or sword Nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through Christ that loved us Indeed tribulation and hunger and famine they are sad things but these are the least troubles of a Christian these outward miseries Over these we are more then Conquerors saith Paul I can tie my right hand at my back and with my left hand beat all these back I can beat them with a finger Nay I say more Neither death nor life that is more nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. See there how he dares all the Enemies to come upon the Stage and tramples them under feet As in Malachi it is said that in the time of the Gospel they shall tread their enemies as ashes under their feet So there is a place also in 1 Cor. 15. Death is swallowed up in victory As if he had said You that have received Jesus Christ I will tell you news Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory He jeers the grave and death and triumphs over them O death where is thy sting thou thoughtest to overcome me but where is thy sting The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. He doth not say which will give us victory when we are dead and then we shall be perfect in Heaven it is true then we shall be more perfect but he saith which hath given us victory for the present I have already over come Hell and Death and the Devil for all hangs on the law the law is Gods Writ and the Devil is Gods Sergeant that executes that Writ and Hell is the Prison Therefore if the law be satisfied if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled Death and Hell and the Devil have nothing to do with me So in Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and was raised for our justification And then it follows Chap. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God See where the Apostle layes justification And we glory in tribulation knowing that it worketh patience c. We rejoice in tribulation and affliction Why because we are justified by Christs death and resurrection O what kinde of spirits should we have How full of joy and comfort should we be in the greatest tribulation How should we tread all this world under our feet the evils of this world and the comforts of the world How should we insult and triumph over the Devil and over Death and Hell for all their power as I said is from the law and if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled then all our enemies are subdued and all is clear Heaven is open and God is mine and the favour of God is to me For know this that there is no natural inbred hatred in God to his creature there is nothing that keeps the creature from the full enjoyment of God but the law not being satisfied God made a law and we made the breach of it and there falls out the distance between the Creatures and God whether Men or Devils Now then if I can say though I be a sinful man yet Jesus Christ hath fulfilled the law the law hath a full righteousness to a farthing then I know I am one with God he is wholly for me and I for him and all the enemies of my Salvation are conquered Now if the Lord would open your eyes to understand the hope of your calling the glorious condition you are brought into you would not walk so weakly and poorly and sadly and dejectedly that every thing should cast you down but you would go on and trample all the world under your feet we should be above men and Devils and the world and every thing if we did but understand to what a glorious estate God hath called us in this world through Jesus Christ Therefore a man reflecting upon his justification as he may look upon himself and account himself something so he may account Death and Hell and all subdued and he may account that the law cannot demand a farthing of him That whereas the breach of the law kept us from communion with God that being taken away we are as righteous as if we had never fallen O glorious condition There Paul Eph. 1. he prayes that they might know the riches and hope of their calling that is that they might understand what this glorious calling is that God hath called us to That is a second Lesson we should learn hence First seeing the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us we should learn how to build our Justification aright how to lay the foundation of it And secondly we should endeavour to get our spirits raised like people that are freed from the law Vse 3. Thirdly and there I shall end for this time being freely and fully justified by the grace of Jesus Christ this should follow to any one that understands it that therefore we should study and learn to conform our selves in our hearts and lives out of love to the will of God There comes in holiness and there it comes in amain and never before all before is nothing but bungling but then it comes rightly We should I say conform our selves to the Example and to the Rule of Jesus Christ in his Gospel And that you may understand that you must know that every man in this world hath a rule to walk by And there are but three great Rules and all men do and must conform to one of these three for there is no man that doth an action but it is in reference to a Rule 1. Now you have one Rule in 1 Pet. 1. 14. As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the lusts of your former ignorance which shews that once they did conform themselves they did fashion themselves unto their lusts but saith he now God hath justified you you must not conform your selves to your lusts Most of mankinde make their lusts their rule which the Prophet calls in Scripture to do that which is right in their own eyes to do what is their minde what they like in their own minde and as that worthy Dr. Preston saith they think when they are in their beds what place they shall go to and where they shall spend their time and when they are up they do that which is right in their own eyes what they have a lust to when they have a lust to be drunk they will be drunk when they have a lust to be filthy they will be filthy when they have a lust to be idle or a lust to be malicious against their neighbours they will be so So that the stirrings of their lusts are their rule and their whole life
Lessons that the Lord did teach us from these words The first is implied in the beginning of the Verse That every man is bound to get him a righteousness to fulfill the law of God And Secondly That all those that rightly believe in Christ have in them a righteousness perfectly to fulfull it And Thirdly That those that thus believe and have this great priviledge for it is the foundation of all others they are known or described by this They walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit The two former I have finished I entred upon the third the last day I opened it at large and proved it to you and came to make one Use of it Vse 1. That from hence we may learn how to judge of persons how to judge of those that are Saints and those that are not Saints not according to some kinde of holiness they may come up to but according to the principles they walk by either as they walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit For I told you there be divers Professors among us that it may be are eminent in the eye of the world before men yet when all comes to all their fasting and praying and preaching and repeating c. will be found to be nothing in the world but a walking according to the flesh that is according to the refined well educated principles of Old Adam But I shall go on a little further Vse 2. Therefore in the next place the Question will be How shall I know whether I walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit How shall I know whether I be one of those that walk according to the Spirit I will onely give you a few Expressions of it I will not say signs for it may be you could not all bear that word and these expressions are most of them laid down in this Chapter and hereabout whereby you may have a guess of it whether you be the men that walk according to the Spirit or no. First you shall finde in Rom. 6. that those that are under grace or that walk according to the Spirit sin is destroyed in them they are dead to sin and alive to righteousness And there are many expressions of the same thing in divers phrases as in ver 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin If thou be a man that walkest according to the Spirit thou canst say the body of sin is destroyed and thou dost not serve sin Then it is said in ver 11. that those that are under grace they are dead indeed to sin and alive to God that is another expression And in ver 12. Sin shall not reign in their mortal bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof And in ver 13. Yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness And in ver 14. Sin shall not have dominion over them So there are divers expressions of one and the same thing Now from all for I cannot open them particularly how much is held forth in each of these expressions but to help thee to see a little the state of thy Soul I would gather these three things from all these expressions there is I say meant by them these three things The first thing is this That those that walk according to grace and according to the Spirit sin is dead in them that is they are dead in respect of the guilt of sin they do see and understand in some measure that Jesus Christ by his death hath abolished and destroyed and done away all their sins in respect of the guilt of them they are not under the law in that respect They see that there is a full righteousness in Jesus Christ that hath satisfied the law and so their sins are done away that they shall never condemn them This is one thing Now a man that walks according to the flesh he sees not that neither can see it for these things are spiritual Now take a man that walks according to the flesh that is according to the most refined principles of Old Adam and he alway carries guilt upon his Conscience he will alway be as a man that is rolling of a Snow-ball the more he goes on in his service the more guilt and horrour But a man that walks according to the Spirit let him be weak or strong he sees this in some measure and probably for the most part that his sins are done away and that there is no condemnation to him because he is in Christ and believes in him therefore as it is Rom. 5. 7. He that is dead is freed from sin or justified from sin That is one thing Secondly in all these phrases this is held forth to us as I understand that a believer being planted into Christ for so he looks upon himself and ingrafted and united to Christ in respect of the power of sin he accounts it as dead that is when he sees any sin stirring in him he considers I am one with Christ I am planted with him in his death and resurrection and this sin was condemned when Christ was condemned and as sure as Christ did die this sin must die therefore he looks upon all his sins and lusts as things that are gasping for life as things that are ready to die and that will surely die as surely as Christ did die Another man that walks according to the law when he sees sin in him and findes lusts to rise in his soul he saith as David in another case Surely I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul Surely I shall prove an Hypocrite one time or other this sin will break my neck and so he is discouraged and his heart is hardened But a man that is under grace that walks according to the Gospel let sin be never so strong and prevalent he looks on it as a condemned thing he can triumph over it when it is strongest and can say I know thou must be laid in the grave with Jesus Christ he reckons himself dead to sin That is another thing Thirdly and lastly from all these expressions here in Rom. 6. we gather this That surely all those that are under grace or that walk according to the Spirit in some eminent way are more holy and more freed from sin then once they were and then all those are that walk under the law in some eminent way I say they are more holy though I do not say there is no sin in them for then we should lie as John saith but certainly there is a power in their souls against sin that is exceedingly transcendent in respect of the best moral men in respect of the exactest men in the world that walk according to the law what else is the meaning of all this Ye are dead to sin and Sin shall not reign and have dominion over you and you shall not yield your members as
instruments to sin Shall we turn all this into speculation No certainly there is some eminent reall holiness and power against sin that they had not before therefore saith he What pleasure had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed those sins that you committed before you are now ashamed of them And let me look a little upon my own soul or appeal to you Take any man or woman that understands what it is to be under the law what it is to walk according to the Covenant of works and according to the flesh and what covenants and resolutions and promises and fastings he had and let him look upon himself what he is now since he hath known a little of Christ and hath known that he is a justified person and that he is dead to the law and the like I appeal to you whether you do not feel a strange power in your souls killing and subduing sin that you never imagined before or almost hoped to have There are some Saints that I know that when they came to know a little of Jesus Christ they have found a power to subdue their sins that they did not hope for in their other condition they were so strong it is an eminent power A poor Saint that sees another tugging and striving and wrastling and bustling with his corruptions he knows that there is a sweet power in his soul that pulls down the highest and proudest imaginations As a godly man saith There is as much difference between a man thaâ— walks after the flesh according to the law and he that walks according to the Spirit as between a man that is in a great Lyter or in a great Boat that is fast upon the Sand and there are it may be a dozen or twenty men tugging and striving to get it off and yet it sticks and another man that is in a Boat upon the water and needs onely to hoist sail and sit down and it is gone he goes with wind and tide So a man that walks according to grace he can go as a childe and speak loving and plain words to his Father and get power over his sins that all the howling and roaring and crying of another a whole year together cannot do It is so and all you that know what grace is know it That is one thing therefore consider this if thou walk according to the Spirit thou art dead to sin that is in respect of the condemnation and guilt of it thou hearest that Christ hath fulfilled the law and that sin is done away And secondly in respect of the power of it thou canst look upon it as a dying gasping thing that must die and thou canst tread on it through the death of Christ Thirdly thou findest no lust so strong in thy soul but thou canst ordinarily bring it down thou canst bring it to the obedience of Jesus Christ another man may throw his cap at his sins and be wishing and woulding all the year long but there are strong lusts in his soul that will not out Therefore saith the Apostle when you walked according to the law the motions of sin brought forth fruit unto death inevitably it will be so Then further you shall find the fruits of walking according to the Spirit I will but name them to you and wish you to consider of them You have many set down in this 8th to the Romans When a man walks according to the Spirit you shall see this is one fruit of it A Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father That is one fruit of it as soon as a man comes to walk according to the Spirit he hath not a spirit of bondage any more What is that It is nothing but this a temper of soul like a slave just as you may conceive of a man that is taken Prisoner in Turkie what temper he is of he is glad of a Crust of bread and he fears whipping and beating and it may be killing such is the temper of a mans soul in a spirit of bondage when one is in such a temper that he is alwayes in fear of being whipped and scourged and he hath hard thoughts of God and he fears that he shall prove an hypocrite and the like Now saith the Apostle we have not that spirit but we have the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father that is there is a sweet temper such as is in a loving childe to his dear Father there is a boldness a love and delight and rejoycing and a sweetness c. This is one fruit of it therefore as far as thou art under horrour and moping and howling and crying thou comest short of walking according to the Spirit for thy soul would be alway full of sweetness in the greatest affliction if there were a Spirit of Adoption and under the worst sins thou doest commit though there would be sorrow yet thou wouldest be full of sweetness and joy That is one thing Again another fruit and consequent of it is that the Spirit of God bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God If thou wilt be led by the Spirit and walk after the Spirit the Spirit of God will witness with thy spirit that thou art the childe of God What is that the meaning of it is this as I understand the Spirit of God will raise up my spirit to be able to see and know that I am the childe of God for the spirit of a man knows the natural things of a man and no more but the Spirit of God witnesseth with my spirit that I am the childe of God that is he raiseth up my spirit whereby I may see and know that I am the childe of God that as before by my own spirit I was able to know whether I were poor or rich whether I were sick or well whether I were beloved or hated so now my spirit is raised up by the Spirit of God I am able to reflect upon my self spiritually and look upon my self as beloved and chosen and holy and called and justified and this is a spiritual way Thirdly here is another expression of it and that is an earnest hope or expectation of the glory that is to be revealed I finde and observe little of that to be in Professors and I have oft marvelled at it and the reason is Because they have not the Spirit of Adoption and walk not fully according to the Spirit therefore they are not filled with those expectations and those earnest desires that the Saints were ordinarily in the Primitive times Saith the Apostle in this Chapter The creature groaneth and desires to be delivered and not onely they but we our selves which have the first-fruits of the Spirit we groan within our selves
some it seems I am sure there are some now that all the liberty and freedome they hear of from the Gospel or by getting off from the law it is nothing in the world but that they may go on more in sin and enjoy their lusts more freely this is to pervert the Gospel And what the end of these people shall be you may see in 2 Pet. 1. and in the Epistle of Jude they are appointed to damnation and their damnation slumbereth and sleepeth not that is they are going on amain they are going faster towards Hell then any Drunkard or Whoremonger A Malefactor never goeth so fast to death as these do to destruction when all the knowledge of liberty that they have is onely to give occasion to provide more for their lusts then before Let us consider and take heed of that 2. Another thing is seeing you have liberty by walking according to the Spirit for where the Spirit is there is freedome that is certain use it not for the offence of your Brethren As some there are that when they hear they are free are ready to say I care not what all the world say I know this is not a sin and therefore I will do it Beloved that is far from walking worthy according to the Gospel I became all things saith Paul to all men that I might win sâ—me I am under the law to them that are under the law and without law to them that are without law I became all things to all men that I might gain some so we must not please our selves but one another for edification Rom. 15. and condescend to men of low sort Rom 12. Who is weak saith the Apostle and I am not weak If thou see a man under the law fumbling and wallowing upon Mount Sinai without the knowledge of the Gospel despise him not and say He is a Legallist and what have we to do with him but endeavour to frame thy heart and thy language and carriage so suitable to him that thou mayest win upon him and so with others This is the language of the Gospel and the true way of the Spirit of God when a man knows his freedome and yet he becomes all things to all men that he may do them good There is one word that I think is the word and will of God and I desire that thou mayest take it so and carry it with thee 2. A second thing that I advise you to that are Spiritual that the Lord hath revealed a little of the Gospel to it is this that you would endeavour to walk humbly O walk humbly Why so I will tell you why because a man when he is under the law he shall be twenty years striving for a little knowledge or grace and shall hardly get them but as soon as ever a man comes rightly to Christ and to know him then there is such a flood of grace and such abundance of revelations it is the Scriptures word there is such abundance of manifestations of God and of the Image of God when they begin to come in that it is a hard thing then to keep the soul down for Spiritual things when they come in rightly when the flood-gates are open they come in as waves one upon the neck of another For Spiritual Gospel-truths multiply in the Soul a thousand-fold one lesson from another and one Scripture opens another and then there is no end and then it is hard to keep the soul humble Therefore in 2 Cor. 12. when Paul was wrapt into the third Heavens because of the abundance of revelations that he had seen for he had seen and heard things that he could not utter and speak to others he was ready to be proud to be lifted up and lest he should be so God sent a messenger of Satan to buffet him It implies it was a hard thing for Paul the Apostle when abundance of revelations came into his soul not to be lifted up And this spoils some honest hearts I hope they are so and that God will bring them home that having been kept bare of food as some Souldiers that went to relieve Glocester when they came home to the City they killed themselves with eating full and good food so when poor souls have gone upon the bare Mountains of Sinai and then have come to the Pastures of righteousness they go so greedily and are so taken that if God be not wonderful merciful they will be undone by being lifted up Therefore beware of this learn from Paul's example to seek to the Lord to keep your hearts humble 3. A third thing is this Endeavour to walk simply I mean to keep to the simplicity of the Gospel The Gospel though there be glorious Mysteries in it to feed the soul yet notwithstanding it is a plain simple thing Now here the Devil endeavours to undo souls as it is ordinary in this City when men come once to understand a little of the Gospel and to taste the sweetness of it the Devil screws them up to sublimare all Religion into Notions to cleave a hair and Religion will be all in Idea's and conceits of the Nature of God and of the Creature whereas the Gospel is a plain thing Paul desired to know the death of Christ and the power of his resurrection and Paul teacheth Servants how to obey their Masters and Masters how to carry themselves to their Servants and Wives to their Husbands and such simple plain things Now these are accounted nothing and that is the reason that many among us they do more and more lose the Word of God unless it be about some sublime Notions If a Minister be upon such Points some high Idea's for they feed upon such that is worth the while but if a Minister speak of things that concern their Calling or their Sex and Condition that is plain it hath no taste in it no more then the white of an Egge It is a hard thing to keep to the simplicity of the Gospel As the Devil tempted our first Parents God gave Adam and Eve sufficient knowledge to do his will and they had sufficient Natural knowledge for they named all the Creatures yet notwithstanding she must needs go from the simplicity of Gods will and be curious and she must know good and evil there was the distinction good and evil thought she what kinde of good and evil she goes to this sublime conceit and so was lost Now saith Paul I am afraid of you lest the Devil should beguile you so I am loth to offend you for I had rather win you or else I could instance in twenty or forty conceits and distinctions of things Idea's that are above the simplicity of the Gospel and that is enough to make us leave them because they are above the simplicity of the Gospel and the excellency of the Gospel is not in those Idea's but in knowing the power of plain things as the death of Jesus Christ Every man in Jerusalem
knew the death of Christ but to know the power of that death keep close to the simplicity of the Gospel 4. Another thing is this you that have known a little of the Spirit of God and have inlarged hearts and enlightned eyes Let not God rest till thou find the comfort and power of what thou knowest O we know that the righteousness of the law by Christ is fulfilled in us and the like but we have not the full comfort of such a truth and many others We know Christ hath paid our debt and that we are one with him as he is one with the Father but we have not the power and the comfort of these things Beloved for thy comfort know that Paul in a sort was in thy condition Phil. 3. Not as though I had attained or apprehended but I would apprehend him of whom I am apprehended and I would know the vertue of his death and the power of his Resurrection Paul saw something that he did not fully apprehend but he would feele more of the power of the Gospel spirituall truths and if he saw that he wanted much more we Oh do not content your selves to have an old frozen knowledge of Gospell truthes whereby you are able to prove that men are legallists and that men are under Mount Sinai and yet have cold and frozen hearts cold truths without life therefore thinke of minding God of this 5. Then lastly labour to take heed that you be not by any means bewitched so as to fall back from that little light in the Gospell that you have received it is an easie thing so to doe I doe believe and it is my comfort and will be when I am farr from this place that the Lord hath enlightened divers of you to know the Gospel to know Jesus Christ a little clearer Now I know not what the Lord may doe for you but I say it is wonderous easie you may under one quarter of a years fleshly preaching lose that that you have been under two or three yeares Preaching a getting I have knowne after a quarter of a years building up of my soule in the knowledg of Christ and the setling of my faith and assurance I have heard one Sermon that hath routed and dasht all that work in my soule Therefore I beseech you beware faith is a tender thing especially the light we have that is but very weak and very tender therefore saith Paul Who hath bewitched you you foolish Galatians before whom Jesus Christ hath been lively painted as the word signifies Christ was drawn lively before the Galatians and yet they did fall If Paul that was an Apostle and had the spirit of God in such a measure laying open the spirit of Christ and yet his people did go back to Moses and to Sinai the Lord help and uphold us Therefore stand fast in your liberty in Jesus Christ This is all in short I have to say to you for that I hope you will lay up these words Vse 5. Now I have a few words of Advice and Counsel to those poor souls that do yet in a great measure walk according to the flesh in one fashion or other Their Religion is a fleshly Religion from Old Adam and according to the law in a great measure Now the Question is What shall they do that they may be spiritual Christians that they may walk according to the Spirit I will onely name a few things 1. The first is this I would desire you to endeavour to study much the difference between the two Testaments the New and the Old I mean not the two Books but the two Testaments that we reade of Heb. 8. and Heb. 9. whereof the one is faulty and the other is excellent the one is done away the other remains Study the difference between them for thereby you say the foundation of your Gospel-happiness for there is the misery of many Professors and will be their misery if they should live a thousand years they jumble both Testaments without knowledge and distinction and so they will never be better 2. Another thing that I would exhort you to is this to prize the Spirit of Christ more then you do There is nothing in the Gospel but it is a Mysterie you cannot know it but by the Spirit and there is no duty in the Gospel to be done that can be done but by the power of the Spirit We may do many things in the law by the strength of Old Adam in the Gospel we can do nothing but the Spirit is all And that is the reason I think for I speak according to the grace given me why people now are left so bare and poor and confused and know not which way to go or what to do they do not prize the Spirit of God Many men extoll Learning mightily and it is accounted almost Heresie to commend the Spirit of God There are many men I and many Professors that do not love to hear a man in a few modest words to commend the Spirit of God but all must be by study and reading and learning and for the Spirit of God it is a plain meer Cypher and there is an end But my life on it if I had a hundred I would say so they shall be beholden to the Spirit of God and extoll him before they be taught spiritually they shall be willing to lay down all their Learning as I have seen a learned godly man of late even with the Plow-boy I do not say but that Learning is good for some uses and God may bless it to help a man to express what he knows the better but as I told you Adam must die he cannot by it come to know one jot of the spiritual meaning of God in the Gospel or one jot of power or assurance to be happy or to do any thing for God towards this all Learning is not worth a straw therefore labour to extol the Spirit And if any of you have a minde to learning go on I discourage you not from it Learning is a thing in another element take pains and diligence to be learned it is good to do so But if thou wilt be a Gospel Christian thou must thank the Spirit of God for all Saith Paul for all his learning I am not sufficient to speak a good word and he was a learned man that Festus said Much learning had made him mad Beza in his Comment upon 2 Cor. 11. where the Apostle saith Are they Hebrews so am I Are they Jews so am I. Saith he I never read in any Latine on Greek Author so much eloquence and elegancy of speech as Paul hath there and yet he professeth he could not think a good thought for all he was learned so much much less do a good work As long as thou keepest the Spirit an underling as a cypher as many of the Clergie and learned men they extol Learning to the Heavens and many of them upon purpose to despight