though God remain faithful and true but the New Covenant of Grace makes all sure on all hands and cannot be broken the Lord not only keeping His own part but likewise performing ours in us and for us and establishing us that He departs not from us first so we shall not depart from Him I will betroth thee to me sayes he there for ever 't is an indissoluble Marriage that is not in danger to be broke either by Divorce or Death My People There is a treasure of Instruction and comfort wrapt up in that word not only more than the profane world can imagine for they indeed know nothing at all of it but more than they that are of that number are able to conceive of a deep unsoundible My People They his portion and He theirs He accounts nothing of all the World beside them and they of nothing at all beside Him For them He continues the World Many and great are the priviledges of his people contain'd in that great Charter the Holy Scriptures and rich is that Land where their Inheritance lies but all is in this reciprocal that he is their God All his power and Wisdom is engag'd for their good how great and many soever are their enemies they may well oppose this to all he is their God they are sure to be protected and prosper'd and in end to have full victory Happy then is that People whose God is the Lord. Which had not obtained Mercy The Mercies of the Lord to his Chosen are from everlasting yet so long as His Decree of mercy runs hid and is not discover'd to them in the effects of it they are said not to have receiv'd or obtain'd mercy and when it begins to act and work in their effectual calling then they find it to be theirs it was in a secret way moving forward towards them before as the Sun after Midnight is still coming nearer to us though we perceive not its approach till the dawning of the Day Mercy The former word teaches us how great the change is that is wrought by the Calling of God this teaches us how free it is the People of God that 's the good attained in the change obtain'd Mercy that 's the Spring whence it flowes 't is implied indeed in the words of the change of no People such as have no right to such a Dignity at all nor in themselves no disposition for it to be made His people can be by no other but free grace such mercy as supposes nothing nor seeks nothing but misery in us and works upon that As it is express'd to have been very free to this people of the Jews in chusing them before the rest of the World Deut. 17. So 't is to the Spiritual Israel of God and to every one particularly belonging to that company Why is it that he chused me of a Family and leaves another But because it pleaseth him he blots out their transgressions for his own Name sake And 2. as 't is free mercy 't is Tender mercy the word in the Prophet signifies tenderness or bowels of compassion and such are the mercies of our God towards us Ier. 31.20 The bowels of a Father Psal. 103.13 and if you think not that tenderness enough those of a Mother yea more than a Mother Isa. 49.15 3. 'T is Rich mercy delights to glorifie it self in the greatest misery Pardons as easily the greatest as the smallest of Debts 4. A constant unalterable Mercy a stream still running Now in both these the Apostle drawes the eyes of Believers to reflect on their former misery and view it together with their present Estate This is very frequent in the Scirptures Ezek. 16. Eph. 2. 1 Cor. 6.11 c. And it is of very great use works the soul of a Christian to much Humility and Love and Thankfulness and Obedience It cannot chuse but force him to abase himself and magnifie the free Grace and Love of God and this may be one reason why it pleaseth the Lord to suspend the Conversion of many for many years of their life yea to suffer some of them to stain those years with grievous and gross sins that the riches and glory of his Grace and the freeness of his choyce may be the more legible both to themselves and others Likewise those apprehensions of Wrath due to sin and sights of Hell as it were that He brings some unto either at or after their Conversion make for this same end That glorious Description of the New Ierusalem Revel 21.16 is abundantly delighful in it self and yet the firy Lake spoke of their makes all that 's spoke of the other sound much the Sweeter But universally all the Godly have this to consider that they were Strangers and Enemies to God and think whence was it that I a lump of the same polluted clay with those that perish should be taken and purified and moulded by the Lords own hand for a Vessel of Glory There is nothing here but free mercy makes the difference and where can there be Love and Praises and service found to answer this all is to be ascribed to the Mercy Gifts and calling of Christ and His Ministers as St. Paul 2 Cor. 4.1 But alas we neither enjoy the comfort of this Mercy as obtain'd nor are griev'd for wanting it and stirr'd up to seek after it as not yet obtain'd What do we think Seems it a small thing in your eyes to be shut out from the presence of God and bear the weight of His wrath for ever that you thus slight this Mercy and let it pass by you unregarded or will that an imagin'd obtaining divert you from the real pursuit of it Will you be willingly deceiv'd And be your own deceivers in a matter of so great importance You cannot think too highly of the riches of Divine mercy 't is above all your thoughts but remember and consider this that thereis a peculiar people of His own to whom alone all the riches of it do belong And therefore how great soever it is unless you find your selves of that number you cannot lay claim to the smallest share of it And you are not ignorant what is their character what a kind of people they are that have such a knowledge of God as himselfe gives they are all taught of God enlightned and sanctified by his spirit a holy People as he is a holy God such as have the riches of that His grace by which they are saved in most precious esteem and their hearts by it enflamed with his love and therefore their thoughts taken up with nothing so much as studying how they may obey and honour Him rather chusing to displease all the world than offend him and accounting nothing too dear yea nothing good enough to doe him service if it be thus with you then you have indeed obtain'd mercy But if you be such as can wallow in the same pudle with the profane world and take a share of their
word is a Lamp unto my feet says David and a Light unto my paths not onely comfortable as Light is to the eyes but withall directive as a Lamp to his feet Thus here the Apostle doth not onely furnish consolation against distress but Exhorts and directs his Brethen in the way of Holiness without which the apprehension and feeling of those comforts cannot subsist This is no other but a clearer and fuller expression and further pressing of that sobriety and spiritualness of mind and life that he joyntly exhorted unto with that of perfect hope ver 13. as in separably connext with it if you would enjoy this Hope be not conform to the lust of your former ignorance but be holy There is no doctrine in the world either so pleasant or so pure as that of Christianity 'T is matchless both in sweetness and holiness The Faith and Hope of a Christa in have in them an abiding precious balm of comfort but this is never to be so lavish'd away as to be poured into the puddle of an impure Conscience No that were to lose it unworthily As many as have this hope purify themselves even as he is pure 1. Ioh. 3 3. Here they are commanded to be holy as he is holy Acts. 15. Faith first purifies the heart Empties it of the love of sin and then fills it with the Consolation of Christ and hope of Glory 'T is a foolish misgrounded fear and such as argues inexperience of the nature and workings of divine Grace to imagine that the assured hope of salvation will beget unholiness and presumptuous boldness in sin and therefore that the doctrine of that assurance is a doctrine of Licentiousness Our Apostle we see is not so sharp sighted as these men think themseves he apprehends no such matter but indeed supposes the contrary as unquestionable he takes not assured hope and holiness as Enemies but joynes them as nearest friends hope perfectly and be holy They are mutually strengthened and increas'd each by the other the more assurance of salvation the more holiness the more delight in it and study of it as the onely way to that End and as labour is then most pleasant when we are made surest it shall not be lost nothing doth make the soul so nimble and actitve in obedience as this oyle of gladness this assured hope of glory Again the more holiness is in the soul the clearer always is tâ—is assurance as we see the face of the heavens best when there are fewest clouds· The greatest affliction doth not damp this hope so much as the smallest sin yea it may be the more lively and sensible to the soul by affliction but by sin it always suffers loss as the Experience of all Christians does certainly teach them The Apostle exhorts to Obedience and enforceth it by a most persuasive Reason His exhortation is 1. Negative not fashioning your selves 2. Positive Be ye holy That which he would remove and separate them from is Lusts This is in Scripture the usuall name of all the irregular and sinfull desires of the heart both the polluted habits of them and their corrupt streams both as they are within and outwardly vent themselves in the Lives of Men. The Apostle St. Iohn 1 Ioh. 2 17. calls it the Lust of the world and Verse 15. love of the world And then Verse 16. Branches it into those three that are indeed the base Anti-trinity that the world worships the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of Life The soul of Man unconverted is no other but a den of impure Lusts wherein dwells pride Uncleanness Avarice Malice c just as Babylon is described Revelation 18.2 or as Isa. 13.21 Were a Man's eyes opened he would as much abhorre to remaine with himself in that condition as to dwell in a house full of Snakes and Serpents as S. Austin says and the first part of conversion is once to rid the soul of these noysome Inhabitants for there is none at all found naturally vacant and frâ—e from them thus the Apostle here expresses it of the believers he wrote to that these lusts were theirs before in their Ignorance There is a truth in it that all sin arises from some kind of Ignorance or at least from present Inadvertâ—nce and Inconsideration turning away the mind from the light which therefore for the time is as if it were not and is all one with Ignorance in the â—ffect and therefore the works of sin are all called works of darkness for were the true visage of sin seen at a full light undress'd and unpainted it were impossiable while it so appear'd that any one soul could be in love with it but would rather flye it as hideous and abominable but because the soul unrenewed is all darkness therefore it is all lust and love of sin no order in it because no light as at the first in the world confusion and darkness went together and darkness was upon the face of the deep 't is so in the soul the more Ignorance the more abundance of Lusts. That light that frees the soul and rescues it from the very kingdome of darkness must be somewhat beyond that which nature can attaine to all the light of Philosophy naturall and morall is not sufficient yea the very knowledge of the Law sever'd from Christ serves not so to enlighten and renew the soul as to free it from the darkness or Ignorance here spoke of for our Apostle writes to Jews that knew the Law and were instructed in it before their conversion yet he calls those times wherein Christ was unknown to them the times of their Ignorance though the stars shine never so bright and the moon with them in its full yet they do not all together make it day still 't is night till the sun appear Therefore the Hebrew doctors upon that word of Solomons Vanity of vanities all is vanity say vana etiam Lex doneâ— venerit Messias Therefore of him Zacharias sayes that the day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace A naturall Man may attaine to very much acquir'd knowledge of the doctine of Christ and may discourse excellently of it and yet still his soul be in the chains of darkness fast lockt up under the Ignorance here mention'd and so still of a carnal mind in subjection to these lusts of Ignorance The saving light of faith is a beam of the sun of Righteousness himself that he sends into the soul by which he makes it discern his incomparable beauties and by that sight alienates it from all those lusts and desires that do then appear to be what indeed they are vileness and filthiness it self makes the soul wonder at it self how it could love such base trash so long and so fully resolves it now on the choyce of Jesus Christ the cheif
gave beginning to the world and to time with it made all to set forth his goodness and the most excellent of his Creatures to contemplate and enjoy it But amongst all the works that he intended before time and in time effected this is the master piece that is here said to be forâ—ordained the manifesting of God in the flesh for mans Redemption and that by his son Jesus Chirst as the first born amonst many brethren That those appointed for salvation should be rescued from the common misery and be made one mysticall body whereof Christ is the head and so entitled to that Everlasting glory and happiness that he hath purchas'd for them This I say is the great work wherein all those glorious attributes shine joyntly the Wisdom and Power and Goodness and Justice and Mercy of God as in great Maps or Pictures you will see the border decor'd with Meadows and fountains and flowers c. Represented in it but in the middle you have the main designe thus is this fore-ordained Redemption amongst the works of God all his other works in the world all the beauty of the Creatures and the succession of Ages and things that come to pass in them are but as the border to this as the main piece But as a foolish unskillfull beholder not discerning the excellency of the principall piece in such Maps or Pictures gazes onely on the fair border and goes no futher thus do the greatest part of us our eyes are taken with the goodly show of the world and appearnce of earthly things but this great work of God Christ foreordained in time sent for our Redemption though it most deserves our attentive regard yet we do not view and consider it as we ought Was manifested in those last times for you This is the performance of that purpose he was manifested both by his Incarnation according to that word of the Apostle St. Paul Manifested in the flesh c. manifested by his marvellous Works and Doctrine and by his Sufferings and Death and Resurrection and Ascension by the sending down of the Holy Ghost according to his promise and by the preaching of the Gospel in the fulness of time that God had appointed wherein all the prophecies that foretold his comeing and all the Types and Ceremonies that prefigur'd him had their accomplishment The times of the Gospell are called the last times often by the Prophets for that the Jewish Priesthood and Ceremonies being abolished that which succeeded was appointed by God to remain the same to the End of the world besides this the time of our Saviours Incarnation may be called the last tiemes because although it were not near the End of time by many ages yet in all probability it is much nearer the end of time then the beginning of it some resemble the time of his sufferings in the end of the world to the paschal Lamb in the Evening It was doubtless the 〈◊〉 time but not withstanding the Schoolmen offer at reasons to prove the fitness of it as their humour is to prove all things None dare I think conclude but if God had so appointed it might have been either sooner or later and our safest is to rest in that that it was the fit time because so it pleased him and to seek no other Reason why having promis'd the Messiah so quickly after Man's fall he deferr'd his coming about Four Thousand years and a great part of that time shut up the knowledge of himself and the true Religion within the narrow compass of that one nation of which Christ was to be born Of these and such like things we can give no other reason but that which he teacheth us in a like case even so Father because it seemeth good unto thee For you The Apostle represents these things to those he writes to particularly for their use therefore he applies it to them but without prejudice of the Believers that went before or of those that were to follow in after ages He that is here said to be foreappointed before the foundation of the world is therefore called a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And as the vertue of his death looks backward to all preceeding ages whose Faith and Sacrifices look'd forward to it so the same death is of force and perpetuall value to the End of the world after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever says the Apostle to the Hebâ— He sate down on the right hand of God for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified The Crosse on which he was extended points in the length of it to Heaven and Earth reconciling them together and in the breadth of it to former and following ages as being equally salvation to both If this appropriating and peculiar interest in Jesus Christ is not happiness without which it availes not that he was ordained from Eternity and in Time manifested 't is not the Generall contemplation but the peculiar possession of Christ that gives both solid Comfort and strong persuasion to Obedience and Holyness which is here the Apostle's particular scâ—â—e Verse 21. Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your Faith and hope might be in God NOW because 't is Faith that gives the soul this particular title to Jesus Christ the Apostle addes that to declare who he meant by You sayes he who by him do believe in God c. Where we have 1. The compleat Object of Faith 2. The Ground or Warrant of it The object God in Christ. The Ground or warrant In that he raised him up from the dead and gave him glory A Man may have living out of Christ yea he must he cannot chuse but have a conviction within him that there is a God and further he may have even out of Christ some kind of belief of those things that are spoken concerning God but to repose on God as his God and his Salvation which is indeed to believe in him this cannot be but where Christ is the mids through which we look upon God for so long as we look upon God through our own Guiltiness we can see nothing but his wrath and apprehend him as an armed enemy and be so far off from resting on him as our happiness that the more we view it it puts us upon the more speed to fly from him and to cry out Who can dwell with Everlasting burnings and abide with a consuming fire But our Saviour taking sin out of the way put himself betwixt our sins and God and so makes a wonderfull change of our apprehension of him When you look through a red glass the whole Heavens seem bloody But through pure uncoâ—our'd glass you receive the clear light that is so refreshing and comfortable to behold When Sin unpardoned is betwixt and we look on God through that we can perceive nothing but Anger and Enmity in his Countenance But
make Christ once the Medium our pure Redeemer and through him as clear transparent Glass the beams of Gods favourable Countenance shine in upon the soul the Father cannot look upon his wellbeloved son but graciously and pleasingly God lookes on us out of Christ sees us rebels and fit to be condemn'd we look on God as being just and powerfull to punish us but when Christ is betwixt God looks on us in him as justified and we look on God in him as pacified and see the smiles of his favourable countenance Take Christ out all is terrible interpose him all is full of peace Therefore set him always betwixt and by him we shall believe in God The warrant and ground of believing in God by him is this that God rais'd him from the dead and gave him glory which evidences the full satisfaction of his death and in all that work both in his humiliation and exaltation standing in our room we may repute it his as ours if all is payed that could be exacted of him and therefore he set free from death then are wee acquitted and have nothing to pay If he was rais'd from the dead and exalted to glory then so shall we he hath taken possession of that glory for us and we may judge our selves possessed in it already because he our head possesseth it And this the last words of the Verse confirm to us in meaning this to be the very purpose and end for which God having given him to death raised him up and gave him glory it s for this end expressly that our faith and hope might be in God The last end is that we may have life and glory through him the nearer end that in the mean while till we attain them we may have firme belief and hope of them and rest on God as the giver of them and so in part enjoy them before hand and be upheld in our joy and conflicts by the comfort of them and as St. Steven in his vision faith doth in a spirituall way look through all the visible heavens and see Christ at the Fathers right hand and is comforted by that in the greatest troubles though it were amidst a showre of stones as he The comfort is no less than this that being by faith made one with Christ his present glory wherein he â—its at the Fathers right hand is assurance to us that where he is we shall be also Verse 22. Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned Love of the brethren see that ye Love one another with a pure heart fervently JEsus Christ is made unto us of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 'T is a known truth and yet very needful to be often represented to us that Redemption and holiness are undivided Companions yea that we are redeem'd on purpose for this End that we should be Holy The pressing of this we see is here the Apostles scope and having by that reason enforc'd it in the general he now takes that as concluded and confess'd and so makes use of it particularly to exhort that main Christian Grace of brotherly love The Obedience and holiness mention'd in the foregoing Verses comprehends the whole duties and and frame of a Christian life towards God and Men and having urg'd that in the general he specifies this Grace of mutual Christian Love as the great Evidence of their sincerity and the truth of their Love to God for Men are subject to much hypocrisie this way and deceive themselves if they find themselves diligent in religious Exercises they scarce once ask their hearts how they stand affected this way Namely in love to their Brethren They can come constantly to the Church and pray it may be at home too and yet cannot find in their hearts to forgive an Injury As forgiving Injuries argues the truth of Piety so 't is that which makes all converse both sweet and profitable and besides it Graces and commends Men and their holy profession to such as are without and strangers to it yea even to their Enemies Therefore is it that our Saviour doth so much recommend this to his Disciples and they to others as we see in all their Epistles He gives it them as the very badge and Livery by which they should be known for his followers by this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye Love one another And St. Paul is frequent in exhorting and extolling this Grace Rom. 12.10 13.8 1 Cor. 1.13 Gal. 5.13 Eph. 4.2 and in many other places Colloss 3.14 he calls it the bond of perfectness that Grace which unites and binds all together Our Apostle here and often in this and the other Epistle and that beloved Disciple St. Iohn who leaned on our Saviours brest drunk deep of that spring of Love that was here and therefore it streams forth so abundantly in his writings they contain nothing so much as this divine Doctrine of Love We have here 1. The due Qualifications of it· 2. A Christians Obligation to it The Qualifications are three Namely sincerity purity and fervency The sincerity express'd in the former clause of the Verse unfeigned Love and repeated again in the latter part that it be with a pure heart as the purity is in fervency It appears that this dissimulation is a disease that is very incident in this particular The Apostle St. Paul hath the same word Rom. 12.9 And the the Apostle St. Iohn to the same sense 1 Ioh. 3.18 That it have that double reality which is opposed to double dissembled love that it be Cordial and Effectual that the professing of it arise from truth of affection and as much as may be be seconded with action that both the heart and the hand may be more the seal of it than the tongue Not Court-holy water an empty noise of Service and affection that fears nothing more than to be put upon tryal Although thy Brother with whom thou conversest cannot it may be see through thy false appearances he that commands this Love looks most within seeks it there and if he find it not there hates them most that most pretend it so that art of dissembling never so well studied cannot pass in this Kings Court to whom all hearts are open and all desires known When after Variances Men are brought to an agreement they are much subject to this rather to cover their remaining malices with superficial verbal forgiveness than to dislodge them and free the heart of them this is a poor self deceit as the Philosopher said to him that being ashamed that he was espyed by him in a Tavern in the outer Room withdrew himself to the inner he called after him that 's not the way out the more you go that way you will be the further within it When hatreds upon admonition are not thrown out but retire inward to hide themselves they grow deeper and stronger than before and those
apparrel'd than it but partaker of its frail and fading nature hath no priviledge nor immunity that way yea of the two the less durable and usually shorter liv'd at the best it decayes with it the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away How easily and quickly hath the highest splendor of a Mans prosperity been blasted either by Mens power or the immediate hand of God The spirit of the Lord blowes upon it as Esay there sayes and by that not only withers the grass but the flower fades though never so fair When thou correctest Man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume like a moth Psal. 39.11 How many have the casualties of fire or war or shipwrack in one day or night or a small part of either turn'd out of great riches into extream poverty And the Instances are not few of those that have on a sudden fallen from the top of honour into the fowlest disgraces not by degrees comeing down the stair they went up but tumbled down headlong And the most vigorous beauty and strength of body how doth a few dayes sickness or if it scape that a few years time blast that flower yea those higher advantages that have somewhat both of truer and more lasting beauty in them the Endowments of witt and Learning and Eloquence yea and of morall Goodness and vertue yet they cannot rise above this word they are still in all their glory but the flower of grass their Root is in the â—earth Natural ornaments are of some use in this present life but they reach no further When Men have wasted their strength and endur'd the toyl of study night and day ' it s but a small parcell of knowledge they can attain to and are forc'd to ly down in the dust in the midst of their pursuit of it that head that lodges most sciences shall within a while be diffurnish'd of them all and the tongue that speaks most languages silenc'd The great projects of Kings and Princes and they also themselves come under this same notion all the vast designes that are framing in their heads fall to the ground in a moment they returne to their dust and in that day all their thoughts perish Archimedes was killed in the midst of his demonstration If they themselves did consider this in the heat of their affairs it would much allay the swelling and loftiness of their minds and if these that live upon their favour would consider it they would not value it at so high a rate and buy it so dear as often they doe Men of low degree are vanity sayes the Psalmist but he adds Men of high degree are a lie from base mean persons we expect nothing but the estate of great persons promises fair and often keeps not therefore a lie although they can least endure that word They are in respect of mean persons as the flower to the grass somewhat a fairer lustre they have but no more endurance nor exemption from decaying thus then it is an universall and undenyable truth It begins here with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is as sure a Conclusion as the surest of these in their best Demonstrations which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as particular Men so whole States and Kingdomes are thus they have their budding and flourishing and withering and it is in both as with flowers when they are fullest spread then they are near their declining and withering and thus it is with all whole Generations of Men upon Earth as Solomon sayes One goeth and another cometh but not a word of abiding at all We in our thoughts shut up death into a very narrow compass namely â—n the moment of our expiring but the truth is as the Moralist observes it goes through all our life for we are still losing and spending it as we enjoy it yea our very enjoying it is the spending it yesterdayes life is dead to day and so shall this day's life be to morrow We spend our years sayes Moses as a tale or as a thought so swift and evanishing is it Each word helps a tale towards its end and then in that the vanity when ' its done it evanishes as a sound in the air What 's become of all the pompous solemnities of Kings and Princes at their births and Marriages and Coronations and Triumphs they are now as a dream Act. 25.23 Hence learn the folly and pride of Man that can glory and please himself in the frail and wretched being he hath here that dotes on this poor natural life and cannot be persuaded to think on one higher and more abiding Although the course of times and his daily Experience tells him this truth that all flesh is grass yea the Prophet prefixes to these words a command of Crying they must be shouted aloud in our ears ere we will hear them and by that time the sound of the cry is done we have forgot it again Would we consider this in the midst of those vanities that tosse our light minds too and fro it would give us wiser thoughts and balast our hearts make them more solid and stedfast in those spirituall endeavours which concerne a durable condition a being that abides for ever in comparison of which the longest term of naturall life is less than a moment and the happiest estate of it but a heap of miseries Were all of us more constantly prosperous than any of us is yet that one thing were enough to cry down the price we put upon this life that it continues not As he answered to one that had a mind to flatter him in the midst of a pompuous triumph by saying what is wanting here continuance said he 'T was wisely said at any time but most of all to have so sober a thought in such a solemnity in which weak heads cannot escape either to be wholly drunk or somewhat giddy at least Sure we forget this when we grow vain upon any humane glory or advantage the colour of it pleases us and we forget that it is but a flower and foolishly overesteem it this is that madness upon flowers that is somewhere in request where they will give as much for one flower as would buy a good dwelling house Is it not a most foolish bargain to bestow continuall pains and diligence upon purchasing of great possessions or honours if we believe this that the best of them is no other but a short liv'd flower and neglect the purchase of those glorious mansioâ—s of Eternity a garland of such flowers as wither not an unfading crown that everlasting life and those Everlasting pleasures that are at the right hand of God Now that life which shall never end must begin here it is the new spirituall life whereof the word of God is the immortall seed and in opposition to corruptible seed and the corruptible life of flesh it is here said to endure for ever And for this end is the frailty of naturall life mention'd that our
which is able to save our souls Thus ought they that Preach to speak it to endeavour their utmost to accommodate it to this end that sinners may be converted begotten again and believers nourish'd and strengthned in their spiritual life to regard no lower end but aim steddily at that mark Their hearts and tongues ought to be set on fire with holy zeal for God and love to souls kindled by the Holy Ghost that came down on the Apostles in the shape of fiery tongues And they that hear should remember this as the end of their hearing that they may receive spiritual life and strength by the word for though it seems a poor despicable busines that a frail sinful Man like your selves speak a few words in your hearing yet look upon it as the way wherein God communicates happiness to them that believe and works that believing unto happiness alters the whole frame of the soul and makes a new creation as it begets it again to the Inheritance of glory Consider it thus which is its true notion and then what can be so precious Let the world disesteem it as they will know ye that it is the power of God unto salvation The Preaching of the cross is to them that perish foollishness but unto them that are saved it is the power of God sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.18 And if you would have the experience of this if you would have life and growth by it you must look above the poor worthless Messenger and call in his almighty help who is the Lord of life As the Philosophers affirm that if the Heavens should stand still there would be no generation nor flourishing of any thing here below 't is the moving and influence of the spirit that makes the Church fruitful Would you do this before you come here present the blindness of your minds and the deadness of your hearts to God and say Lord here 's an opportunity for thee to shew the power of thy word I would find life and strength in it but neither can I that hear nor he that speaks make it thus unto me that 's thy prerogative say thou the word and it shall be done God said let there be light and it was light In this Exhortation to the due use of the word the Apostle continues the resemblance of that new birth he mention'd Chap. 1. As new born babes Be not satisfied with your selves till you find some evidence of this new this supernatural life There be delights and comforts in this life in its lowest condition that would perswade us to look after it if we knew them The most cannot be made sensible of those consider therefore the end of it Better never to have been than not to have been partaker of this new being Except a man be born again sayes our Saviour he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Surely they that are not born again shall one day wish they had never been born What a poor wretched thing is the life that we have here a very heap of follies and miseries now if we would share in a happier being after it that life that ends not it must begin here grace and glory is one and the same Life only with this difference that the one is the beginning and the other the perfection of it or if we do call them two several lives yet the one is the undoubted pledge of the other 'T was a strange word for a Heathen to say that that day of death we fear so aeterninatalis est is the birth day of Eternity Thus it is indeed to those that are here born again this new birth of grace is the sure earnest and counter-pawn of that birth day of glory Why do we not then labour to make this certain by the former Is it not a fearful thing to spend our dayes in vanity and then ly down in darkness and sorrow for ever to disregard the life of our soul while we may and should be provident for it and then when its going out cry quo nunc abibis whither art thou going O my soul But this new life puts us out of the danger and fear of that Eternal death we are passed from death to life sayes St. Iohn speaking of those that are born again and being passed there is no repassing no going back from this life to death again This new birth is the same that St. Iohn calls the first Resurrection and pronounces them blessed that partake of it Blessed are they that have part in the first Resurrection the second death shall have no power over them The weak beginnings of grace in comparison of further strength attainable even in this life are sometimes express'd as the infancy of it and so believers ought not to continue Infants and if they do 't is reprovable in them as we see Eph. 4.14 1 Cor. 2.2 1 Cor. 14.20 Heb. 5.12 though the Apostle writes to new Converts and so may possibly imply the tenderness of their beginnings of grace yet I conceive that Infancy is here taken in such a sense as agrees to a Christian in the whole course and best estate of his Spiritual life here below and so likewise the milk here recommended is answerable to this sense of Infancy and not to the former as 't is in some of those cited places where it means the easiest and first Principles of Religion and so is oppos'd to the higher mysteries of it as to strong meat but here it signfies the whole word of God and all its wholesome and saving truths as the proper nourishment of the Children of God And so the Apostles words are a standing Exhortation for all Christians of all degrees And the whole estate and course of their Spiritual life here is called there Infancy not only as oppos'd to Corruption and wickedness of the old man but likewise as signifying the weakness and imperfection of it at its best in this life compar'd with the perfection of the life to come for the weakest beginnings of grace are nothing so far below the highest degree of it possible in this life as that highest degree falls short of the state of glory so that if one measure of grace is called Infancy in respect of another much more is all grace Infancy in respect of Glory And sure as for Time the time of our present life is far less to eternity than the time of our natural Infancy is to the rest of our life so that we may be still call'd but new or lately born Our best pace and strongest walking in obedience here is but as the stepping of Children when they begin to go by hold in comparison of the perfect obedience in glory when we shall follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes all our knowledge here is but the Ignorance of Infants and all our expressions of God and of his Praises but as the first stammerings of Children in comparison of the knowledge we shall have of him hereafter
life is and wherein the nature of it consists we may easily know what is the growth of it when holiness increases the sanctifying graces of the Spirit grow stronger in the soul and consequently act more strongly in the life of a Christian then he growes Spiritually And as the word is the means of begetting this Spiritual life so likewise of its increase 1. If we consider the nature of the Word in general that it is Spiritual and Divine treats of the highest things and therefore hath in it a fitness to elevate Mens minds from the Earth being often conversant with it to assimilate them to it self as all kind of Doctrine readily doth to these that are much in it and apply their minds to study it Doubtless such kind of things as are frequent with Men have an influence into the disposition of their souls The Gospel is called Light and the Children of God are likewise called Light as being transform'd into its nature and thus they are still the more by more hearing of it and so they grow If we look more particularly unto the strain and tenour of the Word it is most fit for increasing the graces of the Spirit in a Christian for there be in it particular truths relative to them that are apt to excite them and set them on work and so to make them grow as all habits do by acting it doth as the Apostles word may be translated stir up the sparks and blow them into a greater flame makes them burn clearer and hotter That it doth both by particular Exhortation to the study and Exercise of those graces sometimes pressing one and sometimes another and by right representing to them their objects The Word feeds faith by setting before it the free grace of God his Rich Promises and his Power and truth to perform them all shews it the strength of the New Covenants not depending upon it but holding in Christ in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen and drawing faith still to rest more intirely upon his Righteousness It feeds Repentance by making the vileness and deformity of sin daily more clear and visible still as more of the Word hath admission into the Soul the more it hates sin being the more discovered and the better known in its own native colour As the more light is in a House the more any thing in it that is uncleanly or deformed is seen and dislik'd Likewise it increaseth love to God by opening up still more and more of his infinite Excellency and lovelyness and as it borrowes the resemblance of the vilest things in nature to express the foulness and hatefulness of sin so all the beauties and dignities that are in all the creatures are call'd together in the Word to give us some small scantling of that uncreated beauty that alone deserves to be loved Thus might it be instanc'd in all other graces But above all other Considerations this is in the Word observable as the increaser of grace in that it holds forth Jesus Christ to our vieu to look upon not only as the perfect pattern but as the full fountain of all grace from whose fulness we all receive the contemplating of him as the perfect Image of God and then drawing from him as having in himself a treasure for us these give the soul more of that Image which is truly Spiritual growth This the Apostle expresseth excellently 2 Cor. 3. ult speaking of the Ministry of the Gospel revealing Christ that beholding in him as 't is Chap. 4. Vers. 6. In his face the glory of the Lord we are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. Not only that we may take the Copy of his Graces but have a share of them There be many things might be said of this spirituall growth but I will add only a few 1. In the judging of this growth some conluding too rigidly against themselves that they grow not by the word because it is not sensible to them as they desire But 1. this is known in all things that grow that 't is not discerned in motu sed in termino not in the growing but when they are grown 2. Besides other things are to be considered in this although other graces seem not to advance yet if thou growest more self-denying and humble in the sense of thy slowness all is not lost although the branches shut not up so fast as thou wishest yet if the root grow deeper and fasten more it s an usefull growth he that is still learning to be more in Jesus Christ and less in himself to have all his dependance and comfort in him is doubtless a growing believer On the other side a far greater number conclude wrong in their own favour imagining that they do grow if they gain in some of those things we mention'd above namely if more knowledge and more faculty of discoursing if they find often some present stirrings of joy or sorrow in hearing of the word if they reform their life grow more civil and blameless c. Yet all these and many such things may be in a naturall Man who notwithstanding grows not for that 's impossible he is not in that estate a subject capable of this growth for he is dead he hath none of this new life to which this growth relates Herod heard gladly and obey'd many things Consider then what true delight we might have in this You find a pleasure when you see your Children grow when they begin to stand and walk c. You love well to perceive your estate or your honour grow but the soul to be growing liker God and nearer heaven if we know it is a pleasure far beyond them all to find pride and Earthliness and vanity abating and faith and love and spirituall mindedness increasing especially if we think whither this growth be not as our naturall life that is often cutt off before it attain full age as we call it and if it attain that falls again to move downwards and decays as the Sun being at its Meridian begins to decline again But this life shall grow on-in whomsoever it is and come certainly to its fullness after which there is no more need of this word either for growth or nourishment no death no decay no old age but perpetuall youth and a perpetuall spring ver aeternum fulness of joy in the presence of God and everlasting pleasures at his right hand Verse 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is Gracious OUR Naturall desire of food arises principally from its necessity for that end which nature seeks the growth or at least the nourishment of our bodies but besides there is a present sweetness and pleasingness in the use of it that serves to sharpen our desire and is plac'd in nature for that purpose thus the Children of God in their spiritual life are naturally carried to desire the means of their nourishment and of their growth
being alwayes here in a growing estate but withall there is a spiritual delight and sweetness in that word in that which it reveals concerning God and that addes to their desire stirres their appetite towards it the former is in the foregoing verse the latter in this Nature addresses the infant to the breast but when it hath once tasted of it that is a new superadded attractive and makes it desire after that the more earnestly So here The word is fully recommended to us by these two usefulness and pleasantness so like milk as 't is compar'd here which is a nourishing food and withall sweet and delightfull to the taste by it we grow and in it we taste the graciousness of God David in that Psalm that he dedicates wholly to this subject gives both these as the reason of his appetite his love to it he expresses patheticaly Psa. 119. Ver. 97. O how love I thy law and then he addes that by it he was made wiser than his enemies than his teachers And than the ancients taught to refraine from every evil way taught by the Author of that word the Lord himself thou hast taught me to grow wiser and wâ—â—ier and holier in thy wayes and then Ver. 103. He addes this other reason How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than the hony and the hony Comb. We shall speak 1. Of the goodness or graciousness of the Lord. 2. Of this taste And 3. Of the Inference from both 1. Gracious Or of a bountifull kind disposition the word Psa. 34. Whence this is taken is Tob. And which signifieth good The Sept there render it by the word used here by our Apostle both the words signifie a benignity and kindness of nature it is one of loves attributes 1 Cor. 13. It is kind ever compassionate and as it can be helpfull in straits and distresses still ready to forget and pass by evil and to do good and in the largest most comprehensive sense must we take it here and yet still speak and think infinitely below what his goodness is He is naturally good yea goodness in his nature he is goodness and love it self he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love 1 Io. 4.8 Primitively good all goodness is deriv'd from him and all that is in the Creature comes forth from no other but that Ocean and this graciousness is still larger then them all There is a common bounty of God wherein he doth good to all and so the whole earth is full of of his goodness But the goodness that the Gospel is full of the particular stream that runs in that channel is his peculiar graciousness and love to his own Children that by which they are first enliven'd and then refresh'd and sustain'd in their spiritual being This that is here spoken of gracious to them in freely forgiving their sins and giving no less than himself unto them frees them from all evils and fills them with all good Psa. 103.3.4.5 satisfies thy mouth and so it followes with good reason Ver. 8. that he is mercifull and gracious and his graciousness there further express'd in his gentleness and slowness to anger bearing with the frailties of his own and pitying them as a father pityeth his Children No friend so kind and friendly as this word signifies and none so powerfull a present help in trouble ready to be found whereas others may be far off he is alwayes at hand and his presence is alwayes comfortable They that know God still find him a real usefull good Some things and persons are usefull at one time and others at another but God at all times A well furnish'd table may please a Man while he hath health and appetite but offer it to him in the hight of a fever how unpleasant would it be then Though never so richly deck'd 't is not only then useless but hateful to him But the kindness and love of God is then as seasonable and refreshing to him as in health and possibly more he can find sweetness in that even on his sick bed The bitter Choler abounding in the mouth in a fever doth not disrelish his sweetness it transcends and goes above it Thus all Earthly enjoyments have but some time as meats when they are in season but the graciousness of God is always sweet the tast of that is never out of season See how old age spoyles the relish of outward delights in the example of Barzillai 2. Sam. 19.35 But it makes not this distastful therefore the Psalmist prayes that when other comforts forsake him and wear out ebb from him and leave him on the sand this may not That still he may feed on the goodness of God Psa. 71.9 Cast me not off in old age forsake me not when my strength faileth 'T is the continual influence of his graciousness makes them still grow like Cedars in Lebanon Psa. 92. To bring forth fruit in old age to be still fat and flourishing to shew that the Lord is upright as is there added that he is even as the word is still like himself and his goodness ever the same Full chests or large possessions may seem sweet to a Man till death present it self but then as the Prophet speaks of throwing away their idols of silver and gold to the Battes and Moles in the day of calamity then he is forc'd to throw all he possesses away with disdain of it and his former folly in doting on it then the kindness of friends and Wife and Children can do nothing but increase his grief and their own But then is the love of God the good indeed and abiding sweetness And it best relisheth when all other things are most unsavoury and uncomfortable God is gracious but ' its God in Christ otherwise we cannot find him so therefore here this is spoken particular of Jesus Christ as it appears by that which followeth through whom all the peculiar kindness and love of God is convey'd to the soul and can come no other way and the word here mention'd is the Gospel Chap. 1. Ver. ult whereof Christ is the subject Though God is Mercy and Goodness in himself yet we cannot find nor apprehend him so to us but only looking through that medium the Mediator That main point of the goodness of God in the Gospel that is so sweet to a humbled sinner the forgiveness of sins we know we cannot taste of but in Christ Ehp. 1.7 In whom we have Redemption And all the favour that shines on us all the grace we receive is of his fullness all our acceptance with God taking into grace and kindness again is in him Ver. 6. He made us accepted in the beloved His grace appears in both as t is there express'd but it is all in Christ. Let us therefore never leave him out in our desires of tasting the graciousness and love of God For otherwise we shall but dishonour him and disappoint our selves The free grace of
put upon him and by giving him up to be crucified and then cast into the grave and a stone to be roll'd upon this Stone which they had so rejected that it might appear no more and so thought themselves sure But even from thence did he arise and became the head of the corner The disciples themselves spake you know very doubtfully of their former hopes We believ'd this had been he that would have delivered Israel but he corrected their mistake first by his word shewing them the true method of that great work Ought not Christ to suffer first these things And so enter into glory and then really by making himself known to them risen from the dead When he was from these rejected and lay lowest then was he nearest his exaltation as Ioseph in the prison was nearest his preferment And thus is it with the Church of Christ when 't is brought to the lowest desperatest condition then is deliverance at hand it prospers and gains in the event by all the practices of Men against it And as this corner stone was fitted to be so by the very rejection even so is it with the whole bulidâ—ng it rises the higher the more Men seek to demolish it 3. Their unhappiness that believe not is express'd in the other word He is to them a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence because they will not be saved by him they shall stumble and fall and be broken to pieces on him as it is in Esay and in the Evangelists But how is this is he that came to save become a destroyer of Men he whose name is salvation proves he destruction to any Not he in himself his primary and proper use is the former to be a foundation for souls to build and rest upon but they that in stead of building upon him will stumble and fall on him what wonder being so firm a stone though they be broken by their fall thus we see the mischief of unbelief that as other sins disable the Law it disables the very Gospel to save us and turns life it self into death to us And this is the misery not of a few but of many in Israel many that hear of Christ by the preaching of the Gospel shall lament that ever they heard that sound and shall wish to have liv'd and dyed without it finding so great an accession to their misery by the neglect of so great salvation They are said to stumble at the word because the things that are therein testified concerning Christ they labour not to understand and prize aright but either altogether slight them and account them foolishness or misconceive them and prevert them The Jews stumbled at the meaness of Christ's birth and life and the ignominy of his death not judging of him according to the Scriptures and we in another way think we have some kind of belief that he is the Savior of the world yet not making the Scripture the rule of our thoughts concerning him many of us undo our selves and stumble and break our necks upon this Rock mistaking Christ and the way of believing looking on him as a Saviour at large and judging that enough not endeavouring to make him ours and to embrace him upon the termes of that New-Covenant whereof he is Mediator Whereunto also they were appointed This the Apostle addes for the further satisfaction of Believers in this point how 't is that so many reject Christ and stumble at him Telling them plainly that the secret purpose of God is accomplish'd in this having determin'd to glorify his justice on impenitent sinners as he shews his rich mercy in them that believe Here it were easier to lead you into a deep than to lead you forth again I will rather stand on the shoar and silently admire it than enter into it This is certain that the thoughts of God are all no less just in themselves than deep and unsoundable by us His justice appears clear in that Mans destruction is alwayes the fruit of his own sin But to give causes of Gods decrees without himself is neither agreeable with the primitive being of the nature of God nor with the doctrine of the Scriptures this is sure that God is not bound to give us further account of these things and we are bound not to ask it Let these two words as S. Austin sayes answer all What art thou O man And O the depth Our only sure way to know that our names are not in that black line and to be perswaded that he hath chosen us to be saved by his Son is this to find that we have chosen him and are built on him by faith which is the fruit of his love that first chuseth us And that we may read in our esteem of him He is precious or your honour The difference is small you account him your glory and your gain he is not only precious to you but preciousness it self He is the thing that you make acount of your Jewel that if you keep though you be robb'd of all besides you know your selves rich enough To you that Believe Faith is absolutely necessary to make this due Estimat of Christ. 1. The most excellent things while their worth is undiscern'd and unkown affect us not Now faith is the proper seeing faculty of the soul in relation to Christ that inward light must be infus'd from above to make Christ visible to us without it though he is beautiful yet we are blind and therefore cannot love him for that beauty but by faith we are inabled to see him that is fairer than the Children of Men yea to see in him the glory of the only begotten Son of God and then it is not possible but to account him precious to bestow the entire affection of our hearts upon him And if any say to the Soul what is thy beloved more than another it willingly layes hold on the question and is glad of an opportunity to extoll him 2. Faith as it is that which discernes Christ so it alone appropriates him makes him our own And these are the two reasons of esteeming and affecting any thing it s own worth and our interest in it and faith begets this esteem of Christ by both 1. It discovers to us his excellencies that we could not see before 2. It makes him ours gives us possession of whole Christ all that he hath and is As it is faith that commends Christ so much and describes his comeliness in that song and withal that word is the voyce of faith that expresses propriety My Wellbeloved is mine and I am his and these together make him most precious to the soul having once possession of him then it looks upon all his sufferings as endur'd particularly for it and the benefit of them all as belonging to it self sure it will say can it chuse but account him precious that suffer'd shame that he might not be ashamed and suffered death that he might not die that
reward of sin this I say is not incongruous with the estate of the Sons of God yea 't is their duty and their property even thus to fear 1. This is the very end for which God hath publish'd these intimations of his justice and hath threatned to punish Men if they transgress to the end they may fear and not transgress So that not to look upon them thus and to be affected with them answerably to their intendment were a very grievous sin a slight and disregard put upon the words of the great God 2. Of all others the Children of God have the rightest and clearest knowledge of God and the deepest belief of his word and therefore they cannot chuse but be affraid and more afraid then all others to fall under the stroak of his hand They know more of the greatness and truth and justice of God then others and therefore they fear when he threatens My flesh trembleth for fear of thee sayes David and I am affraid of thy judgements yea they tremble when they hear the Sentence against others or sees the execution on them it minds them when they see publick executions and knowing the terrour of the Lord we persuade Men sayes S. Paul they cry out with Moses Psa. 90. Who knowes the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath 'T is not an imagination nor invention that makes Men fear more then they need his wrath is as terrible as any that fears it most can apprehend and beyond So that this doth not only consist with the estate of the Saints but is their very character to tremble at the word of their Lord the rest neglect what he sayes till death and judgement sieze on them But the Godly know and believe that it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God And though they have firme promises and a Kingdome that cannot be shaken yet they have still this grace by which they serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear even in this consideration that our God even he that is ours by peculiar covenant is a confirming fire Heb. 12.28 29. But indeed together with this yea more then with these they are perswaded to fear the Lord by the sense of his great love to them and the power of that love that works in them towards him and is wrought in them by his They shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter dayes Hos. 3.5 In those dayes his goodness shall manifest it self more then before the beams of his love shall break forth more abundantly in the dayes of the Gospel and shall bear more direct and hotter on the hearts of Men and then they shall fear him more because they shall love him more This fear agrees well both with faith and love yea they work it compare Psa. 31.23 with Psa. 34.9 and that same Psa. 34. Ver. 8. with 9. and Psa. 112. Ver. 1. with 7. The heart touch'd with the load-stone of divine love trembles still with this godly fear and yet looks fixedly by faith to that star of Iacob Jesus Christ who guids it to the Haven of happiness The looking upon God in the face of Jesus Christ takes off that terrour of his countenance that drives Men from him and in the smiles of his love that appear through Christ there is such a power as unites their hearts to him but unites them so as to fear his name as the Psalmist's prayer is He puts such a fear in their hearts as will not cause them depart from yea causes that they shall not depart from him And this is the purest and highest kind of godly fear that springs from love and though it excludes not the consideration of wrath as terrible in it self and some fear of it yet it may surmount it and doubtless where much of that love possesses the heart it will sometimes drown the other consideration that it shall scarcely be sensible at all and will constantly set it aside and persuade a Man purely for the goodness and loveliness of God to fear to offend him though there were no interest at all in it of a Man 's own personal misery or happiness But do we thus fear the Lord our God What mean then our oaths and excesses and uncleanness our covetousness and generally our unholy and unchristian conversation This fear would make Men tremble so as to shake them out of their profane customes and to shake their beloved sins out of their bosomes the knowledge of the holy one causes fear of him Prov. 9.18 But alas We know him not and therefore we fear him not knew we but a little of the great Majesty of God how holy he is and how powerful a punisher of unholiness we would not dare to provoke him thus he that can kill both body and soul and cast them into hell as our Saviour tells us and he will do so with both if we will not fear him because he can do so and 't is told us that we may fear and so not feel this heavy wrath A little lively spiritual knowledge would go far and work much that a great deal such as ours is doth not Some such word as that of Ioseph would do much being engraven on the heart shall I do this evil and sin against God it would make a man be at no more liberty to sin in secret then in publick no not to dispense with the sin of his thoughts more then of openest words or actions If some grave wiseman did see our secret behaviour and our thoughts would we not look more narrowly to them And not suffer such rovings and follies in our selves sure therefore we forget Gods eye which we could not if we thought right on 't but respect more then if all men did see within us Nor is this only the main point to be press'd upon the ungodly but the Children of God themselves have much need to be put in mind of it and to increase in it how often do they abuse the indulgence of so loving a father and have not their thoughts so constantly full of him are not in his fear as Solomon advises all the day long but many times slip out of his directing hand and wander from him and do not so deeply fear his displeasure and so watch over all their wayes as becomes them and keep close by him and wait on his voyce and obey it constantly and are not so humbled and afflicted in their repentings for sin as this fear requires but slight and superficial They offer much lip labour which is but dead service to the living God These are things My beloved that concernes us much and that we ought seriously to lay to heart for even they that are freed from condemnation yet if they will walk fearlesly and carelesly at any time he hath ways enough to make them smart for 't and if there were no more should it not wound them deeply to think
Captain or Leader of our salvation as the Aposte speaks was consecrate by suffering that was the way by which he entred into the holy place where he is now our everlasting High Priest making intercession for us if he be our Leader to Salvation must we not follow him in the way he leads whatsoever it is if it be as we see 't is by the way of sufferings we must either follow on in that way or fall short of salvation for there is no other Leader nor other way but that which he open'd up so that there is not only a Congruity in it that his followers be conform to him in suffering but a necessity if they will follow him on till they attain to Glory and the consideration of both these cannot but argue a Christian into a Resolution for this via regia this Royal way of suffering that leads to Glory through which their King and Lord himself went to his Glory It could hardly be believ'd at first that this was his way and we can as hardly yet believe that it must be ours Luk. 24. O fools and slow of heart to believe ought not Christ to have suffer'd these things and so to enter into his glory Would you be at glory and will you not follow your Leader in the only way to it Must there another way be cut out for you by your selfe O absur'd shall the servant sayes he be greater than his Master Are you not fairly dealt with if you have a mind to Christ You shall have full as much of the Worlds good will as he had if it hate you he bids you remember how it hated him But though there were a way to do otherwayes would you not rather chuse if the love of Christ possess'd your hearts to take a share with him in his Lot and find delight in the very trouble of it is not this conformity to Jesus the great ambition of all his true hearted followers We carry about in the body the dying of the Lord Iesus sayes the great Apostle besides the unspeakable advantage to come that goes link'd with this that if we suffer with him we shall reign with him there is a glory even in this present resemblance that we are conformed to the Image of the Son of God in sufferings Why should we desire to leave him Are you not one with him Can you chuse but have the same common friends and enemies Would you willingly if it might be could you find in your heart to be friends with that World that hated your Lord and Master Would you have nothing but kindness and ease where he had nothing but enmity and trouble or would you not rather when you think right on 't disdain and refuse to be so unlike him As that good Duke said when they would have Crown'd him King of Ierusalem No said he by no means I will not wear a Crown of Gold where Iesus was Crown'd with thornes 2. This Spotlesness and Patience in suffering are both of them set here before us the one Verse 22. the other 23. Whosoever 't is that makes such a noise of the injustice of what he suffers and thinks to justify his Impatience by his Innocency let me ask thee art thou more just and innocent then he that is here set before thee Or art thou able to come near Him in this Point Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth This is to signify perfect holiness according to that Iames. 3.2 Man a litle world a world of wickedness and that litle part of him a litle world of Iniquity all Christs words and actions and all his thoughts flow'd from a pure Spring that had not any thing defiled in it and therefore no tentation either from Men or Satan could seize on him other Men may seem clear unstirr'd but move and trouble them and the mudd arises but he was nothing but holiness a pure fountain all purity to the bottom and therefore stirr and trouble him as they would he was still alike clear The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me This is the main ground of our confidence in him that he is a Holy Harmeless undefil'd high Priest and such an one became us sayes that Apostle that are so sinfull the more sinfull we the more need that our High Priest should be sinlesse and being so we may build upon his perfection standing in our stead yea we are invested with him and his righteousness Again there was no guile found in his mouth this serves us concerning all the promises that he hath made us that they are nothing but truth hath he said Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out then you need not fear how unworthy and vile soever do you but come to him and you have his word that he will not shut the door against you and as he hath promis'd access so hath he further promis'd ease and Souls rest to those that come then be confident to find that in him too for there was never a false nor guilefull word found in his mouth But to consider it only in the present action this speaks him the most innocent sufferer that ever was not only judicially just in his cause but entirly just in his Person altogether righteous and yet condemn'd to death and an opprobrious death of Malefactours and set betwixt two as chief of the three I am sayes he the rose Sharon and the Lillie of the valley And the Spouse saith of him My wel beloved is White and ruddy thus indeed in his death ruddy in his bloodshed and white in his innocency and withal in his meekness and patience the other thing wherein he is here so exemplary Verse 23. Who when he was reviled reviled not again This spotless Lamb of God was a Lamb both in guiltlesness and silence and the Prophet Esay expresses the resemblance in that he was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter he suffer'd not only an unjust Sentence of death but withall unjust revilings the contradictions of sinners none ever did so litle deserve revilings none ever could have said so much in his own just defence and to the just reproach of his enemies and yet in both he preferr'd silence None could ever threaten so heavy things as he could against his enemies and have made good all he threatned and yet no such thing was heard from him The heaven and earth as it were spoke their resentment of his death that made them But he was silent or what he spoke makes this still good how far he was from revilings and threatnings As spices pounded or precious ointment poured out give their smell most thus his name was an ointment then poured forth together with his blood and fill'd Heaven and Earth with its sweet perfume was a favour of rest and peace in both appeasing the wrath of God and so quieting the Consciences of Men and even in this particular was it then most fragrant in
Conscience as others but sought my selfe and pleasd my self as they do and look't no further but that was when I was alive to those wayes but now truly I am dead to them and can you look for activity and conversation from a dead Man the pleasures of sin wherein I liv'd is still the same but I am not the same Are you such a Snake and a Fool sayes the Natural Man as to bear affronts and swallow them and say nothing Can you suffer to be abus'd so by such and such a wrong Indeed sayes the Christian again I could once have resented an injury as you or another and had somewhat of that you call high-heartedness when I was alive after your fashion but now that humour is not only something cool'd but 't is kill'd in me 't is cold dead as ye say and a greater Spirit I think than my own hath taught me another Lesson hath made me both deaf and dumb that way and hath given me a new vent and another language and another Party to speak to in such occasions see for this Psal. 38.12 13 14 15. They that seek my hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long What doth he in this cafe But I as a deaf man heard not and I was as a dumb Man that openeth not his mouth And why for in thee O Lord do I hope And for this deadness that you despise I have seen him that dyed for me who when he was reviled reviled not again This is the true Character of a Christian dead to sin but alas Where is this Christian to be found and yet thus is every one that truly partakes of Christ he is dead to sin really Hypocrites have a Historical kind of Death like this as Players in Tragedies Those Players have loose bags of Blood that receive the wound so the Hypocrite in some externals and it may be in that which is as near him as any outward thing his Purse he may suffer some Bloodshed of that for Christ but this death to sin is not a sounding fit that one may recover out of again the Apostle Rom. 6. addes that he is buried But this is an unpleasant Subject to talk thus of Death and Burial the very Name of Death in the softest sense it can have makes a sowr melancholly discourse It is so indeed if you take it alone if there were not for the life that 's lost a far better immediately following but so 't is here Living unto righteousness succeeds dying to sin That which makes natural death so affrightful the King of terrours as Iob calls it is mainly this faint belief and assurance of the Resurrection and glory to come And without this all mens moral resolves and discourses are too weak Cordialls against this fear they may set a good face on 't and speak big and so cover the fear they cannot cure but certainly they are a litle ridiculous that would perswade Men to be content to dy by reasoning from the necessity and unavoydableness of it which taken alone rather may beget a desperate discontent than a quiet compliance the very weakness of that Argument is that it is too strong Durum telum That of Company is phantastick it may please the imagination but satisfies not the judgement Nor are the miseries of life though somewhat Properer a full perswasive for Death the oldest decrepitest most diseased persons yet naturally fall not out with life but could have a mind to it still and the very truth is this the worst cottage any dwells in they are loath to go out till they know of a better And the reason why that which is so hideous to others was so sweet to Martyrs Heb. 11.35 And other godly Men that have heartily embrac'd death and welcom'd it though in very Terrible shapes was because they had firm assurance of Immortality beyond it the ugly Deaths head when the light of glory shines through the holes of it is comely and lovely To look upon death as Eternitie's birth day is that which makes it not only tolerable but aimiable Hic dies postremus aeterni natolis est Is the word I admire most of any Heathen Thus here the strongest inducement to this Death is the true notice and contemplation of this Life unto which it sets us over 't is most necessary to represent this for a natural Man hath as great an aversion every whit from this figurative Death this dying to sin as from natural Death and there is the more necessity of perswading him to this because his consent is necessary to 't no Man dies this Death to sin unwillingly although no Man is naturally wiling to it much of this death consists in a Man's consenting thus to dye And this is not only a lawful but a laudible yea a necessary self murder Mortify therefore your members which are upon the Earth Sayes the Apostle Col. 3.5 Now no sinner will be content to dy to sin if that were all but if it be passing to a more excellent Life then he gaineth and it were a folly not to seek this Death It was a strange power of Plato's discourse of the Souls Immortality that moved a young Man upon reading it to throw himself into the Sea that he might leap through it to that Immortality But truely were this Life of God this Life to righteousness and the excellency and delight of it known it would gain many minds to this death that steps into 't 1 There is a necessity of a new being to be the principle of new acting and motion as the Apostle sayes while ye served sin ye were free from righteousness so 't is while ye were alive to sin ye were dead to righteousness But there is a new breath of life from Heaven breathed on the Soul Then lives the Soul indeed when it is one with God and sees Light in his Light hath a Spiritual knowledge of him and therefore Soveraignely loves him and delights in his will and that is indeed to live unto righeousness which in a comprehensive sense takes in all the frame of a Christian life and all the duties of it towards God and towards Men. By this new Nature the very Natural motion of the soul so taken is obedience to God and walking in the paths of righteousness it can no more live in the habitude and wayes of sin than a Man can live under water Sin is not the Christians Element 't is too gross for his renew'd Soul as the water is for his body He may fall into 't but he cannot breath in it cannot take delight and continue to live in it but his delight is in the Law of the Lord that 's the walk that his Soul refreshes it self in he loves it entirely and loves it most where it most crosses the remainders of corruption that are in him he bends the strength of his Soul to please God aimes all at that it takes up his thoughts early and late