16. Rom. 2. 16 17. Mie 2. 12. Word Have you sound it to be a saviour of Life unto Life and the power of God to the saving of your Souls Doth not my word saith God do good to the upright O examine what good you have found by the Gospel You have been hearers of it many Years what Have you received no Soul-benefit by it Let me ask you two or three questions and do you ask them seriously your own Souls Have you been savingly enlightned by the Quest 1 Spirit in the Word Can you say with the blind man upon good grounds I was born blind but now I see Are your Eyes beloved opened and Illuminated to see the evil of sin and the good that is in Jesus Christ Every Eph. i. 18. 19. one that is brought to Christ Interested in him are Spiritually Illuminated their understandings which were darkned are enlightned by the Spirit Is it thus with you Have the Spirit by the Word set up a divine Light in your Souls Is the Veil taken from off your Eyes Are you that were darkness 2 Cor. 3. 16. Eph. 5. 8. Acts 26. 18 1 Cor 4. 5 6. in the abstract made Light in the Lord Are you turned from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan to God In a Word Hath God commanded the Light to shine into your Souls and shewn you his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ God saith Paul that commandeth the Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our hearts to give the Light of the Knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Christ Is it thus with you Have you found God dealing thus with your Souls Are your hard and frozen Hearts softned Quest 2 by the Word Have any of you in good earnest been made to cry out with them 3000 that were pricked at the Heart under Peters Sermon Men and Brethren what shall we do That beloved which neither can be bruised nor broken with any strokes nor softned with any Moisture is hard indeed By this you may know your Hearts Will no means and monitions of the Word break your Hearts Will no exhortations entreaties nor promises in it melt you Surely thy heart O sinner Must be hardned indeed that nothing will move nor melt it Oh! have the Word or rather the Spirit by the Word broken and melted any of your Hearts Have you found it a hammer and a fire A hammer to break your rocky Hearts Jer. 23. 29. and a fire to burn up your Lusts and melt down your hearts into Godly Sorrow Can you mourn for sin as sin And are you grieved that you can love Christ no better nor bring forth no more Fruit for his Glory are you concerned for his absence And do you greatly rejoyce in his presence If it be thus 't is a good sign your hearts are softned Are you transformed by the Gospel into the Image of Christ Is the Old man put off Quest 3 Eph. 4. 22 23. with is deeds and the New man put on Can you truly say with Paul from good experience we all with open face beholding as in 2 Cor 3. 18. a glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory Even by the Spirit of our God have you had transforming sights of Christ in the pure Glass of the Gospel Are you become new Creatures Can you remember it was not with you once as it is now Is sin Loth some and Christ Lovely to you Then you have received good by the Word and it is not a Judgment but a Mercy to you 3d. Use is by way of exhortation Oh! Use 3 Let me exhort you all in the Name and Fear of the dreadful God to these few following things and I shall soon have done First be exhorted and perswaded to abstain from all sin but especially from sins against Light and Knowledg A good Man thro' the violence of temptation or Infirmity may sin against knowledge as David and Peter did But have a care as one says of cold blood and continuing in known sins Remember that knowledg taketh away all excuse of sin If I had not come says Christ to the Jews and spoken to them they had not had John 12. 22. sin but now they have no Cloak or Excuse for their sin Ignorance if not affected may excuse a tanto but not a toto but Knowledg will not excuse any Dost thou know that drunkenness O Man is a sin And that Lying Whoredom and Sabboth-breaking are abominable sins and yet Live in them Alas what hope canst thou have A willing practise of known sins and true repentance cannot stand together Nay remember it 't is the ready way to a reprobate Mind and to Eternal Ruine Tho' while in this mortal State you cannot but sin yet beware of two things First of being willingly Ignorant of that which God gives you the means to know This O sinner Is the mark of a Reprobate Wretch Peter tells us of some that are willingly Ignorant of this that by the Word of the Lord the Heavens were of Old There 2 Pet. 3. 5 6. be many that do not know Christ savingly and this is their misery they do not desire to know him They say unto God depart from Job 21. 4. us we desire not the Knowledg of thy ways Oh! beware of this for to be Ignorant and not desire to know is a sad sign of a hardned Heart and a blinded Mind But 2dly beware of doing contrary to your knowledg For to him that knoweth to 2. James 4. 18 do good and doth it not to him it is a sin His knowledg aggravates his fault To sin against Light and Knowledg is a crimson sin a sin of a deep dye Every infirmity every thing that falls short of the Rule is sin but much more that which contradicts the Rule This Man's sin is a hainous sin a capital sin 't is a sin with a witness and will be punished with a vengance If he that sins Ignorantly will be damned surely then he that doth not what he knows but contrary shall be double Luk. 12. 47. damned He that knoweth his Master's Will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes But 2dly be exhorted to comply and fall in with the motions of the Blessed Spirit in the Word Do not the Spirit at no time move upon your Hearts and cause some convictions in your Consciences c. Oh! see that when the Spirit move you do not resist For his Spirit God hath said shall Gen. 3. 6. not always strive with Man Oh! quench not the Spirit turn not a deaf Ear to his Calls do not drown his convictions as some in a Cup of Ale or in merry Company But I must not inlarge Therefore in the Third and last Place Be exhorted and perswaded dayly to fear and dread being hardned by the Gospel a hardned Heart is a most
received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved By Truth is meant Eph. 1. 13. Rom. 1. 18. the saving Truth of the Gospel which is called the Word of Truth There is a Truth natural which the Heathens had and detained in Unrighteousness which brought Gods Wrath down from Heaven upon them There is a supernatural Truth from divine Revelation This is here meant the Abuse of which Truth highly provokes God to give up men judicially to the Delusions of Sin and the Devil and at last as the just Event and Effect of their rejecting the truth and believing Lies are damned These Wretches that receive not the Love of the truth are first punished with spiritual Judgments and then with eternal ones they are first blinded here judicially and then as the just Reward of their rejecting Christ the truth as it is in Jesus they are damn'd Having divided and opened the Text I shall lay down this one general Proposition viz. Doct. That God by Christ in just Judgment gives over such as are enemies to his Gospel to the Delusions of the Devil and their own Hearts to be hardned and blinded while others in Mercy are enlightned and converted by it That Gospel which makes the way of Salvation by Christ clear and evident to many souls who are in darkness and sit as in the shadow of Death to others thro' their Ignorance Prejudice and Malice and the righteous Judgment of God for their Perverseness and Infidelity proves a means to blind and harden their Hearts That Word and Gospel which to some is a Savour of Life unto Life to others thro' their Pride and Unbelief is a Savour of Death 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. unto Death In this sense these words agree with what was prophesied by the Prophet Isaiah He shall be for a sanctuary Isaiah 8. 14 15. speaking of Christ but for a stone of stumbling and for a Rock of Offence to both the Houses of Israel For a Gin and for a Snare to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken snared Luke 2. 34. and taken And with the words of good old Simeon to Mary the Mother of our Lord This Child is set says he for the Fall and Rising again of many in Israel and for a sign to be spoken against By the Fall and Rising again is here meant undoubtedly the Salvation and Damnation of many Christ will be the occasion of many Peoples Damnation even of all that reject him and his precious Gospel and believe not in him As Christ is the Cause of many Peoples Salvation even of all that believe and shall be saved Acts 4. 12. for there is no other Name by which men can be saved but by his So he is the Cause of their Damnation eventually and accedentually who oppose his Gospel and believes not in him for he that believeth not shall be damned This is the thing which Mark 16. 16. Christ tells us of in my Text and is spoken of by Paul Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of Offence whosoever believeth Rom. 9. 33. on him shall not be ashamed nor confounded For the opening of this weighty Point I shall first shew you what those sins are which provoke God and Christ to such a-degree as to blind and harden men by that means by which others are enlightened and softned Secondly Lay down some Conclusions for the better clearing up this great Truth Thirdly shew you how this stands with the Holiness and Goodness of God to give Men up to Blindness of Mind and Hardness of Heart to believe Lies that as Paul saith 2 Thes 2. 10 11. they may be damned Fourthly Then I shall sum up the whole with some practical Application O Lord God the Father of the Spirits of all Flesh help thy poor sinful Dust the meanest of all employed in thy Vineyard Give him thy holy Spirit and Wisdom from above to manage this great Point for thy Glory the good of Souls O! let him not darken Counsel by words without Knowledge but be led into all truth and cause it to shine transparently to the Convincing of the erroneous World the Conversion of sinners and the est ablishing thy Children in their most holy Faith c. for Jesus Christ's sake to whom with thy Self and eternal Spirit of Truth be Honour and Glory for ever Amen First I shall shew you what those sins are which provoke God to such a high degree as to give men over to Blindness under the Gospel Would you know what those sins are that provoke God to blind and harden many by the Word I 'll tell you in general They are sins against Knowledge and Light 1st Sins against the Light of Nature There are such sins which Paul speaks of that are of a provoking Nature and highly displeasing Rom. 1. 21 22. unto God When they knew God that is by the Light of Nature for the Light of the Word they had not as for his Judgements and his Statutes says the Psalmist they have not known them they glorified him Ps 147. 20. not as God but became vain in their Imaginations and their foolish Hearts were darkened These Heathens had the Light of Nature which was sufficient to let ' em know that there was a God and that He was not like a Man or a Beast or a creeping thing as they foolishly imagined for that which might be known of God is manifest Ver. 29. Ver. 20. in them for God hath shewed it unto them for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen What is seen Even his eternal Power and Godhead But how is this seen and understood Why by the things that are made So that they are without Excuse the Heavens declare Gods Psal 19. 1 2. Ver. 23. Glory and the Firmament shews his handy Work Now this Light they abused and misimproved they changed the Glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man and to Birds and four footed Beasts thus they became vain in their own Imaginations For which cause God gave Ver. 24. them up to uncleanness thro' the Lusts of their own Hearts yea he gave them up to vile Affections and to a reprobate Mind or Ver. 26. to a mind void of Judgment to do those things which are not convenient Now if sins against the Light of Nature be of such an aggravating Nature as to provoke God to give up Persons to blindness of Mind What will sins against the Light of the Gospel do the greater the Light is that persons sin against the greater must their Sin be and the more provoking in the Sight of God Which brings me to the Second thing Namely sins against the Light of the Gospel these are great sin and provoke God highly to Anger to reject Christ and his Gospel and not receive the
Preach the Gospel of Christ and He strived to Preach where Christ had not been Named And all this was made efficacious by Mighty Signs and Wonders by the Power of the Spirit of God So that it was best for the Churches and more needful he should continue though to his loss Phil. 1. 21. In all this Notwithstanding He was most mindful to ascribe all to Grace 1 Cor. 15. 10. By the Grace of God be was All that He was and after all his Discourse of his Line and measure He concludes He that Glorieth Let him Glory in the Lord 2 Cor. 10. 17. The Apostle Finished this course under and by the High Priest and Apostle of our Profession whose the fupreme Glory in all is Inasmuch as He who Built the House hath more Honour then the House whose House with all Prophets Apostles and Saints Heb. 3. 1. The Apostle was For He who Built All Things in his Church is God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Head 3. I come now to the third Head or Character the Apostle gives of himself I have kept the Faith This Completes the whole Herein the Apostle speaks again as a mighty Champion that retain'd the Riches of Faith Much more precious then of Gold that Perisheth The Faith he retain'd with such a Might and would by no means suffer it to be forced out of his Hand 1. That Great Principal and most essential Faith the Apostle kept or held fast is Jesus Christ Himself and his Righteousness who is pleased because he himself is indeed the All of Faith to be styled Faith it self Gal. 3. 23. 2. It is the whole Truth of the Gospel as the Apostle Jude gives it the Honourable Title of the Faith once at once once for All Delivered to the Saints Jude 3. Comprizing the Righteousness of Faith by which the Just Live and receive even full assurance of understanding The Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith The Faith embracing the truth that is after Godliness which whoever walks contrary to denies the Faith The Faith that looks to the Eternal State and Condition which Hymeneus and Philetus denying by saying The Resurrection was past already overthrew the Faith of some This the Apostle held fast in all the senses of it now given and would by no means part with or betray to any Seducers or Adversaries of one sort or other as was before asserted under the first Character of Fighting a good Fight 3. The inward Grace of Faith in the Heart and Holy confession of which the Apostle saith Rom. 10. With the Heart Man believes unto Righteousness and with the Mouth confession is made to salvation The Life he liv'd by the Faith of the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him The Faith even the Plerophory of it sprinckling the Heart from an Evil Conscience by the Blood of Jesus the Faith by which we have Peace with God the faith that embraces the Promises by which we cleanse our selves from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit the sheild of faith The Apostle Exhorts above all to take to quench the fiery Darts of the Devil The faith by which the Elders obtained so Honourable a Testimony and Memory Heb. 11. In all those their grat Acts The faith that passes through all afflictions temptations and tryals till those Pillars are set up with this Inscription Rev. 13. Here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints here are they who keep the Commandments of God and hold the Testimony of Jesus Lastly the faith the very presence of things hoped for raises to that Plerophory of hope that enters within the Veil All Saints with the Apostle who by faith have dyed and slept in and by Jesus and are entred into rest with him even as this servant of the Lord hath done by the same faith and whom God even our Lord Jesus will bring with him the Living remaining Saints shall not Anticipate The Lord my God will come and all his Saints with him But in all this faith our whole subsistence is in and by the Author and Finisher of Faith And so we are come to the second part of the Text Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness This is the Prize of the High Calling of God in Jesus Christ Eternal Glory the Eternal Inheritance Eternal Redemption the whole Excellency Glory and Blessedness of the Eternal State is the Inheritance of the Saints in Light which is alone by Jesus Christ in us the Hope of Glory reserved in Heaven This the Lord as a Righteous Judge gives and he gives as a Crown of Righteousness Because Jesus Christ hath purchased it with his own Blood and Obedience And in him it is that Saints are able to subsist in this Eternal Glory Being made like him by seeing him as he is but most Glorious herein is that State He in the Father the Father in Him and Saints hereby in Christ and in the Father and the Love wherewith the Father Loved Him even before the Foundation of the World is in them because He is in them and in all this the Son Intercedes with the Father as a Righteous Father John 17. 24 c. To open this part of the Text according to the Tenor of the present Discourse so far as we have proceeded 1. That expression of the Apostle Henceforth or as the word in the Greek signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which remaineth is there is laid up for me c. An expression suitable to this is that Heb. 4. 9. There remaineth a rest for the People of God This hath an Immutable certainty If the Judgment of wicked Men be laid up in store with God and Sealed among his treasures Deut. 32. 34. How much more the Salvation the Glory and Blessedness of his Saints It is as cerrain and much more certain then as in themselves the precedent Fighting the good Fight c. For their assurance is not in themselves They would fail and come behind as Combatants not obtaining the Prize If all the certainty were in themselves as the Angels not Elect and Adam fail'd or fell short But the Prize it self to be given to them who do Fight and Run is in the nature of the thing out of themselves and in God alone and is assur'd by his Righteousness and Veracity that cannot fail This remainder is so Connexed as not possible to be separated from what went before and more Impossible by far to fail then what went before as in us but as all is sure in the Great surety It is to be fulfilled in all his Even as the Debt He paid for them is set far above all doubts 2. In this assurance of the Prize the Apostle speaks so triumphingly of he says The Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me He Styles the Lord the Judge and the Righteous Judge in agreement with the custom of those Games In which there was a Person solemnly constituted who should adjudge the Prizes
and Determine the Lawfulness of the striving as the Apostle says a Man is not Crowned except he strive Lawfully And it was expected from such a Person in that State of Honour that he should be Fair Equal and Just in all his Judgment and Determination and it assures the Judgment of the Lord to be in all things admirable for its greatest Equity Righteousness and Judgment For the Righteous Lord Loveth Righteousness Psal 11. 7. And thus in allusion to this in that so known Seat of allusion to these Games the Apostle says I keep under my Body and with the Austerest methods Bring it into subjection Least while I Preach to others I my self should become one Rejected to whom the Prize is not Judg'd one unworthy the Prize Because he who Determines is a Righteous Judge and will not be Imposed upon with outsides or Formalities But here the great doubt is where is the Saint to be found who can stand before a Judge a Righteous Judge such a Righteous Judge as the Lord is And the alone Answer is according to what hath been said already That it depends wholly upon what hath been done by the Captain of their salvation His Obedience and his Sacrifice the Author and Finisher of Faith What he hath done without them That in which he was wholly alone and none of his with him and that which he works in all his as their Head of Life and Influences making them strong in the Grace that Resides supremely and vitally in Himself and flows continually into them and that by way of inward Residence and Possession by his Dwelling in them John 6. 57. And they in him Even as the Living Father sent him and he Lives by the Father so all Believers live by Him and in Him This then being the Fundamental Meritorious Account Christ All and in All there is a Glorious Resplendent Justice and Equity in Gods Adjudication of the Prize to all Saints in Him Because there is an exact Ballance between what is Christs and the Glory of the Crown and of the Prize So that Scripture delights in the use of the Word Just Righteous Righteousness in the Admensuration to all in Christ at that Day Just and the Justifier of Him that believes in Jesus He is Just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousuess by way of Acquitance and Judiciary discharge because The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son hath by satisfaction and Sacrifice for sin first cleansed from all unrighteousness 1 John 1. 10. And there is an Illustrious Ensign of Justice and Righteousness in the Judgment of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a Flag of Defyance against all Adversaries the Calumnies of Malicious Devils and enraged Spiof wicked Men 2 Thes 1. 5 c. Hung out we translate a manifest token in that Day a Day of Adjudging the Prizes That Day of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God Rom. 2. 5. And therefore the Crown is call'd as in some places a Crown of Glory 1 Pet. 5. 4. And a Crown of Life So here a Crown of Righteousness as due to Christ in his though to us as in our selves It is a Crown giveâ— the Gift of Free Grace as Eternal Life oâ—pos'd to Death the wages due demerit desert of Sin It is Free Gift in Jesus Chriâ—â— upholding the Glory of Justice and Rigteousness in that Gift 3. The Crown says the Apostle shall be given at that Day There are two Times eminently Styled in Scripture that Day 1. The Day of the first opening of the Glory of the Gospel and after a time of Eclipse by the Anti-christian Apostacy shining out again in Glory In which first and last the great Prophecies of Scripture are Fulfilled we find therefore often in the Prophet In those Days and In that Day as all Compriz'd under that great Point of time the Fulness of time the appearance of Christ in the Flesh Gal. 4. 4. And the time from thence running to his appearance 2. The that Day of the Appearance of Jesus Christ and of his Kingdom as they are joyn'd a little before the Text that Fulness of All Times when all shall be placed that is Happy and Blessed under their Head Eph. 1. 10. And so that Day is often used in the Epistles of the New Testament as here and continually that Great Day that Day wherein shall be so Glâ—â—â—us an Unveiling a Revelation of the things that have now been kept secret but shall then be sett out in the truest and most Glorious Light The Beauty of every thing in its own proper season to which God hath referr'd in that General Table of time God hath drawn and that Solomon gives in short the Heads off in that so wise Book the Book of Ecclesiastes or of the Preacher At the End of the several events there recorded saying God hath made every thing Beautiful in its season But because it does not or may not without wise References to that Eternal World be understood to be so He says God hath sett Eternity or the Eternal World in their Hearts Eccl. 3. 1 c. Then also are all the Great Misteries of the Gospel shall be clearly unfolded and laid open All the various dealings of God with his own and with the Men of his present Hand and might the Men of this World shall be unriddled and disengaged from all their Darks and Intricacies and the Crown sett with Glory and the Glory of Righteousness on all his Saints And this because it is the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God And then as the wicked shall be all in Horror Tribulation Anguish and Amazement So Christ will be Glorified in the Saints and Admired in all them who believe who have Fought the Good Fight so as not to beat the Air They have run not as Incertainly and as in Naval Contests have not Shipwrack'd but held fast the Faith And so the Crown Adjudg'd to them by the Righteous Judge of the Combatants and their Activities in and through their great Agonothetes Jesus Christ and the suprme Agonistes Master of All and cheif Combatant 4. The Apostle joyns with himself all those who Love the appearing of Jesus Christ as those whom the Righteous Judge will give the Crown of Righteousness unto And this expression offers two considerations to us 1. That seeing the Apostle gives this short Character of Saints in General and not so particularly as Fighting the good Fight Finishing all their course and keeping the Faith but Loving the appearance of Jesus Christ It shews there may be and there is a different eminency of Saints But as they all meet in the Head Root Corner Stone So whatever their different measures are in making up the full stâ—ture in Christ yet they are all alike in the Glory the Crown of Righteousness Because it is all given by grace in Christ and so the Least as well as the greateâ—t are Crown'd in Him He gives the same Crown
the Hearts of all to whom He Preached For speaking of the Preaching of the Gospel He saith The Weapons of our Warfare are mighty So with the open professed Oppositions to the Truth of Christ in his Redemption To the Jews a Scandal as it it was contrary to all the Revelation of God in the Old Testament and to the Gentiles Foolishness as if it had no Agreement with the Reason Learning and Wit of Men of Understanding and Accomplishment 1 Cor. 1. 23. 4. He had to Fight with the Powers of Darkness Spiritual Wickednesses in high Places as every Christian hath For as He says we War not That is not principally against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities and Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World And for the maintaining this Fight He had the same necessity with all Saints To take to himself the whole Armor of God that he might stand in the evil day and having drne all to stand Eph. 6. 10. 5. All the Persecutors and their cruelty like the Beasts of Ephesus in what Sense soever taken He had to Fight with wherein He suffered as an evil doer and was Killed all the Day long But in all He was more than a conqueror through him who Loved him 6. He had to Fight with Guilt Death and the Grave the Wrath to come and with all the unbelief of his own Heart But he over came by the continual Application He made to the Death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus who Loved him and gave himself for him in whom he desired to be Found So that he Ran up to that assurance to make that challenge who shall lay any thing to my â—harge as one of Gods Elect to be assured â—hat neither Life nor Death Things present nor Things to come should be able to separate him from the Love of Christ and so he could Sing that Triumphant Song Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin the Strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord as in the case of the Body of Sin and Death All he places still in Christ and thus we see on all accounts The Apostle Fought a good Fight and through Christ had the Prospect of a High and Noble End of the VVar that is of Victory Head 2. I come then to the Second Point of the Apostles Triumphing Declaration of his own State in Christ I have finished my course That we may rightly apprehend Here are two things to be understood by it I. The General course of a Christian State in its own Motion Action Conversation from the Time of Conversion unto the very Hour of Death This was one thing the Apostle understood by his course for God having drawn out the Line of Life as he hath seen fit for every one of his Servants Their course of Christian Action is by him drawn out proportionable So that there is no part to be unadorn'd Something of Publick Private Secret Unholy Action is to be applyed to every part of it There must be a Running to obtain It is called therefore Running the Race that is set before us Looking to Jesus to shew in whose strength the whole Race is run So It is expressed concerning David by his serving his Generation according to the will of God and of Johns fulfilling his course as a Servant of God in a Holy Conversation besides his Ministerial service How many great concernments hath every Christian to look to His Implantation into Christ Renovation New Creation The In-dwelling of the Spirit the Graces and Fruits of it His Living walking in the Spirit The work of Faith with Power Sorrow after God working Repentance to Salvation never to be Repented of The constraining Love of Christ the living to him the dying Dayly Converse with the Word of God Hearing Reading Meditation Holy Discourse Prayer Thanksgiving Self-denyal Sufferings being made meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light All these with much more set before us in Scripture shew us what the Race of a Christian is what his course is Now to find our Heart engag'd herein with all earnestness Pressing forward to reach the mark by the utmost stretch and extending our selves to it is what the Apostle speaks of himself He had run on in this Christian course on this Line to very near the End of his Line of Life and it is a Glorious Review of a sincere much more of an Eminent Christian while he can behold Christ the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and End of All All the Haltings the Falls False-steps the many Lingerings made up Answered and Attoned for by the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy sett before Him ran the whole course the Father Lin'd out to Him Doing always the things pleasing in his sight Who set every step according to his Obediential Love to the Father and thefore went forth to his Death with highest Resolution Let us Arise saith he and John 14. 31. Go hence He endured the Cross despised the shame and is set down on the right hand of the Majesty on High And thus his servants follow his steps and so we have reason to hope of this his Servant that she was swift she Finished her course she Finished the course she was sett in though a more private and retired one before she was Prohibited as the true sense of that word we Translate Not suffered signifies Heb. 7. 21. To continue any longer therein 2. There is yet a higher and more exalted sense of the Apostle Finishing his course not a more substantial or Fundamental sense For that is indeed the Fundamental All the redeemed of Christ in and by him running their course and so entring into their Masters Joy but there was also in all times a more Publick and high sphere of Action Into which God hath been pleased to raise some of his servants and there hath not been a higher then the Ministry of the Gospel and most particularly the Apostolick and to this undoubtedly the Apostle had regard when he here saith I have Finished my course For herein the Apostle had a Line given to him and a measure the measure of the Line which he would not stretch himself nor into other Mens Labours but according the Rule or Line prescribed him by God 2 Cor. 10. 13 c. And this was so abundant that he Laboured more abundanily then any other 1 Cor. 15. 10. He was the Apostle of the Gentiles Ministring the Gospel of God so to them that the offering up of the Gentiles might be a Sacrifice Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ being sanctified by the Holy Spirit which was indeed a high sphere of Christian Gospel-Activity and whereof he saith He might Glory And the Line was so every way enlarged that he Preached the Gospel round about from Jerusalem to Illyricum Rom. 15. 16 c. He did fully or Fulfil to
to the Last as to the First even as in the Parable Mat. 20. 2. In that all Saints Love the Appearance of Christ it is made certain They are those that have Fought Run hell fast the great Depositum Committed to them so as to obtain and not to be rejected the Faith which gives them the assurance and lifting up of the Head at the appearance of the great Judge and Arbitrator of the Prize and so they desire long for and Love his Appearance And thus I have given a breif View and Examination of the words of this Great Text. Applic. That which I would now infer from the whole discourse by way of Doctrinal conclusion by way of Practical enforcement by way of Consolation relating to the particular occasion shall be First That we would look to it To hold the Faith of Jesus Christ in its own Purity For the Gospel is so pure separate from all mixtures as Silver Purified in a Furnace of Earth Purified seven Times that we must not pervert it any way Every Word of God Prov. 30. 5 6. Much more the Great Gospel-Points Whoever add to it or diminish from it will be found Lyars unto it Blessed are they that trust in it It will be to them a Sheild of Salvation As to that Great Point Righteousness by Faith in Christ without works How suddenly do Men slide down to Another Gospel under the Apostles Anathema and yet It is not another but the clear pure streams of Gospel-Truth and Grace are hereby troubled and the satisfaction and comfort of Believers disturb'd and the Invitingness of it to strangers much obscur'd and defiled Now here in the subtility of the Enemies of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel is seen That they being afraid to take up the Insolent Anti-christian Word Merit or as the Apostle calls it Debt They would yet Privily bring in such a supposed presence of works after Grace as sincere obedience though not perfect into Justification as the condition of that Covenant upon which it justifies even as perfect obedience was the condition of the Covenant of Works and yet merit not once Named nor Allowed Because Adams strength to work by if he had rightly applyed it was indeed from the Bounty and Goodness of the Creator yet as in a way of Condecency of such a Creator to such a Creation as the Humane Nature that came pure and perfect out of His Hand But what Believers do is from Grace in Christ by and from His Spirit Vouchsafed to Sinners and so cannot Merit Now this hath indeed very great Truth in it Yet it doth not Answer the High Expression of the Gospel excluding all Created or Creature-Righteousness in the Court of Righteousness or Justification and placing all in the Righteousness of God by Faith in Jesus Christ In his obedience in his Expiation Filling up and so replenishing that Court That nothing else can enter but is kept out by the Flaming Sword of the Fiery Law Yea Angels that never sinn'd yet Cover their Faces Esa 6. and their Feet their Excellency and the Nakedness and Folly of all Created Being before Increated and consist in and by Christ Christ as the Head of Amity and Perseverance in their Glorious State and Adam not Flying to it upon those tenders of it signifid to Him as by that real evidence of it That he was and could be no more then the Figure of Him that was to come Rom. 5. 12. And that His and His Posteritys standing in Him was only their standing in Christ as this was also represented in those Sacramental Types the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Gen. 2. Warning Him against subsisting in Himself as a God knowing or able to determine Good and Evil but to look to the Tree of Life so great a Type of Christ as we find in the Revelation Nothing therefore can enter into the Court of Justification but Poor empty single Faith Receiving Owning Acknowledging Grace Receiving Grace in Abundance excluding all else and the Gift of Righteousness by Jesus Christ alone And to this it is enabled by Grace and Accepted only for that Righteousness sake it does receive As to the enforcement by way of Action and Practice we see in this Great Portraicture the Apostle gives of a Man in Christ that Fights the Good Fight Finishes his Course keeps the Faith That a Believer in Christ is not a Loose or an Idle Slothful Unactive Person but shall appear in that Day as of the Overcomers in those so Famed Games or Exercises of all Prowess Courage Action so as to be judg'd worthy of those Crowns of which they were so Ambitious though but corruptible by the justest Judges or Arbitrators of them So the Saints shall be presented before the Father the Lord Jesus the Eternal Spirit of Holiness and before Saints and Angels to the Terror and Amazement of all the Lost as Persons of distinct Excellency and the Overcomers as in the Apocalyptic Expression is repeated and yet all in Christ and to the Glory and Praise of Grace in Him So that the Doctrine of Free Grace is indeed the most Powerful Effective Fruitful Doctrine of Holyness and so is most Discriminative of Persons in Christ and with greatest severity on those who are not and of those who shall be thought worthy of the Crown and who not and yet without the least Injury to Free Grace in Christ 3. Great Consolation have they who knew our Deceased Friend who had always Admiring Adoring thoughts of Free Grace and thereby a great sense of Perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God but all through Christ strengthning Her and in Fighting Running holding fast an Eye to the Crown but as purchased for her by Jesus Christ and that therefore she Loved the Appearance of Jesus When the Crown already received shall with Glory be set upon her at that Day That we may yet enter into the deeper enquiry into and consideration of all this Triumphant Declaration of the Apostle concerning Himself and all Saints in that supreme Point their receiving the Crown of Righteousness I will propose to give a breif resolution of these following Points 1. How in the lost undone State of the Children of Adam there can arise such a Generation of Servants of God both more eminent and smaller in this World 2. How or why they fall all under the Prohibition of serving God any longer here in the World then the Finishing such a Course of service on such a Measure of their Line Prescribed by God 3. Why this Prohibition is serv'd upon them by Death Two Persons only Enoch and Elias and why they only excepted Herein I shall with all the care and Caution according to the understanding given to me by and from the Word of God Discourse each of these Point 1. It is indeed the wonder of Divine Grace and Power That there should have been and are such a Generation of the Servants of God in the World in every Age