tasting no sense that is the instrument of so neere a union as that So then as the motion of the mouth in eating is not in the nature of a motion any whit more excellent then the motion of the eye or foote or of it selfe in speaking yet in the instrumentall office of life and nourishment it is farre more necessarie So though Faith in the substance of it as it is an inherent qualitie hath no singular excellencie above other graces yet as it is an instrument of conveying Christ our spirituall Bread unto our soules and so of assimilating and incorporating us into Him which no other Grace can doe no more then the motion of the eye or foote can nourish the body so it is the most pretious and usefull of all others It may be objected doe not other graces joyne a man unto Christ as well as Faith Vnion is the proper effect of Love therefore wee are one with Christ as well by loving Him as by beleeving in Him To this I answere that Love makes onely a morall union in affections but Faith makes a mysticall union a more close and intimate fellowship in nature betweene us and Christ. Besides Faith is the immediate tie betweene Christ and a Christian but love a secondary union following upon and grounded on the former By nature we are all enemies to Christ and His Kingdome of the Iewes minde wee will not have this man to raigne over us therefore till by Faith wee are throughly perswaded of Christs Love to us we can never repay Love to Him againe Herein is Love saith the Apostle not that wee loved God but that Hee loved us and sent His Sonne 1. Ioh. 4 10. Now betweene Gods Love and ours comes Faith to make us One with Christ we have knowne and beleeved the Love that God hath to us ver 16. And hence it followes that because by Faith as Hee is so are wee in this world therefore Our love to Him is made perfect and so wee love Him because Hee first loved us vers 19. So that we see the union we have with Christ by Love presupposeth the Vnitie wee have in Him by Faith so Faith still hath the preeminence The second office wherein consists the excellencie of Faith is a consequent of the former namely to justifie a man for there is no man righteous in the sight of God any further then he is taken into the unitie of Christ and into the fellowship of His Merits God is alone well pleased in Christ and till a man be a member of His Bodie a part of His fulnesse hee cannot appeare in Gods presence This was the reason why Christ would have none of His bones broken or taken of from the Communion of His naturall body Ioh. 19. 36. to note the indissoluble union which was to bee betweene Him and His mysticall Members So that now as in a naturall bodie the member is certainely fast to the whole so long as the bones are firme and sound so in the mysticall where the body is there must every member be too because the bones must not be broken asunder If then Christ goe to Heaven if Hee stand unblameable before Gods justice we al shal in him appeare so too because his bones cannot be broken That which thus puts us into the Vnitie of Christ must needs Iustifie our persons and set us right in the presence of God and this is our Faith The Apostle gives two excellent reasons why our Iustification should be of Faith rather then of any other grace The first on Gods part that it might bee of Grace The second on the part of the promise that the promise might be sure to all the seede Rom. 4. 16. First Iustification that is by Faith is of meere Grace and favour no way of worke or merit For the Act whereby Faith Iustifies is an act of humility and selfe-dereliction a holy despaire of any thing in our selves and a going to Christ a receiving a looking towards Him and His Al-sufficiencie so that as Marie said of her selfe so we may say of Faith The Lord hath respect unto the lowlynes of his grace which is so farre from looking inward for matter of Iustification that it selfe as it is a worke of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere doth not justifie but onely as it is an apprehension or taking hold of Christ. For as the hand in the very receiving of a thing must needs first make it selfe emptie If it bee full before it must let all that goe ere it can take hold on any other thing So Faith being a receiving of Christ Ioh. 1. 12. must needes suppose an emptinesse in the soule before Faith hath two properties as a Hand To worke and to receive when Faith purifies the heart supports the droaping spirits worketh by love carries a man through afflictions and the like these are the workes of Faith when Faith Accepts of righteousnesse in Christ and receives Him as the gift of His Fathers Love when it embraceth the promises a farre of Heb. 11. 13. and layes hold on Eternall Life 1. Tim. 6. 12. This is the receiving act of Faith Now Faith justifies not by working lest the effect should not bee wholly of Grace but partly of Grace and partly of worke Ephesians 2. 8 9. but by bare receiving and accepting or yeelding consent to that righteousnesse which in regard of working was the righteousnesse of Christ Rom. 5. 18. and in regard of disposing imputing appropriating unto us was the righteousnesse of God Rom. 3. 21. 1. Cor. 1 30. Phil 3. 9. To make the point of Iustification by the receiving and not the working of Faith plaine let us consider it by a familiar similitude Suppose a Chirurgian should perfectly cure the hand of a poore man from some desperate wound which utterly disabled him for any worke when he hath so done should at one time freely bestow some good almes upon the man to the receiving whereof he was enabled by the former cure and at another time should set the man about some worke unto the which likewise the former cure had enabled him and the worke being done should give him a reward proportionable to his labour I demaund which of these two gifts are arguments of greater grace in the man either the recompensing of that labour which was wrought by the strength hee restored or the free bestowing of an equall gift unto the receiving whereof likewise he himselfe gave abilitie Any man will easily answere that the gift was a worke of more free grace then the reward though unto both way was made by His owne mercifull cure for all the mercy which was shewed in the cure was not able to nullifie the intrinsecall proportion which afterwards did arise betweene the worke and the reward Now this is the plaine difference betweene our doctrine and the doctrine of our adversaries in the point of Iustification They say we are justified by Grace and yet by workes because
services 246 In the best there is a partiall impotency 250 What a man should doe when he finds himselfe disabled and deaded in good workes 253 2. It is an estate of extreme enmitie against God and his waies 255 How the spirit by the Commandement doth convince men to be in the state of sinne 258 The spirit by the commandement convinceth men to bee under the guilt of sinne 260 There is a naturall conviction of the guilt of sinne and 260 There is a spirituall and evangelicall conviction of the guilt of sinne 261 What the guilt and Punishments of sinne are 262 ROM 6. 12. Sinne will abide in the time of this mortall life in the most Holie 273 Our death with Christ unto sinne is a strong argument against the raigne of it 275 Difference betweene the regall and tyrannicall power of Sinne. 277 Whether a man belong unto Christ or sinne 279 Sinne hath much strength from it selfe 282 from Satan and the world 285 from us 285 What it is to obey sinne in the lusts thereof 286 Whether sinne may Raigne in a regenerate man 288 How wicked men may be convinc'd that sinne doth raigne in them Two things make up the raigne of sinne 1. In sinne power 290 2. In the sinner a willing and vncontroled subiection 290 Three exceptions against the evidence of the raigne of sinne in the wicked 291 1. There may be a raigne of sinne when it is not discerned 292 Whether small sinnes may raigne 293 Whether secret sinnes may raigne 294 Whether sins of ignorance may raigne 295 Whether naturall concupiscence may raigne 296 Whether sinnes of omission may raigne 296 2. Other causes besides the power of Christs Grace may worke a partiall abstinence from sinne and conformitie in service 1. The power of restraining grace 298 Differences between restraining and renewing Grace 2. Affectation of the credit of godlinesse 302 3. The Power of pious education 304 4. The legall power of the word 305 5. The power of a naturall illightned Conscience 305 6. Selfe love and particular ends 307 7. The antipathy and contradiction of sinnes 309 3. Differences betweene the conflicts of a naturall and spirituall conscience 1. In the Principles of them 310 2. In their seates and stations 313 3. In the manner and qualities of the conflict 314 4. In their effects 316 5. In their ends 317 Why every sinne doth not raigne in every wicked man 317 2. COR. 7. 1. The Apostles reasons against Idolatrous communion 321 The doctrine of the pollution of sinne 322 The best workes of the best men mingled whith pollution 325 The best workes of wicked men full of pollution 237 What the pollution of sinne is 328 The properties of the pollution of sinne 1. It is a deepe pollution 329 2. It is an universall Pollution 330 3. It is a spreading Pollution 330 4. It is a mortall Pollution 332 Why God requireth that of us which he worketh in us 335 How promises tend to the dutie of cleansing ourselves 1. Promises containe the matter of rewards and so presuppose services 337 2. Promises are efficient causes of purification 1. As tokens of Gods love Love the ground of making fidelity of performing Promises 338 2. As the grounds of our hope and expectations 340 3. As obiects of our faith 342 4. As the raies of Christ to whom they lead us 345 5. As exemplars patterns and seeds of puritie 346 3. Many promises are made of purification itselfe 347 Rules directing how to use the Promises 1. Generall Promises are particularly and particulars generally appliable 350 2. Promises are certaine performances secret 352 3. Promises are subordinated and are performed with dependence 357 4. Promises most usefull in extremities 359 5. Experience of God in some promises confirmeth faith in others 360 6. The same temporall blessing may belong to one man onely out of providence to another out of promise 361 7. Gods promises to us must be the ground of our prayers to him 364 ROM 7. 13. The Law is neither sinne nor death 368 The Law was promulgated on Mount Sina by Moses onely with Evangelicall purposes 371 God will doe more for the salvation then for the damnation of men 372 The Law is not given ex primaria intentione to condemne men 385 The Law is not given to iustifie or save men 386 The Law by accident doth irritate and punish or curse sinne 386 The Law by itselfe doth discover and restraine sinne 387 Preaching of the Law necessary 388 Acquaintance with the Law strengthens Humility Faith Comfort Obedience 392 The third Treatise The Life of Christ. 1. IOH. 5. 12. ALL a Christians excellencies are from Christ. 400 1. From Christ wee have our life of righteousnesse 401 Three Offices of Christs mediatorship His Payment of our debt 401 Purchase of our inheritance 401 Intercession 401 Righteousnesse consisteth in remission and adoption 402 By this Life of righteousnesse we are delivered from 1. Sinne. 403 2. Law as a Covenant of righteousnesse Law full of Rigor Curses Bondage 2. From Christ we have our life of holinesse 407 Discoveries of a vitall operation 407 Christ is the Principle of our holinesse 409 Christ is the patterne of holinesse 410 Some workes of Christ imitable others unimitable 410 Holinesse beares conformity to Christs active obedience 412 How we are said to be holy as Christ is holy 413 Holinesse consists in a conformitie unto Christ. Proved from 1. The ends of Christs comming 415 2. The nature of holinesse 416 3. The quality of the mysticall body of Christ. 418 4. The vnction of the Spirit 418 5. The summe of the Scriptures 419 The proportions betweene our holinesse and Christs must be 1. In the seeds and principles 419 2. In the ends Gods glory the Churches good 420 3. In the parts 4. In the manner of it Selfe-deniall 421 Obedience 422 Proficiencie 423 What Christ hath done to the Law for us 423 We must take heed of will-holinesse or being our owne Rule 425 Christs life the Rule of ours 427 3. From Christ wee have our life of glorie 429 The attributes or properties of our Life in Christ 1. It is a hidden life 432 2. It is an abounding life 437 3. It is an abiding life 438 No forrsigne assult is too hard for the life of Christ 439 Arguments to reestablish the heart of a repenting sinner against the terror of some great fall from 1. The strength of Faith 442 2. The love and free grace of God 446 3. Gods Promise and covenant 448 4. The obsignation of the spirit 449 5. The nature and effects of Faith 449 THE VANITIE OF THE CREATVRE AND VEXATION OF THE SPIRIT By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostock 1631. Christian Reader Importunitie of Friends hath over-rul'd me to this Publication and importunitie of businesse crossing me in the putting of these pieces together hath made
Law for Lawes are made to binde and hold men fast and therefore the Apostle cals lust a Law because it commands and holds under all our members to the obedience of it Therefore wicked men are call'd the Servants of sinne and the best of us are Captives that is unwilling servants Which notes such a strength of sinne as cannot ex toto be altogether withstood So much flesh and uncircumcisednesse as a man hath in him so much disabilitie likewise hath he to withstand sinne In the wicked it hath an absolutenesse an universall and uncontroled power First they cannot but sinne they can doe nothing but sinne Without faith it is impossible to please God and to the impure and uncleane every thing is uncleane His mercies cruell his prayers abomination his offerings the sacrifice of fooles Secondly if they seeme to forsake any sinne 't is not of hatred to that as a sinne for he that said Thou shalt not commit adultery said also Thou shalt not kill but it is because they preferre others before it A man that hath many concubines may so dote upon some particulars as that the rest haply may goe untouch'd or but cursorily saluted and yet that is no argument of hatred to them but of preferring the others So a mans hart may be so takē up with the pursuit of some Herodias some darling lust as that others may seeme utterly neglected and scorn'd when the truth is The hart that playes the adulterer with any sin doth indeed hate none Thirdly if by the power of the Word they be frighted from the sinne they most love yet lust will carry them to it againe as a Sow returneth to the mire or a man to his wife Fourthly if they should be so fir'd and terrified away that they durst never actually returne againe yet even then lust will make them wallow in speculatiue uncleannesse their thoughts their delights their sighs their byas would still hanker the other way As lust may dog and pester and overtake a holy man that hates it and yet hee hates it still so the Word may frightand drive a wicked man from the sinne hee loves and yet still hee loves it Fifthly this sinne as it keepes men in love with all sinne so it keepes men off from all good duties It is as a chaine upon all our faculties an iron gate that keepes out any good thought or poysons it when it comes in In the faithfull themselves likewise it is exceeding strong by antiperistasis from the Law to deceive captivate sell as a slave to make him doe that which he hated and allowed not and not doe that which he would and lov'd It may seeme a paradoxe at the first but it is a certaine truth Originall sinne is stronger in the faithfull then those very Graces which they have received Vnderstand it thus A man giveth to a prodigall sonne a great portion into his owne hands and then gives over the care of him and leaves him to himselfe iin this Case though the money of it selfe were sufficient to keepe him in good quality yet his owne folly and the Crowes that haunt the carkasse those sharking companions that cleave to him will suddenly exhaust a great estate So if the Lord should give a man a stocke of Grace as much as David or Paul had and there stop and furnish him with no further supplyes but give over the care and protection of him his lusts are so strong and cunning as they would suddenly exhaust it all and reduce him to nothing For this is certaine that to be preserved from the strength of our owne lusts we have not onely use of the good graces which God hath given us already per modum principij inhaerentis but of a continued support and under propping per modum principij adsistentis of those daily succours and supplies of the Spirit of Grace which may goe before us and leade into all truth and teach us the way which we are to walk in which may stil say to our lusts in our bosome as he did to Satan at the right hand of Iehoiada The Lord rebuke thee that may still whisper in our eares that blessed direction This is the way walke in it Though a man were able to devoure as much at one meale as was spent upon Bel the Idoll yet he would quickly perish without further supplyes so though a man should have a great portion of Grace and then be given over to himselfe that would not preserve him from falling againe Grace in us is but like the putting of hot water into cold it may warme it for the time but the water will reduce it selfe to its wonted temper cold is predominant even when the water scalds with heate but that which keepes water hot is the preserving of fire still about it so it is not the Graces which the best of us receive if God should there stop and leave us to them and our selves together that would overcome sinne in us but that which preserves us is his promise of never failing us of putting under his hand of renewing his mercies daily to us of healing our back slidings of following us with his goodnes mercy all the dayes of our life of keeping us by his power unto saluation through faith that same which Fulgentius excellently calls Iuge Auxilium the daily ayde and supply of Grace For Grace doth not onely prevent a wicked man to make him righteous but followes him least hee become wicked againe not onely preuent him that is fallen to rayse him but follow him after he is risen that he fall not againe Consider further what a multitude and swarme of lusts and members this body of sinne hath and how they concurre in the unitie of one body too For this is worth the nothing that sometimes they are cald in the singular number sinne to note their unitie and conspiration and sometimes in the plurail number lusts and members to note their multitudes and serviceablenesse for severall purposes And what can bee stronger then an Army consisting of multitudes of men and weapons reduc'd all to a wonderfull unitie of mindes ends and order So then both in regard of its regall authoritie of its edicts and lawes of government of its multitude of members and unitie of body originall sinne must needs be very strong Ninthly consider the madnesse of this sinne The heart of man saith Salomon is full of evill and madnesse is in his heart while he lives Insania is a generall word and hath two kinds or species of madnesse in it madnesse or unsoundnesse in passions which is furor rage and fiercenes and madnesse or unsoundnesse in the Intellectuals which is Amentia folly or being out of ones right mind And both these are in originall sinne First it is full of fiercenesse rage precipitancy when ever it sets it selfe on worke the driving thereof is like the driving of Iehu very furious This disposition
adultery The thiefe on the Crosse had as good a will to crucifie Christ to naile him and pierce him as any others but hee was fast enough for doing this yet his malice will finde a vent into his tongve to revile and raile upon him Balaams tongve could not execute the office to which hee was hir'd yet it will have a vent and shew it selfe in journeying counselling and consulting how the people might draw a curse upon themselves As a dogge may have his stomack cram'd usque ad vomitum and yet his appetite unsatisfied for hee presently returnes to his vomit so though a man may lode and weary himselfe in the acting of sinne yet lust it selfe is never satisfied and therefore never wearied What a watch then should we keepe over our evill hearts what paines should wee take by prayer and unweariednesse of spirit to suppresse this enemy If there were any time wherein the flesh did sit still and sleepe wherein the water did not runne and seeke for vent wee might then haply slacken our care but since it is ever stirring in us wee should bee ever stirring against it and using all meanes to lessen and abate it since the heart is unwearied in evill we should not faint nor be weary of well-doing Since the heart is so abundant in evill wee should abound likewise in every good work of the Lord alwayes considering what advantage this labour will give us against the toyle of sinne in lust a man wearieth himselfe and hath no hope but here our labour is not in vaine in the Lord wee shall reape if wee faint not and a little glory in heaven nay a little comfort in earth though neither one nor other may be called little will be a most plentifull recompence pressed downe and running over for any the greatest paines that can bee taken in this spirituall watch Yee have need of patience saith the Apostle to goe through the will of God to bee in a perpetuall combate and defiance with an enemy that will give no respite nor breathing time The temptations of Satan the solicitations of the world are not so many nor heauie clogs to men in their race as that to which they are fastned this weight that presseth downe this besieging sinne which is ever enticing clamouring haling rebelling intruding with love with strength with law with arguments with importunities calling a man from his right way From this consideration the Apostle immediately inferres this duty of patience Lay aside every waight saith the Apostle and the sinne that doth so easily beset us and runne with patience unto the race that is set before us And we must not cast our eye alwayes to the clog which wee draw that may much dis-hearten us but looke unto Iesus the Author and finisher of our faith hee that can carry us through all these difficulties that gives us weapons that teacheth our hands to warre and our fingers to fight that is our Captaine to leade us and our second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our fellow-Combatant that fighteth against sinne in us by his grace Looke what hee did what contradiction hee endured lest yee bee wearied and faint in your minds Looke what he promiseth a victory against our lusts and a Crowne after our victory Looke when he commeth 't is yet but a little while The comming of the Lord draweth nigh the Lord is at hand Call to him he is within the voyce of thy prayer hee will come to strengthen thee waite upon him he is within the eye of thy Faith he will come to reward thee Looke upon the Cloud of witnesses those that are now the Church of the first-borne and have their Palmes in their hands they all went through the same combate they were all beset with alike infirmities they were all men of the same passions with us let us bee men of the same patience with them Now lastly consider the Propagation of this sinne Which may therefore well be called an old man because it dies not but passeth over from one generation to another A mans Actuall sinnes are personall and therefore Intransient they begin and end in himselfe but originall sinne is naturall and therefore with the nature it passeth over from a man to his posteritie It is an entaile that can never be cut of it hath held from Adam and will so continue to the worlds end holding al men in an unavoidable service and villanage unto Satan the Prince of this world In Humane Tenures if a man leave a personall estate to all his children indefinitely without singling out and designing this portion to one and that to another though it bee true to say that there is nothing in that estate which any one of the children can lay an entire clayme unto as his owne but that the rest have joynt interest in it for the children though many in persons are yet but one proprietarie in regard of right in the estate of their father till there be a severance made yet notwithstanding a Partition may be legally procur'd and there is a kinde of virtuall or fundamentall severance before which was the ground of that which is afterwards reall and legall But now in this wretched Inheritance of sin which Adam left to all his posterity we are to note this mischiefe in the first place that there is no virtuall partition but it is left whole to every childe of Adam All have it and yet every one hath it all too Soe that as Philosophers say of the Reasonable soule That it is whole in the whole and that it is whole in every part so wee may say of originall concupiscence It is Tota in Genere Humano and Tota in quolibet homine All in mankinde and all in every particular man There is no law of partition for one man to have to him in peculiar the lusts of the eye another to him the lusts of the tongue another to him the lusts of the eare c. but every man hath euery lust originally as full as all men together have it Secondly we are to note a great difference further between the Soule sin in this regard though all the soule be in every member as wel as in the whole body yet it is not in the same manner and excellency in the parts as in the whole For it is in the whole to all the purposes of life sense and motion but in the parts the whole Soule serves but for some speciall businesses All the soule is in the eye and all in the eare but not in either to all purposes for it sees onely in the eye and it heares onely in the eare But originall sinne is all in every man and it serves in every man to all purposes Not in one man onely to commit adulterie in another idolatry in another murther or the like but in every man it serves to commit sinne against all the Law to breake every one of Gods commandements A whole thing may belong wholly
unto two men in severall by diverse wayes of propriety or unto sundry purposes A house belongs wholly to the Landlord for the purpose of profit and revenew and wholly to the tenant for the purpose of use and inhabitation but it seemes in ordinary reason impossible for the same thing to belong wholly to sundry men in regard of al purposes for which it serves But such an ample propriety hath every man to originall sinne that he holds it all and to all purposes for which it serves For though some sinnes there are which cannot by some men bee properly committed properly I say because by way of provocation or occasion or approbation or the like one man may participate in the sinnes which another commits as a King cannot be 〈◊〉 to his superiors in governement because he hath no superiors a lay man cannot commit the sinneâ—… of a Minister an unmarried man the sinnes of a husband c. yet this disability ariseth out of the exigence of personall conditions but no way out of the limitednesse or impotency of originall sinne which in every man serves to all the purposes which can consist with that mans condition and as his condition alters so is it likewise fruitfull unto new sinnes And these are two great aggravations of this sinnefull inheritance That it comes whole unto every man and that every man hath it unto all the purposes for which it serves Thirdly it is to be observ'd that in originall sin as in all other there are two things Deordination or sinfulnes and Guilt or obligation unto punishment And though the former of these be inseparable from nature in this life yet every man that beleeveth and repenteth hath the damnation thereof taken away it shall not prove unto him mortall But now this is the calamitie Though a man have the guilt of this sinne taken of from his person by the benefit of his owne faith and the grace of Christ to him yet still both the deordination and the guilt passeth over unto his posteritie by derivation from him For the former the case is most evident what ever is borne of flesh is flesh no man can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane an evill roote must bring forth evill branches a bitter fountaine corrupt streames leaven will derive sowernesse into the whole masse and the Fathers treason will staine the blood of all his posterity And it is as certaine for the latter that though guilt and punishment may bee remitted to the Father yet from him it may be transmitted to his childe Every parent is the chanell of death to his posterity Totum gonuâ—… 〈◊〉 fecit Adam is damnationis traduceâ—… Adam did diffuse and propagate damnation unto all mankind Neither is 〈◊〉 any wonder or injustice that from a cursed roote should proceed branches fit for nothing but the fire As a Iew that was circumcised brought forth an uncircumcised sonne as cleane crne sowed comes up with chaffe and stubble as the seed of a good Olive brings forth a wilde Olive so is it with the best that are their Graces concurre not to naturall generation and therefore from them is nothing naturally propagated For first the wiping off of Guilt while the fault abides is an Act of Grace and pardon now pardons are ever immediate from speciall favour from direct grant and therefore cannot runne in the bloud nor come to a man in the vertue of his birth or by derivation especially where the pardon runnes not in generall termes but personally by way of priviledge and exemption and that too upon certaine conditions the performance and vertue whereof is intransient and cannot availe any by way of imputation or redundancie Secondly though the personall Guilt be off from the man yet the ground of that Guilt the damnablenesse or liablenesse to be imputed unto punishment is inseparable from sin though sin be not mortall de facto So as to bring damnation to the person justified yet it never ceaseth to be mortall de merito that is to be damnable in it selfe in regard of its owne nature and obliquity though in event and execution the damnable vertue of sinne be prevented by faith which cures it and by repentance which forsakes and cuts it off For wee must observe that To merit damnation belongs to the nature of sinne but to bring forth damnation belongs to the accomplishment and finishing of sinne when it is suffered to grow to its measure never interrupted never prevented God hath patience toward sinners and waiteth for their repentance and doth not presently powre out all his wrath if in this interim men will bee perswaded in the day of their peace to accept of mercy offer'd and to Breake of sinnes before the Epha be full then their sinnes shall not end in Death But if they neglect all Gods mercie and goe on still till there be no remedie then sinne growes to a ripenesse and will undoubtedly bring forth Death Since therefore the nature of sinne passeth to posterity even when the guilt thereof is remitted in the paâ—…ent needs must the guilt thereof passe too till by grace it be done away Fourthly In originall sinne there is a twofold denomination or formalitie It is both a Sinne and a Punishment of sinne For it is an absurd conceite of some men who make it an impossibility for the same thing to be both a sinne and a punishment When a prodigall spends all his mony upon uncleannes is not this mans poverty both his sin and his punishment When a drunkard brings diseases on his body and drownes his reason is not that mans impotencie and sottishnesse both his sin and his punishment Indeed sinne cannot rightly be cald an inflicted punishment for God doth not put it into any man yet it no way implies contradiction but rather abundantly magnifies the justice and wisedome of Almighty God to say that he can order sinne to bee a scourge and punishment to it selfe And so Saint Austen cals it a penall vitiousnesse or corruption So that in the derivation of this â—…in wee have unto us propagated the very wrath of God It is like Aarons rod on our part a branch that buddeth unto iâ—…iquitie and on Gods part a Serpent that stingeth unto Death So that Adam is a twofold cause of this sinne in his posterity A meritorious cause he did deserve it by prevarication as it was a punishment an efficient cause he doth derive it by contagion as it is a sinne And this is the wretchednesse of this sinne that it is not onely a meanes to bring the wrath of God upon us but is also some part and beginning of the wrath of God in us and so is as it were the earnest and first fruits of damnation Not as if it were by God infus'd into our nature for wee have it put into us no other way but by seminall contagion and propagation from Adam but God seeing man throw away and wast
against the Kingdome of Christ in â—…e and I find by daylie experience what foiles he gives me what captivitie he holds me under how unable I am to hold conflict with but some one of his Lusts how unfurnish'd with such generall strength as is requisite to meet so potent an adversary in this case a man will bee very apt to faint and bee wearied in his striving against sinne And therefore to encourage and quicken us unto patience wee must not seeke our selves in our selves nor fix upon the measure and proportion of our former graces but runne to our faith and hold fast our confidence which will make us hope above hope and bee strong when wee are weake Wee must looke unto Iesus and consider first his grace which is sufficient for us Secondly his power which hath already begunne faith and a good worke in us Thirdly his promise which is to finish it for us Fourthly his compassion and assistance he is our second ready to come in in any danger and undertake the quarrell Fifthly his example he passed through alike contradiction of sinners as wee doe of lusts Sixthly his neerenesse he is at the dore it is yet but a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Seventhly his Glory which is in our quarrell engaged and in our weakenesse perfected Eighthly his reward which hee brings with him it is for an eternall weight of glory that wee wrestle Ninthly his faithfulnesse to all that Clowd of witnesses those armies of Saints whome he hath carried through the same way of combates and temptations before us and whose warfare is now accomplished Lastly his performances already First he maketh the combate every day easier then before our Inner man growes day by day the house of David is stronger and stronger and the house of Saul weaker and weaker And Secondly as in all other afflictions so in this especially hee giveth unto us a peaceable fruit of righteousnesse after wee have beene exercised in it But you will say these are good encouragements to him that knowes How to do this worke but how shall I that am Ignorant and impotent know how to suppresse and keepe downe so strong an enemie with any patience or constancy that all this workes in me To this I answere first consider wherein mainely the strength of lust lies and then applie your preventions and oppositions accordingly The strength of lust is in these particulars First it 's wisdome and cunning craftinesse whereby it lies in waite and is upon the catch of every advantage to set forward its owne ends Secondly it's suggestions perswasions titillations treaties flatteries dalliances with the soule which like the smiles of a harlot entice and allure the heart to condescend to some experience and practice with it Thus Evah being deceived fell into the transgression For the suggestion quickly begets delight and delight as easily growes into consent and when the Will like the Master-Fort is taken the inferiour members 〈◊〉 no longer stand out Thirdly its promises and presumptions its threatnings and affrightments for Hopes and fear as are the edges of temptation Lust seldome or never prevailes till it have begotten some expectation of fruit in it till it can propose some wages and pleasures of iniquitie some peace and immunitie against dangers or judgements denounced wherewith men may flatter themselves some unprofitablenesse toyle and inconvenience in a contrary strictnesse Lust deales with the soule as Iael with Sisera first it calls a man in gives him milke and butter coveâ—…s him with a mantle and casts him into a quiet and secure sleepe and then after brings out the naile and hammer to fasten him unto death and yet all this while a man saith not within himselfe What have I done there is no hope after all this my wearinesse in the tent of Iael in the promises of lust but like the Mother of Sisera cherisheth vast expectations and returneth answers of spoyles and purchases to himselfe We will 〈◊〉 Incense to the Queene of Heaven say the people to â—…my we have not onely great and publike examples 〈◊〉 Fathers our Kings our Princes our Cities but great Rewards to encourage us thereunto for then had wee pleâ—…y of victuals and wâ—…re well and saw no evill I will go after my Lovers that give me my bread and my water my wool and my flax mine oyle and my drinke neither did shee ever returne to her first husband till shee found by evident experience that it was then better with her then amongst her idoles So that which made that hypocriticall people weary of the wayes and worship of God was the unprofitablenesse which they conceiv'd to be in his service and the unequalnesse of his wayes whereas indeed the fault was in their owne unsincerity and evill ends For the Word of the Lord doth good to those that walke vprightly as the Prophet speakes Fourthly its Lawes and Edicts whereby it setteth the members aworke and publisheth its owne will and that either under the shew of reason for sinne hath certaine Maximes and principles of corrupted reason which it takes for indubitable and secure wherewith to countenance its tyrannicall commands or else under the shape of Emoluments and Exigences and Inevitablenesse which may serve to warrant those commands that are otherwise destitute even of the colour of reason Like that device of Caiaphas when they knew not how to accuse Christ or charge him with any face of capitall crimes yet hee had found out a way that though there were no personall reasons nor iust grounds to proceede upon yet admitting and confessing the innocencie of the person of Christ the Expedience notwithstanding and Exigencie of state so requiring it fitter it was for one innocent person to perish and thereby the safety of the common wealth which depended upon their homage to the Romanes to be secur'd then by the preservation of one man to have the welfare of the whole people lie at hazard and exposed to the feaâ—…es and jealousies and displeasures of the Romans who by publike fame were very suspicious of an universall prince which was to arise out of Iudea and none so likely to be the man as he who could raise dead men out of their graves and so be never destitute of armies to helpe him so though there was no â—…quum est yet there was an expâ—…dit though no reason or iustice yet there was Exigence and Expediencie why hee ought to die though not as a malefactor to satisfie for his owne offence yet as a sacrifice to expiate and to prevent those evils of state which the fame of his mighty workes might have occasion'd And thus doth sinne deale with men sometimes by the helpe of corrupt reason and counterfeite maxi neâ—… it makes the sinnes which are commanded seeme warrantable and equall sometimes where the things are apparantly evill and cannot bee iustified yet by pretence of
O thou whom my Soule loveth where thou lodgest at noone When Ezekiah could not pray he chatter'd and peep'd and when thou art not able to speake thy desires the Spirit can forme thy sighs into prayers Lastly when still thou art heavie and in darknesse flie to thy Faith take Iobs resolution though he slay me with discomforts yet I will trust in him angry though he may be yet hee cannot be unfaithfull though hee may like Ioseph conceale his affection for a time yet impossible it is that he should shut up his compassions and renounce the protection of such as in truth depend upon him Who is there amongst you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voyce of his Servant that walketh in darkenesse and hath no light Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God Esay 50. 10. God will ever have us so much Conscious of our owne defects and sensible of our owne disabilities as that wee may still runne to the Sanctuary of our Faith and rest on him not glory or rely upon our selves And now if our Impotencie drive us to the grace of Christ make us more vâ—…e in our owne eyes and crie out with the Apostle of our owne wretchednesse there may be as much life and obedience All over as when this or that particular duty was performed with more vigor for that which was wanting in our strength may be made up in our humilitie and this is a sure rule God is more praysed and delighted in those graces unto which humilitie doth more essentially belong as Faith Spirituall sense of our owne disabilities and the like then in any others And thus as a small heape of gold may be equall in value to a greater of silver so though in other regards we should be many times weake yet if the sense of that make us more humble and the lesse holdfast wee have of any thing in our selves make us take the faster hold of the hope that is set before us we may be equally acceptable in the sight of God who doth not Iudge of us according to our sense of our selues but hath respect to the lowlinesse of his Servants and of their Graces The second thing I wil but name having largely insisted upon it from another Text that is that the estate of sin is an estate of enmitie against God and his wayes this is amongst other characters of wicked men by nature that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haters of God Rom. 1. 30. and Enemies of the crosse of Christ by minding earthly things Phil. 3. 18. 19. and this by nature is universall the Apostle useth three expressions for the same thing when we were sinners when we were without strength and when we were enemies Rom. 5. 6 8 10. to note that Impotencie and Eâ—…itie is as wide as sinne and therefore else where he saith that we were enemies by wicked workes Col 1. 21. And our Saviour maketh it all one not to love him and not to keepe his sayings Ioh. 14. 24. and to refuse subjection unto him and to be his enemie Luk. 19. 27. The very mindes of men and their wisedome their purest faculties their noblest operations that wherein they retaine most of the Image of God still is yet sensuall earthly fleshly divellish enmity against him Iam. 3. 15. Rom. 8. 7. In a word Wee are by Nature enemies to the Will of God by rejecting his Word Ier. 6. 10 8 9 1 19 44 16. 2. Chron. 36 16. Zech. 7. 11. Matth. 23. 37. Act. 13. 45. 46. Enemies to the Spirit of God by withstanding his Operations Act. 7. 51. Gal. 5. 17. Act. 6. 9. 10. Enemies to the Notions of God by disliking and suppressing the thoughts and knowledge of him Rom. 1. 18 21 28. Rom. 3. 11. Enemies to the righteousnesse of God by setting up our owne workes and merits Rom 9. 32. 1. Cor. 1. 23. Enemies to the wayes of God by fulfilling our owne lusts and wicked workes Col. 1. 21. Iob. 21. 14 15. Enemies to the Servants of God in persecutions and cruell workings c. Ioh. 15. 19. 2. Tim. 3. 3. Esai 8. 18. Zech. 3. 8. Gal. 4. 29. Heb. 11. 36. And how should the consideration of this fetch us in to the righteousnesse of Christ make us fall downe and adore that mercie which spared and pittied us when we were his enemies Consider but two things First what an vngratefull thing Secondly what a foolish thing it is to be Gods enemies as every man is that continues in sinne without returning unto him First how ungratefull He is our Father Adam the Sonne of God Luk. 3. 38. and therefore there is due unto him Honor He is our Master and therefore there is due unto him feare and service He is our Benefactor He left not himselfe without a witnesse All we are All we enioy is from him He is the Fountaine of our life It is his mercy that we are not consumed his compassions faile not Therefore there is due unto him Love and Reverence He is our Purchaser He bought us out of bondage when wee had sould away our selves therefore there is due unto him Fealty and Homage nay he humbled himselfe in Christ to bee our Brother to be our Husband He tooke our ragges our sores our diseases and paines upon him and therefore there is due unto him all Fidelity and Obedience O what an aggravation will this be against the sinnes of men at the Last day that they have beene committed against the Mercie and Patience against the Bountie and Purchase nay against the very Consanguinitie of God himselfe Hee died for us when we were Enemies and we will continue Enemies against him that died for us And yet the folly is as great as the impietie Consider what God is The Iudge of all the World All Eye to see All Eare to heare All Hand to finde out and punish the sinnes and provocations that are done unto him A Iealous God and jealousie is most impatient of disaffection A consuming fire and who amongst us can dwell with devouring fire who amongst us can dwell with everlasting burnings Doe we provoke the Lord to Iealousie are wee stronger then hee Saint Paul hath resolv'd his owne question before as long as wee are Enemies wee are without strength And now for the Clay to contend with the Potter for the Postheard to smite the Rocke for impotencie to stand up against Omnipotencie what a madnesse is it Let us learne wisedome from our Saviours parable Consider whether wee with our tenne thousand are able to goe out against him that meeteth us with twentie thousand whether wee with our ten thousand flies and lusts are able to meete him with twentie thousand Angels and Iudgements And when we are indeed convinc'd that in his presence no flesh living shall be justified that it is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the Living God that our hands will not be
comprehending the head and the members in the unitie of one body So then every Promise carrying us to that Vnitie which we have with Christ by his spirit who is therefore call'd a spirit of Adoption because he vesteth us with the sonneship of Christ and a spirit of holinesse and renovation because he sanctifieth us by the resurrection of Christ doth thereby purifie us from dead workes and conforme the members to the Head building them up in an holy Temple and into an habitation of God through that spirit by whom we are in Christ. In one word Our interest in the Promises is grounded upon our being in Christ and being one with him and our being in him is the ground of our purification Every branch in me that bringeth forth fruite my father purgeth that it may bring forth more fruite And in this respect the promises may be said to purifie as still carrying us to our interest in Christ in whom they are founded Fifthly and lastly the Promises are causes of our purification as Exemplars patterns and seeds of purity unto us For the Promises are in themselves Exceeding great and pretious Every Word of God is pure and tryed like gold seven times in the fire it is right and cleane and true and altogether righteous and therefore very lovely and attractive apt to sanctifie and cleanse the soule Sanctifie them by thy truth saith Christ thy Word is truth and againe Now ye are cleane through the Word which I have spoken unto you For the Word is Seed and seede a similates earth and dirt into its owne pure and cleane nature So by the Word there is a trans-elementation as it were and conforming of our foule and earthie nature to the spiritualnesse of it selfe Therefore the Apostle useth this for an argument why the regenerate cannot siâ— namely in that universall and complete manner as others doe because they have the seed of God abiding in them that is his Word Spirit and Promises abating the strength of lust and swaying them to a contrary point For thus the Word of promise makes a mans heart to argue Hath God of meere Grace made assurance of so pretious things to me who by nature am a filthy and uncleane Creature obnoxious to all the curses and vengeance in his booke Hath he wrought so great deliverance and laid up such unsearchable riches for my soule and should I againe breake his Commandements and joyne in the abominations of other men Would he not be angry till he had consumed me so that there should be no escaping Should I not rather labour to feele the comforts and power of these Promises encouraging mee to walke worthy of so great meroy and so high a calling to walke meete for the participation of the Inheritance of the Saints in light Shall I that am reserv'd to such honour live in the meane time after the lusts of the Gentiles who have no hope Hath God distinguished me by his Spirit and Promises from the world and shall I confound my selfe againe Shall I requite evill for good to the hurt of mine owne soule These and the like are the reasonings of the heart from the beauty and purity of the Promises Thirdly and lastly Promises are Arguments to inferre our Purification because in many of them that is the very Matter of which they consist and so the power and fidelity of God is engag'd for our Purification I will clense them from all their iniquity whereby they haue sinned against me saith the Lord. And againe I will sprinkle cleane water vpon you and you shall be cleane from all your filthinesse and from all your idoles will I clense you c. And againe They shall not defile themselues any more with their idoles nor with their detestable things nor with any of their transgressions but I will save them and I will cleanse them And againe I will heale their backeslidings I will Love them freely The Lord will wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion purge the bloud of Ierusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of Iudgement and by the spirit of burning Which Promises bringing along the fidelity and power of God to our faith doe settle our hearts amidst all the corruptions and impotencies of our nature When the conscience is once throughly acquainted with the sight of its owne foulnesse with the sense of that life and power which is in concupiscence it findes it then a great difficultie to rest in any hope of having lusts either subdued or forgiuen The Psalmist when his sore ranne and ceased not refused to be comforted thought himselfe cast out of Gods fauour as if his mercies were exhausted and his promises come to an end and his compassions were shut up and would shew themselves no more Therefore in this case the Lord carries our Faith to the consideration of his Power Grace and Fidelity which surpasseth not onely the knowledge but the very coniectures and contrivances of the hearts of men The Apostle saith That Christ was declared to be the Sonne of God with power according to the Spirit of holinesse by the resurrection from the dead That Spirit which raised Him from the dead is therefore called a spirit of Holinesse because the sanctifying of a sinner is a resurrection and requires the same power to effect it which raised Christ from the dead When Saint Paul had such a bitter conflict with the thorne in his flesh the vigor and stirrings of concupiscence within him he had no refuge nor comfort but onely in the sufficiencie of Gods grace which was able in due time to worke away and purge out his lusts And the prophet makes this an argument of Gods great power above all other Gods that he subdueth iniquities and blotteth out transgressions Though wee know not how this can be done that such dead bones soules that are even rotten in their sinnes should be cleansed from their filthinesse and live againe yet he knowes and therefore when wee are at a stand and know not what to doe to Cure our lusts then wee may by faith fix our Eyes upon him whose grace power wisedome fidelity is all in these his promises put to gage for our purification Thus wee see how promises in generall doe worke to the Cleansing of us from filthinesse of flesh and spirit The same might at large be shewed in many particulars I will but name those in the words before the Text to which it referres The Lord promiseth to Dwell in us as in spirituall Temples and this proves that wee ought to keepe our selues Cleane that wee may be fit habitations for so Dovelike and pure a spirit Flee forâ—…ication saith the Apostle why know you not that your bodie is the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you therefore glorifie God in your bodies and spirits for they are Gods And againe If any man defile the Temple of God
enough to prevent the making and therefore by consequence have no force to alter or disanull it then it is certaine that this latter law must be understood in some other sense and admitte of some other subordinate use which may well consist with the being and force of the former covenant and not in that which primâ facie seemes to contradict and by consequence to abrogate it Now in the next words verse 18. For if the Inheritance bee of the Law it is no more of Promise but God gave it to Abraham by Promise The Apostle shewes what the purpose of the Covenant to Abraham was namely to give life and salvation by Grace and Promise and therefore what the purpose of the latter covenant by Moses was not neither could bee namely to give the same life by working since in those respects there would be contradiction and inconsistencie in the Covenants and so by consequence instability and unfaithfulnesse in him that made them The maine conclusion then which hitherto the Apostle hath driven at is this that the comming of the Law hath not voyded the promise and that the Law is not of force towards the seede to whom the promise is made in any such sense as carries contradiction unto and by consequence implyes abrogation of the Promise before made Therefore if it be not to stand in a contradiction it followes that it must in subordination to the Gospell and so to tend to Evangelicall purposes This this Apostle proceedes to shew verse 19. Wherefore 〈◊〉 serveth the Law It was added because of transgressions till the seede should come to whom the Promise was made and it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator To what enâ—… saith the Apostle should there be a publication of a Law so expresly contrary to the Covenant formerly made In his Answere to this doubt there are many things worthy of especiall observation First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was added or put to It was not set up alone as a thing ingrâ—…sse by it selfe as any adequate complete solid rule of righteousnesse as it was given to Adam in Paradise much lesse was it published as a thing to voyde and disa ull any precedent covenant but so farre was it from abrogating that it was added to the Promise Now when one thing is made an Appendant or Addâ—…ament to another it doth necessarily put the being of that to which it is Appendant and presuppose a strength and vigor in it still But how then was it added not by way of Ingrediencie as a Part of the Covenant as if the Promise had been incomplete without the Law for then the same Covenant should consist of contradictory materials and so should overthrow it selfe For if it bee of workes it is no more of grace else grace is no more grace but it was added by way of Subserviencie and Attendance the better to advance and make effectuall the Covenant it selfe In Adams heart the Law was set up solitary and as a whole rule of righteousnesse and salvation in it selfe but though the sâ—…me Law were by Moses revived yet not at all to the same purpose but onely to helpe forward and introduce another and a better Covenant Secondly It was Added because of Transgressions To make them appeare to awaken the Consciences of men who without a Law would not impute nor charge their sinnes upon themselves and make them acknowledge the guilt of them and owne the condemnation which was due unto them to discover and disclose the venome of our sinfull nature to open the mouth of the sepulcher and make the heart smell the stinch of its owne foulnesse Thirdly Till the seede should come unto whom the Promise was made There were two great promises made to Abraham and his seed The one In thy-seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed and this Promise respects the Person of Christ which yet seemes to bee a Promise not so much made to Christ as in him to Abraham and all nations who were Abrahams seed by Promise though not after the flesh as Saint Paul distinguisheth Rom. 9 The other I will be a God unto thee and to thy seede after thee which respecteth all nations who should beleeve Now whâ—…ch way soever we understand these words they confirme the point which wee are upon that the Law hath Evangelicall purposes If we understand by seede the Person of Christ theâ—… this shewes that the Law was put to the Promise the better to raise and stirre up in men the expectations of Christ the promised seede who should deliver them from that unavoidable bondage and curse which the Law did sâ—…ale and conclude them under If we vnderstand by seed the faithfull which I rather approve then the Apostles meaning is this that as long as any are either to come into the unity of Christs body and to have the Covenant of Grace unto them applyed or to be kept in the Body of Christ when they are comâ—… 〈◊〉 so long there will bee use of the Law to discover Transgressions both iâ—… the unregenerate that they may sâ—…e â—…o Christ for Sanctuary and 〈◊〉 those that are already called that they may learne to cast all their faith and hope and expectations of righteousnesse upon him â—…ull For the same reason which compels men to come in is requisite also to keepe them in else why doth not God utterly destroy sinne in the Faithfull Certainely hee hath no delight to see Christ have leprous members or to see sin in his owne people Only because he will still have them see the necessity of righteousnesse by faith and of grace in Christ he therfore suffers concupiscence to stirre in them and the Law to conclude them under the curse This then manifestly shewes that there was no other intention in publishing the Law but with reference to the seede that is with Evangelicall purposes to shew mercie not with reference to those that perish who would have had condemnation enough without the Law Fourthly It was ordained by Angels who are Ministring Spirits sent forth for the good of those that shall be saved in the Hand or by the Ministery of a Mediator Namely of Moses with relation unto whom Christ is call'd Mediator of a better Covenant for as Christ was the substantiall and universall Mediator betweene God and Man So Moses was to that people a representative typicall or national Mediator Hee stood betweene the Lord and the people when they were afraide at the sight of the fire in the Mount and this evidently declares that the Law was published in mercy and pacification not in furie or revengâ— For the worke of a Mediator is to negotiate peace and treate for reconcilement betweene partiâ—s offended where as if the Lord had intended death in the publishing of the Law hee would not have proclaimed it in the hand of a Mediator but of an Executioner Verse 20. Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one but God is one
but their sins that though our words bring fire and fury with them yet they are still in the hand of a Mediator that the Law is not to breake them unto desperation but vnto humiliation not to drive them unto furie but unto Faith to shew them Hell indeede but withall to keepe them from it if we doe not by these meaneâ—… save their Soules yet we shall stop their mouths that they shall be ashamed to blaspheme the commission by which we speake Secondly The people likewise should learne to rejoyce when the Law is preached as it was published that is when the Conscience is thereby affrighted and made to tremble at the presence of God and to cry unto the Mediator as the people did unto Moses Lâ—…t not God speake any more to us lâ—…st we die Speake thou with us and we will heare For when sinne is onely by the Law discovered and death laid open to cry out against such preaching is a shrewd argument of a minde not willing to bee disquieted in sinne or to be tormented before the time of a soule which would have Christ and yet not leave her former husband which would haue him no other king then the stump of wood was to the frogges in the fable or the moulten Calfe unto Israel in the Wildernesse a quiet idol whom every lust might securely provoke and dance about As the Law may be preached too much when it is preached without the principall which is the Gospell so the Gospell and the mercie therein may bee preached too much or rather indeede too little because it is with lesse successe If wee may call it preaching and not rather perverting of the Gospell when it is preached without the appendant which is the Law This therefore should in the next place teach all of us to studie and delight in the Law of God as that which setteth forth and maketh more glorious and conspicuous the mercy of Christ. Acquaintance with our selves in the Law wâ—…ll First keepe us more loâ—…ly and vile in our owne eyes make us feele our owne pollution and poverty and that will againe make us the more delight in the Law which is so faithfull to render the face of the Conscience and so make a man the more willing and earnest to be cleansed Their heart saith David is as fat as grease but I delight in thy Law The more the Law doth discover our owne leannesse scraggednesse and penurie the more doth the Soule of a Holy man delight in it because Gods mercie is magnified the more who filleth the hungrie and refrâ—…sheth the weary and with whom the fatherlâ—…sse findeth mercie Secondly It will make us more carefull to live by Faith more bold to approach the throne of Grace for mercie to cover and for Grace to cure our sores and nakednesse In matters of life and death impudence and boldnesse is not unseasonable A man will never die for modesty when the Soule is convinc'd by the Law that it is accursed and eternally lost if it doe not speedily pleade Christs satisfaction at the Throne of Grace it is emboldned to runne unto him when it findes an issue of uncleanenesse upon it it will set a price upon the meanest thing about Christ and be glad to touch the hemme of his garment When a Childe hath any strength beautie or lovelynesse in himselfe he will haply depend upon his owne parts and expectations to raise a fortune and preferment for himselfe but when a Childe is full of indigence impotencie crookednesse and deformity if he were not then supported with this hope I have a father aâ—d Parents doe not cast out their Children for their deformities he could not live with comfort or assurance so the sense of our owne pollutions and uncleanenesse taking off all conceits of any lovelynesse in our selves or of any goodnesse in us to attract the affections of God makes us râ—ly onely on his fatherly compassion When our Saviour cald the poore woman of Syrophenicia Dogge a beastly and uncleane Creature yet shee takes not this for a deny all but turnes it into argument The lesse I have by right the more I hope for by mercy even men afford their Dogges enough to keepe them alive and I aske no more When the Angell put the hollow of Iacobs thigh out of joynt yet hee would not let him go the more lame hee was the more reason hee had to hold The Prodigall was not kept away or driven of from his resolution by the feare shame or misery of his present estate for he had one word which was able to make way for him through all this the name of Father He considered I can but be rejected at the last and I am already as low as a rejection can cast me so I shall loose nothing by returning for I therefore returne because I have nothing and though I have done enough to bee for ever shut out of dores yet it may bee the word Father may have rhetoricke enough in it to beg a reconcilement and to procure an admittance amongst my fathers servants Thirdly It will make us give God the Glory of his mercy the more when wee have the deeper acquaintance with our owne miserie And God most of all delighteth in that worke of Faith which when the Soule walketh in darknesse and hath no light yet trusteth in his Name and stayeth upon him Fourthly It will make our comforts and refreshments the sweeter when they come The greater the humiliation the deeper the tranquillitie As fire is hottest in the coldest weather so comfort is sweetest in the greatest extremities shaking settles the peace of the heart the more The spirit is a Comforter as well when he convinceth of sinne as of righteousnesse and judgement because he doth it to make righteousnesse the more acceptable and Iudgement the more beautifull Lastly acquaintance with our owne foulnesse and diseases by the Law will make us more carefull to keepe in Christs company and to walke according unto his Will because he is a Physitian to cure a refiner to purge a Father and a Husband to compassionate our estate The lesse beautie or worth there is in us the more carefully should we studie to please him who loved us for himselfe and married us out of pittie to our deformities not out of delight in our beautie Humilitie keepes the heart tractable and pliant As melted waxe is easily fashioned so an humble spirit is easily fashioned unto Christs Image whereas a stone a bard and stubborne heart must bee hewed and hammered before it will take any shape Pride selfe-confidence and conceitednesse are the pâ—…nciples of disobedience men will hold their wonted courses till they be humbled by the Law They are not humbled saith the Lord unto this day and the consequent hereof is neither have they feared nor walked in my Law If you will not heare that is if you will still disobey the Lords messages my Soule shall weepe in
secret for your pride to note that pride is the principle of disobedience They and our fathers saith â—…ehemiah in his confession dealâ—… proudly and hardned their neckes and hearkered not unto thy Commandements and refused to obey And therefore Ez kiah used this perswasion to the ten tribes to come up to Ierusalem unto the Lords Passeover Be ye not stiffenecked as your fathers but yeeld your selves unto the Lord. To note that humiliation is the way unto obedience when once the heart is humbled it will bee glad to walke with God Humble thyselfe saith the Prophet to walke with thy God Receivâ—… the ingraffed Word with meeknesse saith the Apostle When the Heart is first made meeke and lowly it will then bee ready to receive the Word and the Word ready to incorporate in it as seede in torne and harrowed ground When Paul was disâ—…ounted and cast downe upon the Earth terrified and astonished at the Heavenly vision immediately hee is qualyfied for obedience Lord what wilt thou have mee to doe When the Soule is convinc'd by the Law that of it selfe it comes short of the Glory oâ—… God walkes in darkenesse and can go no way but to Hell It will then with ioy and thankfulnesse foâ—…ow the Lambe wheresoever hee goes as being well assured that though the way of the Lambe be a way of blood yet the End is a Throne of Glory and a Crowne of Life FINIS THE LIFE OF CHRIST OR THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SAINTS WITH HIM IN HIS LIFE Sufferings and Resurrection By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Societie of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke 1631. THE LIFE OF CHRIST 1. IOHN 5. 12. He that hath the Sonne hath Life HAving shewed the Insufficiencie of the Creature to make man happie as being full of vanitie and the Insufficiencie of Man to make himselfe Happie as being full of sinne we now proceede in the last place to discover first the Fountaine of Life and Happinesse Christ and secondly the Channell by which it is from him unto us conveyed the Instrument whereby wee draw it from him namely the knowledge of him and fellowship with him in his resurrection and sufferings These words we see containe a Doctrine of the greatest consequence to the Soule of Man in the whole Scriptures and that which is indeede the summe of them all They containe the summe of mans desires Life and the summe of Gods mercies Christ and the summe of mans dutie Faith Christ the Fountaine Life the Derivation and Faith the Conveyance Whatsoever things are excellent and desireable are in the Scripture comprised under the name of Life as the lesser under the greater for Life is better then meate and the body then ray ment And whatsoever Excellencies can bee named wee have them all from Christ. In Him saith the Apostle are bid the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Hâ—…d not to the purpose that they may not be found but to the purpose that they may bee sought And we may note from the expression that Christ is a Treasurer of his Fathers Wisedome He hath Wisedome as the Kings treasurer hath wealth as an Officer a Depositarie a Dispenser of it to the friends and servants of his father He is made unto vs Wisedome The Apostle saith that in him there are unsearchable riches an inexhausted treasurie of Grace and Wisedome And there had neede bee a treasure of riches in him for there is a treasure of sinne in us so our Saviour cals it the treasure of an evill heart He was full of Grace and Truth Not as a vessell but as a Fountaine and as a Sunne to note that Hee was not onely full of Grace but that the fulnesse of Grace was in Him It pleased the Father that in him should all fâ—…lnesse dwell God gave not the Spirit in measure unto Him And as there is a fulnesse in Him so there is a Communion in us Of his fulnesse wee receive Grace for Grace that is as a Childe in generation receiveth from his Parents member for member or the paper from the Presse letter for letter or the glasse from the face image for image so in regeneration Christ is fully formed 〈◊〉 a man and he receiveth in some measure and proportion Grace for Grace there is no Grace in Christ appertaining to generall sanctification which is not in some weake degree fashioned iâ—… Him Thus there is to Christ a fulnesse of Grace answerable to a fulnesse oâ—… sinne which is in us The Prophet cals him a Prince of Peace not as Moses onely was a man of peace but a Prince of peace If Moses had beene a Prince of peace how easily might he have instill'd peaceable and calme affections into the mutinous and murmuring people But though hee had it in himselfe yet hee had it not to distribute But Christ hath Peace as a King hath Honours to dispense and dispose of it to whom hee will Peace I leaue with you my Peace I giue unto you If I should runne over all the particulars of Grace or Mercy we should finde them all proceede from him He is our Passeover saith the Apostle As in Egypt wheresoever there was the blood of the Passeover there was life and where it was not there was death so where this our Passeover is there is life and where hee is not there is death To me to live is Christ saith the Apostle and againe now I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life that I live I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gvae himselfe for me To consider more particular this Life which we have from Christ. First It is a Life of Righteousnesse for Life and Righteousnes are in the Scripture taken for the same because sin doth immediatly make a man dead in law He that beleeveth not is condemned already and in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death And this Life being a Resurrection from a preceeding death hath two things belonging unto it First there is a Libertie and Deliverance wrought for us from that under which we were before held Secondly there is an Inheritance purchased for us the Priviledge and Honour of being called the Sonnes of God conferr'd upon us There are three Offices or Parts of the Mediation of Christ. First his Satisfaction as hee is our Suretie whereby hee paid our debt underwent the curse of our sinnes bare them all in his body upon the Tree became subject to the Law for us in our nature and representatively in our stead fulfill all righteousnesse in the Law required both Active and Passive for us For we must note that there are two things in the Law intended One principall obedience and another secondary malediction upon supposition of disobedience
in you which was in Christ that is have the same judgement opinions affections compassions as Christ had As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation Secondly in his passive obedience though not in the end or purposes yet in the manner of it Runne with patience saith the Apostle the race which is set before you looking vnto Iesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despised the shame c. If the head be gotten through a strait place all the members will venture after Therefore since Christ hath gone through shame contradiction death to his glory let us not be wearied nor faint or despaire in our mindes The head doth not thinke all its worke ended when it is gotten through it selfe but taketh care and is mindefull of the members that follow Therefore the Apostle cals our sufferings A fulfilling or making up of the sufferings of Christ. The Resolution of all is briefely this We must follow Christ in those things which hee both did and commanded not in those things which he did but not commanded But heere it may be objected Christ was Himselfe voluntarily poore Hee became poore for our sakes and he commanded poverty to the young man goe sell all that thou hast and give it to the poore Is every man to be herein a follower of Christ To this I answere in generall that poverty was not in Christ any act of Morall Obedience noâ—… to the yong man any command of Morall Obedience First for Christs poverty we may conceive that it was a requisite preparatorie act to the worke of redemption and to the magnifying of his spirituall power in the subduing of his enemies and saving of his people when it appeared that thereunto no externall accessions nor contribution of temporall greatnesse did concurre And secondly for the command to the yong man it was meerely personall and indeede not so much intending obedience to the letter of the precept as triall of the sinceritie of the mans former profession and conviction of him touching those misperswasions and selfe-deceits which made him trust in himselfe for righteousnesse like that of God to Abraham to offer up his Sonne which was not intended for death to Isaake but for tryall to Abraham and for manifestation of his faith It may be further objected How can wee bee Holy as Christ is Holy First the thing is impossible and secondly if we could there would be no neede of Christ if we were bound to bee so Holy righteousnesse would come by a Law of workes To this I answere the Law is not nullyfied nor curtall'd by the mercy of Christ we are as fully bound to the obedience of it as Adam was though not upon such bad termes and evill consequences as he under danger of contracting sinne though not under danger of incurring death So much as any justified person comes short of complete and universall obedience to the Law so much hee sinneth as Adam did though God be pleased to pardon that sinne by the merit of Christ. Christ came to deliver from sinne but not to priviledge any man to commit it though hee came to be a curse for sinne yet Hee came not to be a Cloake for sinne Secondly Christ is needefull in two respects First because we cannot come to full and perfect obedience and so His Grace is requisite to pardon and cover our failings Secondly because that which wee doe attaine unto is not of or from our selves and so his spirit is requisite to strengthen us unto his service Thirdly when the Scripture requires us to be Holy and perfect as Christ and God by as we understand not equalitie in the compasse but qualitie in the Truth of our Holynesse As when the Apostle saith That we must love our neighbour as our selves the meaning is not that our love to our neighbour should be mathematically equall to the love of our selves for the Law doth allow of degrees in Love according to the degrees of relation and neerenesse in the thing loved Doe good unto all men specially to those of the houshold of Faith Love to a friend may safely bee greater then to a stranger and to a wife or childe then to a friend yet in all our love to others must be of the selfe same nature as true reall cordiall sincere solid as that to our selves Wee must love our neighbour as wee doe our selves that is unfainedly and without dissimulation Let vs further consider the Grounds of this point touching the Conformitie which is betweene the nature and spirituall life of Christians and of Christ because it is a Doctrine of principall consequence First this was one of the Ends of Christs comming Two purposes He came for A restitution of us to our interest in Salvation and a restoring our originall qualities of Holynesse unto vs. Hee came to sanctifie and cleanse the Church that it should be Holy and without blemish unblameable and unreproveable in his sight To Redeeme and to purifie his people The one is the worke of his Merit which goeth upward to the Satisfaction of his Father the other the worke of his Spirit and Grace which goeth downeward to the Sanctification of his Church In the one He bestoweth his righteousnesse upon us by imputation in the other He fashioneth his â—…mage in us by renovation That man then hath no claime to the payment Christ hath made nor to the inheritance Hee hath purchased who hath not the Life of Christ fashioned in his nature and conversation But if Christ be not onely a Saviour to Redeeme but a Rule to Sanctifie what use or service is left unto the Law I answere that the Law is still a Rule but not a comfortable effectuall delightfull rule without Christ applying and sweetning it unto us The Law onely comes with commands but Christ with strength love willingnesse and life to obey them The Law alone comes like a Schoolemaster with a scourge a curse along with it but when Christ comes with the Law He comes as a Father with precepts to teach and with compassions to spare The Law is a Lion and Christ our Sampson that slew the Lion as long as the Law is alone so long it is alive and comes with terrour and fury upon every Soule it meetes but when Christ hath slaine the Law taken away that which was the strength of it namely the guilt of sinne then there is honie in the Lion sweetnesse in the duties required by the Law It is then an easie yoke and a Law of libertie the Commandements are not then grievous but the heart delighteth in them and loveth them even as the honie and the honie combe Of it selfe it is the cord of a Iudge which bindeth hand and foote and shackleth unto condemnation but by Christ it is made the cord of a man and the band of Love by which He teacheth us to goâ—…
projects and machinations against his Church but thou onely His heele the vitall parts shall be above thy reach And this Christ did not for himselfe but for us The God of Peace saith the Apostle shall bruize Sathan under your feete Hee shall be under our feete but it is a greater strength then ours which shall keepe him downe The victorie is Gods the benefit and insultation ours If He come as a Serpent with cunning craftinesse to seduce us Christ is a stronger Serpent a Serpent of Brasse and what hurt can a Serpent of flesh doe unto a Serpent of Brasse If as a Lion with rage and fierie assaults Christ is a stronger Lion A Lion of the Tribe of Iudâ—… the victorious Tribe Who shall goe up for us against the Cananites first Iuda shall goe up If hee come as an Angel of light to perswade us to presume and sinne The mercie of Christ begets feare The Love of Christ constraineth us Sathan can but allure to disobedience but Christ can constraine us to live unto him If he come as an Angell of darkenesse to terrifie us with despairing suggestions because wee have sinned If any man sinne wee have an Advocate and who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is Christ that is deade yea rather that is risen againe who also sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for us Thirdly but I have an enemie within me which is the most dangerous of all The World may be if not overcome yet endured and by being endured it will at last bee overcome The Divell may bee driven away for a time though he returne againe but the flesh is an Inhabiting sinne and an encompassing sinne If I breake through it yet it is still within me and if I reject it yet it is still about me Saint Paul who triumphed and insulted over all the rest over the World Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ Shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednes or perill or sword nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us Over Sathan and Hell O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victorie Even hee cryes out against this enemie his owne flesh O wrethed man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of Death Yet even against this unremoveable and unvanquishable corruption the Life of Christ is safe in us upon these grounds First we have his Prayer which helpes to subdue it and to sanctifie our nature Sanctifie them by thy Truth Secondly wee have His Vertue and Power to purge it out and to cure it The Sunne of righteousnesse hath healing in his wings Thirdly wee have His office and sidelitie to appeale unto and where to complaine against our owne flesh He undertooke it as a part of his businesse to purge and clense his people Fourthly we have His Spirit to combate and wrestle with it and so by little and little to crucifie it in us and lastly we have his Merits as Sanctuarie to flie unto to forgive them here and hereafter to expell them Fourthly for all this I am full of doubts and restlesse feares which do continually fight within me and make my spirit languish and sinke and that which may decay may likewise expire and vanish away To this I answer that which inwardly decayeth and sinketh at the foundation is perishable but that which in its operations and quoad nos in regard of sense and present complacencie may seeme to decay doth not yet perish in its substance A Cloude may hide the Sunne from the eye but can never blot it out of his orbe Nay Spirituall griefe is to that light which is sowen in the heart but like harrowing to the Earth it macerates for the time but withall it tends to joy and beautie There is difference betweene the paines of a woman in travell and the paines of a goute or some mortall disease for though that be as extreeme in smart and present irkefomenesse as the other yet it containes in it and it proceedes from a Matter of Ioy And all the wrestlings of the Soule with the enemies of Salvation are but as the paines of a woman in travell when Christ is fashioned when the issue iâ—… victorious and with gaine the soule no more remembreth those afflictioâ—…s which were but for a moment Fifthly and lastly I have fallen into many and great sinnes and if all sinne be of a mortall and venemous operation how can my Life in Christ consist with such heavie provocations and apostacies To this in generall I answer If the sight of thy sinnes make thee looke to Christ If â—…hou canst beleeve all things are possible It is possible for thy greatest apostacies to vanish like a Cloud and to be forgotten Though sinne have weakned the Law that we cannot be saved by that yet it hath not weakned Faith or made that unable to save For the strength of sinne is the Law it hath its condemning vertue from thence Now by Faith we are not under the Law but under Grace When once wee are incorporate into Christs body and made partakers of the new Covenant though we are still under the Laws conduct in regard of its obedience which is made sweete and easie by Grace yet we are not under the laws maledâ—…ction So that though sinne in a Beleever bee a transgression of the Law and doth certainely incurre Gods displeasure yet it doth not de fectâ—… though it doe de merito subject him to wrath and vengeance because every justified man is a person priviledg'd though not from the duties yet from the curses of the Law If the King should gratiously exempt any subject from the Lawes penaltie and yet require of him the Lawes obedience if that man offend he bâ—…ch transgreâ—…sed the Law and provoked the displeasure of the Prince who haply will make him some otheâ—… way to 〈◊〉 it yet his offence doth not nullyfie his priviledge nor voyde the Princes grace which gave him an immunitie from the foâ—…feitures though not from the observance of the Law Adultery amongst the Iewes was punished with Death and Theft onely wtth restitution amongstus Adulterie is not punished with Death and Theft is Now then though a Iew and an Englishman be both bound to the obedience of both these Lawes yet a Iew is not to die for Theft nor an Englishman for Adultery because wee are not under the Iudiciall Lawes of that people nor they under our Lawes Even so those sinnes which to a man under the covenant of workes do dâ—… facto bring Death if he continue alwayes under that covenant doe onely create a Merit of Death in those who are under the Covenant of Grace but doe not actually exclude them from Salvation because without infidelitie no sinne doth peremptorily and quoad eventum
condemne But it may here further be objected How can I beleeve under the weight of such a finne Or how is Faith able to hold mee up under so heavie a guilt I answere the more the greatnesse of siâ—…ne doth appeare and the heavier the weight thereof is to the Soule there is the Grace of God more aboundant to beget Faith and the strength of Faith is prevalent against any thing which would oppose it To vnderstand this we must note that the strength of Faith doth not arise out of the formall qualitie thereof for Faith in it selfe as a habit and endowment of the Soule is as weake as other graces but onely out of the relation it hath to Christ. Faith denotates a mutuall Act betweene us and Christ and therefore the Faith of the patriarcheâ—… is expressed in the Apostle by saluting or embracing they did not onely claspe Christ but he them againe So that the strength of Faith takes in the strength of Christ because it puts Christ into a man who by his Spirit dwelleth and liveth in us And here it is worth our observing that the reason why the house in the parable did stand firme against all tempests was because it was founded upon a Rocke Why may not a weake superstruction ofrotten and inconsistent materials bee built upon a sound foundation As a strong house fals from a weake foundation may not in like manner a weake house by a tempest fall from a strong foundation Surely in Christs Temple it is not as in ordinary materiall buildings In these though the whole frame stand upon the foundation yet it stands together by the strength of the parts amongst themselves and therefore their mutuall weaknesse and failings do prejudice the stabilitie of the whole But in the Church the strength of Christ the foundation is not an immanent personall fixed thing but a derivative and an effused strength which runnes through the whole building Because the foundation being a vitall foundation is able to shed forth and transfuse its stability into the whole structure What ever the materials are of themselves though never so fraile yet being once incorporated in the building they are presently transformed into the nature and firmenesse of their foundation To whom comming as unto a living stone saith Saint Peter ye also as lively stones are built up a spirituall house to note unto us the transformation and uniformitie of the Saints with Christ both in their spirituall nature and in the firmenesse and stabilitie of the same More particularly the strength of Faith preserues us from all our spirituall enemies From the Divell Hee that is begotten of God keepeth himselfe and the wicked one toucheth Him not Above all take the shield of Faith by which you shall be able to quench all the furie darts of the wicked From the World This is the victorie which overcommeth the World even our Faith From our fleshly corruptions The Heart is purified by Faith The Law of the Spirit of Life in Iesus Christ that is the Law of Faith hath made mee free from the Law of Sinne that is the Law of the members or fleshly concupiscence And all this is strengthened by the Power of God not by Faith alone are we kept but yee are kept saith Saint Peter By the power of God through Faith unto Salvation and that not such a Power as that is wherewith he concurreth in the ordinarie and naturall operations of the Creature which proportioneth it selfe and condescendeth unto the exigencie of second causes failing where they faile and accommodating the measure of his agencie to those materials which the second causes have supplyed as we see when a Childe is borne with fewer parts then are due to naturall integrity Gods concurrence hath limited it selfe to the materials which are defective and hath not supplyed nor made up the failings of nature but that power whereby hee preserves men unto Salvation doth prevent bend and carry the heart of man which is the secondary agent unto the effect it selfe doth remove every obstacle which might endanger his purposâ—… in saving the Creature and maketh his people a willing people But you will say Faith is indeede by these meanes stronger then sinne when it worketh but not when it sleepeth and the working of Faith being dependant upon the faculties of the Soule which are essentially mutable and incostant in operation must needes bee uncertaine too that sinne though it bee sarre weaker then Faith may yet when by our security Faith is fallen asleepe surprize and kill it even as Iaâ—…l a weake woman upon the same advantage killed Sisera a strong Captaine But though Faith fleepe yet Hee that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleepe and we are kept not onely by Faith but by His Power which Power worketh all our workes for us and in us giveth us both the Will and the Deede the Gift of continuing in His Feare and the Will so to continue The heart of the king saith Salomon that is the most soveraigne unconquerable peremptorie and unsubjected will in the World is in the Hand of God even as clay in the hand of the Potter So that though our hearts in regard of themselves bee not onely at large and indeterminate to any Spirituall operations but have an extreme reluctancie to all the motions of Gods Spirit yet considering their subordination to Gods mercifull purposes to the Power of His Grace to His Heavenly Call according unto purpose to the exceeding greatnesse and working of his mighty Power manifest it is that they are vndeclinable mightily by a hidden wonderfull most effectuall power yea by an Omnipotent facilitie and yet most sweetly and connaturally moved unto Grace They are all the frequent words of Holy Austin that Champion of Grace whose unvaluable industry in that behalfe all after ages have admired but hardly paralell'd Now then for the further establishing the heart of a man seriously and searchingly humbled with the sense and consciousnesse of some great relapse for what I shall say can yeeld no comfort to a man in an unrelenting obdurate and persisting apostafie Let him consider the safety and firmenesse of his life in Christ upon these grounds First Gods Eternall Love and free Grace which is towards us the Highest linke of Salvation both in order of time nature and causalitie Whom He predestinated those also He called and whom He called those He Iustified and whom Hee Iustified those also Hee glorified It is not those He will glorifie but hath glorified To note that glorification is linked and folded up with justification and is present with it in regard of their Eternall coexistencie in the predisposition and order of God though not in effectu operis in actuall execution Now this Eternall Love and Grace of God is not founded upon reasons in the Object for He Iustified and by consequence loved the ungodly He
Loved us when wee were his enemies and enemies we were not but by wicked workes Now then if wicked workes could not prevent the Love of God why should wee thinke that they can nullyfie or destroy it If His Grace did prevent sinners before their repentance that they might returne shall it not much more preserve repenting sinners that they may not perish If the masse guilt and greatnesse of Adams sinne in which all men were equally sharers and in which equalitie God looked upon us with Love and Grace then which sinne a greater I thinke cannot be committed against the Law of God If the bloody and crimsin sinnes of the unconverted part of our life wherein we drew iniquitie with cordes of vanitie and sinne as it were with cart-ropes If neither iniquitie transgression nor sinne neither sin of nature nor sinne of course and custome nor sinne of rebellion and contumacie could pose the goodnesse and favour of God to us then nor intercept or frustrate his Counsell of loving us when wee were his enemies why should any other sinnes overturne the stability of the same love and counsell when we are once his Sonnes and have a spirit given us to bewaile and lament our falls I cannot here omit the excellent words of P Fulgentius to this purpose The same Grace saith he of Gods Immutable Counsell doth both beginne our merit unto righteousnesse and consummate it unto Glorie doth here make the will not to yeelde to the infirmitie of the flesh and doth hereafter free it from all infirmitie doth here renew it Continuo Iuvamine and elsewhere Iugi auxilio with an uninterrupted supportance and at last bring it to a full Glory Secondly Gods Promise flowing from this Love and Grace An everlasting Covenant will I make saith God and observe how it comes to be everlasting and not frustrated or made temporary by us I will not turne away from them saith the Lord to doe them good True Lord wee know thou dost not repent thee of thy Love but though thou turne not from us O how fraile how apt are wee to turne away from thee and so to nullifie this thy Covenant of mercie unto our selves Nay saith the Lord I will put my feare into their hearts and they shall not depart from me So elsewhere the Lord tels us that his Covenant should be as the water of Noah the sinnes of men can no more utterly cancell or reverse Gods Covenant of mercie towards them then they can bring backe Noahs flood into the World againe though for a moment he may bee angry and hide His face yet His mercie in the maine is great and everlasting The Promises of God as they have Truth so they have Power in them they doe not depend upon our resolutions whether they shall bee executed or no but by Faith apprehending them and by Hope waiting upon God in them they frame and accommodate the heart to those conditions which introduce then Execution God maketh us to doe the things which He commandeth we do not make Him to doe the things which He promiseth Tee are kept saith the Apostle by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation Faith is first by Gods Power wrought and preserved It is the Faith of the operation of God namely that powerfull operation which raised Christ from the dead and your Faith standeth not in the wisedome of men but in the Power of God And then it becomes an effectuall instrument of the same power to preserve us unto Salvation They shall be all taught of God and every man that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto mee There is a voluntarie attendance of the heart of man upon the ineffable sweetnesse of the Fathers teaching to conclude this point with that excellent and comfortable speech of the Lord in the prophet I the Lord change not therefore ye Sonnes of Iacob are not consumed It is nothing in or from your selves but onely the immutabilitie of my Grace and Promises which preserveth you from being consumed Thirdly the Obsignation of the Spirit ratifying and securing these promises to the hearts of the faithfull for the spirit is the hansell earnest and seale of our Redemption and it is not onely an obsignation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto redemption arguing the certainty of the end upon condition of the meanes but it is an establishing of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too into Christ as a meanes unto that end so that from the first fruites of the Spirit a man may conclude his interest in the whole at last as Saint Paul from the resurrection of Christ the first fruites argueth to the finall accomplishment of the resurrection Fourthly the nature and effects of Faith whose propertie it is to make future things present to the beleever and to give them a Being and by consequence a necessitie and certaintie to the apprehensions of the Soule even when they have not a Being in themselves Saint Paul call's it the subsistencie of things to come and the evidence and demonstration of things not seene which our Saviours words doe more fully explaine He that drinketh my blood hath eternall Life and shall never thirst Though Eternall Life bee to come in regard of the full fruition yet it is present already in regard of the first fruites of it And therefore wee finde our Saviour take a future medium to prove a present Blessednesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yee are blessed when men shall hate you c for great is your reward in Heaven Which inference could not be sound unlesse that future medium were certaine by the Power of Faith giving unto the promises of God as it were a presubsistencie For it is the priviledge of Faith to looke upon things to come as if they were alreadie conferr'd upon us And the Apostle useth the like argument Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace This were a strange inference in naturall or civill things to say you shall not die because you are in health or you shall not be rejected because you are in favour But the Covenant of Grace being seall'd by an Oath makes all the grants which therein are made irreversible and constant So that now as when a man is dead to the Being of sinne as the Saints departed this life are the Being of sinne doth no more trouble them nor returne upon them so when a man is dead to the dominion of sinne that dominion shall never any more returne upon him Consider further the formall effect of Faith which is to unite a man unto Christ. By meanes of which vnion Christ and we are made one Bodie for He that is joyned to Christ is one and the Apostle saith that He is the Saviour of his Bodie and then surely of every member of his Bodie too for the members have all care one
us to the uttermost and to preserve his owne mercies in us to whose office it belongs to take order that none who are given unto him be lost undoubtedly that Life of Christ in us which is thus underpropped though it be not priviledg'd from temptations no nor from backeslidings yet is an abiding Life He who raised our Soule from death will either preserve our feete from falling or if we doe fall will heale our backflidings and will save us freely Infinitely therefore doth it concerne the Soule of every man to bee restlesse and unsatisfied with any other good thing till he find himselfe entitled unto this happy Communion with the Life of Christ which will never faile him As all the Creatures in the world so man especially hath in him a twofold desire a desire of perfection and a desire of perpetuitie a desire to advance and a desire to preserve his Being Now then till a mans Soule after many rovings and inquisitions hath at last fixed it selfe upon some such good thing as hath compasse enough to satiate and replenish the vastnesse of these two desires impossible it is for that Soule though otherwise filled with a confluence of all the glory wealth wisedome learning and curiositie of Salomon himselfe to have solid contentment enough to withstand the feares of the smallest danger or to outface the accusations of the smallest sinne Now then let us suppose that any good things of this World without the Life of Christ were able to satisfie one of these two desires to perfect and advance our nature though indeede it bee farre otherwise since without Christ they are all but like a stone in a Serpents head or a Pearle in an Oyster not our perfections but our diseases like Cleopatra her pretious stone when she wore it a Iewell but when she dranke it an excrement I may boldly say that as long as a man is out of Christ he were better be a begger or an idiote then to bee the steward of riches honours learning and wisedome which should have beene improv'd to the Glory of Him that gave them and yet to bee able to give up at that great day of accompts no other reckoning unto God but this Thy riches have beene the authors of my covetousnesse and oppression thy honours the steppes of my haughtinesse and ambition thy learning and wisedome the fuell of my pride But now I say suppose that nature could receive any true advancement by these things yet alas when a man shall beginne to thinke with himselfe may not God this night take me away like the foole in the Gospell from all these things or all these from mee May I not nay must I not within these few yeeres in stead of mine honour be laid under mens feete In stead of my purple and scarlet be cloathed with rottennesse In stead of my luxurie and delycacies become my selfe the foode of wormes Is not the poore soule in my bosome an immortall soule Must it not have a being as long as there is a God who is able to support it And will not my bagges and titles my pleasures and preferments my learning and naturall endowments every thing save my sinnes and mine adversaries and mine owne Conscience forsake mee when I once enter into that immortalitie When a man I say shall beginne to summon his heart unto such sad accompts as these how will his face gather blacknesse and his knees tremble and his heart be even damp'd and blasted with amazement in the middest of all the vanities and lyes of this present world What a fearefull thing is it for an eternall soule to have nothing betweene it and eternall misery to rest upon but that which will moulder away and crumble into dust under it and so leave it alone to sinke into bottomlesse calamitie O Beloved when men shall have passed many millions of yeeres in another world which no millions of yeeres can shorten or diminish what accession of comfort can then come to those glorious joyes which we shall bee filled with in Heaven or what diminution or mitigation of that unsupportable anguish which without ease or end must bee suffered in Hell by the remembrance of those few houres of transitorie contentments which we have here not without the mixture of much sorrow and allay enjoyed What smacke or rellish thinke you hath Dives now left him of all his delicacies or Esau of his pottage What pleasure hath the rich foole of his full Barnes or the young man of his great possessions What delight hath Iezabel in her paint or Ahab in the Vineyard purchased with the innocent blood of Him that owned it How much policie hath Achitophel or how much pompe hath Herod or how much rhetoricke hath Tertullus left to escape or to bribe the torments which out of Christ they must for ever suffer O how infinitely doth it concerne the Soule of every man to finde this Life of Christ to rest upon which will never forsake him till it bring him to that day of Redemption wherein he shall be filled with blessednesse infinitely proportionable to the most vast and unlimited capacities of the Creature And now when we can secure our Consciences in the inward true and spirituall renovation of our heart in this invincible and unperishable obsignation of the spirit who knitteth us as really though mistically unto Christ as his sinewes and joynts do fasten the parts of his sacred body together how may our heads bee crowned with joy and our hearts sweetly bathe themselves in the perfruition and preoccupation of those rivers of glory which attend that Spirit wheresoever he goeth Many things I know there are which may extremely disharten us in this interim of mortalitie many things which therein encounter and oppose our progresse The rage malice and subtilty of Satan the frownes flatterles threates and insinuations of this present World the impatience and stubbornnesse of our owne flesh the struglings and counterlustings of our owne potent corruptions the daily consciousnesse of our fall's and infirmities the continuall entercourse of our doubts and feares the ebbing and languishing decaying and even expiring of our Faith and Graces the frequent experience of Gods just displeasure and spirituall desertions leaving the Soule to its owne dumpes and darknesse Sometimes like froward children we throw our selves downe and will not stand and sometimes there comes a tempest which blowes us downe that we cannot stand And now whither should a poore Soule which is thus on all sides invitoned with feares and dangers betake it selfe Surely so long as it lookes either within or about it selfe no marvell if it be ready to sinke under the concurrent opposition of so many assaults But though there be nothing in thee nor about thee yet there is somthing above thee which can hold thee up If there be strength in the merit life kingdom victories Intercession of the Lord Iesus If there be comfort in the Covenant Promises and Oath of
and Christians That which makes us to be in Christ after any kinde of way is Faith And according to the differences of Faith are these differences of being in Christ to bee discerned Saint Iames makes mention of a dead Faith when men are in Christ by some generall acknowledgement by externall profession by a partiall dependence comming to Him only as to a Iesus for roome and shelter to keepe them from the fire not as to a Christ for grace and government in His service not by any particular and willing attraction of those vitall influences those working principles of grace and obedience which are from him shed abroad upon true beleevers And this is the semi-conversion and imperfect renovation of many men whereby they receive from Him onely generall light of truth and common vertues which make them visibly and externally branches in Him But Saint Paul makes mention of a lively operative unfained faith which in true beleevers draweth in the power of Christs death and the vertue of His resurrection unto the mortification of sinne and quickning of Spirit and bringing forth fâ—…uite unto God and this onely is that which is the ground of our life from Him The Life that I live I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God Lastly this Vnion unto Christ is compared unto Marriage Psal. 45. Eph. 5. 32 whereby the Church hath a right and proprietie created to the body name goods table possessions purchases of Christ and doth reciprocally become all His resigning its will wayes desires unto His governement Now for the discovery of this we may consider either the essentials or the consequents of marriage The former hath for the genuâ—… the most generall requisite consent and that must have these differencies and restrictions First it must bee a mutuall consent for though Christ declare His good will when He knocketh at our doores and beseecheth us in the ministry of His Word yet if we keepe our distance reject His tokens of Love and Favour and stop our eares to His invitations there is then no covenant made this is but a wooing and no marriage Secondly it must bee a present consent and in words de prâ—…senti or else it is onely a Promise but no Contract Many men like Balaam would faine die the death of the righteous but live their owne lives would faine belong to Christ at the last and have nothing to doe with Him ever before would have Him out of neede but not at all out of love and therefoâ—… for the present they put Him off Many other suiters they have whom they cannot deferre or denie till at last peradventure Hee grow jealous and wearie departs from them and turnes unto those who will esteeme Him worthy of more acceptation Seeing you put the Word from you faith the Apostle and judge your selves unworthy of Eternall Life Lo wee turne unto the Gentiles Thirdly it must be free and unconstrained for compulsion makes it a ravishment and not a marriage They who must be but one Bodie ought first to agree in the same free and willing resolution Many men when God slayes them will enquire earely after Him when Hee puts them upon a racke will give a forced consent to serve Him when Hee sends His Lions amongst them will send for His Priests to instruct them how to worship Him but this is onely to flatter with their lippes that they may escape the present paine like the howling devotion of some desperate Mariner in a storme not at all out of cordiall and sinceere affection wicked men deale no better with God then the froggs in the fable with the blocke which was throwne in to be their king When He makes a noyse and disturbes their peace when He falls heavie upon them they are sore affrighted and seeme to reverence His Power but if He suffer their streame to bee calme about them and stir not up His wrath they securely dance about Him and re-assume their wonted loosenesse Fourthly it must be without errour for hee that erres cannot consent If a woman take her selfe upon some absence of her husband to be now free from him and conceive him dead and thereupon marry againe if it appeare that the former husband is yet living there was a mistake and error in the person and so a nullity in the contract So if a man mistake himselfe judge himselfe free from his former tie unto sinne and the Law and yet live in obedience to his lusts still and is not cleansed from â—…is filthinesse he cannot give any full consent to Christ who â—…ill have a chaste spouse without adulterers or corrivals Lastly It must be an universall and perpetuall consent for all time and in all states and conditions This is a great difference betweene a wife and a strumpet A wife takes her husband upon all tearmes his burdens as well as his goods his troubles as well as his pleasures whereas a strumpet is onely for hire and lust when the purse is emptied or the body wasted the love is at an end So here He that will have Christ must have Him All for Christ is not divided must entertaine Him to all purposes must follow the Lambe wheresoever He goeth must leave Father Mother Wife Children his owne life for Christ must take as well His Yoake as His Crowne as well His Sufferings as His Salvation as well His Grace as His Mercie as well His Spirit to leade as His Blood to redeeme He that will be his owne Master to doe the workes of his owne will must if hee can bee his owne Saviour too to deliver his soule from the wrath to come The consequents and intendments of marriage are two Convictus Proles First mutuall societie Christ and a Christian must live together have intimate and deare acquaintance with each other the spirit of a Christian must solace it selfe in the armes and embracements in the riches and lovelinesse of Christ in his absence and removes long after Him in His presence and returnes delight in Him and entertaine Him with such pure affections and Heavenly desires as may make him take pleasure in His Beautie Secondly there must be a fruitfulnesse in us we must bring forth unto God Christ will not have a barren Spouse every one that loveth Him keepeth His Commandements Now then in one word to unfold the more distinct qualitie of this our union to Christ wee may consider a threefold unitie Of Persons in one nature of natures in one Person of natures and Persons in one qualitie In the first is one God In the second is one Christ. In the third is one Church Our union unto Christ is the last of these whereby Hee and we are all spiritually united to the making up of one mysticall Body The formall reason or bond of this union is the Spirit of Christ by which as by immortall and abiding seede we are begotten a new unto Christ. For He being the
second Adam we are spiritually in Him and from Him as we are naturally or corruptly in and from Adam As Adam was the fountaine of all that are naturally generated and by that meanes transmitted condemnation to all chat are One with Him so Christ is the Head of all that are Spiritually borne againe and by that meanes transmitteth grace righteousnes to al that are one with him From this Vnion of the faithfull unto Christ doth immediately arise a Communion with Him in all such good things as he is pleased to Communicate I will but touch them it having been the subject of this discours hitherto First we have a Communion with Him in His merits which are as fully imputed unto us for Iustification as if His sufferings had beene by us endured or the debt by us satisfied As wee finde in the body medicines often apylyed unto sound parts not with relation to themselves but to cure others which are unsound In a distillation of â—…hewmes on the eyes we cuppe and scarifie the necke which was unaffected to draw backe the humor from the part distempered even so Christ the glorious and innocent Head of a miserable and leprous bodie suffered Himselfe to be wounded and crucified to wrestle with the wrath of His Father to bee One with a wretched people in the condition of their infirmities as He was with His Father in the unitie of divine holinesse that so by his infirmitie beirg joyn'd unto us the Communion of His puritie might joyne us unto God againe He alone without any demerit of His suffered our punishment that we without any merit of ours might obtaine His Grace The paines of Christs wounds were His but the profit ours the holes in His hands and side were His but the balme which issued out was ours the thornes were His but the Crowne was ours in one word the price which He paid was His but the Inheritance which Hee purchased was ours All the ignominie and agonie of His Crosse was infinitely unbeseeming so honourable a Person as Christ if it had not beene necessary for so vile a sinner as man Secondly we have Communion with Him in His Life and Graces by habituall and reall infusion and inhabitation of His Spirit unto Sanctification For we are Sanctified in Him and except we abide in Him we cannot bring forth fruite Christ comes not onely with a passion but with an unction to consecrate us to Himselfe except thou be a partaker as well of this as of that bee as willing to be rull'd as redeemed by Christ In Him indeed thou art but it is as a withered branch in a fruitefull vine while thou art in Him it is to thy shame that thou shouldest bee dead where there is such aboundance of Life and the time will come that thou shalt bee cut off from Him Every branch in me that beareth not fruite He taketh away Lastly we have Communion with Him in many priviledges and dignities But here we must distinguish of the priviledges of Christ some are personall and incommunicable others generall and communicable Of the former sort are all such as belong unto Him either in regard of His Divine Person as to be the everlasting Sonne the word and wisedome of His Father the expresse Image of His Person and brightnesse of His Glory the upholder of all things by the Word of His Power and the like or in regard of His Office as to bee the Redeemer of the Church the Author and finisher of our Faith the Prince of our Salvation the propitiation for the sinnes of the world the second Adam the Mediator betweene God and Man in which things He is alone and there is none with Him Other priviledges there are which are communicable all which may bee compriz'd under this generall of being fellow members with Him in the most glorious Bodie and societie of Creatures in the world The particulars I touch'd before First we have communion in some sort with Him in His Holy unction where by we are consecrated to be Kings and Priests to subdue our corruptions to conquer spirituall wickednesse to offer up the sacrifices of prayer prayses almes and Holy services for we are by Him a royall priesthood Secondly we have Communion in His victories wee are more then conquerors through Him because in the midst of the enemies insultations and our owne distresses the victorie is still ours The enemie may kill us but not overcome us because our death is victorious As Christ triumphed upon the Crosse and had His governement on His shoulders so we rejoyce in afflictions glory in tribulations and in all of them in a confluence and conspiracie of them all wee are more then conquerors Thirdly wee haue Communion with Christ in His Sonship from whence it comes to passe that Christ and His Church doe interchangeably take one anothers names Sometimes Hee is not ashamed to call Himselfe Iacob and Israel This is the generation of them that seeke thy face O Iacob and Thou art my servant O Israel in whom I will bee glorified saith the Lord speaking unto Christ n yea Hee giveth to the Church His owne Name As there are many members and yet but one body so is Christ that is so is the Church of Christ. And what manner of love is this saith the Apostle that we should be called the Sons of God From hence it comes that wee have fellowship with the Father accesse and approach with confidence for all needfull supplyes assurance of His care in all extremities interest in the inheritance which Hee reserveth for His Children confidence to be spared in all our failings and to be accepted in all our sincere and willing services secret debates spirituall conferences of the heart with God He speaking unto our spirits by His Spirit in the Word and wee by the same spirit speaking unto Him in prayers complaints supplycations thankesgivings covenants resolutions Hee kissing us with kisses of Love and comfort and wae kissing Him againe with kisses of reverence and worship We see then to conclude all what an absolute necessity lyes upon us of having Christ because with Him we have All things and can doe all things without Him wee are poore and can doe nothing And the more necessary the dutie the more sinfull the neglect especially considering that Christ with-holds not Himselfe but is ready to meete to prevent to attend every heart that in truth desires Him If a man have a serious simple sincere will to come wholy to Christ not to be held back from him by His dearest and closest corruptions by the sweetest pleasures or strongest temptations which can allure or assault him he may draw neere unto Him with boldnesse and assurance of acceptation he hath a call Christ inviteth yea intreateth him and therefore he may come he hath a command Christ requireth it of him and therefore
Saving Faith The Pretiousnesse is in the whole scope of the place for the words are a comparative speech where faith is preferd before all legall or morall performances The nature is open'd by the Act of it Knowledge and the Obiect the vertue of Christs Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings Touching the former of these two the scope of the Apostle in this place is to shew that faith is the most pretious and excellent gift of God to a Christian man So it is Expresly called by Saint Peter a pretious faith 2. Pet. 1. 1. For understanding of which point mee must note that faith may be Consider'd in a double respect Either as it is a Qualitie inherent in the Soule or as an Instrument whereby the Soule apprehendeth some other thing Now in the same thing there is much difference betwene it selfe as a Qualitie and as an Instrument Heate as a Qualitie can only produce the like quality againe but as an Instrument of the Sunne it can produce life and sense things of more excellency then the Quality it selfe Faith as a Quality is noe better then other graces of the spirit but as an Instrument so it hath a Quickning quality which noe other Grace hath The iust shall live by Faith Heb. 10. 38. This pretiousnesse of Faith is seene chiefely in two respects First in regard of the Obiects and secondly in regard of the Offices of it First Faith hath the most pretitious and excellent object of any other Christ and his Truth and promises Herein saith the Apostle God commended His Love in that when we were sinners Christ died Rom. 5. 8. This was the soveraigne and most excellent love token and testification of divine favor that ever was sent from Heaven to men God so loved the world so superlatively so beyond all measure or apprehension that He gave His Sonne Ioh. 3 16. There is such a compasse of all dimensions in Gods love manifested through Christ such a heigth and length and breadth and depth as makes it exceede all knowledge Eph. 3. 18 19. It is exceeding unsearchable riches In one word that which faith lookes upon in Christ is the price the purchase and the promises which we have by Him The price which made satisfaction unto God the purchase which procured Salvation for us and the promises which comfort and secure us in the certaintie of both and all these are pretious things The blood of Christ pretious blood 1. Pet. 1. 18. The promises of Christ pretious promises 2. Pet. 1. 4. And the purchase of Christ a very exceeding and aboundant weight of Glorie 2. Cor. 4. 17. But it may be objected Have not other Graces the same object as well as Faith Doe we not love Christ and feare Him and hope in Him and desire Him as well as Beleeve in Him True indeede but heerein is the excellencie of Faith that it is the first grace which lookes towards Christ. Now the Scripture useth to commend things by their order precedencie As the women are commended for comming first to the Sepulcher the messenger which brings the first tidings of good things is ever most welcome the servant who is neerest his masters person is esteemed the best man in that order so Faith being the first grace that brings tidings of Salvation the neerest Grace to Christs Person is therefore the most excellent in regard of the obiect Secondly Faith is the most pretious Grace in regard of the offices of it Though in its inherent and habituall qualification it be no more noble then other graces yer in the offices which it executeth it is farre more excellent then any Two pieces of parchment and waxe are in themselves of little or no difference in value but in their offices which they beare as instruments or patents one may as farre exceede the other as a mans life exceedes his lands for one may bee a pardon of life the other a lease of a Cottage One man in a Citie may in his personall estate be much inferiour to another yet as an Officer in the Citie hee may have a great precedence and distance above him Compare a piece of gold with a seale of silver or brasse and it may have farre more worth in it selfe yet the seale hath an Office or Relative power to ratifie covenants of far more worth then the piece of gold so is it betweene Faith and other Graces Consider Faith in its inherent properties so it is not more noble then the rest but consider it as an instrument by God appointed for the most noble offices so is it the most superlative and excellent grace These offices which are to it peculiar I take it are principally these three The first to unite to Christ and give possession of Him The Apostle prayes for the Ephesians that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith Eph 3. 17. Wealth in the Mine doth no good at all till it be sever'd and appropriated to persons and uses Water in the Fountaine is of no service unto me till it be conveyed thence to mine owne Cisterne the light of the Sunne brings no comfort to him who hath no eyes to injoy it So though Christ be a Mine full of excellent and unsearchable riches a Fountaine full of comforts and refreshments a Sunne of righteousnesse a Captaine and Prince of Life and Salvation yet till Hee is made ours till there bee some bond and communion betweene Him and us we remaine as poore and miserable as if this Fountaine had never beene opened noâ—… this Mine discovered Now this Vnion to and Communion with Christ is on our part the worke of Faith which is as it were the spirituall joynt and ligament by which Christ and a Christian are coupled In one place wee are said to live by Christ Because I live saith he you shall live also Ioh. 14. 19. In another by Faith The Iust shall live by Faith Heb. 10. 38. How by both By Christ as the Fountaine By Faith as the pipe conveying water to us from the fountaine By Christ as the Foundation By Faith as the Cement knitting us to the foundation By Christ as the Treasure By Faith as the clue which directs as the Keye which opens and let us in to that Treasure This the Apostle explaines in the former place where he shewes by what meanes Faith makes us liue namely by giving us an enterance and approach to Christ for he opposeth Faith to drawing backe vers 19. 30. Noting that the proper worke of Faith is to carry us unto Christ as our Saviour Himselfe expoundeth beleeving in Him by comming unto Him Ioh. 6. 64. 65. Therefore the Apostle puts both together not I but Christ liveth in mee and the life which I live I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God Gal. 2. 20. Faith is compared to eating and drinking Ioh. 6. and we know there is no sense requires such an intimate and secret union to its object as that of
grace enables us to worke we say we are justified freely not by the workes of grace but by the grace which bestowes our Iustification and therewith our strength of working unto us For surely Gods free grace is more magnified in giving us undeservedly both righteousnesse and workes then in giving us workes to deserve our righteousnesse Secondly Iustification by Faith doth make the promise sure to all the seede If unto a begger should bee proposed some excellent benefit upon condition to performe some acceptable and perfect service unto the personne that offers it whom yet it would bee impossible to please by working without some exact abilitie for the dutie required the man might easily doubt of the certaintie of the benefit because his performance of the condition requir'd is uncertaine but if the same benefit should bee proposed upon no other act on his part requir'd then onely the acknowledgement of his owne want and the willing acceptance of the thing offered a man could not bee unsure of it So if the Lord should propose righteousnesse oâ—… salvation to a man upon condition of his morall obedience mans corruptions are so many and his abilities so weake his enemies so potent and his heart so treacherous to comply with them that the promise cannot bee made sure to him upon the concurrence of his owne workes But when there is nothing required of a man but to cleave to Christ nothing but to relinquish his owne endeavours and to accept the helpe of a sure Saviour and to rely upon the sure mercies of David this must needes make our righteousnesse and salvation to be as certaine as is the value of the merits or fidelitie of the promise on which we rely If there bee nothing requisite to the firmenesse and consistencie of a house but onely to be put upon the foundation then the house must needs be as sure as the foundation if there bee nothing requisite to the safenesse of a mans money or writings but to put them in a closet or boxe the things must needes be as safe as the place into which they are put so since nothing else is required to make our salvation sure but onely to rest upon Christ who is a safe foundation to his Church Math. 16. 18. and a certaine Treasure Col. 3. 3. Faith which alone puts us into him doth therewithall make our Salvation sure unto us Behold I lay in Sion a chiefe corner stone elect and pretious there is both our foundation and our Treasure now the safety which Faith brings from hence is this He that beleeveth shall not be confounded or put to shame in the Prophet it is shall not make hast 1. Pet. 2. 6. both words expresse safetie For a man to rely upon another for any good thing and at last to faile in his expectation this must needes shame him in the disappointment of his hopes but when the hopes of a man are grounded upon the unsearchable riches and the unfaileable promise and the immutable truth power and goodnesse of God impossible it is that the faith of such a man should shame or deceive him When a man is secure and certaine of any good thing he is contented to waite the season of it David by Gods promise and unction was certaine of the kingdome and therefore he would not take away the life of Saul when it was in his power but waited till the time of his death by God appointed should come 1. Sam. 26. 9 10 11. but when a man is unconsident of a thing hee is ready to snatch at every probabilitie to make use of every occasion that happens to further his desires If I should see two men going towards the Court in competition for some office or preferment and should observe the one to ride night and day in full speede to deny himselfe the comforts of the way and to expresse much impatiencie and indignation at every stoppage that met him the other to take time and leisure to rely upon the former promises of the prince or the prevalencie of some honourable friends and to laugh at the gredinesse of his competitor I should easily conclude that the hopes of that man were greater whose hast as lesse for when a man hath a thing already in promise and that from the hands of a man of whose power and fidelitie he hath infallible assurance he is not over vehement for performance but willingly attends the times and good pleasure of his friend Now this is the businesse of faith to give a being to the things we hope for and though in themselves they bee a farre of and out of sight yet to make them subsistent and at hand in the promise even within the reach and embracement of Faith Heb. 11. 1 13. So that Faith doth therefore keep a man from greedinesse and precipitancie in his pursuite and from confusion and shame in his hopes of good because it sees them as safe certain in the power and promises of Christ as if they were already made good unto him So then to conclude this point Faith being the onely Grace wherein is magnified the fulnesse and freenesse of Gods favour and wherein is secured his promise to all the seede It must needes bee the fittest grace for a mercifull Iustification The third office of Faith is having put us into Christ and Iustified us by him to give us together with Him all other things which is the conviction that the Apostle makes Rom. 8. 32. If Hee have given us Christ how shall He not with Him freely also giue us all things These All Things are of two sorts First All graces Secondly All secular good things Saint Peter puts them together and shewes how they runne from Christ to us through Faith as the pipe His divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertaine to Life and Godlynesse and that through the knowledge that is the Faith of him that hath called us to glorie and vertue 2. Pet. 1. 3. First all Graces Faith is the first Grace in a Christian Soule and the spring of the rest This is the maine businesse of that excellent chapter Heb. 11. to shew how Faith was the master wheele in the lives and actions of those holy men whose renowne is there upon record The Apostle tels us that Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. where by Love we may understand either generally the universall habit of all other operative graces and then the sense is that Faith doth as it were actuate and animate all other habits of grace and apply them to their severall workes Or rather particularly that Love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost and then the method and meaning of the place is this First Faith shewes us the great Love of God in Christ The life that I live saith the Apostle I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave Himselfe for me Gal. 2. 20. where we see the
wolvish and wasting lusts and by consequence is not able to settle and secure the heart in the enioyment of them But now by Faith in the promises the godly have their hold altered have their estate setled in a better and surer tenure delivered from those many encumbrances and intanglements vnto the which before they were obnoxious so that now a mans heart is secured beyond all doubts or humane feares A poore man may object I am not wise enough to order my affaires I am disabled by sicknesse and weaknesse to attend my Calling my charge encreaseth vpon mee and my probabilities of providing for them waxe smaller then before But yet Faith is able to answer these and all other the like objections by proposing the promise Dost thou live by thine owne strength Dost thou prosper by thine owne wisedome and industry or by the blessing and truth of God in his promises and is Gods Truth an Accepter of persons Is not his fidelitie as firme towards weake and poore as towards rich beleevers Is there any want or weakenesse any poverty or deficiency in heaven Doe the promises of God stand in need of mans wisedome or strength to bring them to passe Can thy encrease of charge or occasions exhaust the Treasures or drie vp the Fountaines and truth of God If an honourable and wealthy person have occasions to enlarge his retinue and live at a higher pitch then before yet because hee hath abundance he doth not repine at this necessitie All the faithfull are of the houshold and family of God who is no whit the poorer in his state and power by maintaining many or few He gives to all men yet he gives liberally Iam 1. 5. which no rich man in the World is able to do because as he gives to others himself decreaseth But God gives out of a Fountaine as the Sunne gives light which whether it shine to one or to thousands retaines still equall light in it selfe neither can the eyes of men exhaust or draw out the light of the Sunne All the Creatures are mine saith God upon a thousand hills If a thousand hills can beare corne enough or feed Cattel enough for any poore mans reliefe he need not doubt or feare for God hath still thousands of mountaines as it were so many granaries or store-houses in his truth and promises for the faithfull in any straits to have recourse unto And thus faith gives us all things by entituling us to the Promises Against all this which hath been spoken touching the excellency of Faith may be objected that determination of the Apostle Now abideth Faith Hope and Charitie these three but the greatest of these is Charitie 1. Cor. 13. 13. By which comparison this point touching the precedency of faith seemes to be impaired To which I answer That the Apostle speakes of a greatnesse extensivè in regard of duration Charitie being an everlasting Grace but faith pertaining onely to this life as being requisite to the present qualitie and states of the Church for faith and fruition are oppos'd 2. Cor. 5. 7. Faith looketh upon things in their promises fruition in their reall existence but now consider faith as an instrument to lay hold on Christ and the precious promises of life and grace in him and consider it as a Roote a living principle to put the heart in worke to purifie the conscience to enflame the heart to spirituall obedience and a retribution of holy love to God for all his love to us in his Sonne and thus Faith exceeds Charitie as the motion of the mouth in eating which is an act that tends immediately to life doth the motion of the mouth in speaking which tendeth not to an end so important nor absolutely necessary Another objection may be this Other Graces make a man like Christ which Faith cannot do because Christ could not beleeve unto justification or life having the Fountaine of both aboundantly in himselfe whereas the proper and primitive worke of Faith is to carry a man out of himselfe and to make him see all his sufficiency in another To which I answer two wayes First Christ had faith though not to such purposes as wee Faith in the common nature of it as it imports assent to all divine truth and adherence or reliance of the soule to the benefit and goodnesse which the same brings with it for ratio veritatis and ratio commodi are the two objects of a right faith or rather severall qualifications of the same object thus it is a Legall thing comming under the compasse of those duties of the Law unto which Christ made himselfe subject But faith as a Condition an Officer an Instrument of justification so it could not stand with Christ who was not to be righteous by beleeving but to bee himselfe the righteousnesse of those that beleeve But in other respects when the Apostle saith hee was heard in that which he feared when hee saith himselfe My God my God it is manifest that though he had not faith for righteousnesse yet he had it for deliverance that though he were not saved by beleeving yet hee was obedient in beleeving Secondly it is more to be one with Christ then to be like him more to bee a part of him then a picture now faith makes a unitie with Christ other graces onely a resemblance faith makes a man a member others onely a follower of him and so in that respect still Faith hath the prehemiuence Now then from the great necessitie and pretiousnesse of this duty we may first inferre the greatnesse of their sin who neglect it who live with no sense of the want and little sorrow for the weaknesse of it to lie sweare revell cozen to live in the practice of any notorious outrage and morall enormitie many men esteeme hainous and vnworthie But to live in infidelitie without the knowledge or fellowship of Christ in an utter unacquaintance with their owne unworthinesse and unexperience of their everlasting insufficiencies to compasse or contrive their owne saluation are things seldome or never seriouslie thought on by them And yet infidelity is indeed the edge and sting of all other sinnes that which bindes them and their guilt everlastingly upon the soule and locketh them like shackles to the conscience which otherwise by the helpe of Christ might easily shake them of He that beleeveth saith Christ is not condemned he that beleeveth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him There is a displeasure which is but for a moment a wrath which doth only sing and blow vpon the soule and then away such the faithfull themselues after some bold adventure into the waies of sinne may haue experience of And there is a wrath which is constant permanent intimately and euerlastinglie adherent vnto the Soule which will seize onely vpon vnbeleeuers The spirit shall convince the World of Sinne because they beleeve not saith Christ. Sinne there stands in opposition to righteousnesse and Iudgement
life of man Therefore the Apostle calleth men without faith Absurd men because it is an unreasonable and sottish thing for a workman to be without his chiefe instrument and that which is universally requisite to euery one of his works A Husbandman without a plow or a builder without a rule a preacher without a bible a Christian without faith are things equally absurd and unreasonable And yet thus unreasonable are men usually By faith Moses repell'd and fled from the solicitations of his adulterous mistresse and have they then faith that run upon temptations of lust let their hearts wallow in the speculations and their bodies in the beds of uncleanenesse Faith made David looke to God when Shimei reviled him and have they faith that dart out othes stabs and execrations at once against their enemie and against God Faith made Noah when he was warned of God to feare and Iosiah to tremble at his word and have they faith who mocke the messengers and despise the Word and misuse the Prophets and reject the remedies and sleight the times of their peace and visitation which God gives them Faith made Abraham put a sword to the throat of his beloved son the Sonne of blessing and the Sonne of promise and have they then faith who will not sacrifice a stinking lust nor part from a prodigious vanitie when God requires it O what a world of sweetnes closenes is there in sin to our nature when men love a lust a rag a fashion an excrement better then Abraham did his Sonne Isaak Faith made Moses suffer rather the reproaches of Christ then the riches of Egypt and have they faith who had rather be without Christ then their profits and pleasures who subordinate the blood the spirit the will the waies the glory of Christ to their earthlie designes and base resolutions By faith he feared not the wrath of a King and have they faith who feare the breath of fooles and would faine be religious if it did not discredit them and crush their arts of compliance plausibilitie and ambition Thus euery sinne wilfully committed is back'd and strengthened with infidelity If men did by faith see him that is invisible an unapproachable light and a consuming fire see the sword in his left hand to revenge iniquitie and the Crowne in his right hand to reward holinesse looke upon his judgements as present in his power and upon his glorie as present in his promises It could not be that they should goe on in such outrages against him and his Law Know you not saith the Apostle that neither fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor effeminate c. nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor theeves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdome of God Nothing but faith can unbinde and unlocke the sinnes from the soule and by faith not onely their guilt but their power and dominion is removed and subdued A second use and inference from this Doctrine is to enflame the heart to seeke for faith as for a pretious Iewell or a hidden treasure Men are never satisfied with earthly treasures though oftentimes they heape them up for the last day How much more carefull should they be to lay up a good foundation for the time to come that they may obtaine eternall life Great encouragement we may have hereunto upon these considerations First the more faith a man hath the more comfort he may take in all the good things which he doth enjoy He may looke upon them as the witnesses of Gods truth and promises as the tokens of his love as the accessions and supernumerary accruments unto his Kingdome as the supplies and daily provisions of a Father which careth for us Secondly the more faith a man hath the more securitie he hath against all evils he may undergoe them with patience with hope with joy with triumph with profit He may looke upon them as needfull things as pretious things as conformities unto Christ his Head as the seeds of peace righteousnesse and praises As raine though it make the way foule yet it makes the Land fruitfull Thirdly the more faith a man hath the more certaine and victorious will his conquests be against his enemies that which by faith wee relie upon and put on will bee impregnable munition and impenetrable armour to secure us The love the blood the compassions the temptations of Christ these by faith apprehended have pulled downe walles subdued kingdomes stopped the mouthes of Lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword and turned to flight the armies of the Aliens Fourthly the more faith a man hath the more insight hee hath into Christ and those mysteries of salvation which the Angels desire to looke into Faith is the eye and mouth and eare of the soule by which wee peepe through the curtaines of mortalitie and take a view and foretaste of heavenly things wherby we have a more secret and intimate communion with God in his Covenants promises precepts in his will guiding vs by counsell and in his face comforting us with his favour Fifthly the more faith a man hath the more tranquillitie and establishment of heart shall he find in the midst of all spirituall desertions distractions and difficulties When a mans wits are non plusd his reason pos'd his contrivances and counsels disappointed his heart clouded with sorrow and feare when he walketh in darknesse and hath no light O then to have a sanctuary an Altar to flie unto to have a God to role himselfe upon to leane upon his wisedome to lay hold upon his Covenant to waite quietly upon the salvation of that God who doth not cast off for ever but though hee cause griefe yet will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies to commit his way to him who is able to bring it to passe and to doe abundantly above the thoughts desires expectations or petitions of men what peace and serenity must this bee to the â—…oule which is otherwise without light and peace Lastly the more faith a man hath the more joy and glory he hath in spirituall the more contentment and quietnesse in earthly things Being iustified by faith wee have peace with God in whom beleeving we reioyce with ioy unspeakeable and full of glory Let your conversation be without covetousnesse and bee content with such things as you have for he hath said I will not faile thee nor forsake thee Earthly-mindednesse and worldly cares grow out of want of faith In these and a world the like respects should we be moov'd to seeke for this grace and that so much the more carefully because the heart is of it selfe barren and therefore very unfit to have a forraigne plant grow in it very apt to over-top it with lusts and vanities We must therefore bee diligent to make our assurance full and certaine diligent in
of holinesse and grace which in Christ wee haue receiued For as sense of sin as a cursed thing which is legall humiliation doth arise from that faith whereby wee beleeve and assent to the truth of God in all his threatnings which is a legall faith so the Abominating of sinne as an uncleane thing and contrary to the image and holinesse of God which is evangelicall repentance doth arise from evangelicall faith whereby we look upon God as most mercifull most holie and therefore most worthie to bee imitated and served Secondly Renovation and that two fold First inward in the constitution of the heart which is by faith purified Secondly outward in the conversation and practice when a man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and as he hath received the Lord Iesus so walketh in him Now in all our obedience wee must observe these three Rules First that binding power which is in the law doth solely depend upon the authority of the Lawgiver who is God Hee that customarilie and without care of obedience or feare of displeasure or antipathy of spirit breaks any one Commandement ventures to violate that authority which by one and the same ordination made the whole law equally binding by consequence is habitually in praeparatione animi a transgressor of the whole Law And therefore Obedience must not bee partiall but vniversall as proceeding from that faith which hath respect equally to all Gods will and lookes upon him as most true and most holy in all his commands Secondly As God so his Law is a spirituall and a perfect Law and therefore requires an inward universality of the subject as well as that other of the Precepts which wee walke by I meane such a spiritual and sincere obedience of the hart as may without any mercenary or reserv'd respects uniformely sway our whole man unto the same way and end Thirdly In every Law all matter Homogeneall and of the same kind with the particular named every sprig seede originall of the Dutie is included as all the branches of a tree belong unto the same stock And by these rules wee are to examine the truth of our obedience Before I draw downe these premises to a particular Assumption and Applycation I must for Caution sake premise that faith may be in the heart either habitually as an actus primus a forme or seede or principle of working or else actually as an actus secundus a particular Operation and that in the former sense it doth but remotely dispose and order the soule to these properties but in the later it doth more visibly and distinctly produce them So then according as the heart is deaded in the exercise of Faith so doe these properties thereof more dimly appeare and more remisly worke Secondly we must note that according as faith hath severall workings so Satan hath severall wayes to assault and weaken it There are two maine workes of Faith Obedience and Comfort to purifie and to pacifie the heart and according unto these so Satan tempts His maine end is to wrong and dishonour God and therefore chiefly hee labours to disable the former vertue of Faith and tempts to sinne against God But when hee cannot proceede so farre hee labours to discomfort and crush the spirits of men when hee prevailes in the former he weakens all the properties of Faith when in the later onely he doth not then weaken all but onely intercept and darken a Christians peace For understanding this point we must note that there are many acts of faith Some direct that looke outward towards Christ others reflexive that looke inward upon themselves The first act of faith is that whereby a man having beene formerly reduced unto extremities and impossibilities within himselfe lookes upon God as Omnipotent and so able to save as mercifull and in Christ reconcileable and so likely to save if he be sought unto Hereupon growes a second act namely a kinde of exclusive resolution to be thinke himselfe of no new wayes to trust no inferiour causes for salvation or righteousnes to sell all to count them all dung not to consult any more with flesh or blood but to prepare the heart to seeke the Lord To resolve as the Lepers in the famine at Samaria not to continue in the state he is in nor yet to returne to the Citie to his wonted haunts and wayes where he shall be sure to perish and from this resolution a man cannot by any discomforts bee removed or made to bethinke himselfe of any other new way but onely that which hee sees is possible and probable and where he knowes if he finde acceptance hee shall have supplyes and life enough and this act may consist with much feare doubt and trembling The Syrians had food and Samaria had none therefore the Lepers resolve to venture abroad Yet this they cannot doe without much doubting and distrust because the Syrians whom they should meete with were their enemies However this resolution over-rul'd them because in their present estate they were sure to perish in the other there was roome for hope and possibilitie of living and that carried them co Esters resolution If we perish we perish such is the Act of Faith in this present case It is well assured that in the case a man is in there is nothing but death to bee expected therefore it makes him resolve to relinquish that It lookes upon God as plenteous in power and mercie and so likely to save and yet it sees him too as arm'd with Iustice against sinne as justly provoked and wearied in his patience and therefore may feare to bee rejected and not saved alive Yet because in the former state there is a certainty to perish in the later a possibility not to perish therefore from hence ariseth a third act a conclusive and positive purpose to trust Christ. I will not onely deny all other wayes but I will resolve to trie this way to set about it to go to him that hath plenty of redemption and Life If I must perish yet He shall reject me I will not reject my selfe I will goe unto Him And this act or resolution of faith is built upon these grounds First because Gods Love and free Grace is the first originall mover in our salvation If God did beginne His worke upon prevision of any thing in and from our selves we should never dare to come vnto Him because wee should never finde any thing in our selves to ground His mercie towards us upon But now the Love of God is so absolute and independant that it doth not only require nothing in us to excite and to cal it out but it is not so much as grounded upon Christ himselfe I speake of His first Love and Grace Christ was not the impulsive cause of Gods first Love to mankinde but was Himselfe the great gift which God sent to men therein to testifie that Hee did freely love them before God so
by meere naturall reasons and the assent produced by it is differenced from suspition hesitaâ—…cie â—…ubitation in the opinion of schoolâ—…men themselves Now then in as much as we are bound to yeeld an evident assent unto divine truths necessary hereunto it is that the undâ—…rstanding bee convinc'd of these two things First that God is of infallible authoritie and cannot lye nor deceive which thing is a principle by the light of nature evident and unquestioned Secondly that this authoritie which in faith I rely upon is indeede and infallibly Gods owne authoritie The meanes whereby I come to know that may bee either extraordinary as revelation such as was made by the Prophets concerning future events or else ordinary and common to the faithfull This the Papists say is the authoritie of the Church Against which if one would dispute much might bee said Briefly granting first unto the Church a ministeriall introductory perswasive and conducting concurrence in this worke pointing unto the starre which yet it selfe shineth by its owne light reaching forth and exhibiting the light which though in it selfe visible could not bee so ordinarily to mee uâ—…lesse thus presented explaning the evidence of those truths unto which I assent for their owne intrinsecall certainâ—…y I doe here demaund how it is that each man comes to beleeve The Colliar will quickly make a wise answere as the Church beleeves But now how or why doth the Church beleeve these or these truths to bee divine Surely not because the Church hath so determined our Saviour Himselfe would not be so beleeved If I beare record of my selfe my record is not true Well then the Church must needes beleeve by the spirit which leads it into all truth And what is the Church but the Bodie of Christ the congregrtion of the faithfull consisting of divers members And what worke is that whereby the Spirit doth illuminate and raise the understanding to perceive aright divine truth but onely that Oyntment which dwelleth in you saith the Apostle whereby Christs sheepe are enabled to heare His voyce in matters of more Heavenly and fundamentall consequence and to distinguish the same from the voyce of strangers Now have not all the faithfull of this unction Doth it not runne downe from the head to the skirts of the garment Are wee not all a royall Priesthood and in both these respects annointed by the Spirit And having all the Spirit though in different measures and degrees is it not in congruitie probable that we have with Him received those vivificall and illightning operations which come along with him Capable is the poorest member in Christs Church being growne to maturitie of yeeres of information in the faith Strange therefore it is that the Spirit not leaving mee destitute of other quickning graces should in this onely leave my poore soule to travell as farre as Rome to see that by a candle or rather by an ignis fatuus which himselfe might more evidently make knowne unto me For the Spirit doth beget knowledge We have received the spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God And againe Hereby we know that wee dwell in Him and Hee in us because Hee hath given us of His Spirit And againe Hereby we know that Hee abideth in us by the Spirit which Hee hath given us Especially since wee must take even the determinations of the Church and Pope though they were infallible in themselves at second hand as they passe through the mouth of a Priest whose authoritie being not infallible nor apostolicall but humane impossible it is not but that he may misreport His holy Father and by that meanes misguide and delude an unsetled soule Againe I demaund How doth it appeare unto mee that the Iudgment of the Church is infallible when it alone is the warrant of my Faith That this is it selfe no principle nor to the light of naturall reason primo intuitâ—… manifest ex evidentia terminorum is most certaine For that this company of men should not erre when other companies of men may erre cannot possibly be immediateâ—…y and por se evident since there must first needs apriori be discovered some internall difference betweene those men from whence as from an antecedent principle this difference of erring or not erring must needes grow Now then I demand what is that whereby I doe assent unto this proposition in case it were true That the Church cannot erre The Church it selfe it cannot be since nothing beares record of it selfe and if it should the proofe would be more ridiculous then the opinion being but idem peridem and petitio quaestionis Above the Church a Priori there is not any light but the scriptures and the spirit Therefore needs by these must I assent unto that one proposition at least And if unto that by these why then by the same light may I not assent unto all other divine truths since evident it is that the same light which enables me rightly to apprehend one object is sufficient also to any other for which a lesser light then that is presumed to suffice So then a true faith hath its evidence and certainty grounded upon the Authoritie of the word as the instrument and of the spirit of God raising and quickning the soule to attend and acknowledge the things therein revealed and to set to its owne seale unto the truth and goodnesse of them But how doe I know either this word to be Gods Word or this spirit to bee Gods spirit since there are sundry false and lying spirits I answer first ad Hominem there are many particular Churches and Bishops which take themselves to be equally with Rome members and Bishops of the universall Church How shall it invincibly appeare to my Conscience that other Churches and Bishops all save this onely doe or may erre and that this which will have me to beleeve her infallibility is not her selfe an hereticall and revolted Church This is a question controuerted By what autority shall it be decided or into what principles á priori resolved and how shall the evidence of those principles appeare to the Conscience That the Popes are successors of Peter in his see of Rome that they are doctrinall as wel as personall successours that Peter did there sit as moderator of the Catholike Church that his infallibility should not stick to his chaire at Antioch as well as to that at Rome that Christ gave him a principality jurisdiction and Apostleship to have to himselfe over all others and to leave to his successors who though otherwise privat men and not any of the pen-men of the holy Ghost should yet have after him a power over those Apostles who survivd Peter as it is manifest Iohn did That the scripture doth say any title of all this that the traditions which do say it are a divine word are al controversed points and though there be sorceries more then enough
in the Church of Rome yet I doubt whether they have yet enough to conjure themselves out of that circle which the agitation of these questions doe carry them in But secondly there are sundry lights there is light in the Sunne and there is light in a blazing or falling starre How shall I difference these lights will you say surely I know not otherwise then by the lights themselves undoubtedlie the spirit brings a proper distinctive uncommunicable Majesty and luster into the soule which cannot be by any false spirit counterfeited and this spirit doth open first the eie and then the Word and doth in that discover not as insit as veritatis those markes of truth and certainty there which are as apparant as the light which is without any other medium by it selfe discerned Thus then we see in the general That saving faith is an assent created by the word spirit We must note further that this knowledge is two fold first Generall mentall spâ—…culative and this is simply necessary not as a part of saving faith but as a medium degree passage thereunto For how can men beleeve without a teacher Secondly particular practicall Applicative which carries the soule to Christ and there â—…ixeth it â—…o whom shall wee go thou hast the words of eternall life wee beleeve and are sure that thou art that Christ. I know that my Redeemer liveth That yee being rooted and grounded in Love may be able to comprehend and to know the Love of Christ. I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me By his knowledge shall my righteous servant iustifie many This saving knowledge must bâ—…e commensurate to the object knowne and to the ends for which it is instituted which are Christ to be made ours for righteousnesse and salvation Now Christ is not proposed as an object of bare and naked truth to bee assented unto but as a Soveraigne and saving truth to do good unto men He is proposed as the Desire of all flesh It is the heart which beleeves With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and Christ dwelleth by faith in the heart If thou beleevest with all thine heart thou maist be bapâ—…ized And the hâ—…art doth not onely looke for truth but for goodnesse in the objects which it desireth for an allsufficiencie and adequate ground of full satisfaction to the appetites of the soule such a compasse of goodnesse as upon which the whole man may test and relie and unto the which he may have a personall propriety hold-fast and possession So then in one word faith is a particular assent unto the truth and goodnes of God in Christ his sufferings and resurrection as an allsufficient and open treasurie of righteousnesse and salvation to every one which comes unto them and thereupon a resolution of the heart there to fixe and fasten for those things and to looke no further Now this faith is called knowledge First in regard of the principles of it The word and spirit both which produce faith by a way of conviction and manifestation Secondly in regard of the ground of beleeving which is the knowledge of Gods will revealed for none must dare demand or take any thing from God till hee have revealed his will of giving it He hath said must be the ground of our faith Thirdly in regard of the certainty and undoubtednesse which there is in the assent of faith Abraham was fully perswaded of Gods pow'r and promise now there is a twofold certainty a certainty of the thing beleeved because of the power and promise of him that hath said it and a certainty of the minde beleeving The former is as full and sure to one beleever as to any other as an Almes is as certainly and fully given to one poore man who yet receives it with a shaking and Palsie hand as it is to another that receives it with more strength But the mind of one man may bee more certaine and assured then another or then it selfe at some other time sometimes it may have a certainty of evidence assurance and full perswasion of Gods goodnesse sometimes a certainty onely of Adherence in the midst of the buffets of Satan and some strong temptations whereby it resolveth to cleave unto God in Christ though it walke in darkenesse and have no light Fourthly and lastly in regard of the last Reflexive Act Whereby we know that we know him and beleeve in him And yet both this and all the rest are capable of grow'th as the Apostle here intimates we know heere but in part and therefore our knowledge of Him may still increase The heart may have more plentifull experience of Gods mercie in comfotting guiding defending illightning sanctifying it which the Scripture cals the learning of Christ and thereupon cannot but desire to have more knowledge of Him and Communion with Him especially in those two great benefits His Resurrection and sufferings And the power of His resurrection The Apostles desire in these words is double First that he may finde the workings of that power in his soule which was shewed in the resurrection of Christ from the Dead that is the Power of the Spirit of Holynesse which is the mighty principle of Faith in the heart That Spirit of Holynesse which quickned Christ from the Dead doth by the same glorious power beget Faith and other graces in the Soule It is as great a worke of the Spirit to forme Christ in the heart of a sinner as it was to fashion Him in the wombe of a virgin Secondly that He may feele the resurrection of Christ to have a Power in Him Now Christs resurrection hath a twofold Power upon us or towards us First to apply all His merits unto us to accomplish the worke of His satisfaction to declare his conquest over death and to propose himselfe as an All-sufficient Saviour to the faithfull As the stampe addes no vertue nor matter of reall value to a piece of gould but onely makes that value which before it had actually applyable and currant So the resurrection of Christ though it was no part of the price or satisfaction which Christ made yet it was that which made them all of force to His members Therefore the Apostle saith that Christ was Iustified in Spirit In His Death Hee suffered as a malefactor and did undertake the guilt of our sinnes so farre as it denotes an obligation unto punishment though not a meritoriousnesse of punishment but by that Spirit which raised Him from the Dead Hee was Iustified Himselfe that is He declared to the world that Hee had shaken of all that guilt from Himselfe and as it were left it in His Grave with His Grave clothes For as Christs righteousnesse is compared to a robe of triumph so may our guilt to a garment of Death which Christ in His Resurrection shooke all of to note that Death
the Word of faith and with the spirit of faith Beeyee not slothfull saith the Apostle but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Lastly we must doe with faith as men doe with pretious things Try it and put it to the touchstone that wee may prove whether it be truly valuable and unfeigned because there is much counterfeite faith as there is false money and deceitfull jewels and wilde herbes in the field which very neerely resemble those that are right and pure This is an argument which hath been much travail'd in by men of more learning and spirit and therefore I will but touch upon it by considering foure principall effects of this Grace The first is a love and liking of those spirituall truths which by faith the heart assenteth unto for according as is the evidence and pretiousnesse of the thing beleeved such is the measure of our love unto it For saving faith is an assent with adherence and delight contrary to that of Divels which is with trembling and horror and that delight is nothing else but a kind of rellish and experience of the goodnesse of that truth which we assent unto Whereupon it necessarily followes even from the dictate of nature which instructeth a man to love that which worketh in him comfort and delight that from this assent must arise a love of those truths whence such sweetnesse doth issue By the first act of faith we apprehend God a reconcileable God by the second a reconciled God for faith shewes us Gods love to us in Christ proposeth him as altogether lovely the chiefest of ten thousand and thereby begetâ—…eth in us a love unto Christ againe and this love is a sincere uncorrupted immortall love a conjugall and superlative love nothing must be loved in competition with Christ every thing must be rejected and cast away either as a snare when hee hates it or as a Sacrifice when he calles for it Therefore God required the neerest of a mans blood in some cases to throw the first stone at an Idolater to shew that no relations should preponderate or over-sway our hearts from his love Christ and earthly things often come into competition in the life of a man In every un just gaine Christ and a bribe or Christ and cruelty in every oth or execration Christ and a blasphemy in every sinfull fashion Christ and a ragge or Christ and an excrement in every vaine-glorious affectation Christ and a blast in every intemperancy Christ and a vomit a stagger a shame a disease O where is that faith in men which should overcome the world and the things of the world Why should men delight in any thing while they live which when they â—…e on their death beds a time speedily approching they shall never bee able to reflect on with comfort nor to recount without amazement and horror Certainely he that fosters any Dalila or darling lust against the will and command of Christ well may hee delude himselfe with foolish conceits that hee loves the Lord Iesus but let him be assured that though he may be deceived yet God will not bee mocked not every one that faith Lord Lord shall bee accounted the friends of Christ but they who keepe his Commandements The second effect of faith is Assiance and Hope confidently for the present relying on the goodnesse and for the future waiting on the power of God which shall to the full in due time performe what in his word hee hath promised I haue set life and death before you saith Moses to the people That thou maist love the Lord thy God and that thou maist obey his voice and that thou maist cleave unto him c. Wee are confident saith the Apostle knowing that whilst wee are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. When once the minde of a man is wrought so to assent unto divine promises made in Christ as to acknowledge an interest claime and propriety unto them and that to be at last actually performed not by a man who may be subject both to unfaithfulnesse in keeping and disability in performing his promises but by Almighty God who the better to confirme our faith in him hath both by word and oath engaged his fidelity and is altogether omnipotent to doâ—… what hee hath purposed or promised Impossible it is but from such an assent grounded on the veracity and all sufficiency of God there should result in the minde of a faithfull man a confident dependance on such Promises renouncing in the meane time all selfe-concurrencie as in it selfe utterly impotent and to the fullfilling of such a worke as is to be by Gods owne omnipotencie effâ—…cted altogether irrequisite and resolving in the midst of temptations to relie on him to hold fast his mercy and the profession of his faith without wavering having an eye to the recompence of reward and being assured that hee who hath promised will certainly bring it to passe A third effect of faith is ioy and peace of Conscience Being justified by faith wee haue peace with God The God of peace fill you with all ioy and peace in beleeuing The mind is by the rellish and experience of sweetnesse in Gods Promises composed unto a setled calmenesse and serenity I doe not meane a Dead peace which is onely an immobility and sleepinesse of Conscience like the rest of a dreaming man on the top of a mast but such a peace as a man may by afyllogisme of the practicall judgement upon right examination of his owne interest unto Christ safely inferre unto himselfe The wicked often haue an appearance of peace as well as the faithfull but there is a great difference For there is but a dore betweene a wicked man and his sinne which will certainely one day open and then sinne at the doore will fly upon the Soule but betweene a faithfull man and his sin there is a wall of fire and an immoveable impregnable fort even the merits of Christ the wicked mans peace growes out of Ignorance of God the Law himselfe but a righteous mans peace growes out of the knowledge of God and Christ. So that there are two things in it Tranquillity it is a quiet thing and serenitie it is a cleare and distinct thing However if a faithfull man have not present peace because peace is an effect not of the first and direct but of the second and reflexive act of faith yet there is ever with all faith the seed of peace and a resolution to seeke and to sue it out The last effect of faith which I shall now speake of is fructification faith worketh by love And it worketh first Repentance whereby we are not only to understand griefe for sinne or a sense of the weight and guilt of it which is onely a legall thing if it proceed no farther and may goe before faith but hatred of sinne as a thing contrary to that new spirit