have so much as will bring us to Heaven I say it is equally hard in all times of the Church it requires violence to carry us thorough these lesser oppositions Againe God will have us get these things with violence that we may set a greater price on them when we have them when we have things that are gotten by violence that are gotten hardly O we valew them much Heaven is Heaven then things that are hardly gotten and hardly kept are highly prized Againe the excellencie of the thing inforceth violence it is fit that excellent things should have answerable affections Now it being a Kingdome and the Kingdome of Heaven what affection is answerable but a violent strong affection Againe together with the excellencie the necessity requires it for the Kingdome of Heaven it is a place of refuge as well as a Kingdome to inrich us There were Cities of refuge among the Jewes when a man was followed by the avenger of blood he would run as fast as he could to the Citie of refuge and there he was safe so when a guilty conscience pursues us when there is a noise of feare in the heart when Gods judgements awaken us hell is open when a man apprehends his estate and is convinced what a one he is and what he deserves of necessity he will flie to the Citie of refuge and where is that but in the Kingdome of Heaven in the Church happie is he that can but get in at the gate of this Kingdome there is no doubt of his going in further but there must be a striving to enter in at the gate and then there he shall be hid in his Sanctuary as the pursued Doves get into their nests and the Connies hide them in the rock when they get that over their heads then they are safe so a Christian when he is pursued with conscience and with the temptations of Satan he flies to his Sanctuary doe you wonder that a guilty man should flee to his sanctuary and the pursued creatures to their hold and refuge In this respect the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence Herein it is compared to some great rich Citie that hath some great treasure and riches in it and it must be besieged and beleagured a long time and those that can enter into it they are made for ever Or it is like the entrance or gate of a Citie where there is striving and thronging and where besides enemies are that if men strive not they are cut and mangled and killed so it is in the state of this Kingdome when a mans eyes be opened he sees the divell and hell behind him and either he must enteror be damned and being entered it makes him rich and advanceth him for ever so he is strongly mooved to offer violence on both sides if he looke behind him there is the kingdome of Satan darknesse and misery and damnation for as Pharaoh pursued the Israelites when they were got out of his kingdome so the divell pursues a man when he is broken out of his dominion And then before him there is the kingdome of happinesse and glory the feare of that that followes them and the hope of that that is set before them both make them strive to enter into the gate of that Citie What should this teach us First let it be a rule of tryall to know judge of our estate whether we be entred into this gate of Heaven or no our lives are very short very uncertaine let us consider if we be in the way to Heaven what striving what strugling what violence have we ever offered There are a company that regard not the meanes of salvation at all either in private or publique Some come to the Word and heare but they doe not heare it as the Word of God to bee ruled by it but as a discourse to delight themselves for the time to have matter to speake of and to censure not with a spirit of obedience to be guided by it as the Scepter of the Kingdome What violence is this now and then to heare a Sermon now and then to reade a Chapter now and then to utter a yawning prayer betweene sleeping and waking perhaps when thou knowest not what thy selfe saist how then wouldest thou have God to regard it What violence is in the lives of most Christians what strength to enforce good actions how doe they improove the meanes of salvation many meanes are wholy neglected some perhaps they use that may stand with their convenience now and then whereas there must be an universall care of all the meanes there cannot one be neglected without the losse of grace and there must be attendance on them with violence There is none of the meanes can profit us without rouzing and stirring up our spirits we cannot heare nor pray without drawing up and raising up our soules the flesh will stop the comfortable performance of any action else and Satan will kill them in the very birth if he can To search a little deeper doe but compare your courses toward these good things of Heaven with your courses towards the world If there be hope of preferment the doores of great men are sure to suffer violence with favourites The Courts of justice suffer violence to have our right in earthly things The stages and such places are thronged and suffer violence If a man could but over-looke the courses of men abroad in the Citie he should see one violent for his pleasures running to the house of the Harlot as a foole to the stocks Another to the exchange to increase his estate Another to the place of justice to detract his neighbour or to get his owne right perhaps neglecting his title to Heaven in the meane time Another to the Court to get favour to rise to some place of preferment These places suffer violence but what violence doth the poore Gospell indure Alas it
will upbraid us for them we are loath to heare of them above all either by the ministery or by our friends we wish above al that the preacher would not speak of them fret it he doe and our hearts run upon them above all So let us search our false hearts which way they runne and now in the day of our abasement let us thinke what would lie heaviest on our conscience if God should take us now with sicknesse or sudden death let us thinke with our selves what is the sinne that would afflict me most that would stagger me most that would shake my Faith most whether it be filthinesse or profanenesse or swearing or injustice and whether have I made satisfaction or no Let me examine if God should strike me with his Arrow now what sinne would rob me of my comfort and make me affraid to yeeld my soule to God Now thinke of it his is the way to be humbled you may now bring your selves to consider of that that at other times you will not give your selves leasure to doe What are daies of fasting for but to give our selves leisure that we may not thinke of meate and drinke and businesse These daies should be daies of rest that we may thinke of that that concernes our soules take the advantage when thou rests from thinking of other businesse thinke with thine owne soule what will lie heaviest upon thy soule This is required to Humiliation this reall Humiliation that is outward it is a protestation of the inward and verbal Humiliation is but an expression of what we do inwardly There are two things wondrous necessary before the soule can be in the right frame it should be in First the soule must apprehend deepely what distance it hath from God what alienates it from God before it can be wise and it must be estranged from that before ever it can come to couple and joyne with God when the soule apprehends what seperates it from God and conceives as it should doe of that then it will be the readier to apprehend God and then all duties will come off easily Therfore let us first of all worke upon our owne soules to be humbled and by all the helps that can be And to helpe it consider now at this time how uncertaine our life is we know not who may be stricken next and consider what the dangerous issue is if we humble not our selves here before God humble us in our graves Let us helpe Humiliation by all that may be For where this is all will follow easily a man will goe out of himselfe to God when he is abased in himselfe and sees no comfort in Heaven or Earth but in God that there is nothing to be stucke to in the world but all is vanity and he may be stripped of life and of all these comforts ere long when a man is abased Faith and Obedience will come off easily What is the reason that Christ is not relished more and that many fall off They were never deepely humbled according to the depth of Humiliation is the growth of holinesse of life and the height of Faith All graces rise higher as the soule is more deeply humbled The more we descend deeply in digging and rending up our hearts the more the Word of God sinks into the good ground that suffers the plow to rend it up and to cut off the weeds The more deeply we are humbled the more the fruits of Gods Word appeare in our hearts and lives the more fruitfull is our conversation all comes indeed upon the truth of our Humiliation and when that is not deep and true all the rest is shallow and counterfit there we should worke it upon our owne hearts And labour to be humble and low in all the powers of our soules to have humble judgements to thinke of our selves as God thinks of us God thinks of us as sinners God and Christ thinke of us that we are such as must deny all in us before we be fit for Heaven Let us judge of our selves as he that must be our judge doth and will judge of us ere long labour to have low judgements of our selves what we are in our selves empty of all good defiled with all ill And this will breed poverty of spirit in our judgements Then let us labour for Humility in our affections to bring our selves more to God to stoope to him in feare and reverence And Humility in our obedience and conversations to God and to men every way let Humility spread it selfe over all the parts and powers of the soule and body and over our whole lives I cannot stand further upon that Now here is verball humillation that is by confession expressing our humiliation by our words as the people of God doe here by confession laying open our sinnes that God may cover them what we hide God will never cure therefore we should take heed that now we are to deale with God we lay open the bottome of our soules to him let not the Iron be in the wound You know a Chyrurgeon can heale nothing if the Iron or poisoned arrow sticke there If there be corruption in the stomacke it must up if it be ill gotten goods it will not digest up it must all to God For men except there be scruples that a man cannot free his conscience there is no necessity though great conveniency but betweene God and thy soule open all by confession and give not over till thou hast brought pardon to thy heart of that sinne thou hast confessed Every sleight confession is not enough but it must be a resolved downe right confession without guile of spirit as it is in Psal. 32. this is the course that David takes there untill he dealt roundly with his soule without guile His moisture was as the drought of Summer he was in some dangerous disease that could not be cured And doe we looke to be preserved from falling into sicknesse or if we be sicke to be cured We must beginne the cure in our soules lay open the wound to God I said I will confesse my sinne and thou forgavest me he begins with confession So all persons that either feare or are under any judgement let them beginne with laying open their soules to God when the soule is healed he will heale the body presently after for he laies sicknesse upon the body for the soule and when the wound is healed the plaister will fall off of it selfe therefore let us lay open our sinnes by confession and shame our soules all that wee can This is the way to give glory to God let us joyne both together our owne ease and glory to God When we have laid open our soules to God and laid as much against our selves as the Divell could doe that way for let us think what the Divell would lay to our charge at the houre of death and the day of judgement he would lay hard to our
Leprosie or some other contagious disease those that were tainted of them were separated from the Congregation seven daies or some set time So it is with sin especially the sins of this people they had sinned grievously and were severed from their land not seven daies but seventy yeares the leprosie and filthinesse of their sins and lives was such Indeed sinne especially the sinne of nature it is a leprosie contagious pestilentiall and as a leprosie it spreads over all the parts and powers of body and soule Take a man that is not changed he hath a leprous eye full of adulterie hee hath a leprous uncircumcised â—are aske him how he judgeth of discourses and Sermons hee relisheth nothing but that which is frothy and vaine plaine substantiall solid discourses either in hearing or reading will not downe with him hee hath a leprous judgement his eyes and eares and tongue are defiled and corrupt he is vile and abhominable in his speeches he is uncircumcised in all all are uncleane all his powers are defiled by nature All the washings in the Law did signifie this the corruption and defilement of our natures which needs another washing which they tipified a washing by the blood and Spirit of Christ. Christ came by water and blood both in Justification and Sanctification There is a Fountaine opened for Iudah and Ierusalem to wash in All those washings shewed a defilement spirituall that needed a spirituall washing This sinne is a leprous contagious sinne therefore by nature we may all crie as the Leper uncleane uncleane the best of us may take up that complaint as farre as we are not renewed A leprous man defiled the things that he touched so it is with sinne till it be forgiven we defile every thing A proud man especially when he is set out in his bravery he thinkes himselfe a jolly man a brave creature alas he is a filthy creature not onely in himselfe but in every thing he puts his hand unto he taints and defiles every thing even civill actions hee sinnes in eating and drinking not that they in the substance of them are sinnes but he staines every thing for he forgets God in them he forgets himselfe exceedingly and he returnes not thankes to God so in morall civill actions much more in religious he defiles himselfe in every thing he is defiled to all things and all things are defiled to him this is our state by nature We are all as an uncleane thing This should enforce a necessity of cleansing our selves in the blood of Christ that is in the death of Christ who hath satisfied the justice of God Our natures are so foule in regard of the guilt and staine that the blood of God-man that is the satisfactory death of God-man was necessary to breed reconciliation and attonement betweene God and us And the blood of Christ which by the eternall Spirit offered himselfe must purge our consciences c. our consciences will not otherwise be pacified and cleansed in regard of guilt but will clamour and crie still much lesse will God be appeased neither God nor conscience will be pacified but by the blood of him who by the eternall Spirit offered up himselfe and then it will in regard of the guilt and staine then God and conscience will both be appeased Therefore in Zach. 13. There is a Fountaine opened for Iuda and Ierusalem to wash in And The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sinne Blood is of a defiling nature but the blood of Christ cleanseth because it is a satisfactory blood he died and was a sacrifice as a publique person for us all Then againe considering that we are all defiled besides this cleansing from the guilt of sinne let us get our natures cleansed by the Spirit of Christ more and more wee are all defiled And take heed of those that are defiled take heede of sinners who would willingly lie with a leprous person yet notwithstanding for matter of marriage and intimate society there is a little conscience made men converse with leprous company they joyne in the most intimate society with those that are leprous in their judgements The life of nature we know and are carefull to avoid what may impaire it but it is a signe we have not the life of grace begun in us because we doe not valew it if we had we would be more carefull to preserve it and to take heeed of contagious company Who would goe to the Pest-house or to one that hath Lord have mercy upon us on the doore none but a mad man he might doe soe and surely those that joyne with swearers and drunkards and filthy persons and goe to filthy places and houses as many doe the more shame for them they think they have no soules nor no account to make 〈◊〉 goe to these places and infect themselves It is a signe they have no life of grace all companies are alike to them Is this strength of grace No they have no life of grace they have nothing to loose for if they had the life of grace they would preserve it better Sinne is a filthy thing more filthy then the leprosie nay then the plague it selfe for the plague or leprosie makes but the bodie loathsome but the sinne that we cherish and are loath to heare of makes the soule loathsome The one makes unfit for the company of men but the other sinne and corruption and lusts unfit us for the Kingdome of God for Heaven for life or death therefore it is worse The leprosie of the body makes a man not a whit odious to God but the leprosie of the soule makes us hatefull to him We may have more intimate communion with God in the plague then out of the plague because God supplies the want of outward comforts but in sinne we can have no comfortable communion and society with God therefore this plague of the soule is many waies worse then the pestilence But we want faith God hath not opened our eyes to see that that we shall see and know ere long and it is happie if wee consider it in time To conclude this point concerning the corruption of nature take Davids course Psal. 51. when sinnefull actions come from us or unsavourie words or beastly thoughts or unchast and noysome desires that grieve the Spirit of God let us go to the Fountaine alas my nature is leprous as farre as it is not purged I was conceived in sinne my mother brought mee forth in iniquity The more we take occasion every day to see and observe the corruption of our nature the lesse it is and we cannot better take occasion then upon every actuall sinne to run to the fountaine the filthy puddle from whence all comes and be more humbled for that then for particular sinnes It is a mistake in men they are ashamed of an action of injustice c but they should goe to their nature and thinke I
we humble our selves before God Alas I am dust and ashes I abhorre my selfe as Iob and Abraham said lay all proud apprehensions of our selves aside and all good workes especially in one kinde in matter of justification all is dung in comparison of Christ. All must be sold for the pearle the Righteousnesse of Christ. There is no reckning must be had of good works by way of merit in justification and our title to Heaven What gives us title to Heaven and frees us from Hell The death of Christ the obedience and satisfaction of Christ. God by it hath redeemed us perfectly without any thing in ourselves and accepts us to life everlasting onely by the Righteousnesse of Christ therefore it is called Gods Righteousnesse because it was done by Christ it was wrought by God Our righteousnesse is as a menstruous cloath it is spotted and stained and defiled it will not doe the deed it will not satisfie conscience much lesse the exact piercing judgement of God that is the righteousnesse that must stay our soules in life and death and we must oppose it to all temptations as a satisfying thing that will set downe conscience to be quiet it must be the Righteousnesse of God-Man nothing else will doe it All our righteousnesse is as filthy raggs that is the confession of their sinfull actions The next thing he confesseth is sencelesnesse There is none that calls upon thy Name that stirreth up himselfe to take hold of thee There be other words betweene concerning the complaint of their miserable estate but I will handle them that concerne their sins first There is none that calls upon thy name In a word he meanes that none worshipped him because prayer is put for the whole worship of God as indeed it may well be put for the whole for it exerciseth all the graces of the Spirit What one grace is not set on worke in prayer it is put for all the inward worship of God Jf it be faith prayer is the flame of faith when there is faith in the heart there will be prayer in the mouth The knowledge of God prayer is grounded upon a Promise so it comes from that part of spirituall worship Hope hope makes a man pray no man would powre out his supplications but to him that he hath hope in And for Love Gods love and mercy drawes us into his presence and joy and delight in the presence of God drawes us to pray We give God the honour of all his attributes in prayer of his truth of his goodnesse of his mercy of his presence every where c. So it sets all graces on worke and gives God the honour of all It is the worship of God every way for though it be an outward verball worship of it selfe yet it expresseth the worship of God inward it gives God the honour of all Therefore those that pray not what kinde of persons are they Wretched persons The sicknesse is now among us Jf a man should aske now what Family is likeliest to have the vengeance of God on it though I speake not to censure those that have it but I speake in Gods ordinâ—ry course surely those that doe not exercise the duâ—y of prayer Powre out thy wrath upon those that call not upon thy name Those families that call not upon God humbly morning and evening or that person that doth not morning and evening reverently call upon God they are fit objects for the vengeance of God for the plague or the like Powre out thy wrath upon the families and persons that call not upon thy name insinuating that the Lord will spare us if we doe call upon his name and humble our selves If thou wilt needs powre out thy vengeance let it be on them that have not grace humbly to call upon thy name Let us make conscience of this duâ—y except we will prove athiests and lie open to all the vengeance of God There is none that stirreth up himselfe to take hold of thee He represents God to us as a great person that would bestow some benefit and is ready to turne away himselfe yet none layes hold of him or desires him to stay so saith he there is none that laies hold on God to keepe him that he should not goe away Therfore when he saith None calls upon thy name or stirs up himselfe to take hold of thee he meanes there are none that pray earnestly Incense was to be burnt or else it cast no sweet smell our prayers must have fire and zeale in them our prayers must be cries that must pierce Heaven Out of the deepe have I cried unto thee Lord. Wee must stirre up our selves wee must waken our selves to waken God indeed before we can waken God we must waken our selves There is none stirreth up himselfe to take hold of thee Insinuating that if we would lay hold of God he will be staied To speake a little more particularly of this God is so gratious that he will be staied even by prayer the way to stay God in his judgements and to lay hold of him and to keepe him among us it is prayer Let us take notice now of the hand of God upon us what is the meanes to stop his hand that he come not among us with his publick judgements It is prayer The way to stop God and the Angell that hath his sword now drawn over our heads it is prayer God so condiscends that hee will be stopt by prayer as we see in Exo. 13. he saith to Moses let me alone Moses prayed and alleadged arguments to God that he should not confound his people Let me alone saith he insinuating that prayer binds Gods hands So powerfull is prayer that it binds the Almighty it makes the omnipotent in some sort impotent hee cannot doe that he would he cannot execute his wrath prayer binds him when a company of Christians lay hold on him by prayer he cannot doe that he threatneth the onely way to lay hold of God is by prayer In Ezek. 22. there is a complaint that none stood in the gap insinuating that if any had stood in the gap when the vengeance of God was comming abroad they might have prevented the wrath the way to stand in the gap and to keep God is to pray and to pâ—ay hearâ—ily Now that God may be held by our prayers they must be strong prayers every prayer will not hold God they must be strong prayers that must bind such a Sampson that hath his strength therefore there must be a stirring up of our selves he saith here There is none that stirreth up him selfe to take hold of thee So it is the duty of Christians to stirre up themselves in these times How shall we stirre up our selves First by considering the danger we are in danger felt or feared it will make a man lay hold When a child feeles the smart of the rod he layes hold upon his father or his mothers
all Our iniquities like the winde take us away he meanes here they were blowne out of Iury to Babylon It was a strong blast that blew them out of their owne Country May not we say Our iniquities have blowne us away What hath blowne us from our callings and imployments Is it not the Pestilence and what brings that Is it not our iniquities So that wee may all complaine of this Our iniquities have blowne us away We see here he layes the blame upon their iniquities did not the Babylonians carry them away Alas they were but Gods instruments God was displeased by their sinnes his wrath blew them away So you may see here the child of God in all judgements lookes to his sinnes he justifies God he murmurs not and saies this and that no but it was my sinnes We have sinned against the Lord Micah 7. I will beare the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against him and Lament 3. Man suffers for his sinnes and every one of us may say it is our iniquities have taken us away A gratious heart justifies God and condemns it selfe The children of God may complaine sometimes of Gods hand but they will never censure Gods hand they justifie God alway though they may complaine of the bitternesse of his hand Here they complaine of the bitternesse of the judgement they were blowne into another country into capâ—ivity they doe not complaine of God God will have us complaine but as he will have us complaine so we must justifie him and condemne our selves just are thy judgements An Hypocrite thinkes God is beholding to him for his outward performances and when judgements befall him he â—rets and censures God either he thinks there is no God or he frets and fumes against God he is discontented but a Christian justifies God and condemns himselfe Our iniquities have blowne us away our sinnes keepe good things from us Therefore let us now lay the blame where it is search out our sinnes personall and particular and complaine of them they have a hand in this plague God is no tyrant he delights not to confound his creatures but sinne makes him out of love with his creatures the workemanship of his owne hands it is our sins Therefore let us lament the sinnes of the times so farre we may without Hypocrisie and ought to take to heart and mourne for the sinnes of the times that we heare by others and see our selves and mourne for our owne hearts that we cannot mourne we must mourne for the sinnes of the times as Daniel and Nehemiah and all the blessed men of God have done It is not the plague that hurts us that is but Gods messenger sinne doth us more harme then all the Divels in Hell and al the plagues in the world it is not outward evils we need to feaâ—e let us feare sinne and lay hold on God he is the Lord of Hoasts he hath all the creatures at his command let us get sin away that doth us all the mischiefe it is that that makes bate betweene God and us and then God makes a controversie betweene us and the creatures it is our sins And that is the reason of the necessity of humiliation for our sinnes because sinne breeds a seperation betweene God and us and betweene the creatures and us When God is offended the creatures are infected let us see our sinnes by them we infect the ayre by our vaine specches and oathes and our filthinesse Our sins infect the ayre and that breeds infection in our bodies Our sinnes cry they have a voice to cry to God if our prayers doe not out-cry them Therefore let us cry to God to heare the cry of our prayers and not of our sinnes How many voices have crying sinnes There is the voice of the people oppressed the voice of filthinesse c. sinnes clamour in Gods eares they clamour for wages due and the wages of sinne is death sinne cryes though it say nothing in words it cries in Gods eares and it will not rest till he hath powred out his vengeance The filthinesse and oathes and athiesme and profanenesse the suffering of the dishonour of his name these sinnes of the times are those that pull miseries upon us Our iniquities have taken us away as the wind So much for that For thou hast hid thy face from us and we are consumed because of our iniquities Sinne makes God hide his face from us and then we are consumed because of our iniquities We melt away in the hand of our iniquities as the word is Indeed sinne is a cruell tyrant when God leaves us in the hand of our sinnes hee leaves us in a cruell hand Christ came to redeeme us from our sinnes our sins are they that torment us it is very significant in the Originall We are melted we melt away as wax before the fire as snow before the Sunne because of our iniquities when God gives up men to bee handled as their owne sinnes will handle them Nations melt before the hands of sinne and Kings and Kingdomes and all Let God give up men to delight in sinne Kingdomes or persons they melt and molder away in the hand of their sins But to speake a little more of the next words Thou hast hid thy face from us That is thou hast hid thy comfort from us God hath a double face a face that shines on our soules in peace and joy and comfort when he saith to the soule I am thy Salvation And his face that shines on the outward estate that keepes misery and sicknesse and danger from us and bestowes good things on us And God takes away his face from us in regard of the inward man when he gives us no peace but leaves us to spirituall desertion In regard of the outward man God hides his face when he gives us up to Pestilence and warre and sicknesse and miseries in this life when he gives us up to outward desertion Sometimes God shines on wicked men in outward things but he hides his face for peace of conscience and sometimes Gods children have his face shining on their conscience but he hides his face in respect of outward things sometimes he shines in neither of both as at this time he neither shined on these blessed men in outward favours for they were in captivity nor in the sence of his love and favour for they were in desolation and ecclipsed every way The face of God it is as the Sunne to the creatures when the Sunne hides his face what is there but darkenesse and night What makes the night but the absence of the Sun What makes Winter but the absence of the Sunne when he growes low and cannot heate the earth So what makes winter in the soule deadnesse and darkenesse and dullnesse in Gods service The absence of the face of God God shines not on the soule What makes night in the soule when the soule is benighted with ignorance that
some part of the light of the understanding and takes away some freedom of the will it darkens the judgement more and more and enthralls the will and affections and bindes a man more and more to the just sentence of God That as it is Prov. 5. the sinner is tied with the bonds of his owne sinnes he is under the chaines of an habituated wicked course of life as well as of the sinne of nature which is the spring of all This is the miserable state of man and these chaines of his sinnes reserve him to further chaines Even as the Devill is reserved in chaines that is in terrours of his conscience which as chaines bind him till he be in Hell the place he is destinated to so we being in the chaines and bondage vexed with our sinnes we are at the same time in the chaines of terrours of conscience the beginnings of Hell and reserved to chaines of damnation and death world without end It is another manner of matter our estate by nature then it is usually taken for If men had but a little supernaturall light to see what condition they are in till they get out into Christ Jesus they would not continue a minute in that cursed estate And we have deserved to be cast into this estate by reason that we left our subordination and dependance upon God which being creatures we should have had Therefore we turning from God to the creature God punisheth our rebellion to him with rebellion in our selves because we withdrew our subjection from him that therefore there should be in us a withdrawing of the subjection of sinne and of the whole soule to God So this captivitie to and giving up to sinne in us it is penall and sinfull but as it comes from God it is meerely judiciall Therefore we have it oft in the New Testament in Rom. 1. 2 Thess. The Gentiles because they would not entertaine the Truth that they might have had by the light of Nature God gave them up to their sinnes And then the Christians after the Apostles times they set slight by the good Word of God the Gospel therefore God gave them up to beleeve lyes It was sinne in them but as God gave them up it was justice So this captivitie and giving men up to their owne lusts it is justice as it comes from God it is a horrible judgement it is worse then to be given up to the Devill himselfe for by being given up to our lusts we encrease our damnation To be given up to be tormented of the Devill it is not such a mischiefe as this spirituall captivitie under sinne we are guiltie our selves of our owne thraldome And this will encrease both the shame and the punishment The shame that a man shall say in Hell afterward I have brought my selfe hither I had meanes enow prohibitions enow I had sometimes chastisements of God sometimes motions of his Spirit sometimes one helpe from God sometimes another yet notwithstanding I brake through all oppositions that God set betweene me and the execution of my lusts and to Hell-ward I would and hither I have brought my selfe So that indeed the greatest part of Hell torment the shame of them especially it will be that men have brought themselves by their owne wits and carnall lusts thither And indeed all the wit a carnall man hath that is not sanctified by Gods Spirit it is to worke himselfe to miserie to be a drudge to his lusts that sets all the parts he hath on work not how he may serve God and be happie in another world but how he may proule provide for his owne carnall lusts This is the estate of all men by nature they are under sinne under the power of sinne the blind judgement leades the blind affections and both fall into the ditch into Hell The fearefulnesse and odiousnesse of this condition to be in prison and thraldome and bondage to all kind of sinne naturall actuall it will appeare further by this That being in subjection to our base lusts by consequence we are under the bondage of Satan for he hath power over death by sinne because he drawes us to sinne and then accuseth us and torments us for sinne By sinne we come to be under his bondage so that we are under the fearefull captivitie of the Devil while we are under the captivitie of sinne for all the power that he hath over us it is by sinne he is but Gods executioner for sinne First God gives him power to draw us to sinne to punish one sinne with another and then he suffers him to accuse and to torment us afterward What a fearfull bondage is this that being under sinne we are under Satan We are servants to our enemie as God threatned his people that they should serve their enemies but this is a greater judgement to be slaves to this enemie This is the condition of every sinner To be a slave to a mans enemie it is a judgement of judgements yet nothwithstanding this is the case of every man by nature he is a servant to his enemie to Satan and his owne lusts He is a right Cham a servant of servants for Satan useth him as the Philistims did Samson he puts out his eyes he puts out his judgement his wits he besots him and so he goes blind in Satans blind worke and businesse he is in a Maze all his life long till at length he sinke into Hell So this is the aggravation of a mans estate by nature he is a slave to his enemie You know blessed Zacharie saith Luke 1. That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies we might serve him without feare in righteousnesse and holinesse all the dayes of our life There is no wicked man but he is acted by the Devill oh that we would consider of it we thinke we are led onely by our owne lusts and sinnes as men but untill a man be in Christ he is ruled by the command of the Prince of the Aire and in 2 Tim. 2 he is ruled by Satan according to his will Even as a Bird in a snare it may move up and downe but it is still in the snare and he that hath it there cares not he knowes he hath it safe and he goes about to catch other birds So when we are in our lusts and follow them the Devil hath us in his snare he is secure of us and goes about getting more and more still the Devill acts and moves and leads all carnall men But how chanceth it that they doe not know and perceive it It is because he goeth with the streame of their owne corruptions Indeed we must make some limitation of this In some cases the Devill doth not move carnall men they are better then the Devill would have them be for the good of the Common-wealth and State but yet take them as they stand in relation to Religion they
that hath not learned the first lesson in the Gospel to deny himselfe he is a wretched slave to the Devill in his best part and power his lusts imprison his will and affections his wit that should devise how hee should be happy for for eternitie it is onely a drudge to his base lusts There are a company of men that are the shame and blemish of the Gospel that set their wits a worke onely how to devise to satisfie their base lusts and then the issue and conclusion of all this is eternall misery and in the meane time the expectation of misery in terrours of conscience This is the estate of every man till he be translated by the Spirit of God to a better condition in Christ that he spends out his time in a base and miserable thraldome worse then the thraldome of the Israelites in Egypt or in Babylon And it is so much the more fearefull because men are insensible of it like Bedlams that make nothing of their chaines that laugh in their chaines A franticke man when he is bound in chaines he laughs when they that are about him weepe at his misery so you have men frolicking in sin they will sweare at liberty and besot themselves at liberty and corrupt their consciences even for base trifles they thinke they are in no bondage they doe all wondrous chearefully and well when as indeed the more chearefully and readily any man performes the base service of sinne the more he is in bondage Freedome is opposite to bondage notwithstanding such is the nature of sinne that the more freely we doe it the more we are bound because the more freedome we have the more we are intangled wee runne into guilt upon guilt till after guilt comes execution an eternall separation from the presence of God and an adjudging to eternall torments for ever So that it is a false judgement that the world hath they thinke great men happy men why They doe as they list I they may doe so and oft times they take the liberty to doe so they will be under no Lawes they are so farre from obeying the Law of God that they are loath to be hampred with the Lawes of the State or with any Lawes but they will be above all A miserable condition why the more will a man hath in evill the more miserable for the more freely and with lesse opposition hee tangleth himselfe let his place be never so great the deeper he sinks in rebellion and the deeper hee sinks into guilt upon guilt which will all come to a reckoning at the houre of death and day of Judgement So the men that we admire and envie most out of simplenesse and want of judgement they are the most miserable creatures in the world if they be out of Christ and have not grace for they have nature let loose in them without restraint and nature being under the captivitie of sinne becomes out of measure sinfull in such The lesse a man is curbed either from Lawes above him or the Law within him to check him the more wretched man he is for the deeper hee goes in rebellion and sinne the deeper his torment shall be afterward Great persons have a great priviledge what is that they shall be greatly tormented that is all the priviledge that I know if they be naught Those that shake off all bonds any earthly priviledge and prerogative is so farre from exempting them from misery that it makes them more miserable for unlesse they have grace to use those things that might be an advantage to better things they sinke deeper and deeper into sinne and so into terrours of conscience first or last and by consequence to damnation Oh it is a fearefull condition to be the greatest Monarch in the world and not to be in Christ and under the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ they are the objects of pitty above all kinde of men to truely judicious soules that know out of Gods truth and by the light of the Spirit what is to be judged of the state of men You see then what kind of misery it is that naturall men are under being under the Law of sinne To declare it a little further for men will hardly thinke it is such a bondage to be under sinne Therefore I beseech you doe but consider how sinne tyrannizeth where it gets strength see it in some instances The covetous worldly man that is under the Law of that lust he hath the law of other lusts but that is predominant see how it tyrannizeth it takes away his rest the use of Gods blessings the good things he hath given him to enjoy it makes him in thrall to the creature Wee see it in carnall pleasure Amnon when he lusted after his sister Thamar it tooke away his rest And how doth this base affection tyrannize in some men it makes them forget their bodies so that they overthrow their health and hasten death temporall it hurts the naturall man it makes them forget their credit it makes them forget their soules it makes them stinke by living in that carnall noysome sinne The judicious Heathen were sensible of it by the strength of naturall judgment yet sinne where it is in any strength uncurbed it so tyrannizeth that it makes men forget both health and life and credite and estate in this world that they come to nothing What should I speake of forgetting life eternall and damnation they have no faith to beleeve that but such is the tyrannie of sinne that it makes them forget things sensible that by experience after they see how dearely they have bought their base pleasures with the losse of credite and health and comfort with the losse of the estate that God hath trusted them withall in this world Take a man that is under the base Law of ambition a proud person see how it tyrannizeth over him it makes him forget blood and kinred all the bonds of nature he will kill his brethren to make his way as you know in our owne Stories such Tyrants if there were not Stories enow in this kind daily experience shewes it Where the Law of ambition and pride raignes it makes the heart wherein this Tyrant sets up his Throne to forget all bonds whatsoever of nature and justice You know whose speech it was If the Law must be violated it must be for a Kingdome but men will doe it for farre lesse we see what men will doe for a base place to command others in this world when they are conscious of their owne ill courses and commanding corruptions and all to give way to the base affection of ambition A touch is enough of these things for experience witnesseth and goes along with me All men that are not in Christ they have some predominant sinne either some base sinne or some more refined sinne and lust that keepes them from Christ and salvation and this tyrannizeth over them And this
calls his body broken the bread of life Why because it was the body of the Sonne of God who is life Iob 6. All life comes from God Now Christ taking our nature upon him his death is a quickning death and by reason of the union with the divine nature now it is the body of God broken and the blood of God shed for us there is our comfort and hee was declared to be so by his Resurrection that declared that he was God and that hee was freed from our sinnes Powerfull must that Saviour needs be that was so strong in his very death when his very body was broken and his blood let out then hee did worke the foundation of all comfort for then hee satisfied the wrath of God Christ was strongest when hee was weakest The Resurrection was but a declaration of the worth of that hee had done Now in the Sacrament wee have Communion with Christ dying especially as his body is broken and his blood shed for that is the foundation of all comfort by his Resurrection And because the Spirit of life was in Christ and did quicken his body while hee was alive and was a Spirit of life even when hee dyed and gave worth and excellency to his death therefore when wee take the Communion wee ought not to meditate meerely of the death of Christ as his blood was shed and his body broken but of the death of such a person as had the Spirit of life in him as was God and man and so set the excellency of his person against all temptations whatsoever Set the excellency of Christ so abased his body broken and his blood shed against all temptations if it be the greatest the wrath of God upon the conscience yet when conscience thinkes this God the party offended gave his owne Sonne to be Incarnate and the Spirit of life in him did quicken mans nature and in that nature did die for satisfaction now God will be satisfied by the death of such a Surety as his owne Sonne so that the excellency of the Person having the Seale of God upon him For him hath God the Father sealed doth wondrously satisfie conscience in all temptations whatsoever What need a man feare death and damnation and the miseries of this life and Satan what are all if God be appeased and reconciled in Christ then a man hath comfort and may thinke of all other enemies as conquered enemies Now we cannot thinke of the death of Christ who was a quickening Spirit but wee must thinke of the death of an excellent person that gave worth to his death to be a satisfactory death for us Therefore let us receive the Communion with comfort that as verily as Christ is mine so his quickening Spirit is communicated to me and whatsoever he hath is mine If I have the field I have the Pearle in it his obedience his victory over death his Sonship is mine his sitting in heaven is for me he sits there to rule me while I am on earth and to take me up to himselfe when I am dead all is for me when wee have Communion with Christ wee have communion with all Therefore the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus when I am one with him it quickens mâ— and frees me from the law of sinne and death FINIS SAINT PAULS CHALLENGE In one Sermon By The late learned and reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Mr of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at GRAYES-INNE PSAL. 27.3 Though an Host should encampe against me my heart shall not feare though warre should rise against me In this will I be confident LONDON Printed by E. P. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford 1638. SAINT PAVLS CHALLENGE ROM 8.30 What shall wee then say to these things If God be for us who can be against us THE words are a glorious conclusion and triumph of faith the conclusion upon all the former particulars in the Chapter and the foundation of all the comforts that follow after to the end of the Chapter They are as the center of the Chapter all the beames of heavenly comfort in this divine Chapter they meete as it were in one in this short clause What shall we say then to these things c. In the words briefly there is first a question What shall we say to these things And then a triumph If God be with us who can be against us It is a question answered with another question What shall wee say to these things He answers it with another question If God be with us who can be against us What shall we say to these things To these things before mentioned If wâ—e be in Christ there is no condemnation to us if wee be led by the Spirit if we be heires of heaven and fellow heires with Christ if we suffer with him if we have the spirit of prayer to helpe our infirmities in the worst conditions if all creatures groane with us and if all worke for our good if God from all eternity hath written our names in heaven by election and separated us from the rest of the world in vocation and hath sanctified and justified us and will after glorifie us what shall wee say to these things The heart of man is full of doubtings and misgiving full of thoughts According to the multitude of my thoughts thy comforts refreshed my soule a multitude of thoughts and a multitude of comforts there is comfort after comfort because there are thoughts after thoughts and surmises after surmises There is no wast comfort set down in this Chapter and when he hath set down all he comes and concludes in a triumphant manner What shall wee say to these things He propounds the quaere to himselfe he catechiseth his own heart and others if these things be so what can be sayd against them Surely the unbeleeving doubting darke rebellious heart of man hath many things to say against divine truths for though divine truths be lighter then the Sunne and there is no greater evidence of any thing in the world yet they find no place in the unbeleeving heart Let God say what he will the doubting heart is ready to gain-say it but these truths are so pregnant and cleare that it is a wonder that any thing should be said against them What shall we say to thâ—se things Againe he meanes what comfort can you have more what can you desire more what can be said more what use will you make of all that hath beene said what will you sucke out of it If all this be true that hath beene spoken before that a Christian is so elevated above the common condition if God love him from everlasting in election and to everlasting in glorification if in the middle time all shall worke for the best what comfort can the heart of man desire more and what use can you make of this for courage and for comfort for the time to come these things are implyed in this
question What shall we say to these things It is good often to propound quaeres and demands to our owne hearts when we read or heare divine truths to aske our owne hearts you have heard these things what say you to them For whatsoever God saith in his Word will doe us no good till we speake to our owne hearts and be convinced of it and say it is so therefore wee should say to our selves here are many comforts and duties pressed but what sayest thou to it my heart dost thou not stand out against comforts and advice It is no matter what God saith unlesse he over-power the unbeleeving heart to say what shall I say to these things shall I not agree with God and his Spirit and his comforts shall they be best in regard of an unbeleeving heart oâ— no Therefore let our care be to store them in the treasury of our memory which should be like the pot of Mannah to containe heavenly comforts let us treasure up all the truths we can all will be little enough when we shall need comfort But when we have them in our memory let us aske our selves are these things so or no If they be so beleeve them if they be not so then let us give liberty to our selves and away with hearing and reading c. If they be so for shame let me yeeld to them Let us aske these questions with some fruit let us deale thus with our owne hearts often call them to account whether â—â—beleeve or no for wee have such a faculty â—nd power we can reflect upon our selves And we ought to desire of the Spirit of God to teach our hearts to reflect upon them selves to examine whether wee know and if wee know whether we beleeve and what use wee make of these things and why we should live thus doth this life and course of mine agree with these principles The best of us all are tardy this way therefore let not that part without making some use of it But I proceed to that I will more dwell on If God befor 〈◊〉 who can be against us Here is first a ground layd and then a comfort built upon it The ground that is layd is If God be with us when he saith If God be with us he doth not put the case but layes it as a ground If God be with us as indeed he is with all his in electing them in calling them in working all for their good in glorifying them after c. If God be with us as he is then this comfort is built upon this ground Who shall or can be against us For the first the ground that is laid is that God is with his children Iâ—deâ—d hee is with the whole world hee is every where but he is with â—is Châ—rch and children in 〈…〉 The soule inâ—pred in the whole body but it is in the braine â—fter another 〈…〉 it understands and 〈…〉 he is not every where comfoâ—ting and directing and sanctifying nor every where giving a sweet and blessed issue So besideâ— the generall respect that will not now stand on God is with us that 〈◊〉 his in a more pecâ—liar manner in all his sweet Attributes in his wisedome to direct us with his power to assist and strengthen us by his grade and love to comfort us and hee is with us in all our perplexities to stay our soules hee is with us by his sweet and gracious mercy to feed 〈◊〉 with hidden Mannah with secret comforts in the middest of discomforts when there is no comfort else with us then God is with us And then he is with us in the issue of all that a godly man takes in hand in his name hee is with him in all crosses to direct and tuâ—â—e them to his best good All things worke for the best to them that love God He is with them in all his sweet relations as a gracious Father in Covenant as a Husband He is with them in those sweet comparisons as a Hen as an Eagle to carry them on his wings above all dangers as hee carryed the Israelites in the wildernesse He is with them in all comfortable relations Therefore God in the Scriptures borrowes 〈◊〉 from every thing thâ—â— is comfortable He is with them as a Rocke to build on as a Shield to defend them in the time of heate and persecution he is a shaddow to keepe them from the heate hee is with them as a light Christ is our life in death our light in darkenesse our righteousnesse in sinfulnesse and guilt our holinesse in impurity our redemption in all our miseries There is somewhat of God in every creature therefore God takes names from his owne creatures because there is some strength or comfort in them God gives himselfe variety of names as there are variety of our distresses Are we in misery God is a Rock a Shield a Tower of defence a Buckler hee is all that can be said for comfort He is with us in his Attributes and sweet relations and all sweet termes that may support our faith that whatsoever wee see comfortable in the creature we may rise more comfortably to God and say God is my Rocke and Shield and my light and defence And then God is with us in every condition and in every place whatsoever hee is not onely a God of the mountaines and not of the valleyes or a God of the valleyes and not of the mountaines as those foolish people thought but he is in all places and at all times with his If they be in prison hee goes with them Act. 16. He made the prison a kind of Paradise a heaven If they be banished into other Countries he goes with them I will goe with thee oh Jacob into Egypt and bring thee backe againe If they be in death he is with us to death and in death In the valley of the shadow of death thou art with â—e at all times whatsoever and in all conditions God is with us In all our affaires whatsoever God is with us Feare not Josua Feare not Moses what was the ground of their comfort I will be with thee Hee was with Saint Paul in all conditions therefore hee bids him feare not So our blessed Saâ—iour the head of all in Act. 10.38 in the speech of Peter to Cornelius hee did all things well for God was with him you see how God is with his children What is the ground that the great and holy and pure God blessed for ever should be with such sinfull and wretched creatures as we are that hee should not onely be with us and about us and compasse us as a shield but be in us The ground of all is his free love in Christ Christ was God with us first God that hee might be with us ordained that Chrisâ— should be God with us Emmanuel that hee should take our nature into unity of person with himselfe Christ being God with us that he
himselfe Thou art a God that hidest thy selfe hee seemes as a stranger in his owne Church to be as a way-faring man as the Prophet saith he takes no notice of his Church and their afflictions hee seemes not to take them to heart nor to pitty his Church Oh! but this is but for a time and for tryall Can a mother forget her childe Isai. 49. Put case she should yet will not I forget thee God hides himselfe but a while to try the graces of his children and to give way to the enemies to let his children to see their corruptions his wise dispensation And these desertions wee must be acquainted with God seemes to be away from his children yet he is with them and supports them with invisible strength Hee seemes to bee with wicked men in prospering them in the world that they have al at their wil in outward things yet he is farre from them hee withdrawes himselfe in spirituall things they have no grace no sound inward comfort And he seemes opposite to his children hee leaves them outwardly in regard of assistance and friends but they have an invisible inward presence of the spirit to support and strengthen them therefore measure not desâ—ertions Gods being or not being with us by outward respects for so he is with the enemies of the Church oft-times and not with his children But hee is with his in the sweetest manner supporting of them when they are in darkenesse and see no light of Gods countenance yet they have so much light though they thinke they see it not as makes them trust in God Let him that is in darknesse and sees no light trust in the name of God Therefore as I said it is a principle pregnant for comfort and use if God be with us he is with us in life and death for whom he loves he loves everlastingly from everlasting to everlasting If this be so what shall wee doe to God againe what is the best evidence to know that God is with us There is a relation betweene God and his he is so with them as that they are with him likewise in all passages Doth he chuse them they in time chuse him Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none in earth that I desire in comparison of thee Doth hee call them they answer Doth hee justifie and free them from their sinnes they make that answer of faith that Peter speakes of I doe beleeve Lord help my unbeliefe they have faith to lay hold upon the forgivenesse And likewise if God be with them they can delight in Gods presence Can God delight to bee present with them that have not grace to delight in him Gods children maintaine their communion with him in all the sanctified meanes they can they are afraid to breake with God Therefore those that to please and give content to others and for base ends will displease their God it is a heavie signe that God as yet hath not shewed himselfe in his gracious mercy in Christ Iesus to them If God be with us wee will be of his side and his enemies shall be our enemies and his friends our friends Hee that claimes this that God is with him he will say I will bee with God and for God God hath two things in the world that wee must have a care of his Church and his cause take them out of the world the world is but a hell upon earth a company of miscreants prophane godlessâ— impudent poysonfull creatures take away the cause of God Religion and the people that are begotten by Religion and what is the rest of mankind The world would not stand but be all upon heapes for a company of sinfull wretches that will have their wills but it is for the Church and people of God that the world stands Now hee that hath God with him and he is in termes with God that they are friends as Abraham was the friend of God he will side with God and Religion Gods cause shall bee his cause and Gods people his people hee will cleave to Gods side as the safest if hee may have never so much prâ—ferment in the world hee will not joyne with Antichrist hee will not betray the cause of Religion if hee might have a world for it Why because he knows if God be with him who can be against him God hath given us understanding and grace to maintaine friendship with him to haâ—e common friends and common enemies Therefoâ—e if we stand not for God let us never talke of Gods presence with us Hee will bee present to confound us to overthrow us and pursue us to Hell but not graciously present without wee labour to maintaine the cause of Religion as farre as wee may God is with us if â—â—e be with him 2 Chron. 15. if wee be with God to take his part hee will be with us to protect and defend us to guide and comfort us and to give issue to all our affaires Not that our being with him is the prime cause of his being with us but it is an evidence to know whether hee be with us as wee make profession when as farre as our callings will suffer wee be with him and maintaine his cause Againe If wee would know whether we be with God and hee with us aske conscience whether it bee with thee for conscience is Gods Vicar Is conscience with thee dost thou not sinne against conscience What conscience saith God saith and what it forbids God forbids especially when it is enlightned by the word doth conscience speak peace to thee from the Word then thou art with God and God is with thee Especially in the great point of justification doth conscience speak peace to thee in the blood of Christ is thy heart sprinkled with it that it is not as the blood of Abel that cries for vengeance haâ—t thou a spirit of faith to beleeve that Christ shed his blood for thee in particular then thou art with God and he with thee because God hath sprinkled the blood of Christ upon thy heart What course shall wee take to keep God comfortably with us Looke thou be in covenant with him and not onely at large in covenant but looke that continually upon all occasions thou renew thy covenant for sometimes Gods children may be in covenant they may be his children yet because they renew not their covenant especially after some breaches God is not with them so comfortably as hee would to free them from their enemies as wee see in the case of the Benjamites Gods people sometimes may have the worst though they be in covenant because they have committed some sin and have not renewed their peace and covenant with God Therefore if we would make a comfortable use of this truth that God is with us and would finde him so in our affaires and businesse let us renew our covenant upon all occasions and
our purpose to please God And then looke to the cause wee take in hand and to our carriage in that cause if our persons be good be in covenant and the cause good and our conscience good and our carriage sutable then God will be with us Let us make use of these principles that we may bee in love with the comfortable secure condition of a Christian there is no state so glorious so comfortable so secure and free from danger If we were in heaven and should look downe below upon all snares and dangers what would we care for them Now if he be with us and we with him God is our habitation we dwell in the secret of the Almighty hee is our high Tower The way of wisdome is on high to escape the snares below Therefore let us raise our soules as high as heaven and God is and set our selves where our hopes are where our God is and wee have set our selves in our Tower that we have set God in our hearts and set our selves in him then we may overlooke the devill and men and death and danger and all As a man that stands upon the top of a Rock that is higher than all the waves hee overlookes them and sees them break themselves upon the Rocke so when wee see God with us and our selves with him by a Spirit oâ— comfort wee can overlooke all with a holy defiance as the Apostle saith here who can be against us what can separate us Oh! the excellent state of a Christian when he is assured of his condition Who would not labour for assurance that yields this abundant comfort in all conditions A word of the occasion for which I made choyse of this portion of Scripture Here is a double fitnesse to the occasion both at home and abroad If God be with us who can bee against us God was at home in 88. hee was with us in the Powder-Treason Hee was with us in the great sicknesse to preserve us and to give us our lives for a prey hee hath beene with us And wee ought not to forget this but upon occasion of this great deliverance to call all former deliverances to minde nationall and personall to consider how often God hath given us our lives and how oft he hath preâ—erved us from death and to take occasion to blesse God for all at once and so to make some speciall use of these meetings Then if we looke abroad God hath beene with us in that he hath been with his Church for they and wee make but one body that member that hath not a sympathy with the body it is but a dead member therefore if we be not affected with the presence of God with the Armies abroad wee are dead members Wee may say in regard of these outward deliverances God hath beene with us and none hath beene against us If God had not been with us in the Powder-plot where had wee beene Our lives would have beene made a prey that that would have beene done would have beene more then the blowing up of the Parliament they would have blowne up the Kingdome with the King and Religion with religious persons and the State with Statesmen It would have brought a confusion of all and have molded all after an Idolatrous Antichristian fashion it would have overthrowne the State and persons and all the issues would have been worse than the present thing And therefore if God had not beene with us as hee was graciously with us what would have become of us as it is in Psal. 129. If God had not beene with us they had made us a prey and overwhelmed and devoured us all there had been no hope Have not wee cause to blesse God and to be thankefull therefore let us labour to doe it for our selves and for our neighbours How shall we shew our thankfulnesse to God not in outvvard manifestations onely vvhich is laudable and a good demonstration of the affections of people but alas what is that wee must shew our thankfulnesse in loving that Religion that God hath so witnessed for and defended so miraculously Labour to love the truth to entertaine it in the love of it and to bring our hearts to a more perfect hatred of Popery For if wee waxe cold and indifferent or oppose Gods cause and undermine it doe wee think that God would suffer this long would hee not spue us out of his mouth with reverence I speake it Though hee have defended us againe and againe hee will be gone with his truth and religion It came not alone nor it will not goe alone if Religion goe our peace and prosperity and the flourishing of our state all will goe It is our Arke if that goe away our happinesse goes away let us make much of Religion that is the way to be thankfull Againe let us shew our thankfulnesse by giving and doing some good to the poore by refreshing their bowels that they may have occasion to blesse God And for the time to come let us trust in God that God will bee with us if wee bee with him and to sticke to him who then shall bee against us Let the Devill and Rome and Hell bee all against us if God bee with us Bellarmine goes about to prove Luther a false Prophet Luther as hee was a couragious man and had a great and mighty spirit of Faith and prayer so his expressions were sutable to his spirit what saith he The cause that I defend is Christs and Gods cause and all the world shall not stand against it it shall prevaile if there be a counsell in earth there is a counsell in heaven that will disappoint all God laughes in Heaven at his enemies and shall wee weepe And things are in a good way if wee can goe on and helpe the cause of God with our prayers and faith that God will goe on and with our cheerefulnesse and joy that God may delight to goe on with his owne cause We may encourage our selves though perhaps wee shall not see the issue of these things yet posterity shall see it FINIS THE CHVRCHES ECCHO In one Sermon By The late learned and reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Mr of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at GRAYES-INNE ISAY 64.1 Oh that thou wouldst rent the Heavens and come downe that the Mountaines might flow downe at thy presence LONDON Printed by E. P. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford 1638. THE CHVRCHES ECCHO REVEL 22.17 And the Spirit and the Bride say Come THis Booke of the Revelation is an history of the state of the Church from the first comming of Christ to his second comming These two last Chapters set downe the glorious condition of the Church in the latter end of the world and as it shall be in the consummation of all things when the present state of things shall determine in the second comming of Christ. For howsoever no doubt but there is set
Spirit in the Spouse saith Come The Spirit doth all as the soule doth all in the body it acts it and leads it and comforts it and gives beauty to it so the Spirit first knits Christ and us together there is the same Spirit in Christ the head and in the Church there is one common Spirit in head and members And when it hath done so it acts and leads and sanctifies and purifies the Church it acquaints the Church with the good things that God hath given her acquaints her with the deepe meaning of God the love of God in Christ it acquaints God with our desires hee knowes our meaning in our prayers and we know his meaning it acquaints us with the state we shall have after and assures us of it It is the earnest of the Inheritance the Spirit and the graces of it are not onely the earnest but a part of that Inheritance a part of heaven where our bodies shall be spirituall not that they shall turne to be spirits but they shall be ruled wholy by the Spirit as the soule rules the body As it is in a river it is impossible that the streame should run higher then the spring-head from whence it comes so it is impossible that our desires should rise higher then the spring from whence they come the desires of nature cannot goe higher then nature the desires of the flesh are fleshly but spirituall desires as they spring from heaven they have a noble originall and head so they carry to heaven againe Therefore as the Spirit comes from God the Father and the Sonne so it carries us backe againe to the Father and the Sonne as it comes from heaven so it carries to heaven back againe That is one way to know whether our desires be spirituall or no our desire of death and of the comming of Christ if it be from wearisomnesse of life and from afflictions in the world so nature may desire I were better be dead then to be thus as Ionas wished death and the children of Israel and Elias in a passion oh that I were dead c. but if those desires spring from the Spirit then they come from heaven from the consideration of the excellency of the state wee shall have there that it shall be better with us and that death is but a darke passage to a glorious condition We may know our desires are spirituall from the rise of them if they come from spirituall and holy and heavenly considerations the Spirit doth all in the Spouse that is holy and Spirituall Therefore let us give entertainment to the Spirit of God and be where we may have further and further communion with the Spirit in spirituall Ordinances The preaching of Gods holy Word though it be meanely esteemed by the world it is the Ministerie of the Spirit in the hearing of it the Spirit is given if we would have the Spirit let us attend upon the Ministerie of the Spirit And let us study Christ and make him all in all Saint Paul questions with the Galathians saith hee I would know of you how came ye by the Spirit by hearing of Christs Gospel or of the Law preached No it was by the Gospel so that not onely the Ministerie in generall but the Evangelicall Ministerie that unfolds Christ and the infinite love of God in Christ the excellent condition we have in this world and look for in the world to come the Spirit is effectuall with these thoughts to make us holy and heavenly The Law beats downe but the Gospel especially these Evangelicall truths make us spirituall Therefore wee should be willing to heare spirituall points There are a company of men that love to heare curious and nice points and if a Minister be quaint anâ— satyricall and unfold points sutable to their apprehension they can digest this but come to speake of things above nature of Christ and the benefits by him they are spirituall they are remote and transcendent above their nature that they cannot relish them But he that hath the Spirit of Christ of all points there are none to those that unfold Christ and the benefits by him the glory that wee hope for by him in another world And let us not grieve the Spirit but give way to his motions The Spirit is now among us in his Ordinance knocking at our hearts and desiring entertainement let us give way and not quench the good motions that hee stirres up and the Spirit shall be given more and more to us The Holy-Ghost is given to them that ebey him And let us beg the Spirit God will give his holy Spirit to them that aske him Luk. 11. As if hee should say the Spirit is the best thing that God can give you that are evill can give good things to your children but your heavenly Father hath one good thing instead of all he will give his Spirit Therefore when wee find our hearts dead and dâ—ll and earthly and base-minded thinke thus Alas I am a lump of flesh now where is the Spirit of God certainely if I had the Spirit in me I could not be as I am If we love our soules we will take this course wee trifle with Religion else God doth all by the Spirit the Spirit is Christs Vicar here is no need of a Ministeriall head betweene the Spouse and Christ the Spirit and the Spouse are so neere together there is such a conjunction betweene Christ and his Church that where the Spirit is hee stirres up desires of his comming Onely let us attend upon the meanes and Ordinances that hee hath left in his Church And let us consider wee are not for this life we are not to live here alway the child in the wombe is not for that life and when it is in the world it is not for this life there is a third life that we are for An imperfect state rests not till it come to perfection our best is behind let those that are naught feare the second comming of Christ. Let Herod and Iudas and the beast of Rome feare that shall be cast into the burning lake Let Felix tremble the corrupt Judge and all that live in corrupt courses But wee that professe our selves to be Christians and hope for better things in another world let us labour to banish base feares and to this end let us labour to be spirituall and not to be lead by the flesh Whosoever is Christs hath the Spirit of Christ or else he is none of his as it is sweetly and largely and heavenly prooved Rom. 8. We have nothing to doe with Christ unlesse we have his Spirit to stirre up motions and desires of better things then this world can afford FINIS DAVIDS CONCLVSION OR THE SAINTS RESOLVTION In one Sermon By the late learned and reverend Divine RICHARD SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Master of Katherine-Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at Grays-Inne Ieremy 30.21 Who is this that ingageth his heart to approach
we look for the Saviour who shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body according to his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe So you see the blessed Apostle led with the same spirit as the man of God here he considers not what men do he fetcheth not the rules of his life from the example of the great ones of the world or from multitude these are false deceiving rules but he fetcheth the rule of his life from the experimentall goodnesse he had found by a contrary course to the world Let the world take what course they will it is good for me to draw neare to God I might adde a little further that The course and corrupt principles of the world are so far from shaking a child of God that they settle him They stir up his zeale the more As we say there is an antiperistasis an increasing of contraries by contraries as we see in winter the body is warmer by reason that the heat is kept in springs are warmer in winter because the heat is kept in So the spirit of God in the hearts of his children works boyles when it is invironed with contraries it gathers strength and breaks out with more zeale as David Psal. 119. when he see men did not keep Gods law we see how he complaines to God It is time Lord for thee to work Indeed it is the nature of opposition to increase the contrary those that have the spirit and grace of God in truth they gather strength by opposition Therefore the use we are to make of it is to discerne of our selves of what spirit wee are what principles we lead our lives by whether by examples of greatnesse or multitude or such like it is an argument wee are led by the spirit of the world and not by the spirit of God Gods children as they are severed from the world in condition they are men of another world so they are severed from the world in disposition in their course and conversation therefore from these grounds their course is contrary to the world But it is good for me But is not in the originall it is And it is good for me but the other is aimed at the sense is But it is good for me to draw neere to God and so it is in the last translation Thus you see what way we have made to the words I do but touch these things and it was necessary to say something of them because the words are a triumphant Conclusion upon the former premises And in the words in generall observe this first of all that God by his spirit inableth his children to justifie wisdome by their owne experience To make it good by their owne experience It is good for me to draw neere to God And this is one reason why God suffers them to be shaken and then in conflict to recover that after recovery they may justifie the truth nihil tam certum c. nothing is so certaine as that that is certaine after doubting nothing is so fixed as that that is fixed after it hath been shaken as the trees have the strongest roots because they are most shaken with winds and tempests Now God suffers the understanding that is the inward man of the best men to bee shaken and after settles them that so they may even from experience justifie all truths that they may say it is naught it is a bitter thing to sinne Sathan hath abused mee and my owne lust abused me and intised mee away from God but I see no such good thing in sinne as nature perswaded me before As travellers will tell men you live poorely here in such a country you may do wondrous well there you shall have plenty and respect and when they come there and are pinched with hunger and disrespect they come home with shame enough to themselves that they were so beguiled So it is with Gods children sometimes he suffers them to bee foyled and lets them have the reines of their lusts awhile to taste a little of the forbidden tree that after they may say with experience it is a bitter thing to forsake God it is better go to my former husband as the Church saith in Hosea when God took her in hand a little sinne will be bitter at the last So the prodigall he was suffered to range till he was whipped awhile and then he could confesse it was better to bee in his fathers house God suffers his children to fall into some course of sinne that afterward by experience they may justifie good things and be able to say that God is good And the judgement of such is more firme and doth more good than those that have beene kept from sincking at all God in his wise providence suffers this We should labour therefore to justifie in our owne experience all that is good What is the reason that men are ashamed of good courses so soon It may be they are perswaded a little to pray and to sanctifie the Lords day to retire themselves from vanity and such like I but if their judgements be not setled out of the book of God and if they have not some experience they will not maintaine this therefore they are driven off Now a Christian should be able to justifie against all gainsayers whatsoever can bee said by his owne experience That to read the book of God and to heare holy truths opened by men led with the spirit of God it is a good thing I find Gods spirit sanctifie me by it To sanctifie the Lords day I find good by it by experience That where there is the communion of Saints holy conference c. I can justifie it if there were no Scripture for it I find it by experience to bee a blessed way to bring me to a heavenly temper to fit mee for heaven So there is no good course but Gods children should be able both by Scripture and likewise by their owne experience to answer all gainsayers when either their owne hearts or others shall oppose it he may bee able to say with the holy man here it is no matter what you say It is good for me to draw neere to God So much for the generall To come more particularly to the words It is good for me to draw neare to God HEre you have the justification of piety of holy courses which is set downe by drawing neare to God And the Argument whereby it is justified It is good This glosse put upon any thing commends it to man for naturally since the fall there is so much left in man that hee drawes to that which is good but when he comes to particulars there is the errour hee seekes heaven in the way of hell he seekes happinesse in the way of misery he seekes light in the way of darknesse and life in the way and path of death his lusts so hurry him
is the true Messias Againe you see the holy Ghost here could not mention David without termes of honour David after he had served the will of God in his Generation c. Precious to God is both the life and death of his Saints The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance The name of Iosias is as an oyntment poured out so indeed the names of holy men are as oyntment poured out they sweeten men when they are gone Davids bodie was buried among them but David had a better Tomb hee was buried in the best monument in the hearts and remembrance of Gods people and in the remembrance of God God wraps him up as a valiant man in his owne collours He mentions not David barely here but his serving the will of God Let wicked men cast what aspertions they will upon the names of Gods people let them eclipse them and cloud them as they please as their malice instigates them therein the names and reputations of Gods people are not in their keeping and power For David shall have a good name in spight of all the â—â—oeg's and Shemeies when they are rotten bodie and name together wee see here many hundred yeares after he is mentioned with titles of honour It should incourage us therfore to serve God as wee regard a good name Mark here the language of the holy Ghost the language of Canaan When hee speaks of a good man hee speaks of him in savorie termes he doth not say that David after hee had been so long or lived so long or reigned and flourished so long as wee see in stories such a man lived or reigned c. so long and then died yet this had beene true after hee had lived and reigned so long hee died But that is not the language of the holy Ghost but after hee had served God so long The Scripture values men by that that God values them and not as men do by their life and reign and flourishing in the world and their esteem with men but as his carriage hath been to God David served the will of God in his generation And then when he speaks of his death he fell asleep he sweetens the harsh name of death with a sweet term the Scripture puts upon it It is a comfortable thing to consider the very language of the Scripture how savoury and heavenly it is raising us up to comfortable and heavenly thoughts even from the very manner of the phrase Different as I said is the phrase of Scripture from other histories that say such a man lived and reigned so long and then he died And indeed a man may say of a wicked man he was so long in the world but if he did no good a man can scarce say that he lived for what is life without doing good but a meer being in the world Or if his life be ill we may say such a man troubled the world so many years then went to his own place as it is said of Indâ—s but this is the Epitaph of a holyman he served God so long and then he slept and had happinesse of God another manner of Epitaph than other men have when they are gone This I observe from the very language or phrase David when he had served the will or counsell of God as the Word is Again in the third place observe this in generall that God sets down David here only as he was a good man and passeth by all his inâ—irmities and breaches whereas alas David life was woven with good and ill there were some ill spots in that excellent garment there were some ill parenthesis made in that excellent speech there was somewhat by the infirmity of man that was not so good but doth God speak of that when he mentions David Oh no! But David after he had served God in his generation c. The spirit of God in Saint Paul passeth by all that was amisse and sets down that which is good to shew us this comfortable point that God values those that are in Christ and have repented of their sinnes not by what they have been or have done at some time but by what they are and what they resolve to be God values them by their better part by that that is his in them by that that is spirituall in them He iudgeth them by the tenour of their lives and not by a particular flaw in their lives This is Gods infinite mercy when he pardons he pardons absolutely he forgets as well as forgives therefore the phrase of Scripture runs He will cast our sins behinde his back cast them into the bottome of the sea that they shall never rise up in remembrance When we have once repented of our sinnes they are to him as if they had never been done they are as things forgotten Peter after his foul fall he was not so much as upbraided by Christ in particular Thou hast denied me c. onely Christ comes sweetly over him with a question Lovest thou â—e he tels him not thou hast betrayed me thus and thus no he doth not so much as upbraid him with the mention of it So curious is God for troubling the peace of his people that when they have soundly repented of their sins they shall never hear of it to their confusion nor at all except it be to better them and to perfect the work of humiliation Contrary to the fashion of the corrupt poysonfull nature of man if they have but one thing in all a mans life to hit him in the teeth with he shall be sure to hear of it oft enough and passe by whatsoever is good in him God doth not so with his children but though they have some breaches in their lives he passeth by them and takes notice of that which is good in them as we see here the Apostle doth being directed by the spirit of God But though God so sweetly passe by Davids faults when he mentions him cals him a man after his own heart c. yet there is one thing that God puts in as a scarre upon David he was a man after Gods own heart in all things but in the matter of Vriah Why doth that come in Scripture Surely God mentions that because that was done with more deliberation and advice it was done in cold bloud it was not infirmitie but presumption in that Now the more will there is in any action of sinne the more hainous the sinne is the more the guilt is increased There was more will in that for it was not done in heat of passion but deliberatly therefore it was a foule act The spirit of God takes notice both of the good of the evill as we see in the Epistles in Rev. 2. to the Churches he had found fault with them before and indeed God discerns directly where wee are to blame yet this thou hast that thou hast the works of the Nicholâ—itan c. If there be
any good God takes notice of it Daviâ— after hâ— had repented of that foule sinne and was sharply corrected for it as indeed he was David was a good man for all that hee served God in his Generation But to give you an item by the way however God passed by the sinne in David and accounted him after his repentance a good man yet he must be sharply corrected for it Let no man therefore presume upon this that God will iudge him by the tenour of his life and therefore hee will commit particular enormities oh no! it cost David deare for besides his heart-smart in his owne particular God made his heart bleed it cost him many a salt tear besides that it was punished in his posteritie God raysed up his own bowels to take armes against him hee made him wish a thousand times that he had not so offended God It is ill trying conclusions with God though God afterwards pardon us and turne all to good yet it shall cost us deare first Though God will bring us to heaven yet if we will venture upon sinnes against conscience and take libertie to offend God he will take sharp courses with us yet it shall not preiudice our salvation you see those sins of David after he had repented was corrected for them they were forgotten and David in regard of the course of his life served God his life was a service of God notwithstanding some particular actions These things may be usefull to the best of us all therefore I observe them in generall from Gods manner of mentioning David here with honour and passing by his infirmities To come more particularly to the words Then David after he had served in his Generation the will of God c. THe words are a short Epitome of the life and death of the blessed man David First I will speak of his life and then of his death In his life there are these two parts First the time in which he lived when this service was done In his Generation And then the manner of his carriage in that time of his generation It was a service of God He served God And this service of God is set down by the obiect of it God By the rule of his worship the will of God Hee served God but how as he had revealed his will to him not at randome God will be served according to his own will And then here is the act he served So here is the proper obiect of worship God in whom all our service is terminate whatsoever we do it must rest in him if we do good works to men it must be for Gods sake we must serve God in it Then here is the proper rule carrying us to that obiect his Will And then it must be a service it must be done in obedience to God David in his Generation served the will or counsell of God as the Word is For his death we shall speak of it after First for the time In his generation Generation in the Scripture signifies a succession of men one after another as you have it in Matth. 1. from such a one to such a one so many generations so many successions You know in the Latine tongue seculum is taken for an age or generation the space of an hundred years though Moses shut up the life of man in a shorter time Succession of one man after another is a generation Generation sometimes in a generall sense is taken for all of one kinde The generation of Noah and the generation of the righteous that is all of that kinde without restraining it to succession But most commonly it is the consideration of men from succession of them having the tearm from the way whereby we enter into the world that is by generation therefore the succession of men from one to another is called Generation Now here Generation implies both the times and the persons The persons of men are a severall generation and the time wherein they live is a generation and both are here included David in his Generation among the age of men and in the time wherin he lived â—erved God The meaning of the place is clear The points considerable here are First of all that there is a generation a succession of men one after another Secondly that every man hath his particular generation Daviâ— had his generation wherin he served the Lord. Thirdly that he served God in his Generation that is the whole time of his Generation yet with this limitation he served God only in his generation while he was here before he came to heaven In heaven there is a kinde of service but it is not by way of work but of reward We must serve God in our generation here If ever we look to reap herafter we must sow now David served God in his generation First of all There is a generation a succession of men Particular men go off the stage but the species the kinde is eternall kinds of things continue forever Man dies noâ— but Paul and Peteâ— and David die there is a succession of particular men It is with men as it is with the waves of the sea one wave goes away and another comes after It is with men as it is with trees for men are compared in Scripture to trees trees of righteousnesse and man take him in his nature is like a tree the Poet could say to that purpose it is with men as with trees some leaves fall off in Autumne and others come in their place the next spring so it is with men they have their severall Generations there is an Autumne a decay and there is a spring of them there is a succession of Generations To teach us this lesson that our time being short here every man hath his generation one Generation goeth away and another commeth as the Scripture saith wee must be laid to our Fathers and otherr must stand up in our place Rise up Iosua for Moses my servant is dead saith the Lord one servant of God dies and another rises There bee many that must act their parts in this world therefore some must go off the stage that others may come on therefore while we have time here let us be sure to do good before we be takeÌ„ away suddenly we know not how soon and there be no more generation Here there will be a succession of generations till wee all meet in heaven then there wil be no succession there shal be no more death but as the Apostle saith we shal be for ever with the Lord. And it should teach us likewise considering that in regard of our being and naturall condition in the world there are severall successions generation after generation that now we are here and presently after no more seen in the world to make sure an eternall generation to be borne anew of the immortall seed that never dies as Saint Peter saith that tends to
immortality there is no death in that birth A Christian as hee is a new creature hath a generation to eternitie hee never dies In regard of our being here there is generation after generation successions of men but when wee are new borne though wee cease to be here we go to heaven He that beleeves in mee saith Christ shall never die Man that is 〈◊〉 of a Woman saith Job hath but a short time to live and that short time is full of misery but man that is borne of the spirit hath an eternall time to live and that a happie life All flesh is grasse in regard of this life we lead which is supported with meat and drink and the comforts of this life all flesh is grasse and the beauty of it as the flower of the grasse but the Word of God indureth for ever and as Saint Iohn saith hee that doth the will of God indureth for ever The word of God indures for ever because it makes us having the spirit of God to indure for ever The world passeth and the lusts of it but he that doth the will of God that is new borne by the word of God and transformed to the obedience of God he abides for ever Would you abide for ever and not passe from alteration to alteration as wicked men they alter and come to nothing and worse than nothing then labor for this estate this is the way to abide for ever this life hath no date of daies no death Labour to plant our selves in Christ by faith that so in him wee may have an eternall estate Thou art our habitation from generation to generation It was a Psalme that was made upon occasion of their falling away in the Wildernesse they dropped away as leaves and few of them came to Canaan Well saith he we fall away here and wither as grasse c. But thou art our God from generation to generarion that is wee have a perpetuall subsistence in thee A Christian when hee is in God by being in Christ hath a perpetuall everlasting subsistence As we are Temples of God so he is our Temple wee dwell in him thou art our habitation c. Who would not labour to bee in such an estate for in this world there is nothing but a succession of Generations Secondly Every man hath a particular generation There is some emphasis in this David in his generation For men drop not into the world at all adventure but every man hath his own time appointed when to come into the world and when to goe out some in one time and some in another Therfore the times wherin they live are foreknown of God he hath set downe when such a man shall be borne in such an age of the world so long he shall live such work hee shall do and when he hath done his worke he shall be taken away hence and another shall come and stand up in his place So every man hath his own generation designed and appointed and ordained by God himselfe from all eternity not only his generation but all the circumstances of it the very place of his abode the time and season and country where he shall live all are set downe It is usefull for this end to observe in what times our lot is fallen to what times God hath reserved us what generation and age we live in to consider of the state of the times Are they good blesse God that hath reserved us to those times We pittie some good men that lived in ill times as our Countrie-men in Queene Maries time and other dark times they were worthy men and it was pitty they lived not in better ages certainly they would have beene excellent men then Therefore we should blesse God for reserving us to better times What makes the times better The discovery of salvation by Iesus Christ the discovery of the meanes of happinesse in another world In what age there is a cleerer discovery where there is most spirit working together with the outward meanes that is a blessed age the spirit of God was not working so much in former times of darknesse and Popery Then there were many that followed the Beast to their eternall destruction though God had mercy on many soules that followed him As it is said in Scripture they followed Absalom in the simplicity of their hearts not knowing whither they went so they followed Popery in the simplicity of their hearts not knowing the danger God had mercy on them yet certainly thousands of them were wrapped up in darknes they were miserable times then Those that know Popery wil say so those that read the story will say so the world was wrapped in wars and miseries in those times It is true our times are not so good as they should be and in many regards they are miserable times and we must not murmure at this dispensation of God if God hath so appointed that our lot shall be to live in hard and ill times I say in some respects these are bad times for the world the older it growes the worse it is As it is in a sinck the further it goes the more soyle it gathers so al the soyle of former times are met in the sinck of later times in that respect this generation is an ill generati◠but if we consider what makes times good the manifestatiō of Christs glorious Gospel that hath shined for a hundred yeere more in our Church the discovery of the means of salvation so cleerly the abundance of the spirit with the meanes making men to apprehend the means enlightning their understandings to make use of them and working their hearts to obedience look in what age these are they are happie times Witnesse our Saviour and he is the best Iudge Happie are the eyes that see the things that yee see and the eares that heare the things that you heare Oh! in former times if they had seene that that wee see and heard that that wee heare they would have accounted themselves happy Oh! those that lived two hundred yeeres ago though they were good men if they had lived to see that that we see and to heare that that we heare living in the glorious lustre and Sun-shine of the Gospell how would it have reioyced them Therefore as we have cause to consider of the ills of the time and generation that wee bee not swayed away with them so we have cause on the other side to blesse God that hath reserved us to these times of knowledge In regard of the ills we may say with Saint Austin Lord to what times are we reserved But in regard of the good things wee may say blessed be God that hath reserved us for these things that he hath cast our time thus that we should be borne in this generation in the blessed time of the Gospell in this second spring of the Gospell We should blesse God for it
his generation hee did not do it by starts and fits he did not do this or that good act but he served God in his whole generation So must every man not only bee content to do now and then a good action for the veriest wicked man in the world may do good sometimes and the best men may do ill sometimes but in the whole course of our life we must do good in our generation our course must bee holy the whole tenour of our lives while wee are in the world All things have their time but there is no time for sinne there is no time for vanity no time for swearing no time for sensuality and loosnesse Therefore let the whole course of our lives be spent in the service of God What do we know but that that little time wherein wee yeeld to the service of the Divell may be the time when God will fetch us hence and what will become of us then therfore resolve not a moment to serve sinne our whole time is but short in respect of eternity what is our generation to world without end Therefore let us be content to serve God our whole generation He served God in his generation that is in his life-time while he was here for God hath placed us in the world to do him some work This is Gods working place he hath houses of work for us now our lot here is to do work to be in some calling and course to work for God We are not sent here into the world to play or to live idly Religion is no vocall profession every man must have some calling or other and in his generation he must do good For what will our account be afterwards else when we shall give an account to God how we have spent our time in our generation what good wee did what ill wee hindred It will be a fearfull account when we have spent our time idly perhaps scandalously and offensively and sent others to hell by our example We must serve God in our generation in our life Thou that livest prophanely day after day when dost thou meane to serve God at the houre of death did David serve God when he was to die only No he served God in his generation and then fell asleep Alas why do we put off there is no sowing after this life then is the time of reaping and why wilt thou deferre the time of sowing till thou come to reap It is a time to reap the comforts of religion at the houre of death shall we defer to serve Gods will till we come to make our own will and oft times it is forced what wee do then No wee must serve God all our time David served God all his generation To do a few good works at our death only it is a swinish doing good the swine will do good when he is dead then there is profit of his flesh though all his life hee were noysome Those men that put off thus they are rather swine than men beastly men God seldome accepts the good they do then and it is a forced good if they were not to die then no good at all would be done that they do is because they can keep it no longer It shewes they have no grace nor faith at all for if there had beene faith to depend upon God they would have done good before but they think I may come to misery my selfe and I know not what distrustfull base thoughts therefore they will do no good in their life-time But wee must serve God in our generation if wee will be saved These things are of some use and wee should not forget them but I come to the service it selfe which I shall a little more stand upon David served the will of God HEre is considerable as I told you these three things The object whom he served God The rule by which hee served him his will and then The service it selfe for to know the will of God and not to serve him it is to no purpose all must go together wee must serve the will of God as wee see here David did For the first It is a knowne truth that God is the maine object of all our service Indeed we serve men for in love which is a very busie grace we must serve one another in good works but the love of God must set all on work and all must bee done in obedience to him God is the object that must terminate all our service to men whatsoever duty wee do we must do it as to God If we serve men if we be Christians it must be with reference to God because hee commands us and that we may honour God We can do no good to him what doth he care for our goods but he hath substituted men in his place he hath appointed such and such men in our generation to do good unto he accounts what we do to them for his sake as done to him God is the object of our service God in Christ as our Father God as God without Christ a Mediator ought to bee served for our very Creation if we were to go to Hell when wee had done or should vanish to nothing with the beasts for our very subordination and subjection to God as creatures implies service He is the object of service as being our Maker having given us a being having given us reason to serve him But now God considered as a Father in Christ in the Covenant of grace wee ought to serve him in a higher regard not as creatures the Creator only and as servants their Lord but as a gracious Father So God the Father Son and holy Ghost and Christ Mediator God-man are the object of our service the whole adaequate fit object we must not go beyond them for whatsoever else wee do it must be in reference to them I will not dwell upon the point it is a foundation to that I am to speak of The next thing is the rule of his service he served the will of God The will of God THe word signifieth Counsell and it is better translated Counsell than Will because it is more emphaticall Gods will is his Counsell not in regard of imperfection in Counsell for Counsell implies somewhat imperfect as deliberation and consultation God sees all at once he doth not deliberate but in regard of that which is eminent in Counsell what is that Wisdome by Counsell thou shalt bee established so whatsoever is Gods will that is Counsell it is wise it is weighed it is as gold seven times tried Therefore wee should stoup to whatsoever is Gods will either in his word or in events his Will is Counsell hee is wise hee is not rash A patterne to all those that would be like God to do all by Counsell and not by Will Those that are put to their will if there bee not answerable wisdome to guyde it to what mischiefe do they plunge
themselves and others God must be served according to his Counsell or Will as hee hath discovered himselfe in his word for service is nothing but an action done with an eye to the will of another for if a man doth an action that one would have him do if hee do it not with respect to his command it is no obedience nor service he that hath not some care in the act it is no obedience As the Civill Law saith infringit obedientiam c. it breaks from the nature of obedience that hath no cause for it he must know his reason at the least there is the command of the superiour must bee a reason and ground for what hee doth in all his obedience and service Therefore there is a like necessity of the word of God as of his service for what Master will bee served according to the will of his servant why doth the Scripture mislike will-worship worship that is according to our owne will because there in wee make our selves God we serve ourselves and not God Wee must not serve God as wee would bee loath to be served our selves wee would be loath to haâ—e a servant complement with cap and knee and then do as he list himselfe and so for us to come and complement with God to heare his word as if wee would be directed by him to kneele and pray to him for fashion and then all our life after to do as we list It is a delusion to say we serve God unlesse we serve him according to his Will Therefore there must be a rule of our service and that rule is the written word of God There was a time when the word of God was not written and then God discovered his Will by dreames and visions and many other wayes but when the world was enlarged and man-kind spread further traditions from hand to hand was not a fit means and way to deliver truths because it was subject to corruption God therefore would deliver his Will how he would be â—erved in writing and God sanctified this course and gave credit to it by his owne example writing his owne Law with his own finger The ten Commandements were written by God himselfe God was the first Preacher and the first writer he was the first Preacher he preached the Gospell to Adam in Paradice and the first writer the tenne Commandements being written by God himselfe Now wee have the written word of God to be our rule how God must be served an exact and perfect rule I will not speak by way of controversie I hope we are grounded well enough but by way of direction for a godly life Gods Will is a sufficient rule What is requisite in a Rule First a rule must be cleere and open that it may bee made use of by those that are to bee regulated by it therefore we say The secret will of God can be no rule because it is secret That which is a rule must bee manifest and open therefore the revealed will of God that every one may see that is our rule Wee may crosse Gods secret will and do well and wee may serve it and yet do ill A Father may pray for his childs life and may crosse the secret will of God and yet doth well God allowes bowels in Fathers A wicked man may do according to Gods secret will and yet sin therefore that was not the rule of Davids service nor cannot be of ours Secret things belong to God but revealed things to us and our children saith blessed Moses The will of God as it is discovered must be the rule of our actions A rule must be open or else it is no rule Againe the rule by which we must lead our lives it must bee infallible not subject to error for then it cannot be the rule of our service The Word of God is an infallible rule it cannot deceive because it is the Word of God men wrote it indeed but it was God that dictated it the finger writes but the head dictates holy men wrote it according as they were guided be the holy Ghost The will of any man cannot be the rule of any mans service further than it is agreeable to the first rule why because it is subject to errour and mistake That which must be the constant rule of a mans life it must not be as popish traditions and the like it must be infallible now the word of God is so it is infallible a man may erre and be a man and a good man too but God cannot erre and be God the word of God cannot bee false and bee the word of God therefore it is an infallible rule When this is applied to any creature it is a Grand lie and the foundation of misery in that Church this is the first lie in the Church of Rome That the Church consisting of a company of men cannot erre what a horrible absurdity is this to make the will of man the rule that the Church cannot erre that Popery cannot erre though they erre egregiously they account rebellion service and make traitors merit c. But are our Tenents subject to such grosse things No we make the rule of obedience the infallible word of God that cannot erre To attribute that of that which cannot erre to that which can erre it is a horrible absurditie but I will not enter into controversies Againe that which is a rule must be perfect in commensuration in measure it must be of equall extent to all things that are to bee ruled Now the things that are to be ruled is our whole carriage and conversation therefore that that is the rule for a man it must rule his thoughts his speeches and actions so the word of God it rules the whole carriage of a man There is a proportion between the rule and all things that are to bee ruled by it all things fall under the word of God to bee directed and ruled by it It gives direction to our thoughts to our speeches to our actions in our callings it gives direction to Magistrates to Ministers to Masters to Servants to all estates and conditions in life in death It is exceeding large as David saith All things come to an end but thy Commandements are exceeding large It is a rule that extends to all things that are to bee ruled whatsoever no other rule but Gods will doth so for mens lawes they have nothing to do with thoughts thought is free for them Againe a rule must bee authenticall what is that It must be credited for it selfe it must have authority of and for it selfe and not depend upon another if it bee the first rule Indeed there be subordinate rules there is a rule ruled and a rule ruling mens lawes the Magistrates will it is a rule ruled by a higher rule and as long as it so it is a good rule but there must bee a rule ruling above all
as it may displease God to balk and avoid all temptations in our callings out of Religious respects it is a service of God our whole life not only in the Church but in our particular places may bee a service of God as it is said here David served God Oh if wee could thinke of this wheresoever wee arâ— wee would take no liberty to offend God in any thingâ— wee would not thrust Religion into a corner into a narrow roome and limit it to some dayes and times and actions and places and then take liberty to defraud and dissemble to abuse our selves this way and that way is this to serve God to serve God is to carry our â—elves as the children of God wheresoever we are so that our whole life is a service of God A Christian is no Libertine no man of freedome hee is a servant Indeed wee have changed our Master wee are set at libertie from the slaverie of sinne and Sathan but it is not that wee should doe nothing to bee Belialls without voake but it is to serve God we are taken from the service of Sathan to be the Lords free-men and indeed it is to that end we are delivered that wee might serve God therefore all the actions of our life should be a service to God To make this a little clearer how can this bee will some man thinke that every common action should bee a service of God I will make it cleare by an instance the beasts and other creatures and wee have common actions such as wee doe in common as to eat and to drinke and to move the beast doth this and man doth it when a man doth them they are reasonable actions because they are guided with reason and moderated by reason but when the beast doth them they are the actions of a beast because hee hath no better faculty to guide him So common actions they are not a service of God as they come from common men that have not grace and the Spirit of God in their hearts they are meere buying and selling and going about the actions of their callings as the actions of a beast are the actions of a beast But let a Christian come to doe them he hath a higher life and a higher spirit that makes them spirituall actions that are common in themselves hee raiseth them up to a higher order and ranke Therfore a Christian serveth God in all that hee doth hee hath an eye to God that which another man doth with no eye to God but meerely in civill respects Wee say of policie it is an ancient observation which is good and very fit The knowledge of a common wealth it is a building knowledge a commanding knowledge for though a States-man doth not build hee doth not buy and sell and commerce but hee useth all other trades for the good of the State It is a knowledge commanding all other inferiour Arts and Trades in a common wealth to the last end they should all bee serviceable to the common-wealth and if they bee not away with them So Religion and the knowledge of Divine things it is a commanding knowledge it commands all other services in our callings c. It doth not teach a man what he shall doe in particular in his calling but it teacheth him how to direct that calling to serve God to bee advantageous and helpfull to his generall calling to further him to heaven to make every thing reductive to his last end which hee sets before him that is to honour and serve God in all things to whom hee desires to approve himselfe in life and death hee hath a principle the holy Ghost in him and he labours to reduce every thing to the maine end oh that wee were in this temper And as wee must labour to imitate holy David in doing so likewise in suffering We must bee carefull that nothing of Gods displease us as we are carefull for our selves that nothing of ours displease God In doing we ought to be carefull that nothing of ours displease God in suffering that nothing of Gods dealing displease us for there is rebellion in both in passive obedience as well as active There is rebellion when wee murmure and will not bee as God will have us as if we were wiser than he to appoint our owne condition whereas wee should resigne our selves as David here I am let the Lord do as it pleaseth him and as they said in the Acts The will of the Lord be done and as we pray in the Lords prayer Thy will be done insinuating not our owne We must bee content to stoup in our sufferings obediently to God because he is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his works in all the courses he takes with us we should bee ready to justifie God in all things Now how did hee serve God for the manner of his service The manner of his service was as it should bee and so he was exemplary to us all in that amongst others his serviâ—e was First universall to God and to men every way Secondly it was uniforme hee was good in all conditions a good Sheepheard a good King he was good in his family c. So the service of the children and servants of God it must be uniforme in all estates to know how to want and how to abound c. And then his service was cheerefull wee see how oft hee rouseth up himselfe in the Psalmes awake my Harp and Lute c. And lastly his service was sincere It was to God you may know his sincerity by this he cared not for scoffings he practised duties that were scorned at That is an evidence of sincerity when in ill times the children of God stand to God and Religion When Micholl mocked him saith he I will be yet more vile for God When God may have glory and Religion defence for men to stand for God in ill times it is a signe of sincerity an hipocrite will never do so David did at all times in his Generation And then it was a signe of sincerity that he would appeale to God Trie me Lord if there be any way of wickednesse in me when a soule can go to God and say Lord if there by any way of wickednesse in me any secret lurking corruption in mee that may endanger the state of my soule that I know not of discover it to me that is a signe that a man is in league with no sin but his service is sincere A man that is not sincere hath no comfort so much sincerity so much comfort If a man do not things to God in sincerity all is lost to God a man may have commendations of the world as the Pharises had which is nothing but a kind of curse you have your reward that is you have it here and shall lose it hereafter So much concerning the life of David in those words
of death It is a going to our fathers But then wee must take heed what fathers wee imitate here take heed who are our patterns while we live for if wee do not imitate them here wee cannot live with them in heaven when wee are dead Therefore it is a very necessary item in Heb. 13.7 Look to them that rule over you that speak the word whose faith follow Considering the end of their labour Let us look before what kind of men those have beene that wee desire to live with in heaven and mark the end of their conversation for such as we delight in and frame our carriage to here such we shall live with hereafter We must not think to live with Nero and die with Paul to live Epicures and die Christians to live dissembling and falsly in our places and to die comfortably and to go to the blessed soules at the houre of death and at the resurrection No God will gather our soules with wicked men if wee fashion our carriage to wicked men such as wee delight in and live with and set as patterns before us with such we shall live for ever hereafter Hee was gathered to his fathers One signe of a man that shall be gathered to beleeving fathers to his good fore-fathers besides imitation is this to delight in the congregations of just men here A man may know he shall go to the congregation of perfect soules in heaven if he delight in the congregations of Gods Saints here for surely he that hath a confidence to bee in the proper heaven heaven that is so blessed he will have a care while he lives as much as he can to be and delight in the heaven upon earth Now the chiefe heaven upon earth is the Church of God Oh how amiable is thy dwelling place oh Lord where many soules meet together to joyne in speaking to God and in hearing God speak to them Those therefore that delight not in the congregations that delight not in the service of God what hope have they to bee gathered to the congregation of the faithfull when they are gone so much for that he was gathered to his fathers And he saw Corruption IT is an Hebraisme for he felt Corruption he had experience of Corruption All other senses are attributed to sight that being the principall of all the senses they have their terme from it because sight is the most excellent the most capacious and quick sense therefore I say the actions of all the other senses are attributed to it as wee say see how he speaks and so here he saw Corruption that is he had experience of it because sight is a convincing sense He could not properly see when he was dead but the meaning is he had experience of Corruption the truth is this in a word that The best and greatest men in the world when they are gone they are subject to corruption David was a King and a Prophet a man after Gods owne heart yet this could not keepe Davids body from Corruption The reason is wee are but dead men here this is not the life that Christ hath purchased for us wee are going to death our naturall life is but Cursus ad mortem a continuall going to death We are alive now but alasse our life is nothing but a continuall dying every day cuts off a part of our life It is a statute that all must die And it is our perfection to die we cannot otherwise see God enjoy our Crown Death indeed is nothing but misery but when we die we go to live The best must see Corruption Therefore this should bee an argument to support the soule when we think of the rottennesse in the grave and of that place and time of horrour when wee shall bee no more here upon earth It is no otherwise with us than it hath beene with the best in the world they all saw Corruption in their time Again considering we have but corruptible bodies here bodies that must see corruption let us take care for the better part He is a mad man that having two houses one free-hold the other a rotten tenement ready to fall about his eares that shall take delight in that and neglect his owne inheritance which is a goodly thing it is for want of wit and it is as much want of grace when we having a double life the life of grace that ends in glory the life of the soule the life of God as Saint Paul saith and then the life of the body which is communicated from the soule to the body which is corruptible our bodies are but tabernacles of clay whose foundation is in the dust for us to take care of this vile body as the Apostle calls it Phil. 3. Who shall change our vile body and make it like to his glorious body according to his mighty power to take care of this vile body and to neglect our precious soules It is the care of most such is the carnall breeding of men and they follow those that bred them in this brutishnesse as if they had no soules as if there were no life after this their care is what they shall eat and what they shall drink and put on what to commend themselves by in the outward man to the view of others all their care is for their outward man Alas what is it but a corruptible vile body it is but the case of the soule they forget the Iewell and look all to the Casket which is a base body take it at the best while we are here And take heed we be not ensnared with the bodies of others This is the corruption of men to gaze in this kind You see wise Salomon and others were much troubled with temptations in this kind Consider that body that thou dotest on now and which is made by the Divell a snare to thee what will it bee ere-long so noysome that thou wilt not indure the presence of it it is but a flower and it is fading fresh in the morning and dead at night All flesh is but grasse it is a corruptible body If thou wilt needs love bee acquainted with such as have excellent spirits that shall live eternally Oh there is an object of love indeed that is the true love and acquaintance that is spirituall Many things may be lovely in the outward person but see that there be a heavenly spirit that is mounting up that savours of good things a spirit that hath life begunne in it that shall be for ever happy in heaven unlesse there bee this there cannot bee a fit ground for the love of any wise man To end all you see here a short story of a good life and a blessed death let us make this blessed man of God exemplary to us in both Let our whole life be nothing but a service of God and let us consider the generation wherein wee are to take
and do all the good we can in our time And then consider what death will be when we come to die it will be a sweet sâ—eep to us and our resurrection will bee a refreshing our flesh shall rest in hope as David saith We shall be gathered to our fathers wee shall see Corruption indeed but mark what David saith Psal. 16. my flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see Corruption Then this is the upshot of all though we see Corruption when we are dead yet with the â—y of faith wee see a rising againe from Corruption We see death but as a pot to refine us in even as it is with silver when there is much corruption and heterogeniall matter mingled with it the fire refines it but it is not lost so the grave refines the body and fits it for a glorious resurrection The flesh rests in hope all the while though the body see Corruption because our head saw no Corruption if the head be above water what if the body be downe our head saw no Corruption that is Christ for he rose out of the grave before his body putrified for his body had a subsistence and was gloriously united to the second person in Trinity and being united to the Lord of life it saw no Cortrption For that did not lie upon Christ as our Saviour to bee corrupt but to die to bee made a curse for us and then especially I say by reason of the neare union of it to the God of life Well then what is Davids argument of comfort in Psal. 16. My flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not suffer thine holy one to see Corruption Because Christ rose from the grave himselfe the holy one of God our flesh may rest in hope though we see Corruption because the same divine power that raised christ our head out of the grave that his body saw no Corruption will raise our bodies to bee like our glorious bodie Our blessed Saviour that overcame death in his owne person by his power he will overcome death for all his mysticall body that is his Church it shall be perfect in heaven soule and body together as hee himselfe is glorious now in heaven That wee may say with David notwithstanding our bodies see Corruption as his did yet our flesh shall rest in hope because Gods holy one saw no Corruption FINIS The Table Part Page A Abasement ABasement of Christ the greatest 1 10. Abasement of Christ whence it was 1 11. Fruit of Christs Abasement 1 13. Adam Our estate in Christ better then in Adam 1 43. Affections Affections not taken away by religion 1 249. Afflictions Benefit of Afflictions 1 279. Against How farre the enemies of Gods children are Against them 2 74. In what respect none are Against Gods children 2 75. Alone A Christian is never Alone 2 78. Angels Angels the cause of their fall 2 202. Annointed Three sorts of persons Annointed 1 34. Appetite How to get Appetite to feed on Christ 1 183. Application Application wrought by the Spirit 2 43. Faith the grace of Application Ibid. Approach Comfort in our Approach to God 1 27. Ascention The Spirit given more abundantly since Christs Ascention 1 53. Authority Authority of Christ from his Father 1 202. B Behold The word Bâ—â—â—ld how used 1 5. Blame Blame to bee laid upon our selves in judgements 1 316. Bodies Bodies of others not to be doted on 2 229 Bondage Freedome in sin a Bondage 2 17. Bride The Church of God a Bride 2 101. Why the Church is called a Bride 2 106. C Care Ground of Care in our carriage 1 82. Ceremonies Bondage of Ceremonies in the Law 1 263. Chaines Sin as Chaines 2 7. Choise Chosen Christ Chosen of God how 1 19. We should rest in Gods Choise 1 20. Christ. Christ not to be neglected 1 21. How to know wee are in Christ 1 30. All that is good is first in Christ and then in us 1 40. To take heed of refusing Christ 1 210. The greatnesse of the sin to refuse Christ 1 212. Comfort for such as receive Christ 1 213. See Chosen servant delight Adam Christians Difference betweene Christians and others 1 238. 2 205. Disposition of true Christians 1 246. Church Three degrees of men in the Church 1 156. Cleansed To labour to be Cleansed by the blood of Christ 1 296 Comfort Comfort from the ground of Gods love 1 25. Comforts when to bee stored up 1 131. Ground of Comfort for weake Christians 1 228. Comming There must be a second Comming of Christ 2 107. The Church desires Christs Comming 2 108. The Church in Heaven desires Christs Comming 2 113. Christians not alway fitted alike for Christs Comming 2 118. Directions how to desire Christs Comming 2 119 Communion See Saints Common See Service Condition Why we should consider our former Condition 1 140. Why God suffers different Conditions of men 2 137. Conflict Gods children exercised with Conflicts 2 132. How to recover out of Conflict 2.134 Confession Confession of sin necessary 1.288 Good men in their Confessions rank themselves with others 1 289. Conscience Conscience after long sinning hardly comforted 1 94 Conjunction Foure Conjunctions wonderfull 1 10 Consideration Hinderances of Consideration 1 103. Contentment Ground of Contentment 2 84. Contraries Contraries agree in a Christian 1 302. Conviction Ground of Conviction 1 127. Conviction of judgement the ground of practise 2 148. Foure things in Conviction 2 149. Conviction to be laboured for 2 151. Conviction wrought by the Holy Ghost 2 155. Correct God Corrects his children sharply 2 169. Counsell The will of God called Counsell why 2 187. Corruption The best men subject to Corruption why 2 227. Ground of support against Corruption 2 218 Courage Ground of Christian Courage 2 81. Course Every man hath his Course 1 107. God judgeth men according to their Course 1 108 Gods children have a contrarie Course to the world 2 137. Creator God to be served as a Creator 2 187. Crâ—â—â—ion See Redemption Creature God shames mens pride by other Crâ—atures 1 115 D Danger What to doe in times of Danger 1 129. Death Dead Men naturally Dead 1 141. Death what Ibid. Death spirituall wherein it is 1 142. Sin it selfe a Death 1 144. Signes of spirituall Death 1 145. Difference in naturall and spirituall Death 1 152. The best have remainders of Death 1 155. Every man under the law of Death 2 25. How we are under the law of Death 2 27. Sin and Death go together 2 28. â—reedome from sin and Death what 2 49. Difference in the Death of godly and wicked 2 216. See Sinne. Defect Three maine Defects in man 1 34. Defiled The best actions of the best men Defiled 1 299 Delay Repentance not to be Delaied 1 91. Danger of Delaying 1 92. Delight Delight in Christ the ground of it 1 28. Desirâ— See Comming Dying There is a time of Dying as
2 67. R Reason Different conclusion of Gods Word and carnall Reason 2 135 Redemption Gods love greater in Redemption then in Creation 1 12 26. Reflect Man can Reflect upon his actions 1 100. Repentance Late Repentance seldome true 1 92. Benefit of lively Repentance 1 95. See Sinne. Reproach Reproach not to be regarded 1 â—45 Resolution Ground of Resolution 2 219. Riches To carrie our selves answerable to our Riches 1 48. Rule Properties of a Rule appliable to Gods Word 2 190. Rule how to bee applied in particular actions 2 194. See Word S Salvation Christ as man chosen to Salvation 1 19. Saints To delight in the communion of Saints 2 225. Sanctuarie Benefit of entring Gods Sanctuary 2 135. Satan When we are under Satan 2 10. Scripture How to understand the Scripture 2 164. Sealing Seâ—ling of Christ what 1 201. What use to make of Christs Sealing 1 204. How to know Christ is Sealâ—d for our good 1 205 209. Sealing threefold 1 206. Sealing of thâ— Spirit what 1 207. Servant Service Christ a Servant how 1 7. Comfort that Christ was a Servant 1 17. To offer Christ in our Service to God 1 20. Danger of deferring Gods Service 2 184. God the object of our Service 2 186. Service what 2 188 203. Common actions a Service of God how 2 â—12 Qualification of our Service of God 2 214. See Life Shaken Gods children Shaken why 2 141. Secret Secret will of God no rule 2 190. Security Security a forerunner of judgement 1 119. Sight Sin takes away the Sight of it selfe 2 21. Sinne. The hurt we have by Sin 1 90. Particular Sins foreshewing judgements 1 121. Naturally we are under Sin 2 5. Sin threefold Ibid. Justice of God to give men up to Sin 2 8. Misery to be under Sin 2 9. Fruit of thraldome to Sin 2 16 Men not given up to all Sinne alike 2 22. Wee should see death in our Sins 2 28. See Generality Death Leprosie Iudgement Sleepe The death of the godly a Sleepe 2 220. Society Society with carnall men to be avoided 1 151. Soule The Soule chiefly to bee cared for 2 228. Spirit How to know wee have the Spirit 1 30. Degrees of receiving the Spirit 1 32. The Spirit put on Christ how 1 33. Spirit given and received by Christ how 1 38. Three things wee receive by the Spirit 1 42. How Christ gives the Spirit 1 55. Spirit in Christ how 2 36. Meanes to get the Spirit 2 123. See Ascention Gospell Stirre See Hold. Strength God the Strength of a Christian 2 79. Successe Succession Christians indeavours Successefull 1 255. There is a Succession of men 2 172. Sufferings Service of God in our sufferings 2 209 214. Supply Our Supply whence it is 1 46. T Table Service of God in obeying the second Table 2 205 207. Tast. Tast a most necessary sence 1 193. Temptation Comfort in Temptation 2 53. Thankefull See Popery Thraldome See Sin Time Times Time when especially to bee improved 1 129. Why to make use of Time 2 173. How our Times both miserable and happie 2 177. To serve God our whole Time 2 183. Gods children must serve their Time 2 218. Every mans Time allotted by God 2 219. Tirannie Tirannie of sin 2 19. V Vaine-glory Vaine-glory why to bee avoided 1 72. Valew Ground whence to Valew Christians 1 30. By what God Valews his children 2 167. Violence Violent Violence offered the Kingdome of Heaven how 1 233. Christians disposition Violent how 1 235. Ground of this Violence â— 236 To judge our estate by our Violence 1 â—41 Violence after outward things 1 242. Violent onely take Heaven 1 251. Freedome of grace inforceth Violence 1 253. Holy Violence hopefull 1 254 Pretious things require Violence 1 259. Exhortation to holy Violence 1 61. Gospell in Luthers time imbraced with Violence why 1 265. How to get holy Violence 1 271. See Wisedome Vnderstandings How to use our Vnderstandings 1.102 Vnfruitfullnesse Vnfruitfullnesse a forerunner of judgement 1 126 Vs. All good in Christ before in Vs 1 40. How the Spirit takes from Christ and gives to Vs 1 41. How the Spirit is put on Christ for Vs 1 50. What Christ did was for Vs 2 41. W Washings Washings in the Law what they signified 1 295. Watchfullnesse Watchfullnesse when requisite 1 130. Will. Will of Christ to give himselfe 1 119. Will of God knowne and not done aggravates sin 2 201. Will-worship Will-worship why forbidden 2 189. Winde Wicked men blowne away as with a Winde 1 317. VVisedome What violence may stand with VVisedome 1 244. VVisedome in man corrupted 2 21. VVisedome justified by whom 2 140. VVord Spirit given in the Ministery of the VVord 1 55. Written VVord the rule of our service 2 189. VVorld Businesse of the VVorld hinders consideration 1 104. VVorldly things to be neglected why 1 171. Christians rule of life not from the VVorld 2 138. Ill courses of the VVorld settle Gods children 2 139. VVorship Prayer put for all Gods VVorship 1 304. FINIS 1 Tim. 3.15 2 Tim. 1.14 Scope of the words Christ promised in the old testament 1 To stablish faith in other promises 2 To comfort them against their owne unworthinesse 2 Cor. 1.19 The word Behold used 1 To shew Christ as present 2 To take their mindes off from their miseries 3 To raise their mindes from earthly things Christ a servant 1 By Condition 2 By Office In respect oâ— God 1 Pet. 3.18 In respect of us Gods love to us 1 In the person thus abased Phil. 2. 4. Conjunctions wonderfull Christs abasemeâ—t tâ—e greaâ—est 2 Whence Christ was so abased Gods love in Redemption greâ—ter then in Creation 3 The fruit of Christs abaâ—ement Matter of wondâ—rment in the worke of Redemption Christ a servant by way of excellencie Vse Seeing Christ was a servant wee should bee humble Vse 2. Comfort that Christ became a servant Christ chosen of God Christ chosen to his office Christ as maâ— chosen to salvation To reâ—t in Gods choice To offer Christ to God in our services Take heed of neglecting Christ. Christ beloved of God 1 As God 2 As Man 3 As Mediator 4 In regard of the execution of his office Quest. Answ. God loves Christ mysticall Comâ—ort Gods love to us grounded on Christ. God loves the worke of our redeâ—ption Comfort in our daily approach to God To stirre us up to deligâ—t in Christ. On what 〈◊〉 to valâ—w Chrâ—stians We may know we are in 〈◊〉 1 I we have his Spirit How to know we have the Spirit Degrees of Christs receiving the Spirit What is meant by putting the Spirit on Christ Three sorts of persons annointed Three maine defects in man Supplied in Christ. In what order Câ—riâ—t performes his offices Chriests priâ—stly office the principall Object Answ. How Christ both gives and receives the Spirit All 〈◊〉 in Christ then 〈◊〉 How the Spirit takes of Christ and gives to us Three things
of Gods word and carnall reason To look to the end of Gods providence Psal. 37. The sight of faith â—rawes us neere to God Why God suffers different conditions of men Gods children have a contrary course to the world Similie A Christians rule of life not from the world Phil. 3. Corrupt courses of the world settle Gods children Psalme 119. Vse Of trâ—all Doct. Wisdome justified of her children Gods câ—ildâ—en shaken why Similie Vse To go 〈◊〉 God 〈…〉 3 How God is neare us How wee are neare to God 1 In our understanding 2 In our minds 3 In our wills 4 In the affections Love Desire Ioâ— Faith Doct. Conâ—iction of the judgement the ground of prâ—ctâ—se 4. Things in conviction Vse To labour for conviction Prophanesse whence it is Tâ—e holy Ghost â—â—â—meth Iohn 16. The holy Ghost convinceth in the use of meanes Application to the Sacrament How to understand the Scriptures Gods children leave a good name Savoury language of Scripture By what God values his children Why the matter of Vriah so objected to David Rev. 2. God corrects his sharply for their sinnes The time Matth. 1. Generation whâ—â— it is Obser. Thâ—re is a succession of men Vse 1. To make use of our short time Vse 2. To make sure an eâ—â—rnall Generation To get into Christ by faith Psal. 90. Obser. Every man hath his particular generation Vse To observe in what Generation we live 1 To blesse God if they be good In what respect tâ—ese times are Miserable Simile 2 Happie August Vse 2. To be bettered by the good in the generation Sinnes under means greater Vse 3. Not to be tainted with the sinnes of our generation Psal. 12. Rom. 12. Vse 4. To set our selves against the sinnes of our generation Divers sinnes in divers ages Vse 5. To labour to make the Generation wee live in good Gal. 6. 3 Wee must serve God our whole time We must serve God in our life time Danger of deferring Gods service Doct. God the object of our service Psal. 16. God as Creator to be served Will of God Counsell why Service what Will worship why forbidden Gods written word the rule of our service Heb. 1. Properties of a Rule appliable to the word of God 1 Open manifest Secret Will of God no rule why 2 Infallible The Grand lie in the Church of Rome 3 In extent 4 Authenticall 5 Inflexible How to apply the rule in particular actions Outward helps 1 The Ministery 2 Communion with good people 3 Lawes of men 4 Example of good people 2 Inward helpes 1 The Spirit of God Isa. 30. Isa. 9.7 Luke 11. 2 Particular grace Prudence 3 Conscience 4 Experience 3 The Act he sâ—rved God Rom. 12. To know Gods will and not doe it aggravates our damnation Cause of the fall of Angels To serve whaâ— Rom. 6. Service of God 1 Inward 3 Service in obeying the second Table Difference between a formall man and a Christian Collos. 3. Ephes. 6. Ephes. 6. Application to David â—e served God 1 In the inward man Psal. 18. Psal 4. 2 Outward Psal. 1. 3 For the second table Psal. 101. As a King 1 Chron. 17. In suffering 1 Sam. 30.6 2 Sam. 15.25 Psâ—l 39. Vse To imitate David Lactantius Similie Luke 1. Quest. Answ. How common actions may be a service of God To serve God in our suâ—ferings David served God 1 Vniversall 2 Vniforme 3 Chearfull 4 Sincere Signes of cincerity 1 To practise scorned duties 2 To appeale to God 3 Comforâ— Difference in the death of godly and wicked Simiâ—e Obser. A time of dying as well as living Vse Not to thinke much of long life Obser. Gods children must serve their time 1 To gaine others 2 To trie our graces 3 To perfect us Vse Not to repine that God will â—ave us live Obser. God hath aloâ—ted a man a time Vse Ground of resolution Obser. The death of the godly refresheth as sleep Psal. 17. ult 1 Cessation from lâ—bour 2 Hope of rising 3 After â—abour Eccles. 5.12 Vse To be painâ—â—ll 2 Set all in order 1 Chron. 29.28 3 Get faitâ— in Christ. Pâ—al 16. Fathers who meant Obser. When wâ— dâ—e we are put to our fathers Take heed whom we imitate Heb. 13.7 To delâ—gt in the communion of Saints Obser. The best and greatest subject to corruption Reas. 1. Wee are dead men here 2 We cannot bee crowned else Vse To support us against corruption 2 To take most care for the soule Philip. 3. 3 Not to be ensnared with the bodies of others To imitate David in life and death Psal. 16. Psal. 16.