themselves may be made better And that 's the third Use which I shall briefly make of this point and so I shall conclude Use 3. Is it so That those good works that flow from a good Principle are pleasing to God Why then we see the necessity of Regeneration Christ saith in 3 John 3. Verily verily There 's a strong and a double asseveration Verily verily I say unto you except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of God We are not born with this pure heart with this good conscience with this faith unfeigned which are the requisites to a good work in the Text. We are not born with these for Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one Not one among the sons of men Job 14. 4. A pure heart a good conscience faith unfeigned are the issues of the new birth Education cannot make the heart pure It must be Revelation which makes the heart pure Good Education it may change the Life and the Conversation As they say To study Arts and Philosophy it takes off the roughness that is in mans nature didicisse fideliter artes Emollit mores and doth smooth them and frame them very much for excellent uses Good literature and education it may civilize but it cannot spiritualize It may change a mans course but it cannot change his nature that 's only done by Regeneration Now I say a mans state his nature must be changed he must have a pure heart which we never have till our natures are changed He must be good before he can do good spiritually Mark that word of the Apostle Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Mark it here are good works But how do we come to these good works Why we are his workmanship saith he we are his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God works us before we can work for him he makes us good before we can do good Saith he We are his workmanship And then created or so created in Christ Jesus to good works We by union to Jesus Christ come to have a spiritual principle to carry us out in the doing of all good works Here 's your way You must be Gods workmanship before you can do Gods work You must be new creatures created in Christ Jesus unto good works before you can do them A Crab-tree will never yield pleasant fruit untill you change the nature of it Take a Crab-tree and plant it in the best soil that you have and water it and dress it and prune it as much as you can yet this Crab-tree will bear nothing but Crabs sowre fruit till you come to graft it and then your grafting of it doth change the nature of the stock and it hath another principle and so then it brings forth good fruit So it is in this case Take the best natured man in the world plant him in the best soil in the best ground in church-Church-ground plant him in the house of God and there let him be watered by the rain of holy Doctrine and let him be drest and cultivated every day yet he will bring forth nothing but Crabs nothing but unsavoury fruit till he himself be changed Though he be under all those spiritual means yet till those means have wrought effectually in him his actions are all unsavoury 'T is only by our implantation into Jesus Christ that we become fit to do good so as is acceptable unto God 'T is this that makes the change For as in nature the graft doth change the stock so in grace the stock doth change the grafted branch As we are grafted into Christ he changes the branch being planted into Christ by the power of the Spirit we are then made like him and then we bring forth fruits of righteousness which are to the glory of God by him Mark the expression Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ That is by vertue of union with Christ of implantation and ingrafture into Christ When once it is thus then all your fruits are sweet fruit and pleasant fruit it is well tasted Why it is done First From a principle of life in Christ And Secondly It is done from a principle of Love unto Christ and then when your works whether respecting God or man are thus done then they are the fulfilling and the final end of the Commandment For then they come from the pure heart Of which hereafter if God will I may speak And so much at the present of the point in General That until there be a good Principle there cannot be a good work SERMON II. Jan. 6. 1672. 1 TIM 1. 5. Now the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned HAving shewed that every good work which is to answer to the Commandment of God must flow from a good spring I shall now come to speak of the springs from whence they flow Beginning with that which is first in the Text A pure heart The end of the Commandment is charity out of a pure heart A pure heart is the point I am now to speak to and the matter I am to make discovery about It being in order in this Text the first of those three most blessed springs out of which all duties well pleasing unto God must proceed A pure heart Two things are here to be spoken to First What is meant by heart And Secondly What by purity of heart And so put both together A pure heart For the first I need not stay to spend time to shew you what is meant by the heart It being that which you have so often heard By heart the Scripture often intends the whole inner man And sometimes it intends some special faculties of the inner man The understanding is noted by the heart the will by the heart the affections by the heart the conscience by the heart And in this large sense we are to take the word heart here only bating the reference of it unto Conscience which is spoken of as the second distinct spring from whence good actions flow The heart then here is the understanding the will the affections Indeed what ever lyes in the bosome of man you may call his heart Yet I shall not prosecute the point in this distinctness of these particular faculties of the soul shewing how the understanding is pure which is by its freedome from error and clear light in divine truths How the Will is pure which is by its freedom from the bondage from the obstinacy and rebellion which doth naturally wholly possess it and by having a freedome in choosing good and refusing that which is evil Nor shall I stay strictly to shew what the purity of the affections is namely their freedom from all inordinacy and irregularity either as to the object upon which they are fixt or as to the
an Emblem The Palm-tree doth grow up when it is most prest down When there are the heaviest weights hung upon the Palm-tree then the Palm-tree rises up highest It grows highest when it is as it were kept down Thus it is with the Righteous they flourish like the Palm-tree And that 's the Note that I shall give you and speak a little to DOCT. That Righteous persons such as are righteous in their state in a justified state and Righteous in their course walking in holiness they do improve and grow under greatest pressures When they meet with the greatest pressures in the world they thrive and grow Heaven-ward This only I shall speak a little to When the world would crush the Righteous press them down to the earth yea press them down to Hell if they could yet like the Palm-teee they grow up more and more It is said of the people of Israel who were the Church of God in Exod. 1. that when Pharaoh put weights upon them the weights of very heavy oppression when he set over them Task-masters to afflict them with their burthens at ver 11. it is said ver 12. But the more they afflicted them the more they multiplyed and grew This was just like the Palm-tree Pharaoh burthened them but they multiplyed and grew And surely we are to understand this not only of their multiplyplying in number but of their multiplying in goodness too or their increase in goodness they multiplyed and grew Doubtless there is that sense in it not only that they had a greater company and more fruitful as to the production of persons but that they were more fruitful in their lives And that 's it which hath been said of the Church at all times when under pressures and burthens Saith One They were bound they were beaten they were burnt and yet they multiplyed and increased And doubtless it was with the two-fold increase I spake of before The more persons were added to the Church and those persons that were added advanced more in wayes of Grace in wayes of Holiness And so that other saying of the Antients upon this very point That the blood of the Martyrs was the seed of the Church It was like seed indeed and it brought forth as the seed spoken of in Matth. 13. The good seed falling upon good ground brought forth in some thirty in some sixty in some an hundred fold This is flourishing like the Palm-tree And that we find in Dan. 11. 35. And some of them of understanding shall fall Shall fall How Shall fall into the hand and under the hands of persecuting Tyrants they shall fall into trouble like that in the Proverbs The Righteous falleth seven times a day That is he falls often into trouble yet God helps them up again Now saith he some of them of understanding that is of a spiritual understanding of a holy understanding they shall fall into afflictions for them of understanding we may explain it by Dan. 12. 10. None of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand The godly wise they shall understand Now of these men of understanding Many shall fall Well what shall be the effect of it To try them That 's the First And not only so but to purge and to make them white To purge out their corruptions and to make their Graces very conspicuous You see the improvement they made of their afflictions and sufferings for the truths of God and that in Zach. 13. 9. teaches the same thing I will bring the third part through the fire through the fire of persecution And what shall they be burnt there No saith he I will refine them as Silver is refined and will try them as Gold is tryed and they shall call on my Name and I will hear them I will say it is my people and they shall say The Lord is my God Thus they shall grow up in the actings of their faith to an assurance Faith shall come to an appropriating act they shall say The Lord is my God And when Even when I bring them through the fire I will refine them so that their faith shall be exceeding transparent and they shall say The Lord is my God And we know what the Apostle Paul found by the sufferings which befell him and in him the Church of God Phil. 1. 12. saith he I would you should understand Brethren that the thing which happened unto me Why what things were these that hapned to Paul What was it some great preferment as we say some great Benefice some great honour No the things that befell him were troubles and afflictions Bonds as he doth express it in ver 13. Now saith he These have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel How to the furtherance of the Gospel Why because persons by this affliction upon me which threatned them also and 't is like took hold of some of them why saith he They waxed confident by my bonds and are much more bold to speak the Word without fear ver 14. They grew up like the Palm tree they grew to a confidence They were not only honest and faithful but they were confident and bold They had not only integrity for Christ but a great increase of strength for Christ and all upon his sufferings They flourish like the Palm-tree And that in Rom. 5. will reach it too saith he We glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope Why tribulation did not hinder their Graces but did further them Tribulation did work patience It seems to be a very strange sting Tribulation doth exercise patience indeed But how It did work patience or make them more patient for that 's the meaning of it Now it seems very strange yet thus it doth And then Patience experience and experience hope Here 's a flourishing and a growing up in all Graces even in a time of tribulation And it 's the same thing that we have too in 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory That is it works us into a greater fitness for glory the afflictions that are upon us We grow more up into Heaven more into glory Our hope doth as it were rise up into glory by our affliction And this is flourishing like the Palm-tree Affliction will make us the fitter for Heaven they will make us better than we were and so fitter for Heaven fitter for glory Grace improved is very near to glory Thus we see how the Scripture holds out this thing that the righteous flourish as the Palm-tree They are bettered and made fitter by their afflictions for glory I will give you an account in some grounds of it why it is so how it comes to pass First The pressures and weights that are upon the Righteous from the world do wean them from the world takes them off from the world Why now the love of the
world and cleaving to the world and desires going after the world are a mighty impediment to our growth in grace to our flourishing in the world You see what 's said in Matth. 13. the cares of the world the pleasures of the world the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word and make it become altogether unfruitful And truly the love of the world and pursuit of worldly things do exceedingly hinder grace in the fourth Ground in those that are truly godly it is a great hindrance to them till they get their hearts mortified to the world and weaned from the world Now certainly the pressures that we meet withal in the world are an exceeding great means to take us off from the pleasures of the world and the profits of the world We are mortified to the world as Paul saith of the Cross of Christ Gal. 6. 14. God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ What 's the Cross of Christ Why the sufferings which I have for Christ the weights which are laid upon me for Christs sake What was the effect of this Why whereby I am crucified unto the world and the world unto me Now when the soul is delivered from this world this evil world it must needs flourish up to the other world Secondly By the afflictions and troubles we meet with in this world we get much light and grow into a clearer knowledge of those things which makes for our increases Heaven-ward It hath been antiently said That affliction gives understanding and the School of the Cross is the School of light Light comes in while we are in the School of the Cross And indeed there is a foursold light doth come in to us while we are under the Cross and under sufferings A light First Which discovers more to us the vanity of the world than ever we saw before and the baseness of the world and the wickedness of the world and this is a great advantage to us And Secondly A light to see more of of the Mind of God and of the Word of God So David in Psal 119. 71. It was good for me that I have been afflicted for thereby I have learned thy Statutes Saith he learned them I have more of thy Statutes and I have learned every Statute more There hath come in a clearer light into my soul now by my afflictions A state of affliction is in it self called in Scripture A state of Darkness it is a time of darkness and yet it is wonderful that out of this Darkness there comes a light a spiritual light so that we see more of the Word of God and of the wonderful things of the Law Thirdly It must needs follow that by affliction we have a clearer light to see the worth of grace and of an interest in Jesus Christ what an excellent thing that is And then Fourthly A clearer light to see the excellency of Jesus Christ himself As of an Interest in Christ so of the person of Christ how glorious how choice a one Jesus Christ is I do but touch this now By affliction a light comes into the soul Upon all these or upon other accounts we must needs improve Heaven-ward and grow up like the Palm-tree In 2 Pet. 3. 18. saith the Apostle Grow in Grace Why how should we come to grow in grace Why saith he And in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ In proportion to our growth in the knowledge in the true knowledge I speak not of a notional knowledge a meer brain knowledge but of an experimental knowledge of Jesus Christ As we increase in this knowledge so we increase and grow in grace and so of the rest As we grow in the knowledge of the vanity of the world as we grow in the knowledge of the Word of God as we grow in the knowledge of the worth of grace and of an interest in Christ as we grow in the knowledge of the excellency of the knowledge of the Person of Christ so we must needs grow in grace Now then the Cross and affliction giving us an advantage for all these things you see the ground of it And then Thirdly The weights and pressures which are upon these palm-Palm-trees upon the Righteous they do draw them more into their own hearts to converse more at home to search themselves more to be acquainted more with their own bosomes and this will make us flourish and grow upwards for indeed the reason why we grow up so little in acquaintance with Christ lyes much in this because we grow so little in acquaintance with our selves Now in an afflicted condition if ever the soul is upon its return to it self In Lam. 3. when the whole Church was in that sad condition under those grievous weights of Captivity and all manner of trouble they were in say they Let us search and try our selves Come now let 's go in to our selves let us search for our corruptions search for our lusts which lye in the secret corners of our hearts let us search our selves and let us search how it is with us as to Grace what faith we have what love we have what patience and so of the rest Indeed afflictions do put us upon this search of our selves to find out the state of our graces how it is with us what condition they are in how they fare Now this the troubles we meet with in the world give us an advantage for and so an advantage of spiritual growth of growing Heaven-ward as the Palm-tree And then Fourthly These afflictions and pressures we have from the world drive us nearer to God As to a more acquaintance with our selves so to a more acquaintance with God and more communion with Christ They do as it were force us to Christ when the world deals so unkindly with us Many times when the world is kind to us fair with us and flatters us and huggs us and embraces us we begin to forget and to slight communion with Jesus Christ and to say as they in Jer. 2. We are Lords we will come no more at thee It is spoken of the people of Israel when they were in a very flourishing condition I but when they were slaves and in captivity and in a sad condition truly then they saw reason to come to Christ to come to him by prayer The very Mariners in Jonah when they were in the storm every one went to his God Isa 26. In their trouble they have visited me To be sure I shall hear of them then In their affliction they will seek me early It is so in evil men much more is it so in the righteous and in those that have walkt with God If they have had a constant communion with God and Jesus Christ in a time of peace and prosperity surely in a time of pressures they have much more communion with him Now this must needs cause the soul to increase and flourish For the nearer we are to