wean us from worldly happiness To make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 Vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory Rom. 9.23 In time you shall be delivered see that you have the beginning and first-fruits and that you daily grow in grace 2. With earnest Longing Rom. 7.23 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 2 Cor. 5.2 In this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven 3. As to Faith 1. Fix it and be at a greater certainty against all doubts and fears not only as to your interest but the truth of the promise of eternal Life These doubts may stand with a sincere Faith but not a confirmed Faith we have much of the Unbeliever in our bosoms venture all your happiness temporal and spiritual upon this security 2. Improve it it is the work of Faith to overcome the World and the Flesh 1 Joh. 5.4 5. This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God to over-rule our sense and appetite and to teach us to make nothing of all that would disswade us against our heavenly interest Acts 20.24 But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God This is the true Mortification SERMON VIII ROM VI. 9 10. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he dyed he dyed unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God THAT I may the better explain the drift of these words let us take the Apostles Method along with us His intent is to prevent an abuse of the Doctrine of the Gospel which publisheth the free Grace of God to Sinners Where sin abounded grace did much more abound From hence some did infer That therefore under the Gospel they might take liberty to sin the more their sins were and the greater they were the more they should occasion God to manifest the abundance of his Grace upon them The Apostle answereth this 1. By way of Detestation Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid 2. By way of Confutation the Argument by which he confuseth it is our Baptismal Vow and Engagement How shall they that are dead to sin live any longer therein To clear this he explaineth our Baptismal Vow in the two branches of it dying to sin and living to righteousness the one direct and the other consequential directly we are baptized into the death of Christ vers 2. but so as that we also rise again to newness of life vers 4 5. for we are united to Christ as dying anâ— rising and we are by virtue of the Union to express a conformity to both vers 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection He proveth the former part vers 6 7. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin The latter he begins to prove vers 8. If we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him How live with him As our spiritual death was answerable to the Death of Christ so our spiritual Life must be answerable to his Resurrection from the Dead as we have a Copy and Pattern for the mortifying sin in his Death so we have also a Copy and Pattern for newness of life in his Resurrection and therefore we do not in vain believe that we shall live spiritually and eternally with him Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him for in that he dyed he dyed unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God The better to state the Analogy and Proportion between Christs Resurrection and our rising to the Life of Grace first and then of Glory afterward The Life of Christ after his Resurrection is set forth by two thiâ—â—â— 1. The Perpetuity or Immortality of it 2. The Perfection and Blessedness of it 1. The Perpetuity and Immortality of it is delivered in three expressions First Actual dying again is denied Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more Christs Resurrection was not a return to a single Act of Life or Life for a while to shew himself to the World and no more but to an immortal endless estate Secondly His further liableness or subjection to death is denied Death hath no more dominion over him That is thus expressed for two reasons 1. Death had once dominion over Christ when he gave up himself to dye for us he for a while permitted yea subjected himself to the power of it but Christ overcame death and put an end to its power by his Resurrection Acts 2.24 Whom God raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was impossible that he should be holden of it 2. To shew that Christ dyed not only to expiate sin but to take away the dominion and power of it in Believers therefore it is said Death hath no more dominion over him he took away sin by which death reigneth he did enough both as to the satisfying Gods Justice and our Deliverance Thirdly Any further need of his dying again is denied In that he dyed he dyed unto sin once that is he hath done his work his Death needeth not to be repeated he dyed to sin once not in regard of himself for in him was no sin but as charged with the sins of his people he sufficiently took away sin both as to guilt and power 2. The Perfection and Blessedness of his Life is intimated In that he liveth he liveth unto God This expression may imply either the Holiness of his Life in Heaven or the Blessedness of it First The Holiness when Christ was raised from death to life again he liveth to God wholly seeketh to promote his Glory in the World he liveth with God and to God with God as he is sat down at the right hand of Majesty and administreth the Mediatorial Kingdom for his Glory as indeed God hath a great deal of Honour from Christ as Mediator Phil. 2.11 That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father 2. The Blessedness of it Christ always lived to God even before his Death Joh. 8.29 And he that sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone but I do always those things that please him Why then is he said after his Resurrection to live to God Answ. As freed from
at â—alseness of the heart and are bred in us by some corrupt affections such as Pride Vain-glory Self-seeking c. Gal. 2.18 Puffed up with his fleshly mind and for sins of Omission they arise in us from some inordinate sensual affection to the Creature which causeth us to omit our Duty to God But generally most sins are acted by the body Therefore as in Grace or in the Dedication of our selves to God the Soul is included when the Body only is mentioned Rom. 12.1 Present your body as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service all the service we perform to God is acted by the body so in the destruction of sin let it not reign in your body 3. Because the disorder of the sensual Appetite which inclineth us to the interests and conveniencies of the bodily life is the great cause of all sin and therefore man corrupted and fallen is represented as wholly governed by his sensual inclinations Gen. 6.3 For that man also is flesh and Joh. 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh as if he had nothing in him but what is earthly and carnal Our Souls do so cleave to the earth and are addicted to the body that they have lost their primitive excellency our Understandings Will and Affections are distempered by our Senses and enslaved to serve the Flesh which is a matter well to be regarded that we may understand why the Scripture so often calleth sin by the name of Flesh and sometimes a Body or it is said to dwell in the body not as if the Understanding and Will were not corrupted and tainted but to shew how they are tainted and corrupted that this corruption which hath invaded humane Nature cometh chiefly though not only from the inordinacy of our sensual Appetite I will prove it by two Considerations First One is a Supposition Suppose that Original sin so far as it concerneth the Understanding and Will consisted in a bare privation of that rectitude that should be in these Faculties I do not say it is so but suppose it were so yet as long as our Senses and Appetites are disordered which wholly incline us to terrene and earthly things this were enough to cause us to sin as a Chariot must needs miscarry where the Driver is weak sleepy negligent and the Horses unruly and disorderly So here we have not so much light and love to higher things as will restrain the sensual Appetite the Understanding hath no light 2 Pet. 1.9 But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off Eph. 1.18 The eyes of your understandings being inlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his calling c. The Will hath no love 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned and therefore man that obeyeth his bodily lusts and desires must needs be corrupt and sinful Secondly The other is an Assertion that there are habitual positive inordinate inclinations to sensual things both in the Understanding and Will For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8.7 The mind doth not only befriend the lusts of the flesh and seek to palliate and excuse them but opposeth whatever would reduce us from the love of them And the Will is biassed by such sensual inclinations 1 Tim. 6.10 For the love of money is the root of all evil Our Reason doth often contrive and approve sin and the Will embraceth it So that you see the reason why sin is said to reign in our bodies because of the strong inclination of our Souls to present things or things conducing to the contenting of the flesh or gratifying the bodily life Secondly Why doth the Apostle say In your mortal bodies I answer For sundry reasons 1. To put us in mind of the first rise of sin for sin brought in death Rom. 5.12 As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned And so while we live this mortal bodily life we are subject to these desires swarms of sinful motions and inclinations to evil remain within us we are prone to them and give way to them and are too slack in the resistance of them and through the ignorance and unattentiveness of our minds cannot discern or distinguish between what regular Nature desireth and Lust craveth There are lawful desires of the body and prohibited desires of the body through the crafty conveyance between the Understanding and the false Heart we easily give way to what is inordinate under the pretence of what is lawful and convenient and so insensibly slide into compliance with the plain prohibited desires of the body Lust is head-strong and the Empire and Government of the Will feeble and so we are led on to obey them that is we become servants and slaves to sin And though the Regenerate be delivered from the power of sin yet much of this corruption remaineth in them for their exercise and humiliation and if they be not watchful and obey not the motions of the Spirit it will soon recover its power and men will be brought into their old slavery and captivity Gal. 5.16 17. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh So that this mortal body giveth sin many advantages 2. This term mortal Body puts us in mind of its punishment it tendeth to death and destruction We considered it before as it pointed at the rise now at the fruit it self The Apostle telleth us Rom. 8.10 The body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness He speaketh there of Believers or those who have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them who being once sinners the punishment of sin death befalleth them and so their bodies must die and return to dust yet they shall live a happy and blessed Life both in Body and Soul If they labour to mortifie and suppress sin and return sincerely to newness of life though they are still mortal and subject to corporal death because of sin yet it shall not be eternal death The renewed Soul is a partaker of eternal Life and shall always live with God in Glory and though the body be put off for a time yet in time it shall be partaker of this life also 3. To shew us the transitoriness of these delights You gratifie a mortal body with the neglect of a precious and immortal Soul now the mortal body should not be pampered with so great a loss and inconvenience to our Souls All the good things which the flesh aimeth at they perish with the mortal body but the guilt and punishment of this disorderly life remaineth for ever All fleshly pleasure ceaseth at the
sat down under a Juniper Tree and be requested for himself that be might die and said It is enough now O Lord take away my Life for I am not better than my Fathers 3. From the peevishness of fond and doting Love 2 Sam. 18.33 O my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom would God I had died for thee O Absalom my Son my Son As the Wives of the Barbarians that burn themselves to attend the Ghosts of their dead Husbands 4. From Distrust and Despair the Evil is too hard for them they are at their Wits end Job 7.15 My Soul chuseth strangling and Death rather than Life In all these Cases it is but a shameful Retreat from the conflict and burden of the present Life from carnal Irksomeness under the labours and burdens of the present Life or a distrust of God's Help There may be Murder in a rash Wish if it proceed from a vexed Heart These are but froward Thoughts not a sanctified Resolution 3. Such desires of Death and Dissolution as are lawful and must be cherished come from a good ground A Heart deadned to the World they are crucified to it their Hearts are mortified set on things above Col. 3.1 Some competent Assurance Rom. 8.23 We groan waiting for the Adoption viz. the Redemption of our Body They have tasted the Clusters of Canaan as Simeon Luke 2.28 29. Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation the Eyes of his Faith as well as of his Body Now Lord I do but wait for my departure hence as a Merchant-man richly laden desires to be at his Port. 4. You must look to the End Men have a blind Notion of Heaven they expect a Carnal Heaven as the Jews looked for a Carnal Messiah to enjoy a Turkish Paradise full of Ease and Pleasure The People of God desire Heaven to have a perfect Union and Communion with him whom their Souls love Phil. 1.23 I desire to depart and be with Christ. Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven whence we look for a Saviour they long to see him to be where he is Heart and Head should be together And so also to be freed from Sin Bâ—om 7.24 O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death They would be in Heaven that they may sin no more Men look upon Heaven as a kind of Reserve if the World do not hold We should desire Heaven not to be freed from Trouble but to be freed from Sin and to be with Christ there must be an holy desire of a better Life 5. The manner must be regarded it must be with Submission Phil. 1.24 Nevertheless to abide in the Flesh is more needful for you otherwise we encroach upon God's Right and would deprive him of a Servant without his leave A Christian will die and live as the Lord will while others want submission to live in trouble he is satisfied or to die if he be not in trouble if it be the Lord's Pleasure a Believer is satisfied with long Life Psal. 91.16 he is willing to live and die as God liketh he will wait till his change comes when God will give him a discharge by his own immediate Hand or by Enemies Gratias agiâ—â—â— quòd à molestis Domiesis liberaâ—ur God knoweth how to chuse the fittest time otherwise we know not what we ask 3. Obs. That a Spiritual Victory over Evil is to be preserved before a total Exemption from it Christ doth not pray for an absolute immunity and deliverance but a preservation from the Evil of the World Christ prayeth thus and so he teacheth us to pray Mat. 6.13 Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil. When we say Lead us not into Temptation he doth not mean that we should pray foâ—â—n absolute exemption from Temptation that is the Lot of all the Saints but that we may not fall under the weight of a Temptation that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is explained that he would not as a Judg by a Spiritual Excommunication put us into the Hands of Satan to be crushed by him as it is explained in the next Verse But deliver us from Evil. Vse 1. It teacheth us how to pray to God Our Prayers should be to be delivered not from the World so much as from the Evil of the World from Sins rather than Afflictions The Saints seek Grace rather than Deliverance in their Afflictions Direction as well as Protection that they may do nothing unseemly while they suffer Psal. 141.3 4. Set a match O Lord before my Mouth keep the Dear of my Lips Incline not my Heart to any evil thing to practise wicked Works with them that work iniquity and let me not eat of their Dainties And they desire Improvement rather than a Discharge for the Saints do not conceive Prayers out of Interest but from a principle of the new Nature to a gracious Eye Sustentation under the Cross is better than absolute Deliverance the Deliverance is a common Mercy the Sustentation is a special Mercy Carnal Men may be without Affliction but Carnal Men have no experience of Grace and bare Deliverance is no sign of special Love but Improvement is My Grace is sufficient for thee It is Divinity preached from Heaven makes the Saints to rejoice in Infirmities Paul before was earnest to be freed from the trouble Vse 2. How to wait and hope for the Blessings of Christ's Purchase Absolute Immunity is not to be looked for but Victory and Conservation 2 Tim. 4.18 The Lord shall deliver me from every evil Work and will preserve me unto his Heavenly Kingdom A Christian placeth his Hope chiefly on that Paul could not look for such a deliverance again from the Lion but from an unworthy Carriage The Blessings which Christ hath obtained of his Father are rather Spiritual and Celestial than Temporal therefore he is more sollicitous to free us from Sin than from Trouble Mat. 1.21 Thâ—â— shalt call his Name Jesus for he shall save his People from their Sins not from their Troubles their Sorrows but their Sins We would be delivered from Sickness Trouble Danger but Christ is a Spiritual Saviour the great Deliverance is to be freed from Sin Vse 3. To teach us to suffer with Patience Let us endure the Evil of Punishment that we may escape the Evil of Sin Moral Evil is worse than Natural it is better to be miserable than to be sinful Of all Evil Sin is the greatest to be Carnal a Swearer a Drunkard an unclean Person this is a greater Evil than Poverty Sickness Blindness Lameness this doth not separate from God 4. Obs. The Danger of the Worldly Estate It appears in two things First The multiplicity of Snares The whole World is full of Snares and we can walk no where but we are like to be defiled It is a Vale of Tears and a Place of Snares and therefore a Vale of Tears because a
Isa. 58.5 They afflict the soul for a day or bow down the head like a bulrush and so in the external actions of other Duties That this deceit may be more strong they exceed in outward Observances and that produceth Superstition or some by-Laws of our own by which we hope to expiate our sins as to whip and gash our selves Micah 6.6 7. Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord and â—ow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul On the other side if mens Tempers Education and strain of Religion carry them to another way and they are all for the Grace of the Gospel without the Rudiments of men the Devil knows how to charm and lull Souls asleep in sin by that way of Profession also and so many take liberty to sin under the pretence that God may have more occasion to exercise his mercy and our proneness to please the flesh is countenanced by presumptions of Grace and the supposition of unreasonable Indulgences of God to the faulty Creature Psal. 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self God will not be so severe as is commonly imagined and so lessening Gods Holiness they abate their Reverence of him Psal. 68.19 20 21. Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits even the God of our salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death But God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses He seeketh to obviate their conceit how great soever the riches of his Bounty and Grace offered in Christ be yet he is irreconcileable to those that cease not to follow a course of sin 3. This conceit is strengthened in us because many that profess Christianity live licentiously All sins propagate their kind and among others abuse of Grace we see others have great hopes and confidence in Christ notwithstanding their carnal and worldly course of living and self-love prompteth us that we may hope to fare as well as they and so we leaven one another with a dead loose carnal sort of Christianity instead of provoking each other to love and good works Heb. 10.24 Self-love is very partial and loth to think evil of our condition now this cannot be justified by the Laws of Christianity yet it is often justified by the lives of Christians after this Rule they live in the World and we think we may do as others do 4. There is another cause that is Satan who abuseth the weakness of some Teachers and the ignorance of some Hearers to misapply the Grace of the Gospel and the comforts of Justification to countenance their sins The Devil knoweth we will not receive his Doctrine in his own Name and therefore doth what he can to usurp the Name of Christ and to obtrude his Commands upon us in the Name of Christ and so conveyeth poison to you by the Perfume of the Gospel and if he can set Christ against Christ his Merits and Mercy against his Government and Spirit his Promises against his Laws Justification against Sanctification he knoweth that he obtaineth his end and purpose that the Gospel which was set up to destroy the works of the Devil will be a means to cherish his Kingdom in the World And on the Hearers part he abuseth them also carnal hearts turn all into fuel for their lusts and with the more pretence if they can alledge a Dispensation from God himself to serve and please the flesh and no harm shall come of it A little trusting in Christ shall serve the turn though they live never so impure lives I ascribe all this to Satan because all Errour is from him who is the Father of Lyes who often obtrudeth upon the simple credulity of Christians his own Gospel instead of Christ's and by a partial representation of Christs Gospel destroyeth the whole II. I come now to make good the Charge First That this inference is very unjust and ill grounded The Pretence here are those words of the Apostle in the two last verses of the former Chapter Moreover the Law entred that the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. These words yield no such consequence To evince which 1. I shall state the meaning of those words 2. Show the unjustness of this illation from them 1. For the meaning the Apostle sheweth the Law was given to the Israelites by Moses not that they might be justified thereby but that sin and punishment to which we are liable by reason of sin might the better be known and so the Grace of God in Christ which justifieth us notwithstanding the grievousness of sin might be the more esteemed and we might the more earnestly fly to it for Sanctuary and Refuge and the Curse might drive us to the Promise For there are two things which the Law discovereth 1. The multitude and hainous nature of our offences it entred that sin might abound not in our practice but in our sense and feeling as being more apparent and awakening more lively stings in our Consciences If a rugged and obstinate People sin the more that is not the fault of the Law but of our corrupt Nature which always tendeth to that which is forbidden it only took occasion from the commandment Rom. 7.8 The proper effect of the Law was to give us more convincing and clear knowledge of Duty and Sin or to be a means to aggravate sin to render it more exceedingly hainous as being against an express Law of Gods own giving with great Majesty and Terrour 2. The other use of the Law is to give us an awakening sense of the punishment due to sin as it exposes us to temporal and eternal death vers 21. and so our deliverance and life by Christ might be more thankfully accepted who by his Mercy hath taken away the condemning and reigning power of sin by granting pardon of it and power over it so that as a great and mortal disease maketh a Physician famous if he cureth it so sin maketh the Grace of Christ more conspicuous and glorious 2. The injustice of the Illation 1. There is a difference between causa per se and causa per accidens a Cause and an Occasion though the abounding of sin helpeth to advance Grace it is not of it self but by accident by Gods over-ruling Grace therefore it is a desperate Adventure to try Conlusions to drink rank Poison to experiment the goodness of an
of his wine as to the progress of it 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to righteousness and sin not Rouse up your selves out of this drowsie condition of sin to a lively exercise of Grace 3. The tendency and end of it Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God SERMON V. ROM VI. 6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin IN this Verse the Apostle explaineth how we are planted into the likeness of Christs Death Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him c. In the words 1. A Truth represented That our old man is crucified with him 2. The manner of applying and improving this Truth For the former Branch 1. Christs undertaking Our old man is crucified with him 2. The Fruit and End of it That the body of sin might be destroyed 3. The Obligation lying upon us That we might no longer serve sin Or 1. What Christ doth he was crucified And our old man crucified with him 2. What the Spirit doth That the body of sin might be destroyed that is the Reign of it broken the Power of it weakened yet more and more Acts prevented Habits cast off 3. What we must do That henceforth we may not serve sin Doctrine That the Reign of sin would be sooner broken if we did seriously consider and believe the great End of Christs Death and undertaking on the Cross. This will appear 1. By explaining the several Branches of the Text. 2. Giving Reasons 1. In the Explication take notice of First The Truth represented which is expressed in three Branches 1. What Christ doth or his intention and undertaking on the Cross. Our old man is crucified with him Where observe I. That sin within us is called an Old man partly because it is born and bred with us it had its rise from Adams Fall and is ever since conveyed from Father to Son unto all who are descended from Adam Rom. 5.12 Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Psal. 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Partly because this natural corruption which we inherit from the first Man is opposite to that new Man which consisteth in Knowledge Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4.22 24. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts And that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true â—oliness And Col. 3.9 10. Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him So that the Old man is that perverse temper of Soul which was in us before we had the knowledge of Christ or embraced him by Faith Partly because it is an antiquated thing as is upon the declining hand and hasteneth in the Regenerate as men in their old age to its own ruine and destruction 2 Cor. 5.17 Old things are passed away behold all things are become new 1 Cor. 5.7 Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump 2. This Old man must be crucified that is the kind of death which it must dye Sometimes the destruction of sin is called a mortifying of sin that implyeth a putting to death in the general or a killing the love of sin in our Souls sometimes a crucifying of sin that sheweth the particular kind of death we must put it to and this for a double reason Partly to shew our conformity and likeness to Christs Crucifixion Partly because it expresseth the nature of the thing it self the Cross bringeth pain and death So is sin weakened by godly sorrow which checketh the sensual inclination The strength and life of sin lyeth in a love of pleasure and one special means to mortifie it is godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7.10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation never to be repented of Those that have tasted the bitter waters are more easily induced to forsake all known sin Well then sin must be crucified a man fastened to the Cross suffereth great pain his strength wasteth and his life droppeth out with his blood by degrees So sin is not subdued but by constant painful endeavours not by feeding the flesh with carnal delights but by thwarting it watching striving against it bemoaning our selves because of it and so by degrees the love of it is not only weakened but deadned in our Souls If it be tedious and troublesom nothing that hath life will be put to death without some struggling we must be content to suffer in the flesh Christ suffered more and none but he that hath suffered in the flesh ceaseth from sin 1 Pet. 4.1 You make it more painful by dealing negligently in the business and draw out your vexation to a greater length the longer you suffer the Canaanite to live with you the more doth it prove a thorn and goad in your sides Our affection increaseth our affliction your trouble endeth and your delight increaseth as you bring your Souls to a thorough resolution to quit it Quà m suave mihi subiâ—ò factum est carere suavitatibus nugarum No delight so sincere as the contempt of vain delights The crucified mans pains end when death cometh 3. This Old man was crucified with Christ. This Phrase and manner of speech is difficult and therefore must be explained 1. That Christ was crucified for us in bonum nostrum for our good is past dispute with Christians Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows Isa. 53.3 he endured the punishment which sin had made our due 2. That he stood before the Tribunal of God representing us and so dyed loco vice omnium nostrî in the room as well as for the good of his people should as little be doubted 2 Cor. 5.14 For if he dyed for all then were all dead that is in him he dyed not on the Cross as a private but a publick Person 3. Christ dyed not only to expiate our guilt but to take away the power of sin at least the end of Christs suffering and dying on the Cross for our sins was to purchase Grace that we might crucifie sin that is forsake it with grief and shame Heb. 9.26 Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself that is not only to expiate the guilt of our sins but to abolish the power of them He came to redeem us from the slavery of sin Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity 4. Assoon as we are regenerated and converted to God there is a closer application of the Death of
mightily and effectually for it cometh not to us in word only but in power 1 Thess. 2.13 Ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe And more particulary in Mortification for it is Faith that purifieth the heart Acts 15.9 Where the Christian Doctrine is really entertained and received by Faith it taketh men off from their old sins 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit The obedience of the Truth is nothing else but Faith wrought in us by the Spirit upon the hearing of the Gospel this produceth in us that purity of heart and life which becometh Christians II. I will give you the reasons The Death of Christ may be considered as it worketh morally or as it worketh meritoriously As it worketh morally it hath a full and a sufficient force to draw us off from sin as it worketh meritoriously it purchaseth the Spirit for us As it worketh morally it layeth a strong ingagement upon us as it worketh meritoriously it giveth great incouragement to oppose and resist sin and set about the mortification of it So that the true way of subduing sin is by serious reflexion on the Death of Christ which we shall consider 1. As it is a strong ingagement 2. As it is a great incouragement 1. As it is a strong ingagement and there 1. It is a pattern to teach us how to deny the pleasures of the senses Pleasure is the great Sorceress that hath bewitched all the World and that which giveth strength to all temptations Jam. 1.14 Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed There is some sensitive carnal bait which first inviteth and then draweth us from our duty and all the Charms sin hath upon us are by the treacherous sensual appetite which is impatient to be crossed So when another Apostle speaketh of a revolt to the carnal life after some partial Reformation he giveth this account of it 2 Pet. 2.20 After they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled and overcome Before men be overcome by Temptation they are first inticed by the apprehension of some pleasure or profit which is to be had by their sins by which apprehension the danger of committing the sin is covered and hid as the Fishers hook is by the bait that is the Metaphor there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lapse again into the slavery of the former sins which they seemed to have escaped Therefore till we are dead to the sensitive lure and can be content to suffer in the flesh and to deny the satisfactions of the animal life we shall never avoid the slavery of sin nor know that our old man is crucified Now what is more powerful than the consideration of the Death and Example of Jesus Christ In his whole Life he was a Man of sorrows and so taught us to contemn the world and the pleasures of the flesh but especially at his Death when pain was poured in upon him by the Conduit of every Sense there he pleased not himself Rom. 15. 3. but conquered the love of life and all the natural contentments of life that he might please God and procure our Salvation Now we have not the Spirit of our Religion till we grow dead not only to the pleasures of sin but the natural pleasures of life yea life it self and can submit all to Gods glory 2. As it is an act of Love which should beget love in us to God again which love will make us tender of sinning There are many aggravations of sinning but the greatest of all is because we sin against so much Love as God hath shewed us in our Redemption by Christ. Sin is aggravated by the greatness of the Person against whom it is committed against the infinite Majesty of God as to strike an inferiour person is not so hainous a crime as to strike a Magistrate or Prince but this will not hold in all cases for foul indignities and grievous wrongs offered to meaner persons are a greater offence than the omission of a Ceremony to a Prince as if a man through ignorance of the customs of the Court should not be bare before his Chair of State Therefore take in the other Consideration of the infinite Goodness and Love of God towards us in Christ this doth exceedingly aggravate our sins They are acts of unkindness After such a deliverance as this is shall we again break thy commandments Ezra 9.13 14. after a deliverance out of Babylon out of Hell To sin against the infinite Goodness of a Creator by eating the forbidden Fruit we see what mischief it brought on Mankind conscious of this transgression the first Actors hid themselves from Gods presence But what is it to sin against the infinite Goodness of a Redeemer who came to recover us from this thraldom and bondage and to draw us to himself with the cord of love He chose rather to suffer the punishment due to our sins than to suffer sin still to reign in us whom he loved more dearly than his own life Gal. 2.20 Who loved me and gave himself for me Rev. 1.5 To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Now if after this manifestation of his Love we shall still continue in sin the hainousness of our offence is greatly increased 3. Christs Death is the best Glass wherein to view the deadly nature of sin It was so great and hainous an evil in the sight of God that nothing but the Blood of the Son of God could expiate it Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Jesus Christ must come and suffer a shameful Death this painful shameful accursed Death of the Son of God sheweth Gods displeasure against sin and what it will cost us if we allow it and indulge it in our hearts and lives for if this be done in the green tree what shall be done in the dry 4. It sheweth us also what a great benefit Mortification is This among others was intended by him and moved him to bear our sins in his Body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness To remember a good turn done by a Friend and not to prize and value it as we ought is rather to forget than to remember his friendliness So here if we do not prize Christs benefits we undervalue his Death and a lessening of the benefits is a lessening the price Now one of the chief of them is to take away sin and to break the reign of it in the heart of his
with Christ. What that is we have explained already all that I shall now add is That in Scripture it implieth two things First Conformity with Christ in his Sufferings so we have a Saying like that in the Text 2 Tim. 2.11 It is a faithful saying for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him which presently is explained vers 12. If we suffer we shall also reign with him Secondly It implieth mortification of sin so it is understood here if we have communion and fellowship with his Death for the mortification of sin 2. The Term of Proposal conditionally If we The Particle if hath sometimes the notion of a Caution see that ye be dead with Christ sometimes it is a note of Relation when one priviledge is deduced from another as here if we partake of the effect and likeness of his Death in dying to sin we shall partake of the effect and likeness of his Resurrection in being quickened to live in Holiness and Righteousness all our days Dying to sin and newness of life are inseparable if we have the first we shall have the other also they are branches of the same work of Regeneration and both proceed from the same Cause Union with Christ. 2. The Truth hence inferred We shall also live with him This is meant both of the Life of Grace and of the Life of Glory Regeneration and Resurrection the one is to newness of Life the other is to everlasting Bless and Happiness Regeneration is the Spirits begetting us to the Image and Nature of God our heavenly Father and Resurrection is for the perfecting of that Likeness which is 't is true perfect in part here in the Soul 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Hereafter both in Body and Soul Phil. 3.21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body according to the wonderful working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself As to degrees 1 Joh. 3.2 When he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is As to kinds both in Holiness and Happiness 1 Cor. 15.49 As we have born the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Now we are conformed to his Image in afflictions Rom. 8.29 He hath predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son we look like him in the form of a Servant then we shall be like him as the Lord from Heaven heavenly Therefore the life of Glory in Heaven must not be excluded 3. The Certainty of the Inference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not a matter of Opinion and Conjecture but of Faith we are certainly perswaded of the truth of it We must distinguish of this Truth for it may be considered two ways First As a general Maxim or Proposition so it is absolutely true Those that are dead with Christ shall live with him This is an Article of Faith to be believed fide divinâ Secondly As it is applied to us or as it is a ground of our particular Confidence so it is true Hypothetically or upon Supposition and our Confidence can be no greater than the evidence of our Qualification If we be indeed dead with Christ we in particular shall also live with him It is but a rational Conclusion from two Premisses one of which is of Divine Revelation the other of inward Experience namely that I am dead with Christ therefore I believe that I shall live with him It is an act both of Faith and Reason an act of Faith by participation as it buildeth on a Principle of Faith Doctrine Those that are dead with Christ have no reason to doubt but that they shall also live with him I. I shall speak of the Condition If we be dead with Christ. II. Of the Benefit They shall live spiritually and everlastingly III. Of our certain Apprehension We believe I. Of the presupposed Condition If we be dead with Christ. 1. Who are dead with Christ. 2. How necessary this Order is The one will shew us that it is not an over-strict but a comfortable Condition the other that it is a Condition absolutely necessary to subsequent Grace 1. Who are dead with Christ. 1. Such as owne the Obligation which their Baptism and Profession puts upon them That reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin Rom. 6.11 that make account they are under a Vow and Bond wherewith they have bound their Souls The careless mind it not but the sincere Christians acknowledge that the debt lyeth upon them they being solemnly ingaged to Christ to do it The Apostle saith Rom. 8.12 We are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh as the Jew by Circumcision is bound to observe all the Rituals of Moses Gal. 6.3 so Christians by Baptism are bound to crucifie the flesh and obey the Spirit What say you Are you at liberty to do what you lift or under a strict Bond and Obligation to dye unto sin Let your lives answer for you 2. They make Conscience of it and seriously address themselves to perform it Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts they have begun to do it and still go on to do it more and more for this is a continued action not the work of a day but of our whole lives They have not only retrenched the desires of the flesh but seek to mortifie and subdue them and perform their Promise so solemnly made to God 3. They obtain the effect in such a degree that the reign of sin is broken though sin it self be not utterly extinct us They do no longer live in their old slavery and bondage as those do who obey every foolish and hurtful lust that bubleth up in their hearts A mans condition is determined by what is in the Throne habitually and governeth our lives and actions There are two warring Principles in us full of enmity and repugnancy to each other the Flesh and the Spirit but one reigneth which constituteth the difference between the carnal and the renewed in the carnal Flesh reigneth but in the regenerate the Spirit hath the mastery and is superiour and most powerful so that a Christian sheweth himself to be Spirit rather than Flesh otherwise it could not be said That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Joh. 3.6 The acts of sin are disowned acts and he may say with Paul It is not I but sin that dwelleth in me Sin is against the bent and habit of our wills 4. They substract the fuel of their lusts as they wean themselves from earthly things and shew such contempt of the World that the good things which they enjoy by Gods allowance are not a snare to them For the Apostle saith of those that set their affections
the members of an harlot God forbid He hath bought us to this very end that you may be no longer under the slavery of sin but under his blessed Government and the Scepter of his Spirit Tit. 2.14 He hath redeemed us from all iniquity that was his end to set us at liberty and free us from our sins and therefore for us to despise the benefit and to count our bondage to be a delight and priviledge this is to build up again that which he came to destroy to put our Redeemer to shame to tye those cords the faster which he came to unloose and so it is as great an affront and disparagement of his undertaking as possibly can be Therefore let not sin live and reign Secondly We are his not only by Purchace but by Covenant Ezek. 16.8 I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine We wholly gave over our selves to his use and service this Covenant was ratified in Baptism wherein we were planted into the likeness of his death Rom. 6.3 4 5. How into the likeness of his Death To dye unto sin as he dyed for sin that is explained by the Apostle ver 9. Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him his Resurrection instated him in an eternal Life never to come under the power of death again so are we to rise to a new life never to return to our sins again Now shall we rescind our Baptismal Vows and after we have resigned our selves to Christ give the Soveraignty to another the hands of Consecration have been upon us and therefore to allow our selves in any course and way of sinning is to alienate our selves and to employ our selves not only to a common but a vile and base use When Ananias had dedicated that that was in his power and kept back part for private use God struck him dead in the place Acts 5. And if we alienate our selves who were not in our own power and were Christs before the Consecration of how much severer vengeance shall we be worthy God complaineth of the wrong of Parents Ezek. â—6 20 that they took sons and daughters born to him and sacrificed them to be devoured by Moloch Children born during the Marriage-Covenant were his they were circumcised and so dedicated to him yet they gave them to Moloch as many Parents dedicate their Children to God by Baptism and bring them up for the World and the Flesh. This is veriâ—y a great sin in Parents but we are more answerable for our own Souls when we have owned the Dedication and ratified it by our own professed consent and if we shall willingly yield to the World and the Flesh and suffer them to have a full Power and Dominion over us how do we defie Christ whom yet in words we profess to be our Lord It is said Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof How shall we interpret this Scripture and reconcile it with the Carriage of most Christians de jure all will grant that they should crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof But the Apostle seemeth to speak de facto they have and that maketh the difficulty All true Christians indeed have done so Christians in the letter are bound to do so and let them look to it how they will answer it to Christ another day All in their Baptism have renounced the desires of the flesh and the passions of it also they are ingaged to do it and all that are serious and real have begun to do this act of mortifying sin and must go on yet more and more to smother the endeavours and effects of it Because this is a momentous business and it is charged on us as we are Christs as we profess our selves to be so and take our selves to be so let us see what it importeth They must all are bound they really have crucified the flesh mortified and deadned the root of corruption that it shall not easily sprout and put forth its lustings carnal Nature in them is weakened it is not so vigorous and stirring as it was wont to be there is some preventing of the first risings though sin dwell in them and work in them so far all that are Christs have put to death their fleshly corruption But now as to the several ways of venting of it expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either by sinful Passions as malice envy hatred variance emulation wrath strife they do in a great measure and considerable degree get above these or by Lust is meant all fleshly and worldly desires which carry us out of the Pleasures and Profits and Honours of the World the pleasing baits and inticements of Sense they are dead to these also all motions to Uncleanness Intemperance Ambition Love of Riches and vain Pleasures all the Children of God have actually begun this work and are still suppressing these things for they have resigned their hearts for Christ to dwell in and they are advancing his Scepter and Rule continually for they have given up themselves to be guided by him whether they be pleasant sins or vexatious evils the heart of a Christian is set against them and therefore you see how unsuitable it is for those that are Christs his redeemed ones and his covenanted ones to give way to the reign of sin 4. My last Argument to evince this necessity that is incumbent on the People of God that this Dominion of Sin be not set up in their hearts is because otherwise they cannot maintain and keep up any lively hope of Glory That I shall evidence by some Scriptures Rom. 6.8 If we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him If we dye to sin so as never to allow it or to return to the love and practice of it any more than the Christian Faith promiseth some good to us we have hopes of living with Christ or a joyful Resurrection to eternal Life for the Christian Life is an entrance and introduction into the Life of Glory So Rom. 8.13 If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live The Scripture is plain in setting down the Characters of those that shall go to Heaven or to Hell and very decisive and peremptory If we live after the flesh we shall dye it doth not say if we have lived after the flesh for that would cut off the hope of all the living one man was first good and after bad as Adam another never bad always good as Christ of all the rest none ever proved good who was not sometimes bad we all lived after the Flesh before we come to live after the Spirit But if we do still accommodate our selves to obey and fulfil the motions of the flesh Christ speaketh no good to such But now see the Promise of God to those that keep mortifying of sin striving against sin
instruments of Righteousness unto God Secondly Among other the means required by God there are these two things to be considered Fear of Falling and the Danger of Backsliding 1. Fear of Falling Heb. 4.1 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should seem to come short of it 1 Pet. 1.17 Pass the time of your sojourning here with fear Phil. 2.12 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Fear is careful and solicitous what Fear is this a Fear of Caution 1 Cor. 10.12 Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall Of Reverence Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 2. The Danger of Backsliding is often represented to Believers to increase their caution as Christ said to his own Disciples Joh. 15.6 If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned The danger of Apostasie is represented to them to confirm their standing or laid before them to make them afraid of defection So Heb. 10.26 27. If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries 3. The Promise and Exhortation go together that we may carry an even hand between Despair and Presumption Compare vers 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof with the Text Sin shall not have dominion over you we must not presume because of the filthiness of our hearts and the number of the snares that are still before us we must not despond because of the unchangeableness of Gods Covenant-love Let us improve the Grace we have received that we may continue in it The Act is ours but the Help is Gods To sin upon a confidence that we are sure to persevere is to cease persevering and to fall away because we are sure not to fall away which is a contradiction Vse of Information It informeth us 1. No Doctrine is so sound but a corrupt heart will abuse it therefore as much as in us lies we must prevent these mis-interpretations 2. How prone sinful men are to take all occasions to indulge liberty to sin being naturally bent to Licentiousness they pervert Christs holy Doctrine to this end 3. With what abhorrence we should entertain any thing that lessens the necessity of the Creatures subjection to God or doth befriend sin or inticeth you to make light of Obedience yea though this should be done with the most glorious pretences of Grace it is but Poison ministred by a Perfume 4. What caution and watchfulness we should use over our own thoughts and inferences Every one draweth one Conclusion or other from the Gospel What use do you make of it Many that will not say so that we should sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace are apt to think and do so And since it is natural to us we should be provided of a remedy 1. Let every Sacred Truth be digested into holy Love and Practice Love 2 Cor. 8.1 2. Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifyeth And if any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know Practice 1 Joh. 2.4 He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him When Truth is turned into Love it is turned into a new Nature and deeds discover the reality of our opinions more than words 2. Let no mystical Truth be set up to avoid Gods unquestionable natural Right to govern his Creature or to infringe the Rights of the Godhead as to set up Christ against the Moral Law as if that were abrogated and if no Law no Transgression no Sin no Duty no Judgment no Punishment no Reward 3. Do not set up Christ against Christ Heb. 5.9 And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Do not set up his Merits against his Law he is Saviour but to those that obey him SERMON XVII ROM VI. 16 Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness IN this Verse the Apostle proveth that it is unreasonable and absurd to conclude That we may sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace Why Because it destroyeth the state to which we pretend for men cannot be under Grace that serve sin He proveth it by a general Maxim evident by the common Reason of Mankind Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are c. So that in the words we may observe two things 1. A general Maxim evident by the Light of Nature 2. The Application of it to the matter in hand 1. The general Maxim That whatsoever or whomsoever a man voluntarily obeyeth he maketh it or him his proper Lord and Master There take notice of the evidence of it Know ye not q. d. you may easily know this by the common course of affairs of the World Here four things are evident First That omnis servus est alicujus Domini servus that every Servant hath some particular Lord and Master Secondly That the interest of this particular Lord and Master is grounded upon some special Title Thirdly This Title as matters are carried in the World is either voluntary Contract or Consent or plain Conquest getting another into his Power By voluntary Contract one is a Servant that bargaineth with another to serve him either wholly that selleth himself as a Slave or in part for such services and ministeries the one is Servus a Bondman or a Slave the other is Famulus an Attendant or Apprentice not absolutely but for such a time and for such ends By Conquest 2 Pet. 2.19 While they promise themselves liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage Fourthly Where a Master hath such a legal Title every Servant is bound to obey his Master Aristotle maketh it the property of a Servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live not as himself listeth but as his Master pleaseth All these things are plain and obvious to every mans understanding 2. The matter of it there are two things observable 1. Yielding our selves to obey 2. Actual Obedience 1. Consent To whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are as a man contracts with another to serve him 2. The Act His servants ye are to whom ye obey whether there hath been a formal Contract yea or no. He that actually obeyeth another is to be accounted his Servant and becometh his Servant The first Notion
teacheth us That none can be a Servant to another but by the election and consent of his own proper Will and whatsoever service men enter they enter it of their own accord the Devil cannot force us to evil and Christ will not force us to good The second Notion teacheth us That we must not judge of our service to any either to Sin or God by our professed Consent barely but by our Practice and Obedience if we obey sin we are servants to sin whatever we prosess or say to the contrary and if we do not live in obedience to God whatever Professions Vows and Covenants we make to him or with him we are not Servants of God 2. In the Application of it to the matter in hand take notice 1. Of two contrary Masters Sin and Obedience 2. Of two contrary Rewards and Wages Death and Righteousness 3. The suiting the one to the other Sin and Death Obedience and Righteousness 1. By Sin he meaneth sinning wittingly and willingly constantly easily By Death as the Wages is understood the second or eternal Death 2. The other Master By Obedience is meant obedience to God if you obey Gods commands and as our Duty is expressed by Obedience so our Reward by Righteousness He doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Law of Contraries would seem to require but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Righteousness you may expound it either of our Title to Happiness or our Reward it self 1. Our Title you shall be pronounced and accepted as righteous and so Heirs of eternal Life There are many acceptations of the word Righteousness in Scripture In short take them thus 1. It may be taken in a Moral sense for a good disposition of mind and heart Eph. 4.24 That ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness 2. In a Legal or Judicial sense for a state of Acceptation or the ground of a Plea before the Tribunal of God So Rom. 5.19 By the obedience of one many shall be made righteous In this Judicial sense either with respect to the Precept or the Sanction 1. With respect to the Precept or the Law as it is sincerely and Evangelically obeyed 1 Joh. 3.7 He that doth righteousness is righteous And Luke 1.6 They were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless this is opposite to reatus culpae 2. With respect to the Sanction which is double the Threatning or the Promise With respect to the Threatning so Righteousness implieth freedom from the Obligation to Punishment So Rom. 1.17 18. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written The just shall live by faith For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness this is opposite to reatus poenae With respect to the Promise so Righteousness imports our Right and Title to eternal Life not from any merit in our obedience it self but Gods gracious condescension in the Covenant There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness 1 Tim. 4.8 Our Title is first by Faith then continued by new Obedience 2. It may imply the Reward it self for it is said elsewhere Isa. 48.18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments then had thy peace been as the river and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea Where by righteousness is not meant any moral Vertue or gracious Disposition but Prosperity and Happiness So Prov. 8.18 Riches and honour are with me yea durable riches and righteousness thereby is meant Felicity As Iniquity is put for Punishment He shall bear his iniquity so Righteousness is put for Reward So here Righteousness is opposed to Death and signifieth eternal Life Doctrine That it greatly concerneth Christians to consider upon what they bestow or imploy their Time Service and Obedience This will be evident by these Considerations 1. That the great business which belongeth to our Duty is the choice of a Master or to consider to what we must addict our selves and upon what we bestow our minds and hearts our life and love our time and strength 1 Kings 18.21 How long halt ye between two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him He brings the business to a tryal not to give them liberty to be of what Religion they pleased but on deliberation to chuse the best So Josh. 24.15 If it seem evil to you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve He doth not leave it to their liberty to chuse God or Idols but would have them to compare the best with the worst the service of God or the service of Devils which will be Life and which will be Death which will be good and which will be bad for them not as if it were doubtful which to chuse for that is evident to any man in his right wits nor to blunt their zeal by any demurrer in the case but rather quicken and hasten their choice but chiefly that they might chuse freely and be more firm and constant in their Covenant and to shame them that they might be more inexcusable if pretending to God they divert their obedience from him to other things Well then whom will you serve and love To whom will ye give up your minds and hearts and whole man To do what God requireth or to serve and please your Lusts Make a right choice and then be firm and true to it Will you pretend to be Servants to God and do nothing for him 2. The Considerations which must guide us in this choice are two 1. Right and Interest 2. The Good or Hurt that we all get by it for there are wages proportionable and suitable to every work 1. Where lyeth the Right to command and who hath the best Title to us Justice is to give every one his own Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Surely sin is an Usurper but God is our rightful Lord for he made us and to him we must give an account of our time strength and imployments Acts 27.23 There stood by me this night an Angel of God whose I am and whom I serve And 2. His service turneth to the best account Our Apostle telleth us Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 3. That in a moral Consideration there are two Masters sinful Self and the Holy God This distribution comprehendeth all men either they are servants of Sin or servants to God whosoever yieldeth his consent or obedience to sin doth thereby make himself the true and proper servant of sin and whosoever yieldeth his obedience to God is the servant of God If you deliver up your selves to serve God to obey his commands you will be reputed as his Servants and so accepted
the other side the greater God is and the more glorious the greater obligation lyeth upon us to love him and serve him so that the good that we do for his sake being the more due God is not bound by any right of Justice from the merit of the action it self to reward it for here the greatness of the Object lesseneth the merit and value of the Action for whatever the Creature is it oweth it self wholly to God who gave us our Being and still preserveth it so that we cannot lay any obligation upon him Luke 17.10 When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you say We are uprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do Punishment is naturally due to evil doers but God is not by natural Justice bound to reward us but only inclined to do so by his own goodness and bound to do so by his free Promise and Covenant Aristotle telleth us Children cannot merit of their Parents all the kindness and duty they perform to them is but a just recompence to them from whom they have received their Being and Education much less can we merit ought of God it is his meer grace and supereminent goodness that appointed such a reward to us that grace which first accepted us with all our faults doth still crown us and bestow glory and honour upon us Vse 1. See how God doth beset us on every side to fense and bound us within our duty there is a threatning of eternal Death to â—â—vite us to go on in our way the promise of eternal Life and Glory Surely both Motives should be effectual our whole life is a flight from wrath to come and a running for refuge to take hold of the blessed hope set before us in our pursuit after eternal Life Prov. 15.24 The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath We are still running further from Hell and approaching nearer to Heaven the more we hate and avoid sin the further we go from the pit of everlasting Destruction and the more we give our selves to Holiness the nearer Heaven every day our Right is more secured and our hearts more prepared More particularly we have by this conjoyned motive a great help against Temptations The World tempteth us either by the Delights of Sense or by the Terrors of Sense therefore God propoundeth this double Motive the Terrors of everlasting Death and the Joys of everlasting Life that we may counterbalance Terrors with Terrors and Delights with Delights as Luke 12.4 5 Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you Fear him On the other side Jam. 5.5 Ye have lived in pleasure upon earth and been wanton ye have nourished your selves as in a day of slaughter Luke 16.25 Son remember that in this life thou receivest thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented they are excluded from the pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore Or else quite cross as the World tempts us by the hopes of some sensual contentment so we may resist the Temptation by the belief of everlasting Death Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye Surely this should make us abstain from all sinful pleasures how much soever we are addicted to them So as the World tempteth us with the fears of some temporal vexation the believing of everlasting Life should help us to bear the evils of our pilgrimage or sufferance for well-doing 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction that is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Thus are we environed on the right hand and on the left Vse 2. From this Conjunction let us learn that God is both a righteous Judge and a gracious Father 1 Pet. 1.17 If ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work He hath his gifts for the godly and punishments for the wicked All our claim is Grace the punishment of the wicked is due debt the Sentence of Gods Law hath made it their due but yet our reward is not the less sure though it be more free 2. Let us consider these two Branches apart First The Wages of Sin is Death I. What is meant by Death II. How it is said to be the Wages of Sin 1. What is meant by Death There is a twofold Death First and Second Temporal and Eternal 1. Temporal Death that is also the fruit of Sin Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all men have sinned Death is an Evil for Nature abhorreth it as appeareth by our unwillingness to dye Now if it be evil it must be either the Evil of Sin or of Punishment God threatened it as a punishment in case of disobedience Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die It is an Enemy The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death 1 Cor. 15.26 Would God give Mankind into the hand of an Enemy if he had not sinned against him Now this Evil remaineth partly that there might by some visible punishment and bitter effect of sin in this World unknown Torments are despised and many slight Hell as a vain Scarecrow therefore God hath appointed temporal death to put us in mind of the evil of sin partly for a passage into our everlasting condition that the righteous may enter into Glory and the wicked go to their own place It would make Religion too sensible if the righteous should have all their blessedness and the wicked all their punishment here therefore there must be a passage out into the other World 2. Eternal Death in opposition to everlasting Life which is the fruit of Holiness The opposite Clause sheweth what a kind of death it is This is called the second Death Rev. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power and ver 14. Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death It is called Death because death in all Creatures that have sense is accompanied with pain Trees and other Vegetables dye without pain but so doth not Man and Beast and death to man is more bitter because he is more sensible of the sweetness of life than the beasts are and hath some forethought of what may follow after Again it is called Death because it is a misery from which there is no release as from the first death there is no recovery nor returning into the present life This second Death may be considered as to the Loss and Pain First As to the Loss it is an eternal separation from
the presence of God and so an exclusion from all Bliss and Glory 2 Thess. 1.9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power So Mat. 25.41 Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire Secondly The Pain is set forth by two Notions Mark 9.44 The worm that never dyeth and the fire that shall never be quenched by which is meant the sting of Conscience and the wrath of God both which constitute the second Death and make the Sinner for ever miserable 1. The sting of Conscience or the fretting remembrance of their past folly and madness in following the pleasures of sin and neglecting the promises of Grace What a vexing reflection will this be to the Damned to all Eternity And besides this 2. There are pains inflicted upon them by the wrath of God and the Body and Soul are delivered over to eternal Torments Mat. 25.41 Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels There is no Member of the Body or Faculty of the Soul but feeleth the misery of the second Death for as no part is free from sin so none from punishment in the second Death the pain lyeth not in one place head or heart but all over and though in the first Death the more it prevaileth the more we are past feeling yet in this death there is a greater vivacity than ever the capacity of every sense is enlarged and made more receptive of pain While we are in the Body vehemens sensibile corrumpit sensum the sense is deadned the more vehemently and violently the object striketh upon it as the Inhabitants about the fall of Nilus are deaf with the continual noise too much light puts out the eyes and the taste is dulled by custom but here the capacity is not destroyed by feeling but improved As the Saints are fortified by their Blessedness and happily injoy those things the least glimpse of which would overwhelm them in the World so the wicked are inabled by that power that torments them to endure more and all this is eternal without hope of release or recovery II. This Death is Wages a Debt that will surely be paid for it is appointed by the Sentence of Gods righteous Law Now here we must consider 1. The Righteousness of it 2. The Certainty 1. The Justice and Righteousness of it for many make a question about it upon this ground because between the work and the wages there must be some proportion now how can an Act done in a short time be punished with eternal Death or everlasting Torments I answer 1. We must consider the Object against whom sin is committed it is an offence done against an infinite Majesty Now sinning wilfully against the infinite Majesty of Heaven deserveth more than any thing done against a man can do 1 Sam. 2.25 If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him Sins against men are not so great as sins against God and the reconciliation and satisfaction is more easie 2. Consider the Nature of Impenitency in Sin 1. Their great unthankfulness for Redemption by Christ they forsook their own mercies and Gods healing grace to the last Joh. 3.19 This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation And then when they are in Termino there is no further Tryal their time and day of Grace is past 2. God offered them eternal Life and then their foolish choice is justly punished with eternal Death Every sin includeth a despising of eternal Life for rather than men will leave their brutish and sordid pleasures that they may live an holy life they will run this hazard the loss of that eternal Life which God offereth and the incurring these eternal pains which he threatneth This immortal happiness far exceedeth all those base pleasures for which they lose their Souls Well then man wilfully exchanging his everlasting Inheritance for momentany and transient pleasures becometh the Author of his own wo whilst he preferreth such low things before Gods eternal joyful presence 2. The Certainty This Debt will be paid if we consider 1. The Holiness of Gods Nature which inclineth him to hate sin and sinners Psal. 5.4 5. Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity They that take pleasure in sin God cannot take pleasure in them and if they will not part with sin God and they must part and therefore if they will do sins work all that sin bringeth to them by way of stipend is everlasting separation from the presence of God that is implacably adverse to all that is evil and though he hath prepared a place where the holy may dwell with him yet he cannot endure the wicked should be so near him 2. His Justice moveth him to punish it As Holiness belongeth to his Nature so his Justice to his Office his Holiness is the fundamental Reason of punishing the wicked his Justice is the next Cause His Holiness is indeed the fundamental Cause as appeareth by the fears of Sinners 1 Sam. 6.20 And the men of Bethshemesh said Who is able to stand before this holy God And by the security of Sinners Psal. 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self but the nearest Cause is his Justice as Rector of the World declared both in his Laws and Providence Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death c. Gen. 18.25 Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right 3. His unalterable Truth which is firmer than Heaven and Earth if he threaten will not he accomplish The truth of his Threatnings is as unchangeable as the truth of his Promises for in both God is one 1 Sam. 15.29 The strength of Israel will not lye nor repent for he is not as man that he should repent it is spoken in the case of deposing Saul for his disobedience to God The doubt is this Gods Threatnings do not always foretel the Event they shew the merit but not the event I answer The object is changed but God remaineth for ever the same if from impenitent we become penitent we are not liable to his Threatnings but objects of his Grace and capable of the benefit of his Promises a man walking in a room upward and downward hath sometimes the wall on his right hand sometimes on his left the wall is in the same place but he changeth posture 4. His irresistible Power God is able to inflict these punishments upon them Deut. 32.39 There is none that can deliver out
of my hand 2 Thess. 1.9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known We cannot conceive what God is able to do in punishing Sinners but the event declares it Vse 1. Information 1. That Believers need to consider the Fruit of Sin that thereby they may be moved to fears of God and more careful avoiding of sin They are not to think of it in a slavish tormenting way as if God desired the Creatures misery no they are warned of it that they may escape it though Love must be the chief Spring and Principle of our Obedience yet Fear hath its use the Threatnings declare the Holiness of God as well as his Promises and we need to know his hatred to Sin as well as his love to Righteousness to breed an awe in us 2. It sheweth the folly of them that betwitch themselves into a groundless hope of impunity in their sinful courses Deut. 29.19 And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this Curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst They take from God the honour of his Holiness Justice and Truth Gods glory is advanced in the World by Acts of Justice as well as Acts of Mercy and besides they open a gap to all impiety 3. That all sins are in their own nature mortal for the wages of sin is death In comparison some sins are greater than others and so more deserving punishment but simply and considered by themselves all are mortal if not in the issue and event yet in their own nature God pardoneth the Penitent their sins are not deadly in the event but they deserve damnation in their own nature There are sins of infirmity and wilful sins but nothing should be light and small to us that is committed against the great God Some are lighter some are heavier but all are in their nature damnable they are a breach of the Law of the eternal God Though the Gospel reacheth out mercy to penitents offering to them pardon of sins and eternal Life yet all deserve damnation and were it not for Christ and the new Covenant we should not be a moment out of Hell Vse 2. Direction 1. To the Impenitent that yet go on in their sins O repent of it speedily and cast out sin as we do fire out of our bosoms and sleep not in the bonds of iniquity Your damnation sleepeth not 1 Pet. 2.3 You are invited earnestly Ezek. 18.30 Why will ye dye O house of Israel O then pass from death to life if you refâ—â—e this Call you do in effect love death Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul all they that hate me love death By refusing Christ and nourishing sin you nourish a Serpent in your bosoms and embrace the flames of Hell-fire therefore betimes seek a Pardon 2. To the penitent Believers three things I have to press upon them First Consider what cause we have to admire and magnifie the riches of Gods Mercy in our Redemption by Christ by whom sin is taken away and the consequent of it eternal death and who also hath taken the punishment of it upon himself Isa. 53.4 5. Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our sins the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes are we healed Secondly Never return to this slavery again for you see what a dangerous thing sin is when you indulge sin you lay hold on death it self therefore fly from it as from the gates of Hell and from all means instruments occasions and opportunities that lead to it and when Satan sheweth you the bait remember the hook and counterbalance the pleasures of sin to which we are vehemently addicted with eternal pains which are the fruit of it Now shall we run so great an hazard for poor vain and momentany delights It is sweet to a carnal heart to please the flesh but it will cost dear Now shall we sell the birthright for one morsel of meat Heb. 12.15 and hazard the loss of the Love of God for trifles Thirdly Take heed of small sins they are breaches of the eternal Law of God They that do not make great account of small sins will make but small account of the greatest for he that is not faithful in a little will be unfaithful in much There are many forcible Arguments to deter us from small sins partly because it is more difficult to avoid them they do not come with such frightning awakening assaults as the greater do partly because being neglected they taint the heart insensibly and men look not after their cure partly because they do prepare and dispose to greater offences as the little sticks set the great ones on fire partly because with their multitude and power they do as much hurt the Soul as great sins with their weight minuta sunt sed multa sunt lastly because they are in their own nature mortal Therefore dash Babylons Brats against the stones In short small sins are the Mother of great sins and the Grandmother of great punishments Lots Wife was turned into a Pillar of Salt the Angels were cast out of Heaven Adam thrust out of Paradise Second Branch But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Doctrine That eternal Life is Gods free and gracious Gift to the Sanctified What eternal Life is we shewed before it is the full fruition of eternal Joys without any possibility of losing them Here is 1. The Donor God 2. The meritorious and procuring Cause Jesus Christ our Lord. 3. The Parties qualified Those that have their fruit to Holiness 1. On Gods part a Gift not a Debt as Wages is to the Servant or Souldier but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gracious Gift Though we should serve God a thousand years we cannot merit to be one half day in Heaven there it is a Gift to those who do most exactly persevere in Holiness the best have no other Claim but the Mercy of the Donor 1. It is the freest Gift 2. It is the richest Gift 1. It is the freest Gift God payeth more than is our due To punish men beyond their desert is injustice but to reward men beyond their deserts is not contrary to Justice for it is an Act of Mercy First It is greater than any merit of ours because it is the eternal injoyment of the ever blessed God and so far beyond any thing that we can do Finite things carry no proportion to an infinite reward Secondly Our works are many ways imperfect and so we may expect punishment rather than reward Mercy is our best Plea when we
come to consider the Case between God and our Consciences Jude 21. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life 2. It is the richest Gift What can God give us more than himself 2. On Christs part it is a Purchace We have it upon the account of his Merit and Intercession and it is conveyed to us by his free Promise 1. Upon the account of his Merit and Intercession we have both the preparations and the Gift it sâ—lf Justification which is the foundation of it Rom. 5.18 By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life Sanctification is the beginning and introduction into it Tit. 3.5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost The first we have by the Merit of his Death and Obedience Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus The second is wrought in us freely by his Spirit eternal Life it self Heb. 9.15 That they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance 2. It is conveyed by his Promise 1 Joh. 2.25 And this is the promise which he hath promised us even eternal life 3. The Parties qualified Those that are sanctified The freedom of this Gift doth not exclude Qualifications Holy men have a just Title to eternal Life but they do not deserve it none but the holy have it but there is no intrinsick worth in what we do to deserve it no such meritorious influence as may alter the freeness of it Vse 1. With Faith in Christ you must joyn Holiness What will encourage us to live an holy Life if this will not Through many hindrances by the way from the Devil the World and the Flesh yet thus we tend to eternal Life Vse 2. Acknowledge the freeness of it It is most worthy of God though we are every way unworthy of it it is the effect not of our Holiness but the Lords Grace none obtain it without Holiness yet not for Holiness Vse 3. To shew us how happy the Children of God are 1. Happy in the Lord whom they serve God and Jesus Christ. 2. Happy in the reward of their Service Eternal Life 3. Happy in the manner of their Reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be considered in three instances 1. Their destination thereunto by Election Luke 12.32 Fear not little flock it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom 2. In our Conversion Regeneration or effectual Vocation the beginning of eternal Life 3. In our Coronation when the full possession of eternal Life is given to us All these are the free Gift of God in Jesus Christ not procured or merited by any special Acts depending on mass free Will A TABLE Of the Principal Matters contained in the Sermons on Romans 6. A. ABstain it is not enough that we abstain from evil but we must do good pag. 72 Access to God the fruit of Holiness 145 What hinders it ibid. Activity in the ways of Righteousness and the ways of sin resemblance between them in our 1 Solitude 2 Industry 3 Promptness 4 Resolution 5 Progress 128 129 Reasons why it should be so 129 Acts our Acts depend on Christ 25 Amiableness of a life spent in Gods service 143 Antinomian Doctrines consuted 7 Appearance of evil to be avoided 100 Appetite sensual sin proceeds from the inordinacy of it 62 Armor Christian the parts of it described 103 B. BAptism sealeth the new Covenant to us 18 Faith and Repentance solemnly professed in Baptism 6 Represents to us Christs Death and Resurrection 17 Is a publick profession of our Communion with Christs Death and Resurrection 19 How we are buried with Christ in Baptism 14 Mystical Vnion signified and sealed in Baptism Vide Union 23 Obligeth us to dye to sin 2 And to a new life 19 24 How Baptism obligeth us to walk in newness of life 17 How it is to be improved 13 The Rite of Dipping why not retained 14 Believing the necessity of believing that if we be dead with Christ we shall live with him 46 The grounds of believing a blessed future state in Heaven 46 47 The profit of believing this 47 Body why mentioned as the seat of sin 67 What care we should take to imploy our Bodies in Gods service 73 Mortal Body Vide Mortal Body of sin what is meant by it and the reason of the expression 30 In what sense it is said to be destroyed ibid. Burial of Christ why Christ must be buried 17 C. CHange a great change wrought in all that are brought home to God 125 What this Change is 142 The effects of this Change 143 One great Change is change of Masters Vide Masters 125 Those that are changed must away with their sinful life 131 Choice of Masters of great concernment to us 111 Whom we ought to chuse for our Master 115 What should guide us in this Choice Vide Masters 111 Communion with God here the fruit of Holiness 145 Communion with Christs Death what a signifies 8 Complaining great deceit of the heart in complaining against sin without resistance 77 Conflict spiritual incouragements to us in our Conflict with sin 87 Objections answered 93 Conformity to Christ wherein it consists 25 Where there is a likeness to his Death there will be also to his Resurrection 26 Consent given to the service both of sin and of God 69 Bare Consent to Gods service will not evidence us Gods servants without obedience 114 Consideration the want of it the cause of many sins 32 Conversion of all spiritual mercies we should thank God for the Conversion of our selves and others 123 It is the duty of converted persons to be free from sin 40 Other duties of converted persons 123 Covenant Vide New Covenant Creature how to use the Creature to Gods glory 147 Crucifixion why the death of sin is set forth by this Notion 29 How the old man is crucified with Christ Vide Dead with Christ. ibid. Custom in sinning takes away all tenderness of Conscience 102 D. DEad with Christ what it is to be dead with Christ 42 Who are dead with Christ 43 A Condition necessary to obtain subsequent Grace 44 Freedom from sin is consequent of our dying with Christ 40 The necessity of believing if we be dead with Christ we shall also live with him 46 Dead to sin What it is to dye to sin 2 Exhortation to it 27 Motives 20 Directions Vide Dying to sin and living to God 27 Death of Christ the value of it 12 It shews the deadly nature of sin 33 How it mortifies sin 32 Death eternal what it is 157 The terribleness of it 141 The sinners wages 157 The certain connexion between it and sin 141 158 The Iustice and Righteousness of God in inflicting it on sinners ibid. Death temporal why continued 157 The fruit of sin
spiritual but I am carnal sold under sin Rom. 7.14 By the law of nations Service was brought in by conquest and those that were taken in War were vendati sub Hasta sold under a speer merely at the dispose of him that took them 2 Pet. 2.19 They are servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage This our service under sin is in part represented by a Captive in regard we cannot rid our selves of it in part by an hired servant because we willingly and by our own default run into it This impotency is most sensible in them that are convinced of better but do that which is worse they see their duty but are not able to perform it being overcome by their lusts they have some kind of remorse and trouble but cannot help themselves But how came this servitude upon us Partly by the natural inclination of our own corrupt hearts There are servi natura Fools and brutish Men so in a spiritual sense are all men Gen. 3.31 The imaginations of mans heart are evil from his youth 2 ly 'T is increased by custom in sinning these lusts are not only born with us but bred up with us and so plead prescription because Religion cometh afterwards Jer. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil 'T is hard to shake off inveterate customs strict education tho it changeth not the heart hindreth the growth of sin 3 ly Example doth strengthen and increase it Eph. 2.3 Among whom we also had our conversations in times past in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as others and Isa. 6.5 I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips 4. By the Devils craft who observeth our tempers and inclinations who suiteth every distemper with a diet proper 2 Tim. 2.26 That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will Now this is our bondage till we change Masters and devote and give up our selves to God 2. By nature men are under the power of sin and so by consequence under the sentence of death for sin and death go hand in hand These two cannot be put asunder being joined together by the ordination of Gods righteous Law if sin rule in us 't will certainly damn us for none are freed from the damning power of sin but those that are freed from the dominion of it the same law that convinceth of sin doth also bind over to death sin and death suit together like work and wages Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death To affect you while we are explaining this matter consider Three things 1. The suitableness of death to sin 2. The certainty of it 3. The terribleness of this death 1. The suitableness or correspondence that is between sin and death This suitableness will appear if we consider the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God 1. The Wisdom of God which doth all things according to Weight Measure and Order cannot permit the disjunction of these two Things so closely united together as sin and punishment but there will be an appearance of deformity and incongruity if there be such things as good and evil bonum malum morale as he is unworthy of the name not only of a Christian but a man that denieth it Again if there be such a thing as pleasure and pain joy and sorrow as the sense telleth us or that which we call bonum malum naturale natural good and natural evil Then 't is very agreeable to the Wisdom of God that these things should be rightly placed and sorted that a moral evil which is sin should be punished with a natural evil which is pain and misery and moral good which is Vertue should end in joy and pleasure or in short that there should be rewards and punishments God is naturally inclined as the Creator of mankind to mankind to make his Creature good and happy if nothing hinder him from it if there be no impediment in the way From hence we may see how incongruous it is to the Wisdom of God who permitteth no dissonancy or disproportion in any of his dispensations to admit a separation of these natural relatives if there were no other Testimony of this yet the dispositions of our own hearts would evince it for there we have some obscure shadows of the properties which are in God we compassionate a miserable man who is made so by the iniquity of the times and we esteem him not deserving his misery And we are moved with indignation against one who by evil arts is fortunate and successful but altogether unworthy of â—he happiness which falleth to his share which is an apparent proof that men are sensible of an excellent Harmony and natural order which is between these two things Vertue and Felicity Sin and Misery and to see them so suited doth exceedingly please us Now this sheweth how fitly these two couples are joined sin and death Grace and Life 2. Let us consider the Justice of God as the Judg of the world and so must and will do right Gen. 18.25 Shall not the judg of all the earth do right It belongeth to his general justice that it be well with them that do well and ill with them that do evil God is readily inclined to provide happiness for man who is his creature if there were no sin to stop the course of his bounty and if sin had not entred into the world there had been nothing but happiness in the world but when sin entred into the world death presently trod upon the heels of it Rom. 5.12 As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all even for that all have sinned Now men are of different sorts some recover out of the common Apostacy and their cursed estate by sin and live holily others wallow in their filthiness still Therefore it is agreeable to Gods general justice to execute vengeance on the one and to reward the other at least the punishment is just Rom. 2.9 10. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every one that worketh good So that the Justice of God maketh an inseparable connexion between Sin and Death 3. Let us consider the Purity and Holiness of God which inclineth him to hate evil and love that which is good the first we are most concerned to prove Psal. 5.5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity But the other is true also the upright are his delight Prov. 11.20 Well then if God loveth good and hateth evil he will one way or other express his love and hatred this he doth by
from thine own flesh Isa. 58.7 A beggar is our own flesh men in pride and disdain will not own it shut up their bowels against them but Christ had our nature in perfection this made Laban tho otherwise a churlish man kind to Jacob Gen. 29.14 Surely thou art bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh But this is not all Christ assumed humane nature that he might experiment infirmities in his own person and his heart be more tendred towards us Heb. 2.17 18. In all things it behoved him to be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God in making reconciliation for the sins of the people for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succor them that are tempted We have more assurance that he will pity us who is not a stranger to our blood and hath had tryal of our nature and our miseries and temptations he knoweth the heart of an afflicted tempted man and will mind our business as his own 5. Christ by taking our flesh is become a pattern to us of what shall be done both in us and by us 1. His own holy nature is a pledg of the work of Grace and the sanctification of the spirit whereby we are fitted and prepared for God for the same holy spirit that could sanctifie the substance that was taken from the Virgin so that that holy thing that was born of her might be called the Son of God he can also sanctifie and cleanse our corrupt hearts the pollution of our natures is so ingrained that we are troubled to think how it can be wrought off and these foul hearts of ours made clean but the same spirit that separateth our nature in the person of Christ from all the pollution of his Ancestors can purifie our persons and heal our natures how polluted soever they be 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God So many Generations as there are reckoned up in the Story of Christs nativity Mat. 1. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob c. So many intimations there are of the deriving of sinful pollution from one Ancestor to another and tho it still run in the blood yet when Christ was born of the Virgin he sanctified the substance taken from her there the infection was stopped he was born an holy Thing Luk. 1.35 and Heb. 7.20 Who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners 2. His Life was a pattern of our Obedience for he gave us an example that we should follow his steps and walk as he walked he submitted to all manner of duties both to God and men Luke 2.49 Wist ye not that I should be about my fathers business There was his duty to his Heavenly Father and for his natural and reputed Parents Luke 2.51 He went down and was subject to them and still he went about doing good Acts 10 38. This was the business of his Life Obedience Christ would commend to us for he never intended to rob God of a Creature and a subject when he made man a Christian therefore he in our nature having the same interests of flesh and blood the same passions and affections would teach us to obey God at the dearest rates 3. In the same nature that was foiled he would teach us also to conquer Satan He conquered him hand to hand in personal conflict repelling his temptations by Scripture as we should do Mat. 4.10 So he conquered him as a tempter there is another conquest of him as a tormentor as one that hath the power of death so he conquered him by his death on the Cross and so his humane nature was necessary to that also Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also took part of the same that he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil Christ would stoop to the greatest indignities to free us from this enemy and to put mankind again into a condition of safety and happiness 4. That he might take possession of Heaven for us in our nature John 14.2 3. I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to my self The Devils design was to depress our nature but Christ came to exalt it Satan endeavoured to make us lose Paradise but Christ came to give us Heaven and to assure us of the reality of the gift he did himself in our nature rise from the dead and entred into that glory he spake of to give us who are strangely haunted with doubts about the other world a visible demonstration that the Glory of the World to come it no fancy he is entred into it and hath carryed our nature thither that in time if we regard his offers and his promises our selves may be translated thither also 5. After he had been a sacrifice for sin and conquered death by his Resurrection He hath triumphed over the Devil and led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men in the very act of his ascention into heaven Eph. 4.8 To teach us that if we in the same nature continue the conflict and be faithful unto the death we shall triumph also and the God of peace shall tread Satan under our feet shortly Rom. 16.20 These Things occur to me for the present as the fruits and benefits of Christs Incarnation but the chief reason why 't is brought here is That God might condemn sin in the flesh shew the great example of his wrath against it by the sorrows and sufferings of Christ. 2. By his Passion this is intimated in the terms for Sin or by a Sin-offering as we have it in the margent and is confirmed in other Scriptures as Heb. 10.6 In burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure In the Original 't is only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in burnt-offerings and for sin thou hadst no Pleasure therefore in the Translation we put the word sacrifices in another sort of letter as being supplyed so Isa. 53.10 When he shall make his soul sin that is as we well render it an offering for sin so 2 Cor 5.21 Christ was made sin for us that is a sacrifice for sin so here by sin he condemned sin in the flesh that is by a propitiatory sacrifice All things that were in the sin-offering agree to Christs Death for instance First Sin was the meritorious cause why the beast was slain the beasts obeyed the law of their creation but man had sinned against God Lev. 5.6 He shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord for his sin which he hath sinned and the Priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin Here was no other reason the beast an innocent creature should die so Christ died for our offences Rom. 4.25 Not his own he had no sins of his own to expiate therefore while the Sacrifice was
body is dead because of sin That is the relicks of sin are not abolished but by death there is a twofold end and use of death to them that are in Christ. 1. To finish transgression and make an end of Sin We groan under the burden of it while we are in our Mortal bodies Rom. 7.24 But when the Believer dyeth death is the destruction of sin rather than of the penitent Sinner the vail of the sinful flesh is rent and by the sight of God we are purified all in an instant and then sin shall gasp its last and our Physitian will perfect the cure which he hath begun in us and we shall be presented faultless before the presence of God 2. To free us from the natural infirmities which render us uncapable of that happy life in Heaven which is intended to us The state of Adam in innocency was blessed but Terrene and Earthly a state that needed Meat Drink and Sleep If Christ would have restored us to this life it may be death had not been necessary and the present state of our bodies needed not to be destroyed but only purified but our Lord Jesus had an higher aim Eph. 1.3 Who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in Christ Adam injoyed God among the beasts in paradise we injoy God among the Angels in Heaven it 's a divine and Heavenly Life that he promiseth a life like that of the blessed Angels where meat and drink and sleep hath no use Now this nature that we now have is not fitted for this life therefore Paul telleth us 1 Cor. 15.50 That flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God That is that Animal life which we derived from Adam cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Therefore we need to bear the image of the Heavenly which cannot be till this terrene and animal life be abolished To this end God useth death So that which was in its self a punishment becometh a means of entrance into glory the Corn is not quickened unless it die 1 Cor. 15.36 37 38. The believers that are alive at Christs coming must be change v. 52 53. Christ himself by death entred into Glory therefore what ever is animal vile and earthly and weak must be put off before we are capable of this blessed estate 3. The cause of this mortality is Because of sin Had it not been for sin we had never had cause to fear dissolution there had been no use for coffins and winding-sheets nor had we been beholding to a Grave to hide our carkass from the sight and smell of the living there was a posse mori in innocency else death could not be threatned as a penalty but there was a posse non mori or else Immortality could not be propounded as the reward of Obedience therefore Man is Mortal conditione corporis but Immortal beneficio conditoris God could have supported him Well then death must make sin odious or else sin allowed will make death terrible Thirdly We come to the assertoin or correction The spirit is life because of Righteousness In which observe 1. That Believers have a life notwithstanding death Though death be appointed by God and inflicted upon believers as well as others yet they live notwithstanding this death John 11.25 He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live The Fountain of Life can raise him when he will no bands of Death can hinder his quickening Vertue Tho the union between Body and Soul be dissolved yet not their union with God 2. This life is to be understood of body and soul. 'T is only indeed here said life but he explaineth himself in the 11. vers If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you Man is compounded of a Body and a Soul death deprived him of his body for a time only the Body shall at last be reunited to partake of the happiness of the soul. 1. The soul being the noblest part is presently and most happily provided for being sanctified and purified from all her imperfections and is brought into the sight and presence of God Luke 20.38 They all live to God And they are gathered to the great counsel and assembly of Souls Heb. 12.23 There they serve God day and night and are under an happy necessity of never wandring from their Duty and no longer busied to maintain a war against sin but are always Imployed in Lauding Praising and Blessing God and delighting in him Well then this is the happiness of the faithful That though they put off the Body for a time yet the Soul hath an Eternal house to which it retireth and remains not only in the hand of God but injoyeth the sight and love of God 2. Cor. 5 1. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2. For the body At the Resurrection the soul shall reassume its body again We cannot easily believe that part shall be placed in Heaven which we see commited to the Grave to rot there but there is no impediment to Gods Almighty Power Phil. 3.21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself This place doth prove that God hath provided for the happy estate of the Body as well as the Soul The dead are Gods subjects put into the hands of Christ he must give an account of them John 6.40 And this is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day They are likewise members of Christ. 1 Cor. 6.15 Now his Mystical body will not be maimed they are Temples of the Holy ghost 1 Cor. 6.15 Temples wherein we offer up to God reasonable service Now since the Spirit possesseth both Body and Soul he will repair his own dwelling-place which he hath once honoured with his presence and not let corruption always abide on it And we have the pattern of Christ he is the first Fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 the Soul hath an inclination to the Body still Therefore that our happiness may be compleat a glorified Soul shall inanimate immortal Body 3. The grounds are first the Spirit renewing Secondly Christ purchase 1. The Spirit is life he doth not draw his Argument from the immortality of the Soul for that is common to good and bad the wicked have a soul that will survive the body but little to their comfort their immortality is not an happy immortality but he taketh his argument from the new life wrought in us by the spirit which is the beginning pledg and earnest of a blessed immortality
think that Grace will drop to us out of the Clouds he was an evil and a sloathful servant that did not improve his Talent To neglect duty is to resist Grace and to run away from our strength God hath promised to be with us while we are doing therefore we are to wait for this power in the use of all holy means that our corruption may be subdued and mortified USE is to exhort with all diligence to set about the mortifying the deeds of the body by the Spirit Two Things I shall press you to 1. Improve the death of Christ. 2. A right carriage towaâ—ds the spirit 1. Improve the death of Christ For the term Mortifie or Crucifie often used in this matter respects Christs death and every where the Scripture sheweth that the death of Christ is of excellent use for the mortifying of sin I shall single out a few places Gal. 2.20 I a am crucified with Christ. Three Propositions included 1. Christ crucified 2. Paul crucified 3. With Christ. It doth not imply any fellowship with him in the acts of his Mediation there Christ was alone only that the effects of his death were accomplished in him a participation of the benefits of his Mediation so Rom 6.6 knowing this that our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin may be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Then was there a foundation laid for the destruction of sin when Christ died then was the merit interposed or price paid and the obligation laid upon us to mortifie it Something there was to be done on Gods part the body of sin was to be destroyed which intimateth the communicating of his spirit of grace to weaken the power and life of sin and something done on our part that henceforth we should not serve sin There was a time when we served sin but being converted we must change masters and betake our selves to another service which will be more comfortable and profitable to us One place more 1 Pet. 4.1 For as much as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin That is since Christ hath suffered for you you must follow and imitate him in suffering also or dying with him namely in dying to sin as he dyed for sin or mortifying our lusts and passions For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that hath suffered in the flesh or is crucified in his carnal nature it hath not respect to suffering afflictions but mortifying sins for 't is presently added He hath ceased from sin given over that course of life so that he should no longer live the rest of his life in the flesh to the lusts of men but the will of God He inferreth the obligation of this correspondence and conformity from Christs dying From all these places we collect 1. 'T is an obligation This was Christs end and we must not put our Redeemer to shame 1 John 3.8 For this purpose the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil That the interest of the Devil might be destroyed in us and the interest of God set up with glory and triumph shall I go about to frustrate his intention or make void the end of his death cherish that which Christ came to destroy tye those cords the faster which he came to unloose By professing his name we bind our selves to die to sin Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein not ab impossibili but ab incongruo 2. That the death of Christ was a lively and effectual pattern of our dying to sin For the Glory of God and our Salvation Christ dyed a painful shameful accursed death now we must crucifie sin Gal. 5.24 Be crucified to the world Gal. 6.14 That is to say Christ denied himself for us and we must deny our selves for him he suffered pain for us that we should willingly digest the trouble of Mortification and suffer in the flesh in our carnal nature as he did in the human nature 1. The death of Christ was an act of self-denyal he pleased not himself Rom. 15.3 Minded not the interest of that nature he had assumed parted with his Life in the Flower of his Age when most cause to love it And will you part with nothing make it your business to please the flesh and gratify the flesh he loved you and gave himself for you and will not you give up your lusts 2. The death of Christ was an act of pain and sorrow of all deaths crucifixion is the most painful and shameful Sinful nature is not extinguished in us without trouble as sin is rooted in self-love self-denyal is a check to it as this self-love is mainly a love of pleasure or the delight we take in sin so the pains of Christs death check it shall we wallow in fleshly delights when Christ was a man of sorrows Christs sufferings are the best glass wherein to view sin will you take pleasure in that which cost him so dear he was mocked spit upon buffetted he bare the shame due to our vain conversations A Malefactor was preferred before him Therefore when you remember Christs death you learn how to deal with sin the Jews would not hear of Christs being King Away with him we have no King but Cesar such an Holy indignation should there be a in a renewed soul Rom. 6.12 Let not sin reign therefore in your mortal bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof Let it not King it we have no King but Christ. 3. 'T was a price paid that we might have grace Every true Christian is a partaker of the fruits of Christs death and one fruit is that we might die unto sin 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousness This is communicated to us by the spirit he bought sanctification as well as other priviledges Eph. 5.25 26. As Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word And Titus 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works 1 Pet. 1.18 Redeemed us from our vain conversations We are ready to say I shall never get rid of this naughty heart renounce these sensual and worldly affections our hearts are so wedded to the interests of the flesh but Matth. 19.26 With God all things are possible 2. Carry it well to the spirit 1. Believe that the Holy Ghost is your sanctifyer and resign up your selves to him as such that he may recover your souls to God This is but fulfilling our baptismal vow Mat. 28.19 Go baptize all nations in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost To God the Father as
convey life to others All weakness is removed from him his humane nature is glorified and seated in Heaven and his Divine Majesty and glory is restored to him so that we may reflect upon him with comfort as a King on the Throne in his royal Palace and place of residence David was King as soon as anointed by Samuel but when crowned in Hebron then did he actually administer the Kingdom and reward his servants and followers in the desert Christ when lifted up filleth all things Eph. 4.10 Lastly His Victory over his enemies death and sin as is fully seen Psal. 110.1 The Lord said unto my lord sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool And Heb. 10.13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies he made his footstool But there is somewhat peculiar 1. By entring into Heaven he hath opened Heaven for us he hath carryed our nature thither our flesh into Heaven and advanced it at the Fathers right hand in glory and so hath taken possession of Heaven for and in the name of all believers that in time they may ascend and be partakers of the same glory John 14.2 I go to prepare a place for you 'T was prepared before the world began by the decree of God Matth. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 'T was prepared in time by the purchase of Christ Heb. 9.15 For the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament that they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Now he is gone to Heaven to pursue and apply that right gone thither as our harbinger Heb. 6.20 Whither the forerunner is for us entred opened Paradise again to us which was formerly shut and closed by our sins 2. By this means we have a friend in Heaven who is always at the right hand of God to prevent breaches between him and us 1 John 2.1 And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous As David had Jonathan in Sauls Court to give notice of danger and to interpose to take off all displeasure conceived against him 'T is a great priviledge questionless to have a friend in the Court of Heaven to take up all differences between God and us as a merciful and faithful High Priest to answer all accusations of Satan and hinder wrath from breaking out upon us as it would do every moment if we had the desert of our sins 3. His being exalted at the right hand of God noteth that honour and power which is put upon the Redeemer He hath received all power in Heaven and Earth Matth. 28.18 And Eph. 1.20 21. God set him at his right hand far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come So 1 Pet. 3.22 He is gone into Heaven Angels authorities and powers being made subject to him This height of honour to which Christ was exalted shews how much his friends may trust him and venture their all in his hands Psal. 2.12 Blessed are all they that put their trust in him how much his enemies may fear him every knee must bow to him they must either bend or break Phil. 2.10 We have not thoughts high enough of the glory and excellency of Jesus Christ and therefore the glory and splendor of Created things doth soon dazzle our eyes and our hearts are hardly held up and fortified against these discouragements that we must meet with in his service Surely since Christ is in the highest dignity and power with God and hath all the Heavenly hosts and Creatures at his command we should more incourage our selves in the Lord for all this power is managed for the comfort and defence of the godly and the terror and punishment of his and their enemies This power was given him as God man when he entred into Heaven and sat down on the right hand of Majesty 4. Fulness of grace given him to dispence the spirit to his redeemed ones Acts 2.33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear As soon as he was warm in the Throne he poureth out the spirit that is the first news that we hear from him and presently the virtue of it appeared three thousand souls were added to the Church that day Now that is a pledge of what is continually dispensed in the Church There is still a spirit sent forth to convince the unbelieving world and to conquer the opposing wisdom and power of the flesh as also to beget and continue life in his people that they may actually be put in possession of what he hath purchased for them for he hath promised to be with the Ministry and dispensation of the word to the end of the world Matth. 28.20 meaning by that presence not only his powerful providence but his covincing and quickning Spirit 5. The actual Administration of his Kingdom He ruleth his Church preserveth his people and subdueth their enemies The enemies of Christ are of two sorts Temporal and Spiritual his Temporal enemies are such as oppose his cause and servants and seek to suppress his interest in the world The Jews despightfully used him and his messengers and they had their doom wrath came upon them to the uttermost 'T is supposed they are intended Matth. 16.28 There are some standing here which shall not tast of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom In a few years the City Temple and whole Polity of the Jews were destroyed for the erection of the Gospel kingdom The Romans were the next enemy who endeavoured the extirpation of Christianity by several persecutions these were next made the footstool of the King of Kings and after some years that vast Empire was destroyed by the Inundation of barbarous Nations and the residue marched under the banner of Christ. Within a little time all these Nations which oppose Christs interest and persecute his servants are subdued under him and either broken in pieces by sundry plagues and judgments or else brought to submit their necks to Christs blessed yoke There is no standing out against the King whom God hath exalted at his right hand Secondly the Spiritual enemies of Christs kingdom are sin Satan and death each of which hath a kingdom of its own opposite to the kingdom of Christ. The Apostle telleth us Rom. 5.21 That sin reigned unto death but he exhorteth Rom. 6.12 Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies And he promiseth Rom. 6.14 That sin shall not have dominion over you Satan hath a kingdom opposite to Christ he is called the Prince of this world by usurpation John 12.31 And the Devils are called Eph. 6.12 Rulers of the darkness of this world The ignorant
superstitious carnal part of the world falleth to his share but Christ hath cast him out and will still go on to do it Death hath an Empire and Kingdom Rom. 5.14 Death reigned from Adam to Moses and verse 17. by one offence death reigned Now for the destruction of these powers was Christ exalted at the right hand of God and by degrees he doth destroy and subdue them yet this destruction is not so universal but that sin and Satan and death doth still continue yet though there be not a total destruction of them there is an absolute subjection of them to the Throne of the Mediator They cannot do any more than Christ permitteth they cannot hurt those whom God hath given to Christ in a deadly manner they cannot hinder the bringing them unto the Heavenly kingdom He doth annihilate the guilt of sin by his death the dominion by the power of his Spirit In the dispisers and refusers of his grace sin continueth in its absolute power but still in a subjection to the Throne The wrath of the Mediator is seen in their condemnation and destruction Satan is destroyed as to his Princely power but so as we must use the means still at last he shall be judged Death is the last enemy 1 Cor. 15.26 that shall be destroyed It will be finally destroyed in the Resurrection For the present it serveth Christs ends 1 Cor. 3.22 Fourthly His Intercession for us this is a notable prop to faith 1. Christ presents himself and the merit of his Sacrifice before the face of God to preserve us in his favour Heb. 9.24 He appeareth before God for us As the High Priest did enter with Blood into the holy place Levit. 6.7 The Priest shall make an atonement for him If he did not interpose before God night and day how should the accusations of Satan be repelled breaches prevented a mutual correspondence preserved between us and God 2. He doth interpose his love will and desire for our salvation and all grace that is necessary thereunto in all our difficulties conflicts and temptations to intercede is the part of an inferior towards a superior thus is Christ as Mediator to God John 14.16 I will pray the father He is to ask his own glory Psal. 2.8 Therefore what Grace is necessary for us 'T is a comfort Christ doth nor forget us now in Heaven as Pharaohs Bâ—tler forgat Joseph Gen. 40.23 But 't is much more a comfort that he will take notice of our particular case that he knoweth us by name and our necessities and wants and doth particularly intercede for us Nay he is mindful of us when we are not mindful of our selves for his intercession doth make way for the effectual application of his grace to us when we think not of it He obtaineth first the convincing then sanctifying then comforting spirit 3. To prevent breaches 1 John 2.1 We have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous An advocate so he is opposite to our accuser And Heb. 2.17 He is a merciful and faithful high priest in things appertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people Merciful to undertake faithful to accomplish merciful to us faithful to God merciful in dying faithful in interceding and so mindful of us at every turn Surely 't is the office of a Saviour to be Gods instrument in procuring our discharge if we our selves should only plead for pardon having carried our selves so unworthy of it it would be uncomfortable to us but he that hath redeemed us pleadeth for us we do not go to God alone 4. He presents our prayers which are made acceptable to God not as coming from us but as perfumed with his merits Heb. 8.2 and Rev. 8.3 And another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer and there was given to him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of the Saints He hath intendred his own heart by suffering hunger contempt in the world exile weariness pain of body heaviness of mind Heb. 4.14 15 16. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in a time of need Therefore come boldly for such mercies as we stand in need of He knoweth the heart of a tempted man VSE You see then what abundant cause we have to triumph and glory in Christ. You have his Humiliation as the ground of your comfort his Exaltation which qualifieth him to apply it to you and work it in you the merit and power If he had not wrought our deliverance long might we have born the wrath we deserved and had no means to help our selves If he should not make continual intercession for you the remnant of your sin would still bring damnation if he did not hide your nakedness and procure your daily pardon you would every day be your own destroyers nay you would not be an hour longer out of hell if he did not bring you to God you could have no comfortable access to him in any of your wants and necessities if he leave you to your selves to resist one temptation even to the foulest sins how quickly would you be born down and wallow like a swine in the mire We can with Jonah easily raise the storm but we know not how to allay it All from first to last must be given and ascribed to God in Christ. SERMON XLV ROM VIII 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword THE Triumph over the evil of sin being ended the Apostle beginneth his Triumph over afflictions Here observe 1. The Challenge Who shall separate us from the love of Christ 2. The evils enumerated Shall tribulatiâ—n or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword 1. The Challenge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who for what The things mentioned are spoken of as a person but the chief difficulty is about the meaning of that Clause the love of Christ Whether it be meant of our love to Christ or Christs love to us Reasons may be given on both sides 1. That it is meant of our love to Christ for tribulation is not like to alienate Christ from us but us from Christ This doth rather tend to draw us from loving God than God from loving us 2. That it is meant of Christs love to us because 't is very unlikely that the Apostle would boast of the constancy of his own love 'T is more comely to triumph in Gods love to us than our love to God What shall we then
If Christ came to save sinners I am sinner enough for Christ to save creeping in at the back-door of a promise God hath opened the way for all if they perish 't is through their own default He hath sent Messengers into the World Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned And if you are within hearing the Gospel you have more cause to hope than to scruple Acts 13.26 To you is the word of salvation sent Not brought but sent Know it for thy good Job 5.27 And rowse up your selves what shall we say to these things Rom. 8.39 If God be for us who can be against us 4. Though weak in faith and love to God yet Christ died one for all The best have not a more worthy Redeemer then the worst of sinners Go preach the Gospel to every creature Exod. 30.15 The Rich and Poor have the same ransom 1 Cor. 1.2 Jesus Christ theirs and ours And Rom. 3.22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe for there is no difference And 2 Pet. 1.1 To them who have obtained like precious faith with us A Jewel received by a Child and a Giant 't is the same Jewel So strong and weak faith are built upon one and the same righteousness of Christ. 2. Let us devote our selves to God in the sense of this love to walk before him in all thankful obedience Christ hath born our burden and in stead thereof offered his burden which is light and easie he took the curse upon him but we take his yoke Mat. 11.29 He freely accepted the work of Mediatour Heb. 10.7 Will you as freely return to his service SERMON XXVIII 2 Cor. 5.14 Then were all dead WE have handled the intensiveness of Christs love he died the extent how for all is to be interpreted now the fruit dying to sin and living to righteousness The first in this last clause Then were all dead not carnally in sin but mystically in Christ dead in Christ to sin In the Original the words run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not dead in regard of the merits of sin but dead in the merits of Christ for the Apostle speaketh here of death and life with reference and correspondence to Christs death and resurrection as the original pattern of them in which sense we are said to die when Christ died for us and to live when he rose again 2. He speaketh of such a death as is the foundation of the Spiritual life he died for them then were all dead and he died for them that they might live to him that died for them and rose again Our translation seemeth to create a prejudice to this exposition were dead in the Greek 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all died or all are dead that is to sin the World and self interesâ—s And besides it seemeth to be difficult to understand how all Believers were dead when Christ died since most were not then born and had no actual existence in the World and after they are converted they feel much of the power of sin in themselves Ans. They are comprized in Christs act done in their name as if they were actually in being and consenting to what he did In short they are dead mystically in Christ because he undertook it Sacramentally in themselves because by submitting to baptism they bind themselves and profess themselves ingaged to mortify sin Actually they are dead because the work at first conversion is begun which will be carryed on by degrees till sin be utterly extinguished Doct. That when Christ died all Believers were dead in him to sin and to the World 'T is the Apostles inference then were all dead The expression should not seem strange to us for there are like passages scattered every where throughout the Word 1. Therefore I shall shew you first that this truth is asserted in Scripture 2. I will shew you how all can be said to be dead since all were not then born and had no actual existence in the World 3. How they can be said to be dead to sin and the World since after conversion they feel so many carnal motions 4. What use the death of Christ hath to this effect to make us die to sin and the World 1. That this truth is asserted in Scripture To this end I shall propound and explain some places The first is Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should no longer serve sin In that place observe 1. The notions by which sin is set forth 'T is called by the names of the old man and the body of sin and simply and nakedly possibly by the old man natural corruption may be intended by the body of sin the whole mass of our acquired evil customs by sin actual transgression Or take them for one and the same thing diversly expressed in-dwelling sin is called an old man A man it is because it spreadeth its self throughout the whole man The Soul for Gen. 6.5 't is said every Imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually The Body Rom. 6.19 As you have yielded up your members Servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity And 't is called an old man as grace is called a new man and a new creature and it is so called because it is of long standing it had its rise at Adams fall Rom. 5.12 Whereas by one man sin entred into the World and death by sin so that death passed upon all because all had sinned And it hath ever been conveyed since from Father to Son unto all descending from Adam Psa. 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me So that 't is born and bred with us And Partly because in the godly 't is upon the declining hand and draweth towards its final ruine and expiration De jure 't is an old antiquated thing not to be cherished but subdued De facto 't is upon declining and weakning more and more And this old man is afterwards called the body of sin the whole Mass of habitual sins composed of divers evil qualities as the body of divers members this is our enemy 2. Observe in the place the priviledge that we have by Christs Death That our old man was crucified with him That is when Christ was crucified And the Apostle would have us know this and lay it up as a sure principle in our hearts the meaning is then there was a foundation laid for the destruction of sin when Christ dyed namely as there was a merit and a price paid and if ever our old man be crucified it must be by vertue of Christs death 3. Observe the way how this merit cometh to be applyed to us Something there must be done on Gods part in that expression that the body
to oblige us the more strongly to endeavour it And Partly because we have consented to this obligation in Baptism All the members of the Church have ingaged themselves to imploy the death and strength of Christ for the subduing of sin they are dead as they have upon this incouragement undertaken its death and in part already begun it 2. How all can be said to be dead when Christ died Since most of the Elect were not then born or yet in being Answer 1. When Christ was upon the cross be sustained the relation of our head or Common Person 'T was not in his own name that he appeared before Gods Tribunal but in ours not as a private but as a publick person So that when he was crucified all believers were crucified in him for the act of a Common Person is the act of every particular Person represented by him As a Knight or Burgess in Parliament serveth for his whole Borrough and Country Now that Christ was such a Common Person appeareth plainly by this that Christ was that to us in grace what Adam was to us in nature or sin The First Adam was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5. â—4 The figure of him that was to come And Christ is called the Second Adam 1 Cor. 15.45 The Second Common Person So that as we had a death in sin from the First Adam so a death to sin from the Second As we stood in Adam in Paradise so we stood in Christ upon the Cross Adams act in Paradise was in effect ours In Adam we all died 1 Cor. 15.21 So Christs act was in effect ours In Christ we all died Spiritually and mystically Adam did as it were lend his Body in Paradise we saw the forbidden fruit with his eyes gathered it with his hands eat it with his mouth that is we were ruâ—ned by these things as if we had been by and actually consented to his sin So in Christs representation on the Cross all believers are concerned as if they had been by and actually present and had been crucified in their own Persons and born the punishment of their own sins for all this was done in their name and â—ead that they might have the benefit 2. Christ was on the Cross not only as a Common Person but as a Surety and Vndertaker I say in his death there was not only a Satisfaction for sin but an obligation to destroy it There was an undergoing and an undertaking As he is set out in the Scripture under the notion of a Second Adam So also of a Surety Heb. 7.22 Christ is called the Surety of a better Testament Now he was a Surety mutually on Gods part and ours First he was to ingage for us to God and in the name of God ingaged himself to us The tenor of both ingagements is in Rom. 6.6 That the body of death should be destroyed that we should from thenceforth no longer serve sin Assoon as we consent to this stipulation this taketh effect On Gods part Christ undertook to destroy the body of sin by the Power of his Spirit which should be given to us to become a principle of Life in us and of death to our old man Titus 3.5 More particularly we mortify the deeds of the body by the help of the Spirit Rom. 8.13 The Holy-Ghost when he reneweth the heart puts into it a principle and seed of Enmity against sin 1 John 3.9 He cannot sin because the seed abideth in him And as that is cherished obeyed sin is resisted and mortified And he actuateth and quickeneth it yet more and more that it may prevail against the sin which dwelleth in us 2dly As our Surety he undertook that we should no longer serve sin that we should not willingly indulge any presumptuous acts nor slavishly lye down in any habit or course of sin Or under the power of any arnal distemper but also should use all godly endeavours for the preventing weakning or subduing it Christs act being the act of a Surety he did oblige all the Parties interessed he purchased grace at Gods hands and bound us to use all holy means of watching striving humiliation cutting off the provisions of the flesh avoiding occasions weaning the heart from earthly things which are the bait and fuel of sin that keep it alive 3. Our consent to this ingagement is actually given when we are converted and solemnly ratified in Baptism 1. 'T is actually given when we are converted Rom. 6.13 As those that are alive from the dead yield your selves to God and your members as instruments of righteousness to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weapons we then give up our selves to work and first as to do his work so to war in his warfare against the Devil the World and the flesh Till the merit of Christs death be applyed by faith to the hearts of sinners they are alive to sin but dead to righteousness but then they are dead to sin and alive to righteousness and as alive from the dead and then yield up themselves to serve and please God in all things 2dly That this is solemnly done or implyed in Baptism For when we were baptized into Christ we were baptized into his death Rom. 6.3 4 5. In Baptism we did by solemn vow and profession bind our selves to look after the effects of Christs death to mortify the deeds of the body or which is all one renounce the Devil the World and the flesh The Devil as the great architect and principle of all wickedness the World as the great bait and snare the flesh as the rebelling principle Our Baptism is certainly an avowed death to sin it implieth a renunciation by way of vow for 't is the answer of a good conscience towards God And the ancient covenants were made by way of question and answer 1 Pet. 3.21 The very washing implieth it washing is a purifying and after purifying we must not return to this mire again 2 Pet. 1.19 He hath forgotten he was purged from his old sins We promised to give over our old sins or as 't is our first ingrafting and implanting into Christ and his death if when we are baptized we are reckoned to be dead The death of Christ was mainly to put away sin and to take away sin 1 John 3.5 And Heb. 9.26 Now sins were not taken away that men may resume and take them up again The great condemnation of the Christian world is that when Christ would take away their sins they will not part with their sins 3dly How they can be dead to sin and the World since after conversion they feel so many carnal motions Ans. 1. By consenting to Christs ingagement they have bound themselves to dye unto sin When we gave up our names to Christ we promised to cast off sin and therefore we are to reckon our selves as dead to â—in by our own vow and obligation and accordingly to behave our selves Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead
was inlarged by degrees for his Human Nature was still to carry a proportion with ours and therefore he grew in Wisdom and in favour with God And so all that are Christs they grow The Trees planted in the Courts of God flourish there Psal. 92.13 There 's more room made for the new Nature by degrees to exert and put forth itself Corruption is still a dying and they grow more humble more holy more solid more rational more wise in the Spiritual Life more resolved for God more Heavenly minded that they may be at more liberty for God They may lose somewhat in liveliness of gifts and vigour of Affections for these things come and go but they are more spiritual and more stedfast and more solid and seriously set to seek after God As an old Tree that puts forth fewer leaves and blossoms but is more deeply rooted But now Hypocrites do not grow beyond their first blaze yea they wither every day lose their zeal and their forwardness out of carnal ease or affection to pleasures honours or greatness of the world they lose the seeming Grace that they had before 5. Where there 's Life there are vital Operations for Life is active and stirring so Spiritual Life hath its Operations it cannot well be hid it will bewray itself in a zealous and in a constant and uniform practice of Godliness They are Idols that have feet and walk not Rev. 3.1 Some only have a name to live and are dead They that make a naked profession but are not excited to live and bring forth fruit to God They have a form of Godliness but deny the power thereof 2 Tim. 3.5 That is the power that should change their hearts and direct and order all their Actions They that are governed by the Spirit they feel this power they are enabled to bring forth the fruits of Righteousness to the praise and glory of God Look as a Worldly Man by vertue of the Worldly Spirit that is in him is dexterous in all his Affairs his Worldly Principle puts a Life into him Luke 16.9 Their employment is suitable to their Life so a Spiritual Man that hath not the Spirit of the World or a disposition that makes him eager upon Worldly things but the Spirit of God dwelling and working in him here is not the Sphear of his Activity his Cares Thoughts and Endeavours are turned into another Channel he is quickned and raised to newness of Life Rom. 6.4 The Man is more earnest more throughly set for Heaven and the Worldly Life is more over-ruled and mastered in him and the Heavenly and Divine Life prevails in him and sets him awork more and more Thus I have by comparing these two lives a little shew'd you what is that Life that we have by Christ 't is a Life that flows from Regeneration that is begun by Union with Christ that begets a sense so that a Christian he feels the Annoyances of those things that are inconvenient and contrary to this Life and begets an Appetite after the supports that should maintain it and discovers itself by growth this Life is encreased in them more and more and also it discovers itself by its Activity by making them fruitful towards God Thus you see wherein they agree Secondly Let us a little see wherein they differ 1. They differ in the state of them both for this Spiritual Life is a Life that is consistent with some degree of Death Even then when we live we are troubled with a Body of Death Paul complains of it Tho Grace hath the upper hand in the Soul yet Corruption cleaves to us still Outwardly a man cannot be said to be dead and alive altogether but a Christian yet hath sin dwelling in him and is dying to sin every day that he may live unto God And as sin decays so the Spiritual Life takes place for mortification makes way for vivification and according to the degrees of the one so are the degrees of the other The more we die to sin the more we are alive to righteousness 1 Pet. 2.24 2. There 's a difference in the dignity of this Life Natural Life what is it A benefit vouchsafed to us by God that we may have time for Repentance but yet it is but a wind that is soon blown over and passeth away Job 7.7 and a suitable expression you have James 4.14 For this Life is but as a vapour This Life is a little warm breath turned in and out by the Nostrils soon gone it is indeed a continued sickness and our Food is as it were constant Medicine to repair and remedy the decays of the Natural Life O but this is a Life that flows from God himself and is a more worthy thing it is the Life of God and as Christ liveth in the Father so we in him by the Spirit This was a Life bought at a dearer rate then the Life of Nature John 6.51 My flesh which I give for the Life of the World Nothing less then the death of the Son of God would serve the turn and therefore 't is more noble then the other Life which is called The Life of our hands Isa. 57.10 because it costs us hard labour to maintain it 3. As it differs in the dignity and value so in the Original The Natural Life is traduc'd and brought down unto us by many successions of Generations from the first Adam he was a living Soul but the last Adam was a quickning Spirit 1. Cor. 15.45 We have a living Soul by vertue of our descending from the first Adam all that our Parents could do was to make way for the Union of Soul and Body together But by this Life we and Christ are united together and he becomes a Live-making Spirit unto us 4. There 's a difference in the duration Grace is an immortal flame a spark that cannot be quenched All our labour and toil here in the world is to maintain a dying Life a Lamp that soon goes out or to prop up a Tabernacle that is always falling when we have made the best provision for it 't is taken away Thou fool this night c. This Life is in the power of every Ruffian and Assassinate that values not his own O but the Spiritual Life is a Life that begins in Grace and ends in Glory the foundation of it was laid in Justification that took off the sentence of Death Sanctification is the beginning of it the which by degrees is carried on till it end in glory where we shall be never weary of living it The outward Life tho short yet we soon grow weary of it the shortest Life is long enough to be numbred with a thousand miseries if we live to Old-age Age is a burthen to itself Eccl. 12.1 Life itself may become a burthen for some have wished and requested for themselves that they might die But no Man ever wisht for the end of this Spiritual Life Who ever cursed the day of his new
we might yield up our selves to God to love and serve and please him for we by his blood are purged from dead works that we might serve the living God Heb. 9.14 3. Believers are said to reconcile themselves to God 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God As they do imbrace the offered benefit and lay aside their enmity and love God that loveth them and devote themselves to his use and service 2. More particularly I shall do three things 1. State the foregoing breach 2. Shew you the nature of this reconciliation 3. Shew you how Christ is concerned in it 1. To state the foregoing breach take these Propositions 1. God and man were once near friends Adam was the Lords favourite You know till man was made 't is said of every rank and species of the Creature God saw that it was good But when man was made in his day Gen. 1.31 God saw what he had made and behold it was very good An object of special love God expressed more of his favour to him than to any other Creature except the Angels Man was made after his Image Gen. 1.26 When you make the Image or Picture of a man you do not draw his feet or his hands but his face his tract or foot-print may be found among the creatures but his Image and express resemblance with man and so he was fitted to live in delightful Communion with his Creator Man was his Vice-roy Gen. 1.27 God intrusted him with the care charge and dominion over all the Creatures Yea he was capable of loving knowing or injoying God other Creatures were capable of glorifying God of setting forth his Power Wisdom and Goodness objectively and passively but man of glorifying God actively as being appointed to be the mouth of the Creation 2. Man gets out of Gods favour by conspiring with Gods grand Enemy His Condition was happy but mutable before Satan by insinuating with him draweth him into Rebellion against God and upon this Rebellion he forfeiteth all his priviledges Gods Image favour and Fellowship God would deal with him in the way of a Covenant Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Do and live sin and die The comminatory part is only expressed because that only took place So that by this Rebellion he lost the integrity of his nature and all his Happiness he first run away from God and then God drove him away he was first a fugitive and than an exile 3. Man faln draweth all his posterity along with him For God dealt not with him as a single but as a publick person Rom. 5.13 Whereas by one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all for that all have sinned And 1 Cor. 15.47 The first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the Lord from Heaven There 's a first man and a Second man nos omnes eramus in illo unus homo Adam and Jesus are the two great Institutions the one consistent with the Wisdom and Justice of God as the other with the wisdom and grace of God so that Adam begets enemies to God Gen. 5.3 Adam begot a Son in own likeness And 1 Cor. 15.49 we read of the Image of the earthly one Every man is born an enemy to God his nature opposite his ways contrary to God and so is eternally lost and undone unless God make some other provision for him 4. The Condition of every man by nature is to be a stranger and an enemy to God Col. 1.21 And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds That double notion is to be considered Strangers there is no Communion between God and us we cannot delight in God nor God in us till there be a greater suitableness or a divine nature put into us If that be too soft a notion the next will help it we are enemies there is a perfect contrariety we are perfectly opposit to God in nature and ways We are enemies directly or formally and in effect or by interpretation formally men are enemies open or secret open are those that bid open defiance to him as Pagans and Infidels and Idolaters Secret so are all sinners their hopes and desires are that there were no God they would fain have God out of their way rather than part with their lusts they would part with their God Psa. 14.1 The fool hath said in his heart there is no God 'T is a pleasing thought and supposition that there were no God In effect and by Interpretation they do things or leave things undone contrary to to Gods will and take part with their sins against him As Love is a Love of duty and subjection so hatred is a refusal of obedience Love me and keep my Commandments Exod. 20.6 They are angry with those who would plead Gods interests with them But how can men hate God who is summum bonum fons boni The School-men put the Question We hate him not as a Creator and Preserver but as a Law-giver and Judge As a Law-giver because we cannot injoy our lusts with that freedom and security by reason of his restraint God hath interposed by his Law against our desires Rom. 8.7 Because the carnal mind is enmity to God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be As a Judge and avenger of sin not only desire of carnal liberty but slavish fear is the cause of this enmity Men hate those whom they fear We have wronged God exceedingly and we know that he will call us to an account we are his debtors and cannot answer the demands of his Justice And therefore we hate him what comfort is it to a guilty prisoner to tell him that his Judge is a discreet person or of a stayed Judgment he is one that will condemn him A condemning God can never be loved by a guilty creature as barely apprehended under that notion 5. God hateth sinners as they hate him For we are Children of wrath from the womb Eph. 2.3 And that wrath abideth on us till we enter into Gods peace John 3.36 And the more wicked we are the more we incur Gods Wrath. Psal. 7.11 He is angry with the wicked every day They are under his curse Gal. 3.10 Whatever be the secret purposes of his grace yet so they are by the sentence of his Law and according to that we must Judge of our condition 2. The nature of this reconciliation 1. As the enmity is mutual so is the reconciliation God is reconciled to us and we to God On Gods part his Wrath is appeased and our wicked disposition is taken away by regeneration for there are the causes of the difference between him and us his Justice and our sin His Justice is satisfied in Christ so that he is willing to offer us a new Covenant Matth. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased He is
sacrifice and the power of his Spirit we come to God and by a thankful sense of his love we are incouraged and inabled to our duty Well then when in a broken hearted manner we confess our sins and own our Redeemer and devote our selves to God and resolve to walk in Christs prescribed way then are sins pardoned and we accepted with God 2. This Faith and repentance is wrought in us by the word and mainly acted in prayer First 'T is wrought in us by the word wherein God is pleased to propound free and easie Conditions of pardon and mercy praying us to be reconciled and to cast away the weapons of our Rebellion and submit to the Law of grace For here in verses 18 19 20. He doth not only reveal the mystery but beseecheth us to enter into Covenant with him and to yield up our selves to his service Secondly Prayer by which in the name of Christ we sue out this benefit This is the means appointed both for regenerate and unregenerate The unregenerate Acts 8.22 Repent therefore of thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart be forgiven thee The regenerate 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins Believing broken hearted prayer doth notably prevail the publican had no other suit but Lord be merciful to me a sinner Luke 18.13 The Lord describeth the poor sinners that came to him for pardon Jer. 31.9 They shall come with weeping and supplications 5. We are sensibly pardoned as well as actually when the Lord giveth peace and joy in believing and sheddeth abroad his love in our hearts by the Spirit We must distinguish between the grant and the sense sometimes a pardon may be granted when we have not the sense and comfort of it We may hold a precious Jewel with a trembling hand as the waves roll after a storm when the wind is ceased God may keep his people humble as a Prince may grant a pardon to a condemned malefactor but he will not have him know so much till he come even to the place of execution Davids heart was to Absolom yet he would not let him see his face There are two Courts the Court of Heaven and the Court of Conscience The pardon may be passed in the one and not in the other and a man may have peace with God when he hath not peace of Conscience To assure our hearts before him and know our sincerity 1 John 3.9 is a thing distinct from being sincere and a man may be safe though not comfortable Every one that believeth cannot make the bold challenge of faith and say Who shall condemn Rom 8.33 6. The last step is when we have a compleat and full absolution of sin that is at the day of Judgment Acts 3.19 Your sins shall be blotted out when days of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord when the Judge pro tribunali shall sententionally and in the audience of all the World pronounce our pardon To make title to pardon by Law is comfortable but then we shall have it from our Judges own mouth Here we are continually subject to new guilt and so to new sins whereby arise new fears So till our final absolution we are not fully perfect not till the day of redemption Eph. 4 30. When the evils of sin do fully cease then is our Adoption full Rom. 8.23 Then will our Regeneration be full Matth. 19.28 Then all the effects of sin will cease Death upon the body will be no interruption of pardon we shall be fully acquitted and never sin more 3. That 't is a branch and fruit of our reconciliation with God the other is the gift of the Spirit or all things that belong to the new nature for God giveth sanctifying grace as the God of peace But this also is a notable branch and fruit of reconciliation 1. Because when God releaseth us from the punishment of sin 't is a sign his anger and wrath is appeased and now over Isa. 24.7 Fury is not in me God hath been angry for a little moment but when he pardoneth sin then he is pacified for sin is the make-bate between us and God 2. That which is the ground of reconciliation is the ground of pardon of sin Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace viz. the price paid by the Mediator to his Fathers Justice and therefore a principal part of our reconciliation and redemption is Remission of sins in Justification 3. That which is the fruit of reconciliation is obtained and promoted by pardon of sin and that is fellowship with God and delightful Communion with him in a course of obedience and subjection to him Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure water Our general pardon at first is to put us into a state of new obedience our particular pardon ingageth us to continue in a course of acceptable obedience that we may maintain a holy Commerce with God 1 John 1.7 If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin VSE 1. is to inform us That all those that seek after reconciliation with God or would take themselves to be reconciled to him should be dealing with God about the pardon of sins and suing out this priviledge which is of such use in their Commerce with God But here ariseth a doubt What need have those that are reconciled to God to beg pardon Ans. very great Matth. 6 12. Our Lord hath taught us so we pray for daily pardon and daily grace Against Temptations as well as for daily bread I prove it 1. From the Condition of Gods people here in the World we are not so fully sanctified here in the World but there is some sin found in us original sin remaineth with us to the last and we have our actual slips Paul complaineth of the body of death Rom. 7.23 And the Apostle telleth us 1 John 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us And verse 10 th If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us And Eccl. 7.20 There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Either omitting good or commiting evil They do not love God with that purity and fervency nor serve him with that liberty delight and reverence that he hath required 'T is the happiness of the Church Triumphant that they have have no sin of the Church Militant that their sin is forgiven Sometimes we sin out of ignorance sometimes out of imprudence and inconsideration sometimes we are overtaken and sometimes overborn now these things
is satisfied with Christs Obedience as a perfect Ransom for us and is well pleased with those who make use of it and apply it in the appointed way by the subordinate New Testament Righteousness Now as it is the Righteousness of God 't is a great comfort for the Righteousness of God is better than the Righteousness of a meer creature With the Righteousness of God we may appear before God with all confidence and look for all manner of Blessings from him The Law which condemneth us is the Law of God The wrath and punnishment which we fear is the wrath of God The Glory which we expect is the Glory of God The Presence into which we come is the Presence of God And to suit with it the Righteousness upon which we stand is the Righteousness of God which is a great support to us 4. Mark again How the business is carried on by way of exchange Christ made Sin and we Righteousness Christ is dealt with as the sinner in Law and we are pronounced as Righteousness before God our Surety is to bear our punishment and we to be accepted as pleasing and acceptable to God Thus by a wonderful exchange he taketh our evil things upon himself that he might bestow his good things upon us He took from us misery that he might convey to us mercy He was made a curse for us that the Blessing of Abraham might come upon us by Faith Gal. 3.13 14. He suffered death that he might convey life took our sin upon himself that he might impart to us his Righteousness This exchange agreeth in this that on both sides something not merited by the person himself is transferred upon them What more averse from the Holy Nature of Christ than sin He knew no sin and yet is made sin What more alien and strange on our part than Righteousness who are so many ways culpable Yet we are made the Righteousness of God in him This is by no errour of judgment but the wise contrivance ordination and appointment of God that by something done by another it should be imputed and esteemed to that other as if done in his own person So for our sin was Death imposed upon Christ as if he had been the sinner And for Christs Righteousness Life and the Heavenly Inheritance is bestowed upon us as if we had fulfilled the Law and satisfied it in our own person But here is the difference our sins are imputed to Christ out of Gods Justice he being our Surety His Righteousness is imputed to us out of Gods Mercy Our sin was transferred upon him that he might abolish it or take it away for he came to take away sin 1 Joh. 3.5 His Righteousness was imputed to us that it might continue as an everlasting ground of our acceptance with God therefore he is said to finish transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in an everlasting Righteousness The vertue of his Righteousness is never spent it abideth for ever He was made a curse for us that this curse might be dissolved and swallowed up but his Blessing is derived to us that it may abide and continue with us to all eternity He took our filthy rags that he might throw them into the depth of the sea but we have the garment of our Elder Brother that we might put it on and Minister in it before the Lord and find grace in his sight Hence is it that though we may be said truly to be Righteous and the Children of God yet Christ cannot be said to be a sinner or the Child of wrath because he had no sin of his own and the wrath of God did not remain on him but only pass over him 2dly There is but one thing remaining in the Text In him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that noteth the time when and the manner how we are actually interested in this benefit When we are in him We are by faith grafted into Christ before this Righteousness is made ours upon this union This Righteousness is adjudged to us 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made to us Wisdom Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption First in him by a lively Faith then 't is imputed to us And as we abide in his love by a constant obedience so 't is continued to us This Righteousness is revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1.17 And 't is by Faith unto all and upon all that believe Rom. 3.22 So that we must look to this also how we come to be possessed of it as well as how it is brought about on Christs part As sin or sins could not be imputed to Christ but by the common bond of the same nature and unless he had been united to us by his voluntary Suretyship and undertaking so neither could the Righteousness of Christ have been imputed to us unless we had become one with him in the same Mystical Body so that we believing in Christ and abiding in him are made partakers of his Righteousness and so are pleasing and acceptable to God The Price was paid when Christ died our actual possession and admission into the priviledge is when we are planted into Christ by a lively Faith Doct. That Christ being made sin for us is the meritorious cause and way of our being the Righteousness of God in him Isa. 53.11 By his Knowledge shall my Righteous Servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities So that his bearing of our iniquities is the cause of our being accepted as Righteous through Faith in him So Rom. 5.18 19. Therefore as by the offence of one Judgment came upon all men to condemnation Even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made Righteous On this foundation hath the Lord established for the Saints an unchangeable rule of Justification I shall give you the Sum of this point in these Propositions 1. The First covenant requireth of us perfect obedience upon pain of eternal death if we perform it not for the tenor of it is do and live sin and dye The least sin according to that covenant merits eternal Death Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them 2dly All mankind have sinned and so are liable to that Death Rom. 3.23 For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God And Rom. 5.12 Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned 3dly Christ became the Mediatour and stepped between us and the full execution of it and took the penalties upon himself and became a Sacrifice to offended Justice and a ransom for the sinners So that his sufferings were
love his appearing Upon which Bernard noteth Paulus expectat Coronam justitiae sed justitiae Dei non suae justum est ut reddat quod debet debet autem quod pollicitus est It is just with God to pay what he oweth and he oweth what he promised Therefore Chrysostom saith it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We may say to God redde quod promisisti tho not redde quod debes 3. By positive Ordinance that every Man shall receive according to the kind of his Work the Wicked according to their wicked Actions and the Good according to their good Actions Mat. 16.27 Then he shall reward every Man according to his Works Now lest any should think it is meant of wicked Men only the Apostle tell us 2 Cor. 5.10 Every one shall receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad God is not arbitrary in his Judgment it is the Rule of Process All shall be rewarded in the general quoad genus according to the kind of their Works Wicked Men quoad meritum because Eternal Punishment is due to Evil Works out of the Nature of the Works but for the Godly the kind of their Works is judged but not in rigorous Justice they shall not be weighed in the Ballance then all would be found wanting but brought to the Touch-stone Vae laudabili vitae hominum si remotâ miserecordiâ discentias eam saith Gregory And the Apostle James 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they theâ— shall be judged by the Law of Liberty Vse 1. See how careful God is to preserve the Honour and the awe in us of his Justice even in his Rewards of Grace God will be just he is very careful to preserve the Notions which the Creature hath of his own Essence inviolable He will not exercise Mercy to the prejudice of his Justice there must be some way to represent him still a Righteous Father God would give his own Son to the Death that he might appear Righteous God will not love that Honour Therefore stand in awe and sin not lest thou come short of the Grace offered in Christ lest you find him just in a legal sense while you abuse the Mercy of the Gospel Vse 2. It is to give us a sure Ground of Hope Heb. 6.10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your Work and Labour of Love That which is most terrible in God is the Pawn and Pledge of our Salvation Conscience which is God's Deputy is never satisfied till God be satisfied for this Thought cannot be plucked out of our Minds that God is an Avenger If we had not a sufficient Satisfaction we should always be troubled Wherewith shall he be appeased Mic. 6.6 7. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God Shall I come before him with Burnt-Offerings with Calves of a Year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil Shall I give my First-Born for my Transgression the Fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul If a poor Creature were in Debt and haling to Prison and a King should say I will engage my whole Revenue but I will pay it how would this comfort him Certainly Christ was responsible enough we are not so chearful in his Service as we should be now Justice is made our Friend Make use of it in great dejections and pangs of Conscience Job 33.24 Then he is gracious to him and saith Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a Ransom When the Ram was taken Isaac was let go God will shew Mercy to our Persons for Justice is satisfied in our Surety You have a double Claim and hold fast upon him in every Court you may come before the Tribunal of Justice as well as the Throne of Grace When you are fainting in Service encourage your selves Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous Psal. 58.11 One day or another the Saints shall be rewarded their Labour and Service shall not be lost Secondly The Qualification Saving-Knowledg These have known that thou hast sent me It is urged as a Reason why they should behold his Glory hereafter because they make it their Care to know God in Christ here Here are two Propositions 1. The only way to come to Blessedness is by the Knowledg of the True God 2. There is no Knowledg of the True God without the Knowledg of Jesus Christ as Mediator 1. Proposition That the only way to Blessedness is by the Knowledg of the True God This I prove 1. Because the Foundation of the Eternal State must be laid in this Life Now the Foundation and Superstructure must carry a proportion What is the great Happiness of Heaven and the Blessedness of the Creature The Beatifical Vision and therefore we must begin it here in Knowledg and in the study of God John 17.3 This is Life Eternal to know thee the only True God that is this is the beginning of Life Eâ—ernal when there is a Saving-Light in the Soul there is a Spark kindled that will never be quenched In the Barn Corn doth not grow but in the Field Here we labour after Knowledg there we enjoy the Perfection of it and according to the Degrees of Knowledg and Grace we attain in this Life so will be our Happiness hereafter The State of the Wicked is a growing Darkness Mat. 8.12 The Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into utter Darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is that A Darkness beyond a Darkness in tenebras ex tenebris infâ—liciter exclusi they shall be cast out from one Darkness into another Here they are under the Darkness of Ignorance and Sin and there they shall be under the darkness of Horror and Terror for evermore The State of the Wicked in Hell is a Darkness that grows out of a Darkness here they are dark and care not to know God or know his Ways and the Mists of Darkness are reserved for them for evermore But now the State of the Godly is an Increasing Light Prov. 4.18 The Path of the Just is as the shining Light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Look as the just do increase and go on from Knowledg to Knowledg till they attain the Light of Glory as the Sun climbeth up to the top of the Meridian by degrees so the way of the Wicked is Darkness they go on from Darkness to Darkness and the Mist of Darkness is reserved for them ignorance makes way for Sin and Sin for Hell They are hastning downwards from Darkness to Darkness and we hasten to the perfect Day from Grace to Glory 2. There is no serving or enjoying of God but by Knowledg I do not plead for a naked Knowledg and an unactive Speculation but such as is accompanied with Faith Love and Obedience otherwise it is no true Knowledg No Knowledg no Faith Rom. 10.14
being dead to sin should live unto righteousness Dying to sin is made a step to the life of Righteousness So Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God We are hereby freed from clogs and impediments Fifthly Sin is the better mortified when life is introduced for the Love of God doth most ingage us to hate evil Psal. 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil Life is sensible of what is contrary to it Vse 1. Information it informeth us of divers Truths 1. Except a man be turned from sin to Holiness he is not made a partaker of Christ and therefore while he lives in sin cannot be justified or have any right to pardon He that continueth to live in his sins shall dye in his sins and miserable shall his portion be for ever Well then be perswaded if we would have the comfort of Christs Death we must be changed into the likeness of it 2. How much it concerneth every Christian to be cautious and watchful For he is to remember this within himself I am to represent Christs Rising and Dying the death of sin must answer the Death of Christ and the new life his Resurrection Now is Christs dying and rising seen in us We were never implanted into him unless it be so Therefore unless we will declare to the World that we have no Union with Christ we must endeavour after Holiness What maketh so many Atheists in the World but because so few Christians discover the fruit of their Baptism they live as if they were wholly alive to sin and the world and dead to righteousness 3. That they have not yet attained to true Christianity that content themselves with abstaining from gross sins but make no conscience of loving serving pleasing and glorifying God or preparation for the World to come They do no man wrong but have no care of Communion with God Paul could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To me to live is Christ Phil. 1.21 meaning that he had no other object and employment for his life but Christ and his Service But these wholly live to themselves a true Christian can say Rom. 14.7 8. None of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords Vse 2. Is Exhortation to press you 1. To dye unto sin All that profess themselves Christians are by obligation dead O do not keep it alive after you have undertaken its Death charge your Consciences with your Baptismal Vow Besides Christ hath purchased Grace enough for the subduing and mortifying of sin and we have engaged our selves to improve this Grace The Ordinances call upon us every day to do it yet more and more the Word and Sacraments with the dispensations of which there go some motions of the Holy Ghost Nehem. 9.20 Thou gavest them also thy good Spirit to instruct and teach them O quench not his motions disobey not the sanctifying Spirit If this Grace hath taken hold of your hearts in any sort and you are affected with the offers of it you are bound to improve it the more Col. 3.3 For ye are dead vers 5. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth you are dead by Vow and Covenant dead by Grace offered dead by Grace received Habitual mortification maketh way for actual Habitual mortification is when the heart is turned from sin so that it is turned against it Actual mortification consists in the resisting and suppressing its motions Rom. 8.13 If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Once more none are in such a dangerous condition as those who have begun the work and then give it over 2 Pet. 2.20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning Those that fall from a common work make their condition more uncomfortable For real Believers the reign of sin is broken its strength and power much weakened by Grace but still it is working and stirring Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would do Rom. 7.23 I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members Therefore still you must take care of this work Means 1. Be sensible of the evil of sin When once we begin to make light of sin we lye ready for a temptation God doth not make little reckoning of sin Christs Death sheweth it Rom. 8 3. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Infants death sheweth it Rom. 5.14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression The punishment of the wicked sheweth it Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile The smart of Gods children sheweth it Prov. 11.31 Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner 2. Earnestly resolve against it in the strength of Christ 1 Pet. 4.1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffereth for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin The mind is hereby fortified Christs dying ingageth them to it Christ hath suffered for it and we are bound to subdue the flesh and deny the pleasures of it 3. Seriously endeavour against it according to the advantages the Spirit giveth you a conscientious Attender on the Ordinances of God hath many motions and helps 2. To walk in newness of life or to express the likeness of Christs Ressurection The spiritual Resurrection is described 1. By the Cause of it Joh. 5.25 The â—our is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live In the spiritual sense that Power was already executed by him in raising sinners out of the grave of sin for he saith it now is It is the Voice of Christ awakens as Lazarus come forth Do not then delay do not say it is too soon Heb. 3.15 To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts 2. The Nature of it as to the first Grace Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light awake as a man out
communicate it to his Members he is not weak when we are weak but able to do above what we can ask or think 3. As concerning the Life of Glory we have it by Christ also 1 Joh. 5.11 This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son The door which is shut against us by our sins is opened by Christ. Let us follow his Precepts and Example and depend upon his Grace and you cannot miscarry Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to light assured us of an endless Happiness after Death Heathens had but a doubtful conjecture of another Life we have an undoubted assurance and that is some great stay to us 4. Concerning the troubles and afflictions that we meet withal As to the troubles of the Church of God he is alive and upon the Throne he can never cease to live and reign Psal. 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool The enemies of his Kingdom must bend or break first or last 5. Against Death Christ hath broken the power of it as it hath no dominion over him so it cannot totally seize upon his Members in their better part they still live to God assoon as they dye and as to their Bodies The body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8.10.15 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand the last day upon the earth c. But what is this to us As it hath no dominion over him so not over us the power is broken the sting is gone If our flesh must rot in the grave our Nature is in Heaven Christ once dyed and then rose again from the dead Now this doth mightily secure and support us against the power and fears of death that we have a Saviour in possession of Glory to whom we may commend our departing Souls at the time of death and who will receive them to himself one that hath himself been upon Earth in flesh then dyed and rose again and is now in possession of endless Blessedness He is Lord of that World we are going into All Creatures there do him Homage and we e're long are to be adjoyned to that dutiful happy Assembly and partake in the same work and felicity SERMON IX ROM VI. 11 Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord. THE Protasis or Foundation of the Similitude was laid down vers 9 10. the Apodosis or Application of it to the case in hand in this Verse The Foundation is Christs Example and Pattern dying and rising now after this double Example of Christs Death and Resurrection we must account our selves obliged both to dye unto sin and rise again to newness of life Likewise reckon ye also your selves c. In which words 1. Our Duty which is Conformity or Likeness to Christ dying and living 2. Grace to perform this Duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through or in Jesus Christ by virtue of our Union with him we are both to resemble his Death and Resurrection 3. The means of inforcing this Duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reckon Vulgar existimate Erasmus out of Tertullian reputate consider with your selves Others colligite statuite Doctrine That all who are baptized and profess Faith in Christ dying and rising from the dead are under a strong obligation of dying to sin and living to God through the Grace of the Redeemer Here I. I shall consider the Nature of the Duties of being dead to Sin and alive to God II. The Correspondency how they do answer the two States of Christ as Christ dyeth to sin for the Expiation of it and after Death reviveth and liveth to God so we III. The Order first Death then the Resurrection from the dead so first dying to sin then being alive to God IV. The certain Connexion of these things if we dye we shall live and we cannot live to God unless we be dead to sin neither can we dye to sin unless we live to God V. In the two Branches the Apostle opposeth God to Sin I. The Nature of the Work It consists of two Branches dying to Sin and living to God Mortification and Vivification 1. Mortification is the purifying â—â—d cleansing of the Soul or the freeing it from the slavery of the flesh which detaineth it from God and disableth it for all the duties of the holy and heavenly life The reign of sin was the punishment of the first Transgression and is taken away by the gift of the Spirit upon account of the Merit of Christ however it is our work to see that sin dye it dyeth as our love to it dyeth and our love to sin is not for its own sake but because of some pleasure contentment and satisfaction that we hope to find in it for no man would commit sin or transgress meerly for his minds sake meer evil apprehended as evil cannot be the object of our choice Now then our love to sin dyeth when our esteem of the advantages of the carnal life is abated when we have no other value of the pleasures honours and profits of the world than is fully consistent with our duty to God and may further us in it Therefore we are dead to fin when we endeavour more to please God than to please the flesh and mind more our eternal than our temporal interests Rom. 8.5 They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit What we mind and value most sheweth the Reign of either Principle the Flesh or the Spirit 2. Vivification or living to God is the changing of the Heart by Grace and the acting of those Graces we have received by the Spirit of Regeneration All that have received the gift of the spiritual Life are bound to exercise it and put it in act by loving serving and obeying God 2 Pet. 1.3 4 5. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust And besides this giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge c. They that have received Grace are not to fit down idle and satisfied but to be more active and diligent in the exercise of Grace and whatever remaineth of their lives must be devoted to
them so as to affect and esteem them and esteem and affect them so as to seek after them and so to seek after them as to seek after them in the first place 1. We must know them For the Things of the Spirit must be understood before they can be chosen and desired John 4.10 If thou knewest the gift The brutish world know not the worth of spiritual and heavenly things therefore mind them not 2. Believe them None will seek after that which they judg to be a fancy or of the certainty of which they are not perswaded especially when they must forgo present delights and contentments to obtain it such is Salvation by Christ 2 Pet. 1.5 10 16 And besides this giving all diligence to add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledg Wherefore the rather brethren give all diligence to make your calling and election sure 3. Affect and esteem them above all other things Heb. 11.13 Being perswaded of these things they imbraced them So esteem them that your desires may not be checked and controled by other things Heb. 11.26 By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the Son of Pharoahs Daughter 4. To pursue after them with all diligence Phil. 2.10 Working out your salvation with fear and trembling and John 6.27 Labour not for the meat that perisheth but that which endureth to everlasting life 5. Seek them in the first place that you may not only make it your business but the chiefest business of your lives to obtain these Things Mat. 6.33 First seek the kingdom of God This is to set your faces heavenward when you make it your great business to please God and save your souls 2. This is Life and Peace By Life and Peace is meant Eternal Blessedness he addeth to the Word Life the Term Peace because in Eternal Life there is freedom from all evil and the presence of all good for there can be no true solid peace where there is the fear of any evil or a want of any good but here being neither the Soul is fully at peace and rest therefore 't is said that God will give glory honour and peace to every one that doth good Rom. 2.10 Heaven is the new Jerusalem the City of Peace where we converse with God who is a God of Peace and enjoy full peace and rest from all our Molestations but tho it be meant of Heaven yet peace of Conscience is not excluded partly because 't is the beginning and earnest of it that peace which we now have in the Kingdom of the Messiah by our Reconciliation with God Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God and the testimony of a good conscience 2 Cor. 1.20 This is a continual feast Now the fruit of righteousness is peace Peace in Heaven and peace on earth Luke 2.14 and Luke 19.38 Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in Heaven and Glory in the highest 'T is begun here and perfected there And partly because whatever the Spirit worketh tendeth to our Peace and Blessedness not only hereafter but now Rom. 15.13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing The Reasons are in common 1. With respect to Gods Justice God who is the most Righteous Governour of the world will make a just difference between the Righteous and the wicked by rewards and punishments it belongeth to his general Justice ut bonis bene sit malis male that it should be well with them that do well and ill with them that do ill Psal. 11.5 6. Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest shall be the portion of their cup for the righteous God loveth righteousness his countenance beholdeth the upright Surely God is not indifferent to good and evil to them that will please the flesh and obey the Spirit his Justice will not permit that the carnal and the regenerate who are so different in their lives should meet together in the end no surely the end of the one will be death and the other life and peace 2. To suit his Motives to the profit of Men. 1. There needeth something frightful to make sin a terror to us therefore doth he counterballance with advantage the pleasures of sin that are but for a season we are vehemently addicted to carnal delights therefore to check this inclination God ballanceth the choicest and highest pleasures with eternal pain that by setting one against the other we may be deterred from pleasing the flesh Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die 2. To encourage the godly in their self-denying Obedience The godly quit and forgo many pleasures which others enjoy Now to restrain and deny the flesh seemeth a pain and trouble therefore to encourage them to continue in an holy course tho it be distastful to the flesh and to renounce worldly pleasures and sensual delights while they may injoy them God hath told them of life and peace they shall have joy enough 1. VSE is Information To shew us the folly of wicked men who are self-destroyers and wrong their own souls while they despise the ways of Wisdom and prefer carnal satisfactions before the pleasing of God All that hate me love death Prov. 8.36 Not formally but consequentially a wicked man sinneth not purposely that he may be damned but that is the issue 2. It sheweth us the security of the wicked they sleep most soundly when their danger is nighest as Jonah in the storm that was raised for his sake they are upon the brink of Hell yet they go on merrily lulling their Consciences asleep with outward and vain delights but tho they sleep their damnation sleepeth not it were better to waken and escape the danger Prov. 27.12 A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself but the simple pass on and are punished A little sober Consideration of this truth may be of use to them VSE 2. Is Admonition Oh let this stop us from going on in a flesh-pleasing course Consider whither it will lead you what followeth upon this 1. 'T is Death If it were a small thing you might bear it but 't is a case of Life and Death eternal Life and Death This will be the eternal ruin of your precious and immortal souls The more you please the Flesh the more you add Fuel to that Fire which shall never be quenched and provide matter for that never-dying Worm or eternal sorrow and confusion of face to your souls Those things that now please the Senses will one day sting the Conscience We should not affect that which will be Death to us Remember the Hook when the Flesh looketh only to the Bait. 2. T is Death threatned in the Word of God and therefore certain as well as dreadful Rom. 6.21 The wages of sin is death and Rom. 7.5 The motions of sin did bring forth fruit unto death If a man warn
you of apparent death in a way wherein you are going you will be cautious Surely God deserveth more credit than Man He giveth you warning of the danger of this way and will you go on and try what will come of it Surely men do not believe the carnal life will be so mortal and deadly to them as it will be The false Prophet in every mans bosom deceiveth him that it may destroy him 3. Consider how willing God is to reclaim you Ezek. 33.11 Why will you die O house of Israel Hath God any pleasure in your destruction He delighteth in your conversion rather and threatneth death that he may not inflict it VSE 3. Let us examine what is our frame and temper the carnal minding or the spiritual minding This is the great Test or the true and lasting difference between men and men in life and death The great difference and division is begun here and continued for ever Other differences cease at the Graves mouth but this distinguisheth between Heaven and Hell 1. What do you seek after the gratifying of the Flesh or the perfectives of the soul that the inner man may be renewed and quickned 2 Cor. 4.16 That it be strengthned Eph. 3.16 decked and adorned 1 Pet. 4.3 To keep Grace alive in your souls that 's our care our business and our comfort 2. To what end do you live That you may please glorifie and enjoy God or live after the Flesh You were made by God and for God that you might have fellowship and communion with him here and hereafter Psal. 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth I desire in comparison of thee This God's people long for and labour after and wait for 3. In what manner do we mind it Is this our constant care and earnest desire and choice delight A naked approbation of that which is good will make no evidence nor a few cold wishes or faint endeavours but your constant business 2 Cor. 5.9 Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him SERMON IX ROM VIII 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity to God for it is not subject to the Law of God nor indeed can be IN the words a Reason is given why the carnal minding will be deadly to us Because 't is enmity to God God surely will be avenged on all his enemies Those that are enemies to God will shortly be dealt with as enemies Therefore to be carnally minded is death because the carnal mind is enmity to God c. In the words here is 1. A Proposition 2. A Reason 1. From the contumacy of the carnal mind 2. From its impotency to overcome it 'T is a weak wilfulness or a wilful weakness 1. The Proposition And there is to be considered the Subject the carnal mind The Predicate is enmity to God 1. The Subject or thing spoken of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the carnal mind or the minding of the Flesh or the wisdom of the Flesh But that hath in a great measure been shewed before Therefore 1. By the carnal mind is meant the rational powers corrupted by our sensitive appetite and disposed to obey it or a mind deceived by the Flesh and enslaved by it called elsewhere a fleshly mind Col. 2.18 2. It is here considered in its prevalency and reign as it depresseth the mind from rising up to divine and spiritual things and wholly bindeth it and causeth it to adhere to things Terrene and earthly such as gratifie Sense and conduce to please the Flesh. The wisdom of the Flesh is described James 3.15 The wisdom that descendeth not from above is earthly sensual devillish And 1 John 2.16 All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life 2. The Predicate 'T is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enmity to God 'T is more emphatical an enemy may be reconciled but enmity cannot That which is black may be made white but blackness cannot This emphatical expression is to set forth the perfect contrariety that is in our desires affections inclinations and actions to the will of God We love what he hateth and hate what he loveth It is not only an enemy but enmity Doct. That the wisdom of the Flesh is downright opposition and enmity to God To evidence this take these Considerations 1. 'T is possible that Humane Nature may be so far forsaken as that among men there should be found haters of God and enemies to him We bless our selves from so great an evil And men scarce believe that there are such profligate and forlorn wretches in the World as to profess themselves to be enemies to God who is so good and the Fountain of all goodness and for our own part are ready to defie those that charge it upon us But the matter is clear The Scriptures shew expresly that there are haters of God Rom. 1.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Psal. 139.21 Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And Psal. 13.2 They that hate thee are risen up against us without a cause And we need not go among the Pagans and Infidels to seek or find out them that are haters of God There is an opposite party to God nearer at hand and they are all those that walk contrary to him Col. 1.21 enemies in your minds by evil works And Psal. 68.21 He will wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such as go on still in their trespasses Now many such live within the Verge of the Church and are not to be sought among Turks and Infidels only 2. That hatred and enmity to God may be determined by Three things 1. If we love not God at all 2. If we love him not as much as we ought to do 3. If we rebel against him and disobey his Laws 1. If we love not God at all For not to love is to hate in things worthy to be beloved Surely in divine matters there is no medium He that is not with God is against him Mat. 12.30 And he that loveth him not hateth him To be a Neuter is to be a Rebel because God doth so much deserve our love and we are so much obliged to him and depend upon him So 't is said Prov. 8.36 All that hate me love death he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. They that do not seek after Wisdom hate it they care not for God whether he be pleased or displeased You speak all manner of misery to that man of whom you may say that he loveth not God So Christ brandeth his enemies I know that you have not the love of God in you John 5.42 Men are in a woful case if void of the love of God Love being the Fountain of desiring all communion with him and the root of all obedience to him Therefore if men blinded by the delusions of the Flesh or
crucified the flesh 'T is hypocrisie and perjury that the carnal and bruitish nature should reign in us baptism implyeth a vow we are baptized into the likeness of his death Rom. 6.3 Christ bound himself to communicate the vertue of his death and we bind our selves to die unto sin and to use all Christs instituted means to that end and purpose now if after that we are washed we still wallow in the mire and effect that life which we have renounced and gratifie what we should crucifie cherish the flesh rather than use Christs healing means to subdue it and purge it out our very baptism will sollicite the more severe vengeance and be a swift witness against us It were better scalding oyl had been poured upon us than the water of baptism and if there be any place in hell hotter than others 't is for hypocrites and perjured persons that have broken the vow of their God which is upon them this should the more sink into us because every covenant hath a curse included in it implicite or explicite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch A Consecration implieth an execration or imprecation of vengeance if we do contrary the Scripture abhoreth not this notion 't is said Neh. 10.29 they entered into a curse and an oath to walk in Gods law So it is in the new Covenant for all Christians do consent to the threats and punishments of the Gospel in case of failing in their duty as the Israelites were to give their Amen Deut. 29.41 to the curses of the law so we profess to submit to the law of grace and tenor of it In Mark 16.16 He that believeth not shall be damned We profess our consent to this law not to a part only but to the whole Now what ever Faith and Baptism calleth for that must be done or if it be wilfully left undone we approve the penalty as just and that God may rightly inflict it upon us Thus for the Justice of God 2. Now for the Wisdom The punishment is the greater to check the greatness of the temptation Much of the fleshly life is pleasant like the Eden of God to the besotted soul therefore God hath guarded it with a flaming Sword that fear may counterballance our delight 'T is an hard thing to bring a man to strive against his own flesh 't is born and bred with us and is importunate to be pleased but the end is death there must be a separation between the soul and sin or beeween the soul and God milder motives would do us no good against boisterous lusts and are not powerful enough to wean us from accustomed delights therefore is the punishment threatned the more dreadful and the sinful fear is checked by the severity of the intermination tho sense-pleasing and flesh-pleasing be sweet to a carnal heart 't will cost him dear The Wisdom of God is seen in Three Things 1. In punishing sin which is a moral evil with death and misery which is a natural evil In appointing that it should be ill with them that do evil these are fitly sorted Deut. 30.15 See I have set before thee life and good death and evil The evil of sin is against our duty and the evil of punishment against our interest and happiness now if men will willingly do what they should not 't is equal they should suffer what they would not what is against their wills these two are natural relatives sin and misery good and happiness we find some of this in our selves we have compassion of a miserable man whom we esteem not deserving his misery we think 't is ill placed there and we are also moved with indignation against one that is fortunate and successful but unworthy the happiness he enjoys which sheweth man hath an apprehension of a natural harmony and order between these things sin and misery goodness and felicity 2. The Wisdom of God lyeth in this that the love of pleasure which is the root of all sin should end in a sense of pain Man is a very slave to pleasure Tit. 3.3 Serving divers lusts and pleasures 'T is ingrained in our natures therefore to check it the Lord hath threatned the pains of the second death and this method our Lord approveth as most useful to draw us from our beloved sin Matth. 5.29 30. Better one member suffer than the whole body to be cast into hell In short God hath so proportioned the dispensation of joy and sorrow pleasure and pain that 't is left to our choice whether we will have it here or hereafter whether we will have pleasure as the fruit of sin or as the reward of well-doing both we cannot have you must not expect to enjoy the pleasures of Earth and Heaven too and think to pass from Delilahs Lap into Abrahams Bosom Luke 16.25 Son in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things and Jam. 5.5 Ye have lived in pleasure upon earth You have been merry and jocund but your time of howling and lamenting then cometh far beyond the degree of your former rejoycing 3. By setting eternal pains against momentary pleasures that ye may the better escape the temptation Momemtaneum est quod delectat eternum quod cruciat The pleasures of sin are but for a season Heb. 11.25 But the pains of sin are for evermore if the fearful end of this delightful course were soundly believed or seriously considered it would not so easily prevail upon us 'T is the Wisdom of our Lawgiver that things to come should have some advantage in the proposal above things present that the joy and pain of the other world should be greater than the comfort and pleasure of this world which is a matter of sense for things at hand would certainly prevail with us if things to come were not considerably greater therefore here the pain is short and so is the pleasure but there 't is eternal Those that will have their pleasure here they shall have it but to their bitter cost but those that will work out their salvation with fear and trembling will by the spirit mortifie the deeds of the body pass through the difficulties of Religion shall have pleasure at his Right Hand for evermore Psal. 16.11 3. 'T is consistent with his love and goodness This is necessary to be considered First Because we are apt to think hardly of God for his threatnings 'T is for our profit to give warning and to bring us to repentance and that we may take heed and escape these things he threatneth that he may not punish and he punisheth in part that he may not punish for ever The first awakening is by fear afterwards shame sorrow and indignation the curse driveth us to the promise First we look upon sin as damning then as defiling first as it fits us for Hell then as it unfits us for Heaven 2. 'T is a benefit to the world Punishment among men because of the degeneracy of the world is a more powerful engine of
Government than reward we owe much of our safety to Prisons and Executions so in Gods Government tho love be the mighty Gospel Motive yet fear hath its use at least for those who will not serve God out of love slavish fear tieth rheir hands from mischief 3. For the converted they find all help in this part of the spirits discipline to guard their love When their minds are in danger of being inchanted by carnal delights or perverted by the terrors of sense when the flesh presents the bait Faith shews the hook Matth. 10.28 Or are apt to abuse our power because none in the world can call us to an account Job 3.23 Destruction from God was a terror to me He stood in awe of God who is a party against the oppressor and will right the weak against the powerful 2. Secondly Since 't is threatned we may conclude the certainty of its accomplishment The world will not easily believe that none shall be saved but the Regenerate and those that live not after the flesh but the spirit and love God in Christ above all the world even their own lives that besides these few all the rest shall be tormented in Hell for ever flesh and blood cannot easily down with this Doctrine but Gods threatnings are as sure as executions 1. Because of the holinese of his nature Psal. 11.6 7. Vpon the wicked he will rain snares fire and brimstone and horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their cup for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness But men feign God as they would have him to be and judg of Gods holiness by their own interest Psal. 50.21 Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self As if God were less mindful because he is so holy and will not be so indulgent to their flesh and sin as they are themselves and would have him to be 2. His unalterable truth God cannot lie Tit. 1.2 Tho the threatning in the present judgment doth not always shew the event but merit yet it follows afterward for the Scripture must be fulfilled or else all Religion will fall to the ground he cannot endure any should question it 't is not a vain scare-crow Deut. 30.19.20 I call Heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that thou and thy seed may live that thou mayest love the Lord thy God that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days 3. His all-sufficient Power 2 Thes. 1.9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power and Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known indureth with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction If God will do so surely he can there is no let there Heb. 10.29 30. Vengeance belongeth to me and I will recompence saith the Lord and again the Lord shall judg his people He liveth for ever to see vengeance executed if it seem co be so terrible to you God knoweth 't is with a design of love to awaken those that are carnal What a case am I in then And to make the converted more cautious that they do not border on the carnal life God maketh no great difference here between the righteous and the wicked hereafter he will SERMON XVII ROM VIII 13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die 1. USe is Information 1. To shew the lawful use of Threatnings 2. The folly of two sorts of people 1. Of those that will rather venture this death than leave their sinful pleasure 2. Those that would reconcile God and flesh God and the world c. 1. The lawful use of threatnings 1. Threatnings are necessary during the law of Grace Two Arguments I shall give for the proof thereof 1. If Threatnings were needful to Adam in the State of Innocency and Perfection much more are they useful now when there is such a corrupt Inclination within and so many Temptations without in the best there is a double principle and many inordinate lusts that we need the strongest bridle and curb to suppreis them 2. If Christ eame to verifie Gods threatnings surely God hath some use of them now But so it is the Devil would represent God as a lyer in his comminations Gen. 3.4 Ye shall not surely die Christ came to confute the Tempter and would die rather than the Devils reproach of Gods threatnings should be found true surely this is to check thoughts of iniquity 2. The folly of two sorts of people First Of those that will rather venture this death than leave their sinful pleasures and live an holy life carnal men think no life so happy as theirs being escaped out of fetters of Religion and bonds of Conscience in the Apostles Expression Free from righteousness Rom. 6.20 Whereas the truth is none are more miserable for they carry it so as if they were in love with their own death Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul and they that hate me love death You hazzard soul and body and all that is near and dear to you for a little carnal satisfaction for the present you get nothing but the guilt of conscience hardness of heart and the displeasure of the eternal God and for the future everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord when the body and soul shall be cast into Hell Fire Consider this before it be too late there is no man goeth to Hell or Heaven but with violence to conscience or lusts those that go to Hell offer violence to their conscience 2. Those that would reconcile God and flesh God and the world and secure their interest in both that hope to please the flesh and yet to be happy hereafter for all that would keep up a profession of Godliness while they live in secret league with their lusts God will not halve it with the world nor part stakes with the flesh you cannot please the flesh and enjoy God too for you have but one happiness if you place it in contenting the flesh you cannot have it in the fruition of God Their end is destruction whose God is their belly and who mind earthly things Phil 3.19 Wordly pleasures will end in eternal torments and so much delight so much more will your torments be for contraries are punished with contraries Rev. 8.11 How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much sorrow give her Therefore so much as you gratifie the flesh so much you endanger the soul Will you for a little temporal satisfaction run the hazzard of Gods eternal wrath 2. USE is to disswade you from this course To this End I shall lay down some Motives and some Means Motives are these 1. You think the flesh is your friend do all that you can to
stream had need ply the Oar and he that goeth up a sandy hill must never stand still and 't is our own fault if it doth not grow God loveth to multiply and increase his gifts Grace be multiplied 2 Pet. 2.2 There is more to be had and more will be given unless our sins obstruct the effusion of it if we get it not we may blame our selves for God doth nothing to hinder the increase and indeed when Grace is in any life and vigor it will be growing Prov. 4.18 The way of the just is as a shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day The morning light increaseth a wicked man groweth worse and worse he sinneth away the light of his conscience rejecteth the light of the word till he stumbleth into utter darkness 'T is like the coming on of the night the other like the coming on of the day Now mortification of sin is the great means of growing in Grace removet quod prohibit it maketh room for grace in the soul as it taketh away that which letteth that it may diffuse its influence more plentifully In Heaven we are perfect because there is no sin opposite principles are wholly gone so here the more you weaken sin the more is Grace introduced with power and success 1 Pet. 2.1 2. Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisie and envy and evil-speaking as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby there is no way of growth till evil frames of spirit be laid aside 1. USE is to enforce this duty upon all those that are called unto or look for any hopes by Jesus Christ to mortifie the deeds of the body Oh! Do not think you are past mortification because you are in a state of Grace there is need of it still yea it concerneth you more than others 1. There is still need of it if you consider the aboundance of sin of all kinds that yet remaineth with us And the marvellous activity of it in our souls and the cursed influence of it or the mischief that will accrue to us if it be let alone Let me a little press you by all these Considerations 1. The abundance of sin of all kinds that remaineth with the regenerate or those that are called to grace I shall evidence that by some Scriptures 1 Pet. 2.1 Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speaking to whom is this spoken The word wherefore biddeth us look back when we look back we find 't was spoken to those that were called effectually called and born again yea those that had made some progress in mortification that had purifyed their hearts to the obedience of the truth 1 Pet. 1.22 Who would think that the seeds of so much evil should lurk in their Hearts but alas 't is so they are in paâ—t envious malicious hypocritical to the last and unless they shall keep mortifying these sins will get the mastery of them and bewray themselves to their loss and prejudice and Gods dishonour See another place Col. 3.5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetosness which is idolatry You would think all this were spoken to loose and ungoverned men that have not the least Tincture and shew of religion no 't is spoken of those whose life was hidden with God in Christ men acquainted with spiritual things and brought under the power of the life of Christ we foolishly imagine that such should only be told of the remainders of unbelief or spiritual pride or such like evils as are very remote from publick infamy and scandal but the Spirit of God is wiser than we and knoweth our Hearts and the secret workings of them better than we do our selves and it 's better these sins should be laid open in the warnings of the word and discovered to us rather than in us by the prevalency of a temptation an over spiritual Preaching hath not refined but destroyed religion God thought it fit it should be said to them that are taken into the Communion of the life of Christ mortify what your spiritual pride no but Fornication Uncleanness Inordinate affection the root of the foulest sins is in our nature and if we do not keep a severe hand over them will sprout out in our practice so Gal. 5.19 20. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred varience emulation wrath strife sedition heresie The Apostle thought good to warn professing Christians who had given up themselves to the leading of the spirit of the works of the flesh he giveth a black catalogue of them and he concludeth all of which I told you before as I have also told you in times past that they that do such things shall not nherit the Kingdom of God The Apostles that were divinely inspired and full of the the Wisdom of God did not soar aloft in airy speculative strains or refined spiritual notions but thought meet to condescend to these particulars not only when they spake to Gentiles but Churches and professing Christians to give warning against Fornication and Drunkenness and other such gross sins and that not once but often for they knew the nature of man and that nice speculations are too fine to do the work of the Gospel all that have corruption in them had need stand upon their guard to prevent sins of the blackest hew and foulest note among men I 'le give but one Instance more and that is of our Saviour Christ who thought meet to warn his own Disciples who surely were good men Luke 21.34 Take heed lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawars This is a lesson for Christs own disciples a man would think it more proper for haunters of Taverns and Boon companions whose souls are sunk and lost in luxury and excess but Christ Jesus thought this caution needful for those that were taken into his own company and bosome friends let not all this be interpreted as any excuse to them that swallow the greatest sins without fear live in them without sense and commit them without remorse cautions should not be turned into excuses there is some inclination in our nature to these things but these are not the practices of Gods people 't is spoken that they may not at any time be so 2. As there is abundance of sin so it 's active and stirring even after some progress in mortification 't is inticing vexing the new nature urging to evil opposing that which is good 't is warring working always present with us that the best Christians grow weary of themselves Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Was Paul an underling in grace Is not sin
Remunerative Justice There is a threefold Justice in God his General Justice his Strict Justice his Justice of Benignity or Fidelity according to his Gospel Law 1. His General Justice requireth that there should be a different proceeding among them that differ among themselves that every man should reap according to what he hath sown whether he hath been sowing to the Flesh or to the Spirit that the fruit of his doings should be given into his Bosom And therefore though this be not evident in this life where good and evil is promiscuously dispensed because now is the time of Gods patience and our tryal yet in the life to come when God will Judge the World in Righteousness Acts 17.31 it is necessary that it should go well with the good and ill with the bad And as the Apostle saith 2 Thes. 1.6 7. It is a Righteous thing with God to recompense Tribulation to them that trouble you and to you that are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels There is generalis ratio justi in the difference of the recompenses And therefore the different actions of the persons to be judged must come into the discussion whether good or evil 2dly There is Gods strict Justice declared in the Covenant of works whereby he rewardeth man according to his perfect obedience or else punisheth him for his failings and coming short This also is in part to be declared at the day of Judgment on the wicked at least for the Apostle declareth that there will be a different proceeding with men according to the divers Covenants which they are under some shall be judged by the Law of liberty according to which God will accept their sincere though imperfect obedience Others shall have Judgment without any temperament of mercy Jam. 2.12 13. And justly because they never changed Copy and tenure When God made man he gave him a Law suitable to that perfection and innocency wherein he made him Our Fact did not make void his right to require the obedience due by that Law Nor our obligation to perform it but yet because man was uncapable of performing this Law or obtaining Righteousness by it Having once broken it he was pleased to cast out a plank to us after shipwrack to offer us the remedy of a new Law of grace wherein he required of us repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20 21. That we should return to our duty to our Creator depending upon the merit Satisfaction and Power of the Mediator Now we are all sinners and have deserved death according to the Law of Nature and wo and wrath an hundred times over and if through our impenitency and unbelief we will not accept of Gods remedy we are justly left to the old Covenant under which we were born and so undergo Judgment without mercy 3dly There is his justice of bounty and free beneficence as judging according to his Gospel Law which accepteth of sincere obedience and so God is just when he rewardeth a man capable of reward upon terms of Grace So 't is said Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your work of Faith and labour of love which ye have shewed to his name His promises take notice of works and the fruits of Faith and Love as one part of our Qualification which make us capable of the blessings promised 3. His veracity and faithfulness God hath promised Life and Glory to the penitent and obedient and the faithful And God will make good his promises and reward all the labours and patience and faithfulness of his Servants according to his promises to them To whom hath he promised Salvation To the obedient to the patient to the pure in heart to the diligent and studious every where in the Word of God John 12.26 There shall my Servant be Jam. 1.12 And Rom. 2.6 7. He will render to every one according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory Honour Immortality Eternal Life On the contrary he hath interminated and threatned verses 8 9. To them that are contentious and obey not the truth who wrangle and dispute away duty See promises mixed with threatnings to the carnal and the mortified Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do Mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live And Gal. 6.8 If ye sow to the flesh of the flesh ye shall reap corruption but if ye sow to the Spirit ye shall reap Life Everlasting Now that Gods truth may fully appear mens works must be brought into the tryal 4. His free grace The business of that day is not only to glorifie his Justice but to glorify his free Love and Mercy 1 Pet. 1.13 Hope unto the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this grace is no way infringed but the rather exalted when what we have done in the Body whether it be good or evil is brought into the Judgment 1. The evil works of the faithful shew that every one is worthy of death for sinning though we do not die and perish everlastingly for it as others do Gods best Saints have need to deprecate his strict Judgment Psa. 143.2 Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant he doth not say with thine enemy but thy Servant They that can continue with most patience in well doing have nothing to look for at last but mercy Jude 21 'T is their best plea Revel 2.10 Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life When we have done and suffered never so much for God we must at length take Eternal Life as a gift out of the hands of our Redeemer but for the grace of the new Covenant we might have perished as others do In some measure we see grace here but never so fully and perfectly as then Partly because now we have not so full a view of our unworthiness as when our actions are scanned and all brought to light And partly because there is not so full and large Manifestation of Gods favour now as there is in our full and final reward 'T is grace now that he is pleased to pass by our offences and to take us into his family and give us some tast of his Love and a right to the Heavenly Kingdom but then 't is another manner of grace and favour then our pardon shall be pronounced by our Judges own mouth and he shall not only take us into his family but into his immediate presence and Heavenly Palace not only give us right but possession Come ye Blessed of my Father Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you And shall have not only some remote service and Ministration but be everlastingly imployed in loving and delighting in and praising of God this is grace indeed The grace of God or his free favour to
the same in all hearts Have not we as much need to keep humble and watchful and make use of Christs mercy and power as he had Is sin grown more tame and quiet Or are we more fool-hardy and secure Surely we need to mortifie corruption as much as others and whatever degree of grace we have attained unto this must be our daylie task and exercise if sin be stirring we must be stirring against it and when the enemy is active and warring against the Soul it is a folly for us to hold our hands especially since corruption is ever ready to renew the assault there to return after it hath been foiled and by several ways and kinds vendeth its self when one branch of it is cut off and one way of it stopped up it breaketh out in another one sin hath several ways of manifesting its self Worldliness take it off from greedy getting it sheweth its self in sparing or withholding more than is meet the folly of that sin is seen in its delight and carnal complacency Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years He had enough now takes his fill of pleasure so pride if kept from vain conceit of our selves bewrays its self by detracting from others so envy or vain ostentation as some venomous humour in the body heal up one soar and it breaketh out in another place there is all malice all guile c. All sorts of it 3. The pestilent and mischievous influence of sin if it be let alone Sins prove mortal if they be not mortifyed Either sin must die or the sinner There is an evil in sin and the evil after sin the evil in sin is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the violation of Gods righteous law the evil after sin is the just punishment of it eternal death and damnation Now those that are not sensible of the evil in sin shall feel the evil that cometh after sin all Gods dispensations towards his people are to save the person and destroy the sin 1 Cor. 11.32 But when we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world God took vengeance on the sin to spare the sinner but the unmortified spareth the sin and his life goeth for it the sin liveth and he dyeth as the Apostle Paul speaketh of himself when the power of the word came first upon him Rom. 7.9 Sin revived and I dyed Sin exasperated and he felt nothing but sin and Condemnation Oh! Consider with your selves 't is better sin should be condemned than that you should be condemned sin should die than that you should die his life shall go for its life in the Prophets Parable 1 Kings 20.39 Ay But what is this to the justifyed person there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ I Answer You must take in all because they are supposed to live not after the flesh but after the spirit but if it can be suppos'd that ye can live after the flesh then ye die as in the Text that is ye justified persons Poena potest dupliciter timeri ut est in constitutione Dei vel ut malum nostrum as Bernard Eternal death may be considered as an evil which God hath appointed to be the fruit of sin or as an evil that will certainly befal us a justified person one that is not so putatively only but really so not in his own conceit only but in deed and in truth may fear it in the first sense there is such a Connection between continuance in sin and eternal destruction that he ought to reflect upon it so as to represent to his Soul the danger of yeilding tamely to his sins and to fear it so as to eschew it For this is nothing but to make an Holy use of threatnings and to see the merit of our doings but as to the event so not to allow perplexing doubts but to quicken us to break off our sins and to look up to God in Christ for pardon Now to direct you 1. Strike at the root of all sin they that are Christs have crucifyed the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Gal. 5.24 The Prophet to cure the brackishness of the waters did cast salt into the Spring 2 Kings 2.21 We must begin with the heart and then go on unto the life if the root of bitterness be not deadned it will easily sprout forth and trouble us as inbred corruption is weakned so actual sins flowing thence are weakned also The root of corruption is carnal self-love for it is at the bottom of other sins because men love themselves and their flesh as themselves more than God Now this is weakned by the prevalency of the opposite principle the love of God and the more we strengthen the love of God the more is original sin weakned and we get again into a good constitution and state of soul. Carnal men are self-lovers and self-pleasers but spiritual men love God and please God and seek to honour God love is the great principle that draweth us off from self to God such as mans love nature and inclination is such will the drift of his life be now men will not be frightned from self-love it must be another more powerful love which draweth them from it as one nail driveth out another Now what can be more powerful than the love of God which is as strong as death and will never be quenched nor bribed Cant. 8.7 This overcometh our self-love and then time strength care and all is devoted to God yea life its self Rev. 12.11 They loved not their lives to the death Self-love is deeply rooted in us especially love of life so that it must be something very strong and powerful which must overcome it for what is nearer and dearer to us than our selves now the great means to overcome it is Christs love when the soul is possessed with this that nothing deserveth its love so much as Christ the natural inclination is altered This is done by sound belief and deep Consideration as the means 1 John 4.19 We love him because he loved us first 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judg that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again By the Spirit as the Author of Grace Rom. 5.5 Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us Then the soul knoweth no happiness but to enjoy his love and favour and so it prevaileth over their natural inclination they live not to themselves but to God not according to the wills of the flesh but the Will of God 2. Consider the several ways how this root sprouteth forth Two are mentioned by the Apostle in the fore-cited place Gal. 5.24 With the affections and lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉