great pit that were full of stones and snakes and serpents and fire and all that we can imagine to be terrible and miserable and there comes a man and casts a Rope into this great deep pit you need not perswade the man to lay hold of it he would presently catch at it as soon as it comes Why so Because he knows he is in a miserable case and there is no other way to help him but that We are fallen into such a pit where there are snakes and scorpions and serpents and fire the sting of sin the curse of the law the wrath of God we are in the paws of the Devil we are in a manner in Hell already and God hath sent his Sâ—n Christ and hath put righteousness in him and he hath let down this Rope that poor sinking miserable Creatures might lay hold on it Therefore what shall I say to you but this I beseech you stand not trifling and dallying and whining and go to this Preacher and say what shall I do Sir and to that Christian what course shall I take as though there were many wayes and you had choice of things What shouldest thou do but study Jesus Christ throughly and roundly make a work of it or else thou wilt be damned There is no other way left there is no other means to be had God will not abate one farthing token the law must be satisfied as the people of Israel in Egypt when they made brick they must bring in such a number so the law must be perfectly satisfied and thou art not able to do it by doing here or by suffering in Hell therefore what shall I do Receive Jesus Christ study Jesus Christ and resign thy self wholly up to Jesus Christ and stand not trifling and dallying till thou go to the Devil in Hell as many do If there were twenty wayes to Heaven God might say I wonder not that yonder people stand musing and consulting a twelve-month together but when there is but one way and yet people stand moping it is that that angers God Therefore remember that in Zeph. 2. 1. Gather your selves together before the decree bring forth before the day pass as the chaff c. Seek ye the Lord c. Gather your selves together He doth not mean in Companies as you use to meet in the Guild-Hall but the meaning is when he saith Gather your selves together that man is a worried creature a shattered thing as Solomon saith The eyes of a wise man are in his head but the eyes of a fool are over the world There are abundance of men that have their understandings go in the world this way and that way but gather your selves together How To get into Christ you hear that there is no Righteousness but his will serve the turn gather your selves to study Christ to obey Christ to receive Christ to love Christ and to resign your selves to Jesus Christ in whom there is a perfect righteousness That is one Lesson you should desire the Lord to teach you hence The next Lesson is this that The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in all true Believers Saith the Apostle That the law might be fulfilled in us In us we are not to understand it personally as though any Saint though it were Abraham himself were able in his own person to fulfill the law but the meaning of it is in respect of the union that we have with Jesus Christ who is our Husband and our Head The law is perfectly fulfilled by him therefore it is perfectly fulfilled by me because I am united to him The law is not perfectly fulfilled by me because I do more good or do less evil then another but onely the law is fulfilled and hath reason to be satisfied because I am married to one that hath done it and that perfectly Now you shall see divers Scriptures that hold it forth blessedly As those phrases in Galat. 2. the latter end where it is said we are dead to the law I through the law am dead to the law I am crucified with Christ I am dead to the law What is the meaning of that That is I am dead to the law as it is a Covenant of works the law hath no more to do with me then the Laws of men have to do with a man that is in debt when he is dead when he is dead he is free from it So the law is paid by Jesus Christ it is fully satisfied I owe not one farthing or farthing worth to the Law I am dead to the law And so in Rom. 7. you know how by the comparison of a man and his wife we are said to be dead to the law of God The meaning is not as though the substance and matter of the law were not eternal and a rule for all Saints doubtless it is in the New Testament as well as in the Old but the law as it is a Contract a Bond a Bargain as it is a Covenant of works between God and us it is perfectly fulfilled by Christ and we are dead to it we are free from it or delivered from it And that is the reason that in Heb. 12. it is said in Mount Sion we are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect that is not of just men personally just in their dealings though that follow in a sort but the meaning is that every Saint that is in Jesus Christ is perfectly a just man or a just woman by reason of their marriage with Jesus Christ who hath obtained a perfect righteousness or justice for them So in Rom. 3. you have there also a blessed place where the Apostle saith we are saved not onely by the mercy of God but by his righteousness Therefore it is three times repeated we are saved by the righteousness of God and again by the righteousness and again in ver 26. the third time to declare I say at this time his righteousness What is the righteousness of God that is saith he that he is just and a justifier of them that believe in Jesus Christ It is just and righteous with God to save his people that believe in Jesus Christ Why so Because Jesus Christ hath fulfilled to a tittle all the law of God for them Vse 1. I shall give you but one word of Use and leave the Reasons and the further enlarging of it till the Afternoon And the word that I desire to make known to you from the Lord is this To instruct and help you a little to understand where your righteousness doth lye or upon what your justification is built For this is the misery the general misery of most Christians that they mislay their justification they do lay it partly upon faith and partly upon their sanctification and holiness and that is the reason that when a poor soul it may be is tempted to some sin and hath some strong lust he loseth his faith and his assurance and his peace of conscience because
or sword Nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through Christ that loved us Indeed tribulation and hunger and famine they are sad things but these are the least troubles of a Christian these outward miseries Over these we are more then Conquerors saith Paul I can tie my right hand at my back and with my left hand beat all these back I can beat them with a finger Nay I say more Neither death nor life that is more nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. See there how he dares all the Enemies to come upon the Stage and tramples them under feet As in Malachi it is said that in the time of the Gospel they shall tread their enemies as ashes under their feet So there is a place also in 1 Cor. 15. Death is swallowed up in victory As if he had said You that have received Jesus Christ I will tell you news Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory He jeers the grave and death and triumphs over them O death where is thy sting thou thoughtest to overcome me but where is thy sting The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. He doth not say which will give us victory when we are dead and then we shall be perfect in Heaven it is true then we shall be more perfect but he saith which hath given us victory for the present I have already over come Hell and Death and the Devil for all hangs on the law the law is Gods Writ and the Devil is Gods Sergeant that executes that Writ and Hell is the Prison Therefore if the law be satisfied if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled Death and Hell and the Devil have nothing to do with me So in Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and was raised for our justification And then it follows Chap. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God See where the Apostle layes justification And we glory in tribulation knowing that it worketh patience c. We rejoice in tribulation and affliction Why because we are justified by Christs death and resurrection O what kinde of spirits should we have How full of joy and comfort should we be in the greatest tribulation How should we tread all this world under our feet the evils of this world and the comforts of the world How should we insult and triumph over the Devil and over Death and Hell for all their power as I said is from the law and if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled then all our enemies are subdued and all is clear Heaven is open and God is mine and the favour of God is to me For know this that there is no natural inbred hatred in God to his creature there is nothing that keeps the creature from the full enjoyment of God but the law not being satisfied God made a law and we made the breach of it and there falls out the distance between the Creatures and God whether Men or Devils Now then if I can say though I be a sinful man yet Jesus Christ hath fulfilled the law the law hath a full righteousness to a farthing then I know I am one with God he is wholly for me and I for him and all the enemies of my Salvation are conquered Now if the Lord would open your eyes to understand the hope of your calling the glorious condition you are brought into you would not walk so weakly and poorly and sadly and dejectedly that every thing should cast you down but you would go on and trample all the world under your feet we should be above men and Devils and the world and every thing if we did but understand to what a glorious estate God hath called us in this world through Jesus Christ Therefore a man reflecting upon his justification as he may look upon himself and account himself something so he may account Death and Hell and all subdued and he may account that the law cannot demand a farthing of him That whereas the breach of the law kept us from communion with God that being taken away we are as righteous as if we had never fallen O glorious condition There Paul Eph. 1. he prayes that they might know the riches and hope of their calling that is that they might understand what this glorious calling is that God hath called us to That is a second Lesson we should learn hence First seeing the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us we should learn how to build our Justification aright how to lay the foundation of it And secondly we should endeavour to get our spirits raised like people that are freed from the law Vse 3. Thirdly and there I shall end for this time being freely and fully justified by the grace of Jesus Christ this should follow to any one that understands it that therefore we should study and learn to conform our selves in our hearts and lives out of love to the will of God There comes in holiness and there it comes in amain and never before all before is nothing but bungling but then it comes rightly We should I say conform our selves to the Example and to the Rule of Jesus Christ in his Gospel And that you may understand that you must know that every man in this world hath a rule to walk by And there are but three great Rules and all men do and must conform to one of these three for there is no man that doth an action but it is in reference to a Rule 1. Now you have one Rule in 1 Pet. 1. 14. As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the lusts of your former ignorance which shews that once they did conform themselves they did fashion themselves unto their lusts but saith he now God hath justified you you must not conform your selves to your lusts Most of mankinde make their lusts their rule which the Prophet calls in Scripture to do that which is right in their own eyes to do what is their minde what they like in their own minde and as that worthy Dr. Preston saith they think when they are in their beds what place they shall go to and where they shall spend their time and when they are up they do that which is right in their own eyes what they have a lust to when they have a lust to be drunk they will be drunk when they have a lust to be filthy they will be filthy when they have a lust to be idle or a lust to be malicious against their neighbours they will be so So that the stirrings of their lusts are their rule and their whole life
but people that in their ordinary course go with a great deal of contentment in evil wayes But though this be true that this is comprehended in walking after the flesh yet this is very lame and short of the full and whole meaning of this place I say it is not the main nor chief meaning of this place it is not primarily not principally meant this is a truth and it will follow as a necessary consequence as I shall shew anon and I doubt not but the Apostle means it when he saith We walk not according to the flesh because in Rom. 6. he takes a great deal of pains in that point but I think this is not the chief meaning My Reasons are these First because I finde that the very scope of this learned Epistle is different if not almost contrary to this his scope is not to quarrel with them for want of doing good works and for walking in sinful works but the scope of it is to beat them off from their own works and to bring them to Christ and therefore he saith Abraham was justified without works he all along disparageth their works as they did them Therefore I think he doth not go so far from his text or from his scope as to make this the main business their sanctification or holiness the not walking in evil or the walking in good works Secondly this cannot be the chief scope of the place because if you take these words They that walk after the flesh in this sense that is those that follow sinful courses if you take them so that none but such as walk holily have a right to Jesus Christ and his righteousness Or if you take them in this sense that they onely that walk in a holy life can come to know that they have the righteousness of Christ fulfilling the law for them neither of these can hold 1. For the first that no man can have to do with Christ or his righteousness but that man that walks according to the Spirit that walks in a holy way and not in sinful courses this is contrary to the stream of the Gospel Why Because the Gospel all along offers Christ to sinners to the chief of sinners to aliens and to the ungodly 2. Then again if this were so sanctification should be before justification a man must be holy before he should be justified As for the latter sense to wit that the Apostle should mean this that no man can know any other way that the righteousness of Christ did belong to him but onely by not walking after the flesh or by walking after the Spirit this cannot be neither for however we may know a little in a way of sense by our walking yet the main way to know our justification is the same way that we come by justification for Faith is the evidence of things not seen The main evidence whereby I know I am justified is because the word of faith saith so the word tells me and faith evidenceth it that faith that I believe by it shews me that I believe Therefore though I be inconstant in my way of grace that to sense shews me a little yet it doth not solely and chiefly and primarily So that this is the substance of it that that sense which godly reverend men give of this place it is true but it is not all nor the first and the chief part of the meaning of it Secondly flesh in the Scriptures and so here and in divers other places it may be understood concerning the Priviledges those various Prerogatives and Priviledges that the people of God the Israelites had in a natural fleshly way from generation to generation Being born of such Parents of such Tribes they had such priviledges belonging to them they had the Oracles and the Covenants and the Tables c. and this is called flesh and I doubt not but the Apostle had this in his eye Saith he The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh As if he had said Do not think because you are of the seed of Abraham or because you have the Covenants and Circumcision and that you are born of such Parents that therefore you shall the sooner have this priviledge to have the law fulfilled take heed of that for now it springs from another root and it comes now in a Spiritual and not in a fleshly way as it did before for they had their mercies generally in the Old Testament according to the flesh that is by generation Isaac as he was Abrahams Son and Jacob his Son c. but now it is in a spiritual way Now that flesh is so taken in Scripture I will give you that one place in Phil. 3. 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh saith Paul If any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more What doth he mean by flesh here He tells you Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the Tribe of Benjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the Church touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless As if he had said I had all the priviledges if any man might boast in the flesh I might I am an Hebrew of the Hebrews a Gentleman of the best descent c. So in 2 Cor. 11. 18. Seeing that many glory after the flesh I will glory also ye suffer fools gladly Wherein any is bold I am bold also Are they Hebrews so am I. Are they Israelites so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham so am I. They had priviledges being Israelites more then other people and this is called flesh So I am confident that the Apostle had this in his eye in a special manner when he saith They that walk not according to the flesh And you shall finde that they attributed all priviledges to them because they were Israelites as you see in Mat. 3. say they We are the children of Abraham Saith John Baptist Ye are a generation of Vipers And so in Joh. 8. say they We are free men we are the sons of Abraham saith Christ Ye are of your father the Devil See the Gospel takes away that fleshliness and puts all in another stream and course and way The Apostle aims at that here when he saith Those that walk not according to the flesh As if he had said You shall never have this righteousness to satisfie the law the sooner because you are the Sons of Abraham no more then if you were Scythians or Barbarians Thirdly and lastly the main and chief meaning of this place is this though the other be included when the Apostle saith Those that walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit By flesh here the Apostle means walking according to the old Covenant according to the Covenant of Works in the way of the law and by Spirit is meant walking in the way of faith
God Now the natural man is not able to judge of things above the principles of Nature The Apostle tells us No man knows the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. The things of man are all created things man is therefore said to be as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world or an Epitome or Compendium wherein all created things are described as in a Map or short Abridgement Now the principle of reason in mans heart is able to search out the hidden things of nature But this large principle of man is too narrow to search into the things of the Spirit so saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 11 12 14 15. The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God And again he saith The wisdome of the Spirit is but foolishness to the naturall man And why so because saith he Spiritual things are spiritually discerned that is they are to be understood in a spiritual sense to which mans carnal reason cannot reach But now saith he the spirituall man discerneth all things so that divine things are onely known by the Spirit 't is the Spirit of all Truth that leads into all Truth Then 't is not all Maximes and Rules 't is not Sy 〈…〉 gistical Reasonings and Disputes 't is not Books an◠Treatises 't is not all Systems and Bodies of Divinity that can reveal the secret mysteries of Truth but it is the work of the Spirit for the mystery of Christ is not meerly letter and form without but a quickning Spirit within us Yet 6. We are taught that there is a most profound spiritual reasoning in godliness and that it is the highest act of the minde which is the highest faculty of the soul The minde of a Saint is Gods Throne and the motions of the minde or the reasonings thereof is nothing but Christ swaying the soul according to his good pleasure It 's true that reason as 't is in man is a most imperfect and weak light and falls short of the light of God being depraved and mixt with much darkness and so is unsuitable to judge divine things but reason considered in its height and excellency is no other then Jesus Christ and the Spirit then so much as reason hath of the light of God so much it hath of Jesus Christ Then the most excellent the most supreme and the sublimest reason is in godliness because in it is the greatest clearness certainty and light The Apostle calls it Demonstration now divine reason is demonstration which is an evidencing of things by the clearest surest and most irresistible light that can be Now Christ is this spiritual reason for saith the Apostle that which manifests is light Eph. 5. 13. And what is that light but Christ and his Spirit Thus I have given thee a taste of things to set an edge to thy appetite that thou mayest make a fuller meal of Divine Dainties by reading the ensuing Treatise where thou hast a Table richly spread Now if thou art one of Christs Friends then come and eat of this honey and drink of this wine yea eat and drink abundantly O beloved Here thou mayest eat and not 〈…〉 et here thou mayest drink and not be drunken the more thou earest the stronger will thy appetite be and the more thou drinkest the more wilt thou thirst and yet with the greatest saturation and content To conclude Thou mayest finde much of Christ in this Book but see whether thou canst finde much of him also in thine own heart Now that these things which are here written with Paper and Ink may be written upon the Table of thy soul by the finger of the Spirit is the prayer of him who is Thine in the Service of Christ John Robotham Octob. 24. 1650. SERMON I. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THe main drift of the Apostle in this Epistle is to hold forth Justification by Faith or by Free-grace without the works of the Law And in Chap. 7. the Apostle doth answer an Objection for they might say What then shall we do with the Law if it cannot justifie us There the Apostle tells us that though the Law cannot justifie us yet there are many blessed uses both for Sinners and Saints to make of the Law of which I shall not now speak Now in this eighth Chapter the Apostle draws this conclusion from what he had said before There is therefore from what I have said it is evident that there is no condemnation there is no damnation there is no danger of Hell to them which are in Christ Jesus Now he opens who those are he saith they are those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And he gives a reason of it in ver 2. why there is no damnation to those people For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and of death Now he amplifies that in ver 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh As if he should have said Thus it comes about that we are now free from the law and that there is no damnation to us because saith he that God hath sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh like one of us and he hath fulfilled the law of God and condemned sin therefore there is no sin to condemn us nor no jot of the law that is not fulfilled therefore we are just and righteous and clear There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus for God hath sent his Son to condemn sin c. Now in the fourth Verse it is more particularly expressed That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit I shall not orderly go over to shew the Coherence distinctly as I might but briefly as I can come to those Lessons that the Lord is to teach us That the Righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us c. There are in the words two things Here is a great Priviledge as any can be to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us And here are secondly the parties that have the benefit of this Priviledge Those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Concerning the Priviledge to understand the words a little That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us That the law might be fully satisfied in point of righteousness that the law might have such a righteousness which indeed the law requires that it might have a full and compleat righteousness in us So that briefly these are the Lessons which I shall open from hence which I desire
he grounds his Saintship and his justification upon his holiness Now Beloved this is it that I would desire the Lord to bring you and me to to know that I am a just man onely by the righteousness that is in Christ that the law is perfectly fulfilled for me by Jesus Christ and not partly by him and partly by me but onely and perfectly by him and I am called just but onely as or because I am united to him that hath gotten a perfect righteousness for me Then let me build my Justification upon that onely and not upon what I am not upon my temper or upon my graces or my gifts or the like take heed of that but let it be built wholly upon Jesus Christ his death and resurrection He was delivered for our offences and rose again for our justification Let us build upon that that we may come to this temper once to have our justification in a stock clearly in Jesus Christs hands that when we do good we may not imagine that we are a jot the more justified or when we fall or fail in good we may not conceive that we are a jot less justified then before that though one day we have our hearts inlarged to do good and to do more good in one day then it may be we did in a moneth before yet this goes not to the stock of my justification I am not one jot the more justified and sometimes God leaves the flesh and the remnants of sin that foil us and I will mourn for it and be humbled for it as a transgression against my father but I am not a jot more unjustified then I was before in the sight of God in regard of the Covenant of works that Christ hath fulfilled So thus I would have you do as your Merchants and Tradesmen in your City you have a certain Stock that you lock it may be in an iron Chest and that stock is the quick as you call it and you have besides so many pounds or so many hundreds that you turn and wind about through all the year as you have occasion but from the stock the quick you will not lay any thing out of that you will not touch that but lay out in expences and winde and turn the rest Just so I would have it with you that seeing justification is onely built on Christ and I have the word of faith to certifie me of it and the Spirit of faith to shew it me within I would not have my good or evil to be an ingredient into that but leave that as a stock clearly in the hands of Jesus Christ Or as we see a maid or woman that spins she holds one hand steady and turns about the wheel with the other so our justification we should hold it steady for it is not built at all upon any thing that is in us but let us turn and winde the rest that is Sanctification we must strive against sin and mourn for it but leave justification wholly to Christ for it is not built on me but is onely by the death and resurrection of Christ Therefore as Christ saith Luk. 18. when we have done all the good we can say we are unprofitable servants I have not gotten one farthing to day nor in all my life to help to fulfill the law of God or to help to my justification that is onely in the hands of Christ that is my quick my cash my stock and when thou failest and seest lusts and pride and wantonness arise in thee say this hath no influence to hinder my justification it is no ingredient into that that is built upon another thing it is wholly in Christ and his righteousness he hath fulfilled the law and I am just by marriage and by union with him Therefore I will go and take my sins and mourn for them desire God to cleanse me from them but I must hold the quick still hold justification untouched and unshaken and unmoveable in the hands of Jesus Christ I shall leave the inlargement of this and other things till the Afternoon SERMON II. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THere are three Lessons that we should learn from these words The first is implied That the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled Or Every man is bound to fulfill the law of God That we have already done with Secondly That the Law of God is perfectly fulfilled in all true Believers Thirdly That true Believers are they who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We made some entrance upon the second That the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in all true believers I spake a little of this and shall adde something further to what I said if God will The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in every true believer Not personally as I told you for there is no Saint no not Abraham himself that can say the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in me that is personally that I have walked so the law is satisfied by my walking But the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us not personally but in us by reason that Christ and we are one and he is made righteousness to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made of God to us wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption then whatsoever Christ is or hath it is ours Therefore saith the Apostle The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us He doth not say it is fulfilled in Christ though that be true but he takes the boldness to say it is fulfilled in us by virtue of our union with Jesus Christ So in every true Saint or believer the righteousness of the law through Christ is perfectly fulfilled The weakest Saint if he be a true Saint he hath perfectly fulfilled the law of God he hath perfectly satisfied every demand that the law can make he hath perfectly paid every peny-worth of debt that he oweth to the law the weakest Saint it may be a poor Saint that men can see nothing but corruption in all the day and all the week and all the year long almost yet that man if he be a true Saint though he be weak hath perfectly in Christ kept the law of God and is a just man and the law of God cannot come upon him nor the Sergeant the Devil to arrest him for one peny or farthing because he can say as Paul saith here The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us Therefore that is the reason as I told you that Paul saith I am dead to the law that is I am as free from the law as a man that is dead when a man is dead the law goes no further on him So it is said we are delivered from the law and freed from the law and that is the reason also that the Apostle three times in one Chapter puts our salvation upon the righteousness
London there is never a childe of God that hath walked more barrenly then I have done and yet through Christ I am as just in Gods sight as any man in London I am Gods childe but I am an unhappy graceless childe then a man can call himself fool and be angry with himself and weep bitterly Now usually when you mourn for sin you think there is a crack in your justification and so many sins as you have committed there are so many flaws in your justification and so many faintings of faith in the favour of God and therefore when you pray to God and are humbled for sin it is your manner and it was mine most of my dayes onely to dawb up the flaws of justification and you pray the Lord to pardon such a sin and now you see God is wrath with you and you are like to be cast off and your hearts begin to be hard and you have sad thoughts of God arising in you and unquiet and horrour in your souls and you are far enough from true sorrow all this while It is impossible there should be true sorrow when you keep a coile and confess your sins and wrangle it out with God and you will confess your sins to day and think to make God amends to morrow and so as a man stops chinks in a wall we think to dawb up the flaws and cracks of justification this way Whereas we should look on justification as a thing intire in the hands of Christ that we have nothing to do in but it is in Christ altogether founded on his death and resurrection and all the title that we have in it is onely by faith as Rom. 10. sheweth The righteousness of faith saith on this wise c. The word is nigh thee There is our title and tenure I have nothing to do for my justification but Christ hath fulfilled the law and he did die and rise and sitteth at the right hand of God and I endeavour to believe it that is to consent that it is so and praise his name and live to him all the dayes of my life O here is the life of Christianity I have seen people quarrel with themselves and complain O I have a hard heart and I desire the Preachers to pray for me and when you have fallen into weakness you will go and confess your sins and strive to break your hearts and mourn for your worldliness and your pride and frowardness and yet it will not do but your hearts grow harder then they were before and whereas when you have committed a sin to day you think to go and reform to morrow and to turn over a new leaf to morrow you will be worse then to day because you think to make God amends he leaves you to your selves and you grow worse The reason is this because in some sort even to this day you mix sanctification with justification Now I know it I speak what I know could you leave your justification alone in the hands of Jesus Christ and look on it as I said as Cash in the cupboard not to be touched and as long as Christ is righteous say I am righteous behold your selves alway as just men and women that in Jesus Christ have fulfilled the law of God and then you will finde your hearts inclined to any good thing then would your hearts break and shatter to pieces when you have done the least evil against God then you would know what true sorrow and what true repentance is and not before then you would know those things that now you know not nor cannot know Therefore labour to learn that lesson it is one of the greatest Mysteries in the world and that is the reason that carnal people carp at these things What greater Mystery then for me being a just and righteous man through Christ yet to be so sinful that I can say there is none more sinful and yet I am as righteous as Abraham or Paul in respect of the righteousness of Christ I have as large a share as Abraham or Paul and yet I am full of sin A Christian knows this and he knows how it is so Well that is one lesson consider of it that you may know where to plant your justification upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ The Lord teach it to you and me Secondly if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in all that are believers through Jesus Christ Then all you that are Saints all you that believe in Jesus Christ labour to see the glorious condition that you are in that you may be able to reflect upon your selves not according to what you are out of Christ but what you are considered to be as Members of Jesus Christ as united to Jesus Christ Therefore you shall have Paul and it doth me good to see his spirit he never reckons himself as in himself but as in Jesus Christ I can do all things I can want and I can abound I can do this and that and all in Christ So I must never conceive of God out of Christ nor of my self out of Christ I must never conceive of my self and Christ as two but I should endeavour clearly and constantly that whatsoever good there is in Christ it is mine as if it were in mine own person And so we should have our spirits raised above the temptations of the world and above the afflictions of the world and above corruptions It is a pitiful thing to see poor Professors there is not one of many but they are ordinarily below temptations and they lye under burdens and are below their sins nay there are many Professors that are more sad and drooping then carnal people Surely this was not the way of those Saints that we reade of in the New Testament they had glorious spirits how do you think else they could go to the Stocks and to Prisons and from one Compter to another and have their spirits so raised and yet sometimes were to die the next morning for ought they knew Your spirits will never be heightned and raised to live the life of Paul by beholding any thing that is in you personally in your possession but what you are by relation and marriage to Christ Reckon your selves dead with Christ and so conceive I am a just man I was bound once to the law of God a terrible law and there are thousands in Hell paying the debt and cannot pay it and yet I have paid every farthing and the law cannot ask me more I have offered a perfect righteousness and I am now sitting at Gods right hand in Heaven by my union with Jesus Christ This is the life of faith that we may be able to triumph over all these things below from our justification as Paul doth Rom. 8. It is God that justifieth and who shall condemn Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus shall tribulation or distress or famine or nakedness or peril