alive 1 Cor. 15.22 They shall not use that Proverb in the Resurrection and Judgment to come That the Fathers have eaten sower Grapes and the Childrens teeth are set on edge the Soul that sinneth it shall dye Ezek. 18.2 3. The Condemnation is not nor shall be then that Adam sinned but That light came into the World and men loved darkness rather then light John 3.19 Prov. 1.24 25 29. Though as to the taking guilt off from the ignorant and unbelieving conscience in respect of that first Sin also Men in their ignorance and unbelief often charging themselves with the guilt of that Sin of Adam so as to think themselves therefore under Condemnation from God and in danger of perishing as also for purging out the corruption of Nature there-through entred the Son of Man is to be lifted up in the Preaching of him to men who though so delivered from that first Death as that they shall not perish in it yet as they come up into the World to be capable of choosing the good and refusing the evil are generally in danger of perishing 2. In a Second Death so as not to have eternal life For 1. God being of purer eyes then to behold iniquity evil may not dwell with him fools may not stand in his sight nor any unclean thing inherit his Kingdom Psal 5.4 5. Hab. 1.12 1 Cor. 6.9 And we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness as a menstruous or filthy cloth Isa 64.6 None Righteous no not one altogether are become unprofitable None that doth good no not one Rom. 3.10 13. None therefore are fit to come into Gods Kingdom and to have eternal Life without a Regeneration or new Birth John 3.3 5. Which we naturally run from siding with evil and falling into yea walking in new disobediences against God and so making our selves obnoxious to his judgment upon our own personal accounts for our own personal transgressions For 1. We all naturally have a heart deceitful in us and desperately wicked inclining us to those ways that lead to Destruction Jer. 19.9 For out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications murthers thefts covetousness wickedness deceits lasciviousness an evil eye blasphemy pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and they defile the man Mark 7.21 22 23. We are naturally carnal sold under sin Rom. 7.14 2. The World is full of baits allurements and snares to draw us away unto and intangle us in such sins as expose us to Gods Wrath and Judgment again the riches pleasures honours pomps and vanities of it are apt to insnare us through the lust that is in us 2 Pet. 1.4 1 John 2.15 16. And the persons in it being sinful and vicious are apt to infect and defile one another inticeing counselling yea and sometimes commanding to sin Psal 1.1 Prov. 1.10 11. 〈◊〉 3.4 5. 6.7 9. Mich. 6.16 3. The old adversary and enemy the Devil with his many Angels evil and wicked Spirits subtil and powerful to intice and move to evil goes about like a roaring Lyon seeking to devour tempting and alluring to sin and prevailing with such as are heedless of them and unskilful to discern them or their enmity and wickedness and to resist them 1 Chron. 21,1 1 Pet. 5.8 Rev. 20.2 3 8. There is none so strong or good that this Adversary will not so far as God permits set upon to tempt Mat. 4.1 2. Luk. 4.2 13. 22.33 And he blinds the minds of all those that believe not the truth and thereby gets power over them 2 Cor. 4.4 Act. 26.18 2. There is none can mend himself or his condition toward God so as either to obtain his favour to Justification If any could it must be by offering him Sacrifice or doing him service such as he requireth in his Law for we are become so altogether bruitish and void of goodness in our selves by our fall which we increase by new compliances with Sathan that we can of our heads and by our own inventions find out or imagine nothing well-pleasing in his sight Jer. 10.14 2 Cor. 3.5 Rom. 7.18 The Lord knows the though of Men yea of the wise that they are vain empty of any righteousness goodness or suitableness to him Psal 94.11 1 Cor. 3.19 20. And therefore it must be in mans learning and keeping Gods Law if in any thing but man is unable of himself to keep Gods Law he being carnal sold under sin and the Law holy pure and spiritual Too high for him in his falleth state Rom. 7.14 Or so as to cleanse himself For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one No Creature whatsoever Job 14.4 And that 's another reason too why the Law cannot help us nor we help our selves or one another by it it 's too weak because of the Flesh Rom. 8.3 By the deeds of it can no flesh living be justified in the sight of God For by the Law is not either satisfaction for or cleansing from but the knowledge of Sin Rom. 3.20 Which we daily generally commit there being not a just man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles 7.20 1 King 8.43 Nay instead of satisfying for or cleansing us from our sins it occasions sin more to abound and become more sinful Rom. 5.20 7.8 Sin taking occasion by it fills men with all lust and concupisence So that as a whorish Woman that cannot forbear to play the harlot seeks and plots more desperately to fulfil her lust and falls more under the danger of the Law there through by being married to a strict and severe Husband that cannot abide the least motion or inclination to such uncleanness and watcheth her at all times then if she had no husband at all so is our case under the Law of works for justification and life they that are of the works of the Law thinking to be justified thereby are thereby more condemned and â—all more under the curse Gal. 3.10 It stands cross and contrary to us like the fiery flaming Sword in the hand of the Cherubim turning every way upon us Gen. 3.22 Col. 2.14 And while men trusting in Moses for like refuge to come to Christ for it Moses will accuse them John 5.40 45. Nor can any man by that or by any devise of his own or others defend and keep himself or be kept from the power of Sin and Sathan so as not to fall by them If they could Christ and his word would not be needful thereto for them which may not be granted Gal. 2.21 3.21 It being his office to succour men in temptations Heb. 2.27 18. 3. Yea God is holy and will not only not admit to eternal life those that are unclean and sin but will also Judge the World in Righteousness and punish the sins of it taking vengeance on the evil doer And rendring to every one according to his works Heb. 9.27 Jer. 17.9 10. Rom. 2.6 11 3.5 And
deprive our selves of such unspeakable bliss and happiness as cannot be conceived and plunge our selves into such miseries as cannot be imagined And yet evident it is that such folly and madness the world is greatly guilty of For evident it is that it generally rejects and treads under foot the Lord Jesus and the doctrine that declares him and is left to us by him in which is included our salvation and happiness Deut. 32.46 47. Prov. 4.13 Joh. 12.49 50. That the world generally slights both him and his doctrine the bleatings of the sheep and the lowings of the Oxen testifie that is the general Atheism Prophaneness Disorder and Wickedness the false Religions and Worships generally practised commanded or countenanced do loudly proclaim it Use 3. It may also provoke such as do believe on the Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ to hold fast the faith and so their believing on him and by no means to suffer themselves to be withdrawn therefrom For let us consider with our selves that Consideration 1. If we turn away and fall from our dependance on him we turn after vain things and things that cannot profit because vain 1 Sam. 12.19 20. and so we deprive our selves of all the good in him and plunge our selves into all the misery that can be incurred by us For this eternal life being in the Son of Man Christ Jesus in departing from him we depart from it and losing him we lose it and he being the Saviour and Salvation in withdrawing from him we withdraw from it and lie open to all the evil that the unbeliever may fall into Nay indeed better never to have known the way or word of truth or the holy commandement or to have had fellowship with him then to turn away again therefrom for the latter end in that case is worse than the beginning 2 Pet. 2.20 Luk. 11.26 27. For as all that are far from him do and shall perish So he doth and will destroy them who go a whoring from him Psal 73.27 The consideration then of the certain danger of loss and misery yea of the greatest loss because of the greatest and longest abiding good and of the greatest misery because of the greatest and longest continued evill may move us all with all earnestness to hold fast the profession of the faith and the exercise thereof And that is one consideration often urged by the Apostles So in Heb. 10.23 24 25 26 29 39. Let us hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering not forsaking the Assembling our selves together as the manner of some is For if we sin wilfully after the knowledge of the truth received there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearfull looking for of fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversary For if they that sinned against so as they despised Moses Law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace It is a fearfull or terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God And if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him As also the Consideration of Consid 2. The exceeding profit and benefit accruing from the holding fast the faith and believing on him and the great incouragements we have thereunto These may more powerfully move us to it What is there better than safety from destruction and the injoyment of Eternal life in which there is an everlasting injoyment of God and Christ and of all that is or can be good and desirable and what have we to incourage to it and assure us of it To that consider Encouragement 1. We have to encourage us to this believing and holding fast the faith all the Trinity for us God the Father gave his Son to that end that we might believe on him and be saved and live for ever Joh. 3.16 And he fills strengthens and upholds his Son in and unto all his undertakings for us in order to the bringing us to that safety and eternal life and happiness Isa 42.1 5 6. Psal 89.20 21 22. And gives his holy Spirit in and through him to strengthen and help us therein against all that would harm us or pull us from it The Son himself or Word is for us in all he hath done and suffered and in all he now doth in heaven or earth in his mediation and intercession with God for us and in his government of the World in the name and power of God about us and his ordering of his providences to us Joh. 14 2 3 18. and 16.33 and dispences his Word and Spirit to that purpose to animate and hearten us thereunto and therein is working in us the works of God for us even what he requires of us Joh. 14.16 17 26. and 16.13 14 15. And the holy spirit encourages us by his word and by his heavenly and powerful working in us therewith and gives us all motives and inducements that may be with exhortations counsells promises c. to perswade and strengthen us And what shall we say to these things If God be for us herein who is he that is against us Or what is there that can be presented to our view that may so much discourage us as the consideration that God both Father Son and Spirit are for us may encourage us and hearten us Rom. 8.31 32 33. 1 Joh 5.6 9. Encour 2. Having God for us we have his creatures the best of them and all that are on Gods side to encourage us too We have the holy Angels to protect and defend us therein Psal 34.7 and 91.11 12. Heb. 1.13 14. This they will do for us while we are here and when we go hence they will carry us up to Christ or into Abrahams bosome to be at rest with Christ and his holy ones Luk. 16.22 We have the holy Apostles and Prophets and so the Spirits of just men made perfect for us both to encourage us by their testimonies instructions provocations and all means used in their writings left on Record for us animating and heartning us in believing on the Son of man and by their own practice and examples in all ages we have in them a cloud of witnesses going before us as a guide to us all witnessing to this That the just shall live by faith and shewing us by their examples how to exercise it and live by it Heb. 10.38 with 11 throughout and 12.1 and we have the living Saints the holy men led by the spirit of God to encourage and hearten us on For whatsoever difference there may be among such in any by-opinions or apprehensions yet they all agree in this That he that believeth on the Son of man the Son of God is in a good and right way in the certain way to happiness and shall in holding
134.1 2. and Maidens Prov. 9.3 Great possessions of small and great Cattel above all others Heb. 2.6 7 8. with Psal 8.7 8. Yea The Silver and Gold is his Hag. 2.8 And the peculiar delights of Kings Cant. 1.4 and 3.9 10. Yea he hath Men-singers and Women-singers Psal 68.25 And the delights of the Sins of men Eccles 2.4 5 6 7 8. c. Psal 37.4 And all these are comfortable 6. It makes much also for our comfortable Living to have all such Gifts and Offices afforded us or persons indued with and set in them Wise and Faithful to use and discharge them as we stand in need of in their Exercise And he is and affords all such useful Mercies to us as flow from such Gifts and Offices needful for us â—â— to instance First We are foolish and need Instruction and Counsel He is the Counsellor to instruct and counsel us and Counsel even the Spirit of Counsel is with and upon him that he might direct and advise us Isa 9.6 and 11.2 Prov. 8.14 And he is free to counsel us yea calls us to him to hear him and receive his Instruction and is angry with men for nothing so much is because they will not be Counselled and Ruled by him Prov. 8.22 23. and 19.20 and 1.22 24 25 26 27 28 29 c. Secondly We are full of Diseases in our Souls and Spirits full of spiritual Weaknesses and Distempers possessed with evil Spirits or humours c. And he is the great Physitian and the good One going about and doing good and healing tendering healing to and ready to heal all that are oppressed of the Devil not denying or turning away any unhealed what ever be their spiritual Distempers that come unto him will wait upon him and be his Disciples and follow his Counsels Mat. 9.12 Acts 10.38 Yea he is both the Physitian and the Physick Gods salvation and saving health Psal 67.2 The knowledg of him healeth he that abides in him sinneth not he that sinneth hath not seen him nor known him 1 John 3.6 Thirdly We are beset with Enemies and he is the Man of War the Lord of Hosts to vanquish them for us and deliver us from them Exod. 15.3 6. Who hath spoiled Principalities and Powers and by his own Arm and his own Right-hand got himself the Victory and Triumphed over them through his Cross gloriously Col. 2.15 Psal 98.1 2. Exod. 15.2 Hath overcome the world and gives us the Victory through the Faith of him John 16.33 1 John 5.3 4. Fourthly We need Comfort and such to comfort us as know our Disturbances and Troubles and how to apply comfort to us and he hath the Tongue of the Learned and knows how to speak a word in season to the weary soul Isa 50.4 5. Having through Afflictions and Temptations gained all Experience â—he is fit to Sympathize with us comfort and succour us in all our Temptations Heb. 2.17 18. and 4.15 Yea he is the great Master of the Musick that makes and tunes Instruments to sound forth Melodiously his Praises and Plays skilfully upon them to make chearful his Friends and Servants the Prophet Ezekiel was as a Song of such a one Ezek. 33.32 Fifthly We are apt to Inthral our selves and we need a Redeemer and Redemption and he is both the Redeemer of Israel Isa 54.5 And made unto us of God Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Buying us out from Gods displeasure and bringing us out from Bondage to Sin and Satan 1 Cor. 6.19 John 8.36 Sixthly We are Travellers and need a Conductor and Leader and God hath given him for a Leader to us Isa 55.4 Seventhly We are Souldiers and need a Captain and Commander and God hath given us him for a Commander Isa 55.4 The Author and Captain of our salvation Heb. 2.10 and 5.9 Eightly We are apt to fall out with one another and offend God and he is the Peace-maker the Peace between God and us and us with one another listning to and minding him he will Reconcile us and Unite us together Ephes 2.13 14.16 The Prince of Peace Isa 9.6 Yea the King of Righteousness and King of Peace Heb. 7.1 2. And our Mediatour and Advocate and Interceder with God when we offend him 1 Tim. 2.5 Heb. 7.25 Isa 53.12 1 John 2.2 7. There are many Services and Ministries useful and needful for the Lifes welfare and the comfortable Accomodations of men therein and such is his great Charity and Humility that Took upon himself the form of a Servant and was sound in Fashion as a man that to help us he refuses not to serve us in love setting us an Example of like Love and Humility that we also might serve one another in Love Not out of meanness of Spirit for he needs us not nor is there any more high and lofty then he Isa 57.15 But it 's his Love and great Condescention to us who Came not to be Ministred to but to Minister and to give his Life a Ransome for many Mat. 20.28 And was as one that served while his Disciples were as those that sit at Table Luke 22.27 And so 1. We are stript naked by our sins and our shame is laid open and we can of our selves get nothing but Fig-leaves to cover us and keep us warm now He not only provides us and is our clothing as we have noted but also makes them for us and puts them on us The Lord God made Coats of the skins of Beasts for Adam and his Wife and cloathed them Gen. 3.7 21. Now all things that were made were made by Christ Joh. 1.3 and therefore also those Coats for our first Parents and He hath made and must make our Garments for us and cloth us still Isa 61.10 Though he also requite us in his strength to put them on us putting off and laying aside our own raggs as he helps us Eph. 4.21 22 23. Rom. 13.13 14. 2. We need meat and he not only is it but also prepares it for us and is ready to minister it to us Wisdom hath prepared her feast she hath killed her killing she hath mingled her Wine and furnished her Table and as she useth the Ministry of her Maid-servants to call in her Guests so she also cryeth with them Pro. 9.2 3 4. And he tells his Disciples that if they watch for him and his coming he will make them to sit down to meat and he will gird himself and serve them Luc. 12.37 3. We need Habitations and Tents to dwell in and eat and drink in and he is the builder of the house for us Wisdom hath built her house she hath hewed out her Seven Pillars Prov. 9.1 And he that builds the house is more worthy honour then the house Heb. 3.3 And it s he that builds the house of God laying the foundation and bringing up the Head-stone and so finishing it Zech. 4.7 9. and 6.12 13. So that as he in the flesh was called the Carpenter so also now he disdains