as he is God but as he is God-Man as he is the Mediator and Head of the Church in which sense we are here to understand it And so he is variously exprest in Scripture as the Tree of Life as the Bread of Life as the Water of Life Christ he is every way and in all respects Life unto us both in reference to Grace and Glory I am come says he that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly Joh. 10.10 Christ he is both the Author of our life and the matter of our life too He is the root and spring of it in whom it is and from whom it slows unto us And he is the substance of it in whom it consisteth because he only is the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.2 He is our life as that which we feed on and are sustained and nourished by as a man is by his natural food in the life of nature His flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and conveys life indeed by it There 's a threefold life which Christ does convey to all those who are true Believers First the life of Justification Secondly the life of Sanctification And Thirdly the life of Glory And in the conveyance of each of these unto them he is said to be emphatically the life as also in another place The life was manifested and we have seen it in 1 Joh. 1.2 First Christ is the life of Justification as to the pardon and forgiveness of our sins Persons that are condemned they are so far forth said to be dead namely as they are appointed to death they are dead in Law And this is the state and condition of us all by nature by reason of our first transgression there was a sentence of death past upon us and we were adjudg'd thereunto In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 3.17 Now Christ he hath reverst this sentence and removed this death from us by dying for us By his obedience and suffering he hath satisfied the Justice of his Father and thereby hath reconciled us and put us into a state of life again Thus Col. 2.13 You being dead in your sins and the circumcision of your flesh hath he quickned together with him having forgiven you all trespasses Mark He hath quickned you by forgiving you I orgiving it is a kind of quickning because it makes a man a child of life who was before a child of death And this is that which Christ hath done for us he hath quickned us thus so far forth as he hath absolved us and set us free from condemnation by taking our guilt upon himself and that 's called a Justification of life Rom. 13.18 Now this it hath another life which is pertinent and belonging hereunto and consequent from it which therefore we may look upon under the same head with it And this is a life of peace and spiritual comfort For as by reason of sin we are plainly and absolutely dead and have a sentence of condemnation past upon us So from hence where it is discovered to us and we are made sensible of it we come to be dejected and cast down in our selves We are not only all dead but we are all a mort likewise Therefore as answerable to one death of sentence we have need of a life of absolution So answerable to the death of despair which is apt to follow upon that death of sentence where it does not appear to be remitted we have need of a life of consolation to be bestow'd upon us And this is Christ also unto us He is our Peace as the Scipture stiles him not only in the thing it self but also in our own consciences not only as to our state but as to our spirit not only as to our state to make it justifiable but as to our spirit to make it comfortable And in that respect also our life Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoyce c. in Rom. 5.1 c. Secondly As Christ is the life of Justification so he is the life of Sanctification likewise When God pardoned our sins through the Blood of Christ he gives us Grace and Holiness from the Spirit of Christ as a fruit and consequent of that pardon and reconciliation And Christ himself does impart and communicate his Spirit unto us for this purpose He is of God made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Not only from the law of death as to matter of guilt and condemnation but also from the law of sin as to matter of filth and pollution and hath put a new and another law into me which is the law of Grace and holiness of the Spirit This is the method wherein we partake of this spiritual life that it is first of all subjected in Christ and from him derived unto us The Spirit of God first sanctifies the humane nature of Christ and from thence sanctifies us and conveys a new nature unto us Christ lives in us by his Spirit Gal. 2.20 And therefore call'd a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 This Life is further considerable not only in the principle of it but in the activity of it not only as that whereby we are simply enabled and made capable of doing our duty but also are made vigorous in it Christ is our life so far forth as we have a livelihood in any thing which is good And thus also the life of Sanctification Thirdly The life of Glory Christ is that likewise so far forth as he makes all his Servants to be partakers of it For so he does he raises up their bodies from the grave and he possesses both body and soul with eternal happiness And so the Scripture informs us Thus Joh. 11.25 Jesus said unto Martha I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye c. Christ is the life of the resurrection forasmuch as his resurrection hath an insluence and effect upon ours and is the cause of it Whatsoever is done to us it is done first of all to him He lives and we live in him He is risen again and we shall rise again by him and from him According to that of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 6.14 God hath raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power And again 2 Cor. 4.14 Knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you And again Phil. 3.22 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Thus is Christ the life
upon these Gifts as they are here presented to us in the Text three manner of ways First In their Distinction Secondly In their Connexion And Thirdly in their Order In their Distinction Grace considered by it self and Glory by it self In their Connexion Grace and Glory united and put both together In their Order Grace going before and Glory following after For the First To look upon them distinctly here that which does first offer it self to us is Grace The Lord will give Grace and Glory Grace is a large word which does comprehend many things under it but we will here in this place confine it as the Holy Ghost Himself seems to do and understand it especially of the Grace of Sanctification This is that amongst the rest and more particularly which God promises here to give And we must know whom he means as the persons to whom he will give it namely to those which have it already To him that hath shall be given It is true that God will also give Grace to those that want it to all those that belong to the Election of Grace but are not as yet effectually called God will bestow Grace upon them and he has Grace in store for them and so he will give Grace i. e. the first beginning c. But that 's not that which is here intended so much in this present Scripture No but rather the Improvements of Grace to those in whom it is already For we must still remember that all these Expressions in this Text they do properly belong to the people of God and to none but them To them he is a Sun to them he is a Shield to them he will give Grace c. Now when it is said that he will thus give Grace to such as these for time to come we may take it according to the notion of a double Improvement First Perseverance in that Grace which already they do partake off And Secondly Inlargement and an Addition and further Augmentation of that which they have received First The Lord will give Grace to them that fear him that is the Grace of Establishment and Perseverance This is one kind of Grace which God will give and that in order also to Sanctification He will inable us to sustain and hold out and continue still to the end in the Grace which we have received Where he has once wrought Grace in the Heart hee 'l preserve it and keep it still alive there where he hath wrought it And it is that which he has promised and ingaged Himself to do for us I will put my Fear into their Hearts that they shall not depart from me It is a Branch of the Covenant of Grace which God makes with his people that he will not onely sanctify them and change their Natures with his saving Grace but that he will likewise keep this Grace in them This Seed it shall abide and remain in those which are his Children and be a constant principle in them Indeed it may admit of Variations for the Expressions of it which may prove sometimes to be more and sometimes to be less but for the thing it self it shall be always the same A Christian shall be like an Oak whose Substance is in him when his leaves fall Esay 6.13 When the Branch of Grace may decline yet the Substance and truth of it shall remain yet this so as to be the Gift of God in all this Here 's the Ground of all I mean of this Grace of Perseverance and Continuance in the Faith because God gives it it is from Grace that we hold out in Grace which otherwise we should not do it is not from our own Stability but from the Goodness and power of God towards us And that 's the first Explication The Lord will give Grace that is the Grace of Perseverance and Establishment where he hath begun it Secondly The Grace of Increase and Inlargement The Lord will give Grace that is he will give more grace He will give a greater measure of grace in addition to that which he has given Thus Phil. 1.6 He that has begun a good work in you will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ He giveth more grace as it is in Jam. 4.6 in the world men are never contented but are still desirous of more This is that which is promised here that is more grace This may be drawn out by us according to the several improvements and specifications of it As first of all The Lord will give grace that is he will give conquering Grace for the subduing of lusts and Corruptions and for the resisting of speritual Conflicts and Temptations This suites very well with that which we had before about a shield and Gods resemblance to that He does bear a proportion to it in nothing more then he does in this particular by inabling his servants to quench the fiery darts of the Devil This was the grace which He gave to Peter Luk. 22.31 Simon Simon Satan hath desired to have you and to winnow you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not this was the Grace which he gave to Paul when the Messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him 2 Cor. 12.9 My Grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness And this is the Grace he will likewise give to the rest of his servants He will tread Satan under their feet He will subdue their iniquities for them He will every day more and more exterpate and work out those remainders of corruption which are yet in their hearts And it is that which those which are Gods children may expect and depend upon him for If there be any one which hath any strong lust which is too hard and difficult for him which he cannot overcome let him remember this truth here before us that God will give Grace and let him improve it and make use of it to this purpose There 's no sin or corruption whatsoever which is too hard for the grace of God which the Spirit of Christ cannot master and vanquish in us yea eject and thoroughly dispossess and cast out of the heart Therefore we should with courage set upon the resisting of Temptations If we indeavour God will give grace and glory Secondly Quickening and strengthening grace for the performance of our Duties The Lord will gives such grace as this Grace for our several Callings Relations places and services which do belong unto us This is another branch of this Bounty in God which is commended to us and which is very sweet and comfortable in the consideration of it It is a very great incouragement as to the undertaking of any special business or imployment which God does call us to that he will give grace for it He will give us the grace and assistance and special inablement It was that which he promised Moses when he call'd him forth to the work of the Ministery which he was very
ought to have done And therefore I may have my Thoughts troubled and disquieted in my self For Answer hereunto thus much If it be such a Failing in us as is voluntary and Observed and Discerned in us then we ought not to question Gods Providence but rather be humbled in our selves for it and making up the breach betwixt God and our selves in that particular apply our selves to him with so much the more eagerness and intention If it be such as is secret and not discerned only feared and suspected in our selves God is not a Captious Master one that makes advantage of every thing against us but accepts of our Desires and Endeavours to do that which is pleasing in his sight Therefore let not this Discourage us so as to promote Distraction in us but let our Thoughts still be Establisht and remember still to have them Establisht upon this Ground to wit The Committing of our Works to the Lord. We must put these two Clauses in their Connexion There are many their minds are quiet oftentimes and free from any great trouble which is the Ground and Foundation of it Security may attend any Presumption and Apprehension of Danger and it may be the present injoyment of some outward help This is that which supports them but ours should be a dependance upon God And this for the matter of Duty The Second is the Matter of Priviledge And thy Thoughts shall be Established Thus is that we think when any thing troubles our Thoughts to work it out by our Thoughts themselves But alas that is no way which is consequent and following hereupon That man which in a Right manner does commit his works to the Lord he has from hence a blessed quietness and security of mind happens unto him When we follow God with Faith He follows us with Comfort and abundantly recompensesour Trust and Relyance upon him into our own Bosoms Being Justified by Faith we have Peace with God c. Rom. 5.1 Faith is a satisfying Grace and it has this Issue and Effect with it as proper and peculiar to it that quiets and settles the heart of that person who is the Subject of it Hannah when she had prayed to the Lord it is said Her Countenance thereupon was no more Sad 1 Sam. 1.18 so abundantly was she satisfyed in her self upon that Performance And so shall we likewise be in the practise of it It will comfort us and quiet us and satisfie us upon all occasions whatsoever See what the Prophet David observes to this purpose concerning a Good and Godly man Psal 112.7 8. He shall not be afraid of evil tydings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. His heart is Established he shall not be afraid until he see his desire upon his Enemies It is doubled again and again for the certainty and confirmation of it to put it out of doubt And thus much of the first Explication Thy Thoughts that is the Workings and Agitations of the Mind it self The Second is the Result of these workings of the Mind in the things themselves Thy Thoughts shall be Establisht That is indeed thy purposes and Contrivances and Works themselves wherewithal thy Thoughts are imployed They shall be Establisht that is Prospered unto thee And so we shall have the Sence clear and plain Commit thy Works unto the Lord and those Works shall be Establisht The Prospering and Establishing of a mans Works it has always been counted a great advantage it is that which the Prophet David Prays for in the behalf of the Church Psal 90.17 Let the Beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and Establish thou the work of our hands upon us yea the work of our hands Establish thou it This is that now which is promised to trusting and relying upon God and this Committing of our Works unto him thy Thoughts i.e. thy Works c. Let us learn then here the way which leads and directs us hereunto As we all desire to have Establisht Thoughts and Establisht Works as all men naturally do so let us take that course which does properly lead unto it Let us commit our selves and our Works and our ways and all that belongs unto us to the Gracious Providence of God that so we may have a Blessed Sabbath and Tranquillity in our minds and have all our affairs succeed unto us And especially let us be carefull to do it whose Thoughts and Works meet together in a more special and peculiar manner That is whose Works lie in our Thoughts it concerns us to do it more than ordinary and above any other else besides As we ever desire to have our studies blest and to have any good and Fruit to come of them so let us be especially carefull to commit them still to the Lord. Commit them to him as the End of them and the Scope which they are directed unto When we make our selves the End of them we cannot expect so to prosper in them But when we make him the aim of all he will return it graciously upon us And commit them to him as the Helper of them and as he that must give them Life to them without whose assistance all is in vain The Preparations of the heart are of man but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord Prov. 16.1 And commit them to him as the Blesser of them and as he that must give success unto them without which they come to nought What 's the reason that many Schollars they take a great deal of pains in their Studies and many has no good comes of it All their learning is lost unto them in regard of any good they do with it or Comfort which they can take in it it is because they are neglectfull and failing in this present performance of Committing their Works to the Lord. To Conclude Let us by the way take notice of the great Happiness and Felicity of a Christian in all his ways He is secure and safe having Committed himself to God and so need not to fear any thing Quam securus dormit sues Chrysologus qui Deum meruit habere custodem quam nescit curas quam depacit auxores Oh how securely does that man sleep who has got the Lord to be his keeper How void of cares How free from troubles c. Let it make us in love with Religion and Christianity and the exercise of Godliness which does contain so much excellency and advantage within the bowels of it Let us not lay our happiness and contentment in the world and the comforts thereof nor our confidence in any outward subsistence but rather in such things as these which have a bottom and foundation in them even the Attributes and Perfections and Promises of God Himself But so much also for that namely The Second General Part of the Text in the inforcement of the Duty required And so likewise as breifly as could be of the whole Verse it self Commit c. SERMON XXXII Prov. 17.3 The
of Vtterance a third has a gift of Interpretation one is better in the Applicatory part another is better at the Expository This diversity and variety of gifts wherein all are excellent and it is very hard to say which is best it comes from the Spirit of Christ as the same Apostle also tells us in the same Chapter All these worketh one and the self-same spirit dividing to every man severally as he pleaseth 2 Cor. 12.11 Secondly As for the various Distribution so likewise for the Succession As these gifts in several persons so likewise in Ages and Periods of Time and Generation one after another It is very considerable this That Christ does so order it in his Providence that his Church shall still one way or other be furnished and provided for in the world the Prophets in their Age the Apostles in theirs succeeding Ministers in theirs and that in each of these in the withdrawing of one there hath still been the substitution of another for the preservation and upholding of the work Elijah translated but Elisha left behind him Jeremy imprisoned but Baruch inlarged Paul in bonds but Timothy at liberty John the Baptist removed but Christ continued Christ himself departed but his Spirit coming in his room I will not leave you comfortless but I will thus come unto you The Use of all this to our selves is with thankfulness to acknowledge the love and goodness of Christ in this particular and to improve it to our best advantage not to carp or cark or quarrel with the gifts of our Ministers or to compare them or set them one against another as we are apt to do but rather to bless God for them in the various ordering and distribution of them and to partake of that good from them which God affords us for the good of our Souls which is to walk answerably to Christs dealing with us in this particular And that 's the first conveyance of Christ's Spirit to wit In the distribution of the gifts of it The second is in the Distribution of Graces Christ comes by his Spirit in them not onely in his gifts of Edification but in his gifts of Sanctification Faith and Love and Patience and Humility and the like We find that after Christs Ascension there was a greater measure and abundance of these Religion was now more Spiritualiz'd and Christians themselves were now raised to a more heavenly and spiritual frame of Soul than before they had been As the Word of God grew and multipi'd so likewise the Improvements of it and the Graces of those who had the priviledge of being partakers of it It is said of the Romans that their faith was spoken of throughout the world Rom. 1.8 Of the Corinthians that they were enriched in all graces 1 Cor. 1.4 5 c. The Apostle commends the Colossians for their faith in Christ and love to all the Saints in Col. 1.4 c. Thirdly In the distribution of Comforts Thus did Christ come by his Spirit especially not onely as he was a qualifying Spirit furnishing them with all Gifts not onely as he was a sanctifying Spirit induing them with Graces but also as he was a comforting Spirit filling their hearts with joy And thus he did This is that which is principally stood upon here in this Scripture as we may see in the Connexions of it thus in verse 16 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth c. The sadness of Christs departure it was scattered by the presence of the Comforter which was interpretatively his own presence with them Thus in all these respects did Christ himself come to them by his Spirit in its Gifts and Graces and Comforts Now to improve this still so much the more and that it might be a full Argument to them for the pacifying of them I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you we may take this in further with it that it is considerable under a two-fold Emphasis the one Discretive and the other Consequential The Discretive Emphasis is this Ye have no cause to be very sad or uncomfortable for though I go from you yet I will come unto you The Consequential Emphasis is this Ye have no cause to be sad or uncomfortable for because I go from you therefore I will come unto you my coming to you is both the consequent of my departure and following upon it And again my coming to you is also the effect or result of my departure and flowing from it First Take it in the Discretive Emphasis Though I go away yet I will come There was good reason why they should be satisfied from that that he was not quite and utterly lost or gone irrecoverably but cum animo revertenti with a full purpose of coming again or if not of coming in his Person yet of coming in that which was better at least for them and that was of coming in his Spirit which he here intends and which we have spoken to all this while His going had no cause to disquiet them whiles it had his coming following upon it to them Secondly Take it in the Consequential Emphasis Because I go away therefore I will come This was that which was here also considerable as it follows afterwards Christs going in his Person was the cause at least sine qua non of his coming in his Spirit if he had not gone that way he had not come this Thus we have it in Joh. 16.6 7. Because I have said these things to you namely of my going from you therefore sorrow hath filled your hearts Nevertheless I tell you the iruth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you That is if I do not go I shall not come but if I do go I then shall And that 's the second Explication of his coming the coming of him in his Spirit To this last of all we may add a Third with which I conclude and that is his coming in Glory at the last day This is very frequently and emphatically call'd in Scripture the coming of Christ and it is that which may very much pacifie and satisfie Believers in his present absence and keep them from being sad and comfortless that he will come thus This is that which he makes mention of in the three first Verses of this Chapter and wherewith he does labour to comfort them Let not your heart be troubled c. I go to prepare a place for you And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also This is in other words call'd his Appearing and Revelation and such like phrases as these This in the meditation of it is very comfortable to all true Saints and Members
and acknowledged on both parts whether orthodox or heterodox in this business whether of the right or of the contrary judgment Secondly by shewing what it is that the former do deny to the latter and wherein they do dissent from this First then by way of concession and acknowledgment as to the first term in the Proposition which is a man fallen and lapst in Adam it is granted that even such an one when he once comes to be restored by Grace and to be renewed in the Spirit of his mind that then he hath some power even of his own to such a work as is truly and spiritually good Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty says the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.17 And again Being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness c. Rom. 6.18 When God hath once changed us and converted us and brought us home to himself there is then restored unto us that freedom and liberty to good which we once lost by our fall God that in our first creation did put into the will an habitual inclination to good he hath also in our new creation restored unto us an habitual conversion to the same good The will being freed by Grace becomes free Secondly As to that term of free-will If by freedom of will be meant no more than a freedom from natural necessity or extrinsecal violence and coaction so that a man does will and choose and do that which he does upon counsel and reason and advice leading him thereto there is no controversy at all in this business For freedom of will in this sense does as essentially belong unto a man as reason it self and to strip him or spoyl him of it were to turn him into a very beast We do will indeed we do will freely neither can we otherwise will any thing Therefore it is one thing to enquire of the nature and another thing to dispute of the power and ability of free-will in us Which latter especially taken in the active sense of it we say is wholly lost and extinguisht in man by his fall as to the performing of such things as do belong to eternal Salvation It is true that in the will of man fallen there is a passive power for the receiving of a supernatural being which by God shall be conferred upon it but there is not an active power for the producing of such a being as this is either of it self or with any thing else That Speech of St. Austin's is very significant to this purpose and which all must yield unto Libere velle est opus naturae bene velle gratiae male velle corruptionis To will freely is the work of nature to will well of grace to will ill of corruption As also that of Tapperus Opus pium quatenus opus ab arbitrio est quatenus pium a sola gratia quatenus opus pium ab arbitrio gratia simul A good work as it it a work it is from free-will as it is good from grace as it is a work and good from free-will and grace both Thus free-will in the true and right notion and acception of it is not rejected by us Thirdly As to the last term which is here exprest in the Text by nothing If we speak of that which is evil here we have freedom of will more than enough our corrupt nature carrying us too readily and freely hereunto But therefore we are here to understand it only of that which is good we are naturally prone to evil but to good we have no mind And here again there are divers particulars which we do further yield and acknowledg as First that a man in the state of nature and out of Christ may be able to do that which is good as to the matter and substance of the action By taking this word doing for the bare and simple effecting of the work in it self consider'd without any respect had either to the principle from whence it is produced or to the end whereunto it is directed Secondly A natural man he may be able to perform a work morally good according to a kind of moral honesty and the conditions of a virtuous action as prescrib'd by moral Philosophy not only as to the substance and matter of the action it self but also as to the very circumstances and manner of doing of it namely such as moral Philosophy does teach and require as honouring of Parents giving of alms and the like Thus the Apostle Paul tells us that the Gentiles which have not the Law they do by nature the things centained in the Law Rom. 2.14 Thirdly We also grant that the Grace of Sanctification and the power of living holily is not infused into any persons living idly and taking no care of any thing but in the diligent use of such means as God has appointed and sanctified to this purpose as coming to Church waiting upon the Ministry hearing the word of God both read and preach'd c. God will not save us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom speaks nor sleeping and snoring and doing nothing but in our conscionable endeavours And so far forth as any one hath power to move and walk so far forth has he power to those things also as are ordinarily consequent and following thereupon in a way of ordinary providence Fourthly It is also acknowledged that an unregenerate person and as yet unconverted may be able to perform not only those outward good actions but some even inward good actions likewise As he may be able to have some kind of knowledg and apprehension of the will of God he may be able to meditate of God and of the things of God He may consider his own sins reflect upon his own guilt and have some kind of fear and horror in him upon the reflexions of it and much desire to be delivered from it These and many such things as are previous and antecedent to Faith and true repentance are required of men before the infusion of sanctifying Grace and accordingly may be performed by them Fifthly We likewise yield that in the Church of God where the word of God is ordinarily preach'd and the means of regeneration are ordinarily administred this Grace which does make men able to do such good works as are truly spiritual and saving is not denied to any before the repulse of initial Grace that is before they have resisted the Spirit of God in his preparatory works and refused those free and gracious offers and invitations which he has made unto them Lastly It cannot be denied but that some of the ancient Fathers did sometimes let fall some speeches and passages in their writings which at the first hearing or reading of them do seem somewhat to encline to this Doctrine of free-will whereof we now speak And thus have we seen what is granted and acknowledged on all hands by way of concession Now further it remains we should shew wherein the difference and
particular Now therefore does Christ here by his Spirit awaken the Habit and provoke us and sets us on doing making us ready and prepared as the Scripture speaks to every good work Thirdly He assists the Act that is he helps and concurs with us in the very performance it self and this is that which we now especially speak of at this present time as considerable of us to this purpose For we though we have some general power and ability for such a duty and withall some kind of desire and propensity towards it yet we cannot particularly act it and bring it about without the immediate help and assistance of the Spirit of Christ carrying us bringing us through it For partly our own natural corruption which remains still in part in us does retard us and keep us back and partly Satan joyning with our corruptions does exceedingly hinder and interrupt us and therefore there must be a stronger than each come between which may scatter the power of either and may help our infirmities Hence it is that the Apostle Paul complains sometimes of himself that to will is present with him but how to perform that which is good he finds not Rom. 7.17 And speaking of acts of charity and bounty to the Corinthians he requires that as there was a readiness to will so there might be a performance also of that which they had 2 Cor. 8.11 Because these two they are such as may be possibly separated and divided the one from the other and oftentimes are But now Christ he joyns them both together wheresoever he pleases the Act with the Habit and the Performance together with the Will and it is necessary that he should do so or else they are never likely to concur or meet together Without him we can do nothing that is without him assisting of us in the very act and point of performance And God will have it thus to be upon very good ground as namely first of all That so hereby he may keep us in an humble frame and in a state of dependance and subordination He will have us to see how that all our strength lies in himself and that we are able to do nothing any further than as he is pleased to concur with us whereby we may be the more engaged unto him As the beginnings of Grace are from him so likewise the proceedings and the further actings and accomplishments of it according to that also of the Apostle speaking to the Philippians He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ yea and he must perform it too if ever it be perform'd at all or else it will never be so which the Apostle speaks with a great deal of boldness and freedom of spirit In regard of the great certainty and assurance which he had of it being confident of this very thing Phil. 1.6 Where by the way whiles it is said of God that he will perform such and such good works it is not so to be understood as the Subject of those works but onely as the Essicient not as if he himself did believe or repent or hope or any such as this but that he helps and enables us to do so which is observable in him He works in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Phil. 2.13 And all for this purpose to make us pure in spirit and sensible of our own insufficiency For Humility it is the Beatifying Grace it is that which does adorn and set forth all other Graces in us and which God takes so much delight to see acting and flourishing in us and therefore takes such a course as this is with us Again secondly God will have it to be thus likewise that so we may relish the greater comfort and sweetness in that which we do For whilst we have strength communicated to us from Christ in every performance our hearts are so much the more cheered and enlarged in it whiles we apprehend his assistance of us to be a pledge of his special love and favour and good-will towards us This is that which makes us to be so much the more lively and comfortable in that which is undertaken by us Thirdly That hereby Christ may have the greater Honour and Glory from us as not onely the Author but Finisher of our faith as the Apostle styles him Heb. 12.2 that is not onely as of him that begins but that perfects Grace in us and the Author not onely of Salvation as the End but of Sanctification as the Way and Means that tends to it and of this sanctification of all the works and and operations of it For the better enlarging and illustrating of this Point yet still further unto us Whiles it is said that without Christ we can do nothing here is an exclusion of a three-sold strength as but weak and insufficient to this purpose First the strength of meer Natural Parts Secondly the strength of meer Habitual Graces Thirdly the strength of no more than former Assistance First I say the strength of meer Natural Parts it is not that which will do the deed We know that Natural Parts they do many times make a great shew and lustre in the world and that men may go sometimes very far with them in matter of Religion being applied unto them but yet they are able to do nothing to any purpose or so as it should be but are very defective Men may be able sometimes hereby as I shew'd you the last day to reach perhaps to the outward shell and hull of the action and carry it as it may be very gloriously and with a great deal of humane applause but to come up to the Spirituality of the Duty and to perform it so as whereby it may find acceptance with God himself this is that which such as these onely cannot reach or attain unto The Heathen Philosophers some of them though they pretended to a great degree of mortification which they could accomplish by the strength of Reason yet in truth they fell very short and wide of it Secondly the strength of meer habitual Grace it is not that which will serve the turn neither Though habitual Grace be very good and necessary also in order to Spiritual performances yet this alone and of it self is not sufficient it is requisite that we should have it but it is requisite also that we should have somewhat else with it besides that especially according as the ease and condition may be with us It is not any inherent Grace of our own which is our security in the day of trial but the assisting and strengthning and quickning Grace of Christ so far forth as he does actually excite and stir up those fruits of Grace in us which he hath already bestowed upon us It is not onely the goodness of our Principles but the Spirit of God concurring with them in us Of this we have an eminent example in the Apostle
the second Adam namely Christ Grace is derived unto all those that partake of him by spiritual regeneration There are three manner of ways by which Christ may be said to derive Grace to those which are his First By the benefit of his Passion Secondly By the benefit of his Intercession and thirdly by the efficacy of his Operation And this he does only to those which are Believers First By the merit of his Death and suffering Christ having offered himself a sacrifice well-pleasing to God did meritoriously purchase to his Church the favour and grace of God and all such gracious qualifications as were suitable to such persons as should be saved Now those which deny Christ and his Doctrine they have no benefit at all from this purchase Christ has merited Grace for none which do finally stand out against him and refuse to be governed by him The blood of Christ Jesus cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 Vs ◠who were they namely such as appears by the Context Who walk in the light as he is in the light and maintain fellowship with him c. Secondly By the benefit of his Intercession Christ does continually pray for those which are his that they may have competent Grace bestowed upon them I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not says Christ to Simon Peter Luk. 22.32 Now those who do not by faith receive him they have not benefit neither by these prayers Christ distinguishes his Elect from others expresly in this particular Joh. 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them c. Thirdly By the efficacy of his Operation Christ conveys Grace to his servants as an Head imparts life and motion to his Members and this he does by his Spirit not only working Grace in them at first but also strengthening and increasing it where it 's wrought Ephes 4.15 16. That ye may grow up unto him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly join'd and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according tothe effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in love There are daily and continually influences of Grace from Christ to Believers whereby he enables them both to the subduing of sin and doing of duty Hence we are said of his fulness to receive all of us grace for grace answerable to grace in him for kinds grace in us And hence is God said to have blest us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Ephes 1.3 4. And this is done by the power of his Spirit working in us It 's called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.19 Grace it is a fruit of the Spirit and the Spirit it is the Spirit of Christ and so sanctifying those alone which have this Spirit of Christ in them by vertue of their Vnion to him For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 We must rightly understand this method and order and connexion which God has set for the conveying of saving Grace unto us We have not Grace from the Spirit immediately but from the Spirit in reference to Christ The Spirit first sanctifies his Humane nature and then sanctifies us so that what we have of the Spirit in the graces of it we have it still derivatively from him As the Ointment which was upon the head of Aaron it ran down to the skirts of his garment so the Grace which is upon the head of Christ it runs down to all his Members and to them alone There are common gifts from God as a Creator and Governour of the World which common persons partake of and such as are out of Christ upon the understanding of natural abilities wit and sagacity c. and upon the will of moral qualifications temperance and sobriety and the like but no sanctifying grace but from Christ no spirit of mortification as to lusts no quickning spirit as to spiritual duties Without me i.e. separated from me ye can do nothing Joh. 15.5 He that hath not Christ he hath not these as not having the spirit of Christ from whence these should come into him Look as there is no beam without a Sun from whence it should irradiate not River or stream without a spring from whence it should flow and take its original so neither is there any Grace without Christ who is the only beginner and finisher of Grace in us He that has not Christ he has not God in the influences of Grace and Sanctification he has not God in him by way of residence and habitation and as taking up abode in his soul Nor he has not God with him by way of assistance and co-operation as enabling him to walk in such ways as are pleasing to God and as are suitable to a Christian conversation And so as to the Point which we now speak of to wit of gracious and sanctifying qualification He has not indeed God at all Secondly As not to the influences of Grace so neither to the influences of comfort no true comfort or peace of Conscience but from God in Christ He is our peace both in the thing it self as also in the discovery an manifestation of it The spirit of comfort it is of his sending and comes from him Comfort divided from Christ it is not comfort but security it is not assurance but fancy it is not Consolation but presumption None can perswade the heart of Gods love and favour to it but he alone that has purchased and obtained Gos love and favour for it and this is Christ alone God hath sent the spirit of his son into eur hearts crying Abba Father And it is his spirit that beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God He that hath not Christ and his Spirit he hath not God to comfort him Thirdly As to matter of Salvation not God to save him There 's no salvation out of Christ Act. 4.12 Neither is there salvation in any other For there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved He that hath not the Son he hath not life i.e. eternal life 1 Joh. 5.12 But the wrath of God abides on him Joh. 3.36 Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life as who should say without me 't is not to be had in Joh. 5.40 This which we are now upon it follows from all which went before Forasmuch as out of Christ there 's no knowledg of God no access unto him no interest in him no grace from him It will necessarily ensue that he that has not Christ he has not God in point of salvation Because whosoever are saved they have all these several priviledges as antecendent belonging unto them they know God have acquaintance with him are reconciled unto him justified and sanctified by him And thus we
or longings after it such as these they do shew themselves to be very far from spiritual thirst which is here offered unto us Thirst it is a desire with some earnestness and vehemency and unsatiableness which is in it as David Oh that one would give me of the water of Bethlehem to drink when he longed for it And Sampson though otherwise a strong man he was ready to die and perish for thirst even so is there likewise the same proportionable impetuousness in Grace as that nothing will satisfie it but a greater measure and degree of it self and of Christ himself who is the giver of it As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God O when shall I come and appear before God Psal 42.1 2. And so Psal 63.1 My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is Where thirsting is explain'd by longing as pertinent to it And so I have done also with the second General part of the Text which is the Invitation of access or seasonable Application in these words And let him that is athirst come The third and last is the Intimation of acceptance or grateful entertainment in those And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Wherein again we have three Branches more First The benefit mentioned and that is the water of life Secondly The persons to whom this benefit is offered and that is whosoever will Thirdly The offer it self let him take of it freely For the first The benefit here mentioned it is the water of life whereby we are in a word to understand the Grace of Christ according to the full latitude and extent of it whether the Grace of Justification in the pardon and forgiveness of sin or the Grace of Sanctification in the purging and washing away of sin or the Grace of Assurance in the comfort and peace of conscience either of these are implied in this expression which we have here before us and indeed all together This water of life it is the Grace of Christ with all the appurtenances that belong unto it and means that make way for it and effects which are consequent of it It is Grace and Glory both Grace as it tends to Glory and Glory as it follows upon Grace The gift of God is eternal life both in the end and in the means and this is the water of life which is here offered and propounded unto us for our receiving of it Thus it is if we take it generally and at large But if we take it more particularly and as limited and restrained so the Scripture it self is herein its own best interpreter as we have it plainly declared unto us in Joh. 7.38 39. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water This says St. John he spake of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified So then according to this reckoning the water of life should be nothing else but the Spirit of God in the Gifts and Graces of it which indeed not excluding the other is that which is here chiefly and principally to be understood by us That reconciliation which is purchased by Christ but received and applied by Faith which is a fruit and work of the Spirit and Holy Ghost in us as all other Graces are besides and so fitly and properly exprest by living water There are two words in this Metaphor to be observed and taken notice of by us the Principal and the Accessary the Principal that is water the accessary that is the water of life and the Grace of Christ it holds its resemblance and correspondency to both First It has a resemblance to water and accordingly is compared hereunto both in this Text and other places of Scripture in regard of that Analogy and proportion which it bears thereunto in sundry particulars Look what water is as to the necessities and supplies of our humane and natural life the same is the Grace of Christ as to our Divine and Spiritual We may take it in these following instances as a taste of the rest First For purifying and cleansing Water it is eminent for that and so is the Grace of Christ for the taking away of the several spots and defilements and pollutions of sin Thus Eph. 5.25 26. it is said of Christ that he gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word So Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water The Grace of Christ is a spiritual Bath wherein the whole man of a Christian both outward and inward is purified and cleansed Secondly For cooling and refrigeration and quenching of thirst it is compared to water for that likewise This Grace of Christ as abating the heat of lust and allaying the terrors of conscience and extinguishing of the fiery darts of the devil as the Apostle calls them Thirdly For increase and fructification Water it makes plants to grow and flourish and sprout up and so does the Grace of God such persons as are endued with it They shall grow as the Lilly and cast forth their roots as Lebanon their branches shall spread and their beauty shall be as the Olive-tree and their smell as Lebanon as it s in Hos 14.5 Fourthly and lastly Grace is compared to water in its manner of operation as namely that it so runs as that it is always joyn'd unto its Principle Sic fluit ut semper sit conjunct a suo principio It is an Observation upon it out of Austin and so Grace in a Christian it so flows as that it always knits and conjoyns him to Christ Of his fulness we all receive and grace for grace as the Evangelist has it John 1.16 And then the ascent of it is answerable to the descent of it even so is it likewise with Grace which as it first of all comes from God so it carries us up again to him That 's the first part of this resemblance as Grace is compared to water for the Principal The second is as it is compared to the water of life for the accessary and the advancement of it Thus it is frequently call'd in Scripture living water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This it is by way of Eminency as that which does tend to life in the scope and drift of it as also does end in life as the effect and that which follows upon it Indeed every thing which belongs to salvation it is usually in Scripture exprest and fet forth by life The word of life and the bread of life and the crown of life c. And so here now the
a state of Subjection and Obedience to Him And for Heaven He is likewise the head of all Principalities and Powers Col. 2 10. And Angels and Authorities and Powers are made subject unto him 2 Pet. 3 22. This for his Kingly Office Secondly Take it for his Priestly Office And here he is likewise like Jacobs Ladder in the work of Atonement and Reconciliation as bringing Heaven and Earth together Thus Col. 1 20. It pleased the Father by him to reconcile all things to himself whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven And so likewise in Eph. 1 20. That in the Dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth Even in Him Take us what we are in our selves and there is a Disproportion betwixt God and us we are not onely Strangers but Enemies to him And he to us But now in Christ this Enmity is removed and taken away and there is perfect peace wrought according to that againe of the Apostle Col. 1 21. You that were sometimes alienated and Enemies in your minde by wicked works Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his Flesh through Death c. And again Rom. 5 10. When we were Enemies we were reconciled unto God by the Death of his Son And not onely so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom we have now received the Atonement Christ hath made God and us Friends And then again as for Reconciliation so also for Access which is the Fruit and Effect of it It is by Christ that we come unto God and have Admission unto the Throne of Grace As we have the Benefit of his Satisfaction so likewise of his Intercession and both of them consider'd as our high Priest Thus the Apostle seats it Eph. 2 18. Speaking of Jew and Gentile Through him we both have an Access by one Spirit unto the Father And so Chap. 3 12. In whome we have boldness and Access with confidence through the Faith of Him What ever intercourse there passes at any time betwixt God and us it is in all the Covenant of Grace and as it is obtained and procured by Christ And it is he alone that does effect it for us and that brings it to pass And therefore upon this Ground are we still incouraged to have recourse unto God and to perfect our Communion with him as Heb. 4 14. Seeing then that we have a great High Preist that'is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need And so again Heb. 10.19 c. Having therefore boldness to enter into the Holyest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vayl that is to say his Flesh And having an high Preist over the House of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith And Rom. 5 1 2. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have Access 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence has he in Scripture such Names and Titles put upon him as doe import thus much when he is called the Door whereby we Enter and the Key whereby we Open and the Rock whereby we Climbe and the Ladder whereby we Ascend as it is here in the Text. A twofold Ladder as I may so express it which he hath set up for us The Ladder of his Flesh and the Ladder of his Cross both together make that New and living way for us which was mentioned in the foregoing Scripture Christ is our Conveyance to God and He alone as the Scripture again inform's us Joh. 14 6. I am the way the Truth and the Life No man Cometh unto the Father but by me As no Man come's to Christ except the Father draws him so no Man com's to the Father except Christ brings him Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved Acts 4 12. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself 2 Cor 5 19. Therefore this by the way shews the Vanity of all such Persons which dream of any other way or Conveyance besides whether of Angels or Saints or their own Free-will and the like that neglect and lay aside Christ as in a manner Needless and Superfluous in this great Work of Salvation surely such as those they are exceedingly deceived and mistaken These that throw down the Ladder they will never be able to get up to Heaven by all the Ropes they can hoyse up to themselves He that hath the Son hath Life but he that hath not the Son hath not Life 1 Joh. 5 12. And so as for final Salvation So for Intermediate Communion likewise It is that which we partake off through Christ and him alone we cannot come into the presence of God nor offer up a Prayer before him which may be acceptable to him but through his Mediation By the Mediation of his Spirit as inabling us and by the Mediation of his Blood as purchasing acceptance for us He is the Angel namely the Angel of the Covenant who offers up the Prayers of all the Saints upon the Golden Altar is before the Throne as it is in Revel 8 v. 3. And what ever are presented otherwise they are of no Force or Validitie at all Thus is Christ our Ladder that reaches from Earth to Heaven in the Consideration of his Preistly Office in both the parts of it whether of Satisfaction or Intercession Thirdly For his Prophetical Office if we take it there also we shall finde that Christ has the notion of a Ladder And as he conveys out Prayers and Desires to God so he does likewise carrye God's words and will to us Joh. 1 18. No man hath seen God at any time The onely begotten Son who is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him And again Joh. 3 13. No man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven Even the Son of man which is in Heaven He speaks concerning the knowledge of heavenly Mysteries and the Communication of them which did belong onely to Christ who though then upon Earth as Man Yet as to his Godhead was still residing in Heaven having the same Essence and Glory with the Father Matth. 11 27. All things are delivered unto me from my Father and no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son And he to whom the Son will reveale him It is Christ that brings Heaven down to Earth in regard of discoveries And thus a Ladder in his prophetical Office also To draw up this Point to an head Take Christ in his full extent whether of Nature or Offices
we say Lead us not into Temptation That is doe not in thy providence administer occasions of Sin unto us from whence we might be intangled with it whereas on the other side God threatens wicked men that he will lay a Stumbling-block before them and that they shall fall upon them Jer. 6.21 It is that which he oftentimes does in the way of his Providence which is the reason why many persons doe miscarry so as they do God lets loose Satan upon them and suffers him to present such and such objects and occasions to them which meeting with that habitual Corruption which is prevailing in them causes them to stumble and fall and ruine themselves But now for his Saints and Servants he does in a special manner watch over them to preserve them when he is said to keep their feet Secondly As by preventing of the Occasions of of Sin so by fortifying and strengthning the Heart and mind against closing with them so that although occasions be administred yet they shall have no power or efficacy upon them thus he kept the feet of Peter Luk. 22.32 Simon Simon Satan hath desired to have you and to sift you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not And thus he kept the feet of Paul 2 Cor. 12.9 When he had the messenger of Satan to buffit him and prayed thrice that is often that it might be take away from him he had this answer returned unto him That Gods Grace was sufficient for him as it had been said God would not be wanting to him in the keeping and preserving of him from being overcome with that Temptation and so he does with divers others besides partly by Executing and stirring up in them those Graces which he hath already wrought partly by administring new strength unto them There are four Graces amongst the rest which are especially conducing hereunto First of all The Grace of Fear and Spiritual Watchfulness Blessed is the man says Solomon that feareth always Those which are confident and presumptious they do of all others soonest miscarry but God by stirring up in his Servants an holy tenderness and jealousie over themselves does by this means very much scare them who by fearing least they should Sin do come to avoid Sinning it self Secondly The Grace of Faith that 's another supporter likewise It is the sheild whereby we quench all the fiery darts of the Devil And Gods people in the use of this are much arm'd against Spiritual Assaults Faith it lays hold upon all the promises of Assistance and Strengthning and Confirmation which God has made to his Servants Such as this now here in the Text and hereby does preserve all such persons as are the subjects of it therefore it is said 1 Pet. 1.5 We are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation By the power of God as the Principal And by Faith as the Instrumental improving that power which is in God and drawing it forth according to the preset occasion and Necessities in which we are And this Faith still wrought and Excited and strenghthned by him that he may still have the Glory of all And that 's the second Explication God keeps the Feet of his Saints not onely by preventing them from the occasions but likewise by preserving them from closing and complying with them and yeilding and giving way unto them Thirdly Gods keeps the feet of his Saints from progress and proceedings in Sin when they fall or slip he holds them up from falling further Thus Psal 94.18 When I said my foot slippeth thy Mercy O Lord held me up This is another great Expression of Gods goodness to his Servants that he does not suffer them to run into the same Excess of riot with other men That though for reasons best known to himself as to humble them and to shew them what is within them he may perhaps suffer them now and then to fall into Sin yet he does Graciously keep them from the Degrees and Extremities of them Hence it is said 1 Joh. 3.9 That he that is born of God does not commit Sin What not Sin at all no That 's not the meaning of it for he had said in the first chap. vers 8. If we say that we have no Sin we deceive our selves But not Sin in that height with that greediness in that measure and manner and circumstance as others do Though they may begin yet God lets them not go on and proceed in it but puts a stop and restraint upon them that they go no further He keeps them back from presumptuous Sins that they may not have Dominion over them as David prayes for himself in Psal 19. vers 12. Lastly He keeps the feet of his Saints from Relapse and Returning to Sin again He suffers them not like the Dog to return again to their former Vomit nor like the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire This he undertakes for them Thus says David of a Righteous man Psal 27.24 Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand As Paul Phil. 4.7 The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Keep them as in a Garrison as the word in the Original Text properly signifies The proper Improvement of this point thus explain'd to our selves is a word of special Comfort and Incouragement to the Servants of God as being interested in a very great Privilege which does belong unto them What a wonderful Mercy is this that God will keep our Feet from falling as David speaks of Himself Psal 116.8 That he prevents us and keep us from Sin Especially considering the many Dangers and Snares and Hazards whereunto we are daily exposed It is a Comfort to the Servants of God as to matter of imployment In great Services and Undertakings whether in Majesty or Ministry whether in the Church or the Common wealth in regard whereof they may happily now and then be suspicious of themselves and jealous of their own Hearts as many Godly men now and then are A good Christian when he is called to some great and special Service he does not so much think with Himself how shall I go through it without trouble but how shall I go through it without Sin This is that which most sticks upon his Spirit How shall I avoid the Snares the Temptations the Sins the manifold Miscarriages which this my Place or Work or Imployment is by reason of humane Corruption compast withall now here 's that which may satisfy him He will keep the feet of his Saints Those which keep close to Him he will strengthen and inable them for the services whereunto he calls them and likewise from the infirmities which they are subject unto in these services So likewise as for matter of Imployment so for matter of Condition whether Riches or Poverty Prosperity or Affliction and the like These are many
shalt see it but shalt not eat thereof c. And this punishment Amplified and so much the more inlarged To be within the Reach of the Mercy and yet withall to be depriveed of the Mercy To see it with his eyes and yet withall not to taste it with his mouth And this is a Further Judgement which is the Portion of unbelievers God will shew them his salvation as to the Discovery of it but will not shew it them as to the participation He will set such good things before their eyes and present them to their sight and to their view but will not give them happiness to enjoy them and to be made partakers of them This hath been alwayes reckon'd and look't upon as a judgment and so hath been threatned To plant vineyards and not to eat the fruit of them To eat and not be filled To drink and not to be satisfied In the midst of sufficiency to be in straits To suffer shipwrack in the Haven and such things as these they have a great Aggravation of punishment and Misery in them The nearer any are to any comfort and yet restrained of it so much the Greater Vexation from it And the Reason of it is this Because from the nearness and Proximity of the Object the Appetite is so much the more stirred and the expectation is raised which being frustrated and disappointed must needs cause so much the greater grief and make the heart it self sick as Solomon speaks Look as it is on the other side in matter of evil By much the greater Danger by so much the greater the Deliverance And the joy of preservation is increased from the fear of Miscarriage Even so is it also here in matter of Good The nearer is the Mercy the greater is the Disappointment and the grief of Deprivation is aggravated from the Hopes of success And then again further there is even this also in it sometimes as it was here in this particular to come â—â—oâ—â— of other persons and to be hereby made inferior to them for so indeed it was Others they had the benefit of this mercy and he saw them before his eyes to have it which yet this distrustful person himself for his unbelief was deprived of As Company is an allay to misery so solitariness is an Aggravation As it is threatned to wicked men in regard of future happiness that they shall then weep and gnash their Teeth When they shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and themselves to be thrust out Luk. 13.28 But then Thirdly There was this also in it in this particular Example to wit the way and manner whereby this Vnbeliving person was deprived of the Fruition of this Mercy which He saw with his eyes And that was by the loss of his Life as the sequel of the story declares it in the last verse of this Chapter For the people trod upon him in the Gate and he dyed There might have been other wayes of depriving him of the Mercy besides this But the Lord would have this to do it as the surest and most remarkable God would have him to live no longer then meerly to be confuted and self-condemned of his own incredulity when he had once seen what he did not believe He should no longer live to injoy what he had seen The Sum of all comes to this even to frighs us still from these unhappy Distempers of Dispair and Vnbelief which have such sad and Dangerous Consequences attending upon them Remember once again how it hapned even to Moses Himself a man of so much Cummunion with God yet how he smarted for his Vnbelief God gave him the sight of Canaan but not the Admission and likewise some others he destroyed them even then upon the Borders Let us take heed least our selves fall after the same Example of Vnbelief Heb. 4.11 And let us be heedfull so much the more as we are commonly least Suspicious of our selves in this particular for every one is ready to think that he believes Gods Power and Truth till it comes to the Tryal What Is there any thing too hard for the Lord No there is no man that will offer to say so in plain terms or in the General Proposition Will not God be as good as his word Yes who doubts of it Till it comes to such a particular Occaston and exercise of Faith and then there is too frequently a questioning of Gods Power and Truth both together Then If the Lord would make Windows in Heaven yet this thing could not be We can believe God it may be in easy matters but we cannot believe him in difficult Believe him in those things which are Obvious and open to every Eye but not believe Him in those things which are more obscure and remote and put out of sight whereas His Power does reach even to these as well as the other And so likewise should our Faith The rather because of the Danger which follows upon unbelief as we have now seen in this instance before us which was to be kept from those Mercies which God had promised and were almost injoy'd Look as those Judgements which are threatned and yet not feared are the sooner inflicted for that Presumption so on the other side those Mercies which are promised and yet not Expected they are the rather denyed and restrained for that Despair And so ye have also the Peremptory Answer which is given to the Presumptuous Question Behold thou shalt see it with thine Eyes but shalt not Eat thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON XV. Psal 22.9.10 But thou art he that took me out of the Womb thou didst make me hope when I was upon my Mothers Breasts I was cast upon thee from the Womb thou art my God from my Mothers belly In times of Perplexity and Sadness we can never have Faith too much nor we can never too much improve that Faith and Grace which we have for the supporting and sustaining of us in such Conditions All the Spiritual Strength and Vigor which we can possibly be partakers off is little enough to uphold us and keep our Souls from sinking in such seasons Therefore we had need to bestir our selves and to draw up all our Forces we have in us to such a purpose as this is and to make us to do it the better we have an Example hear set before us in the practice of the Prophet David who being now at this time in a very sad and disconsolate Estate both in regard of the Desertions of God and likewise of the Oppositions and reports of cruel Enemies does here do all he can to stir up his Faith in God for the Expectation of relief from him And there are two special Arguments which he does here principally insist upon The one is taken from the Experience of God's Goodness to his Predecessors and Ancestors in vers 4.5 Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted c. It
averse unto from the consideration of his own insufficiency Now go sayes he and I will be with thy mouth and will teach thee what thou shalt say But that was but onely common grace as to the gift of Elocution God will give us also sanctifying grace as to the Duties and exercise of Religion which he does require of us also In any deadness of spirit which is upon us in any indispositions to good duties in any weakness as to the performance of them there is grace and power in Christ and his Spirit which he does communicate to his servants answerable hereunto And so for all relations likewise whether in Family or Church or Commonwealth this is the comfort of a Christian that the Lord will give grace especially as I said before where he hath given it already in the Principle Look where God hath given grace in the General that is the grace of Conversion and Regeneration there he will likewise give grace in the particular that is grace agreeable to the several occasions which we have at any time afforded unto us for the exercise of it and to the duties which he does require at our hands to be perform'd by us Thirdly Suffering grace for the Afflictions which he layes upon us the Lord will give grace likewise here It is that which does sometimes startle the best of the servants of God to think how they shall be inabled to graple and wrestle with the cross when they look about them in the world and see what a sea of evils does in a manner incompass them they are ready to faint in themselves and to think they shall never be able to undergo them and bustle thorough them well but see now here what God hath provided for their comfort and incouragement namely a supply of his grace There 's no Affliction which God layes upon his servants but he does in some measure inable them to bear it and not onely to bear it simply in a common and ordinary manner out of the strength of Nature and common principles as Heathen and such men as these but after a special and peculiar manner as Christians from a spirit of faith with patience and comfort yea and sometimes joy it self to the special honour and credit of Religion and of that grace which God hath given in reference thereunto Thus will God send grace in the increase and augmentation of it But yet for our better understanding and improvement of this point still in hand we must know that there are certain Qualifications which are required as special conditions in those persons whom God will bestow a greater Measure and Degree of grace upon then as yet He hath given unto them First That they be such as are humble This is that which the Scripture does especially point out to us as requisite in this business as Psal 25.9 The meek will he guide in judgement and the meek will he teach his way so Jam. 4.6 He giveth more Grace wherefore He saith God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble Those which are proud and conceited of their own strength and perfection God doth oftentimes suspend and withdraw his grace from them gives them up for a while at least to the power and prevalency of Satan and leaves them to themselves that so thereby he may humble them and debase them in their own thoughts and awaken them out of that presumption and security in which they are But for those that are sensible of their weaknesses and do mourn and groan under their wants such as these He inlarges himself unto them He fills the hungry with good things but the rich he sends empty away Therefore that is one qualification considerable as to the improvement of Grace in us viz. humility and lowliness of mind Secondly Those that are believing and do exercise faith in those promises which God hath made to this purpose whatever good God bestows upon us He conveyes it to us through the hands of Faith and so amongst the rest he does with this here of his grace The Lord will give it but we must still fetch it and draw it from Him we must come boldly to the throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.16 And so Heb. 12.28 Let us have Grace How shall we have it what is this in our own power no but let us labour for it and indeavour after it and beg it at the hands of God Ask and it shall be given you we have cause to be incouraged in doing so forasmuch as we are likely so well to speed in so doing He that believes shall be established Faith is such a grace as hooks in all other Graces to it self Thirdly There is here required an using of these Graces which we have received use Grace and have it the more we do improve that grace which we do already partake of the more shall we increase in the addition of more graces unto us To him that hath shall be given which does not hold in nature to grace but in a less degree of grace to a greater There are some that would have it so that the use of Nature and Free-will profitably does ingage God to give his sanctifying grace to those that do so but that we had no ground to assert neither do we affirm it but rather this That those which use those beginnings of saving grace so as they ought God will bestow a greater measure upon them And so now ye have the first gift which is here mentioned as a part of Gods bestowing The Lord will Grace The second is Glory The Lord will give Glory this is distinct from grace in the proper notion of it though in some places it is made equivalent to it and synonymous with it so as by Glory to understand Grace as 2 Cor. 3.18 From Glory to Glory that is from grace to grace The grace of Christ which is revealed in the Gospel being full of glory has the name of glory put upon it but here in the Text it is a distinct Head Understanding by glory that blessed and happy Estate and Condition of the Saints in Heaven yet in some sort even begun and initiated here below in this present life So then by glory we are to understand the fruit and reward of grace or the consequents attendant upon it This the Lord will give and he will give it two manner of wayes according to a twofold Explication First Here in this life present in the pledges and anticipations of Glory in the first fruits of the Spirit and those beginnings which a Christian does partake of here in this world not onely in grace but in comfort These are glory in kind though not in Degree they are of the same nature with it though not reaching to the perfections of it and so therfore have the name of glory very fitly put thereupon This we find mention made of in 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom
in that but for their Gardens and Orchards and Vineyards wherein they take much delight these they are carefull of the preservation of them upon hat account And so is the Lord of his Church and People in whom he delights Thirdly In point of Provision God takes pleasure in them and therefore he will take care of them and see that nothing which is fitting for them may be wanting unto them It is that which may very much strengthen the Faith of Gods people in his Providence to consider that they are such as are in special favour with God The Lord God is a Son and sheild the Lord will give Grace and Glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly as the Prophet David tells us in Psal 84.11 There 's nothing which they can need or desire but they may be sure to have it confer'd and bestowed upon them What is thy Petition and it shall be given thee even to the half of my Kingdom It was the saying of Ahasuerus to Queen Hester in whom he delighted she could ask nothing but she might have it It is said in Psal 35.27 That God takes pleasure in the Prosperity of his Servants Now how does he come to take pleasure in their Prosperity but because he first takes pleasure in their Persons while their Persons are acceptable to Him their Conditions are accordingly ordered and provided for by Him and while he takes pleasure in their Prosperity he cannot indure to behold their Destruction This is a very Comfortable Meditation under the greatest fears and perplexities that may be when the Servants of God do not know what will become of them as to such and such particulars yet knowing for the General that they are in favour and acceptance with him they may from hence conclude and be assured that therefore nothing shall befall them amiss or therwise then is convenient for them Thus David Himself reason'd and teaches us to reason likewise 2 Sam. 15.25.26 If I shall find favour in the Eyes of the Lord he will then bring me back again and show me his Ark and his Habitation But if he shall say I have no delight in thu behold here am I let him do to me as seemoth good unto Him Thus we should learn to resolve and to determine in such Cases as these are that so far forth as we are delightful to God and as he takes any pleasure in us we cannot Miscarry The Lord taketh pleasure in his people and he beautifieth the Meek with Salvation they are both joyned together Psal 149.4 But here it may be seasonably demanded and inquired into by us how far forth this may be known and discovered to us that we are such indeed in whom the Lord does take pleasure I answer briefly thus First by his Communion with us those that delight in any persons they never care to be out of their Company nor to have them out of their sight they love to be Continually in presence and society with them Now according to this Character may we judge of Gods delight in our selves when as namely he draws nearer unto us by the Gracious motions and influences of his Spirit There are sweet and Heavenly intercourses betwixt God and that Soul which he delights in when men shall pass from day to day and have no converse at all with God by his Spirit but shall carry Himself as a Stranger to them and be averse from them it is a sign that he hath no delight in them but delight it is still followed with Society and Communion as belonging thereunto Secondly By his Imployment of us those that men take any delight in they will make use of them upon all occasions and do take pleasure in setting them on work but now when God shall lay men aside as useless and unprofitable persons they are as so many Vessels wherein is no pleasure as the Scripture expresses it so far forth as God delights to imploy us so far forth does he delight in us Hide not thy face far from me put not away thy Servant in Anger they both go together Psal 27.9 Thirdly By his kindness to us and the things which he does for us his delight in us is discovered by that especially according to the Nature and Quality of them Those that God delights in he delights to do good to their Souls and their inward man to mortify their Lusts to subdue their Corruptions to preserve them from Temptations He that pleaseth God shall not be taken in such snares whereas others shall be taken in them and by them So far as God favours a man he will keep him from great Miscarriages and from an allowance and indulgence of Less And that 's the first use of this point in a way of Consolation The Second may be in a way of Conviction to perswade us more and more of this Truth for although this be so indeed as has been now shewn and declared unto us yet it is that which the Servants of God do not always so readily Beleive and entertain in their minds There is a base and secret Jealousy which is apt oftentimes to arise in the people of God so as to think and suspect as if God took not that pleasure in them which indeed he does And therefore there can never be too much said to perswade them of this point now before us The Ground of this Suspition in them does for the most part proceed from his outward Carriage and Dispensations to them they cannot think that God delights in them so long as he Corrects and Chastises them but do from hence conclude rather that he hates them This was the mistake of Gideon Judg. 6.12.13 When the Angel of the Lord came to him with this salutation The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valour Then Gideon said unto him Oh my Lord If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us He could not think that Gods presence and his Corrections could consist together when as they were such as were very well Consistant Because whom he loveth he Chasteneth c. And so it is also in the Misconceit of Sion Esay 49.14 When it was said in the verse before that God had Comforted his people and would have Mercy upon his Afflicted but Sion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me This is that which the dearest Servants of God are subject to and therefore they have need to be well-setled and confirmed in such Truths as these are and to consider them and rule them in their thoughts which howsoever perhaps at other times they may think they are sufficiently perswaded of yet in times of trouble and outward Calamity they are very ready to call into question Thirdly It serves in a way of Exhortation and Excitement and that to a double purpose and intent First To teach the servants of God by way of gratitude and thankful returns to delight in Him Secondly
the case of Senacheribs invading Him he spake Comfortably to his Souldiers about him saying be strong and Courageous be not afraid nor dismayed for the King of Assyria nor for all the Multitude that is with him for there be more with us then with him With him is an Arm of Flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our Battels 2 Chro. 32.7 Thus has the Lord still had more delight in those that have feared Him and that have hoped in his Mercy then he has had in all Humane Helps and Refuges and Advantages whatsoever And there 's a threefold Account which may be given hereof unto us First For the greater Confusion and Astonishment of those who are his Enemies There 's nothing which God does more delight in then to Crush the pride of man and to frustrate him of his Carnal Expectations now because that men do commonly trust and rely upon such things as these Horses and men and the like The strength of the one and the legs of the other as it is here exprest therefore does the Lord so much the rather and of purpose defeat and disappoint them and in that wherein they deal proudly does chuse to be above them Pride and Presumption and self Confidence and earnal Relyance is a thing so hateful and odious to God wheresoever he fins it that he will suffer or indure it But will chuse the weak things of the world to confound the strong 1 Cor. 1.27 He will make men to renounce all their Confidence in the Arm of flesh as the Church there seems to do in Hosea 14.3 Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our God for in thee the Fatherless find Mercy Secondly As for the Confusion of his Enemies so also the Incouragement of his own Servants that more readily close with him and with greater chearfulness commit themselves to Him in the greatest straits and exigences that may be that they may have somewhat to bottom upon even then when all outward helps fail them and give them the slip for this reason will God the rather own them in such cases as these are when they are armed with Faith and Patience and Hope and such Graces as these the Principle and Spiritual Armour of God rather then when accommodated with all other meanes besides Thirdly For the greater Advancement of his own Honour and Gloy There is nothing which God does more delight in or indeed has cause to delight in then the magnifying and advancing of Himself now this he does in nothing more then in owning of the Necessities of his People who fly unto him by Prayer and depend upon him by Faith and that especially when they are shut of all other Helps and means besides His power is most seen in their weakness and his strength in their Infirmities and his Assistance in their want and deprivation of all other Advantages And therefore because it is so does he delight to put it forth and evert it yea and sometimes refuses the Addition of outward Helps unto them as we see it was with Gideon as to the Midianites The Lord said unto him the people that are with thee are too many to give into their hands least Israel Vaunt themselves against me saying mine own hand hath saved me Judg. 7. vers 2. The Consideration of this Point may be thus far improved First As a word of Direction and Councel to the Servants of God to teach them what Especially to look after and to fortify in themselves and that is such Graces as these are which are here mentioned in the Text. These are the Churches best Weapons and Preparations which she can make to her self and which will stand here more instead then all others besides as is here intimated to us It is not so much how far she is provided in other respects and Considerations as how far in this These are of use against Temporal Enemies and these are of use also against Spiritual for which reason there is cause that we should get them and take them to our selves Put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the Wyles of the Devil for we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood onely but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this world against Spiritual Wickedness in high places in Ephes 6.10.11 And again in vers 13. of the same Chap. Take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the Evil day and having done all to stand These are armes which are liked and approved of by God himself who has the approaching and accepting of them he delights not so much in the others as is signified in the foregoing Scripture but these are such wherein he takes pleasure and in them that wear them Secondly Here 's a word of Consolation to the Church in her greatest Distresses which sometime she may fall into and under the snares and Insultations of her Enemies who are apt sometimes to judg of her according to outward Supplies and either to esteem of her or to despise her as she abounds or is defective in these but let her see here what is her greatest and cheifest security and that which must be most of use unto her in the Evil Day where man despises God has there in greatest regard and takes cheifest pleasure in her Thirdly Which is the General Scope and Drift of the whole Psalm and so of this part of it amongst the rest here is that which should inlarge our hearts in Praise and Thanksgiving to God for his Providence and care over his Church as it is here exprest unto us Praise ye the Lord for it is good to sing praises to our God for it is pleasant and â—â—â—se is comely As it is so in other regards so for this also which is here mentioned before us That takes pleasure in those that fear him and in those that hope in his Mercy This is brought in here in the Text not onely as a matter of Information but likewise of Celebration not onely as that which is to be be known but also acknowledged There are three things here propounded at once which are matter of due acknowledgment to us First That there is Mercy for us Secondly That there is occasion given us of hoping in this Mercy And Thirdly That our hope in it is so pleasing and acceptable to God himself First That there is Mercy for us and that God is a God of Mercy and Compassion he is to be praised and acknowledged for this that God deals not with us in a way of Rigor and strict Justice but in a way of Mercy and Love It is matter of just Acknowledgment the Scripture and the Psalmist especially is full of it's praises of God for them Secondly That there is administred to us occasion of hoping in
this Mercy and that we are inabled so to do it is that which every one cannot do even there where there is Mercy fitted and prepared and provided for him go praise God for that Thirdly That God accepts of this Hope from us and is so well pleased with it in us we have cause to praise him likewise for this to say the Lord be magnified as who rejoyces in the Prosperity so takes pleasure in the Graces of his Servants and that even at such times as he neglects the great thins of the World and in a sort despises them That the Bones of the mighty are oftentimes broken while they that stumbled are girt with strength as Hannah in her Song expresses it 1 Samuel 2.4 And so I have done with these words as in their absolute Consideration so in their Comparative and so with the whole Text it self The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his Mercy SERMON XXIX Prov. 3.17 Her wayes are wayes of Pleasantness and all her paths are Peace It is the Nature and Disposition of Artists and those which are of any Mystery or Profession as much as they can to extoll and advance that Profession which they are off and to Commend it to the Consideration of others As Paul of the Ministry of the Gentiles I magnifie mine own Office Rom. 11.13 Every one is ready to magnifie that way which he takes up to Himself above all others whatsover and this as it is observable in other things so amongst the rest especially in Religion and the wayes of Godliness Those which are the Professors of this they desire as much as may be to Commend it and set it forth to the view of other men Wisdom is justified of her Children as our Saviour tells us Thus we may observe it to be here in this Scripture which we have now before us in the Example of the wise man Solomon who being a Son of Wisdome and of special Wisdom especially that is Grace and Holiness and Religion which he here speaks off does in divers Chapters together applaud it and praise it all he can that so thereby he may invite others unto it IN these words we have described unto us the Excellency of Godliness and Religion in two particulars which may serve to make up unto us the parts of the Text. First From it's Pleasure and delight Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness Secondly From it's Tranquility and Quiet And all her paths are peace We begin First of all with the former to wit the description of Godliness from the pleasure and delight which is in it The wayes of Godliness and Religion are exceeding pleasing and delightful wayes they carry a great deal of sweetness and Contentment and pleasantness in them This is the point which is here exhibited unto us and it dâ—â—â— appear out of other places of Scripture likewise as Psal 36.8 David speaking of the Church and members of it sayes That they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Gods House and that he would make them to drink of the Rivers of his pleasures And Psal 118.15 The voyce of joy and Salvaton is sayd to be in the Tabernacles of the Righteousness So Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the Vpright in Heart Esay 51.11 The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their Head they shall obtain gladness and joy and Sorrow and Mourning shall flee away Esay 64.5 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh Righteousness where you see they are both joyned together And Galat. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is joy Now this Truth it may be further amplyfied and made good to us in sundry particulars which do prove and confirm it unto us There is a great deal of pleasure in Religion in sundry respects Wee 'l take them in that order as they do offer and present themselves to our thoughts As First of all In the work of Grace and Regeneration wrought in the heart All the several Graces of the Spirit and the habits of Sanctification which are in us they do reflect very sweetly upon us and there is a great deal of delight and Contentment to the Soul which does see them in it self Take a man which is full of Lusts and Corruptions which bear sway in him and he is a loathsome and abominable Creature sometimes even in his own Apprehensions A wicked and ungodly man he is in some manner odious to himself and is overcome as I may say now and then even with his own stench like a man which is in filthy Rags and torn and uncomely Garments he does not like himself in them But now on the otherside a good Christian which has the Grace of the Spirit of God in him and the work of the New Creature in his Soul he is so far forth pleasing to himself Grace is a very sweet and odoriferous Qualification as it casts a sweet savor into the Nostrils of all others that stand by it so especially as I may say into the Nostrils of all those that partake of it That Soul which is indued with it is like one that has roll'd himself in a Bed of Spices who is all over sweet and delightful I might set it forth to you in all the resemblances of Comfort and Contentment look whatever it be which in the discovery and discerning of it does usually afford delight to our selves the same may be applyed to the Graces of Gods Spirit and the sanctifying Qualities which are in us not onely as odoures and sweet spices to the smell it 's pleasing to be sensible of them But likewise further as Treasures of Gold and Silver there are many which much delight in them The Rich man when he looks in to his Coffers how much contentment does he take in them even there where others deride him and laughed at him Populus mei sibilat c. Yea but now a Godly man recounting the Graces which are in him has more true comfort and content by far And that 's the First particular wherein Godliness proves so delightful In the work of Regeneration and the habits of the Spirit of God in us Secondly As there 's a sweetness in reflecting upon Grace in the having of it so especially in the Exercise of it Every Grace the more it is improveed carries a delight and pleasurableness in it in what kind soever Therefore the Psalmist tells us that in keeping of Gods Commandments there is great Reward Mark not onely for the keeping but in the keeping be-shomran Psal 19.11 There 's Praemium ante Praemium A reward before the reward even in the thing it self Sutable to the nature of the Grace is the Exhibition of the comfort yea the very Heathen and Moralists themselves so far forth as they exercised vertue and practised that natural goodness which was in them they had some kind of comfort and contentment
arising from it to them much more then is it so to true Christians in the exercise of the Graces of the Spirit These must have needs a great deal of comfort and so indeed they have which makes their lives full of sweetness in the midst of many outward crosses and difficulties which they here meet withal To instance in some few particulars for the clearing of the Point unto you In Faith The Exercise of that Grace what a great deal of sweetness is there in this whereby a Christian has somewhat to stay and support and hold up himself in the greatest discouragements When all the world is disquieted and knows not which way to turn it self then does a Believer quiet himself in God and his interest in Him He shall not be afraid of evil tydings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord like a man who is on the top of a Rock that the waves are not able to reach him even so is it with a Christian who is led to the Rock that is higher then himself In the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him Psal 32.6 Yea though he be in the midst of the waters yet he makes a shift to hold up his head As we see it was with David himself in that great affliction at Ziklag 1 Sam. 30.6 He comforted himself in the Lord. He had experience of this himself and accordingly he commends it to others to delight in that Psal 17.4 And so the Prophet Isaiah shews us a view of comfort from hence in the saddest conditions Isa 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God This for the exercise of Faith And so again for the Exercise of Patience which is a principal sprig of faith How much sweetness is there also in this An impatient Person is a burden to himself and the more he struggles with any evil the more he intangles himself with it and findes a greater bitterness in it whereas by a quiet submission to it and patience under the hand of God it becomes so much themore easier Levius sit patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas And so for meekness and love and peace how much sweetness in that A quarrelsom person is a burden as it were to himself he has no quietness in his own breast but is like the raging Sea which casts up mire and dirt but where there 's Love and Unity and Agreement there 's a sweet calmness and tranquillity of mind So for Repentance and Godly sorrow there is a joy which is mingled with it and which flowes from it The more we mourn for sin the more true comfort in our own heart The jolliness of sinners it has sometimes a bitterness with it but the quiet of penitent persons is not without some mixture of a great deal of comfort attending upon it Last of all To add no more in this kind The practise of Mortification in the subduing and restraining of lusts it has a great deal of delightfulness in it also The Delight of sin is nothing to the delight of holy restraint when a man has grappled with any strong Temptation resisted any violent lust denyed himself in a sinful allurement what a contentment does from hence now come in and flow into the heart which another is unsensible off This is the misery of any sin yielded to or any temptation closed withal that besides the guilt which it brings upon the conscience it leaves an unfavoriness upon the spirit it does not onely smart but foul which is very displeasing but now on the otherside the resistance of it is not onely peaceable but pleasant It is a great comfort to him that does it And that 's the second Explication There 's a sweetness in the exercise of Grace in all the several kinds of it Thirdly There 's a great pleasingness likewise in all the Duties and Exercises of Religion whatsoever they be As for instance First in Prayer and a daily and continued ejaculation and communion with God in this performance What a great deal of Solace does a gracious heart find to it self here when upon all occasions it can unbosom it self to God and draw near to him for any thing which it wants and stands in needs of lay open all its complaints and express its desires and send up all its groans It is impossible to express the contentment which the soul findes in such a performance The crying Abba Father and the sweet returns of Gods Spirit upon the heart back again how do they ravish it and lift it up to heaven We know what is recorded of Hannah 1 Sam. 1.18 That when she had prayed she was no more sad but was satisfied and well-contented with her condition David had great peace and comfort in this performance when nothing else could quiet him besides And so Job My friends sayes he spake freely against me but my soul powred forth complaints unto God Prayer is a very comfortable Duty not onely in regard of the effects and consequents and benefits which come by it but also from the very thing it self Not onely in that it is a means to obtain great things from him but likewise that it is a work wherein we injoy communion with him wherein there 's intercourse betwixt God and us As it is betwixt friend and friend the very discourse which they have one with another is pleasing and delightful though the things which they discourse about may be but ordinary affairs Even so betwixt a Christian and God Though the things which sometimes he asks at Gods hands be but common matters as pertaining to the things of this life yet the fellowship and holy Society which the heart hath with God in the Duty is reward enough to him that is exercised and imployed in it Prayer it is a kind of Ascension of the mind to God as it uses commonly to be describ'd and in that regard very delightfull That 's the first Duty the Duty of Prayer Secondly The Reading of the Scriptures There 's a great deal of sweetness likewise in that David speaking of the word of God sayes 't is to him as his appointed food that he rejoyces in it more then in great Riches That Gods Testimonies are his delight and his Counfellors and that the word of God is sweeter to him then the honey or the honey-comb and such like expressions as these We shall read in the Chronicles of the Martyrs what contentment some of them took in Pauls Epistles and if they could get but a leaf or two of the Bible they made account of it as a very great Treasure The sweetness of Prayer is that therein we speak to God and the sweetness of Reading is that therein we have God speaking to us and revealing his mind unto us we have here a satisfaction of us in a double
more easily leave them Secondly let him be careful to be well employed and to be conversant in good Company and the like Attend upon the Ordinances frequent the Communion of Saints be diligent in his lawful Employments These will take off his Rellish from sin and make him to dislike it Thirdly And especially to labour to get into Christ and to close with him in the Covenant of Grace whereby his Spirit may be communicated to him There is no Mortification of sin to any purpose but such as flows from our Union with Christ who is a powerful Head to this purpose and does enable more or less in all his Members to express it in themselves In Rom. 8.23 it is said If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye by the spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Mark If by the spirit ye mortifie Mortification is a Work of the Spirit and this Spirit is the Spirit of Christ And this flows from our Union to Christ and Conjunction with him by Faith which does mystically knit us to him We must therefore first of all labour to find this Union to be in us and then make use of it and improve it to such a purpose as this is which we now speak of And this if we do we shall accordingly find mercy at the hands of God as is here expressed And so much of the Promise in the first Branch to wit The Simple or Absolute Preposition in these words And he shall have mercy upon him The Second is The Additional Amplification in these words For he will abundantly pardon Wherein again we have two Particulars more First The Word of Promise or Encouragement He will abundantly pardon Secondly The Word of Motive or Enforcement For he will abundantly pardon Because he will do this therefore Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon First Of the Word of Promise or Encouragement He will abundantly pardon Here is set forth unto us the Fulness and Largeness of God's Mercy according to those Expressions which are made of it in Scripture Full of Goodness Rich in Mercy Abundant in Compassion and the like The words here in the Original Text are very Emphatical Jarbeh Lisloach And we may reduce them to a threefold Intimation First To the Pardon of great sins Secondly To the Pardon of many sins Thirdly To the Pardon of sins reiterated and committed again First This Abundant Pardon in God it extends it self to great sins He is Magnus and remittendum The great God will forgive great Offences sins of an high nature of a deep die of an heinous aggravation Thus Isa 2.18 Come and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool See here scarlet sins and crimson sins and sins of such a stain as these are God tells his People that upon their Repentance he will pardon them and forgive them unto them And we have divers Instances to this purpose in Scripture take the Apostle Paul for all the rest who styles himself The Chief of Sinners 2 Tim. 1.15 says of himself that he was a Blasphemer and Persecutor and injurious and yet even he obtained Mercy and the Grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Was exceeding abundant upon which occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See here Abundant Grace The very Expression which is here used in the Text. Secondly It extends to many sins He is Multus and remittendum Here is the abundance of Pardon in this also that God does not only forgive sin in one kind but in more as he has occasion for it Thus Manasses who knew how many sins were layed to his charge that he was an Idolater a Sorcerer a Murderer one that made his own Sons to pass through the fire and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood It is said He wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord. And yet when in his Affliction he sought the Lord and humbled himself greatly and prayed unto him the Lord was entreated of him and forgave him Mary Magdalen she was one who had seven Devils cast out of her and it is said expresly concerncerning her that Her sins which were many were forgiven her for she loved much in Luk. 7.47 God forgives not only one or two or a few but even many Offences Thirdly To sins reiterated and committed again and again This Abundant Pardon reacheth to these and God has Mercy and Forgiveness for them For Relapses and Fallings back into sin and the Repetitions of them he is Frequens and remittendum He will multiply to pardon as the Marginal Translation carries it He that has commanded us to forgive others again and again he will certainly do it himself out of all question Hence is that Gracious and Evangelical Imitation of the Prophet Jeremy's in Jer. 3.1 They say if a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another man's shall he turn unto her again shall not that land be greatly polluted but thou hast stayed the harlot with many lovers yet return again to me saith the Lord. So again in Hos 14.4 God says I will heal their back-slidings and will love them freely God heals Back-slidings and Apostatisings and Relapses and Recidivations sins committed again and again Thus we see how in all particulars it holds true that God will abundantly pardon The Ground and Foundation of this Truth is twofold First The Greatness and Infiniteness of God's own Nature considered in himself Secondly The Greatness and Infiniteness and Fulness of the satisfaction of Christ First The Greatness and Infiniteness of God's own Nature God is a great and infinite God of whose Perfection there is no end Therefore every Attribute in him is of Infinite Extent and his Mercy amongst the rest Thus it is said expresly of him His mercies are great or many in 2 Sam. 24.14 Mercy in us it is no more than a Drop but in God it is an Ocean In us no more than a little Stream but in God it is a Spring and full Fountain A Spring continually runs an Ocean is never drawn dry What is a little sparkle of Fire if it fall into the main Sea The same are the sins of a penitent person being propounded to the mercy of God Thus Micah 7.18 19. Who is a God like unto thee pardoning iniquity an passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy He will return again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and he will cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea But Secondly and Efpecially This is founded upon the Fulness and Infiniteness
Civility and Moral Principles This was the strength which was in Paul before his Conversion He seem'd to have much strength in him and so in a sense he had for we see what a strict man he was and how unblameably as himself sayes he liv'd and profited in the Jewes Religion above many of his equals in his own Nation But what was the reason of it and how came it to be thus with him why it was because he had taken it by Tradition from his Fathers He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees one that was brought up amongst them that sate at the feet of Gamaliel a great Rabbi and Doctor of the Law and from hence came to do so many things which belong'd thereunto Thus this strength in all these wayes as I have shewen is incident to a man before Grace and Conversion wrought in his heart but this is not that which will serve the turn They that wait upon the Lord shall change that is they shall have another bestowed upon them and such as will be more usefull to them In stead of this more Natural and Moral and Customary strength They shall have a super-natural and spiritual given unto them This is different and surpassing the other First In regard of it's Original as comming from the Holy Ghost which is the worker of it He strengthens with might by his Spirit Eph. 3.16 And by his Spirit not onely in his common works but also in his special and peculiar This strength it proceeds from the Spirit of God as Sanctifying Then Secondly It differs in the Subject for the former strength is onely in the outward this is in the inward man and the inwards of that inward I pray God sanctify your whole Soul and Spirit 1. Thes 5.23 Thirdly It differs in the Effects for this Spiritual and Supernatural strength it is able to do greater matters then the other can do helping a man to deny himself to overcome the world to mortify Lusts and Corruptions c. So much for the change in Quality The Second is a change in quantity and degree this is further the priveledge of good Christians that they shall through Gods Grace grow stronger and stronger If by some mischance they do abate in their Spiritual strength yet they shall recover and repair it again They shall renew their strength This for the better illustrating of it to us may be laid open in two particulars First In the Cases wherein And Secondly In the means whereby each of these are Considerable to this purpose for a Christians renewing of his strength First The cases wherein There are some cases and conditions especially wherein a Christian has most need of having his strength renew'd unto him and in such cases as these does God graciously renew them here As First Against a new Service which is to be done by him Every new performance it does in a manner call for a new strength to the Effecting of it which it is not easily done without Especially if it be of any Consequence or Importance Now therefore does the Lord of his Goodness herein give us some proportionable strength as the Apostles when Christ sent them abroad into the work of the Ministry it was not a common strength which would serve their turn and therefore he tells them that they shall have strength from above Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem untill ye he indewed with power from on High Luke 24.49 The like strength does God vouchsafe to his servants in a measure and degree proportionable in any service which he designs them where he renews their work he does also renew their strength Secondly Against some new Temptation and Conflict with Satan The Lord does here renew their strength and they passively renew it to themselves God does in some manner fit and inable them to enter the Lists and Combate with so potent an Enemy Thus we see in the Example of Job how mightily did God renew his strength when as Satan opposed him and set upon Him And so in the Example of Peter Luke 22.32 Simon Simon Satan hath desired to have you and to winnow you as Wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren So again also in the Example of Paul when he prayed so earnestly to God to be delivered from the buffetings of Satan God told him this that his Grace was sufficient for Him and his strength was made perfect in his weakness As he increased his Temptations so proportionably he renewed his strength Thirdly Against some new Tryal and affliction from God himself As the Affliction abounds so does the Consolation and as the suffering so the strength God lays no more upon his servants then he inables them to indure but gives them strength inabling them to bear it As we see in the Martyrs and Holy men of old what great things they suffered This it was not from strength innate or inbred but from strength given and renewed Thus we see what Case and Conditions this Priviledge does hold good to Gods Servants which wait upon him Now Secondly For the means or wayes whereby we may take them thus Christians they do renew their Spiritual strength in these observations First In the renewing of their Repentance as Sin it weakens us so Repentance it recovers our strength it puts us in statu quo brings us back to our former Condition By true and unfained Humiliation for any strength which has been lost by us through any defect we do get up that strength again in us which accordingly is a very good course in such a case to be taken by us when we find our Spiritual strength to be decayed bewaile it and lament it before God with sadness and bitterness of Spirit while Christians do thus they do hence very much profit and benefit themselves in this particular Secondly In renewing of their Covenant as by bewayling what is past so by Solemn purposes and ingagement of themselves for time to come as long as men are at an indifferency whether they should leave their lusts or no so long their Iusts prevaile upon them and as long as men hang off from good purposes and are not fully resolved about them so long do they contract more impotency and indisposition to them But now Absoluteness and Peremptoriness of Ingagement this does convey some strength unto them while we are strong in our Resolutions we come from hence to be strong in our Performances and to be more fitted and inabled for them Thirdly In the renewing of their Obedience Look by what we lose our strength by the contrary to that we recover it and get it again now we lose it many times by the doing of that which is Evil and by the omission of that which is good therefore by that which is opposite and contrary hereunto we must restore it Hence 't is Christs counsel to the Church of Ephesus which had lost her first love and
so lost her first strength that she should do her first works that she should return to the acting of those things which she had now remitted and fallen from as that which was the best way to recover her to her former Condition and here especially to the use of the Ordinances Prayer and hearing of the word and receiving of the Sacrament which are the proper means appointed to this purpose Lastly In the renewing of their Faith and in the Exercise of it A Christian gathers new strength and supply of Spiritual Grace by reparing to the true spring and Fountain and Original of it which is the Grace of God in Christ Our strength it lies in Him and therefore by a spirit of Faith must be daily and Continually fetch 't from Him and that upon all occasions And it is our great Comfort and Incouragement that we may have it but for the fetching for so we may in a due and serious Appli of our selves to him we may draw strength from him Nay we shall do as is here signified to us They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength Here 's the priviledg and the Condition of being made partakers of it The Priviledg that 's renewing of our strength The Condition that is waiting upon the Lord. Be followers of them says the Apostle who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises Heb. 6.12 And again Heb. 10.36 Ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receive the Promise Even so it is here This promise of strength renewed unto us is not onely to the persons of Beleivers but to them especiall under this Notion and in the erercise of this act of Beleiving We must therefore still remember this that we be such as wait upon the Lord for that 's the Condition by which Expression the spirit of God comes home to the heart of many a weak Christian and satisfies the objections which they may make for some might be ready to say Alas we find no such matter as this is which you now speak off we have little or no strength at all if we have had some it may be heretofore yet we have lost it and know not how to recover it and to get it up again now for such they must be perswaded to wait and to consider whether they have done so or no for this strengthning it belongs to waiting and is promised to those that are careful so to do we must use the means and waite upon God for shewing us the use of them Go to the Ordinances and by Faith fetch power from Christ who alone can make them to be Effectual unto us Psal 27. vers 14. Wait on the Lord be of good Courage and he shall strengthen thine Heart wait I say on the Lord. To satisfie us the more in this particular consider but how it is with us in regard of our Natural Sustenance and the food of our Bodies The strength which comes by it it is not conveyed presently but by leasure when the meat is digested Indeed there is delight and sweetness and pleasantness even in the very first going down of it but the strength of it that comes after it Even so is it likewise here as to these Spiritual things The sweetness of the Ordinances that 's in the very partaking of them and in the time of the useing of them In Praying and Hearing and Communicating and Meditateing c. A Gracious heart it does taste and rellish them even then when 't is about them But the strength which is conveyed by them that 's a Business of leasure and time and therefore we must wait for it and stay Gods time for the giving of it Thou therefore that complainest of Weakness consider whether thou hast waited for strength and waited for it in his own way and in the use of those means which he has ordained and appointed to thee Especially Consider how far Christ Himself has been taken into this Business which is the means of all There are many think to renew their strength and how do they think to to do it Namely by strength of their own their own Vowes and Duties and performances which yet by the way must not be neglected but we must be strong in the Grace of Christ and in the power of his might and Spirit or else all our strength it will be but weakness it self This is that which the Apostle Paul was sensible of as we may see by his practise and the courses which he took to this purpose by his practise for the Ephesians Eph. 3.14.16.17 For this cause I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ That he would grant you according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthen'd with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your Hearts by Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may c. So in like manner by his practise for the Colosians Col. 1.11 Strengthened with all might according to his Glorious Power c. And so now I have done done with the First General part of the Text which is the Proposition in General They that wait c. The Second is the Demonstration or Confirmation of this in the Particular that we have in the words following They shall mount up with Eagles wings They shall run c. Wherein we have the strength of a Christian laid forth and amplified to us by a resemblance from a threefold motion First Of Flying Secondly Of Running Thirdly Of Walking Of Flying They shall mount up with Eagles wings Of Running They shall run and not be weary Of Walking They shall walk and not be faint Wee 'l begin first of all with the former and that is the motion of Flight They shall mount up with Eagles wings Here 's mention made of the Wings of the Eagle as we may conceive for two reasons especially First As the Eagle is an Emblem of strength renewed for so it is as we find it in Psal 103.5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Certain it is that the Eagle is longer-liv'd then many other Birds The Naturalists as Aristotle and Pliny c. Which write the story of living Creatures affirms this of it that it never Dies of old Age but onely of Famine for the upper-Bill being at length over-grown it is thereby hindred from putting meat into it's mouth and so at last comes to Die So the Prophet by this Similitude here signifies that those which wait upon the Lord they shall grow more and more urgent and lively enven to their old Age it self according to that also of the Psalmist Psal 92.12.13.14 The Righteous shall flourish c. They shall bring forth Fruit in their old Age they shall be fat and flourishing So then the Eagle is here pertinently mentioned in reference to this But Secondly The Eagle it soares aloft and flies on
through their miscarriages it will likewise grieve them again by his own desertions Which made David so much to cry out as we find him to do there in the Psalm Cast me not away from thy presence and take not away thy holy Spirit from me Psal 51.11 The consideration of this should still make us so much the more wary and shy of sin and of doing any thing which is evil and unlawful forasmuch as it involves and contracts a double guilt with it not only that which is consequent and attendant upon the commission of sin but also upon the omission of duty As we must not only abstain from evil but we must also do good so as we desire to do good we must be careful to abstain from evil For these two they go together Sins of commission have sins of omission in them That 's a second observation Thirdly Observe also further this That no man can do any good till his nature be first changed and altered in him There must be a rectitude of principles before there can be a rectitude of actions we must be first of all good our selves before good can come from us This is also plainly in the Text for mark how the Prophet here sets it Can the Ethiopian change his skin c. then may ye also which are thus and thus do that which is good As who should say when those which are accustomed to the doing of evil are once changed and renewed in their natures then good may be done by them but because that is so difficult therefore this so contrary is impossible Accustomed and habituated sinners they cannot do good why because they abide still the same which they were before in their natural condition there 's no change or alteration at all which is wrougth in them And this is grounded upon that common rule and observation Orta attestantur principiis effectus non excedit virtutem suae causae No man gathers grapes of thorns or figs of thistles in the words of St. James or if ye will in the words of our Blessed Savious An evil tree bringeth not forth good fruit Whether ye take it for an evil man or an evil heart which is the condition of every one by nature Men are taught to do evil from their principles and the corruption of nature which is in them Look as created nature teaches the creatures such actions as are suitable to their particular kinds so corrupted nature teaches wicked men such actions as are suitable to their wicked condition We would wonder to see such wickedness as there is sometimes in the world and might ask who teaches it but that herein we have answer from corrupt nature it self this suggests such lewdness to them Whiles they sin against nature in the creation of it they sin from nature in the corruption of it Secondly By Doctrine Corrupt opinions cherish corrupt principles and improve them so much the more So the Apostle tells us that without Faith it is impossible to please God the work whereof does imply a change And therefore we should still look to this in all we do That our hearts be right in it and that whatever comes from us flow from a spirit and principle of Grace and regeneration in us which will make it to be of the true stamp and character indeed and also acceptable and well-pleasing to God who will still own his own work in us We should not satisfy our selves in the multitude of performances and the doing of such things which are only good in their own nature and for the matter and substance of the action but desire and endeavour that our own consciences may be upright and sincere that whatsoever we do we may do it in God's strength and likewise to his glory Otherwise they will find no acceptance or approbation with God at all but he will reject them and cast them away from him as things which he does abhor Thus we shall find him to do there in Isa 1.12 13. c. Bring no more oblations incense is an abomination unto me c. And so probably also here in this place It is likely these people in the Text that they did many good things for the matter of them and yet says the Lord here of them How can ye do any good These and the like observations may we gather from these words in general as they lye in themselves Now further We may likewise if we please look upon them reflexively and as coming from the Prophet himself And here there are these things in them which may be observed and taken notice of by us First The Prophet's confidence and assurance of that which he did deliver he speaks it with a great deal of boldness and freedom and certainty of mind in that which he speaks concerning the thraldom and captivity of accustomed sinners Therefore it seems to be a kind of challenging and triumphant expression Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard c Do ye think that to be possible did ye ever see that in all your lives can that enter into you to believe This is the force and emphasis of these expressions whereby he does as it were come upon his Hearers and surprize them before they are aware There 's somewhat more in these rhetorical interrogations than there is in bare and positive assertions to make the thing it self more effectual Secondly Here 's the Prophet's faithfulness in that he brings it home to their own particulars and expresses it as concerning themselves in the second person It is not how can they which are thus and thus but how can ye He lays it at their own doors and desires to make them sensible of it which were corrupted and polluted with it This is another thing which a Minister ought to do as he has ground and occasion for it that so his Doctrine and Reproof and Exhortation may have the more power and efficacy with it Thus does Jeremy here in this place Thirdly Here 's the Prophet's courage and undauntedness and impartiality that he speaks here absolutely and indefinitely to all which were sinners and guilty without exception As in the 18th verse before Say unto the King and the Queen humble your selves c. So also here Ye which are accustomed to do evil He spares not any whether great or small as he had no cause coming on God's errand In verse 15. Hear ye and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken c. And thus now also have ye the observations collaterally and reflexively arising from this Text which we have here undertaken and so likewise with the whole Text it self Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also which are c. SERMON XLVIII EZEK 21.2 3. Son of man set thy face toward Jerusalem and drop thy word toward the holy places and prophecy against the land of Israel And say to the land of Israel Thus saith the
need of them than in such times as these are wherein all kind of wickedness is broken loose and the common principles of honesty and civility seem in a manner to be extinguish'd and quite abolish'd in sundry persons But that which we intend is this First that men should not content themselves only with such things as these are but look after somewhat else and somewhat more They should not do as our Saviour charges the Pharisees be observant of smaller things the mint and the cummin and such as them and omit the weightier matters of the Law Judgment and Mercy and Faith these ought they to have done and not to leave the other undone Matth. 22.23 Their righteousness must not only equal but also exceed the Scribes and Pharisees That 's one thing considerable Secondly That they should look at the Principles from whence these moral and Christian duties proceed in them and that is not only from Nature but from Grace not only from the common principles of ingenuity but from Faith in Christ and a Nature renewed For look as the reasonable soul in a man does produce the same acts of sense which the sensless foul does in a Beast so the principle of Grace and the new Creature in a Christian does produce the same acts of civility and morality in him which the principles of morality and civility do in a common person And these acts of morality and civility which expose themselves in a Christian are so much the nobler from the principle from which they come in him This is that which we still press that we be careful not to mistake or to deceive our selves in a matter of so great consequence as this is Religion is a deep business and another kind of thing than the World commonly takes it to be it lies not in the head or in the tongue or in the profession but in the heart and in the spirit and conversation And it consists not so much in outward performances which yet are required in it as in inward complyance He is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart of the spirit and not of the letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.28 29. SERMON II. MARK 12.34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly he said unto him Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God There is a very wide and vast difference in mens approaches and comings to Christ which according to a various end and byass putting them upon it does admit of a various censure and interpretation All that seem to make after him are not equally affected towards him Which as we may observe and take notice of in sundry other places besides in the history of the Gospel So amongst the rest here in this Chapter which we have now before us Where we read of three sorts of persons repairing unto him the Pharisees and the Sadduces and occasionally one of the Scribes The two first of these they came to him that they might cavil with him that they might intangle him and insuare him in his discourse the one in the point of Tribute and the other in the Doctrine of the Resurrection This last was a great deal more ingenious and candid towards him who therefore discourst with him that he might learn somewhat from him and might be further instructed by him which he was the rather induced unto from his observation of the others miscarriage and the dexterity of Christ himself in dealing with them Now the words which I have here rend unto you are our Saviour's approbation of this person upon the whole matter in hand and encouragement in further proceedings c. IN the Text it self we have two General Parts observable of us First The favourable censure which Christ passes here upon this Scribe which now came unto him Secondly The ground or occasion for this passing of it upon him the Censure it self that we have in those words Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God The occasion or ground for the passing of it upon him in these When Jesus saw that he answered discreetly We begin in order with the first though the second in the method of the Text and that is the censure it self Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God For the handling whereof here are two terms to be open'd and explain'd by us First what is here meant by the Kingdom of God Secondly what by being far from this Kingdom For the first The Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is all one and comes to one effect It is variously taken in Scripture more especially three manner of ways First for the state of Grace and that Sovereignty and Dominion which God exercises in the hearts of the faithful Thus it is taken in Matt. 13.31 where the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a grain of mustard seed the Kingdom of Heaven that is the work of Grace in a Believer And so Luke 17.21 The Kingdom of God is within you Secondly for the state of the Gospel and God's gracious dispensations of himself towards his Church and People under the new Testament Thus it is taken Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence c. The Kingdom of Heaven i.e. The ministery and preaching of the Gospel Thirdly for the state of Glory and that blessed and happy condition which God's children to all eternity shal enjoy with Christ and his holy Angels in another World Thus it is taken Mat. 5.3 Blessed are the pure in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven that is the Kingdom of Glory So Luke 14.15 Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God Now either of these yea all of them taken together may be very well here understood as we shall have occasion to see more hereafter in the further opening of the Text. And this for the first term what is meant by the Kingdom of God The second is what is meant by being far from this Kingdom who or how any are said to be far from it Now this we must know that it may admit also of a threefold interpretation There is a threefold distance or remoteness in reference to the Kingdom of God which any are capable of First in regard of the means Secondly in regard of the terms Thirdly in regard of the event Each of these are pertinently considerable First In regard of the means Thus those are said to be far from the Kingdom of God which are destitute of those means of Grace which do lead and tend to this Kingdom Forasmuch as the end of any thing is not usually attain'd but by the means therefore those which want the means are so far forth from the end Now this remoteness in regard of the means it is again twofold either Absolute or Comparative For the absolute
upon the point even eternal life it self It was because he had great possessions or rather because he had an heart too greatly set upon them and too deeply affected with them And therefore our Saviour accordingly makes that improvement of it How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God It is easier for a Camel to go thorough the eye of a needle c. Luke 18.24 25. A covetous heart will never prize this one thing nor care for attaining unto it And so for any other lust besides where it is in the tyranny and prevalency of it it scorns happiness and salvation it self Therefore I say take heed of lusts and remember to look at the main chance We should let no day pass over our heads wherein we do not do somewhat to bring us nearer to Heaven and tending to our eternal welfare We have many shifts and pretences sometimes to excuse our selves and now and then are ready to plead a necessity for it to keep us from the Word and the Ordinances and such means as these are and Satan joyning with our deceitful hearts does many times cozen and delude us But we should consider if there be any necessity like to this which we have here before us of the saving of our souls And that 's the first Vse of this Point seeing one thing is needful Therefore we see here where to place and spend our chiefest thoughts and endeavours Secondly Seeing one thing is needful we should therefore not only mind this one thing it self but also mind every thing else in reference to that one We should make all our projects and actions and undertakings subordinate and subservient hereunto what-ever we do we should examine what connexion it hath with this how it furthers our Salvation how it advances the Glory of God how it promotes our spiritual welfare We may reduce it and apply it to divers and sundry particulars wherein we may make use of this rule First In matter of Doctrine and Opinion look at the one thing needful here There are many frivolous and unnecessary disputes which the World sometimes is troubled withal which take up mens heads and minds and divert them from better things Now here this counsel and advertisement is very seasonable to remember the one thing necessary We must here distinguish betwixt Wit and Grace betwixt Fancy and Faith betwixt empty Notions and Speculations and solid and substantial Truths These Doctrines are worth the studying and striving and contending for which will make a man wise to Savlation and build one up in the fear of God which will better us in our inward man and which tends to the leading of a godly and an holy life and according hereunto are we to make proof and trial of them We may know whether they be from God or no by this discovery Whatsoever comes from him it carries to him Those opinions which are good for nothing but only to shew the wit and parts of those that vent them to set Christians at difference and variance one with another or at the best to fill their heads with fancies and subtilties and conceits Those opinions which are compliances with the principles of a carnal heart which set up Reason in the room of Faith and Nature in the room of Grace and Works in the room of Christ such as these they may be very well suspected and so consequently are to be rejected by us But those are the prime Points indeed which have a contrary efficacy with them to the changing of the soul to the discovery of a man's corrupt nature to the drawing of a man home to Christ and so thereby to bring him to Heaven And such as these should be chiefly studied and pursued by us and so the Scripture it self to this purpose gives us direction Thus 2 Tim. 2.14 16. Charge them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers And again Shun profane and vain bablings for they will increase unto more ungodliness Tit. 3.9 Avoid foolish questions and genealogies c. for they are unprofitable and vain This is that which many people in the World are often times failing in as not walking by this rule here before us in this particular They never consider the influence or extent of those things which they hold as to the making of a man better or worse but indifferently rush upon them without any heed or regard at all Nay there are many which make choice of such Points as may most feed corruption in them as they do sometimes also of other occasions There are many that bring their opinions to their lusts and make their judgments to be subservient to their affections Those Points which will best consist with the following of such and such courses those are the Points which are most embraced and admired by them Those that are for loose lives they are commonly for loose opinions which may nourish and cherish and maintain those lives in them they begin not first of all in the head but rather in the heart as a faulty and corrupt stomach sends up noysome vapours into the brain For which reason heresies are by the Apostle called works of the flesh because the flesh and corrupt affections has a great stroke and predominancy in them for the managing of them Now by a regard to this one thing necessary there will be a shunning and avoiding of these things Secondly In the duties and exercises of Religion look still at the one thing which is needful and that according to the particular nature and quality of them There are many religious performances which have that which is meerly accessory to them And we are to separate and distinguish the circumstances from that which is substantial and to have our eyes chiefly to the latter as that which is most necessary not to rest our selves in the shell of duty but to look after the pith and kernel nor to perform it plausibly so much as to perform it profitably and to enjoy communion with God himself by his Spirit in the performance of it In Prayer to pray in the Holy Ghost In Hearing to receive the word with meekness In Fasting to afflict the soul In Communicating to feed upon Christ and so of the rest Still in every exercise of Religion and Christian performance not to have only the form of Godliness but to look after the power as that wherein the Kingdom of God does especially consist Thirdly In our Employments and the works of our ordinary Callings let us have an eye also still to this Consider what that is which is principally required of us There 's a double end and use of these things the one is as they are means of supportment and outward subsistence in the world and so serve to make up a livelihood And the other is as in the exercise of them men become profitable to the publick good whether in Church or
said of our Blessed Saviour Heb. 2.17 18. That in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest And that forasmuch as himself had suffered being tempted he was better able to succour those that were tempted and accordingly could not but be touch'd with the feeling of our infirmities chap. 4. â—5 In like manner it is likely to be with others so far forth as they communicate in such conditions being hence inabled to have compassion or reasonably to bear with those which are in them for that themselves also are compast with infirmities There 's two things at once in this expression in the Text First that one man's evil is another man's danger he is liable and exposed to it Secondly that one man's evil is another man's interest he is employed and concerned in it So were the rest of the Disciples in this attempt which was made upon Peter and therefore not only thee in the singular but you also in the plural So much for that But to come more closely to the thing it self here intended To have you This word you in the Text it may admit of a thee-fold gradation according to which it may be explained and understood by us First you Believers rather than other men Secondly you eminent Believers rather than other Christians Thirdly you Apostles or Ministers rather than other eminent Believers Satan in the laying of his temptations hath emphatically desired you You he hath desired First you Believers rather than other men Satan's aim is especially at such to get them As for wicked and ungodly persons who are yet in their unregenerate condition he has them already They are said to be in the snares of the Devil and he knows them to be so so that he does not much trouble himself about them All his care about such is but to keep them in that wretched condition in which they are It is not to have them so much as to hold them that they may not recover themselves out of his snare and get loose from him for which purpose he does what he can to keep them from the means of Salvation or else to frustrate those means unto them But his chiefest plots are against those which are Believers and which have Grace wrought in their hearts he desires especially to lay hold on them and to draw them into his nets This he aims at both in himself and in his instruments as ye may see in Elymas the Sorcerer Acts 13.9 10. Who when Sergius Paulus the Deputy of the Countrey had been wrought upon by the Ministery of St. Paul this wicked Fellow endeavoured to corrupt him and to turn him from the Faith But he has the brand of a child of the Devil put upon him by the Apostle for it there in that place O full of all subtilty and all mischief thou child of the Devil thou enemy of all Righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord Those that go about to tempt and to pervert those which are good they are so far forth the children of the Devil whose work and property and disposition it is so to do as much as he can and who makes it his great employment And there are two considerations especially which do lay ground to this practice in him First that absolute antipathy and hatred and contrariety which is in him to Goodness it self yea to God himself who is the chiefest good The Devil because he hates Goodness it self therefore he assaults it where ever he finds it And because he hates God himself therefore he hates also his Image in those in whom it is and would deface it as much as he is able Because all true Believers they have the likeness of God stamp'd upon them and do in a sort partake of his nature therefore it is that Satan does so much malign them and set himself against them and does labour what he can to super-stamp his own likeness upon them Secondly It proceeds from that Envy and Pride which is in him The Devil takes it in scorn that a creature which is below him in creation should be above him in condition and therefore he endeavours to supplant him and bring him down Take any Christian as he is a man so he is of an inferior make to Satan whose nature is Angelical Now for such an one to be advanced above him which he is by Grace and the work of the new creature this it is very grievous and irksome unto him and therefore out of meer envy and malice and pride does he endeavour what he is able against them From hence we may therefore learn where to rank such persons as these are Those that hate Goodness in others and envy them and malice them for it we see from whom they come and to what stock they belong as their proper pedigree even to no other than Satan himself And so the Scripture it self tells us 1 Joh. 3 1â— It is said of Cain that he was of that wicked one namely the Devil and slew his Brother And wherefore slew he him Because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous To hate or corrupt Goodness in others it is a Satanical and Diabolical disposition That 's one part of the Gradation here in the Tex you Believers rather than other men The Second is you eminent Believers rather than other Christians Peter and the rest of his companions as they were Christians so they were of the highest form and rank of Christians And to such as these does our Saviour here speak concerning Satan's attempts He hath desired you You whose Faith is strongest whose Zeal is hottest whose Patience is greatest whose Graces are more illustrious and eminent and conspicuous to have you especially This is the manner of Satan to cast his sticks most at those trees which are fullest of fruit where he spies more Grace than ordinary there especially to lay his chiefest assaults We need go no further for an instance than our Blessed Saviour himself though he was frustrated there yet we see he was so bold as to venture it even to set upon him and to try what he could do with him And so for those which are his Members of more eminent Graces he does the like with them also as we see in divers examples in Scripture in Job and David and Paul and here this Peter himself all eminent persons There 's a double reason for it which does encourage him to it First it is the greater Victory and Secondly it is the greater Advantage he does more both in it and by it It is the greater Victory First to conquer such as these For mean and ordinary Christians to lay them on their backs he thinks that 's no great honour or renown unto him but now to vanquish those which are Champions and to pull down those which are Pillars and to scatter those which are principal Christians this it
Matth. 16.18 The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church yea the first promise of all Gen. 3.15 The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's head This as it is matter of great encouragement to us in general so in particular is it an encouragement to us in all our spiritual combats and conflicts that we may not faint or be dejected in our minds and so give up our selves as lost Forasmuch as at the last we shall overcome and go by the best And so St. Peter himself at some time and in some place improves it in the counsel which he gives to Believers upon this occasion 1 Pet. 5.8 9. Your adversary the Devil goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast in the Faith knowing that c. And so likewise the Apostle James Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you Thus have we this Adversative Particle in all its several Antitheses or Oppositions here considerable of us The opposition of the place The opposition of the Actions The opposition of the Success Which latter now leads me from the First General Part to the Second here in the Text to wit The matter of Christ's Prayer or the thing it self requested by him in these words That thy Faith fail not This Passage may be consider'd of us two manner of ways First in the Negative what it is not And Secondly in the Affirmative what it is For the Negative First to consider that what it is not Where we may observe that it is not that Peter might have no temptation befall him that one would have thought had been more sutable When he had said before Satan hath desired to have you we might have expected he should have said next But I have prayed that he shall have nothing to do with you But we do not find him to say so no but rather that thy Faith may not Fail From whence we may observe thus much that God does not always keep his children from temptations but rather gives them Grace against them that they may not be foyled by them Thus he did here with Peter he suffer'd Satan to tempt him but withal he kept up his Faith Thus we shall find him to do with other of his Servants in Scripture Thus he did with his Servant Job he suffer'd Satan in some measure to set upon him when he desired to have him but yet withal he gave him Grace to overcome him and Job came off at last as a Conqueror As the Lord himself bears witness of him in Job 2.3 He still holdeth fast his integrity although thou movest me against him to destroy him without a cause Thus he did also with his Servant Paul There was the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him and he besought the Lord that it might depart from him But what was the answer which was made unto him My Grace is sufficient for thee c. I will not with-hold the temptation now but I will give thee the Grace which in effect shall be all one or better for thee In Heb. 12.47 We find it to be there recorded as a part of the condition of those Believers and Worthies of old that they were tempted And so it is likewise the condition of many others still This it pleases God to suffer and permit upon divers considerations First for their greater abasement and humiliation The Servants of God are apt sometimes where Grace is not more watchful in them to be advanced and lifted up in themselves now therefore does the Lord now and then let Satan loose upon them to humble them and to bring them into Order This we shall find to be expresly signified concerning Paul himself and that by himself which makes it so much the more remarkable in 2 Cor. 12.7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh c. lest I should be exalted above measure He repeats it twice both in the beginning of the verse and in the end of it that we might the more take notice of it Paul he was a man which had been taken up into the third Heaven and there had heard unspeakable words which it was not lawful for a man to utter as was signified in the fourth verse of that Chapter Now as he had been lifted up in his person so he was apt also through the remainders of corrupt nature still abiding in him to be lifted up likewise in his spirit Therefore for the prevention of this was there given unto him this thorn in the flesh this messenger of Satan c. which was as troublesome and grievous to him as a thorn in the flesh And it is worth our observation that it is said to be given unto him It is not only it was sent unto him or it was laid upon him or inflicted upon him or the like no but it was given unto him which has the force of a gracious dispensation included in it A Gift being in the true nature of it a matter of favour both proceeding from love and affection in the person that gives it and tending to some good and advantage of the person whom it is given unto Thus are temptations as it pleases God to order them to those which are his for which reason he suffers them to be upon them And as for other good purposes besides so amongst the rest for this which we now speak of either to prevent or to subdue pride in them and to root it out of them This was the case here with Peter in the Text Peter he had too good a conceit and opinion of himself and of his own stedfastness yea above all other men besides as himself expresses it now therefore would Christ have him to be tempted that so by this means he might be abased Secondly As to breed humility so also to breed compassion and tenderness of spirit to others Christians as they are apt sometimes to be too well opinionated of themselves so also to be now and then too harsh and rigorous towards their Brethren And these distempers they do commonly go together There are none which are more uncharitable towards others than those which are most indulgent to themselves Now temptation cures them of this it makes them full of bowels and pity towards others in the like condition As it is noted of the High-Priest that he was to be one who could have compassion on the ignorant or who could reasonably bear with them for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity He that is sensible of his own infirmities will be the more compassionate and bearing towards others This is that which is taken notice of in Christ though he had no infirmity of sin in him at all yet as to temptation to sin he was not freed from it And that for this very reason as the Apostle expresses it thereby to make him so much the more
compassionate to others in that condition Heb. 2.17 18. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people For in that himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Thirdly God suffers his servants to be tempted for the honour of his own Grace in supporting them and keeping them up and for the confusion likewise of the enemy in his attempts upon them Satan here desired to have Peter and the rest of the Disciples and he promised himself very great matters in the having of them thought he should surely conquer them and have them for his own now would Christ therefore suffer him to assault them that he might come off with the greater reproach that when he had done all he could against them he might see at last how little he could prevail upon them Thus ye see it was in the case of Job the Lord triumphs as it were over Satan in that attempt Hast thou consider'd my servant Job that there is none like him upon the earth a perfect and an upright man c. As if he had said thou hast endeavoured Satan to do all that thou could'st to undo him but yet for all that it will not do he has still the better of thee and for all that holds his integrity This reason which we now mention for this dealing is exprest in the case of Paul why the Lord did not take away his temptation but rather gave him Grace sufficient against it For my strength is made perfect in weakness And the Apostle himself also so improves it in the words that follow Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me 2 Cor. 12.9 Thus we see that there is cause why Christ should suffer his servants to be tempted as he did Peter c. The Use which we are to make of it is therefore to arm our selves against temptation as much as we can We should not promise our selves absolute freedom and immunity from it but be prepared for it We should as our Saviour elsewhere advises pray against it that we enter not into it but yet withal be provided against it and to this purpose get a stock of Grace that may then stand us in stead Let us not then have our Armour to get when our Enemy is coming upon us but be furnish'd afore-hand and remember that we trust not to any Grace which we have already received but be still labouring and striving for more We had need of more Grace for the saving of that Grace we have already and especially the Grace of watchfulness and circumspection and of an holy fear But so much of this Passage in the Negative what our Saviour here does not pray for It is not for the preventing of Temptation which he did suffer and permit to befall the Apostle Peter The Second is the Positive part of it in the words of the Text That thy Faith may not fail Which words may be again consider'd of us two manner of ways First Simply and absolutely as they lye in themselves and so they do signify to us the safety of Peter's condition Secondly Respectively and dependantly in their connexion with the words going before and so they do signify to us the cause of Peter's safety First To take them Absolutely as they lye in themselves and so they do signify to us the safety of Peter's condition and together with him of all other Believers Their Faith it shall not fail Those who are true Believers they shall never wholly depart from the Faith but shall abide and continue stedfast to the end For the better opening of this present Point unto us we must know that there is a double Faith and so consequently a double sort of Believers There is the Doctrine of Faith and there 's the Grace of Faith There 's Faith as it lyes in the understanding and is a belief of the Truths of the Gospel And there is Faith as it is rooted in the heart and is a receiving and embracing of Christ Now it is not the former but the latter which is here chiefly intended The Papists that they may from hence prove that their Church cannot err which they will never evince from this Text they carry this Faith altogether to a Faith of Doctrine and so would infer That Peter as the Head of the Church should be infallible But besides the silliness of the inference they are much mistaken in the ground and supposition For the Faith which our Saviour here speaks of it is a Faith of Principles a saving justifying renewing and regenerating Faith whereby we are united to Christ as Members of his Mystical Body This is that which our Saviour here prayed for Peter that it should not fail in him Indeed it has a truth likewise of the other so far forth as it is included those which are born again as they are acquainted with all necessary Truths which God's Spirit does lead them into so they are likewise by the same gracious Spirit preserved in it But that which is mainly here intended is that Faith which lays hold upon Christ which though not excluding the former is more especially the Faith of God's Elect Tit. 1.9 And so Faith may here be taken by a Synecdoche for the whole work of the new creature in us This it is such as shall not fail and so is intimated to us in this Scripture and so in other places besides As Psal 125.1 They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion which cannot be moved but abideth for ever And Isa 6.13 He shall be like and Oak whose substance is in him whiles his leaves fall and the holy seed shall be the substance thereof c. This it may be made good unto us from sundry considerations First The nature of Grace it self which is an abiding Principle Faith is not a thing taken up as a man would take up some new fashion or custom but it is a thing rooted and incorporated in us and goes through the substance of us it spreads it self through the whole man and is as it were a new creature in us Therefore it is said of a regenerate person that he cannot commit sin namely the sin of Apostacy and that sin which is unto death because the seed of God remaineth in him 1 Joh. 3.9 Secondly The Covenant of Grace which is an everlasting Covenant Jer. 32.40 I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will never turn from them to do them good but I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Therefore Faith shall not fail because God himself does not fail who hath put this Faith into the hearts of his servants Thirdly The Spirit of Grace which is not only a Worker but an
Establisher and a Sealer of this Faith in us and to us He who hath anointed us and hath established us is God who hath also sealed us and hath given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.20 Thus we see how it comes to pass that the Faith of a Believer is unmovable But now further as this is true of his Faith at large and consider'd in general so is it true likewise of his Faith more especially in reference to temptations in which sense we are now more particularly to understand these present words I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not that is that thy Faith fail not at such time as thou shalt fall into temptation and when Satan according to his desire shall set upon thee This is indeed the particular scope and drift of the Text. And so again there are two things to be observed by us in it First there 's somewhat implyed and Secondly there 's somewhat exprest That which is implyed is this That a stedfast Faith is a singular help in temptation That which is exprest is this That the servants of God they shall have their Faith much upheld in such conditions First We have this implyed That a stedfast Faith is a singular help in temptation This we draw from the occasion of these words which are here added by our Saviour Our Saviour had in the verse before told Peter that Satan had desired to have him and the rest of them to sift them now in this verse he tells him thus much That he had prayed that his Faith should not fail and he tells it him by way of encouragement Now where does the encouragement lye namely here That his Faith not failing he should be therefore arm'd against Satan's assaults and attempts upon him So that this I say is the scope of the Text to signify to us the efficacy of Faith in such conditions as these are He whose Faith does not fail him he is sufficiently provided for temptation Faith it is a fortifying Grace which does keep the Soul in very good safety And so the Scripture still sets it as amongst the rest in that eminent place Eph. 6.16 Above all taking the shield of Faith whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil And so again in 2 Cor. 16.13 Watch ye stand ye fast in the Faith quit ye like men be strong Where it is supposed that if Faith be but sure and stedfast in us every thing else will with us Now the efficacy of Faith in temptation is discernable in these particulars First as it pitches us upon the strength and power of God That which keeps up a soul in temptation it is an Almighty Power it is a Power which is above all the Powers of Darkness it self Now such is the Power of God alone and therefore the Apostle when he would arm us against Principalities and Powers c. he bids us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Eph. 6.10 Be strong c. for we wrestle c. Now this Power it is improved by no Grace so much as by Faith We are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the last times Kept by the power of God as the main cause and original of our preservation and withal kept through Faith as apprehending and laying hold on this power and applying it to it self Secondly Faith helps in temptation as it lays hold upon the promises of God It has pleased the Lord to make many gracious promises to his servants in temptations for the sustaining of them in them as 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able but will with the temptation find a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it And many such like gracious intimations as these are Now Faith it applies these promises and makes use of them in time of need and so by this means does much help and support and keep us up in temptation Thirdly As it lays hold upon Christ and pitches us and fastens us upon him we are so far safe and sure in temptation as Christ has any hold of us and we of him Look as it was with Peter when he sometimes walked upon the Sea what was that which then upheld him and kept him from sinking why it was the hold which he had upon Christ Even so was it with this same Peter likewise when he was set upon and assaulted by Satan and when the waves of temptation came upon him his security was Christ's sustaining of him Now Faith is that which makes us to do this even to cling and cleave to Christ and keep close to him This accordingly teaches us how much therefore it concerns us to take care that this be vigorous in us and as Christ here himself prayed for us so also to pray for our selves that this may not fail in us That Prayer of the Disciples for themselves Lord encrease our Faith it is that which is necessary for every Christian and that especially in order to temptation that we be not vanquish'd and overcome by that And further Here is that which may satisfy us in the Providence of God himself towards us we may think it a strange dealing with us that he suffers temptations sometimes to befal us yea but here is that which makes amends that he hath provided also such a Grace as is sufficient for the encountring of them He has given an Antidote for this poyson and a Buckler against this assault where there 's Faith there is an help against temptation That 's that which is here implyed Secondly For that which is exprest It is this That Peter's Faith shall not fail at such a time as that is It shall not fail that is it shall not fail in temptation at such a time as Satan shall assault him and set upon him as afterwards he did Where by failing we are not to understand some temporary shaking or obscuration for that we know his Faith had but an absolute and total deficiency Peter when he was at the very worst even at that time when he denied his Master yet his Faith did not thus fail in him There was Faith and Grace at the bottom even in that miscarriage This appears from hence in that he recover'd and got up again He was sensible of his defect and repented and mourn'd for it he went out and wept bitterly as the Scripture says of him As soon as ever that Christ looked upon him his heart smote him this would not have been so if his Faith had absolutely failed in him no it did not do so but as it is noted of Eutychus that fell from the third story and was taken up for dead yet notwithstanding his life was in him Acts 20.9 10. Even so was
the recoveries of the health of Body and in the restaurations of the health of the Soul Therefore our Blessed Saviour perceiving these Jews whom he had Preach'd to to be somewhat suddenly affected with his Ministry and wrought upon by it takes care that this work upon them it might be followed and seconded with further progress and perseverance in Christianity He leaves his work of Disputation and answering of the cavils of the Pharisees and applies himself to his work of Instruction in the setling of the Believing Jews which was a great deal more profitable for his Hearers and acceptable also to Himself Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed c. IN this present Verse before us we have two General Parts observable of us First the Preface or Introduction Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed c. Secondly the main Speech which follows upon it If c. We begin with the First viz. the Preface Then said Jesus Where we have the persons to whom our Saviour directs his Speech and they were the believing Jews Secondly the occasion of his Speech and that was then when he proceeded they believed c. For the First the Persons Christ singles out these especially as the principal part of his care the Jews that believed There were others that heard him but these were they which were chiefly minded and regarded by him Christ reckons of Hearers according to the Graces which are in them of Meekness and Faith and Pliableness and Obedience and the like These are more in esteem with him although but a few and small in number a little flock than many hundreds yea thousands besides though in other respects never so qualified And it is a good rule and direction to us which are Ministers how to do likewise namely to account of our Auditors not so much according to their number and multitude and any outward qualification but rather according to their goodness and proficiency and proportionably to apply our selves unto them as our Saviour here did before us Who picks out those which were Believers from all the rest and addresses himself chiefly unto them This there 's ground and reason for because such as these they do best understand what comes from us and give greatest encouragement to us in our work Every one delights naturally to speak to those rather that understand him and which know what he says than he does to any other persons why this is the case now with Believers compared with other Hearers They have some kind of sense and feeling in their own hearts of the word which is preached unto them which is so much the more delightful to the Preacher whereas others not apprehending it do from hence give little attention unto it But Secondly As we have here the persons spoken to so the occasion also of speaking to them which was their believing and receiving of the Word preached Then that is when Christ perceived their Faith as he easily did in regard of his Omniscience he spake further unto them and as he had wrought Grace in them at first so he would encrease and perfect that Grace which he had wrought We may look upon Christ in this practice under a double Notion and Consideration of him either as he was Man or as he was God for he was both and both did appear in him in this particular First as he was Man and more especially a Preacher of the Gospel so he shewed his Ministerial Prudence and gives all other Ministers a pattern and example how to carry themselves Which is as they do observe any at any time to be wrought upon in their Ministry so to follow them with further instruction and to set on that which they have wrought There 's a twofold duty of a Minister which is here exhibited in this example of Christ The one is to observe and mark and take notice how his Doctrine at any time takes and prevails with Hearers And the other is where he observes it to do so there to improve it and make the best of it that possibly he can First I say to mark how it takes it concerns him to do this Thus our Saviour here did in this place He did not only Preach to these peopel but he did mark and consider what acceptance his Doctrine had with them Indeed he had an advantage of all other Ministers besides for he was able by the power of his Divine Nature to pierce even into the hearts of his Hearers and to see how they were affected within them This is that which we cannot do we are not able to look into mens hearts and to see what is there but we may do somewhat in order hereunto as a guidance to us We may observe mens countenances and speeches and actions and conversations which are for the most part the discoveries of their hearts and accordingly we may be able to guess at their inward affections and so we ought to do Like an Archer which his shot his Arrow to mark where it falls So should we do here in this business Look as in matter of Prayer we should not only ask things at God's hands but observe how far forth our Prayers are heard by him so also in matter of Preaching not only deliver such truths but enquire and observe what acceptance they find with those to whom they are delivered That 's one thing required of a Minister and taught him also by this example of Christ Another is where he observes the Word to take to follow it and farther to promote it Thus did our Saviour here also He observes these Jews to believe on him and now he speaks further to them This is that which we should do with him Strike while the Iron is hot Precept upon precept and line upon line as the Prophet Isaiah speaks As we find any to be warm'd and wrought upon by any thing which is said to them so to enforce it the more upon them Thus we see our Saviour here did and this we learn from him under this notion consider'd as he was Man But Secondly If we look upon him as God then there will be this in it That God will perfect that Grace which he has begun in any of our hearts He had enclined these Jews to believe and now he further takes order for the confirming of their Faith in them He that hath begun a good work c. Phil. 1.6 And so much may be spoken briefly of the First General Part of the Text which is the Preface or Introduction Then said c. The Second is the main Speech it self which follows upon it If ye continue in my word then c. Wherein again we have two Branches more First the Duty supposed and Secondly the Priviledg inferr'd The Duty supposed that is perseverance in the Faith If ye continue in my word The Priviledg inferr'd that is to be a Disciple of Christ Then are ye my Disciples indeed We begin with the First
viz. The Duty supposed If ye continue in my word This is that which Christ requires of these Jews which now believed on him that they would go on and persevere in the Faith And it is that which he requires of all others besides In Christianis quaeuntur non initia sed finis It is not so much the beginning as the end which is looked after in Christians Therefore it is the counsel of Paul to Timothy that he should continue in the things which he had learned 2 Tim. 3.14 And to continue in the Doctrine 1 Tim. 4.16 Acts 14.22 The Apostles confirm'd the souls of the Disciples and exhorted them to continue in the Faith This perseverance and continuance is such a duty as the Scripture does generally in every part of it commend unto us As for the further prosecuting of this Point unto you I shall reserve that for the latter clause of the Verse in handling of the Connexion where it will come in with greater advantage All that I shall do in the mean time before I pass to that shall be to take notice of the phrase and manner of expression in this passage and that is that Chirst says not If ye continue in the Faith although that was the main thing which he meant but if ye continue in my Word Why does he so There are divers reasons which may be given of this expression First That he might hereby carry them to the Spring and Original of that Faith which was wrought in them And that was the word of Christ This was the means of drawing them to believe and Christ would have them to remember it and to take special notice of it for their greater reverence of his own Ordinance For when all comes to all this is that which must work it in an ordinary way It is true Christ is able immediately to infuse the habits of Grace into us by his own Spirit without the Preaching of the word but it is that which he will not commonly do If he does as in infants and young children yet the Word has still the honour of exerting it and drawing it forth from whence at last it is all resolved into that as the Principle of Conversion Of his own will begat he us by the word of Truth Jam. 1.18 And now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you God has put a dignity upon his word to this purpose And that not only in the mouth of Christ himself as it was here in the Text but also in the mouths of his faithful Ministers and Servants whose word is the word of Christ when 't is delivered in his Name and by his Authority as truly though not so fully as that which came directly and personally out of his own mouth it self Therefore he tells his Disciples that He that despiseth them despiseth him And St. Paul to the Thessalonians He that despiseth us despiseth not man but God who hath also given us his holy Spirit To abide in the Doctrines of the Prophets and Apostles and other Ministers is to continue in the word of Christ And to continue in the word of Christ is to continue in the Faith Secondly As to shew the rise of Faith so to shew the rule of Faith to shew what it is which out Faith must be regulated by and that is by the word of Christ We must henceforth believe nothing of Christ but what is exhibited to us in his word and which is taught us in that Search the Scriptures for they bear witness of me says Christ himself Joh. 5.39 All Doctrines which are beside this word they fall to the ground Thirdly To shew the improvement of Faith whence it is that our Faith is to be nourished and strengthened in us Ex eisdem nutrimur un de renascimur we are nourish'd by the same means as we are first born The word of God it is both seed and food to its seed as to the begetting of Grace and it 's food as to the encrease of it And so the Scripture stiles it The immortal seed and the meat that endureth for ever The word it hath both properties in it and so both are attributed to it The first in the former verse which we have handled As he spake c. And the second in this other which we are now upon If ye continue in my words So much for the reason of this expression and for the first Branch as it is here considerable of us viz. The duty required The Second is The Priviledg inserr'd Then are ye my Disciples indeed Where there are two things again distinctly considerable of us First the Priviledg it self and that is to be a Disciple of Christ Secondly the ground whereupon this Priviledg is founded or the condition of it Then If ye c. For the First The Priviledg it self simply consider'd it is to be a Disciple of Christ which is further set forth by the word of Amplification indeed A Disciple indeed This is that which every good Christian is and which every one should labour to be Not to be a titular Disciple only but a real Which is an expression that the Scripture does very much stand upon in sundry places of it Thus our Saviour speaking of Nathanael Joh. 1.48 says he was a true Israelite or an Israelite indeed And St. John speaking of our Saviour says he was that true light 1 Joh. 2.8 Our Saviour speaking of John Baptist Mark 11.32 says he was a Prophet indeed So here our Saviour again speaking of good Christians and sound Believers says My Disciples indeed Now to open this expression a little to you A Disciple indeed it does contain three properties especially in it First Sincerity Secondly Vniversality And Thirdly Perpetuity He that 's a Disciple indeed he is one unfeignedly And he is one indefinitely And he is one uncessantly First Unfeignedly A Disciple indeed does imply sincerity in it in opposition to hypocrisie and dissimulation There are many who are Disciples in pretence but that 's not that which will serve the turn nor which we should be contented withal but to be so in reality and good earnest that is to have the heart and spirit and substance of true Religion in us For look as in naturals painted fire is no fire where it wants the operations of fire in it and a dead man is no man but a carkass because he wants the Soul which is the form and life in him Even so it is also in Spirtuals one that is but a meer Professor he is no true Christian because he wants the life of Grace which should act Christianity in him This is that which Christ especially regards and requires in us 1 Joh. 3.18 My little children let us not love in word and in tongue but in deed and in truth And what he says of the Grace of love may be applied also to any other besides God esteems of us in Religion so far forth as we are hearty
affections and hearts off from the principles But Thirdly Especially let us go to Christ himself to hold us in his hand Joh. 15.4 Abide in me and I in you c. We must first labour to find our selves truly ingrafted and incorporated into Christ and then we must draw strength and power from him whereby we may subsist We must continue in Christ himself that so his words may continue the better in us And so ye have both parts of this Speech of Christ brought together The Duty supposed and the Priviledg inferr'd and one following upon the other It is the priviledg of all true Christians to be the Disciples of Christ indeed and that which chiefly gives them right and title to this priviledg is their continuing and abiding in his words If ye continue in my words then are ye my Disciples indeed SERMON XV. JOH 6.37 All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out The World's rejection of Christ and of the Doctrine which is delivered by him it is no disparagement either to Christ himself or to his Doctrine which was delivered but to those rather which reject both Him and it which is that which by way of prevention he does intimate here in this Scripture Our blessed Lord and Saviour had in some Verses going before shewn who and what he was and the Excellencies and Commodities which were in him Now because the Jews might perhaps have objected That for all this he was not generally so embrac'd but there were many still which held off from him For this he tells them That the Truth of God not withstanding has that honour given it which belongs unto it for let others be that which they will be those which are Chosen and Elected of God they are sure to have benefit by it and to make a profitable improvement of it All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me c. IN the Text it self we have two General Parts observable of us First An account of the persons that come to Christ All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me Secondly Christs Entertainment of those that come to him and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out We begin with the first viz. an account of the Comers All that the Father hath given me shall come c. Before we come to handle the main Doctrine which is here exhibited to us there are two Terms in this passage to be opended and explained by us First what is meant by coming to Christ Secondly what is meant by being given to Christ by the Father When we have understood both of these we shall the more easily proceed in the points which slow from them For the first Coming to Christ it hath a various sense in it and may be diversly taken by us but we will reduce it to two Heads First an Outward coming in application of our selves to the means we are then said to come to Christ when we come to the Ordinances of Christ This is that which we often meet withall in Scripture a coming thus Mark 10.14 Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not And so in many other places besides in the Gospel There were divers which came to Christ that is they had access to his person and did repair unto him this we cannot do now in the Letter and directly but we may in the Analogy and that is by our attendance upon the external means of Salvation so long as we come to them we do in a sort come to Him He that receiveth you receiveth me Matth. 10.40 And Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me 2 Cor. 13.3 But this is not all the coming which is intended here in this place there is somewhat more in it than so Therefore secondly Coming to Christ is as much as closing with Christ embracing him and believing on him and submitting to him it is a coming not onely of the feet but especially of the heart of the Soul and inward man This is the coming which is here principally aimed at when we so come to Christ as that we do yield up our whole selves to be at his disposing When we come off to him and comply with him and resign our selves to him then we come to him and come to him to purpose and not before And that 's the first term to be explained what 's meant here by coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall come unto me The second is What by Given All that the Father hath given me Now for this we must know that there is a double Gift of us to Christ First In God's Eternal Purpose and Counsel and Decree We are given to Christ when we are design'd and set apart for him That 's the Gift of Election So All that the Father hath given me that is All that he hath separated for me that he hath made choice of as Members of me Secondly We are given to Christ in the drawing of our hearts unto him in our effectual Calling and Vocation when God by his Spirit does perswade us to close with Christ in those terms which he offers to us in the Gospel then he is said to give us to him And this Giving it is mutual and reciprocal Christ he is given to us and we are given to him and so there is a Marriage-knot which is drawn and contracted betwixt us And this now for the meaning of the words what we are to understand by Coming and what by Given Now to come to the main Doctrine it self which is here exhibited to us All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me This it hath a double force or emphasis with it either first of all as an expression of Latitude and Vniversality or secondly as an expression of Confinement and Restriction According to the first sense so there is this in it That whosoever are Elected shall be Converted All that God has given unto Christ that is ordained and set apart for him they shall be converted and brought home unto him According to the second sense so there is this in it That none can come to Christ but those which by God himself are given to him All that the Father hath given me as excluding any other besides from this Condition We begin with the first viz. as it is an expression of some Latitude and Universality Whosoever are Elected shall be Converted Whosoever are appointed to Glory they shall be made partakers of Grace Rom. 11.7 The Election hath obtained it but the rest were blinded And Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained to eternal life believed So 2 Thess 2.13 God hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth This must needs be so because the End and the Means they still go both together according to Gods manner of dispensation and the foundation of the Lord is
Secondly Positively By taking of such courses and using of such kind of means as may scatter and remove it First There is a prevention of this inordinate trouble Negatively By withdrawing from such ways as may either occasion or foment it There are many who are full of Trouble and Perplexity and they may sometimes thank themselves for it as who willingly bring it upon themselves not only by provoking God to administer such occasions to them but likewise when they are administred already by prosecuting them and following them too far There are many that love to seed and nourish those humours in them when at any time they fall upon them and will be troubled because they will be There 's a piece of sullenness and pride oftentimes upon the Heart of the Sons of men from whence they think much to stoop to the providence of God upon them and so moulder away in discontent and peevishness of spirit as thinking themselves too good to luster for Him Again There are others likewise which from the same Principle of Pride in them though differently expressing it self think sometimes to bite in their Grief and to carry it outwardly to the World as being loth to own and acknowledge Gods hand upon them from whence as a Fire burning inward their Grief is so much the more increased and for want of a seasonable vent their Trouble is enlarged unto them Now we must take heed of either of these as we desire to have our Hearts in a quietness and tranquillity of temper Neither affectedly following Grief nor affectedly neither suppressing it This is a prevention of it Negatively in withdrawing from the Means of Advancement The second way of doing it is Positively in the taking of such courses with our selves and in the use of such kind of means as may properly from such kind of distempers as First by studying of the Word and psamises of God in His Word Psal 119.50 This is my comfort in my affliction thy word hath quickned me And Ver. 92. Vnless thy Law had been my delight I should then have perished in mine affliction We should be well acquainted with the Promises whether general as to all estates and conditions or particular in such particular circumstances and we should bring them home to our own cases and circumstances as we have occasion for them The comfort of a promise lies in the due and just application of it which accordingly we should be careful of Secondly Study the Attributes of God There is much sweetness to be found in them The Lord gracious and merciful abundant in goodness and truth c. Oh get a sweet taste and relish of these Taste and see that the Lord is good and gracious c. It is our ignorance concerning God which makes us oftentimes so full of perplexity They that know thy name will trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee And to his Attributes joyn his Providence and expressions of himself in that Consider what God has done in former times and consider what he does still and see what a sweet connexion and agreement there is betwixt them He is still the same that ever he has been and what he has done heretofore for his Church he is ready to do the like still and for every particular person and member of it The Lords hand is not shortened that he cannot save Thirdly Let us betake our selves to Christ and shrowd our selves under his wings they are safe which are kept by Him and they have no cause to be troubled or dismayed There was a special emphasis in the Persons whom our Saviour here speaks unto which were his own Disciples Let not your Heart be troubled Those who have an interest in Christ they are in safe hands There are two things here to be done by us The one is to make good our interest and the other is to improve it We must make good our interest that we are indeed such as do belong to Christ and are indeed members of Him And we must improve our interest by having continual recourse unto Him Lastly We shall hereby keep our selves from this inordinate trouble and fear seizing upon us by labouring for a special measure and exercise of several Graces of Gods Spirit in us as tending and conducing hereunto I 'le instance in some of them as more remarkable First Meekness and Humility and sense of our own unworthiness and ill-deservings There 's no Creature so full of Trouble and distraction as a pround and haughty person such an one when any evil befalls him he is like a wild Bull in a Net or like a Bear robb'd of her Whelps as the Scripture sometimes uses such expressions as these are full of rage and fury and swelling and horrour and confusion Like the raging Sea casting forth mire and dirt as the Prophet Esay hath it Esay 57.20 But now on the other side humility and lowliness of Spirit it meets an affliction half way and so as I may say takes off the violence of it It closeth with God and his Providence and so thereby does very much lessen its own grief and perplexity when we shall consider we deserve more evil we shall be less troubled with that which we endure when we shall consider the grievousness of sin and how we trouble God with that we shall be better satisfied in the suffering of affliction and of Gods troubling of us with that where sin lies heavy affliction commonly lies light and is better sustain'd Secondly Faith and Dependance upon God this is a setling and quieting Grace which lifts the Soul upon its hinges again and puts it in frame Therefore let us labour for that and improve it and put it in practise It is not Faith so much in the Habit which does quiet and settle the Heart as Faith rather in the act and exercise of it Therefore set Faith on work and draw it forth all that may be by resting our selves upon God and relying upon his Power and Goodness and Truth which he has manifested to us I had fainted unless I had believed says David Therefore wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart Wait I say on the Lord as he there infers upon it in Psal 27.13 14. And to encourage us further herein consider that the more we do so the more we may do so and the more cause we shall have to do so Faith helps it self by the Acts of it And God himself also rewards the Acts of it by giving further encouragements to it therefore determine and resolve upon it and that also in the greatest straits and difficulties that may be Although the Fig-Tree blossom not nor Fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail c. Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord c. Faith it sticks at nothing because it is founded upon the Power of God himself with whom nothing is impossible Thirdly Innocency and
of the resurrection And then also after the resurrection He is that life of Glory which Believers shall live afterwards in Heaven to all eternity And they are herein likewise made conformable to his image When Christ who is our life shall appear we also shall appear with him in Glory Col. 3.4 And 2 Joh. 3.2 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Thus we see how Christ is the life and our life in all particulars of Justification of Sanctification and of Glory Now if it be demanded how this comes to pass I answer by vertue of that true and near union which is betwixt Christ and all true Believers They are members incorporate unto him and so come to partake of life from him as members do from their head He hath merited life for them by his obedience and satisfaction to God's Justice And he does also infuse life into them by his Spirit which he bestows upon them Christ lives in them as the root does in the branches which are knit and united unto it And therefore that life which they have it is said to be first of all in him 1 Joh. 5.11 12. This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Sâ—n hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Indeed for the conveyance of it so it is made ours by Faith in all the several and particular distributions of it The life of pardon that 's obtain'd by Faith Rom. 5.1 Being justified by Faith c. And the life of holiness that 's also by Faith I live by the Faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 And the life of Glory that also comes by Faith He that believes on him shall not perish but have everlasting life Faith it is still the instrument and conveyance of this life of Christ unto us in all its kinds But it supposes as a ground and foundation our union first of all with his person which is the ground of all other benefits we receive from him Therefore we should exercise our Faith and keep it up upon all occasions and make use of it to such a purpose as this is in all wants and decays of life whatsoever We should not resuse to come to Christ that we might have life which was laid to the charge of the Jews Joh. 5.40 And so now I have done with the First General Part of the Text which is the simple Proposition in the description of Christ himself unto us from a threefold property The Way and the Truth and the Life The Second is the Additional Amplification in these No man cometh unto the Father but by me Wherein we have signified that as Christ is the way absolutely so also that he is the way exclusively He is not only a true way but he is likewise the only way Not only a way in common with some others besides but so a way as that there 's no other way besides himself of coming to the Father And we may take it as holding good in all kind of comings to him whatsoever There is a threefold coming as we may say to God and no other way for it but by Christ First in point of Conversion and Reconciliation Secondly in point of ' Prayer and Invocation Thirdly in point of Happiness and Salvation And we may take notice of it in them all First In point of Conversion and Reconciliation There 's no man who in this respect can come unto God but by Christ It is he that must make way for us to have access and address unto him There 's an enmity and contrariety in our nature as it now defiled by sin from whence God cannot but loath it and abominate it and utterly detest it But it is Christ who by taking our nature upon him hath made it amiable and acceptable in the sight of God And as our nature so likewise our persons so far forth as we have an interest in him and thus alone And so the Scripture signifies and declares as much unto us as 2 Cor. 5.18 19. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ And God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself In Christ and by Christ exclusively and no other way besides Therefore the emphasis is still laid upon him as to this purpose Rom. 5.1 2. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have access by Faith into this Grace wherein we stand Into this Grace wherein we stand that is into this state of Grace and favour with him And so in the 11th verse of the same Chapter We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement Our atonement is founded in Christ When we speak of coming to God in this notion which we are now upon it implies two things in it First matter of acquaintance And Secondly matter of acceptance He that comes to another he must have both of these with him to carry him hereunto He must have acquaintance to know the person And he must have acceptance to please the person without either of which it will be impossible for him to come unto him Now both of these do we partake of from Christ and from him alone By him it is that we know God and by him it is that we are well-pleasing to him First We know God by Christ and only by him This is one thing necessary and requisite as to our coming to God that we should know who and what a one he is He that cometh to God must know that God is Heb. 11.6 And this I say we do by Christ Matth. 11.27 Jesus answer'd and said All things are delivered unto me of my Father and no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him There are two ways especially wherein Christ does make known to us the Father The one is by way of representation And the other is by way of explication By way of representation so he does it as he is the Image of the Father By way of explication so he does it as he is the Interpreter of the Father Each of these ways he does it and none else does it but he First By way of representation as he is the Father's Image for so he is The brightness of his Glory and the express image of his person Heb. 1.3 The image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 We know the Father by Christ thus And so himself also tells us as we may see in the verses next following If ye had known me ye should have known my Father and from henceforth ye have known him and have seen him And again in verse 9. Jesus saith unto Philip he that hath seen me hath seen the Father I am in the Father and the Father is
in me as he also there intimates unto him There is no person in whom we have so clear a representation of the Father as we have in Christ And so we come to know him by him alone as being alone his image But Secondly As by way of representation so also by way of explication There is none who can acquaint us with the Father but he alone as to matter of discovery and narration It is he in the place before cited that is said to have declared him And he hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son his Son precisely Heb. 1.2 Thus we come to him by him alone in matter of acquaintance Secondly Take it as to acceptance He that comes to God he must also have this As he must know him so he must be welcome to him And this also he is only by 〈◊〉 It is he that gives us favour in his eyes and makes us fit to have converse with him And thus by him only do we come to God as to matter of Conversion and Reconciliation Take us out of Christ and God and we are at absolute desiance there 's no coming near him Secondly It holds good also as to matter of Prayer and Invocation No man cometh unto the Father but by him that is as to the putting up of any suits or petitions to him He is the Great Master of Requests who alone offers up our Prayers to his Father and presents them at the Throne of Grace And so the Scripture again hints unto us Thus Eph. 2.18 Speaking of Jew and Gentile Through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father that is by the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication which is made and presented in his name And again Eph. 3.12 By whom we have holdness and access with confidence by the Faith of him By the Faith of him that is by Faith founded in him and his intercession for us So Heb. 4.14 16. Seeing we have a Great High-Priest c. Let us go boldly to the Throne of Grace c. And Heb. 10.22 Having an High-Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart c. Joh. 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it unto you Whatsoever Prayers are made to God otherwise than in this mediation they are frustrate and to no purpose Thirdly As to matter of Happiness and Salvation No man c. that is No man cometh to Heaven but only by me Whosoever makes account to be saved he must be saved by Christ or else he will never be saved at all There is not Salvation in any other For there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved as it is in Acts 4.12 Whiles it is said here only by Christ this is exclusive of every thing which may otherwise seem effectual to this purpose as First of all our own free will and the improvement of the abilities of nature It is not this which will bring us to the Father A man may do all that lies in the power of nature to attain to and yet if he be destitute of Christ will fall short of Salvation let him set his reason never so much on work in such a way as that is There 's nothing less than Faith will do it and this Faith pitch'd upon Christ Secondly Not the fairness of a civil life and moral conversation it is not that which will do it neither Civility it is a very comely ornament and such as makes men amiable in the eyes of men but it is no further acceptable to God nor available as to eternal Salvation than as it flows from the Spirit of Christ when we do common and ordinary actions out of spiritual principles Invenies homines bene viventes sed non Christianos says St. Austin You shall find some men living well but yet not Christians Bene currunt sed in via non currunt They run well but they do not run in the way Thirdly Not external priviledges as belonging to the Church of God The relation to such and such Parents and Godly Progenitors The enjoyment of the means of Grace and outward Ordinances To be Baptized and to receive the Communion and to be in fellowship with such and such Believers Take these things abstractly from Christ and they will never bring a man to God nor interest him in eternal Salvation A man may perish and go to Hell and be damn'd for all these There is nothing but an interest in Christ and with reference to him and dependance upon him which can ever make us capable of an heavenly condition The consideration of this Point may be thus far useful to us First to set us right in our judgments in this particular that we do not err and mistake in a Point of so great importance as this is Take heed of promising Salvation to any otherwise than by Christ whiles Christ himself here tells us that there 's no coming at all to the Father but by him It is a sad and serious intimation that of St. Austin's which can never enough be mentioned nor thought of as having some ground for it Qui cuiquam promittit salutem sine Christo nescio utrum ipse salutem habere possit in Christo He that promises to any man Salvation without Christ I question whether he himself may have Salvation by Christ And truly it is a dangerous business to admit and receive such opinions as these are not only as to the prejudice of others but also of a man's self who is accountable as for what he says so for what he thinks Secondly Seeing there is no coming unto God but only by Christ Oh be sure then to get into Christ as soon as may be and endeavour it all we can Let us never think we are sure of the one till we are sure of the other that we are sure of the Father till we are first sure of the Son For it is evident we are not Men may talk what they please of God and have high notions and speculations about him and as they think convince others of him But he that is a meer Deist is the next door to an Atheist And he that will have any other God than God in Christ he shall have no God at all At least it will be better for him in some sense that he had none for he shall have him but only to terrify and to torment him and to drive him away from him Deus absolutus as Luther sometime call'd it To look upon God absolutely in his own nature and without a Mediator it is the most terrible sight in the world and fullest of distraction and disquietness As no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him so no man can come to the Father except Christ bring him When it is said here by Christ No man cometh unto the Father but by me We must take it in its full latitude
in their natural condition they are such as being out of Christ are therefore without Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is separated from Christ as we find this expression used of the Ephesians before their conversion Ephes 2.12 that they were at that time without Christ c Now for such as these we have accordingly also shewn how they are able to do nothing As the branch cannot bring forth any fruit in the course of Nature where it is separated from the Vine so the Soul cannot bring forth any fruit neither in the course of Grace where it is separated from Christ The second sense or notion of the words is that which is to be handled by us by God's assistance at this present time which is to shew that without Christ that is without influence from him and dependance upon him we are able to do no good neither in a spiritual and supernatural way as may conduce to salvation All our strength and ability as to the doing of any thing of this nature is to be fetch'd and drawn from Christ For the better and more distinct opening of which Point of Doctrine unto us we may take notice of three things especially which are requisite to any Christian performance each of which we do and must receive from Christ as tending to the accomplishment of it First a Spiritual life as the general grand work and foundation Secondly a Spiritual power slowing from this Spiritual life and answering to that particular Duty for the kind of it which God does require of us And thirdly a Spiritual activity or operation for the reducing of this Spiritual power into particular action of life As it is to explain it to you by a resemblance in Natural Motion There are three things which do make up this to us There 's the principle of Natural life there 's the Locom-motive faculty founded in this life and there 's the Walk it self which is produced and effected by this Faculty And as each of these are from God as the Author of Nature so each of the other are from Christ as the Fountain of Grace First There is a Principle of Spiritual life as the general Ground-work and Foundation of every Spiritual good work that comes from us Look as a man that is naturally dead cannot do any thing which belongs to Nature so a man which is spiritually dead also he can do nothing which belongs to Grace because Actus non excedit vires suae potentiae the Act cannot go beyond the Principle as we use to speak Now this Principle of Spiritual life we do derive wholly from Christ as the Branches derive life from the Root and the Members from the Head In which respect we are said not so much to live our selves as Christ is said to live in us in Gal. 2.20 Look as the First Adam was the Spring and Root of Natural life to all his Posterity so is the Second Adam the Spring and Root of Spiritual life to all his Members Therefore unless Christ by his Spirit do first change our hearts from that state of Spiritual death and corruption which we are in by Nature and put a contrary and better Principle of Spiritual life and holiness into us we can never be able to do any thing considerable to the purpose This I have in part declared already in our former Exercise and therefore shall not insist upon it now But secondly besides this Spiritual life whereby a Christian is qualified in general for the bringing forth of the works of new obedience namely the work of Grace and Conversion wrought in him by the Spirit of Christ there is moreover a Spiritual power slowing from this Spiritual life whereby a Christian being renewed by Grace hath some ability communicated unto him for the doing of such and such Duties as in particular in such and such cases are required of him And this is another thing which we do receive also from Christ without whom we are able to do nothing Of his fulness we all receive and grace for grace Joh. 1.16 that is answerable to grace in Christ grace in us We know that besides the common principle of Regeneration in general there are several habits of grace in particular according to the several kinds and distributions of them which have each of them their several abilities and qualifications belonging unto them as Faith enabling us to believe Love enabling us to embrace Patience enabling us to endure and so of the rest Now these particular Graces in specie as well as the work of Grace in general are communicated unto us from Christ and upon his account who is the Treasury and Storehouse of all Grace whatsoever for us It is true indeed that it is God in Scripture who is proclaimed to be the God of all grace 1 Pet. 5.10 but we must understand it still of God in Christ and in the mediation of the New Covenant out of which and out of whom God hath no intercourse at all with us nor we with him This is our state and condition now in the Covenant of Grace and a blessed state and condition it is that all our Grace and Comfort and Ability it is originated and founded in Christ who having taken our Nature upon himself and therein satisfied the Justice of God and being by Faith apprehended by us and united and made one with us is from hence a fit person for the conveying of all Grace unto us which we have need of and occasion for in the whole course of our lives Therefore it is profitable for us to understand and to take notice of the right method which is here in this particular used with us and wherein we come to be made partakers of this grace whereof we now speak and that 's this That the Spirit of God first of all sanctifies the Humane Nature of Christ and from thence sanctifies us who are Members of him The same Spirit that sanctified that blessed mass of his Body in the Womb of the Virgin and the same Spirit that sanctified his whole Nature both of Body and Soul which is now in Heaven the same Spirit does now also sanctifie his Mystical Body which abides still on earth and which is made partaker of Grace by communication and derivation from him As the Oyl which was upon the head of Aaron it ran down to the skirts of his garments which were upon him so the Spirit which is upon the Head of Christ and which he is said to have received without measure it runs down upon all Believers and they have it no otherwise than as he conveys it and transmits it unto them We see then here in what sense we are said to do all things by Christ and without him to have power to do nothing namely so far forth as he gives us grace for the doing of them The Faculties of the Soul are three the Vnderstanding and Will and Affections and such as these but the sanctifying of all
these and the disposing of them to do all things Spirtually it is not ours but Christ's As a Trumpet that gives a sound but it is from the breath of the Man that blows through it so it is with us in this particular we perform such and such Duties materially and as to the outward substance of the action but it is Christ that chiefly and principally works in us and by us as the Apostle Paul most fully expresses it to this purpose 1 Cor. 15.10 By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me The third thing considerable to this purpose is a Spiritual Activity or Operation which is likewise conveyed to us by Christ and by him alone he does not onely give us the life of Grace and a Power issuing from this life but he likewise gives us the very Act and Deed it self for such a particular performance There is not the best man that is and who has most of the sanctifying Grace of the Spirit of Christ in him but he needs the present and actual assistance of the same Spirit as immediately concurring to such particular good actions that is to be done by him he needs not onely preventing and operating grace but assisting and co-operating grace to be bestowed upon him and to be joyn'd with it And this is that which is here intended by our Blessed Saviour speaking to his Disciples and in them to all other Christians whiles he sa◠〈◊〉 without me ye can do nothing not onely without me as who must give the general activity but also without me as who must give the particular accomplishment If Christ does not give the actual performance as well as the general qualification there is nothing which will be done by us to any purpose This can be no wonder to us if we do but consider how it is with us even in other matters of inferiour consideration take 〈◊〉 but in common business and the transactions of our ordinary Callings and we shall find it to be so even here That we have need not onely of common and general inablement but also of special and particular assistance In the Ministery for example it is not enough to have some general qualifications and abilities for the work but there is need moreover of Gods particular assistance and immediate concurrence with us in every particular Sermon and Exercise that is undertaken by us In the Souldiery it is not enough to beat large qualified for the Wars but they need Gods assistance of them and standing by them in every Battel and Encounter And so in Physick it is not enough to have skill in general but an application of it to his particular Disease and Patient and Condition certain hints and suggestions from God himself answering to the present occasion As it is said of our Blessed Saviour himself when people came to him to be cured of their several infirmities that the power of the Lord was present with him to heal them Luke 5.17 Such a presence of Power as this is whereof we now speak is requisite for any other besides Now as it is thus in Temporals and Corporals so it holds in Spirituals and Supernaturals especially that there is required not onely Grace in the Habit and Principle but also in the very Act and Performance This is suitable and agreeable to divers other places of Scripture as Hos 14.8 it is the speech of God to Ephraim From me is thy fruit found and Isa 26 12. it is the speech of the Church to God Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works for us or in us And so Ezek. 36.27 I will cause you to walk in my statutes c. To open this Point a little further to us and speak more distinctly of it we must know that there are three things which God does work and which it is requisite for him that he should work in us in order to any Spiritual performance which is to be done by us even after the first work of Conversion and saving Grace wrought in our hearts First he strengthens and confirms the habit of them whereby he fits us and qualifies us for such a duty which he requires of us Secondly he excited and nourishes this Habit whereby he inclines us and makes us disposed to the performance of this duty Thirdly He assists and concurs with this Habit as to the act and performance it self Each of these does God do for us and it is requisite and necessary that he should do so or else otherwise there could be no good action expected from us He strengthens the Habit he inclines to the Duty and he assists the Act. First I say he strengthens the Habit whether of Faith or Love or Patience or any other Grace which might be named by us This is the spring and source of all good actions in us which therefore had need to be preserved and confirmed in us all that may be and the ' rather because it is subject to so much weakness and shaking as it is There are so many corruptions and temptations which the Servants of God are exercised withall as that they have need of daily confirmation of the Graces of the Spirit of God in them which would otherwise languish and decay and for this purpose does God do it for them This was that which the Apostle pray'd for in behalf of the Ephesians Ephes 3.16 17. That God would grant unto them according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith c. And so likewise in behalf of the Colossians that they might be strengthned with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness strengthned with all might And this accordingly is that which the Apostle Paul professes of himself that he can do all things through Christ that strengthens him Phil. 4.13 Which words that we may rightly understand them are to be taken by us in their latitude and emphasis both Positively and also Exclusively that through Christ strengthning him he can do all things and without Christ strengthning him he was able to do nothing That 's the first thing here considerable in this business of Christ's concurrence with us in the doing of good he strengthens the Habit. Secondly As he strengthens the Habit so he likewise inclines the mind to the particular duty to be performed For though we have such and such Principles and Habits of grace conferr'd and bestowed upon us as qualifying us for such and such Duties yet we have not always and continually in us a readiness and promptness of mind for the exercise and improvement of them but we have a great deal of sluggishness and awkness upon us in this
Peter as concerning his denial of his Master he was a person that had a great measure of Habitual Grace in him and in particular of affection to Christ and he poor man thought that this would support him and carry him through temptation and therefore he so considently proclaims it That though all men should for sake him yet that he would never forsake him but yet when he came to the trial and conclusion we know how it was with him and if Christ had not presently prayed for him that his faith might not fail and also by his Almighty power had not kept his faith from failing it had fail'd and ceas'd in him eternally Look as when he walked upon the Sea it was Christs support that kept him from sinking and perishing in the waters so also when he was under a temptation it was Christs grace that preserv'd and sustain'd him When my foot slipt thy mercy O Lord held me up Psal 84.18 This we may see likewise in Paul in the carriage of God towards him 2 Cor. 12.9 when he was there buffeted with Satan and had sought to God to be freed from that temptation how does God endeavour to comfort and encourage him in that his conflict why he does it from this consideration My grace is sufficient for thee And my grace that is not onely my preventing grace the grace which I have already wrought in thee when I at first call'd thee to my self but my grace that is my assisting grace the grace wherewith I still follow thee and am continually present with thee It is not thy grace but my grace not so much the grace within thee as the grace without thee that is my favour and good-will towards thee from whence I come to take special care of thee Thirdly The strength onely of former assistance is not that which will suffice neither As we need Christs Actual grace as well as Habitual and his Assisting grace as well as his Preventing so we need the daily and continual and fresh supplies of this grace unto us without which we can be able to do nothing at least for any time so as we should do This is another thing which is here to be added and taken in by us for the explication of this Particular Without me that is without me daily with you and standing by you and helping of you and imparting and communicating new strength and ability to you ye are indeed able to do nothing According to our particular occasions so must answerably be our support from the Spirit of Christ yesterdays strength and assistance will not serve for the repelling or conquering of this days temptation no more than yesterdays meal will serve the turn for this days strength and corporal improvements No but as new occasions do at any time increase upon us so proportionably is new ability to be imparted to us As a man that carries a burden which is heavier than what he carried the day before he must have somewhat more strength in him than he had before as adequate and agreeable thereto Every new affliction every new temptation every new condition every new duty and performance it requires new strength from Christ besides what has been formerly manfested for the bearing and resisting and managing and accomplishing of it So that though former assistance be so far forth very comfortable as it is an encouragement to the expectation of new yet it is not sufficient alone and of it self without new And thus have we seen this Point explicated and amplified in its several particulars Now the consideration hereof for the Use and Application of it may be drawn out in a various improvement we may reduce it for methods sake to three Heads First in a way of Confutation Secondly in a way of Information And thirdly in a way of Excitement First it serves for Confutation of the contrary Error and false Opinion of the Pelagians and others with them who teach that there is indeed General and Universal Grace communicated to all men from Christ from whence they have power for the doing of good but that the reducing of this Power into Act and the particular doing of it it is purely and absolutely from themselves who do determine themselves in particulars to that which God has given them onely power for in general This I say is plainly refuted from this present Scripture where it is said that without Christ we can do nothing as well as will nothing Answerable to that other place before mention'd For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure that is not onely the power but the act And indeed it must needs be so and cannot be otherwise For forasmuch as the Act is more noble than the Habit the Operation than the Power the second Act than the first therefore the Act cannot be ascribed to our selves and the Power onely to God unless we will prefer our selves before God and give him the lowest place and least stroke in any good which is at any time done by us Again further it may be cleared to us that Christ must needs concur with us not onely by a common and general Qualification but also by a special and particular influence in every good work which is done by us by a proportionable consideration of what is observable even in Natural Actions For so we see it is with Fire the property whereof is to burn yet if God do suspend his influence from it and concourse with it it can produce no such effect notwithstanding the natural propensity and inclination of it thereto as we may see in the three Persons in Daniel which were cast into the fiery Furnace And so though God hath given us a power of Natural life at first yet if he do not preserve this life in us and give us motion together with life we can stir neither hand nor foot for all that because in him we live and move and have our being And thus may this passage here before us serve in a way of Confutation Secondly In a way of Information and Satisfaction We may from hence be now instructed in the truth of this Point which is here before us and take notice of it in its full latitude and extent where whiles it is said that without Christ we can do nothing namely that is spiritually good as we have hitherto explained it we are to take it in all te appurtenances belonging hereunto and the steps and gradations of it whereby this assistance and enablement whereof we speak does proceed First It is He who must inform us and instruct us in that which is our duty which must inlighten out dark understandings in this particular for we are naturally so blind of our selves as that we are unable to discern it That which we do not know we cannot do But he hath shewn thee O man what is good and what the Lord requireth of thee Mic. 6.8 Secondly It is
expression it is none of all these things in themselves which makes Preaching so powerful a Conveyance no but the Ordinance of God which has appointed to work by these means and the Spirit of God who is pleased to concur with it in working It is he which has made us able Ministers of the New Testament says the Apostle Paul not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life 2 Cor. 3.6 This is that which gives an efficacy to this Preaching Well for the thing it self we see 't is a blessed means to a blessed effect to wit of saving souls and that not withstanding all the low apprehensions which the world commonly has of it and the disparagement which they are apt to cast on it and upon those which are the dispensers of it after all which can be any way said against it to the extenuating and diminishing of it here is that in the Text which is able to bear it up and advance it That by it God is pleased even to save them that believe The improvement of this Point to our selves for Application may be twofold First as it concerns Ministers there 's a very good item for them to quicken us and encourage us in our work and the conscionable discharge of it without fainting and giving out For see what a work it is and what a blessed and happy end it tends to Even no less than to bring men to heaven and to make them heirs of eternal life Who would not think himself honoured in such a noble imployment as this and accordingly go thorough it with a great deal of cheerfulness and alacrity in the midst of all discouragements whatsoever which we can meet with in the world our very work it self is a reward though there were nothing else and to save a soul is more than to gain a Kingdom Let us not be ashamed of that which is the power of God to salvation as the Apostle speaks Again Let us also hence learn so much the more faithfully to discharge and make that our chief end in undertaking it which was Gods chief end in ordaining it What was Gods chiefest end here in the first appointing and instituting of this Ordinance why 't was to save them that believe let that be now our main end in taking it in hand That in this service we may be instrumental to Gods Providence in the bringing in of the number of his Elect. This should work and prevail with us above all other ends besides And this for the Ministers Secondly Here 's somewhat also for the people and that is so much the more carefully to attend upon this Ordinance of Preaching and to take heed of the despising of it as a weak and foolish thing they which despise Preaching they do in effect despise Believing yea they do despise Salvation it self And therefore let us take heed how we be guilty of such a sin as this is Do not say that Reading is as good as Hearing and a Sermon read in a mans study is as good as a Sermon preached in the Church for we are mistaken if we so think for though it be as good for the matter of it and it may be better yet it is not as good for the performance which does receive a greater efficacy from Gods Ordinance and blessing upon it And we must not be wiser than Him in such dispensations as these are Elisha's staff will do no good without Elisha's spirit to improve it and go along with it This is that which is more frequently in Preaching whereas in reading it is for the most part cold or at least not the latter in such a full and plentiful measure Besides that 's good which is seasonable and in due time And further let this teach us with what affections to come to the Ordinances the Preaching and hearing of the Word namely as those which expect and desire salvation from it as the end whereunto it is intended Let us not come to a Sermon as to a Prize or a meer trial of wits to see who can do best only to spend our verdict upon the Preacher or out of meer fashion and custom only because others come afore us but let us come to it with meekness and humility and fear and expectation as that whereby we must be judged and whereby we must be saved Jam. 1.21 And so I have done also with the third Particular viz. The means of working the foolishness of Preaching Now the fourth is the work or design it self which we have in the last words To save them that believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where among many other things which might be profitably observed by us concerning Salvation in the nature of it and the causes of it and the means of it and the like I shall at this time only fasten upon that which is here especially presented unto us and that is the subjects of it Believers To save them that believe The Gospel is the power of God to salvation to them that believe This is the restriction which is put upon it Rom. 1.16 I call it a restriction and so indeed it is and that also in this present Text which we have now in hand Where this word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is to be taken not only Specificativè but Exclusivè Believers and none else them that believe and them only that believe and none but them This Preaching it saves none besides in all the world whether Jew or Gentile we must take this expression here in a limited and restrained sense as pointing out a certain number of persons distinguisht from all others in this business as concerning them that believe the receiving of benefit and salvation by Preaching And here there are two things again which this restraint does extend it self to First here 's a restraint of the benefit of Preaching to Faith And secondly Here 's a restraint of the benefit of salvation to faith There 's none which have benefit by Preaching any further than they believe and there 's none which do partake of Salvation but those only which do believe neither By the foolishness of preaching he saves them that believe First I say there 's none which have benefit by Preaching any further than they believe it is Faith which makes Preaching effectual without which it is but an ordinary discourse This is clear out of that place in Heb. 4.2 The Gospel was preached to us as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them because it was not mixt with faith in them that heard it It is faith or the want of faith which makes Preaching either profitable or not And the reason hereof is this Because that this is the Applicatory Grace which does suck and draw all to it self look as meat does no good in the stomack except it be digested so Preaching does no good in the soul except it be believed There must be a concocting faculty
to digest every truth which we hear and to make it our own or else we can have no benefit by it There must be a turning of our spiritual nourishment into the substance of our souls as of our corporal nourishment into the substance of our bodies and that suitable to the several parts of it now this is the work of Faith Faith it makes every truth ours by appropriating it and bringing it home to our selves And that in a proportion suitable to the nature of the Doctrine it self If it be a Doctrine of Information Faith makes it ours by framing and conforming our judgments thereunto and setling us there If it be a Doctrine of Consolation Faith makes it ours by closing and complying with it and so drawing comfort from it If it be a Doctrine of Threatning Faith makes it ours by trembling at it and reforming for it Thus Faith is active in all as that Grace which does apply all to us The consideration hereof may be thus far useful to us As first It may teach us how to address our selves to the hearing of the Word namely by labouring to prepare our hearts by a spirit of faith Oportet discentem credere we must come with a resolution to imbrace every truth of God which he propounds unto us Preaching will do us no good without believing if we had all the Preaching in the world without it we make the Ordinance but a Complement and meer word of course unto us Why but then may some say If Preaching does no good without believing why then we should preach only to Believers and none but them To this I answer No for by Preaching we make them Believers through Gods blessing upon it Preaching is a means to work that Faith which does improve it self and without which it is ineffectual as wine enables the stomack to work it self to the good of the body Secondly Seeing Preaching does no good without believing let us here then see why there 's no more good done by Preaching many times than there is we are apt when we profit not by the Word to lay the fault on other things the Doctrine and the Preacher and the like but we should confider whether it lyes not in our selves in our own hearts It may be we come not to the Word with that faith and expectation from God as it becomes us to do and then no wonder if we profit not by it Thirdly Let us hence not glory in the means that we have the Ordinances and the Word Preached unto us but let us consider what faith our selves have for the receiving and entertainment of them And that 's the first restraint None have benefit by Preaching but Believers The second restraint is this That none have the benefit of Salvation but Believers Salvation is restrained to Faith He that believes shall be saved but he that believes not shall be damned Mark 16.16 No Faith no Salvation They could not enter in because of unbelief Heb. 3.19 Of them that believe to the saving of the soul Heb. 10.39 Faith is the saving Grace as infidelity is the damning sin Not but that there are other saving Graces and other damning Sins but those which are so they are in the strength of these as being prinoipal and most effectual hereunto These are so by a special quality and property in them either to save or damn And for saving because that 's to our purpose faith has it here attributed to it self First as the radical and fundamental Grace and that which puts a life and vigor into all the rest And therefore ye shall find in the Eleventh Chapter of the Hebrews how all 's ascribed to this By faith they had a good report for every thing else which deserved good report If they had love or patience or humility or self-denial or zeal all was from faith In Enoch in Noah in Abraham in Moses and the like By faith they are said to do all whatsoever they did Secondly Faith has it attributed to it because it is that whereby we please God Without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 Thirdly It is Faith which lays hold upon Christ who is the Author of Eternal Salvation Gal. 2.20 I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me c. This knits and unites us to him asour Head and when he is saved we are saved too by this union Fourthly It is Faith which gives most glory to God Rom. 4.20 Giving glory to God And 2 Thes 1.10 To be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe Fifthly Faith is that which does most conquer temptations and subdue all the enemies and adversaries of our salvation Ephes 6.16 Lastly Faith is said to save as the condition which God requires and will have in them which shall be saved and this were enough though nothing else to give account of it In all these respects is Salvation attributed hereunto But what is this Faith which we speak of all this while and wherein does it consist Sure it is not a meer assent to the truth revealed though that be somewhat which belongs thereunto yet this is not all the Devils thus believe which yet tremble as knowing that they are sons of wrath Jam. 2.19 But saving faith is quieting faith too Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5.1 Now what faith is this this is no other than a taking and receiving of Christ upon those terms in which he is offered in the Gospel for a Saviour and Lord too To as many as received him c. Joh. 1.12 As we must be willing to be saved by Christ's Blood so we must be willing to be ruled by Christ's Spirit Now this Faith has this also in it an assent to the whole truth of God which is revealed unto us Historical faith is comprehended in Justifying-faith as the less in the greater as the Vegetative and Sensitive soul in the Rational But the proper act of Justifying-faith is to lay hold on Christ Ens incomplexum est object um sidei justificantis Thus we see what Believing it self is The close of all for our selves is but to find this in our selves for our own particular And as we love Salvation accordingly to make good our Faith This we may discern and discover by the rise and fruits and workings of it For the rise of it it comes by Preaching and is suitable to the Doctrine of the Word Those which contemn the Ordinance they have none of the Grace For the fruits of it it works by love p1 It makes us afraid to displease God p2 It makes us couragious for God p3 It makes us love the Children of God p4 It quite changes and alters our converse from evil to good And so I have done with the fourth particular the extent of the work it self To save them that believe And so likewise with the second General in the Text Gods supply of the worlds defect
of Gods election he hath chosen a certain number of each I shewed you before how our effectual calling is founded upon our predestination Now there is a number of each which are elected therefore there must be a number of each which are called forasmuch as those which are appointed to the end they must of necessity partake oF the means which tend to that end Now for Jews and Gentiles they are both elected and chosen and therefore both also effectually called For the Jews they are said as touching the Election to be beloved for the Fathers sake Rom. 11.28 And for the Gentiles 1 Thes 1 Knowing Brethren Beloved your election of God Thus Jews and Greeks are both elected Accordingly God is said to be the God not only of the one but of the other Rom. 3.29 c. Is he the God of the Jews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also Seeing it is one God c. Secondly Christ died for both for one as well as for t'other therefore there are those which shall be saved of both That Christ died for both 't is clear as out of that place in John 21.51 52 where it is said that Caiaphas who was the high priest for that year prophesied that Jesus should dye for that nation And not for that nation only but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad And so 1 John 2.1 2 We have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole That is not only for the Jews but the Gentiles And hence we are all both one and the other said to partake of the same mystical body 1 Cor. 12.13 By one spirit we are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit They have both alike interest in Christ Thirdly They have both alike interest in the Gospel and means of salvation this was cleared by Peters going to Cornelius Acts 11.17 18 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance and the condition which is given in charge to the Apostles runs thus Go unto all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature and go teach all Nations Mat. 28.19 They partake in the means and therefore consequently in the thing it self The consideration of this present point is thus far useful unto us as it teaches us two things First To pray for the calling and conversion of the Jews And Secondly to pray for the accomplishment and fulness of the Gentiles First For the calling of the Jews which is a mystery revealed unto us as that which in time shall be Rom. 11.16 c. We have here further a good ground to expect it from that which is done already being there were some which were called from the beginning in the days of the Apostles there shall be more of them at last wrought upon and converted And St Pauls argument holds good to this purpose If the first fruit be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches The conversion of so many Jews in the first plantation of the Gospel was a pledg and fore-runner of many more to be brought into the same number Secondly It also holds for our expectation of the fulness of the Gentiles we see there are yet many Gentiles which are still kept out of the pales of the Church which never heard of Christ nor as yet have partaked of the means of Salvation well but let us not from hence be discouraged and put out of hope we have some cause to look for it and expect it from those which are brought in already also The calling of these Greeks gives us ground to hope and expect that there will be divers others in time likewise converted The performance whereof is that which the Jews also stay for according to that of the Apostle in Rom. 11.25 That blindness is in part happened unto Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved And so much for the words in that sense To them which are called both Jews and Greeks But then again a little further These words may be here taken not only in an Historical sense but in a Moral not only as spoken particularly of these two Nations the Jews and the Greeks but likewise as spoken of such persons as were noted either for simplicity or wisdom as those Nations do point out unto us so that the Jews represent the one and the Greeks the other The Jews being notorious for their stupidity and the Greeks famous for their learning as I have formerly shewn unto you And so there 's this in it That God has his lot and portion amongst learned and unlearned both there 's no exception in point of conversion of either of these two we have instances of either of these in Scripture of the learned in Paul himself and many others whom we read of in Scripture converted to the faith and of the unlearned in many of meaner parts which did partake of the rich priviledges of Salvation The ground hereof still is this The good pleasure and will of God who is no respecter of persons but bestows his grace there where he pleases without any account given to any Therefore let those which are unlearned not here excuse themselves and say they are no Scholars c. though they be not Scholars yet they may be Christians and though they be not book-learned yet for all that they may be learned to Salvation And so it becomes them to labour to be and to endeavour thereafter because there are called of the Jews Again for those which are learned let them not rest themselves in their humane learning and that wisdom which they get here in the world but labour further to be taught from God and to have the knowledg of his ways in Christ because there are called also of the Greeks But so much of the first Part in the Text viz. the Persons here mentioned To them which are called c. Now the second is the success of this Preaching it self Christ the Power of God and the wisdom of God where we may observe how as the Apostle crost these Jews and Greeks in what they desired so also he did in a sort comply with them Here 's the opposition and the accommodation both in this Text the Jews require a sign and they have brought unto them a stumbling-block the Greeks seek after wisdom and they have preached unto them foolishness there 's the opposition and contradiction Again the Jews require a sign and they have brought unto them the power of God the Greeks seek after wisdom and they have Preached unto them the wisdom of God There 's the accommodation and agreement Now the latter of these
God our rejoicing is this or our glorying the testimony of conscience So then that which was others mens misery was his glory The unhappiness of many men is this that they are manifest to God however they they carry it with men but for the Apostle Paul and such as he was it was his greatest rejoicing Again secondly It is comfortable likewise as in mens ignorance so likewise in their neglects by taking the word manifestation by way of allowance We are manifest to God says the Apostle that is we are approved of him this was that which comforted him even then when it was not so with him in regard of men This is another thing which is very comfortable and satisfactory to the Ministers of Christ in all that slighting and neglect and contempt which they suffer from the world especially in such days and times as these are in which we live Well we are manifest to God for all this let us be as low as we can be in the thoughts and apprehensions of men let them count us and call us what they please and cary themselves as they list toward us yet the foundation of God stands sure notwithstanding this And even in this sense likewise The Lord knoweth who are his God knows the works and labours and endeavours of his faithful servants as he sometimes speaks to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus And he knows them likewise affectionately which is that knowledg which we are here to understand They are manifest to him so as one day to be rewarded by him and to have a recompense return'd upon them for them According to that of the Prophet Isaiah in Isa 49.4 I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought and in vain yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work or the reward of my work is with my God This is that which is very comfortable to us and ought to be so we are much to improve it and to be strengthened and encouraged by it As a servant if his master like him and commend him and be pleased with what he does he does not care what an hundred other men shall say of it or of himself about it We are manifest to God says the Apostle and he speaks it by way of encouragement And then withal ye may add one thing more to it by the way I 'le but touch it and that 's this To God not only as an approver but likewise to God as an avenger too we are manifest to God so not only as beholding our integrity and so accepting of us but likewise as beholding our wrongs and ill-handlings and avenging it upon others There 's no wrong or injury whatsoever which any of Christs servants suffer whether in their persons or their good names or in their estates or whatever it be but they are manifest to him in them and he will one day require it for them we are made manifest to God thus What is said of the oppressed in general is true of these amongst the rest in particular Thou hast seem it for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand The poor committeth himself to thee Thou art the helper of the fatherless Psal 10.14 Look but into Numb 12.2 8. and see how God takes notice but of an ill word spoken against Moses and calls the speakers of it Aaron and his sister Miriam to an account about it Wherefore were ye not afraid says he to speak against my servant Moses So tender is God of his servants as that he will not allow of an ill word spoken against them but will call to reckoning for it and how much more then for any thing else which is of greater consequence and concernment to them for any wronging or defrauding of them or restraining from them that which is theirs which too many now in these days in many places are guilty of this is manifest to him their labours here will cry and their crys will enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath Jam. 5.4 But so much for that And so you have the first part of this Acceptance as it refers to God But we are made manifest to God The second is as it refers to the Corinthians And I trust also are made manifest in your Consciences This likewise as well as the other is added by way of Anticipation and to prevent and objection for here some might have been ready to have replied You talk how you are manifested to God and that you approve your selves to him please your selves with that your inward and secret goodness because you think here none can confute or contradict you well but what are you to the eyes of men and what satisfaction do you give to them This would a little be enquired into by you To this now he answers here thus much And I trust also are made manifest in your Consciences Wherein again for methods sake take notice of two things more First the thing it self which he does assert and that is that we are made manifest in your Consciences Secondly the word of Transition or Introduction hereunto and that is I trust or hope so of it First For the thing it self We are made manifest in your Consciences Where for the better opening of this present passage unto us we must again distinguish of this word manifestation which here in this place may be taken again two manner of ways in which as yet we have not taken it the one is in a way of efficacy and the other is in a way of conviction We are manifest in your Consciences that is by that success which our Ministry hath found upon them And we are manifest in your Conscience that is by that approbation which our Ministry hath found with you Both these may be here understood First In a way of Efficacy from that success which our Ministry hath found upon them This is one way of manifestation The faith and graces of the Corinthians were a sufficient commendation and testimony to the Apostles Ministry This is that which he also signifies in other places as 1 Cor. 9.1 2 c. Am I not an Apostle am I not free have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord are not you my work in the Lord If I be not an Apostle to others yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord. The seal of it How was that namely in regard of that efficacy which it hath upon them for their conversion And so again 2 Cor. 3.1 2. c. Do we begin again to commend our selves or need we as some others Epistles of commendation to you of letters of commendation form you ye are our Epistle written in our hearts known and read of all men Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshy
this was not a great death indeed If we lose our lives yet if we can recover our souls our loss will not be so considerable And if we part with many other things which are near and dear unto us yet after all this if notwithstanding we can hold fast our faith and profession without wavering we may do pretty well But this was the mischief of these enemies that they did then hast to spoil us of these It was not so much other matters which they had an eye to life and liberty and estates though that were somewhat but even Grace and Truth Piety Salvation it self that we might not see our signs not there might not be a Prophet amongst us as the Psalmist speaks This was that which they principally aim'd at as it is said of the Adulteress that she hunts for the precious soul Prov. 6.26 even so it may be said of such as these And thus ye see how it was a great deliveran Fourthly Namely in regard of the extent both to the persons and cause Fifthly From the neerness and approximation of the danger It was great so also for it was even almot come to the execution of it we were even upon the very point and brim of destruction in this design as it was with Paul in this present Text indeed we thus sar differed from him that we knew not what danger we were in which he did we had not the sentence of death in our selves but we had the sentence of death in our conspiracies they had give in and past us for dead and had made as full account of it as might be they made no question at all of it but so it would be The plot discovered but the very night before God brought it to the very extremity it was seen in the minute he manifested himself graciously in our preservation when there was death at the very doors Thus it was here 6. It was great also in regard of the mischievousness of the contrivers it was carried with great wickedness as could be possibly imagined all the strength even of Hell it self here was ingratitude hypocrisie cruelty unnatural affection what not yea here was moreover which made it so much the more hainous the taking of the blessed Sacrament upon it consider that A setting of Gods Seal to their own wicked Counsels an eatin and drinking of damnation to themselves whiles they vowed and conspired and indeavoured destruction to others What an horrible and fearful thing was this to all the rest What wonder that they should make nothing of the death of others which made nothing of the blood of the Lord Lastly A great death in regard of what it should now be to all of us for our apprehension and acknowledgment we should make a great matter of it and so account it And for this purpose lay before us all the aggravations which I have now named to work it upon our selves Narrow capacities have commonly but streightened affections therefore let us help the one by inlarging the other let us labour to raise our hearts to a right frame and pitch of thankfulness this present day and all the days of our lives And let us not have these things only in our fancies and take them as rhetorical expressions but let us labour to get them into our affections and to have impressions of them upon our spirits let us look upon the greatness of this danger even at this distance and remoteness of it which in it self consider'd is still the same as it is with sins which are long ago committed and examine our hearts how indeed we are affected in this particular Whereby we may have some discovery of our selves what we are likely to befor future deliverances if God should vouchsafe them We are all ready to think with our selves that if God would now but give us peace and free us from those fears and distractions under which we lye and settle things quietly amongst us both in Church and State Oh how thankful we would then be to him for it Why what are we now at present for that which he has already done for us What are we for the deliverance of this day from the Gunpowder Treason He that will not be thankful for this he would not be thankful for that neither if God should please in his Providence to grant it He that will not pay the Arrears neither would he pay the new debt It is but the falseness and deceitfulness of our hearts that here cosens us and therefore let us look to our selves and quicken our felves more in this business to be sensible and apprehensive of it and to have answerable enlargements upon it And to the advantage take in all other mercies and deliverances besides with it whether national or personal as in a day of general humiliation we are to be humbled for personal miscarriages so in a day of general and publick Thanksgiving we are to acknowledg personal mercies and personal deliverances And so now I have done with the first General Part of the Text And that is the commemoration of a deliverance past who deliver'd us from so great a death The second now follows and that is the signification of a deliverance present in these words And doth deliver 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that hath delivered does deliver It is very fitly and properly put in the present tense and also indefinitely because it is that which is always in being or acting and never otherwise God is never out of this work of deliverance and preservation of us He delivers us daily look how many are the evils and dangers which we are subject unto so many are the deliverances which we partake of in the eating of our meat in the travelling on our way in the lying down on our beds in the going about in our imployments where-ever at any time we go or whatever at any time we are about we have still experiences given us of Gods gracious deliverance of us At home or abroad at work or at play a sleep or awake still in all and either of these does Goddeliver and we have good cause still to acknowledg it but we are to take it here in the Text and so likewise in the occasion in a more limited and restrained signification namely in reference to the business in hand and the particular danger now mentioned and remembred The Apostle here tells us how God had delivered him from the late danger in Asia and to amplisie and extend it further he adds also this That he does still deliver namely in a reference to that particular deliverance before spoken of He delivers with a respect had to that This may be made good unto us according to a twofold Explication First In the continuation of that deliverance which he has formerly given and vouchsafing a further fruit and benefit and efficacy of it Secondly In the multiplication or renewing of the like deliverance and vouchsafing other deliverances which are
reason for That the whole business of Religion should be signified by this expression of the Truth and that upon these following Considerations First By reason of the analogy and correspondency and near agreement which is betwixt Truth it self and Holiness betwixt the Doctrine of Religion and the practise of it for such there is all the Articles of Faith they have a respect to the framing of the heart and to the ordering of the life and conversation they serve not only to inform the judgment but likewise to better the whole man Therefore the mystery of Faith is called the mystery of Godliness And every Divine Truth it has some grace whereunto it refers in the use and improvement of it As the Incarnation of Christ to humility and self-abasement The Passion of Christ to Mortification and crucifying of lusts The Resurrection to spiritual quickening and raising us up to newness of life The Ascension to Heavenly-mindedness and the affecting of things above And so of the rest Now because it does so therefore is the one well denominated from the other The life of Religion from the Doctrine of it as closing and complying with it and as sutable and agreeable to it as indeed it is Christian conversation it is consonant to Christian knowledg Secondly Religion is called the Truth not only as agreeing with it but likewise as issuing from it and produced by it for so also it is All which are regenerate and born again they are begotten and born of Truth as the conveyance hereof unto them Jam. 1.18 of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures And 1 Cor. 4.15 For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel And 1 Pet. 1.23 Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Still the Word and Truth of God is made the instrument of our spiritual birth and regeneration whence Believers are also said to be of the Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 3.19 Thirdly It is called the Truth Emphatically in opposition to all false and formal worship and service of God which is abroad in the world There are other Religions abroad but there 's no truth of Religion but in Christianity and the service of God in the Gospel this is to worship God so as he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth Joh. 4.24 If so be ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus there 's no truth to be found any-where but in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Oecumenius upon the place he calls Godliness Truth ungodliness being a spurious business For these and the like reason is Christianity exprest by the Truth as most significant of it This therefore still teaches us to hold and imbrace the Truth and to keep close unto it For so much Truth so much Religion and so much Truth of Religion Look how far we keep close to our Principles so far forth shall we regulate our practise and have ourlives in all probability to be that which they should be an erroneous judgment will have either a scandalous or an hypocritical life annext unto it and following upon it either profaneness or at the best formality is the consequent of unsoundness in Religion that 's out of all question that so we may take heed of it and have a care to keep our judgments clear and right in us and not tainted and defiled with any stain in this particular especially as to the substantial part of Religion and the worship of God and the main scope and drift of the Gospel let us be sure to have our minds clear here and not swerving or departing from the Truth for it so we cannot possibly serve God a right We may it may be abound in outward duties and do somewhat which belongs to the outward man but the obedience of the first Commandment which is the more inward and immediate part of Gods Worship when as upon the knowledg of God we love him and fear him and rejoice in him and trust in him and set him up in our souls and spirits This we cannot do whiles we have not right opinions of him nor do not abide in his Truth We may be moral and civil and do some duties of the second Table upon such kind of Principles but we cannot be spiritual and gracious and sanctified and religious indeed and do that which we do in Religion with reference and respect to God whiles we have not the right notion and apprehension of Religion in us Religion it is a matter of Truth and so it is here exprest unto us by the Apostle when he means that he says this And so much briefly for the phrase and expression Now to come further to the Thing it self and to take it now in its proper meaning and the spiritual drift of the Holy Ghost in this place We can do nothing against the Truth that is We can do nothing against Religion and the progress of Christianity in the world This as Christians and especially as Christian Ministers we cannot do We can do nothing whereby Piety and Godliness may suffer any wrong by us or any prejudice and disadvantage from us they are such as are contrary to the bent and scope and principles of any who themselves are religious or have any spark of Godliness in them There are two ways especially whereby any thing is done against Religion the one is in a way of Discouragement and the other is in a way of Disparagement In a way of discouragement and disheartening of those which are good and in a way of disparagement and scandal towards those which are evil Now those which are good Christians will be shy of doing any thing against Religion in either respects First In a way of discouragement so as to dishearten those which are good they will be shy and wary of this and so they ought to be Whatever is done in this case against Christians it is done against Christ And whatever is done against the professors of the Truth is against the Truth it self We must not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking-flax nor discourage the beginnings of goodness in any in whom they seem to appear but nourish them and cherish them and promote them all we can The contrary hereunto is that which is discernable in too many persons who many times by their overliness and harshness and rigidness which is exprest by them do drive away those from Religion and the profession of it who make fair proffers towards it and it may be have made some progress in it this is none of the spirit of Christ Secondly In a way of Disparagement and scandal as there are many which prejudice Religion so likewise such as profess but live not up to it such as bring an ill report upon Christianity and the ways of
Secondly Not persons of the greatest perfections neither of these might bear sway for the leaing from the truth First Not persons of the greatest interest Though we Paul himself and other Ministers and Apostles he would not have them to be heeded in this respect We who have this relation to you as your Pastors and Teachers we whom at present you do so esteem of and who are so dear unto you let neither our relation to you nor your affection to us prevail with you in this particular This is a Point very considerable we know how very much interest does for the most part bear sway against Truth and how many out of respect and affection and partiality and terms of compliance do oftentimes degenerate into strange and pernicious tenets now the Apostle would not have this to be so with these Galatians in any hand that they should be carried away with sinister affection but overlook it and neglect it in such a matter as this was And so indeed it is fitting to be we should not by the best and dearest friends which we have in the world be perswaded to the prejudice of the Gospel or the deserting of the Truth of Christ As God gave it in charge to his people under the Law Deut. 13.6 Though thy friend which is as thine own soul entice thee saying Let us go and serve other gods thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him c. Friends are no friends there where they go about to divide us from the great friend of all but in such cases as these are to be rejected Solum pietatis genus est in hae re esse crudelem as St. Jerome speaks tothis purpose Therefore though we which are of that account and esteem with you should endeavour it do not permit it Yea further we for our number as it is a note of plurality it is not though I but though we I with many more besides joined with me I and all the Apostles together though we should do it yet let us not prevail in such a thing as this Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil no nor to think evil neither We should not pin our judgments upon the multitude nor be of that Religion which the most are in the world that is to say because they are so but go upon other Principles in that profession which we take up to our selves In all which good counsel of the Apostle which he here gives to the Galatians we may in a special manner take notice of his sincerity and ingenuity of disposition in that he would not have so much as himself to be regarded or taken into consideraon to the prejudice or disadvantage of the Gospel Therefore he says not only though they but though we our selves There are many which sometimes would not like it that others should be hearkened to in any sinister opinion but yet they could like it well for themselves and such as they are their own party and interest and government no but says the Apostle Though even we c. St. Paul he does not only own himself in such a case as this was as preferring the Gospel of Christ before his own credit and esteem and not caring what became of this so that might flourish Quod per ipfum dicebatur melius erat quam ipse per quem dicebatur as Austin well observes That which was sai by him being of more worth than he that said it And herein giving a good example to all others besides There are many which are so far addicted to themselves and to their own reputation as that they care not for their own advantage in that respect to forfeit even truth it self and whatever may savour of it do but come home to them a little in that which crosses their corrupt opinion which is their truest self they cannot endure it but this they learn not from this vessel of Election the Apostle Paul who desired himself rather to be accurst than that this Gospel should be any thing impaired by his Preaching or Ministry If God says he should so far leave us and give us up to the vanity and corruption of our own hearts as that we should depart from the truth formerly delivered by us and should preach another Gospel unto you let even our selves in this case be Anathema and separate from Christ That 's the first part of the Disjunction as it refers to persons of greatest interest Though we that is I Paul and the rest of the Apostles with me The second is as it relates to persons of greatest Perfections Or an Angel from heaven This carries it a little higher and further than that before and signifies thus much unto us That no Eminency and Perfection whatsoever is to prevail or to be regarded against the Truth The Apostle one would have thought had said enough when he had said Though we yea and enough too as to this present head whereof we now speak concerning the abundance of all sorts of perfections for what were they which were wanting in him and the rest of his brethren but yet to make it so much the more full and compleat indeed he makes hold with the blessed Angels themselves to borrow an expression from them as conducing to his purpose not thinking those glorious Creatures too good to lend their names to the honour and glory of their Maker and the advancement of the Gospel of Christ though an Angel from heaven In which phrase or manner of speech there are three several kinds of Perfections which seem to be excluded in this business First The Perfection of Parts and Understanding Seconly The Perfection of Grace and Sanctification Thirdly The Perfection of Employment or manner of Dispensation First The Perfection of Parts and Understanding and natural Abilities The Angels they are eminent for these being knowing and intelligent Creatures of quick and nimble apprehensions of deep reaches of perspicacious understandings but yet even these such as they are are not to be heeded or attended in this matter The greatest Learning is not to be heard to the disparagement of Truth we had not need in these days in which we live to speak much either against Learning or Learned men but yet this we must needs say that these are to be of no sway with us for the undermining of the Gospel neither are we so far to be tyed or addicted to them asthat for their sake we should give way to Error and Heretical Doctrine Indeed there is a respect to be had to such persons as those are who are noted for their gifts in that kind so as not easily to cast them off or to depart from them Forasmuch as they do commonly hit right and it is in their way and profession therefore we do upon very good grounds unless there be just cause to the contrary hearken to them especially where there is a fuller consent and accordance of them It was a bold and a confident speech
of him that said Omnes patres sic ego non sic Abailardus by name All the Fathers say so and I say No. This selfishness and peremptoriness and conceitedness does not become Christians who are to be of a more modest temper in this Office and to suspect themselves rather than other men at least for the generality of them but yet for all that are they not neither to be born down by these against the plain Truths of the Scriptures and the experiences of a gracious heart but to hold out in the profession of the faith against the greatest Wits and Learning and Scholars in the world especially if we shall consider this in our selves That 's the first thing excluded in this passage and expression to wit the perfection of Parts and Understanding and natural Abilities though of an Angel himself The second is the perfection of Grace and Spiritual endowments that ye have in the Additional expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angelus de Coelo id est Angelus sanctus as Cajetan well from heaven an Angel from heaven that is an holy or heavenly Angel by taking it denominative Indeed if we speak strictly even the Devil himself is an Angel and an Angel from Heaven too Angelus è Coelo but it is è Coelo lapsus not è coelo missus an Angel fallen from heaven not an Angel sent from it or from it in a way of distance not in a way of derivation sent from it in a way of punishment not in a way of dispensation as having no lot or share or part at all now in it How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer son of the morning Isa 14.12 And I beheld Satan as lightening fall from heaven Luk. 10.18 The Angels which kept not their principality or first estate but left their own habitation reserved in chains of darkness c. Jude ver 9. But this does not come home to the Text which is to be taken of an Angel of light a glorious Angel which was very proper to be instanced in here by St. Paul forasmuch as he elsewhere tells us That Satan transforms himself into such a kind of Angel and his Ministers also like him into the Ministers of righteousness whose end shall therefore be according to their works 2 Cor. 11.14 15. We might add here one thing more an Angel from heaven not really but according to imagination whether of himself or others which only makes himself as an Angel or whom others take to be so with him c. such an one as this is cashiered And so now it will serve a little further to illustrate this Point unto us for if we speak but of natural Abilities and Qualifications the Endowments of Reason and Knowledg and Understanding here the Devils and evil Angels may come in as well for a share as any other and it may be you would easily grant that we should not hearken to such as these If the Devils and all the Angels from Hell with all their knowledg whether natural or acquisite in them should impose a new Gospel upon you you would think you should not give heed unto them well but what now o you think of the good Angels the Angels from Heaven The Apostle here resolves it no not they neither if we could suppose or imagine they might endeavour it they should not obtain it So that here now there is another collection and conclusion which we toucht not before and that is this That the greatest holiness is not to be made a patron of Error as learning may not prevail against the Truth so neither Grace in the abuse and misimprovement of it An Angel from Heaven Heaven in the proper notion of it does denote holiness and Grace though carnal persons do not for the most part so look upon it but have other conceits and apprehensions of it differing therefrom yet so it is and so also it does as I said here in this place Yet this grace or holiness whatever or in whomsoever it be may not bedrawn to the perverting of the Gospel There is a great respect to be had to godly men and it is not safe for any easily to withdraw from the common vote and consent of them in matters of Religion the more shame for those that do it because every one is best to be believed in his own art and way and profession and God does not usually leave them But yet for all that we may not build our faith upon these neither Because all that godly men say does not proceed from godliness in them but sometimes from another principle which with Grace is most agreeable to them We may therefore join these two both together of Learning and Goliness and both as insufficient to pervert us an to draw us from the Truth which is very well resolv'd by a grave and ancient Author tothis purpose Tertullian by name in his Book de prascriptionibus adversus Haereticos Quid ergo says he si Episcopus si Diaconus si Doctor si etiam Martyr lapsus a regulâ fuerit ideo haereses veritatem videbuntur obtinere What then says he though a Bishop though a Minister though a Doctor though a Martyr should swerve from the right rule shall therefore Heresies presently hereupon go for truth Ex personis probamus fidem an ex fide personas Do we from the persons judg of the Doctrine or from the Doctrine of the persons And again a little after in the same place Avolent quantum volent paleae levis sidei c. Let the chaff of light belief fly whither it will being blown about with every temptation but from thence there shall be so much the purer grain laid up in the Barn of the Lord so little efficacy did he give to mens persons for the drawing into Grace And yet this which should make us so much the more heedful of it is an occasion which the Devil does oftentimes make very great use of for the effecting of his own designs he takes advantage of the reputed goodness and holiness of such and such persons to wind others into such and such labyrinths whether of opinion or practise Are not such men of such a judgment Do not such men do thus and thus and why should you then stand out against it The Apostle Paul does here in one word sweep this away whiles he excludes not only himself and the rest of the Apostles from this priviledg but which is more even the Angels in Heaven whereby he would signifie thus much unto us that the sureness of their standing and abidingand perseveringin Grace is more questionable than the Truth of the Gospel and though neither of them in good earnest be possible either one or t'other yet of the two it is far more easie and likely that the good Angels should leave their habitation and fall away into the condition of Devils than that the Gospel of Christ should be nullified and degenerate into error God being more
out in Christ which it does in so full a manner as that he that sees the one he sees the other And so Christ himself tell us Joh. 14.8 9. When Philip said unto him Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Jesus saith unto him Have I been so long with you and yet hast thou not known me He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how sayest thou then Shew us the father And again ver 11. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me In Christ who is God-man we have a full true sight and knowledg of God and no-where else So that those who deny the Doctrine of Christ they have not God First in point of Knowledg Secondly They have not God neither in point of Worship God out of Christ is an Idol as to any true adoration of him or religious service exhibited to him This is true both in regard of the object of worship as also in regard of the medium In regard of the Person worshipped as likewise in regard of the conveyance of this our worship to him For the Person worshipped it is still God in Christ from whom abstracted and divided we cannot apprehend or conceive of him in our prayers Forasmuch as in Christ all the fulness of the Godhead dwells as the Apostle speaks in Col. 2.9 therefore out of Christ there is nothing of God to be found and so consequently nothing of God to be worshipped Those that worship God out of Christ they worship they know not what as our Saviour speaks to the Woman of Samaria in Joh. 4.22 Thus it holds in regard of the Object and the Person that is worshipped It holds also in regard of the Medium and the conveyance ofthis worship to him as there 's no worshipping of God neither but in Christ so there 's no worshipping of God but by Christ in whom our worshipping and service of him is alone transmitted to him He is that Jacobs Ladder which touches Heaven Earth and whereby we ascend from Earth to Heaven No man cometh to the Father but by Him He is the way and the truth and the life Joh. 14.6 As none comes to Christ except the Father draw him so none comes to the Father except Christ bring him It is he that makes our way for us even a new and living way which he hath consecrated to this purpose as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.20 Through him we have an access by one spirit unto the Father both Jew and Gentiles Ephes 2.18 And in him we have boldness and access and confidence through the faith of him Ephes 3.12 By him who is our high-Priest we go boldly to the Throne of Grace c. Heb. 4.16 If we pray it is in his name or else to little purpose Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you Joh. 10.23 If we give thanks it is still by him Heb. 13.15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually giving thanks to his name And Col. 3.17 Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him So that take away Christ now and we take away all approach to God and adoration and service of him who is the only Angel that with incense offers up the Prayers of all the Saints upon the golden Altar Revel 3.8 They that have not him they have not God in point of worship neither as to the object nor medium Thirdly They have not God in point of Interest they have not that relation to God as is desirable for them They have God indeed in the common relation of a Creator and so even the Devils themselves have him but they have him not as a Father or Friend or beloved they have not God as a God in Covenant which is the right having of him indeed this being alone founded in Christ This is the misery of all those which are out of him and walk in opposition to his Doctrine that they are deprived of his sweet and comfortable relation God out of Christ is a stranger there 's no acquaintance with him and God out of Christ is an enemy there 's no standing before him But in him there is peace and agreement Col. 1.21 You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works he hath reconciled in the body of his flesh Him hath God the Father sealed Joh. 6.27 And him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 He hath made us accepted in the beloved and him alone Ephes 1.6 He is the true mercy seat in whom we have intercourse with God the Father Those that think to come to God upon the terms of nature and common providence they will have little comfort in such approaches for God considered out of Christ he is a consuming fire and our nature is now through sin become odious to him as it is in it self There 's no coming now unto him without expecting to be devoured by him But it is Christ who assuming our nature and in that nature satisfying Gods justice who hath made our nature now amiable to him in those persons who by faith apprehend him and are united to him and in them alone We are not now acceptable to God so much as bearing the image of the first Adam but rather as bearing the image of the second by whom the image of God himself is now renewedand repaired again in us and we in a manner partaking of his likeness which is usually the ground of love and delight in several persons one to another Therefore those that have not Christ in this sense they have not God They have not God to own them nor they have not God to justifie them nor they have not God to adopt them nor to accept them and take them as his thus they have him not They are at an absolute distance from God and have no comfortable relation to him nor interest in him Lastly They have not God i.e. they have him not in point of influence this follows from the other forasmuch as all benefitfrom God proceeds from interest in him Therefore those who are strangers to Christ and his Doctrine as they have no interest in God so neither to speak of have they influence from him And that according to all these kind of influences which are to be desired and those benefits which are of the greatest concernment As first Of Grace and Holiness they have not God to sanctifie them and to communicate his holy Spirit unto them God is the God of all Grace but it is God in Christ he is the channel and conduit-pipe and conveyance of the grace of God unto us in all the several kinds and particulars of it wherein it is communicated Look as by the first Adam sin is derived unto all those who partake of him by carnal generation so by