line but this will not doe Christian Esau was rejected though he was Isaacs sonne and Ishmael though he was Abrahams sonne Justus non gignit justum gignit hominem Thy righteous father did not beget thee a righteous man but he begat thee a child of flesh corrupt flesh and bloud Thy godly mother brought thee forth under the Apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there she brought thee forth that bare thee This was the Jewes great brag that they came forth out of the waters of Judah and were called by the name of Israel and were of the house of Jacob Isa 48. 1. They call'd themselves of the Holy City and this made them stay themselves upon the God of Israel but for all this observe what God sayes to them v. 4 5 6 c. This was that which the Jewes had to boast of to the Lord Jesus Christ Joh. 8. 33. We are Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man how sayest thou you shall be made free They tooke it ill that they being Abrahams seed should be so much as supposed to be in a bad condition But observe how Christ takes away their brag in the 39. Jesus saith unto them if you were Abrahams children that is his spirituall children you would doe the works of Abraham But in plainer English ver 44. Ye are of your Father the Devill and the lusts of your Father you will doe Heare this you that had godly parents and your selves have no goodnesse in you Abrahams faith will carry none to heaven but himselfe your parents faith will want a way of conveyance to doe good to your soules Graft a sweet Peare or Plumme upon a wild or sowre Crab-stocke it will grow and yeeld a pleasant fruit the nature will be changed in the fruit but now take the stone or kernell of that fruit and set it in the earth it shall not come forth a Plum-tree but a Crab-stock againe It is thy case Christian thy parent was a naturall Crabstocke the Lord grafted grace upon him then he brought forth sweet and pleasant fruit worthy of amendment of life But now thou art his kernell come out of the earth thou art not come forth gracious but naturall Thy parents grace was by vertue of an inoculation not by nature Therefore to conclude this use let me mind you of the words of the first Gospell-preacher John the Baptist Mat. 3. ver 8. Bring forth fruit therefore worthy of amendment of life and thinke not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father Looke to your condition Christians It is neither your noble nor yet gracious parentage and descent will carry you to heaven think not to say within thy self I had a gracious parent Thirdly from hence we may be instructed what a soul-cheating principle Libertines build on that conclude thus There is no need of Repentance or faith or such holy and strict life if we be elected we shall be saved if not we shall be damned Suppose thou beest elected poore creature yet know thou art borne under the Apple-tree O turne not the grace of thy God into wantonnesse looke to find thy selfe raised or thou shalt never see thy soule saved It is true for the sinnes of those whom the Lord hath chosen by name to everlasting life they are decretally pardoned from all eternity and meritoriously pardoned in the death of Christ but still they remaine as offences to God and keep the soule under a reall obligation unto death till the Lord comes and actually and formally in justification acquits the beleeving soule from hels claime and frees it out of the Devils imprisonment Suppose a condemned man in prison the Prince hath determined to pardon him and some friend of his possibly hath purchased his pardon for him but yet he is in the dungeon in fetters in the Gaolers hand till he be actually set free c. So it is with every Elect Vessell Cheat not thy selfe therefore with such licentious soule-deceiving principles of Libertinisme I have done with the first Use of Instruction I passe on to a second Use 2 How doth it now stand every poore soule in hand to examine his condition whether he be not in this sad condition yet yea or no. Christians the weight of your soules hangs upon this Examination This was your and my condition Try therefore your selves whether you be in the faith or no prove your owne selves know you not that more more than nature is in you Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates I have in this place not long since handled this point so fully that I shall at this time adde very little to what I have already said Only it lying so full in my way give me leave to speake a word or two and the Lord speake it to your hearts I will speake but foure words 1. Therfore know this If none hath done more for you than your mother hath done you are under the Apple-tree still That is plaine in the Text There your mother brought you forth there she brought you forth that bare you What doth our Mother doe for us she conveighes Nature to us from her we derive flesh and bloud and our naturall dispositions if thou beest nothing but Nature thou hast nothing of Grace But some will say this is a note as darke as the other To make it therefore so as to be understood by the meanest capacities we must understand that there are two sorts of Natures A more corrupt or a more refined sort of Nature All short of Grace is Nature 1. If thou hast nothing seen in thee but corrupt filthy nature That thy naturall inclination carries thee out to acts of prophane wickednesse and thou hast not so much as put a bridle upon thy wild spirit but letst it run at randome and carry thee out to drunkennesse wantonnesse lying swearing all manner of ungodlinesse This thou mayest be sure of thou art not raised yet out of thy hellish danger in which thou wert borne Eph. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 9 10. Rev. 21. 8. Rev. 22. 15. 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. But secondly If thou hast no more than bridled and refined Nature I call Bridled Nature a kind of civility which thou pridest in that thou art not so debauched a wretch as others are It consists first of all in a Negative righteousnesse Thou canst say thou art no Papist no Malignant and perhaps as much as the Pharisee Luke 18. v. 11. I thanke thee I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this Publicane Secondly In a Positive righteousnesse Thou canst say whose Oxe have I taken whose Asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded Thou tythest Mint and Annis and dost no more to others than thou wouldst be content they should doe to thee thou art a good Second-table-man keepest the rule of justice strictly Thus had he done To whom Jesus Christ said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One thing is
whom he justified them he also glorified under Predestination is included Redemption and Sanctification under Justification Now therfore a little to open this mysterie of our Redemption in the Application of it to the soules of them that shall be saved You have seen how there came to be Balme in Gilead and that there is a fulnesse and sufficiency in Christ Now what doth the poore Elect one want that it hath lost in Adam I conceive three things 1. Life 2. Strength 3. Light 1. Life It is a damned Creature in Adam it wants a way of salvation a pardon for its sinnes a righteousnesse to appeare in the sight of God 2. Adam hath left it a weak creature not able to do any thing that is good no not so much as to think a good thought it wants a strength to Act in so as to please God 3. Adam hath left it a comfortlesse creature without any light of Gods countenance shining upon it Now all these are purchased The first of them is necessary to give the first being to a Saint The second is necessary to preserve the Christians being The third ad bene esse for the comfortable being of all Christ is all to the Childe of of God Psalme 27. verse 1. But how doth Christ apply these to the soules of his redeemed ones 1. Saith the Apostle He calls them We say that in effectuall calling which is when God joynes the irresistable power of his Spirit with the outward preaching of the Word God doth these three things 1. Convince the soule of his elect vessell that is a child of wrath by Nature as well as others Ephes 2. 3. what a condition it is in by reason of its Originall and its Actuall sinnes 2. Humble the soule for its sinnes and discover unto the soule the insufficiency of all its owne righteousnesse that it is undone in its sinnes and undone in its righteousnesse and thirdly hee sayes to the soule Yet there is hope looke up to me and live I am as the brazen Serpent onely looke up and thou shalt live And that the soule may be able to look up with a true eye Christ gives faith to the soule to behold him come unto him and to receive him by a true resting and relying upon his Merits for salvation 2. And having thus Called the soule he then justifies it He hath in his Decree justified it from eternity hee hathmeritoriously justified it by his Death upon the Crosse but now hee doth actually and formally justifie it 1. By pardoning its sinnes and acquitting the soule from the obligation it till now lay under to death and forgetting the injury done to himselfe by any of its sinnes 2. By imputing the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ to the soule by which it appeares the sinner is pardoned not without a satisfaction first given to Justice 3. By accepting graciously the soule thus justified as perfectly righteous for the Lord Jesus Christs sake as if it had never sinned And the worke of true faith in this Justification is to lay hold upon it And thus now Christ applyes the merits of his Death to the soule in conveying life and pardon to it thus hee raiseth it saying to it in its bloud live But this is not all 2. The soule is weake and is not able to live an houre of it selfe Christ therefore in the next place in order to its more perfect raising sanctifies the soule which implyeth two things 1. He gives unto the soule new principles of grace 2. He gives the soule power to act these principles for as except from him we have nothing so without him we can doe nothing Joh. 15. 5. Which power being given the soule from above the soule is raised and becomes strong in the strength of Christ and sets upon works 1. Of Mortification to subdue the strong holds of Satan viz. the remainder of corruption in the soule 2. Of Vivification setting upon such Duties as God hath required of his redeemed ones being exercises of the grace which they have received from the Lord Jesus Christ he gives the soule power to live upon faith to love to desire him to delight in him to do and to suffer for him to be content with him c. Yea and thirdly In his due time he raises the soule to a comfortable life in giving it the sense of his love a perswasion of its Union with the Lord Jesus Christ peace in the inward man shining upon it with the light of his Countenance which is better to it than thousands of Gold and Silver This I say he does in his due time not to all nor continuing it constantly to any but according to his good pleasure thus making knowne to it the Redemption he hath purchased for it and the Justification of its soule which is past in heaven before 4. And lastly in his due time he will yet further raise the soule by taking it to himself and glorifying it with himselfe for ever He will come againe on purpose to raise the soules of his redeemed ones from the dust and to take them up to himself in glory that where he is there they may be also John 16. verse 3. Thus Christ hath meritoriously raised all his redeemed ones and will apply their Redemption with the fruits of it to them in his due time applying life to them by Vocation and Justification strength to them by Sanctification light and comfort to them by shining with the Light of his Countenance upon them and finally giving them Glorification hee shall then perfect his worke of raising us and wee shall live with him in the Highest Heavens for ever I have now done with the Doctrinall part so farre as to shew you 1. That it is Christ that raiseth his Elect ones 1. He is designed 2. He can doe it 3. Hee onely can 4. Hee hath done it meritoriously for all 5. Hee hath done it actually and formally for some and will doe it for the rest And so farre as to shew you the manner how he did it and doth it both in respect of his owne acts in relation to the fitting himselfe for the worke and in respect of his application of it to the soules of his servants If now you aske me the Reasons why and to what end he did it for the reasons of the particular Propositions I have given you them before Now for Reasons in the Generall I shall give you them in two words 1. The moving cause was his owne grace because he would 2. The finall cause was his own glory 1. The moving cause and reason was his owne grace and goodnesse This is the reason of all Gods acts of grace towards the Creature whether Election or Redemption or Vocation or Justification or Sanctification or Glorification the sole cause was in himselfe because he loved us and delighted in us for his owne Names sake c. Isa 43. 25. Deut. 7. 7. Hos 14. 4. His owne will was all the reason he
did it freely we buy without money or money-worth Isa 55. 1 2. 2. If you aske to what end hee did it It was his own glorie that he might get himselfe glory from poore dust and ashes that little thanke him for all this mercy declared to their souls He Predestinated Redeemed and Adopted us meerely to the praise of the glorie of his grace Ephes 1. verse 6. The end which he aimed at in Calling us was his glory Rom. 9. 23 24 25 26. If you aske me why God that could as well have been glorified in the damnation of poore wretches would chuse rather to be glorified in their salvation and bringing them to life I must run back again to the Fountaine againe meerly because so it pleased him because it was his will There wee must rest I shall now proceed to the Application of this mysterious sweet and precious Doctrine and it might be applyed severall wayes But I shall onely apply the consideration of it as offering you ground and matter First of Humiliation Secondly of Instruction Thirdly of Examination Fourthly of Exhortation Fiftly of Consolation Use 1 First of all for Humiliation Harke Christians is it so that thou wert so lost and undone that none but Jesus Christ could raise thee and hee hath done it when none else could and wil raise thee higher yet and this hee could not have done without taking thy flesh dying upon the Crosse suffering the bitternesse of his Fathers wrath consider then what cause thou hast to be humbled for thy sins 1. Considering that these were they put Christ to death 2 that by these since that time thou hast crucified the Lord of life 1. Consider that thy sins were those that put Christ to death Rom. 4. 25. He was delivered to death for our sinnes Me thinks every one when they heare of Christs Agony and bloudy Sweat of his Whippings Buffetings of his bitter Sufferings c. should be ready to cry out with Pilate Quid mali fecit What evill I pray hath he done Ah none Christian it was to raise thee thou wert dead lost undone he dyed to raise thee thou stolest the fruit he climbed the tree thou enjoyedst the sweetnesse of sinning and he for that was acquainted with the bitternesse of suffering He bore thy iniquity even thine and mine too if we be elected Certainly it was a great griefe of heart to David to remember that he had an hand in the bloud of Uriah that was surely the great transgression that hee complained of to be sure that heart-troubling sinne for which hee puts up that particular Petition Deliver mee from bloud-guiltinesse O God And questionlesse it was no small Trouble of Spirit to Paul afterwards to consider that he was one of them that were consenting to Stephens death Acts 7. 59 60. Chap. 8. verse 1. he afterwards repeats it with shame I was a persecuter Christian here is one murdered by cruell hands not an Uriah not a Stephen but hee that is worth ten thousand of these not an Abell yet his bloud troubled Cain all his life time but one whose bloud cries for better things than the bloud of Abell did here 's the Lambe of God slaine slaine by thy hands he was bruised for thine iniquities and his soule was made an Offering for thy sinnes Is it nothing to thee O Christian when Pilate was but about to condemne him his wife came startled in and cries Have nothing to doe with that just man and when Stephen charged the Jewes Acts 7. 52. for being the betrayers and murtherers of the Lord Jesus they apprehended it as a thing so hainous that they would not endure him beyond that word but were cut to the heart and gnashed upon him with their teeth verse 54. Christians there is none of you here but your sinnes were the betrayers and murtheres of the Lord Jesus that Christ that had such eternall sure and unchangeable thoughts of love to your soules Ah! how great were those sins which could not be remitted without the bloud of the immaculate Lamb of God Me thinks every one of you should sit downe and say Ah Lord that ever I should be such a wretch so farre to provoke the fire of thy wrath that nothing could quench it but the bloud of thy Sonne that I should throw my selfe so deep into Hell that nothing could raise mee but the bloud-shedding of the deare Sonne of Gods love You have had to doe with that just man Christians not to doe with condemning him but even with the vildest acts of Barbarisme were done unto him your hypocrisie was the kisse that betrayed him the sinnes of your hands and feet were the nailes that fastened his hands and feet to the Crosse the sinnes of your body were the Spears that pierced his sacred side the sinnes of your soules were they that made his soule heavy to the death that caused the with-drawings of his Fathers love from him and made him in the heavinesse of his panged soule to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me O sit downe goe alone weep and weep bitterly for him whom you have pierced for those stripes by which you are healed 2. But secondly if any thing will move your soules to make your head a Fountaine of water and your eyes Rivers of teares Consider That this Christ you have crucified even since his death upon the Crosse for you When the Apostle St. Peter Acts 2. had made a long Sermon of Christs love shewing the Auditors what Christ had done and what he was he summeth up all verse 36. God hath made that same Jesus whom yee have crucified both Lord and Christ Now saith the Text verse 37. When they heard this viz. that they had crucified this Christ they were pricked at the heart This Christ my beloved whom you have crucified by your youth sinnes and life sins this was he that was crucified for you O be pricked at the hearts at this saying Was it not enough that he once was pierced scoffed wounded crucified for you but must you againe crucifie him and which of you doe it not daily Causinus tels us a story of Clodoveyus one of the Kings of France that when he was converted from Paganisme to Christianity while Remigius the Bishop was reading in the Gospell concerning the Passion of our Saviour and the abuses he suffered from Judas and the rest of the Jewes he brake out into these words If I had been there with my Frenchmen I would have cut all their throats In the meane time not considering that by his daily sins he did as much as they had done Which of us is not condemning the crucifiers of Christ for their cruelty and in the meane time we condemne not our selves who by our daily sinnes make him to bleed againe afresh Ah let us judge our selves and sit downe and mourne we are they that have added to Christs bonds that have increased his wounds and the pangs of his grieved soule
things noted 1. The author of grace unto her I raised thee Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our salvation 2. The meanes of this grace the apples that grow upon Christ the appletree 3. The effect of this grace in her she commeth up out of the wildernesse 4. The instrumentall meanes for the application of meritorious grace that is faith in Jesus Christ she commeth up leaning upon her well-beloved 5. The opinion of others concerning her in this estate of grace 1. She is glorious and creates admiration in some 2. The hidden principle of life in her makes her not to be understood of others all say who is this Here are two great things hinted in the text 1. The misery that the elect are in by nature 2. The happy condition they are in by grace I might handdle the words in order and raise many profitable Doctrines from them But I will only pitch upon 3. which will comprehend all and not handle the text as the words lye in order but according to the order of the things contained in them The 3. I will pitch upon are these 1. That Gods gracious Saints and every one of them though they lye under a gracious ordination to eternall life yet are borne in a lost undone condition 1. They have need of raising 2. they are under not in the apple-tree there their mother brought them forth 2. That it is the Lord Jesus that helpeth his redeemed ones out of this condition I raised thee 3. That by the power of Jesus Christ the Spouse being raised comes up out of every wildernesse leaning upon her Beloved I shall begin with the first Doctrine Doct. 1. That the best of Gods Saints by nature were born in a lost condition in a state of disunion to Jesus Christ there their mother brought them forth there she brought them forth that bare them I say the best though they all of them lye under a saving ordination to eternall life and though many of them may be borne of holy and godly parents yet if you looke upon them as they are by Nature they are in a lost undone condition and had need of a raising Now for the prosecution of this Doctrine I shall 1. prove it by testimony of Scripture 2. I shall open it to you how it comes to passe that they are so borne 3. I shall make application of the Doctrine 1. That they are by Nature in a lost undone condition 1. In respect of finne 2. In respect of punishment Take that pregnant place for it Ephes 2. where the designe of the Apostle is plaine to advance Christ in the hearts of the beleeving Ephesians To this end 1. he discovers what need they had of him that he opens by setting out their sad and wofull condition without him 1. They were dead in trespasses and sins ver 7. 5. 2. They lived according to the Devils wil ruled and acted by him v. 2. 3. They were tainted with the lusts of the flesh and inclined to fulfill the lusts of the flesh and of the mind v. 3. 4. They were Gentiles in the flesh v. 11. 5. They were without Christ 6. Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel 7. Strangers from the Covenant of Promise 8. having no hope 9. Without God in the world ver 12. 10. Afar off irreconciled ver 13 14. 11. To summe up all in a word ver 3. The children of wrath by nature as well as others Children of wrath Active Actively inclined or disposed to nothing but that which will undoubtedly bring downe the wrath of God upon their soules And children of wrath Passive passively being originally so guilty that they deserve and in respect of themselves are liable to the eternall wrath of God And who are these ver 19. They were such as were quickned ver 1. such as v. 19. were now no more strangers and forraigners but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God They were borne under the Apple-tree but raised up A second place is that knowne place Psal 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me They are Davids words that man of God that man according to Gods owne heart yet he confesseth he was borne under the Apple-tree there his mother brought him forth he was shapen in iniquity yea in sinne did his mother conceive him I will add but that one place more Ez. 16. Where God setting out the native condition of his Church sets it out by the resemblance of a new borne infant For her parents her father was an Amorite and her mother an Hittite For her owne person In the day wherein she was borne her navell was not cut nor was she washed in water to supple her she was not salted at all nor swadled at all cast out into the open feild to the loathing of her person v. 3. 4. 5. Polluted in her blood v. 6. Yet she was one to whom God had said live v. 6. Whom God had beautified and adorned with speciall graces v. 8. with whom God had made a covenant and she was Gods claime v. 8. v. 9. I passe on to the 2. Question propounded viz. How it comes to passe that all the Saints of God are originally in a lost undone condition The words of the text answer this their mother brought them forth so Adam eat of the tree of forbidden fruit he fell that guilt cleaves to all our natures This the Apostle speaks fully to in the 5 chap. of the Epis to the Romans v. 12. By one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne v. 15. Through the offence of one many were made dead v. 18. By the offence of one Judgment came upon all to Condemnation v. 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners Quest But here is the question started How the sinne of Adam should leave a defilement upon all his Children to the end of the world because The father hath eaten sowre grapes shall all the childrens teeth be set an edge My intention is not here to dispute like a sophister concerning those many questions about the propagation of Originall sin Quid quaeris apertam rimam Saith Augustine quum habes apertam Ianuam c. what need we seek for a rift for it to creep in when the Apostle hath shewed us an open door for it to come in with a full body he sayes by one man it came into the world not by imitation of his example as the Pelagians dream So he might have said per diabolum intravit that it entred in by the Devill as well as per unum hominem by one man but it entred propagatione carnali by carnal propagation what could be cleane that was borne of a woman M. Perkins sayes it may be done two wayes 1. Adam being a publique person carrying all us in his loynes and God ordering that what he received he should receive for himselfe and all his posterity hereupon Adam Sinning deprived
himselfe and all his pesterity So we became miserable God dealing like a judge depriving us for Adams sin of his Image which except he would he need never have stampt upon us not any wayes becomming by this act of judgement an author or maintainer of sinne thus we become guilty Imputative by imputation and privative God depriving us of his image by denying to restore it to us againe when we had once lost it 2. Another way is by carnall propagation Our mother the Hittite brought us forth our father the Canaanite begate us what can be cleane that is borne of a woman saith Job chap. 25. v. 4. As sweet oile powred into a fusty vessell saith M. Perkins loseth its purenesse and becometh infected by the vessell So the soule created good and put into a corrupt body and made one with it receives contagion thence only Christ who was borne of a woman was borne cleane and the reason for that was say the schoolmen Ab Adamo humanam accepit naturā non tanquam a principio agente sed tanquam a principio materiali His body was from Adam but not from the seed of Adam And thus you see how it comes to passe that our mother brings us forth under the Apple-tree in a poore lost undone condition there your mothers brought you forth that bare you Nor let any one thinke himselfe in a better condition because his parents have been elect ones what then Except a man be born again saith Christ he shall never enter into the Kingdome of God Joh. 3. 3. Whatsoever is borne of flesh Joh. 3. 3. is flesh Parents beget not grace but nature Though they have no sinne to communicate in respect of Gods grace justifying their persons and not seeing sinne in them so as to impute it to them yet they have sinne a body of death so holy Paul had he groned under it Rom. 7. Yea and if we say we Rom. 7. 23. have no sin we do but deceive our selves and there is no truth in us Saith the blessed Apostle who lives and sinneth not This question was propounded to Saint Austine How the Saints of God that had no sinne could convey sinne to their children he replies to it Vicissim ego interrogo c. Let me aske you saith he how one that is circumcised can beget one that is uncircumcised and how it comes to passe that when you sow your wheat in your field without any chaffe cleaving to it you should reap it with chaffe how one that is a baptized Christian can beget one that is an unbaptized heat hen you will answer Quia non facit generatio sed regeneratio Christianos M. Perkins saith God took this order in the creation that whatsoever evill Adam procured he should bring it not only on himself but all his posterity by virtue of which decree the propagation of sinne is continued without any interruption though Parents them-selves be borne anew by the spirit of God even as God hath set it in the order of nature that the wheat thrown pure into the ground should yet spring and grow so often as it is sowed with stalk eare blade And all this I conceive is the truth concerning the manner of conveyence of this sad legacy to all the Children of Adam Without fifting those Philosophicall and schoole questions about it I shall conclude this Particular with only this note of M. Perkins It may be this will not satisfy the minds of all if any be so curious that he hath a mind yet to seek further let them know there is another matter of more concernment for us to look unto when a mans house is on fire t is no time to enquire when and how and in what manner it came to be so but it will be our policy to use all means possible to quench it That it is so it is plain our soules are all undone by nature Do you ask how this thing could be first remedy it then enquire the manner how it came to passe quench the fire then aske how it came in thy dwelling Quid quaeris rimam in the mean time why seekest thou a crevis saith Austine Quum habes apertam Ianuam per unum hominem intravit peccatum hast thou not an open door doth not the Apostle say it entred in by one mans disobedience and death by it and so went over all So much therefore shall serve briefly to have spoken of the doctrinal part Give me leave to come now to an application of it in which the Lord give me an heart affected in speaking you eares and hearts truly affected in hearing The first part of my application shall be more notionall the other will bee more particular for the first 1. This may discover unto you the lying falshood of the Pelagian Doctrine and of diverse in these times that have been so unhappy as to rake up all the putrified dunghills of errors and vend them for new truths 1. The Maniches of old would confesse this but 1. Would have it to be the direct work of God and to this end made a God on purpose that should be such a principium mali carrying on the wicked designes in the world efficiently as their other God who was their principium boni was by their appointment to carry on good designes 2. Then they would but in part confess it they would have some to be borne cleane others defiled but even the best as you have heard were borne defiled there their mother brought them forth there she brought them forth that bare them The Pelagians denyed any Originall sinne by way of propagation but only by Imitation if say they the Child walks in its parents stepps or because we tread Adams path therefore we are defiled but this is false in the very day of our birth we were in a lost undone condition 3. From hence also may appeare the falsenesse of that opinion of the Anababtists of old and now in these dayes viz that Christ by his death Originale peccatum ex humanâ naturâ sustulit tooke away originall sin out of our natures they are the very words of Chemnitius repeating the error of the old Anabaptists concerning this point and this I perceive many people harping on even in this City especially those that have so good an opinion of Christs death that he as they dreame died for all pinch them a little and they will confesse that all shall not be saved but this is in regard for their actuall sins for their originall sinne Christ hath paid that score if now they can but stand upon their owne leggs and will but walke in their strength and keep their feet for the time to come then all shall be well But mistake not Christians your mother saith the text left you not raised but in a lost condition not your grandmother Eve but your immediate mother brought you forth there and left you there long since Christ died it was since that time that
the Apostle told the beleeving Ephesians that they were Children of wrath by nature even as others Eph. 2. 3. Besides that Christ useth not to pay any debts by halves it were as good as nothing for Iesus Christ to pardon a reprobates Originall sin to whom he never intends to pardon all sinne yea Originall sinne doth not only remaine upon elected ones as an offence to God and laying upon them an obligation to death since Christ dyed untill their Iustification but even after Iustification there is a body of death it hath lost its condemning power and its raigning power but it yet cleaves to our flesh as Ivy to the tree so deep an impression it hath upon all our natures But this openeth a way to another question whether originall sin remaines in any of the elect after Justification the affirmative is truth but in regard that my text strikes not directly against the errour I shall passe it by and refer you to those that have defended the truth in it as Zanchi c. and leaving this first use shall proceed to some further application which shall be more Particular 1. By way of Instruction 2. By way of Examination and Tryall 3. By way of Exhortation 4. By way of Consolation Of all these in their order By way of Instruction We may hence learne first what a sad condition the most men of the world are in Ah! Lord how few are they whom thou hast chosen ever to obtaine eternall life and yet these are children of wrath by nature as well as others Poore creatures my heart trembles to thinke of you How many in this Congregation yet lye in a condition low enough and the Lord knowes whether ever to be raised yea or no. If a child should be borne with some naturall weaknesse in its armes or leggs and it should live six or ten or twenty years and yet not be able to use its limbs you would say it would be a very great hazard if ever that child did recover its limbs so as to have the strength and exercise of it it would be almost a miracle It was such a miracle that in the ninth of John when Jesus Christ had restored sight to one that was borne blind the Jewes would not beleeve it possible and ver 32. we find a positive determination upon the question Since the world began it was never heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was borne blind How many poore wretches that are come here into the presence of the Lord that were all borne blind deafe dead and have lived some ten some twenty some thirty yeares some more and all this time have continually had all the meanes that could be applyed to them for recovery and yet are in the same lost undone condition Ah my friends what can you neither stretch out hand nor foot nor tongue nor any member notwithstanding all the meanes of grace astoorded you for quickning Let me tell you it is ten thousand to one if you doe not perish for ever My friends It is a miracle a great miracle of mercy that any one poore wretch considering in what condition it is borne should ever come out of it The Jewes would hardly beleeve the report therefore they say Joh. 9. 19. Is this your sonne that was borne blind how then doth he now see We may say so concerning every one that hath any thing of God in him Was not this poore creature borne blind how doth he now see was not he borne lost How is he now raised but for those that in stead of growing better are growne ten times worse that have hardened their hearts and gone on in riot and wantonnesse and are yet in their bloud it is ten to one if ever the Lord say to them live they are growne to such a shamelesse impudence in wickednesse I dare not say there is no hope But let me sadly say there is small hope that ever the Lord should raise such wretches And if he doth not better ten thousand times better sinner had it been for thy soule that thou hadst never seen the light of the morning nor heard the voice of the Gospell in thine eares This is your condition the Lord awaken you Secondly From hence we may be instructed Whom we have cause to thanke that any of us are this day out of hell Who art thou O man that boasts thou art of good parentage or of a great birth harke in what language my Text speaks thy birth Thou wert borne under the Apple-tree there thy mother brought thee forth there she brought thee forth that bare thee If thy heavenly Father doth no more for thee than thy earthly mother woe to thee that ever thou wert borne What a boasting we have of pedegrees and great descents What a great word it is in the world I was better borne than you My father was such a Gentleman so great so rich c. My mother was of such or such an ancient Family O vanity vanity of vanities Poore creature thy mother brought thee forth under an Apple-tree The very heathen out of a meere rationall principle could scoffe at such brags Genus proavos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco Tully could retort to the Roman bragging of his descent Domus mea à me incipiet tua verò in te desinet My house shall have its Originall from me my Nobility and worth thy Noble Family shall have an end in thy Basenesse Christian what is thy birth consider it but in a spirituall notion the poorest wretch in the world is borne in as good a condition as thou art and thou in no better an estate towards God than he Suppose a man were borne of some great parentage and had no Lands no estate left him but could only boast of fumos nomina vana Catonum his fathers name and the smoake of his chimney Possibly he hath some gorgeous suit of apparell left him this he weares and glisters in for a while yet a little while and these teare and then he hath not a rag left him nor a penny to buy one to cover his nakednesse how contemptible would such a poore wretch be in every mans eyes And is not this the condition of the most of the great men gallants of the world they glister with an outside a little in the world their names are great their persons admired yet a little while and these weare out the men dye and lye downe in hell Ah! that those that glory would glory in this that God is their Father and Jesus Christ their portion Thus your Houses would have a beginning of Glory from you and their Glory should not end with you 2. Nor is the boasting of those much better that can boast of their Religious Parents I confesse it is the better of the two an heire of Glory being farre more noble than the greatest worldling and in regard that the Election of God runs much in a
Heb. 3. 17. one reason is given why the Lord Jesus became man and tooke part of flesh and bloud with us that he might be a faithfull High-priest 3. It was requisite that he should thus raise us that he might fulfill the Law for us Now the Law was to be fulfilled two wayes 1. Actively 2. Passively Neither could have been done without the Assumption of our flesh There is not such a contradiction between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works as some ignorant Libertines would this day make God gave a Law and his Covenant was doe this and live this is that which we call the Covenant of Works man could not doe it What is Gods mind altered now no such matter God sayes Doe this and live still and if you doe not this you shall dye It was written long since that time Deut. 27. ver 26. Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to doe them And all the people must say Amen to it now as well as they did then But herein is the Covenant of Grace more favourable The Covenant of Works sayes thou shalt personally doe them or dye The Covenant of Grace sayes thou shalt doe it or get Christ to doe it for thee the Covenant of Workes sayes I will take no baile no surety doe it or dye Durus est hic sermo an hard saying who can heare it The Covenant of Grace saith Get me Christs Baile and I will acquit thee if thou beleevest in him Therfore saith the Apostle Gal. 3. 10 11. As many as are of the workes of the Law that look to be justified by their owne workes by their owne righteousnesse in fulfilling the Law are under the curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the Law to doe them Look to it saith the Apostle if you look to be justified by obeying the Law in your owne persons take my word for it you have an hard taske But verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law But how was that it followes in the next words Being made a curse for us ver 14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ Hee was to fulfill the Law Actively that he might fulfill what we through the weaknes of the flesh could not and in regard that he was to fulfill it for us it was requisite he should have our nature and as hee was to fulfill the Law Actively so in regard that his Elect by their past Transgressions had broken the Law of God Adam for himselfe and all his posterity and the body of death which he knew was to remaine after sanctification in his Elect ones would lay them open to hell He also was to fulfill the Law Passively for us therefore saith the Apostle He hath redeemed us from the eurse of the Law Now he tells you how that was verse 13. by being made a curse for us as it is written Cursed is every one that hangs upon a tree Now hee could not have been in capacity of being subject to the curse of the Law by hanging upon the tree for us unlesse he had taken upon him our flesh Nay yet a Fourth Reason may be given why it was necessary that Jesus Christ should raise up his redeemed ones by the assuming their flesh viz. That he might be a mercifull High-Priest It is the Reason that the Apostle gives Hebr. 2. verse 17. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to bee made like unto his brethren that hee might bee a mercifull and faithfull High-Priest in all things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sinnes of the people for in that hee himselfe suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted I shall adde nothing to it Thus he raised us by Assuming of our flesh which in order to our raising it was necessary for him to doe 3. He raised us Passione by his precious death upon the Crosse his falling was our rising his life our death The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes wee are healed His owne bloud was the balme from Gilead as well as himselfe the Physitian there Now in order to the raising of his Elect ones it was requisite that he should dye 1. That he might satisfie 2. That he might conquer 1. That he might satisfie and purchase Remission He that will redeem any slave out of Captivity must pay the summe of Redemption-money required Now Death was that which could alone satisfie for the redeemed ones It was the Lords first Law In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die temporally and eternally Now a death must be paid or justice is not satisfied therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 9. 22. Without blood there is no remission he therefore dyed for our sinnes saith the Apostle he was our sacrifice 1 Cor. 4. 7. And he is no sacrifice till slaine This was typified by the slaying of beasts for sacrifices in the old Law which God required of all those that would obtain pardon And in regard that man had deserved hell as well as death Christ by dying that he might raise us and and make the face of God againe to shine upon us was content to suffer the withdrawings of his Fathers love and to feele as it were the paines of hell to raise us to the joyes of heaven Secondly as it was necessary in order to our raising that Christ should dye to the intent that he should satisfie for us so it was also necessary that he should dye that he might conquer for us This the Apostle fully expresseth Heb. 2. 14 15. Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himselfe tooke part of the same that through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death even the Devill and deliver them who through feare of death were all their life-time subject to bondage Christ was to lead Captivity captive to take away deaths sting and hels victory which he could not have done without wrastling with death himselfe had he not been deaths captive he had never been deaths conquerour Hee raised us by dying for us 4. He hath raised us Resurrectione by rising againe from the dead therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 4. 25. He was delivered to death for our offences and rose againe for our justification Now his Resurrection had and hath an influence upon raising his Elect ones 1. By witnessing to them Christs conquest for them and therefore the Apostle makes the worke of satisfaction for us to be proper to his death and the worke of our justification he appropriates to his Resurrection Rom. 4. 25. When he dyed he went downe that he might conquer but it was his comming up out of the grave that witnessed his conquest over death and hell It was in that day that this Song was sung O death where is thy sting O hell
which is now glorified with our renewing lusts and corruptions I shall conclude this use with a prayer that God would fulfill to all our soules that gracious promise Zach. 12. 10. That he would poure out the spirit of grace and of supplications upon us and make us to look upon him whom we have pierced and doe pierce daily and mourn as a man mournes for his only Son And be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternes for his first-borne I passe on to a second way of Application viz. by way of Instruction Hath Christ and Christ alone raised us 1. Let us hence be instructed How Instruction much the Lord Jesus Christ loved us And here let my soule be drowned in sweetnesse and in sinking cry out O the depth of unfadomable love What tongue what Saint what Angell can speake out this unspeakable love Pray O pray Christians That Christ Eph. 3. 17 18. may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints What is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Is it love in a friend to passe his word for his friend arrested and ready to be haled to gaole and to take the debt upon himselfe and is it no love in Christ yea is it not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unspeakable of loves for Jesus Christ when a writ of eternal vengeance was Ready to issue out against you to be your surety and beare the blow off to the breaking of his own armes Was it love in the Roman to personate his friend and upon the Scaffold and after to suffer for him and is it not infinite love for Jesus Christ to take the raggs of your flesh upon him and indeed to dye a death upon the crosse for you for you deare friends for you he was smitten despised rejected of men he dyed to make you live he was content to fall so you might rise Let your thoughts sinke in this ocean and spend your lives in spelling the letters of love that must be joyned in this one word or sentence I Raised thee From hence Secondly be Instructed What a perfect Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ is he leaves nothing for thee to doe but to thanke him hee makes the plaister and layes it on hee trod the Wine-presse alone and there is none with him he hath left thee nothing to do but to believe his last words All is finished he conquered sinne upon the Crosse and death and hell in the grave He will have none to be a sharer with him either in his worke of Merit or Application get but hands he will deliver thee thy pardon ready written granted sealed nay he will help thee with hands too He was made perfect through sufferings Hebr. 2. 10. Heb. 5. 9. Being made perfect hee became the author of salvation to them that obey him 3. From hence againe bee instructed Christian What need thou and every poore soule hath of the Lord Iesus Christ Thou wert fallen and layest as unable to helpe thy selfe as an Infant throwne into an open field Men and Angels were at their wits ends to answer to this question How then can any be saved The Heavens said Salvation was not in them and Earth sayes Salvation is not in us nothing but God-man can doe this great work There is no other name but onely the Name of Iesus by which thou or I or any of the children of men can be saved If thou hast him thou hast enough if thou hast not him it is not all the righteousnesse of Saints and Angels that will make a garment which will not bee too short to cover thy nakednesse O cry Lord give mee Christ Lord give mee Christ or else I dye Thinke not of thy owne merits thy righteousnesse is as a menstruous cloth and as a filthy ragge Christs Righteousnesse is sufficient for thee 4. Let all the redeemed ones of the Lord be instrushed How much they owe and shall for ever owe to him that is become their Saviour It is no slight mercy Sirs to be saved out of everlasting burnings It is a piece of love which as wee can never comprehend so we can never walke up to O let us all say What shall wee render unto the Lord for his mereies wee will take the cup of salvation and praise the Name of the Lord. You would thinke you owed a great deale to him that should exalt you from a Dungeon to a Throne Mephibosheth thought he was mightily honoured to be admitted to eate bread at the Kings Table How much Ah! How much Christians is every of your soules indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ who remembred you in your low estate For his mercy endureth for ever But I passe on further Use 3 From hence may every one try himselfe whether he be raised out of that lost undone condition wherein he was by Nature I have spoke to this in the former Doctrine but because I here meet it so fit again take two Notes of Triall from this Doctrine 1. If you be raised you are raised by Christs merits 2. You are raised according to Christs method 1. If you be raised It is by Christs merits all the Abana and Parphars of thy owne merits would not doe it One drop of that fountaine that was set open for Iudah and Ierusalem for sinne and for uncleanenesse is worth all the waters of thine own Damascus What trusts thou in Christian Is it what thou hast done Alas thou art so far from having any naturall strength as Pelagians and Arminians dreame or any other strength of merits either of thy owne or thy friends which Papists dreame of that if all the Saints in the earth and all the Angels of heaven could unite their forces in one arme and to one act they could as little have lifted thee up out of the pit into which thou wert fallen as thou couldst lift up an house with the palme of thy hand if it were fallen downe It was onely this mighty one this Prince of glory this King of power that could doe it Say therefore as they say that great Papist concluded Tutissimum est Christi merit is confidere it is most safe onely to rest upon him believe it all other trusts are as the bruised Reed of Egypt and as the broken staffe of Assyria which if thou trusteth too they run into thy hand and pierce thee they will cause thee to fall many strides short of heaven when they have carried thee to their furthest their Nil ultra O trust not in them if there be all thy confidence thou art not yet raised 2. If Christ hath raised you it hath been in his method of Application Christ saves none but whom he sanctifies and sanctifies none but whom he justifies and justifieth none but whom he calls Some men are justified they think but they know not which way and
thee 2. Thee that wert as low as others Adam left thee as deep in hell as any reprobate there Loe here the infinitenesse of free grace Two were in the same house yea grinding at the same mill of iniquity and thou art taken and the other is left possibly thou wert in thy wildest youth seeming to ride faster to hell than the other were that were thy brethren friends and acquaintance yet the Lord hath raised thee and let the others lye wallowing in their bloud he hath not said to them live 3. Thee that wert his Enemy Was ever dying love yea love in dying extended to an enemy before You have heard of two stories one of a Grecian the other of a Roman paire Theseus and Perithous Pilades and Orestes that would have dyed for their friends each for another but hath any offered to dye for his Enemy Moses would offer to have his name blotted out for his people that were Gods people and which he loved but would Moses have done it for a Philistine yet this hath Christ done O love ye the Lord all his Saints 4. Thee that never askt it He was found of them that sought it not Alas mankind lay as well without a tongue to aske as an hand to help themselves and behold Christ pitied them and amongst them thee his love declared from Eternity towards thee had not so much cause in thee as a poore prayer would have amounted to he was not moved by thy sighs and teares but by his owne infinite love 5. Lastly thee that hast still Rebellion in thee Christ said within himselfe when he dyed upon the Crosse Now is my heart-bloud powred out for as vile wretches as any are and for those that I know will requite my bleeding wounds my dying love with new speares and thornes thus he knew that thou wouldst doe in the time of thy unregeneracie yea and after thou shouldst be called too Who lives and sinnes not Now Christian lay these things to thy heart meditate of study out this love and see if thou hast not cause to say My soule and all that is within me my tongue and all that is without me praise the Lord. But O remember Christian Remember Burnt offering and sacrifice he doth not require but this he requires that thou shouldst doe his will O say Loe I come I am ready to do it But more particularly let me point thee out some particular duties that the Lord requires of thee in a poor answer to his rich Acts of eternall love First hath not he thought his glory too deare to lay aside for a while for thee nor his Word and Truth too dear to pawne for thee nor his bloud too deare to spill for thee hath he valued nothing in comparison of thee O doe thou value nothing in an equall ballance with him be willing to deny thy selfe for him who in every thing hath denyed himselfe for thee Thy Lusts cannot be so pleasing to thee as Christs glory was to him Be content to leave them Thy Honour cannot be so great as his was which he left for thee and became ignoble in our eyes Surely when wee saw him we esteemed him despised smitten of God and afflicted Isa 53. 4. But it was when hee was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities when the chastisement of our peace was upon him and that by his stripes we might be healed Thy Riches cannot be greater than his yet remember him O remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for your sake became poore that you through his Povertie might be made rich 2 Cor. 7. Thy life cannot be more deare than his yet he valued not his life for thee but powred out his bloud his precious bloud upon the Crosse that through his bloud thou mightest have remission purchased Learne hence Christian a lesson of self-deniall Be content to suffer for him who was content to suffer that he might raise thee value nothing in comparison of him This Lesson had Saint Paul learned Phil. 3. v. 7 8. What things were gaine to me I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and doe count them but dung that I may win Christ c. ver 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Looke upon nothing in an equall ballance with him 1 Cor. 2. 2. I determined not to know any thing amongst you save Jesus Christ and him crucified Secondly hath Christ entred into a Covenant and given his word to his Father and kept his word with his Father for you O then learne of him Vow your selves to him and keep the vowes of your lips Say with David Psal 116. ver 16. Ah Lord truly we are thy servants we are thy servants and the sons of thy handmaids for thou hast loosed our bonds Say with David Psal 40. Mine eares hast thou opened and bored them Say Ah Lord we come to doe thy will Christ kept his word with his Father for you Ah keep your word with him pay him the vowes which you have made Thirdly Hath Christ to raise you taken upon him your flesh O then Take ye upon your selves his spirit He hath become for you the childe of man doe you become for him the children of God Be made partakers of the divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1. 4. Your Nature was full of imperfection and weaknesse the divine Nature is full of perfection and glory He hath raised you be raised put off your filthy rags and put on change of Raiment Fourthly Hath Christ died that he might raise you from the death of Sinne and from the power of the Second death O then dye to sinne Col. 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evill concupiscence and covetousnesse which is idolatry for which things c. The Apostle Saint Paul presseth the great duty of mortification from this very principle Likewise reckon yee also your selves to be dead to sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 11. and so on ver 12 13. Let not sinne therefore reigne in your mortall bodies c. Ah throw away the nailes that pierced your Christ Fifthly Did Christ rise from the dead that he might raise you from the death of sinne O then rise to newnesse of life The Apostle Saint Paul presseth this worke of Vivification also from Christs Resurrection Rom. 6. ver 4. We are buried with him by Baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father euen so we also should walke in newnesse of life and so all along that Chapter Sixthly Hath he
gave thee comfort in the depths of sorrow what thy merry company did thy duties do it If any thing did it but thy Christ I feare thou art still in the Wildernesse when thou didst mourne as one that mourneth for his onely begotten sonne dist thou look upon him whom thou hadst pierced there is nothing but the blood of Christ can give a cordiall to a fainting soule nothing but the hand-kerchiefe of free grace that can wipe thine eyes nothing but the blotting out of the hand-writing which was written in Gods Booke and thy owne conscience against thee that can make thy heart leave trembling and thy knees leave beating together for terror Thou canst not come out alone if ever thou camest out it was leaning 5. Examine thy selfe How thou hast carried thy selfe since thou camest out How hast thou beene since thou wert humbled and lost in the wildernesse of sorrow What effects hath the wildernesse of sorrow wrought upon thee Hath thy sorrow beene like the sorrow of Achan that thou hast been onely sorry because thou hast been under an Attachment of wrath Or like Ahab renting his cloathes putting on his sack-cloth and going softly 2 Chron. 22. Or like Pharoah saying I have sinned Exod. Or like Balaam saying I have sinned I will returne back againe when he might have had more thanks for his labour and never have come there he had checks enough Art thou worse when thou commest out of the wildernesse of affliction that wee may brand thee with Ahaz his Brand This was that King Ahaz Or doest thou come out of thy Afflictions leaning with thy weak faith strengthened and thy strong faith confirmed Hast thou lost no graines but got in the fire Is thy gold as good weight now as before it is a good signe it is good then But I hasten to the next Use which may be to informe us First The sad condition that all unbeleevers are in Secondly The joyfull condition that all the Children of God are in Thirdly The great love of God that he would send Christ to seeke us up in the wildernesse and give his hand to poore creatures to lead them out And lastly If in every wildernesse wee must leane upon the Lord Jesus Christ It may informe us what need wee have at all times to walke close with the Lord Christ First here see the sad condition that all men and women by nature are in that have not the Lord Jesus Christ It consists in two things First They are in a wildernesse Sinne is a wildernesse Now which of you friends but would thinke himselfe as good as a dead man if he were in the midst of an Arabian desert that he could not see any possibilitie of getting out nor any comfort he could enjoy there terror on every side comfort on no side the Lyons and beasts of prey of every hand ready to devour him and it is well if he can keepe his flesh for food for himselfe for he can get no provision for his body nothing except he would eate the barke of trees or the parched grasse What man would not tremble to thinke of one that should be condemned to such an axile Doe not your hearts pittie as oft as you think of those poore men that were left but halfe a yeare in Greenland And yet O Lord How few pittie themselves O poore creatures Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur the Story is thy owne apply it therefore You that are in your sinnes are all in a sad wildernesse the judgements of God like the beasts of prey are ready to swallow you up on every hand 't is a miracle of mercy you are not in hell there is but a thread betwixt you and death the Sword of Gods wrath hangs over your head while you are at your Drunken Banquets of sinne Oh! what comfort what joy can can you have in the wildernesse friends that when you lye downe at night you know not but you may wake in the morning past Repentance even with Hell flames about you as the Lord lives there is but a haires breadth betwixt you and Hell 2. Consider That you have no one to helpe you out of any wildernesse if Christ be not yours nothing is yours what will you doe in a stormy day of Affliction when you shall cry unto God and he shall say unto you as he once said to the roaring Isralites Jud. 10. 14. Goe and cry unto the gods which you have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation Cry unto your Gold now unto your Lusts now trust your Riches now make you a golden Calfe See if it will now save you O think You that live in sinne and love and delight in sinne what shall I doe in a sad day of sicknesse when the feare of the grave shall surround me and the terrors of Hell shall make me afraid What shall I leane upon when these comforts shall be no comforts when I shall say to all creature-enjoyments miserable comforters are you all Where shall I warme me when these flashes will be out when the sparkes of pleasure and profit shall be choakt and kill'd with the dust and ashes of my grave Heare yee this all yee That kinde a fire that compasse your selves about with sparkes walke in the light of your fire and in the sparkes that you have kindled This shall ye have at the Lords hand you shall lye downe in sorrow Your pleasurable sinnes are but as sparks Sirs What will you doe when your sparkes are out They are as we say of a short flame but a Widdowes joy for a moment Take heed that when your sparks are out you blow not your nailes in hell Take heed that your sparkes doe not kindle everlasting burnings for you What will you doe in a wildernesse of Affliction how will you come out what will you come out What will yee leane upon Secondly This may serve to informe us of the happpy condition of Gods children and that è contrario in a just position to the others misery O lift up your heads yee righteous and be glad yee upright in heart Your happinesse consists in these two things First You are out of the wildernesse out of the danger of Hell and those that can spell in their thoughts but that word hell will know it to be a mercy to be out of the feare of it You are out of the wildernesse O blesse that God that hath helpt you out 't is a great happinesse to be delivered of feares beleeve me Did the wicked men seriously thinke what a weight of wrath they lye under what a cloud of bloud hangs over their heads they would pray till all their knees were melted though they were all steele to be delivered from it Hold up your hands that you have escaped a drowning that you feare not the wild beasts that belong to the wildernesse Gods dreadfull judgements you dare meet the Lyon and the Beare and they dare not set
but a fained joy that the sinner hath a sudden short lived flame without any coales underneath to preserve it There is no peace to the wicked saith God and if no peace there can be no joy when the sinner is serious he cannot rejoyce his rejoycing is like the skipping of mad men that know not what they doe Thirdly Consider it is a starving condition The sinners soule starves whiles he feasts his body like a glutton his soule dyes for thirst when his body is overslowne with drunkennesse It is impossible the puffe-past of iniquity should nourish a soule Doth an Angell feed upon the earth doth a Saint feed upon hell The soule is of an Angelicke substance it cannot feed upon sinne sinne starves it Dost thou love to be in the middest of thornes dost thou delight to lye downe in sorrow canst thou endure to see thy better part starved whiles thou pamperest thy filthy Carcasse O let this deterre thee from the wildernesse of sinne and perswade thee to come out of it unto Paradise There First Thou shalt be in a safe condition Out of the feare of judgements out of hells gunshot There life or death will be either peace temporall or else eternall either grace or glory unto thee here thy soule shall be in a harbour if thousands fall at thy left hand and ten thousands at thy right none shall make the afraid thou shalt laugh at trouble when it comes Thou shalt be sure to goe to heaven either by land or water If thou goest through the fire thou shalt be sure to have Christ with thee Heaven is a security in all estates a protection from all Arrests if the King of glory hath a mind to sue thee thou shalt not be arrested like other men with a writ of wrath but invited to sup with him in glory onely by a letter of love and he will send his Ushers of glory to waite upon thy soul to the chambers of glory Luke 16. 22. The soule of good Lazarus was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome you shall not live like other men haunted with the blood-hounds of wrath nor dye like other wretches that goe out of the world haled by the Sarjeants of hell to everlasting prison but quietly sleepe and awake againe one day in glory O who would not desire such a protection for himselfe such a security for his soule who would not throw off his raggs of sinne to put on Christs livery of grace when Christs badge upon his shoulder shall free him from all Arrests That he shall walke up and downe and nothing shall make him afraid Secondly Consider that Heaven is a place as full of joy as ever the wildernesse was full of sorrow and trouble of this I spake before O thinke of the joy of the Saints you children of vaine pleasure you mad-men of the earth that can dance over the hole of the Aspe and put your hands on the Cockatrices den Your false and flattering joy is nothing to the reall joyes of heaven There is joy like the joy of the harvest like the joy when men divide the spoyle The yoake of their burthen is broken and the rod of the oppressour O you that love your drinking meetings and dancing dayes that you would but love heaven where you might drink new wine with your Lord Christ where you might dance in glory and make all your dayes dayes of joy and every houre an houre of pleasure Thirdly consider that there and there onely is provision for your soule Christs robes is the only cloathing that will cover the nakednesse of it his flesh is meat indeed and his bloud is drinke indeed there my friends Eate and drinke and be merry there you may have wine and milke without money or without price O spend not your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which profits not Here you may eate that which is good and let your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse Here is a Feast of fat things The fatlings are killed O come to the wedding Why should your roomes be emptie in the day of the Lords Espousals You shall bee welcome to my Masters Table Now O now Behold he stands at the doore and knocks Lord breake where thou knockest If any man will heare his voice and open the doore he will come into him and sup with him and he shall sup with him O let me intreat you to pittie the yerning of your Saviours bowels toward you pittie the groaning of his tender heart for you pittie your selves if not your Christ and O come come out of the wildernesse of sinne into this wildernesse of sorrow that of a drunken profane creature thou mayest be a mourning pious soule of a proud carelesse sinner become a poore humbled paenitent that the world may admire Saul amongst the Prophets and Paul amongst the Apostles and thee amongst the Saints of Christ and say of thee who art now a profane Swearer and Blasephemer Behold he Prayeth Of thee that wert a filthy Wanton Behold he Mournes Of thee that wert a filthy Drunkard and Glutton Behold he fasts And may in time say of thee Who is this that commeth up from the wildernesse leaning upon her Beloved But Secondly Is there any before the Lord this day that is in any other wildernesse of Sorrow Affliction Temption Desertion c O leane Come out of your wildernesse leaning upon your Beloved First Is there any one here to whom the Lord hath shewne their owne sad condition too and yet hath not revealed the fulnesse of his free grace to them O leane upon the Lord Jesus Christ and leaning come out of thy wildernesse Beleeve and thou shalt be saved But here 's the hard taske to perswade such a soule to beleeve Consider but these few things 1 That now thou art in a capacitie of beleeving Povertie of spirit is the nearest capacitie of faith Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousnesse Now thou art weary Christ hath promised to ease thee now thou art heavy laden he hath promised to help thee Secondly Consider that thou hast ground enough to build thy faith upon Christs power and love are two Pillars able to hold up the weakest faith First Beleeve leane upon Christ for he is able to pardon thy sinnes thou shouldest blaspheme in thy thoughts if thou shouldest not thinke this Can infinite mercy be fadomed thinkest thou Can any one plead his underservings against free grace Were thy burthen farre heavier then it is cast it upon Christ for he is able to beare it Art thou thick darknesse he is infinite light Art thou all sinne he is all pardon Art thou altogether lovely why Christ is altogether lovely Secondly Beleeve because Christ is as much love as he is power he is not only able but he is willing to pardon thee free grace thirsts after thee Nay beleeve me thou canst give Christ no greater satisfaction then to receive his mercies Christ is with child
the builders refused A man of no fashion in the world who cared for him did any of the Pharisees believe on him The wife you know takes her honour from her husband and usually if hee be accounted one of no fashion shee is not valued at a very high rate Saints though they be indeed the worlds pillars yet in the vulgar estimate they are the worlds burthens and where ever they live they usually live at a low rate in worldlings desires if any of note before turne puritane hee loseth his rate in the worlds thoughts presently the Gentleman loseth his honour the Lady her repute but it is because their prizers have lost their wit and their eyes and it need not much trouble a Saint for Christ desires their beauty still They have put themselves out of the worlds reckoning and heightend themselves in Christ's esteem Despise on sooles the King hath desired these soules beauty Ah! but will a poore misdoubting Christian say I am afraid they have a true object of laughter in me I am afraid I have not that desireable beauty but am a painted sepulchre were I but convinced that I had indeed truly forgot my fathers house and that the Lord Christ had indeed desired my beauty I could naile their scoffes to my heeles and mourne over their gallant follies But I feare 1 Obj. Alas I am going home to my fathers house ever and anon I am ready to yield to temptations ready to fall into sinne yea and the Lord pardon mee I fall seven times a day If I had forgot my fathers house should I have such inclinations to goe home would my heart draw so hard for vanity as it doth sometimes should I sinne so often c. I answ 1. Which way stands your affection your heart you say bends that way but which way stands your affection doe you take pleasure in such inclinations have you a good mind to sinne if you durst to returne to your old vanities if you durst only you durst not that 's an ill signe But upon such inclinations doth there presently arise a loathing in your soules doe you say Get thee behind mee Sathan that 's a good signe that though you be invited by a temptation of vaine company or the Devill c. yet you have truly forgotten your fathers house 2. You goe home sometimes you say it may be you fall into some of your former vaine courses and are with some of your vaine companions But I pray What doe you when you are in your fathers house are you pleased with your vanities or with the vanities of your friends or doe you spend your time in chiding It may be your heart sometimes declines to some vanity or you are sometimes in converse with vain persons Are you one with vanity one with sinners or doe your spirits rise against your selves and against the vanities of those with whom you are What indignation is wrought if any you may have forgot your fathers house for all this going home 3. You goe home sometimes you say But I pray How long doe you stay there Is sinne your trade Doe you live in knowne sinnes this indeed will argue your profession but hypocrisie But on the contrary though you fall through weaknesse yet doe you rise through grace though you sinne sometimes yet is sinne as Davids concupiscence call'd a stranger in the Parable Thus the best Saints have sinn'd yea and may sinne not of wilfulnesse but of weaknesse not trading in sinne nor lying in it but falling into it and rising by repentance 2. Obj. Ah! but will another Christian say I cannot deny my selfe in the company of my fathers house wretch that I am I got acquaintance when I was young with vaine persons or I am related to such and I dare not say but I love their company and oft times leave better for them neither can I deny my selfe in my relations My heart is excessively let out after them 1. Thou saiest thou art oft times yet a companion of vaine persons but consider Christian are they thy invited ghests or accidentall meerly are they intruders or are they the welcome crmpanions of thy life are they thy pickt company or no thy intimates or meerly companions in respect of thy trade and converse with the world If thou delightest not in them they indeed are sometimes thy companions but thou art not theirs 2. Art thou a companion with them in sinne or onely in civill actions or for discourse c. sometimes if the first indeed it is a signe thou hast not left thy fathers house but if the latter onely it is no such signe thou keepest thy course they come to thee and it may be disturbe thee but thou doest not goe to them 3. Thou sayest thou lovest them But it would be considered Whether thy love be meerly naturall or more It may be thou lovest them because they are witty people or of ingenuous dispositions Thus Christ loved the young man Matth. 19. and thus thou mayest love them It is an ill signe if thou lovest them because they will drinke or sweare or bee vain and wanton in their discourse or carriages 4. Thou sayest thou lovest thy relations and thou canst not deny thy selfe in them thy heart is so glued to them c. and God forbid but thou shouldst love them 1. with a naturall affection it s a signe of a wretch Rom. 1. 31. to be without naturall affection and 2. with a providentiall love and care hee that provides not for his family saith the Apostle is worse than an infidell But 1. Suppose Christ should call thee to suffer for him and thou hadst a good mind to it and they should plead hard for thee to spare thy selfe wouldst thou with Hierom shake off thy father and mother and children and runne to Christ this would bee a signe thou hadst forgot them Though thou lovest them 2. Notwithstanding that thou lovest them wouldst thou favour them in any sinne against God and onely luke-warmely reprove them like old Elie It is not well done of you O my sons because thou lovest them wilt thou rather let them dishonour God damn their owne soules doe any thing rather than reprove or smite them this love indeed is a reall hatred and will argue little love to God in thy soule But on the contrary though thou lovest them with the tenderest love wilt provide for them with the most providential care yet is thy love so truly tempered that it shall not in the least hinder thee from doing thy duty to Christ no nor yet from doing thy duty to them from reproving sharply admonishing severely is thy love such that it shall not blind thy eyes so as thou wilt wink at the least neglect of duty in them not at the least sin in them Love them then as wel as thou canst it shall be no sad evidence against thy soule otherwise Parents look to it your children will curse you another day for your
love to them you have heard of killing with kindnesse let the kind of death be never so sweet yet the death will be bitter Take heed not of killing the bodies alas that were nothing but of damning your childrens soules and your owne too with miscalled kindnesse 3 Obj. But wil another Christian say I have not forgot my honour and glory I am not low enough I feare to get in at heavens gate I answer first 1. This is like the melancholy conceit of her that a Divine of our owne speaks of of a woman that conceited she was so fat shee could not get to heaven it is the lownesse of mind that God looks at Lords and Ladies if their hearts be not as high as their titles may sit in heaven as well as meaner persons I doe not say they shall have chaires of state set for them but they may have a roome there it may be one or two may sit above them if there bee degrees in glory that gave them place here but as Master Rutherford sayes the least place in Heaven is Heaven though it bee behind the doore But secondly 2. Is not thy outward Pompe and glory that which thou affectest and delightest in it and huntest after Does not thy title tickle thy eare nor swell thy heart if not it can doe thee no hurt all the feare of those swelling things is lest they should breed tympanies in the soule 3. Doe you look upon the title of the servant of Jesus Christ the title of Christian as the farre more honourable title Are you of Theodosius his temper which would you rather chuse to be call'd my Lord or Madam or to be called the servant of Christ which doe you preferre if the latter it is a signe you have forgot the former though you retaine it 4. Is your outward greatnesse and pompe no snare to your soule in the wayes of God Great persons are too ready to think they are above prayers above hearing above meane Saints should such ones as they pray in their families no let their boy do it should they pray in secret and runne up and downe to lectures O no forsooth it is a dishononour to them Heaven was made I confesse for the most part for people of lesser quality 1 Cor. 1. 26 27. James 2. 5. should such as they go to private meetings no better go to a taverne there they shall only foule their soules but keep their clothes cleane But now hath the Lord given thee another spirit it is true thou art great but thy greatnesse is no such snare to thy soule thou canst pray for all thy greatnesse and heare sermons and kneele in a duty for all thy silk stockings and entertain communion with the meanest Saint yea and for a need preferre a lether dublet in honour before thy selfe Though thou beest great it seemes thou hast forgot it 4 Obj. Ah but will a Christian say I am so addicted to mirth and pleasure I must have my vagary and tickle my sense sometimes c. 1 Answ Christian dost thou love thy pleasures more than thy God that indeed were something art thou more pleased with hearing a song than hearing a sermon this sounds high But love God best and for ought I know thy eye for thy recreation may bee delighted in seeing and thy care with hearing too 2 Answ Wilt thou baulk an opportunity of communion with Christ or with his Saints for a vaine pleasure Wilt thou bee a loser in thy heart to gaine a little pleasure for thine eye or eare or any sense wilt thou misse a family duty an opportunity of hearing Gods word privatly or publiquely thy time of secret duty a time of communion with the Saints to wait upon thy pleasure In such a case I would have thee suspect thy heart otherwise thou mayest recreate thy selfe with them and yet have forgotten them 3 Answ Suppose thy pleasures have been such and are such as are in themselves sinfull as wantonnesse drunkennesse c. Dost thou love them so that thou wilt have them whether God will or no thou wilt break with God to enjoy thy lust this is an ill and a very ill signe But possibly thy pleasures are such as God allowes thee temperately used if such thou mayest so use them and yet the King desire thy beauty I have finished this branch of application I have but one word more to adde It shall be of Use 4 Exhortation Let mee now perswade with you Christians And oh that the Lord would help mee to perswade 1. with you who have not at all yet forgate your fathers house and so consequently your beauty is not at all desirable to Christ 2. With you that have begun to doe well I have a word to both sorts 1 Br. Is there alas is there any poore soule before me this day whose heart smites him and tells him that his soule is not at all yet desirable in the eyes of Jesus Christ is there any poore creature so sadly miserable possibly the world dotes on you for beauty wit parts behaviour c. but in the meane time doe your soules tell you in plaine English that you are despised in Christs eyes As though God did beseech you by mee I pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God Ah poore soule wouldst thou be desired of Jesus Christ Hearken then O daughter and consider and incline your eare forget thy owne people and thy fathers house I know I am pleading with you for an hard thing especially for you that have all the world at will But I beseech you by the love you bear to your precious soules which shall last for ever doe it ah doe it I had need now have the Rhethorick of an Angell yea if I had yet God must perswade Japhet to come and dwell in the tents of Shem. Let mee offer but a few considerations and venture at a perswading of you and leave the issue with God 1. Consider How will you live when your fathers house failes you for the present it is a full house and you live as wee say as well as a carnall heart would wish you have pleasures and honours and riches even what you would aske the colour is in your cheeks and the marrow in your bones But will this last alwayes doth not the fashion of this world passe away and will not the fashion of your bodies passe away what will you doe in that day of your visitation These things may last a while till God comes to keep a Court in your Conscience or hee summons you to a particular judgement or layes you upon your back in a bed of affliction or comes to his last judgement But in any of these dayes poore creature what wilt thou doe when thy perfumed body shall come to stinke in the nostrils of men thy soule shall be more loathed of God a future livelihood would be thought of This will perswade a virgin to marry sometimes But besides 2. Christian Dost
in the midst of all those troubles and causes of disquietment you will meet with in the world for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the world while you have any thing to doe with it any converse in it yea any beeing in it You who are my disciples whom I have called out of the world you who are not of the world you shall have trouble trouble of all sorts inward outward corporall spirituall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But be of good chear Gather up your spirits Take heart to you nay more bee confident Bee bold and courageous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have overcome the world all the opposition of it I have taken out the sting of every cresse the venome out of every arrow I have overcome the world and what I have done is for you that 's implied If there bee any thing else needfull for the explication of the words you shall have it in the explication of the Doctrine In the words lie these Doctrines plaine 1. In the world Christs Disciples must look for trouble 2. In their trouble they may have peace 3. Christ hath taken care for their peace in the midst of trouble 4. Though the Disciples of Christ meet with trouble in the world yet they ought to be of good cheare 5. Christ's overcomming of the world is a sufficient ground of good cheare for the Saints in the midst of their earthly troubles I cannot runne through all these at large I shall summe up the most of them in one proposition of Doctrine and handle that more fully It is this Doct. That though in the world the true Disciples of Christ must look for troubles yet Jesus Christ hath taken such order that in the midst of their troubles in him they may have peace In the discoursing of this for the more full orderly handling of it I shall doe these things 1. I shall shew you what is meant by THE WORLD what that phrase implies 2. I shall shew you what is meant by troubles and what troubles the true disciples of Christ must looke for in the world 3. I shall shew you the grounds and from what causes Saints troubles in the world arise 4. I shall shew you what peace is and what kind of peace this is that in the Saints troubles they may have in Christ how it is in Christ and how the Saint may draw it out of Christ for himselfe 5. I shall shew you what order what paines Christ hath taken for the Saints peace in the midst of earthly troubles 6. Lastly I shall apply the Doctrine Of all these I shall speak briefely 1. What is meant by the world what doth our Saviour mean by that phrase In the world Shortly the world I conceive is usually made use of in Scripture and to bee taken in Scripture-phrase in one of these three senses First Sometimes for the men of the world and that either largely for all of all sorts without any respect as Joh. 18. 20. I have spoken openly to the world to hearers of all sorts so the Apostle saith Rom 5. 12. By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne all were sinners and all must die Or more Restrictively for some particular sort or company of people in the world and so it is used diversly 1. Sometimes for many of all sorts as Joh. 12. 19. The world is gone after him that is many of all sorts are gone after him 2. Sometimes for the unregenerate onely in opposition to those that are borne againe not of flesh and bloud but of the spirit called and sanctified so Joh. 15. 18 19. If the world hate you you know that it hated me before it hated you c. It is put there in opposition to those that were chosen out of the world v. 19. so Joh. 16. 8. Christ saith that the spirit should reprove the world of sinne 3. Sometimes it is taken for the Reprobates onely not at large for those that were uncalled but yet might bee called but for those that neither were already nor yet ever should be called so Joh. 14. 17. it is said that the world cannot receive the spirit of truth not they had not yet received it but they could not receive it 4. Lastly It is sometimes taken for the Elect which live in the world though they bee the least considerable part of it and the least flock in it so it is taken 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe not imputing their sinnes Surely the Arminians and Universalists themselves must grant that their bold assertion that the world in Scripture is no where taken for the world of the Elect must faile and be dasht in pieces upon that portion of Scripture unlesse they will hold universall Justification and Salvation too as well as universall Redemption That 's the first sense World is used in Scripture For the men of the world Secondly sometimes it is used for the things of the world and that either 1. For the whole fabrick of the creation Heaven and Earth and Sea c So it is taken Joh. 1. 10. The world was made by him the Apostle expounds that place Col. 1. 16. By him were all things created that are in Heaven and Earth visible and invisible c. or 2. Sometimes it is taken for the earth onely so saith Christ Joh. 16. 28. I leave the world that is the earthly part of the world for it followes I goe to the father 3. Sometimes it is taken for the vanities of this world whether the lust of the eyes or the lusts of the flesh or the pride of life according to Saint John's distribution of them 1 Joh. 2. 16. whether ticklings of pleasure or pompe and honour and greatnesse In this sense S. Paul useth it Gal. 6. 14. when hee tels us that the world is crucified to him and he unto the world 4. Sometimes for the profit and traffique of it so you shall find it 1 Cor. 7. 31. using the world as if you used it not it is expounded before where the Apostle advised that those that bought should bee as though they possessed not v. 30. This is a second sense Thirdly somtimes it is used for our state and present condition of life which is in the world so 1 Cor. 7. 3. The Apostle tells us that shee that is married careth for the things of this world that is of this life shee takes care how to live and maintaine her family c. You may in the Text and Doctrine take it in all three senses The Saints 1. While they have to doe with the men of the world in tradings and conversings while they have any thing to doe with them or Secondly 2. While they have any thing to do with the things of this world the pleasures or profits the businesses or tradings of it with any thing of it 3. Or finally While they are in this present life while they have a beeing on this side of
31 32. Sweetnesse of Christ to the soule that tasts him p. 1. p. 48. T TEmptations a Saints wildernesse why p. 3. p. 10. How the soule in them leanes and comes out of them leaning on Christ p. 3. p. 54 55. Thankfulnesse how highly the duty of Saints p. 1. p. 71 72 73. Motives to it p. 2. p. 68 69. Traditionall faith nothing p. 1. p. 64 65. Trial of our selvs whether we be in the state of nature or grace how it may be made p. 1. p. 43 44. Notes of Triall whether we be raised or no. p. 2. p. 57 58. Whether we be the Spouses of Christ or no. p. 3. p. 76 77 78 79 80 81. V VNbeleevers sad condition opened p. 3. p. 83 84. They are exhorted to look out for a part in Christ p. 3. p. 93. 94 95. W WEaknesse of the soule how helpt by Christ p. 2. p. 43. Wearinesse in the soule that will leane on Christ p. 3. p. 27 28. Wellbeloved of the soule who p. 3. p. 26. Will of man doth not first stir in the soule for God p. 3. p. 71 72. Wildernesse what it meanes what manner of place it is opened in six particulars p. 3. p. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. 76 77. Saints may dwell in a sixfold Wildernesse p. 3. p. 5 6 7 8. Wildernesse company what it is p. 3. p. 78. How sad a condition it is to be in the wildernesse p. 3. p. 84. Willingnesse how and when in us p. 3. p. 17 18 19. willingnes in the soul that comes to Christ how p. 3. p. 21. An Index of the severall Contents of each Sermon in the following Treatise In the first Sermon and Part. THe words considered Relatively Absolutely p. 4 5. Severall senses of the words given by Expositors declared and rejected with reasons for the rejection p. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. The true sense given according to the Authors judgement with his reasons for it p. 16 17 18 19. The words analysed 19 20. 3 Doctrines propounded to be insisted upon 21. 1. Doct. The best of Gods Saints by nature were borne in a lost condition 22 23. The doctrine proved by Scripture ibid. 24. Adams sin how it goes over all and how all are Originally defiled ib. 25 26. How Christ came to be free of this guilt 29. Saints beget not Saints why 28 29. St. Austines and Mr. Perkins his opinion 28 29. Mr. Perkins his counsell to such as are inquisitive to know how Originall sin came to bee propagated 29 30. 1. Use of the Doctrine to discover the errors of Pelagians Manichees Anabaptists and Universalists 30 31 32. Christ by his death hath not taken Originall sinne out of our nature 32. Christ payeth no debts by halves for any 33. Christ useth not to do things to no purpose 33. 2 Use for Instruction 34. 1. What a sad condition most men and women are in 34. It is a miracle if withered sinners be saved 34. 2. Whom we have cause to thank that wee are this day out of hell 36. Not our Noble Parentage there is a great deale of bragging of that in the world to little purpose 36 37. Vain-glorying will have an end in hell 37 38. Religious Parentage best most noble most to be gloryed in 38 39. but not enough 39. It was the Jewes brag 39 40. Parents faith wants a way of conveyance to save our soules 40. This made plain by a familiar instance 40. 3. Br. From hence we may be instructed what a soule-cheating-Principle it is of Libertanisme to say we have no need of Repentance c. If we be elected we shall be saved if not damned 41. 3. Use Let us try our selves whether wee bee not yet in a state of disunion to Christ 4â— 43. 4. Notes of Triall 43 44. 1 Note If none have done more for us than our Mother hath done we are yet in the state of Nature 43. Mothers convey Nature 43. Nature is either corrupted or refined neither enough 45 46. 2. Note If we have not tasted of the fruit of the Apple-tree we are yet but under it 47. Christ is the Apple-tree ib. 1. The Apple if tasted is sweet 48. Christ sweet to Saints 48 49. High thoughts of Christ argue a spirituall tast of him ib. 2. The tasted Apple is cordiall 50. 1 In taste 2. In smell ib. Christ how cordial to swooning Saints ib. No Cordiall to unbeleevers ib. 50 51 52. 3. Tasted Apples are nutritive 53. Soules that have tasted Christ will from him draw nourishment 54. 4. The tasted Apple is diffusive of its vertue 54 55. 3. Note of Triall If thou hast pluckt the fruit of the Apple-tree thou hast a hand to do it 56. Faith is the hand 57. This hand must be 1 True 2 Perfect 3 Lively 58 59. Painted hands pluck no fruit ib. Faith how perfect is necessary 58 59. Dead hands pluck nothing 59 60. Faith is lively Internally Externally 60. It must be given us from above 62. Perswasions various Natural Moral Traditionall Diabolicall c. 63 64 65. All these good for nothing ib. Nature's Legacy of faith 63. Natures faith is sickly ib. Morall perswasions nothing 64. Legacies of faith from Parents will not bring heaven and Christ 65. Most men believe there is a God and Christ c. because their Father taught them so and their Mother so learnt them their Catechisme 65. This was the good womans Religion 65. Most believe as their Fathers believed 65 66. True faith is the gift of God 68. it is grounded upon divine perswasion What that is c. 68 69. Use 4. Exhortation in severall Branches 70 71 72 73 74. 1 Br. To perswade Saints to thankfull hearts what cause they have 71 72. 2 Br. Put on Bowells of mercy to other lost undone soules 73 74. We pitty bodies but not souls 74 75 76 3 Br. The consideration of this Doctrine cals to Saints for humble hearts 77 78 79. Use 5. It may bee applyed to give us a ground 1 of Consolation 2 of Hope 80 81 82. Hope for those yet in the state of Nature 81. Hope for Saints concerning their friends yet in the state of Nature 82 83. An Index of the severall things contained in the second part 2 Doct. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that helps his redeemed ones out of their lost condition 4. The Doctrine inlarged in five particulars 4 5 6 7 8 c. 1. Christ was assigned to doe it 5 6 7 8 c. The Covenant of Grace was made betwixt the Father and Christ personally and us representatively in him 6. God in laying our Redemption on Christs shoulders laid help on one that was mighty 7 8. 2. Christ alone was able to goe through with the work of our Redemption 8 9. Reason for it ib. Angels Creatures man could not do it 9 10. Foure things necessary to accomplish our Redemption which alone could be found in Christ page 12. 1. One that could
dye 12. 2. One that had the offending nature 12. 3. One that could merit by death ib. 4. One that could pay an infinite satisfaction 13. The Riddle of mans Redemption solved 14. 3. Christ hath done the work of our Redemption 14 15. Christ hath raised all Intentionally and Moritoriously whom his Father elected some also Actually and formally 16 17. 4. Christ will raise all his chosen ones actually and formally 17 18. Pardon is to come out of course to all the Elect 18. Christs and his Fathers power are united and joyntly engaged for his Elects salvation 18 19. 5. Christ hath raised and will raise his Elect How he hath already and will yet further do it 20 21. 22 23. 1. By entring into a Covenant and engaging his word for them 20 21 22. The justice of God in charging our debts on Christ cleared by his voluntary engagement for us 21 22. How the Father is well pleased and satisfied in Christ as Mediator 23 24 25. Till Christ came God the Father had nothing but Christs word for the paiment of our debts 25. 2. How Christ raised us by assuming our flesh 26 27. That was necessary in order to our redemption 1 That he might suffer 2 That the same Nature might suffer 3 That righteousnesse might be fulfilled 4 That he might fulfill the Law for us 27 28. The Govenant of Grace and Works how they differ how the latter is more favourable 28. Christ was to be a mercifull high Priest 30 31. 3. Christ raised his Saints by his suffering How and why that was necessary 31 32. 1. That he might satisfie ib. 2. That he might conquer for us 32 33. 4. Christ raised us by his resurrection 33 34 35. What influences Christs Resurrection had upon our raising 33 34 35. 1. It witnesseth Christs Conquest for us 33. 2. It quickens us 34. 3. It is a pledge to us of our rising to glory 35. 5 Christ hath raised his Elect by his Ascension 35 36. What influence that act of Christs had on our raising 35 36 37. 1. In going before hee provides a place for us 36. 2. He is by that our Way to the Father 36. 3. Hee is by that our Advocate with the Father 37 38. 4. In that ascending up on high hee gave gifts to men 38. Elect ones Naturally want three things 1 Life 2 Strength 3 Light 40 41. 1. Christ first calls the soule effectually in that work he usually 1 Convinceth the soule of its misery 2 Humbles it 3 Gives it hope This is the first meanes of Application of the purchased Redemption to the soule 41 42. 2. He justifies the soule What that is Three things God doth in justification 1. He pardons the soules sins 2. He imputes Christs Righteousnesse unto it 3. He accepts it 42 43. By these two acts the soule hath life given it ib. Weaknesse of the soule how helped by Christ 43. 1. Christ gives the soule new principles of Grace ib. 2. He gives the soule power to act those Principles ib. 3. How Christ will in his owne time raise up the soules of his Saints to a sight of their salvation 44. 4. Christ will at last fully raise them up by taking them to glory 44. Why Christ undertook the work of our Redemption 46 47. The moving cause was his own grace The finall cause his owne glory 46 47. The Application of the Doctrine variously à 47. ad 83. 1. Use For Humiliation 47 48. For our sins and that from hence upon a double ground 1. To consider that our sins put Christ to death 48 49. 2. That by any renewing sinnes we should againe crucifie the Lord of life 47 48 49 50 51 52. 2. Use For Instruction in foure Branches 1. Br. How much hath Christ loved us 53. 2. Br. Christ is a compleat Saviour he hath left us nothing to doe but to beleeve all is done 55. 3. Br. Christ is highly needfull to every poore soule 55 56. 4. Br. All the Elect and Redeemed ones are highly indebted to Christ 56 57. 3 Use For Triall whether wee bee yet raised or no. 57. 58. 2 Notes of Triall ib. 1. N. If we be raised it is by Christs act 57 58. 2. N. It is in Christs Method of Application 59. What that is ibid. 4. Use Of Exhortation 1. To Naturall men 2. To Saints 61 62 63 c. 1. Let poore undone creatures look for a portion in Christ 61 62 63. Men are not so sensible of soule-diseases as of bodily sicknesses 62. 4. Directions for such poor creatures 62 63 64. 1. How they may speak with Christ ib. 2. What his Fee is ibid. The condition is Bring nothing ib. 3. How they must use his Balme 64. 4. VVhat rules of Dyet must be observed after taking it 66. The second part of the Exhortation turn'd to Beleevers 67. Saints exhorted to thank fulnesse 67 68. From the consideration 1. Of the person of their Redeemer in three particulars 68 69. 2. Of the act and manner of their Redemption in three things 69 70. 3. Of the Object of this act opened in five particulars 71 72 73. He hath done it that was 1. Infinitely above thee 2. In no need of thee 3. The offended Creator He raised thee 1. Out of a low condition 2. To a glorious condition 3. By his own falling He raised Thee 1. Not others Angels Great persons 2. That wert as low as others Thee 3. That wert his enemy 4. That never ask'd it before it was done 5. That hast still rebellion in thee p. 68 69 70 71 72 73. Particular exhortations to believers to the performance of severall duties All which are inforced from Christs severall acts of grace in raising us 74 75 76 77 78 c. 1. Value nothing in an equall ballance with Christ 74. 2. Vow your selves to God and keep your vowes 76. 3. Beleevers as Christ hath taken upon him their nature should likewise strive to be made partakers of his Nature 76. 4. From Christs death they should learne to die to sin 77. 5. From Christs resurrection they should learn to rise to newnesse of life 77 78. 6. From Christs ascension Beleevers should learne to ascend by setting their affections on heavenly things 78. 7. Let Christ be in you the hopes of glory ibid. 5. Vse This doctrine affords consolation for believers 1. Against their outward poverty 79. 2. Against their feares because of their many and great sins 80. 3. Against their daily back slidings ib. 4. Against their present sadnes ib. 5. Against their feares of falling away 80 81. Belevers from hence may be comforted with hope 1. Concerning such of their frends as are no◠yet raised 81. 2. Concerning such as are full of terror and sadnes 81. 82. A Branch of instruction added that was forgotten in its order viz. How much Christ deserves our cleaving 〈◊〉 him in saddest conditions 82 83. An Index of the severall contents of the third part Doct. 3. The